Dearest Diary,

It took us a while to figure out everything that was going on with Bucky, but we finally got a pinpoint on his whereabouts.

He's in Bucharest, Romania.

—————

Today, Sam and I decided the only way to go about this was to infiltrate wherever Bucky was staying. After we figured out where, exactly, that was, we made our way in.

And, by we and our, I mean I and my... I didn't wanna trouble him with this, so, I kinda did it all on my own. Stupid or not, I think this is the only way.

I walked into the room believed to be his and walked around. There was a lot of stuff in there for someone like him, at least in my opinion. He was never one to carry this much stuff around. Maybe he's finally taken refuge here.

It felt weird to look around at a place that was his but not ours. Everything I ever knew about him wasn't just him alone. It was me and him - both of us - Bucky and Steve, until the very end.

His bed was unmade, just as he always left it. I was almost tempted to make it for him like I did all those years ago- but I knew I had to be quick about this and quickly shook the thought away.

There were books on almost empty shelves. Papers written on and tossed all around. Newspapers covering the view from the street through the windows.

I approached the kitchen and found a worn down booklet resting on top of the fridge. I flipped through its very many written-in pages. I found a picture of myself inside it, reading:

CAPTAIN AMERICA RETROSPECTIVE

I saw the words written across the pages had been formatted the same and it was undoubtedly done by his own free will. What could this possibly be?

By God- this was Bucky's diary.

"Heads up, Cap," Sam told me on the radio in my ear. he must have seen someone approaching that I was too busy thinking about the past to notice. "German Special Forces approaching from the south."

Damnit. They found him after the same amount of time we did. If only I would have stayed up a little longer or worked a little harder, maybe this wouldn't have happened.

"Understood," I replied, still looking through the diary.

Just then, though, the room felt a little too quiet. It was silent before, sure, but now it felt as if it was entirely too much on purpose. There was someone else in there with me, there had to be. I turned around and closed the booklet, holding it in the hand opposite my shield.

It was Bucky.

I looked him up and down, assessing why on Earth he had been in simple street clothes right now. Surely he knew something was about to happen, so why hadn't he suited up?

"Do you know me?" I asked almost immediately to see if he'd regained his whits about him.

He waited a minute and just looked at me, his eyes never wavering from mine. "You're Steve," he relayed, his voice calmer than the last time we had spoken. He sounded the same, but didn't look very much the same at all. "I read about you in a museum."

"They've set the perimeter," Sam notified me. I placed the diary on the table before me.

"I know you're nervous... and you have plenty of reason to be," I stepped closer. "But you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore," he said.

"They're entering the building," Sam added. God, what terrible timing.

"Well, the people who think you did are coming here now," I replied. "And they're not planning on taking you alive."

"That's smart," he answered with a nod of his head. "Good strategy."

"They're on the roof; I'm compromised," Sam informed me. Both Bucky and I seemed to hear them approaching us. We had to act fast.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck," I clarified.

"It always ends in a fight," he sighed, pulling off his glove to reveal his metal hand, which still shocked me all too much to see.

"Five seconds," Sam warned.

"You pulled me from the river," I declared. "Why?"

"I don't know," he faltered.

"Three seconds."

"Yes, you do," I told him.

"Breach! Breach! Breach!" Sam yelled as a bomb flew at me through the window.

I hit it straight away from us when another came in. Bucky kicked it to me and I placed my shield on it to break the blow.

I heard yelling from outside the door as they started trying to break in with a battering ram.

Bucky blocked another bomb with his mattress as it came in though another window. He noticed the door starting go budge, so he threw the kitchen table in the way to wedge it with one hand.

Two men came in through the windows. Bucky knocked the one out with a single push while the other shot at him. I pulled the rug out from under his feet and he fell. Then, more and more started coming out of nowhere. We were incredibly outnumbered.

"Buck, stop!" I shouted, grabbing his shoulder. "You're gonna kill someone!"

He threw me to the floor and kneeled beside me, punching a hole into the wooden floor next to my head. "I'm not gonna kill anyone," he told me, pulling out a black bag and throwing it off the balcony.

More men shot at he and I, so I stood and protected us with my shield. He grabbed me and threw me into one that was shooting from another angle- he's a lot stronger than I thought he was.

I fought my way out of the room, but he had already beaten his way down the stairwell.

I caught a man he nearly killed as he started to fall down the center of the stairs. "Come on, man," I looked at Bucky.

He, then, jumped straight down and yelled out as he caught himself. I had to make it down there and get to him... though, once I did, he had already jumped out of this building and onto the roof of the neighboring one.

He was fighting a man in black armor, too. God, I thought I was the one always in trouble.

"Sam, southwest rooftop," I said into the radio.

"Who the Hell's the other guy?"

"About to find out," I replied, taking a step back before jumping down.

A helicopter started shooting at them just as I landed; it even hit that other guy with at least a dozen bullets, but he never moved.

"Sam," I requested.

"Got him," he started towards the man in the sky.

Bucky took his bag and jumped off the side of the building, the man in black on his tail, and me right after him... and the helicopter after all of us.

We jumped down into a highway and started running the length of it, adding yet another deadly element to this chase.

The police were after us all, too. "Stand down!" they announced amongst the sirens from within their vehicles. "Stand down!" I jumped on the hood, broke the glass, kicked the driver out and pushed the windshield away, beginning to drive after them.

The man in the black armor jumped onto my car. "Sam, I can't shake this guy."

"Right behind you," he replied. Yea, and so are 20 other police vehicles.

Eventually, Bucky stole a motorcycle and started gaining speed. For a second, I thought we might lose him- but then the man in the armor jumped at him and Bucky choked him out. And then Sam showed up and it was a mess.

Bucky threw a bomb and I jumped out of the car to tackle the other guy- then we were surrounded.

Rhodes showed up and landed before us in his War Machine suit, pointing his weapons at us. "Stand down, now," he demanded. I put my shield away. "Congratulations, Cap. You're a criminal."

They started cuffing us and threw Bucky to the ground.

The man in the black armor took off his mask- it was the new ruler of Wakanda, King T'Challa, much to my surprise.

"Your highness," Rhodes regarded him.

And, with that, they took us away.

—————

Where to? I have no idea.

But at least, now, we're together.

~ Steve Rogers