Oooh, Tell Me About "Steve Blipped"!

Oooh, tell me about "Steve blipped"!

This one is built off the question: What if Bucky survived the Blip at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and it was Steve who turned to ashes? Written from Bucky’s POV, this one is kind of an angst-fest. I don’t have the full thing drafted out, and I’m not sure when I’ll ever finish it, so here’s a snippet of the beginning:

————

“Bucky.”

It was Steve’s voice, with something in it that yanked Bucky back ninety years to the days when Steve was a sick little kid, frightened and unsure behind his bravado.

And then Steve turned to him, blue eyes wide—and collapsed into a column of grey ash.

No.

No, no.

No.

He never remembered stumbling forward, never remembered landing hard on his knees. He only remembered the sick horror clambering up his throat, the ash dissolving between his fingers even as he clawed at it, tried to gather it.

NO.

A barrage of neon blue death rays, aliens, childhood illness flashed behind his eyes—all the things that Steve had faced, had fought through, had survived by sheer force of will…

…only to be defeated now by a simple snap of fingers.

It was unthinkable.

It was true.

Bucky’s world reeled. He bowed his head and let the despair take him, waiting for his own body to dissolve.

It didn’t—and there lay the true tragedy.

Till the end of the line, they’d always said.

He had never wanted Steve’s line to end first.