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Bucky loses an eye.
It happens when he goes wading in after Steve as usual; only this time, one of the shitheads has a thick, warped stick, something picked up from the construction site a few blocks over. He swings it just right and it gets Bucky in the face. At first, Bucky can’t even comprehend it; he knows something is terribly wrong, but his body has shut down, unable to deal with the shock of it.
He’s just lost the last vestiges of baby fat, and he’s strong, lean, and graceful. There’s been talk of him going pro, what with the way he can throw and bat with such unerring accuracy. So when he takes his hand away from his eye and it comes away bloody and he can’t see, he just -- he knows.
He never claimed to have any foresight, but he’d woken up with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something about the neighborhood had been brewing ugly in the humidity and unrelenting heat.
For a change, it’s Steve’s voice in his ear, saying, “Shit, Bucky, Bucky fuck, let me see," then, "Okay, jerk, we gotta get you to the hospital, come on,” and Steve don’t ever cuss, not like that. He’s got that too-calm thing happening, the way he’d talked to Mr. Adler when he was having the attack that ended up near killing him, and the way Steve’s ma talked sometimes when Steve was sick.
Bucky feels sick and his head is a mass of pain, most of it centering around his face, but he manages to stagger to his feet, feeling horribly off-balance and unable to see with one eye. Steve fishes out his handkerchief, and it’s actually clean, for once. Bucky holds it up to his face and stumbles down the alley after Steve, swallowing back bile and trying to breathe past his clogged sinuses.
At the hospital, the news isn’t good. Bucky shuts down, and then they put him under and when he wakes up, he’s bandaged on one side and mostly numb.
The doctor is brusque and dismissive, the nurses more sympathetic, but way too cheerful. His mother’s dismay comes shining through in her pursed lips and refusal to let Steve in until Steve’s noise threatens to make more of a scene than she can handle.
“Let him in, ma,” Becca says firmly. “Bucky’ll want to see him.”
“Might want to think about your words next time,” Bucky says, but she slaps at his knee, albeit lightly.
“You have one perfectly good eye left,” she says. “You’re not blind.”
**
Steve loves watching baseball, and he’s tagged along often enough when Bucky’s gone to batting practice. He can throw okay, but he can’t catch the balls when they come at him. His swing leaves Bucky in despair.
It’s okay, though, because Steve loves watching Bucky play. Bucky ain’t gonna play much, if ever again, and Steve’s got a healthy dose of guilt over that, eclipsed only by rage.
Bucky is grieving, Steve knows that, but the silence hurts. He’s been tucked up in his room, keeping to the shadows because he says it hurts his head to adjust to the one eye. In a few weeks, once things have healed enough, he can get a glass one instead and he’ll be back to being his handsome self with only a bit of scarring, but right now, he’s shut himself off from everyone.
Steve has maybe two or three people outside of Bucky that he trusts, and he’s going to need them. Luckily, they love Bucky, too. They’re waiting for him in the empty lot near the tracks, both of them keeping to the shadows and dressed in black so that he doesn’t see them until he’s almost on top of them.
Normally, Dugan has a smile and a quip, but for once, he’s not smiling. Morita is, however, a grim twist of his lips that looks more than a little creepy in the dim street light.
"Batting practice, Rogers?"
Steve doesn't respond; he doesn't have to. Lizzie’s Bucky's favorite bat, and she's been sitting in the corner just waiting to be pulled out for another game. Bucky always said that Lizzie can't miss.
“Let’s go,” he says, and they fall in beside him.
Steve's done a bit of sleuthing; he knows who was responsible, and it's easy enough to find the fella at a nearby bar. He’s easily twice Steve’s size, and surrounded by his buddies. There’s too many of his cronies to take on without it making a ruckus, but Steve’s planned for that. When he calls the guy out and they step into the alley, he’s not surprised that the fella’s friends follow.
Steve had had to relinquish Lizzie to Morita while he strolled into that bar and insulted the piece of shit’s mother. The bar had gone quiet; most of the men in there might not have a lot of love for Steve Rogers, but they have a lot of love for Bucky Barnes, and Rogers has just earned some respect for calling the rotten scum out. The men think he’s going to be toast, but almost to a man, they turn away from the scene and find something else to occupy them.
Paddy Donnelly is the only one who hasn’t turned his back. Most of the Donnelly clan stay in their territory, but Paddy’s married to a girl that grew up a few doors from Bucky; she’s good people. Bucky’s ma is her cousin, or something like that. He’s having a pint with his father-in-law and brother-in-law. When Steve accidentally meets his eyes, he nods, once.
Steve’s mouth quirks in acknowledgment.
Dugan and Morita have their own friends and they’ve called in some backup, so it’s a simple matter of incapacitating the others. Dugan has Steve’s primary target in a choke hold and Morita’s got Lizzie cradled in his arms like a baby.
Steve had a bunch of things he wanted to say to this no-good piece of shit, but when it comes down to it, words don’t mean a thing. They aren’t going to change what happened, and words are too pretty for this.
Morita hands Lizzie over to Steve, and he feels the weight of the bat in his hands. Morita turns away and Dugan shifts, turning his head. Everyone still standing is looking out in a different direction.
Steve takes the first swing and the fella grunts.
Steve does not make it quick.
While his target is still conscious, though well after he’s stopped screaming, Steve finds himself talking. “Put your hips into it, that’s what Bucky always said. Never knew what he meant until now, but I think I get it.”
There comes a point where Steve knows he should stop. There’s damage there;, real damage, and its brutal. The guy is never going to walk again, and there’s blood coming from his ears, his eyes, his nose, his mouth. But if he stops now, they lose everything. Steve ends up in jail, or more likely dead, and Bucky --
Bucky has come to Steve’s aid so many times. It’s time for Steve to step up to the plate.
***
Steve has been so careful to wash everything off, and Lizzie is practically sparkling, she glows so much from the shine he’s given her. He doesn’t even think Bucky’s noticed her missing until he looks up at Steve and says, “It’s about time she got some use. She was getting lonely.”
Steve nods. “She’s a good girl. As solid as your head.”
Bucky lets out a hollow chuckle. It’s not a happy laugh, but it’s the first one he’s made since that day, so Steve will take it.
“How’s your swing?”
“Improved. I finally learned to put my hips into it.”
Bucky reaches out a hand and finds Steve’s; squeezes it, for just a moment.
“Mind reading to me a bit? I need to rest my eyes.”