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[st_arkintern]

Peter is leaning against the outside of his door when he sees Bucky approaching from one end of the hallway.

"Hey," he says, peeling himself off the wall with a wave. "Alec's my roommate, by the way." Bucky had said he didn't know who that was. Now he did.

Peter holds open the door for Bucky to go inside his room.

"The main room's mine," he tells him. "Feel free to sit wherever you want."

Comments

[st_arkintern]

"I always treat Liz right." A beat. "Well, I try to, anyway. I don't think anyone can treat someone right 100% of the time."

He pauses there.

"You know, Liz and I have been together for almost a year now," he says. "I can't really imagine what life would be like without her."

[st_ranger]

That, that emotion, it's a feeling that Bucky can understand. He feels the same way about Steve. There's no way he can picture his life without Steve in it and he hates that HYDRA tried to do that to him at all. He smiles at Peter, remembering how he used to see Steve when they were younger so many years ago.

"You should do something nice for the anniversary," he says softly. "It's good to have that person beside you, one you trust." He nodded his head in understanding. "No, you can't treat someone right all the time, but you try your hardest and they'll see it. That's what matters."

[st_arkintern]

"It's just hard coming up with something special," Peter admits. "I've been here for over a year, and I think Liz almost has, too. You just end up using all the novel things really quickly trying to do something new."

All true.

"It'll be easy if one of the portals opens up then," he says. "Well, maybe. As long as it's not a bad Other World."

[st_ranger]

Other World. Of all the things Bucky has learned since being at the Inn, that is not a phrase he's heard yet. He tries to keep his face calm, with little emotion in his yes, but he can't stop himself.

"Other World?"

It's not a doorway back home. It can't be. That would be too easy. Everyone would have gone home by now. And yet, it's something. It's something different. It has to be, from the look on Peter's face. So... Why had he not heard it before?

[st_arkintern]

"It's basically these portals that take you to another place. They don't open very often," he says. "I think it's happened three times since I've gotten here, and I've been here for just over a year. Last year, there was this Halloween Town, then after that, this space station and about three months ago it was Earth except --"

Except?

"-- except not my Earth. I tried calling May and Mr. Stark and I checked the internet, but there was nothing about the Avengers there."