𝚕𝚊𝚖𝚋;
A journey that took the Commandos three days took Rogers only one, the skilled soldier arriving at the trenches as late evening fell. It was eerily quiet -- the shouts and calls of desperate men had faded to an uncanny hush, replaced with a harried rainfall and little else. Shield raised high in defence, Steve approached the gaping maw containing his forsaken friends.
Dropping into the maze of ditches, Steve spotted his lost lambs. Each man was sat huddled against the muddy walls, feet drawn up to their chests or folded awkwardly beneath them. The base of the trench had given way to a few feet of turgid water, walls eroding around them in grizzly landslides. Every one of the soldiers appeared exhausted, faces smeared with muck, pale and sallow beneath it, everybody dripping wet and shivering cold. They'd been out there for 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴, a small group of forgotten souls amidst a battle that claimed many.
Crystal blue eyes drifted past each weary man. Dum Dum shovelled unappetising slop into his mouth, the others mostly appeared sleeping (or unconscious,) and right at the end, with his arms wrapped around his knees, was a trembling, wet-through Bucky Barnes.
"𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗸--!" Rogers couldn't hold it in. His bark roused a few of the exhausted men, shoulders jumping in surprise as the broad blonde hastily squelched his way over to his best friend.
Bucky's face was spattered with filth and what Steve suspected was an arterial spray of blood. His eyes were hollow, circled with the welts of sleepless nights and a battered tin helmet did little to protect him from the unrelenting rainfall. Bending to reach out for Buck's shoulders, Steve was caught entirely off-guard when the damp brunette 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥.
"Bucky--?"
A heavy hand in the crook of Steve's elbow shook his focus. Turning to greet the auburn moustache of Dum Dum Dugan, the burly man nodded Steve away, leading him partway down the trench, before murmuring bleakly, "Barnes hasn't slept, Rogers.... For a 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠."
Originally written and shared as part of Verbuary 2022: https://tinyurl.com/2s3fj283
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