Length/Rating: 100 words, PG, Gen
Pairing/Warnings: None, but Steve/Bucky if you bring your own subtext
Summary:  Written for 100words Prompt #071 – Illusion.
Notes:  Canon divergent, because Civil War was all sorts of stupid in terms of characterization and I’d like to think they worked out their issues an Bucky came home to the tower. The title is from Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.

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Steve knows it’s an illusion, no more real than fever dreams or Wanda’s nightmares, because his life isn’t this.

It isn’t couches soft as clouds and televisions the size of cars. Isn’t pantries stuffed with food so exotic he’s never sure if Tony’s joking if something’s edible. Isn’t a ghost sprawled beside him, eating popcorn and mocking bad movies like he’d never been gone. Never been dead.

It’s an illusion and Steve knows if he says it aloud, gives into doubt for a second he’ll wake up. In the war. In the ice. In the empty apartment.

So he dreams.