Chapter Text
“Friendship is a real-deal insurance policy against the hurricanes of life—and there’s social-science evidence that the hard stuff seems less difficult with a good friend by your side.”
― Aminatou Sow, Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
They’d been together a year, the New Avengers. And the funny thing was not one of them remembered their collective anniversary. It had been 365 days since the Void consumed New York, and in that time much had changed for the six people who caused the incident. And those six people, on this date, merely chose to lounge around in Central Park and drag their too many pets with them. Yelena and Alexei did laps around the park, at the helm of a very excitable Fanny who pulled on her leash fiercely. Yelena also carried her guinea pig, Cucumber, in her pocket, occasionally petting its little head as she strode down the path, chit chatting with her father.
“Won’t you catch the fucking disk, Bobby!” John yelled from a patch of grass across the way. No one knew why he thought it was a good idea to teach Bob how to play frisbee, but he seemed overly determined in a very John Walker kind of way. Yet as the disk clattered to the ground for the fifth time that afternoon, the very air seemed disturbed by his anger. “I’m throwing it right to you!”
Bob scampered to pick up the disk. “Sorry—I’m sorry!” he squeaked, looking like he wanted nothing more than to get swallowed whole by his oversized hoodie (one he stole from Yelena).
“Shit, no—eh.” Walker pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath in. He’d been working on the yelling, they all had really—for the Avengers they were a bunch of hot heads at times—but Walker by far had the longest way to go, and he was trying. “I-I’m sorry, Bob. I shouldn’t have yelled. I’m not mad at you, I swear it. Just, er, pick up the disk, let’s get this right this time.”
Once again, Bob tossed the frisbee, and it fell to the grass with a depressing sweep several feet away from Walker. This time, though, he did not yell. He merely trotted over to try again, so that was something.
Bucky sat on a bench, watching their game from afar. A notebook—a little black, gray, white and purple sticker on it—bent open over his knee. With Alpine curled by his heel, Bucky drummed a pencil on the armrest, tapping his foot away clearly lost in a sea of too many thoughts. Scattered across the pages were half a dozen crossed out lines.
Hey, I know you hate me but I just wanted to reach out to see you you’re doing
Hello, how are you
Long time, no type
Hey stranger saw you on the news
Hey Sam, I’m in DC next week for some congress work. Wanna grab a cup of coffee? Catch up?
Bucky groaned, crossing the last one out an extra few times for good measure. It was true, he needed to go to DC for one of the last joint sessions of his term. For a while it had been difficult balancing the two, but he managed to make it to the end of his term without royaling fucking anything up. Still, he found it difficult to give both political office and the New Avengers everything he could, so after a long chat with Yelena and Walker (of all people) he made his choice. He wasn’t going to run for reelection. But he still had to stick it out another few months.
“Who the hell drafts a text in a notebook?” Came Ava’s voice as she slipped next to him on the bench, two iced coffee in hand. “And so many times?”
Bucky huffed, taking his coffee from her outsteached hand. “Shut up,” he mumbled.
“For Wilson, I’m guessing.”
“Lucky guess.” He glanced down at yet another draft of the message, a fresh one he didn’t completely hate. He flashed the text to Ava. “Is this too wordy?”
“This looks like the ramblings of a mad man, Buck.”
The man groaned, slamming his notebook shut, he couldn’t help but notice the smirk resting on Ava’s face as she eyed him, clearly getting far too much enjoyment from Bucky’s displeasure.
“Don’t laugh.”
Ava chuckled. “What? It’s…nice to see you this way. All gushy and embarrassed. The Winter Soldier, reduced to having a crush.”
Bucky groaned once again.
Yelena, Alexei, and—most importantly—Fanny tailed past them, and when they did Alpine immediately sprang off in their direction. Bucky nodded towards them as he stood, inviting Ava along to follow the cat’s spontaneous whims. But she only shook her head, pulling down her sunglasses and lounging back on the bench. The Super Soldier jogged off to catch up with Yelena and his cat.
“Hello, Mr. Soldier,” Alexei greeted. “How goes your correspondence with Captain America?”
Yelena chuckled. “Strong words for a text.”
“It’s going fine Alexei, thank you for asking.”
“So you’ve spoken to him?” he beamed. “What did he say?”
Buck scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Well, eh, no. Not exactly. But I’m getting close.”
Alexei shot his daughter a weary glance. “Eh,” he groaned.
“You know what, A—” but Bucky cut himself off when he caught the look plastered across Yelena’s face. She’d stopped several steps behind him, Fanny glanced back at her owner, concern seeping in the dog’s gaze.
“Lena?” Alexei asked, taking a step closer to his daughter.
Bucky did the same. “Yelena, just breathe for me, okay? In, one… two… three… four… Hold, two… three… four…”
“Out,” Yelena shakily muttered, “one…two…three…four…”
Her eyes were fixed on two girls playing soccer together, the blue haired one shooting the ball to her blond counterpart, laughing carelessly. They seemed so young. So small. Happy.
Yelena’s breath was caught in her throat. Everything seemed to hit her all at once, she froze. Unable to move, think, do. We used to be so small. A metal hand found her shoulder, pulling her into a hug before she even knew what to do. “I-I thought I was over this,” she mumbled into his shoulder. No tears dripped from her eyes, though she felt like they should've. Her father too reached out, rubbing little circles on her back. “I should be over this by now, I shouldn’t be such a mess.”
“You’re allowed it, Omichka.”
She pulled away from their collective embrace. “I’m fine,” she attempted to assure them. “Really, I-I am.”
“It’s okay if you’re not,” Bucky offered.
Yelena was only able to offer a half-smile in response.
“Here, let me take Fanny,” Ava offered, appearing out of nowhere and slipping the leash from Yelena’s grasp.
Bob and Walker were soon to run over, notably frisbee-less. It was stuck in a nearby tree.
“Are you okay?” Walker demanded, his military voice and stature breaking out. “Did someone hurt Yelena?”
“If they did, we’ll kill ‘em,” Bob said. “Oh, eh. Not—not really.”
“No, guys, really. I’m fine. Just a bad moment.” She smiled weakly. “Come on. There’s a lemonade stand up ahead, I could use a snack.”
Ava scuffed. “Lemonaid is not a snack.”
“With the amount of sugar and calories it has, it’s definitely a snack,” Walker argued.
“It’s a drink,” Bucky cut in, not above their useless arguing.
Yelena shrugged. “So is a protein shake, and that’s a snack.”
“No, that's a meal,” Bob countered.
“Is not.”
Alexei shook his head. “The Sentry is correct, a protein shake is a meal.”
Ava groaned, Alpine and Fanny dragging her ahead of the group. “Protein shakes have nothing to do with this—we’re talking about lemonade."
And as the group’s qualms toppled over each other, Bucky hung back a beat, pulling out his phone. He could do this, and even if he couldn’t, he wouldn’t be alone to deal with the fallout. After clicking open the right contact, and trying out the first thing that came to mind, Bucky pressed send.
Hey Sam, I’ll be in DC all next week—wanna grab a cup of coffee? Catch up?
No politics
“Bucky!” Yelena called out, making him whip his head up from his phone. “You coming!?”
The group all looked back to him.
“Yeah, just one second!”
His feet began moving towards them, yet he still stared at his phone screen. Three tiny dots appeared, making his stomach cramp into knots.
Sure, Buck
3:00 work? Saturday? The usual place?
Bucky felt like he couldn’t respond yes fast enough. He caught up with his team, victorious. And they wasted no time ordering him a celebratory pink lemonade. Both he and Yelena looked around to their little group as each and every one of them debated on which flavors to get. Their eyes met. Both the Black Window and the Winter Soldier knew they were thinking the same thing:
It feels so good to be alive, even if it’s just for this moment. It feels good to have someone—many someones, it seems—to hold their hands or watch the rain on a bad night. Feels good to be accepted, flawed, human.
It feels so damn good to not be left alone in the dark anymore.
THE END