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Sam was supporting Bucky while he entered Bruce’s lab. Carefully, he moved the former Winter Soldier to the couch. Bruce walked over with a glass of water and two painkillers. He gave them to Bucky. He threw the pills in his mouth, followed by the drink.
“Lay down and take a nap. You will feel better soon,” Bruce advised.
Bucky nodded and laid down. Sam and Bruce decided to leave the lab to have a drink in the lounge area. Sam made some coffee and poured it into two mugs. He walked to Bruce, who sat behind a computer, typing out a report.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, curious.
“Typing out a report about the time travelling,” Bruce answered as he kept on typing. “I would like to know where you have been and what you have seen.”
“For who?”
Bruce looked at him.
“Just for myself.”
Sam nodded and sat down next to Bruce. Together they worked on the report while drinking their coffee. To some stories they reacted sad and to other stories they shared a laugh.
Bucky woke up from his nap. He sat up and looked around. His headache was gone and he wasn’t feeling dizzy anymore, thanks to his super soldier serum and the painkiller. He stood up and walked around the facility to find Sam. After a while of searching he came into the kitchen area. He saw Sam and Wanda cooking together. Wanda looked up at him.
“Hey Bucky,” she greeted him with a smile.
He smiled back at her as a response.
Sam turned away from the stove.
“Hey Bucks, how do you feel now?”
“Feeling better. Thank you,” he answered. “What’s cooking?”
“Oh, just some spaghetti,” Sam answered as he stirred in a pan filled with minced meat.
Bucky looked at Wanda who was cutting some tomatoes.
“Need some help?” Bucky offered.
“If you want to,” Wanda said as she shoved the pieces of tomato into a blender.
“You can make the sauce using the blender. Very easy for a dinosaur like you,” Sam teased.
Bucky stared for a few seconds at the blender. He looked at the colors of the tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, basil and oregano in the unknown device. On the machine he saw three buttons. Behind him, Wanda left the kitchen.
”What does this button do, Falcon?”
“It will activate the blender. But fi….” Sam explained, while he kept stirring the meat, but got cut off by the blender and a cursing Bucky.
He looked from the stove at his friend and started laughing. Bucky leaned against the counter, with his metal hand on his hip. A smudge of tomato paste on his face and a leaf of basil in his hair. Also, the counter was covered with tomato smudges.
“Shut up, Wilson.”
Sam couldn’t stop laughing and literally rolled over the ground of laughter. Wanda came back into the kitchen and watched the havoc.
“Oh Bucky,” she giggled and grabbed a kitchen towel. “You probably didn’t place the cover on the blender?” she wondered as she made the towel partly wet.
She walked over to him and wiped off the smudges of his face.
“I have never seen anything like that,” Bucky explained. He looked at the mess. “I’m sorry.”
Wanda smiled at him.
“It’s okay. We will guide you through this.”
Sam stopped laughing and was catching his breath, but still laid on the floor.
“Oh, my stomach hurts,” he gasped.
“That’s your punishment,” Bucky told him.
Half an hour later, the four Avengers sat at the dinner table of Bruce’s lab. In the beginning it was silent and kind of awkward. It was Bruce who broke the silence.
“It’s weird to see you guys back after five years.”
“Five years?” Bucky asked amazed. “It’s been three days since we’ve been stuck in middle of nowhere!”
“Besides, you’ve changed! What the hell happened?” Sam added.
Bruce smiled and waved the question partly away.
“Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. Best of both of us,” he explained. He gestured to himself. “And then, this came out.”
The men nodded his head in understanding while Wanda poked her fork in and out of her food. Her mind absent. Bucky looked at her and noticed it.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked gently.
She sighed.
“It’s just…” She didn’t look at them as she twirled her fork into the dish. “I guess I could defeat Thanos. If it wasn’t…”
“Hey,” Sam cut her off. She looked at him. “Everybody did his best, including you. It was Tony’s decision to save us all.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Bucky reached out and took her hand, which made her look at him. He just smiled friendly at her. She smiled back. Then he released her hand.
“Eat some and you’ll feel better. Just lift your spirits,” Bucky advised.
Wanda took a bite of the spaghetti and she smiled as she tasted the sauce.
“Spirits lifted.”
Bruce shoved a large scoop of food into his mouth.
“Who made the sauce? It taste so good!”
Suddenly Sam burst out in laughter. Bucky rolled his eyes.
“Oh crap, here we go again.”
Bruce looked to Bucky and Sam.
“Something happen?” he asked curious.
“We were…we were cooking and…,” Sam tried to tell while laughing. “And he asked me; ‘What does this button do, Falcon?’ and…”
Sam couldn’t finish as he almost choked in his laugh. Bruce and Wanda looked at him weird and then to Bucky. Bucky sighed.
“I pushed a button on a blender but this budgie didn’t told me to close the cover, so all the ingredients flew around,” Bucky finished explaining.
Bruce burst out laughing, as well. Together they were almost rolling over the dinner table. Bucky looked at Wanda and she was just face palming.
“Hey! We didn’t have those things in the 40’s! How could I know?”
“It’s okay, Bucky. We will guide you through this new era,” Wanda reassured him.
He smiled at her.
“Thank you. You understand.”
Later that evening, Sam laid on the couch in the lounge area of Bruce’s lab. He was watching an episode of ‘Black Mirror.’ Bucky entered the area.
“Sam? Can we talk?”
Sam glanced to him, turned off the TV and sat up.
“Sure.”
Bucky sighed and took a seat next to him. For a moment he was looking for his words. Sam waited patiently.
”You weren’t supposed to laugh. I’m so embarrassed!” Bucky snapped. “I am from the 40’s, being brainwashed and brought into this new world by HYDRA. Then I went to Wakanda which…”
Sam laid a hand firmly on Bucky’s shoulder.
“Hey, hey! Loosen up already, will ya?” Bucky looked confused at him. “That means calm down,” Sam then explained.
The former soldier took a deep breath and calmed down.
“I’m sorry for laughing at you. It was wrong.” Bucky felt relieved. “But it was so damn funny!!”
Sam laughed again and Bucky rolled his eyes. Slowly he stopped.
“Anyways,” Sam continued as he wiped a tear out of his eye. “I will teach you some. First lesson, Netflix!” He took the remote control in his again and switched on the TV. “Every movie and series you want to see is on Netflix.”
Bucky’s face started to bright up.
“Even The Great Dictator?”
“Who?” Sam asked confused.
“Such an awesome movie with Charlie Chaplin,” Bucky answered excited.
“Okay, let’s found out.”