Chapter Text
Bucky Barnes got a TikTok account, not thinking much of it. His kid is almost 4 years old now – going to school learning.
But he’s found himself with a lot more free time suddenly. She does football after school, and art with Becca on Wednesday afternoons. And while cleaning out he finds his old notebook from his old and long abandoned YouTube account. He’s seen some funny videos on Tiktok, and he likes it. So he makes an account – and then his sister starts sending him videos and it starts itching.
The first video he posts is of his kid – the back of her head – as she watches one of his old videos. She then turns around and says “Why don’t you bake me cake?” frowning at him with her adorable little braids, “I love cake.”
The next shot is him in his apron, covered in flour and baking.
It gets a few thousand views, a lot of comments. A few of his old YouTube subscribers seem to pop up as well – asking him to make some of the old recipes.
So he does – every Wednesday when Margot is at Becca’s. He plans it out, gets the needed groceries after dropping her off at school in the morning and then sets up in the kitchen. He’s thought about returning to YouTube – but the editing took too much time and he likes the format of short videos. He does cut up some of his old videos and uploads those onto his account instead.
When he does decide to make a new desert from his old recipes, he chooses carefully – finally deciding on an apple pie recipe that doesn’t use any apples.
[…]
Steve doesn’t know how he even ends up with the app. He thinks Natasha put it on his phone in a moment of boredom, making him an account and following a few people she think he’d like. JB is one of those people. He bakes cakes and pies from an old notebook – it’s recipes from the 1930s. He’s scrolling through the account when he comes across the latest video.
Bucky smiles widely at the camera, “I’m back” he says, “Get ready for some apple pie without apple.” He makes some anecdotes, making comments on the strange consistency of the pie, and then grins as he tastes it for the first time, “Holy – this is good. It tastes like apples” he says, setting down the plate and grabbing a notebook – which looks very familiar to Steve, “There you have it guys – Stevie’s apple pie. Circa 1935”
It’s like he gets an ice bucket dumped over him, and he doesn’t know how he even ends up there but next thing he knows he’s standing in Tony’s lab.
“Steve! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“If I gave you a name?” he says, “Could you find them?”
“Uh…yes” he frowns, “Usually? Who is it?”
He hands the phone to Tony, who only takes a second to catch up that he’s supposed to watch the video.
“Stevie’s apple pie?” he frowns, “You want me to find Bucky?”
“That’s my mom’s notebook it’s my pie.”” he says, then frowning “Bucky? You know him?”
“I designed his prosthetic” he explains, giving a little shrug and handing Steve his phone back.
“I just – can you give me his address – or his full name? Anything?”
“Yeah – sure” he nods, grabbing his own phone and typing into it, “There, I just sent it to you.”
Steve knows it’s crazy. But it’s like he’s been possessed – and now he’s standing at the door of this man’s apartment. He takes a deep breath, and then knocks.
The man opens a minute later, frowning at Steve and then glancing behind him, “Uhm – are you lost?”
“You” he stares – he’s even prettier in person, “You made my pie.”
“I’m sorry?” he looks confused, “What does that mean.”
“The video – Stevie’s apple pie” he says slowly, “My pie – my mother’s recipe.”
“Your mom’s name is Sarah?” he asks.
“Yes”
He waits a moment, seemingly thinking it over, before stepping aside and letting Steve walk in, “Let’s talk.”
He leads Steve to the kitchen island, offering him a seat at it and going over to turn on the coffee machine.
“Just got to keep the volume down – Margot is asleep” he says, Steve feels another wave of cold come over him and stands up.
“Oh god” he shakes his head, “I’m so sorry! I’m – I shouldn’t have just showed up here and barged in – you have a kid. This is crazy.”
“Hey, no” Bucky shakes his head at him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “It’s cool! You see some stranger online hold something that was your mom’s and you freaked out – I don’t blame you!”
“But I”
“I’m serious” he says, and he sounds so sincere and kind, “I get it. You lost everything and everyone you know. It’s your mom.”
“Thanks”
“I – I don’t mind showing it to you. But like – my grandmother added a lot of her own notes and…” he hesitates for a moment.
“Oh – no” he says quickly, “I don’t want to take it away from you. There’s just – a thing I – I need to check.”
He seems a bit confused, but he brings out the notebook and hands it to Steve, who caresses the cover.
“When I was 17, I hid something in this” he says, “It was the only place I could imagine keeping it safe.”
He pulls out his knife, “I – I can fix it later” he says, finding the front cover and the place he glued the page to it to hide the photo in it. He’s careful, so very careful, as he separates the pages to pull it out.
Two photos and a letter, his hands are shaking when he takes them out.
“I didn’t know that was in there” Bucky frowns, taking the seat next to Steve, “Must have been important.”
“It’s uhm” he sighs, folding open the first picture, it’s an intimate picture of him with Thomas.
“Childhood friend?” he asks, glancing at the picture, Steve looks up at him and Bucky takes a closer look at the photo, “Oh.”
“He got sick nog long after this was taken” he explains, “I lost him – right before my mom died. I hid the picture in her recipe book, along with his letter and this” he says, showing him the second picture, “It’s me, Thomas, and mom.”
“She knew” he says, Steve nods.
“She did” he confirms, “She didn’t care – just wanted me to be careful. Thank you, for letting me find this.”
“Thank you for sharing it with me” he says, “Must have been quite a shock waking up and learning you can get married now.”
“I still can’t quite believe it.”
“When they announced it, we celebrated for days” Bucky smiles, “My boyfriend proposed – which wasn’t ideal because we were still in college and had only been dating for a few weeks. But the joy – it was everywhere.”
“So what happened?”
“We dated for a long time, got engaged” he smiles softly, “Thought he was it, you know. We decided to be a family, got a surrogate and everything. And then a month after she was born – he decided he couldn’t do it and took off.”
“Ouch”
“It’s okay” he shrugs, “I wouldn’t want my girl to be raised by a reluctant dad. Can you imagine how that would hurt her? The only good thing he did before leaving was pay off the mortgage – he came from a wealthy family, it was just loose change to him. But I’ll always be grateful for that, even if he did break my heart.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re a good dad” Steve says, Bucky shakes his head, grinning, “What?”
“Steve Rogers follows my Tiktok” he laughs, “What is life?”
“Don’t get too big a head” he replies with a grin, “I also follow a lot of puppies and cat tiktoks.”
“Well, I’m honoured to be among such esteemed company” he smiles, glancing at the notebook again, “How did you lose track of it?”
“I held on to it for a while after mom died” he says, “But then I enlisted and I couldn’t take it with me – so I gave it to Thomas’ mom. Misses Barnes – she knew. I’m guessing she passed it on to her daughter – but Rebecca was only two years old when I shipped out.”
“Rebecca Barnes” Bucky replies softly, “That’s uhm – that’s my grandmother.”
“Barnes” Steve stares at him, “So that’s the B from JB Bakes?”
“Yeah. James Barnes – but I usually go by Bucky” he smiles, “Nice to meet you, Steve Rogers.”
“Nice to meet you too, Bucky”
“So – last name Barnes, huh?”
“Yes – my granddad had a few run-ins with the law as a young man – he decided it was easiest to take her name to leave it all in the past” he explains, “Worked like a charm. And his last name was Procter – so Barnes definitely sounded better.”
“It suits you” Steve stares at him, “You kind of look like him – Thomas – the same eyes.”
“Grandma used to say that I looked like her brother. But we never found anything about him even existing” Bucky tells Steve, “She was two when he died, you said?”
“Give or take” Steve says, “I don’t remember her much, if I’m honest. When I was at their house my focus was mostly on Thomas.”
“My great grandmother died when she was 100 years old – I don’t have a lot of memories of her” he says, “But she loved to talk about you – about knowing you as a little kid. Called you scrappy.”
“I guess that’s an apt description of me back then” he says, distracted by his phone buzzing, and suddenly noticing the time, “Oh – I should go. It’s late, and I’m guessing you’ve got an early morning.”
“Always do with the little one” he confirms, “But uhm – I am making another recipe for my account on Wednesday – if you want to come over, you can come taste it and tell me how close I got to what you know.”
“I’d like that” Steve says, “Here – I’ll give you my number.”
He writes it down in his notebook and then tears out the paper, handing it to Bucky, “It was really nice meeting you Bucky” he says, “Just uhm – what I told you about…”
“Don’t worry, Stevie” he says, “Outing people isn’t really my thing.”
“Thanks.”
[…]
When Bucky closes the door behind him, Steve pauses to take a deep breath. And then another.
Oh, he’s in trouble. So much trouble.