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"You sure you're ready for this?" Bucky asked. A welcome breeze rustled the leaves overhead as they turned the corner onto a block of cheerful brick row houses. Bucky walked with a practiced swagger that Peggy recognized as bravado — he was as nervous as she had seen him since that first night they were all together, when she'd cornered him to ask just who he thought he was helping by pretending he and Steve hadn't been in love for years. She raised a questioning eyebrow at Steve now, but he just smiled and shook his head.
"For your ma's brisket?" Steve said, leaning over to bump Bucky's shoulder. "I've been dreaming about it since Camp Lehigh. Peggy, you're gonna love it; it melts in your mouth like butter."
Bucky attempted to shove him back, but Steve was too quick, ducking back and leaving Bucky off-balance. Bucky huffed and stuck out his tongue over his shoulder before taking advantage of the gap to offer Peggy his arm. She tucked her hand into his elbow, and he leaned in as though about to tell her a secret. "Now, it ain't gonna be a state dinner with the queen," he said, in a stage whisper plenty loud enough for Steve to hear, "but I can guarantee you it's definitely better than anything Captain America here ever cooked over a campfire." He cocked his head thoughtfully, mischief dancing in his eyes. "Or anything little Stevie Rogers ever cooked on a proper stove before the war either, for that matter."
"In my defense," Steve protested over Bucky's snickers. "I warned you when you moved in with me that I didn't know a thing about cooking."
Bucky's laughter was a sound Peggy was pleased to hear more and more often these days. He still went quiet and distant at times, but the haunted ghost she'd first met in Italy was gone. He hummed and danced even when he thought no one was watching now, old unconscious habits coming back in a way that never failed to make Steve's eyes go soft. Peacetime looked good on Bucky Barnes.
It suited Steve as well, Peggy thought; he was Atlas still, likely always would be, but the weight of the world rested more lightly on his shoulders. She liked the way he looked now, young and hopeful, his greatest concern teasing Bucky out of his nerves. Peggy cut in before the playful bickering between her boys caught momentum. "I'm looking forward to meeting your family," she said, as Bucky's steps slowed at the stoop of a red brick townhouse. The door was painted white, and a riot of geraniums was planted in a window box. "Any last-minute intel for me, Sergeant Barnes?" Peggy asked as Bucky turned to hand her off to Steve.
He straightened up and gave her a familiar smirk. "Take seconds of everything, don't bring up the Yankees, and do not let Becca talk you into playing cards," Bucky said. "She cheats almost as bad as Stevie."
"Who do you think taught her? Seriously though, they're gonna love you," Steve assured her. (Assured them both, really.) He grinned "After all, they've been putting up with me for all these years, and you've got much better manners and are definitely prettier to look at." Peggy chuckled as they followed Bucky up the steps.
He'd hardly knocked when the door swung open, and a young woman with curly hair hurled herself into his arms with a shout. "Hey Becs," Bucky said softly, stroking her back as they swayed in the doorway. "What's all this for, honey? I told you I was coming home all in one piece."
The young lady — presumably one Miss Rebecca Barnes — pushed back to fix Bucky with a glare that bore an uncanny resemblance to one Peggy'd been on the receiving end of a time or three. "James Buchannan Barnes, they told us you'd died," she accused. "Let me be happy to see you." Bucky gave a watery laugh, and Peggy squeezed Steve's arm, knowing he too was thinking of Kreischberg, of Hydra, of a hundred close calls in the years of the war. Steve wrapped a large, warm hand over hers and squeezed back. They were here, the three of them, mostly whole and all together.
Sharp eyes must've run in the Barnes family, for Rebecca turned to Peggy then with a sly grin. "Where are my manners? Come in, come in, everyone's excited to meet the woman who finally got Steve Rogers to dance." Steve flushed beautifully pink, and together they followed Bucky and his sister inside.
The Barnes household was a loud, lively place. In addition to Rebecca, Peggy was introduced to Deborah ("just turned sixteen on V-E Day, can you believe it?") and Benjamin ("must've grown a whole foot since I shipped out!") Barnes, as well as Bucky's parents, George and Winifred, and a rather overwhelmed-looking young man who was apparently Rebecca's fiance. Steve fit right in like an extra son, for all he kept ducking under doorways and bumping into furniture.
("I keep expecting things to be bigger, here," he explained after Bucky gave him a funny look. "Did this constantly right after the serum.")
The meal was as delicious and as plentiful as promised, accompanied by a good-natured banter that reminded Peggy of nothing so much as evenings around a campfire with the Howlies. She half expected Dugan to pipe up and ask her to pass the potatoes. For all his warnings, Bucky was nearly as bad as Winifred about making sure plenty of every dish found its way to her plate — and to Steve's. "We used to try to sneak him extra helpings so he wouldn't be so scrawny," Bucky informed her shamelessly.
"I guess it finally worked!" Steve joked, happily accepting another slice of apple cake, to Winifred's clear delight.
The dining room emptied after the meal, Steve and the kids heading to the kitchen to do the washing up, Rebecca walking her young man out, and Bucky being pressed into service by his father to see to a leaky sink upstairs. Peggy found herself alone with Winifred at the Barnes family table, hands wrapped around a coffee cup as warm as the mood of the house around her. She was casting about for a topic of conversation, when Winifred spoke up.
"I'm very glad to see Bucky still smiling," she said, suddenly serious. "He always tried to sound cheerful when he wrote us, but I know the last few years can't have been easy. It was like a miracle when we got that first letter from him, after..." Dear Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, Peggy thought, It is with deepest regret that I inform you... So many of those letters sent, to families across the world. So few who got to see their son home again, safe at their table. Laughter rang out from the kitchen, and a triumphant whoop came from upstairs, and it struck Peggy then that this home, these people, were no small part of what Steve and Bucky had been fighting for.
Winifred met Peggy's eyes with that same intense gaze her son possessed, the one that made Peggy feel, for all her spy's training, that she was seen right through. "I've no intention to pry," Winifred said, "but you should know that we've counted Steve as a part of the family for years now. It does a mother's heart good to see them both home."
"I've done my best to see that they made it here," Peggy said carefully. She wasn't certain what Winifred was assuming, but it was heartening that she seemed unbothered by it. Peggy risked a grin as she caught sight of Bucky and George coming down the last few stairs and raised her voice to carry. "Though I must say, they certainly didn't make it easy."
Winifred laughed. "No I don't suspect they did," she said just as Bucky walked in.
He pulled out a chair and plopped down at the table, lips pursed in an exaggerated pout. "Who didn't make what easy? You talking about Mr. Stubborn in there?"
"I can hear you, you know," Steve called from the kitchen.
"And to think, he used to be half deaf," Bucky said, shaking his head mournfully. "We didn't know how good we had it." Winifred tsked him, but she was smiling too much for it to seem anything but fond.
Rebecca walked back into the room and took a seat beside Bucky. (Her lipstick, Peggy was amused to note, was freshly reapplied.) "I don't know," she said, "he looks much less likely to freeze come winter."
"Scientifically enhanced hearing!" Steve said as he and the younger Barneses trooped back in. "Also the kitchen is right there."
Snatches of music filled the air as George tuned the radio in the parlor, and Becca turned to wink at Peggy. "Bucky told us Steve had finally learned to dance," she said, "but I'm not sure I'll believe it until I see it. Would you do us the honor, Miss Carter?"
The parlor was too small for anything fancy and Steve stepped on her toes, but when Bucky laughed, loud and carefree and surrounded by family, it felt like a victory.