Chapter Text
Childhood 1930
“Steve!” you call out. your best friend always seems to be getting into trouble whenever you’re not looking. Right now he was being wailed by the neighborhood bully, Rick. You run over to him and pry Rick off by tackling him to the ground. You were never the girl who wore pink skirts and kept house, much to your mother’s dismay. But what did she think would happen when you were the youngest out of 5 boys. You start punching Ricks' face but he got the drop on you and flipped you under him. Before he had a chance to throw a punch someone grabbed his arm.
“You know Rick it’s not good manners to hit a girl,” He smirked as he pulled Rick off of you and started giving him a taste of his own medicine. Meanwhile, you run over to Steve who was holding his face in his hands. When you got his hands away from his face you see that his nose and lip were bleeding and he has a developing a very nice black eye.
“Oh, Stevie what did he say this time?”
“Y/n why would you think that? I was just walking over to meet you and Buck, minding my own business when Rick just walked into me. He wanted me to say sorry, I told him no.” he laughed off his miss fortune. “You know me Y/N I don’t apologize unless it was my fault.” You shake your head as you helped him off the ground. You hear a soft groan behind you. You both turn to see Bucky slowly walking towards you. Glance past him and see Rick laying on the ground.
You have been friends with these two knuckleheads for as long as you can remember. You were a couple months older than Steve but younger than Bucky. Your mother was their mothers best friend. The friendship translated down to the three of you. Since you were in diapers you have been watching out for Bucky and Steve. Being the nurse to Steve and the confidant to Bucky. When Bucky reached you, you couldn’t help but show your sarcasm.
“What Bucky you couldn’t let him, at least, walk home?”
“Now doll where the fun in that? Besides, he was a punk.” The three of you start walking towards your house to get cleaned up. You’re about half way to your stoop when you hear someone call out.
“Steve Rodgers you better watch your back because next time you won’t have your boy wonder and your pretty little princess to protect you!” Rick screamed out.
The boys looked at each other then looked at you.
You slowly walk over to rick with a sly smile across your lips. You hear the boys whisper to each other, “He shouldn’t have said that.” “Yeah, he really shouldn’t have said that.”
“You know Rick, Steve has more kindness in his pinky than you do in your entire body, and he doesn’t need me to take you, just like you really shouldn’t have called me a princess.” Right then you knee him in between the legs then when he kneeled down you socked him square in the face. He falls back out cold and you turned around to see you boys with grins a mile wide on their faces.
“That’s my girl.” Bucky wraps one arm around your shoulder while the other is supporting Steve. Bucky’s touch always makes you feel better even when you’re at your darkness times. You loved you boys and wouldn’t change your life for anything. Little did you know in the years to come your world would get turned upside down.
1943
“Y/N! Have you seen Steve?” You are drawn out of your trance by the familiar voice of one of your best friends. You look to try and spot the voice, then turn back to the poster encouraging men to join the army. You feel a hand on your should and turn to see Bucky in military uniform. While the sight of him in the uniform made your heart flutter, the reality of what that means fills you with sadness.
“So where are you off to?” You ask with a small smile.
“I ship out tomorrow to the 107th,” He replies in an almost equal amount of sadness in his voice. You knew that if there wasn’t a war going on than Bucky would never enlist. He only fought to protect those he loved but he felt duty-bound just like all the other men in New York and the country to join the fight and protect the freedom. You wish you could do more to do your part. You had heard rumors about women disguising themselves as men and try to enlist. You never heard anyone actually going far, most of them get caught in the physical or the first week in basics. You knew that it was illegal but deep down you wanted to try and go. If your best friend was getting shipped out possibly to his death then you wanted to go to, fight along with them, representing your country. You dust off his should and take a long look into his blue eyes.
“You know Buck I wish that they would let girls enlist.” He looks down at your hands and sighs knowing where this talk his going.
“Y/N your just as bad as Steve. You both are so eager to go over and die. Why can’t you too just be happy that you won’t ever have to see the horrors of war.”
“But Bucky...I...”
“No Y/N, you don’t need to be over there. You are needed here to take care of your ma and Steve. Speaking of Steve have you seen him?” Buck looks around to see if he can see Steve’s fragile little body. You felt kind of bad for Steve’s unfortunate health issue. He has the spirit of a warrior but doesn’t have the body to make the difference that he wants. You turn to start looking yourself when you hear the all too familiar sounds of a fight. You and Bucky exchange looks and start walking towards the sounds coming from the alleyway.
You both turn the corner to see Steve grab trash can lid to defend himself from yet another bully. And before Bucky even made a move you lunge over to the man grab him.
“Pick on someone your own size!” You saic before you clock him straight in the jaw. Taken by surprise, he blindly swings his right arm, which you easily dodge, and respond with your signature knee to the gut to send him sprawling on the concrete. He gets up and runs away. You turn back to Steve and see Bucky helping him up.
“Sometimes I think you like getting punched,” Bucky says smoothly to Steve.
“I had him on the ropes,” He responds with a groan. You notice a small piece of paper fall out of Steve’s jacket. Knowing what it is, you ask, “How many times is this?” You view the document that states that Steve wasn’t fit for duty. You notice he changed his location, you couldn’t help but giggle at what he put “So you’re from ____ now.” Bucky chimes in with “You know that it is illegal to lie on your enlistment form.”
“But seriously? Jersey?” you smile. You noticed Steve look over Bucky and realize that he had his orders. Steve asked, “You get your orders?”
“The 107th Sargent James Barnes shipping out to England first thing tomorrow.” You all are quite before Steve shakes his head. He feels the same way as you, that he should be going too. Bucky deciding that there was enough depression in the air grabs your and Steve’s arms and walks you out of the alley. He looks over to Steve and says, “Come on we got to get you guys cleaned up!”
“Why where are we going?” You ask.
Bucky hands Steve a newspaper and replies
“The future!”