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Steve had no idea why he was doing this.
Well, that was a lie. He knew exactly why, because in the three years he and Natasha had been dating, Steve had yet to learn how to deny her little sister, Yelena, anything.
Steve had been an only child so he’d been unsure about Nat’s relationship with her sister. It all seemed so hot and cold listening to one sided phone calls. It had been Bucky and Sam who’’d reassured him.
“Stevie,” Buck had looked at incredulously, his hand planted firmly in Sam’s. “This is how siblings are, you can’t stand them for a minute and then you’re ready to kill for them.”
Sam had nodded his agreement, “I still remember the first time I knocked an ex-boyfriend of Sarah’s teeth out. We had been arguing for over a week but then this motherfucker shows up to our house screaming all sorts of bull and just like that,” he snapped with his free hand, “any fight we were having was over and we were all good again.”
Steve had just raised his eyebrows and nodded, but still wasn’t sure he understood. But then Steve had met Yelena, spent time with her both with Nat there and without and he got it a little more. Yelena had a vulnerability about her, so unlike her sister, that had Steve wanting to wrap her up in blankets and make sure nothing hurt her. It was something in her eyes that told him she wasn’t as okay as she liked to have them believe.
So when she had brought Bob home to meet Steve and Nat, who had looked like he needed nothing but a week’s worth of vegetables, water, and sleep, neither knew what to think.
Bob had been nice enough, smiling awkwardly and answering every question Steve, Sam, and Bucky asked. Natasha had opted to having a staring contest with Yelena instead.
Later that night, when the two had proceeded to have a screaming match in the living room while the four of them sat awkwardly chewing their spaghetti and garlic bread, Bob had just smiled and fidgeted. But he didn’t balk.
Steve had taken Sam and Bucky out to a baseball game on his dime to thank them both for enduring the tension with him.
Rough first introductions aside, Bob had been solid with Yelena. And for Yelena. Natasha’s initial hesitation of Yelena finding someone equally if not more unstable than she was had been put mostly to bed. They were, first and foremost, best friends, and their relationship was made all the stronger and resilient because of it.
All of those cumulative reasons were why Steve found himself now standing on the subway platform, Bob’s location pulled up on his phone when a shadow fell over him. Bucky sighed as he addressed Steve.
“How do you have Bob’s location?”
Steve faced his oldest friend and held up his phone, “We did a double date to the zoo and Yelena didn’t have her phone, so Bob gave me his location to find in the parking lot.”
“And he never turned it off?”
Steve shrugged, “Guess he forgot.” Small mercies at a time like this.
The train pulled up then, and Steve wasn’t surprised when Bucky followed him and sat down next to him, the train car almost empty in the middle of the night.
“So, where is he?”
Steve double checked the location again, “Some bar downtown. How’d you know where I was headed?”
“Yelena called me too, wants me to try and talk Bob into NA.”
Steve huffed, though he wasn’t surprised. It was how Yelena and Bucky had gotten close. They had met at AA, neither knowing the other’s connection to Natasha and Steve. When they had seen each other at a Wilson barbecue, they had already been getting ice cream once a week after meetings for two months.
“You don’t have to come, though I do appreciate it.”
“Of course I do, I love Yelena too you know, and Bob deserves some help, same as everyone.”
“Where’s Sam?” Ever since Steve had introduced his two friends, they’d been pretty inseparable. Even when they were bickering endlessly in some weird mating ritual, Steve was weirdly the odd one out.
“He had an emergency with one of his support group guys and no, I can’t tell you which one.”
Steve rolled his eyes at the warning, but he was a little concerned, which he was sure Bucky could pick up on.
He and Sam had met at the community center, each of them leading a support group for veterans, Sam for service members who had lost someone in combat the way he had, and Steve for veterans who struggled to reenter into civilian life.
A few of their members overlapped, and Steve was sure if he wasn’t called it probably wasn’t one of his group, but he still worried.
Steve watched the station names fly by, they still had a good ten minutes until they got to Bob’s location.
“So, how’s married life going?”
Bucky turned to him at that, a genuine soft smile lighting up his face at the mention of his husband. Sam and Bucky had been married for about six months now, after a fairly short engagement of two months.
“It’s good, you know, not much changed. We get to call each other ‘husband’ which is pretty great, but other than that. We’re still just us.”
“Did the sex magically get worse?”
Bucky tilted his head back and laughed loudly, “No. Definitely not. In fact it maybe even got a little better for a while, but that just could’ve been because we were on vacation and had zero worries or responsibilities.”
“Great, can you tell Nat that?”
Bucky scrunched his nose at that, “Oh, she still not feeling the whole institute of marriage?”
Steve sighed, “No. And hey, I’m fine waiting to get married or even never getting married, but I feel like maybe her worries are born of something possibly deeper.”
“Don’t go all counselor on her, you know the rules.”
He couldn’t help laughing at Bucky’s words, but he knew Nat would agree. She hated when he started talking about her with his ’support group voice’. He never did it intentionally, but it tended to slip out sometimes.
Before Steve got a chance to respond, they were pulling into their station, and the two quickly made their way off the train and up the stairs to the street.
The place Bob was at was close, and soon they were opening up into a dingy, nearly empty bar. Bob was easy to find as the only one at the bar, a full drink in front of him and his chin resting on the sticky counter.
Steve and Bucky met each other’s eyes and Steve took the lead, going to sit himself down on the stool next to Bob.
“What do you want?” Bob’s voice was meek, and his eyes never left the glass in front of him.
“Well, for one, are you going to drink that? Cause I would hate to let it go to waste and I’m the only one here who isn’t at risk of breaking sobriety.”
He wasn’t actually going to drink the beer, but his words had Bob’s head popping up in confusion, just in time for Bucky to come up to his other side. Resting his hand down on the bar, a chip rattling as it settled from his hand.
When Bob caught sight of it, he rolled his eyes, “You’ve been talking to Yelena.”
Bucky nodded, “I talk to Yelena about many things, one of those things is you. Although she didn’t mention anything about you two fighting.”
Steve’s eyes crinkled a bit at that, “Yeah, you two fighting seems a bit against the laws of nature.”
The man between them sighed and looked up at Steve, “Yeah, well. She pushed a little too hard. Told me that I might feel more in control if I went to regular meetings. And I told her that if I had to go to meetings, it would mean I’ve lost control.”
At Bob’s words, Steve leaned back, knowing this one would be up to Bucky. His friend seemed to take it in stride, and Steve wondered again when Bucky would be up to lead a support group.
“So you think because Yelena goes to AA that she’s not in control of her sobriety.”
At the words spoken so plainly, Bob recoiled, “No, no, that’s not what I meant.”
“Let me tell you something Bob, that chip there? It means I’ve been in control for three years, and going to meetings didn’t make me less in control, it was the opposite. Every time I stepped into a meeting, it was me taking my problems in my hands and controlling them, working to help myself. Not sitting around waiting to feel better or like I had a handle of things.”
Bob licked his lips, his eyes shining just a touch, “I know that, but I still don’t know if I can go to a room and just blurt out all my feelings and cravings to a bunch of strangers, or worse.”
Steve prodded him, “What would be worse?”
“Telling it to a bunch of people I know.”
Bucky nodded like he understood exactly what Bob was saying, “I get that, really I do. How about this? I have a friend, she runs small groups. I’m talking five people max. Just go to one of her meetings, I’ll go with you or you can go alone or whatever. You don’t even have to talk.”
Bob brought his eyes up to meet Bucky’s, “Who is it?”
“Her name is Ava, she’s great. A little rough around the edges and don’t even get me started on her fiancé, guy’s a bit of an asshole.”
Steve laughed at that, but it disappeared when Bob muttered, “I’ll give it a try if you promise not to tell Yelena, at least not yet.”
Steve and Bucky locked eyes over Bob’s head but both nodded, it wouldn’t be fun to keep it from Nat and Yelena, but if it was what it took then so be it. The former settled a hand on Bob’s shoulder.
“Sure thing, but can we get you home now? Yelena’s worried and Nat is pissed.”
“And Steve wants to be the hero who brought home the puppy!”
Bucky’s words were light and they succeeded in getting Bob to chuckle even as he and Steve threw up their middle fingers.
There would be more to talk about later. Steve knew from being around Bucky his whole life that it was a struggle that never truly went away, but Bob was family now. And none of them had any intention of leaving him out to dry.
Steve wasn’t always the best at expressing those thoughts in his words, so he tried for action instead. Leading Bob to the subway with a steady hand on the back of his neck. Sandwiching the man between himself and Bucky and making him laugh with stories from their childhood. He did all he was able until the trio was standing in front of Steve and Natasha’s walk up. Yelena was waiting with her sister and flung herself into Bob’s arms as soon as they were in view, apologies that were unnecessary spilling from both of their mouths.
Steve just smiled softly at Natasha behind them, her own mouth turned upward with a small nod of gratitude. He wondered if she knew just how much he would do for their small family. The lengths he’d go to keep them safe and happy.
He certainly knew she loved them all just as fiercely.