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“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Bucky laughed as a dog ran up to him at the restaurant sidewalk barking and trying to run back the direction it came.
“I think this is the part where you follow it and it takes you on a magical quest.” Becca informed Bucky with a raised eyebrow at her brother who sat across the table.
The dog- a black, well-groomed mutt of some kind- ran back to their sidewalk table and barked again.
“If it leads me somewhere dangerous, please get a good mental image of this dog so you can describe my killer to the police.”
“Go see what it wants!” Natasha laughed and shoved at Bucky’s shoulder. “Time to be a hero, Barnes.”
“Alright, alright!” Bucky stood up from the table and tossed his paper napkin beside his barely-eaten burger. “Don’t eat my fries.”
The dog barked again in rapid succession, hurrying up close to him again, and then Bucky started to swiftly walk its way.
“What’s its vest say?” Becca asked.
“Oh shit,” Bucky called back as he got a better look at it. “It’s a fucking service dog.”
“Oh damn. Take your phone!” Natasha called and Bucky ran back and grabbed the device from off the table before turning around toward the animal.
“Alright. What’s going on?” he asked the dog and then started hurrying the direction the animal was clearly trying to lead.
He only had to follow the dog about three blocks before the animal dashed down a small rung of stairs and to its master.
“Hey, hey, where did you go? I’m fine,” the man laughed as the dog circled back around him and checked him over.
“Sir, hang on. I’m coming,” Bucky announced as he hurried down the few stairs and knelt down in front of the fallen man. “I’ve got you. Are you hurt?”
“Nah. I’m fine. We’re both overdramatic fools,” he laughed, motioning to the dog. “Hurt my pride more than anything.”
“I’m actually really relieved. Over the course of the like three blocks I ran to get here, I created worse and worse possibilities for what kind of scene this dog could be leading me to. You’re honestly kind of anti-climatic in the best way.”
Bucky hesitantly held his hand out to the animal who sniffed it and otherwise ignored him.
The man’s face looked confused a moment and then he asked, “Bucky?”
Bucky blinked a few times in surprise and then looked again at the man’s face.
“Steve Rogers?! Holy shit. What happened, man?”
Steve laughed. “I fell down here. And I think I kind of panicked Mavi. I got the breath knocked out of me and did make a rather ungodly sound trying to regain it.”
Bucky looked Steve over. His knee was bleeding through his torn jeans and his palms were scuffed up, but he did look otherwise put together.
“When did-“ Bucky caught himself before he could go any further, but the words were already out there so Steve guessed how the sentence ended.
“Almost five years ago,” Steve replied. He seemed to know Bucky was looking at his eyes, blue still, but unfocused and unseeing. “Tried to stop a carjacking. The guy had a gun. Things didn’t go my way.”
“Goddamn. That’s awful, man. That’s- that’s terrible.”
“Still remember what you look like though,” Steve replied smugly.
Bucky blushed just a little.
“I still look about the same too. Hair’s longer.”
“Always knew you would turn into a hippie when you got out from under your parents’ thumbs.”
“Hey now. You want me to help you up or leave you here?” Bucky asked teasingly.
“At this point?” Steve asked. “Buck, can you look around and see if you see my dignity or if the little jerkoffs got that too?”
“Little jerkoffs?”
“I walk this way all the time and have for years. I remember this stupid lower level here. I don’t get close to it. Wouldn’t have fallen in it today if some kids on scooters or skateboards or something hadn’t come flying past me and tried to run me over. They always act like they own the whole sidewalk.”
“Your phone’s surprisingly unbroken?” Bucky offered as compensation as he picked it up from a few feet away.
“How bad does my knee look?”
“Lemme see,” Bucky responded, moving the denim aside to get a good look at it. “It’s bleeding a good bit, but it looks superficial. So about like it did after half those fights you got us into in middle and high school.”
“Me? Whatever could he mean, Mavi? Me?”
“Yes, you. One out of twenty may have been my fault, but the rest? Don’t try to pin those on me.”
“Those were good times,” Steve laughed. He reached a hand out for Mavi who immediately stuck her head beneath his palm.
“Can I help you get somewhere?” Bucky asked. “Call your husband? Wife? Significant other? Mom? Friend? Back up seeing-eye dog?”
Steve shook his head and turned to push himself up.
“It’s just me,” he answered, getting to his feet. “Turns out being married to your work is bad for your love life. Who would have guessed?”
“What kind of work do you do?” Bucky stood too and looked Steve over.
“I run my own pottery business.”
“Oh my god. You still do that?” Bucky laughed, grabbing at Steve’s hand and arm to help steady him even though Steve didn’t show any signs of needing the assistance. “That’s fantastic. Nobody ever sticks with their childhood dreams.”
“You’re telling me you’re not an astronaut?” Steve gasped.
“Shut up, man. I work three jobs and none of them are in space.”
“I sense bitterness,” Steve said as he dusted his clothes off gingerly with the fingertips of one hand.
“Some things I can’t even hide from a blind man.”
Steve allowed Bucky to help him straighten up and he clicked his tongue and reached for Mavi’s harness.
“Alright, where are these damn stairs? Precisely?”
“Other way,” Bucky informed as he tried to let go of Steve’s hand and let the dog lead him.
“She’s fired for right now,” Steve said, switching the dog’s harness to the other hand. “Give me your other arm. Get me to the sidewalk and I’ll consider employing her again.”
Bucky hesitated.
“Okay, um. Hang on.”
Steve stopped and lifted his head, eyes set Bucky’s direction even if not making eye contact.
“You okay?”
Bucky guessed something in his voice gave him away.
“I, uh, haven’t exactly remained unchanged since high school either.”
He paused. Steve waited him out.
“Halfway through college, I moved in with my parents in Indiana again and underwent chemo. I’ve been cancer-free for almost fifteen years now. So now the other arm? It’s a prosthetic. Bone cancer is a son of a bitch.”
“Shit, Buck. That’s- god, that sucks. You’re healthy now though?”
“What’s left of me is healthy, yeah. And I’ve got a top notch cybernetic arm. I’d say you should see it, but-“
“Ha ha,” Steve deadpanned. “Let me feel it. My hands aren’t too bloody, right?” He held up both palms toward Bucky.
“Nah. Your knee looks way worse than your hands. Hands are just going to be painful for a few days.”
“Yeah. They sting a lot.”
“But it’s just the part of your palms that sting. The rest of your hands are still pretty clean.”
Bucky reached with his right arm and tugged the sleeve of his left arm up before holding it out in front of Steve.
“There you go. Feel away. You can’t hurt it.”
Steve ran his fingertips down the prosthetic, pads moving against the grooves of the limb a minute before he flipped his palm upward.
“Is it metal? It doesn’t feel plastic.”
“It is!” Bucky said excitedly. “A very lightweight, but strong metal from Wakanda. Their medical advancements are top notch.”
“Thank you for letting me check it out,” Steve said warmly. “If it were earlier in the day, I could probably see it some, but it’s getting too dark now. My vision isn’t completely gone, but it is highly dependent on light.”
Bucky looked up at the darkening sky and then back at Steve before taking his offered hand and putting it on the railing.
“Okay, stair railing. I’ve got your phone. You weren’t carrying anything else, right?”
Bucky looked around the small cemented area of the lower level and then back at Steve.
“Nah. Just me and Mavi.” He checked his pocket. “I’ve got my wallet. You’ve got my phone.” He gripped Mavi’s harness. “I’ve got this idiot. We’re good.”
Bucky walked a step behind Steve as he and Mavi ascended the stairs and then they both stopped on the sidewalk.
“You headed home or-“
“I was headed to get something to eat. There’s a restaurant a friend of mine has a few blocks from here and they have a killer black bean burger.”
”Arnie’s?”
“Yeah, you’ve been there?”
“I just came from there. I didn’t realize it was Arnie Roth’s though. God, I was always so jealous of him back in school.”
Steve laughed. “Why?”
“Because we were dating, but he was your best friend. He was quarterback and I was a science geek. You seemed like you were making a bad choice and I always thought you’d wake up one day and realize it. Made him seem like a threat.”
Steve shook his head. “Buck, even after we split, Arnie and I never dated. It wasn’t ever like that with us. Besides, he married a guy he met in college and they’re still together so I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
Bucky rolled his eyes a little embarrassed at himself. “Don’t say that like I’m still intimidated. You and me aren’t even together now.”
Steve laughed, shrugged playfully, and motioned the direction of the restaurant.
“Do I look presentable to still go grab food to take back to my place?”
“Yeah. I doubt anyone will notice. Besides, it’s not like it’s a super fancy restaurant.”
The two started off in the direction of the burger joint with Mavi suddenly acting like she was in charge again when Steve grabbed the handle on her harness. Bucky momentarily wished he recovered from blunders that easily.
“Yeah. I’d be super upset if I allowed kids on scooters to ruin an expensive dinner suit instead of just work jeans,” Steve added.
“That would cost considerably more to replace, but at the same time, if these are favorite jeans, are they ever really replaceable?”
“No,” Steve whined like he had already had the same thought and was just trying to not dwell on it.
“Now you’re gonna have to either go jeans shopping for work jeans or go retire a pair of non-work jeans from casual status to work status.”
“You sound familiar with the dilemma.”
“One of my jobs is part time as a mechanic so...”
“Ah. Same place? You did that in high school.”
“Same place. It’s a reliable paycheck.”
“What’re the others?”
“Stock shelves at the bodega by my apartment and run the register in the middle of the night. The owner is getting older. He needs his beauty sleep, but I don’t think he wants a kid working those hours either. And I teach. Sub classes for some middle and high schools in the area. Do that a lot actually.”
“Nerd,” Steve coughed.
And Bucky outright giggled. He cringed at himself immediately. And judging by his face, was the last thing Steve had been expecting so the sound kind of washed over him, but also made him smile unexpectedly. It had been so long since he had heard that sound.
“I’m guessing the pottery thing is really successful? I mean, if you’re not working two other jobs too.”
“It is. I have a studio and a shop front and I do custom orders and craft fairs and there’s an online store. You remember Sam Wilson? We work together.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sam would’ve called me a nerd too.”
“Wait, you laughed.” Steve thankfully didn’t say giggled. “I didn’t hurt your feelings, did I? That was never my intention.”
“No, no,” Bucky assured. “I’ve gotten used to being the nerd. And I like it about myself. Spent some time really learning to love the parts of myself that no one claps for.”
Steve smiled softly. “I think I’m still learning that lesson myself. I used- I used to be good at anything I set my mind to-“
“You could never dance.”
“Shut up. You can’t-“
“Nor handle roller coasters.”
“I’m better at that.”
“Oh?”
“Oh yeah. But I’ve taken some time to learn what I can and can’t do with incredibly poor vision. There’s this misconception that with blindness, comes the ability to figure out Braille with a little effort. I hate Braille. I read enough to get around in public. I make machines read me everything else.”
“Mavi hasn’t learned to read to you? Goddamn, Mavi. Step it up.”
“She’s awful describing movies.”
And Bucky giggled again.
And Steve’s expression was suddenly indescribable as he casually and tactlessly asked, “God, why did we break up again?”
“I don’t know,” Bucky shrugged, smiling so big he was almost grateful Steve couldn’t tell. “We went to college three-thousand miles apart?”
“Ah, why would we do that?”
“Because you were going to do art studies. And I was going to be an astronaut.”
“What were we thinking?”
“That you were going to sculpt New York’s finest mugs? And I was going to go to space.”
“You should go back. To school, that is. You’re smart and you could be the first one-armed man in space. The Russians haven’t done that, right? Or the Chinese?”
Bucky laughed lowly. “Not to my knowledge, no.”
They reached the restaurant much faster than Bucky was prepared to and he spotted Natasha and Becca still sitting and waiting on him to return. They looked across somewhat impatiently and Bucky watched Natasha’s brow furrow in confusion when she spotted Steve.
“My friends are still waiting for me,” he told Steve as Mavi told Steve it was safe to cross the street the same time Bucky said, “Okay, c’mon, we’re good.”
“I feel bad for making you miss your dinner.”
“It’s fine. I can still eat it.”
“It’ll be cold now.”
“It’ll be fine.”
They got to the other side of the street and right past the tables out front of the restaurant so Bucky called to Natasha and Becca that he would return in a minute before holding the door open and ushering Steve and Mavi in ahead of him.
“Steve’s here!” one of the servers called out.
Bucky laughed. “Come here often?”
“Understatement.”
“He’s here at least three times a week,” the host supplied.
Steve whined. “It’s near my house. It’s easy. A friend owns it. What can I say?”
“You order the same thing every time or-“
“No way. I’ve tried this whole menu.”
“He cheats,” the host informed. “He orders the black bean monstrosity instead of real meat.”
“I forgot you were a vegetarian,” Bucky said with a nod before turning to the host. “Do you guys have a first aid kit I can borrow? I need some bandaids and something to clean some cuts and scrapes with.”
The host, who had been grabbing a menu from the drawer beneath his stand, looked up. “Uh, sure. It’s in the back. You want it first or you want to order first? How serious are we talking?”
“Do I need to first aid first?” Steve asked Bucky.
Bucky looked up and down at Steve.
“You’re the one in pain. You decide.”
“Let’s order first.” Steve said, motioning for Mavi to sit. The dog obeyed and Steve reached over to where he apparently knew the hand sanitizer always was. He pumped some into his hand before offering it to Bucky.
“Dine in or take out?” the host asked.
Steve shook his hands as if he hadn’t considered how much the sanitizer would sting where they were scraped and bloodied.
“Ah, do you mind if we join my sister and friend?” Bucky asked Steve as he cleaned his own hands.
“Oh, oh. You should go back to them,” Steve suddenly insisted. “You were in the middle of eating. I- I can manage from here. Thank you. Why don’t you order something fresh? On me.”
Bucky shook his head.
“No, no, you should join us. Please. Or I’ll wait with you. It doesn’t matter.”
Steve turned toward the host. “I’ll cover whatever this man wants. And whatever food he has already ordered outside. It’s my fault his dinner got interrupted.”
“Nonsense. Steve, stop it. You’re not doing that.” He turned toward the host as well. “Ignore him. He’s crazy.”
“No, I’m not. I’m getting his food,” Steve told the host. “Don’t let anyone give him a bill.”
Bucky shook his head silently, taking advantage of the fact that Steve couldn’t see him.
“I know what you’re doing. I’m blind, not stupid.” He fished his wallet out of his pocket and slid out a card before flipping it in his fingers and extending it toward the host.
“No, no, no, no,” Bucky grabbed at his hand with the card in it. “You are not. Steve, I will lay you out on this floor myself. Just you wait.”
“Bucky, please. It’s the least I can do. It’s just dinner, not your rent. Give me a damn break.”
Bucky was gripping the other end of Steve’s debit card and refusing to let go.
“Rogers?” came Natasha’s voice from the entryway. “Should have known that if I ever saw you again, you’d be in the middle of a fight.”
“Oh, ha ha,” he deadpanned. His grip on the card didn’t let up, but he turned toward Bucky. “Is that Natasha?”
“She’s come to help me gang up on you. She’s my backup.”
“I’d fight you both,” she informed. “What’s going on?”
“Steve’s insisting on being a chivalrous asshole,” Bucky said the same time Steve said,
“Bucky’s being a prideful bastard.”
Natasha’s eyes flicked down to Steve’s left hand so minutely that Bucky almost missed it before she replied,
“God, why don’t you two have dinner together? You’re so stupid for each other. Gross.”
The comment was so unexpected that somehow both men let go of the debit card at the same time and it went clattering onto the top of the host stand.
“What?” Steve laughed, thinking maybe he had misheard something.
Natasha just looked at Bucky.
“James, just let him buy it tonight and you buy dinner for you both next time. It’s an easy solution.” She rolled her eyes and then turned toward Steve. “Steve, just let him take you to dinner again in a few days.”
“Is she a matchmaking service?” Steve asked.
“Please,” Natasha said, “I told him for years after you two split up that he needed to fix that mistake. You’re not about to tell me you have a lovely spouse and kids at home, are you?”
Steve shook his head.
“No, uh, I have a dog and a pottery company. It keeps me busy.”
“Hopefully not too busy to go to dinner with a good friend of mine in a few days.”
Bucky blushed and looked down at his feet, but when Steve turned back toward him, he found himself saying, “I’m game if you are.”
Steve shook his head.
“Yeah, of course I am.”
Mavi looked up at Bucky as if to let him know she would come get him again if she needed to.