The Night We Met | Steve / Bucky

december 16, 1991

Maria Stark, decorated in pearls, sat perched at the grand piano in the living room of her home. The snowy white sky filled the room with light, almost as if it were a Summers day. The Starks were a well off family from Manhattan who loved their luxuries. Despite only three members of the Stark family residing at the residence, there were enough rooms and staff to occupy their needs. 

Maria sang gracefully as her now adult son, Tony, lay across the couch beside her, shielding himself with a blanket. Tony was only home for the holidays and made himself quite at home. He slept silently until his father, Howard Stark, entered the room pulling the blanket from him. Howard was a tall, slender greying man well matched with his wife who was blonde and beautiful. Looking at the Starks, they would be considered a good looking family. Although both Howard and Maria now sported greying hair, their children shared hair color and eye color much like their father when he was younger. Light blinded Tony's eyes and he was forced to awaken, "Wake up dear, and say goodbye to your father and sister." Maria spoke gently through her song. 

Tony climbed up from the couch, adjusting his Santa hat he wore - Christmas was fast approaching. "Who's the homeless person on the couch?" Howard spoke, putting his finest suit jacket on, buttoning the middle button. Tony got himself steadily to his feet to face his father and what ensued was another painstakingly tense argument between the pair. Maria tried her best to be the mediator as she always was. 

While the tensions rose downstairs, the youngest of the Stark children remained upstairs frantically packing the last of her things. Katherine Stark ran around her room, throwing anything she could find into her suitcase, deodorant, a hairbrush a few extra pairs of underwear she found. Katherine was used to the tension between her brother and father and was not sad to see her brother move while he attended MIT, from which he graduated four years previous. He was the bright one while Katherine had the looks. It was always 'Howard's daughter' or 'Tony's sister' - never Katherine. "Katherine, sweetie." Maria called up the stairs to her daughter. 

That was Katherine's cue to just forget everything else and to leave. She tugged at her suitcase behind her dragging it down the stairs. She knew her mother and father would not be happy carrying her own heavy luggage down the stairs and would have preferred their butler, Edwin Jarvis, to do it but Katherine was a tough girl and liked her independence. Katherine entered the living room where Tony and her father had seemed to calm down. Howard clutched his suitcase in his hand and walked from the room. Maria sighed watching her husband leave and turned to her son. "Goodbye mom, have a nice trip." Tony kissed her on the cheek. 

Maria looked to her son, "Be good." She held her hand on his cheek for a moment longer than necessary and then left the room, "We'll be in the car, Katherine." She gently said to her daughter. Maria was the good cop between the pair. Howard was cold toward his children and was always absent - work was his top priority. Maria was more loving toward her children although it wasn't enough to fill the void of their father but it was something. At least Tony and Katherine had each other. Despite there only being a two year age gap between the pair, Tony was very protective of his sister especially in his absence at college. 

Katherine turned to Tony, "How did you manage to be shipped away for the weekend?" He smirked to his sister referring to Katherine's upcoming visit to stay the weekend with her grandmother. She was doing poorly and Katherine seemed to be the only one to care for the woman, although Maria had the capabilities to visit her mother, she chose not to. She didn't live far outside Manhattan which led to further speculation as to why Maria didn't visit her sick mother but Katherine nor Tony ever asked.

Katherine sighed, putting her luggage down at her feet to give her arm a break. "They don't trust me alone with you for the weekend." She rolled her eyes and exhaled quite heavily, "I don't even want to go. Although it would be nice to see Gran."