we're only getting older || Bucky Barnes || ✔️

Part 7

The two men walked out of the apartment, until finally, they were alone.

The man extended his hand forward for a handshake which Bucky reciprocated.

"My name is James," the man introduced himself, "James Proctor. Rebecca Proctor is my mother."

Bucky didn't really know what to say, his mind reeling from the fact that Becca had named her son after him, so James continued to talk for the both of them. "When I saw her talking to you, I got so happy." He frowned, making him age ten years in a second. "But it was probably since she saw a face from the past. She hasn't spoken a word to me in months. She doesn't even know who I am."

"I'm sorry," Bucky said.

"Don't be. It's not your fault she has Alzheimer's. Just hearing her voice today was something, I suppose." James shook his head, fixing a smile on his face. "Anyway, enough with the doom and gloom. You hungry? Would you like to grab some dinner?"

"I—"

"Come on. I know we're strangers, but we're also family and my mom named me after you, so you have to be at least a half decent guy." James nodded his head to the exit down the hall and began to walk. "There's a great pizza place nearby, we can take my car. It's on me."

"My friend Sam's in the car, I don't know if I should keep him waiting."

James's eyes brightened at that. "Sam? Sam Wilson? You have the Falcon in your car? Woah!" He cleared his throat and tried to hide the bright blush that covered his cheeks. "I mean... that's cool, he can come too. My cousins are on their way too and they're, uh, huge fans. I mean, me too. But they are— anyway, yeah, you can bring him."

"Alright," Bucky said, hiding a smile so as to not embarrass the man further. "I'll send him a text and let him know where to meet us."

"You can text?" James asked, his voice laced with a tinge of surprise.

Bucky raised his eyebrow as the two of them got into James's car. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Aunt Beth just discovered GIFs and emojis, which she won't stop sending in the family group chat, which I will add you to when we get to the pizza place, and Mom's last phone was a flip phone from the 90s, so a lot of people your age aren't really the friendliest with technology." He glanced over at Bucky in the passenger seat. "Not that you're old, uh... Bucky? Uncle Buck? Anyway, you'd think that with mom being an engineer and all, she would have been a little more tech savvy, but she always told me that it was my responsibility as her son to deal with all the tech stuff while her job was to just build things." He chuckled. "She said that while asking me set up her work email."

Bucky remembered her excitement for the Stark Expo; she had talked about it for days on end, buying tickets and researching the different inventions that were going to be on display. She was so excited until the day of the Expo when she got a bad cold and was unable to get out of bed. Angrily handing him her now spare tickets, she warned him that he better enjoy it as much as she would have:

Becca glared at him. "You better remember everything and tell me all about it when—ACHOO—you get back."

"Yeah, yeah." Bucky grinned, ruffling her bright hair in the way he knew annoyed her to no end. "Try not to die while I'm gone."

She batted his hand away and stifled a cough. "Right back at ya."

Bucky cleared his throat as James signaled a right turn into the restaurant parking lot where Sam's car was waiting. "Yeah, Becca loved learning about weird and wild inventions when we were kids. She was always building the weirdest robots with the parts I managed to get for her. She was never that into learning about everyday technology unless it was to break it apart and put it back together differently."

James tilted his head back and released a short laugh which ended with a loud snort. "That sounds like mom, alright."

Bucky smiled softly. "Some things don't change, do they?"