The Waitress and the Winter Soldier

Chapter 18: Moving on

SHIELD was gutted. Inside out, total demo project. Fury and Hill took on the monumental job of shifting through the rubble and rebuilding step by painful step.

The avengers were officially free agents. And while that hadn't exactly stopped them before, the heroes found themselves giddy with possibilities. Clint and his family relocated to a farm in Massachusetts. Sam split his time between the new Boston headquarters and his sister's household. Bruce, Wanda, and Vision tried to move in with Tony. Tony quickly bought the other houses in the neighborhood and kicked out everyone except Zoe and (because he couldn't deny his sister anything) Bucky.

Steve and Natasha quietly moved into the house next door. As they packed up their few belongings in New York, Nick Fury dropped off a few old files that the duo tucked away without another word.

And Zoe? It took nearly six months to convince her brother and boyfriend to stop putting trackers on her every time she left the house. The fact that she was nearly physically indestructible seemed irrelevant to them. Nevertheless, her next years at Harvard proved to be just as incredible as her first and she dove in happily. Bucky marveled at her brilliance and listened avidly every day as he picked her up after classes. He and Steve eventually started working with the new SHIELD, training new recruits. Nat and Clint were back to intelligence missions; although they regularly took time with Sam and Wanda to add "spice" to Steve and Bucky's training sessions. The trainers were less than impressed.

It wasn't until Zoe's last semester that Bucky darked broach a delicate topic with Tony. He found Stark in his workroom late one spring evening, while Pepper and Zoe were out on a "sister date."

"Hey Barnes." Tony didn't bother to look up from his workstation. "You coming to help out?"

"You need my help?" Bucky asked. Tony scoffed.

"I was being polite. What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask your opinion on something." Bucky swiped a hand over his face, telling himself he wasn't sweating, it was just humid in the workroom.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's Zoe. Sorta. I mean, I want to ask her something. And I know I'm not really supposed to do this but..." Bucky sputtered then tried again. "I know this isn't a thing anymore and it's maybe kinda sexist, but I feel like I need to tell you that I'm going to propose."

Tony stopped midway through turning a wrench, color draining from his face. He inhaled deeply and turned to face the super soldier. He waited, raising his eyebrows expectantly. Bucky nodded and plowed forward.

"It's just, I grew up with certain rules. And she's your sister." He exhaled hard then squared his shoulders. "I'm not asking permission. I'm letting you know that I want to marry her. I want to have a family with her, have a life with her. And I want you to support us."

"You serious?" Tony asked. Bucky nodded earnestly. There was a long pause as Stark considered, pulled a bag of blueberries from his worktable, and began snacking on them.

"Did munchkin tell you about getting accepted here?" He scrutinized his sister's partner as he answered.

"Of course!" Bucky's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "I'm thrilled. She's gonna love the program and she's really gonna love being a doctor. Well, a doctor of physic-stuff."

"You okay having a wife who's a million times smarter than you? And gonna make a shit ton more than you? Mr. Traditional values?" Tony's tone was severe, but his eyes softened. His gut told him these questions were unnecessary but what kind of big brother would he be if he didn't make sure?

"100% yes." Bucky smiled as he answered. "You're not wrong that it's different from what I grew up with. It's different from what Zoe grew up expecting. It's so much better than either of us could've expected."

Tony exhaled hard, his face dropping to study the twisted mess of metal on the table intently. After what seemed like an eternity, he looked up and reached out a hand to Bucky.

"You're alright Barnes." He smiled faintly as they shook hands. "You make my sister happy and, if she says yes, I'll throw you one hell of a wedding."

The smile nearly split his face in half as Bucky practically jumped with excitement. He hesitated for barely a second before grabbing Tony into a hug.

"You... you won't regret it." He managed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Tony patted his back awkwardly. "What the hell, you already live here and eat my food. Might as well make it official."

"I've got a plan already." Bucky pulled away and sprinted toward the doorway. "I just need to pick up my suit from the cleaners... by the way, what is that?" He pointed to the jumbled mess of materials Stark had been wrangling for nearly 2 hours.

"Nothing important." Tony waved him off. "Go be romantic or whatever."

Sighing he turned back to his table. He scowled at the mess in front of him and reluctantly pulled the instruction manual out of the trash can.

"Easy to assemble crib, my eye." He grumbled.