𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸'𝘀 𝗔𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘀

𝟭

Present Day

As Bucky dropped the last box in the living room of his new apartment, he sighed. Not a sigh of relief, but a sigh of stress. Bucky hadn't lived on his own in so long, but after Tony and Nat's deaths and Steve's decision to go back and be with Peggy, it felt only right that Bucky go back to Brooklyn, despite the feelings that it had elicited in him about missing the life he had once led. 

He had started his court-mandated therapy, had been in regular contact with Sam much to his own distaste at first, and had done some work in making the amends he needed to. There was more to do, and he had received a call a few days ago from Sam to meet him down in New Orleans to work on a case, but first he needed some time to get situated in his new abode.  

The apartment was a pretty expansive (and expensive) one for Brooklyn. As you walked in the front door, you were greeted with a short hallway and a closet to the left to put shoes and coats in. At the end of the small hallway, you turned and that's where the apartment began to open up. 

From that one spot, you could see almost the entirety of his new home. To the left was the kitchen, and beyond that was the dining area and living room. To the right was the bedroom and from there, it led you into a closet with laundry and a nice bathroom. Bucky had picked it all on his own. It was just the right size for him, as he navigated his new life. 

Sitting on the hardwood floor in the living room, Bucky began to sift through the boxes. He didn't have much to go through but he had been reunited with a few things from his childhood, along with the new items he'd bought when he lived at the Avengers' compound briefly after the Blip. He anticipated making some trips to the furniture store, grocery store, and home decor stores, and that stressed him out, too.

Being recognized in public wasn't his favorite thing, and while it was mostly positive interactions, that didn't make him feel any better. He just wanted to disappear into the crowds. People wanted pictures sometimes and forcing a smile was always difficult. Other times though, they'd just stare at him and that also made him uncomfortable. It's not like Bucky wouldn't just stare back though.

Getting up, he grabbed the box labeled Kitchen first. He put away the cups in the cupboard, added the plates to the right side of the same cupboard, and placed the silverware tray in the drawer below. Looking at the rest of the cupboards and drawers, he made mental notes about what he needed. Pots and pans, mixing bowls, a toaster, some Tupperware, and, of course, food.

Cooking was going to be a new adventure, too. He missed his mother's cooking. She had always made great meals when he was growing up. He could picture the warm days where he would run in the back door with Steve after playing outside in the summer. Winnifred had told them to be home by 6:00 pm on the dot for dinner but they had always lost control of time. Quickly, they'd run their hands under the faucet, lathering soap onto their dirt-covered hands. Speed-walking as to not upset his mother, Bucky would drag Steve to the dinner table where they sat and Bucky would silently apologize to her with his convincing, ocean blue eyes as his father began to say grace. 

He smiled as the memory faded, and as Bucky thought more about it, he hadn't remembered many of the meals he'd had since the 1940s. HYDRA had fed him well to keep their soldier strong, but that time was all a blur of being programmed and reprogrammed again. When he had finally broken free from HYDRA, he had then put himself back into cryo-freeze while he rehabilitated himself with the help of Shuri and the Wakandans. He had enjoyed the food in Wakanda and he made a mental note to message Shuri and Ayo about getting some of their recipes.  Almost immediately after his time in Wakanda, he had been a victim of the Blip for 5 years, before returning and beginning this phase of his life.