Lark

Happy birthday, Bucket

Bucky's POV March 10, 2019

Sitting in the main living room he observes that while Aria has relaxed a lot more with people over the last nine months since their friendship/relationship started, she was still guarded. Less so with her sisters, him, Steve and a select other few. But there was still a distance that was there when they were all gathered together. Not so much like she was putting up walls between them and her anymore. More like she was still unsure of what a healthy relationship with them was supposed to be like since she's never had family before and she was overwhelmed. The point of his silent musings is that he was proud of her for putting herself out there far more than she ever did before and he was happy to see it. Although watching Aria with her sisters made him a little sad because of all of the time he'd missed out on with his sister.

The thing about the Soviets and then Hydra taking him wasn't just that they'd stolen his life from him. They'd stolen the hope and joy from his parents and his sister, Rebecca. They murdered the future his parents had hoped for him by letting them all think he was dead. Not being able to see him come home and settle down with a good girl from a good family and having a couple of kids making them grandparents and an aunt. He missed out on seeing his kid sister grow up and do the same, making him an uncle. Becca and her husband Thomas Bensen had had two kids, both of whom were older than he was now. In looks anyway. His niece and nephew had families of their own that were grown and so on. He'd missed so much time with them all. With no surprise to him, Aria had been there holding his hand every step of the way when he went to finally see them all for the first time last week. Buck had been so nervous at what his little sister's reaction to seeing him so unchanged in appearance would be like. And that didn't even touch on how she might feel about knowing all about what he'd been forced to do.

He had nothing to worry about because Rebecca had told him to shut up and give her a hug with a wide smile and tears in the same blue eyes they'd inherited from their mother. Her dark hair might be silver now and there were lines on her weathered face from age, but those eyes were just as full of spunkiness from when he'd last seen her at the age of nineteen. Still as forthright as ever, Becca told him all of it was in the past and that she still loved him. That no matter what she always would because he was her big brother. Rebecca, her husband and their whole family welcomed him and Aria into their home with open arms. After spending a whole day with them they ended the evening by going through photo album after photo album of the Barnes/Bensen families. Several of which had his baby pictures all the way through to the embarrassing pictures of his adolescence that had Aria holding back snickers of laughter as Becca shared the even more embarrassing stories of his and Steve's exploits that they'd failed to tell her about.

Although her laughter died down when they got to the pictures he'd sent back home from his time in the winter of '42 at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin where he trained. Him and a few of the friends he'd made posing with their rifles after graduating from sniper training. A pall of sadness hit them all at the pictures of him in his uniform just before he'd left for England. Even more so when the ones he'd sent of him and the rest of the Howling Commandos as they fought in Italy and Germany came next. Then there was the last photo taken of him before his very last mission. It was of him and Steve smiling, sweaty and splattered with mud after coming back from another successful mission where they'd taken out a whole squadron of Hydra soldiers. Unable to bear seeing them, Buck left the boxes that contained all of his medals and ribbons won both during and technically posthumously unopened.

Knowing that this topic was ultra sensitive to the siblings Aria and Thomas got into a friendly argument about the best place in the city for hotdogs. It set everyone off the other's opinions until the sadness had quickly turned back to happiness. By the time they were ready to go home his sister had pulled him aside and handed him a small ivory inlaid walnut box. He didn't need to open it to know their mothers wedding ring set was inside. "For when the time is right." She'd said, patting his cheek as she glanced over at Aria who was laughing nervously while being hugged around her knees by two of his young great-nieces who were making her promise to come back.