𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 | howard stark

prologue

[ 1930 ]

📍HELL'S KITCHEN
⋘ » ☆ « ⋙

"Give it to me, jerk!"

"No!"

"Why you little — "

Sounds of protests and even some of encouragement were heard from behind an alley, the screams swarming their way into the streets. The men and women who were passing by that loud alley pretended not to listen to the screams as if nothing was happening, continuing on with their walk. But that wasn't the case for all who walked on that street. A young girl, distracted from all the noise, decided she'd had enough and marched up straight to the alley.

What the young girl didn't expect to see was a group of four kids surrounding a scrawny boy on the floor. The tallest and broadest of the four tormenting children had a firm grip against the poor boy's worn out jacket. Despite all the restrains he had, the scrawny boy didn't give up on his fight and tried to stand up in multiple occasions.

"Hey!" the young girl shouted, drawing the attention of the bullies. "Leave him alone!"

The broadest of the bullies dropped his grip on the boy, which made him collapse against the hard floor. He took his sweet time in walking toward the young girl in an attempt to intimidate her, but she didn't budge.

"Why don't you mind your own business, doll?" the bully taunted, and the young girl's blood boiled at that comment. She despised whenever someone called her by that nickname.

The bully was towering over her, expecting to be drowned in tears or simply hear a cower of fear, but that didn't happen. Instead, he was thrown off guard after receiving a punch in the jaw, making him cradle the pounding area. He was staring with bloodshot eyes at the girl, who was returning his glare with fiery eyes.

The other members of his bully gang removed their surroundings around the scrawny boy to make their way over to the young girl. Yes, she just hit the leader of their group, so defeating them would be easy, but now she was outnumbered. The girl clenched her tiny fists and prepared herself against the upcoming punches of the bullies. The closest one to her made a move and her instant response was to kick him in the groin, making the boy groan in pain on the floor.

The other bullies were ready to throw punches, and the young girl was already bracing to block it when another hand shot up and grabbed the wrist of the attacker. The young girl looked over her side and saw a tall boy, approximately the same age as her, with brown tussled hair and dirty clothes.

"It is not nice to hit girls," he said, and he easily twisted the wrist of the bully he was grabbing.

Knowing they were in trouble, the bullies decided to surrender and helped each other off the floor before bolting out of the ally. The young girl dusted her clothes and made her way over to the scrawny boy, who had watched the entire ordeal from the floor. Now that she was close enough, she could see all his features. He had blonde yet dirty hair, along with clothes in the same state. He was much skinnier than anyone she'd ever seen, but the most entertaining thing of all was how he was staring with big doe blue eyes at his saviors.

The young girl extended a hand to help him up, already preparing for an insult of some kind for defending him. This was not her first time fighting against bullies, but every other time they would snap at her for defending them, saying that it was embarrassing for a girl to rescue them.

Instead, the scrawny boy stared in amazement. He took the young girl's hand and stood up with difficulty. "Thank you."

The tall, brunet boy joined their side. He patted the scrawny boy in the back as a greeting manner but that resulted in a coughing fit from the blonde boy. Alarmed at this, both the boy and the girl waited for him to calm down and give them an explanation.

"Are you all right?" the young girl asked him, deeply concerned for a boy she'd just met a few minutes ago.

"I am," the scrawny boy replied, crossing his arms over his own body in protection. "I'm very sick, 's all."

The girl decided not to ask any more questions of the matter. Her mother used to tell her that she didn't know how to read a room, but she was learning to. She instead changed the subject.

"Is this your first time gettin' targeted by those jerks?" she questioned, worried about the answer.

The scrawny boy shook his head. "No. They wanted my lunch, so I hit 'em."

"Whoa, you hit them?" the tall boy exclaimed in surprise, but there was pride behind his look. "That took guts."

The scrawny boy lowered his head, but it didn't seem to be out of shame. It implied that this was the first time in his short life that someone had complimented instead of scolding him for taking a stand against people much stronger than him.

"What's your name?" the young girl then asked, eager to know more about him.

"My name's Steven."

"Can I call you Steve?"

"Only my mom calls me — " he cleared his throat, embarrassed. His cheeks turned red. "You can call me Steve if you want to."

The young girl laughed, and for the first time in the boy's life, it wasn't at him. It was with him. The tall boy extended his hand forward towards the blonde boy, now known as Steve, and did an attempt to be formal but failed miserably due to his joking demeanor.

"I'm James, but everybody calls me Bucky," he presented, a smile on his lips. Even for a 13 year old, he was already confident in his own way.

The young girl frowned upon hearing the name, and blurted out. "Your name is Buchanan?"

"Got a problem with it?" he questioned, though he wasn't angry at the question. He had a playful tone in his voice and his toothy grin was visible. "Because I do."

The young girl and Steve laughed at his words, the sound of it bouncing back and forth between the walls of the alley. Bucky was placing all his attention now on the young girl, his hands on his pockets.

"And you, doll? What's your name?"

"(Y/N)," she then announced, nodding her head forward in greeting. Both young boys could already tell she had a strong demeanor, and they were curious to know more about her.

"Well, (Y/N)," Bucky declared, moving to the side to wrap his arm around the girl's shoulders. She had known him for no longer than ten minutes and she already knew he was up for no good. "We can't let our friend Steve alone with all these punks in the streets, can we?"

(Y/N) gave him a look, but the boy flashed a confident grin. "No, we can't."

"So, Steve," the attention was now on the blond boy, who couldn't help but wonder where he was going with this. "Would you let us become your new bodyguards?"

The question made Steve freeze in his spot. He wasn't one to make friends out of nowhere, so he was caught off guard by Bucky's words. However, a smile popped into his lips and he responded with an enthusiastic nod. This immediately made both (Y/N) and Bucky cheer.

Bucky carefully pulled Steve with his other arm, wrapping it around the boy's shoulders just like he did with (Y/N). They entered as strangers and left the alley as friends, muttering amongst themselves over shared interest or the newest picture in cinema, already creating an unbreakable bond.

And the rest was history. . .