Avenge | Book 1

1943

I wake up to the lovely sight of Bucky trying to tie his tie in the mirror above the vanity. I laugh as he gives up.

"After all these years, still don't know how to tie a tie." I smirk as I sit up.

"Ha, ha, ha, Gracelyn." He turns around smirking with his tie untied. I give him a look, he knows I don't like to be called by my full name.

"Nice to see you up finally." He sits down on the bed.

"You got your orders?" I ask as I tie his tie, noticing the uniform.

"The 107th. Sergeant James Barnes." He smiles.

"When are they shipping you out?" I question as I finishing tying his tie.

"First thing tomorrow." He answers getting up, walking to the mirror to straighten out is tie.

"Really?" I say a little disappointed, standing up, walking towards the closet.

"Not happy?" He asks.

"I'm happy for you it's just..." I hesitate. "It's just so soon." I sigh.

"Well, I guess you and Carter trained me well." He smiles as he tucks in his tie under his coat.

"Yep, guess we did." I say faintly.

"Come here." He puts me in a big hug sensing that I'm sad. "We have a double date tonight though." Bucky tries to cheer me up as he lets go of the hug.

"Yeah, Steve will love that!" I say sarcastically.

"What you tell her?" He laughs.

"Only the good stuff." I smile.

"I'm going to go find Steve." Bucky say kissing me on the cheek. "Wonder where he is going to be getting beat up today." he takes a deep breath.

"Behind a coffee shop, on the streets, in the men's room. Oh maybe in a classic alley way." I joke.

"Funny thing is, you're probably right." He sighs. "Meet us at the expo. Love you." Bucky says walking out of the room.

"Love you too." I call after him.

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I grab a plain black, white collared dress that goes up to above my knees out of the closet. I don't really like the style of our time. Women are expected to be wearing dresses, skirts, heels, stuff like that. I want to wear pants. They're more comfortable, more practical.

I hop in the shower for about fifteen. I get out and get dressed, blow dry my bleach blonde hair and brush it, I leave it down because I have the patience to put my hair up today. I put my make up on, not that much.

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I meet my, not so close, friend in the lobby of Bucky and I's apartment building that we live in.

"Hey Carly." I greet her as I walk into the lobby.

"Hey." She says back. "Dress is a little short." She points out.

"Like I care." I scoff.

"You didn't do your hair either." She advised.

"Didn't want to." I take a deep breath. The thing is, Carly is one of my "friends", but she doesn't like or get the way I act or dress. When I wear dresses or skirts they go to my knee or above she questions me. But when I wear pants sometimes, she will not go out anywhere with me.

She sighs as we walk out the door onto the sidewalk.

"So, where are we going?" She asks as we walk.

"The Stark expo then dancing." I answer. "We're going to meet them outside the expo entrance."

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Steve is getting beat up in a alley way in between a movie theater and a shop for saying "Shut up" to a man who was complaining about the commercial of helping our country with war before a cartoon.

Steve gets punched so hard he falls over. He grabs the lid of the trash bin to use to block the hits, like a shield (Oh the irony). The guy just punches him and Steve fails over again. Getting up he puts his fists out to fight.

"You just don't know when to give up, do you?" The guy laughs.

"I can do this all day." Steve responds, breathing heavily with his fists up.

Steve throws a punch but the guy blocks it and punches him back to send him falling, again, knocking into a trash bin.

"Hey!" Bucky says as he grabs the guy's arm and throws him back so Bucky is between the two. "Pick on someone your own size."

The guy lunges at Bucky with his fists, but he dodges and punches him then literally kicks his ass. The guy stumbles off as Bucky walks back to Steve.

"Sometimes I think you like getting punched." Bucky jokes.

"I had them on the ropes." Steve stands up.

"How many times is this?" Bucky notices the enlistment form on the ground and picks it up. "You're from Paramus now?" He says skimming over it. "You know it's illegal to lie on the enlistment form... And seriously, Jersey?"

"You get your orders?" Steve asks as he looks at Bucky.

"The 107th." He answers, "Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out first thing tomorrow."

Steve drops his head, "I should be going."

Bucky smiles and nods as he grabs Steve's shoulder and puts his arm around him. "Come on." They start walking. "My last night! I got to get you cleaned up." He throws the enlistment form on the ground.

"Why? Where are we going?" Steve says as Bucky takes his arm off of him.

"The future." Bucky gives him a newspaper that has a picture of the Stark Expo headline.

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"I don't see what the problem is." Bucky says as they walk into the Stark Expo area. "You're about to be the last eligible man in New York." They talk as they go down some stairs.

"You know there's three and a half million women here?" Bucky says to Steve.

"Well, I'll settle for just one." Steve looks down at his feet while they walk.

"Good thing we took care of that." Bucky waves at Carly and I.

I wave back smiling.

"What'd Grace tell her about me?" Steve sighs.

"Only the good stuff." Bucky says as he walks towards us.

I give Steve and him a hug.

"So, Carly, this is my friend Steve, the one I was telling you about." I start introducing them to each other. "And this is my boyfriend, James, but we like to call him Bucky." They shake hands awkwardly.

"We should probably head in." Bucky says grabbing my hand and walking after a bit of awkward silence.

"You know Steve hates doing this right?" I whisper to him as Carly and Steve trail behind a bit.

"Yeah, but I just want him to find someone." He whispers back.

"He can find someone on his own, he's a grown man."

"But, I feel like I need to help him, he doesn't even know how to talk to women."

"He talks to me fine."

"Yeah, but he's known you for a long time."

"Yeah." I sigh as he grabs hold of my hand. Steve walks up by Bucky's side and Carly walks up by my side.

'This couldn't get anymore awkward' I think.

"It's starting!" Carly says excitedly pulling me towards the front row by stage which pulls Bucky because we are holding hands and Steve gets left behind.