Til The End Of The Line [1]

Chapter 1

I was walking down the street with Bucky. He was wearing his uniform; it was his last day, and he would be leaving first thing in the morning. We were trying to find Steve to take him to the expo thing tonight. Not my idea of fun, but then again, my idea of fun was a double life and a shit ton of knives. I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard a loud crash from an alley. 'It's probably Steve getting thrown into some trash cans.. again,' I thought. Bucky and I turned the corner, and sure enough, I was right. After Bucky quickly beat the jerk, the guy turned to me. He gave me the absolute most hateful look, then again I was wearing pants and boots, instead of a dress. I punched him square in the nose, and he ran off holding it.
     Bucky heard the noise and turned to me, "The Hell was that?"
     "He was giving me a funny look," I replied shortly.
     "Maybe they wouldn't give you funny looks if you were wearing a dress," he commented.
    After Bucky threw away Steve's enlistment sheet, he showed him the newspaper article for the expo. He said some silly dramatic line, and I rolled my eyes. We took Steve home to get cleaned up. When we went inside, Bucky plopped himself down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He always did that when we argued. The whole way to Steve's house he had been trying to convince me to wear a dress to the expo.
     "It would make Steve happy," he argued as I sat down across from him,"for things to be like old times. Not him off getting in fights, and you off pummeling punching bags at the gym."
     "Fine," I agreed," but only this once."
Steve came back looking much better, though he still seemed down. We ran over to my apartment—I had moved out of our parents' place years ago. I ran in and changed. When I came back I was wearing a simple, dark blue dress with a long black coat, and some sleek, black leather gloves to match. I also curled my hair, and added some light makeup.
    "Come on," I said adjusting my skirt, feeling  rather uncomfortable,"don't want to be late."
     We arrived and Bucky found his and Steve's dates. I was glad to find that he didn't bring a date for me. I didn't dance, and I certainly didn't date. We went to see Howard Stark's floating car, it wasn't that cool. It would never work with the technology he was using. It was too bulky, and would weigh the car down, not to mention it short circuited. Bucky was so busy ogling over the car, that he didn't notice Steve slip away.  I followed him, and Bucky followed later. We found him standing in front of a wall where your face would appear as a soldier's. Bucky pulled him away, and they started arguing, so I tuned them out. After their conversation, Steve turned to me in question. He did that a lot, he would argue with Bucky, then turn to me for guidance.
     "Do what you want," I said,"it's your life."
     I stalked off to see if Dr. Erskine was around somewhere. I eventually found him, and it seemed he was looking for candidates for his program.
     "Ah, Miss Barnes," he waved to me,"anything I can help you with?"
     "If I were you," I said,"I'd go look at one Mr. Steven G. Rogers."
     With that, I left the expo. I was so done with social interaction, unlike my brother, who seemed to revel in it. I went back to my apartment to get ready for my next mission.