Winter (A Bucky Barnes recovery story)

13. Falcon

Bucky was in the hospital for less than a week. He remained on edge the entire time. When he was released he was absolutely enthused. He'd been home for three days when Steve invited them for lunch.

They were all eating lunch at Steve's place when Steve got a call. He picked up the phone and was greeted by Sam.

"Steve, where've you been." Sam says.

"I've been busy. You?" he replies.

"I've been good. Do you think you could do coffee tomorrow?" he asks, hopefully.

"Why not Sam. I'll see you tomorrow then." Steve replies, Nat turns in her chair and says.

"Tell him I said hi." Steve nods and relays Nats message.

"Nat says hi."

"Well tell her I say hi back. So tomorrow." Sam replies.

"Sounds good. See you then. Bye."

"Bye." Sam hangs up and Steve does the same.

"That was Sam. I'm going for coffee with him tomorrow. You wanna come Buck?" Steve says, sitting back down at the table. Bucky looks up.

"Well I don't want to intrude." he replies quietly.

"You wouldn't be. I've been meaning for you to meet Sam. It'll be fun." Steve replies nudging him.

"Okay. I guess." He replies, taking another large bite of his BLT. Nat smiles.

"Well lunch was good. But I've got to go. I promised Clint I'd visit him today. So I've got to go but I'll see you tomorrow?" she says, standing and putting her dishes in the sink.

"Bye." Steve and Bucky say simultaneously. She waves and then leaves.

"Well I'm gonna go home." Bucky says standing.

"Well thank you for coming over." Steve replies, standing as well.

"Thank you for lunch."

"Your welcome. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yep, bye." Bucky says, stepping outside the door.

"Bye." Steve replies, and waves as Bucky walks away. He then shuts the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve wakes up gets dressed, he hangs around his house for a while then walks over to Bucky's apartment, he knocks on the door. He hears shuffling, a thud then muddled curses. Bucky opens the door looking disheveled.

"Morning Buck." Steve says, Bucky yawns and lets Steve in.

"I'll go get dressed." He stretches then walks into his bedroom. He returns wearing a pair of black jeans and a long sleeve grey shirt, his hair pulled back in his usual ponytail.

"Sleeping in this morning? It's nearly noon." Steve says, Bucky yawns and stretches again.

"Rough night." He replies shrugging.

"Are you ready?" Steve asks, Bucky nods. He follows Steve out, and they walk to the cafe.

"What did you walk into?" Steve asks a short while into their walk.

"That stupid end table." Bucky replies, he looks up at Steve.

"Well that was a smart move. Were you still asleep?" he asks, looking at Bucky then continuing to walk.

"Half asleep, yeah. I fell asleep on the couch this morning." He replies, pulling his hood up as it began to rain.

"This morning? How late were you up last night?" Steve says, pulling his hood up as well.

"Six or seven." He shrugs, and opens the door.

"Thanks," Steve steps inside and pulls his hood off. Bucky steps in and does the same. Sam spots Steve and stands up and walks over to him.

"Steve. It's so good to see you." Sam says causally, pulling him into a hug.

"I can say the same." Steve replies, they pull away from their embrace and Steve steps sideways to get out of Bucky's way. "Sam this is Bucky. Bucky, this is Sam."

"Hey." Sam says, putting out his hand.

"Hi." Bucky replies quietly, shaking the extended hand.

"Come on. Let's go sit." Sam says leading them to the booth he was sitting in. Sam sits across from Bucky and Steve and then a waitress comes to their table.

"What would you guys like?" she asks cheerfully, her notepad in one hand and a pencil in the other.

"Coffee please," Sam says, giving the waitress a smile.

"Same. Thank you." Steve says, then he looks at Bucky.

"Yeah um, I'll do the same. Thanks." Bucky says, then goes back to playing with a spoon.

"That's it?" she asks, Sam and Steve nod and she walks away.

"Steve's told me a lot about you." Sam says to Bucky.

"He has?" Bucky replies, looking up in surprise.

"Yeah. He never shuts up about how great a guy you are." Sam continues and Steve blushes.

"Well is that true now Stevie?" Bucky says, grinning at Steve's embarrassment.

"Since when have you started calling me Stevie?" he replies, Bucky shrugs.

"Fine. Shrimpy it is." Bucky replies, Sam snorts and Steve buries his face.

"I think that's worse." He mumbles, Bucky starts to laugh along with Sam. The waitress comes with the coffees and looks at the group then sets the cups down and walks away.

"It's okay, there's worse." Bucky says, struggling to catch his breath.

"Are you guys done yet." Steve asks, continuing to bury his face. They nod.

"I think I'm good." Bucky replies.

"Yep. Man your funny, I haven't seen Steve embarrassed like this before." Sam says, looking at Bucky.

"It's my specialty. Right punk?" Bucky gives Steve's shoulder a nudge. Steve looks up at him.

"Jerk." he mutters, a goofy grin spreading across his face.

"Steve so I was actually hoping to ask you if you guys wanted to come for Christmas dinner?" Sam says, grinning and then sipping his coffee.

"Well I think that sounds good. We don't have plans." Steve replies, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Well good. So you, Bucky and Nat?" Sam replies, Steve nods.

"Yeah. Sounds good. We'll probably be seeing her this afternoon." Steve replies. Bucky takes a sip of his coffee, listening to them.

"Good. You've been keeping busy? With S.H.I.E.L.D. No longer existing and all," Sam says.

"Well I was busy looking for Bucky and then now we've found him and we've been hanging out," Steve pauses and looks at Bucky, not sure where to go with his sentence. Bucky takes another sip of his coffee, not looking up.

"So Bucky, how are you adjusting to things?" Sam asks, Bucky looks up.

"It's different. I've not quite adjusted yet." He replies, Sam nods.

"Yeah, I'd bet it's an adjustment." Sam replies. "What's been your favorite thing?"

"Uhm, I don't know. It's all really nice." He says, he hadn't really thought of this, it was all nice compared to how Hydra treated him.

They talked for another hour and they all had a great time and then they parted ways.