wintertime festivities
where is the love, the kind we dream of?
the kind that makes us young
- chaos chaos, "do you feel it?"
8.
"Hey, Sam," Steve says cheerfully from where he's standing on a stool. As a member of the art committee, he's stringing red and green Christmas lights along the hallways of the SHIELD science building. "Bucky's helping me put these up."
"I was looking for you guys," Sam says with a quirk of the mouth. "Figured Bucky would be here with you too. Actually, I just wanna see the arm again."
Bucky hops down from the stool positioned next to Steve's and holds his prosthetic arm out. It gleams in the overhead lighting, sleek and modern. Sam grins. "So it wasn't just my memory embellishing things. It really is awesome."
"It's pretty amazin'," Bucky agrees with a relaxed nod. "I owe Bruce my life."
Sam just shakes his head, looking troubled for a moment. "Lewis gave me the full rundown of what happened to your old arm today. That girl's a real gossip, but apparently she was at the fight. Remember, if you need an ear, I'm here. All of us are. That must've been rough."
"Yeah." Bucky clears his throat, ignoring how Steve's suddenly turned and is intensely gazing at him. "It's fine now. I'm peachy, Wilson."
Sam shoots him a fond look and then picks up more of the lights. "I've got nothing better to do, so I'll help, if you guys are cool with it."
"We do need some help," Steve says from above with a wry grin on his face. "Darcy says I've got to get this done by 4:30."
"Darcy's not an art person," Sam says, laughing as he grabs another stool and climbs up onto it. "She's ordering you around?"
"Head of the holiday committee, apparently," Bucky says with a snort. "So yeah, she's been telling Stevie what to do."
"Hey, are you guys excited for Christmas?" Steve says suddenly, his face splitting into a happy grin. He looks like a kid who's just been told the tooth fairy's left a hundred bucks.
"Course," Bucky says, grinning at his best friend. After he lost the arm - after his parents died - he'd moved in with Steve and his sweet but no-bullshit mother, Sarah. He misses his pops and ma, of course he does, but by god he's grateful that Sarah decided to take him in. And, well, Steve's always been there for him. It's reassuring that he's at least with the guy he considers his brother rather than some foster home or orphanage.
"Are you going with us this year?" Steve says to Sam, but he's teasing. Ever since seventh grade, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, Thor, and Bruce have gone to Steve's for winter break. Sam is invited every time, but he's got his mother and kid siblings waiting for him at home and always declines.
"Nah, Mom misses me," Sam says with a soft smile. He pins up another string of lights as he speaks. "And I miss her too. Text me though, tell me how things are going."
"Yeah, of course," Steve says, and hops off the stool. "What about you, Buck? Have you decided to come?"
"Shut up," Bucky grumbles but without heat. Sam laughs at him as he makes a face at the blond.
"D'you think Thor will ever bring Loki over?" Sam says abruptly. "Haven't heard much about him."
Loki's Thor's younger brother, an angry emo thirteen year old who seems to want as much to do with Thor as a deer does a tiger. Whenever Steve, or Bucky, or anyone else asks about him, Thor's face just goes all funny and he says, "Loki... Loki stays at home during break, but he doesn't really talk to us." No one probes, but Thor hadn't come over during break until just last year. He'd said with a dull sad smile that Loki doesn't want him around, so against his parents' cajoling he had decided to respect his brother's wish. So, now he goes to Steve's with the rest of the gang.
"Probably not," Steve says with a deep frown. "I don't like how Thor gets really upset over Loki. Last Christmas he looked kind of tense the whole time."
"Hopefully this year goes better," Bucky says, heading down the hall with red and green trailing from his fingers. "Sam, get down here and come help."
Suddenly, the door to the advanced lab swings open and Tony Stark bursts out, lips parted and dark hair a shaggy mess. He blinks and looks around for a moment, almost like he doesn't recognize anybody in the hallway, before his eyes widen. "Oh, uh, Barnes."
"Stark," Bucky replies, immediately tense. "What're you doing here?"
"Um, I use the lab a lot." Tony sticks his thumb out at the door, which has just shut next to him. "Sorry," he adds hastily.
"Sorry," Bucky repeats. He senses Sam looking concernedly at him, and he's sure Steve's stopped to watch too.
"About being here," Tony clarifies, and then adds, "and - and the arm. I really - I, I freaked. I shouldn't have - I -" His eyes dart to Bucky's arm and something indecipherable flashes through his gaze. "It's good you have a new one. Um. I swear to god, Barnes, I'm so, so sorry. I know I said it before, but I thought - I needed to tell you."
Bucky grunts, then moves past. He has these stupid LED lights to hang up, after all.
"Do you, um, need a hand?" Tony says quickly from behind him. For such a typically-smooth talker, he's stuttering an awful lot. "With those lights?"
"You took one hand away from me already," Bucky says, rolling his eyes as Sam steps protectively to his side. "So no, I think I'm good."
He can hear Tony's audible swallow before the boy mumbles "okay, sorry" and takes off down the hall. He can bet his buttons that Steve's glaring the guy down right now.
"You alright, man?" Sam says, his dark eyes focusing on his friend's.
"Fuckin' peachy, like I said." Bucky side-eyes Sam. "Now help me get this shit on the wall before Darcy kicks both our asses."
"What ass?" Sam snorts, and Bucky lunges at him and jabs him in the side. "Hey, asshole!"
Soon enough, they're tumbling all over in the halls and Steve's there too, trying to pull them apart and howling with laughter when Sam wraps his arms around Steve's legs and pulls him down too.
"Fuck, I can't wait for Christmas," Bucky moans as they all flop onto their backs, finally exhausted.
"Yeah, Buck," Steve says with a faint smile from next to him, and nearly wiggles with excitement - that boy is heaps of enthusiasm about things he likes, Bucky swears. "Can't wait to be home with the family again."
"Yeah, family," Bucky says, and pokes Sam in the ribs. "Wilson, you're an annoyin' shithead but you're part of it too. Even if you don't love us enough to come home with us."
Sam rolls his eyes and says drily, "Man, it makes sense you're family. Now we know why you ain't got the good genes - it musta all gone to Steve."
"Shut up," Bucky says, and ignores Steve's outright manful giggling.
"Bruce is coming, right?" Steve says. his blue eyes shine in the bright hallway. "He's got a wonderful new foster parent, Betty Ross I think, and he's always talking about how sweet she is and that dog named Hulk. I'm real glad he's, you know, got a good woman to care for him over the summer. But is he staying home with her?"
"Nah," Bucky answers. He runs his right hand over the smooth silver panels of his metal arm. "He says Betty understands why he needs to come over during winter break. And she's apparently got some adorable divorcee she's been seeing, so she's thinking about staying at his place this Christmas."
"That's sweet," Sam comments.
"Mm," Bucky agrees. He thinks back to when he'd first met Bruce in eighth grade - he was flighty and twitchy as hell, never said a word but always managed to mumble the right answer when called on in class. In fact, it wasn't till a guy pushed him too far that everyone got a taste of what the inner Bruce was, is, like - tense, and so very very angry. The anger is a result of his father killing his mom when he was four; Bruce may not remember his parents much at all, but he certainly can't forget getting shuttled around to countless foster homes and living in orphanages all around New York's west side.
Natasha, Natasha and Clint on the other hand are different. He'd run into Natasha before at the orphanage he went to; this is all before Steve and Sarah caught wind of the crash and came to pick him up. He knows a bit of her story - dead parents, adopted by some creepy Russian military guy. Then one day, Natasha showed up on the orphanage's doorstep and claimed he disappeared. There are things, many things he doesn't know, like why she quit ballet or how her caretaker just up and pulled a "gone with the wind." He isn't sure if he wants to know.
Clint's a more straightforward case, but there are still puzzling gaps in his history too. Grew up in the circus, parents died when he was young, lived with his brother Barney on the streets until Barney was jailed and he was picked up and sent to foster care. That is, up until Phil Coulson took him in and introduced him to Natasha herself, Phil's new foster daughter. The funniest thing is that Coulson's a counselor slash teacher here at SHIELD High; Natasha and Clint are both here on scholarship because of him.
"Buck," Steve says again, and Bucky blinks and realizes Steve and Sam have both been trying to get his attention for who knows how long.
"Sorry, drifted off," he says, sitting up as if the thoughts of his friends' pasts will just fall off his shoulders.
"As I was saying," Steve says with a fond smirk, "let's finish up the lights and then head over to Sam's room to order some pizza."
"Pietro's out tonight," Sam adds, referring to his Sokovian roommate. "Wants a 'twin night,' whatever that means."
"Fine by me," Bucky says, and climbs to his feet, pulling Sam up. "It's been a long time since I ate anything other than crap cafeteria food anyway."
"Pig," Sam calls as he heads down the hallway, thumbing up his nose to expose his nostrils.
"Shut up," Bucky shouts back, and gives him the middle finger. Then he turns back to the red and green lights and strips a nice long piece of tape to the wall. He blinks as he catches sight of the clock hanging from the wall near his hand. "Fuck, Stevie," he says, snickering. "It's four thirty. You're definitely screwed."