Bucky was quietly watching Steve, Peggy and the rest of the Commandos gleefully sort through the new gear Howard Stark had brought them to field-test when the man himself appeared beside him.
“Aren’t you gonna grab something, Barnes?” he asked. They both slouched against the dilapidated wall of the French house they were sheltered in. Bucky shrugged in answer. The special weapons seemed superfluous next to his sniper rifle. There was something odd about what Stark said, though.
“Hey, I never asked you, but what temple in New York does your family go to?” Stark asked. When Bucky didn’t answer, he kept questioning. “I’ve been trying to figure out if we know each other,” Oh. That’s what was strange. Stark wasn’t speaking in English. It’d been a long time since Bucky had heard someone speak Yiddish, but it was still the language he had grown up speaking at home. His parents, immigrants from the Pale of Settlement, had never really become fluent in English.
“I doubt you and I went to the same temple, Stark. What kind of Jewish name is Stark anyway?” he countered, hiding his surprise. How had he not noticed what was in retrospect obvious?
“You didn’t even know I was Jewish, Barnes. You know what they say about assumptions,” Stark grinned broadly. “And it is actually a Jewish name, though I think it wasn’t always spelled the same. Dad definitely would’ve changed it if our name sounded more Jewish. You can’t say anything about Jewish names anyway. James Buchanan Barnes?”
“Kahal Adath Jeshurun, and the dumbass at Ellis Island decided he’d seen too many Berkowitzes and wanted to change things up,” was the terse reply.
Now that he was paying attention, Stark kind of reminded him of his cousin Samuel, though obviously Howard had been more successful with achieving fame. The boisterous personalities and waving hands were eerily similar, however. His rapid-fire Yiddish was comforting in a way, a bit of the home he doubted he’d ever see again.
“Oh, I’ve got it! Are you related to Leyb and Ruth Barnes? They’re neighbors to my mom’s cousin. She’s always saying they’re a good family, though it’s a shame they only have the one kid. Cousin Feyge always has to tell us all about what’s happening in the lives of every person in her tenement when she visits, but I doubt half of it is true,” Stark kept talking to Bucky. Bucky looked at him in surprise.
“Wait, is your father the Avraham Stark who sold apples for cheap at Rosh Hashanah? My ma always goes to him, I think she has a thing for the poor man,” Bucky connected in astonishment. The fruit seller was by no means a rich man, but Howard Stark was the wealthiest person he’d ever met. Reconciling the image of the ridiculous man behind flying cars with Avraham the fruit seller from his childhood was difficult. He had always talked about his genius son to anyone who stopped at the stand, though.
The two men were smiling at each other, happy at making a connection neither had realized they had missed. The familiar language was comforting so far from home.
“Yeah, that’s my pops. The old man never did shut up about how well I was doing in school. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of New York knew my grades. When I got accepted to CCNY he practically took an ad out in the papers,” Stark laughed.
“You know what, I heard a kid from the neighborhood was going there! I was awful jealous because I wanted to go as well, but it never did happen. My parents talked about it for months, you bastard!” Bucky was laughing too by this point, happy at memories from home. “It was ‘Avraham’s boy’ this and ‘Avraham’s boy’ that!”
“Well, clearly Avraham’s boy is all he’s cracked up to be, Barnes! You should listen to your parents. Really though,” Stark’s expression got more serious, “you ever need to get away from the goyim, let me know. You and I can gossip about the old neighborhood like our mamas taught us.”
Bucky smiled in return. He had felt cold inside ever since Steve had rescued him from the Hydra facility, but speaking his mother tongue with Stark had warmed him for a bit. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about Howard Stark as a man, but he realized how much he’d missed the feeling of community. Bucky grinned and started to ask Howard about how his parents were doing.