"Long story short, we know where the girl is. I'm sending you two to get her since this was your mission originally but you're gonna need help," She jumped up and sat on the desk. "Which is why they are coming with you." She continued, "They have joined up on missions before and work tremendously well together..." Janet got a couple of weird glances from the group. "Sort of."

—————————

"Oh god." Bucky sighed.

"Anyway!" Janet started again after a brief moment of silence for Bucky's sanity, "It's going to be a dangerous mission so we are taking a bit of extra time planning out the details. I advise that you all get to know one another now so you can sort out whatever grievances arise before you have to rely on each other to stay alive." She hopped off of the desk she had been sitting on, "I will contact you all when the debrief is ready. If you have any questions please let me know and I'll see what I can do." She left the room without another word.

Bucky looked up tapping his foot as he watched her leave. "You okay?" Sam asked putting a hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"I need to talk to her. You're coming with." Bucky grabbed Sam's hand without thinking and dragged him out to the hall.

They caught up with her in the halls of the Science Department. "Janet?" Bucky reached a hand out as to stop her.

"Yes?"

"Can we talk real quick?" Bucky fiddled with Sam's fingers before realizing and dropping his hand.

Janet's brows furrowed, "Of course. My office?"

Bucky nodded.

Sam followed him into her office and sat down next to him. "What is this about?" He whispered into Bucky's ear. The latter just shook his head.

Bucky hesitated before starting, "I told Sam some of this but I haven't told you." Bucky grabbed Sam's hand under the table. Sam looked at him like he was about to ask a question, so Bucky gripped his hand tighter.

Bucky took a deep breath to level his voice. Saying he was nervous is an understatement. "Back at the Hydra base, where we first met the girl, I panicked. I knew her. She was familiar and I panicked. It was like seeing Steve all over again." Sam and Janet sat patiently, listening intently. He took another breath. "I didn't remember anything about her for a while. Then one day everything came back to me. All at once." Bucky shifted in his chair. "Her name is Marie. She was the only child Winter Soldier. She was the only one that survived. Something in her reminded me of my own sister. So whenever I could, whenever I would remember, I would go down to her cell and sit with her. She's was so young. So strong, too strong. We need to find her." Sam rubbed his thumb on the back of Bucky's hand.

"That is very important information Mr. Barnes. Thank you for letting me know." Janet said softly.

Bucky nodded after collecting himself and followed Sam out of the room. The boys headed back home for lunch and a movie or two to help Bucky calm down.

———————-

After they finished their third Disney movie they headed to the kitchen for more popcorn.

"You're a liar you know." Bucky said as he jumped up to sit on the counter.

He held the bowl while Sam poured some popcorn from the ginormous bag stored in their pantry.

"What makes you say that?" Sam's brow quirked. He took the bag and put it back in the pantry.

"You told me that Frozen was the best Disney movie."

"Yeah?" Sam walked back over to the counter.

"It's not." Bucky shrugged, grabbing a handful of popcorn out of the bowl and throwing it into his mouth.

"And which one is?" Sam asked.

"Tangled." Bucky said matter-of-factly.

"Hm." Sam took some popcorn from the bowl. "What makes you say that?"

"She uses a frying pan as a weapon."

"Valid point." Sam nodded. "I guess Tangled is the best Disney movie now."

———————

A little while later they were both bombarded with texts.

Danny: Hi guys!! I made this gc so we can talk and get to know each other better!

Meg A: how did you get my number?

Danny: Janet gave it to me!

Meg A: of course she did 😒

Louie: Hi Danny. The gc was a great idea!

Meg A: don't encourage him Lou

Andrew: why is my phone blowing up?

Danny: Idk. Is your refrigerator running?

Andrew: ...

John: hi all! What's happening?

Danny: I made a gc for us!

John: oh okay

John: I'm muting this chat. Call me if u need to

——————

Sam and Bucky gave each other a look before they both started typing.

——————

Bucky: Hello.

Sam: Hi guys!

Louie: Hi Bucky, hi Sam

Meg A: i need a drink if we're gonna do this

Danny: oh! Good idea Meg

Danny: we should go out for drinks!

Andrew: I'm in.

John: we're getting drinks?

Danny: yeah keep up John

Sam: fine with me

Louie: I'm down

Meg: where are we going?

Danny: I know a place. I'll text the address :)

Bucky: Sounds good.

———————————

Everyone made it to the bar around the same time. They all sat down at the barstools and ordered various drinks.

An hour later, multiple shots had gone around and it was starting to show.

"Everyone here is drunk except for you Bunky! What's up with that?" Danny slurs, bumping Bucky on the shoulder. Bucky looks down at the shorter man and laughs at the mispronunciation of his name.

"I can't get drunk because of the serum."

"That stinks." Danny says sadly.

They continued to talk about different things, constantly changing topics. Eventually they started talking about queer identities in media, which led Louie to ask a question.

"Wait, how many of us are queer?" Louie asked.

They were sitting at a round table with a big basket of steak fries in the middle. "I'm ace" John spoke up after a moment.

"I'm bi." Andrew followed, grabbing a couple fries.

"I'm trans, but you know that already." Danny added.

"I'm pan" Louie said after she ate some of the fries in her hand.

"I'm lesbian and I use she/they pronouns, but like Danny said, y'all knew that already." Meg stole some fries from Louie's hand.

Sam looked over at Bucky. Bucky gave a little nod. "Bucky's my boyfriend."

Bucky looked over at him a little surprised that Sam called him his boyfriend. Surprised, but happy.

"Woah the 1930's dinosaur has a boyfriend? How long have you been together?" Danny asked.

"A few months. It just works." Bucky looked over to Sam, "right?"

"Yeah. It works." Sam smiled.