A/N: So this was my way of procrastinating in class, and it was mainly based on the fact my friends don't think I write enough. I asked around the table I sit at and one of my guy friends suggested I write with a male character living under a female alias. I instantly imagined Steve as that (because I'd been watching 'Opposite Sex' clips, shush) character, and Soldierhusbands is one of my favorite pairings, so it was going to be Steve and Bucky definitely. Anyway, this is my pride and joy at the moment, so I hope you all like it!
It was tough adjusting to life in a new city, especially if you didn't act in a certain way that was expected. This was a definite problem for a boy by the name of Steven Rogers, who preferred to wear dresses and keep his hair at a longish length, as well as using the name "Stephanie" for everyday life. The one issue he had was that, at every school he had attended up until this point, his real name was called out in class, and since he had to reply to be marked as present, it usually ended up that he was mocked for being so "girly", even getting beat up by those who saw him as unnatural for the way he dressed. Hopefully, this time would be different.
Today, Steve was on his way to a meeting with the principal of his new school, to discuss the matter of his name on the system. He had braided his fair hair, and had chosen to wear a sundress with the design of the American flag printed onto it, along with a pair of scarlet pumps. He kept his head down, since he rarely ever chose to wear makeup, making it all the easier to see he was in fact a boy. He was so preoccupied with keeping his eyes on the ground that he jumped back slightly when he heard a voice call from behind.
"Hey, Stephanie!" Recognizing the voice as that of his friend Clint, he smiled warmly and turned to wave. When Clint finally caught up, he wiped the sweat from his brow and grinned foolishly. "So, Steph, where are you headed today? Somewhere fun? Or are you just taking a stroll?"
"Hey, Clint. I'm actually on my way to Shield High, any idea where that is?"
"That's my school, so yeah, I know where abouts it is. Are you starting there or something?" When Steve nodded in reply, Clint's face lit up. "I can't believe it! We were penpals for years, then you moved into my apartment block this summer. Now you're going to be going to the same high school as I am! Oh, you can meet my boyfriend too!"
"Boyfriend? I recall you saying you liked a Russian exchange student...Natasha, I think? What happened?"
"It's a long story, for another day I think," was Clint's reply. "Anywho, I'm late already, so do you wanna walk to the school with me?" Steve smiled and nodded, and linked his arm with Clint's. After a while of silence, Clint finally spoke up again. "Just a warning, Principal Fury's got a temper on him, so don't worry too much if he starts yelling at me. He doesn't like me much anyway, so I try to brush it off mostly."
A while later, the two had reached Shield High, and Clint had said goodbye, leaving Steve at the school office to wait for the principal to call him into his office. He took a seat in the waiting area, sighing and fiddling with his hair, trying not to let his anxiety get the best of him as it had in the past. He looked around him, seeing all the awards that had been won by various students, the most prominent being a large trophy, with the name of the student who had earned it engraved on a plaque beneath it. Steve then stood up and walked over to the case, seeing that the plaque read:
"James Buchanan Barnes
Awarded for his bravery and loyalty in military training"
A military award? Surely this James had left the school and donated his trophy so the school had something to display. When he heard a voice call his name, he turned away from the trophy case and walked into the principal's office. The principal was a man who, at first glance, seemed rather intimidating, all in black with an eyepatch over one of his eyes, but he was, in fact, somewhat mellow.
"Steven, take a seat," he ordered, and Steve, remembering Clint's mention of his temper, sat down almost instantly. "Now, you called in to arrange this meeting with me in the first place, in regards to the name we have for you on the system. Why is that?"
"You see, sir, I've never wanted to live as a boy. Yes, I want to join the military, but I've never felt comfortable referring to myself as a boy, and my parents knew that was the case, so when I started living as a girl, they tried to get my name changed to Stephanie on official records, but they were told it wasn't possible at the time. After they died, it was almost impossible to get the schools to listen to me, and when people found out my name was really Steven and not Stephanie...let's just say I ended up with a hell of a lot of bruises. I want my name- and if it's possible, my gender- changed on your system, so that I don't have to move again, because I literally have nowhere else to turn to in terms of schooling. Even if you just sent a mass email out to the staff telling them to disregard "Steven" and refer to me as Stephanie, that'd be better than nothing." Principal Fury sat in stoic silence, mulling over the boy's request. From what he had seen, from an academic point of view, the boy was extremely gifted, and would benefit from attending the school. He also knew that Steve was telling the truth about having nowhere else to turn to, as he knew the nearest school besides Shield High was two towns over, and that an orphan teenager without any form of transport would find it difficult to make it to school on time. He cleared his throat, having made his decision.
"I'll see what I can do about your name on the system- your gender too- but if that proves not to work, I'll take your suggestion and send out a mass email explaining your situation. Now, about your starting date..."
"Tomorrow's still perfectly fine, Principal Fury," Steve answered, relieved that, for once, he'd be able to stay at a school for more than a few months. He stood to leave, and shook Fury's hand gratefully.
"Rogers?" Fury called, just as the boy was leaving. "Tell your friend Barton I know he was late today." Steve gave a small laugh.
"I'll be sure to do that, sir," he replied, closing the door over behind him.
"So, your first day today, Steph? You nervous?"
"A little, but I'm sure it'll pass, so don't worry too much, Clint."
"I'm meant to worry, we're friends! Look, you'll be fine. You're a kind girl, but you know how to look after yourself as well. You don't have a thing to be worried about."
It was now the first day Steve would be attending his new school, and he had first day jitters, though Clint was doing his best to get his friend to think positively. A few blocks later, a boy with curly brown hair and hazel eyes met up with them, his arms full of school books. Clint sighed and took a few of the books from the boy's arms.
"Bruce, are you trying to break your arms again? Or are you aiming to break your back this time around?"
"It's not my fault Mr Coulson piles work onto me in massive amounts," the boy replied, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "And I never see you complain to Tony about it, and he gets the same workload as I do!"
"Don't get yourself worked up Bruce, I'm sure Loki wouldn't be too happy with me if I made his precious Banner angry." This earned Clint a scowl from Bruce, who held his head high.
"How many times do I have to tell you I'm precious to nobody?" While Bruce was venting off steam, Steve gently tapped Clint on the shoulder.
"Who exactly is Loki?" he whispered, since he didn't know who many people were around this area.
"Loki's an exchange student from Norway- he and his brother Thor both are- and Bruce here has the hots for him, big time," Clint explained, grinning when Bruce shot him an angry glare, though his cheeks were bright red. "Oh! I completely forgot to introduce you two! Steph, this is Bruce Banner, he's one of the brainboxes in our school. Bruce, this is Stephanie Rogers, an old penpal of mine who's starting at Shield as of today."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Stephanie. I'd shake your hand, but as you can see, that'd be kind of an impossible task at the current moment in time," Bruce said, a friendly smile on his face. Steve smiled back and nodded in his direction.
"It's nice to meet you too, Bruce. So, what's your strongest subject? I'm assuming whatever subject this Mr Coulson takes, judging by what you said to Clint before."
"Actually, no. Mr Coulson takes English- I'm good at it, but it's not my strongest subject. Nah, my strongest subject is probably physics, since I'm wanting to be an astrophysicist after I leave the school."
"Ah, alright. I'm not a big fan of physics myself, I prefer P.E, to be completely honest with you."
"Like Clint then? Though he only really tries when the teacher decides to take the class for archery. Any other type and he just doesn't try at all. You'll beat him no doubt, but you'd be crazy to try and beat Bucky Barnes; no-one's beat him yet, and I doubt anyone ever will."
"Bucky Barnes...?" Steve asked, confused.
"Oh right, you're not familiar with him. His real name is James Barnes, but he prefers Bucky." So James Barnes was still a student, yet he had a military award? This boy was on a whole new level of impressive, and for some strange reason, he was curious to meet him and ask about how he came to get the award in the first place. Just as he finished this thought, Bruce was speaking again. "I know what you're thinking, I can see it in your eyes, and I honestly wouldn't ask him about it. He just wants to forget about it all."
"What happened, that he wants to forget?" Bruce stopped walking and sighed, a "do you really want to know?" expression pained onto his face.
"Obviously you'll have seen the award at the school office he got, but you won't know why, and since Clint is clueless at the best of times, I'm left to explain it to you.
"Bucky used to go to military training every day after school, since he had a big obsession with the military, and also just so he had something to occupy his time after school, since he's never liked going home straight away. He enjoyed it as well, because he's always had this dream of being a soldier.
"They had a simulation thing at the end of each year, where all the kids proved whether they'd learnt enough to continue going there, and of course if they'd have a future in an army career when they were old enough.
"Bucky was one of the best at these simulations, setting a new record for how fast he completed it every time he took part in them. A lot of the other kids there looked up to him, and some of them asked him to train them up so they'd be able to continue going to their training. Even the instructors were in awe of just how naturally he seemed to complete these things, as if he'd done them a million times before.
"Then of course, one year, everything went wrong. Somebody had replaced the blanks in the guns they used in the simulations with real bullets, so if anyone got shot, it was real. Plus, the usual trained professionals they had operating the guns had went missing- they still are, the last I heard of it- and in their place was what Principal Fury thinks were agents for an organization called HYDRA, and since all the kids that attended this training were from Shield High, and were for the most part incredibly nimble, they saw them as a threat. Bucky was the first to get shot, so he did his best to get as many kids out of there as he could, even if some of them just thought he was trying to be a smartass,"
"Why would he want to forget that, though, if he saved them?"
"You didn't let me finish, Stephanie. He wants to forget it all because he lost one of his best friends that day- a guy called Steven, who didn't go to Shield High, but travelled from out of town just to attend training- and that broke him apart. He told us that he'd found Steven's dog tags covered in blood, and that he wasn't going back after that. Since Steven had died, he'd admitted he loved this little guy, and had he not died, he'd planned to ask him out at the end of the simulation...you look a little pale, Steph...are you alright?"
Steve was almost a ghostly white by this point. Of course, Bucky was the one boy who Steve had never minded being himself around all those years ago. It was due to Bucky that Steve had done his best to act in a more stereotypically masculine manner. As for that day, Steve had seen the empty boxes of bullets and had been so scared that he'd ripped his dog tags from around his neck and had thrown them to the ground. Now, he felt guilty that it was because of him that Bucky had given up on his military training, and he knew he had to make it right somehow. He took a deep breath and forced a smile before he answered Bruce.
"Yes, Bruce I'm fine. Thanks for being concerned about me, though." Clint was already far in front of them, and groaned when he saw how far back they were.
"C'mon, you two, I don't want to be late two days in a row!" he yelled, a slight whining tone to his voice. Steve's forced smile grew larger still, as they began walking again. He just hoped he wouldn't run into Bucky...not today at least...