She's always been a bit of a tomboy. Ever since she can remember, she's been wearing pants and running around with the boys. Her mother hates it, but Jane Barnes simply doesn't care. She will play with the boys if she wants to. It's not like she is small and delicate either, she has what her dad calls "big bones", whatever that means.
She meets Steve when she is six years old, and he's getting picked on because of how small he is. She doesn't like it when people get picked on, so of course she stomps over to the corner of the playground the bullies have cornered him in. "Hey!" she yells, and they turn to look at her for a moment before they turn back to the smaller boy. She grits her teeth, plain tired of people ignoring her because she's a girl, and yanks one of the three boys away from the victim. "Leave him alone!" she says, and punches him in the face.
She has to admit, it feels good. So when the other two get up and turn to face her, she punches them both as well. Soon she is in the middle of a three-way fight, and she thinks she's doing okay. The first boy, who's the smallest of the three, is on the ground nursing a black eye before long, and she's feeling pretty good about herself, until she gets socked in the chin and goes straight down. The bullies stomp away, no longer interested in her or their original target, and she picks herself up slowly, turning to see the scrawny blond kid staring at her. She coughs. "What?"
"Uh..." he says, and she rolls her eyes. "Thanks, I guess."
She hauls herself to her feet. "You're welcome." She holds out a hand to help him up. "What's your name?"
"Steve," he gasps, grabbing her hand. She pulls him up without much trouble; he isn't very heavy. "My name's Steve Rogers."
"Hello, Steve Rogers," she says, "I'm Jane Barnes."
He eyes her skeptically. "You don't look like a Jane."
She shrugs. "I don't like it."
"What do you like?"
She pauses. She's never really thought about it before. What does she like to be called? Her mother calls her Jane, and her dad calls her Jan, and the boys she plays with call her Barnes. "I don't know."
"What's your middle name?" he asks, shifting awkwardly. They're just standing there, and it feels odd, so she grabs his hand and leads him to a bench.
"It's Buchanan," she makes a face and sits, patting the spot next to her so he'll sit down.
He does, frowning. "How 'bout Bucky?" He doesn't even comment on how strange it is for a girl's middle name to be Buchanan.
She nods sagely. "I like it." she says, and he smiles at her. "Hi Bucky." he says, and she giggles a little. She can tell already that they'll be friends.
Bucky has been Steve's best friend from the day they met, Sometimes she feels like most of their friendship is her protecting him, but if she's honest, she doesn't really mind. She doesn't mind wading in the middle of fights that aren't really fights because Steve is so tiny, she doesn't mind helping him up and taking him to get his bloody noses bandaged. She doesn't know why she doesn't mind, she just doesn't. She knows the only reason Steve gets beat up every other day is because he can't back down from a fight, it isn't in his nature. And most of the time, he has a good reason for getting into fights. So no, Bucky doesn't mind.
She is eleven when she cuts her hair short. She has figured out that people tend not to take her seriously when she's got curly brown hair down past her shoulders, so she steals a pair of scissors and she cuts it all off, short as a boy's, on her own. She has to admit, it doesn't look very good, but it's too late now to change it.
When she goes home that day, her mother lets out a shriek that could raise the dead, and Bucky claps her hand over her ears so her eardrums don't burst. Then her mother is rushing over to her, exclaiming, "What did you do to your hair?"
Bucky pushes her hands away and says grumpily, "I cut it." She likes it, too. It is as short as Steve's now, and it's in no real style, but she likes it. Maybe next time she needs it cut she'll let someone else do it, though.
"Why?" Mother demands, and Bucky can't tell if that's hurt or anger in her eyes. So she shrugs and says, "Because I wanted to." And that's all the explanation they're getting out of her, and her mother knows it, because she sighs and turns away, calling for Bucky's dad so he can fix the mess Bucky has made of her hair.
By the time she's thirteen, Bucky thinks most people have forgotten she is not actually a boy. She keeps her hair short; sometimes Steve cuts it for her, sometimes her dad. Either way, it looks much better now than when she did it herself. No one calls her Jane anymore, except her mother, who is determined that one day she'll decide to be a lady. It is almost like it's not her name. It's always Bucky. And to be honest, she likes it that way.
She and Steve are inseparable. They go everywhere together, and Steve spends the night at Bucky's house a lot, and despite how much her mother thinks it's strange, they are best friends and nothing will change that, no ma'am. Not Bucky's mother, not the bullies and boys who think she should talk to other girls instead of pretending to be a boy (which she doesn't, she just doesn't act like a girl, that's all), not the girls who give her weird looks when she walks by with Steve and then whisper behind their hands and she knows it's about her, but she just wraps her arm around Steve and keeps on walking.
Sometimes he asks what they say, and she tells him it doesn't matter, that they don't matter, and she punches him gently on the shoulder and rubs his blond hair. He smiles at her, and she laughs loud. Steve can make her laugh like no one else. And when she laughs, he laughs too. She likes it when he laughs. It makes her feel like everything is all right, it's all gonna be just fine, even if it is not. Even if it will never be fine.
That year Steve catches pneumonia.
She goes over to his house every day after school and looks after him. Mrs. Rogers smiles every time she sees Bucky at the door, and she opens it wide, letting Bucky run to the bed where Steve lays. She sits at his side and she reads to him, she tells him stories that she's made up (and he tells her that they're good, that she could do this for her whole life, but she doesn't think so), she tells him about her day. He insists that she bring him their schoolwork, so she does, anything to make Steve feel better. That's when she first realizes that she will do anything for Steve Rogers. Anything.
The pneumonia doesn't get any better, only worse, and Bucky worries nonstop. Her grades slip, and she can't concentrate in class. She spends every moment she can at Steve's side. When she's not with him, she worries even more. Her parents are anxious, but they know that keeping her from Steve will only make it worse, so they let her go over to his house. Her mother talks to Mrs. Rogers while Bucky reads to Steve from books that are too complicated for her to understand.
Steve was weak already weak before the pneumonia, but now he is even weaker. He coughs a lot, and he's so pale. He doesn't speak much, just lets Bucky do all the talking. But as the weeks go on, she doesn't have so much to talk about. She's run out of books to read to him, and her mother won't take her to the library for more. She doesn't know it, but she is just as pale as Steve is, just as shakey. Her mother starts limiting the time she spends at Steve's, hoping that being apart will force Bucky to be normal. It doesn't, but there's nothing she can do about it.
It's months before Steve recovers, and that's after he gives everyone a scare. His mother was afraid he would die, and so was Bucky. The day he is well enough to sit up and talk, Bucky goes over to see him as soon as she can. He's propped up against his pillows, a newspaper spread on his lap. He smiles a little as Bucky comes in, and she finds that she has to restrain herself from running to hug him. Instead she smiles at him. "Hi Steve." she says. Steve smiles back.
"Hi Bucky."
So this happened.
This is not connected to Flower of Poison or the Danger series as a whole, it is it's own little pile of weirdness. This version of Bucky has been living in my head for a while. So, anyway, I hope you liked it!