"What's this?" Bucky asked in his usual monotone voice.

"It's a present, of course," Tony replied, grinning from ear to ear, while shoving a small packet into the assassins hands. In contrast to Barnes he could barely contain his excitement.

"For you," Steve added a little uneasy as if he wasn't sure that this was actually a good idea. He smiled nonetheless.

"From all of us," Natasha cut in.

"To welcome you, friend," Thor said into the uncomfortable silence which had followed, without batting an eye. Who needs a hammer that holds the strength of the universe when you have the ability to conquer awkwardness with the power of coherent speech?

"We hope you like it," came it calmly from Bruce.

For a moment, Bucky seemed confused, uncertain of what to do - of what was expected from him.

"...Thanks," he tested the word in his mouth. It felt foreign. Most of them did.

He looked at Steve for confirmation and got a small encouraging nod in return.

"Open it!" Clint laughed good-natured and patted him friendly on the back. Bucky flinched involuntary at the touch, but stood his ground. Progress.

"If you want to," Steve softened the order, even if it wasn't intended to be one in the first place. Bucky obeyed anyway. He removed systematically the teddy-bear gift wrap with a calculated precision he always used these days and revealed a book. It was covert in even more bears. A photo album the Asset identified the object.

"I admit it's a little old-fashioned. I was going for a holographic projector instead, but Steve insisted so..."

Bucky ignored Tony's chatter and flipped the book carefully open. Lost in his mind he let his fingers gently wander over the empty, white pages.

"We thought it would be nice, ahem to make some memories of your own. You know taking pictures and stuff...," Tony rambled on, getting a bit nervous from Bucky's reaction, or rather lack of it.

Bucky didn't reply and tension started to grow as the silence stretched on.

"Good lord, Stark would you stop this! Seriously how old are you? Eight?" Natasha elbowed the genius/ billionaire/ playboy/ philanthropist/ and most of all man-child into his side and finally stopped him from swinging up and down on his heels. Tony was never good at dealing with a) silence and b) waiting. And in his defense he had coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Coffee was good. Coffee was safe.

"Oi!" said genius exclaimed pseudo scandalized. "Like the title, though," he winked.

Natasha rolled her eyes in annoyance and just like that the little group was back to normal, with all their bickering and friendly teasing.

"Thanks", Bucky said again with more confidence this time.

Steve smiled and let alone therefore the team effort was worth it. Mission accomplished.

.

.

.

They hadn't actually said 'welcome home', that would have been a little too much, but to Steve it damn well felt like it anyway. Still he wasn't sure that this was a good idea. It remained to be seen.

A/N:

awwww it feels good to finally be able to write something, even if it's embarrassingly short. I have the worst writers block ever. So here is my new obsession: Captain America and the Avengers

I hope you like it so far. It has been a long time since I wrote something and english isn't my native language ;)

All chapters with NOW in the title are after Steve found WinterSoldier!Bucky and all chapters with THEN in the title are pre-WinterSoldier!Bucky

Anyhow, if you find any mistakes, something that doesn't make sense, sounds weird or if you have some questions or plot ideas please let me know! I want to improve my writing and I am open for any help I can get ;)

Reviews are awesome! And so are you!