April 3, 1940

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help noticing that you're in this art class."

Lucille looked up and saw two young men standing on the other side of her easel. One was tall and his rolled-up sleeves revealed the lean muscles of his arms. His dark hair was beautifully ruffled from the breezy day, and he stood before her, all grace and confidence; he'd been the one to address her. The other was much shorter than his friend, scrawny to the point that she almost felt bad for him, and his blond hair looked less naturally disheveled and more just plain messy. He didn't have the air of confidence his friend had, although the first had more than enough for the two of them. He also seemed to be giving her an apologetic look, as if to say "Sorry to bother you, this wasn't my idea; my friend's a bit of an idiot."

Lucille laid her pencil down on the edge of the easel and looked back up at the man who had spoken. "My, my, stellar marks for observation." Behind the man, his blond friend cracked a smile. The dark-haired man took her jibe in stride and flashed her a winning smile.

"I love a pretty doll with a sense of humor. The name's James Barnes, but you can call me Bucky." He bent into a half-bow and held out his hand.

Lucille raised her eyebrows, an amused smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "Lucille Hollis. Pleasure to meet you, James." She put her hand in his. Bucky touched his lips to her hand for the briefest of moments before straightening up again.

"Bucky, please, and the pleasure's all mine, I can assure you."

Making a show of looking around him, Lucille smiled, slipping her hand free of Bucky's, and gestured to his friend. "Won't you introduce your friend?"

Bucky looked momentarily confused, as if a girl had never asked to be introduced to his friend before. He recovered quickly, though, and stepped to the side, throwing an arm around his smaller friend to pull him forward. "This is Steve Rogers."

"Hello, Steve," Lucille said, shaking Steve's hand. "I saw your still life painting from last week. It was beautiful! You have a real talent for drawing."

"Oh, th-thank you very much," Steve stuttered, a faint blush coloring his cheeks at her compliment. "I really liked yours – your eye for color is really great."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucille could see Bucky looking between her and Steve as if he was witnessing something truly strange. She couldn't resist the urge to tease him a little more. Turning her full attention back to Steve, Lucille shook her head, smiling. "You are too kind, Steve. I'm afraid that was all pure luck! I can't wait until we get to the sculpting though. I've always wanted to try my hand at that."

"Me too," Steve admitted with a grin. "The last time I tried, though, my clay ended up all over the poor girl next to me. So you might want to pick a seat on the other side of the room."

Lucille laughed. "Well, Steve, I've never minded getting a little messy," she said, throwing a wink in too, to have a little fun with Bucky. Lucille couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about Steve that she immediately liked. As for his friend… it was the wink that nearly did him in. She saw Bucky's jaw drop and it took him several moments to pull himself back together.

"Well, Steve, I think we've taken up enough of Lucille's time, don't you think?" Bucky asked hurriedly, his smile having lost some of its dazzle. He tugged Steve back to their seats a few spots down from her and ducked behind his easel. Lucille could hear some not-quite-subtle whispering issuing from behind their canvases, some sounding hurt and some apologetic. She felt a little bad for teasing Bucky like that, but she turned back to her drawing for the rest of the class.

When the instructor dismissed the class, Lucille packed up and had nearly forgotten her encounter until Steve appeared next to her and cleared his throat. "What's up, Steve?" she asked, pulling her coat on.

"Ah, well, I was wondering – well, actually Bucky was – he, uh –"

Lucille smiled. "Not to worry, I'll handle it." She gave his arm a quick squeeze and a relieved smile spread over Steve's face. "See you later, Steve!" He waved as she hurried out of the room to catch Bucky. The man in question was already almost to the doors that led to the street. "James!" she called, dodging classmates. Bucky stopped and waited for her to catch up. "Thanks for waiting," she said a little breathlessly when she reached him, tucking a stray brunette lock behind her ear.

"What can I do for you, Lucille?" he asked, leaning back against the wall with an easy smile.

"Well, Steve said – tried to say, anyway – that you had wanted to ask me something."

"Yeah, but it wasn't important. Don't worry about it," he shrugged, waving a hand to flag Steve, who was coming down the hall.

"In that case, can I ask you something?" She waited until Bucky, looking perplexed, nodded. "There's a place a few blocks from here that's got a great band playing Friday night. If you're not busy, I was wondering if you would like to go dancing with me?"

The charming smile found its way back to Bucky's face. "Lucille Hollis, I would love to. Why don't you write down your address and I'll pick you up at eight?" He pulled a pen and a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and handed them to her.

She scribbled her address with a shaky hand, praying it was legible, and gave it to Bucky. "Well, James, I'll see you Friday night," she grinned, stepping out into the blustery afternoon. Before the doors closed behind her, she heard him call out.

"What's wrong with 'Bucky'?"

-0-

Hi! I promise there won't be many author notes after this first one, but I wanted to thank you for clicking on the title and giving this little fic a chance! This story is going to be done in a new style for me, so I hope it goes okay. I did a small amount of research for this fic, and my sources will be on my profile, in case you're interested. Barring the apocalypse, I should have a new chapter out each week. I'm generally really bad about staying on a time schedule, but for some reason, I don't think I'll have too much trouble for this story. As someone who really likes to read long chapters, I'll apologize now for the shorter length of the chapters here, but again, the way this story ended up, the shorter chapters felt like a better fit. If you could be so kind as to take a minute to send a review of what you thought of this chapter, and the following chapters as they arrive, I would be most grateful! Thanks again! Love.