It was cold. Very cold. I guess that's what you have to expect for a cold, brisk winter afternoon but it was cold. I was walking down the streets with one of my best friends, Bucky, as he explained the girl he had hooked up with the night before while my heart seemed to crumple even more at the thought of my best friend/crush being with another woman.
But I played along, pretending to act interested and feign offence when he would joke about how woman were clingy or loud or idiotic even though I was already upset over him and another girl. It's what we did every night. I would act interested, let out a few laughs and then he would joke about women. Then, we would walk down, seeing Steve being pulled into an alley by a bunch of tough guys and we would be the heroes and best friends, beating them to a pulp and help Steve up while the idiots ran away like cowards.
It happened every Saturday.
"Faye? Are you even listening?" Bucky exclaimed and I snapped out of my thoughts.
"What? Yes. Of course I was." I looked at Bucky, feigning innocence.
"Then what did I say?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow, wearing a smirk.
"You were talking about another sultry woman that you tricked into bed like you do every Saturday." I took a sip of my black coffee, giving a pointed look at him.
"I am not that predictable!" He gasped, feigning offence.
"Seriously? You are the most predictable man on the face of the Earth." I rolled my eyes as he placed a hand to his heart.
"I am offended! See? This is my 'I am offended' face." He smirked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
"Actually, no. That is your sarcasm/acting face."
We kept bickering about until we saw Steve walk out of a coffee shop only to be dragged into an alleyway to be beaten up again. I looked towards Bucky to see him with the same expression.
"Let's go kick some ass." I muttered, shrugging his arm off and stomping towards the alleyway with Bucky following me.
We stopped to see Steve with a bleeding nose, attempting to stand up only to be thrown another punch. I could feel myself seething with anger at Steve's broken posture.
I walked up to one of the men, pulling him back and slamming his back into the wall with force that I could hear something break. I threw a punch to his face, breaking his nose and tripping him as his head smacked to the ground but I could hear him struggling, confirming that he wasn't dead. I could see Bucky knocking two of them out and I kneed the last in the balls as my victim fell to the ground, groaning in pain. He quickly got up, taking his friend and they all ran off and out of our view.
"Son of a bitch…" I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration to see the cut that Bucky had on his arm.
"It's nothing, Faye. It'll heal." Bucky tried ignoring it.
"Bucky…" Steve warned him but Bucky ignored him, pushing himself off the wall casually.
I grabbed his arm, lightly squeezing. "Does that hurt?" I ask, already knowing the answer of clear pain on Bucky's features but he ignores it and shakes his head. Then I squeeze harder, Bucky kneeling, his face contorting into one of pain. "Does that hurt, liar?" I glare at him, as if daring him to say no but he nods, his hands clutching into fists. I stop squeezing, grabbing a small bandage from my bag and sitting him down on a barrel. "You should seriously know better than to try and lie to me, Bucky."
"I'm sorry." He sounded embarrassed to say it but I smiled softly, wrapping his arm up in the bandage and pinning it together with a safety pin.
Steve seemed to watch our every move, as if studying us, and smiled for some odd reason.
I placed the bandage away and Bucky, with his good hand, held a hand out for Steve and hoisted him up.
"I could have fought them." He mumbled, kicking a rock like a little pouty child when they've done something bad.
"And failed miserably? Yeah." I snapped, holding that normal motherly glare at Steve.
"Sorry, mom." He glared back. We continued our glaring match until I couldn't take it anymore, tired of our actions.
"I'm sorry, Steve. It just seems like this always happens, every Saturday. I just hate it."
"What do you mean?" Bucky asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Haven't you noticed it? Every Saturday, we're doing the same thing. We wake up, go to a meeting for the next shipment to the next training camp, we get lunch, get coffee, walk outside, you talk about the latest woman you tricked into your bed, we see Steve be dragged away to get beaten up and we save the day. Then we argue about where to go for dinner, and end up going to some sort of useless event afterwards where it talks of the war!" I exclaim, throwing my hands in the air. The boys look at me, rendered speechless. "I'm tired of it. For once, I want something to change so we're not talking about the same useless stuff for the rest of our lives." I sigh, running a hand through my straight dark blonde hair. "Don't you guys ever get tired of the same thing?"
"I'm leaving." Bucky admits, looking at the two of us guiltily.
"What?" Steve speaks up now, surprised at Bucky's sudden announcement.
"Three days from now. I didn't want to say anything because, honestly, I was worried you would both not talk to me if I told you 2 weeks before so I wanted to spend as much time with my two favourite people before announcing it." He looks down, ashamed. I frown, wrapping my arms around him in a hug.
"I can never be mad at you, Bucky." I place a kiss on his cheek. I step back as Steve gives him a small side-hug.
I can hear Bucky whisper something to Steve and they both look at me, Steve smiling proudly. I cock my head to the side in confusion.
"What? You know I hate when you two know something I don't." I cross my arms over my chest, glaring at the two men before me but Steve keeps smiling and Bucky smirks. "Ugh. God I hate you."
"Love you too." They both speak simultaneously. I let out a groan in frustration, pushing past the two and out of the alleyway.
"So… where for dinner?"
"Little Mae's." Steve blurts out while Bucky yells "Noranda's!"
"You two, I swear…" I mumble as the two laugh in realisation.
"I miss Mae. Heard she came back from Boston a couple days ago. You know I love her hotcakes." Steve pointed out to Bucky.
"But Noranda's has the best tea in the country. They even made it official. Noranda's won the 'Best Tea in the Country' medallion. Smart bastard, the food inspector was." Bucky smirked back.
Every. Single. Saturday.
We were all now at some big revealing for Howard Stark and things about the future. Just random useless stuff that we won't know about because we will probably be dead. Bucky had brought two ladies with him for him and Steve while I was looking around like a lost puppy, trying to avert my gaze from Bucky's obvious flirting with the blonde.
I could tell Steve felt out of place because the brunette he was with was hitting on Bucky as well, trying to spark his attention.
I could suddenly see a good friend of mine, Peggy Carter, my co-worker. She was being hit on by a tall, bulky ginger. I looked back at Bucky and Steve only to notice the two lads had dispersed into the crowd. I sigh and walked towards Peggy who had notice my presence from behind the men.
"So what do you say, a lovely dame like yourself come back to my place?" He asked. I looked towards Peggy for confirmation and she nodded. I grabbed hold of the man's wrist, twisted his arm behind his back and shoved him into the brick wall.
"Peggy, dear friend. Is this disgusting pervert bothering you?" I asked aloud as the man winced at the pressure my hand was putting on his most likely dislocated hand.
"Why yes. Yes he is. What do you think we should do with him? Take him to the police right now, leave him to rot or maybe have a little fun with him?" She taunted, kicking at his knee.
"Oh you know I love playing with my food." I heard him wince as I took hold of one of his arms. "How 'bout an old nice Harvey?" I asked, hinting at the flag pole. She smiled viciously, taking the other arm and we dragged him to the flag pole. In the next five minutes, it was complete. The ginger man was dangling in the air with the flag wrapped around his head.
"Lovely idea, Faye."
"Well obviously, Peg. It was my idea. My ideas are always best." I mocked, and we sauntered off.
"Oh, I have something to tell you."
"What's going on?" I asked.
"There was a bit of a mix-up with Colonel Phillips. We're leaving in five days. We won't be too long away from the city, just about 2 hours away." Peggy then launched into a story of how some idiotic intern had swapped the 17th with the 27th and we were appointed to leave in 5 days, not 15.
"You see, this is why I hate interns!" I cried out, throwing my hands up in exasperation. "They screw everything up."
"We both used to be interns."
"A: That was 3 years ago, B: Philips told us himself that we were the smartest and hard-headed, and C: We're awesome. I shrugged like it was a known fact and Peggy let out a hawtry laugh, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Well aren't you modest, Faye?" I heard the familiar Brooklyn accent of Bucky behind me. I turned to face him, cocking an eyebrow.
"What do you have to say for yourself James Buchanan Barnes?!" I exclaimed, snacking him over the head.
"What was that for?!" He asked, rubbing the back of his head in pin.
"For completely ditching me! You better be lucky your mother isn't here or I wouldn't mind having told her everything." I scolded as Peggy sauntered off.
"You wouldn't dare…" Bucky spoke, scared of facing his hard-headed, stubborn mother. Then I noticed Steve was absent.
"Yes I would, young man, and for the love of God, where the hell is Steve?" I cry out. Bucky turns around, as if expecting the small blonde to be right behind him but frowned in disappointment.
He started walking inside to see Steve talking with a doctor, his face scrunched up in thought. I followed Bucky to Steve and the doctor who I noticed was German.
"Steve? Where did you go?" Bucky asked, capturing his attention.
"I was just talking to…" He turned to the man but we noticed he had already disappeared off into the crowd.
"Who?" I asked this time but Steve shook it away, replying that it was nothing. "Well I have some news." I speak out. The two turn towards me. "I ran into a co-worker and she said that we're actually heading off in about five days for training the new enlistments."
"Why so soon?" Steve furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Some lousy excuse of an intern swapped the 17th with the 27th. I'm heading for Queens in five days." I turn towards Steve, my head bowed down in disappointment. "I'm so sorry I'm leaving you alone Steve. I just found out about ten minutes ago."
Steve brushed it off, trying to convince us t was fine but I could see the definite pain in his eyes.
"I've got to go." Steve brushed past the crowd, leaving our sight.
"Do you think he'll be ok?" I asked as Bucky placed an arm around my shoulders.
"He's a tough kid. He'll do fine." He kissed the top of my head, leaving afterwards with the two women he brought and I walk back home, my heart breaking more at Bucky leaving with the two women, that smile that dazzled on his perfect pink lips.