Chapter Ten: Finals

"Fifteen minutes! Where are we with the paper?" Tony called, pacing the length of the living room with some difficulty. Sam had given up on forcing Tony to follow the doctor's strict "bed rest" orders and had instead placed a cast around his neck, his left leg, and his ribcage. Instead of strutting about while issuing commands, Tony was forced to hobble about while issuing commands.

"Almost done, just waiting for Loki to finish up the work's cited." Clint replied.

"I really don't see how this is fair." Loki complained from the corner of the room, where he was being strictly monitored by Thor.

"Well, you did just try to enslave the human race." Sam bit back with a glare.

"I am a king." Loki responded matter-of-factly.

"Not here," Thor countered. "Now, don't forget the hanging indent at the beginning of the citation."

"Steve, how are you feeling about art history?"

"We've gone through his flashcards three times. He's got it." Natasha responded.

"What about literature? Have all of the short stories been read?"

"Played the audio books when he was down for his nap." Bruce chimed in.

With the way that everyone was talking about him in the third person, Steve felt like a child under the care of the most incompetent parents in the world. Somehow, though, he didn't mind. It was nice. It was reassuring to know that these people were looking out for him.

"Good. Steve, Natasha is going to drive you to your final; Happy is too anxious to leave the tower. He thinks that someone is going to sneak in here and murder me while I'm crippled. I don't know. I don't have time to explain him to you. So gather up your stuff and get down to the garage. Your exam starts in twelve minutes." Tony said in an oddly authoritative voice.

"You got it." Steve began gathering up his stuff. Bucky looked at him anxiously all the while.

Bucky hadn't been alone with the rest of the Avengers since they had attacked him in the Hydra safe house. He probably didn't trust them very much. He had just begun to trust Steve half as much as he had trusted him back in the day. Sympathy tugged at Steve's heart.

"Can Bucky come with me?"

"To your final?" Tony's voice was full of disapproval. "What would he do? Sit around and piss off the professor?"

"I don't know, he could wait in the library. What do you think, Buck?" Steve and Tony both turned to look at Bucky. Bucky shrank back from their stares.

"The library sounds...okay."

"Alright." Steve smiled brightly. "Nat, are you ready to go?"

"Ready whenever you are."

"Sam, you want to come along?"

"Why would I do that?" Sam's eyes darted from Steve to Bucky inquisitively. It was obvious that he was worried about being put in charge of Bucky. Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"I think Russell's probably worried about you."

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."

"Did you forget about your family?" Clint asked, a shit-eating grin crossing his face. He had been looking for reasons to pick on Sam since Steve had invited him to join the group.

"I've been busy." Sam grumbled, collecting his own belongings and following Steve in the direction of the garage. Clint followed at his heels, still grinning.

"Too busy to remember that you have a family? I don't know, Sam the hands. That sounds like some serial killer shit to me. Are you sure we should have him in the tower, Tony? He might kill us all in our sleep. I don't think he has much of a sense of loyalty." Clint called over his shoulder.

"What do you mean 'have him in the tower'? He isn't living here. He's not living here, right, Steve? Steve?" Tony shouted after them.

"When are you planning on telling him that you're moving in?" Steve asked Sam quietly.

"After you tell him that Bucky is moving in." Sam said decidedly.

While Sam went to the dorms to tell Russell that he was alive and Bucky went to the library to hide from the Avengers, Steve and Natasha hurried towards the room where Steve's final would be held. Steve only had a minute to make it to the classroom before the professor locked the classroom door and Natasha was prepared to kick down the door if she had to.

Luckily, it did not come to that.

Steve stumbled into the classroom with thirteen seconds to spare. Everyone looked up from their notes and stared at him like he was a madman. That was probably because he hadn't had time to shower or clean up since his fight with the aliens. He was covered in blood and dirt. His fingernails were practically black. He could feel bruises forming on his neck from his brief skirmish with the alien that had nearly killed him. He smiled self-consciously and scurried over to his assigned seat.

"Okay," The professor couldn't tear his eyes off of Steve even as he handed out the tests. "Your exam begins once you receive it. You have two and a half hours. Good luck."

Steve was the last one to finish his exam. When he finally handed in his exam - which was smudged with the dirt and blood that rubbed off of his hands throughout the two and a half hours it took him to remember the entire history of art - he walked out of the classroom to see everyone standing there.

Natasha, Tony, and Sam were the first people that Steve saw. Sam was ignoring Clint, who was trying to tease him for forgetting that his family existed. Tony was pacing the length of the hallway anxiously. Natasha was hacking the art department's computers to access the final exam that Steve had just taken. She wanted to see if he had studied the answers to the questions being asked.

Thor and Bruce were lingering in the background. Bruce was peering over Natasha's shoulder while she hacked. Thor was biting his thumb nail and shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Bucky was hidden from view. He was sitting down on the ground with his back up against the hallway wall. He watched as Steve left the classroom, but didn't stand up. It seemed that he was not altogether comfortable with the Avengers yet. Steve couldn't really blame him for that.

Tony stopped his pacing. "How'd you do?"

"I don't know, Tony," Steve ran a hand through his matted hair and looked around at the people that had quickly become his friends. A strange feeling gripped his chest. He had never had this many friends before. It had always been just him and Bucky. "I just walked out. I don't think it'll be graded for another few days."

"We studied almost everything on the test." Natasha remarked, staring down at her phone.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Don't hack the school, Nat. I can wait a few days to find out how I did."

"Just trying to help." Natasha responded with a quick smile.

"Was Russell happy to see you?" Steve asked Sam. He couldn't pretend that he wasn't surprised to see him standing among the rest of the Avengers; he had expected him to stay with his family the moment that they were reunited.

Sam snorted. "No. Can you believe it? The kid blamed me for not wrecking the building where his first final was going to be held."

"Sounds about right." Steve laughed. He placed a hand on Sam's shoulder for a moment before walking past his small crowd of friends in Bucky's direction.

Steve sat down on the ground next to Bucky. Everybody else had the decency to pretend that they were occupied with something else during this time. Bucky met Steve's stare hesitantly. Steve grinned and shifted a bit closer.

"What do you think, Buck?"

"About what?" Bucky asked nervously.

"About us." Steve replied. "About staying with us. You know I'd never make you do anything, Buck, but I figure I might as well ask. We're all staying in the Tower right now and there's a room for you if you want it. If you don't, though, Tony could probably find you an apartment of your own. And, uh, he could find you a safe house if you wanted to get away from all of this. From us. I'll support you no matter what you choose."

Bucky looked away from Steve. He looked down at the ground like he was searching for something. "You want me to live with you?"

"'Course I do, pal. But only if that's what you want."

"And they…" Bucky looked over at the rest of the Avengers anxiously. "They know? They're...they're not afraid of me?"

"No, Buck. They're not afraid of you."

Bucky didn't look up from the ground. "I think…"

It's coming to an enddddddd. Yesssss. This is obviously not the last chapter and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to end this yet, but I thought that Steve was overdue for a sweet moment after his awful finals week. Hopefully he passes. He probably will. It sounds like the Avengers prepared him pretty well.