"Comic Book Day"

"Isn't that kinda narcissistic?" Bucky asked, looking over Steve's shoulder as he sketched.

"Who else am I s'posed to use as models?" Steve replied. He was definitely recognisable as Captain America, the hero of his new comic book. SHIELD Comics wanted several new series after the success of the Iron Man line he'd written and illustrated. He'd used their friend Tony as the face of Iron Man, since he was the one who got Steve the job at SHIELD in the first place. He also used Bucky as the Winter Soldier, Natasha as the Black Widow, Sam as the Falcon, all of them getting their five-comic lines. He'd been persuaded to base a comic character on his own likeness, after years of shying away from it.

"I notice that he's a lot buffer than you are," Bucky said, poking Steve's skinny shoulder gently. It would still leave a bruise, and they both knew it. But Bucky was having a bad day, and his bestie didn't mind being needled on those days. Hell, whenever Steve was pissed off he antagonised Bucky. It was their thing.

"Who'd wanna twig-like asthmatic with a heart problem for a superhero?" Steve said.

"Aw." Bucky hugged him from behind, awkward thanks to the back of the chair being in the way. "I would."

"Sap," Steve said. "Anyway, I'm bringin' you in. I mean, the Winter Soldier, plus some of the others. Maybe Hawkeye. And Phil's gonna appear as a damsel-in-distress, or so Captain America thinks—"

"Captain America!" Bucky cackled. "You're seriously using that name?"

"For the time bein'," he muttered. "You wanna hear the rest of it?"

"Yeah, sure." Bucky jumped over the sofa and bounced on the seat beside Steve, careful to wait until the pencil was away from the page. "So. Phil's gonna hate bein' a damsel-in-distress. Is he a barista in the story?"

"Turns out that he's a secret agent, and he becomes Captain America's sidekick for part of the book, until they meet the Winter Soldier, who turns out to be Captain America's long-lost adopted brother." Bucky raised an eyebrow, but Steve continued. "Then the Winter Soldier and Agent… whatever name I give him, they get together. Might leave that for the end of book three. They can have their first date in volume four, a bit of a relief before all the heavy stuff, and a cliff-hanger at the end for tension, like they won't get their happy ending. Then they'll all defeat the big crime organisation – I'll steal a name from mythology for that – and happily ever after for the Agent and the Winter Soldier."

Bucky gaped, and felt his cheeks heat up. "You're giving me… I mean, you're giving the Winter Soldier Ph… uh, Phil's character?"

"You're welcome," Steve said.

"What'll Phil say?"

"By then hopefully you and Phil will be sucking face too much to be pissed off at me for settin' your characters up together."

After all, with Sam ready to trick Bucky into a date with Phil, and Natasha ready to do her part with Phil, they couldn't fail. Still, Steve wasn't gonna mention it to Bucky. He had a comic book to write. He'd leave Bucky's love life to the experts.

Because it's Comic Book Day, which meant I had to go the semi-obvious route. (Tee-hee; root.) Match-making via comics. Why not?

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