"This is so boring," June whispered. She stood beside Bucky, looking at a painting in the art gallery. "I haven't seen anything remotely interesting."

"You're so uncultured," Bucky teased, pulling her along to the next exhibit.

"Are you enjoying this?"

Bucky paused. "Well… No. But it's your friend's art thing. I'm being nice."

"Wanna ditch? I've already said hi to Claire and she's so busy shmoozing I don't think she'll notice if we leave. I really wanna leave. Can we go do something fun? Literally anything," June said, looking at Bucky with wide eyes while she bit her lip.

"You don't have to pout," Bucky said, rolling his eyes. "You do have to come up with the plan, though."

"Let's grab food from somewhere and go sit by the water at the park under the bridge."

"That's a good idea," Bucky agreed. June took his right hand and led them around various installations, acting like it wasn't totally obvious the two were leaving. In fact, Bucky thought, it was more obvious that they were leaving than if they had just normally walked out of the building. As soon as the door closed behind them June took off running, laughing as she glanced behind her and saw Bucky standing in confusion. It didn't take him long to recover and catch up with June.

"You're ridiculous," Bucky said, rolling his eyes several blocks later when they stopped running.

"I'm just not boring," June replied, sticking her tongue out. She pushed her hair behind her ears and glanced around. "Wanna pop in this sandwich shop?" Bucky murmured his agreement and opened the door, gently pushing June into the shop ahead of him. The two stood in line and made idle conversation until it was their turn to order. Bucky quickly pulled out his wallet before June could pay, grabbed the bag, and led her out of the sandwich shop. It was a short walk to the park and June led them to a patch of grass that still had a little bit of the sun's fading light.

Bucky bit into his sandwich and was instantly hit with a memory from his childhood. His breath grew shallow and he was lost in thought. June noticed the sudden shift in his energy and gently bumped his shoulder with her own.

"You alright?"

Bucky shook his head. "I'm alright. This sandwich just reminded me of my Mom. She would make this a lot when I was a kid and I guess I haven't had it in awhile. I know it's just a pastrami sandwich, I'm being silly."

"She's dead," June said. It wasn't so much a question. Bucky nodded. "It's nice you can remember her."

"Remembering things is a blessing and a curse," Bucky shrugged. "Are you close with your parents?" He felt antsy to redirect the conversation from himself.

"Sort of," June said. She took a bit of her sandwich. "I love them, of course. But my dad doesn't want me living in New York, says it isn't safe for a girl living alone. He wants me to get married and have kids and live somewhere not in the city. Mom wants the same thing, though she says it would be fine if I continue my 'little artsy hobby' as long as I marry a rich man to take care of me."

"You're too mouthy to marry a rich man and be taken care of."

June grinned and bumped into Bucky. "You'd think my parents would know that since they raised me. They're just delusional. My sister followed the plan. She's married to a lawyer and they have two kids, twins."

"You two close?"

"Yeah. We always have fun when we're together and we call each other once a month, but we aren't talk everyday close or anything like that. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"I had a sister," Bucky replied.

"Had? Is your whole family dead Bucky? Geeze."

Bucky winced, "Yeah. They are." June's jaw dropped and her cheeks reddened. Her horror at herself was so funny Bucky laughed almost to the point tears were falling from his eyes.

"I'm such a fucking dick. I'm so sorry I'm such an insensitive goblin!"

"Your face totally made up for it," Bucky said, catching his breath. The sun had fully set and a breeze blew in off the water that made June shiver without the warmth of the sun on her skin. "Ready to head home? You're chilly and it's getting late."

"I guess so," June agreed. "Walk me home?"

"Duh," Bucky said, bumping into June.

"Does anyone want to come over for dinner? Pepper can get things ready pretty quickly," Tony tiredly offered. Everyone on the plane was feeling particularly weary after the mission they had been on. They had flown to Brazil to deal with what Sam had dubbed 'some alien bullshit.' They were all a little worse for wear, but the problem was handled and they were all in one piece.

Everyone quickly agreed except for Bucky, he checked his phone and debated in his head. "I have just enough time to get cleaned up and make my friend's poetry reading. I'm going to skip this one."

"Is this the bar wench?"

"That wasn't an invitation for questioning."

"We're just curious," Steve defended. "We know nothing about her other than she works at a bar and I guess apparently does poetry readings."

"Poetry readings take so much courage. I can't even imagine. I would be so nervous, ya know in my freshman year we had to memorize and recite a poem and I was so nervous. It wasn't even anything I wrote and I was so sweaty, it was embarrassing," Peter rambled. "Snap extra loud for her."

"Will do, kid." Minutes later they landed at Avengers Tower. Bucky followed everyone else inside, going quickly to the room he had here, even if he had his own place. Tony insisted they all have their own apartments in the tower, just in case. Bucky quickly showered and changed before rushing out of the building to make it several boroughs over to the poetry reading. It took him all of ten minutes to get where he needed to be thanks to Tony insisting that a car take him and the driver willing to take several shortcuts of questionable legality.

Bucky walked into the bar right as June walked up to the microphone. He smiled and snapped as she introduced herself, unsure if she even saw him. He walked to the bar and ordered two whiskey's on ice, one for himself and one for June as soon as she was finished.

She spoke with a confidence Bucky was used to seeing from her, but the feeling in her voice was entirely new and enchanting. He felt like he was hanging on June's every word, it didn't help that she made eye contact with everyone in the audience almost the entire time. She read three of her poems before exiting the stage to a lot of applause. Bucky continued snapping as he made eye contact with June, her lips turning upwards.

"You weren't here when I went up there!"

"I walked in right as you were walking on. Work shit made me late, I was worried I was going to miss you entirely."

"Thanks," June said, taking her drink. "Well I'm glad you made it."

"I'm glad I made it. That was amazing. I looked up your poetry and I thought the words were good, but hearing you read them is a totally different experience. Seriously June, you're… amazing." Bucky gushed, his smile growing wider as June's cheeks reddened.

"Stop! I'm not even the most interesting poet here. Unfortunately I was the last one so you don't get to hear the people that are way more impressive than me."

"Next time I'll be on time," Bucky promised. "But I don't believe there's anyone here better than you." June rolled her eyes and took a long sip of the whiskey he had given her.

"I'm kind of worn out from the adrenaline and nerves and stuff. Like I'm tired of being in public."

"I'll walk you home."

"Well, I was gonna say, do you wanna come over and we can grab some to-go food and watch a movie?" Bucky paused, debating internally. "Unless that weirds you out?" June said after a minute passed between them.

"It's not that," Bucky shook his head. "I would like to tell you one day I'll be less… weird. But that's not true."

June laughed. "It'd be boring if you were less weird. Do you wanna come over or not?"

Bucky sighed. "Not tonight. Work was… Not great."

June didn't press him further. "You shouldn't have come! There will be more readings. Walk me home?"

"Of course."

"During dinner Sam said he's bailing on our run in the morning. He said he's wiped out from today. You need to bail to?"

"In your dreams, punk."

Steve and Bucky sat in Steve's apartment making idle chatter. Steve had brought Bucky leftovers at Pepper's insistence and they had come in handy since Bucky turned down dinner at June's.

"How have your memories been?" Steve asked at a commercial break.

Bucky shrugged. "Slowed some. I had a pastrami sandwich the other day and I got this flash of being in the kitchen with Mom and Rebecca. It was… I.. I miss them."

Steve's eyebrows rose, surprised by Bucky's admittance of feeling. He took a deep breath. "Yeah… Yeah it's hard. When I first came to… Everything is so different and there are so many people… I mean you and Peggy were almost all I had."

"It's weird to think about our lives. Back then, ya know? And now… I never could have dreamed up some of this technology."

"Can you imagine how cool it would have been to watch the moon landing? I mean I know we can watch reruns, but imagine seeing it in person."

Bucky smiled and shook his head. He opened his mouth but his ringing phone stopped his sentence. "It's June… Strange that she's calling this late. I walked her home."

"Well answer and find out," Steve nudged him.

"Hey June," Bucky answered, shoving Steve back.

"Can I stay at your place?" June's voice was wobbly and she sounded like she had been crying and was about to start crying again. Bucky stood quickly and grabbed his jacket, shoving it on.

"What's going on? Where are you?"

"When I got home my apartment had been broken into and my cat is gone and I can't be there."

"Are you alright? June where are you?"

"Outside your building."

"I'm coming down." Bucky hung up the phone and looked at Steve. "Her apartment was broken into. I'm a fucking idiot. I should have walked her to the door of her apartment and not just the door of her building. I'll let you know about the run in the morning."

"Go," Steve said, waving his hand and pushing Bucky out the door.

When Bucky got downstairs June was standing in the lobby and looked terrible. She had a dark bruise on her cheek and her eyes were red and swollen. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself. Bucky immediately wrapped an arm around her and led her up the stairs to his apartment. He counted the steps in an effort to calm the rage he felt in his body. He was determined to find whoever had hurt June and make them suffer.

"Do you have any hot tea?" June asked, sitting on the couch, pulling her legs up and curling into herself.

"No, I can go get some though. I'll get anything you want. Have you eaten? My friend in the apartment across from me might have tea."

"No, just stay. I don't want to be alone right now."

Bucky weighed his options and eventually sat down beside June on the couch. June wouldn't make eye contact with Bucky as she began talking. She had walked in on the break-in, the apartment in total disarray. The cat had gone out the broken window at some point in the scuffle. One of the men had hit June. "I stabbed him in the leg with a knife from my butcher's block though."

"Good. I would like to find them and do a lot worse than that."

"Well be on the lookout for a man with a limp and just ask if he ruined someone's life by breaking into their home and losing their cat," June said. She promptly burst into tears.

"I wish I could make this better," Bucky sighed. He pulled June into his chest, carefully keeping his metal arm from her body. June buried her face in the crook of his neck and cried for a half hour. When she finally quieted down Bucky pulled June up and walked her to his bedroom. He pulled the blankets back and gently pushed June into the bed, pulling the blankets over her.

"I want to argue with you about taking your bed again."

"There's no point. Go to sleep."

"Will you stay in here until I fall asleep?" Bucky nodded and leaned against the headboard. He started running his fingers through June's hair and eventually realized it was him who was humming. It was something his Mom would sing when he was younger. It didn't take long for June to fall asleep and when Bucky was certain that he could get away without waking her, he left the bedroom to lay on the couch. He picked up a book, feeling too much energy from anger at the men who hurt June, and even worse, at himself for not walking her to her door. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"I'll call Stark tomorrow about getting some extra eyes on her building."