Bucky was left almost shaking, breathing heavily and his hands squeezing in his pockets.

"I'm sorry about John. He's always been a little… off," one of the moms said, trying to give Bucky a little bit of comfort.

"It's okay, it's not… uncommon," Bucky said, finding the word to suffice.

"If it's not out of place," the mom said, leaning in toward Bucky, "can I ask what he said to you as he walked by?"

Bucky clenched his jaw and shook his head. "He still holds a grudge, and he was letting me know."

"I was a SHIELD agent. He was HYDRA, wasn't he?" Her question took Bucky aback, but he nodded; he was surprised that there were still people willing to disclose that they had worked for one of the world's most despised organizations of people.

"Yeah, he was. I don't know that they're bad people, they're just… they're just standing for the wrong thing without knowing what they're standing for."

•••

After a few moments of conversation with the SHIELD agent, the parents slowly started moving in to pick up their kids. Bucky finally got up to the door and saw Morgan coloring at a table in the corner of the room.

"Who are you here for?" Morgan's teacher was standing at the door, directing the children out the door and to their parents.

"Morgan Stark," Bucky answered, remembering to add her last name in case the other Morgan was still in the room. At the sound of Bucky's voice, her head snapped up from her coloring and a huge smile spread across her face.

"Uncle Bucky!" She ran across the room and jumped into Bucky's arms, putting her arms around his waist which was as high as she could reach.

"Thank you," Bucky said, regarding her teacher with a smile. He turned and walked out of the room. As he began to walk toward the front door, the former SHIELD agent caught his eye.

"If I were to ask a certain man named Nick about where to find you, what would he say?"

The woman grinned and replied, "He would say to find Marissa Hill, the right hand man of his right hand man."

Bucky thought about that for a moment, and then as he studied her brown hair, brown eyes, calm demeanor, he realized:

He had just spoken with Maria Hill's daughter.

One of the agents who had saved Nick Fury's life after Bucky tried to assassinate him.

He pondered this as he walked out of the elementary school. Morgan walked beside him the entire time, taking his hand when they walked through the parking lot. When they got into the car, Morgan took a piece of paper out of her pink backpack and handed it to Bucky.

"Look what I made today!"

The top of the piece of paper said, "My Family", and there were four people drawn in the space below the title.

"I drew me, and mommy, and daddy, and you!" She pointed to each person as she listed them with a huge smile.

"Wow, Morgan! You're getting so good! But why did you draw me?"

Morgan smiled and said matter-of-factly, "Well, our teacher said that our best friend could be part of our family, and you're my best friend!"

Bucky's throat closed up, and he couldn't say anything. He tried not to cry.

"Morgan, you're my best friend too!"

Morgan cocked her head at him.

"I thought Steve was your best friend!"

"I can have two best friends."

Morgan smiled.

"But you have so many friends! How am I your best friend?"

Her comment wasn't meant to make him think, but when he thought about it he realized that he did have quite a few friends.

"Because you and Steve are my favorite friends."

Morgan smiled.

•••

Bucky got ready to go to bed around ten, because he had to get up at eight to make it to the baseball game. Whenever he slept, he figured that between the time he went to sleep and the time he woke up he was awake for about two hours, give or take a little.

He opened the door to his room and saw Apollo batting at a corner of his comforter that was dangling over the edge of his bed frame. Bucky smiled and picked up the cat, cradling it against his bare chest.

He pulled the comforter over his body, leaving his arms out and letting Apollo lay next to his chest. Bucky pulled his knees toward himself and put his arms around his cat, looking out the window and drifting off to sleep.

When he woke, he was sure it was some grotesquely early time of the morning. But when he looked over at his alarm clock, he saw that it was seven.

He had slept through the night! Without nightmares!

"Steve! Steve, get in here!" Bucky still held Apollo on his lap as he yelled to Steve.

"What? Are you okay?!"

"You'll never guess what just happened!"

Steve cocked his head at Bucky and gave him a confused grin.

"What in the world could you be so excited about?"

"I didn't wake up once last night!" Bucky's smile was so huge, Steve thought he looked like a little kid in a candy store.

"No way!" Steve grinned, slapping Bucky on the shoulder. "I told you it would happen someday."

Bucky looked down at Apollo, who was staring back up at him with bright, curious eyes.

"Thank you, Steve." Bucky stood and hugged him, without a care in the world. At first, Steve was surprised.

"For what, Buck?"

"For everything. Everything I have to live for exists because of you."

And in Bucky's mind, that was true.

"But aren't you the one that decides if something is worth living for?"

Steve pulled back and smiled, leaving a hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"Sorry. Living with Bruce Banner for as long as I have is like taking three years of a college philosophy class."

Bucky smiled at Steve's comment, only being able to imagine how it was. With the little amount of time he had spent with Bruce, he had been able to realize just how smart he actually was.

And Tony.

Tony was freakishly smart.

But you'd never guess it just by looking at him.

In fact, his mannerisms suggested just the opposite; dumb with a huge ego.

But he was hard to annoy, because he would just annoy you back. Steve had told Bucky the horror stories of when Steve had ventured into Tony's lab to ask a favor, and then Tony had gone off on a scientific tangent that was indecipherable to the average human mind; his "subtle" way of getting people to go away.

"I'm happy for you, Buck. You deserve it."

Bucky smiled as Steve walked out. "Love you, Stevie Wonder."

Steve turned around and gave Bucky another grin.

"Love you too. No homo."

"You finally did your research."

For the longest time, Bucky had said that he loved Steve and then added, "no homo" after it. Steve had always given him the oddest of looks after he said this, because he had never heard the phrase since he had been off the ice.

But after some digging, Steve discovered that the phrase implied a platonic love.

"You ready for today?"

Bucky thought for a moment, and then remembered.

"Right. Game. Sure," Bucky replied.

"Wow. Who knew that Mr. Sunshine could be so bitter?"

Bucky playfully punched Steve on the arm.

"Ha-ha. Please just tell me that I don't have to throw."

Steve bit his lip to hold back his laugh.

"No, you're definitely going to pitch. But good news for you, the team we play today is mostly left-handed."

"Frick."

That meant that Bucky could throw mostly with his left arm; an advantage, since he could pitch faster.

•••

An hour later, Steve and Bucky were both ready to leave for the game.

"Let's blow this popsicle stand," Bucky joked as he and Steve parked in the parking lot for the game.

"You know it," Steve replied with a grin, fist-bumping Bucky and grabbing their bags from the trunk.

Once they made it into the diamond, Steve got behind the plate for Bucky to throw his warmup pitches.

"Come on, big papi baseball! Right at the glove."

Bucky laughed and shook his head, putting his hat over his short hair and stepping onto the mound. "I still can't believe that you called me that."

"Hey. They thought it was cool."

Bucky threw his first pitch, on target and where he wanted it to fly.

"Ninety-three," Steve said, reading the speedometer in his glove. "And a curveball."

Bucky was secretly proud of himself, and for a lot of reasons.

The most obvious of which being that he had adjusted so well to being back in the outside world after the blip and the Winter Soldier.

He had so many small victories in the past week that he would almost consider himself free of problems, but then stopped himself for fear of jinxing the stop to his nightmares.

"That's probably just because I'm so cool, right?" Bucky joked.

"Yeah. Did you know that on average cool people throw 25 percent faster?"

Bucky just laughed at Steve, not even caring that the other guys were arriving and seeing him laugh.

Bucky threw a few more pitches and then walked into the third base dugout; the dugout of the home team. Steve pulled the catcher's helmet and the chest plate over his head, leaving the leg guards on since they took the longest to put back on once they were taken off.

"You ready, big papi baseball?" Ryan asked, slapping Bucky playfully on the shoulder.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Bucky replied with a smile.

"Let's go!"

The team ran onto the field to the positions they had played since joining the team. Bucky took his spot on the mound with his glove on his left hand; for now. Steve took his place behind home plate.

Bucky looked out to the stands, looking for any recognizable faces.

Not that he expected any.

What he expected much less than anyone at all was everyone that lived at the tower sitting there with every member of their family. Sam brought his sister, Clint brought his kids, Tony brought Pepper and Morgan. Nat, Bruce, Peter, Percy, and Thor were also there.

In total, Steve and Bucky had a cheering section of fourteen people.

Before the opposing team sent a batter to the batter's box, Bucky held a hand up to the umpire behind the plate to signal a time-out.

He jogged over to the fence where Morgan sat in the front row and waved her over.

"Uncle Bucky!"

"I have a secret for you," Bucky whispered, crouching to meet her height. "If I take my hat off and put it back on like this, that's for you. Special, for you."

Bucky took his hat off and put it back on his head, showing her what he meant. She smiled and nodded.

"Okay! I won't tell!" She whispered back.

"It'll be our secret." Bucky stood up and smiled, winking at her before he jogged back to the mound.

When he took his place on the mound, he took his hat off and put it back on. The batter was right-handed, so for now he was left throwing with his right hand. He adjusted his black long-sleeved undershirt and took the ball out of his glove and in his right hand. Bucky began his windup and threw the pitch into Steve's glove. The batter swung and missed.

"Strike!" The umpire shouted, giving Steve's cue to throw the ball back to Bucky at the pitcher's mound.

Bucky turned to Morgan and winked.

The next batter came up to the plate. He was left handed, allowing Bucky to throw with his left arm.

"Mikey!" Bucky shouted to their third baseman. "Grab me my other glove."

Mike grinned and jogged into their third base dugout and grabbed Bucky's left handed glove from his bag. Bucky took his right handed one off and threw it to Mike, who in turn tossed it onto the dugout floor. Bucky slipped the glove over his right hand, taking the ball in his left.

It was out.

Who he actually was came out as soon as he took that glove off of his left hand.

But thankfully, no one seemed to notice. If they did, they didn't show it.

Bucky smiled and put the ball in his glove, turning his metal hand over a few times.

Bucky had chosen number 24 for his jersey number, which had a very sentimental meaning.

The reason he had chosen that specific number was only known to him and Steve; it was the date that they had met each other.

February 4, 1930.

2-4.

"Right here, man!" Steve slapped the inside of his glove as Bucky wound up to pitch.

In the end, Bucky pitched an entire inning in nine pitches, striking out three batters without a ball or a hit. As he jogged back to the dugout to bat, he took his hat off and put it back on, winking at Morgan.

When he got inside, he looked at the piece of paper from Steve to find the batting order.

"What are you writing in, Chinese?" Mike took the piece of paper off the wall of the dugout to try to decipher Steve's handwriting.

"Here. I'm one of Steve's only known translators," Bucky joked. "I've been doing this for years."

He took the piece of paper and looked at Steve, who was pretending to be offended.

"Cameron, Tom, Zach, me, Steve, Mike, Tim, Ryan, Brady, Chris. Why am I so close to the top?"

Steve grinned and slapped Bucky on the shoulder.

"Tom, Cameron, Zach get on base and then you hit the dinger and send 'em all home."

Bucky grinned and pulled the sleeves of his undershirt closer to his elbows.

"It's too hot for this thing," Bucky said, pulling his jersey off and leaving the tighter undershirt.

"Whoa! I think you're bigger than me," Steve said, slapping Bucky on the chest. "Your bicep is like my thigh now."

"Yeah, whatever." Bucky pulled the undershirt over his head and then turned his jersey right-side out. Steve snuck up behind Bucky and jumped up onto his back.

"Holy-" Bucky stumbled forward a few steps, catching Steve and pulling him higher onto his back. "You're heavy."

"I had a big breakfast," Steve replied.

Tony came over to the window, hearing all the laughter coming from the inside of the dugout.

"Hey! What's with all the shenanigans?" All their heads snapped up to Tony Stark's voice. "And why in the world is Barnes walking around flexing his abs on all of you?" Tony took his camera out and snapped a picture of Bucky standing in the dugout with Steve on his back, arms around Bucky's shoulders.

Bucky smiled and shrugged, dropping Steve on the concrete floor.

"Ow," Steve said from the dugout floor.

"I was getting out of that stupid undershirt when grandpa spangles decided that it would be a good idea to jump onto my back. I didn't even know a man that old could jump that high," Bucky joked.

"Yeah, whatever. Put a shirt back on," Steve retorted. Bucky held a hand out and pulled Steve off of the floor.

"What's love without a little pain anyway?" Steve asked, grabbing his bat.

"Whoa! What did you guys hear? Because I heard 'Gay for Bucky'," Brady joked.

"Whose birthday is it?" Bucky asked.

Everyone looked around the dugout as Tom went up to bat.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"'Cause look at that cake!" Bucky slapped Steve on the butt and pulled his shirt back over his head.

"Wow. Bucky! You're on deck!" Steve said. Bucky shrugged and grabbed his helmet and a pair of batting gloves.

"You think I'm gonna hit this dinger, don't you? Don't hold your breath, you might be dead by the time you're able to let it out."

"You'll do it. Just do that thing with your hat where you like, pull it off because when you do that, you always do something good."

Bucky looked down and smiled sheepishly.

"I'll do it." Bucky stepped out of the dugout to wait for his turn to bat. Zach got on base, putting runners on all three bases.

Bucky looked over to the stands where he saw someone he'd never seen before. Sam looked at him and studied his gaze.

"Earth to old man! What're you looking at?"

Bucky took his helmet off and shook his head, even though the person he was looking at knew exactly what was going on.

"I'm Bucky," Bucky said to Sarah, Sam's sister.

"Sarah," she replied with a smile.

"No. I will call in a favor with Steve to bench you an inning if you start flirting with my sister," Sam said, only partially joking.

"Okay, okay. Just being nice," Bucky said with a smile, looking at Sarah.

"Buck! Quit smooth talking girls in the stands and hit the ball!"

Bucky snapped his head up to Steve, who was hanging out of the dugout.

"Okay, chill!" Bucky looked at Nat and smiled, winking at her.

"You're silly, Uncle Bucky!"

Bucky smiled at Morgan and headed to the lefty batter's box. When he got to the outer edge of the box, Bucky took his helmet off and put it back on, signaling to Morgan.

And now he heard the recognition of who he was.

"Look at his arm! It's the Winter Soldier!"

He ignored the stands and lifted the bat over his shoulder and poised himself to swing.

When the pitch came through, it was right where Bucky liked them; at his stomach and a little outside. He swung as hard as he could, and when he heard the sound of the contact he watched to see where the ball was headed. He took a few slow steps toward first as he watched the ball fly, all the way past the 400 foot fence in center field.

"YEEAH!" The entire team in the dugout was cheering for Bucky, waving their index fingers in circles pointed toward the sky.

Bucky jogged the bases and when he got to third, Steve was standing there.

"Go, old man!" Steve slapped him on the butt as he jogged to the plate, and the entire team ran from the dugout to meet him at the plate.

"You guys act like I just won the World Series," Bucky joked. "I just hit a home run."

After the game, everyone drove back to the tower.

Bucky was truly happy for the first time in what felt like forever. Steve and Bucky changed out of their baseball uniforms and into a pair of jeans with a t-shirt. The friends crashed on the couch, watching a basketball game.

Steve's head was at one end with Bucky's at the other.

"You guys do realize that we have multiple couches and chairs for a reason, right?" Sam's question was thick with sarcasm.

"We know. Old habits die hard," Steve said, holding his fist out for Bucky to hit. That was how they had sat when they spent time together as kids. Personal space was nonexistent between them.

"You guys are ridiculous."

"Thanks," Bucky replied without sarcasm.

"Not a compliment," Sam replied jokingly.

Morgan jumped up onto the couch beside Bucky.

"Hey, Morgan!"

She smiled as Bucky sat up on the couch and let her sit in his lap.

"Hey yourself!"

Bucky took his hat off and put it back on, winking at Morgan.

"So what are you going to do today?" Bucky asked, taking his attention away from the game.

"I don't know, but daddy says I have to take a nap."

Bucky smiled at her, and contemplated what he was about to say before he said it.

"Sometimes, Steve acts like my dad. He told me that I have to take a nap too," Bucky replied, shooting Steve a "play along with it" look. Steve rolled his eyes at being played as the bad guy.

Again.

Percy walked in with a bag of blue jelly beans, shoving handfuls into his mouth.

"You're gonna turn blue if you keep that up," Bucky said. Percy's head turned to Bucky with a handful of jelly beans halfway into his mouth. Percy scoffed.

"Blue would be a good color to turn, let's be honest," Percy replied. Morgan looked at Bucky.

"I want to turn pink! Or purple!" Morgan exclaimed excitedly.

"I want to turn orange," Bucky replied.

"Okay, but why orange? Iris kid," Percy jabbed at Bucky.

"Why in Hades would you call me an Iris kid?"

Percy tried to hold back his laugh, but failed miserably to do so.

"Because you could've chosen any color of the rainbow and you choose literally the worst one!"

Everyone in the room looks at Percy, trying to hold back laughs but slowly crumbling.

"He's right!"

Morgan gave Bucky a confused look. "Is Percy being mean?"

Bucky looked back to her and nodded, pretending to look sad.

"It's okay, Uncle Bucky. I still like orange." Morgan hugged Bucky, hoping that he wouldn't be sad anymore.

"Hey, Percy? The smartest person in this room likes orange," Bucky shot back.

"Umm… Not to be mean, but I'm not really a fan of orange," Tony replied.

"Not you," Bucky said. "Your daughter. She knows what she's talking about."

"Yeah, okay, whatever. Orange is still the worst," Percy replied, shoving another handful of jelly beans into his mouth.

As Bucky laid on the couch and watched the game, he started to realize how tired he was. The part of his brain that always kept his guard up told him to go somewhere where he was by himself before he fell asleep, because sleep left him vulnerable.

But the optimistic part of him said to dismiss vulnerability from his worries, because maybe that was just what he needed to truly feel like he belonged somewhere. In his mind, if he left his guard down it might let him loosen up around the tower. Even though he knew everyone here well, there were times when it was easier to be by himself; that was hard sometimes when there were so many people living in one building, most of which were men with no sense of personal space.

Percy also had his own problems that he struggled with, but there were only two people in this world that could understand and relate to him; Bucky and Annabeth. He and Annabeth had seen the same horrors, suffered the same quests. Bucky knew trauma in general.

Percy had gotten some not-so-typical big-brother advice from Bucky about how to handle everything and still stay compassionate. Bucky's strategy was to push everything out of his head while he was with people, his entire focus on what was in the moment. Then when he was alone, and only then, he would think.

Percy used the same strategy, and not so much to his surprise it actually worked. He tried to keep the company of other people as often as he could, because if he didn't then it would allow too much time for things he didn't want to see and remember to cross into his headspace. The issue was extremely conflicting, because he didn't want to face the nightmares and things he saw but at the same time he wanted them to stop.

Percy needed help, and he didn't know how to ask.

It was getting more difficult every day, and there was going to be a time when he didn't know what to do anymore.

He could only hope that his informal counseling sessions with Bucky could be enough.