There was a larger crowd in the living room than there had been at the photo op. Which made sense, given that the SHIELD agents whose identities were not public had been up in the vents on guard duty and a few other people had little to no public presence and therefore were of no interest to the media. Bucky scanned the room, trying to guess who was who out of the strangers. Most of them looked and moved like they were in fighting shape. Two of the strange men looked familiar, and a little voice in the back of his head said they were somehow positively connected to Steve. Well, everyone here was, but he felt like he'd personally seen them or someone with a strong resemblance to them physically together with Steve. So one of them must have fought on the helicarriers, because there had been another man, hadn't there? And the other? He wasn't sure. Who would he have seen with Steve in modern times but not have met?

As it turned out, that question was quickly answered. He hadn't.

One of the two familiar strangers looked around the room, spotted him by himself as he examined the bottles at the bar, and made a beeline for him. "It's an honor to meet you, Sergeant Barnes." He shook Bucky's hand. Firm, but not intimidating. A strong man whose strength was disciplined. "Antoine Triplett."

"Nice to meet you too. Call me Bucky."

"And me Trip. I've heard a lot about you."

Bucky winced. "Do I want to know what tales Steve has been telling?"

"Haven't the faintest. I've yet to speak to him. A little intimidated by you both, to tell the truth."

"Then who-?" If he considered it an honor, his information probably came from someone Bucky personally knew.

Trip ducked his head a little, letting the suave agent slide ever so slightly and the little boy who had hung onto every word of his grandfather's fantastic stories peek through. "My grandfather. He used to tell us stories."

Bucky did a double take, eyes lighting up as the recognition fell into place. "You're Gabe's!"

"You guessing that just because I'm black?" His tone made it clear that he was joking.

Bucky gave him an equally non-serious withering look, feeling much more at ease than he had been now that he found himself in the company of his friend's grandson. "No. I knew there was something familiar about you. I just couldn't figure out why you looked familiar." He grinned and passed Trip a random bottle from the bar next to them. "Here. I'm a bit late to the party of slipping my fellow Commandos' spawn booze, but I feel obligated to do it anyway for the sake of fulfilling my duty." Trip laughed and poured himself a glass. "How's Gabe doing?"

"Passed away a few years ago, I'm afraid. But hey, he lived a good life, got out of the war pretty much unscathed. He would've been happy to find out you survived and see you come home. Liked you a lot."

"He talked about us a lot?" Bucky tried some of the liquor himself. Spiced rum. Not bad.

"I bothered him for stories nonstop, and he loved to tell them, and show me all his gadgets. Kept a whole trunk of them in the attic, just because. That trunk of gadgets saved our team's lives when Hydra made their move and we were cut off from SHIELD resources."

"I feel like we had some pretty cool gadgets." Bucky agreed. "You've probably got cooler ones now, but ours were pretty cool at the time."

"I think they're still cool. He said you had a hand in coming up with some of them. Something about you and Howard Stark and a bottle of vodka winding up off in a corner of a bar one night, scratching out a list of really wild ideas on a scrap of paper, half of which got scrapped after everyone sobered up. Or that's how Grandpa told the story."

Bucky shook his head ruefully. "I can see it happening. I wanted to be an inventor when I was little, Howard really was one, we didn't get to just hang out very much but I sure had fun when we did. Our ideas must've gotten wilder with every drink."

"I'm sure they did. He made you sound like a pretty sharp guy. Quick wit and good eye, was his description, with a smart remark and a bright idea for every situation. Sounds to me like exactly the sort of person who'd end up generating a list of crazy ideas when combined with a genius engineer and some alcohol."

Bucky fought down a blush and changed the subject. He still was a little uneasy with people praising him after the things he'd been involved in. "So who are these people, the ones that didn't get dragged up in front of the cameras?"

"Let's see." Trip scanned the room, "Over there, talking to Stark and Banner are our scientist, Jemma Simmons, and our engineer, Leo Fitz. He'd be an interesting person to talk to, if you don't mind me saying it. He's got a bit of Hydra-inflicted damage to live with too, some speech and coordination trouble. Might make him a little less mopey to be reminded that he's not the only one who has to wake up to those reminders every day." Bucky shrugged. Trip didn't push the subject. "Talking to Romanoff and Ms Potts..."

"I know Hill."

"Ah, good. She's a hardass. Scares me a little." Trip confided. "So does May though. She's the fourth-Melinda May. Senior field agent. Coulson's second in command. The two young ladies over there, the one in black is Skye, she's with us. Junior field agent, genius hacker. Coulson is a little worried about letting her near Stark. Or Barton, for that matter. Thinks they'll get in trouble together."

"Wonder why."

"I almost want to see it. And the one in purple I don't know, but I think Doctor Foster called her Darcy. Her assistant, is my guess."

"Makes sense." Bucky scanned the room again. "Who's that talking to Steve and Coulson? I recognize him from somewhere."

Trip shook his head. "Dunno. Coulson's got his recruitment face on though."

"Sam." Bucky looked around again. "Steve mentioned someone called Sam, and I don't see anyone else here whose name I don't know."

"It's been an hour. I went to the trouble of getting your favorite food, and it's been an hour and you've walked by it five times without touching it. I counted." Tony complained, interrupting Steve and Sam's conversation across the table of refreshments. Steve looked around him confused. The only food on the table that he didn't think he'd sampled yet was the pot of thick off-white soup, for which there didn't appear to be bowls or spoons. He definitely didn't see any apple pie on the table.

"Have I? I think I've had a bit of just about everything on here."

Tony peered at the pot. "The fondue looks untouched to me." Wait. Fondue? That was fondue? Steve remembered Howard telling him that fondue was just cheese and bread, but he'd never actually seen it, but yes, now that he thought about it that did look like melted cheese, and the plate of bread was right next to it, as were long-handled forks that could be used to dip it, and hold up a minute, why did Tony just imply that fondue was his favorite food? Oh for fuck's sake. Stupid question. Because it was Tony.

Steve groaned. "I can't believe your father told you that story."

Now it was Tony's turn to be surprised. "He didn't tell me anything. Hold up. What story?"

"If you didn't hear it from him then why are you claiming to have gotten fondue especially for me?" Steve wasn't sure he believed him. It didn't make sense. "I didn't even know what that was."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I asked first. You mentioned a story. What's the story?" Tony crossed his arms. "You are not getting out of this one, Spangles."

Sam looked between the two confused avengers staring each other down, and the new addition to the team who had quietly moved closer to them and was sporting a Cheshire Cat grin as he watched, clearly the only person who knew what was going on. The Winter Soldier was all but unrecognizable out of that black leather getup, with his hair neat and in street clothes and that mischievous expression. He was definitely up to something, and that was good. He looked good. He looked happy and human again, at least for the moment. If there was anything that Sam knew well as a counselor, it was that recovery was about life as a series of moments.

"...I didn't know what fondue was when I first heard your father mention it and other people found the ensuing awkwardness much more amusing than I did." Steve grumbled grudgingly.

Tony raised an eyebrow, eyeing Steve's pinking cheeks. "There has got to be more to it than that."

"I don't believe you that you don't already know the story. You just want to make me tell an embarrassing story about myself." Steve said suspiciously.

"Scout's honor. I had no idea there was a story." Tony spotted Bucky behind Steve, shaking with silent laughter, and realized what was going on. Oh there was definitely a good story for this one. "I got it because Bucky told me it was your favorite food."

Bucky sauntered up and threw an arm around his sputtering and blushing boyfriend's shoulders. "Sex. He thought it was a euphemism for sex. Causing him to mistakenly think that your father was sleeping with his love interest, causing him to get shot at by her when he tactlessly expressed confusion at her being upset about another woman kissing him on the grounds that she was 'fondueing' with your father so she shouldn't be upset about him kissing someone." Steve buried his face in his hands.

Tony burst out laughing, looking like Christmas had come early. "That's amazing."

Bucky leaned over and dipped a piece of bread, waving the gooey fork in Steve's face. "Come on Steve. Come out and taste the fondue."

"You are such a-Mmph!" Bucky shut him up by shoving the fondue in his mouth. Steve glared at him as he chewed. Okay, it was good. And now Bucky was smirking fondly. "What? Why are you looking at me that way?"

"You've got cheese on your face." Steve reached for a napkin. Bucky caught his wrist. "Let me." He released his arm to cup his cheek instead, preventing him from ducking away as he kissed him and sucking the (tiny) spot of cheese off his boyfriend's lip in the process. "You were saying?" He pulled away with a cheeky grin.

"...That you're a jerk." Steve tried to give him an exasperated look, but he couldn't quite manage it. The kiss still lingered on his lips, and there was a solid and nicely shaped body tucked into his side, and Bucky just looked so incredibly handsome. His black slacks and dress shirt, obviously purchased with Natasha the day before, hugged his body just right, and someone (probably Natasha) had persuaded him to unbutton the top few buttons on his shirt and roll his sleeves up as far as they'd go, and it was accentuating the lines of his body just right, and damn he was a piece of art.

Bucky's arm moved from his shoulders to his waist, metal fingers wrapping gently around his hipbone. "Your jerk."

"Mmhmm." Steve kissed him back. "My jerk."

"That's just impressive. Still getting action at your age." Tony quipped.

Steve turned bright red at the reminder that they had an audience.