Chapter 14: Moving
Today was moving day. Fortunately, he didn't have much to pack. He'd said his goodbyes to Banner and Stark. Sam was already in Louisiana. That left Wanda.
He knocked on her door and, after a moment, heard her soft "come in."
She was sitting on the bed in sweats and a crimson top, strumming on a guitar. She wasn't exactly producing sounds Bucky would call music, but she seemed lost in the activity even as she looked up at him.
"Hey, just stopped by to say goodbye. I mean, I'm sure I'll see you around. I'll be back here, after all. We don't live that far away."
"Yeah, I know today is the day." She smiled and set the guitar on the floor by the bed. "Steve came by earlier to say goodbye."
Bucky took that as an invitation and sat on the other end of the bed, turning to face her. "Are you doing okay?"
"No."
He sighed and bit the inside of his lip as he considered his answer. He didn't know her very well, but she had lost her family, and he knew what that felt like. "People say it'll get easier. I hope that's true."
"I'll let you know." Her eyes glistened, and she looked away.
"You got any plans for the immediate future?"
She glanced at him. "Vision bought a plot of land in New Jersey. I'll check it out at some point, not that there's any point." Her smile faded, and tears welled in her eyes. "There's no house on it, but I want to see where he envisioned us growing old together."
"He was an android?" The idea of a living android would've blown his mind a few weeks ago, but compared to aliens, a talking raccoon, and sorcerers, it seemed rather mundane.
She smiled and nodded. "Okay, so I would probably be the only one growing old."
"Well, if you decide to be a Jersey girl, you'll still be welcome over for holidays, birthdays, or even just random movie nights."
She held her smile a moment longer. "Thank you." Her head tilted. "You had sisters, right?"
"Three. One's still alive." He wondered whether Becca would recognize him when she saw him. "You had a brother Pietro, I heard?"
"Yes."
Steve mentioned Pietro died saving Clint and a child, but Bucky knew very little else about the man. "Steve told me he died a hero."
"We were partly responsible for what happened, but yeah, he died saving others."
"People make mistakes. It's what you do after that counts."
"Thank you. What were your sisters like?"
Their faces sprung to mind instantly. Ruth's curls. Maggie with her arms crossed, mad at him because one of her friends had a crush on him. Becca who looked just like their mom but with a mischievous streak from the devil. "When I was a teenager, they were always underfoot. They took up the bathroom, borrowed my things without asking, and ganged up on me for everything. They were nothing but a pain in my ass. I miss them a lot."
"Are you going to go see your sister?"
"Yes, but I hear she's not well. I'm not sure she'll recognize me, and if she does, it might do her more harm than good."
"See her before it's too late. Once she's gone, you'll never be able to."
"I will." He had one last bit of business with her. "The other me said you helped when everyone was trying to kill him, and I wouldn't be here if he'd died. I owe you one. Thank you."
She smiled again, and this time it looked genuine. "I needed to get off my ass and try to help after another screw-up."
"Well, thank you." He stood up and eyed the door. "I'll see you around, Wanda."
She stood and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her small frame but barely touched her. He wasn't used to the new strength. He spent most of his time trying not to hurt people or damage things.
"I'll see you around, James Barnes. I'm glad I got to meet you."
-0- -0- -0-
"So, what do you think?" Steve dropped his keys on the table by the front door as Bucky walked in and set his duffel bag on the floor.
"This is your small apartment?" He strolled into the kitchen and opened a cabinet. There was a stack of three plates, a couple of bowls, and two mugs. "Tell me you have more tableware than this?" He opened the next cabinet, but it was empty.
Steve knew it wasn't much, but he didn't need much. "I live alone, and I only stayed here part-time. I was mostly at the Avengers campus or running support groups."
"Well, it's more than what we had in our apartment. This kitchen is twice the size of the one we had."
Steve thought of his old place and smiled. It was small, and the neighborhood was literally dirt-poor. Even though times weren't great back then, the worries were smaller. It wasn't end-of-the-universe stuff. He missed that simplicity.
Maybe now that the world wasn't in mortal peril, he could take a few months off and spend time with Bucky, show him more of the modern world. Watching Bucky take in each discovery was like seeing it all over again for the first time. Things that had once been like magic were now ordinary to Steve, but to Bucky, they were new and wonderful, and it made it all seem like magic again.
"Shit, that's a big bed." Bucky stood in the doorway to the bedroom. He raised his eyebrows and looked at Steve with a mischievous smile. "Why do you need a bed that big?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter," Steve retorted. Being six-foot-two meant he needed stretch room. "You're going to be glad I did."
Bucky moved to the bedroom window and gazed out over the city. "I can't believe we're only a couple of blocks from our old apartment building. It's so strange. It's all so different but also familiar. The layout of the streets, the river, the bridge, and even a few buildings. But…" his voice trailed off, and he rested his forehead against the glass.
"I know." Steve walked up next to him and draped an arm across his shoulders.
He remembered how it had felt walking the streets of Brooklyn for the first time, after coming out of the ice—a combination of shock and deep, aching homesickness. It took a while before this Brooklyn started to feel like home, but though many of the buildings had changed, and there were now neon signs and billboards, the borough's indefatigable spirit still survived.
"Hey." Steve squeezed Bucky's shoulder. "There's a lot I want to show you, starting with shawarma." He loved watching Bucky's face when he discovered new things. "Then, how about we go to an actual movie theater?"
Bucky laughed and wrapped his arm around Steve. "Sounds great, and I promise to keep my mouth shut no matter what they put on the screen."
-0- -0- -0-
After the shawarma and a movie about a bunch of kids that take on a property management company, which was apparently a remake of a "classic" movie from the 1980s, Steve took him to a shopping center to update his wardrobe.
"Prepare to be amazed," Steve told him as they walked through the doors from the garage and entered the massive building that stretched from one end of the block to the other and had an underground parking lot that charged ten bucks just to let someone put their vehicle in a space for a few hours to go spend money at the place.
What a scam.
The moment he stepped into the bright, crowded, noisy world, all thoughts of the parking fee vanished. "Holy cow."
Steve grinned. "I know."
Bucky walked in a daze as Steve led the way. There were what seemed like an endless number of storefronts, and three stories of them. Some were empty, boarded up by advertising panels, but there were still more stores open than he'd ever seen in one place. Hot topic. Teavana. Victoria's secret.
He did a double take at the lingerie displayed on the mannequin in the storefront. Wow.
There was a store about apples and phones, apparently. Weird.
"If you see anything that interests you," Steve said, slowing his gait and letting Bucky catch up, "just walk in."
Bucky nodded. His wallet was in the back pocket of his jeans, bulging with ten one-hundred-dollar bills. He was still waiting on his social security card and birth certificate, so he had no ID, bank account, or one of those plastic cards everyone used as money, and because the government was backlogged due to half the populace returning, it might be a while before he had any official documents.
There was an offshoot to the right, and at the end of it was a familiar store name. Macy's. "They're still around?" He made a beeline toward it, and Steve veered off to follow. "We could never afford to shop here."
He stepped inside to smells and colors. There were ladies' handbags on one side and shoes on the other. "I've never seen so many different kinds of stompers," he said, strolling through the sneakers, boots, colorful heels, and, finally, men's dress shoes.
He made his way to the men's clothing section. He had no idea what was in style, but most people—guys and gals alike—seemed to prefer jeans. That part was easy. It was the shirts that perplexed him. There were so many different kinds. Some were plain, others were brightly-colored. Some had words that declared the wearer a "champion," while others had artwork.
"What's in fashion today?" He asked Steve, then eyed the khaki pants and button-up shirt Steve wore and added, "Nevermind, I'll ask someone else."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked, eyebrows shooting upward.
"It means I haven't seen anyone else in this shopping center wearing beige pants and a button-up shirt, plus, you're a full-fledged grown-up."
Steve looked almost genuinely insulted. "So are you."
Bucky grinned. "Only on paper."
He found a woman with a name tag that said "Janet" and gave her his best smile. "Ma'am, my friend and I are shopping for new clothes, and I'm not sure I can trust his taste," he jabbed a thumb at Steve, who rolled his eyes. "Would you mind?"
"Oh my God, of course!" Her face went bright red as she looked between him and Steve. "You're Captain America, aren't you?"
Steve tilted his chin up and threw a bashful look at Bucky, then smiled at the woman and extended his hand. "Steve Rogers."
She shook it profusely. "My sister was snapped. I got her back, thank you."
"Bruce Banner is the man to thank for that." Steve looked again at Bucky, and this time it was full of joy. "I got people back, too."
Janet helped Bucky pick out a couple pairs of jeans, a collection of long-sleeved shirts, and a button-up that was annoyingly similar to the one Steve was wearing. By the time he left the store, it was all folded and packaged neatly in a large white bag with a huge 'Macy's' in red print on the front.
The next store that caught his eye was something having to do with electronics. There was a wall of headsets, with a couple of people wearing them over their eyes.
"What's this?" He approached an unused headset hanging on the wall and set his bag down. There was a circle a few feet away on the floor that said 'stand here.'
"Virtual reality." A man in a purple shirt with a name tag that said 'Bob' approached.
Bucky was sure his confusion showed on his face. What the hell was virtual reality?
"Go ahead," Steve said with a strange glint in his eye. "Try it."
With a shrug, Bucky stood in the circle. Bob handed him the headset, and he put it on, adjusting the strap. Everything was dark, except for a tiny point of light at the nosepiece.
A device was placed into each of his hands, and Bob said, "I'm putting the wrist guards on. If you see lines pop up, that means you're about to hit the wall. Do you want to have a lightsaber battle or float in outer space?"
He knew what lightsabers were thanks to movie night, but the outer space thing sounded interesting. "Space."
"One moment," the guy said.
The words 'Space Walk' rose in the darkness, and then a circle spun for a couple of seconds. A moment later, he was floating above the earth. "Holy shit."
He turned his head and saw some kind of spacecraft. A long line tethered him to it. The craft was massive, and it had a bulbous part at one end.
He got disoriented quickly and started to float away. The planet loomed in front of him, swirling white clouds and oceans of blue. He put his hands out and saw two white gloves.
Then he was twisting, spinning slowly, and he reached out, feeling himself toppling until two hands caught him.
"Easy, Buck," Steve said. The headset came off, and he blinked against the bright light. "You almost took a header."
Bucky looked at the headset in Steve's hands and then at Bob. "What else can that thing do?"
He spent the next thirty minutes finding out and walked out of the store three hundred dollars poorer with another bag in his hand.
"All right, we better go home before you blow the other five hundred bucks in your wallet."
He nodded. "Good idea." He now knew what Steve meant when he'd said twenty thousand dollars wouldn't go far. After a couple of hours at the mall, he'd already blown two hundred on clothes and three hundred on a completely frivolous but amazing new toy.
"I'm not introducing you to online shopping until you're at least thirty," Steve quipped. "From what I've read, the male prefrontal cortex doesn't fully finish developing until the late twenties. I think you might have another year to go."
Bucky was pretty sure he'd just been insulted, and just for that, he wasn't going to let Steve use the new virtual reality headset…at least not for a while.