This chapter is the longest in the entire story, because I didn't want to chop it in half. Anyway, enjoy this heaping dose of pure fluff.

Chapter 7: But First

Josiah planned Bucky's bachelor party without any input from him beyond one question. "So…you're bi, correct?" he'd asked. When Bucky nodded in the affirmative, he continued, "But…do you have a preference?"

Bucky'd shrugged. "Steve's the only guy I've ever been into. I'm honestly not sure what that makes me."

"You're whatever you want to be man, but that's all the answer I need."

Bucky figured that had something to do with the gender of the strippers Josiah planned to bring to the party, and he was proven right. In all honesty, though, everyone else at the party probably enjoyed them more than Bucky did. But once he had two drinks in him, he definitely noticed it became more fun. Josiah had invited Gabe, Thor, Bruce, and John and Lemar from the soccer team. Both Steve and Bucky had instructed their friends to keep it small. The whole time, Bucky couldn't help but wonder what was happening at Steve's party, and whether it was as fun as this one. Knowing Tony and Nat, it definitely was. He was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to wish to be at his fiancé's party, but Bucky couldn't help it.

His spirits lightened when Josiah announced they were going to play a game, one that involved a pre-recorded video of Steve. It was the same game that Tony had asked him to play for Steve's party.

"On a scale of one to Walker on Flamingo Day, how badly is this going to embarrass me?" Bucky asked. "Tony had me record answers to do this for Steve, but something tells me the questions you came up with are probably far less mature."

"You have so little faith in me," Josiah said.

"Flamingo Day was your fault!" John interrupted.

"Shut up so we can play this thing." Josiah made them all sit in front of his phone so they could see the recording of Steve. Bucky recognized Josiah's voice as the one reading the questions. He wondered how different they'd be thematically from the ones Tony had asked him.

"Is Bucky more like his mom or his dad?" Offscreen Josiah asked.

Bucky saw Steve purse his lips in thought before the video paused and he was forced to answer for himself. "I think I'm more like my mom, if I had to choose one. I like to think I'm a lot more relaxed and gung-ho than my dad. He always wanted to find a routine and stick to it religiously. Mom's more spontaneous, and I also like to think that I got her kindness."

"I'm not so sure about that last one," Gabe teased. "You can be a right asshole sometimes."

"Only to people like you when they deserve it," Bucky retorted.

Once the jovial argument died down, Josiah let Steve's response play: "His mom. Bucky's dad is a lot more straitlaced than he's ever been. He and Winnie have the same sense of humor, and they're both very concerned about other people's well-being, sometimes even above their own."

Bucky shook his head. "Of course he would go and use some big dictionary word like straitlaced, but he basically said the same thing I did."

"What does that mean?" Thor asked. "Stri…stray-t-lassed?"

"It basically means strict," Bruce informed him.

"Ready for the next question?" Josiah asked.

"Before we go any further, I have to ask," John cut in. "How many of these questions made Steve blush? Because those are the ones I'm excited for."

Bucky punched him in the arm. "Shut up, Walker. Only I get to make Steve blush."

Sure enough, the very next question was one that instantly turned Steve's ears red. "Which one of you is more romantic?"

"I honestly don't know," Bucky began. "That's not something I think about that often."

"Lame," Lemar jeered. "Pick someone."

Bucky was usually the one to plan dates, but that was just because Steve was hopelessly uncreative in that department. But didn't that in itself make Bucky the more romantic one? "Let it be known that I did not reach this answer quickly, but I'm going to say me."

"So he's a confident Casanova," Josiah teased.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Just roll the tape."

"Man, I dunno," Steve said. "I guess I'd have to say Bucky. He's much better at planning dates. I went on one date before we got together, and she had to ask me out and set everything up. Also, he's far more likely to do some crazy gesture to win someone's affection."

"Someone's?" Offscreen Josiah asked knowingly.

"Well, mine. My affection," Steve corrected. His brow furrowed. "Unless you know something?"

"No, I'm just joshing you. You know Bucky only has eyes for you. Always has. That's why his girlfriend broke up with him in college. She said he talked about you more than anything else."

Bucky turned to Josiah and eyed him furiously. He'd told him about the break-up in confidence and disguised the true cause from Steve for a reason.

The video continued. "Wait, are you serious?" Steve asked. "He told me she broke up with him because she liked someone else."

"Well, she did start dating someone else after Bucky. But that wasn't the reason they broke up. That would be you."

"This is news to me." Steve looked simultaneously baffled and honored. Josiah paused it again.

"Are you really mad at me?" he asked, genuinely afraid.

"No." Bucky grinned. "He would have found out eventually. I just didn't want him to think me a simp so early in our relationship. I told him about that breakup less than two months after we started dating."

"You're not a simp," Thor said calmly. "Just…hope-less-ly in love."

"I'll take it. Next question."

"Who's more disciplined?"

Bucky answered immediately. "Steve. The guy's been managing a treatment schedule from hell since he was born. It's impossible for him not to beat me in that category."

"Au contraire," Josiah announced as he played Steve's response.

"Bucky. He didn't get to where he is in soccer on natural talent alone."

"He's right," John said.

"Whatever." Bucky was perfectly content to disagree with Steve about this particular topic. Nothing would ever convince him that he was somehow more disciplined than Steve.

"What is one thing Bucky has that you'd love to get rid of?" Offscreen Josiah asked.

Bucky had to think about this one. He didn't really own anything that Steve hated. The phrasing of the question didn't necessarily imply an object, but Steve would probably choose one. Bucky wracked his brain for the item in his life considered the most frivolous by Steve and the best conclusion he could come to was, "I have this beanie that looks like a wolf that I got for Christmas one year from Tony. Now that I'm not bald I don't wear it that often, but when I do I can tell Steve hates it."

"I like your White Wolf hat," Gabe said.

"Thank you, Gabe."

Steve's answer, actually, was a very simple two words delivered with complete earnest: "Phantom pain." Bucky should have expected he'd go the sappy, angsty route with his answer.

"I don't even get phantom pain that bad anymore. Not sure why he'd love to get rid of it since I don't complain about it much."

"You probably complain much more than you realize," John said.

"Yeah," Lemar added. "Phantom pain's a bitch." Josiah nodded his agreement.

"I wouldn't know," John said casually.

"Shut up, Walker." Josiah punched him. "You don't have to brag about your nerves that have never known a foot."

"Steve prob-a-bly wants to get rid of it for your…comfort, not his," Thor pointed out.

"You're probably right," Bucky said.

"When did you realize that he was 'the one?'" came the next question.

"When he suggested that we get matching tattoos," Bucky said immediately. "We didn't act on it at the time, but in retrospect, that's definitely the moment I knew."

Steve was equally as confident in his answer, but it was a completely different one. "When I punched a kid on the playground in kindergarten and he took the fall for it. The bastard didn't even hesitate, and left me to eat lunch alone while wondering just how harshly he'd be punished by the principal."

"Steve punched a kid in kindergarten?" Lemar asked.

"Yep. These bullies were calling him names, and I was about to get him to walk away and ignore them, but then they called me names and he snapped."

"What did they call you?" Thor asked.

Bucky snorted. "Mama Smurf. Steve was Wheezy Smurf."

"That's horrible," Josiah stated.

"Yeah. Those kids sucked. Bullied us through freshman year of high school."

"It went on for that long?" Lemar said.

"Regrettably. One of them had a parent who always managed to squeeze him out of trouble. But he switched schools freshman year while I was on sick leave, and the rest of them didn't dare mess with us without him."

"Wow. I never knew that about you," Josiah said.

Bucky shrugged. "It's not something I feel the need to talk about often. What's the next question?"

"What is Bucky most proud of?" Offscreen Josiah asked.

"Why did you pick such difficult questions?" Bucky asked.

"It makes it more fun."

"Okay…I guess I'd say I'm most proud of my team."

"Aww," John mocked.

"I'm not finished," Bucky cut him off. "I don't just mean our soccer team. Yeah, that's part of it, but I also mean my team of Gravesen residents, and my partnership with Steve. That's more important than any physical token of achievement."

"You're such a sap," Josiah bemoaned. "Any one of us would have said the fucking Paralympic gold medal."

"If that's your proudest accomplishment, more power to you," Bucky conceded. "It's just not my answer. Now show me Steve's."

"Gosh, there's so much to choose from," Steve began. "You try answering this question about a guy with a Paralympic gold medal and an Espy award, it's not fucking easy. Do I have to pick just one thing?"

"You just have to answer how you think Bucky would answer," Offscreen Josiah explained.

Steve hesitated for a long time before settling on, "I think he's most proud of the way he lives his life, unstoppably and unabashedly."

"It's like they pulled you guys straight from a romance novel," Lemar said.

"And a high quality one at that," John continued.

"I suppose that's a compliment, so thank you." Bucky only hoped this romance novel had a happy ending.

~0~

"Don't you dare do any extravagant rich person shit for this party," Steve had warned Tony. Mere hours after officially making Tony one of his best people, Steve had a nightmare vision of flying the Starks' private jet to an isolated Caribbean island and drinking the entire supply of some rare fancy liquor aged for a hundred years in barrels made of wood from extinct tree species. He wanted to ask Josiah what he had planned for Bucky's to give Tony an idea (and a budget) of what was typical, but it was apparently forbidden for the fiancé to know such information. All Steve knew was that it would include some game where Bucky answered questions about Steve and then learned how Steve answered those same questions. Josiah asked him some…interesting things.

Steve wasn't allowed to find his own way to the party; apparently the address would give away the surprise. He was also instructed to wear comfortable clothes, and the possible reasons for that both confused and discomfited him. Parker picked him up and took him to Stark Tower of all places. He knew the building had many unused floors, and his imagination ran wild with ideas about what Tony and Nat might have done with them. Not even his most whimsical fantasies could have prepared him for what awaited when the elevator doors opened. Parker stood behind him literally bouncing on the balls of his feet, watching his reaction.

"What do you think?" Tony asked, out of breath.

Steve could find no words. He had a decent idea of what a typical bachelor party looked like, but there were no women (other than Nat), no slot machines, not even alcohol in sight. Just trampolines. Walls and floor. Parker leapt out from behind him, leaving his shoes in the elevator, and jumped across them to bounce beside Tony, whose backpack was secured with an extra strap to keep it from bouncing with him. Jim and Timmy were already doing flips, and Nick sat beside Natasha atop one of the near-vertical tramps along the walls.

"Has this floor always looked like this?" Steve asked. It was the first coherent thought he could actually conjure.

"Yes," Tony said nonchalantly. "Dad, uh…Dad built it for Arno. This floor was locked down until a few years ago."

"So you didn't get to enjoy it as a kid?" Nick asked.

"Nope."

"That's a damn shame."

"At least I get to enjoy it now," Tony said, bouncing again while spinning in a circle.

Steve toed off his shoes in the elevator, thinking about how jealous Bucky would be if he learned that this is what Tony and Nat arranged for his party. "I haven't jumped on a trampoline since I was maybe six," he said. As a young kid, he had one of those little indoor ones because bouncing was an excellent way to loosen mucus and it was a therapy that was easy to convince him to do, but of course, he eventually outgrew it. As Steve took his first steps out onto the vast array of trampolines, he realized that, while he might've outgrown that little one, he hadn't outgrown a love of jumping. Not even close.

Parker hopped up behind him and smacked him on the shoulder. "You're it," he proclaimed, and jumped away. Everyone on the floor immediately scattered, though Nick and Nat remained on their perch. Steve leapt from tramp to tramp, hot on Parker's tail. A moment later, he redirected and cleared the distance between him and Jim in one massive leap.

"You're it!"

Steve's heart pounded and his lungs burned, but not painfully so. As he evaded Tony's and then Timmy's attempt to tag him, he once again silently thanked his donor with all the gratitude he possessed. Teenage Steve never could've dreamed of doing something like this without keeling over and coughing up his weight in sputum.

They tired of tag after fifteen minutes or so, and then Tony bounced over to a cabinet that contained dozens of foam balls. "Dodgeball time."

"Oh! I can play this one!" Nick announced. He hopped down from the wall and bounced towards Tony. Steve wondered how he could navigate the seemingly endless sea of trampolines.

"I let him explore before you got here so he knows his way around the court," Tony explained.

"Cool. Nat, are you gonna join us?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Can't. Dead ankles, remember?"

Guilt immediately overcame him. "Tony! You planned a party that she can't participate in? That's not cool."

"This whole thing was her idea. I don't even know how she knew I had a trampoline floor."

"Really? Natasha, why would you pick this if you knew you couldn't do it?"

"I knew how much you'd like it. Besides, I can referee dodgeball."

"Are you sure?"

"Enjoy your goddamn party, Steve. Don't worry about me."

He couldn't argue with that. Steve teamed up with Jim and Timmy against Tony, Parker, and Nick. At Natasha's signal, the competition began. Steve didn't bother bending down to pick up a ball; he jumped and let the bounce shoot the ball straight up into his waiting hands and threw it at Parker. He hopped out of the way, grabbed onto the top of the wall, and perched there like an insect. Next time a ball sailed towards him, he launched off the wall and caught it. Steve took a hit to the shoulder, then the knee. The foam dodgeballs only hurt if they'd been lobbed by Nick, who had a shockingly strong throwing arm and even more shockingly good aim.

"How is he doing that?" Timmy bemoaned after getting beaned right in the face.

"You grunt like a fucking Neanderthal whenever you throw," Nick retorted.

Steve choked on a snort. Then a ball hit him in the side of the head. He turned to see who could've possibly made that shot, and Natasha smirked and waved. "Cheater," Steve growled at her.

"I only meant to throw it back onto court," she explained. "Your head was in my way."

Steve launched another ball at Nick, but he swiftly ducked out of the way. His next shot managed to hit Tony right in the gut, but then Parker hit Steve. He had no idea if Natasha was keeping score or whatever, but nobody ever got out. That was fine by him; it kept the action going. By the time Natasha announced time, they were all sweaty and exhausted.

"Steve's team wins," she proclaimed.

"By how much?" Tony asked.

"Three points."

Jim and Timmy high-fived and then, without much setup, hoisted Steve up onto their shoulders. "Wait what the heck?" he was so startled by the sudden change in altitude that he almost fell right off, but they kept him steady. Right up until they tossed him onto the next trampoline over. He managed to twist in midair and avoid landing face first.

"Hooray for the victorious bachelor!" they cried. Parker extended a hand to help Steve to his feet.

"I've got waters upstairs," Tony announced. He led them all to the elevator, which still had Parker's and Steve's shoes in it, and took them up a floor to what looked like a sports bar, complete with a pool table and a bartender on duty. They all started with water, but as they caught their breath and rehydrated, other people appeared from behind the bar and laid out food.

"So, are you excited?" Parker asked him as they sat down around one of the empty tables to eat.

"I don't think there's even an adjective to describe how I feel," Steve said. "I was excited to get new lungs, but this? Is a whole 'nother level."

He smiled. "That's great. I'm so happy for you guys."

"I can't believe it's only a week away."

"This week is gonna go by so slowly, but at the same time faster than any other week ever has," Tony said.

"Yeah, I'm sure it will."

"Now that we're all here and mostly cooled off, I have a little something to show you. We got Bucky to play the, 'How well do you know your future spouse,' game," Tony explained.

Steve laughed. "Josiah made me film my answers last week. Apparently he's doing the same thing for him."

"Hopefully we picked different questions," Natasha said.

"Better questions," Tony continued.

"The ones Josiah asked me were all over the place," Steve said. "But I have no doubt yours will be equally as interesting."

"Well this time you're answering for yourself, not for Bucky."

"So it's gonna be harder," Steve complained.

"I sure hope you're not that kind of couple," Nick remarked.

"They totally are," Tony said as he set up the video. Steve and the rest of the group gathered in front of it. Tony hit play, and they watched Bucky listen to an offscreen Tony ask the first question, "Steve has the day off and an empty house, how does he spend the day?"

"I don't even know how to answer that," Steve said, shaking his head. Tony paused the video before they could hear Bucky's answer.

"What do you mean? What would you do if you had no one around and nothing to do?" Parker asked.

"I guess I'd probably find something cool to draw and take my time with it. Maybe go for a run."

He could tell by their expressions that his friends were not pleased with that answer. "Are you seriously that boring?" Timmy asked.

"What? I answered honestly."

"You can do that without having the house empty," Nat pointed out.

"I just don't have anything I'm dying to do but am unwilling to do with other people around."

"I guess that's fair enough," Tony said. "Frankly, I don't know how I'd answer this question either."

"Let's see how Bucky answered it."

Tony played the video again. Bucky scoffed in reaction to the question, "Probably working out. Or maybe drawing. Steve is very what-you-see-is-what-you-get. There's not much that goes on that he's not willing to let other people see."

Steve laughed. Of course Bucky would nail it.

"Who spends more time in the shower?" Offscreen Tony asked next.

His ears turned red. "That would be me."

Bucky's answer: "Steve. No question. He takes the longest, steamiest showers of anybody I know. He says now that he doesn't have to do the vest and nebs, he has to make up the hours somehow. And some days he makes up all of them in the shower."

"Yeah, that's…fairly accurate," Steve said. Plus, the steam helped unclog his sinuses.

"No shame in a long shower," Parker assured.

Offscreen Tony next asked, "What's something that always makes Steve laugh?"

"I dunno. There's not, like…one type of humor that gets me. It's really people, especially you two," he pointed to Jim and Timmy, "And Bucky that always find ways to make me laugh."

From beside him, Tony choked back a snort.

"What's that reaction?" Steve asked suspiciously.

"Just watch what Bucky said."

Tony unpaused the video. Bucky smirked and answered, "Me."

Steve burst out laughing.

"I guess he was right," Nick said bluntly. That comment only made Steve laugh harder. Laughter itself always stoked his giddiness because it no longer collapsed into coughing. He kept it up for several minutes before he quieted down enough for Tony to play the next question.

"What is Steve's guilty pleasure?"

Steve could think of several. But he knew he was wont to find guilt in completely innocent things, so most of the ones he was thinking of probably wouldn't even count among his friends. The one he felt most strongly about probably fell into that category, but if he was honest with himself he had to choose it. "Honestly, just breathing," he began. "People really take that for granted. But I lived for so long not being able to do it properly, that to breathe easily now is as much of a pleasure as anything else, but every breath comes with guilt because I know they're supposed to belong to a person who isn't here anymore."

"Wow," Jim said. "Steve, I don't think I've ever had a conversation with you that hasn't made me rethink my life in some way."

Steve shrugged. "I'm just being honest. What did Bucky say?"

Tony played his answer. "Empty calories. But I think that probably applies to everyone with malabsorption issues. Or just…everyone."

"Yeah, that too. Growing up, my parents rarely let me eat sugary candy like jelly beans or gummy bears. They tried to steer me towards the higher calorie, fatty sweets. Naturally, that made me prefer the stuff I couldn't have."

"I've literally never seen you eat jelly beans," Timmy said.

"That's why they're a guilty pleasure. I don't eat them often, and that makes it so when I do they don't really stick around long enough for people to see that I've eaten them," he explained. Starburst jelly beans were his personal favorite, but he normally only got them around Easter.

"Got it."

"Ready for the next one?"

"Sure."

Tony unpaused the video and they listened to his voice ask, "Who's handier, you or Steve?" He paused it, but not quite quickly enough. Steve could see Bucky's mouth open to answer, and the look of conflicting anger and bemusement on his face.

"You mean, like, fixing things? Or is this just a jab at his disability?" Steve asked. "Because if it is, I'm not answering."

"It was just meant to be about fixing things," Parker assured. "I tried to look up synonyms, but there weren't any good ones. I wasn't about to ask who's more useful."

"Yeah, I guess that would be worse," he chuckled. "Okay…hmmm, I think I'd say Bucky. He sews his own shirtsleeves shut. The handiest thing I've ever done is hang a picture frame. Now show me Bucky's."

"What is this, a joke?" Bucky asked incredulously. "Surely there's another way to phrase that without blatantly punning on my disability." Steve could tell by his tone that he wasn't genuinely upset. He could hear Tony laughing in the background of the recording. "You think you're funny? Yeah, it was pretty funny," Bucky conceded. "Honestly, I think it's kind of a draw. We tie for last place. You're the handy one."

"That's the correct answer," Offscreen Tony said.

"Did you put that in there just to get him to mention you?" Natasha asked.

"Maybe. Anyway, there's only one more question, so let's do it."

"Who is Steve's hero?"

The question took him by surprise. He'd never really thought about it. Bucky had Klaue, but for Steve there was no one person who embodied everything he wanted to be. Or was there? "I guess I'd say Carol, if I had to choose just one. But there are so many people I view as heroes."

Tony smiled and played Bucky's response. "I don't know that he has, like, one singular idol. There are a lot of contenders. His dad, his mom, Dr. Lee, Carol, Clint. If he says any of those, does that count as me being right?"

"Yes, it counts," Steve said to the screen. God, Bucky knew him so well. He supposed nearly two decades of friendship-turned-relationship could do that. It would be interesting to play this sort of game again after they'd been married for several years. But first, the wedding.