For those that read those rough Gravesen Guardians chapters, I hope this fluff is a welcome reprieve.

Chapter 21: Q and A

"Josiah's gonna be here in ten minutes!" Bucky called. After the US's victory last month at the World Cup—a victory which wouldn't have been possible without both an insane score by Josiah and an insane save by Bucky—their joint Instagram had hit one million followers. Soccer being such an internationally famous sport really helped get those numbers up. Bucky occasionally scrolled through the comments just to marvel at how many different languages they came in. They'd kept up the account since college, and since those early days Amputeam had flourished. Nowadays, they posted everything from adaptive workouts for both upper and lower limb amputees to awkward pics they snuck of each other before and after practice.

For months now, their followers had been asking them to do a Q and A. Josiah and Bucky agreed they'd do it only once they hit one million, and with that number accomplished they had no choice but to make good on their promise. Bucky was terrified. He'd done a few interviews around big games, but with those he always had some idea of the kinds of questions they'd ask. They'd posted the ask box on their story a few days ago, and Josiah had compiled them into a master list based on the most frequently asked ones. Wanting this to feel spontaneous and fun instead of rehearsed, he wasn't telling Bucky the questions beforehand nor preparing his own answers. He was just going to plant a camera in front of them, read through the questions, and film the thing in one take. Bucky had no idea what to expect.

"Where do you want me to be?" Steve called back.

"Wherever you want." Bucky stepped out of the bedroom and headed back down the hall. "Just please don't stand right behind the camera and try to distract me."

"Damn, that's exactly what I was planning."

"Don't you dare."

A knock sounded at the door and continued incessantly until Bucky opened it. Josiah nearly whapped Bucky in the head with a crutch, so focused was he on banging it against the door. Luckily, Bucky ducked just in time. "Watch it," he warned. "A few knocks is enough. Steve just replaced this door and you're gonna ruin it."

"Hello to you too," Josiah quipped.

"Where's your leg?" Bucky asked as he stood aside to let Josiah in.

He shrugged. "Didn't feel like it putting it on. Where's your arm?"

"Very funny. Save some for the video."

"Save some? Bucky, there's an unlimited supply of bad jokes where that came from."

"Whatever."

"Why are you so high-strung? They've all already seen you at your worst. Remember that one picture I posted?"

"The one I deleted which you then reposted?"

"Yeah, that one."

"How could I forget?"

"If that didn't ruin anybody's impression of you, then nothing you say in this video could possibly ruin it."

"Fair enough."

"Hey Josiah," Steve said as they continued into the kitchen. "How are you?"

"Better than Bucky here."

"It's just a little stage fright." Steve threw an arm around Bucky's shoulders and squeezed reassuringly.

"It's just a Q and A. Not Hamlet," Josiah said.

"Okay, fine. Let's just get set up. Where are we doing this? Kitchen?"

"Kitchen is good," Josiah agreed. "Very homey."

"Okay."

Bucky and Josiah sat down together at the kitchen table, and Bucky scanned every inch of their background to make sure there was nothing embarrassing, incriminating, or otherwise distracting. Steve stood just out of view of the camera, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen with his arms crossed and an amused smirk on his face.

Bucky glared back at him. "What?"

He put his hands up in mock surrender. "Nothing. I just think it's cute how worried you are about making a good impression when they all already love you."

"They love the version of me that the media presents," Bucky corrected.

"What do you mean the media? This is your Instagram. You present that image."

"This is just a more unfiltered version of me than anything they've ever seen before. I'm basically inviting them inside our house."

"By letting them see that little square of it?" He pointed to the camera.

"Yes."

"It's showtime," Josiah interrupted. Before Bucky even had a chance to compose himself, he hit the button to start the video. Bucky lunged into his seat and straightened up. Josiah elbowed him. Bucky would have retaliated, but Josiah sat to his left. He settled for kicking him under the table.

"Hey guys!" Josiah took charge immediately. "We promised to do a Q and A when we hit a million followers, and well, this is us making good on that promise. In twenty-four hours we got over two hundred questions, so if we don't get to yours, I apologize, but there are only so many hours in the day and some of them were hella specific. To the person wondering which brand of crutches is the most bottom-heavy and therefore most useful for self-defense…I don't know. And please get yourself some Mace or a good friend to walk home with you in the dark, okay?"

Bucky heard Steve snickering and glared at him until he shut up. Josiah elbowed him again to bring his attention back to the camera.

"Now, one of the most frequently asked questions and the one I'll be having Bucky answer first is this: how did you find out about amputee soccer?"

"Where else?" Bucky asked. "The internet!"

"Come on, be more specific. These people came here for answers. For me, it was actually my soccer coach. She told me about it the first time I came to a game as a supporter after I lost my leg."

"God, it was so long ago I'm not sure I even remember the details. I think…I'd just been diagnosed and I was looking at a bunch of stuff posted by Ewing's survivors. One of them mentioned amputee soccer and I researched from there."

"Wasn't it that comedian?" Josiah asked. "I seem to remember you telling me it was a comedian who plays amputee soccer."

"Oh yeah! He told this joke about how amputee soccer must have been invented by internet trolls. That was it."

"Hilarious. Okay, next question. Some of these are directed specifically at you or me, so I took the liberty of putting them in alternating order interspersed with questions we can both answer."

"How thoughtful," Bucky remarked. Frankly, he was legitimately afraid of some of the things their followers wanted to ask him and only him.

"Bucky, were you right or left-handed before you lost your arm?" Josiah asked. "A surprising number of people are really curious about this."

The specificity of the question took him off guard. He was expecting something he'd have to tell a story to answer. "Right-handed. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to relearn everything with his non-dominant hand. However," he continued. "Whenever I lose a thumb war to someone who didn't know me before, that is one hundred percent my go-to excuse."

Josiah full on cackled at that, Bucky not far behind. He'd only ever done that once, when he thumb-wrestled one of the able-bodied soccer players back in college. His nerves began to evaporate. Yes, there was a camera before them that was recording their every move to present to a million people, but boiled down it was really just them sharing stories and making each other laugh with the most ridiculous of shenanigans, as it was almost every time they got together.

"I'm going to assume the people who asked this either think they're being cute or are referring to prosthetics, because by now you should all know perfectly well how many flesh-and-bone legs I have. For anyone seeing us for the first time, hello and welcome, and the answer is one."

"Between the two of us, the grand total is three arms, three legs, and one brain cell," Bucky clarified.

"Exactly. But to answer the question, I have two prosthetics. One with a blade for exercise, and one with a foot for when I want to wear both shoes. But if you count every leg I've ever had since I first became an amputee, it's probably somewhere upwards of five or six. A bit of advice: if you can help it, don't become an amputee until after you've finished growing. Makes the process much simpler."

"I'm sure they'll keep that in mind when considering whether or not to lose a limb," Bucky drawled.

"I was kidding," Josiah clarified, locking eyes with the camera lens. "Bridging off of that, a lot of people are wondering if you, Bucky, have ever had a prosthetic and if not, why."

"No, I've never had one. For a lot of reasons, actually, the most important one being that I don't need one. I was actually surprised at how many things are doable with only one hand and a bit of practice. Yes, there are definitely times when having two would be more convenient, but in the grand scheme of things my lifestyle doesn't require one and it would be more of a hassle to have one than not."

"Wow. Such a rousing oratory," Josiah remarked dryly.

"What? It's the truth."

"It's a well-spoken truth."

"This video's gonna be four hours long if you keep getting distracted."

"Fine, fine. Next question. I sort of put them into categories. That was the last of the amputation-focused ones. Now we're moving on to soccer. Who's the biggest troublemaker on the team?"

"Walker. No contest," Bucky said immediately.

"I'm going to have to agree with that. John Walker, if you're watching this, which I know you are because you're a not-so-secret fanboy, I just want you to know that I saw you pour the salt in Pinky's water bottle and I said nothing because I didn't want to be next."

"That's BS!" Bucky called. "You just wanted to see the look on Pinky's face!"

"Was it not a look worth seeing?"

"You're right, it totally was. Sorry Pinky."

"John, don't come after us for this. I know where you live."

Bucky could see Steve absolutely losing it and trying to keep himself quiet so the video didn't pick up on his laughter. It made it even more difficult not to follow suit and break into breathless giggles, but he needed to get through all the questions.

"Now this is a very important question, which I actually don't have an answer of my own for. But I know Bucky does."

"What is it?"

"Who's your amputee soccer idol?"

"Wait, you don't have one?"

"Not really. I look up to all of them equally. But tell the lovely people about yours," he prompted.

"If you were a fan of amputee soccer before we came onto the scene, then you've probably already heard of him," Bucky explained. "His name is Ulysses Klaue. He plays for the Netherlands and he might just be the greatest amputee soccer goalie of all time. Also just a great person all-around, with a killer sense of humor. Actually, when I finished cancer treatment, I got a Make-a-Wish, and I got to train with him for a week. He taught me everything I know. Speaking of which, Josiah, did you ever get a Wish?"

"Yep."

"What did you do with it?"

"I got our backyard garden renovated."

"Really?"

"Yes. Gardening is my father's passion and he passed it on to me."

"How did I not know this? Why didn't you bring any plants to our dorm room?"

"A plant deserves better than to live on a windowsill in such a cramped space."

"Wow. Okay." In all the time they'd spent together and the secrets they'd shared, he never knew about Josiah's green thumb. "What's the next question?"

"Are there any outtakes from the Under Armour photo shoot and can you share them?" he read.

Bucky snorted. "Oh yes, there are definitely outtakes. Will we share them? That's a whole different question. What do you think, Josiah?"

"I don't know man, there's a lot of meme-able material there."

"You trying to spin a soccer ball on your finger and transfer it to mine is not meme-able, it's just sad. Besides, that's a basketball thing."

"It would've looked so cool if I got it right!"

"But you didn't."

"This is beside the point. Will we share any outtakes or not?"

"I'm going to say that's a solid maybe," Bucky declared.

"I'm down with that. Now, these last few are more personal," he said with a devious quirk of his eyebrows.

"I don't like that," Bucky said, indicating his facial expression. "What does that mean?"

"The people want to know, what do you think it means to the community, and what does it mean for you to represent the US on a global platform as an openly gay man?"

He should have expected their Instagram following would want to delve deeper into this topic. When they posted some of his and Steve's wedding photos last year, the comments had been overwhelmingly supportive. Any homophobic comments (to his amazement and joy, they were fairly few and far between) were deleted and the accounts that posted them blocked without hesitation. "First of all, I'm bi. Just want to make that clear. But to answer your question, to me it means that we have seen progress in the right direction. There was a time when I never would have been allowed to marry a man and continue my role as an athlete representing this country." He paused to shoot a smile at Steve. "I also think it does a lot for breaking down stereotypes. There are certain sports that a man can play that would make some people assume he's not straight, but soccer definitely isn't one of them. If I can disprove that from the other side, show that playing a traditionally masculine sport doesn't always mean heterosexuality, it helps bring down that negative stereotype."

"Well said," Josiah commented. A smile crept onto his face. "Bridging off of that, people want to know how Steve is."

Bucky's face lit up. "Steve is fantastic," he said. He glanced over to his husband still hiding off camera and waved for him to join them. Steve shook his head and took a step back, but Bucky narrowed his eyes in a silent, "I will drag you here if you don't come willingly," and Steve reluctantly approached. He stopped right behind where Bucky sat and waved shyly to the camera. "He just celebrated his fourth Breatheday," Bucky announced. "For those that don't know, that's a term for a lung transplant anniversary." He tilted his head back enough to see Steve's face and asked, "How does it feel?"

"Each breath is as incredible as the first," he said.

"Aww," Josiah cooed. "You guys are adorable."

"I know," Bucky said matter-of-factly.

Steve swatted him across the back of the head before marching out of frame. Bucky smiled sheepishly at the camera before asking Josiah, "Are there any more?"

"No, those are all the questions I marked down as frequently asked. Or just ones I liked. Is there anything else you want to say before we call it a day?"

"It's pediatric cancer awareness month."

"That's right! Have we posted about that yet?"

"Yeah, I did one on the first day of September."

"Did you do the requisite sick pics?"

"They're not a requisite." He redirected his next words to the camera. "Cancer survivors, you are not required to share your suffering with the world. That's true for everyone actually, but I think we as a survivor community are pressured to use that sort of thing as part of raising awareness. There's this idea that if you don't, you're dishonoring those that didn't survive, or letting the idea that it's not that big an issue continue to exist, but it's not your responsibility. We do it because we want to."

"Exactly. Thank you, Bucky. I think that needed to be said, and it's a great way to close out this video. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions, and I hope we answered your most burning ones. Maybe we'll do this again when we hit two million?"

"Sounds like a plan."

And with that, Josiah hit the stop recording button. Bucky felt himself sag in relief. "That went better than I expected."

Josiah patted him on the back. "You're a natural. You've got charisma."

"Thanks. By the way, I just used some of the same sick pics from last year's pediatric cancer awareness posts. But I threw in a new one of mine."

"Which one?"

"I don't think you've ever seen it. I went through my mom's old pictures. She has a bunch of right after amputation, because it was one of the only times I gave her permission to document things."

"Yikes. Post-surgery pics are definitely not where I look my best."

"You should see mine," Steve huffed.

"I'm sure you looked like a champion," Josiah said.

"Not exactly. All I have to say for myself is that I did manage to shave beforehand, so I didn't have scruff underneath a dozen different tubes."

"Have you ever considered letting your beard grow out?"

"No."

"You should try it. Just so you know what it would look like."

"It's itchy," he said. "And I like having a regular routine, so cutting out shaving would stress me out."

"Alright," Josiah said. He packed up his equipment and headed back to the door. "I'm going to post this to our IGTV. It doesn't need any editing so I should have it up by the end of the day."

"Sounds good," Bucky said. "Thanks for fielding all the questions. You picked some good ones."

"Thanks for your answers. You're way smarter than you look."

"Hey!"

"It's a compliment. I swear." With that, he closed the front door behind him and left.

"He meant it as a compliment," Steve said.

"I know," Bucky chuckled. "I just enjoy giving him a hard time."

"You guys are quite the pair."

"Three arms, three legs, one brain cell."

"What about us? Three arms, four legs, one pair of hand-me-down lungs, and…dare I say two brain cells?"

"I think I'd give us a solid three."

"Three brain cells. With that much brainpower, do you think we could finally figure out the ending of this book we're supposedly writing?"

"Only one way to find out."