Notes: It's finally here! Not MY favorite chapter, but my second favorite. Also, I'm gonna keep bugging you guys about my poll. Three people have voted, and I know two of them personally. So...Pretty please?

~SoN~

Chapter 35-Holly Jolly Unintentional Secrets

Third Person:

Beni was hopping down with excitement as the door bell rang. It was finally Christmas, and Sam and Steve would finally be able to meet Bucky. But that part would have to wait, as well as the present opening because Bucky was taking a shower.

"Welcome, take all of my Dr. Pepper and I will shoot you in the foot. Just set the presents down under the tree, we can play Santa when Princess gets out of the shower, and you have to wear these lovely jewels," Beni said quickly, pulling out two hats. One was a Santa hat that she crammed on Steve's head, and the other was a gray wig that was fashioned into a bun.

"Mr. and Ms. Claus, I welcome you to my not-so-humble home," She said, putting on an elf hat with the attached elf ears.

"You got that right," Sam muttered. But before Steve could question the hats and odd threat, there was a frustrated groan from upstairs.

"BENI!"

The voice sounded familiar to Steve. Like, really familiar.

"I didn't do anything this time!" Beni called back.

"I highly doubt that," Sam said.

"It's stuck again!" Bucky called back. Beni sighed and gave an apologetic look to Sam and Steve. Mostly Steve.

"Uh...I'll be right back. Just sit tight."

Beni practically ran up the stairs and into Bucky's room, where he was standing in just a towel with his metal hand in his hair. Beni chuckled slightly before carefully sitting Bucky down and started to work on untangling his hand from his hair.

"Are there other people downstairs?" he asked.

"Yeah, I invited them over. You need more friends, and they didn't have anything else to do on Christmas so I basically said 'Well, why the fuck not,' you know?"

"Yeah...I'm so glad I didn't go downstairs in just a towel."

"Yeah, but that would have been funny has hell. You would be putting the impressions in first impressions."

"That's not what I really want to be remembered for."

"But it still would have been funny. Aaand...Done. Now go get dressed. And hurry up, I've been waiting all month for you to meet these guys. They're awesome."

"Well if they're your friends I wouldn't expect anything less," Bucky smirked and disappeared back into the bathroom. Beni headed back downstairs to a very confused Sam and Steve.

"Sorry about that. He'll be down in a sec."

"What happened?" Steve asked. Beni gave him a smile.

"I'm not the only one around here with a prosthetic. He gets his stuck in his hair when he showers every now and then. But don't mention it because he doesn't like talking about it."

At that moment Bucky started coming down the stairs, but he was preoccupied with the ugly Christmas sweater that Beni had set out for him.

"Why does my sweater say 'Ho ho no?" he asked.

"Because it's Grumpy Cat," She replied easily.

"And you didn't get us ugly Christmas sweaters?" Sam teased.

"Half your clothes are ugly enough," she quipped. Sam laughed and Beni smirked triumphantly and looked to Steve, who was starring in shock. She raised an eyebrow, and was about to wave her hand in front of his face, but then he said,

"Bucky?"

Beni whipped her head to Bucky, who stared in equal shock at Steve. Sam had stopped laughing. Instead he looked as serious as ever. Beni chuckled nervously.

"You guys...Know...Each other?" she asked, a little uncertain. When no one answered her she grew upset, and a little angry. She was the only one that wasn't in the loop, and no one was speaking up. But that could be changed.

"All three of you on the couch, now," She said, using her colonel voice. Steve and Sam slowly nodded, not taking their eyes off of Bucky, who didn't take his eyes off of Steve and Sam. Bucky walked down and sat in the arm chair.

"Spill," she said, standing in front of them with her arms crossed.

"Bucky here is the Winter Soldier," Sam said bluntly, almost shrinking under Beni's hard gaze. She was on the verge of being very, very pissed. Sam has seen her pissed off before, an it didn't turn out pretty for anyone.

"The who now?" Beni asked.

"I...I'm an assassin. Well, was. But then you...Er...Your friend hit me with his car..." Bucky said awkwardly.

"We're old friends from the war," Steve added.

"War? Like, World War II?" Beni asked. Steve nodded, and if Beni wasn't in commando mode her jaw would be scarping the floor at that very moment.

"Care to explain?" Beni sat down on the coffee table. She looked over at Bucky and gave him a reassuring smile, but he just looked down at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world at that very moment.

"Steve can," Bucky said quietly. "I'll fill in what I've remembered so far." Beni just nodded in response.

"During the war Bucky's whole squad was taken by the Germans known as HYDRA," Steve started. Beni's grip on the edge of the table tightened little bit in anger. She had had plenty of experience with them. Steve continued. "They did experiments on Bucky and a whole lotta other fellas. A couple of years after I got 'em out we went on a mission in the Alps. We were hijacking a HYDRA train, and Buck got blasted out of the hole in the car we were in. And when I reached for him he...He fell. And then a couple months before you got back, we fought on one of the new Helicarriers, and he pulled me out of the river and left. I've been looking for him ever since. If I had known he was with you..."

"What about what happened between the war and now?" Beni asked. Her voice was soft and caring, not cold and hard like the commando voice she had used earlier.

"I was taken by the Russians and fitted with a new arm. Then I somehow ended up with HYDRA. After that...I had my memories wiped after every mission, and I was put in cryo in between them, which is how I've stayed looking like I did back in the forties."

"What were you doing before you got hit with the car?" Beni just sounded really curious at this point.

"...Uh..."

"You hit him with your car?" Steve asked, his face in complete shock

"Don' be stupid. My friend hit him with his car, the day I got back. He was giving me a ride from the airport and Bucky jumped out of nowhere."

"I was...Burying a body," Bucky answered, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Whose body?" Beni asked.

"...The guy who made all the shit that was put in my blood every now and again. Like, random chemicals and formulas and stuff."

"Oh. Good for you."

"Beni!" Sam said.

"Well he deserved it! Just like any other HYDRA guy who hurt him and you guys and me! In fact, if Bucky wants to go back to killing the people that did all this shit to him, I will gladly join him. No one who does that should be allowed to walk free like they are now. Not anyone. He lost an arm and his memories, and I'm gonna help him every way I fucking can every step of the way."

"...So you're not mad that I didn't tell you I was an assassin earlier?" Bucky asked, raising his head. Beni shook he head and smiled.

"Till the end of the line, remember? I understand, and I also understand that you're not that guy anymore. So we're cool. Now, are we gonna open presents or what, because I think we're all going to enjoy the ones I got for Steve," Beni stood up.

"Really? Just like that?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. He's staying if he wants, and we're all good now. I've lived with Bucky since the second day I got back. Despite everything you just told me, I still trust him."

"...Okay then. Let's do this then."

Beni smiled and tossed Steve a thin box, she handed Bucky a medium sized box, and she gave Sam a rather large box that had holes pressed into it. He raised an eyebrow and took the top off, and Sam' eyes widened.

"His name is Redwing," Beni told him with a smile.

"You got Falcon...A falcon?" Steve asked, looking over Sam's shoulders. Beni laughed.

"Oh totally. Open yours, Buck."

He did, and his eyes widened at the sight. It was a tablet made by Stark Industries, so it had all the cool little features like holograms and free Wi-Fi anywhere he went.

"Woah," he said, eyes wide. He pressed a button and the settings floated above the screen. She looked at Steve and got a Cheshire grin that made Steve more than a little uncomfortable.

"Open yours," she said. Sam and Bucky looked at him expectantly as he ripped open the paper and took the lid off the box.

"It's a shirt that says 'FOSSIL' and...What is this?" he held up the small device. Sam couldn't stop laughing as he clapped for Beni sarcastically.

"It's Life Alert, just in case you fall and can't get up," Beni laughed. Steve still looked confused, so Sam explained it for him.

"It's because you're ninety-six years old, and old people these days fall and can't get up 'cause of health issues."

"I might actually need this when I'm one-ninety," Steve said with a roll of his eyes as he stuffed it in the box. Sam was actually crying from laughter at this point, and Bucky had a huge grin on his face.

"With all the stupid shit you do it makes perfect sense," he said, nudging Steve with his fake hand. Steve gave his old friend a pointed look before smiling a little.

"You don't know the half of it," he said. Sam nodded in agreement.

"This guy," he said, "Told me about this time before the serum, and he had just gotten into the army. And the Phillips guy threw a dummy grenade, and Steve was the only one to jump on it, right? And then he was like 'Is this a test?'"

Bucky stared at Steve wide-eyed before he got a glare.

"You jumped on a grenade without knowing if it was real or not?" he asked, voice suddenly hard. Steve almost shrunk under Bucky's gaze. "What other possible life-threatening shit have you doing?"

Steve was bright red at this point, and he was avoiding Bucky's eyes.

"I...Fought Thor and Iron Man at the same time..."

"Oh really?" Bucky's pursed his lips. He picked up his glass soda bottle that was on the coffee table and took a drink.

"And I jump out of airplanes without any chutes..."

"Oh really?" Bucky's eyes narrowed.

"...And I flew a plane loaded with bombs into the ocean and froze for seventy years.

"Oh really?" The glass in Bucky's hand shattered as he glared at Steve. He turned to Beni. "This is the kind of shit that happens when I'm not 'round to knock some sense into him. You see what I had to deal with back when we were kids?"

Beni and Sam were dying of laughter at this point, and Steve had turned fifty shades of red. Bucky just sighed.

"Don't even get me started on his police record," Bucky groaned, shaking his head.

"You...You had a...Police record?" Beni asked through her laughing. Steve numbly nodded.

"Are you kidding?" Bucky said. "This kid," he jabbed a thumb at Steve, "Has a police record so long it takes up an entire wall at the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian. He got into a fist fight at least twice a week. I always showed up right before he got the stuffing beat out of him."

"Oh my god, you're all Hufflepuffs," Beni nearly wheezed.

"What's a Hufflepuff?" Steve asked.

"Why can't you just keep your mouth shut?" Sam asked, glaring at Steve. Beni just grinned even wider.

"You know what this means?" She asked Bucky. He nodded and ruffled Steve's hair.

"Emergency Movie Marathon. But you gotta open your presents first, Beni."

He set his tablet down and picked up a box, and gently handed it to Beni. She quirked an eyebrow. It was pretty big, and had a really good weight to go with its size. She set it down on the coffee table and tore open the paper, and she nearly squealed with delight.

"You got me a boa constrictor?" She said excitedly as she popped the top of the tank open and carefully picked it up. It was about seven feet long, and it was a beautiful green color with white stripes. She took its tail and wrapped it over her neck like an untied scarf. "She's a beauty!"

"How can you tell?" Sam asked.

"Pfft. I study reptiles, remember?"

"Well, I don't think mine is gonna beat his," Sam said, grabbing another box he had brought in. "But it's still pretty good. It's actually for both of you guys."

Since Beni was to busy talking to her new snake, Bucky was the one to open the box. There were two box sets of books. One being the Hunger Games and the other being Divergent.

"That's from Steve and me," he said.

"Just in time. We an out of reading material last week," Beni said, still muttering to the snake.

"What are you going to name it?" Steve asked.

"Hmm...Thorin."

"Isn't that a character from The Lord of the Rings?" Sam asked.

"The Hobbit, actually."

"What are those?" Steve asked, still confused from the Harry Potter reference. Bucky and Beni shared a look.

"I'll get the popcorn," Bucky said, getting up. Beni nodded and headed towards her movie shelf.

"Steve," Sam said, paling, "What have you done?"