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"How many hot cocoas does this make?" The waitress, Maria raised an eyebrow at her customer. She wasn't sure how such a small woman could put away so much food without the slight sign of weight gain.
Without looking up from the several papers scattered around her, the brunette took the hot cocoa and took a long sip before answering. "Five."
Maria looked even more confused. Almost every day at five in the afternoon for the past three weeks this brunette comes in with multiple books and notebooks in her arms and sit down in the same booth, ordering the same burger, fries and hot cocoa every day. And within that time, she didn't even get a name from her. The most she spoke was about ten words.
Sighing to herself, the waitress shrugged and walked back to the counter. Moving behind the counter, one of her favorite customers walked in with a smirk on his lips and his hair carefully combed back. They were lightly covered in snow, shaking it off as they took their coats off. "Bucky Barnes wasn't expecting to see you anytime soon!"
"Well, Steve and I thought we could come to celebrate!" The sturdy man wrapped an arm around his fragile looking best friend, hugging him tightly while she grinned, even though Steve looked a little less than happy. "Steve just rode the Cyclone!"
"That is something to celebrate! It's on the house, boys." Maria sent them a wink then went to tell the chef their order.
Bucky returned the wink then looked to his best friend. He was still pouting about getting an AF on his third attempt to be enlisted. Sighing, he dragged Steve over to a booth and sat down. "Stop pouting, you should count yourself lucky! When all the men go off to war? You will be the only single man left in the whole state!"
Playing with the salt shaker that was on the table, Steve sighed. "I just want to do my part, Buck. I hate being able not to help."
"I know, but let's not-" He stopped midsentence, noticing the woman that sat in the booth behind the blonde. Instead of wearing her hair short like all the other girls, her hair was long, brushing just past her waist. It wasn't forced into perfect waves but remained straight. She wore close to no makeup, her eyelashes thick and long enough that she would never need to wear mascara. She only wore blush and thinly applied eyeliner.
Steve laughed at his best friend's dumbfounded face, knowing that only a girl could make him look like that. He looked over his shoulder and laughed, even more, the girl didn't even know they were there. She was in her own world. Steve looked back at Bucky and shoved him, welcoming him back to reality. "Why don't you go talk to her? Even though she is far out of your league."
"And how do you know that?" Bucky challenged.
"Because those books she's reading? Each is in a different language and it looks like she is reading them with complete ease." The blonde laughed when he saw Bucky's face drop a little. "Now, I know your smart, but last time I checked? You weren't exactly a genius."
Bucky sighed, crossing his arms and glaring at Steve. "Punk."
"Jerk." He said without missing a beat.
At this time, Maria finally showed up with their food. She flirted with Bucky for a few minutes before returning to the counter to take more customers orders, meanwhile, Bucky Barnes was staring at the beautiful girl in the booth in front of him. He wanted to go up and say something, but for the first time, he had no idea what to say to a girl. He thought so hard about it that he began to bounce his knee uncontrollably.
"For the love of all that is righteous!" Exclaimed out of annoyance, Steve threw up his hands and slammed them down on the table as he moved out of the booth. He moved towards the girl's booth, Bucky looking like he was about to kill over while he watched his best friend to talk to the girl he was dying to talk to. Steve cleared his throat, gaining the woman's attention. She had bright green eyes, the kind of eyes Bucky would instantly fall for. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but my friend thinks your awfully beautiful but he's too much of a nervous wreck to talk to you. Would you mind taking pity on him, me as well, and talk to him?"
She blinked a few times before looking over to the friend he was talking about. She ignored the fact that he looked like he was about to kill his friend and focused on his features. He was handsome, clean-cut but had a hint of ruggedness in his face. But she liked his eyes… they were blue like the ocean and they effortlessly expressed his emotion. "I think he should come and tell me himself."
Steve grinned at his best friend, watching Bucky get up from his seat and sit down across from the beautiful girl, then Steve slide in next to him. "I'm Steve Rogers, this is my best friend Bucky Barnes."
"Rose Johnson." She returned the smile, moving her books and papers aside. The mathematician met Bucky's eyes and leaned forward a bit. "So, you think I'm beautiful?"
"Very much." He blushed slightly, clearing his throat.
Rose laughed, the sound pleasing to Bucky's ears. She threw her hair off her shoulder and took a sip of her hot cocoas. "You're not so bad yourself, stud. But, tell me about yourself."
"I'm enlisted." Steve offered up after asking Maria to move their food to this table.
This didn't surprise Rose, after the news of the oncoming war? Everyone was enlisting to help the war effort. Sighing, the mathematician ran a hand through her hair. "You and everyone else."
"You too?" Bucky asked, taking a bite of his fries. "How long before you think they will be called to action?"
"I'm already called." She explained, gesturing to the several books and hundreds of papers. Her eyes glazed over as she thought about the last few months and what had caused them. "Some high up government official liked my brain and wanted it for themselves. They want me cracking Nazis codes or something like that, I haven't really received official orders besides finish my doctorate."
Bucky noticed the look in her eye, the loss that was in them. He was familiar with the look, he often saw it in his best friend's eyes as well as his own. But what he wasn't expecting was the anger that was behind it, the need to fight. "You lost someone?"
The air immediately changed as the brunette nodded. She played with her straw, mindlessly stirring her hot cocoa. She cleared her throat and looked out the window, the memories flashing before her own eyes. "I was there in France when the Nazis invaded. One second, I was watching my parents in the distance, the next? They were gone. If they aren't dead now, they are most likely imprisoned and even then, I don't know if I will ever meet them again."
"My father died in the first war, never even met him," Steve said, staring at his burger as he spoke. "My mom died about four years ago. Buck here is all the family I got, he takes good care of me."
Rose looked over at the two best friends and smiled. Her smile was breathtaking, Bucky almost gasped at the sight of it. She never lingered too long on her pain, it did nothing but cause her more misery. So, she would focus on other things, like her studies, but today she was lucky to have Steve and Bucky as a distraction. "What about you Bucky? What's your family like?"
"Well, I'm the oldest of four and my parents are very much alive." He took a bite out of his burger. She watched him intently, nodding for him to continue talking about his family. So, he shared stories about his younger siblings for more than ten minutes.
Bucky talked about walking his sisters to school, teaching his brother how to properly punch someone and how his parents would make them sit down every Sunday and have a family meal. He talked about scaring her sixteen-year-old sister's first boyfriend and then beating him up when he made her cry.
Finally realizing that he was rambling on, the enlisted man blushed slightly. "Sorry, it's a bit embarrassing."
"No, I love it." She softly smiled. Her arms were crossed and rested on the table, her chin resting on her forearms. Her long hair scattered everywhere. "It's rare to hear anything good nowadays, besides… I like the way your eyes light up when you talk about them."
She truly did love hearing Bucky talk about his family. She liked the way he lit up when he did, it was obvious that he loved them very much and was proud of them beyond measure. It was a feeling Rose had felt throughout her life and desperately missed the past six months. Most days, she would drown her sorrows in some alcohol or sugar, but as the familiar ache started in her chest? It was less painful with Bucky and Steve around… it was at that moment that Rose decided that these two men were going to become a permanent part of her life.
Steve chuckled, gaining a playful glare from the man next to him. "Isn't he just a dreamboat?"
They laughed. Rose laughing so hard that she had to hold her stomach because it hurt so much. They continued with this light mood for another hour. The mathematician truly enjoyed their conversation, laughing harder than she ever had in the past five months. She barely knew the two men in front of her, but she already felt an attachment to them that she hadn't felt in a long time. But, before long Maria showed up with their checks.
Paying their own bills, Rose grabbed for her coat and put it on, then started to gather her things when Bucky grabbed most of her books and Steve taking her notebooks from her hands. Both wearing their coats already and each with an arm out for her to take. She chuckled at their antics and hooked her arms with theirs, then finally left the diner.
"Who would have thought that I would be escorted by two the most handsome men in New York?" Rose laughed to herself, squeezing each man's arm. "There must of hundreds of women who would be dying to be in my shoes."
"They don't matter now, do they?" Bucky smirked when he saw the faint blush that appeared on the mathematician 's cheeks.
The snow crunched under their feet and the snow falling above them created such a beautiful scene that Rose wanted to remember it forever. It was a sad fact that the linguist hadn't made any effort at all to make friends the past few months, but she was glad that she now had Steve and Bucky whether they like it or not.
Looking up at the falling snow, Rose could almost pretend that she was flying into the abyss. "I miss France in the snow."
"I miss being warm," Steve said, holding her papers tighter to his side to try and conserve heat. "And I always get sick during the winter, it's a miracle that I haven't yet."
"Don't jinx yourself, Stevie." Bucky gave him a serious look. He knew how badly Steve got once he got sick and it was horrible. He would be bedridden for several days, maybe even weeks, then there would be countless visits from doctors to make sure all his other problems won't get worse because of a stupid cold. "You and I both don't have the money to pay for a doctor."
Rose looked between the men, seeing the worried look in their eyes. Putting on a smiled, she hugged their arms closer to herself to gain their attention. "Good thing I do! Don't worry boys, no one is getting sick on my watch!"
They laughed as she guided them down a street that was very familiar to Steve. The blonde looked around, noticing that his apartment was only up the street. Bucky was too engrossed in the conversation with Rose to notice that they entered his apartment building, even on the same floor, only to walk into the apartment across from his.
Putting her things on her table, both boys looked around the apartment and found that it was carefully decorated. Nothing was randomly set, it was carefully planned to the very nail. She chose colors that were bright and soothing to look at like white, pale blue and grey. The whole apartment looked well lived in and beautiful. There was a collection of picture frames that were gathered on a single shelf on the bookshelf, candles placed between them. It was pictures of the people Rose had lost.
"And here I thought my neighbor across the hall was some old woman." The blonde laughed as he looked around, his eyes catching the record player and immediately started to look through her music.
Rose arched an eyebrow at him. Both her and Bucky looking at him confused. "Excuse me?
Pointing across the hall, Steve laughed at that finally realized what he was talking about. "I live just across the hall."
"That's one hell of a coincidence," Bucky said, shocked.
"Ah, well…" She blushed slightly at the reason why Steve would assume she was an old woman rather than a twenty-one-year-old woman. "I mostly stay on campus all day, then I'm in the diner till they close and then I come her to sleep. I get up around six in the morning to catch the subway to Manhattan."
The taller man turned back to Rose with a smile, his hands in his pockets. "How long before you complete your doctorate?"
"A year or so." She shrugged liked it wasn't a big deal.
Turning away from their conversation, the blonde walked over to the bookshelf and felt his heart fall a little. She had so many pictures gathered there in a slight shrine to their memory. They were all taken with explicit care, but even then, some still had some dirt on them. There was one where it looked like she would pick up daily.
Feeling a large presence behind him, Steve knew it was Bucky. They both were looking at the same picture. It was a picture of a middle-aged couple, holding each other in their arms and kissed lightly. You could tell that was smiling against her partner's lips. They looked so happy with each other…
"Your apartment looks better than mine," Steve said, not wanting to comment on the photos that he and Bucky were clearly staring at.
"Well, that's because you have no sense of style." Bucky was quick to comment, laughing at his own joke.
Rose smiled at the two friends, carefully placing her studies into her leather bookbag before taking a seat on the couch. She watched as they talked in hush tones for a minute, obviously creating a plan, before Steve turned to her with a smile. "Well, it was lovely to meet you, Rose, but I have class tomorrow morning."
"Goodnight, Steve." She waved as he left her apartment, leaving only her and Bucky. She watched as the brunette walked over and sat next to her on the couch. "You told Steve to leave."
"Yes, I did." He laughed, not caring that he was caught by her. "Because I wanted to ask you on a date."
Nodding, Rose scooted closer to Bucky and smiled. "And you think I will say yes?"
"Well, I was hoping you would."
Laughing, the mathematician folded her legs under her and pretended to think about it. She always liked to make the men sweat a little bit. "Okay, this Friday at seven."
Bucky grinned, jumping up from the couch and yelling in excitement. "I'm the luckiest man in the world!"
"But!" His happy dance was cut short, his face falling at the word. Rose laughed and stood, fixing the brunette's collar as she talked. "Has to be a double date with Steve."
This made him even happier. Usually, any girl he wanted to go on a date with was more than happy not to have a double date with Steve. Often, Steve would even leave the date because his date was interested in Bucky. But the brunette loved that Rose honestly wanted Steve there because, in the short amount of time of knowing each other, they had become friends. Taking her hands in his, Bucky nodded. "You are quickly becoming the most amazing girl I have ever met."
"I bet you say that to all the girls." Her cheeks heat under his intense gaze, but she wasn't opposed to it.
"No, only you." He kissed her hands before moving to her front door. "I'll see you in two days."
"Two days." She nodded as he walked out the door.
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