Hermione called late the following morning, Fury having given her one of his disposable phones so she could check in.
"You sound exhausted," Steve said with worry. "Did you sleep at all since you left?"
"A little. HYDRA is getting antsy without a head though, especially after the Chitauri attack, so I want to get this done with as soon as possible before another psychopath makes a power grab. How are you two?"
Steve did his best to reassure her without giving away how busy they were with their project of a home. However, Bucky wrestled the phone out of his hand when he almost let it slip, charming their witch with sweet words instead, the way only Bucky knew how to. Despite all the cajoling, Hermione couldn't say how long her project would take, and she reluctantly hung up after hearing Fury grumble in the background with a promise to keep in touch.
Natasha dropped by later that day to hand over files of all the people living in the building they were interested in.
"Nothing to worry about, as far as I can see," she said. "Except that it's in Brooklyn."
"Brooklyn is great," Bucky replied like a threat, eyes narrowed, which Natasha ignored completely.
"Tell me when the housewarming party is," she said and left.
"Housewarming? We have to throw a party?" Bucky asked him with disgust.
"I'm not sure. Hermione doesn't like parties much either, but… well… I guess we owe them for their help."
"Who's 'they'?" Bucky needled.
"Natasha, of course. We wouldn't have found out about you if not for her. And Sam, he's been a great help lately, and I did kind of destroy his house. Clint, and Dr Banner. Pepper..." Steve hesitated naming the elephant in the room. "Tony?"
Bucky didn't explode with resentment as he had half expected. He seemed more defeated than anything else.
"Stark won't come. Not with me there," Bucky scoffed.
"He might… " Steve said despite not being sure at all. "And if he doesn't, it's his loss. Anyway, it's something normal to do, and we need a bit of normalcy in our lives, yeah?"
Bucky sighed, closed the space between them and dropped his head on Steve's shoulder.
"Alright, if we have to, but you'll owe me," Bucky mumbled against him.
"Anything you want, Buck. Anything you want," Steve replied as he slowly rubbed his back in a smoothing motion.
Steve and Bucky volunteered again to clean up the streets in Brooklyn that morning, where they were once more blissfully ignored, solidifying their belief that this is where they should stay. This was home. So they set up a meeting with Don's landlord later that day, and the man was ecstatic to have them on board, even more so when Steve told him they would take care of the broken window for him, free of charge. It's not like it was going to cost them anything with Hermione's magic anyway. All they wanted was to move in as soon as possible. A win-win all around.
What they discovered once they had the keys in hand was that they had a lot of work to do before Hermione's return and that unfortunately, both of them were way out of their depth when it came to furnishing a whole apartment, let alone decorate it. How many cushions went on a couch? The ones on display had an insane amount up to the double digits, when Steve knew for a fact he didn't have a single one in the old place they had shared back in the day. What about curtains? Rugs? What the heck was a roomba? And did they need one?
The next three days, they did their best, but at the end of the day, the result was lackluster, to say the least.
"It's missing something…" Bucky bemoaned. "It looks nothing like this," he added as he waved the home decor magazine he had picked up somewhere along their shopping spree.
"More cushions?" Steve teased.
Bucky loved the damn things, and had bought enough of all shapes and sizes to build himself a fort. Bucky ignored him, nose buried in the glossy pages before glaring at their living-room, which still had a gaping hole where the window used to be. A large bucket of its remains sitting in front of it in case Hermione needed them to magic it back together.
"Plants!" Bucky finally exclaimed. "What time did Hermione say she'd return?"
"She should be here in an hour or so, but-"
Too late to convince Bucky he didn't have time to buy green plants, let alone find a place still open at this hour that sold any, he was already out the door. Steve hurried after him, hoping Hermione would be late because he would hate himself if he was not there to greet her into her new home.
However, Bucky had not gone far. Steve spotted him easily around the corner, talking animatedly to an old lady. Bucky had made so much progress connecting to other people who weren't him or Hermione, that Steve was certain he actually knew more people than him by now. That, more than anything else, proved that even though the man in front of him was not the Bucky from before, he was not the Winter Soldier either.
Bucky spotted him and waved his good arm, so Steve jogged over, surprised when the old lady started piling pots of various plants in his arms.
"Erm...Bucky? What's all this?"
"Plants. Like I said. I heard Eunice's husband complain the other day that he was going to throw them in the trash if-"
"As if I'd let him do such a thing," the old lady snapped, placing another pot forcefully around his bicep. "I'm just making room to grow more. But you'd better take good care of my babies, young man, or you'll get a taste of my cane."
With a wave of said thin and frail looking stick, she pointed Bucky towards a larger pot that for all intents and purposes looked like a tree. A small one, but still. Steve didn't know why people took so much of the outside inside nowadays, but Bucky looked happy enough lugging the oversized pot back to their home.
Just in time, too. The last plant found a good spot in the kitchen when a knock came at the door. A moment later, Hermione's head peaked in. Her face was worth it as it morphed from caution, to surprise, to a big toothy grin. Then, she ran across the room and flung herself at them for a hug. Steve chuckled as he remembered her doing the exact same thing when he had given her Bucky's spare key to his flat back in the day.
"Welcome home," Steve said to Hermione, and Bucky too.
They had made it. All three of them back together in Brooklyn. They had made it.
They didn't talk shop that night. They wanted to reconnect and relax, or more accurately, Bucky wanted to show off his skills in decorating. Minus the quick magical window repair, they spent most of their time in the bedroom. In any case, Steve reckoned if Hermione had made it back home without trouble, her mission with Fury must have been a success, which she confirmed over breakfast the next morning.
"So if you see Pierce walking around, don't shoot him," Hermione cautioned with a pointed look at Bucky. "It's only Fury."
"How can we be sure though?" Bucky argued with a pout. "What if Pierce escapes and takes Fury's place? I'm not letting that prick order me around again."
Hermione pondered for a second.
"The ring!" she exclaimed, showing off her own finger where a simple silver band reflected the rising sunlight.
Steve had wondered about that, but now he was equally as curious to know how the ring worked to change her appearance. She looked herself right now, but he would bet his shield she had used the ring to get home last night, if only to test it. Bucky narrowed his eyes at the piece of jewelry as if it had personally offended him.
"And what if Pierce steals it to put on his own finger? He's far from stupid," Bucky insisted and maybe he had a point.
If they did Pierce's bidding thinking it was Fury, he would feel like a moron for getting fooled at their own game.
It took Hermione a bit longer to answer this time, but she suddenly bounced on her chair, her frown evaporating.
"Fury has a tell in Pierce form," she said the way you'd share a juicy piece of gossip. It worked too, because both he and Bucky leaned in. "Fury keeps trying to fix his hair. Guess he's not used to it, or maybe he likes having hair too much. How long has he been bold?"
Bucky chuckled.
"Yeah okay. I'm sold."
"How does it work though?" Steve asked. "Isn't it an illusion?"
"This one is," Hermione replied, holding up her ring finger and turning it on itself once.
Her appearance changed in a few seconds. It was subtle: her hair shortened and her skin darkened; then her nose and lips thickened. It wasn't much, but enough to turn her into a whole other person.
"Amazing," Bucky breathed out while Steve touched her hair, still feeling it where there should not be any.
His eyes saw one thing while his fingers felt another.
"It's not perfect," Hermione agreed. "And it may glitch in the rain, but for our purpose, it's more than sufficient."
"Our? Do I get one?" Bucky asked as excited as a kid on Christmas day.
Hermione nodded and fished out two more silver bands from her jean's pocket, holding them out for them to take.
"I feel like I'm proposing," she laughed nervously.
"I'm going to say yes then, love," Steve said and took one of the bands to put it on his ring finger the way Hermione had.
The size was too perfect, although he thought it might not fit when he had picked it up from her palm. Magic, no doubt. Bucky had taken the other band, but had to wear it on his right hand. He wasted no time turning it, though. Steve laughed to tears when his hair turned a platinum blond. That in itself was enough to deflect any suspicion he might be the Winter Soldier, but his face filled in and a myriad of freckles ran across it. Hermione had tried keeping it in, but she burst out laughing, and so did Bucky after catching his reflection in the window.
"Your turn," Bucky said when he got a grip.
Steve didn't need to be asked twice and he only hoped he could make them laugh as much. After tuning the ring, he was surprised to feel nothing at all, but by the way his two loves were looking at him, he could tell he was changing.
"Oh… God. That's just… awful," Bucky said.
"Unfortunate," Hermione added.
"I feel kind of dirty after what we did last night," Bucky continued with the same kind of sick fascination.
Steve rolled his eyes and turned towards his reflection in the window. He was… old. So old. He looked his age, going by his birthdate.
"Very funny," Steve said, turning around to see Bucky and Hermione dissolve into another fit of giggles.
It worked, which is all that mattered. This way, they could go out without attracting a crowd or worse, danger. At this point, they had as many enemies as they had fans. Hopefully, Fury would sort out HYDRA soon, which prompted his next question.
"I take it Fury's ring is different?"
"It is. He will be under a lot more scrutiny, and we can't risk outing this charade because someone bumps into him or because he gets rained on. It wasn't easy, mind. I'd never done a charm of this sort before. It's a bit of a grey area…"
That sounded all too familiar. When Hermione babbled and made too many excuses, it usually meant she had done something a bit not good, as she once put it.
"Hermione," he cut in, but not unkindly. "You know we trust you. Don't worry too much about it."
"I wouldn't even mind if you peeled off Pierce's skin to sew Fury a literal bodysuit," Bucky added.
"That's disgusting, Buck," Steve chided, because Hermione looked horrified.
"Did you?" Buck asked curiously when she had not yet answered.
"No!" she exclaimed. "Bucky, I swear to God, who do you take me for?"
"Right now? You look like a Stacy. Or maybe a Cheryl."
Hermione huffed, shaking her head, and just like that, all tension had left her.
"It was blood magic," she admitted.
"Like that spell to see in the past?" Steve asked.
Dark magic. It had been terrifying to experience, because of the ceremony and atmosphere it conjured, but it had been useful to find Bucky, and ultimately, it hadn't changed Hermione one bit. She could handle it.
"Something similar," Hermione said with a nod, still looking wary. "Fury's ring contains a drop of Pierce's blood and he can take his physical appearance and his voice as well, but the downside is that we have to keep Pierce alive for the charm to work."
"It's a risk," Bucky agreed.
"Were we really going to execute him though?" Steve asked.
Pierce was not HYDRA's top dog anymore, just a prisoner, unarmed, under lock and key. Execution was not really their style.
"He's Fury's problem now," Hermione said with a shrug. "I, for one, am taking a holiday. Any idea on how to spend the day?"
Bucky had many, many, ideas which they set aside for the night, and they all decided to help clean up their neighbourhood from the Chitauri attack, like they had been doing for the past week, if only to test their disguise-rings.
"Better change yours, Stevie," Bucky warned before they left. "If anyone sees gramps lifting cars, you're gonna end up on the front page again."
Hermione instructed him to turn his ring counterclockwise, then clockwise again.
"Better," Hermione said, but her face said otherwise. "You'll just stand out in another way. It's weird. The disguise is supposed to make you look average, not...that."
After she waved at whatever was on his face, Steve decided to check for himself in the mirror Bucky had hung in the entrance. Instead of a very fit octogenarian, Steve now sported fiery ginger hair and assorted beard. Personally, he thought it looked quite striking, but since that was not the point, Steve tried again turning the ring one way, then the other. This time he had long flowing white hair, very pale skin and a red tinge to his eyes. He stood out even more.
"How are you doing this?" Hermione asked in exasperation.
"Did you break magic?" Bucky teased. "Try again."
Steve did, holding his breath as his features morphed: his eyes and skin darkened to normal, but his hair curled up into an afro. Sharp cheekbones and a trumpet nose made him unrecognisable though.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Hermione swore. "Again."
"Gingerbeard not looking so bad now, eh?" Steve chuckled, wondering why his disguises were all so ridiculous. The next version of himself made him look eerily like Loki, but apart from that, it was the least remarkable of his attempts.
"I give up," Hermione announced. "This is somehow the least bad of the lot."
"Better look out for rotten tomatoes coming your way, pal."
There were no flying tomatoes coming for him. People did give him strange looks, but Hermione and Bucky were not spared either. In his opinion, their disguises passed at a glance, but Steve suspected word had gotten around Captain America was around. Not to mention that despite trying their best, they raised a few eyebrows when he lifted heavy loads without breaking a sweat, when Bucky's arm recalibrated by making suspicious metallic noises, or when rubble mysteriously vanished around Hermione. They weren't used to acting normal, but they tried their best.
In fact, they planned their housewarming over dinner, and it would be funny if it weren't so sad that none of them had any clue how to go about it.
"We were too poor for that kinda stuff, but what's your excuse, doll? Didn't you have a normal life growing up?" Bucky asked Hermione.
"Not really. Grew up in a boarding school, then hid in a tent for a year during the wizarding war. After that, nobody cared you got a new home. We didn't celebrate much of anything, to be honest… birthdays, Christmas, they were all a reminder of all people we lost..."
Bucky lay his hand over Hermione's, rubbing a soothing pattern with his thumb.
"Sorry, I didn't know," he murmured, then suddenly brightened up. "Leave it to me! I'll take care of this goddamn party."
"How?" Steve asked, smiling at his antics, so much like the Bucky of old. "You don't even-"
"Uh, uh!" Bucky cut him off. "No more negativity. I'll take care of it. I'm gonna wing it in style."
Hermione and Steve took care of the invitations, and he wondered if Bucky had taken on organising the party on purpose seeing how much of a headache it was to find and contact everyone, then explain that, yes, they were seriously throwing a party, and yes, right now, so soon after an alien invasion and HYDRA takeover. If they waited for a peaceful moment to do something, it would never get done.
"It's...colourful," Hermione told Bucky when he let them see what he had prepared all day. "Festive for sure."
Steve gaped at the giant shimmering balloons, blinking lights and platters of pastel foods.
"It looks like a unicorn threw up all over the place," Steve said, unsure whether to be impressed or worried for Bucky's sanity. "Thank God there's pizza," he added when he saw the towering pile of cardboard boxes.
"And beer," Hermione added, heading towards the bottle lying in a literal kiddie pool of ice cubes.
Where the heck had Bucky gotten these strange ideas from? Thankfully, the bell rang before either of them could question his dubious taste. Sam, Natasha and Clint arrived together, pushing gifts into his arms. Steve was pretty sure Natasha's was a knife, so he put it safely in an empty drawer.
"Interesting choice of decor," Sam said as he handed him a beer.
"That's all Bucky."
"I would not have guessed."
"What's Natasha doing to Hermione?" Steve asked, seeing Hermione blush furiously at whatever the redhead was telling her.
"She knows," Sam said. "About you guys. I swear I didn't tell her."
Steve nodded. He had expected as much the last time she had dropped by. Still didn't explain why Hermione was blushing like a tomato under the sun. Bucky was staring at the redhead too, ignoring Clint who was poking at his metal arm with a fork.
Thankfully, the doorbell rang again, and Hermione made a beeline for it. She hugged Pepper and seemed to be using her as a shield against Natasha, leaving Tony alone on the threshold. It looked like he was considering his options, and returning home was more appealing by the second, but Steve was not going to let him have it his way this time, so he waved him over, calling out loudly.
"Tony! Come on in."
"Not like Pepper gave me a choice," Tony replied, throwing him a present which looked like it had been wrapped by a two year old. Lucky for him, or thanks to his super reflexes, Steve was able to catch it. It weighed a ton for such a small package.
"It's an ashtray. Picked it up from the lobby on the way here. Pepper said I had to bring something."
Steve was not sure what to say given none of them smoked anyway, but it could be useful to bash someone's head in, he supposed.
"Thanks, Tony, but I'm just happy you're here. I wasn't sure you would..." Steve finally said because it was the truth.
"I'm leaving," Tony blurted out.
Steve blinked a couple of times, thinking he must have misheard.
"You just got here," he replied slowly.
"I don't mean the party, I mean tomorrow. I'm leaving tomorrow. For Malibu. I have a mansion there."
By then, his declaration had gathered everyone around.
"Timing," Pepper chided him. "You could have waited until after the party."
Once more, Steve was not sure how to react. Things were becoming pretty awkward between them.
"Is it because of..." His eyes strayed towards Bucky who was glaring at Tony. "What I told you last time?"
"It's not you he has a problem with," Bucky cut in.
"Damn right I have a problem with you. You murdered my parents."
Steve felt all the blood drain from his face while Bucky had tensed. The way Tony had just thrown it out there…
"I found the files," Tony said. "I saw it."
"Tony…" Steve pleaded while Pepper took hold of his arm, trying to shake him out of his anger he was so tense.
"You did?" Bucky asked, approaching slowly, like you would a wounded animal, hands held up in front of him so Tony could see he wasn't armed, apart from the arm.
Tony glared at him. Bucky's shoulders slumped. Had he still been holding out hope he had not been the one to carry out the execution? It was true they'd only had Pierce's words to go on until then and he wasn't the most trustful of people.
"I don't remember yet. I might some day, but for what's it's worth, I'm sorry. If I had been myself, I never would have hurt Howard, he was my friend." Bucky shifted and met Tony's murderous glare head on. "But you're right to be angry with me. If it helps, you can hit me," Bucky said opening his arms in invitation.
"Buck…" Steve protested while Hermione tensed, ready to jump in if Tony took him up on the offer.
"Or I'll surrender to the police if you'd rather. I know I don't deserve this," Bucky added with a wave of the hand at their cosy little flat. "Happiness."
Tony clenched his fists. Steve was about to step in too when their visitor let out an exasperated sigh instead.
"You make it hard to hate you, Barns. You're… different from the guy in the videos, even more than before. Don't get me wrong, I'll never like you, I still kinda want to punch you, but I know Steve here will never forgive me if I do, and I don't have so many friends I can afford to lose one."
Steve breathed out a relieved sigh. Tony was willing to put aside his grief and anger for him. Steve never would have asked that of him, because it was too much to ask of anyone, but Tony had just done it of his own free will.
It also meant the three of them could move forward without having to worry about Tony's wrath, because he would be an enemy to be reckoned with: money, connections, power… he could literally make their lives hell if he chose to, while the three of them had nothing but each other. Overwhelmed with relief and happiness, Steve picked up Tony in a bear hug despite his protests.
"Put me down, you big lump. I don't swing your way, but I might if you keep it up!"
Steve laughed and after one last squeeze, put him back down. Tony eyed the three of them, then shook his head.
"It's obvious, in hindsight. I vote we should let the whole world know, blow their minds. It would take the heat off me a little. Don't suppose you could leak a sextape? No? Too soon?" Tony babbled when Hermione's face turned red. "Can't blame a bloke for trying. See you guys around," he added, leaving as unexpectedly as he had arrived while Pepper tried to keep up to him.
"I really don't know why you like him," Bucky muttered.
Steve shrugged. If not hatred, the dislike between Tony and Bucky was mutual anyway. Some things simply couldn't be fixed, and forgiveness was more than enough.