Bucky let out a groan as his alarm went off, Steve and Nat had shown up last night so that they could celebrate his birthday with him. He expected that to mean that at some point he and Steve would get up and get breakfast since Nat had opted to spend the night at Tessa's so that he and Steve could spend time alone but as soon as Steve showed up he insisted that they needed to go for a run before they went for breakfast. He would have argued but the look on Steve's face had kept him quiet and he was regretting it since now he was up at five in the morning to get dressed to go for a run with Steve. He let out a groan before heading to the bathroom, of course Steve was already there ready to go brushing his teeth. "Hey Buck. Almost ready to go on our run?" he asked as he spit his toothpaste out.

"No. I just got up. Now get out so that I can go." Bucky said before pushing Steve out.

"Hey!" Steve said before turning to the door.

"Let me go to the bathroom in peace Steven!" Bucky yelled and Steve let out a huff before walking out to the kitchen. He hit start on the coffee pot and waited for it to begin pouring while he listened to Bucky getting ready. By the time Bucky came out in fresh clothes the coffee was ready, Steve poured both of them a cup handing a still grumpy Bucky his before he sat down at the tiny kitchen table. "You know the point of me having a happy birthday is to do things that make me happy." Bucky grumbled as he sipped at his.

"Aw come on Buck. We haven't gotten to see eachother in weeks. It won't kill you to do one thing with me." Steve said while giving him puppy dog eyes. Bucky groaned and closed his eyes of course Steve was going to use that ploy on him, it had worked back when they were younger and it was working now.

"Alright fine. But after we're done with your thing, we're doing whatever I want to do." Bucky said as they finished up their coffee. Fifteen minutes later they pulled up to a track that Steve had found and after a bit of stretching they started at what was considered a lesiurly pace for the two of them. "Hey Steve wanna race?" he asked after their third lap around.

"I don't know. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"We're the only two here, and no one will come out this early in the morning. Come on. I got up early and I got ready to come out here. It's my birthday and the least you can do this time is humor me now." Bucky said before running off.

"Hey wait! That's not fair!" Steve yelled before chasing after him. Even though Bucky had a head start it didn't take long for Steve to almost catch up to him, he was only a few inches away from him and Bucky turned his head just enough to look at Steve out of the corner of his eye to smirk at him before he ran faster. "Jesus Buck. You trying to kill yourself?" Steve asked before running faster himself. Both of them were now running at full speed and to anyone that might have passed by the track they would have seen what almost looked like two blurs one laughing at the top of their lungs the other yelling at the first to slow down. Eventually, both stopped to catch their breaths, Bucky still laughed a bit while Steve glared at him. "If one of us had tripped we could have broken our neck." He said but Bucky just shrugged.

"We ran through streets with cars going in Bucharest, if we didn't die there I doubt us running on a track would have been what did us in." Steve let out a groan and followed him back to the car before they went off for breakfast. As soon as they were done they decided to take a walk around New York, Steve hadn't toured the city since he had been unfrozen.

"It still amazes me how much has changed since we were younger." Steve said as they stopped at a coffee shop to get a drink.

"Yeah. I mean the good thing is that there's more stores open now. Tessa's been going with me to show me what there is now." Bucky said as he took a bite of a bagel that he had bought. Steve smirked at him.

"Still spending time with Tess I see."

"Well yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh I'm not saying you shouldn't. It's just that you spend an awful lot of time with her. You'd think she would have realized how you feel about her by now. Figured she'd be your girl by now." Bucky looked away but Steve still saw the blush on his face. "When are you going to tell her? She isn't going to wait around forever for you."

"Steve I already told you."

"Oh stop giving me that crap. If she wanted someone else she would have a boyfriend already. She's had guys ask her out and she's turned them all down since she met you." Bucky slowly looked at Steve, he didn't know that all those times that Tessa had been with him she probably could have been on a date with someone else. "I'm telling you Buck, she doesn't want anyone else."

"Okay whatever you say." Bucky said as they pulled up to the diner.

Around noon Emily sent a text to Steve telling him to bring Bucky to the museum, even though he tried to hide it Bucky could tell from the look on Steve's face that he knew exactly why Emily wanted them to meet her at the museum. But when Bucky would ask Steve would just shrug "I don't know Buck. Must be something important." When they got to the museum the recepiest Brenda pointed them towards the back rooms.

"They're back there waiting for you guys." She said before her eyes went wide, and Bucky raised an eyebrow at her before following Steve.

"Who's she talking about? Steve what's going on?" he called out.

"You'll see Buck." Steve called back before he walked into the room. Bucky walked in a bit more hesitantly before looking around, there were streamers up along with balloons and several tables set up. One held all of the food while another one held gifts, there were several for people to sit and eat at and there was a few coolers filled with drinks sitting nearby. Two giant speakers had been set up and they were playing music at a level that wouldn't deafen Bucky and Steve. There were several people from the museum millilng about talking amongst themselves before they saw Bucky and smiled and waved to him.

"Happy birthday James." One of them called out. He gave them a little grin before laughing and waving.

"Thanks." He said before turning to see who else had shown up, Sam, Steve and Nat were in a corner laughing together holding soda cans in their hands. At the gift table was Tessa, Renata, Alex and Emily they were working on making sure all of the gifts were either on or safely underneath the table not paying attention to anyone else. Steve looked over at him just in time to see a dreamy look cross his face when he saw Tessa and he started to make his way to her.

"There he is! There's the birthday boy!" Yori called out before wrapping his arms around Bucky's right one. He stopped to turn to the other man only to be taken aback when Leah walked up and kissed his cheek.

"Happy birthday James." She said with a smile. He touched the cheek she kissed while looking at her in shock, what he didn't see since his head was turned was the look of hurt on Tessa's face before she walked over to Sam, Nat and Sam. Sam saw her first and held his arm out to pull her close.

"What's up Tess? You look upset." He asked as he held her close. She didn't say anything just looking back towards Bucky who was awkwardly talking to Leah "Oh so you did see the kiss. Well why are you so upset? Does it look like he liked it?" he asked. Tessa was thinking about it when Nat spoke up.

"Oh come on. Just kiss him. And I don't mean on the cheek. Show her that he's yours." She said.

"But he's not mine, and we're just friends." Tessa said while looking away.

"Well maybe it's time to change that." Tessa looked at Sam and Steve for help but they both just shrugged.

"Normally I'd tell Nat to stop but I'm tired of seeing the two of you dance around eachother too. Nat has a point, go show Leah." Steve said.

"Well, well even Steve agrees. And who knows Bucky better than him? Now go." Sam said before he nudged her in Bucky's direction. She stumbled a bit before turning to the three of them who all pointed at Bucky who was now at the punch bowl talking to Emily. She slowly walked over feeling her heart beating out of her chest the whole time.

"This is good. You made this yourself?" Bucky asked and Emily nodded her head yes.

"Sure did. It's one of my mother's old recipes," She said before she saw Tessa walking up "oh hey Tessa what's u-" she was cut off when Tessa pulled Bucky down for a kiss. Everyone stopped talking and stared at them, Bucky froze for a few seconds before he placed his left hand on the back of her neck and returned the kiss. There were several hoots and hollers from the people around the room and by the time they broke apart and Tessa turned to smirk on Leah she saw the other woman storming out of the room. She turned and walked back to Sam, Steve and Nat who all wore different expressions. Sam was doubled over laughing, Nat had a smirk on her face and Steve watched her walk back over with a look of shock on his face.

When Steve looked over at Bucky he saw a dazed look on his face and he watched as he walked over to them. He wrapped his arm around Tessa before pulling her close to himself, she turned to see what he wanted only to be surprised when he leant down and kissed her again. "Alright you two. You can get a room later." Sam said as they grabbed Bucky and his cake and had him sit down while they all sang happy birthday to him. Bucky smiled as they sang before leaning forward and blowing his candles out, Tessa stayed to have some cake and some more junk food before she walked over to where Bucky was sitting.

"I'm going to head back to my apartment. I have something planned for tonight. Come to my place around six okay?" she asked. Bucky looked down at his watch, it was almost two thirty so what ever she had planned would take a while to prepare.

"Alright. I'll see you at six." He said before she leaned down and kissed him before walking out of the room.

Ten minutes till six Steve dropped Bucky off at Tessa's apartment, he walked up to the intercom and hit the button for Tessa's apartment. "Hello?"

"It's me Tess."

"Alright give me a second." She said and before long the door buzzed and he opened the door before walking up the steps. He paused for a second when he thought that he heard a familiar melody drifting through the hallway. He continued up the steps and into the hallway that led to Tessa's apartment, sure enough he heard the sounds of Nat King Cole. He walked up to her door and paused for a second it felt like forever since he had listened to music from the 40's and he just wanted to relish it. Eventually he knocked on the door and a minute later Tessa opened the door. She was wearing a navy blue dress and her hair and makeup was done up in the same style as every woman he had known back in the 40's. "What? To much?" she asked now feeling self-conscious.

"No, no. It's perfect. I just didn't know that you were doing this. I would have found a way to match." He said with a smile as he put his hands on her arms.

"Oh I've got you covered. Alex made an outfit for you too. I figured you'd like a quiet dinner at home and what better way to end your birthday than a 40's themed one." She said as she held a box up. Bucky took the box from her and opened it to see a familiar shirt and pants laying inside.

"Where'd he get it idea for this?" he asked her.

"I found a picture of you around the 40's. He still has the measurements from when you modeled the costume he was working on. So all he had to do was look up your measurements again and he made this for you. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to." She said but he took the box from her.

"No. This is fine. It would look weird for only one of us to be dressed up for the occasion." He said before disappearing into her bedroom. He quickly got changed into the clothes and found the shoes and the hair gel and cologne that Alex had left for him. It took him a while to style his hair since he only used his right hand out of fear of gunking up his vibranium arm but eventually he was able to get his hair to stay the way he wanted it to and after checking to make sure he needed it he sprayed a bit of cologne on before walking out of the bedroom. Tessa was in the kitchen mixing something in a pot on the stove singing along to Frank Sinatra when he walked in, an early conversation they had about him settling down came back to him. Way back during the Depression he had been just fine with going from one girl to another, they were all nice girls it just didn't feel like they were a good fit for him.

He could never picture settling down with any of them, which is why it was true when he'd tell them that it wasn't them it was him when he'd end up breaking their hearts. Connie had been the longest girlfriend he had and even she hadn't felt like she was the right pick. As he walked up to Tessa to wrap his arms around her he realized something, this felt right. He had asked his dad how he knew his mother was the one when he was growing up and his dad had told him that years ago when they were still just dating his mother had invited him over for dinner and he had walked into the kitchen and seen her dancing around singing to herself he had known. If Tessa had been alive back in the 40's he would have wasted no time in introducing her to his parents, hell if he had made it back from the War he knows that he would have asked her to marry him and there'd be a few more Barnes running around now.

"I like that cologne. It smells good." She said as he wrapped his arms around her. He bent down and placed a kiss to her neck.

"That food smells good. What are you making?" he asked as he tried to look.

"Nothing fancy, just some meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas." She said as she made sure they weren't going to burn. She looked over at her timer "It'll be ready in ten minutes so get the table set and then you can help me put this stuff on the table when it's done." She said.

"Alright." He said before kissing her cheek and grabbing the plates and silverware, he carefully placed them down on the table before helping her to put the food on the table as well. He cut the meatloaf while she portioned out the mashed potatoes and peas. Bucky made sure to evenly distribute the meatloaf before he sat down and dug into his plate closing his eyes and letting out a hum of satisfaction. His mom had always made homemade mashed potatoes, peas and meatloaf on his birthday every year up till he had gone to War and the last time he had had it was when Peggy had somehow scrounged up enough meat, potatoes and peas to make it for him when he, Steve and the rest of who would come to be known as the Howling Commandoes had some down time. There had been drinking and he had to act like he was tipsy by the end of it even though he knew that he wouldn't feel the affects of the alcohol at all.

Tessa had bought wine for the two of them to drink, she knew that Bucky wouldn't get drunk but that wasn't the point. The point was for him to have everything he liked and unfortunately she couldn't stand beer so she grabbed a wine she knew he liked the taste of instead. "So what picture did you give him to use?" Bucky asked as he took a bite of his meatloaf.

"This one." Tessa said as she slid it over to him. "It doesn't have a date on it, so I'm not sure what the occasion was." She said and he looked down at the picture. There was a much younger him staring at the camera, his arm around a skinny Steve both of them with smiles on their faces. On Bucky's right was his mother and two youngest sisters while on Steve's left was his father and his two younger sisters. They had gone out to celebrate his parents wedding anniversary and of course Steve had been invited along, his parents had wanted all of their children with them that day and they counted Steve as their other son.

"This was my parents twenty sixth wedding anniversary. Mom insisted on all of us going out, we had saved money back for a while to take them, and it was the last one I got to go to." He said looking down at the table now.

"Really? When was this taken?"

"41."

"41? That would have made you 24."

"Yeah. Mom always said that dad could never keep his hands to himself. It didn't surprise her when she got pregnant with me not to long after they were married," she watched as he smiled at the memories of his family "this was right before I got my draft notice. Don't think I've ever seen my mom cry as hard as she did the day I showed my parents. My dad just sat there stone-faced, but Becca told me later that as soon as I left, he got up from his chair, walked into their bedroom, shut the door, and screamed at God at the top of his lungs." She watched him stare at the picture for a few more minutes, she reached over and took both of his hands and he looked up at her. They smiled at eachother before he brought her hands up to his lips and kissed them before pulling her over and wrapping his arms around her. She drapped her arms over his shoulders and looked down at him, he pulled her down and leaned up to kiss her, but she stopped him. He looked up at her in confusion he tried again but she stopped him again.

"I just. Want to know. What is going on between us Buck?" she asked and he looked even more confused.

"Well I thought I was going to kiss you but apparently not."

"That's not what I meant. I meant obviously we can't just stay friends. Friends don't full on kiss eachother on the lips."

"Well do either one of us even need to ask? I think it's obvious how we feel about each other." He said as he continued to look up at her.

"N….wait ae you saying that you want to be my boyfriend?"

"Have for a while. Just couldn't get the nerve up to ask you. I don't think I have to ask if you'd go out with me. Like you said friends don't full on kiss each other on the lips and if my memory's correct and it nearly always is you kissed me first." He said before he pulled her into his lap. He leaned forward and kissed her before he pulled away and kissed her forehead and she couldn't be sure but she was convinced that he mumbled 'my girl' into her hair. She let out a hum and leaned down so that her head rested on his shoulder. A second later a familiar song started to play when he heard the first few notes Bucky looked at Tessa with a smile. "How about a dance?" he asked as he grabbed her hands.

He stood up and led her to the living room before moving the table out of the way. He saw the unsure look on her face and he held his hand out to her "It's not going to hurt, it's just me and you. And I bet you'll be a better dancer than me." She took his hand and Bucky spun her before pulling her close. He had told her a while ago that he hadn't danced since the 40's but she could hardly tell. They danced around the living room for a few minutes before the song ended and they sat down on the couch to relax for a few minutes. Bucky pulled Tessa onto his lap and wrapped his arm around her before kissing the top of her head, the two of them were enjoying just being close when Tessa's phone went off. It took a bit to untangle from Bucky since he wasn't willing to let her go easily but eventually she freed herself and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Tessa we're ready. I'm coming to pick him up in ten minutes." Steve said.

"Oh okay. I'll let him know." She said before hanging up.

"Who was that?"

"Steve. He's coming to pick you up to take you back home." She watched as Bucky's smile dropped. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not ready to go home, and I wanted to spend more time with you." He said sadly.

"Well I could come over if you want. I just have to grab some stuff real quick." She said as she walked over to her bedroom. A few minutes later she came back with an overnight bag ready to go and she had his clothes. He took them from her and once Steve got there they left together Tessa seemed excited about what was going on over at his apartment but every time he asked her about it she just told him that he had to see for himself. When they got there all three of them got out and walked into Bucky's apartment, at first he didn't notice anything different until he saw Sam, Nat, Renata and Alex standing near something that hadn't been there before. He walked closer and saw that it was a stand with a record player ontop of it.

He could see a few records in the bottom of the stand. He walked around it a few times before looking at everyone "Tessa, Renata and Alex saved up the money to get you these. It was hard to find some of them." Sam said as he pulled out a Frank Sinatra record. Bucky messed with a few things on the record player to try and figure out how to get it to work, eventually he found the button ot turn it on and after making sure the volume wouldn't be to loud he grabbed the record from Sam and placed it on the player before putting the needle down. They all listened to a few songs before Steve, Nat, Sam, Renata and Alex left. Tessa and Bucky sat and listened to a few more records before Tessa started to yawn.

"Ready to go to bed?" Bucky asked as he noticed her rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah. I'm going to go get changed in the bedroom. I'll see you in the morning." She said before she grabbed her bag. She kissed him before heading toward the bedroom "Happy birthday Bucky." She called out before he heard a soft click coming from his room. Bucky leaned against the wall where he had his pillow and blankets set up letting himself enjoy the music for a little bit longer before he got undressed making sure to not wrinkle the clothes that Alex had made for him before slipping under the covers and drifting off to sleep.