I wiped the sweat that was dripping from my forehead. The temperature had increased these last few days, add the clear sky and it made being outside practically an oven. I had spent the last two weeks working around Christin's farm. The fields needed constant watering and, in all honesty, it felt nice doing something useful again.

We were cleaning up the training fields, today. Ripping out weeds that had sprouted up during it winter vacations, and raking the loose soil until it was soft and powdery. It was hard, and hot, but fulfilling in some twisted way. Though, it was confusing as to why we were doing this. Three of Christin children were fully trained, and while the other three were still in training they almost never used all of the fields they had on hand.

Shawnen, needed special equipment in order to learn how to handle his power without hurting himself. Sable's powers only worked at night and then she needed to constantly be close to a water source, so Christin trained on the sea shore with her (Apparently that wasn't considered disrespectful). And Timothy… I didn't really know what about him, other than a few stares and curious head tilts our interactions were to a minimum. The point was, they didn't need all this space. Which begged the question as to, why were we fixing it up now?

One afternoon while setting up training equipment with Arrow, I couldn't hold my confusion and curiosity back, "So, uhm, why exactly are we doing this?" I asked.

"We're setting up a training course. What do you think we are going to do with it? Have a dance party?" Arrow joked.

I chuckled, "No, it's just, you guys don't really use these, and the equipment seems like it's for people who are much lower than the rank you guys are at."

I wasn't wrong. The setup, a few simple obstacle courses and some sparing sticks (Arrow and Jenette used real swords), were clearly for building strength and learning basic combat moves. Not something that these mutant warriors would be doing.

"Good eye, and you're right, this isn't for us. This is for the campers," Arrow smiled.

"The what?"

"Every summer, Dad hosts a camp for mutant children who are from non-mutant families. In order to spread our culture and training to people who can't find a clan to teach them."

"Well, that's selfless."

"There are only two things you can really do in this world, give or take. Dad, had to take so much in order to keep us safe, this is a way that he can give back."

I nodded, "That's deep."

Arrow chuckled. I had been trying to learn the modern slang for an awhile. Apparently, I always have this quirky little proud grin after I use one of them. Arrow always smiled at them, saying I look cute.

"So, if this a summer camp. What exactly do the campers do here?" I asked.

"Learn basic self-defense and power control through games and focusing techniques. And there are cultural lessons that parents can join in too. But don't worry too much about it right now, you'll learn, you're going to be one of the camp counselors this year after all."

"Wait, I'm going to be what?"

"The Camp popularity has grown in the past few years, and with the inclusion of the X-men this will probably be our biggest year yet. Dad needs all hands he can get, especially since I won't be here after opening day for at least three weeks."

I raised a brow at her, "Why wouldn't you be here?"

Face growing solemn, her eyes darted towards the ground, she swallowed, "I-I'm being deployed on a new mission after opening day."

I nearly stumbled backwards. She's going back out into the field, "What?"

She sighed, and nodded.

"Why, didn't you tell me?"

"It was spur of the moment Bucky. Our numbers are many, but we are still outnumbered hundred to one compared to the outside. We get thousands of reports of missing children every day, and the mess made by those who wish to slaughter us is never truly cleaned up. We need every agent we got out in the field. I'm grown now, I can't sit by and let others fight for my people when I can."

I looked at the dirt, "I can understand that."

She smiled at me, "Glad you can."

"So, when can we expect the campers, and what exactly am I supposed to do with them?" I chuckled nervously.

"Don't worry, Dad will probably pair you up with someone so you won't be alone. As for when, we're about two weeks out from opening day, so you'll have two arms by then."

I nodded, understanding what she meant. My surgery was only a week away by now. I was both relieved and terrified. Relieved as using two arms seems like a gift from God. Terrified, as I had never had such an elaborate operation done before.

"You still thinking about it?" Arrow asked.

"Huh?" I replied slightly confused to what she was referring to.

"Your surgery, you're nervous, aren't you?"

"What no!"

"Don't even try lying Bucky, your mouth may be saying one thing, but your face is saying another. You don't need to hide it. What's going on in your head?"

My hand reached over towards my stump, and I shuttered a breath, "It's just, I know why they're going to take more off, but…"

"Feels like it's taking two steps back rather than forward?"

"Yeah…"

"Don't worry, you'll be alright. All you have to do is sleep, and let the doctor's do the hard part."

"Me just sleeping is part of the problem. If something goes wrong, I won't be able to do something," I sighed and leaned against the nearby fence post.

"I get it. You're a do-er. You jump head first into a situation and help all you can. And that's great, but sometimes you also need to step back and let people help you. This goes against your entire nature, but that's okay. There's no shame in it."

"I know, I know. I just don't want to die. What if I bleed out? What if my body rejects the prosthesis or if I catch an infection afterwards?"

She put her hands on my shoulders, "The Doctors won't let you bleed out, your body can't reject the prosthesis as it will be wired into your body, and even if you get an infection, we have medication. And you should know that last one, antibiotics were discovered in 1928."

"I was three when the life changing medicine was discovered, remember? And how did you know that, I didn't even know that."

"Random tidbits of information are one of my quirks," She smirked and went back to setting up the equipment.

We worked on the training field for another hour before, Christin called us inside for a late lunch. Being in the air-conditioned house after hours in the early summer heat was one of my favorite things about the future. Sure, it might seem small potatoes to someone who grew up with AC but to me, a guy who lived almost his whole live in an army camp, it was like a piece of heaven on earth. Me and Arrow were about half-way through our peanut butter sandwiches (Mine with raisins, hers with Maple syrup), when Kate walked up to us, looking somewhat flustered.

"Hey kiddos," she said kind of breathless.

"Afternoon, Aunt Kate, is something wrong?" Arrow asked imminently picking up on the elder woman's distress.

Kate sighed, "Well in all the commotion and prepping we completely forgot to go to the mark for groceries this week. So, nothing in the fridge for dinner tonight."

"Couldn't we order something?" Arrow asked, "It's been a while since we had any take out."

"While I would love to indulge in a crispy golden eggroll, and I'm sure you father has made arrangements for that, it's still just putting a band aid on a bullet wound. Not solving the actual problem, so could you maybe go a on a quick last-minute supply run?" Kate said, handing some keys to Arrow.

"Sure, no problem," Arrow said, taking the keys, before the elder women rushed off.

Arrow fiddled with the keys, while she finished her lunch. The moment her sandwich was gone (Which she had eaten incredibly fast), she took her plate to the kitchen sink. Twirling the keychain around her finger, she rushed to put her shoes back on (Christin didn't allow them on inside the house). A grin etched into her face.

"Why are you so excited?" I asked.

"I'm going into town!" She chuckled.

"I thought going to Nexus wasn't a big thing to you?"

Her brows furrowed in confusion, "I'm not going to Nexus. I can't go Nexus right now. You need to call in the warping association, and schedule a portal ahead of time."

"Oh," It my turn to furrow my brows, "So, where are you going?"

"There's a little town about a 30-minute drive from here, called Greenville," She answered.

"You get your groceries from a normal town?" I asked kind of confused. With how careful these guys were about secrecy this seemed like a big protocol breech.

"Not usually, but in certain cases like this one, we do, and Greenville is a small town that's way out in the middle of nowhere. Nothing ever happens there. So, not many people are looking for anything unusual," She winked.

I nodded, "Can you get everything you need from there?"

She hummed in conformation, "Well, not really everything, but most of what we need. Such as groceries, but we aren't going to find nuclear reactor in the local supermarket."

"Oh." What do we need a nuclear reactor for? What was nuclear reactor?

"You want to come?" Arrow asked me.

"Would you mind?" I asked.

"Of course not, besides it will look a little less weird if I'm not alone."

"What do you mean?"

"Even though I'm an adult here, I'm still considered a minor out there. And most normal teenaged girls don't do very responsible things all the time. Responsible things like buying groceries."

I tilted my head at this, but I didn't ask further. Arrow ran upstairs for some reason, while I slipped on some no-tie sandals. She came tumbling back down a few minutes later.

"Hey, are you ready?" She called out.

I looked up about to answer her, when I freeze. Arrow wasn't wearing a mask. I hadn't ever seen Arrow not wear a mask. She was always wearing one, I honestly believe that she slept with one on. But now, she was standing in front of me, her mask replaced with a pair of purple framed specs, with navy and silver make up painting her eyes and the darkest shade of lipstick I ever seen.

"What?" Arrow asked, "Did I mess something up? I don't usually wear makeup so I don't really know how to put it on. Is it uneven? Do I have lipstick on my teeth?"

"No, no, no. It's just I've never seen you without a…I-I didn't know you had freckles," I said, gesturing to the little pin-pricks of pigment on her face.

"Oh!" She chuckled, "Yeah, I do. This is my civilian disguise. I mean you can't go outside dressed up in a mask. You could get arrested."

I chuckled nervously, vaguely wondering if that was true. We took an older royal blue box-ish car that was of a make or model that I didn't recognize. Arrow drove because I didn't technically have a license, even though I did know how to drive.

Frankly, Arrow wasn't lying, Greenville was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I had seen many photos of a modern-day cities, yet this place didn't have any large sky scrapers, or bustling streets. It was just a quaint small country town. The strangest things outside to me, were the cars (why were they all silver?) and other technology.

But inside of the grocery store was like another planet. This place was huge! The groceries I remembered were nothing like this. They were small little corner store that had whatever was in season, but here? It was like the weather didn't exist here. I could name three of the fruits and veggies that was for sale that shouldn't be able to grow yet.

Thankfully, Arrow wasn't as shocked by the variety of the food like I was. She seemed perfectly at peace with everything around her. Like she was just a normal modern era girl, though that couldn't be further from the truth.

"Do we have everything?" I asked as we walked down an aisle that was half refrigerated, and half not.

"Almost," Arrow said leaning down to grab a carton something from the non-refrigerated side.

"What's that?"

"Rice milk," She put it into our cart.

"What?"

"Rice milk."

"What the heck is rice milk?"

"It's milk made out of rice."

I glanced at the carton confusedly, "How do you milk rice?"

Arrow burst out laughing.

"I'm serious," I said, through her manic fit of giggles, "Did they invent rice with nipples?"

Arrow only laughed harder. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at her, knowing that if I kept talking, she would only laugh more.

Eventually Arrow calmed down just enough to start talking, "No, they don't milk rice," she said with a large grin.

"Then how…?"

"I don't know. But for people who are allergic to milk, like me, this is one of the few ways we can have something like milk."

"You're allergic to milk?"

She nodded, "Yep. It runs the family."

"What happens if you drink it?"

"Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sometimes a rash."

"Oh…I'm sorry."

"Don't be, people shouldn't really be drinking that stuff anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"When you drink cow's milk, you ingest a liquid that is extracted from another species gland that it only produces for its offspring's nourishment. Does that sound delicious?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, "No, no, it doesn't."

We had doubled back towards the produce as Arrow forgot sweet potatoes. She was looking over each one of the root veggies very carefully. Apparently, Arrow was very particular about her sweet potatoes. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around, and found a middle-aged woman behind me, "Uhm, hello?" I asked.

"What happened, to your arm young man?" The woman asked staring at me judging me.

"Uhm…" I tried to answer but she interrupted me.

"You shouldn't be walking around showing off the fact that you're a freak you know. You're going to scare someone. Especially with those, self-harm scars."

I looked down at my remaining arm. Some of the shrapnel from the explosion left some pretty nasty cuts. Resulting in my only remain arms covered in raw reddish scars. To add to that, I was wearing a black T-shirt, which made them even more obvious. Why did she call them 'self-harm'? Did this woman honestly believe I did this to myself on purpose?

"Ma'am, I think you miss understand I didn't…" I tried to say.

"Oh, don't even try to deny it. You're sick and you shouldn't be out here in public with children around. You should be locked up where your screwed up issue with happiness is kept under control," The woman sneered.

"I…what?" I asked confused.

"Excuse, me, is there a problem here?"

I turned around, to find Arrow walking back up to us. Thankfully, she had come to my rescue.

"Is there something you need miss?" Arrow asked.

"Do you know this young man, sweetheart?"

"Yes."

"Did something happen? You can tell me, you know?" She got closer to Arrow and I leaned toward the mutant girl out of instinct.

"Miss, I think I would know who my Boyfriend was. Now what do you want, from us?" Arrow snapped.

Boyfriend? I tried not to look surprised at the word. Arrow must have been trying to weave a cover story, so I kept my mouth shut and just went along with it.

"Boyfriend? Honey you don't need to lie to me. I know that no girl would want this thing willingly. Do your parents know you're here?" She inched closer, and Arrow reached out to grab my hand.

"Lady I don't know who you are, but what you just said is really offensive. My boyfriend is an army vet, he lost his arm in combat. Protecting your damn country, so you'd better shut the hell up."

Arrow grabbed my hand and dragged me away.

"What was that?" I asked her quietly.

"A Karen, don't worry about her, just one of lower-level psychos of the world," Arrow answered.

I nodded, "Boyfriend?" I raised a brow.

"Sorry, it was the first story that I came up with. I would've said you were my brother, but that's wouldn't have worked if she had called the cops."

"Why?"

"Dad worked on the force for a few years before he met my mom, he was really close with everyone there; made a reputation. As such they knew my family."

"So, the police force knows about…?"

"Our side jobs? No. They live with the story that after I was born dad didn't want to risk his life anymore, so he took over the family farm. Dad stayed in touch too keep up with that story. They know me and my siblings, but they don't know about you. A kid showing up out of nowhere…"

"Would draw unwanted attention."

"Bingo."

We paused

"How can you do this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Live with lying to entire town about what and who you are."

"You were a soldier and a spy during the war, shouldn't you know the answer?"

"It's not the same. I wasn't born into the lie. I had people I could tell the truth too, people I could trust."

"That's what I got my family for. And to answer you question, I think of lying about what I am as a mercy."

"How so?"

"Be honest with me, Bucky. If you have the choice, would you want know the truth about my people, the pain we constantly go through?"

I shook my head, "No."

"See. I don't think it as if I'm hiding something, I think as if I'm sparing them."


A/N:

Here we go, Next Chapter Bucky is lent a hand.