light in the dark.

Alana really had no idea what she was potentially getting herself into, and why would she? She didn't really know Bucky, she was just offering to help someone who was in need. She'd probably spoken to him more today than she ever had the previous times he'd been in the diner. She wasn't worried about anything like that. Sure, maybe opening up her home to someone who was technically a complete stranger wasn't the best idea, and maybe she was being a lot more trusting than she should be, but that was just who she was. She trusted a little too easily. Half an hour later, she signed out before walking back over to the corner booth. "I'm ready if you are." She offered a small smile.

---

Pietro sensed that there wasn't much of anything that she could do to help him. Her hands were essentially tied, but he could also tell that she wished that there was something she could do to help. It was all there in the expression on her face down to the responses that she gave to his questions. He nodded. "No, I get it. I just don't understand why SHIELD thinks keeping me and my sister apart is a good idea. I know that there isn't anything that you can do." He told her. "That is probably a good idea. I must have missed a lot, no?"

"Yep, I'm good to go," Bucky nodded, standing up. He put both his hands into his pockets and headed towards the door. He used his backside to open the door, holding it open for Alana to go first. While he might of been an assassin since the Second World War, he was still a gentleman. "So where's your apartment? We walking there or taking the subway?" He always just took the subway around, never legally. He didn't have the money to spare to spend on that kinda thing.

---

"Yeah, a bit," Dahlia replied. She headed back out the door, locking it behind them once they were both out. She started down another hall, and stopped in front of an elevator. "Cafeteria for the facility is up on the ground level. Right now we're two levels below." Dahlia stepped into the elevator, pressed the correct button, and leaned on the opposite wall. "Let's see, what's happened... Clint's wife had a baby. Nathaniel Pietro's his name." That was probably the most exciting news, which she wasn't even technically supposed to know. They were only told so they could tell Pietro.

[sorry, Internet is shit]

Alana smiled. "Alright, great." She said, following him over towards the door. "See ya tomorrow, Vickie!" She called to the other waitress who had been working with her before walking out onto the street. She'd noticed how he held the door open for her, how polite. There weren't very many guys who did that anymore, they just weren't all that well-mannered or gentleman-like. "It's actually only a few blocks from here, so we can walk." She only ever took the subway if the weather was bad and she didn't feel like walking in it. Seeing as it was bright and sunny out, without a single cloud in the sky, she saw no reason to do so though.

---

Pietro followed her down the hall, stepping into the elevator behind her. He nodded in response to her words, leaning up against the wall. He wondered what all he must have missed in the last month. While it wasn't a lot of time, it was enough for him to know that he'd missed at least some things. He looked over to her, shock evident on his face. "They...named their son after me?" He asked in obvious disbelief.

"You're lucky you live close to where you work. When I was younger I had to go all the way across Brooklyn." Bucky couldn't remember what his job actually was, but he knew he had to take a cab there every shift he had. He wasn't there for long, the war started pretty quickly after he actually manage to land it. If he ever saw Steve again, which he doubted because of everything that had happened, he'd have to ask him what he used to do. Bucky took his human hand out of his pocket and ran it through his hair. It was a little toasty out for a long sleeve shirt, but he had to do what he had to do.

---

Dahlia nodded, giving Pietro a smile. "Yeah. You died to save him, Pietro. That means a lot to people." Clint had been pretty broken up about what happened to Pietro. He kind of blamed himself for it. "That's probably the most exciting of news. Happiest, anyways. The Avengers are taking a bit of a break, well the current team." The elevator dinged and Dahlia lead the way out, heading towards the cafeteria. "Clint's with his family, Bruce is missing, Tony is taking some time off because of what happened. Steve and Natasha are training the new group, made up of your sister, Vision, Steve's friend Sam Wilson, and James Rhodes. They're all doing really well. They work good together. Your sister's even got a Superhero name now."

Alana's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You're from Brooklyn?" She asked curiously. She supposed it made sense. She had detected a slight accent from him, though it was barely noticeable. It only really came out when he said certain words and phrases. "I've never been to New York, always wanted to go though. There are a lot of places I'd like to see. I'm not so sure that traveling is in the cards for me though." She punctuated her words with a slight shrug of her shoulders. When she wasn't working at the diner, she was helping her sister out and watching her niece and nephew. She didn't really have all that much time to herself, much less for traveling.

---

Pietro was still surprised that Clint named his son after him. It was almost surreal. Sure, he'd saved the man's life, but, at the time, he hadn't even thought twice about it. "I guess you're right." He said, obviously still pretty shocked by the news. It was the last thing that he'd expected her to tell him. He couldn't help smiling when she told him what his sister had been up to in the last month. He was proud of her, he only wished that he could see her and tell her that. "What is it? Her Superhero name, I mean."

"You never know," Bucky replied giving his head a small shake. "I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things I never even dreamed I'd see." He'd done a lot of things he wouldn't have made up in his worst nightmares. He'd give back everything and just be a norm guy if he could. He'd probably give anything to have died falling off that train.

---

"Scarlet Witch. I'm not sure who made it up, but I think it's pretty cool." Dahlia liked how interested in his sister he was. Dahlia herself had an older brother and sister, but neither of them cared about her a quarter of the amount Pietro cared about Wanda. Neither of them had ever really cared. She was their half sister, and she was pretty sure they were mad about her because their dad had a kid with another woman after their mom left. "Sokovia is being rebuilt with Tony's money. Only a hundred or so people died, which is incredible." Dahlia pushed open the doors to the cafeteria and headed over to where the food was made. "It's all free, so go crazy."

[Apparently Whedon was getting death threats because of AOU...]

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Alana said. There was no way for her to really know what she'd be doing, or where she'd be in a few months, let alone a few years. Anything was possible, or she at least liked to think that it was sometimes. "I only say that because I don't really have much time to myself right now...and I haven't for a while."

---

"Yeah, it is." Pietro agreed, a slight smile on his face. Even though he couldn't see his sister right now, he was still proud of her. He would always be proud of her. He cared about her a lot, though she was really all he had. They were always together and there for each other, that was what made being apart so strange. He hoped that SHIELD would let him see her again soon. "He's having it rebuilt?" He asked, somewhat surprised. Though he obviously knew that Tony Stark wasn't as bad as he and Wanda had initially thought, it was still somewhat of a surprise to him. He followed her into the cafeteria and over to the food. It wasn't until he saw it that he realized just how hungry he was. He didn't really know where to start though. He and his sister had never had very much, so being able to "go crazy" as Dahlia told him to was almost foreign for him.

[for what? I know people are mad about how shit is characterized Natasha, but that hardly warrants death threats]

"Life can change a lot in a day," Bucky shrugged. "You never know what's gonna be different tomorrow." He sounded like one of those weird hippy people who were all chase your dreams and what not. He wasn't trying to be. He just knew your life could take a really startling turn at any second. Walking down the street to find out there's a war. A pretty easy mission, one mistake, and a life time of hurt happened. Anything could happen at any time.

---

"Yeah. The other parts of the world Ultron messed up, too. He's taking responsibility for it." Dahlia picked up a tray and put a sandwich on it, the moved down the line and grabbed some more food. She agreed with what Stark was doing to help the world. After all, Ultron had kind of been his fault. "Nothing else too exciting happened. SHEILD is trying to rebuild, obviously. After he stuff with HYRDA it's a ground up operation, but it's going reflectively well."

[smdh]

[A lot of it seems like it has to do with Natasha, but some people just seem to be sending him threats and shit because they didn't like the movie...he deleted his twitter.]

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience." Alana said, glancing over to him as she walked. She wondered if she was right, and, if she was, what he had gone through. He was honestly still quite the mystery for her, though she was giving herself some brownie points for getting him to carry on a conversation with her. He hadn't really done that until today, so she supposed it could be considered an accomplishment of sorts.

---

Pietro nodded. He was glad that Stark was owning up to what he'd created and taking full responsibility for it. He obviously still didn't know the man well, he hadn't really had the opportunity to get to know him, but he still wasn't exactly his biggest fan or anything like that. "Seems like a lot has happened in a month though, no?" He asked as he grabbed a tray and started piling food onto it.

[sorry the reply took a while. i'm busy at work he'll probably undelete it eventually.]

"You could say that, yeah," Bucky agreed. He didn't really want her to pry, he knew he couldn't really tell her about himself. He didn't really want to lie to her about it either. He'd been lying his whole life. He didn't want to be anything like the Winter Solider ever again. He wanted to be Bucky Barnes... Whoever that was. "Have you lived around here your whole life, then?" Bucky figured if they kept conversation on her, he could get away with not revealing too much about himself.

---

Dahlia nodded. "We've had more impressive months, though. Not if you include the whole Ultron thing. Though... The Chi'Tauri from a couple years back was pretty out there." She gave a little shrug and put a can of coke on her tray. She picked it up and held it it against her hip, waiting for Pietro to finish up getting food. "I can't think of anything else that's really worth noting. Is there anything you're curious about? About the last month or otherwise?" She didn't want to end up rambling about stuff he didn't care about.

[No worries! I had my last couple of days of classes, and then I went over my friends house to watch Cap 2 and Supernatural before we went to see AOU a second time. ]

Alana knew better than to pry. They hardly knew each other. Sure, she was opening up her home to him, but that was out of the goodness of her heart so to speak. He'd always seemed relatively quiet and maybe even a bit closed off, she felt like she was lucky that he'd shared the little information with her that he had. "I grew up here. Moved away when I went off to college...wound up coming back midway through my junior year to help my sister raise my niece and nephew. I've been here ever since."

---

Pietro nodded. He wasn't going to argue with her or anything like that, he was sure that she was right, but he was still surprised that as much had happened in a month's time that had. "The last couple of years seem to have been pretty eventful." He said, placing a bottle of water on his tray before turning to her. He was almost embarrassed by the amount of food he had on his tray compared to hers. He wasn't used to having so much available to him, and he was practically starving, so he figured he'd take advantage of what he could. "Why did SHIELD decide to bring me back?" It was the first thing that came to mind, and he couldn't helping voicing it.

[i feel that, I've already seen it three times ]

"Where'd you go to school?" Bucky asked, looking at her as they walked down the street. He could see why she wanted to travel. If he had been stuck in one place he would have wanted to get out too. Bucky couldn't remember if he travelled much before the war, but he knew he'd travelled a lot after. He'd seen nearly every country in the world at least once.

---

"Why wouldn't they?" Dahlia asked. She turned around and headed towards one of the two person tables. She put her tray down and took a seat. "You helped them win. Why wouldn't they try to save you? Dyou think they'd just let Iron Man die? You're part of the team." At least that's what they were told. If there was a second, less than noble reason, Dahlia didn't know it.

[I'm probably seeing it again when my best friend gets home from college next week ]

"Ohio State." Alana told him. "I was studying speech pathology." She'd hoped that she'd only wind up taking two semesters off at most, but that turned into four and then five and then six. Here she was now, six years later, and she hadn't even looked into going back. It was just tough. She couldn't see leaving her sister to raise a two year old and a newborn by herself. She got a job at the diner, and just stayed home. Part of her wanted to go back to school, but, although pessimistic, she just didn't see the point anymore.

---

Pietro shrugged his shoulders. He didn't respond to her question until they reached the table. "I just don't see myself being as important as someone like Stark or Captain Rogers." He told her, setting his tray down on the table and taking a seat. He supposed she made a good point. He had fought side by side with the rest of them, and he had helped them win. "I wasn't aware that I was considered an Avenger..." He knew that Wanda was a member of the new team, but they considered him one as well? They didn't even know he was alive.

@ d'artagnan

[good lord i thought i replied to this 24 days ago, but apparently not. im so sorry D:]

The corner's of Bucky's mouth pulled outward, attempting a vaguely impressed expression, and nodded. In all honesty, he wasn't sure what speech pathology was, but he didn't really want to say anything about it. "Do you think you're ever going to go back?" Bucky would have liked to have gone to school, but at this point, he was far too old. Being as old as he was was a bit of a deterrent from going to school. Plus, he couldn't even afford a meal. He couldn't pay to go to school.

---

"Just because Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers are at the center of it all doesn't mean that you're less important," Dahlia replied with a shrug. "As far as any of them are concerned, as far as SHIELD's concerned, you're an Avenger. Unless you don't want to be, then I guess there's nothing they can do." Dahlia wished she could be special enough to be an Avenger, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about her. She was just Dahlia.

[No worries, hun! ]

Alana shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really know, to be completely honest with you." She said. "Part of me wants to, but the other part of me knows that it's been six years since I last set foot on a college campus. I just---I don't think that I'm the same person that I was back then. I've changed, and a lot has changed since then...I don't know if I see a point in going back anymore." She knew that it was a pessimistic way of looking at things. She knew that she was still fairly young, being in her late twenties and all, and that she still had the rest of her life ahead of her, but she didn't know if the life she'd wanted back then was the same life that she wanted now. It was a tough call.

---

"How can I be an Avenger when the only people who know that I am alive are in this facility?" Pietro asked her. It was hard to wrap his head around that thought. No one, not even his own sister, really knew that he was alive. The Avengers thought that he was dead. His sister had been training with Agent Romanoff and Captain Rogers to become a member of the team, and he'd only just woken up. Having just woken up, he really didn't know what he wanted. Not completely anyway. He knew that he wanted to see his sister, but that was about it.