second chances.

"Did you sleep over again?" Hazel heard her fiance ask when she walked into her apartment after having spent the whole night out again. Which wasn't a weird occurrence for her given who she worked for, or who she had worked for. Lately, though her late nights had been spent with Steve Rogers just as she tried to help him work through some things. Hazel still cared about him very deeply, and so of course when he'd ended up in a rough spot she'd been there for him on his side, and she'd wished things could've ended a little differently but it was what it was. "Yea, sorry I haven't been home much, it's just been a little crazy at work lately. And I wish I could stay now because I know you're meeting your mom for lunch later to talk about a house, but I just came to get a few things. I actually have a huge case I'm working on right now and so I'm going to be out of town for a few days. But we'll talk about everything when I get back, okay?" She told him feeling awful about herself for not just ending things now before it was too late, but there were just things holding her back.

"Babe," he whined pulling her into a hug so he could kiss her head. "I never get to see you anymore, so I'll be happy when this case of yours is done," he said making her feel a little worse. But Hazel had high hopes that in this upcoming time she'd be away from him she'd be able to actually work through some things, or at least have some clarity about what to do.

---

Bucky was still trying to adjust to the world he was living in now because it was so much different than the one he was used to. He was also trying to adjust to his brain being unblended, which sounded weird but was the truth pretty much. He'd spent so much time with HYRDA and they'd done so many things to his body and mind that he'd spend a good amount of time with a brain that just felt blended. Then one man just had to ruin what was supposed to be a good thing. He was getting better, he'd felt himself getting better, but of course, someone had to find him and had to bring back all the awful he wanted to get away from. Luckily he was recovering from the most recent brain blending pretty quickly. Which didn't mean much given he didn't leave his room that often which made him feel a little bad because Kate was so nice letting him lay low for the time being. Of course, he also felt bad because he knew that she knew him and he'd known her a long time ago much like with Steve but he just couldn't remember. He knew she was important to him without knowing why because he just had this gut feeling every time he looked at her, but as much as he tried Bucky couldn't for the life of himself remember. Hopefully, it would all come back to him soon enough though.

[ I hope this one was good too ]

Kate gave him space for a while. As much as it pained her to see him lock himself up in his room like he had, she knew that he needed time. And she gave him time for three whole months before deciding that she couldn't allow or stand for it any longer. He couldn't stay locked up in there and avoid her forever. She managed to get him out of his room and the apartment that very afternoon. He still liked chocolate ice cream, a discovery that brought a small smile to her face. And things started looking up from there. He spent less and less time locked up in his room and more and more time with her. She helped patch up the holes in his memory whenever she could. She knew that he remembered her a lot better now, but she could tell that their relationship wasn't one that he remembered fully. Knowing that was difficult, but she tried not to let it get to her. It wasn't his fault, and everything would come back in time. She was just glad that he was back in her life.

"I was thinking of making chicken noodle soup for lunch today, Steve's ma's recipe of course. I was wondering if you might want to help me?"

---

When Steve first woke up after SHIELD found him in the ice, he thought that he was still in the forties. The game was on, and she was waiting by his bedside for him to wake up. Little did he know just how wrong he was. He honestly didn't think he would have been able to get through half of it without her. Things weren't the same between them anymore, she'd had a boyfriend then who had recently become her fiancé, and as much as he wanted things to be the same, he resisted. She had moved on, and while he didn't know if he could do the same, he tried telling himself that he could. He didn't know if he'd ever feel for someone the way he felt for her, and he knew that it was crazy to say that because they really hadn't had much time together before he brought that plane down in the middle of the frozen tundra, but it was the truth. He was almost certain that Hazel Sawyer had ruined all women for him, whether she realized it or not.

[Yours was fine, I hope that mine was too!!]

Bucky nodded his head in response to Kates question about the chicken noodle soup. That was one thing he could remember clear as day. Steve's ma knew how to make some good chicken noodle soup back in the day. "I can't even remember the last time I had some of his mom's chicken noodle soup," he told her knowing that it had been an extremely long time but he wasn't sure how long. Not that it really mattered. "Have you talked to him recently?" He asked glancing over to her and biting his lip. "Do you know how he's handling things?" Bucky asked wondering if his friend was doing better than he was when it came to dealing with everything that'd happened over the last few months. Plus Bucky knew that Hazel was apparently still around, and even though he'd only met the woman a few times it was clear even now that Steve was head over heels for the blonde.

---

Hazel eventually was able to pull away from her fiancé pack her bag and head out again and she went straight to where Steve was staying. "You know you could just stay here all the time rather than coming and going like this," Sam told her when he saw her walk in. "You know I can't really do that Sam," she said wishing that she could. Honestly, Hazel felt like she was being pulled in two different directions. Part of her really did want to break it off with her fiancé and pick up where she and Steve had left off all those years ago, but the other part of her didn't. The other part of her, the scared part, was terrified of what would happen. Not with her current fiancé, but what would happen with Steve. What would she do if she lost him again? It had been hard enough moving on the first time when she hadn't thought she'd ever see him again so really what would she do if she lost him for real and forever next time? Honestly, she didn't know what to do. So she was settling on simply spending time with Steve for the time being and hoping for the best. "Steve are you in there?" She asked knocking on his door, and when she didn't get an answer right away, figuring he might've just stepped out for a bit or something she let herself into his room not expecting what she found.

[ it was ]

"I can't promise it'll be as good as Sarah's, but I did commit her recipe to memory, and I've been told that it's really good." Kate told him as she set the grocery bags down on the counter. She'd gotten ingredients for the soup, and some other items that they were running low on. When she was home, she liked to try to keep him occupied. She knew that simply allowing him to get lost in his own thoughts was not a good thing. So, she tried keeping him busy. She let him help out around the apartment. Sometimes they watched movies together. She tried helping him piece together the hazier memories whenever she could. Anything to keep him from thinking too much about what Hydra had put him through. That was a subject that they hadn’t really touched upon yet, and she didn’t want to push him to talk either. If he wanted to tell her, he would. She wouldn’t force him to tell her anything that he didn’t want to tell her. His freedom had been taken from him entirely for over seventy years, and she refused to allow for that to continue being the case. With her, he didn’t have to do something if he didn’t want to. He didn’t have to talk to her if he didn’t want to. If he wanted to stay hauled up in his room he could. He chose to spend time with her now, and that really meant a lot to her. Probably more than he realized. "I haven't spoken to Steve in a few days, but I think he's handling things as best as he can. Taking things in stride, you know?"

---

Steve really appreciated all that Hazel had been doing for him lately. She'd been doing what she could to help, and had sort of been a shoulder for him to lean on through all of this. Kate was taking care of Bucky, so she was the only one who had similar life experiences to him. She was the only other person who had been there back in 1945. He couldn't ask Kate to do anything else, she was already doing so much for him as it was, and he knew that she would argue that she was only doing what she would have done for Bucky years ago, but Steve still didn't want to put too much of a weight on her shoulders. Harboring a fugitive in her home was more than enough for her, regardless of whether she saw it that way or not. He heard her knock on his bedroom door, but knew she would let herself in anyway. He was standing with his back facing the door, staring at his combat suit. That shield doesn't belong to you. Tony's voice echoed in his head as he stared at the star emblem in the middle. It was almost mocking him. If the shield didn't belong to him, did the name Captain America even suit him anymore?

"If it's Steve's mom's then I'm sure it's good," Bucky told her finding himself smiling just at the thought of something that familiar, even though it had been quite a while since he'd actually had it just thinking about it brought back a few memories. And that was another good thing given that good memories weren't something he a lot of at the moment. This was a good thing, he was sure of it. He nodded his head at her later words knowing that it was best for them both to take things in strides given everything that's happened. "Yea, I just hope he's doing okay," Bucky finally said truly hoping that his friend was okay. And he wanted to remember more about Kate and what she was to him, but most of that was still pretty hazy honestly. "Can I ask you something?" He asked her not sure if he was going to like the answer she gave him, or if it would even be helpful at all really, but he wanted to remember who she was to him and they hadn't really talked about it much. Of course, he remembered that they were friends along with Steve, and he remembered taking her out a few times or he was pretty sure that's what was happening. But he was still unsure of what they were. But he had a feeling they were something important given he couldn't imagine why else she would be going through all the trouble she was with him.

---

Hazel walked up to Steve and gently placed her hand on his arm. "What's on your mind?" She asked him pretty sure she could take a good guess just at the way he'd been staring at the suit and all the shit that'd went on over the last few months really. None of which had made her think any differently of him. The man that stood in front of her right now was still the same man she'd known in 1945. He was still the same man who would lay down his life for the people he cared about and those he didn't even know. He was still the man. And Hazel totally understood and supported his choices to try and protect Bucky from harm. But she hated seeing him like this. She hated seeing him all torn up about the whole situation, and she wished that there was something else she could to but right now the best thing she could do for him was just be there for him to talk things through. And she did happily because she cared for him.

Noticing Bucky perk up a bit when she suggested they try making chicken noodle soup brought a smile to Kate’s face. She knew that he liked helping out in the kitchen. Sometimes, she’d come back from a morning run and find that he’d made breakfast. Other times, when she didn’t have things to do during the day, they’d bake something. Really, she tried to do anything that would help keep him busy. She knew that all of the bad memories were put at bay when she kept him occupied. The only memories she tried bringing out were the good ones from the past he shared with her and Steve. This time, her meal suggestion was entirely because she hoped that it would feel familiar. She knew that familiarity could be comforting, and it might even help a few new memories surface as well. "Steve's always been a trooper, Jamie. I'm sure he's fine." She said, not even realizing what she'd called him. Jamie. She'd only ever been the one who was allowed to call him that. To his friends it was Bucky, and to his mother it was James or James Buchanan whenever he pissed her off enough, but Jamie was for her. "Of course you can, what's up?"

---

"I spent so much time trying to be more than just Steve Rogers, and I've been Captain America for so long now, but maybe Tony's right. Maybe I didn't deserve to hold the shield, and if I didn't deserve to hold the shield then who am I?" Steve asked, turning to look at Hazel and away from his suit. He knew that maybe he was thinking into all of this way too much, but he couldn't help it. Tony's words had stuck to him since that night in Siberia, and they'd been bothering him quite a bit since then too. Maybe he should just give up, but he didn't think that he could really do that. There were still people out there who needed help, and he didn't think that he could simply turn his back on everything that he stood for whether he held the shield or not.

Bucky wasn't sure why being called Jamie made his heart beat a little faster given that he was sure no one called him that. Well, he'd thought he was sure, but really there wasn't anything he positive on anymore. For all, he really knew he could've been called Jamie. "Whenever I'm around you like this I get this feeling that we were more than friends. I know that Steve is my best friend, and I know that you and I are friends. But I just have this feeling that we were more. And just now you called me Jamie, but I can't remember anyone ever calling me that. So I'm wondering, what were we? And I don't want to upset you if this is hard to talk about or something. I've just been having these dreams that feel more like memories coming back to me lately, and they're good mostly. But they're just still so fuzzy that I don't know what to make of them," he told her with a pretty good feeling that they were engaged at one point given that's what most of the dreams pointed to. Though he would like confirmation. And he felt bad almost that he couldn't remember, and that they were never able to get married if that was the case. But maybe one day he'd remember everything, wouldn't be a fugitive, and things might feel like that did in 1945 again. He knew that was hoping for a bit much though.

---

"Tony isn't right about you," Hazel told him grabbing his hand so she could make sure he was facing her totally. "You've held that shield for this long because you're Captain America. You give people hope, you stand up for what you believe in, and look out for the little guy. Whatever Tony said about you came from a place of hurt. And even though he probably meant it that doesn't define you. Tony's view of you has always been skewed simply because of Howard and how much he used to talk about you. So of course, Tony feels second rate when it comes you because that's how Howard made him feel. But that isn't your fault or your issues too deal with. Those are Tony's. And his alone. He's also probably hurt because of the whole Bucky thing. But that's a different can of worms. Whatever he said about you isn't you. It's not the version of Steve Rogers that I know. Because the Steve Rogers that I know knows that he's Captain America. You're a good man Steve and in all the battles I've seen you in you've never done anything to not deserve that suit or that shield, and I don't care what anyone else says," Hazel told him hating that Tony's words had cut him so deeply because they weren't true. At least she didn't believe them, and unless he did something absolutely out of character for himself she wouldn't stop believing in him.

Kate only realized that she had called him Jamie when he brought attention to it. It fell off her tongue so easily, proving that it was very easy to fall into old habits despite the fact that seventy some-odd years had passed since she had last called him Jamie. And at first she didn't know what to say. Was she supposed to tell him the truth? That they were to marry when he returned from the war. That she had been hopelessly in love with him, and then he never came home and she'd been heartbroken for the last seventy years. She didn't want to overwhelm him, but she couldn't lie to him. "You're right, we were something more." She said, trying to busy herself by getting things out of the pantry for the soup. This was hard for her to tell him, even though that seemed like a different life entirely. "We were engaged. We were going to get married when the war was over, but you never came home..."

---

Steve listened to her, though he didn't know if she was right. If she was, and he did deserve the shield, why was he doubting himself so much? Why did he fell like Tony was right? "I had to help Bucky." He told her. "Tony was my friend, but it always used to be me and Buck. I knew that he didn't do those things. He wouldn't--not after Sam, Kate and I searched for two years while he hid in the shadows and kept to himself. You should have seen his apartment, Hazel. It wasn't an apartment of a terrorist. I couldn't sit back and let him get blamed for something that he didn't do." He sighed. So much had changed in such a short amount of time. He never imagined that the Avengers would have a rift drawn between them. He never imagined that Bucky would be back and that he wouldn't be right there helping him through all of it. He knew that Kate was helping him, that she was the only other person he would trust with his best friend, but he wished that he could be there for him too.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said after a moment of silence as he’d tried to gather his thoughts. He knew he didn’t have anything to apologize for really because it wasn’t like he could help what had happened to him. But he did feel bad that he’d made that promise to her and wasn’t able to keep it. “I wish I would’ve come home,” he added softly and feeling his chest tighten and his eyes start to sting. Bucky hated this feeling. He hated crying. He hated that he’d never made it home. He just hated this that was his life right now. All he’d wanted was to fight for his country and return in one piece so he could marry the woman the loved but none of that had been possible. “God I hate this,” he finally said running his hands over his face as he was just so frustrated that his mind had been messed with so much and that he’d missed out on so many things.

---

“I know,” Hazel told him knowing how important Bucky was to him, and that Bucky didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t know Bucky really and had only briefly met him, but she knew what Steve had told her and she trusted his judgement. “It isn’t right for him to be blamed for something he didn’t do. And that’s my point. Bucky needed someone to look out for him and you did. Tony would’ve done the same thing for his own best friend. But the difference is Tony can’t look past his own ego to see the truth, or he can’t look past the past and understand that Bucky wasn’t Bucky when he did awful things. Tony just went about everything wrong,” she told him knowing that she would stand by Steve always. And she would do whatever it took to show Steve that he was still the man she’d always know. He was still the man she’d fallen for and he was still just as worthy of being Captain America as he’d always been.

Kate knew that he what had happened wasn't his fault. She knew that he'd wanted to come home just as much as she wanted to. It wasn't like there was nothing waiting at home for him and it wasn't just her. It was their future together. They were going to get married, start a family; there was so much that they'd talked about, and none of it had happened. "It's not your fault." She said quietly, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. "You would have come home if you could have..." Her lower lip caught between her teeth as she tried to will away the tears that were stinging in her eyes, because it all was out in the open now. He knew how much he meant to her. He knew that she wasn't doing this because they were good friends, it was so much more than that. "It really sucks, I know." She said, finally turning to look at him after rubbing her eyes. "I don't want you to feel obligated or anything...I know that you don't remember anything, Jamie---sorry, I'll stop calling you that...it's just so easy to fall into old habits..."

---

Steve knew that Hazel didn't really know Bucky, she had only met him very briefly, but he did know that she knew just how much he meant to him. Bucky was his best friend, sure, but he was like family too. He and Kate were there for him when no one else was, they took him under their wings when he lost his mother and father to the first war. Bucky saved his ass a couple of times when he got into fights with guys way bigger than him, and Kate patched him up after said fights. That's why he'd told Kate when he found out Bucky was still alive. Because his friend was just as important to her as he was to him. He nodded in response to Hazel's words. "Thanks, doll." He said, mustering a weak smile. "Sometimes I don't know what I'd do without you."

“No,” Bucky said shaking his head. “You don’t have to. I like it. It actually feels a little familiar,” he told her knowing that he wanted to remember as much as he could so maybe the more she called him that the easier it would be remember. And maybe it wouldn’t, but it still felt nice to have that. “And I know it’s not my fault that I never came home but I wish that things could’ve been different,” he said with a small smile as he realized that clearly this was an upsetting topic for her given she looked close to tears. “We can talk about something else if you’d like. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He told her biting his own lip. All of this was so hard and confusing and he hated that so much. But sadly he knew there wasn’t anything they could do to change how things were.

---

“You’d be lost without me, that’s what,” Hazel said with a small laugh. “So have you eaten yet? Because if not then I say we go out into the kitchen and make some breakfast,” she told him knowing it was still early and she hadn’t eaten yet so they might as well. “Well that is if you boys have any food that is. Otherwise we’ll just have to go out,” she said fine with that as well if he’d rather do that. Either way Hazel needed to eat soon and she felt like it was a good idea to get Steve out of his room at least. Because he wasn’t doing himself any good staying cooped up and not taking care of himself.

Kate mustered a small smile at his words. "If you're sure that you like it." She said, feeling a small surge of hope in her chest because he had told her it felt familiar. She didn't want to get her hopes up and think that he was going to start remembering things from their past, but she couldn't quite help it. Even if he did start remembering though, she knew that he wasn't the same person anymore. Hydra had screwed him up pretty bad, so she couldn't expect him to be the exact same person that he'd been back during the forties, and she didn't intend on thinking that. "Why don't we get started with lunch? I'll cut everything up and you can add them to the pot?" She offered, wiping at her eyes a bit. "I'm sorry for getting all weepy on you, that can't make any of this any better for you." She knew that it wasn't his fault that he hadn't come home and that it wasn't his fault that he didn't really remember much about her at all. As she started cutting up some of the vegetables, she couldn't help asking the one question that had been on her mind since she had set eyes on him for the first time in seventy some-odd years. "How much do you remember?" She asked, pausing to look at him. "About us I mean..."

---

Steve let out a soft chuckle at her words. "You're probably right. I would have done something really dumb if I didn't have you around since I first came out of the ice." As much as he was joking, a part of him wasn't. Sure, he would have had Kate as well, and he did rely on her a bit sometimes because he had known her since he and Bucky were kids, the three of them were inseparable when they were younger and Bucky's mom used to even call them the three musketeers because they were always spending time together, but Hazel was there for him through some of the more difficult stuff. She helped him cope when Bucky fell from the train. She was there when he woke up, there when he first discovered that Bucky was alive, there for so much. And while he did rely on Kate for some of it too, they did have some shared life experience as well, he relied on Hazel more. "I'm not sure what we have in the fridge, so I'm sure Sam wouldn't mind if we went out someplace."

Bucky nodded his head. They probably should get to actually making the soup. “Sounds good,” He said knowing that he could put things in a pot and not mess it up. He looked up at her though when she asked how much he remembered about them. “Honestly, most of it’s pretty fuzzy. I remember it in patches really. I mean I remember we had our first kiss at Coney Island which we’d went to for your birthday I believe. I remember taking Steve to help me pick out a ring. And that you used to love to dance. And there are some other things like that we had a puppy but I can’t remember his name. But even all of that is fuzzy memories that I’ve kind of pieced together over time,” he told her truly wishing that he remembered more but he was doing his best and that’s all he could do really.

---

Hazel laughed softly. “Well I’m here so I won’t let you do anything stupid,” she told him knowing she’d feel like a failure if she let him stray from who he was, or at least who she knew he was. “Well our it is then, what are you in the mood for? Because I think I could go for some pancakes right about now,” she said honestly just so happy that he was actually there. That alone was amazing. She’d spent over seventy years without him and most of those she’d spent praying that he’d come back to her. After she’d had her accident and realized that her aging had stopped she’d dreamed of a day when they’d find him and she could finally have her dance. But now he was there and things were different. She didn’t want them to be, but they were. She wanted to be with him because this was the man she’d fallen for. But with everything they’d been through she was just as worried that she’d lose him again and she didn’t want to do that to herself. Plus her fiancé made her feel normal something she hadn’t felt in such a long time that it was nice.

Kate really didn't know why she had asked him what he remembered when she'd attempted to change the subject originally. Telling him about their past had been painful enough, and surely knowing what little that he remembered would be painful as well, though she found herself smiling at the few things that he did remember. "That's right, on the ferris wheel." She said, recalling the day rather fondly. Steve was supposed to go with him, but he'd been too sick to go out that day. Steve wouldn't allow them to stay in with him on Kate's birthday, so they had gone to Coney Island by themselves instead. "We used to go dancing every weekend. And his name was Spot. Really unoriginal naming on our part." She let out a quiet laugh.

---

"That's good. I've been told I'm prone to doing a lot of stupid things." Steve chuckled softly. Truthfully, he was just glad to have Hazel in his life again. She'd helped him through a lot since he came out of the ice. "I'm not sure honestly. I think it'll depend on where we go for breakfast." Although he'd been living in the twenty first century for a few years now, he still wasn't fully used to all of the options that it provided food-wise. "Pancakes do sound good though." he added as an afterthought as they walked out of his room together. "Hey man, we're grabbing breakfast." He told Sam. "You mean Hazel isn't gracing us with one of her phenomenal breakfast this morning?"

“Do you still go dancing? Do people still do that for fun?” Bucky asked knowing he didn’t really know very much about the time they were living in or what people did or even didn’t do for fun. He’d spent what little time he’d been free from Hydra in the last few years just hopping from one safe house to the next trying to keep a low profile. So keeping up with the times had been the least of his issues really. “Really I feel like I still know more about the past than I do the present,” he said feeling like he could still bust some pretty good moves but he wouldn’t be able to tell you the first thing about any of the technology that existed right now. He was probably like someone’s grandpa, to old to really figure anything out on his own. “Oh yea that’s not very original at all,” he said laughing softly at the dogs name, he kind of wished they could get a dog now, but he wasn’t really sure how that would work.

---

“I’ll bless you with a wonderful breakfast if you actually have what I need in your kitchen,” Hazel replied smiling at San. She didn’t mind cooking at all, she actually preferred it to going out really. Probably because she actually enjoyed cooking and in the last seventy plus years she’d had a lot of time to practice her skills. But if there wasn’t what she needed it would take even longer because there’d be more stops and at that point it’d be easier just to go out. Hazel really did enjoy just hanging out with Steve and Sam while they were both trying to live on the down low honestly. Mostly because she’d missed Steve and wanted to be part of his life but it wasn’t bad getting to know Sam either.

"Our definition of dancing is very different from the definition of dancing that people seem to have when they go out today." Kate told him. She didn't want to tell him, but she hadn't gone dancing in over seventy years. The last time she had gone was likely his last night in New York before he was shipped off to fight in the war. She didn't want to tell him that though. She didn't want to make him feel bad or anything. "That's understandable though, you've had other things to worry about." She said as she started cutting up the carrots for the soup. "I could start showing you if you want though...start catching you up on things from this century, I mean...only if you want me to though. I know you're still trying to figure things out, and it could get a little overwhelming, so you can definitely say no if you want to." God, she was rambling. "It was extremely unoriginal, but he was a good dog. He lived to be fifteen, you know." She'd of course kept their dog. He was a reminder of the life she once had with Bucky, and quite honestly he had been a distraction from the immense pain she felt when she first learned that he wouldn't be returning home.

---

"It was Steve's turn to go grocery shopping this week." Sam said as the three of them walked out of the apartment. Steve kept his head down slightly, the bill of his baseball cap hiding most of his face, and what wasn't shadowed by that was certainly shadowed by the beard he'd been growing out. He and Sam had been laying low for the most part since everything that had happened in Siberia. They were both still wanted for acts of war crimination, and didn't really know who was around. "Listen, if you were that concerned about us not having food, you would have gone to the store yourself, Wilson." Steve said with a slight chuckle as they walked. "Did you have anywhere specific in mind, Hazel?" He asked, glancing over to the blonde as they walked. "I'm not all that picky, and neither is Sam, so I think we'll leave it up to you to decide."

“That’s sad actually because our version of dancing was so much fun,” Bucky said wishing they could go dancing now, even if it wasn’t the same anymore. “I have, plus so much has changed that it’s going to take me awhile to fully understand it all and I just haven’t had time nor do I have the patience to try and figure it out myself.” He told her feeling like if she did help him then he’d be able to get it down a lot easier than if he just did it himself. “I like that a lot actually,” he told her with a small smile. He did want to know what was going on around him and he wanted to fit into the world again eventually so he needed to know what was going on around him which meant he needed to know more about the technology around than he currently did. And he’d love for Kate to be the one who helped him through that.

---

“Oh so I can’t make breakfast and have to pick where we go because someone forgot to grocery shop,” Hazel joked with Steve gently hitting his arm. She really didn’t mind eating out somewhere, and she didn’t mind picking where they ate, but she just had to give Steve a hard time. “And well if we’re going for pancakes then we’re going to bubby’s because I don’t care what anyone says they’re the best pancakes around,” she said knowing she was kind of a pancake snob if you wanted. She wouldn’t eat just anyone’s after all. “We can grocery shop after though because you two can’t just eat out all the time. You need a real home cooked meal. Especially since you’re trying to lay low. So I’ll make dinner,” She told them both knowing that she couldn’t let them starve. And while they were both grown men who should be able to take care of themselves they had a lot going on.

"It was." Kate agreed with a small smile. She had always enjoyed going out dancing with him, and they often dragged Steve out along with him, and she honestly really missed how simple things used to be back then. "I'm not even sure that I would consider what some people do in clubs dancing anymore." She shook her head at the thought and handed him the bowl of chopped up carrots to throw into the pot for their soup. "Well, whenever you're ready to start catching up on things, let me know, okay? We'll start slow, and go from there." She didn't want to overwhelm him and show him too much at once.

---

Steve chuckled at her words and actions. "Yep, that's exactly how things work around here, Sawyer." He said as they walked down the sidewalk. "If that's where you want to go, that's where we'll go. Wouldn't want the pancake snob to get upset or anything." He smirked slightly as he looked over at her. It was nice having her around honestly. She was a distraction from all of the crap he had going on. Of course, it also only reminded him how different things were between them now, but there was still a small semblance of how things used to be. "Hazel, if we didn't have you around, I think we'd have starved to death ages ago." Sam said with a laugh.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that then," Bucky said kind of upset that dancing had been ruined. He knew it could never fully be ruined really because they could still dance how they always had in the comfort of their own home, or they could go out to a club and dance how they wanted just to make everyone else feel uncomfortable. But he hated that others didn't understand that kind of dancing because it really had been wonderfully fun. "Okay," he told her as he worked on putting the already cut up vegetables into the pot so they could get the soup cooking. Which he was really looking forward to. "So after lunch do you think you could explain the phones to me, and I know they're some kind of phone because I've seen some people talking on them and I assumed they weren't walkie-talkies, or I guess that's what they could be considered maybe just at a greater distance away from one another," he said figuring he might as well just dive right in on everything he wanted to learn since there was so much.

---

Hazel rolled her eyes playfully at Steve. "That's right it's where we're going. Because this pancake snob's not about to have nasty pancakes for breakfast," She said deciding to be dramatic and flip her hair over her shoulder. It really was nice to have Steve back in her life, because honestly, with him everything had always just felt natural. Nothing with them was forced. Hazel had simply seen something in him one day and known that he was the man they were looking for. He was the perfect person for the experiment they'd wanted to try, and then she'd got to witness him become Captain America which was an amazing thing to witness. And somewhere along the line of him becoming Captain America and him putting the plane in the water to save everyone Hazel had given her heart away. But that was seventy some years ago and things had changed a little since then. "I know you would've. I mean you two never go to the grocery store, it's a wonder you two aren't both five hundred some pounds with how much junk you two put in your bodies," she joked knowing that Sam worked out often to stay in shape, and she knew Steve did too, but he also had a super high metabolism thanks to the super soldier serum so it was probably hard for him to gain more weight than what he currently had.