The next week, Sarah asked Bucky if he'd like to join them for their Sunday dinner. It wasn't something out of the ordinary, considering Bucky used to come over quite a bit for Sunday dinner. But now it was a little different as he had a different tie to the family.
"Ok, so what's new?" Sarah asked as she sat down last, having served everyone else finally and making sure everyone was settled. "How's the apartment, Mini?"
"It's coming along. I got a majority of everything unpacked. There's still a few boxes I've been procrastinating on..." she answered. "But, I've gotten quite a few new decorations up, or made some, so the place is for sure more lively than the beginning of this week."
"Good," Sarah grinned. "Steve, anything new with you?"
"Besides work? Not really. Oh, Clint and I went to a new pub in his part of town with Nat. Bucky, Y/N/N, I'll have to take you next time we're over there. It was a neat little place."
"That's all that's happened in the last week? Work and one stop at a pub?" Y/N chuckled before taking a bite of food.
Steve set her a glare with a shake of his head.
"Yes, that's all. Sorry my life isn't exciting enough for you," he stuck out his tongue.
Y/N sent the same look back and they both had a silent fight through their eyes. Bucky laughed and shook his head with their mom.
"Not that I find your life not exciting, Steve," Sarah chimed in. "But when was the last time you did something more fun than work and going to a restaurant?"
"I don't know. Not much time for anything else, I guess," he shrugged. "Why am I getting a therapy lesson on my social life all of a sudden though? You haven't asked Bucky about his week. Change the subject to him," Steve pouted, shoving food in his mouth trying to keep from being the center of attention.
Y/N rolled her eyes and Sarah took a breath.
"I'm sorry, you're right. Bucky, how have you been? Anything exciting?" she grinned widely at the brunette.
"Uh, honestly, it's been a busy week at work for me too. However, Y/N and I did go to a farmers market this weekend and dropped by a shop local festival downtown as well. Found some really cool new stores we'll have to go back to," he winked to Y/N who smiled at him.
It was true. Winnie Barnes had been part of the shop local group and they went to support. They grabbed some coffee, Y/N of course grabbing a new book for another time, and then they set out on the town. The hit thrift stores, vintage stores, boutiques, some outdoorsy shops that Bucky found a swiss knife in and went on a whole rant on about how it was from the 1940's and was in pretty amazing condition for it's age. It was cute to see him so excited about the little thing.
"It was a neat little adventure for the weekend," Y/N nodded. "Speaking of, I'll have to bring Peggy to it hopefully when she's in town."
It was subtle how she brought up the friend's name, and the only other person in the room who knew her intentions was Bucky. He paused in his bite and looked to Y/N with a raised eyebrow. As if silently asking, "Now?"
Y/N just chuckled and sent him a mischievous smirk.
"Who's Peggy?" Steve questioned, as he took a bite of a roll.
Bucky blinked slowly before sitting back in his chair and finishing his bite. He knew how Steve was going to react if Y/N even hinted at possibly setting him up.
"Isn't that your host friend from London?" Sarah asked, dapping her lips with a napkin.
"Yes, that's her. She was recently offered a job here in New York. We always talked about her coming to visit anyway, but now she has a legit reason," Y/N explained, casually taking a drink.
"Oh, that's nice. What's she doing for a living?" Sarah asked.
"She actually had a part in a science department within the military over there. She oversaw a new experimentation/ project they were doing in hopes of helping their recruits, but after a few years, she stepped down to work within law enforcement. She's looking into a job as a Victim Advocate now," Y/N answered, peeking to Steve to see any reaction. "She had a calling for it and if you ask me, she's amazing at the job."
"Sounds like an experienced gal," Steve noted, nodding his head as he took another bite of food.
"She is," Y/N smiled pridefully at her friend.
"What exactly does a victim advocate do?" Sarah asked. "I mean from context, I can guess, but law enforcement wise?"
"Basically they're people that we would be assigned to say a domestic violence case, possible homicide victim, whole families that have been involved in some messy things, I mean the list goes on," Bucky began to explain. "They would help them find a safe place, get them into counseling, help them maneuver through life to feel more comfortable and safe after any unfortunate things had happened to them."
"We have a few in our department we work close with," Steve nodded. "Where is she looking at in New York?" Steve asked Y/N, looking up from his plate.
"Um, not sure. I didn't get that much information, but I know it's somewhere in Manhattan," Y/N grinned while taking a bite of food.
"Well, when she does come, she's more than welcome to stay in your old room if she needs a place to stay," Sarah smiled sweetly. "That and you'll have to bring her around so I can thank her for taking care of you all those years."
"Sure thing, Ma. I can tell you she's already excited to meet you."
"So is she your age?" Steve asked curiously. Y/N couldn't tell if it was out of interest or just genuine curiosity.
"Uh, no. She's about four years older. So a year older than you and Buck," Y/N answered.
"And she was in the military?" He continued. His attempt to be nonchalant was wearing off as Y/N noticed it was indeed interest that he was showing.
"Yes, she actually was quite high up in the ranks with her background. They called her Agent Carter in the field," Y/N added.
"From what Y/N's told me, she sounds like one who can hold her own. I think Nat and her would get along well," Bucky said. He was trying to keep it as simple and casual as possible.
"Sounds like it," Steve nodded. "I'm excited to meet her."
Y/N couldn't help the wide smile that formed on her face as she sent Bucky the look with wide eyes with it.
He read the, "It's working," look on her features and he winked with a lazy shake of his head at her excitable self. She was a dork.
________
Once the dinner and long conversations were had, they all said their farewells to Sarah and made their way home.
Having picked Y/N up on the way, Bucky took her home as well.
"I think it worked. I mean we at least peaked his interest," she cheered quietly as she went to unlock her apartment door.
"I think he has no clue what your doing, and there's a good chance if he finds out, there may be another wrestling match on your mom's lawn," Bucky chuckled, putting his hand on the small of her back as they walked in.
"Eh, I'll be discreet. He'll never even notice I'm secretly setting them up," she said, turning and wrinkling her nose at him before kicking off her shoes at the front door.
"Does Peggy even have a clue that you're setting her up too?" he grinned at her cute-self and did the same of pushing off his shoes to the side.
"Er, no," she said with a tight smile. "But hey! The more natural it is for them to meet and get to know each other, the more likely of it happening. I've never been one for blind dates and set ups," she waved her hand before walking over to the couch and grabbing a blanket.
"Bad experience?" Bucky asked, coming to sit by her. His arm thrown across the back of the couch and her legs instinctively laying across his lap to bring them closer.
"Oh, you don't even want to know," she rolled her eyes with a scoff.
"Oh, I think I do," he chuckled, scooting closer to her and looking at her intently.
"You have any bad date stories?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Tons, but I want to hear yours," he said, poking her leg before resting his hand across her calf and gently squeezing it.
"Fine, I'll give you one from when I was in London. But!" she said raising a finger and getting a questioning look from Bucky. "A story for a story. You have to share one too."
"Ok, ok," he laughed. "Now come on. Spill."
"Well, it was set up by a friend that had worked with me at one of the research facilities where they hold a lot of ancient kinds of historical pieces and artifacts. Things like old books from the Roman times, weapons used in wars in the 1800's and so on," Y/N started, as Bucky listened closely. "Anyway, the guy she was setting me up with was supposedly her brother's friend or something like that. I don't remember, it was one of those weird connections. I honestly wasn't up for dating at the moment since I was trying to focus on school work and graduate early."
"Smarty pants," Bucky grinned, squeezing her calf again. "You were so that girl that sat in the library for hours on end reading and then went home to do the same thing."
"I had my fun in highschool!" Y/N defended, playfully slapping his hand resting on the back of the couch. "I was limiting myself from too many extracurricular activities so I could kill it in college."
"You're supposed to have your fun in college though. That's where all the life stories really come from," he teased.
"Well, I got all the life experience I wanted. You can't say you got to visit Pompeii and were chosen to write a log of an entire home casted in ash and soot."
"Ok, I'll give you that. That is pretty impressive," he said, putting his hands up in surrender. "Also, did not know you did that. We'll have to go into context about that later."
"Don't have to ask me twice to ramble about that week."
"Ok, go on. I interrupted and we got off track," he gestured.
"Yeah, don't distract me," she crossed her arms in a slight pout as she looked up as if trying to find her place in the story.
"You were talking about how it was your friend's brother's friend," Bucky hinted.
"Right. Ok, well, I tried to nicely decline and that held her off of the subject for a while, but she always somehow brought it back up at the most random times. She would talk and talk about these amazing accomplishments he had, or personality traits she thought I would like, yada, yada, yada."
"Yada, yada. Yeah, I get that," he teased sarcastically again.
She couldn't help but sent him a soft smile at his joking before continuing.
"A few weeks to almost a month later of persistent hinting and talking about taking a chance on him for just one date, I finally caved. I was more so just doing it so that I wouldn't have to hear about it anymore."
"Ah, so you weren't even excited or wanting a blind date? It was forced?"
"Bingo," she said, shooting a finger gun at him. "So she sets up the date practically for me, and just tells me where to meet him. Luckily for me, he was close to Peggy's house, so I had a close escape if needed.
"I'm just going to take a wild guess and say that close escape was needed," Bucky cringed some just by the look on her face.
"Right again, Barnes! You win the lottery," she exaggerated. "So when we first got there, I met him in the front of a local coffee shop and he seemed sweet and bought my coffee and we walked out to the tables on the patio."
"Was he cute?" Bucky questioned subtly.
"You want to have girl talk now?"
"I mean I'm just wondering," Bucky shrugged, watching himself draw circles on her legs.
She let out a small chuckled, and grabbed his hand that was resting on the couch and intertwined hers into his.
"Nothing compares to you, hotstuff," she winked.
Bucky rolled his eyes and they kept their hands like that the rest of the story. Sending subtly touches and caressing the back of each other's hands with their thumbs unconsciously. They had realized in the newness of this relationship, the simple physical touch was one of their favorite small things they could do with each other. For both of them.
"Now, stop interrupting me so I can finish," she playfully warned him.
"Sorry, sorry. I'll zip it from here on out," he nodded, making the motion of zipping his lips with his free hand.
She shook her head with a giggle, once again continuing.
"Anyway... It took only about 2 minutes into the conversation that I sensed something was off. He seemed distracted and was radiating a sad energy. When he didn't keep up his end of the conversation much, I asked if he was ok. He went on to tell me a very in depth and lengthy story about how that specific coffee shop was his ex-girlfriend's favorite place to visit before she moved."
Bucky gave a look of distaste, but didn't interrupt.
"Turns out he was still hooked on the past girlfriend, and when I tell you by the time I escaped the date and knew more details about her than him, you can guess how it went. I could probably tell you everything down to the girl's social security number."
"Ew," Bucky shook his head. "So he just talked about her the entire time."
"Yes, but it gets worse." Bucky furrowed his eyebrows at that and began listening attentively again. "He was so torn up over her, about 10 minutes into him telling me their favorite things to do together, how she likes her coffee in the morning, how she prefers rainy day weather instead of sunny, and... Well. You get the jist," she sighed. "All the conversation of his supposed 'soulmate that got away' caused him to break down crying."
"Wait, what?" Bucky shook his head in shock. "He broke down crying on the patio of a coffee shop in the middle of downtown London?"
"I'm being too nice when I say crying, I should really say sobbing and bawling almost hysterically," she corrected.
"God, everyone must have been looking."
"Everyone including the store manager who came out and kindly, and uncomfortably, asked us if we could relocate," Y/N deadpanned.
"Wow. This guy must have really been going through it..." Bucky scoffed.
"I felt bad for him, but also was so ready to go home and get away from the wandering and lingering eyes of the people just going about their saturday afternoon. But he took my kindness a different way than I could ever hope."
"I'm scared to hear what that means," Bucky said now a little more serious and concerned.
"It was more so embarrassing than rude or anything like that," she explained. "He took my arms just slightly opening to show I was leaving, as a motion to hug him."
"Wait, is he still crying at this point?"
"Yes. Red face, runny nose, the whole shabang."
"Good God."
"Yeah, and he clung to me for what felt like 20 minutes on the sidewalk letting it all out. I didn't know what to do so I just kinda patted his back and kept saying, 'I'm sorry' in a really awkward and uneasy way."
"Wait, was it really 20 minutes?" Bucky said surprised.
"No, it was like 5, but when you're on the sidewalk in the middle of the busiest part of the city on a Saturday afternoon, 5 minutes is too long. Hell, one minute is too long."
"I can agree with that."
"Anyway, to make a longer story short, I talked to my friend who set me up and when I told her he still wasn't quite over his ex, she frowned at me." Bucky gave her a quizzical look confused at that. "Turns out, they had been broken up for over a year. The man was crying over a girl who had moved away and broke up with him over a year ago."
Bucky couldn't say anything. With each detail of the story, it just kept getting worse.
"Yeah, my friend gave me the face she did because she was as shocked as me to hear how he acted."
After a moment of silence, and Bucky collecting his thoughts, he let out a long breath.
"Yeah, any bad date story I have isn't going to be interesting at all compared to that," he nodded.
"I still want to hear them," she demanded in a fake stern tone.
"Well, if you want to hear more than one, then we may be up pretty late," he said, leaning down and giving her a sweet peck to the lips.
"You have a day off tomorrow right?" she asked inches from his face.
"Yeah, but you don't," he chuckled.
"What if I called in sick?" she grinned mischievously.
"You would give yourself a whole sick day just because you want to stay up and here me ramble on about horrible women I dated in the past?" he laughed, pulling her from her spot and wrapping his arms around her.
They adjusted on the couch to where Bucky was laid across with his legs out and Y/N in between them leaning her back on his chest. This had become one of their, 'let's get comfortable because we may not be moving for a while' positions.
"Eh, it's been super slow at work because my resources still haven't come in. If anything I can tell them I'll work from home since I'm 'not feeling great'," she air quoted.
"So is this your way of asking me to stay over?" he said, turning his head down to see her face better. Her head was resting on his chest and she was using his torso as her support as she turned to look up at him.
"Yes, please," she grinned.
He smiled at that before leaning down and making that peck from earlier last a little longer.
"Sure thing, doll. I can't say no to that face," he chuckled, before placing an extra kiss to the top of her head.
"Ok, so now we have all night. Your turn for bad date stories," she said, snuggling into his body more and getting comfortable.
"Ok..." he paused, thinking back. "Oh, God. This one's bad and it involves your brother doing something embarrassing too."
"Ah, and you've already've hooked me," she jeered.