----- June 14, 1943 - New York City -----
(Y/N)'s POV
I was sitting in a room at an enlistment facility for what can only be said to be my third time. In New York City at least.
"Boy, a lot of guys getting killed over there," a guy reading the paper next to me said. I look over at him, "That ain't giving you second thoughts, is it?"
"Rogers, Steven. (L/N), Tony," we hear from our right.
The man I now know is named Steven puts down the newspaper he was reading and stands to walk over to the doctor, "Nope." I smirk at his response and follow him in line.
The doctor in front of us pulls out a file. "Rogers," he glances up, noticing his 5'4 stature, "What'd your father die of?" Pretty standard questioning, doesn't mean the bluntness of it ain't a bit rude though. "Mustard gas. He was in the hundred and seventh infantry. I was hoping I could be assigned--" he was cut off. "Your mother?" the doctor asks. I can't tell if the doctor's naturally this much of a dick or not.
"She was a nurse in a TB ward. Got hit, couldn't shake it." The doctor looked down at the file once more, "Sorry, son."
"Look, just give me a chance."
The doctor looks back up at him, "You'd be ineligible on your asthma alone." Steven, now saddened by his rejection, asks the doctor, "Is there anything you can do?" The doctor grabs a stamp to his side and says, "I'm doing it. I'm saving your life." He then proceeds to stamp the card with what is most definitely a 4F. Steven grabs the stamped card and proceeds to leave the room. I step up, a part of me knowing what he's gonna ask first.
"(L/N), You were unable to provide us with proper identification so I have to ask. How old are you?"
I knew it. Now I'm nearly 10, but I am much taller and look older than most kids my age. But I'm still a terrible liar, "uh.. 19?" The doctor looks at me clearly not believing me. "And how'd your parents die?" he asked. I shrugged and told him, "I have no idea. I was raised in an orphanage, I never knew them."
The doctor looks down at my file, "Sorry, kid". He grabs his stamp and stamps 4F on my card, "Your Arrhythmia by itself makes you ineligible."
I frown before grabbing the card and leaving the room.
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I exit the building when a black man with weird clothing runs into me, nearly knocking me down. "Hey, watch where you're going next time!" I look in the direction he was going only to find him missing. In his place I see Steven walking down the street. I decide to follow him and run up next to him, "Hey, Steven." He looks over at me while we walk, "It's just Steve. Tony, right?" I slow down, meeting his pace, "Legally, sure. But most people call me (Y/N)."
"Okay then, (Y/N).. There a reason you're following me?"
I smile at the question, "I'm not following you. I just happened to see you walking down the street and thought why not strike up a conversation."
"This wouldn't happened to be about what happened inside, would it?" He asks.
"No. Not at all.. Well a little bit. I saw how sad you were when the doc stamped your card. So how bout we go see a movie? I'm sure It'll make you right as rain."
He looks at me for a second, hesitating, "..Fine, but you're paying."
__________
"War continues to ravage Europe. But help is on the way. Every able-bodied young man is lining up to serve his country. Even little Timmy is doing his part collecting scrap metal. Nice work, Timmy!"
Of course they had to play a commercial about the war. Timing's just perfect. "Who cares? Play the movie already!" an asshole says in front of us. "Hey, you wanna show some respect?" I say quietly.
"Meanwhile, overseas, our brave boys are showing the Axis powers that the price freedom is never too high."
"Let's go! Get on with it! Hey, just start the cartoon!" the asshole says once more. Steve gets upset and says a bit too loudly, "Hey buddy, you wanna shut up?" The guy in front of us stands up and turns slowly. He grabs Steve by the collar and drags him out to an alley with me just behind them. By time I get out there he's already thrown a punch at Steve. I run up next to them, "Hey, just leave him alone!" He turns punching me back. Fucker just hit a kid. Steve stands up and beckons him. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?" the jerk says. Steve puts his fists up, "I can do this all day" He tries to punch the asshole but he just gets blocked and punched to the ground like a fish.
"Hey! Pick on someone your own size."
A man in military uniform comes behind the jerk and pulls him back. The jerk tries to punch him but the guy dodges the retaliates with his own punch that turn the jerk around. He then kick the asshole on his.. well, his ass.
He walks over to us and proceeds to say to Steve, "Sometimes, I think you like getting punched." Steve wipes dirt from off his pants, "I had him on the ropes." The military guy looks over at me then back to Steve, "Who's this?"
"(Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N)," I tell him. He looks back at me, "Bucky Barnes." Steve finally looks up at him and notices his uniform, "You get your orders?"
"The one-o-seventh. Sergeant James Barnes. Shipping out for England first thing tomorrow," he says a bit unenthusiastically. Steve looks down to the ground for a moment, "I should be going." Bucky hits Steve on his arm lightly, "Come on, man. My last night! Gotta get you cleaned up. And you know what, you're coming too, (Y/N). Any friend of Steve's is a friend of mine." I mean I ain't really got anything better to do. "I'm sorry, where are we goin?" He throws a newspaper at me. I look down to see an ad for the World Exposition of Tomorrow, 1943.
"The Future"
__________
Steve, Bucky and I were walking down some steps in the World Exposition of Tomorrow. It was honestly beautiful. There were fireworks, a gigantic metal globe in the center with a train suspended on one rail. I'm not one for flashiness but I fucking love science.
"I don't see what the problem is. You're about to be the last eligible man in New York. You know, there's three and a half million women here," Bucky says to Steve and I. "Well, I'd settle for just one," Steve says back. Bucky looks over to me, " And what about you? Would you settle for just one?" I smirk and laugh to myself, "No. But I could settle for about three and a half million." Bucky smiled and looked ahead of us and waves, "Good thing I took care of that."
There were three girls ahead of us. One of the girls wave back, "Hey, Bucky!" Oh shit, First date and it's with a grown woman. It's okay, just don't be weird. "When'd you have time to set this up?" I ask him. He looks to me, "(Y/N), you should learn now rather than later, I'm a man of many talents. And don't worry, you two, I only told them good things."
He guides us to the others and we begin walking inside a building filled with Marvels. There's this one exhibit called the Tell-O-Vision and another labeled The Synthetic Man. I may just nerdgasm seeing all this.
We were walking with the three girls and Bucky up front and Steve and I in the back. One of the girls looks of to side side and says, "Oh, my God! It's starting!" The four of them hold hands and half run to a stage with Steve and I trailing behind slowly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Howard Stark!" one of the female dancers on stage said.
Howard Stark comes out on stage and kissed the announcer before wiping his lips on a handkerchief. Not gonna lie, that's kind of funny. He turns to the audience with a sly smile, "Ladies and gentlemen, what if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won't even have to touch the ground at all." The dancers remove the tires off a car in the center of the stage and Stark messes with a control panel next to the car, "With Stark gravitic reversion technology, you'll be able to do just that." The car begins hovering a few feet off the ground.
It must be electromagnetic suspension. But it's glowing a little too bright and the control panel is separate. They're either drawing too much power or the materials just bad.
The car begins malfunctioning and drops to the ground, "I did say a few years, didn't I?"
Bucky turns around, "Hey, Steve, what do you say we treat these girls..." But Steve was gone. We leave the building only to find him at a recruitment center standing in front of a mirror he's to short to fill out the face of. Bucky and I walk up behind him, then he taps him on the shoulder, "Come on. You're kind of missing the point of a triple date. We're taking the girls dancing." Steve steps away from the mirror, "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up with you." I step in front of the mirror, just barely filling the face. "You're really gonna do this again?" he asks Steve.
"Well, it's a fair. I'm gonna try my luck."
"As who? Steve from Ohio? They'll catch you. Or worse, they'll actually take you." I step back from the mirror and look back at them, "Actually, I'm gonna try my luck too." Bucky looks at me a bit shocked, "This isn't a back alley, guys. It's war!"
"What are we gonna do? Collect scrap metal in a little red wagon?"
"Yes! Why not?"
"I'm not gonna sit in a factory, Bucky," Steve says.
"I don't.."
"Bucky, come on! There are men laying down their lives. We got no right to do any less than them. That's what you don't understand. This isn't about us," Steve tells him. Bucky nods his head slightly, "Right. Cause you got nothing to prove?"
"Bucky, it's not about proving. It's about doing," I say.
Hey, Sarge! Are we going dancing?" the girls from a few feet away ask. Bucky turns around to them, "Yes, we are." He turns back to us, "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Steve smiles and replies, "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you."
Bucky give Steve a hug and gives me a pat on the arm and begins walking away. "Don't win the war till we get there!" Steve says. Bucky turns, walking backwards, and gives a mock salute before fading from view in a crowd of people with the girls.
__________
I was sitting in medical examination room when an older man walked into the room. He definitely isn't a doctor here. "Follow me please," he says. I get up and follow him to another examination room. We walk in and Steve was there uncomfortably, but he kind of untensed when he saw me next to the man. "So, you two want to go overseas. Kill some Nazis," the old man finally says.
"What?" Both Steve and I ask.
He shakes both mine and Steve's hands, "Dr. Abraham Erskine. I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve." Whatever else he's gonna say is no longer that important, I was hooked the moment I heard Scientific. "Steve Rogers," Steve tells the doctor. "(Y/N) (L/N)," I decide to say as well. Steve eventually notices his accent, "Where are you from?"
"Queens. 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany. This troubles you?" the doctor says. Steve shakes his head, "No." Erskine begins looking through what I assume is a file on us, "Where are you from, Mr. Rogers? Mmm? Is it New Haven? Or Paramus? Five exams in five different cities. And Mr. (L/N) isn't much better. Albany. Detroit. At least six different exams."
"That might not be the right file," Steve says quickly. "No, it's not the exams I'm interested in. It's the amount of tries. But you didn't answer my question. Do you two want to kill Nazis?" Erskine asks again. Steve looks around for a moment, "Is this a test?"
"Yes."
"I don't wanna kill anyone. I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from."
Erskine looks at me, "And you Mr. (L/N)?"
"I don't care about the Nazis," I told him. He looks at me strangely, "Then why do you wish to join a war to fight them?" I look him dead in the eyes and say, "My Whole life, no matter how short it may be, I've only known two things. Death and Survival. And with Hitler around, survival ain't an option." He smiles at us for a second.
"Well, there are already so many big men fighting this war. Maybe what we need now are the little guys, huh? I can offer the two of you a chance," we then follow him out of the examination room, "Only a chance."
"I'll take it," Steve and I say simultaneously.
Erskine grabs a stamp and looks back at us, "Good. So where are the little guys from, actually?" Steve then proudly states, "Brooklyn." Erskine glances at me, awaiting an answer. "Harlem," I tell them. He then stamps both our forms and hand them back to us, "Congratulations, soldiers." Steve and I look down to see them stamped 1A.
I look over to him smiling, "We did it."
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