• • •
"Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage"
Rush,
Limelight
• • •
L E G O S were scattered around in the dining room table and Bucky and Oliver worked at building the old Avenger's tower; per request by the youngest of the Grant siblings.
A half empty bowl of chips was sitting next to them on the table, long since forgotten as the two friends worked at the toy. Salty fingerprints could be seen on each LEGO piece but they didn't care.
Oliver was much too excited to think about any of it. He was hanging out with his new best friend.
"Bucky can I ask you something?" Oliver asked in a very polite voice.
"Sure thing."
"Was it scary?"
Bucky looked up from the plastic gray piece and his eyes set on the little boy. "Was what scary?"
"When you died, was it scary? I was scared. I didn't know what happened and then I woke up and I was scared even more."
"What do you mean?"
"I was all by myself I'm the street and I thought that I fell. But Charlie wasn't there. And I went home but the door was locked and I had to wait for hours before Charlie got home. I was really scared."
"That sounds really scary." Bucky told him with a sad smile.
"Were you scared?" He repeated his question from earlier.
Bucky then thought back on when he woke up in the woods of Africa. Only there wasn't time for him to be scared, he needed to move. Another fight needed to be fought.
It was only after the battle that he was scared.
But of course, he couldn't tell Oliver that.
"I was a little, but Captain America needed my help."
Oliver's eyes lit up as he thought about the infamous Captain America. "Was he cool?"
Bucky smiled and leaned back against the chair. "He's so really cool. He was my best friend. He was a punk though."
"But you always stand for what's right. Because what's right is right, and everyone else is wrong." Oliver said proudly as he put the last LEGO piece on the top of the tower.
Bucky smiled at Oliver; and he wanted nothing more than to introduce Oliver to his friends at the facility and even bring Oliver there to meet them.
"That's right. Always stand up." Bucky told Oliver quietly.
Downstairs, Charlie grumbled as she sat up from the couch. The indents of the couch were etched into her skin. She sighed in exhaustion and rubbed the back of her head.
Then her eyes landed on the time and she realized it was nearing six o'clock in the evening. "Shit." She muttered. "Oliver."
Her tired and sick body carried her through the TV room and up the stairs. "Oliver!" She called out in worry.
"I'm in here!"
She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked into the dining room, and then was surprised when she saw Bucky sitting at the table with him. She had thought he left.
"Sorry, I guess I fell asleep." Charlie laughed. She leaned down and kissed the top of Oliver's head. "How was school, little man?"
"It was fine. Bucky and I made the Avenger's tower, look!" Oliver looked at his sister with a smile. "I'm going to put it in my room."
Charlie smiled as he carefully took the tower and ran towards his room. She sat down at the table and looked at Bucky. "Thank you, for watching him while I slept. And for getting him off the bus."
"Don't mention it."
"You're really good with him. I'm going to assume that it's not because you have little kids running around the facility."
"I uh, I used to have sisters. I was good with them."
Charlie's face turned down as she realized she brought up a hard memory for him. She bit the corner of her lip. "Sorry. I didn't mean..."
"It's okay, don't be sorry." Bucky told her sincerely. He didn't want her to ever feel sorry about anything.
"Still." Then tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. "Tonight's Friday. So you're welcome to join us for pizza night if you'd like."
Bucky smiled then. "I believe I actually was invited. Oliver asked me earlier."
"Oh, my mistake. I didn't realize that." Charlie laughed.
"I guess he just likes me better than you now." He teased her. He felt comfortable with her to do so.
Charlie smiled and shook her head. "Then you take him. I could use a break from being a mother." Then she stood up and stretched for a moment before coughing. "Now come on, it's pizza time."
• • •
The room smelt like tomato sauce. The kitchen table was a mess of flour and bits and pieces of loose dough. The white flour had been split on the tiled floor, with a few pierces of pepperoni and other pizza toppings.
Music was playing from the stereo in the living room; one of their dads favorite mixes. They always listened to it during their pizza nights, because Charlie wanted Oliver to have the same experiences she once had.
While she still felt sick, she tried her best not to show it. She didn't want Oliver to worry about her; or Bucky for that matter.
So she laughed along with Oliver when he told silly jokes, and danced around the kitchen to the song that shaped a decade.
And when the song switched, both her and Oliver froze at the very familiar tune. It was a song they both remembered well.
Bucky noticed them both, though he didn't recognize the song.
A smile immediately filled Charlie's face and she took a few steps back from the table. Oliver's smile perfectly matched hers, the same dimple and the same squint of their eyes.
Bucky watched with nearly wide eyes as the two siblings got into the song, much more than any of the music they had previously listened to. He couldn't help but smile as he watched Charlie and her brother dance around.
But the sight of Charlie dancing around with pink fuzzy socks, and sliding around on the floor was too much for him. His heart seemed to be beating out of his chest. The smile on her face was enough to bring him to his knees.
Though that smile immediately fell from his face when Oliver grabbed a metal and pulled him to his feet.
"Come on, it's easy! The steps are in the song." His excited voice screamed over the music.
Bucky felt incredibly awkward and stiff, not at all like he used to be when he's go dancing. But he wanted to, he wanted to dance with this little family more than anything else in the world. He had just lost that part of himself.
He was desperate to get it back.
Charlie had been dancing to this song since she was very little, and moved easily to the rhythmic music dated back to the early nineties.
It was her mother's favorite song.
"Come on, it's easy as the ABC's!" Oliver yelled in excitement. He moved his hips to the song and jumped around.
"You gotta swing those hips," Charlie yelled. "Like this." She moved her hips, still clad in the tight leggings, and Bucky was distracted for only a moment. "Just let yourself go, it's time for you to have some fun." She told him.
Then she took his metal hand and Oliver's smaller hand, and they did their best to show him the rest of the song.
When it finally came to an end and all their faces were red with laughter, Charlie was the first to speak.
"That was our mom's favorite song. We knew how to dance to that before we could walk." She explained to Bucky breathlessly.
"It's true! We have it on video tape!" Oliver happily said.
Then Charlie's eyes widened. "Oh my God, dad's favorite song. You're going to love it, Buck." And then she ran out of the kitchen, sliding on the fuzzy socks to change the song on the stereo.
"Do you guys do this every Friday?" Bucky asked Oliver.
"Yup! Friday's are my favorite days. It's so much fun." He laughed to himself before looking back at his pizza. He grabbed a pile of mozzarella cheese and sprinkled it across it.
Suddenly the sound of a guitar playing filled the room, and Oliver jumped up. Then the drums kicked in and when Charlie turned the volume up, they could feel every beat bounce off the walls.
Charlie slid back into the room on her socks with the biggest smile on her face. "This was my dads favorite! The lyrics are genius." She yelled over the music.
Then she closed her eyes for half a second as the actual song started. The sound of the lead singer's voice brought back so many memories and emotions. The image of her dancing with her father around this very kitchen filled her mind.
She wished she had more time with them. And that Oliver got more time with them.
Bucky saw the slight change in her emotions, and in an effort to bring her back into the happy moment, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to dance with him.
The action surprised both him and her, but she smiled nonetheless. Her mind cleared of the sad memories and she focused only on the loud music and the quick movements that Bucky did.
Her laughter soon filled the air and he couldn't help but think back to Tuesday night, how he wished more than anything to dance with her. And while this wasn't the type of dancing he imagined, he was still very happy to do it.
His warm hand held onto hers delicately but firmly, and his metal hand held into her other hand.
And Oliver looked at them with a big smile, laughing because his sister was laughing. Though the sight was very familiar to him; though he couldn't process that it was because he had seen his parents dance like that many times. He only knew of it as a happy time, seeing his big sister and his newest and bestest friend dance together.
"Okay, okay!" Charlie laughed loudly and set her hands on his chest for only a moment. "If we don't finish these pizzas we won't be eating until late."
Bucky didn't want to remove his hands from her, he wanted to pull her closer. But he did anyway, because he knew there would be time for that later.
For now, he was happy with friendship.
The songs they listened to in this chapter were Loco-Motion by Little Eva and Limelight by Rush. Both awesome songs that my five year old self danced around to, I def recommend them especially Limelight
ALSO IM GOING HOME TODSY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN LIKE 2 1/2 MONTHS I AM SO EXCITED WOOOOOOO I also failed my econ quiz lmaoooooo
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