A/N: Hey! So sorry for the lack of posting. Been super, super busy lately! But I put this request together for the dear hazeleyedroleplayer, who wanted the dialogue prompt "You're not my mother" with Steve. 

I got a bit carried away with this, so I am going to have 2 parts to this! The second part will be up in the next few days after the next Bucky imagine! 

Thank you all so much! Especially hazeleyedroleplayer, who has been so patient and so sweet! Hope it's alright that you get two parts to this one :)

Lots of love,

Winnie

Words: 3.8K

Sizzling bacon grease wafts the smells of pork and oil through the morning air. The coffee just got done brewing over there in the pot by the fridge. Tired and cranky, Bucky Barnes shuffles past a chipper Steve Rogers who expertly fixes up the first meal of the day. Brown bread comes popping up out of the toaster.

"Grab that for me, would you Buck?" Steve asks over his shoulder. He's busy flipping the bacon.

Bucky grunts and does as he's told. He smacks the pieces of warm bread onto an empty plate before hurriedly pouring himself a cup of coffee. He needs to get out of here before Steve gives him something else to do.

"Grab me a cup, Barnes." Natasha beckons from the breakfast nook. She's got a Kindle reader up to her face where she reads the daily news.

"K." Bucky grunts and fetches another mug. He sees some of the frilly coffee creamer on the counter and asks, "You want some of this coconut cream pie stuff in it?"

"Seriously?" Nat raises an unamused brow. "Do I look like a middle aged housewife to you?"

"Hey—I love that stuff. It's really good. I wish International Delights would've come into my life a lot sooner," Steve says with a smile.

Nat blinks. "My point exactly." She waves a hand dismissively. "I take my coffee black, Barnes."

Someone's loud steps into the room are accompanied by a voice. "Any chance you like your men in the same way, Natty?" Sam Wilson jokes as he comes farther into the room. He's still in his pajamas because it's only a sad 6am.

Nat fights a smirk. "I don't like men, Wilson. Men like me, but I only tolerate them."

"Don't let her fool ya, she likes the green ones." Steve grins to himself cheekily while pulling the pan of bacon off of the stove. He just barely has enough time to duck when a fork comes tumbling in through the air for his head. Nat's got good aim. It's a damn good thing he's fast.

"Is this all of us?" Sam settles down into a chair. He checks his phone to see the time. They've got about two hours until they have to be loading up in the SUV. Thankfully most of them packed their gear and clothes yesterday when the mission instructions came through. This little last-minute trip is going to be a paid favor for the FBI. A few months back they'd needed the FBI's help with something big, now the Bureau wants some reps of the team to fly out to Greenland to help them out with a little something. No one really knows what. They were just told to bring cold weather clothes and snow shoes.

"Pebbles should be here," Nat says. She takes a long sip of the coffee Bucky's brought back for her and then adds, "I saw her name on the email." Of course that email hadn't mentioned the girl by her ridiculous Flintstones themed nickname. No, the world knows her by Y/N. But ever since she joined the team last year she's been known by Pebbles—all thanks to Tony, actually. She's the youngest member, which often prompts teasing, and the baby jokes were constant in the beginning. It'd been on a Sunday morning when Peter Parker was visiting—watching cartoons—that Tony decided to start calling Y/N by the name Pebbles. After that... well, it sort of just stuck.

Steve hums thoughtfully. "Maybe she's running a little late."

"I just walked by her room. There wasn't any music or nothin'," Sam comments. Everyone knows that Y/N always has music playing. If it's not out loud in her room she's walking around with headphones up and down the compound halls.

"Hmm." Steve hums and takes off the oven mitts he wears. "Well, breakfast is done. You guys can start eating. I'll go up and bring her down."

Sam chortles as he helps himself to a plate of bacon. "Just tell her there's food and she'll be here. That girl has the appetite of a grown ass boy in boot camp, definitely not a twenty three year old who spends most of her time sittin' on her ass watching reality TV."

"Ya know if she was down here right now she'd have decked you in the head," Bucky comments. He's picking at his toast with a lack of interest.

"Oh hell I know. That's why I'm saying in when she's not here."

Steve rolls his eyes. "Be nice. I'm going to go up and make sure she's ready to leave."

He takes himself to the elevator, hearing Sam call, "Why don't you just get FRIDAY to wake her lazy ass up?"

Steve pretends not to hear as Nat responds, "Because he's got a motive, Wilson. Get with the program." Sam badgers the woman on what she means but she spills not a word more about the crush the Captain's developed on Pebbles in the last few months. Nat's the only one who knows outside of Bucky, and it's only because these two are the smartest and most intuitive about people's hidden agendas. Steve would never admit out loud that the quirky new-girl with the questionable taste in music has nabbed his heart. But sure enough, these past few months have blossomed something deep down inside of Steve's heart that he didn't know existed anymore.

Damn it all, he thinks he might be falling in love.

He doesn't know what to do about it. There's only one thing that he really does know how to do, and it's take care of people. So when these feelings started forming Steve did the only thing he could think of: he started taking care of her. It was subtle at first—reminding her to buckle her seatbelt when she'd forget or grabbing her elbow before she'd trip and fall. Now when he makes himself lunch he'll make her some, too: bagging it up and writing her name on it in the fridge. If she can't sleep he stays up late to watch Jeopardy with her. If she needs to talk, he's right there with an eager ear. And when her car broke down last week in the parking lot of a Macy's he was the first and only person to show up to give her a ride.

Steve knows the path to Y/N's room like the back of his hand. Just across from Sam's apartment the door is painted bright purple instead of the white that all of the others are. A little grin tugs on his face as he knocks.

Nothing happens.

"You awake in there, Pebbles?" Steve tries knocking and calling at the same time.

This time he's met with a response. "Leave me alone, Steve."

He sighs. She sounds like she's still asleep by that druggy tone of her voice. "Come on, Y/N. We gotta leave in an hour." He pauses—thinking maybe she's fallen back into dreamland. "I made breakfast. You need to come down and eat before we leave."

"You're not my mother, Rogers!"

Ah—just what every man in love wants to hear from the woman he adores: a comparison to one of her parents. Steve internally groans as he looks up to the ceiling. But... she has a point. Steve knows it's wrong that he's trying so hard with her, but he just cares so much. He wants her to know it. And he doesn't want to make the same mistakes he's made in the past. He never, ever wants to put anything in front of Y/N. She's going to be his first priority. He thought maybe he'd been subtle about it, but certainly that's not the case.

"Alright then," Steve sighs deeply to himself. Louder he beckons, "Are you decent?"

"Why the..."

Steve pushes open Y/N's bedroom door without any more warning. Lounging in her bed, blankets strewn all around her body, Y/N frowns. She wipes the sleep from her eyes as Steve stomps towards her closet. He almost busts trips and falls tripping over a pile of dirty laundry.

"What the hell are you doing? I'm sleeping here," Y/N yawns.

"You're going to make us late, is what you're doing." Steve finds Pebbles' empty overnight bag and chucks it at the end of her bed. "Come on. Time to go." He's dropped that sweet tone of voice that he's adopted the last few months and now instead sounds like the bossy Cap that they all know.

"Alright, alright, no need to get your panties in a twist." Y/N swings her legs out of the sheets and settles onto the floor. Steve, who's been trying to get her started on packing, catches a glance of her through the mirror above his shoulder. His blue eyes go wide to see that she's in nothing but a pair of dark blue panties and a thin white tank top. He can see everything through the opaque fabric.

"I—I thought you said you were decent!" Steve quickly averts his eyes. His cheeks burn and he scolds himself to keep his eyes on the floor.

Pebbles waltzes past him for the bathroom. Oh god, it's painful not to look up at her now. "You never gave me the chance to answer the damn question. And if you had, I'd have told you to stay the hell out." Lazily she fixes up her toothbrush. She moves at the pace of a snail as she brushes out her hair and cleans her teeth.

Steve takes a deep, calming breath. Clearing his throat he says, "I wouldn't've had to come in here if you had been up and ready like you were supposed to."

Y/N holds her hair back behind her ears as she spits toothpaste into the sink. A little dribbles down her plump bottom lip as she looks back at Steve. "I overslept a little, it's fine." She comes back out of the bathroom—passing Steve as she goes. She slaps his shoulder. "Now, I'm gonna get dressed. If you want more of a show you're free to stay, but I can't promise it'll be free."

Steve's gone red. He mutters and grunts a lame series of replies before hurrying out of the bedroom. He's almost sure he can hear Y/N laughing as he slams the door shut behind him.

Out in the hall he runs a hand through his hair. Then, gathering what he's got left of his dignity, he heads back downstairs.

Contrary to Steve's concerns, the group isn't late. They get on that plane and land in Greenland in plenty of time for the FBI briefing. When they first walk into that conference room and go to shake hands with the directors, Steve catches the questionable glances a few of the officials shoot to one another when Pebbles shakes their hands. She's not the woman you'd expect to see in this setting. Hell, Steve's not sure if anyone's ever even met a woman like Y/N before. She's unique, that's for sure. She doesn't carry herself with that same mysterious air that Wanda does. She's too playful to be compared to Nat, and not nearly as secretive. The words she thinks come straight out of her mouth and she doesn't have a doubt that the words she speaks are going to be worth your time. But what raises the FBI eyebrows when she firsts enters the room are her bright yellow turtle neck sweater and space-buns hairdo. Her nibbled down fingernails tap against the tabletop while they wait for the meeting to commence. Beneath the table her blue Converse are toeing the hardwood floor. It's hard to miss the unsureness all the stiff assholes regard her with as she sits there at the center of the room. Steve's swaying somewhere between peeved and proud, because he knows it's only a matter of time before they all realize that Pebbles here is the strongest, smartest, bravest person in this room. No one even knows, he thinks to himself quietly, and she doesn't even know what she's doing to me.

"Good afternoon everybody. I appreciate you all coming here on such short notice." The lead agent on the case, a man with a curly beard and the name Manners, says. "If you'd turn to the first page of your briefing we can get started."

Pebbles' hand pops up into the air. Sam chokes on a snort of a laugh.

"Umm," Agent Manners clears his throat. "You, uh, have a question?"

"Yes." Pebbles, who has had the files opened for about a minute now, softly smothers it open onto the table. "I'd like you to explain to us why the hell you've drug us into the icy tundra for a recon mission you could spare any lame jockstraps for."

The agent already looks annoyed. "If you'd read the whole briefing, you'd know that..."

"Oh I read it." Pebbles is the one to use the impatient tone, now. "And it didn't answer any of my questions. The first of which being why you'd specifically request Captain America and the Winter Soldier on this mission. This'll be child's play for them, not to mention a waste of Romanoff's time. If you think this is at her level you're highly mistaken."

The agent is unamused. He glances to Steve, as if looking for an apology on the woman's behavior, but Steve only sits back with a soft smile.

"She's a speed reader," Sam pipes up. "Wanna summarize for us regular folks, Pebbles?"

"Gladly. First of all, the plan is botched from the start. They have us driving out to—"

Before Y/N can go any farther, Agent Manners is interrupting. "If you don't mind, I think I can take it from here, Miss."

"She was talking, you interrupted." Steve crosses his arms.

Y/N looks to Steve first, "I got this Steve." Nodding, she turns to the FBI agent. "I was talking, you interrupted."

Agent Manners purses his lips, looking ridiculously regretful to have invited the Avengers here today. "Apologies, Miss." He doesn't sound very regretful. "But we don't have time to argue. The drive is long, so you all should head out. If you're such an expert on the case we'll have you explain it to the rest of your team on the way." At Manner's cue the rest of the FBI agents start gathering themselves to leave. The Avengers look amongst each other questioningly as the agents exit. All but two, that is. A man and a woman stay behind—introducing themselves as Agent Blake and Agent Fox. They'll be accompanying the team on this little snow-trip.

So the crew heads out. Two big black SUVS embark on a snowy journey farther north. Y/N and Steve end up in one rig with that new guy Agent Blake—leaving Nat, Sam, and Bucky with Agent Fox. The FBI guy drives while Steve sits shotgun and Y/N right behind. For a few hours they drive with little else to talk about but the mission, but it's not long before Y/N and Steve realize that Blake isn't interested in conversation. So the two friends carry on as if he's not there.

"So, I never got to thank you for the wakeup call this morning," Y/N says. She draws patterns on the fog of the window.

Steve smiles lightly. Glancing over his shoulder, he muses, "Really? You're thanking me? You didn't seem too happy with me this morning."

"Well, I was tired. Tired me is never happy. But you were looking out for me, so thanks." Y/N pauses thoughtfully. "You're always looking out for me, actually. All the time."

"Really?" Steve clears his throat awkwardly. "Huh, well, I uh, I guess I didn't notice. I just—I just do things."

"You've been really good to me," Y/N stops making window art to reach up and squeeze Steve's stiff shoulder. "I appreciate it, mom." She giggles and sits back in her seat.

"Ha," Steve replies dryly. He turns his head so that she doesn't see his blush or disappointed little frown. Calling him "mom" isn't exactly a sign that she likes him, too. While trying to avoid looking back at Y/N Steve realizes that they've lost track of the black SUV that was once travelling behind them. "Hey, where'd the second rig go?"

Agent Blake only shrugs as a reply.

Steve isn't too excited about the lack of response. "Page one of them, would you Pebbles? See if you can get Nat to answer."

"Sure." Y/N pulls out her phone to text one of them. It's only when she tries to type in the message that she realizes she doesn't have any reception. And when she goes to use the radio, that's not working either—it's the combination of the two that frustrates her. But it's Blake's lack of reaction that causes her to be suspicious.

So, to try and play along, she puts on a dumb voice and says, "For some weird reason I can't get through to them. You're so much better with phones, Stevie, can you look at it for me?" With puppy dog eyes she tries to hand her phone off to Steve.

Steve, who knows that Y/N is the most tech-savvy of the Avengers (except for Tony) is beyond confused. But one look into her big, beautiful eyes and he knows to do as he's told. So Steve gingerly takes the smartphone. There, on the screen where a text should be, Y/N has typed out a message for Steve.

We need to get out. Signals are blocked. These people are bad news. But don't worry, I have a plan. Just play along.

Steve sighs through his nose. Shaking his head, he hands back the phone. "I don't know, Pebbles. We're in the middle of nowhere. These sorts of things happen. Bad reception, that's all." He sits back into his seat, knowing that she's reading his reply.

You're not my mother—don't tell me what to do. But okay :)

It takes everything in Y/N not to laugh at his reply. But this is a serious situation, so she manages to keep herself together.

Another ten minutes pass. Steve keeps his eyes out the window in an effort to track where they're being taken. It's all for nothing, though, because everything up here looks the same: white. White snow, white trees, white skies. There's not a spot of color to be seen beyond the orange hue of the late evening sun.

"Are we gonna be there soon?" Y/N pipes up. Steve jolts at her loud voice. It sounds so... childlike. He's confused until he realizes that this is all part of her plan. She's going to play up that clueless, silly 23 year old girl character in order to get out of here alive.

"No." Agent Blake keeps his eyes on the road.

"I really have to pee." Y/N groans dramatically.

Steve grumbles, "Should've thought of that before we left, Pebbles."

"I know, I know. You tell me every damn time. Doesn't change the fact that I still gotta pee."

Agent Blake grunts, "Just use a bottle, kid."

Y/N's jaw drops. "Seriously? Do you have any idea how the female anatomy works? Because peeing in a bottle is almost impossible, especially on the road. Besides the fact that I'm on my period and I really need to change my tampon, so unless one of you fine gentlemen want to be in charge of helping me with that problem..."

"Fine, fine." Agent Blake starts pulling off the side of the road. "Take a piss. Just stop talking about it." He puts the car into park on a rather flat spot of land.

Y/N grins. "Thank you!" She hops out of the back and sprints for the trees.

When she comes back, Steve's in the front seat. He's impatiently tapping his fingers on the wheel. When Y/N saunters up he pops up the lock.

"What the hell took you so long?"

"I had to pee," Y/N replies.

"What? I thought that was part of the plan."

"It was. It just so happened that I actually did have to pee." She looks over her shoulder into the empty backseat. "Where's the body?"

Steve sighs heavily. He pulls out of the makeshift parking spot and back onto the road. "There's no body, Y/N. I didn't kill him."

"Damn. Where'd he go, then?"

"Tied up in the back."

"Ah, because that's a much better idea."

Steve rolls his eyes. "Everyone's innocent until proven guilty. I'm not going to kill the guy because we lost track of our friends..."

"But you believed me enough to follow my plan," Y/N brags. She kicks her legs up onto the dash.

"Yeah, I did. Hey, might not wanna put your legs there. It's dangerous." Steve taps on her knee impatiently. "If we get in a crash, your legs will go straight through your chest."

"Jeez, you really are looking out for me." Y/N slowly lowers her feet. "What's got you so worked up, anyhow?"

Steve opens his mouth up to speak even though he's not entirely sure how he's going to respond. He closes his lips again, deciding to reply with, "We'll talk about that later. Let's find the others first."

"Talk about what?" Y/N snorts. "Are you in love with me or something?" She giggles, tucking hair behind her ears, and only stops when she realizes that Steve's not laughing with her. She sobers up at the sight of his blue eyes set straight and cheeks tinted pink. "Oh my god..." She bites the fleshy part of her cheek. "That's it, isn't it? You're in love with me."

Steve takes a steadying breath. "Try calling Bucky again. And keep your eyes out the window. We might see them somewhere down here."

"No, no. Answer me first, Steve." Y/N looks over at the Captain expectantly. "Is that why you've been so careful with me lately?"

"This isn't the time to talk," Steve replies stoic. He grips the steering wheel tighter as the road gets slippery. He puts his foot harder down onto the brake as they inch down the hill that they just rode up.

"Sure it is. We're alone. We're never alone back home. This is a good of time as any." Y/N reaches out to lay her hand on Steve's knee. His eyes become distracted and he glances over at her in enough time to see her pretty lips form the words, "Tell me the truth, Steve. Do you have feelings for me?"

There's nothing else for him to do. She's got him now. He can't say no, because that'd been a lie, and he can't very well put off telling her any longer. So he decides to do it: he decides to admit the truth. Captain America is head over heels for the girl called Pebbles.

But before he can say a single thing, the car starts sliding. It's slow right at first but then speeds up in the blink of an eye. Y/N lets out a short scream as the SUV starts spinning circles down the icy slope. The car topples and turns in the shapes of somersaults down the mountainside. Screeches echo with Y/N's yelps. It's a dozen turns later that the vehicle finally slams into the side of an old pine tree.

Then everything is silent.