Each year I write a request for a reader who lost her sister at a very young age, so this one has a specific audience.  This my contribution to her healing for this year.

"Where's (Y/N)?"

As Bucky wandered into the living room of the compound, he looked from end to end of the expansive room, peeking around furniture and walls and televisions as if you would actually be playing some unplanned game of hide-and-seek and that it could be the only explanation as to why he couldn't find you. Steve watched his friend for a few minutes, a crooked grin on his face and stifling the urge to laugh. "She's not down here, Buck. I haven't seen her at all today."

"Really?" Bucky frowned, dropping himself onto the couch with a loud huff. He lifted his hips up and pushed his hand into his pocket, struggling to get his phone so that he could make sure just one more time that he hadn't missed your call or text even though he had checked more times than he had cared to count already. "What the hell?"

"She miss a date or somethin'?"

"Yeah."

"Wait...really?" Steve answered, his brow furrowed in his confusion. "That seems weird. You've been gone for the last week. You'd think she'd be ready and waiting at the door for how much she's said she missed you."

"Hmm, well, 'spose that's an ego boost if nothin' else."

Steve watched Bucky continue to search both the reaches of his mind and the history in his phone but to no avail, and he too began to run the events of the past several days through his memory for any sign of a clue. Bucky had been out on a lengthy mission with Tony and Clint, but he had done the same many times before, and you had never acted any differently during his absence. Steve had been out running errands with you just the day before, and you seemed completely like your usual self. He went so far as to itemize the grocery list in his mind in case there would be some blaring sign that he had missed; when he could visualize the receipt in your hand, the answer popped out clear as day. "Buck," he finally whispered, closing his eyes in his revelation, "what's the date?"

"The date? Why?"

"Buck...think about it."

Bucky stared at Steve for a few seconds, waiting for his friend to drop the punchline, but he never did. It was infuriating when Rogers did this, expecting everyone to be on the same wavelength at any given moment, but for him to be on it more than anyone else. "Alright, punk, I'm thinkin'..." he paused, his eyes slowly alight with the answer that had been eluding him, "oh...oh, shit...Steve, I totally forgot."

~~~

You had been buried under the heavy blankets of your bed all day. The last time that you had seen the outside of your room was during your grocery run with Steve, and the poor guy didn't even dare to argue with your choices of junk that you carried home. They were survival foods, knowing that you would be confining yourself in exile from the rest of the team and the rest of the world. It was the anniversary of the day you lost her, and no matter how much you tried to open that door, you just couldn't find the strength, and it was easier to accept the exhaustion and stay in bed.

Bucky had arranged a date for that night, which you had absolutely forgotten, thought it didn't mean that you didn't want to see him; in fact, he was the only person that you wanted to see. But, as usual, he would want to talk about the mission and if you couldn't give him the attention and focus that he deserved from you, it was best to just disappoint him fully and all at once.

"(Y/N)?"

The gentle knock on the door was uncharacteristic for the man on the other side of it, the sound barely enough to carry the distance across your room. "Yeah, Cap?"

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, hold on," you grumbled, frustrated and tossing the blankets aside to stand. You hurried to put on a pair of sweatpants that had been lying on your floor for days, hoping that they were presentable enough. Your t-shirt was wrinkled from barely moving in bed, and your hair was just good enough to not outright scare the guy. You sat yourself back down onto the bed and kept above the blankets, pushing back against the headboard to help hold you up. "FRIDAY, open the door, please."

When he was allowed in, Steve took a slow step over the threshold and through the door, stopping to take in the sight; there were food wrappers scattered across the floor with no care as to where they were tossed, and the curtains were pulled shut to allow almost no light of day through them. "Hey, you okay?"

"Never better."

"Mmm hmm, right," he sighed heavily. "So...Buck said that you missed your date? That's not like you, so you want to try that again?"

"Not really, Steve. Did you come up here just to nag me about staying in all day or did you need something from me?"

"I don't need anything other than for you to talk to me. I know what day it is, doll."

"I'm good, Cap, really. I just wanted some time alone."

"Okay, that's fine, I get it," he nodded, "but Buck is pretty worried and I don't think that your answer will be enough for me to hold him back any longer. I can hear him coming down the hall."

"Steve, please...can't you make something up? Like maybe I've got the plague or something?"

"We can't catch it anyway."

"Dammit," you muttered under your breath, "alright fine, then let him in. Might as well let him yell at me for forgetting our date so he can break up with me once and for all."

"That's not what he's going to do."

"Well, maybe he should-" you began, but you were immediately cut off by the sad look in Bucky's eyes as he turned the corner to step into your room, and by the arm full of food, movies, and extra pillows and blankets that he had brought along with him. He stopped right next to Steve, the two of them barely even fully through the door.

"I would never do that," he whispered, "is that what you think of me?"

"Buck, no, of course not," you backpedaled. "But I wouldn't blame you at all."

"Honey, this is a really hard day for you, and if anyone messed up here, it's me. I didn't think of it until Steve brought it up that I had forgotten, and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, and I want to do whatever you need, okay? If that means leaving you alone, then we will, but we just wanted to make sure that you were alright first. I'll even leave all of this stuff here and go. I'll do anything you say."

The almost hopeful look he was giving you tore at your heart, even in the recesses of it that had begun to grow a little bit colder on this day, just as it had done the year prior and the one before that. Every year these two men would pull through for you, even when you wanted nothing more than to let the world pass you by so that you could forget the pain of it all. Yeah, having them standing in front of you with their attempts at helping you only made it more obvious as to why they were there in the first place, but they were there because of their love for you, and it hurt so much more to deny them than to face a pain that would likely never leave you anyway.

"Fine...come here," you conceded with an outstretched hand to summon them, "both of you. There's enough food there to feed a small army."

"You haven't known our Stevie here as long as I have, (Y/N)," Bucky chuckled, "he's a small army all on his own."