"Stevie, honey, ma has to go to the hospital. I've got to go work right now," Sarah Rogers said as she knelt to face her boy of seven and put his wispy blonde hair back into place. "I need you to do something for me."

He let a big, toothless grin spread out across his young face. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good man," she praised, taking an envelope from her apron pocket. She held it before her son who reached out to grab it. Sarah snatched it back.

"Wait just a moment so that I can explain to you what I need you to do, dear," she said with a voice as soft as a feather.

"Sorry, ma'am," he apologized, putting his hands behind his back. Sarah giggled, proud that she had tased him right so far.

"Good man," she used her common words of praise. "Do you remember Mrs. Applegate just four blocks from here?"

"Yes ma'am," Steve said. Just as his mother was about to speak again, his eyes lit up and he did the talking instead. "Is this about my new school?"

Sarah laughed, "Yes, son. This is about your new school," she told him, placing the envelope in his hands. "I need you to put this directly into her hands. It has all the money you need to get into school."

"Yes ma'am," he promised with a nod of his head.

"Don't stop for any reason and hold onto this letter tight. Do not let go, Steve," Sarah ordered, grasping his pale bony hands. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," he repeated, his face stern and sure.

Sarah's beautiful smile spread across her warm face. "Good man. Go on now," she said, giving him a little pay and a push towards the door.

She sighed, after she waved back at her son, and grabbed her things to go to work. She had been saving every nickel she could to save up for this. She was starving herself. Steve didn't require much food, thank God. She paid the rent and did her best with clothes. But that envelope. That 175 dollars. It would be what gave her son a better life.

He had been born sick and small. He had always been that way. They didn't have any support from Joseph. Her husband was killed in the first war. It made her sick to think about it. Joseph moves them into America to live the dream. It would be better. But as an Irish Immigrant, the only work that could be found were the factory jobs where it was even more dangerous than the military.

They didn't pay for anything. She and Joseph worked in a beef factory. Until she got pregnant. He decided it was best for her to quit and him to try to find a better job. The military should do well. But he's killed before Steve is even born.

The money may have been better, but maybe Steve was better off without Joseph as his father. The man was a true brute. She remembered many evenings where he'd leave her ravaged and beaten on the bathroom floor. She became a nurse because her son needed her. She needed to not be in harm's way at the meat factory. She needed to know how to take care of her sickly baby.

And during the morning, she was a part-time waitress. Then she does maid work whenever she can possibly fit it into her schedule. She can feel her bones aging twine as fast as they should. She doesn't sleep or eat. She had been slowly wasting away since she moved to the country.

But Steve would never know anything of the sort. He will never know the truth of his father or the suffering of his father. Joseph gave the ultimate sacrifice: dying for his country. His mother loves him

This is what she wants to do. She wants to protect him. And a public school is no way to do so. She didn't have the money to keep him out of kindergarten. He had already faced the bullying about his lack of money, his Irish descent, and his sickly nature.

She doesn't have the time to teach him at home. She doesn't have the time to see him abused. So she made friends with the headmaster of a private school's wife. Instead of paying the yearly tuition, Sarah convinced her that Steve deserved a discount due to his skills with art. Mrs. Applegate also knew about her money troubles.

She promised Sarah that Steve would be allowed to be enrolled if she paid one month of tuition in advance of the school year and that would be all. Unfortunately, the office payments are only received from 1 pm to 3 pm. Sarah's second shift at the hospital began at 12:30 and she had to run to make it there after sending Steve on his way.

Steve walked along on the sidewalk, as happy as a boy like him could be. Maybe he would meet friends at this school that didn't care about the hardships of life Steve faced. He did his best to pay attention to the block he was on and where he was. For a boy, he was very mature, though he wouldn't know that if someone told him. As far as he knew, boys his age knew their way around and behind Brooklyn and how to run errands for their mothers.

But of course, not all of them had the type of respect he did. His mother had always told him: "See a person for the way they look, not their situation, but for the way they treat others."

It confused Steve at first. He figured some people were bullies because they were jealous or had hard private lives, but his mother told him that there was never any reason to treat another person as if they were less. She didn't like bullies. She had taught Steve not to like them either.

So little Steve continued on his way, the envelope clutched tightly in his bony hand through the loud, busy streets of the poverty-stricken neighborhood. Just as he was rounding the corner on the first block, three boys Steve's age emerged from the alleyway corner with sticky fists full of pop and candy.

"It's the skinny kid!" one of the boys said. Fear erupted in Steve's guts. He stopped in his tracks, clutching the envelope even harder. "I'm just going to Mrs. Applegate's, Roy," Steve responded, doing his best to project his breaking voice. Roy only laughed, stuffing the candy in his mouth and handing his pop off to his buddy.

"Mrs. Applegate's, huh?" he asked, taking a few more steps towards the young, fragile boy. "And what's this?" he asked aggressively, poking the envelope into Steve's chest.

"You best mind your businesses, Roy," Steve told him simply, standing his ground, even though the opposing boy was nearly a foot taller than Steve, and obviously much meaner. Roy was shocked that Steve had opposed it. In a fit of anger, Roy grabbed Steve's wrist and wrenched the envelope from the boy's hand.

"Give it back!" Steve squeaked, reaching after the envelope. Roy jerked his hand away. "Wait a minute," he said. "I'll give it back. You just have to reach it, shortly." Roy held up the envelope high into the air. Steve tried with all his strength to jump and get it, but it was just out of his reach.

"What is so important about this that is worth a bloody nose?" Roy asked him threateningly?

Steve's eyes grew dark as she raced towards the boy with all his might and grabbed him around the chest, hoping to bring him down. Roy did not budge. With a smile, he handed the envelope to one of his buddies and yanked Steve off him by his collar and raised back his fist, and threw it onto Steve's nose. Shock vibrated through the small child's body as blood began to spill down his face and the front of the shirt. His head hit the concrete with a thud.

He did not cry. He did not lay there. He did not complain. He struggled, but he rose to his feet.

"Give it back, Roy," Steve repeated through the red drops falling over his mouth. Roy scoffed and took the envelope back from his goon.

"You can do this all day, can't ya?"

Steve inhaled and held out his hand. Roy eyed it for a monument and tripped the top of it off. When his eyes fell on the green cash that was within, he went into a frenzy. He stuffed it into his pocket, and as hard as he could, hit Steve again. This time, Steve was unconscious, and his money was gone.

He wasn't out long. He came back to his senses as someone was lifting him off the ground. It was a shopkeep from down the street. "You alright, son?"

Steve nodded, raising his hand to hold his head. " Yes, sir."

"Can you get home on your own?"

"I can find my way," Steve promised. The shopkeeper nodded to him, but he did not hide his worry. Shamefully, Steve made his way home, blood dried on his skin and his face stained black and blue. His head throbbed. But his heart hurt even more. His mother believed in him to get that envelope to Mrs. Applegate. Now, she would come home and be more disappointed than ever.

He entered the door and climbed up to the sink in the kitchen. It was the only place that had running water. He cupped his trembling hands and ran the warm, discolored water. He dipped his head into the pool of water his hands had created and scrubbed gingerly, red water running down his arms and the front of his shirt. Suddenly, the dizziness got to him, and nausea took control. When he gagged, nothing came.

He clambered down from the counter and crawled into the corner and began to cry.

A/N: so.... about this story. Ik I explained a lot of it earlier but I started this project years ago. It is still definitely the same project.

DON'T WORRY: Steve, Bucky, and them are not going to be kids the whole time. By chapter 8, they are like 14 and it's the year Bucky and Steve meet. Also the pre-war book is gonna jump around a bit. Then it's going to get less and less as it gets closer to the end.

Bucky is introduced in chapter one, as you know.

Vivian in chapter two.

Steve in chapter three.

Peggy in chapter four.

Howard in chapter six.

Ruby in chapter twenty-six.

Maria in chapter twenty-eight.

These will be our main POV characters.

Now: I am going to change the format of this so that I can go on gif hunts lol. If you wanna go back and see the previous two chapters, feel free.

So anyway, I was not planning on publishing this anytime soon because I am still working on my ASoIaF fic where I'm turning the mystery of Robert's Rebellion into and novel but I recently got a wild hit of inspiration for THIS book instead. To put it into perspective, I had 12 chapters... now I have almost 60. The entire pre-war part is almost completely finished. So you guys don't have to worry about me not updating forever because the entire first bit is nearly finished and the second bit is basically the First Avenger.

Have fun!!