"I am not going in there."

I rolled my eyes at Bucky. We were in the hallway of my apartment. He informed me that he was ready to face Jackson and Gemma. To make amends with them. The entire way he made a list, and by list I mean write it in a pocket notebook, of all the pros and cons of making amends with them tonight. Now that we were right in front of the door, he was chickening out.

"You'll be fine. Now let's go inside and you can get this over with." I motioned towards the door with a large grin.

"No." Bucky scowled.

"Why are you acting like an oversized toddler? You were just stating how you wanted to make amends with them." I exasperated, rubbing my temple.

"And then I remembered they most likely hate my guts. So, no, I'm leaving." Bucky gave a firm nod, starting to turn around.

"I don't think so." I quickly grasped his wrist. Bucky heaved a sigh and gave me a stern look. "I'm now your wingwoman for making amends, so I guess that means I'm also here to make sure you follow through."

"I can follow through tomorrow." Bucky tried to shake out of my grip. I refused to let him go. He raised a brow. "Damn, you're stronger than you look."

"Thanks. Look, I suggest you do this now. I can't guarantee their reactions, but you'll be starting somewhere. I'm going to be there anyways to make sure the situation doesn't go south." I informed him.

"If this blows up in my face, it's on you." Bucky narrowed his eyes and pointed at me.

"Fine by me. Ready?" I asked, taking out my apartment key.

"Not really." Bucky gave me a look.

"Do you want me to give them a warning or?" I asked, getting ready to unlock the door.

"Let's just get this over with." Bucky sighed, running a hand down his face.

"Okie dokie. Here we go." I mumbled, unlocking the door. "I'm home and I brought a guest. Behave!"

"No promises!" Jackson called out. He walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of Ramen. The teenager was holding chopsticks and was in mid bite when he saw Bucky out in the hallway. "Oh, shit."

"Hi." Bucky gave him a curt nod.

"Uh, Aunt Soph? Can I talk to you for, like, a second?" Jackson pointed towards the kitchen using his chopsticks.

"Yeah." I nodded. Looking back towards an awkward Bucky, I motioned him to enter the apartment. "You can sit on the couch for now. Want anything to drink?"

"Got anything strong?" Bucky grumbled.

"There's Mountain Dew." Jackson answered, keeping a close eye on the ex-assassin.

"Is that some kind of moonshine?" Bucky furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Uh, no." Jackson gave me a look of bewilderment. "It's soda."

"Soda?" Bucky repeated.

"Yeah..." Jackson trailed off.

"How about that talk?" I clasped my hands together and walked towards the kitchen.

"Why the hell is he here? You do know that he is the one responsible for killing my dad right? You're best friend?" Jackson started off in a harsh whisper. "And how the hell does he not know about Mountain Dew?"

"Long story short, Bucky is a good man who was brainwashed for years and is wanting to apologize to you and your mother for what happened to your father." I informed him. Jackson opened his mouth to state something but closed it. "Treat him nicely."

"Brainwashed?" Jackson frowned, peering over my shoulder to look at the ex-assassin.

Bucky was curiously starting at the Xbox. He reached for the remote and pressed a button. A chime came from the console and the remote, causing Bucky to quickly drop it. He glanced over his shoulder to see us already staring at him.

"What the hell is that thing?" Bucky questioned.

"A gaming console. It's where you can play video games on the tv." Jackson slowly explained.

Bucky let out a soft hum as he turned back to study the Xbox. Jackson shared a look with me.

"We are so going to show him how to play video games. Imagine his skill level on the zombie map?" Jackson's mouth tugged into a smirk. "Unbeatable."

The front doorknob started the jiggle. Jackson's eyes widened as he quickly set his bowl of Ramen on the kitchen counter. Bucky shot to his feet, glancing at me with worried eyes. I made my way to the door just in time for Gemma to walk in.

"Oh! Jesus, Sophie!" Gemma let out, smacking my arm. I made sure to angle my body in a way to hide Bucky. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry!" I sheepishly smiled, closing the door behind her.

"Hey, Mom!" Jackson dragged out with a large grin and a wave from the kitchen.

"What did you two do?" Gemma narrowed her eyes.

"Why do you always assume we did something bad? Most of the time we just play video games." Jackson quickly defended, his voice raising a bit.

"You're acting stranger than usual."

"We're not weirdos Mom." Jackson walked towards her.

"Stop," Gemma raised her hand causing Jackson to freeze, "and tell me what is going on."

"Okay," Jackson started off, looking at me and Bucky, "don't get mad right away."

"Starting off like that is already not helping." Gemma narrowed her eyes.

"I may have run into someone." I added.

"Was it a guy? Someone from SHIELD? Oh! Was it that cute guy from Starbucks?" Gemma started to smirk.

"No, no, no!" I started to wave at her to stop.

"Well, he is a guy." Jackson shrugged, glancing at Bucky.

"Jackson, not helping." I shot him a look, my eyes adverting to Bucky. An amused expression was dancing on his features causing my face to flush. I quickly turned towards Gemma. "Just...let us explain. Let him explain before you react."

"React? What do you mean?" Gemma walked passed me. Her face flashed with anger. "Why did you bring him here?"

"Now would be a perfect time to start, Bucky." I sent him an encouraging nod.

"You're calling him, Bucky now?!" Gemma glared at me.

"I am no longer the Winter Soldier. I am James Bucky Barnes." Bucky raised his hands to show peace. "And you're part of my efforts to make amends."

"Short and sweet, look at that. Way better than earlier." I clapped proudly behind Gemma. Bucky shot me an irritated glance. I motioned towards his face. "You gotta work on smiling though."

"Yeah, kind of intimidating while you said that whole thing." Jackson nodded in agreement.

"You two are okay with this? He killed Seth!" Gemma faced Jackson and I.

"You don't think I know that?" I stepped towards her. "Trust me, I know. But I also know, that this man has gone through almost a century worth of shit where he had no control of his actions and deserves to make peace. Gemma, I'm not saying you have to like him or trust him. All I'm saying is to forgive him. Not only for him, but for you and Jackson. This is closure. Not everyone has the chance to do something like this."

"You honestly expect me to just forgive him like that?" Gemma snapped her fingers. "Maybe in your world as an ex-agent you had to learn to forgive so easily, but out here in the real world where people don't have-"

"Real world? Really?" I scoffed, cutting her off. "I live in the real world. The one where anything can be taken away from you and that I've learned to help others and fend for myself at the same time. I know. But I also know, that forgiveness can lead to so many beautiful things for more than just one person. Don't let not forgiving keep you bitter at someone who had no control over his own mind."

"Are they really talking about me as if I'm not here?" Bucky raised a brow at Jackson.

"They do it to me all the time." Jackson shrugged honestly. "And, just so you know, I do forgive you. I can't imagine not being in full control of my own mind."

"Thank you." Bucky gave Jackson a small smile.

"See, that's the kind of smile you need to work on." Jackson pointed out. "Maybe show some teeth."

"Wouldn't smiling with my teeth feel too nice though?" Bucky asked.

"Nah, man. It shows you're being genuine." Jackson patted Bucky's shoulder. He frowned at he stared at Bucky's biceps. "How much do you bench? How much do I need to bench to look like you?"

"Maybe not play video games all the time might help out?"

"You right." Jackson slowly nodded, eyeing the Xbox. "Hey Mom, I think I may need to sign up with a gym."

"We have free access to a gym downstairs." Gemma blinked at him.

"We do? Since when?"

"Always." I blinked at him.

There was a moment of silence.

"Fine, if my son and my husband's best friend can forgive you....than I guess I can too." Gemma sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just know, you need earn trust around here. I don't know what you and Sophie have going on, but trust needs to be earned."

"That's already more than I had planned. Thank you." Bucky gave her an appreciative nod.

"So...Bucky, have you ever played a video game?" Jackson asked with a smirk.

"No."

"He needs to start planning out who needs to make amends with." I informed them.

"He can multitask, right Bucky?" Jackson looked towards him.

"Uh..." Bucky looked between the both of us, "I guess?"

"Perfect! I can start the game. Aunt Soph and I can play round one so you can watch and learn. In the mean time, you can start thinking of people you need to make amends with and then you and Aunt Soph can switch." Jackson beamed at his brilliant plan.

"We can give it a shot." I shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm going to need a drink." Gemma shook her head and walked towards the kitchen.

"But I thought you only had Mountain Dew?" Bucky furrowed his brows.

"We do." Gemma stated.

"Get your notebook out and start writing names." I instructed. "We're getting down to business."

"Sure thing." Bucky rolled his eyes, taking out his small notebook.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun." Jackson started the Xbox.

"Start writing down all the names you can think of that the Winter Soldier has impacted. You can write our names down if you want, to you know, cross a line through." I suggested.

Bucky stayed silent as he wrote down names. The only sound was the music and zombie noises coming from the Xbox. Gemma was sitting on the loveseat drinking Mountain Dew and playing Candy Crush on her phone.

"You ready to give it a try?" Jackson asked Bucky after a few minutes, pausing the game.

"To play the game?" Bucky glanced at the controller in my hand. "I haven't really paid attention to how you play."

"It'll be easy. Move the joystick to move around, X to reload, A jump, B to crouch, and Y to switch weapons. RT is to throw a grenade and RB is to stab with a knife." Jackson explained.

"Just try it." I handed Bucky my controller and grabbed his notebook.

"Wait-"

"I'm not going to do anything to it, promise. I just want to see who the people are so we can start on our next amend." I gave him a small smile.

He grumbled under his breath and fiddled with the controller. Jackson unpaused the game, continuing to guide Bucky on how to play. I read through the names listed. It wasn't guaranteed that a majority of the people would live here in New York. We'll just have to make the ones where Bucky can make amends with count.

"Dude! Are you sure this is your first time playing? You're so good at this game." Jackson stated in awe.

I looked up at the game to see Bucky make a headshot.

"So, how easy do you think these amendments will be?" Bucky asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea." I glanced at him. "But it's worth a shot. Want to start tomorrow? I can look these people up."

"How?" Bucky asked.

"I still have my tech from my SHEILD days." I suppressed a grin.

"Then yeah, tomorrow sounds great."

◾️

It turns out, the first one we started off with was Mr. Yori. He was an older Asian man who had lost his son due to the Winter Soldier. Bucky had thought about becoming friends with him instead and using the amend line. He want to give back to the man. It was a sweet gesture that took weeks for the relationship to grow.

Bucky's list was slowly having names crossed off. Today, we were going to cross of another one. Senator Atwood.

"Hey," I started as we waited in the parking garage, "you are following all of the rules Raynor has given you when in comes to making amends right?"

"Of course." Bucky started to type something on the tablet.

He had tagged Senator Atwood's car only seconds before. I had called anonymously to the police about a tip on Senator Atwood. Now we were just waiting.

"How many rules are there?" I narrowed my eyes, feeling as if he was lying.

"Three."

"Which are?"

"Why do you want to know again?" Bucky sighed, glancing at me before focusing on the tablet again.

"Because I feel like you need the reminder." I have him a sarcastic smile.

"I know the rules." Bucky gave me a sarcastic smile in return.

"Okay."

"Fine."

"Shut up, here she comes." I motioned for him to stop.

"You're telling me to shut up? Really?" Bucky scoffed.

We watched Senator Atwood walk to her car with someone else. They entered the car and started to talk. I placed a comm into my ear, giving Bucky a nod. He tapped a button in the tablet allowing us to hear what Senator Atwood was saying.

"If Congressman Lockhart wants to speak up, silence him for good." Senator Atwood stated.

"Here comes the fun." I muttered to myself.

Bucky sniffed and pressed a button on the tablet, turning the car on. The car immediately locked all the doors.

"What the hell?" Senator Atwood said.

Bucky started to control the car. The vehicle reversed out of the parking spot, the tires squealing against the pavement. The car drove forward and quickly turned into a new parking spot closer to us. I held out my hand for the tablet. Bucky handed it to me as he started to make his way to the car.

"Come on!" Senator Atwood yelled, trying to gain control over her car.

I pressed a button to roll down the passenger side window as Bucky neared them.

"Remember me?" Bucky asked.

The man in the passenger side pulled out a gain. Bucky quickly grasped his wrist and elbowed the man in the face. The man was quickly knocked out.

"Ouch," I talked into the comms, "I thought you weren't supposed to hurt anyone?"

He ignored my comment.

"I am no longer the Winter Soldier. I am James Bucky Barnes. And you're part of my efforts to make amends." Bucky stated.

"Don't forget to smile." I reminded him. Sirens were wailing a few streets away. I quickly peered over my shoulder to see the red and blue lights shining from a few floors away. "Alright, time to go."

I turned off the tablet and shoved it into my purse. Bucky was making his way towards me when the police arrived. They ignored Bucky and I as they surrounded Senator Atwood's car.

"You smiled right? With your teeth?" I looked up to Bucky.

"Yes." Bucky rolled his eyes. "Now don't forget we have the late lunch with Mr. Yori tomorrow."

"I can't make it." I unlocked my car.

"You can't make it?" Bucky asked as we got in.

"Yeah, I have to go into work earlier tomorrow to cover someone's shift. You'll be fine. Tell Mr. Yori I'll eat dinner with him next time and I'll pay."

"Fine, he will look forward to that. He loves his free food." Bucky pointed at me as I reversed.

"Talking about free food, you owe me." I reminded him.

"I didn't hit him that hard." Bucky tried to get out of it.

"You knocked the man out!" I released a laugh, driving away from the scene behind us. "We made a deal every time you break Rule Two you buy me food."

"I'm not buying Mexican food again. Change it up." Bucky finally gave in.

"Fine, how about that Ramen shop a few blocks away from your apartment? I've heard they had good food." I drove out of the parking garage.

"Fine, but I'm choosing the movie." Bucky shifted in his seat. "I can't believe I allowed you to play The Princess Bride last time."

"It's a good movie! A classic!" I defended myself.

"It was too romantic and cheesy!" Bucky shook his head. "We're watching The Lord of The Rings."

"You promised Jackson you would watch that with him." I reminded him.

"Fine, then we'll, uh," Bucky pulled out his notebook and flipped through the pages to read the list of movies he wanted to watch, "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"Oh, we'll need a ton of popcorn for that." I grinned.

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Bucky tilted his head.

"Definitely good. Be prepared to eat your weight in popcorn."

"I don't think I can eat that much popcorn plus the ramen." Bucky frowned.

Sorry for the late chapter, been super busy these past couple of weeks. Treated y'all with a long one today💕

How have y'all been? All good I hope!

Comment at least one thing that had made you day 😁

I'll start: today is my day off from work