1942-Bucky Barnes-

A thin, short, frightened-looking blonde boy watched me from down the line of soldiers. His eyebrows were drawn together and up with a worry-line formed in the center of his forehead. His olive-green uniform was huge on his little body. I stared at the boy's face with fascination as his bottom lip trembled.

I was well aware of my own body, with its height of five feet and eleven inches, unkept, dark brown hair, its muscular limbs and torso, and my square, manly jaw. That's why I was drafted: I look tough. Also: I'm hawt. But as he looked steadily in my direction, I felt my confidence and bravado fall away, leaving a nervous flutter in its place.

Several hours later, when the sergeant dismissed us to leisurement/dinner/free time, the blonde came up to me and fell into step with me. I started noticing new details about him. His eyes were and are still an intense sky blue that made him look so sad. He looked like he hadn't smiled in such a long period of time back then. Well...not genuinely anyway. But he did his best to smile as he introduced himself.

"Hello. I'm Steven Grant Rogers. What's your name?" He asked.

"I'm James Buchanen Barnes but you can call me Bucky," I reply, grinning, "What bunker are you in, Steve?"

"Number 20."

"Me too," I laugh, poking his cheek, "And there's only two to a bunker so we can talk as long as we want, one on one. Does that sound like a plan?"

"Sure. Let's go eat first."

"How about we talk and eat at the same time?"

"Is that physically possible?" Steve asked as he laughed.

"You know what I mean!" I protest as I laughed with him.

We ate our dinner, talking about family and getting to know each other. I liked that I could get a pale ghost of his true smile appear when I told him the funnier bits and pieces of my life and how I'd been stubborn enough that they had to get the president of the United States of America to argue with me before the drafting was official. He seemed to like that I was a stubborn rebel with a great sense of humor and a special ability to be so deadpan and sarcastic.