It was early morning.
"How's the new school? Did you make any friends?" Bucky, in a good mood, asked Skye while eating breakfast.
The little one was already a mixed-race Asian, with a face that leaned more towards Eastern aesthetics, making it harder for her to be accepted by White people and other minority groups.
She also had experiences she didn't want to bring up.
Bucky was worried that she wouldn't dare to make friends at school and might be labeled as isolated, subsequently being bullied by a few girls.
"It's okay."
Skye only replied with that.
Sure enough, she hadn't properly communicated with the other children.
But Bucky really had no experience in this area; school matters could only be handled by Skye herself.
He could only hope that no bad boys or girls would bully her.
"I'll give you a task: find a classmate, introduce yourself, and chat a bit. If you can make a friend, I'll take you to Coney Island this weekend. How about that?"
"...Then I'll try."
Skye was initially reluctant, but upon hearing that Bucky would take her out to play, her big eyes sparkled as she nodded.
After chatting with her for a while and finishing breakfast, Bucky opened the door and sent Skye off to school with her nanny.
As soon as the two walked away, and before he could close the door, the door next door opened.
"Morning, Hill... Hey, what did I do to upset you again?"
Maria's graceful figure appeared, along with her cold, beautiful face and eyes full of resentment.
"...Please come in, make yourself at home."
Hill huffily walked past Bucky and entered the house, leaving Bucky politely addressing the empty air.
"Coffee, bacon and eggs, yogurt with mixed fruit. Have some, or you won't have the energy to be angry."
Bucky offered a hearty breakfast, and Hill didn't stand on ceremony. She picked up a crispy piece of bacon and chewed it with a crunch, as if venting her anger.
"You, you're untrustworthy, you don't keep your word. We agreed to act together, but you abandoned me halfway."
Oh, right... Bucky lightly thumped his palm with his fist, thinking he had forgotten something. He had left Hill in the safe house last night when he was chasing Billy.
"For this, I offer my sincerest apologies." Bucky exaggeratedly bowed, apologizing without a hint of remorse.
His and Frank's actions last night were indeed not suitable for Hill to see. Perhaps after finding Frank, he subconsciously decided to leave Hill behind.
Hill glared fiercely at Bucky, continuing to vent her anger on the bacon, and even stabbed the two poached eggs to a pulp with a butter knife.
Tsk, why such a rush to scramble each other?
But despite her anger, she knew that she wouldn't get a sincere apology from Bucky. She had followed them to the yacht later and seen the scene of blood flowing like a river, and Billy's fate.
However, she also learned about the grudges between Billy and Frank. Although she still resisted Frank and Bucky's methods, she truly couldn't bring herself to voice her opposition.
Putting herself in their shoes, if someone had killed her loved one and harmed her two children, facing a mortal enemy, she couldn't imagine if she would make what she considered the right choice—handing the crime over to legal judgment, rather than taking blood revenge herself.
"And you still owe me an answer."
Hill didn't just come to be angry; she was also waiting for the answer Bucky had promised her earlier—to tell her who he really was.
"About who I am? Well, since you want to hear it, it all starts in 1942..."
"Why don't you start from 1922?"
Hill subconsciously thought Bucky was going to be flippant again, starting from his Grandpa's generation or something.
"Alright, then let's start from 1922. That year I was five, and I met the first friend of my life, Steve Rogers..."
"Stop, hold on." Hill still thought Bucky was making up a story, and she rolled her eyes impatiently:
"Are you writing a novel? You can tell this to Agent Coulson; he's Captain America's loyal fan... Wait, are you serious?"
However, Hill received a slightly helpless but very serious look from Bucky in response, and was instantly stunned:
"Don't tell me you're James Buchanan Barnes? It would make more sense if you were his descendant."
Hill had never considered this possibility. Who would connect Johnny, with his long hair and stubble, always acting improperly, with the soldier beside Captain America during World War II?
But looking closely now, he really did bear a striking resemblance to Bucky Barnes, whom she had seen once or twice at the Captain America Memorial Museum.
"Genuine, no substitutions. I am the man behind Captain America, well, to his diagonal rear, Bucky Barnes."
"How do you prove it? Tell me a secret only you would know."
Hill blurted that out, and then immediately blushed. She had been careless, not thinking it through, and sure enough, she heard Bucky chuckle:
"Then I could just make something up that you wouldn't know was true or false. Besides, Bucky Barnes isn't some celebrity, at most he's Captain America's sidekick. I don't need to pretend to be him, do I? Anyway, if you don't believe me, you can go ask Howard Stark for confirmation."
"...Then what exactly happened to you, that you still haven't changed?"
"That's another story. Back then..."
Bucky repeated the same story he had used to tell Howard (substituting HYDRA with a mysterious evil organization), which was the most truth he could reveal, to Hill again.
"..."
As she listened, Hill's beautiful, large eyes widened, and her mouth slightly parted, vividly illustrating the word 'dumbfounded'.
It was even more bizarre than Bucky being Bucky!
Well, since the person in front of her was Bucky Barnes, only such an experience would be reasonable, right?
This abnormal normalcy made Hill feel a bit dizzy.
After a while, Bucky had even finished watching the morning news and typed for a bit on the computer before Hill came to her senses.
Then she realized no one was in front of her... Well, even if he was Bucky Barnes, he was still Johnny, that guy who always annoyed people.
Or perhaps, this was his true nature, and he wasn't deceiving her about everything?
In any case, Hill grudgingly accepted this premise, and the feeling of a legendary figure being right beside her was actually quite exciting.
"I finally understand why Howard Stark, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders, has such a good relationship with you, and why you have so much freedom to have the agency cooperate with you."
"Yes, it's all thanks to Howard. Otherwise, I'd probably be like Steve back then, caught by S.H.I.E.L.D. and have my blood drawn every day."
"You're just talking nonsense. We're not like that at all."
"You don't know how many tubes of blood Steve had drawn back then."
"Can you tell me about what happened back then? Actually, it's not just Agent Coulson; I'm also very curious about it."
"You clearly didn't recognize me. My hairline brother guessed it after a few glances."
"Alright, I wanted to ask about Ms. Peggy Carter."
"I'm not very familiar with my sister-in-law. Back then..."
ADVANCE CHAPTER AVAILABLE IN PATREON
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