Chapter Text
Angie
That morning had started off amazingly well. Just as the past two years had been going. Angie had fallen for Peggy almost as soon as she laid eyes on the older woman. When Peggy had actually spoken, Angie was head over heels. It had grown day by day Peggy would drop by the diner, always secretive about her life but willing to listen to and encourage Angie about her acting. The normally posh Brit would stuff large fork fulls of whatever she was eating in to her mouth as fast as she could, ending up, in the actress’s eyes, to look like a frantic chipmunk. When spoken to at these moments she’d talk around the large glop of food, occasionally sending out a spray of food and spit.
Angie found this all very endearing, if not slightly saddening because what kind of back ground could this amazing woman have to make her eat as if she may not have time to finish or she may not get another meal. However if Angie where to ever press it was like hitting a brick wall… Of course over time, as their relationship progressed, Angie learned that Peggy had been active in the war and was now an agent. She also learned of the fleeting yet very real relationship Peggy had been in with the Captain America, and that had his plane not crashed him and Peggy would have most likely gotten married after the war ended.
That’s what made this so concerning. Here Angie was chasing after Peggy who was mindlessly running towards a man who looked and sounded exactly like the one and only Steve Rogers. It wasn’t the ideal way for the day to go. Ideally, they would be on their way to the diner for a late breakfast and then they’d go back to the house and sit around the study until it was time to make dinner. Then Angie would set to work making dinner while Peggy tried to help but failed because as elegant as she was she couldn’t cook at all.
Angie broke from her thoughts and finally reached Steve and Peggy in time to see Peggy launch herself in the man’s arms. To their credit they didn’t kiss, just a dragged out hug filled with them saying how good it was to see each other again and Peggy saying how it had been “Three long years my love.” Angie however kept her eyes on her feet trying not to let her eyes fill with tears.
When she finally looked up, they were still hugging, Steve holding Peggy completely off the ground, and he was staring straight at her. There was a look of understanding in his eyes, like he wasn’t planning on taking Peggy away for her. He gave a slight nod in her direction which Angie returned taking a deep, shaky breath. As just Angie’s luck she choked on the air and began to cough loudly, unable to stop. Just as her eyes began to over flow, Peggy’s arm looped around her and she heard Steve’s voice say: “Let’s go up to my room and talk it all out.”
He led them to his room and got Angie a cup of water. She couldn’t help but to curse silently to herself for being so dumb to start coughing even though she knew it wasn’t really her fault. Finally she stopped coughing and let out a long sigh.
“Are you alright my darling?” Peggy asked, disregarding Steve’s presence.
“Yeah, I’m fine English. You gonna introduce me to Mr. Meat Wall over here?”
Peggy smiled and chuckled lightly, “Of course, Angie, this is Steve Rogers, formally known as Captain America. Steve, this is Angela Martinelli, better known as Angie.”
Steve nodded a greeting but then paused at the last name. “Martinelli? Say you wouldn’t happen to have brothers would you? Cus’ when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn there was a group of about five of them that’d beat me to a pulp every chance they got. Heard some of them even ended up getting arrested with ties to the Italian mob.”
Angie winced and then popped her knuckles in a nervous way. “Anthony and Demetrio were my brothers. The other three where cousins, Donatello, Fernando, Luigi. Anthony was killed in a mob shoot out and Donatello and Luigi were arrested. The five of ‘em had an affinity for kicking people’s asses.”
Steve nodded and Peggy placed a hand on the small of Angie’s back. He looked between the two women and shook his head slightly.
“So… Peggy, do you two fondue?” He smirked slightly, hoping that she’d remember the reference. Judging by the fact that she had turned almost the shade of her lipstick, he’d guess that to be a yes. Angie looked between them, obviously way out of the loop.
“I… Uhm, yes, Steve, we do. I’m sorry if you expected for us to pick up where we left off but… I’ve moved on.” When she heard these words come from Peggy’s mouth, Angie felt her heart soar.
He nodded respectfully and handed her the note from Bucky, “So have I.”
Bucky
It had taken him awhile to find the exact location of the SSR, but when he did he entered with his head held high. He passed the women who were on the phone and when the head lady asked him what he was doing there he took his hands out of his pocket and took off the jacket he had been wearing to reveal his metallic arm. The women all gasped and one pressed the button to call all the agents into that room. Bucky ground his teeth and remained still even as the agents swarmed him and passed the cuffs on his wrists, leading him to the interrogation room. Bucky never resisted nor made a noise; he just allowed them to take him away.
Keeping it in his mind that this was all for his Steve.
Peggy
She was shocked beyond belief. Bucky was alive and was most likely the man with the metal arm that had been terrorizing the agents in Europe. And besides all of that he was in love with Steve and the feelings were reciprocated. More than all of that, the most shocking thing, was that Bucky had cared for him so much that he was willing to turn himself in to the SSR to save Steve.
Peggy, however, was no fool. She knew that the SSR would never believe Bucky, that they’d just think that it was a trap. So Peggy rounded them all up and called Jarvis. He arrived shortly thereafter with Howard and the five of them made their way to the SSR. Once there she took them into the building, all of them, including Jarvis, running.
“Rose, quickly, was a man with a metal arm here?”
“Yes, Peggy, he was, turned himself in. No fuss. Why?”
“No time for that, let us all in.”
“All five of you… Hey wait! Is he Captain…”
“Yes, yes, Rose. Now let us in.”
The woman shrugged and pressed the button allowing the five of them to go in. Had Peggy been thinking clearly she would have found the way they walked in rather comical. She in the lead, Steve close behind with Howard and Angie nipping at his heels all while Jarvis trailed uncertainly behind. However, this situation was anything but humorous. Bucky was most likely getting interrogated by Thompson, which meant that the ass was beating the shit out of him to get answers that Barnes didn’t have. As the British woman and her ragtag group entered the main room everyone froze, staring in shock at the five of them.
“Where are they?” She snapped, earning a flinch from the men who had never heard her military commander voice.
This earned nothing more than a few raised fingers in the direction of the nearest interrogation room. She stalked over, the other four following close behind, as she reached the door the sound of Thompson and Sousa practically growling out questions and the harsh sound of one sided blows being dealt. Peggy threw open the door, a glare firmly set on her face.
“What in the bloody hell do you think you too are doing?” she barked. The two men froze staring past her shoulder at the entourage behind her.
“Hey Cap…” a rough voice choked out.
Steve
Watching Peggy walk in and command the men in the building reminded him of the war and he had to fight to keep a grin off his face, but as they neared the door and the sound of his love being beat made it all too easy. She had all but ripped the door open and his eyes found Bucky. The other two men stared at him slack jawed and Steve might had brought himself to care had a voice not broken through the white noise in his head.
“Hey Cap…”
A shit eating grin was on the black and blue man’s face and it made Steve chuckle.
“James Buchanan Barnes, you sonofa bitch. Weren’t you the one who told me to stop trying to be the hero?”
“What can I say Stevie? You rubbed off on me.” Steve watched as Bucky ripped off the cuffs as if they were paper and stood.
He pushed past Peggy and the other men and wrapped his oldest friend in a large hug, reminding himself that this wasn’t the time to show his building affection. He and Bucky walked out of the room to stand in the hall with Howard, Jarvis and Angie while Peggy explained the situation to her baffled coworkers.
As they all walked out Howard made a snide comment about this ruining his lunch plans causing Peggy to walk off in a random direction. “Angie and I had been planning on coming here anyway, so I figure we could all catch up.”
It went great, Peggy, Angie, Steve, and Bucky obviously didn’t tell Howard or Jarvis about their separate relationships, but when Steve and Bucky mentioned a lack of places that were secure to stay, Angie suggested they stay with her and Peggy.
“I need a second opinion about some of my recipes. I’m Italian, so of course it’s good but sometimes I feel like Pegs would say that wet dog food was good.”
At this Steve, Bucky, and Howard all started laughing at the same time and Angie watched Peggy turn a bright shade of crimson. “Peg! Do you remember that one time? HAHAHOHO!” Howard dissolved into a choking laugh, tears streaming down his face.
Steve fell out of his chair, arms wrapped around his chest, Bucky chuckled deeply and Angie noted how Peggy hid her face in her hands and how Jarvis just looked lost. “Basically,” James started, “the rations were shi… Bad. Really, really horrible, of course it didn’t help that we were out in the middle of Germany I think. Anyways, Me, Stevie, Carter, and the rest of the Commandos Just got back from a mission, all of us starving. Well, Carter here, sees this unlabeled can and cracks it open. Starts really digging in yeah know. And about this time Dum Dum comes back and almost pukes at the sight of her then falls over laughing and all he can get out is “Dog Food”! She’d been eating dog food!” At this the three men started up again, totally ignoring the shredded napkin bits Peggy had started throwing at them. Steve realized, through the giggles running through him, that he had missed this feeling of family
Howard
After he and Jarvis dropped the other four off at his old home with the promise for getting Bucky and Steve clothes tomorrow He turned to his butler. “I wonder who is gonna end up dating who…” He said thoughtfully.
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Come‘an you remember me telling you that if Peggy Carter wasn’t so damn attractive and if James Barns wasn’t so pressed to be overly dramatically masculine, that Steve would have ended up being with Buck instead. Trust me when I say that James Buchannan “Bucky” Barns is one of the queerest people I know. Next to Steve… And Peg… Oh! And Angie, she has never even looked at me twice.”
Jarvis just shrugged, keeping to himself. Howard respected the man a lot, more then he often let on. That’s why he made Jarvis his butler. Jarvis and his wife Anna were something Howard craved. However, he had already made a name for himself and that wouldn’t be easily changed.
The four of them quickly became close friends, growing content with warm tea and fresh cannoli. News about Steve’s return finally hit, and when they went out, Angie and Bucky acted like a couple and so did Peggy and Steve. After a while they all got used to it. It no longer caused passive aggressive jealously for them to have to peck one another or cuddle for an added affect. It was working really well and they all thought that they could pull it off for, well, forever. But Howard, Jarvis and Anna just had to be invited for diner…