MCA #4, Thursday Evening

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse hadn't really done Thanksgiving in a long time. For obvious reasons, really. She just had this one little moment of ceremony to herself, as she ate her simple meat-and-potatoes meal at the dinner table.

"This one's for you, Dylan," she said quietly, to her fork. "Maybe next year will be the year we can share it."

At least she'd found him, this year.

Just... everything else was a work in progress.

She swallowed the bite and reached for her glass of water.

"To next year," she said quietly.

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[shapethecentury]

Bucky's fridge seemed to have spawned a Thanksgiving meal all by itself. Not the good stuff -- not something like Ma used to make. Just something to throw in the microwave that wasn't going to look anything like it did on the pictures on the package.

He didn't know why it made him miss Rebecca and the others like burning. It was an odd sort of missing, too, like longing for something he'd seen on the silver screen. Something that had touched him deeply but that wasn't real, all at the same time.

He didn't know whether he wanted to not be alone, or just to give the food away. But there was a hesitant knock on Jesse's door.

[weirderthanthou]

It startled her. Nobody ever knocked on Jesse's door, or at least they hadn't since she'd moved in here. Maybe someone was canvassing, or something?

She put down her fork and slid out of her chair. She pulled the door open a crack and glanced into the hall--

"James?" she said. "... Hi."

[shapethecentury]

"It's Bucky."

He had not meant to lead with that. But guess this, in her doorway with a bunch of microwave meal stuff in his gloved hands, just seemed to be the right time to rip off the bandaid.

Not that he didn't look kind of faintly uncertain about it, himself, right after.

"Uh. 'S what they call me."

[weirderthanthou]

The door opened further, revealing Jesse in all her nondescript t-shirt-and-jeans glory. (Well, that and the Service Weapon, hanging off her belt as it always did.) "I know," she admitted. "I listen to the radio like it's my job. Which I guess it is."

She cleared her throat. "You wanna come in?"

[shapethecentury]

... Yeah, of course she knew.

Bucky held up the pile of TV dinner packages, demonstratively.

"Found all this stuff in the fridge." Wasn't really an answer. He wasn't sure what the answer was.

[weirderthanthou]

"Well, do you want to eat it here with me, or are you just playing good fairy to your friend who..." She cast a glance over her shoulder, "...Boiled a mean potato today."

[shapethecentury]

"Either, I guess," Bucky said after a beat, although that felt like it had turned into a lie the second she'd said 'friend'. "Either's fine with me."

He just didn't know which way the lie was tilted.

[weirderthanthou]

Should I be worried about this? You don't actually know him that well.

... Jesse. You could hurl him out the window with your mind if you wanted to.

She took a few steps back and pulled the door open a little more. "C'mon," she said. "I'd feel weird just taking your food and leaving you there. And I haven't finished my potato yet."

[shapethecentury]

"Just 'potato', singular?" Bucky asked as he stepped in.

He was a little more obviously hesitant about it than he tended to be.

[weirderthanthou]

"It's a very big potato," Jesse said wryly. She didn't close the door for him. Seemed like he might be more comfortable deciding when to do that on his own. "I should've put it in the oven, but I kind of... decided to go for mashed at the last minute. It didn't work out."

I sound like a moron.

"I don't really do Thanksgiving cooking, which is... probably for the best."

[shapethecentury]

But the more she talked, the better Bucky could avoid voicing any of the fragmented memories that tried to come bubbling up, about Thanksgivings when he'd been a kid in the poorer years.

"Hey," he said, with another nod at the food he'd brought, as he freed up one hand to close the door, "me neither."

[weirderthanthou]

"I'll take those," Jesse said, grateful for something that was less awkward than talking, and stepped up to grab the meals out of his hands. "Any preference for which one I heat up?"

[shapethecentury]

"Not really," Bucky said, careful to angle the fleshy hand towards her as he handed the boxes over, lest she accidentally feel how unforgivingly hard the other one felt even through the glove. "Been a... a few years since I had any of this stuff."

[weirderthanthou]

"Hopefully not a few years since you bought this stuff," Jesse teased gently.

She picked one... no, two at random, and set the rest down on the table.

"Sit down," she added. "I'll get you a plate."

[shapethecentury]

"Didn't buy them," Bucky said as he went to take a seat. And tried not to be too awkward about it. "They just showed up."

[weirderthanthou]

"You get magical microwave meal delivery?" Jesse said, amused. "Now there's a superpower I wish I had."

[shapethecentury]

"Just this once," Bucky said, with a hint of wryness. He rested his hands on his lap. "Not sure why today of all days."

[weirderthanthou]

"It's Thanksgiving," Jesse said, "and this island operates on whimsy."

She stepped into the kitchen and put the first of the two meals in the microwave. She returned moments later to clear her own failed experiment of a meal from the table.

[shapethecentury]

If you asked Bucky, as long as you could eat it, it wasn't a failure. But he'd always been content with very little.

When she came back, he looked up. Tried for a smile. It ended up a little more wobblier around the edges than his usual efforts.

"Guess the island's just forcing my hand, here."

[weirderthanthou]

"Trying to chase you out of your house?" Jesse teased. "I'm flattered."

Why did I say that?

She lifted up her plate.

"Or maybe just forcing both of us to celebrate the holiday."

[shapethecentury]

"Well, 'least you had your potato," Bucky said, trying for a little joke. A little teasing of his own. "You were well on your way."

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse laughed softly. "Yeah. At least I had my potato," she said. "Better than the ramen noodles I was having this time last--"

No, wait, it's 2020.

"...two years ago," she said, taking her plate into the kitchen.

[shapethecentury]

"Don't know what those are," Bucky called after her.

Instinctively covering up for that odd pause. Being off by a year was nothing.

[weirderthanthou]

"You're lucky," Jesse called. "They're freeze-dried noodles you pour hot water on and add a flavor packet to that tastes nothing like what it's supposed to taste like."

She put the plate in the dishwasher.

[shapethecentury]

"Lotta things like that around here."

He remembered - as if from a dream, the same way he remembered most things - being weirded out by bananas tasting wrong.