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[nerves_of_ice]

It's impulse more than anything that has him ducking through the door into the bar. Impulse, and the desire for a really, really good cup of strong coffee, better than he can make for himself - new prototype arm or not.

But when Bucky settles on a barstool and makes the request, he's startled to also be presented with a cake made out of individually-frosted cupcakes, with a candle stuck in the topmost one. He picks up the napkin that appears beside it.

"'Happy birthday,'" he reads aloud. "Well, here, anyway."

Comments

[sunbaked_baker]

Soon afterwards, there is a familiar face coming in from the lake area, looking winded and chilly but cheerful. Sunshine is also coming in looking for something hot to drink.

"Hey you," she brightens, seeing her friend at the bar.

Wait a sec - those are cupcakes.

"Happy birthday?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky flashes her a quick smile. "Hi yourself. And yeah, looks like, by the calendar here anyway."

He nudges the plate toward her. "Want a cupcake?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"That absolutely counts, so happy birthday!" Sunshine comes up to sit beside Bucky and give him a fiercely happy hug. "Someday I will talk the Bar into giving me all of my friends' birthdays so I can possibly have a cake ready beforehand, but I've not been able to convince her yet."

[nerves_of_ice]

He puts his right arm around her and gives her a quick hug back.

"Thanks. And don't worry," he teases. "You're not slacking off. You didn't know. But I'm sure not going to try to talk you out of baking for me next year."

[canttrickmeanymore]

There is first a sparkly pink gift bag containing a sparkly pink tiara on the bar next to Bucky. Peter had left it with Bar back around Christmas in case Bucky showed up when Peter wasn't here.

Then, there is a Peter on a very nearby barstool. For as chatty as he typically is, he's quiet at the moment. Waiting.

[nerves_of_ice]

He eyes the gift bag with deep, deep suspicion. "Are you sure that's not meant for Molly?" he asks Bar. "She's much more the pink sparkly type."

The bag doesn't disappear. It looms (subjectively) at him, waiting for him to accept that he's indeed the intended recipient. Bucky sighs, takes a swallow of his coffee, and opens the present.

The second he sees the tiara, he's looking around for the guy he knows is behind this. His glance falls on Peter and sharpens.

"Parker. You actually did it."

[canttrickmeanymore]

He's trying very hard to hide the grin. "I don't know what you're talking about." He points to the bag. "But somebody likes you." He shrugs. "Or maybe the bar agrees with the princess thing."

It is so hard not to burst out laughing. He's trying though!

[nerves_of_ice]

“Uh-huh. ‘Somebody,’ you say?” he drawls. “Gee, thanks. You shouldn’t have.”

[zerocharliexray]

"Well, well, well," says a familiar voice, a laugh bubbling up beneath it. "Look what the cat dragged in."

Zinda, dressed today in sleek black jeans, a tank top, and a black leather motorcycle jacket with the Blackhawk logo stamped on the back, comes to lean on the bar next to him, her eyes twinkling. "If you're havin' a party, I better be invited."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Hey, Zinda." Bucky grins at her and pushes the plate of cupcakes her way. "Not sure it's a party exactly, but you're definitely invited. Here."

[zerocharliexray]

She grins and parks herself on the stool next to him, then reaches out to claim a cupcake, her bright glance landing on the be-candled one in front of him.

"Birthday boy, huh?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Looks like. The calendar here's a little ahead of the one back on the other side of my door," he explains. "But I guess that just means I get to do it twice?"

Not that he's celebrated his birthday in decades. He's pretty sure any of his friends would tell him that just means he's got some catching up to do.

[5ame_heart]

"Happy what?"

Yeah, Fives hasn't been around. But in his defence, there is a war on. Anyway, he's here now, he quite likes cakes, and he has never seen a cake with a naked flame on it before.

Presumably it means something?

[nerves_of_ice]

"Birthday," he explains, and shoves the cupcakes in Fives' direction. "Yearly anniversary of being born. Uh, the standard way, that is."

[5ame_heart]

"Huh."

Fives takes a cupcake from the arrangement, and raises it to Bucky like he's toasting him with a drink, before taking a bite. He also takes another and puts it on the bar next to him before passing the rest back.

"Happy Birth-day, then," he says. "Is the cake traditional?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Thanks. And it is." Bucky eyes the arrangement of cakes. "Although more usually you share slices from a big cake - but this is pretty clever."

"The candles are, too." He indicates the still-burning candle on the topmost cake. "Supposed to be one for each year, but it's probably a good thing Bar didn't go that route here."

[alongfallfromgrace]

"Bucky-xiong!" Wei Ying carols, loud and obnoxious and not all because he knows full well it's not a great idea to poke at trained people without announcing your presence first.

Some of column A, some of column B.

"How are my poor goaty daughters? Are they pining?" He asks as he bounces over.

[nerves_of_ice]

“Desperately,” Bucky tells him, with a straight face. “Have a cupcake.”

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying blinks at the baked-good collection, puzzled for a moment before figuring out the cake-in-a-cup aspect (they really don't look like they'd be good cups, so).

"Whyever do you have so many of them? Is Bar making sure you eat too? She gets like that." Wei Ying nods sagely.

[wayward_sun]

"Ooooh, cupcakes," the Devil says as he reaches over to pilfer a cupcake.

And then he asks,"Can I have one?" Before stuffing it in his mouth because he does have manners.

Kind of.

He is wearing a very expensive cologne. And the faint, white smudge on his expensive shirt was probably really expensive - talc?

[nerves_of_ice]

"Have more than one," Bucky invites. "There's a lot of them."

He gives a curious look to the smudge on Lucifer's shirt, but forbears to ask.

[wayward_sun]

Not asking certainly saves one from knowing things. This may be a good thing.

"Don't mind if I do," Lucifer replies brightly, as he helps himself to another one.

"What are we celebrating?"

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, that seems like too many cupcakes for one man," says Sharon, who came through the door, windblown and pink-cheeked from the Wakandan sun, and made her way right over after spotting him. "Even a super soldier."

She takes a seat next to him, the delicate gold chain of her necklace disappearing into the scooped neck of her white tank top, and smiles. "Good thing I'm here to help."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Hi, baby." Bucky gives her a warm smile and pushes the plate of cupcakes in her direction.

[from_the_outside]

"Hi, yourself," she says, smiling back before giving the plate of cupcakes her full focus.

It's important to choose exactly the right one.

She picks one – chocolate frosted with rainbow sprinkles – and gives him an amused look. "Doesn't the Bar know it's not actually your birthday?"