Bucky was walking through the playground when he heard the commotion. There was a crowd gathering at the edge near the fences and he knew straight away who would be right in the middle of it. Steve, that little punk. He quickly pushed his way through the crowds and saw Steve on the ground, bruised eye and lip cut, but was surprised when he saw that someone else was fighting as well. There were two boys, who Steve regularly got into a fight with because they were constantly picking on people and a small girl. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the girl punch one of the bullies squarely in the face, and watched him fall to the ground. She then proceeded to kick the boy in the stomach, making him squeal in pain.

"Okay! Okay, I'm sorry!" The boy exclaimed, clutching his stomach.

The girl just gave him a smug smile as the other boy helped his friend up and quickly took him back into the school. The crowd started to disperse after that, all except for Bucky who walked over to Steve and helped him up.

"Seriously Steve, another fight? What is your Ma gonna' say?" Bucky told him, putting his arm over his shoulder.

"Bucky, I had to! He was picking on some little boy. He was half his size!" Steve exclaimed.

"Are you okay?" The girl questioned, walking over to the both of them.

"Yeah, thanks Kelsey" Steve replied, giving the girl a small smile.

Something clicked in Bucky's brain and he realised who the girl was. She had moved from England to America only a couple of months ago, and although she was only 8, she had already got moved up into Bucky and Steve's year. Lots of the kids were scared of her because she seemed so much smarter than a lot of them, and like she had just shown was certainly stronger than the average 8 year old.

"No problem" She grinned.

"Hey, I think that guy must have scratched you, you're bleeding" Bucky told her, as he saw some blood running down her face.

"Ouch" The girl sighed.

"You should come to the medical room with us" Steve exclaimed.

"Alright" Kelsey replied.

"Thanks for looking out for Stevie, he doesn't know when to quit" Bucky informed her, making her laugh.

"Hey!" Steve argued, as Kelsey followed Bucky and Steve to the medical room, where the nurse started shaking her head.

"Again, Rogers? It's a surprise that you're still alive with the amount of beatings you take" The Nurse scolded him.

"I had them on the ropes" Steve insisted.

"Sure you did, pal" Bucky said, ruffling his hair.

After that day the three children quickly became best friends and were practically inseparable. Steve and Bucky had never been the most popular boys in the school, so they were more than happy to let her into their group and they were the first two children who hadn't run away from Kelsey when she tried to approach them. The two boys quickly figured out that Kelsey was from a care home for girls and that she had no living relatives. The care home she lived in was small and overrun by children, but Kelsey didn't seem to mind. She always told Steve and Bucky that the people who run the place were very kind and looked after the children as well as they could, but the two boys hardly went over there, not wanting to be around the children and because the house was always freezing. However, where Steve lived wasn't much better and he was constantly getting ill because of it. It's another one of those days and Bucky and Kelsey are sitting with their backs to Steve's bed.

"How're you doing, pal?" Bucky questioned.

"…Cold…" Steve stuttered, trying to wrap his blankets even further around himself.

Kelsey places her hand on Steve's forehead and frowned when she feels how cold he was.

"Alright, move over" Kelsey commanded, as she and Bucky jumped onto the bed.

Bucky lays down on Steve's left, while Kelsey takes place at Steve's right and they soon wrap their bodies around him, warming him up quickly.

"No…you guys will get sick…" Steve insisted, weakly trying to push them away.

"Don't care" The two said in reply, and laid their heads down, ready to fall asleep.

It went on like that for some time, even though Kelsey was younger than the two boys she would regularly try to protect him. Similarly, Bucky made it his job to protect the both of them and living in the time they were, that wasn't always easy.

"Not again" Kelsey groaned as she saw Steve walking towards her with a black eye.

"Uh, hey" Steve grinned sheepishly, knowing Kelsey was going to disapprove.

"Who was it this time?" She asked.

"Those Radley brothers" Steve told her.

"The Radley brothers?! They're five times your size!" Kelsey scolded him.

"Who's five times…Seriously, Steve?" Bucky sighed, when he walked over to the pair and saw Steve's face.

"They were picking on one of the boys in the year below, it wasn't fair!" Steve insisted.

"And them beating you up was fair?" Kelsey retorted.

"I don't care" Steve told her.

"Well you might not, but we do. God, Steve you're going to get yourself killed one of these days" Bucky explained.

"Look I don't need you guys protecting me! Geez, Bucky we're practically the same age, and Kelsey's younger than me!" Steve shouted, suddenly angry and stomped off.

They quickly realised that there was no point in trying to deter Steve, because he wouldn't stop. If there was anyone being bullied, no matter how old they were, or even if they didn't want his help, he would step in.

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! So I've had a lot of feels about these two lately and it produced this story. It's probably a bit slow in the beginning, but I think it get's a lot better! Please leave a review:)