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It had been five months since James Buchanan Barnes had moved to Louisiana. It was a bit of a shock at first, but by now, he fit right in with the cheery folks of Sam’s neighbourhood in Delacroix.
The idea of moving to Louisiana had been Sarah’s actually. Bucky was in the middle of charming his way through Sam’s barbecue after his kick-ass speech on National Television when something in Sarah's brain just clicked.
Oh. She realized when Sam pulled up a chair to sit beside Bucky while softly placing his hand on Bucky’s metal shoulder.
Oh. She realized when she saw the little glimmer in Bucky’s eye while laughing at one of Sam’s horrendously-corny jokes.
Oh. She realized when Sam gave Bucky the wide-toothed smile Sarah hadn’t seen in a long time - the one he had only reserved for Riley before his passing.
Oh. She realized when at the end of the BBQ, both men were in a melancholy mood at the thought of Bucky’s return to New York.
Oh. They didn’t even know it themselves. Yet. But, Sarah would make sure that they would.
So, later that evening when she, Sam, Bucky, AJ, and Cass were the only ones left at the party, Sarah asked Bucky to stay at their family house for a few weeks.
“Oh no, Sarah, I wouldn’t want to overstay my visit,” he said.
“Please, Uncle Bucky,” AJ pleaded.
“Yeah! Uncle Sam’s less grouchy when you’re around,” Cass added with a cheeky grin.
Bucky blushed slightly at that statement while Sam just rolled his eyes.
“Wow, really, boys? Why do you have to do me dirty like that?” he then turned to Bucky, “But, seriously, you wouldn’t be overstaying your visit.”
“Are you sure?” Bucky asked.
“Yes.”
Not wanting to give Bucky a chance to change his mind, Sarah jumped in and added, “Great! So, it’s settled then, you’ll stay with us for another week and then head back?”
Sam nodded his head a bit too eagerly. Bucky nodded his head too, but then added, “Wait, I don’t have an extra change of clothes.”
Sarah winked, “You can just wear Sam’s.”
Bucky blushed again, profusely, while Sam scoffed, “Ignore her. We can just buy you some new ones.”
Sarah added again, “You’ll only be here for a week right? I don’t think you’ll be needing a lot of clothes for that. Unless you’re planning on going on Queer Eye or something?”
“What?” Bucky started to ask.
Sam cut him off, “Again, ignore her.”
He gave Sarah the stink eye. She just smirked in return and gave him a look that said ‘ I know your secret ’. Bucky glanced between the two siblings in confusion.
“This’ll be a fun week!” AJ squealed.
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And, it was a fun week. At first. Then, it turned into a fun two weeks. Then, a fun three weeks. Then, a fun four weeks. Then, Sarah had enough.
“You need to leave. Both of you! Go and tell Bucky!”
“Excuse me? You can’t just kick me out of my own house!” Sam exclaimed.
“Your house? The audacity you must have to say that,” Sarah retorted.
“Oh, it is my house. Ma and Dad left it for both of us!”
“Sam, I can’t have you living here anymore! It was already tight with AJ and Cass. Then, you and your supersonic cyborg had to move in -”
“Rude,” Bucky said as he entered the living room, where Sam and Sarah were having a candid argument about their shared living situation.
“Hi, Bucky,” Sarah addressed the old man, who plopped on the couch sitting beside Sam. Sarah sat on a chair across the room from both of them, still giving Sam his death glare. Sam didn’t remove his eye contact, either.
“Hi, Sarah,” Bucky said as he took a bit out of his red apple, making a huge ‘crunch’ sound, annoying Sarah further.
He turned to Sam, “Are we being kicked out?”
Sam finally stopped glaring at Sarah and faced Bucky, “If Sarah has her way, then yes.
Bucky then nodded his head, understanding why she might feel that way.
“Sam, listen. These past four weeks have been amazing, but between the lack of space in this household to listening to you two grown men bicker all the damn time -”
“Hey!” Sam interrupted.
“We don’t bicker, we banter. There’s a difference,” Bucky quipped.
“He’s right, you know. I’m surprised you haven’t seen that by now, Sarah,” Sam observed, while getting up from the sofa.
Sarah noticed this and jumped up herself, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, mister. Where do you think you’re going? This conversation isn’t over.”
Sam sighed loudly.
Bucky could split the tension in the household with a knife. Not that he would, he’s not an assassin anymore. And, not wanting to see his two friends fight, he decided to intervene, “Okay, fine, Sarah. Just give us a week and we’ll find a place.”
Sarah eyed the two men, intrigued, and questioned, “Are you two moving in together?”
“Uh…” Sam began, glancing at Bucky curiously.
“You know what, I’ll leave you two alone,” Sarah cut him off and marched out the living room with a triumphant look on her face.
“So, what d'ya say, Samuel?” Bucky hopped up from the couch.
“Well, James ,” Sam started to respond, making sure to throw in that ‘James’ after Bucky’s ‘Samuel,’ “Surprisingly, enough, I think I’d be okay with it. If we don’t kill each other beforehand.”
“Ah, we won’t do that. We’re friends, right?”
Sam didn’t respond, but he smiled to himself. What a dork , he thought as he walked out of the living room.
“Right?!?” Bucky called out.
“Sure!” Sam yelled from another room.
With that, Bucky scoffed and thought, Sam’s cute, but he can be so annoying sometimes. Still cute, though.
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So within that next week, that search for their beloved apartment began. With Bucky desperately wanting to get this thing over with and Sam rejecting every single apartment offered by their realtor, anyone watching them might actually think that they were on the verge of killing each other.
Priya, their extremely tired realtor, gave an exasperated sigh, “Mr. Wilson, how about this one? It’s a two-bedroom with plenty of kitchen space and a cozy living room area.”
She walked them into the apartment. It looked pretty great actually, compared to the other dumps that had been shown to the (in Sam’s opinion). Still, it wasn’t good enough for Sam.
“I don’t - “ he started to say.
“We’ll take it,” Bucky rudely cut him off.
“Really, Buck?” Sam crossed his arms.
“Yes, Sam. This is perfect.”
“You’ve said that about every apartment we’ve seen.”
“Well, you always think every apartment we see is horrible.”
“Because they have been!”
Sam immediately remembered Priya was in their company and turned to her offended glare.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…” he started apologetically rambling. Well, what did you expect? Sam’s an earnest man; he doesn’t like hurting people.
After a few seconds, Bucky cut him off and exclaimed, “Sam! Can I talk to you about something for a moment?”
He gestured to the bathroom door, “In private?”
Priya scoffed, while Sam eyed Bucky suspiciously before complying. They quickly entered the bathroom. Bucky took a look around. The walls were painted yellow and a huge painting of blue tulips was hanging on the wall. Not too obnoxious , he thought.
“What is it, Bucky?” Sam turned to face Bucky.
“Can you quiet down for a second, Samuel?” Bucky whispered.
“Fine, I’ll quiet down,” Sam whispered back, “But, only if you tell me why you’ve brought me into a bathroom to discuss whether or not we’re buying this apartment.”
Bucky stared at him, irritated, “Because you were offending the realtor! Let’s just get this place! Name one thing that’s wrong with it!”
Sam rolled his eyes and glared back at Bucky, staring deep into his blue eyes. The two men suddenly realized how close they were standing. No one moved.
“Well, for starters, the bathroom is super small,” Sam chuckled slightly, trying to ease the sexual tension.
Bucky still continued to glare into Sam’s infuriatingly pretty brown eyes.
“We’re getting this one, Sam. Please, for me?”
Then, Bucky did his famous Bucky pout and obviously Sam couldn’t resist that. So, he agreed. That’s a totally normal thing for a friend to not be able to resist, right?
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A few weeks later, both Sam and Bucky had settled into their usual Sam-and-Bucky routine. This consisted of: watching classic 2000s TV sitcoms (thanks Sam) every Saturday night, bickering about who would take out the trash on garbage day, and having their legs placed a bit too close to each other under the table when eating breakfast every morning. So, everything was fine. Perfectly fine.
One night, Bucky was at home, laying across their duvet sofa, contemplating his life decisions again. It was just one of those days. His new therapist, Enrique, was a lot better than Dr. Raynor, but you can’t really stop the bad days from coming, can you?
Sam, on the other hand, was in the middle of having dinner at Sarah’s. He had offered for Bucky to join him, but:
“No, no, Sam, you go.”
“Are you sure, Buck?”
“Yeah, I’m just a bit… tired.”
“Alright. Call me if you need anything. I’ll be back in 3-ish hours.”
“Okay, have fun, Sam.”
And, so, two hours later, James Buchanan Barnes was laying on his couch, in complete darkness, save for the light coming from his television screen. Some news channel was playing, with low volume.
After a few minutes, Bucky’s phone started to ring. He begrudgingly reached over to the coffee table to grab it. He flopped back on the couch and looked at the caller ID. It was Shuri: the princess of Wakanda.
Bucky obviously answered the call and the first thing he received was an interrogation about his love life.
“James, you haven’t been using Tinder like I’ve asked you to,” Shuri declared, yelling loudly into the phone for emphasis.
“What - how did you even know - ”
“So you admit it!”
Bucky groaned.
“James, you seriously need to start meeting people.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You’re constantly cooped up in your crappy apartment - “
“Hey! We can't all afford to live in palaces with the King of Wakanda!”
“Yes, yes. But still, I’ve been telling you for ages that it’s unhealthy to do what you’re doing.”
“And, what am I doing?”
“Blocking people out.”
Bucky paused, “That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. You have one friend, and you’re speaking to her right now.”
“Again, not true,” Bucky found himself up from his sofa and pacing now.
“Who, James? Who? Mr. Captain America?”
“Uh, yeah. Sam’s my friend.”
“But you want it to be more than that, don’t you?”
Bucky blushed and didn’t know what to say.
“Bucky?”
He chose his words carefully, “I’m not going to respond to that accusation.”
Shuri squealed, “So, I was right! Why won’t you respond, James? Because you like him? Huh!? Bucky Barnes, answer me.”
“No, I’m not going to respond to that because I care about what a teenage girl thinks about my love life.”
This time, Shuri, flustered, didn’t know what to say.
She paused and then continued, with an over-dramatic flair, “Wow. That’s extremely offensive. I’m a young adult! How could you not know? After all this time, James? How could you?!?”
Bucky rolled his and scoffed, “Alright, alright. So was this all you called me for? To snoop on my non-existent love life? Or was there a point to this conversation?”
“You’re a lost cause, Bucky Barnes.”
“Wow, now it’s my turn to be offend- ”
And, she hung up.
Bucky sighed to himself again. He didn’t really know what to do now. It would be another hour until Sam returned… Bucky was starting to think that, despite his sour mood, he should have just gone with Sam.
“You know what, screw it,” he said aloud to himself.
He turned on his phone again and scrolled across his home screen to find… Tinder. He thought, What’s the harm in having a little fun, right? It’s not like he’s actually going to go on a date with any of any of these people…
So, he started to scroll. He scrolled left and right across many different women and men and people in Delacroix.
“Too many goddamn tiger photos!” he exclaimed.
Sandy Chen the doggy pageant judge was a no.
Brendan Anagonye the scuba diving instructor was another no.
And, Marcus Johnson, the Grandwizard of the KK- dear God that was an absolute no!
He loudly groaned, “What the hell is wrong with the people of Louisiana?! This is hopeless!”
Still, he continued to swipe left. Then, another profile popped up. It was… Sam Wilson’s!
His profile read: Sam Wilson; 37 years old; Delacroix, Louisiana. Dog lover, Councillor for Vets, Big Taurus.
What an absolute dork, Bucky thought. He then used his thumb and index fingers to try and zoom in on Sam’s handsome face. Shit. His eyes are too goddamn pretty for this world. Wait. Is one of his ears bigger than the other? Bucky smiled softly to himself as he moved his finger from Sam’s left ear to his right one when he -
“Fuck!” he exclaimed. He had swiped left.
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It was twenty minutes later when Sam opened the front door to his apartment. He reached his hand out to flip on the light switch on the wall beside him. He then scanned the room and was surprised to see the sight of Bucky cursing loudly while roughly tapping his Iphone’s screen.
Sam decided not to say anything. He simply stared amusingly at Bucky, while waiting for him to notice his presence.
When Bucky finally looked up from his phone, he blurted, “Hey, Sam!” with a slight crack in his voice, “What are you doing here?”
Sam hung up his jacket in their closet and said, “Uh, I live here, remember?” while chuckling lightly.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. I just meant that you’re back. Early!” Bucky stammered while quickly shoving his phone in his back jean pocket.
“Yeah… the kids were tired so they went to bed early. Then, I just decided to head out,” Sam yawned, “I’m pretty sleepy too.”
Bucky awkwardly nodded his head in agreement. Sam then headed over to the bathroom to wash up. Bucky immediately rushed to the coat hanger, where Sam’s jacket was.
“Hey, um, Sam!” Bucky called out nervously.
“Yeah?”
“Do you… know where you put your phone?”
“Uh, I think it’s in my jacket pocket.”
“Have you had the chance to check it lately?” Bucky yelled out again as he scrambled to pull Sam’s phone out of his brown leather jacket pocket.
“No… why?”
When there was no answer, Sam started to grow suspicious.
“...Bucky?” he tried again.
After another question met with silence, Sam decided to put down his yellow toothbrush. He gargled and then walked out of the bathroom.
And. There. Bucky. Was. Caught red-handed.
“Bucky, what are you doing on my phone?” Sam asked, more teasingly than sternly (I mean, it’s Sam - he’s a sweetheart).
“Uh. Okay, I can explain,” Bucky began to move backwards while Sam tried to grab his phone back out of Bucky’s hand.
“Bucky, what the heck are you doing?” Sam asked as he kept trying to grab the phone.
This ‘mini-fight’ had only lasted for a few more seconds until Sam had finally taken his phone back. He obviously decided to take a look. Bucky stared at him in dismay.
“Why are you on my Tinder profile?”
Bucky could feel the red blush appearing on his face from the mortification that he knows will proceed from this.
Sam asked again, “Bucky?”
Bucky sighed, “Please don’t laugh.”
Sam raised his eyebrows.
Bucky started to explain himself, “So… as you may know, I had stayed home this evening, while you had gone out to Sarah’s. And, honestly, I kinda regret that now. You certainly look like you had a great time and it was very boring at home, alone in my thoughts, and I - ”
“Bucky, get to the point.”
Bucky took a deep breath and looked at Sam’s expectant face.
Damn, was it getting hot in here? Bucky cringed at himself for thinking that, Not now, Bucky.
“Come on, man, it’s late at night. I’m tired. Just get on with it.”
“Okay. Uh, so I was on Tinder on my phone ‘cuz I had nothing to do and your profile popped up and then I… accidentally swiped left. It was a complete accident on my part and - hold on, Sam, are you seriously laughing at me right now?”
He certainly was, “Hah! Oh my God, you actually did!”
Sam held his phone closer to his face and tapped the screen a couple of times.
“Bucky, look,” Sam beckoned him closer while still continuing to laugh, “God, I can’t believe you found my profile! I can’t believe you even have a profile! And, what’s this? ‘Bucky: 106-year-old man.’ That’s your bio and you still get dates? Wow, man,”
“It was an accident, Sam. I barely even use Tinder! I don’t even know how to use it properly, hence the mishap,” Bucky said as he practically breathed down Sam’s neck, still hovering over his shoulder to see his phone, not understanding how this could be so funny to Sam.
“Ah, I see what happened,” Sam explained, “Look, on your profile, it says that you’re interested in both women and men.”
Bucky froze. It suddenly felt like his whole world was crashing down around him. He wasn’t out yet. Not to Sam. He couldn’t risk his best friend thinking of him any differently. His stomach felt like a pit of fire was burning it down from the inside.
Sam continued talking, not noticing the terror on Bucky’s face, “Here, if you click this setting, you can change your matches to only include women.”
Now, that pit of fire had begun across Bucky’s entire body quickly, expanding, burning up his arms, legs, shoulders, face, and palms.
This time, Sam did notice the terror on Bucky’s face when he didn’t respond.
“Hey, Bucky. It’s no big deal. Mishaps happen,” Sam reassured Bucky while patting him on the back, “I just think it’s funny how you matched with me. Although, I’m not surprised. There aren’t a lot of other single bisexual men in Delacroix, Louisians.”
Bucky chuckled slightly, experiencing the aftershock of this “incident.”
“Alright, I’m gonna head to bed now. Super tired. Goodnight, Bucky,” Sam yawned as he walked over to his bedroom door.
“Night!” Bucky called out as he plopped back down on the couch, fiddling with his fingers.
Well that didn’t go as badly as I’d thought it would go. I didn’t even have to come out! Bucky reasoned with himself in his head, Wait.
Then, an entire wave of realization hit him, Did Sam just say he was bisexual?
“Sam!” Bucky yelled out again, while immediately jumping up from the sofa.
“...Yes?” Sam responded from his room, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“What did you just say? A few seconds ago?!”
“What did I just say a few seconds ago? I said I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Buck,” Sam said as he shut his door.
Bucky rolled his eyes with a slight grin on his face and sprinted to Sam’s room. He paused before knocking, but then ultimately decided to go for it. As Bucky put his hand to the door and was about to tap it, it flung open.
“Dear God, Bucky! Why are you standing so close to the door?” Sam jumped.
“Uh, well, I was just about to knock…”
“I know. I heard the sound of your large feet stomping get louder and louder. What do you want now? I’m really tired, Buck,” Sam yawned, for what seemed to be the millionth time today, and stepped to the side, allowing Bucky to enter his room.
Bucky chose his next words carefully, wondering if he had just imagined this whole Tinder fiasco in his head.
“So, about the Tinder thing…” Bucky began.
Sam raised his eyebrows and smirked, “You still feel bad about that? Damn, Bucky you really are from a different time.”
Bucky then took a deep breath and then just decided to blurt it out, “No, I wanted to let you know that your - uh - tip about changing my match settings to only women was - um - not… something I needed.”
Sam looked stunned.
Then, without receiving any response from Sam, Bucky carried on, “Look, I didn’t wanna say anything before because I didn’t know that you were… the same. And, I didn’t want you to see me any differently.”
That specifically made Sam snort, “You thought the first Black man to be Captain America would judge you for being bisexual?”
This time, it was Bucky’s turn to be stunned. He began, “I -”
“Kidding, kidding. But seriously, you don’t have to hide any part of yourself from me. Ever. Especially since I’m literally bisexual myself - ”
And that was all Bucky needed to hear. So, he cut him off. With a kiss.
Bucky truly couldn’t stop himself, so leaned in and hastily put his own dry lips against Sam’s soft ones. Sam initially didn’t respond at first. He only stood there for a few seconds, eyes wide open, trying to process what was happening. Once he realized, a couple seconds later, that James Buchanan Barnes, Hydra’s most trained ex-assassin, was kissing him (quite tenderly), he went full in.
The kiss was long and slow. Sam’s hands were all in Bucky’s hair and Bucky’s hands were tugging the hem of Sam’s red pyjama shirt. For Bucky, the kiss felt like Heaven. It was a culmination of love, lust, magic, and sin. It was a masterpiece. Sam was a masterpiece.
The kiss then turned into a steamy make-out session, which then led Bucky to move his hands just at the hem of Sam’s grey sweatpants. Bucky then continued to kiss Sam even more deeply, as his hands started to trail to just at the top of Sam’s pants. Slowly, teasingly slow.
Then, Sam pulled away. This obviously broke Bucky from his reverie.
“Whoa, Bucky,” Sam said with a small smile on his face and a large rasp in voice. He cleared his throat, “Should talk about this first?”
“Talk about this first? As opposed to doing something else instead…?” Bucky cheekily replied.
Sam scoffed, with a glint of mischief shining in his eyes, “I’m trying to be serious, here. Bucky, stop smirking. You just kissed me!”
“I’m well aware , Sam,” Bucky deadpanned.
“Bucky,” Sam scolded.
“Okay, fine! Well, yeah I kissed you! And, you kissed me back! I don’t see what the problem is. So… shall we get back to it?” Bucky suggested cockily, gesturing his head towards the bed.
“No, James, sit.” Sam demanded sweetly as he led Bucky to the bed.
Thus, Bucky reluctantly followed and plopped himself beside Sam, who was seated at the edge of the bed.
Why did his bed smell like lavender? thought Bucky while inhaling a breath through his nose.
“What would you like to talk about, Sam?” Bucky spoke, impatience oozing from his voice.
“The kiss. I didn’t know that you had feelings for me,” Sam answered kindly.
Bucky softly glanced up at him, with his head previously facing the ground, and admired his gorgeous face.
“Well, I guess I kind of surprised myself just now,” Bucky tried to explain, while getting lost into Sam’s deep brown eyes.
“Really? So this mini-makeout was a spur of a moment thing?” Sam questioned, slightly disappointed. He had been pining for Bucky Barnes for a while now, and kind of wanted Bucky to have been sharing that mutual feeling.
Bucky took a deep, shaky breath, realizing how real this was about to become, “No, Sam. During these past few months, after you got the shield, I’ve - um - really admired you.”
Sam raised his eyebrows, ushering Bucky to continue.
So he did, “You’re the bravest and kindest person I’ve really known - and wow - I can’t believe you’re actually making me say this, Samuel.”
“Go on. This is probably the nicest you’ve ever been to me,” Sam smirked.
“Listen, I really really like you. You’re practically perfect -”
“I’m not perfect.”
“Yeah, you are. Don’t deny it, Sam. You’ve got the nicest eyes and you smell like lavender all the damn time and well -”
“Well?”
“I know I can be… annoying and old and grumpy and I barely understand any of the modern-day references you’re always throwing around -”
“Hey! I volunteered to re-watch The Office with you! But, you insisted that you only prefer ‘40s sitcoms!” Sam clearly got defensive at that.
“Sam, fine, I’ll watch The Office with you -”
“It’s a classic.”
“Sam, if you want me to talk, you’ve gotta let me finish, buddy.”
“Fine.”
“Thank you. As I was saying, you are literally amazing and I am pretty much a hassle to be around -”
“How many times have I told you, you are not a hassle, Bucky!?”
“Sam! Let me finish! You know what, see this is what I mean. We’re always bickering with each other.”
“Bantering,” Sam corrected.
“Fine… bantering. But even out of all of that, I was thinking that maybe… we might make a good, maybe almost great, couple…?”
Bucky was almost beet red. He looked expectantly at Sam, who, for once in his life, had nothing to say.
Immediately panicking, Bucky started, leaping up from his bed, “Uh, clearly I have been mistaken about our - uh - you know what, I am really sorry! Why would you wanna be in a relationship with me? I was being really stupid. You know, I’m not really good with modern-day dating - hence the Tinder thing. God, this is so embarrassing. I’m such a complete idiot and I’m -”
Sam couldn’t take Bucky’s frantic rambling anymore, so, he cut him off. With another kiss. It was the same softness and warmth all over again.
When the two men broke away from each other, Bucky decided to quip, with a huge smile on his face, “You couldn’t have done that earlier?”
And, Sam responded with a smirk, “I hate you.”
Then, he leaned in and kissed the treasure that is James Buchanan Barnes again, and decided to continue to do so for the rest of the night.