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“Come on, Buck. Let’s go out for a minute.”
“Wai… What?” Bucky felt like he got conversation whiplash, from the unexpected suggestion from Steve.
“Let’s go outside and stretch our legs for a bit.” Steve elaborated and stood up from his beat-all-to-hell-but-worth-it-for-the-comfort recliner.
At a loss on the sudden suggestion, Bucky followed Steve out the apartment door and down to the stoop. Once on the sidewalk, Steve looked up and down the street and checked his watch.
“What gives, Steve? You got somewhere to be? My company not enough for you?” Bucky teased.
Steve gave him a startled look. “What? No of course not. How could you say that Buck?” And now he was putting on the puppy dog eyes. Which he promptly ruined by furtively glancing up and down the street.
“I’m over here, Stevie.” Bucky replied, using the nickname Steve had always hated. “What’s up? You look like you’re expecting trouble.”
Steve glared at him for using that name, then blushed a little. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine.”
“You sure? It’s been a long time since I had to beat someone down in your honor. I’m sure with this state of the art, technical marvel of an arm I can still brawl with the best of them.” Bucky flexed his arms kissing his Stark prototype cybernetic arm.
“Pretty sure that’s not the intended use.”
“Are you doubting the integrity of Stark’s newest innovation? I’m going to tell him that.” Bucky smirked and reached for the phone in his back pocket.
“Oh god, don’t do that. I’ll never hear the end of it, and you know it.” Steve reached out to grab Bucky’s phone. Some friendly wrestling took place until they were startled apart by the most horrifying noise coming up the street.
It sounded like somebody was strangling an ice cream van. Looking down the street Bucky saw the most beat up, ugly ice cream bicycle coming toward them. It looked like it had been bumped around and maybe lost a fight with car, but still seemed to move fairly smoothly. Bucky had a hard time looking away from the rolling travesty, but when he glanced up at the rider he caught his breath.
The rider had blonde hair that was a little too messy to be deemed deliberately messy. His eyes were hidden by wraparound sunglasses. Purple hearing aids could be seen poking out behind his ears. He was wearing a purple t-shirt with the arms cut off, putting his very well-developed arms on display and making Bucky’s heart beat a little bit faster. He had some worn jeans on and strangely enough was biking in an old pair of combat boots. Bucky was jarred from his thoughts when the ice cream bike stopped in front of them. It was then he saw the small wagon on the back with a golden lab wearing goggle perched in it.
“Hey, Steve!” The guy said with a smooth voice as reached over to turn off the awful racket.
“Oh, hey Clint.” Steve sounded a bit disappointed.
“Sorry I’m late. Tash’s bike broke down, so me and Lucky here had to take over.” Lucky, the dog, barked and Clint reached back to scratch his head. Then he pulled up the goggles and Bucky could see the dog was missing an eye.
“Oh. Well… Is she ok?” Steve had his concerned face on.
“What? Oh yeah, a little disappointed she couldn’t make it out though.” Clint tipped his sunglasses down to wink at Steve. Bucky thought those were the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. Then Clint started talking again and his eyes slid over to Bucky. “She really wanted to meet your friend.” Bucky wanted to introduce himself, but appeared he’s lost the ability to speak.
“Yeah, Clint this Bucky. My best friend for life. He just moved up here and he’s staying with me until he finds a place of his own.” Steve wrapped an arm around Bucky’s shoulders and gave a brief squeeze. “Bucky this is Clint he and his partner Nat run the best gourmet ice pop shop in Brooklyn.”
Clint reached out. “Nice to meet you, Bucky.”
Bucky shook his hand and found his voice. “The pleasure’s all mine.”
Clint’s eyes widened and then crinkled as his smile became a little warmer. “Don’t be so sure.” Then he seemed to realize that they were still shaking hands, blushed, and let go.
Steve had walked around this display and gone to pet Lucky, whose tongue lolled with happiness. A litany of “who’s a good boy”s drifted from the pair.
Clint looked over at the two of them smiling fondly. “Don’t let him lie to you Steve. He stole my pizza last night. He’s definitely NOT a good boy.”
Bucky smirked, “They’re all good dogs. Brent.”
“Oh don’t you start.” Clint gave him sad eyes, which were more effective than Steve’s. Then he glanced back a Steve. “We wanted to invite you both over this evening. Tash and I have been working on some experimental, adult flavors. We need some taste testers. I mean. If you guys don’t have any plans.”
“We don’t have anything planned. Do we, Buck?” Steve turned to him still scratching behind Lucky’s ear.
“I’m curious about adult flavored popsicles. I’m in.” He was also curious about Clint.
“Great! Just no driving. Take a cab or Uber or something. The adult part is the alcohol.” Clint wagged his eyebrows at Bucky.
“Sounds great, Clint.”
They took a moment to hammer down the details before Clint dismounted the bike and opened the freezer. “What’ll it be boys?” He flipped a little menu board mounted to the top. “The usual, Steve?”
“You’ve got the strawberry balsamic basil ones again? I’ll take one of those.” Clint pulled out a popsicle-sized plain brown box. And handed it over.
Bucky looked at the interesting flavors and couldn’t make a decision. He looked up from the menu into Clint’s eyes. “What do you suggest?”
Clint gave him a thorough look over and asked, “How well do you handle hot stuff?”
“Oh, I like it hot.” Bucky smirked.
“Uh. Then I suggest the cilantro mango habanero.” Even the tips of Clint’s ears had gone red. “It’s the right combination of sweet and spicy and, uh, it’s my favorite.”
“Well, now I have to try it.” Bucky grinned as he took his popsicle.
“Sorry to cut and run, but I’m behind on my other stops. We’ll see you tonight though, right?” Clint looked hopefully at Bucky as he mounted his bike.
“Wouldn’t miss it.” Bucky replied.
“Yeah, we’ll be there.” Interjected Steve from where he was adjusting Lucky’s goggles back down.
“Awesome. See you then!” Clint started down the street, standing on his pedals to get more traction. Bucky thought the view from the back was almost as good as the view from the front.
“Looks like you made a friend.” Steve commented.
Bucky blushed a little. “Shut up and eat your popsicle.”
Steve chuckled as they dug in.
They ate in silence for a moment before Bucky exclaimed. “Holy shit this is good! Guess I’m gonna have to marry that boy.”