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Sam learned many things over the course of his life, fact that you never bet with Natasha Romanoff if you’re not Barton or Barnes, however, isn’t something that he supposed that he would need. So now he sat cross legged on couch in apartment that all four of them rent out, because it’s easier to sleep knowing that they’re closer to each other, holding a remote. Next to him was curled up super soldier with a small bun at the nape of his neck, clinging to coffee cup what had Captain America’s shield covered with Black Widow’s symbol. Barnes just woke up from one of his daily naps, sleeping helped his brain, so he just had his naps whenever he felt like it.
“I will be just down the street in church, if you need anything I will be right back here, alright Buck?”, Rogers was, as it was anticipated, panicking on thought of leaving Barnes before he woke up fully to process that Steve was not going to be home the whole day. Rogers for indifference to everyone else, still danced around Barnes like he will break. Older soldier glared at him with such intensity that Sam could feel shivers that Rogers must have gotten.
With anticipated roll of his eyes Barnes just yawned and tried to come closer to Sam. He gave a small hiss as to show Rogers that he will get hurt if he doesn’t move his ass. Steve just smiled apologetically and kissed his head and waved Sam goodbye, Sam could guess how annoying Steve could get, but he supposed that he could forgive old man.
“See ya man, don’t worry, I’ll be watching your boyfriend and hellish cats”, Sam commented which earned him a slap on his leg from Barnes who glared at him. Barnes, frankly, was protective over little shits. Even though Liho made more mess than she was worth and Alpine made it his mission to shit and leave her fur on every surface in apartment. Sam honesty had some kind of feel that only people that liked those two were Natasha and Barnes, don’t get him wrong, he liked cats, but he was more of a dog person. Like. A lot more of dog person. Though this was curse he brought down onto himself when two assassins came from mission with two shaggy kittens and decided to feed them milk before taking them to animal shelter, he would get his ass beaten by Riley if he didn’t suggest that they could keep damn balls of fur. Steve went out the door, bag with clothing that they all picked out in his arm.
Sam just shook his head and looked down on mission in hand. For the past three months Barnes was watching fucking promo channel and Natasha made it a mission to make him switch. But it wasn’t fun if she did it herself, so they decided to make a bet, which was based on fact when will Barnes and Steve get together, needless to say, Sam lost and now it was his mission to teach Barnes how to operate television, and from what he heard from Tony about mission that was teaching Barnes to use twitter, he will have two brain cells by the end of this.
Even though, Sam was determinate that he will succeed, so he put on his big boy pants and looked at remote: “Alright Barnes, let’s get this started, I made list of channels and their numbers, alright?” Barnes only nodded at that, and Sam took that as understanding. Barnes slowly sat up straighter sitting on his legs and looking at the big television that had Stark Industries on the bottom of the screen. Sam handed him the paper and put it on his lap.
“Those are basic channels, there are some that need password, because Laura doesn’t trust us that Clint’s kids won’t watch something overly... yeah. So I wrote channels that don’t need password in blue pencil and ones that do need password in red, password is 1776, Natasha put it. There are also some things that are differently located, like Netflix and that shit, that’s advanced regime, we need to get the basics down first”, he explained, moving his fingers around notes on A4 paper on Barnes’ lap, knowing the other was paying attention. He received a nod, and Sam took it as go on motion. He continued, leaning down to take tape from under the table and take a piece of it: “We will stick it to the table, Steve doesn’t know half of the channels anyways, so useful, right?”
Barnes nodded again and Sam realized that it was one of those days when Barnes just didn’t want to say a word, so he didn’t push him, it’s not his first time working with people who are non talkative, he can work with Barnes too. After he taped paper down he put another one in Barnes’ lap along with remote. “When you want to turn on the television you just press this red thingy and it will turn on, ‘lright?”, Sam watched as Barnes picked up the remote and click the red button, turning on the TV, smiling softly at it, simple motion made Sam smile as well, so he continued, “Now you gotta change channel, don’t press buttons too slow because it won’t switch, but not too fast because batteries suck and no one wants to buy new ones so it won’t take the command. Try writing 123” He watched while Barnes typed numbers slowly, he managed to type 12, but he didn’t do it fast enough so it didn’t switch, next time it was 13, but because he did it too fast television didn’t catch 2. After many mistakes and wrong numbers they were finally on their wanted channel. Sam smiled proud of his handiwork. After that he went to explain how to make volume higher or lower, what to do if it took him to starting menu. All of basic jazz that Barnes could possibly need to operate television, Sam was pretty happy with this small victory and fact that he could rub it on Natasha that he managed to teach Barnes in just few hours.
They were covering how to rent out a channel, Sam putting accent on the fact that no one will mind if Barnes wants to rent out another channel that others didn’t remember, not that they didn’t have money to afford them, it was just that no one wanted to scavenge through 900+ channels to find that ONE that they loved. Around that time Liho and Alpine both took residence around TV so TV wouldn’t get the signal right, so Sam supposed that was that, because those two were the most stubborn cats on this side of New York. He leaned on bed, letting Barnes lean on him, because he supposed that dude was tired again. Sam went over some channels that Barnes might like, circling Animal Planet, National Geography, Cooking Channel, Discovery and Nickelodeon, just because sometimes it was nice to lean in and watch 30 year olds playing teenagers who did nothing meaningful.
In the end, Barnes had list of 10 channels and Sam promised him that he will teach him how to watch rented out videos so he could have Dr. Phil marathon. After that Sam put on American Dad since sometimes actions of characters caused Barnes to jump and yell at television when they had a marathon. Tonight was not one of those nights, but he supposed that cuddling on the couch wasn’t so bad, he would never let anyone know that he had snuggling session with Barnes of all people anyways, not that they would believe him after all bickering him and Barnes have on field.
It was a bit after 22:30 that Steve came to find that Barnes was asleep again, holding onto pillow. He just laughed at position, Sam was watching the show while Barnes seemed like he feel asleep around time Steve left them. Sam shot him a look and smiled, giving him a thumbs up, letting Steve know that everything went well and that mission was successful, without saying anything, because he would be sorry to wake Barnes up from his nap. Steve just came and picked Barnes up on one hip, leaving other hand free to take Alpine from her place next to TV and take them both to bed.
Sam felt fulfilled and happy, not for any big reason, just because. After hour or so he decided to call it a day and go to sleep too.
Thing he didn’t know what that Bucky was perfectly capable of switching channels as well as operating microwave, probably know many more ways to use it. One night Steve asked Bucky about it when he returned from microwave lesson, since he was dang sure that Bucky knew how to operate microwave, he seen him do it, back in ’40 and when they were on a mission. Bucky told Steve that it was simple to spend time with the team when they were explaining him stuff, it was his way of bonding with team and Steve respected that, he promised he wouldn’t tell anyone.
Thing Steve didn’t know that even though it was a main reason, one of the other reasons was that everyone looked hilarious while they explained simplest of things like he was a caveman.