Work Text:
-z-
Fury looks at Steve then down to his laptop. Then he sighs and looks up at Steve again.
-x-
The patrons at the bar scream and jump as a body comes flying into the window.
-x-
Steve is trying, he is. But when Fury replays the uploaded YouTube video – there’s nothing for it, he doubles over.
-x-
“I hate you!” Bucky roars, throws first one glass and then another at Steve’s head; Steve manages to bat away the first one, but not the second.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Steve tries. He gets a pitcher – still full – dumped over his head as Bucky somersaults, slams his left fist against Steve’s back.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bucky shouts, whirling a crumpled Steve around so they were nose-to-nose and shaking him. “I thought you loved me – why didn’t you tell me?”
“I missed seventy straight years!” Steve gasps, wishing not for the first time that he had his shield with him. “You were awake intermittently – I thought you knew!”
A sob wenches from Bucky’s chest before he throws Steve away and stomps up to the bar, jumps behind it, and grabs a bottle of vodka.
“Buck, c’mon,” Steve tries, cautiously making his way up to the man.
Bucky throws a cold glare over his shoulder as he throws back his head with the bottle to his lips. He swirls the vodka in his mouth before he spits it onto the ground. He does that two more times.
-x-
Fury stops the video.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” he demands.
“If I knew he didn’t know,” Steve says, “I swear I wouldn’t have let him it eat it.”
-x-
“I’m taking this,” Bucky snarls at the bartender – she nods vigorously, makes a help-yourself motion with a wide sweep of her arm. He points at Steve with the bottle, “And don’t think you’re off the fucking hook, mister.”
“How was I supposed to know you didn’t know about—”
“You’re just supposed to know!” Bucky shouts, waving his hands around. “You’re not the one with amnesia! Maybe you should’ve said ‘Hey, Buck, friend, lover—”
“I’m not calling you ‘lover’—”
“—did you know that good, delicious bananas have gone extinct?’ That would have been a good place to start, Steve!”
As Bucky angrily brushes by him, Steve shakes his head and walks up to the bar and carefully lays out several bills.
“Send the rest of the bill for the damages to the Tower,” he says to the bartender, pulling out his most sincere expression, “and everyone’s tabs for tonight. I’m so sorry about all of this.”
He turns and runs to catch up with Bucky.
-x-
“Do you want to know what's trending worldwide on Twitter right now?” Fury asks. He doesn’t wait for Steve to answer. “Divorce, Captain America, Winter Soldier, and hashtag-The-Truth-About-Bananas.”
“We’re still working on his violent reactions to bad news, sir,” Steve says.
Fury sat back, suddenly exhausted. He rubbed at his forehead and said, “Captain, don’t let this happen again.”
“Yes, sir,” Steve answers, nodding as he stands and leaves.
-x-
Bucky doesn’t talk to him at first. When Steve gets back from Fury’s office, he finds Bucky leaning against the counter – a bag of banana-flavored candy in his hand.
“I really am sorry,” Steve says.
Bucky sniffs and pointedly doesn’t look at him, Bucky’s jaw muscles jumping as he works at the hard candies in his mouth.
Steve thinks it’s a little obscene – but he doesn’t comment. Instead, he inches closer and counts it as a win when Bucky doesn’t immediately jerk the bag away from his hand.
“At least these bananas aren’t liars,” Bucky says, his voice so low Steve almost didn’t hear him.
“Buck—"
“I’m not going to be able to forgive you,” Bucky says and his voice is shaking and he pulls the bag of banana candy to his chest and quietly, he walks away. He’s at the door frame when, half-looking back over his shoulder, he says: “Not for a really long time.”
-x-
“Not for a really long time” turns out to be after a HYDRA base is discovered (and subsequently dealt with) in Thailand and Steve convinces SHIELD that they absolutely need a case of Gros Michel bananas shipped back to the Tower.
Steve presents the crate to Bucky with a large bow.
Bucky’s lower lip trembles and then he’s pulling Steve in for a filthy kiss.
-z-
End.