Work Text:
Sam doesn't know what to expect when he finally gets back to his shitty apartment in Bed-Stuy from a recon session with Torres. He'd have to go all the way down the list of options before he came close to the reality of the situation.
"James Buchanan Barnes, what the hell are you doing in my attic?"
Bucky's head pops down from the attic hatch, dust in his hair.
"Checking for bugs. You haven't done a proper sweep. You should know better."
He hands him a fistful of broken tech, some shield, some Hydra. The only thing that isn't broken is a single Kimoyo bead.
"Shuri, I thought we talked about this," Sam says into the bead. "I'm fine."
"I will believe it when I see it, Samuel," Shuri's voice says, clear as crystal. "Give me back to James, if you are so upset. He knows how to deactivate kimoyo beads."
Sam hands Bucky the bead, and Bucky disappears back into the dusty crawlspace above Sam's top-floor shithole apartment.
"How the hell did you even get in here?" Sam yells at the ceiling. "I have that door all kinds of locked, and you didn't break any of them."
"The nice lady next door shares a fire escape with you," Bucky explains, muffled by the insulation.
"Did you kill Mrs. Johnson?" Sam can feel the tinge of panic in his voice. He's mostly joking. Probably.
Bucky swings down from the attic, ignoring the rickety folding ladder.
"Of course not. We had tea. We talked about the horrors of the Reagan administration. It was very nice. She thinks you should eat more vegetables." Bucky brushes dust out of his hair. "You should say yes next time she invites you to dinner."
"She just wants me to go on a date with her granddaughter, and I'm not up for dodging that line of questioning again." Sam turns to follow Bucky's path through the apartment. "Where are you going?"
Bucky is in the living/dining/kitchen area, fiddling with something on each of the windows.
"You somehow managed to find the least secure apartment in Brooklyn," Bucky says. "Which is saying something."
"It's a sixth-floor walk-up. Who the hell is breaking in, besides the former fist of Hydra and current pain in my ass?"
Bucky makes eye contact, and the pain in his eyes pricks at Sam's conscience.
"Too far. Got it."
Bucky looks away, eyes back on his work.
"Double-locks on the windows, alarms on every entry point, all of it as off-the-grid as possible so no one can hack it." Bucky finishes on whatever lock he was working on. "There's a safe bolted into the cupboard behind the cereal. The code is Sarah's birthday backwards."
"Why are you doing this?" Sam finally asks.
Bucky smirks, and it comes off wrong, but Sam isn't about to push.
"Can't have one of the three people on this planet who trusts me getting hurt, now can I?"
...
"Why did you secure his apartment, James?" Dr. Raynor asks for the third time.
"I need him to be safe," Bucky finally says. "I can't... I almost killed him. He's been hurt so many times. He has to be safe."
Dr. Raynor writes something down. Bucky doesn't even try to see what it is.