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“Go out? To like a restaurant?” Sam asked making sure he heard Bucky correctly.
“Yeah. Is that not okay?”
“It’s just that you don’t normally like to go out in public together.”
“Well, I feel like tonight calls for an exception.” Bucky shrugged trying to give Sam a confident smile. Sam knew that Bucky was doing this for him.
“Baby, we don’t have to. I’m fine staying in and ordering pizza.”
“I know but it’s fine.”
“They’ll see. Are you okay with that?” Sam placed his hand softly on Bucky’s cheek looking into his blue eyes that could never conceal his true feelings from Sam. Bucky knew that going out in public especially to a restaurant would cause the world to talk. Make assumptions and all kinds of things. But they had been hiding long enough and Bucky was tired of standing behind Sam and not next to him.
“Let them see.” Bucky gave Sam a quick peck on the lips before grabbing his leather jacket off the couch.
Bucky had taken Sam to a small sushi bar and were sitting closer to the back. Not as many people to see them but they did get glances every once in a while.
“So you want to tell me why we’re here?” Sam asked as he took a sip of his beer.
“I felt we should celebrate. You’re bringing the Avengers back together.”
“Well, it was time. The compound is done being rebuilt and when the next big threat comes, we will be ready.”
“I love hearing you sound all optimistic.” Bucky chuckles as he eats a roll.
“Oh yeah? Kinda a part of the job.” Sam looks at Bucky and they just sit there staring at each other. Bucky looked past Bucky and could see a group of teenage girls trying to sneak a picture of them. Bucky quickly turned to look down at his plate in front of him.
“People really love being nosy.” Bucky says and Sam glances to notice the group of girls as well.
Sam sighs, “That they do. Not something we can avoid though.”
“Tell me about it,” Bucky rolls his eyes at the memory, “Some mom with her angsty teenager stopped me while I was going for a run just for a picture.”
Sam laughed, “I can already picture how uncomfortable you probably were.”
“I think I preferred it when they were scared to even look at me.”
They sit there enjoying their time together and trying to avoid all the eyes that wandered their way. Everyone just looked and tried to sneak pictures of them. Luckily, nobody had come up to them to ask for autographs or whatever.
Sam could see Bucky was growing more uncomfortable as the night went on. Sam placed his hand on Bucky’s thigh and gave it a small squeeze, “Hey if you want we could leave.”
Bucky let out a shaky sigh, “I think we should. I’ve had more than enough eyes looking at me tonight.”
As Sam was getting up, he got close enough to Bucky to whisper into his ear, “Don’t worry. The only eyes looking at you tonight will be mine.” Bucky chuckled trying not to blush at the terrible teasing that Sam was dealing.
As they were getting closer to the front door, they could see a small crowd had formed outside. Sam wrapped his arm protectively around Bucky’s shoulder as they walked outside. None of them said anything, just looked at them as they walked on by. Bucky was already dreading the news tomorrow morning. Bucky looked over at Sam who just had a sneaky grin on his face. He was enjoying every minute of this.
“So where to now?” Bucky asked curiously.
“Home. I was serious about being the only eyes on you tonight.”
“All night?” Bucky looking over at Sam while raising an eyebrow at him.
“All night, baby.” Sam said as they walked back to Bucky’s apartment.