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Bucky paid his cab fare and stepped out of the car, hooking his duffle over his shoulder and gently balancing the cake on his hand as he used his elbow to push the door shut behind him.
It had been a tough week.
He’d finally told Yori about his son, and they still weren’t on the best terms- in fact, they hadn’t spoken at all, but Bucky knew better than to expect immediate forgiveness. He knew he might not get any forgiveness at all.
It had been a tough week, but being back in Delacroix was already making him feel better.
“Uncle Bucky!”
Bucky barely had time to process the endearment before he was grinning and dodging around two familiar bodies. He mock-fought with them for a moment, wielding his precious cake like a weapon, but then the pair were running back over to the group of kids playing on the grass, leaving him to continue on his way.
He noticed, with some interest, that no one seemed phased by him being there, though he supposed that he’d been there and worked with most of these people before when he and Sam had spent time fixing up the boat. He even had a few people calling out greetings to him, to which he raised his hand in a wave, wondering how exactly he earned all of this.
Bucky found who he was looking for in no time, and saw that Sam was, unsurprisingly, surrounded by people who wanted photos with him. Sam Wilson. Captain America .
While Sam was busy, Bucky went to find Sarah. She was sitting at a nearby table, wrapped up in conversation with another woman. She stood to wrap her arms around Bucky when she noticed him and he returned the hug with his left arm, his right busy trying not to drop the cake that he’d worked so hard on.
“Good to see you, Bucky!” She drew back and spotted the cake. “That wouldn’t be for me, would it?”
Bucky laughed. “Who else would it be for?” She took it from him and looked at it. “Sorry, I know it’s not the neatest, but I promise it tastes okay-”
Before he could finish, a familiar presence appeared at his side, and a familiar warmth bubbled up inside of him.
“Hey, Buck! Good to see you, man,” Sam said, drawing Bucky into his embrace. “Is that cake?” Sam watched as Sarah took the cake back to the house, probably to put it in the fridge.
“I didn’t want to come empty-handed, and I’d been doing some baking, so I thought...well, yeah.” Bucky’s face flushed at having Sam looking at him like that- like he’d given him the moon.
“Aw, the old man is discovering new hobbies! So you can teach an old dog new tricks?” Sam laughed and Bucky shoved him, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face.
“Well, it looks like Captain America has some serious fans,” Bucky said, nodding over Sam’s shoulder at a small group waiting for Sam to come back and keep taking photos with them.
Sam smiled, and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Sarah and the woman she had been speaking with at the table returning with platters of food, drawing everyone’s attention and distracting them both.
Bucky wondered what Sam was going to say.
~~~
Sam wondered if the change in Bucky’s demeanour had been sudden, or if it had been happening slowly and he’d only just noticed it after their short time apart.
He realised that Bucky seemed to fit right in with their community, which he had sort of thought would be the case after he helped with the boat, and he’d assumed when he saw how easily Sarah and Bucky got along, but it was still surprising to see. Sam was sitting next to him at the table, and he watched Bucky offer his metal hand to Cass and AJ for their inspection after they’d asked to look at it. He watched how Bucky didn’t flinch when Cass reached out to brush his little fingers over the gold joins.
Before long, some of the ladies had come over to cozy up to Bucky, as they did with most newcomers. Especially ones that look like him , Sam’s brain provided helpfully.
The younger ones flushed when he looked at them and giggled when he turned his usual charm on them, the one that must’ve gotten him the ladies Steve told him Bucky used to always have on his arm back in the 40s. One of the older ladies leaned in to whisper in Bucky’s ear, her hand slipping into his and subtly handing him a slip of paper like they used to do with Sam, and they did with Torres when he visited.
He knew Bucky probably wasn’t interested in the older women- though he supposed he was 106, so maybe the older ones were more his thing- but he noticed the pang in his chest watching the younger women sidle up to him. He pretended like he didn’t know what that particular feeling was because there’s no way he was feeling jealous . It’s not like he had any right to be.
“-Sam? Earth to Captain America!” Sam blinked and turned to see Sarah standing next to him, watching him. “You done staring at Mr Metal Arm over there?”
“I wasn’t-”
“Oh, shut the hell up, Sam. Don’t even try it-”
“What? You-”
“Try what?” Sam clamped his mouth shut and whipped his head around at the sound of Bucky’s voice.
“Nothing. My brother is just a fucking idiot,” Sarah laughed, before turning and leaving them to talk to someone else. Bucky chuckled.
“She’s right.”
“Fuck you.”
~~~
“Uncle Bucky!” Bucky smiled when AJ grabbed his hand, crouching to look the boy in the eye. “The other kids don’t believe me that you can lift us with one arm!”
“Well, we’ll have to show them, won’t we?” AJ’s face broke into a grin that Bucky returned. “Give me just a minute to talk to Uncle Sam, and I’ll come show ‘em.”
AJ ran off and Bucky straightened, smiling at Sam. “When did ‘Uncle Bucky’ become a thing?”
“Ah,” Sam laughed, “Almost right after you left. Don’t know what started it.” Sam looked at him, and Bucky could see a speck of concern in his eye. “If you don’t like it-”
“No,” Bucky said, too quickly. “No, it’s fine. I don’t mind.”
Actually, I love it.
“Well, Uncle Bucky made a promise to prove some kids wrong. You should go do that,” Sam said, clapping him on the shoulder as Bucky nodded and turned to follow AJ.
He found the kids playing on one of the wooden benches Sarah was sitting at, chatting with some friends. AJ ran over to pull him up onto the seat of the bench. Bucky shed his jacket and flushed slightly at the sounds of awe from the kids.
Soon, he had three kids dangling from his arm, and he couldn’t believe just how welcoming they all were, and he didn’t just mean the kids. He’d half expected one of their parents to rush over and pull them away, or shoot him a look of disapproval, but there was none of that.
“Having fun?” Sarah grinned up at him.
“Just an average day at work,” Bucky replied, winking down at her. She laughed.
They had something of an unspoken agreement about the whole flirting situation. It wasn’t exactly flirting. It was closer to banter than it was to flirting because they both knew it didn’t mean anything like that, it was only to tease Sam.
~~~
The sun was setting over the water by the time all of the kids had been taken home by their parents. More than one of the children had wrapped their arms around his middle and squeezed him tight before going with their parents, and more than one parent had thanked him for coming to the gathering.
Bucky felt warm. Happy.
The sunset painted the sky a beautiful array of oranges and pinks, and sitting on the edge of the dock, Bucky had a full view of the way its rippling reflection danced on the water.
“Hey,” Sam’s soft voice broke the silence. Bucky didn’t mind. He thought he probably never would. Not if it was Sam. “You good?”
Sam lowered himself down next to Bucky. Their shoulders were touching and that familiar warmth bubbled in his stomach, the feeling that reminded him of Sam. Bucky thought about just how easy it would be for him to lean over and press his lips to Sam’s, or even to just say the words that have been lingering underneath everything he’s said to Sam since that night when they talked about Riley.
“I think I want to start therapy again,” was what Bucky said, instead of those three little words. He supposed that they were equally as important. Bucky hadn’t been going to therapy after Walker had gotten the terms of Bucky’s pardon changed, without Bucky asking, and without his permission. After that, Bucky was too busy saving the fucking world to resume therapy, even if he knew he should.
Sam was silent, and Bucky looked over at him, catching the worry in his eyes.
“Are you...is everything okay?” Sam’s voice took on that gentle tone that it always did whenever they talked about sensitive topics. It pulled at Bucky’s heart.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m…” Bucky let out a breath, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. “I’m actually good. Better than I have been in...a long time. I just- I wanna try and keep it that way, and I still have stuff I gotta work through to make that happen.”
Sam nodded, his body relaxing. “Oh. That’s good, Buck. I’m proud of you.”
Bucky turned his face away to hide the heat spreading across his cheeks, mumbling something that he hoped sounded like a 'thank you'.
They sat in silence for a while, watching the sun sink lower and lower until it dipped beneath the horizon. Even when it grew dark, they stayed sitting there. It was a warm night, and they had no reason to go inside just yet. If he was honest, Bucky was glad to have the peace and quiet and to be able to sit with Sam, the man he cared so deeply for it ached.
“You know,” Sam began quietly, pulling Bucky out of his thoughts, “the people here, they really care about you, all of ‘em.”
~~~
“I know. It, uh...it means a lot. Never had something like that before, even before the War,” Bucky mused, smiling. Something about the way he said it pulled at Sam’s insides like someone plucking a guitar string.
Bucky looked up at him, and Sam had to look away because he was afraid that if Bucky looked at him- really looked at him- he might see too much. He might see everything Sam was feeling and more. He might see right into his soul, and through him entirely, and he couldn’t have that happening if he was going to go through with this.
“It’s, uh…” Sam took a breath, steeling himself. “I care about you, too, you know. A lot.”
And he had to look at Bucky then because he needed to gauge Bucky’s reaction to know whether or not he should continue. He was prepared to stop, to laugh it off and stash his feelings away in a box somewhere if this went wrong. God , how he hoped it would go right.
But when he moved his eyes up, Bucky was already looking back at him, and maybe Sam was imagining it, but he swore Bucky’s eyes widened a fraction. Aside from that, Bucky’s expression was unreadable, or maybe there was just too much going on in Sam’s head for him to actually process what he was seeing on Bucky’s face.
“And I think-” Sam took another, stuttering breath, fighting to maintain eye contact with the man next to him. “I think I’m in love with you, Bucky.”
~~~
The words were a whisper, barely there, but Bucky heard them, somehow, over the hammering of his heart. He heard them loud and clear.
And for a moment- a brief second- he couldn’t breathe.
Sam’s eyes were wide, and he looked like at any moment he might burst out of his skin, or fold into himself to hide, and Bucky realised, as if for the first time, that Sam was beautiful . Maybe such a word still wasn’t enough. Maybe out of the millions of words in all the languages of the world, there would never be one that could properly describe Sam Wilson.
“I think I’m in love with you, too, Sam.”
Bucky whispered his confession, just as Sam had, and of all the ways he expected to say it, he didn’t expect that to be it. He never expected Sam to say it first. Most of him never expected Sam to say it at all.
Something that might have been relief, or might have been joy, washed over Sam’s features.
“Really?” Sam’s voice was shaky, and Bucky’s heart melted just a little bit more.
“Yes.” Bucky inched his hand across to where Sam’s was resting on his knee, and he opened his hand, palm up; an offering, an invitation. A moment later, Sam’s palm pressed against his, their fingers lacing together. “I love you, asshole.”
Sam huffed out a laugh. “I love you, too, dumbass.”
Bucky thought that maybe this was what it felt like to have a home.