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“He came with me, I’m taking him back!” AJ shouted as he tugged on Bucky’s hand, trying to drag him away from the group of kids that had been taking turns using face paint to color in the plates of Bucky’s arm.
AJ’s classmates objected and Bucky shot them an apologetic look before pretending to stumble as AJ kept pulling on his arm. “Jeez, kid, what’s your mom feedin’ you, huh? You’re stronger than your uncle is,” he said and scooped AJ up to hold him on his hip.
“Am not,” AJ argued back. He looped his arms around Bucky’s neck and leaned against his shoulder. “Uncle Sam and Cass want to bob for apples,” he eventually explained.
“Your uncle wants to bob for apples?” Bucky asked dubiously.
“Yeah! He’s the one who told me to go find you! He says me ‘n Cass can race you ‘n him.”
Overhead, Monster Mash looped back on for the umpteenth time and Bucky was wondering if the Halloween playlist he knew Sam had would be considered safe for a school function. Probably not. Definitely not.
Sam was indeed standing by large wooden buckets with Cass, splashing water at each other. Bucky rolled his eyes and ignored the squeezing of his heart in his chest.
“This doesn’t seem very sanitary,” he said as he walked over. AJ giggled even though Bucky didn’t think he knew what sanitary meant.
“Nah, it’s fine,” Sam said with an easy grin that had Bucky going light headed. “They switch out the water every time someone plays. And I’m pretty sure no one else has been over here for ages.”
“ That seems wasteful.”
“Man, shut up. There’s a whole ocean over there to get water.”
“I doubt they’re using seawater for apple bobbing,” Bucky pointed out.
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Sam asked and scooped a handful of water out to splash at Bucky, who laughed and danced away, arms coming up around AJ to hold him closer.
“Hey! Precious cargo and all that!” he said, nodding to AJ. AJ squirmed out of his hold and ran over to his brother’s side.
“I don’t think it’s fair for you two to race us,” Cass said when and Aj finished horsing around together.
“What? Come on, dude, it was your idea,” Sam said, still all easy and happy. Bucky threw his elbow up on Sam’s shoulder to lean against him.
“Yeah, but then I thought about it and you two have a lot more practice than AJ and me.”
“How much practice do you think we have?” Sam asked.
“I dunno, like, a hundred years.”
“Well, Sam definitely does,” Bucky agreed. “He’s ancient.”
Sam elbowed him roughly. “Alright, toughshot. Me and AJ, you and Bucky?”
“I wanna partner with Bucky!” AJ objected before Sam could even finish talking.
Cass screwed his mouth to one side before relenting. “Fine, you can partner with Bucky this time, but I wanna be his partner when we play the dart game.”
“Deal,” AJ said and let Cass give him a fist bump. Bucky turned to press his face to Sam’s shoulder because he couldn’t bear watching for much longer.
“Nice artwork,” Sam said as the boys picked apples to throw in the water.
They both looked at his purple, green, and orange arm. “Yeah, put me in a museum,” Bucky agreed drily.
“Oh, being all over history museums isn’t enough for you?”
“Hey, you’re the guy who's been bobbing for apples for a century. You deserve your own museum display.”
Sam rolled his eyes and stepped away when AJ and Cass ran over to direct them to either bucket of apples. A teacher looked at them skeptically.
“Bucky and me first,” Cass said, standing over the bucket.
Bucky sank down to his knees on the other side.
“Looks good,” Sam said lowly. “Real natural.”
Bucky jammed his elbow into Sam’s thigh. “Shouldn’t you be cheering on your teammate over there? He’s gonna be all the speed on your team. AJ’s gonna wipe the floor with you . Get outta here.”
Cass grinned at the taunting and handed his glasses over to Sam. “No way, we’re gonna kick your butt,” he said with a confident grin. “Uncle Sam can do anything.”
Sam gestured to Cass in agreement. The teacher counted them down and Bucky ducked his head into the water. He hadn’t been bobbing for apples since he was barely older than Cass, but definitely didn’t remember it being this difficult. He could hold his breath for upwards of ten minutes, but he was pretty sure he was going to have to come up for air unvictorious.
“Uncle Sam! I did it!” he heard, muffled, followed quickly by AJ patting his shoulder and shouting encouragement.
Finally, he got his teeth around a stem, which was not how he wanted to play the game, and came up for air. He shook his hair off like a dog shaking, sending Cass and AJ shrieking away.
AJ hurried back and quickly dove in for an apple. Sam had elected to bend over the table instead of kneeling and Bucky let himself appreciate the lines of his body. Him being headless currently was much less sexy.
Sam started to sit back before AJ and Bucky quickly reached over to flick the apple from whatever precarious hold he had on it. “Cheater!” Cass shouted as Sam sputtered and ducked back down for a different apple.
AJ came up a split second before Sam did the next time. He grinned and held his apple up victoriously.
“No way,” Cass said. “Uncle Sam totally did it faster. Bucky cheated.”
“Nuh-uh,” AJ sniffed.
“How would you know? You were underwater.”
“Hey, I think the real point is that we all beat Bucky,” Sam said, mediating the situation quickly and turning both boys’ desire to brag against Bucky.
“Hey now!” Bucky said. “Give an old man a break. Respect your elders and all that.”
“Oh, now you’re an old man?” Sam asked, raising a single eyebrow. Bucky shrugged. “Hey, come pick out your prizes,” he said, reaching for AJ’s hand to pull the boys back over. They both grabbed a handful of candy instead of a set of pencils, then turned big brown eyes up to Sam.
“Uncle Sam, can we go back on the ferris wheel?” AJ asked, because he was always the one used to beg something off Sam.
Sam fished out a few dollar bills from his pocket. “Go tell your mom before you get in line, alright? And make sure you’re back down in time for the hayride.”
“Are you gonna come with us?” Cass asked, reaching for Sam’s other hand.
“Yeah, Uncle Sam,” Bucky said with a grin. “Go on the hayride.”
“No way. I’m too scared of it,” Sam said, shaking his head with his own grin.
“No way!” AJ said. “You’re not scared of anything!”
“Alright, alright, then I’m too old for it.”
AJ considered this and then nodded his agreement. “Alright. Cass, where’s mom?”
Bucky and Sam watched them run off to the last booth Sarah had been volunteering at. “Y’know, I think babysitting means we’re supposed to walk them over to Sarah and stand in line with them.”
“God, I can’t stand in that line again,” Sam said. “She’ll walk over with them. Especially since it’s so close to the hayride time.”
“Why don’t you wanna get on that thing?” Bucky asked when he watched Sarah come out of the bakery booth and collect the boys.
“‘Cause I know the high schoolers are hiding in the maze in monster costumes.”
Bucky gaped at him. “And you’re just gonna let your nephews get terrorized?” he asked.
“It’s a rite of passage. Besides, yell at Sarah. They’re her sons . She knows what’s coming too.”
“Yeah, but she’s gonna be next to them.”
“Hey, if you wanna join them, by all means.”
“Well, I mean…” Bucky grinned at Sam and shrugged. “Maybe getting the shit scared out of him in a maze ain’t the best course of action for a guy with PTSD.”
“Good choice,” Sam said. He ran his hand through Bucky’s hair, shaking his fingers through it to spray more water everywhere. “Come on, let’s go take over the photo booth for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes? You’re being optimistic.”
Sam rolled his eyes and tugged Bucky away by the collar. Bucky couldn’t help his jack-o-lantern grin.