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“Was everything always so small in schools?” Bucky asked, spinning the world’s smallest desk chair on one of its legs.
“I can’t tell you what schools were like back in the stone age. I assume everything seemed larger because you had to lug stone tablets around for your arithmetic or whatever.”
Bucky rolled his eyes. “The only thing I actually remember from school was giving a girl a chocolate bar for Valentine’s one year and having to pull Steve out from under the bleachers every time he wanted to start a fight.”
“God, it’s a miracle you know how to read.”
“I’ll have you know, all the history books say I was a great student,” Bucky answered. He let the chair fall back into place against the wall.
“Yeah, well, be nice to the dead and all.”
“You’re terrible to me. I don’t know why I put up with it.”
“Because you think I’m terribly handsome.”
Bucky snorted and shot an ‘I-doubt-it’ look at Sam. When the office door opened, Bucky stepped in front of Sam and kneeled down so AJ, who’d launched himself through the door, had no chance of choosing which one of them to run to. He crashed into Bucky’s arms and Bucky pulled him close as he stood.
“Hey there, champ. You ready to go lie to all your friends about how cool your uncle is?” he asked.
AJ laughed. “Uncle Sam is cool!” he insisted. “Everyone wants to see you. Did you bring it?”
Sam held up the leather bag that housed the shield. “Yeah, of course I brought it. You only reminded me a hundred times.”
“And your arm?” AJ asked Bucky.
“Wearing a short sleeve just like you asked,” Bucky confirmed.
“Sweet,” he said so solemnly that Sam and Bucky burst out laughing at the same time.
“Y’all are just too cute,” the secretary said as she hurried out of an office and gestured for them to step together. “Let me get a picture of the three of you.”
“Is it gonna go in the yearbook?” AJ asked.
“I’m sure we can make that happen,” the secretary assured.
AJ celebrated quietly. “I never get in the yearbook.”
Sam stepped to Bucky’s other side and slung an arm over his shoulders to pull on AJ’s ear until he laughed again.
“Oh, Mr. Wilson, why don’t you step to your partner’s other side, so AJ is between y’all.”
So Sam did and didn’t give a second thought to the phrasing of the secretary’s words. AJ, who was never in the yearbook because he couldn’t sit still for pictures, squirmed out of Bucky’s arms a few seconds later.
“Come on! We’re gonna be late!” he insisted and grabbed both Bucky and Sam’s hands to pull them back to the door. The school was a dizzying maze of identical halls and the smell of germ-x and crayons. Sam had, regrettably, not ever seen the boys off to school, between avenging and dusting, so this was new to him. Bucky had not been in a school, possibly since the stone age, so this was new to him as well. It did not help that Bucky was thinking heavily about Sam’s arm around his shoulders and the secretary’s easy use of the partner. The hallways were a bit much for his overheating brain.
“This is Mr. Jones’ classroom. That’s Cass’s teacher.” Bucky and Sam both paused as they passed the window and waited for Cass to lift his head, like he had some kind of sixth sense, before they both waved at him through the small window. He grinned and waved back then motioned down the hall. Sam nodded and Bucky lifted AJ up to the window. Cass gave them a thumb’s up.
By then, Cass’s whole class was looking at them but only Cass got the excuse to come out. “I told Mr. Jones you guys were coming,” Cass said, beaming up at the two of them. “So I can go with y’all to AJ’s class. But then I have to come back.”
“That’s too bad, we were gonna get ice cream after this,” Bucky said.
Cass looked appropriately betrayed and he looked over to Sam. “Really? Without me?”
“Dude, gonna be honest with you, we get ice cream, like, every day that you’re in school. It’s one of the perks of being a grown up.”
“Not fair!” Cass complained.
“We’re gonna be late!” AJ repeated and began the trek down to his classroom.
“Oh, Mr. Jones wants a picture with you, Uncle Sam,” Cass said as they started after AJ.
“Maybe if he takes two, you can get outta class for the rest of the day,” Bucky suggested.
“Do not promise things you can’t follow through on,” Sam warned.
“This is Ms. Alison’s classroom!” AJ said triumphantly. He came over and pretended to straighten Bucky’s jacket, wipe off Sam’s shirt. They laughed again and Sam passed over the shield bag.
“Go on, show us in,” he said.
AJ clutched the bag to his chest and Cass opened the door for him. The class got very excited and then very quiet all at once. Ms Alison, Bucky assumed, came over with an easy smile.
“Good morning, gentlemen. Class, what do we say to Captain Wilson and Sergeant Barnes?” she asked.
“Hi, Captain Wilson and Sergeant Barnes,” the class said together, not quite holding it together for Sergeant.
“Hey guys,” Sam said with that pretty smile of his. Bucky waved behind him.
Immediately a hand went up and the kid started talking without waiting to be asked. “Mr. Captain America? Do you have your shield?”
“Yes!” AJ answered and cut in front of Sam to set the bag on an empty desk so he could unzip the bag and show off the shield. The class oohed and ahhed appreciatively.
“AJ, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your uncles?”
“Uncles?” Bucky asked Sam lowly. Sam shrugged.
“Sure! This is my Uncle Sam. He’s Captain America. I told everybody I wasn’t lying.” He was definitely looking at a specific student but Bucky couldn’t figure out who it was. “And this is his boyfriend, Bucky. He’s the Winter Soldier. And this is my brother Cass. He doesn’t do anything cool.”
“Hey!” Cass objected.
Bucky blinked dumbly. Sam looked at Bucky. A hand went up in the back.
“Mr. Barnes, is it true you have a metal arm you can take off?”
Sam dug a knuckle into Bucky’s ribs and Bucky jolted back into his mind. “Uh...well, technically,” he said and shrugged off his jacket. Sam took it and then tossed it to Cass who immediately burrowed into it.
While Bucky turned away, making a show of it being a secret how he took off his arm, Sam kneeled by Cass. “Hey, why’s your brother think Bucky and I are dating?” he asked.
Cass rolled his eyes. “Just ‘cause you haven’t said doesn’t mean we don’t know,” he answered simply enough.
“Yeah, but buddy, who suggested it to you? Did your mom say something?”
Cass scrunched up his nose. “Mom says to say she talks about more than you, believe it or not.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “Sure she does. But did she say something about me and Bucky?”
Cass took a second to think. “No, I don’t think so. She really doesn’t talk about you so much now that you’re around more.”
“So why do you boys think we’re dating?”
“Because you are. What’s it matter, Uncle Sam?”
“Because we’re--”
“Sam,” Bucky said and then nodded out to the class.
“What’s up?” he asked, standing back up. Bucky had his arm back in his shoulder and he was looking less sheet-white. Sam didn’t feel any better.
“Do you get to make laws?” a student asked.
“I wish,” Sam laughed. “I’d make sure there was no school on Mondays,” he said.
The class chattered delightedly. Sam looked at Bucky. Bucky looked at Sam. “You get anything useful outta him?” Bucky asked.
“I heard that!” Cass said.
“No,” Sam said.
“Should we be dating?” Bucky asked. “The secretary…”
“What about the secretary?”
“Well, she said--”
“Hey, are you whispering boyfriend things?” a student asked.
“Or just grown up things?” another one added.
“Uh...both?” Bucky ventured.
“Hey, what’s your favorite date? My mom and dad like to go to Chili’s.”
“Ice cream!” AJ said.
“They go every day,” Cass said pointedly, staring at Sam.
“That’s not what I-- oh my God, are we dating?” he asked Bucky.
“AJ said you built a house together. Is that true? With your own hands?”
“We renovated a house. And it was a team effort. AJ and Cass helped a lot,” Sam said.
“And now you live there?”
“Yup. Oh, jeez,” he added to Bucky.
“Maybe we should talk about this tonight,” Bucky said.
“Are you in looooove?”
“Don’t you wanna know about Redwing?” Sam asked.
“Wait, did you bring Redwing?” Cass asked, bad mood mitigated.
“Yes,” Bucky told the other student.
“Yeah, of course I brought him. What did you just say?” Sam asked, turning on Bucky.
Cass finished freeing Redwing from the bag. He powered up the remote that could work in place of the wristlets and jetpack.
“I said I’m in love with you,” Bucky replied.
Cass flew Redwing around the room, working AJ’s class into a frenzy. Everyone forgot Captain America and the Winter Soldier were there while a bird shaped robot was flying and chirping at them. Cass was terribly deft with Redwing and could fly him in between rows of kids and keep him out of grabby hands.
Sam and Bucky were too busy staring at each other to pay much attention. Sam’s stomach was a knot of anxiety but it was nothing compared to Bucky’s. Finally, Sam sighed and leaned forward to press his forehead to Bucky’s. “Well, I guess that’s all the conversation we need to have about it.”
“Very romantic,” Bucky said. “But not true.”
“Shut up,” Sam muttered and tapped their foreheads together again.
The class ewwed and then giggled. AJ chased Redwing around until he caught him and the robot chirped delightedly and the class rubbed its belly like it was a dog.
Bucky took Sam’s hand.