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Sam would have said he’d seen it all after all the missions he’s been on with Bucky, but today, Bucky’s latest irresponsible stunt involved a whole fence post being stuck in his side. Thankfully, it wasn’t hitting any major organs and all Bucky needs is to let his serum do the trick after careful surgical removal.
But that doesn’t mean Sam’s about to stop staring off into space, the image of Bucky walking towards him with a bar coming out of his oblique not leaving his mind.
Shuri had been brought in as a consultant on Bucky’s nerves. Now, she walks out of the hallway leading to the operation rooms and sits next to Sam in the waiting area.
“Hello, Sam,” she says, “they’ve finished operating and are going to monitor him for a while to check his healing progression, then they will let us in.”
Sam nods dismissively, not having the energy to react any more.
The next few minutes go by and Sam can feel Shuri glancing at him, studying his anxious stance.
“Hey, Sam,” Shuri says eventually, then stays silent until Sam turns to look at her. “I have an idea.”
“What?” Sam asks.
“You and Bucky, you’ve been dating for how long now?”
Sam furrows his eyebrows and thinks. “Uhm… a few months, why?”
“I see… how willing are you to embarrass him?”
Sam feels himself starting to grin. “Depends what you have in mind?”
“Well, I realise Bucky very often pretends to be such a dark and stoic, tortured white boy. And I couldn’t help but notice the heart monitor he was hooked up to.”
Sam raises an eyebrow. “Go on?”
“So, I’m willing to bet that if you call him some kind of… pet name, we’d be able to hear how he really feels.”
Sam thinks for a moment. “I don’t know, he really doesn’t react to names and stuff.”
“I don’t believe that,” Shuri shakes her head, “how about we bet on it? If I’m right, I get to make some more modifications to your outdated suit. If I’m wrong, your suit’s safe”
“It’s not outdated,” Sam argues, “but sure.” He takes Shuri’s hand when she offers it out to shake on it.
A little while later, Joaquin enters the waiting room with some of the generals who were helping with surveillance. Sam gets up to greet them, because when you're Captain America you don’t get to sit and worry about your injured boyfriend when there are important people to be making small talk with. But Sam muscles through it, Shuri’s talk definitely brought some of his spirits back and now he’s kind of excited to see Bucky.
Soon, a doctor enters from the hallway.
“People here for Sergeant Barnes?”
They leave the generals behind and Sam, Shuri, and Joaquin get up and head to the room. When they enter, Bucky’s sitting upright in bed, looking pretty normal for someone who was impaled just a few hours ago.
I’d better start off slow, Sam thinks.
“Sergeant,” he says, feeling himself relaxing already as Bucky gives him a smile that’s just barely there. Sam’s eyes flick over to Bucky’s heart rate monitor and furrows his eyebrows as it already seems pretty high, but it calms down quickly.
“Captain,” Bucky says back.
“How are you, Barnes?” Joaquin says.
“I’m doing alright, nothing I haven’t handled before.”
“You haven’t handled this before though, darling,” Sam says, crossing his arms and laying thick on the sarcasm.
The beeps coming from the machine speed up a little more at that and Bucky rolls his eyes, not acknowledging it. Sam glances at Shuri to find her reaching a hand up to hide her smile.
Hm, Sam thinks, is Shuri on to something?
“Fine, nothing worse than what I’ve handled before.”
“Right, ‘cause you’re so strong, sugar.” Sam sits down in the chair right by Bucky’s side, shuffling closer to him.
The beeping rises in frequency again and the smallest crack forms in Bucky’s exterior as he furrows his eyebrows and chuckles nervously.
“What are you..?” Bucky asks.
“What am I what, baby?”
That seems to do it as the beeping gets fast enough that Bucky looks over at it, then his face floods with red.
“What the fuck, Sam?” Bucky asks, glaring at Sam before turning his head away. His eyes land on Shuri, who is not being subtle in trying to hide her laughter and Joaquin who looks like he’s trying to pretend to not notice the situation.
“Out.” Bucky nods to the door and Joaquin immediately leaves, Shuri bursts out laughing before giving a cheeky wave goodbye and following after Joaquin.
“You’re an asshole,” Bucky says and turns away from Sam.
“Aw, don’t be like that, baby.” Sam can’t help but tack on the pet name again just to hear the beeping from beside him again.
“I’m about to rip this stupid thing off.” Bucky reaches to his chest to find the suctions for the heart rate monitor.
“That’s... not a good idea,” Sam says and whips his arm out to stop Bucky’s movements, and brings their fingers together.
“You gotta keep those on until the doctor tells you, baby.”
“Don’t call me that,” Bucky says, his cheeks reddening again.
“Why? You’re my baby.”
“I’m not…” Bucky mumbles, but trails off when Sam brings their hands up to his lips and kisses Bucky’s knuckles.
“Mmm, yeah you are.” Sam leans in closer, fighting back a smirk at how Bucky leans in as well subconsciously. “You’re my baby…” Sam mumbles before pressing a soft kiss to Bucky’s lips.
“Yeah, well, you’re my angel,” Bucky whispers back and Sam could’ve gasped.
If Sam were wearing the monitor, he might as well have coded.
If this is my reward, I’ll call him baby more often… Sam thinks, then leans in to capture Bucky’s lips again.