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Back in the days when Blake (newest member of the Avengers Team/Family and Bucky’s girlfriend) hadn’t arrived yet to live at the compound with the Avengers –but Bucky was already living among them–, Barnes and Rogers used to share a room. The arrangement was made for several reasons, not just out of a desire from the two men as an opportunity to rekindle their friendship.
Still, they both enjoyed it and took advantage of it as much as possible, although that could sometimes get out of hand rather quickly. Be it intentionally or unintentionally so, things tended to happen and stuff tended to break. That of course made for a lot of fumbled and awkward explanations to the rest of the team.
A remarkable occurrence was the product of one of those intentional situations provoked by the shenanigans of two grown adults. Also, that was possibly the very same occurrence that for a while gave a lot of credit to a rumor that started going around between the team members and even other employees at the compound. And said rumor started one morning, during breakfast.
Luckily for Steve and Bucky (who wouldn’t have lived down the embarrassment of seeing the reactions of more of their teammates), they were accompanied only by Sam and Natasha. That’s when Wilson decided to bring up something that caught his attention the night before, given that his room was next to the one the two best friends shared.
“I can’t believe you and Bucky broke the bed last night.”
Sam said in regards to the noise he heard last night and the glimpse he caught that morning of the shared bedroom.
Naturally, he caught the other two men completely off guard with his comment. And in consequence, he piqued the Widow’s curiosity, making her join the awkward conversation.
“Sounds like you two had a crazy night,” commented Natasha nonchalantly, only raising one brow in question.
However, she didn’t find it surprising that something like that would happen between the two friends, but that it would take that long to be “revealed” to the others. Although, without official confirmation from them, it was all still speculation on their part.
“Yeah…”
Steve confirmed while awkwardly laughing, feeling uncomfortable while trying to decide if explaining the situation would make things better or worse.
On the one hand, they might’ve believed him. But if they didn’t… Then it would’ve been it for him and his best friend. In the end, he decided to remain silent and not admit or deny anything, knowing that his words could get twisted any way the others wanted. Besides, it wasn’t like they would’ve believed him anyway.
It was after that mention that people began drawing their own conclusions about what caused the wreckage and both former American soldiers knew there was no convincing them otherwise. Thus, they decided to just ignore the whole situation until it died down and people forgot about it, despite how uncomfortable it made them have their friends and coworkers believe they were fucking.
In reality, what happened was rather simple and quite stupid on account of both men. More like childish shenanigans; a dare and a bet between childhood friends. One that ended up going horribly wrong not only for the poor bed that was broken but for the men’s reputation.
One night, after having already gotten into bed and while laying still trying to sleep, Bucky had an idea that he would come to regret later. One that he was dumb enough to voice out when knowing how stupid it was (even without knowing the repercussions it would have).
“I bet you can’t jump high enough to touch the ceiling,” challenged Bucky, out of sheer boredom.
Also, he wanted to see if he could rile up Rogers enough to get him into trouble. After all, he knew how little it took to challenge Steve to make him do something stupid. And unfortunately for both of them, Steve fell willingly into Barnes’ trap.
“Try me,” answered Steve, daring his best friend with a tone of voice that sounded naïvely cocky and confident.
Before Buck could say anything else, Rogers was already getting up on the bed and standing in the middle of it, ready to start jumping as high as he could. And although he managed to win the bet, it cost him his own bed and the humiliation of having to get a new one.
Oh, and as soon as Tony caught wind of the whole affair, Bucky and Steve were made the laughing stock of Iron Man for a whole month because of it.