Chapter Text
"What the hell Sam!" Bucky shouts as he walks off the ramp of the plane and towards Sam at full speed. "You can't just go off and do your own thing! Fucking jumping out of planes without a plan!" Bucky threw his hands up in disbelief.
Sam rolls his eyes. "I got the job done didn't I? Why do you care?" He shouts back.
"We're supposed to be a team, remember? Just because the "higher-ups" thought that it would be a great idea to put us together, doesn't mean we can just choose not to work together!" Bucky huffs with a gesture of his arms and stops at a reasonable distance away from Sam.
Truth is, Bucky felt his heart drop when Sam jumped out of that plane, then he scolded himself for not remembering that Sam can literally fly. The fleeting adrenaline from the fight left him exhausted and anxious.
"Chill out Buck, I'll cover for you." Sam smirks, crossing his arms over his chest, the silver on his suit catching in the sunlight. "I'll let them know that you did... 25% of the work. And that's being generous."
Now it's Bucky's turn to roll his eyes. "You don’t get to call me that."
"Huh?"
"Buck. You don’t get to call me that." Bucky says half-heartedly, unconsciously taking a step closer to Sam.
"And why not?" Sam retorts with a quirk of his lips.
"You haven't earned it." Bucky says, pulling his arms across his chest and tilting his head ever so slightly.
“Steve called you Buck, how did he earn it?” Sam asked smugly at first, but he didn’t fail to catch the way Bucky’s grin faltered at Steve’s mention, or the way Bucky’s brows furrowed with hurt. The pang in Sam’s heart echoed the look on Bucky’s face.
They never talked about Steve. He’d hurt them both, and they’d agreed not to bring him up unless it was necessary. Things had felt so normal with Sam and Bucky’s playful banter that Sam slipped, and reminded them both of something they’d rather not remember.
Bucky blinked away the hurt and responded quickly, hoping not to lose the conversation. Bucky enjoys these talks, almost as much as he enjoys pretending that he doesn’t. “Steve was nice to me.” He stumbled on the word ‘nice’, he huffed and followed with, “ was.”
Bucky pursed his lips, he’d messed up their conversation and made it awkward, he hoped Sam would be able to change the subject like he always did. That ability was something Bucky always admired.
Sam considered this and smiled softly after a moment. “I can do better than nice.” Sam wasn’t quite sure exactly what he had meant by that, but whatever it was he meant it.
Later that week, Sam and Bucky were to report to their Mission Officer and give her a rundown on how their mission went. They hadn’t talked much since their last mission and for some reason Bucky was excited for this meeting. Not for the paperwork or the droning lectures about what they could have done better, but to see Sam again.
Sam arrived at the small conference room first and sat in a chair. Sam, on the other hand, was worried about seeing Bucky. He had brought up Steve and hurt Bucky and made it weird. Sam meddled over these thoughts while staring blankly at the cork boards and maps on the wall across from him.
Less than a minute later, Bucky walked in, knocking Sam out of his thoughts as he sat down in the other chair at the table.
Sam kept noticing the way Bucky would glance over at him, “Sorry,” Sam said, just wanting to get it over with and be able to talk about something else.
Bucky looked at him fully, “What?” Utterly confused, Bucky tried to recall what Sam could be sorry about, he had said it so genuinely that it must have been bad.
Bucky thought he was about to find out that Sam had done something horrible when Sam clarified, “I brought up Steve. We agreed not to.” he said, meeting Bucky’s eyes.
Bucky almost laughed, “You don’t need to be sorry about that.” Bucky was even more confused now, “I’m not mad about it, I was never mad. It’s okay.” He said, leaning forward a bit.
Sam tilted his head, “Oh,” His anxious thoughts faded to the background as Bucky continued.
“If anything it’s me who should apologize, Steve happened and Steve’s gone, I shouldn’t let him mess up our talks.” Bucky replied semi-awkwardly. Steve shouldn’t be allowed to make him --either of them-- hurt like that anymore. Saying that won’t stop it of course, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
“Our talks ? Is that what you call them?” Sam retorted, quirking a brow. That smooth subject-changing ability Sam possesses never fails to make Bucky smile.
Bucky gives a huff and leans back in his chair. "What? Should it have another name? How about ‘Sam Makes Fun of Me and I Threaten Red Wing’" Bucky suggests, enthusiastically waving his arms. He always feels more energetic around Sam.
Sam shook his head and let himself grin as their Mission Officer walked into the room with her stack of color-coded binders.
Sam covered for Bucky like he said he would, "Yeah Bucky and I worked together on this mission", "Bucky helped with [insert task Sam definitely did on his own]" and similar phrases.
After that, the meeting consisted mostly of attending to business and filling out a physical copy of the mission report.
Just before their Mission Officer dismissed them, they were told that they had another mission coming up in two weeks. Both of them rolled their eyes before glancing at each other with a look that could only be described as ‘smiley eyes’, and walked out of the room.