Work Text:
Sam was driving on the I-10 E highway in the direction of Mississippi, Alabama, while Bucky was gazing out of the window. The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining bright. Music by The Beach Boys was coming out of the car’s speakers. They were driving for over an hour and a half and Bucky slowly lost his patience.
“Are we there yet?”
“ If you start acting like a little kid, I’m going to kick you out of the car while driving,” Sam warned. “And no, we’re not there yet.”
Bucky stared at him for a while with narrowed eyes.
“Where are you taking me? Don’t you have a beach at home ?” he wondered aloud.
“The ones we have nearby aren’t the best beaches, Bucky. Besides, every New Orleanian knows the thrill of seeing the bright, colorful Pensacola sign just after the Waffle House and right before crossing the bridge over to the beach,” Sam explained and glanced aside. He saw Bucky glaring at him with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows. “I promise you'll love it there!”
The former Winter Soldier sighed and looked out of the window again, leaning on his vibranium hand. Trees behind the guardrail were passing by. Slowly his eyes were closing and fell asleep. Suddenly a hard pat on his shoulder woke him up.
“There it is!” Sam announced excitedly and pointed at an orange-white-green beach ball on a high pole. “We’re here! Damn, it’s been a while! So much has changed.”
With a furrowed brow Bucky glanced at him. He had no idea why Sam acted so excited as, to him , each beach was just the same sand and same salty water.
Sam parked his car in the parking lot and turned off the engine.
““I’ll send Sarah a message that we’re here,” he said as he took out his cell phone from his denim shorts and started tapping on the screen with his thumbs.
When he was finished the two Avengers got out of the vehicle and walked to the back. Sam opened the trunk and took out one beach bag and gave it to Bucky. They were greeted by two boys who ran up to them.
“Uncle Sam! Uncle Bucky!”
Bucky smiled when they called him uncle. He felt blessed he got accepted by Sam’s and Sarah’s family and community.
“Hey kids!” Sam greeted back as he high fived them.
“What’s up?” Bucky greeted them as they high fived him as well.
“Mom told me to get you, after she received your message, uncle Sam,” the tallest boy named AJ said. “ She’s down by the water .”
The men followed the two boys. While walking, Bucky looked around. It wasn’t very busy despite it being a hot summer Saturday. Perhaps ten in the morning is a bit too early for most people. He saw a few people laying on their towels, enjoying the sun. Children were running in and out of the sea or building sand castles.
“Hey guys,” Sarah greeted as they arrived. She stood up to give Sam and Bucky a sticky hug. “Was it busy on the road?”
“No, not at all. We had a good ride,” Sam answered.
Bucky placed the beach bag in the sand, took out a towel and gave it to Sam. After Sam laid it in the sand, he took off his denim shorts and lime green swim shorts were revealed. He put on some sunscreen over his body after he took off his light gray tank top.
“Okay, who’s ready for a swim?” he hyped up the boys.
Sarah’s sons started to cheer with both arms in the sky.
“Sam, it’s better to wait…”
But it was too late as Sam already ran towards the sea with AJ and Cass, his other nephew, following him. Sarah just shook her head as she watched them jumping into a wave. She looked beside her and Bucky gazing around, looking a bit nervous. He was still wearing his dark blue bermuda with cargo pockets and a green henley short sleeve burgundy shirt.
“Why don’t you take off your shirt?”
Despite his sunglasses, he looked at her with large eyes. He already had peace by showing his vibranium arm but taking off his shirt was a bit too far for him. He was scared they will be too shocked by seeing his scars on his back, caused by HYDRA’s torture.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled as he looked at the sea.
“Not to warm?”
Bucky just shook his head as he kept on looking forward. She decided to accept that he didn't want to take off his clothes.
He looked around again and saw a man passing by with a disformed face. Bucky was shocked to see him but by the casual way of walking, it seemed the man didn’t mind. He stopped a few yards away from him, laid his towel that he carried as a roll under his armpit, in the sand and sat on it. Other people around him didn’t mind being close to them. Then in the distance he saw a young woman running along the sea. Her legs were two running blades and both her arms were amputated halfway. Bucky's gaze followed her with his mouth slightly opened in amazement as she ran by. Then he saw another young woman whose skin-color was mixed into white and brown. Also people around her didn’t care how she looked as she was walking into the sea. After seeing these people, Bucky decided it was okay to show your flaws, even when they are caused by bad circumstances. He grabbed the end of his shirt, pulled it over his head to take it off and laid on his stomach on his towel, after he rubbed sunscreen over his body.
Sarah glanced at him and saw the scars on his back. Instead of being shocked, she released a smile as she was feeling proud he showed more of himself.
Half an hour later Sam and his nephews came back from swimming.
“Hey Buck, you should go for a swim. Water is nice,” he suggested while he dried himself off.
“I’ll give it a try later,” Bucky said, still laying with his eyes closed.
Sam saw the scars on his back too. He released a silent sigh as he saw how HYDRA treated him as The Winter Soldier but decided not to talk about it. The kids saw them too. They had learned from their mother not to ask questions about somebody’s scars or disability, so they kept their mouth s shut and didn’t bother him about it.
“Mom, can we have lunch at The Waffle House?” Cass asked.
“Of course. We will have lunch at 1pm. Is that okay?”
Everybody agreed. Then Bucky stood up and walked towards the sea.
“Hey Buck!”
He looked around his shoulder when Sam called him.
“Ready for a swim?”
“Yeah, just checking the temperature,” Bucky answered with a wry smile.
Sam joined him and together they walked to the sea. Bucky slightly looked aside and saw the man with the disformed face reading a book. When he looked forward he saw the woman with the mixed skin color coming out of the sea. Both men gazed at her as she walked by.
“Damn, she’s cute,” Sam whispered.
Bucky was still amazed that other people were not bothering them and not even bothering him. Slowly they went into the water and Bucky felt it was lukewarm. For a while they were floating on their backs. Sam saw him staring at the coast and wondered what was going on in his mind.
“You want to share something?”
“It seems like nobody cares about what somebody looks like. It’s kind of weird to me,” Bucky admitted.
Sam smiled at him.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
Bucky nodded as he was still staring.
“I wish Steve was here. He would love it. And I mean young Steve.”
Sam floated a little closer to him and laid a hand on his shoulder, which made Bucky look at him.
“I know, Bucky. Also he’ll be so proud of you when the government gives you a second chance, so you can enjoy your freedom.”
Bucky sighed with a slight wry smile. He looked back at the coast and saw more people coming to the beach. After another while of floating, they left the water and went back to Sarah and the boys.
She had pieces of watermelon and gave it to them when they returned. Bucky enjoyed the fruit but also enjoyed being with a group of nice people. Then it was lunchtime and they packed everything to go eating at The Waffle House. Bucky widened his eyes at the menu when he saw there were so many options. He chose a waffle with whipped cream and Oreo crumbles, his favorite cookie when he was a child. Everybody enjoyed their waffles after it was served. A few yards from their window they saw a group of break dancers and capoeira dancers competing with each other.
“Mom, are we allowed to watch the dancers closer?” AJ asked after he swallowed down his last bite, while Cass took his last bite of his waffle.
“Wait till Cass swallows down his last bite and then you may go watching them.”
Cass swallowed down his food easily before they slid down their chairs and walked to the dancing group. With a smile Bucky watched them leaving.
“Very well behaved boys. My compliments, Sarah.”
“Oh thank you. It’s something completely normal to raise them with standards, values, rights and obligations. Which you hardly see these days,” she said as she was looking outside and saw her children watching from a distance. Then she looked at Bucky. “Were you raised with standards, values, rights and obligations?”
Bucky nodded after having a sip of his Coca Cola.
“Although I was a little rebel compared with Steve,” he admitted with a blush on his cheeks. “But besides that I’m respectful to the people who deserved it.”
“Well you are indeed a little rebel compared with Steve. Some bad words were escaping your mouth that made my ears wiggle,” Sam said.
Bucky leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him with squinted eyes.
“Really? Like what?”
“S-H-I-T. I heard it in the comms when Karli kicked you out of the truck.”
Sarah pretended to be in utter shock as she placed a hand on her chest and stared with wide eyes and raised eyebrows at her brother and then at the former Winter Soldier.
Bucky pressed his lips tight together, looked down and away in shame. He heard Sarah and Sam chuckling at him, which made him laugh as he knew he was caught in embarrassment.
“I believe we should go before it gets too busy on the road,” Sarah suggested.
The Avengers agreed and they stood up from their seats and left the restaurant after paying. AJ and Cass were still looking at the dancing scene, when the adults arrived. For five minutes Bucky and the Wilson family were watching the dancers. Bucky saw the incredible moves and was amazed that a human being danced like this. He only knew the foxtrot, waltz and jive from his decades. Then everybody said goodbye to each other with a hug and got into their own car.
After half an hour of driving, Bucky glanced at Sam with a smile on his lips.
“I really had a good time. It was like the old days with Steve.”
“I’m very happy to hear you had a good time, Buck. And I’m glad you wanted to come with us.”
“Thank you,” Bucky said, still smiling.
“You’re welcome, partner.”
The rest of the ride they were silent while The Beach Boys filled the vehicle with their music. After Sam dropped Bucky back home, he went into his studio. He walked to the bed he got from Sam as a Christmas gift and took an old framed picture of him and Steve that was given by Steve himself, since he had nothing from his own past.
He ordered a pizza and after he was done eating his dinner, he went into his bed, wrote a bit in his journal about his day and went peacefully to sleep.