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He could barely see anything arround him. The lights were cut off and so were they. The two of them were trying to track down another flag smasher base when they got stuck in some hotel with no idea where any of the exits were, surrounded. Anywhere they ran, a flag smasher grunt would appear, seemingly out of nowhere. Sam was starting to panic. They literally had no way out. Suddenly they heard a door being burst open and a group of super soldiers walking in their direction.
"It's no use, we need to hide! We literally can't do anything, we're outnumbered as hell!", Sam hissed, frustrated
"Let's try and make a run for it! There seems to be a corridor with no one guarding it, let's go there!", Bucky whispered, grabbing his hand and running off
They started sprinting towards the corridor at the fastest pace they could. Bucky was, of course, way faster, so Sam was halfly just being dragged, but he didn't mind it all that much, it was quicker that way anyways.
"We need a distraction! Otherwise they'll just find us again!" Bucky exclaimed, looking arround, searching for something. He thought for a second, and suddenly let go of Sam's hand. "I have an idea, you go hide in that room over there!", the man said, pointing towards a room further down the corridor.
"Okay, but be careful!" Sam started running at his own pace, which felt undeniably slower and almost pathetic compared to the speed Bucky was sprinting at, but he tried not to think too much about that. He quickly entered the room and locked the door.
He was waiting in there for arround a minute when he heard a voice shout "Hey! Idiots! Come and get me!" followed by the sound of footsteps and..glass crashing? Did Bucky just jump out of a window and leave him here to die? Fucking asshole. That surely did distract the flag smashers at least a bit, cause immediately after that it felt like every single person inside that hotel ran to that exact direction and jumped out of the window, people yelling orders and directions in-between.
Sam carefully opened the door, and slowly looked arround to check if the corridor was clear.
"Boo!", a familiar voice suddenly whispered. Sam jumped up what felt like at least half his height into the air. "Buck, what the hell are you doing?! You scared the shit out of me!", he hissed, still a bit shocked but slightly amused at the same time. "It's ok, don't worry, I think the distraction worked. I thew a cabinet through a window, and it's super dark outside since the electricity's been cut off arround here so the idiots jumped out and started looking for us thinking it was me" Bucky chuckled, still very pleased his plan worked, locking the door.
"Alright so if they're gone, we should leave, right? There's nothing left here anyway" the Falcon proposed
"Honestly I'm really tired and I'd love to sit down for a bit, I've been on my feet all day long, man", the other guy sighed, plopping down on the bed
"Isn't your whole thing that you never get tired? And plus we need to get outta here, we can't just stay here for the night, can we?"
"First of all I think my hand is my main gimmick but sure, and second, honestly speaking, why not? It's not like they're coming back, Karli and the others only came here to trap us, they had no intention of staying here" James shrugged "And our key may or may not be broken. And we can't exactly kick the door out since they're not that far away, they could hear that and come back!"
Sam sat down next to him. "Okay man, now you're acting kinda weird, is everything alright? Why do you wanna stay here so bad?" He asked, concerned. Bucky started fidgeting with his hands and looking at the ground.
"So uh..honestly I just want to genuinely talk to you and I never really get the chance to do that naturally when we're not on a mission or something, so I decided to try doing so in the middle of one" James blurted out, not really processing what he said.
"Aww, look who finally crawled out of his cocoon a bit, that's so nice of you! I actually wanted to talk more openly with you for quite some time now, but you always seem so, you know, cold and distant" Sam grinned
"I mean yeah, the last time I tried being more open with you you hit me with a ,,are you finished?" so naturally I thought you didn't care" the older guy shrugged.
Sam's smile fell. He moved a bit closer to Bucky, putting a hand over his shoulders. "Look man, I'm really sorry about that, ok? I didn't mean it one bit, I was just kind of pissed off in general so I didn't pay that much attention to what you were saying." He turned to face Bucky, his hand still on his shoulders, "And look, Steve was not wrong about you, ok? Hell, actually fuck what Steve thinks or thought about you! It's not important! I know you're really attached to him and his opinion meant everything to you, but he's not here anymore and you're gonna have to learn to live whithout him telling you what you are or what you should be doing, Bucky. You're your own person, what anyone thinks or says about you doesn't matter. You're a wonderful human being and a great friend, Buck, you've grown so much and I am so proud of you, but you need to understand that the only person who can really tell you what you are or what you deserve is you."
The room fell dead silent. It felt like Bucky wasn't even breathing. Sam started worrying a bit. "Man, you good? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go that deep" he apologised carefully.
Bucky slowly raised his head up, trying his best not to look at the younger man. He tried keeping it together for a few seconds, before slowly starting to sob uncontrollably, falling into Sam's arms.
"Shh, it's alright, everything's alright, I'm here for you, ok?" Sam assured, playing with his hair and tracing comforting circles on his back.
"Sam, I think I love you" Bucky sniffled, still shaking.
"Nah man it's alright, my literal job is therapy sessions anyway, it's not that big of a deal" the Falcon smiled
"No like..I think I genuinely love you. I mean for real. That's mainly what I wanted to talk to you about. After Steve left I felt so..alone. And I was! I didn't have anyone I could turn to.. or at least i convinced myself so. I was stuck in my own thoughts and nightmares to a point where I cut off everything and everyone that was still arround me, including you. I convinced myself no one cared, but you always did. Even when we would have a fight or fall out for a bit, you'd still check up on me. And I'm only realising how much you actually cared now and I am so sorry for ignoring you all that time. This whole journey taught me.. a lot, and one of the main things is to appreciate the people arround me. And Sam, from the bottom of my heart, you were always there for me, you actually cared, and that means so much to me, thank you so much, man. Amongst all the other things, I've also realised I may or may not have developed genuine feelings for you. I always found you quite attractive, but after all this I can pretty confidently say that I'm deeply, soulcrushingly in love with you, Sam. I tried hiding it away, locking it inside of myself, but I just couldn't take it anymore. I was fully prepared to try and switch the topic, but after that little motivational speech of yours, I just got hit in the face with why I fell in love with you in the first place and couldn't hold it in anymore." He slowly raised his teary, worn out eyes to meet Sam's. "And I am so sorry. If you don't feel this way, and I know you don't, this probably just..ruined everything. I just couldn't stand the thought of staying just friends or...,"he smiled to himself a bit, " "colleagues" with you forever. I needed you to know. I am so so sorry, Sam, if you don't want to talk to me anymore, I understand completely."
Sam's shirt was fully drenched in Bucky's tears. He caressed the older man's back for a few seconds before starting to giggle a bit
"What's so funny? I just spilled my soul out for you and you're laughing" James sniffled, his voice breaking.
Sam softly chuckled. "You old little idiot" he smiled, "I've been in love with you from the moment i first saw you! Well, alright, maybe not the first moment I physically saw you, that time you were ripping out my steering wheel, but from the moment I saw the real you. Not The Winter Soldier, but James Buchanan Barnes. I wasn't fully sure whether what I was feeling was real or not, but after some time, especially all this, I can assure you, it is, it 100% is. I love you, Buck, way more than a friend or, god forbid, a colleague. You're my favorite person ever and I'll hold your face forever against mine, if you allow me to do so."
Bucky lifted himself up fully now. "You..you mean all that? Like genuinely?" he stuttered, barely even breathing
"Every single word." Sam grinned, looking fondly and caringly at him
"Well in that case, you said you want to hold your face forever against mine, right?", he crawled into the other guy's lap, "gotta start somewhere, big boy" he cooed as he pulled himself closer, closer to the face that made his heart break itself and put itself back together more times than he could count, the very face that made his soul cry fountains of joyful tears, the face that made him feel home.* I really do want him to hold his face forever against mine, huh*, Bucky smiled fondly, as their lips finally locked.