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“Steve, Sam is trying to kill me.”
God, Steve wished that was the first time he’d heard that. He turned to Bucky with a deep sigh. His hysterical best friend looked like he just ran a marathon, when he really just walked down the hallway. There was sweat everywhere .
“Is he?”
Bucky glared at him. “You think I’d make this up , Steven?” He grabbed a bottle of water and started chugging it, letting it drip down his chin and onto his shirt. “This isn’t like the time Sam purposefully tried to leave me at a gas station or the time he told a group of subway dancers that I had a wallet full of cash. This is new.”
Steve crossed his arms. “Explain.”
“So I’m supposed to go jogging with the guy, because you said it would help us bond. You’re still fucking wrong about that.”
“Fair enough.”
“He walks out in these striped shorts and they are so tight I see everything Steve. I. See. Everything.” Bucky takes another drink of water to cool himself off. “Holy shit, Steve. When did he buy those? Where? Where did he buy them? There’s gotta be a law against those shorts, my guy.”
“Bucky-”
“And then he’s like ‘Ready for the jog?’, with that STUPID smile on his face, he looks like an angel, I wanna throw him into traffic.”
“Buck-”
“And his ass!” Bucky lets out a loud groan. “My god, Steve, when did Sam get so built? When did this happen? Was he always this built?”
“Bucky, do you have a crush on Sam?”
Bucky scoffed. “No, I- That is- You gotta be kiddin’ me, Steve. I do not have a crush on Sam Wilson. I would never. He’s not my type.”
Sam walked into the room and Steve could just barely hear Bucky’s closed mouth scream. Bucky was right, those shorts were hugging Sam in all the right places, and he had dem cakes. Bucky tried to act cool and Sam walked past him to grab his own water bottle from the fridge.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked Bucky.
Bucky cleared his throat. “Nothin’, birdbrain.”
“All that sweat over nothin’, huh?” Sam asked. “If you’re running with me, Barnes, let’s go.”
Bucky looked at Steve one last desperate time, and Steve grinned and waved goodbye to his friend as he followed Sam out to go on their run.
“Damn, you look like you already finished the run.” Sam said.
“Shut up.”
It was too much. It was all too much. It was the heat of the day, mixed with Sam’s shorts and the sound of him breathing so heavily next to him. Bucky was suffering, Bucky was really suffering and he’d just run out of water. Everything was bad. He was never this tired running with Sam. Sam was usually this tired running with him. But, for the first time, Bucky needed a break.
He sat on the curb and Sam stood over him, the sun making his sweaty muscles glisten in the just the right way. Bucky thought taking a break would make him feel better and he was wrong.
“What’s up, man?” Sam asked.
Bucky looked away from him. “Nothing, just tired.”
“Really? That’s new.”
“Are you judging me for being tired?”
“I’m not judging you at all.”
Bucky rolled his eyes and decided to bring up the elephant in the room. “Those shorts you’re wearing are ridiculous .”
Sam laughed. “Yeah, I know. I was surprised they still looked good, to be honest.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, everything’s in the wash right now so I had to bust out these oldies.” Sam grinned. “Were they distracting you?”
“...No.”
Sam licked his lips. “You sure?”
Did he have to? Did he really have to? Was calling attention to his lips necessary? Now Bucky’s eyes were focused on his lips, but that had to have been a little better than focusing elsewhere, right?
“I’m not feelin’ too hot.” Bucky admitted.
“What’s wrong?”
Bucky couldn’t even think hard enough to lie at this point. “I really don’t know, Sam.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, let’s run for a little bit. You can get a nice clear view of my shorts.”
Bucky pretended that wasn’t exactly what he wanted. He looked at his empty water bottle and decided it would just be that kind of day. But he couldn’t help but feel like the day couldn’t be that terrible if Sam was actually smiling at him. “Yeah, whatever, Icarus.”