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It is abundantly clear to Sam that he hates Bucky. Which is saying a lot, because overall, Sam is very easy to get along with. He’s nice. He’s funny. He’s just generally a people-person. But when it comes to Bucky? Bucky just grates on his nerves.
Prime example: Sam’s popsicle.
It was hot outside, he was sweating, he just wanted a popsicle.
While Sam was unwrapping his popsicle, Bucky walked in. Shirtless and wearing, quite possibly, the shortest shorts Sam has ever seen in his life.
“Good morning,” Bucky greeted while going into the refrigerator to get some juice.
It was hard trying not to look at Bucky’s ass in those shorts. Sam barely managed.
“Put on some clothes. Are you trying to audition for America’s Next Top Model or something?”
Bucky grins.
“If I was I would totally make the cut,” he then proceeds to chug the juice straight out of the carton. Sam rolls his eyes so hard he almost has an aneurysm.
“You’re such a filthy heathen. Who raised you?” Sam snatches the carton out of his hands and puts it back in the fridge.
“My mama. And she did a damn good job.” Bucky grins harder and wipes a trail of orange juice from his chin. Sam has to look away before he starts imagining his tongue licking the orange juice away instead.
“I’m sure she did. What a barbarian you turned out to be nonetheless,” Sam shakes his head and continues to suck on his popsicle as Bucky laughs and pushes Sam.
“You’re a real asshole Sam,” Bucky says with a big smile on his face.
“You almost made me drop my popsicle,” is all Sam replies.
Sam really should’ve seen it coming. He should’ve.
He saw the exact moment that Bucky’s eyes zeroed in on the popsicle and a mischievous smirk spread across his face.
Before Sam could utter a word Bucky snatches the popsicle out of Sam’s hand and runs up the stairs.
“Thanks for the popsicle Sam!” Bucky stops to look back and smile at him before he puts the popsicle in his mouth.
After Sam gets over the initial shock of getting his popsicle stolen—and also of Bucky not only putting his mouth where Sam’s mouth was, but also of Bucky being able to fit almost the whole popsicle in his mouth—his face turns into a scowl.
“I’m gonna kill you, Barnes!” Sam yells, running up the stairs after Bucky.
Bucky makes a noise that’s oddly close to a squeak, and if it were different circumstances Sam would tease him endlessly about it, and runs down the hallway and into the bathroom. Sam follows and tries to open the door, but of course, it’s locked.
“Barnes open the fucking door,” Sam growls, trying to sound threatening and menacing.
“No,” Bucky replies laughing like a little school girl at his actions. “Maybe if you didn’t call me a dirty, no-good, filthy heathen then I wouldn’t have stolen your popsicle.”
“I didn’t call you d-“
“Oh the sorrow,” Bucky interrupts with a dramatic sigh, and if Sam wasn’t trying to convince him to open the door he’d have laughed. “The betrayal. I thought you were my friend Samuel, and to have you defile my name like this, there are no words for the pain I feel.”
Bucky busted out laughing at his own dramatics as Sam was left standing outside the bathroom door, while Bucky happily eats away at his popsicle.
“Hey, Bucky?”
“Yeah?”
“I hate you.”
*****
Sam was sitting at the kitchen table, on his phone, while eating a bowl of cereal. Bucky, on the other hand, was laying on a couch in the living room.
“Sam, I’m bored,” Bucky says with a sigh.
“What do you want me to do about it?” Sam replied without even a glance in Bucky’s direction.
“I want you to entertain me,” Bucky says as if it’s the most obvious answer ever. He might as well had said ‘duh’ right after it.
“You’re a grown man, Barnes, entertain yourself,” Sam says then looks up at Bucky, “But not on my couch.”
“You’re disgusting,” Bucky rolls his eyes then stands up and walks over to Sam and looks at Sam’s phone. “What are you doing?”
“Googling how to murder your roommate without getting caught,” Sam replies. Bucky huffs out an annoyed breath.
“Why are you being so bitchy?”
Sam laughs incredulously. Is Bucky serious right now?
“You wanna know why I’m being bitchy?” Sam asks while staring Bucky in the eyes.
“Yeah kinda,” Bucky stares at him right back.
“Fine. Okay. I’m being so bitchy because you stole my popsicle the other day.”
Bucky laughs a little, which makes Sam narrow his eyes at him.
“Sam, come on, you’re still mad about that? You could’ve gotten another one,”
“I could’ve, except there were no more left, so I either had to go to the store just for some popsicles or not have one at all,” Sam says.
“…Oh..well..um..I’m sorry?”
“Screw you, Barnes,” Sam says while shaking his head. Bucky sighs and lays across the kitchen table in front of Sam. “Bucky what the fu-“
“Sorry, Sam. I won’t steal another popsicle from you ever again. Scouts honor.”
“You were never in the scouts,” Sam wants to laugh, and he almost does.
Bucky grins and rolls off the table.
“Do you forgive me?” Bucky asks, his eyes big and so blue it should really be illegal. Sam does laugh a little this time and pushes Bucky’s shoulder.
“Yeah. I forgive you.”
“Good, because if you didn’t,” then Bucky takes Sam’s spoon and takes a big bite of his cereal, “I’d feel really bad about doing that,” Bucky says with a mouthful of Sam’s cereal.
Sam stands up and tries to grab Bucky’s arm but Bucky gracefully maneuvers out of Sam’s reach—damn him—and runs outside this time. Sam wants to strangle the hell out of him. He runs to the door to see Bucky about 4 blocks away.
“Barnes I swear I’m gonna kill you one of these days!” Sam yells but doesn’t have the energy to chase after him, it really is too much work, and Bucky turns around and smiles.
“I look forward to it!” Bucky yells back while running his hand through his stupid hair. It’s grown pretty long these days, falling past Bucky’s shoulders. It’s stupid.
Then Bucky has the nerve to wink at him like this isn’t his second time stealing something that isn’t his then running away. Sam shakes his head then flips him the bird.
“I hate you, Barnes!”
“You’ve said that already Wilson!”
*****
This time, Sam was ready. He was guarding his bag of chips with his life. Was he being dramatic? Perhaps. But there was no way he was going to let Bucky take any more of his food.
His thoughts were interrupted when the aforementioned man walked into the house. He deposited the bags that he was carrying onto the kitchen counter then went straight to the couch, where Sam was sitting and sat on the opposite end. Bucky kicked off his shoes and pulled his knees up to his chest and laid his head on his knees. Sam didn’t notice until now that he was shaking.
“Are you okay?” Sam asks hesitantly. He didn’t want to startle Bucky if what Sam thinks is happening is really happening.
Bucky tenses up and lifts his head up to look at Sam with wide eyes as if he’s just now noticing that Sam is in the same room as him. He chews on his bottom lip and looks away before replying.
“Yeah,” His voice was hoarse and shaky. Sam didn’t believe him but he didn’t want to push the issue. If Bucky wanted Sam to know he would’ve told him. Sam clears his throat before speaking.
“Can I touch you?”
When Bucky doesn’t respond, Sam waits patiently for an answer until finally, after a few moments, Bucky slowly nods his head.
Sam scoots closer to Bucky and lets their knees touch. That’s it. That’s all the touching Sam did. But it seemed like enough for Bucky because he stopped shaking soon after. About 5 minutes later Bucky starts to speak.
“I, uh. I went to the grocery store. I wanted more of those animal crackers that you always buy. Um, anyway, yeah. I went to the store, and everything was fine. I found the crackers, I bought them, I even bought some girl scouts cookies from this little girl outside the store,” He paused for a second to put his hair behind his ear and sigh. “Then while I was walking home, I heard someone talking. I don’t know who it was, but..but they were s-speaking in Russian,” Bucky curses under his breath. When Bucky gets upset he stutters sometimes. Bucky hates it, thinks he sounds like a child who can barely form coherent sentences, but Sam thinks it’s cute. “I guess I dissociated or something, because next thing I know, I’m walking into the house. I could barely keep myself up, I was shaking and-…well, you saw,” Bucky finishes and lets out a breath.
Sam waits for a few seconds, to see if there’s anything else Bucky wants to say before he gently lays his hand on Bucky’s knee and rubs it. Bucky stares at Sam’s hand on his knee before reaching out and placing his hand on top of Sam’s. Sam turns his hand around and intertwines their fingers together. Bucky smiles a little at that.
“I thought you hated me,” Bucky smiles wide as he looks at Sam. Sam laughs a little.
“Oh, I do. But I’m not the type of person to kick somebody when they’re down,” Sam responds with a teasing smile on his lips.
Bucky hums then reaches over and grabs a handful of Sam’s chips out of the bag. He pops one into his mouth and starts chewing loudly.
“Good,” Bucky says while smiling wider.
“You know what, I don’t hate you Bucky,” Sam says.
“You don’t?” Bucky asks while still smiling, Sam was going to smack that smile off his face one of these days.
“Nope,” Sam says while stealing some of the chips that Bucky already stole from him, “I really hate you.”