RoadTrip - /SamBucky/WinterFalcon/

"I spy with my little-" "Shut up Samuel."

The two were on the road now, and had only been for a few hours. Things were going okay. They hadn't argued. Yet.

Sam sighed and glanced over at Bucky, breaking the comfortable yet boring silence.

"Bucky, you have two options, the music I have, or the radio."

"What about the music I have downloaded in my phone?" Bucky asked, looking at Sam confused.

"Nuh uh, Bucky. You have two options." Sam stayed stubborn, smiling to himself on the inside hearing Bucky sigh and groan slightly.

"Fine, if there's nothing decent on the radio, then we'll go to your music." Bucky agreed to the two options. "Like I have a choice anyways." He muttered, just loud enough for Sam to hear.

Sam laughed a little and turned on the radio. "Bucky, you had two choices." He said playfully.

//Cue song, if you wish.//

Sam's eyes lit up a little at the song, he had heard it before, but didn't remember what it was called. His nephews had introduced him to it, telling him it came out in 2021, while he was blipped. "This song is actually good, Buckaroo. I don't know if your old ass would like it, but I know I do." Sam admitted, having a teasing dig at Bucky.

Bucky rolled his eyes and listened to the song, it certainly wasn't his style. He liked fourties music. But a part of him deep down said,he might as well try it. Maybe he'll find some hidden meaning behind the lyrics. Or something to like about it.

Sam hummed along to the song, softly, but the super soldier heard it clearly, through the serum having amplified everything. He noticed Sam drumming his fingers against the steering wheel to the the beat of the song, he noticed Sam bouncing his head from side to side slightly, not a care in the world. Bucky noticed it all, and smiled, a genuine smile that reached to his eyes, before turning back to the road in front of them. Maybe he could bare today's music, on certain circumstances. He just liked seeing his —what he would now consider after all the bullshit they went through, friend, happy. He didn't buy into the star signs, but part of being a Pisces is genuinely catching ahold of the emotions around you, so if Sam was happy, Bucky was too, generally, unless Sam was being an asshole, which was frequently. If he and Sam were in one of their petty arguments, they were having their petty arguments. He was surprisingly sympathetic, but he had built his walls up so high, he wouldn't let the sympathetic emotions slip out often.

The lyrics came to a sudden stop and Bucky immediately looked at the car stereo, even more confused when the singing came back. His brows knit in confusion as his lips curled into a frown, silently speaking many questions. Sure, he was old. But he wasn't stupid. But he was trying to figure out which exact word it was, because there were so many to choose from. Sam seemed to have noticed this and chuckled.

"Barnes, you can't have swearing on the radio, it's child friendly, so they've censored 'fucked'. That's the only reason why he stopped singing." Sam explained. Bucky replied with a silent nod and turned to face the window, not saying another word. He kept listening to the song, trying to find anything he liked himself in it, but he didn't get why people couldn't play their instruments and had to have some automated machine play it for them.

"Definitely not my style," he began to mutter, "but also not the worst I've heard." He admitted the last part in a whisper to himself, thinking about the other songs he had been shown by millennials and had heard as he walked by places. It made him feel sick to his stomach at times.

Sam turned the song down a little and fondly touched Bucky's shoulder for a moment, getting his attention. "Bucky, why don't we play a game or something instead?"

"Like what?" Bucky muttered, turning to look at Sam, who still, confidently enough had his eyes on the road and still, had his hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"I don't know, truth or dare, I spy, would you rather..?" Sam lists three off the top of his head.

"What exactly is I spy? I don't think I've ever played that before. If not, in a long time." Bucky admitted.

"Well, it goes, I spy with my little-"

"Shut up, Samuel."

"Ooookay. So that's off the list. What about the other two?" Sam asked, glancing over at Bucky.

"Hmm, what's would you rather? Is that like, 'would you rather, jump off a cliff or jump off a bridge' sort of thing?" Bucky asked, tilting his head to the side a little.

"Mhm. But you can alter the questions however you want as well, you could be cruel with it and ask the most embarrassing questions or be super kind and ask innocent questions. Like I could turn to you and ask, 'Would you rather be on top, or bottom?' You know, that sort of thing."

"I always preferred the top bunk." Bucky shrugged, not quite getting the point.

"I-Bucky-" Sam started before chuckling. Bucky wasn't exactly innocent, but he also wasn't too out there either, "you know what. I'm pretty sure we all preferred the top bunk, but I thought you were afraid of heights?" Sam asked, tilting his head to the side a little as he looked at Bucky.

"I am, I don't like heights at all. Wait. How did you know I was afraid of heights?" Bucky questioned, looking at Sam shocked.

"I know more about you than you think, Barnes. Just like your go to coping mechanism when you do encounter a hight-y objective, is to laugh and look up. You're a lot like a mistreated puppy, you know?" Sam admitted.

Bucky rolled his eyes and looked away. "Sam, I am not a puppy at all. Do I really look like a puppy to you? A mistreated puppy?"

"Yes. Yes you do." Sam admitted with a nod.

"How so? Can you explain, because I don't see it in myself at all." Bucky chuckled softly and gave Sam a teasing yet intrigued look.

"Well, hmm." Sam started, "Remember that time when, what's her name Okoye? When she did that whole trick with the metal arm, and you realised that after all your effort and time spent working on yourself, that people still don't trust you, you looked confused and hurt, like a puppy that had just been kicked. On a more positive note, when you showed up to the whole town cook out back with my family, and you just let you be you, I think that was the happiest I had ever seen you. You let the kids hang off your metal arm, you brought in a cake,"

"Which I dropped." Bucky chuckled near silently at the memory and shook his head to himself.

"Exactly! Who would have thought that an ex-assassin, wouldn't know how to hold a cake for more than thirty seconds." Sam teased.

Bucky rolled his eyes but for once, he couldn't fight off the smile on his face. "I hate you."

"Mhm. Then why'd you agree to all of this? You're stuck with me now, Buck."

"Hey, do you have a plan?" Bucky asked, turning to look at Sam.

"Uh, no?" Sam answered, confused.

"Then you can't call me Buck."

"Oh, c'mon man! You're still playin' that game?" Sam groaned.

"Well, yeah. When you have a plan, you can call me Buck."

"Fuck you."

Bucky chuckled a little and rolled his eyes. God this was going to be a long trip.