It all started when Clint showed up for diner one time whilst wearing a jersey from some football team that Bucky had never heard of with 'HAWKEYE' printed out on bold letters in the back. Bucky knew that Clint was not in a NFL team but he was also pretty certain that you also only got one of those tops if you were.
Now Bucky had absolutely zero fashion taste and all he ever wore was military gear on missions or comfy clothes at home that he were either given to him from Tony or stolen from Steve. Intense paranoia and the fact his boyfriend was the famous Steve Rogers meant that when Bucky did leave the Avengers tower he never dressed up for himself but in something that would help him blend in to the crowds and not be recognised.
So Bucky really did not care about what he wore, ever. In fact the only conscious fashion decision that he ever made was to wear pink tops more often than others. He liked the colour, Steve told him he looked good in it and he enjoyed the way it confused people because according to stereotypes a cold blooded dangerous assassin was not supposed to wear pink.
But Bucky really wanted one of those Jerseys. And he barely ever wanted anything. He had been taught not to quite well and it was one of the things HYDRA had instilled into him that was harder to unlearn that most. But he really waned one of those tops.
"Whats that?" He asked Clint.
Clint frowned as he took his seat beside Natalia, "Whats what?"
"Your top." He clarified.
Clint smiled, "Pulled it out the PR room as soon as I heard the Packers sent over some stuff for us."
"Okay." Steve began slowly at the same time he placed a hand on Bucky's leg because he could sense his frustration at Clint's answer, "Could you repeat that but with the assumption that neither of us understood any of what you just said?"
Natalia pulled an amused smirk. Bucky had been out of Hydra's grasp, conscious and bordering on sane for almost two years now and Steve had been living in the modern world for even longer but the pair of them were still occasionally caught out by things they did not understand about the modern world. Like a PR room.
"Oh well the Green Bay Packers are a football team in the-"
"We know that Clint." Steve interjected because the serum had not gotten rid of his annoyingly snappy temper. But the NFL had been founded like ten years before they were even born so of course they knew about it. It was just that neither of them cared enough about football to know the teams.
Baseball. Now that was what they had enjoyed listening too when they were kids. Bucky definately remebered that.
"Oh!" Clint exclaimed, finally catching onto their confusion, "Okay so because the Avengers are famous, brands send us free stuff in the hopes we might advertise their product. None of us do but they're still fun to wear if they are from someone you like."
Tony spoke up, "We have a whole floor lower down where I store the majority of the stuff."
"So there is a Jersey like Clint's but with Winter Soldier on the back?" Steve asked.
Tony shrugged, "It might say James because he got the public calling him that more than his alias but maybe."
"So do all football teams send us Jerseys?" Bucky asked, trying not to give away how exited he was by being able to have his own Jersey with his own name on the back.
Bruce scoffed, "All the sports teams do." He explained, "And they won't just send you jerseys but water bottles, trousers, caps, keychains...you name it and they have probably sent it."
"Plus its not just sport teams from all over the world." Natalia interjected, "But most brands as well, however Tony mainly keeps the Jerseys and stuff because thats what are the usually the coolest"
On one hand Bucky was mortified by the waste, just the sheer amount of clothes and supplies stored in a room underneath them that could probably go to people who actually needed the stuff. Growing up in the depression meant he was well aware of what it was like to live in poverty and how much one person really needed. However on the other hand Bucky was pretty fucking happy because he had really wanted a jersey like Clint's.
Bucky stood from the table, "Which floor did you say the PR stuff was on?"
Steve frowned, "Hold on Buck we haven't started eating yet."
"Its not like I was gunna eat anyway." Bucky dismissed, before looking back to Tony with a questioning look.
Tony rolled his eyes but gave in immediately and Bucky could not help from grinning smugly, "Floor 8, Mrs America."
Bucky glared at Tony for the nickname but not in his typical 'I'm going to murder you' way so Tony knew it did not actually offend him. Then he took his food smoothie drink thing (it was berry flavoured today) and walked off to the elevator.
-----
Floor 8 looked more like a warehouse than a room, there were stacks upon stacks of boxes and Bucky had no idea where to even start. JARVIS spoke up and offered to grab any boxes containing specific items that he may want. Therefore Bucky had been left standing blankly in the middle of the floor, staring at the boxes as he tried to think about what team's jersey he actually wanted.
"Jarvis, call Steve."
"Sargeant, Steve is still having dinner with the rest of the Avengers, do you want me to request he move somewhere private?"
"Nope."
There was a brief pause before a short chime and, "Erm Bucky?"
"Stevie what team did we support when we were kids? I know it was baseball but I can't-"
"Buck." Steve interrupted and Bucky could hear the way that Steve was trying not to laugh at him, "We lived in Brooklyn, there's only one damn baseball team from over there."
"Actually the Dodgers are based in LA now." Natalia informed him.
Bucky smiled, "Dodgers, thats it. Hey Jarvis grab me the Dodgers stuff."
The call with Steve ended and within a few moments there was a metal robot bringing forward a box of stuff over to Bucky. He smiled as he opened it up and was extremely pleased to find two jerseys for him inside, along with a cap and water bottle. There was a blue jersey which said 'JAMES' on the back and a white which read 'WINTER SOLDIER'. He appreciated the thoughtfulness and immediately liked them both, only slightly preferring the blue one with his actual name on the back.
"Are there any other teams that you support whose merchandise you may enjoy wearing?" JARVIS questioned.
And Bucky was about to say no because he had remebered all he could from when he was a kid and baseball was the only thing that rang a bell. But then he remebered Moscow.
He remebered Moscow and how sometimes, sometimes. If he was suffering from a bad enough injury that someone had to watch him as he healed, that the doctor would leave on the radio drown out the sounds of his screams and shouts and cries. That sometimes he would be able to hear a radio and it was almost always talking about the hockey.
Ice Hockey. In the time he had been listening it had been called the Soviet Championship league and almost every time he listened CSKA Moscow would win. Everyone cheered when that happened and Bucky had even once overheard that some of the HYDRA agents were actually on the team. But then one time HC Spartak Moscow had won and no one had cheered. They were the underdogs, always pinned to loose against CSKA but they had won, they had beaten HYDRA.
Bucky liked them.
"Spartak Moscow." He told Jarvis, "I support them."
"The Russian Ice hockey team?" Jarvis asked and even though he was AI, he sounded suprised.
"Yep."
Jarvis paused for a moment, "It appears as though, that team has in fact delivered some merchandise to you."
"No fucking way." Bucky grinned.
He was sort of famous in Moscow but not like in America where kids knew all about Captain America's supposedly dead best friend Sargeant James Barnes. In Moscow was known as the Winter Soldier and unlike the rest of the world, they knew he was real. Bucky had been based there for most of his time under HYDRA and people talked, people heard and people saw. He was real over there, real and liked. Because when he came back and exterminated HYDRA from Moscow, people saw that too because he let them.
Still it was a suprise to actually have recieved merchandise from the hockey team because he was a famed assassin from their home city. Especially when he was now an Avenger and they were American enough to make Russia not like them.
The box was delivered to him by another robot and Bucky smiled once more when he opened the package. Presents were still so exiting to him and Bucky was not sure if was because he had been a poor kid from Brooklyn who never got packages or a man who had had literally everything taken away from him. Or maybe a combination of the two.
The jersey was red and white and had 'WINTER SOLDIER' printed boldly across the back. Placed on top of it was a newspaper clipping which documented the untimely death of three of the CSKA Moscow players who had all been killed in a gas explosion. A gas explosion that Bucky had faked after he murdered everyone in one of the HYDRA bases he had taken out.
There was a note attached which said thanks and it came with a free invitation to watch a match. Bucky's smile errupted into a wide shiny one that showed all his teeth. Watching one of those games was an actual dream come true. He had imagined what they would be like so many times in his head as a desperate attempt to escape his cruel reality of the pain he was in whilst strapped to that metal table.
He wanted to go. He wanted to go and he was going to take Steve and...
Steve.
Bucky had just had an amazing idea.
----- Steve pov
"What now?" Steve sighed, it had only been a couple of minutes since his Bucky last called him from the PR room and frankly he was still a bit mad at Bucky for leaving the dining table early. Eating or not, it was bad manners to walk off like he had, his Ma had taught them better.
"Stevie, Jarvis says you need to give verbal confirmation that I have full unrestricted access to everything you own."
"Sure, whatever Buck." He grumbled as he stabbed a pea moodily with his fork.
"Thanks busnika." Bucky's voice came through the walls and then the line clicked off.
There was a few moments where Steve carried on eating his food moodily until he realised that the dining room had gone suspiciously silent. Even though Thor was away on Asguard and made enough noise for the rest of them combined, it still should not have been that quiet.
He looked up to find Clint, Natasha, Tony and Bruce all staring at him as if he had killed a baby right infront of their eyes.
"What?" He said defensively, subconsciously checking if there was any food dribbling down his face.
"You just gave James access to your...well, everything." Natasha told him as if he had not just done so himself.
"So?"
Bruce swallowed, "You do realise that includes your bank accounts and everything."
"I'm not stupid." Steve told the room because they sure as hell were acting like it.
"Capsicle I know he's your boyfriend but you basically just gave James everything you own." Tony said, sounding extremely dumbstruck.
Steve shrugged, "Its Bucky."
Clint waved his hand around, "Is that supposed to explain everything?"
"Yep." He replied because it was Bucky. Steve did not need anything else if he had Bucky and of course he would let him have access to all his stuff because Steve trusted the guy with every fibre of his being. There was not anything that he could do which would-
"Hey guys." Bucky smiled as he walked out of the elevator wearing a red jersey with Russian words printed on the front.
He turned around and there on the back it said 'Captain America'. Now Steve's first though was to what sort of Russian sports team was happily sending off merchandise to Captain America who literally stood for everything they did not. His second thought was love for his stupid boyfriend who looked goddam adorable in the oversized Jersey with his name on the back.
Steve fucking loved Bucky.
Bucky leant down and smushed a big kiss on his cheek, "Guess what?"
"What?"
"You have an entirely seperate floor the huge amount of PR shit you have." He told him with a smirk on his face, "Everyone just loves Captain America."
"Even Russia." Bruce pointed out.
Natasha then tsked, "Spartak are an awful team."
"They were half decent when they were in the Soviet League." He told her defensively.
Natasha rolled her eyes, "CSKA were much better."
"And they were also Hydra." He argued, "So I like Spartak."
Tony cleared his throat, "Sorry but the Soviet league ran from the 40s till the 90s so how the hell do you know so much about them."
"I'm Russian." Natasha answered at the same time Bucky said, "Some of the Hydra doctors kept their radios on."
Nobody spoke, people were always unsure of how to react when Bucky talked about Hydra but Steve understood. Torture or not, they had been his life for almost 70 years and even if there was not much to talk about that was not torture and murder, Bucky had every right to say whatever he wanted about his experiences. In fact Steve encouraged it, he was pretty sure it was healthy.
"So," Bucky said, continuing on and ignoring the awkward silence, "We're going to a game."
And Bucky slammed down his free tickets to a Spartak match of his choosing.
-----
Thor was still in Asguard, Bruce avoided high adrenaline sports matches because of the Hulk and Tony had been banned from entering Russia for a while. Natasha wanted to go in order to spite Bucky because she was supporting the other team and Peter and Clint tagged along because they were Nat's boys and if she said they were going to go watch an ice hockey match in Russia then that is exactly what they were going to do.
Steve was going because Bucky wanted him to and he would do anything for the idiot.
"Nope." Bucky frowned and he took another cap off of Steve's head.
Steve shrugged, "Buck when I go out I barely ever get recognised, I'm sure I'll be fine."
Bucky scowled, "Thats because people in America look like you and are all stupid, Russians are suspicious of everyone and usually aren't big blonde and blue eyed."
"I'm pretty sure some of them are, Buck." Steve sighed as Bucky pulled a bright red cap over his head, "Plus we aren't exactly going inconspicuously."
Bucky wanted to wear his Captain America jersey to the game. They were going to be sitting in a private booth specifically booked for the Winter Soldier. Steve was at a complete loss as to why Bucky was even bothering with disguises.
Bucky gave an approving nod to the red cap on his head and then held out the outfit he had specifically selected for Steve to wear. Black jeans, a Spartak jersey and a huge puffy black coat. Steve poked the coat and was suprised to find that it was really light.
"Its what everyone wears over there." He informed Steve.
Steve sighed, "I'm going to look like an idiot."
"You'll look Russian and hot." Bucky grinned.
Steve raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "So what are you wearing?"
"Busnika I am Russian, I don't need a disguise." He replied endearingly.
Steve rolled his eyes and got dressed.
----- Bucky pov
Natasha and Clint flew one of Tony's Quinjets to the airspace nearest the arena in Moscow which meant that they only had an half hour walk from the plane. Apparently this was only Peter's third time in Moscow because Natasha always felt pretty wary taking her son to an area riddled with KGB but the rest of them had been plenty of times. Apart from Steve, he had been there for a fight or two but that was it.
Steve looked so fucking adorable with his huge puffer jacket on and it reminded Bucky of when he had been little and all his clothes drowned him. Bucky sidled up next to him and leant in for a kiss but Steve pulled back and gave a small shake of his head.
"Its still illegal here Buck." He said sadly.
Bucky rolled his eyes, "So is murder but I did plenty of that."
"Jerk." Steve admonished but he still leant into Bucky a bit and very quickly kissed his head and Bucky felt a little smug about Steve breaking the law like that just to make him happy.
As they continued walking Bucky moved to pull a smoke from his coat pocket but Natalia wacked his hand, "Not around my son."
"Peter is over there." Bucky argued and pointed ten meters away to where Peter was chatting animatedly with Clint.
Natalia scowled, "Not around my son, James."
"He'll be fine." Bucky told her seriously and he knew that Natalia was not actually worried about Peter possibly inhaling second hand smoke, "This is a safe route and I killed all the Hydra in Moscow anyway."
"Not the KGB." She retorted, the tenseness in her shoulders extremely obvious.
"The KGB love me." Bucky smiled easily, "I practically am the cold war."
Steve frowned, "Didn't America win that?"
"America says they won, Russia says they did." Clint answered as him and Peter caught up, "No one really won though, it was a long cold war thats probably still going on."
Natalia smacked Bucky round the head, "No thanks to him."
"James." Peter piped up and Bucky knew it was going to be something stupid and annoying because although he liked the kid, he was all too aware of his inability to talk normally around him. Apparently he was intimidating.
He hummed in reply because so what if he was a tiny bit of an asshole?
"Did you erm, kill the president...I mean Kennedy, its just we were talking about the cold war and I- I was wondering." He asked quietly but with a hint of determination which suggested he had been thinking about the question for a while.
Bucky looked at him and said plainly, "They missed."
Peter was quiet and Bucky was sure he got the message, "So thats a no?"
"I've killed presidents." Bucky stated, "Just not him."
"You've..." Peter gawped, "Wait did you-"
Steve cleared his throat, "I think we're here."
Bucky gave a nod, "I'll be back in a second, just need to figure out where our seats are."
----- Steve pov
As soon as Bucky walked off Nat shouting at Peter off in Russian but Steve heard the word 'James' and figured it was about the kid's slightly invasive questioning. He did not seem to be doing it on purpose and Steve blamed it on the journalism degree mixed with inheriting Natasha's need for knowing everything. But he probably should not have asked that.
Luckily Bucky was in a blindingly good mood today because they were going to watch an ice hockey match like the ones he had dreamt of for literal decades, but if Peter had asked the same thing on another day at another time and he could have recieved a much worse response.
Clint was staying out of the way of Natasha's scolding and turned to Steve, "I've never seen him like this when we go out in New York."
"Like what?" Steve asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
"Comfortable." Clint replied, "James is a lot more tense, checks sight lines twice as often and takes his disguise a lot more seriously."
"I know." Steve sighed, "As messed up as it is, he spent a lot of time here and whilst people in Russia may recognise him, he killed everyone whose a threat to him. There is definately no Hydra in Moscow and the government wouldn't prosecute him and lock him away in some pit in the middle of the ocean if they found out who he was."
Clint took a heavy sigh, "He doesn't deserve that shit."
Steve smiled, "He's very lucky he has such loyal friends."
"Got them." Bucky announced after he walked all the way back over to where they had been waiting. If it had been anyone else they would have shouted them over but Bucky could not because shouting made his already damaged voice crack and break in a way that sounding agonisingly painful and removed any threat or purpose behind the shouting in the first place.
-----
The Winter Soldier got a backstage pass for him and his guests to make their way to their seats. Bucky gave Peter a nudge in the shoulder and nodded over to the corner of one of the hallways. Peter shot a web into the corner which Steve presumed would have just covered a camera. Natasha looked like she was about to explode.
"Have you been training with Peter?" She asked angrily because Peter had just understood what Bucky was saying with a slight nod and that sort of call and response was something people trained to be able to do.
Peter set a hand on Nat's shoulder, "No Mama I swear I just understood what he was asking."
"That better be it." She growled.
Bucky continued on walking as if Nat had said nothing at all. He was the only person that Steve knew who was unfazed by Natasha and sometimes he wondered what exactly Nat had been like as a kid for Bucky to be so at ease when the woman fully adept at murder looked at him as though she wanted to tear of his head.
When they got into the room, they all settled down into the comfy looking chairs in their own private box with glasses of vodka in their hands. Steve took a little longer because he looked for a drink available that would not burn the back of his throat and settled on what he hoped was a beer. Just before he sat down he took off his coat and he did not miss the way that Clint snickered.
"Whats so funny?"
Clint's amused smile lit up, "Have you not seen the back of your top?"
Steve checked the back of his top of frowned, "Buck what does this mean?" Because there were Russian letters on the back of his top and he had no idea what Cyrillic meant in the slightest.
"Winter soldier." He replied honestly and then patted the seat beside him, "Hurry up, its starting soon."
Steve let out a sigh of relief and Clint only looked a little bit dejected when he realised that Steve could not care less about wearing his boyfriend's jersey like the stupid cringy couple they were.
The match included a lot of shouting and swearing in Russian. Steve saw and smelt a lot of vodka being drunk or thrown around the air in outrage. Unfortunately Bucky's team were loosing pretty badly but Bucky did not look put down in the slightest, just completely enraptured by the game. It was an interesting, exiting game but Steve could barely tear his gaze off of Bucky's content little smile to notice.
-----
By the time half time rolled around, Clint and Peter were nearing on drunk and Natasha and Bucky were slightly tipsy. Apparently it was custom to drink every single time the puck was passed in ice hockey (or near about anyway).
Bucky pulled out a smoke, obviously having forgot his conversation with Natasha earlier. "James!" She exclaimed, "What did I tell you earlier."
"Oh come on Natalia." Bucky sighed, "Its not as if it'll affect him, he's got a serum too."
"Its not the same as the soviet crap running through your veins." She retorted.
Bucky flinched so slightly that Steve knew he was the only one who noticed, "Whatever, he heals."
"Not really." Peter spoke up his words slurring slightly, "I got spider powers James."
"So?"
"So I can do spider things, like be strong and stick to things." Peter replied, "Spiders aren't very fast healing creatures."
Steve could not help himself asking, "You stick to things?"
Peter nodded enthuastically, "Yeah thats why I can climb walls and stuff, I only let go when I want."
"He can do handstands for hours." Clint added proudly.
Bucky scoffed, "I can do that."
Steve tried not to roll his eyes but Bucky was tipsy and competitive and this was going to end badly, "Are you seriously challenging the kid to a handstand competition?"
Bucky was already stood up, "Fuck yes."
"Oh my god." Steve muttered as he watched Peter skip over to the space where Bucky was lining himself up.
Natasha's cup was magically full of vodka again and she sipped it amusedly, "This will be fun."
"One, two, three, go." Clint shouted.
The pair of them both eased into a handstand and each looked as comfortable as each other. Peter looked acrobatic, flexible and gentle as he stood rooted to the position on his hands whilst Bucky looked perfect. That was not Steve's bias peaking through, it was just the way that Bucky had been trained to be, he stood completely still so there was barely even evidence of him breathing as he stood on his hands, rigid and still.
They were a few minutes in when Bucky moved over to one hand (his flesh hand so there was no chance of being accused of cheating) and tied his hair up into a bun with his other. Steve loved when Bucky wore his hair in his loose bun because he looked insanely attractive but currently he was too busy being fed up with his childish antics. Plus Bucky's ass was right by his face so he was struggling to look at much else.
"Show off." Peter chuckled, sounding completely at ease.
Bucky scoffed, "I've been shot in the gut in this position without moving a muscle. Now thats showing off."
"Buck," Steve began, "Just let up, Peter's drunk and your being annoying. Plus you're gunna miss the second half."
"Nope Stevie, absolutely nothing is gettin' me to move."
Steve smirked, "Nothing?"
"Nothing." Bucky confirmed.
Steve poked Bucky in his perfect ass that had been unfairly shoved right in his face which made Bucky make a suprised little yelp and fall to the floor. Everyone cracked up.
"No fair." He grumbled, as he picked himself up, "You knew it was sore."
Steve shrugged, giving his best 'I'm Captain America and completely innocent of ever doing anything wrong smile' which Bucky just so happened to hate. "It was just an accident."
"Punk." He pouted as he took his seat.
"So did I win?" Pete grinned cheekily.
"Absolutely." Natasha and Steve said at the same time because the pair of them had no qualms about annoying Bucky a little.
Bucky leaned into his side a little and looked up at him with a gentle smile, "Cheater."
Steve stuck out his tounge playfully and then shuffled over a bit so Bucky could rest his against him a bit more.
Even though the Spartak's lost, Steve still had an amazing time and if he bought season tickets on their way out just so he could see Bucky at ease and happy like that more often, then so what? His boyfriend deserved the fucking world.
-----
Pepper slammed the paper down on the table with a very angry and intimidating huff.
Front and centre was a huge photograph of Steve in sat in his chair at the ice hockey arena in Russia with an easy smile on his face as he wore a bright red Spartak jersey and cap. Even though his hair was hidden, it was easy to see his face and exactly where it was looking.
It was looking at an ass he would know anywhere.
And he was poking it.
That ass just so happened to be wearing a jersey with 'Captain America' on its back and it also happened to belong to a very obviously male body.
The headline in big bold letters was simple - CAPTAIN AMERICA; RUSSIAN GAY?
"Whoops." He said extremely quietly because Pepper Potts was a terrifying woman.
"You're in so much trouble." She sighed.
Good thing it had been worth it.
Steve pinned the newspaper clipping to his and Bucky's fridge.