"You wanna take the shield back and become Captain America yourself?" Sam questioned, the tone of his voice was almost mocking. He couldn't believe what he just heard from Bucky.
"If that's what it takes," Bucky replied through grinded teeth, his jaw was tight.
"Well, by all means, go right ahead Buck. But just so you know, I won't be following someone who broke out a criminal to work with and who hurts people in the name of what's right. but don't worry, I'm sure the American government wouldn't mind, hell that's right up their alley!" Sam smiled passive aggressively, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He could tell this was getting to Bucky, his hands were balled up on his lap and he was no longer meeting his eyes.
When there was no reply after a deafening minute of silence Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead before getting up. "I don't even know why I came with you in the first place, it’s not like you needed me." He muttered, mostly to himself but the airplane cabin was quiet enough that Bucky could hear him, especially with his heightened sense of hearing.
"So what? you're just gonna up and leave like that?" Bucky scoffed, "Guess that's another thing you and Steve have in common."
Usually Sam was a patient guy, especially with Bucky who seems like he's been adjusting to this new world for the past 2 years, but this constant negativity, this constant bringing up Steve and bringing down Sam was really getting to him. It was pissing him off.
Sam turned to Bucky, eyes narrowed, face scowling. "You're a dick, do you know that?" Bucky simply shrugged. "You really are a piece of work James.” He clapped slowly, patronising the man sitting in front of him. “Bravo, not only did you lose Steve, you’ve just lost me. So good luck working with the guy that brought back the winter soldier and framed you for killing T’challa’s father. - And sincerely, fuck you.” Sam grabbed his bag and turned to walk away. “Call me when you stop being a dick for once in your life.”
“Where are you going? We’re still in the air.” Bucky called out after him. Sam could hear him getting out of his seat to follow him.
He hastily unzipped his bag. Sam watched his hands in anger as they shook, barely able to get the bag open. “Oh that’s just great, Sam. Did you seriously bring your fucking wings?”
“You think I would get on a plane with Baron Zemo without any protection?” He put the jet of the wings on and clasped it before facing Bucky. His stupid blue eyes were staring at him, no surprise there, and he looked like he was biting down his words. “I’ll see ya when I see ya, Barnes.”
“Sam, wait. I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry-”
“No, Bucky, I don’t want your empty apologies. You need some serious help working on your attitude, man. Had this been back then right after the war, back when it was just us, I would’ve helped you. But I’m sick of putting in so much for this frie- partnership and getting zero effort back. I called, I texted, and you chose to ignore me. You chose that for yourself-”
“That’s because you left first-”
“I’m not your mother Barnes and I’m not your boyfriend either! I didn’t have to stay with you until you got better, until you moved on from what Steve chose, cause at least he told you what he was doing! He didn’t tell me anything and he just - he just came back and put the weight of the world on my shoulders and left again! Do you have any idea how that made me feel? You never even bothered to ask me how I was doing. You expect so much from me but don’t even have the common decency to reply to my texts.” Sam’s chest was heaving, heart racing and breath getting heavier. “I have a family Buck. And I still chose to stay with you for weeks to make sure you were okay, and now you’re telling me you ignored me because I left to go see them? Do you even hear yourself? Do you hear how selfish you sound?”
Bucky’s eyes were shimmering with unshed tears, unlike Sam who was wiping at his wet cheeks. “I’m sorry, I’m sor- for the past few years I’ve been relying on and getting used to being taken care of by Steve, having Steve constantly risk his life for me and make sure I was okay. With everything that’s happened he made me believe I deserve having people risk their lives for me, that I’m worth being hunted down by the government for. It made me selfish, and when Steve left, I transferred that feeling of safety to you because you were the only person who seemed to genuinely care about me-”
Sam sighed. His heart was heavy listening to him, it almost made him feel bad for snapping at him. Almost. He still deserved to get called out on his behaviour. “Bucky, he’s not wrong,” He started, running his hand on top of his head. He unclasped his wings and put them on the floor before looking back up at Bucky. “You do deserve people who care about you, who are willing to get screwed over by the government to show you your worth. With all that you’ve been through, you deserve someone like that. I tried to be that, but you pushed me away, several times.”
“I know- It was fucked up of me. It's still a little hard depending on anyone that isn't Steve, it's hard to let my guards down.” Especially around you, he didn't say.
“Look, if you want to be partners, friends, you have to respect my choices, you need to stop being so reckless and start including me in your plans, before you make them. And you have to stop bringing up Steve all the time, unless you wanna tell me all the times he was an idiot as a kid,” that got Bucky to smile, the smile mirrored onto Sam’s face. It was a small smile, not bigger than any that you would see on Bucky. “I’m not Steve-”
“And I don’t want you to be. Whatever you and I got going on, it’s not like Steve and I,” Bucky looked down at his feet as he swallowed, “but it doesn’t mean I like you any less.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up, almost meeting his hairline. There was a funny feeling fluttering about in his insides that got the hairs on his skin prickling up. “Good. And it’s friendship, what we have. If..- if you want it to be.”
Bucky looked at the hand being stretched towards him, then up into Sam’s eyes. Beautiful Sam's beautiful eyes. Eyes that made him feel safe every time he looked into them. Sam wanted to be friends. Friends was a good place to start, or restart in their case. Bucky couldn't help but feel heavy hearted at the word friends. Was that all? Was that all they could be? But if that's what Sam wanted, who was he to disregard that for his own feelings?
He took his hand, flesh to flesh, the warm soft feeling of Sam’s hand grounded him, as much as someone can be grounded whilst a thousand feet in the air. “Friendship- yeah, I like that.”