camping with Sam
The mission was going to be an entire month long he would, with luck be back in time for his birthday. Until then Bucky was going to stay with Sam. Bucky was doing ok after his breakup but he didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone. Stark would be at the cabin with his family now that school was out and Peter was busy with his friends and if Steve read between the lines right his girlfriend. He smiled at the thought. He had met M.J. twice and she reminded him of Peg. He knew he compared many women to her but she was as good a standard as his own mother. Strong, intelligent, amazing. Anyone was lucky to find that in a partner. He moved towards Bucky's room only to have Friday stop him.
“James will be out in a moment he cannot have you in his apartment because your birthday gift is exposed.” He smiled. “Ok Friday. I can wait for him in the kitchen.” He moved to the elevator. Bucky was almost finished setting things up. “Ok Fri. you remember what to do?”
“Absolutely James. All access to your living quarters is restricted to anyone other than Agent Barton. He will arrive to pick up the gift two days before the Captain's birthday party at the lake.”
“Good good. If there are any issues, patch me through and try to keep the smell controlled if you can.”
“Sure thing James. Enjoy your trip to Sam’s”
He met Steve in the kitchen, his duffel ready to go. Steve looked up from his sandwich “That’s all you’re taking?” He nodded “yup that’s all I need. Wilson kept me occupied last time. I've got clothes and two books. Not much else I need.” Steve smiled a little. “Are you really gonna let him take you camping?” He shrugged “Assateague sounds nice. Never seen wild horses before only ones on farms and pullin’ carts. It's just for a week of the trip. I’ll live.” He patted his back. “Ok well I’m gonna hold ya to that. I can’t check in on you this time.”
They boarded the jet with the team and headed for D.C to meet Sam. When they arrived he was waiting with the car already packed with camping gear. "You ready Barnes? We got a long drive ahead of us." Steve smiled "you were really serious about taking him camping." He nodded "seemed like a good idea. Spend a week there then we are going to my sister's place in Delaware to see her and my mom." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "You sure Barnes is gonna be good with that?" He shrugged "won't know till we try. You guys be safe out there. Send us a postcard and we will see you at.the lake on the 30th." Steve gave Bucky a hug and got back on the jet as he watched them drive away. "I hope Sam knows what he's doing." Wanda took his hand "Sam is very caring and patient. I think he knows exactly what he is doing."
The drive took nearly three hours. They stopped about halfway at a dinner that Sam had been raving about. "So you seem kinda quiet wanna talk about it?" Bucky put the menu down on the table. "I don't know. It's complicated." He nodded "That's ok. Any idea what you want yet? Also we are stopping at a grocery store a little closer, i want you to make at least one meal this week. Steve told me you cook a little."
He froze. "I didn't know you wanted that…...i um….there's only one recipe i know from memory." Sam smiled "that's fine. Make that." The waitress wandered back over "any decisions yet?" Bucky shook his head "we need five minutes more please." She nodded at Sam and walked away. "What do you want? You can get anything you like." Bucky looked nervously at him. "Anything?" He nodded "yup. Just so long as you eat something." He glanced back at the menu and nodded "pie."
"Pie? That's it? I mean that's ok just …. Surprised me is all." He nodded again "Yup. Pie. That strawberry pie in the case looks really good." Sam laughed "Ok. Pie it is." They enjoyed their meal quietly. Sam watched as Bucky made sure before he ate that it was ok for him to have it. He wished for all the world that Bucky didn't feel that way but he did recognize that he had come so far in the last year alone.
They got back in the car and continued driving. "Loki dumped me." He said it so quietly and softly Sam almost missed it over the radio. "What now?" Bucky shrunk into his seat. "I had an incident at game night last month and Loki tried to help me. They didn't like what they saw in my head so they dumped me." Sam felt angry listening to him. "What do you mean? What did they see?" Bucky turned red. "I was, um...thinkin about Vivian. I just… not that I wanna be back with her, it's just um… I was a bit… worked up that day. Every time we got close to anything more than heavy petting someone interrupted." Sam looked at him. "Heavy petting?" Bucky stopped a moment "um….making out? Just kissing no sex."
"Oh ok. Never heard that term before. So you wanted to do to Loki what you and Vivian did but they misunderstood?" He nodded "that's about the size of it." Sam patted his shoulder. "Misunderstandings suck. Maybe in time you can fix it. For now we can enjoy the beach and the horses." Bucky laid back a bit in his seat "so are the horses really just wandering around?" Sam turned the radio off. "Yeah. Just gotta be careful they will steal food and they do bite. Don't feed them and don't try to pet them. If you don't want them to bother it secure it in the car or the trailer." Bucky looked at him. "Trailer?" He smiled "I called in a favor. I figured that arm might make sleepin' on the ground rough. Riley's parents dropped the trailer off at the campsite this morning and they will come get it when we leave."
They arrived at Assateague and followed signs to the campground. When they got to their site Bucky was glad they had the trailer. The site was mostly a plot of sand with a fire pit a grill and a picnic table. He hated how sand could get in his arm so easily. Sam walked over to the trailer and opened a panel to reveal the spare key. "Here we are. Our home away from home for the next week." The inside was small with a small room in the back that had bunk beds. "You want the top or bottom?" He walked in and inspected the beds "I think bottom is best. Don't want to fall out."
They went back to the car to unload and found a horse investigating the new arrival. It walked around the car and finally walked over to them sniffing each one up and down. After a moment a few others came out and were all sniffing at Bucky's arm. "Sam….they are licking me….what do I do?" He looked around and then whistled sending them scattering. "Guess they never saw a guy with a metal arm before." He rolled his eyes. "Gee ya think?" They moved the food from the car and set up chairs at the fire pit. After a few hours and only one more horse interruption they had everything settled and unpacked.
“So do you wanna cook dinner or do you want me to?” Bucky got up from his chair “I can do it. Might as well get it over with.” Sam crossed his arms “I don’t want you to do it if you hate it.” He shook his head “It’s not that I hate it I just haven't really cooked for anyone aside from Stevie and I feel like even if it was total crap he would eat it just to be nice.” Sam conceded “Yea he would do tha. I will tell you if it’s not good but I promise I won't be mean about it. What are you making anyway?” Bucky Grinned “It's a surprise.”
“I’m not sure why but I don’t think I like the way you said that.”
An hour or so later he came out to the picnic table with a plate of toast and a pan with something grey in it. Sam looked at it and wrinkled his nose. “What the hell is that?” Bucky fixed a plate and gave it to Sam “It’s G.I chow.” He stared at the plate “This is definitely an army thing. In the air force food wasn't cruel and unusual punishment.” Bucky rolled his eyes “Well in the army we were just a bit tougher. It’s better than it looks, try it. In the war the days we got shit on a shingle instead of rations were practically a holiday.” Sam glared at him “Did you just call something you want me to eat shit? That’s not how you convince people to eat something you made.”
Bucky was already happily eating his. Sam poked at it a bit and finally gave it a try. “Ok um...this actually isn’t bad once you get past the appearance.” He grinned “See told ya it was better than it looks.” Bucky tossed him a piece of toast “Try it on the bread.” Sam did as Bucky did “What's in this any way?” Bucky dished out what was left between them “Butter flour milk and ground beef. You can use any meat you like. One time we used deer meat that was pretty good. Steve sometimes puts peppers in it.”
“So its like a poor man’s hamburger helper?” Bucky stared at him confused “What?” Sam dropped his fork “You don’t know what hamburger helper is? I’m gonna have to fix that. Its kinda like this but it has noodles there ones with cheese or taco flavor. It’s kinda like a casserole but you make it on the stove. They have them for other meat too like tuna.”
He leaned back a bit “Huh haven’t heard of that yet. Of course I kinda just get what I know from the store if I go at all. Someone else takes care of food at the tower unless Steve specifically takes me.” Sam made a face “He insists on that little place in Brooklyn with the organic and homemade stuff. You won’t find Hamburger helper there.” He laughed “Yea I think he likes that they don;t bother him there. He hates when people stop him on his run because he’s too polite to keep moving.” It was then that one of the horses without warning bolted over and yanked at his hair sending him falling backwards on the ground. It then made a move for the rest of his dinner which Bucky stupidly tried to defend. This resulted in a combination head butt and a well placed hoof to the stomach. Before Sam could react the horse helped itself to the place and left Bucky on the ground.
He carefully moved him to the bunk inside the trailer. There was already a bruise on his stomach and he could see the two black eyes from the obviously broken nose. “Well that’s not how I planned to spend the first night.” Bucky woke up a while later with a groan. “Fuckin horse.” Sam couldn’t help laughing. “I told you not to touch them. You had a Steve moment there of course I think Steve would have head butted the horse.” He moved out to the table and sat down. “Why the hell do they let people camp in a place with attack horses?” Sam raised his eyebrow “Attack horses? Seriously?” He crossed his arms “Well what would you call that? I didn’t want it to steal my food.”
“You are kinda in their house. It’s ok we still have plenty of food. Tomorrow we can check out the beach a bit, maybe hop over to ocean city to the boardwalk. You might like that it’s kinda like Coney island. We could also take you to frontier town.” Bucky looked at him “Why does that sound childish?” He laughed “It’s not completely childish. It’s fun. I mean it’s kinda dopey but it’s fun. Riley took me years ago, I feel like you might get a kick out of it.” He smiled. “He was pretty special to you wasn’t he?” Sam eased back into his seat “Yea best friend I ever had. You remind me of him sometimes. The way you bust my chops about things.” He smiled “well you remind me of Steve at times but you have more self preservation. For a guy who barely made it to adulthood he really does have the self preservation of a fruit fly.”
The rest of the week was much improved from the horse incident. They ended up waiting to go to the beach because it rained for two days straight. The first morning Sam found Bucky sitting outside in it. He watched from the trailer doorway. “There are better ways to take a shower Barnes.” He made a grunt of acknowledgement but said nothing. He came in a while later and changed into some dry clothes. “Well I guess the beach is a bust what’s the plan?” They spent the day playing board games and talking with the hope that tomorrow would be better. The second day or rain they ended up at a few thrift stores and once it cleared a bit they went to the boardwalk. Bucky whistled as he looked up and down the shore line. “This is a hell of a lot bigger than I expected. Where do we start?” Sam shrugged “Whatever you want to do. Not a lot of people here because of the rain. It’s the ideal time for you to see it.”
They wandered in a few shops and looked at the games and the rides. Bucky tossed money to a few of the performers that were braving the rain to try and scrounge up some cash. He still had a nice stock pile he had taken from the hydra safe houses he cleared. Not even Steve knew about it. “Did you just give that mime $100?” He looked at Sam “Nope Hydra did.” Sam convinced him to ride the haunted house at least once and they got some pizza to eat before they headed back to the trailer. They didn’t make it to Frontier town before the week was up but they enjoyed their company even if Bucky was left feeling that horses were more horrible than he had once thought. They would be headed to Sam’s Youngest sisters place to visit with her and his mother before they headed back to Dc for two weeks. They spent the last evening at the campfire and Sam came out with a few squares wrapped in foil that he carefully placed on the grate in the fire pit.
“What’s that?” Sam looked at him “Smores.” Bucky grinned “I didn;t realize you were a girl scout Wilson. Guess that’s why you joined the airforce.”
“You and I both know Rhodey and Carol would kick your butt if you made that crack around them. Besides everyone makes smores now it’s not just a girl scout thing.” Sam made a few and then suggested they eat them away from the horses to avoid any other incidents. After that they packed up what they could and tossed it in the car resolving to worry about the rest in the morning.