Author's Notes: I might be projecting my The Losers feels onto the Avengers crew. My first and probably only MCU fic, but only because Sam is a gem.
Warnings: Poly relationships (seriously, Sam had a harem in this and I'm not gonna apologize for it.) Curse words and parentheses abuse. Hints of PTSD.
Summary: Sam attempts to get back into the dating game, only to realize his love life has gotten a little more complicated than he originally thought… aka that time Sam realizes he might be kind of dating almost half of the Avengers team.
Pairings: Sam/OCs, Sam/Steve, Sam/Nat, Sam/Bucky, Sam/Clint, Sam/Nat/Steve/Bucky/Clint Puppy Piles, Nat/Clint, Steve/Bucky, Tony/Pepper, Tony/Rodey, Tony/Pepper/Rodey
To Know Him Is to Love Him
Chapter One
Bucky has a habit of popping up out of nowhere.
Sam isn't the best at the whole spy thing. Yeah he's military trained, so he has a pretty good idea of who and what is around him. But years out of the service makes him a little soft.
Not to mention Bucky is on a whole different level of disturbing espionage.
He shows up at the VA Center a few times, sitting stiffly in the back during the meetings. Sam barely recognizes him at first because his face is half shadowed by the hoodie he's wearing.
He doesn't talk. He doesn't move. Sam is hard pressed even remembering him blinking the times he managed to catch his gaze. He slips in unnoticed by everyone minutes after the sessions start, and is always gone before they conclude.
These visits usually coincide with texts from Steve saying he might have pushed too hard again. He means well, Sam knows it. But Bucky's head is in a place even he can't comprehend. The things that were done to him make his stomach clinch every time he thinks of them. And when the memories become too much, Bucky runs.
Somehow, he always ends up around him.
Somehow, he becomes Bucky's safe place.
It's starts at the VA Center and it ends in his apartment. The first time his finds him sitting on his living room futon, in the dark, he damn near has a heart attack.
It gets easier from there. Sam manages to salvage the bag of takeout Tai food he dropped in his quick scramble for his knife. Bucky answers his queries with a subdued 'sorry.' Steve calls, panicked, and he lets him know his bff is fine and maybe might have a thing for spring rolls.
It becomes a regular thing. Bucky shows up, Sam orders out (or occasionally they have breakfast for dinner because that's about the only thing he can't ruin while cooking and you can never go wrong with pancakes and bacon.) He has mostly one-sided conversations with the rare none mono-syllable response from his guest. Bucky always hand washes and dries the dishes (even though he's explained the dishwasher to him one time too many.)
They camp out on the futon and Sam pulls out his dusty first gen Nintendo, because if Bucky's going to get caught up you have to start from the basics (and of course he's eerily good at Duck Hunt and Sam finds himself hiding the gun controller just to save face.)
They eventually graduate to Play Station and Xbox and discover war games are a little therapeutic for him (he's not all surprised that he's disappointed with Halo but chews through several Assassin's Creed games like candy. He tries Metal Gear once, but triggers are just that and those disks soon end up with the same fate as the gun controller.)
Sam often finds himself waking up with his legs entwined with Bucky's after a long night on his pseudo couch and they pretend to ignore it over coffee in the morning, because they might not be 12 anymore but sleepovers are still cool. That's if Buck doesn't go completely ghost by the time the sun rises.
Then he finally lands that date with the VA receptionist.
And that date turns into a weekly thing. Which eventually turns into them stumbling into his apartment, all roaming hands and mouths and beer numbed tongues meshing together and of course Bucky is there.
Of fucking course.
Things get weird after that. Carla leaves in a cab not soon after, a little unnerved but understanding of the 'he's just a friend… with issues' spiel. Bucky leaves right behind her (out the window because what are doors?) and Sam looks down at the tented crotch of jeans and realizes that this is a reoccurring problem. And certainly not just a Carla kind of problem.
::
Bucky doesn't come back.
Sam finds himself on the other end of the sympathetic looks he used to give Steve whenever Buck would pull his disappearing act.
Carla occasionally asks what happened to his boyfriend and Sam is too upset to correct her assumption. (She always gives him a knowing smile when she does though, and he can't quite figure out how to explain that Bucky might not be the only one that ruined their almost relationship. Because his life was complicated before Steve literally ran in to it, and now that he's got Asgardians on speed dial and Stark revamping his wings ─ there's talk of nanos and he's not entirely sure if that thrills or terrifies him ─ and all manners of fallout from S.H.I.E.L.D. being compromised… Bucky ruining their after dinner humping session might have been a good thing… Also, he's not his boyfriend.)
::
But then days turn into weeks, which turn into a month and Sam finds himself really missing Bucky's stupid face.
::
"Just talk to him," Steve says after awhile, "I'm pretty sure he misses you too."
Sam is pretty sure that he's drunk. And he's even more sure that he's pissed off because this was supposed to be a party and all he's been doing is mopping around drinking the bourbon Steve has no interest in.
"He's avoiding me."
Steve gives him a look that he knows is going to turn into a talk once he sobers up. Sam ignores it, while frowning over at the man in question that's sandwiched between Natasha and Clint on a loveseat that's way too small for all three of them (and looking all manners of put out about it, but Clint and Nat obviously could care less. There's a bottle of vodka being passed between them and Sam finds himself being envious of it─ and wow he really needs to get laid.) He has half a mind to go over there and stir things up, but there's no need to drag anyone else into their uncomfortable situation. Plus he's not entirely sure he'd be able to walk without making an ass of himself.
Steve shakes his head while snatching the almost empty tumbler out of his hand. "You two are hopeless."
Sam almost protests his loss but the frown on Steve's face halts all thought of it. Bruce breezes by, dropping off a glass of iced water with a few slices of cucumber in it and Sam downs half of it in a few gulps, totally knowing that's a Pepper thing (because who else is going to add cucumbers of all things to the filtered water?)
Moments later Jane and Darcy saddle up along with a bottle of prosecco and things get all kinds of fuzzy afterwards and no amount of Captain America's Super Disappointed looks are going to stop him.
::
The next morning he wakes up with a throbbing head and one half of his face cold from sleep drool. He doesn't know how he got home really, but he does know whoever is ringing his doorbell is about to catch a whole world of hurt.
He stumbles to the door, not even looking through the peephole to see who it is, just unlocking everything, cursing the whole while. The doorknob hits the wall with a resounding thud because he opens it up too forcefully.
And there's Bucky, standing there all apologetic and puppy faced.
"Really?" Sam deadpans, because this is the first and only time the metal-armed asshole has used the actually door and he's certainly not in any headspace to hash out their issues.
Bucky holds up a bag. "I got a Wii. You know how to play Mario Kart?"
Sam takes in a deep breath, looks him over and exhales before tilting his head back to let him know he can come in.
::
Bucky attempts to set the system up.
Sam makes coffee.
Bucky curses in Russian under his breath, his hands tangled with cords.
Sam scraps butter on an un-toasted bagel after a shower.
Steve sends a text, and Sam figures out that he might have set the whole thing up. And he's not even mad. Because Bucky trying to apologize without actually apologizing is something he almost wants to Vine.
Sam completely annihilates him or course, because he's pretty sure he's the undefeated champion of Mario Kart (though he hasn't played against Natasha before, so he won't be going around proclaiming that title to the masses any time soon.)
Somewhere between that and a few ibuprofen pills killing off his hangover and a pizza being delivered, he and Buck are all sweaty and lipped locked on his hard ass futon.
And, though Sam isn't quite sure how it all starts, he figures this might be the best sleep over ever.
::
Also, Clara might have been right about the whole boyfriend thing.
(And on another also, it's Maria that holds the MK Champ award ─ and they all find out the hard way.)