A/N: yay, second one shot! I wrote this on my phone so sorry if there are any errors Anyway, enjoy X
"Oh come on freezer boys, lighten up!" Tony whined childishly "It was just a prank, don't tell me you've never pulled a prank!" Steve deadpanned as he towelled the icy water from his hair and passed another towel to Bucky so that he could do the same.
"Of course we've pulled pranks" Steve muttered dejectedly.
"We've just never put a fuckin' bucket of ice and water on a door and waited for someone to walk through it," Bucky snapped, "Pranks are meant to be funny." Tony shrugged apologetically but a smug grin graced his face as he backed out of the room, slipping in the last word as he always must (much to Bucky's agitation),
"Alright, grandpas, well I have stuff to do- enjoy your April fools day."
Bucky huffed and slumped onto the sofa in the Avengers' lounge. He folded his towel and laid it over the back of the sofa, Steve quickly following suit. Whilst Steve busied himself fetching his sketchbook and pencils from one-off the cupboards in the room Bucky couldn't help mulling over how long it had been since he and Steve had had any kind of fun like pranking people. And, considering the noticeable lack of memories around the subject he deduced that it definitely hadn't happened in the years since he'd been rescued from Hydra and rehabilitated. Just as Steve settled down Bucky shot up from the sofa. The captain looked up in mild surprise at the sudden action; he was briefly worried he'd done something to set Buck off but he caught the mischievous glint in his friends eyes and he couldn't help his curiosity from blooming.
"Whatcha thinking Buck?" He asked in false suspicion. Bucky smirked and began to explain his idea.
The two soldiers strolled casually into the building, keeping their caps low over their faces and tugging their long coats together to make sure nobody saw their unusual attire underneath. Steve lead the way down the hallway of the museum, heading towards a particular set of exhibits. The smithsonian was teeming with people and Bucky could feel his excitement mount as he tried to resist a gleeful grin.
Eventually, the crowd around the exhibit naturally dissipated, but both Bucky and Steve knew their window was small. They got to work quickly- they both hoisted up the wax versions of themselves that were posed in front of their respective displays and hurriedly stuffed them into the nearby janitors closet along with their long-coats and baseball caps.
Bucky took a moment to briefly comb his hair back into his old 40's style and found himself glad that he'd finally cut his hair shorter again last month because it meant this prank would definitely work. Buck tugged at the lapels of his oddly comforting blue jacket from back in the day and sputtered a laugh when Steve pulled on the old show helmet they had found in the S.H.I.E.L.D archives.
"Shuddup, jerk," Steve muttered through his smirk.
"Aha, sorry punk- but I forgot how amusing the little wings are," Bucky retaliated as he composed himself, "Are you ready?"
"I am, are you?" Buck nodded and easily slipped into a blank expression that matched the one his wax counterpart had. He credited at least one thing to being the winter soldier and that was his ability to simply sweep any and all emotion off of his face whenever he so chooses. He watched Steve struggle a bit more to neutralise his features before climbing up onto the platform where his statue was meant to reside. Bucky did the same, mimicking the pose that his own wax model was permanently holding.
Between them Bucky and Steve had so far scared two middle-aged women (who were very thoroughly amused after the initial shock of wax statues coming to life), a group of kids (all of which had run off laughing) and quite a number of couples who had been idly wandering around the museum. Bucky was having a a great time and he was occasionally able to communicate this to Steve through his earpiece. He was just about to crack another joke when a pair of unassuming visitors approached and he swiftly froze again, inwardly smirking as he prepared to make them jump.
The pair approached the 'James Buchanan Barnes' exhibit and one of them squealed in excitement. Her (h/l), (h/c) hair streamed out behind her as she sprinted towards the display. Her friend laughed kindly as she finally caught up to where she was standing and gazing in awe at all of the 'Bucky' Barnes-related-information and images.
"Honestly, (Y/N), you have an obsession!" She cast a short, critical gaze over the exhibit- still chuckling lightly "What is it about this Barnes character that you like so much?" Bucky barely contained his shock- no one was ever that excited to see him, Steve maybe, but not him-not the ex Winter Soldier. And yet this young woman was stood in front of him, doe-like eyes staring up at his face with the utmost admiration.
Then she sighed dreamily and Buck swore his heart leapt a little in his chest.
"I don't know Laura, I just- he's just so... Amazing," she stepped closer still, her toes touching the edge of the statue platform, "Like, he's so awe inspiring and I've always admired him. And you know that since I did my research and presentation on him for my history degree that I've been basically in love with him!" (Y/N) laughed. Laura just shook her head and grinned,
"Yeah, yeah I know that. But what is it about him that makes him," she paused and put on a ridiculous, wide eyed mooning imitation before drawling, "amaaazing..." Laura clasped her hands together by her face and lent on them as the final piece of her impersonation before she broke into a short giggling fit. (Y/N) rolled her eyes and tutted but she smiled brightly all the same and elaborated- always happy to highlight the many fantastic attributes of James 'Bucky' Barnes.
"Well if you must know, I think he's an incredibly strong and good willed man, he's been through so much shit and yet, he still managed to come back from it! Plus, while I was doing my research I found out that it took almost a decade for Hydra to finally force him into Winter soldier mode and clearly even then they couldn't sustain it!" (Y/N) paused for breath and jumped straight back into her spiel, "Then there's the fact that even after all of that he managed to bring himself into a better place and started to help the world (which by that point he owed shit-all to) and joined the avengers!" Laura face palmed: she was so used to these Barnes-themed rants by now that she knew to just allow them to run their course.
"I mean, also there's something about the metal arm- it just does it for me you know?" (Y/N) added as an after-thought, her face momentarily very serious before both of them started giggling like school girls.
When they calmed down (Y/N) turned back to the wax figure and her expression softened yet again. She reached out and gently unfolded the hem of the jacket where it had gotten tucked underneath itself. Bucky had to focus all of his strength on not shivering at the almost-contact from the beautiful and caring woman. When she ran her hand up his torso in an attempt to smooth out the creases on the blue jacket he had to suppress the urge to groan. Finally, she brought her hand up to hover over his face and Bucky could feel the warmth radiating from her palm.
"It's such a realistic model," (Y/N) commented to Laura. Laura laughed,
"Maybe we can ask the staff who made it and you could buy one for yourself!"
Bucky saw his chance and he took it:
"Why buy a model when you can have the real thing doll?" (Y/N) yelped loudly and leapt 6 feet in the air as what she had thought was a statue apparently came to life.
Bucky began to laugh heartily and the two girls, slowly calming their racing hearts, whipped their heads around when they heard another deep laugh from the exhibit next to Bucky's. Laura gasped,
"Are- is that- is Captain America here too?!" She stumbled over her words in her anticipation and at Bucky's confirmation that he was indeed stood on the next platform along she sprinted off to see the muscle-bound America man. Bucky turned to (Y/N) with an amused grin on his face, which only grew when he saw her awestruck expression.
"Do you not want to go and meet Captain America too?" He queried, rubbing the back of his neck almost nervously. (Y/N) shook her head slowly, still dazed by the appearance of her favourite soldier. She quickly realised she was standing slack jawed and wide eyed however and sharply snapped her mouth shut, blinking away the shock as much as possible.
"Um, n-no thanks," she her excitement peaked again as she realised she wasn't in fact dreaming, "I um, I think you know that I'd rather stay here..." You chuckled. Bucky grinned boyishly and reached for her with his flesh hand, placing it lightly on her hip and bringing her a bit closer.
"That's a shame cause I'd kind of hoped you might want to go some where with me," he smiled, "but, if you want to stand in front of some old geezer's exhibit all day I'll leave you to it." He winked cheekily and (Y/N) would have melted there and then had he not had hold of her.
"Uh, well I guess I could always look at wax models of dinosaurs at another time." She jested with a smirk and wink of her own.
"Oi! Careful doll, you can't go around insulting veterans." Bucky admonished lightly. He let go of her hip and reached into his pocket, pulling out a phone and handing it to her,
"Um, sweetheart, you seem like a swell gal and if ya wouldn't be too offended by it I'd love to gettcha number..." His Brooklyn accent strengthened in his nervousness and (Y/N) almost swooned at the sound of his voice.
"Sure, promise to call though yeah?" She laughed "I know you're busy but I don't want my hopes and dreams shattered." Bucky gasped at the notion,
"Doll, I'd never! I'd like to be in all of your accomplished dreams and desires from this point on." He saluted with a flash of silver muscle and (Y/N) smirked slyly as the shining metal appendage caught her eye. She leant in to the soldier, wrapping her arm around him to slip his phone back into his back pocket and his breathing became just slightly more laboured at the close proximity. (Y/N) rose into her tiptoes and whispered into his ear,
"I should hope so, after all, you are a part of all my dreams..." She paused to run her delicate hand up the cool metal of his left arm, "...and desires." She pecked him lightly on the cheek and Bucky leaned into the brief yet blissful contact.
(Y/N) backed up slowly, trailing her hand back down his arm as she did so and when she was several steps away winked and sauntered away with a:
"Call me, I'll be sure to pick up"
Bucky was left awestruck in front of his exhibit until Steve came to get him five minutes later.
"I hear you have a date Buck." He stated proudly.
"Well not officially yet, but it looks promising." Bucky couldn't contain the gleeful grin at the thought of dating (Y/N) and almost missed Steve's next musing,
"Can't wait to tell Tony, not only did we do a pretty great prank, but you got date!"
Bucky just smiled down at his phone as he read your number again, anticipating something great in the near future.