A/N: Sorry for the long wait everyone! I got my wisdom teeth out and then I got sick, but I'm better and hoping that I'll be able to get back onto a proper writing schedule again shortly. (Also, I changed the summary because I like this new one better).
Listening to: "Good Kid M.A.A.D. City," Full Deluxe Album by Kendrick Lamar.
July 1st, 2014
"Are you ready for our island tour, Mr. SquarePants?" Sam says to Steve enthusiastically.
Steve grins widely. "Aye aye, Captain!"
"I can't hear you!"
"Aye aye, Captain!"
"Oh," Sam sings, extending the word in a deeper tone.
Natasha slaps her hands over her ears and lets out an exaggerated wail that is barely audible over Steve and Sam's combined off key singing. "Ah! My ear drums are bleeding!"
"What?" Bucky says as he settles into the driver's seat of his sister's car.
"I said: my ear drums are bleeding," Natasha says, carefully emphasizing her words.
"Speak up, I can't hear you," Bucky responds.
Steve and Sam finish singing and burst into laughter while Natasha sighs relieved.
Bucky slowly backs his sister's car out of the space and pulls out of the hotel's parking lot. He clicks on the turn signal and turns left onto Maddox Boulevard before clearing his throat. "Good morning everyone, and welcome to your very own exclusive tour of Chincoteague Island!"
"What the hell kind of voice is that?" Natasha asks, sounding amused.
"I call it my overly chipper tour guide voice," Bucky says with a grin. He shakes his head before continuing in his normal tone. "Right next to your hotel on the left is Mr. Whippy's, which has ice cream so fantastic it'll make you cream your pants in the middle of the store. Ironically, next to that is the Island Creamery, which has incredible brownies—my sister is in love with them."
Bucky pauses at a red light and points straight ahead. "Further down the road is Famous Pizza, Shore Bank, Refuge Golf, Chincoteague Museum, Subway, the library, Memorial Park, which isn't on this road but they have a playground and an area where you can walk along the water and fish."
The light changes and Bucky continues down the road. "There's also a Nature Trail, AJ's—it's a little pricey, but the food is amazing. A few blocks from AJ's, there's a McDonald's, Family Dollar—"
"Captain Steve's Bait and Tackle," Natasha says, sounding highly amused as they pass by the store. "Steve, why didn't you tell us that you were running your own business? Were you afraid that Sam and I were going to find it . . . fishy?"
"It's begun," Steve says, slightly horrified. Natasha is infamous for her terrible puns and if Steve is completely honest, he's surprised that she hasn't started this sooner.
"Aw, where's your sense of humor, Rogers? I don't make these jokes just for the halibut," she says.
Steve frowns and continues frowning long after Natasha falls silent, not trusting the little half smirk that he can see her displaying in Bucky's side mirror. His attention is diverted however when he feels a slight pressure against his left pinkie. Steve suppresses a flinch and looks at his hand from the corner of his eye, seeing Bucky's pinky brushing against his. After a few moments of internal debate, Steve decides to take a leap of faith and takes Bucky's hand within his own, curling their fingers together as the heat from Bucky's skin warms him to his core.
Steve feels Natasha nudge the back of his seat with her foot, picturing the teasing look on her face and he elects to ignore in her favor of savoring Bucky's small, satisfied smile as he gives Steve's hand a tiny squeeze.
"So now that we've seen all the sights, at least on Maddox Boulevard anyway, can we go to Sonic? I really want a milkshake," Natasha says, sounding slightly impatient. She's been talking about going to Sonic for the past month and was pissed when Sam didn't stop on the way down.
"Of course," Bucky says before making a U-turn at the next light.
"What the fuck? NASA's down here?" Sam exclaims surprised as they come to a stop at a red light with the NASA building on their right and a gas station to their left.
Bucky hums. "Yeah, that's the Wallops Island flight facility. I'm surprised you guys didn't see it on the way down."
"Steve and I saw it," Nat says with a shrug. "Sam, you must have been too focused on driving."
"And singing along to the Spice Girls," Steve says, with a shake of his head.
Sam hums. "From your tone, it sounds like you need to spice up your life."
Steve and Bucky groan simultaneously. Natasha grins, looking extremely proud of her boyfriend.
"Alright—most embarrassing moment, go!" Sam says before taking a large bite of his Bacon Double Cheeseburger.
They're currently at Sonic for lunch and the restaurant is surprisingly empty for a Tuesday at lunchtime so it didn't take long for them to order their food (Bucky paid for Steve, which is something that both surprised and flattered him) and grab a nearby table. They dug into their meals when they arrived as they continue swapping various stories from their past that range from Bucky telling of how his sister, Anne, once held him down and farted on him to Natasha telling of how Clint ruined their high school graduation when he tripped on stage and accidentally tore off the Principal's toupee.
"Okay, uh," Bucky begins, chewing on his lower lip in thought for a few moments before his eyes widen. "I've got it."
Natasha raises a curious eyebrow at Bucky's gleeful expression. "Do tell," she says with a slight smirk on her lips.
"Alright, it's not my most embarrassing moment, but it is for my sister, Kira," Bucky says with a grin. "When I was a sophomore in high school, Kira was a senior, and by this point I was so tired of getting the shit kicked out of me that I just had to something. So, I got some of my teammates together and we spray painted her car bright pink, which is her least favorite color, shifted everything in her room five inches to the left, and even hired a mariachi band to follow her around the school for an entire day."
Sam laughs. "Genius!"
"I know?" Bucky says with a laugh before shoving another piece of Jumbo Popcorn Chicken into his mouth. "Okay, who's next?"
Sam grins widely. "Brace yourselves, for I am about to tell the greatest story of all time."
"Oh no," Steve groans dreadfully, knowing exactly which story Sam wants to tell.
"Oh yes," Sam says grinning. "I love telling the story of how we first met."
"More than you should," Steve grumbles into his Oreo Milkshake while Sam clears his throat.
"Alright, here's the lowdown," Sam begins with a dramatic flair. "It was freshman orientation at NYU. I was sitting on the bleachers in the gym minding my own business when suddenly, Bozo the Wonder Clown here trips over his own damn feet and drops a steaming hot plate of nachos directly into my lap. I couldn't feel the old boy for a week."
"Shit," Bucky says, biting down hard on his lower lip in an attempt to mask his wide grin.
"I apologized," Steve says defensively.
"And I had to pee sitting down," Sam says with a slight frown. "He shakes his head before continuing, "Anyway, so Steve is apologizing like sorry is the only word he knows while Peggy was looking embarrassed and the person behind me was busting their gut laughing. I turn around and tell them to fuck off. They looked me dead in the eye and told me to make them."
"And we've been together ever since," Natasha says proudly, slapping the table with her hand emphasis.
"Steve, that's awful," Bucky says, trying to come off as sympathetic, but instead looking like he wants to bust a nut laughing.
"Oh you think that's bad?" Natasha says with a raised eyebrow. "Wait until you hear this."
"Nat, are you about to say what I think you're going to say?" Sam asks warily.
Natasha grins. "About five or six months ago, I was making Sam fix the lights in the hall bathroom because they kept flickering and giving me a headache. He goes into the bathroom with his toolbox—the red one I got him for Christmas—and starts working. Now, while Sam is tall, he wasn't quite able to reach the lights so he stood on the toilet without putting the lid down first. As you can imagine, he slips, screams, and I run in to find him with his right foot caught in the toilet."
"She pointed and laughed at me for twenty minutes straight," Sam says with a frown.
"I took pictures," Nat says with a mischievous smirk. "Wanna see?"
"Give 'em here," Steve says, taking the device from Natasha when she hands it to him. He and Bucky slowly scroll through the pictures, which all display Sam in various stages of distress while his foot is stuck in the toilet. Towards the end of the photos, it shows Natasha moving closer as though she's going to help Sam, but instead she flushes and continues taking photos while Sam is desperately trying to get his foot out.
Steve breathes heavily through his nose in an attempt to hold back his laughter. He turns to see if Bucky is doing the same when he realizes how close their faces are. Steve's heartbeat increases when Bucky looks up at him, blue eyes twinkling and smile threating to overtake his face.
"Sam, you fucked up so bad," Steve says as he turns away from Bucky and hands Natasha back her phone. "Why have I never heard this story before?"
"Because I swore Natasha to secrecy," Sam says as he throws a glare in Natasha's direction before looking back to Steve. "It wasn't exactly my proudest moment."
"Aw," Natasha says, pocketing her phone and curling her arm around Sam's waist. "It'll be alright—you'll get your dignity back one day." She pauses and her eyes widen before a sly grin crawls across her face. "Speaking of dignity, Sam, you remember that one time when you—"
Sam hurriedly places his hand over Natasha's mouth before she could finish her sentence, apparently knowing exactly what she was going to say next. After a few seconds, Sam quickly pulls his hand away and wipes it on his jeans while Natasha laughs.
When Steve and Bucky give them both confused looks, Natasha says, "I licked his hand."
"Ugh—that was disgusting," Sam says, still looking disturbed. "Why did your tongue feel so weird?"
Natasha furrows her brow. "That's odd. Because you never say that when—"
"Please stop talking," Sam says slightly desperate, while Steve and Bucky wear matching expressions of horror, knowing exactly what Natasha is implying.
Natasha, unfazed, simply looks between the three men with a wide smile on her face.
A/N: While Dinah's Diner is a fictional place, all the other stores and restaurants I mentioned are real and located on the island.
