"Gently, man!" Sam practically shouted as Bucky nearly pushed his entire hand through the poster they were using for the reception seating chart. "You're gonna rip it."

"Sorry, geez," Bucky said as he stepped back, holding his arms up in surrender.

It wasn't like it was even that Bucky and Sarah were having that big of a wedding or reception. Fifty people, tops. Everything was taking place in the backyard of Sarah's house. (Sarah and his house, Bucky had to keep reminding himself. He had officially moved in the month before, though he was keeping the Brooklyn apartment for somewhere to stay when he had to be in NYC for official Avengers business or when he came up to visit his sister at her nursing home.)

While Sarah was in charge of booking the catering, DJ, and flowers, she told Bucky and Sam that they needed to rent the tent and deal with seating for both the wedding and reception. Bucky figured it would be easy since Sam knew all the people his sister wanted to invite, but Sam made it sound like it was a make or break Big Deal if you put the wrong people at a table together.

"How did you only invite eight people?" Sam asked as he consulted the list of attendees for the umpteenth time.

"I invited a couple more," Bucky said as he yanked the list from Sam's hands, "but Thor's off-world. And Bruce is doing some lecture overseas that weekend. Plus, I figured Louisiana is really out of the way for everyone."

"So, ten people. You invited ten people. Total. To your wedding," Sam clarified.

"Yes," Bucky said. "And eight are coming, which is still more than I wanted to invite, but Sarah thought it would look really bad if you were the only person who was there for me. She thinks people think I have no friends."

Sam got up from the kitchen table and went to the fridge, grabbing a pitcher of lemonade. Wordlessly, Bucky stood and pulled two glasses from a cupboard, then returned to his seat, putting the glasses in front of Sam, as this had become a routine for them sometime over the past year whenever they were working on something together in the kitchen. Sam poured drinks and set the pitcher on a coaster within reach.

"People do like you, you know," Sam said after taking a huge gulp of his drink. "And they would show up for you."

Bucky shrugged. "I kinda feel like the friend by default. Like… people are only nice to me because Steve stuck up for me all those years. And now that he's gone, they still have to be nice to me just because they want to, I dunno, honor his legacy or whatever."

"That is bullshit, Buck, and you know it," Sam scoffed. "I see Ayo, Shuri, and Ramonda made your shortlist and they all RSVPed yes. You got Wakandan royalty coming to your backyard wedding, pal. They didn't know Steve. They dealt with your brainwashed behind and y'all came out the other side being tighter than your tiny shirts." Sam laughed to himself. "You know, it actually makes sense now."

A crease settled itself across Bucky's forehead as he furrowed his brow. "What makes sense now?"

Sam chuckled. "Why you fit in so well here." Bucky still had no idea what Sam was talking about. "Where were you when you finally started feeling like yourself again?"

"Wakanda?" Bucky said, looking at Sam like he was nuts. "So?"

"And you didn't notice any similarities between your Wakanda family and my family?" Sam asked, gesturing a hand widely toward the rest of the house.

"Are you trying to tell me you're royalty too?" Bucky joked, finally picking up on what Sam was insinuating. "I'm not buying that. Sarah gave me the whole rundown of your family tree. Did you know I was born before both of your grandfathers?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Oh my god, you're going to make me say it out loud, aren't you?"

Bucky cracked a smile. "Say what? That I inserted myself into your family because you're Black and my so-called cyborg subconscious is trying to cling to its Wakandan safety net however it can?"

"You're words not mine, Mr. Robot."

"Sam," Bucky said as he grabbed his future brother-in-law's chair and dragged it so they were uncomfortably close and face-to-face. "I love your sister. I love her kids. Hell, I even love you sometimes. But if you think the biggest reason I love every Wilson in this house is the color of their skin, you're a bigger idiot than you look."

The two men glared at each other for a while.

"You love me?" Sam asked.

"I said, 'sometimes,'" Bucky replied. "Right now is not one of those times."