hms party bus

@firstelevens was kind enough to tag me and once again it took longer than a week to respond. This is from my singular fic that'll be canon compliant for anything post CA:BNW and if I don't get it done before Doomsday, I will be quite upset with myself

Sam huffed out what might’ve been a laugh, but it was that dry, disbelieving kind that Bucky hated. They kept walking and Bucky’s shoes were getting wetter with each step. He was looking forward to getting into the yard and kicking them off before they even reached the porch.

“You think you can come back here and hide?” Sam asked suddenly, wheeling on Bucky. The porch was so close, Bucky could almost see it. “Weather out the storm down here where no one would be lookin’ at you?”

“What are you talking about?” Bucky asked. “What storm?”

“You, blowing up everything your ‘team’ had going. Dumping all that intel on some hapless Sunday morning pundit. Let them eat each other alive while you come down here to lick wounds you gave yourself, huh?”

“The plan had been to dump intel from the beginning,” Bucky defended. Granted, true, maybe not with some hapless pundit who was paid more to look good on camera than for doing any investigative research. “I think I’ve probably survived worse dumps,” he added bitingly. “I didn’t need to hide away then either.”

“Oh, no,” Sam agreed sarcastically. “You just bounced around holes and cabins for two years. You weren’t hiding from anything or anyone.”

“No one asked you to chase me then.”

“And this time, I don’t have to. You brought all that shit to me.”

Bucky dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. At that moment, so close to the porch, he didn’t want to see anything. Not the spanish moss, not the bright blue sky, not that man he loved, standing in front of him, scowling and angry. “Sam, if I wanted to hide from anyone right now, it would be you. I’m not fucking hiding. I came back because I’m tired and I want to be home.”

“How could it have possibly taken you this long to want it?” Sam asked.

Bucky didn’t drop his hands until he heard Sam walking away again.