i know nothing about camping and my friends just left me... i’m o sure u haven’t done this one before
I know nothing about camping and all my friends left me at the site. Please, help me, I think I just heard a bear
“Go get the water, Steve. Not all of us are genetically-engineered super soldiers, Steve,” Steve mutters as he hauls a large jug of water through some godforsaken forest somewhere in upstate New York. It’s not that the jug is that heavy or that Steve can’t handle it. He’s just irritated to be here at all.
It was Sam’s idea to go camping in the first place, saying something about going away for the weekend reliving Steve’s stress. First of all, Steve isn’t that stressed. Second of all, the only thing that is apt to make him more stressed is to take him out of his natural environment (New York) and plop him into the middle of the forest when the only experiences he’s had hanging out in forests mostly consist of killing Nazis.
And so he’s feeling a bit irritated as he lugs load after load of stuff to the campsite.
Except, he’s been walking around for a while now. Probably longer than he should be.
He pauses, setting the jug down and frowning. Did he make a wrong turn somewhere? It’s not like things are well-marked and he hasn’t been paying that much attention to his surroundings, focusing instead on his own irritation.
Huh.
Not much that of a problem, though. He’s a master tactician, the best soldier of the century, he—
Steve hears something like a roar coming from the woods. He runs.
He’s probably half a mile away when he realizes that he left the jugs. He does not care.
It’s not long after the realization that he finds a tent. “Help!” he yells, skidding to a stop near the tent. He sees a fire and a guy sitting next to it in a flannel shirt and knit hat.
“Um, hi?” the guy says, looking at Steve with wide eyes. He’s holding a red thermos and there’s a paperback book on the ground next to him. “You okay?” he asks.
“Bear,” Steve says.
There’s a beat.
“Yeah?” he asks.
“There’s a bear here. In the woods.” He gestures behind him. “About half a mile away.”
“Uh, okay,” he says. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Steve asks. “Pack up? Run?”
“No,” the guy says, raising an eyebrow. “Wait, I can…” He pauses, stands up. He walks over to his tent and grabs something inside. Steve realizes that it’s a bell just as he starts shaking it, making it jingle. “Happy?” he asks a moment later with a smile. It’s not sarcastic. It’s genuine.
“Bells?” Steve asks.
The guy frowns. “You don’t have bear bells?” he asks. Steve shakes his head. “Oh, here,” he says, handing the bells to Steve.
“I can’t take these. They’re your protection,” he says.
“I can just borrow my friends’,” the guy says. “We’re out here all the time. We have more than enough, plus bear spray. Not that the bears really bother you, especially if you’re making noise. Just don’t leave food out.”
“They leave you alone?”
“For the most part. Just don’t get between a mama and her cubs,” he says. “Have you ever been camping?” he asks.
“Not really,” Steve admits.
“Huh,” he says. “Are you out here alone?”
“I lost my friend,” Steve says with a frown.
“Oh, want to go find him?” the guy asks.
On the one hand, Steve knows that he should be able to get back to Sam on his own. On the other, talking with this calm dude has been the most relaxed he’s been since coming to this forest.
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Steve says.
“Sure thing. I’m Bucky, by the way.”
“Steve,” Steve says.
Bucky pauses, looks up at Steve, squints his eyes, then looks back down his body at his feet. And here it comes, the recognition that Steve’s come to expect from strangers.
“Steve, don’t flip out, but I think you may’ve stepped in bear shit,” he says.
Steve looks down at his boots and sniffs the air.
It’s certainly not mud he’s stepped in.
“I should’ve never left the city,” Steve moans.
Standing up, Bucky smiles. He gives Steve a bit of a pat on the back. “That’s what I said the first time I went camping. But I got used to it. You’ll get used to it, too.”
And he thinks maybe he could if he had someone like Bucky to get used to it with.
(A few miles away Sam Wilson feels pissed off, though he’s not sure why.)
