#samwilsonfest

“It’s okay, man. I know you haven’t gone public yet and I’m not gonna tell anyone. You guys just have to get enough evidence on the underground illegal weapons business the owners are running for us to bust them. I’m sending the details to your phones now. Thanks!”

“But we-” The line goes dead before Sam can finish. He sighs, rubbing his temple. He can’t deny to himself that something has been brewing for a long time between him and Bucky- at least he thinks so, but it's fragile and they haven’t quite figured it out yet.

“You heard all that?”

Bucky shrugs, looking down at his toast like there’s something fascinating in there. “Yeah, uh, guess we could pretend for a few days.”

“Right, right.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam groans, the incessant ringing of his phone waking him up eventually. 

“Hello?” he mumbles, hitting accept without opening his eyes to check who it is.

“Hey, Cap, nice job yesterday! I think we got what we needed.” Sam opens his eyes to a grinning Rhodey, the call being a video one without him realizing. Rhodey has him mounted up on something as he runs on a treadmill, apparently multitasking his work calls.

Bucky shifts beside Sam just then, making a grumpy noise when he realizes Sam isn’t wrapped around him anymore and scoots closer to press his chest to Sam’s back. 

Rhodey grins at the tuft of black hair and a metal arm that’s visible on the video now. “Ha! I knew it. See, I told you nothing gets past me.”

Sam opens his mouth but his morning brain can’t think of a succinct way to explain “well we weren’t a couple when you sent us on the mission but may have had something between us that apparently spending all our time relaxing and doing romantic shit fully unlocked so now we’re actually a couple because of this damn mission.” 

So he decides to just let it go. “Yeah, yeah, you got us. Bye, Rhodey.” 

Sam can feel the sigh Bucky lets out on his back.  “I hate that he thinks he got us. We should break up just to spite him.”

Sam chuckles and turns so he can face Bucky, pressing a small kiss to his forehead as he shifts closer. “Really?” 

Bucky takes half and Sam grabs the other, settling in for a long afternoon but determined to finally see their dining table again. 

For a while, the sounds of letter openers and rustling paper fill the room, until Bucky snorts.

“What?” Sam tries to peer at the letter in Bucky’s hand.

“Got another secret admirer. This one wants to know how your lips taste.” 

Sam shakes his head, feeling his face grow warm. It’s a strange phenomenon to be desired by people he’s never met. He’s not sure he’ll ever get used to it.

“Should I write back?” Bucky asks, lips quirked up in a smirk. 

He begins narrating, his hand gesturing in the air. “Captain America’s lips taste like [redacted] [redacted] because it’s none of your business. Love, his boyfriend: Bucky Barnes.” 

Sam laughs, grabbing the hand that’s still poised in the air.  “Are you jealous of a random secret admirer, Bucky Barnes?”

“No, I’m just being honest.”

“Uh huh, honesty. Right.”

“Yeah. And in the name of honesty, I think I should get a little taste. Make sure my description is accurate.” Bucky tugs at his hand in Sam’s, pulling him closer.

Sam chuckles, his heart squeezing in his chest even as he rolls his eyes at his boyfriend’s antics. 

“Wouldn’t wanna make a liar out of you,” he murmurs, licking his lips. 

Bucky closes the rest of the distance, lips meeting his in a soft kiss. He deepens it after a moment, tilting his head to lick into Sam’s mouth.

They’re both breathing harder when they part, the mail forgotten. 

“Mm, yeah definitely [redacted] with a hint of [redacted].” 

Shit. He’s gonna have to be late to their date night. Again. And not just any date night.

He pushes the thoughts aside, jumping into action to search the drawer where he usually puts his suit after it's been used recently. It’s not there. He furrows his brow, wondering if he did put it away in his exhausted post-mission state and forgot. But it’s not in the Stark-built storage case inside their closet either. 

“Bucky!” Sam yells out. The other man is still in the shower.

“What?” He hears over the running water.

“Where’s my super suit?”

Apparently Bucky can’t hear him over the running water so he just gets another “what” back.

“WHERE’S MY SUPER SUIT?” He yells out, frantic with his need to get out there and help with whatever is going on. The sound proof windows muffle most of the noise but he can see people running and cars crashing as the robot-looking thing attacks the town. 

Bucky finally hears him and yells back, “I put it away.”

He vaguely remembers a conversation about how they were taking the night off and Bucky threatening to put his suit away so he wouldn’t be tempted to join some fight that the other supers could handle. He didn’t think Bucky had been serious. 

“Where?” Sam asks, growing more frustrated as he turns to see a helicopter catch on fire and hit the ground. Jesus christ. What is going on?

“Why do you need to know?” He hears the water shut off as Bucky finally get out of the shower. Sam hears the edge of annoyance in Bucky’s voice because he’s probably figured out why Sam needs it but is making him say it anyway. He sighs, resolving to make it up to him. Maybe this’ll be quick and he can pick up some flowers on his way to dinner. Maybe.

“I need it.” He lowers his voice, a guilty look on his face as Bucky leaves the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. Bucky crosses his arms, leaning against the wall next to the closet with a frown on his face.

“Sam, please tell me you don’t have to work on the one night we were taking off to have our anniversary dinner. We’ve been planning this for two months.”

“I know, Buck, but the public’s in danger.”

He gets a raised eyebrow in return. “My evening’s in danger.” 

Snarky, okay. Gotta pull out all the tricks. Make that a bouquet of flowers and a blowjob. 

He moves closer, hands held up to show that he comes in peace.

“Please just grab the suit for me? You know it’s for the greater good.” He softens the request with a kiss, pressing his body to Bucky’s against the wall. 

“I thought you said marrying me was the greatest good you were ever gonna get.”

Sam winces. Quoting their wedding vows. Okay this is code red, for sure.

“I’m really sorry, baby but it looks worse than usual out there and I already got two all hands on deck texts from Steve. Think they need my help.”

I’ll make it up to you later,” he adds, kissing down his jaw to his neck. He runs his lips along the spots where beads of water have gathered. Bucky’s breath hitches, his hands coming to hold Sam’s waist.

“Yeah, you will.” Bucky says softly, sighing and pushing at his chest to signal to him to get going.

He goes to the closet in the hallway and comes back with the Super Suit, handing it to Sam. His expression softens. “Hey, be careful out there, okay? Let me know if you can make it and I’ll meet you there.”

“What are you prowling around for?” Rhodey stopped the spoon halfway to his mouth.

“Y/N’s coming over tonight for the first time. I want everything to be perfect” Sam answered and searched through the kitchen cabinets.

“Alright, I wish you all the best. And keep Tony far away from you two. What are you searching for?” Sam was now looking through the wall cupboards as if he’d find anything but tableware. And usually, Sam was the one you could send in to the kitchen blindly and he’d find anything.

“The long, thin candles.”

“They’re not in the kitchen. Why don’t you ask FRIDAY?”

“Right. FRIDAY. I didn’t forget I could ask FRIDAY” Sam seemed to be all at sea.

“Hey, FRIDAY?” Rhodey said into the room.

“Yes?” The AI answered.

“Where are the candles, the white tablecloth and where can Sam get a bouquet of peonies?”

“The cupboard in the hallway leading to the residential quarters on the third floor and the next florist is an hour from here. If you want, I can send a message to Peter and tell him to pick up a bouquet of peonies. He is getting a bouquet of roses for MJ” The AI sounded out.

“Thank you, and please do that” Sam breathed a little easier and straightened up. “Rhodey, I owe you. And Peter.”

Two hours later, Sam had prepared two dishes of salmon, sweet potatoes and beans, waiting under a cover to keep warm and taken the peonies a breathless Peter had given him with a heartfelt thanks.

The elevator dinged and you stepped out. It wasn’t like Sam had never seen you but you at the place where he lived made him feel a certain kind of way. Like the progress and the future of your relationship couldn’t come fast enough.

“For me?” You asked and took the flowers from Sam’s outstretched hands.

“You deserve all the flowers” He said quietly.

“So, you’re Y/N!” Tony grinned, having edged himself around the corner without Sam noticing.

“Hi” You waved your hand.

“You and I are gonna watch one of these trashy movies you always want me to watch now, Tony” Rhodey, who you had once met before when out and about with Sam, said and pulled Tony away.

“You treat her right, Sam” Rhodey looked hard at Sam.

Sam nodded at him, then looked at you. “I made a nice supper for us. Hungry?”

Sam had spent the day entirely with the boys and Sarah was on the boat. That left you alone in the garden and house. Exactly what you wanted. A week ago, you had enlisted Cass’s and AJ’s help distracting Sam, when your package had arrived and Sam just had to poke around to find out what it was.

Now, you were surrounded by packages, each one containing string lights with a warm yellow glow. You laid them out and looked up at the few trees in the garden. Fortunately, you also had gotten sticks to prop up things. Especially string lights.

After several hours, everyone was back home, Sam had put his nephews to bed (Sarah would later tell you he had carried them up, too tired to walk) and Sarah took some time to herself. But not before she basically pushed Sam out to the garden where you were.

“The garden looks like it’s full of fireflies!” Was the first thing Sam said.

“That was the plan” You smiled. “I thought we could use a picnic date close to home. Didn’t wanna go without the atmosphere, though.”

“It’s beautiful” Sam smiled. He stopped, visibly in the middle of his next thought. “Was that what all of you didn’t want me to see that was in that package?”

“Did you put these here?” Bucky pointed at the flowers in one of the conference rooms of the compound.

“Nope. But they’re pretty.” Natasha smelled the bouquet. “You gonna look at the card?”

“No! You’re the spy of us.”

“Anyway, the meeting starts now, so we’ll find out soon?”

“Yeah. Someone definitely will check.”

As if on cue, Sam, Thor and Wanda came in and sat down.

“Someone has an admirer” Thor declared.

“How do you know?” Wanda looked hard at the flowers.

“This bouquet consists of strelitzias, daffodils and greenery.”

“Is there a card? I bet there’s a card” Sam reached out and went still when he looked at it.

“And? Who’s it for?” Bucky looked at Sam, as did everyone else.

“Me” Sam’s eyes went wide as he looked up.

---

A few days after the latest mission, Sam was still on bedrest to make sure there was nothing severe or that wouldn’t make it worse if he went flying again immediately. This morning, while Sam read his latest book, the door opened and Bucky came in, carrying a bouquet of gerbera and sun flowers with some greenery.

“Before you ask, they’re not from me. I got them from the office post man when I mentioned I’d be visiting you.”

“And here I thought you liked me enough to get me flowers” Sam smirked.

“You wish. Maybe next time.”

“Did the post man say anything about who asked him to deliver the flowers?”

“Not to me. But now we know the person getting you flowers also works here.”

“Right. In house delivery.”

---

Two weeks later, Sam came back from a quick snack in the cafeteria to continue working on his small side project, two mechanical birds to gift his nephews on Christmas. Whistling a light tune he went to sit down but stopped in his tracks.

In front of the partly finished first bird, there was a bouquet of flowers in a vase. It was placed in a way even if it tipped over, it wouldn’t damage anything of Sam’s project. Even the mouth of the vase was small and the neck was curved enough to only let the smallest amount of water out.

The bouquet consisted of pink roses, verbena and clematis.

He went to the woman on the next work station, who worked on some contraption.

“Sorry, do you know who put these flowers on my table?”

She smiled up at him. “Yeah, I do. I also promised her not to tell you who she is when you’d ask.”

“So, it’s a she. And she works here…” Sam mumbled, thanked the woman and went back to work on the present.

---

In the next two weeks, no flowers turned up anywhere for Sam. It hit him harder than he thought it would, which became especially clear to him when he told Rhodey and Thor about that in the cafeteria.

“And I can’t even get a message to her, since I don’t know how to reach her” Sam lamented and hung his head.

In this position, he only saw Y/N from her shoulders down when she went to the cafeteria exit. He hadn’t exactly met her but knew her voice and appreciated her help on missions. When there were extra drones and cameras to control, she was the woman behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly.

“She’s back in office?” Rhodey wondered.

“Lady Y/N just came back this morning from a family emergency I could hear” Thor nodded.

“Did you hear what it was?” Sam wanted to know.

Thor shock his head.

---

A day later there was a bouquet of white orchids, mimosas and malvas. As was each time, there was a card in the middle of the flowers. Only this time, Sam was surprised to see there was more written on the card than just his name.

“I’m sorry you had to go this long without flowers. I had to take care of some things out of town.”

For the rest of the day, he pored over who it could be who sent him flowers. He knew they were female, worked in the same building as he and had needed to be out of town in very recent times. Unfortunately, that didn’t narrow it down as much as one might think. Way too many people had to take some kind of leave, some more expected than others and with the multitude of reasons he had heard through gossip it didn’t help.

---

One week later, early in the morning Sam went to his desk to catch up on paperwork. He had procrastinated that long enough for one of the administrators and the male main archivist to bug him repeatedly. He sat down and focused on the computer screen.

Then he saw the, truthfully, huge bouquet next to the screen placed behind the pictures of his parents and of Sarah and his nephews, with the tips of the greenery of the bouquet hanging just slightly over the frames, forming a canopy of sorts.

The bouquet consisted of camellias, lotus, ranunculus, asters, chrysanthemums and cornflowers. There also was a card on the middle of it. Sam opened it and read.

When you’re done for the day, meet me on the lobby?

Sam smiled to himself. With an effort, he went to work on the reports to distract him from the thoughts of who could be waiting for him in the lobby.

At five o clock sharp, he jumped from his desk, quickly freshened up and taped his foot impatiently in the elevator.

‘I should’ve taken the stairs’ He thought to himself.

In the lobby, he didn’t know what or who he was looking for. He ignored the men but of course that didn’t narrow it down. On his second sweep of the room, he saw one person holding a bouquet. A bouquet of sow bread, sneezeweed, magnolias, plumbago and greenery. Y/N.

“Uhm… Y/N?” He asked.

“Sam! Hi!” You smiled and thrust the flowers at him. “These are for you.”

“For me? So, you’re the person who sent me flowers during the last months?”

“Yep. I thought you deserved some flowers, too for a change.”

“Am I right when I think you wanna take me out on a date?”

“Only if you want it to be a date!” You hurriedly said.

Sam simply nodded.

The sun was shining, just as the weather forecast had said. You and Sam walked hand in hand slowly down to the beach with a small picnic basket you found in your holiday home in Sam’s hand. The breeze ruffled your dress and Sam’s light linen shirt.

You looked for an even patch of sand and, finding one, spread out everything for your early lunch with a perfect view of gently lapping waves. Sam pulled you to him. Pieces of fruit found their way into your mouth and his.You stole kisses from Sam, especially if he just had a piece of strawberry. Sam stole kisses from you, especially if you just had a piece of peach.

After some time, Sam stood up to get a running start into the water. Literally. He couldn’t wait one more second and decided to get a minimum of work out into his day by running about twenty steps on the beach and some more to get into deeper water to submerge himself up to his neck.

“Good?” You called out.

“Perfect temperature!” Sam grinned when he jogged up to you. “How about I’ll get you out there?”

You nodded and Sam swooped you up bridal style and slowly jogged to the water and waded in. You wondered why he didn’t do anything more. Until he softly threw you into the water that quickly became deeper.

The cold water.

Very cold.

“Sam!” You shrieked when you came up again. “You said it was perfect!”

He smiled adoringly at you, entirely wet and hair plastered to your face.

“Perfect to want to move.”

You went over to him, trying to suppress a smile but failing.

“So, you wanna move?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s move” You whispered and kissed him.

Suddenly thunder rumbled and you quickly pulled Sam out of the water.

“Why does he have to visit now? Here?” You grumbled.