Let the sunlight warm your heart ||SamBucky au||

First degree of warmth

Bucky cherishes these long, peaceful naps he takes in the afternoon cuddling his cat, Alpine. All afternoon he can venture in the world of sweet dreams, and right before sunset, soft rays of sunlight caresses him through the window, eventually waking him up from his slumber.

Today it turns out to be a bit different. Instead of the dimmed sunshine, someone's knocks on his front door wakes him up. Bucky has always been a light sleeper, so right after the third knock he wakes up, trying to adjust his eyes to the bright light pouring in his room. He looks at his side table and checks the time on the table clock, 5:16 pm. Rubbing his eyes while yawning softly, he gets up to open the door, desperately trying to remember if he invited anyone of his very few friends over.

Bucky ends up opening the door right before the person on the other side of door was going to knock again. Instantly he is surrounded by delicious aroma of sweet treats like muffins and donuts. A man beams at him, his smile reaching his soft brown eyes. Maybe he figures out that Bucky was sleeping and starts rambling out apologies, his voice deep like the depth of an ocean, soft like fluffy clouds in clear blue sky during autumn.

"Hi, I'm Sam, Sam Wilson. I just moved in next door today. Um... brought some sweets from my bakery for you, meeting and greeting my new neighbor and all. Uhm... I'm sorry if I woke you up though, you look sleepy."

Bucky's brain goes through a bunch of short circuits, because obviously the new guy whom he was spying on just a few hours ago has to be hotter than the Sun, polite, friendly and observant.

'Oh no...what if he saw me watching him hiding behind my window?!'

"Oh no no, it's alright! I was just about to wake up anyway!" Comes Bucky's reply, a little too enthusiastic, making him want to crawl back into the farthest room of his house. Well, most people would be flustered as a ripe tomato if they woke up to discover what a handsome gentleman their neighbor is.

"Uhm... I'm Bucky, Bucky Barnes. My first name is James though, I just like being called Bucky." He almost bites on his tongue too hard trying to contain himself.

'Be cool and do not rant about your name!'

"That's a cool name, dude." Sam simply states and passes the box he was holding to Bucky.

"Here's some treats from my shop, hope you'll like these."

"Oohh thank you, come in please, I'm so sorry for making you stand here for so long!" Bucky splutters and moves away to let Sam in. He glances down at the box Sam gave him, his eyes widening seeing the labels on the box.

"Wow, you work in 'Sam's Kitch'- wait- it's your restaurant!?

"Yeah, my very own bakery slash restaurant. Opened it months ago and used to drive here from my old house everyday. Recently I was able to buy a house here, so I moved in." Sam explains with a hint of pride in his voice, while taking a seat on the couch in Bucky's living room.

"Woah, your drawing room's great! I mean all these paintings and decorations really makes the room beautiful!" Sam gushes looking around after Bucky comes back with cutleries to serve the sweet delicacies his neighbor brought.

"Thanks a lot, actually... I'm an artist...and I painted all these myself." Bucky informs shyly, his face blushing a pretty pink.

"That's amazing! I'm not really good at art but love seeing artworks and you know...admire the effort and time you artists put in those." And Sam's genuine smile cannot make Bucky preen even more than he is currently. He bites on a donut looking down, trying to hide his obvious blush. Bucky's art business is pretty big, always earning praise from all sorts of platforms, selling his works at quite decent prices. But hearing praises from people around him has always been his weakness, maybe because someone so close to him used to belittle his passion for years.

"Thank you for bringing these treats, I always order from your shop, you have great recipes." Bucky gives Sam a toothy grin, and gets one back.

"Wait... So you're that Bucky Barnes who always orders from my shop and gives my delivery guys huge tips! They are all literally in love with you, man! Also because you're very nice with them, that too. But why don't you come to the restaurant? I've never really seen you there..."

"Um... actually... I don't really like big crowds and stuff. I mean... restaurants don't exactly have 'crowds' but my friend told me about your shop first and she said it's always packed...Soo... I just order from home." Bucky tries to explain sheepishly, hoping Sam won't push it anymore trying to figure out why he doesn't like going out among a significant number of people.

"Oh that's perfectly fine, but if you ever wanna come, tell me, yeah? I'll let you know whenever there won't be much people around." Sam offers, making Bucky let out a relieved sigh and a thank you.

By the time Sam leaves (not before exchanging their phone numbers), Bucky feels like he is floating over the clouds as he was able to hold a conversation with a new (and smoking hot) guy so well.

And that guy also happens to be sweeter than his muffins.

'It's been only one meeting, don't get your hopes up.' Bucky tells himself.

But he cannot stop thinking about Sam, his affectionate eyes and lively smiles. He wasn't exactly hoping for anything, he thought about the woman he saw before with Sam. But he told Bucky that she's actually his sister, came over his new place to help him get settled as quickly as possible. Praised his sister so much but asked Bucky to never tell her that if he ever met her.

"Sarah is so committed to end my 'status of being single', tries to set me up with any guy she thinks would be fit for me. So if you ever meet her, which might happen soon cause she'll be here again this week, don't let her spook you with that stuff." Sam had said with a hint in his voice, as if he knows about Bucky's preference in men. And Bucky loved how forward and comfortable Sam was with letting him know about his own choice. Felt quite giddy even.

So that settles a lot of stuff. And it's not like Bucky didn't notice how Sam looked at him.

'But it was just one meeting!'

Maybe it can turn into something more.

"Don't give up hope, hun. Take your time now, but you'll find someone perfect for you, and when you do, you will feel it right away. So don't push them away, please." His mother had told him few days after he finally caught his shitty boyfriend of two years cheating on him, broke up with him for good and promised himself to never let his heart get broken again.

But maybe it's time to get rid of the emotional turmoil that piece of crap put him through within two years. He broke all of Bucky's points of strength and comfort Bucky had built by that time, fighting through all odds.

Maybe it's time time to find comfort again.

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Hope this chapter is good!

I know some things might seem a bit out of place and a little to rushed right now but I'll explain it all in next chapters :)

Please give me your feedbacks!

Take care, stay safe!