I Don't Need New Friends

13. No Time For Love Dr. Jones

"I don't know what Sam was so worried about, these guys are nothing like the real thing..." Bucky shook his head as they put the third movie on. "...plus, the tesseract was an
actual fucking intergalactic object, not like those dumb glowing rocks..."

"Sorry the filmmakers didn't consult you, Sergeant Barnes?" Zoe teased. "No, wait, did they?!" Zoe jumped up and grabbed his right arm. "Holy fuckballs, did Spielberg get some of this shit from you?!?!?"

"Not that I know of...sorry to be a continuing disappointment." Bucky laughed at her. He had been trying really hard not to have so much fun hanging out with her. He knew Sam probably had a thing for her. Hell, he knew she had her heart broken by Steve...but he couldn't stop smiling when she was around. He had a hard time relaxing around new people, but she made him feel...good. It was fucking terrifying.

"More cookies, sir? Or do you want some actual lunch?" Zoe asked, walking back to the kitchen. She was enjoying having him around. Every time he made a dumb face, she couldn't help but giggle and think of Sam telling her that he was "allegedly mildly good looking"...sure, when he wasn't making stupid faces, was he even aware he did this? It cracked her up, but she didn't want to offend him. He was watching her with one of those hilariously unattractive looks right now. Honestly, it made her way more comfortable that he wasn't trying to impress her or whatever the way his old friend used to, a little humility was very refreshing from an Avenger type. "Or we could make ice cream sandwiches with the cookies?"

"Oh my god, you're a fucking genius!" Bucky hopped off the couch and followed her into the kitchen. He was definitely enjoying hanging out with someone else with a humongous sweet tooth that was almost as bad as his. Almost. "How have we not thought of this already?"

"You were too busy eating them when they were still molten from the oven, therefore rendering them too hot for ice cream." She smirked. "Any word from Sam?"

"Nothing yet." Bucky had completely forgotten to check his phone all morning, he was having too much fun. He hoped nothing serious was happening and that Sam wouldn't be mad. "Let me give him a quick call..."

He walked into his bedroom and picked up his phone from where he had left it, seeing a few notifications, but nothing urgent. Dialing, he took a moment to watch Zoe putter around the kitchen, bopping her head to what sounded like some 80s music by the beat pattern, but he wasn't sure. Grinning to himself at her sad attempt at dancing, he made a mental note to try and peek at her music collection. He still had so much to catch up on.

"Did you fall down a well or something, Robocop?" Sam barked as he picked up. "I texted you 4 hours ago! Is everything okay? How's Zoe?"

"And hello to you, too, bird person..." Bucky snarked back. "What's the story? Anything change overnight? When are those cameras coming?"

"I asked you first, Tinman!" Sam yelled, annoyed. "Is she okay? Where the hell have you been?"

"She's fine, Sam." Bucky smiled, watching her try and wrangle melting ice cream in between cookies. "We were trying to have a quiet morning, keep things low-key, not obsess about fucking Hydra showing up. This isn't exactly in her wheelhouse, you know?"

"You're right...Sorry, man. I shouldn't have yelled at you." Sam relaxed. "There's no new intel and the cams are being delivered by 1600. She doing okay? Last thing I wanted was to freak her out."

"Like I said, she's fine. A little nervous, but doing surprisingly well for a civilian." Bucky didn't want to admit that she was probably doing better than he was. "We're still in our pajamas, watching movies and waiting for the grocery delivery later. Nothing of note here. How are you doing at the field office?"

"It's fine. Kinda boring, actually." Sam reported. "This really sucks..."

"I know, but we'll figure it out." Bucky reassured his friend. "We always do."

"Yeah, but I don't want Zoe to hate me because of this..." Sam sighed. Why was the dinosaur so calm about this? "She's probably plotting my slow, painful doom right now."

"She could never hate you. She thinks you walk on fucking water..." Bucky joked. "No doom that I'm aware of, slow or otherwise."

"Oh yeah? Well don't go ruining my good name, Terminator!" Sam laughed, relieved.

"Wouldn't dream of it, flying marshmallow." Bucky chuckled, wishing he could see Sam's pissed off face.

"Flying marshmallow?! She told you about that?!?!" Sam huffed. "I hate you both!"

"Hate you, too, buddy!" Bucky laughed and hung up. It was fucking amazing to get dirt on Sam for a change.

"Aww, you boys do love each other!" Zoe smirked as she handed him a messy ice cream sandwich.

"Yeah, maybe sometimes..." Bucky smiled, he couldn't deny that having Sam around as a friend made things better, though he would never tell him or Dr. Raynor that.