INNER DEMONS ▹ B. BARNES [slow updates]

fifteen.

Sam and Bucky practiced throwing the shield between trees. It bounced off the trunk and returned to Sam's arm.

"It feels weird, picking it up again," the Black man commented. He threw it again, making it ricochet toward Bucky, who caught it effortlessly. "The legacy of the shield is complicated, to say the least."

"When Steve told me what he was planning," the former Winter Soldier started, "I don't think we understood what it felt like for a Black man to be handed the shield. How could we?"

"Lorna did," Sam chuckled lightly. "She's been pestering me about it from the beginning."

"She's been through a lot," Bucky said softly.

Sam frowned, looking at the ex-assassin questioningly.

"Is Bucky Barnes defending Lorna Maximoff?" He scoffed. "Since when?"

Bucky shook his head, brushing off Sam's teasing.

"We talked, okay? We... sorted things out."

"So, are you friends now?"

"Yeah, kinda."

The White Wolf tried to be as vague as possible, hoping it'd make the Falcon drop the topic. He underestimated how stubborn and nosey Sam Wilson could get.

"You don't seem so sure. What is it? Does it have anything to do with you flirting with my sister? Which, by the way, you really must stop doing."

Bucky sighed deeply in aggravation.

"I'm not flirting with your sister." Upon the look Sam gave him, Bucky corrected. "I'm not flirting with your sister anymore. I was messing around. And before you say something, Lorna scolded me about that already, so save it."

Sam let out a scoff in disbelief.

"Are you playing with my sister's feelings?!"

"I spoke to her, and she understood."

"What, did you go up to her and said, 'Hey, I'm sorry I'm an asshole who didn't get laid for over eighty years, and now I don't know how to treat a woman anymore,' and she said, 'alright'?"

"Seventy-eight," Bucky rectified.

"What?"

"It's been seventy-eight years, not over eighty."

Sam threw his arms up, exasperated.

"I don't know if I get angry that this is what you focused on or feel bad about it. I mean, really? All that long?"

"Things are different after the Winter Soldier."

"Apparently not that different since you kissed Lorna, rejected her, and are now flirting with my sister."

Sam had been worked up almost from the beginning, getting easily riled up, but Bucky's irritation escalated as Sam threw accusations one after another.

"Lorna and I are together!" He shouted, successfully shutting Sam up. "We talked, and we decided to try a relationship."

Meeting Bucky's silence, he gasped. "Seriously?"

"Is something wrong with that?" Bucky got defensive.

"Are you serious about her?" He took a step closer, getting protective over the woman who became like a younger sister to him.

"I am. She makes me feel normal. Like I belong. And that belonging doesn't necessarily need to be in a time or place but with someone. There. Happy?" He glared.

"Delighted!" The older Wilson exclaimed dramatically.

"I also owe you an apology," Bucky offered Sam the shield as a peace offer. "I'm sorry."