formerlyfalcon

[formerlyfalcon]

Sam agreed. Of course he agreed. His blood ran hot even thinking about it. Still, he was trying to hold it together. Be professional. It was hard as hell. Sam made a small grunt in acknowledgment, eyes momentarily trained on the coffee cup in front of him. "An Avengers without a Captain America. An Avengers without morals. Looks like everything is fair game now." He paused then, weighing his words. "Maybe I should have taken Ross up on his offer. Just done it that way so that we at least had the team instead of... whatever the hell is going on. But hey," he smiled. "I appreciate the Lebron comparison. Although, I've always considered myself a Michael Jordan."

"I just don't get how you can have the 'Avengers' without Captain America. That's like having a football team and no quarter back -- or basketball with no Lebron."

@formerlyfalcon

[formerlyfalcon]

"Gotta go fix your hair?" The words were first spoken without much thought behind them. They were light — almost slipping back into that old rhythm the two had learned. Bucky's hair had been growing out since they had gone up against the Flag Smashers, and it looked like the New Avengers had him on some kind of moisturizing routine. Sam wanted to joke about it. He wanted to make fun of his friend like there wasn't a giant chasm between the two. But there was. Sam felt it slowly kill the smile that had barely made an appearance on his face. At this rate, he was heading straight towards frown lines.

Like Bucky, Sam needed to change. He loved being Cap, but he didn't need the eyes on him. The shield tended to attract attention. He felt more at home dressed in civilian clothes. Even if it was impossible to ever be off duty, it felt good to take off the kevlar and slip into something breathable.

"—With that Avengers salary? Yeah, you're buying the drinks." Sam snorted as he took a step back. "I'll you soon."

By the time Bucky got the bar, Sam had ordered. The alcohol sat neglected in front of him. He felt like he needed a drink, but he was hesitant to imbibe. When was the world going to fall apart? It felt like at any minute. Sam wasn't Steve, Bucky, or Walker. He had no serum. He had to stay alert and aware at all times. Training, sweating, bleeding. He would work his body into peak physical shape to keep up as his body aged and worked against him.

"Yeah, yeah." He gestured to his still full glass. "Started a tab under your name."

There was a pause between Sam's words, and Bucky felt like he couldn't breathe as he waited to see what else he would say. He was surprised that the other man stopped at all, that he didn't pull his arm out of Bucky's grasp and leave without a word. Bucky wouldn't have blamed him if he did, but the fact that he got an actual response had his head spinning.

Bucky let out a sigh of relief, the tension in his shoulders visibly falling away when Sam brought up the bar. That's when he let go of his arm, less desperate to keep him close now that they were going somewhere else to talk.

"Yeah, I know the one." He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he nodded, exhaling through his nose and taking a small step back. "Give me uh.. uh, half an hour. Thirty minutes. I'll be there." He needed to get out of this damn uniform, and make sure that his people weren't going to cause any more problems while he was gone. He needed to make sure they were all okay.

Bucky started backing away, tilting his head as he pointed at Sam with the smallest hint of a smile. "Drinks are on me tonight." That felt like the least he could do, considering the circumstances. There was a sense of urgency that quickly overcame him, and there was almost a skip to his step as he jaunted back and away to get everything settled and situated before he left for the bar.

He had to take a moment once he got there, his feet stilling a few feet from the entrance. People passed him on the sidewalk as he stared at the door, but after someone opened it from the inside and left Bucky forced himself to take a deep breath. He tucked a few loose strands of hair behind his ears, pushed the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, and then he finally went in.

Sam was waiting for him at the bar inside, and Bucky slid onto the stool next to him. "Hey." He gave him a nod and a tight-lipped, awkward smile. "Did you get yourself anything yet?"

[formerlyfalcon]

It was with Carol that Sam exited the room. His heart was still thudding in his chest, an angry patter that reminded him of how much he had screwed up — again. Or, at least, that's how it felt. His transition into being Captain America could be described as difficult at best, and his attempt at forming the Avengers seemed preordained to head in the same direction.

Sam Wilson: veteran, human, Captain America. Once upon a time, he had been just another guy in Louisiana doing his best. Then, he had been an airman trying to do good. He became the Falcon because he felt called to help people, to make something of himself. His transition to Captain America was complicated, but he felt compelled to rise to the challenge. Now, he laid awake at night wondering if this really was all an ego trip. Was he just mad because someone else had gotten what he thought should be his? As the sun rose and shone through his blinds, he had decided no. He wanted the Avengers to be real. To be good. The team that Steve, Nat, and the others had sacrificed so much to create deserved to be more than some cheap government imitation.

The firm grip on his arm slowed Sam to a stop. It was loose enough that he could break free if he wanted to, but Bucky was his friend. His best friend, even if he didn't want to admit it at times. They had come a long ways over the years, which is why it felt absurd to be in a goddamn legal battle over a name of all things. No, not over a name. Over a legacy.

"I'll catch up with you, Cap." Sam murmured to Carol when the blonde turned to look over her shoulder with a raised brow. They had the space thing to deal with, but they weren't breathing a word of that around the New Avengers. Sam would need to figure out how Yelena knew about it later. Without comment, Carol left.

As the people filtered away into the night, Sam pursed his lips and took a second to take his friend in. The hair looked good, but Bucky seemed tired. There was a weight pressing down against his shoulders. How had it only been a few months since they had stood in Joaquin's hospital room? He had been terrified then; terrified of losing the bright eyed kid who followed him into battle, terrified of letting the world down, terrified of failing. Bucky had known just what to say. Now, Sam was speechless.

"We've been talking, Bucky." His head shook. "And we don't agree. You know I'm not gonna back down. I can't." Not after the blood, sweat, and tears he had poured into this. Still, something stopped him from blowing Bucky off and leaving him standing there. He frowned, a sigh building in his chest. "—There's a bar, not far from here. Let's keep it civil. After that shit, I need a drink." Or three.

@formerlyfalcon

Well that went horribly. Bucky hadn't really expected that meeting to go well, but he had hoped that something good would have come out of it. Looking back, that was oddly optimistic of him. And truthfully he was glad that things didn't turn out worse.

There were still a few conversations happening in the room as they all began to disband— he could hear Yelena and Alexei mumbling about something that he knew he would have to deal with later, but that wasn't his focus at the moment. Bucky completely ignored Val, waiting for her to give up and leave the room while he kept an eye on who he really wanted to talk to.

As soon as Sam was standing, so was Bucky. For a moment he hesitated, wondering if he should simply let his friend go. Their last talk didn't exactly go as planned, and it was entirely possible that Bucky would screw things up even more by trying to make them better. He was good at that— it often felt like for every step forward he took, he inadvertently threw himself a step or two back. But he also had a hard time letting things go, and that stubbornness often got the best of him.

Bucky's feet were moving before he made the conscious decision to do anything, and he was heading straight for Sam. He wove his way around the crowd as they all made their way to the elevator, parting the small sea of people at a diagonal.

"Sam— wait." Bucky reached out and grasped at his friend's arm, gently pulling him back and away from the crowd to try and get him to stop. "Can we talk? Please?"

[formerlyfalcon]

"When we first met him, he was a counselor. He was a counsel of soldiers. He was a humanitarian. He was a helper. Now we see him grow into all of those principles and all of those fundamentals that he had; he's taken those with him to become Captain America." — Anthony Mackie 🪽

[formerlyfalcon]

"I'm gettin' too old for this. There's always something, isn't there? Yeah, yeah. It comes with the job. Doesn't mean I'm not tired."

[formerlyfalcon]

ANTHONY MACKIE as SAM WILSON in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

[formerlyfalcon]

Sam Wilson

X-Men: Hellfire Gala Last Rites Infinity Comic (2023)