#it used to be ducks but then the duck mod broke and made fish stop spawning

[nexus-nebulae]

SMALL

[imaginetonyandbucky]

How about Bucky takes tony to a fair for a date/his birthday cos Tony's never been to one before and bucky using sniper and assassin skills wins everything tony wants, plus getting trapped on the ferris wheel at the top and lots of kisses

[A/N: Happy Steve Rogers’ Birthday, everyone! In celebration, @tisfan and @everyworldneedslove have written this mostly-fluff side-fic prompt fill to go along with their much longer fic, Safe and (the) Sound! This one is still long enough that normally we’d split it into pieces here on IT&B, but in celebration, our benevolent mod/admin has agreed to let us post the whole thing at once! Chapter One is posted here; if you like it, there’s a link at the end to go to the rest of the fic on AO3. Or if you’d rather read the whole thing on AO3 (for instance, if you’re on mobile and the readmore is misbehaving AGAIN), the title just below this note is linked as well.]

Lord of the Swings, Chapter One

Tonywasn’t really a morning person, but there were a few ways to wakeup that he didn’t mind. Bucky bringing him a mug of fresh coffee.Bucky nibbling at the back of his neck, hand sliding lazily overTony’s skin. Bucky singing ridiculous 80’s pop under his breathas he pulled on jeans to go out on the deck for his morning smoke.

Couldhe help it, if all his favorite ways to wake up involved hisboyfriend? Bucky had alreadybeenabout the best part of Tony’s mornings.

Dogslobber, that was notonTony’s list of favorite ways to be woken.

“Ug,Lucky, stop, gross, get off,” he whined, pushing at the lump of furthat was panting hot dog breath into his face. Satisfied that Tonywas awake, Lucky jumped down off the bed. Tony shoved off theblankets and sat up, scratching at his neck where one of Bucky’slove-bites was healing and itchy. He leaned over to squint at thealarm clock. “Ughhh,” he complained again, and glared at the dog.“You’re awful.”

Lucky’stongue lolled out in a canine grin.

Tonysighed and climbed out of the bed. He didn’t bother with pants,just shuffled down the hall to the bathroom. Emptied his bladder,washed his hands, splashed his face. Checked out his reflection as hebrushed his teeth. None of last night’s bites and hickeys were highenough that he’d need to borrow Nat’s concealer, at least. Hegrinned at them, and decided he could wait to shower and shave untilafter coffee.

Buckywas already in the tiny kitchen, humming and dancing as he cookedsomething. Tony dropped a smacking kiss on his shoulder beforereaching for the full mug Bucky had left on the counter. “Morning,”he said into the first sip.

Insteadof dancing impatiently by the front door, Lucky was sitting at theentrance to the kitchen, watching Bucky with all the attention in theworld, waiting for something to drop. “You already walked him?”Tony said in surprise. “Christ, how long have you been up?”

“‘Boutan hour, or so,” Bucky said. He flicked his gaze over to Tony, thenpaused, noting the marks with a wry grin. “The sunrise was realpretty… not that you haven’t already given me your opinion onsunrises, so I didn’t wake you.” That had happened, Bucky’sdesire to be romantic running smack into Tony’s utter loathing forthe crack of dawn. Sometimes, Tony thought, his boyfriend wasabsolutely the worst;beingnudged awake to watch the sun come up had seemed more like apunishment than a special event. It was funny now, though.

“Youdo realize that we literally work until almost midnight, most nights.We’re allowed to sleep past six in the morning,” Tony said,hiding his smile in his mug. “What’ve we got planned-- Wait, it’sthe Fourth. Day off, hot damn.”

[mobile users, ‘ware the readmore!]

Buckyshrugged. “I just can’t, anymore,” he said. “Get twitchy if Ilay around too long, an’ you were sleeping.” He flipped thepancakes onto a plate and moved the griddle off the burner. “Here,blueberry pancakes, bacon, and… well, it was going to be an omelet,but pizza dog nudged me at the wrong time, so scrambled eggs withsome add-ins.”

Tonytook the plate and stole a kiss. “Sleeping in and coffee andbreakfast?I think I’ll keep you.” He fished a fork out of the drawer andtook his plate and coffee out to sit on the sofa to eat. Bucky had alittle dinette table and chairs, but if Tony sat on the sofa, Buckywas more likely to come and sit next to him.

Buckyfried up one last batch of bacon and recovered his own plate from theoven where he’d been keeping it warm. “Wait, Lucky,” he said,pushing at the dog. “It’s hot, you stupid mutt.” Lucky sat backdown, then heaved a great sigh and trotted over to give Tony greatbig sad eyes of starvation. “You’ll want to eat all that. Busyday today. An’ the food’s gonna be expensive. And notparticularly good, at that.”

“Captiveaudience food,” Tony agreed. He broke off a piece of bacon andtossed it for Lucky, then dug in, himself. “When’re we leaving?”

“Parkopens at ten, so,” Bucky flicked his eyes at the clock. “Ninetyminutes, give or take. Steve’ll be champing at the bit, but there’sthis time delay between when the parkopensand when the rides get started, a fact that after so many years,you’d think he’d learn, but oh, no… and he’ll get real loudin the park if he can’t get his vertigo on right away.” Buckyrolled his eyes. Steve was a champion rant-and-raver, when he gotgoing.

Tonylaughed and shrugged. “It’s his party, he can bitch if he wantsto?”

“Mmmmhmmm.”Bucky made a noise of agreement, rolling up one pancake and stuffingthe whole thing in his mouth, returning his plate to an elevatedstate to keep it away from the dog. “Spoiled.” He handed hisplate to Tony. “Guard that for a minute, would you?” He brushedcrumbs off his shirt, which Lucky promptly attacked. Bucky checkedthe bacon and dumped a few strips and some scrambled eggs intoLucky’s bowl and sat it on the floor.

“There,greedy thing,” he said, patting the dog fondly. “Probably a goodthing he doesn’t speak English, he’d be all sorts of confused.”Bucky threw himself back down on the sofa and while he recovered hisplate from Tony, he didn’t eat, just sort of watched Tony sidelongas he twiddled his fork in one hand.

“What?”Tony demanded after a bit. “Is my hair all sticking up again?” Heshoved his fingers through it, trying to make it less fluffy.

Buckyleaned over, crowding into Tony’s space, his eyes glinting withinterest. Easily, he divested Tony of his plate, setting it down onthe battered coffee table. With an almost predatory motion, like astarving vampire, he swooped in on Tony’s throat and licked overone bruise there. “God, you’re so…” Bucky said somethingelse, but as his lips were moving over Tony’s throat, it was alittle difficult to concentrate.

Tonytipped his head, letting Bucky in, sinking into the sensation.“Nnngh, you’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned,dropping his fork so he could slip his fingers into Bucky’s hair.

“Can’thelp it,” Bucky said. He trailed his mouth up the side of Tony’sjaw and then planted a very light kiss on his lower lip. “You’rejust… tempting.” He backed off again, taking a bite of eggs andtrying to pretend that he wasn’t still ogling.

Tonysighed and picked up his fork again. “Don’t you dare make me walkaround this place all day with a hard-on,” he warned. “There arechildren there. Impressionable young children.”

“Whoare not the slightest bit interested in what’s going on in yourpants,” Bucky pointed out. He polished off his eggs and pulled on avery prim and proper attitude. “But I’ll keep my hands tomyself.”

Tonydidn’t believe that for a hot second, but Bucky might give him timeto finish breakfast, at least. “As you should,” he said primly.“Except in the Tunnel of Love, of course.”

“Theydon’t actually have one of those,” Bucky said. “Shame, that. Isuppose we could--” But whatever it was that they could have donegot lost as Nat’s little commuter car pulled into the lot and Stevelaid on the horn. Which might have been more annoying, except thecar’s horn was barely louder than a kid’s bike. Meep! Meeeeeeeep!Meep. “Well, so much for that idea.”

Tonyblinked, and leaned to look out the window. “You said ninetyminutes!” he said. “I’m still in my boxers!”

Buckyleered. “I’d noticed that. I said we’d leave in ninety minutes.Go shower, I’ll delay the birthday boy.” He swatted Tony’s assas Tony scurried for the shower, muttering and complaining the wholeway.

Tonyrushed through the fastest shower ever -- not like he wasn’t goingto be drenched in sweat again by the time mid-day rolled around, hemostly just needed to rinse off the evidence of last night’s funand get his beard soft enough to shave. He didn’t rush shaving --he’d done that before and the results were worse than if he skippedit altogether. And if the park didn’t open until ten, then theycould wait five more minutes.

Finally,wearing shorts and his thinnest white tee -- it was going to bebroiling, no way was he wearing something dark or jeans -- he duckedout the door and jogged down the stairs to the parking lot. “Youare in a very big hurry to stand in line,” he observed to Stevewith a grin. “Happy birthday.”

“Youare too pale,” Nat complained. She frowned at him, then pulled abottle of spray sunblock out of her backpack. “Come here, beforeyou turn into a crawdad.” She proceeded to attack him with thespray-on, which smelled weird and kept getting caught up in thebreeze, which meant he got sunscreen in his mouth. Yuck.

Natstarted digging through her bag again, handing Tony stuff as if hisnumber one job in life was to be her portable shelf. “Bandaids,chapstick, granola bars, ziplock bags, hand sanitizer. Oh, here,you’ll want this.” She frowned, realized Tony had his arms fullof her crap, and sighed. “Useless.” She snagged Tony’ssunglasses and fitted a bright orange strap onto them before stickingthem haphazardly on his head.   

“Um.”Tony looked at Bucky, but Bucky just shrugged and grinned at him.Tony sighed and just waited for her to finish fussing. It was Nat; itwas easier, always, to just let her have her way. It usually turnedout that she was right, anyway.

“Canwe go now?” Steve said, looking at his watch. Tony hadn’t seen itbefore; Steve usually didn’t wear any jewelry while in the kitchen.It was heavy gold with a well-scratched face and looked like the sortthat actually had to be wound. “If we get there by nine-thirty,we’ll get to park in England.”

“It’sthe 4th of July,” Bucky pointed out, like Steve didn’t alreadyknow that. “We’re parking in Italy and you know it. Just suck itup.”

“Thisis why I think we should get a hotel,” Steve said. “We could getstarted firstthing.”

Buckyslid his sunglasses onto his nose for the sole purpose of being ableto glare at Steve over the lenses. “No, we can’t. Relax. The parkain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Tonyturned to Nat. “Is this bickering going to stop once we’reactually there, or is this pretty much how the whole day is going togo? I just want to be prepared.”

Natpacked her stuff back into her bag and gave Tony a wide, somewhatsharp-toothed grin. “Worse. It will get worse.” She linked herarm with Tony’s. “I claim Antonishka for bumper cars, just so youare aware, Bucky.”

“Doyou?” Tony asked. “You’ve never seen me drive.”

Shepatted his hand. “But I have seen them drive. Both of them. Believeme, I am safer with you.”

Buckyscoffed. “Keep that up, woman, and I will veto eating at theFesthaus this year.”

Natglared. “You will not dare do that.” She turned to Tony, excited.“They have cake! The size of your head!”

“Nobody’sgetting any cake unless we getgoing!”Steve protested.

Buckysighed and gave it up, unlocking his truck. “Pass, please?” Nathanded him a badge attached to a lanyard. Bucky tossed it on thedashboard and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Tonyopened both passenger doors and gestured grandly. “Waiting on you,now,” he told Steve, smirking.

Stevescoffed, but climbed into the truck behind Tony. “Can you move yourseat up?” Tony continued to be amazed that Steve fit in thatcommuter car of Nat’s because he could already feel Steve’s kneesdigging into the back of his seat.

Tonyalmost said no, just to be a smartass, but it was the man’sbirthday, after all. He’d half been expecting Steve to call shotgunand push Tony into the back with Nat. So he groped for the lever andyanked the seat as far forward as his own knees could stand. “That’llhave to do.”

“Stevegets first pick,” Bucky said, tossing his CD book into the back,then threw the truck into gear and spun out, churning a huge plume ofgravel behind him as he peeled out of the parking lot. “BuschGardens: bad food, long lines, and sunburn, here we come.”

Stevethumbed through the collection and finally selected a CD, handing itup. “This,” he said.

Buckyglanced at the disk. “Oh, god,” he said, then shoved it into theplayer.

JustinTimberlake started bringing the Sexy Back as Bucky pulled onto theinterstate and headed north.

Natsnagged a map and started poring over the show schedule just as oneof the roaming park photographers hounded in on Tony to get them allto pose for a picture in front of the wishing fountain. Two “sayVacation!”s and two clicks later, Bucky put the paper claim sheetin his pocket. Might be funny; the second picture they’d allmanaged to get rabbit ears up behind Steve -- Tony was actuallystanding on the lip of the fountain and leaning on Bucky’sshoulders to get up there -- and Steve hadn’t noticed.

“So,what is your thing?” Nat asked Tony, holding out the map.

“Whydoes he get first pick?” Steve demanded.

“Hedoesn’t,” Bucky said, reasonably, “but it’s going to take himlonger because he doesn’t know what any of the stuff is. And wealready know what Nat’s pick is.”

“Cake,”Nat said, nodding her head.

Tonystudied the map; like a lot of amusement parks, it was arranged inmore or less a circle, with a few side-loops. The place was dividedinto areas that were along a theme of various Western Europeancountries (except for what appeared to be French Canada, which...why?), There were lots of rides, and shows for the non-thrillseekers, and (of course) shops and food stalls and restaurants. “Idon’t know,” he said after a minute. “I don’t know anythingabout any of these rides.” He cocked his head at Steve. “What’syour first pick, then?”

“Griffin.”

Buckygroaned and rolled his forehead against the back of Tony’s shirt.“One of these days, he’s gonna give over getting revenge for mydragging him on Rebel Yell until he puked.”

Natgrabbed the map and started drawing on it with a pen from her pouch.“This, these rides, they all do loop-de-loops. This one is MachTower, good view of the park, but drops you sixty feet. This one ismagnetic, fun, fast, but breaks down a lot. Water slides. RomanRapids, more water, a lot more water.”

“Hm.Water should be right after lunch,” Tony mused, “when it’salmost as hot as it’s going to get and when we have enough time todry off before we go home.” He glanced up at the other touristsstreaming past them. “Any particular reason we have to pick? Ifigured we’d just... follow the path and do whatever lookedinteresting.”

Natstepped back and pointed at Bucky and then at Steve, doing the VannaWhite arms. “Exhibit A and Exhibit B. If we each pick one thingthat we must do to make us happy for the day, it prevents a couple ofovergrown man-children from acting like squabbling siblings.”

Stevemock-scowled. “When have I everstoodin the way of you having more cake than can possibly fit in thatstomach of yours?”

Buckyfacepalmed. “Oh, now he’s done it.” He snatched the map andlooked down the schedule. While he was going through the list ofshows, Nat started listing a very precise number of times and visitswhere Nat did not get to do her things that ended with a very large,loud complaint about having never evergottento feed the lorikeets.

“Uh,okay then,” Tony said faintly. “And Exhibit C, I see.” Helooked over Bucky’s shoulder.  “You got any hanging‘coasters? The kind where your feet are swinging free? I lovethose. Feels like you’re flying.”

“AlsoGriffin,” Bucky said, “and Alpengeist. France… and France.That’s convenient. And there’s ice cream in the middle, whichmight get Miss Deprived of Caloric Goodness to cool her jets.”

“Okay,well, if Steve’s called Griffin, I’ll claim Alpengeist, and thenI get to ride both.” Tony grinned at Bucky, so happy it felt likehis face might split. “What’s your pick?”

“PetShenanigans.”

“Theanimal show? Really? Dorrrrrrrk,” Tony teased. He laced theirfingers together and squeezed. God Bucky really was a total dork.Tony loved it.

“What?It’s cute,” Bucky protested, absently rescuing his hand to tapthe description of the show. “And Lucky came from a show, once, youknow. I mean, not this nice, this is a nice show. Rescue animals andstuff.”

“Right,”Steve said. He snatched the map and folded it up, stuffing it in hisback pocket. “We’re on a mission. Come on, people, daylight’sburning!”

Tonyrolled his eyes. “We are not soldiers,” he told Steve, but theyall followed him anyway, deeper into the park.

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That’s the end of Chapter One! Continue to Chapter Two on AO3!

~ @everyworldneedslove & @tisfan