#now he has smth else to tease zan about <3 )

[musicallyiinclined]

@damagedtoysoldier | zander & bucky - origins

Zander settles on the sofa with his glass of wine, careful not to spill it as he reaches for the photo album he’d snagged off Bucky’s shelf earlier. He’s pleasantly surprised by its existence, considering that Bucky grew up in Alexander Pierce’s household. The politician doesn’t strike him as the type to document his adopted son’s milestones, but someone clearly had, as evidenced by the book in his hands. He’s grateful to them, whoever they were, especially as he flips open the front cover and sees a teenaged Bucky Barnes staring up at him.

“Oh my God, look at you!”  He can’t help but grin at the other man, his fingertip tracing the curve of young Bucky’s cheek as his gaze drops back to the picture.  “You were so cute.”  He still is, obviously, just in a very different way. Less adorable, more smokin’ hot. His boyfriend is a stunner, there’s no doubt about that, but these pictures are exactly what Zander needed to prove a theory he’s had for a while.

“Okay, I totally would’ve had a crush–”  Zander stops mid-sentence as the next image catches his attention, something about it poking at one of his own memories. In it, Bucky is about thirteen years old, his fingers clutching a baseball as he stands on a pitcher’s mound. He’s wearing regular clothes, so it clearly isn’t from a little league game. The man standing behind him is wearing a baseball uniform, though, which makes it obvious what’s going on.

Suddenly Zander is twelve-going-on-thirteen again, pausing in the doorway of the living room to watch a kid his age throw out the first pitch at a major league baseball game.

“Did I ever tell you how I discovered I was into guys?”  he suddenly asks Bucky, although he knows he hasn’t. His smile has gone soft, a faraway look in his eyes as he sets his wine glass on the table.  “My aunt and uncle were in town, and I remember passing by the living room while he and my dad were watching a baseball game. Which was weird, because we weren’t into any kind of sports–we weren’t that kind of family, honestly. But my uncle was, and that’s what was playing on tv when I went by.”

He remembers curiosity stopping him, the sight of the person on the mound drawing him closer to the screen.  “There was a boy on the pitcher’s mound, and even I knew that wasn’t normal for a professional sport, so I stopped to watch. I couldn’t tell you what teams were playing, or even the colors of the real pitcher’s uniform, but what I can remember is that the boy had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen, especially to be coming through a television. He was about my age, and after he threw the ball he smiled right at the camera, and–”

Zander turns to look at Bucky, sure that his boyfriend has figured out the point he’s trying to make here. What are the chances that over a decade later he’d be sitting on the couch with that same boy, so in love with him that he can’t imagine a life with anyone else?  “What can I say? It was love at first sight.”