Camera Ready | B. Barnes ¹

31 → She's A Rainbow

"Have they really played all these?" Joshua questioned as he eyed the games in their boxes, neatly lined up on a shelf.

"Yes, we get bored" Bucky answered, startling Joshua. He quickly turned around and his eyes landed on Bucky who's sitting on the couch with his head thrown back.

"What are you doing?" Joshua asked the man.

"Thinking" Bucky answered, not moving an inch.

"You look like my cousin's kid when he wants attention"

Bucky raised his head and stared at Joshua wide-eyed "cousins kid? Please don't tell me that I'm a great-great-uncle"

"No. The kid is from my dad's side" Joshua answered. Bucky sighed in relief and sat straight on the couch.

"How did the glaring go?" Bucky asked.

Joshua smiled at the question "fine. I mean, if Steve wasn't afraid of Natasha before, he is now"

"I believe that" Bucky nodded.

Joshua didn't go deeper into the room to inspect the games and potentially play with them, instead he casually walked over to the couch where Bucky is sitting on and plopped himself on the other end of said couch. He tapped his fingers on his thighs but then moved his hands and rested his left arm on the couch arm. It was there for two seconds before he moved his arms again, and tried to make things less awkward.

Bucky saw everything and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion "what are you doing?" He asked.

Joshua sighed and dropped his arms to his sides "I don't know. Trying to make things less awkward, I guess"

Bucky smiled "they were fine until you moved your arms around like a bird learning how to fly"

"Funny, I'm told I look like that when I dance" Joshua chuckled.

"Really?"

"Actually, Isaura's exact words were, 'you look like a bird having a seizure'" he looked up at Bucky as he said that. 

"Wow" Bucky laughed.

"Yeah, well, she's right. We went to high school together so she's seen all my embarrassing dances" Joshua informed "and it wasn't enough that I went to school with my brother because not only would he pretend not to know me, but I got about half of his old teachers and they were all like 'oh, so you're William's brother' one of them actually said 'oh my god, there's two of you!' when she saw us together"

"Oh god, that's horrible" Bucky laughed.

"I know" Joshua nodded.

"I mean for the teachers. Having to deal with two of you– I only know you and you exhaust me"

Joshua narrowed his eyes at Bucky and grumbled under his breath. Both men stayed quiet for a minute, thinking of what they can talk about. What do a great-uncle and a great-nephew talk about?

"So" Joshua cleared his throat "you're my nana's brother"

At that moment, Bucky heard himself from earlier that day, when he tried to make it less awkward between himself and Dia after they confessed their feeling to each other "So, I like you and you like me...interesting"