It never officially felt like summer to Bucky until he was on the beach, surrounded by all the local kids while he shared a large beach towel with Natasha. Their shoulders touching, no matter if they were laying on their stomachs or on their backs. The warmth radiated off of their bodies and the sweat that came from them spending so long in the sun together was comforting to each other.
They were at the pit. Which was really a large plot of land off a more secluded part of a lake channel that some rich dead guy donated to the youth after his childhood sweetheart died of ovarian cancer. Apparently, the pit was the spot where the couple had their first kiss back in the early 70s when people used to park. Like a Lover's Lane type of place.
It was nice enough. If one didn't mind the overwhelming smell of B.O. And if one didn't mind hearing mindless shrieks and barks of laughter. Really it was an okay place, if one didn't mind teenagers.
"Ya know," Natasha started, raising so she was resting on her elbows. Before she continued her thought, she nudged Bucky with her knee to make sure that he wasn't asleep.
"Hmm?" Bucky hummed, lifting his head off his shirt that he was using as a makeshift pillow, and mimicked Natasha's position. Even stretching out his legs and crossing them at his ankles.
"We should live here when we're old," Natasha started. Bucky was watching her, and Natasha could tell that he was watching her, so she smirked over at him. She had a persuasive grin on her reddening pale face as she continued, "I'm serious. Just think about it! Buck and Nat, together --"
Bucky's gaze wandered past Natasha and his mind followed shortly after. There were people applying sunblock to themselves and their companions. There were people playing volleyball. Nothing out of the ordinary. No one too noteworthy. Then, Bucky saw him.
It took Bucky a moment to realize that the attractive, muscular, damn-near Adonis, wasn't just some random guy. No, it wasn't some new guy. It was the guy. It was none other than Steve Rogers himself. Even if it had taken Bucky a moment to realize so.
Steve was a year-round lake kid. His house was ten minutes from the pit and across the street from the Romanoffs' vacation home, which allowed all of them to grow up together.
Obviously, Bucky had missed a lot over the four years that the Barnes' had been absent from the lake house. Steve was taller, his shoulders broader than Bucky remembered. Bucky remembered the Steve Rogers from four years prior. The boy that had been shorter than Bucky. The boy who's golden blond hair had been longer, shaggier, causing Steve to shake the locks from his face with a quick snap of his neck. The boy who had liked comic books and video games and could spend hours speaking of them both. The boy who had played sports: soccer, baseball, tennis, and track, despite his asthma. The boy who loved astrology and dreamed of being an artist.
The first boy that Bucky had ever had a crush on.
Bucky being a boy himself, at the time, he didn't realize that it was a crush. Bucky assumed that he enjoyed Steve's company the way that all friend's enjoyed each other's company. Innocent and platonic. Yet, Bucky soon realized that he didn't like hanging out with Steve in the same platonic way that he liked hanging out with Natasha. With Steve, Bucky found himself giddy when Steve accidentally knocked his knee against his or when Steve would playfully shove at Bucky's shoulder. Bucky found himself daydreaming about his sky-blue eyes and wishing for Steve to direct that wide grin at him.
Of course, Bucky had found others attractive before Steve, both boys and girls, but Bucky had never had a crush on any of the other boys. Even as Bucky watched Steve make his way across the beach, he could feel the familiar warmth in his stomach as Bucky's body remembered how it used to feel to be around Steve.
The closer Steve got, the more Bucky could see. The white tank top that Steve was wearing had a picture of a skeleton surfing a bright blue ocean with a neon pink sky behind it. The blue in the graphic matched the blue swim trunks that Steve wore perfectly. Barefoot, Steve walked along the sandy beach and ran his hand through his face, while Steve laughed at something that his friend said next to him.
"Earth to James," Natasha scoffed, waving her hand in front of Bucky's face to regain his attention.