Bucky always wore long sleeved shirts. Or sweaters. Or jackets. It didn't matter what the weather was.
The team didn't think much of it at first. Most of them were trained, some more than others, to pick up on tiny details about a person and analyze them to death. Natasha could get a read on someone from a mere glance in their direction. Her eyes were trained to see all the pieces: their micro expressions, their chosen appearance, their accent, their mannerisms, and anything else that could hint at the person as a whole. They tried to turn it off around trusted friends though. Separating work and home life was obviously a little harder for them than the average person, but they did their best to make it work.
As such, they chalked up Bucky's clothing choices to personal style. If they thought about it for a moment, they maybe imagined that it had something to do with his time in the cryostasis chamber or possibly due to his experiences during the Depression. Steve and Bucky both had an aversion to the cold even though their bodies made it so that they could handle temperatures much colder, and much hotter, than the average person.
It was Steve who first noticed. They were stripping after a mission, getting into comfortable clothes. Neither man was uncomfortable with nudity, it wasn't anything they hadn't seen, but they still avoided looking at each other as a form of courtesy. Steve had a sudden thought, and without thinking, spun to talk to his best friend. Bucky immediately grabbed the nearby blanket and covered himself. More specifically, he covered his upper body. He was already wearing pants. Steve looked away and finished his thought. By the time he was finished, Bucky was already changed. He'd tried to bring up the subject, but Bucky just brushed it off as instinct. Steve knew him well enough to know when he was lying.
The situation kept happening. Bucky would refuse to swim with Peter. He wouldn't wear the short sleeved shirts Tony bought him. He made excuses to get out of Thor's warrior tradition that apparently involved war paint and being shirtless.
Everyone had a right to make their own decisions without judgment, but Steve knew for a fact that these were activities Bucky would enjoy. Activities that both old Bucky and new Bucky would enjoy. He'd seen the way the man's face lit up while playing basketball with Peter and Shuri. He knew Bucky had a similar fashion sense to Tony and looked forward to their shopping trips. He'd walked in on Bucky laughing till the point of tears alongside Thor as they stood around a strange fruit, hair braided and wearing an elaborate necklace.
One day it clicked. It had taken a bit of a nudge.
"Mama. Why does that man have a metal hand?" A little boy in the park pointed toward Bucky as him and Steve jogged past.
"It's rude to point." The mother put the child's hand down and whispered gently. The super soldiers were gone before they could listen in on the family's conversation.
Steve peeked at Bucky's hand. He glanced at Bucky's face and saw hurt and shame. He knew any reassurances he gave now would seem empty so he decided to go for distraction and started up a conversation.
That didn't mean Steve would just let the issue lie. He began to notice how Bucky would subtlety avoid touching other people with his prosthetic or clench his jaw when it reflected sunlight into someone's eye. He watched Bucky turn down several more invitations to things that would involve showing off his arm.
Steve decided to help.
—————
An idea popped into his head one day after team training.
Steve and Tony had lead the whole team in a variety of exercises meant to increase fluidity between the individuals when they fought. Each of them on their own was a highly-skilled and talented individual, but they still had their issues with the whole "working well with others" thing.
Steve and Bucky were stripping off their sweaty clothes in the gym bathroom and tossing them down the laundry chutes that Tony had installed. The genius had made it so clothes could be thrown in any of the various chutes around the tower and they would be returned, washed and folded, to their rightful owner within the week. Steve still didn't quite know how the robot knew which ones were his clothes, especially when he washed something new for the first time, but his curiosity hadn't quite forced him into asking Tony yet.
Steve changed into his change of clothes with the same quickness and military precision as always. When he glanced toward his best friend, he was surprised to see that the man still hadn't gotten a shirt on. In fact, Bucky was giving a full-blown glare to the stack of shirts in the cubby.
Upon closer inspection, it was clear that Bucky only had short-sleeved T-Shirts left.
Steve looked away as Bucky begrudgingly pulled on the shirt and protectively cradled his metal arm underneath the fleshing across his chest.
The masked insecurity on Bucky's face was too much for Steve. He had to do something.
Which is how the Avengers found themselves face to face with Steve in the full 1940's showtime Captain America suit while they were trying to watch TV.
The first person to see him was Natasha. She was in the kitchen grabbing a snack while the rest of the team was in the living room watching a funny movie. She had to do a double take.
"Slipped into something 'more comfortable' I see." She remarked with an amused tone. "Something you need to tell us?"
"Can you just go along with it?" Steve asked, seriously.
Natasha had a few theories as to what was going on, but they were all too far-fetched to possibly be true. Why would aliens force Steve into this spandex atrocity? And could humanities last chance for survival at the hands of a secret underground militia really be dependent on his fashion choices? She didn't vocalize her thoughts though. Steve seemed resolute, and she trusted him. She nodded.
They returned to the couch together, her barely containing a giggle and Steve blushing like mad.
"Hello solider." Tony pretended to salute and then moved into jazz hands.
"I already enlisted, try somewhere else." Sam groaned.
"Is it time for a battle?" Thor leapt to his feet, far too eager.
Steve immediately glanced at Bucky, who had been sitting with his knees covering most of his torso in the corner of the couch. Natasha, being as perceptive as she was, immediately saw what Steve was looking at. She had a new theory - Steve is trying to take attention away from Bucky.
It was working. All eyes were on Steve and all conversation was in regarding to his outfit. Tony was teasing, Peter was obsessed with the original Captain America Suit, Thor was carefully inspecting the "traditional military regalia", and Bruce was blushing from secondhand embarrassment.
Sam's interrogation as to why Steve was wearing such a ridiculous thing was what finally brought Natasha into the whole thing.
"I lost a bet to Natasha."
She plastered a maniacal grin on her face. Everyone immediately began to chastise the super solider for attempting to outsmart the brilliant spy, irregardless of what the bet was about. When Clint entered the room, the whole thing started over again. Natasha even added amendments to 'her winnings' by making Steve act out certain bits from the campaign showcase or his modern PSA's.
Slowly but surely, Bucky uncurled himself and joined in the fun, unable to resist the temptation that was calling Steve out for his stupid decisions. His prior insecurities forgotten.
—————
The next time it happened was after a battle. Bucky's change of clothes, along with Clint's and Peter's were destroyed in "freak accident". Tony was definitely not trying to show off the increased fire power of his new weaponry, and the evil warlock getting slammed through nine trees and the Quinjet wall was completely inevitable. It was no ones fault really.
There were two extra SHIELD uniforms in the front of the ship. Both had short-sleeves.
Natasha was the one who stepped in this time.
"Hey, Peter."
He looked up, expectantly.
"Didn't you bring a costume with you? It's a short ride home and there are only two extra changes of clothing. Plus, I think Bruce and Tony would love to see it."
Peter's eyes lit up. "I do! I just came from a convention when I got the alarm. It's completely homemade - I'll go get it!"
And how could Bucky pay attention to any negative feelings about the way his arm was perceived when Peter was strutting around the main compartment of the jet in a complete Stormtrooper outfit for an hour?
Tony and Bruce did love it.
—————
Clint had overheard Natasha's conversation with Peter on the jet when he had approached them to offer Peter the clothes. He didn't mind not wearing a shirt, and if even if Peter was an adult, he was still an innocent baby who needed to be fully clothed in the eyes of the rest of the team.
Which is why he found it strange that Natasha was convincing him to give up the SHIELD uniform and wear a costume. She was as, if not more, protective of Peter as everyone else, and she knew Clint well enough to know that he had no qualms with not getting the clothes.
When he saw the way Steve and Natasha were snatching secret, protective glances at Bucky, he was able to put two and two together.
So when he noticed Bucky's slight frown as he rubbed his flesh hand over his exposed metal forearm, he didn't hesitate to make a bold fashion statement.
Fury was decidedly unhappy when he saw the news footage of Clint being interviewed after a battle in a purple sequined body suit and light-up neon shades, but Clint could take the heat.
And the journalists were far too distracted by Clint's dramatic posing to force Bucky into answering hypercritical about his past as the Winter Solider.
—————
Tony had been trained to manipulate and evade the media ever since he was young. He'd honed those skills even further when he decided to fix his reputation. It took a lot of strategy to override years of scandals. Even so, he was still sensitive to the media. There was always a reporter or two who challenged his position on the team by pointing out his past as a "merchant of death" or by comparing his skills and abilities to all his teammate's. Someone, usually Steve, would cut in and deflect away from the subject or praise Tony's recent accomplishments, but sometimes their words still festered in Tony's mind.
As such, he immediately recognized Barnes's discomfort with the media attention and felt it when he was harassed about events that he was actually a victim in. He was also smart enough to know a diversion tactic when he saw one, not that Clint was subtle in any way, shape, or form.
But when Tony walked up to the picnic blanket, gesturing wildly while clad in a 1920's style swimsuit, it was clearly just because he personally liked attention. His high-waisted pants, wrap-around tank top, and boater hat had absolutely nothing to do with the way Bucky had self-consciously refused to remove his jacket despite it being over a hundred degrees and them being at the beach.
Tony removed the hat and performed an exaggerated bow before he started to "dance" around Steve, which was 90% just kicking small amounts of sand at the blonde man, and make cracks about ninety year old men. Before long, Steve was chasing Tony, who was twiddling a fake mustache that he got from God knows where, into the water.
While the rest of the team, and frankly the rest of the beach, was distracted with the absurd scene in front of them, Sam and Peter managed to convince Bucky to shed the clothes and join them in the water. They splashed and played until the sun went down.
—————
The shame and regret of his past never truly left. Just like Tony or Natasha, Bucky's past would continue to haunt him. It came up in every distrustful stare from a specific SHIELD agent, in every horrified glance shot their way after someone got their file, and in every judgmental quip from a reporter.
But the throbbing pain dulled. It was no longer a constant undercurrent in his life. He had bad days and bad weeks instead of bad months and bad years.
Nevertheless, whenever he had an issue, no matter how small, his team would be there to support him. They were silly and kind and wonderful. They were the best family he'd ever had.
And once Peter taught him how to change the contact pictures in his phone, they all got the proper family treatment.
A call from Steve displayed Captain America in an excessively bright patriotic spandex suit midway through an old-timey dance move in the middle of their living room. One from Clint resulted in the man leaned against a fence with the back of one hand pressed dramatically to his forehead while he grasped the purple sequined cloth covering his chest. Tony's picture was of him running toward the water while looking back toward the camera with a smirk underneath his mustache. Peter was posing in his stormtrooper outfit. Sam was standing on a rooftop, attempting to glare down at Clint, who was laughing maniacally off-screen, but his goggles had googly eyes on them and his wings had "This Space for Rent" graffitied across them so the look wasn't exactly intimidating. Bruce had his hair in ten little ponytails with glittery hairbands curtesy of the girls at the local Children's Hospital. Even Natasha's photo showed a funny picture of her in a Coca-Cola shirt that had been customized to say "Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist" instead of "It's the Real Thing."