Link (Context: Bucky hydras_arm is having a bad day and Steve is reminding him of this event in their childhood.)
"Well, there was that one time I decided we should build a soap box car. There was no local derby or anything, it was just something to do. I think we were about twelve?"
Steve rolls over onto his back and crosses his arms behind his head turning his face toward Bucky and smiling. "We scavenged up a couple orange crates and borrowed some tools from a neighbor. You had a way better idea how to use them than I did. It actually went pretty well to start with, except then we needed wheels for it."
"So, everyone knows the best wheels for a soap box car are the kind you get off a baby buggy. Unfortunately, we didn't know anyone with a baby or a buggy. But your sister had a buggy for her dolls, and we figured she wouldn't notice if we just borrowed the wheels for a couple days."
"I'm not 100% sure whose idea it was," he says a little gently. "Probably both of us. But what neither of us realized is that doll buggy wheels don't have to be quite as sturdy as real baby buggy wheels do."
"So. We took the wheels off the doll carriage and put them on the soap box car, and it rolled pretty well. We pushed one another up and down the road a couple times, and then I got the bright idea to try and roll down the hill between Elm and Jefferson. We figured there wasn't much traffic in the early morning, so we'd try then."
"We got there right as it was getting light, and you got cold feet right away. It wasn't a very steep hill, but it was enough that we had to put a stick under the wheels to keep the car from rolling on its own. You kept saying you weren't sure the brakes would stop it, and what if the milk truck came by at the wrong moment, and sometimes the cops would be on Jefferson Street in the morning at this hour...and I got pissed off at you and I got into the car and said I would show you it would be fine."
"I must have gotten in with some extra force, because the wheels jumped the stick before I was all the way in, and it started rolling downhill and picking up speed with me half in the seat and fumbling for the steering-rope. You started chasing after me yelling curse words and calling me an idiot, and the thing was swerving all over the road--"
He's laughing in earnest now, waving his hand as if to show the drunken path the car took. "I don't know how fast the damn thing went, but you managed to catch up about twenty feet from the bottom of the hill and you threw yourself onto me and the car, and we both went spinning into the grass as the side of the road. The car rolled over a few times and two of four wheels got bent or flattened, and you and I didn't even notice at first because we were tussling in the grass and calling each other names."
Bucky listens to this story with a mix of skepticism and fascination. His eyebrows go up and stay up, and all of that is probably a sign he doesn't remember much of this incident, but he's enjoying the story anyway.
He also goes through another s'more while Steve talks.
"That... sounds like us, yeah." He smirks just a little, looking thoughtful, and more like Bucky in some indefinable way. "You were an idiot, by the way."
"It wasn't my proudest moment," he admits, still laughing a little. "I bit you. On the right forearm. It bruised later."
Because sometimes, Steve fights dirty.
"Anyway, we wore ourselves out, and then we had another fight when we saw how badly we'd fucked up the wheels, and took everything back home and tried to hammer them back into shape. We actually managed to get them back onto the buggy, but they still looked like they had been stomped on by an elephant, and they barely rolled at all."
He shakes his head. "Your sister was so angry. I ended up giving you my allowance and whatever I could earn for the next three weeks, because you got told you owed her a replacement. But we managed it."
"You...?" Bucky shakes his head a little, working on toasting another marshmallow over the flame. "Biting is a very effective strategy. And it was definitely on you to buy the replacement." The bit about strategy says something about where he's at in his head, still, but he's smirking a little because he can't seem to get that off his face, and his shoulders have come down from around his ears.
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timeasmymeasure
Steve and Bucky's Soapbox Racer
Date: 2018-12-15 02:27 am (UTC)"Well, there was that one time I decided we should build a soap box car. There was no local derby or anything, it was just something to do. I think we were about twelve?"
Steve rolls over onto his back and crosses his arms behind his head turning his face toward Bucky and smiling. "We scavenged up a couple orange crates and borrowed some tools from a neighbor. You had a way better idea how to use them than I did. It actually went pretty well to start with, except then we needed wheels for it."
"So, everyone knows the best wheels for a soap box car are the kind you get off a baby buggy. Unfortunately, we didn't know anyone with a baby or a buggy. But your sister had a buggy for her dolls, and we figured she wouldn't notice if we just borrowed the wheels for a couple days."
"I'm not 100% sure whose idea it was," he says a little gently. "Probably both of us. But what neither of us realized is that doll buggy wheels don't have to be quite as sturdy as real baby buggy wheels do."
"So. We took the wheels off the doll carriage and put them on the soap box car, and it rolled pretty well. We pushed one another up and down the road a couple times, and then I got the bright idea to try and roll down the hill between Elm and Jefferson. We figured there wasn't much traffic in the early morning, so we'd try then."
"We got there right as it was getting light, and you got cold feet right away. It wasn't a very steep hill, but it was enough that we had to put a stick under the wheels to keep the car from rolling on its own. You kept saying you weren't sure the brakes would stop it, and what if the milk truck came by at the wrong moment, and sometimes the cops would be on Jefferson Street in the morning at this hour...and I got pissed off at you and I got into the car and said I would show you it would be fine."
"I must have gotten in with some extra force, because the wheels jumped the stick before I was all the way in, and it started rolling downhill and picking up speed with me half in the seat and fumbling for the steering-rope. You started chasing after me yelling curse words and calling me an idiot, and the thing was swerving all over the road--"
He's laughing in earnest now, waving his hand as if to show the drunken path the car took. "I don't know how fast the damn thing went, but you managed to catch up about twenty feet from the bottom of the hill and you threw yourself onto me and the car, and we both went spinning into the grass as the side of the road. The car rolled over a few times and two of four wheels got bent or flattened, and you and I didn't even notice at first because we were tussling in the grass and calling each other names."
Bucky listens to this story with a mix of skepticism and fascination. His eyebrows go up and stay up, and all of that is probably a sign he doesn't remember much of this incident, but he's enjoying the story anyway.
He also goes through another s'more while Steve talks.
"That... sounds like us, yeah." He smirks just a little, looking thoughtful, and more like Bucky in some indefinable way. "You were an idiot, by the way."
"It wasn't my proudest moment," he admits, still laughing a little. "I bit you. On the right forearm. It bruised later."
Because sometimes, Steve fights dirty.
"Anyway, we wore ourselves out, and then we had another fight when we saw how badly we'd fucked up the wheels, and took everything back home and tried to hammer them back into shape. We actually managed to get them back onto the buggy, but they still looked like they had been stomped on by an elephant, and they barely rolled at all."
He shakes his head. "Your sister was so angry. I ended up giving you my allowance and whatever I could earn for the next three weeks, because you got told you owed her a replacement. But we managed it."
"You...?" Bucky shakes his head a little, working on toasting another marshmallow over the flame. "Biting is a very effective strategy. And it was definitely on you to buy the replacement." The bit about strategy says something about where he's at in his head, still, but he's smirking a little because he can't seem to get that off his face, and his shoulders have come down from around his ears.