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It wasn’t fair. Cheating. That’s what it was, honestly. But if the cheat was on your side and you won... Well, one could hardly complain.And complain Bucky would not.When the first real storm of the winter arrived overnight, blanketing the Avengers Compound in several inches of heavy snow, Bucky found himself pelted in the back by a snowball on the walk in to the hangar from the landing pad. Some of the ground crew working on the Quinjet even “Oo”d and “Oh”d at the incident, seeing the leveled glare Bucky slowly turned over his shoulder to see who had hit him. The toothy smile and chuckling shrug from Wilson said he had no shame, when Sam excused himself saying, “My hand slipped.” Ahead of them, the others had stopped. Natasha and Clint sniggered. Standing next to Bucky, Wanda stared wide eyed, her gaze shifting back and forth between Sam and Bucky, waiting to see what happened. Steve groaned, rolling his eyes. Couldn’t they have one week where one of them didn’t start shit with the other?”It...slipped?” Bucky questioned, a distinct tone of displeasure in his voice.“My hands, man,” Sam unabashedly grinned, dusting his hands together to brush the traces of snow off his gloves. “Slipped right out.” “Oh,” Bucky quietly said, subtly raising his chin, “I see.” He blinked and a smile took over his lips. “Well, accidents happen, right?” “Yeah,” Sam warily agreed, an uneasiness coming to his grin before it completely slipped from his face, as Bucky turned and continued on to the hangar.“Wait. What?” Steve begged, his brow knitting down in confusion, watching Bucky walk by with Wanda on his heels. Clint slowly shook his head. “I got a baaad feeling about this...” ...The next afternoon, Wanda decided, “We’re going to get in a lot of trouble for this.”“I don’t see how,” Bucky shrugged, patting a little more snow onto the top of the snowman’s head. “And that’s exactly why we will,” she nodded, with a crooked grin. Digging in to the pocket of his coat, Bucky picked out the carrot they’d brought from the kitchen. He twisted the carrot into place and stood back to admire their work. The snowman was almost as tall as he was, traditionally made of three boulders of handpacked powder. He came together pretty quickly, thanks to Wanda using her powers to stack the balls of snow. “What do you think?” Bucky asked. “He doesn’t look very happy,” she frowned. “What if we just-“Bucky reached out, putting his hand over hers to keep her from adjusting the rocks they’d used to add the eyes and smiling mouth. “No no no no,” he insisted. “It’s perfect.” Wanda snorted, giving a shake of her head and cocking up a brow. “If you say so...” “Trust me,” he smiled, putting his arm around her shoulder to walk back inside together. ...“Are you sure about this?” Wanda whispered in worry, her hands turning and fingers straining. “100%,” he quietly nodded. Her tongue wet her lips, before she pressed them together tightly, concentrating. Bucky was behind her shoulder, eagerly watching her work. “What are you two d-“ A furious wave of Bucky’s hand behind him shushed Natasha, as she came into the common room. “Ohhh myyy goood...” “Right?” Bucky proudly grinned, eyes still fixed outside the window. “Hey, guys,” Clint spoke up. “What are you-““Shhh!” Natasha hissed, waving a hand at him, much the same way Bucky had done to her. She snapped her fingers at him, as he came to join them by the windows, ordering, “Gimme your phone.” “My pho-“ he shook his head. “Wh- Ohhh.” He dug into his pocket, handing the phone over. “I see. ...I think.” “Waaaait...” Bucky gently said. “Not yet.” Outside and two stories below, Sam was walking back from his morning run. He stopped, giving Bucky and Wanda’s snowman a critical eye. Sam glared at it a moment, before shaking his head and scoffing. He started on his way back inside.“Now,” Bucky told her. And Wanda turned the snowman again.“Oh, man,” Clint chuckled. “This is creepy as hell.” Sam stopped, his head snapping over his shoulder to the snowman. He gave it a suspicious once over and then twisted to look all around him. He looked up, clearly checking to see if anyone was watching him, and everyone upstairs ducked back or dropped to the floor away from the window. Upstairs, everyone held their breath, except Barton, who was wheezing with suppressed laughter. He craned his neck, tipping his head to slowly peek out the window, before announcing, “All clear. He didn’t see us.” Everyone crept back up to the window, mindful this time to stay hunkered down and be smaller targets to spot, if Sam took another look. Luckily for them, Sam’s attention was focused on the snowman, stepping off the path to the building to get a closer look. “Now what?” Steve groaned, and the others jumped with a start. “Jeeesus,” Natasha complained for them all, rolling her eyes over hard as she reset Clint’s phone on the scene outside again. Steve carefully approached from behind, keeping a low profile like the others as he peered over Bucky’s shoulder. “What are you all- Oh.” His brow rose, as realization came to his face. “...Oh, shit.” Steve looked down to Bucky. “You’re not gonna-“ “Yep,” Bucky confidently nodded. “Hey, gang,” Tony said. “Hurry!” Clint insisted, looping his arm to draw Tony over. Tony hurried over, putting his hands down on Steve and Clint’s shoulders to brace himself as he looked over the pack to see outside. “What am I miss- Oh.” Below them, Sam was taking another look around. He smirked and swiped a hand dismissively at the snowman. As he turned away and stepped back on the sidewalk, Bucky nudged Wanda. With a twist of her wrist and curling of her fingers, a snowball manifested from the ground, surrounded by a soft glow of red. Wanda flicked her hand out, sending the snowball into Sam’s back. While everyone inside snickered, Sam jerked, wildly looking around for who threw the snowball. “Alright,” Bucky nodded, with a fiendish smile. “Now.” Wanda grinned, as sparks came to her fingertips and she raised both hands to turn and bend in front of her. Outside, the snowman shifted. And Sam froze. Everyone collectively leaned closer to the glass, as the stick arms of the snowman began to move and the rocks that had formed its smile dropped to a frown. The scowl on the snowman made Sam’s jaw drop, as he stuttered for a step, seemingly lost for what to do. But instinct took over and Sam broke into a run when the snowman began to slide across the snow and chase after him. Sam ran into the door, yanking on the handles. But Bucky had already had JARVIS lock the entrance ten minutes ago. Outside, Sam fumbled over the keypad, desperately trying to punch in his code to unlock the door...the same code that Bucky had had JARVIS temporarily disable ten minutes ago. As Sam shot a panicked look over his shoulder, the snowman was almost right on top of him. “Do it,” Bucky mischievously grinned. Wanda curled her hands closed, her brow furrowing in concentration, before flinging her hands open. Outside, the snowman broke apart into dozens of snowballs, all hurling themselves at Sam, who could do nothing but pull up a knee and throw up his arms, desperately trying to protect himself. He stayed like that, for a few seconds, before prying open one eye to look around. The snowman was gone and he was caked in snow. As he slowly lowered his hands and put his foot back down, snow fell off of his limbs like from branches in the breeze. Bucky gave JARVIS the go ahead and the AI enabled Sam’s code and unlocked the door again. Already laughing, everyone barked a little louder at seeing Sam jump, as the sound of the lock on the door behind him releasing obviously startled him. Sam looked again. This time, no one bothered to hide. The team all stood at the window, laughing. Sam frowned, shaking his head disapprovingly. He pointed with the length of his arm up at Bucky and flipped him off. For his part, Bucky crossed his arms, smuggly smiling back. “He is going to kill you,” Natasha promised, forwarding the video to her phone before passing Clint’s phone back to him. A discerning look came to Bucky, as he quirked up a brow, musing, “Will he?” “If you did all of that,” Clint considered, jerking his thumb toward the window, “over a snowball?” He confidently shook his head. “I think he’ll know better.” Bucky turned to Wanda, giving her a proud smile. “That was amazing,” he beamed. “Thank you,” she bowed her head, with a humble grin. She lifted her eyes again and Tony gave her a high five.“Nice work, Sparkles,” Tony approved, with a pout. “Terrifying,” he considered, with a tilt of his head, “but nice.” “You know,” Natasha began, “having Wanda help you with your revenge pranks is cheating...” “Is it?” Bucky checked, with a look of exaggerated innocence.“Are you done now?” Steve dryly wondered, as he did his best to hold back an amused smile and cocked up a brow at Bucky.Bucky shrugged. “I think so.” “This time...” Steve ominously agreed, shaking his head with a chuckle. Bucky turned back to Wanda, taking a step over to slip his arms around her waist from behind and give her a squeeze. “I told you, it’d be hilarious,” he reminded her and pecked a kiss to her cheek. “You were amazing.” “You owe me,” she firmly told him, pointing a finger up at him over her shoulder, “big time.” “Yes, dear,” he happily agreed, before playfully biting a kiss into the curve of her neck and giving her side a pinch. She swatted him away, wiggling out of his arms and giggling until she turned around and saw Sam standing in the door, half covered in snow and half wet from it melting. Wanda pressed her lips together, failing at trying not to look guilty, while everyone else in the room stopped to stare at Sam staring hard at Bucky. He raised his arm, pointing at Bucky and silently calling him out. Taking his cue, Bucky shifted his weight, telling Wanda, “Gotta go.” Bucky took off like a shot, with Wilson in pursuit and leaving a trail of snow in their wake. “Dinner’s at 6,” Natasha nonchalantly called after them. “Oh, he’s a dead man,” Wanda decided, wincing into her shoulders, along with everyone else, at the unexpected crash and clattering of something from far down the hall. “That sounded expensive,” Clint noted, wagging up his brow. Tony shrugged off the assessment, going over to the kitchen to check for coffee and saying, “Worth it. After all,” he thoughtfully pouted, “you know what they say about revenge...”