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Peter enjoys that Bucky lives at the compound now, it always means his visits become more fun. There are some things that are a bit difficult at first, for example that Bucky isn’t always Bucky, but Peter gets used to that pretty quickly. He can easily spot if he deals with Bucky or with Winter, who is far more quiet and reticent and at times very grumpy, but Peter doesn’t mind. When he deals with Winter he talks less and is more serious, when he deals with Bucky there is more joking around and laughing. He likes both though and both still go to the training area with him for his usual training sessions, the only difference is that with Winter, Peter has to actually be careful because he’s not holding back as much as Bucky does.
When the joke with the magnets starts, everyone is rather amused at first, even Peter. One day, Tony accidentally stuck a magnet to Bucky’s metal arm, which ended in a game where they all tried to stick as many magnets as possible on his arm without Bucky noticing. Bucky doesn’t mind, he actually finds it very funny how they try to sneak behind him and doesn’t try to stop them.
Then, one day, there’s just a single magnet on Bucky’s arm, one that says “Property of Steve”. Both Tony and Peter, who is over at the time, are confused, until Steve just drags Bucky off with him. This marks the beginning of a new game, one which Peter watches without participating, not quite sure what to make of it.
Over the next couple of weeks, Steve and Tony pretty much trip over their own feet to stick their name onto Bucky’s arm first every day, which ends up with the one succeeding “owning” him for that day. Bucky doesn’t seem to mind - and surprisingly, Winter doesn’t either - but Peter notices that, over the weeks, Bucky seems more and more tired. Peter knows the relationship between the three is a bit complicated and that they both have something going on with Bucky, so the owning game kind of makes sense, he guesses, but he doesn’t really like it. At all.
So, one day when Peter stays over the weekend, he sneaks out of his room early and into Bucky’s, putting his own magnet onto his arm. An hour later everyone else gets up and both Tony and Steve want to “claim” Bucky, only to realize there already is a claim on him. A magnet that says: ‘Property of Peter, hands off!’. Tony and Steve share a confused look, both dropping their magnets, when Peter walks over to them.
“Guess he’s mine for the day,” he says with a smile and drags Bucky away, only that it’s not Bucky today. Coincidence or not, Peter managed to claim Winter for the day, but he doesn’t mind.
“What did you do?” Winter asks when Peter leads him through the common area and towards the elevator, not quite understanding what is going on.
“I decided to play the game too,” Peter shrugs, taking Winter’s metal hand to keep pulling him forward. “We will spend the day together today, I promise you’ll like it.”
Winter, who is used to be dragged off to the bedroom after a claim has been made on him for the day instead of the elevator, just keeps looking confused.
“Don’t you want to stay?”
“Nope,” Peter smiles and presses the lobby button once they are in the elevator. “We’ll go out today, I have a surprise for you. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
Peter’s surprise turns out to be a trip to Coney Island. They catch several glances on the subway and trams they use, but while Winter is mostly silent and confused about the whole ordeal, Peter not once loses his smile, holding onto him to make sure they aren’t getting separated. When they arrive, however, Winter finally breaks his silence.
“What are we doing here?” he asks, looking slightly uncomfortable with the amount of people around them.
“Tony and Steve keep tiring you out,” Peter says seriously and looks up at him. “I just want you to have some fun for a day, you know? I’ve been here with my aunt a few years ago, it’s really great and there are so many things to do.” And before Winter can complain, Peter starts dragging him along.
They simply walk around for a while, looking at the attractions around them, until Peter spots one of the roller coasters, literally starting to pull on Winter’s arm.
“We have to go on that one!” he says excitedly, pretty much jumping up and down next to the other. “It’s so much fun and so fast!”
Winter looks up, reads the sign which says ‘Coney Island Cyclone’ and frowns.
“Are you sure about this?” he wants to know and Peter nods eagerly. It’s barely five minutes before they stand in line, Winter rather stiff and unsure about what’s going to happen and Peter excited like a child on Christmas. In a way, this is kind of the same for him.
Once they are seated - somehow they managed to get the front seats, of course next to each other - Peter grins from ear to ear. “Last time I was too short for this, I’m so excited to finally ride it!” he exclaims and laughs. As the ride starts, he clings to Winter with one arm and has the other steady himself.
There is a lot of screaming from Peter’s side when they finally go down and much less from Winter, who is simply pressed into his seat and stares at the track in front of them, but it’s obvious that Peter enjoys it very much. It doesn’t take long before Winter relaxes at least a little bit and when the ride is over, he looks at Peter as if to ask what he thinks. The boy beams at him with pure joy.
“That. Was. Fucking. Awesome!” he states and laughs happily, his cheeks slightly pink from screaming and the adrenaline going through his system. After they leave, he hooks up with Winter’s metal arm again, who doesn’t try to pull away this time. It’s as if he accepted that Peter feels safer this way in the crowded place and that’s kind of nice, actually.
As they walk through the place a bit more, Peter suddenly gets curious and looks up at him. “You had county fairs back in the 40s too, right?” he asks. “Did you ever went to one?”
Winter has to think about that for a while before he nods. “A few times, but they were smaller. Not so many people. And not so loud.”
“What kind of attractions did you have back then?”
“Mostly lucky wheels or freak shows,” Winter says and shrugs. “Usually you would take out a girl to them and eat bad hot dogs or try to fight against the strong guy to impress her.”
“The strong guy?” Peter asks curious and tilts his head.
“There was always one place with a ring and some guy who was very strong and some pretty girl asking people to ‘try your luck against Samson’ or similar things. And if you went there with your date, saying no was out of question because she would have thought you were weak. So the boys went into the ring, got their ass handed to them and left to be comforted by them.”
“That sounds pretty dumb,” Peter chuckles and shakes his head. “Glad we won’t have to do that today.”
“Me too,” Winter says and for a moment it looks like he will laugh, but he doesn’t. Peter shrugs and looks around to find a place to eat something.
“They got pizza here, do you want some?”
“If you are hungry, we can eat.”
So, they end up at a place that sells pizza, sitting in the sun while they eat and still, Peter smiles like it’s the best day of his life. He talks about other things they have here, like the big ferris wheel and the auto skooter and the ice skating area. He also mentions several booths where people can win prizes for things like tossing balls or shooting, which actually makes Winter turn his head.
“Shooting?”
“Oh yes,” Peter grins and nods. “They have a booth near the end, you get a number of shots and the more you hit, the bigger the prize you get. I never manage to get more than 50 points, though.”
“Do you want to try it again?” Winter asks and Peter’s grin broadens even more.
“I’d love to!” he says excited. “I’m sure you’d be so good at it, you’d probably get all the points!”
There is something like a smile on Winter’s face for a split second before he nods and finishes his pizza. “We can go there if you want to,” he agrees, making Peter almost jump up with joy.
Once they are both done, they head towards the booth Peter mentioned. On the way, Peter gets them both some ice cream, accompanied with the words ‘It’s hot and we should stay cool, right?’. Winter just nods and takes the offered treat, allowing Peter to hook back up with his arm so they can continue. At this point, he barely registers the looks they get anymore or reacts to them. He is more calm and far less nervous than he was when they arrived, which ultimately reflects on Peter, who seems to be in a rather peaceful mood himself.
They spot the booth shortly before they finished their ice cream and decide to stand back and watch a few others try their luck at first, with Peter explaining the whole thing.
“Not every target gives the same points, you have to go for the moving ones, okay?” He says and smiles up at Winter. “The birds give 100 points each, the ducks give 80. Most people go for the ones that don’t move, but they only give 10 to 20 points.”
“What do you get when you hit the highest targets?” Winter asks and Peter chuckles.
“One of those, for example,” he grins and points at the huge stuffed bears hanging from a wall of the booth. “They are 1000 points each, but barely anyone gets that much. The birds are really fast…”
Winter nods, but doesn’t answer. Instead, he watches someone start a new game, his eyes glued onto the targets. Peter observes him closely and notices the way Winter shifts, as if he’s preparing himself. He figures that’s exactly what’s happening.
Five minutes later, Winter finally nods. “I will try.”
They approach the booth once everyone else is done and Winter takes the rifle, barely listening to the man who gives him instructions. Finally, the signal sounds that starts a new round and Peter watches in awe how Winter aims and shoots. Every single shot hits one of the fast moving birds, all ten of them giving him full points. Peter’s eyes are wide and sparkling by the time he’s done.
“That was so cool!” he exclaims and suddenly hugs Winter tight. “You’re awesome!”
The man running the booth looks baffled when Winter puts the rifle back down and turns to him. He clearly didn’t expect someone to be as good as he was.
“W-Wow, that’s… that’s a rare one,” the man says and gulps. “So, for 1000 points you can pick anything you want.”
“A bear,” Winter immediately says and points towards the displayed ones. The man looks defeated when he walks over and cuts one of them off its hook, handing it to him.
“Congrats,” he says, but he doesn’t sound like he’s happy about giving this away.
Winter takes the bear and turns to Peter, handing it to him. “For you,” he says.”
Peter’s face lights up. “Are you serious?” he asks, taking the bear completely stunned. It’s almost as big as Peter is himself.
“You said you never got one,” Winter says quietly and Peter suddenly hugs the bear.
“I didn’t! Thank you so much!” The boy is absolutely delighted and holds the bear as tight as he possibly can. “I love it and I’ll take good care of it, I promise!”
Winter nods, his apparent nervousness fading away. They leave, this time without Peter holding onto him because he needs both arms for the huge bear he carries.
The rest of their visit is similarly amusing, even though Winter refuses to go on the second roller coaster ride with Peter. Instead, he watches over the bear, watching Peter enjoy his ride. Afterwards, they get some candy and eventually get onto the auto skooter too, but this time Peter asks one of the employees to watch over the bear because he really wants Winter to come with him.
When they get back to the compound, it’s late in the afternoon and Peter looks the happiest he’s ever been, still holding onto his bear Winter got for him and smiling brightly.
“Did you enjoy your day off?” he asks once they are back in the common room and finally sit down again.
“It was very nice, thank you for this,” Winter answers, watching Peter - who totally uses the bear as a pillow and sits on its lap at the other side of the couch.
“I had a lot of fun today,” Peter smiles happily. “And if you ever want to go again, I’m going to win a bear for you too.”
At this, Winter’s lips suddenly jerk and he actually smiles at the boy. “I would like that, yes.”
Peter’s eyes sparkle so much when he throws himself forward and hugs Winter again, tight and long. “I can’t wait!” he laughs and kisses Winter’s cheek. “But you have to show me how to aim like you do first.”
“I will happily do that,” Winter says, almost softly, and pats Peter’s back carefully.
The rest of the day they spend talking before Peter has to go back home, of course taking the bear with him. After this, he makes a decision to make sure he can take the other out from time to time, so they can have some fun together. He really likes WInter - and Bucky - and even though it’s hard to tell whether Winter actually enjoyed it or not, he knows the smile he gave him was genuine. And that really gives him some hope.