The Art of Bathing

Hottie

Bucky had been living with Steve and Clint for about a week now. It hadn't been too bad, Clint had taken to the guy quite well and even admitted he used to play guitar back in the day. And Bucky admitted he was only just starting out as a hobby and he'd love some tips – and that's how Clint ended up buying himself a new guitar and every night the two of them could be found in the living area, strumming their fingers against the strings and bashing their palms against the wood. Steve was offended – he'd bought Clint loads of Lemon Flutter Cuticle Butter to ease away his callouses from years and years of playing guitar and firing arrows. All that good stuff... was for nothing.

Truth be told, the whole team seemed to be getting along great with Bucky's company. Tony had accepted him in minutes once he had admitted he didn't actually have a pet anything and he had just been feeding the strays that lived outside and hadn't argued when his landlord wanted him out. He said it wasn't a good place anyway, it smelled bad and there were countless drunks on the stairway and in the streets, and Bucky said it almost felt worse than being back travelling constantly with the army.

Steve couldn't be mad at him for lying, especially when he had done it to feed some cats. In fact, Steve was sure he overheard Bucky and Nat talking about going back over there and rescuing the cats and bringing them back here, but this plan was completely under wraps in case Tony heard about it. He was more of a dog person.

Bucky joined in with the guys when they sat around together and watched TV, even mucking in with the cooking sometimes when Sam didn't feel like it; and to be honest, Steve thinks everyone prefers Bucky's food anyway. And Bucky always baked a little something at the end to round the meal off.

Since the first time they walked home together, Bucky had never made a comment like that one to Steve again, and Steve had to admit he was a little disappointed. He couldn't actually deny Bucky was hot, and he couldn't face that fact seeing as every one of their friends knew about it, thanks to Steve's big mouth from the first day at work. For once though, Natasha and Sam didn't seem intent on setting Steve up with anybody, and never mentioned Bucky in that way around Steve. Steve thought they might have finally gotten the picture... Or were up to something even more devious.

It was one night when Steve came home from work that he noticed them planning something. He went straight from work to Sam's apartment, which had become the new meeting place for the gang to eat food and trash talk people on TV. As usual, they were all sitting round on the sofas surrounding the TV, split off into little groups and talking amongst themselves whilst snacking from the treats Bucky and Sam had combined powers to make.

"Hey everyone," Steve sighed, flopping into the nearest chair, resting his feet on the coffee table. He was exhausted. It was only his third shift and he was really getting into it, but the long hours of standing on his feet were also getting to him. His throat was a little sore too, he'd spent the whole day behind the cash desk as Peggy trained him, chatting to Wanda in between gushing to customers about the products they were buying.

"Aw, Steve sounds like he needs a cup of tea," Tony pouted, pulling a face in Steve's direction. "If only someone loved him enough to go and make him one." When nobody moved, everyone cackled in delight at the look on Steve's face.

"No, no, that's fine, I can do it myself. Just being I work so hard-"

"Yeah, yeah, save the drama. You don't know the terrible effects of working for Tony," Natasha chipped in, checking her nails for dirt.

"I know, you actually need to spend time with him all day. Nightmare." Clint joined in the ribbing, both of them staring over at Tony like he was the big bad wolf. Tony puffed out his chest and flipped them the bird, turning back to the TV with an actual pout on his face now.