Electric / Steve Rogers x OC x Bucky Barnes ✓

Chapter 97: Special

STEVE

After saving Maddie from Grant I mingle for a while before ending up back at the bar. I place myself next to Bucky who's leaning against the bar, watching people. Or, I guess, not so much people. More like, one person. 

I follow his gaze and lean in closer to him, "If you keep staring at her like that, others will notice." 

He smirks before taking a sip of his drink, his eyes still fixated on Maddie, "I don't care who notices." 

I turn to him, "I know you don't, Buck, but she does. I do, too. Right now is not the time to make this known to the world."

He turns to me, "When will it be?" 

"When will it be what?" 

"The time," he replies, taking another sip. "When do I get to be with her like you do? It's not hard for you, Steve, you could just walk over right now and kiss her. And I know you guys kept it secret for a while but this is different. When you were a secret, at least she wasn't kissing another man as you watched and couldn't do anything about it." 

I furrow my brows at him, "So that's the problem, then? That people know about me and not you? That's what you're jealous about?" 

"Obviously," he says flatly. 

I blink a little, "I didn't know you felt that way." 

He sighs, "It's not like it's a huge thing, or something that would ever break us apart. But it just makes it even harder than it already is. To the world, she's yours. At least if she was single, it would be different. I could still pretend to have claim on her. But right now, she's claimed by another. It's really confusing and frustrating, pal." 

"I understand," I reply, patting his shoulder. "But it's not the time right now, you know that Buck." 

"I know," he says quietly and then he glances at her before looking back at me, "Have you thought about it?"

"Thought about what?"

"What will happen if... when... Everyone knows?" 

I shrug, "No, not really." 

He raises his eyebrows, "You haven't even considered what might happen? What the world will say?" 

I furrow my brows at him, "I don't care about that." 

"I know pal, but.. you're Captain America. You're not worried about that?" 

I'm taken a back as he says it. No, I haven't thought about that. At all. Why haven't I thought about that? 

"Oh.. Right.. I guess you have a point there." 

He snorts, "Yeah, it's a pretty big one. I can't believe it didn't even cross your mind." 

I glance to Madeline as I speak, "I guess I just knew I would prioritize her above anything else." 

"As you should. But still. We need to have a game plan for when shit hits the fan. Maddie and I talked about it today." 

"You did?" I ask, surprised. She's never mentioned it to me. 

"Yeah, I asked her if you guys had talked about it and she said you haven't. It came up because we were talking about that whole 'living together' situation." 

I chuckle, "I guess you guys really did make up then, huh?" 

He smirks at me, "Oh, we made up." 

He glances to Maddie and I watch his face before furrowing my brows at him, "What does that mean exactly?" 

Once he looks back at me, he shrugs. "You know.. We made up. It was nice. We've never done that before, just the two of us."