They wound up at the bar in less than a half-hour, both of them dressed to the nines. For once, no one was looking down on Steve because he's smaller than everyone. On the outside, he seemed like he was ready to break hearts. Inside, he's cringing because the guy he carries a torch for is taking him to a bar to meet someone else.
They didn't even stay twenty minutes.
Five minutes in, a slick looking guy who told Steve he was a mechanic bought the shorter blonde a drink. He accepted it graciously and the two chatted until Mechanic asked if Steve was there with anyone. All about honesty, Steve pointed out Bucky (who was breaking out his best moves for a girl who wouldn't look at him twice) and Mechanic backed off, apologizing for something that Steve didn't even know happened.
A few minutes later, the same thing happened again, but this time with someone who told Steve he was a lawyer. Lawyer didn't apologies; he looked Steve over and muttered, "Pity."
And again it happened, with a salesman. Salesman lamented that 'all the pretty ones are taken'.
Finally, Steve went over to Bucky, who was a hair's breadth away from having a pretty redhead throw her drink in his face. "Come on. This isn't working. They all think I'm taken, heaven knows why." The aforementioned redhead stilled, looked between them, and asked, "You two aren't together?" Both Steve and Bucky shook their heads. She chuckled. "Well, Bucky, you glaring daggers at anyone who talks to this one isn't helping his cause." She nodded to Steve and walked off with a leggy brunette who was staring Bucky down with jealousy apparent on her face.
"Wait, you've been glaring at them?"
"What, no! Why would I?"
They wound up in the bathroom, Bucky's face mottled red. "What is the matter with you? I thought you wanted me to meet someone," Steve said, feeling something beyond confused. "I do!"
"Then why are you scaring them all away?!" He hissed, watching Bucky's face get even more red. "Those chumps weren't good enough for you."
Steve wanted to beat his head against a wall in frustration. A part of him liked that Bucky was being protective, but the rest of him was annoyed. "You don't get to decide that. You're not my babysitter, you're my friend."
"Exactly! Your friend. So I should have a say in who gets involved with my Stevie." A split second after Bucky said that, he looked like he hadn't wanted to say that. "'Your' Stevie?"
"Yes. Mine. You always have been." The matter of fact way the brunette had said it, like it was a fact of life that Steve was his, made that part in Steve that he'd been trying to suppress all night snapped. "Well, if I'm 'yours', then act like it and make me yours! Otherwise, stay out of it!" Steve heaved out, his breath whistling in a way that would have concerned him at any other time. Right now, he was done.
Meanwhile, Bucky stared at Steve with wide eyes until the smaller man realized what he'd said. "Buck, I-"
"Fine. I will." Hearing that crushed Steve and he prepared to leave until Bucky cleared the distance between them and hauled him into his arms, claiming his mouth.
Steve gasped against him and didn't move for the time it took Bucky to panic and pull back, face betraying what he was feeling. "Steve, I-"
"Don't." They just stared at each other for a long while before Steve tentatively leaned back in and met Bucky's parted lips, letting his eyes slip shut as he did. His hands slowly trailed up to hold Bucky's smooth cheeks as they both gave in.
It was slow, the kiss. Slow and loving. The brunette loosened his grip around Steve's waist, hands holding it gently as he set the smaller man's feet back on the ground. He now had to bend to keep their mouths connected but he didn't seem to care.
Steve found himself sighing into it, knowing now what all the fuss was about when it came to kissing.
Bucky tested the waters by tracing his tongue along Steve's bottom lip, which made the blonde gasp. He took the opening, deepening the kiss with one swift move. Now Steve was clueless and did his best to copy what Bucky was doing, his breath coming faster. His hands left the brunette's face and tangled in the short hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer. This seemed to set him off because Steve left the ground again and he opened his eyes to see Bucky moving them into a stall and setting him against the wall of it more gently than the situation dictated. A knee went between Steve's legs to help hold him up and brushed against him in a way that made him moan in surprise into Buck's mouth.
Unfortunately, this made him pull back, setting his face in Steve's neck. "M-might be going too fast, Stevie." Both of them were breathing heavily and the blonde leaned his head back against the wall. "No, you're fine," Steve breathed out, making Bucky laugh. "I mean, I skipped my whole confession." Steve raised his brows. "Confession?"
"I planned it... two years ago? But then your mom... I couldn't take advantage of you like that." That made Steve smile fondly. "Screw the speech, I'll skip to the main point. I'm in love with you. But I wanted you to be happy so I didn't say anything." Steve froze. Two years, he's been putting himself aside for Steve's sake? "Bucky..."
The taller man pulled back to look at him. "Remember the guy I told you about?" Bucky grimaced at the mention of him, given what he'd just said. "It was you. I felt that shock with you. When you grabbed my hand to turn the wheel, and when you touched my shoulder. And when you kissed me." Bucky blinked a couple times, then gave his trademark smile. "I'd hoped so, but you didn't say. Which kinda makes sense, but yeah." Steve grinned back, seeing Bucky melt slightly at it.
After a silent moment, Steve realised they had confessed all that with Bucky pinning him to the wall in a less than chaste way. "Bucky?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we go home?" Bucky cocked a brow. "Which one?"
"You know damn well which one."
When they got back to Steve's, Bucky pulled the blonde back in by his tie and mumbled 'I love you' against Steve's mouth that made him a little light-headed and giddy to hear. No one had ever told him that and meant it this way. And when he replied in kind, he found he meant it, deeply, and he'd never said that to anyone and meant it this much. For the second time in his life, he was scared. Scared this was going to be some dream brought on by a fever or something awful like that.
When they wound up not making love, Steve was kind of surprised. From how the evening had gone, it had been leading to that. But when they were both shirtless in Steve's bed, Bucky had pulled back and panted against his skin, "I wanna wait. This isn't a fling for me." Steve's heart had swelled at that and he replied, "I'm glad, cuz it's not for me." Bucky had grinned and before kissing him again, he said, "But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna kiss you until you need your inhaler." Moments later, he pulled back and amended, "Well, not really, but-"
"Shut up, Buck."
AN: holy balls that was long. But you guys deserve it for me being MIA for a while there. (Btw, I've never gotten so into it that I made it this long. At least, I don't think so.)
