Witch Hunt || Stucky ✔

IX - Unknown Feelings

"Girls, Bucky and I have to go out to work at the Howling Wolf tonight, and we won't be home until later." Steve starts, walking into the main room of the house, where the girls are sat in front of the fire, and James is sat on the sofa seemingly staring off at nothing in particular. "Elizabeth, I'm putting you in charge."

"Yes, papa." Elizabeth says.

Steve nods, before looking over at James. He has to admit that James is a rather, odd fellow, and there's still many things that Steve doesn't know about him. To be fair, James has only been with them for a couple of weeks now, but in those couple of weeks, Steve has noticed a few strange things about him. He's rather quiet too, and is often going out for walks around the farm.

Well, Steve supposes that that's not too odd, but there's just something about James that Steve isn't too sure on. There seems as though there's something that the guy is hiding, and that he doesn't want anyone to find out about.

Of course, Steve isn't about to go and ask James about it, he's allowed to have his secrets. But it doesn't make Steve any less curious about whatever it may possibly be that James is hiding.

"Bucky?" Steve asks, getting his attention. "Are you ready to head out soon?"

At that, James looks up at him, shaking his head. "Y-yeah. I'm ready to head on out soon." He says, sounding as though something is bothering him. "We walking there, or taking the horses?"

Steve has to stop and think about that. "I guess we could walk there." He decides. "It's safe enough."

Usually they'd take the horses into town to get to work, especially at the hour of the night that they'll be returning back home. But the town is fairly safe enough to walk in during the night. The town isn't known for high levels of crime, and everyone is friendly enough to each other, so there won't be much trouble walking back in the dark.

James nods, getting up off the sofa, and stretching his arms up in the air a little, before he's walking over to Steve. "If you're sure it'll be safe enough, then okay." He says.

James has to admit, he's not too convinced that it's very safe to walk back from the tavern in the dark. He hasn't been in this town for very long to know for sure, but he's going to have to take Steve's word for it. After all, Steve has lived here in this town for years. At least, James is assuming he has...

"I'm just gonna go outside for a bit." James decides, heading over towards the front door. He doesn't really have a need to go outside, but it's getting a little too warm inside for him.

"Alright." Steve nods. "We'll head on out to the tavern in about half an hour."

James nods, before exiting out of the house.

As soon as he's outside, he's not sure what to do with himself. Though the chill air is a bit more his style than the heat from the fire in the fireplace inside. James doesn't like being too warm, he's found that he likes the cold a little more than the heat. He's not entirely sure why, he just does.

Walking over in the direction of the barn, James decides to check if his things are still in there or not. He's sure that his things are most likely still in there, but seeing as though he's got a bit of trust issues, he doesn't exactly believe himself all that much when he tries to convince himself that his things are still there. Even when they've been there for a couple weeks now without anyone moving them at all.

Sighing in relief as he finds his things still hidden away where he left them out of sight, he jumps down off the ledge, landing on his feet on the ground. Or, almost on his feet. Laying back on the hay that he's landed on, he just stares up at the ceiling.

"Ow." He mutters, not really fancying getting up just yet, as he just lays there.

Finally, he sits up, looking around at his surroundings. The two cats that live in the barn had come out of their hiding spot, curious to see what had just happened, but they don't come near James, they just stay a good distance away from him, watching him.

Getting up, he shakes all the hay off of him, finding a large clump stuck in his hair which he manages to dislodge easy enough. There's probably a bit more hay than that in his hair, but he'll get them out eventually.

Fixing up his clothes, he makes his way out of the barn. The sun would be setting in a couple hours. But unfortunately he won't be able to watch the sunset. Watching the sunset has became something that James enjoys doing, especially ever since he came to this town. But seeing as he and Steve has work at the Howling Wolf tonight, he won't be able to watch the sunset. There's always tomorrow night though.

Glancing over at the house, James feels a sort of tugging in his heart, telling him to go back inside to Steve. So far, he has been able to keep his feelings for Steve hidden, and ignore them as much as he can, but at times when he's alone, he just can't stop the feelings from resurfacing.

He's attracted to Steve, and has been slowly forming feelings for the guy that are more than just friendship. But he knows fully well that he'll never be able to get that with Steve. Or anyone for that matter. But that doesn't seem to be stopping him from feeling this way towards the guy.

Eventually, James heads back on over to the house to find Steve just exiting and about to head on over to him.

"You ready to go?" Steve asks, looking James up and down, noticing that his clothes look a bit of a mess and he has a bit of hay stuck in his hair, but he doesn't mention it to James.

James shrugs, "I guess so." He says, before the two of them are off into town to work their shifts at the Howling Wolf for the night.

******

All while Steve and James are busy with their shifts at the tavern, Steve can't help but glance over towards James every so often. There's just something about him that Steve finds himself interested in, but he knows that nothing will ever be able to come of it.

Though, every so often when Steve looks over towards James, he can't help but notice that it seems as though the guy is almost keeping an eye out for something or someone inside the tavern. Steve isn't sure why he'd need to, as there's surely nothing that James has to worry about.

But then again, considering the fact that Steve barely knows anything about the guy, and has no idea where exactly he came from, seeing as each time he attempts to ask, James has either told him that it doesn't matter, or he goes quiet before leaving the room to not come back till a couple hours later. There may possibly be some dark secret that the guy is hiding. Maybe Elizabeth is right when she says that she doesn't trust him?

Or maybe Steve's just being silly about it all, and that James isn't keeping a lookout for someone, and is just looking around the place. That's probably it.

"You good, Bucky?" Steve asks, as he walks over to the side of the shelf behind them both closest to James to grab something off the shelf.

James looks over at him, shrugging. "Yeah, I'm fine." He says, and Steve could've sworn he saw a small smile playing along James's lips. But as soon as it's there, it's gone as James turns around to serve a customer that looks as though he may have had a bit too much to drink already.

Steve doesn't stay staring a James for too long, as he's called over to serve another customer. But after he's served the customer, he glances back over at James. He seems to look as though he knows what he's doing, so steve takes that as a good thing. Though, bartending isn't too difficult, especially when the place is surprisingly not very busy for a change.

For the rest of the night, the two of them continue on working through their shift, till it's time for them to head on back home. Back on home for a much needed sleep, seeing as Steve still has to go into work again in the morning at the blacksmith's shop.

James on the other hand though, is planning on doing a bit of gardening in the morning, and then maybe he'll go over a few of his spells seeing as he'll be the only one home tomorrow.

For now though, all the pair of them are going to do, is get as much sleep as they can before they need to get up again in the morning.