broken soldier // pre-serum!steve x bucky

three

after an awkward few hours spent in loki's presence, i finally managed to come up with a polite excuse to leave.

"hey, uh, sorry guys, but i should be going," i said, pretending to check my phone. "my mom needs me."

loki nodded and showed me to the door, but james insisted on walking me home.

"don't want you getting beat up." he grinned towards me as we stepped out into the street, soft light from the street lamps illuminating his tanned skin.

"i can defend myself y'know." i replied, returning his grin with a shy smile and burying my hands into the pockets of my jeans.

"sure," he drawled, unconvinced by my height, and let out a deep chuckle when i shivered. "you cold?"

"uh, a little, yeah."

"here." he stopped to take off his jacket, a faded black denim, and put it over my shoulders.

"thanks." i blushed, watching my hands disappear inside the sleeves.
he sighed contently in response.

"so, you still live with your mom?"

"no, she's not around anymore."

"aw man, i'm sorry about that."

"its okay."

we remained in silence until we reached my apartment block, conveniently only a few blocks away from his.

"this it?"

"yeah." i began to take his jacket off before he stopped me, pulling it back over my shoulders.

"don't worry, i'll come get it tomorrow." his hands remained on my shoulders for a while before he moved them.

"i should, uh, go, see you tomorrow?" james asked cautiously.

"see you tomorrow." i agreed, giving him a shy smile in response.

"well, goodnight steve." he leaned toward me and ruffled my hair before he started walking back to his apartment.

"goodnight james." i laughed after him, watching him disappear down the street before closing the door.

slowly, i locked it and slid to the floor, keys dropping from my hand as i sat staring into the hallway.
i almost expected her to come running to the door with that huge smile on her face, but she didn't.
sighing, i pushed myself from the floor, scooping up the keys and dumping them in the tray near the door.
i slipped off my shoes and james' jacket, putting them in the closet and then i found myself aimlessly wandering the house, until i stopped.
in her room.

it still smelled of her.
slowly, i sat on the end of her bed and stared at the duvet covers, wishing she was sleeping soundly beneath them. wishing that everybody i loved was still here. mom, dad, peggy, hell, i would give anything to see them again.

curling up beneath the covers, i wept until i heard my phone buzz. i pulled it out of my pocket and read the messages.

nat: hey, stevie, you okay?

sterv: yeah.

nat: a little bird told me that you were hanging out with james today

sterv: i was. he seems nice.

nat: he's lovely, just a bit hard to get through. give him a chance.

sterv: goodnight nat

nat: night stevie

with that, i slowly drifted off to sleep.

-

waking up to my door being almost kicked in is not one of my most favourite things in the world, especially at 8 am.
i resentfully slid out from under the duvet and padded my way toward the door, looking through the peephole to see who wanted to murder me.
of course it was nat, but who was she with?
as soon as the door was open nat barged her way in with james slowly tagging behind, a sour look on his face, which quickly turned red as he took notice of my lack of pants.

"what's up?" i questioned nat as she walked straight to my fridge, scowling at the lack of food it contained.
james shrugged and gave me an apologetic look as nat shoved a strawberry in her mouth and jumped onto the counter.

"i'm bored." she shrugged, throwing a strawberry at james who scowled at her. "and you guys are my friends so i thought we could hang out."

"at eight in the morning? sorry nat, but i'm not going anywhere until i've had a shower."

she wrinkled her nose and hopped off the counter, shoving me toward the bathroom.

"don't worry about me and jam, we'll just chill out here."

"i told you, stop calling me that!"

"whatever, jam."

james let out a low growl and slumped on my sofa and nat threw open my curtains, humming to herself.
shaking my head, i closed the bathroom door and turned on the water.

i didn't take long to shower, getting washed within the space of thirty minutes, but decided to stay in the bathroom a little longer when i heard james and nat talking.
as much as i tried to listen in on the conversation, i couldn't understand it, which was when i realised nat was speaking russian. and so was james.

i decided not to question it and left the bathroom, hurrying straight to my room to get dressed. i heard a loud whistle from one of the two, probably nat, and laughed as i pulled on a pair of jeans.

"nat! are my socks in there?" i shouted as i struggled to find any clothes.

"yeah, sending them in now." she responded, and a few seconds later i heard the soft pad of feet down the corridor.

"here." i jumped, realising that the voice did not belong to nat, and turned to see james holding a pair of socks, his face completely red. i chuckled and took the socks from him, quickly pulling them on.
he rubbed the back of his neck and his gaze shifted from me to the floor before he turned to leave.

"hey," i called out softly, stopping him before he reached the door. "how do you know russian?"

"i, uh, was born in romania. my moms russian. i'm bilingual."

"that's cool." i smiled sweetly, finally pulling a sweater over my skinny chest and returning back to the kitchen, where nat was still sat on the counter.

"okay boys! let's go out and see the city!"