Next To Me // A Stucky Au

Chapter One

Today was going to be a good day. Or, that was what Bucky told himself as he sat in early morning traffic, still half asleep. He was on his way to the small studio that he shared with the rest of his band. They weren't at all well known, and they barely made enough for decent living conditions, but Bucky would never give it up. His music meant everything to him.

When Bucky finally arrived, loud drumming was already booming out of the windows. He walked inside and saw Natasha, the band's drummer, already practicing. Nat was always the first here, and Bucky didn't know how she did it. Getting up as early as he did in the morning was difficult, its still a mystery to him how she did it.

"Nat, it ain't even half eight yet," Bucky said as she walked over to him, barely a hair out of place, "I'm pretty sure ya' just woke up the entire neighbourhood."

Nat laughed. "Well, they will have woken up to a fabulous drum solo," she replied, smirking, "I don't know what you're complaining about."

Over the next half hour the rest of the band members started coming in. Sam immediately started working on an idea for his bass guitar and Peggy, who was the manager, went over to her desk to see whatever paperwork she needed to do for that day. Clint, like normal, arrived fifteen minutes after everyone else, a latte in his hand.

"So, Peggy," Clint said, lounging on one of the couches, "what's on the agenda for today?"

Peggy looked up from her laptop and swiveled her chair to face him. She opened her notebook and flicks through it until she found the right page. "Well, Sam's saying he wants to write some bass guitar music, so I guess we are going to have to do that later," she said, in a British accent, gesturing at Sam, who was so wrapped up he didn't take notice of anyone sat on the couches. "And... there's that guy who's going to do the cover art for smoke and mirrors coming in ten minutes! Clint, thank God you were actually on time today!" she glared at Clint.

Smoke and mirrors was their first (and only) album they'd ever released and they still didnt have an album cover for it. It was one of the only things Bucky had ever made that he was actually proud of. The vocals were great and the songs, in his opinion, were actually relatively decent. Sure, he was a bit disappointed when he realised that not many people actually listened to the album, but he hadn't expected just to go automatically to the top. Until now, however, they hadn't been able to find a good artist who didn't charge to much. He hoped that once the album was fully done with everything they might actually start to be known.

The doorbell rang. As Nat got up to answer it Peggy yelled to Sam to get off his guitar and say hi. He heard muttering at the door and then some foot steps so he turned his head to see who this guy was.

For a second, Bucky froze. The guy who had walked in was angelic, with beautiful blond hair and the prettiest blue eyes. Bucky momentarily forgot how to function properly.

"Hi, I'm Steve Rogers," he said confidently, looking up at everybody. He had to look up because he was so small and skinny, he was probably shorter then Peggy.

Bucky forgot how to form correct sentences for a second or to. "Er... I'm Bucky Barnes, nice to meet you!" Then he mentally face palmed and let everyone else introduce themselves.

"I listened to your album, it's better then I expected!" Steve said, as he layed out his paper on our table.

"Thanks" bucky stammered, and saw Nat raise an eyebrow at him from behind Steve's back. How was she onto him already?

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The rest of the morning passed quickly, and even with a lot of zoning out and staring at Steve from Bucky, they actually ended up getting stuff done. Around twelve Steve announced that he would be heading back home to draw what they'd thought of and he'd be back tomorrow. They ordered a pizza and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Sam out with his bass guitar music.

When Bucky got home that day, he couldn't get Steve out of his head. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why Steve kept popping in and out of his thoughts and eventually got so annoyed he just went to bed.

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T

he next morning, he woke up feeling relatively well rested and almost beat Natasha to the studio for once. He immediately started writing some lyrics to go with Sam's bass music and didn't care when Nat started drumming really loudly. Eventually, after everyone arrived, he heard a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" He yelled as he tried to hide the smile that was lighting up his face. At the door was Steve, looking as pretty as he had yesterday. "Hey Steve!" He said cheerfully. And led Steve down to the others. They spent the rest of the day perfecting the album cover and by the end of the day it was something everyone loved.

"Hey, Steve, do you wanna hear some of our new songs?" Sam suggested after they'd finished, mainly because he was eager to show someone his bass music he'd been working on. Steve quickly agreed and Bucky found himself at the microphone, getting ready to sing. He took a deep breath and started.

'So this is what you meant,
When you that you were spent,
And now its time to build from the bottom of the pit,
Right to the top.
Don't hold back.
Packing my bags and giving the academy a rain check.

I don't ever want to let you down,
I don't ever want to leave this town,
'Cause after all,
The city never sleeps at night.

Its time to begin,
Yes it is,
I get a little bit bigger, but then, I'll admit,
I'm just the same as I was,
Now don't you understand,
Im never changing who I am.'

Bucky continued singing the whole song, and was greeted with a huge round of applause from Steve (and a smaller one from Peggy, who'd heard it all before).

"That was amazing, you guys!" He said enthusiastically, "how are you not, like, world famous yet?"

They laughed and packed away our things and everyone started heading home.

"Hey Steve, do you need a lift?" Bucky offered, semi-shyly. Steve nodded and they headed out to Bucky's car together.

When they were in the car, Bucky offered, "you wanna go get some coffee? I'll pay."

"Sure thing!" Said Steve, his face lighting up. Bucky decided he could probably stare at that smile all day and not get bored. "I know a great place, come on!"

Bucky smiled at Steve's excitement and climbed into his car.

"So," Bucky said once they had got there and sat down with their drinks, "I gotta admit, these drinks are really nice," he said, giving Steve a smile that made his cheeks go red.

"Umm, well thanks," Steve stammered, looking down. "Sooo... um, is Nat normally that scary?"

Bucky laughed loudly and they quickly and easily fell into a conversation. Bucky found himself absent mindedly staring at Steve, who seemed to be getting cuter and cuter by the minute.

A while later, Bucky dropped Steve off at his apartment and felt that he didn't want to see Steve go. Weird. He drove off anyway and came home happy and content.

A/n: thanks for actually reading this!! At the top is the song Bucky sang and the cover for the album. Both of those belong to imagine dragons not me. Thanks again! Also constructive criticism is helpful!!!!