Next To Me // A Stucky Au

Chapter Three

A few days later, Bucky was at Steve's house again. This time, Steve wasn't as suprised to see him, but was pleased all the same. It was almost five, so Bucky had come straight from work, and, luckily for him, Steve had just finished for the day.

"D'you want to go an' get dinner, or somethin'?" Bucky asked when Steve saw him. Steve immediately agreed and rushed to go and find his coat and scarf, not wanting to catch a cold, like he always seemed to do when he went outside.

They travelled around until they found a decent looking place to eat, which was a warm and friendly-looking Chinese buffet that was tucked away behind some other shops. They got inside, and Bucky had to admit, the food was actually pretty good.

"So," Bucky started, once they had had a good few minutes to devour the food, "have any good things to draw lately?"

At this topic, Steve brightened up. "Actually, this mornin' I was working on the most beautiful peice for the front of a book. Course, hardly anyone knows who the author is, but since when did anybody know the people I work for? Anyway, it was this book about two men who get fed up of modern society and go and live in the rainforest. Weird book, but it was good. I get to draw a beautiful scene on the front cover of the Amazon rainforest and there's these pretty exotic birds and colourful flowers. I love drawin' birds. And......" Steve rambled on and Bucky sat and listened admiring Steve. He found Steve adorable when he talked about something he really cared about, he seemed to have so much enthusiasm for everything.

They carried on chatting, though to be fair, Steve was doing most of the talking, until it was time to leave and pay the bill. Steve reached out to take it, but Bucky snatched it away from him.

"Dont worry, Stevie," he said, "I'll pay."

It wasn't like Steve had the money to refuse, but that's not to say that he didn't thank Bucky a lot instead.

They got back to Steve's house and Steve immidiately went and flopped on the couch. "You wanna watch a movie?" Steve offered lazily.

"Sure, what do you wanna watch?" Bucky replied. He was glad to spend more time with Steve and not go home.

"I dunno, maybe just put on Netflix and we'll see what comes up."

Bucky sat down on the couch next to Steve and it creaked beneath him. It was probably old, though Bucky couldn't say anything. The One he had was almost as bad. They started to scroll slowly through Netflix. They finally agreed on a show and settled down to watch it.

"Hey, Buck," Steve said randomly. "Your real name is James, right?"

"Yeah."

"So why do people call you Bucky?"

"So I can tell the difference between people I know an' people I don' know," Bucky joked, "people I don' know call me James, people I know call me Bucky."

"Huh," Steve said after a long pause, a slight smile on his face. Bucky really hoped that Steve couldn't see that he was watching him, mesmerized. He didn't want to seem creepy, but Steve was just so pretty.

About an hour in, Bucky felt Steve's head hit his shoulder. Bucky looked round and saw that Steve had fallen asleep. Not wanting to disturb him, Bucky tried to reach for a blanket to lay over him, trying his best not to move his shoulder. Steve was so small, he reasoned, he probably need a blanket.

It took about 15 minutes before Bucky slowly drifted off as well, his head resting on top of Steve's.

------

Bucky woke to sunlight streaming through the window the next morning, and for a second he was completely confused about where he was. Then something groaned on his chest and started to move. Bucky suddenly remembered that he was at Steve's and also found that, at some point during the night, they moved and Steve was now laying with his head in Bucky's chest and Bucky had wrapped an arm protectively around Steve.

"What's goin' on?" He heard a Steve say groggily.

"We fell asleep," Bucky replied, starting to wake up a bit now. He glanced at the clock. "It's nearly eight, we should probably get up."

"Noooooo," Steve complained, "you're warm"

Bucky laughed and sat up as best he could while trying not to hurt Steve. Sometimes he felt like if just one thing went wrong, Steve's entire, thin frame would shatter like glass.

Bucky wandered over to the kitchen, looking for something to eat. Then he remembered. Today was the day that they were meeting that guy from the radio. Peggy would probably murder him if he was late today. But we don't meet him until the afternoon part of his brain said why rush? For some reason, Bucky decided to listen to that part of his brain. Steve walked next to him and got cereal and to bowls of of the cupboard.

"Cereal?" He asked and Bucky smiled and made his way over to Steve's small table that was in the corner of his kitchen. Bucky ate the cereal and admired how cute Steve looked in the mornings. Of course, he didn't say that out loud. He helped Steve wash the bowls up and then apologised a lot, because he had to leave to go to work. Steve seemed a little disappointed when he said that but understood. Bucky wished he could stay longer, but if he didn't get to work soon be of his band members would probably kill him.

He headed out, and was internally thanking himself for putting a spare set of clothes in his car that time. He set off, driving through the cold morning and towards almost certain doom, but Bucky didn't care. He didn't give a single shit.

Because that morning was the best morning he'd ever had.

A/n: helllllooooo!!! Wow I got carried away. This was only meant to be half a chapter that was for this. (Wow great grammer me) also, gold star for you if you actually bothered to read this far!! Woo!

Also this chapter is exactly 1000 words without the a/n so yay!