I'm Spongebob? (Stony AU)

Chapter 17: Did you ask?

"So. Squidward. Tell me your thoughts on him." Steve said as he lifted his knee to his chest, cooling down after their long run.

"From SpongeBob?" Bucky asked, before bending forward, chin touching knees.

"No, from Cinderella," Sam said in between deep breaths as he tried to get a hold of his foot and hold it behind his back.

"Yes from SpongeBob."

"Kind of... Annoying, relatable now though. I'd have the same dead attitude if I had his life."

"Not much fun to hang out with," Sam added, agreeing.

"Right. My thoughts exactly. So if someone called you a Squidward , you wouldn't take it as a compliment right?"

"No?" They both voiced, a little unsure.

"Why?" Sam questioned, trying his best to bend as much as Bucky had but settled at least being able to touch his toes.

Steve took a deep breath, wondering if he wanted to go through all the details with them. He finished out some more stretches, raising Bucky and Sam's curiosity. He nodded over at their usual diner once he felt he'd done a sufficient cooldown, and realized his friends had stopped, opting instead to stare at him.

Once they were sitting in their usual booth, a platter of fries plopped in the middle, Steve began to tell them the whole story, leaving out some unnecessary details, such as the whole bathroom and towel incident, and him drawing sketches of Tony well into the night, and how obsessed he'd become with the videos Tony had gifted him. But he did mention the conversation he and Tony had had yesterday morning, while Steve was sitting in Tony's kitchen, eating his cereal and watching cartoons.

"Well, maybe that's not the way he sees it." Bucky offered, after a long sip of his already refilled milkshake.

"Yeah, have you tried asking him?" Sam asked.

They nodded thanks to the waitress as she brought out their fourth refill on the platter of fries.

"No but he keeps texting me with that name and I hate it." Steve sighed, grabbing a handful of fries and stuffing them into his mouth, hoping their salty goodness would dissolve away his problems.

"Well, you should tell him then. If there's anything I've learned from being with Jemma, communication is key." Sam said.

"Yeah, don't leave anything to assumption. Nat and I have learned that the hard way." Bucky nodded.

That hadn't been the reception and advice Steve had been expecting. But it felt like solid advice.

"Text him."

"No." Steve said, just because it seemed like solid advice, it didn't mean he was going to follow through with it.

"Call him."

"Not now."

"Tonight then, when you're finishing up the details for my bachelor party," Bucky said, nodding as if he had final say.

*************

"And that's where I woke up with underwear that weren't mine!" Tony pointed at Steve's bed with a proud smile. Rhodey and Bruce nodded appreciatively, as if Tony was a second grader who just showed them the art project he had worked on in class. Steve gave them a weak smile when they all glanced over at him.

"Oh, and those are his sketchbooks! He's really great. I stole this one," he said reaching for the little black sketchbook laying on Steve's bed, "it has some really great drawings of the two us." Steve wanted to disappear into the corner he was standing in. This felt worse than boot camp had.