I Promise.

Hickies?

Chapter 18
"You're kidding me. That actually happened to you?" Rhodey said. He was stifling a laugh. Once I told him it was okay to laugh, he finally let it out. We sit in the back of English class and Rhodey is a lot better at whispering than Sam is, so it's easy to talk to him in class. Plus, I never have to pay attention in class. I easily can pass.
  "Dude, it was awful. I wanted to die." I smacked my head on my desk.
  "Well yeah, I bet so. If I was in your position I probably would die." Rhodey said.
  "It was so awkward. I was praying he was asleep, but then he got up. I wish the asthma would just kill me." Rhodey scoffed at this statement.
  "I'm sorry, Steve. That actually sucks." Rhodey put a soothing hand on my back.
  "This morning was insanely uncomfortable. We didn't even look at each other. It didn't help we had a fight right before the event." I said.
  "Yeah I wasn't gonna bring it up, but that's a nasty bruise on your jaw. Did he notice that?" Rhodey asked. There was a tinge of aggression in his voice. He doesn't like when people get hurt, so he's probably a little pissed at the both of us.
  "No. I kept turning away from him. Luckily it was on the right side and he's always on the left of me." I told him. Rhodey nodded his head.
  "I just hope he gets out of his funk. Losing the arm sucks, but it's not gonna fix anything now." Rhodey said.
  "I've said that a million times now, buddy. Maybe you could tell him that, too?" I asked. He really just needs someone else to put that in his head.
  "Oh I definitely will. Government class is going to be absolute hell for him." I laughed at this. Once Rhodey wants to do something, it doesn't leave his mind. "I could probably get Clint in on it too. Like some type of intervention." I shook my head no at this.
  "If it's going to be an intervention, then I want to be there, too. Less of a chance he'd beat your ass." I said. I know how upset he gets when he's the center of attention.
  "That's true. You see him next hour, huh?" I shook my head yes.
  "Yeah. I don't think I'm going to be able to hide the bruise anymore. That also means that Thor, Bruce, Tony, and Clint will start asking about it."
  "Just tell em it's a hickey. That'll shut em up real quick." I audibly laughed at that.
  "Maybe I'll try that."
The bell then rang for us to go to class, and Rhodey and I went our separate ways. However as I was walking down the hall, an arm tapped my shoulder. I immediately whipped around.
  "Sorry, probably should've said something!" It was just Wanda, thank god. "I'm going to the computer lab, the one right by the gym. I figured we could walk together!" She beamed. She was so adorable, like a little puppy.
  "Yeah, that sounds good!" I smiled back at her. We made small talk all the way there. My English class isn't too far from the gym, but we definitely took our time.
  "Oh hey, while we're walking I wanted to tell you this. Check on Buck for me? He seemed a little down and I thought you could cheer him up!" She exclaimed.
  "If only you knew the half of it." I thought to myself. Instead I just said, "Yeah, yeah I can do that." And put on my fakest smile. We then parted ways and I walked into the double doors of the gym, and then the locker room. I was a bit nervous, I can't hide the bruise on my face anymore. I walked in.
  "Damn, you look like straight ass. Pietro wasn't kidding." Bruce said as I walked into the locker room.
  "Thanks for the compliment. Where's Buck?" I asked.
  "Talking to coach. Wants to know if he can still do track with one arm." Bruce explained. I wanted to correct him and say cross country, but I didn't have the energy.
  "I told him that he has fucking legs, so why couldn't he." Tony blurted out. That gave Thor, Bruce, and I a good laugh.
  "Sup, fuckers." Clint said, tossing his bag down.
  "Love that greeting, gonna use that more often." Tony said. He's always such a smartass. I turned my face to the right side to grab my gym shirt, and that's when they saw it. That also happened to be when Bucky walked in. Immediately they did what I thought they would, they kept asking questions.
  "What happened?", "What's wrong?", "Are you okay?", "Who beat your ass?"
  Bucky stood in the corner watching them. He was just staring. So then, I did exactly what Rhodey told me to shut them up.
  "Yep! I'm fine! Just a hickey!" This caused Tony to immediately choke on his spit.
  "Oh Jesus fuck, Rogers. Keep it PG." Tony groaned.
  Clint gave me a look of understanding. Without even telling him, he knew.
  "Well, thanks for advertising that. Bucky, keep your mouth off of him." Bruce said. Bucky pulled his shirt off to put his gym shirt on. Under that, was just a bunch of muffled noise. That was his response to Bruce's statement. Bucky got out of the locker room as soon as possible.
  "Alright fucker, now tell us what really happened." Tony said to me. I explained it to them, including the parts where I slapped the piss out of Bucky. I also explained how we were always like this. Roughhousing to get our points across. Being boyfriends doesn't change that for us. We all agreed to talk to Bucky together. Friday night we are all going to Tony's and talking to him. It's strange how all major events happen at Tony's house. We walked out of the locker room and Bucky is still talking to coach. I think they are trying to figure out what to do for the whole cross country situation. Bucky was the fastest on the male team, so they should still want him on. Unless they're embarrassed by his arm.
  We did our normal warmups before we went outside to run. As soon as they blew the whistle, Bucky was off. Normally he waits for Clint, but he didn't this time. He would always run when he was frustrated, so I guess he wanted to start back at it again. Bucky lapped me about three times. Tony stayed behind with me, he wasn't really a big fan of running. Thor and Clint ran together, with Bruce close behind. Tony and I didn't really talk to much, until Tony told me that Bucky just finished. He finished his mile in five minutes.
  "Is that even humanly possible?" I asked, surprised.
  "Guess so, but then again is Bucky human?" I punched Tony in the arm for that one. "I'm kidding! Just kidding!" He laughed. I felt my breath hitching and I knew I overexerted myself. I stop talking for a second and cough. In fact, I coughed a lot. I coughed so much that it physically hurts my chest. "Hey, hey. Rogers, you okay?" Tony had a tinge of panic in his voice. He's never really been with me during one of my asthma attacks. "Do you have your inhaler?" I felt in my pockets, and realized I didn't have it.   "Damn. It." I said in between wheezes. Tony exchanged glances with Bucky from across the field and Bucky realized what was going on. Tony sat me down on the side of the track, and attempted to calm me down. At this point, all eyes were on me, and Clint, Thor, and Bruce were over here.
  "Jesus fuck Bruce, move your big ass." I heard Bucky say. It was quite the entrance. He leaned over Tony and handed me my inhaler. I puffed it in a couple times to stabilize my breathing. After a good minute I was able to breathe again. Coach walked over to check on me to see if I was okay, to which I said yes. Every single time I get to the second lap this happens. It's like my body can't handle it. Since Bucky was done with his laps, Coach let him walk me to the gym and stay with me.
  "Thanks." I mumbled.
  "Don't worry about it." He said. He was standing on my right side, which is a large change from him standing on my left. Something tells me he did this because he wanted to see the bruise on my face.
  "Are we cool? Is everything okay now? I'm not mad at you." I told him. I just wanted him to know I'm over it.
  "Yeah. We're fine. It's okay." He responded. "Does the bruise hurt?" He asked.
  "Only to the touch. My jaw is a little sore, but it's fine. I deserved it." I said. "How are you?" I asked.
  "I'm good. You were holding back." He said. He wasn't wrong, I was holding back. If I really wanted to hurt him I would've. I really just didn't want to.
  "I'm sorry about what I said." I told him.
  "I deserved it, I called you twig arms. I know how much you hate that name. I used it to get into your head." He explained. It was only us in the gym, so our voices were echoing.
  "I think we both deserved it."
  "Yeah, you're right." He said. We sat there for a little bit. We were looking at the ceiling.
  "Why me?" I blurted out.
  "What do you mean?" He looked at me and tilted his head.
  "Why do you choose to fight me?" He sat there for a second, thinking.
  "If I'm being honest, I don't know. I honestly have no idea. It's nothing against you, it's just that you are the first person I see." I understood what he was saying. I would behave the same way with him when my mom died.
  "I understand. It's like when my mom died and I'd go off on you."
  "Yeah, I guess so." He sighed. I leaned my head onto his shoulder. He was on my right side, so I couldn't get his arm, just the shoulder.
  "I love you, James." He moved closer to me so I could lean more comfortably on him.
  "I love you too, Steven."
Students started filing into the gym. I'm guessing that everyone finished their mile. Clint flopped over on the floor next to my feet.
  "Well, I still hate the mile." He announced. I chuckled.
  "What did you find out about track?" Tony asked Bucky.
  "First of all, it's cross country. Track isn't until the spring. Second of all, I still run fast, they still want me." He explained.
  "Well, that's good." Bruce said from his left.
  "Why would you want to run more?" Clint asked, still sprawled out on the floor.
  "Gets out my pent up frustration and gets my head out of my ass." Bucky said.
  "Yeah, buddy. You could really use that." Clint teased. Thor was stifling a laugh. Bucky shot daggers at Clint with his eyes.
  "Chill out, Manchurian candidate. He's just kidding." Tony said.
  "I know." Bucky snapped. Thank god the coach blew the whistle to go into the locker room. It was straight up awkward. We soon changed. Then the bell rang for lunch, and then the bell rang again for fifth period. School is basically just bells over and over again. I was kind of worried for Bucky, Rhodey might kill him in fifth hour.