Stucky: My Blood Red Heart

7 - After

-time skip to after lunch brought to you by my boyfriend, who plays Skylanders unironically-

James' trek towards the music wing brought him through the theatre department, where Loki pulled him over for a chat.

"Sorry about this-" Loki began. 

"'s fine, what's wrong?" Loki sighed and pulled out a flyer for the fall play. James briefly scanned the front, glancing over the dates and raising his eyebrows at the number scrawled at the bottom.

"I feel a bit odd asking this, but I work behind the scenes - stagecraft is my major - and I was wondering if you would like to attend?"  

James beamed. "'Course, sounds neat. What's it about?" Loki brightened, but before he could say anything, a shout from the theater room cut him off. James quickly shoved the flyer in his backpack.

"That will be Fandral. I'll be seeing you, Bucky," Loki said as he headed back into the darkroom. 

James chuckled before continuing down the corridor. He soon arrived at the band classroom, where he found a seat in the back and removed his guitar from its case. He ran his fingers over the names carved into the wood. 

Natasha had bought the guitar for him when he was ten and he had fallen in love with it at first sight. During 7th grade, his closest friends thought it would cool to carve their names in the wood in their own different handwriting. Clint's was big but shallow in the wood, Sam's was blocky with a (hopefully) ironic heart, and Steve's was loopy and stylish, a manner James didn't know would suit him so well. It felt appropriate to play his heart out with his friends right there, close to him. 

They didn't have the money for lessons, but he made do with sheet music he bought at second-hand stores and videos online. His hobby never used to be more than just that, a hobby, but with his grades slipping in his junior and senior years of high school, he didn't have many other paths to take. Maybe if he had bandmates or some friends that enjoyed music as much as he did, he would be more excited about majoring in it. As it was, he was pleased to possibly make money off of something he enjoyed doing. 

"Attention, everyone!" James' head snapped back to the front of the class where a professor named Mr. Coulson was frantically trying to declare order. James smirked - clueless teachers were pretty funny - before propping his feet up on the desk and reclining in his seat. His phone buzzed and he pulled it out, hiding it behind his sneakers. 

Dickhead added T'challa to the chat

Dickhead: say hi to my desk partner kids

Bucky: you do know we're older than you right

Stevie: nice to meet you, t'challa

T'challa: same to you, steve.

Bucky: does this mean i can add mine?

Dickhead: idfc

Stevie: no need for profanity sam

Dickhead: oh yeah be sure to curse in front of steve

Bucky added Loki to the chat

Dickhead: greetings fellow gay

Loki: Oh no. 

Bucky: quite so :/

Stevie: did you just use an emojicon 

Dickhead: blink twice if they have you hostage

T'challa: is this normal?

Stevie: no usually theyre worst

T'challa: ah.