fossilised | For Steve

Nope.

[He pops the P at the end of the word, sounding incredibly pleased with himself.]

Make it a good story and you get the next question.

[Steve groans again.]

Alright, alright. Might as well just rip that band-aid off.

As you already know, Clint pulled the stealing clothes prank on me. I didn’t know that at the time, I mean, I knew it was some prank but I assumed it was Tony. Not that it mattered. It was late enough that I thought there was a genuine possibility of getting back to my dorm unseen, and my dorm wasn’t actually that far either. I would have not attempted it otherwise. That part of the campus also had a lot of overgrown foliage, so plenty of hiding places provided you don’t stumble on someone using it to smoke weed or spend some personal time with their significant other.

Except for that last stretch of the quad - Just a lot of empty lawn and some sidewalk. Going around would mean three or four times as long. I’m not sure if it was brave or stupid but I just went for it. Aaaand of course that was when campus security was going through.

He gave me a blanket when he carted me into the office at least. I guess with how readily I took it and the fact that I was a bit of a known boy scout had him easily believe I was the victim of a prank rather than the perpetrator of one.

Also he clearly found the whole thing hilarious, himself.

My roommate at the time Phil was in the dorm and kind enough to bring me some clothes at the security office. I thought they were the only ones to witness that whole terrible thing but, uh. Evidently not, because there were pictures the next day. It took like a year to die down. I think Natasha still has copies for blackmail purposes.

There, that’s the whole thing. Good enough?

[Bucky hasn't been able to resist the allure of pancakes while Steve talks, piling his plate with the fluffy treats, along with enough syrup and sugar to give several people diabetes. It's a wonder that he's not the size of a house with the sweet tooth that he has, but he can thank the army and the gym for that.

He ends up laughing helplessly, unable to stop picturing the idea of Steve's mortified face as he realises that campus security have caught him mid-run. He's going to have to get Natasha to show him any copies she still has.]

Brilliant, you've definitely earned your question in return.

[See? This is good, relaxed. He's already laughing, something he doesn't really do with anyone else. And if he's sort of planning how he might be able to kiss Steve again, that's not a bad thing.]

[okay, so maybe hearing Bucky laugh and seeing him smile and be so at ease is worth the embarrassment of it all. As long as Bucky doesn't think Steve isn't worth associating with after that.]

Your turn to tell an embarrassing story - I told one, I need to feel less mortified and misery loves company. [All this being said with a laugh and a smile, of course.]

Okay, okay.

[He thinks for a second, not that he hasn't got a huge variety to choose from with the amount of dumb stuff he's done in his life.]

Oh right, I've got one. Okay, so when we were little, my Ma used to get matching Halloween costumes for me and Becca, because she thought it was sweet. Obviously we grew out of it, but after she died, we decided it would be cute to do it again in her memory. But we couldn't agree on what to go as, and we kind of-- have a bit of a competitive problem. So we had this bet and whoever won it got to pick the costume the other person had to wear all of Halloween, no matter what they were doing.

I lost.

I had to go to my senior yearbook photos and class all day as Jessica Rabbit, in the slit dress and everything. She even made me sing that song in the cafeteria at lunch.

[It's Steve's turn to eat and listen to Bucky's story, and there's no mistaking which one he'd paying more attention to - he's hanging on Bucky's every word. Steve winced sympathetically but laughs too. He doesn't even notice he's got a bit of syrup on the corner of his mouth.]

Oh my god- how did you keep the dress up?

[That's adorable and if Steve doesn't wipe his mouth soon, Bucky might just have to lean over and lick it off him.]

I stuffed one of Becca's bras and wore that underneath. You can laugh, but I looked damn good.

[Steve continues to not notice, he's too busy paying attention to Bucky, here.

Bucky's eyes are straight up dreamy, okay.]

I don't doubt it. Did you do the makeup too?

Oh sure, mascara, lipstick, the works.

[He shakes his loose hair so half falls in front of his face and assumes a sultry sort of look, voice a purr.]

I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.

[He leans across the kitchen counter at that and cheekily licks the syrup from the side of Steve's mouth, ending in another kiss, this one a little more confident than the first.]

[Oooooohhhhh goodness.

It's like watching a car accident in slow motion, except no, that's not right. Instead it's something wonderful and each second leading up to it seems to stretch off into an eternity while Steve is just kind of stunned wondering 'Wait, is he really going to-?'

He's got a little more time for this kiss, enough to break out of the stunned and dazed bliss to turn his head just so in order to kiss Bucky in return.]

[He will never say this out loud because it's humiliating and would come off as creepy and over invested, but Steve tastes like home. For so long he's only been able to taste blood and sand, even long after he got back, but Steve erases all of that. It's stupid and dangerous to be this into a guy he's literally just met, but god... doesn't he deserve a bit of stupid happiness after everything, even if it won't last?

So he takes Steve finally kissing him back as an invitation. Not to go too far, but he does deepen the kiss properly and doesn't back off until he genuinely needs to breathe or die. Panting a little and not just from lack of breath, Bucky smiles ever so innocently.]

You had syrup on your lips, I just wanted to help out.

Huh?

[Sorry Bucky, you're going to have to give Steve a few more moments here. You've gone and kissed the boy stupid.

Eyes very unfocused, breathing rough, his lips are a little red now, too.

He gives a little breathless laugh when he manages to get his focus again. He's known Bucky for may be a week now. He s in love. He's considering proposing then and there.]

Oh? That's mighty thoughtful of you. You sure you got it all?

[God, how isn't Steve married with about a dozen boyfriends on the side by now? He should be master of a harem somewhere, not adorably grinning at a fucked up vet on a Saturday morning.]

I'm not so sure, I might have to check again later.

[Sue him, he feels like a teenager in puppy love again, about ready to grin stupidly all day. Yasha, having noticed her human is as relaxed as he's about to get, has flopped down in a corner to go to sleep for a while.]

Well that's a terribly kind service of you to provide - anytime, really. I'm always in desperate need of that help.

[Oh god is he even saying the things he's saying? Was that actual sort of suggestive flirting? From Steve Rogers? Everyone except Thor would probably have a heart attack.

Thor would give him a thump on the back and say he knew he had it in him.]

Um, did you, uh. Have another question? Wait, can I ask mine first? You liking the pancakes?

[Bucky grins wickedly when Steve flirts back with him, it's good to see that he isn't all apple pie and American flags. Not that he doesn't already love that boy scout side of him too.]

Seriously? That's what you're gonna waste a question on? You could ask my deepest and darkest secret and you wanna know if I like your pancakes?

[He fixes Steve with a smouldering intense look, voice suggestive.]

Steve, yours are the best pancakes I've ever tasted.

[Steve goes red all over again at that look, needing to cover his face before he lets his hand drop to just rest his chin in. He can't stop smiling.]

It's not a waste if I value the answer. I wanted to make sure you wouldn't try to spare my feelings if they were bad. ... and also to hear you say how much you liked them.

[Just to prove how much he likes them, Bucky takes another big bite of pancakes before contemplating his next question.]

I still say it was a waste, you could ask something good like I'm going to. Hm... like... most embarrassing story from school? Unless it was the naked campus thing, in which case, first kiss story.

[Steve goes over the two questions in his mind, thoughtful, clearly worried.]

Okay so... they're both ... kind of the same story. But I cannot emphasize enough how this cannot get back to Natasha, or Clint, or anyone. Only me and the other person involved know about it and I made him swear to take it to his grave.

[His eyes light up with interest, before he puts his fork down and raises his right hand to mime a cross over his heart.]

I swear, I won't tell anyone.

[Trust him, he's had a lot of practise keeping his mouth shut in the face of torture, not even Natasha will get it out of him.]

Don't get your hopes up too much, you might not think it's a big deal okay - even the other guy didn't, but I do.

[Steve cannot believe he's telling another person about this okay. It shows. He takes a deep breath then exhales heavily.]

Okay, so... this was back in freshmen year of college - late in the year. Same height I am now but almost no muscle - the 'almost' though makes it probably the first time in my life a stiff breeze wouldn't knock me over, though. I got press-ganged into going to a frat party with our buddy Thor - yes his real name - because by that point we knew that if Thor was drinking and didn't have someone around, Thor would probably end up being arrested. Not violent, just very... enthusiastic about everything. And probably even bigger than I am now at the time.

And of course he'd found out that I had never even really held someone's hand in a romantic fashion before that and so he decided that it was his solemn duty to see that "fixed".

[Steve pauses there for emphasis, giving Bucky a look that says that yes it's obvious where this story is going, probably.]

Neither of us are twenty-one, but college party, that doesn't really matter. Especially not for Thor who played like every sport and knew every athlete on campus already and I might have been a nobody but I was a nobody who was with him, so that was where I got beer for the first time too. It was probably the most awkward party I'd ever been to - not the least of which because of Thor trying to set me up with literally anyone with a heartbeat. I didn't manage to get any phone numbers but after like two beers I did manage to get in a fistfight with two football players and a lacrosse player.

... Needless to say I kind of got my ass handed to me and only avoided breaking something because Thor was there.

So we left the party, both pretty wasted and at least slightly bloodied. Thor lived off-campus with his brother who was out that night and he lived closer, so he said I could sleep in his brother's room that night so I didn't have to find my way back to the dorms. That part was actually nice, the walk back. It was dark by then, pretty quiet, we stopped to make idiots of ourselves at a park on the way and Thor split his lip trying to do the monkey bars. When I was helping him clean the blood off his face we kind of... uh .... ended up ... making out.

... And then doing a lot more than making out.

[Just the fact that Steve had said this was a big deal for him, the secrecy, made it a big deal for Bucky. Just because a kiss and a fumble with a friend wouldn't have been anything to comment on back in his college days, it obviously was for Steve, and he respected that.

So he didn't laugh, though he did smile softly.]

Was he okay with you the next day?

[He's a little worried this is where it's going, that his friend would claim drunkenness and have made it a bad experience for Steve.]

Or-- did you really like him? Did it not work out?

Well, seeing as I woke up naked in his bed with him - fuzzy memories or not it was pretty obvious what happened. I guess for a while I'd had a little bit of a crush on him too. He just saw me as a friend but he also didn't see what the big deal about having fun with friends was.

[Steve siiiighed.]

He didn't get why I was so adamant that he not tell anyone about it but he was willing to respect that. We... fooled around here and there a little after that, but I wasn't at a place in my life then where I was ready to be as free and open as he was, so that was that. Felt really awkward meeting his fiance last year though.

So yeah that's also the how I lost my virginity story.

[He's glad that Steve's story doesn't end with the friend being homophobic or a real jerk about it all, or even with proper unrequited love. It's still sort of bittersweet and not the way that a nice guy like Steve should lose his virginity, but it's not the worst thing ever.]

Wow, I bet. At least he's been cool about it, right?

[He scrubs his hand through his hair a little awkwardly.]

Better'n my first time kissing a guy, I was the jerk. I was the jock in school, boxer, always knew I wanted to go into the army, so I thought... I don't know, being gay wasn't manly enough or something? Anyway, I was fourteen and at this house party, and we'd all got kinda drunk too, and I ended up kissing this guy in the bathroom. I still don't remember which one of us initiated it, but I freaked out and called him a fag. Not my proudest moment.

[Maybe he shouldn't tell stories that paint him in such a negative light, but he wants Steve to know the good and the bad.]

I caught up to him about a year later and apologised, he didn't even remember it, too drunk.

[Steve reaches out to hold Bucky's hand if allowed to, just a brief reassuring squeeze before letting him go.]

Hey, no harm no foul then, right? Still sweet that you wanted to make it right.

[He's definitely allowed to, though Bucky raises his eyebrows in surprise.]

Most people call me a jackass when they hear that story, guess you don't play by the rules, huh?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject