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“What?” a cold voice snaps in Steve’s ear.
“Uh, did I disturb you…?” he asks into his phone.
“Oh Steve! Sorry about that. I didn’t pay attention, I thought you were Clint,” Natasha replies, “What’s up?”
“No, it’s me,” Steve answers, “I actually needed – what’d Clint do?”
“He turned off his hearing aids while I was talking to him about the gym needing remodeled and I’m pretending to be pissed at him.” She explains, causing him to laugh. Clintasha as he so lovingly calls them are quite the couple.
“Oh. Okay. Well, I needed a bit of fashion advice,” he says to get back to his reason for calling.
“Yeah?” she prompts.
“I’ve got a date with Bucky tonight and I can’t decide on what to wear,” he explains. He’s not all that bad at dressing himself, he knows he’s got a pretty decent fashion sense and all but when it’s something like this, he can never make up his mind. He wants to look good for the guy who could probably make a paper bag look good.
He’s got it bad, he knows it. Those full, ruby red lips plague his thoughts. Ocean colored eyes light his dreams.
At least Bucky seems to like him, too. It’s been a week since the horrible sunburn happened and they’d decided to wait until it was fading so that he wouldn’t be in pain or peeling like a lizard on their date. They’re finally going on their first date of what Steve hopes to be many.
And he has no idea what to wear.
“Well where are you guys going?” she asks.
“I really have no idea. Bucky is making the plans since he asked me. Dinner I know but I’m not sure what else or where,” he explains.
“I should’ve got to know him before I let you go out with this guy,” Natasha tells him.
“Alright Mom. He’s just fine. Clint has met him when he gave him the apartment. He’s been here for a while now so you could’ve gotten to know him,” he points out.
“Shush, child,” she teases back, “Wear those leather pants I bought you and that navy button up. It brings out the color of your eyes.”
“You mean the ones I promised I’d never ever wear?”
“Yes. Those.”
“Do you not understand the concept of never ever wear?”
“Of course I do. But you’re going to wear them anyway because they do amazing things to your ass and that’s exactly what you’re going for, right?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you thought I was attractive.”
“In your dreams, Rogers.”
Steve laughs out loud when Natasha hangs up on him but he does pull the leather pants out from the depths of his closet.
-=-
Five minutes early, Steve’s doorbell rings and he rushes to open it.
“I usually try to leave my house a few minutes early so I can make sure I get to my date’s place in time, but it doesn’t really work when you’re going on a date with someone next door,” Bucky says with a grin.
“I would expect not,” Steve teases, opening the door and waving Bucky inside. He immediately heads toward the canvas Steve has up to check out the progress on his newest painting. He’d discovered fairly quickly that Bucky quite enjoys art. A plus for him.
“I should have opened up with how great you look, though,” Bucky says, ocean colored eyes lit up, “because you do look great. Gorgeous.”
“Thank you,” Steve blushes, “You do, too.”
And he really does. He’s not wearing leather pants like Steve is, but he’s definitely wearing tight ones, tight all the way down his muscular legs that disappear into combat boots. His dark grey button down hugs all the right spots: broad shoulders, straining over thick, muscled arms, but a little too loose to see his abs. Bummer.
Steve’s pretty proud of his own outfit. He takes almost full credit since Nat only helped him on the pants. He is the one that paired it with the burgundy shirt and light brown short-sleeved button up that he left open. Oh yes. Call Vogue.
He takes a moment to appreciate the after effects of Bucky’s burn – the light dusting tan. It’s only when he’s admiring Bucky’s newly tanned face that he realizes Bucky’s looking at him for an answer.
“Sorry, what?” Steve startles, blushing, “I was admiring your tan.”
“Glad you like it,” Bucky laughs, “You should’ve seen me when I came back from Iraq. I was pretty dark. I asked if you were ready to go, though. No rush, but I figured we could walk to the restaurant since it’s not very hot out tonight.”
“Oh that’s a great idea,” Steve nods, holding up a ‘one moment’ finger and ducking into his bedroom for his wallet. He stops to glance in his mirror to make sure his bangs are sweeping across his forehead right and not parting in the middle all weird like it did in high school before walking back out to meet Bucky.
“Where are we going?” Steve asks curiously.
“Tandoori. It’s a really nice restaurant down town. You do like Indian, right? I was pretty sure we’d talked about it before,” Bucky asks, now sounding a little unsure.
Steve pats him on the back as he follows him out his door, pausing to lock it behind them and smiles, “Yeah, I do like Indian food.”
-=-
They walk down the street, chatting and dodging the other people on the sidewalk. They keep bumping hands as they walk, and Bucky finally just takes Steve’s hand and laces their fingers together, “This okay?”
Steve squeezes Bucky’s hand and nods, “Yeah it is,” he says, “So tell me about where you grew up in stuff?”
“Well I grew up with two sisters – well I have three but the youngest was born only a year before I went overseas so I didn’t really grow up with her,” Bucky laughs, “so I was kind of babied being the only boy. Rebecca is the oldest. She’s two years older than me, married and is currently expecting another girl to add to the Barnes clan. Then it’s me, and then Bethany who’s sixteen. She’s a freaking spitfire when she wants to be.”
They both laugh and Steve grins up at him, admiring the smile and happiness in his eyes as he talks about his family.
“She’s really sweet though, don’t let that fool you. Then Ruby is the youngest. She’s about to be seven. Like I said, she was a year when I left. Since we all Skyped as much as I could, she never actually forgot me luckily,” he chuckles, “and when I had leave I got to see them. When I joined up, Bethany got really interested in Military and she got involved in a lot of organizations and fundraisers and stuff. She’s stuck with several of them even until now, and one of her favorite past times happen to be seriously talking me up to Ruby, so the girl thinks I’m a hero or something…” he trails of then, a slightly faraway look in his eyes.
Steve rubs his other hand down Bucky’s arm to their intertwined hands, “You are a hero, Buck, especially to your sisters.”
“Tell that to Rebecca. She punched me in the face when she found out I signed up. Made my nose bleed,” he says, completely deadpan before they both burst into laughter.
“Wow. She seems like my kind of girl,” Steve says then quickly backpedals, “Not that- I mean, I would never hit you!”
Bucky laughs, “I didn’t think you mean that, but how so?”
“Well, I’ve been known to get into fights when someone tries to be a bully,” he says.
“Why am I not at all surprised?” Bucky asks with a grin, “You seem the type.”
Steve laughs and lightly nudges him with his shoulder, “Where does your family live now?”
“They still live here in Brooklyn. Well, Rebecca lives a little further away with her husband, right outside of Brooklynn. So it’s pretty easy for us to all get together.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you get to spend time with your family. I can hear in how you talk how much you care about them,” Steve says.
“What about yours? Tell me about your family?” Bucky asks.
“Well my Dad died before I was born. He was in the military, too. I lost my mom about six years back. She was sick for a bit before that, cancer, but it went pretty fast so luckily she didn’t have to suffer too much. I don’t have any siblings but I do have a few cousins and an aunt and uncle that I’m pretty close to. They live upstate.” He explains.
“That’s good you have them. I’m sorry to hear about your parents,” Bucky says, his fingers tightening gently around Steve’s.
“Thanks. I’m lucky I have some pretty good friends, too,” Steve agrees.
They reach the restaurant then, Bucky leading him up to the door and opening it for him, steeping to the side to allow him to go in. They go up to the hostess desk and Bucky tells her his last name for the reservations.
Once they’re seated, main course ordered and nibbling on appetizers, they can pick up an actual conversation again aside from idle chatter.
“So is there anything you’re interested in doing for work since you’re back for good?” Steve asks.
Bucky shrugs as he sits down his drink, “I’m not really sure. Before I went over, I just wanted to be a soldier. I wanted to protect my family and other people’s family so they could sleep in peace at night, you know? It is hard to transition back to civilian life after so long doing Special Ops but I don’t miss it. I’m glad to be back. I just have no idea what I want to do. I do have a while because of my Army pension before I absolutely have to go back to working but I don’t like being idle. I always liked robotics so maybe something in engineering? I don’t know, I’d like to do some kind of work with Vets maybe. I know transition can be hard and I’m lucky mine wasn’t as bad as it could have been so I’d like to help where I can.”
“Your sisters are right, Bucky,” Steve says, “You really are a hero.”
“Steve, you’re going to make me blush,” Bucky says and he’s right, Steve can definitely see color rising on his cheeks, “I just do what needs to be done. Tell me more about your job? How did you get into it?”
-=-
Bucky’s mouth tastes like chocolate but Steve thinks that his mouth tastes better than any truffle could ever hope to. He’s not sure how they ended up making out instead of finishing their desserts but he definitely doesn’t care. How can he when Bucky’s all around him?
Bucky’s chest is pressed flush to his, his tongue licking into his mouth and battling with his for dominance. His lips are soft and hot and they feel pretty much perfect against his own. His hair tickles his cheeks and his hands are everywhere – on his face, on the back of his neck, on his shoulders, lacing with his fingers.
It’s absolutely intoxicating.
He’s drunk on it. So much so that he doesn’t realize his appetizer glass full of iced water is sitting far to close to the edge of the table until his elbow connects with it and he sobers up very quickly.
Cold water hits Steve like a shockwave and the boner that was starting to pop up and say hi quickly retreats. He gasps loud enough that it’s almost a screech as he fumbles to right the glass he’d knocked over to stop the water – like there’s any left. It’s all in his lap and down his legs.
“Holy – shit Steve, I’m sorry!” Bucky exclaims, grabbing up the napkins and tries to help Steve get it dried up but there’s only a few.
Steve stands up, slightly hunched in an attempt to keep the cold from touching his skin but it doesn’t work, his pants are practically a second skin already, “I’m going to go try to dry off,” he says, flushing once he hears that his voice is a few octaves higher than it should be. Bucky is flushed as well, though his is likely due to the heavy kissing they were doing just moments ago.
“Okay, I’ll get the check and when you’re done we can head back and watch a movie or play Mario Kart,” Bucky suggests as he starts to grab his wallet.
He penguin waddles to the bathroom and stands there for a second trying to think of what to do.
The leather is really holding the temperature of the ice water so he does the first thing he can think of, which is stripping them right off. Maybe it’ll be easier to dry that way, he thinks. Besides, the water managed to soak through the seams in his pants to his legs and he definitely wants to dry that up.
He grabs a handful of towels, setting about drying off his legs first then the pants as best as they can laughing at himself the whole way.
“Seriously Steve?” he says aloud, “Making out with your seriously hot neighbor – first kiss no less! – and you spill water all over your lap! Classic idiot.”
Once he’s dried them off as best as he can, he tries to put them back on. He straightens up and pulls. Nothing happens.
He pulls again. Nope.
“Fuck!” he mutters, pulling hard enough that his fingers turn white. With a sinking feeling of dread, he realizes his mistake.
Not only is there a certain amount of shrinking when leather pants get wet but the water soaked through the seams, so the lining is wet as well. There is no well in hell these pants are coming back up.
“Oh no,” he groans, resting his head on his hands. How is he supposed to finish his date when he has no pants?! He went commando to avoid any kind of lines with his tight pants. He groans again, slamming the side of his fist into the stall wall, satisfied at the loud bang it makes.
He been sitting there mourning at his stupidity for about ten minutes when the bathroom door opens and he hears the silky voice of his date call out his name.
“Steve? Everything okay?” Bucky calls.
“No!” he whines back.
“What’s wrong? Food not sitting well?” he asks.
“Bucky!” he laughs, “Please don’t ask about my poop on our first date!”
“I was worried!” he’s quick to defend but there’s amusement in his tone, “Seriously though, you’ve been gone for a while. I was kind of worried you skipped out on me.”
“As if I would ever do that,” he says then groans again, feeling his face heat up as he opens his mouth again, “I took off my pants to dry them off and then since they’re wet, I can’t get them back on.”
There’s a beat of silence before the bathroom is echoing with Bucky’s laughter. Steve narrows his eyes and steps up onto the toilet seat so he can glare over the stall door at Bucky (and also to see his beautiful face as he laughs).
“Sorry, sorry” Bucky says after a minute, holding onto a stitch in his side as he takes a few breaths to compose himself, “Come on. We’ll just hurry out of here. You’ll probably never see anyone here again anyway.”
“Yeah, and I’ll get arrested. Bucky, I’m not wearing any underwear,” he groans, “My pants were too tight.”
There’s a garbled choking sound as Bucky tries to reign in another laugh before it happens. Steve ducks his head so that he can stop his own laugh and recompose his glare.
They stare at each other for a moment before Bucky reaches for his belt, “I’ll give you my pants. They may be a little big but I’m wearing a belt. I’m wearing boxers so we won’t get arrested.”
“If there was any other way around this, I would totally deny you having to do this for me,” Steve says, mortified that he has to wear his maybe boyfriend’s pants because he can’t get his own back on.
“I know you would,” Bucky replies as he shimmies off his jeans.
Since Bucky isn’t bright red and in pain this time, Steve can actually check out his ass and legs and you’d better believe he does it right up until Bucky straightens back up and catches him doing it. Bucky just smirks and Steve shrugs. Hey, it’s not like he’s ashamed of checking him out; he’d probably prance right out in front of him if he had underwear on. He doesn’t really go out in front of someone with his penis flopping around on a first date.
Bucky passes his pants over the stall door and Steve steps down from the toilet, putting on Bucky’s pants. He’s right, they are a little big, but not completely in danger of falling off. Bucky’s muscular but he’s not a huge guy.
Once he’s buckled the belt just for the added protection, he unlocks the door and walks out. Their gazes meet and they both start to laugh.
Someone pushes open the door and comes in, effectively sobering them up and they grin at each other, Bucky catching the door and holding it open for Steve, “You ready to do this?”
“I’m not the one in his boxers,” Steve points out, tucking his folded up pants under his arm.
“True,” Bucky agrees as Steve passes him. They both pause before turning the corner to the open doorway that leads back into the crowded restaurant. Steve sees Bucky takes a deep breath as they both walk beside each other toward the door. Bucky’s walking proud though Steve can see the color rising in his cheeks as every table they pass turn to look at them.
“They so think we just got it on in there I bet,” Steve quips as they reach the door, both of them barreling out, loud laughter ringing out.
“This is so the most memorable first date I’ve ever had,” Bucky says through gasps for air.
“Hopefully it won’t be the last,” Steve replies and Bucky smiles at him, “It won’t.” he says as he flags down a cab, letting Steve get in first before climbing in behind him. He gives the driver the address of their apartment building.
“I would suggest we go for a walk or something but I’d really like some pants,” Bucky grins, “So are you okay with going back to one of our apartments and playing Mario Kart?”
“That sounds good to me, Buck,” Steve replies, feeling a little bold since he’s not the one in boxers so he reaches out and takes Bucky’s hand, leaning his head over onto his shoulder.
“You know,” Bucky says after a moment, “I didn’t plan on letting you into my pants on our first date.”
Steve laughs so hard, he has to reach for his inhaler.