Chapter Text
Peggy Carter: Problem solved.
Peggy calls Natasha at 9 o’clock, not because she can’t decide what to wear, but because she wants a second opinion. At least that’s what she tells Natasha.
She’s still staring at the dresses she has laid out on her futon and her bed when Natasha comes in.
“So I’ve narrowed it down to these five,” Peggy says.
“Okay,” Natasha says, and she immediately begins looking over her choices. Peggy has to physically stop herself from rocking on her feet while she waits. This isn’t like her, something that Natasha picks up on.
“You aren’t usually this uncertain about your style,” Natasha tells her as she moves from the bed to the futon, picking up a pale blue dress, examining it, and setting it back down.
“I’m not usually this nervous,” Peggy admits.
Natasha turns to look at her, her expression soft. “You know you don’t need to be, right? You’re a catch, Carter, and Angie knows it.”
“I just want to give off the vibe that I think she’s a catch, too, so I want to look nice.”
Natasha moves around her to pick up a red dress off of Peggy’s bed. “This one. It’s not super low-cut or short but it’s still a little revealing. You can tease her a bit, show her that you aren’t just taking the night lightly and want to look good for her. Sexy and stylish.”
“Okay, give me a minute,” Peggy says. She takes the dress from Natasha’s hand and disappears into her bathroom to change and curl her hair. She and Natasha make small talk before she emerges a few minutes later and Natasha gives a low wolf-whistle.
“Yeah?” Peggy asks, grinning.
“Oh yeah. Just wait ‘til Angie sees you. You’ll definitely be more than gal pals by the end of the night.”
“Here’s hoping,” Peggy says with a shake of her head. She looks at Natasha, who’s wearing a MARVEL U sweater that Peggy is fairly certain she saw Sam wearing a few weeks ago and pajama shorts. “You, on the other hand, do not look ready for a party.”
Natasha shrugs. “Still have some advisor stuff to sort out. Reconsidering my schedule for next semester and stuff. I’ll try and stop by later.”
“I hope so,” Peggy replies. “I know Sam was pretty excited for this party and I’m sure you not being there would dampen his mood.”
The only change of Natasha’s expression is a quirk of her lips. “When did you figure it out?”
“A couple of weeks ago. I saw the way he was looking at you during your office hours one day. I thought I was just seeing something that wasn’t there until I saw you checking him out as he left the office a few days later. Once I noticed it, it wasn’t hard to keep noticing. No one else knows, as far as I can tell.”
“I’ll hopefully stop by later,” Natasha tells her with a small smile. “You look good, Peggy. I hope you have a good night.” With that, she leaves the room.
Peggy spends the next 15 minutes alternating between pacing around her room and sitting on her futon with her leg bouncing. She also double checks that, yes, Angie is going to the party. Eventually she decides it’s a reasonable time to go meet Steve and they walk a few blocks away from campus to the Cage-Jones-Murdoch-Nelson-Page-Temple house.
The party isn’t a total rager, but it’s definitely larger than what Peggy is used to. She can see lights on on each floor, there’s a small crowd gathered on the porch, and someone apparently hooked up speakers to be playing on all three floors because the music seems to be coming from all around her.
She manages to find all six housemates before she finds Angie in the backyard, talking to their friend Rose. Peggy takes a moment to appreciate the deep neck line on Angie’s green top before making her way over. Angie’s face lights up when she sees Peggy and Peggy smiles back.
After a bit of small talk Angie says, “Way to finally join the party, English! Rose refuses to dance with me so go do a shot of whatever will get you on the dance floor.”
“I don’t need a shot of anything to want to dance with you,” Peggy tells her. She’s laying down her cards earlier than she planned but honestly she couldn’t stop herself.
Angie gets a goofy little smile on her face at that before she shakes her head and pulls Peggy back into the house. They drink and dance, bodies close together, for a while before Angie has to pull away for some air. They end up on the front porch where Karen and Foggy are shit-talking one of their law professors so they end up just walking instead. There are a few students on their way to the house party and a few more on a porch further down the street but other than that the night is fairly quiet.
“Sorry, it was starting to get a little hot in there,” Angie says.
“Yeah, the music coming from the entire house was a little overwhelming,” Peggy replies with a laugh.
“I’m glad you came, though,” Angie tells her.
“Yeah, I am, too. I’m having a really good time. I’m getting kind of hungry, though,” she admits.
“Oh my god, I know, right? I’m starving!” Angie blurts out before giving an embarrassed giggle at the eagerness of her response.
“I know an all-night diner, if you want to dip out on the rest of the party,” Peggy says. She holds out her hand and holds her breath. The rest of her cards are down but she isn’t scared. Angie places her hand in Peggy’s with a smile and Peggy grins back.
“I really want to kiss you right now,” Angie tells her, her voice quiet and hopeful.
“You should do that,” Peggy whispers back.
So Angie does, and her lips are soft and her hands are gentle against Peggy’s back and Peggy’s smiling so much it’s kind of affecting her ability to kiss Angie back. After a few minutes Peggy’s stomach actually growls and she pulls away. “So,” she begins, a bit breathless. “I really liked that, and I would really like to do more of that, but I would also really like some food.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Angie replies.
They get back to Peggy’s car, make out a little more, and eventually make it to the diner and order some burgers.
“So does this count as our first date?” Angie teases.
“I hope so,” Peggy says.
“24-hour diner burgers and shakes, I like it!”
“Okay, so,” Peggy finds herself saying again. “I like you, as previously established. But I haven’t done all this with a girl before, so please bear with me. There’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve to get used to things and that might take me a little time.”
“And I’m okay with that,” Angie assures her. “We can move forward at whatever pace you’re comfortable with and we’ll figure out what works for us.”
“I’d like that,” Peggy says with a great feeling of relief. “I’d also like our food to arrive,” she calls out, looking around at the nearly empty diner.
“English, stop!” Angie hisses with a laugh that Peggy returns. Their waiter might’ve scowled slightly when placing Peggy’s burger in front of her but it’s okay because, honestly, it might be the best first date Peggy’s ever had. She leaves their waiter a good tip and they head back to campus.
“So,” Angie says when they’re waiting at a red light. “Are you on call at all this weekend?”
“No,” Peggy tells her.
“Well, if you want to, you could stay at my place tonight. It’s up to you, though, and I’m not trying to push forward the pace of this in a way to make you uncomfortable but I also really like the idea of getting to sleep next to you but like I said if you don’t want to –“
“Yes,” Peggy says, cutting her off.
“Yes?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“Okay, cool. Okay, okay.”
“You alright?” Peggy asks.
Angie makes a noise of affirmation before admitting, “just, now that this is actually happening, it’s a little, whoa. Like, the thought of you staying at my place tonight is whoa.”
Yeah, it is. But it’s a good whoa,” Peggy says.
“Yeah, yeah it is,” Angie agrees.
Angie smiles at Peggy. Peggy smiles back. The light turns green. They move forward.
****
Sam Wilson: Problem solved.
“Have you seen Peggy or Natasha anywhere?” Sam asks Jessica Jones, who was rummaging around in her kitchen cabinets.
After several moments Jessica pulls back, holding a bottle of whiskey and grinning. “Sorry, what was that?”
“Peggy or Natasha, have you seen either of them lately?”
“Um, Karen told me Peggy left with some girl a while ago. Might’ve been Cassie?” Jessica tells him as she unscrews the cap off the bottle and takes a drink. “Cassie?” Sam asks. Sam knows a lot of people, but he doesn’t know a Cassie.
“Oh, shit, no, that’s not her name!” Jessica set down the bottle so she could gesture with both hands. “She played Cassie in A Chorus Line. I don’t remember her actual name. I’m not sure if I even know it, actually.”
“Angie Martinelli?” Sam offers.
“I dunno, maybe?” Jessica says with a shrug. She takes another drink.
Sam sighs. “How about Natasha?”
“I haven’t seen her at all,” Jessica tells him. She sounds certain this time.
Sam sighs again. “Alright, thanks.”
“No problem, pal,” Jessica says, giving him a thumbs up.
He steps out into the backyard and shoots Natasha a text to see if she had changed her mind about coming. He hopes she hasn’t but he knows she’s had a pretty stressful week so he’d get it if she was no longer up for it. He gets a message back a few seconds later letting him know she’s on her way.
There are a few smaller conversations happening out back but they’re all pretty separate from one another so he decides to head back inside. Sam arrived with Clint but he lost him almost immediately. Sam considers himself to be a pretty charismatic guy but he continues to be surprised by the fact that Clint might be the most personable person he knows despite the fact that he apparently lives on coffee and will go three days without changing shirts. He hasn’t seen Steve or Bucky in a while, either, but he thinks that might be a lost cause.
Luke Cage finds him refilling his drink and cajoles him into playing a game of beer pong.
Sam doesn’t know much about Luke but he does know that he works at the bar Hell’s Kitchen, just near campus and he can work with that. “So, you glad to be the one drinking and not serving drinks for a change?”
Luke lets out a loud laugh. “Man, you have no idea! Like, HK’s a great place but I swear some nights…” The conversation goes from there. Hell yeah, Sam’s personable.
Luke dips out after they win to go find Jessica. “I was talking to her in your kitchen right before I went outside, so maybe start there?” Sam suggests. Luke leaves Sam with a clap on the shoulder – shit, does that man have large hands – and a “thanks!” He sees Nat when he watches Luke walk away and tries to get her to play but she makes a vague motion with her arms, which are stocked with water bottles, and vanishes up the stairs. Scott and Logan manage to boot him from table before Nat comes back downstairs and that is not a game he foresees ending well.
He wants to give her shit for costing him his spot at the table but before he can she tells him she got her advisor changed to Dr. Hawley and he’s too happy for her to care anymore. She declares she needs a victory drink and they move outside.
“Where’d you vanish off to earlier?” Sam asks her because he feels like an appropriate amount of time has passed and he’s also really curious.
“Water detail for Matt, Clint, and Claire,” she tells him.
“Ah, that makes sense. Well tell Matt, Clint, and Claire that I lost my spot at the table because of them.”
“Just yell up the stairs, I’m sure they’ll all appreciate that.” He teasingly makes a move to do so and she reins him in with a laugh.
“Nah, I wouldn’t do that to Claire. The other two, though, they’re on my list.”
“Oh yeah?” Natasha asks, a smile playing at her lips.
“Oh yeah. I bet we could have been a killer team and if we went back inside we’d have to wait through, like, four more games to wait and see.” Sam doesn’t realize how that sounded until after he says it.
Nat’s quiet for a moment before she says, “I think we could be a pretty good team, too. I think we should find out. If you want to.”
It takes a second to register what she’s really saying and when he catches on, Sam’s smile is blinding. “I want to.” He kisses her firmly and pulls away. “I’m gonna take you on a real date.”
“And I absolutely want that to happen, but right now, I am craving some lousy Mexican food from that place near campus,” she tells him and Sam can’t stop himself from kissing her again.
“That sounds perfect,” he says. They cut back through the house where Scott and Logan are arguing loudly next to pong table. “Called that,” Sam mutters to Nat.
“Not my problem tonight,” Nat mutters back with a smirk.
Two burritos later they head back to Nat’s dorm room to eat.
“Can I just say,” Sam starts once he finishes his burrito, “that that was a fantastic decision.”
“I’m full of them,” Nat replies as she takes a drink of water.
Sam can’t not ask, “so what made you decide to make this one?” He makes a large circling gesture with his hand to try and encompass the two of them.
Nat sets down her water and puts the cap back on the bottle before talking. “Well, I’d been coming to that decision for a little while now, just with how much I like spending time with you and not just in bed but when you would stop by during my office hours but your support over the past week while I’ve been sorting all of this advisor crap out was that last push I needed to get myself to make a move.”
“I’m sorry about all the grief Pierce has given you but I’m glad that it ended well,” Sam tells her.
“You talking about Hawley or yourself?” Natasha teases.
“Hey now!” Sam cries with a laugh. “I was definitely talking about Hawley but this is nice, too.”
“Yeah, it is,” Natasha agrees, as she begins to collect the trash from their meal.
“I can do that,” Sam insists, throwing his own garbage in their takeout bag and getting up off the floor to throw it away.
“My boyfriend’s such a gentleman,” Nat hums and oh man, does Sam like the way that sounds.
“I’m your boyfriend,” Sam says with a large smile.
“Yes, yes you are.”
“Awesome.” He kisses her. “I get to do that now, like, whenever!”
“You should keep doing that,” Nat says.
Sam really wants to, which is why it pains him to say, “Not to kill the mood but can we let the Mexican food settle a bit first? Burritos aren’t much of an aphrodisiac, Nat.”
“No, that’s probably a good idea. A burrito seemed like such a good idea at the time, though,” Nat says, almost like a whine; Sam thinks it’s cute. “Want to watch some Parks and Recreation?”
“Definitely.” Nat strips out of her shirt and jeans and Sam follows suit before they climb into her bed. She starts up an episode and settles into Sam’s arms. Sam thinks that Nat falls asleep some time during the second episode that plays but he’s not entirely sure. He knows he doesn’t remember hearing the show’s theme music for a third time so he couldn’t have been awake that much longer.
They get to have sleepy morning sex, though, so Sam calls it a win.
Yeah, Sam thinks as he kisses his way down Nat’s body, he could definitely get used to this.
****
Natasha Romanoff: Problem solved.
Natasha doesn’t often doubt herself, her discussion with Sam earlier this week about Pierce certainly affirmed that. That being said, she may or may not have been triple-checking every emails she’s sent today because although she’d spoken with Dr. Hawley before, she wants to make a good, professional first impression now that Natasha officially has her for an advisor. So it’s been a day filled with I’m very grateful for you being willing to take me on as an advisee and yes, I can bring in a list of graduate programs I’m looking at for our first meeting and I believe I’m completed all of the official paperwork necessary but do I need to complete anything else on my end?
She also had to figure out how to send a thank you email to Pierce that didn’t sound completely disingenuous after he sent her, Natasha, I have been informed that your request to change advisors was granted. I hope Dr. Hawley is a better fit for you. Good luck with your future endeavors. In the end she sends back a curt, Thank you. I appreciate the help you provided while you were my advisor. She would have loved to just reply back with a fuck off, but life doesn't really work that way. In between refreshing her emails, she also managed to finish her Russian Lit paper and take a nap so she’s had a pretty great day.
She’s gotten texts from Peggy, James, and Sam about the housewarming party that she really doesn’t feel like going to but she eventually sends out a yeah, I’ll see you there, text to all three of them. Peggy says that she's heading over with Steve and Natasha is welcome to join them while Bucky complains that Peggy has ditched her for Steve so he needs to show up with an even hotter date. Sam sends back a smiley face.
She scrolls back through her texts with Sam over the past week. After she’d told him that she’d started the process to request a change in advisor he’d ask her about updates and how it was going each day or two. They were just casual check-ins, nothing pushy, just making sure she wasn’t getting too stressed or anything. It was the sweetest thing someone had done for her in a while.
Natasha’s enjoyed the casual thing the two of them have had going on since the start of the semester and she’s not sure when she realized Sam was hoping for something more but she had picked up on it. Admittedly, she had sort of played it off at first because she wasn’t at that point and hadn’t had the best experiences with relationships in the past. Sam had been different, though. He hadn’t been vindictive or angry about the fact that she’s pretty closed off, hasn’t made unsubtle passive aggressive comments to try get her to change who she is.
She’d been warming up to the idea of making her thing with Sam into something more but he’s been especially great this past week and it really solidified that she wanted to take that next step. She hadn’t even told Peggy or James about her good news because she wanted to tell Sam first, and she wanted to do it in person. Peggy and James will both be annoyed at that and probably give her some shit but apparently feelings are going around this week so whatever, she’ll have feelings and own the hell out of them.
She fine tunes her essay and plans to play some Candy Crush with Parks and Recreation playing as background noise until she’s finally motivated to walk over. Instead, she ends up falling back asleep and wakes up later than she anticipated and quickly cleans herself up before she leaves the dorm.
Sam texts her just as she walks past the office where Jessica Drew calls out, “have fun tonight for those of us who can’t!” Nat gives her a quick wave before texting Sam that she’s finally on her way over. She holds off on sharing the good news. The party is raucous when she arrives, people on the porch and in the yard, music blasting. She’s grateful that this area off-campus is nearly all college students because otherwise she’d be concerned about someone calling in. She’s still aware that it could happen but she figures it’s not as likely.
Kate and Karen are on the front porch with a blond guy she she doesn't recognize. Karen introduces him as Foggy, Matt's roommate, and Natasha talks up with them for a bit before she officially heads inside. She spots Sam playing beer pong with Luke so she wanders a bit more. It’s quieter upstairs and she finds Clint, Matt, and Claire hanging out in Claire’s kitchen. Matt’s buried his face in one of his arms, the other stretched across the table.
“It’s like people forgot there’s an entire upstairs level of the house,” Natasha tells them as she walks up.
“Thankfully,” Claire says with a chuckle.
“Me and Matty decided to face off on Ride the Bus,” Clint says slowly, his words very pronounced.
“We both lost,” Matt mutters into his arms.
“Or we both won,” Clint shoots back.
“They both lost,” Claire assures.
“You need anything?” Natasha asks them.
“There should be more water in one of the coolers downstairs, could you bring some up?” Claire asks.
Natasha heads back downstairs and has an armful of waters when Sam spots her. “Nat! Get over here! I need a new partner!” She tries to gesture to give her minute but it’s not easy with no hands to do so. She hopes she gets the point across and runs the waters upstairs and by the time she gets back to the main floor Sam’s no longer at the game table.
“I have good news,” she tells him the moment he walks up.
“What is it?” Sam asks, a smile already forming. She knows he knows what it is but he’s letting her be the one to say it. Oh man, does she have feelings.
“Dr. Hawley is officially my new advisor,” she tells him with a matching smile.
Sam whoops and pumps his fist. “Hell yeah! I told you it’d happen!”
“You did,” Natasha says, still smiling. “Thank you for that, Sam. I really appreciated those texts this week.”
Sam ducks his head. “Nah, it was nothing.”
“Well then thank you for that nothing,” Natasha insists, and when Sam raises his head to look at her she kisses him. He cups her face with one of his hands but the kiss is light, natural. She pulls away after a moment and says, “now come on, I’ve earned a victory drink.” They grab drinks and move out to the backyard.
It's quieter outside, which Natasha is grateful for, and Sam says yes when she asks him out, which she appreciates even more. Sam kisses her deeply and promises he’s going to take her on a real date. While she likes the idea of going on a real date with him, she really likes the idea of him buying her a burrito from the trashy Mexican joint near campus. He does. He’s a good boyfriend.
They walk over and hold hands on the way there and it’s almost surreal how natural it feels. Their banter still flows easily and at one point Sam stops to pull her close and kiss her and he buys her a burrito. It’s kind of overwhelming.
They head back to the dorm. Jessica Drew is still in the office for some reason and though Natasha wants to go back to her room and have a date with her boyfriend and maybe some sex, she’s still an RA and still has a job to do. “Shouldn’t your hours be done by now?”
Jessica looks up from her computer, a frazzled look on her face. “Yeah, a while ago, but Carol’s dealing with a crisis so I took over for her.”
“You need me to do anything?” Natasha asks.
“No, not tonight, but we’ll probably have a meeting before the weekend is over. Don’t worry though, just go enjoy the rest of your night.”
Natasha pauses for a minute before saying, “I feel like you’d enjoy your night a bit more if you had a drink.”
Jessica’s eyes light up. “I really, really would.”
Nat and Sam head up to her room and Nat says sternly, “you don’t know that this is here,” before she pulls a bottle of vodka out of the freezer of her mini-fridge. She mixes a drink in one of her reusable water bottles, kisses Sam because she can, and brings the bottle down to Jessica.
“You’re an angel,” Jessica says as she immediately takes a big gulp. Her eyes widen and she huffs out a loud exhale. “Or a devil! Shit, Natasha, how strong is this?”
Natasha smirks. “You looked like you needed it. Are you sure I can’t do anything?” Once Jessica assures her that she doesn’t, Natasha heads back upstairs.
Natasha Romanoff’s first date with Sam Wilson is eating Mexican food on the floor of her dorm room and she wouldn’t change a thing. She’s definitely not in the mood for sex after that meal and instead they fall asleep watching TV together, which was kind of even better.
“Good morning,” Sam says sleepily when they wake up.
“You were the first person I told,” Natasha replies when she realizes she never let him know last night.
“What?” Sam asks.
“About me getting my advisor switched. You were the first person I told. I wanted to tell you first,” she clarifies.
Sam grins and kisses her and he doesn’t stop kissing her.
****
Bucky Barnes: Problem solved.
Bucky walks to the party by himself so he’s not even sure who all is around when he shows up. He can’t find Natasha or Steve or Peggy, or even Sam or Clint, so he roams through the party until he gets pulled into a game of flip cup with Dum Dum and Morita and company. He hadn’t really seen them this semester so he chats with them for a while, catching up on how their classes are going and the like. He excuses himself to grab another drink and sees Peggy’s friend Rose coming inside from the backyard and heads over to her.
“Hey James,” she says with a smile as he walks up.
“Hey Rose, you seen Peggy around here?”
Rose’s smile turns more knowing. “Yeah, she’s outside with Angie. I left once I realized Peggy wasn’t going to gossip about any of your residents.”
Bucky smirks back and says, “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the only reason you wanted to leave those two.”
“I may not wingwoman very often but I do know the optimal time to dip out of a conversation. So how about it? Call center horror story in exchange for a dorm room horror story?”
They swap a couple of stories and run into Morita when they go to refill their drinks. He’s introducing the two of them when he spots Steve playing beer pong with Claire. The next thing he knows he has a fresh cup of beer in his hand and he distantly hears Rose saying, “So where’s the rest of your group? I’ve heard some stories about you all from Peggy but I don’t know if I’ve really met any of you.”
“Well we should remedy that,” Morita tells her and she winks at Bucky as they walk away.
Bucky locks eyes with Steve once he’s done talking with Claire and walks over.
“Looks like you didn’t get a chance to drink very much during that game, given how cleanly you wiped the floor with those two,” Bucky says to him as he hands him one of the cups.
“That’s kind of the point of the game, Buck,” Steve quips back before taking a sip of the beer.
Steve Rogers is such a goddamn punk and Bucky has it so bad. “Yeah, well, beer pong isn’t my strong suit,” Bucky shoots back.
“So what is?” Steve asks him. His tone is less snarky and more earnest than Bucky is used to hearing.
“Dancin’,” Bucky tells him, almost instantly. Bucky knows a chance when he has one and he takes it full force.
“Well, that ain’t one of mine,” Steve says back just as quickly.
“Too bad, punk, because you got your turn to show off and now I get mine.” Bucky hopes he’s not forcing anything but Steve doesn’t argue when Bucky draws him towards the dance floor.
Two songs later and, wow, okay, Steve was not lying when he said it wasn’t a strong suit. He’s way too stiff for the song that’s playing and Bucky’s hoping that it’s more because he’s just not that good at dancing and not because he’s dancing with him.
Someone knocks into Steve from behind and Bucky catches his arms before he can really stumble. After making sure Steve’s alright he uses their new position to his advantage. He adjusts Steve’s movement so that it looks more natural and soon their dancing against each other. Steve’s a fast learner because within the next couple of songs he’s grinding against Bucky with ease. One of Steve’s arms slides up to wrap around his shoulders and Bucky can feel that Steve is hard and he’s hard, too, and he can’t stop staring at Steve’s mouth and it’s a rush of ohmygodfinally when Steve presses his mouth to Bucky’s.
Bucky makes a move to deepen the kiss and Steve gives in instantly. He slides a hand from Steve’s side up to cup his face and Steve shivers against him. When Steve simultaneously rakes his nails down his back while grinding their hips together Bucky nearly comes undone right there on the dance floor. His head drops to the crook of Steve’s neck so he starts kissing the hollow of his throat and he’s wanted this so badly that he almost doesn’t realize his phone is vibrating in his back pocket.
He separates himself from Steve just enough to answer it and he immediately wishes that he hadn’t because fuck he does not want to go deal with the shitstorm he knows is about to unfold. But he does, giving Steve a quick goodbye kiss. It’s softer, nothing like the makeout session that was just happening, and Bucky hopes it helps to convey how much he feels for the smaller man.
Bucky has never done a stronger 180-degree turnaround in how he’s feeling than going from making out with Steve Rogers to finding out that Brock Rumlow lit his goddamn dorm room on fire.
He gets back to Brubaker and Jessica Drew mouths, “good luck with that,” as he storms by the office. Fuck.
The next hour and a half goes by in a blur. Carol’s already tearing into Brock when he walks into the room. Phrases like damage to school property and lucky there was no damage to your roommate’s property and the danger you put your floormates in are said.
“Well, at least I found out that the floor’s smoke alarm is broken for you. They really should check those more often, it’s a safety hazard,” Brock says at one point and Bucky sees red.
T’Challa comes in and Carol’s intimidating in a take-no-shit way but T’Challa’s intimidating in a strong, silent way. T’Challa starts talking about paperwork and ramifications and immediate removal from the dorm and doesn’t raise his voice once but Bucky can still watch Brock’s drunken bravado turn into a realization of ‘I’ve fucked up deeply.’
T’Challa leaves to get some paperwork from his room and Bucky almost thinks Brock is about to start apologizing but then he starts going off about his parents filing lawsuits and broken fire alarms being health code violations and this is not how Bucky saw his night ending. T’Challa comes back with a handful of forms he passes off to Bucky and Carol and he tells them to get started on while he begins to lay out to Brock what exactly is going to happen to him because of his actions.
“Literally, what the fuck?” Bucky asks Carol once they’re headed back towards the office.
Carol lets out a long sigh. “I was doing my rounds and I could smell something smoky coming from his and Steve’s room and at first I thought it was pot but it smelled like something else, too. It took me a second before I realized it smelled like actual burning smoke and so I start pounding on the door and I hear a bunch of commotion and cursing and shit and I heard him lock the door from the inside and thankfully I had the master key so I opened it and he’s trying to dump bottles of water on his bed which is fucking on fire because he apparently dropped his lighter on his sheets after lighting a joint and thought it’d be fun to watch it burn.”
“Literally, what the fuck?” Bucky says again.
They get down to the office and Carol thanks Jessica for taking over her office hours for her. They fill her in on what happened and she throws up her hands and leaves claiming, “it’s too late to deal with this shit.”
“No kidding,” Carol mutters. They fill out paperwork, send a few emails, and Bucky sends Peggy a few texts that he doesn’t get an answer to. “Thank you for getting back here so quickly,” Carol tells him as they pack their things up. “Like, I’ve handled a lot of shit while I’ve been on staff but that was a new one and the backup definitely helped.”
“Don’t mention it,” Bucky says with a wave of his hand. “You looked like you definitely had a handle on him when I got there.”
“Well yeah, I can more than handle Brock Rumlow,” Carol says and Bucky lets out a tired laugh, “but even that was a little outside of my wheelhouse.”
Bucky continues up to his floor after Carol reaches hers and he crosses to Peggy’s side to write CALL ME TOMORROW on her message board before he heads to his room. He strips down to his boxers, falls into bed, and sleeps until the following afternoon.
He wakes up six texts from Peggy, three from Natasha, one each from Carol and T’Challa, and zero from Steve. He tries not to be too disappointed.
Peggy’d sent him a long apology message involving her phone being dead and Angie not having a charger and I don’t want to hear it, Barnes and she’s spoken with T’Challa and they’ve gotten the ball rolling with everything. T'Challa's text just verifies that Peggy talked to him and Carol's lets him know that she's finished her paperwork and that she checked the fire alarm Brock said was broken and found that it had been disconnected. Brock hadn't owned up to doing it yet but she figured it was only a matter of time. Natasha’s three messages say find me tomorrow and fill me in and then, Peggy told me what happened, let me know if I need to do anything. Or if you need a drink tonight and finally, also, I’m dating Sam.
Good for them, Bucky thinks as he finally rolls out of bed. He responds to some emails about last night’s incident and spends the rest of the day watching the food network and wondering if Steve will text him. He wants to text Steve first but it’s more important to him to let the ball stay in Steve’s court. Based off of what Steve has shared with him about his high school years and his first year of college it didn’t sound like he’d had the easiest time or that many experiences romantically or sexually. Bucky still doesn’t understand because, honestly, how can someone not spend just 15 minutes with the guy and not fall at least a little bit in love with him? Bucky has a bit more experience in those departments but still nothing too significant, so he wants to do this right. So, yes, he’s willing to wait it out until Steve is sure of what exactly he wants and Bucky will take whatever Steve lets him have. That doesn’t mean he can’t be disappointed that it’s five in the afternoon and Steve still hasn’t texted him or shown up at his door.
Sam stops by to ask why Brock’s name is no longer next to Steve’s on their dorm room door and shrugs amicably when Bucky gives him a vague answer. “Will he be back?” Sam asks. Bucky assures him that he won’t be. “Sweet. That’s all I care about,” Sam says with a grin and he leaves.
Bucky’s taking a break from his Chopped marathon to email T’Challa and Peggy back about the mandatory meeting the RA’s are going to have tomorrow when he finally hears a knock at his door. He hears Steve’s voice before he sees him and if he can’t fight back the grin that appears on his face as he turns around, no one has to know but him and Steve. He’s glad he heard Steve’s voice first because he really was not prepared for what he sees.
****
Steve Rogers: Problem solved.
Steve gets an idea. It’s a ridiculous idea, even for him. Probably Top 5 Ridiculous Steve Ideas. The party last weekend makes Steve pretty certain that Bucky will be receptive, though, so it’s probably only third or fourth most ridiculous.
The Party. Steve still can’t believe that actually happened. Brock was already gone when Peggy showed up at Steve’s room around 9:45 Saturday night. “Why aren’t you ready yet?”
Steve looks up from his sketch. “Oh, sorry, I got distracted.”
“You aren’t flaking out on me are you, Rogers?”
Steve sighs before squaring his shoulders and getting up. “No,” he begins. “But I haven’t thought about what to wear so it’s going to be a little while before I’m ready.”
“Put on that olive green shirt, it looks good with your complexion,” Peggy tells him.
“You mean my lack of complexion,” Steve remarks dryly, to which Peggy only smiles. Peggy does her makeup in Steve’s mirror while he ducks into the small alcove in the corner of the room to change shirts and out of his flannel pajama pants and into some tight-fitting jeans.
“You look pretty dressed up,” Steve says, taking in her red dress, one that’s slightly shorter than her usual fare. “I take it a certain theatre major is going to be there?”
“Yes, she will be,” Peggy says, almost shyly.
“Good, she deserves to see you in that,” Steve tells her and Peggy gives him a look that’s half-endeared and half-exasperated.
“Alright, Rogers, we’ve got places to be and people to see. Ready to go?”
He follows Peggy out of his dorm room and off campus. He kind of trails after her at first, talking with people here and there. He eventually finds Foggy and Luke celebrating a win at beer pong and Claire Temple somehow materializes next to him to drag him into a game.
“You better be able to keep up with me, Steve. I’ve got to build up some street cred around this place,” she tells him.
Steve laughs. “You haven’t built up enough already? The stories I’ve heard from Clint about you talking down Murdoch make it seem like you should have more than enough street cred to take on these two.”
“Well, yes, I know that, but they don’t.”
“Alright, well let’s see what we can do about that,” Steve says.
They’ve got Luke and Foggy down to their last three cups and have seven of their own still on the table when Steve sees Bucky walk into the room. He falters and misses his shot but they come back and win it on their next turn. “We need to hang out more often,” Claire tells him as she hugs him.
"You're doing your nursing clinicals at the hospital near campus, right?" Steve asks her. When she nods he tells her, “Well I’m sure you’ll see me around the hospital sooner or later,” and she laughs.
Steve doesn’t see who takes his place by Claire because he’s more focused on Bucky sauntering over in a tight white v-neck and holding two red cups.
Steve banters – or flirts? – with Bucky for a bit and the next thing he’s following Bucky towards the dance floor. To be fair to Bucky, it didn’t take much to get Steve to follow him there. It doesn’t mean he can’t mutter a quiet, “shit,” under as breath as he follows Bucky towards the living room where a crowd people are dancing to a song Steve doesn’t recognize. Bucky can dance, though, his movements fluid and seductive, gyrating just out of Steve’s reach. Steve just sort of shifts his weight back and forth sloppily and he’s still working up the nerve to close the gap between them when someone bumps into him from behind and he stumbles forward.
“You okay there, Stevie?” Bucky whispers as Steve’s hands grip at Bucky’s biceps. “And loosen up, I know you got moves.” Bucky’s hands trail down Steve’s sides and come to rest on his hips. Bucky guides Steve’s motions and soon they’re more fluid, more like his as they press against each other. The song changes and Steve finds the beat more easily, grinding against Bucky. Within the next few songs Steve can feel himself hardening in his jeans and thinks fuck it, before surging upward and pressing his lips to Bucky’s. Bucky kisses him back like he was expecting it. Maybe he was, Steve thinks. Bucky slips his tongue between Steve's lips and then Steve doesn’t really focus on anything. His hands slide under Bucky’s shirt and his skin is hot against Steve’s palms. He drags his nails down Bucky’s back and Bucky breaks away from Steve’s mouth to groan hotly against his neck. Steve wants to hear that noise again and again. Preferably in a more comfortable setting, like his bed. He’s just slid one hand down to grab Bucky’s ass, the other still pressed against Bucky’s back when Bucky’s butt starts vibrating. Literally vibrating. What.
“Shit, sorry,” Bucky mutters into Steve’s neck as he pulls out his phone. “What’s up, Carol?” After a few seconds he scowls deeply. “Wait, what? Are you fucking serious right now? Okay, give me a few minutes.” He looks down at Steve. “As much as I liked where this was going, I’ve got a floor situation to go deal with.”
“What’s going on?” Steve asks.
“That’s confidential, Stevie, sorry. But don’t end your night because of me, I think Carter and her friend-girl are still here,” he says with a weak smile. Steve stops himself before he says something stupid like, I’d rather end my night with you. “But find me later this weekend, yeah?” Steve nods dumbly. Bucky looks at him for a moment before bending back in and giving him a quick kiss, one that’s just as much on his mouth as it is his cheek, and Steve is glad the lack of lights is able to hide his blush.
Steve doesn’t find Angie or Peggy. He plays a few more games of beer pong with Claire before he calls it a night and heads back to his dorm. The minute he gets to his floor he can hear multiple voices arguing loudly from his room. One of the voices is Carol’s, and she kind of intimidates him, so he completely avoids it. Sam isn’t in his room, and Peggy isn’t in hers so he walks down to the second floor where the male hall director for the building, T’Challa, lives.
T’Challa’s door is wide open and he’s looking through a stack of folders when Steve knocks on the door. “Hello, Steven,” T’Challa says, the stern set of his lips lifting into a smile. “What can I do for you?”
“Hey, T’Challa. Um, there’s a lot of arguing happening in my room right now, like, multiple voices. This isn’t something I’d normally bother you about but I was wondering if I could crash on your couch? I can’t find anyone else and I really don’t want to sleep in the lounge.”
“Absolutely,” T’Challa replies. “You’re welcome to use my phone charger, if you need it. There’s an outlet next to the couch. I can grab you a pair of sweat pants, as well. I’m not sure how well they’ll fit you, though.”
“Thank you so much, T’Challa. I’ll take you up on the offer of your phone charger but don’t worry about the sweats. I’ve slept in my clothes before, it doesn’t bother me.”
“Okay, well I can leave a pair out for you if you end up changing your mind,” he says as he pulls a pillow off of his bed to set next to the blanket that is already on his couch. “Now do forgive me, but there’s something that I must go take care of.” T’Challa leaves the room and Steve plugs in his phone before he gets situated on the couch.
He’s grateful that his phone could charge because he wakes up to an email from his advisor, Dr. Erksine, saying that he’s missing something from his portfolio for an assignment that was due Friday and he has to head straight to the art building. He ends up spending most of the day there, correcting his portfolio, editing some other projects, or just taking breaks from his two actual assignments to sketch (he only draws Bucky twice, he’s pretty proud of himself).
If he’s being honest, he’s also stalling. Okay, so he likes Bucky. And Bucky likes him, last night sort of cleared up any ambiguity on that part. Steve isn’t sure how Bucky likes him though. Does he want to date him? Steve would like that. Or does Bucky just want to have sex with him? Steve would like that, too, he’s sure. He’s never had full-on sex, though. What if that freaks Bucky out? Should he just not tell him? No, that wouldn’t be good. Steve’s not dumb, he knows that wouldn’t end well when the time actually came.
He gets a pretty awesome text from Sam that night, when he’s halfway through shading the freight train he’s been working on.
DUDE RUMLOW’S OUT OF BRUBAKER.
Steve finishes up his piece in record time and runs as fast as he’s physically able to back to the dorm.
“What do you mean?” Steve asks Sam the minute the man opens his door.
“Hello to you, too. I dunno, man. I just noticed his name wasn’t on your door anymore and when I asked Bucky about it he said ‘certain circumstances have resulted in a change in living situations.’”
Steve rushes down the hall to his room where, sure enough, only his name is on the door. He opens it to see only his belongings present and the right half of the room completely empty. “Holy shit,” he says quietly to himself and then a louder, happier, “holy shit!” He grins and walks into the room, doing a slow spin. “I could get used to this.” He has no idea how the hell it happened but he’s going to choose to not look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s had a pretty phenomenal 24 hours and he’d like to prolong it for as long as possible.
Now that he’s back in the building, though, he’s aware that Bucky is probably down the hall. Bucky, who he hasn’t talked to since he left the party. Bucky, who he was kissing and grinding against not even 24 hours before. That answered most of the questions Steve had about how they felt about each other. He figures the final question can be answered easily enough and he’s tired of being nervous and uncertain about it. He gets An Idea. He looks down the hall and can see that Bucky’s door is open so he changes and walks down to Bucky’s room and hopes this isn’t the dumbest thing he’s ever done.
Bucky’s at his desk, his back to the door when Steve knocks and says, “hey, can we talk about last night?”
Bucky shoots up out of his chair. “Jesus, Steve, I’ve been wanting to talk to you all day, what –?” He stops when he realizes Steve is only wearing a towel.
“How did you manage to lock yourself out of your room again? Rumlow’s not even in this building, anymore. Come in while I find my keys,” Bucky says as he turns around and starts rummaging through his backpack.
Steve shuts the door, takes a deep breath, and says, “I like you. A lot.” Bucky turns to face him, a small smile playing at his lips. “And you like me…,” Steve starts.
“A lot,” Bucky clarifies.
“Like, date, a lot?” Steve asks. The one unanswered question.
“Like, date a lot,” Bucky assures him, still smiling.
“Alright, I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
“Yeah, me too,” Bucky says slowly. His eyes aren’t really focused on Steve’s face, Steve notices. “I’ve got the keys,” Bucky says weakly, holding up the object in question.
“I didn’t lock myself out of my room,” Steve says. He lets go of his towel and it falls to the floor.
Bucky drops the keys.
****
Epilogue
Peggy throws a small get-together in her room before Thanksgiving break. Clint crashes it but leaves almost just as quickly because he "doesn't want to seventh wheel on their weird triple date night." To be fair, while the get together was meant to be a “There Won’t Be A Lawsuit From Brock Rumlow We Have To Deal With” party, it did become a "triple date night" pretty quickly. It was also meant to be a “We Don’t Have To Deal With Brock Rumlow Anymore” party but Peggy would never admit that, because she's subtle.