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Your intuitive abilities are very accurate right now, so you can trust your guidance to lead you in the right direction. Follow your own insights over the advice of others, and don’t allow fear or worry to guide your way. It may be best to keep your secrets to yourself for now.
Bucky has a problem. A problem that manifested itself in the form of a tall, blond, incredibly pretty guy who works at the bookstore down the street from Bucky’s apartment.
Bucky was dialing Sam and Natasha’s numbers before he even closed his front door, calling for an Emergency Girls’ Night In ™ . Nat didn’t even ask any questions, saying she would get the pizza and snacks before abruptly hanging up. Sam grumbled a bit, but even he knew that these nights were sacred and not to be ignored under any circumstances.
Within half an hour, Sam and Nat were knocking on Bucky’s door, their arms full of pizza, popcorn, soda, and an honestly ridiculous amount of candy. They walked inside and started setting up a blanket nest in the middle of Bucky’s living room without a single word. It was strangely somber, but such are the ways of Emergency Girls’ Nights In ™.
When they finally deemed the nest ready, all three of them wrapped themselves in blankets before settling down with their pizza.
“So,” Nat started, just as Bucky shoved half a piece of pizza in his mouth, “why the girls’ night?”
“I have a problem.” Bucky said. He sighed dramatically before continuing, “There’s a new employee at the bookstore down the street and he’s unfairly cute.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “ That’s your problem? C’mon, man, I’m missing the new Supernatural for this.”
Nat smacked him on the shoulder without taking her eyes off Bucky. “If you called an Emergency Girls’ Night In ™ , we would drop everything for you too. Now shut up. Bucky, just how cute is this guy?”
Bucky leaned back, pizza in hand, and looked up dreamily. “He’s beautiful. Blue eyes, blond, about my height. And his shoulders . And those cheekbones. God, I’m not sure I could accurately describe how perfect this guy is.”
Sam looked a little impressed. “You sure this guy’s real? I’d like to meet him myself.”
“Oh, back off,” Bucky glared, “He’s mine. I call dibs.”
Natasha raised one eyebrow and asked, “Are we back in middle school? Because if we are, Bucky gets him anyway since he saw him first.”
Sam huffed. “Fine. Did you ask him out yet?
“Uh, no. I got all the way to the counter with my extremely cheesy romance novel before I realised Thor wasn’t at the counter like usual,” Bucky said before eating an entire pizza crust in one bite in order to have free hands to cover his face with, a move which was met with immediate regret. “Oh, gross, my metal hand is all greasy.”
Natasha watched Bucky grab a stack of napkins with an unimpressed look. “Who cares what book you were buying? Ask the guy out.”
“Guys. I haven’t flirted in like, six years. I don’t know how to ask someone out.” Bucky said, still focused on wiping grease from between the plates of his metal hand.
“Dude likes books, right? Probably? Ask what his favorite book is and seduce him with quotes from that book,” Sam suggested.
“Seduce him with book quotes? Really, Sam? No. What you need to do is, wear your hair down and that shirt I got you for your birthday, you know which one I mean. Then go buy the cheesiest romance novel you can find and flirt as well as you can,” Nat said, grabbing a handful of popcorn.
Bucky put his (now clean) hands back over his face. “I’m not doing any of those things. Why did I think asking you guys for advice was a good idea?”
“Because we’re your best friends,” Nat said, matter-of-factly.
“Plus you love us,” Sam added through a mouthful of pizza.
“Can’t imagine why,” Bucky grumbled, earning himself a pillow to the face and starting a pillow fight.
***
This was it. The day after the sleepover, and the day Bucky was going to ask out the guy from the bookstore. He had a written promise from Nat to not interfere in any way, and he knew she would hold Sam to that too.
A bell jingled as Bucky walked into Thor’s bookstore, and the guy behind the counter looked up with a smile. “Welcome to Thor’s Books, can I help you with anything?”
“Uh, I’m just, I’m Bucky,” Bucky said, holding out his hand.
The other man shook it with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Bucky. I’m Steve,” he said.
God, Bucky was practically drooling. Steve had huge hands and very nice eyes. Bucky was always useless around boys with pretty eyes.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Bucky’s mouth blurted before his brain caught up, “You’re hot.”
Steve laughed a little, Bucky wanted to die on the spot. He was seriously considering leaving, moving to Romania, and changing his name to Sebastian when Steve answered.
“I think the real lines are ‘thou art more lovely and more temperate,’ but that works too.”
Bucky couldn’t meet Steve’s eyes as he apologized. “Sorry, I never have more than one functioning brain cell around boys with pretty eyes.”
And then Bucky realised what he said.
“Uh, I mean, sorry. I think I should- I’m just gonna go,” he said, turning to leave.
“Hey, wait.” Steve said. “I think you have pretty eyes too. And, you know, I’ve always liked boys with long hair.”
Bucky just stared for a second. “You… what?”
Steve grinned at him as he said, “I like you. Would you like to get coffee sometime?”
Bucky probably agreed, and he thought he got Steve’s number at some point, but the entire rest of the time in the store plus the walk home was kind of a blur.
Unsurprisingly, Nat and Sam jumped Bucky the moment he walked through the door, and he was still so dazed he didn’t even question how they got into his home.
“So, how’d it go?” Nat asked.
“I, uh, got his number? And we’re going to that coffee shop around the corner tomorrow,” Bucky said. “I’m still not totally sure what all happened.”
Sam and Nat were both smiling at him, grabbing leftover snacks from the night before and settling into their blankets.
“Tell us
everything
.”