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Bucky was on the couch, waiting for Steve to get back from whatever award he'd been asked to present, the tv on in front of him. He slowly turned when he heard the door, kneeling on the couch to look at Steve getting inside.
“So? Did you watch me? How did I look?”
“You looked like shit,” Bucky half laughed, shrugging.
“That bad, uh?” Steve dropped the expensive jacket on a chair, his face falling even more while he nervously pulled at his bow tie, but Bucky smiled at him, getting up from the couch to help him get rid of the accessory without destroying it.
“Actually no, you were gorgeous and charming, people will talk about it for days, but I've known you for a century, I could see the tension in your shoulders, the worry in your eyes,” Bucky recounted. He slapped Steve's hands away when he tried to go back to the bow tie and a second later he let it fall on the chair too.
“It's been terrible,” Steve confessed, starting on the buttons of his shirt, wanting nothing more but to get out of that clothes, but once more he had to leave the task to Bucky’s less nervous fingers, “I just had to walk while people took photos, I understood what animals in a zoo must feel! All the attention was on me, on how I was dressed, on my face! Shouldn't people have focused on the cause? Or the winners!” Steve burst out and Bucky laughed.
“You're Captain America, people are usually more interested in how your ass looks into that suit than aliens invading New York,” he pointed out while he let the shirt fall and slapped Steve's thigh to have him raise a leg to pull off the trousers, “come on, I got a warm bath ready after I saw how tense you are,” Bucky announced, pulling away the last sock, “I made it extra hot, so it should still be pretty warm and your dick won’t shrink,” he smiled at Steve’s dark look.
“You’re so helpful,” Steve's voice dripped sarcasm, but he couldn’t help but smile when he followed Bucky in the bathroom and finally dived into the tub. It was still very hot, just the good side of burning, and his muscled seemed to relax almost instantaneously, soon helped by Bucky’s hands on his shoulders.
“Better?” Bucky asked, perched on the edge of the bathtub and sapiently rubbing the kinks out of Steve’s neck.
“I’d be more relaxed if you joined me,” Steve corrected, leaning his head back, against Bucky’s arm.
“Me and you, naked in a bathtub? It never ended in a relaxing way,” Bucky protested. When he had planned this it had really been to make Steve feel more human and loved, not to have sex. That had been planned for later, once he was going to be dry and naked on the bed. But Steve’s every desire was an order, or probably not, but for once it sounded right while Bucky threw his clothes on the floor and submerged himself in the tub, between Steve’s spread leg, both laughing at the water sloshing on the floor.
“You’re gonna dry that mess,” Steve teased, already busy at pulling Bucky’s head backward by his hair to quickly kiss him, “my night had already been hellish enough, at least you only have to be Cinderella, I had to be Prince Charming and you have no idea how much I hated it,” he shook his head while his hands distractedly soaped Bucky’s wet chest.
“You should have taken Natasha as your plus one, she’d have kept everyone distracted,” Bucky smirked, but his words sounded true. No one would have resisted the Black Widow at a public event, clad in some silky night dress. The photographers would have probably forgotten about Steve’s presence.
“Didn’t feel right,” Steve shook his head again, trying to picture Natasha on his arm, as gorgeous as ever, ready to seduce anyone with a smile.
“She wouldn’t have minded, it’s her job and she actually has fun doing it,” Bucky corrected him. Noble Steve, always thinking about others even when it wasn’t needed.
“No, it didn’t feel right to go with her on my arm. It isn’t her I want on my arm,” Steve clarified with a raised eyebrow to make the correction clear, but Bucky just laughed.
“Right, not the right assassin, the world would get confused and I’d start to think you have a kink for killing machines,” Bucky voice once more dripped sarcasm, until Steve pinched his side viciously.
“Be serious for a moment,” Steve scolded his boyfriend, “I’m trying to ask something here!”
Bucky turned, looking at him, studying his face. It was big. Huge. Something they hadn’t even really discussed because it hadn’t ever felt like an option.
“Some people would freak out, you’d have more than cameras in your face for one night,” Bucky observed, shocked.
“I know,” Steve nodded, “but I’m ready and I need it. Buck, will you be my plus one, next week? The pretty thing on my arm?” he asked, tone serious but with a little humour in his choice of words.
Bucky hesitated for a moment, heart in his throat.
“Don’t complain if I’ll steal the scene,” he just said before turning on his knees to properly kiss Steve.