Chapter Text
Then
Moving-in week was a hell of an ordeal for NYUs freshman class. Luckily for Bucky Barnes, he and his friends moved in at the beginning of June to begin baseball training. The team’s promising new shortstop just sat in the quad watching the chaos unfold.
“God damn, Wright. Girls started showing up maybe a couple days ago and you’ve already got a hook up?” Sam Wilson sat under the shade of the quad with Bucky. The catcher watched people come and go, lifting boxes and hugging parents.
Evan Wright turned away from whatever he was writing on his laptop–lord knew it was too early for it to be an essay–to frown at Sam. “Huh?”
Steve laughed at his newer friends' antics and pointed. Evan turned his attention to the girl Steve was pointing at, a pretty blonde girl chatting with an RA. The girl was wearing a hoodie with the name ‘Wright’ plastered across the back in bold white lettering. Bucky snickered. He and Steve had only met Sam and Evan a couple months back but the four of them had become fast friends. Unfortunately for Evan, that also included good natured ribbing.
Evan buried his face in his hands, exasperated. “Oh my god, Sam. No, that’s not-just no!”
“What? Embarrassed?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Evan grumbled. He then raised his voice and shouted, “HEY RO!”
The pretty blonde girl whipped around at the sound of her name and smiled brightly, walking over to Evan. She looked familiar but Bucky couldn’t put a finger on it. It wasn’t until she got closer and Bucky realized that the sweatshirt she was wearing was not a baseball sweatshirt. That and it fit her properly.
“What do you want, Ev?” the girl asked. Then Bucky realized, her eyes were familiar. They were clear, crisp green, just like Evan’s.
“Did I mention to you guys that I have a twin sister?”
Oh. That would explain the familiarity. They were fraternal twins (clearly) but they had the same green eyes and golden blonde hair.
“I-It might have come up,” Sam stuttered, staring at the girl, bug-eyed.
Steve stood, smiling his winning Golden-Boy™ smile, and extended a hand to shake. Ever the charmer. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Steve Rogers.”
The girl took his hand and shook it. “Roselyn Wright.”
“Only Grandma calls you Roselyn.”
She elbowed her brother and amended, “You can call me Rose.”
Bucky stepped forward and gave her his brightest smile. “I’d rather call you mine.” he extended a hand to shake as well. “I’m Bucky Barnes.”
Rose snorted–honest to god snorted–and brushed his hand away. “You could work on your pick up lines, Bucky.”
Sam burst out laughing. Bucky’s perception of her tilted. She was a fiery one.
“Anyhow, it was nice to meet you boys but it really should get back to unpacking,” she said. She turned to leave, going back to her moving boxes.
“Well,” Bucky said, watching her walk away. “On the bright side, Evan didn’t score a hook up before us. But, Sam that turned out to be the grossest sexual innuendo of all time.”
Steve laughed while Sam grimaced apologetically. “Yeah sorry about that.”
“It’s no problem…” Evan said. All the same he was narrowing his eyes at his friends, particularly Bucky.
“What?” he asked.
“I know it was a joke and all but don’t go flirting with my little sister. That goes for all of you.”
“Isn’t she your twin sister?”
“I’m fifteen minutes older.”
It was true what they said about boys, they only want what they can’t have.
Now
“Comeon Ro, please!” Bucky begged.
Rose sighed and closed her laptop. James Buchanan Barnes really could be a royal pain in the ass. Through her brother, Rose had made friends with the baseball guys in the beginning of her freshman year. They had not left her alone since.
Though that wasn't entirely fair to Bucky. As soon as he found out where Rose liked to study freshman year, he would stop in every now and then to check up on her. He was sweet like that, he just didn’t say it through words the way people like Steve or Sam did. He showed his almost brotherly affection in other ways. Like being annoying
Today, he was being annoying. Bucky was presently stretched out over her library table, covering all her notes and giving her the biggest bluest puppy dog eyes you ever did see.
“I’m not sure why you didn’t go to office hours to ask for help, Buck,” Rose said. “Professor Jarvis really is nice and he’s really receptive to questions.”
Bucky groaned. “I know, Doll, but he makes no sense to me. Why is comp sci a required class anyway?”
Rose tried to ignore the familiar way her stomach flipped at the term of endearment. He’d called her that for a year now, it didn’t mean anything. Unfortunately, her stomach hadn’t gotten the memo.
“Because we live in a glorious age of technology and you need to know how your computer functions,” Rose reminded him patiently. She’d had this conversation with Bucky before. Frankly, she’d had this conversation with every student she’d tutored. They all seemed to demand why they had to learn basic code.
“I know, I know,” Bucky said. “Now will you please help me? I came to the library for you, Rosie Ro! That never happens.”
“First of all don’t call me Rosie, Bucky you know how I feel about that.”
“Pllleeeeeaaaasssseeeeeeee? I’ll buy you pizza next time at The Compound.”
“Make it chicken tenders and you’ve got yourself a deal.” The sports bar, The Compound, they frequented after games had the greasiest pizza known to man, but it was hard to go wrong with chicken tenders. Even The Compound couldn’t make them any greasier.
Bucky pumped an over exaggerated fist in the air. Rose laughed.
“Pull up your code, idiot.”
Rose spent the next hour tracing through Bucky’s code with him and pointing out logic errors. Everytime another arbitrary code rule snuck up on them, Bucky sank further and further into his chair.
Bucky flipped his computer shut emphatically when they were done, groaning and rubbing his eyes. “I still don’ know why you’re thinking of minoring in comp sci, Ro,” he said. “I think I’d die.”
Ro shrugged, passing Bucky a cup of coffee. He looked a bit worse for wear today. Bucky accepted the coffee gratefully, that is until he took a sip and remembered that it was Rose’s coffee.
“Ugh,” Bucky pulled a face and handed Rose back her coffee. She took it straight black like a psychopath. “We really need to limit your caffeine intake. How much of this shit do you drink in a day anyway?”
“As much as I need,” she said, opening her laptop back up to the CAD software she left it on. “Today, four cups.”
Bucky gave an exasperated sigh and snatched her travel mug out of her hands again. “You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack, I swear.”
“I’ll be fine, Buck,” Rose mumbled. But Bucky had already lost her. Her eyes were locked on her screen, her fingers moving a million miles a minute.
Bucky leaned back in his chair, watching her completely wrapped up in her project. Normally it was endearing to see her so utterly focused on what she was doing. Today, it had taken a turn toward worrying. She’d had so much coffee, her hands were near vibrating.
“When was the last time you took a break?” he asked her.
She didn’t look up from her work. “When you asked me for help with your code.”
“Nuh uh, Doll, that wasn’t a break. When was the last time you ate anything?”
“Don’t remember. I believe you’re done with your comp sci homework so if you would politely fuck off–” Bucky cut her off, prying her computer out of her hands. “Hey!” she cried, pulling it back towards her. But it was no use. Those damn baseball players and their training regimen.
“I think that’s enough for today, Doll,” he said gently. “How about we get you something to eat?”
“I have a project I need to finish,” Ro protested. Food could wait, she had snacks in her dorm anyway if she missed dinner. “Give it back.”
Bucky’s eyes glinted dangerously. “Make me,” he said.
“Oh you little–” Rose lunged at him. She got her hands on her laptop and threw her body weight backwards, hoping to pry the computer from his hands.
This was a good and a bad idea. The good part was that Rose knew her physics, the force of her body weight threw Bucky off balance. The bad part was that Rose severely underestimated Bucky’s commitment to holding onto that laptop.
Rose threw Bucky off balance, causing him and the laptop to fall forward. They both toppled to the ground.
Rose hit the ground with a thud, Bucky following on top of her. Rose’s heartbeat stalled for a moment. She stared up into his crystal blue eyes, as wide with surprise as hers surely were. Momentarily, the two were stuck in a sort of trance. They stared at each other as if the rest of the world didn’t exist.
After a few seconds, Rose snapped back to herself.
“Goddamnit, Barnes,” Rose groaned. Having Bucky squarely on top of her was not fun, considering he was essentially a six foot wall of muscle. Luckily, her laptop had been safely sandwiched between them. “You’re gonna get me kicked out. Get off me.”
“Sorry Doll,” he said, at least having the decency to look sheepish. He jumped up off the ground and offered Rose a hand, pulling her up. “Should’ve known you’d fight back.” His face quickly bounced back to his trademark smirk.
Rose completely ignored him. She set her laptop, now back in her possession, back on the table and sat down, intent on finishing her work.
“Ro,” Bucky sighed in exasperation. “Get off the computer. Don’t make me go tell Evan you haven’t eaten, you know how he gets.”
It was true, Evan did get angry when Rose got too stressed out or wrapped up with work. The twins were close, they cared deeply about each other. Evan just had a funny way of showing it.
“That was a cheap shot, Barnes,” Rose grumbled. Nonetheless, she finally shoved her laptop into her backpack.
“I know it was, now c’mon. It’s movie night.”