Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The loud clang of pottery crashing to the ground and shattering startled Steve out of a dead sleep. The clock on his nightstand read 3 am.
“It better not be that damn cat again,” he muttered to himself as he got out of bed to go inspect the current state of his precious plants along the windowsill and around the living room.
As he entered the living room, he caught sight of the same cat that climbs up the fire escape to knock over his indoor garden at least once a month. Steve always curses himself for forgetting to completely close the window at night. And once again, he lunged for the cat, because dammit the creature always gets away before he can catch it, return it to its owner and then shout at them and demand they do something about this.
“Gotcha!” Steve said victoriously as he scooped up the feline right before it could swipe at his succulents with its paws. The snowy colored shorthair’s tag on its collar aptly read “Winter”, along with its owner’s address. It was for an apartment three floors down.
Steve quickly glanced around and surveyed the current state of the room. Two-thirds of his pots by the window now lay shattered on the living room floor. He let out a pained sigh, but made up his mind not to do anything about it until after he confronted Winter’s owner.
Steve was dead set on scowling and shouting as he knocked on the door of Winter’s home. He no longer wanted to do that when the door opened and standing on the other side was a redhead in fuzzy pajamas.
“Hey there, silly cat, there you are,” the woman cooed as she took Winter out of Steve’s arms. “Thanks, but you didn’t have to do this, he always finds his way back home,” the woman said, looking down at Steve as she pet the cat in her arms.
“Uh, yeah, well I live a few floors up, and he gets into my apartment and-“
“Hey Nat, you’re missing the best part,” a deeper voice said from inside the apartment, cutting Steve off midsentence.
“Then why don’t you pause it,” the redhead said. “And get over here and talk to this guy, he says your cat is a home invader.”
She retreated into the apartment and was replaced by a tall brunette in a tank top and pajama bottoms. The man leaned against the doorframe, one of his crossed arms clearly metallic.
“So what’s Winter done this time?” the man asked. His casual attitude fired Steve up again as he remembered the ruins of his beloved gardenias lying on his floor.
“Your cat always crawls in through my window and proceeds to knock over all of my plants, and has been doing this for months and I am getting tired of having to clean up after it, then having to replace my very well-cared-for plants, only to have the whole process repeat itself every few weeks,” Steve ranted, looking the man dead in the eyes. “So I would very much appreciate you keeping your cat indoors and off the fire escape.”
The face Steve was burrowing his gaze into tightened with raised eyebrows and a wide smile, and the entire figure in the doorway shook with laughter.
“What the hell is so funny?” Steve deadpanned. Because his green children were no goddamn laughing matter.
“Sorry, I-“ the man said, trying to muffle his chuckling. “I’m sorry, really, about your plants, I swear I had no idea, it’s just that I didn’t exactly expect that much raw anger from someone of your – uh – height. “ At just around five feet, Steve Rogers was definitely short, and this man was easily at least six.
“Oh, so it’s so funny that I’m short, is that it?” Steve asked, not going to just take that lying down.
The brunette raised his hands in a conciliatory fashion. “Hey, I didn’t mean to offend you-“
“No fighting now you two,” the redhead shouted from a few yards away.
“We’re not gonna fight, Nat,” the asshole cat owner said over his shoulder. He turned back to Steve and gave him a questioning look.
Aside from being nearly a foot shorter than his potential opponent, Steve was also at a disadvantage due to his ridiculous span of health issues, but like hell he would ever back down from an actual fight. Even so, there really wasn’t any reason to engage this stranger in a brawl in the hallway in the middle of the night over a joke. Steve sighed. “No, we’re not.”
The man smiled and stepped back slightly out of the doorway into the apartment behind him. “I really am sorry about Winter breaking your stuff – apparently all the time, so why don’t you come in and I’ll go grab some cash for you to pay you back. My name’s James by the way, but most people just call me Bucky.”
“I’m Steve,” the smaller man said in turn, stepping into the apartment. The man – Bucky – left the room, and Steve looked around. The place was a complete mess, the opposite of Steve’s neat, tidy home. On the couch amidst a mountain of pillows and blankets sat the redhead from before, munching from the large pot of popcorn on her lap. It was an actual large metal pot. Various snacks and drinks littered the coffee table, and on the TV played some generic horror film Steve had never cared enough about to watch.
“Make yourself at home. I’m Natasha,” she said with a smile, patting the couch beside her.
Steve carefully made his way over to her. Winter hopped into his lap almost immediately after he sat down. Steve reluctantly pet him, because even though the little rascal did hurt his innocent plants, well, it was still a cute cat.
Natasha offered some of her popcorn as she returned to watching the film, but Steve politely declined.
Bucky returned, propping himself on the arm of the couch as he offered a small stack of bills to Steve. “Let me know if this isn’t enough to cover all the plant stuff, this is all the cash I have right now.”
“Thanks, this is fine,” Steve said, smiling. He wasn’t as angry anymore, and these people actually seemed really nice. And pretty attractive, actually.
“So uh, are you two dating?” Steve asked out of curiosity. Yep, just curiosity and not slight attraction towards both of them simultaneously.
“He’s single,” Natasha quickly responded with what Steve thought might have been a wink.
“We’re friends. Nat put out an ad looking for a roommate, and here I am,” Bucky said, chiming in.
Steve nodded, then yawned. It must be close to 4 am by now. Both Bucky and Natasha seemed wide awake.
“I’ll be heading out now. Sorry we had to meet like this,” Steve said, picking the cat up off his lap and setting him down on the couch before standing up.
“Don’t worry about it,” Bucky said, reassuring him with that same great smile. Nice, Rogers, already into the guy.
“Come back soon,” Natasha added. Damn. Both of them.
Steve decided to go for it. “Would you be interested in lunch maybe, or grabbing a coffee?”
“Which one of us?” Natasha asked with a smile.
Steve turned bright red, looking from her to Bucky repeatedly. “I…”
“For me it’s a no, I don’t swing that way. Or any way, actually. Bucky on the other hand…” Natasha said as Steve struggled to speak.
Bucky responded with a pointed look in his roommate’s reaction.
"Don’t act like I didn’t see you checking him out when you came back into the room. You’re not as slick as you think you are, Barnes.”
“Well, are you interested?” Steve finally managed to say.
“Y-yeah, sure,” Bucky said, stumbling over his words.
“Tomorrow maybe? It’s Saturday so I can come by around noon?” Steve asked. Is this man really blushing right now over me of all people asking him out?
“See you then,” Bucky answered immediately.
Steve smiled at both of them and showed himself out. He had a smug, satisfied grin on his face the entire way back up to his apartment. He was still smiling as he cleaned up the mess in the living room and fell back into bed around 5 am, exhausted. He didn’t care that it was so late anymore. He was looking forward to, what was now, later that day.