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Steve wasn't sure what exactly the lecture is about, hadn't had time to check it after he found out he had to take it. The name S.H.I.E.L.D didn't say a lot of what it was about. If all the puzzled faces were anything to go on, he wasn't the only one who didn't know. Almost everyone in the room seemed to sport it as they waited for the teacher who was by now late.
A door banged open, but the sound came from behind Steve, not in front where he assumed the teacher would come from. He turned around in his seat and saw a boy with dark, half long hair walk in the room. He looked around for a moment before setting his eyes on Steve. Steve was startled by it - he didn't know this boy - until he realised he was actually looking just beside Steve, on the only vacant seat in the whole room.
"Hey," the boy said when he reached Steve, his voice soft and pleasant to the ear, "can I sit here?"
Steve nodded as answer, to spellbound by the boys looks up close to be able to form words.
He was downright beautiful, features Steve wanted to put on paper, memorize in his brain. He had a face of an artist's dreams, and Steve's fingers itched with the want to draw him.
The boy sat down as the door in the front of the room opened and a man in a black leather coat walked in the room. He looked kinda scary, with the black eye patch over one eye, and a scowl that seemed to be permanent marking his features.
"Alright, kids," he said, his booming voice clear in the whole room. "I know ya wanna be here as little as I want, so let's get this over with. I'm Mr. Fury, and I will not accept any sort of interruption in form of any sound at all. Is that clear?"
The room was quiet, everyone probably feeling as scared of the man as Steve felt.
Taking the silent as his answer, Fury kept talking, and even though Steve always paid close attention to get a high grade, Steve felt himself growing bored. The subject wasn't interesting, and Fury didn't manage to fine art of capturing the interest of his listeners. Steve picked at his papers, determined not to take a nap even though he hadn't slept so well the previous night.
A weight suddenly settling on his right shoulder made him flinch. He looked to his right, surprised to see that the boy who'd sat down beside him had fallen asleep. Not only that, he used Steve as a pillow.
Don't get him wrong, he found it absolutely adorable, but he was small, and since the boy must have been at least a foot taller than him, his head made an unpleasant weight on his shoulder.
Steve shifted slightly, trying to see if he could find a more comfortable position. As he did, the boy shifted too. Steve immediately froze, scared he'd woken him up. But no, the boy had only moved himself so he was angled towards Steve, and buried his face into Steve's neck.
The change of position seemed to lift the worst of the weight, and if he angled his head just slightly...
Resting his head on the boy's head was strangely calming, and Steve could feel himself dozing off.
He woke up a little later, the lecture nearing it's end. The boy was still asleep on his shoulder, so Steve took his chance to study him.
Eyelashes rested against cheek slightly flushed, lips parted in sleep. His features seemed softer than when he'd walked in, more peaceful.
With a small sound, a rush of breath past plumb lips, his eyes fluttered open and seemed to take in his surroundings.
He slowly lifted his head off of Steve's shoulder - Steve strangely missing it - and turned with a startled expression to him.
"Oh- I'm so sorry!" He said quietly, his voice still heavy with sleep. "I didn't mean to- I'm so sorry!"
"Don't worry," Steve said with a soft chuckle. "It's okay, I don't mind."
"No, really," the boy insisted, "let me make it up to you."
"You really don't need to," Steve said and gave the boy a smile. Then a thought occurred to him and he hesitated. "Or, maybe..."
"Yes? What is it?" The boy asked and sat up a little straighter, a hopeful look on his face.
"I just-" Steve started. "I was just thinking that maybe... I don't have anyone to model for me, and I have an assignment coming up..." Steve hesitated and looked away from the boy. Was it too much to ask for?
"Yes?"
"Maybe- Could you maybe model for me?"
The boy brightened up, a grin making its way to his face. "I'd love to. 'M James, by the way, but you can call me Bucky."
He reached his hand out for Steve to take. "Steve," Steve said and took Bucky's hand.
~~~~~
"You need to keep still."
Bucky, from his awkward position in the couch, sighed. "How much more 'til you're done?"
"I need to get the shapes down more, and then I have all the fold of your clothes, to really capture the form of your body." Steve replied patiently. He'd gotten used from Bucky's whining ever since he modeled for him the first time. He'd gotten an A on the assignment, and when he'd told Bucky, the boy had eagerly offered to model for Steve again.
"I should have just taken all of my clothes off," Bucky sighed.
Steve felt a blush creep to to his cheeks. The assignment was actually supposed to of the human body, more specifically the actually body, without clothes. He hadn't wanted to tell Bucky, just thought that he would convert the drawing into one without clothes on when he was done.
"What?" Bucky asked and raised his head from it's previous position against the armrest. "You're blushing. Why are you blushing? Is the idea of me without clo-"
"No," Steve shook his head, stopping Bucky before his smirk could reach full capacity. "It's just- I didn't want to say anything to, you know, not make you feel like you had to..."
"What," Bucky asked, stopping Steve's rambling.
"The assignment, it's a study of the human body."
"Go on, there's something more you're not saying." Bucky had now fully sat up, gaze intently locked on Steve.
"It's a study of the naked human body." He couldn't look at Bucky. This was all just so embarrassing.
"Why didn't you just say so?"
When Steve looked up Bucky was smirking, and had started taking off his shirt.
"How naked are we talking?" Bucky asked as he stood up to take off his jeans. "Boxers still on or completely butt naked?"
"Um," Steve said, dumbfounded. What did you say when your newly acquired friend started stripping in front of you?
"Maybe we'll start with boxers still on, sounds good?" Bucky said, chuckling at Steve's reaction.
Now only clad in his — very tight — underwear, Bucky resumed his previous position on the couch. Steve had to suppress a whimper at how Bucky looked, splayed out like that almost naked. With shaking hands he turned to a new page of his sketching pad and set to drawing.
Drawing, Steve soon realised, a body which you got distracted by, was very hard. Steve found himself getting lost in Bucky’s body far more often than he should have, almost forgetting his drawing.
“How’s it coming up, or are you too distracted by my dazzling body?”
Steve looked up from the paper, startled, and found himself getting lost in Bucky’s eyes, that despite how impossible it probably was, seemed to be smirking along with his mouth.
“I—”
“Hey,” Bucky said, sitting up, the smirk disappearing, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Should I…” He trailed off, giving Steve a vague gesture with his hand.
“No! It’s— It’s okay.” Steve felt his embarrassment flush his cheeks. Did he really just say that, sounding that desperate?
“Um,” Bucky said, scratching his neck, “how far you’ve gotten?”
“It’s almost done, a few details left, though.”
“Can I see?” Bucky asked, a hopeful look on his face that Steve just couldn’t resist.
Steve got up from the chair and walked over to the couch with his sketching pad. He sat down beside Bucky and angled the pad so the other boy could see.
“Wow…” Bucky said with wide eyes. “You just managed to make me hot for my own body!”
“You’re into boys?” Steve found himself asking, blushing when he realised how straight forward it was.
Bucky, too, blushed and looked down at his lap. “Yeah, I think so. ‘S just… I’ve never— you know—”
“Kissed a boy?” Steve asked breathlessly.
“Um-hm,” Bucky hummed with a nod. “Never told anyone I’m— into boys, either.”
“Neither have I,” Steve said, his eyes carefully watching every last inch of Bucky’s expression.
“You’re also— you know?”
“I think I’m bisexual.” He’d never told anyone about that aspect of his life, and here he is, telling it to a boy he has just met, only known for a short time. But the reality is that he trust Bucky more than he’s ever trusted anyone else in his whole life. He doesn’t have to be afraid of being himself with Bucky.
“Do you want to try?”
Steve looked up, startled. “What?”
“Do you want to try— Do you want to try what it’s like to kiss a boy?”
Steve found himself nodding dazedly and leaning towards Bucky.
It wasn’t not his first kiss, but it sure was different from his other kisses. Maybe it’s because it felt right and safe, because he felt like home kissing Bucky.
They didn’t let go of each other for a long time, the sketching pad lain forgotten in their laps.