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When Bucky had climbed down the fire escape and clambered into Steve’s bedroom that balmy day in May just to tell Steve that he’d been accepted into MIT, ninety-nine percent of Steve could not have been happier or prouder. The other one percent had sneaked a look at his own acceptance letter from Columbia and began missing Bucky already.
Steve and Bucky have been best friends since they were in diapers. Bucky’s bedroom is right above Steve’s, and Winnie Barnes’s greatest fear has always been that one fateful day her son would plummet to his death while trying to get into the Rogers home from the windows. Steve’s Ma used to tell her that if it hadn’t happened in seventeen years, it wasn’t going to happen now. But Ma’s not around anymore.
Steve doesn’t make friends the way Bucky does, with his open manner and welcoming smile. Of their friend group, the only friend he’s made on his own is Peggy, and that was because they’d met in Mr. Erskine’s ninth grade biology class, while Bucky had been stuck with Mr. Zola. Bucky spends the next month trying to set up Peggy and Steve, until Peggy finally tells him she’s not interested in men. Bucky takes a moment to process that, and then promptly manages to set Peggy up with Angie. Steve just enjoys the following week in which Bucky basks in the glow of success and forgets to set Steve up with poor, unsuspecting girls who deserve better than an awkward, skinny asthmatic. Bucky and Peggy get along like a house on fire after that, forming the unstoppable force that gets Steve to even consider going to prom. They are the only people to have ever tried teaching Steve to dance, and fail miserably and hilariously. The only ones who’d flopped on the grass in that football field after prom and listened to Steve tell them that he’d just wait for the right partner from now on. Bucky stops trying to set him up after that.
Steve can make it on his own, he knows that. He’s just going to miss the comfortable silence of watching clouds with Bucky and Peggy on their rooftop.
-
At the end of the first day of college, Steve gets out of the subway and walks home. He drops his backpack in the hallway, drops down on the couch and puts his feet up.
“Steve?” Rikki asks him from the floor, and that’s when it hits him that he’s unwittingly walking into the Barnes home instead of his own. The four-year-old climbs into Steve’s lap and throws her arms over Steve’s bony shoulders.
Later, he sits on the balcony with Rikki in his arms. He’s biting his lips in an effort not to cry like a little kid when his phone rings, and Bucky’s name flashes on the screen. Steve listens to Bucky tell him about his crazy architecture prof, the newest CalTech prank on MIT, and about a grad student he met by the name of Tony Stark — yes Steve, Stark like that ugly building in Midtown that you hate so much. I didn’t tell him that, I want him to like me, dammit. When Bucky asks about Columbia, Steve replies with a noncommittal hum and tells him to keep talking.
Every night, the two talk over Skype, even if it’s only for a minute. There’s still a moment when Steve wonders if they’ll drift apart, but instead, Bucky does his best to share his world with Steve. He sends him selfies with Tony and his friend Rhodey, one with the new love of his life, Natasha Romanoff.
By week three, Steve wonders if boring Steve Rogers has been replaced by genius Tony Stark who’s so far charmed Bucky with a robotic arm and unlimited access to the labs. He's not sure how legal that is. Steve spends his weeks going to lectures, working part-time at the local comic store, and not much else. Bucky starts asking about his friends at Columbia and Steve gets tongue-tied, and tells him he has to go. When Bucky calls him right back, Steve loses his nerve and picks up, blurting out, “I miss you, you jerk.”
“I miss you too, punk, but you can’t hide away forever, Steve.”
Steve knows that. But he can hide for a bit longer.
-
Things start changing in October. He’s getting a hot dog when the pair waiting in line behind him introduce themselves as Bernie Rosenthal and Sam Wilson. They’re in English 101 with him, and Steve tries to politely leave them but Sam’s persistent, and an easy friendship forms between the three.
Sam’s also apparently living in a rat-infested hellhole that has no right be called a place of living. So two weeks later, Steve works up the nerve to open up the empty bedroom that used to be his mother’s, moves all his things in there, and offers his own room to Sam. Afterwards, he lies in bed, a hole in his belly where so many people used to be before. When Winnie comes in bringing soup, Steve sets his pride aside. He falls asleep with her running her calloused fingers through his hair.
The day after Sam moves in, Steve’s putting together a care package for Peggy when his phone rings. He listens attentively to Bucky tell him all about an artificial intelligence that Tony's trying to build, and then as he waxes on about Natasha Romanoff. Twenty minutes later, Bucky demands to speak to his new flatmate. Steve sighs, apologises to Sam in advance, and then passes the phone. Sam brings back the phone a half hour later, along with cookies for Peggy.
“Date him,” Bucky tells him.
“I thought you said you were done with this,” Steve says.
"But he sounds really cute. And that's coming from a straight guy."
"He is, but no." They're friends and Steve knows he's happy with that.
Things get better after that. It was only after Sam moved in that Steve even realised how lonely he’d been. Except for Winnie and Rikki — whom Steve babysits relatively often — no one else has been in the house since Bucky and Peggy left. Well, look at that. You’ve got more than a four-year-old to keep you company, Bucky texts him after he receives an mms, a selfie of Steve and Sam with Rikki, who’s blowing kisses to her big brother. And he's not cute, he's hot.
-
A month later, Steve’s taking the bus down to Cambridge for the weekend. Bucky’s been begging him to visit and he finally has a weekend off from work. Steve spends the bus ride looking at every text and photo that Bucky’s ever sent him, every image of Tony and Rhodey and Natasha and Clint, wondering how the meeting will go. But looking at the young grad student working on something a mechanical arm, he wonders how he’s ever going to fit in with these people.
Well. If all else fails, he has two dozen cookies courtesy of Sam. That ought to help.
Steve arrives in the evening, spends the whole night mucking around in Bucky’s dorm, and wakes up the next afternoon hung over and with Bucky drooling on his belly. They’ve somehow managed to eat all twenty-four cookies last night. Steve considers throwing up on Bucky’s face, but decides that the punishment may be too severe for the crime, and pushes him away to run into the bathroom.
Natasha, who is amazing and more than a little terrifying, brings them coffee and aspirin. Bucky tries to kiss her cheek in thanks, but ends up kissing her ear before dropping back to the floor to cradle the paper cup in his hands.
Natasha’s nose flares and she rolls her eyes fondly. “It’s nice to meet you, Steve,” she tells him before she walks right back out.
“Stevie, she’s the one.”
“She’s going to eat you up and then have apple pie for dessert.”
“No doubt about it. But she’s still the one. Now go take a shower. We’re meeting everyone for dinner soon and you smell like someone dunked you in a keg.”
-
Steve really should have known better than to trust Bucky, because when they arrive at Tony’s off-campus apartment for dinner with Bucky’s friends, he finds the place filled with a lot more than four people. All Steve wants to do now is walk right back into Bucky’s dorm and curl up under his blankets.
“You’re late,” a woman with bright red hair tells Bucky, and then introduces herself as Pepper Potts to Steve.
Steve takes her hand, introduces himself. He waits until she moves onto someone else to kick Bucky’s shin. “I hate when you do this to me.” It’s just like high school; if they were wearing suits, it’d be prom night all over again. “What was wrong with dinner plans? That was a solid plan.”
“Tony wanted to throw you a party, and I haven't yet figured out how to stop him from throwing a party. Now come on,” Bucky says, and leads him towards a group of people standing in a circle, listening raptly to Tony Stark.
Tony is laughing with his arm thrown over a man Steve recognizes as Rhodey. There’s an element of life and movement in him that none of the photos have been able to capture. Steve itches for paper and charcoal, desperate to capture what Bucky’s phone has failed to do.
“Alright nerds,” Bucky says, and Steve realises he’s been staring at Tony like a creep. Tony’s not shooting him any weird looks so he hopefully hasn’t noticed. “Let me introduce you to the best thing in all of Brooklyn, Steve Rogers.”
“Hi, I’m Steve,” he says with an awkward wave. Great, now he’s channelling Queen Elizabeth II.
Tony jerks back in surprise and takes a step towards Steve, gait unbalanced. Steve automatically stretches his arms out as Tony stumbles, but Tony finds his centre of balance and reaches for Steve with one arm, covering his Adam’s apple with a palm. “Woah, incredible,” he says in reverence.
“Okay, we really are late. Rhodey, tell me he’s cut off,” Bucky says.
“I’m sorry?” Steve asks, confused, because Tony’s palm is still pressed gently against Steve’s throat. There’s eccentric — which he’d been expecting — and then there’s… whatever this is. Maybe it’s payback for the creepy staring.
“Your voice, man,” Tony says in a bare whisper. “What even is your voice? That is deep.”
“Uhh, thanks?”
“You’re welcome,” Tony replies, finally pulling his palm away. “You’re gorgeous. Wanna dance?”
Steve can feel the blush spreading down his neck even as he automatically replies, “There’s no music.”
“Yeah, some idiot broke the entire sound system. Rhodey, I leave you in charge of fixing that shit. Do you want to lead or shall I?”
“You lead,” Steve says, because his amount experience is laughable. He should have demanded more lessons.
“Great,” and then Tony presses in closer, palm on Steve’s shoulder and the other holding Steve’s hand — and when did Steve's hands have the chance to get so clammy? “How about something slow? Some Fitzgerald?” Tony asks, leading him away from the crowd. Steve looks back to see Bucky winking at him before swaggering off in Natasha’s direction.
They end up on the balcony. No one else has dared brave the snarling wind, but Steve’s suddenly catching fire in Tony Stark’s arms as he hums something unrecognisable to Steve. Fifteen minutes after they’ve met, Tony looks up at him from beneath lush eyelashes and asks, “Can I kiss you?”
“Really? Me? Why?” Steve blurts out. Just from everything Bucky's told Steve over the last few months, Steve can guess that he must seem like an idiot child to Tony. A skinny, floppy-haired idiot child.
“Because life is short and you are hot.”
“If you’re going to use a line on me, you could at least use an original one,” Steve says. Then again, Doctor Who quotes are definitely a point for Tony. “Yes.”
Tony cups his face and kisses him gently. There’s not tongue or anything, for which Steve is glad, because he’s still trying to figure out what to do with his big nose. Steve might not have anything to compare the kiss with, but it’s pretty awesome. Tony must agree because they’re apart for a second before Tony leans in again.
-
The next morning, Steve is slapped awake by toast. He’s fully clothed — excluding the fact that his right sock and left shoe are missing. He doesn't remember what happened to them, which is ridiculous considering he had maybe three drinks, having spent the most of the evening with Tony in his personal lab. If he closes his eyes, he can see the way Tony's eyes sparkle when they talk about programming. When Steve sits up on the cot, he finds Tony already working away at the bench.
“DUM-E, when I said to wake Steve up with toast, this is NOT what I meant. And Steve, I’m being extremely clever here and you’re not even watching in awe. If you weren't so far away, you'd hear my heart break."
“Well, we wouldn’t want that to happen,” Steve says and stands up. He pats DUM-E, because it seems like the thing to do. “Fair warning: I’m a fine arts major, I still don't know what you're talking about."
“That’s alright. Most people don’t. But no one's listened for as long as you have. Tell me if I start boring you,” Tony says before turning back to his tools. Steve smiles, walking over to the bench to sit beside Tony.
“I doubt you will,” Steve says, stealing a blank piece of paper and a pencil to begin a sketch. When he turns his wrist, he takes notice of Bucky’s scrawl in permanent marker on his forearm. It says, Guess you found the right partner, after all. You’re welcome.
He's going to be insufferable after this. Still, Steve thinks, noting the ease with which the two work together in the silence, it's worth it.