Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started, as most disasters in Steve and Bucky’s lives did, with a random civilian doing something completely innocent.

They were at a restaurant—one of those fancy-but-not-too-fancy places, the kind that Bucky liked because it didn’t require Steve to wear a tie, and the portions weren’t “insultingly small.” It was their usual routine. Bucky, in a cap and sunglasses, pretending like he wasn’t a globally recognised assassin. Steve, dressed like he stepped out of a J.Crew catalogue. They’d managed to slip away without the team tagging along, which was a miracle in itself.

Bucky was laughing at something Steve had said, his metal fingers curled around Steve’s hand on the table. It was casual. Easy. Private.

Or so they thought.

Across the restaurant, a group of girls were deep into a girls’ night out, sipping cocktails and taking photos. One of them, a lifestyle influencer named Chloe, took a casual snap of their table—her friends posing in the foreground, the restaurant’s warm lighting giving everything a soft, aesthetic glow. She posted it without a second thought, captioning it:

“Obsessed with this place!! Girls’ night out ft. the best pasta ever”

Unfortunately for Steve and Bucky, the background of that photo was far more interesting than the pasta. Because there they were—holding hands, Bucky’s face half-hidden behind his sunglasses, his grin visible as Steve leaned in close, murmuring something that had clearly made him laugh.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, in the next picture—a candid shot of Chloe and her best friend clinking glasses—Steve and Bucky were full-on kissing in the background.

The internet noticed immediately.

It started small. A few people on Twitter pointed it out. Then someone zoomed in. Then someone else enhanced the quality. Within hours, the caption had gone from best pasta ever to STEVE ROGERS AND BUCKY BARNES??? DATING???

By morning, the photos were on the front page of BuzzFeed. By lunchtime, CNN was talking about it. By dinner, it was everywhere. News anchors were discussing body language, Twitter was exploding with memes, and someone had already made a compilation of all the times Steve and Bucky had looked at each other like lovesick idiots in the past.

The best (or worst) part? The photo wasn’t even grainy. Bucky’s disguise had done nothing. It was them. Unmistakably, undeniably them.

And because life was cruel, the entire team saw it before Steve and Bucky even woke up.

Steve groggily stumbled into the kitchen, still half-asleep, only to be greeted by Nat, Sam, and Clint sitting at the counter, smirking at him like they were about to commit a crime.

Bucky appeared a second later, stretching, looking annoyingly good for someone who had just woken up. He froze immediately upon seeing them.

“What,” he said flatly, because he knew that look. That shit-eating grin look.

“Morning, lovebirds, ” Clint greeted, barely holding in laughter.

“Why are you looking at us like that?” Steve asked warily, pouring himself coffee.

“Oh, no reason.” Sam slid his phone across the counter. “Just thought you should see this. ”

Bucky picked it up, scrolled for two seconds, and nearly choked on his own oxygen intake.

“Are you fucking kidding me? ”

Steve took the phone from him, eyes widening as he read the headline:

“STEVE ROGERS & BUCKY BARNES—SECRETLY DATING? THE INSTAGRAM PHOTO BREAKING THE INTERNET.”

He scrolled further.

“Avengers Sweethearts? Fans go wild over viral photo of Captain America and the Winter Soldier on a date.”

“Is this the biggest soft launch in history?”

“Steve and Bucky: From War Buddies to Boyfriends—A Complete Timeline.”

Steve blinked. “What the hell is a soft launch?”

Natasha, who had been sipping her coffee, finally spoke. “It’s when a couple subtly posts each other online before making it official. Accidental soft launch, in your case.”

“Great,” Bucky muttered. “So now we’re Instagram official before we’re actual official.”

Sam cackled. “ Bro, you’re so official. This shit is everywhere. Even my uncle sent it to me. He thinks it’s cute.”

“Tell him I said thanks,” Steve muttered, rubbing his face.

Bucky groaned and threw himself onto the couch. “I told you the disguise wouldn’t work,” he said, glaring at Steve.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “ You picked the cap and sunglasses combo.”

“Yeah, well, it usually works! ”

“Does it?” Steve deadpanned.

“Whatever. We’re never leaving the house again.”

“Bad news,” Nat said. “Press conference today. Have fun with that.”

Steve groaned. Bucky swore. Sam was still laughing.

And Clint? Clint just grinned, smug as ever.

“Oh, this is gonna be fun. ”

Chapter Text

By the time the Avengers arrived at the press conference, the internet had reached peak meltdown.

News outlets were still dissecting the photos, Twitter had created approximately five hundred different trending hashtags, and someone had already designed a ‘Steve & Bucky 2025’ campaign poster, despite neither of them running for office.

To make matters worse, the team refused to stop fucking with them.

“Hey, Rogers,” Sam said as they walked into the conference room, cameras flashing, reporters buzzing. “You wanna hold my hand too, or is Bucky the only lucky one?”

Steve sighed. “I hate you.”

“Love you too, sweetheart. ”

Bucky, whose patience had already worn thin after an entire morning of Clint loudly reading ‘Stucky’s Most Romantic Moments’ (which he learnt begrudgingly was a fan made couple name for them) articles in the living room, flipped Sam off before shoving his sunglasses on. “This is gonna be a nightmare.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Natasha agreed cheerfully.

They took their seats at the front table, microphones in place. Tony, ever the showman, leaned in first. “Alright, idiots, let’s get this over with.”

The moderator called on the first reporter, a young woman from The Daily Bugle. She looked practically giddy as she stood up.

“Steve, Bucky,” she said, eyes sparkling. “Care to comment on this ?”

She held up the photo on her phone, zoomed in for dramatic effect. The entire room went wild. Cameras clicked, people whispered, someone cheered.

Steve, to his credit, remained calm. Bucky, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Steve glanced at him before sighing, gripping the mic. “Yeah, that’s us.”

A beat. Then, “ No shit, ” someone in the back muttered, followed by scattered laughter.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine. Since it’s already out there—yeah. Bucky and I are together.”

The press room exploded.

Bucky grimaced as the shouting started. He leaned toward Steve, voice dry. “You realise you just made this ten times worse, right?”

“What was I supposed to do, deny it?”

“I dunno, maybe be vague like a normal celebrity?”

Steve gave him a look. “Bucky, I was literally kissing you in that picture.”

Bucky opened his mouth. Closed it. Exhaled sharply. “Okay, yeah. Fair point.”

The moderator called for quiet, selecting another reporter. “Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, what would you say to the fans who’ve supported your relationship for years?”

Bucky blinked. “Wait, what?”

Steve just sighed. “Of course they already knew.”

Sam snorted. “Yeah, Cap. Turns out people do notice when you look at someone like they personally hung the moon.”

Bucky, in no mood to be roasted again , turned to Tony. “Can’t we just leave? Or fake an emergency? Call Thor and tell him to make it storm or something?”

Tony, the asshole , grinned. “Oh, no way. This is gold. ”

Another reporter stood up. “Mr Stark, how long have you known?”

Tony put a hand over his heart, looking deeply offended. “Excuse me, I am shocked and appalled by this revelation.”

Natasha side-eyed him. “Tony. You literally made a betting pool.”

Bucky’s head snapped up. “ A what? ”

Tony coughed. “Moving on.”

The next reporter directed a question at Steve. “Captain Rogers, what made you and Sergeant Barnes decide to go public now?”

Steve shrugged. “Honestly? We didn’t decide anything. Some random girl on Instagram accidentally soft-launched our relationship while taking a picture of her pasta.”

Bucky shook his head. “I still can’t believe pasta girl did us in.”

“Do you regret the photos getting out?” the reporter pressed.

Steve glanced at Bucky, a silent conversation passing between them.

“No,” Steve said finally, his voice firm. “We don’t.”

Bucky, to everyone’s surprise—including his own—nodded. “Nah. It was bound to happen eventually. At least it happened because of pasta and not, like, a Hydra leak.”

Clint let out a bark of laughter. “ Pasta, not Hydra —hell of a tagline, Barnes.”

The press conference wrapped up soon after, but the teasing? The teasing would never end.

The moment they stepped through the doors, Clint clapped his hands together. “Right! Now that it’s official , I have some questions.”

Bucky groaned. “No, you don’t.”

“Oh, but I do,” Clint grinned. “Like, who confessed first? Was there a moment ? Did Steve do that whole sad pining thing before finally making a move?”

Steve scowled. “I do not pine.”

“Buddy, you invented pining,” Sam said.

Tony flopped onto the sofa, watching them like his own personal soap opera. “Yeah, what’s the story here? Did you guys finally snap after years of unresolved tension, or did Steve seduce you with his moral superiority?”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “We’re not telling you shit. ”

“Oh, come on!” Clint whined. “At least tell us how long it’s been going on!”

Nat smirked. “Yeah, I’d like to know exactly how much money I just lost. ”

Bucky narrowed his eyes. “How much were we worth?”

“Two hundred bucks if you lasted till summer,” she said, unimpressed. “I had faith. ”

Sam shook his head. “Damn, I had March .”

Bucky turned to Steve, horrified. “We were bet on? ”

Steve sighed. “Of course we were.”

Tony grinned. “You think that’s bad? Wait till you see the fan edits.”

Bucky froze. “Wait. What fan edits?”

Tony pulled up TikTok on his phone. “Oh, my poor sweet assassin. You are in for a treat.”

Bucky watched in horror as Tony pressed play on a video titled ‘Steve & Bucky: The Love Story of the Century’ set to some emotional ballad. It was embarrassingly well-made. Clips of them through the years—laughing, fighting, catching each other after battle—transitioned seamlessly into the photo, now immortalised forever in high definition.

Bucky groaned. “I hate this.”

Steve— the traitor —was smiling. “It’s kinda sweet.”

Bucky shot him a look. “You would think that.”

“Relax, Barnes,” Tony smirked. “You’ll get used to being half of America’s favourite power couple.”

Bucky sighed. “This is my life now, huh?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Clint confirmed. “And we will be bringing it up every chance we get.”

Bucky muttered something under his breath, but despite himself—despite the absolute shitstorm their lives had become—he squeezed Steve’s hand, just briefly, before standing up.

“Fine,” he sighed. “But I’m picking the restaurant next time.”

Steve grinned. “Deal.”

From the sofa, Tony raised a hand. “Just make sure it’s not a place full of Instagram influencers this time.”

“Noted,” Steve sighed wearily.

Bucky groaned. Sam laughed. Clint definitely took another screenshot of the photo for future blackmail.

And just like that, their secret was well and truly out.