Chapter Text
Bucky is going to kill Becca if she doesn't get out of the goddamn bathroom before his Dad wakes up, and ruins Bucky's chance of executing his plan.
He has been planning this for the past month. Ever since Bucky dragged Steve to one of Bucky's friends' bar mitzvah, and a girl had came up to Steve, flirted with him, then asked him to dance with her.
Steve had gotten freaked out, excused himself, grabbed Bucky, and walked very fast to the nearest closet. When Bucky whisper-shouted at him, 'The hell are'ya doin' Stevie?! Go dance with her!', the second the closet door was closed, and Steve had refused over and over, insisting that he has two left feet, that he could barely keep up with his Ma, 'how can I keep up with a girl?', that's when Bucky realized that Steve has absolutely no finesse when it comes to flirting, or dating.
And last week, he'd tried bringing Steve on a double date with the girl he had been planning on taking to the movies…whatever her name was, and her friend. But it had backfired when, even after Bucky had went on and on about all the great qualities of Steve Rogers, she had turned Steve away after only a minute with him, and insisted that the two girls leave, and find something better to do. Bucky's date had been disappointed, and criticized Bucky for willingly being around a 'dirty, mick cripple'.
Bucky hadn't hesitated before shouting at her back as they walked quickly away, 'Well, at least I ain't wearin' lipstick that makes me look like a clown! You should really look in the mirror before leavin' the house by the way!'.
Yeah…it hadn't worked out.
So, Bucky had decided to change his plan, to prepare Steve for when girls start asking him out on dates, which, Bucky's gonna be honest, will be very soon. Have you seen the guy? Anyone would be the luckiest guy—person…girl…in the world…to have him.
So…today, Bucky is going to waltz up to Steve's door, with a rose in hand, his best suit on, hair done up all nice, and he's going to ask Steve out on a pretend date, and after, he's going to walk him back home like a proper fella would do. He'll teach him how to dance, mingle, and charm the socks off'a someone, in his living room while Mrs. Rogers is at work.
To prepare him. For the future. When girls ask him out. Not Bucky. Or a guy. Obviously.
Shut up, his plan makes absolute sense, okay?
Jesus Christ, how long is Becca gonna be? He needs to get into the bathroom so he can start getting ready, and then he's gonna steal his Dad's money—because he spent his own money all on bringing Steve to Coney Island last week—before the man wakes up from his nap, so he can actually be a good date and pay for everything. Which, might not be what girls will do on dates with Steve, but—okay fuck off, Steve isn't well off, alright? That's the only reason.
"Becca, come on!" Bucky yells at the door. His Dad is most likely gonna be awake in at least twenty minutes, and his hair doesn't just do all of that on it's own.
"Okay, okay, I'm getting out! Jesus," Becca says as she opens the door, scowling at Bucky and pushing past him to her room, her curly hair flicked into his face on her way. She is going to be even more insufferable once she's a teenager, he can tell.
"Fucking finally." he mutters as he rolls his eyes at her, and walks into the bathroom to finally start getting ready.
Almost twenty minutes later, Bucky is all done, his hair slicked back with pomade, his body washed from the bath, and smelling amazing with a few sprays of his Dad's expensive cologne. He needs to get moving if he's gonna get his plan done before his Dad wakes up.
Bucky walks into the sitting room as quickly as he can, while still being quiet. He's perfected it throughout the years. He gets to the chair that his Dad has claimed as his own, and starts looking for the wallet that he leaves there after getting home from work, sometimes he leaves it in the sides of it, sometimes just on the chair, sitting there exposed (those are the best days for Bucky, since he can easily take some coins out on his way out of the door to meet Steve, and can buy Steve ice cream).
He swiftly gets to searching, and after a minute of him scrambling—on the verge of panicking because he can hear his Dad grumbling in his room—looking everywhere it could possibly be, he finally finds it underneath the chair.
He breathes out, "Oh, thank God," as he grabs it, and shoves it in the pocket of his slacks.
He quickly gets up off his knees, drags his palms on the back of the chair, to get the dust off them, and stands upright. Just in time for his Ma to come through the door with Ruby, his six-month old sister, in her arms, having just gotten back from spending time with the Millers, their rich neighbors from upstairs. Well, rich enough for their three kids to still be in school, and not needing to have the whole family work just so they can survive, like most of America have been doing for the past few years.
"James? You here?" His Ma calls out, probably thinking he's out with Steve as he usually is during this time of day.
He walks fast to the front door, trying to not look like he just stole money, "Hey, Ma," he greets her, walking over to her, kissing her and Ruby's cheeks before gently taking Ruby from her. She's definitely tired from last night, which she spent awake from Ruby's crying, and his Dad in the living room, drunk, shouting at her to shut the baby up.
He situates Ruby onto his hip, lets her grab his index finger to chew on, and turns his attention to his Ma, "Ya get that rose I asked for?"
She smiles at him knowingly—she definitely thinks he's planning on going out with a girl—and takes her hand out from behind her back that he didn't even notice was there the whole time, and in her hand, is a whole bouquet of red roses.
"Holy shit, Ma!" He exclaims, "Jesus fuck, how rich are those Millers?!"
"Language, James," she chastises as she chuckles at his shock, handing him the roses, "and they're not that well off. The wife is a florist, and she had a wealthy client give them back because they weren't 'fragrant' enough, so she had these left over. Plus, she owes us for that window of ours that her degenerate son broke last month."
He stares at the roses in his hand, shaking his head minutely with disbelief, as he mutters quietly under his breath, "Jesus Christ," before putting the bouquet down on the side table near the door, "Well, I think she's buttering me up so I'll take her daughter out on a date." Bucky says.
It's true; The Millers' daughter, Marilyn, has always had an eye on him since he, and Steve, started playing marbles with her brother Aaron a few months ago. She always hovers over him, laughs annoyingly loud at all of his jokes, and she always calls him 'Jamie'. Bucky only noticed her infatuation because Steve had had his annoyed face on while they were all playing a round. Bucky had excused themselves so he could pull him aside to ask him what was wrong, and Steve had asked him when he was gonna save everyone ears from her laughing, and take her on a date.
"Well, I hope you do one day," his Ma says, "can you imagine the amount of flowers we could get from her?"
Bucky chuckles, though most of it is fake. He does not want to take that girl out. Steve always gets headaches, and sneezing fits whenever she's around them because of the insane amount of perfume she uses, and no girl, or actually, no one, is gonna be in Bucky's life if they make Steve suffer in any way, whatsoever.
Okay, he needs to leave before she starts asking about dates, and girls, where he's going, who he's taking out…Bucky doesn't wanna be there when those questions are inevitably asked, and he definitely doesn't want to be here when his Dad comes out of his room. Bucky can hear him move about, heavy steps, complaining loudly about something or the other, as usual.
He gives Ruby back to his Ma with one hand, and picks up the roses with the other. Once he's situated, he starts to leave, "Okay Ma, I'm going now," he announces to her, as he walks over to her where she's now at the kitchen sink, washing her and Ruby's hands, and he kisses their cheeks before going for the door.
"Have fun James, don't stay out too late, and be good!"
He grins at her, halfway out the door, and says, cheekily, "I always am."
He walks down the stairs to the exit of the apartment building with a bounce in his step from the thought of seeing Steve, as always.
Once Bucky gets to the door of the Rogers' apartment, he leans against the railing to take a breather. Jesus, he's out of breath. Well, he's just excited for he and Steve's da—pretend date. Also, it's pretty warm out and Bucky, he gets warm kinda quickly. Yep. That's exactly it.
He spent the whole walk smiling, thinking about what he's gonna do with Steve, and where they're gonna go.
He's mostly been thinking about bringing them to Coney Island, but it would take a while to get there, and they're both not allowed out that late, seeing as it's already four pm, and he and Steve always lose track of time when they're together. So, Bucky has just decided to get them ice cream, and some chocolate from the local candy store. Bucky will get Steve his favorite, a candy cigar, maybe even an egg cream, since those are a pretty rare luxury for them nowadays, and Steve deserves only the best.
From the smell coming out of the open window of the Rogers' apartment, they won't have to worry about dinner, because Mrs. Rogers is definitely cooking her famous leek and potato soup, a recipe she got from her grandmother, one she has enjoyed her whole life. She's only able to make it once a month due to the expenses of ingredients. Seems like Bucky is very lucky today. The smell of it makes him feel at home already, and safe.
He lays down the roses very gently, and takes Becca's small mirror that he stole earlier from her nightstand in their shared room, out of his pocket, points it towards his hair, and starts fixing the small flaws that he sees. And no, that is not a blush, his cheeks get warm whenever he's at Steve's place because, there is just so many steps. Plus, it's summer, and it's boiling out.
Whatever.
Right as he's done primping, he picks back up the roses, takes a deep breath, and gets ready to knock, but he pauses with his left hand in the air, as he hears Steve's voice from inside.
"But, Maaaa"
It sounds like he's complaining about something. Probably to his Ma, about that back brace his doctor told him to wear last week, because of his back pain. Bucky was with him last night, drawing the space comic with Steve that they've been creating for the past month, when Sarah had told him that she had gotten one from their neighbor, and showed the brace, which was leather, and a little worn.
He hears Sarah's voice as he takes a step back from the door and resigns to just waiting, not wanting to interrupt anything just in case, "No buts Steven, yer wearin’ ih, or yer jus' gonna have ti deal wi not playin’ wi Bucky dis week 'til yer cleared by duh doctor,” she chastises.
Steve's reply comes quickly, spoken quickly as well, "Maaa, me back isn' even tha' bad though," always so insistent about not being in pain, "Oi can handle a bi'a' pain, oi do ih ev'ryday, oi have bin fer years now. Oi'll be foi-in, please."
…What in the hell is he saying? He has never heard Steve speak like that in the nine months that Bucky has known him.
Bucky knows that Steve and his Ma are Irish, since they just moved here from Ireland last year, and he knows that they have thick Irish accents, but Steve has always toned down his accent, especially when he's with people other than Bucky, and he always makes sure he 'sounds American'. Bucky helps him with the pronunciations every now and then whenever Steve asks him to, but Bucky personally thinks he shouldn't have to.
He likes Steve's accent, even if it means he can't understand him sometimes. he can mostly understand Steve when they're alone, when Steve freely speaks in his accent, but if he's tired, or if Steve is focusing on something else while talking to Bucky, or, more commonly, whenever Steve is stressed or angry, his accent is mostly unintelligible.
But holy cow, his accent is strong when he's around Sarah.
"Steve," Sarah says firmly. She's probably been hearing this from Steve all day, the poor woman, "Yi hafta wear ih, no arguments."
“Bu-“
“-Ah.” Sarah interrupts quickly.
“Mam, please,” Steve whines, lengthening both words, pronouncing 'please' like ‘plee-is’.
“Steve,” Sarah sighs again after a moment, Bucky's just barely able to hear it, “Oi know tha yih have some problums wi' the brace, but it’s fer yer own good'j'ya know tha,"
"It's so annoyin' though," Steve whines again, "It's hot, and uncomfortable, and shtupi'. Why do I have ti wear ih Ma? I can handle my back hurtin' a bi', I'm not weak."
Aw hell, here he goes again with the 'I'm not weak', 'I'm not a baby, Buck, ya don' hafta coddle me' shit. Bucky hears about it every single time he patches Steve up from another spat he butted himself into while Bucky had looked away for five fucking minutes.
"Ya hafta wear ih 'cuz Bucky said'j'ya nearly feckin' collapsed for the second fuckin' time in a month las'week after shtupidly climbin' tha' fence." Sarah says sternly.
Yeah, that was kinda stupid of Steve to do, but, it was because he was getting eight-year old, Tommy Hare's bag of marbles that had been chucked over the fence by the local bullies, all because Tommy told one of them to stop botherin' Steve.
"Ma, I already told'j'ya, oi did ih for a good reason, they was chrowin' Tommy's marbles around, and he'd jus' gotten 'em all new'n'shiny no' even two days bifore!" Steve defends himself.
"So tha' means tha' yi had ta chrow yerself over a ten fee' tall fence, does it Steven?"
"Yes!"
"Steve," she sighs heavily. Jeez, she is one patient woman, Bucky would'a snapped at him to wise up by now, "Ya know I love the way yi defend yerself, and others when there bein' picked on, but yi can't save everyone," Sarah's patient voice assures Steve, "You know wha' happened after yi tried to get that boy's marbles back."
There's a moment of silence from Steve, probably him thinking about how Bucky had to physically lift him after Steve had fallen, to run away from the three bullies that had thrown the marbles in the first place, who were shouting at them, Bucky instructing Steve to steady his breaths on the way. Then, right as they had almost gotten away from them, one of the boys had gotten the bag of marbles and started throwing them at Steve.
Tommy still hasn't gotten his marbles back. Steve still has the collection of bruises on his lower back, and the backs of his thighs, from the thrown marbles.
Bucky hears Sarah speaking gentle, hushed words to Steve, and Steve relaying them back. Bucky steps to the side, having spent enough time here in this position outside the Rogers's door, and inside the apartment, at this time of day, to know that Sarah is about to leave for work, telling Steve to go get Bucky so they can have the soup when it cools down enough, to be good, and that she loves him. Bucky smiles at that, wishing he was inside there so he could feel her warm, comforting hug, and forehead kiss that she's definitely giving Steve right about now.
He's proven right about her getting ready for work, when the door opens, with a slight shove from Sarah since the door has been acting up the past few weeks, and she walks out the door in her nurse uniform, shoes in hand, looking like she's rushing. As she closes the door, she stops in her tracks with a bright smile when she sees Bucky in front of her.
"Ah, Bucky dear! How long'ya bin here, I hope not long?" she say quickly but gently, holding his shoulders with her lean, skinny hands, and leans in to kiss his cheek, "I gotta run honey, dere's soup on the table, Steve is settin' out you guys's plates,"
She starts putting her shoes on as she talks to him. Once she's all set, obviously about to start running down the steps to get to work, she stops as she takes him in. His nice suit, his done-up, gelled back hair, the smell of cologne on him, and the most obvious part, the whole bouquet of red roses in his hand.
She looks at him kinda warily, but after a second, she brightens, "You gettin' ready to bring Steve on a double date again, Bucky? Is ih those two girls from last week?," she gushes, a hopeful look in her eyes.
Oh yeah, Bucky forgot that she thinks the double date had been a success, and that it had ended with them walking the girls home and getting a kiss on the cheek from the both of them.
The day had actually ended with him and Steve, both tipsy from the beer they stole from Bucky's fridge, sitting on the floor of Steve's bathroom, Steve's head leaning on Bucky's shoulder, Bucky's head on Steve's. (and also, their hands holding, but Bucky doesn't really wanna think about how he felt when that had happened, not right now)
Oh god, how is he supposed to lie to her? How is he supposed to tell her that all of this, is for her son?
"Uh, well…" he wisely says, looking away from Sarah, his free hand coming up to rub his neck. Yeah, good fuckin' job Barnes, even Helen Keller would see through that, Steve's familiar, sarcastic voice says in his head. He clears his throat before continuing, "Uh, yeah, I..am, yeah. Figured, we might as well, seeing as they wouldn't stop botherin' us about it," he says, forcing a chuckle, as he puts on his signature grin that works on his own Ma whenever she asks about girls.
"Oh, well dat's just lovely, my dear," she says as she smiles sweetly at him, kisses his cheek again, then starts to leave, "Have a good day swee'ie, and behave yerselves!" she calls after him as she walks as fast as she can down the steps.
"I'll make sure that he will Mrs. Rogers!" he calls after her. He waves at her when she looks back at him quickly to smile at him, before disappearing from view.
Bucky breathes out, and turns back towards the still-open door. He smiles big when he sees Steve walk to the doorway, then stop there with a confused look on his face, looking Bucky up and down, and settling his stare on the roses.
Steve's eyes narrow after a moment, and he looks up to Bucky, with a hesitant look on his face, and asks, "Who they for, Buck?"
No time like the present, Bucky guesses. Jeez, he really should've planned what to say. All he had really thought about for this part, was putting a smile on Steve's face.
A smile comes onto Bucky's face, but this time, it's the most genuine smile of today, a smile he has reserved for Steve, and Steve only.
He jabs the hand holding the bouquet out in front of him, inches away from Steve, and says, "Steven Grant Rogers, would you make me the happiest ma—girl, on earth," Steve looks more and more puzzled as Bucky keeps speaking, "and accept my offer to take you out on a date to Sweet Joe's?"
Steve looks confused, but after a moment his face falls a bit, looking wilted, and he frowns, looking off to the right, away from Bucky, and asks, "Are you teasin' me cos you got a date, and I don't?" Bucky doesn't have time to reply before Steve continues, an angry look on his face now, "So, ya goin' out with Rachel, and her friend? You forgive 'em for—"
Bucky cuts in, not about to let his best friend believe that Bucky's like the other boys, "No—Steve, of course I'm not, I—Stevie," he gets out before letting out a soft sigh, putting his hand with roses down a bit, relaxing, and he looks at Steve kindly, "I'm sorry Steve, I don't mean it that way."
"Then what—what'a'ya doin' here then?" Steve asks quickly, anger dissipating, looking even more confused than he first was.
Bucky breathes in and out through his nose, smiling bashfully, "I want to take you out on a preparation date, so you'll know what to do when someo—a girl, asks you on one," he tells Steve. Bucky gets a bit more confident when the look in Steve's eyes switch from confusion, to realization, to amusement.
"Oh yeah, tha' right huh?" Steve drawls, grinning at Bucky, crossing his arms, raising his brows, "You gonna pretend to be my doll for the day Buck? Ya sure ya can handle that?"
…Jesus. Fuck. Christ Almighty. Bucky shouldn't be feeling like this. Especially not..down there. Oh God. Yeah, all of his confidence has vanished now.
He knows Steve is just taking from Bucky's book from whenever Bucky messes with him, exaggerating the moves he uses on girls at dance halls, and using them on him—although, Steve doesn't need to know that he never gets that filthy. The guy has never flirted with a girl, ever, but damn, he is smooth.
After a moment of trying very hard to shut the dirty thoughts up, Bucky realizes his face is almost completely flushed, his mouth is gaping, and he's starting to breathe quicker, so he forces a strained chuckle, immediately trying to cover his silence up with humor, "My oh my, Stevie," he says, still grinning. He puts on an exaggerated, breathy tone for his next words, fluttering his lashes, and brings a hand to his chest, though he still sounds kinda strained, "Ya gonna show me a good time Mista'?"
Steve laughs hard at that, smiles big, any negative feelings seemingly gone.
Bucky smiles back, even bigger, all of his worries forgotten. Just Steve, in front of him, laughing—bordering on giggling, looking beautiful with his sunrise-equivalent smile plastered on his face.
God, Bucky is so fucked.