Work Text:
“Metropolis has nothing on this
You’re breathing in fumes, I taste when we kiss
Take my hand, come back to the land
Where everything’s ours for a few hours
Let me see you stripped
Down to the bone”
Stripped - Depeche Mode
—
Click.
Straw blond hair shone in the reflection. No face, no recognition of the man the mirror was supposed to reflect.
“C’mon,” a steady, strong hand belonging to a certain jerk shook his shoulder. “Kind of missing the point of a double date.” Of course, Bucky would find him. Knew him a little too well, it seemed.
Of course, he would; he’s always there at his side. Steve’s shoulder to lean on. To tell him he’s being reckless. It’s going to happen again. Why would it be any different? There’s a laughter in his head.
“Taking the girls dancing.” Turning towards the voice, a pearly white smile shone down on Steve. Bucky stood in front of him so open, so deceiving of what Steve knew he was feeling like inside. That wasn’t of importance in the moment, though.
Bucky was hoping to drag him back out to the fair, wasn’t he? Jame–
Steve blinked several times, shaking his head slightly. There he was with the names in his head again. The blonde bit his lip and closed his eyes for only a second. He was okay, he was here, he wasn’t crazy. Just for one night.
“You go ahead, I’ll catch up.” The words left his lips with a weird tightness to them. Steve needed to try again. He just–
The corners of his mouth gave a small twitch. A twist of his heart and an odd squeeze of his chest, Steve took a step towards Bucky. With shining eyes, Steve met the older man’s gaze. Disapproval. That’s all he could register from Bucky’s cocked head and half-lidded eyes.
“Really going to do this again?” The man sounded so exhausted, Steve didn’t even need to meet Buck’s eyes to know that.
“Well, it's a fair. I’m going to try my luck.” Will Bucky just let him–
“As who? Steve from Ohio?” There’s a heaving sigh that comes from Steve. He’s not backing down from this. Bucky cannot see–
“They’ll catch you.” Steve’s willing to take the risk. “Worse, they’ll actually take you.”
There’s a way in which Steve’s breath catches in his chest, sending a painful spasm throughout.
They’ll take him. No, no, James cannot let that happen. They’re not crazy; they cannot be seen as crazy. They’ll know that if they take them.
Them. That word haunts J- Stev– Jam–
“Stop it. Stop it!”
“Steve.” There’s a hand on his shoulder. Blue eyes meet on another as Bucky is nearly face-to-face with him. “Are you with me, pal?”
There’s a moment where Steve just stares into Bucky’s blue eyes, grounded, safe, and comforted by them. But yet, “I’m not just going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs from the side, Buck, I have to do something.”
The light and concern dims from the other’s eyes. “There are so many other things you can do, Steve.” That, that isn’t right.
“What? Do you want me to sit in a factory? Oh, or collect scrap metal in my little red wagon?” Steve knows his voice is rising. It doesn’t matter in the long run. He needs to do this, they–
Steve isn’t leaving.
Maybe he should.
Steve’s mouth barely twitches at the thought that could not have been his own. He refuses.
“Yes, why not?” Comes Bucky’s own now-raised voice, stubborn and pushing back against Steve’s resolve.
“Bucky!” The voice tears out of Steve with a jolt. The man is cut off, wide-eyed and staring at him; he looks even a bit pale. Steve blinks, looking over the man’s face; he doesn’t understand it. There’s a cough as Steve clears his throat.
“Men are laying down their lives. I’ve got no right to do any less than them. That is what you don’t understand.” Words cut sharply, accusatory at the end. Steve takes a deep breathe, looking around with slightly frantic eyes before finally meeting Bucky’s. “This isn’t about me.”
“Right,” Bucky’s voice comes, monotone. “Because you have nothing to prove.”
This– “I’ll be taken someday.” James’ voice comes, mirroring Bucky’s own. “Allow me the dignity of having a choice.”
There’s no other noise between the two of them when–
“Hey, Sarge, are we going dancing?” Steve blinks once, twice. Right, the girls. Steve feels slightly guilty about ditching Buck with them, although it seems like a fun time for him all at the same time.
With a mock smile upon his face, the man turns away. “Yes, we are!” The smile is gone as soon as he turns back to Steve. Concern and anger stain his face. Steve cannot tell which is more than the other. “Steve, you– You sound like–”
Bucky closes his mouth, closes his eyes. “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” He takes a step back, shaking his head at him with raised eyebrows.
Steve quirks a smile, the weight easing up from his chest slowly. “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”
Steps faltering, the brunette steps back towards him, wrapping an arm around his neck and tugging him into a tight hug. “You’re a punk.”
“Jerk.” Steve returns with a wide smile, patting the man hard on the back. The blonde feels Buck’s breath near the side of his face.
“Be careful, please. Don’t talk to yourself too much while I’m gone.”
As casual as it's delivered, Steve’s body locks up. Wide eyes meet Bucky’s retreating figure as he vanishes into the crowd with the girls. How does he–
He’s not crazy, Bucky doesn’t know. Bucky doesn’t know, Bucky doesn’t know, Buc–
The office. Steve, the office.
Steve sucks in a breath. Right, he needs to go. Steve takes a glance back at the recruitment mirror before looking down the hall, where he sees an arrow pointing down the hallway. Steve feels like he’s watching himself from high above as he walks down the crowded corridor.