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The five times someone called Steve and Bucky middle-school sweethearts
And the one time Bucky asked Steve to be his high-school sweetheart instead
1.
It all started a week after high school orientation.
Bonnie Jones tripped over her shoelaces and landed in Bucky’s arms, to which Connie Anderson hooted and called fate. Clint Barton from middle-school announced to the class that Bucky already had a sweetheart from middle-school called Steve, and started to tell Stucky stories all the way from when Bucky was in fifth grade.
When Mr Erskine came in for class and called for attendance, three people corrected him and said that it was James Buchanan Barnes-Rogers instead, to which Mr Erskine smiled fondly and said that he would see to the accuracy of the attendance list.
2.
A month after that, Steve dropped by the high school to hand over Bucky’s wallet which he had left behind. Brock Rumlow, a year Bucky’s senior from the same middle school, recognized him and cheered loudly, attracting attention from everyone in the halls. Clint hollered that Bucky’s boyfriend had come to visit.
Bucky had plucked Steve off the ground and given him a peck on the lips, and such casual hello and goodbye kisses were a normal occurrence to them ever since their first kiss in Bucky’s sixth grade. But the hallway started shouting, and Miss Carter had come forth to break up a fight she thought was happening but stood there awkwardly as Bucky set Steve back on the ground, grinning dopily.
Steve called Bucky a jerk,to which Bucky responded by calling Steve a punk, passed him his wallet, and left.
3.
A year later, Steve entered the high school as a freshman.
Mr Erskine recognized Steve and had called his name as Steven Grant Barnes-Rogers during attendance, to which the freshmen from their middle school hooted and started sharing Stucky stories.
The incident spread to the sophomore students, and a small group hustled Bucky to the freshman classes to meet his boyfriend. Bucky had tilted Steve’s chin up and leaned forward to press his lips to Steve’s, less jokingly and more romantically than Bucky had been going for, but he enjoyed the surprise turned fondness in Steve’s pretty eyes and the cheers from the two student levels.
4.
Bucky was a Junior when the cheerleaders of the opposing team start flirting with him after their football match.
Brock told them that they were barking up the wrong tree, and the quarterback Thor Odinson informed them solemnly that Bucky had a boyfriend he was very devoted to, and Tony waved their attention over to Steve busily sketching over at the corner.
Pietro Maximoff told Bucky that it was cute that he was dating his middle-school sweetheart, but suddenly Bucky was reminded that he and Steve weren’t actually dating, so he moped around for a while-
5.
-until Bucky realized, a while later with his hands tangled in Steve’s hair and Steve dozing in his lap at the student’s lounge, that they were actually dating for the longest time.
He had grinned stupidly and continued to stoke Steve’s hair, wondering if Steve knew they were dating. Sam, who was leading the freshmen around in their orientation school tour, stopped by the student lounge to point out Bucky and Steve, telling the students that they were The Couple of the high school and were previously middle school sweethearts.
Peter Parker from the same middle school recognized them and started repeating the Stucky stories that were some sort of an epic legend back in middle school, and Sam was happy to clarify all his doubts. Bucky grinned at them from where he was sitting, and waved them away so they wouldn’t wake Steve.
+1.
When Bucky’s senior prom came, he fretted for the longest time on how to pull off the best promposal for Steve, because nothing could beat Tony’s fireworks display for Pepper Potts. Natasha told him to just ask Steve like a normal person, so he armed himself with a ridiculous number of balloons and a small pot of a tiny flowering cactus, because Steve was allergic to pretty much all the other flowers, and stalked over to the Juniors’ section.
The actual asking Steve was an entirely different story, so Bucky had bolted when the bell rang and accidently released all his balloons, which was fortunately in the right place at the right time because the seniors could hear a chorus of squeals from the juniors upon seeing Steve Rogers + Bucky Barnes = Prom? Float by on multiple balloons just before they stepped out to switch classes.
Steve had cornered him during lunch and kissed him in the centre of the cafeteria, to which Miss Carter shooed them away saying they were holding up the line, but nobody had really minded.