Chapter 2
“The Covenant clears,” Bucky declared. He was using his annoying matter-of-fact tone and you felt the urge to knock him down a few pegs. It seemed unlikely, though. Even if he were objectively wrong in every way, Bucky seemed to win every single argument you got into. You suspected it had something to do with your mega crush on him. The way he looked at you had a way of making you swallow your words just as they were about to come out.
“The Empire would win based off sheer size alone,” you argued. “They literally rule most of the galaxy. The Covenant barely has enough manpower to control part of Orion’s arm.”
“Manpower?” Bucky scoffed. “You mean Stormtroopers? They couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.”
“And the Grunts and Jackals are any better? They’re meant to be expendable, the only difference is the Covenant has less of them.”
“The only difference is the Covenant has Brutes and Elites to do the real fighting.”
“And they’ll wipe each other out the way they fight. Your whole army has no unity. You know what the Empire has? The Death Star.”
“Oh, I’m real scared of your floating space rock,” Bucky quipped.
“You should be!” You exclaimed. “Between that and the Star Destroyers—“
“You shouldn’t have brought up technology at all because Covenant would smoke the Empire. That’s all antiquated 70s bullshit. They have the Forerunner Keyship and plasma weaponry.”
“The Empire has hyperdrive,” you deadpanned. “And that’s so much better than slip space.” Bucky let out a disbelieving gasp.
“Eat your fucking words—”
“Hey, are y’all about fucking DONE?” You heard Sam’s voice boom from behind you. You started. You were so absorbed in the argument that you forgot you were in Bucky’s shared apartment with all of his roommates. You turned sheepishly to Sam, who was cradling a bowl of popcorn in one arm and holding the remote in his other hand. His face was less than amused. “Can y’all take the argument to Bucky’s room, ‘cuz I’m trying to watch Monday Night Raw.”
“I was invested,” Thor added earnestly from where he was perched on a kitchen stool.
“Sorry, guys,” you started, but Bucky simply scoffed and grabbed your wrist, dragging you to his room.
“Don’t apologize to Sam. He’ll die if he hears about an interest that isn’t WWE or 2K.”
“I heard that!” Sam shouted back from the living room.
“And his taste in music sucks,” Bucky added, more loudly.
You giggled as he closed the door behind you, flopping back onto his bed, your head hitting his pillow as you stared at the posters on his wall. Classic movies and modern rappers. Sports teams he’d been a fan of his whole life. Sports teams he’d just gotten into. Superheroes and video games. It was like a mosaic of his entire personality in one room. And it smelled like him. It was your favorite place to be. He always kept his room clean despite being a male college student, which you liked. Well, to be fair, you liked everything about him, even the things you didn’t like, like how stingy he was and how he couldn’t take a compliment for shit. Those things made him, him, and they just made him grow on you more.
“What’s up?” He asked, sitting next to you. You felt the mattress dip but didn’t look over at him yet.
“Just thinking about your room.”
“What about it?” I like being surrounded by this much of you, you wanted to say. I like that you have a pair of my earrings and my scrunchie that I left over here in your bedside drawer and I never asked for them back because it makes me happy that you’d want to keep them. I like wearing your hoodies when I come over and get cold. I like when we make love and your sheets smell like my perfume and I wonder if it makes you a little happy to smell it after I leave.
“It’s clean,” you settled on saying. He hummed in response.
Your heartbeat quickened as he laid next to you, and you curled into his side instinctively, your head nestled on his chest. It took him a second but he let his arm fall around you, his fingers dancing around your waist as he stroked it slightly. You held your breath so the tiny display of affection wouldn’t disappear as fast as it came. You knew you couldn’t do anything, not during the day with all his roommates home. They’d tear him to pieces about it later. So instead you let your eyes flutter shut and listened to his heartbeat as you pretended to fall asleep. This way, he wouldn’t worry about you reading too much into it. But you were. You always did.