Autumn Town Leaves
~Time Skip~
Steve POV
The wind blows through Steve's ever growing hair, as he strolls down the sidewalk coming back from a study session at the library. To his left there is a small selection of shops and cafes, buzzing with people all snuggled in cosy coats and wrapped up in scarves, to his right there is a quiet road lined with amber covered trees, only a few cars zooming past him on occasion.
The air is lined with water as the sky threatens to rain, Steve can hear the slight crunch of leaves under his foot filter through his music blasting in his ears. Steves loves Autumn, it's his favourite season. The trees look beautiful with all the different shades of red and oranges, the briskness of the air hitting his face, the smell of pumpkin spice floating around every corner. It just felt so cosy and the dull weather reminded him of England, so America was starting to feel a bit like home again.
Steve was heading home when he felt a buzz in his pocket, he pulled out his phone to see a message from Sam:
Sam: Hey man! Want to meet up and get a coffee or something?
Sam: I can meet whenever, I’m just finishing off class.
As he read over the messages rain started pattering down, instantly soggying Steves hair causing it to stick to the back of his neck. Steve quickly ran into the nearest coffee shop he saw to save himself from the downpour, he clambered through the dark oak door closing it gently behind him.
He looked up, giving his hair a little shake so it wouldn’t dry flat. He noticed he had walked straight into the line, with about five people in front of him he looked up at the chalkboard, highlighted by fairlights and vines above the counter, that was crammed full with different autumnal drinks and snacks all handwritten on. He scanned the options before landing on an iced pumpkin spice latte, as he was waiting he observed a blue haired lady taking orders with a couple of staff behind her dancing around one another making the delicious smelling coffees. While he waited in line he messaged Sam back:
stevie boy: sounds good. I’m in a café right now.
-Steve then realised he had no idea what the café was called, so he looked up from his phone to investigate. As he did his eyes landed on a man with broad shoulders, accentuated by the simple black t-shirt he was wearing, turn around and whisper to the lady bending down slightly to be more level with her ear. He noticed the words ‘Thunderbrew’, printed in yellow letters, on the left side of the womens black top.-
Stevie boy: it's called Thunderbrew, not far from campus.
Sam: Cool be there soon!
As Steve looked back up he realised he was at the counter, the blue haired woman had been replaced with a guy… a guy who was breathtakingly beautiful, Steve's brain short circuits for a moment after the man's icy blue eyes landed on his. Steve swears he hears the man say something under his breath but he was too busy identifying everything perfect about him: the way his eye sparkled even in a dim lit room, the way his jaw clenched defining his jawline beautifully, the way his chest pressed against the black top just enough you could see a faint outline of his abs- my god was this man chiselled out by the gods?
“... for you?” Steve heard the man finish. Steve looked at him blankly, he had missed completely what the man had said, I think he understood as he spoke again.
“Welcome to Thunderbrew sir, what can I get for you? We have, urm, a variety of new Fall themed choices just above my head” -he points to behind him-, Steve notices how his arms flex as they move.
He coughs as his throat had gone dry before managing to squeak out, “Oh, can I have an pumpkin spice iced latte, please?”
“Yeah. That will be $2.50, and your name sir?”
“Oh… urm, Grant” Steve lies, he hates giving strangers his real name. People are crazy nowadays. Anyone could overhear and stalk him… find his Instagram or Twitter, then find his address and kill him. Yeah. No thanks.
The man's customer service smile, which Steve can tell from a mile away, slips into a small grin at the name and then he shuffles awkwardly on his feet, before clearing his throat, “Your coffee will be ready for you shortly.”
Once Steve acquired his iced coffee he sat down at a small round table, placing his backpack on the floor wrapping the strap around his foot, so no one could steal it, and checked to see if Sam was close. While he waited he pulled out a book and sipped at his coffee, god was it cold! Why did he get an iced coffee in the middle of October?
Not ten minutes later.
“Heyyyyy! There he is! The next Mitchell Turbisky!” Sam appears in front of Steve, a big smile on his face coming in for a soft smack on the shoulder before sitting down opposite him.
Steve closed his book, rolling his eyes at the nickname smiling back at his friend, “Heyhy Sam. How was class?”
“Ugh, same old, same old. Old white man said this, old white man did that, blah blah blah. But that's not what's important! What's important is you made it onto the football team! Congrats man!” Sam responds, hitting the table lightly to convey his excitement.
Its true, Tony and Sam convinced him to try out for the MIT Engineers. Steve only agreed to humour them, plus if he did make it his dad would be super impressed about it. He never expected to actually be picked. But here he was one of the new Receivers for the MIT Engineers. His dads going to be so proud.
“Thanks. I guess now my dad will hopefully get off my back about the party/curfew situation.”
“Oh man, is he still going off on you about that? You’re at college now you’re allowed to go out and have a bit of fun.”
“Yeah. The next day was pretty brutal. He was not impressed with my behaviour. But getting on the team will definitely shut him up, give him something new to focus on.”
Steve and Sam continue talking around the small wooden table for a while until the conversation circles back around to the night of the party.
“Do you remember anything from that night, man?” Sam asks, before taking a sip of his black coffee with a small smile on his face.
Steve rolls his eyes, with a smile, at Sams small jab at his expense. “No, which you know Sam. I wouldn’t have even known I kissed anyone that night if you hadn't told me. Do you remember anything about what the guy looked like?”
“Urm… nothing I haven’t already told you. Long hair, tall and now jacketless.” Sam answered still with a small smirk plastered to his face.
Before Steve could ask anything else about the famous night, that will go down in history as the ‘Christening of Rogers’ the title designed by Tony, he saw him walk up to the window. Pressing his face right up to the glass before locking eyes with Steves, smile growing wide before pushing himself off and launching himself towards the door.
Steve looked over at Sam face slightly scrunched in confusion, “Did you invite To-”
“Tony! My main man! What are you doing here?” Sam said as his gaze when from Steve to above his right, which as Steve turned to follow Sams eyes was welcomed once again with Tonys bright smiles.
“Hey bitches! If you don’t want people to just come find you you shouldn’t have your snap maps on dude.” Tony said as he came over draping his arms over Steves broad shoulders shaking him, before sitting down.
“I hear our little nerd is growing wings and joining us on the football team! I personally thought you should have been quarterback but hEy what do I know maybe the Walker guy will do.” Tony continued.
——————————————
Buckys POV
As Bucky was finishing off the ice mocha he was making he looked up at the clock above his head, he realised it was nearly Vals break. So he spun around on his heel, black sneakers squeaking against the wooden floor and mocha in hand, he slid the plastic cup over to the customer with a smile. Bent down to brush against Vals ear, so she could hear him over the chatter and soft music playing, and whispered,
“Hey, I’ll take over now. You go on your break.”
She looked up at him with her big brown eyes, a small smirk on her face before saying her thanks and rushing off to the staff room. Val was probably his favourite person to work with, Bucky thought to himself as he watched her walk off through the wooden doors.
-Thunderbrew is a family business run by the Odionsons: while Thor is a lovely guy he is a pretty clumsy guy; Loki mostly keeps to himself and is a few years younger than Bucky so he hasn’t been able to form a proper opinion on him but from what Vals told him he can be a bit of a handful. Bucky knew of other few co-workers Jane and Korg but he never had any shifts with them so he just heard of them through everyone else. -
As Bucky turned to welcome the new customer his eyes landed on ashy blonde hair, he scanned the rest of this mans frame and his whole body froze, he felt the blood flush from his face and his eyes widened. He tried to compose himself as he plastered on his customer service smile.
“Hello and welcome to Thunderbrew sir, what can I get for you?”
With that, the man looked up from his phone, his icy blue eyes looking up at him beyond the counter with a look of shock on his face. For a second Bucky got lost in his eyes, he got taken back to the night at Starks party, a night Bucky wishes he didn’t think about every night. He could feel his heart beating against his chest, and after a beat of no response from the man opposite him Bucky scared he was going to say something, or run away or well anything… but nothing came so Bucky just repeated himself.
“Welcome to Thunderbrew sir, what can I get for you? We have, urm, a variety of new Fall themed choices just above my head” he said trying hard not to break his cool.
“Oh, can I have a pumpkin spice iced latte, please?” he responded, shoving his phone into his pocket.
Buckys hands were shaking as he punched the order into the till, relief washing over him that he didn’t say anything.
“Yeah. That will be $2.50, and your name sir?”, he whipped his head up to look at the customer again, realising he was finally going to learn the name of this mystery man, the man who changed his life, who broke him down and made him revaluate his whole life, who was still in his thoughts everyday.
“Oh… urm, Grant.” he responded.
Bucky couldn’t help but smile at this information. Grant. His name was Grant. He liked the way that sounded. His heart fluttered for a second before he shut it down, clearing his throat and answered,
“Your coffee will be ready for you shortly.” with the small smirk he used to give to all the women he met but now belongs to Natasha… and apparently Grant.
Bucky carried on gathering orders from different customers, but kept glancing every so often to Grant. After a while of his sitting at a small table near the window by himself another guy, who he learned to be Sam from his order, sat down with him.
Bucky, no matter how much he tried to ignore it, felt a ping of jealousy spiking in his chest as he watched the two men chatting together. Bucky kept thinking about how he wished he could be the one to make him laugh like that, to make him do the cute little toothy grin that keeps creeping on to his face.
“Who you staring at Barnes?” he heard come from his left, breaking him out of his trance. He looked over to see Val looking at him with a small smirk that read ‘I know what you’re thinking about’.
Bucky shook his head, looking down at the till, “Nothing.”
Val swept her eyes up and down Bucky, as if trying to figure out if he's lying or not, “Mmmm whatever you say, James.”
Before Bucky could plead his innocence, Thor speaks up behind them near the coffee machine, “Is that Stark? In here? In this place?”
Bucky and Val look over to the door, in unison, where he watches Tony basically bombard his way past all the tables and chairs towards Grant. Of course he knows Tony, why wouldn’t he? With that watched as he draped his long arms over Grant's strong, broad shoulders. Bucky looked away after that, not wanting to deal with the way that was making him feel, not wanting to even for a second imagine the idea of Grant being with THE Tony Stark, or the fact he wishes that was him.