“Oh God,” Sarah groaned, before they even made it to their seats.
She and Bucky had just arrived at Crispus Attucks Elementary for the boys’ Christmas program. AJ and Cass had stayed after school with the rest of the students for the dress rehearsal, and Sam was out of town for a public appearance he couldn’t avoid (even though he’d tried, desperately), so it was just the two of them as they made their way into the school’s makeshift auditorium - a.k.a. the gym.
“What?” Bucky asked, glancing around, immediately on alert.
“Nothing, nothing,” she said, and continued on to a fairly empty row and took a seat. “Seriously, stop looking like that; we’re not under attack or anything.” She laughed lightly. “I just forgot Caleb was going to be here. I must’ve blocked it out or something.”
“Who’s Caleb?”
Sarah tilted her head in the direction of the stage. “The piano player.”
Bucky looked over at the guy leaning against the piano. He was average height, average weight, average… everything. He looked nice enough though.
“Okay,” he drawled. “So what’s wrong with Caleb?”
“Absolutely nothing.” She shrugged, starting to feel a little guilty that her knee jerk reaction to seeing the guy was to basically whine. “He’s a nice guy. Believe me, I should know,” she added, wryly.
“What’s that mean?”
She sighed. “It means, people can’t stop telling me how nice he is.”
He sent her a quizzical look and she sighed again.
“People in our parish mean well, but they’re busybodies,” she explained. “I’m a relatively young widow with two boys, and he’s a relatively young widower who wanted kids but didn’t get to have any before his wife passed away. I come from a nice family, he comes from a nice family. And we’ve known each other since we were in diapers, because everyone here has known everyone else since they were in diapers,” she added, and shook her head. “Anyway, as far as folks around here are concerned, all of that makes us a match made in heaven.”
“And you disagree?” He replied, trying to sound like he was joking, but it came out more hopeful than anything else. Luckily, Sarah was too far in her own head to notice his tone.
“Like I said, he’s nice. But a love connection it ain’t,” she said, nose scrunching up a bit.
Bucky breathed a little easier at that, well, until he heard her mumble under her breath.
“Now, if only he’d get the memo.”
“Is he bothering you Sarah?” He asked seriously, and straightened up in his seat to stare at Caleb.
“Chill, Bucky,” she said, rolling her eyes. Though she did feel a little thrill at his obvious protectiveness. “He just hasn’t learned ‘when you’re dead lie down’ yet.” She clucked her tongue. “Caleb drank the church gossip kool aid a while back, so he asks me out every few months, even though I say no each and every time. It’s annoying, but at this point I guess it’s our thing,” she explained, with a humorless laugh.
“Why don’t you have Sam tell him to leave you alone?”
“Because I’m not thirteen?” She shook her head. “I don’t want or need my brother to tell someone off for me.”
Bucky shrugged. “Okay, well I’d be happy to do it,” he volunteered, then winked. “And I’m definitely not your brother.”
You’re telling me, she thought, but kept her expression neutral.
“No thank you.”
“Sarah—
“Bucky,” she interrupted. “He’s harmless, just annoying. Whenever I turn him down he says okay and then tries again a few months later; he’s not exactly breathing down my neck,” she clarified. “Yeah, the quarterly invitations have gotten old and when I see him I close my eyes and have to take a deep breath, but it's nothing you need to worry about.”
He wasn’t worried… the feeling he was experiencing definitely wasn’t worry. Annoyance maybe? On Sarah’s behalf and his own. Because even though he had no real right to feel that way, and even though he completely understood it, it worked his nerves that someone else was interested in Sarah… romantically. Even if the guy didn’t have a chance in hell.
This wasn’t a new feeling though. Bucky felt his blood pressure rising whenever another guy got too close to Sarah, or looked at her a second too long, or gave her a smile that was just a tad bit too friendly. And he was beginning to think that maybe he should do something about it.
“So let’s just enjoy the show, okay?” She continued, unaware of the turn his thoughts had taken.
“Okay,” he agreed. His newest enemy was sitting across the room, but at least the program was bound to be cute.
🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
It was cute, adorable actually. Cass’ class wore holiday themed pajamas and did spirited renditions of “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “Up on the Housetop,” and AJ’s class wore Santa hats and performed “Sleigh Ride”. AJ had been selected to do percussion and seemed to be having the time of his life running back and forth across the stage playing the clapper. Bucky wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else… well, until the program was over and Sarah’s would-be beau started to approach them while they were milling around the refreshments table waiting on Cass and AJ to appear from backstage.
“Jesus,” Sarah muttered. Bucky heard her, but given the grin on his face, Caleb had not.
“Hey, Sarah,” Caleb greeted.
“Hi,” she said, with a brightness that Bucky could tell was forced. “How’s it going, Cal?”
“I can’t complain,” he replied. “In fact—
“I’m Bucky, by the way,” Bucky interrupted, a deceptively serene smile on his face.
And when Caleb stuck out his hand and turned his friendly smile towards Bucky, all reason left him and he couldn’t stop himself from grasping Caleb’s hand just a tad too tightly and adding, “Sarah’s boyfriend.”
And, oh. Oh no. He didn’t know he was going to say that until it came out of his mouth, but now that it had, Bucky didn’t exactly regret it.
Until he caught Sarah giving him what was probably the most subtle side eye she could muster under the circumstances.
“Boyfriend?” Caleb repeated, dumbly, and dropped his hand, looking at Sarah for confirmation.
Sarah kind of wanted to slap Bucky, but she kind of wanted to thank him too. It had never occurred to her to try to “George Glass” her way out of dealing with Caleb’s attentions, and she had to admit that seeing the dumbfounded look on his face was a little satisfying. She could deal with Bucky’s high handedness later; right now she was going to use Bucky’s out of pocket declaration to her advantage and maybe nip this thing in the bud once and for all. When life gives you lemons…
“Yeah,” she confirmed, leaning into Bucky. He quickly wrapped his arm around her waist, now that he knew he wasn’t about to get outed as a big fat liar.
“Really?” Caleb said, eyeing the two of them, and his tone was just skeptical enough that it had both of their backs getting up.
“Yes, really,” Sarah all but snapped. She had always tried to be gentle with Caleb’s feelings, but the judgey look he was giving Bucky was setting her teeth on edge.
“How long have y’all been together?” He asked, inexplicably keeping the conversation going, when a saner man would’ve already turned tail and run.
“Well,” Bucky spoke up before she could. “I knew I wanted to get to know Sarah the moment I saw her standing by her boat looking so beautiful,” he said truthfully, looking down at the woman in question. “But we’ve only gotten together recently. Sarah and her boys deserve the world, so I had to make sure I proved myself worthy before I made a move,” he continued, and gave her waist a quick squeeze.
“Besides, I wasn’t even sure if she was interested,” he added, laughing lightly, but there was a hint of question in his voice and it had Sarah examining his face far closer than he would’ve liked.
“A superhero who looks like a supermodel, who spends his free time playing with my kids and helping me on my boat?” She snorted. “Who wouldn’t be interested?” she said, softly.
They just stared at each other for a minute until Caleb cleared his throat, bringing their attention back to him.
“Well, congratulations,” he said, not really knowing what else to say after the oddly intimate staring contest he’d just witnessed.
“Thanks. It was nice meeting you, Caleb,” Bucky said.
“You too, man,” he lied. “Sarah,” his gaze swiveled to her, “I’ll see you around soon, I’m sure.”
There was absolutely nothing subtle about the glare Bucky sent him.
“Or not,” he rushed to add. “Who knows? Bye,” he said, then gave an awkward little wave and got the hell out of there. Sarah Wilson was fine as wine and twice as sweet, but he wasn’t about to get his ass kicked by a super soldier for someone he’d never even held hands with.
Sarah couldn’t stop herself from laughing as she watched his loafers practically slide out the room because he was walking so fast.
“You didn’t have to scare him, Buck.”
“I know,” he shrugged, grinning, “but it was fun.”
“Hmm you didn’t have to do any of that actually,” she said, slipping out of his hold so that she could face him.
“That was fun too,” he replied, taking a step closer so that he was completely in her space. “Besides,” he brought both arms up and gently placed his hands upon her hips, “it’s not like I said anything I didn’t mean. I’ve had it bad for you since the first second you smiled at me.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” She whispered.
“Because you and your boys really do deserve the world. You deserve a hell of a lot better than me, and I wasn’t—
Before she could think too hard about it, she leaned up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a kiss.
“Why don’t you let me decide what I deserve, Bucky,” she said, once she pulled away.
“Does that mean you’ll go on a date with me?” He asked, hopefully.
She rolled her eyes. “Boy, I just kissed you in front of half the parish - what do you think?”
He grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together.
“I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said, and started to lean in to kiss her again, but the boys came running around the corner talking excitedly.
Bucky wasn’t disappointed though. There’d be plenty of time for more kissing later. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere for a very long time.
The end.