“Whaddya think, green or blue?” Bucky asked a bored Steve, showing him two ties. He was dragging his blonde friend to a dancehall again and this time they didn’t even have dates.
“Buck ya know I’m colorblind, right? I’m no help with that." Steve sighed, resting his elbow on the dining table to rest his head on his hand.
"Right, sorry…" The brunette sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "I'll go ask ma."
"Ma will say the blue, she always picks that one, James." Rebecca commented as she passed by the two boys, carrying some games in her hands.
"Well then which one would ya choose, Becca?" Bucky raised his voice so it would reach his little sister.
"I don't care!"
"Y'know, if you can't decide, we could just stay here." Steve suggested, well aware Bucky wasn't going to agree to that.
The doorbell interrupted their conversation and, before Bucky could reply, his mom's voice asked him from the kitchen to open the door.
"Well, if it isn't the most beautiful dame in New York…" Bucky flashed a smile at the eldest of the two girls in front of him." … And you're here too. Becca's in her room." He informed your sister.
"Hi, Bucky." You responded to the brunette with a polite smile, unphased by his comment. "I just came to drop this bug, Becca invited her for a sleepover."
"In that case, please come in." He moved to the side to let you in, your sister simply passing by him, then Steve, who she waved politely before running to her friend's room.
"She didn't even say goodbye." You huffed and rolled your eyes, making Bucky chuckle.
"Hey, you can come in too." He gestured with his hand. He knew you were about to decline, so he rushed to say, "I need someone with taste to help me pick a tie. No one in this house is being helpful."
You sighed and made a face, but you ultimately agreed and came in, your breath hitching after finding Bucky's best friend sitting right in front of you. You'd always found Steve Rogers handsome, with his big bright blue eyes and his beautiful lips, his permanently rosy cheeks. Ugh, you couldn't help but steal every glance you could at him every time you encountered Bucky with him attached to the hip.
Steve rushed to sit straight when he saw you coming in, flattening his tie as a nervous tick. Bucky was right, you were the most beautiful dame in New York. If you asked Steve, you probably were the most beautiful dame in the whole damn country. The two of you never actually had a conversation, most of your interactions were with Bucky, since your sisters were best friends. He relentlessly tried to flirt with you and you dismissed him every time, which was certainly amusing for Steve to watch. Refreshing, almost.
"Hi, Steve!" You offered him a genuine smile, approaching the table where he was seated to inspect the ties.
"H-hi." He managed to reply looking up to your face, brushing his hair out of his face.
"Couldn't you help him with the ties?" You eyed the blushing blonde sitting to your left.
"I'm colorblind, so… nope." He sighed self deprecatingly, giving you an awkward tight lipped smile.
"Oh, that's fine." You leaned towards him to get closer to his ear. "It's always the blue one, though." You whispered before stepping back, showing him the blue tie and winking at him before turning to hand it to Bucky.
"Would you be a doll for me and do the knot for me?" Bucky asked, pouting at you half flirting, half trying to piss you off, which he knew was easier than his flirting working.
You rolled for eyes at him but did the stupid knot, just to shut him up.
"So… where are you two headed?" You asked, looking at Steve and ignoring Bucky's beaming smile. Yes, Bucky was handsome, really handsome. Like, almost painful to watch. But you weren't attracted to him. You didn't like the arrogance, the overconfidence he had. And you were well aware he didn't want anything actually serious. He was just a flirt. So, you weren't interested.
Instead, his beautiful, shy, respectful friend Steve, with his nervous smile and his ticks. That's what you liked.
"Bucky wants to go dancing." The blonde responded, since you directed your attention to him.
"You could come with us, if ya want. I'll buy you a drink if you dance with me." Bucky interfered with a cocky smile. Steve's gaze shifted to Bucky and sighed, making you chuckle.
"You know what? I'll come. But I'll pass on the dance." Your eyes lingered on Steve for a second, who softly smiled at you, before looking back at Bucky, patting his chest once your work was done.
"Oh, c'mon! Just a friendly dance!"
"Let it go, James, it's not gonna work."
Since you had agreed to go out with them, Steve and Bucky walked you home and waited outside while you changed clothes and dolled up.
"Y'know? It's funny to see someone reject you for once." Steve commented with amusement, his hands on the pockets of his jacket.
Bucky made a bit of a face, but ended up smiling at his friend. "Yeah, she keeps me humble, I guess. But hey, I got her to come to the dancehall, didn't I?" Bucky shrugged, content with you simply agreeing to spend some time with them. Yes, Bucky tried to butter you up every single time he saw you because you were truly beautiful and he loved your snark and he… Well, he was a flirt. He couldn't help it. But in all honesty, he was just playing and ultimately, he was okay with just befriending you.
"You're unbelievable." Steve huffed, looking at the door as if that would make you come out faster.
Bucky regarded him for a moment before a smirk appeared on his face. "Hey, why don't ya try flirting with her? Perhaps she likes blondes. That's the only explanation for why she doesn't like me." He said pointing at his gelled brown hair.
Steve sighed and shook his head, moving his hair out of his face again. "Stop trying to set me up, Buck. It never works."
You came out of your apartment just as Steve was checking the door again, your eyes locking as you shut the door. The blonde just stared at you, his mouth slightly agape. You smiled shyly at him, making him blush when he realized he was just staring like a dumbass.
Bucky turned around when he heard the door, wolf-whistling at the sight of you.
"Okay, okay. Let's not make a big deal out of it, Barnes, let's go." You said as you chuckled, gently pushing Bucky's shoulder to make him move.
He started moving without objection with a chuckle of his own, leaving you and Steve to walk behind him.
You looked down to your side, where you found Steve looking back up at you. His eyes widened when you caught him staring, but he relaxed when you smiled at him, offering you a shy smile in return.
On the way to the dancehall, Bucky ended up convincing you to dance with him. But you demanded some ground rules. No slow songs and no touching more than necessary. Fair enough.
Steve watched you two dance and talk and laugh with resignation. Perhaps you did like Bucky and you were just playing hard to get. Even if you weren't, he didn't stand a chance. Regular women didn't even look his way as it was, but a gal like you, so tall and confident, who didn't even indulge Bucky's advances? Yeah… no chance.
But Steve did not know what you were telling his flirty friend.
"Y'know, you really have to stop flirting with me." You said, your attention still on your steps as you danced with Bucky, not wanting to step on his toes.
"Oh, c'mon! You know it's just a bit of fun." The brunette protested while he guided you.
"I know, I know… I have to admit it, it's amusing sometimes. But, I'm already interested in someone else." You let him know your gaze leaving Bucky's to look past him towards the scrawny, frowning blonde waiting for the both of you on a table, nursing a coke. He felt you looking, so he glanced up at you and offered one of his small shy smiles. You discreetly smiled back and then turned your attention back to Bucky.
"Oh, I see. I'll behave, then. Someone I know?"
"Nosy." You chuckled as he twirled you around for the last time, since the song was coming to the end.
"You're choosing another man over me, of course I wanna know who's the lucky fella." Bucky sighed dramatically once the song ended, draping his arm around your shoulders. "I think you earned that drink, doll."
"Buy me two and I'll tell ya who it is." You said cheekily, allowing friendly close contact as he guided you towards the bar.
"Done."
As promised, Bucky bought you two drinks of your choice for the dance and the gossip and then left you alone to go mingle with the ladies. Steve saw you walking towards the table he was sitting on, lazily swirling your drink in it's glass, grinning and glowing after your dance. He gulped and combed his fingers through his hair again, his eyes following your movements as you sat in front of him.
"Hello, handsome." You greeted with a cheeky grin, sipping on your drink. You had already downed the first one with Bucky before making your way to the table and you were definitely feeling it.
Steve's eyebrows flew up at your comment before breaking eye contact, looking down at his coke bottle with a nervous chuckle.
"Hello… So, you finally gave in to Bucky's charm." He commented, twirling the bottle on his fingers.
"Not at all." You laughed. "Just wanted that free drink." You nudged at his foot with yours under the table so he would stop staring down. Once he did, you wiggled your brows and sipped on the cocktail again. "Want some?" You offered your glass and Steve hesitated for a moment, but he remembered he wasn't sick at the moment, so you should be fine.
He nodded with another smile as he carefully took the glass from your cold hand, his fingers inevitably brushing against yours making the corners of your lips tug up.
Holding his gaze to yours, Steve took a sip and smiled after putting the glass down.
"S'good." Steve nodded with a smile.
"Right?" You exclaimed before picking up the glass to drink, leaving it in front of him again, inviting him to continue drinking.
You ended up sharing your whole drink with Steve as you looked around the dancehall and commented on everything worth commenting and shared stories.
It turned out Steve was snarky and funny and your cheeks ended up hurting from all the smiling and laughing. You were fairly sure the alcohol helped Steve loosen up a bit with you and you couldn't thank Bucky enough for buying you two drinks instead of one.
You looked around at all the people dancing a fast paced song, just like the one you had been dancing before. You even spotted Bucky having fun with a pretty redhead. Then, you looked back at Steve, who was doing the same thing, and regarded him for a moment.
"Hey, would you like to dance?" You asked, resting your head on your hand on the table.
"I…" Steve sighed before continuing. "I don't know. I don't usually dance." He said instead of the truth that he'd never danced with a girl before, lowering his voice and looking down at his fidgeting hands. He had practiced before, forced by Bucky, before he arranged some double date for them. But it never happened.
"What? Why?" You frowned a bit as you asked with genuine curiosity. You weren't dumb. You knew how people thought about someone like Steve and you'd guess he probably wasn't very lucky with the ladies. Just like you didn't interest many fellas due to your height. But still, there must've been someone who had seen in Steve what you saw.
Steve looked at you, opening his mouth as he thought how to respond, but nothing came out of it, making him look away in embarrassment.
"We could wait until they play a slow one to dance. Easier than swing, in my opinion." You shrugged, trying to salvage it. You noticed he didn't want to talk about it. In the end, it didn't really matter. You did want to dance with him.
"Wouldn't want to step on your feet." He side glanced at you with what looked like a sad smile. Hell no.
"Ugh, don't worry about that. I'll definitely step on you too." You rolled your eyes and then chuckled, making him laugh too.
It died down as he thought about it. You seemed genuine in your intentions of dancing with him but he couldn't help but think about what people would think. He was so… scrawny. And you were so tall. Way taller than him. People already gave him weird looks by simply existing and he thought perhaps you experienced that too. But you were absolutely beautiful and he… well.
"Hey. I don't know what's going on inside that head of yours but stop it. Don't overthink it." You said as you put your hand on top of his on the table, with that big perfect smile you had been flashing at him all night. He had to look at you again, then what your hand did. You grazed the pads of your fingers up and down the back of his hand and he felt his heart start beating erratically. "We don't have to dance if you don't want to, just know I'd love to dance with you."
He missed your touch the moment your fingers retreated from his hand. Damn, he was so not ready for this. You were not only a dame who was interested in him, which was already rare, but you were the girl he had been interested in for a long time. And you wanted to dance. With him. A slow one. Suddenly, he had forgotten everything Bucky had taught him. He was afraid he was gonna embarrass you in front of everyone. He was nervous, anxious, overthinking and then. They announced they were gonna play something slow.
You could see Steve freak out inside his head as he had his eyes fixed on the hand you'd touched and decided to give him his time.
Steve finally came out of his thoughts and looked back up at you. He got up clumsily and brushed his hair out of the way before offering you his hand.
"Yeah?" You said, unable to contain the wide smile growing on your face, reaching for his hand and standing up to go to the dancefloor.
"Yeah."
You were giddy and excited and you were sure anyone could hear your heart pounding in your chest as he gently took your hand and put his other one tentatively on your waist. You looked down to Steve, squeezing his hand for reassurance and placing your free hand on his shoulder.
This close, he had to crane his neck to look up at you but he decided he didn't care. Not when you were beaming at him like that as you started to sway to the music, your gaze fixed on him and nothing else.
Steve was so entranced with you he didn't notice and ended up stepping on you. Mortified, he looked down and then back at you with wide eyes, his cheeks rapidly turning a bright red.
You started laughing, shaking your head and not allowing him to pull away after that, the hand you had on his shoulder going to the back of his neck as he apologized profusely.
"Steve, I thought we talked about this. It's fine." You leaned a bit closer to his face to whisper at him, your fingers gently brushing the hair at the nape.
Steve's breath hitched at the feeling, his eyes threatening to close in delight.
"I apologize…"
You giggled and lightly stepped on his foot on purpose, making Steve's eyes go wide again.
"There you go. It's only fair." You said with a wink, making him smile.
You ended up dancing for a couple more songs, Steve confidence building back up as the songs went by. The two of you getting closer until your bodies were flush against each other, which you thought perhaps was somewhat uncomfortable for Steve, having to crane his neck even more so he wouldn't have his face almost on your chest. If you asked Steve, he was sure he died and went to heaven and this wasn't real so it didn't matter if his neck ended up aching or not.
You decided to go back to the table once a faster paced song came up, satisfied with how much you had danced for the night.
After a while, the place started to empty and you saw Bucky coming towards the table with an amused smirk on his face, his hair slightly mussed.
"You're not leaving with that pretty blonde you've been dancing all night?" You asked the brunette as he approached you two, cocking a brow at him.
Bucky smirk grew bigger at your words as he glanced at Steve. He could ask the same thing, apparently. "Your ma will kill me if I don't walk you home. She doesn't know Steve."
"That's true." You sighed, smiling apologetically at the blonde who you had been dancing, flirting and playing footsie with all evening. Your mom trusted Bucky (because he was an absolute gem every time he came home to bring or pick up Becca) and she even mentioned how handsome he was, wanting to know if you fancied him.
Bucky had been keeping an eye on his two friends while he danced and flirted around and he decided to walk a couple of steps in front of you so you and Steve could have some space, walking with an amused smile on his face and his hands on his pockets.
Behind him, Steve seemed to get shy again. You didn't mind walking in silence, having talked for hours, but you knew by now you had to be clear of your intentions with him or he wouldn't dare to make any moves. So, after the back of his hand grazed yours a couple of times, you decided to take his hand, interlocking your fingers with his.
Steve's eyes went straight to look down at your joined hands, then up to your face, where he found you already staring at him with a smile. He huffed and smiled back, brushing his hair out of his face once again before looking away.
Bucky made some small talk along the way, unable to just walk, while trying not to look back. God, he was so obvious. You giggled as you thought about how he had been flirting for you for years and yet, the moment he learned you liked Steve he stopped and made everything in his hand to make it happen.
Once you got home, he made sure to speak loud enough your ma would know he got you home and stepped back a few feet, looking away and turning his back to wait for Steve to do his thing.
"Thanks for tonight, I had a great time." You said, not letting go of Steve's hand just yet, both of you half way up the entrance stairs.
"Me too. I…" He huffed and chuckled, looking down at his feet. "I honestly never had a night like this." Steve confessed.
"We could do it again. Without Bucky." You whispered, tilting his head up with your finger curled under his chin.
Steve gulped and went to brush his fingers through his hair again but you beat him to it, doing it for him as you smiled softly and got down one step so you could be at similar heights, your eyes never leaving his.
"I would love to." Steve smiled just as softly, silent for a moment as his eyes dropped to your lips, then went back to your eyes. Perhaps kissing you would be too forward.
You were now with your back towards Bucky and Steve could see him from his peripheral vision mouth something to him.
"Just kiss her already you punk!" Bucky whispered-shouted, making you start giggling.
"Sorry about him." Steve giggled nervously, glancing back at you.
"He's right, though." You said, trailing the fingers from your free hand down his tie and then going back up.
Steve's giggle died down instantly, his big blue eyes taking you in for a moment. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." You nodded, your hand wrapping around his tie to pull him in, your lips brushing softly against his slightly chapped ones.
It was brief, both of you would've kept kissing but you knew it wasn't appropriate.
You smiled against his lips and gave him another one before pulling away.
Steve's lips followed yours for a second, and you couldn't help but kiss him again, the sight too cute to ignore.
"Okay, you have to go now. Ma will worry if I don't go inside soon." You explained with a smile, letting his tie go and making sure it was in place.
"When can I see you again?" Steve asked, still holding your hand, even though his hold loosened, knowing he would have to let it go soon.
"Friday?"
"Would you mind if it was sooner?" He asked sheepishly, a shy smile on his face.
"Wednesday afternoon. Final offer." You chuckled.
"Wednesday. I-I'll think of something nice for you." He nodded, letting go of your hand to put his hands back on his pockets, dropping to the step you were in.
"Alright. Don't overthink too much, though. I'm a simple gal. I'll like whatever you plan." You said, trailing your finger across his jaw down to his chin in a tender gesture. "I'll go pick up my sister from Bucky's house tomorrow. Be there?"
Steve nodded with a soft smile in response. You then smiled back and leaned down, tilting his head up again to kiss him one last time, your fingers caressing his cheek.
Once you pulled away, you looked at Bucky, who was giving you a thumbs up behind Steve with the biggest grin ever on his face.
You shook your head and rolled your eyes at him, making Steve turn around to see what was going on.
"Jerk." He whispered to himself as he went down the steps to join Bucky.
"Bye James!" You waved at him, waiting for him to wave back.
Steve walked backwards, unable to peel his eyes from you and you waved at him too, throwing him a wink that made him smile again. You mouthed a goodnight at him, getting the same response from the blonde before he finally turned back and walked away with Bucky.
You were all giddy and excited and you had to shake it off, pulling your key out to get inside and taking a deep breath before stepping in.
"Hello, ma! Yeah, that was Bucky…"