Chapter 3
"What the..." Bucky says breathlessly, the words barely escaping his mouth.
"It's not what it looks like," The man in front of him says carefully.
"Steve there's blood all over your hands!" Bucky yells.
"What...?" Steve looks at him weird. "It's not...This isn't blood."
"You said 'it's not what it looks like' well that looks like blood on your hands!"
"It's paint Bucky...Jesus. And I meant it's not what it looks like as in me stalking you. Not coming here hands bloody."
"Oh..." Bucky looks away from Steve, then down towards the ground.
"Yeah," Steve clears his throat. "There umm...any way you can let me in so I can wash this off? Then I'll be out of your hair."
"Right. Yeah of course," Bucky moves out of the way, letting Steve walk past him.
Steve heads to the kitchen and Bucky panics for a second. There's knives in there. He thinks "Think you can do that in the bathroom?" Bucky asks.
"Kitchen sink is bigger I just figured..." Steve says eyeing Bucky.
Bucky opens and closes his mouth trying to form words, an excuse. "Yeah. It's just that umm..." He stops. " It's just that I just bleached it and I didn't clean the bathroom yet so messing that up wouldn't really be a big deal."
Steve squints at Buckys excuse but then nods and heads to the direction of the bathroom. "I thought I was the clean freak," he laughs.
Bucky follows Steve to the bathroom, grabbing a hand towel from the linen closet on the way.
"Alpine got out," Steve says when Bucky appears in the doorway. Bucky's cat. The new landlord for his property decided to enact an annual and monthly Pet Fee that Bucky couldn't afford so instead of getting rid of Alpine, which Bucky didn't have the heart to do, they decided she can live with Steve. Steve lived in his mother's old place so he didn't have to answer for anyone or their shitty pet fees. Bucky was there often enough anyways.
"She did?" Bucky asks.
"Yeah. I was chasing after her. I realized she was heading here so I tried to do a short cut. Didn't realize you neighbor decided to paint their fence a nice dark red." Steve looks at his hands. "Hence."
Bucky nods, now a bit embarrassed.
Steve uses his elbows to turn on the sink faucet. "Also not sure why they decided to paint so late instead of doing it in the daytime and letting the sun dry it but..." Steve shrugs as he lets the water run on his hands, the water turning a light red as it goes down the drain. He struggles with the soap dispenser and Bucky moves to help him.
Steve gives him a bashful smile in thanks. "Anyways she got in the garage so she's safe. Guess she missed home."
Bucky smiles and scratches the back of his head. "Guess so," Yeah he was definitely feeling guilty now.
"Suppose it's a good thing you never got the door fixed," Steve says lightly. A few months ago Bucky found out that the door to the garage no longer wanted to go all the way down leaving a 6 inch gap from the ground, well enough room from someone of Alpine's stature to fit through.
Bucky lets out a small chuckle. "Yeah. Me being a cheap ass has it's benefits."
"You're not a cheap ass," Steve says, assuring. Steve knew Bucky's financial struggles were hard especially lately. Not so much 'can't eat out ever once in a while' hard but more like 'can't throw down $400 to repair something that was barely broken' and 'paying a $600 annual pet fee with an additional $50 every month' hard.
"Yeah..." Bucky looks down, thinking about the day he had to officially give up Alpine, no longer being able to fight it.
Steve breathes in and silently motions for the towel in Bucky's hand, breaking Bucky out of his memory.
"Right," Bucky shakes his thoughts. "Sorry." He hands Steve the towel and watches him dry his hands with it.
Steve puts the towel on the counter when he's finished. "Want me to leave her here for the night? Or I could take her?"
"She can stay. I mean she came all this way," Bucky laughs.
Steve smiles and nods "Okay. I'll get her tomorrow."
There's a long pause.
"Guess I should head out..." Steve says as he gives a shy smile and moves past Bucky.
"Yeah..." Bucky moves out of the way and watches Steve head towards the front door, hands clean now.
"Or!" Bucky says louder as Steve's hand touches the door knob. He looks to Bucky who is biting the inside of his cheek. "I uhh technically haven't eaten yet. I was going to order something..."
"Are you inviting me to stay?" Steve asks with a hint of playfulness. "You sure you don't think I'll poison it?"
"I said I was going to order it," Bucky jokes and Steve tries to hide a laugh.
"Fair enough. So what're you ordering?"
"I'm not sure," Bucky says as he moves over to his kitchen counter in the area where he keeps all of his menus. Despite numerous website and apps that hold menus at your fingertips Bucky prefers the old school way.
Steve knows it will take Bucky forever to decided as he could always go for anything and was shit at choosing. Steve names the local Tex-Mex as a suggestion as Bucky rifles through the stack of menus. "Been craving a Quesadilla all week." Steve says. It's a white lie but it shortens the deciding factor and gives suggestion to the food choice as well.
"Quesadillas sound good," Bucky agrees and it's settled.
They order delivery, Bucky still hesitant on going out past dark.
When food arrives they eat mostly in silence as they devour their food the only words escaping the others mouth is offering a taste of their food to the other. Food is finished and Bucky dabs his face with his napkin.
"Missed a spot," Steve comments as he instinctually lifts his hand up to wipe away at the spot with his thumb. When he realized what he did he stops.
"Sorry," he says as his hand lingers in the air between himself and Bucky's face. Bucky smiles and grabs Steve's wrist and pulls him closer. Steve nearly falls on Bucky before he catches himself as Bucky wraps Steve's arm around him. He pulls Steve closer to him by putting his other hand on the back of Steve's head. Their lips touch and Steve smiles in the kiss.
"This mean I'm forgiven?" He asks, humorously, eyes still closed.
"Just shut up and kiss me."
After their liplocked reunion is finished Bucky cleans up despite Steve's protest to which Bucky jokes it's just throwing out the containers and wiping down where they ate. Of course Steve knows where everything is anyways so while Bucky is picking up their trash he goes over and gets the disinfectant.
It makes Bucky smile.
"Missed a spot," Bucky mocks as he points to a small red hot sauce droplet on the table.
"See I couldn't possibly be a killer" Steve says as he sprays more disinfectant on the table. "I can't even clean the scene properly."
Bucky overexaggerates a thinking face. "Not sure...Jury might still be out on that one."
"You're right this is just me trying to convince you I can't clean. Throw you off my scent."
"Mhmm exactly." Bucky laughs.
"I am sorry though," Steve says as he puts the disinfectant back in the cabinet under the sink. This time he's serious. "I really do mean it."
Bucky gives a small smile and nods. "Yeah I'm sorry too."
"For?"
"For you know thinking you were a murderer and all..."
"With no evidence..." Steve says and bites is lip to keep from laughing.
"Shut up," Bucky says softly lowering his face as it cracks into an embarrassed smile. "I had plenty of my own reasoning," Bucky defends himself.
"Sure, sure," Steve laughs as he gets closer to Bucky again. "Well this killer should get going." Steve grins.
Bucky playfully pushes him away. "Asshole."
Steve waves as he makes his way to the front door. "See you tomorrow." He says as he leaves into the night. Bucky laughs and shakes his head. He goes over to the front door to lock it before he gets Alpine from the garage.
Then he remembers... Yes maybe Steve wasn't the killer ultimately but there was still someone out there who was.
"Wait!," Bucky says to himself, door still shut. He opens the front door swiftly. "Steve!" He yells out. "Steve!!"
But there was nothing.
No one.
Just the sound of the breeze blowing through the trees.
Steve was gone almost as if he disappeared into thin air.