Chapter 5
The morning they wake up, twisted in each other like the day before never happened.
Steve is the first to make the decision to get up, his stretching causes Bucky to stir.
"Mornin'" Steve says, voice still groggy.
He hears Bucky sigh softly and mumble what might've been a mornin' back.
Steve leans over to Bucky to give him a kiss when he hears a loud screech coming from inside the covers. Steve jumps away surprised until his brain catches up. He peaks under the cover and laughs.
"I don't remember this cat being so clingy when she lived here," Steve says.
Bucky lets out a small, tired, laugh. "She's mad you're talking all her time with me away."
"Hey Alpine," Steve says opening the covers again and yelling into them. "I love him too. We need to work out a plan to share."
Steve gets a small growl back.
"Taking her home tonight is going to be a treat," Steve laughs as he gets off the bed.
Bucky grunts in agreement. "Make sure she doesn't run away again. Can't afford to have Pierce come by."
"Ah," Steve says. "How's Mr. Moneybags anyways?"
Bucky groans again this time in annoyance. "He loves those surprise visits. Always asks for something to drink like it's a restaurant or something."
"What would you like today, sir?" Steve imitates. "We have water...or milk."
Bucky lets out a chuckle. "Not even regular milk! Oat milk."
Steve laughs. "Oooo fancy."
Bucky laughs too, then sighs. "Nah but he's okay. I mean could be worse."
Steve nods. "Not making up random charges so he can get an extra 100 out of you?"
"Not yet at least," Bucky shrugs.
Again the solution to Bucky's problems looms in the air.
After getting up and drinking the coffee Bucky's machine screeches out, Steve is tempted to use the excuse that he has to get going for work to break the awkwardness that still (somewhat) circles them but he's actually off today and he's memorized Bucky's schedule enough to know he is as well. He hopes to break the awkwardness fully soon. It's hard when your boyfriend/childhood friend thinks you might be a murderer but then again maybe Bucky had his reasons.
"I uh should get Alpine home," Steve finally thinks. "In case you-know-who comes..."
"Oh right," Bucky gives a small awkward laugh, "Right".
"We could meet up later?" Steve offers. "Maybe for lunch?"
Bucky smiles. "Sure yeah!" He nods. "That sounds good."
"Good." Steve smiles then says fuck it and gives Bucky a peck on the cheek. "See you around 12:30?"
Bucky blushes a little. "Yeah," He clears this throat. "Yeah." He smiles watching Steve try to gather up Alpine.
"Here I got it," Bucky laughs as he goes to grab his fury princess. Then he remembered. "Oh wait you're car's at home."
Steve remembers too. Shit.
"I um... I can drive?" Bucky says.
"Nah I'll just call an Uber or something."
"Steve," Bucky says with a hint of stern to it. "I can drive." He shakes his head and grins as he grabs his keys.
Steve starts trying to think of excuses to use for Bucky to not stay when he ultimately drops him off at his house he was going to sit around and do nothing at. Again, it's not that he didn't want it, but having 24/7 closeness when not even a full day ago one thought the other was a murderer was probably not best. But upon walking outside he saw that he didn't really need one.
Bucky's front tire was flat.
"What the hell?" Bucky says quietly as he makes his way to his vehicle.
"Maybe you ran over a nail," Steve offers a reasoning.
"I didn't drive it all day..." Bucky shoots it down as he comes to the tire. He feels what's left of it to see if it was a nail but his finger goes deeper the mark not caused by a loose nail on the road but instead pierced with a shop object and dragged. Bucky's tire was slashed straight down.
"Who would do this?" Bucky asks to no one in particular.
"Maybe someone got confused?" Steve says. "Someone pissed them off and they got the wrong house?"
"No..." Bucky says circling his car.
"Or some dumbass teenagers thinking it would be funny..."
"Or someone who didn't want me to leave," Bucky looks up at Steve and Steve has a hard time reading his face. It wasn't an accusation per say but not exactly a scared 'help me get out of this Steve' look either. Steve is about to call a cab and offer Bucky to come with when Bucky talks instead. "Guess you should call yourself a cab and I'll see about getting this..." he flicks what was left of his once inflated tire. "...fixed."
"I could stay..." Steve offers.
"Nah I'd rather do this myself," Bucky says.
And just in case he needed to say it.... "Bucky I didn't do this," Steve says.
"I know," Bucky says getting out his phone. "But someone did."
The 'I know', while confidently let Steve know that Bucky didn't think he physically did it, he now wasn't so sure if Bucky thought Steve was in on who did. He debates clarifying that and saying "and I don't know who..." But instead he asks. "You still want me to come get you for a late lunch...or dinner?"
Then Bucky smiles to him and he's got his answer. "Sure." His eyes jump up when someone picks up on the number he called. "I'll see you later," he whispers before putting on his customer voice.
Steve calls a cab, their town to small for anyone to actually drive for Uber, and within 15 minutes they're pulling up. Steve waves a bye to Bucky who's still on the phone and grabs Alpine from back inside, much to the cat's dismay.
She's good in the car though, not alerting the driver of her presence too much. The man definitely noticed but since she wasn't squirming or making noise he let it go. They get home and Steve hands the driver an extra tip for not kicking them out.
Him and Alpine settle back in, rather Alpine darts away from Steve as soon as he puts her down on the ground, off to hunt some of her stuffed mice for sure. A few hours later Steve gets a call from Bucky. Apparently the extreme deflation of his tire damaged his rims and not only that but the tires that were on his car were currently out of stock so he'd either have to replace all of them or wait for the supply. Not being able to afford replacing all of them, along with aligning them, Bucky decided on the latter. So he'll be car-less for a few days.
It was looking more like late afternoon now so lunch was off the table but Steve is willing to bet Bucky hasn't eaten since breakfast so he offers early dinner instead. "I'll pay," he adds almost hearing the calculations in Buckys head on if he'd be able to afford to eat out after technically doing so the day before.
He hears Bucky breathe out in relief, "Alright."
"Pick you up around 4?" Steve asks.
"Uhh," Bucky hesitates. "Can you make it 3:30?" He asks, almost shyly.
"Of course."
"I'm just-"
"Hungry?" Steve finishes for him.
Bucky laughs. "Yeah."
"I can leave now. Just gotta get some food out for Alpine and finish the dishes."
"You sure?"
"Yeah! Of course.. I'd rather do something else than the dishes..." Steve jokes.
Bucky laughs. "Lets eat first."
They hang up and Steve makes it to Bucky's house by 3. Steve decided to take Bucky to his favorite place...maybe to still make up for the day before.
Steve lets Bucky rant about the car dealership as he drives. 10 minutes in he gets a text message from a number who's name he took off. Dumb idea considering he's shit at remembering peoples numbers but it was part of the original plan.
Still going with the plan? The message reads.
Steve, still listening to Bucky going on about his day, texts back at a red light. No. Change of plans. Taking Bucky to the Green Garden. Steve puts his phone back down on the center console. He hears it vibrate a message back but the light turns green again before he could check.
By the time he hits another light it's the one right before the road where the restaurant was. It'd be another 10 minutes to get there. The restaurant was on the outskirts of their town, in the middle of a large field of farmland. Would normally be sort of creepy but everyone from town went there and everyone in town knew everyone...more more less.
Steve checks the text back from the number.
Oh. Thanks for keeping me updated. Heading over to set up now.
Wait...shit! Steve thinks. Okay his text didn't translate the way he wanted it to. He tries to hurriedly text back to end what was about to happen but Bucky is alerting him of the green light and the cars behind him are honking.
10 minutes later exactly he pulls up on the restaurant. He tells Bucky to go in to check to see if there were tables available. He watches Bucky go inside before he text the number back.
Abort mission! Abort mission! Not sent. Fuck!
Plan cancelled. Not sent. Shit, Shit, shit... the fucking signal...or lack there of...over here.
I made a mistake Not sent
Stop Not sent
Go home. Not sent.
We're not playing this game anymore. Not sent
Dont do it Not sent.
Not sent.
Not sent.
Not sent.