Adagio

Steve Rogers was bold. He had never been scared of confrontation. At least, not until it came to junior year homecoming. He’d done everything except confrontation then. When they were in the car, however, Steve decided to confront Bucky. Well, maybe confrontation wasn’t the best word. He’d kissed him. Bucky had wanted to kiss him both then and before the car broke down in the first place. But when it actually happened, something changed.

As soon as Steve dropped Bucky off at his apartment, he went to bed. He wanted to call Nat, but he was tired and didn’t want to disturb her. He could easily just go see her in the morning. Or during rehearsal. Honestly, it wasn’t uncommon for Bucky and Natasha to talk during rehearsal. They’d do it as long as the company owner, Tony, wasn’t there. They didn’t want to risk their careers that much. 

Bucky woke up late in the morning, so he didn’t shower or eat breakfast. He took his pajamas off, sprayed on some deodorant and cologne, and changed into rehearsal clothes. On the drive over, he realized how hungry he was. There wasn’t enough time for a real breakfast, but he could hit Smoothie King. He bought his giant smoothie and rushed over to the company.

Five minutes into warming up at the barre in his dressing room, Steve came in to talk to him. It wasn’t a big deal, though, Bucky got him out of there quickly. He didn’t want to be interrupted in his warm up, and he just didn’t feel like seeing Steve in general. Not after the past night. 

Steve had specifically asked him, “Did I do anything wrong?”

It was a loaded question that made Bucky feel guilty. Bucky would’ve initiated the kiss if Steve wouldn’t have. So it wasn’t like Steve had specifically done anything wrong. Bucky felt guilty for making Steve feel bad. That wasn’t his intention at all. The kiss had just stirred up new feelings in him that he had wished to suppress. 

The pas de trio was where Nat and Bucky found time to talk. Nat wasn’t on stage at all and Bucky was just sitting on the edge of the stage, acting. Considering neither of them were important to the scene, no one cared that Nat came onto the stage and whispered to Bucky the entire time. 

“Hey,” Nat said, sitting next to Bucky on the stage.

“I’m so glad you’re here, I have so much to tell you,” Bucky enthused.

Nat rolled her eyes. “Oh, of course you do.”

“Well Steve and I went back home last night so it’s actually important,” Bucky said. “It isn’t just my normal talk, things went down.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“He kissed me when our car broke down,” Bucky stated.

“Okay, there’s a lot to unpack from that statement,” Nat said. 

“Well it was a really weird time. To be honest, I was prepared to kiss him when we were in the car before it broke down. But then it did break down and he was the one to kiss me.”

“So… that’s a good thing, right?”

“I thought it was going to be good but it just… wasn’t.”

“So he’s a bad kisser?”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then what would you say?”

Before Bucky could say anything more, the pas de trios ended. This wasn’t a rehearsal where they went through the full show, so their next scene was the Allegro moderato, Moderato, Allegro vivo. It was where Prince Segfried saw Odette. Luckily, they did dance together in the scene. Bucky would be able to tell Nat the rest of what happened, but he’d have to be pretty discrete. 

“So, the engine died but Steve’s dad jumped it and we made it home fine,” Bucky explained. “But we were in the car for a loooooong time before he even got there. And I was really cold so he put a blanket around me.”

“He did that for you? That’s scandalous,” Nat stated.

“It honestly created a lot of sexual tension,” Bucky expressed.

“So then h-” Nat started, suddenly cutting off. 

There was no reason for them to stop talking, it was quiet and it didn’t affect their dancing. It wasn’t a big deal: most people talked during rehearsal.

Shit.

Tony Stark was standing at the back of the theater.

Tony Stark owned the company. All the big decisions came down to him. If he was friends with you, you’d have a much easier time rising to the top. Bucky had no idea how long he’d been there. If he’d been watching the entire time, that would be bad. He’d know they were talking, and this was Bucky’s first big role. He couldn’t risk that. Natasha, on the other hand, was fine. Just like everyone else, Tony loved her. He was a big part of the reason she rose to the top instead of Elektra.

Nat and Bucky finished up their dance and walked off into the wings. Backstage, everyone was buzzing. Most people had only seen Tony in the audience of shows or at their after parties. He never just showed up to watch rehearsal.

“How long has he been out there?” Bucky asked.

“I dunno, I stopped talking as soon as I saw him,” Nat answered. “But he could’ve been out there longer, I didn’t see him walk in or anything.”

“I haven’t seen him since The Nutcracker, honestly,” Bucky said.

“He’s probably been too busy getting drunk off company money,” Elektra said, walking up behind the pair.

“Just because he doesn’t want to fuck you doesn’t mean he’s a terrible person, Elektra,” Bucky said, rolling his eyes at her.

Elektra had never had a good relationship with Tony. She’d tried to suck up to him when she first arrived, but he’d seen through all her bullshit. Ever since then, she’d had a burning hatred towards him. Overall, everyone always rejected her and she hated them for it. 

“Oh please, I’d never go for him,” Elektra said. “He’s really not my type. He’s too old.”

“On a serious note, any clue why he’s here?” Nat questioned. 

“Probably to replace you two with your understudies. Everyone’s noticed how off your game you’ve been recently, especially Bucky,” Elektra answered.

Bucky could feel his face flush red. It was true, he’d been doing poorly recently. He was so distracted with the Steve drama that he just couldn’t focus on his dancing. But he was doing a good job, regardless. Bucky assumed that Elektra was just giving him shit, but it could honestly be accurate. Well, accurate for him. Not Natasha, of course. She was flawless and Tony loved her. 

“He’s seen Bucky dance before, he knows what he’s like,” Nat said. “He wouldn’t replace him.”

“Don’t be too sure about that,” a male voice said from behind them. All three of them turned around to see who it was. Of course, it was none other than Tony Stark.

“I still don’t get it,” Bucky ranted, pacing around Nat’s room. “In all the year’s I’ve been here, he’s never done this. It can’t just be some random thing. It’s unfair, I don’t understand why this is happening.”

“Calm down, Buck,” Nat reasoned.

Bucky shook his head. “I can’t calm down. I can’t lose this job. I love it here, I love the people here. I think Elektra was right: I bet Tony is going to replace me. I’ve been way too distracted with all the Steve stuff. Maybe I should just cut Steve out of my life. He’s always caused a lot of drama. Maybe he’s my issue. Maybe leaving would be best. If Tony fires me I can escape from all the Steve stuff.”

Natasha sighed. “Bucky, you really need to calm down. Don’t cut Steve out, you love him and you know it. Besides, if Tony were here to fire you, he would’ve done it already. The performances start in a week, he’d want to give your understudy as much time as possible to prepare. I’m sure he’s just curious to see how smooth things are running and if he needs to do any additional work on his end. I’m sure he’s just scoping out to see if there’s a new girl he can date. I heard he and his long-distance girlfriend finally broke up.”

“Good, they never worked well together, anyways,” Bucky stated.

“Now, you never told me what all happened with Steve in the car,” Nat said. “Tony cut us off.”

Bucky sat down on her floor and started rolling out his legs. He’d been too distracted by Tony to do any of his after-rehearsal routine. 

“I mean, I did tell you everything. He kissed me and it was good. Then we listened to some music and his dad showed up and fixed the car. And then he drove home and I slept,” Bucky said.

Nat started changing into her street clothes. “So I don’t understand why you’re all freaked out, then. You also wanted to kiss him and it was good. It honestly sounds like an ideal situation.”

“But it just didn’t feel right,” Bucky explained. “I mean, it felt good in the moment. But right after we were done kissing, I felt like shit.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“It just reminded me of how things used to be, you know? Like, it reminded me of when we were kids and we used to drive his parents’ car out to far away forests so we could make out without anyone seeing us. Back when we were hiding our relationship.”

“I thought you liked those days.”

“I liked them, but they're painful now. Now I know how that story ends.”

“But that story hasn’t ended: it’s really just beginning. You and Steve have the opportunity to rekindle your romance. You don’t know how that’s going to end. You’re not even giving it a chance. Imagine if I just would’ve ignored Matt that night that we met because I’d assumed he wouldn’t want to make our relationship serious. Then I’d probably be single and unhappy right now. I would’ve missed out on the love of my life. I don’t want to watch you make that mistake.”

“It’s a little much to say that he’s the love of my life.”

“Hey, you never know until you try.”

Maybe Nat was right, maybe he should give the relationship a shot. Well, that was if Steve even wanted a real relationship. There was a slim chance it would end with another lost arm, just a broken heart at the least.

“Hey, I saw that you weren’t in your room so I came in here,” Steve said, walking into Natasha’s dressing room. 

“What do you want?” Bucky asked. Nat glared at him and he blushed. “Sorry, what’s up?”

“Maybe we could, like, do something tonight?” Steve proposed.

“I mean, obviously I’m not in the best of moods right now,” Bucky said.

Steve blushed. “Oh, okay. That’s fine, too.”

“I mean, what is it that you want to do?” Bucky asked.

“We could just chill at my place, order some food,” Steve suggested. “Or we could start moving your stuff in.”

“Let’s go to your place, I can handle that,” Bucky said.

“Awesome. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes?”

“I need to go shower and get changed first, so make it an hour.

“You could do that at my place.”

Both Steve and Bucky turned bright red. That was a rather bold statement from Steve. Although, Bucky did find it sweet that he offered. But it was way too intimate of a thing for their stage of relationship.

Steve apologized, “I shouldn’t have said that, I’m sorry. Obviously you don’t have to come shower at my house. I only meant that you can come directly to my place. But it’s fine that you go back to yours, I can just chill for a little. It probably needs to be cleaned up, anyways.”

“Well, I guess I’ll see you there.”

“Guess so.”

Bucky prepared to go over to Steve’s house in the same way he would a date. He had a very thorough shower, using all of his best smelling products. And he put on his best underwear, best jeans, best shirt, best socks, and best shoes. He wanted to show Steve just how good he was. He’d decided to follow Nat’s advice and give the relationship the best chance he could. And that started by seducing Steve.

When Bucky walked into Steve’s house, he was shocked by how large it was. It’d looked smaller from the outside. The fact that Steve and Sam could afford a place so nice was a little mind blowing. Honestly, Bucky was jealous. Sam’s car wasn’t in the driveway or garage, so Bucky assumed it would be just him and Steve all night. That was the ideal situation. 

“Hey, sorry if it’s still a little messy in here,” Steve said, walking in from the kitchen.

“You’ve seen my apartment before, so you don’t need to apologize,” Bucky said.

“There’s nothing in it, how could it be messy,” Steve teased. 

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Hey, you know how messy it’s about to be. Did you notice that Tony was out there during rehearsal today?”

“Yeah, rumor is he’s scouting out talent for The Nutcracker,” Steve said.

“Already? It’s the same show every year and we have the same group of people,” Buck complained.

“He likes to pretend like he’s going to switch up the casting just to get people excited, but then he just does it the same as always,” Steve explained.

Bucky sat down on Steve’s couch. It was one of the most uncomfortable things he’d ever sat on, but it did look nice. Maybe that was how Sam and Steve could get such a nice house, it just looked nice but was actually shitty.

“I do love Tony, though. He’s cool,” Steve said.

“I’ve barely ever talked to him,” Bucky admitted.

“His office is close to our set of practice rooms, so he and I have a lot of those uncomfortable small talk conversations,” Steve said, sitting next to Bucky.

Not only did he sit next to him, he sat close to him. Like, there was barely an inch of space in between their knees. Bucky could feel his heart rate start to pick up. God, being in close proximity to Steve always made him so nervous. 

“I guess I only ever really talk to you and Nat at work,” Bucky said.

“Yeah? That’s cute,” Steve commented.

Cute. Maybe this was gonna work. Steve obviously had feelings for him, Bucky didn’t know how he didn’t realize it sooner. He’d never wanted to become friends again, he’d just wanted to date again. And honestly, Bucky had felt the same way.

This time, Bucky was the one initiating the kiss.