Adagio

Bucky Barnes was probably the most stunning person Steve had ever met. Well, Nat and Matt had to be up there as well. But regardless, Bucky was absolutely stunning. Steve loved his smile, especially the shy way he looked down when he smiled. And his gorgeous eyes that twinkled when he laughed. Obviously his body was perfectly toned, the years of ballet training made that clear. And, honestly, Steve was beginning to find the metal arm a very attractive feature. His attractiveness was heightened by the fact that he actually reciprocated Steve’s feelings.

“So, what changed from this morning to now?” Steve asked, pulling away from Bucky’s kiss.

Bucky’s face flushed red. “I feel like you probably don’t want to get into that.”

“Oh, but I do,” Steve encouraged.

“It’s just the normal annoying Bucky shit,” Bucky stated.

“That’s not really a thing. You’re never annoying,” Steve said.

“Well you’ll be annoyed by this.”

“Try me.”

“I guess the kiss just brought up some old emotions. Like, the last time we kissed wasn’t necessarily pleasant. But I know that you’re not like that now and stuff, so it’s all fine.”

Steve was embarrassed of what he had done in high school. Or, rather, what he hadn’t done. It had had such a lasting effect on Bucky, and particularly on their relationship. If he could go back in time, he would do anything and everything possible to prevent Bucky from losing his arm. Even if it was now one of his most attractive features. 

“Well, I’m really glad that it’s all good now. I enjoy being around you, I don’t want to go through another period where we don’t see each other.”

“Yeah, neither do I.”

Steve was so happy to have Bucky back at his house, just hanging out with him. And that they were getting into romantic territory again. Even though they’d been reconnected for a short period of time, Steve knew that he loved Bucky. He always had. It was a hard feeling for him to shake. Now he just had to find out if Bucky felt the same way. 

“Buck, can I call you my boyfriend now? Like, am I allowed to tell people that we’re dating?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, sure, I’d like that,” Bucky responded.

“Hey, you seem really distracted again. Is everything okay? Do you think we’re moving too fast? I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to,” Steve cautioned.

“I’m honestly really worried by all this Tony stuff,” Bucky said, bouncing his leg. “He basically said that he was looking at replacing me. I can’t have that happen, I love it here. I can’t imagine dancing for another company.”

“I don’t think he’s actually going to fire you, Buck. He’s just trying to put pressure on you so you’ll dance better. He does it to other people, too. You know you’ve been off your game at a few recent rehearsals,” Steve stated.

Bucky stared at him. “Are you kidding me? There were two rehearsals where I was in my head. Two. Out of how many a week? You really think that I should be fired for that?”

“Hey, you’re putting words in my mouth. I’m not saying you should be fired, I’m just saying why he’s doing that,” Steve explained.

“I think it's unfair. Nat has off days and he would never dare say anything to her,” Bucky said.

“Well they have a weird relationship. Maybe you should try talking to him and stuff. It might help your standing with the company to be friends with him,” Steve suggested.

“I just don’t even want to think about work anymore,” Bucky said.

“Maybe we should watch a movie,” Steve said.

“I’d rather talk. I wanna hear more about your life during the period we didn’t talk,” Bucky said.

Steve hesitated. That was a dark time period in his life. He’d felt so incredibly guilty for what had happened to Bucky. It was hard to go through life without his best friend. Not to mention the fact that during that period, Bucky seemed to thrive. All Steve really did was play trumpet and get kicked out of the military. 

“I mean, it was a really low period of my life,” Steve explained. “I had no friends other than Sam, I never really dated anyone: I literally just practiced my trumpet that entire time.”

“What about senior year of high school?” Bucky asked.

“You were there for that,” Steve stated.

“But I wasn’t friends with you,” Bucky responded.

Steve answered, “I mean, I really just hung out with my friends. We went to a lot of parties that year, too. It was the first time I’d ever really started drinking. I’m pretty sure I had a few girlfriends, but I don’t remember that part too much. And then I did all the college stuff, but I didn’t get into the good performing arts schools I wanted to. That’s really why I went into the army. I mean, I knew I’d kinda like it, but it felt like my only opportunity to continue my music without going to a school that wasn’t top tier.”

“And then you got your job here?”

“Yeah. And then I was just living here with Sam, going to work, and pretty much nothing else. And now we’re here.”

“Now we’re here,” Bucky repeated.

Steve was very glad that this was where he was at now. It was really hard for him, living without Bucky. During the time they weren’t together, he’d constantly found himself wanting to go talk to Bucky and get advice from him. He was sure that his life would’ve been very different if he would’ve stayed friends with Bucky. He probably would’ve gone to college, or gone straight to the company. And, likely, he and Bucky would be married by now.

“It’s weird, I feel like our period apart was the best part of your life and the worst of mine,” Steve said.

“I mean, I discovered the person I really am. I needed some time to myself to really do that,” Bucky stated.

Steve responded, “So did I. But I didn’t really like that person.”

With Swan Lake performances starting in a week, everyone was extremely busy. Well, everyone but Steve. He already had his music down, he didn’t need to put in any extra practice. Besides, his role was a lot less nerve wracking. Both Bucky and Nat were both spending their entire days at practice, so Matt and Steve decided to spend some time together. They were both bored of being bored.

“Hey,” Steve said, walking into Matt and Nat’s apartment.

“Hey, I’m in the kitchen,” Matt greeted.

Steve navigated his way through the apartment and into the kitchen, sitting at one of the three bar spots.

“So, how chaotic is it for you now that it’s performance week?” Steve requested.

“Well, less bad than the first performance week,” Matt answered. “Honestly, she’s always so busy, so I don’t even see her that often. But I can tell how nervous she is. I’m excited to go see it.”

“I’m excited for you to come. It’s pretty much the quintessential ballet. I think it’s probably the first one I ever listened to the entire way through,” Steve said.

“What was the first one you saw?” Matt asked.

Steve blushed a little. “I’ve never seen a ballet.”

“What, what? You work for the ballet company and you’ve never even seen a ballet?” Matt questioned.

“I mean, I went to go see the stuff that Bucky was in when we were kids, but they weren’t really real ballets. And then when we got older, I went to this one with my friends but they went to make fun of him so we ended up leaving part way through. And then we were hiding our relationship, so I could never go see local things that he was doing,” Steve said.

Matt handed him a Pepsi and sat at the stool next to his. “It’s sad that you’ll never really get to see him perform.”

“Well, I get to see him practice when they practice without us. But yeah, I’ll probably never see him do a full, actual performance,” Steve said.

Steve was happy to be hanging out with Matt again. He’d been so focused on winning Bucky back that the only friend he’d really spent any time with was Sam. And if they didn’t live together, even that wouldn’t be true. Hanging out with Matt was nice because they didn’t work together, but he still had a lot of insight into his profession.

“Is it weird working with the person that you’re in a relationship with?” Matt asked.

Steve opened his Pepsi and took a sip before responding. “Well, I don’t really know. I mean, dating him is all I know. I’ve never really been with anyone else. And we don’t do the same thing there, so we’re not really working with each other ever. I only get to see him before and after rehearsals.”

“So you guys probably see each other the same amount that Nat and I see each other.”

“Yeah, probably.”

Matt and Natasha were pretty much the blueprint relationship for Steve and Bucky. They had their own separate lives and still made time for each other. Of course, they were super sweet to each other and we're just overall a cute couple.

“Hey, you know Tony, right?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, I've known him for quite a while,” Matt confirmed. “Why? Is he giving you shit?”

“Nah, he's kinda giving Bucky shit. He's basically insinuating that this will be his only time having a big role and it's really messing with Bucky,” Steve explained. 

“I mean, is he doing bad? Because knowing Tony, it isn’t always a joke,” Matt stated.

“He’s had a few rough rehearsals. But overall he’s doing good, it isn’t like he’s terrible or anything,” Steve said.

“Well, Tony’s weird so I guess it’s all a guessing game now,” Matt said.

Steve stayed at Matt’s until Nat came back from rehearsal: he’d figured they’d want some alone time. They’d mainly just talked about the show next week, but also general relationship stuff. To Steve, it seemed like Matt was very good at being a boyfriend. Now that he was back in a relationship, he wanted to be the same way. It was a little different, as Bucky and Natasha were opposites in a lot of ways, but Steve felt like he got some valuable insight from Matt.

Steve went into rehearsal the next day more nervous than usual. It was their first of three dress rehearsals, so everything had to be perfect. Not wanting to do anything wrong on the first full rehearsal day, Steve got to work early to grab a practice room and really make sure all his music was perfected. 

After talking to Molly for ten minutes about the best Starburst color, Steve made his way to the practice rooms. There were four practice rooms at the company, and they were on the complete opposite side of the stage and ballet studios. They always had to factor in the travel time if they wanted to practice before a rehearsal. As he started down the hallway, he heard someone call his name. It was Tony.

Steve backtracked to Tony’s office and stood in his doorway.

“What’s up?” He asked, leaning against his door frame.

“We need to talk. Take a seat,” Tony said.

Steve walked in and sat at one of the two chairs across from Tony’s desk. His office was an interesting place. It was honestly pretty bland, as he didn’t spend too much time in there. Steve wasn’t exactly sure what Tony did, but he knew he didn’t do much of it in his office. What was in his office, however, was very interesting. There was some abstract art that looked more expensive than Steve’s house. He was sure Tony didn’t pick it out himself. There were also lots of pictures on the walls of different ballerinas from throughout the years with Tony. To Steve, it seemed to be somewhat of a memorial wall to all the girls Tony had had sex with. He was kinda like that.

“We need to have a talk about Bucky,” Tony began.

Shit. Steve had absolutely no idea where this was going.

“Listen, I don’t really feel like it’s inappropriate that we’re together. I mean, you’ve dated company girls before,” Steve defended. “Besides, Bucky and I never even see each other at work, so it really doesn’t affect anything.”

Tony smirked at him, obviously very amused by everything he had just said. “This is not about that. Quite frankly, I don’t really care about your relationship with Bucky.”

Steve blushed. Now he really had no idea what this was about. “Oh. Sorry about that.”

“Now, let’s get down to what this is really about,” Tony started. “I don’t know what to do about Bucky. I’ve been getting a lot of reports that he isn’t performing the way he should be. I personally cast him in this role because I knew that he and Tasha would have great chemistry. And I thought the role would help him grow, which it has. The issue here is, I don’t feel like it’s made him grow the amount he should have.”

Steve was confused as to why he was the one hearing this and not Bucky. There was nothing Steve could do to improve Bucky’s performance. Maybe Tony was trying to manipulate him in some way. 

“Other than my relationship with him, what does this have to do with me?” Steve asked. 

“I’m at a little bit of a loss as to how to handle this. I figure you can help, you know him better than I do,” Tony said.

“Well, how can I help?” Steve questioned.

“I need you to help me figure out how to get him to not perform in this show.”