Adagio

Bucky Barnes was recovering quickly. After all, it took him years to talk to Steve again after an incident that wasn’t his fault in the first place. This, again, was an incident that wasn’t Steve’s fault. This time Bucky realized that and decided not to hold a grudge against him. A part of Steve still felt bad, though. Telling Bucky what Tony had told him right away would’ve probably been the smart choice. He’d want a warning before getting fired, too. 

Steve was surprised that Bucky showed up to their last rehearsal. It was the last thing he would’ve expected. Still, he was excited that he got to see their show and that he was over the situation enough to come watch the show he was kicked out of. 

“So, wanna go out to dinner or something now that we’re done?” Steve asked, leading Bucky to the rehearsal room.

“Yeah, that sounds good to me,” Bucky said. “You know, I’ve never really been back here before.”

“Seriously? You’ve worked here longer than I have,” Steve stated.

Bucky blushed a little. “That’s true, but I’ve never had any reason to come back here before. I mean, you’re the only person in the pit that I’m close with, and we weren’t close until very recently. And Tony obviously hates me, so I would never come back here to see him or anything.”

“Yeah, that’s a fair point,” Steve said, walking into the rehearsal room.

Everyone from the pit was packing up their instruments and talking excitedly to each other. Performance season was the most exciting part of the year. They were already planning their after-party that was only for the pit. He put away his trumpet with Bucky by his side. Steve glanced around the room and noticed Molly looking over at them, smiling. She was super adorable and Steve knew how happy she was that he and Bucky were dating again. 

“So, this is where you spend most of your work day?” Bucky asked, running his hand along the edge of his stand.”

“Yeah, here and the practice rooms,” Steve said. “Honestly, more often in there than here. We need to learn our parts individually before we can put it together. I guess it’s a little different for you guys. But it’s harder for us to rely on each other, we need to be absolutely certain we know what we’re doing.”

“Well so do we,” Bucky defended.

Steve backtracked, “I didn’t mean that to be offensive. I only meant that it’s a lot easier for us to learn everything separately and then put it back together, whereas you guys learn everything together. It’s just because what you guys are doing is physical, you need to be aware of where everyone is spatially.”

“We do. Well, I probably won’t need to ever again,” Bucky said.

Steve wrapped his arm around Bucky’s waist, allowing Bucky to rest his head on his shoulder. “Hey, you’re amazing. That might not have been the right role for you, but there’ll be one that is,” Steve reassured. 

“Yeah, we’ll see. I’m not confident that Tony’s gonna want me here for Nutcracker season,” Bucky said.

“You’ve been here so long and you’re good, there’s no way he’s going to fire you,” Steve said.

It was hard to see how discouraged Bucky had become. When they were kids, he was super ambitious. He spent his time divided between dreaming and making his dreams come true. Now he didn’t even think he could keep his job. Steve thought he would keep his job. Some people just aren’t made for lead roles, but that’s okay. There has to be people to fill the background roles. The chances of Tony just straight up firing Bucky was slim.

“We just have to wait and see. Let’s go get some dinner, celebrate your performance,” Bucky suggested.

Steve smiled and nodded. “Let’s do it.”

The fact that Bucky switched so fast from being sad about his job to happy about Steve’s was major growth. It made Steve feel really happy to be with him. It was draining to be with someone always pitying themself, which Bucky no longer was. He even paid for both of their meals at the fancy new restaurant they tried. Steve could tell Bucky really cared about him.

Steve and Bucky hadn’t spent the night at each other’s houses yet, but Steve was very tempted to start it the night before the first performance of Swan Lake. He loved Bucky so much that he didn’t want to spend any time without him. Despite this, he knew that he needed sleep before the big day. He’d have to invite Bucky to sleep over the night after the last performance.

When Steve woke up in the morning, the house smelled absolutely amazing. Normally he would shower first thing in the morning, but he couldn’t resist checking out what smelled so good. He pulled on an old t-shirt and descended down the stairs. Sam was standing in the kitchen, cooking something over the stove.

“Making breakfast?” Steve asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Yeah, it’s your big day,” Sam responded.

“So this is the celebration food?” Steve questioned, sitting down at their table.

“Eggs and potato hash,” Sam explained. “And I picked up some good doughnuts and coffee to really enhance the experience.

Steve smiled at him. “You are absolutely amazing.”

Sam was really the best friend Steve could ask for. The fact that he was taking the time out of his day just to make Steve’s day special was amazing. The only other person who ever did that for him was Bucky. Both were Steve’s two closest friends in high school, which was kind of weird. He did have new friends that weren’t from high school, but they were basically all from the pit. God, maybe he would have to get out there more and get more diverse friends.

Sam walked over to the table with two full plates and cups of coffee. He set down a plate in front of Steve.

“There you go,” he said.

“This is amazing. You’re great. I don’t know how I got such a cool friend,” Steve complimented.

“I will take this food away from you if you keep talking like that,” Sam threatened.

Steve laughed. “I just appreciate it, man. So, you got tickets for tonight, right? By my parents? They’re gonna love seeing you.”

“What about Bucky’s parents?” Sam asked, sipping on his coffee.

“Oh shit, I have no idea,” Steve said. “Bucky never said anything about that to me. I assume he told them but I honestly don’t know. I assume they won’t be coming if he did tell them. But if they are coming, they’ll also be sitting by my parents.”

“Think they’ll remember who I am?”

“Oh, they for sure remember you.”

The idea that Bucky might not have told his parents was really scary to Steve. He knew it wasn’t his issue, but it was still making him anxious. Now that he was dating Bucky, all of Bucky’s issues were also his own. It would be very uncomfortable if he forgot to tell them and then they showed up, only to find he wasn’t even dancing. It was something Steve didn’t want to deal with and something Bucky definitely didn’t want to deal with.

“So, you feeling ready to perform tonight?” Sam inquired.

Steve nibbled at his doughnut and nodded. “Yeah, I honestly could’ve performed a long time ago. I’ve had my part down for weeks.”

“See, I think you need to get a job at a real orchestra. Then you get to perform more, work on more pieces, and just be more challenged and busy,” Sam suggested.

This was something Sam had been pushing for a while. He couldn’t lie, Steve had really been thinking about it. At the company, they usually did four performances a year. One of which was always the Nutcracker, so he really only had to learn three new shows a year. In a professional orchestra, he would do probably thirty concerts a year. And it would pretty much always be new music. Bucky complicated the whole situation. Before, the only thing holding him back from the company was his friends. Now it was his boyfriend.

Steve finished up his meal, which was delicious, in a short period of time. He was going to do the dishes since Sam made the food, but Sam insisted that he shouldn’t since it was a big day for him. Steve was very appreciative. He took a shower, but he didn’t put on his nice clothes yet. He was going to change into it at the company. He had to be there at five thirty but the show started at seven, so he didn’t want to get his nice clothes all sweaty. It’s what he did every time. 

Sam worked until six, so Steve had the house to himself for a large chunk of time. Normally this would prompt him to invite Bucky over, but not today. It felt weird to have Bucky come over on the day he should’ve been preparing to make his big debut. Bucky deserved a day to sulk and Steve deserved a day to celebrate.

Steve’s day to celebrate the first performance was spent doing basically nothing. He watched a lot of reality tv and ate some popcorn with Pepsi, but that was it. At five fifteen, he grabbed his clothes and got in the car to go. The drive wouldn’t take fifteen minutes most likely, but he liked being early. Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure why they had to be there so soon before the performance. All they had to do was warm up, but that didn’t take an hour and a half. That’s why he brought his change of clothes, he didn’t want to just hang out in a suit for that long. 

Molly was in the rehearsal hall with her tuba all ready to go when Steve walked in. She always had to be very prepared, it was adorable. She was already wearing her concert outfit, of course. Tonight it was a black, tank top jumpsuit with white ruffles on the sleeves. It was super cute, but a little more grown up than what Molly normally wore. Usually she wore dresses with halter necks and a-line skirts. 

“I like the new look,” Steve complimented, sitting down next to Molly.

Molly beamed up at him. “Thank you. I just got it last weekend. I like to get one new outfit for every show we do.”

“This one is more unique than the other, I love it,” Steve commented.

“I figured it would fit my tuba better,” Molly stated.

“That’s a good thought,” Steve said.

In some ways, he felt like Molly was his little sister. He felt very protective over her. He also thought that everything she did was adorable. She was pretty much the baby of the pit, so everyone felt the same way.

“Are your parents coming tonight?” Molly asked, using a polishing cloth to shine up her tuba.

“Yeah, they should be,” Steve answered. “They’re coming with Bucky’s parents, I think.”

“Bucky’s parents are coming?” Molly questioned. “I thought he wasn’t in the show.”

“He isn’t, but they already bought their tickets. All the shows are sold out, you know,” Steve explained.

“I guess it’s cool that they’re coming to see it,” Molly said.

Molly didn’t have parents, so that wasn’t really something she could relate to. That was probably why so many of the pit members felt so paternal towards her. It was just the natural reaction.

“Are you going to put your suit on?” Molly asked. “It makes you look very sharp.”

Steve laughed a little. “Sharp?”

Molly smiled at him and nodded. “It does. I like it.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll put it on just for you,” Steve said.

He changed into his suit and spent the rest of the evening trying not to get it sweaty before the performance. He went to visit Natasha, but not for long because this was a big night for her. He saw Tony in the hallway and they exchanged a few polite words. It was extremely awkward after everything that had happened with Bucky.

Before he knew it, it was time to descend to the pit. He took his trumpet and his music and headed out. The audience was packed full, but Steve still tried to look for his parents. After a minute of searching, he couldn’t find them. Oh well, he knew they were there. Or would be there if they weren’t already. 

After a few minutes of warming up, Steve heard someone call his name from above the pit. He assumed it was his parents, but upon looking up, he discovered that it wasn’t.

“Hi,” Bucky said, smiling down at Steve.

“Hi, baby. I didn’t know you were coming,” Steve said.

“Well I had to come and support you, of course,” Bucky said.

Steve had absolutely  no idea how Bucky managed to pull that one off. The show had been sold out for weeks, and Bucky didn’t have a ticket. But the fact that he managed to get one to support Steve, even after being fired from the show, meant a lot to him.

Steve stood on his tip toes and Bucky bent down over the wall for a kiss.

“Bucky?” Steve asked.

“Hmm?” Bucky responded.

“I love you.”