Chapter 2
“Steve, you’re on in five.”
“Shit! This is happening. Okay, breathe, you’ve got this man.”Steve mumbled under his breath while slapping his cheek. Maybe not the smartest approach when you’re going to be live on tv in 5 minutes, but he needed to keep his thoughts in line.
This is happening, Steve is coming out in 5 minutes on live TV.
Steve is telling everyone about his ‘relationship’ with James.
He’s going to be telling all this while he is on Ellen’s show.
The woman his ‘boyfriend’ snapped at and walked away from.
Shit.
“Focus Steve you got this!” Sam said. Steve’s best friend for his entire lifetime. Sam has been there his entire life; he knows all of his secrets and the other way around. “Thanks for your support but I don’t think I do…”
“You’re such a pussy Steve; you’ve got this. No one will care you’re still cute, and you like boys as well, so what? Hollywood’s golden boy is bi! Representation my man!”
Steve rolled his eyes, if he was less anxious he would make a funny comment but not today. Today it’s happening. “Thanks for bein’ here, really appreciate it. Gotta go though.” Steve said and pulled his best friend in a hug. If he didn’t have to go on in a minute, he might have cried, but he didn’t.
Really, he didn’t.
Steve walked towards the set and waited for the sign to go on. When one of the assistants said it was time, he took one last deep breath and went on.
People were clapping, but Steve couldn’t focus. He couldn’t hear them. His thoughts were so loud. This is happening, the moment he has been looking forward to for almost his entire career. It’s finally here, but now it doesn't seem that excited anymore. When he leaves the studio in a couple of hours, his life is going to change and so is James'. But he is ready for it.
“Steve Rogers! It’s so good to have you back on the show!”Ellen greeted him with a hug. Over time the two of them met a couple of times and were on friendly terms. Steve was wondering if that was going to be the same in a minute when he tells her who his boyfriend is.
The two of them got talking, bantering like old friends. They talked about his latest movie, about his new more muscular body and then they landed on the subject: love.
“So… Steve how’s it going in the love department?” Ellen asked, and Steve felt his cheeks heat up. God this is happening, this is happening. Deep breaths, deep breaths, you’ve got this, you can do this Steve.
“It’s going pretty well Ellen, pretty well.”
The audience gasped in amazement and Steve laughed.
“Who’s the lucky lady?” She asked, leaning a little bit closer, obviously intrigued by were the conversation is going, playing the part pretty well considering she knew this was going to happen.
“Not a lady.”
The audience gasped. This time not in amusement but in shock. Hours seemed to pass but then the audience exploded in loud clapping and whooping.
“Oooo? Who’s the lucky man then?”
“Uhm… Well… You uhm.. You may know him? I-I don’t know uhm.. It’s….”
“Come on tell us already you’re killing us!” A girl from the audience yelled, and that seemed to break the tension. It doesn’t matter, his true fans will still love him no matter what sexuality, no matter who his ‘boyfriend’ is.
“It’s James Barnes.”
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“O hey would you look at that! We’re trending already!”James exclaimed.
The two of them met at Steve’s loft to talk about today’s event and eat some dinner.
“No shit two insanely hot guys, dating? Of course you’re trending idiot!” Sam said.
O yeah Sam joined, he always just kind of tags alone Steve is pretty sure Sam has nothing to do in his life besides bothering him by eating all his food. The three of them had ordered some Chinese takeaway, James favourite.
Steve laughed. Today’s tension gone. It felt good to get this secret of his chest. It was time. He has been hiding his sexuality like a little kid hides his Nintendo under his pillow from his mom. Coming out is something he has wanted to do since forever. Hill didn’t think it was a good idea, might ruin his ‘good’ reputation or whatever that meant.
But now, Steve felt like a bird released from his cage.
James laughed as well, something he doesn’t do that often Steve notice but when he did the whole world seemed to stop spinning and look at the most beautiful man on the planet. James was wearing a yellow turtleneck.
He seems to be so different in real life than the guy the media portrays him as. In real life, James is the kind of guy who wears soft coloured sweaters, drinks very sweet coffees and laughs at bad jokes. In the media James is the kind of guy who only wears black and is high before breakfast.
Steve wonders what is up with that but doesn’t push it.
Suddenly Steve decided it was a good idea to take out his phone and capture this moment. James completely at ease, looking soft and comfortable and post the picture on his Instagram Story so all of his 32,4 million Instagram followers could enjoy this moment with him.
The three of them finished dinner and James helped clean up.
“It was really brave what you did today,” James said in a soft voice after Sam had left, “Proud of you. Must not have been easy, y’know? Telling this many people personal things like that. Really brave Steve.”
Wow, this kind of sincerity Steve wasn’t expecting. The pair just met yesterday but it was mainly for business but this moment was something else, it felt genuine. “Thanks… Feels good y’know to get this off my chest.”
James nodded and gave Steve a small shy.
“I’ve got to say, you aren’t what I expected at all.” Steve said after a beat.
“O, what did you expect?” James asked, head tilted in curiosity.
“I dunno. Guess everything I’ve been hearing about you is wrong. You just don’t seem like the kind of guy who would snap at Ellen or smoke a blunt during an Academy Award acceptance speech, James. You’re just very different.”
“Yeah… I’ve changed quite a bit haven’t I,” James laughed, “if we're gonna be dating you should call me Bucky, everyone else does.
“Bucky?” Steve asked, confusion visible on his face. “Is that like your real name and James is just a stage name?”
James laughed, a full out belly laugh, something Steve hadn't heard before but doesn’t want to stop hearing. “No is just a nickname. My middle name is Buchanan, so Bucky… It kind of stuck. Like it better anyways, less boring than James.”
“James isn’t boring!’
Ja- Bucky rolled his eyes and gave Steve a look. “Anyways, it’s late, I should probably get going. Uhm.. Yeah, thanks for the food, was great. See you tomorrow?”
“See you tomorrow.”
Steve closed the door after James left and sighed. Wow. Bucky was great, just great. A genuine, loving and funny person and not ugly either. He would never admit this, but Steve was a big fan of Bucky’s back in his Disney days.
Bucky was the star of a musical film called ‘Dreams of a smalltown boy.’ The movie was the biggest musical created by Disney since High School Musical. It was about a smalltown boy who dreamed about doing what he loves most, dancing, but his father wanted him to enlist in the army. It was a huge hit and Bucky’s big break.
Maybe Steve fell asleep watching all of Bucky’s old movies.
No, this deal is not going to be that bad.
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