steve plops on the couch, finally settling into his dorm. he looks around and gives himself a pat on the back. the door to the dorm opens and there is his roommate, sam wilson walks in. sam looks around at steve's side of the room and nods as a sign of being proud, "nice job, steve.", he says as he walks over to the couch to sit next to steve. "thanks, sam.", he says as he starts to grin. he's known sam since the 9th grade, and he's really thankful for their friendship. they're lucky that they even got into the same college together. sam's phone dings with a notification. "there's a party going on at the east side of the campus!", sam says with excitement. steve laughs, "how are you already getting invites to parties?", he asks with shock.
sam starts to smile in a bashful way which makes steve intrigued, "sam! who is it?", he asks eagerly. sam starts to tell his story, "okay so, i went to the first freshman orientation of the week and i got paired with this guy, he's a major in political science, and he's like really attractive and nice and just a really chill person. so, we got to talking and next thing i know we were exchanging numbers.". "what's his name?", steve asks sam with enthusiasm. "t'challa.", sam says in a chill tone. "wait... let me get this straight. you met this random guy at orientation and he is t'challa, who literally comes from one of the most richest families in the world, and you're all... chill about it?", steve asks in a baffling tone. sam hums in realisation, "that's why his name sounded so familiar!", he exclaims. steve laughs with sam at the revelation.
"are you down to tag along?", sam asks with interest. steve shakes his head, "parties aren't really my scene.", his voice dies out as he says that. he rubs his neck nervously and sighs, thinking he's disappointed his roommate. "you're all good. i get it.", sam says respectfully. "you know, what you should do?", sam says as he gets up, walking to his bed to grab some clothes from underneath it. steve asks, rolling his eyes, "what?". sam grabs some clothes and turns to steve back at the couch, who is looking at him, "you should go meet some of our dorm neighbors!", he says, trying to sound excited. steve groans in protest, "god, sam. do i? i think i'd rather peel acrylic paint off some wood.", he says in a frustrated tone. "hey, maybe you'll find someone who is pretty enough to draw.", he starts. steve glares at him for a second, "or handsome!", sam includes very quickly. steve has recently gotten comfortable with his sexuality and has now been out as bisexual for about a month now. "sorry.", sam apologises walking over to steve to hug him. steve accepts the hug as a form of accepting the apology.
sam gets out of the hug and goes to the bathroom to change. steve goes to his sketch pad and starts to continue a sketch he had only started last night. it was of a guy he had seen at the campus coffee shop the day before. he had long brown hair that went to his shoulders, and he had it in a half ponytail which hang somewhat low. what caught steve's attention were the mystery man's blue eyes. steve's mind took a photograph of those eyes and keeps replaying them over, and over, and over again. steve smiles in admiration of this man and begins to daydream of talking to the man. sam walks out of the bathroom in party clothes and poses for steve who is not paying attention. "ahem!", sam coughs, which still does not catch steve's attention. sam sighs, "hey captain asshole!", he shouts which does catch a now annoyed steve rogers' attention. steve nods, "nice outfit. i think it'll flatter t'challa.", he says, moving his attention back to the sketch of the mystery man.
sam does a fake tip-toe to look at whatever is captivating steve. "are you still hung over the moon over that guy you saw yesterday?", he says trying to peer at the drawing. steve pulls it back before sam looks, "maybe! why does it matter?", steve says defensively. "alright, sorry.", he replies, backing away from steve. "i just,", steve pauses out of insecurity, "i just can't get this guy out of my head!", steve admits throwing his pad to the side. sam nods his head, "i know the feeling.", sam says understandingly. sam goes to the door and slips on his shoes. he then grabs his keys and opens the door to leave, "hey!", he turns back to steve who is picking up his sketch pad once again, "maybe, if you go around to meet our neighbors you might-", he gets cut off by steve who is blowing a raspberry in objection to sam's idea. sam laughs as he shuts the door leaving the artist all by himself.
---
some hours have passed since sam has left. in this time, steve has done the following: sketch the mystery man, eaten a hot pocket, and taken a nap, which he is still under. he daydreams about the mystery man; he thinks about what it would be like to hang out with him. what would his interests be? what would he sound like? those questions bounce through his mind as he continues to dream about this guy. until... he hears someone singing in the shower next door. he at first tries to drown it out by placing a pillow over his ear to not listen but the walls are so thin, and the pillows are too weak to soundproof the singing man. he then decides to put music in his ears and blasts it. the music ranges from, threshold and garbage truck by sex bob-omb, but alas, it does not work. he turns on the t.v. and begins to watch an episode of desperate housewives, and that too does not do anything to drown out the neighbor's singing.
steve finally comes to the conclusion that he can either a.) sit and suffer while waiting for him to stop, or b.) seize his social awkwardness and confront the neighbor. he sits for a little, thinking about what the plan will end up being. he starts to listen to the song and realise that it is from scott pilgrim v.s. the world, his favourite movie of all time. he starts to laugh in frustration as he comes to his plan. he's going to stop this once and for all; he can not have his dorm neighbor destroy the love of his favourite movie. he slips on his slides and looks at himself at the body mirror that sits by the door and takes a look at himself; he's wearing a henley and gray sweatpants, with a patriots football tee. 'this is definitely something i wouldn't want to be seen in in front of him.', he tells himself shaking his head. he opens the door, shuts it and walks to the right, where the singing is coming from.
he goes to the door and stands there for a second. he closes his eyes, squinting them out of anxiousness. he doesn't know what to do now. it takes him a minute to locate the confidence he had not too long ago. he then raises his hand, that is now in a fist, up and has it gravitating slightly above the door. he takes a deep breath and knocks. he stands for a little bit, waiting for a response, but woe is him, there is no response. he knocks again, this time a bit louder. he huffs as he puts his hand down and slides it into his pocket. 'answer the door for crying out loud! ', he shouts to the neighbor in his head. steve is about to start banging on the door loudly but, he hears the shower stop so now, he knows that this guy has nothing else to do but hear his knocking. steve knocks gently on the door to where it can be heard, but not to where he could possibly dent the door. when he finishes knocking, he runs his hand through his hair, his anxiety kicking in again. he then hears a lock click and the door opens to reveal... oh my god.
it's him. the mystery man. steve looks up and down, checking out the mystery man who is only in a gray and red striped towel covering his waist. steve looks back up meeting the man's eyes that are slightly covered by some of the man's bangs. "is there something i could help you with?", bucky asks nonchalantly as he smiles at steve. steve feels his mouth dry and he coughs, "uhh,", he starts trying to find a sentence to say. 'you look like a total idiot, steve. what the actu-', steve's thoughts are cut off by the man saying, "was i singing too loud?", he asks in a tone that makes it sound like he already knows why steve knocked. steve nodded, "yeah?", his voice squeaks which makes steve's cheeks turn into a light pink. they stand in silence for a while and steve starts to panic on the inside. 'how was sam right? ', he asks himself in amazement. "do you want to come inside?", the man suggests in an awkward tone. steve's eyes widen at the question. "i-it's okay, if you don't want to but i-", the man is cut off by steve softly blurting, "yes.". 'are you shittin' me, steve? ', steve asks himself with confusion. the man nods and moves out of the way to let steve in.
---
steve looks around the room and sees his crush decorated his room. there is a black tapestry on the wall with big yellow words reading scott pilgrim v.s. the world. steve nods in admiration of the decoration. 'he's got taste', he tells himself in an impressed tone. he then turns to look at the living room area; the couch is black with some red and white throw pillows decorating it. he looks at the coffee table which has a d.v.d.. case of scott pilgrim v.s. the world with a lit candle sitting in a black vase. he walks over to the man's couch and sits down. he feels tense. he's in his dorm. he tries to relax but as soon as he does, the man walks out wearing black drawstring sweatpants and a plain heather gray shirt. the man's hair is still wet but is more styled than it was when he answered the door.
"sorry for answering the door half-naked. i assumed you were my roommate natasha; she forgets her key once in a while since she hops between here and her girlfriend, pepper's room. she's just used to seeing me walk around in a towel.", he explains himself as he walks to his mini fridge that is hidden in the corner of the room. he grabs a plum and goes to the sink and washes it. "wait... natasha as in natasha romanoff the track star?", he asks bewilderingly, "isn't she a sophomore now?". he nods and realises he never explained that he's older, "oh yeah i'm a sophomore, i just choose to be in the freshman area because it's closer to the baseball field.", he says kind of rushed. steve then makes another realisation: this is bucky barnes, shield university's best pitcher.
steve rolls his eyes in shock and leans his head forward into the palms of his hands. bucky sets his plum down on the counter next to him and rushes over to steve, "hey, what's up?", he asks in a concerned tone. steve sits his head back up and shakes his head, "i'm an idiot.", steve says in self-deprecating tone. bucky furrows his brow, "what do you mean?", he asks, wanting for more clarification. steve turns to look at bucky, "it took me into just now to realise that you're bucky barnes.", he tells bucky in a dumbfounded tone. bucky chuckles, "i'm not surprised. i've grown my hair out a lot and i only wear that silver sleeve on the field.", he says in a reassuring tone. "but you know,", he continues, "that's not my real goal in life. i don't want to be a baseball player for my entire life.", bucky says in a surprising tone. steve shakes his head in doubt, "no way!", he exclaims. bucky nods, "yep! i'm a major in baseball but a minor in education.", he informs steve, a grin growing across his face.
steve nods, "i honestly wouldn't have taken you for an educator type of guy.", he says in a flirtatious tone. 'steve. what. the. hell.', he tells himself as he begins to realise what he is about to do. "well, sorry patriots that i'm not the ruthless baseball player you expected.", bucky teases back, "what's your major? football? you seem like you could play due to the shape you're in.", he says as he checks out steve's bicep. 'hold on buck, settle down.', bucky tells himself cautiously, out of fear he'll scare the stunning freshman away. "my name is steve, and i'm a major in art studies with a minor in french.", steve says full of spirit. bucky goes 'oo' at this fact, "do you know any french, steve?", he asks in a praised tone. steve gives a smug smile, "on va voir.", he says lowly, slightly scooting closer to bucky. he feels as if some force has possessed him to act this way. bucky raises his brows and lets out a low chuckle, "oh, what does that mean?", he says leaning closer to the blond. bucky can't stop himself from looking at steve's eyes, the way his lashes are. he remembers when he saw the man yesterday; he remembers how imposing he looked.
they look at each other for a few seconds. they're so close to each other; it feels unreal. they both begin to breathe a bit heavier. steve moves his hand up to the side of bucky's face and puts a lock of hair behind bucky's ear. 'where did this confidence and suaveness come from? what the hell? ', steve questions himself internally. "we shall see.", steve says with pride. bucky puts his hands up and holds steve's face, "i like the sound of that.", he says smugly as he leans in closer and then... it happens.
when their lips meet, it shocks steve. let's just say, steve has never really been with a guy. he's gone on dates with other guys, but it's just never worked out and they've never kissed; but for some reason, when bucky's lips are on his, it feels oddly right. he's only known the guy for a little bit and he knows this feels right. bucky on the other hand, is very much used to kissing other guys. he kissed a girl once for a required play in middle school and he hated it. kissing steve scared him for 2 reasons, 1.) it took steve a little while to kiss back, and 2.) he had just met the guy; but even though he had just met steve, he knew that there is something so right about it. there is something so right about steve. steve isn't like a normal freshman and bucky could tell that right away.
most of the lgbtq freshman at shield university would holler at bucky; they would praise him for being the hottest baseball player, and the sexiest sophomore on campus and bucky hated it. sure, he loves the validation, but he hates feeling harassed for doing what he likes. yet, when steve came to the door, it wasn't to take a picture with him, it wasn't to hit on, it wasn't for any of that; steve just wanted bucky to stop belting scott pilgrim on the top of his lungs and he feels so much relief because of it. bucky could now tell natasha that not every single freshman is wanting to prey on him.
bucky realises that steve is not knowing what to do with the kiss. bucky pulls out of the kiss and looks at steve, "breathe, steve, what's troubling ya.", he says soothingly, with a bit of his new york accent popping out. steve lets out a huff of air and looks away in shame. "have you ever kissed a guy before?", bucky asks curiously. steve shakes his head, "i haven't even kissed a girl.", he says as he looks back at bucky. steve's cheeks flush as bucky kisses his cheek and says into his ear, "well, i guess i have to put my minor in education to some use, huh?". steve starts to feel hot and nods, "yeah, i guess so.", he says, his voice slightly shaky.
"just follow my lead.", bucky says before kissing him but leaving steve's lips just to say, "and relax a bit.". steve nods and before he can process it, bucky is kissing him again. 'follow his lead .', steve reassures himself as he begins to kiss bucky back. bucky hums in acknowledgment of steve's gesture, praising him for starting to figure it out. they continue to kiss and steve swears he's on some form of cloud nine. he tries to convince himself that there's no way that this could be real, that this is all made up; but, as they get out of the kiss for air, steve opens his eyes and sees bucky there and smiles with such delight. bucky leans back on the couch and attempts to catch his breath with a smile across his face.
"so... scott pilgrim?", steve asks in an airy tone as he looks at the tapestry. bucky laughs and nods, "yeah... scott pilgrim.", he says as he pulls steve over and begins to kiss him again.
to put a long story short... those boys didn't leave the dorm for a while.