Chapter 10
“Tell me about Stark’s Party.”
It was a Friday and everyone was there. Well…maybe not everyone but it was close enough.
The music was loud and the air war warm as they lounged in Tony’s living room, talking, laughing, singing, dancing.
Sam stood in a corner listening to Steve rant about the unfairness that was the American health care system.
Tony was playing the DJ, never letting go of the wine bottle in his hand.
Clint was trying and failing to do a handstand, Pietro and Peggy standing nearby, laughing.
Wanda and Sharon were outside in the flickering glow of the pool, both faces angry and hard.
“I will not have you threaten my brother, Sharon,” Wanda hissed, “I don’t care what you think he did, but you won’t touch him. I won’t allow it.”
“You?” Sharon shot back, “This has nothing to do with you, you silly cow. I was being nice when I told you to keep you brother in check, you failed to do so, now live with the consequences.”
“My brother has done nothing wrong!”
Sharon snorted and shook her head, “Your brother has done everything wrong,” she stepped closer, lowering her voice to a barely audible whisper, “If I see him around Clint again after tonight, I’ll let everyone know just what kind of person he is.”
Wanda’s face darkened and her eyes grew narrow as she matched Sharon’s tone of voice, “If I hear you threatening Pietro one more time, I’ll make sure you never do anything ever again.” And with that she turned around and walked back inside, leaving a fuming Sharon behind. The blonde’s eyes fell on her sister who was looking right back at her, a frown playing around her lips, fell on Clint and Pietro who were leaning on each other as they laughed, and she quickly empties the her drink to get another one.
Peggy had left the boys alone some while ago in favour of sitting down on the couch. She had watched as Sharon stumbled through the crows, clearly drunk, and ran into Natasha who had had looked as graceful as ever despite the vodka in her hand. The red-haired girl had led the blonde to the kitchen and now both were back, just in time for Tony to announce a game of truth or dare. They all groaned but gathered around the table and settled onto the couches and pillows nonetheless.
Unlike the others, Peggy hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol all night.
“Sam, the man!” Tony shouted out after Sam had picked truth, “Virgin or no virgin?”
“Really?” Sam looked at the younger boy in disbelief.
“Truth is truth.”
Sam sighed, “No, Tony, I haven’t had sex.”
“Hey,” Tony held up his hands even though he was still holding his wine in the right one, “Nothing wrong with that.”
Sam grumbled something that sounded like “I know” or might have been “Fuck you” before moving on to Wanda.
“Dare,” she answered challengingly.
“I dare you to sing Barbie Girl for us.”
Wanda rolled her eyes but otherwise gave no indication that she actually minded the humiliation that came with the task as she took it in stride.
It only went downhill from there.
Wanda dared Pietro to take off his pants.
Pietro made Clint tell them about his most embarrassing experience.
Clint asked Sharon about her first time.
Sharon –
“Steve!” she exclaimed, “Truth or dare?” There something in her voice…something vicious and dangerous, and Steve tensed up.
“Dare,” he answered carefully.
“I dare you to pick truth,” Sharon said, her eyes fixed on the blond and even though she was still drunk, too drunk, her words were clear, “I dare you tell me how it feels to have knocked up my sister.”
The room fell silent as everyone seemed to have stopped breathing. A choked off sound from the glass door that led out to the pool made them turn around, made them stare at a dark figure standing in the dim light of the veranda.
“Buck –” Steve scrambled to his feet, braking the spell but the dark figure, Bucky, had already turned around and left.
“Well…guess party’s over,” Tony muttered into his wine and slowly stood up as well, patting Steve on the back as he passed him. The sudden touch seemed to shake Steve out of his stupor and he looked around, taking in all the eyes that were looking at him, and ran. Moments later they could hear a door slamming shut and the sound of someone retching violently.
Natasha and Clint exchanged an uneasy look and decided to follow Stark, not even bothering to come up with something to say since Peggy was too shocked to notice much of anything. Pietro tried to follow the couple but was held back by his sister who glared at him and dragged him into the opposite direction and outside the front door, leaving Sam, Sharon, and Peggy alone in the living room.
Sharon looked around, dumfounded. Puzzled by what had just happened and by what she had done; she jumped when Sam grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the kitchen.
“What the fuck, Sharon?” he asked after he had closed the door behind them.
“What?”
“What, what? Why did you do that? Why would you say that?”
“It’s true,” Sharon defended herself and walked up to the sink to drink some more water, “Found the test this morning, just lying in the bin.”
“So?” Sam looked at his friend in complete incomprehension, “You decided to just tell the whole world that you sister is pregnant?!”
“It’s hardly the whole world,” Sharon argued, “Just us.” She shrugged. “Besides…it’s not like we wouldn’t have found out sooner or later.”
“That’s not the point, Sharon, and you know it,” Sam all but shouted, his hands were balled into fists as he paced up and down the room. Suddenly, he stopped, turning towards Sharon, “You had no right to say that. Why did you say that?”
“Because I’m sick with everyone’s secrets!” Sharon answered, her voice much louder now than it had been just moments before, “We’re all lying to each other! All cheating and acting and pretending and I’m sick of it!”
“Wha - ?” Sam faltered, “What do you mean? Shar, what are you talking about?”
The girl huffed, shaking her head, “Tony’s father is a drunk who beats Tony green and blue every other week,” she began, “Clint is cheating on Natasha with Pietro. Wanda knows about it but doesn’t do anything. Steve cheated on Bucky with Peggy when he wouldn’t even look twice at me. You don’t tell me that your mum has serious money problems. Brock –”
“Whoa, hang on a sec,” Sam interrupted, holding up his hand, “How did you know about the money?”
“Does it matter?” Sharon asked, “I know and you didn’t tell me!”
“Yeah, ‘cause it’s none of your fucking business!”
“I could help you!”
“I don’t want your help, Sharon,” Sam replied, stepping closer to his friend, “I don’t want your help. I know that you’re rich and that money doesn’t mean anything to you but some of us aren’t like that. If we needed help, we’d ask for it, but we don’t, so you need to back the hell off, got it?”
Sharon blinked. Once. Twice.
“Fuck you, Sam,” she said and pushed passed to leave the kitchen, nearly colliding with Steve in the dark hallway, “You too, Rogers,” she spat out and walked out onto the veranda.
After Sam had taken Sharon to the kitchen, Peggy had walked outside into the darkness, the faint light from the house barely enough to keep her from tripping over her own feet, and if it hadn’t been for the glowing cigarette, she might not have seen the man hunched in on himself just a few feet away. She had stopped to look at him and known he had been looking back, right at her, but hadn’t spoken.
“He didn’t know,” Peggy had said eventually, “He didn’t know. I only found out this morning and I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”
“Whatever it is,” Bucky had begun, his voice raw and shaky, “Whatever you decide…you’re not alone.” At that, Peggy had frozen, not expecting the reaction. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Bucky –”
“No,” Bucky had cut her off, “Let me say this. Please. My boyfriend cheated on me and got you pregnant.” He had swallowed thickly and taken a long drag from the cigarette while Peggy had dared to step closer. “And I might be an asshole sometimes but…I ain’t gonna tell you what to do. ‘s your decision. Steve’s gonna be there for you. And so am I.”
“Thank you.” Peggy’s voice hadn’t been anything more than a hoarse whisper and Bucky must have noticed because when had spoken next, he had sounded kinder, gentler, “Come ‘ere.”
And Peggy had, allowing the older boy to pull her into a tight embrace.
When Steve came outside, that’s how he found his boyfriend and his best friend – arm in arm, silently crying together.
“Bucky, I –” Steve began but Bucky intervened, “If you say you’re sorry one more time, I swear, I’m gonna leave right now and you can walk home.”
“I don’t know what to say…” Steve finished quietly, ignoring Bucky’s words, and forcing himself to not avert his eyes.
“There’s not much to say,” Bucky replied, his arm was still slung around Peggy’s shoulders and he motioned for Steve to sit down on his other side. “Just…Fucking hell, Stevie…you don’t do anything by halves, do you?”
Steve froze, staring at Bucky. “Was that…Did you just…”
“What else am I supposed to do, Steve?” Bucky asked and pulled Steve in, pressing a rough kiss to his blond hair, breathing in. “I’m still pissed at you. Both of you, actually. But Peggy being pregnant doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t make it better but doesn’t make it worse either. I promised to take care of ya, Stevie, and I will…no matter what.”
Steve must have been stunned into silence, his eyes getting suspiciously wet as he buried his face in Bucky’s chest.
“We’ll figure it out,” Bucky said again, running his fingers through Steve’s hair, “All three of us.”
“Four,” Peggy suddenly said and Steve raised his head to look at hear.
“Four?” he asked confused.
“I…Angie…we were…”
“Oh.”
“Yeah…”
And then Bucky laughed. It was disbelieving, almost hysterical. It was the kind of laughing you did when you didn’t want to cry.
“Holy shit…this keeps getting better and better…” he muttered, shaking his head, “Come on. Let’s get you two punks home.”
Carefully, Bucky manoeuvred the two others to their feet and helped them get into the car. He threw one last glance back at the house, most lights were out and everything was quiet, and if he thought he saw a dark shadow creeping through the darkness towards the stairs that led to the pool, then that was just his brain playing tricks on him.
“Did you kill Sharon Carter?”
“No.”