Chapter 9
Cleaning was hard. Bucky longed for the days he used to resent, when he had nothing to do and could spend the day in bed. He hated cleaning, but Steve was coming round that night and his apartment really needed a deep scrub. And vacuum and dust. He also needed to unpack the last few boxes in his living room. He’d been using them as a coffee table, but he realised they just looked messy. After six months living there, Steve was the reason he was finally unpacking his books.
He’d already made a trip to Ikea to get a proper coffee table and bookshelf. They were currently sitting in their boxes in his living room, next to the as yet unpacked boxes of books. He groaned to himself. He was meant to be getting rid of the boxes, not adding to his collection. He was glad for his prosthetic, for the first time in a while, as it meant he could lift his sofa and bed and wardrobe with ease as he vacuumed underneath them. Tony had made the arm unnecessarily strong, saying ‘you never know when you’ll need superhuman strength, Buck. What if we were attacked by aliens? Then where would you be, huh?’ He’d rolled his eyes back then and he rolled his eyes at the memory. Tony was a genius, but he did like to overcompensate with his inventions. It wasn’t hard for Bucky to guess what he was overcompensating for. He was attractive, smart and rich. That only left one small thing he could be worried about.
Bucky snickered as he scrubbed his sink vigourously. He probably didn’t need to be cleaning quite so much, but it gave him something to do. He’d rather be stress cleaning than panicking about the fact that Steve was coming round later. Because Bucky was definitely on the verge of panicking. Steve was coming to his apartment. He gave the impression of someone put together and tidy. Bucky was neither of those things. He’d been up for nearly four hours and he’d only just got the bathroom looking decent. He felt ashamed of the way he lived. He wasn’t necessarily unclean, he just didn’t put things away behind him. Or wash the sink all that often, unless it was really gross. He did have grime in his tiles, until he’d bleached the ever-loving shit out of them. They were now white and gleaming. It didn’t look anything like his old bathroom.
He started on the kitchen next, procrastinating and tidying everything until he had to tackle the monsters in his living room. He wasn’t confident enough to consider tidying his bedroom properly, although he did open the curtains and pick his dirty clothes off the floor. He told himself it was for his own peace of mind and nothing to do with Steve coming over. He probably wouldn’t even end up in his bedroom.
The stack of dirty plates and cups gave Bucky mild anxiety. He honestly didn’t know how one person made this much mess. It must be Soldat. His dog was probably waking up in the night, cooking himself dinner and leaving the dirty dishes for Bucky to clean up. He nodded to himself, looking round to glare at his dog. Soldat grinned back and Bucky immediately felt bad. How dare he blame his mess on his poor, innocent puppy? The hair all over the floor, now that was definitely Soldat’s fault. Bucky had used the brush function on the vacuum in an effort to get it all up, but there was some that was so embedded into the carpet, Bucky wasn’t sure if it had always been there.
After what seemed like forever, Bucky had cleaned his entire apartment, and was in the process of assembling his new furniture. The instructions were all in a foreign language, and not one Bucky spoke. What was the point in knowing five languages if you couldn’t use that knowledge to put a bookshelf together? He scrubbed a hand over his face tiredly. At this rate, he’d be too exhausted to do anything when Steve got there. But at least he didn’t look like he lived in a hovel anymore. He hoped Steve appreciated the effort, even with nothing to base his work on. Bucky sighed. Impressing cute dorky artists was extremely hard work, but Bucky was absolutely certain the payoff would be worth it. If there was any payoff. No, Steve didn’t owe him anything, and he was not going to get anywhere thinking he did. He was just glad the man wanted to be his friend to be honest.
Bucky spent the rest of the day fixing his bookshelf and coffee table together, leaving the apartment to walk Soldat and get lunch for them both after a mildly threatening text from Natasha telling him to eat.
He checked the time when he’d finally finished and realised he had about an hour to shower, put all his books on the shelves and cram the now empty cardboard boxes into his bedroom. As well as making himself look fairly presentable and not like he’d been cleaning all day. Did the apartment smell like bleach? He wasn’t sure. He resolved to open the windows to let some air in while he was in the shower.
The shower was quite possibly the quickest one of his life. The water hadn’t even heated up properly by the time he’d gotten in and out, washing his body and hair. He decided to forgo conditioner, and put a tiny bit of product in his hair to make sure it wasn’t too floofy. After much deliberation, he decided on a thick navy jumper that brought out the blue in his eyes and black skinny jeans that made his ass look amazing. Not that he was trying to impress Steve or anything. He hoped Steve would be too distracted by his ass that he wouldn’t look at the metal hand. Bucky decided it was time to show his arm to Steve. At least that way he wasn’t too attached if he decided it was a deal breaker. Better to get it over with early than wait until Bucky had developed feelings. But, honestly, who was he kidding? He had deep feelings for the man already, and they hadn’t even had a date yet.
He pulled on a pair of navy socks (he was all about colour co-ordination) and sat on his sofa. He still had twenty minutes until Steve was due to arrive. He tried reading a book picked at random from his new bookshelf, but he was too wound up to concentrate. Soldat seemed to sense his discomfort, and laid himself across Bucky’s lap, covering him completely. If his presence didn’t calm Bucky down so much, he would’ve been annoyed. He now had dog hair all over his jeans. He raked his fingers through Soldat’s thick fur, letting the familiar feeling wash over him and soothe his mind. Why was he getting so nervous? It was just Steve. Funny, dorky Steve, with his hipster glasses and blonde paint-streaked hair. Steve, who Bucky was hopelessly gone on.
The knock made him jump. He pushed at Soldat and got to his feet, brushing his jeans down and dislodging most of the fur. He took several deep breaths in the short walk to the door, and one more when his hand grasped the door handle, just for good measure. He opened it with a wide smile, which faltered when he took in the figure on the other side. Steve looked… well he looked like sex on legs if Bucky was being honest. He was completely bundled up in a thick coat and scarf, with a beanie shoved on his head. His nose was slightly pink from the cold and his glasses had fogged up adorably. Bucky wanted to jump his bones right there in the doorway. He barely managed to restrain himself, stepping to the side to let Steve in. His self restraint was tested even further when Steve grinned toothily at him. How had Bucky not noticed his slight overbite before? It was so fucking adorable he thought his heart was going to burst.
“Hi Bucky!” Steve waved like an absolute dork, stepping into the apartment and starting to unwind his scarf. Bucky blinked rapidly for a couple of minutes, his brain stuck. He was still holding the door open, his face frozen as he watched Steve wrestle with his coat, hands clutching a briefcase. He was going to die. This was it. He’d survived Afghanistan and losing an arm, but the sight of Steve Rogers basically stripping off was going to end him. “...You okay?” Bucky blinked again and saw Steve watching him cautiously, “I know I’m a bit early, I thought it would be okay. I can go if you want?” Steve tilted his head, biting his lip nervously. Bucky vaguely registered his hands were twisting themselves around the handles of his briefcase. He also registered the slightly resigned look in Steve’s eyes as he continued to stand there awkwardly, waiting for Bucky to respond.
“No!” Bucky half shouted, making both Steve and Soldat jump. Unlike Soldat, Steve didn’t bark, but it looked like a close thing. “Hi Steve. I’m sorry, you caught me a bit off guard. You look adorable in that coat.” What the fuck? “Please, stay, make yourself at home. Want a drink?” Steve nodded, his face scarlet. Bucky was choosing to ignore the fact he’d just called Steve adorable. He totally wasn’t hyperfixating on it. Not at all. “What do you prefer? I’ve got water, tea, coffee, beer, vodka…” Jesus Christ, Barnes, stop talking. Don’t offer the guy vodka.
“Uh, water would be great, thanks.” Steve was still red. He sat down on the sofa, perched on the edge, looking deeply uncomfortable.
“Water, right. I’ll just, uh, go and get that.” Bucky marched into the kitchen and banged his head quietly on the counter. What the fuck was wrong with him? He took longer than was strictly necessary getting the drinks, and when he came back Steve was looking at his bookshelf, a small grin on his face.
“You have a lot of science books.” he commented quietly, looking at Bucky’s admittedly very geeky collection. There was everything from Stephen Hawking to the novelisation of the Star Wars franchise. Bucky blushed. He was a out and proud nerd, but it was something he didn’t really want Steve knowing this soon. He scolded himself. Here he was, about to show off his pretend arm, and he was more concerned about how Steve would react to something Bucky wasn’t actually ashamed of. A voice that sounded scarily like Natasha in his head scolded him for being ashamed of his prosthetic, but he shook it off. One crisis at a time.
He decided to face it head on, like someone braver than him, “Yeah, uh, I’m a bit of a nerd. All this science stuff? Really turns me into a fanboy. I love anything technological.” In a snap second decision, he lifted his arm, tugging the sleeve up slightly and flexing his fingers, “it’s one of the reasons I didn’t stop Stark from doing this.”