Chapter 1- Something About This Place
Steve Rogers had a love/hate relationship with the education system.
He liked learning things. He liked taking in knowledge, but not in a nerdy way. He enjoyed knowing that things he was absorbing were facts about the world.
That's why Steve despised Math.
He liked reading and he liked analysing what he read in order to understand it better. He often read books more than once in a short space of time to see what else he could glean from the language when he wasn't asking questions about the plot.
He hated useless trivia or things that he would never need. Like Physics. He would never understand it and he never actually wanted to. That's why scientists existed.
One of his best friends, Bruce, had an inherent interest in all things scientific and was no doubt going to advance in the field after they graduated. Steve would often demand that he have Bruce as a lab partner in Chemistry because he was hopeless at it.
He preferred English and learning foreign languages. He wasn't trilingual for nothing. English, French and German all tucked away under his belt in case he needed to travel for anything.
Natasha and Tony were the tech experts. Tony liked tinkering with existing creations and making them even more advanced than they already were. Natasha was the one who came up with the innovative ideas that she and Tony would work on.
Clint was the historian of the group. He loved poring over large hardback books that Steve doubted he himself could even lift, never mind actually show an interest on. But Clint loved it. From the prehistory of the world to the Second World War, he was completely knowledgeable.
Thor was the true athlete of the group. Blessed with proficient sporting genetics, Thor entered practically every sporting event that their school actually held. He won most of them, only the gymnastics section letting him down for the complete set. Thor was agile yet clumsy at the same time and often tripped over his own feet…or a ribbon.
The six of them were inseparable, often transferring classes so that they were with one another. Tony never thought twice about sacrificing the standards of his education. He knew most of it already anyway. He was the most well-rounded of the bunch by a mile. He was the top of their class, closely followed by Bruce, Natasha and Clint in second, third and fourth place respectively. Steve was a little behind in eighth, but he saw this a huge accomplishment as his math grades were somewhat abysmal.
Despite his vehement aversion to studying, Thor made eleventh place.
The six were widely considered the smartest students in the school and the group managed to stay popular yet disliked at the same time. Their intelligence was feared and their hatred for the school was noticed.
One time in sophomore year, Tony made a speech about the defiant nature of adolescence and how he was going to boycott his classes until they taught him something worth his while. For whatever reason, a group of the jocks had labelled them 'The Avengers'.
Nobody understood the name, but Natasha thought that it would make them seem deadly and fierce so they took it upon themselves to use the name as often as they saw fit, generally in front of people.
Tony was the truly rebellious one and (in his words!) had said that he wanted to "avenge the half of me that wants to be challenged after I lose the majority of my IQ points to this cesspool of an institution." He had sneaked into the administrative offices after school had ended and changed the locker system so that 'The Avengers' had adjacent lockers. The other kids were confused but the teachers had fumbled through a half-hearted explanation, not actually sure of what went wrong in the first place.
So every day the six Avengers met by their lockers and discussed their plans for the day.
"I'm excited to try out this new English teacher," Tony offered, "What? I need to see if he's willing to roll with my delinquency."
Steve sighed, rolling his eyes fondly. "I just hope this new teacher actually teaches us something. Mr. Brown actually expected us to just read the book and know what we were talking about."
"Some of us do," Tony swaggered, exchanging his book for the day. Tony usually made notes in certain classes so that he could share them around with the group. Not that the others needed them, but in case they missed a class.
They really clicked as a team and everybody knew it.
So it was no surprise when they were all mysteriously assigned to the same English Lit class.
Natasha smacked the back of Tony's head playfully. "I hope the new guy's nice to look at. I mean, Mr. Brown wasn't exactly what anybody would call 'attractive'."
"Hey, that's what we say about you," Clint grinned and zipped behind Thor lithely to avoid a beating. Thor smirked down at Natasha.
"Sorry. I've been designated barrier for a while now. Clint requires my services."
"Makes a change from him requiring Nat's services," Bruce quipped from the flank where he stood next to Tony. Tony bumped him happily. It was a fine day when Bruce Banner engaged with his bantering side. It was so rare. Tony had labelled him 'The Other Guy' for when Bruce had his moments of hilarity.
"Yes, The Other Guy's out!" Tony cheered. "This is such a good day."
Natasha scoffed. "Remind me why I'm the only female in the group, again. Oh no, wait. I know that answer. It's because the five of you are so disgustingly primordial that you repel estrogen. I guess I'm just immune to the toxicity."
Thor guffawed and high-fived Natasha and Clint guessed that it was safe to emerge from Thor's shadow.
"Well, Steven here doesn't need you around for sexual banter. He has the five of us to joke about," Tony said, clapping Steve on the shoulder. "Right buddy?"
Steve raised an eyebrow and looked to Natasha. "We could've picked a better looking bunch for our eye-candy."
She smirked back at him. "You're totally right. Now who should we have chosen instead? Oh, how about Sam Wilson? He is fine."
Steve shrugged. "I don't know, he's a little immature."
"Oh, come on," Tony interrupted, "we four are the best looking guys in the school. Especially me, but who said this was a competition?"
Steve elbowed the boy in the arm and laughed. "Eh, you're not too bad I guess."
They turned into their English class and immediately commandeered the seats at the back. Natasha and Thor led, the two being the scariest of the group, and scared a slender boy to the second row. Steve, Clint and Bruce took the back row seats and Natasha, Thor and Tony took the seats in front of them. They decided not to stretch themselves out along the back row because it would be easier for them to talk to each other when the lesson got boring. Although Steve actually wanted to learn something from this new guy, whoever he was.
Steve opened his notebook, pencil flitting across the page. It was no secret that Steve Rogers could draw. But he could draw. Like, really well. He sometimes drew candid images of his friends and Tony had framed one in particular that had "made my body look really good". He was adding some more details of a sketch he had started of Clint standing by his locker when the boy leaned over to him.
"Damn, I look good even in drawings. Nice job, Steve."
Steve looked up and smiled gratefully. His gaze was about to drop back to his sketch of Clint when a man entered the room, presumably the new teacher.
Steve gaped.
He was about six foot one, Steve guessed, and was broadly built, if only a little smaller than he was. He was brunette, his hair cropped, and his facial features stood out a mile away. Steve was entranced by him, the sharp jawline and the rugged stubble. His deep, cloudy blue eyes twinkled as he stood in the middle of the classroom.
He took off his jacket, placing it on the back of the chair that had been stationed at the desk, and smiled.
Oh, fuck.
Steve's breath hitched as that smile hit him. He was vaguely aware of Natasha smirking at him, but he didn't care. He only had eyes for the man in front of him.
His…teacher.
"Morning, everyone," he began. "I'm Mr. Barnes, but I always ask my student to call me Bucky. Mr. Barnes makes me feel shrivelled and ancient."
He elicited a laugh from the class and Steve shivered at the low timbre of his voice. It was like…delicious honey, floating around the room and lathering itself all over Steve's heart. The noise shot straight through his spine and pooled in his groin. His cock twitched in his pants and he willed himself not to get hard. He couldn't. Not for his teacher.
"Since I'm the new teacher and you all probably know each other by now, I want to try and get to know each and every one of you personally. I want you all to feel like you can come to me with any problems that you may have. Who knows, I might be able to help!"
Steve swore that 'Bucky' looked directly at him as he said that.
"So," Bucky continued, "I want you all to write a short paragraph about yourself. I don't want the basic facts like your email addresses, we're not that close, but I want it to be more about you as a personality. What do you do in your spare time, what do you want to be when you grow up, that kind of stuff. So, I'll give you fifteen minutes and I'll read them after class. Make sure to write your names on them. I'm going to walk around, so you should introduce yourselves."
Steve flipped over the page, tucking his sketch behind the cover, and tapped his pencil against the page.
"Write about myself," Steve muttered to himself. It was easier said than done so he thought of some examples.
I'm attracted to my English teacher.
I like my English teacher's eyes.
I want my English teacher to bend me over his desk and—
"Steve!" Clint threw his eraser at him and Steve blinked.
It turned out that Bucky was standing over his desk. "Well, it seems Clint here did the introduction for me. Steve, is it?"
Steve nodded, mouth dry. "Yes, s—Bucky. Steve Rogers."
"Good to meet you, Steve." And then Bucky moved on to the next student. Steve got a glimpse of Bucky's ass, which looked incredibly squeezable and Steve just wanted to and reach out and—
"Dude, what's the deal with you?" Tony said from in front of him.
Bruce laughed. "I'd say that Steve here saw something he likes. Maybe brunette and wearing a tie?"
Natasha smirked, but snorted. "Boys, leave Steve alone. Don't you all have to find a way to write about yourselves that doesn't make you sound like crass Neanderthals?"
Tony had simply written "I am a student in your class" on his piece of paper and labelled it "T. Stark."
Thor shook his head. "Bucky's gonna love you, Tony." The sarcasm was thick in the air.
Clint was busy creating a new slingshot for his erasers when Steve turned back to his paper, seeing that he had only written his name at the top. Putting pencil to paper, his hand skimmed across the page.
I'm Steve Rogers. I enjoy classical literature and reading foreign translations of my favourite novels. English is probably my best subject. When I graduate I want to either write historical fiction or work for a publishing house.
Steve didn't feel like that was enough, but he didn't think that he was all that interesting. His mind lived in books, particularly ones set in the past. It was like he lived in the 1940's in a past life or something.
As he struggled to think of more, Bucky called time on that particular exercise.
The rest of the class flew by, Bucky introduced the syllabus and important assignment and Steve hanging onto his every word. Bucky might have noticed.
The bell rang and everyone shot out of the room. Steve didn't understand why most people were so eager to leave classrooms…it was likely that they had another class next. And only Bruce hurried to class. Well, most of the time. Not if it was Gym or Spanish.
The Avengers were the last to leave, always exiting classrooms as a group. They dropped off their introductory paragraphs on Bucky's desk. Steve slid the paper towards the teacher and smiled warmly as he left.
Fleetingly, he could have sworn he saw Bucky Barnes blush.