December 16: TREE DECORATING (bonus points if one of them is doing it completely wrong omg why am i in love with you)
This was the year. Steve and Bucky were finally getting their first Christmas tree for their apartment. Technically, they had had Christmas trees before, but none so great as this. It was given to them by Bucky's mom, who had bought herself a new one. This tree was tall, tall enough to nearly be brushing the ceiling and it was wide. It barely fir through their front door. It took them nearly half an hour to get the tree up the stairs and into there apartment, but neither of them complained too much, they were both too excited. The only thing left to do was to decorate.
In the Barnes' household, tree decorating was an art. Bucky's mother would spend hours trying to make sure that every ornament was in the correct place and that the tree was perfect. Bucky decorated the same as his mother, full of exactness and perfection and so he had a plan when starting on their tree.
While Bucky was meticulously mapping out where the most perfect place to put each individual ornament, Steve started grabbing ornaments and haphazardly placing them on the tree. At first, Bucky didn't notice what was happening, but he ended up glancing at Steve for a second and he immediately glared at Steve.
"What do you think you are doing?" He asked in a clipped tone.
Steve gave him confused look. "Decorating." He said. "What does it look like I am doing?"
Bucky snorted derisively. "Not like that, you aren't." He said as he started taking Steve's decorations off one by one, ignoring Steve's affronted look. "I don't even know where to start with this. Why did you put three of the exact same ornaments clumped together. There needs to be variety."
"Excuse me, Buck, but who died and made you queen of tree decorating?" Steve asked with his hands on his hips. "I can decorate however it is I want."
Bucky shook his head. "No you can't, Steve. There is a process to these kinds of things." He said, gesturing to the tree. "You can't just throw decorations on willy-nilly. It takes planning and skills."
Bucky looked up at Steve's face and realized that Steve was verging on being legitimately angry at him. "Why are you being like this, Buck? It's just a tree."
Bucky groaned and buried his head in his hands. "See, this is what I was saying, you don't understand. This is a delicate matter."
Steve threw his hands in the air. "Fine, show me your oh so superior decorating skills." He said.
Bucky breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Okay, first off, we have to take stock of what we have, so we can better plan what needs to go where." He said.
Steve rolled his eyes, but followed Bucky's instructions anyway. They spent a significant amount of time with Bucky just showing Steve the process of decorating, so when the time to start putting the decorations on the tree came, Steve was sick and tired of Bucky's slow and meticulous way of decoration.
Steve finally lost his cool demeanor after Bucky spent twenty minutes moving one ornament to different places on the tree, trying to find the perfect fit. Steve closed his eyes for a second and tried to talk himself out of what he was planning, but he realized that he wasn't going to be successful. He approached the tree when Bucky turned his back and quickly started switching the positions of the ornaments. He winced when he grabbed ones he knew that Bucky had spent a significant amount of time trying to arrange, but he stuck with his plan.
he didn't stop until he heard an ornament fall tot he ground behind him. He whirled around to face Bucky, who was staring in shock at Steve's meddling.
He gestured weakly to the tree. "But-the decorations and the..." He trailed off and just stared at the tree for a second before turning a thunderous gaze towards Steve. "Why would you do this? We have a system." He said.
Steve shook his head. "No, Buck. You have a system. I was just following your dumb way o make you happy."
"Oh no!" Steve exclaimed. "I am going to stay and help." He started moving more decorations around where Bucky was trying to fix them.
Bucky growled in Steve's direction. "I don't need your help." He said.
"Well tough." Steve said. "Because I am giving it." Steve was basically just putting the ornaments that Bucky returned back to the spots they had been in originally back to where he had moved them, and Bucky was getting more and more frantic.
Bucky frowned at Steve before stalking to the nearest side if the tree. "Fine, I'll finish decorating and you can leave." He said as he started readjusting the ornaments to the correct places.
"Why are you so terrible at this?" He asked. "This is starting to make me question why I am in love with you."
Steve froze after these words left Bucky's mouth and just stared. Bucky, seemingly unaware of what he had just admitted, was still adjusting ornaments. After a split second, he too froze and he slowly turned to meet Steve's gaze.
"Um-I." He just stood with no words forthcoming.
Steve just stared right back before he gathered enough courage to stand on his tippy toes and press a quick kiss to Bucky's lips.
He ended the kiss nearly as soon as he had initiated it before he took a quick step back with his face burning. "I guess I'll just leave you to your decorating." He said before surfing from the room.
After a few seconds, Bucky followed him out of the room and spun him around to place a breathtaking kiss on Steve's lips. They both melted into the kiss and it sent fireworks dancing across Steve's tongue.
When they pulled part, Bucky offered a soft smile at Steve. "Thanks for being so bad at decorating." He said.
Steve swatted him on the arm before wrapping his arms around Bucky's neck and pulling him in for a longer kiss. Needless to say, not a lot of decorating happened for the next few hours.
Part of a 25 part Christmas AU series.