Notes:
Okay, this is super late, but last week at work was crazy, and Friday, when I would have normally spent the time to write, we had a water main break right outside the building, which meant that not only did we have to deal with the city working right outside, but I had three hundred senior citizens that suddenly didn't have water. It was a nightmare, to say the least, and I didn't have any time to work on anything. But, better late than never, right?
The chapter title was inspired by I Wish You Would by Taylor Swift.
Enjoy.
Equilibrium
Chapter 25: I Wish You Would
As much time as the three of them had been spending at Steve's place, Bucky just didn't feel at home there. Darcy's apartment was full of light and color, and felt lived in; where Steve was meticulous with utilitarian furniture and white walls. It took some convincing, but he'd finally talked Steve into staying in his room at Darcy's place, where Bucky could feel a little closer to his absent girlfriend, and a little more relaxed.
Bucky carefully measured three scoops of coffee grounds into the old Mr. Coffee that Darcy had insisted that she'd bought in college, and the trusty machine had chugged along, brewing the perfect pot, as far as it's owner was concerned, for her ever since. The scent of hazelnut wafted from the pot as the coffee brewed, making the kitchen smell like home. He sat down heavily on one of the bar stools and listened to the silence. Steve had pulled himself from Bucky's queen sized bed which was just a little too small for the soldiers to share, at dawn for his run. Bucky'd tried to turn back over, burying his face in Steve's pillow, and breathing in the warm scent of his boyfriend, willing sleep to come again, but a half hour of controlled breathing, and wishful thinking just left him frustrated. He'd thrown off the covers, not bothering to make the bed like he would at Steve's place, took a quick shower, and went to make coffee.
Darcy would wait until the carafe was half full before she'd fill her mug with what she called the Elixir of Life, she'd told Bucky more than once that it wasn't as bitter that way. Something about diffusion of bitterness throughout a larger medium. He thought it was ridiculously cute, but complete and utter non-sense. He also wasn't that patient. If he could, he'd stick his mug under the flow of fresh coffee and skip the pot entirely.
Bucky was on his second cup of warm Darcy's special warm hazelnut blend, that was stocked in ridiculous quantities, when a sweaty Steve breezed through the living room, and dropped a kiss against Bucky's lips, before disappearing down the hall to the guest bathroom for a shower. Bucky shook his head, a bemused, if sleepy expression on his face, and pulled himself off the stool to make breakfast.
Darcy liked a little bit of sweetness in the morning, preferring pancakes, she'd deemed Bucky the official pancake maker, since he could flip them perfectly every time, or pop tarts, sometimes she'd eat this god offal chocolate cereal with freeze dried marshmallows and a cartoon vampire on the box. Steve liked savory in the morning, Bucky chuckled as he cracked eggs into a bowl for scrambled eggs, and turned the griddle on for bacon. Steve liked savory everything in the morning. Which had led to their first fight, when Darcy bolted from Steve's apartment without giving Bucky his kiss.
"Morning, jerk," Steve plopped down on Bucky's vacated bar stool, a towel still hanging around his shoulders, and a pair of flannel pants riding low on his hips. He reached for a piece of bacon off the plate his boyfriend had set out, getting a wooden spoon to the back of his hand for his troubles.
"Use a fork, punk," Bucky scooped eggs on to the two plates he'd set to warm in the oven. "What were you born in a barn?"
"Nope," the captain gave his friend a cheeky grin and crunched down on the pilfered treat. "I know your memory's a little faulty, but I was born in good old Brooklyn."
"You're an asshat," Bucky mumbled, dropping the plate of eggs in from of the other soldier. "So, Darcy and I have this agreement, and I thought we should do the same."
"Okay," Steve looked at the other man skeptically over the rim of his coffee mug.
"Don't look at me like that, it's a good system," Bucky rolled his eyes and speared a couple of tomato slices to add to Steve's plate. "We just promised to be completely open and honest with each other about what we are feeling and wanting from our relationship."
"And that works?" the skeptical look still in the captain's eyes as he set his cup down and went to slice his tomato. "I recall three days where you sat on my couch bemoaning the fact that your girlfriend was mad at you and wouldn't talk."
"Shut up, punk," the soldier shook his head. "It's not a perfect system, but it lead me to be able to pursue our relationship, so show some respect. And she came around eventually, she just needed some time."
"Fine," Steve held his hands up in surrender. "So, I'm assuming you brought this up for a reason."
"We need to talk about Darcy," Bucky told his boyfriend, point blank. "We need to figure out what we both want so we're on the same page when she gets back."
Steve just nodded and took a bite of the scrambled eggs that Bucky'd made, savoring the fluffy texture with the creamy bite of cheddar missed in. "How do we deal with it if we both want different things, or if Darcy doesn't want what we want?"
"We respect each other's choices, and work it out from there," Bucky shrugged. "I'm not saying we need to change the current status of our relationships, I just don't want anything lingering unsaid."
"Fair enough," the captain folded his hands around the warmth of his coffee mug and sighed. "I like Darcy," he said, looking down into the deep dark depths of the hot liquid. "More than like her, I guess. I always thought that eventually I'd work up the nerve to say something, and I kinda thought she liked me too." Steve shook his head. "I mean, she'd sit for hours with me while I'd wonder through halls of art galleries, and I knew she wasn't as excited about them as I am."
"Good," Bucky smiled, fidgeting a little on his stool. "Good start." He watched as Steve stared into his mug and waited for the other man to look up at him. "I thought you were going to throw her down on the couch when she kissed you. I told her the same thing, she just blushed and denied it." He watched the shocked look creep over Steve's face, his cheeks burning bright red. "I told her that I would have been more than happy to watch you debouch my girlfriend." Bucky waited for Steve to close his mouth, taking a healthy pull from the now tepid coffee, watching his boyfriend gape like a fish on a hook. "She seems to think you're not interested."
"I'm interested," Steve finally managed to get out.
"So we need to get our girl to believe that," the soldier insisted. "We need a plan."
"You said she freaked out about the toothbrush," Steve recalled their conversation from the night before about Darcy's boundaries, which had not made Steve want to spend the night in the girl's apartment without her knowledge of it. "She shot out of my place so fast we both thought she was upset about catching us in the living room."
"Honestly, I thought she'd sleep longer," Bucky said defensively. "She almost never wakes up before I put on a pot."
"Well, you were wrong," the captain shook his head, dispelling thoughts of their fight. "I nearly died when you told me she was pissed about the stupid toothbrush and not the other thing."
"If you can do it, you really should be able to say it," he pushed his plate away. "We're getting off track."
"Right," Steve nodded. "You're the one that's good at this, jerk. I spent a year giving her puppy eyes and dragging her to the Met twice a week, hoping she'd figure it out."
"If I've learned anything, it's to talk it out," Bucky shrugged, stacking the dishes in the sink to worry about later, ignoring the pained expression on Steve's face at leaving a mess. It was his apartment, dishes could wait. "She gets home Monday afternoon, why don't we order some Thai, I don't like it, but Panag curry is Darcy's favorite, and we can all sit down and talk? I mean, a little honesty has worked out for me so far with her."
"And if she's not interested in me?" Steve barely looked at Bucky from under his lashes.
"I don't know, Stevie," he put his arm around his boyfriend, steering him back towards the smaller bedroom. "Watching the two of us kiss certainly gets her motor running, I'm pretty sure she'd be alright with getting to see that a bit more up close and personal, and I wouldn't have to go without my morning kisses."
"A relationship is more than sex, Buck," the super soldier let his boyfriend steer him towards the bed.
"And you two go out all the time, you go to dinner, you snuggle on the couch and watch movies, pull stupid pranks on each other," Bucky rolled his eyes. "Even the media thinks you're dating. The only thing you aren't doing is having sex." He pulled his boyfriend down to the unmade bed, fitting their bodies close together. "You two even snuggle when you sleep."
"You think this will work?" Steve tucked his head up under Bucky's chin, like he used to when he was small, his arms around the other man's waist.
"I'm betting pretty heavy that it will," he kissed the top of Steve's head, feeling lighter than he had since he'd watched Darcy leave the day before.
Notes:
Don't forget to feed the author. Up next, Darcy's triumphant return to the tower.