Summary: Bucky and Steve decide to move in together, but it's possible Bucky may have misinterpreted a few things.

Apartment-searching, Bucky has decided, has got to be the most stressful thing on the face of the universe. He doesn't know how people do it, but he certainly knows that if he suddenly stops working at Starbucks (because how can anyone pass up the free goodies?), being a realtor is the last thing he would consider.

He covers his face and groans into his hands. He can't do this. It's been three hours of non-stop browsing through websites and trying to squint at all too microscopic pictures because would it kill these people to actually make them bigger? He lets out another groan and reaches for his beer, only to have his hand swatted away.

"Nat."

"James."

They do one of their customary stare-downs which usually end with Bucky losing, but he blames it on Nat's CIA training. Clint walks in on this and thankfully he's so used to this by now he doesn't even question it anymore.

"What did Bucky do this time?" He sighs.

"Excuse me, but why does it always have to be me?" Bucky asks without breaking contact. He will win this time. He was a sergeant, damn the CIA.

"Because I have class, and you don't," Nat responds in a faux British accent.

Unfortunately this is Bucky's undoing because he ends up snorting at her stupid accent and he already knows he's lost. Natasha throws her arms up in the air and does a small victory whoop. Clint kisses her on the cheek with a, "So proud of you babe."

"I hate you. I hate you all," Bucky mutters and blinks rapidly to try to get the moisture back. He makes another attempt to grab his beer but this time Natasha kicks him very close to his groin. He doesn't want a repeat of last month.

"Okay, ow." Bucky glares at her and rubs the spot where he will probably find a bruise in the next three minutes.

She doesn't even acknowledge his pain. He swears he hears her mutter 'wuss'. "First: I thank The Parent Trap. And second: you're officially cut off from all alcohol."

Bucky whines and pulls a face. "You're not the one on a soul-searching hunt for new apartments."

"But I am the one helping you, and I am not letting you get drunk on your ass. Not until we've narrowed down our choices." She shuffles a couple housing brochures on the coffee table only to make room for more.

"Our choices?"

"Babe, I didn't know a threesome was in our midst," Clint gasps.

Natasha stares at him for a split second before rolling up three very thick brochures together and whacking Clint on the head.

"You're an animal, the horror," he deadpans and faces Bucky with a serious, "If she murders me in my sleep tonight promise me you'll find my body."

Bucky places his hand on Clint's knee and says with equal seriousness, "As long as you meet me by the bagel shop so we can admit our undying love for each other."

Clint waggles his eyebrows up and down. "I know which hole I'll be lick—"

They both earn three rolled up brochures to the head.

"Trust me, Bucky's bagel hole isn't that tasty." Natasha's mouth twitches slightly at the look of utter disgust on their faces.

"Okay you know just, ew. Gross. Ew. I am going to wash out my mouth with lots of soap now and never eat bagels again. Thank you babe."

Natasha kisses the top of his head as she gathers up the empty pizza boxes to throw out. "You'll live."

"After that image, probably not!" Clint calls after her.

Bucky is also just dying internally from that but is reeled back in when he goes back to staring at the long list of apartments up for sale. He rubs his eyes and groans. "Please, just put me out of my misery. Preferably Nat since you know, CIA and all."

"So now you appreciate my talents?" Natasha plops back down and scrolls through the webpage.

"What about Steve-o? Did he find anything nice?" Clint asks.

Bucky shakes his head. "Well sort of, but when we went to visit they just didn't… click, you know? Nothing really screamed 'our place.'"

"Maybe you guys are searching too hard?"

"No, I don't think it's that."

"Or maybe you guys just aren't ready yet."

There's a slight pause at Natasha's quiet comment. She glances between the two men and shrugs. "Just an observation."

"What do you mean we're not ready of course we're ready. We've been talking about this for weeks now," Bucky says.

"More like you've been putting it off." She gives him one of those 'I know you James' looks.

"But we agreed on this. We decided to do this, together," Bucky insists.

Clint decides it's now or never and makes a hasty escape to the bathroom. They barely notice his empty presence in the room.

"When I said not ready, I meant you guys are still reluctant to take the next step. And when I say you guys, I really mean you James." she clarifies.

"What?" Bucky's not trying to be stubborn, but he doesn't exactly get it either. He and Steve are great. They've been moving at a steady pace, they've already declared their love for each other, everything's great. So it's only natural to step it up a notch and move in together.

Initially Bucky would spend a couple nights at Steve's place, and Steve would do the same at Bucky's. The commute isn't that long either seeing as how they live fifteen minutes away from each other. But after that night [flashback to chapter 7] they decided moving in together was the next best thing. Which then began the horrid search for new homes. Steve was doing okay on his end, but he was just as stressed as Bucky was.

The plan was they would find a place that wasn't too far from their current apartments, and granted they did find some really nice ones but there was always something wrong. Kitchen was too big, bedroom closets too narrow, flooring was bad for the knees, he could go on for ages. Not to mention they also needed to find a place that would allow pets, as Thor wasn't getting any younger and Loki was as frisky as ever. But to say that Bucky wasn't ready was just.. well it was just wrong because he was, is, and why wouldn't he be?

Bucky pinches the bridge of his nose. "Look let's just—get back to work, okay?"

Natasha stares at him for longer than necessary before shrugging and turning back to her laptop screen. "Fine. Whatever you say."

"Nat—"

"BABE. TOILET PAPER. EMERGENCY."

Natasha sighs and heaves herself up. "Clint, what did I tell you about the extra toilet paper rolls?"

"Uhhh, no using them for mast—"

"LA LA LA LA LA LA LA," Bucky singsongs very loudly while covering his ears.

Natasha comes back with five brand new rolls but aims one of them at Bucky.

"GUYS. TOILET PAPER. PLEASE."

"And over here we have a lovely little balcony, perfect view and also great amount of sunlight. You could grow some nice plants. Or maybe even a small vegetable garden."

The realtor this time, Mindy, is a very perky young woman whose ponytail bobs just about every time she talks. She's really trying to sell the place because she won't stop pointing out certain things and Bucky is gonna go nuts if she mentions something about a vegetable garden one more time.

He feels Steve grab his hand and looks up to find him smiling. "Okay?"

Bucky breathes in through his nose and nods. "Yeah, okay. You okay?"

"Never better." Steve makes sure the realtor is still blabbering before sneaking a kiss on Bucky's temple.

"So here's the bedroom," Mindy continues, gesturing to the room. "It's probably the second largest room, lots of space. Also a good area for your pets to sleep."

Steve whistles at the site. It is pretty big. In fact, this was one of the more spacious apartments. The living room area was also pretty huge, and the kitchen roomy but enough elbow space to get around each other. There was also a small studio area which was perfect for Steve, and just enough space to place a treadmill and some exercise equipment for the both of them.

In conclusion, this apartment was everything they needed. Yet somehow Bucky has managed to find a flaw already. He tugs Steve's sleeve.

"Hmm, what is it Bucky?" He asks while studying the room.

"Steve, there's mold," Bucky's whispers in case of offending Mindy.

This grabs his attention and he whips his head around. "Mold? Where?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's mold. At least, I think it is. I saw something greenish on the carpet. It may have been nothing but I think it's mold."

Steve blinks at him a couple times. "You think you saw… mold?"

"Yeah."

"But you're not sure it's mold?" He says slowly.

"That's why I just want to be sure. We should definitely double-check before pointing fingers though."

Steve blinks some more before straightening up and asking in a very strained voice, "Excuse me, but Mindy do you think you could give my boyfriend and I a couple minutes alone?"

"Oh, of course certainly Mr. Rogers." Mindy smiles politely and makes her way out of the room.

Once they hear the door click Steve immediately launches with a, "Bucky, seriously?! Mold?"

Bucky furrows his brow in confusion. "What do you mean 'seriously Bucky'? I'm telling you I think I saw mold and we need to check it out! Although we should really just reconsider this place then because no way are we living in a moldy apartment."

Steve sighs and rubs his thumb along the area between his eyebrows. "Bucky, the green you saw was most likely a stain on the carpet, which we can get rid of easily."

Bucky frowns. "Why are you getting so frustrated?"

"Because this is like the gazillionth time you've done this!"

Bucky is taken aback and even Steve blushes in embarrassment at his sudden outburst. They promptly look away from each other. There's an awkward cough behind the door.

"Bucky," Steve begins quietly, "You can't keep doing this."

"Doing what exactly?" Bucky asks gruffly.

"Doing… this. You can't keep nit-picking at every little thing you see. Of course it's not going to be perfect, and we'll probably have to spend extra to fix a few things up. But this has gotta stop Buck." Steve places a hand on his hip and combs the other through his hair. If there's one thing Bucky likes about this place at least, it's the way the sunlight lights up Steve's features and makes his hair glow. It's a nice addition, even if there is mold.

"Steve, I'm pretty I'm not the only one nit-picking. Remember one of the very first open houses we went to? The bedroom was too small—"

"I only agreed because you were dead-set against the idea of certain limited bedroom activities."

Somehow Steve doesn't blush at that. Bucky falters for a moment but this doesn't stop him. "…Okay, then that place near Nat and Clint! The flooring was an ugly piece of crap—"

"You said you hated the wood and wanted carpet."

"Well, yeah, because—"

"And then the next place we went to had carpet and you complained and said you wanted wood for the pets!"

Now Bucky really has to stop and think about this. Did he say those things? He guesses he did if Steve remembers them all, but Steve had also agreed with everything he said! He agreed about the small bedroom, the flooring, and the pets. He never said a single word.

"And Bucky, all I said was move in with me. I didn't expect you to go apartment searching just like that," Steve added softly.

Bucky's mouth drops a little. Did he totally just misinterpret Steve's words? He could have sworn he said.. he said..

"Fuck," Bucky breaths out. "I think I just royally screwed up big time." He looks at Steve with wide eyes. "I screwed up, didn't I?"

Steve rolls his eyes and lightly taps Bucky's head. "Guess you didn't take time to process things huh?"

"I.. but you… did I completely waste all our time when I could have just moved all my crap to your place?"

"Depends on what you consider as wasting time."

Bucky wants to bury himself deep underground and never come out for at least a century. He really can't believe the source of all his problems was basically himself.

"I mean I think I got the message clear as day that you weren't ready to find our own home, so I figured you moving in with me would be more comfortable for you," Steve explains.

"But then.. why didn't you say anything? If you knew?"

Steve shrugs. "I figured it was what you wanted, only to realize it wasn't. Thus me confronting you." He waves a hand between the two of them.

At this point there's not much Bucky can do so he just throws back his head and laughs in disbelief. "I'm an idiot."

"Just smidge," Steve smiles and steps in closer.

"And a waste of space."

"Too much space probably."

"And a—" Bucky stops rambling when he sees Steve is chest to chest with him, smiling a shit-eating grin. Bucky's already red enough as it is. "What… punk?"

"Nothing. You lovable, idiotic, jerk."

"Were those adjectives really necessary?" Bucky mumbles as Steve leans in closer.

"Yes," Steve whispers and presses his lips lightly against Bucky's. Bucky presses a little more and feels Steve smiling into the kiss.

They pull back and Bucky feels the need to duck his head from Steve's gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You're not ready, and frankly neither am I, so for now just move in with me and we'll go from there. Okay?" Steve smiles reassuringly and kisses his forehead.

"A little demanding there, eh Rogers?" Bucky teases.

"I'm always demanding," Steve whispers into his ear. Bucky can feel the goosebumps travelling down his spine.

"We uh, you know, should let Mindy, uh, know. She.. waiting.." Bucky gasps as Steve bites his earlobe. It's a little hard to think when your boyfriend has roaming hands.

"Mhmm, I think she can wait five more minutes," Steve whispers breathlessly.

Bucky laughs and walks backwards with Steve clinging onto him. He fumbles a little but eventually manages to twist the doorknob and let Mindy in. Fortunately Steve jumps off just in time to go completely red in the face.

"You're the worst," Steve mumbles embarrassingly.

"I know," Bucky smiles and kisses his jaw. He turns to face Mindy. "Thanks for waiting Mindy, but I think Steve and I have made our decision now."