Steve doesn't know how, but by some miracle the Marvelle Academy Avengers won their first game of the season.
Sad to say, it wasn't a home game. It was an away game against the Gotham High Bats.
Despite this, Steve was ecstatic nonetheless. The team was too, as if their whooping and yelling wasn't any indication. The blond wasn't in the mood to give them a lecture about winning one but not winning them all, so he sat at the front of the bus on the way back to the school, contemplating whether or not he should send Bucky Barnes a message on their victory. He stared at his phone.
Peter Parker popped up in the seat behind him, staring over Steve's shoulder. The brunet tilted his head at his coach.
"Whatcha doing there, Coach?" he asked and Steve knew him well enough to know that it wasn't in innocence.
The blond quickly locked his phone and set it down in his lap. "Checking the time, Parker," he blatantly lied. His phone felt like a heavy weight on his leg, and his mind kept screaming just text him dammit.
"Riiight," Peter responded with a smirk. Without another word, he sank into his seat again.
Steve rolled his eyes. That kid was always in everyone's business. He looked back at the phone in his lap, glaring daggers at it as if it was the bane of his existence. Steve picked it up again and unlocked it. He didn't have any messages from a certain shaggy haired brunet, unfortunately. His thumb hovered over the conversation thread labeled "Bucky". He debated with himself but ultimately ended up opening the thread and typing out a message before he backed out.
[Sent to Bucky, 5:42 PM] We won against the Bats! You should've seen it, it was a great game. ;)
Steve regretted it about .2 seconds after the word delivered popped up under the text bubble.
He embarrassedly shoved his phone in the pocket of his shorts and buried his face in his hands. The blond had barely any time to think about what he'd done when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Steve looked away from his phone as he unlocked it and opened up the message thread between him and Bucky. He was almost embarrassed at looking at his own stupid text. He wished he hadn't sent it now. God dammit.
Steve looked at Bucky's message regardless.
[Received from Bucky, 5:42 PM] Too bad it wasn't a home game! Maybe you'll be in a winning streak now. If so, I have to find myself something to wear
Bucky's message was followed with a handful of flirty looking emojis, and Steve felt himself flush. He and the brunet continued to banter—can you even banter over text messages? Maybe it was more along the lines of flirting—as the bus neared the school. Steve probably looked just like another high school student as he stared smiling at his phone, tapping out messages.
The bus came to a stop outside of the boys' locker room. The players got up from their seats and tried to push their way out, anxious to stretch out and move. As the boys got off the bus, Steve did a headcount to make sure that everyone was off. When everyone was, Steve made his way off, but not before thanking the bus driver. The boys were already shuffling towards the locker room. Steve slowed to a stop and pulled out his phone again.
[Sent to Bucky, 6:01 PM] Are you still at the school?
Steve ran his free hand through his hair, a nervous habit he had. He stared silently at his phone as he awaited a response. A new text bubble appeared in the thread.
[Received from Bucky, 6:02 PM] No, I left a few hours ago. Sorry I couldn't congratulate you and the team in person :(
Steve's heart fluttered at the little frowny face and a stupid grin cracked his features in two. He was too busy typing out a reply to Bucky to notice Peter Parker and Wade Wilson sneaking up on him. Steve felt a tap on his shoulder, and when he turned to look who it was, he felt his phone leave his hand.
The blond's heart dropped into his stomach as he turned to see Wade with his phone in his hand. Wade waved the phone around. "Oooh, who're ya texting, Coach?"
Steve flashed his eyes at Peter who was giggling. His blue eyes darted to the boy who had his phone. "C'mon, Wilson, just give it back to me please."
Wade looked like he was considering it for a moment before he looked at the screen of Steve's phone. Steve felt his soul leave his body. Peter scampered over to his friend, peering over the other boy's shoulder. Steve started to make his way over to the two of them to snatch his phone back, but not before they had gotten a good look at the message thread.
Steve plucked his phone out of Wade's hands. The younger blond did his best impressions of a puppy who had just been scolded. Peter, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. Steve flushed as he shoved his phone in his pocket.
"I knew it!" Peter was laughing and all smiles. "Wade, our coach has a puppy dog crush on a certain Mr. Barnes."
Steve dragged an exasperated hand down his face. "One day you boys will be the death of me." He mumbled under his breath.
"Coach, not to be obnoxious or anything," Peter started. "But I think everyone and their mother knows that you have a thing for Mr. Barnes."
At this point, Steve buried his face in both of his hands, trying to conceal the red flush that had seeped into every part of his face. He groaned. "Am I really that obvious?"
Both boys made a gesture as if to say "sorta" or "maybe". The history teacher ran his hands through his hair again, screwing it up even more. He started to mumble incoherently. Wade and Peter shared a look and then glanced back at their exasperated coach.
"Hey, uh, coach?" Peter started. "If it makes any difference, Wade and I won't tell him. Or anyone for that matter."
Wade furrowed his brow, puzzled, and looked at the brunet. "But didn't you just say that everyone and their mother knew—"
Peter smacked him upside the back of his head without changing expression. Wade yelped in pain and swatted at Peter's shoulder and arm with both hands. Peter half-heartedly smacked at the blond's arm while looking at his coach.
"I promise, he won't hear a word of it."
Friday came faster than Bucky realized it. Before he knew it, the bell signaling the end of ninth period rang, and he found himself making his way to the baseball diamond.
Bucky strode across the soccer field towards the bleachers. From across it, he saw Steve standing over his crouched team behind the cage. He looked like he was giving them a pep talk or something so he thought it best not to interrupt the moment. Besides, he would be able to talk to the blond after the game (hopefully). The brunet turned towards the bleachers, hiked up to the top bench, and took a seat. He was one of the only people sitting in the bleachers, along with what looked like two pairs of parents. He watched as the team broke up to take practicing positions.
However, Bucky noticed that two of the boys on the team hung back for a moment near the cage. They were looking over at the bleachers as if in some sort of trance. Bucky was pretty sure one of them was Peter Parker and that the other one was the blond he always saw with him in the cafeteria—Wade, was his name? Anyways, the two boys were staring at the stands, and then quickly whipped their heads around to face their coach. Wade extended his arm with his finger pointed in the direction of he stands, his voice loudly echoing across the field. Bucky was too far away to clearly hear what the boy was saying, but Bucky did catch "Coach" and "your boyfriend". Peter smacked the other boy in the shoulder as Steve froze in his place. Bucky bit his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. He covered his mouth with one hand and waved at the three of them with his other hand. Wade looked at his coach, said something to him, then looked back at the stands again, and pointed at Bucky this time. After a moment, Steve buried his face in one hand and waved back at Bucky with the other.
After Steve got over his embarrassment, he barked at the two boys to go practice. They scrambled to get in their positions. Not long after, the bus carrying the opposing team arrived. Bucky couldn't tell what school they were from, but they looked like a damn good team if he ever saw one. They had almost twice the amount of boys as Marvelle had, and they all looked like track stars. Bucky guessed from the colors on their uniforms that they were the Keystone City High Flashes. He worried his lower lip; that wasn't a good sign for Marvelle. The brunet knew that the Flashes had a record of ultimately annihilating the competition.
The game began after the Flashes got to have a few minutes to warm up. The opposing team was up to bat first, and Bucky sighed as they scored 3 runs before the Avengers were able to get them out. It was already off to a bad start.
Four innings later, and the Avengers seemed to be doing okay. They were only a few runs behind the Flashes (the score at that point was 3-5), but Bucky could see that Steve was tearing himself up over their inevitable loss. When he looked over at the blond coach, he was leaning his forehead against the chain-link cage with his fingers threaded through the openings, watching the game with wide eyes. Every now and then he would take his baseball cap off, card his finger through his hair nervously, and readjust the hat back on his head.
Bucky couldn't help but feel a little bad for him; Steve looked like he was about to explode from all the stress he looked to be under. He also couldn't help but feel as if some of the stress was partly his fault. Bucky was the one to make the bet in the first place; but Steve couldn't possibly harbor feelings for Bucky on a romantic level enough to stress him out over a stupid date, right?
The game ended five innings later, with a score of 5-8. The coaches shook hands and said farewells, and the little amount of people in the stands started to disperse. Bucky lingered on the stands for a moment, waiting for Steve to finishing speaking to the boys. After a few minutes, the team trudged to the locker room, leaving Steve by the cage. Bucky started walking towards him, smiling as he neared the blond.
Steve mustered up a tired smile. "Guess I owe you a coffee date, huh?"
"Guess so," Bucky shrugged a shoulder, a dumb grin splitting the features of his face. "It's too bad, I was looking forward to taking you out to dinner."
The smile fell from Steve's face, and he mumbled something like, "Yeah, me too." The brunet slung his arm around the coach's shoulder and playfully tapped it.
"Hey, don't worry about it. The boys did a great job today," he started. "I know it didn't turn out like you wanted, but the upside is that we can still go out for coffee this weekend. Besides, I'd be up to take you out to dinner anytime; bet or no bet."
Bucky really wished he'd shut up. He bit his lip as he watched Steve's entire face go red, starting at his cheeks and going all the way up to the tips of his ears. Bucky felt himself flush too.
Steve gave a small, genuine smile this time. "I'll take you up on that offer."
