Chapter 2- Second Glances
'The Avengers' often studied together.
Everybody had a strong suit and, when they came together, homework was simpler. They were all intelligent enough to do marvellously well without the efforts of their friends, but there was a philosophy in making things fun. Or at least that was what Tony had proclaimed that very evening. Steve sat, poring over the columns of Math problems when flashes of his English teacher wouldn't leave him alone. He grunted slightly, catching the attention of the others.
"Steve? Is something bothering you? Is Tony being too arrogant today?" Bruce smiled.
Before Tony could protest that, Natasha smirked.
"Steve here is having daydreams about fucking Mr. Barnes."
Steve rolled his eyes. Well, now he was, no thanks to Natasha. "I am not thinking about fucking anyone." Lie. Complete lie.
"Oh, you so are," Tony teased.
Clint shrugged. "I'd do him." He blinked as everyone stared at him. "You know, if I was into doing guys. Which I'm not. I can just appreciate a good-looking man."
Thor grunted. "There is no shame in that, Clint. No need to explain yourself. Mr. Barnes is a good guy."
Just the mere mention of his name had Steve remembering that grin, those eyes, that tie that was just waiting to pulled on. Those lips just waiting to be kissed in the middle of quoting Shakespeare.
"Dude, you're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Tony nudged him and Steve fell out of his stupor and brought himself back to the inquisitive group.
Steve was helpless. "Let's not all forget that Tony tried to seduce the cleaning lady that one time and she rejected him."
Everybody shared a small chuckle at that memory. Bruce's lips quivered into a smirk. Steve just knew that the Other Guy was out.
"Ah, but Steve, you're deflecting from the issue. Very poorly, I might add. That either means you're lying or…well that's it."
"You can tell us, Steve. We won't judge you. Clint already admitted it," Natasha added.
Steve sighed. "I may be entertaining several unconscious thoughts about our English teacher." Steve planned to end it there, but his mind and mouth had other, very annoying, ideas. "You can't pretend like he's not gorgeous, I mean you all saw him right? And how laidback he is as a teacher, how he wants to use a nickname, how you can tell that he loves what he does and doesn't apologise for it and—I said way too much, didn't I?"
Clint smirked. "I think you said just enough to provide us with enough teasing material for the rest of the year. Man, I can't wait for English class tomorrow."
"We'll keep your secret, Stevie boy," Tony winked.
Steve scoffed. "Please. You guys are going to make it so obvious! When have any of you ever shown subtlety in your lives? You're going to coo and do all that other stuff when he walks into the classroom. I know you are."
Natasha grinned. "It's very fun, Steve. You're just so easy to rile up."
Thor sighed. "Don't be too hard on Steve. We've all had crushes before. Natasha blushes every single time Sam Wilson so much as looks at her."
"Not true," the girl protested. "Natasha Romanoff does not blush."
Thor pressed on. "And Clint is totally into Maria Hill, the sassy cheerleader in our Chemistry class."
Clint folded his arms, shutting his textbook. "Man, I thought this was about Steve and his crush on our teacher."
Steve smirked. "That's what you get when you try and tease me. Thank you, Thor."
"Think nothing of it. I just hope you can get Bucky to give me straight A's in return. Sex is a powerful persuasion tool, friend."
Steve groaned, his hands cupping his head. "Damn it, Thor. I thought you were on my side here. Bruce, you're the rational one."
"Usually," the boy admitted, "but this is too much to pass up. I rarely ever get to tease you guys about your exploits. For instance, Thor was giggling yesterday because Jane Foster has him tongue-tied so badly."
Everyone laughed at that. Thor did not looked amused. "Don't make me bring the thunder."
Bruce continued. "And Tony, before you make a witty remark about Steve's predicament, let's not forget that you worship at the altar of Virginia Potts."
Tony froze, eyes widening. "She doesn't even go to our school! How the hell do you know about her?"
Bruce chuckled, eyes wickedly glinting. "I may have hacked your Facebook so discreetly you didn't even know I was on it."
Tony slapped his head. "Facebook! I never leave my guard down, but that stupid website always manages to persuade me to stay logged in. I'm such an idiot!"
"You are," Steve quipped.
"Teacher's pet," Tony shot back good-naturedly.
"That's hilarious, Tony," Steve deadpanned. "I was waiting for that one. I'm sure you guys are going to keep them coming."
"Bucky's going to keep you coming," Clint muttered under his breath, but everyone heard him loud and clear.
"Clint, why are you like this?" Natasha complained, wrinkling her nose. Steve knew that she wanted to laugh, though, but she had to maintain her status as the classiest one out of the six of them. It wasn't exactly difficult. Steve was having hot-for-teacher fantasies, Thor fell apart laughing at burps, Clint and Tony were so dirty-minded it was impossible to believe that they were both virgins and Bruce had a secret soft spot for baby kitten videos. Natasha was the one who stood tall and elegantly, usually in the middle of them when they walked as a group. She demanded respect simply from walking, something the boys, especially Tony and Clint, consistently tried to emulate and failed, leaving a source of hilarity in its wake for the other three.
"You love it," Clint shot back.
And Natasha cracked a smile, leading to laughter, leading to all six of them chuckling freely and, subsequently, abandoning all thoughts of doing homework together. Since they had not had any English homework, Steve was relieved from torment until the next day's class, which proved to be extremely entertaining.
The sextet took their seats from the previous day and spent time smirking at Steve as Bucky introduced the lesson. Steve tried not to combust until the collective force of their stares.
"So I read all of your personal introductions yesterday," Bucky said promptly, "and I already feel like I know all of you a little bit better than I did yesterday. Some of you took it seriously and some of you didn't. There are a few potential class clowns in this group and I look forward to you playing pranks on me."
Tony nudged Thor, grinning and pointing at himself.
"Yes, Tony, I'm talking about you."
The class laughed and Tony shrugged. "Can we have a day away from learning today?"
Bucky chuckled. "As much as I would love to sit in my chair and talk about your favourite movies, I'm required to actually teach you all something to do with the syllabus."
Tony rolled his eyes and scribbled a note, throwing it to Steve.
Your boyfriend is a real dork, Rogers.
Steve groaned and took out his writing pencil. One: not my boyfriend. Two: he's a fucking teacher, Stark. They teach.
The Avengers often traded notes in class and they had become quick and discreet at sending them. Before Steve knew it, the crumpled paper was already on his desk being unfurled by his hands.
Bet he could teach you a few things outside of the classroom.
Steve smirked at the thought but didn't let Tony see it. He wrote back. Maybe he could teach youhow to be a functioning human being?
Steve used Natasha as the gateway as the note reached Tony.
"Tony? You're taking notes already? And sharing them with Steve? I'm curious as to what you're taking notes about considering I haven't actually started teaching anything yet."
Steve blushed, flicking to an open notebook page as Bucky's eyes quickly met his and, just as quickly, flickered to Tony.
"I like to predict what my teachers are going to teach to see if it's basic enough for me to take a nap during the class."
"May I look at your predictions?" Bucky smirked.
Tony tried to hide the note, but Bucky snatched it from underneath the paper on top of it. Steve winced. Bucky's eyes scanned the paper and a scarlet tinge throbbed behind his cheeks. Natasha eyed Steve pointedly and grinned. Steve waved her away, concentrating once again on not dying due to embarrassment.
"Well this is interesting," Bucky said, tucking the note in the pocket of his pants, "but sadly not correct. I might consider your suggestions for future curriculums, Tony." Steve saw Bucky look at him before turning to the class. He noticed that Bucky never held his gaze for too long. Was he uncomfortable with Steve's staring that was not discreet one little bit.
The lesson itself was quite interesting, Steve thought. They were studying English poetry, particularly William Blake, a module that Bucky had brought to the syllabus. Steve thought it was definitely something he was unfamiliar with, but found himself becoming accustomed to it. As they slowly worked their way through 'Songs Of Innocence', Steve started to zone out. The problem with that was that he doodled whenever he entered one of his daydreams.
And, of course, his particular daydream was of none other than his teacher, Bucky Barnes. His pencil seemed to flit across the paper independently, a shape taking place on the page rather than annotations in the poetry collection book he was supposed to be looking at.
Before Steve could knock himself out of the stupor, Natasha ripped the paper away from him. Carefully tearing out the sheet he was drawing on, she smiled at him and handed the notebook back. Steve noticed her put the page he was drawing on in her bag, zipping the pocket shut. Luckily for them, nobody noticed this particular interaction.
The lesson ended with no other real incident and Bucky dismissed them a moment before the bell rang.
"Uh, Steve, could you hang back for a second?"
Steve nodded as the others shuffled towards the door, unsure whether to hang back, too, or leave. "I'll meet you guys at lunch?"
Natasha nodded as she dragged Clint and Tony from the room, Thor and Bruce chuckling behind them, waving goodbye to Steve.
"I won't keep you long, Steve, I'm sure you're ready to go to lunch."
"It's fine, Bucky," Steve smiled, liking the informality of his teacher.
"I was reading your short paragraph yesterday and I noticed you like foreign translations of novels?"
"Yeah, I suppose it's a guilty pleasure of mine," Steve replied, noticing how Bucky's lips quivered upwards into a smile.
"Me too," Bucky revealed, "and I know a great website where you can get them. I wrote it on the back of your paper in case you were interested."
Steve was touched. That Bucky had gleaned information about him and actively worked to help him further his interests was something that no other teacher had ever done before.
Oh fuck. He needs to stop being so nice to me. I need to not be thinking these things about him.
"I also wanted to talk to you about this particular piece of paper," Bucky added, extracting the crumpled up note from his pocket.
Steve really didn't know how to respond to that. Like, he really didn't have any idea what to say.
"It's probably none of my business, Steve, but I noticed an insinuation of your sexuality was mentioned. I know how confusing that kind of stuff can be for a teenager to deal with."
Oh.
Steve needn't have panicked. His sexuality wasn't a secret nor did he want it to be. Bucky knowing didn't really change much. It only made him aware that he could make a move if he wanted to.
No, Steve! Bad thoughts!
"I wanted you to know that you can talk to me if you need or want to."
Steve smiled. "Thanks, that's a really nice thing to say. But I'm completely comfortable with being gay. It's probably one of the least confusing things in my life, ironically."
Bucky laughed. "Well, that's good. Some punks can get real hateful about it, but I'm sure you don't need your English teacher to tell you that." Bucky looked down at the paper in his hand. "How about you take this?"
Steve accepted the paper eagerly, his hand brushing against Bucky's once more. "Thanks. Sorry about that, I…Tony can be…as you'll probably learn."
"Boyfriend, huh?" Bucky smirked.
Steve knew that he was being less than professional, but it was just the two of them and he didn't mind. "Tony's insane, kinda. I mean, you're my teacher."
Bucky's eyes looked to the closed door and his breath hitched. "That's your only rebuttal?"
Steve shrugged. "I didn't know I needed one."
"You don't, I'm just messing with you Steve. I want you guys to know that I'm not the strict teacher that sets essays for fun and is harsh with grading. I'm not exactly a pushover, either. Never mind me, I guess I went too far."
"You didn't," Steve replied, "I mean, I don't mind you being friendly. I prefer teachers that way."
Bucky's responsive nod told Steve that he had taken his last sentence the wrong way. Thinking back, Steve probably should not have said it.
"I see," Bucky said, straightening a ruler on his desk, "well don't let me keep you. Have a nice day, Steve."
"See you tomorrow, sir," Steve said reflexively, leaving the room…
…and completely missing the shudder that tore through Bucky's spine at the term of address.
God, that kid.
Steve Rogers had been plaguing Bucky's thoughts since the previous day. Everything about him made Bucky want to push him against the blackboard and fuck him senseless. But he was his student. That couldn't happen. Bucky liked his job very much.
Although something told him that he would come to like Steve Rogers a whole lot more.