Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (Background Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff)
Summary: When you lie to your mum about having a date to your brother’s wedding, things spiral swiftly and ridiculously. Suddenly, your thrust into fake-dating your best friend, and everything begins to change.
Warnings: fluff, cliches, it’s still a little angsty lmao
A/n: soz that it’s been a month, soz that this chapter isn’t my best, I hope you love it anyway! I’ve had a part of this written since the day I planned this fic so I hope it’s as good as I thought it was
Chapter 5| Series Masterlist | Full Masterlist
The resort is buzzing with anticipation and excitement – guests from far and wide have been waiting to see Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff tie the knot, and today was finally the day.
The sun hangs low in the sky when a gentle alarm fills their room, and Nat hums quietly before rolling over towards Steve. She throws a leg over his, stretches her arm across his chest so her fingers rest delicately on his bare collarbone and sighs happily.
“Where were you last night?” she mumbles groggily, gently tracing her fingers across the soft skin. “You didn’t get into bed until like 1am.”
“Damage control,” Steve grumbles, eyes still closed, “my sister and Barnes.”
Nat’s eyebrows scrunch together, “what happened? Last I heard she was going to tell him.”
Steve sighs, pries his eyes open and looks down at his fiancée, worry clear in his eyes. “She’s thinking about moving to San Francisco.”
“What?” Nat’s fingers stopped in their tracks, eyes wide as she looked up at Steve. That can’t be possible – she would know if her best friend was planning on leaving the city. “She wants to leave New York?”
“She was upset.” Steve shrugs, rough fingers finding their way to slender ones and twisting them together on his chest. “Said somethin’ about ‘needing space’ – already had a job lined up.”
Nat shook her head slightly, frown still evident on her face. “A job? Why wouldn’t she tell us?”
“Well, I don’t think she was gonna go,” Steve’s voice is calm as he explains, but Nat’s watching his face and she knows when he’s upset. He hides it well. Sure, Nat would be upset if you left, but Steve would be devastated. “it’s not a huge promotion or anything, just an… escape, I guess.”
Nat untangles herself from Steve, sits up and reaches down beside the bed for a hoodie. Her face hardens, and Steve watches as she turns completely serious – investigation mode, she’s on a mission to fix this now. “What made her upset?”
“She heard Buck tellin’ me that he doesn’t like her,” Steve mumbles with a sigh, rubbing his face and leaning up on his elbows. “He said he just ‘got caught up’ in the act. He’s in denial and I don’t know how to get him to admit it.”
Nat was away from Steve in an instant, up and out of the bed, pulling on some sweatpants with a determination in her steely eyes. Steve groaned as if he didn’t already know this was going to happen.
“What’re you doing, Nat? We’re getting married in less than 6 hours.”
“And kicking some sense into Barnes will only take 5 minutes,” she huffed, words muffled through the hoodie she was already pulling over her head.
“Please don’t beat up my best man.”
“I won’t.” she leans down and pulls on some sneakers before adding, “Physically.”
“Great.” Steve chuckles lightly, falls back onto the bed and stares up at the ceiling. “I’ll see you later, y’know for that thing we have on today? No big deal.”
Before the door could close, she stepped back into the room and raced towards the bed, jumping right on top of Steve. He let out a quiet grunt, but then her hands were on his face and her lips were on his and he was filled with a certain giddiness that only came with the knowledge that you’re marrying the love of your life later. He smiled into the kiss.
When she pulls way, she’s grinning, and he knows she’s as excited as he is.
“I love you, Steven Romanoff.”
With that, she was out the door again, quick and graceful and stunning as always.
Steve was still grinning as he shouted after her, “It’s Romanoff-Rogers!”
Bucky was dreaming again, except this time all he could see was you – right in front of him, repeatedly poking his face. Considerably less-sexy than his last dream featuring you.
He groaned, swatted at his face and you stepped back into a shadowy background.
The next thing Bucky new, he was shooting up out of the bed with a (frankly embarrassing) yelp, drenched in cold water and confronted with Nat’s smiling face.
She pressed her finger to her lips, shooshing Bucky and gesturing to you as he opened his mouth to question her.
“Come with me – we need to talk.”
“It’s 6am!” Bucky hissed, “and you’re getting married later! Why do you need to talk to me?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.” Bucky was still staring blankly at her, pulling the damp material of his shirt away from his skin.
Nat hit him with a pillow. “Come on.”
“Okay, okay,” he surrendered, pulling off the sheets.
Bucky pulls on a hoodie and some sweatpants then walks with Nat through the resort. She stays silent and he tries to rub the remnants of sleep from his eyes. She lets out a frustrated huff every few steps and he tries to pretend he’s not terrified of the redhead.
Finally, she pulls him out onto a balcony – somewhere private, a few floors up, and Bucky begins to wonder if she’s gonna push him off the edge.
All of a sudden, she hisses out, “you’re an asshole.”
He gapes at her for a brief moment before collecting his thoughts. “Okay, I know you said this is important but if we’ve just come out here so you can insult me, I think it can wait.”
“It can’t wait!” she growls, “It’s been waiting for years – I can’t stand it anymore!”
“Oh, you mean me and-“ Bucky was beginning to catch on to what Natasha was talking about. “Did Steve tell you?”
“No. Steve didn’t tell me – it’s blatantly fucking obvious!” she throws her arms up in exasperation and Bucky almost flinches.
“She’s in love with you!”
Bucky’s heart might’ve actually done a flip in his chest. His eyes widen and he steps back as if he’d been punched. Nat’s staring at him expectantly and he doesn’t know what to say – his lips are dry and he briefly wonders if she’s lying to him but Nat doesn’t lie, not to her friends.
“w-“ he clears his throat, “what?”
“She loves you, you big dumb pain-in-my-ass, I shouldn’t be telling you that but seeing as you’re both completely hopeless – she loves you and she heard you telling Steve you don’t love her.”
If he felt like he was getting punched before, it now feels like a bullet punctured his heart and he’s bleeding out on the balcony. His mouth suddenly feels very dry. He wishes Nat would throw him off the edge.
“I– I do,” he mumbles, scratches his fingers through the stubble on his jaw and avoids eye contact with Nat, “I do love her.”
“Well, I know that!” Natasha runs her fingers through her hair violently, “we need her to know that!”
Bucky is still trying to process all of this when Nat steps closer to him, pokes him in the chest and says, more earnest than he might’ve ever seen her, “you need to fix this, Barnes.”
“I– I’ll talk to her when we get back, after the wedding, when everything is calm when I’m not–“
“She’s giving up,” Nat interrupts, her tone matter-of-fact and urgent.
“Giving up?” Bucky’s still stuttering over his words. “What does that mean?”
“It means she’s moving out of New York!”
Silence falls across the balcony, thick and dark and Bucky swears his breath is turning to ice in front of him.
“What?” it’s a whisper, a breath filled with fear and confusion, “Sh- she wouldn’t. She loves New York – Brooklyn is her home.”
“She got offered a job in San Francisco. She told Steve last night. Said she needed an escape.”
Bucky rests, almost falls, back against the railing, letting it hold his weight as he tries to pull his thoughts together – he’s just received so much new information, and his heart is beating a million miles an hour.
“Barnes, you need to fix this. Before the end of the day.”
He nods numbly at her, then pries open his dry lips to ask one more question. “how?”
From the outside looking in, everything was normal. You and Bucky were a couple – smiling and touching and making appearances.
From the inside, everything was a little bit off.
Your eyes never quite met his, your touch never lingered like it used to, and you stepped out of his arms faster than before. He missed having you in his arms, missed your fingers on his waist, missed the way you used to look at him.
He wants to cry, wants to scream that he’s sorry and that he loves you. But he can’t yet, he has a plan.
So, he plays his part, holds your hand until you want to let go, stays by your side until you walk away.
Even when you’re beside him he feels like you’re 10 feet away, and more than anything he wants to close that gap.
Steve and Nat allow themselves to become fully engrossed in each other, in the big day. They let themselves forget your’s and Bucky’s issues for a while.
There’s one moment, when Steve see’s Bucky watching you, that he claps a hand on his best mate’s shoulder, a sympathetic look in his eye, one that Bucky perceives as disappointment.
“I’m gonna fix this Steve. I’ll fix this.”
Despite the mild tension, the day passes quite pleasantly. Yours and Steve’s parents enjoy themselves, as do the other guests, and Nat and Steve end the day impossibly more in love.
“Buck, it’s time for the best man’s speech,” Nat whispers into Bucky’s ear, brushing past him to find her seat at the table. When she gets there she sends him a smile and a thumbs up. Good luck. Don’t fuck it up.
So, Bucky stands up. He clenches the paper in his hand, feels a rush of nervous heat spread over his cheeks and neck before awkwardly coughing into the microphone.
“Hi everyone, I’m Bucky, the best man.” It’s an awkward beginning, but with a nervous little smile, he continues, raising his glass to the still-silencing room.
“Those of you who know Steve will know me – you’re probably shocked that it’s not us getting married.” His joke lands and a quiet chuckle trickles through the room, a whoop of agreement from a scattered few (Tony, maybe, definitely Sam.)
“We’ve been inseparable since before we could walk which means this is probably gonna be a pretty long speech. Sorry.” He shrugs carelessly, already more relaxed. “In the last 28 years, We’ve given each other a lot of advice. Now, I like to think I’m pretty good at advice–“
He stops, turns to look at Steve and asks him “–do you remember what I told you when you were refusing to ask Nat out at that party?”
Steve leaned forward, cleared his throat with a chuckle “Something along the lines of ‘sack up and spit it out’?” Steve questions, loud enough for the crowd to hear.
They laughed at that, and you watch as Bucky tries to hold back a proud grin as he gestured between Steve and his bride. “See? Look at where that advice got you.”
Bucky turns back to the audience then, diving back into his speech. “I never thought Steve was good at advice. He suggested reckless endangerment and unnecessary rule-breaking far too often for me to listen to any of his advisory comments.”
Your mother lets out a chuckle, thinking back to all the troublemaking Steve had taken part in throughout High School and you can’t help but grin, knowing your brother would always be a little reckless at heart.
Bucky ran a hand through his hair, eyes searching the room until they landed on you.
“I have to admit, there were a few times when I should’ve listened. Like when we were 8,” behind him, a big photo of the two young boys appeared on a projector, drawing some ‘aww’s’ from the crowd. “It was the first time I was meeting Steve’s sister and he said something to me as we walked into the house.”
The picture changed. It was now the three of you laying flat on the grass in your backyard.
“He said ‘you should fall in love with her – maybe one day we can be actual brothers.’ At the time, I punched him in the shoulder and I did not take his advice.”
Bucky kept looking back at you, and even as your eyes began to water, you didn’t dare look away.
“The second time I should’ve listened was our senior prom – I didn’t know who to take and Steve, knowing (Y/n) didn’t have a date, told me to take her.” You both glance back at Steve at the same time, a smile on his lips and confusion in your eyes. “If I recall correctly, he told me that we would fall in love and in turn live out his life-long dream of becoming brothers”
Another laugh ran through the room.
“I didn’t listen that time either. I went to prom with a girl named Gemma and she ditched me for a guy named Brad and this is how I ended up spending prom night.”
He glanced back at the screen as a silent video played behind him – the two of you, 18 years old and giggling like children as you threw mnms into each other’s mouths.
A few coos are heard throughout the crowd, some laughter scattered through the room.
“Anyway – you’ve probably all seen me around, arm-in-arm with that beautiful girl.” Now, a picture of the two of you – a recent one, where you’re squeezing his waist and he’s making a face. You feel a tear slip down your face.
With a shake of his head, Bucky manages to pry his eyes off you and look back at Natasha and Steve, as if just remembering that there are other people in the room. “What I’m trying to say is that Steve doesn’t get a lot of things right, but when it comes to love, he really knows what he’s talkin’ about. Stevie, Nat; you guys have shown me what a genuinely wonderful nightmare relationships can be. I hope that one day I have even a fraction of what you guys do. Steve, You’ll always be my brother, no matter what, and unfortunately for you, Nat, that means you’re about to join the family.”
An applause swims through the room and Bucky bowed his head, mouthed the words ‘love you, guys,’ and then found his seat.
Your father stood up then, beginning his speech and the sudden silence of the crowd snapped you out of the trance Bucky’s speech had put you in. You hurriedly wiped the tears from under your eyes, glancing across at Bucky to see if he had noticed.
Your brain was swimming with thoughts – you and Bucky had fought, but you had to keep up this fake-dating charade until after the wedding. Maybe that’s what he wrote at the start of the week and hasn’t had time to re-write. Maybe that speech was just part of the lie.
Your heart beat loudly in your chest as you thought about the way he was looking at you.
“I need… I need some fresh air,” you mumbled, brushing your hand across your mother’s as you slipped out of your seat, heading for the closest terrace.
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well evidently the tags didn’t work so here I am two days later fixing my issues
