Steve was overthinking everything right now. Whether he should touch Bucky. How close they should be. What he should say. He hadn’t expected Bucky to agree to move into the tower with him. Steve worried that he only did it because he had nothing else he could do right now. That he was there because of a mixture of guilt and obligation.
Bucky had been on the run for so long. Ever since he’d broken free of the hold HYDRA had on him. He’d been hiding and rediscovering himself. Only it couldn’t last. There was one thing the world’s governments didn’t like and so Steve tracked him down and gave him the offer, come live with him in Avengers Tower. They’d gotten a reprieve for Wanda. They could do that for Bucky too. None of what had happened was Bucky’s fault after all.
So here they were and Steve didn’t know what he should do. There were things he wanted to do. He wanted to pull Bucky into his arms and kiss him breathless. He wanted to finally admit all those feelings he’d been holding on to all this time. All the things he’d never said back then.
Steve always considered himself a brave person, but he’d never been brave enough to admit to that.
They stepped into the elevator together and the doors closed behind them. “The view is really nice up in my apartment,” Steve said. “Bet you never imagined living in an apartment in Midtown one day, huh? It’s a big move from the tenements we grew up in.”
God, that sounded lame. Bucky was still learning who he was. This felt like so much pressure to put on the man. So while yes, Steve wanted them to finally be a couple, what he wanted most was for Bucky to feel safe.
@jamesbuch-anon
