Bucky had gone from furious, to startled, to just plain speechless. The second Nikolai closed in on him and pressed their lips together, his eyes went wide and he let out a surprised ‘mm!’, clearly having expected anything *but* this as a result of their argument. What were they arguing about again? If it was Nikolai’s goal to short circuit Bucky’s brain, he had done a damn good job of it really, really quickly.
He didn’t necessarily push him away, either… But no one had kissed him since 1943… And he’d altogether forgotten what it was like.. Whenever the kiss ended, Bucky stared dumbfounded. His face had blossomed into a bright blush which spread to his ears, and his eyelids fluttered in confusion. A part of him was obviously afraid that this was one of those cruel pranks again, and just as quickly the fear began to show.
“Was that just to shut me up?”
For the past couple weeks Nikolai and James had gone toe-to-toe on every topic imaginable. From if ketchup is awful, to which one of them has the worst attitude. Someone would think that at some point they would just both try to stop being in the same room together-- but, every morning Nikolai sat at their table with two cups of coffee. Waiting. Craving the challenge James presented in his unyielding and down right stubborn behavior-- which he suppose the other man could just as easily say about his behavior as well.
Today had been no different than any other day. Until it was. One second Nikolai was watching the way James’ lips moved as he spoke pointedly and the way the sleeve of his shirt clinched at his bicep every time he flexed his hand. The next his own hand was reaching out grabbing the front of said shirt, moving forward out of his seat to close the distance between them. The lips against his weren’t soft; they were warm and coffee flavored, and as close to perfect a pair he has ever come by has been. It only lasted a few seconds before they were pulling apart and Nik’s hand dropped back down to the table-- just as confused about what just happened and why both of his arms remained unbroken. He can’t fathom what kind of mistake he probably just made and he honestly didn’t know what to say back to the man staring at him.
“ No.” The truth is what he decided on. “ I don’t know why I did it-- but it wasn’t for that reason---” His eyes didn’t budge from were they cautiously watched James’ “ I actually enjoy listening to you talk.” I would never want you to stop. His mind added but lips did not.