Chapter Text
"No."
"Steve, please."
"Well..."
"Yes?" "No."
"When have I ever asked you for a favor?" Bucky pleaded. Steve lifted his index finger to start a list. "Nevermind, don't answer that," Bucky continued quickly. He was about two seconds away from groveling at Steve's feet. Steve rolled his eyes and went back to studying. He was seated at Bucky's kitchen counter with a textbook in hand and a chewed-to-bits pencil in his mouth, just like he was most weekday nights. He was there often on weekend nights too, sans textbook and pencil. Steve's own roommate, Clint, drove him crazy just about every time he walked through the door.
"I have an Art History exam tomorrow, Bucky, I don't have time to play your games," Steve said without taking his eyes off of his book. "Some of us actually have to get good grades," he added. Bucky was about to argue that he needed to too, but he knew it was a lie. His parents were very generous alumni. As long as he showed up to his classes from time to time and did a few assignments, his education was perfectly safe. His family's financial status didn't usually cause tension with his friends, but he knew that Steve's scholarships and loans were a sore spot for him. Then again, they weren't even friends, not really, but knew each other well through Steve's best friend and Bucky's roommate, Natasha. Steve might as well have been their roommate too, with how often he was at their place. They bickered often, but it was usually at least a little playful. The bite in his words was a little harsher than usual, catching Bucky offguard. Steve realized it too when he saw Bucky's expression and softened his own, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "What's the favor?" He asked, slightly warmer. Bucky could tell that he felt a little guilty over his tone, but not enough to agree to Bucky's favor without a little more prodding.
"I need you to be my date to my sister's wedding," he spoke quickly. His siblings had teased him mercilessly about his romantic dry spell the last time he saw them, and in a moment of insanity, he had lied and told them that he was seeing someone. He had refused to give them a name, claiming that it wasn't serious enough yet for them to tell anyone about them. But when Rebecca had called him up to ask if he still had someone he could bring to the wedding, he couldn't bring himself to say that he didn't.
"No."
Bucky sighed, exasperated, "Please. I'm desperate. I'll do anything," he begged, making Steve smirk. Bucky sighed, "My siblings can't find out that I'm still single. They'll hound me the entire weekend."
"Why don't you just ask Clint?" Steve asked. They both knew it was a stupid question as soon as he asked it. Clint was a good guy, of course, and he was perfectly attractive. But he was still Clint. He could barely remember to tie his shoes most days. Steve Rogers, on the other hand, was the Ultimate Dream Boyfriend™. Smart, funny, and talented, and maybe a little gorgeous. Practically a Ken doll. He was the perfect fake date, everyone would love him.
"Would you want to rely on Clint to be your fake date?" Bucky scoffed. He had him there.
"True," Steve said, pausing to consider his next words, "Let's say I did do this favor for you - not to say I will - what's in it for me?" His arms were crossed and he was staring intensely at Bucky, making him feel like he was under a microscope.
"My everlasting love and gratitude?" He kid, shifting his weight. Steve glared at him. Bucky thought for a moment before answering, "A thousand bucks." It was pretty low of him to offer Steve money, he knew that. But he also knew that he needed it, and Bucky had it. He could have offered Steve five thousand without it being an issue for him, but he knew even a thousand would be hard to convince Steve to accept.
Steve's expression changed, first shocked, then hesitant. "I-I don't know, Buck. I don't feel right about taking money from anyone..." Steve trailed off. The "especially you" hung in the air, unsaid but understood. Bucky had seen the look in his eyes when he had offered it, though. He knew Steve couldn't pass it up.
"It's really nothing, Steve. Just payment for you to spend a weekend pretending to be my boyfriend," Bucky assured him. "Trust me, you'll deserve it by the time it's over," he added, hoping that it wouldn't scare him off. His family wasn't so bad, but they could be overprotective of him at times and had frightened a few of his past boyfriends back from when he actually used to date.
"Just a weekend, right?" He asked tentatively.
"Just a weekend. What harm can it do?" Bucky reassured him, although he wasn't so sure himself.
Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose before closing his textbook and getting off the bar stool. "Fine, I'll do it. But you're buying me dinner tomorrow night, Barnes. If we're going to do this, we have to learn more about each other first." He gathered his things together and put his shoes on. Bucky furrowed his brow. He thought they knew plenty about each other already, despite their issues with each other. But he wasn't going to argue when he had just barely gotten Steve to agree. If dinner was one of his conditions, so be it. Plus, it wasn't like Bucky really minded. They may not get along that great, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy Steve's company. There were few people that Bucky would have considered doing this with.
"Deal."
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Bucky kept to his end of the deal, getting to Steve and Clint's apartment at promptly seven o'clock the next night. He hesitated before knocking, moving to fix his hair before he stopped himself and realized he was treating this much too similar to a date. Not a date, he reminded himself as he knocked on the door, trying to make himself appear more casual. When he heard footsteps, though, he couldn't help but reach up to fix his hair again. Not a date.
Of course, it was Clint who answered the door. His hair was ruffled and he was wearing one of those bikini body T-shirts along with a pair of over-sized slippers. He had a rubbery piece of pizza in one hand and a beer in the other. His eyes brightened when he saw Bucky. "Dude! What's up?" He asked before pulling Bucky into a bear hug. It lasted a few more seconds than Bucky was comfortable with, but that was Clint's style.
"Just coming over to pick up Steve," Bucky told him, "I owe him a dinner." He tried to say it as casually as possible. Not a date. Bucky stepped into their apartment after Clint. Their apartment was significantly smaller than his and Natasha's, but nothing that wasn't typical of your average college pad. Bucky had his family's money, and Natasha had her suspicious government side-job that allowed them to live where they did.
"Oh, right. He told me about your date. I gotta tell you, though, I did not see that one coming," Clint said before plopping down onto the couch and grabbing another piece of pizza. He hadn't even finished the first one yet.
Bucky raised his eyebrows. "Wait, wha-?"
"Hey, Bucky! Sorry, I was getting dressed," Steve nearly shouted as he came out of his bedroom, cutting him off.
Bucky sucked in a breath. Steve looked gorgeous. He had a well-fitting white button-up on with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of jeans. Bucky suddenly felt self-conscious. He had his best sweater on, a dark blue that went well with his skin tone, and his nicest pair of jeans. But God, Steve looked so good, it put him to shame. He felt embarrassed at his reaction to Steve's outfit, it was about as simple as you could get and yet it made him nearly have a heart attack. Not that he was actually interested in Steve, but he couldn't help that the guy was attractive.
"You okay?" Steve asked him, narrowing his eyes.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Bucky replied, snapping out of it. He hoped Steve hadn't picked up on what he was thinking, but the smirk on his face indicated otherwise. So much for that. He noticed Steve eye's tracing his body too, though. His heart beat a little faster.
"You look great," Steve told him.
"Oh. Um, thanks. You too," he said, taken aback. Why was Steve complimenting him on his looks? The whole situation was strange.
"This is so cute, you guys. I feel like I should take a picture," Clint piped up. Bucky had completely forgotten that he was even there once Steve had come out looking like that.
"Definitely no pictures, Clint," Bucky said quickly before he could take out his phone, "Ready to go?" He asked Steve. Steve nodded and grabbed his key before turning to Clint.
"Don't wait up," Steve told him with a wink.
Oh my God, Bucky thought.
As soon as Steve shut the apartment door behind him, Bucky grabbed his arm.
"What was that about?"
"What was what about?" Steve's brow furrowed.
"Clint called our dinner a date. And then you told me that I looked great. Why?"
"Well, if we're going to pretend to be...boyfriends," Steve hesitated on the word, "then we ought to start now. The more people who think we're dating, the more believable the lie seems, right? No one in your family is going to believe we're dating if we don't seem comfortable with it," he explained. His explanation made complete sense. Bucky knew that. He just hadn't expected them to start their act so soon. Even though it was his own idea, the thought of being Steve Roger's boyfriend (if only for a weekend), made him nervous. Whether it was in a good way or a bad way, Bucky couldn't decide. All he knew was that every time he thought about the upcoming trip, his heart started to race and his breath got a little shaky. He thought he had more time to prepare. Not that he said any of this to Steve, of course.
"That's...actually a really good idea. But what are we going to do after this weekend? All of our friends are going to think we're together when we get back from the wedding."
"Clearly, we tell them that I caught you in the coat closet with the best man," Steve deadpanned.
"Regardless of the fact that I'm not willing to make all of our friends hate me, the best man is my brother, so..." Bucky said to him.
"Right. I was kidding, anyway. How about we say we hooked up after the wedding and it just didn't feel right? We decided we were better off as friends...or...whatever we are, I guess," he suggested.
Bucky contemplated that. It seemed like a good way to end their fake relationship where neither of them would be the bad guy.
"Fine. But just so you know, no one hooks up with me and says it didn't feel right," Bucky informed him.Steve cleared his throat, changing the subject and promptly ignoring Bucky's comment.
"About the "whatever we are" thing I said earlier, that's the main problem here. We've never gotten along. No one is going to believe that we suddenly just decided that we liked each other," Steve explained.
"See, our strained relationship comes in handy though in a time like this. It implies sexual tension," Bucky tried to say this casually, but the words caught in his throat and gave him away. Steve raised his eyebrows. Bucky ignored him, moving on, "so our story can be that we got drunk and made out one night after ignoring said sexual tension for so long, and it was great. We decided to keep seeing each other, but when we actually had sex after the wedding, the tension was gone and we lost interest in each other."
"Sexual tension," Steve said, "you think we have sexual tension."
"I-I didn't say..." Bucky sputtered, exasperated. "I don't mean we do have sexual tension. I just meant...I meant that other people would believe that there was sexual tension."
"Sure."
"I'm serious!"
"It's fine, Bucky. I understand if you're 'sexually tense' around me," Steve teased.
"I am not!" Bucky protested. It was a lie though. He knew it, deep down. He just hoped Steve didn't, joking aside. As if there was anyone who wouldn't be "sexually tense" around someone who looked like Steve.
"I'm going to make fun of you for that forever," Steve told him. And he meant it, referencing their "sexual tension" the whole cab ride to the restaurant.
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When they got to their table at the restaurant, Steve pulled out Bucky's chair for him.
Bucky stopped short of the chair and stared at Steve. "What are you doing?" Bucky questioned.
"...Being polite?" Steve answered as if he didn't understand why it was even a question.
"You just keep treating it like a date," Bucky blurted out. A little bit of hurt flashed through Steve's eyes, and Bucky backtracked. "Not that I really mind, your chivalry just keeps catching me off guard." In truth, it was the fact that he was enjoying Steve's chivalry that was really catching him off guard. None of this was real, and he didn't want to confuse Steve trying to make them look like an actual couple with him actually meaning any of it. It wasn't Steve's fault that he was better at pretending than Bucky was, even though this whole thing was his idea.
"You're the one who wanted to do this in the first place," Steve argued while gesturing for Bucky to sit down. People were starting to stare. "I don't understand why you keep getting upset with me when I'm just trying to do this favor for you thoroughly."
"I'm sorry, Steve," he apologized sincerely as they both sat down. "You're right. Look, if you don't want to do this with me, I'm sure I can find someone else. I haven't told anyone in my family who I'm seeing yet."
"No, no, Bucky. I want to do this with you. For you," Steve corrected himself, "I'm just trying to make it believable. It's just that if we don't both seem into it, then it's not going to work."
Bucky nodded. "Well then I guess I'll just have to work on that, Pookie Bear," he teased. The mood had started to get a little too serious for his liking, it was making him nervous.
Steve scrunched up his nose. "Maybe not that into it."
"Hey, if we're going to make this work, I better give it my all, Snuggles."
"Well, if you want to start actually giving it your all, pet names not included, then we should find out more about each other. I mean, I know we know a lot about each other already. It's hard not to when I pretty much live at your place. I know just about everything about you from your shoe size to what kind of toothpaste you use. But not about your family or, um, your life before college and all. And you don't really know about mine either. We don't talk about the real stuff. So I guess that's what I mean when I say we need to talk about this kind of stuff," Steve blurted this all out quickly, not stopping for a breath in between sentences.
Bucky paused for a moment before responding, "You know what toothpaste I use?"
Steve rolled his eyes. "That's what you got from that?"
"I don't know what toothpaste you use, though," Bucky said, frowning.
"Colgate."
"See, we can't even agree on a toothpaste."
"Well, Colgate is better than Crest. That's just facts," Steve explained. Bucky scoffed and leaned forward in his chair, ready to argue.
The great toothpaste debacle of 2015 continued well through the first and second course, the two of them only agreeing to disagree once dessert came and they finally forced themselves to move on to actually talking about themselves. They discussed childhood friends, extracurriculars, good times and hard times in each other's lives. Steve had memorized the full names of all of Bucky's immediate family, and a few extended ones. Bucky, on the other hand, had learned that Steve didn't have much family for him to memorize. The only person he really had was his mother. It made Bucky's heart ache for him.
Steve had been right, they never had talked about the real stuff before. Not like this. Not at a table for two in a restaurant that was reaching its closing time, not with the odd pull Bucky was feeling towards him as Steve told him more and more about his mom and his life before they ever knew each other. The feeling was strange, and he pushed it aside, reminding himself that this was all only for one weekend of pretend.