Real or Not Real?

The Plan

From: Steve -- Hey Buck, any update on your end of the bet? Just wanted to check in since we leave soon.

The text made Bucky groan, he had completely forgotten about the bet. Steve watched as the three little dots kept popping up then disappearing as Bucky tried to think of a response.

From: Bucky -- Yeah, I'm bringing someone. Don't ask who, it's a surprise.

It's still a surprise to him too. At first, three months seemed like plenty of time to find a girlfriend, but now he was down to less than two weeks. He knew it was a lost cause, even with all the dating apps Nat signed him up for (against his will). But he got himself into this situation, and now he'll have to pay the consequences.

From: Steve -- Awesome! We can't wait to meet her :)

Bucky thought over his options, which right now were 1. Admit he lied and lost the bet or 2. Miraculously find a girlfriend in the very short time he had. The T.V. was distracting him, and just as he was about to turn it off, he saw a commercial for a movie. To All the Boys I've Loved Before, a movie where the characters pretend to date. That's when a lightbulb went off in his head. Twenty minutes later, he was knocking on your apartment door.

"I'm about to sound crazy, but hear me out," he started as he walked inside, "You remember that bet I made with Steve and Nat? Well, I may have forgotten about it entirely, and now there's two weeks until we leave. So I was thinking of how I could still win, and that's when I came up with a plan. You could be my fake girlfriend."

"Hello to you too. And you're right, you do sound crazy. But I've heard worse."

"So is that a yes?"

"Maybe. What do I get out of it?"

"I don't know, a free trip to Brooklyn? Knowing you're helping a friend out?"

It would be nice to spend some time with Nat and Steve, and you've never been to New York. On the other hand, you've seen plenty of movies and books where the characters do this exact thing and end up actually falling in love. But those are just fiction, and you and Bucky are just friends.

"Alright, I'm in, just as long as you promise not to actually fall in love with me."

"Trust me, that won't be an issue."

"Wow, I'm hurt." He laughed at your sarcasm. "So what's your plan here?"

"I uh, don't have one."

"You don't have a plan?" He shook his head.

"I'll admit, I got the idea from some Netflix movie. Don't we just pretend to be a couple? What other plan is there?"

"It's not that easy. We need to set some rules and boundaries so no one gets uncomfortable. If we want it to be believable, it needs to be planned out. They do it in the movie, but I'm guessing you haven't seen it." Again, he shook his head. You went and got a notebook and some pens to take notes.

"We're watching that movie tonight so you can see how it's done. Let's start with what you are and aren't comfortable doing," you said.

"I'm fine with anything. I think hand holding and occasional kissing is good, but we shouldn't overdo it. Might look suspicious. If any of that makes you uncomfortable, we don't have to do it."

It hadn't occurred to you until that moment that you and Bucky would have to kiss. It's not like it would be your first, but it would still be your first time kissing him. It didn't have to be weird, you're both adults, adults who can kiss without making it a big deal.

"Yeah, all of that is fine with me."

"How do we feel about nicknames? I was thinking of doll, it's what I called girls I liked back in the 40's. If that's okay with you."

It was sweet how he made sure you were comfortable with everything. "That's okay with me. Other than that we should stick to the basics, like babe or baby."

He nodded and you added it to the list. It was coming along easier than Bucky had thought, and he was impressed with how seriously you were taking everything. None of the things you mentioned had even crossed his mind.

"Next we need a breakup date. If it's too soon after the trip, they might think something's up. But we don't want to commit to this for months."

"Maybe a month and a half from when we leave? We could say we started dating at the beginning of this month, so we'll have 'dated' for almost three months when it's done." He used air quotes around dated.

Once you were done with that, the list was complete.

Fake Dating Rules

Bucky has to watch To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

Physical touching and kissing is okay.

Don't go overboard with PDA.

Only use baby, babe, and doll for nicknames.

"Break up" a month and a half from when the trip starts.

Do not fall in love.

"Last thing, we need to make up a story about how we started dating. Got any ideas?"

"You're the expert at this apparently, do you have one?"

"Do I have to think of everything?"

"Fine, I can say I got jealous when you went on that date last month and told you how I felt when you got home."

"Perfect," you paused, "You thought of that quickly."

Bucky started blushing. "I...it was just the first thing I thought of that could work."

"I was just teasing you."

You could see the relief on his face. It was easy to get a rise out of him like that, and it annoyed him how much you liked doing it.

"Thank you for doing all this. I really owe you one."

"It's nothing," you shrugged.

It wasn't just nothing to Bucky. Who else would go out of their way to help a friend with their crazy plan, all to win a bet and prove a point? He knew he was taking it too seriously, there's nothing wrong with being single. But being the third wheel with Steve and Nat and having them try and set him up with all their single friends was getting old. He was also too stubborn to admit that he forgot about it entirely, so here he was, pretending to be in a relationship.

"Let's watch this movie and get it over with."

You grinned as you pulled up the movie knowing he was secretly excited to watch. Bucky always acts like he doesn't like romcoms, but he always gets invested in them when you can convince him to watch one. He never notices how you spend most of the movie watching his reactions, just like you were doing right now.

"This is ridiculous, why can't they just tell each other how they feel?" He was muttering to himself, but you still heard him.

"Because the other person will just think it's part of the act."

He just huffed and kept watching.

When it was over, he asked you, "Are you worried that'll happen with us?"

"No, it's just a movie Buck. Of course they're going to end up together."

"Right. Well, watching it did help, it gave me some ideas," he paused and looked at the clock, "I should get home though, it's getting late."

You hadn't realized how late it had gotten, it was almost 1:00 a.m. You both said goodnight to each other, and Bucky left with his copy of the list. It was really starting to kick in that in just a few weeks, you'd be in Brooklyn as Bucky's fake girlfriend. What could possibly go wrong?