Red - Bucky Barnes x OC

007

Steve made his way down the street to meet Bucky outside his apartment. They lived pretty close together, being best friends since they could remember, they spent most of their lives together. He saw Bucky walking towards him and gave him a wave.

"Glad to see you made it out of bed before 4pm" Bucky said to him as he reached for a hug.

"You know I'm a night owl Buck, bar shifts work well for insomniacs. But there's only 2 things that can get me out of bed, a few beers with my best bud and coffee" Steve replied, turning to walk across the street.

They walked towards the bar Steve wanted to check out. He was excited to spend some time with Bucky after not seeing him for such a long time, they had a lot to catch up on.

~

A few blocks away, Celeste was getting ready to head for her coffee date with Chad. She had spent the morning cleaning the apartment and she had popped out to buy new towels and bits for Jas. She really didn't want to go to this date, she couldn't shake James from her thoughts. She pulled on some jeans and an oversized jumper, not making much effort with her hair and going for natural makeup. She chucked her tote over her shoulder and made her way down to Wanda's coffee shop.
She planned to go there just in case she needed to make an early exit; she knew she could count on Wanda to cover for her.

Steve and Bucky made their way to the bar, it was much bigger than Darcey's. It had a lot of potential. They ordered 2 beers and 2 Johnnie Walker blue label, neat. They walked up to the rooftop terrace and found a table looking over the city. Steve liked it, he knew Darcy would too. Buck wasn't too sure of the clientele that were there, a few men he had a run in with when he was younger caught his eye. They all noticed him take a seat with Steve and kept their eyes locked on him. Steve could feel the tension so passed Bucky his Scotch and told him to relax.

"So, how was the work trip? I didn't expect you to stay out for so long." Steve asked him, taking a gulp of beer.

"Ha yeah I know, when Thor offered me the house to stay out a bit longer I couldn't say no. But I'm glad to be back, I've missed the city."

"Sounded like a sweet deal, and you'll just pick up where you left off here with work?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I meet the new bunch of kids when I get back, and we have a 6 week program. Then we rotate between kids and mixed adult classes and sessions. I won't be leading as many sessions as before, more running the place and making sure everything is done correctly"

"I'm glad you finally found a job that doesn't just help others but yourself as well. Who would have thought you'd use your fighting skills to teach self defence? I thought you'd be stuck with Pierce for good. I'm glad you got out." Steve said with a half smile.

"Well that's half the reason I stayed out there longer, I know he's been looking for me to ask me to go back and work for him. But I don't want that life anymore. Thors asked me to run the complex back here so he can focus on the new one over in Budapest. So a bit more responsibility, but for now..."
He chucked back his scotch and chased it with a gulp of beer.

"Oh boy it's going to be that kind of afternoon?" Steve looked down at the empty tumbler in front of Bucky and followed suit.

~

Celeste opened the cafe door to be greeted by Wanda behind the counter, she pointed silently over to the guy in the corner. Chad.

She walked over to the couches and put on her best fake smile.
"Hi, Chad, right?"
He stood up and smiled at her.

"I'm guessing you're Celeste, I should have noticed by your hair. There's not many redheads around here"

Wanda cleared her throat and pointed to her own hair and chuckled.
"What can I get you both? Celeste your usual? And for yourself?"

"I'll take a flat white please" he asked politely. Celeste sat down opposite him and glanced at her phone. 3 missed calls from Steve.

"So how's your day been? I'm glad we could meet, and again, I'm sorry for the 3am message." Chad broke the silence and stopped her mind from whirling about why Steve rang her. She guessed if it was super important he'd try again or text her their usual S.O.S message so she put her phone down and smiled at him.

The conversation was good, he wasn't as much as a basic boy his profile gave off.
A couple of hours passed, she was enjoying his company and Wanda had checked in a few times. She flipped her phone back over to check the time, another 2 missed calls from Steve.

"What is it with this boy?!" She thought to herself.

She looked up at Chad "Sorry I've had 5 missed calls from my friend, I need to ring them back, do you mind?"

"No of course not, I'll just go pay the bill" he smiled at her standing up. Before she could protest he was up and talking to Wanda who was beaming at how much of a gentleman he was being.

She opened her phone and called Steve back, no answer. She tried again. On the second ring she heard 2 fists banging on the window next to her. She spun around in shock to see Steve standing knocking on the window smiling at her, Bucky behind him laughing.

He bowled in through the door "I knew we'd find you here! Where's Chad? Has he left you? What's going on?" He held her by her shoulders, drunk glee turning into confusion.

Embarrassed at how loud he was being, she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down to her height.
"If you don't lower your voice Wanda will kick your ass and so will I."

Chad came back over to Celeste and looked at Steve and Bucky "is everything ok?" He asked.

"Everything's fine, this is my friend I was trying to call back but as you can see he's a little tipsy" she spoke through gritted teeth glaring at Steve. She caught Bucky's eyes staring at Chad, he looked him up and down, he looked like he wanted to snap him in half. He glanced at Celeste and rolled his eyes before wandering back outside.

Chad grabbed his coat "well it looks like you have your hands full so I'll give you a text later?" He pecked a soft kiss on her cheek and left. Celeste looked at Steve who was pulling kissy faces at her. She marched him over to apologise to Wanda for being so loud and pushed him outside.

"What are two doing here?!" She folded her arms, staring at Steve. Bucky was leaning against the wall, enjoying seeing how feisty Celeste could be. Not only has she just threatened to kick Steve's ass but he noticed when she gets angry her nose scrunches.

"Well this guy here" Steve gestured to Bucky, "couldn't stop asking questions about…" Steve was stopped by a quick punch to the arm from Bucky. She looked at them both, confused.

"What are you going on about?! Ugh Steve, I'll call you tomorrow. I need to go and sleep so I can pick Jas up first thing. Enjoy your night guys" she turned and walked down the street.

She was frustrated Steve crashed her date like that, she knew he meant well. Even if James didn't speak a word to her, he looked hot. She shook her head trying to ignore what Steve was babbling about and pulled her phone out to text Chad to thank him and apologise for them both.

A notification popped up as she pressed send

"See you soon babe! Xoxoxo" it was from Jas, all her stress left her mind and she skipped home knowing she'd be living with her best friend in a matter of hours.