Hush, Hush

7

3 Days Later

Steve's P.O.V

"Tony, I don't know what to do..." I buried my face into my hands and Tony shifted in his chair across from me, leaning forward so he could grab my attention. I pulled my hands away from my face and Tony raised his brows.

"You need to get ahold of yourself, Steve. If you can't make up your mind after this meeting, then I suggest you take time for yourself. I want you to be happy, Steve. If that is with Bucky or Sam, then by all means, but until you can make that decision..." He sighed and shook his head, before continuing, "Until you can make that decision, maybe you should take some time to yourself. Go with Natasha and have a solitude week or just go to Mexico for a weekend; find yourself, because I think you lost it along this journey with Sam and Bucky."

I searched his gaze for a moment, letting the silence drag on before I grabbed my glass of water to take a sip. It never reached my lips as I sighed and set it on the edge of the table, my fingers still curled around the sweating cold glass.

My voice is quiet as I speak, "Tony, for the past week or so your dad..."He nods and I continue, "He's been hinting on this project he's been working on and it just got the green light for it to be started, I think he wants me to run the building he's putting in Germany."

Tony's eyebrows shot up and he smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah, I—" I was cut short by a hand resting on my shoulder.

I turned slightly and laid eyes on a breathtakingly familiar cleanly-shaven face. Every single moment of planning all outcomes of this exact point in time was thrown out the window, it took one warm smile directed towards me and his glistening grey-blue gaze to render me useless. He gently squeezed my shoulder before he removed his hand off my exposed skin and moved to greet Tony.

"Hey, man!" Tony grinned, clasping Bucky's hand and doing some old handshake before he slightly scooted in to let Bucky take a seat beside him. "Long time no see."

Bucky situated himself and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "No shit! It hasn't been long enough because I'm now sitting next to your ugly ass." He had a shit-eating grin biting into his cheeks as he looked down at his silverware, his fingers sliding the cloth napkin out from under the utensils.

"And I still hate you," Tony snorted and looked around for our waiter, mumbling under his breath.

Bucky looked up from smoothing the napkin over his lap and met my prying gaze, his lips spread into a gentle smile and he asked, "How are you doing, darling?"

The word slipped from his lips so effortlessly and I could see the realization in his eyes as he realized what he called me. He quickly cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair, scratching at the nape of his neck as I took a much needed drink from my ice water.

I set it back down with a sigh. "I'm good, Bucky. I'm good..." I slightly drifted off and met his gaze again. I had so many things to say to him and yet nothing seemed to be right to say. He wasn't making any effort to say anything as he watched me and I hoped it was for something other than him not wanting to talk to me.

"If you two are going to eye fuck each other the whole time we're eating can you at least not do it while I'm looking?"

Tony broke the trance I was in and I immediately looked away at a nearby table. I tried to will the blush that was heating up my face away, but it wasn't going anywhere and only seemed to worsen the more I snuck glances at Bucky. He had his bottom lip pinched between his teeth and a strand of hair had loosened itself from being slicked back and hung over his eyebrow, he held the restaurant menu in his grasp and was searching for something to order. I looked over at Tony to see him with his head slightly tilted and brows raised, eyes boring into me and I subtly flipped him off.