Work Text:
Oops, did I say it out loud? Did you found out?
It’s a rainy Tuesday morning when Steve Rogers runs into Stark Industries, a cup of coffee on his right hand, some folders under his left arm and his hair and clothes all damped for his sudden race under the rain from the Starbucks that’s five blocks away from the Stark building.
“Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed?”
Steve startles almost spilling the coffee over himself and giving Natasha an annoyed glance. She smiles at him, looking completely flawless with her black dress and her red curls, not even a drop of make-up out of place. Basically, as always. Steve still wonders how she manages to look so good whatever hour of the day or weather condition; Sam has the theory Natasha is actually a high-tech android that Stark is developing and at some point Steve almost believed it (he was heavily drunk, though).
“Forgot to turn on the news and watch the weather forecast,” explains Steve as he pushes one of the buttons to call the elevator.
“You do realize your phone has an app for that?” asks Natasha smirking and he rolls his eyes. He’s not pretty fond with all of this smart phone stuff. Natasha takes Steve’s coffee off his hand sips, the smile being replaced by a disgusted grin “Next time be a good boy and bring me a cappuccino.”
“As if”
The metallic doors open in front of them and both get inside the elevator, some of the people at the lobby looking at them because of Natasha’s loud laugh.
“Have you been watching Clueless again?” Steve pushes the button for the tenth floor -Natasha’s office, and then the fifteenth for his. And he’s just about to reply to Natasha about how Clueless is actually a pretty good movie when a hand stops the lift doors from closing.
Steve takes his eyes off from Natasha to look at their new companion and okay, right, he thinks as he tries to remember how to breathe, his eyes moving all over the body of the man in front of him -and just to state it, he’s completely not checking him out, just watching him discretely.
The man's dressed completely in black from his shoes to his suit, shirt and tie, his dark brown hair combed-back. He has light blue eyes and his brows are slightly furrowed, his mouth twitched in anger as he talks quickly on the phone. Steve feels completely lost staring at his perfect jaw-line when he feels a sharp pain in his ribs. He stops looking at the men, his attention back at Natasha, who seems to be the one who triggered the pain by hitting him with her elbow.
“You’re being obvious,” she says mockingly and Steve’s eyes widen with horror. Because that’s something no one should say to their friends when they’re checking out a sexy stranger on an elevator - okay, maybe he was checking the guy, sue him. Natasha keeps smiling seeming oblivious and that’s when Steve actually pays attention to what the guy is saying.
“Chto? Net, ne znayu,” whatever that must mean, it probably isn’t something good as the guy snorts and rolls his eyes “Mne ne nravitsya” there’s a silence and Steve looks at Natasha, who shrugs as an answer “Ya prishlyu tebe e-mail, do svidaniya.”
He hangs up and puts his phone in one of the pockets of his jacket, letting out a loud sigh. That’s when he seems to remember he’s not the only one on the lift, giving Steve and Natasha and apologetic look.
And fuck this guy is so damn hot.
“Ty govorish po russki?” the man’s expression seems to light up with whatever Natasha has just said and Steve feels suddenly pretty out-of-place, standing in one of the corners of the elevator, with his wet hoodie and his blonde hair sticking to his forehead, watching how Natasha is having a conversation in Russian -for fuck’s sake what are the odds?!, with a totally dazzling stranger.
A loud ring announces they’ve just reached the tenth floor and the doors open, allowing them to watch the crystal walls of the offices on that floor, the view from the city a little blurred for the pouring rain outside. The man smiles at them as he gets out and his smile seems to widen when he realizes that floor is also the one Natasha is getting down at. She winks at Steve before returning to what seems to be a really interesting conversation with the other guy.
Steve sighs and the elevator doors close again.
“I’m telling you Sharon, he had those deep blue eyes and...” Steve’s sentence is interrupted by Sam, who sits on the edge of Steve’s desk while bursting into laughter.
“Please Steve, tell me you’re not talking about the guy you saw on the elevator this morning,” Steve snorts, he didn’t talk that much about him, is just that Sam likes to exaggerate about everything “I swear if I hear another word about how perfect he is my ears are going to explode.”
“Oh, are you talking about James?”
The three of them turn to face Natasha, who is leaning through the door frame watching at them with a smile.
“You should have seen how Steve was looking at him on the lift, I thought he was…”
Steve coughs, feeling his cheeks getting a little warm. Why does everyone make him sound like some sort of creep? Like, okay yeah, he stared at the hot guy in the elevator and maybe made some comments about how good he looked on that suit or how beautiful were his eyes but isn’t that what normal people do when they see that sort of supermodels/demigods walking by? That’s not a thing that seems to happen every day, at least not to him.
Sorry if he’s apparently not used to the protocol of how to deal with ridiculously sexy people.
“So, Steve’s mystery man’s name is James?” asks Sharon, raising one of her eyebrows and giving Steve a smile. Steve rolls his eyes. He swears he has the worst friends ever.
“Yeah, seems like he’s here to supervise on some new project Stark has with Hydra Inc.” adds Tasha, and why does everyone look at Steve? He blushes even more –like if that was possible, and nods “Also, he might have thought you were quite attractive.”
She winks and definitely all the blood that should be running through Steve’s body must be now all concentrated on his cheeks. Sharon squeals in which Steve assumes is her way to show how excited she feels about that and Sam raises both of his eyebrows, looking at him with a smirk.
“Okay, uhm…” Steve is starting to feel a little uncomfortable with all the unrequited attention “Not that that’s not great news” It is HUGE NEWS “but I don’t think it would lead anywhere unless I suddenly learn how to speak Russian.”
And he’s not using Google Translate, not after what happened with Sam and that Norwegian girl (let’s just say Steve doubts Sam will ever be able to procreate). And he’s also not accepting Natasha’s help because let’s be honest, she would probably teach him a lot of embarrassing and dirty words and thanks but no, thanks.
Natasha looks at him and for a moment she looks really confused, he even thinks he imagined it ‘cause the next second she’s smiling and Steve can’t help the shiver that travels all over his spine.
“Of course” she says, that mischievous smile still on her lips “Well, gotta go back to work, see you around guys.”
Steve is about to ask what the hell was that mysterious attitude, but ends keeping it to itself. Knowing Natasha as he knows her, he knows he will probably end up more terrified about the answer.
It’s the next Monday when Steve is entering the building, talking with Natasha and Darcy –one of the girls from the research lab who actually seems more interested in searching for hot guys that for whatever she must be doing as her job. It’s just after their lunch break and as they approach the elevators Steve can recognize the guy who is standing there, waiting for one of the elevators to open. He smiles at them when they come up in the same lift as him after going back to his serious grin as he keeps talking on the phone on what sounds like angry Russian.
“Oh shit!” exclaims Darcy, looking at the guy with wide eyes and her mouth completely open. Steve would laugh, but he’s sure he has the same expression. James –as Natasha informed was the guy’s name, is wearing a dark blue suit that enhances his light blue eyes. And really, Steve never thought Darcy could describe the moment in a more eloquent way.
“I know”
“He’s so damn…”
“I know” reassures Steve, still looking at his back. Darcy stretches her right arm and leans a little, like she’s trying to touch James. And she probably was, but Steve stops her, holding her hand just when she’s a few millimeters from James’s back. And he does it just because that would be pretty weird –not that it surprises him, because Darcy is pretty weird herself, is just that he doesn’t want her to bother James while he seems to be in the middle of an important phone call, his voice deep and so goddamn sexy.
“Don’t even dare, Steve has claimed him as his property,” says Natasha in a teasing tone.
“I didn’t claim him as mine” Steve gives him a glance; just to be sure he’s still talking on the phone and that he hasn’t advert anything about their conversation. James keeps frowning at the phone, so Steve assumes there’s nothing to worry about.
“You have been talking about how hot he is the whole damn week.”
“Well, I totally understand why”
“Thanks” Steve looks at Darcy feeling grateful. Finally, there’s someone who understands.
The doors open again at the tenth floor and James looks at Natasha, pointing the exit. She smiles at him and he steps out after her.
And as the doors close, Steve is almost sure he saw James smiling at Darcy and him.
Is Monday morning during the next week when Steve feels like his brain has simply forgotten about how to properly function as he sees James entering the elevator. He’s on the phone as usual, but this time instead of wearing a suit he’s wearing a blue shirt, black blazer and jeans.
“If you’re gonna keep drooling like that every time you see him you might start carrying a bucket with you” jokes Natasha and Steve frowns.
Needless to say the rest of the week goes mostly with similar scenes.
It’s been three weeks since the first time Steve saw James on the elevator. Three weeks since he has been talking non-stop to whoever is willing to listen about how perfect James is. And maybe, just maybe, Steve has kind of a slightly crush with the blue eyed man that rides the same elevator as him every morning.
Not that anyone would tell –yeah, sure.
It’s a Thursday morning, three weeks before that first encounter when Steve pushes the elevator button to hold the doors open as James approaches.
And unusual, thinks Steve, James is not talking on the phone he realizes as the doors close. They’re both standing in silence, a soft melody coming out of the speakers when he hears it.
“Natasha is not coming today?”
“No, she’s having breakfast with her boy…” and Steve stops suddenly because WHAT “What?”
“What?”
“Y-you… you do, like, you speak English?” Steve feels the panic creeping inside of him as the words left his tongue because no, this can’t be happening to him. He must be dreaming. A really, really weird and terrible dream from which he’s going to wake up right now.
“Yeah?” it sounds like a question, like if James itself wasn’t sure of the answer.
Steve doesn’t need a mirror to know his face is colored in an impossible shade of red. The doors open on the third floor and Steve doesn’t think about it twice before running out of the elevator, feeling James’s eyes on his back.
He doesn’t look back as he rushes to the stairs.
“You knew it, this whole time you knew it!” Steve doesn’t mind the curious stares most of Natasha’s co-workers give at him as he enters the floor screaming at the top of his lungs.
Natasha takes her time to turn and look at him, saying goodbye to the blonde girl she was talking to.
“Do you feel okay?” is the first thing she asks, mocking smile on her face and Steve frowns because there’s no way this could be funny. Not a little, not at all.
“You knew he spoke English and never told me” at this time he doesn’t know if he’s angry anymore or utterly embarrassed. He’s been talking about how incredibly perfect James is in front of him, believing he couldn’t understand a word and now he might think Steve is some kind of weirdo and why hasn’t the earth opened and swallowed him?
Nat simply shrugs.
“You never asked.”
“Oh, and obviously you didn’t think it was like, I don’t know, relevant information?”
“C’mon Steve, admit it is kind of funny.”
“I’m pretty sure he had a good laugh thinking I’m some kind of creep” Steve hides his face in his hands, feeling absolutely ridiculous. This obviously had to happen to him “I will never be able to look him it the eyes ever again.”
“Okay, now you’re just being overly dramatic…”
Steve cuts her off before she can finish that sentence.
“I will also never talk to you again.”
And he turns back to leave, trying to save the last crumbs of pride he has left.
As expected, he doesn’t stop talking to Nat. She went looking for him for lunch break that day a few hours before and took him to his favorite restaurant. There’s nothing a good beef sandwich can’t solve.
However, he doesn’t take the elevator for two weeks, arriving a little earlier than usual every morning. Mostly because he’s trying to avoid James at the entrance of the building; and also because even with his physical condition, fifteen floors of stairs aren’t exactly a piece of cake.
His plan seems to be flawless until that Friday morning when his alarm clocks decides to fall asleep with him, which ends with Steve running late for work, not even a little time to stop and buy his morning coffee on his way to work.
The best way to start the weekend, he thinks as he runs to reach one of the elevators which doors are closing. He snaps his hand between the doors and oh, well.
James is looking at him with what seems to be a surprised expression. Steve enters the elevator biting his lower lip, trying to ignore the awkward silence that has settled between the two of them.
“So,” says James after what seems to be an eternity, even though it probably wasn’t more than a few seconds “You decided to stop avoiding me?”
“I wasn’t…”
“Natasha told me you were” and Steve makes a mental note to remind him to put some poison in Tasha’s coffee next time he sees her “Fifteen floors of stairs for two weeks? I gotta say I’m rather impressed.”
Steve wishes he could come with something clever to say, but just because it’s him and the universe seems to hate him, the first thing that lefts his mouth is a pitiful “Sorry.”
“Excuse me?” James seems confused and Steve takes a deep breathe. He would have to say it sooner or later anyway.
“You know about… the last weeks? All the stuff that I said, I-I never knew you actually understood English and I know that’s actually a horrible excuse so, sorry? I didn’t mean to sound like a creep because I swear I’m not one though I’m pretty sure that’s what a creep would say, but, okay, yeah I’m sorry for saying you were hot, not that you’re not but, yeah I should just stop talking right now.”
He closes his eyes, waiting for a reply. Instead, James lets out a soft laughter.
“It’s okay, really” Steve opens his eyes slowly to look at him and James is actually smiling. At Steve. Showing him his perfect white teeth and all, “It was actually pretty nice to hear it, a real confidence booster and all.”
He laughs again and Steve feels a little relieved, smiling sheepishly at the blue eyed boy.
“Uhmm…”
“Look, what about we start again?” Steve raises an eyebrow, but nods as James extends his hand “James Buchanan Barnes, but call me Bucky, all my friends do.”
Steve shakes his hand, his heart just beating a little faster than normal.
“Steve Rogers”
“So Steve Rogers, what do you say if we meet at the lobby during lunch time and go to get some coffee?”
And again, Steve seems incapable to say anything so he just nods again, hoping he didn’t seem overly excited about the idea. The doors open at that exact moment and James Bucky smiles at him before standing out and Steve smiles back at him before the doors close.
Eight minutes later, Steve realizes he never pressed the button to his floor, having stood in the same place smiling like a complete idiot all that time.