#stuckyfic

The curtain is pushed to the side and Steve automatically looks up. The man takes a step out of the cubicle. His head is turned as he looks over his shoulder to check himself in the mirror.

“I think I’ll take the suit, though. My butt looks good in it,” the man laughs but then he fully turns towards Steve. The laugh dies on his lips. He looks around, a bit confused and then glances back at Steve.

“Oh wow,” Steve breathes out despite himself.

The thing is, the man in front of him is gorgeous. Unfairly so. He is almost as tall as Steve, his dark hair is long, pulled back into a messy bun, one strand falling onto his forehead. Steve fingers itch to brush it back behind his ear. The man’s eyes are bright and there’s a short stubble on his face that only makes him look hotter. He is wearing a dark brown suit that fits his body perfectly. But the weirdest thing? Underneath the suit jacket he has a bright, mustard-y yellow turtleneck and it really shouldn’t work on anyone. But the man looks good. It makes Steve feel a bit weak in the knees.

“Oh,” the man blinks at Steve, his cheeks going pink. “You’re not Natasha.”

Steve mentally slaps himself across the head. There’s nothing better than to drool at the sight of a random man in a clothing store. A straight man, probably. With a possible girlfriend, if Steve wanted to jump to conclusions and he usually did.

“No, I’m not, I’m just Steve, sorry. I just—Looking for—T-shirts—” Steve says, not really sure where he is going with that. “Your girlfriend must’ve wandered off somewhere.”

Not being able to look at the man's face without embarrassing himself further, Steve glances somewhere above his shoulder. His eyes land on the mirror in the changing room and he sees that his entire face is bright red. Way to go, Steve.

"My girlfriend?" the man asks, raising a brow in confusion. "Oh you mean Tasha? She's not… I'm not…"

The man averts his gaze and rubs at his neck, looking rather uncomfortable and Steve really wishes he picked a different store. But on the other hand, if he did he would never have seen this man and it would be a shame. A real shame. No matter how much of an idiot he's making of himself right now, it is kind of worth it if he gets to look at this gorgeous human for a bit longer. This guy could easily be a model. Or maybe he is, Steve wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. Steve is an artist. He can appreciate beauty. And there is so much beauty to appreciate in this man. 

So much beauty.

Steve wonders how weird it would be to ask if the man wanted to pose for him. Steve has already embarrassed himself plenty already so it wouldn’t hurt any more.

“Shit,” the man says to himself with a breathy laugh. He runs a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to—,” he waves his hand vaguely between them and laughs again. “I just thought my friend will be useful for once and give me her opinion but apparently she just left me in the lurch.”

“For what it’s worth—you look incredible,” Steve says, sincerely. He can’t stop his eyes from wandering down the man’s body and then back up. “It—Really suits you.”

To Steve’s surprise he doesn’t get punched for—quite obviously—checking the guy out. It could be because of his size—it usually discourages people from trying to fight him, even though they sometimes want to. Like when he tells them that being racist, misogynist or a homophobe is a very fucking bad thing to be, for example. But the man doesn’t even look like he wants to punch Steve. Quite the contrary, a small smirk appears on his face. He tilts his head to the side and straightens up with confidence, even though his cheeks are still a bit pink.

“You think so? It’s not too much?” the man asks, apparently not noticing that Steve’s about to die.

“It’s great. You look great. And that’s coming from someone who despises turtlenecks,” Steve hopes that his smile is sincere, maybe even a little flirty and not as nervous as he feels.

The guy raises an eyebrow in response and he glances down before saying, “That’s fair. I don’t think there’s a turtleneck big enough to contain all of these muscles anyway. And it would be really unfair to hide those collarbones of yours.”

Automatically, Steve looks down where the two top buttons of his Henley are left open and it takes him a second to fully understand what the man just said. Is he being flirted with? Is the most attractive person he’s ever seen flirting with him? When Steve looks back up, the man’s eyes are already fixed on him, his smirk bigger and definitely more amused now.

OK, maybe Steve was too quick with labelling the man as straight. Or at least he hopes he was.

“I’m Bucky,” the man offers. Despite the fact that it’s a rather unique name—or nickname, who knows—Steve finds it quite fitting. “And you’re Steve, if I got that correctly?”

Steve nods with a smile, not really sure at which point of his mumbling he managed to introduce himself. For a moment they just stare at each other. Steve is not sure whether he wants to run or get significantly closer to the man. To Bucky, he reminds himself. Before he can do either of those things, Bucky shakes his head slightly and blinks.

“Right,” he says, taking a step back. He points his thumb at the changing room behind him and smiles. “I’d better—Gonna change and—Thanks for your opinion, Steve. You’re very—helpful.”

When Bucky turns away and grabs the curtain, Steve decides to take a chance. After all he was never the one to back down from a challenge.

“Hey, Bucky?” he calls.

With his hand curled around the curtain, Bucky looks over his shoulder at Steve. “Yeah?”

“Your butt looks really good in that suit.”

The curtain flutters close but Steve still can hear Bucky’s melodic laugh. He grins to himself.

And that’s when a small, redheaded woman walks over to the changing rooms and raises one of her perfect eyebrows at Steve.

“James? What are you wearing that makes a hot stranger compliment your ass?” she says with her eyes still trained on Steve as she reaches to grab the curtain behind which Bucky has just disappeared.

And that’s when Steve decides it’s his time to run.

Steve wanders around the mall for another hour or so. For some reason, he feels reluctant to walk into any other clothing store. It might be because he is worried he’d bump into Bucky again and embarrass himself further or it might just be trauma. It’s not ideal. Especially because his main goal of coming here was to buy some clothes so Sam would stop complaining about his “grandpa wardrobe”. Which is an obvious exaggeration, it’s not that bad. And Sam owns his fair share of khakis and checkered button-ups, so he is in no position to judge. But Steve figured that buying a new pair of jeans, some t-shirts and maybe a jacket won’t hurt. 

Instead, he goes to a stationery shop and walks out with a new set of pencils and a sketchbook. The one he has is already half full anyway. Nearby, there’s a bookstore and Steve saunters between the shelves for a while, picking up whatever book catches his eye. He doesn’t really intend to buy anything but in the end he gets a sci-fi novel he wanted to read for a while but hasn't gotten to yet.

Steve would totally consider it a successful trip to the mall and called it a day. Sadly, he can imagine Sam laughing at his mumbled explanation as to why he didn't buy any clothes. So instead of going home, he decides to grab a coffee and then try to face the clothing store again. It can’t be that hard. 

Rounding the corner, Steve collides with someone coming in the opposite direction. Automatically, he grabs the other person’s arm to help them regain their balance.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t—” Steve starts and looks up. Just as quickly, he completely forgets what he was meaning to say next.

It’s Bucky.

Bucky’s standing barely two feet away. His eyes are some kind of stormy blue and there are freckles splattered across his nose and part of his cheeks. Looking at him from this close is making it hard to breathe for Steve.

When recognition dawns on him, a smile blooms on Bucky’s face, “Hi, Steve!”

“Hi,” Steve just answers weakly. Only now he realises that his hand is still wrapped around Bucky’s bicep—a very nice bicep, Steve can feel the muscle hidden underneath Bucky’s layers of clothing and tries not to think about it too hard—and takes a step back, putting down his hand.

Obviously, Bucky is not in the outfit he had at the store but he still looks like he'd walked straight out of a fashion magazine. Now he's wearing a black button-up with little white dots all over it and a black leather jacket. His bun is even messier, several loose strands tucked behind his ear, but he still looks as attractive as before. Or maybe Steve is just biased.

"Fancy bumping into you again," Bucky says, seeming genuinely happy.

"You too," Steve finally gets a grip on himself and smiles. "Did you buy the suit?"

Bucky chuckles at that, blushing, "I did, actually. The turtleneck, too. Your…um, feedback was very helpful. Tasha approved, too." He glances to his side and furrows his brows. Turning around in a full circle, he looks back at Steve. "And apparently she ditched me again. I swear I'm not making her up!"

"I believe you, I've seen her back in the store," Steve assures him with a laugh. "Petite redhead, very intense stare?"

"Sounds like Natasha. She's great, at least when she's not busy abandoning me in shopping malls. Did you get whatever you needed? I didn't see you around when I left the changing room."

Tilting his head to the side, Steve just stares for a moment. Did that mean Bucky looked for him? The thought makes his insides twist in a slightly uncomfortable but pleasant way. Steve tries not to get his hopes up. The pink tinge on Bucky's cheeks doesn't help with that.

"Not really, couldn't find anything fitting," Steve says. 

It's not exactly a lie, he just doesn't add that he was too embarrassed to face Bucky after complimenting his butt. Bucky opens his mouth, then closes it and bites the inside of his cheek, deciding against whatever he wanted to say. Steve raises an eyebrow at him. "What?" he asks.

"Nothing," Bucky says. "Just trying not to say something highly inappropriate again to a guy I don't really know."

The hope flutters in Steve's stomach, making him grin. At this point he's pretty confident that his initial assessment of Bucky was wrong. So he feels bold enough to ask, "You know, I was actually on my way to grab a coffee. Maybe you'd like to join me?"

"Sure, that would be nice," Bucky smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling adorably. 

Steve might be a bit gone already. 

"I'm still not gonna say, though. If that's your plan," Bucky adds and before Steve can say anything, he smirks. "It's gonna take more than one coffee to break me."

And this sounds like a challenge Steve's determined to win.“

.

Title: Sharp Dressed Man Creator(s): niallhoranbitches Card number: 065 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26961397 Square filled: E2 - Muscles Rating: Teen and Up Archive warnings: None Major tags: Meet Cute, No Powers AU Summary: The curtain is pushed to the side and Steve automatically looks up. The man takes a step out of the cubicle. His head is turned as he looks over his shoulder to check himself in the mirror.