ashes, ashes - stucky

- one -

Having friends really is a virtue. Absolutely no one at the party trusted Bucky to drive himself and Steve back home safely, resulting in at least eight people offering to drive instead. Natasha ended up being the one to do it, letting her mother-hen side expose itself for a moment. She cared about those two, and she'd never forgive herself if she let them get hurt.

Trying to keep quiet, Rogers slowly unlocked the front door. The inside of the house was pitch-black, so he grabbed Barnes' hand for support. Together, they felt their way up to their room and collapsed onto Bucky's bed. They'd closed the door behind them, so they could be free to make a bit of noise.

The boys had to cover their mouths as they laughed. Events of the night came back to them in a rush, and they relished in the fresh memories. One thing in particular stuck out in the brunette's mind. It wasn't his meltdown, but their kiss.

Without thinking, Bucky had placed himself on top of Steve. He straddled his hips, careful not to put all of his weight on the other.

Rogers squirmed on his back, blushing furiously. He couldn't meet Bucky's eyes.

Leaning down, centimeters away from the smaller boy's face, Barnes grinned in ecstasy. Their lips brushed together as he let his fingers tangle into Steve's hair.

Unable to take the anticipation, Rogers leaned slightly upwards, pressing his lips to the other's. Before, he hadn't been able to enjoy their first kiss. This time, however, he took his time. They pulled apart only for a second, reconnecting in desperation. Steve threw his arms around Bucky's neck as the latter cupped the former's cheek.

Steve had to catch his breath. He cursed his asthma internally. "Why're you looking at me like that?"

"You don't even get it, Stevie." Bucky pinched himself, just to make sure that everything was real. Seeing Rogers in that state... lips swollen, eyes obscured by long lashes, red blotches decorating his cheeks, hair and clothes disheveled... it was absolutely breathtaking. "You're gorgeous, and you don't even know it." He smiled at this mind-blowing fact, putting a hand to his forehead and laughing.

Steve playfully shoved Barnes in the chest. "Oh, shut up." He stretched his arms above his head, winking. "You're not half bad yourself."

"I wanna be your boyfriend." Bucky blurted out, eyes widening at his own actions. He wanted to clarify, and the smaller of the two could tell. Steve was silent, to let Barnes know that he could continue. "I wanna be able to say that you're mine, and I'm yours. If you don't feel the same, that's okay I guess. I just can't kiss you and be in love with you if I know you don't want this to be the way things are."

Biting his lip to suppress whatever intense, loud emotions he was feeling, Steve took a moment to compose himself. He took a deep breath in and held it before asking, "You're in love with me?"

"Um... yeah."

Rogers nodded. He rubbed his face, chuckling to himself. "I'm in love with you too, Buck." Admitting it aloud was so incredibly surreal to the blonde. He'd lived with the knowledge for months, but just now had the courage to come to terms with his feelings. Accepting the emotions within felt outrageously empowering, and left the both of them grinning like idiots. "And I wanna be your boyfriend," he said breathlessly, a weight lifting from his heart.

Bucky kissed him again, just for good measure. He looked into Steve's eyes, basking in their perfection. "Boyfriends it is, then." Barnes tapped his chin in mock thought. "My first action as Steven Grant Rogers' partner will be to take my better half on a date."

"A date?" The blonde tilted his head in confusion. It was 11:30 at night, and they would have to sneak out to go anywhere. Besides, they'd just been on a date.

Barnes only nodded in response. He carefully stood, making his way over to his closet. "Close your eyes." he instructed, digging through his pile of junk.

When given permission, Rogers opened his eyes again. On the floor was a bedsheet with two throw pillows across from each other. In between them sat a box containing the game Battleship - one of their favorites. Steve immediately got up and placed himself upon one of the pillows, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "You're going down, Jimbo."

Bucky laughed, opening the box and beginning to set the game up. "I might just let you win." he joked, pushing the appropriate amount of pegs and ships in his fr- boyfriend's direction.

It was a tradition of theirs to adopt a character while playing Battleship. Bucky became 'Jem Buccaneer Brandy': rugged fisherman from the shores of Iceland. Steve donned the green sweater he'd worm on his first day of the school year and slicked his hair back with a bit of spit. This turned him into none other than 'Captain Sully Gulliver Reed': explorative sailor of the seven seas.

"Alright, ye bloody bastard." 'Jem' began, sticking his hand straight out for his opponent to shake. 'Sully' did just that, giving a toothy grin. "The nights dark, we been at this feud fer years now, Cap'n. I say it's time to end this."

Sully exaggerated a laugh, holding his belly for dramatic effect. "There aint gonna be much fightin', you old muck. I say you've sailed your last ship." He looked at his own board, trying to decide what number and letter to call out. "Aye, me crew fires a cannon in B3."

"Yer crew must be blind as a bat then, scalawag. No boats be in B3." Jem shook his head, almost breaking character when he made eye contact with the blonde. "Avast! To yer port! G6 to be exact! A giant whale be jumpin' out of the sea!"

Captain Reed put a hand to his forehead, mumbling to himself with a stern expression. He threw his hands upwards. "That dastardly beast destroyed a third of my submarine! Good men, lost fer nothin', shame." He frowned, pretending to be sad for his fallen crew.

They played like that for what felt like hours, considering all of the story details involved. At one point in their game, fisherman Brandy admitted to having an affair with Gulliver Reed's wife, which only fueled the sailor's thirst for destruction. It was this bloodlust that led Sully to victory, which he promptly rubbed in the other's face.

They'd fallen asleep at 2 am, on the floor, in a tangled mess of blankets and limbs. Although Jem Brandy and Sully Reed had their differences, they were able to come to the agreement that they were absolutely exhausted. They were, however, unable to make it to the bed before passing out in each other's arms.