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“Ten things I hate about you” - Chapter One

Pair: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern High School AU. Skinny sophomore Steve Rogers is new in school. After meeting fellow sophomore Natasha, he quickly develops a crush on her. However, Steve finds out he can’t ask her out because her dad won’t allow Natasha to date if her older sister, the senior Y/N, doesn’t date first. The only problem is: Y/N has no interest in dating whatsoever. With the help of his new friend Sam Wilson, Steve comes up with a plan to find Y/N a suitable match. The best candidate? The most dreaded senior in school, Bucky Barnes.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

“Ten things I hate about you” masterlist | Main masterlist

*****

You weren’t usually a violent person. Far from it actually. You truly believed violence was the very last resort to deal with any issue. However, John Walker not only wasn’t someone you could reason with, but he also brought the worst in you. Which was why you had barely sat foot in school property when your knee went straight between his legs. You were sure most people wouldn’t blame you even if they didn’t know why you had attacked him. It was John Walker after all. The only problem was that Mr. Coulson wasn’t like most people, so all he saw was you kicking the school’s star running back, and he didn’t bother to learn why you had resorted to violence. “Nothing is an excuse to be violent towards a fellow student, Miss Y/L/N,” he said. And that was the reason why you were on your way to the principal’s office even before your senior year had officially started.

Right outside of Principal Hill’s office, May Parker, the principal’s secretary, sat at her desk typing away in her computer. Upon seeing you, she smiled brightly at you. “Good morning, Y/N! I see we are starting the year at full throttle,” she chuckled. May liked you, and she had said so on multiple occasions. She liked your no nonsense attitude, and believed most of the time you had good reasons to behave like you did. To her that meant that most of the time you shouldn’t have been sent to the principal’s office.

“Always a pleasure, May!” You smiled in greeting.

She adjusted her big frames at the top of her nose and asked you, “How was your summer, Y/N?”

“Oh, you know. Your ordinary teenage summer.” You shrugged.

May smiled knowingly. “I hardly think you had an ordinary teenage summer!”

You chuckled. She knew you too well! “Well, it was my ordinary summer and I’m a teenager, unfortunately, so...” You shrugged. “How was yours?”

“Good! Peter and I went to the beach for a couple of weeks.”

“I’m glad you had a good time.” You smiled at her. You were genuinely happy for May. It was good to see her managing to get back on track after the untimely death of her husband.

“Thank you, dear.” May smiled again, understanding what you left unsaid. Before she could dwell too long on sad thoughts, she continued, “Please, do be seated. Principal Hill will be with you in a moment.” She pointed to the waiting chairs, where you were surprised to find a seated Bucky Barnes.

Bucky had disappeared from school during junior year, never having returned after winter break. Multiple rumours abounded as to the why of that. They went from clearly believable possibilities to the most absurd hypotheses. You were quite sure he had neither become a hair model in Japan nor become part of some motorcycle street racing gang. You weren’t friends with Bucky Barnes, but you knew the guy pretty well not to believe the absurdities you heard through the teenage grapevine.

Bucky had been your classmate ever since kindergarten, and ever since you could remember the two of you had been competing for the title of best student in your class. You were both highly competitive, and had been trying to best each other at everything. Although he was extremely annoying to you due to your competitiveness, just as you were to him, Bucky had been a sweet, sort of golden boy until ninth grade. He had been genuinely nice to everyone, a model student and a model teenage boy. He was like a ray of sunshine, short shiny hair perfectly combed, colourfully but tastefully dressed and all smiles. He had been a star football player who had made it to the varsity team in ninth grade. Even though he had made it as a benchwarmer, no other freshman had made it to varsity. Then, something happened during summer, before sophomore year, and Bucky became this unapproachable loner who let his hair grow, wore a great deal of black and leather, and who was trying to kill himself by smoking too many cigarettes and driving a vintage Harley. After whatever had happened, to most people he was clouded in an aura of mystery that made most people afraid of him, while at the same time most girls fawned over him. The only thing that hadn’t changed, however, was his competitiveness to be the top student in your class. You never understood why. Sure, there were rumours that he was just naturally gifted and didn’t even have to study to get good grades, but you knew that wasn’t true. You were there to witness his presentations, that guy put effort in his school work.

You and Bucky had a strange relationship. While you wanted to best each other, you still didn’t really hate each other. Moreover, you were probably the only person who wasn’t afraid of him, why would you be, and you friendly bantered. There were also times when your competitive nature made you two end up together in Principal Hill’s office.

It seemed he was back from wherever, though, as for some reason he was also waiting for Principal Hill on the first day of senior year. What could he possibly have done so soon? You paid a moment’s attention to him. His already long hair seemed longer, his face had a couple of days stubble, and he looked bigger than before. But what struck you the most was the fact that he looked more man than a teenage boy now. Sure, he was eighteen, lawfully an adult, but most seniors didn’t look manly.

“Y/L/N.” Bucky said by way of greeting and nodded his head at you.

“Barnes.” You sat down next to him, dropping your backpack on the floor.

“Did you miss me?” He smiled mischievously at you and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Every single day!” You answered sarcastically in a high pitched voice and put a hand over your heart.

He laughed at that and you couldn’t help but smile. His genuine laugh had always been lovely. Not that you would ever say that out loud. Bucky continued, “What are you doing here before the first class of the school year had even taken place?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“Yeah, but I asked you first.” He smirked.

You had no problem sharing what had happened, and you and Bucky had been in those same chairs many a time, so you just let the smirk slide and answered, “Walker.”

“Say no more!” Bucky put his hands up.

You chuckled and asked him, “How about you?”

“Walker.” He winked at you.

“Now, don’t make me wish to best you at that as well, Barnes!” You joked.

He smiled again. “I don’t know… I punched him in the face. How can you best that?” He challenged you.

You were the one smiling mischievously this time. “I kicked Walker’s genitals.” Bucky made a face and squeezed his legs together. You heard May chuckle in her desk and you sent her a smile. She also didn’t like Walker.

“You know, I concede this round. You bested me this time, Y/L/N.”

“How gracious of you!” You smiled sarcastically.

“You know, I thought you were adept of non-violence.” Bucky smirked at you, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He knew all about your opinions. Well, most of the school did, since you were quite vocal about them.

“Well, sometimes violence is the only way, Barnes. Like when a jerk crudely comments on your best friend’s rear.”

“The Carol Danvers wasn’t the one who kicked him in the nuts?” Bucky’s eyes were wide open.

“I was closer to him.” You shrugged.

“Of course.”

After a moment, you asked him, “How about you? Why did you punch Walker? Did he crudely comment on your ass as well?” You smirked.

“Ha. Ha.” Bucky said in a monotone. “Funny, but no. He was harassing some poor freshman in that alley at the other side of the street.”

You put both of your hands over your heart and sarcastically asked him, “The Bucky Barnes protecting the weak and oppressed?!”

Bucky shrugged. “Consider it my good deed of the year.”

“Of course.” Bucky smiled at you and, once again, you couldn’t help but smile back. At that moment, you realised you had kind of missed bantering with him.

You heard Principal Hill’s door open and you looked at it. “… And remember, anything you need, we are here for you.” She took a step out of her room and, upon seeing you and Bucky, she sighed, forgetting all about the scrawny blond boy behind her, effectively preventing him from leaving the office and making him witness your interaction. “I cannot believe this.” Principal Hill threw her arms up. “What are you two up to already? You hadn’t even had your first class of the school year, you can’t possibly have exploded the chemistry lab again!” The blond boy behind her was suddenly scared.

“We didn’t explode the chemistry lab!” You defended yourself.

“Yeah, we exploded a couple of beakers and test tubes…” Bucky shrugged.

“Maybe an Erlenmeyer flask…” You added.

Principal Hill sighed. “What are the two of you doing here?”

“We are here separately. We caused different, totally unconnected ‘problems’” You air quoted the word problems. John Walker was the real problem.

Bucky nodded and added, “Although, we are here coincidentally because of the same object in our acts of violence.” You nodded.

Principal Hill pinched the bridge of her nose. “What. Did. You. Do?”

“John Walker-” You and Bucky started in unison.

Principal Hill lifted her hand to interrupt you. “I see. You are free to go. No matter what you’ve done to Walker, I’m sure he’s also at fault.” The blond boy behind her was shocked the principal was letting trouble makers off the hook. You and Bucky smiled, grabbed your backpacks and got up.

Bucky walked to Principal Hill, and in a low tone said, “You know, Hill, I’ve turned eighteen while I was away. You know what that means, right?” He wiggled his eyebrows. You rolled your eyes. The guy really enjoyed playing with fire.

Principal Hill tilted her head and smiled at him before firmly saying, “James Buchanan Barnes, get your ass off my office before I sent you to detention on your first day back!” Bucky only chuckled.

“Goodbye May!” You waved at her on your way out.

“Always a pleasure, May!” Bucky saluted the secretary before following you.

In the hallway, your friend Carol awaited you. You opened your mouth to talk to her when you heard Bucky behind you. “I’ll see you around, Y/L/N. You won’t have it easy like you had last semester.”

“I’m not worried, Barnes. You’ll just be lagging behind me, exactly like you’ve been since High School started!” You tilted your head to the side and gave him a fake sweet smile. He repeated the gesture and walked away.

“I didn’t know he would be back.” Carol said as you two started walking. You shrugged. She continued, “You know, you two have great OTP potential.”

You looked at your friend as if she had grown another head. “Did you smoke something while I was in there? That’s Barnes you’re talking about.”

“I know.” She smirked at you. “But now that I think about it, you guys had always had this super weird, but strong, chemistry…” You rolled your eyes and pinched your friend. “Ow! What are you doing, Y/N?!”

“I’m just checking if you’re not an alien shapeshifter who’s pretending to be my best friend.” Carol didn’t look amused.

*****

Next chapter coming soon

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“Ten things I hate about you” masterlist

Pair: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern High School AU. Skinny sophomore Steve Rogers is new in school. After meeting fellow sophomore Natasha, he quickly develops a crush on her. However, Steve finds out he can’t ask her out because her dad won’t allow Natasha to date if her older sister, the senior Y/N, doesn’t date first. The only problem is: Y/N has no interest in dating whatsoever. With the help of his new friend Sam Wilson, Steve comes up with a plan to find Y/N a suitable match. The best candidate? The most dreaded senior in school, Bucky Barnes.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

Status: In progress

Chapter One

Chapter Two coming soon

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Main masterlist

[writingfanfiction]

Hello everyone! I’m writing this to let you know that I’m working on the next chapter of My Best Friend’s Wedding, and I hope to be able to post it soon.

Meanwhile, I’m publishing the first chapter of a new story, and I hope you all will give it a try.

Thanks guys!

[writingfanfiction]

@enchantedbarnes, I’m loving your comments! Thank you so much for them! I love when people comment on my work, it makes me so happy to see what people are thinking about it! Thank you very much about the comments on this particular chapter! I really enjoyed all the reaction gifs! I’ll surely tag you on the next chapters!

“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Eight

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

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“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

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A note for previous readers: I know this is probably getting kind of old, but I truly am sorry it took me so long to update. Again. I just hope your wait is worth it once you read this chapter. It had been a long time in the making, and it most certainly wasn’t the easiest one to craft. I wanted to ensure it was the best I could make. I’d like to thank all of you who are still here to see how my story will eventually turn out to be. Have a nice reading!

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Previous chapter | Next chapter coming soon

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You slowly opened your eyes as sleep left you and started to make sense of the world around you. You were being snuggled, a head buried in the back of your neck, an arm around your middle, pulling you flush into a body, your back perfectly molded into it. Bucky. Even though you couldn’t see his face, you had fallen asleep together many a time for you to know that it was him who was cuddling you.

After you let Bucky into your room the night before, you both ordered your room service and watched TV. You didn’t talk about any of the events of the day, and you had the greatest time since Steve had called you to tell you he was getting married. Bucky made sure you only watched unpretentious shows, and that your conversation was carefree. You felt happy enjoying his company just like you had many times before. In your relaxed state, the both of you fell asleep before Bucky could go back to his room for the night.

You turned slowly, as to not disturb Bucky, and observed him sleeping soundly. The sun coming from the crack between the blinds illuminated his features just perfectly, magnifying his beauty. You observed attentively his countenance: the way his eyebrows seemed a little messy from sleep, how his eyelashes touched the skin under his eyes, the shapes of his nose and of his lips, how, considering the state of his facial hair, he seemed to have not shaved since he had arrived in Boston, how said facial hair was covering the dimple in his chin… You knew Bucky was a handsome man, he had always been, but in moments like this, when you could really examine him up close, you were always taken aback by just how stunning he was. You felt the urge to trace his features with your fingers, like every time you woke up sharing a bed with him, but just like always, you refrained from doing so.

After a couple of minutes of thoroughly observing his face, you heard him saying in his raspy morning voice, “Stop starring at me while I sleep, you weirdo.” How did he know?! You were about to open your mouth to deny it when he added, “Don’t even bother denying it.” He opened just one of his eyes and gave you a mischievous sleepy smile before closing his eye again. “Come on, let’s just get back to sleep.” He pulled you closer to him, burying his head in the crook of your neck and nuzzling it.

You chuckled to yourself. “You’re such a cuddly person!” You brought one of your hands up and started to caress his head. He hummed in a content manner and you smiled to yourself at the sound.

You thought Bucky had been back to sleep, since he had been quiet for a good time, until you heard him say, “I have to make the most of my cuddle buddy while I can. I don’t think Steve is gonna be very happy if I snuggle you after you guys get back together.”

You stopped the movements of your hand. Bucky’s reminder made you sad. Whenever either one of you started dating someone seriously, that would have to stop. Not just the cuddling, but probably most of your physical displays of affection. Your relationships had been so short that that hadn’t really posed a problem before, but serious relationships would mean you couldn’t just do what you were currently doing. The dread of losing Bucky and what you had filled you once more. And at that moment, you felt like Bucky’s loss would be far greater than seeing Steve married to someone else. This was what drove you to be the one to pull himself closer to you, to make the most of it while you could. But you didn’t address his remark. And you most certainly didn’t tell him what you wanted to, which was what he meant to you, how central he was in your life, and how you would forever cherish every single moment you shared in all your years of friendship. Even though Bucky had always been the single person you felt like you could always open up to, at that moment you felt like you couldn’t really express yourself. So you willed yourself to do something you had always been terrible at: you willed yourself to focus on the moment. You willed yourself to focus on his proximity, on the comfort and on the peace he was bringing you.

Wrapped up in each other, the both of you fell asleep again. You were only woken up by the dreadful sound of the alarm on your phone. You blindly tried to reach for your phone on your bedside table, but Bucky’s grip on you made it impossible.

“Gosh, make it stop…” You heard him mumble.

You chuckled. “Gladly, but I need you to loosen your hold on me.”

Bucky turned on his back while he made an annoyed sound and you could move to turn the alarm off. You weren’t happy the alarm sounded. It was a reminder that you had things to do that Sunday, things that you most certainly weren’t looking forward to.

You turned to look at Bucky, who was rubbing his face up and down with his hands. “Can’t we just stay here for the day?” He turned to look at you.

“Unfortunately, I have that brunch slash bridal shower to attend. Ugh.” You rolled your eyes.

Bucky smiled at you. It was a strange smile. It was almost like he was feeling… Longing. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but instead of doing it, he started to get up. Once he was standing, he looked at you and smiled a small smile that didn’t really reach his eyes. “I’ll let you get ready.”

*****

Sharon’s bridal shower, which was preceded by a brunch, was at her parents triplex penthouse. You were afraid of touching anything in there, lest you broke it. Her bridesmaids were there, as well as her best friend Maria, who sported a walking boot and crutches. Yet, it looked like the woman could kick anybody’s ass even in that state. You were slightly concerned about what she could do to you if you succeed in stealing her best friend’s fiancé…

Sharon’s female family members were also there, much to your displeasure. Well, you weren’t really displeased with all of them, just with the ones who kept flirting with Bucky the day before. What were they thinking? Flirting with someone who was already in a relationship?! Sure, it was a fake relationship, but they didn’t know that!

Everything went just as you expected from a brunch slash bridal shower devised by the richest people you had ever met: perfect and rather boring. You sat at a table with Sharon’s friends, and you were really glad for that. You were particularly glad for Darcy, who had no qualms about expressing how afraid she was of marking the china with her silverware, or how she was annoyed by the small portions of food served. The woman clearly got it. Jane tried to make Darcy behave in a more composed manner, but she wasn’t being successful. At all.

The food itself wasn’t bad, but far too little like actual food for your taste. The games played were pretty standard and, quite frankly, mostly boring. But worst of all, the whole experience was a reminder of how closer you were of losing the love of your life. Nothing you had done up to that point had managed to get you anywhere nearer your ultimate goal. The worst part was that you were witnessing a happiness that was supposed to be yours. And you couldn’t see how you could possibly do anything other than start preparing yourself for losing Steve forever in six days.

You were nursing some overtly sweet pink cocktail, licking your wounds, when one of Sharon’s aunts decided to ask what every relative of a certain age usually did: who was most likely to get married next. You rolled your eyes and started drinking some of the disgusting cocktail in your hand. You expected some debate over which of Sharon’s cousins would be walking down the isle next, when the bride to be herself said, “Oh, that’s easy. That would be Y/N.”

You chocked on the pink liquid, making some of it come out of your nose. What?! After a rather long coughing fit, which was equal parts from your drink having gone down the wrong pipe and from the shock of Sharon’s statement, you managed to squeak, “I’m sorry?”

“Come on, a blind man could see you and Bucky are madly in love with each other!” Sharon smiled brightly. She seemed like she was genuinely happy with the prospect of you and Bucky tying the knot. You, on the other hand, were flabbergasted.

“Don’t look so surprised, dear. The way that boy looks at you clearly says he’s ready to drop down to one knee at any moment!” Sharon’s mother said as she smiled kindly at you. You could only blink in answer to that statement, feeling dumbfounded.

“Yeah, you guys are actually disgusting,” Darcy chipped in. “Tooth rotting.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. You and Bucky were really selling this fake relationship of yours… After recovering enough from everything you had heard, you addressed the room, “I- I- I don’t think so… I mean… We’ve just started dating…”

“When you know, you know, Y/N. I’m living proof of that.” You really didn’t need to be reminded of that by a beaming Sharon.

*****

As the afternoon was drawing to a close, and you couldn’t really engage in any more conversation, all the men in the wedding party arrived. As you saw them flocking into the penthouse your eyes started to frantically search for the person you really needed to see at that moment. He came in last, blue Henley and dark wash jeans. After the gloomy day you had had, you felt the weight you’d been feeling lessen a little. He was talking to some really old relative of Sharon’s, giving him all the attention in the world. He really enjoyed the company of the elderly. Always had. Suddenly, he saw you. You waved lamely, and he smiled a small smile. He turned back to the old man, they quickly ended their conversation, and he came towards you.

“Hi,” you said when he was finally in front of you.

“Hi,” he said back. One small word, and just hearing it added tenfold to what you felt upon just laying your eyes on him.

“How was your day?” You asked while you put a lock of his hair behind his ear. He had decided to leave his brown locks loose that day.

“It was nice, the guys are pretty cool. How was your day?”

“Well, I’d rather have gone to the Patriots Hall of Fame with you.”

“Wow, that bad huh? You don’t even like football.”

“Yeah, that's saying something about my day.”

Bucky sighed and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Well…” You tried to sound more cheerful as you added, “I did learn we are pretty good actors, though.”

Bucky frowned. “What do you mean?”

“All the women believe we are madly in love with each other. I was actually told that the way you look at me means you are ready to propose, so-” But you didn’t have time to say anything else, because you turned when your name was called. Which was why you didn’t see Bucky’s distressed expression.

*****

Monday morning your maid of honour’s duties led you to the venue where the wedding was to take place, a country estate just outside of Boston. The place looked like it had come out of a Jane Austen novel. You didn’t even know there were places like that in America. Why would anyone want to get married in such a place? Why was Steve agreeing to get married in such a place? Because he loves his fiancée and that is where she wants to get married…, your traitorous mind answered.

Sharon excitedly went on with her wedding planning, and you tagged along, increasingly dreading that there was nothing else for you to do but to witness the marriage taking place. You could think of nothing else to do to get Steve back, other than confessing your feelings for him. But if you had had issues with that before, due to your total incapacity in acknowledging and communicating your own feelings, now you had an added complication: Steve would never forgive you for deceiving his best friend in the whole world. Because you would have to let him think that. Because you could never tell Steve that Bucky had had the idea to fake a relationship with you. You might damage, perhaps forever, your relationship with Steve, but you wouldn’t let Steve and Bucky's relationship be damaged.

What had you dragged yourself into?! Each second of Sharon’s discussions with the planners, each decision about where to locate a flower, each change in the placement of tableware was an added argument to the conclusion that there was no turning back. There was no gaining Steve back, there was no possible outcome but his marriage to someone who wasn’t you. There was no other outcome other than that you would lose him. No, that you had already lost him. Because that was the truth, wasn’t it? It would take nothing short of a miracle to get Steve to come to his senses and realise you were the actual one for him.

Hours after you had arrived at the enormous state, you saw Bucky and Steve approaching your group. They hadn’t come with everybody else because they had had to take care of their tuxedos, since certain events hadn’t allowed them to do so the previous Saturday. As you watched Steve sweetly kissing Sharon, you heard Bucky’s voice lowly in your ear ask, “Can we talk for a moment?”

You turned to Bucky and nodded. The both of you excused yourselves from the rest of the group and went outside. You walked for a while in silence, and when you were at such a distance from the house that you couldn’t be heard, Bucky stopped under an enormous beautiful tree. For some time he said nothing, fidgeting a little and looking around the grounds, his countenance grave. You were about to ask him what was the matter when he said, “I’m going back to New York.”

You widened your eyes and had a hard time uttering anything. Your mouth was forming shapes without any sound coming from it. You felt like the very ground you walked on had been taken away from you.

After a while, Bucky added, “Fury needs me.”

You finally managed to find your voice, even though it came far more broken than you would have wanted it. “Fury- Fury needs you?” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. “Didn’t you take the whole week off?” You were trying very hard to keep your composure. What you actually wanted to scream from the top of your lungs was “I need you!”, but you couldn’t let yourself be taken over by your emotions. Not again. Not after all the mess that had happened the last couple of days because you were overcome by your emotions.

“I did. But Fury called me this morning to help him guarantee we sign an author. A lot of publishing houses have been trying to get this guy to sign his first book deal with them. He’s a promising young author of literary fiction, and he has made it pretty clear that he’ll only sign with us if Penguin Random House ensures that I’ll be his editor. I guess someone has told him about my work.”

Your brain stopped freaking out long enough for you to feel a surge of pride. Some author wanted to ensure that Bucky, your Bucky, was the editor of his book. If you hadn’t been in such dire straits you’d be over the moon! But, alas, the love of your life was about to get married to someone else, and once this thought came once more to the forefront of all of your thoughts, you just couldn’t be happy for Bucky as you wanted to be. You needed Bucky with you, more than ever.

As you kept silent, he went on, “This is really important for my career, Y/N.”

Despite the fact that you felt everything crumbling down around you, you perceived Bucky’s strange tone. His last words sounded almost rehearsed. You realised how wholly uncharacteristic he was behaving. The previous day, after you left Sharon’s bridal shower, you thought Bucky had seemed somewhat distant, but you had dismissed it as tiredness. Now you realised it may not have been that. You got yourself together enough to ask, “Bucky, what’s wrong?” He didn’t immediately respond. You started to worry about what he wasn’t telling you. The two of you didn’t hide things from one another, so you were growing ever more alarmed. What wasn’t he sharing with you? You took a step towards him. “Bucky, do you need me to go back to New York with you?”

“What?” Bucky looked both surprised and confused. He stared at you for a long moment before asking, “What about Steve? What about winning him back?”

You closed your eyes and sighed. You already lost him. You opened your eyes again and said, “Steve isn’t dealing with a problem. Quite the opposite, actually. But you are very clearly distressed. I know you, Bucky. Something’s wrong. And I’m not leaving my best friend alone to face a problem in the very off chance that a guy who is about to marry someone else leaves her for me.”

You couldn’t decipher exactly what was going on in Bucky’s head, but you thought you saw confusion in his eyes. In a low tone, he asked, “Would you- Would you do that? For me?”

You were surprised by the question. And a little hurt that he didn’t expect you to be there for him. You supposed you had no one to blame but yourself, since you had been such a self-centred mess for the last couple of days. Somehow, a part of you felt more anguished at the prospect of Bucky not trusting you than at the loss of Steve. With a tentative smile, you answered, “Of course.”

Bucky was quiet for a while, breathing heavily. After some time he closed his eyes, sighed, and said, “Y/N, I… I- I need to get away from you.” And that’s exactly what he did. He started walking away from you, back to the mansion. Despite your utter shock at his words, you speedily went after him, trying to catch up with his hurried long strides.

You didn’t really know how, but you managed to outpace him and stopped in front of him, making him stop abruptly. “What do you mean?!” What sort of reaction was his?! What was happening with Bucky?!

In a whisper, more to himself than to you, Bucky said, “I can’t do this anymore,” before he circled you and started walking away once more.

Your mind was spiralling. You started after Bucky again, shouting his name repeatedly in an effort to make him stop. When he finally did, you almost crushed into him. He turned back to you, exasperated like you had never ever seen him. “What?! What do you want from me?!”

“What do I want?! I want an explanation! No, I need an explanation! What is going on?! What aren’t you telling me?! Why do you need to get away from me?!”

“Because I’m in love with you!”

You would never have expected that.

*****

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Taglist: @winterdrag0n, @fangirl-swagg and @bigphattygyal.

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“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Eight

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

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“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

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A note for previous readers: I know this is probably getting kind of old, but I truly am sorry it took me so long to update. Again. I just hope your wait is worth it once you read this chapter. It had been a long time in the making, and it most certainly wasn’t the easiest one to craft. I wanted to ensure it was the best I could make. I’d like to thank all of you who are still here to see how my story will eventually turn out to be. Have a nice reading!

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You slowly opened your eyes as sleep left you and started to make sense of the world around you. You were being snuggled, a head buried in the back of your neck, an arm around your middle, pulling you flush into a body, your back perfectly molded into it. Bucky. Even though you couldn’t see his face, you had fallen asleep together many a time for you to know that it was him who was cuddling you.

After you let Bucky into your room the night before, you both ordered your room service and watched TV. You didn’t talk about any of the events of the day, and you had the greatest time since Steve had called you to tell you he was getting married. Bucky made sure you only watched unpretentious shows, and that your conversation was carefree. You felt happy enjoying his company just like you had many times before. In your relaxed state, the both of you fell asleep before Bucky could go back to his room for the night.

You turned slowly, as to not disturb Bucky, and observed him sleeping soundly. The sun coming from the crack between the blinds illuminated his features just perfectly, magnifying his beauty. You observed attentively his countenance: the way his eyebrows seemed a little messy from sleep, how his eyelashes touched the skin under his eyes, the shapes of his nose and of his lips, how, considering the state of his facial hair, he seemed to have not shaved since he had arrived in Boston, how said facial hair was covering the dimple in his chin… You knew Bucky was a handsome man, he had always been, but in moments like this, when you could really examine him up close, you were always taken aback by just how stunning he was. You felt the urge to trace his features with your fingers, like every time you woke up sharing a bed with him, but just like always, you refrained from doing so.

After a couple of minutes of thoroughly observing his face, you heard him saying in his raspy morning voice, “Stop starring at me while I sleep, you weirdo.” How did he know?! You were about to open your mouth to deny it when he added, “Don’t even bother denying it.” He opened just one of his eyes and gave you a mischievous sleepy smile before closing his eye again. “Come on, let’s just get back to sleep.” He pulled you closer to him, burying his head in the crook of your neck and nuzzling it.

You chuckled to yourself. “You’re such a cuddly person!” You brought one of your hands up and started to caress his head. He hummed in a content manner and you smiled to yourself at the sound.

You thought Bucky had been back to sleep, since he had been quiet for a good time, until you heard him say, “I have to make the most of my cuddle buddy while I can. I don’t think Steve is gonna be very happy if I snuggle you after you guys get back together.”

You stopped the movements of your hand. Bucky’s reminder made you sad. Whenever either one of you started dating someone seriously, that would have to stop. Not just the cuddling, but probably most of your physical displays of affection. Your relationships had been so short that that hadn’t really posed a problem before, but serious relationships would mean you couldn’t just do what you were currently doing. The dread of losing Bucky and what you had filled you once more. And at that moment, you felt like Bucky’s loss would be far greater than seeing Steve married to someone else. This was what drove you to be the one to pull himself closer to you, to make the most of it while you could. But you didn’t address his remark. And you most certainly didn’t tell him what you wanted to, which was what he meant to you, how central he was in your life, and how you would forever cherish every single moment you shared in all your years of friendship. Even though Bucky had always been the single person you felt like you could always open up to, at that moment you felt like you couldn’t really express yourself. So you willed yourself to do something you had always been terrible at: you willed yourself to focus on the moment. You willed yourself to focus on his proximity, on the comfort and on the peace he was bringing you.

Wrapped up in each other, the both of you fell asleep again. You were only woken up by the dreadful sound of the alarm on your phone. You blindly tried to reach for your phone on your bedside table, but Bucky’s grip on you made it impossible.

“Gosh, make it stop…” You heard him mumble.

You chuckled. “Gladly, but I need you to loosen your hold on me.”

Bucky turned on his back while he made an annoyed sound and you could move to turn the alarm off. You weren’t happy the alarm sounded. It was a reminder that you had things to do that Sunday, things that you most certainly weren’t looking forward to.

You turned to look at Bucky, who was rubbing his face up and down with his hands. “Can’t we just stay here for the day?” He turned to look at you.

“Unfortunately, I have that brunch slash bridal shower to attend. Ugh.” You rolled your eyes.

Bucky smiled at you. It was a strange smile. It was almost like he was feeling… Longing. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but instead of doing it, he started to get up. Once he was standing, he looked at you and smiled a small smile that didn’t really reach his eyes. “I’ll let you get ready.”

*****

Sharon’s bridal shower, which was preceded by a brunch, was at her parents triplex penthouse. You were afraid of touching anything in there, lest you broke it. Her bridesmaids were there, as well as her best friend Maria, who sported a walking boot and crutches. Yet, it looked like the woman could kick anybody’s ass even in that state. You were slightly concerned about what she could do to you if you succeed in stealing her best friend’s fiancé…

Sharon’s female family members were also there, much to your displeasure. Well, you weren’t really displeased with all of them, just with the ones who kept flirting with Bucky the day before. What were they thinking? Flirting with someone who was already in a relationship?! Sure, it was a fake relationship, but they didn’t know that!

Everything went just as you expected from a brunch slash bridal shower devised by the richest people you had ever met: perfect and rather boring. You sat at a table with Sharon’s friends, and you were really glad for that. You were particularly glad for Darcy, who had no qualms about expressing how afraid she was of marking the china with her silverware, or how she was annoyed by the small portions of food served. The woman clearly got it. Jane tried to make Darcy behave in a more composed manner, but she wasn’t being successful. At all.

The food itself wasn’t bad, but far too little like actual food for your taste. The games played were pretty standard and, quite frankly, mostly boring. But worst of all, the whole experience was a reminder of how closer you were of losing the love of your life. Nothing you had done up to that point had managed to get you anywhere nearer your ultimate goal. The worst part was that you were witnessing a happiness that was supposed to be yours. And you couldn’t see how you could possibly do anything other than start preparing yourself for losing Steve forever in six days.

You were nursing some overtly sweet pink cocktail, licking your wounds, when one of Sharon’s aunts decided to ask what every relative of a certain age usually did: who was most likely to get married next. You rolled your eyes and started drinking some of the disgusting cocktail in your hand. You expected some debate over which of Sharon’s cousins would be walking down the isle next, when the bride to be herself said, “Oh, that’s easy. That would be Y/N.”

You chocked on the pink liquid, making some of it come out of your nose. What?! After a rather long coughing fit, which was equal parts from your drink having gone down the wrong pipe and from the shock of Sharon’s statement, you managed to squeak, “I’m sorry?”

“Come on, a blind man could see you and Bucky are madly in love with each other!” Sharon smiled brightly. She seemed like she was genuinely happy with the prospect of you and Bucky tying the knot. You, on the other hand, were flabbergasted.

“Don’t look so surprised, dear. The way that boy looks at you clearly says he’s ready to drop down to one knee at any moment!” Sharon’s mother said as she smiled kindly at you. You could only blink in answer to that statement, feeling dumbfounded.

“Yeah, you guys are actually disgusting,” Darcy chipped in. “Tooth rotting.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. You and Bucky were really selling this fake relationship of yours… After recovering enough from everything you had heard, you addressed the room, “I- I- I don’t think so… I mean… We’ve just started dating…”

“When you know, you know, Y/N. I’m living proof of that.” You really didn’t need to be reminded of that by a beaming Sharon.

*****

As the afternoon was drawing to a close, and you couldn’t really engage in any more conversation, all the men in the wedding party arrived. As you saw them flocking into the penthouse your eyes started to frantically search for the person you really needed to see at that moment. He came in last, blue Henley and dark wash jeans. After the gloomy day you had had, you felt the weight you’d been feeling lessen a little. He was talking to some really old relative of Sharon’s, giving him all the attention in the world. He really enjoyed the company of the elderly. Always had. Suddenly, he saw you. You waved lamely, and he smiled a small smile. He turned back to the old man, they quickly ended their conversation, and he came towards you.

“Hi,” you said when he was finally in front of you.

“Hi,” he said back. One small word, and just hearing it added tenfold to what you felt upon just laying your eyes on him.

“How was your day?” You asked while you put a lock of his hair behind his ear. He had decided to leave his brown locks loose that day.

“It was nice, the guys are pretty cool. How was your day?”

“Well, I’d rather have gone to the Patriots Hall of Fame with you.”

“Wow, that bad huh? You don’t even like football.”

“Yeah, that's saying something about my day.”

Bucky sighed and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Well…” You tried to sound more cheerful as you added, “I did learn we are pretty good actors, though.”

Bucky frowned. “What do you mean?”

“All the women believe we are madly in love with each other. I was actually told that the way you look at me means you are ready to propose, so-” But you didn’t have time to say anything else, because you turned when your name was called. Which was why you didn’t see Bucky’s distressed expression.

*****

Monday morning your maid of honour’s duties led you to the venue where the wedding was to take place, a country estate just outside of Boston. The place looked like it had come out of a Jane Austen novel. You didn’t even know there were places like that in America. Why would anyone want to get married in such a place? Why was Steve agreeing to get married in such a place? Because he loves his fiancée and that is where she wants to get married…, your traitorous mind answered.

Sharon excitedly went on with her wedding planning, and you tagged along, increasingly dreading that there was nothing else for you to do but to witness the marriage taking place. You could think of nothing else to do to get Steve back, other than confessing your feelings for him. But if you had had issues with that before, due to your total incapacity in acknowledging and communicating your own feelings, now you had an added complication: Steve would never forgive you for deceiving his best friend in the whole world. Because you would have to let him think that. Because you could never tell Steve that Bucky had had the idea to fake a relationship with you. You might damage, perhaps forever, your relationship with Steve, but you wouldn’t let Steve and Bucky's relationship be damaged.

What had you dragged yourself into?! Each second of Sharon’s discussions with the planners, each decision about where to locate a flower, each change in the placement of tableware was an added argument to the conclusion that there was no turning back. There was no gaining Steve back, there was no possible outcome but his marriage to someone who wasn’t you. There was no other outcome other than that you would lose him. No, that you had already lost him. Because that was the truth, wasn’t it? It would take nothing short of a miracle to get Steve to come to his senses and realise you were the actual one for him.

Hours after you had arrived at the enormous state, you saw Bucky and Steve approaching your group. They hadn’t come with everybody else because they had had to take care of their tuxedos, since certain events hadn’t allowed them to do so the previous Saturday. As you watched Steve sweetly kissing Sharon, you heard Bucky’s voice lowly in your ear ask, “Can we talk for a moment?”

You turned to Bucky and nodded. The both of you excused yourselves from the rest of the group and went outside. You walked for a while in silence, and when you were at such a distance from the house that you couldn’t be heard, Bucky stopped under an enormous beautiful tree. For some time he said nothing, fidgeting a little and looking around the grounds, his countenance grave. You were about to ask him what was the matter when he said, “I’m going back to New York.”

You widened your eyes and had a hard time uttering anything. Your mouth was forming shapes without any sound coming from it. You felt like the very ground you walked on had been taken away from you.

After a while, Bucky added, “Fury needs me.”

You finally managed to find your voice, even though it came far more broken than you would have wanted it. “Fury- Fury needs you?” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. “Didn’t you take the whole week off?” You were trying very hard to keep your composure. What you actually wanted to scream from the top of your lungs was “I need you!”, but you couldn’t let yourself be taken over by your emotions. Not again. Not after all the mess that had happened the last couple of days because you were overcome by your emotions.

“I did. But Fury called me this morning to help him guarantee we sign an author. A lot of publishing houses have been trying to get this guy to sign his first book deal with them. He’s a promising young author of literary fiction, and he has made it pretty clear that he’ll only sign with us if Penguin Random House ensures that I’ll be his editor. I guess someone has told him about my work.”

Your brain stopped freaking out long enough for you to feel a surge of pride. Some author wanted to ensure that Bucky, your Bucky, was the editor of his book. If you hadn’t been in such dire straits you’d be over the moon! But, alas, the love of your life was about to get married to someone else, and once this thought came once more to the forefront of all of your thoughts, you just couldn’t be happy for Bucky as you wanted to be. You needed Bucky with you, more than ever.

As you kept silent, he went on, “This is really important for my career, Y/N.”

Despite the fact that you felt everything crumbling down around you, you perceived Bucky’s strange tone. His last words sounded almost rehearsed. You realised how wholly uncharacteristic he was behaving. The previous day, after you left Sharon’s bridal shower, you thought Bucky had seemed somewhat distant, but you had dismissed it as tiredness. Now you realised it may not have been that. You got yourself together enough to ask, “Bucky, what’s wrong?” He didn’t immediately respond. You started to worry about what he wasn’t telling you. The two of you didn’t hide things from one another, so you were growing ever more alarmed. What wasn’t he sharing with you? You took a step towards him. “Bucky, do you need me to go back to New York with you?”

“What?” Bucky looked both surprised and confused. He stared at you for a long moment before asking, “What about Steve? What about winning him back?”

You closed your eyes and sighed. You had already lost him. You opened your eyes again and said, “Steve isn’t dealing with a problem. Quite the opposite, actually. But you are very clearly distressed. I know you, Bucky. Something’s wrong. And I’m not leaving my best friend alone to face a problem in the very off chance that a guy who is about to marry someone else leaves her for me.”

You couldn’t decipher exactly what was going on in Bucky’s head, but you thought you saw confusion in his eyes. In a low tone, he asked, “Would you- Would you do that? For me?”

You were surprised by the question. And a little hurt that he didn’t expect you to be there for him. You supposed you had no one to blame but yourself, since you had been such a self-centred mess for the last couple of days. Somehow, a part of you felt more anguished at the prospect of Bucky not trusting you than at the loss of Steve. With a tentative smile, you answered, “Of course.”

Bucky was quiet for a while, breathing heavily. After some time he closed his eyes, sighed, and said, “Y/N, I… I- I need to get away from you.” And that’s exactly what he did. He started walking away from you, back to the mansion. Despite your utter shock at his words, you speedily went after him, trying to catch up with his hurried long strides.

You didn’t really know how, but you managed to outpace him and stopped in front of him, making him stop abruptly. “What do you mean?!” What sort of reaction was his?! What was happening with Bucky?!

In a whisper, more to himself than to you, Bucky said, “I can’t do this anymore,” before he circled you and started walking away once more.

Your mind was spiralling. You started after Bucky again, shouting his name repeatedly in an effort to make him stop. When he finally did, you almost crushed into him. He turned back to you, exasperated like you had never ever seen him. “What?! What do you want from me?!”

“What do I want?! I want an explanation! No, I need an explanation! What is going on?! What aren’t you telling me?! Why do you need to get away from me?!”

“Because I’m in love with you!”

You would never have expected that.

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Taglist: @winterdrag0n, @fangirl-swagg and @bigphattygyal.

[writingfanfiction]

I will, @bigphattygyal!

[writingfanfiction]

Aw, thank you so much @softyutae! I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the story!

Thank you again for commenting, comments give me a lot of incentive to work on my next chapter!

Yay, comments! I love when people comment on my work! Thank you, @softyutae! And thank you for reading!

I’m glad you like the way I’m building the dynamic between Bucky and the reader. It’s also nice to hear your opinion on who the reader should end with. No one had told me that before!

I hope you’ll stay tuned for the rest of this story!

[writingfanfiction]

Are you going to play w the plot ending of MBF’sW?

Hello, anon! Thank you for reading my story and for sending me an ask!

My story is loosely based on the movie of the same name, so I’m not following the movie plot in every detail. I can’t say anything else right now, because I don’t want to spoil anything. I hope you’ll follow my story until it’s finished to check how everything turns out!

[writingfanfiction]

Yay, comments! I love when people comment on my work! Thank you, @softyutae! And thank you for reading!

I’m glad you like the way I’m building the dynamic between Bucky and the reader. It’s also nice to hear your opinion on who the reader should end with. No one had told me that before!

I hope you’ll stay tuned for the rest of this story!

[writingfanfiction]

“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Seven

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

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*****

Being wrapped up in Bucky forever wasn’t really an option, as much as you wished it were. So, you eventually disentangled yourself from him and downed all of your water without making eye contact with anyone. Your mind was going a mile a minute without properly concocting a single complete thought. You couldn’t stay at that table any longer, so when all your water was drunk, you excused yourself to no one in particular and left the table, once again not looking at a single person. Soon you were outside, at the sidewalk, breathing the not so fresh air of the Boston streets.

What exactly was happening?! What had your life become?! You weren’t like this! What had you become since Steve told you he was engaged?! You were a mess! A complete and utter mess! You were in the process of losing him, of losing the man you knew to be the one, and that had you completely uncontrolled! You even agreed to pretend to be in a fake relationship with Bucky in order to try and get Steve back! What were you thinking?! You were pacing frantically, tugging at your hair. You let your hair go, dropped your arms and saw the hair tie on your wrist. The black accessory inconspicuous to anyone but you. You felt your checks heating up at the memory the flimsy cloth brought you.

How could have you let Bucky kiss you?! No, how could you be the one who actually decided you two should kiss?! What had taken you over?! Bucky was your closest and best friend! You leaned against the wall of the restaurant, closed your eyes and inhaled deeply. You could still feel the gentleness of Bucky’s large hand in your face, his care about letting you decide how to proceed with the kiss, the pressure of his fingers on your waist when he pulled you closer to him, the tenderness of his lips on yours… The memory of it sent shivers down your whole body… It was the most extraordinary kiss you had ever had, and the memory had you wishing for another. You quickly opened your eyes.

Bad Y/N! You weren’t supposed to feel like that! Bucky was your friend! Not only that, but that very morning, you had realised he was your best friend! You weren’t supposed to feel like this about his kiss! You weren’t supposed to kiss him at all! And yet, you couldn’t shake the realisation that every other kiss you had had in the past had paled in comparison. What you felt while kissing Bucky was absolutely superior to what you had felt kissing any other man. Not that you had actually kissed a lot of them…

You were also very aware of the fact that not even Steve had made you feel that way during all the kisses you had shared, and you had always thought he was the best kisser in the world. You had always remembered your last kiss fondly, the one at the night of your college graduation, cherishing it and comparing it to all the other handful of kisses you had had afterwards. No guy had ever compared to that. Until a couple of moments before. Bucky was one heck of a kisser. If Bucky could kiss you like that, you could only imagine how he would kiss someone he had actual feelings for. You didn’t know why, but this thought upset you. And it would happen, wouldn’t it? Bucky was bound to find his own Sharon, and you were going to end up alone. He too would get married, and things would change between the both of you as well. Oh gosh… You closed your eyes again and inhaled deeply. First Nat left, then Steve, but Bucky had always been there, supporting you through all of those changes. Who would support you when he left? He may not actually leave New York, but he would leave the little life you guys had built when he found an astonishing woman who actually were the most caring and intelligent one he had ever had the pleasure of encountering. One who would actually challenge his mind and his heart.

You were starting to breath heavily when you heard, “Y/N, darling, are you alright? You’ve been gone for a while.” You opened your eyes to see a pair of deeply concerned blue ones looking at you.

You managed to find your voice, and answered him, “Things have just been a tad overwhelming, that’s all.” You smiled halfheartedly at Bucky.

“I know, kissing me can be an Earth shattering event.” He smiled mischievously at you, clearly trying to make you feel better. You couldn’t possibly tell him how close to the truth he was, so you just rolled your eyes and playfully shoved him. He smiled brightly at you and pulled you gently over to him, hugging you tenderly. Even if all your unsettling thoughts didn’t vanish, a deep comfort settled within you almost immediately as you buried your face in his chest and felt his arms around you. You always wondered how he had this power over you, how you, someone who was so uncomfortable with other people’s touches, always felt so completely comfortable whenever he touched you, and how you had come to crave his touch when you were distressed, specially in the last few days. As you enjoyed the feeling that only he could bring you, Bucky kept talking, “I know a lot has happened today, darling, but everything will be OK.” He kissed the top of your head. Would it, though? “And before you ask me if they really will, I know so.” He often did this. He often knew what was going on in your head without you needing to say anything. How did he manage it, you would never know. You nuzzled his chest and he held you tighter. “I know everything will be OK because it doesn’t matter what the outcome of all of this will be, you are the strongest, most wonderful woman I know, and you are forging such a beautiful path for yourself.” You looked up at him. His eyes were so full of feeling, so sure of what he was saying! You sighed and brought one of your hands up to play with some of his hair.

“I’m such a mess. I don’t even recognise myself anymore.” You let his hair go.

Bucky kissed the top of your head again and held you tighter. “Y/N, darling, you’re hurting. When we hurt, we often find we are not ourselves. And you are the strongest person I know, you hate to feel this vulnerability we all feel when we hurt.” Gosh, this man really knew you!

“I’m scared, Buck.”

It looked like your words physically pained him. “I understand, darling. I really do. But I’ll always be here for you, if that helps.” He smiled a small smile at you.

His words reminded you of what you had been thinking before he emerged from the restaurant, and you felt your chest constricting. You had to disentangle yourself from his arms. “You can’t promise that, Bucky,” you said as you wrapped your arms around yourself.

He frowned. “Of course I can! I’ll always be there for you.”

You shook your head. “Buck, someday you’re gonna find someone. You’re gonna find a woman to whom no other will compare. Someone who will know Wuthering Heights like the back of her hand and will understand all these little references you make about it, even when no one else has a clue about what you’re talking about. Someone to whom you’ll actually want to declare your love to in song. And I’ll be just some girl you used to know…” Your ability to talk seemed to have vanished amidst your sorrow.

“Y/N, listen to me. Even if, and that’s a big if, I do find someone, and I end up marrying her, I’m not gonna stop being your friend. I won’t! You are too important for me to just drop you!”

“Buck-”

“I won’t! Besides, if my marriage depends on her understanding my extremely obscure Wuthering Heights references, then I’m screwed, because to this day you are the only person I’ve ever met who actually understands all of them.” Bucky smiled. You knew he was trying to comfort you.

“Bucky, that’s not the point. The point-”

“I know what the point is. And I’m telling you, you really don’t have to worry about losing me, Y/N.” Bucky disentangled your arms from around yourself and drew you to his chest, hugging you once more.

What had happened to you? How could you, a strong, independent woman who was extremely put together, have become this vulnerable, scared mess? Why did you depend so much on Bucky’s words and Bucky’s touch to feel like everything was going to be OK?

You were basking in Bucky’s comforting arms when you heard, “Are you alright, Y/N?” You raised your head from Bucky’s chest to see Steve standing on the sidewalk, a concerned look on his face.

“She’s fine. She was just getting some air,” Bucky answered, rubbing your back gently. You knew why he had answered in your stead. He was helping you to pull yourself together.

“I asked Y/N,” Steve told Bucky, a hard look on his face.

You looked from one man to the other before answering, “I’m fine, Steve. We were about to go back inside”. Steve nodded, softening his facial expression as he looked at you.

Before the three of you went back into the restaurant, Steve gently touched your forearm and asked you, “Can we talk for a moment? Just the two of us?”

You looked at Bucky, who gave you a small smile and nodded before going back inside. Once he was within the walls of the restaurant, you turned back to Steve. “What do you want to talk about?”

Steve looked attentively at you, a concerned look on his face. “I just want to know if you’re really OK. I mean, there was a lot of prying from people back there, and then you were gone for quite sometime. I was worried.”

A warmth spread through your chest at Steve’s words. He cared about you. You gave him a smile and said, “I really am OK. I just… Gobbled up my profiteroles and felt a little full, so I figured getting up a little and getting some air would help.”

Steve didn’t seem to be convinced, though. “I know how you are when it comes to talking about your feelings, and Sharon and her family were very keen on knowing about-”

You had to interrupt him if you were to have a chance of controlling the course of the conversation. “A wedding is about to take place, Steve. People are bound to be in a… Romantic frame of mind. It’s no big deal, really.”

Steve was looking strangely at you. You couldn’t really decipher that expression, and you didn’t like that. After a while he spoke again, “I just worry because you get uncomfortable when things get sentimental. Because you are not comfortable displaying affection. Well… You weren’t comfortable with that. The ‘yucky love stuff’.” He air quoted the last words. Your own words.

You didn’t know what to say, because all of that was true. His words evoked the memory of the talk you had had with Sharon a couple of days before, when she told you Steve described you as someone who wasn’t up for anything that was assumed to be a female priority, like marriage or romance or love. If you were to have any chance with him still, you had to make him understand that things had changed. That you were up for all of those things. “I’ve changed. I mean, I’m not the girl that I once was.”

“Yeah. I know.” Steve’s tone was indecipherable, and the look on his face unreadable. After a couple of moments where you couldn’t bring yourself to say anything, he went on, “I just wanted to make sure you are OK.”

“I am.” You weren’t.

Steve nodded and the two of you went back into the restaurant.

*****

After lunch was over, you had to help with more wedding planning, and it obviously went just as bad as it had been before, if not worse. Well, from your perspective. Your reason and your feelings were a complete mess. You were overwhelmed by everything. You were incredibly glad that, since Steve was a very participant groom, the best man tagged along. If it weren’t for Bucky, you weren’t sure what would have become of you. He never left you alone, and he always had his arm around your waist, or over your shoulders, and every now and then he gently kissed the top of your head. Even though sometimes you were affectionate towards each other, that afternoon he was touching you a lot more than what was common between the two of you, but you didn’t really mind. You needed that, and you knew he wasn’t doing it just for show, just because you were supposed to be playing the loving couple. He knew you needed to be comforted, and that was how he could comfort you at that moment.

You no longer knew what to do to break up Steve and Sharon. Nothing that you had done had worked so far, and Bucky’s idea of you two faking a relationship also didn’t seem to be having any impact on Steve. He did appear to be less engaged with the wedding planning than he had been the day before, and you had caught him looking at you and Bucky with a strange expression on his face, but he hadn’t shown any signs of having suddenly realised you were the actual love of his life, the one who he was actually supposed to be planning his wedding with.

Thankfully, as evening approached, everyone was too tired of all the activities of the last few days, so there were no plans of socialising with the bride and groom and that evening. Sharon apologised profusely because of that, and you and Bucky had to assure her that it was more than OK for the two of you to make your own plans for the evening. You were exhausted from the day, so all you actually wanted was to go back to the hotel and have some room service.

Back at the hotel, you tried to let your body relax as you showered, but it wasn’t an easy thing to do, since your mind kept replaying the events of the day. A lot had happened, and that had taken a toll on you. You wanted your mind to quieten, but, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to want to cooperate.

You had just put on your pyjamas after your long shower when you heard a knock on your door. Who could it be? You went to the door, opening it to find a freshly showered Bucky, hair still wet, in a white T-shirt and flannel pants. “Have you ordered anything to eat yet?” He asked, a small smile on his face. You felt a wave of comfort wash over you from seeing Bucky standing there. He hadn’t said it, but you knew he was there because he knew you needed him. He always did. You smiled at him and shook your head in answer to his question, letting your best friend into your room.

*****

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*****

Taglist: @winterdrag0n and @fangirl-swagg.

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“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Six

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

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*****

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*****

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Steve asked. Bucky looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Why didn’t you tell me you and Y/N are dating?!” You had never seen Bucky’s eyes bigger in your whole life.

Steve had jumped to some very serious conclusions. You didn’t really know why you hadn’t tried to clear up his misunderstanding before, but at that moment he sounded so disappointed in Bucky that you just had to explain yourself. “Steve, we are-”

But it was like he hadn’t heard you. “She’s my ex-girlfriend, Buck.”

That just couldn’t do. You persisted, sounding stronger. “Steve, I never said I was dating Bucky.”

Steve finally seemed to have heard you. He turned to you, confused. “You were talking about how… How our feelings sometimes change about people… And you said Bucky is your new best friend.” He pointed at his best friend, who you saw turning to you too at Steve’s comment. “Besides, I saw you guys yesterday…” He saw you two yesterday? What did he mean by that? And why did he sound almost… Broken? Or were you imagining it?

You were about to try explaining yourself again when Bucky finally found his voice. However, as soon as the words left him, you wished he had kept quiet. “Steve, you guys had a couple of dates during a period of three weeks ten years ago.” He sounded calm and logical. “It’s not like you had a real relationship.”

You could see it in Steve’s face that he didn’t like what his best friend had just said. In a low tone, Steve replied, “It was a real relationship.”

“Alright. Let’s say it was. It was ten years ago. For a whole decade you two weren’t an item. Were Y/N and I supposed to just not act on how we felt because you and her had a three week relationship when we were sophomores in college?”

WHAT?! Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. You couldn’t believe what you had just heard! “What are you doing?!” You asked Bucky through gritted teeth.

“I am opening up to Steve.” Bucky looked meaningfully and intensely at you. From the very beginning of your acquaintance, you and Bucky had always had the ability to carry on whole conversations just by looking at each other. You had never had that with anyone else, not even with Steve. Right at that moment, he was asking you to trust him. To trust what he was doing. If there was anyone you had always trusted unconditionally, other than your parents, it was him. But that Saturday morning, you felt like you couldn’t bring yourself to it. He was asking too much of you. Bucky broke his eye contact with you and turned to Steve. “You can’t expect me to hold onto some sort of bro code after you guys haven’t dated for ten years. Specially not when you are about to get married to someone else.”

You could see a lot of emotions going through Steve’s face. He went quiet for a moment before finally saying, “I… I need some time to process this. Excuse me.” With that, he walked away from you and Bucky. You wanted to follow him. You wanted to go to him and tell him that none of that was true. You wanted to make those conflicted feelings of his disappear. He seemed to be hurting somehow, and you never wanted for him to hurt. But as you started after Steve, Bucky held your hand and you turned back to look at him.

“Trust me on this,” he said lowly, staring intensely into your eyes.

You took a step closer to him and whispered yelled, “How?! You are lying to your best friend about us being together!”

“Didn’t you see what I saw?” He whispered back.

“What are you talking about?!”

“He’s jealous.” You blinked. “You saw that too, didn’t you?”

You looked at the floor and answered in a small voice, “I… I thought he might be.” After a moment’s pause, you looked back up, speaking in a stronger, although still low, tone. “But that doesn’t mean he is indeed jealous and that we should lie to him!”

“Look, I understand your reservations, Y/N. I really do. But the two of you are my two best friends in the whole world, and I want you guys to be happy.” He sighed. “You love him. You have for ten years. And he is clearly jealous of us. I mean, he is so jealous he jumped to conclusions! This may be what actually pushes him to understand what he really wants for his life, if it really is Sharon or if it’s still you.”

This was crazy. You shook your head. “Buck-”

“If he does end up choosing Sharon, we just tell him we broke up because we figured out we worked better as friends. If he chooses you, I play the part of understanding friend.” He shrugged.

“Last night you said I should just tell him the truth!”

“I know. I know. But I have a feeling about this.”

*****

It took a while, but eventually Steve came back to where he had left you and Bucky, saying you were running late for the lunch you were supposed to have with Sharon’s family. He and Bucky would just have to come back on Monday morning to choose their tuxedos.

The drive to the restaurant was a really awkward one, full of silences no one seemed to know how to fill. Steve still looked very much troubled, Bucky was uncharacteristically quiet, and both of them seemed to be lost in their own world. You sat in the middle of the backseat, silently freaking out. At one point you had half a mind to just shout, “You’ve been punk’d!” at Steve, because how else was your “relationship” with Bucky supposed to work? You two didn’t really get to come up with anything other than the fact that you had started dating over the last month, so how were you going to convince anyone that you were in a relationship? Besides, you were quite possibly the worst liar in the whole world! This was going to be a disaster!

When you arrived at the restaurant, you quickly got out of the car and went straight into the building without waiting for either of your friends. You couldn’t handle that tension anymore. As soon as you got into the restaurant, a squealing Sharon appeared out of nowhere and promptly hugged you. “I knew it! I really knew it!” She said excitedly as she strongly embraced you. You were no more comfortable with her hugging you at that moment than you had been two days prior. “I told Steve last night, but he wouldn’t believe me! But I was right! I knew I was right!”

As she finally let you go, and breathe, you frowned. “What did you know?”

“About you and Bucky, of course!” She smiled happily.

What was she talking about? How could she know something that didn’t exist?! “What- What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on. You had to see your face the moment your eyes laid on him at the restaurant! It was like your whole person lit up!” That was most definitely not true. You didn’t light up! Ever! That just wasn’t you. And even if she did see something she had mistaken for lightening up, it was probably because Steve had entered the restaurant alongside Bucky. “And the way you guys hugged, as if you were the only two people in the whole world!” Sharon put one of her hands over her heart. “And how he kissed the top of your head, and held your hand before dinner was served!” Had she seen that?! You thought no one had noticed that Bucky held your hand… Sharon put her other hand over her heart. The woman was very clearly the sentimental schmuck she had acknowledged to have become. And because of that she was seeing things where there clearly was nothing to see! None of those things were done out of love! Well, not out of romantic love. You and Bucky did love each other. As friends, of course. You had a profound friendship, you had even acknowledged that he was in fact your current best friend, and your friendship was one where you displayed your affection for each other physically. Sure, you were usually uncomfortable displaying affection physically, but things were different with Bucky. “Oh, and the way he calls you darling!” She sighed. This was another instance where Sharon was misinterpreting things. Bucky had been calling you darling since you were in college. That wasn’t a pet name because you were his girlfriend, it was a term of endearment because you were his friend.

It didn’t take long for Steve and Bucky to enter the restaurant and find you and Sharon. Steve gave Sharon a chaste kiss on the lips, and when they broke apart, she turned to Bucky, saying in a very excited voice, “Oh, I’m so happy for you guys!”

“Thank you!” Bucky answered with a bright smile while he took hold of one of your hands and intertwined your fingers with his.

“I told Steve you guys were clearly together, but he just wouldn’t listen...” Sharon looked at her fiancé and tsked before turning back to Bucky. “So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he called me this morning to tell me the news!” Clearly, Sharon was the person who was most excited about your “relationship”. “Come on, everyone! My family is waiting for us!” With that, she took hold of one of your arms, making Bucky let your other hand go, and she led you to where her family was seated in a long table in the middle of the restaurant. There you met Sharon’s uncles, aunts and cousins. Thankfully, she made no comments regarding your “new” relationship status, so you wouldn’t have to lie during your meal.

You sat in front of Sharon with Bucky to your right. Steve sat to Sharon’s left, facing Bucky. Conversation was animated at the table, but you were mostly quiet, just like during dinner the evening before. Sharon’s parents showed great interest in Bucky, just like they had shown in you, asking him all sort of interesting questions about himself and his job. Everybody at the table seemed really impressed by the fact that he had edited the last winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. One of Sharon’s cousins, who looked a lot like Sharon and seemed to be in her mid twenties, tilted her head to the side and said, “Wow. Beauty and brains.” Bucky laughed at that, but, for some strange unknown reason, you felt like stabbing her heavily manicured hand with your fork. Luckily for her, you weren’t near stabbing distance.

Other women at the table flirted openly with Bucky, much to your annoyance. You didn’t even know why you felt like that, which annoyed you even more. It’s not like you were in a real relationship with him! After taking a good look at your face when you were throwing a murderous glare at one of her relatives, Sharon took matters into her own hands and gently mentioned that Bucky was already taken. It seemed you’d have to lie after all… “By whom?” Beauty-and-brains cousin asked. She sounded deeply offended by the fact that Bucky wasn’t single. “Some New Yorker who let you come all alone?” She completed in a manner that was both condescending and flirtatious. You stabbed one of your poor profiteroles rather forcefully after hearing her.

Bucky threw an arm over your backrest and said, “By this most wonderful woman.” You felt your face heating up while you chewed on the enormous profiterole you had stabbed and stuffed whole into your mouth. Beauty-and-brains looked at you disgustedly. You didn’t really care about her opinion of you, but you were calculating how you could still stab her with your fork from your current distance.

Sharon’s mother, Amanda, seemed fascinated by what Bucky had just declared. “Oh, really?! I didn’t know you two were together!”

“Well, it’s a recent development. We only started dating about a month ago.” Bucky answered with a smile. You kept chewing on your profiterole.

“From what I’ve heard, you have been friends for a very long time, how did this come about?” Amanda asked. Steve moved a little in his chair, looking uncomfortable.

“Well...” Bucky removed his arm from the back of your chair and put some strands of hair that had fallen from his man bun behind his ear. “I suppose friendship was what laid out the foundation.” He looked down and smiled a small smile to himself. “I had the privilege of meeting this marvellous woman who was the most caring and intelligent one I had ever had the pleasure of encountering. And she has been challenging me ever since. In so many ways. She challenged my mind, and she challenged my heart. I just gradually fell in love with her.”

What the- Where did he come up with that?! Oh, right, he was a fiction editor. And a writer himself. Sure, he mostly wrote poetry, but he did write fiction on occasion. You had read his work. There was a chorus of “Awws!” from the women at the table, followed by Sharon asking, “How about you, Y/N?”

“Uh?” You had barely heard your name.

“How did you realise you were in love with him?” She elaborated.

Oh, gosh! What were you supposed to say?! You had minored in English, but you didn’t write fiction! You were great at analysing other people���s works, you actually did that for a living, but you weren’t yourself a creator of original stories! Besides, you were a terrible liar. You couldn’t lie to save your life! What were you going to do?! What was it that people said? A lie had to be built from truth, right? How were you supposed to do that? “Uhm... I-” You stared down at your partially eaten dessert dish. What were you supposed to say?! Which truth could be the foundation for your lie? Suddenly, it dawned on you. You looked back at Sharon. “We were on the phone one night, not that long ago. We have a habit of having long conversations over the phone. Sometimes they start as soon as when the sun is setting, and they go on until the early hours of the morning.” You looked down again and smiled to yourself, remembering fondly your phone calls. You looked back up at Sharon. “One night - it was about 3 a.m., I think - we were in the middle of a recurrent conversation about who we would cast in our movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights.” There were some weird looks thrown your way. You felt the need to explain yourself. “You see, we talk about absolutely every single thing in the whole universe. There’s nothing we can’t talk about with each other. Nothing we can’t share with each other. No topic, no matter how strange for others, is left out from our conversations.” Sharon was beaming at you. “So, we were in the middle of that conversation when I realised, totally out of the blue, that he was the single most constant person in my life. Other than family, I mean. Well, actually, even more than some family…” You were starting to ramble. You forced yourself to focus. “I realised that, after all the years we’d known each other, he had always been there for me, like no one else had ever been. And I was genuinely happy about that. I remember smiling to myself while I listened to him, because that realisation really filled my heart.” You smiled a small smile and looked at Bucky. “I realised this guy had done everything for me, and I knew I’d do everything for him, and no one could get in my way when it came to accomplishing that.” There wasn’t a single lie in what you had uttered. It was all true. You were still looking at Bucky, who looked tenderly back at you. You quickly turned back to Sharon, who smiled a smile full of feeling at you. You didn’t have the courage to look at anyone else, specially at Steve, so you just cut one of your profiteroles in half.

“How did you guys opened up about your feelings for each other?” Sharon asked with a gleam in her eyes.

You were totally, completely screwed. Why did Sharon have to be such a sentimental schmuck? Judging her for being a romantic wouldn’t help you right at that moment, though. You and Bucky had come up with no backstory for your fake relationship. You had fairly quickly come up with a story about how you fell in love with Bucky, rather surprisingly you might add, but this was something else entirely! Specially because you hadn’t actually lied about falling in love with Bucky, you hadn’t even said the word love. You had just told a real story about how much your best friend meant to you. Sharon’s new question, however, needed to be answered with a coherent shared story, and you didn’t have that! This would fall apart so quickly… You had started hyperventilating when Bucky quickly came up with an answer. “Well, one night, we were at this karaoke bar called Scott’s.” OK, he was building his story from the truth. You did go to Scott’s sometimes. You kept paying attention to Bucky. “And I just thought, ‘if I don’t tell her how I feel right now, I may never have the guts again.’” This didn’t sound so bad. Well, as far as stories of fake love declarations went… “So, I got up on that karaoke stage, and I sang her a song that perfectly conveyed everything I felt for her. In front of quite possibly three dozens of strangers.” Your eyes started to widen, but you managed to quickly control yourself. You couldn’t be surprised by what everyone thought had already happened. You weren’t happy about how this story was going, though. You would have freaked out if anyone had actually done that to you. And Bucky knew you would have! You saw Steve frowning as a chorus of “Awws!” came from the women at the table.

Sharon, who had the biggest heart eyes you had ever seen in your life, asked, “What song did you sing?”

An ordinary person would have told her the song’s title. But James Buchanan Barnes was no ordinary person. So, in his nasally, completely off-key style - which you knew so well -, he started to sing. “The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup...” Oh, no. This couldn’t be happening!

“I say a little prayer for you!” You thought your eyes would pop out your head when you heard Amanda contributing in perfect pitch. Sharon’s mother had encouraged Bucky’s nonsense, because he continued his terrible singing, “And while combing my hair now, and wondering what dress to wear now...”

“I say a little prayer for you!” This time some of Sharon’s cousins sang perfectly, filling in as Bucky’s backing vocals. They seemed completely unfazed by his poor vocals.

You could never, not even in a million years, have expected what came next, though. The whole table, with the exception of you and Steve, who shared a shocked look, sang the song’s chorus. “Forever, and ever, you’ll stay in my heart, and I will love you forever, and ever, we never will part, oh, how I love you, together, forever, that’s how it must be, to live without you would only mean heartbreak for me...” Everyone at the table clapped as they finished singing. Well, with the exception of you and Steve, who found it all very surreal.

You thought the most bizarre moment you had ever witnessed in your life had ended, but you were thoroughly mistaken. Out of nowhere, someone who wasn’t a part of your lunch party started playing the song on the restaurant’s piano. You hadn’t even seen they had a piano there. Obviously, Bucky seemed to be having the time of his life, for he continued singing, “I run for the bus, dear. While riding I think of us, dear. At work, I just take time, and all through my coffee break time...” The whole table repeated the chorus once more, and when they finished it, Bucky put his left arm on top of your backrest and turned his body to sing to you. He looked intensely into your eyes and continued the lyrics, “My darling, believe me, for me, there is no one but you! Please, love me too. And I’m in love with you. Answer my prayer, babe. Say you love me too...” Bucky then turned back to the people at the table and sang the chorus with them as they all clapped along to the song’s tune.

When the song ended, the whole restaurant clapped. Apparently, all of them had had a great time. You, however, felt like you would die of firsthand embarrassment. You briefly looked at Steve and found him looking intensely at you, but you couldn’t really decipher that look. You didn’t like not knowing what was going on in his head.

Once the table got back to a somewhat normal state, Amanda asked, “And then what happened, dear? What did you do, Y/N?”

What on Earth could you say?! That in turn, to keep up with the repertoire, you sang Natural Woman?! Bucky was on a roll, though, and he answered, “She came up to me and kissed me like I had never been kissed before.” You had thought the “Awws!” had been intense before, but after Bucky said that last line, you heard the most intense “Awws!” you thought you’d ever hear in your entire life.

Suddenly, you heard someone stupidly yell “Kiss!”, and they were soon followed by others. You couldn’t believe what your life had become in just a couple of hours! What were you going to do?! You looked at Bucky to see if he had an answer to that. His eyes told you that you were the one to decide what to do next. You could see in his eyes that he would never kiss you without you agreeing to it.

For some totally unexplainable reason, you gave him a brief nod. You allowed him to. You saw his eyes widening just a fraction before he cupped your face with his left hand and he proceeded to slowly close the distance between you two. He looked hesitant for a brief moment. He seemed to be searching for any sign of instantaneous regret in your face. Finally seeing there was none, he looked at your lips for a second before closing his eyes and finally connecting his lips to yours.

It was such a feather like kiss at first. It seemed like he was testing the waters, letting you free to decide if you wanted to quickly put an end to it. When you didn’t, he intensified the kiss very slowly, gently moving his lips against yours. His tenderness had a warmth spreading in your chest, and you surprised yourself by intensely kissing him back. He allowed you to set the pace of the kiss, and with every passing second, you demanded more of him. You felt him giving you all you wanted, and exactly how you wanted it. Your hands moved of their own accord, moving up his chest and ending in the back of his neck. You heard him humming in appreciation of your touches, and, surprisingly, you found that to be the sweetest sound you had ever heard. Your movements also appeared to have ignited something within him, because his right hand went to your waist, and he pulled you closer to him. You felt that, while he was still gladly giving you what you wanted, he seemed to need more of you, and of what you were willing to give him.

You were reaching your limit, desperately needing air, but you couldn’t bring yourself to let Bucky go. That was when you realised something: you had never been kissed like that before. No one had kissed you with such gentleness, tenderness and care while simultaneously being so intense. Not only that, but that was most definitely the best kiss of your life! If your lack of air couldn’t bring you to disentangle yourself from Bucky, that realisation could. That thought was what ultimately made you break apart from Bucky, somewhat abruptly. Your faces remained close, though. You both breathed heavily, and you scanned every single part of his face, except for his eyes. You were afraid of what could be seen in them. Instead, looking at the rest of his face, you saw the mess you had made of him. His lips were rosier than they usually were, slightly swollen, and his hair was a complete mess. You didn’t even remember having taken it from his man bun, but it now cascaded over his shoulders, and his hair tie was on your wrist. How had you done that?! Your face immediately heated up. You were absolutely embarrassed! What had you done?! You had kissed Bucky! You had kissed Bucky like that! What were you thinking?! As your plaguing thoughts started to bring you back to the reality around you, you slowly started to hear the whistles and meowing coming from the people at the table. Even though you were absolutely mortified and sure you could never look at Bucky again, you were even more embarrassed of having kissed him like that in front of all those people. So, you did the only thing you could do at that moment. You buried your face on Bucky’s chest. He automatically encircled your waist with his arms, and kissed the top of your head. You knew what he was doing. He was telling you everything would be OK, he was telling you that, despite everything that had just happened, he was there for you, and he wouldn’t leave you. You heard him giving some apology about having been carried away, but you couldn’t really focus on his words, and you couldn’t get out of your “hiding” place just yet. You needed the comfort that you knew only Bucky could provide. Which was why you missed a very intense look exchanged between Bucky and Steve.

*****

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*****

Taglist: @winterdrag0n and @fangirl-swagg.

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Thank you so much, @fangirl-swagg! I’ll tag you in the next parts!

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Thank you so much, @sunshinepeachx! It makes me so happy that you are liking my story!

“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Six

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

*****

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Steve asked. Bucky looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Why didn’t you tell me you and Y/N are dating?!” You had never seen Bucky’s eyes bigger in your whole life.

Steve had jumped to some very serious conclusions. You didn’t really know why you hadn’t tried to clear up his misunderstanding before, but at that moment he sounded so disappointed in Bucky that you just had to say something. “Steve, we are-”

But it was like he hadn’t heard you. “She’s my ex-girlfriend, Buck.”

You persisted. “I never said I was dating Bucky.”

Steve finally seemed to have remembered you. “You were talking about how… How our feelings sometimes change about people… And you said Bucky is your new best friend.” At that mention, from your peripheral vision you saw Bucky turning to you. “Besides, I saw you guys yesterday…” He saw you two yesterday? What did he mean by that? And why did he sound almost… Broken? Or were you imagining it?

You were about to talk again when Bucky finally found his voice. However, as soon as the words left him, you wished he hadn’t. “Steve, you guys had a couple of dates during a period of three weeks ten years ago.” He sounded calm and logical. “It’s not like you had a real relationship.”

You could see it in Steve’s face that he didn’t like what his best friend had just said. “It was a real relationship.” Steve answered in a low tone.

“Alright. Let’s say it was. It was ten years ago. For a whole decade you two weren’t together. Were Y/N and I supposed to just not act on how we felt because you and her had a three week relationship when we were sophomores in college?”

WHAT?! Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. “What are you doing?!” You asked Bucky through gritted teeth.

“I am opening up to Steve.” Bucky looked meaningfully and intensely at you. From the very beginning of your friendship, you had always had the ability of carrying on whole conversations just by looking at each other. You had never had that with anyone else. Right at that moment, he was asking you to trust him. To trust what he was doing. If there was anyone you had always trusted unconditionally, other than your parents, it was him. But for the first time in your life, you felt like you couldn’t bring yourself to it. Bucky broke your eye contact and turned his attention once again to Steve. “You can’t expect me to hold onto some bro code after you guys haven’t dated for ten years. Specially not when you are about to get married to someone else.”

There were so many emotions going through Steve’s eyes. After a brief moment, he finally spoke again. “I… I need some time to process this. Excuse me.” With that, he walked away from you and Bucky. You wanted to follow him. You wanted to go to him and tell him that none of that was true. You wanted to make those conflicted feelings you could see in his face go away. He seemed to be hurting somehow, and you never wanted for him to hurt. But as you started after him, Bucky held your hand. You turned back to look at him.

“Trust me on this,” he said lowly.

Damn him and his eyes! Sometimes you felt like he could convince you of everything. But right at that moment, you couldn’t let him, so you whispered yelled, “How?! You are lying to your best friend about us being together!”

“Didn’t you see what I saw?” He whispered back.

“What are you talking about?!”

“He’s jealous.” You blinked at him. “You saw that too, didn’t you?” He tilted his head slightly to the right and stared into your eyes.

“I… I thought he might be.” You answered in a small voice, looking at the floor. After a moment’s pause, you looked back up, speaking in a stronger, although low, tone. “But that doesn’t mean he is indeed jealous and that we should lie to him!”

Bucky took a step closer to you, still holding your hand. “Look, I understand where you are coming from. I really do. But you are my two best friends and I want you guys to be happy. You love him. And he clearly is jealous of us. This may be what actually pushes him to understand what he really wants. If it really is Sharon or if it’s still you.”

This was crazy. You shook your head. “Buck-”

“If he does end up choosing Sharon, we just tell him we broke up because we figured we worked better as friends. If he chooses you, I’m an understanding friend.” He shrugged.

“Last night you said I should just tell him the truth!”

“I know. I know. But I have a feeling this might work out better.”

*****

Steve eventually came back to where he had left you, saying you were running late for your scheduled lunch with Sharon’s family. You’d just have to come back on Monday to choose the tuxedos. The drive to the restaurant was a really awkward one, full of silences no one seemed to know how to fill. Steve looked like he was lost in his own world, and Bucky had that resting bitch face he could pull on whenever he really didn’t want to show how he truly felt about something. You hated that face. You hated it because you hated not being able to read him, to connect with him. You sat in the backseat with half a mind to just shout “You’ve been punk’d!” at Steve, because how else was this supposed to work? How were you supposed to pretend to be in a relationship with Bucky? You were quite possibly the worst liar in the whole world, and you and Bucky hadn’t come up with a single piece of information about your fake relationship. This was a recipe for disaster!

When you arrived at the restaurant, you quickly got out of the car. You didn’t know exactly why, but you just went straight for it without waiting for either of your friends. As soon as you went through the double doors of the luxurious place, Sharon appeared out of nowhere, squealing. She then proceeded to hug you. “I knew it! I really knew it!” She said excitedly as she squeezed the life out of you. “I told Steve last night, but he wouldn’t listen to me! But I was right!” She finally let you go.

You frowned. “What did you know?”

“About you and Bucky, of course!” All of her perfect teeth were on display in her bright smile.

How could she know something that didn’t exist?! “What- What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on. You had to see your face the moment your eyes laid on him at the restaurant last night! It was like your whole person lit up!” That was most definitely not true. You didn’t light up! Ever! And even if you did, it was probably because Steve was with him. But you maintained you hadn’t lit up. “And the way you guys hugged, as if you were the only two people in the whole world!” Sharon put one of her hands over her heart. “And how he kissed the top of your head, and held your hand before dinner was served!” Had she seen that?! You thought no one had noticed that Bucky held your hand… Sharon put her other hand over her heart. The woman was very clearly the sentimental schmuck she had acknowledged to have become. She was seeing things where there clearly was nothing to see! None of those things were done out of love! Well, not out of romantic love. You and Bucky did love each other. As friends, of course. You had just become very physical at displaying affection after all your years of friendship. “Oh, and the way he calls you darling!” She sighed. This was another instance where this woman was misinterpreting things. Bucky had been calling you darling since college. That wasn’t a pet name because you were his girlfriend.

It didn’t take long for Steve and Bucky to reach you. Steve gave Sharon a chaste kiss on the lips, and when they broke apart, she turned to Bucky, saying in a very excited voice, “Oh, I’m so happy for you guys!”

“Thank you!” Bucky answered with a smile while he took hold of one of your hands.

“I told Steve you guys were together, but he just wouldn’t listen...” She looked at her fiancé and tsked before turning back to Bucky. “So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he called me this morning to tell me the news!” You really hoped Sharon couldn’t see that she was the person who was most excited about this relationship. “Come on, everyone! My family is waiting for us!” With that, she took hold of one of your arms, making Bucky let your other hand go, and she led you to where her family was seated in a long table in the middle of the restaurant.

There Sharon introduced you to a couple of uncles, aunts and cousins, and Bucky to everybody. Thankfully, she made no comments regarding your “new” relationship status. You sat in front of Sharon with Bucky to your right. Steve sat to Sharon’s left, facing Bucky. Conversation was animated at the table. Sharon’s parents showed great interest in Bucky, just like they had shown in you, asking him all sort of interesting questions about himself and his job. Everybody at the table seemed really impressed by the fact that he had edited the last winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. One of Sharon’s cousins, who looked to be in her mid twenties, tilted her head to the side and said, “Wow. Beauty and brains.” Bucky laughed at that, but you, for some strange unknown reason, felt like stabbing her heavily manicured hand with your fork. Luckily for her, she wasn’t close to you. Most of Sharon’s cousins flirted openly with Bucky, much to your annoyance. After taking a good look at your face when you were throwing a murderous glare at one of her relatives, Sharon took matters into her own hands and gently told her cousins that Bucky was already taken. “By whom?” “Beauty and brains” cousin asked. “Some New Yorker who let you come all alone?” She completed in a manner that was both condescending and flirtatious. You stabbed one of your poor profiteroles rather forcefully after hearing that.

Bucky threw an arm over your backrest and said, “By this most wonderful woman.” You felt your face heating up while you chewed with your mouth quite full from the large profiterole you had stabbed and stuffed whole into your mouth. “Beauty and brains” cousin looked rather disgusted at your image. You didn’t really care what she thought of you, but you were once again feeling very violent towards her. You couldn’t for the life of you understand why.

Sharon’s mother, Amanda, seemed very interested in what Bucky had just said. “Oh, really?! I didn’t know you two were together!”

“Well, it’s a recent development.” Bucky answered with a smile.

“From what I’ve heard, you have been friends for such a long time, how did this come about?” Amanda asked. You saw Steve moving in chair.

“Well...” Bucky removed his arm from the back of your chair and put some strands of hair that had fallen from his man bun behind his ear. “I suppose friendship was what laid the foundation.” He smiled to himself. “I met this marvellous woman who was the most caring and intelligent one I had ever had the pleasure of encountering. And she challenged me. She challenged my mind, and my heart. It was so easy falling in love with her!”

What the- Where did he come up with that?! Oh, right, he was a fiction editor. And a writer himself. There was a chorus of “Awws!” from the women at the table, followed by Sharon asking, “How about you, Y/N?”

“Uh?”

“How did you realise you were in love with him?” She elaborated.

Oh, gosh! What were you supposed to say?! You had minored in English, but you weren’t that creative! You were great at analysing other people’s works, but you weren’t creative yourself! And you were a terrible liar. What was it that people said? A lie needed to have a bit of truth in it, right? “Uhm... I-” You stared down at the profiteroles you still had to eat. What were you supposed to say?! What truth could be the foundation for your lie? Suddenly, it dawned on you. You looked back at Sharon. “We were on the phone one night, not so long ago. We have this habit of having really long conversations over the phone. Sometimes they start as soon as when the sun is setting, and they go on until the early hours of the morning. This night I’m talking about, it was about 3 a.m., I think. We were in the middle of a conversation about both nothing and everything, like always, and I just realised, totally out of the blue, that he was the single most constant person in my life. Other than family, I mean. Well, actually, even more than some family. I realised that, after all the years we’d known each other, he had always been there for me, like no one else had ever had been. And I was genuinely happy about that. I remember smiling to myself while I listened to him, because that realisation really filled my heart.” You smiled a small smile. “I realised this guy had done everything for me, and I knew I’d do everything for him, and no one could get in my way when it came to accomplishing that.” There wasn’t a single lie in what you just uttered. It was all true. Sharon smiled a smile full of feeling at you. You didn’t have the courage to look at the other people’s reaction, though, so you just cut a piece of your dessert.

“How did you guys opened up about your feelings for each other?” Sharon asked with a gleam in her eyes as she rested her chin on her hand.

You were totally, completely screwed. You had come up with zero elements of your backstory. Inventing how you fell in love with Bucky was one thing, but this was something else entirely! You had to have a mutual coherent story! This would fall apart so quickly… Bucky didn’t get the memo to freak out, though, and he quickly came up with an answer. “Well, we were at this karaoke bar called Scott’s one night.” OK, he was grounding his lie in a truth. You went to Scott’s some times. “And I just thought, ‘if I don’t tell her how I feel right now, I may never have the guts again.’” This didn’t sound so bad, at least as far as fake love declaration stories went… “So I got up on that karaoke stage, and I sang her a song that perfectly conveyed everything I felt for her. In front of quite possibly three dozens of strangers.” Your eyes started to widen, but you managed to quickly control yourself. You couldn’t be surprised by what had already supposedly happened. You weren’t happy about how this story was going, though. You would have freaked out if anyone had actually done that to you. And Bucky knew you would have!

There was a chorus of “Awws!” coming from the women at the table and some eyes rolled on the men’s part before Sharon asked, “What song did you sing?”

An ordinary person would answer the song’s name. But James Buchanan Barnes was no ordinary person. So, in his nasally, completely off-key style you knew so well, he started to sing. “The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup...” This couldn’t be happening!

“I say a little prayer for you!” You thought your eyes would pop out your head when you heard Amanda contributing in perfect pitch.

Sharon’s mother had probably encouraged Bucky, because he kept on singing. “And while combing my hair now, and wondering what dress to wear now...”

“I say a little prayer for you!” This time some of Sharon’s cousins sang perfectly, acting as backing vocals.

But you could never expect what came next. The whole table, with the exception of you and Steve, who shared a shocked look, sang the song’s chorus. “Forever, and ever, you’ll stay in my heart, and I will love you forever, and ever, we never will part, oh, how I love you, together, forever, that’s how it must be, to live without you would only mean heartbreak for me...” Everyone at the table clapped, except for you and Steve, who looked awkwardly around the table.

You thought that that would be it, that you could go back to eating your profiteroles, but you were thoroughly mistaken. Out of nowhere, someone started playing the song on the restaurant’s piano. You hadn’t even seen they had a piano there. Obviously, Bucky was having the time of his life, for he continued singing. “I run for the bus, dear. While riding I think of us, dear. At work, I just take time, and all through my coffee break time...” Again, the whole table repeated the chorus. When this had finished once more, Bucky put his left arm on top of your backrest. To anyone who looked at the both of you, he seemed to be devoting you his whole attention. He looked straight into your eyes intensely and sang, “My darling, believe me, for me, there is no one but you! Please, love me too. And I’m in love with you. Answer my prayer, babe. Say you love me too...” Bucky then turned to the people at the table and sang the chorus and clapped along with them. When the song ended, the whole restaurant clapped. You felt like you would die of embarrassment. You briefly looked at Steve and found him looking intensely at you, but you couldn’t really decipher that look.

Once the table got back to a somewhat normal state, Amanda asked, “And then what happened, dear? What did you do, Y/N?”

What on Earth could you say?! That in turn, to keep up with the repertoire, you sang Natural Woman?! Bucky came to your “rescue”, though. If that explanation could actually be called a rescue… “She came up to me and kissed me like I had never been kissed before.” You had thought the “Awws!” had been intense before, but after Bucky said that last line, you heard the most intense “Awws!” you thought you’d ever hear in your entire life.

That wasn’t the end of it, apparently, because someone had the stupid idea to say “Kiss!”, and others followed. You couldn’t believe what your life had become in just a couple of hours. What were you going to do?! You looked at Bucky to see if he had an answer to that. His eyes told you that you were the one to decide what to do next. He would never kiss you without you agreeing to it. You saw it in his eyes.

For some totally unexplainable reason, you gave him a brief nod. You allowed him to. You saw his eyes widening just a fraction before he cupped your face with his left hand and slowly closed the distance between you two. It was such a feather like kiss at first. It seemed like he was testing the waters. Very slowly he intensified it, and you felt something within yourself that made you kiss him back with such an intensity that you surprised yourself. He allowed you to set the pace of the kiss, and with every passing second, you demanded more of him. You felt him giving you all you wanted, and exactly how you wanted it. Your hands moved of their own accord and ended up in the back of his neck. You soon heard him humming in appreciation of what your hands were doing. This also seemed to have ignited something within him, because it suddenly seemed like he wasn’t holding back anymore. Both of his hands went to your waist, and he pulled you closer. You felt that, while he was still gladly giving you what you wanted, he also needed more of you. It was absolutely crazy how so much had happened in that kiss in such a short span of time. Just as you were reaching your limit, desperately needing air, you realised something. You had never been kissed like that before. Not only that, but that was the best kiss of your life. That thought was what ultimately made you break apart from Bucky. Your faces remained close as you breathed heavily, and you looked at every single part of his face but his eyes. You could see the mess you had made of him. His lips were rosier than they usually were, slightly swollen, and his hair was a complete mess. You didn’t even remember having taken it from his man bun, but it now cascaded over his shoulders, and his hair tie was on you wrist. Your face immediately heated up. You were absolutely embarrassed! You slowly started to listen the whistles and meowing coming from the people at the table, and even though you were absolutely mortified and felt like you could never look at Bucky’s face again, you were even more embarrassed of having done that in front of all those people. So you did the only thing you could do at that moment. You buried your face on Bucky’s chest. He automatically encircled your waist with his arms, and you felt him kiss the top of your head, as if to tell you everything would be OK. You barely heard him giving some apology about having been carried away, but you couldn’t really get out of your “hiding” place just yet. Which was probably why you missed a very intense look exchanged between Bucky and Steve.

*****

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*****

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But thank you so much for commenting, reblogging and enjoying my writing!

“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter Two

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

*****

“I called because I met someone.”

All air left you, and you forgot how to breath. You started to walk backwards in order to sit down on your bed, but you heavily miscalculated the position in which your bed had been for the last couple of years, and you collapsed on the floor.

You were quiet for a while. Trying to focus on the slight pain you felt in your rear from having had fallen on the floor. Your silence prompted Steve to inquire, “Y/N? Are you there?”

You started to get up from the floor, answering in a monotone, “Well, that’s great. You haven’t really had anybody since that awful Rachel Robinson…” This time you looked at the bed before you sat down.

“Y/N... I’ve never felt this way about anybody!” Never. He never felt that way about anybody. Which meant… Were you hyperventilating? “And she’s so right for me!” Oh, no. So right for him? “Her name is Sharon, she is a master’s student in architecture at MIT, and has just finished a semester abroad in Italy.” A master’s student?! What was she, 23, 24? She was a girl! He was a 30-year-old man! Almost anyway. “She is so smart! And funny! And she is the sweetest person I have ever met in my life!” There was complete adoration in his voice. It deeply unsettled you. “I met her a Saturday that I was at the Centrale Montemartini, and when she passed me, she made this intelligent observation, just to herself, but I heard her, and I just knew that I had to strike up a conversation!”

“Since when do you start conversations with random people?!” He had always been hopeless making conversation with people he didn’t know! You remembered how awkward he was when he asked you to partner with him all those years ago.

“I know, that’s so not me. But I just felt this… Pull towards her. All shyness, all qualms were gone. And she didn’t find me a weirdo for approaching her, I still can’t believe it! We just started walking through the exhibition, talking about the art, about the exhibit design, and soon we were talking about everything! Literally everything. We totally lost track of time, and we had to be told the museum was closing! But I wasn’t ready to tell her goodbye yet, so I asked her to have dinner with me. And she accepted it!” Of course she did. “After dinner we just kept walking around Rome, all night long, talking.” Oh, no. Rome had to be the most romantic city on the planet! Even you knew that, and you didn’t have a single romantic bone in your body! “And when the sun rose, while we were sitting in the Spanish Steps, I just... Knew!” You wanted to ask him exactly what he knew, but he just kept talking, not giving you an opening. “And I don’t know how, but this wonderful woman just felt exactly the same about me!” Of course she did! It’s you, you moron! You’re perfect! But you obviously didn’t voice that. “I was kind of intimidated when she told me her background, because her dad is like this billionaire who owns this huge business empire, and you know how I’ve always been uncomfortable around rich people...”

“Ye-”

However, he didn’t let you finish the one syllable word. In his love infused state he kept going. “But her parents are so down to earth, such wonderful people-”

Now you just had to interrupt him. “You’ve met her parents?!” This was all going way too fast.

“Yeah! They had made plans to spend some time with her there, after school was over.”

There? That caught your attention. “What do you mean there? Aren’t you in Rome?”

“No, my specialisation ended last Friday, I got back this morning.”

“You told me when your specialisation would end, but you also told me you were going to spend a couple of extra weeks in Italy, getting to know the place, appreciating the art...”

“There was a change of plans. We’re getting married. Next Sunday.” Had Steve stuck a knife into your heart and twisted it, it would have hurt less. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t think. You were all despair. Your world was crumbling down and you couldn’t even voice it. “Y/N? Y/N, are you there? Y/N?”

You didn’t even know how many times Steve had called your name, but eventually, it was that that made your brain start working again, somehow. “Steve, you can’t possibly be getting married next Sunday! You just met this girl! How is that responsible?” You got up again, pacing your room furiously, and probably sounding furious too.

“Responsible? Y/N, if you had only met her, you would understand! I haven’t been more sure of anything my whole life! I can’t wait for you to meet her! You’re gonna love her!” You shook your head vigorously to yourself, since he couldn’t see you. “But I need you, Y/N. I need my friend to help me through this.” There was so much feeling in his tone. He genuinely needed you. “If you can’t come and hold my hand, I’ll never get through this. There’s so much going on, so much to do. Please come, please.” Well, if he couldn’t get through it without someone holding his hand, maybe he shouldn’t be doing it!

“Steve, I…” What were you going to do?! “Steve, I don’t even know where you are!”

“Boston. Her family is from here, and the wedding will be here.” As you didn’t say anything right away, he went on. “I know you got work, but since your classes are over until September, for you won’t be teaching any summer courses, I thought that maybe you could find some time in your research schedule to come and be with me. But I understand it’s a lot to ask of you, for you to just drop everything in New York to come and be with me.”

He truly need you. You could hear it in his tone. Besides, if you were to put some sense into his head, you would have to be with him. You had to make him understand that getting married to a girl he barely knew was absurd. Nonsensical. He knew you were the one for him, you just had to make him remember it. And remember he would by spending time with you. So, you did what you had to do. “Can you pick me up tomorrow at the airport?”

*****

After you ended your call with Steve, you threw your phone to the side and collapsed face first on the bed. You buried your face on your pillow and screamed. This was a nightmare. A total and complete nightmare. And you had just a little over a week to handle it. Having some difficulty breathing properly with your face on your pillow, you turned around, caught your phone again and texted Bucky. “James, you are a duckling idiot!” You didn’t even see that the autocorrect had changed what you had written before you sent the text.

Suddenly, your doorbell rang. It was probably Professor Pym, your elderly neighbour from downstairs, who also happened to teach at NYU, and who seemed to hate you. He would constantly bang on your door to complain about your noise. Your feet were too loud, your TV was too loud, your dating was too loud… (There was no dating, there was you and Bucky usually watching TV or playing either Super Mario Bros. or Jenga. Although, the both of you were highly competitive playing Jenga). So you just assumed that the cherry on top of your night was Professor Pym complaining about your scream, which you thought you had managed to muffle pretty well. But when you opened your front door, it wasn’t Professor Pym on the other side, it was Bucky.

Before you could ask what he was doing there, and how he got into the building, he spoke, “I had not a clue about it.”

You scoffed. “Yeah, that much is clear, James. You’re clueless!”

But he didn’t answer to your sarcasm, he just dropped the bag he was carrying on the floor and hugged you. You were never comfortable with physical displays of affection. From pretty much anyone. But there was something about displaying affection with Bucky that never bothered you. It actually comforted you deeply. His hugs always soothed you, no matter what had happened. When he finally let you go, you asked him in a small voice, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here because the love of your life just told you he is marrying another woman. I am here to feed you comfort food, and listen to you, because you’re my friend.”

Gosh, he knew exactly how to be there for you. Steve had probably called him before he called you, and Bucky knew you would need someone. You were overcome with emotion and felt like crying. “Thank you, Buck.”

“Oh, we’re back at Buck now, are we?” He bent down to pick up the bag and marched to your kitchen.

“Well, you did come back to my place after having dropped me here just a little over an hour ago, already having had to put up with me during dinner, and after a full day of work.” You said as you followed him.

He put the bag on the kitchen counter and turned to face you. “Darling, I never put up with you. I like spending time with you. You’re my friend.” His tone was so soft, so caring.

The urge to cry was there again, so you changed the course of the conversation as you sat at the kitchen island. “How did you get into the building?”

“Pym was getting in when I arrived and let me in,” he said as he went around your kitchen grabbing plates and spoons.

“Really?” That was surprising.

“Yeah. He did tell me to keep it low, though.”

You rolled your eyes at your neighbour’s antics. You were both quiet for some time, while Bucky prepared you a plate with a brownie and a spoonful of mint chocolate chip ice cream, your favourite. He put the plate in front of you and proceed to prepare one for himself.

After having a bite of the dish, you asked, “How can he be getting married, Buck?” You sounded so small, but you had no strength to scold yourself for being weak, like you usually would.

Bucky sighed and sat across from you with his own plate. “I really don’t know, darling. I’ve never seen him act like this before, so impulsively. I told him he’s being reckless, that he doesn’t really know that girl, but he keeps saying that when I meet her, I’ll get it.”

“I’m not giving up on him, Buck.” Your voice was stronger now, determined. “I’m flying to Boston, and I’m showing him I am the woman for him, not that total stranger he just met.” He just looked at you, chewing quietly. You continued, “I have to, Buck. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t even try. I can’t just let him be taken away from me without a fight.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, darling.”

*****

The next morning, Bucky drove you to JFK. He had a deadline to meet the next morning, so he couldn’t go to Boston with you. As he pulled to the curb, he gently suggested, “Why don’t we have a drink? You could catch a later fl-”

You interrupted him straight away. You didn’t have time for this, even if you were a nervous wreck. “I’m a busy woman, Barnes. I’ve got a little over a week to break up a wedding, and steal the bride’s fella!” You stopped yourself and inhaled deeply. You couldn’t just snap at him, he was just trying to help. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just that… You said so yourself, Steve and I have been dancing around each other for a decade, he knows her maybe five seconds!” You started to nervously tug at the outer seam of you left jeans leg. Bucky put his own hand on top of yours, to stop your tugging, but didn’t say anything. He just gently started to rub the top of your hand with his thumb. “I’m gonna bring him back, Bucky. Against all odds, you know. Because if I don’t...” Your voice cracked. You proceeded to turn your hand so your palms were touching, and intertwined your fingers. “If I don’t, I gotta live with it forever.” You finally looked up from your connected hands and turned to face him, smiling sadly. “Thank you for dropping me off.” You then leant in and kissed his stubbly cheek before leaving the car.

*****

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*****

Taglist: @winterdrag0n.

[writingfanfiction]

Thank you so much, @sunshinepeachx! I’m glad you enjoyed it!

“My best friend’s wedding” - Chapter One

Pair: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Modern AU. On the night of their college graduation, Steve and Y/N made an agreement: if when both of them were 30 neither had gotten married, they would marry each other. Three weeks before their 30th birthday, Steve calls Y/N to tell her that he’s engaged. Having been in love with Steve all along, she is going to do all that is in her power to win Steve’s love.

A/N: Loosely based on the movie of the same name.

“My best friend’s wedding” masterlist | Main masterlist

*****

It was a typical Wednesday evening for you and Bucky. On Wednesdays you would leave work and meet at O’Malley’s. Even though you no longer were broke NYU students, you would sit down for the best and cheapest cheese fries in New York, a couple of Guiness pints, and whatever else caught your fancy. The Irish pub served big delicious dishes for a small price, making it a favourite among you and your friends during college. The traditional Wednesday nights started when you were a freshman, and were a treasured bonding experience for you, your roommate Natasha, Steve and Bucky.

You met Steve on your very first class of college, Introduction to Art History. The very first thing the professor did, even before going through the syllabus, was telling you all to partner with another student. You knew no single soul there, so when the massively built blond guy on your left shyly asked you if it would be OK for you to partner with him, you didn’t really have much of a choice. You did think that if an assignment was coming you would probably have to do it all on your own, considering he looked like a stereotypical dumb jock who got to NYU on a sports scholarship, but what exactly were you going to do? However, things actually turned out OK, since Steve wasn’t a stereotype of pretty much anything. You soon became best friends. In fact, to the present day you considered Steve to be your best friend.

Steve’s best friend wasn’t you, though. It was this guy he had known since he was a little boy, a guy called Bucky. Bucky was also a freshman, like you and Steve, and being friends with Steve pretty much entailed being friends with Bucky. The two of you actually had a lot of classes in common, since he was majoring in English and that happened to be your minor. One Wednesday evening after your mutual class Medieval Icelandic Literature, Bucky asked if you’d like to grab a bite to eat at O’Malley’s. Having heard about the Irish pub’s fame for cheap but quality dishes, you told him you’d like to accompany him and Steve, as long as Nat could go too. That day started the O’Malley’s Wednesday evenings tradition. Since all the homes of the four of you were in New York, your little tradition continued even during school breaks.

The first to leave O’Malley’s Wednesdays was Nat. Two years after you all finished college she married her long time boyfriend Clint, and they moved to California with plans of expanding their startup of hearing aids. You still heard from her, although not frequently, and you occasionally met whenever she had to come to New York or you had to go to California.

Three years afterwards it was Steve who left New York and your Wednesdays get-togethers. He got an amazing job as a painting restorer at the Smithsonian American Art Museum at Washington, DC, leaving you and Bucky alone to keep O’Malley’s Wednesdays. You and Steve remained very close despite the distance, texting pretty much everyday and talking on the phone quite a lot. You even managed to see each other in person quite frequently. You hadn’t been talking much over the last month, though, since he was in Italy doing another specialisation.

Three years had passed since Steve had moved to DC, and neither you nor Bucky thought about leaving New York or stopping your Wednesday evenings greasy dinners. Bucky worked as an editor for Penguin Random House, and you were an assistant professor at NYU. You got to see each other a couple of times every week, and you probably spoke on the phone every other day, but you both still felt that those Wednesday evenings were special.

You were quite content munching on some cheese fries, after having laughed about some of Bucky’s work shenanigans, when he changed the course of your conversation. “So. It’s the Fourth of July in three weeks."

“I know,” you answered giving him a look of obviousness.

He put some of his long hair behind his ear and proceeded. “You’ll be turning 30.”

You nodded, giving him the same look and waiting for him to continue.

“Steve will be turning 30.”

“I am aware both of our birthdays are on the Fourth of July, but thank you for the heads-up!”

Bucky rolled his eyes at your sarcasm and carried on. “Aren’t you thinking about what is going to happen?"

"What is going to happen? You’ll have to be more specific. Are you trying to impart some wisdom you gained since you turned 30 in the bygone era of three months ago?” You finished by smirking at your friend.

“No, Padawan. No, ready for the world, you are.”

“Thanks, Yoda!”

Bucky laughed before getting back to the subject at hand. “What I’m actually talking about is that thing you and Steve agreed to on graduation night.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact you two agreed to marry each other if you were both single when you were 30. You can’t have forgotten that!”

You hadn’t. You remembered it. As if it had happened the night before. You had been out with a couple of friends to celebrate having finally finished college, and Steve was walking you to your dorm. You were both a little tipsy, but you weren’t drunk. You weren’t one to drink much, and Steve had an absurdly high tolerance to alcohol. When you stopped at the door of the building, and you were rummaging through your purse to get your keys, Steve stopped you, and seeming to have completely sobered up, said, “If when we both turn 30 we haven’t got married yet, we should marry each other.” He didn’t give you any further explanation for his reasoning, but apparently you didn’t need one, since you just nodded by way of an answer. And then Steve kissed you. So tenderly and so passionately. You always thought Steve had been the best kisser you had ever encountered in your life. When you broke apart, he smiled at you, and waited for you to get inside. It was the last time you had kissed him. It was also the last time either of you touched the subject. But you didn’t say any of that to Bucky, you just said, “He told you that, huh?”

“You know Steve tells me everything.” His tone was apologetic. You couldn’t bring yourself to say anything, which was probably a first, so Bucky continued, “You know, he’s still in love with you.”

“He is not!” It was an absurd notion to think Steve was still in love with you.

“Yeah, he is.” Bucky sounded like he had absolutely no doubt about what he was saying.

“Has he told you so?”

“Has he ever needed to tell me something for me to know how he feels?”

“Buck-”

“He is still in love with you. I know so.” There was such finality in his tone. Yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to believe him.

“Buck, Steve and I only dated for three weeks sophomore year.”

“I know, I was there.”

For some struck of luck, you and Steve fell in love with each other at the same time during your early friendship. He was intelligent, sweet and so, so caring! It was easy falling in love with him. And then, one day, he asked you out on a date. You were a little worried, seeing you already considered him to be your best friend, but you agreed to go out with him nonetheless. You went out for three weeks. To this day, you thought those were the best three weeks of your life. However, you had always been so very independent, and you started to grow restless, so you broke up with him. And you knew you broke his heart. In the first few days after your breakup, you were so afraid of having lost the best friend you had ever had. But this was Steve, and you could never lose him.

“I know you only dated for three weeks a long time ago, but I have seen you two dance around each other for a decade. I know both of you, and I know those feelings you both had were never truly gone. And you are my best friends, and I want you two to be happy. I want you to be happy, Y/N. You deserve it.”

“I am happy, Buck. I don’t need a man-”

“Yes, I know you don’t need a man to be happy. But in three weeks you have a chance to be with the one man that in your eyes will never compare to any other. Don’t throw that chance away, Y/N. It’s not everyone that is lucky enough to be loved back by the person they love.”

“Buck, I don’t even know if he remem-”

“He does remember, Y/N.”

*****

When Bucky dropped you off at your place, you were quite restless. And you never got restless after spending time with Bucky. You hadn’t forgotten about your agreement with Steve, but you also hadn’t been actively thinking about it. Now you couldn’t take that agreement off of your head. After all, Bucky was right. Your feelings for Steve weren’t gone. Which was probably part of the reason you hadn’t really ever had a long term relationship. Sure, it wasn’t the only reason, since you had broken up with Steve all those years ago. But ever after your graduation night, deep down you had hung to the hope that you would end up with Steve. And if he was still in love with you, as Bucky seemed so sure, and he approached the subject, you wouldn’t turn him down. Sure, you both would have to have a pretty serious conversation about it, but you wouldn’t turn him down.

You were leaving your shower, having had a long mental monologue about everything, when your phone rang on your nightstand. “Steve” was written on the screen. Was it already happening? You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, and you picked your phone. “Hello?”

“Hey! It’s so good to hear your voice!”

You smiled. He sounded happy and excited to be talking to you. “It’s good to hear yours too!” And your tone was so, so soft. But for the first time you didn’t feel like reprimanding yourself for being soft.

“Look, I have to ask you something.” It was happening! Had Bucky talked to Steve before? Was that why he had approached the subject during dinner? But you had to get out of your head, because Steve continued to talk. “Something so incredibly important, that if you turn me down, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Oh, dear! The love of your life was about to propose to you! “I called because I met someone.”

All air left you, and you forgot how to breath. You started to walk backwards in order to sit down on your bed, but you heavily miscalculated the position in which your bed had been for the last couple of years, and you collapsed on the floor.

*****

Next chapter

[writingfanfiction]

Thanks for commenting, @cornelia-street-cardigan!

I’m so happy you’re enjoying my series! And I’m so glad you liked the T-shirt backstory! Specially since I almost took it out! I have created this complete backstory in my mind between Bucky and Wuthering Heights for this series...

[writingfanfiction]

@ginger-swag-rapunzel, thanks for commenting!

And yes, poor Bucky! Steve’s really jumping into conclusions!