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The man across from him on the train sighs deeply, messing with something in his ear. He frowns and pulls a hearing aide out, glaring at it and banging it on his leg. Bucky can only assume it’s stopped working. The man groans and shoves it into the messenger bag he’s got on the seat next to him. Bucky watches him over the next ten minutes, waiting for him to get off, and when the train slows down in Brooklyn, the man gets up from his seat and holds onto the pole closest to the door. Bucky stands up, waiting for the stop, and follows when the man gets off. The man’s apartment isn’t far, and Bucky ducks behind the building and waits for the man to come back down. It’s not long, Bucky’s waiting in the alley for maybe twenty minutes when the man comes back down to take his trash to the dumpster. Bucky grabs him from behind, hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, and slides thin fangs into his neck.
“Bleh!” Bucky pulls off, spitting out blood and wiping at his tongue. “Oh god that’s disgusting what the hell?!”
“Me what the hell?! You what the hell?!! What the hell are you doing man?!” Bucky finishes wiping the blood off his tongue and looks over at the small man.
“What the hell is wrong with your blood?” The man rolls his eyes, holding a hand over the place Bucky’d bit, and glares.
“I’m anemic asshole.” He spits. Bucky pushes himself off the wall and holds out his right hand.
“Barnes. Bucky Barnes.” The man stares at him for a long moment before slowly extending his own right hand and shaking Bucky’s.
“I’m Steve Rogers. You gonna explain why you’re biting me in an alley in the middle of the night?” Bucky shrugs, a small grin on his face.
“Haven’t eaten in a while?” Steve rolls his eyes.
“Figures, the one vampire in all of Brooklyn and he tries to take a bite outta me.”
“Not trying to hurt you or anything, just haven’t eaten in a while. Figures I’d grab the one guy in the car with bad blood.”
“You were in my train car, weren’t you? That’s how you pick your victims.” Steve accuses. Bucky rolls his eyes.
“Not my victims, I’m not killing anyone.” Steve huffs in disbelief.
“Right, you’re just attacking them in the dead of night cause you’re bored.”
“Hungry, not bored, hungry.”
“Whatever man.” Steve throws his hands up, backing out of the alley. “I’m too tired for this shit tonight.” He disappears into his building, and Bucky is left leaning against the wall, wondering about the guy’s relatively calm reaction.
~~~
He sees him on the metro, sitting calmly across from him with a briefcase in his lap. Steve tries not to stare at him, but he rubs the spot on his neck that hasn’t quite healed and can’t help the small glare that settles on his face. Bucky looks up and spots Steve in the seat across from him, and grins. Steve looks away from him quickly. He watches his shoes for the rest of the ride, but can feel Bucky’s eyes on him. When he gets off the metro, he knows Bucky’s following him, so he ducks down a side street and turns around quickly.
“Why the hell are you following me?!” Steve gets up in Bucky’s face, and Bucky puts his hands up in surrender.
“Whoa, whoa, just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“How I’m doing?”
“Your blood takes like shit, I wanted to make sure you were still alive, jeez punk, ain’t a guy allowed to worry about people?” Steve glares at him, backing off a step and crossing his arms over his chest.
“The hell are you doing out in the sun anyway?” Bucky snorts, an ugly little laugh and Steve tries to push down the rush of affection he feels for the inelegant action.
“Don’t believe every story you’ve heard.” Steve continues to stare at him with a disbelieving gaze. Bucky sighs heavily.
“Fine, I got a witch to brew a potion for me today, just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“So now witches are real too?” Steve asks, disbelief not just coloring his tone, but defining it. Bucky nods.
“Yeah, Tasha, best witch around. Any problem you have, see Tash, she’ll fix you right up,” he grins to himself, “for a price of course.”
“What’d she want from you to walk around in the sun for a day?” Bucky shrugs, blushing slightly. Steve’s interested now. “What did she want Bucky?” He shakes his head.
“We’re old friends, this one was free.” Steve raises an eyebrow at him in question and cocks his head to the side, waiting. Bucky sighs and swings his arms at his side. “Okay, so maybe she’s sick of setting me up on dates and figured that a day in the sun is what I needed to find someone.” Steve’s watching Bucky curiously.
“You asking me out?” Bucky shrugs, taking a step towards Steve.
“You saying yes?”
~~~
“Is that dinner I smell?” Bucky asks, stepping into the apartment and dropping his bag next to the door. Steve’s sitting at the kitchen table, a fork sticking out of his mouth. He sets it down and chews his spaghetti as Bucky makes his way into the kitchen. He makes himself a plate and sits down, leaning in to kiss Steve as he does. “Oh god! What the hell?” He recoils from Steve, holding a hand over his mouth and coughing loudly.
“Something wrong?” Steve asks innocently.
“Yeah! You taste like garlic what did you do?” Steve shrugs.
“Maybe someone left their dirty boxers on the floor this morning.” Bucky is hit with another coughing fit, covering his nose and mouth with his arm as he glares at Steve. Steve eats another forkful of spaghetti.
“I can’t believe you punk.”
“Jerk.” Steve replies instinctually, taking a bite of garlic bread. Bucky takes another step back.
“Steve I’m sorry okay?” Steve shrugs and keeps eating. Bucky disappears into the bedroom, coughing the whole time, and comes out a few minutes later with a basket of dirty laundry. “Look? I’ve got my dirty clothes, I’ll throw them in the wash right now, okay?” Steve shrugs, an amused grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, and he watches while Bucky make a show of opening the washer and throwing his clothes in, hunting for the detergent and fabric softener, and adding them to the machine before walking back to Steve. “Is it safe to sit down now?” He asks. Steve grins.
“Of course Buck.” Bucky sits down carefully and picks up his fork, twirling spaghetti around his plate.
“Still love me?” Steve rolls his eyes and gets up from the table. Bucky watches him go, mouth dropping open. “Stevie?” A skinny arm pops out of the bathroom door to hold up a finger, and Bucky waits. When he reappears, he pulls Bucky in for a deep kiss, running his tongue along the backs of Bucky’s teeth and biting down softly on his bottom lip. Bucky groans, and kisses Steve back, but Steve pulls away with a grin and sits back down.
“Yeah I still love you Buck. Wanted to get the garlic outta my mouth so I could kiss you proper.” Bucky grins at him and licks his lips absently. Steve sighs, getting the hint, and rolls his sleeve up, holding out his arm to Bucky. “Go ahead jerk.” Bucky kisses him quickly.
“Love you punk.” He bites into the soft flesh of Steve’s wrist and sucks, Steve makes a strangled little moan and closes his eyes, tipping his head back and grinning.
“That really shouldn’t feel as good as it does.” Steve complains. Bucky looks up at him and pulls off, kissing the puncture wounds and licking up the blood that’s dripping down his chin. Bucky presses closed lips to the punctures and new skin stretches over the breaks, leaving two small bruises in their place.
“You’ve been sticking to your prescriptions, blood tastes a lot better.” Steve rolls his eyes and playfully shoves Bucky off.
“Jerk.”
~~~
Bucky’s lying in bed, reading a book, and Steve is asleep next to him. He’s breathing slowly, and the steady sound is putting Bucky to sleep. He gives up after a few more minutes and sets the book down, snuggling up around Steve and tucking his face into his neck.
“Don’ bite me in your sleep.” Steve warns, speech slurred and soft in his barely-awake state.
“I won’t.”
“Mm-hm, heard that one before.” Bucky grins, kissing Steve’s neck, and wraps himself around him, legs tangling in Steve’s and arms holding him against his chest protectively.
“And I apologized for it and you slept in the sun for a week so I couldn’t cuddle.” Steve snorts a laugh at that, and turns over to kiss Bucky.
“Doesn’t mean you’re not hungry.” Bucky laughs, tipping his head back against the bed and pulling Steve with him. “Don’t think you can lay on my left side and I can’t hear you. I don’t have my hearing aide in but I can still feel you there Buck.” Bucky kisses him behind the ear.
“I’m always here babe.” Steve laughs, turning his head to kiss Bucky.
“’Babe’ isn’t exactly my favorite term.”
“Yeah, but somehow ‘punk’ is.”
“Gotta be punk rock Buck.” Steve finally snuggles back into Bucky’s embrace and falls asleep. Bucky isn’t far behind.
~~~
“I have no idea how you got so lucky James.” Natasha is shaking her head, not looking at Bucky while she concentrates on stirring something on the stove. Bucky’s sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of coffee, drinking it in small sips and smiling. “You haven’t stopped smiling since you got here.”
“It’s a good day.”
“You’re just happy cause I’m getting you your daylight potion.” Bucky shrugs, pretending he’s not too concerned with it, but Natasha knows it’s something he can’t stop thinking about. “Yeah, that’s it. I’m brewing you some daylight potion as a pre-engagement present and you’re gonna take Steve to the state fair and ask him to marry you in broad daylight. He’ll say yes, because he’s as hopelessly in love with you as you are with him, and after a few weeks he’ll remember that you’re an immortal creature of the night. He’ll flip out, realize you can’t be together forever, and then break it off with you to save you both the years of pain.” Bucky rolls his eyes at her and sets down his coffee.
“No, that’s all well and good as far as your future-sight goes Tasha, but you’ve missed something.” Natasha stops stirring the pot and looks at Bucky with firm disbelief.
“Oh really? I’ve missed something?”
“Yup.” Bucky replies, popping the ‘p’ and sticking his feet up on the table. Natasha flicks her hand at him and the table shoots out from under him. His feet slam down onto the floor.
“I’ve told you about feet on my furniture James.” He rolls his eyes.
“You’re forgetting just how much Stevie loves me. He’s gonna turn when he remembers that.” Natasha rolls her eyes and goes back to the pot.
“Let me know how that goes.”
~~~
“I can’t believe you talked him into it.” Natasha is saying, sitting on the couch with Steve. Steve shrugs.
“I said I’d marry him, be with him forever, why not actually make it forever?”
“Told you Tasha.” Bucky smirks from the other couch, where he’s got Clint’s forearm in his hands and is getting ready to bite down.
“I also can’t believe my boyfriend volunteered to be your new source of blood.” Clint shrugs and blows Natasha a kiss, which she flicks a finger at and suddenly there’s the smoky shape of a pair of lips flying through the air at her. Clint laughs, and goes still when Bucky slides thin fangs into his skin.
“Oh god that feels weird.” Clint comments, watching with fascination as Bucky drinks from the puncture wounds.
“At least he’s not spitting out your blood.” Steve grumbles. Bucky pulls away from Clint to huff indignantly.
“I resent that comment, you could’ve warned me you were anemic!”
“You cornered me in an alley and bit me.” Bucky gives him a crooked grin.
“Yeah okay, you got me there.” He goes back to Clint’s arm.
“So Natasha-” Steve begins, grinning at her sheepishly.
“I’m not letting you bite me big boy. Just because you got all big and strong after you changed doesn’t mean I’m letting you get my blood.” She crosses her legs and stares Steve down. He grins.
“Yeah I figured, worth a try though. Buck says witch’s blood is better than anything.” Natasha shoots Bucky a look, to which he raises his hands in defense, not separating from Clint’s arm.
“I met James about fifteen years ago, he’d been attacked by a pack of werewolves and needed blood to recover, lots of blood. I offered him mine. I didn’t know I had any magic connections until that night, he drank a little bit and was fine, took care of me when he found out I didn’t have anywhere to stay, and made sure I apprenticed under some of the best witches in America.” She has a small, fond smile on her face, but quickly pushes it away in favor of a wolfish grin. “Never did stop asking for my blood after that though.” Bucky finally pulls away from Clint’s arm and kisses the wounds, new skin stretches over them immediately and he stands up facing Steve.
“You’ve got such nice veins too Tasha.” Natasha stands up and kisses him on the cheek.
“Go home James, I don’t particularly want to watch Steve feed in my living room.”
“Wait, Steve doesn’t need my blood too?” Clint asks from where he’s spreading out on the couch, picking up the orange juice Natasha had set in front of him when Bucky and Steve came over. Bucky and Steve both rub a hand nervously across the backs of their necks.
“Well it’s just that-” Steve begins.
“With newborns they have to kinda-” Bucky tries.
“It’s like with birds ya know?” Steve fumbles. Natasha rolls her eyes.
“They’ve got to bond Clint, as vampires. Straight vampire blood isn’t doing them any good-”
“Met a straight one once who wasn’t so bad-”
“Not what I’m getting at James.” Bucky cracks a smile and Steve pushes him in the arm. “What they have to do, is for the alpha to drink human blood, and then the others feed off of the alpha right after.”
“Yeah and unless you want Stevie biting into my veins in your stairwell we’ve gotta go now.”
“Plus the sex afterwards is great.”
“Stevie!” Steve gives Bucky his best shit-eating grin and kisses him, pulling him out of the apartment and calling his thanks to Clint and Natasha after them.
~~~
They’re lucky. Clint operates mainly at night anyway and if Natasha wants to see them during the day she sends over a jar of daylight potion as a sort of summoning signal. They sleep all day and spend their nights getting to know the city better. Sure Steve grew up in New York, but he didn’t grow up knowing the things that happen in the shadows of the city he loves, and after an eventful night of getting kicked out of faerie nightclubs with Bucky, he thinks that he didn’t really start living until he technically died.
Natasha takes them to her favorite bar, where drinks are ordered off a little menu with a brief description of their effects. The highlight of the night is Clint ordering a round of surprise shots, and turning into a purple Labrador retriever after he takes his. Bucky laughs so hard he’s lucky his heart doesn’t beat anymore or it would have stopped, and Natasha spends twenty minutes trying to turn him back. Steve falls off his stool when he takes his shot, and vanishes in a puff of orange smoke, to reappear a second later across the bar with bright orange hair. He laughs as he rejoins the group and Natasha promises to set him right once she’s got Clint sorted out. Steve secretly thinks Clint would like to stay a dog for a while longer. They find coffee shops and cafes that Steve never noticed before, cute little storefronts that his eyes used to slide right over without seeing, where they can get their cappuccinos with a shot of luck and their muffins with a sprinkling of charisma. They spend hours on Natasha’s couch, watching soccer with Clint while Natasha brews potions in the kitchen, complaining loudly the whole time about newcomers in the witch community and ‘those teen witches and their romantic fantasies’.
Bucky spends an eventful afternoon trying to figure out what exactly Clint is, setting up subtle smells that only a werewolf would pick up on, trying to scare magic out of him through a series of escalating pranks, tossing water on him to see if he sprouts gills, and trying to catch his reflection in a mirror to see if he can spot the ghost of a set of wings. Clint reassures him that’s he is 100% human, and Steve suppresses his laugh at Bucky’s disappointment.
Steve comes home early one morning, just on the front of sunset, and Bucky has been worried sick about him getting caught in the sun. Steve grabs a water bottle from the fridge and assures him that he was fine, met a nice guy out jogging, and that Bucky should meet him too. Bucky doesn’t blame Steve for not recognizing the smell of a werewolf when he meets one, but Sam is an alpha without a doubt, Bucky and Steve love him anyway, and after a series of tests, Sam wins the argument that ‘werewolf blood can’t taste all that bad’.
Bucky and Steve curl up in bed, blackout curtains drawn, and breathe in time with each other, thinking about that metro ride and the angry anemic who was ready to put a hungry vampire in his place. They kiss lazily in the mornings and take long baths together, candles lit around the room because Steve insists it ‘fits the aesthetic’. Bucky laughs and teases him about the ‘gay vampires taking a bath’ aesthetic, but kisses him and lights the candles anyway.
“Love you punk.”
“Love you too jerk.”