Chapter Text
Bucky woke up in a bed that was decidedly not his own. For one, it was comfortable. Actually, it was beyond comfortable. It felt like he was laying on a cloud, wrapped in sunbeams, head resting on a cushion of marshmallow fluff.
And yep, based on his internal monologue, he was definitely hungover.
His bed in his dorm room felt like sleeping on rocks, to the point that he built his nest on the couch rather than that poor excuse for a mattress. (Not that the couch was much better). In fact, his whole dorm room was terrible. With a tiny, barely functioning kitchen, an even smaller bathroom, a small living area he shared with his roommate, Peter, and their two also tiny rooms, their dorm made up a total of 190 square feet. Apparently all the funding that went into the rest of the student’s dorms was spent on the security for Omegas, because his Alpha friends definitely had nicer beds. Which just wasn’t fair! Omegas were the ones who nested! (The college’s mentality was ‘at least you’re not getting raped’ but fuck that).
You’re getting off track, Bucky, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Nat said in his head. Right. This bed would not fit in his room. So where the fuck was he?
Using extreme caution (again, hungover), he cracked his eyes open. The room was dark, thank God. As he gingerly lifted his head, happily discovering he didn’t have much of a headache, he got a look at the room around him. It was nice, bigger than he was expecting, with simple decor and nice furnishing. It was the kind of room he’d expect to see in an upscale hotel with no personal items, mute coloring, but seemingly expensive amenities. Not that Bucky had been in many upscale hotels.
He found out his initial assessment of the bed wasn’t actually that far off. The mattress was springly but cradled him nicely, the covers were silk, and he swore he could feel feathers in the pillows.
To reiterate: where the fuck was he?
He was jerked out of his thoughts by a knock at the door.
“Uh… come in?” he called. If he was going to get murdered, at least his killer was polite.
A man stepped inside. Well, that was a bit of an understatement. A hulking, muscly, blond-haired, blue-eyed, alpha, adonis of a man stepped inside. Carrying… breakfast? He flicked on the light, causing Bucky to squint.
“Hi,” he said, still loitering by the door, “I uh, well I thought you might be hungry.”
Bucky, the idiot that he was, just gaped. Like an idiot. Because he was an idiot. The man, seemingly taking his awe-struck silence as a yes, walked over to the bed and set the tray of food over Bucky’s lap. He perched on the edge of the bed, close, but not touching.
Bucky decided that he was too hungover to think right now, grabbed one of the two waffles on the plate, and shoved it in his mouth. He munched quietly for a minute, thinking over his situation in his head.
Okay. So he was in a strange bed, in a strange room, in what he assumed was a strange house, with a strange man he didn’t know. And the first thing he did was eat the food the strange man offered him.
Bucky you moron! The Nat in his mind told him. Right you are, Nat, right you are.
Once he finished his waffle, he decided to get some answers. And hopefully not murdered. Most people didn’t feed someone before they killed them. Maybe it was some kind of weird fetish? He felt like that happened on Criminal Minds one time.
“So, uh, not to be rude or anything, but who are you?”
“What?” the man said. Eloquent.
“Well, I woke up in what I’m guessing is your house, and you gave me waffles, but I’m not really sure what I’m doing here. I would say we fucked, but I’ve never hooked up with anyone in my life , and I don’t think drunk Bucky is that dumb. Care to explain?”
The man stared at him for a moment, dumbstruck. Then he slapped himself in the forehead.
“Right, of course you wouldn’t remember. First you were drunk, and then you were…” he trailed off. Bucky was what? High? He didn’t do drugs. Drugs were bad. (Except for some weed on occasion). “Okay, let’s start over. Hi, I’m Steve.” The man - Steve - stuck out his hand for Bucky to shake.
Bucky took it. “Bucky.”
“I know,” Steve gave a small chuckle. “Now, how much do you remember from last night?”
One thing that people just didn’t get was that sometimes an omega would go clubbing without the intention of hooking up ! Shocking!
It was just so annoying! All Bucky wanted to do was get wasted, dance, and have an all around good time. But after being propositioned by five different men (two nice, the others not so much), Bucky’s good time was out the window. He just wanted to go to sleep.
He gave one last look around the brightly lit, grimy, crowded club and headed out the door, texting Natasha where he was going. The good news was that he was only a few blocks away from campus, so it wouldn’t be too far of a walk.
He stuck his hands in his coat pockets and started home, grumbling all the way about ‘stupid alphas with their stupid knots and their stupid superiority complexes.’ Unfortunately, he was so busy thinking about alphas being assholes to notice one such asshole creeping up behind him.
The next thing he knew, his back was to an alley wall with a gun in his face, making him go cross eyed.
Fuck .
“Give me all your money!” the man growled. Cliche, much? Judging by his scent, he was a beta, and a dangerous one.
Bucky nodded, focusing on getting himself out of this situation rather than keeping his money. He rifled in his pockets with trembling fingers before tugging it out. He was too drunk to deal with this right now.
“Uh, here,” he held it out, “I’ll just… put it on the ground? I can… I can take my driver’s license out if you’d like,” that would be a bitch to replace, “and then we can just go on our way?”
The man growled and leaned forward. “You can just give it here…” but he trailed off, and took a deep sniff of the air. Oh crap oh shit oh fuck oh no. Not this. Never this! “You’re an omega,” the man drawled, and the way he said ‘omega’ made Bucky’s skin crawl. Like he was some sort of prize that the man just happened to stumble upon, like he got so very lucky in Bucky being here tonight. Hell no.
“Yes, I am,” Bucky said, attempting to keep his voice firm. “And I’m sure that your mother wouldn’t be very happy with you attacking me this way. Now why don’t you take my money and let me go, and all this will be over with.”
He knew it wouldn’t work. But he still tried.
The man laughed in his face.
“Oh, little omega, I don’t want your money anymore. You’ve got something much better.” His hand reached up to wrap around Bucky’s neck. Don’t do it don’t do it don’t do it!
His fingers found the pressure points on either side of Bucky’s neck, and he went limp. He could feel his brain clouding, fuzzy up like radio static. All he knew now was that there was a bad man , not his alpha, touching him. And that was very, very wrong.
Bucky would find out later that at this moment, his omega released confused, helpless, and scared omega signals as far as his scent could reach, and luckily, someone smelled it.
Bucky could smell him the second he rounded the corner of the alley.
Alpha.
He whimpered, doing his best to move his nearly limp body towards the safe presence coming towards him. And the alpha really did scent safe. Like woodfire, cigar smoke, and that feeling when you’re wrapped up in a big, warm hug. This alpha could save him!
He was barely aware of the beta at this point, the man seemed to have stopped fondling him in favor of staring down his new aggressor.
The man came upon them, and Bucky lost track of what was happening. One second the beta was there, the next he wasn’t. He heard the sounds of the fight, but it was too dark and his eyes were too unfocused to see anything. He smelled blood, though.
He was still reeling, somehow still upright against the wall, when the alpha’s face filled his vision. He was so pretty . Blue eyes, blond hair, and a shortly cut beard on his chin.
Bucky’s omega was confused to say the least. This beautiful man had saved him, like an alpha saves their omega. Does that mean this man was Bucky’s alpha? He’d certainly like him to be. But why wasn’t Alpha touching Bucky?
He should change that.
He listed forward, and Alpha caught Bucky against his chest. Much better .
“Alpha?” he heard himself murmur.
“Hey there, sweetheart. You alright?” Alpha asked softly. Bucky shrugged, he wasn’t really sure. “That’s alright, let’s get you home and hopefully you’ll feel better.”
Yes! Bucky wanted to go home! His alpha was taking him home, and they could make a nest, and cuddle, and scent! God did Bucky want to scent Alpha.
Bucky pulled back just enough to nod eagerly. Alpha smiled at him, and he felt a rush of pride from his omega for making him happy.
“Can you tell me your name, sweety?”
“Bucky!” Bucky smiled up at him.
“That’s good, Bucky. I’m Steve. Where do you live?”
Bucky looked up at him like he was an idiot. “With you?”
Steve looked confused for a second, before realization dawned on him. “Oh, no, honey, we don’t live together. I’m not your alpha.”
What?
If he wasn’t his alpha, then what was going on? Alpha didn’t want him. He knew he wasn’t good enough, knew he was a weird, bad omega, but even Alpha didn’t want him? A rush of pain went through his chest.
He needed to fix this.
“No!”
“No?”
“No! You can be my alpha! I’ll be so good, I promise! I’ll do everything you ask, I’ll- I’ll cook and clean and do anything! Anything! Even,” he hiccuped a sob, “Even sex when I don’t w-want it! I’ll be so good, Alpha! I swear, I can be good. Please, please, please,” at this point, he realized he was sobbing. Steve still stared at him, shocked.
“I can’t-”
“ Please , Alpha, anything you want! I swear I c-can be good!” Finally Steve seemed to get his bearings.
“Oh, no, honey, that’s not what I meant, not at all!” Alpha insisted, and Bucky quieted enough to listen. His omega said that when Alpha talked, he listened. “You are a very good omega, the best, you’re just not mine!”
“Why not?” Bucky asked. If he were himself, he would have cringed at how pitiful his voice sounded.
“Because we don’t know each other, sweety. Here, how about this? I’ll be your alpha tonight, okay?”
Bucky nodded, and didn’t stop until Steve grabbed his chin to hold it still.
“That’s good. Now, can you tell me your address?”
Bucky didn’t want to go back to school. He wanted to go home with Alpha . He pouted and shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Wanna go home with you !”
“I don’t think we can do that, honey.”
“ Take me home, Alpha! ” Future-Bucky would be absolutely appalled that he used his omega voice. Omega voices, though not as powerful as alpha voices, could convince an Alpha to do just about anything, as long as he cared about the omega using the voice and it wasn’t severely dangerous for either of them. They were for situations like breaking up a fight, panic attacks, and ruts. Not getting whatever an omega wants at that exact moment.
Steve’s eyes went red. Later, Bucky would ponder on how his voice had worked on Steve so soon, but for right now, he was just happy his alpha listened.
“Alright baby, let’s go home,” he almost growled.
Bucky hummed happily, almost a purr, as Steve raised him into his arms and carried him back out of the alley. The last thing he remembered before he drifted off was the scent of content, protective alpha.
“ Oh my god, ” Bucky gasped, clutching the sheets beneath him. “ Oh my god!”
“Hey, Bucky, it’s okay-” Steve tried to say, but Bucky cut him off.
“No it’s not!” his voice was shockingly shrill. “I used my omega voice on you! I basically forced you to take me home! God, I’m so sorry, you saved me from that asshole and I totally took advantage of you!” He looked up at Steve, feeling the guilt down to his very core.
“Hey, no, it’s alright. You obviously weren’t in your right mind-”
“Oh my god I called you alpha !”
“-and I just wanted to help. You know that if I really wanted to, I could’ve fought your voice. It’s okay .”
“I’m so sorry,” Bucky reiterated.
“I know.”
“I feel really bad.”
“I can tell.”
“I’ll just… I’ll just go.” Bucky set the tray of breakfast aside gently, giving the untouched food one last mournful look, and swung his legs around to stand up. Before he could, strong hands held both of his shoulders in place.
“Hey,” Steve said, staring right into his eyes, “wait.”
“I think I’ve already intruded enough, thank you.”
“You’re not- okay, we’ll come back to that. I more want to focus on what happened last night. You remember it all?”
“Uhhhh, yeah. Everything until you carried me out of the alley.” Bucky scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. He wasn’t some weakling who couldn’t fight his own battles, and he really didn’t want Steve to see him that way.
“Okay, good, that’s good. Well, I guess it’s kind of my turn to apologize.”
Bucky stared at him.
“...What?”
“You were obviously in a fragile state, and I took you to my house!”
“I forced you to!”
“I still shouldn’t have done it!” Bucky could see the guilt plainly on Steve’s face. Well, at least his savior was nice.
“Okay, how about for now, no more apologies. Deal?” He grinned a little.
“Deal.” Steve smiled back. “I uh, I do have a question, though.”
“What’s up?”
“Well, I’ve seen some omegas in… situations before. Sometimes they drop, but you’re the worst I’ve seen, and honestly you don’t seem like the type. So, uh, what happened?”
Bucky bristled. “First of all, there are no ‘types’ of omegas. Instincts are different for everyone, it doesn’t matter at all how big and strong you are.”
“Right, sorry.” Steve did actually look regretful.
“And, to answer your question, I’m kinda… weird.”
“Weird how?” Thank god Steve didn’t try to fight him on it, that just made things all the more uncomfortable.
“Well, I’ve been told in many ways. The main one is that my instincts are kind of off the charts. Like, you touch my pressure points and I start dropping off the charts. I, well, I can’t resist alpha voices at all, and I literally go full omega during my heats.”
Steve just nodded. He didn’t look disgusted, or aroused, or bothered at all . Who was this guy?
“You said many ways?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I could be described as gray-ace or demisexual. Do you know what those are?”
Steve thought for a second. “Demisexual is where you don’t feel sexual attraction to someone until after you’ve formed a bond, my friend’s that, but I don’t know the other one.” Okay, well if his friend was demi, that was good for Bucky. Not that he was interested in Steve. Nope. Not at all.
“Well gray-ace is a type of asexuality, which is when you don’t like sex at all. But being gray-ace is basically being kind of asexual, and it means different things for different people. I like sex some days, and don’t at all others. Sometimes I’m in between.” Bucky realized just how much he’d just disclosed to this almost-stranger. “Sorry about kind of infodumping on you there.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s kind of cool, actually.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! I have a bunch of queer friends, but I haven’t gotten the chance to learn much about different sexualities. If you ever feel like teaching me more in the future, feel free.”
“So there’s a future?” Bucky asked with what he hoped was a flirty grin. Steve blushed bright pink. Success .
“Ah, uh…” Steve shifted uncomfortably. Bucky decided to relieve him of his misery.
“I… wouldn’t be opposed.”
“Oh, really?” Steve raised an eyebrow. It was Bucky’s turn to flush red.
“Uh, yeah! I mean, you’re nice, and like, good-looking and stuff, and I wouldn’t be opposed to hanging out more…”
Steve’s smile shifted to a frown.
“I, well I don’t think that would be the best idea, Buck.” Buck? A voice in Bucky’s mind wondered before he processed the rest of that sentence.
“Oh…”
He must have smelled like sad omega, because Steve suddenly said, “It’s not that I don’t want you, I just want to keep you safe.” Bucky tried not to think about the connotations of want , and instead focused on the fact that Steve for some reason thought he needed protecting.
“What, are you a serial killer or something?” God, what a stupid excuse. He wasn’t some helpless omega.
“No, my job is pretty dangerous though. Even for people around me.”
Oh. Well, okay then.
“Do you do bad things to good people?”
“No,” Steve said firmly.
“Have you ever killed anyone?”
Steve was silent before quietly, “yes.”
“What did they do?”
“He killed my best friend.”
“Okay. Good.” Steve looked shocked at his orderly discussion of murder. Honestly, Bucky was too. He didn’t think he’d be okay with it that easily, but the thought of someone killing Nat? Yeah, he got it. “Would you be able to protect me, if we were together?”
“Yes, I would, but it’s still not smart for you to get involved with me.” It was nice, having this supposedly dangerous guy be so kind to him. Bucky made his decisions for himself, though, thank you very much.
“I think I can decide for myself. So, tell me everything.”
Steve did.