Archive of Our Own ^beta

Steve Rogers owned a quaint little bakery. It was small, nothing fancy, but it was all Steve could afford. He was happy with it, though, because at least he'd managed to get the place and it wasn't a failure. He had a steady stream of dedicated customers and the occasional stray customer every once in a while during the day. All in all, Steve's little bakery was doing well. He made just enough to pay the only employee he had and he had enough to pay his bills without starving. For Steve, that was more than okay, it was great!

The only problem Steve had was one particular customer. Well, more like a lack of a customer. The young man had a peculiar habit every single day of his life and it was getting on Steve's nerves. The man liked to step into the bakery, just minutes after it had opened and was still empty, and he'd take in a huge gulp of air and smile at Steve. Then he would leave without buying anything. It happened every day and Steve knew it wasn't going to be any different that day.

It was early in the rainy morning of a Monday and Steve had just opened up the bakery. He had flipped the sign on the door to open and had unlocked the door. Sam, his only employee and his best friend, was at the back taking care of the fresh bread that was almost ready to come out of the oven. Steve sighed, trying to prepare himself for a new day at work, and went back behind the counter. He had just done so when the door opened.

It was the same man that came in every day only this time he was soaking wet. He took a step into the bakery, making sure to stay in the small rug at the entrance, and took in a huge breath. He ran his tan fingers through his dark and water soaked hair in an attempt to comb it. He was thoroughly covered in water, his usually crisp uniform stained with it. He let out a relaxed sigh and then his soft gray colored eyes fell on Steve.

The guy grinned, the bastard, and cheerfully said, "G'morning."

"Morning," Steve said politely because that was his job and he was a gentleman. He waited to see what the man would do next, but it was no different than any other day.

The man smiled, all charming and kind, and said, "Have a good day!"

And, just like that, he was gone again. Steve was going to kill him one of those days. More reasonably, he was probably going to force him to buy something. Maybe he should put a sign on the door that said 'Only go in if you're going to buy something'. Steve thought better of that idea immediately, but a guy could dream.

"Did someone come in?" Sam asked, stepping out from the back with bags of fresh bread. He easily stored them where they belonged and turned back to look at the blonde.

"Yeah. That guy that never buys anything," Steve grumbled, glaring at the door to his bakery as if it were to blame. All he wanted was for the guy, for once, to order something. Anything at all would have been fine. This absurd habit he had of just going in to buy nothing just didn't rest well with Steve. It felt like an attack on Steve, one that he wanted to end.

Sam chuckled and gave Steve a pat on the back. He said, before heading to the back once more, "He'll buy something one of these days. Don't worry about it."

"He hasn't bought shit for a month!" Steve exclaimed in exasperation. He wasn't typically easily annoyed and angered, but maybe it was a combination of the rain and the visit from the man that never bought anything.

Instead of getting an answer from his friend, he got a reply from a customer. "You're lucky I was the only customer here, Steve."

It was Natasha, their most faithful customer. She tended to come in with her boyfriend, Clint, because they worked together, but he was nowhere in sight. It was just the red-head standing in front of the counter with an amused expression on her face. She tapped her red fingernails impatiently on the counter, but the amusement in her eyes didn't falter for a second.

"Sorry about that, Natasha. Do you want the usual?" he asked, already setting out to look for what the red-head usually ordered. She occasionally changed things up a bit, just because she liked to try new things, but she had a weakness for Steve's chocolate cake.

"Yes, and the usual for Clint too," she said, her eyes watching him as he worked.

Steve easily looked for everything she wanted, which was a slice of chocolate cake, a slice of strawberry shortcake and a slice of cherry pie, and bagged it before handing it to her. She handed him the money for the sweets and then grabbed the bags. She smirked at him and walked over to the door. She stopped before leaving, looked back at him and said, "Keep the change! And try not to be such a potty-mouth, it scares customers away!"

Steve didn't have a chance to reply before the red-head was gone and fresh customers came in. It looked like it was going to be just another typical day at work for Steve Rogers.

A couple of days had gone by and Steve sat at one of the small tables in his bakery. He was supposed to be tidying up and making sure everything was set for him to leave, but instead he was doodling in a notebook (not even bothering to use a sketchpad). Sam would have quickly told him, had he been there, that he wasn't doodling, he was drawing, but Steve wasn't putting in enough effort to call it that. He was merely doing it for a distraction because he was tired and restless, but didn't quite feel like being a responsible adult.

For a long while he doodled thinking he was alone, but then it turned out he wasn't.

"Don't you hate that guy?" Sam asked, sitting on the chair across from Steve. The blonde jumped at the sight of his friend and looked up from his notebook to look at his friend questioningly. It was only when Sam stabbed a finger into the notebook that Steve noticed what it was that he had been doodling.

Steve rolled his eyes at himself when he saw a sketch of the man that came in every morning to the bakery. Annoyed at himself, Steve closed the notebook and pushed it away from him as if it repulsed him. "Fuck that guy."

Sam picked up the notebook, much to Steve's chagrin, and leafed through the pages. Steve didn't feel like snatching the notebook from his best friend's hold and just watched him eye through the pages. Sam then fixed him with a serious look, one that said he thought Steve was being ridiculous, and then flipped the notebook so that Steve would be able to see the contents. He made the pages flip before Steve's eyes and said, "Yes, you sure hate the man."

Steve's eyes widened when he saw the different half-assed sketches on the notebook and snatched it from his friend's hands. He quickly passed along the pages and grew even more horrified at himself when he saw that most of the pages had drawings of the man. "Why do I do this to myself?"

"You tell me, Steve, 'cause if that doesn't look like infatuation then I don't know what does."

"This man is my enemy and I am not infatuated with him. I daydream about killing him, Sam. Every. Day."

Sam laughed at the blonde and shook his head. He took the notebook back from Steve and said, "Whatever, Steve. This guy is going to buy something sooner or later. He won't be able to resist forever."

"I hope you're right, Sam," Steve said, getting to his feet and extending his hand out to his best friend. Sam easily gave him back his notebook. Steve briefly contemplated throwing the notebook away, but then reminded himself it still had plenty of pages he could put to good use. He wasn't going to throw it away because of that man.

"Want some help closing up shop?" Sam asked, standing up and making his way to the cash register.

Steve shook his head with a soft, "Don't worry about it. It's fine," but Sam didn't listen to him.

"Steve, relax. Just clean around a bit and I'll work with this," Sam said casually, already setting out to work.

"I don't pay you enough for that," Steve said, but still listened to his friend. He picked up a broom and began to clean the floor. The rest of the time the two young men were in the bakery, they worked in silence.

Steve was stressing out. Well, it was more like he was preparing himself mentally for the stress he was going to experience. It was the first time he was hired to make anything for a big activity. It wasn't just any huge activity and it wasn't thrown by just anyone. The event was being organized by the one and only Pepper Potts. Steve wasn't sure how she found out about him and his little bakery, but she had. She had found him and personally asked him for a large order of cakes, cookies and pies, all Halloween themed. Steve had accepted, barely able to stutter out the words, and it was only when he told Sam about the order that he realized what an insane idea it had been.

Steve and Sam were only two people. They were two human beings with an impossibly large catering order to fulfill for Pepper Potts. Sam, forever the optimist, had told him they could do it, but Steve was already spiraling toward insanity. At the very least, he and Sam had decided that they would close the bakery the day before the event and the actual day of the event. Pepper Potts had insisted they assist the party and Steve wasn't going to say no to that woman.

Ever since Pepper had shown up at the bakery, Steve had been restless. It was for this very same reason that he was even more agitated every time his not-an-actual-customer came in. The man never failed to show up. Most of the time the jerk even had a grin on his face. Every day was a variation of this:

"Ah, today's a nice day. Well, see you around."

"Have a nice day!"

"Good morning! I really love this bakery you have here."

"Have a good one!"

And on and on. It was making Steve even more anxious. He wasn't sure he could handle it much longer. He needed that man to buy something or never set foot in his bakery again. It just couldn't keep going on the way it was.

Steve had just finished giving his first customer of the day her order when that man came into his bakery. The older woman smiled kindly at the young man and left with a quiet, "Excuse me."

The young man stepped out of her way and then took in a huge gulp of the warm and delicious air of the bakery. He let out a satisfied sigh and then tipped an imaginary hat in Steve's direction. "I hope you guys have a nice day!"

Then the man turned on his heel and left. Steve didn't even think twice before he picked up a pastry and threw it in the direction of the closed door. Sam immediately made his disapproval known. "Man, that's money you just wasted because of him."

"I don't care. I'm going to kill him, Sam. One of these days—" Steve grumbled but was cut off when Sam put two reassuring hands on his shoulders. He gave them a comforting squeeze and said, "Relax, Steve. Just relax."

"I can't! Sam, we have a huge order from the Pepper Potts and this jerk thinks he can come in every day and not buy anything. I can't deal with the fucking stress." Steve crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at the cash register for a few seconds. He only got a hold of himself again when Natasha came into the bakery.

She offered him a smirk that said she knew more than he did and sauntered over to the counter. Following behind her was Clint who offered Steve and Sam a small wave before focusing back on something on his phone. Steve focused on the red-head and said, "Good morning, Natasha."

"Morning, Steve. Can I get some chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake and some apple pie and cherry pie? Also, two black coffees?" she asked, granting him an evil smile. He tried not to laugh at her expression (and wonder what it meant) and nodded at her.

"Coming right up, Natasha. Sam, can you work on the coffee?" Steve called out, already knowing his best friend would get right on it before he even said, "Yeah!"

Steve made sure to get everything Natasha had asked for and set it all neatly in bags. He handed it over to her and then gave her the coffees Sam gave him. She handed some of the stuff to Clint who immediately searched for his slice of strawberry shortcake.

"Bless your hands, Steve," he said as he messily took a bite of the cake without looking for a fork.

Natasha gave her boyfriend a look and gave his hand a small smack as if he were a child. "That's not how you eat cake like a proper adult."

Clint stuck out his tongue at her childishly and resumed eating the cake. The red-head then rolled her eyes and handed some dollar bills to Steve. The blonde graciously accepted them and wasn't surprised by her quick, "Keep the change, Steve. See you tomorrow."

She then turned to leave. Clint followed faithfully after her and before the door closed behind him and swallowed his words, he said, "I love you, Steve!"

"He loves you too!" Sam called out loudly and Steve swore he heard Clint's laughter. Steve glared at his best friend, but the other man simply shrugged.

Sam patted Steve on the back and said, "Everything will be fine."

Steve really did not think so.

The big day had finally come. It was Halloween and Steve and Sam were ready to go to Pepper Potts' party. The previous day they had spent it slaving over everything they had to bake, but they had managed it and had lived. Neither of them really had enough energy to go to a party, but they would because they had promised to do so. Plus, they all wanted to see how the guests would react to the treats they had made.

They knew it was a high-class event and so they had made sure their costumes were appropriate and didn't look cheap. They were both dressed in nearly matching police uniforms even going as far as including a hat. Sam was all grins, showing off the uniform to Steve as if Steve weren't wearing the exact same thing.

He rolled his eyes at his friend and said, "Let's get all this into the van. We don't want to be late. Unless you've had a change of heart and suddenly want to become a police officer and completely ignore our job."

"Of course not! Let's go!" Sam said cheerfully, still grinning happily at his best friend.

Both men set out to work and packed everything into the van. Since Steve was officially a bundle of nerves and stress, Sam was the one who drove to the hotel the party was taking place in. It was no surprise for either men when the activity was being held in the most expensive hotel in the city and in its largest ball room.

They both headed inside carrying a few of the boxes with baked goods and were instantly spotted by Pepper Potts. The party had not officially begun as of yet, and the woman was busy walking around and making sure everything was ready. She smiled at them when she saw them and walked over to them. She motioned for some of the people she had hired to work the event to follow her and they easily did.

"It's wonderful that you could both make it. Please, let these people help you carry everything inside," she said promptly, the polite smile on her lips never leaving.

"Thank you," Steve said, trying to speak the words as clearly and calmly as he could. He tried to flash her his most charming and winning smile, but wasn't sure he was able to pull it off without looking incredibly nervous.

Sam gave him a gentle nudge on his side and Steve was then immediately focused back on their task at hand. They had the other employees join them and before long everything was stored in its rightful place.

It was only about ten minutes afterward that a steady stream of guests began to pour into the room. Sam was beaming, a smile on his face, but he remained standing near Steve. "This will be good for us, Steve. There's no way the guests won't like what we made."

Steve tried to match his best friend's optimism and nodded. "Yes, you're right."

Steve and Sam lingered near the table where most of what they had baked was set out. They didn't need to hand out the desserts, other people had been hired to do so, but they still remained nearby. Occasionally somebody asked who had made the delicacies and they were pointed in Steve and Sam's direction. They chatted for a little while with the people before they disappeared. It wasn't boring, not exactly, but it wasn't what Steve had expected.

It wasn't long before Sam and Steve were both surprised to find a familiar red-head walking toward them. She was dressed up as some sort of angel of death. She wore a long black dress that hugged her body with matching black heels and wings just as dark as her dress on her back. She gave them a wicked smile when she walked over to them and said, "Guess you guys have made it big now, haven't you?"

"Unless Pepper Potts hires us again, then no," Steve said without even giving the words a thought. Sam elbowed him and gave him a look.

"Ignore him. He's too nervous to be nice," Sam said, flashing Natasha a huge smile.

"What are you doing here? Do you work for Pepper?" Steve asked, changing the subject quickly. He had never really known what the red-head and her boyfriend did for a living, but he never imagined it would land them at that party in particular.

"No, I'm occasionally hired by Tony Stark, her fiancé. She invited us because she's the only one with manners in that relationship," she said with a smirk. She then pointed at the table behind the two men and said, "You're going to have to excuse me. I'm going to get some sweets before joining the others at the party."

They both nodded and watched her as she stepped away from them and toward the table with sweets. It wasn't long before the red-head was out of sight once again.

A couple of hours into the party, Steve became hyper aware of a certain guest. The young man was dressed as an impeccable looking Dracula and had approached the dessert table. He asked for quite a few different things and Steve wasn't able to resist and turned to look back at who it was (or more like to make sure of who it was). Sam had gone off to the restroom, so there really wasn't anyone to stop him.

The moment Steve looked back was the exact moment the man turned around to head back to join the rest of the crowd. Steve recognized him immediately. It was him. It was the man that went to his bakery every fucking day of his damn life. He didn't wear much make-up for his Dracula costume, just heavy black eye shadow that turned his eyes into dark pools of smoke and a corner of his mouth had fake blood dripping down from it. The guy had even gone as far as using fangs, but not the fake plastic kind, it was something else that gave the appearance as if the fangs were actually his. And the jerk actually looked gorgeous! Steve was going to fucking murder him for managing to look so hot dressed up as a vampire.

The young man, being the jerk he was, looked Steve up and down from the top of his blonde hair to his shoes. He offered Steve a huge grin after he was done clearly checking him out as if he was happy by what he saw. He then seemed prepared to make a run for it, but without any shame, Steve walked up to him and grabbed him by his arm. The man stared down at Steve's hand and then met the eyes of the blonde.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked, eyes solely on the man.

"I was invited. My name's James Buchanan Barnes, but my friends call me Bucky," he said, looking back at the crowd and meeting eyes with someone.

Steve looked back immediately, hand still on the man's arm, and saw for a split second Natasha. It all then became crystal clear to Steve. He let go of the arm of the man and took a step back. He felt himself going red because of his growing anger and tried to take a soothing breath.

"I'm not your friend. You're the asshole that's been going into my bakery every day for the past three months without buying a single thing. And the only reason you did it was because Natasha asked you to!" Steve was trying to keep his voice level and he more or less managed to do so. He was sort of hissing the words at the guy, but he didn't care. It was either that or screaming and he wasn't going to let everyone at the party know what their argument was about.

"I'm guessing that means asking you out is out of the question?" The young man, Bucky as he liked to call himself, said. He still clutched a plate full of Steve's sweets to his chest for dear life. The plate had a load of cookies, two slices of different cakes and two slices of pie.

Steve was going to kill that man. He didn't care how insufferably handsome he was. Steve was going to grab a knife and stab this man to death. Bucky had been eating stuff from his bakery for fucking months, Steve knew it by the amount of sweets in the guy's plate. He'd been asked by Natasha to pull this stunt on Steve and she was the next one he was going to try to kill. He wasn't sure he would succeed in killing her, but he was damn well going to try.

Steve took a deep breath, well aware that he was still at Pepper Potts' party, and tried to keep his cool. He needed to remain calm because he wanted to hopefully be contracted again by Pepper in the future. "Please go."

Bucky nodded rapidly and clung to his plate before he spoke up. "I'm sorry, man. Nat asked me and I just couldn't resist. I honestly thought you would have banned me from your bakery a long time ago."

Without another word, Bucky walked away, leaving Steve standing alone. It was good that he did because Steve felt like he was going to have a heart attack because of how angry he was. He couldn't believe they had done this to him on purpose! Steve vowed then to never get so stressed out again by anyone unless the person was dying. Never again.

Steve Rogers was sipping from a cup of coffee he had made for himself and Sam. It was the morning after the Halloween party and they were both beat, but they still had to work. Steve had grudgingly flipped the sign so it read open and as of yet no one had gone in. That was all well with Steve because he'd barely managed a wink of sleep that night. Sam had gone through the same fate and so the two worked around each other mostly silently.

Steve had thought that Natasha would show up that day, maybe to apologize or at the very least explain herself, but the person who showed up was not who he had expected. It was somewhere around two o'clock that the man showed up, but Steve had been surprised he had decided to show his face at all. Granted, when he first came in he couldn't see the man's face.

The door to the bakery opened and in stepped a man with his face hidden behind a vase full of red roses. He walked over to the counter where Steve stood, not once showing his face. He then set the vase of roses delicately on the counter, right before Steve's face. The blonde was assaulted by the sudden breath of fresh roses he took, but was more interested about who had come into his bakery.

He stepped aside, so that the roses were not blocking his view, and the man who had brought the roses did the same. It was Bucky. He actually had the nerve to show up at Steve's bakery after the blonde had made it known just how happy he was with the man.

Bucky gave him an apologetic smile and ran a hand through his dark hair. He said, "I was told a baker called Steve Rogers worked here. Is there any chance I might get some cherry pie?"

Steve, for two glorious seconds, saw himself dumping the vase full of water and roses over the man's head. He, obviously, had the self-control not to do this. Steve was, after all, a gentleman and he hadn't acted that way the night before. He took a deep breath and managed to pull off a smile.

"Sure. Is there anything else you would like?" Steve asked with his words dripping with as much politeness as he could force into the words.

"I would like to apologize." Bucky met Steve's gaze, looking sheepish and not nearly as confident as he had seemed in the three months he had come into the bakery. The blonde remained silent and just waited for what Bucky had to say. "I'm sorry, Steve. I didn't mean for it to go on as long as it did, but it was just so much fun hearing Natasha's stories about how angry you got. I always sort of wished I could see how angry you got ’cause I knew you probably looked hot angry. Sorry."

Steve didn't say anything back and looked for the piece of cherry pie for Bucky. He placed the slice in a take-out container and then into a small paper bag. He handed it to Bucky and said, "That will be three dollars."

Bucky bit his lip, giving the blonde a sad look, before fishing out his wallet and handing out the three dollars. He put his wallet away and grabbed the bag. He met Steve's eyes and said, "I would really like it if I could start over with you. Is there any chance we could?"

Sam popped up suddenly by Steve's side without a word. He handed a torn slip of paper to Bucky and said, "That's his number. Call him, text him, whatever, until he answers. I'll make sure he does."

Bucky took the slip of paper in a flash and grinned at Sam. "Thanks!"

And as if to make sure neither of them chased him to get the paper back, he ran out of the bakery.

Steve looked at the lonesome doorway, then at the roses, and then back at his best friend and decided he had another person in his hit list.

True to his word, Sam had Steve answering Bucky's texts in under a week. It only took one more week of convincing to get Steve to accept to go out with Bucky. It took only an evening out with Bucky for Steve to realize he was a goner.

Yes, it seemed Steve was going to date his not-an-actual-customer and probably fall stupid in love.