"Hello."

He wrinkled his nose and tried again.

"Hey, there, I'm the neighbor who has a crush on you."

He winced. Stupid.

"Hi, I'm Steve, I'm definitely straight and totally not interested in you."

He pressed his forehead against the mirror and huffed, closing his eyes.

"Hey."

That would have to work.

Every day, he and his neighbor across the hall would cross paths and his neighbor always said a little something. They'd stopped to chat twice, and Steve'd tried hard not to get a crush on this guy, but he checked off every box Steve could possibly have.

Brunet, nice eyes, good personality, funny, smart -- well, missing an arm wasn't exactly a box, but Steve really didn't mind that.

His neighbor was Bucky Barnes, a war vet turned librarian with a witty personality and charming smile. Steve'd fallen hard for him, and to him, it was painfully, blindingly obvious.

He was not the king of subtly. Not even the king of awkward-but-in-a-cute-way. He was just... a guy who worked at a gym and couldn't talk properly to either girls or guys, no matter how hard he tried.

He was just Steve Rogers.

////

Bucky finished the last row of shelves and backed down the ladder, blowing out a breath. Restocking the top shelves wasn't exactly his favourite part of work, but it gave him time to let his mind wander.

Besides, Natasha was holding down the fort at the front desk, answering questions and checking out books. She was a professional, in the business for almost six years.

She wasn't a people person, but she and Bucky had grown close over their mutual feelings about the store they worked in.

Dead. It was often dead, because a nicer bookstore had opened a couple streets away. At least this library was quiet; a couple people coming in to study, quietly paging through the worn books.

"Almost done? You've been here too long, Barnes. Go home," Nat said as Bucky walked over and dropped off a stack of unlabeled books. He stretched and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I've got fifteen minutes left," he dismissed and Natasha shot him a look.

"I'll let you skip out early. There's no one here," she observed and he looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"You sure?"

Nat waved a hand. "Get outta here. Go talk to that guy you like so much."

Bucky reddened and Nat smirked as she watched him. "He's easy to talk to," he grumbled as he unclipped his nametag.

"If you don't ask him on a date, Barnes, I'll have to."

Bucky made a face. "Bye, Nat," he sighed as he walked away. Natasha grinned and shook her head as she went back to stamping books.

////

"No no no, please stop moving -- " Steve juggled his groceries as he walked into the building, carrying way too many in front of his face to be able to see anything. He slowly walked towards the stairs, peering around the bags.

"Hey," Bucky spoke as he sidled up next to him. Steve looked at him and tried to step up, and missed the ground.

"Oh, s***!"

Steve toppled over and Bucky's eyes widened as he leaned over to help him up. "Jesus, you okay? That looked... bad."

Steve wrinkled his nose, which had smacked against the stair. "Mhmm," he groaned as he sat up.

"Here -- " Bucky picked up several bags as Steve pushed himself to his feet and rubbed his face. When he looked up, Bucky was giving him a worried look. Steve instantly felt his face heating up.

"Uh -- thanks," he sighed. Bucky smiled and tilted his head as he studied him.

"You gonna be okay?" He started up the stairs and Steve followed, watching every step.

"Yeah, I'm good," he responded. They reached the top floor and Steve attempted to take the bags back, but Bucky simply kept going and Steve led him into the apartment. Bucky helped him unpack and finally stepped back.

"Thanks again," Steve said as he smiled a little awkwardly. Bucky smiled back and nodded, sub-consciously glancing around the place.

"Don't worry about it," he mused as he thought, and took his chance. "Actually, if you want to pay me back or something -- " He patted his jacket for a pen and slip of paper, found what he was looking for, and jotted down his number -- which was harder than he would've imagined with one arm. 

Steve accepted it, speechless. "Oh, uh, thanks again -- um," he stammered and Bucky smiled and nodded, stepping back. "Thanks, I'll definitely -- Friday?"

Bucky laughed a little and Steve smiled in relief. "Friday sounds good, Steve," he spoke.

"Great," he agreed. "Sorry, I'm just -- "

"It's okay," he assured and nodded. They said their goodbyes and Bucky stood outside for a moment and silently cheered.

////

Somehow he'd fallen for Steve Rogers, the buff gym worker with a sweet personality across the hall. He was kind of awkward, but cute, and was easily flustered -- also cute.

Bucky smiled to himself. It'd been seven years, now -- seven years since their first date, and still, Steve blushed easily and Bucky could always make him laugh.

"Hey," Steve hummed as he wrapped his arms around him from behind. Bucky leaned against him and smiled lazily.

"Hey, Stevie." He smiled and kissed his cheek.

He hadn't expected to be a war vet turned librarian with a boyfriend who was extremely awkward, but life was strange sometimes.