(no subject)

[semi_stable]

When Loki suggests that they grab dinner, Bucky doesn't think much of it, really. It wouldn't be the first meal they've gotten together, not even the first at this particular restaurant. Honestly, once he thought about getting another one of those steaks, he stopped asking questions.

After spending the afternoon lounging around with Bopp and reading a book, he takes her for an evening walk and then showers. Since he has time, he trims the scruff on his face and cleans up the edges, and then pulls out the one black suit that he has in his closet. He bought it early on, first to blend in while he was spying on people, and then to do the same at the few parties he's been to.

It's too hot for a button down so he just puts on a dark blue v-neck tee underneath and finishes it off with his one black belt, and his one pair of dress shoes. As he pulls his watch off of the dresser, his eyes linger on the black leather gloves sitting in the top drawer. Normally, he'd wear then to cover his hand if he was dressing up and he pauses for a moment, looking down at his prosthetic and flexing his black and gold fingers. He swallows hard and then shuts the drawer, turning to look at himself in the mirror and smoothing his hair back with his hand.

"Ah, ah. Don't touch me. You'll get fur everywhere," he says as he hops out of Bopp's reach, turning to rub her behind the ears. "I'll be back."

It isn't too far to the steakhouse and the heat of the day is starting to burn away, so Bucky walks. He even whistles to himself a little on the way until someone looks at him and he realizes what he's doing. It makes him chuckle and he shakes his head, pulling his phone out of his pocket to compose a text.

I'm outside.

Comments

[thewrongpath]

Loki wasn't terribly concerned with whatever label Bucky wanted to put on the evening. When they'd parted, he'd seemed content enough to consider it casual. A meal between friends, as they'd shared a number of times before. Still, Loki intended to put in the effort, and he'd chosen a slate grey summer suit, tailored to fit him perfectly. His shirt, a black button-up, was casually open at the collar.

He arrived at the restaurant a bit early to secure their table, which was situated in a comfortably intimate spot. As he spoke with the bartender about their various whiskey flights, his phone pinged in his pocket. "Hold that thought," he said, excusing himself with a polite smile.

Stepping outside, Loki paused, giving himself just a moment to look without being seen. With the way they'd parted, Loki hadn't expected the suit. He smile to himself and said, "That you are."

[semi_stable]

On the walk over, it had occurred to Bucky that maybe this isn’t just a casual dinner. He and Loki haven’t put a label on things and he doesn’t really see that changing, considering their situation, but maybe this is supposed to be a date? The thought seems absurd, but perhaps that’s just because he’s never been on a date with a man.

Or perhaps most likely, he’s overthinking the entire thing.

Bucky turns at the sound of Loki’s voice and smiles, letting his gaze sweep over Loki’s body and feeling relieved that he’d gone with the suit. It’s a nice place, too nice for jeans and a Henley, but he decided to dress nicely because he figured that Loki would too, and he was right.

“Hi,” Bucky says breathlessly, staring a little before shaking himself and stepping closer. “Did you charm your way into a table already?”

[thewrongpath]

"Of course," Loki confirmed, holding the door propped open with his heel as he offered a hand for Bucky to take. Another couple approached, an older man with a significantly younger woman, and Loki shifted out of their way with a murmured apology, giving Bucky an amused look behind their backs.

"You do clean up well, don't you?" Loki observed, reaching out with his other hand to run his fingers under the lapel of Bucky's jacket.

[semi_stable]

Loki holds out his hand and Bucky hesitates only because this is new, being out with a man in such a way, and he has to remind himself that he isn’t back in the 40s. Holding hands with a man won’t cause a scene and if anyone doesn’t like it, they can kick rocks.

He takes Loki’s hand and threads their fingers together, stepping aside to let the couple enter. The young woman glances over her shoulder at them, brow quirked in interest, but then she turns back to her date.

“When the occasion calls for it,” Bucky replies with a warm smile, preening a bit as Loki compliments him. He’s led to a table tucked away in a quieter corner of the restaurant and Bucky raises a brow as he takes a seat and lays the cloth napkin across his lap.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to impress me,” Bucky says with a soft smirk, gaze lingering on Loki for a moment before he looks down at me menu. Just like they had the first time, the prices make him seize up and his eyes widen a bit. It still seems so ridiculous to pay this much for one meal, and he can’t help but to laugh a little. “Christ, I had blocked out how expensive this place is.”

[thewrongpath]

Taking a seat across from him at their little two-top, Loki ordered a bottle of wine and a whiskey flight, after one last glance at the wine list.

"I've been trying to impress you since we met, you've only just noticed," he said offhandedly, giving his own menu a glance. Making himself seem impressive was as instinctive as breathing, and shouldn't necessarily be taken personally. In this case, however, it was more than his standard preening.

"Money isn't an issue," Loki reminded him, glancing up from his menu with a smirk. "Though, I suppose it would be more impressive if I was paying with money I'd earned."

[semi_stable]

“Maybe I am just very hard to impress,” Bucky volleys back, which is true, for the record. Loki’s arrogance and penchant for shiny things didn’t impress Bucky, not in the slightest. What caught his attention was something else entirely. It was the man he could be underneath all that gilded armor that impressed him.

“That actually would impress me,” he says with a chuckle, because Loki’s right. All of this is very nice, but he didn’t work for this money. Actually, Bucky doesn’t want to think much about where this money came from at all. “Next time, you’ll have to cook for me.”

Their drinks come astonishingly fast and Bucky looks interestedly at the whiskey flat as their server gives a brief rundown of each before quietly flitting away. It won’t so much as make him tipsy, but it still loves a good whiskey. He picks up the first glass and sniffs at it, catching notes of wood and caramel.

“Impress me with a toast,” Bucky says with a playful smirk, leaning his elbow on the table even though it’s rude just to put himself a bit closer to Loki, holding his glass up with an expectant look.

[thewrongpath]

"Alright," Loki agreed, resting his own elbow on the table as he paused to consider his words. He wasn't particularly concerned with Midgardian manners. In Asgard, lounging on the table and throwing your empty glass to signify your pleasure were both perfectly acceptable.

He could've said something romantic or flattering, or playfully dismissive, but he thought about the two of them, and how their lives had played out until this moment. They were fundamentally different, but there was one thing they had undeniably in common.

"To telling our own stories," he murmured finally, lifting his glass for a toast. "And no longer living for someone else's."

[semi_stable]

Bucky honestly has no idea what to expect of a toast from Loki. It could go so many different ways, from flattering to raunchy to aloof, but instead he lands on sincerity.

The words make Bucky smile in a wry, wistful sort of way and he swallows hard, nodding a little and biting his bottom lip as he reaches out to gently clink their glasses together.

“To telling our own stories,” he repeats in a quiet voice, keeping eye contact with Loki as he lifts the crystal class to his mouth and takes a small sip. Almost immediately, he’s distracted by the quality of the whiskey and his tongue presses into the corner of his mouth as he stares at the glass.

“God, that’s good,” he admits with a sheepish chuckle. Experiencing finer things is so rare for him that he can’t help but to sometimes get giddy about it. Well, as giddy as Bucky Barnes can get, anyway. He takes another sip as their waiter comes over to ask for their appetizer order, and Bucky leans back in his chair, gesturing at Loki.

“I’ll let him handle all the ordering. He knows what he’s doing,” he says easily, giving her a charming smile. “Except for my entree. For that, I’ll have the biggest steak you have, medium rare.”

He lifts the menu and holds it up to his face to shield it from Loki’s view, only to whisper theatrically. “He’s buying.”

[thewrongpath]

"That will be the bone-in ribeye," she confirmed, her face schooled into a polite mask of friendly amusement, which may or may not have been sincere. The waitstaff in a restaurant like this one were impeccably trained, but Barnes was, of course, very charming.

"We'll do the chilled seafood platter to start," Loki said, giving the menu one last perusal. "And I'll have the filet with wild mushrooms and fig essence, also medium rare. And the potatoes gratin and grilled asparagus for the table."

He passed the menu on to the waitress, sharing an amused look with her at Bucky's antics. Thanking her as she left, Loki turned to Bucky and said, "I see you've embraced being a man's date."

[semi_stable]

Bucky watches Loki as he orders, smiling a little at the easy way the words roll off of his tongue. The waitress even seems a little stunned by the picture he makes, with that accent and that suit and that stupid face, and Bucky can’t say that her blames her.

“Fig essence?” He mouths behind her back, miming twirling a small fancy mustache before finishing off the first pour of the whiskey flight.

“Yeah, I’ve decided to see how the other half lives,” Bucky jokes, lifting the second glass up to his nose and inhaling subtly as he looks up at Loki over the rim, softly pleased. “So, this is a date, then.”

[thewrongpath]

Loki rolled his eyes expansively as soon as she turned to go, though one corner of his mouth twitched against his will.

"I was under the impression that it was, yes," he said offhandedly, taking a sip from his glass of wine. "You certainly dressed for it."

[semi_stable]

"This is a nice place. I didn't want to get kicked out for not wearing a dinner jacket," Bucky replies with a little smirk, though that isn't the entire reason. He'd wanted to look nice, and considering that this is the third time that Loki has pointed out his clothing, he'd like to think he succeeded.

"You took me on a date to the place where you first wanted to kiss me," Bucky says in a low voice, smiling warmly before finishing the second small glass of whiskey. "You really are a softie."

[thewrongpath]

"I'm sure they would've dusted one off for you from the Lost and Found," Loki said, smiling behind the rim of his glass.

"Perhaps I brought you somewhere I knew wouldn't be too sophisticated for your palate," Loki countered, though his tone wasn't quite sharp enough for it to truly be an insult.

"I said I wanted to kiss you on your birthday. I didn't say it was the first time."

[semi_stable]

"That fit me in the shoulders? Surely not," Bucky says jokingly, brushing off one of his shoulders with a facetious vanity, smiling indulgently at Loki and glancing around the restaurant, taking no offense at his words. "Yeah, you take me anywhere nicer than this and I'd have no idea what to do with myself."

He's about to start complaining about tiny portion sizes when Loki continues, and instead he feels his cheeks flush the tiniest bit as he meets Loki's gaze, smiling in a softly pleased way. "Ah, my mistake then."

[thewrongpath]

"Surely," he agreed, the two of them gazing at each other warmly until the waitress chose that moment to interrupt.

She sat down a platter of oysters on the half shell, shrimp, a split lobster tail, and tuna tartare, all on ice. "Enjoy," she said politely, turning to leave once Loki politely dismissed her.

Gesturing to the food put before them, Loki said, "Shall we?"

[semi_stable]

When the waitress comes back, Bucky sits up and clears his throat, ducking his head to hide a smile at his own behavior. He thanks the waitress and finishes off another whiskey before looking down at the tray on the table with a vaguely confused expression.

“I know what most of this is,” Bucky says with a slightly furrowed brow. He’s never had oysters that he can remember, but he knows what they are. Lobster is also something of a rarity, with shrimp being a little more familiar. It’s the pile of pink stuff that stumps him. “What is this? Is it fish? Like sushi?”

He could try to pretend like this is all routine to him, like he eats this way all the time, to try and impress Loki, but there would be no point. Loki was raised as royalty and Bucky was raised in relative poverty. There’s no reason to try and pretend otherwise.

“I’ve never had an oyster,” he admits, looking skeptically up at Loki. “They look disgusting.”

[thewrongpath]

Loki shrugged, plucking a shell from where they were artfully arranged around little dishes of cocktail sauce and various other condiments, and slurped the meaty little oyster down. It was startlingly fresh, just a bit briny and sweet.

"I suppose it's the texture takes some getting used to," he admitted, dropping the empty shell into the dish they'd provided.

Scooping a bit of the tuna onto a little square crisp of bread, Loki passed it over, saying, "Try it. It's raw tuna. If you've had sushi, it's the same."

[semi_stable]

Bucky watches skeptically as Loki tips his head back to suck the oyster from its shell, brows lifting slightly as his reaction. He figures that he can’t knock it until he tries it, but before he can reach for an oyster, Loki is pressing a piece of bread topped with fish into his hand. He pops it into his mouth and watches Loki as he chews, nodding happily and swallowing.

“Okay, this is good. I like this,” Bucky tells him. He’s become rather fond of sushi after all his lunches with Yori. The memories are a little bittersweet now, but he can’t help but to think of the old man now. Bucky hopes that he’s doing well.

After wiping his fingers on his napkin, he reaches for one of the oysters and lifts it to his face slowly, glancing at Loki and shrugging helplessly before slurping it from the shell. The texture is pretty atrocious and Bucky makes a slight face, holding it in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it down with one gulp.

“I like these less,” he admits with a laugh, remembering a conversation that he had with Sylvie what seems so long ago now. “Are these really aphrodisiacs? Or is it just because they taste a little like— well.”

He flushes a little and spears a shrimp on his fork. “I think you taste better, actually.”

[thewrongpath]

Laughing heartily, Loki said, "I'm flattered," as he claimed another oyster, resigned to eating them all himself. "I don't think so. It's just a silly myth. Probably started by whomever sets the price for these things."

Loki watched the other man eat, his expression unmistakably fond.

"At the very least, don't let the lobster go to waste."

[semi_stable]

“There might be something to the chocolate one,” Bucky admits, because dark chocolate always feels particularly decadent. Maybe it’s because he has it so rarely, or because he can imagine chocolates being shared between lovers, and tasted on skin. It’s better than oysters, at any rate.

“Oh, I won’t. I’m letting myself be spoiled tonight,” he says with a chuckle, though he first reaches for the last glass in the whiskey flight which, funnily enough, claims to have notes of dark chocolate and coffee. He takes a sip and then looks at the glass, licking his lips before holding it out to Loki. “This is amazing. Try this.”

He waits for Loki to take it the glass, fingers brushing before he lets go, and then carefully extracts a piece of lobster with his fork. After dipping it in the butter, he holds his metal hand under his mouth in case of drips and then takes the bite, nodding to himself as he chews. “That and the fish stuff is my favorite.”

[thewrongpath]

Taking the glass with a murmur of thanks, Loki brought it to his nose first, giving it a careful whiff before taking a sip. It rolled over his tongue, burning pleasantly down his throat, and he hummed his appreciation. "It's quite good," he agreed, eyes smiling as he set the glass back onto its little board.

"The fish stuff," Loki laughed, grinning with amusement as he reached for his own shellfish fork and skewered a plump piece of lobster. "Alright, lobster and sushi, but no oysters. I'll keep that in mind."

[semi_stable]

Bucky takes his phone out only long enough to sneak a picture of the name of the whiskey, even though he knows it’ll most likely be too expensive for him to actually buy on his own. He isn’t hard up for cash here, not with all the odd jobs he does so quickly, but he still finds it difficult to splurge on unnecessary things after how he grew up.

Still, maybe for a special occasion.

“Apologies, your highness,” Bucky says when Loki laughs at him, but he’s smiling because he knows that Loki isn’t making fun of him. And he’d gotten his own amusement out of watching Loki daintily eat a hot dog.

“Adding it to my file?” He jokes as he places a heaping spoonful of the tuna onto another piece of bread. “I also like dark chocolate, on occasion.”

[thewrongpath]

"I seem to recall you saying that you wanted to know about me. The feeling is mutual," Loki reminded him, stealing a bit of the tartare for himself before it disappeared.

The platter was almost cleared by the time the waitress returned with their main course. Bucky's steak was enormous, as promised, and his own smelled delicious. She efficiently removed their extra plates, setting the dishes of asparagus and potatoes between them.

"Can I get you another drink, sir?" She asked of Bucky, as she removed the empty flight board from the table.

[semi_stable]

"You mean you didn't read my wikipedia page?" Bucky asks dryly, giving Loki a sarcastic smile that sums up how he feels about that particular part of the future. Back home, everyone had known what he'd done. After everything was settled with the Blip, news about his pardons was televised. People dissected his history under a microscope out there for the whole world to see. It's better here. No one knows him unless he wants them to. "The internet was a mistake, by the way."

When the waitress sets down their dinner plates, Bucky can't help the way that his eyes widen a little at the slab of meat in front of him. He'd be surprised if they didn't look like little hearts. He picks up his fork, ready to dig in, but has to pause when she asks him a question.

"Oh, no. I can just have some wine," he says politely, gesturing toward the bottle with his fork and smiling. "This looks very good. Thank you."

[thewrongpath]

"I'd rather learn first hand," Loki said, polishing off his glass of wine and pouring them both another. "I can't imagine my Wikipedia page is very flattering. Or accurate."

Taking knife and fork in hand, Loki cut into his steak, which was shockingly tender. He hummed approvingly around the first bite, hiding a smile at the way Bucky's eyes widened as he cut into his own.

"How is it?"