#bucky's ex ilaria

[greenbergwrites]

Steve - I'm not jealous (he totally is) and please

Once upon a time (in 2017), I reblogged that dialogue prompt post for the first time and someone asked for this prompt + Steve meeting Bucky's ex. I started it and never finished it.

MOST of this is from that original post and I just tacked on the ending, finally. Enjoy~

Also, I sort of changed the prompted dialogue a bit? It's along the same vein, just not 100% the same.

--

Her name was Ilaria and she was beautiful.

Steve first saw her in glimpses through a crowded street. Bucky hadn’t shown him a picture–hadn’t even described her, beyond mentioning that she was Italian and they’d met because their fathers were business partners once upon a time–but he just knew.

The woman standing outside the restaurant couldn’t be anyone other than Bucky’s ex-girlfriend. She was a tall, full figured woman in sleek heels and a slinking, off-the shoulder dress that hugged her ample curves in all the right places. Unblemished, tawny skin and dark hair coiffed to perfection, she wore gloves as dark as her dress on slender hands and diamond jewelry that would’ve looked gaudy on anyone else but on her, it was elegance itself.

She looked like a model on her way to a gala rather than a woman waiting to have dinner with her ex and his new beau.

The look of cool sophistication so artfully arranging her face melted away the moment she spotted them. Her smoky eyes lit up, a genuine smile stretching blood red lips.

“Oh, cuore mio, there you are,” she said, holding out her hands.

Bucky smiled back at her, taking her hands his own and holding them to his chest. The look he gave her was full of warmth and fondness.

“I haven’t been your cuore in a long time, I’m afraid,” he said, bringing her hands up to kiss her gloved knuckles. “I belong to someone else now.”

Steve had been watching the exchange with a growing sense of unease. He wasn’t prepared to have this woman’s gaze on him, but suddenly, he was the center of her attention.

“Ilaria,” Bucky said, “this is my sweetheart, Steve. Steve, this is Ilaria.”

“Um.” He pasted on a smile that he didn’t truly feel. “Hi? It’s nice to meet you.”

Ilaria turned down his offer of a handshake, pushing it away with a scoff and instead hugging him. It should’ve felt stilted and awkward, but it wasn’t.

“Steve,” she said, a light accent lilting her words. “I have heard so much about you, it is so good to finally meet you!”

She pulled away, but didn’t let go, holding him by the shoulders as he appraised him.

“You are gorgeous,” she said, cupping his cheeks. “My, such an angioletto!”

Steve blushed, ducking his head. He felt anything but when standing next to someone like her.

“Look at this blush.” She touched his cheek, smiling. “I could just eat you. Are you sure you want to be with a grump like James, angioletto? I would bring you home immediately.”

He’s not a grump, Steve wanted to say, but before he could, a big, warm hand pressed into his lower back.

“I’m afraid not,” Bucky interjected, tucking Steve close to him. “This one’s mine.”

Steve melted into the embrace, his entire body warming at the words. He couldn’t stop himself from turning a shy, pleased smile up at Bucky.

She watched it all, a sweet, satisfied smile playing on her lips.

“Yes,” she said. “I can see that.”

In Steve’s eyes, she was perfect. 

It didn’t escape his notice that she was also different from him in every way imaginable.

Dinner was enjoyable. The food was good and there was never a lull in conversation; Ilaria made sure of that. She talked to Steve more than she talked to Bucky, making sure that he never felt left out or excluded. For every story told about her time with Bucky, she asked Steve for one of his own.

It was a careful balance and one maintained solely out of respect for him. He appreciated that, even if this attentiveness made her even more perfect to him. There wasn’t a single thing he didn’t like about her and that made his stomach clench.

He felt clumsy, uninteresting, unworthy in comparison.

How could he ever hope to compete for Bucky’s attention, his affection, against her if she decided to take it back?

But she didn’t. She laughed and talked and although she touched Bucky more than once, her touches never lingered. In fact, she pulled her hand away a little quicker each time, as if realizing what she’d done. Her gaze always went to Steve to make sure he wasn’t upset.

At the end of the night, she hugged Steve again and kissed his cheek, laughing at Bucky’s huff.

“Stop it,” she admonished. “There’s nothing I could do to persuade him into my bed and we both know it.”

But then she did the most surprising thing of all. She turned to Steve, her expression serious.

“I would like to say goodbye to him as I did with you,” she said, gesturing to the spot where she kissed Steve. “May I?”

Steve meant to say yes. But he saw it in his mind’s eye, their embrace. Bucky’s hands on her full hips and her soft lips against his cheek, leaving the memory of them behind in a red imprint. The private smile they’d share, the way they’d look at each other as they remembered their shared history.

It was all a figment of his imagination, but it was a figment that left him feeling sick.

“No,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Bucky’s eyebrows shot up, the surprise showing on his face, but not Ilaria. 

Ilaria just smiled knowingly.

“Smart boy,” she said, tapping his nose. “Protect what’s yours.”

The car ride home was quiet. Bucky waited until they were alone and in their bedroom to gather Steve close.

“I’m going to ask you something,” he said, trailing fingers along Steve’s spine. “And I want you to be honest with me.”

Steve nodded.

“Were you jealous of Ilaria?”

Steve bit his lip. 

“No,” he said haltingly. “Not–not jealous.”

He didn’t think that was the right word, at least, even if the right word evaded him.

“Then what?”

His gaze dropped to where his hands rested on Bucky’s chest.

“Was it–was it better with her? Were you…happier?”

“No.”

The answer was immediate, but it wasn’t dismissive. That one word held a weight that said not only was Bucky taking the question seriously, he was answering with the same gravity that Steve had asked the question.

“No, sweetheart,” Bucky repeated. He cupped the back of Steve’s head, bringing him forward to press a soft, lingering kiss to his forehead. “Never.”

He kissed Steve again, before pulling back to look him in the face.

“You have to understand, Ilaria and I were kids when we met,” he said. “And we were barely out of our teens when we dated. But by then, we had both figured out that we liked certain things in the bedroom, and our tastes were too similar to be compatible with each other. She wasn't kidding when she said she'd love to take you home."

He smiled, playfully nipping at Steve's jaw.

"You," he said, "are catnip for the right kind of person."

Steve blushed for the millionth time that night, but this time didn't feel like a failing. He petted the lapel of Bucky's jacket.

"What happened? Between you two?"

Bucky shrugged.

"We tried it for a few months and then decided we were going to ruin a perfectly good friendship if we kept going. Neither of us wanted that, so we broke up. She was never going to be my forever. And she wasn’t ‘the one that got away,’ if that’s what you’re thinking, either.”

Steve hesitated, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Is there a one that got away?”

Bucky gave him a look.

“Not unless you plan on running away from me any time soon."

He leaned down, kissing Steve so tenderly that it was suddenly hard to breathe.

“You are my forever,” he murmured. “You're the only one I've ever thought about that way. The only one I've ever loved like this."

Their lips brushed in another aching kiss.

"God, I love you, sweetheart. I love you in ways I didn’t think were possible. I need you in ways I didn’t know I could. No one compares to you, not even a little. I don’t want you ever worrying about that.”

“I–I don’t,” Steve whispered breathlessly. He really didn’t, not usually. It was just– “She’s just so perfect.”

Bucky laughed lowly.

“I have the stories and the pictures to prove otherwise,” he said, nipping at Steve’s lips. “But first…I think my baby needs to be reminded how much he means to me. What do you think?”

Steve shuddered, his head falling back as Bucky sucked at his throat.

“Yes,” he breathed. “Please.”

“Mmmm, that’s what I thought.”

Bucky bent, hoisting Steve into his arms. 

“C’mon, gorgeous, let’s go to bed.”

#nani asks #greenberg replies #dialogue prompts #criminal bucky barnes #bucky's ex ilaria #if the italian endearments are off that's on me it was like a 2 minute google search