Red Strings of Fate
 

Chastity ignored the instant attention she received as she walked into the large art room. There were about a dozen easels set up in a semicircle around a linen-draped, cushioned platform, and each easel had an art student behind it. Anyone else would have been nervous, but Chastity had done modeling for the art department before. Deftly, she slipped off the thin robe she'd put on in the room she'd left her clothes in, and draped herself over the linen and cushions. Time for two hours of nude modeling.

Steve watched the model come in, but he still blushed and looked at his easel when she arranged herself. He didn't quite dare to look up again for a few minutes after, and even then he had problems looking at her for longer than a few moments. Instead he busied himself with details like her toes. Toes were good and neutral.

But he made it through class without dying of embarrassment.

Chastity had noticed the handsome, well-built blond slightly to her left. The poor man seemed flustered, and it seemed like this was his first time trying his hand at drawing nudes. At the end of the two hours, Chastity stood up and put her robe back on. The belt seemed to tie itself as she straightened out the linens and cushions on the platform. She would be back the next day; this particular instructor did a week of lessons on nudes, and tomorrow would be another two hours of modeling.

Steve knew that very well, and he wasn't looking forward to it. But he got his things packed up and stood, stretching out a bit as a few of the other students walked out, chatting and at ease.

Chastity got dressed quickly, and headed out of the side room just as the last stragglers from the art class were leaving. She had on a pair of skinny jeans and a loose tunic, and her short red hair peeked out from under a colorful crochet hat. She adjusted her woven hobo bag as she slung it across her chest.

Steve almost bumped into her and muttered a quick apology.

"Sorry," he said, glancing at her and doing a quick double-take. "Didn't mean to run into you."

"It's fine," Chastity said, grinning. "No big deal." She recognized him as the flustered newbie. "First day drawing nudes?"

That made Steve flush a light pink again, but he nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I've done plenty of people, but no nudes before."

"It just takes practice," Chastity said. "I'm sure you'll be able to draw them without blushing soon." She grinned teasingly. "But I've got to run, I've got a class to get to. See you tomorrow!" With that, she turned and hurried off. She had a class on dyes to make.

Steve blinked but let her go. He didn't have any more classes today, so he headed back to his apartment for now. He had no idea if Bucky would be there or not.

Bucky was there, in fact. He was sitting at the table, a portable light shining on a small workspace where he had a set of tools out and a few materials. Amongst everything was a soldering iron, a heating iron, a couple of thin rods, and some heavy duty pliers.

"How was Naked Day?" he asked when he heard Steve walk in.

Steve shrugged. "Okay. I got a partial." He grinned abashedly. "I think I drew the most detailed toes of anyone in the room."

Bucky couldn't help it, he snorted and then laughed.

"Seriously?" he said, looking over. "You got to look at a naked chick for two hours and you drew her toes?"

"And legs," Steve said defensively. "And the linen and stuff." But he was grinning too now. Trust Bucky to make him feel better.

Bucky just shook his head.

"You're somethin' else, Stevie," he said. "Didn't you tell me the whole point of Naked Day was to, what was it... 'Reference anatomy you don't normally get to see'? Which, honestly, seems kinda pointless, lots of guys get to see it all the time."

"Even if lots of guys see it all the time, I doubt they sit there and study it," Steve said with a shrug. "It's something every artist has to do, I guess."

"You would study it, too," Bucky teased, going back to what he was doing. "Do you even know how many chicks I've had ask me if you're free? It's enough to make a guy jealous."

Steve scrubbed a hand through his hair, shaking his head a bit. "Like you don't have girls going after you all the time," he shot back with a bit of a grin, going to set his things down in his area.

"That's just it, I get more girls asking about you than asking about me, there's something wrong with that equation," Bucky retorted, grinning.

Steve grinned and clapped his shoulder. "I told you you shoulda gone running with me," he teased. "You're getting soft."

"I am not," Bucky protested. "I hit up the boxing ring three times a week like always." Okay, that was a bit of a lie: he'd found himself in front of a punching bag more often, lately. But hey, it was just a little lie.

Steve snorted at him and went to go raid the fridge for juice, ignoring Bucky's sugary crap all over the place.

Bucky grinned and went back to what he was working on. A little while later, he set down three metal pens, each designed a bit differently but clearly meant to hold standard ballpoint ink cartridges.

Steve peered over at them. "Nice," he said, reaching over to pick one up. "Planning on selling them or are they going into the stash?"

"Not sure," Bucky replied. "You can have one, if you want. I figured something a bit more durable than plastic would be nice."