Chapter Text
Chapter 3—----- Bucky
By the time Alexei had returned from shopping, Bucky was already back on his floor lying on his bed, just staring at the ceiling. Not really seeing anything at all. As of right now, there wasn’t much to do in the Tower. The only real source of entertainment was the TV and staring at nothing, well unless you wanted to play card or board games with pretty much just yourself.
It was actually about 2 hours after Alexei had gotten back that Bucky had gone up to the Common Floor to see if anyone was there. Alexei was cooking something or other in the kitchen while Yelena tossed a rubber ball up and down. She was lying down on the living room floor and continually throwing the red ball up, catching and repeating.
Bucky stepped around Yelena and walked to the kitchen. He looked around and noticed that there weren’t any groceries on the counters. Oh, they must already have been put away. Bucky lightly tapped Alexei on the shoulder, causing Alexei to stop his humming to some song and turn around.
“Ah! Bucky!” Alexei proclaimed, puffing out his chest and flinging out his arms. “Welcome to the kitchen!” He said it like Bucky had never been in the kitchen at all, like ever.
“Did you get the crackers?” Bucky asked as his only reply.
“Ah, yes my friend!” Alexei answered joyously before spinning around and grabbing a cardboard box from the closest cabinet. He set it down on the counter in front of Bucky. “Here are your American snacks!”
Bucky inspected the box before walking back to the elevator with a muttered, “thank you.”
“Dinner is in 10 minutes!” Alexei called out as Bucky pushed on the button to his floor and stepped into the elevator.
Once on his floor Bucky opened the box and pulled out the plastic filled with the newly bought crackers. He ripped open the bag roughly, causing crackers to go flying around wildly. The thin squares clatter on the floor and crack, sending crumbs everywhere in many different directions.
“Shit,” Bucky swore as he placed the now near empty box onto the counter and grabbed one of the surviving crackers from the bag. He took a bite of it and started to chew as he began slowly picking up the now scattered crackers.
He paused when he noticed how different the taste was from the ones he had eaten earlier. The snacks were not salty at all. Alexei must have grabbed the wrong box. Double shit.
Bucky sighed as he sat on the floor, surrounded by the broken crackers, and leaned against his kitchenette island. He just stared up at the ceiling while he grabbed for one the crackers off the floor with his metal hand. The metal locked up and his false fingers couldn’t grasp the thin piece. God, he wanted to punch something. He hated when anger bubbled up at the simplest and most non-important things.
Bucky gave up trying and just decided to stare at a wall in misery. He thought it was getting better. But maybe it never was and never could.
An elevator dinging rang through Bucky’s ears but he barely heard it.
“Wow, you look like shit,” a familiar Russian voice rang out. It almost sounded like Nat for a second.
Bucky decided to not reply to Yelena’s comment, choosing to instead not move an inch from where he had been sitting for the past few minutes. He felt a body settling down next to him.
“What even happened? Need a cleanup on aisle Bucky?” Yelena spoke again, clearly trying to fill his silence. When he still didn’t reply she sighed, “anyways… Alexei says dinner is ready and he’s gonna force all of us to eat no matter what.”
“So let’s get your big hunky self up and moving, or you can watch as ants eat these crumbs while wallowing in your sorrows,” Yelena continued on, standing up while holding out her hand for Bucky to stand as well.
With a sigh Bucky took her hand and helped himself up. Once he was standing, Bucky tried to flex the fingers of his metal arm. He could move them again.
Silently Yelena led him up to the common floor and past the living room until they arrived at the table. It was crowded with members of the New Avengers in each chair, plates scattered in front of each person.
“Ah Bucky, Yelena, you have arrived! Please sit!” Alexei boasted.
Yelena hummed as she weaved around the filled chairs to an unoccupied chair to the right of Bob and the left of Walker. Bucky choose the empty seat next to Ava and the edge of the wooden dining table.
“So how was everyone’s day?” Alexei asked cheerily.
No one actively tried to engage with him though. Muttered, ‘good’,and ‘ok’s were scattered around the table.
The rest of the dinner continued in a similar manner of awkward attempts at conversation made by Alexei and noncommittal answers. But sometimes silence was better.
~
The next morning Bucky decided to go back to the cafe. He was hoping that Peter would be there again as he wanted to ask about the crackers. Or maybe just make sure the eyes he had stared at were not a hallucination. That Peter did have a haunted look in his eyes. That Peter was like him and many others.
The overhead bell rang as he entered once again. This time though, Bucky was more mentally present. Maybe not fully.
He stepped up to the counter, luckily there was no line. When Bucky made it he noticed that Peter was the one behind the counter again. That’s good.
Peter looked up as Bucky approached and smiled, but it didn’t quite make it to his eyes. It seemed strained. His eyes too. They looked dead again. Haunted, old, hurt. Bucky didn’t imagine it then.
Peter tilted his head to the right slightly, “What can I get started for you?”
“Another black coffee,” Bucky replied as he moved his eyes away from Peter’s to stop himself from staring.
“A bit of cream again?” Peter asked, pulling a coffee cup from the counter and writing on it.
Bucky nodded and they stood in an awkward silence for a second before Bucky cleared his throat, “um, what brand were the crackers from yesterday?”
Peter smiled again, it got closer to his eyes but it never fully reached again. He scoured the counter for something before swiping up a writing pad and the pen he had used to write on the cup previously. “They were Saltines, they’ve got a blue box.” Peter scrawled something onto the pad before ripping the page out and handing it to Bucky.
“Those are some more snacks or foods that help,” Peter hummed as he turned around and got to work on the black coffee.
When Bucky looked down at the paper that was somehow transferred into his hand, he noticed that there were actually quite a few snacks. There were mostly crunchy chips and different brands of salty crackers. Huh.