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English
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Stucky Flash Bingos, PoliZ's Flash Fiction Friday Fills
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Published:
2021-07-31
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614
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1/1
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10
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54
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2
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331

Here to Save the American Way

Summary:

When Bucky asks Steve what happened to their personal belongings, they end up discovering a semi-guilty secret of their teammate.

Stucky Flash Bingo: Domestic — Flash Fiction Friday: Clandestine Closet

Work Text:

“Steve?” Bucky ‘s voice was a little on the raspy side. He’d only been back with Steve for a month or so. While he was still skittish and withdrawn on occasion, he generally had more good days than bad. Yesterday he’d barely left his room, and Steve had let him be.

“Yeah, Buck?” Steve replied, glad to see him out and about.

He frowned a little, as if something were bothering him. “What do ya think happened to our stuff?”

“What stuff?”

“Well —our apartment, for one thing. You told me you met Erskine the night before I shipped out and he whisked you away to Camp Lehigh.”

“Well, I actually had about a week to get my affairs in order,” Steve explained. “With the orders he wrote up for me, I was able to break our lease. Our books and clothes and stuff like that I took over to your parents’ place. Helped stuff it under your sisters’ beds. I sold the rest for walking around money.”

Bucky nodded thoughtfully. “What about after….” he trailed off, but Steve knew exactly what he was referring to.

Steve swallowed hard; he figured they’d have to talk about all of that sooner or later. “I went through your footlocker. Sent the letters and such back home. Pieced most of the rest out to the Howlies. Kept a few things for myself.”

Bucky’s frown deepened. “And when you flew that damn plane into the ocean?”

“Well, I had your Ma as my next of kin, so I figured it all went back to her. But Peggy told me that Howard swept in and claimed a bunch of it in the name of the SSR.”

“Wonder if Stark would know where that all ended up?”

“Guess we could ask.”

“Uh, yeah,” Tony rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, not quite meeting Steve’s eyes. “Dad got his hands on a bunch of your personal effects after you went down. Boasted about it once in a while, when he’d been hitting the bottle. Sure, he could score brownie points by loaning out items to museums every once in a while, but only for a few months at a time and then he’d want it all back. He had a climate-controlled room and everything.”

Steve wanted to ask what happened after Howard was gone; but that was all still a very touchy subject. He went with a more vague approach. “Any chance you know where any of it might still be?”

And there was that almost guilty look again. “JARVIS?”

“The Captain America collection is in storage here at the Tower.” Steve waited for a room number or some other location identification, but the AI was strangely silent.

“It’s okay,” Tony sighed. “You can tell them.”

“The collection has been augmented by Sir over the years. It now contains a complete run of the Timely and Marvel Comics, over one hundred hours of newsreel footage — some of which has never been shown publicly — as well as a large selection of ephemera and merchandise. Captain America has been an enduring figure in the public consciousness and this assemblage reflects that.”

Tony’s cheeks had turned a dull red; Steve hadn’t thought his teammate was actually capable of blushing. “I, uh, was kind of a fan of yours when I was a kid, and got in the habit of searching out stuff related to Captain America.”

Bucky snickered. “You’re gonna give him a swelled head, Stark. And then he won’t be able to wear that goofy-lookin’ helmet of his. Mind giving us a tour?”

Tony shrugged, his blush starting to fade. “Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I might as well.”