Campus
Steves POV
As the taxi pulled up the drive Steve peered around the driver seat to look at the new house, it was massive, like truly massive, pretty sure his dad had failed to inform him that they were moving into a mansion!
Steve turned to his mum, and by the looks of it she was just as shocked and left in the dark as Steve was. Sarah looked at Steve and then to her husband, Joe, with the most gobsmacked expression on her face.
“You didn’t say we were moving into a mansion dear.” Sarah observes.
Joe just looked at her and smiled. As the car came to a stop they all got out of the car, Steve not once taking his eyes off the gigantic house in front of him.
From the front the drive, itself, was at least half a mile long with a small fountain placed in the middle for the cars to turn around. You follow that up to a set of stone stairs that take you to a white paneled porch that seems to wrap around the whole house.
The house, itself, kind of looked like a castle. One main section with windows and a huge double door at the front, beside that there were two turrets that looked to go up three floors. All decorated in black and white wooden panels with a stone wall for detail. Steve thought his old house back in England was big- but that has nothing to this monster of a house.
Joe threw the keys to Steve, winking with a smirk, as he turned to get the rest of the bags out of the trunk of the taxi.
Steve looked down in his hands at the small single set of keys before looking back up at the building towering over him. He smiled at his mum before jogging up the stairs to the massive wood doors, placing the key in and pushing the doors open.
With a creak Steve was welcomed with a soft glow as the sun, that hit the freshly polished marble flooring and the whites of the walls surrounding it.
Steve stood there in the middle of this seemingly never ending entry spinning slowly trying to take it all in. Sarah, not far behind him, came and stood next to him, mirroring his mannerisms as she marveled at her new home.
Few minutes later Joe came up the stairs to the doors with the rest of their bags, obviously it wasn’t everything, just the essentials for now. The moving truck was getting there in an hour or so with their other belongings. Joe dropped the bags at the bottom of the spiral staircase that lead up to another section of the house before coming over to his family.
“It’s going to take weeks to explore this whole house” Sarah mused.
“I’m not sure you can even call this a house mum” Steve responded chuckling.
“This place came with the job, I wanted to keep it a surprise for you both. Steve, why don’t you take your bags and go pick a room you want?” Joe said with a smile, grabbing Sarah's hip to bring her closer to him as they admired the house together.
Steve silently agreed, still speechless over the building, walking over to his bags and slinging them over his shoulder before walking up the marble steps.
“If you don’t hear from me in the next few hours, I’ve gotten lost and I want you to pray for my safe return.” Steve says as he makes it to the first level.
Steve wandered around the massive building, genuinely getting lost along the way, until he reached the top floor and it seemed he had entered one of the rooms with a turret that ran through it. He instantly fell in love, the room was surprisingly small in comparison to the other ones scattered around. It had two windows one on his left and the other on his right, there was a slight slope to the ceiling that meant you had to duck slightly at certain points and then in the corner stood a small set of stairs that you could see lead to a small cushioned area that overlooked the whole room. This was it. This was his room! He may still miss his old room, may still wish he was back in England but this could be nice, he could make this room his own.
Later that day, after they had moved all the stuff into their rooms, with a lot of help from the moving team they had hired. By about 9pm they had a small form of structure in their new house. They were just about to order some food in, because it had been a long day and they didn’t really have the current things unpacked to make anything themselves, there was a knock at the door.
Steve jumped up off the sofa they were all sitting on to go answer. He opened the door to a couple, clearly in their mid to late 40s both smiling kindly at him. The man had short grey hair and a mustache, wearing a light grey suit; while the other had long brown hair that was tied up in a neat ponytail, small diamond earrings in, a pearl necklace and wearing a mustard colored blazer and cream blouse, with a matching pencil skirt.
“Hi! Can I help you with something?” Steve said to the couple stood in front of him with a smile.
“Hello darling.” the woman responded with a warm tone to her.
“My name is Maria Stark, and this grumpy guy is my husband Howard Stark. We live just across the road. ”She continued with a small grin.
Steve stood there dumbfound… Howard Stark?!? THE Howard Stark?! As in Howard Stark, founder of Stark industries?! MY GOD! He was talking to billionaires in his joggers and a hoodie… Steve felt so under-dressed.
“Hi, Mr and Mrs Stark its a pleasure to meet you. I’m Steve, Steve Rogers ma’am”, He said before extending his hand to shake theirs.
Howard took it and gave a strong firm handshake back, he turned to Maria to shake hers too before realizing she had something in her hands. Steve trying to stay calm, quickly took his hand back. Feeling rude that he hadn’t noticed it already.
He carried on, “Is that for us, Mrs Stark?” he asked extending his arm again to accept the gift.
“Yes dear, we saw that you had been moving in all day and thought you might like something cooked for you ready. So we made you some pasta.” She said with a gentle, sweet tone.
She made him feel safe by just the way she was looking at him… unlike Howard, he hadn’t said a word since they started the conversation, in all honesty it didn’t really look like he wanted to be there at all.
Seconds later, he heard footsteps come up behind him and Maria's glance went from looking up at Steve to more her own eye level.
“Oh Steve, you didn’t say we had visitors.” Sarah said as she reached the door.
“Hi, I’m Joe Rogers and this is my lovely wife Sarah Rogers.” Joe said before extending his hand to shake theirs, and Sarah Smiled and waved at them both.
“Pleasure to meet you both, I’m Maria and this is my husband Howard. We just came to drop off some food for you. It seemed as though you have had a long day moving in so we thought we would come introduce ourselves and cook you some food so you didn’t have too.” Mrs Stark responded with a welcoming smile on her face.
“We actually have a son, seems to be about your age, Steve, hes just about to start MIT in the next couple of days.” Maria pointed out to them.
“Oh wow! What a coincidence! So is Steve here!” Joe said, patting Steve on the back lightly.
“We are having a small neighborhood BBQ tomorrow afternoon, before the kids go back off to school, if you would care to join us.” This time it was Howard who spoke, his tone was completely different to Marias. His voice was still soft, but he said it with no emotion, like he wasn’t bothered either way.
Joe and Sarah both smiled fondly at the Starks, “That would be lovely, Thank you for inviting us. We will see you tomorrow then, bye for now” Sarah said kindly, grabbing the door ready to close it as the Starks waved their goodbyes and made their way back down the long track to their own home.
“That was awfully kind of them! We can give them back their bowl tomorrow.” Sarah smiled.
“Do you guys realise who they were??” Steve asked in pure shock, as he passed the pasta over to his mum to plate out. They both looked at each other then back to Steve shaking their heads in confusion.
“That was THE Starks! As in Howard Stark of Stark industries!! The billionaire! And we were invited to their home for a BBQ?!” Steve educated his parents, almost half shouting from excitement.
“Holy shit! Guess we have to put on our richest and fanciest outfits for tomorrow then.” Joe let the swearing slip, only half joking about their outfits.
Sarah, placing a plate in front of Steve who was now sat on a stool around the grey marble island that was placed in the middle of their kitchen, exclaimed “First you don’t tell us we were moving into a castle, then you neglect to tell us we live next door to LITERAL BILLIONAIRES AND FAMOUS PEOPLE?!?!” after trying to keep calm about this whole situation.
There is nothing particularly special about the Rogers family, they’ve always lived in a posher part of their city or town, never really having to worry about money.
Joseph Rogers just had a good job as a lawyer, he was good at what he does and what he does is argue with people all day and get paid good money for it. Joe had worked up his career until becoming pretty well known in his line of work, finally he started getting some big names asking for him to help in cases and people just kept recommending him.
When Steve was nine his dads firm (Nelson and Murdock) wanted to go international, so the Rogers left America to go follow one of the many international branches to England.
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Buckys POV
Bucky woke to muffled talking which was covered by the sound of ‘smells like teen spirit’ by Nirvana blasting through the speakers. He sat up rubbing his face with the palm of his hands, groaning slightly.
“Morning sleepy head” Nat spoke next to him, he turned to his left seeing Nat driving, only looking at him with a smile for a second before looking back at the road.
She looked so pretty in the morning sun, the light bounced off her red hair making it glow slightly, her smile made the perfect indent on the side of her face. Bucky wanted to reach out and hold her face see how the dimple felt against his hand. Even after driving for a couple hours from the early hours of the day, wearing one of Buckys oversized hoodies, hair tied up, eyes highlighted lightly with eyeliner, he was amazed someone could look that good without even having to try.
“What you staring at?” Clint asked with a smirk… Clint knew, he knew exactly what Bucky was looking at because hes not blind, hes aware Natasha is beautiful, he can appreciate that.
Bucky looked over his right shoulder to look at Clint, he held back a laugh. Now Clint looked like someone who had been travelling for hours in a small cramped car, mohawk not looking very mohawkish more like a sad attempt of a bowl cut, clothes rumpled from being sat down for so long, pale as snow because he gets bad travel sickness.
“Not you, that for sure. You look like shit dude.” Bucky observed laughing. Clint lent forward getting as close as he could to Bucky's face,
“You try me one more time motherfucker! I’ve been up since 4am, I am not here for your shit right now” he said just above a whisper trying to be intimidating, before leaning back, looking at his hands, going even more pale than before - which Bucky wasn’t sure was possible.
“Natalia, I think you should pull over… looks like the tough guys about to blow.” Bucky exclaimed in a sarcastic manner trying to hide his worried undertones.
“NOT IN MY CAR CLINT! I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU THROW UP IN HERE!”, Nat panicked, pulling over as fast she could.
In a blink of an eye she was out the car pulling Clint from his seat to a grassy area a few feet from the car. Bucky got out after, amazed at how fast Natasha moved, not entirely convinced she didn’t just teleport, he pulled out a cigarette having a quick stretch before having to get back in. He would go over to help Clint but he didn’t want to crowd him, Nat was better at this stuff than him anyway.
He checked his phone, two more hours and then they would be at MIT… two more hours and he would be starting his new life. They left not long after 5am from Buckys house, his parents had said goodbye giving them all a hug before they drove off.
Buckys parents were always busy working, trying to keep a roof over his head and having the money for food and essentials, he was use to having to look after himself - he had been since he was 9. Which he never blamed his parents for he knew they were doing their absolute best for him - so why was he scared of living alone? Why was he already missing his parents? He hardly saw them anyway… Before he could think about it any more, Clint and Nat were on their way back to the car.
Bucky looked over at them, taking another drag from his cigarette, “Pass me one, I need it after that.” Clint asked holding his hand out ready for Bucky to give him one. After they finished smoking and Nat had forced Clint to drink something and nibble on a cookie, they got back in the car, Clint now in the front so it wouldn’t be as hard on him for the last two hours.
Jokes were told, plans for the future were made, reminiscing on childhood memories, laughs that hurt the lungs shared and karaoke moments, all helped past the last two hours of their journey. They finally reached the gates to MIT, they slowly pulled up just outside.
Each stepping out looking around at what was their new home, taking it all in. There was a bronze brick wall that lined the colleges main buildings, trees dotted all along the paths that linked from building to building. People everywhere, carrying bags, suitcases, talking, day dreaming, drawing - they looked like a little colony of ants, scuttling around the grounds.
“Hi, my names Megan, I am a student advisor for today. Is there anything I can help you with” a small blonde introduced herself walking up to Bucky with a shy smile on her face.
“Hi Megan, I’m Bucky”, Bucky said in slightly lower voice to usual, looking down at Megan with a small side smile plastered across his face, stretching out his hand to shake hers.
Natasha coughed before interrupting, “Hey, yeah we could use your help Megan, thank you. Which is the way to the west block accommodations?”.
Megan realising shes been holding Buckys strong hand for a second too long, tearing her eyes from Buckys, she turned to Natasha cleared her throat before pointing to the right.
“Yeah just to the right over there, follow the other groups of people going in the same direction you should find it. They’ll be another student advisor near the door ready to take your names and give you your keys.” Megan told, still blushing looking between Natasha, who was looking blankly at her - arms crossed, and Clint, who was giving her a soft smile.
“Thank you lovely.” Bucky smiled looking down at her, as she put her gaze back on Bucky.
He put his hand on her back before walking passed her, to grab a few bags from the car before walking off in the direction she said. Megan waved, cheeks still red, at their back as they walked off.
“Do you really have to flirt with EVERY women you see?” Natasha asked with a slight disappointed tone.
“Oh Nat you know for a fact he does, the dumbass thinks hes something. In reality his confidence is cracking around him.” Clint patted Nats back looking at Bucky with a smirk, who was walking slightly behind them.
Bucky just lightly smacked his head before letting out a small laugh in response. “Not my fault God burdened me with such beauty, it’s hard work being this smooth all the time. You guys should take pity on me.” Bucky joked, waving his hair dramatically in the wind for an added effect.
Clint and Natasha both sighed at the same time, choosing silence for the last minute of their walk.
They got to the building, the second student advisor signed them in and gave them their keys, pointed up some stairs and gave them directions to their rooms. They thanked him and strolled up to their new place.
Natasha opened the door, as she had both hands free (the boys wouldn’t let her carry anything as she has driven the whole way here).
She walked in making just enough room for Bucky and Clint to entered and dropped the bags to the side. They stood there in a line in front of the door, just taking in the size of the room and the smaller details scattered around.
They were welcomed by one big room as they walked in with a TV and couch, a small kitchenette to the left that had a mini fridge, microwave, two hobs, and a sink with two cupboards below and two above it. Off to the right was two doors and to the left, next to the kitchenette, was another. It wasn’t much, but they didn’t need much, they had what they needed. Each other.
“DIBS I GET THE BIGGEST ROOM!” Clint basically screamed, breaking the happy silence they were sharing, running off in the direction of the door on the left.
Bucky turned to look at Natasha, to have a little laugh with her about how cute Clint was being, but Natasha wasn’t there. She too, had dashed to the furthest door on the right just after Clint declared he was getting the biggest room.
Bucky still stood in his original place, shock plastered on his face, looking at Natasha who was just smiling widely looking very proud of herself, then looked at Clint who was looking even more smug.
“You need faster reaction times dipshit, now you’re stuck with the smallest room” Clint laughed. Bucky grabbed his bags, looking down at his feet and slowly walked towards his room in defeat, opening his door without looking at either of his friends.
He closed the door behind him, leaning against it with a big goofy smile on his face as he thought about how much he loved his stupid ass friends and that he was actually going to be living with them. That this was actually happening.
He looked around his room, throwing his bags on the double bed, he pulled himself off the door and started walking towards the window on the opposite side. Yeah it was small, very small… all it could fit was his bed, a closet, and a set of shelves with a desk fit into it, but he kind of liked that- it remind him of home.
He smiled at that thought, home, this was his home now. He dragged his fingers across the wood shelves beside him thinking about how he was going to make this room his own. He sat down on his bed, starting to pull out some things from his bag, lost in thought of how he was going to decorate everything.
Then there was a loud knock at his door, before he had a chance to even register the noise Natasha and Clint burst through it jumping on him giving him a group hug.
“Sorry man, but finders keepers losers weepers” Clint said, scuffing up Buckys hair slightly.
Nat gave him a quick kiss on the cheek “Sorry you got left with the short straw, it was fair game though sweetie.” Bucky just laughed softly to himself, holding onto their arms that were still wrapped around him.
“Its fine guys, reminds me of my old room, all it needs now is Alpine and its basically the same” He pointed out to them.
They looked around taking in their surroundings. Clint hummed before nodding in agreement, “I would go as far as to say this is actually bigger than your old room. You can actually walk around in this one.” Natasha kindly pointed out with smile.
Clint jumped up, “Right! Time to get the rest of our shit! Nat, you stay here, you’ve done enough for today. Let your two men go do the rest” Clint ordered. Bucky kissed Natalia's head before standing up to follow Clint out.