Chapter 2
August 25, 2018
Bucky grunted as he dropped the mattress into the bedroom. Wade hadn’t helped him get any of his stuff into the building, since it was a balmy, very sunny day, but he’d at least helped him get it up the stairs and into the apartment. Though, now, he was sitting obnoxiously on the counter. “You gonna help?”
“Easy there, Fluffy.” Wade sipped at his straw, slurping the chilled bag of O neg like a kid with a juice box. “You don’t even have anything to do here anymore.”
Looking around, Bucky couldn’t exactly say he was wrong. His bed was in the bedroom. Well, his mattress was. He didn’t have a frame or anything. All of his blankets and pillows were already on top of it, all tied up in the comforter he’d used this morning. Really, all he’d done was make a pile and then used a bungee cord around it to keep it together in the van. His chair, the smelly, lumpy chair that always made him feel at home, was already in the living room, stationed in front of the beat up coffee table that served as his entertainment center. His desk was in the dining room to become his office. The weight bench was there, too, waiting to be moved into the second bedroom so he could do his working out in there. “Yeah, fine. Beat it, kid.”
Wade stuck his tongue out at him, but he hopped off the counter and then out the door, crossing the hall to his own apartment. He had been gone for about ten minutes when there was a knock on the door. “What’d you forget, blood suc-” Bucky blinked. It wasn’t Wade. There was a lovely open top wooden box holding some wine and a tin of chocolate chip cookies, and something with a bit of tissue paper on top of it. “You’re not Wade.”
“Heya, Neighbor. I just thought I’d drop off a housewarming gift. The cookies were made by a friend of mine, you wouldn’t want any baked for you, and the wine is a decent year.” Almost instinctively, he reached out his hand and shook the one that was offered to him. “And this, this is special.” The tissue paper moved, and then Bucky was staring at the ugliest music box he’d ever seen. The sides were black, the edges were gold, the top was red. And there was a monkey on top, holding gold symbols. When it was shoved at him, Bucky had no choice but to take it, but he put it down on the table just inside the door as quickly as he could. “Have a great day, neighbor.”
Bucky took the box and then moved it into the kitchen, wanting the cookies he could smell. As soon as he had one in his mouth and three more in his hands, he went back to survey the rest of the apartment. It sucked that he hadn’t been able to get a two bedroom apartment, because it would be really cool if he could have a whole work out room. Well, his living room furniture didn’t require all that much space, so he could just make it half living room, half work out room. “Damn, these cookies are good.”