Tony huffed and rolled his eyes. Of course his boyfriend had to be difficult even when he wasn’t exactly dealing with his boyfriend. It had been a few minutes now of trying to figure out how to scale up to the second story window of the apartment his boyfriend, Bucky, lived in but to no such luck.
He was let out a pitiful groan and was about to just use the key that Bucky had given him a few weeks ago for emergencies instead, be boring and completely unromantic, before he saw a pile of rocks. One of his eyebrows rose as he walked over to the pile and lifted up the smallest one he could find. He threw it up in the air a few times, trying to distinguish a weight for it as he also weighed the pros and cons of throwing it at the window.
Pros:
- He would be a total romantic
- He would have successfully snuck in to the building
- Bucky hugs.
- Their very own Rapunzel moment - except Tony wouldn’t be the princess this time, ha.
Cons:
- Tony didn’t know if Bucky was actually home yet - but his usual time for coming home was ten minutes ago so it wasn’t Tony’s fault if he wasn’t home.
- Bucky gave him an eye roll and challenged him to climb his way up, to which Tony would be screwed because he was definitely not ready to do any sort of exercise right now
- No hugs.
- He could get the window wrong and it would be Bucky’s roommate and best friend that Tony hasn’t actually met yet (Tony still wasn’t sure if Bucky had told his roommate exactly which Tony he was dating yet)
After thinking on those for a couple of moments Tony shrugged and threw the first rock without really caring anymore. He hadn’t seen his boyfriend since their class together earlier and call him clingy but he was missing Bucky a lot. It bounced off the window with a small ting! that should have at least alerted Bucky that something was outside, if he was paying attention and not wrapped up in homework, video games, sleeping or just in general being unaware.
He hoped his boyfriend was smart enough to realise that it was someone throwing rocks and not something else.
A few moments had passed and Tony huffed again, slouching over and picking up the rock again and throwing it once more with the same amount of effort. The same result happened so Tony repeated the action a couple of times until he ended up losing the rock to the bushes that seperated the apartment from the road.
He groaned, throwing his head back before reaching over and picking up another rock, not bothering to grasp a proper feel for it. It felt the slightly bit heavier but whatever, he was cold and couldn’t be bothered getting the key from his car anymore. He just wanted to see his damn boyfriend.
He threw the rock with a small grunt and leaned down to pick another, not caring if he got the attention of Bucky’s roommate or Bucky. As long as he got someone’s attention and let inside soon, he’d be fine. Or at least that was what he thought.
Until he heard the shattering of glass and a thudding noise.
Tony froze completely, half bent over and reaching for another rock as he tried to process what was happening. He knew he could replace the window easily, with the snap of his fingers and barely a dent in the back of his bank account, but he’d have to explain himself.
How could he do that without sounding like a clingy boyfriend? (Nevermind the fact that Bucky already knew this, he just didn’t want more people than needed to know).
Really, Tony’d just sit there and try act nonchalant and rambling about anything and everything whilst Bucky just looked (fondly) disapprovingly before rolling his eyes, sighing and calling him an idiot.
Tony didn’t have much time to mull over current events anyway because suddenly there was a head poking out of the broken window and yelling down at him, “Hey! What the heck are you doing?”
Oh no.
Don’t panic, Tony, don’t panic.
It’s just Bucky’s roommate and his best friend and this is his first real impression of you and you’ve just broken Bucky’s window because you were being lazy and making up excuses.
Double oh no, you haven’t answered and he’s looking directly at you with a worse disappointed face than Bucky had.
Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic.
“Well admiring the view, of course. Usually that doesn’t include breaking windows, but I’ve heard that the best works of art are destroyed or damaged.”
Fuck, you panicked.
Now you’re awkwardly flirting with your boyfriends best friend and sound like a creep.
“Are you-? Seriously.”
Even from down below Tony could see the disappointment in Steve’s face growing. Tony merely shrugged, “What can I say? It’s not my fault that people like to talk about tall, buff and handsome,” Tony clicked his fingers at Steve and regretted so many of his life choices that led to this moment, “That’s you sunshine.”
“I just… Wait a minute, were you throwing rocks at the window? Are you even aware of how old and cliche that is?”
“Well, one has to get the attention of the damsel in distress somehow, right? Fancier than just knocking on the door, but each to their own.” Tony was just honestly shocked he’d been allowed to bullshit himself this far. He was just waiting for Steve to drop the bomb that he was actually stalling and that the police were on their way to arrest him, “Seriously though, I’m sorry about the window. I can have people come fix it tomorrow and be done with. Hell, I can replace all the windows, I know these flats have trouble trapping heat.”
That was also a personal benefit for when he would have sneaky sleepovers at Bucky’s. Aside from sneaking out, the cold mornings (and nights) were Tony’s least favourite parts about spending the night with the other.
“Well I’d hope so, I know it’s surprising to hear but us seniors aren’t exactly rolling in money.” Tony felt like such a creep and couldn’t help but cringe a little - glad he was still in the dark a bit so Steve couldn’t fully see his facial expressions or anything.
Thanks to Bucky he knew all about Steve’s job and the struggles the two went through to try get the bills paid. They had some help from Steve’s mother, but that was about it, the rest they made on their own and Tony couldn’t help but be impressed.
Even if sometimes he found himself sneaking extra money into his boyfriend’s wallet or leaving some smaller notes around so that his boyfriend could pay everything he needed and still have something extra. If Bucky brought it up, Tony just shrugged. He liked taking care of people and this was just one way he could help his boyfriend.
Tony shrugged, “Yeah, well, I’m a lucky Junior so we break even.”
Steve scrunched up his face and leaned out the window a bit more, suspicion playing on his face, “What was your name again?”
“You never asked, actually. Usually just assume everyone knows it or that they recognized my voice. Kind of surprised I got this far, really. Then again, your fault not mine - the only thing here that was my fault is the window. The rest is on you, bud.”
Steve opened his mouth, face morphing into something Tony had only seen one too many times in his lifetime when someone came in behind Steve, giving him a shove away from the window and occupying the space instead, “Tony?”
Tony gave a loud exaggerated huff, “Well there’s the princess at last…”
“Why is my window broken?”
“You didn’t open the window when I threw the smaller rocks, thought I should at least make a statement if I couldn’t get your attention.”
Bucky rolled his eyes and leaned on the window sill, sarcasm tainting his tone completely, “You do realise that I gave you a key for a reason, right?”
Tony shrugged, “This seemed the best route at the time.” Tony then pouted and slouched, “I’m cold and I want cuddles.”
Bucky lifted himself from where he was leaning and went away for a moment before throwing his key at Tony, who let out a happy little ‘yay’ and raced towards the door. He walked up the stairs and opened the door in time to see Bucky shoving Steve away with a huff before he looked towards Tony, “I heard you offered to pay for all new windows.”
Tony shrugged before going to hug his boyfriend, “You should have opened the window the first time, this mess could have been avoided.”
Bucky merely rolled his eyes, wrapping Tony up in his arms, “I was having a nap on the couch after work and next thing I hear Steve yelling from my room. I only just saw you in science, babe.”
“Science where you left early because you had work. Honestly, just let me start paying you to be my boyfriend because then you get more money than you do working and I’ll have my Bucky-babe. It’s a win win.”
In reply, Bucky merely huffed with laughter as he dropped his head to rest on his boyfriend's shoulder. He could feel Steve lingering in the background and he already knew that the blonde was burning with questions but he could wait just a bit longer. Because yeah, his boyfriend was a total nerd who had the worst ideas with the best intentions, but if his boyfriend was here for cuddles then Bucky sure as hell wasn’t complaining.
Bucky started to lead the two of them into his room, neither of them bothering to pick up the broken few pieces of glass as his bed was on the other side of the room, and he couldn’t help from making one last smart comment, “When you wake up freezing tomorrow, you definitely don’t get a free pass to complain.”