Chapter 2
Sometimes [Y/N] wondered how much more the world could fuck her up. Like, when she was just eight years old and was a little too excited for her own good to climb a tree, only to end up with a broken arm. Or that time she had to submit a very important essay for her finals, only to spill coffee all over it. Or when she was celebrating her 21st birthday and ended up getting mugged the moment she stepped out of a club. Her life might be filled with misfortunes but this? This took the whole cake.
[Y/N] sat on the blue couch in Bucky’s apartment with a cup of tea while she watched Clint explain his brilliant idea to Bucky. Steve was kind enough to steer her to the kitchen once Bucky’s face contorted into pure frustration. He sat her down on one of the kitchen stool and took out a plate of chocolate cake from the fridge.
“Chocolate always make you feel better.” He offered, grabbing two spoons from one of the drawers. She didn’t know what she would do if Steve wasn’t here to mediate the whole argument (there was a 98% chance she would start crying in front of everyone, but no one needed to know that).
“Sorry for this.” Steve smiled.
She scooped a spoonful of the cake and slowly brought it to her mouth, eyes automatically closing in delight. “This is so good.” She moaned, grabbing another spoonful. “I might even forgive my old roommate for kicking me out of our apartment if you keep giving me chocolate cake.”
“You don’t have a place to live?” Steve frowned, his spoon stopped mid-air. [Y/N] looked up from the cake, eyes filled with confusion.
“Yeah, I thought you knew? That’s why Clint told me to come here. I didn’t have a place to go. I’d stay with Nat and Clint but they have Peter.” Her answer seemed to startled Steve for a moment before the blond guy got up from his seat and stormed out of the kitchen. She wondered if she had offended him in any way, but her worry soon disappeared when she heard Steve’s panicked voice.
“You need to let her stay here, Bucky!”
“What-No, I don’t?” came Bucky’s reply.
“Yes! She doesn’t have anywhere to go. She needs a place to stay and you need a roommate. She seems nice, Buck. Definitely better than the other applicants.”
“She loves cleaning too! Just like you!” Clint added excitedly, earning a glare from Bucky.
There was a long silence in the living room and [Y/N] opted to shove another spoonful of cake to ease her nerves. It took her five more spoonfuls of cake before Bucky finally let out a sigh and a mumbled, “Fine.”
Huh, maybe this wasn’t as bad as she initially thought.
The three men walked into the kitchen a moment later. Steve had the happiest expression on his face and Clint couldn’t stop fidgeting in excitement as they relayed the news. Bucky, on the other hand, only stood by the table with his arms crossed, eyes fixed on her.
“I like my place clean. I don’t like loud noises. Do not take my cake and sweets. Clint said you were in a rough spot, so I’ll let you off for this month’s rent. In return, you will clean the apartment and do some chores for me. Is that okay with you?”
[Y/N] nodded quickly. “I’ll even bake you cookies and cakes if you want.” That seemed to brighten him up a little. Bucky gave her a little nod and shook her hand.
“Welcome, roommate.”
“Yes! Why don’t you show her around while I go get Donut?”
.
“Uhh–“ [Y/N] stared at the huge bathtub installed in the bathroom. This bathroom was probably bigger than her new bedroom, with the gigantic bathtub taking almost half of the room. She looked up at Bucky, who stared at her, as if daring her to say any stupid comments. She gulped down her curiosity and nerves and flashed him a nervous smile. “So you like bath time a lot, huh?”
She could hear Steve’s snort from behind her.
“Your room is across the hall.” Bucky changed the topic, dragging Steve out of the bathroom while [Y/N] trailed behind him. “You’ll have to buy some bedsheets and covers later, but I can lend it to you for now.” He said as he pushed open the door.
The room was decorated with minimalistic interiors. The blue color of the desk, wardrobe, and window frame provided a nice contrast to the pale colored wall and wood flooring. There was a huge window on one side of the room, with generous sunlight pouring in and [Y/N] fought the urge to smile at the prospect of basking in its warmth.
“It’s not much.” Bucky quietly said, still staring at her, gauging her reaction.
“It’s beautiful. I love it so much. This is definitely better than my last apartment.” She gushed. “Thank you so much for letting me stay here.”
He flushed a little, quickly dismissing her gratitude with a wave of his hand. “It’s nothing.” He mumbled before leaving her room.
“He’s not very good at making new friends,” Steve whispered with a grin. “He’ll warm up to you soon. Don’t worry.”
[Y/N] opened her mouth to reply when she heard loud profanities coming from the living room. She and Steve quickly made their way out of the bedroom and into the living room, where Clint was standing with a huge white cat who kept hissing at Bucky.
“What the fuck is this?!” Bucky glared at the cat.
“This is Donut. I told you I’ll be bringing her over, Buck.”
“I thought you meant the food.”
“Donut is her cat.” Clint pointed at [Y/N] who shuffled awkwardly under everyone’s stares.
“She’s really nice, I promise.” She mumbled quietly, not daring to meet Bucky’s eyes.
“You will be in charge of throwing out the trash for two months.” Bucky grumbled in response.
.
Bucky didn’t mean to pry. He wasn’t that nosy of a person, but the red notebook was just lying there on the couch. It was practically begging to be read. He probably would blame it on the chilly weather and the abundance of free time he had gotten after finishing another project as well. And it was definitely not a payback after that particular incident just shy two months ago.
He was practically immune to cold, which was great, because he got to save a couple hundred bucks every winter, much to Steve’s and Sam’s dismay. He had been saving money for years, opting to splurge on other essentials Steve dubbed as ‘useless-fish-necessities’. And he would have been showing off his pride and joy to his best friends and bragged about his money just like he did the past years if it wasn’t for his new roommate.
It was a quite a chilly evening in late October and Bucky was quite excited to go home after a long meeting with a client. He had been planning on enjoying the cold evening with a box of pizza and a nice beer, alone in his living room. [Y/N] said she would be home late, which gave him more than enough time to relax. Maybe he could even use the bath bombs Natasha gave her few weeks ago. Bucky’s smile grew as he approached his apartment door, keys in his hand. Today had been a good day.
A click and a turn of the knob later, he pushed open the door, smile quickly slipping off his face at the state of his apartment. Nothing was amiss. In fact, it was too clean and he would’ve been impressed by his roommate’s cleaning skills if it weren’t for the irritating warmth of his apartment. His eyes landed on the huge glass window near a single couch and an electric heater. [Y/N] was currently curled on top of a fluffy carpet in front of said couch, face filled with pure bliss as the heater warmed her body and lulled her to sleep. It was almost adorable.
But Bucky was too annoyed with how warm his apartment was and how he could feel sweat starting to form on his forehead to admit it. He glared at Donut, who hissed quietly at him from the couch, as if daring him to wake up her beloved owner. And Bucky Barnes was not going to be a petty person, especially to a cat. He raised his eyebrows at the cat in a mock challenge and took a few steps closer, setting his belongings on the table before he closed the distance between [Y/N] and him. Donut, in all her white fluffy glory, let out another hiss, and wiggled her butt in a stalking manner, ready to pounce him.
Screw being the bigger person, Bucky huffed, poking her gently with his foot, eyes never leaving the cat.
“[Y/N]. Wake up.” He called her name, giving her another gentle poke.
She scrunched her face, curling her body tighter to itself before letting out a little happy sigh.
“What the fuck did you do to this apartment?” Bucky continued poking her, earning another hiss and a growl from the cat. “You, shut up. Let the adults talk.” He pointed his finger at the cat.
“It was too cold.” [Y/N] mumbled, voice groggy with sleep.
“It’s not even snowing. You’re not supposed to turn on the heater! Do you know how expensive this shit can be?”
“Nice to know you care more about your money than my life.” She replied and opened one eye. She pulled the thick blanket up to her chin as she looked up at him and the sight of her definitely didn’t make his heart skip a beat.
“Are you sick?” Bucky frowned. He might be immune to cold but he knew today’s weather was not even that cold. Sam and Clint were doing just fine with their sweaters, and Steve was even sporting a simple t-shirt when he met them for lunch earlier that day.
“No. I just hate the cold.”
“It’s not even that cold, [Y/N].” Bucky crouched down in front of her, hand automatically touching her forehead. “You don’t have a fever though…”
“Our kind likes warmth.”
“Your kind?” Bucky frowned. She was already drifting back to sleep, her speech slurring as she spoke.
“Yeah, werecat…”
It was how he finally discovered his roommate was a werecat and he didn’t know if he should kill Clint for not telling her, or laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
He thought the first option was better when he received the monthly electric bills.
.
He took few careful steps closer to the couch, as if afraid [Y/N] would sense him and call him from her new workplace, a quaint bookstore owned by the descendant of Bastet named T’challa. He was the most charismatic and terrifying and beautiful man Bucky has ever seen in his life, and he had been friends with the Steve Rogers since he was 5.
He shook his head a little, turning his attention back to the red book sitting on the couch. His hand slowly reached out to grab it, flipping it open to a random page.
“I shouldn’t be reading this.” He paused, gaze still fixed on the date at the top of the page. He was about to close the book and set it back on the couch when a little voice in him reminded him of last night’s fiasco.
“So…” [Y/N] awkwardly started out. They were enjoying take-outs during their off-day. A random animated movie was playing on the TV, one Bucky didn’t bother to know its title. He picked up the last piece of dumpling and turned to her, waiting for her to speak out.
“I was talking to Clint earlier…” oh this can’t be good. “I was asking him how to be your friend and he told me to ask you about Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid?”
Bucky choked on the dumpling, the food spluttering all over the floor. He kept coughing loudly before [Y/N] quickly offered him a glass of water. It took him a few moments to finally calm down and he wiped his mouth, grabbing the extra napkins to clean up the mess.
“Do you like the movies?” [Y/N] asked after a long beat of silence. “I mean, I guess you do, judging by how you decorate your apartment.”
“I- I–“ Bucky took a deep breath to calm his frustration. “The movies are fine. Clint is just being an asshole.”
[Y/N] nodded quietly, slurping some noodles before she turned to him again.
“Can we watch The Little Mermaid, then?”
“Maybe I should.” Bucky said to himself. “Just a little peek.” He convinced himself as he reopened the book.