Chapter 3
“I’ve isolated the Pym Particle!” AES yells in Bucky’s ear.
“The what?” he asks, frowning at him phone.
“The Pym Particle!” AES yells excitedly. Well, at least he wasn’t ninety or at least he didn’t sound like he was. “You know, the shrinky particle,” he adds when it becomes clear that Bucky was still clueless.
“Oh, okay I know what that is. Didn’t I give you a suit though? How did you find a particle in that?” Seemed like an odd place to find a particle but okay, who was he to judge? And he now knew AES had access to lab gear and equipment and quick given how fast he managed to find this… Pym Particle.
“It looks like Pym was trying to weaponize it but his attempts at engineering are childlike and offensive to the machinery. Anyways, thanks for releasing that little nugget. Pym is fiercely protective of the damn particle and he refuses to let people experiment with it. Ironically that was because he didn’t want anyone to weaponize it. hypocritical douche,” AES mumbles under his breath, drawing an eyebrow raise from Bucky.
“Hypocritical douche? Strong words considering he made an unusable suit,” he points out. He guessed that at least Scott and Luis managed to avoid the police though they didn’t seem impressed that Bucky managed to steal the suit they stole. But, being the world’s worst criminals, they didn’t retaliate.
“Ah, I know Pym a little too well. I went to school with his daughter; the guy is a real asshole. Trust me. And now I have the Pym Particle so he can eat shit. Anyways, so how’s your day been so far?” he asks.
“Decent. Got free ice cream from some old guy who said I looked like his late wife. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’m a man because he seemed sweet and he wanted to be nice,” Bucky says. He looked so happy too, so Bucky just smiled his thanks and walked away with his newly acquired treat. Sam had squinted hard at him, confused yet again on how these things always seemed to happen to him but it was hardly like Bucky had an explanation.
“Aww. That’s sweet. Once I was in Aspen and some old lady mistook me for her grandson so I spent the day with her because she seemed lonely. That was probably the only selfless thing I ever did at that age. I was a real ass for most of my life but hey, the old lady seemed to have a decent time,” AES says.
Bucky raises an eyebrow because that’s new. He didn’t tend to get information back but he wasn’t opposed to sharing. It seemed like a good time to learn random facts about his employer to figure out who he was. “I’m sure you weren’t that bad,” he says. Most teens were selfish anyways, Bucky certainly was. Then he grew up a little, got some experience, and moved on from his ‘its not a phase!’ phase. That was better than Steve’s weeaboo phase though. He was pleased to still have picture evidence to use against Steve if he ever needed to.
“Oh no, I was horrible. I was a total selfish prick and I honestly have no idea how I had friends. Well, friend. The rest stuck around because I’m rich and I throw good parties. Or I used to anyways.” Rich party boy then? That narrowed things down considerably and he wonders if he’s working for Justin Hammer. God, he hoped not. Except he hasn’t grown out of his annoying party phase.
“Aren’t we all annoying pricks as teens though? I mean I also only had one good friend, and I threw good parties. And that’s how I lost my arm,” he says, snickering when AES chokes on something.
“Jesus, that sounds terrible. Sorry,” he says, sounding genuine.
Bucky shrugs even though his employer couldn’t see it. “Nah its fine, it makes cuddling easier because I don’t have the awkward arm issue. Plus I didn’t technically lose my arm at the party, I got in a nasty car accident on the way home from the party and reached out to make sure Steve was okay right before we were hit.” Later he found out that the little bastard only had minor bruising and a scratch on his cheek, meanwhile Bucky lost an entire arm. He wouldn’t have lost it if he hadn’t reached for Steve too, which Steve told him was a sign he was too protective but Bucky wouldn’t have changed a thing. He was fine with only one arm, and sometimes he got to tell small children it fell off, which never failed to get interesting results.
AES remains quite for a few seconds too long but when Bucky opens his mouth to speak his boss decides to talk. “My parents died in a nasty car crash when I was a kid. You’d think that would have made me less selfish but I’m pretty sure I turned into an even bigger ass,” he says.
“Probably because you thought there was something to learn from the pain. There isn’t usually, sometimes things just suck. I did learn how to do a bunch of stuff with one arm though, so I guess that’s kind of cool,” he jokes, trying to lighten the mood a little. He at least draws a small laugh from his boss.
*
When Bucky makes it home he is more than a little surprised to find his apartment completely empty, which in hindsight wouldn’t have been shocking for the area. After a few minutes of shock though, he notices the small envelope on the ground and picks it up, half expecting it to be some note from Scott and Luis informing him that they stole all his shit but it isn’t.
You seriously live in this rat hole? Ew. Have a new apartment.
-AES
The paper gives off an address and a set of keys too. Given the location Bucky didn’t even want to know what rent must cost there but he guessed he was moving.
Bucky decides to set to work on figuring out who AES was on his way to his new apartment that he didn’t even need because this was ridiculous. He was getting paid to spend money and now he was getting gifts too? Come on. A quick email to his employer resulted in him learning that he didn’t have to pay rent either because he freaking bought the place. All his research found him was some shit on advanced encryption standard, auto engineering society, and American education services though. None of that was at all useful to him but he arrives at his stop to he resolved to check the rest of his information in the google highway later.
The apartment, once Bucky gets to it, is probably the nicest place he’s ever set foot in and he half wants to walk back out because he felt so out of place. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he takes it out numbly, staring at the freaking fireplace before pressing his phone to his ear. “Hello?” he asks, sounding dazed to himself.
“Do you like it?” AES asks enthusiastically.
“How much room did you think I needed? This place is fucking humungous and there’s a fireplace.” Why would he ever even need a fireplace? And what happened to his furniture? It was all replaced with admittedly better stuff but still.
“Well you said you had friends. I figured I’d account for them staying over sometimes. But do you like it?” he asks.
“I would if I didn’t feel like a dirty raccoon in a white peacock world,” Bucky says. “Seriously, the only way I’d ever even get near this place is if I was like the maid or I was robbing someone. I’m fairly certain the doorman assumed I was lost until I gave my name.” Then he got a snooty once over and was let into the building. That guy opened doors for rich people, as if he had the place to judge Bucky for looking like he just crawled out of a trashcan.
“Well I figured if you weren’t going to buy cool things for you I would. Go check out your bedroom,” AES says, enthusiasm holding while Bucky tried to figure out where the fuck his room was supposed to be. At some point he ended up on the wrong floor but eventually he makes it.
“Okay that ceiling is fucking cool,” Bucky says, eying the massive window his bed faced. And it was a new bed too, but it looked comfortable so that’s all that mattered.
‘Yeah? I liked it too, check out your closet,” AES tells him. Bucky moves towards what he thinks is the closet and finds a huge master bathroom- the fourth freaking bathroom he’s found- and looks around for another door. Finding it he walks over to the door and opens it to find a huge room that was probably larger than his last apartment filled with clothing he probably would have cried over if he saw the price tags.
“Holy shit,” he whispers to himself more than his employer.
“And that’s how you spend money,” AES says smugly.
Bucky sits down in the middle of his closet because he was in some sort of sensory overload at the moment and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. The shoes to his left probably cost more than his rent seven times over but they were nice at least. “I don’t know if I can spend that much money. I’m a poor egg,” he says honestly. And he had no idea how he could possibly keep up spending like this either. If he looked at the price of one of those lovely button down shirts alone he’d probably weep.
“It really isn’t that hard,” AES says but he was rich, what the fuck did he know? “There must be something you want that cost money,” he says after Bucky is silent for a beat too long.
“I just got everything I could have ever even dreamed of on a silver platter with thirty thousand dollars on top. I literally have no idea how to spend like I’m in your tax bracket. Ten dollars is a lot to me okay, this… this is like… I don’t even know how to handle this,” he says honestly.
“Ten dollars? What the hell could you even do with that?” AES asks and Bucky can hear the frown in his voice.
“A lot if you know how to do it right. I could teach you a thing or two about spending well. I just… why do you even do this? I mean you seem like an agreeable enough guy, and you’re clearly very generous. But you sound kind of lonely and this is a really weird job even for me and I once warmed beds in hotels. It was awesome.” Best job he ever had. He literally got paid to have a bunch of twenty-minute power naps and that was ideal.
AES remains silent for a long moment and Bucky gives him time. It was hardly like they knew each other all that well and honestly Bucky was a shit employee is this is the kind of spending he was expected to do. And here he thought buying all new furniture was a big expense. “Look, I grew up in a fucking shitty family. My father was an abusive piece of shit and my mom tried but there’s only so much you can do with that. Truth is I never really did learn how to connect with people and they always seem to want my money anyways and I get it. So I guess this is my way of trying to… to take care of someone without having to worry that they want my money because they have it,” he admits somewhat quietly.
That was one of the saddest things Bucky has ever heard. “Shit, I didn’t expect to unlock your tragic backstory,” he says and AES snorts and starts laughing. “This doesn’t exactly seem like a good way to connect with people though. I don’t even know your name unless it’s advanced encryption standard,” he says. This gets another sharp laugh and Bucky laughs softly too. Imagine if that was this sorry bastard’s name, that would be awful and this was coming from a guy named James Buchanan. His nickname wasn’t much better either.
“It isn’t and I know it. You’re the only one I’ve ever even had an honest conversation with,” AES says. Bucky was tempted to call him Advance Encryption but AES was shorter. Actually Ace was a suitable nickname and saved letter enunciation time.
“Like in general or…” Bucky really hoped it wasn’t in general.
“Oh god no, I have friends. Like three but they count. I mean I pay two of them but I like to think they’d stick around without pay. And I don’t think I could shake Rhodey if I tried- actually I have tried but he never seems to go. I mean out of my employees. The ones that do your job, not the other two friends I was talking about…” That sounded like a pretty lonely life to Bucky but he’s been poor enough to know he’d rather be lonely than a hair away from starvation. It would suck, but significantly less than waiting for death. He could always pay fake friends and pretend like he wasn’t that lonely. Some might even like him enough to accept him but there was nothing he could do about starving without money. The rest of his employer’s life… well, no amount of money made abuse easier and Bucky hoped that father of his got what was coming to him.
“That’s awful. For the record I think you sound like you’d be pretty awesome to be around,” he sys honestly.
Ace snorts, “yeah, only until I do something stupid. I have a bad self destruction habit when people get too close. Makes me panic.”
Oddly enough Bucky understood that. “You aren’t the only one. That car crash fucked me up pretty good. The therapist my mom finally managed to pay for said I had PTSD and I had one hell of a time doing much of anything after that. I lost a lot of friends because I was hardly the fun loving outgoing guy I used to be. But being reminded of my own mortality kind of messed with my head and that huge friend loss hasn’t made me very trusting. Most of the time I assume all my friends secretly hate me and they just keep me around for like… I don’t know, some sort of sick source of entertainment or something.” It wasn’t something he’s ever mentioned to Steve because he didn’t want the stupid ‘of course that’s not true!’ spiel. It would just make him feel worse to see Steve’s fierce defense of their friendship because then he’d be bothering Steve and his over enthusiasm was sometimes a bit much. So he kept it to himself and secretly liked Sam for being up front about not liking him. He knew where Sam really stood.
“Okay, not to like… shit on what you just told me but you got free ice cream from some old man who thought you looked like his dead wife this morning. You’re absolutely the most entertaining person I have ever met and I technically haven’t even met you. Last week you stole a suit from a couple of guys who stole a suit from Hank Pym and now I have the Pym Particle. If I wasn’t talking to you right now I’d think you were fake,” Ace says, drawing a laugh out of Bucky.
“You bought me a million dollar penthouse, if you weren’t talking to me I’d think you were fake too,” Bucky says.
“Actually it was fifty seven million but sure, million dollar penthouse,” AES says casually, like that was a normal thing to say ever. Bucky chokes on air and starts coughing, shocked and a little appalled at the price of his new house. “Calm down, you deserve nice things so I bought you some nice things. It’s no big deal.”
“It is when you’re me!” he squeaks out.