"Keep going. You're doing great." He encourages. Bucky smiles back and nods. Bucky takes an order to a couple then returns to the kitchen. He grabs the desserts for Stark's table off the counter and makes his way back to their table. He hands out the desserts and then makes sure they don't need anything else. Eventually all the other customers leave and it's only Stark's group left. Bucky makes his way to their table to check on them. He picks up their dirty dishes.
"Would you like me to bring you the check?" He asks, carefully balancing the tray that had all the dishes.
"Yes please." Tony nods.
"Alright." Bucky smiles and nods he makes his way down the stairs and halfway to the kitchen when Ward finally shows up. "You know I'm going to report you." Bucky tells him simply, coming to a stop.
"You do that and I'll make your life miserable." Ward threatens. Bucky laughs slightly.
"Yeah well, you already do that." He states and begins to walk away. Ward sticks out his foot and trips him, the dishes shatter loudly. Bucky gets up to his knees slowly and stares at the mess. He stands up, swallowing he begins to scoop up the larger pieces, trying to figure out how much he'd have to pay to replace all these dishes. He swallows when he finally comes up with the total. Bucky swallows again and trashes the pieces he'd picked up, then grabs the broom. There was another cut on his hand, great. He sweeps up the shattered glass and nearly cries thinking about how he was going to pay for all the broken dishes and pay the rent. He swallows thickly and dumps the glass into the trash. He catches Phil looking at him from the kitchen. He offers him a small smile that didn't feel real. He sees Ward walk out the front door and swallows back a scream of frustration. He puts the broom and dust pan away and when he turns back Steve is there.
"Are you okay? You look pretty tired." He says softly. Bucky nods and puts on a smile.
"Yeah I'll be fine. Rough night, that's all." He shrugs and Steve nods understandingly.
"We're ready to get out of your hair..." Tony trails off. "Sorry but I don't know your name." Tony frowns, looking for a name tag.
"Oh. It's uh... Jam- Bucky. It's Bucky." He answers and Tony nods.
"I hope I tipped enough Bucky." Tony says. "Have a goodnight."
"You too." Bucky replies and Tony smiles. His group leaves and Bucky is left standing there. He goes back to their table and cleans it up and grabs his generous tip, thanking Tony mentally. He sighs and leaves the tip and his check in an envelope with a note explaining that he was paying him back for the broken dishes, including Thor's broken glass. He also wrote a note that he would give up his next two paychecks to completely pay it off. He wasn't sure what he was going to do about food, rent, and all his other bills but he figured he could pick up another job somewhere else. He had just begun sweeping when Phil laid a hand on his arm.
"Go home James. I can take care of this." He says, Bucky smiles tiredly.
"Everyone else go home already?" Bucky asks and Phil nods.
"Yeah." He replies. Bucky nods this time.
"Yeah. Sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow." Bucky says and Phil smiles. Bucky walks home to find a note plastered to his door saying rent had been doubled. He smacks his head against the door, because of course it would be doubled right when he's making nothing. Of course. He unlocks the door and shoves it open. He shuts it and then locks it. He tugs off his beaten up converses then makes his way to the bathroom. He tugs off his fancy white dress shirt and his fancy black dress pants and changes into a pair of comfy pajama bottoms. He drops onto the couch and flicks on the TV. He watches storage wars reruns for hours until he falls asleep.
Waiter
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