The Stark Who Didn't like Musicals
A/N
I would like to point out ahead of time, this is based off the wonderful musical, called The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. Produced by Starkid, you can find it for free online. I highly suggest it. Since this is based off musicals there are times where the songs will be put in the dialogue (If it's in italics and bold, like this) If I decide that the song is too long, I'll just post a link to the recorded version of the song. Since this is a marvel AU, certain characters from the musical, the barista, is changed into a boy in the au, for plot purposes. Now that that's out of the way. Enjoy!
-JJ
"Did you hear the word?"
"What's the word?"
"He's a-coming."
"Who's a-coming?"
"Stark's a-coming."
"Stark's a-coming?"
"The Star Of The Show."
Tony straightened his tie as he looked into the smear covered mirror, only half listening to the radio which played on low volume behind him.
He turned his head away from the mirror due to the familiar sound of the news anchors' voices.
"In other news, Peanuts the squirrel, had managed to make a miraculous recovery, and his owner from Turney's Track Equipment, has started a GoFundMe to- and get this Don, A squirrel house for him."
Tony let a small grin escape onto his face, "Aw Peanuts!" He took a quick glance in the mirror, and winked at his reflection before heading out of the door.
"-And that's all for Hatchet-Fields local news, I'm Dana-"
"And I'm Don!"
As he was typing on his company courtesy computer, he heard his co-worker Sharon pick up the phone, and slowed down his speed to overhear. What? He couldn't help it.
"Steve? Oh! hello sweetie, how's the precinct doing?" He could see Sharon's shoulders slump with whatever her husband had said.
"I'm sorry to hear that." She stopped for a few moments making a few affirmative noises before her back straightened.
"Well, how late?" Whatever He said, it did not make her happy. "But sweetheart!-" She lowered the phone and spoke quietly into the phone
"-Tonight's cuddle night." She sighed before she spoke again, a petulant tone to her voice, "But that's what you said last month, and we missed last month!" She paused for a moment.
"And the month before that."
Tony saw her face drop, before she plastered a fake smile on, "Alright, maybe tomorrow night?" An optimistic note in her voice emerged, which calmed Tony's mind.
According to the phone calls he had heard over the past week, Steve was an asshole, and Sharon had been blown off every night.
"Right, right we should stick to the schedule. Next month then."
She had a small bittersweet smile on her face, Tony noticed.
"Alright baby, just remember to be safe because I love-" She stopped.
"Steve?"
Oh. that bastard hung up on her.
"-You."' She finished half heartedly to herself before sitting back down.
Understanding this really wasn't Tony's business, he sat back down, because without realizing he had stood and pressed his ear to the cubicle wall to hear better., and began typing once more.
"Hey, Tony?" Rhodey's head peeked from above the cubicle walls, which was no easy feat, considering the walls were no shorter than about five feet, up to Tony's neck.
"Yeah?" Tony called back, while typing onto his computer at a relentless speed.
"I tried to print something, and I think it might've gone to your printer, can you check for me?"
Tony furrowed his eyebrows, and lowered his hands to the right side of his chair to the tray of his printer, to feel three or four sheets of paper.
"Yep, here you go." Tony smiled a toothy, yet unenthusiastic grin as he handed the papers over.
Rhodey smiled and reached out to take them. "Thanks man!"
Upon further inspection, the papers appeared to be… Some type of ticket, Airplane maybe? Before he could question him, Rhodey had already begun to answer.
"I'm getting my daughter Alice this weekend, her mother took her to NY for a week, and they saw-" He put on a mocking face for emphasis, "-Hamilton!" Tony could see Rhodey was upset, and attempted to think of ways to reassure him.
Ever since Rhodey had divorced with his wife, Catherine,a few years ago, they had both been fighting for their daughter's affection. They were high school sweethearts, and were more alike than anyone could have known, and that was the downfall to their relationship too.
Tony reached out and patted Rhodey's shoulder, "Hey, it's alright man, Alice loves yo-"
Rhodey cut him off before he could finish his sentence, Rude.
"I know it's alright!" He waved the tickets in the air excitedly for emphasis. "That's why I got these!"
He spoke through his smile, "Official tour tickets at Hatchet-Fields very own, Starlight theater! For Mamma Mia!"
His gaze turned towards Tony with a look of inspiration, "Hey, maybe you could come with us! Alice loves you! Remember when you used to babysit her all the time? She thought you were so cool, maybe you could talk me up a bit, about how her old man is cool too!"
Tony looked at Rhodey for a moment, before replying, "Um, No."
Rhodey's face dropped instantly, "Oh you have plans already?"
Tony shook his head, "No."
Rhodey's look was filled with confusion, and a bit of hurt. "So you would rather do nothing than Mamma Mia with my daughter and I?"
Tony face grimaced, "Rhodey, I'd rather do anything than watch Mamma Mia. I hate musicals, the idea of being trapped, watching people sing and dance out their problems for hours is like a personal hell for me."
Rhodey's face hadn't changed. "Oh. Okay then." He sunk back into the confines of his cubicle without another word.
Tony couldn't help it, he felt a little sympathy for the guy, but there was no way in hell he was sitting through two hours of song.
"Hey, I'm going to make a stop at Beanies. I'll get you something on the house, what do you want?" He patted Rhodey on the shoulder and smiled at him.
"I just want my daughter to love me."
"How 'bout a caramel frap? Nothing better!" Tony smiled a little awkwardly before heading towards the direction of his office elevator.
Right before he was stopped by Clint.
He and his co-workers were sure that he climbed through the air vents or something, since none of them have ever seen him actually walk around the office.
Tony through a tense smile on his face before he turned towards Clint.
"Hi Clint."
"Hello Tony."
Tony froze, unsure of whether that was all to the conversation.
"Where are you going Tony." It was confusing how Clint's questions always turned out to sound more like statements than, well, questions.
"Uh, Beenies, Do you want to come?"
Clint replied without hesitation, "No, no, I wouldn't want to show you up."
Tony stood, confused. "What do you mean? Show me up?"
"I know why you don't just go to the Starbucks across the street every day."
Tony scoffed, " I just don't like giving money to Corporate Companies. That's all."
"Yeah." Clint smiled, "- What about the uh, Latte Hot-te?" He formed his fingers into ok symbols and smirked knowingly at him.
"Bye Clint." And Tony took off running.
"Aye get me a chai iced tea will ya?"
"Tony?"
"Ugh, fine."
"Hi, how can I help you today?" Bucky gave a practiced smile to the customer on the other side of the counter while drying a few leftover dishes that his coworker rumlow left out.
"Yeah can I get a large iced caramel latte, no drizzle with foam on top, and a medium chai latte with three pumps hazelnut and two pumps vanilla?"
Going over the order in his head Bucky nodded, "No problem, coming right up. That'll be $5.50" He began to walk over to the various machines to get started on the drinks.
"Jesus Fine." He stressed the last syllable before chuckling. "Hey, I tipped you."
Bucky narrowed his eyes out of the customers' sight, "Thank you, than."
Out of his peripheral he could see the man frown. "That means you owe me a song. That's what the sign says."
No matter how hard he wished, when Bucky turned to look at the jar, the blasted white board was still there. In loopy black and pink writing it read Tip For Song.
Bucky gave a tense smile at the customer. "Yeah, the boss headed out to Cold Stone Creamery. Hence the whole singing and dancing thing. But you know, there's a line, and we're kind of busy so.." He let the words trail off in hopes for the man to drop it.
The customer propped an arm on the counter, "C'mon sing."
Guess dropping it is out of the question.
"Well did you tip to be nice or to be an asshole?" Looking back on it, that's probably not the best thing to say to a paying customer but, it's only %5.50 anyway.
The man looked justifiably angry, although Bucky would never say that out loud. "Fine, I'll take it back than!"
Bucky drew a fake pout and snarked back at the man, "Oh no! What am I gonna do without that one dollar."
At this point Bucky was surprised the man didn't have steam pouring from his ears. "You know what, I'm never coming here again! That signs bullshit."
"Ohmigosh so me-an." Bucky held the last word for a bit longer before flipping the ex-customer off. There aren't any policies for people who aren't paying.
Sighing, Bucky turned to the sink full of dirty mugs and got to work.
"What the hell was that?" Oh shit.
Bucky's boss, Brock Rumlow emerged from the staff room. Immediately, Bucky began to defend himself.
"That guy was being a dick! Just because I wouldn't sing some stupid song!"
Apparently, based off Rumlow's pissed off look, the defending didn't do anything.
In one last desperate plea he attempted to reason with him, Bucky kept speaking, "Can't Loki just do the singing? This is a stupid idea anyway!" Bucky's tone slowly became more agitated the longer he spoke, turning into a near shout by the end of his sentence.
Loki confidently strided out of the break room and into the conversation. "I think it's a great idea Brock." Rumlow smirked and thanked him silently.
"Why aren't you working?" Bucky pointedly glared at Loki, raising his hands to show the rag he held.
Loki smiled "I'm on vocal rest."
"What?"
"I said I'm on-" He stopped, in realization that he spoke t loud during his "resting period."
"GOd damnit Bucky now I have to make a tea with honey!" He rushed back into the room he had only recently come out, the doors slamming with a resounding echo.
Rumlow and Bucky turned their gazes from the doors back to each other. "Well if you don't like singing you must mean you don't like your job."
Bucky scoffed and went back to work, covering his hands with soapy blue bubbles.
Brock continued on, "You know what just don't bother showing up to your next shift."
Is he kidding? Bucky was panicking internally, but it must have showed on the outside a little bit since Brock was smirking victoriously at his face.
"No! no , no, no, no!" Bucky sighed, "I will, do the singing."
He smiled, a little too many teeth showing to be friendly. "You're damn right you will, now move your ass, you've got a line." He gave a sharp glare before he turned to go follow out after Loki. Those two are so fucking.
Giving one last groan he turned back to the counter, and was… slightly in awe.
The man was, confident to say the last. He walked with the pride of someone born to stand above others, which would be more unnerving if he weren't so… short. His dress pants were clearly hemmed for a shorter man, and his blazer hung over his shoulders, two or three sizes big.
He grinned and looked at Bucky, clasping his hands behind his back.
"I've got an easy one for you, just a large black coffee." He smiled seemingly proud for giving her such an easy order.
Thank god his voice didn't crack when he spoke.
Tony smiled at the employee before he turned around, Little did "Bucky" know, Tony had been watching him for the past few weeks.
That came out creepier than he intended.
What Tony means, is that Bucky is hot. Not to mention, has a very impressive sense of humour based on how he handled the rude customer. He took back his tip just because Bucky wouldn't sing. Speaking of tips…
Tony looked at the sad, nearly empty jar. A few bucks could help, right? He dropped a crumpled five dollar bill into the jar. Bucky however, saw this and scoffed, before turning with his arms crossed.
"Really? Fine."
Bucky took a deep breath before making some exaggerated movements, reflecting a kettle.
"I've been brewing up your coffe-"
"Oh! No, no, no! You don't have to do that!" Tony rushed to explain, Jesus Bucky must think he's an asshole.
Bucky, hands still raised in the air, looked suspiciously on at Tony, eyebrows furrowed.
"You...don't want me to sing?" His hands slowly lowering, almost dejectedly at his sides.
At this point Tony's eyes were blown wide, Why could he never say he right things!
"Well I mean you could if you wanted! I jus- I just tipped because… because people should tip." Wow, be more awkward Tony. He mentally face palmed before looking lamely up at Bucky a dopey grin on his face.
Bucky looked increasingly shocked the more Tony had spoke, "Thanks, for you know… not being an asshole. Well maybe you are, how much did you tip?"
He reached his smooth, smooth hands into the jar. His eyebrows shoot up, "Five dollars? Wow."
He glanced around before looking back to Tony, "You left this for me right? Not for those other guys?"
Tony instantly agreed, "Yeah, I don't give a shit about those guys." Bucky smiled at him, and holy shit Bucky has an amazing smile.
Bucky busied himself with the coffee press before turning back t Tony, "I've seen you in here quite a lot haven't I?"
Tony grinned, maybe he did have a chance. "Yeah, my name is Tony, I uh… noticed the, um, scuffle you got in with your co-workers."
He saw Bucky smirking before He had even fully turned, "Scuffle? Yeah I guess you could say that, it's just-" He paused and narrowed his eyes searching for the right words, "-I'm so fed up of Loki, and all his little theatre friends. They won't stop talking about this production of 'Godspell' they did last summer.
Tony perked up, "At the rec centre? I think I had to see that, it was horrible. Godspell, more like God Awful.
Bucky laughed, loud and open, before replying "Yeha! Or like God damn that was bad!" They both laughed, and God that was just what Tony needed.
He sobered up from the 'happy high' before speaking, "Yeah, musicals just… aren't my thing. I feel trapped you know?"
Bucky nodded as if taking it into consideration, before smiling and handing Tony a coffee cup. "I think I do get it. Anyway, one large black coffee. Thanks for cheering me up, I needed it."
Tony winked before taking his cup and walking out of the door, but not before hollering a 'see you next time'. He stepped out side of Beanies, before furrowing his eyebrows.
Shit. He forgot Rhodey's coffee.
Eh. Fuck Rhodey.