Pushing Daisies [BUCKY BARNES]

4

It was late in the day when I finally started to find signs of life. I was quick to scale the buildings floors, finally hitting the main kitchen and living area at around 2, and again almost puking at the sight. How many people lived here in order to make such a mess?

Clothes were strewn everywhere, dishes were piled as high as the eye could see, empty bottles of alcohol lay about, and all in all it was just disastrous. Sighing at this too, as I seemed to be doing on every floor, I set to work.

I threw all the clothes into a basket that I had brought along with me, and lined the shoes up by the elevator with a sticky note posted above to inform whoever was living here that they had to clean up their shoes themselves. Next was the countless bottles that I had to use two trash-bags to get rid of, and then I almost cried at the rug.

Yeah sure there were stains. Food stains, dirt, and what looked a lot like grape kool-aid, but what made me want to yell was the blood stains. I had been living under a rock for the past year, but not far enough that I hadn't heard about the destruction of Stark towers during the alien attack a few months ago. I had just assumed that Mr. Stark would have had someone in here to clean since then. I guess I was the first.

I sighed, thoroughly remembering the incident with my good friend Wade and his Tide stain sticks. What had he said? Lemon for blood? Or just wear red. Staring at the carpet, I wished Mr. Stark liked red more then he liked white.

"JARVIS?"

"Yes, Wes?"

I looked upwards, almost as if I would be able to see the automated voice. "Do we have any lemon juice?"

"I'm afraid not. Would you like me to order some?"

Biting my lip, I pondered. Would Mr. Stark be more angry at me for ordering lemon juice to clean his carpets, or more angry at me if I didn't clean them? "Sure, Jarvis. Order me a gallon of lemon juice. From the way this place looks, I'm gonna need it."

"Very well, Wes."

I smiled at the automatic voice, knowing that I might just find a friend in the British AI. "JARVIS, can you search youtube for Julianne Quill's playlists, Volumes 1 and 2?"

When Hooked on A Feeling started playing, I almost screamed in joy. I needed a little bit of Julianne with me on my first day.

Turning to tackle the kitchen, I was quick to fall into my habit of singing along with the playlists of Julianne's tapes. "When you hold me, in your arms so tight you let me know everything's alright.." I grabbed a spoon out of the sink, turning and sliding along the floor in my socks, having left my shoes back in the laundry room. "I'M~ HOOKED ON A FEELING!"

Spinning back to the sink, I started the warm water, grabbed the dish detergent, and started scrubbing. It was quick work, the only issue coming in finding where everything went, but JARVIS helped me along for that part.

When I finally finished the stack, I had gone through all of Volume 1, and halfway through Volume 2. I sighed again, taking a mental note of how often I had sighed today. This job was more exasperating then anything else. Who knew how many people lived in this tower, but they sure as hell knew how to make a mess.

"Wow, I didn't think that sink had a bottom anymore."

I screamed, spinning around and decking the person behind me in the face, reaching to my left to grab the frying pan I had been about to put away, raising it over my head. The man from the gym was laying on the floor behind me, his hand over his eye.

"Oh god." I shrieked, rushing to the freezer to grab one of the ice packs I had seen in there, and rushing back to gently apply it to his swelling right eye. "I am so sorry I swear I didn't mean it."