Radioactive | Bucky Barnes

IRON MAN: CHAPTER SEVEN

Six Months Later

There have been many times in Rhiley's life when she would rethink her choices. Right now? She was tired and getting screamed at by her sixteen-year-old manager, in her barista uniform, with coffee-stained pants, and aching muscles. 

An old man had shouted at her merely twenty minutes ago for getting his order wrong and she would have strangled him if it wasn't for the fact that she needed rent money. "You need to take this job more seriously, okay? Jones?"

Rhiley hated that last name. Why did she keep it? Perhaps it's because that's the last name S.H.I.E.L.D. had rebranded her with. "Yes, ma'am." Rhiley couldn't just punch a sixteen-year-old. So she'd go for the low blow and call the kid 'ma'am'. 

The teenager's face turned red, "Don't mess up again." She pointed towards the cafe, "Go bust the tables."  

Rhiley doesn't question this demand. Instead, she rolled her eyes. She'd do exactly what she was told until a familiar voice brought back all the trauma she had shoved into the very back of her subconscious." "Someone got chewed out." and she dropped and shattered all the things she was holding.

And that's how Tony Stark got Rhiley fired from a simple barista job.

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After what had happened last week with Tony Stark, Rhiley prayed she would never see him again and like many Starks, her prayers were not answered and she found herself opening her apartment door to the one and only Tony Stark.

"What are you doing here?"

"Not the greeting I was expecting."

"I don't know what else you would be expecting." Rhiley retorted, "How did you find me?"

"I'm Tony Stark."

"Yeah," Rhiley responds, "I know - what are you doing here?"

"I felt bad." Tony invites himself in, "Cute place - I feel like I'm a bit at fault for getting you fired."

"A little bit, yeah."

Tony points at her, "I did get your job back until you threw a plate at a sixteen-year-old."

"She dodged."

"Then called the police on you." Tony added, "Luckily I was there to bail you out."

"It was a rough day."

"I like your spunk, how old are you?"

"Older than you."

Tony laughed, "I want to hire you."

"That's disgusting."

"Not like that, you're not my type." Tony waved that off, and Rhiley was relieved.

"I thought anything that breathed was your type?"

Tony smirked, "I need an assistant."

"No."

"It pays well."

"Still a no."

"You have a cat?" Tony points out, they both look towards the black cat staring at them from the couch, "You need to get out." He points at her sweatpants, "I'm offering you a job, take it. It looks like you need a purpose, you have a little something-" he points at the chocolate stain on her face.

Rhiley scrubs it off, "Why would I want my purpose to be working for you?"

"I'm assuming you don't have other job offers rolling in? You didn't go to college."

"And how do you know that?" She felt her chest clench up. He had done a background check, meaning S.H.I.E.L.D better have done a good job with her information. "Never mind." Tony smiled when he saw she had caught on.

"So?"

Rhiley pierced her lips, she needed a job, she had bills but she also couldn't wrap her head around working for Tony - he reminded her so much of Howard, but perhaps, that's exactly what she needed. He was part of Howard in a way.

"Fine."

She was gonna regret that decision but like most decisions, she usually did regret them and just lied to herself about not regretting them. That was the life of a Stark, after all.

And Rhiley Lucia Stark would soon find herself in a cave in the middle of fucking nowhere.