(Stony, non-established, College AU, art student!Steve, Genius!Tony, pre-established. Over 4k so under a cut or you can also read it on AO3!)
Steve stared at his computer, silently begging the machine to turn on as he pressed the power button.
Had it crashed any other night, he would have gone to bed and taken his computer to the nearest repair shop in the morning but of course, he had an art project due in the morning. And not just any project. His final project, which, now that Steve thought about it, was probably gone too. A pained whine escaped him at the thought and he dropped his head on the table, fingers gripping at his hair in despair.
“Hey, everything okay?” Steve startled, his head jerking up to look up at Bucky standing in the doorway. “Is it your project? You should take a break, maybe even a nap.”
Shaking his head, Steve sat up and gestured at the unresponsive computer with a forlorn expression. “My computer is dead.”
“Oh shit. Have you tried-“
“I tried everything!” Steve cried out, throwing his hands up in frustration and anger, his eyes once again wet with tears. “I used your computer to look up solutions and nothing is working, nothing! I was almost done, Bucky. I just had to check a few details and-and now-“
Steve had to stop there before his voice broke. He’d thought he had already cried his heart out earlier when the computer had crashed but clearly there were more tears where they came from.
“Well, you saved your project in your external hard drive as usual, right? Just use my computer to finish it,” Bucky offered as he walked up to pat him on the back, a sympathetic expression on his face.
“That’s the thing, Bucky, I didn’t.” Steve wiped away the angry tears escaping his eyes in spite of himself. “I was about to but it broke right before I connected the damn thing and now I only have an old version because I completely forgot to copy it on my driver regularly like an idiot.”
There was a long pause while they both stared at his computer, Steve in despair and Bucky in sympathy.
Steve sighed, shoulders slumping down in defeat. There was no way he would be able to finish his project in time and he was pretty sure his computer was completely dead, which meant he would have to pick up extra shifts at the coffee shop to afford a new one. Until then, he would probably have to borrow Bucky’s computer or go down to the studio to use the university’s computers…
“Oh, I know!” Bucky shouted with a snap of his fingers, nearly making Steve topple off his chair in surprise. “Nat has a friend who’s very good with computer and stuff, he fixed her phone the other day after it fell in the toilet. Maybe he can help.”
“It’s two in the morning, Buck,” Steve protested tiredly, refusing to let himself hope. “He’s probably asleep or out partying and besides, why would he want to help me?”
“Eh, it’s extra money,” Bucky shrugged with a grin, already picking up the battered computer and shoving it in Steve’s bag. “Any student with half-a-brain would accept some extra cash, and come on, he’s a student. He’s awake.”
Steve opened his mouth to protest some more, pretty sure there was nothing to be done at his point, but Bucky hauled him up on his feet without letting him say another word and dragged him to his car.
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