Same anon as before about why Bucky doesn’t just ask Steve. Ok ik this is your au and I’m v sorry for hijacking it but in my mind Steve’s not a starving artist? In fact, the government’s compensated him pretty well He’s just a no frills guy when it comes to himself and bc Steve is Steve he has completely reasonable explanations for the things that make Bucky think he’s a starving artist. Like some of the stuff you mentioned in your post
oh no no, Steve’s definitely NOT a starving artist! It’s only due to a series of misunderstandings and wrong assumptions that Bucky ends up thinking he is, at least initially, like with the stuff from my post. Later on he probably figures he just has to work for a living like any normal person, only his work is particularly stressful (which it obviously is, to a degree Bucky wasn’t even contemplating lmao)