#upper management steve

Title: Bite Your Tongue

Authors: Avaaricious ( @fannishflightsoffancy)

Rating: Teen

Author Tags: Alternate Universe, Tumblr Prompt, First Meetings, The opposite of meet-cute, Bucky swears a lot, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Dates, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Alternate Universe - Retail, Dating

Our Tags: Stucky AU, Modern AU, Retail AU, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Upper Management Steve, Beefy Steve, Retail Worker Bucky, Awkward Bucky, Embarrassed Bucky, Awkward Meetings, Humor, Fluff, the wonderful world of retail,

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16796848

Author Summary:

AKA the "I work at a department store and if you take out and unfold a shirt and then leave it one more time I'm going to stuff it down your throat" AU

Series: Meet-Ugly (Part 2)

Review:

Okay, not gonna lie, part of the reason I loved this fic (beyond the obvious amazing-ness of the characterizations, premise, and supremely funny moments) is that I feel weirdly proud of knowing a smidge of information about retail.

I’ve never yet worked retail or in the upper level like Steve and Bucky, but I do work in the finance department for a company that has retail stores. So while handling the expense reports, things like the titles and the work that Bucky and Steve do in this fic are stuff that I actually see from time to time. (I would like to think that Bucky and Steve would be considerate and always expense on time *with* receipts even…but I digress)

I am completely in love with the various ways that Steve and Bucky end up in ‘want to dig a hole and get buried alive’ level embarrassing situations. Bucky just does not have any luck and while I feel bad about laughing at his misery, I don’t feel too bad since he does eventually end up with a pretty sweet deal (which just happens to include a large blonde gentleman). I think my favorite situation is the interview scene.

Another awesome aspect of this fic is the small bit of schadenfreude in regards to how eventually Bucky’s former employer (and his shitty manager) get what’s coming to them for how they treated him. I mean, who doesn’t love a good fic like that? Because we’ve all had that manager/employer that we think “I can’t wait to watch you fail without me here”.