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Tony is desperate to get out of his father’s house, to find somewhere he can finally do magic and spend his time inventing without anyone getting on his case, insisting that he choose.
If babysitting a cottage for the Witch's Council is what it takes than Tony is more than happy to do it, and who cares if there’s supposedly some kind of monster in the basement? It’s been sealed for decades, it’s not like he actually has to worry about it. All he has to do is not open the basement and not ask any questions, right? Easy.
The cottage has all the magical tomes he could ever want, and Tony even builds himself a second basement, a place to build all the robots and other crazy inventions he wants. It’s perfect.
Although it’s not long before he starts noticing strange things, like the fact that the garden is flourishing despite Tony forgetting about it more often than not. Like the fact that when he gets distracted and wanders away from a chess game he’s playing against himself, he sometimes comes back to find one of the pieces moved. Usually in an infuriatingly clever move.
It’s a bunch of little things that all start to add up, and Tony has to wonder if there is something going on in this house after all.
Spoiler; it’s Bucky. He’s a vampire. He lives in the basement
He actually broke the seal on the door a long time ago, but it’s not like he really has anywhere else to go. He comes out at night to work in the garden occasionally, but most of his time he spends in his basement, where he can’t hurt anyone. Where he can’t be forced to hurt anyone.
He doesn’t tend to spare much thought to whoever the Council brings in to ‘guard the wards’ on the basement beyond making sure they don’t notice all the seals have long since been broken. Whoever this new witch that moved in is though, he is terrible at keeping plants alive. It’s actually kind of nice for Bucoy to have something to do.
Any maybe once in a while he moves one of the chess pieces on the board in the living room. And maybe ‘once in a while’ becomes every night, maybe he finds himself a little curious about this new witch after all.
Bucky can tell that the witch is smart, has poured through almost every book in the library already and Bucky knows he’s not exactly up to date on modern electronics, but the things he finds scattered around the house recently seem truly sci-fi. It makes him curious.
Curiosity has always gotten him into trouble, but Bucky has never been very good at fighting it.
Tony knows that he’s supposed to be guarding the basement, keeping it locked up tight and not digging. But he's never been any good at 'not asking questions,’ and he can’t help wondering.
Is his mysterious chess partner some kind of ghost? Does it have anything to do with the seals on the basement, and the music Tony occasionally hears drifting up the stairs, or is there more than one something in the house with him?
And is it just Tony, or do those seals on the basement door feel so weak they might as well not exist?
He’s not supposed to ask questions, or go near the basement, but Tony also promised himself that he wouldn’t let anyone hold him back from learning everything he can, not anymore. And no one said anything about leaving notes for his mysterious chess partner.
It starts with a note left under the knight piece that Tony has just captured, and quickly spirals out of control from there.
Whatever it is in the house with him, they’re clever, and funny, and before he knows it Tony is writing entire letters to his mysterious new pen pal and finding what can only be called gifts around the house. Like breakfast warm and waiting for him when he stumbles up from his lab in the pre-dawn hours, like the exact book he’s been dying to read suddenly waiting for him on the coffee table.
Tony knows he’s not supposed to ask questions, but he can’t help wondering.
In the end, Bucky finally meets the witch, meets Tony, completely by accident.
He’s headed back to his own basement after spending maybe a little too long arranging Tony’s breakfast to form a smiley face on his plate, and they nearly run straight into each other in the hallway as Tony stumbles out of his room.
Bucky freezes, and Tony freezes, and they just stare at each other for a second. Tony blinks slowly, looking more tired than anything, his soft brown hair a mess, and he smells so alive. Like warm skin and coffee, metal and magic, and it’s so much more intense than the lingering scent that hangs around the small house, Bucky has to struggle not to get distracted just breathing it in.
Tony’s eyes move over to the basement stairs, to the useless wards hanging on the walls, and Bucky’s cold dead heart drops a little. They both know what Tony is supposed to do now, he’s supposed to alert the Council so they can come and lock Bucky away again. If he’s lucky, they might just decide they’re done dealing with him.
But Tony bites his lip, hesitating, and Bucky dares to let himself hope, just a little. Maybe Tony is different enough.
“Your breakfast is getting cold,” Bucky says stupidly, like that’s any kind of a bribe, and Tony jolts a little, gaze flashing back to Bucky again. His eyes are still wide, faintest hint of a blush rising in his cheeks.
He smells like heated metal and there’s a smear of oil on his forehead, dark and acrid, and Bucky has so many questions. Questions he’s been avoiding asking in the notes he leaves for Tony, because whatever reason Tony built himself a second basement has got to be a secret and Bucky doesn’t want to push his luck.
“Thanks,” Tony finally says, voice baffled and a little rough with sleeplessness. Bucky fights down the inane urge to spin on his heel and go make him tea.
He might be pretty sure Tony drinks too much coffee, but he should also wait and see what Tony is going to do first.
What Tony does is lick his lips, shifting on his feet and hesitating for a second before he asks “Um, do you want to play chess in person?”
Bucky smiles, small and relieved and excited, and he starts to turn back towards the living room before he pauses. “You didn’t mean right now,” he says, and it’s almost a relief to be dead because he’d probably be blushing otherwise.
Tony just shrugs, smiling back as he says “As long as you don’t mind me eating while I kick your ass.”
“Okay,” Bucky says quickly, eagerly. He ushers Tony past him out of the narrow hallway, and he can’t resist the curiosity anymore so he adds “But only if you tell me what you need a second basement for, it has been drivin’ me crazy.”
“Can you keep a secret?” Tony asks, and then laughs when Bucky raises a single eyebrow at him, fighting down a grin of his own.