Work Text:
It took Bucky over a year. A year spent alone, on the run, hiding. Mostly from HYDRA that was hot on his tail as soon as it recovered from the blow Project Insight delivered to it. The last thing he wanted was to end up in their hands again. At the same time, he was evading the Avengers as well. Or rather just Steve and his…wing man. They were almost as set on finding him as HYDRA and he was just not ready to be found by either.
He was hoping Steve would get the message eventually, but then Bucky started remembering his days before HYDRA and realized there’s no force in the universe capable of getting that message through Steve’s thick skull. That stubborn punk wouldn’t stop looking for him, so he just had to keep on running.
He needed to be sure.
Before even thinking about coming out of hiding, he needed to know it’s safe. Not for himself, but safe for everyone else. He’s had enough of murder and blood spilled in the name of HYDRA. So he suffered through his solitude to make sure the Winter Soldier would never hurt anyone ever again. Perhaps with the exception of HYDRA.
With no Handlers and punishments and cryo chambers, it was surprisingly easy to gain control over his inner assassin. Without orders, the Winter Soldier was…lost whenever he surfaced. And Bucky was more than happy to give him brand new orders that had nothing to do with spying, blackmailing or killing.
And the Soldier obeyed.
So well over a year after Project Insight crippled HYDRA and SHIELD both, Bucky found himself standing at the entrance to the Avengers Compound. He was ready. To face the past and the future. And when Steve all but burst out crying at the sight of him and almost squished him to death in a firm hug, he was sure things would be better now. That all would be good.
He should have known better than that.
“Beef schnitzel?! Beef?! Are you insane?! Get the hell out of the kitchen, Birdbrain!” Tony berates the archer and moves the gigantic pieces of beef back into the fridge, taking out the pork instead.
“What? It’s really good!”
“It’s really barbaric, is what you meant. Snowflake, come on over. I could use some knife-work here,” he winks at Bucky, doing a fancy flip with the kitchen knife and offering it to him.
Bucky scoffs at the ridiculous nickname but moves in to grab it. He would make short work of those schnitzels.
“I’ll do it,” Natasha sneaks past him to steal the knife.
He comes to a halt, hand falling down and swinging limply by his hip. It’s not like he didn’t see this coming.
The Avengers don’t let him do much – especially if a sharp object is included. He noticed their subtle interventions last week during training, where Steve made sure he couldn’t really attack anyone but him. Then during movie night, they skipped through two movies just because someone spoke Russian in them, which earned him some serious, suspicious stares until the end of that animated movie about dragons they picked instead.
But the worst came on the weekend, when he moved to Tony’s lab to get his metal hand refitted – a decision he’s made after many a sleepless nights with the Soldier constantly on edge because maintenance never meant anything good with HYDRA. Tony was not HYDRA and Bucky wanted the Soldier to realize that and calm the hell down. Trusting Tony to be there while he’s having a series of internal panic attacks was one thing – he’s carefully built that trust over the past few weeks – but having the entire team there was another story.
He could stomach Steve and his worried frown, he could even tolerate Vision and his undying curiosity – the two of them he trusts on some level. The rest, he most definitely doesn’t at all.
So he made it all the way to the stool in front of the engineer before he spotted one Wanda Maximoff lurking behind the machinery and made a run for the exit. He was ready for a lot, but not for that.
And it only got worse from there.
So he can’t train with them, he can’t watch John Wick with them, he can’t be left alone for his arm maintenance with Tony, he can’t approach anybody without them flinching away, can’t stay silent for too long without them thinking he’s snapped into the Soldier and now, he apparently can’t chop a few pounds of pork to bits and then pound them into submission. What can he do?! They treat him like a child, only Bucky knows it’s worse than that in reality.
They treat him this way because they don’t trust him. Understandable, to a certain point.
It’s not like he’s ever done anything to make them constantly doubt him like this, to not even give him a chance to prove to them that he’s not a threat, that he can be trusted with more than a spork without going on a murder spree (not that he couldn’t kill someone with a spork), that he can be a useful addition to the team on missions, that he can be trusted to have their backs.
He’s still got issues but they don’t impair his abilities or decision making. And at the end of the day, who doesn’t have issues in this compound?! Bucky could scream at times like these. Let it out, be angry for a change and at least give them a reason to tiptoe around him the way they do. It hurts, knowing they see him as a threat instead of a teammate or friend. It hurts to know nobody wants to give him a chance to prove himself. And it all but kills him to know that between him and Wanda, he’s the one they don’t trust. Few months ago, she’s been willingly hailing HYDRA and now she’s a trusted member of the Avengers.
He wishes he could turn into the Winter Soldier of old. Be the monster they fear he still is so at least he could argue their actions to be warranted. But even if he were to let the Soldier take control, he knows there would be no monster to see. No blood and dead bodies left in his wake. The Soldier enjoys cooking, knitting and watching clouds go by these days. Not exactly the HYDRA assassin one would expect.
It’s so unfair.
“Uhhh, what are you doing?”
Bucky looks up at the highly offended tone of Tony’s voice. The last person he needs to distrust or fear him is Tony, who didn’t join the Avengers in their interventions. No yet anyway.
“Cutting the meat of course. Give it here,” Natasha responds, making a grabby hand at the knife Tony’s clutching to his chest and only then Bucky understands the question wasn’t aimed at him at all.
Tony squints at the spy and moves the knife behind his back this time. “Since when do you volunteer to help with cooking? And since when do I call you Snowflake?”
She shrugs, hand still extended. “I’m bored.”
Only Natasha Romanoff can lie so effortlessly. Or maybe it’s a spy thing. Whatever it is, Tony isn’t buying it.
“Yeah, right,” he slowly nods, his eyes narrowed into a thin line. “Well, Xena, you can take over the flour-egg-breadcrumbs combo. Just dip the meat in each, exactly in that order and we’re good to go. You could manage that, right?” he grins, the suspicious façade fading away.
“Why are you letting Xena dip the meat, she should be cutting it,” Clint chimes in to back her up – of course he does. The two could be joined at the hip for all Bucky has observed.
“Do you think I can’t handle the meat, Stark?” she challenges him in her usual intimidating tone that leaves even Steve wondering if she’s joking or being serious.
Tony raises a placating hand, but keeps on hiding the knife. “Oh I believe you can handle the meat.”
“Well then, it’s settled,” she shrugs again, making a grab for the knife again and this time Tony actually backs up.
“I just can’t handle you with a knife within a hundred feet radius around me, Xena, so get dipping!” he says, back to frowning.
For once, Bucky is speechless. And judging from the stunned silence, so is everyone else present.
Natasha shuffles to the other side of the kitchen isle where the dipping stuff is prepared, her expression carefully neutral, but Bucky catches the dangerous glint in her eyes as she looks at him.
“Alright, Snowflake! Stop relaxing over there and get to work. Chop chop!” Tony commands, shoving the knife into his hands.
And Bucky obeys, gladly. In fact, he can’t stop flashing a victorious smirk at the two spies in front of him. It’s childish. And will likely come back to bite him in the ass, but right now he doesn’t care. He’s got something to do. With a knife! He’ll cut that meat up into little pieces of art!
Natasha and Clint never stop nervously glancing his way the entire time he’s got the knife. But Bucky pays them no mind – he cuts the pork, then he cuts the veggies and the potatoes too and even dares to return the knife back to Tony with a fancy flip of his own. The awed whistle and another wink he earns from him are definitely worth the death glares he gets from the two spies for the rest of the evening.
Only later, while he’s almost sleeping already, his brain finally catches up with the fact that Tony didn’t trust Natasha with that knife. But he trusted Bucky with it.
He sleeps like a baby that night.
Despite public opinion, rumors on the internet and other possible gossip, Tony is not some rude asshole that would punch women in the face on sight. Or anyone, really. But right now he has a pining urge to suit up, grab Wanda by her face and take her out for a spin around town. That urge basically extends to all the other Avengers as well ever since Barnes moved in, but Wanda is a special case.
Tony didn’t notice it immediately – the way everyone treated Barnes like a ticking bomb. They were pretty damn good at subtle. It’s not like they were screaming ‘DON’T TOUCH THAT KNIFE YOU’RE DANGEROUS AND WE’RE AFRAID OF YOU’ at him, no. They went down the passive-aggressive route. The ‘we’re not telling you why we’re doing this because you already know why and you know you deserve it’ route. And that’s where Tony started picking up on it.
Because in a way, it’s how people used to treat him all the time.
Hell, they sometimes still do. They doubt his intentions, they doubt his abilities, they doubt his character…he’s Tony Stark, after all. What good has he ever done? Right?
It took an alien invasion for the team to take him somewhat seriously, to trust him – him instead of the tabloid him. It’s the same old story – Iron Man recommended, Tony Stark not recommended. As if they weren’t one and the same.
Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier most definitely aren’t one and the same but also not quite separable.
Not that it matters. The man has spent over a year hiding away from HYDRA and Steve to sort out his issues and hell, if he decided he’s got everything – including the Soldier - under control then who is Tony to tell him otherwise.
In the past month or so, the former HYDRA captive has given him no cause to doubt that resolve. He didn’t have any relapses or murderous episodes, he’s not violent or threatening. The Winter Soldier is actually…hilarious. Tony might have accidentally (FRIDAY didn’t have anything to do with it at all) stumbled upon the former assassin during his nightly coffee hunt and caught him…making pancakes. The Winter Soldier. By the stove. In an apron! Making pancakes.
Tony had to back the heck out of the kitchen and make sure he’s not sleeping or hallucinating, then he checked the scene again to see if it’s not just Barnes playing masterchef and when he was 99% sure the curious, but otherwise emotionless face does in fact belong to the Winter Soldier, he had to lock himself in the nearest room so nobody could catch him crying on the floor in sheer, hysterical laughter.
He was less than intimidated by the man ever since and fails to understand why the team sees him as some sort of a threat all the time. If Tony had to describe Barnes, he’d call him a lost little puppy. A scared one, too.
He barely talks – because when he does, everyone is on high alert immediately. God forbids he speaks Russian, that makes even Steve look for a usable emergency weapon. He keeps everyone at arm’s length – because when he comes closer, people back away from him like he’s the plague personified. He never fights at even 50% of his strength during practice, no matter how many times Natasha 360-smashes him into the mattress. Scared to throw a proper punch because what if the other person fails to dodge it.
He’s scared to even breathe in Tony’s opinion. And that just won’t do.
The Compound is supposed to be everybody’s home. A place where they can feel safe, not worried about who they used to be, who they are or pressured to be someone they’re not.
Of all people here, he would have expected Wanda to appreciate that the most. To have a place where nobody would judge her or constantly smear the past in her face. But maybe he expected a little bit too much from a little teenage brat that somehow managed to be angrier at the world than he ever was at her age. And he was a master brat, alright. Just never a HYDRA brat.
So when she rips the poor carp out of Barnes’s hands muttering a mocking and venomous: “Haven’t you done enough killing?” it makes Tony see red.
And if it’s pissed him off this much, he would expect Barnes to be practically livid. To be angry, argue about the statement, scream at her face or something…instead he looks down, like he’s sorry – like he’s fucking sorry – and shrinks back into the corner of the room without a word.
Tony moves his glare to Steve, before the sight of the Scarlett Witch makes him do something extreme, expecting him to say something. Tony should really stop expecting people to do something, because they never do it. Steve’s on the other side of the room, but his annoying superhearing definitely picked up on what was said and still, he just continues to chill on the sofa with Wilson like nothing’s happening.
Is this the Twilight zone or something?! So much for a lovely winter evening trying to recreate foreign Christmas traditions.
He looks back to Wanda, now manhandling the struggling carp with Clint on the cutting board, and weights his options. He can cause a scene and ruin the night even more…or he can do what his mom always told him to do.
“If you find yourself in a toxic situation, just get out.”
Needless to say, he never actually listened to that advice. He’s Tony goddamn Stark. He doesn’t run away, he stays and argues and stands up for himself and…makes the situation even more toxic. Maybe it’s not too late to take that advice after all.
He gets up and heads for the exit without a word, ignoring Rhodey’s questioning looks. He pauses at the door, glancing at Barnes. The man is still shrunken in the corner, no sign of anger in his features, just…resignation. Tony would never admit this to a living soul, but a part of him was always desperate to prove himself to the team.
After trying – and failing – to prove himself worthy to Howard, he thought he was done caring about what people think about him. He is. But the Avengers aren’t just some people on the streets, they’re his teammates and friends. Or he’d like to believe they are. They don’t need to hug and hang out or anything; all Tony needs is to know they trust him as a fellow member of the team.
If he was in Barnes’s place right now, he would either punch something – or someone – or leave. But he just stands there as the stubborn bastard he is. Desperate to prove himself as well, no matter how many metaphorical punches to the gut he’ll have to take.
Tony can admire his resolve, but he doesn’t see how this is going to help him get better - get over HYDRA, bond with the team, take control of his life. This is not helping.
So despite some very vivid Ultron flashbacks about trying to help, he swirls around, taking just a few steps back into the room in Barnes’s direction. “Snowflake!” he calls him, hoping the annoyed eye-roll he earns whenever he uses the nickname is just for show. “You got a minute?”
Barnes shrugs, but his clouded gaze brightens with curiosity.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Come with me,” he nods back towards the door and turns around to walk through there himself, not looking back to see if he is being followed or not. Only when he enters the elevator, he finds Barnes tailed after him in absolute silence one should expect from a ninja assassin. “The workshop,” he instructs and the elevator moves a few floors down into the labs area.
Barnes still follows him without saying a word, but Tony can see how hesitant he is about it. No surprise there, considering the last time he was invited down here. Tony can only blame his easily distracted, overloading brain for forgetting about their scheduled arm refitting, otherwise he would have kicked the inconspicuously arriving Avengers out immediately. At least the holy trinity that is Natasha, Cint and Wanda.
He doubts Steve actually wants to be a dick to his best friend that he went through so much to get back; he’s just clueless as usual and probably doesn’t even realize what’s happening. Vision is impartial to all of it and likely doesn’t understand the others’ weird behavior anyway. Rhodey is still suspicious of his fellow James, but it’s gotten better through the weeks and Wilson is too busy ogling Natasha all the time to really pay any attention to Barnes. They are not helping, but at least they’re not making it worse.
Which leaves Nat and Clint, who teamed up against the man from the second he stepped through the Compound front doors and Wanda, who never even met Barnes before but has enough reasons to hate him apparently. It shouldn’t surprise Tony too much, given how she treats him most of the time too.
It just baffles him how these three can be the ultimate douchebags here. Natasha and Barnes should be bonding over vodka and their similar, messed up past. With Clint, he should be competing about who’s the better sharpshooter while endlessly having fun pranking each other and Wanda and Barnes should stay the fuck away from each other.
Instead, they’ve become an alliance of bullies and Tony doesn’t really know what to do about it.
Where’s Bruce when he needs him?
“What’d ya need?” Barnes asks, standing like a statue by the entrance.
“Oh. That,” he whispers, mentally slapping himself. He didn’t really think this far ahead. Then again, he’s the master of spontaneity. “You worked in a body shop, right? Before the war?”
His eyes wander downward, lips pursing just the slightest. “Yeah, for a while,” he looks back up after a moment of thinking.
Tony didn’t need him to confirm the fact; Steve never held back whenever he had a chance to talk about Barnes…before. Peggy always mentioned him with the same sad expression she worn when reminiscing about the war and even Howard had things to say about Captain America’s sidekick. But the man they all described to him is not the man standing in front of him anymore. “Fancy revisiting the job?” he grins and hops to the centre of the still kinda bare room.
Most of his stuff is still in the Tower, including the bots, but he needed a little something to work on here. And Fury never fails to provide just that. He grabs onto the huge plastic cover and unveils the gigantic engine that the SHIELD Director somehow managed to singlehandedly turn into scrap recently.
“Wow,” is Barnes’s only reaction, but it’s a genuine one so Tony counts it as win. “Whatcha gonna do with that?!”
“Take it apart, salvage what I can and build something else out of it. This is beyond repair,” he kicks the engine lightly. “S’what happens when you give Fury nice things.”
Barnes observes the engine with interest, but his gaze lands on Tony with confusion. “How can I help?”
“Well, you can start by pulling these three big ass circuits out,” Tony suggests, pointing at where they are on the engine while switching into his favorite mode – the work mode.
He nods, shuffling closer. “What about the party?” he asks, his voice unsure and small.
“Fuck the party,” Tony blurts out in absolute seriousness and shrugs.
Barnes’s eyebrows shoot up high, lips twitching. “But…it was your idea.”
“Turned out it wasn’t a good one. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, happens to me all the time. Thought a big fluffy bunny would be a cute gift…it wasn’t. Thought Ultron was a good idea…it wasn’t. Thought spending the evening with the team in some winter holiday spirit was a great plan and once again, I stand corrected. But…just ‘cause I’m tired of socializing today doesn’t mean you have to be, so…you can go back of course.”
He stops by the engine, poking at it with a strange expression on his face. Like he’s surprised, confused and excited at the same time and it’s a little too much to deal with so when he glances sideways at Tony he ends up looking plain vulnerable. “Did I look like I was enjoin’ it?”
He’s taken aback by the honesty…not many people play that kinda talk card with him. Usually choosing to evade, hide…lie. He’s guilty of that himself sometimes. Because it’s easier to hide and lie than come out into the open for all eyes to see – and judge. It’s the coward’s way. And Bucky Barnes is anything but a coward. “No,” he shakes his head, deciding he could perhaps be brave for once, too. “You didn’t.”
He gives him a small nod, returning his attention back to the engine. One moment he’s just eying one of the circuits Tony pointed at before and the next he’s pretty much ripping the thing out in one powerful tug that makes Tony’s brain perform an emergency reboot. And then another one, when the assassin quirks one side of his lips into a satisfied smirk that just screams confidence and sass and Buckygoddamnbarnes.
Tony clears his throat, looking away from Barnes’s crinkling eyes. “Well, that was…” Hot! “Quick.”
“Takin’ this apart ain’t nothing. But building somethin’ outta this junk is another story,” he sighs, moving in front of the next circuit.
“Here’s the story, Snowflake - we better team up on this motherfucker. You’ll take it apart, I’ll design the talking toilet and then we’ll build it together, how’s that for a plan of action?” he grins, trying to ignore the warm flutter in his stomach when the grin is matched by the other man.
“Talking toilet?” he raises his eyebrows.
“Yep. Fury complained I didn’t give him any Christmas presents last year. I’m sure with our combined efforts we’ll be able to think of some…offending, humiliating and bordering on scary shit to make the thing say whenever he goes number two. As for number one, I’m thinking something more practical…like accidental current rebounds.”
The chuckle he gets as a response is surprising – Tony just doesn’t know who is more surprised to hear it come out, him or Barnes himself. “A’right. Don’t wanna be on your bad side…noting that down for future reference.”
He proceeds to rip the former engine apart and if Tony enjoys the view a little too much, nobody’s there to berate him about it (because he might have banned everyone’s access for the night by accident). And Barnes doesn’t seem to mind, even when he catches him staring.
When they disband their crafting class early into the morning, having created a perfectly functioning talking slash pranking toilet, Barnes sends him a tired but a very real smile.
“This was a good idea,” he says before disappearing into the darkened hallways and Tony can’t get that sentence out of his head for days.
The holidays were uneventful and Tony noticed it did wonders for the team. With no aliens, gigantic bug attacks, plain old bank robbers or HYDRA causing trouble, they all had a chance to sit back and relax for once. Relaxing wasn’t in Tony’s schedule though. He decided to use the extra time to execute his newest project, suitably called: Beating the Avengers at their own game and making them stop hating on Bucky. Or in short: BtAatoGaMTSHoB.
It needs a new name. But other than that, it works just as Tony hoped it would.
In a way, he continued to do exactly what he’s been doing the whole time – treating Bucky the same way he treats any other member of the team. Only this time around, he added retaliation into the mix. If the Avengers wanna play passive-aggressive, Tony would gladly show them how it’s done! He knows what to do and say to get his message across just as subtly as them. Hell, maybe even better.
So when Clint entered the kitchen and immediately alerted to Bucky cutting onions, saying something along the lines of: “Gimme that, before you hurt someone”, Tony didn’t punch him in the face – no matter how appealing that thought was. He watched Bucky obediently give the kitchen knife to the archer and then he whipped out the biggest, sharpest kitchen knife he could find in Costco and handed it to him.
“Use this one. Clint can have the kiddie knife if he wants it so much,” Tony smirked at the Birdman, who wouldn’t stop staring at the huge knife - that might actually have been a machete – until they were done cooking dinner.
Natasha came to his rescue at one point, but she had enough sense to understand the challenging glare Tony gave her and simply joined her best friend in the staring contest.
He would randomly speak some Russian around Bucky, never failing to scare the shit out of anyone present, especially Natasha. He had never really learnt Russian, but for the sake of science he’d extended his vocabulary with some useful – mostly vulgar, childish, nonsensical and bordering on flirtatious - phrases.
Normally, Clint and Natasha would laugh at his pronunciation or the silly grammar he’s using but true to their stuck-up bully attitudes, they fished for weapons, expecting the Soldier to emerge and massacre everyone.
That never happened of course. Bucky even snorted a couple times at how ridiculous the two former SHIELD agents looked – like frightened little mice that came across a cat in the backyard. Instead, Bucky responded in kind.
In Russian. And Tony never understood a word he said until he had FRIDAY translate it later.
Mostly vulgar, childish, nonsensical and most definitely flirtatious replies.
Then, when he found his lab full of rodents one morning because someone thought it would be a good idea to bypass all the blocking grids in the vents by taking them down and not putting them back up again, he went straight to Bucky.
“снежинка! I need your hunting skillset in my lab, stat! Got a rat emergency and we’re talkin’ huuuuge rats’ emergency! So here, choose your weapon,” he told him, holding up two biggest sniper rifles he’d ever invented. It was a bit of an overkill, but the collective gasp from the team, chilling in the common room as well, was worth it.
“Dude, it’s December. How did rats get into your lab?” Clint dared to ask, all suspicious and whatnot.
So he stared him down and grinned – not his usual fun times grin, no. His newly mastered murder grin. “One word, Birdbrain. Vents. Now, come fast before they eat all my stuff or worse, start procreating!” he turned back to Bucky, who stood next to him by then, studying the weapons.
He chuckled, picking the shorter high-powered rifle. “This thing can pierce body armor, Tony. Doncha have a BB gun or somethin’?”
“What if those rats have body armor? For all I know, they can be an alien rat army of invaders! Look, just come with me and shoot some shit up. I’d do it myself, but the repulsors would level the lab with the ground before killing any of the rats. It’ll be fun!”
“Fun is not the word,” Wanda scoffed, giving them both her best bitch glare.
“It’s probably not the best idea to shoot that indoors,” Steve somehow agreed. “We could set up some traps instead? Or - ”
“Yeah yeah yeah, thanks for your input, partypoopers. My lab, my rules. I will use a bazooka on those little gnawing shits if I want to! Hang on…that’s a good idea actually. How about a bazooka, Snowflake?”
“Uh, no. This will do just fine,” he brings the rifle up, adjusting the settings with a couple clicks here and there.
“Don’t come crying to us when you’ve got holes in your chest later, Stark,” Wanda warns him, earning a nod or two from the others.
“I already have a hole in my chest. Are you trying to be funny? Better work on that some more, Witch,” Tony shot back, already on the move to the elevator.
“Tony…,” Cap said in his patented voice of disapproval.
“What? I get it. She didn’t have time to practice sense of humor; she was too busy training with HYDRA.” That might have crossed the line a bit, but it was still worth the stunned face on the Witch’s face. Taste of one’s own medicine is always sour.
“That was uncalled for, Tony!” Cap jumped to her defense, as usual.
“Maybe. But it was also true, so sue me.”
They hightailed it out of there and spent the better part of the day hunting rats and then cleaning up the awful mess the rifle left in its wake.
Somewhere throughout the holidays, Barnes became Bucky – although Tony wasn’t keen on giving up Snowflake like, ever – and during the subtle or not so subtle interventions of his own, the Avengers started to include Bucky more and more with every day, stopping their insulting, bordering on assholish treatment.
Rhodey finally warmed up to his fellow James and stole him for a beer or two every time he stopped by the Compound. Steve was still oblivious as hell, but ceased his constant mother-henning and became more at ease with Bucky around – and by extension, so did Birdbrain junior. Wilson is a bit odd and a bit of a Steve fanboy for lack of a better word, but Tony can tell Bucky likes the guy’s attitude and so they start quipping at each other, discussing pop culture and even going for a run in the morning together. Vision continues to curiously float around him, remaining pretty neutral although Tony caught them harmlessly arguing in the kitchen recently about what’s best for gulash – chilli or hot paprika. Even Clint and Natasha were coming around; seeing Tony’s broken Russian did nothing at all to the superninja, they dared to speak some to him as well, especially to say something funny on Steve’s account. Clint challenged him to a shoot-off during the latest training and Nat even showed him her favorite butterfly knife.
They were baby steps, but some damn needed – and appreciated - baby steps. As a result, Bucky’s overall mood changed as well. Less brooding alone on the side, more joining in the conversations and activities. Less frowns, more smiles. Tony liked that particular change the most. There’s something about Bucky Barnes’s smile that makes Tony want to see more of it. And if his results so far are anything to go by, he’s doing a pretty good job of it.
The only hurdle in the picture is Wanda. And Tony can’t do anything at all to…make her chill the fuck out. He did however notice Vision to be in on that particular case as of late. A little project of his own, he guesses. He’s all for it, as long as she doesn’t hurt the android because if she does then God help her.
So leave it to everyone’s least favorite villain of the week to ruin the peace – HYDRA. They just never get tired of regrowing heads and causing trouble. Naturally, what appears to be a hostage situation in a mall near Queens turns out to be a trap designed for only one thing – get their favored soldier back.
“Get the civilians out of here!” Steve commands, trying to keep the agents occupied with Nat and Birdbrain junior at his side.
“We’re trying!” Wanda shouts back, protecting the retreating shoppers.
Tony’s right there with her – the closed off quarters aren’t exactly great for Iron Man, so he’s stuck on the ground monitoring the whole situation and blasting off anyone that dares come closer to the civies. Not that Wanda didn’t have that covered…the last agent that got to melee range ended up flying through ten walls into the back of the mall.
“Guys? We kinda have a problem over here!” Clint yells through the coms.
The last time Tony checked, Clint was pushing towards the staff-only loading area with Bucky and Vision to cut the agents’ escape route, because sooner rather than later they would definitely try and make a run for it.
“Reinforcements?” he replies, raising a hand towards Wanda to let her know he’ll handle this.
“They wish! Like, seriously though! One of these guys has some weird HYDRA manual and is trying to wake up and get the Winter Soldier into the fray. Right! Now! Bucky ain’t looking too good, man.”
“Wait…say again?!” Tony blurts out. He exchanges a quick nod with the witch and takes off in the direction the three Avengers are supposed to be, while shooting up any HYDRA operative on the way.
“The dude is reciting some bad poetry in Russian and if his dramatic evil speech beforehand was to be believed, it’s supposed to get the Soldier back in control!” Clint explains, sounds of swooshing arrows in the background.
If Tony didn’t think it would be highly inappropriate in the situation they’re in, he would laugh his ass off.
He barges into a large storage room, spotting Clint on top of some crates shooting like crazy. Vision is nowhere in sight, but judging from the loud ruckus coming from outside, he’s probably making a quick work of HYDRA and their get out vehicles.
Which leaves Bucky, currently on his knees in front of the agent in charge of the Russian poetry – let’s call him Bob. And Bob seems to be having the time of his life, reading the last bit of the Communist manifesto or whatever that red book is supposed to be, smirking in victory.
And Tony can’t help but do the same.
“Crap! We’re too late!” Clint curses above him.
“Oh we’re just in time,” Tony chuckles, walking past the crates into the open, where the agents circled around Bob, defending him against Clint.
“I couldn’t agree more!” Bob chuckles, nodding at him. “Soldier? You can start with this one!” he waves at the still kneeling form of the Winter Soldier.
Little does Bob know that the Winter Soldier is…not quite what he used to be.
He stands up and looks over his shoulder at Tony, expression not giving away anything at all. But that changes a second later when a frown cracks the façade and the Soldier looks back at Bob.
Bob rolls his eyes, pointing an angry finger at Tony. “Do you need everything spelled out?! Kill him!” he barks, but again the Soldier just gives Tony another confused look. “The hell?” he mumbles, opening up the manual and listing through it.
“Hey, Soldier? Why don’t you go make some coffee and tea, hm? I’m sure the civilians outside will appreciate something hot in this goddamn weather,” Tony suggests and this time the Soldier nods and casually walks away in search of a coffeemaker, shocking every HYDRA agent present. “Sorry, Bob. The Soldier is off murder duty, but if you fancy blueberry pancakes stop by on weekends, he makes a huge plate of those for breakfast.”
“What the fu – ?!” he starts, but gets cut off by Vision’s mean punch from behind.
In less than a minute, the three of them reduce the number of conscious HYDRA operatives in the storage room to zero.
Tony walks up to Bob, picking up the tattered red book. There’s no fireplace in the Compound – which is a damn shame now that he thinks about it – so maybe they’ll go out and make a campfire to ritually burn this book of shit later.
“How did you know this wouldn’t work on him anymore?” Clint comes up from behind him, also giving the book a stink eye.
“You kidding? Every time I ran into the Soldier in the Compound, the guy was cooking or baking. Baking, Clint. Cute apron and flour smeared on his face and all that! The only thing he’s been killing as of late are gingerbreads. Those things are dangerously good, I swear to God.”
“Uhhhh…okay?” Clint squints at him. “Too much information, man. I really don’t need to know what the two of…three of you? Are doing in the kitchen late at night, thank you very much. I guessed you’d be into some kinky shit but cute aprons and flour is crossing some lines.”
“Wh…what?!” Tony stutters, glaring at the archer.
“Hey, now. I ain’t judging. Was about damn time you two stopped dancing around each other like a pair of blind doves. Just leave me out of the details.”
“The hell are you talki - ”
“We’re all clear, what’s the status back there?” Steve announces on the radio and Clint just shrugs in innocence and replies to Cap on his way out of the room.
Vision fails at hiding his shit-eating grin, floating around him to follow Clint out, leaving Tony more than a little stunned in there with just the unconscious bodies of Bob and his goons.
The team gets back to the Compound in the evening, after cleaning up the mess and introducing the HYDRA agents to some thick prison walls. To everyone’s amusement – and a little bit of a surprise – the Winter Soldier spent the afternoon giving out coffee and tea to the distraught and freezing civilians outside and for the first time since Bucky arrived at the Compound, he received no suspicious glares, nobody was talking shit about him and nobody was getting in his way.
Not even Wanda, who even gave the Soldier a smile when he offered her tea. A smile. Tony was this close to signing in a Psych ward because he thought he was hallucinating.
And once the mission was done, the Soldier retreated, leaving Bucky to deal with the aftermath. His absolutely mortified face was thankfully quickly turned into relief and a smile of his own when he found the Avengers are not freaking out about his lapse at all.
In fact, after all these months, it would seem this was the final proof the team needed to stop all the unnecessary worry and abuse. And Tony’s happy, really. But then he realizes that with the Avengers on Bucky’s side, he will no longer have any excuse for ‘hooking up’ with him in order to keep the team in check.
It wasn’t even that anymore as of late. He spent time with him these days just to…be with him. Because leave it to Tony to make a giant mess of things by…falling in love.
Before he can start freaking out about that, he disappears from the common floor and hides in his lab, prefarably for the rest of his days. Because the last thing Bucky needs is to deal with him and his…feelings.
Once Bucky stopped freaking out about his relapse, he noticed the only one freaking out was him. No shrieks of horror from the civilians, no glares from the Avengers…Wanda was even smiling at him for fuck’s sake! He knew the Soldier wouldn’t listen to that agent, no matter how many trigger words he had in store for them. Murder’s just not in his nature anymore. He knew, but still freaked about it because in all honesty, he expected Clint to riddle him with arrows the second he snapped into the Soldier.
And then there was Tony, who witnessed the Soldier in his new element many times by now and wasn’t fazed by him coming to the surface at all.
So it took a failed HYDRA attack for Bucky to realize a lot of…interesting things. Concerning Tony. He can’t sleep through the entire night after the attack, mulling over the revelation and devising his next move.
The Avengers beat him to it during breakfast.
Steve approaches him first, apologizing for not supporting him more in the past few months.
Being half-way through his sandwich, he doesn’t really know what to say, completely caught off guard by his absolutely devastated looking best friend so he just nods and waves him off.
“S’not a big deal.”
“Yes it is!” he widens his eyes and keeps apologizing for the remainder of his meal until Bucky finally persuades him it’s fine and forgiven.
Because it is. Since Tony subtly inserted himself in between him and the Avengers’ bullshit – quite literally like a knight in the shining armor – Bucky decided not to dwell too much on it anymore. Of course it hurt. And it was so unfair on so many levels. But with Tony in charge of damage control, the Avengers were slowly coming around and he also shifted his demeanor onto the positive side as a result.
Natasha whips around the corner at one point, giving him a challenging look. “I was a real bitch to you. Wanna spar after lunch and kick my ass for it?”
“Uh…,” he frowns and her look intensifies a hundred fold which is just damn scary. “Yeah, sure.
“Cool,” she nods in approval and disappears again.
One by one, the other members approach him to say sorry – each in their own specific way. Except for Wanda, who is probably not in the apologizing stage quite yet, but at least she’s not all up in his business anymore.
And then there’s Clint, who mandrops on him from the vent in the hallway leading to the elevator some time later.
“Yo, Barnes!”
He’s lucky Bucky doesn’t scare easily these days. No need to let him know that he caught him completely by surprise though. God forbid he’d grow an ego. “Lemme guess. You wanna say sorry by…challenging me to a cook off. Oh wait, no. That was Vision. So, what are we gon’ do?”
Clint’s the surprised one now. He takes a step back and squints. “Guess I’m the last one, huh? Well, I was thinking I’d take you on a tour de Compound, show you all the secret paths and hideaways so we could do some serious spy off later…while profusely apologizing.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he grins at the archer and takes a step forward, but Clint blocks his way.
“Great! So in the spirit of apologizing, you might wanna know that Tony is in the workshop…as usual.”
“O…kay? Why are you - ”
“He’s in the lockdown mode…meaning that he won’t be coming up anytime soon and nobody’s making it past the doors inside either. Unless you know the supersecret password of course,” he smirks. “Which I can tell you.”
“Becaaause…?”
“Because you were heading there anyway? And because he only ever goes into lockdown mode if he’s either in the middle of a scientific breakthrough, or in the middle of a personal crises. My money’s on the second one this time. So you might wanna go…lift his spirits.”
Oh. Who knew Birdbrain - as Tony so loves to call him - was this insightful? He actually thought Hawkeye doesn’t even like Tony very much, and yet…
“Dinner would…lift his spirits. Or a movie night. He likes movies. Especially bad sci-fi ones, those entertain him to no end.”
“Uh, a’right? Why would I - ”
“Because I’m not blind? And only half-deaf, so make a move, Snowflake, before he either drowns in self-doubt, again, or someone else will. Make a move. If you know what I mean.”
Maybe too insightful, for Bucky’s liking. “Okay, fine, give me the damn password, Birdbrain.”
Clint’s shit-eating grin as he tells him the password is probably going to stick for days, that’s how strong it is. But Bucky can wipe if off for him later when he totally owns him in the spy off.
He’s got a date to plan and a man to dig out of a workshop first.
“This doesn’t look right, DUM-E,” Tony inspects the bot’s handy work. How hard can it be to sort the tools in alphabetical order?! In DUM-E’s case real damn hard apparently, otherwise the welding stuff wouldn’t be put first and the hammer wouldn’t be all the way over there with the screwdrivers. “Wh…why is U and Butterfingers in here too?!”
DUM-E, the little shit that he is, just beeps happily and considers his work done, rolling away from the scene.
“We’ll be talking about that later young man! You can’t think of your brothers as t - ” he yells after him, but cuts himself off as soon as he spots one very much present Bucky Barnes sitting on the table opposite of the workbench. “Tools. And we’ll be going over your alphabet! You little…should have left you in the Tower,” he mumbles when the only reply he gets is another happy beep that seems to be aimed at Bucky anyway. “How did you get in here?” he looks between the definitely password protected entrance and the…grinning supersoldier. Nope, he’s beaming. He’s been smiling more lately but this is…a suspicious increase by a ton.
He looks happy. And hell if that sight doesn’t do weird things to Tony’s brain.
“Through the door,” he answers, grin widening.
Tony glares at him, folding his hands. “It’s password protected!”
“Yeah,” he nods, still smiling. “One, two, three, four, five is a real good password.”
Son of a…okay, the password is the worst but he didn’t expect the tech illiterates here to crack it and anyone with any tech knowledge would never guess his password to be this shitty.
“Clint gave it to me. I bet he’s spied it off from the AC vent over there.”
“Son of a bitch!” he grumbles out loud this time. Usually, he would go inspect the vent…and rig it with deadly explosives, and then have Fry change the password to something more formidable this time around, but he can’t tear his eyes off of the man in front of him. “What’s with the…,” he waves a hand at the whole of him, realizing he doesn’t know how to describe what he’s seeing. It’s a bit weird to ask ‘oh hey, why are you looking so damn happy?!’. And what the hell is he wearing?! A beige shirt?! Since when does he own colors other than black?! And those jeans he totally got from whoever Steve stole his pair of the all too fitting ones years ago. What’s with supersoldiers never wearing their actual clothing size?!
He’s dressed to kill. Not the assassin kinda killing.
“All the…what?” he smirks and that’s it.
That’s the end of Tony, right there. “The uh…you’re…smiling. Like…a lot,” he stutters out, willing his thoughts to behave.
“Had a good day. A really good day,” he adds.
“Yeah?”
“Uh huh,” he hums an octave lower than should be legal and continues to just stare at Tony. “Had five club sandwiches for breakfast along with seven heartfelt apologies from the team and then Wanda took me shoppin’. And didn’t kill me on the way there or back so yeah, that’s my definition of a really good day.”
Tony’s brain takes a minute to stop conjuring dirty thoughts and then processes what he’s just said. “Wait…apologies? They apologized? The team?” he shakes his head, holding a finger up. “No no no, never mind that, but Wanda took you shopping?!” he blurts out and Bucky nods. “Wanda…are we talking about the same Wanda? Are you sure? You’re not hallucinating or anything?” he asks but the man only gives him more nods and wider damn smirks. “Am I hallucinating? Or drunk?”
“Your haven’t drunk anything, boss,” FRIDAY reassures him. “Including water, by the way. And I can confirm that Sergeant Barnes did actually go shopping with Ms. Maximoff. Without any incidents.”
So if he’s not drunk or losing his mind…that means the Avengers really did apologize to Bucky and Wanda took him shopping…what?!
He decides solving the mystery behind those actions is not the priority right now and focuses on the result instead. The happy, grinning result standing just over there and looking at Tony like he’s the Sun and Bucky’s the Winter and he can’t get enough of the warmth.
Yep, his brain is so done for.
He relaxes his tense posture and slowly cracks a smile of his own. “Wow…was about time they got their heads out of their asses. You better not be letting them off too easily, especially the SHIELD twins.”
“Nah,” he shakes his head. “I’m happy with the way it turned out…no vengeful thoughts in mind. Yet,” he shrugs. “Besides, I’m gonna be too busy anyway.”
“Busy?” he tilts his head to the side, eyebrows raised. Busy doing what, looking like a new deadly sin?
“Yeah. Busy inviting a guy to dinner to thank him…for a lotta things.”
“Oh?” Oh…okay, sure. A thank-you dinner. Awesome. Very…friendly. And appropriate. And is it too late to fly into a black hole in the sky and disappear forever? He hopes not.
“And when the thank you’s part is done, I’m thinkin’ we forget the food and just…make out. Hoping the Soldier won’t go berserk because of the spaghetti he’s made are going cold in the background,” he says with a flare of confidence Tony didn’t think he possessed.
“Oh really? S’what you’re thinking?” he asks, trying to look and sound uninterested but failing miserably. He can’t stop the excitement and he can’t stop the smile.
“Unless I got this all wrong…me and the whole team, by the way…then yeah. That’s what I’m thinkin’.”
Tony’s brain snaps back into action and with one swift motion to the side of the workbench, he shuts down the project he’s been pretending to work on through the night. “Why don’t we forget the thank you part and just make out on the way up to the kitchen and eat? Wouldn’t wanna make the Soldier angry, would we?”
“That’s a great idea,” he chuckles, leaning away from the table.
Tony walks up to him with a smirk and winks. “Been full of great ideas lately.”
“Yeah, you have,” Bucky’s grin eases into a gentle smile and it’s the final thing that wipes all the fears and doubts away from Tony’s mind.
They move in for the kiss and Tony has to quickly forget about the damn Birdbrain, who he’s gonna have to thank for all this later. And then promptly kill him for spying on people from the vents.
But for now, he’ll enjoy the moment, the kiss, the dinner and the man whose smile is definitely gonna be the death of him.
~Fin