I Knew Him

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

Tony couldn’t help but tip his head back with a hearty, delighted, laugh, and clapped his hands together. “I see the nickname is catching on. Rogers is going to be pissed.” He rubbed his hands together with glee. If anything, really, coming from Bucky, it would make Steve laugh, something Tony’s seen many fewer times than he’d like. His eyes alight with warmth he took a few strides closer to the board.

“You know, I’d be more than happy to show you how JARVIS works.” He held up both of his hands as if to fend off immediate complaint. “I know you probably more-or-less get how, but there is definitely more to it that could keep you better entertained. I can show you the in’s and out’s. He’s incredibly useful, if a bit snarky.” “Glad you think so, Sir,” JARVIS returned with, amazingly, for an intelligence that existed solely within a binary code, hints of both amusement and sarcasm. Tony pointed at the ceiling and sent a meaningful look towards Bucky. “Case and point. You’d almost think a sarcastic asshole made him.” Breaking into another smile and winking, Tony gestured for Bucky to come closer to him.

He ruffled his hand through his already tousled hair as he crouched down to observe the board. “There’s a setting that makes it go higher, but there’s a better part of the work shop for that. Let me take a look at your arm and then you can go play to your heart’s content, okay?” Straightening up, he offered a hand to Bucky.

Bucky managed to get the hover board to go around the room a couple of times. He wobbled dangerously as he rounded the corners but he stayed on. He was definitely going to keep this board and practise as often as he could. This was exactly he had hoped for the future. Flying cars might not exist but this hoverboard was better than he could have ever imagined.

Bucky huffed out a laugh as JARVIS gave his witty remark. Bucky was slowly getting used to the disembodied voice that sounded throughout the Tower, answering demands and commands in that smoother than smooth British accent. “I happen to like sarcastic assholes,” Bucky remarked as he flew the board over to Tony. “Life would be dull without ‘em.”

He carefully stepped off the board, one foot at a time, and let the board hover in between him and Tony. Time to have his arm looked at then. Bucky had to take in a deep breath as he reminded himself that this was an infinitely safer environment than Hydra ever was. Tony was a friend. Tony wasn’t going to intentionally hurt him. Tony wanted to help him. Bucky was safe here. This was a safe place. Tony was a safe person. Bucky did not have anything to fear here.

“Alright, sure. Arm first, then more hovering.” Bucky gave Tony a strained smile and tried to push his fear and worries deep down inside of him. “I gotta be honest,” he said when he realised that trying to ignore how he was feeling wasn’t going to be the best approach, “the last people who looked at my arm were Hydra and they didn’t exactly treat me with kindness. Not that I think you’re going to be the same, but I might- yeah. I might not be the best patient.”

@starkxnaked

#starkxnaked

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

“Too much trouble, Barnes? Have you met me? I’ve been dying to get my hands on you since the day I found out you were here.” A little suggestive, perhaps, matched with a wicked smirk, but hey, no harm, no foul, and all the better if Bucky responds. “Seriously, as soon as you’re done, and, uh– I mean, if Spangles won’t kill me, you’re welcome to take this back to your room–” He scooted the floating board across to Bucky with his foot. “I’ll have a look at it. I bet you one hundred bucks right now that I can make you a better arm.

God, that smile. Tony thinks he understands Steve a little better now, because yeah, who wouldn’t want to make Bucky Barnes smile? He feels warmer, somehow, like he’s succeeded. If he can do anything, anything to drag Bucky back a little from the darkness, he’s up for it, now. It’s been a damn long time since anyone’s been this playful with him. Since he’s genuinely been friends with someone, maybe.

“More’s the pity indeed,” Tony agreed. “Now hop on, Cowboy, let’s see.” He jerked his chin towards the board as he took a few steps backwards.

#fc spam #stevie #modern times

“I won’t let Spangles kill you,” Bucky tried to reassure Tony as he tentatively took a couple of steps closer to the board. “Plus I need things to keep my entertained while I hide away from the rest of the world. Steve’ll understand that… I think.”

Bucky smirked back at Tony, not missing the not-so-hidden innuendo he was making. Before Hydra, Bucky was the biggest flirt he knew. While he wasn’t feeling so up for that kind of thing now, he made note that Tony was just as bad as he used to be. He could almost picture Steve’s face now if he ever caught Bucky and Tony flirting up a storm together.

For now though, Bucky’s attention became focused on the hover board. He put one foot on it and tested his weight on it. It appeared to be holding steady although it didn’t feel entirely stable either. He glanced at Tony and gave him a nervous smile before putting his other foot. There were a few wobbles but Bucky was able to maintain his balance by holding his arms out. The weight of his bionic arm made it a little more difficult to stay balanced but Bucky managed it. He kicked off the floor and sent himself and the board gliding across the room.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he exclaimed, “I don’t care what Spangles says; I’m keeping this thing!”

@tonystarksliquorstore

#tonystarksliquorstore

magnetto

You Only Live Twice || Steve and Bucky

Tony Stark was a man of his word. He and Steve might argue over what that word was, exactly, but Steve respected that about him at the very least. True to his agreement, Tony had allowed Steve to lock down the cinema room near the top of Stark Tower, password known only to Steve, so that he could enjoy some private time with Bucky in somewhere that wasn’t his own suite.

It might have sounded paranoid, and it probably was, but Steve still didn’t trust the outside world when it came to Bucky. Not when HYDRA was still out there, not when the US Government presumably still held Bucky accountable for the Winter Soldier killings. It was too dangerous to pretend it wasn’t happening.

He was still overjoyed to have Bucky back, however, and while his efforts at security might have been excessive it didn’t stop Steve from trying to carve out some quality time with his best friend, which at that time involved the pair of them lolling around on oversized bean bags working their way through all the James Bond movies.

Steve’s opinion?

“Ridiculous,” he scoffed as he threw a fistful of sweet and salty popcorn into his mouth. “That would never happen. It would never be allowed to happen. How the fuck can anyone build a base in a goddamn volcano, Buck.” Steve hummed with unexpressed laughter and tucked his arm behind his head, tilting to catch Bucky’s profile. He seemed relaxed enough, which relaxed Steve in turn and stepped him down from the constant adrenaline rush of high alert that he seemed to be on most days. It was tiring, and it made him peevish and snappy when he didn’t mean to be. But a good day for Bucky was a good day for him, and he was counting that one as a win so far. Maybe Steve would finally have the talk he’d been meaning to have for some time now.

Steve’s efforts to keep Bucky safe from the outside world hadn’t gone unnoticed by Bucky himself. Another thing that hadn’t gone unnoticed was the tiring effect it all had on Steve. So when Steve suggested they watch some movies and actually relax, Bucky didn’t argue. In fact he beat Steve to the cinema room and had already made himself quite comfortable on one of the beanbags.

Bucky had been struggling not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the James Bond movies. Was this how the rest of the world perceived the intelligence community? If so, they were extremely disillusioned. While Bucky didn’t have the clearest of memories of his time as a spy, he knew it wasn’t anything like what James Bond was going through. Hell, if Bucky’s experience had been more like Bond’s, he would’ve never complained!

“Suspension of disbelief, Stevie,” Bucky drawled as he helped himself to more of the Reese’s pieces that were a part of the snack haul Steve had brought with him. Bucky was still acclimatising to modern tastes but what he had tried so far, he liked; especially the explosion in different types of candy and sweet things. “This is a work of fiction. It’s supposed to be ridiculous and fantastical. Otherwise it’d be boring and no one would pay to see these movies.”

Bucky chewed on his candy and glanced at Steve. It was the first time that Bucky could remember that Steve actually looked at ease. There was still an edge to him, like he was waiting for the worst to happen, but visibly there wasn’t as much tension in his muscles as there had been recently.

“You take things too seriously,” Bucky informed his best friend. “Just let the fantasy that is James Bond happen and stop questioning it.” Bucky thought about extending his advice to other areas of Steve’s life but he held that back. Steve never was good at being told what to do if Bucky’s memory served him right.

@thegoodxcaptain

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

“Hey, hey, I know.” Tony held up his hands by his shoulders as sign of good will. “I’m not downing him, he has every right to be a little jumpy about all sorts of organizations trying to get their hands on you, but neither of us intend on letting that happen.”

Tony’s eyes saddened immediately. Being locked up, yeah, he had an idea of what that was like. Nothing on par with what Barnes had gone through, he was sure, but still, something that kept him up at night and followed him like a walking nightmare. “Poor choice of words, buddy, sorry.” He gave a weak smile. “But hey, by the way, if your arm is giving you any trouble I’d be more than happy to take a look, yeah? Make it move a little better, I can add features, if you’d want… If the shoulder is bothering you, I have this new thing I came up with that can make the transition totally seamless.” He puffed up a little again, proud of his own work, and that it was now used to help rather than blow places he’d never seen to all hell.

“Besides, if you don’t have a piece of Stark tech attached to you in this day and age, who the hell are ya?” Tony winked and paced over to a cabinet to pull out the hover board he’d mentioned.

“I think bunking with Rogers would be quite the adventure, considering he wants to throw me off the top of the tower half the time. It’d still be worth it to see him walk around shirtless.” It’s clear he’s joking, grinning ear to ear, and his eyes sparkling with mirth as quickly as they had darkened with sadness.

Throwing the board to the ground, which it never hit, Tony carefully rested one foot on top of it. “Not a word to anyone, especially Barton, alright?” He warned with a pointed finger. “Or no robot.”

Of course he was going to make Bucky a robot, Clint bugging him about the board or not, but the Stark men have to save face. Like father, like son.

Bucky’s eyes lit up over Tony’s offer to take a look at his arm. Bucky had been trying to do rudimentary repairs on his arm but he needed someone with an excellent knowledge of engineering and robotics to work their magic on it. Tony was just the man he needed for the job. “If it ain’t too much trouble,” he said in a cautious tone since he didn’t want to seem like he was taking advantage of Tony’s hospitality, “that’d be great. It hasn’t been looked at in months.”

Bucky barked out a laugh and shook his head over Tony’s comment about Steve wandering around shirtless. “It doesn’t happen all that often,” Bucky informed him. Then a spark of the old Bucky came through, broke through the doom and gloom of all the brainwashing and broken memories. “More’s the pity.” He grinned back at Stark, and for the first time in a long time, he enjoyed a joke. He could get used to this.

But then his attention became utterly distracted by the hover board. It lived up to its name as it hovered above the ground. It didn’t make a sound and looked like it was powered by magic. Bucky knew it must be magnets and electronic batteries doing the magic but all of the technicalities were beyond his understanding.

Absent mindedly, he crossed his heart and held up his right hand, all while still staring at the board. “I swear I won’t tell a soul.” He looked up at Tony and a slow and an easy grin stretched across Bucky’s features. “But you are going to let me have a go though, right?”

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Finally Alone || Bucky & Steve

The change was instant and Steve could see it wash over Bucky like a wave crashing against the shore. An icy tendril of fear snaked down his spine, subtle but there, and he took a step back out of Bucky’s space. They were never what modern people might call “touchy-feely”, but they knew how to give each other a rough kind of comfort. Had known. Steve wasn’t sure what the right course of action was now and it killed him to know that he might hinder more than he could help.

“It’s fine, we don’t have to.”

Steve swiped his wrist over his forehead, pushing a stray lock of hair off his brow. His hair was getting long again, he thought, closer to how it had been straight after waking. Closer to something that might have been familiar to Bucky in a world gone crazy. Milkshakes and apple pie, it had all seemed so easy for a heart beat.

“You’re safe with me. I would never let anyone hurt you. Not-”

He choked on the rest of the words because of course he had let Bucky hurt. He hadn’t looked for him. He’d left him hurting for decades. He sank into misery, walked into its depths with stones in his pockets, and smiled for Bucky all the while.

“It’s safe. But we’ll walk the long way to the tower. Less security cameras, if that helps.”

Bucky had to shut his eyes and ground himself back into the present moment. He had to stop his mind from spiralling into panic and bad memories. He was safe, he was with Steve. Steve was not his mission but his friend. His very best friend; the only one Bucky was willing to follow through everything. A deep breath later and Bucky reopened his eyes.

He was still in the gym and Steve was still stood in front of him with a distressed look on his face. Bucky flinched as he realised that he was the one to have caused Steve that distress. This wasn’t the first time Bucky had hurt Steve and it probably wasn’t going to be the last. Even when Steve tried to put on a smile for Bucky, he could still see the hurt in his clear blue eyes. Steve never had been good at hiding his feelings, especially from Bucky; this piece of knowledge ringing loudly in Bucky’s mind as one of the truths he could trust.

“Sorry,” the apologies tumbled from his lips. “I’m just used to lurking in the shadows. Still not used to the whole normal living thing.” Was he ever going to be used to living normally, if there was going to be such a thing for the Winter Soldier?

“Let’s go,” he said quickly, determined to let Steve lead the way. Technically Steve did still outrank him and if the good Captain wanted milkshakes, so be it. He knew this world better than he did right now. If Steve was sure that they would be safe, Bucky believed him.

@thegoodxcaptain

Finally Alone || Bucky & Steve

The funny thing was, Steve had been expecting it to much worse than it was. He had imagined every worst case scenario he could feasibly face, not entirely from a sense of emotional masochism, but more to be prepared. To dampen that dangerous flare of hope.

Being faced with a Bucky who was relatively docile, who was lucid and seemed to remember Steve, seemed almost harder than dealing with violence or anger. The horrible whisper at the back of his head took Natasha’s voice, took SHIELD’s voice, and told him this as too easy, to keep his guard up anyway. The Winter Soldier was good. The Winter Soldier never failed, and Steve was his last target after all. The last orders he’d ever been given.

Who the hell is Bucky. His heart throbbed in his chest. If this was all an elaborate plan then he’d break open, split clean in two, and never come back from it. Steve weighed the options. Acceptable risk, in the face of a chance of happiness.

“I can get you food, there’s so much food now. Howard’s son has a– a sort of butler? He can bring anything you ever want, whenever you want it.”

Sweat cooled in his collar bones, in the valley of his spine. He jerked his head to one side, eyes roaming over Bucky’s face the whole time.

“Let’s go. I’ll get you a milkshake on the way home.”

#thegoodxcaptain #here have some angst!

In truth, this was a very good day for Bucky. So far he had managed to keep the dark and disturbing memories at bay and remain focused on Steve and what memories he could call up of his friend. Steve was his friend, not his enemy. His only mission now was to recover from whatever it was that Hydra did to him and mend the broken bridges between him and Steve. The mission Hydra had tried to plant into his consciousness was no more.

At least that was what he kept telling himself.

He wasn’t going to be able to escape the after effects of decades of brainwashing so easily. Yes, ttoday was a good day but that didn’t mean tomorrow would be, or the next day, or the day after that. Was it fair of Bucky to inflict those bad days on Steve? Didn’t Steve have enough to worry about already? Bucky didn’t let himself think about that, regardless of if that was selfish of him or not. One day at a time.

Bucky was ready to follow Steve wherever he was going to lead but he stopped dead in his tracks. Steve’s oh-so-friendly gesture of getting a milkshake turned Bucky’s limbs to lead. Surely that wasn’t safe. What if someone saw Bucky and recognised him as the Winter Soldier? What if something triggered him and Hydra’s brainwashing came back and took over from his senses? What if, what if, what if.

“Are you sure about that?” He asked, clearly worried and anxious. His breaths were starting to get shallow as panic began to take hold of him. “You know best but will it be safe?” Will it be safe for him to be in public and not lurking in the shadows? Will it be safe for Steve to be seen with him? Will it be safe for Steve to stay in the company of the assassin who had tried to kill him?

Was this all a mistake Bucky shouldn’t have made?

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

“Hey, look, you’re catching on already” Tony puffed up like a peacock at the way Bucky had already caught onto his teasing. He’d always thought, from the stories, from the videos, the pictures of Bucky back in the day, that they’d get along, and he couldn’t help but want to shove it in his dad’s face that he’d been right. He seemed to be good enough for Bucky Barnes, even if he wasn’t for Howard’s precious Captain America, and his father’s whispers still lingered from his hallucinations at the Void, taunting him, screaming inadequacy into his ears until his lungs filled with it and he was drowning again in the well in Afghanistan.

Tony scratched the top of DUM-E’s head, just the apex of his three prongs, and shrugged. “One of these clutzes? Sure, no problem. Give me about two hours and I’ll have one built that doesn’t knock over everything it touches. What do you want it to do? Oh–” He turned on his heel and snapped his fingers, eyes gazing directly into Bucky’s.

“Your rooms. They have everything you need? I know Rogers is freaking out and trying to keep you locked up, but seriously, anything you need, just let me know. Amazon loves me, so– Oh, that’s an online delivery service for all sorts of things, and they love me, so if you need anything I can have it here in a day. No problem. That, and if you want your own suite, just let me know, I’m certain we have open quarters somewhere…” His eyes slid to the side as he thought. “You’re still staying with Rogers, right?”

@sergeantpunkbarnes

Bucky tried to contain his excitement about having his very own robot. If only he could go back to a younger version of himself and tell him that Howard Stark’s son was going to gift them with a robot (and maybe warn the younger Bucky about everything else)!

Even though Bucky was excited about robots and everything else, it didn’t really show in his features or his body language. He was still holding back from showing his true feelings,still unsure of how wise a move that would be. When he had been in Hydra’s clutches, they had used his emotions against him. Anything Bucky had shown them, they twisted and tortured him with it. He was still learning that it was a lot safer now to allow himself to openly emote and this process was going to take time and patience.

“Steve’s just trying to keep me safe,” Bucky said, immediately jumping to his dearest friend’s defence. He knew Tony wasn’t meaning to cause offence but Bucky couldn’t stop himself. It felt like the natural thing to do, after all Steve had done for him during his rehabilitation. “Plus I’m not locked up. I’ve locked up and what I have here isn’t it.” Dark memories stirred inside of him, threatening to block out anything positive Bucky was currently experiencing. Everything Hydra did to him was always hovering on the edges of his consciousness, waiting for any kind weakness to exploit.

Bucky swallowed the bile that had risen up in the back of his throat and shook his head in an attempt to shift the darkness back to the edges of his mind. Not now, he told himself. “Plus I like bunking with Steve. But the moment we start getting on each other’s nerves, I’ll let you know about that spare room, OK?” Bucky attempted an easy going smile and a change of subject. “So where’s this hover board then?”

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#tonystarksliquorstore

ortusxmortus

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

“Yeah, Steve. Stars and Stripes, Capsicle, The Star Spangled Boy Wonder, Captain Boy Scout, whatever you wanna call him,” Tony tossed back with a laugh and a gleaming smile, though he was already smoothly sliding the gun back across the table, where a robot plucked it up to store it in a cabinet, out of Bucky’s sight. “Another time, maybe,” he replied in turn. So Bucky wasn’t into guns. Information in the bank, easy to move on from, no good to make him uncomfortable in the only place he should be guaranteed comfort in this new time, no on Tony’s watch. “Dad was a war monger, so I’ve got too many of those types of things lying around. Come on, I’ll show you something else.”

DUM-E waggled and made a whirring noise as it turned to follow. “No–” Tony said immediately and held his hand out. “You finish cleaning and then you can come play with the big kids.” DUM-E lowered it’s head and made a low whir, turning back to the table. At this Tony groaned, and gestured for the robot to follow. “Fine, fine, but only because Sergeant here likes you.” He tossed Bucky an amused look as the robot toddled towards after them as he led them through a door and into a new room.

“I’m a spaghetti fan, but I also know this really great Italian place my mom… My mom liked. If you want to order in instead.” The crevices by his eyes crinkled slightly as he offered a glance of a smile. His eyes slid to Bucky’s arm, up again, and he opened his mouth to speak, only to jerk his head into the room. “Want to try an honest-to-god hover board? Real Back To The Future stuff. Oh wait, have you seen that yet? We have a movie room, feel free to use it any time, I think you’d really like that series, real good stuff. Just passed the anniversary of when Marty came to the future.”

There were a lot of similarities between Tony and his father, but there were also a lot of differences too. Bucky couldn’t quite put his finger on all of them but he was certain that Tony wasn’t the same man that his father was. They shared the same over-excitement for all things new and they shared the same ability to command attention. But while Bucky couldn’t quite identify the differences just yet, he was aware they were there.

Bucky glanced over his shoulder at DUM-E as he made an attempt to follow them. He nearly spoke up in defence of the robot (yeah, he was now living in a time when he could defend the right of a robot!) but Tony eventually caved and DUM-E was allowed to come with them. Bucky smiled at the robot as it whirred and caught up with them. “Can I get one of those?” Bucky asked as he thumbed towards DUM-E.

As Tony smiled, Bucky finally realised one of the differences between him and his father. Howard had loved to laugh and joke but he didn’t have the same warmth that Tony had. Bucky didn’t have time to ruminate about this as Tony moved the conversation onto hover boards and movie rooms. Bucky frowned momentarily as he tried to process all of the information Tony was giving him at once. “I haven’t seen that one yet,” he confirmed. “I’ll get Captain Spangles to add it to his list, yeah?”

#tonystarkliquorstore

Finally Alone || Bucky & Steve

That smile, it struck deep into Steve’s heart. It was terrible and a ghost of the smiles Bucky used to throw his way, but the simple fact that it even existed had the breath catching in Steve’s throat and his legs trembling with the weight of holding himself up. Good god, but he was about to cry.

It was everything he had ever wanted. Best possible outcome, no trade offs. Nobody gets hurt. Steve himself might end up with something more than his broken heart but in that moment Steve knew it was worth the risk. He was never afraid of Bucky, not even when he was busy putting three bullets in him in a ship above the Potomac.

“I’ll put cushions on the floor if you want, Buck.”

He leaned back heavily on the punch bag, giving a watery smile of his own in return. A temporary retreat into his own space while he got himself under control and could be strong for Bucky again.

“I live with Howard’s son right now, Tony Stark, you know about him? He owns the big show off place right by Grand Central Station. You’d be okay there. I have my own suite of rooms, you… you wouldn’t have to see anyone that you didn’t want to. No-one has to know where you are until you’re ready. I can keep you safe. Stark can keep you safe.”

It was selfish, he knew, but he was going to grab hold of Bucky for as long as he could keep him.

Bucky nodded in response to Steve’s assurances of safety. No one was going to be able to keep Bucky completely safe, not even Captain America, but despite knowing that, Bucky felt relief that Steve was at least willing to try.

One of his eyebrows quirked up at the mention of Howard Stark, or at least his son Tony. A distant memory of a flying car and other seemingly ultra modern inventions of Howard’s stirred and that was enough to spark Bucky’s imagination. The man with the bionic arm had always been fascinated with the futuristic possibilities of inventions. Seeing what Howard’s son had managed to achieve in these modern times excited him.

Despite that excitement he could feel starting to bubble inside of him, it didn’t show on his face. There was still too much fear and apprehension going on in his mind. Too many what if’s were casting doubt over the excitement.

“I believe you, Steve,” he said, his words not quite flowing as easily as he would have liked. He was still adjusting to talking freely without the threat of punishment being imminent. Suddenly he felt exhausted; as much as he had wanted to see Steve again, this encounter was beginning to take its toll on him. “Tell me you have food there too, as well as the couch cushions?” This was Bucky’s way of hinting that he would like to go to Steve’s home now, if it wasn’t too much trouble.

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

tonystarksliquorstore:

Tony’s expression shuttered at the mention of his father, but ever the practiced performer he put on another smirk and gestured with his head further into the lab. “Yeah, I know who you are, Sergeant. And I’ll just pretend you didn’t break into my lab–” Tony conveniently left out that he’d set JARVIS’ protocol to allow Bucky in, as well as the rest of the Avengers, “and that Sir Spangles hasn’t been hiding you in his room, and you make me dinner tonight, how about that? I’ve heard it mentioned you’re not too bad in the kitchen,” Tony intoned with a charming smile as he paced back towards where his Iron Man suits, the first ones, scrappy, banged up, and proud as ever, displayed in cases with singular lights shining down onto them.

Finally addressing Bucky’s query, he waved his hand loosely at his work bench, which, as always, is littered with welded parts, nails, bolts, and wrenches. He clicked his fingers at DUM-E and the curious robot whirred happily forward.

“You, butterfingers, clean this is, we have a guest.” Whirling on his heel back towards Bucky, he patted DUM-E on it’s “head.” “This is DUM-E. Shoulda scrapped him years ago, but–” his words are punctuated by the robot dropping a wrench onto the ground and then giving a dismayed whirr. “I got too nostalgic. Anyways, moving on. My dad really, uh… pushed me as a kid, I had a knack for engineering, went to a few schools for it, and voila, here’s my lab. I mean, it’s not like I can’t afford to material to build it all, and it gives me something to do, let’s me be useful. Also, dad’s flying car was a shitty gimic, and he knew it. I fixed it years ago, but the price point is too high for it to make any economic sense,” he finished, clearly bored by the topic of his father’s inventions. “Dearest Daddy was much better at blowing things up than building. Speaking of, want to see an honest-to-God laser gun?”

He grabbed a futuristic, sleek, shiny, metal, gun off a table and grinned. “I have a target range.”

“Sir Spangles? You mean Steve?” Bucky huffed out a laugh at Tony’s nickname for Steve. Bucky got the impression that Steve either didn’t know of this nickname or didn’t approve of it. Whichever it was, it was kinda funny. “I could be worse,” he said in reply to Tony’s statement about his talents in the kitchen, “as long as you don’t want anything too over complicated for this dinner of yours.”

Bucky stared, dumbfounded, as the robot whirled to look at Tony without any obvious eyes. It nodded at Tony’s instruction and whirred and hummed as it got to work. Bucky had a bionic arm but it still boggled his mind to see a robot act like that. This whole place was fascinating. “Pleased t’meet ya, DUM-E,” he said, giving the robot a wave and a smile.

Before Hydra, Bucky would have been blown away by the laser gun. He would have eagerly taken the weapon from Tony and shot the damn thing as many times as he could get away with at the target range. Now though, he felt sour towards guns and weapons in general. They were an essential part of society now, he knew that, and heroes like the Avengers needed weapons to protect themselves and their planets. But that didn’t mean Bucky had to like them.

“You shoot it, I’ll watch.” Bucky tried to smile as if he was relaxed and chilled about the whole gun thing but his smile was strained. He’d rather marvel at things that could fly instead of things that could harm or kill other beings. Still this was Tony’s lab and Tony’s territory; if Tony wanted to shoot things and call it having a ball, Bucky wasn’t gonna argue with the man.

@tonystarksliquorstore

#tonystarkliquorstore

Finally Alone || Bucky & Steve

It looked as if it was a huge effort for Bucky to drag up the memories, and Steve bit his tongue against the way he wanted to urge him on, talk more to remind Bucky. He’d read that he shouldn’t force things, should let the subject - he’d shuddered at that terminology, subject, object, asset, as if Bucky could ever have been less than vital, urgent, human - remember for themselves at their own pace. It was hard though, when Steve could practically feel Bucky sifting through the junk HYDRA had left in his head.

“That sounds about right for us. Me being stubborn and you being worse.”

His mother had died that day less than ten years ago in Steve’s living memory, and the afternoon was crystal clear to him. A hand on his shoulder that hadn’t felt heavy, only warm and promising. Bucky’s slicked back hair and good suit and even then, in the middle of his grief, Steve remembered thinking that Bucky was everything he wanted to be.

“Let me help you, Buck,” he said softly, hand sweeping down from Bucky’s elbow to his wrist then away, arms swinging at his side again. “You looked out for me for so long, even if you don’t remember it now, so just. Let me return the gesture. Come back with me, let me know you’re safe.”

The way Steve said ‘let me help you’ echoed inside of Bucky’s mind, reminding him of the multiple times he had said something similar to Steve. Steve didn’t ask for help often, Bucky knew that. He didn’t know how he knew that just yet but he knew it all the same.

Even though Steve meant his offer of help, Bucky was hesitant to accept it. Surely he would be a burden on Steve. Surely Steve had enough to worry about without Bucky trailing around after him like a hapless fool. The last time someone had tried to ‘help’ Bucky, he ended up with a metal arm and brainwashed.

But Steve wasn’t Hydra. Just looking at Steve told Bucky that much. Not everyone was going to use Bucky like a tool as Hydra had done (You are the new fist of Hydra, Sergeant Barnes). Steve wasn’t going to make Bucky do anything he didn’t want to do. Steve, out of all the people in the world except maybe Natalia, was going to let Bucky be Bucky.

“I don’t want to impose,” Bucky said as he looked down at his feet, as if they could offer him a clue. “But if you’re sure, I’ll go with you.” Bucky looked up again once he realised his feet had nothing of note to offer him. He gave Steve the smallest of lop-sided half-smiles. “You gonna put the couch cushions on the floor too?”

@thegoodxcaptain

Back to the Future || Bucky & Tony

@tonystarksliquorstore:

JARVIS, as Tony had programmed him to years ago, alerted Tony as soon as the door to his lab opened and Bucky took a step in. “Sir, Sergeant Barnes has entered into your laboratory. His intentions appear to be non-aggressive. He seems… curious, sir.” Tony himself was in his room, for once, a towel in one hand as he padded towards his bathroom to shower the grease and oil and grime away from his most recent tinkering session.

Barnes. James Buchanan Barnes, known to his friends and family as Bucky, Steve’s best friend and lost love, the man with the iron arm, was in Tony’s lab, and he was… curious. With a spike of excitement Tony dropped his towel and with it all intent of showering, scooting towards his personal elevator and jabbing at the button. “Thanks, J-Man.”

Four seconds later and the elevator doors to his lab are sliding open soundlessly.

“I still say that myself, sometimes, when I stop to look around, and I built the place,” he intoned with a small, cocky, smile. “I usually use a few more expletives, too.” Crossing over to Bucky, he stuck his hand out. “Tony Stark. I think we’ve met. I’ve heard quite a few stories about you, you know. Practically grew up on them.”

And he had, after all. Tony’d grown up with his father telling him borderline-reverent stories about the Commandos, about Sergeant Barnes, and of course, Captain Steve Rogers, the man he could never, never, live up to, much to his father’s chagrin. He’d grown up under the weight of it all, completely in awe and filled with deep respect for the men his father spoke of, and hatred that his father never once looked at him or his achievements with an ounce of that same pride. Failure, Howard whispered.

Still, Tony’s warm, brown, eyes never wavered from Bucky’s face, and he offered a genuine smile. “Want me to show you around?”

Bucky didn’t turn to look at Stark as he entered the lab. The sight of all the suits and gadgets and thing-a-me-bobs was too captivating for Bucky to look away. Everything was so... shiny! This really was living in the future. If only Howard Stark could see all of this now. Surely he would be proud of his boy creating all of these wonderful machines!

It was only when Tony stuck out his hand to Bucky that Bucky blinked and looked at something that wasn’t one of Tony’s incredible inventions. Damn but did Tony look like Howard. It was like looking at a ghost and it took Bucky a moment to take it all in and make sense of it. He shook Tony’s hand and grinned at him. “Bucky Barnes,” he said before releasing Tony’s grip. His eyes didn’t linger on Tony for much long, going back to the hypnotising sight of Tony’s workshop. “You made all of this? Just you? How?”

He couldn’t explain why but he felt pride on behalf of Tony. Perhaps it stemmed from Bucky’s passion for all things futuristic so being able to stand in such a place next to the man who had built it all, Bucky was proud of Tony and his achievements. Tony had built suits that could fly and shot weapons and save the day and that was just the start of it.

“Please, show me around,” Bucky said finally, again having to tear his eyes away from all the shiny objects in the room so he could address Tony directly. “Your father would have gone cock-eyed for this place. You know I took Steve to a Stark Expo and your father was there with his flying car? But that was nothing compared to this.”

#tonystarkliquorstore

Finally Alone || Bucky & Steve

@thegoodxcaptain:

The moves were wrong, somehow. Bucky wouldn’t have hesitated or stuttered over his words, wouldn’t have wavered on the spot. Steve shouldn’t have been doing it either. But the years Steve had spent sleeping and Bucky had spent killing his way through the twentieth century had changed them in ways that could prove irreparable. Still, the Bucky before him then was different to the Winter Soldier that Steve had confronted all those months ago, and something in Steve’s heart, a small quiet place, dared to hope.

He’d read books of course. Used the internet, researched conditioning, electrotherapy, psychological torture. Harrowing stuff that haunted Steve’s dreams, and really he thought it was a miracle that Bucky was even standing, let alone expressing a desire to “want” to do anything without being told. It was the use of that word, “want”, rusty with disuse that convinced Steve more than anything else, and he stood up straight and came close enough to curl a bandaged hand around Bucky’s metal arm. The arm had haunted his dreams, too, had stalked him through the battles with the Foesitians, but Steve didn’t fear it, not really.

The one thing no-one would ever understand was that until Steve died for Bucky, the metal arm would be a reminder of a debt unpaid. A guilt that would remain unresolved.

“I was never a joke to you,” Steve started, his eyes suddenly and shockingly swimming.

“Not even when I was a joke to everyone else. I’m Steve, and you’re Bucky. My best friend. Nothing about that has changed.”

His fingers curled fractionally tighter, as if he could will the memories from his body into the other. It stung a little that Bucky had gone to find Nat first, but it didn’t really matter. Bucky was there then, real and solid in front of him.

“Remember what I said to you before the ship went down? End of the line. I never could lie to you, pal.”

Bucky stared with wide eyes down at his hand as Steve took it in his own. That contact sent a barrage of emotions and sensations through him. He wasn’t able to feel touch through his metal arm like a normal one would but the sight of Steve’s hand on his arm made him think as if he could feel that touch. It made his heart skip a beat or two and his breathing became shallow for a couple of breaths.

Steve had always been on the edge of his consciousness, even when he was in the depths of his torture at the hands of Hydra. Steve was there, out of reach and out of focus, so much so that Bucky had convinced himself that he didn’t exist. It wasn’t until that moment on the bridge (“Bucky?” “Who the hell is Bucky?”) that he began to realise that Steve was real. Hope had been drained out of Bucky though and it wasn’t until now that he dared to let the tiniest of slithers of it back into his life.

Bucky looked up from their hands and back into Steve’s eyes, seeing the tears that brimmed there. There was no reason for Steve to lie to him now, no reason for any deception or conditioning to make Bucky fall into line. Steve’s words were honest and genuine, just like they always had been. Steve couldn’t lie, Bucky reminded himself as vague, shadowy memories of their childhood tried to surface in his mind.

They were in trouble. Bucky said they should lie. Steve wasn’t so sure. Bucky said: leave the talking to me. Steve agreed. Steve’s mom Sarah was staring them down. Bucky kept his cool. Steve tried to too. Sarah saw right through him. Later Steve tried to apologise. Bucky laughed and told Steve to keep his mouth shut in future.

“I said that to you first.” Bucky’s words were quiet as he was unsure if his memories were the same ones Steve had. “I said I’m with you ‘til the end of the line first. You were smaller then.” Bucky frowned, trying to piece together how Steve’s physical appearance had managed to changed so dramatically. “You were being stubborn about- something. So I said it. And I meant it.”

Hello Again Little Spider