WinterIron, M, 2k - No-Powers AU, the DUMBEST soulmate AU you’ve ever seen
In theory, the moment you meet your soulmate you’re stripped of all your defenses, laid bare before them in a magical and romantic moment.
In practice… Tony is pissed. He’d really liked that suit.
(AKA the soulmate AU where you lose your clothes when you meet your soulmate. Yes you read that correctly. Don’t think about it too hard lort knows I didn’t)
You ever have an idea that’s so fantastically cracky you just HAVE to do it?
See what happened was…. I said to @saganarojanaolt, AS A JOKE, “Soulmate AU where your clothes vanish.”
I’d like to blame her for enabling me but honestly this is mostly all me I just couldn’t stop ahahaha please… enjoy..?
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Tony knows that Happy has been tactfully avoiding him since the latest incident, but he also knows that Happy is going to be in his office all day today. Tony has had Pepper saving up all of Happy’s paperwork all week to dump it on him today for just that reason, because Tony is tired of chasing him all over the place and Pepper has refused to help any more than that.
And JARVIS won’t help either, that traitor, just because Happy plays chess with the AI and never gets tired of being beat.
But now Happy has nowhere to run, he should be done with the interviews Tony saw on his calendar and just diving into the paperwork and Tony is ready to strike.
“Happy Harold Hogan,” Tony is already saying as he bursts into the office and oops, apparently Happy is not quite done with his last interview yet.
That seems the most likely reason for the man with the brand new suit and the broad shoulders standing across the desk from Happy, apparently forgetting that they were in the middle of shaking hands and jumping as he looks up at Tony with wide eyes. It’s too late to stop now though, Tony has been planning this speech for days, he is on a roll, so he just keeps right on going.
And honestly, if the guy is going to work here he deserves to know that his new boss is a lunatic. And yes, Tony does mean Happy and himself.
“I have a very important question for you,” Tony says, fixing his own attention on Happy again because he doesn’t need to add ‘eyes up the employees’ to this interesting first impression he’s making on the new hire here.
Happy is staring back at him with his mouth hanging open and his eyebrows slowly crawling up his forehead, which Tony is going to take as a sign that he doesn’t want the talking-to he’s about to get but that’s too bad.
“Why,” Tony demands, “am I still hearing that you’re frisking the delivery people? We talked about this. There’s 'taking security seriously’ and then there’s you and you are a lawsuit waiting to happen, stop-”
That’s about the time Tony notices Happy’s office is a lot cooler than he expected. And breezier. Which isn’t right, Tony is in a three piece suit today and he rushed down here before Happy had a chance to grab his paperwork and flee, so he glances dam at himself and sure enough-
“Oh come on,” Tony says, staring down at his own bare chest in dismay. And his bare legs. And his stupid novelty boxers. The cartoon platypuses smile back up at him from the neon blue fabric.
“Meetin’ your soulmate on laundry day, huh?” Says the other guy in the room, who is apparently Tony’s soulmate, and he sounds way too amused, “I used to have those nightmares.”
Wait no would you mind also talking a bit about how/why Winteriron works as a ship?? I've never really understood that dynamic but i'm so curious bc bucky and tony are both such compelling characters!
WOULD I MIND?!
BOY HOWDY!
This is gonna be long, Buckle Up:
At first glance and from a strictly canon setting (which is where all fan fiction and pairings start, right?) nothing about Tony and Bucky makes sense and I have no issue admitting that.
BUT because the whole point of fan fiction is to look BELOW the surface and find all the subtext and goodness and draw conclusions from scarce source material (and lets be honest, sometimes just make shit up out of thin air because we want to), here's why I think Winteriron is not only a top tier ship, but also one that given enough time and context and actual character development could end up being a well developed canon relationship platonic or otherwise that could do WONDERS for the ideas of solidarity, the realities of shared trauma and showing how circumstances out of our control that lead to terrible events can still turn into something beautiful through healing and communication and trust.
First of all, much like Steve and Tony, Bucky and Tony's lives are completely connected at several defining moments from the obvious ones (like murder and super soldier serum) right to the ones we can guess through context ie: Tony probably grew up hearing stories of Bucky from the Commandos and from Howard. That alone, that shared history means that in a canon setting there could realistically be a point where Bucky starts a story and Tony could finish it because he'd heard it so many times. Also, because of Captain Rogers being Howard's pet project and Bucky's best friend, Tony and Bucky are both connected to Steve which makes it easier to connect to each other.
Lets talk about some shared trauma. Both Tony and Bucky went on what should have been a standard sort of mission/event and ended up being taken by baddies, were held against their will, had their bodies altered in horrifyingly painful ways, underwent torture and mind games, have to carry the weight of guilt for innocent lives lost as collateral damage when they were just doing what needed to be done (escaping in Tony's case, carrying out missions while brainwashed in Bucky's case), both were under the impression that they were doing One Thing when in reality they were doing Another-- Tony learning about the weapons sales and Bucky having been told 'he's helping change the world' by Pierce, both were villainized when they weren't even 100% aware of what was happening and in CACW, both had to stand there and watch their worst nightmare play out on the screen-- Bucky watching himself as the WS kill people he'd called friends at one point and Tony watching his parents be murdered and BOTH had to realize that Steve had known the entire time which is a form of betrayal on different levels for each of them but still terrible, and finally BOTH Tony and Bucky are constantly trying to navigate a world that is constantly changing in huge ways, and a society that sees them as one thing while they are actively trying to be another. THAT IS SOME SHARED TRAUMA YO
Tony and Bucky's stories both have over arching elements of redemption/making amends and both physical and internal healing. Bucky's story happens more off screen in the main MCU movies but even in CACW we see him "I don't kill people anymore" and then he spends that time in Wakanda breaking free of his mental programming and then all of FATWS where he's actively making amends and actively trying to better himself. Tony's story is more on screen with his IM2 near death and IM3 PTSD and AOU paranoia etc etc etc but it all comes down to redemption and making amends, and then with Bucky's not wanting to wear his arm in IW and with Tony removing his arc reactor/changing it to nano vs a physical thing in his chest they are making physical changes to reflect their inner change and healing. Same Same. So much in common there.
They are both extremely pretty people. That's not super important but it's worth mentioning.
Also not super important but important to me is that Tony pulled his punches in Siberia with Bucky (attacking out of shock and grief) and Bucky pulled his as well (self defense and self loathing) because there's no reason why they didn't full on kill each other. Tony could have obliterated Bucky. Bucky could have crushed Tony's head between his palms. Steve and his Frisbee didn't matter. Hand to Hand, Bucky and Tony could have absolutely killed each other AND DIDN'T. Tony screaming "do you even remember them" and Bucky screaming "I remember all of them". Just so much pain and neither one so blinded by their pain they were willing to cross that final line and kill each other.
Add all this shared history, shared trauma, shared steps along the journey to healing together and then give us a setting where Bucky and Tony are actually spending time together in the same setting (like in the compound where so many post CACW fics take place) and you have two men with decades of history to talk about, wells of grief that are linked to several of the same events and who can look at Steve and then look at each other and roll their eyes at him being bonkers.
AND THEN MOVING PAST ALL OF THOSE CANON LEVEL REASONS lets look at some characterizations.
Bucky is a sass master as proved by most of his interactions with Steve in the Cap movies. Tony is a sass master as proved by everything. They could eat popcorn and talk shit about anyone and it would be hilarious.
Bucky is a flirt and Tony is a flirt. They could bond over bad dates, awkward flirting, eventually flirt with each other, give each other butterflies when the one who is used to doing the flirting suddenly gets his socks flirted right off.
Bucky has great hair. Tony has great hair. That doesn't actually matter, but it's worth noting. They are a beautiful couple.
Bucky spent the better part of his formative years trying to protect Steve and Tony needs to be protected. Bucky has nightmares and Tony has ways to help cope with nightmares that may or may not include impromptu flights to cool places or ridiculously huggable pillows or one of his (CANON) ever present snacks.
Bucky enjoys science (canon!) and Tony is rewriting science as the world knows it. Bucky has a robot arm and Tony has a robot everything which means he can help Bucky with his arm when it acts up. Neither man wants to fight anymore, neither man wants to be a soldier. Tony takes a break and eats a donut, Bucky takes a break and brings cake to the cookout... give these boys some snacks and let them REST.
AND THEN (I told you this was a lot) here's my favorite reason for writing Winteriron:
There is something so beautiful about two very broken people finding each other and realizing that all those broken pieces of one heart fit just right into all the broken places of the others soul.
Tony overcoming his grief and anger and telling Bucky "come down to the lab, I'll work on your arm, I know it hurts you" and Bucky being terrified of the machinery and of having anyone close to him operating on the scariest part of himself but swallowing that back to whisper "thank you" as they sit close together.
Bucky apologizing for what happened with Tony's parents and Tony shaking his head and telling Bucky he understands what it means to be used for something out of his control and that he knows it wasn't Bucky it was the Winter Soldier and it wasn't Bucky's fault.
The way the same things would realistically trigger them and having someone who shares the triggers and being able to avoid/mask/counter the triggers TOGETHER instead of trying to go it alone.
The way Tony Stark is TONY STARK to the public but at home he's someone different and Bucky is THE WINTER SOLDIER but sometimes he wishes he could just be James and together they can hide away and just be themselves or at least have the time and safety to figure out who they actually ARE.
The body worship because Tony's chest is destroyed by the arc reactor and Bucky's left side looks like a horror show but when they are naked together, it's just beautiful because the scars mean that they both survived what happened to them and they're still here and that's something Steve with all his golden glory just doesn't understand. Not that Steve doesn't have his own internal scars, but Bucky and Tony wear their trauma on their skin where everyone can see it and that brings them together too. (Let's be clear, I love Steve and Stuckony and Stony but this is about Winteriron and the scars/body horror is a big thing for them)
PLUS the redemption. THE REDEMPTION. The forgiveness that is whispered between choking apologies. The nightmares that keep them up at night and the way the sunrise brings soft confessions and vulnerability. The way Tony covers up his reactor and his scars and Bucky covers his arm and shoulder and the fragility of the moment when they are bared to each other. The smiles that are so often for show and for the public but then turn to frowns when no one is looking, then between Winteriron are finally actually REAL and maybe no one else ever actually sees it.
And entirely selfishly on my part, the way Tony stammers and blushes when Bucky winks and calls him "sweet thing" and "babydoll" and the way Bucky gets real quiet and awestruck when Tony doesn't pull away from those dangerous silver fingers and never makes him feel like a monster. The way Bucky can be sort of grossly romantic with Tony and Tony can get shamelessly spoiled and then also shamelessly SPOIL and Bucky can find out what it means to be loved unconditionally. How Bucky can protect Tony heart body and soul. How Tony can give Bucky a safe place to rest and heal. How the way they understand each other is something they've had to work for and strive for and CRY for but that only makes it all the more beautiful in the end.The way they laugh unbridled and nearing hysteria with each other because they can be honest and real and Tony snorts when he laughs and Bucky thinks its the stupidest sexiest thing ever.
OH AND ALSO the size difference? Gorgeous. But the way they give and take equally when it comes to emotions and how they need? BETTER THAN GORGEOUS. Plus its a ship that feels switchy as in, even though Bucky is mega beefy and Tony is pocket sized, it still feels real to have Tony top with Bucky when it NEVER feels real to have Tony top with Beefy Steve or Thor. So not only is Winteriron there for each other in every emotional way, but depending on what the other needs in bed, they can meet in the middle and work it out there too. Bucky can take care of Tony physically mentally and emotionally. Tony can then take care of Bucky physically mentally and emotionally. It’s wonderful.
Honestly Winteriron is just gorgeous and I could talk about them forever and ever.
Imagine being Bucky Barnes, deadly trained assassin, and having Tony Stark fight you in hand to hand combat without his suit and with barely any weapons, actually matching your speed and competence as well as literally dismantling your gun in your hands as you’re fighting with it with expert efficiency and then hitting you with the dismantled piece. I would have a fucking stroke I would fall in love like holy shit.
