18 for winteriron maybe???
I went three-Jameses-in-one with this, hope you don't mind.
18. Things you said when you were scared - Winteriron
Tony Stark is lying there like a broken, battered doll; he's trapped in his own armour, and he's pinned beneath Howard's shield with Steve towering over him, and James can't breathe.
Let me, Winter murmurs, let me.
No, Bucky interjects, furious and breathless, and James grips his hair and tugs in a panic so deep that Bucky feels every horrible tremor it elicits from his soul. Winter grunts, feels it too, and withdraws to re-evaluate.
Bucky envies him for it, the abilty the Winter Soldier has to distance himself - his actions - the consequences because while Bucky is a soldier in his own right, he's all too aware of the cost it takes to do what he does, and all too familiar with weighing the aftermath of one trauma and another.
"Steve, no," James whimpers because even if he knows differently, James is all heart; all the soft bits of Bucky and Winter both; the vulnerability and the hurt they aren't allowed. James is the part of them that still hopes, the one that believes there still something to be saved. "Don't do it, Steve."
Winter is the one that takes the wheel as the shield comes down again, but that isn't enough to mute another sickening crunch. Metal, glass, bone. Tony chokes wordlessly, and over the audio of that video playing on an endless loop, Maria Stark cries, and Bucky can't - he can't -
Let me, Winter murmurs, and James is frozen and Bucky can't fucking -
Save him, Bucky demands in a terrified whisper. Save him.
And Winter does what they can't - he moves, he acts.
He stands over Tony, looks Steve in the eye, and feels that familiar blinding rage at the look of kinship in Steve's expression.
Like they're the same. Like Steve didn't just willfully betray his friend, like he didn't hide the Starks' murders from their son, like Steve had no choice in hurting Tony in all the ways he has, like he's resigned to the inevitability of breaking Tony's heart and destroying his body while he's at it.
And it's all three of them, Winter, Bucky and James, tugging their arm to throw Steve clear through three walls until he's in a lifeless pile of limbs.
He's not dead, Winter notes.
Don't, James tells Winter. Don't finish it.
Winter tilts his head, allows it and shifts his focus down to Tony who's looking up at him; gaze fever bright and wide-eyed, and Bucky is afraid because he knows that look; the desperation, the fear of catching Death's eye and knowing that it'll come for you; it's a star collapsing before it becomes a black hole, and even though Tony is breathing, sharp and fast, hands scrambling for purchase to fight back, Tony's already done the calculations in his head, he knows how it will end.
If nothing else, they respect it, his willingness to see the end of it. But, "Not today," Winter tells him which makes Tony blink in surprise.
"I'm sorry," James interjects, and their face is doing something sincere because when next the words come, "I'm so sorry," even Winter is surprised that they're capable of it.
Tony's gaze flickers around his face, a fleeting look of confusion Tony smothers with his distrust, and Bucky does his best not to fidget while Winter keeps an eye out for Steve; in case he gets up, in case he tries to go for Tony again.
"I don't understand," Tony manages, frustrated; angry, pained.
"I know, it's hard to explain," Bucky says, lifting the shield off Tony's chest and casting it aside, and then stooping down to lift him. "You're hurt, we gotta...we gotta go," James is saying then, sounding young, sounding worried.
"Wait," and Tony is looking at the heap that is Steve, and it's Bucky who tells him with a certainly that hurts, "He wasn't going to stop."
Still, Tony insists, "We can't leave him."
Through the doorway, the Black Panther appears, and after a silent assessment of their states, and a lingering look at the video that plays over and over, the king steps aside with a quiet, "The jet is here." Then, "I've got him."
Bucky doesn't give up Tony's weight, instead shouldering on through the door. The king can handle Steve, but James and Bucky and Winter, they have Tony.
"Barnes," the man manages.
"You're okay, you'll be okay," James tells him.
Again, another breath is forced through his mouth, and Tony demands weakly, "How do you figure that?"
It's Winter who answers, "James told me to stop, and Bucky told me to save you. Those are the only things they've ever asked of me, and I won't fail them."
Tony exhales noisily, before with a broken sort of chuckle he says, "Surprisingly, knowing there's three of you in there isn't the weirdest thing to happen today."
"What's the weirdest?" James can't help but ask and this time Tony outright laughs, practically hysterical as he replies, "That after what just happened in there that I even want to be saved."
