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Moving into the tower was one of the hardest things Bucky’s ever had to do. Discovering he was in the future where all he once knew was gone, and where his best friend was the leader of an elite superhero group, came as more than a little bit of a shock to him.
He supposes he could have been considered unstable and potentially dangerous at the time, so Steve’s idea to welcome him into the misfit group in small strides did make a lot of sense. When he’d first stepped foot into the tower, with the futuristic computers that fit in a person’s palm and video games people could play in the comfort of their own homes, he was understandably overwhelmed.
It’d taken him two days to recover his composure and relax into what would become his new home. On the third day, Steve began to introduce him to the rest of the team. He was apprehensive at first, but, upon meeting them, his apprehensiveness grew to agitation. It wasn’t that they weren’t nice and welcoming people, because they were, they just handled him like he was fragile or alien.
Bruce had flashed him sympathetic smiles whenever they would make eye contact, and the assassin twins would glance at him and whisper among themselves. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem to him back in the ‘40s, because he knew that sympathy was something that wasn’t easily avoided, so he’s since learned to cope with it, and he didn’t have super hearing to pick up on anything whispered behind his back.
So, he’d had to listen to Clint and Natasha’s back and forth of how he couldn’t be mentally stable, and how he’d have to be handled with care, lest he break and go on a crazy killing spree whilst everyone was asleep. Whenever he would approach the two for a friendly conversation, though, they’d patronize him and speak to him like he couldn’t understand the english that they spoke. Just because he didn’t have much to say didn’t mean he couldn’t understand what others were saying.
He didn’t know what to think about Thor. He was loud and jovial, and seemed like he’d be an alright guy, but he hadn’t come in contact much since his arrival. He thinks Steve said something about Thor travelling to New Mexico or somewhere to meet with his girlfriend a day after being introduced to Bucky.
At this point, about a week and a half after moving into the tower, Bucky was about fed up. He felt like all he needed was a bit of normalcy and honesty to help him cope, but it seemed like no one at the tower would offer it. And Bucky refused to ask for it. Being the stubborn, pig-headed man that he knows he is, he knew he would have rather suffered than ask for assistance.
It was on a bright, chilly day that Steve introduced him to Tony.
“Now, I was saving Tony for last because he can be a bit much,” Steve had said. “I didn’t want to add him to the burden of waking up in a new world right away. He and I didn’t get off on the right foot, but now I know he’s a good man. He’s a little crazy and can be downright mean sometimes, but he is a good man. You just have to give him a chance.”
By the time Steve was done his little spiel, they were standing outside a sleek metal door that was vibrating with the beats of some horrific-sounding music. The entire situation could not have been any more intimidating, Bucky had thought, and he wasn’t one to be scared easily.
When Steve typed in a code on the keypad on the wall, the door slid open and the music stopped abruptly. Bucky spared one glance back at his best friend before stepping inside the room.
The lights were out, but blue lights that glowed like the milky way sashayed around the room, twirling lazily and illuminating the room with a soft blush. Bucky’s first thought upon entering the room was that the future must be beautiful, if something like this was created in it. And then Bucky laid his eyes upon the man standing in the center of it all, with his jaw slack and his curly brown hair tousled, and he thought that the future must be even more beautiful, if a man like this was created in it.
After staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity, gaping like fish out of water, Steve cleared his throat which caused both men to startle minutely.
“Bucky, this is Tony. Tony, Bucky,” he said, glancing between the two men suspiciously.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, handsome,” Tony had said with his silky smooth voice and a suggestive smirk plastered on his face.
And Bucky had grinned for the first time since entering the tower, because finally someone was treating him like he wasn’t gonna snap.
That was the moment he realized he was entirely and inescapably falling for this man.
Bucky had spent all his free time in Tony’s workshop since their introduction. He liked the feeling of being treated normally, and he loved spending time with this extraordinary man. He spoke at too-fast speeds and never stopped to catch his breath, and he paced around the room when he was frustrated at himself because he couldn’t think of a proper solution, and he pretended to be angry with his ‘bots when they spilled oil all over his workspace.
But what Bucky loved most of all about Tony, was the way he looked at him. Like Bucky was the best thing since pre-sliced bread and like he was a prize that Tony had won, and not the other way around. He found himself coming out of the shell of The Winter Soldier, and morphing back into James Buchanan Barnes, the man who was suave and funny and happy. And it was all thanks to Tony.
One day, a few weeks after Bucky moved into the tower, Tony called him down to his workshop. Eager to spend as much time with the man as possible, Bucky hustled down to the ‘shop and entered when the door opened for him automatically.
“Hey, how would you feel about a new arm?” he called upon Bucky’s arrival. “Because I know yours is a crappy piece of crap, and I could make a much better one. One you could fight with. One you could be an Avenger with.”
Bucky has no shame in saying that he was scared at the first notion of his arm being scrutinized and altered, but he knew he could trust Tony with that kind of thing. Plus, he was cleared by SHIELD the previous week, and he could help fight alongside the Avengers if he so pleased.
“I’d love it.”
So Tony got to work, and within the week, he had a lighter and sturdier and perfect arm, crafted by the man he now knew he was head-over-heels for.
“Hey, Buck, can I ask you something?” Tony had asked one day about two months after Bucky’s return.
“Sure. What’s up?” he replied, nervousness pooling deep in his gut.
“Would you like to go to dinner with me?” he murmured with uncertainty lacing his tone.
Bucky could feel his jaw drop and his eyes widen.
“I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that for a while now,” he smiled.
Tony had walked him to his room after eating at a fancy italian restaurant down the street from the tower, and placed a chaste kiss upon his lips before leaving.
They’ve been dating for almost three years now, and neither of them have ever been happier in their lives. They go on romantic dates, and fight deadly monsters together, and it just seems to get better with every moment.
They’re idiots in love, and the rest of the team has no problem in pointing it out.
They kiss at the dinner table, and Clint makes fake gagging sounds and excuses himself from the table.
They make love at night, having no problem with being vocal, and Steve bangs on the ceiling and shouts that the rest of the tower is trying to sleep.
They snuggle and take up the whole couch on movie nights, and Natasha pushes at them until they wind up sharing a single cushion by the arm of the couch.
They hold hands when walking around the tower together, and Thor makes sure to catch up and hold their hands, just to be a little shit.
They lounge around Bruce’s lab, whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears until Bruce kicks them out for being too sappy.
It’s all going great, until it’s not.
It’s a particularly rough battle, everyone on the team taking hits. There are various sprains and scrapes on everyone, but no serious injuries. Up until Tony gets snatched out of the air by one of the many arms of the lizard-like creature with arms that squeeze tight and refuse to let go. Clint claims that they were just like the anacondas he came in contact with while on a mission in Ecuador, and he is enraged that a giant lizard has anaconda arms.
Steve works hard on slicing the arm off with the sharp edges of his shield, and Clint shoots explosive arrows at its base, but it still takes too long to detach. Tony’s hoarse howls echo through the comms. When Tony’s finally released by the arm, Bucky rushes to catch him and books his ass back to the tower without a word to the rest of the team. He knows that he should stay to help, because the battle’s a hard one and the team could use all the help they can get, but he sees the mangled leg of Tony’s suit and the blood dripping from the cracks, and he can’t help but tuck tail and run. He has no idea what other injuries lie beneath the slick metal.
Tony’s unresponsive to all of Bucky’s pleas to stay with him, so he picks up pace and pushes himself faster than he ever has before.
“Please, baby, I need you. Hang in there,” he cries against the metal encased head that’s cradled on his chest.
He has every scrap of metal, sans the leg, peeled off of Tony by the time the rest of the team gets back to the tower. Looking back, he figures he should’ve reacted a little bit better and maybe brought him to medical rather than the tower, but the past is the past and everyone arrives in a timely manner.
“Help him!” Bucky demands as soon as Bruce enters the room.
Tony is lying on their bed, all sweat-soaked hair and deathly pale skin.
“Let me get some bandages. Take off the leg of the suit now, and be ready to try to stop the bleeding,” Bruce tells him, calm under pressure as always.
Bucky strips off the metal as gently as possible, but still manages to jostle Tony’s leg. When Bucky reaches the ankle piece, Tony begins to stir. His eyes squeeze shut tight and his eyebrows furrow together.
“Easy there, Tony,” Clint murmurs in Tony’s ear by the head of the bed. “You’re hurt pretty badly. Just take it easy.”
Bucky manages to rip the rest of the metal off while Tony’s distracted by Clint’s soothing words, and Bruce returns with bandages.
He feels lightheaded when he sees Bruce working away on Tony.
“Whoa, Buck,” he hears someone, maybe Steve, say from the distance. A second later, strong arms wrap around his chest and guide him toward the ground.
He’s not quite aware of what happened to him, and he doesn’t really care either, but when he wakes up, Tony’s gone and he’s lying on his bed, clean white sheets replacing the bloodied ones. He sits up and spots Natasha, who is sitting on the arm of their comfiest chair. She’s reading some book, and he wonders how she’s so calm in this situation. Then he remembers that no one loves Tony the way he does, and no one can be feeling the way that he does because his boyfriend is injured and he doesn’t know what happened.
“Tony’s okay,” she starts with, and Bucky could kiss her for it. “We had to bring him to medical. His leg was broken and Bruce couldn’t do any more for him. He has some bruised ribs, too, but he’s perfectly fine otherwise. Do you want to go see him?”
Bucky grins up at her, relief flooding his veins, making him feel light and dopey. He hops out of the bed, a little shaky on his legs, and follows Natasha out of the room. She borrows a flashy car from Tony’s garage and Bucky climbs in the passenger seat. He glares out the window and chews on his fingernails until they arrive at SHIELD medical.
As soon as the car comes to a stop, he hops out of the car and bounds through the halls until he comes across Tony’s room. The rest of the team is sitting around him, all laughing happily.
“Tony,” he breathes when he sees that he’s awake.
“Hey,” his boyfriend grins back. “You okay?”
“I should be asking you that,” he says as he eyes the cast that encases Tony’s leg.
“Well, I was awake before you.”
Bucky huffs out a laugh at that and sits in an unoccupied chair, watching as the team shares a look before filing out. They know that Bucky needs to check up on Tony in private.
As soon as he has Tony’s hand in his own, Bucky begins to cry, the fear and grief and anxiety all flowing out of his body at once.
“I’m okay, babe, and so are you,” Tony says, squeezing Bucky’s hand in his own. “Everything is alright.”
Bucky believes him, because everyone is alright and he’s never had a reason to be skeptical of Tony’s word. When they get home a day later, though, Tony heads straight for the workshop and refuses to let anyone in. Not even Bucky.
He’s never shut Bucky out before, no matter what.
He starts to think that maybe something is wrong.
He calls Tony’s cell, and his landline, and he bangs on the workshop door, and he asks JARVIS if he could please, please, please let him in. But nothing works. After the first two days, Bucky is very worried. After the third, he’s angry. After the fourth, he’s terrified. What if Tony had some kind of epiphany when he was hurt, and he realizes that Bucky isn’t what he wants. What if he’s planning the break up?
He goes to Bruce, because Bruce knows Tony better than anyone else. Bruce assures him that Bucky shouldn’t worry. That he should give him some time and he’ll open up.
That calms Bucky down for a day, but he’s wound tighter than before the next day, when Tony still doesn’t open the door.
It’s the sixth day that Tony asks Bucky to come down to the ‘shop, and Bucky doesn’t know if he’s going to kiss or punch his boyfriend when he gets there. He thinks maybe he’ll do both.
When he enters room, he gets a vague sense of déjà vu. Tony is standing in the center of the room, a milky way of blue lights swaying lazily around, casting an ethereal glow across Tony’s face.
Bucky feels the tightness in his jaw loosen slightly.
“I want to show you something,” Tony says with something that sounds like insecurity in his voice.
“Not sure if I want to see that somethin’,” Bruce shoots back, and he immediately regrets it when Tony flinches minutely from his voice, his crutches clattering together quietly.
“I know I’ve been acting like a dick, and I totally deserve it. But please just hear me out, Buck,” he replies quietly. He’s been staring at the floor and tapping his fingers against his chest where the arc reactor used to be. It’s an obvious sign of his uncertainty, and Bucky decides to give him the benefit of the doubt then.
“Fine,” he grunts after a second’s hesitation.
He follows Tony to one of the darker corners of the room, and he knows that Tony can’t see a thing at all, because it’s difficult for Bucky to see even with the serum. But Tony steps surely, even while hobbling along on the crutches, like he knows exactly where he’s going. They stop in front of a table, with a thick cloth draped over it and whatever lays upon it.
Tony grips the cloth like he’s going to remove it, but pauses in his movement.
“If you don’t like it, I won’t hold it against you. Don’t feel obligated to take it or anything, okay?” he says without turning his back.
“Sure, yeah,” he replies, because he doesn’t know what else to say to that.
Tony uncovers an arm with a band of light, which looks suspiciously like the cool blue color of the arc reactor, wrapped around the ring finger. It’s gorgeous and sleek and perfect, and Bucky feels his eyes prick with tears.
When he turns from the arm to look at Tony, he’s still somewhat surprised to see him kneeling on one knee, despite seeing the ‘ring’. His casted leg is held carefully from the floor, and it all looks very precarious, but it makes the sentiment all the more sweet.
“James Buchanan Barnes, will you marry me?” Tony asks, hope and anxiety written clearly on his face.
Bucky doesn’t hesitate in his answer.
“Of course I will, punk,” he says, choked up.
He lifts Tony from the floor and hugs him tight to his chest.
“Now why don’t you hook me up with that new arm?” he says into Tony’s ear.
“Do you like it?” Tony asks as Bucky places him back on the floor.
“I love it. Almost as much as I love you,” he replies before kissing him passionately, like he wanted to while Tony was locked away in the ‘shop. It evolves into something heated and intense, tongues swiping and teeth biting, and they both grind and moan until they can’t breathe any longer.
“Love you, too, handsome,” Tony pants.
“But,” Bucky starts, “What was going on with you? You could have still talked to us and let us know you were alive at least. We were all worried.”
Tony bites his lip as he guides Bucky to a chair and sits him down.
“I was just, y’know, panicking. I- well, I had a few panic attacks,” he says, and he cuts Bucky off when he tries to interrupt. “I know you would’ve wanted to help, yeah, but I just wanted to work through them alone. They were, well, they weren’t the normal panic attacks. They were about you,” he says.
And damn it all to hell if that didn’t hurt. Tony was panicking, because of him? Why?
“It’s not- ugh. It’s not like whatever you’re thinking. Just, when I got hurt, I realized how much I loved you. I was getting squeezed to death by that lizard thing, and all I could think about was you. How much I need you. And then I was scared that I’d die without you knowing. And I just needed to get this done before I combusted, and I needed you to know. Looking back on it, I see that it was an awful idea…”
“Worse than an awful idea,” Bucky says, “but I see where you’re coming from. I understand, but I’m still mad.”
“I’m sorry, Buck.”
“Your apology noted, acceptance is pending,” he tells him.
Tony pouts and all Bucky can do is laugh. Sometimes he swears his lover is a kid, but he couldn’t love him any more.
“Yeah, well, anyway. Let’s get this ring on, huh?”
He hovers above Bucky in the chair toward the center of the room, the blue lights still glimmering in the dark. He deftly detaches the arm, and Bucky feels panic grip tight at his chest, but Tony murmurs words of reassurance in his ear, and the new arm is on in seconds.
Since Tony had created the first arm after Hydra, Bucky hadn’t looked at it as the ugly, mortifying thing that it was, but as something amazing that someone he loved had made. Now, he looks at his arm and sees a bright future and love and hope, and he feels invincible.