fossilised | For Steve

Tony winced a little. "I'm just busting your balls, Rogers. You do what you need to do. The judgement is just superficial." He patted Steve on the shoulder as he slipped down the hall towards his tom. "J, let's get four to start. I'll open the window, it will be the easiest way to get it all out."

Tony had designed all of these buildings to let in a whole lot of natural light. Windows in Steve's room were more like doors anyway. The Legion would make quick work of everything here.

"You're better off directing my guys on where you want all of this. They'll just drop it off on the lawn otherwise. I'm not sure where you want to set up. Not the lab. Banner is gonna want his house back eventually."

"I don't think that's gonna happen."

Steve sounded slightly guilty about that, but he couldn't deny that it was true. Grant and Bucky had really made that place their own and, while Grant could move, he was pretty sure it would be the height of cruelty to make Bucky give up the first place that he had felt secure.

"I know it's a big ask, but can't you build Bruce a new place? I'm sorry, it's just-- he feels safe there."

Nobody gave the earnest puppy look quite like Steve Rogers.

"Are you trying to guilt me?" Tony didn't say it wasn't working, but it was laughable. "There's a Grade A radioactive lab on site," he groaned, arms crossed. "And wouldn't it be better if I designed a place for you three? I promise there will be a pool. And we can move your gym there-- Know what? Get back to me on that. When your bestie is comfortable. I'm not really an architect but I can fake it until I can get a real architect to sign off on the plans."

But this was not a discussion for late night. Especially when Grant and Bucky were standing at the patio watching the flood lights come on to guide the Legion in moving furniture around.

"Or if you're hell bent on mucking up my work, send the cuter version of you over to plead your case." Yeah. Tony didn't care who knew how much interest he had in 'Grant.' "I'll make dip. Teach him how to liven up his game with the strip variety of cards." Where was Banner or Rhodey to shut him up?

"Tony, will you stop that. It's disrespectful and unwanted, trust me, he's not going to be interested in you."

There had only ever been one person for Steve, and that was Bucky. He had loved Peggy too, perhaps he even would have married her if they had been able to go for that dance and see where it went, but Bucky was the one who truly had his heart. Had done since they were just two kids in Brooklyn.

And now that there was a chance that Bucky might want him back? Nobody else would ever get a look in. The memory of the kisses makes Steve smile, cheeks getting a little hot.

"Don't be vulgar. I just think he's cute. And there's nothing wrong with that. Plus he makes me feel tall. And I'm stronger than he is. Why can't be friends?" The Legion were already lifting out the bed, much to Grant's delight across the way. Tony could see him press his hands to the glass out of the corner of his eye. It made him cross his arms over his chest. "You're being selfish, keeping everyone to yourself. Not cool, Cap. And for a guy trapped in ice for a few decades, that's saying something."

Tony had Pepper. And Rhodey. And Banner. He was pretty good on the friend and lover department. But a twenty-three year old Steve could very easily fit right in to the inner Stark circle. Humph.

"Oh. I bet you're just jealous. Listen, if you had metal in you or were 1943 New York, fresh off the boat, fine. But you have a shaggy haired brunet again. That you're moving in with. After your first date. I thought only lesbians do that. Huh. Live and learn. Oh-- hey, number thirteen, but stuff first. He can move his own clothes!"

"I'm not the one being vulgar, you were the one who brought up strip poker and practically drool over him whenever you talk about him. Tony, stop it. I'm asking you now as a friend to respect that boundary, okay?"

This was one of the times when he felt like he didn't like Tony much. He had got used to the ribbing, the teasing, and the irreverence about nearly everything. But what he didn't like was when Tony acted as if his own comfort and stupid jokes were more important than everyone else. It's why he was never going to introduce him to Bucky. Not if he could help it.

"I am grateful to you for what you're doing with providing a home, and with putting up all this money, but that doesn't give you leave to say stuff like that. Got it?"

Down on the lawn, Bucky had ventured out of the house to let the Legion in, and was now stood out on the grass with the patio doors behind him and Grant directing the Legion where to put the bed and belongings. His eyes were fixed up at the bedroom where Tony and Steve stood, as if he could see them arguing.

Tony pushed buttons. Steve took the bait. They both postured. It was how they got on. Of course they were fighting. It was remarkably easy for old habits to never die.

Grant joined Bucky out on the lawn when the robots were finished putting items in the back lounge. There was a big glass wall that they would have to figure out how to cover up of course but it would do. And there was even an empty closet that Steve could hang his stuff up yet. He had some of the robots stack up the chairs in the corner for now too. He was about dead on his feet by this point but he wanted to make sure that Bucky was all right.

He couldn't see into the room across the lawn given the flood lights, not the way that Bucky could, but he didn't have to when his best friend was so tense.

He wrapped his arms around his own waist and watched the robots fly off. Steve should probably have been back by now. "Are you all right...?"

Grant being out on the lawn too made Bucky twitch, even though there was no reason to suggest it was any more exposed out here than it was in the house. It was just that he could see argument, he could read tension in every line of Steve's body, and he didn't like it. What could they have to argue about except him taking up this space?

"Go back in the house, I'll be back soon."

Instead of heading in through the front door of the main building, Bucky took the path of least resistance and literally vaulted up the wall, clinging to any jutting piece of masonry in order to climb up the side of the building in a way that a normal man just simply could not.

He made it to Steve's window in about ten seconds flat, crouched on the windowsill to address both men.

"I could see you fighting. Why?"

On the lawn still, because he hadn't had time to move and because Bucky was not the boss of him, Grant stood with his mouth open, gazing upward at the shadow that was Bucky crouched in that window. Necking had worked him up a lot but watching the things Bucky could do? Well that was just swell. He had to retreat inside to try and calm himself down before he needed to be uncouth with himself.

Inside, Tony was just going on about living in the twenty-first century when Bucky arrived with his demand for answers. The inventor opened and closed his mouth before he crossed his arms smugly over his chest. "We're arguing about how selfish and vulgar I am," he informed Bucky. "Which is sort of funny all things considered."

He did just watch the guy in the window taking turns making out with one Steve or the other. How was the fact that he found Grant fascinating vulgar? Grant didn't seem to care earlier that day. He'd even taken the compliment.

"Nice to see you in pants, Barnes, but Steve's a big boy and we've been fighting longer than you've been awake in this century. Don't mind us."

Bucky's expression was an extremely impassive mask, glaring at Tony as if he were responsible for this evening being soured. He remained where he was, perched precariously on the edge of the windowsill with perfect balance, and looked between one and the other as if to gauge if that was a lie.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

All things considered with what? If Steve thought that Tony was vulgar and selfish then he likely was, Steve didn't make that sort of snap judgement on a man without good reasons behind it.

"Sorry if I interrupted-- I was worried." Apparently erroneously. "I don't think I said it before, but thank you. For the place to stay. I don't deserve that from you, but it's appreciated."

Tony gave Steve a look as if saying that Bucky was better behaved than he was at the moment and then stepped towards Bucky. "Like I told you this morning, you're a friend of the family. You're always welcome here." Bucky had asked him why he was being treated so well earlier but this was a thank you, not a demand for information. And Tony appreciated that. "And you're just welcome anyway. Hey. While I e got you here, I have a question for you."

Tony gestured for Bucky to follow and even if he didn't or even if Steve came too, the end result was just Tony picking up a tablet and stylus. He'd either join the two or they would join him.

"So what are you looking for in a house? Three bedrooms, four bathrooms, pool. Gym-- Privacy. Check check check. What about anything special-- do you like Xbox? I play a mean Call of Duty with Rhodey from time to time." Wow. Steve was being such a sour puss, arms crossed over his chest like his muscles were about to pop off.

When Tony decided he wanted to be friends with someone, he just assumed he was. Banner was a casualty of that policy. Bucky was his next target.

Bucky wasn't nearly comfortable enough to come further into the house than this, and so he remained on the windowsill and let Tony come back to him with the tablet. Truth be told, he was uncomfortable about Tony for other reasons, it felt duplicitous to be accepting all of this from him after what he had done, and that feeling just heightened to the nth degree when it sunk in that Tony was actually offering to build a custom house for Grant and himself.

"You can't do that."

The refusal came out all of a sudden, strong and nearly panicked. His metal fingers dug hard enough into the casing around the window that some of the plaster and wood flaked off onto the floor.

"You can't give me anything else," he said, thinking Steve had been wrong. How could he call Tony Stark selfish when he was offering this much money, this much security? It was a desperate need not to take advantage of it that had him blurting out the wrong thing. "I killed your parents."

Well. That was out there.

"You can't give me anything, I don't deserve it."

Tony's amused expression darkened as Bucky spoke, mostly because he was getting used to this. Foundations took his money with easy and not all of that went to the people they purportedly were trying to help. Inviduals always had to play hard to get and he didn't understand that. This was money or goods or services freely given because he wanted people close to him to be happy. Having to constantly fight to be generous weighed on him.

He actually rolled his eyes when Bucky said he'd killed his parents. That was a low blow. If he didn't want the house-- Fine. Whatever. But Bruce needed his own space and he felt comfortable in that reinforced place. It was his. Bucky could use it but he was better off with his own place.

"My parents died in a car crash," Tony said tightly. "Unless you're part Go Bot, I'm pretty sure you had nothing to do with it."

He glanced at Steve to back him up but the blond was silent for once. Rigid. His eyes were flxed on Bucky in the window. He'd known Tony's parents were murdered but he had no idea that Bucky did the hit.

And all of this as enough to leave Tony with a really bad taste in his mouth. "Some things are sacred," he said carefully. "You don't joke about my mom. I know how she died. I remember that day perfectly."

"I ran them off the road."

He stayed exactly where he was, eyes fixed on Tony and voice low. He didn't attempt to excuse himself with the caveat that he wasn't the Soldier, he didn't attempt to apologise, he just told it exactly as it had happened. He remembered that day perfectly too. He didn't remember most of his childhood, didn't know what his sister looked like, but he remembered this.

"December 16th, 1991. Howard Stark had a briefcase of experimental prototypes for a new super serum. I was on a motorcycle, I ran him off the road six miles down the Bentonville country road. I punched him to death, strangled her. It had to look like the crash killed them. He recognised me, he called me Sergeant Barnes before he died."

It was quite clear that he wasn't joking, not even slightly.

"He was killed because HYDRA wanted those prototypes, she was killed because she was there and my orders were to leave no witnesses and make it appear as an accident. But it wasn't, I killed them both."

Edited (SO MANY EDITS as I remember the scene better) 2017-02-21 21:53 (UTC)

"Bucky--"

"SHUT UP!" It didn't seem to matter how often Tony shouted that, the story kept coming. Kept coming. Howard was mentioned by name. Maria-- He hadn't even known his mother's name when he strangled her. Tony wasn't sure what blind rage felt like, but he was experiencing it now, not aware that he was moving forward in an attempt to either pull Barnes inside or push him out. He wanted to choke the life out of him. He wanted to kill him. "You killed my mother?!"

It was not his finest moment. Steve was there to grab him, and without his armor, he was very easy to grab. "It wasn't him, Tony--"

"He killed my mother and YOU KNEW?! JARVIS, intruder!"

The lights went out to be replaced with a dark red glow and a noise roused everyone, even the sleeping Banner, documentary switched off. Grant came out on the lawn again, Sam trotted down the hallway. The armor appeared at the window behind Barnes, hovering with three repulsors. The other was pointed at the man's head.

"Tony, Stand down!" Steve begged even as he felt Tony strain in his arms. He knew he had a bad relationship with Howard but he never stopped to think what the loss of his mother had done to him. Stupid, really, considering what the loss of his own mother had done to him all those years ago.

Bruce was the slowest up towards the threat, he took in the red light and he knew that meant the compound was on lockdown from a potential hostile attack. He didn't want to go Code Green unless it was necessary, and so he slipped out of the room and towards the threat level slowly. He'd hang back if he could.

Bucky didn't move.

He knew there was a suit of armour hovering nearby, he knew that it was primed to attack him, but he didn't get out of the way. Perhaps a part of him welcomed this, a punishment for all the crimes he had committed, a way to wash some of the blood from his soul finally.

"I pulled his corpse into the car while she watched," he kept talking, his words almost soft and pleading as if he wanted Tony to take it out on him. "I killed both of them, and they're far from the only ones. I've killed hundreds, thousands of people, and I remember every one of them. You took me in and gave me safety, and that's what I did."

[Sending helps >< ]

Tony was an impossible mess. He had no real idea what he was saying and Steve's small room was suddenly very full of people, even if Bruce was hanging back. Barton shot down the armor from outside and Natasha snuck in to pinch Tony hard enough to knock him out (her finger nails had actually been covered in sedative but she liked people to think she was a little more super when she was dealing with all of these high powered boys around her).

He slumped into Steve's arms, looking little more than a ragdoll, and with his housing over and Bucky's monologue over, there wasn't much sound at all left in the room save for Grant's voice in the grass below, standing next to the fallen armor tht JARVIS was no longer powering. "Bucky?"

He sounded worried. Sam and Natasha had blank looks on their faces. Steve looked so torn and so sad but was trying to keep it together, trying to be the man in charge. "Buck, go get Grant. Everyone else, clear out. I need to get Tony to Bruce."

Bucky hesitated on the windowsill. He knew that he had sabotaged any chance of a safe and potentially happy life here, he had to go back on the run, and perhaps he had even damaged Steve's relationship with his friends. It hurt, but he couldn't have done anything else, he couldn't have accepted all of that from Stark. His eyes were sad as they lingered on the limp form in Steve's arms.

"You should have let him kill me."

It was a murmur, though loud enough for them all to hear, before he just jumped from the window down to the grass below.

"Grant, we might have to get out of here."

What hurt Steve the worst was that Bucky had been so willing to die. He'd just stood there. He didn't even try to defend himself. His gut was churning as he carried Tony out to Bruce, Natasha leaning in to the doctor who had long ago caught her eye and told him the compound she had given Tony. He'd be all right, but his head would be left aching for a long while once he woke up. And that probably made him dangerous. "Sam, I need you to take him to the Tower for me."

Sam nodded. He didn't question anything, not right now.

Grant, however, hung over and exhausted, swayed just slightly on his feet. "What happened?" He'd heard Bucky. He'd heard the words out of his mouth and he assumed that Tony was still in the armor laying on the grass, all of the lights powered off. His heart was pounding in his chest and he was feeling a little dizzy. His health was better than usual but he still wasn't completely healthy and it was all catching up with him.

That wasn't good, and honestly Bucky had no idea if Steve intended for him to take Grant and leave altogether now before Tony woke up, or just if he intended for Bucky to be nearby to Grant so that he could protect him if necessary. Was that a way for Steve to make sure that Bucky didn't throw his life away? Giving him a mission. Stay with Grant.

"I killed Tony's parents."

There wasn't really any need to hide that.

"He was going to give us our own house, build it from scratch, I had to tell him."

Grant exhaled slowly and reached out to touch Bucky's cheek. "That wasn't you. That was a mission. It was something that they forced on you," he said slowly, making sure that Bucky was actually listening to him. "Telling him... It was the right thing to do. But perhaps you could have done it a little more gently. Come back to the house with me. We need to wait for Steve."

These were Steve's people here. Tony was his friend. They had to wait for guidance here, Grant was sure of that. Leaving now wouldn't do them any good. He didn't know Tony too well but he was sure that once they all managed to sit down and talk, he would understand. The shock had to be pretty terrible for him.

And for Bucky too. Bucky and Steve knew Tony's dad. Grant himself had almost gotten to know the other man.

He couldn't force Bucky to do anything right now, though, but he really needed to get him off of the lawn and somewhere that he felt safe before he had another episode. Or Grant himself just passed out where he was standing.

Bucky wasn't sure that he liked the idea of going back in the house now. What had been a sanctuary could now so easily be a prison. Stark had to have control of the whole compound with his AI, and this was the most secure building, they could be locked in and kept there without any issue at all. But Grant needed rest, and Grant needed Bucky to not break right now.

So he nodded and, tense as hell, led Grant into the house and towards his bedroom.

"You have to sleep, you're still a little drunk and you're exhausted." He wanted Grant to rest, but mostly because he didn't want to be social right then. He wanted to stand and watch the darkened windows of the other building and wait for someone to come and mete out his punishment. He wanted to-- "Go to bed. Please."

Steve might have told Sam to get Tony to the Tower, but it was actually Natasha who took over. She cornered Sam as he was getting ready to leave and told him that she was going to handle it, so she would be the one that Tony saw whenever he woke up, sitting by the side of his bed watching him and waiting.

That was fine with Sam. He wanted to be with Steve, who, despite everything, looked heartbroken and guilty. "You didn't know," Sam said as he sat down on the couch next to the blond, who was looking at a broken tablet computer.

"I did know, Sam," Steve said. "Not that it was Bucky but... I should have told him long ago that his parents were murdered. I should have done a lot of things." But he'd spread himself too thin with all of this and he was tired and as much as the world needed him, Bucky obviously needed him so much more. Or-- Maybe not. Maybe Bucky just needed Grant. They should have stayed in the 40s. Steve never second guessed himself this badly before. He let Sam sit with him for a little while in silence.

Grant too kept Bucky company in silence, asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He'd tried to stay up for his friend, but that hadn't worked out.

Tony, at least, didn't stay asleep for too long. The half an hour trip back to Manhattan by quinjet roused him enough that he was asleep only for five minutes or so in bed. He shot up after a few groggy, pained whines. "Where is he?!"

Natasha remained seated at the edge of the bed, looking as if she were totally relaxed, when really she could be out of her chair and pinning him down in a second if he decided to do something stupid.

"By he, I assume you mean Bucky. He's at the compound, as far as I know."

She stretched out her legs and kept her gaze focused firmly on him, now was not the time for sympathy, now was the time for being hard and firm. She could be there for him and his heartache after, right now it was all about damage control.

"I didn't think you were the sort of man to attack someone for what someone else did. You saw the tapes, Tony, and you know that was the tip of the iceberg. You knew he'd been an assassin and you were prepared to let it go, that he killed someone you loved doesn't change anything. They were killed by the Winter Soldier, not Bucky Barnes."

Honestly, Tony hadn't thought himself capable of that either. He'd just gone completely numb. His anger had taken over him. But that was exactly the sort of man he genuinely was. Beyond the glitz and glamor, apart from the tortured engineering genius and the no fucks given daredevil, Tony was a boy with an abusive father and a mother who hadn't really known how to put him first that he clung to the memory of like a lifeline. He was selfish outwardly, generous to everyone despite his attitude, but the loss of his mother had scarred him so deeply he hadn't even known what he was doing.

Blind rage from the compound turned into abject sorrow now. He didn't know where Pepper was but he was glad she wasn't here to see this weakness as he bowed his head and pressed his face to his palms.

"He didn't even know her name."

But that was not what hurt the worst. Steve had betrayed him. Natasha might have too. He'd had his wounds ripped open. It was going to be a sticking point for a long time, but at least he no longer seemed hellbent on Bucky's destruction. He was just a sad old man who tried to cobble together a family without ever really learning how to be part of one himself, sitting alone in his gilded Tower.

"How can I just let that go?!"

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