Chapter Text
“So,” Tony pants, lips kiss swollen and body flushed with afterglow, “wanna make a bet?”
“Hmm?” Bucky hums his question, mouth apparently still too occupied with sucking red marks across the line of Tony’s collarbone to be bothered to use actual words.
Tony can’t help but wonder if HYDRA dosed him with fucking vampire blood or something. It would explain why he’s so obsessed with gnawing on Tony.
Not that Tony minds, of course.
In fact he is the exact opposite of someone who minds.
He plans to be completely supportive of Bucky’s newly revealed fetish.
Because he’s a naturally helpful and supportive kind of person.
“Bet you it takes them at least three months to catch onto this,” Tony flaps his hand to indicate the way the two of them are sweaty and entwined on the floor together.
“Nope,” Bucky finally pulls back enough to answer him. His eyes are heavy lidded and there’s a telltale flush high on his cheeks. “Not taking any bets over those idiots. It’s asking to be disappointed somehow.”
“You’ve got a point on that one,” Tony agrees as he reaches up to thumb at Bucky’s lower lip, breath hitching just a bit when he nips at the pad of his thumb. “I’m pretty sure we could fuck on the common room floor during dinner and they’d ask us if we had fun playing Twister instead.”
“Stevie’d probably ask us how long we been sparring together,” Bucky admits even as he dips down and kisses Tony again. His metal hand trails teasingly down the side of Tony’s rib cage and then keeps going. “Then I’d have to kill him ‘cause he’d probably ask to join.”
“Hm,” Tony hums as he arches up into the solid line of heat and muscle that’s nestled between his thighs. “Interesting i-idea there, ugh, sweetheart, might have t-to revisit that.”
“Shut up myshka,” Bucky tells him with a surprisingly fond roll of his eyes.
And Tony does.
But only because he was going to anyways.
~~~
“Wait a minute,” Tony jolts upright two or so hours after they finally stumbled their way up to Tony’s floor and his giant bed.
“What?” Bucky mutters from where his face is pressed against Tony’s stomach.
“Did you call me little mouse?” Tony pokes at his cheek with a finger. “That’s a ridiculous name and I demand you take it back.”
He sounds so legitimately offended that Bucky immediately vows to call him myshka as often as possible.
“No.” Bucky tells him seriously. “It suits you. You’re small, your hair’s soft, and, most importantly of all, you’re unbelievably annoying. It’s perfect.”
Tony deliberates for a moment.
“Alright,” he finally sighs as he flops back down, eyes already drooping sleepily, “you might have a point. I don’t agree with the small part but I’ll allow it.”
“Shut up and go back to sleep,” Bucky pauses for a second, “myshka.”
“My revenge will be sweet,” Tony mutters. “And unexpected.”
Bucky’s honestly kind of looking forward to it.
~~~
The next morning the two of them stumble through an exceptionally long shower together because they seem to have a problem with actually getting clean.
By the time they’re done and dressed Bucky’s pretty sure that no one could possibly miss what they’ve been up to.
But he’s learned the hard way not to make assumptions about what is and is not obvious to other people. If something looks obvious to him then the others probably wouldn’t notice it if it slapped them in the fucking face.
Or flew around in a personalized suit of armor.
Still, serum keeping Bucky himself unmarked or not, the way that Tony looks so freshly fucked, bite marks obvious on his collarbones and lips still swollen, should set off alarm bells for anyone with functioning eyes.
So, again, he’s pretty sure no one else in the Tower will notice.
If they keep missing out on the fact that Tony is Iron Man then there’s absolutely no way they’ll pick up on the fact that they’d spent the last ten or so hours doing filthy, filthy things to each other.
No way in hell.
~~~
“Hey Nat,” Clint calls as soon as they step into the kitchen where the others are gathered. “You lose. Now you owe me blini.”
Natasha turns from her place at the counter, takes one look at Bucky and Tony, and curses viciously before she heads to the pantry and starts pulling down ingredients.
Bucky’s momentarily mystified.
“What the hell kind of bet did you beat Itsy Bitsy out on?” Tony asks with an appropriate level of awe.
“About when you two were finally gonna fuck,” Clint grins around his half eaten eggo. “She had you pegged for about two months from now cause you’re both oblivious idiots. But Winter has finally come so that means I won.”
Bucky is immediately frozen and from the look of it Tony’s no better, mouth gaped open just a bit and expression as incredulous as Bucky feels.
‘Oblivious idiots’, the phrase reverberates in Bucky’s head. He dared ...
“Congratulations you two,” Steve beams brightly as he moves around Wilson who’s slumped against the counter. “It’s about time. We’ve all been waiting for it to finally happen. I’m glad the intervention helped you two finally set things straight with each other.”
“You … you’ve been waiting?” Tony sounds almost as dazed as Bucky himself feels.
“Yeah,” Steve grins at them, smug and pleased. “You were both really obvious. Besides, we’re the Avengers Tony. I can’t believe you thought you could hide something like this from us.”
‘Obvious,’ The word rings like a death knell in Bucky’s mind. 'We’re the Avengers.'
Now this, Bucky knows, is exactly what going mad feels like.
“I’m going to kill ‘em,” Bucky says serenely as he turns enough to look down at Tony who’s slumped, shell-shocked and obviously overwhelmed, against his side. “Hope you’re ready for a life on the run, myshka, because I’m gonna murder every single one of them.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart,” Tony says faintly. “I’m a ride-or-die kind of girl.”
~~~
“Obvious,” Bucky snarls a few hours later, hands raised up like he’s trying to strangle the air in front of him. “Did you hear that bullshit? We were fucking obvious. Like they’re not the stupidest fuckers I’ve ever met. I didn’t get defrosted for this shit.”
Tony would poke fun at him if he wasn’t currently feeling the same sort of hysterical rage.
Because … how?
Just, that’s the question that keeps ringing in Tony’s head.
How?
How did the biggest band of oblivious idiots Tony’s ever met clock the fact that him and Bucky spent the night defiling each other? Especially when they can’t even tell that Tony is Iron Man when he announced it at a press conference?
Tony can feel the yawning abyss of madness reaching out for him the longer he keeps trying to rationalize the entire thing.
“I’m going to become a supervillain,” Tony realizes in a moment of startling clarity. “They’re going to drive me the rest of the way over the edge and I’m going to turn to evil to cope. I’m going to take over the world and then I’m going to make Pepper run it. It’s inevitable.”
Tony finds that the idea doesn’t upset him as much as he assumed it would. Actually there’s an amazing amount of peace and acceptance coursing through him at the moment.
On the other side of the room Bucky’s busy cursing and bending steel pipes in half in an effort to expel his rage, the muscles of his shoulders rippling as he moves. The bots are crowded around him, offering new things for him to break from the pile Tony set aside for just that purpose. They seem to be a mix of commiserating and gleeful if the beeps and clicks Tony can hear are any indication.
Tony settles back into his chair to watch.
He might not have teammates who could deduce their way out of a paper bag when it comes to anything that isn’t sex or a battlefield strategy but least he has this.
~~~
After that initial bump in the road, and the following two weeks of Steve pouting after Bucky stops trying to passive aggressively murder him, things even out a bit.
The dark side, as Tony insists on calling it, turns out to be way less stressful than whatever side Bucky had been on before.
It’s like once Bucky stops resisting the inevitable he and Tony fit even deeper into each other’s space, both physical and otherwise, than before. They slot together with almost ridiculous ease, their parts complimentary instead of opposing.
Bucky starts spending even more of his time in the workshop with Tony and the bots. It’s comfortable and entertaining and feels like home.
In return Tony slinks out of his workshop to spend some time in the gym with Bucky in the afternoons.
And they’re now each others automatic plus one to any event they have to attend so there’s no more boring galas with no dates and a lack of explosions.
It’s surprisingly … easy.
The best part, in Bucky’s opinion, is that whenever he gets the urge to lay hands on Tony’s too tempting ass, or bite that pouty bottom lip, or tug at that messy hair of his, he doesn’t have to knuckle under and ignore it anymore.
So, yeah, that’s a major bonus.
Beyond that initial bit of friction, life in the Tower in general smoothes out.
Steve stops looking so worried all of the time and staring at Bucky soulfully from a distance, thank Thor. Everyone else stops watching Bucky with that special mix of pity and wariness they’d adopted at the height of his ‘Tony Is Iron Man You Stupid Fucks’ phase.
Of course most days Bucky still wants to strangle all of them.
But only just a little bit, a tiny strangle at most.
Thankfully he’s learning to move past that gut impulse.
With the help of JARVIS’ deep breathing techniques, and a lot of time spent mouthing at Tony’s collarbones, Bucky is officially working on rebuilding his emotional moorings in a place that falls somewhere between serenity and sheer heart stopping rage.
It’s a work in progress.
“We all are, sweetheart,” Tony always says with sage wisdom right before he does something that, inevitably, causes him to get doused with DUM-E’s fire extinguisher.
So life in the Tower, with the team, with Tony, is good.
~~~
“Present time, orso polare.” Tony shoves the box into Bucky’s chest, surprisingly nervous for something so simple.
“Polar Bear?” Bucky cuts an unimpressed look in his direction even as he grabs the box. “That’s the best you can do myshka?”
“You’re large, spent a long time in the ice, and are, most importantly of all, prone to murderous rages,” Tony shrugs. “It suits you. Now open your present.”
Bucky squints at him for a second.
“Fair,” he finally admits. “Now what in the hell is this?”
“Open it and find out,” Tony prompts as he throws himself into his chair and picks up a screwdriver to fiddle with.
Bucky cracks the box open with ease and reaches a hand inside. Tony watches as he pulls the first thing out of the box and shakes it out until he can see what’s on it.
“Well?” Tony prompts after a too long moment of silence.
“It’s hideous,” Bucky says softly even as he proceeds to immediately switch the shirt he’s wearing for the one he’s just pulled out of the box.
Tony watches fondly as he runs silver fingers over the gold lettering that’s stretched across his chest.
‘My Boyfriend Is Iron Man’ the red and gold t-shirt proudly announces. It, just like Tony’s own shirts of the same style, also has a perfect replica of his goatee at the bottom.
It’s also a symbol of just how serious Tony is about this thing between him and Bucky.
“I hate it,” Bucky insists as he rounds the corner of the table and bends down to kiss Tony deeply. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Tony grins up at him. “JARVIS’ apparently had a whole line of stuff drawn up and set aside for a few months now.”
“I had anticipated they might be needed Sir,” JARVIS chimes in.
“Thanks to you too then,” Bucky nods at the nearest camera.
“A pleasure Sergeant Barnes,” JARVIS assures him. “I also included some new items for Sir as well.”
“Oh, more goodies,” Tony squirms out of his chair and around Bucky to start rooting through the box because he hadn’t greenlighted more stuff for himself. Leave it to JARVIS to anticipate his needs in this too.
He finally pulls out a long sleeve shirt that’s obviously more his size than Bucky’s. It’s black, except for the left arm that’s been printed to match Bucky’s, complete with the red star.
The red letters across the front proclaim that ‘My Boyfriend Is The Winter Soldier'.
Tony absolutely adores it.
“You’re perfect J,” he can’t help but grin as he pulls his tank-top off and slips his new shirt on. “How’d I make you so perfect?”
“A question I wrestle with daily, Sir.” JARVIS says smugly.
“Well,” Tony turns back towards Bucky who looks more than a bit intrigued at the sight of Tony’s new shirt. “You’ve already joined the dark side. We’ve got a matching wardrobe and everything now. So I’d say it’s time to get to work.”
There’s a moment of silent contemplation.
And then …
Bucky smiles.
~~~
Bucky’s shirt gets a few raised brows and one truly severe frown from Steve but no one says anything.
They also don’t say anything about the Iron Man sleep pants Bucky takes to wearing or the red and gold color scheme the new goggles Tony makes him take on.
Bucky would say he’s surprised but he’s honestly not.
By now there’s probably not much that could surprise him.
For his part Bucky’s surprisingly fine with the fact that most of his casual clothes have ended up either branded with Stark Industries or are some kind of ridiculous novelty shirt that JARVIS and the bots obviously thought up.
Tony, as it turns out, is just as territorial over Bucky as Bucky is over him.
It’s nice.
~~~
“Obviously we’re going to have to step up our game,” Tony informs him seriously. “Let’s take this to the next level.”
“Fine,” Bucky agrees.
Working with Tony is, as he’d discovered early on, far more satisfying than working against him.
~~~
Bucky stares in fond exasperation as Tony zooms by him in the armor, repulsors flaring as he cuts through the Doom bots that have infested the street around them.
The ‘Property of Bucky Barnes’ decal that sits low down on the armor’s back is a nice touch in his opinion.
The ‘tramp stamp’ as Tony calls it, goes well with the ‘Tony Stark Is Driving’ decal that runs across the back of the armor’s shoulders.
~~~
In the aftermath of the battle Bucky waits until the others have all finished their respective jobs before he strides over to where Tony’s standing in the armor and reaches up to knock on the faceplate.
“Open up myshka,” Bucky commands, not even making effort to speak lowly.
“Yes dear?” Tony says as he pops it open immediately.
Bucky doesn’t answer, just reaches up, pulls Tony closer with a hand on the back of his neck, and kisses him deeply.
Right out on the street, in full view of the gathered press and all of their teammates.
~~~
“Bucky how could you?” Steve looks absolutely crushed when he confronts him in the shared common room a few hours later after everyone’s cleaned up and gathered together for food.
“What’d I do this time Stevie?” Bucky sighs tiredly.
“Tony,” Steve turns towards Tony then, expression earnest and beseeching. “I swear I didn’t know, none of us did. But you’re my friend too and I can’t let this go.”
“Gonna need an explanation Spangles,” Tony points out wryly.
“Bucky’s stepping out on you with Iron Man,” Steve blurts with a wince like he’s throwing some unbearably painful news in Tony’s direction. “He kissed him after the battle, right in front of everyone.”
Tony abruptly chokes on his own tongue, hands flying up to cover his face as he hunches forward, shoulders shaking.
“Steve you fucking snitch,” Bucky deadpans as he reaches up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. His best friend’s a fucking idiot. “I’m betrayed. You’ve betrayed me.”
“It’s only right Buck,” Steve stares at him narrow eyed and openly disappointed. “How could you and Shellhead do that to Tony? I know we wanted you to work out your feelings for the two of them but not like this.”
Beside them Tony wheezes out a snorting breath.
“Look at him,” Steve steps forward to place a large hand on Tony’s hunched back. “He’s devastated Bucky. How could you do this?”
Bucky stares at him and then looks down at Tony who seems pretty close to having a laughter induced seizure.
“At this point,” Bucky answers candidly, “I’m honestly not sure myself.”
~~~
“Sergeant Barnes,” the reporter starts, “is there any truth to the rumor that you’re cheating on Tony Stark with your teammate Iron Man?”
Bucky cuts a look at Tony who’s sitting beside him in his civilian clothes, red and gold sunglasses firmly in place, looking ridiculously attractive in his red blazer and black Winter Has Come t-shirt.
The hand he has on Bucky’s thigh beneath the table slides teasingly upwards.
“No.” Bucky answers after a small pause, leaning back so that his Iron Man’s Boyfriend t-shirt is on full display.
“So the photos of you kissing Iron Man after the Avenger’s latest battle two days ago aren’t proof that you’re being unfaithful?” The reporter looks smug, like she thinks she’s caught Bucky in some kind of scandalous lie.
“Ain’t steppin out if Tony knows about it,” Bucky says with a deliberately nonchalant shrug because why the fuck not? This plays right into his and Tony’s plans and it’s not like they’d believe him if he told them the truth anyways.
Predictably the crowd of reporters go wild.
~~~
“I want you to know I support you,” Steve claps him on the shoulder earnestly after they finally escape the press conference. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions about everything. I should’ve trusted you, Buck.”
“Yeah,” Bucky drawls with no small amount of irony. “If only you’d trusted me. We could’ve avoided so many misunderstandings.”
“I promise to do my best to believe in you even more in the future.” Steve promises sunnily. “Still, despite all of that, it’s nice to know that all three of my best friends are happy together.”
The exasperated screaming that’s been beating around in the back of Bucky’s head since he first moved into the Tower abruptly ramps up another notch.
He’s going to need some quality time with Tony’s collarbones after this.
~~~
‘Barnes/Stark/Iron Man Caught In Illicit Gay Threesome,’ the headlines proclaim the next day.
The large bold letters are set above a photo of Bucky kissing Iron Man sitting side by side with a picture of Bucky pressing Tony up against a tree in the nearby park.
Tony gets multiple copies of the headline framed and hangs them up in the lab, the penthouse, and on the refrigerator on the common floor.
JARVIS gets a set of matching t-shirts made up for him with the page proudly displayed on the front.
Tony makes sure to wear his the next time he leaves the Tower.
He’s trying to be supportive after all and it’s not everyday he’s accused of being in a threesome with a supersoldier and himself because his boyfriend couldn’t help but taunt some reporters.
Needless to say he’s very proud.
~~~
The #IronStarkSoldier that hits the internet and rapidly takes on a life of its own is one of his finer works if Tony does say so himself.
Bucky, because he has zero taste in anything except for his taste in men, seems to prefer the #WinterIronStark
JARVIS ends the argument by creating the #IronTucky name and proceeds to gloat smugly when people latch onto it instead.
Traitor.
~~~
Time flies by in a haze of battles and laughter, in kisses and exasperated fondness, weeks and then months passing by with ease.
In that time Tony learns a lesson so deep and profound that the realization almost brings a tear to his eye.
The couple that trolls together, stays together.
~~~
And then, of course, Tony gets kidnapped.
~~~
“You do know that SI doesn’t pay ransom demands don’t you?” Tony asks, eyes holding steady on his captor’s faces even as his fingers work at loosening the ropes behind his back.
“You can keep your money Stark,” Head Goon snaps. “We want Iron Man and you’re going to give him to us.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Tony groans even as the ropes loosen. Thankfully the watch on his wrist has been buzzing against his skin in confirmation for the past fifteen minutes or so. The armor, and likely reinforcements in the form of a severely pissed off Bucky, should be here soon. “Is it too much to ask for some decent villains? I’m already on a team with a bunch of goddamn morons and now I’ve gotta put up with being kidnapped by them too?”
“Hey,” Random Goon #2 bites out indignantly from the back of the room.
“Fuck you very much Random Goon #2,” Tony snaps back. “This is bullshit. I could be home right now, down in the workshop reinventing an industry or something. Or I could be busy getting felt up by my criminally hot super soldier boyfriend. Or hell, maybe both because I’m a multitasking fiend.”
Head Goon blinks at him dumbly. Which Tony can plainly see because he was too stupid to wear a mask.
“But no,” Tony drawls the word out, “instead I’m here, my head hurts, and I’m stuck looking at you assholes who all seem to think I’m going to what? Hand over the armor to some no name thugs who only got the drop on me because I stopped to pet a fucking cat?”
There’s a long moment of silence in the room that’s abruptly interrupted by a slightly muffled explosion from outside.
“And that,” Tony says triumphantly as he throws his now free arms up in the air, watch gauntlet now fully active, “would be my Murder Muffin now.”
Another, louder, explosion sounds closer than before and the walls of the room shake just a bit and Head Goon abruptly goes pale.
“We can either do this the easy way or you can resist and well,” Tony shrugs, “that won’t end well for any of you. So, choice is yours. Personally I’m kind of hoping you’ll resist.”
Surprisingly enough, even when faced with a rapidly approaching Winter Solider and a currently pissed off Tony Stark, they still choose the second option.
~~~
“Couldn’t even get kidnapped by competent villains,” Tony grumbles even as Bucky kicks Head Goon in the ribs again despite the way he’s tied up and obviously not going anywhere.
Honestly they hadn’t been much of a challenge for Tony to take down and he’s pretty sure that Bucky’s just pissed because Tony already had them subdued when he showed up with the armor at his back.
“Stop bitchin,” Bucky snaps as he turns away from Head Goon. His arm snaps out and he tugs Tony closer, pulls him to his chest and bends down so he can kiss him hotly, relief obvious in his every move.
“Hey,” Tony says softly once they pull apart, “I’m okay. They didn’t even bruise me. I’m Iron Man, remember?”
It’s the first time Tony’s ever come out and said the words in all seriousness despite everything else that’s passed between them.
“Yeah,” Bucky says roughly as he presses their foreheads together. “Yeah you are.”
~~~
The team’s appropriately grateful when he gets back to the Tower unharmed except for the headache. Stretched out on the couch on top of Bucky Tony takes a few to bask in their genuine care.
“Only you could get kidnapped because you tried to pet a cat,” Clint slaps Tony on the back roughly. “That’s why I keep telling you that dogs are where it’s at. Besides Iron Man needs to step up his game if he’s letting you get nabbed a bunch of pathetic bastards who don’t even have villain names. Cap’s gonna give him an earful next team training. He’s probably gonna want you to take up some training too since you never join us for sparring.”
Beneath him Bucky’s chest rumbles in barely suppressed laughter.
Tony just sighs, shifts his head a bit, and bites down meanly on Bucky’s nipple through his ‘My Boyfriend Wears Armor’ t-shirt.
The yelp he gets in return is worth the way Bucky dumps him off the couch a few seconds later.
~~~
“It ever bother you?” Bucky asks him later on that night when they’re sprawled in Tony’s bed, flushed and sweaty with the sheets sticking to their skin. “Them not believing you?”
“Eh,” Tony raises a hand and makes a so-so gesture, “little bit. Used to be worse, in the beginning. Then you popped up. Being bitter mostly took a backseat to torturing you. Now I’m pretty fine with it.”
“Not sure if I should be offended or touched,” Bucky admits after a moment.
“When in doubt go with both.” Tony tells him around a yawn.
“I still think we’re all gonna die one day because they’re too fucking stupid to function.” Bucky points out. “Or I’m gonna kill ‘em myself.”
“Probably,” Tony agrees lightly. “But, either way, we’ll do it like Spangles always says. Together.”
“Sounds pretty good I guess,” Bucky’s smile is evident in his tone. “Always figured Stevie’d get my ass killed one day anyways.”
“Well, just look at it this way,” Tony rolls over and props his chin on Bucky’s chest, “they might be idiots, but they’re our idiots.”
“Hmm,” Bucky hums as he reaches up and tugs at Tony’s hair. “Yeah, they kind of are.”
~~~
They’re in the kitchen when it finally happens. Tony’s making coffee for the both of them while Bucky leans against the counter and stares at his ass.
“Hey Bucky, Tony,” Steve’s voice is hesitant, unsure in a way that Steve normally never is.
“Yeah Stevie?” Bucky cuts a look over his shoulder towards Steve as Tony waggles his fingers in Steve’s direction. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know how to ask this so I’m just going to come out and say it,” Steve rakes his hands through his hair and his eyes keep darting between Tony and Bucky. “Is … do you think … I know this might sound ridiculous but ... Tony are you … are you Iron Man?”
Bucky freezes for a split second as his mind reboots.
Across from him, hands held frozen in the air above him, sugar spilling off the side of the spoon he’s holding, Tony looks like he’s in the same kind of position.
Because this, this is the moment they’ve both been waiting for for so long now.
The moment they’ve both come to accept would probably never happen.
But, despite his previous quest to expose the truth, Bucky knows that in this moment this isn’t his answer to give.
He catches Tony’s eye, his brow arched and question plain in his features.
“Don’t be ridiculous Steve,” Tony scoffs from across the bar even as he dumps the spoon into a familiar red coffee cup and then reaches out to hand the other silver ‘Single. Taken. Dating Iron Man’ cup to Bucky. There’s a little red x in the box beside Dating Iron Man of course. “What in the world makes you think I’m Iron Man?”
And then he waves, turns on his head, and walks away. The ‘Single. Taken. I Am Iron Man.’ plain to see on the back of his shirt. The x is, of course, right where it should be.
“You heard the man,” Bucky says as he reaches up, claps Steve on the shoulder roughly, and then takes off after Tony, coffee cup in hand and eyes glued to his ass.
He’s finally reached a peace of sorts with the whole situation, thanks in no small part to his and Tony’s relationship.
If Steve’s finally going to catch a clue-by-four to that thick ass head of his then that’s fine.
But Bucky’s done holding his hand and trying to lead him to that particular well of truth. Hell, by this point he’s more interested in making things more difficult for Steve and the others.
Besides, he’s got more important things to worry about.
Like the fact that Tony’s wearing those underwear he likes best, the lacy black ones with the little red stars all over them.
Bucky intends to make sure he’s not wearing them for much longer.
Everything else is secondary.