Chapter Text
“I want a “just checking in” kind of love.”
Tony was stood in the communal kitchen, waiting for the coffee machine to finish brewing with his mug ready. His mind was rolling with lists of things he had to get done, for the Avengers, for SHIELD, for Pepper and Stark Industries. Today was definitely going to be a coffee-full day.
Sir, Master Barnes is calling.
“Patch ‘im through, J.” Tony mumbled, rubbing some of the sleep out of his eyes.
“Hey, Doll. Just checkin in on you, hope I didn’t wake you up.” Bucky’s smooth voice intoned.
“Nah, been up almost an hour now, gotta get to work before people start nagging.” Tony smiled, he loved that Bucky would call sometimes for no other reason than to hear his voice. It made Tony feel all mushy inside. “Hey, why you checkin on me? I should be the one worried about you, you’re the one on a top secrete ‘need-to-know’ mission,”
The coffee machine beeped and Tony eagerly poured himself a mug. Smiling into it as he heard his boyfriend’s response.
“That’s true, but I know you know exactly where I am, courtesy of you having created the firewalls SHIELD use for security, and thanks to my chip Jarvis can show you my vital signs and assure you I’m fine at any moment. You, on the other hand, forget to sleep and eat, especially when your workload gets heavy. I’m not the one who falls asleep from exhaustion with a soldering iron in my hands.” Bucky pointed out, teasingly.
Tony shuffled his way through the kitchen and towards the elevator, the floor cold beneath his bare feet, but the mug warming his hands.
“That was one time,” Tony said,exasperated, Bucky liked to bring up this fact every time Tony’s genius or ability to take care of himself came up in conversation. “AND the iron wasn’t even on so it wasn’t like there was any real danger.”
As the elevator doors opened and he stepped in Tony could see in his mind’s eye the way Bucky rolled his eyes as he sighed at that, mouthing Bucky’s response, as though they’d had this argument a thousand times before, really it was only about fifty.
“The only reason it wasn’t on is because you were too tired to realise,”
It had become a sort of teasing ritual, the way that Steve and Bucky called each other ‘punk’ and ‘jerk’, the way that Clint and Sam would challenge one another to a prank war, it was just their special way of showing their love and affection for one another.
Tony felt emotion bubble up inside of him, thinking on their relationship and realising that it would be at least another three days before he got to see the indulgent smile that was no doubt on Bucky’s face right this instant as his lover sat halfway across the world.
“Love you.” He said, looking up at the speakers where Bucky’s voice was coming from, as though that would somehow bring him closer.
“Love you too, Doll. No more than four hours at a time in the workshop, you hear me? I want you to get Jarvis to set an alarm, remind you to get lunch and have a break.” Bucky replied, add a stern note to his voice to make sure Tony knew he was serious.
“Will do, Babe. You too though, take care, I mean. Come back to me in one piece.” Tony stumbled over his words, still not quite fully awake and ready to have such a heartfelt conversation.
“Hate to tell you, sweetheart, but any chances of that ended back in the forties,” Bucky teased, laughter in his voice. It was refreshing hear that humour, especially in reference to his past and his lost arm, considering there where months where any mention of something that had occurred before the year 2014 would have brought on a stoic cold and gruff personality to the forefront.
“You know what I mean.” Tony whined as the elevator came to a stop, opening up on his workshop.
“Sure do, Doll. Don’t you worry ‘bout me, I got a reason to come home, see there this really handsome fella who’s waiting for me, and I’m not about to let ‘im down.”
Tony smiled, heart warming, despite the colder temperature of the lab. Setting his now half empty mug of coffee down, the genius wondered over to the couch where Bucky had left one of his sweaters. Technically it had been Tony’s fault he left it as he had thrown it haphazardly when trying to strip his boyfriend for some wild workshop sex, but all that meant was that it was readily available now for Tony to snuggle into, rolling up the sleeves a couple times because his boyfriend was a giant.
“a “baby did you eat today?” kind of love.”
“Tony,”
“Hmm,”
“Tony.”
“What?”
The engineer looked up from where he was, elbow deep in the improved Quinjet engine, to see a rather irate looking Bucky Barnes.
“When was the last time you ate?” He asked, eyebrow raised in accusation. It wasn’t his fault that he got a little turned on by his boyfriend’s anger? Right? I mean when you have around 260 pounds of pure muscle in front of you looking like they might be just about ready to pull you over their knee for a good spanking, it is only human to be at least a little bit aroused.
Tony swallowed before blinking away the haze in his mind.
“Not that long ago, I had some of the mac ’n’ cheese Clint made, which s about he only thing that guy can make.” Tony added under his breath, though it was true that the few dishes the archer had mastered where indeed artfully done.
Bucky’s eyebrows rose only further, however, seeing the genius himself could barely manage to make toast for himself in the mornings. No matter how fond he was of his boyfriend, nor how massively intelligent he was, there were just some things that Tony cannot do. Cooing is one of them. Keeping track of time and eating at regular intervals was another.
“Baby, that was yesterday evening. Have you had anything in between then and now?”
Tony’s guilt face said it all. Bucky sighed, disappointed but not unused to playing mother hen, heck he kinda liked it sometimes, both in the forties and now, because it meant that the people he loved most in the world where well-fed and safe. He has no doubt that having a friend and boyfriend that he didn’t have to chase down to ensure there weren’t any fights nor was there any malnourishment going on would be equally nice. But then again he wouldn’t get that fuzzy feeling of being needed and appreciated quite so often.
Wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist Bucky leaned in. Tony’s face did an odd manoeuvre of soft-smile-because-my-boyfriend-is-hugging-me to confused-outrage-as-my-boyfriend-throws-me-over-his-shoulder-like-a-sack-of-potatoes. He also let out a rather undignified grunt as he was hoisted out of his shop and towards the elevator.
Bucky’s laughter was fond and genuine as Tony began to squirm and demand to be put down.
“Sure, I’ll put you down. When we get to the kitchen I’ll put your tight ass in a chair and you won’t leave it ‘till I say you’re done eating. Then you are going to shower and take a nap because you stink and if you’re last meal was last night, that tells me you’ve been in the shop since then.”
Tony grumbled another few times before becoming resigned to his fate. Steve had tried to warn him in advance of how obstinate Bucky could get about things. Then again, it was one of the things he loved about his man.
“a “you’re the first person I told” kind of love.”
There had been times when he had almost told Steve, it had just been on the tip of his tongue. It seemed so silly now in this modern world, where anyone could love anyone and while yes, there where a few intolerant people out there, for the most part no one would bat an eyelash.
Given Steve’s moral compass and his devotion to the church, doubly so after the death of his mother, Bucky was never too sure if he could risk it. He trusted Steve, with his life, with everything he owned. But this had been the one thing he had kept close to his chest. The one thing he was unsure about.
These days he kicked himself over the worry that he had gotten into, the stupid idea that Steve would have looked at him differently for just saying something as trivial as ‘hey, sometimes I like fellas too’.
Instead Bucky had decided to keep that part of himself hidden from the one person who would never have had a problem with it. It hadn’t been too much of a hardship, hiding that part of his personality, Bucky was a very good looking young man and so even if he did have the occasional crush on someone of the same sex, it wasn’t long before he found a dame who would be ready and willing to take his mind off of him.
Besides, when the war started it got easier. Men where more willing to look the other way, put it down to the need for affection and intimacy after months in the gruelling conditions. Of course it was still kept a secrete, but at least the risk of being beaten to a pulp and shamed where slightly lower than usual.
It wasn’t until he had fully regained himself in this new century, however, that he began to entertain the idea of telling someone. His first thought was to tell Steve, but again his own cowardliness prevented him from saying anything on the off-chance his friend still shared views with the time from which they had originated.
Instead he thought about telling someone insignificant, like one of the street vendors or coffee shop baristas, just to test the waters. Instead it had come out by accident when Tony had been working on his arm.
The genius had been muttering to himself and asked one of his bots to pass him a tool. The bot in question was Butterfingers and true to it’s name, it dropped the screwdriver.
Tony had looked up at him then, looking fond and exasperated all at once, rolling his eyes and saying “Honestly, they would be more use as scrap metal, I don’t know why keep them around. But at least now you get to surreptitiously stare at my ass, and it is a rather fine one at that.” He had teased, waggling his eyebrows in an comically suggestive manner before hopping down off his stool and bending over, ass on full display as he reached down to get the screwdriver.
Bucky’s eyes rounded slightly, it was a damn fine ass.
Apparently that had not just been a thought running through his head, as Tony seemed to perk up at look over his shoulder while still bent down.
“And here I though all forties era super-soldiers where prudish and straight as Clint’s arrows.” he teased, coming up to stand straight. Bucky must have had that deer in the headlights look about him because Tony was quick to add “Not that there is anything wrong with being straight, or gay or whatever. Hell I’m a little all over the place you know so no judgment here.”
“I didn’t- I-” Bucky flounder a little then just resigned himself to it, his smiled excuses weren’t going to fool anyone, least of all one of the most intelligent people on the planet. “I never even told Steve.”
It was Tony’s turn to look surprised and flustered now. “Spangles doesn’t know you’re gay?”
“I’m not-“ Bucky sighed, unsure of how to proceed exactly. “I’m not gay, I just, sometimes I’m in the mood of a fella, sometimes in the mood for a dame. I like ‘em both.” He nodded resolutely, and seeing the acceptance on Tony’s face he relaxed. Relieved to finally have told somebody. Granted it wasn’t exactly the way he had thought he was first going to admit it nor was it the person he really wanted to admit it to. But at least now he knew that he wasn’t alone and he could trust Tony to not judge his preferences.
“Sooo, there any fellas in particular that you’re in the mood for, say some dashingly handsome man with a “damn fine ass” perhaps?” Tony ventured, quite clearly checking Bucky out.
“Maybe,” Bucky’s face bloomed with a grin, “But you know appearance isn’t everything, and it’d be nice to have, say two working hands with which I could get a feel for that ass, see if it’s truly up to standards.”