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The Winter Soldier
Rhodey is deployed as the Iron Patriot for nighttime air support when he meets the Winter Soldier for the first time – a hazy shadow against the sand and humidity of Afghanistan.
He only gets a few potshots at the figure before the weight of the Winter Soldier slams into him, sending him spinning, his HUD calculations scrambling for repulsor trajectory corrections.
Before Rhodey can shake him off, the Winter Soldier punches into the center of his armor, rips out the arc reactor, and crushes it in his metal hand.
The suit powers down. Rhodey feels the now dead weight of the metal dig into his flesh, sees the monitors in his helmet flickering out, and he’s swallowed by the dusk as he plummets into the sand dunes below. His head is twisted into an awkward angle, giving him a perfect view of the carnage unfolding in front of him. As Rhodey struggles for the manual release mechanisms of the armor, he faintly imagines this is some kind of punishment.
The soldier moves efficiently, brutally, tearing through the roof of the last car of the convoy before pulling a man out.
Rhodey remembers talking to Ishaq Samad in the morning. He has two kids, a loving wife, and plans for revolutionizing foreign policy in Afghanistan. He’s looking forward to his mother’s narenj pulao for dinner, after ‘weeks of subpar mandarin cashew chicken to fill the void.’
The Winter Soldier executes Samad with a single bullet through the forehead.
He is gone before the rescue helicopters arrive 5 minutes later.
There is a lot of yelling and a lot of fire, but all Rhodey can focus on is how the mask on the Winter Soldier looked like a muzzle.
The shell they extract in the morgue is a soviet slug. Unregistered.
When Tony’s mention of Chinese takeout over the phone sends him into a full-blown panic attack, he decides that visiting Sam in DC should become a regular thing.
James
It kind of doesn’t become a regular thing. He still video chats Sam at least once a week, usually over dinner. He and Sam try their best to synchronize their meals so they can pretend they’re in each other’s physical company, though once in a while they try to one-up each other in who has the weirdest meal (Sam is currently winning with live octopus. Jesus). Rhodey gets deployed more and more often for more and more bizarre circumstances, because apparently what happened in New York was just the start of monsters/aliens/robots/whatever attacking different parts of the world. On the bright side, he always has something to talk about during his and Sam’s dinnertime conversations.
(He’s still not over the day sentient trash bags from Chinese landfills attacked Beijing. He couldn’t help feeling he was in a B-rated movie about the perils of human waste.
Rhodey is 100% not amused when Sam starts belting out Katy Perry’s “Firework” after he’s done telling the story. He is 150% even less amused when Tony teaches DUM-E to do the same while whipping around a fire extinguisher like a baton.)
Then the Mandarin and saving the president happens, and Rhodey wants to punch Tony in the face and roll him up into a protective burrito at the same time, because Tony is such an idiot.
And then, then, SHIELD files are leaked, and SHIELD is HYDRA, and fuck, Rhodey doesn’t know what’s worse, the fact the Winter Soldier almost definitely killed Tony’s parents or that Tony’s repulsor tech was used in a goddamn terrorist plot, and this shit is way too soon after what happened in Florida.
Rhodey has to blast through the walls of Tony’s locked down workshop to stop him from drinking himself to death.
Rhodey pours every single bottle of expensive liquor down the drain and listens to Tony alternating between wet, heaving breaths and faint, empty laughs. When Rhodey is done, he goes over to Tony, who is slumped over, face pressed against one of his holographic tables, idly shuffling through the blueprints of Avengers Tower. Rhodey sighs and takes a seat next to Tony.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself, you know. How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not alone?” Rhodey says, and Tony’s glazed over eyes reminds him of the time Tony refused to tell anyone he was slowly dying of palladium poisoning.
“Y’think Capsicle thinks I’m a- a Nazi?” Tony slurs out instead, hand pressed over the layout of Captain America’s room, the monitor distorted into whorls under his fingertips. “Fuck, does this mean Howard’s an… unintentional Nazi?” He chokes out a laugh that makes Rhodey’s chest tighten. “Like father, like son, right? A whole happy family of goddamn Nazis.”
“Tony…”
“Cap probably forgives Howard though. Prob'ly thinks I’m still, uh, an actual- what is it? Hydrant? Son of a bitch. Maybe that’s why Pep’s not here anymore? I just… extinguish her, maybe?” Rhodey stops trying to talk sense into him then, because if Tony bringing up his and Pepper’s amiable enough breakup, things are really bad. He instead rubs soothing circles into the tensed up muscles of Tony’s back, letting him babble away. Soon, Tony nods off while tracing circles around Captain America’s shield, lips still forming around the words “Potomac River” and “Vibranium magnet”. Rhodey tells JARVIS to send him an alert if/when Tony tries to do something stupid and tries not to think about the if part of the if/when Tony wakes up.
Like Rhodey expects, in the morning, Tony pretends the conversation never happened, and talks over him when he suggests that, since he’s going to DC anyway, to come along with him and attend one of Sam’s veteran’s group therapy sessions. He raises his voice when Tony ignores him, which in turn, makes Tony raise his. Rhodey’s over how Tony shouldn’t be afraid to reach out for help if he has to and Tony’s over how difficult it is to create an electromagnet powerful enough to pick up Vibranium without having to make another arc reactor to charge up the damn thing, until they’re shouting at each other. In the end, Rhodey storms out when Tony starts making DUM-E, Butterfingers, and You swivel in synchrony, happily making pvvt noises alongside “Welcome to the Jungle” in order to drown Rhodey out. He loves Tony, but jesus, the man’s a huge pain.
Rhodey gets into the suit Tony’s given him for recreational purposes, and sets the destination to DC. He normally doesn’t take it out because the “WAR MACHINE ROX!” and “HONEY BABY RHODEYBEAR” decals sprayed into the sides of either thigh are pretty embarrassing, but damn, he missed Sam, and the fact that he was involved in taking down HYDRA with Captain America and Agent Romanoff meant that a visit was definitely in order, because holy shit.
He “parks” the suit just outside of the building, running up to the entrance, before thinking better of it and running back out. He activates the compression mechanism and taps out a staccato beat with his fingers as he waits the few minutes it takes for the suit to fold into a portable suitcase, and then he sprints down the hallway as quietly as possible, managing to catch the end of the meeting.
He leans against one of the pillars and watches Sam cast a warm, attentive and understanding gaze over the veteran’s group as he asks if there’s anyone else who would like to share. Rhodey sees familiar faces, Aram, Patricia, Da Eun, Isaiah, Xiao Rong, but there’s an unfamiliar man sitting on the furthest row, with long shaggy brown hair and a cap pulled low over his face.
Sam begins to wrap up the meeting, but then the man in the background softly says, “The mission is over, but I don’t know where to go,” with a thick voice, raspy with disuse.
Sam gives the man a soft smile, and leans forward on his podium, even though the man’s cap is still firmly tilted over his eyes.
“Thanks for sharing.” Sam says, and pauses, pondering his next words. “Alright. Look, I know it’s easier said than done, but you gotta find something that keeps you grounded. It’s hard to break out of routine. I’ve found that the best way to break out of it is to do something that feels natural to you outside of the front.”
“And what if… you don’t… if there isn’t…” The man asks haltingly, nervously, before trailing off, gloved fists flexing against his legs.
“If you don’t have that something, make one for yourself. But don’t be afraid to ask for help from others. You are worth that. We all are.”
Rhodey smiles at the appreciative murmurs and sounds of support from the other members of the group. Sam begins to close the meeting, and the man in the back gets out of his seat and exits the building, walking by Rhodey quick enough for him to feel a slight gust of wind next to him. The majority of the members linger, giving hugs, thanks, and goodbyes to Sam. After they leave, Rhodey approaches Sam as he cleans up the brochures lying on the table in front of the entrance to the building.
“So, heard you saved Earth from world domination a few weeks ago.” Rhodey says, and Sam’s head whips up before breaking out into a massive grin.
“Rhodey! How’re you doing, man?” Sam says, before opening his arms wide to swallow Rhodey into a tight hug. “And alright, let’s give some credit to Natasha and Steve. They definitely helped out a little.”
“Still humble, huh?” Rhodey says, and Sam laughs into his ear before pulling away. “Not like you saved the president or anything.”
“Back at you.” Sam says, cleaning up the rest of the brochures and folding up the table cloth into a backpack propped up against the wall. He slings it over his shoulders. “Basketball, then lunch back at my place? Steve’s making something after art class apparently.”
“Sounds good.”
They change in the building and make their way to the basketball courts, chatting along the way. Rhodey tells Sam about Tony and Pepper, about Florida, and in exchange, Sam tells him all about meeting Steve and Natasha, and both wince appropriately at the correct parts of the stories, though Rhodey misses Sam’s grin when Rhodey makes a comment how it’s a shame Fury’s dead.
They’re still trying to figure out whose sans-equipment fight was the best, but later Rhodey grudgingly gives it to Sam because jumping out a collapsing building into a moving helicopter was clearly more badass than saving the president, apparently.
“But shouldn’t you be in protective custody or something?” Rhodey asks, doing a few warm-up stretches as Sam shoots a few hoops from the free throw line.
Sam shrugs in response, before flicking the ball into the basket with a precise movement of his wrist. “I don’t know, Rhodes. Guess it helps that I’m personal friends with Captain freakin’ America.”
“You do know only 10 year olds use the word ‘freakin’, right?” Rhodey jogs over to pick up the ball and tosses it back to Sam, who catches it.
“Whatever dude, I participated in straight up governmental espionage; I’m allowed to say freakin’ if I want to.” Sam says, dribbling the basketball. Rhodey laughs. “Wait, does this mean we’re fighting for two different sides, or what?”
“Nah, we’re cool because belonging to club superhero babysitters automatically cancels it out.” Rhodey says, and Sam whoops. “So, first to 40 points?”
“Yep. You ready to get your butt kicked?”
“You’re on, birdboy.”
“Mr. President’s Tin can!”
Rhodey does not in fact, “get his butt kicked”. Quite the opposite actually. Sam’s reverted to yelling DON’T MAKE ME UNLEASH THE FALCON while frantically waving his arms around when defending Rhodey as he tries for a basket. The distraction ultimately doesn’t work, and Rhodey wins with a beautiful one-handed 3-pointer. Rhodey begins to gloat as he takes a swing from his water bottle, but stops as he sees a figure sitting on a far end of a park bench, gloved hands fiddling with the tassels of his frayed hoodie.
“Sam, would you give me a minute? I’m gonna invite him to lunch or something.” Rhodey says, jerking his head towards the man, before going over to pick up his suit suitcase. “You still do that, right? For your group members?”
Sam tracks his eyes to where Rhodey is looking, before nodding. “Yeah, still do that. It looks like he could use the company. He’s come by about three times, and it was the first time he ever spoke in one of the sessions, today, when you came. Maybe it’ll help out. He’s definitely struggling with something, but anyway, yeah, give him an invitation. I’m sure Steve’s cooked enough – guy’s metabolism is insane.” Sam says, muttering something about 13 miles, before walking off to towel the sweat off of his face.
Rhodey walks over to the man, making sure his movements are clear and obvious. “Hey.” Rhodey says, tentatively. The man does not look up, but his hands slam back onto his knees, curled into tight fists.
Rhodey sits on the other side of the bench. “Saw you at Sam’s meeting, if that’s okay to mention? Great guy, huh?”
“Yeah.” The man husks out, before sitting back and blinking, a strangely surprised expression on his face. Rhodey catches sight of glassy, light blue eyes, before the man looks back down again.
“James Rhodes.” Rhodey says, trying to introduce himself. The guy seems rather flighty, so he doesn’t extend a hand to shake, even though his father’s voice rings in his ears for a few seconds about giving a good first impression.
“James.” The man says, slowly sounding out the letters, as if the name is a revelation. “James. That’s… that’s my name, too?” He mumbles, almost to himself, and the end of his sentence lits into a question.
“You can call me Rhodey, if you’d like. Saves a hell of a lot of confusion. It’s pretty weird, saying your own name, I get it.” Rhodey says lightly, but the man finally looks up, and Rhodey almost flinches at how determined, yet frightened, the expression is.
“No, it’s… it’s okay. James… James is okay. James is fine.” James says, and lapses back into silence.
“Do you have any plans for lunch? Because Sam and I were planning to head back to his house for a meal, and we’d like you to come, if you’d want. Looks like you’ve been having a rough time.” Rhodey says. James looks at him wide-eyed, disbelieving, for a second before looking back down. He stays quiet for a while after that, and Rhodey waits for a few beats before sighing quietly. Well, it was worth a shot.
“I… I’m…” James begins, and Rhodey, who was starting to stand up, sits back down again. “Would that be… would that be okay?”
“Of course.” Rhodey says, “We were just heading off now, if you want to come with us?” James’ fists tighten just a fraction when he hears come with us, but he takes a deep breath, as if steeling himself, before standing up. James whispers something under his breath that Rhodey doesn’t catch, but the harsh syllables tip him off: a foreign language. He probably wouldn’t have understood even if James had said it in a normal register.
Their walk back to Sam’s house is relatively silent, with James trailing behind them. Rhodey feels bad for James; something is clearly weighing heavy on his conscience, and he hopes that he can find someone to help him out with that. James reminds him a bit of Tony, actually, when he’s not putting up all that show.
Sam unlocks the front door, and the smell of Thai green curry and pineapple rice immediately greets them. Sam’s mentioned Steve’s little notebook of things to try before; it’s nice to know that Steve enjoyed crossing Thai food off his list.
“Hey, Steve!” Sam calls out into the house, as he toes off his shoes and drops his backpack at the front door. “I brought a few extra guests today, man. Hope you don’t mind settling for just a gigantic portion of the food instead of the mammoth size you usually eat. Angry?”
“Pretty sure you’re thinking of the wrong Avenger.” Steve dryly calls back. “But I’ll try not to eat the cutlery.”
“The super-serum would probably let you.” Sam says, and Rhodey hears Steve’s faint laughter. He looks over to James, meaning to welcome him into the house, but stops when he sees the shell-shocked and confused expression on James’ face.
“Sorry I’m not out to greet you all, I was just setting up the table.” Steve says, his voice getting louder as he makes his way to the front door. “Who is it? Anyone I know?”
“One’s Rhodey, and the other’s a new person.” Sam says. When James doesn’t reply and Sam looks over to Rhodey with a please tell me he told you his name expression on his face, Rhodey then supplements:
“James.”
“Very funny, Rhodey.” Steve says, with a smile, walking into view wearing an absurd flag patterned apron, focused on stirring a pan of curry with a wooden spoon, “Y’know, I do know your first name. In fact, I remembered you told me to stop calling you-“
Steve looks up and freezes, his eyes seeing only James.
The wooden spoon clatters to the ground.
“Bucky?” Steve croaks out, in a tight, reedy voice with none of the mirth that was there a second ago. Sam snaps his head back around and stares at James incredulously. James gives a full body flinch at the name, but otherwise doesn’t respond. Steve looks like someone punched him in the gut.
“James.” Rhodey says, after a tense moment. “Steve, this is James.”
“James.” Steve repeats, still sounding off-balance. James nods, not making eye contact. Steve gives a watery smile. “Well, James, I hope you like Thai.”
Sam tentatively explains the history between Steve and James to Rhodey in hushed tones a few weeks later over a burger and fries; Sam in DC, Rhodey in New York. Sam himself doesn’t know the entire story yet, but the bits and pieces of what Rhodey hears from him have to be buffered with a lot of home-cut sweet potato fries and dark lager, because Rhodey cannot listen to all this without being a little bit tipsy. Sam always cracks open a cheap beer as well, so they both agree. Rhodey sees glimpses of James and Steve in the background of their video chats. James has been getting back bits and pieces of his memory – an inside joke here, a snarky comment there – and comes around to Sam’s house for food more often than not now.
And Steve, Steve always looks at James like he’s going to vanish and never come back one day.
It’s a humid evening when Sam finally tells Rhodey in a cautious, worried voice, that James was the Winter Soldier.
Rhodey has to leave the conversation to puke, the silhouette of Samad’s execution thrumming through his head as he clutches the toilet bowl with clammy hands.
Rhodey is angry, of course he’s fucking angry, but it wasn’t James fault, he knew that. He goes to a therapist once a week, and combined with his conversations with Sam, slowly comes to grips with differentiating the Winter Soldier and James. Sometimes Rhodey spitefully wishes that Sam never told him about James’ past, but he was going to find out anyway, in the end. There’s no point in shooting the messenger bird.
But then Rhodey hears from Sam and Pepper that all of the Avengers have been told to regroup in Tony’s new tower, James and Sam included, and his overprotective best friend mode is sure as hell activated.
Maybe it was a little bit overkill, watching Sam, James, and Steve in his full stealth leisure suit Iron Patriot armor as they leave LaGuardia Airport before making his way to Tony’s. He almost brings down some construction scaffolding in his haste to get to Avengers Tower, the deflectors skittering off, but he can’t bring himself to care when he hears distant laughter from the construction men about ‘the stars on that things’ butt’.
“Hey man, heard the news. You doing okay?” Rhodey asks. He touches down onto the Iron Man landing pad, and the machines start dismantling his suit without any hesitation as he walks towards Tony, who is leaning against the door frame, nursing an almost empty glass of something amber.
“What- What do you mean? Why, uh, why wouldn’t I be?” Tony says, looking away from Rhodey as he turns and stalks back into the building, situating himself behind the bar.
“Tones, you know what I’m talking about.” Rhodey says, crossing his arms and squaring his shoulders. “You sure you can handle this right now?”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t need you mother-henning me. Big boy now, and all that? It’s not very… becoming of you, honeysuckle.” Tony says, absently throwing out an empty hand gesture as he uncaps a bottle and pours himself a generous amount of whatever liquor into his glass.
“Sure. And that’s why you’re drinking like a fish?”
“For one, fish don’t drink, platypus.” Tony takes a sip from his glass. “Secondly, uh, Fury’s not dead.”
“Tony, I- wait, what? Okay, no, you are so not distracting me from this right now –”
“It’s- it’s no biggie, yeah, just told by a guy who I thought was dead that I’m meeting another guy who should also be dead, and oh, by the way, orchestrated Mom and Pop’s death! Yeah, it’s fine, he was brainwashed, classic, forgivable, redeemable even, patriotism’s best friend, it’s fine, Rhodey, fine. Can we just-” Tony takes a deep breath and squeezes his eyes shut. His hands are shaking, and Rhodey can hear the ice clinking against the glass from the other side of the room.
“Alright, well I’m going to be here whenever he comes, and that’s final.” Rhodey says, and Tony gives him an exaggerated eye roll, a, ‘sure, momma bear’, but Tony’s mouth curls up into a vulnerable smile, gone in a flash, and Rhodey knows he’s made the right choice.
Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff make it to the tower first. Rhodey’s 100% sure they went through the vents, then through the actual elevator chute, because JARVIS doesn’t announce their presence until the elevator doors slide open.
“Katniss. Natalie.” Tony says, grinning.
Neither respond to him, but Romanoff spots Rhodey and pauses, before something softens in her stare.
“You too, huh.” She says, and Rhodey knows exactly what she means.
“Yeah.”
Barton immediately strolls over to the refrigerator and pulls out a carton of orange juice, but from what Rhodey can remember of the agent, his movements seem a little bit more jittery than usual. “Unpleasant shared life experiences.” Romanoff says, when she catches Rhodey’s questioning expression.
The atmosphere is unquestionably awkward.
Bruce pops in for a few seconds, but Rhodey doubts that he’s ready for any human interaction whatsoever. He mutters something about time sensitive experiments, pours a little bit of water into a mug before pouring an entire case of loose leaf tea into his cup, and then he’s gone.
“Oh, so he can be excused from important Avengers meetings in the name of science, but I’m chopped liver?” Tony grumbles, but then they hear Thor slamming down in front of Avengers Tower from 90 stories up, in an arc of lighting and clap of thunder.
About five seconds later, he rockets up onto the balcony, whipping Mjolnir furiously.
“Man and Patriot of iron. SHIELD brothers.”
“Huh. Y’know, I wasn’t actually expecting you, big guy.” Tony says, around a mouthful of ice before setting down his drink. From what Rhodey can remember, Thor doesn’t particularly seem like his usual puppy dog disposition.
“I have been called to Earth as this meeting pertains to an object that is in our possession: the Tesseract.” Thor says, and Rhodey can feel the entire room tense. “More specifically, for usage in returning the memories of good Captain’s friend.”
“Sir, Captain Rogers, Mr Wilson, and Mr Barnes are taking the elevator up.” JARVIS says, and Rhodey swears he can hear the hesitancy in the AI’s voice as he announces James’ name.
“What’s up with the Chinese signature stamp outside the tower?” Sam immediately says, as he waltzes out of the elevator.
“Ah yes, apologies. That would be my doing.” Thor says, still serious, but Rhodey can see a small smile pulling at his lips. Sam gives Thor a double take.
“Damn.” Sam says, taking Thor in, before extending a hand. “Sam Wilson.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Sam, Son of Wil.” Thor says, reaching to give Sam a handshake. Thor places Mjolnir on one of Tony’s coffee tables, over a spread of magazines, and Rhodey snorts when he sees Tony bristle like a irritable cat in response.
Then Steve and James walk in silently, and when Tony bristles this time, it’s not even half as funny. Natasha eyes James warily, but surprisingly, she and Barton move to greet them.
“Okay, uh, okay, great, whole happy family’s here!” Tony claps, and briskly makes his way over to Rhodey. “How’s everyone doing? Good? Fantastic.”
“Well, Stark, if you gave us any time to respond…” Steve says, with a small grin.
“Did you just sass me?” Tony says, mock affronted, and confidently strides towards Steve – no, confidently strides towards James, who is shifting uncomfortably. He’s cleaned up a bit, looking a bit healthier, and his hair pulled into a small ponytail.
“Sassy enough for a capsicle?” Steve says in response. Tony snorts.
“When did you become fun?” Tony says, and Rhodey sees Romanoff smile too. “Anyway, heard your friend here has a bionic arm better than Stark tech? C’mon, c’mon, lemme see.” James fidgets a little as Tony pulls and tugs at his sleeve, always tackling things straight on before he’s goddamn ready, but then Rhodey has to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down when Tony reveals a familiar metal arm. “Ugh, insulting. Nowhere near Stark tech quality. We definitely make arms way better than this. And no, I did not just make a weapons of mass destruction joke.”
“When did Pepper approve the prosthesis trade for Stark Corporations?” Romanoff remarks wryly.
“Didn’t!” Tony replies, cheerfully enough, as he pushes James towards his workshop. “Now, chop, chop, let’s get you in a 3D scanner. You okay with that? You won’t freak out or anything, right?”
“I… um…” James looks completely overwhelmed, looking to Sam and Steve for support, and Rhodey actually feels sorry for the guy.
“Stark.” Steve begins, a warning cutting into the otherwise calm tone of his voice, “James might not…”
“Captain, perhaps it would be best if James were not in the room for the moment.” Thor says, placing a calming hand on Steve’s shoulder.
“Yeah, Thor, take it away.” Tony calls over his shoulder, as he pushes James down the stairs. Rhodey frantically looks back to Tony, then back at Steve, but Sam saves him from indecision.
“You got your superhero to babysit, I got mine.” Sam says, thumping Rhodey on the back. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks.” Rhodey says.
“The only two sane people here gotta watch out for these super-powered nutcases to make sure nothing blows up.” Sam whispers.
“Trust me, Tony doesn’t need the superhero title in order to get anything to explode.” Rhodey mutters, before he makes his way down the stairs to the workshop.
When the doors open after he punches in his code, JARVIS’ welcome message is completely drowned out by “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.
“Tony.” Rhodey says, but his voice is completely swallowed by Axl Rose’s wail. He’s about to call out Tony’s name again, but then he’s a little bit too busy cracking up to do much of anything else.
DUM-E has grasped on to James’ sweater and is pulling at it, while You is excitedly zooming around the bot and the man. James himself is quizzically staring at the ceiling – JARVIS, then – frozen halfway through taking off his top. Butterfingers is tracking its camera up and down the metal arm, and is wildly zooming in and out on the red star on the shoulder. Tony’s back is turned to the entire scene, babbling on and on about something, but Rhodey guesses it’s something about James having to take off his shirt for the 3D scan.
“JARVIS, would you please turn the music down?” Rhodey says, in between heaves of laughter.
“Anyway, so you’re gonna- hey! JARVIS, turn the-“ Tony starts grumpily, but then turns and spots Rhodey, narrowing his eyes. “Rhodey! Why are you laughing. Science is happening. Science is a very serious matter.”
“I doubt James could hear you anyway.” Rhodey says, still wracked by a few noises he adamantly would deny to his deathbed were giggles.
“I could, actually.” James says, and gives a bit of a self-depricating smile. “Trade-off while repenting for being a slave dog to HYDRA. Super-hearing. Not really worth it, if I’m honest.”
There’s a tense few moments where neither Rhodey nor Tony say anything, then Tony is bent double, absolutely howling.
“Holy fuck, James.” Tony wheezes after a moment, scrubbing at his eyes. “Holy shit. Jesus, where were you when-“
“- if it’s earlier than a few months ago, I don’t think you want me to answer that.” James says, awkwardly shifting, wondering if he’s pushed too far, but then Tony’s laughing so hard he has to hold onto one of Butterfingers’ struts to keep standing up. DUM-E lets go of James’ shirt to jealously crowd around Tony, demanding to be pet, and Rhodey’s laughing too, and finally, finally, James starts to laugh too.
Everything was going to be okay.
“Son of a bitch, I really should be beating you up for that.” Tony says.
“An old man like you?” James says, breaking out a cocky grin.
“Oh, we’re gonna get along.” Tony says, grinning. “Now, stay as still as possible. JARVIS, scan James over here for me and put it in my private server.”
“Sounds dirty.”
“He’s almost as bad as you.” Rhodey says.
Tony rolls his eyes in response. “Full breakdown of the arm schematics – hey, James, you want anything special built into the Way-Better-than-the-Nazis’-Arm Mark 1?”
Rhodey decides to head back up at that, and turns to leave, but before he does, James catches Rhodey’s eyes and gives him a look that is so completely open and utterly grateful, and Rhodey can’t even begin to imagine how he had troubles distinguishing James from the Winter Soldier.
It is however, not going as well up top as it is in the workshop.
When Rhodey gets to Sam, Sam quickly fills him in. Long story short, as soon as Thor brought up the Tesseract, the entire meeting went to shit.
“We are not using the Tesseract on him.” Steve says, adamant.
“Captain, I understand your-“
“No, Thor, you don’t understand!” Steve roars, and suddenly deflates. “Sorry, I just… I don’t want to lose him. Not again.”
“And that is a decision that ultimately belongs to James.” Thor says, calmly. “Do you not want your friend to regain his past memories?”
Steve takes a deep breath. “As much as I’d like Bucky back, he and James are two different people and I- knowing his past with HYDRA and HYDRA’s relationship with the Tesseract… I couldn’t ask him-“
“What’s going on?” James says, as he and Tony emerge from the workshop.
“James!” Steve starts, but trails off.
“Steve, what’s going on?” James repeats, more seriously.
“Captain, please allow me.” Thor says to Steve. After a beat, Steve nods mutely.
Thor ends his explanation with, “Neither option is wrong nor right, but it is your choice, James.”
Instead of answering, James says, “Steve, remember the time you threw up after I made you go on that one ride at Coney Island?”
“The Cyclone?” Steve replies, quietly.
“That one.” James says, giving Steve a smile. “And I took care of you after that, right?”
“Yeah. But that was your fault.” Steve laughs, a little choked up. “This time it was mine. I can’t make you do something like this.”
“What happened to me was not your fault, Steve. And you aren’t making me do anything.” James says, firmly. “I just want to remind you that I’m not something that’s going to just. Shatter apart in your hands and disappear, you know? I took care of you, punk.”
“Not really a punk anymore, jerk.”
“So it’s different ‘cause now you’d love anyone with a good enough personality, right?” James grins. “Still a punk to me.”
“Bucky!” Steve says, completely horrified, while Rhodey shoots a look at Sam, before looking at the rest of the group, who are hilariously shooting each other quirked eyebrows of varying severity because wow, way to jump the fact that Captain America is totally not straight. But then Steve is completely horrified for another reason, blurting out “Oh god, I’m so sorry James, I, I, didn’t mean-“
“It’s fine.” James says, “I like Bucky. I mean, I am him, more and more now. I like his memories and I like how he makes me a better person.” Then James turns to Thor, “Could uh, the whole memory returning thing happen a little later, though? Let me think on it a bit. Being James has helped me a lot, and I’m not sure if I’m reading to let go of that just yet.”
“Your memories of James will not be altered; Bucky’s memories will merely be recovered. Both lives will remain in the same vessel. However, I understand your request.” Thor says, smiling warmly. “It may take a bit of bargaining on my part, but I am sure it can be done.”
Steve looks like he’s about to cry.
“Well then! Now that big, blond and buff squared have finished their business, I’m starving.” Tony says, clapping his hands together. “Pizza? Glad everyone agrees. Let’s uh, order in pizza. JARVIS?”
Rhodey chuckles, and when everything arrives, he and Sam watch in disbelief and awe over how much mozzarella sticks and pizza a group of superheroes can pack away. Rhodey is pretty sure Steve is an emotional eater, what with the rate the super-soldier goes through potato wedges, and well, Thor’s an alien/god, but everyone eats a lot, and he can’t help feel a twinge of jealousy.
“Metabolism, man.” Sam whispers through his third slice of seafood pizza. “Metabolism.”
Rhodey has no idea how his life has turned out like this, and he has absolutely does not care.
Bucky
Rhodey still comes over to Avengers Tower for the first couple of weeks when he can, whenever James comes around. He’s still James, hasn’t had the aid of the Tesseract, not yet, but he seems to be doing well without it.
The entire team is together more often than not now, and Rhodey can’t help but be grateful for it, when he can’t be there for Tony. In the past, that’s always been an issue without a resolution, so it’s a relief not to have to worry about him so much. Nnowadays, his fortnightly dinners with Pepper are less about them worrying about whether or not Tony will accidentally blow himself up without him actually noticing, and more about Tony’s mental breakdowns when neither Sam nor Barton are there to appreciate his terrible bird puns, or freak outs when Bruce isn’t around to talk science, or his relapse into bad eating and sleeping habits when Steve is busy.
Tony manages to finish James’ new arm after a few weeks of working on it nonstop, and James asks for Sam and Steve to come watch Tony show it off. James, surprisingly, also invites Rhodey. Sam unfortunately cannot, due to his prior arrangements with his veteran's group.
“Whatever your arm can do? This can do it at least, at least, a hundred, a thousand, whatever number- times better and faster.” Tony babbles, sleep-deprived but triumphant. “Pies? You wanna make, uh, pies? You can make as many pies as you want.”
“Sir has not eaten solid food in the past 48 hours.” JARVIS says, and Tony hisses at the ceiling.
“Traitor!”
“Tony,” Steve scolds, “I froze meals for you in the fridge. You have a microwave right in your workshop.”
“I might’ve, erm, sleep-tinkered with the microwave a bit… It’s a thing.” Tony points at what was the microwave, which now is more of a fancy snow globe than something used to heat up food.
“Tony, how on earth did you a microwave to make actual snow-“
“I don’t know, okay!”
“Steve hasn’t cooked for us in forever.” James stage-whispers to Rhodey, “I think he’s got a thing.”
“Shut up.” Steve grumps, face flushing slightly, but Tony’s gotten to the hyperactive part of sleep deprivation now, and ignores everyone.
“Anyway, arm, brilliance, efficiency!” Tony says.
“Tony, you’re just saying a bunch of adjectives.” Rhodey says. “Maybe you should go to sleep before installing the arm.”
“Nonsense! Fired up, ready to go.” Tony says. “You’re fine with it, right James?”
“I would be lying if I said yes.” James says, “Go sleep, Tony. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done, but seriously, I wouldn’t trust you with putting together a chair, much less a bionic arm.”
“I am truly wounded, James. In fact, I-“ Tony is interrupted as Steve lifts him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Wow I am high up right now.”
“You,” Steve says, “Are going to sleep.”
“Mutiny! JARVIS, run simulation for meee!” Tony calls out as Steve walks away with him in tow.
“Take him to bed, Steve!” James calls after him, and Rhodey laughs when Steve grits out an ‘I hate you so much right now’.
Rhodey and James watch the hologram of James’ new arm go through the motions in rapt silence for a few minutes, before Rhodey breaks it. “You know, you’ve really helped Tony out.” He says to James.
“What? Make bad inappropriate jokes? Least I could do, I guess, considering brainwashed me kind of messed up his childhood.” James scoffs bitterly.
“Hey, no, number one, that was not you, alright?” Rhodey says, “And two, Tony’s been having a tough time. I think working on your arm has been the first time he’s ever really felt genuinely useful after what happened in New York.”
There’s a pause, where they both watch the hologram flick through different decals James could choose to put on his shoulder, and then James says, “Thanks.” Another pause. “And uh, thank you too, you know. For uh, picking me up on that park bench. Like a stray dog.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The day that Tony installs the final piece on James’ arm is also the same day that James requests Thor to restore the rest of Bucky’s memories to him, and everyone makes time to gather at the Avengers Tower for the occasion.
“Are you sure?” Steve asks, for what is probably the fiftieth time. “You might get overwhelmed-“
“Steve, I’ll be fine, promise.” James says, “Even when you were 5’4 and a strong gust of wind could blow you over, you were always the bigger worrywart between the two of us. I’ll. Be. Fine. Stop worrying.”
Tony puts together the finishing touches on James’ arm first.
They’re on Mark V now, but Tony’s pretty satisfied with it all.
“It’s not bad, if I say so myself.”
“Not bad? Not bad?” James says, gaping as he turns the cloaking mechanism over his arm. The metal plating flickers over to flesh. “This is amazing. What else does it do?”
“The strength in your arm has at least been multiplied, uh, tenfold I think. Unless I fell asleep. Then, who knows.”
“That is incredibly irresponsible.” Steve says absently, as James runs off momentarily to check out all of the things he can lift. He picks up a couch that Barton, Romanoff, and Bruce are sitting on with remarkable ease and gusto. Thor laughs and launches himself onto the sofa as well, which nearly causes Bruce to Hulk-out.
“All you do is complain.” Tony mutters, but then Steve mouths a reverent thank you, that’s all sincerity and 46% I know you can’t resist my puppy dog eyes, and Tony grunts and returns back to James marveling at his new arm.
The atmosphere then becomes appropriately serious, when Thor brings out the Tesseract.
“That’s… really blue.” James says, faintly. Barton is nowhere to be seen.
“Captain.” Thor says. Steve snaps to attention. “The Tesseract acts however you wish it to act. But do not overwhelm it. You must concentrate your desire for your friend’s memories.”
“Easier said than done,” Steve breathes out, giving a shaky twitch of the lips. “You ready, James?”
“Yeah.”
Steve holds up the container, and James squeezes his eyes shut.
There’s a blinding flash.
“Guess closing my eyes was a good decision, huh?” James says weakly, before crumpling to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Steve says frantically, quickly handing the Tesseract over to Thor before rushing over to James’ side.
“Yeah, just. A little… overwhelmed.” The man breathes out. “Jesus Christ. I think it worked. Quick, ask me-”
Steve envelops him into a massive hug. James whispers something in his ear, which only makes Steve hold onto him tighter. Rhodey looks over to Sam, who is actually crying. Steve’s rushed off somewhere to get a glass of water, food, and/or possibly a knitted hat, though Tony is suspiciously gone as well.
James has managed to get back up on his feet now, and Rhodey is startled to see that James’ eyes are fixed on him.
Actually, maybe it’s not James anymore. Rhodey walks up to him slowly.
“Hey, you remember me?” Rhodey says, tentatively, “James Rhodes?”
“’Course I do, don’t be ridiculous. It’s… nice to meet you again, James. I’m… I’m-“ He pauses, before giving Rhodey a broad smile, extending his hand. “I’m Bucky.”
Rhodey smiles back and gives Bucky a firm handshake.
“If that’s the case, why don’t you call me Rhodey?”