Chapter Text
There was a floor in the Tower that hardly anyone knew about.
It was situated above Stark Industries, but below the residential levels. Tony’s lab spanned multiple floors, and he’d been careful to make sure it was quite difficult to tell how many. He didn’t want anyone to know about the floor he’d worked in there just for him.
Certainly, he’d always loved inventing, and electronics, and technology. It was a part of him the world had known since he was four years old and his father smiled widely, fakely, and stood next to him as the press took pictures of the young Stark and the circuit board he’d made.
Throughout his life, so much of it had been in the spotlights, publicized, that there was fairly little that was just his. Anything Howard and Obie felt they could use was thrown out there, ostensibly for the good of Stark Industries. And as he grew older, he quickly learned that most of the people he met were no different, using every part of him they could get for their own interests.
But there was one part that he’d managed to keep. One part that Howard and Obie had scorned, because why would the heir to one of the greatest technological empires, the heir to a company meant to create weapons, be interested in gardening? In flowers, of all things?
As much as Obie usually tried to offset some of Howard’s worse parenting (to keep Tony following him like an attention-starved puppy, he thought later), this was one thing they agreed on.
After surviving Afghanistan, as well as the following palladium poisoning, there were some changes Tony wanted to make in his life. And with the designing and building of the New York headquarters for SI, he got the chance to do at least one thing he’d been dreaming of for years.
He designed himself an indoor garden.
Every plant in it, he’d put there himself. He’d designed optimal lighting, watering and irrigation systems, and even air filtering systems that wouldn’t get blocked by the plants’ pollen. It could be self-sustaining for a few weeks, perhaps even a few months. JARVIS had all the information he needed to see to the care of them whenever Tony wasn’t in the building for a while.
Most of the time, though, he took care of them himself.
It was something that calmed his mind down more than anything else. When he was working on his garden, he wasn’t worrying about everything that could go wrong. He wasn’t coming up with twenty different inventions at the same time. Instead, all of his focus was directed at what the plants needed. And for once in his life, he felt like he could provide what was needed, instead of never being enough.
So far, he hadn’t really shared it with any of the Avengers. It was his, after all, like just about everything else wasn’t allowed to be. And because of his experiences, he tended to be very careful about the people he shared his extremely limited personal things with.
But he’d been considering it, lately.
Part of it, he would freely admit, was his sad little crush on Bucky. There had always been a fondness due to everything he’d heard about him from his father, and aunt Peggy, and eventually even Steve. But the real Bucky was a thousand times better than that, smart and witty and devastatingly gorgeous.
Even without the whole crush, though, he could tell Bucky wasn’t doing great. He tried, so very hard, but Tony could see it was off. Bucky didn’t like leaving the Tower all that much - too many people, too many impressions, too many potential attacks.
It left him to find his own place inside the Tower, and while Tony prided himself on having a lot of potential activities and safe spots in there, it was obvious it still wasn’t enough. There wasn’t really a place where Bucky truly felt at ease, which left him tense and wary. And as the weeks passed, despite his attempts to hide it, Tony could tell he was getting more and more tired. He was pretty sure Bucky wasn’t sleeping, at least not deeply - he knew enough about supersoldier physiology to be aware that they needed less sleep than a regular human, which meant it was saying something that Bucky didn’t appear like he got enough sleep.
After much consideration of the pros and cons, Tony made his decision.
Overall, he didn’t feel tense or pressured when spending time with Bucky, which had been one of his biggest worries. He was very sure Bucky would protect his privacy, too, and would respect it if Tony needed some time all by himself.
So one day, he approached Bucky and asked him to follow. When they were in the elevator, he turned to the taller man.
“Alright, so what I’m about to show you is very private, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell any of the others about it,” he started. “I mean, I’m not sure it’ll help, but it’s worth a try, because you look like you need to find an actual place to feel at ease before you crack and just join Clint in the vents or something. And no one wants that.”
Bucky blinked down at him, looking rather stunned. “Wait, what is going on?”
“I’m going to show you a spot that is secret and that hopefully will help you relax.” Nervousness made it rather hard to explain very well, so Tony just nodded at JARVIS’ camera and tried to keep his breathing even as the elevator started moving.
Despite the fact that there were no doubt many questions running through Bucky’s mind, he kept quiet as the elevator descended, stopping at a level that didn’t show up on the display.
“It’s just below my labs, but above the SI areas, so no one really knows it’s here,” Tony babbled as the doors opened to a small hallway. He’d wanted to make sure none of the pollen got into the non-specialized ventilation, which meant separating the elevator from the greenhouse area. “I mostly just wanted a place to relax and be mine, but you kinda look like you might need it even more than I do, and it’s not like it’s much of a hardship sharing with you, or at least I hope it won’t be…”
He was looking at Bucky when he opened the door, which meant he saw the look of amazed wonder on his face as he looked around the plant-filled room.
“This… You’d honestly be okay sharing this with me?” Bucky asked, reverent.
“I mean, overall, yeah?” Tony shrugged a little, having to look away from that much gratitude. “There might be a few moments where I really need some private time, but I’ll be sure to warn you in those cases. And considering how busy I tend to be, I don’t always get to spend much time in here anyway.”
Frowning a little, Bucky turned to face him. “If you want, I can also just… make myself scarce whenever you get time to come here. It’s yours, after all, and… Honestly, getting to spend any time in here is already… It means a lot to me.”
Tony coughed a little, trying to suppress his fidgeting. He wasn’t used to this, wasn’t very great with real emotions or giving a finger and not getting his arm pulled off. “How about I promise to let you know if I need the alone time, and we’ll do our own thing the rest of the time?”
“Alright,” Bucky agreed, turning back to the rest of the room again and smiling with an awe that honestly made Tony’s heart skip a beat.
It also made him all the more certain that sharing this with Bucky had been the right choice. He’d needed it, yes, but he would also appreciate it the way plants should be appreciated.
A thought that was only confirmed when, three days later, Bucky showed up with a few new plants that he, with some help from JARVIS, had researched and that should work with the rest of them. Tony fell a little more for him because of the utter elation on his face when he gave Bucky a corner of his own to grow his plants in.