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In order to make amends after the whole “Germany Airport Affair”, Bucky makes a proposition to Peter, offering to forgive him (some) if he helps the older man to pull a prank on Tony. Although at first Peter is uncertain about teaming up with the former Winter Soldier, who’s the man responsible –even if unwillingly so– for Stark’s parents’ murder, he’s also very scared of the same man. So, when offered an opportunity to put some of the grudges between them to rest, he ends up accepting. Well, that and the fact that Barnes threatens him a little as well.
Thus, Buck and Peter come up with a very simple yet precise plan involving the two of them acting as if there was never a rift between them. Also, upon Parker’s insistence, the prank won’t involve anything that would upset Tony or disrupt his life and/or work. Instead, they just settle on harmlessly messing with him and make him reconsider the resentment he still feels towards the Sergeant.
Best case scenario, the engineer won’t be pissed when –if– he discovers that he’s being messed with. Worst case scenario, Peter gets a lecture and grounded for conspiring against his mentor, with none other than the man he insists on calling “the enemy” (even though he doesn’t really consider Barnes as such, yet he’s the same drama queen as he has always been).
With the two of them plotting, Tony won’t stand a chance. Because even if he doesn’t trust Bucky, he trusts Peter, so the plan basically depends on the teen’s impeccable acting skills. Luckily for them both, and according to Parker himself, he’s really good at acting dumb and childish. Thus, Stark will buy the ploy for sure. Or at least that’s what the kid is convinced of, but they still have to put the plan in motion.
It all starts pretty simply, with Peter showing up at the compound as per usual and making the rounds, greeting everyone he knows that he runs into. He then meets with Tony and gets into helping the engineer with his latest upgrade to some of the Avengers tech. From there, it all goes as expected. All there’s left to do is let Bucky know via text when he has to intercept them and put a start to the prank.
As Stark and Parker finish working in the lab for the day, the older man steers them both towards the communal kitchen to get something to eat and drink. There, unbeknownst to Tony, Barnes’ waiting for their arrival. Although, of course, he makes it seem as if he’s there for his own reasons, unrelated to the other two males’. And that’s exactly when it begins.
“I’m back from my trip. I got you another magnet, mister White Wolf, sir,” Peter says in his most innocent tone of voice, referring to the trip he had taken with his school a few days ago.
He then proceeds to present Buck with a magnet that he has gotten at a gift shop and that proudly shows the name of the place and one of its most famous attractions.
“Cool, stick it on,” replies Bucky, shrugging nonchalantly and turning so that Peter can stick the magnet on his metal arm.
As the kid does as he’s told, the Sergeant smiles briefly before returning his expression to his accustomed poker face. Thus, the –in the eyes of Tony– extremely unusual interaction ends and Parker returns to his mentor’s side, acting as if what just happened isn’t a big deal at all. Barnes, on his part, takes his leave right then and there, wanting to avoid any questions Stark might have for him.
It’s easy to say that the billionaire’s left stunned and confused, trying to process what he has just witnessed. As far as he knows, Peter and Bucky aren’t on the best of terms since the fight at the German airport, so he finds it strange that they are interacting normally all of the sudden as if they have been friends for months. Still, the man’s so dazed that he decides not to question his young protégé, chalking up the weird scene to a play from his mind rather than something real. Meanwhile, Peter tries his best to not start laughing and give away the whole thing.
After that first stage of Barnes and Parker’s plan, everything continues as normal, especially since the two of them have very few chances to meet. That and Peter doesn’t have any new magnets to gift his accomplice. However, they know that the next chance they can get won’t take long to arrive. Be it just for training or an actual mission, they are both bound to run into each other sooner or later, and by the time that happens, the teen will have at least one other magnet ready.
As it turns out, they get to repeat the little pantomime four more times before Tony finally breaks and starts questioning Peter’s actions. But instead of straight out asking the kid and the war veteran what’s the deal with the magnets and them acting all buddy-buddy all of the sudden, he decides to take the “chiding mentor” approach. After all, his own pride makes it impossible for him to admit he’s out of the loop. Especially since he even hasn’t suspected that it’s all a facade; because he refuses to believe that Peter would betray him like that.
“Is that Peter’s shopping list on your arm?” Tony asks Barnes as soon as the younger (older) man walks into the lounge with a bunch of magnets and a little note stuck to his cybernetic arm.
And if Bucky weren’t so invested in keeping up the prank as long as possible, he would start cackling maniacally upon seeing Stark’s bewildered expression of pure disbelief. Instead, the Sarge keeps as collected as he can manage.
“Yeah,” comes Bucky’s short answer, not trusting himself to say more without the giggles escaping his mouth and ruining everything he worked so hard for.
Luckily for him and Peter, he manages to keep his shit together while making himself a tea in the kitchen, even with Tony staring at him warily while preparing a coffee for himself.
“What the hell and fuck?” Tony asks rhetorically as he can’t contain his confusion any longer, his whole face scrunching up thanks to his internal turmoil at not being able to figure out what the hell is going on.
Because of that honest reaction, Barnes ends up chuckling a little, unable to help himself, yet he prays that the other sees it as a reaction to the muttered words and doesn’t suspect anything more profound of a motive than that.
Without saying anything else, Bucky practically flees the scene as soon as his beverage is done, leaving behind a flabbergasted Stark, who looks as if he’s questioning all the life choices he took and how they got him to that moment. It’s then that the engineer decides to finally confront the other person involved in such a puzzling matter.
“Peter, you need to stop using Barnes’ arm as a fridge, okay?” Stark admonishes sternly, a little shocked at himself, given that he’s basically defending a man he still somewhat considers a murderer.
Nevertheless, he can’t see how Bucky would be okay with it unless he isn’t saying anything since he knows retaliating against Peter could mean crossing Tony as well. That, in consequence, would mean starting a whole new dispute that could dig up old grudges between the two of them. And that could, in the worst-case scenario, end up with the Avengers fighting again, as there would clearly be sides taken.
Tony doesn’t want to go through that again, nor does he want to drag everyone else into it once more. And as far as he’s concerned, he understands that Barnes doesn’t want that either, least of all getting Steve to stand against Stark for his sake, again.
No, he’s pretty confident that after everything that went down all those months ago, nobody wants a repeat of the Sokovia Accords Affair. So, it’s understandable that the Sarge will rather tolerate a few magnets on his arm than another war against half of the Avengers team. At least, that’s what Tony sums up in his head. Still, he’s waiting for Peter’s response.
“Mister White Wolf said it makes him help associate the arm with something else but/than murder,” defends Peter, with the same innocence he has been using all along when enacting his and Bucky’s plan.
After all, it works like a charm; big eyes and pouting lips can’t be resisted even by someone like Iron Man. Still, Spider-Man believes that what sells his act most convincingly is his deadpan tone of voice, betraying nothing of his hidden motives.
Upon hearing Peter’s explanation on why he keeps sticking things onto the former Winter Soldier’s metal prosthetic, Tony’s unsure what surprises him the most: the continuous use of the “White Wolf” nickname –either preceded or followed by the words “mister” and “sir” respectively–, or what the actual reason behind all the insanity turns out to be. Stark has never given much thought to how Barnes feels about his artificial limb, but since Parker’s confession, he starts to understand a little bit more about how hard it can be for the other man.
Bucky’s current metal arm is the reconstructed Soviet version that Tony himself was responsible for. He had agreed to replace the one he had blown up in Siberia, but he refused to make one completely new, basing instead the one he made on the model created by Hydra, red star on the shoulder and all. And even when it’s technically new, the older (younger) man can see how the identical appearance can make the assassin associate that new limb with the previous one and all the blood that one still carried on its grooves.
When he realizes that, the magnets deal becomes even more gutwrenching to him, fully understanding what Peter means. After all, the kid said that the little trinkets help the war vet disassociate the newer arm from its predecessors’ bloody history.
“Fuck,” mutters Tony under his breath, feeling tears welling up in his eyes.
The strong reaction surprises both the mentor and his protégé since it’s completely unexpected coming from Stark himself. In order to compose himself, he clears his throat and changes the subject, focusing instead on the task they had been doing until then.
But despite Tony’s detached attitude, the exchange leaves him thinking about the struggle that Barnes has to deal with, unable to put behind his past and the horrors he was forced to enact for someone else’s benefit. And from there, Stark’s perception and opinion on Bucky starts to change –slowly but steadily–; the engineer begins to see his teammate as less of a murderer and more as the victim and puppet he was under Hydra’s control. And even though he still has a long path to traverse towards forgiving and making peace with the other hero, he’s already on his way there.
And since the beginning of Tony’s journey to acceptance doesn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the team, neither Peter nor Bucky have the heart to reveal the prank they pulled on the other Avenger. Instead, they agree to keep a pact of silence, taking the secret to their graves if necessary and possible. Because, in the end, it isn’t just about Stark and Barnes making amends, but (perhaps more importantly) about the older (younger) man finally starting to deal with the loss of his parents. Thus, the culprits know better than to destroy Tony’s progress in lifting a heavy weight off his shoulders.