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“Hey, Steve-O, how's the HYDRA deprogramming/memory reclaiming going with Elsa?” Tony asked, as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge in the common room of the Tower. It was mid-afternoon, and Darcy was insisting he take a break from his latest project and at least hydrate himself. He supposed she had a point, he'd been working for at least twelve hours straight at that point, and he honestly couldn't remember the last time he drank something without caffeine in it. Still he wondered when exactly Darcy became his parent and not the other way around. Steve just happened to be in the common room then, having a snack to keep up with his high metabolism and constant need for caloric consumption.
Bucky had been back for almost six months now. Tony knew that the first couple of months had been rocky. Hell, the first couple of weeks had been down right scary for all involved. Tony had helped recruit some of the best and brightest minds to help rehabilitate Bucky, and he knew that it had been slow going for awhile there. But the last update he had gotten was that all of the HYDRA programming was gone. Now they were just working on his Swiss cheese memory, and the C-PTSD, which in all reality, the last part was going to be a forever thing. It was just a matter of learning coping mechanisms that would work for Bucky. Tony knew all about those, he had an arsenal full of them that he used himself. Some healthier than others; some a lot healthier than others. Ultron and the sentient being formally known as JARVIS, case and point.
Steve who had been plowing his way through a bowl that looked large enough to hold at least half the contents of a family sized box of Blueberry Mini-Wheats swallowed, and opened his mouth to reply, only getting as far as, “It's,” before he was interrupted.
Bucky, as if hearing the question himself, and maybe he had, Tony had no idea how good either of the super soldier twins hearing actually was, came sliding into the room at that moment, cutting Steve off with, “There were nights when the wind was so cold.”
Steve closed his eyes, and took a deep breath in through his nose. Tony thought he could actually physically see Steve count to ten in his head, while Bucky continued with, “That my body froze in bed if I just listened to it right outside the window.”
“It's going great, Tony,” Steve replied with an enduring sigh.
“There were days when the sun was so cruel.”
“He's remembered exactly how much of a little shit he can be.”
“That all the tears turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying up forever.”
“Language,” Tony replied automatically, as he stared in shock and fascination at Bucky who was not only singing, pretty well from what he could tell, but also seemed to be doing a choreographed dance around the common room.
“I finished crying in the instant that you left.”
“So this is...” Tony struggled to finish his sentence watching the spectacle before him.
“And I can't remember where or when or how”
“This is, normal?” Tony managed to finish his question through his bewilderment.
“And I banished every memory you and I have ever made,” Bucky sang dramatically.
“Yep,” Steve confirmed taking another bite of his cereal.
“But when you touch me like this”
“Really?” Tony asked, still half convinced he was having a hallucination from the lack of sleep, or maybe the large amounts of caffeine he had consumed in the last twenty-four hours.
“And you hold me like that”
“Yep, normal,” Steve was decidedly ignoring Bucky's antics, and instead glared at his bowl of cereal.
“I just have to admit that it's all coming back to me”
It was at that moment that Clint walked in the room, taking in the singing dancing Bucky, the dumbfounded Tony, and a Steve who was still eating his cereal, head hung and shoulders slumped in a way that spoke of a man resigned to his fate. Clint didn't know whether he should laugh, cry, run screaming from the room, start recording the scene on his phone, or join in. But as Bucky went into the first chorus of the song, Clint just couldn't resist, and his mind was made up. As Bucky finished the line, “It's all coming back to me now,” Clint stepped in with, “There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light.”
Bucky swung around to face Clint, his eyes lighting up with a mischievous glint, “There were things I'd never do again but then they'd always seemed right.”
Clint replied with, “There were nights of endless pleasure,” and now Clint was singing and dancing along with Bucky. Steve looked up long enough to be secretly impressed with how easily Clint picked up Bucky's dance moves.
“It was more than any laws allow.”
And now Tony was sure this was just a massive caffeine overdose induced hallucination.
“Baby, Baby!” the two sang together.
“Great, now there's two of them,” Steve grumbled turning back his cereal bowl.
“You're sure this is normal?” Tony asked rubbing his eyes and blinking as if that would clear the absurdity he was witnessing. Meanwhile, Bucky and Clint waltzed around the common room singing to each other.
“It was lost long ago but it's all coming back to me.”
“Yes, Tony, this is normal.”
“And if you need me like that.”
“The song is new,” Steve supplied, a look crossing his face that spoke of a memory from long ago. A much younger Bucky pulling a similar stunt with a song popular when they were teenagers. Originally he had meant it as a way to cheer Steve up when he had been sick and upset about one thing or another. It had only proved to annoy him endlessly, which seemed to only spur Bucky into doing it more often and louder. Until the neighbors complained about the noise.
“Who introduced him to Meat Loaf?” Tony's question pulled Steve out of his own memory.
“Sam.”
“It was dead long ago but it's all coming back to me.”
“Does Sam know about, this?” Tony asked waving his hand in the direction of the two dancing men.
“It's so hard to resist and it's all coming back to me.”
“Yes, he does.”
“I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now.”
“And he thinks it's hilarious.” Trolls, Steve was surrounded by trolls and pranksters, hell bent on making his life even more crazy than aliens and wizards and long thought dead Nazi organizations.
“But you were history with the slamming of the door.” Bucky sung, while managing to do a pretty impressive twist, lift, and dip of Clint.
“Wow! That was...” Tony actually found himself as a loss for words.
“And I made myself so strong again somehow,” Clint replied to Bucky.
“Yeah, he's always been a bit of a show off when it comes to dancing.”
“And I never wasted any of my time on you since them!”
“You know if Darcy finds out about this, she's going to insist on taking your boy to karaoke.”
“But if I touch you like this.”
“Please, do not encourage Bucky or Darcy.”
“And if you kiss me like that.”
At the last line Steve looked up at Clint and Bucky's position in their impromptu dance number, “I swear to god, Clint, if you kiss my boyfriend, I will shove your arrows so far up your ass....” Tony cut in with an exclamation, “Hey, no threats of violence, bloodshed, or dismemberment at the breakfast table!” Because hallucination or not if this room got destroyed again Pepper was going to quite literally have Tony's balls.
“It was gone with the wind but it's all coming back to me now.”
“Tony, it's past noon, it's not the breakfast table,” Steve countered.
“It's all coming back.”
“It's the same table.”
“It's call coming back to me now.”
“And your eating breakfast food.” Tony defended now engaged in the argument with Steve, and ignoring the other two men in the room for the first time since Bucky began singing.
“It's all coming back to me now.”
“So my argument stands. No threats of violence at the breakfast table.”
“There were nights of endless pleasure.”
“Wait,” Tony said as if something just occurred to him.
“It was more than all your laws allow.”
“Wait, wait, wait.”
“And when you touch me like this.”
“Steve, is he implying your dick is the reason he's getting his memories back.”