Work Text:
Tony was a creature of habit. He wore the same clothes to work in the lab he had for the last couple of decades. Comfy clothes worn soft and threadbare from the constant use. He was infamously known around the tower for his ratty old rock band t-shirts and his oversized MIT sweatshirt. Once SI started making merchandise, tony could also be found wearing a Stark industries hoodie with Stark embroidered across the breast. After the mandarin incident, an identical hoodie was added to his collection, the only difference being the Stark was replaced with The Mechanic. No one really understood why and most people thought it was a joke.
Another thing he became known for was leaving said clothes around areas he frequented: the lab, the R&D floors, the penthouse floor, and the avengers communal kitchen (though that stopped after the civil war fiasco). he would go on an inventing binge until he was delirious with fatigue and hunger and climb out of the lab shedding clothes as he went. Most of the tower residents and workers knew better than to try and move or return his clothing; either one of the bots Tony was so fond of would come and collect them for washing or Tony himself would find them and put them back on. The one time someone tried to hand an article of clothing back to him did not go well. The panic attack that ensued was horrendous and the poor scientist that was just trying to be helpful ended up transferring to another location because he couldn’t stand the way Tony would give him a wide berth after the incident.
The second incident that discouraged helpfulness happened about a month after the attempted handoff. Someone saw one of Tony’s SI hoodies draped near one of the workstations in one of the R&D labs and tried to move it to a safer location near the break room. He made it to the break area fine, but as he set down the hoodie, he jostled the left-side pocket and a beam of energy shot out and burned a hole through the wall. Apparently, Tony had left a prototype gauntlet in the pocket and didn’t realize it wasn’t stable enough for transportation. No one was hurt, but Pepper had to send the whole floor home to recover and some of the scientists are still a little twitchy when they see those hoodies around.
Needless to say, everyone was informed of Tony’s aversion to being handed things and were encouraged to leave his stuff where it was until it could be handled by an authorized person.
It was a dreary November morning and the product testing lab, Lab 3A, on the 3rd floor of the R&D department was actively avoided a certain MIT sweatshirt that was left near the coffeemaker on the far wall. It was kind of an inconvenience to those who needed caffeine, but they were happier with the idea of going to another lab than they were with trying to move it. It was still early, so there was a good chance Tony or one of the bots would swing by and grab it before it caused too much of a disturbance.
By nine am, most of the scientists in Lab 3A were settled into their respective tasks and weren’t paying a lot of attention to the world around them. Since scientists tend to be a hyper-focused group of people, it took a while for it to trickle around the room that something was off. Those closest to the lab doors and wall of windows were the first to notice the disturbance in the force and froze in total shock. While the fact that the Winter Soldier had infiltrated the lab with no one noticing was shocking to some, most of the lab occupants were more flabbergasted by the fact that said solider was in the process of walking back out of the lab with Tony’s hoodie in his metal fist. Some of the scientists with a faster mental reboot time began glancing around as if the building itself was going to protest this action. Which is fair when you consider that FRIDAY is totally integrated in the tower and an ameba couldn’t twitch without her knowing. However, nothing happened. No alarm, no Iron Legion suit busting through the walls to remove the threat to Tony’s sanity. Nothing happened at all except the Winter Soldier made it to the lab door and strolled out like he owned the place. The lab mates looked around at each other with varying degrees of incredulity projected on their faces. How can the world’s deadliest assassin be allowed to touch something so precious? Scratch that, how can Steve Rogers BEST FRIEND be allowed within 50 feet of something of Tony’s without Hellfire raining down? Needless to say, nothing got accomplished in that lab for the rest of the morning. By the time lunch rolled around, most had convinced themselves they had hallucinated the experience and put it out of their minds for that afternoon. Sometimes denial can be the fine line between mental health and mental breakdown.
----
3 weeks later saw the Rogue Avengers walking into the communal kitchen. Steve was talking to Natasha about some training exercise they had later that day but stopped and stared at a sight he thought he would never see again. Sitting at the island, on one of the many barstools, was Tony. He was wearing one of the SI hoodies and sat slumped over a cup of coffee with the hood up. Even though his back was to the group, they could see him visibly stiffen as they entered the kitchen fully. No one knew what to do or say to him. Tony had been actively avoiding them since they were pardoned and hadn’t spoken to them outside of press conferences. Steve was opening his mouth to interrogate him about this change when Tony stood up suddenly and darted from the room. Funny, no one could remember him ever moving that fast or that gracefully before. What was going on with him?
----
A couple of days later, a call to battle happened. It was the middle of the night and everyone was scrambling to just load the plane; they’d suit up on the way to the fight. In all of the chaos happening in the preparation time and subsequent fight, no one really paid attention to what anyone else was wearing or they would have been stunned by one person’s outfit of choice. And no, I’m not talking about Steve’s matching Captain America pajamas complete with stylized shield slippers. No, no. Someone else was dressed in a much more provocative sleep set.
Natasha was inventorying the plane the next day when she noticed an old, dark red hoodie wedged in one of the corners of the cargo area. She picked it up and realized it was Tony’s old MIT hoodie and shrugged before gently putting it back where she found it. Even she knew better than trying to return it to it’s owner. She didn’t even stop to wonder why it was on the plane when Tony himself flew in the suit the whole way.
----
The shit hit the fan, so to speak, when Spiderman crashed through the Avenger’s living room window with a gunshot to the abdomen. He was delirious and kept calling for his dad and no one knew what to do. They all knew his identity thanks to his internship with Tony and Peter’s inability to keep his mouth shut when excited, but they also knew he lived with his aunt. No one knew who his dad might be to even contact him, let alone get him there in time. While Natasha was calling the Med Bay to alert them to the incoming patient, Clint was questioning Peter as Cap carried him towards the elevator.
“Pete, can you tell us who to call? You keep saying Dad, but we don’t know who that is!”
Before Peter could muster up a reply that consisted of more than just moaning, a door down the hallway burst open and Bucky came bounding in. He froze when he saw Steve holding Peter in the elevator before darting in as the doors closed. He leaned in close to Peter’s ear and murmured, “Your Dad’s on his way, buddy. He was in the lab; he’ll meet you down in the Med Bay."
Peter shifted his head toward Bucky and smiled softly with his eyes closed. His whole body relaxed when Bucky started talking. “Thanks, Pops,” Peter said, then he leaned closer to Steve’s chest and passed out. Steve began asking FRIDAY if she could make the elevator go faster, while Clint stared at Bucky in confusion.
“Why did he call you Pops? Who’s his dad? How did you know what happened?”
Ignoring the first two questions, Bucky replied, “FRIDAY told me. She knows to alert me anytime Pete’s in the building and especially if he shows up injured. His dad gets a little overprotective and it helps when I can be there to mitigate any stress-inducing problems.”
Clint looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but the doors opened onto the Med Bay before he could voice them. Bucky and Cap darted out and hurried towards an exam room that was already full of people prepping for surgery. They all settled down in the waiting room to see how bad the damage was. Bucky alternated between staring at the closed exam room door and the elevator. He had just gotten up to pace in front of the rest of the group when the exam doors opened and a distraught Tony shuffled out. He looked worn out from what was probably another inventing binge and seemed to be swallowed up by the oversized long-sleeved shirt he was wearing. The others glanced around in confusion and stood to ask questions, but stopped when Bucky held his hand out in the universal gesture for stay back. Tony continued shuffling forward with a far off look on his face until he ran smack into Bucky’s chest. They other’s flinched thinking Tony was about to lose a limb, and were flabbergasted when Bucky wrapped his arms around Tony and kissed him on the top of his head. He began mumbling to Tony in Italian while Tony clung to him and cried. Steve was staring at his best friend like he didn’t recognize him and the others weren’t doing much better. Natasha noticed it first and whispered it to Clint who pointed it out to Steve. Bucky wasn’t wearing his normal jeans and a henley, he was wearing a worn out hoodie with the sleeves pushed up. They couldn’t see the front to confirm, but the back saying Stark Industries with little burn marks was enough for the group to speculate that Bucky was wearing one of Tony’s precious hoodies. And he wasn’t getting in trouble for it.
Steve seemed to want to say something, but didn’t get his words together before the doctor came out and spoke to the group, “Peter’s going to be fine.” Sighs of relief were heard as she continued, “He’s lost a lot of blood and can’t be given a transfusion because we don’t really know what that will do to his super-healing. Physically, he’s just waiting for his body to develop enough new blood to heal him properly; other than that, the bullet’s out and the internal bleeding has been stopped. Now we just have to wait for the accelerated healing to kick in once he’s replenished enough blood.”
Bucky murmured something to Tony then spoke louder towards the doctor, “Would other super-healing blood be more compatible?”
The doctor looked speculative for a moment before nodding, “Yes, I believe it would. Even though it wouldn’t be radioactive like his blood, it might kick-start the accelerated healing he needs to recover quickly."
Bucky nodded and released Tony. Tony held on a moment longer before letting go and turning to look at the doctor as well. “Alright, well I’m more than willing to donate some blood so Pete can get back to his life faster. I’ll be right back, возлюбленный.” Natasha actually dropped her phone as Bucky walked back towards Peter’s room. He didn’t make it far before Tony darted forward and grabbed his arm. Steve stood up to defend his friend, ignoring the atmosphere completely, but stopped when Tony spoke, “Amati, if you think I’m letting you go back in there alone you’ve had one to many cryo freezes. The two most important people in my life are in that room; I’ll be there as well.”
Ignoring the group, Bucky smiled at Tony before pulling him back towards him and wrapping his flesh arm around Tony’s shoulders. They both turned and entered Peter’s room, leaving a stunned and slightly nauseated group behind. Everyone but Steve was thinking back on conversations had around Bucky about Tony, mainly about how incompetent and uncaring he can be. They all considered themselves lucky that Bucky had more self-control than most people because none of them wanted to face down an angry, possessive Winter Soldier anytime soon. Steve, on the other hand, was stuck in a time loop in his head from discovering Bucky was alive to his recovery until now. When did this happen? What did Bucky see in Tony that Steve didn’t?