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Tony wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. His head was fuzzy and his vision was still covered with black spots. Searching his memory for where he had been and what he had been doing, only made his head throb. His wrists and ankles were bound to the chair with loose leather cuffs. After a few moments he was able to wriggle his wrists out and undo the ties on his ankles.
He stumbled to his feet, pushing out of the black chair he’d woken to find himself in and moving to lean against a wall for support. He made it halfway before he collapsed.
Tony took a moment to observe the room. He had to squint to focus in the bright, clinical lights, but he could tell the walls were made of concrete and the doors heavy metal with no windows. There was the chair he had woken up in, what looked like more medical monitoring equipment, and a few desks with custom hardware, and probably operating systems.
Over the sound of his heavy breathing, he heard the sounds of fighting from the hallway. There were gunshots and shouts of pain and the crunching of bones.
Tony searched his surroundings again for a weapon as his vision cleared. He didn’t see any guns along the wall, or any lockers where some might be kept. The sounds were getting louder. Tony looked again to the computers. He didn’t have time to learn the system, let alone learn its security and hack into it. Defenseless and still dizzy, Tony scooted backwards and folded himself under the nearest desk. It was hardly original, but there was a chance whoever was out there wouldn’t be looking too closely. It was a small chance, but a chance that Tony had to take.
He held his breath as the sounds faded. Maybe nobody will come in, he thought to himself as he tried to calm his rapid heartbeat. He swore internally when he heard the sound of the door opening. His mouth went dry as he heard the sound of footsteps as someone entered the room.
“Tony? Are you in here?” the intruder called. The voice was deep, and Tony noted the unhinged desperation in it. But was he looking for Tony to help him, or because he was awake and moving and this facility did not look like a place decent people would have left with him? He didn’t move.
His heart beat faster as footsteps moved through the lab, getting closer and closer to him. The man was looking for him, or for clues to where he was, but Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to be found. The choice was taken away from him as black combat boots came into view.
The man crouched down, his face carefully blank as he took in Tony. He had the clear advantage of not being folded up under a desk, and Tony could read the lines of his muscles through his uniform that this man was a fighter. Tony only had one weapon left, and if it didn’t work, then he didn’t stand a chance. “I don’t know who’s paying you but I’ll double it if you get me out of here unharmed.”
A small frown broke out on the man’s face, but it disappeared as soon as it came as he offered Tony a hand to help him up. His voice, when he eventually spoke, was rough and emotionless. “I’ll get you out.”
Leaving the facility was terrifying. The first thing he noticed when he stood up was the blood spattered across the man’s uniform and a metal arm. Because his rescuer had a metal arm. Because that was normal. Except he knew technology, and for some reason he knew that he had designed that arm. Knowing that made him feel marginally better until they stepped into the hallway.
There were bodies everywhere. Some had blood oozing from bullet-holes, while others had limbs and necks at awkward angles. It meant that his rescuer had been trying to get him out from the beginning, and he didn’t mind the violence, but the gore still made him somewhat uneasy. Tony stumbled past them, sticking close to the taller man. “You did all of this for me?” he asked, some of the awe and disbelief bleeding into his voice.
If Tony’s head hadn’t finally cleared, then he would have missed the man’s reaction to his question. The other man’s back straightened and his footsteps stopped for half a second before he continued. “We needed to get you out, whatever the cost,” his rescuer answered as he continued forward.
“We?” Tony asked as they passed through a set of doors and into the sunlight.
-----
They told him he had amnesia. He believed it, because while he knew his name, technology, and that he was very rich, he couldn’t remember anything else about his life. Apparently his full name was Anthony Edward Stark, and he was part of a group called the Avengers.
For whatever reason, Tony’s brain was stuck on the fact that there were people that cared about him enough to break him out of a high security Hydra lab. Especially his rescuer, who had apparently come to save him against orders before backup had arrived. Of course, he was learning this all from Dr. Banner, who identified his rescuer when he was checking over Tony’s injuries. Said rescuer was a super-soldier from the forties.
James Buchanan Barnes.
And apparently he couldn’t actually care that much because he hadn’t stuck around to explain anything. Once they landed at the tower, the soldier bolted.
Still, the name pulled at a memory. A feeling. But he didn’t mention anything because he couldn’t identify it. It was probably nothing. Besides, he was more worried about the rest of his brain.
When they got back to the tower, the doctor took Tony down to the medical floor to change clothes and get an MRI. There was gleaming metal and glass, similar to the room he had woken up in, except that it felt safe and familiar to him.
Tony went into the machine and closed his eyes. He was just getting relaxed into it when Dr. Banner started talking, and Tony realized that the microphone must have been left on.
“There’s some definite damage,” he heard Dr. Banner comment. He was about to respond when he heard a familiar voice, though it was softer than it was during the rescue.
“They had him in the chair before I got there. I’m surprised it isn’t worse.”
“But they had decades to calibrate it to you. If they wanted to use him for his inventions, they had to be careful not to burn out the wrong areas,” Banner suggested.
Tony knew he should say something to let them know the intercom was still on, but he was a curious person, and he wanted to hear more.
“I let them do this to him. I promised him I would keep him safe and I failed him.” Tears welled in Tony’s eyes at the emotion in James’ voice. Tony assumed he didn’t care when he disappeared after the jet arrived. Clearly, he had been wrong.
Had he known how James felt before his memory had been zapped? Did Tony feel the same way? He thought that James was attractive, but Tony knew so little about him in his current state. He really hated not knowing, but he couldn’t let James continue to feel as bad as he sounded.
He hit the intercom button.
“You didn’t fail me, James. You saved me,” he insisted, hoping that the damn MRI would be over with soon enough so he could disappear. Maybe go down to his lab and work on a new armor fiber for uniforms.
Tony was met with silence and, for a moment, he thought he had said the wrong thing.
It was Bruce that responded. “Tony, could you hear us just now?” There was concern and a touch of surprise in his voice.
“Well, yeah. My head is hurt, not my ears. You left the intercom on,” Tony pointed out. He wriggled himself out of the machine. “Are we done here?” he asked, noticing that Bruce and Bucky both had shocked looks on their faces. Something was wrong. Except Bucky’s face quickly turned sour, and he left the adjacent room in a hurry. Tony shrunk in on himself. Obviously, he had done something wrong.
“I’m going to bed. We can run the rest of your tests in the morning,” Tony said, not wanting to be in this fishbowl any longer. He pushed off the platform and left before Bruce could say anything otherwise. Tony’s head still hurt a little. He needed sleep. He was never going to get better if he was sitting in medical getting poked at by the doctors that he knew would have descended as soon as Bruce was done.
Tony was grateful that Friday knew to take him to his floor after he stepped into the elevator. He stumbled past the kitchen and living room to his bedroom. His head was throbbing from the movement, and his eyes drooped shut.
Falling into the bed, it was only a few seconds before he fell asleep. The last thing running through Tony’s mind was a confirmed sorrow that his bed smelled like Bucky but was painfully empty.
-----
Tony woke with a start, sweat soaking the flannel pants and cotton shirt Bruce had given him. “Friday, send Bucky,” he gasped.
It wasn’t half a second before Bucky was moving through the door. His eyes were focused on checking for threats. When they found none, he turned to Tony with a sheepish look on his face. Tony raised an eyebrow in question.
“I was waiting outside the door. I wanted be nearby in case something happened. To protect you,” Bucky admitted.
A smile spread across Tony’s face. “You could have come inside. The bed was cold without you. And you probably would have kept the nightmares at bay,” he pointed out, patting the bed next to him in the hope that Bucky would join him.
Bucky looked shocked and just a bit horrified. “You remember?”
Tony waited until Bucky was sitting down and he could lay his head down in his lap. He sighed, his eyes closing as Bucky ran his fingers through his hair.
“They took me and they put me in the chair. They wanted me to make them weapons. Couldn’t even be original,” he half-joked, not wanting to open all the floodgates from Afghanistan. “And then you came and saved me and brought me home. And then you left again.” Tony peered up at his boyfriend. “Why did you leave when Bruce was doing the MRI?”
Bucky sighed. “The intercom wasn’t on until you started talking to us, Tony. I think they used some version of the serum on you, and I couldn’t handle all of what they did to you. I couldn’t handle that I had let them do that to you. And with your memory gone, I didn’t want you to feel like I was being overbearing. I didn’t think I could help you-“
Bucky stopped at Tony’s laughter. Tony knew he shouldn’t be laughing at Bucky, but he blamed it on leftover adrenaline from the nightmare.
“They didn’t do anything to me, Bucky. Well, they did use the chair, but I didn’t get a super serum like you or Steve. At least, not from them,” Tony explained, a bit sheepishly at the end.
“From them?” Bucky asked, and Tony could tell he was trying his best not to sound as upset as he was. Tony sat up, knowing that it was better to do this part face-to-face. He looked Bucky in the eye and hoped that what he was about to say didn’t make Bucky hate him.
“That’s how they were able to get to me,” Tony admitted. “I was out of it because I was testing out my new and improved Extremis. Healing increased, slowed aging, and increased brain function without the chance of fiery death. I injected myself at the mansion because I knew Friday would tattle on me if I did it here. I was on my way back when they grabbed me.
“Please don’t hate me for it. I just wanted to be better for you. Tony-two-point-oh. That’s why their memory wipe isn’t sticking. I should have told you about it beforehand, but I wanted to surprise you. And I knew you would say I was already good enough, but I did this just as much for me as I did for you.”
Tony stopped, his chest heaving. He knew he had rambled. He just hoped it was enough.
He was still surprised when Bucky pulled him into a hug. Tony collapsed against him with relief.
“I’m still pissed at your idiocy,” Bucky warned. “But I’m here for you no matter what, Tony. I love you.”
Tony froze. Bucky had never said that to him before. He had never said that to Bucky before. He had felt it for a while, but he was never so good with words. He could say them back though. He loved Bucky and he wasn’t about to leave him hanging.
“I love you too, Bucky,” he murmured into Bucky’s neck.
And no matter what else came, they had each other.