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"Tony, doll, please. Oh, God, I can explain I swear."
Bucky gently took the pistol from his lover's trembling hands, slipping it into the back of the waistband of his pants. Behind him, Steve was checking to make sure the man who had attacked them was dead. Bucky was sure he would be. For all that Tony was a high school science teacher, his aim had been dead on. Tony's eyes were still glued on the body, though, on the man he'd just shot, and Bucky stepped in the way to block the sight.
"Wh-Why would-" Tony swallowed several times rapidly, "Why would he attack us?" His gaze suddenly focused on Bucky. "Why did you have a gun?"
Bucky winced and glanced over his shoulder at Steve. The blonde's face was set in a hard frown, but he nodded none the less. They'd talked about this, about telling Tony. As soon as Bucky had realized how far gone he was for the man, they'd talked about it. He didn't want to keep it a secret forever.
"We need to get out of here," Steve said gruffly. "We can discuss it back at the shop."
Tony flinched, pulling out of Bucky's grip and backing away from them until his back hit the brick wall of the alleyway behind the restaurant they'd been eating at before being attacked. He was shaking his head disbelievingly and holding one hand out in front of him as if to ward them off.
"No." He growled the words out vehemently. "I'm not going anywhere with either of you until I know what the fuck is going on."
"Tony, doll-"
"Don't call me that." His face was a mask of anger, angrier than Bucky'd ever seen him. "What did he mean by what he said? 'HYDRA sends their regards.'"
Bucky winced and glanced at Steve again, whose face was growing harder by the second. Steve hated unnecessary bloodshed, but Tony knew far too much for them to let him just walk away if he threatened to go to the police now.
"Please, just let me explain, Tony. I promise you I'll explain-"
"Do you work for Stane?"
The question brought Bucky up short.
"What?"
"Do. You. Work. For. Obadiah. Stane?"
Each word was bitten out in a scathing tone, but Bucky couldn't seem to process that Tony would even know that name. Steve placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him aside a bit, his face stony in the face of who he clearly now thought of as an enemy.
"How do you know about Obadiah Stane?"
Tony's face crumpled for a moment in absolute defeat, tears gathering in his eyes, before he was able to muster his anger back to himself for protection.
"Fuck you," Tony snarled, and Bucky flinched away from the venom in his tone. "That bastard hasn't taken enough away from me? I was never coming back! I didn't even want to!" He was shouting now, and sure to draw attention if he continued for too long. "That was the deal, right? I walked away and let Obie have what he wanted and my mother got to live! What? She's dead now so the deal's off? Now he's sent you to make sure I don't become a problem?" He rounded on Bucky fully, now, fists shaking at his sides with barely contained rage. "Was that what this was all about? The whole thing? He sent you to keep an eye on me?" The tears were back, escaping their confines against Tony's will and spilling down his cheeks. "You should have just killed me."
The last part was whispered, barely loud enough for them to hear, and Bucky had taken half a step forward without even realizing it before Steve's arm shot out to block his path. The blonde's eyes were softer now, though his expression was no less serious.
"You're Howard's son," he said gently.
Bucky stared. That couldn't be. Tony's last name was Stark, sure, but that didn't mean he was one of the Starks. And Howard had been dead for nearly ten years…Obadiah Stane stepping in to take his place when Howard's heir turned his back on the mafia empire Howard had created for himself.
"Oh, my God…"
Tony was staring at the ground now, or possibly the blood on his own shoes, refusing to look at them.
"We don't work for Stane." Steve lay a hand on Tony's shoulder, ignoring his flinch. "You know me as Steve, but in my…professional life, I go by The Captain." Tony's head shot up at that, startled. "I'm the head of the Avengers family. That's why HYDRA sent someone to attack us." He squeezed Tony's shoulder gently, reassuringly. "Howard was a good man."
Tony's eyes darted toward Bucky.
"Then…I mean, so you weren't-?"
Bucky pulled Tony into his arms, wrapping him up in a hug that was desperately returned. He pressed a kiss firmly into Tony's hair before he could manage to regain his voice.
"Nobody sent me, doll. I really am just that much of an idiot to get lost on the subway and end up in the completely wrong part of town before knocking the love of my life on his ass and spilling coffee all over him. I never knew who you were, just that you were gorgeous and brilliant and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you."
Tony's chuckle was weak, but at least it was there.
"I thought…"
"I know what you thought," Bucky soothed, "and I swear to you I would never do that to you."
Steve smiled at them gently.
"Come on. We need to get off the street. Let's head back to the shop…And then maybe we can talk a little bit more about this Stane issue."
His expression turned wrathful upon uttering the rival leader's name and Bucky knew that, very soon, the Avengers would be living up to their name. The Captain wasn't one to allow insult to one of his own and Tony was certainly one of their own.