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Contrary to popular belief, Tony Stark did not lose his virginity while in college. He’d been underage at the time. He may have gotten into a little trouble experimenting with drugs and alcohol during that time period, but thankfully Rhodey had been a true friend and steered him away from that kind of trouble.
He was eighteen (and legal) when he’d been forced to attend a benefit of some kind by his mother. He didn’t bother to remember what this one was for. Probably whales or something. The wealthy are always eager to throw money at wildlife. He’d been bored out of his mind and trying not to get too drunk in front of said mother. It didn’t help that more than a handful of lecherous old fogeys and over familiar cougars insisted on coming onto him. Putting their hands on his arms, his back, his face. A couple even squeezed his ass. He was so over it and looking for a way to escape that wouldn’t embarrass his mother.
Then he’d seen him across the room. The very attractive, fairly young man slipped something, maybe a flask, into his jacket pocket, eyes scanning the room. Young compared to the fogeys pawing at him at any rate. Probably had at least ten years on Tony, but time certainly had done him a lot of favours.
They made eye contact right when one of the cougars was feeling him up and he cringed, trying to maintain a façade of polite indifference despite his discomfort. The man made his way towards them. And damn, he was even more handsome up close. The stranger said something to the cougar and she left, a smirk on her face as she looked between them. Tony couldn’t be bothered to wonder what that was about. He and the handsome guy—He looked so familiar, but Tony couldn’t place him.—chatted, and that Eastern European accent went right to places that made Tony blush.
They snuck out of the benefit and wound up in a cheap motel, taking swigs of vodka directly from a bottle and eating cheeseburgers from the first fast-food place they’d come across. Tony asked him what his name was and he simply said, “call me Soldier”. Soon, Tony was getting tipsy and their mouths were preoccupied with other things. Later, Tony was preoccupied with the Soldier’s metal left arm and the way the Soldier could easily support his body weight with it. In a variety of positions.
Years later, he and the Avengers are in a bit of a disagreement over the Sokovia Accords. Then there was bit of tussle as Cap’s best bestie from way back fights his way through all of them and the Soldier—Holy crap, it’s the Soldier! His Soldier!—escapes along with Captain Obstinate and his winged sidekick. Soon after, he gets a phone call from Rogers to “come alone” but won’t explain anything over the phone. He doesn’t bother pointing out that Cap already gave him an address to meet at.
He brought Rhodey. And by brought he means that he let it slip what he was about to do and Rhodey insisted on tagging along, like he’d always done in college. Rogers and Wilson weren’t pleased. He ignored the headstrong duo and continued into what looked to be an abandoned auto shop. He rounded the corner where he’d seen Wilson come out of and came to a stop.
Soldier Boy was all trussed up in a not so fun way. That didn’t stop him from flashing back to that night nearly three decades ago. The Soldier looked up at him with those magnetic blue eyes. He hadn’t aged a day.
“You took my v-card.” There was a choking sound from somewhere behind him. Several. He felt his face heat when it caught up to him that he’d said that out loud. He cleared his throat, refusing to feel embarrassment at just stating the truth.
“What’s a v-card?” Rogers asked, prompting another choking sound and a snort. He’s unsure which was Rhodey and which was Wilson. Interestingly, Barnes blushed.
He felt one from the peanut gallery come up beside him. A glance told him it’s Rhodey. The man had the most shit-eating grin on his face.
“What?” he asked, side eyeing his own best bestie.
Rhodey stared laughing hysterically.
“What?”
It took a minute for Rhodey to get his laughter under control “You lost it to your teenage super crush.” He said grinning widely. “You went on about how good it was for months.” Tony head dropped forward and he groaned, hoping Rhodey would just shut up. He was pretty sure it was Wilson cracking up behind them. “You got to live out your teenage dream!” Rhodey gleefully declared. Tony felt like he was on fire. He was definitely blushing now.
“Oh my god…” He rubbed a hand down his face. Looking up, he caught sight of Barnes again. “You are far too proud of yourself.” He crossed his arms, pouting.
Barnes, the asshole, smirked. “Come on, Sugar, get me outta this thing and we can knock boots again until you’re—”
“Whoa! Nope. No.” Rogers shouted, having finally understood enough of the conversation to figure out what they were talking about. He pointed at Barnes. “No.”
“What?” Barnes sounded offended.
“He’s Howard’s kid.” Tony rolled his eyes at that statement.
“It’s not anything I haven’t done before,” Barnes smirked.
“Ugh,” Tony scoffed. “Of course, Captain Watch-Your-Language would also be a Captain Cockblock.”
“Excuse me?” Rogers looked scandalized. And confused. Mostly confused.
“I said what I said.”
“Guys!” Wilson interrupted. “I think we got more important things to worry about.”
“Right,” Rhodey said, turning serious. “Like why you wanted to lure Tony to an abandoned building alone and without backup.”
“Can someone let me outta this thing?” Barnes asked. Tony finally moved closer to look at the contraption he was stuck in. He noticed Barnes’s gaze sweep down his body and smirked.
“We did not,” Rogers straightened to his full height, all righteous indignation.
“Oh…” Suddenly, any and all levity left Barnes’s face. “About Howard…”
“Bucky!” Rogers whipped around, eyes wide and shoulders tense.
Barnes turned to him, mouth in a tight line, head tilted, staring at him through narrowed eyes. “Steve,” he said, drawing out the name. Tony paused, glancing between the two.
“Rogers?” Rhodey asked, now also staring at Rogers with narrowed eyes, brow furrowed.
“That’s not the important thing here,” Steve insisted, fists clenching at his sides as he glowered at all of them.
“What’s not important?” Tony asked, crossing his arms again. He looked at Rogers with an eyebrow raised.
“Steve?” Wilson asked, eyes shifting between each of them before settling on Rogers.
“Look, we need to get out of here,” Rogers insisted. “That fake doctor guy is headed to Siberia to release the other Winter Soldiers. We can’t let anything sidetrack us.”
“How do you know?” Barnes’s voice was low, almost a growl. “And how long have you known it?” Tony was pretty sure Barnes wasn’t talking about the Siberia thing.
“I—that’s not important!” Rogers crossed his arms, flexing. He tilted his chin up, mouth in a stubborn line. They didn’t seem to notice Tony mutter ‘Friday’ under his breath along with instructions to let Vision know about the fake doctor.
“You don’t think his son deserves to know?” Barnes was full on glaring at Rogers now. Yeah, he wasn’t talking about the Siberia thing.
Tony’s thoughts were shuffling around at a rapid pace, pieces of information slotting into place and beginning to form a coherent picture. A bad one. Like, several layers of bad. And he wasn’t sure which one was worse. Rogers and Barnes both knew something about his father; Something Rogers shouldn’t have known, but the Winter Soldier definitely did; the Winter Soldier was Hydra’s top assassin, he killed people; Tony’s parents were dead. His parents were dead, Hydra’s assassin knew something about his father, Captain America shouldn’t know about it but somehow did and had kept it to himself.
Hydra assassin. Dead parents. Captain America keeping secrets. Why? The Winter Soldier is Cap’s best friend. The captain clearly went apeshit when it came to protecting said friend. And he wasn’t just keeping secrets; he was keeping secrets from Tony specifically. Barnes wanted to tell Tony, Rogers disagreed.
Hydra’s assassin knew something about Tony’s dead parents; Captain America found out whatever it was and deliberately kept it from Tony to protect said assassin; He didn’t want Tony to find out about what the assassin knew because… it was something he was involved with? …something he did?
He didn’t want to finish thus puzzle.
Because if he did then it meant Barnes, the Winter Soldier, had assassinated his parents—his mom!—and Rogers had found out about it and kept it to himself. For how long? How long did Captain Righteous, Mr. ‘sometimes my teammates don’t tell me things’, know Hydra assassinated his parents and not deigned to tell him? He knew Tony blamed his father for killing his mom. They all knew. But how long—
The data dump.
Two years ago…
Tony stared at Rogers, eyes narrowed and hands shaking.
“It wasn’t his fault!” Rogers insisted, staring down Rhodey.
“No, it was Hydra’s,” Tony said, voice low. His heart pounded in his chest. “It was Hydra’s fault, and you knew it.” He started laughing hysterically. “Two years. Two. Years. This whole time Hydra killed my parents, and Captain America knew for two years!”
“Leave Bucky alone,” Rogers turned and stepped towards Tony. “It wasn’t his fault. You can’t take this out on him!”
Tony scoffed. “Oh, I’m not.” He hit a button releasing the clamp from Barnes’s arm. As Tony expected, having seen the expression on Barnes’s face, the soldier yanked his arm out of the vice and stood, took two large steps towards Rogers and—
“Damn, he went down like a sack of potatoes,” Rhodey whistled. Wilson stared shocked at the now unconscious captain.
“Stupid punk,” Barnes huffed. He turned to look at Wilson who staggered back a couple steps, arms raised.
“Wh-whoa! I-I only knew you were the Winter Soldier,” Wilson immediately started babbling. “I didn’t know anything about an assassination. I swear.”
Barnes sighed, seeming to deflate. He partially turned to Tony. “I’m… sorry.”
Tony cleared his throat. “Yeah, kinda puts a damper on things. Don’t think I’ll be in the mood for adult fun time for a while.”
“Ugh, save me,” Rhodey muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“So… wanna go for cheeseburgers?” Tony glanced at Barnes, hands in his pockets, scuffing the ground with his shoe.
Barnes shrugged, cheeks turning just a little pink. “I could eat.”
—30—