"Mr Stark, I am afraid there is nothing more I can do for you. The palladium poisoning is irreversible and terminal. I am so sorry"

The specialist's words echoed through Tony's mind as he made his way out of the exclusive private clinic. He had come back to New York for this last attempt. He would stay overnight at Stark Tower, it would be his last chance to see it before he left for good to go back to Malibu.

If he was gonna have to deal with the grim reaper, he wanted to be somewhere warmer and more scenic than Manhattan.

He and his Mama had vacationed often in Malibu. He had lots of good memories of the place which was why he had built his residence on the cliff top.

New York for the most part reminded him of Howard, and he didn't want to have to deal with that now. he didn't want to deal with that period.

He had known he was dying, of course he had known. He and JARVIS his AI had been extremely thorough, they had used all the resources at his disposal. Hell they had come up with some new uses for some of the elements of the periodic table which would make Stark Industries even more money, after he was gone of course.

JARVIS and the rest of his inventions were all that he would be leaving behind in this world. A pang of loneliness so deep hit him. Anthony Edward Stark was never lonely god damn it.

But who was there really to mourn his passing? Pepper would grieve, for a long time because she did love him, but she would be more involved in running his company than sitting in a darkened room wearing widows weeds and weeping. Not that they had ever progressed their relationship that far. Pepper was happy with Happy now. Happy would miss him and so would Rhodey but his life wasn't integral to theirs. There would be a Tony Stark shaped gap for a while but it would be filled, life would reduce that vacuum until he would merely be a happy or hopefully irritating but good memory out of the blue.

Tony was proud that he had turned things round after Afghanistan. That his company would focus on benefiting the living by producing clean energy instead of war mongering. But what really, really pissed him off was that Stane was gonna win. That betraying bastard's actions were what would ultimately cause Tony's death. Seriously he would prefer to be knocked down by a bus than let the palladium poisoning, a result of Stane's attempt to have him killed, be the thing that would kill him in the end.

If it wasn't for the feeling of losing to Stane, Tony could have probably adjusted to the knowledge that he didn't have long to live. Hell who was he kidding? He would never come to terms with it because he was still so fucking angry and he still had so much to do with the rest of his life. It was so frustrating and Tony never dealt well with frustration.

But there were ways round that. He had everything in place so that Pepper was secure in her position, and if somehow those creepy old farts who were on his Board managed to oust her, then she was also the direct beneficiary of his own personal wealth and would own all his unpublished, unpatented inventions. So she could even create her own company and have it hit the Forbes 500 within a week of start-up. His Pepper was protected.

Therefore he could pick the time and place of his exit from the world at his own choosing. He didn't have to be found in his super huge luxurious bed like some mouldy old playboy rich guy. He had a few ideas actually, the one he favoured most was taking his suit at the end of a glorious day, listening to heavy metal and flying it straight up into space, so that he could die there watching the Earth continue to turn without him, and being just that bit closer to the stars he had dreamed about since he was a small child. Best of all, he could still be working before it all ended. Lack of oxygen was not a bad way to die.

He could send JARVIS his environmental test data so that it could be incorporated in the newer versions of his Iron Man suit. That is of course if Pepper allowed anyone else to touch them, as she would hold the patents for them from then on.

Happy stood at the car, back passenger door open waiting patiently for Tony to realise he was there. "Hey Boss, you ready to go the VA now?" he called softly "You are supposed to be meeting Dr Wilson, before speaking to the group of vets and then hosting their Halloween party remember?"

Tony stared at him blankly for a moment, then his face cleared "Well crap Hap, I forgot all about that. Do you think I can… No, don't worry about it. I agreed to this months ago. I even suggested the damn party so that they had somewhere to go without having to deal with trick or treating kids banging on their doors." He grinned ruefully at the man, and then climbed into his luxurious armoured car with the kind of tech that the SHIELD and every other secret agency in the Country had tried to get their thieving mitts on.

Dr Sam Wilson stared entranced up into eyes so blue that he thought he was falling endlessly through the depths of a glorious summer sky. Sunshine yellow hair framed those glorious eyes and perfect pink lips smiled at him, as a tongue delicately licked at the single drop of red that had been left on that beautiful mouth. He drew a deep breath trying to clear his head. "Captain, Rodgers, Steve," he mumbled, brain still not able to activate his mouth properly. He felt like he was coming down from the most brutally pleasurable orgasm in his life. What? What the hell?

His brain was prodding him. There was something important, something that nagged at him but he felt so damn good, he wasn't sure if it mattered.

"Shh my beautiful falcon, dancing and swooping, gliding through your fall for me. So beautiful. Always so beautiful But you need to come back now Sam. Come back to me Soldier." Seduction strong sensuous and compelling at the start became a tone of gentle but implacable command that the former airman could not disobey.

He was led to his office chair and seated gently, his legs didn't seem to want to work, there were words whispered against his ear that he couldn't quite make out. Words that were important, that were very important and he had to obey but he couldn't quite remember. He couldn't remember.

"On your left Soldier" The cheerful laughing words woke Dr Sam Wilson with a start. God damn it he had fallen asleep at his desk again. He stared down at himself in confusion. Why was he wearing his spare shirt and suit trousers? He always kept spares in his office because he had lost count of the number of times he had been thrown up on or worse. But he didn't remember changing?

It was the stress of the event today. It must be. He had been liaising with Tony Stark himself about it, he couldn't quite believe the big day had arrived. Tony Stark was going to give a talk about his own PTSD to a group of invited vets and then host a huge Halloween party for the whole of the VA.

He groaned as he raised his head from his desk. He smiled at the muscular blonde man mountain standing in his office grinning at him "Steve, I'm so sorry I know I was supposed to meet you earlier. Dear God what are you wearing? Is that the original Captain America uniform?"

Steve Rodgers smile widened, the affection on his face bright and happy. "You told us it's a Halloween Party too Sam, did you think I would turn up as Dracula? I just managed to make Bucky hold off on the Werewolf costume, but nearly gave in when he tried the bloodstained short skirted white naughty nurse's outfit, damn he looked good in pantyhose"

The fake leer and good natured teasing had laughter bubbling up out of Sam even though he still felt dizzy. Steve passed him the unopened bottle of water that had been on his desk. Damn he still felt a little woozy. He guzzled back the water and it seemed to settle things down. His heart rate slowed and his breathing evened out

"So what is Barnes wearing then Cap?" Sam asked, but he would lay good money that he already knew the answer. Steve rose an eyebrow at him, and the fake leer became more pronounced

(For an odd moment Sam wondered if the leer was actually fake. Not that it mattered to him, even if he felt an odd jealousy about it, James Buchanan Barnes was Steven Rodgers best friend. The secret serum had worked on both of them. They had survived horrible fates in the Second World War to be reunited nearly seventy years later. If they were more than friends then that was their business and no one else's. Not even Sam's. Especially not Sam's just because he had a massive man crush on the legendary Captain America, and an even deeper crush on Steve Rodgers the man)

There was a strange purring resonance to Steve's voice which send delightful tremors through Sam's body as the Cap finally answered Sam's question. "He looks utterly terrifying and totally hot as the Winter Soldier. The mask, the eye liner, the gleaming red star on rippling silver. Black body armour. Gives me shivers" Captain America shuddered with genuine realism. Sam's mouth went dry. God the man was gorgeous and utterly unattainable. He was Captain America for the love of everything holy. Thinking about him that way had to be close to blasphemous.

The quick grin that flashed across Steve's face was utterly filthy as if he had heard Sam's thoughts. Sam fought for something to say that wouldn't come out as drool, then he remembered what the man had just called his friend.

Sam stared up at him in mock shock "Did you just call the Winter Soldier Hot? How does Cap America even know that word". Steve smirked and drawled in his best Brooklyn accent "I could have said he's swell, keen, aces, or snazzy Sam, would that have been better?"

A strange male voice added with amusement from the doorway "What about nobby, smooth or sweet? Also valid slang from that era if Howard and Aunt Peggy had anything to say about it."

Sam sprang up from his desk, ignoring his residual dizziness, and offered a genuine if flustered welcome. "Mr Stark, it's an honour sir, I can't express how grateful we all are for…" before he could complete the sentence, the man moved forward with a dismissive gesture but still smiling "the honour is all mine Dr Wilson, believe me this is one event that I have looked forward to for a while"

Tony heard the barely hidden snort of amusement from the tall guy dressed in the Captain America outfit, and continued to smile, a glittering lift of his lips, but now it had the same brittle quality that was famous from his media appearances. The warmth he had offered Wilson long gone. Sam flinched.

Tony swung round to face the obnoxious jerk directly, "Nice cosplay Dude, fits in all the right and tight places and you are?" he asked mockingly. His brown eyes were cold and hard in his pale face.

Before the tall guy whose face had fallen into "Bad man kicking puppies and spray painting rude graffiti on innocent unicorns" mode, could answer, Dr Wilson hurried to speak.

"Mr Stark, this is Captain Steve Rodgers, he will also be speaking tonight and his friend Sergeant James Barnes will also be attending."

Tony had finished his speech, charming and joking his way through the painful parts but he had promised himself he wouldn't lie to them. He had never opened himself up in public the way he had done for this group. This was probably his last public performance, well the last one he would be alive for, his funeral didn't count. Especially since he was getting more enamoured of the eternal rest in space choice, so he wouldn't even get a funeral unless they decided on an empty coffin. So he had stripped his defences to the minimum. Now he had left the stage to that douche Captain America. He really didn't know what the guy's problem was.

He stood in the dark corridor, resting against the wall fighting off the rising nausea and severe headache, bitter symptoms of the worsening poisoning. He would be damned if he was leaving yet. He had organised the party for them and if there was something Tony Stark knew through to his bone marrow was how to throw a party. By God they would enjoy it, and he would be there to make sure of it. He just had to rest in the dark and quiet for a while. He just needed to pull some energy together, and then he would give them a party they would never forget.

Gleaming silver eyes watched from the shadows as the exquisitely suited man closed his eyes wearily, head tilted back, throat vulnerable and so tempting, brown curls clinging lovingly to the faint sweat slickening his forehead, the skin under his eyes frail and translucent. So beautiful, so utterly beautiful, vulnerable and so pale.

The scent of approaching death clung to him, threading its way through the expensive cologne. The Winter Soldier could not allow death to take this beautiful creature.

Anthony Edward Stark was his, had been his since the Soldier had obeyed his then masters and taken the boy's parents from him. The Soldier had been fascinated with him, the whiskey coloured eyes that sparkled with true intelligence, the compact but muscular body, the elegance in the way he moved. The scent of oil and solder, the tang of electronics and the aroma of coffee.

The customary Hydra mind wipe after that mission had taken them twice as long as normal in the chair.

Hydra hadn't cared what kind of a monster that he was as long as he was their monster, and that had caused their downfall once his Sire had found him again. Stevie had been turned by some travelling circus performer and then Stevie had turned him in those long ago days in Brooklyn, when he had been too young and new a vampire to fight the urges. Summer and winter had both lost their power over them.

Stevie's asthma had disappeared as had many of the bastards who had made his best friend's life such a misery when the only thing he had to defend himself was his temper. They had feasted well the first year.

The serum had just enhanced their supernatural abilities.

When his Sire brought him back from Hydra' s clutches, when they had glutted themselves on all the Hydra betrayers they could find until they could control their appetites properly again, the memories had come flooding back. The Soldier saw visions of all his missions. He could tell right from wrong again but he had lost the ability to feel it, there was regret but no remorse, he was a Vampire after all but there was one exception. Just one, the mission he had whispered into his Sire's ears, when he had lain in his Sire's arms as he was thoroughly reminded of how much he was loved and always had been. The Soldier had told him of his soul deep need for the brown haired boy with the sparkling clever eyes, and lyrical voice. The beautiful boy he had damaged by ripping his parents away from him.

He told Stevie all about him and his Sire had promised that he could have him.

Stevie had found it easy to get information on Anthony Edward Stark, he was Captain America after all. SHIELD bent over backwards to assist him. Of course the ability to enthral and remove memories made sure he got all the data he needed without anyone being the wiser. Stevie would do anything, would compromise anyone to ensure that his Bucky would heal, would become his again not a tool of Hydra. Stevie had made sure Hydra had suffered in retribution for the decades long torture he had undergone. If his Bucky needed the boy to be whole again, then that was Stevie's next mission.

Stevie had not been impressed when Senior Agent Coulson had revealed that Stark was being slowly but surely poisoned because of that clusterfuck in Afghanistan which should never have happened if SHIELD had been keeping a proper eye on that bastard Stane.

Then Stevie had found Sam Wilson, in Washington DC running laps near the Lincoln Memorial. His Stevie had become as fascinated with Dr Sam Wilson as the Soldier was with Tony Stark. He had followed the doctor back to New York and dragged Bucky along with him.

Sam of the gleaming smile and loving caring heart, Sam with the connections to get Stark to attend a function. Sam who regularly but unknowingly donated his blood to the man he was already more than half in love with, Sam who followed Stevie's directions perfectly. Sam who would become his Sire's consort when Stevie finally got over the rigid set of morals and conscience that he only adhered to for his own needs, and gave his falcon the bite. Stevie utterly ignored the dual standard in his complete disregard for ethical or moral behaviour when it came to Bucky's welfare.

But the Soldier was not thinking of Sam or his Sire now, the Soldier was focused on the beautiful dying boy in front of him. Tony might think he was an adult grown but for the Soldier he would ever be the boy. His boy. His consort. His Sire had given him the permission that he still refused himself.

The Soldier glided silently through the shadows towards his boy until finally his boy noticed him and those beautiful whiskey eyes opened wide in shock. His metal hand closed gently but firmly around the boy's shoulder keeping him against the wall. "Trick or Treat Doll", the voice was low, hoarse and seductive. Limbs frozen in unnatural stillness Tony watched in fascinated horror as the sculptured lips moved languidly as if the words themselves were a physical part of that terrifying figure in front of him. Fangs glinted in the dim light as the Soldier smiled.