Originally this was supposed to be a 5+1 thing but I changed it to 7+1 and even so it will have more than 9 chapters. I suck at sticking to a plan. This story will be about the meetings between Tony and the Winter Soldier over the time. I will add special warnings at the beginning of each chapter if I feel like that is necessary. I hope you enjoy this.
Tony was two when he got lost for the first, but certainly not the last time.
Howard and Maria had to attend a very important party and since Jarvis was sick they had brought Tony with them.
Maria had a wide-eyed Tony in her arms and was carrying him around for the better part of the evening. Tony had never seen this many people or heard this much noise and everything was so bright and flashy and it was disorientating for him and so he clung to his mother's dress, but when he did she frowned and removed his hands from it.
At one point during the evening Maria had put him down and told him to stay where he was because she needed to go to the bathroom and of course Tony wandered off. Now that he was down on the ground everything looked different and the light wasn't so bad down here and he walked around to look at everything.
He realized that he had lost his mommy when the lights started to dim and the noise got more quiet with every step he took and he started to scream and wail like only a two-year-old could. Despite all of that he didn't stand still but he wandered on through the hallways of this very unfamiliar, dark and very big house.
Even though some time had passed now no one came for him and his tears only got bigger. He dimly remembered that his mommy had told him to stand still and to not move if he ever got lost but it was dark in this hallway, he was scared and so he didn't stop. Maybe he could find the light again.
He turned left on the next corner, not knowing where he was and what he was supposed to do now, when he saw a man standing in front him.
It was nearly completely dark in the hall now and the man didn't move and so Tony screamed only louder. The man made a sharp movement with his hand and some stray light caught on something shiny.
Tony tuned his screaming down enough so that he could see what had cause the blink and he realized that the mans' whole arm was shiny and silver and of course he started to walk towards it. Shiny silver things where his weakness.
The man eyed him warily, that much he could see under all the hair and in the darkness, but when Tony got close enough to touch the man's arm, he didn't pay attention to the man. That arm was so much more interesting.
He latched onto the hand, holding it with all the strength a two-year-old could muster because the man tried to pull it away.
"Mine" Tony said, still sniffling with a few tears running down his cheeks. "Shiny arm is mine" he repeated and used his second hand to hold the thumb while the other touched one finger after another just to make sure that they were all the same.
Tony was watching the arm and not the man and so when he was suddenly crouching down next to him Tony was startled and he tried to hide behind the arm.
The man didn't say anything, just looked at him and after a few seconds he stood back up and tried to pull his arm away again. Tony held on really tight and was dragged along the carpet, his feet making some noise when he wouldn't lift them up and the man instantly stopped but Tony chuckled a bit.
It wasn't quite enough to stop the few stray tears that were still running down his face but he had stopped crying out.
The man wiggled his fingers and Tony felt the different parts of his hand move and he leaned forward to inspect the arm even more closely. He let go of the thumb so that he could run his little fingers over the underarm, because the palm was hidden under a glove, and he started to smile.
It was shiny and it was smooth and looked a lot like the things his daddy worked with and he would keep this. "Mine now" he said again with all the determination a toddler could muster and the tears had finally stopped running down his face. The arm even made him forget that he was still lost.
The man let out something of an annoyed growl and pulled his hand up in an attempt to get it back. Tony latched back onto it with both hands and as a result was pulled off the ground. He kicked his feet when he was lifted even higher and he let out an excited laugh while he clung to the arm.
The man lifted him up until he was hanging right in front of his face and only now did Tony see that he was wearing a mask over his mouth. Tony carefully let go of the thumb again and the shiny hand curled around his tiny arm so that he wouldn't fall down.
Tony knocked on the mask and tried to remove it because nobody wore masks but it was really tight and the man held him further away from his face so that Tony couldn't reach it anymore.
He stared at Tony until he lowered him back to the ground but even when Tony's feet hit the soft carpet and the man let go of his wrist he wouldn't let go of the hand.
The man sighed and did something with his normal hand at the back of his head and then the mask came off and Tony watched in awe as it was lowered to his height. He tried to poke at it or grab it because he really wanted to check if it would fit him too but the man moved it so that his hand and the mask where hidden behind his thigh.
"Let go" the man said and his voice sounded rough but strangely enough Tony wasn't scared by this. He shook his head and said in a petulant way "My arm."
"Let go, kid" the man repeated and shook his hand. The movement set Tony's whole body to movement and he let out a delighted giggle. "Again" he said and stared expectantly at the man.
"Will you let go if I do it again?" he haltingly asked and Tony shook his head.
"Too shiny to let go."
The man let out another deep sigh and shook his hand anyway. Another giggle came out of Tony and suddenly he was pressed against the man's chest and they were moving deeper into the shadows.
Tony knew this game, he and Jarvis played that sometimes in the mansion when his parents weren't home and Tony could hide everywhere and Jarvis could walk around yelling loudly for him to come out without having to worry that it would disturb Tony's father, and so he held perfectly still even if that was really hard for him. The only good thing about that game was that the shiny arm was pressed to his chest and so he could look at it some more.
The man lowly cursed and after a few minutes he stood Tony back on his feet. "Let go now. I have to go."
Tony looked at the hand and held it tight. "I'm lost. My mommy's not here" he managed and nearly started to cry again.
The man stared down at him and then he crouched in front of Tony again. "I will bring you to your mom and you will let go" he said and Tony thought about that before he nodded.
"Okay. I have to do something first, so you have to let go for a second."
Tony rigorously shook his head and buried his face in the hand. He didn't want to be alone in this strange scary place.
The man moved so that he could point at the gauntlet he was wearing. "I will leave that here with you until I come back."
Tony eyed it and there were shiny parts on that as well and if he couldn't get the mask he could at least try this on and so he nodded. The man nodded as well and when he moved his hand this time Tony let go only long enough to grab onto the man's trouser in fear that he would walk away now. But he just removed the gauntlet and handed it to Tony.
"Here, kid. I'll be right back."
Tony clutched the gauntlet and nodded bravely as the man instantly walked away. Tears welled up in Tony's eyes again because now he was all alone again and it was dark and he was still lost. But before he could really start to cry for real the man was back, now wearing the same thing Tony's father so often wore when he had to meet many people.
The man was busy buttoning up the shirt and Tony spotted something red and wet before it was covered but he could still see a hole at that place. Tony pointed at it and asked "Are you hurt? It always hurts me when there is the red stuff" but the man shook his head.
"That's not mine. The man who wore it" he hesitated briefly before he finished with "got hurt."
"Is that why he gave it to you?"
"Yes. Now let's go."
The man extended his hand for his gauntlet and Tony stared at him because he looked so different from the man before with the hair all pulled back and the face cleaned up and without the mask but when he saw the metal hand he gave the gauntlet back.
The man pulled it on and then moved to do something at his ear but he extended the metal hand to grab Tony's.
"Target eliminated. Extraction has to wait, unexpected circumstances arose. The mission is not compromised." He waited for a few seconds and then said "Da. Five minutes."
He turned back around to Tony. "I have five minutes to find your mother and then I will leave you."
Tony was really afraid of being left alone again but he bravely nodded and so they got going.
The man led him towards the party again and very soon Tony spotted his mother amongst all the other people.
"Mommy" he exclaimed and pointed at her.
The man crouched down one last time and told him "You did not see me. This is a game and you cannot tell anyone you saw me. Do you understand?"
"Okay" Tony agreed because he was good at those games.
He couldn't speak for that long but he already learned that there were times when he wasn't supposed to speak and if this was one of those times he could do it. It wouldn't be too hard.
Tony patted the arm and said "Still mine."
The man shook his head. "It's mine and I will take it with me. Let go now."
"Bring it back" Tony told him before he let go of the hand. "Bye shiny-arm man" he said and waved before he went to run to his mommy.
Maria just patted his head and continued her conversation, not realizing that he had been gone for quite some time, when Tony turned around to wave at the man again but he was already gone.
Criticism is always welcome and I would be glad if you point out anything funny that you spot.