He came in the middle of the night, when only Stark was awake - as usual, he didn't sleep much these days anyway. Jarvis alerted him. "Sir, there is a man at the door. Preliminary facial recognition suggests a 60% match with the Winter Soldier."
"What?" He grabbed his wristbands. "Suit. Now." He ran down the hall toward the door, his suit catching up with him on the way.
Bucky was pacing outside the door, unarmed - literally, his mechanical arm was in his hands. When the door opened, they just stared at each other for a minute.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Stark's face, under the suit, was a mask of shock. "Are you suicidal?" He winced at the texture of the word in his mouth.
The man shrugged. "I knew I wasn't going to last much longer out there. I thought at least if someone was going to kill me it should be someone with a legitimate claim."
Words left his mouth before he thought about them. For a brief instant, he didn't see the Winter Soldier, he saw himself. "Come in." He stepped back and held open the door.
They sat in silence for a while as Tony made coffee and wondered just what in the hell he thought he was doing, anyway. This was starting to remind him of a day when he had woken up to find Clint walking around his room, finding and throwing away his razors and pills.
"So." He sat down and handed over a mug of coffee. "What made you do this? Were you attacked, is that why your arm is off?"
Bucky nodded. "Broke it, didn't know how to fix it, figured I was done for."
"So… you decided as long as you were going to die, you wanted to pick the way to do it." At another nod, Stark remembered a bomb heading for Manhattan and a one-way trip. "I did that one time. Lived, obviously, but… I know where you're coming from."
"I've been hunted since… since Washington." He sighed. "Hydra is the worst of it, but there are a lot of people who either want to get the Soldier back or to kill him."
"Get him back, huh?" Stark frowned, hard. "What happens if they manage it?"
Bucky groaned, a sudden sound of agony as he buried his head in his hands. "I don't know. Maybe they could brainwash me again, maybe not. That's really why I'm here - I want to die before they can make me into a weapon." He looked up with grieving, terrified eyes that were all too familiar. "I don't want to hurt you guys anymore."
Suddenly he was crying.
Stark was completely confused. Bucky Barnes? Crying? He seemed more like the get-drunk-start-a-fight type. Then he thought about it.
Honestly, it was surprising it had taken him this long to break down. He'd been brainwashed, fought his best friend, killed while trapped in his own mind…
"Come here." Tony grabbed a blanket and tossed it around Bucky's shoulders. "I'm going to text Steve, all right? Will you still stay here while we wait for him?"
The man just stared, tears still falling down his face. Finally, he nodded, before burying his face in the blanket.