A/N: I wanted to write a Stucky one-shot for Halloween, and after going through a billion different ideas, this is the one that stuck with me. Vampire Bucky cover pic was found on Google and all credit goes to the artist. Enjoy!

ONE MONTH AGO

When Tony announced he was going to throw the biggest Halloween party ever, absolutely nobody was surprised. The man lived for a good party, and not only did he use any type of holiday as an excuse to throw one, but he also had to make it bigger and better than the last.

And in his eyes, it wasn't a good party unless the tabloids and media were talking about it for a good couple of weeks.

So of course it came as a shock to all of the Avengers when Tony proclaimed that he was cancelling his party, only a few days after he first announced it.

"Are you okay, Tony?" Steve asked, truly concerned for his teammate. He didn't care whether there was or wasn't a party, but the fact that it had been Tony himself to cancel it was troubling.

"I'm fine," Tony waved him off. "In fact, I'm excellent! I have an idea that would be better than any party."

Bucky quirked an eyebrow. "And that idea is...?"

"It's a surprise!" Tony gave a mischievous grin that would put the Cheshire cat to shame, then flounced away.

The other teammates glanced at each other, wondering what exactly the crazed genius was planning.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Though Tony had eventually told Natasha, Clint, Bruce, and Thor of his plan, needing them to help him pull it off, Steve and Bucky had been kept in the dark, none-the-wiser to their friends involvements. Even Pepper and Happy knew, though they wouldn't be joining in on the fun.

"What do you think we'll be doing tonight?" Steve asked for the hundredth time, fiddling with the gaudy cross that hung around his neck while Bucky fixed his collar.

"I don't know," Bucky answered with a shrug, glancing back at Steve via his reflection in the mirror. "I overheard Clint and Thor talking about a haunted house the other day, though I don't see why Tony would make us go to one instead of partying."

Steve mad a noise of agreement in his throat, before glancing down at the cross that rested against his chest and the brown leather waistcoat beneath it. "Why do I have to be the hunter while you're the vampire? It'd be more likely for a hunter to have a metal arm."

"I have the hair," Bucky laughed. "And I speak fluent Romanian, as well as the fact that you look more like a vampire hunter than I do."

"I do not!"

Bucky laughed harder. "You do! You're tall and righteous and literally always looking for a fight."

"No I don't," Steve repeated, pouting now as he went over and wrapped his arms around his lover, resting his head on his shoulder.

"Natasha and I had to hold you back from fighting a reporter that called me a villain," Bucky reminded him, his tone light and teasing but his eyes staring down at Steve with love. "That was just last week, if I remember correctly."

"It was two weeks ago, and he had it coming," Steve muttered, defeated. Bucky just rolled his eyes.

There was a knock on the door, before Natasha came in a moment later. She was dressed as The Bride from Kill Bill, in a yellow tracksuit with black stripes and a blonde wig. Clint had a thing for Tarantino films, and had made the team sit through them all.

"You boys ready yet?" She asked, leaning against the doorway. "We're leaving in ten."

Steve removed his chin from Bucky's shoulder, turning around and walking over to her. "Ready as we'll ever be."

As it turns out, what Bucky overheard had been right - they were going to a haunted house. Though mansion would probably be a better word for it, as the place was nothing short of huge.

It seemed innocent enough. Sure, it was old and looked vaguely abandoned, but there were no tacky Halloween decorations or anything else to make it seem out of the ordinary.

"Wait, this is it?" Clint asked incredulously. If he'd really known where they were going beforehand, he definitely hadn't actually seen it. He was dressed as Beetlejuice, though Tony had tried to make him go as Legolas.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Don't sound so disappointed yet, Barton, because you're in for one hell of a night." He smirked at everyone, looking like an arrogant knight in his realistic suit of armor (that he'd designed and created himself, of course).

"I, for one, am ready for some fun!" Thor grinned. He was the only one who wasn't dressed up for the night, but he did wear his Asgardian clothes, which seemed to appease everyone.

"Good," Tony grinned, heading up to the front door of the huge mansion. "Now, I have to warn you, that my team and I did not hold back from the scares. There's no route for you to follow, just go wherever you want. But you can't leave the house until after midnight. Have fun."

He opened the door, ushering everyone to head inside. With a shake of his head, Bruce was the first to head in, wearing a pirate costume. The others trailed in after him, Steve and Bucky the last to enter before Tony let the door slam shut behind them.

"Remember, no leaving until after midnight."

And with that, the two super soldiers were alone.

They wandered around for nearly an hour, trying not to groan at how stupid the whole thing seemed to be. There was eerie music pouring out of hidden speakers, and generic pop-up decorations that didn't even make the two men blink. None of their other teammates had reappeared, but there were three levels of the building to explore.

Bucky groaned at the laughing skull that sat in one corner. "Is this really how we're spending our Halloween?"

"Apparently…" Steve sighed. Was this Tony's idea of some silly joke? To bore everyone to death?

"Come on, let's go upstairs and see if there's anything better up there."

So they headed up to the next level, and that's when the atmosphere changed. The hallways were darker, deep shadows in every corner, and lacking the music and cheap ornaments of the ground floor as well. Steve and Bucky looked at each other with a grin.

"Now we're talkin'!" The brunette laughed, grabbing Steve's hand and dragging him further into the darkness.

There were more rooms on this level, and each one seemed eerily untouched, like Tony had forgotten to set them up or something. A floorboard creaked behind the two, and they whipped around only to see nothing there.

"Old house?" Steve questioned with a smirk.

Bucky nodded, smirking right back. "Or one of Tony's tricks."

So they thought. As they continued on, goosebumps bloomed across all of their exposed flesh. Bucky figured he might just have been cold, wrapping his costume's black cape tighter around his shoulders, but he couldn't think of a logical explanation for the ghostly caress that passed over the back of his neck. Steve sensed his discomfort and squeezed his hand tighter.

The next room is when the real horror started.

It was just another bedroom, like the others, with the skeleton of a bed, an empty wardrobe, and a dusty mirror on the wall. They glanced at it, and were just about to leave, when something knocked on the wardrobe door.

"Tony?" Bucky raised an eyebrow, willing the unease he was feeling to go away. He was the fucking Winter Soldier, and he'd be damned if he let some of Tony's cheap tricks actually scare him.

Steve nodded. "He probably has a hidden speaker behind the door. Let's check it out."

He dragged Bucky over to the wardrobe, opening the doors up wide, only to find it completely empty, save for a few mothballs.

Steve squinted at the interior. "Where do you think he hi—"

The mirror smashed, cutting him off mid-sentence. The two whirled around, staring at the glass that now littered the floor, a sense of absolute dread washing over them. It wasn't from the scare, no, but from the fact they could sense something that could only be called evil in the room with them.

"Who's there?" Bucky demanded, using his scariest assassin voice. "Show yourself."

"…No." A whispered voice replied.

Steve shook his head, growing irritated, though it did nothing to quell his fear. "Cut it out. We're not falling for it."

"No." The voice said again, louder this time. It came from behind them, but again, there was nobody there.

"Tony, if you don't cut this shit out, I'm going to rip out your intestines and use them as a skipping rope." Bucky threatened, currently angry enough to actually go through with the threat, consequences be damned. "I swear to God I will."

"NO!"

Without time to react, Steve was thrown into the wall by an invisible force, while Bucky was knocked to the ground. The blonde had barely gotten himself up when Bucky began screaming, his body being dragged from the room by… nothing?

Because there was nothing there, and when Bucky used his free leg to kick at whatever was holding his other one, it hit nothing but air.

"Bucky!" Steve yelled, reaching for his friend that was now holding onto the door frame for dear life. His metal hand was whirring loudly as he struggled against the force pulling on him, carving into the old wood.

Just as Steve reached Bucky, he disappeared into the hall. Blindly following, Steve saw Bucky lying on his stomach, face contorted and breathing heavily. He looked at Steve with relief, but his eyes flicked a fraction to the side and widened with horror.

"Steve, RUN!"

And he did. He ran straight for Bucky, scooped him up, and headed down the hall to the stairs. He didn't stop at the bottom, though, instead heading straight out the front door, down the veranda, and collapsing with Bucky on the lawn.

He held the shivering brunette to his chest, pressing kisses on his head. "It's okay, Buck, I got you. It's okay. You're alright. We're alright."

"What was that thing?" Bucky shuddered, knowing it couldn't have been a trick. Science couldn't create whatever that was. "I… my ankle is freezing where it grabbed me."

"Let me have a look." Steve, still holding Bucky with one arm, pulled back just enough to reach down and lift the leg of his slacks up, revealing a black and blue bruise in the shape of a hand. He gently traced his fingers along it, drawing back sharply when it felt like ice.

There was a sharp intake of breath just a few feet away from them, and they looked up to see Tony slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Natasha and Clint were just behind him, both looking equally shocked, and with Clint now sporting some very obvious fake blood down the front of his shirt. Bruce and Thor came out just then, stopping in their tracks when they saw the super soldiers clinging to each other on the lawn.

"What happened?" Tony demanded, though his voice sounded less angry and more like a concerned parent. "How did Barnes get a bruise like that?"

Steve shrugged, holding Bucky closer. "We don't know, because we couldn't exactly see it, but it managed to throw me against a wall and drag Bucky around like a ragdoll."

"I did see it, and it definitely wasn't human..." Bucky added, snuggling into Steve's side. He nuzzled into his neck, finding comfort with the pulse point against his lips. The vampire costume definitely suited him more. "We thought you were trying to scare us at first."

"We were," Natasha said, then motioned to the fake blood on Clint's chest. "We'd planned to pretend that there was an uninvited guest that attacked Clint."

"Guess your plan didn't get to happen then," Steve laughed humorlessly. He shook his head, sighing when Bucky pressed his lips to his jaw.

Tony and Clint glanced at each other and fought off grins. "We think our plan worked anyway."

Bucky looked up at them sharply. "What do you mean? You planned for us to get attacked by some angry ghost or demon or whatever the hell that thing was?"

"No, no, no!" Tony held up his hands in a placating gesture. "We just wanted you to freak out enough that you'd realize your feelings for each other."

"Realize our feelings?" Steve and Bucky shared a look, then burst into laughter. It was a welcome relief from all of the fear and adrenalin they'd been consumed by before.

Bucky wiped at his eyes, tears falling from how hard he'd been laughing. "Guys, we've been together since we were teenagers."

"Yeah, we just weren't open about it until Bucky came back." Steve's grin was wide, and more laughter spilled from his lips. "Not like we could be openly homosexual in the thirties and forties without being arrested for sodomy."

Clint frowned. "Wait, so you're both gay and have been this whole time?"

"Well, he has," said Bucky, grinning at his boyfriend. "But I've always liked men and women."

"Okay," piped up Bruce, who just looked confused. "I don't want to offend you, Steve, but what about Peggy?"

"Yeah, wasn't she your great love or something?"

Steve shook his head. "Peggy and I had a mutual admiration and respect for each other, but people misinterpreted that as being in love. She never knew I was gay, though I think she suspected it."

"Why didn't you ever tell us?" Tony asked now, a slight whine in his tone

Bucky sighed. "You never asked, but it's not like we ever hid it either. We don't show a lot of affection in public because we're from a time where that was dangerous, but we have become more relaxed with it around you."

"Seriously, we cuddle every movie night." Steve smirked. "How did you not notice?"

Clint crossed his arms across his chest indignantly, "Well, that's why we thought you guys liked each other, but just didn't know it."

"Natasha knew."

"That's because I'm not an oblivious idiot like the others," she smirked.

"Well I, for one, am happy for the both of you," Thor interrupted, stepping forward with a serious expression. "But I feel as if we're forgetting that something attacked you very recently."

"Thor's right, we should check it out." Tony groaned.

But Bruce shook his head. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we should just leave whatever it is alone."

"I agree," Bucky nodded, getting up with Steve. He was slightly favoring his unbruised leg. "Let's get the hell out of here."