"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you are standing here… I just realised… there is a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw." Zemo looked at Steve with intensity, never once breaking eye contact. The atmosphere of the room was heavy and suffocating.

But in a short insistent it was broken with a disbelieving shout.

"What? Bull!" Tony shouts from behind Steve, his arms not lowered from their ready position. Steve turns around, an eyebrow raised in silent question. "You have green in your eyes?" Tony asks.

Steve give a frustrated shrug of his shoulders. Now was not the time for this. "Yeah".

"How come I have never noticed?" Tony exclaims hotly, gesturing wildly with his right hand. He was not going to let this drop, it was clear to everyone in the room.

"Is it even important?" Steve grounds out tightly, turning back to Zemo. They had to focus, who knew what Zemo could have planned for them. They could not do this now, it was too dangerous.

Tony scoffs, lowering his hands. "I should have known! How could I have missed that?" he cries out at Steve's back. Steve glances at him over his shoulder, a look of frustrated disbelief all over his face. At seeing this Tony adds "I mean, you're my best friend. I need to know these things! It's what you do, you're meant to know these things about your close friends after all."

"-what… I don't think –" Steve runs his free hand over his face and moves to face Tony side on. "I don't think it's really that important..." He could think of hundreds of other times this conversation would have been more appropriate to have.

"It's important" Tony says as he levels Steve with a glare, taking an angry step towards him.

Steve turns to face Tony fully, his shield lowered from its defensive position against Zemo. All his focus is now on Tony. He knows he should stop this, tell him they will discuss it some other time, but after the past few weeks, he just falls straight into arguing with him "Tony. For fuc-! I don't even think Bucky noticed the green, maybe even their colour…" from his guarded position in the corner of the room, Bucky shrugs. Steve continues "it is not im-"

Tony cuts Steve off sharply as he snarls out "Oh, here we go. Why does everything with you always come back to Bucky?"

"Damn it, Tony. I brought him up because you were talking about best friends and he is one to me so I was using him as a measure." Steve bites out sharply.

Tony looks away from Steve, his posture angry and defensive, "Oh, I see how it is".

It was Steve's turn to scoff, "How what is? It's not anything".

Tony looks back at Steve with a glare. "Oh, I think it is, Rogers. Am I not a friend to you?" he growls.

"Yes, Tony." Steve groans in frustration. "You are also my best friend. Can we-"

Tony cuts him off, shouting "I want to be your best-est friend, Steve. Not just one of the best, best-est."

"Okay." Steve says shortly and moves to face Zemo, believing this was done.

Tony was not done. He stares down Steve's back in disbelief. "Just okay?" He mutters, hurt. His voice raises to a shout, "I spill my feelings and all you have to say is 'okay'".

Steve sighs, turning to face Tony again, "It wasn't really spilling your feelings, Tony".

Tony strides up to Steve, stopping roughly a meter away from him. "Oh, my feelings are not good enough for you?" he spits out darkly.

"Unexpected, but not an unpleasant turnabouts" Zemo mumbles to himself from the bunker, pleased. He leans back in his chair.

"Shut it, Zemo. We will get to you in a sec." Steve says, not sparing Zemo a single glance. "Tony, what you just said, I expect that level from school children. Don't be mad at me because you just confessed that you are my best friend,… which I had known for years, …and you didn't think my reaction was good enough." Steve takes a small step towards Tony. "Excuse me for being just a tad put off, especially since we are meant to be dealing with this fuck" he says gesturing out at Zemo, smiling in the bunker. "Who just killed these guys!" He makes a sweeping gesture of the room, indicating all the dead soldiers in the cryo-chambers.

"Fuck you!" Tony spits out at him.

Steve smiles bitterly, "Real mature, Stark. You know what? You can go take that and shove i-"

"Get fucked." He interrupts haughtily.

Bucky takes a few small steps forward. "Hey guys, maybe if we cooled down for a bit. You both are kind of acting like kids" He says, trying to keep the peace. But it is too late, the fires have been lit, and he is ignored.

"And you know what else, Flag-Face! YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE!-" Tony says, closing the distance between himself and Steve.

"GUYS! PLEASE!" Bucky tries again. He looks over at Zemo anxiously.

"What do you call me? You can go get lost, fly off in that souped up tin can of yours and-" Steve shouts.

"TIN CAN! SOUPED UP TIN CAN!" Tony shouts louder. He stops and looks Steve over hard. "Oh, Rogers," he says with a smile "I am going to mess up those prefect teeth of yours."

"Don't make me laugh, Stark." Steve snarls and presses himself closer into Tony's personal space threateningly "I'll rip off your arm and shove it so far up your arse it will bring a new meaning to finger food. You won't be needing culturally anymore, asshole."

"Who said I needed to touch to, Rogers? You see this 'Souped up tin can' as a few neat party tricks that I think you could appreciate" Tony says with faked indifference, posturing with his suit to remind everyone how dangerous the Iron Man could be.

"You think you can intimidate me? Really? You may be a future man, but I think there are a few lesions I could teach you that would blow your mind" Steve stabs at the breastplate of the Iron Man armour with a finger.

Tony scoffs at him, "big man full of big talk, and yet? I don't see you making any moves".

"Well, you're one to talk. I've yet to see you do anything either." Says Steve.

"Maybe because I stupidly care about you, you fucking dick" Tony yells at Steve.

Steve yells right back, "Well, it is pretty hard to tell with how you act".

Tony rolls his eyes at Steve. "Pot meet kettle. You are the most standoffish repressed bastard I have ever met, and I have seen myself in mirrors."

"Yeah? Well, when you lose as many people as I have… they ways I have…" Steve words start to loose venom and fade into a quiet whisper "you just… find ways to get around the pain."

Tony's face softens. He reaches out to put a hand on Steve's shoulder. "You are not going to lose me. Never." He says with heavy conviction. "You know I am damn near indestructible. You're stuck with me… for like … maybe ever"

Steve looks away and it is a while before he speaks again "Yeah? History speaks otherwise." His words have a bitter edge to his sad tone.

"We are fucking superheroes! We can write our own history" Tony exclaims loudly, throwing his hands up into the air.

"That is dangerous talk, Stark" Steve mutters quietly under his breath.

"Life is dangerous, we can't be any different" Tony argues but he is met by silence.

Steve stands there looking at his feet. His eyes are sad and distant, his posture has lost the angry defensive edge.

Suddenly, Steve looks to Tony and says sincerely "… I'm sorry…"

"I'm sorry, too" Tony says with just as much honesty. He then adds after a beat "I meant it though, I want to be your best-est friend"

"Tony…" Steve says warningly.

"I like you, as in really, I like you a lot." Tony says quickly, hoping to assure Steve that he is not just trying to start the whole argument again.

"Yeah?" Steve says, shocked. His eyes light up making the blue of them look brighter somehow. "Well, I… I like you a lot too."

"Unbelievable" Bucky mutters, rolling his eyes at both of them.

"Really? Then we appear to be in mutual like-ing-ness." Tony reasoned, smirking.

"We do" Steve conformed.

Bucky makes a frustrated gesture with his gun and says, "Great! Now that's settled, let's focus of the creepy murderous fuck over there"

Steve turns to look at Bucky. But Tony growls at him and grabs Steve's face to turn him back to face him "No. Eyes on me."

"…Tony…" He sighs, exasperated "We should…"

"Yeah, we should…" Tony says leaning in closer.

"That's not what I was…" Steve whispers.

"Well, allow me to… bring some new to the table..."Tony boldly grabs the front of Steve's uniform and pulls him in close.

"Tony-" Steve says just as their lips crash together.

Bucky shouts at the ceiling "You guys have to be fucking kidding me right now." He looks back at the lip locked pair. "STEVE!" he calls out "FFS, I know you can hear me you little shit! This is defiantly not the time for this. Especially in front of this 'Grade A' creep. Steve! C'mon"

Nothing. Even Zemo is looking put off. And now the guy in the cat suit is here too. "You are shitting me right now" Bucky calls out to no one in particular. This is the type of shit that only happens when you hang around Steve. He never had this much trouble as a hydra assassin. Most of the shit that happens, happens with some sort of relation to Steve.

T'challa jumps at Bucky, launching straight into a fight. "You killed my father", he offers in way off greeting. As Bucky blocks him with his gun.

"Sorry?" Bucky says as he pushes back hard, throwing T'challa off him.

"So you don't deny it" T'challa growls as he jumps at Bucky again.

Bucky groans as he tries to fend off the claws of T'challa's Panther suit. "No, I am saying 'Sorry' as in: What the fuck? I didn't kill your father"

"I don't believe you" T'challa says.

"Well, fine by me." Bucky says. After a few moments he adds "But I have a sneaking suspension that maybe 'stalker-creep' over there knows what happened. Given that he has being playing this whole thing"

T'challa pauses and looks over to Zemo. But something else catches his attention. He stands up and asks with disbelieving, "Really?"

"Yeah" Bucky says with a bitter edge, Eyeing Zemo darkly.

T'challa looks over at Bucky and rectifies "… No, Iron Man and the Captain."

"What?" Bucky asks as he turns around to look. "Oh yeah, no. They couldn't give two shits. But they may give a fuck in a few minutes"

Steve and Tony had pressed themselves up against a wall and seemed to be giving the whole 'I-want-to-eat-you-whole' a good crack. Making out as if it was an Olympic sport and ignoring everything else.

Zemo, still in the bunker, looked really put off by all this.

T'challa groans "Have you tried…"

Bucky cuts T'challa off, answering "Yeah, nothing. I don't think they are stopping anytime soon".

T'challa says after a few moments of contemplation "Maybe we should move this confrontation to another room?"

"Good luck with that. I don't think Zemo would miss this for anything. I mean he has been stalking Steve for more than a year now" Bucky comments.

T'challa looks over the whole ridiculous situation. T'challa asks after some silence, "Any ideas?"

Bucky looks at Zemo and then at the two face urchins. "Maybe one… Hold on to your hat, this is going to get rough" He steals himself, reading himself for the hell that was about to break loose. T'challa readies himself as well, taking the cue from Bucky, knowing that this is probably not going to end well.

Then Bucky takes a deep breath then shouts "Hey, Stark! I am sorry for killing your folks. I was brainwashed an all, but yeah… sorry"

Steve and Tony break apart swiftly. "What did you just say?" Tony whispers angrily.

Bucky repeats himself for Tony "Sorry for killing your folks"

T'challa turns to him slightly, claws out and ready to fight "That was a very bad idea, Barnes"

"I know" Bucky grimacing.


It did not end too badly, all things considered. Everyone was a little worse for wear, but were fine. After the fight, which was a hectic mess, they had finally worked things out to a somewhat bitter truce.

They all loaded on to T'challa's plane. Barnes, while missing an arm, realistically could not fly a plane. And no one believed that either Tony or Steve would be able to fly a plane, not with their aversion to being more than a centimetre apart. Bucky and T'challa both agreed that it would only lead to them crashing. So T'challa had managed everyone onto his plane and locked the apprehended Zemo in the back.

Bucky decided to sit in the front with T'challa, rather than be privy to Tony and Steve's eager antics.

END

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Notes: This started off as a cracky idea of: "I wonder if I can write Steve and Tony fighting then shift it to confessing how much the other means to them." then I decided to set it in Siberia and it grew from there.