AN: Based on this prompt from kuro-ecchi on tumblr:

Imagine Tony got dragged into a haunted house by his friends and Bucky is one of the scarers. On the way he got separated with his friends and he was so scared Bucky felt bad and accompanied him to the exit.

Quick note to say that though it's not stated outright, I wrote this thinking Tony, Bucky and co. are a bit younger - say late teens/early twenties, around college age. It's not really relevant to the story, though.

Trigger warning for claustrophobia, and Tony having a panic attack.

Special thanks to followthemuze for the beta! :)

~Daydream Dressed as a Nightmare~

In retrospect, letting Rhodey talk him into coming to this stupid, God-forsaken hell-hole of horrors had been a bad idea to begin with.

But - but! - he couldn't let his best friend think he was scared; he had a reputation to uphold. And while Rhodey might have ribbed him a little if he had caught wind of Tony's trepidation, he knew it would have paled in comparison to the grief Natasha and Pepper would have given him.

He was the billionaire genius Tony Stark, dammit, and he would not be laughed at. Or pitied, which would have been even worse.

Tony kept telling himself that the whole way there, and even during the first few minutes once they were inside, but it all went right out the window after the second lunatic jumped out at him and he reached for Rhodey's hand - dignity be damned - only to find he was alone.

Alone, and lost, and, well, scared. Which he supposed was the whole point of going to a haunted house, but Tony gave exactly zero fucks about what the point of this place was because if he didn't find the others and get out in the next five minutes, he was pretty sure he was going to cry.

He could admit that to himself in his own head, though at this point he was well beyond caring what Rhodey or the others thought anyway. He wanted out. Now.

It wasn't as though Tony didn't like a good scare, every now and then. He just usually prefered it to be while watching a movie, so he could heckle the dumbass protagonists for making stupid decisions and otherwise being too dumb to live anyway. Plus, if those did get a little too scary, he could always turn it off, or leave the room, or start subtly doing something on his phone, if other people were around and he didn't want to make it obvious things were bothering him. Here, though…

He swallowed. Here, he was trapped - or at least, that's what it felt like. Intellectually, he knew he wasn't really trapped - just hopelessly lost. But the more he tried to find his way out, the more lost and scared he became, and between the dark and the isolation and the weird noises it was hard to remember that, especially when the darkness made it feel like the walls were closing in on him and -

Tony gasped and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to fight off the panic attack he could feel bubbling up. He could do this, he just had to find his way out, or catch up with Rhodey, or-

The door a few feet ahead of him flew open, and a man in dark leather flew out and snarled at him, brandishing a bloodied knife. Tony let out the loudest, most emasculating shriek he'd ever heard and threw himself against the nearest wall, completely losing his battle with the panic attack and hyperventilating.

Tony didn't know how much time had passed when he became aware of a low voice speaking over the roaring in his ears, calm and even, and just what he needed to ground himself.

"-ey, it's okay, just take a few deep breaths for me, can you do that? In, and out, just like that, nice and steady…"

Tony shivered, concentrating on the steady, soothing tone and following the instructions by taking a few careful, controlled breaths.

"That's it, just like that, now stay with me…"

It took a few tries, but once he felt like he could take a clear breath without breaking into panicked little gasps again, Tony slowly opened eyes, and found a pair of wide, concerned blue ones staring back.

"Uh…" he said intelligently, trying to catch up with his surroundings and keep his breathing even.

The owner of the blue eyes gave a deep, relieved sigh and leaned back a bit, which let the face they were attached to come into focus - and Tony felt his breath catch for an entirely different reason. Because holy crap, that face was hot.

"Are you alright?" Gorgeous Blue-eyes asked, carefully reaching out and placing a hand on Tony's shoulder, and projecting the movement in a way that could only be deliberate, which Tony appreciated.

"Erm," Tony said, wishing his brain would come back online so he could stop talking in monosyllables. "Uh….yeah?" There. Two words. That was slightly better.

Gorgeous's brow furrowed. "Are you? 'Cause you don't sound sure," he said lightly, though not unkindly. "What's your name? Are you here by yourself, or...?"

Tony's brain chose that moment to start working again, and realization of the whole, mortifying situation came crashing into him.

"Oh, God," he groaned and buried his face in his hands, embarrassment and humiliation burning warm under his skin.

"No, no hey, it's okay," Blue-eyes said quickly, squeezing Tony's shoulder in a way that shouldn't have been reassuring, but was.

"It's really not," Tony said miserably into his hands. God, this was just great. He'd gone and worked himself up into a tizzy in a damn cheesy haunted house, like some frightened little kid. And in front of a complete stranger, no less.

Said stranger gave his shoulder another squeeze, and Tony decided to chance a peek at him through his fingers. The guy's mouth was in a terse, unhappy line, but it melted into a soft, warm smile once he noticed Tony peaking.

"I'm Bucky," he said, his smile widening when Tony finally lowered his hands. The sight dazed Tony enough that it took him a minute to realize Bucky was probably waiting for his name, too.

"Tony," he said, swallowing down his embarrassment and fidgeting uncomfortably. "I'm okay, I just, ah…" Got scared. "...Lost it, for a minute, there."

He looked down at his knees, his face flaming. God, this guy must think he was a coward.

"'s'okay, happens to the best of us." Bucky said easily, leaning back on his haunches and thoughtfully giving Tony some more breathing room. The movement made Tony notice the mask and goggles lying beside them, which he belatedly recognized as the ones the psychopath with the knife had been wearing.

Bucky noticed him looking and grimaced. "Yeah…"

"That was you?" Tony groaned, feeling his face go even redder.

Bucky must have misinterpreted his embarrassment as anger, though, because scrambled back a few inches and held his hands up placatingly. "I'm really, really sorry!" he said, his face pinched unhappily. "I didn't mean - well, obviously I did mean to scare you, but I didn't mean-"

"No, it's-" Well, not fine. But it wasn't Bucky's fault Tony was a scaredy-cat. "-okay. I mean," He gave a frustrated huff. "I never should have let the others talk me into coming, anyway. I hate these places."

Bucky dropped his hands, but still didn't look pleased, his mouth turned down at the corners. "Your friends forced you to come with them?" he asked, voice tight and more than a little angry, which threw Tony off. "Even though they knew you didn't like these things?"

Tony felt his mouth drop open once it dawned on him that Bucky's anger wasn't directed at him, but at his friends - and on his behalf, no less. The thought did funny little things to his insides.

"No, it wasn't like that," Tony corrected quickly, because it looked like Bucky was about ten seconds away from hunting someone down and having very violent words. "I was just being, ah, stubborn. Didn't want them to know I was, uh, y'know." Tony waved his hand a little, but Bucky seemed to get it, his face softening in understanding. "And then we got separated, and I got lost, and it just….yeah."

Bucky nodded and eyed Tony thoughtfully, then deftly pushed himself up to a standing position. Tony blinked in surprise; he'd forgotten they were sitting on the floor.

"Whadaya say we get out of here, then?" he asked, offering Tony a hand. Tony accepted it after only a second's hesitation, letting Bucky pull him to his feet.

"Really?" Tony not-squeaked, because that would be unmanly. "I mean...are you sure? Won't you get in trouble if you just leave?"

"Nah, they won't care." Bucky said, bending down to collect his mask and goggles. "I was only doing this as a favor to Clint, anyway. My friend, Steve, volunteered me."

"If you could just point me towards the nearest exit…" Tony suggested, holding on to the last vestiges of his dignity.

"Too easy to get turned around," Bucky replied easily. "Besides, the others won't bother you if they see that I'm with you." He gave Tony a shy, crooked smile. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were tryin' to get rid of me, Tony."

"No, I, uh," Tony mumbled, and wondered if he'd left his brain on the floor when he stood, because usually he was more suave than this. There was a shriek from somewhere else in the house that made Tony flinch, a sharp reminder of where they were that settled things for him.

"Lead the way," he said, more than a little proud of himself for (mostly) keeping the wobble out of his voice.

Bucky grinned and tugged on his hand, which made Tony realize he'd still been holding it all this time.

"Sure thing," he said, giving Tony's hand another squeeze. "There's this hot brunet I want to ask out at the exit, anyway."

He grinned even wider at Tony's dumbfounded expression.

Well, Tony thought, concentrating on the reassuring warmth of Bucky's hand as he lead him to sweet, precious freedom. Maybe there were some good things about these places, after all.