Thor was happy to help translate papers seized from raided Hydra bases. The All-Tongue came in handy for this; although many of the technical terms he did not know what they meant, when he copied them down they appeared to the reader in the correct language. He might need a good session in the gym after this, though, because this current stack of papers turned out to be the daily lab log of a scientist and included a description of some of the things done to Bucky. No details, those were probably documented in full elsewhere, but general statements in the day's summary. Plates on arm not moving smoothly; trying GT's idea for the motors. Still having problems with cybernetics. Installed arm today. Attempted to wake the Soldier; throttled JH and had to be sedated again. Attempted to wake Soldier; throttled AF, sedated. Tried to wake Soldier; throttled HN, sedated. Noticing a pattern, Thor flipped back to where it had started and grabbed a sticky note to keep a tally.

"Why are you chuckling? Hydra documents really shouldn't be funny." Steve crossed his arms angrily, just inside the doorway of the non-explosive specimen lab. Did the fact that his best friend-slash-boyfriend who had been tortured and brainwashed and used by Hydra had followed him in factor into it? Maybe. But regardless there was nothing funny about those documents whatever they were.

Thor looked up, wide grin becoming wider when he spotted Bucky. "Friend Bucky! You are a warrior of great bravery and spirit and deserving of the highest honors!"

Steve's expression became even stormier. "That's out of line, Thor. He was brainwashed and forced to do terrible things under their control. Do not forget that and do not attribute to him the things their weapon did."

"I do not confuse him with their weapon. I have just been reading of their early attempts to control him, and how he fought them valiantly." Steve raised an eyebrow but his shoulders relaxed very slightly. Bucky's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. Heartened, Thor continued. "According to these papers, the first..." He quickly counted up his tallies, "...twenty seven times that his captors attempted to wake him after installing his new arm they had to immediately sedate him again because each time his first act on waking was to use his new arm to throttle the nearest one of them."

Bucky's jaw dropped. "Twenty seven?"

Steve turned to him, eyes shining. "Bucky Barnes, you are my hero. Oh my god. That is amazing. You're my goddamn hero." He engulfed Bucky in a bear hug. Bucky leaned his forehead on Steve's shoulder and laughed with relief until tears ran down his cheeks. This really was amazing. His first twenty seven acts with that arm had been not Hydra's dirty work but throttling the Hydra scientists who'd given it to him and experimented on him and done surgery on him with him awake and screaming and everything else they'd done. Suddenly it-and he-didn't feel quite as tainted anymore.

"A hero indeed." Thor agreed. "I think this warrants a feast in your honor! Friend JARVIS, inform the others! We must celebrate a true warrior's display of exceptional valor!" He got up and headed for the elevator. "And now I must be off to fetch proper Asgardian mead for our feast so that all might be merry! This shall be a proper celebration."

Bucky raised an eyebrow at Steve, both still grinning like idiots. "Should I take that to mean he's going to actually get you drunk? Remind me, what sort of drunk are you?"

"A perfectly respectable one." Steve told him primly.

"Then I clearly failed at getting you drunk enough. We'll fix that."

"Hey! Gramps number two! JARVIS told me we're having a party tonight in honor of you holding the world record in throttling Hydra agents." Tony slapped Bucky on the back, oblivious to how lucky he was that Bucky had seen him coming. "Congrats! You are about to experience one of my parties, and my parties are epic. What drinks do you like? And what foods? Doesn't matter how extravagant, we don't do anything halfway here."

"I don't really remember. That chocolate cake we had here was really good." Bucky tried to think. "I've liked everything I've had here, except Steve's attempts at omelettes."

Tony winced slightly at the reminder of the dairy incident. "Well, just blurt out the first things to come to mind. It's science. Memories are stored in a distributed way and sometimes you can trigger stuff through unconscious pathways that the conscious pathways are damaged and get them back that way."

"I know. That's been how I've gotten back most of my memories so far." Bucky pointed out.

"Right, of course. Anyway, word association. Alcohol. Go."

"Whiskey." It popped out immediately. "Vodka. I feel like the association isn't totally positive with that one though."

"Ah, you're a liquor man then. I like you. You probably like whiskey, you've had vodka but aren't sure whether you liked it. Okay. Well, I'll stock up on whiskey, and we'll have vodka for SpiderGirl anyway, so you can try it and find out. What about wine?"

"Haven't the faintest."

"Right. Well. You can try that too. Beer?"

"I'm sure I've had it. Don't remember any strong feelings either way."

"Favorite foods? Anything you always wanted to try? Any ideas?" Tony moved on, typing away on his tablet. "Seriously, anything. Like, we get all kinds of exotic fruit for Bruce all the time and import Nat's favorite brand of vodka and stuff."

Bucky decided this was the perfect time to tease Steve. Especially now that they actually were together, even if only kissing had happened yet. "Oh, do you make a point of getting fondue for Steve then?"

Tony looked up. "Fondue for Steve?"

"Yeah, it's his favorite."

Tony huffed. "Figures. Capsicle would make himself suffer in silence rather than ask to have his favorite food at a party even when I ask. What about for you?"

Bucky really couldn't remember much. "Nice cuts of meat? Buttery sugary stuff? Cheese? I lived through the Great Depression and rationing. Let's assume I missed the things we couldn't have much of."

"I'll get so many buttery cookies and steaks and exotic cheeses we'll be eating leftovers for weeks." Tony promised him. "You can thank me by letting me examine your arm later. Now shoo, I have a party to plan."

I know, I disappeared. My only excuse is I have a full time job plus I'm trying to do other things on the side, so life gets crazy easily.