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Chapter 14: Trustworthy

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"Should we have Jarvis wake him up or something? He's been sleeping for a while," Bruce noted worriedly after finishing his eggs and toast.

Tony glanced over at the empty spot at the table where they had laid out Bucky's breakfast. "Jarvis, could you wake Barnes up and tell him to get his ass to breakfast?"

"He's already awake and showered, sir. He's on his way to you right now."

Just as Jarvis finished speaking, the two scientists watched as the younger man waltzed in almost timidly looked at the place at the table that was reserved for him and stood there awkwardly until Bruce motioned for him to sit down. Once he did, Tony and Bruce exchanged nervous glances at each other.

"How'd you sleep, Bucky?" Bruce asked him gently.

Bucky shrugged and took a small bite of his toast, glancing at the orange juice that was in front of him. He was quiet for a bit, his face in a permanent look of confusion. He took a shaky breath. "W-Who's that guy, from yesterday? Are… you two friends with him?"

Bruce opened his mouth to answer but Tony interrupted him. "Friend is a relative term."

His companion sighed and scolded Tony with his eyes before he looked over at the soldier, who looked to be nothing more than a shy, frightened child right now instead of a killing machine. "Yes, we're friends with him, most of the time. Steve Rogers is… a good man. You two used to be best friends in the war, before Hydra took you, and before he was frozen and turned into a super-soldier."

Bucky took in this information and rested his good arm on the table. "Oh. W-Where is he now?"

Bruce glanced over at Tony for aid.

"He's gone, pal. He… had a weak moment, and… he split," Tony put in.

Bucky's eyes seemed to lose the light in them now as guilt replaced them. "That was my fault he left," he replied, more of a statement than a question. "I made him mad by not being able to remember him."

Banner shook his head.

"He'll be back, Bucky. He always comes back. You didn't make him mad. Not remembering is something that can't be helped but we're hoping that your memory loss is only temporary. We'll take care of you, okay?"

Bucky reluctantly nodded before he took another bite of his toast. The three men sat in silence as he ate and when he was finished, Bruce took their empty places over to the dishwasher and placed them inside. Tony looked over at Bucky now and he was met with his eyes.

"What do you want to do today? Want to help me in the lab?"

"Tony, do you really think that's a good idea? He's still healing," Bruce remarked from the kitchen as he filled three mugs full of coffee and shots of creamer before adding sugar to Tony's cup and stirring.

"He won't be doing anything too strenuous. Nothing he can't handle, just some light lifting," Tony shrugged casually, looking over at Bucky when Bruce no longer objected. "What do you say? It'll give us some father/son time."

Bruce smirked a bit now as he brought all their coffees over to the table. "I thought you said Jarvis was more of a son to you than him?"

Tony glanced over at Bucky who seemed to be spacing out now and then looked back at Bruce with a small smirk of his own. "He's my adopted son."

"I can't see you as a father, Tony…"

Tony chuckled. "Well, then you should probably get your eyes checked out. It's totally happening –"

" – Actually I'd be his father, right?" Bucky suddenly interrupted. Tony and Bruce both turned to look over at him. "I mean, technically, if I was in World War Two, then… I'm older than he is, right?"

Tony's chuckle turned into full-blown laughter now and he was still joined by Bruce.

Banner nodded. "Yeah, Bucky, that's right. You'd be Tony's adoptive father then, in that case."

"Come on, old man. Let's go do some work," Tony stood up from the table.

Bruce cleared his throat. "Can I talk to you for a minute before I don't see you for most of the day?"

Tony nodded and the turned to Bucky. "You know where it is. Go down there and don't touch anything and I'll be down in a minute, all right?" He gave an obedient nod now and then glanced over at Bruce before he disappeared down into the lab to give Tony and him some privacy.

When he was gone, Tony looked over at Bruce. "What's up?"

Uneasiness filled the eyes of his partner now. "You're isolating, Tony. Are you feeling depressed again? Or anxious?"

Tony chewed on his lip and searched Bruce's face. "Just the anxiety. Cap's not here anymore so I'm watching my apparently surrogate father and I'm still feeling a tad nervous about his heavy duty arm that could snap our necks in a second, so yeah… just feeling a bit anxious about all that."

"He's coming back, Tony. He's not going to just leave Bucky here forever."

"I know." Tony nodded. "I know that, but the point is, that he did leave him here and we're glorified babysitters to a mass murderer, so… there's that. Anyway, he's waiting for m, but yes, I'm isolating for now. This is how I deal with situations that make me feel icky. Just… let me spend some time with my suits and my science, and I'll be good to go again later, okay?"

Bruce sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine. I think it's good you're spending time with him anyway. The less time you're both alone, the better. Go have fun."

"Yes, Dad," Tony joked and then chuckled. "If he's my father, and you're my father… then I'm your child and you two must be married. That's fantastic. I have a big green angry rage monster and a homicidal maniac for fathers."

Bruce chuckled and playfully pushed Tony towards his lab. "Get out of here, son!"

Tony smiled brightly. "That makes our relationship not only ten times weirder, but illegal."

"You're… absolutely disgusting. Go, he's waiting!"

Stark closed the door behind him as he went downstairs to his lab where Bucky was waiting.

He coughed to let the man know that he was down here, just in case, and then headed over to his large computerized desktop. He thought about what he was going to work on. He was almost afraid to do suits after Hydra had hacked into them before. He then looked over at Bucky who was staring at him and then got an idea.

"Hey, come over here, old man."

Bucky stood up and walked over to where he was, his eyes looking eager.

Tony reached out to grab Bucky's arm and the other man hesitated before he took a step back quickly. "Hey, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. Ironically, I'm trying to help you." Bucky looked warily at him before he stepped towards Tony again. "Okay, just… place your metal arm up here on the table."

Barnes slowly obeyed and when his arm was on the table, he watched in fascination as Tony took two fingers and encircled the area from Bucky's shoulder to his fingertips. "Jarvis, can you give me the specs about the prosthetic arm?"

"The material appears to be some type of heavy metal, sir. Weight, forty-eight pounds. What would you like me to do with this information?"

Tony thought for a moment and looked at Bucky who looked up at the voice of a being he couldn't see. He looked so innocent… "Save it, keep it secure from any hacks, and help me figure out a way we can make the metal lighter."

"I've just finished doing the first two things, Mr. Stark. In order to complete the third task, we will need to create a new arm with a new metal. Might I suggest titanium alloy? It would be about ninety-nine point eight percent lighter than the metal Mr. Barnes is currently wearing," Jarvis suggested.

"What do you think, Buck?" He asked, stealing Steve's nickname for him and trying it out on his tongue. "Are you interesting in not having to lug that heavy stone around everywhere? Ready for some flexibility?"

The man looked over at him upon hearing the nickname before he nodded. "Yes."

Tony nodded now and half smiled at him. "Good. It's settled then. J, can you start creating the blueprints for Barnes' new arm?"

"Certainly, sir. Creating the measurements and the new arm will take a few hours. Is that all right?"

"Sure, we have time."

Bucky ran his hand down his metal arm now and lifted it up and down, lost in thought. Tony watched him do this and ran a hand through his hair. "You sure you want this, a new arm?"

"Will… I still be able to fight with the new one?"

The question was something that Stark hadn't been thinking about. It occurred to him now that the winter soldier's metal arm was one of his main weapons that he had, most of the weight behind his fighting. It did damage to many people every time he lifted his shoulder and hit someone. He hadn't thought how it would affect Barnes' fighting once the new one was put on. It might work out in the Avengers' favor but as far as helping them fight the bad guys, it might be an issue.

Tony took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm going to talk to Bruce about that and see what he says. We'll do what we can to make it work for you, all right?"

Bucky nodded in understanding and then he bit his lip. "Why are you doing this for me? I'm… a complete mess right now. I can't even tell which way is up. Is this even a good idea? I mean," Bucky rambled, "there must be more important things for you to be working on."

Tony sat down behind the desktop and looked at him. "I'm doing this because… I know what it feels like to be a wreck mentally, and not have the right people there to help you. I build things because of my anxiety; that's how I cope with things, for better or worse. I want to build this arm for you because it's going to help me, and hopefully… it will help you too."

"Sir, Clint Barton has entered the building and is heading towards you."

Tony straightened now. "Where's Dr. Banner?"

"He's currently talking to Mr. Barton outside the door."

Bucky tensed now and he looked at Tony. "Who is he?"

Just as he finished asking that, Tony heard louder voices and saw Hawkeye coming down the stairs in their direction and then suddenly take out an arrow and draw it onto his bow before taking aim at Bucky. Tony jumped out of his seat and hurried in front of the man, who looked alarmed by Clint's sudden presence.

"Hey! No! Stand down, Barton!" Tony yelled, his body blocking Bucky from the chest down, afraid to take his eyes off the other Avenger.

"What's he doing here, Stark?"

"It's a long story," Bruce cut in now, coming down the stairs to try and help the situation. "If you sit down, we can explain it to you."

"Where's the Cap?" Hawkeye still had his bow drawn.

"That's part of the story. Just sit down, Clint…"

"No. There's no reason for this maniac to be in here! Get him out of here and then we'll talk!"

Bucky suddenly shoved Tony out of the way nonchalantly but not hard enough to actually make him fall down, and then stood directly in front of the slightly shorter man, his fear for his caretaker being shot overwhelming his fear of being shot himself. "You want to kill me? Then do it."

"Bucky…" Tony spoke warningly. "Get away from him…"

Clint narrowed his eyes at the winter soldier and the room was thick with tension as everyone watched him. Tony lifted his arm out to the side behind him and in half a second, the plating for his wrist and the repulsor piece flew and attached to his forearm and hand. He didn't waste any time in aiming his hand at Clint and shooting the repulsor towards him.

The other man flew back and the arrow shot upwards, hitting one of the overhead lights and breaking it, causing the whole room to dim. He jumped on top of him now and used his weight and muscles to pin Hawkeye to the floor. He aimed his hand again at him but didn't fire this time; he just held it where the other man could see it.

"Don't make me do that from this close, Barton. It won't feel good."

"Get off of me!" Clint growled.

"Are you going to leave our new friend alone?"

There was a pause and finally a sigh of resignation. "If he leaves me alone, yeah. Now get off, Stark!" When Tony got off of him and took off his repulsor equipment, Barton spoke again. "One of you better start explaining real quickly."

Tony stood up now and Bruce walked over to Bucky but he was staring down the fellow Avenger who looked as tired and worn out as Stark felt. He motioned for the three men to follow him upstairs. If Barton was going to react again, he didn't want him to do it around expensive and possibly dangerous lab equipment. Once he led the men into the living room, he sighed and then ran both his hands through his hair.

Bucky and Bruce both made themselves comfortable on the couch, side by side, but Clint remained standing.

"Have a seat, Legolas. You're making me nervous."

Clint shook his head and clenched his jaw at the nickname. "I think I want to stand for this conversation. Quit stalling. Explain."

Tony sighed and looked over at Bruce for support, who gave him an encouraging smile and nodded at him, as if to say "you can do this." It wasn't going to make a whole lot of sense, and they also couldn't afford Hawkeye to assassinate the assassin himself. He felt the need to prelude his speech.

"Okay, well… I haven't really been feeling a hundred percent or anything and I was making these suits to take my mind off of things. I didn't know what was going on, but apparently Steve had brought Barnes here and kept him in one of the suites. Hydra hacked my suits and they started to attempt to kill all of us, and that's how I found out BB was staying with us," Tony explained, trying to keep his voice even.

Clint looked over at Bucky now, who looked like he was somewhere else. His face didn't soften. "Is that it?"

"No," Tony answered quickly. "There was a fire in a building full of women and children, Steve, Bruce, Barnes, and myself all went over there and saved who we… who we could, and… I had to save the kid. He fell through a floor, burned his back, I got him, flew him back here. Bruce's did some surgery on him, did some skin grafts, Bucky had a brainwash attack and momentarily flipped out. Now he can't remember Steve or their history together. Steve turned into a woman and left because he was hurt, and… then you showed up."

Clint looked like he was having difficulty absorbing all this information. "Wait, so Rogers left, just like that? I find it hard to believe he'd just leave him here," he pointed to Bucky who looked up at him now.

Tony shrugged and once he did that, Clint looked over at Bruce who also shrugged and then nodded to let him know that his companion was telling the truth. Finally, Stark spoke. "He said he couldn't take Bucky not remembering him and up and left. I have no idea where he went."

"He can't stay here, Stark!" Hawkeye suddenly yelled, walking almost threatening towards him.

Tony cocked his head to the side challengingly. "What, are you going to kick him out of the house?"

"If I have to! It's too dangerous having him live here! He could snap again!"

As Clint continued to yell and come up with excuses, Tony could feel his anxiety coming back as well as anger of his own. "He could, but in case you have trouble counting, there are three of us and one of him. I'm pretty sure we could take him down if we had to!"

Barton looked like he was shaking with frustration. "We need more of us! All we have is a bow and arrow, a high-powered suit, and a Hulk who can't even Hulk out in this building! He could crush your hand with his metal arm before you even have the chance to use your repulsors. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into…"

"Stop talking like he's not even here, Barton! What has got your panties all in a bundle anyway? Are you jealous that you're not the center of attention or is it just because you were hoping to see Romanov instead of Barnes? Sorry, pal... you can't pick and choose your assassins –"

It was at that moment when Hawkeye punched Tony hard, re-breaking his lip where it had broken the previous day. The minute he did it, he almost looked sorry. Tony licked his lip, tasting the metallic on his tongue and shook his head, knowing he had deserved that. He looked up at Clint.

"You're not kicking him out of here and I'm going to tell you why. Firstly, because this is my place, and I can pick and choose who I don't want in here. Secondly, Hydra's still alive and looking for him, and the minute he steps foot out that door, he had a target on his back. Thirdly, if you're going to kick him out, you're going to have to go through me first," Tony spoke, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Hawkeye just shook his head. Tony didn't want to wait around for a reply. He looked over at Bruce before he headed upstairs. He slammed the door and the minute he did it, he knew it looked juvenile but he couldn't help it; he was feeling anxious and angry and protective and it felt like too much. He felt like he was going to implode.

He closed his eyes, trying to will the oncoming storm away but he knew he was around inside of it. He couldn't stop it. Footsteps suddenly came through the door now and he shook his head quickly. "I-I'm… not going… to apologize for that, B-Banner. Just get o-out…"

When the footsteps didn't move, he looked up and opened his eyes to see Bucky. He tensed up, his eyes wide as he wondered what the winter soldier was about to do. For a cold moment, Stark genuinely though that the man might hurt him too but instead, he just opened his mouth to speak, his eyes laced with mild confusion.

"What's happening to you?"

His voice wasn't exactly cold, but it wasn't all that friendly either.

Tony felt a wave of dizziness hit him as he struggled to fight again his breathing. He looked back down and got on his hands and knees, thinking maybe it would help not to look at him. "I-I'm… having a-an… a-anxiety attack…"

Bucky tensed before he looked around the room unsurely and then sighed. "What should I do?"

Tony was going to say 'get Bruce,' but then decided against it. He didn't think it was a good idea to leave the soldier alone with an angry Hawkeye under no supervision. Tony started doing his breathing exercises to calm himself down. "W-Water… bathroom…"

Bucky walked into the bathroom and grabbed the glass on the sink before filling it and then handing down to Tony. He sipped it, focusing on swallowing the water. The two men were silent for at least ten minutes before Tony's attack subsided a bit and he felt like he could relax a little. He fell against the wall now and breathed a sigh of relief, his chest aching from breathing so hard.

He looked up at Bucky who was looking like a lost, uncomfortable child.

"My staying here is causing you problems with you and your friends," Bucky stated, matter-of-factly. "What should I do?"

Tony searched the man's eyes. "Stay here, of course… Just ignore Barton. He just needs to get used to you being here and then he'll come around. He never likes anyone he's surprised to see. If he gives you a hard time, just tell me or Dr. Banner and we'll take care of it."

Bucky nodded once and then swallowed hard, as if he was nervous about something. He looked down at Tony but not with angry eyes. "Are you serious, about fixing my arm?"

The question made Stark focus his attention on him and he pushed himself up so he was face to face (or more so chest to face) with the younger looking man. He nodded. "Yes, I am serious about fixing your arm. I think the weight of it may be connected to Hydra and your hijackings that are happening to you too, so maybe fixing the weight of it will help with that."

"Why do you want to help me? After everything I did?"

Stark sighed heavily now. "Don't question it, all right? I just… believe in giving people more than second chances. You could've let those people burn in that building before but you went in there and almost sacrificed your life for theirs. You can't help the fact the on/off switch in your head is broken beyond repair. You're proving yourself trustworthy. You were going to take Hawkeye's arrow for me. Like I said, trustworthy."

Bucky appeared to understand as he nodded. "You should sleep. You look exhausted."

"Yeah… you have no idea." Tony sat on the bed and then rubbed his sore eyes. He really did need sleep. He glanced over at bedside table drawer and then leaned over to open it.

Bruce had left his sleeping pills inside.

He looked up at Bucky. "I'm going to catch a few winks. Do you think you can behave yourself with Barton while I'm asleep?" When the other man gave him a playful glare before he nodded, Tony swallowed a couple of the sleeping pills with his leftover water and set the empty glass on the table as he lay down on the bed.

"C-Can I go now?"

It nearly broke Tony's heart to hear him ask for permission to leave a room. "Yeah, just… behave and ignore any words that happen to come out of the eagle's mouth."

He left the room, leaving Tony to his thoughts until his breathing slowed and he was finally able to close his eyes again, soon floating blissfully in a dreamless sleep.