"Alright, buddy," Tony sighed as leaned against the door of Loki's room. "Let's talk. Is it alright if we talk here or do you want to go to Steve's office?"
The teen rolled his eyes. "Here is fine. Come in if you must."
"That's not how this works, Loki. You need to give me permission to come in, remember? This is your space and if you don't want me here, we go somewhere else."
Loki studied the man carefully for a moment, before shaking his head. "I um, I changed my mind. The office would be better."
Tony smiled and nodded, leading the way when Loki stood to follow the man.
"What is my punishment then?" the teen asked once the two were seated comfortably in the oak room.
"We don't start with punishment, kiddo," Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "We start with what you did to land you in a talk."
"I taunted Clint. What's my punishment?"
"And now we talk about why. Why did you say those things, Loki?" the engineer sighed. "Clint is already so self-conscious about how smart he is, you had to have known you were saying things that were hurtful."
"I did. I know I did something bad, so I'm asking what my punishment is, I don't understand why this process is taking so long."
"I need to know why, Loki."
The teen only shrugged in response.
"Do you know why?" Tony studied the boy quietly.
Loki huffed. "What does it matter? I did something wrong, I get punished, right?"
Tony stood from his seat behind the desk and moved to crouch in front of the teen. "It's important to know why, because we need to figure out how to make sure this doesn't happen again, and if there's something bigger going on that we need to address."
"There's nothing that-" Loki stopped and stood up and walked away from the man. "I don't want to do this. Just give me my punishment so I can go."
The man sighed and stood back up, leaning against his desk. "If you're feeling too overwhelmed right now to talk, that's alright, we can take a break and come back. Or, if the problem is you don't know why you did it, then that's okay too, and we'll give you time to think about it before we revisit this conversation. But Loki," Tony stepped up behind the teen and slowly placed a hand on his shoulder. "We are talking about this eventually."
"But why?" Loki spat out, turning abruptly and throwing the hand off of him.
"Because we love you and we want you to be the best person you can be," Tony replied without blinking. "And to do that, you need to learn from your mistakes and understand how to break unhealthy patterns. That means hard discussions sometimes, kiddo."
"Pfft," the teen huffed. "'Love'. You don't even know me," he mumbled under his breath.
"Woah, woah, woah," Tony sputtered immediately. "Do you think Steve and I don't love you? Because, buddy, you couldn't be further from the truth."
"You took me in because of my brother, and I appreciate it, I do, but you can stop pretending now. It'll just be easier on everyone," Loki responded, matter of factly, wrapping his arms around himself in a sort of makeshift hug.
The engineer took a moment to compose himself. "Bud. Steve and I have been fighting to bring you here for four years. Does that sound like we're pretending to care?"
A shrug. "You love Thor."
"Yes, but that has nothing to do with you." Tony took a step forward carefully. "We fought for a wonderful boy who had to live through something unimaginable and needed a home full of love to live in. Someone who needed good parents that would do anything to make him feel safe and happy. That's why we fought so hard, Loki, because you deserve much more than you'd been getting."
The man was now standing in front of the boy once more, and slowly reached up to run the back of his hand down Loki's cheek.
"You're right in that we don't really know you yet, but we don't need to know you to love you. We just need the opportunity, because, Loki, I'm not lying when I say I would die for you in a heartbeat."
The teen snapped his eyes up to meet Tony's.
"Without question." The father continued, reaching up with his other hand to gently card through Loki's dark hair. "I love you so much that when I think about anything happening to you, my chest physically aches."
The two stood in silence as Tony continued to softly pet his son. "Steve and I are the fathers you deserve, Loki. We'll spend the rest of our lives trying to prove it to you."
The teen stepped back quietly, and exited the room.
Tony sighed in the empty room.
One day at a time.
The next time Bucky woke up, he heard Steve speaking again, but not to him.
"A whole program? Tones, are you sure? It's gonna be a lot of work. Okay, that's not too bad then. You're incredible, you know that right? What did I say on our first date, huh? 'If any one man could change the world, it would you.'"
"Tha's my line, ya punk," Bucky slurred, surprising Steve.
"Bucky! Tony, I gotta go, Bucky just woke up. I love you too, I'll be home after visiting hours tonight."
"Who ya talkin to, Stevie?" Bucky asked, watching Steve hang up the phone.
The blond blushed. "Um, that was Tony," he explained, looking at his hands, then through his lashes, continued. "He's my husband."
The two were silent for a moment before Bucky started chuckling lightly. "Why Stevie, you dog! Didn't know dicks did it for ya!"
"Bucky!" Steve chided, face turning red.
Sobering up, Bucky reached for his friend's hand and squeezed at tightly as he could. "Stevie. You are my best friend in the entire world. I have waited for you to rescue me for over a decade. I really don't care who you love, as long as you're happy."
Steve gave the other man a blinding smile and squeezed his hand back just as tightly. "Thank you, Buck. That means a lot."
"Besides," the brunette continued, "there were only men in that camp, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't say I enjoyed a good BJ from a dude."
"Bucky!" Steve laughed, looking as carefree as he did before that fateful FUBAR mission all those years ago.
"Hey, you take what you can get," Bucky laughed along with him. "There's my Stevie. Or, is it Tony's Stevie now?" he teased.
"Both." the man replied, smiling softly.
"Okay, enough of this, what's the damage?" Bucky asked, steeling himself.
"Well," Steve hesitated, ruffling his hair nervously. "All in all, it's not horrible."
"Steve."
"All right," the blond sighed. "Malnutrition, surgery for the misaligned healed fractures, stitches on your back from the..."
"Whip," Bucky supplied. "Continue."
"Right," Steve huffed. "And ugh, you had a pretty bad infection in your arm, Buck."
The man looked curiously at the arm still grasping Steve's.
"No, the other one," Steve supplied. "They had to—"
"It's gone, isn't it?" Bucky interrupted. The other man floundered for an answer. "I knew that it was a possibility, Steve." He comforted his friend with another hand squeeze. "Hell, before you got me, I thought it was gonna kill me. I know what blood poisoning looks like."
"I'm so sorry, Buck, I—"
"No. You saved my life, it doesn't matter what happened in between," Bucky gave his friend a stern look. "And stop blaming yourself. I know how your brain works, and I don't blame you, so you shouldn't either."
Steve hung his head and wiped his eyes with the hand that wasn't clinging to Bucky's remaining hand.
"Tony's started designing a mechanical prosthetic for when the amputation is healed," the blond said, changing the subject. "He insists."
"Designing? Your husband's an engineer?"
"Um, yeah. He's—" Steve hesitated. "You remember Howard Stark? The guy that created our weapons for the unit?"
"The rich CEO of his company? Yeah, what about him?"
"Well, he handed the company over to his son right before we left on that last mission. His son Tony," Steve concluded, studying his friend's reaction.
"So...you're married to a genius CEO billionaire?" Bucky guessed.
"Yup. Got a mansion and everything."
"Damn. He got a brother?"
"Bucky!" Steve laughed again. "You don't even ask if he has a sister?"
Bucky frowned playfully. "How do you know what I'm interested in? You homophobic, Stevie? What if I got converted in those stinkin' cells?"
"The day you tell me you wanna marry a man is the day I'll finally get those nipple piercings you wanted me to get." Steve laughed even harder.
Bucky returned the laugh this time and conceded. "You're right I'd miss pussy too much."
"Bucky!"
"Assholes are just more work! Ya gotta supply yur own slick!"
"Bucky!"