Tony had done a very good job at avoiding talking about that night. Then two things happened.
The first is Clint pointed out how long Tony's hair was getting; it was longer than Bucky's now. He jokingly mocked him about how he was trying to look more like Bucky, at the sacrifice of his chic looks. Of course, he laughed at it and started going back and forth with him. Then Steve said he looked like a girl. Later, instead of cutting it all off, he asked Bucky what he thought.
"Yes, I noticed. I think you look nice." Bucky assured him, "Come here."
Tony walked over to Bucky and sat between his legs like he'd motioned and felt Bucky begin to play in his hair. Tony did that sometimes when they were cuddling, but Bucky had never played in Tony's.
"What are you doing?" Tony asked, laughing a bit. It was hard not to notice that he sounded a bit uneasy; Tony almost always sounded a bit uneasy when he let his guard down, especially around Bucky.
"Just give me a second. I'm braiding it. A, B or C?"
"What?" his boyfriend scoffed, chuckling a bit.
"A, B, or C?"
"B."
"B it is," Bucky told him and continued to braid his boyfriend's hair. After a good 5 minutes, Bucky had finished and shoved Tony up, telling him to go get a good look at it in the bathroom mirror. The soft, but beaming smile that crossed his face was hard to miss. Bucky had experience with hair because of his younger sisters and had given Tony a beautiful, perfectly done "pull through" braid. "I told you you'd love it."
The next day he got several compliments from his friends and jokes from Clint. Steve didn't even say a word (it was because Natasha was glaring at him, but still).
The second thing that happened is that one day when Clint was snooping, he found a dress in Tony's closet. Now, he may tease Tony and joke around with him a lot, but he knew which situations to be careful about. So as Halloween came around, Clint dared Tony to dress in drag for 10 dollars. After a very long conversation that included Clint saying that he was basically Rapunzel and should dress up as her, Bruce pointing out that nothing was wrong with cross dressing, and comic book suggestions that included Elektra, the original Mystique, and Morgan le Fay. He finally opted for Carol Marcus, the brilliant physicist from Star Trek.
On Holloween night, the group of friends had plans to meet at Steve and Bucky's apartment before going. Steve had left the apartment to pick something up for his costume, a little before Tony showed up early. He changed in the bathroom before going into Bucky's room to show him. The costume was from the 2009 version of Star Trek and fit perfectly, and Tony naturally had very little hair, so he didn't need to shave.
"See? I told you you'd look good." Bucky smiled.
"Yeah?" Tony laughed, unsure.
"Yeah." Bucky smiled and leaned forward to kiss Tony. As they were making out, Bucky lifted him up and Tony wrapped his legs around him. Bucky carried him over to the dresser and set him down, where they continued. Meanwhile, their friends had begun to pile into the apartment and were waiting for them to come out.
"Calm down, Steve. The set time was 9 sharp. It's only 8:57, and they always come right on time." Bruce said.
"Yeah. They're probably just fixing each other's costumes." Clint smirked.
"Clint." Natasha scolded half-heartedly, "Leave it. They have another minute." When the clock hit 9, Steve got up,
"I'm getting them. We'll be late." Ignoring his friends' calls of protest, he went down the hall and opened Bucky's door. As soon as the door opened, Tony tried to shove Bucky away and Bucky resisted.
"Bucky! Stop, someone is in here." Tony giggled, still pushing Bucky away. When he finally pulled away, they saw that it was Steve and Tony immediately jumped down and attempted to control his breathing. Steve wasn't as much homophobic and he was Tonyphobic, but he had a tendency to make Tony feel uncomfortable about being gay.
"I just wanted to let you know that it's past 9." Steve cleared his throat and stared at them as the two men fixed their clothing.
"Yeah. Thanks, Steve. We'll be right out." Bucky told him, awkwardly fixing his pants.
"That's not what you're really wearing, is it Anthony?" Steve asked in an innocent enough voice that did nothing to hide the malice behind the question. Bucky's shock and anger over this were painted across his usually emotionless face. Ignoring the beginning of a shoddy self-correction from Steve, Bucky turned to Tony to say something comforting, but Tony stopped him,
"I'm going to go ahead and change, okay? Can you leave the room?" Tony was visibly shaking, so Bucky complied. He calmly followed Steve out of the room and closed the door before grabbing Steve roughly with his prosthetic arm and dragging him out of the apartment, past their friends. For context, Bucky had a complex relationship with his arm and usually preferred not to grab people with it Something about a glitch that it used to have and him nearly breaking someone's arm by accident.
"Woah. What happened there?" Clint grimaced. A few moments later, Tony emerged from Bucky's bedroom in a male, Star Trek engineering costume and somehow looked green, red, and pale all at the same time, "Oh, come on?! What happened to the dress?"
"Tony?" Bruce tried tentatively, when he didn't answer. Tony was trembling like a Chihuahua and he was barely in control of his breathing.
"I changed my mind. Let's go." Tony spat.
"What happened in there?" Clint asked, carefully this time.
"Steve caught us making out... well eh, a little more than making out." Then Tony noticed that the two men were missing, "Where are Buck and Steve?"
"Uh-" Before Clint could say anything, Bucky walked back into the apartment. His hand was lightly tinted red and he wore a nasty scowl on his face,
"Steve wanted me to tell you guys that something came up and he can't go to the party with us." Tony was pretty sure that he heard Clint mutter "Fucking finally", but no one else said anything.