Part 3 – Making Friends

Tony felt weird waiting for Bucky by his locker. If Bucky forgot about him, he could be waiting there all recess, like a loser. So, he kept it open and pretended to be looking for something, occasionally taking a sip from his drink bottle, while keeping an eye out for Bucky.

"Hey, Stark-"

That was definitely not Bucky's voice.

Someone gripped Tony's shoulder tightly and spun him around. The snarling face of Gil Hodge met him. Tony noticed that he had a split lip, and a large swollen bruise on his jaw, Bruce Banner must have hit pretty hard. And more than once? Tony could only remember one hit, but Hodge's face suggested otherwise.

"What the fuck is your problem?" he growled, nostrils flaring in anger.

Tony gulped, quickly remind himself that when in doubt; use sarcasm. "Problem?" he mimicked, flashing a fake, hopefully not nervous-looking, grin. "I didn't know we had a problem, thought you were gonna be my first kiss," he gave a sly wink, for affect.

Hodge's grip tightened, and he managed to look even more pissed-off, his face grew red with anger as he muttered, "You cocky little shit. Wait 'til I take that smile off your face!"

"Oh snuggle-bun, don't be like that," Tony teased further, because really; how much worse could he make it? "We can work this out, you're so sweet to me when you're drunk."

Hodge raised a fist ready to hit him, Tony was about ready to duck, when, luckily, Hodge was pulled back from him. Tony looked up to see the familiar face of Bruce Banner – coming to his rescue for the second time. Hodge briefly tried to wrestle him away, but Bruce's small frame was immensely deceiving, because he easily twisted Hodge's arm around his back.

"What part of leave Stark alone did you not understand!?" he asked in a growl.

Hodge whimpered in pain, managing to throw a glare at Tony. "Fuck you," he snarled back at Banner, "get off me!"

Bruce truly looked ready to hurt him, his body tightened completely in anger. Natasha came up behind him and placed a steady hand on his shoulder. Bruce visibly took a deep breath before shoving Hodge onto the ground. The boy grunted in pain, but quickly got up and stormed away, without looking behind him.

Natasha squeezed his shoulder gently, and muttered something comforting; before turning her attention back to Tony. "You don't have much in the way of survival instincts," she chuckled, raising an eyebrow, "most people don't rile up their tormenters."

"He was gonna hit me anyway," Tony shrugged, "thought I may as well screw with him."

Natasha looked impressed. Bruce looked concerned. "Well, I guess I'll be stepping in between you and those you piss off for some time. It's no different with Natasha."

"Hey! Have you ever had to fight anyone for me?" Natasha argued, "I'm very capable of fighting for myself."

"So am I," Tony insisted, "I can fight perfectly fine, as long as they are my size. It's not fair that everyone is so much older than me."

Natasha crossed her arms, "It's not fair that you're a super-genius. Now c'mon, the rest are waiting. I haven't even eaten yet, I bet Barton's stolen all my food again."

"You can have mine," Bruce offered quietly.

Natasha just smiled at him.

The pair led him out into the courtyard and around the bike shed. Natasha chatted to him idly, about Barky Barnes, Steve Rogers, and a few other names he didn't recognise. Bruce didn't say much, and Tony could tell he was keeping an eye out for Gil Hodge or his cronies.

Hidden comfortably under a thick willow tree, Tony spotted Bucky and Steve wrestling over the contents of a lunch box. Bucky was grinning with success, munching down a muesli bar. He waved Tony over, ignoring Steve trying to grab the food back.

"Hey," he grinned, "I sent Banner and Nat after you, I hope that's okay."

Tony took a seat on the grass next him, pinching the other half of the muesli bar from his hand, "It was very… helpful. Bruce had a few careful words with Hodge."

The smile dropped from Bucky's face, "He was giving you a hard time?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Tony assured him. Bruce made a noise of disagreement.

"Well you're with us now," Steve intercepted, encouraging Bucky to drop the subject, "and just so you know us counts for these people over here," he gestured to the other few stragglers littered across the grass.

"Meet, Sam Wilson," Steve pointed to a young black man, who eyed Tony with amusement.

"Oh look," he grinned, "Buck got a boyfriend."

"At least I don't make out with birds," Bucky countered, picking up the nearest pebble and throwing it at him.

Sam scowled, "That was one time!"

Steve ignored them, instead pointing to a couple who seemed too interested face-sucking to notice what was going on, "That's Thor and Jane. They're busy right now, but when they're not trying to make a baby they're really friendly." Tony recognised Jane from his science classes, she paused from shoving her tongue into her boyfriend's throat long enough to give him a friendly wave, before resuming.

"And that's Clint Barton," he said, pointing to the cocky blonde-headed guy, who was arguing about something with Natasha. Bruce was watching them with amusement. "He's the worst," Steve added dramatically.

"Yeah, yeah," Bucky shrugged, "let's agree to disagree on that one, because I say bird-lover over here is the worst."

"At least I have both my arms," Sam said indignantly.

Tony was shocked for a moment at his words, and he wondered if Bucky was offended. But nobody made comment on it, and Bucky laughed, "At least I didn't make out with a bird."

"You already said that!"

"I feel like that doesn't come up often enough."

"We once saw Sam let his pet falcon eat from his mouth," Steve explained to Tony.

Tony frowned, "Don't falcons eat… other birds?"

"They also eat KFC out of Sam's mouth," Bucky laughed.

Steve shook his head at them, turning his attention back to Tony. Tony recognised the look as protective-best-friend, something he'd seen on Rhodey's face many times over. Tony tried not to be intimidated by the older man's suspicious glare.

"So… Stark. As in Stark Industries?"

"Yeah…"

"As in the people who made Bucky's arm?"

"Yeah, well, there's a chance I could have even worked on Bucky's arms," he said half-jokingly.

Bucky chimed in, "Really?" he seemed genuinely, pleasantly surprised.

"Do you work on a lot of metal limbs?" Steve asked, eyes somewhat hopeful.

"Yeah, well my dad has a whole range now, and I'm always in the workshop. I mean, I was always in the work shop, back in New York. To be honest, mostly we do metal hips."

"You don't mind my arm?" Bucky asked quietly, he seemed nervous. It suddenly clicked in Tony's head that Bucky's disability might be an issue for newcomers.

"Of course not. Hell, I probably know more about it than you do," Tony smiled at him sincerely.

Bucky grinned at him, briefly letting the metal of his arm touch Tony's side. "Well awesome, if anything goes wrong, I'll bring it straight to you."

Steve gave them both a knowing smile, but said nothing. Tony wondered if he was thinking about the fact that both he and Bucky were gay, if maybe the protective-best-friend look had something to do with Steve considering Tony a potential romantic partner for Bucky.

That excited him a little, Bucky was undeniably attractive, especially with his rebel-without-a-cause look, sultry eyes, and sexy long hair. But he was also being incredibly nice, especially to Tony for no obvious reason. Unless the reason was Bucky being interested in him, which was unlikely, but a fantasy that Tony was happy to let himself indulge in.