Chapter 10
Tony woke up with a massive headache and his body hurt all over. He didn’t really remember much either, except the part where he threw up on Bucky, which, he supposed, wasn’t the most embarrassing thing he’s ever done drunk. Steve notices right away and because he is a very mean person he pulls the pillow Tony had shoved over his head away, “you have some explaining to do,” he says. Tony groans and shudders, curling into a tight ball and ignoring Steve at all costs, he had a hangover and that meant avoiding anything and everything until further notice. Steve pulls his blankets off and he swore Steve had purposefully turned the temperature down so Tony would get colder faster so he’d talk and get his blankets back.
“I got drunk and did something dumb, explanation over, give me my blankies,” he mumbles, face turned into the mattress while he grabs at the general space he thinks Steve has taken his blankets to.
He latches onto something and throws it over himself, jumping and throwing it back off when he realized it was freezing. “What the fuck was that?” he asks, shivering and trying to blink against the light streaming through his large windows. Why the hell did he even have those? Why would he do that to himself? “JARVIS pull the fucking blinds or something, damn,” he says, throwing his arm over his eyes and flopping back against the bed.
“That was a towel I stuck in the freezer for two hours, consider it pay back for throwing up on me,” Bucky says, sounding irritated with Tony. Well, he supposed he’d be upset if Bucky threw up on him too, but he would start throwing cold towels at people. That was just mean.
“JARVIS, the blinds,” Tony snaps, irritated with the AI’s slow response time
“Directive denied,” JARVIS tells him.
Tony throws his arm off his face, “excuse you? Pull the fucking blinds JARVIS,” he tells the AI, annoyed that JARVIS has decided to not follow his orders.
“It appears Steve has hacked my system and instructed me to ignore your orders until you talk to him,” JARVIS explains.
“Then unhack yourself, Damnit, Steve can’t be that good,” he says, curling into a ball facing opposite to the windows to avoid any direct light.
“I agree with my new directives, they are for the best, so I have decided not to change them,” JARVIS says.
Tony glares at the ceiling, “you’re fucking kidding me right?” he asks.
“I’m afraid not, sir,” Jarvis says, sounding regretful. He should probably look into JARVIS’s ability to accurately reflect emotions though voice inflections.
“I think it’s creepy that your wall voice has opinions,” Bucky says, giving one of JARVIS’s speakers a suspicious glare.
Steve crosses his arms, looking like a disappointed grandpa, “talk,” he tells Tony. He holds out for as long as he can but he’s a baby and he was cold and he wanted his blankets back so he tells Steve he’ll talk once he gets his bedding back. Steve complies and gives Tony his pillow and blanket, Tony takes his time wrapping himself up in the blankets and getting himself comfortable just to be an ass.
“Is anyone else concerned about the creepy wall voice?” Bucky asks, crawling onto the bed and stealing the section of blanket Tony had no yet wrapped himself in. He glares at Bucky but it seems to have little effect aside from Bucky pulling more blankets towards him.
“JARVIS is fine,” Tony tells him. He’s programmed JARVIS to not want to take over the world because humans were a mess and he, a complex computer code, should not want to bother.
“Now what’s going on?” Steve asks, sitting beside the cocooned mess that was Tony, draping his arm around him. Tony explains Howard’s office visit, some of his crap childhood, Selene’s explanation of what was going on, probably permanently ruining Grant’s perception of Howard.
“I guess it was just too much,” he says, leaning into Steve and yawning.
“That isn’t all,” Bucky says matter-of-factly, like he actually knew anything about Tony’s thought process. Tony glares at him so he knows that Tony does not agree with him.
“When we first met you said you were worried about your boyfriend because his ex was back in town, I’m the ex and you clearly haven’t gotten over your worries,” he says and frowns, “but why would you take me in if you thought I was going to cause relationship problems for you?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
Tony snorts, “I’m not going to punish you by leaving you with S.H.I.E.L.D just because you had the audacity to date Steve before either one of you even knew I was going to be a thing. That’s pretty shitty,” he says. Besides, he did keep Steve mostly in the dark for two weeks, which was crappy enough.
“Tony just because I loved Bucky then doesn’t mean I still love him, we’re both totally different people,” he says
“Hey!” Bucky says, looking offended.
“What? It isn’t like it’s not true, and it isn’t like I don’t care about you, I do, but I hardly know you and you don’t know me at all. Neither one of us are the people that fell in love,” Steve says, shrugging.
“I know things about you,” Bucky protests, “your favourite colour is pink and if you never have to eat potatoes again you’d cry tears of joy because you hate them.”
Tony snickers, “you like pink? And who doesn’t like potatoes, I might have to kick you out of that,” he says.
Steve rolls his eyes, “when I was kid pink was considered a masculine colour, and I also ate an unfortunate amount of potatoes as a teen so now I can’t stand them,” he says.
“But there are so many forms of potatoes!” Tony says.
“And they all taste like shit,” Steve says, wrinkling his nose.
“I have never been so offended in my entire life. First of all how dare you,” Tony says, offended on behalf of potatoes everywhere.
“Oh my god Tony, potatoes aren’t even sentient, why do you care?” Steve asks, raising an eyebrow.
“I care because someone has to defend the innocent potatoes!” he says dramatically, regretting his decision to trap his arms. This was worthy of some dramatic hand gestures and now he was stuck looking like a blanket cocoon with a head.
“I don’t know why you’re complaining about my taste, Bucky eats literal garbage,” he says.
“That was one time,” Bucky mumbles from behind him, “and it wasn’t like it was a foreign garbage, it was full of things I know and love,” he says.
Tony looks over his shoulder at Bucky, “honey no, that’s not right. Garbage food isn’t okay to eat ever, foreign or no.”
“I can’t believe I have to explain to grown adults that eating out of the garbage and drinking away your problems are things that are not okay to do,” Steve says, sighing.
“I was not drinking my problems away,” Tony says, “I knew full well my problems weren’t going anywhere, I just wanted to be numb for a little while. So more like I wanted to avoid my problems, not actually run from them,” he rationalizes.
“Garbage food is much less messed up than that,” Bucky says mumbles into the mattress.
“Is not,” Tony says, “I have standards, you don’t even have taste buds.”
“For god sakes, neither one of you are completely healthy,” Steve says, “now that we have established that Howard was an awful parent, Tony has some misplaced jealousy, and literally no one here is without some sort of mental health issue can we actually talk about it so we can move past it?” he asks.
“No,” Tony and Bucky mumble together.
*
Tony had expected Howard to give up after his office visit went horribly wrong but once again he under estimated him. He gets calls from unknown number all the time, usually from journalists or groupies, it depended. He answered, fully prepared to tell whomever it was to fuck off but Howard caught him off guard. “Selene wiped Grant’s memory of you. I think maybe she’s tried to take back my memories too but it isn’t working?” he blurts out.
“How did you get my number?” he asks, uninterested in Howard’s plight.
“I… that’s what you care about right now?” he asks, obviously surprised.
“Look, not that I usually agree with taking people’s memories away without their express permission but in this case I’m willing to make an exception, it wasn’t like I was all that nice to Grant and I probably permanently altered the way he looked at you both as a person and a parent. It’s probably a good thing that he doesn’t remember,” Tony says, Howard was a different person now; he understood that, Grant shouldn’t have to deal with Tony’s Howard baggage too.
“I… no, absolutely not, I don’t care if he knows about the person I used to be, you did nothing but tell the truth, Grant shouldn’t have to be punished for that,” he says, “and besides, are you not at all worried about your siblings? I get you don’t care about me, god knows I deserve it, but Grant and Maria haven’t done anything wrong, shouldn’t you care about them?” he asks.
Tony rolls his eyes, “no? Not to be heartless but a fickle connection of shared genes doesn’t create an everlasting and instant bond with a person and even if it did it’s still not my responsibility to keep them safe, it’s yours and Selene’s. Clearly Selene isn’t up for the job so it’s your responsibility now, not mine, like what the hell do you expect me to do?” he asks logically. Howard always did expect him to have a solution to everything. Frankly didn’t see a way to help anyways, it wasn’t as if Selene was an idiot, she’d figure out if he housed them in the tower, and she was smart enough to track them down elsewhere. There goes any help he could offer.
“I don’t know, you were the first person I thought of,” he says and Tony hears something metal hit the ground behind him and he turns around.
“Well Howard I hate to break it to you but you’re not the only one who thought of me first,” he says, watching Selene advance on him with purpose. JARVIS had better be able to find out how she got in so he can fix it, people couldn’t just walk in here, they might walk in on lab sex.
“What’s that supposed to… oh, Tony you need to get out of there-” he probably continued to talk but Selene totally snatched his phone and hung up on him.
“Rude,” Tony says flippantly.
Selene rolls her eyes and throw his phone on his desk, which, excuse her, that was a very expensive piece of tech, it was custom made! He did not want to make himself another one. “I knew I shouldn’t have let him come back here, of course you had to ruin it all,” she snaps, clearly pissed at him.
He snorts, “oh yeah, I brought Howard back to live, probably via murdering someone else, and in the process I stole all his memories and moved him out of state with the intent on never letting him know about the life he left behind. Wow! I have no memory of this, pun intended,” he says. If she wanted to get bitchy with him he’d dish it as good as he got it. Probably better, he always did excel in being an asshole.
“Oh please, if there was anything Howard was right about it was that you weren’t worth his time. We’ve been here for a week and you’ve managed to ruin everything,” she snaps at him.
Maybe he would have believed that a few months ago but he didn’t really believe that now, “no, if there was anything Howard was wrong about it was that I wasn’t worth anything. Howard Stark was a brilliant man and a talented inventor, not many people would be able to do the job he did at Stark Industries and not only did I do just fine, but I excelled and made breakthroughs in areas he wouldn’t have even considered. I am so much more than he ever even thought I could be,” mostly because Howard had thought of him only as a failure, “and if your evil plan fell apart it isn’t because I had the audacity to exist, it’s because you did something wrong and Howard found out the truth. You were the one who made all this possible by fucking with nature; I had nothing to do with it. Now do me a favour, if you’re going to try and humiliate me by insinuating that I deserved to be abused as a child I suggest you cut to the fucking chase and wipe my memory,” he snaps, throwing his hands up, he was so sick of being stuck in Howard’s fucking shadow. He was more than what his father had tried to make him.
“Oh please, you’ve always been a selfish little prick, always partying and never really caring about anything,” she snaps, taking another step forward.
“Oh sure, because I did my damnedest to be numb to all the shit I had to deal with both as a kid and as an adult I’m the problem, I’m a selfish guy yeah, but not because I drink too much. Do you even know anything about me or do you just read tabloids? Because I can inform you I am more than the five things people like to write about me,” he says, rolling his eyes. He fucking hated clueless people who took the word of media as truth, half the time there wasn’t even a shred of truth in there.
“I don’t need the fucking tabloids, I’ve seen all of Howard’s memories, I know everything about you-” she starts but Tony cuts her off.
“Oh my god, you trust Howard’s memories of me to be true? They guy thought it was okay to abuse his child and you’re honestly going to assume anything he thought about me was right? What the hell kind of idiot are you? Literally what encouraged you to think Howard Stark was a reliable source of information on me?” He shakes his head; he couldn’t believe this was actually happening right now. He’s had some ridiculous shit happen to him in the past but this had to take the fucking cake.
“Oh fuck it,” she snaps and shoves him back into his desk. He kind of regretted the roll-y chair now, that woman was strong and apparently his wheels were well greased. He flails, catching himself against the edge of his desk before he went through it, barely managing to save one of his monitors from falling overboard. “It might be easier to wipe someone’s memory when they’re feeling vulnerable but I don’t have time for this, you need to go,” she says, quickly closing the distance between them.
“Are you going to tell me your evil plan first? If this was a book or a movie you’d have to explain your evil plan,” he says causally.
“Shut up,” she says, “you aren’t an idiot, you know damn well I’m taking your memories so I can get my life back, I’ll deal with Howard later,” she mumbles.
“Yeah, you probably can’t erase his memory because,” she wraps her hand around his neck and squeezes, “excuse you,” he squeaks out, “rude.”
The hand not currently strangling the life out of him starts to glow and he rolls his eyes, glowing hands were just needlessly dramatic. “You’re brave, I’ll give you that, most people start crying right about now,” she says and she starts brining her hand closer but rather slowly. He squints at it, why not just hurry it up and get it over with? Like did she need a second to power up? What was going on?
He gets a little nervous when her hand is only a few inches or so away from his head but he doesn’t flinch, he was kind of curious as to how the was going to go even I he wouldn’t actually remember it. “No!” Tony hears and Bucky appears, seemingly out of nowhere, and grabs Selene’s glowing hand and sticking it to his own head. Tony takes a shuddering breath and Selene starts to scream. Bucky looks blank, emotionless, and Tony springs to action, flinging himself out of his chair and knocking Selene over and away from Bucky.
He takes another few breaths in an attempt to recover himself so he could check on Bucky. God, hadn’t that poor bastard been through enough, did he really need this too? “Are you okay?” Bucky asks, kneeling beside him.
Tony frowns, “you remember who I am?” he asks.
Bucky looks confused, “is there a reason why I shouldn’t?” he asks
“Selene,” Tony gestures to the whimpering woman behind him, “she was going to take my memories, I’m assuming she took some of yours,” he says. If Bucky’s face was anything to go by her power always worked in tandem with her healing because Bucky looked younger, not by much, but he looked less tired and less traumatized.
“I don’t feel any different,” Bucky says, “I don’t think it worked.”
Tony shakes his head, “yes it did, but your memories are so jumbled and confused I think she took some of your memories of HYDRA, maybe not even ones you actually remembered. It would explain that,” he says, gesturing to Selene curled up on the ground with wide eyes, shaking.
“How come I haven’t reacted like that to my own memories?” he asks.
“You lived them, memory is less harsh than living the reality as it happened, Selene didn’t get that experience and now she’s paying dearly for it,” he says.
“What do we do with her?” Bucky asks. Tony grins; he had the best idea ever.
*
Coulson frowns when he’s told he has a package from Tony Stark but he signs off on it and goes to get it. S.H.I.E.L.D agents have already surrounded it and started guessing what it was, they ranged from a box full of literal shit to a dead Bucky Barnes. Coulson was certain Stark would not send any of those things but he was curious nonetheless, especially when he noticed the air holes in the side of the box.
He opens the box to find a woman in the bottom, curled up in a nest of blankets put in there with the intent on keeping her warm and somewhat comfortable with a bow on her head and a note pinned to her jacket. Coulson pulls the letter off her jacket gently and reads the sticky note.
She’s got some sort of healing/ fountain of youth superpower. She took some on Barnes’ memories and now she’s all traumatized, have fun!
He rolls his eyes and reads the letter, raising an eyebrow at the tale Stark tells. He finishes the letter and looks back down to Selene, “alright, someone register her on the Gifted list and put her in a cell until we can figure out what to do with her,” he says and people jump to action.
“Stark seriously mailed you a person?” Melinda asks.
“Yes and no, technically he had her hand delivered to avoid her being tossed around though the mail system but essentially yes, he mailed me a person. You should read this,” he says, handing Melinda the letter. They had some research to do.