Therapy

Tony frowns at his phone, confused by the fifth single word response from Bucky. It wasn’t his usual texting style and to his knowledge he wasn’t busy, which would explain the difference. He didn’t know anything for sure though so he leaves it for now, more focused on Obadiah and whatever he wanted. He was jetlagged and tired as hell but Obi insisted he come in the morning after he got home so here he was, despite being overtired. “So what is it you needed to talk to me about, Obi?” he asks, looking to get this over with as fast as possible.

“What are you looking into?” Obi asks, thankfully on the same page as Tony.

“To be honest I don’t know. Our numbers are skewed, it looks like someone is trying to copy my weapon designs and they’re failing, and it also looks like someone in SI is the one that’s behind all this. Problem with that is that there are only three people capable of fucking with the records like that and it obviously wasn’t me, or Pepper, and I doubt it was you, which means someone stole the information and that’s a fucking disaster. You know what kind of shit I have stored in the company’s files, god knows what this idiot would do with some of the more dangerous designs I’ve made,” he says, running his fingers through his hair nervously.

Obi gets up and circles his desk, sitting in the chair across from Tony and gripping his shoulder, “relax, Tony, we’ll figure this out. What else do you know?” he asks but he’s got that business smile of his on. Tony isn’t sure if he’s grateful for it or if he resents it. He decides he doesn’t have time to care.

“That’s pretty much it,” he says even though that wasn’t exactly true. But there was no need to worry Obi with information he didn’t currently have any context for, like random warehouses that linked back to him in a weirdly roundabout way. It was kind of weird that things liked back to him though, not the company, even if the money to fund this little project was technically company money. Agent had pointed out the obvious, he was being set up, but by who and why?

“That isn’t much information,” Obadiah points out and yeah, Tony knew that. The lack of information was the problem and every lead kept going back to him, which made no sense, even Agent agreed.

“Well that’s all I’ve got so far. I’ll keep you updated on anything new,” he says. Not that he was getting anywhere but back to himself, which was really starting to piss him off.

“Send m what you have, it’ll be easier to get to the bottom of this with more than one person looking into it,” Obadiah points out and Tony sighs, nodding. He tells Obadiah that he’ll send the information later and leaves the meeting at that, more interested in sleep than anything else.

*

Agent is giving him judgmental looks and Tony was too tired to deal with this, “what?” he asks in a tone that was harsher than he meant it to be.

“Am I the only one who’s seeing the obvious?” he asks in that weirdly friendly condescending tone.

“Clearly so how about fill me in instead of acting like an asshole,” Tony snaps. He rubs his temples in a poor attempt to rid himself of the quickly forming headache that he now had.

“Your business partner is clearly setting you up. Think about it. Your systems are airtight, trust me, I have had several people try and hack you and even with records of passwords and codes they still couldn’t get past that pesky AI of yours. There is no logical way someone outside that system is getting in unless they’re as smart as you and as much as I would love to deny it your intelligence is one of a kind. Which means you’re behind this, and I don’t believe that’s true, Pepper is behind this, or Obadiah is. Out of the three which one would you be the most likely to blame?” he asks. It wasn’t that Agent was wrong, he would assume Obadiah was behind this if he was in Agent’s position too, but Tony knew Obadiah. He couldn’t be behind this; he’s always been there for Tony, even when he was an annoying asshole back before he got his shit together.

“That can’t be right, someone else probably figured out how to get into the systems, I’ll get JARVIS to flush them out,” he says. Obadiah let Tony cry on his shoulder at his parents’ funeral, why the hell would he frame Tony for treason considering his weapons were now everywhere.

Agent looks like he feels bad for Tony but he keeps the pity to himself, thankfully. “Come on Stark, I know what kind of faith you put in your skills and for good reason. What’s more likely, Obadiah framing you or someone hacking your systems?” he asks.

Logically Tony knew the answer but this couldn’t be right. When Tony had that mental breakdown right after he took over the company Obadiah walked him through it, he was there for Tony when he thought things were too much, pointed out his success when he didn’t see it. He… he couldn’t have betrayed Tony like this, why would he? What did he have to gain from this? He knew that Obadiah was selfish and money hungry but he wasn’t evil, he couldn’t possibly have framed Tony for treason and terrorism. “I… I don’t know, Agent. Why would he even do this? If it was someone else they would have reason, a lot of people hate me, maybe one of them figured my shit out.”

For a long moment Agent looks at Tony before taking a step closer, placing his hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezing. “Tony, being close to you doesn’t mean that he doesn’t hate you, or resent you because of your success. He was Howard’s business partner before and it would have stood to reason that he would have gained controlling interest at least until you were old enough to run the company. But that isn’t what happened, Howard handed the company off to you right away, even if you didn’t take over until three years later. I know this must be hard for you but this is the best explanation for what’s happening,” he says quietly.

“But he’s been by my side for as long as I can remember,” Tony says almost pitifully. Agent was right, this had to be the work of Obadiah or Pepper and he couldn’t see Pepper doing this. The woman was certainly driven enough, and intelligent enough, but there was no real payout for her in the end. As much as he didn’t want to admit it Obi would get his company, his legacy, his properties, everything if he managed to successfully frame Tony.

“I know Tony, but we have to think clearly about this and this is the most likely option. I’m sorry,” Agent says and Tony can’t help but think that Agent’s movements reflected Obadiah’s earlier, the hand on the shoulder thing.

“I already told him about this, he’s expecting information by this afternoon. What the hell am I supposed to do? All the evidence points to me,” he says a little desperately.

“Then we find the real evidence. Do you have a way to access his computer?” Agent asks. Tony snorts at such a stupid question and Agent rolls his eyes, “I’ll take that as a yes. You’re going to need to get into his systems and find something and in the meantime you’re going to have to send him some bullshit report to keep him off your trail.”

Tony clenches his jaw, not overly willing to accept that Obi would do think to him but… if Obi was innocent there would be nothing to find on his computers. The fact that he was so resistant to the idea supported Obi’s guilt more than it absolved it. He sighs and nods, agreeing to send Agent anything he found right away.

*

Bucky’s one-word responses didn’t stop throughout the day and he had casually slipped a question in asking if he was doing anything. He wasn’t, which Tony took as evidence that something must be wrong. So he calls Bucky, hoping that maybe he could help and something would go right today. “Hey,” Bucky says softly, like he was too exhausted to even speak up.

“Are you alright?” Tony asks, forgetting tact in his attempt to get to the bottom of at least one issue here.

“I… well technically I’m fine but I just found out that one of my friends has terminal cancer and he’s planning on like running away or whatever. He’s terrible at dealing with problems,” Bucky says and Tony lets out a sharp laugh, regretting it immediately.

“Sorry, that was insensitive. But this sounds like one of those ridiculous cancer movies, not like a thing that would happen in real life. That’s awful,” he says genuinely.

“Weasel put him on the deadpool,” Bucky says and Tony lets out another bubble of laughter but this time he can’t rein it in right away.

“I’m going to hell for that. God, this is a disaster, I’m fucking shit in situations like this. I never know what to do and I always do something stupid like laugh at a cancer patient dying. Seriously, I don’t even believe in god or hell or whatever and I am positive I have sealed my ticket in hell with that. So um. Sorry about this,” he mumbles, unsure of where to go from here.

“‘S’okay, Wade thought the deadpool thing was funny too and honestly this does sound like the start of a bad superhero movie or something. All Wade needs is a vat of toxic goo to jump in or something. Doesn’t really make it less sad though. Weasel’s going to stick me on the deadpool twice as often now, this is horrible,” Bucky says, his voice breaking at the end of that. Tony listens awkwardly while Bucky sniffles, not knowing what the hell he was supposed to do here. He hated dealing with sadness, he couldn’t deal with his own sadness, how the hell was he supposed to deal with someone else’s sadness?

“You wanna come over?” is what comes out of his mouth instead of an awkward good bye and he kicks himself for it. Now he was going to have to deal with the tears in person if Bucky agreed. Why the hell would he do this to himself?

“Yeah… yeah that would be great,” Bucky says and Tony resists the urge to burst into tears at the thought of having to deal with someone bursting into tears. He makes some tentative plans and goes to throw himself on the couch so he doesn’t do something stupid, like get ridiculously drunk. Technically it would solve his problem if he passed out but he didn’t want to deal with Rhodey’s disappointment and Pepper’s lectures and Natasha’s glares. So he lays there for a few moments before going and finding a blanket to wrap Bucky in, hoping to hell that will do something other than make the guy cry.

When Bucky gets there things are far less awkward than he anticipates then being. Bucky leans on him, wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist and Tony hugs him back, needing the contact himself if for different reasons. “Come here,” Tony says softly, pulling Bucky along to the couch. He picks up the blanket and wraps it around his shoulders and sits down, pulling Bucky down with him. Bucky settles on the couch between Tony’s legs, curling against his chest and Tony wraps his arms around him, gently running his hands up and down Bucky’s body. He slowly relaxes against Tony and Tony finds himself relaxing too, focusing on Bucky’s breathing and the way his head was laying against Tony’s shoulder, gently pressing into his neck.

“Thank you,” Bucky murmurs, nuzzling into Tony’s neck. He lets out a shaky sigh, not realizing that he had needed this until he had it.

“‘S’not a problem,” he says softly, “it’s relaxing to me too.”

“Bad day?” Bucky asks.

“Yeah. Found out my business partner is trying frame me for treason and terrorism after spending who knows how long selling knockoff Stark weapons on the side, or at least that’s the most likely situation. I used to have a cat when I was a kid but Howard hated it with a passion, poor cat, Obadiah kept it at his house so I could keep it and now he’s framing me for treason and terrorism. Presumably for money,” he says, floored that his life had come to this.

Bucky sits up, “Jesus, that’s horrible, Tony.” He looks concerned and Tony appreciates it, really, but he was going to be fine.

“It’ll be fine. I just have to find enough evidence to make sure he can’t pin his shit on me and Agent is on my side so there’s that.” It wasn’t much of a consolation prize but it was something he supposed. Besides, Agent was competent enough to gather information he hadn’t found right away and that one time he caught Tony fucking with the military to book time off for Rhodey. If they didn’t use Hammer tech they would have been fine so Tony felt that the government deserved to know how dumb they were for using such bad equipment. And Rhodey gave him a password or two.

“How are you supposed to do that though?” Bucky asks and it was a good question. Tony had no god damn clue, as it was he sent Obi busywork to keep him off Tony’s trail. Fortunately his phone rings, interrupting the conversation. Tony sighs and pulls his phone out of his pocket with minimal difficulty, answering it while Bucky settled against his chest again. He continues to run his fingers up and down Bucky’s arm.

“Tony, did you give the press access to your medical records?” Pepper asks in a rush.

He frowns, “no, why the hell would I do that?” he asks. And what medical records did the press get ahold of? There weren’t many that would be of interest to the press…

“I had no idea that you were a sub, biologically anyways. But I think you should get retested, these results are obviously wrong but this is spreading like wildfire and I don’t know what to do,” she says and Tony closes his eyes, hoping the migraine he could feel coming on would be easily fended off.

“The results aren’t wrong, Pep, biologically speaking I am a sub. Trust me, I had enough people poke and prod at me to know that those results aren’t changing regardless of how untrue they are. Listen, I need you to do me a favor and go to Obi’s office and copy his hard drive, okay? I think he might be behind this and a whole lot more, can you do that?” he asks. Of fucking course he would find some way to snoop at Tony’s records and then leak them. It would send Tony running around dealing with rumors while he cleaned up loose ends and made sure Tony was going down for his crimes.

“Of course. When do you need this done?” Pepper asks, slipping back into business mode easily enough. Bucky shifts and sits up, gesturing to Tony that he was fine before taking off but he takes the blanket with him so Tony assumes he isn’t going anywhere unless he’s stealing the blanket. Tony wouldn’t blame him; he stole the blanket from Rhodey, who stole it from some guy he worked with.

“Like now if possible, I don’t really want to know what else Obi has planned. We need to get ahead of this before it gets to the media and my name gets dragged through the mud.” As much as he didn’t care what people thought of him he sort of needed people to like him enough to buy his shit otherwise his company would tank and he’d be shit out of luck. He had no clue what things cost, Rhodey made a test once and laughed at Tony’s answers so he assumed he was way off in pricing things. Granted that was unlikely to happen but still. It was possible and he wasn’t about to encourage it.

“Alright. I’m headed to his office now, I’ll call you when I’m out, alright?” she says and he gives her the affirmative, hanging up so she could do her thing. Bucky returns then with a steaming mug and he hands it to Tony. Coffee.

“You’re a god among men,” Tony tells him, taking the mug gratefully and taking a sip of the hot liquid, burnt tongue be damned. He sets the mug aside so Bucky could sit back down without risk of being burnt or burning Tony.

“Thanks,” Bucky says, giving him a small smile before sliding back into his spot and resettling between Tony’s legs. He wraps an arm around Bucky’s shoulders and presses his lips to the top of Bucky’s head.

“Seriously, you’re awesome,” Tony tells him, picking the mug back up again. It was still too hot to drink but Tony ignores that because he needed the comfort of something familiar right now and coffee was it. He and Bucky sit in silence for several minutes, Tony slowly sipping his coffee and Bucky breathing softly against him. It was more comforting than Tony would have thought it would be and he’s reminded, for some reason, of Riley’s words some time ago. That he needed to engage his dominant side more or it would cause him distress or some shit. He didn’t want to admit that maybe the therapist had a point but this was surprisingly calming and after that night he and Bucky planned that scene he slept better than he had in years. Since his mid twenties to be exact.

Bucky shifts slightly against him, raising his head before lightly gripping Tony’s mug and taking a drink of the liquid himself. Tony is surprisingly focused on the action, watching closely as Bucky drank, licking his lips before laying his head back against his chest. Sharing food has always been a thing for Tony, it was personal and it was important to create a connection and take care of your partner- Tony found sharing food was a way to do both. He never really considered sharing coffee of all things but Bucky was basically everything he had ever asked for with a metal arm to boot, of course he would pick up on something Tony didn’t know he had wanted until now. “Are you okay?” Bucky asks, shuffling around to switch his position, looking up at Tony.

“I’m okay, mostly thanks to you. Coffee?” he asks, raising the cup. Bucky grins, apparently having caught onto Tony’s not at all subtle hint and taking the cup. They trade the mug back and forth until Tony’s phone rings again, Pepper according to the caller I.D. He answers, frowning into the receiver at Pepper’s labored breathing.

“Oh my god that was the scariest thing I have ever done, he caught me in there and he so didn’t buy my excuse about grabbing some file for you and he grabbed my arm on my way out and I swear he was going to strangle me or something but some poor intern saved me. I ran like hell, I’m in a cab now,” she says in a rush.

“Are you alright?” he asks. Pepper sounded genuinely distraught and she was not the type to be flustered by much of anything.

“I’m fine, I’m on my way home now,” she says and she sounds marginally calmer.

“Is Natasha home?” Normally he wouldn’t care but the situation wasn’t exactly normal…

“No, she’s out of town, why?” Pepper asks.

“Than don’t go home, he knows where you live. Come here,” he says. God knows what Obi would do if he found Pepper at home alone. Assuming he was doing something wrong and as much as Tony didn’t want to admit it but he was acting very suspicious…

“He knows where you live too,” Pepper says, deadpan.

“Yeah, but he has to get through security and JARVIS,” Tony points out, “I can tell Happy to tell everyone else to not let him in and even if he gets past them JARVIS will have called the cops way before he actually gets to us. You barely have a deadbolt,” he points out. It technically wasn’t true, Pepper had a doorman that was two days away from keeling over dead and Natasha had installed a security system but that wasn’t JARVIS, Tony didn’t trust it. Pepper reluctantly agrees and Tony relaxes some. He hangs up, content with the knowledge that she was on her way here, hopefully with Obi’s information. He had forgot to ask about that in his haste in getting Pepper to safety. Shit.

He doesn’t get much time to think about it because his phone rings again. He half expects it to be Pepper with some other bit of information but it’s Obadiah instead. Shit. For a moment he debates on not answering it but that wasn’t really an option so he sighs and answers. “Obi, hey, shouldn’t you be headed home by now?” he asks casually. He doesn’t even sound nervous and for the first time in his life he thanks Howard for being such a piece of shit. It wasn’t as if he was ever given a lot of time to prepare for leaving his abusive household directly into a mess of cameras, he always had to look perfect and happy and now that skill was useful to him.

Bucky’s head snaps up and he looks worried. Tony squeezes his arm gently to try and calm him but it doesn’t really do much. “Yeah, yeah, I’m headed home soon. But listen, I caught your assistant snooping around in here earlier, any idea what she was after?” he asks and Tony thanks his lucky stars Pepper managed to call before Obi.

“Some file or something. I don’t know, you know I can’t keep the paperwork straight; I probably needed to sign something or something like that. You know how it is,” he says. He hoped that that matched Pepper’s story enough to be plausible. As it was it was believable that he didn’t know exactly what Pepper was looking for, and that he needed to sign something, but if Pepper hadn’t mentioned those things than the story would be off enough for Obi to be on edge. He was already on edge as it was thanks to Tony deciding to be an idiot and telling Obi about his findings. Damnit.

“Ahh. Well could it have waited until the morning?” Obadiah asks.

“It’s Pepper, nothing can wait till the morning,” he says and thankfully he doesn’t have to fake that joke. It was a long-standing source of humor between him and Obi, that Pepper never did seem to go home.

Thankfully Obi laughs, “true, true. Next time I would appreciate a heads up though, never know what she’s going to find,” he says in an almost ominous tone.

“Yeah, I’m sure she isn’t going to care about porn stash Obi, do you not remember some of the shit she’s walked in on me doing? That poor woman needs a raise,” he says, only half joking about that. Pepper probably needed therapy and brain bleach to get rid of the mental images he’s given her but in his defense Natasha made up for a lot of it in recent years.

Bucky shifts himself closer to the phone and lets out an annoyed moan, “do you have to take a business call now,” he says in a whiny tone. Tony frowns at him for a moment, wondering where the hell that came from before he catches on. Bucky rolls his eyes at his slowness.

“Yeah, listen, I’m in the middle of something so I gotta go,” Tony says, shaking his head at Bucky.

“Please tell me you did not answer the phone in the middle of sex,” Obi says. He was no stranger to the situation either.

“I didn’t answer the phone during sex,” he says, technically truthful.

“Did so,” Bucky mumbles in an irritated tone, “so hang up and finish this.” Obi makes a noise of disgust and hangs up immediately, saving Tony from an uncomfortable conversation.

“You just might be the greatest person to have ever walked this earth,” Tony tells Bucky, grinning at him.

“Well, the guy is trying to frame you for treason and terrorism. I didn’t think you’d want to have an extended conversation with the guy and his age puts him right in that weird space after World War Two when everyone decided that sex was immoral and wrong and no one talked about it for like ten years before the new generation collectively decided fuck that. I can’t believe those vanilla movements are still around though, who the hell seriously thinks that BDSM is immoral? Idiots. Anyways, having been a teen right in the middle of that weird ten-year span I figured sex might wig him out. Obviously I was right,” Bucky says.

“It helps that I actually have taken calls in the middle of sex but hey, look at that, you’re history knowledge saved me. Thanks,” he says.

“And people say history is boring. My history knowledge just saved you from a terrorist, clearly it isn’t boring,” Bucky says, nose in the air.

“Yeah, yeah. But you’re the weird guy who reads demonology in his spare time, and now I guess you can add saving your Dom from his terrorist business partner to that. Pepper should be here soon, you’ll like her, she’s a badass too.” Bucky flushes a bit at the praise and Tony hugs him closer, burying his nose into Bucky’s long hair, happy that he was here.