Underneath the mask

Peter Parker POV:

Everyone’s sleeping round the sofa when he hears the creak of the elevator down the hall.

He counts all the Avengers who are already there as well as Harley, sleeping by his side.

Nobody’s not here. Who else would have access to the penthouse?

His mind ventures to Pepper Potts but it quickly gets shot down when he remembers that Tony told him that she won’t be back for a bit because of an important business meeting.

It didn’t really make sense for her to cut all her time for him, they’d only met a few times before everything.

He wonders if Tony talked to Pepper about him. Probably not, he thinks when he looks back, their relationship was already a bit rocky before but they’d still stuck together, talked and bonded over cold pizza and science but they weren’t as close as they had been the last few days.

‘Distance brings fondness’ he supposes, a lot of things do, especially when you get kidnapped for a few months.

The creaking in the elevator gets closer.

He slinks out of Harley's arms and steps up, fighting stance ready as he listens to the elevator come to a stop and squeak open.

Two men in grey t-shirts and dark blue jeans step out.

They don’t see him, too busy talking with luggage occupying their hands.

He recognizes the darker skinned one from some news articles he saw Steve read yesterday, ’The falcon’ the next one takes a few moments of thought to realise just exactly who it was.

“Зимний солдат” (Winter Soldier) He bites out in Russian, a stringing a line of web out of his wrist, pinning the man’s normal arm to the wall.

Both they’re gazes flicked towards him instantly.

“What the fuck are you doing here.” He asks, venom seeping through his voice.

Spidermanspidermandoeswhateveraspidercan

**flashback**

It’s day nineteen.

It’s day nineteen and he’s strapped to a chair watching the man through the one way glass.

He’d been training for hours, it looked almost beautiful, like a dance. Graceful in a way that is deemed not possible by even the best of dancers and performers.

They had called him ‘Зимний солдат’, The winter soldier. The best of them all.

They told him that they would make him better than that. That he would be the next Winter Soldier. 

That once they’d trained him enough, broke him enough that he would be like him.

A better version of the soldier. No weaknesses. Nothing at all.

He didn’t want to be that though.

He hated the way they would talk about him like that, like he needed to be better than the best, they could parade him around. Use him. Break him. Take his freedom and turn him into a weapon.

Just like they did to whatever was before the Winter Soldier. Whatever was underneath the mask and metal arm, the blood and gun.

He watched as the man tore through the target like it was a paper doll. Not killing them but practically mauling them and putting them into so much excruciating pain that they would’ve been better off dead. Instead of a shell of what they would’ve been.

They wanted to make him do that.

When they first did something like this he supposed they were dumber than he had thought.

He had thought they were stupid for thinking he would crack, that he would tear and kill somebody for the sake of it, just because of some stupid ass command.

He knew now that it wasn’t as stupid as he’d originally thought. The days of torture, experiments, the emotional and the physical drain was putting a strain around his neck. A noose.

He knew it was only so long before they would go too far and he would shatter. 

He went back to watching the man through the window.

He watched as the gaze of him was unfocused, his eyebrows were relaxed, his body too stiff to look normal.

They had what they did to him to the man. They had broken what the man was before and turned him into a weapon, a soldier. The winter soldier.

Soon they’d make them train together. And soon they’d make them work together.

To take down the good.

They wanted to make him evil.

He was worried it would work if he was left here for too long. It has only been two and a half weeks and he’s already so tired.

So numb.

Spidermanspidermandoeswhateveraspidercan

The winter soldier escaped. The commotion around the building was loud. There were people shouting and screaming commands out to others.

They’re favourite weapon had escaped.

He was worried about who their new weapon would be.

He was worried it would be him.

**end flashback**

Spidermanspidermandoeswhateveraspidercan

“Huh?” The winter soldier said. Peeling the webbing off with a struggle, eventually switching to a knife that was strapped onto his thigh. Probably vibranium by the way it was cutting through his webbing.

Peter was still in a fighting position.

He didn’t know why he was here, he was with the falcon but that doesn’t really matter.

He’d escaped HYDRA but before then he was their pet, their lap dog.

What if the winter soldier hadn’t changed?

His stance didn’t change when the falcon drew a weapon from his pocket.

“I think we should be asking you that question.” The falcon spoke carefully and calmly.

He stares at the Falcon, ignoring his question “Why are you with the winter soldier?” 

“I go by James Barnes now.” The winter soldier interrupts.

“I don’t care about what you go by, why are you here?” He asks again.

“Because we live here” The falcon sighs deeply. “Seriously kid, have you not been paying attention to the news lately? Or the media at all?” 

He bristles, he’s been a bit too kidnapped to look at the news, thank you very much.

“Friday?” He asked the A.I

“James Barnes and Sam Wilson have been living in the tower for a little under two months.” The delicate voice replies.

“Why.” He inquires Friday, still keeping a steady glare on the winter soldier.

“After the Avengers moved back into the tower James Barnes was invited to stay after he was free from HYDRA and finished with his cryo freeze. Just as Tony had done to you. He is no longer a member of HYDRA, or a threat to anyone in this tower.” The Friday soothes, not loud enough to wake up the people who were sleeping but still loud enough for him to hear.

“Oh.” He breathes out.

“Yeah fucking ‘oh’ now who are YOU?” Sam whisper-shouts.

He can feel the soldier staring at him.

“Did Friday just say ‘just as Tony had done to you’?” ‘James’ spoke up ignoring Sam, yanking the last of the webbing off him.

“Yes.” Friday voiced from above.

“You were with HYDRA?” The soldier asks, staring at him carefully.

“Not by choice.” He mutters bluntly. 

“Oh.” The soldier copycats him. 

The man steps forward as Peter flinches back.

The soldier falters slightly but holds out his hand for Peter to shake.

He talked it cautiously, shaking the cool metal fingers that fit nicely with his own sweaty

palms.

Sam looks slightly confused but holds out his hand so Peter can shake his too.

“I’m Peter.”

“Nice to meet you Peter.” Sam responds.

“I’m Sam Wilson and this Emo next to me-“ he wraps a hand around James’s torso. “Is James Barnes, otherwise known as Bucky.”

“Nice to meet you.” He replies curtly. “I still don’t trust you.” Peter adds with a  deadpan expression.

“Good to see you guys have met.”

Everybody turns and faces Natasha who’s leaning against the door frame.

“Yeah thank you for the warning by the way.” Peter tells her, the sarcasm dripping through his voice.

“My bad.” She grins before turning her attention to the men. “Good to see you guys again.”

They both make huffs of acknowledgment before stepping forward into the room and dumping their bags on the side.

“Let’s go to the kitchen, I’m starving!” Sam whines, tugging on James' t-shirt.

Once everyone’s at the table with a bowl of leftovers and a mug of hot chocolate they start chatting about Barnes and Wilson’s mission and all their favourite books.

It’s an odd sort of humization watching the ‘Winter Soldier’ talk about the books he reads when just a few months ago he was beating the pulp out of someone with his glazed unfocused eyes and dead eyes.

He sets a well concealed shaky hand down on the counter and puts his face in his hand to make it look as if he was paying attention (a little trick he’d learned when he was getting less than an hour sleep and still going to school the next day).

The winter soldier turns his attention to Peter for a moment. “I feel like I recognize you from somewhere, did we meet in…” the ending was unsaid but Peter got it anyways.

He hums and nods his head slowly, “You fight like a dancer.” 

“I’m sorry I don't remember you.” James (or was it Bucky?) mumbled apologetically.

“I didn’t expect you to. No harm no foul.” 

The topic after that moves on to all the different foods Sam is trying to make James try that he hadn’t before.

He lets the voices drag him into a drowsy state.

A warm hand is pressed against his shoulder and he bolts up and out of his daze.

“Oh, sorry.” He hears Tony say sheepishly, removing his hand just a bit until it’s hovering above his shoulder blade.

A smile sets across his features and he leans back into the hand. “Hi.”

“Hey kiddo.” Tony whispers hoarsely, most likely he just woke up. “You alright Peter?” 

He nods again, too tired to form a proper sentence.

“Why don’t you go back to sleep?” Tony offers him.

It doesn’t take much longer than a minute for him to slump in his seat and fall asleep with Tony ruffling his hair.

Tony Stark POV:

He watched as Peter fell asleep and smiled at Natasha, lifted him up easily and put him back on the sofa.

“So what’s his story?” Sam asked him as soon as Peter was out of earshot.

“He’s Spider-Man.” He told them, guessing by the traces of web on Bucky’s arm they would’ve found out soon anyways, if they hadn’t already. At the name Spider-man a look of recognition went through Sam’s eyes. He carried on talking before Sam could interrupt  “His Aunt died and he was homeless for a bit, ended up getting kidnapped by HYDRA for months until we found him, he’s been here for a few days now.”

Bucky and Sam looked horrified. “Fuck.” Bucky muttered and Tony grimaced.

Fuck indeed.

“I’m guessing you knew him before?” Sam spoke, gripping his spoon tightly.

“Yeah… He was my intern and I helped him out with Spidey stuff.”

“Didn’t you say he was homeless?” Sam questioned, Tony nodded solemnly. “Why didn’t you help him out?” 

“It’s.. complicated, when his aunt died I didn’t know. It was covered up by HYDRA, probably caused by it too. When I called him my number was blocked. We had a pretty big falling out over something stupid beforehand so I just assumed he was mad. After a while I got nervous and tried finding him but he wasn’t bloody anywhere. I thought he moved.” Tony sighs sadly, eyes watering slightly. He quickly brushed it away.

“When we found him I hated myself, hated myself for not trying hard enough to find him and I hated that it got so bad. I’m never losing him again, he’s my fucking kid.”

He didn’t even realise that Bucky had moved over next to him and had his arms stretched out for a hug. 

It was common knowledge that James Barnes and Tony Stark didn’t get along well, especially after the ‘Civil War’ but for Steve’s stake they both put up with each other, eventually becoming somewhat friends. 

He looked at Bucky’s outstretched arms for a few more seconds before caving and falling limplessly into them. God did he really need this. Large arms wrap around him and he lets the tears he was holding back flow down his face. These last days have been a rough strain on everything.

After a minute he feels Bucky’s voice wander to someone behind him.

“Take him, you big dumbass.” Bucky’s gruff voice whispers, soon after he feels familiar arms wrap around his stomachs and drag him away from Buck’s.

“Hey honey.” A smooth familiar Brooklyn voice coos in his ear.

Steve.

He presses his face into Steve's chest and places his arms around his lower back (let’s be real it’s Steve’s ass).

“You alright doll?” Steve asks him and Bucky and Sam make retching noises from behind. Tony flips them off.

“Yeah.” Tony mumbles against Steve’s tight shirt (he thanked the gods that Steve didn’t know tight ass shirts that showed his tits off weren't very socially acceptable) “Don’t worry about it Captain.”

Eventually they parted, and by parted he means that they were side by side instead of hugging.

Bucky and Sam still had disgruntled looks on their faces. They see the only two people who actually knew that Tony and Steve were together because they walked in on Steve fucking Tony mindless in the labs one time (they agreed never to speak of it and Tony ensured they’d put on extra security measures), he wasn’t sure if Bucky had ever looked at Steve and Tony the same afterwards. Sam certainly hadn’t.

Tony was scrolling through his emails as Steve talked with the boys.

“Peppers coming back tonight.” Tony told them as he got a looks through his notifications.

Steve grinned. “Full house again.” Tony murmurs in agreement. “I’m pretty sure we can get Laura and the kids up here this weekend, it’s not often we get the whole group together.”

“Will Peter be fine with that?” Sam asks, his voice filled with concern.

“He’s great with kids but I’ll check with him when he’s up again.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and Tony started making his fourth cup of coffee. “Anyone want a cup?” He asks, holding out an empty mug.

“Me.” Bucky mutters. Sam nods “same here, make it strong.” 

Tony rolls his eyes as he puts a double shot of espresso in Sam’s, mirroring it to his own.

He hands out the cups of coffee and slumps back into Steve’s side, letting the warmth slide through his body, both from the hot drink and Steve kissing him on his hairline.

“How many have you had?” Steve asks, glaring at the half empty coffee mug.

“One?” Tony offers.

“Wrong, try again.”

“Two?”

“One more try.”

Tony scowls. “Four”

Steve smiles happily and snogs him, slipping his tongue in his mouth and a hand through his hair.

When Steve pulls away he’s pretty sure he’s looking at him with a dopey mindless smile. He looks back down in his hands to find them empty. “Hey, where’d my coffee go?”

Steve had a shit eating grin as he leapt up from the wall they were leaning against with his stolen mug and poured it down the drain. Tony stares with a dropped jaw.

“Steve!”

“Sorry handsome, y’know that three is the limit.”

Tony whines and throws his head back. “I can’t believe you tricked me!”

He can hear Sam muffling his laughs from behind his cup. He sinks lower against the wall. Steve gives him a peck on the top of his head before going back to wash the cup despite their being a perfectly good dishwasher next to him.

“What did Rogers do?” Barnes asks them from the doorway.

“He threw my coffee away!” Tony grumps.

Barnes grimaces, a true scientist knows that a lack of coffee means hell. “Sorry bud, it happens to the best of us.”

Barnes talks over and ruffles his already messy hair in sympathy.

They all acted around the kitchen, Steve and Tony in a deep conversation about who knows what, Bucky and Sam staring at each other (maybe a staring contest???) and he’s still slumped low against the wall in despair. Eventually Natasha comes back with Clint by her side laughing and Thor behind, standing like a buffed up guardian angel.

Twenty minutes later Harley and Peter show up, Harley with his fucking arm around Peters waist. The little bugger.

Tony smiles at them anyways, he doubts they won’t end up together at some point, he can already tell they’re both smitten for each other.

“Why are you on the floor!?” Peter asks concerned, leaving Harley on his own to come rushing to him.

Tony chuckles. “I’m fine underoos.”

Peter looks at him with narrowed eyes and concern written all over his face. Tony stands up and wraps and arm around Peters shoulders. 

“Don’t worry about me alright? I feel like I should be the one asking if you’re alright.” 

“I’m all good Mr. Stark.” 

“Are you sure, you can always talk to me if you’re not.” Tony says, hoping to sound as earnest as he feels.

Peter smiles at him and Tony smirks back. “Now, how are you enjoying life with your new boy toy?”

Peter glares at him. “Could say the same about you Mr.Stark.” Switching his glaze over to where Steve was standing.

“When did you get so feisty?” Tony asks, ignoring the obvious accusation of him and Steve.

Peter just smiles sweetly before walking off to go back to talking with Harley.

“He got it from you.” Thor booms from behind him. He jolts back a little, wondering how someone so good damn huge could be so fucking quiet when sneaking up on someone.

“Ya think so?”

“Of course, I have more knowledge about these sorts of things than you.” Thor rests a large hand on his shoulder and Tony’s not quite sure if it was an insult or Thor genuinely trying to help.

“Isn’t your brother constantly trying to kill you or something?”

Thor chuckles at him. “Ah yes, me and my dear brother love playing games!”

“Didn’t he try to take over the world?” Tony asks as if they weren’t both there, stopping him from doing so.

Thor laughs (Rip Tony’s ears). “The past is in the past, young Anothony.”

“Uhuh, totally…” Tony says, slowly edging away from Thor.