Chapter 1
Bucky always got up earlier than Toni. Partially because the serum means he doesn’t need as much sleep but also because when Toni actually sleeps she’s just dead to the world. And when she did fall asleep it was face first in the lab and at really weird hours. But when she was in bed with him, he’d watch her.
She always looks so peaceful, normally she was a whirlwind of activity and ramblings but sleeping she looked younger and relaxed.
“Are you staring at me again?” Toni groggily asked.
“Maybe. There something wrong with that?” Bucky responded.
“Yes. It’s creepy and unnerving,” she replied.
“But you like it when I start staring,” he told her.
“I like it when you’re staring to freak out other people, not me.”
“But I’m not trying to freak you out. I’m admiring you while you can’t interrupt me.”
“There’s nothing by to admire while my hair is a mess and I have morning breath,” Toni snarked to him.
“Maybe but I’m going to do it anyway,” Bucky replied as he dragged her up to straddle him.
Toni sighed at his response but bent down to kiss him. Bucky responded in kind by making it deeper and pushing his hands under the shirt she was wearing. When his hands got far enough up to she pulled back.
“Tease,” Bucky huffed.
“You love it,” Toni told him.
“Sometimes.” And Bucky pulled her back down to him. This time he flipped them so he was on top. And as he started to take off her shirt the Avengers alarm rang out.
Bucky groaned as he pulled back.
“I’m sorry doll,” he apologized.
“It’s fine, go save the world,” she reassured.
“Maybe not the world, just the city.” Bucky said getting up and in his uniform.
When he left and Toni was confident he was gone she got up.
“JARVIS? Get a suit?” She asked her AI.
“Already prepped in the workshop. But might I recommend putting on a flight suit?” He suggested.
“Thanks J, and I will.” And with that Toni got ready to fight with the avengers. They just didn’t know it was her. She quickly put on a flight suit that she had stashed away and em got down to the workshop. She entered her secret room, behind a secret door, and got in the Ironman suit.
“You with me J?” She checked.
“Always ma’am,” JARVIS responded. “And the Captain has been trying to open your comm line.”
“Let him through.”
“You there Ironman?” Captain America asked.
“Yeah. What’re we dealing with?” She asked him.
“I can’t even explain it. You’ll find out when you get here,” he responded.
“It’s lizard men. Giant lizard men that’s how you explain it,” the winter soldier said in the comms.
“I’m sorry which bad sci-fi movie is this out of?” She asked.
“There’s a few but these are the ones we have to worry about for now.” Toni could hear the smirk in Bucky’s voice.
She reached the sight and saw that yeah, it was giant lizards. That walked on two feet and had on armor. Great.
Quickly Ironman joined in on the fight. Flying around and providing the aerial support. It was going great until she landed to help cover Nat when she started getting overwhelmed with the lizards. Several of them turned to the suit and grabbed her. Then they threw her into the nearest building.
“Ironman!” The Widow yelled.
“I’m fine!” She called back.
Shortly after that the others figured out how to stop the lizards. They all shrunk back down to size and started scampering everywhere.
“You okay Shellhead?” Steve asked.
“I’m good but don’t expect me at the debrief, between repairs and the fact that I’m pretty sure it’s gonna hurt like a bitch to sit I won’t have time,” Toni told him.
“That’s fine but if you can send over the video of the fight,” Steve said helping her up.
“Thanks Capsicle I’ll send what I can,” Toni told him before flying off.
Toni took off to the direction of the tower. She went to the workshop that she had specifically for keeping the Ironman suits.
“JARVIS send the footage of today’s fight to Steve please,” she requested from her AI.
“Of course ma’am,” was the response.
She got out of her suit and put on PPEs to start repairs.
A half an hour later Bucky came looking for her.
“Ma’am Sergeant Barnes is looking for you,” JARVIS alerted her.
“Thanks J,” she said as she went into the main workshop.
She pulled up a schematic of the suit she was just working on to make it seem like she needed to know what happened.
“Knock, knock. Hey doll, that Ironman’s suit?” Bucky asked as he came in.
“Yeah, told me how bad it was damaged in the fight but I need to see if something got messed up internally,” she replied. “Not everything with him is cosmetic. How was the fight today?”
“Good, over quicker than we expected. It was a bunch of giant lizards,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.
“Geez sounds like a bad sci-fi movie. And did you shower yet? You stink.”
“It was a bad sci-fi movie and I did not. Wanted to check on you first.”
“That’s sweet but shower, you smell like the reptile exhibit at the zoo.”
“Alright but it’s movie night so don’t stay here too long,” Bucky reminded her.
“I won’t, go,” she shooed him off.
When he left, Toni grabbed an ice pack for her back. Being thrown into a building wasn’t fun. She let out a sigh of relief Nat came in.
“Here,” Nat tossed her a bottle of pain relief.
“Thanks, I need these,” Toni told her.
“Of course. That was quite a hit, you okay?” Nat asked.
“Yeah I’ll be fine sky long as Bucky thinks I keep getting injured in the lab,” Toni said before swallowing the pill.
“You need to tell him at some point you know?”
“But now is not that point. I just don’t want to worry him. You know how he is.”
“I do, which is why you should tell him. You keep getting injured it’s gonna start to add up.”
“Well this isn’t gonna add anything up so be quiet. And stop lecturing me about secrets Miss Super Spy,” Toni told her.
“Just do it soon so there isn’t a huge fall out. And I don’t lie to people about something like this,” Nat replied.
“You’re helping keep this secret and have covered for me on multiple occasions,” she reminded Nat.
“But that’s not to my significant other,” Nat told her.
“Let me deal with it my way please? I’ll work on the widow bites before everything else,” Toni negotiated.
Nat accepted and told her to rest up more.
Several hours later she left the shop and went to the common floor.
“What movie is it tonight?” She asked as she fell into Bucky’s lap.
“My bloody valentine,” Steve replied.
“The original or remake?” She asked.
“Remake from 2009. Nat picked it,” Bruce told her.
The movies started after Clint came back with the popcorn. After a while Toni got uncomfortable from where she was. She needed to put more ice on her back.
She started shifting to try and get comfortable but she was lying on top of Bucky.
“What’re you doing?” Bucky asked Toni.
“My back hurts so I’m trying to get comfortable,” she explained to him.
“Why does your back hurt?” He asked.
“I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I tripped over Dummy,” she told him.
“You need to start paying attention to stuff.”
“I’m fine. I was careful enough to get around my stuff, Dummy just came out of nowhere.”
“Alright. But also tell me the next time you get hurt, okay?”
“Fine,” Toni conceded.
They went back to watching the movie. Nat gave Toni a look, the kind that says that was a load of BS. And Bruce looked concerned too.
After they were done the avengers retired to their beds for the night.
The next morning Bruce cornered her.
“Are you really okay?” He asked her.
“Yes. Mostly bad bruising nothing broken or internally wrong,” she told him.
“I don’t trust your word on your own injuries Toni, have you gotten checked in the medbay?” Bruce questioned.
“No cause I’m fine,” she replied.
“Cmon at the very least a check can’t hurt,” Bruce told her.
“If it’ll make you feel better,” she said letting Bruce lead her down to the medbay.
The two scientists went down to medbay so that Toni could get a check on her injuries from the previous days fight.
She sat down on a stool while Bruce used his limited knowledge on injuries to figure out how bad it is.
“Alright not too bad. You’re probably best by taking it easy and icing it,” Bruce told her.
“Thanks Bruce,” Toni replied.
~~~
Bucky was down in the workshop cleaning it up. Toni kept tripping over stuff and running into things so decided to help her out and organize.
He was putting stuff back in the closet when he noticed it. There was a slight indentation in one of the panels. Curiously he pressed down to see what would happen.
Part of the wall opened up to reveal a whole other part to the workshop. And all over the place were parts of the Ironman suits. There were some whole suits displayed on a wall. A gauntlet on the table, a boot on the floor.
There was a screen displaying yesterday’s fight.
“Jay scan for the weaknesses of these guys,” a voice on the screen said. And it wasn’t the usual modified voice they heard over coms from Ironman. It was the voice of his girlfriend.
“Is Toni Ironman?”