Burning

Bucky Barnes glared at Tony Stark.

The man was rambling, as he so often did, about his creation. About Ultron. Pleading his case about why the world needed Ultron as a guardian and protector. Touting the machine as mankind’s savior or some bullshit. Despite the fact that his amazing creation had just turned on them, had just murdered Jarvis, his other amazing creation, Stark still seemed determined to sell his new product to the rest of the Avengers.

Maybe it was a defense mechanism, explaining in his odd way why he did what he did behind everyone else’s backs. Or maybe it was his ego, still failing to admit that he could possibly make such an idiotic mistake. Whatever the reason, Bucky wasn’t swayed. And by the expressions on the faces of the others, he wasn’t the only one that failed to see the greater purpose in Stark’s little science project.

“What if the world was safe? What if the next time aliens rolled up to the club, and they will,” Stark was saying, gesturing in the air, “they couldn’t get past the bouncer? Does anybody remember that time I carried a nuke through a wormhole? Does anybody…”

Stark stopped short, finally making eye contact with Bucky. “Can anybody tell him to stop doing the staring thing?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Steve jumped in.

“You get used to it,” Sam added.

Bucky blinked once and folded his arms across his chest. Stark slowly dragged his eyes away. Good.

It was Dr. Cho that brought them back around to the subject at hand. “I don’t understand,” she said, cautiously eyeing the wreckage of the Iron Legion as if the robots might spring to life again. “You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?”

Stark turned away, his shoulders beginning to shake. For a moment, Bucky felt a bit of relief, glad that Stark was becoming emotional. Finally coming to grips with the fact that he had put his friends and the entire world in danger with such a gigantic blunder. But when a few quiet giggles squeaked from the man’s mouth, Bucky realized that Stark wasn’t crying, but rather laughing.

Intense anger surged in his veins and he stepped forward, metal hand curled into a fist at his side. He was aware of both Natasha and Steve moving to flank him, eyes wide with alarm, but they didn’t have to worry. He had the Soldier inside himself under control, if only barely. But he wasn’t about to stand in silence any longer while their so-called teammate thought the whole situation was some kind of joke.

“You think this is funny?” Bucky demanded, his voice coming out as a cold growl. “You brought this thing to life without even warning the rest of us. It immediately got out of your control. And your response is to laugh it off?”

Instead of being intimidated, Stark whirled and stepped forward to meet him. “Yeah, it’s funny. It’s funny that you’re a super assassin that worked for a secret agency bent on global control, and you don’t get why we might need something like this!”

“Tony, now might not be the time,” Banner’s voice chimed in from the sidelines.

“And you!” Bucky turned to face Banner, jabbing a finger in his direction. “You just went along with it… In fact, you helped him create this monster! And you didn’t think to say anything to the rest of us?”

Banner winced, his posture collapsing in on itself. His eyes darted toward Natasha, then back to Bucky, then moved to the floor. James gave him a final glare before turning and taking his place next to his girlfriend’s side.

The rest of the group resumed their arguing, with Stark loudly defending his position, Thor’s tired voice complaining about the loss of the scepter, and Rhodey and Hill worrying about Ultron’s access to weapons of mass destruction. Steve, in his eternal optimism and loyalty, spoke of teamwork, of shared victories, and of supporting each other even in defeat. As much as he respected his best friend, Bucky had difficulty keeping from rolling his eyes. It was clear that Stark thought more of himself than he did of the team. And it was clear that Banner was going to take whatever side provided the strongest argument in that moment. They both made him feel sick to his stomach.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long until the group disbanded, taking Clint’s probably wise suggestion to sleep on the situation and meet again in the morning. Despite his fury, Bucky kept his hand gentle as he placed it at the small of Natasha’s back, ushering her ahead as he shot one final icy stare at Stark and Banner before heading upstairs to their shared room.

His mind was still swirling with anger as they rode the elevator in silence and entered their little space. Natasha immediately went about her bedtime routine in an almost mechanical fashion, removing jewelry, kicking off shoes, unzipping the sweatshirt she had borrowed from Clint and undressing before reaching for the nightgown she had tucked under her pillow. Bucky, however, wasn’t finished letting off steam.

“You know, we shouldn’t be surprised,” he nearly spat as he roughly unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off. “It’s completely in character for Stark to go behind our backs like this. Fucking narcissist with a hero complex.”

He threw the shirt carelessly to the ground and began to unbuckle his belt. “And Banner… I knew he and Stark were best scientist buddies but goddamn it, I didn’t expect them to plot together. It’s like he’s afraid to say no to-“

“James…”

He turned, surprised to hear the strain in Natasha’s voice. She was standing in the doorway between their bedroom and bathroom, looking especially tired. For a moment, he was taken aback. The Black Widow rarely let her guard down, rarely showed her true emotions and weaknesses. But now she stood before him, the skin around her eyes taut, her lips drawn into a line, shoulders slightly slumped in fatigue. She didn’t say anything more, just looked at him with pleading eyes. It was true that he was a super soldier and she was not, but surely the night couldn’t have worn on her that much? Yes, it was late, and yes there had been a long party and a brutal fight, but that wasn’t more than the great Natasha Romanov could handle.

Then realization hit Bucky like a ton of bricks. It wasn’t the exertion of the evening that had gotten her down. The Avengers were the family Natasha and curated for herself. That she had opened up to, after so many years of keeping her feelings and attachments inside. The people in the world she was the most loyal to. And tonight, two of them had deceived the others and they had all ended up fighting. It was probably one of her worst case scenarios, a personal nightmare.

And his ranting wasn’t helping matters.

Bucky felt his body soften at the realization, and he immediately crossed the room to gather her into his arms. He felt her lift and lower in a sigh, leaning tightly into him as she laid her head against his shoulder.

“Tasha,” he began, slowly, “I’m sorry.”

Her fingers moved, thumbs brushing against his skin where her hands rested on his back. “No, you’re right to be angry,” she admitted. “I just… I had expected more from them.”

Bucky hated hearing the disappointment in her voice, and it stoked his temper even more. But he pushed it down. She didn’t need his anger. She needed his comfort.

“Nothing more we can do tonight,” he whispered into her hair, hoping his voice conveyed more softness than he felt. “We’ll sleep on it, and maybe find some answers in the light of the morning.”

He felt her sigh again, then shift in his arms. Natasha turned her face toward him, her eyes shining, but her expression gentle. “You’re right,” she said, simply. “Let’s go to bed.”

——

The morning came early and without much conversation. James’ troubled thoughts didn’t allow him much sleep, and he could tell his girlfriend was restless as well by the way she tossed and turned during the night. He did his best to wrap her up and soothe her, and she drifted off in his arms several times. But like his, her sleep never lasted. And when the sun finally rose, so did they.

After a shower they migrated down to the tower’s shared kitchen where he ate a piece of toast at her insistence and took great comfort in his mug of coffee. But the real relief came when the rest of their teammates filtered downstairs to get to work. Ultron had cleaned out their computerized data, so the Avengers went old school. They pulled out dusty filing boxes and began to sort through everything by hand, searching for any kind of lead.

The old fashioned Bucky Barnes wasn’t going to say so in front of his grumbling comrades, but he greatly preferred this method of gathering intel. There was something about holding actual paper in your hands, examining photos up close, without the glow of a computer screen. It felt more real to him. More trustworthy.

Natasha and Clint were the team’s coaches. Both having worked the spy network in the past, they suggested leads and delegated the work. Between pages of reading, James found himself stealing glances and his girl. She was different than she had been last night. She seemed strong, collected, confident, optimistic. This was how he liked her best, he thought to himself.

She caught his eye and flashed him a smile, which Bucky returned, sheepishly, upon realizing he had been caught staring. He opened his mouth to toss out a flirtatious comment, but was interrupted by Banner slamming a file box down on the table next to him.

“Well, these people are all horrible,” Banner said, thumbing through the files.

It takes one to know one, James thought to himself, fighting to suppress a snarl. But that particular box of paperwork actually produced their first good lead of the morning. It turned out that one of the arms dealers Stark knew had a thief's brand from Wakanda. And it also turned out that this particular arms dealer might have access to a very special metal that Ultron might be interested in.

“Ulysses Klaue? That’s quite a name. I think it’s worth looking into,” Steve said. “Where do we find this guy?”

All eyes turned to Stark, who seemed surprised by the attention. “What? I don’t know,” the billionaire snapped back. “We met at a convention, not a house party.”

“You don’t know anything? Not even where he does business?” Clint replied, folding his arms across his chest.

Stark tilted his head. “I feel like he had a workshop somewhere in Africa? I could be wrong. I didn’t really listen when he was talking.”

James clenched his teeth, suppressing another biting comment. Go figure the self-absorbed Stark wouldn’t care to remember what other people had to say.

But Natasha was doing something more constructive than making jabs at her teammates. She had gracefully placed herself in the chair Banner had just occupied and was typing away at the computer.

“I thought the computers were wiped,” Thor said, glancing up at Natasha from Klaue’s file.

The redhead didn’t take her eyes off the screen as she replied. “The memory was wiped, but we can still access the internet. Which means…”

She tapped the return key and glanced over her shoulder at her friends with a wry smile. “…we can still hack into Klaue’s bank account.”

Clint barked a laugh and James felt a proud grin spread over his face. Find where the man is spending his money, and tracking him down is easy.

“Remind me to update my passwords,” Stark commented, cautiously eyeing the back of Natasha’s head.

“South Africa,” Natasha replied, turning her eyes back to the screen. “At least, that’s where he gets his groceries. But he has some very recent, very major deposits and then… a plane ticket.”

Stark snapped his fingers. “Bingo.”

“Plane ticket to where?” Banner asked.

The girl shrugged. “Where would any seedy arms dealer go if they suddenly had a few extra billion dollars in their wallet?”

“VEGAS!” Stark cried, throwing his arms in the air.

Natasha swiveled in her chair to face her friends. “Vegas,” she repeated.

The others nearly exploded with comments, positive and negative, excited voices matched with words of caution. But James kept quietly to himself as a memory tickled at the back of his mind.

Like a dream in the hours after waking, the memory was elusive. The more his mind tried to concentrate, to grab it and force it to reveal it’s locked away secrets about his past, the further it slipped away. He was left with a faint feeling of unease and of a vision of red hair against neon lights.

“Well if that’s where our best lead is, that’s where we should be going,” Banner said, snapping James out of his thoughts, though he was fiddling with his glasses and looking thoroughly uncomfortable with the idea as he spoke.

Clint shook his head. “All of us? That would scare him, put him on the defensive. If we want to get information, we should start delicately.”

“So what,” Stark replied. “We send the Widow?”

All eyes turned to Natasha, and James winced inwardly. To say that he disliked missions where she tried to seduce a man for information was the understatement of the century.

Steve turned away, threading his fingers together at the back of his head, and Clint folded his arms across his chest, eyes to the floor. Natasha’s closest friends didn’t like it either.

“Actually,” the Black Widow began slowly, “after reading Klaue’s bio, I don’t know that he would respond to my usual ways of mining information. He might brag, but I doubt he’s the type to reveal any pertinent information.”

She crossed one leg over the other and twirled a finger through her crimson hair. “He might respond better to a show of strength. Honest, upfront confrontation. Not by all of us, we don’t want to overwhelm him. But one or two should do the job.”

“Easy,” Stark quickly butted in. “Nat and I will go. She knows interrogation, and I know Vegas.”

“And let her do all the work while you run off and have fun? I don’t think so,” Clint replied with a frown. “I’ll go.”

Thor stepped forward. “If we’re trying to intimidate the man, it should be the mightiest Avenger who does it,” he said, lifting his chin.

Banner looked startled. “What? I don’t think I’d be very good at it.”

Thor whirled on the scientist. “What?”

“What?”

“Look, if you want someone who won’t get distracted, it should be me who goes,” Steve butted in, but he was quickly overruled.

“You wouldn’t know the first thing to do in Vegas, Boy Scout,” Stark said, holding up a hand. “Look, I’ll-“

But Bucky had had enough. “I’m going with Tasha,” he said, rising to his feet. “She knows how to get information, and I know how to intimidate.”

The rest of the group looked up at him in surprise, including his girlfriend.

“Besides,” Bucky added, meeting her green eyes with a crooked smile. “I owe her a date night anyway.”