Untrue

Bucky presses him up against the wall, one hand on his hip, the other tangled in his hair and Tony lets out a soft moan. It’s been awhile, too long, since he’s gotten this kind of attention and he misses it. Probably wouldn’t be so bad if Steve paid any attention to him at all but he doesn’t, hasn’t in forever and yeah maybe getting with his best friend freshly found in a HYDRA facility is all kinds of unethical but when Bucky kisses him like this its hard to remember that. Bucky pulls away a little and Tony lets out a soft noise of protest, earning a laugh from Bucky.

“Shit, I didn’t expect you to be so enthusiastic,” he says and yeah okay neither did Tony but he genuinely does miss intimacy. The best he gets is movie night with Peter and that’s not really the kind of intimacy he’s looking for, obviously.

“Yeah, well. You’re a great kisser,” he says even though its not really the reason he responded so well, not totally anyway.

When Bucky looks him over, lust evident on his features, Tony shivers. “Well someone has to do it,” he murmurs, kissing Tony again and he melts into it, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s neck and standing on his toes to get better access to his mouth. Bucky nips at his bottom lip, hand travelling down from his hair to his hip as he lifts Tony’s shirt a little and runs his hand over Tony’s bare skin. He lets out another soft moan as Bucky lifts his shirt and he pulls back briefly to pull it over Tony’s head so he can toss it aside.

He settles his hands back on Tony’s hips and looks him over again, biting his lip as he does. Tony moves forward, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s neck again but he doesn’t quite make it to kiss him because someone knocks on the door. Peter, wouldn’t be anyone else. He sighs and moves to pull away but Bucky doesn’t let him. Instead he kisses down the side of Tony’s neck and oh, that’s nice, almost nice enough to forget Peter is at the door but he knocks again.

“Um. I know you’re in there. JARVIS ratted you out,” Peter tells him. Tony rolls his eyes because he’s not trying to avoid the kid; he’s trying to separate Bucky’s actions from his current parental duties.

He tries to shoo Bucky off, pulling himself from his grasp not that he makes it far. Bucky wraps an arm around his waist and pulls him back to Tony’s back is to his chest and Tony shakes his head. “You’re terrible,” he mumbles but Bucky only laughs.

“Mhm, s’not my fault you’re so irresistible,” he murmurs, pressing his face back into Tony’s neck. Tony rolls his eyes but his stomach flutters a little in a way it hasn’t in a long, long time. Its nice, feeling wanted in some way again.

“What is it, Peter?” he asks, trying to shoo Bucky away again unsuccessfully. He shakes his head but lets Bucky keep a hold of him mostly because he likes the attention.

“Can I go hang out with Ned?” he asks, voice hopeful. Too hopeful.

“What are you doing with Ned?” he asks and he can practically hear Peter try and think up a lie.

“Um. History homework,” he says and yeah, Tony’s seen his schedule.

“That’s funny, you don’t have history this term,” he says. Behind him Bucky laughs a little.

“Busted,” he murmurs and yeah, Peter’s a shittier liar than Tony and that’s genuinely difficult to manage given how shit of a liar he is.

“Ned’s history homework?” Peter tries and Tony rolls his eyes.

“I distinctly remember Ned saying he’d rather die than take another history class so unless Ned is a ghost I don’t think that’s happening.”

On the other side of the door Peter sighs. “Can I go to a party?” he asks, defeated. He doesn’t expect a yes but Tony has more trust in him than he realizes. Stupid high school lies aside he’s a good kid and rarely gets into trouble.

“Fine, but be back by eleven,” he tells Peter, who lets out a noise of surprise and happiness.

“Thanks! Can I stay out till twelve?” he asks.

“Don’t press you luck, kid,” Tony tells him.

“Okay bye, be back by eleven!” Peter says, running off presumably to go get ready.

Tony turns back to Bucky and he raises an eyebrow, “you’re going to let him go?” he asks, sans the usual judgment he’d get from Steve. Bucky’s curious, Steve would be pissed.

“What’s the worst the kid could get in to?” he reasons. Peter isn’t much of a drinker, he knows better than to do drugs because Tony has had that discussion with him, and he knows plenty about Tony’s history with addiction so he knows he’s predisposed to it. Granted Tony doesn’t think Peter’s got an addictive personality but he still made sure the kid was educated so he could make safe choices. Tony trusts that he will because he has no reason to think he won’t. Honestly Peter might be more mature than Tony and he’s a teenager so.

Bucky laughs, leaning down to press a kiss to his temple. “Well, if he’s anything like you, probably a lot,” he murmurs.

But Peter isn’t anything like him and that’s a good thing, Tony thinks, because he’s currently in his husband’s best friend’s arms shirtless after a heavy petting session that probably would have ended up more than that if not for Peter showing up. That’s bad enough, but his lack of guilt is worse. Steve might be a shit husband but that’s no real excuse for his actions.

*

James, because he’s not Bucky- that much he knows even if he’s a little confused on how he came into being, doesn’t like Steve. He doesn’t like him for a lot of reasons but the main reason is that he’s lost in this time, which wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t expect Bucky to be as lost as he is. Misery loves company, as the saying goes. But Bucky isn’t lost, not the way Steve is anyway. Sure he doesn’t know what to do without the strict rules of HYDRA, and he’s got a bunch of problems mostly centered around the fact that everything makes him anxious, including leaving the Tower but that’s not the same as Steve.

The other reason he doesn’t like Steve is Tony. James isn’t the feelings type, doesn’t like to get too warm and fuzzy with people because they’re breakable and sometimes he dreams of murdering them, but Tony is different. He doesn’t really know when he started to develop some type of feeling towards him, but he does know that after months of watching Steve neglect Tony he started to get pissed off about it. Tony does his fair share of neglect too, but he’s still always the one to reach out and try to do something with Steve. He never really takes Tony up on it either, not unless it’ll look good and that really pisses him off.

Tony’s smart, and generous, and damn hot so he doesn’t get what the fuck Steve’s deal is. Far as James is concerned he’s got one hell of a great husband who’d probably be a lot more interested if Steve fucking paid attention to him once and awhile. When he’d kissed Tony he was like putty in his hands, so ready to do what he wanted and he doesn’t get how Steve can pass that up. Everything about Tony is some level of desirable to him, even his weird habit of hanging out in his lab for way too damn long. Just gives him an excuse to go drag him out and spend some time with him, maybe force him to put the coffee down.

Then there’s Peter to consider and he’s not stupid, he knows his parent’s relationship is failing especially because he ends up the subject of a lot of arguments between them. Steve and Tony have vastly different parenting styles and no apparent desire to reconcile their views. Doesn’t much help that Tony has been parenting Peter on his own for most of Peter’s life. Steve didn’t show up until he was nine, and they didn’t get married for another two years. Now Peter’s fifteen, probably in denial about his parents hating each other, and probably doesn’t much like that his parents fight about him all the time either. That doesn’t irritate James as much as Steve clearly squandering his relationship with Tony but it does annoy him. It’s not like the kid gets into much shit if any, what’s the purpose of arguing about him all the time?

Tony walks into the kitchen, pulling him from his thoughts and he tracks Tony’s movements. He’s been doing it for a long time, but Tony never really noticed. Actually the only one who’s noticed anything amiss is Natasha not that he’s surprised. He’s aware of the Russian’s training, they traded methods with HYDRA. She’d be well trained, very well trained, so the fact that she’s noticed his wandering eye and probably Bucky too isn’t that surprising. This time though Tony notices the way his eyes follow him and he smiles a little over his shoulder- a small, flirtatious gesture. Yeah, he could do with a lot more than that out of Tony but Steve walks in not long after and sours the whole thing.

“Peter was out late last night,” he says and Tony sighs.

“Subways were held up a little. Figured I’d cut him a break all things considered.” Tony starts the coffee machine while Steve gives him an irritated look.

“He should have accounted for that before he ended up late.”

For a moment Tony does nothing but stare at the coffee machine but then he turns. “Steve, he can’t predict when the damn subways will be late. Its fine, he was only twenty minutes late.”

Steve raises an eyebrow, “Hope you don’t run your company like you parent,” he says and Tony sputters, obviously pissed off and clueless as to how to respond to that.

“Wow, okay. Don’t know where the hell that came from but for the record people do sometimes show up because they can’t predict subway lines being late either. It happens. Also, this is his home, not his damn job so why are we holding him to the same standards?” Tony asks, squinting.

“How’s he supposed to learn responsibility if you keep excusing him every time he does something wrong?” Steve asks, leaving Tony sputtering again.

“Steve, the kid had straight A’s, has gotten into two NASA summer internships and one at SI all without my assistance and deals with all the bullshit that comes from being a trans kid and the son of a celebrity. Does showing up twenty minutes late for a reason he couldn’t help really negate all that to you? Pick your fucking battles Steve, being a little late has no consequences at all, does it really make sense to be pissed off about it?” he asks, obviously baffled.

“Yes Tony, because you gave him a time to he home at and he failed that responsibility. Sure he’s a good kid, but he should know there should be consequences to his actions,” Steve says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Fine, next time I guess we can expect him to roll around in some radioactive goo and hope he ends up psychic so he can predict when public transit will be late,” Tony snaps, irritated.

“He could have called Happy,” Steve points out.

“Streets aren’t really less congested so he still would have been late and what, do we ground Happy too?” he asks and James snorts, he can’t help it. The image of Tony scolding Happy and then grounding him is hilarious, especially because Happy would take it too.

Steve and Tony turn to glare at him and he sighs, “what?”

“Who do you think is right here?” Steve asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Don’t stick him in the middle of it, this isn’t his problem.”

“Don’t see why being twenty minutes late is that big of a deal. You did worse,” he says. Tony looks vindicated and James has no idea if that’s even true, Steve doing worse. He knows Bucky thought he was a right pain in the ass to keep up with but he doesn’t know the specifics. He has a lot more access to Bucky’s thoughts and memories than the reverse, but he doesn’t know everything. Truthfully he kind of wants to piss Steve off and it looks like it’s working. Given the look on his face he assumes there are stories to be had there, whether or not he knows the extent of Steve’s actions before the war.

“This isn’t about me,” Steve says eventually.

James shrugs, “seems like it is since you’re the only one that’s pissed off,” he says and Tony coughs to cover a laugh. Steve isn’t so easily fooled so he turns to glare at him too.

The coffee machine beeps, informing them that its done, and Tony pulls the pot from the base and pours it into a cup. “I have work to do,” he says, fleeing the scene fast before Steve can protest.

Steve turns back to him, annoyed. “What the fuck was that?” he asks and James frowns.

“What the fuck was what?”

“That, telling Tony that he’s right. Who’s side are you on here?” he asks like Bucky should automatically side with him regardless of the situation.

He shrugs, “its twenty minutes and for a decent reason, you’re mad over something stupid.” He might not know if Steve has done something worse in his childhood but every Avenger has done something worse than that in the field. One time Tony almost collapsed a building; Thor and Bruce have almost done that too. Natasha nearly got four civilians killed the last time they dealt with Doom bots, Clint has almost shot most of NYC’s police force with arrows, and Steve has managed to throw his shield through so many windows Tony got annoyed and made all the windows in New York shield proof because he was tired of paying for the damages. Twenty minutes late is better than millions in damages to public buildings, nearly dead civilians and cops, and almost collapsed buildings. All in all Peter’s transgressions are miniscule.

Steve shakes his head, walking off because he’s clearly angry and doesn’t feel like fighting with him over it. It annoys him that Tony doesn’t get the same courtesy.

*

Tony avoids Steve for the rest of the day, but he does inform Peter that he’s not in trouble for something he can’t even help. Shit happens, and Tony’s late to everything. It would be the height of hypocrisy to get pissed off at his kid for being late especially when he didn’t mean to be. Steve though, he’s a fucking stickler for the rules and honestly Tony can’t even remember why he married him. Steve has to feel the same way, he’s sure, not that he’s ever said anything. But then divorce wasn’t really all that popular in his time. Neither was same sex marriage either and Steve… doesn’t tend to draw clear lines on when and where he’s stuck in the past. Sure, he tends to run liberal politically, but then he has weird views on hard work and rules and internet access and a bunch of other shit. It’s hard to figure out where he is most of the time and by now Tony has completely given up.

And that’s on him, he’ll admit that. Maybe he should have tried more, or maybe he should try still but it’s getting increasingly hard to spend any kind of time with Steve when it feels like it always ends in a fight. “Hey,” someone murmurs and he looks over, finding Bucky perched on one of the chairs on the roof. He likes it up here, even when he’s in one of his weird moods. Maybe its because he’s used to being a sniper or something, Tony doesn’t know. He likes it up here because of the view. The sunset is pretty, and the city at night is always beautiful. “Come here,” Bucky says, holding out his hand to him so Tony goes over. He doesn’t expect to be pulled into Bucky’s lap but he allows it, shifting so he’s straddling Bucky.

Bucky runs his hands up Tony’s sides and back down, “look, he’s being an ass,” he says and they both know who Bucky means.

“I know, but I swear he only argues with me like that because he wants to fight with me. He doesn’t do that to anyone else.” Natasha opposes his views all the time and Steve will listen to her, but when its Tony it’s a fight even if he’s saying all the same stuff Natasha is. He’s tested it because at first he thought he was imagining it, a confirmation bias of sorts. But no, when he tested his theory Steve out and out did make it a fight with him more often then not when he only gets bitchy with Natasha in extreme situations. Natasha thought he’d had something of a confirmation bias too until he showed her his compiled evidence then she mostly wondered what was up Steve’s ass in a lot more polite a way than he had.

Bucky leans forward and kisses him softly, “pretty sure he does, but I don’t know why.” Yeah, neither does Tony. Bucky kisses him again, soft and sweet, and Tony lets himself melt into it, relaxing under Bucky’s touch. “I’ve got you,” he murmurs and Tony smiles. He shouldn’t, not really, because failed marriage or not this is a really shitty thing to do to Steve. Wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t Bucky specifically but it is and when this all comes crashing down, and it will, it’s not going to be pretty.

But Tony’s has always been selfish so for now he chooses to ignore that in favor of enjoying the feeling of whatever this is. Tony wraps his arms around Bucky’s neck and presses him further back into the chair he’s in. “Yeah, I know,” he says, nipping at his lip before he kisses him again.