Untrue

Tony knows he’s putting off talking to Peter about this whole… mess, but in his defense he’s doing it for good reason. Okay, no he isn’t. He just doesn’t want all this to be… real, in a sense. He used to not see himself as the marriage type, funny how true that kind of is even after being married, but he doesn’t really want a divorce either. Clinging to the idea of a marriage that, even if it was real for a time, hasn’t been for a long time. Stupid he knows, but true nonetheless.

The benefit is that Bucky’s in one of those weird moods of his so its not like he’s acting suspicious about the whole thing like he would be if he was thinking straight. Granted that didn’t mean he expected Bucky to walk into the kitchen looking confused with his phone in his hand. “Tony. Why has no one told me there’s a movie about a woman who leaves her fiancé for a bee that’s suing the human race?” he asks, distraught.

Tony squints, “honey, I have no idea what you’re referencing,” he says. The pet name slips out easily, a little too easily given that Tony has no idea who’s around and Natasha already has her suspicions. No one pops out of the shadows though and Bucky only looks more confused but his lack of knowledge on some movie that sounds too ridiculous to be real.

“There is a movie. The woman in the movie leaves her fiancé for a bee. In a romantic sense. And the bee is suing the human race. This feels monumental, how do you not know about it?” he asks, looking no less distraught. For a moment Tony just stares because he doesn’t know what to do with this information. The premise of this movie sounds no less ridiculous the second time around and Tony can’t say he’s familiar with it. Which might be for the best. Thankfully he’s saved by Peter walking in and giving him and Bucky a confused look. “Do you know about the movie where the woman leaves her fiancé for the bee?” Bucky asks and Tony smacks his palm to his forehead.

Peter frowns, “The Bee Movie?” he asks and Tony’s eyebrows draw together.

“That’swhat happens in that movie?” he asks. He thought that was a comedy and yeah, people made jokes about it but people make jokes about everything. He didn’t think any of them were genuinely the plot of the movie.

“Have you not seen The Bee Movie?” Peter asks and Tony shrugs.

“No. Had no reason to. Is that… is that a real plot point?” That doesn’t sound like a real plot point.

Peter looks excited and that’s Tony’s first clue that this is going to go horribly but he ignores that. “We should watch it!” he says excitedly.

Tony’s tempted to pass but Bucky looks over at him with wide eyes looking entirely too adorable. “I need to see this. The future is a mystery to me and I must unravel it.” That’s endearing, really. At least Bucky is actually curious about the future, Steve pretty much only ever engaged with what he had to for the longest time. Still does if he can get away with it.

So he sighs. “Fine. Guess we’re watching The Bee Movie.”

*

On any given day Tony isn’t so good with bad news. Or good news- all in all he sucks at this sort of thing so while Peter and Bucky are laughing entirely way too hard at the woman actuallyleaving her fiancé, who appears to be the only person who’s normal in the movie despite being painted as an antagonist of sorts, for a beehe figures he’ll rip the bandaid off. “Steve and I are getting a divorce,” he tells Peter, who stops laughing immediately and Tony winces.

“Oh. That’s probably a good thing,” he says and Tony frowns. “What? I love you guys but you suck together. You should date Natasha, live my dreams,” he says and Tony blinks a few times in surprise because of all the people Peter could have chosen for a crush a murderous spy assassin is not a good choice. Sure Natasha has kind of changed her ways but also she’s not a good option for Peter. Or mostly anyone, Natasha seems more of an on-her-own type.

“He makes kind of a good point,” Bucky adds but its surprisingly gentle.

Tony sighs, “is anyone actually upset about this?” he asks.

“Are you?” Peter asks and Tony gives him a look.

“Yeah, kind of. My marriage has gone to shit.” Is he really the only one who cares about that? Sure he doesn’t expect Steve to care given that he asked for a divorce before noon the other day but shit, he figured someone elsemight care.

“It did that forever ago, dad. Maybe… you should take this as a good thing. Move on; do stuff on your own for a bit. You seemed freer before you got married,” Peter tells him and Tony slumps in his seat. Great, even his kidhates his marriage. Something on screen catches Peter’s eye and he grins, leaning forward. “This is the part where the lawyer implies that she’s sleeping with the bee!” he says excitedly.

Tony can’t believe, in the middle of telling his kid he’s getting a divorce, he has to witness with his own two eyes a cartoon lawyer use the phrase ‘are you her little bed bug?’ in a suggestive way. He fucking hates this movie.

*

Natasha sits perched at a table with one Sam Wilson across from her. She likes Sam well enough even if she thinks he can do better than Steve at the moment. Steve’s a mess, Sam seems much more together than him. And on any given day a pinecone has it more together than Tony, not that Sam holds an interest. But she does given that she has to live with the guy and his mental state permeates the space he’s in. It’s exhausting. She’s got no clue how Peter grew up so chipper and adorable.

“So what’s the gossip?” he asks, leaning in because apparently he’s that kind of guy.

Which is great, because she’s that kind of girl. A spy needs to love gossip; they make their living off of it. The difference between a spy and the town gossip is that the spy can kill people in a thousand different ways and fact checks the gossip they find. That’s it. Oh, and the occasional committing treason and other frowned upon crimes. “Rumor has it Steve asked Tony for a divorce,” she says and Sam’s eyebrows go up.

“Damn. Any word on how true that is?” he asks like he doesn’t have a personal investment in the situation. He’s good at hiding it but she’s better at reading people than most. Its rare, exceedingly so, to find a person she can’t read well. Tony is the first she’s come across since the nineties.

“Got the news from Peter, who told me Tony dropped that little nugget in the middle of The Bee Movie and Tony never would have told Peter that if it wasn’t true.” Not with his weird protectiveness over the kid. He’s so worried about making Peter’s home environment stable by keeping him and Steve together that he doesn’t seem to realize its been unstable forever and maybe he should divorce Steve.

Natasha wonders if maybe its some weird recreation of his parent’s situation and she knows he idealizes the time when they were alive even if he hates Howard. But ultimately she’s not sure due to that pesky inability to read Tony quite right. She’s gotten better since she met him but she swears he’s layer after layer of mess with someone underneath all that but finding who that is is difficult.

Steve finds him difficult to pin down too and she’s sure that’s at least part of their marriage problems. That Steve can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t because Tony is so good at faking it. They’ve all watched the way he turns on the charm and plays the crowd, its hard not to wonder if he’s doing that at home too. Or more accurately when he’s doing that at home because they know he does, its just hard to differentiate it from the genuine moments. Peter seems to be the only one who can make that distinction and he’s clearly reading things no one else is picking up on. Must he the result of living with Tony his whole life.

Sam sits back in his seat, still playing it pretty cool for a guy who’s just a little over attached to Steve’s relationship status. “Well that’s new,” he says.

Natasha shakes her head, “so you and Steve. What’ll you do with that?” she asks, surprising Sam when she shouldn’t have. He’s almost as good at reading people as she is and that’s not an easy skill to develop. And from the sounds of it he doesn’t have the same trouble with Tony that she does too, something she finds both impressive and admirable.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lies.

She rolls her eyes at him. “Sam I’m not stupid, I have functioning senses so I knowthat you have a thing for Steve. How’s he feel about that?” she asks, curious. So he hasn’t been interested in Tony for a long time, doesn’t mean he’d take kindly to interest coming from elsewhere. He’s only a traditionalist when he feels like it, but this seems like one of the things he’d have a more traditional mindset towards.

Sam raises an eyebrow, “you don’t know? Guess you haven’t seen us together, but if I were to describe our relationship he’d be the aggressor.” Well shit, Natasha sure as hell hadn’t seen thatcoming. Tony, sure she’d expect fucking around out of him given his reputation and his general personality but Steve? That’s a surprise. “What? Its not like he’s done much about it at least physically, but he’s been eyeball deep in an emotional affair for months if I’m honest.”

Well damn, color Natasha surprised, that’s not something she would have predicted and usually she’s pretty good at this stuff. This… is not going to be good when Tony finds out about it. Maybe she’s not good at reading him, but she doesn’t need to be to know that he seems to be the only one upset by the prospect of his divorce. Which makes her wonder if her suspicions about him and Barnes are off, but most of her information gathering on that had been fromBarnes, not Tony. So she thought she’d get a better read. But Tony is the only one distraught by this mess so maybe Tony wasn’t lying when he said it was one sided.

“I should have paid more attention to you, you make things interesting around here,” she says. Its been awhile since she’s had some good drama. At first Steve and Tony were good entertainment but they’ve long since lost their luster to the point of being more of an annoyance than anything. “But given that information I guess I can anticipate Steve’s feelings on this whole mess,” she says, shaking her head.

“Maybe not,” Sam tells her. “He thinks Tony will make Avengers business difficult.”

Natasha snorts, “no he won’t. Not more than usual anyway. He never listens to Steve in the field anyway and beyond that he’s not thatmuch of an asshole, he’s not going to risk people’s lives because he thinks Steve sucks.” He already thinks that and worse, she’s sure, and he hasn’t caused more problems than normal.

Sam nods, “figured as much.”

*

Bucky doesn’t really know what to make of Tony’s sadness over his marriage. Its clear the marriage wasn’t working in any capacity but he also seems to be the only one mourning that loss. This isn’t the kind of thing he’s good at, comfort, but he tries his best anyway and Tony seems to at least be less upset watching a movie than he had been earlier. Probably because Peter didn’t really havea reaction to the news of divorce aside from agreeing with it.

Tony wraps himself in a blanket and sits close to him. “I can’t believe no one has shown you James Bond. What kind of heathens live with me?” he mumbles and Bucky laughs.

“You didn’t show me either,” he points out and Tony makes an offended noise.

“Excuse me, what is this, then? Oh, showing you James Bond because no one else did it!” Tony waves a hand around, clearly still offended. Bucky shakes his head but lets Tony have it. Clearly he has a lot of media to catch up on anyway and he already knows there’s a bunch of things people like nowthat he’s clueless about. And then there’s weird stuff like The Bee Movie, and Bucky doesn’t even know how that got made and Peter has informed him that that absolutely isn’t the worst movie ever made.

It takes a total of twenty minutes for Bucky to decide he doesn’t like James Bond but Tony looks overinvested in the movie so he figures maybe it’ll get better or something. In the meantime he figures watching Tony’s reactions makes for better entertainment anyway. He’s clearly seen the movie a million times because he keeps quoting it under his breath, anticipating the next plot point. Its cute, not that Bucky has much of a right to think so. So he and Steve are getting a divorce, that doesn’t mean he should lust after his now ex. And especially not when Tony seems to be genuinely upset with the whole thing. He mostly ignores his wayward feelings as the movie progresses, difficult as that is, until finally the movie is over.

Tony gives him an expectant look and Bucky wrinkles his nose. “Oh, absolutely notBucky! You don’t get to betray me like this!” Tony says, obviously offended.

“Its not that good,” Bucky says, shrugging.

“I think you might have been dropped on your head as a child,” Tony says, shaking his head.

“I mean, maybe. But if we’re talking head injuries its probably the seventy years of electroshock therapy that did me in,” he points out. Tony winces but Bucky shrugs, unconcerned. “You’ve got to have something better thanthatthough.”

“James Bond is a classic!” Tony says, hand pressed to his heart.

“James Bond is irritating. Got anything with music in it?” he asks and Tony squints.

“Everything as a sound track, Bucky. And I am notwatching a musical with you,” he says, shaking his head.

Bucky grins and takes that as a challenge.

*

Yeah, okay, Tony hates musicals but Bucky wore him down and he’s hated every single second of Rocky Horror, a movie he only knows about because he knows the songs and Peter knows the dances. Bucky is clearly finding it more enjoyable than he is so mostly he works on a couple designs for Natasha’s Widow suit. She keeps busting the damn bites and he has noclue how. Going over recorded footage has mostly led him to wonder if they keep breaking because she’s bad with technology or something.

He leans into Bucky as he works, taking a small amount of comfort in his presence. Usually he’s not overly fond of touch when he’s like this but today he’s relaxed, happy. Tony doesn’t expect Bucky to wrap his arm around him and when he does Tony shuffles in closer, closing what little space was between them to begin with. Bucky looks surprised and Tony considers moving back for a moment to give him the space he usually prefers in these moods but Bucky turns back to the screen so he stays. Bucky doesn’t feel any more tense than normal anyway, and if he does Tony will move.

“Do you want some kind of gear? I know you usually stay here when we’re out but I don’t know if that’s because you don’t really have anything to help us with or because you don’t want to,” he says, looking up at Bucky.

Bucky shakes his head, “I’m fine. I… don’t know what I’d be like,” he murmurs.

Tony lays a hand on his thigh, squeezing gently. “You’d do fine, if you ever chose to come out with us. Its fine if you don’t anyway. Might as well leave someone at home on the off chance some asshole decides to trash my damn house again,” he mumbles. Fucking Loki. There was no need to ruin his penthouse but no, Loki had to go for the bar too.

Bucky turns back to the movie but his hand curls into a ball and he feels a little tense. He reaches out and smooths Bucky’s hand out, noting that his arm probably needs to be looked at. The reaction time of it seems slower than it should be. “Does that not scare you?” Bucky asks softly, turning his hand over in Tony’s.

He shakes his head. “No, Buck. To be honest I’ve always found technology more reliable and relatable than people. I know you got this under horrific circumstances, and that you’ve done terrible things with it. But that wasn’t really you anyway.”

“Feels like it was me,” Bucky murmurs.

“In a way it was,” Tony says. “But context matters, Bucky. Given the context of your situation you can’t really be held responsible for your actions. No one under that kind of mental duress could possibly make better choices.” Tony knows about HYDRA practices with each other let alone disposable assassins they sometimes send out to kill people. Its not pretty.

Bucky curls his arm around Tony tighter. “Steve would have resisted.”

Tony snorts, “you confuse being a good person with being unbreakable. There isn’t a person on this planet that wouldn’t have broken given the treatment you got. Maybe Steve would have broken differently, but he would have cracked eventually. And something tells me you weren’t easy to train either.”

“You believe that,” Bucky murmurs and Tony sets his tablet aside to face Bucky.

He reaches out and brushes a strand of hair from his face. “Of course I do. I’ve read enough news stories about people doing horrible things they never would have in their right mind because they were pushed to their extremes. Its not a moral failing, Bucky, its just how humans are.”

“You didn’t break,” he murmurs but Tony shakes his head.

“Yes I did. Not the same way you did, but I had the bomb the Ten Rings wanted half built. And before you bring up my daring escape I had a man with me there, Yinsen. He was the only thing that even kept me going in any capacity. He was the voice of reason. So don’t give me credit for what he did. He made me into who I am, this is hisdoing, not mine,” Tony tells him. “And you had no one.” Bucky leans forward, pressing his forehead to Tony’s. He runs his fingers through Bucky’s hair, “you didn’t fail, Bucky. What you went through isn’t something a better man could handle, it was just tragedy,” Tony murmurs.

They remain like that for a moment, foreheads together while Tony runs his hands through his hair before Bucky shifts a little. He leans forward slowly, like he’s giving time for Tony to pull away, before he kisses him softly. Tony’s fingers tighten in his hair a little as he presses in closer, making a small, pleased noise as Bucky’s arm tightens around him. The kiss is tentative, exploratory, and sweet as Bucky reaches out with his other hand, settling it somewhat awkwardly on Tony’s hip.

Tony smiles into the kiss, fingers threading through Bucky’s. “Here,” he murmurs, shifting so he’s straddling Bucky and placing his hand back on Tony’s hip. “That’s better,” he murmurs, running his hand up Bucky’s arm, over his shoulder, and back into his hair as he draws him into another kiss.

“S’been a long time,” Bucky murmurs and Tony frowns.

“Not that long.” Since what, this morning?

Bucky hums, “mm, since the forties, I think.” Forties? Tony pulls back a little, confused, but he doesn’t get the chance to voice his confusion.

“Are you serious?” he hears off to his left and he and Bucky both turn to find Steve glaring at them. Tony might have made a claim that nothing happened given that he’s pretty sure Steve missed most of that kiss but he’s sitting in Bucky’s lap with Bucky’s hands on his hips. The position is incriminating even without a kiss.