Kintsugi

“Say, when you made the plan… were you trying to avoid me?” Tony scoffed. They had just taken Steve back to their shared cell in what seemed to be an abandoned jail, all beaten up, for no apparent reason whatsoever, and that was what he decided to talk about?

“Don’t be so full of yourself, I just reasoned that given that there were five of you and only three of us, we had to split in a way that we were somehow even,” he decided to indulge him with an answer, if anything to make time until the guards left their cell.

“Really, Tony? ‘You’ and ‘us’?” Tony just rolled his eyes, “And what do you mean by ‘even’?” after deciding that staring at Steve as if he was an idiot wasn’t going to work, he sighed.

“Stephen, for example, is the only one who can wield power such as Maximoff’s, so if something was to go wrong, then he would have been able to handle it…”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking,” interrupted Steve. “Why didn’t we…?”

“Well, I think you remember what happened the last time I was left alone with you and Barnes, so sorry if I decided that the Hulk would be a better sitter for you,” was his cut response. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t receive a response to that. “Well, guess I was wrong considering we ended up here.” He added looking around and checking on the guards. Then he whispered: “Where did they take you?”

“I… I don’t know,” Steve murmured lowly, his face already becoming pretty swollen after all that beating, “one minute I was fighting with the Hulk, then next I woke up here and then these guys decided to take me and…”

“Use you as a practice punching bag?”

“I guess they did a pretty good job, considering I don’t remember much,” admitted Steve, which made Tony frown.

“You’re supposed to be a super soldier, how could they give you a contusion?” he moved closer, examining his face.

“I don’t know… Guess I’m getting old,” he tried to joke.

“Don’t give me that, you were already pretty old when I first meet you,” answered Tony.

***

“So, you just need a sample and you can track them,” Barnes was a smart guy, Stephen would give him that, or at least, he didn’t seem to bother so much with unnecessary questions.

“Yes, luckily for us, I already have a sample prepared for these kind of things,” of course, that would gain him questioning looks.

“Oh, he took one from everyone when we started working together, an idea he and Loki had for safety measures,” Bruce noticed a little too late how bad that sounded for the newcomers.

“Right,” said Natasha, turning back to Stephen, “how long will it take?”

“Just a moment,” he barely looked at her, maybe because he was very focused on his task or maybe, considering the cold look he gave her when she first announced Tony’s disappearance, because he was still angry with her. It was difficult to tell.

“What if this is another trap?” asked Brunnhilde.

“She has a point, what if the diversion was just part of a bigger diversion?” added Scott expanding his arms in order to emphasize his words.

“We’re not leaving Steve,” interrupted Natasha, “nor Tony behind.”

“Nobody said we should, I’m just saying that maybe we should split”, answered Brunnhilde.

“No intention to offend, but I think it did not work very well the last time,” replied Wanda, who had only stopped pacing around the room because Vision was holding her.

“No intention to offend, but we were working just fine until you arrived,” was Hope’s response.

“Hey, why don’t we calm down...?” said Scott standing between them.

“Oh, don’t tell me you blame us for your boyfriend’s choices,” replied Wanda ignoring Scott’s attempts to dissuade the situation.

“That’s enough!” everybody froze when they heard Hulk's voice. Fortunately, Bruce had not transformed... not yet, at least. “Listen, they are both my friends and I’m as worried as everyone, but we need to calm down and come up with a plan.”

“We already checked all the threatened areas and didn’t find anything, but as Miss Brunnhilde pointed out, we shouldn’t leave them unsupervised in case there is another attack,” informed Vision coolly as he massaged Wanda's arms to keep her calm.

“What should we do, Wizard?” asked Thor turning towards Stephen.

“I believe it would be best if you stay and patrol the city while I get those dumbasses,” he stated seriously, “after all, it would be better if we didn’t attract much attention.”

“I’ll go with you,” decided Bucky, gaining a raised eyebrow, “everyone needs backup and, well, Steve has saved me more times than I could count…”

“He’s your fiancé!” Sam reminded him incredulous that he left that detail aside.

“That too,” said Bucky, “but we aren’t doubting their ability to escape, I just want to save him so I can rub it on his face for a change,” he smiled and Stephen couldn’t help but smile back.

“I can respect that,” he said. “Ok, so we are leaving,” he announced making a portal, “Vision, you’re in charge until we’re back.”

“Thank you, Doctor Strange,” thanked Vision quietly, “and please, bring them safe,” he added.

“Of course,” Stephen said, giving way to Bucky inside the portal, before following him and disappearing out of thin air.

***

“You know, you seem pretty relaxed for a beaten up guy,” commented Tony after surrendering in his attempts to break free from his handcuffs. Steve shrugged.

“Sometimes it's better to wait for the right moment,” he explained. “Saves energy, you know?” He must have noticed Tony's confused expression because he added: “Bucky and the rest will come to rescue us, so we better save our energy so that when they come we can be of help.”

“Okay, that sounds too insightful to come from your mouth… Did they really beat you up that hard?” Steve laughed. “No, no, I’m being serious here. In all my years knowing you I’ve never seen you ‘wait for the right moment’, you’ve always been more of an impulsive type of guy.” Steve sighed.

“I know,” he said, almost shyly, “and that has led me to big mistakes.” Tony nodded, he was not going to argue with that. “But I'm trying to improve and Bucky has been helping me with that. Just thinking that all this ‘Civil War’ nonsense could have been avoided if we had talked... I… I’m really sorry about it, Tony, you know that, right?”

“Maybe they didn’t just hit you, maybe they injected you something too,” Tony mused loudly.

“I’m being serious here! I know I hurt you, and last time we talked things didn’t exactly end well…”

“That could have been avoided if you had told me, I don’t know, that you were going to marry Barnes!”

“I was going to… really, but things got out of hand so quickly…” Tony exhaled, how did they end up talking about this anyway?

“I guess I didn’t made things easier either.”

“You didn’t, but I cannot blame you for that,” he said with a small smile. “God, we were such a great team…”

“I know,” Tony said returning the smile, “and I also like to think that we were good friends.”

“I know,” he sighed. “I like to think we were good friends too.”

“But then… why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I told you, I thought that by not telling you about your parents I was sparing you…”

“Not that, what was going on with Barnes,” Tony answered. “First you don’t tell me he was in Wakanda, which would have been useful considering that we were about to fight against an alien invasion and the last thing I needed was to have a panic attack… And please, don’t say it was to protect me, because later you also didn’t tell me about your fucking engagement! Why? It's not like you could hurt me any more after you said he's your friend and apparently I wasn’t anymore…”

“You are my friend,” he interrupted, “or at least, I want you to be.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Believe it or not, I was trying to protect you,” he looked at him straight in the eyes, “I know you used to… have feelings for me, and I know it’s stupid considering all the damage I’ve done to you, but I assumed that mentioning the engagement would only hurt you more…” He confessed. “Of course, I didn’t know that that doctor and you were a thing...”

“Wait, what?”

“What?”

“We are not ‘a thing’.” Unfortunately, even as he spoke those words, Tony could feel his face burning. This was not good.

***

Although they could have easily teleported directly into the entrance, Stephen decided that it would be best to keep as unnoticed as possible, which meant teleporting in the middle of the forest surrounding the area. Apparently, Tony and Rogers were taken to an abandoned jail, which kind of made sense considering the facilities it would provide to keep two of the oldest Avengers captive.

“There does not seem to be anyone in the perimeter, follow me,” Barnes said after inspecting the area. He had to admit that his training was more than adequate for this type of mission. Although, being honest, he didn’t need to worry so much. Yes, they had been taken by surprise, but given the weaponry the enemy used they probably were mere humans which, compared to their previous enemies, made them an easy target. And yet, why did he feel so restless?

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they are fine,” offered Barnes after giving him a brief look to check he was still behind.

“I’m not worried,” as soon as he said that, he knew how unconvincing, even ridiculous, he sounded.

“It’s okay. I’m worried too, you know?”

“What happened to you not ‘doubting their ability to escape’?” Barnes shrugged.

“Logically, I’m not worried, but we’re not really logical when it comes to the people we love, are we?” Barnes said, shooting him a brief smile as he moved forward, not noticing how Stephen stayed behind or, at least, not immediately. “Hey, are you coming or not?”

“Right, right,” he said, moving almost automatically, his mind still processing the words of the Winter Soldier. Was he implying what he thought he was implying? “When you say, ‘people we love’, you mean…”

“I’m about to marry one of those dumbasses, I think you know what I mean,” Barnes said, but then he seemed to notice where his question came from. “Wait, Stark and you aren’t dating?”

“No, what gave you that idea?”

“Well, we all thought you did after the show you made when we were in Wakanda,” Barnes answered honestly.

“I’m sure I mentioned that Miss Pepper was Tony’s fiancée,” he said, his voice sounding almost defensive.

“Right, as if anyone would believe that given Tony’s history…”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, his little infatuation with Steve, for starters,” he stopped, inspecting Stephen carefully. “You were aware of that, weren’t you?”

“Of course, I mean, he never told me directly, but I had my suspicions,” he admitted. Well, Tony did say that he was over Rogers, so technically he had confirmed said suspicions long ago.

Barnes sighed in relief.

“For a moment I thought I had screwed up,” he explained with a guilty smile. “Okay, let’s keep going, we should also come with some kind of strategy…”

“Right, but… can I ask you something first?” he asked without thinking.

“Shoot.”

“Was this… ‘infatuation’, as you call, unidirectional?”

“I'm not sure if it's up to me to say it,” Barnes admitted as they walked, “but I guess it doesn’t hurt anyone,” as Barnes talked, Stephen couldn’t help but wonder why he had asked that question in the first place. What did he care? “I’ve talked about this several times with Steve before, and although he swears he loves me, I know Tony has a special place in his heart, kind of like how Peggy does.”

“And you are okay with that?”

“We cannot control whom we love,” he said lifting his shoulders, “and it’s not as if he loves us the same way… There are just, different types of love, I guess? And even so, he chose me,” he said with a small laugh, “and I’m not just talking about our engagement, he chose me several times before that.” Stephen nodded silently, unsure if that was what he wanted to hear. “So I’m not worried, and you shouldn’t be either, you know?”

“I’m not worried,” he found himself saying once again.

“Right,” Barnes smiled as they stopped behind a tree from which they could see the entrance to the abandoned jail. “So, what’s the plan?”

The plan could have been summarized as entering the place and knocking each and every guard down until they found their two dumbasses, because that was exactly what they did, and with great success. Although the building was quite large and fairly guarded, it wasn’t difficult for them to sneak from room to room, leaving the guards either unconscious or immobilized.

“We are not a thing,” Stephen recognized Tony's voice immediately, they were close. “Stephen is a great friend but we are not a thing,” he froze, what were they talking about exactly? “And that’s no excuse. Yes, I…,” there was hesitance, “…I loved you, okay?”

“Strange, pay attention,” called Barnes, waking him up from whatever it had come over him. He wasn’t sure if Barnes had heard the conversation or not, but seeing the guards, he knew it wasn’t the time for spacing out. After casting a quick spell, they were soon running down the hall and towards their cell.

“Bucky!” exclaimed Rogers happily as soon as he spotted them.

Another spell and the jail bars were gone. They both moved quickly towards the prisoners, Barnes surrounded Rogers with his arms before turning away and examining him carefully. Stephen, meanwhile, knelt down next to Tony and undid his handcuffs before checking him. At first glance, he looked much better compared to Rogers.

“Careful where you put your hands, doctor,” Tony joked.

“You’re welcome,” he said sarcastically in return. Once he decided that Tony was in a decent condition, he stood up and offered his hand to help him get up.

“Seriously, thanks for coming here and helping with this,” he said standing up without any major difficulty, although his hands lingered for a moment on his… or that was what he wanted to believe.

“Of course,” he answered, and as he stared at Tony he realized that maybe Barnes had a point. He sighed in surrender before putting on his best smile, “I had to. We’re awesome facial hair bros.” Tony’s eyes lighten up instantly.

“Wow. All of this was totally worth it just for that.” Stephen chuckled.

“You can’t be serious…”

“No really, this,” he said pointing between them, “this is definitely something.” Too bad it wasn’t enough. Stephen cleared his throat.

“Okay, time for you to go,” he said, his voice sounding tighter than he expected.

“Wait, aren’t we going to question the bad guys?” asked Tony confused.

“Barnes and I will take care of it, you two need to be checked by a doctor,” he answered avoiding Tony’s eyes on him. Great, now he was making things uncomfortable. He sighed. “Just go, okay?” Tony pursed his lips, definitely considering arguing with him, but instead he nodded.

“Okay,” he said. Stephen made a new portal, and Tony walked towards it while guiding Steve, “Come on, Capsicle, let’s go,” Stephen grimaced at the nickname.

“Let’s find out what they’re up to,” said Barnes as soon as they disappeared. Stephen nodded, and they both headed towards the two guards they left unconscious at the entrance. However, what they found were their lifeless bodies. “What the hell? How is this possible?” Asked Barnes as he looked over the bodies, trying to find any fatal wound. That couldn’t be a good sign.

“Let’s check the others,” Stephen decided, and soon they were running around the jail, checking each and every body they could find. All the same, no major injuries except the ones they made to immobilize them or leave them unconscious.

“What’s the meaning of this?” asked Barnes, once they concluded they were the only two people alive in that place.

“I’m not sure, but I can make a guess,” murmured Stephen standing up, leaving the body he was revising on the floor. “They must have taken cyanide pills.”

“Which means they were already expecting us,” mused Barnes.

“Scott was right, this actually was a major diversion,” continued Stephen thinking.

“But a diversion from what?” Stephen stared back at the bodies, as expecting them to answer. He was going to call emergencies and have them perform an autopsy on them, but even then, the odds that it was something else were discouraging.

“That’s what I’d like to know.”