Waking Up
Bucky Barnes opened his eyes. He blinked slowly, trying to get used to the light shining in his eyes.
“Sergeant Barnes,”
Recognizing the name, Bucky blinked blearily faster, struggling to stand.
"Don't do that you silly white boy!"
That was a different voice. Bucky looked to his right to see a young woman pushing him back down in whatever cubicle he was. She had dark brown hair braided up into a bun. Her skin was dark and she was wearing bright contrasting white and black dress. She turned away from him and went on to continue to do whatever she had previously doing on a different table next to him.
"Sergeant Barnes," the other voice repeated and Bucky turned back towards it. It was a man, dark-skinned as well, wearing formal black and white attire. He gave the woman a glance before turning back to Bucky. "How are you?"
Bucky racked his brain for a moment. "G-good. Very good...better for sure..."
"That's wonderful," the man said. "My name is T'Challa, this is my little sister Shuri,"
"Hello!" Shuri shouted from the other side of the lab...
He was in a lab.
He sat up, looking around. It was a very advanced lab and it was very big. Judging from the floor-to-ceiling window, they were underground.
"Where...exactly am I?" Bucky frowned, his eyebrows furrowing.
"It will only take a moment before you remember," T'Challa assured him and it was like the magic words.
"Wakanda," Bucky realized.
"Yep," Shuri called from afar.
"I'm - where's Tony?" Bucky scrambled a second, panic closing his throat as he remembered his boyfriend. T'Challa had first said that the healing and erasing process could take about a year or two. Where was Tony?
"Oh um," Shuri looked over at T'Challa and Bucky looked at the man too, panicked further.
"He should be coming," T'Challa said dismissively.
"By the way," Shuri came over and Bucky's panic heightened even more. "There was a complication."
"What do you - what complication?" Bucky stuttered.
"Nine years," Shuri said slowly. "The healing - erasing - process took nine years."
Bucky blinked.
"It's 2008," Shuri clarified.
Bucky's world fell apart.
"Buck!"
Bucky sat up when he heard the voice. He was sitting on a chair, holding his head as he had a headache from the healing process cubicle. T'Challa left to go do some royal business and Shuri was pounding music in her headphones (Bucky tried to talk to her but it didn't work and as he got slightly closer he realized that there was music coming from the little silver buds in her ears).
Bucky turned and there was a blur as someone launched themselves at Bucky.
"Oof!" Bucky fell to the ground, caught off guard. He was about to throttle whoever it was until he heard familiar laughing. Bucky's eyes snapped open and he grinned when he saw Tony above him. Familiar old Tony.
"You're lookin' good, babe," Tony flirted, sitting up. Bucky sat up with him, using his elbows to prop him up.
"And you're not looking a day over 19 - nine years right?" Bucky snarked back. "Do you Starks just not age?"
"Nope!" Tony laughed, leaning forward. "We're just immortals,"
"How old are you?" Bucky shook his head.
"Take a guess, sweetheart," Tony groaned, stumbling out of the knot that he and Bucky had tied themselves into.
"Thirty eight,"
"Jesus Buck!" Tony yelped, slapping Bucky as he tried to stand making the latter laugh and fall back down. "I'm not that old you bastard! Jeez louise..."
"I love you," Bucky sighed, looking up at Tony.
Tony looked down and smiled softly. "I love you too," there was a pause. "Now, let's go darling - we've got things to do places to see people to meet! Up, up, let's go let's go! C'mon!"
Bucky groaned rather loudly, rising slowly. "You are just - "
"Come on you motherfucker let's go!"
Tony suddenly yanked Bucky's arm and he yelped, leaping to his feet from the sudden jolt of strength. "You've still go the serum,"
"Yeah it never left," Tony said dryly. Bucky didn't miss the hint of bitterness. "Alright, now c'mon, let's go!" Tony marched toward the exit of the lab and Bucky turned to look for Shuri. Shuri just happened to look up and Bucky waved at her. She grinned and waved back.
"Where are we going?"
"New York," Tony explained, pushing the doors open and leading the way through the winding castle walls. "It's where Shield HQ is. I'll explain everything there." Bucky nodded slowly and took the time to look at his boyfriend.
Tony's hair was long, fluffed up and a little bit spiky. Every once and a while when Tony moved, there were flashes of blond hair making Bucky wonder what exactly that was. He had a small goatee and a little mustache but Bucky didn't quite know how he felt about that.
Tony had black pants on that were loose until his ankles where dark black combat boots caught them, keeping the ends of the pants inside. He had armor pads on his knees and a weapons belt around his waist. Two gun holsters on either side of his hips made him look even deadlier.
He had a long sleeved top that looked suspiciously like his old target's - Natalia Romanova - top. (They never had found that girl). The long sleeves were tight to his arms and he had little circular wristbands on each of his wrists. He had elbow patting and shoulder padding.
A dark red bomber jacket met the weapons belt and covered most everything else. He also had a holster in the back for whatever reason. The jacket tips went to just below his chin and they curved when it was unzipped to mid chest.
Tony held himself with pride and walked smoothly and strongly which was a new sort of thing. Bucky knew he always had confidence, it just didn't always show. And this new Tony - this older Tony was giving gentle but firm orders to some of the Wakandan civilians so they can get out of here.
Bucky thanked everyone immensely, happy that they let him come here and take refuge to heal. The Wakandans brushed it off saying it wasn't that big of a deal.
As they were loaded into the hover jet - and Tony joked that he was going to steal the plane - Bucky thought that yeah it wasn't a big deal to them -
But it was everything to him.
Bucky Barnes woke up to the sound of landing.
"Hey babe, you up?" Tony shook him gently, looking over him. Bucky turned slightly and realized that Tony's eyes were bright ice cold blue. Bucky opened his mouth to say something but a small beeping noise turned Tony's attention away.
"Hey," Bucky tried to get his attention again and Tony looked back over at him. Bucky's voice died because his eyes weren't blue anymore.
They were the soft familiar brown from when he saved Tony that night from his parents.
"Come on, let's get off of here," Tony tugged Bucky's arm - his metal one that Bucky forgot was even there - and thanked the driver before walking out of the door and onto a landing pad.
Bucky looked around. It was a nice 200 acre lawn with the sun shining down brightly. Bucky had to squint a little bit to let his eyes adjust.
The building ahead of him was square and white, jutting out here and there from the main part. There was a little underbit that looked like a garage. There was also a gigantic A in a circle on one of the sides.
The plane took off behind them, whipping their hair a little bit before reaching altitude and flying away. Bucky watched it go, a little sad.
"We'll keep in touch," Tony promised, seeing Bucky's face.
"Director!"
There was a shout and Bucky whirled around, hand on his knife. The man that called out, paused, raising his hands slightly to show he wasn't a threat.
"Fury! My man - how's it going?" Tony exclaimed, grinning.
"Nothing new so far," Fury said, shaking his head a little bit. He was glancing at Bucky warily as Tony brought the other man inside. "The Tesseract is behaving so far."
Tony frowned. "And nothing on the search?"
"Nothing,"
"What search?" Bucky whispered but Tony waved him off.
"Alright." Tony smiled. "I'll show Buck-y dear around the Compound. We'll be here if you need us."
"Of course," Fury tipped his head and then marched off in a different direction.
"Okay," Tony ran ahead and scaled the stairs in front of them. "Up here is the training areas. The whole section up here yes so don't bother asking." he hopped back down and dashed to the left. Bucky followed, having to run to keep up.
"That's the kitchen, that's the dining-living room," Tony pointed to each one. The kitchen was big with brown cabinets and appliances in silver. There was an island between the kitchen and dining-living room.
The dining-living room consisted of couches, chairs, a rug, and a TV. The island separating both rooms also had chairs to serve and sit on.
"Down that hallways is the rooms for everyone," Tony instructed, walking through to the hallway that was between the kitchen and dining-living room. There were several doors on each side of the hallway once the hallway opened up.
Bucky read the names of the first two - Natasha Romanoff & Bruce Banner, empty. The next two were another couple? named Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Then Tony in one and empty in another. Then Thor in one and Sam in another.
"These two are joint," Tony said, nodding to two doors that were right next to each other. "They're family. Like, legit blood-related-biological family."
"Who are they?" Bucky asked.
"Janet and Hank Pym and Scott and Hope Van Dyne." Tony paused. "Scott and Hope are actually getting married right now I think..." he trailed off. "Okay here," Tony pulled Bucky towards a different room - the one that was across from Tony's. "You get settled in here, take a look around maybe take a nap, I don't know and wait for me."
"Oh," Bucky stared at the room and his heart jumped when he realized that Tony had started hurrying out of the hallway. "Wait, where are you going?"
"To celebrate with my friends!" Tony yelled, activating something on his wrist. "Gotta go! Bye Buck see you!" and he was gone.
Bucky stared down the hallway where Tony disappeared before going into the room that was his. He looked around and examined it. To his left was a big queen sized bed. There was a walk in closet and a desk and several up high windows. They didn't touch the floor but they had little openings like they were little balconies.
There was a staircase leading up so Bucky can reach it so he figured it was a little hangout type thing.
Bucky sighed and walked over to the bed, flopping on top of it.
He just had to wait now.
Again.
Bucky woke up suddenly.
He yawned, smacking a little bit, realizing he fell asleep. He slowly opened his eyes blearily. He looked around and pushed up on the bed, rubbing his eyes. He stood up and walked to the door, opening it slowly and warily.
He headed through the hallway, noting that some of the doors were opened. Bucky walked through the doorway and looked around. The place was pretty empty surprisingly.
"Uh, hello..."
Bucky looked over his shoulder to the kitchen.
In the kitchen was a dark skinned man who was wearing a light washed out green t-shirt and some brown khakis. He was on the other side of the island and was staring at Bucky apprehensively.
The other person was sitting in a chair off the side of the island was almost a stark contrast. She had pale - pale - skin and bright red hair. It was curled and wrapped around her face as she looked at Bucky. Her face was guarded and she wasn't glaring per say but definitely staring Bucky down.
She had a loose dark purple tank top with black sweatpants. She looked pretty tired as well, slowly sipping coffee with those staring down eyes. Bucky was instantly nervous of her.
"Hi," the other man said again.
"Oh uhm, hi," Bucky stuttered slightly.
"You're..." the woman waved her hand. "Tony's tall...dark...homicidal boyfriend, yeah?" Bucky titled his head.
"Sure, I guess." Bucky wrinkled his nose a little bit and looked over at the living room area. “Where...where is Tony anyway?”
“He’s in his room probably,” the man sighed, turning to the kitchen. “He had a lot of fun -”
“Maybe too much fun,” the woman mused quietly.
“Last night,” the man gave her a look. “At the wedding reception.”
Bucky nodded slowly.
“Sam Wilson, by the way,” the man added. “I’m Falcon for the Avengers.”
“Natasha Romanoff,” the woman gave a mock salute lazily and went back to sipping. “Black Widow.”
Bucky looked at them strangely, nodding.
“The Avengers?” Natasha noticed his look and Bucky stared at her. “It’s a team,” Natasha motioned to the hallway. “Everyone in there is on the team.”
Bucky made a small ‘oh’ with his mouth. “And...what is it exactly?”
There was a pause as Sam and Natasha exchanged glances.
“You know what,” Natasha said abruptly, turning in her chair. “I’ll let Tony explain,”
“Let me explain what?”
Bucky turned, backing out of the way to let a tired Tony go through. He remembered having to wake Tony up and that was not a fun experience.
Tony’s hair was tousled and he had winter snowflakes on his blue pajamas. Bucky thought they were quite cute. He flopped around in it, making his way into the kitchen, looking really disgruntled.
“The Avengers,” Natasha told him as he started making coffee, butting Sam out of the way. Tony stared at the coffee machine entranced by it.
“Oh,” he said slowly, staring at the machine more intensely.
There was a pause.
Sam snorted. “Well that’s shit,”
“It’s basically a team that was formed in 2001 when an extraterrestrial being came to Earth,” Natasha spewed out suddenly. She was staring Tony down now as she continued to talk. “The being’s name was Thor and he brought along some enemies. He promised to help us and Tony - Shield’s Director - created it. He found all of us and made the team.” Natasha moved her finger on the wood for a moment, just staring down at the wood. “We fight anything that’s alien that the US army can’t fight. Or any nation for that matter.” Natasha looked over at Bucky, smirking slightly.
“So…” Bucky looked at Tony. “You’re a superhero?”
Tony pulled out the coffee mug and slowly turned to him. “Alien comes to Earth, then said alien teams up, and we fight extraterrestrial beings and you get fucking superhero out of that?” Tony squinted, staring at Bucky.
Bucky slowly nodded.
Tony stood back, perplexed. “Alright,” he shrugged and sipped his coffee. “I’m a superhero with a superhero team sure.”
Natasha snorted. “We are anything but superheros.”
“Yeah, we are so far from that,” Sam agree, watching Tony walk into the living room carefully. “A god, a man with anger issues and two lying ass spies - no offense.” Sam glanced over at Natasha who shrugged.
“Not arguing here,” she gestured.
“Plus twins from a refugee camp who signed up for a bat-shit-crazy Hydra experiment,” Tony called from the couch. “And Sam.”
“Sam could be a hero.” Natasha moved. There was scuffling and Bucky lurched in surprise when someone dropped down from the vents.
“Correction!” That person announced. “Sam is a hero.” he flipped out of the vents and landed on his feet - on the island - and climbed across it. He promptly jumped the gap and landed on the other side. He hopped down to sit on it and pulled out cereal from a cabinet.
He looked up and noticed Bucky staring at him. “Oh, you’re Tone’s boyfriend aren’t you? ‘m Clint - Clint Barton. Or Hawkeye.”
Bucky nodded slowly.
“I’m not anymore of a hero than you guys are,” Sam protested.
“Shut up and take the fucking compliment Wilson,” Natasha demanded. Sam fell silent, returning to whatever he was making in the kitchen.
Bucky closed his eyes and shook his head.
He was only here for a little bit and he knew that the 21st century was going to be - as Tony would put it - bat-shit-crazy.
Bucky was back in his room, staring at the top of the ceiling. His hands were behind his head as he wondered what exactly happened when he was gone.
knock knock
Bucky looked up when the door opened. Tony peeked in, smiling softly. “Hey babe. What’s up?”
“I’m just confused,” Bucky sighed, sitting down again as Tony flopped down next to him. “Like, what exactly...led up to here?”
“Well,” Tony crawled up next to him, staring at the ceiling with him. “After...after you fell asleep I stayed. For about a year…” he sighed. “And then Fury called me...apparently people didn’t want him in charge...he was trying his best so I swooped in and saved the day!” Tony smiled thinly at him which looked fake.
“And that was 2000 then?” Bucky asked.
“Yep,” Tony yawned. “Just a few months after Thor shows up. Another alien comes down and tries to kill him so we help him out. He sorts a few things out with us. Then he goes back to his house and I start creating the team - Fury and I finding and picking people out for their oddness, strange talents, etcetera and bringing them together to meet each other.”
Tony shifted slightly, stretching. “And then we did meet each other and just started...living together I guess. It took a while, but soon everyone was here.” Tony continued to stare at the ceiling in silence and his face became a blank slate.
“But there’s no problems y’know?” Tony added suddenly. “There’s nothing wrong now and I don’t...I don’t know what to tell them.” there was a long pause between them.
“And what about the couples?” Bucky asked. “The one that got married?”
“Oh,” Tony rubbed his eyes. “They’re - they’re more like informants. Scott - used to be Scott Lang but now he’s Scott Van Dyne - he, he’s Ant-Man. But he’s also got a family so he...I dunno, he stays to himself for the most part. But they’re helpful. And nice.” Tony glanced over at Bucky, smiling. “How do you feel now?”
Bucky looked at him for a moment. “Better I guess.”
“Great,” Tony patted his leg. “Oh, and I’m offering a spot on the Avengers to you.”
Bucky blinked. “Oh okay. Sure.”
Tony smiled. “Great.” he leaned down and kissed Bucky’s cheek. “Love you.” Tony started to the door.
“Did you ever find anyone else?” Bucky blurted. He winced.
Tony stopped. “What...what do you mean?”
“When I was under…” Bucky said slowly. “Did you find anyone else?”
Tony stared at him quizzically until dawning realization dawned on him. “No,” Tony said quickly. “God, no, no, no there was no one else. I promise.” Tony looked him dead in the eye without flinching.
And he was taught how to lie - given a serum from someone who could lie like it was easy as pie.
But Bucky believed him.
He would always believe Tony.
Bucky woke up the next day feeling a bit better. Tony came in and told him that his new name was going to be White Wolf (“if we ever get out to the field,” Clint snorted on breakfast quesadilla that day) instead of the Winter Soldier. The name gave Bucky and Tony PTSD.
Bucky settled in better than he thought he would. Clint was a bit of an asshole sometimes but he was a jokester so it was kind of expected. He loved hanging out in the vents that’s for sure.
Sam is pretty sure that the whole reason Clint does that is to jump people from the inside.
Sam makes everyone breakfast plus lunch and dinner. He’s an amazing cook and Natasha helps out sometimes. (Plus - very rarely - Janet Pym will come out and make a special breakfast).
Thor hasn’t shown up but Bruce is mostly over and up in the lab but he comes out for movie nights. Pietro and Wanda keep to themselves for the most part like Bruce but they also come up and watch movies on movie night.
And all this happened in a couple of months. Bucky was seriously impressed with himself.
So was Tony but Tony was always impressed by him. They got closer, Bucky could tell, and Tony was practically living in the same room with Bucky. Bucky was the only one Tony could train with so Tony took advantage of that and they would be training most of the time now.
And it was perfect. It really was. It felt like an extended family and Bucky loved it.
And then they got a call from Fury.
"Hey-uh," Tony touched his ear, snacking on popcorn. He got up from the couch and started walking to the kitchen. Bucky laid down on the couch, dramatically falling to where Tony had been sitting. Pietro snorted from the other side of the other couch.
"Oh my fucking god."
Everyone jumped when a glass shattered. Bucky leapt up and Bruce turned a little green. Clint and Wanda looked over and Sam looked a little jumpy. Scott, Hope, Janet, and Hank were in their rooms.
Tony was as white as a sheet and he looked absolutely terrified. And happy...?
"What is it?" Bucky asked.
"They found -" Tony stopped short. "I gotta go,"
He threw on a coat and ran out the door, leaving the rest of them confused. 