Ice
Tony is fucking tired of Bucky moping around. Maybe its because he’s never been the moping type, or maybe its because when Rhodey broke his back he never had a phase where he got depression and stopped showering on a regular basis. Either way he’s tired of watching Bucky lay on the couch all day with one arm feeling sorry for himself. It wouldn’t be so bad if he did something sometimes, but all he does is cry about his lost career instead of trying to get it back.
So he does what he does best and tries to find the solution to his problem. Well, Bucky’s problem. Tony knows he can still skate, sometimes he finds him on the pond late at night when he’s convinced Tony is sleeping. Which is stupid considering Tony barely sleeps but that’s a whole other problem. Point is he knows Bucky doesn’t want to give up skating, but doesn’t know why he isn’t trying to get his career back. So now he’s doing the only thing he can and trying not to die on the ice.
He never learned to skate and it shows as he flails around on blades attached to his feet. Who the fuck even thought that was a good idea? Who got on the Danger Water and thought ‘hmm, lets strap blades to me boots and zoom around on this?’ At the moment Tony is cursing whichever asshole that was because he’s going to die on this slippery shit and he’s mad about it. And all because Bucky refuses to move on from that damn car crash. He got the depression at first, of course he’d be upset about losing an entire limb but he lost an arm, not his life. He can still do stuff, figure out skating, whatever it is he wants but he’s refusing to do any of that.
His foot catches on something, who the hell even knows what when ice is slippery but he lets out a loud yelp as he falls. He swears he sees his life flash before his eyes before he’s caught, thankfully, and hauled back into a vaguely upright position. “What the fuck were you thinking, Tony? Didn’t you hear me yelling at you?” Bucky asks, single arm tight around his waist.
No because he was too busy trying not to die on water’s shittiest form. “I think you should appreciate my ability to not die. I’ve done a very good job,” he says, grinning at Bucky.
Bucky does not look impressed. “If I didn’t come out here to save your ass you probably would have nosedived into the ice. You don’t know how to skate Tony, why are you out here?”
Tony wiggles himself free from Bucky’s arm and tries, but ultimately fails, to skate backwards away. He can’t move frontwards let alone backwards so Bucky has to catch him again. He just about slips too, but unlike Tony he knows how to properly catch himself and manages to right them before they both ate ice. “Stop wiggling damnit, you need to get off this pond before you die,” Bucky tells him, trying to push him towards the edge of the pond.
“I’ll get off this pond when I’m good and fucking ready to,” Tony tells him, freeing himself from Bucky’s grasp and moving in the general direction of away. Bucky catches up with him fast of course but he has to skate to do it.
“You’re good and ready to now, you aren’t even wearing a hat and those skates aren’t tied right. You’re going to break your ankle or worse. Back in the house,” Bucky tells him, trying to prod him to the ponds edge again.
He flails his way away from Bucky, “no, I like it out here,” he says, slipping and letting out a loud yell before Bucky catches him again.
“Tony you hate ice, you once called it proof that Satan exists and you don’t even believe in Satan,” Bucky points out. “So get in the house.”
“No, I’m not going in the damn-” his words are cut off by his slipping on nothing and Bucky catching him again. “I’m still staying out here,” he says, determined.
Bucky sighs, pulling him closer and pinning Tony to his body with his remaining arm. “What are you doing, Tony?” Bucky asks in a softer tone, looking down at him with a concerned expression on his face.
That’s sweet, really. But Tony isn’t the one who needs the concern. “I want you to go back to skating,” Tony tells him. “Or something, anything. You’ve done basically nothing for a year and its sad to watch.”
“I can’t just go back, Tony. That takes a lot of skill and talent and I don’t have that anymore,” Bucky tells him. He looks sad, dejected, but Tony disagrees with him.
“You lost an arm Bucky, not all your skills. You need to relearn how to do that stuff with only one arm, but that’s a balance thing, not an ‘I don’t know how to skate’ thing. I’m concerned about you okay?” Someone needs to get him out of the damn house, Steve hasn’t done his best friend duties and did it himself.
Bucky lets out a soft sigh, “honey, you have no idea what you’re talking about. No offense,” he says.
Tony rolls his eyes, “obviously I have no idea what I’m talking about, I don’t skate. But I see you out here sometimes, and you managed to save my ass like six times from death on this slippery shit with only one arm. I’m sure you can figure things out with one less arm. You look fine when I find out out here at night.”
“Tony you have no idea what to look for,” Bucky points out.
“Maybe not, but I know you didn’t lose your skills entirely, you just need to relearn how to do your skating things with one arm instead of two. Now do that and stop watching soap operas, I know the plots now and I don’t like it,” he says, shaking his head. He hates soap operas, Bucky hates soap operas, Tony talks about them so much Rhodey knows the plots now too and Hope as told him in no uncertain terms that she has no interest in learning about them from Rhodey. He needed to do something, Bucky needs to do something. Change is needed.
“You came out here with no skills and almost died because you don’t like soap operas?” Bucky asks, raising an eyebrow.
“No, I came out here because you love skating and don’t want to give it up. I thought maybe saving me would give you confidence,” he says.
Bucky laughs, “honey, saving you from the ice is like saving a cat from a bath. Its not hard work.” Tony resents that because he hasn’t run meowing from the water so that’s rude.
*
Steve almost slaps Tony in the face when he sees it, Tony has to duck before Steve’s hand takes him out. “He’s skating!” he all but yells.
“Yeah, I know. He saved me on the pond a couple weeks ago and started skating again after that because he felt bad for me because I know soap opera plots,” he says.
Steve frowns at him. not following that and Tony sighs. Okay so that sounds weird put like that but the point is that Bucky is on the ice. “Whatever, I don’t care if it makes sense he’s skating again!” Steve says excitedly.
Of course as soon as he says that Bucky falls on his ass and spins around, laying there for a long moment before Tony decides he needs a little encouragement. “Bucky you’ve been out there for like three hours and you only fell once. I fell standing over here looking at you twenty minutes ago,” he yells to him.
In his defense Bucky sits up. “Would it encourage you to know I once blew up my science teacher’s desk because I suck at science?” he yells back.
“Can you recreate that, I think that’d be fun to watch,” Tony yells.
“You’re horrible at this,” Steve tells him. “Bucky, you’re doing fine. You fell every once and awhile before you lost the arm too. Just keep practicing, its not worse than that time with Rumlow!”
Tony squints, “what time with Rumlow? Also who is Rumlow?”
“The guy that got arrested for child trafficking, Tony. He used to be Bucky’s competition, pay attention to someone who isn’t yourself,” Steve tells him.
“Excuse you who got Bucky back on the ice?” he asks. “That stance makes your ass look fantastic!” he yells to Bucky. Damn, he forgot the only reason he cared to watch Bucky skate. Its pretty and all that but mostly he just likes checking out Bucky’s ass on those pants.
Steve wrinkles his nose at him and Tony flips him off. “Do I need to separate you two?” Bucky tells to them.
“No, we’re great!” they yell back in sync. “We’re going to go get lunch together!” Tony throws in and Steve gives him a horrified look.
“Too far and now he’s going to expect us to do it,” Steve tells him. “Take it back!”
Bucky stops staring at them though, no longer looking for an excuse to not skate. “We can go see a movie, it discourages talking or spending any meaningful time together but people still consider it quality time. I learned this is how Pepper avoids shitty dates and I think it’ll work here,” he says.
Steve nods, “deal, I want to go see that new Disney movie.”
Tony wrinkles his nose, “we’re not watching a fucking Disney movie Steve, we’re adults.”
*
Bucky looks nervous and Tony smiles at him, “you can’t be worse than me,” he says.
“Baby, I love you but a rat on skates could do better than you. I don’t… I need a coach and Carter is a hardass, she only takes people who are actually good and-” Tony cuts him off.
“You were almost in the Olympics, Bucky, you’re good. Go in and skate.” He gives Bucky a gentle push through the door and he sighs, going in looking more dejected than Tony would like.
He follows, making his way thankfully away from the ice. He doesn’t expect a severe looking woman to approach him looking at him like he’s a steak. “You’re Tony Stark, right?” she asks and Tony frowns.
“Yeah, that’s me. Most people don’t need to ask,” he points out.
“People around here like to imitate your look, its gross,” she tells him. “I’m Peggy Carter and I need you to be honest with me. Barnes, is he willing to put in the work?” she asks. “Close your mouth, I want an honest answer,” she tells him.
Tony sighs and considers it even though he knows the answer. “Yes, but he needs encouragement. He lost his arm and all his confidence went with it. He’ll need more emotional work than most but he’s probably a better skater. I don’t know how to judge skill accurately here if I’m honest,” he tells her.
Peggy snorts, “of course you don’t, but he’s absolutely a better skater. I just wanted to know whether or not he’d be worth my time.”
“You haven’t seen him skate,” Tony says, frowning.
“I’ve been following his career, Stark, we pay attention to these things. That accident was… awful, tragic. But if he’s willing to put in the work to alter his technique he already has the skill, I’ve seen him skate enough to know that,” she says.
“I told him that too!” he says excitedly. So apparently he knows as much as a professional, cool.
“Don’t let that go to your head, Stark,” she tells him but she smiles as she walks away.
She watches Bucky skate still, and even Tony can see he’s way better than everyone else so he’s doubly unsurprised when Peggy agrees to take him on. Bucky jumps up and down excitedly. “I have a coach!” he says, letting out a loud squee.
Tony smiles, wrapping an arm around Bucky’s waist. “I told you that you’re awesome,” he says. “You’ll do great.”
Bucky wraps his arm around Tony and lets out another noise of excitement. “Thanks so much for getting me off that couch,” he says. “Seriously.”
He presses his face to Bucky’s chest, “well, I really hated those soap operas.”