Steve, Tony had found, was irritatingly optimistic about almost all things. Hell, this was the man who saw love of his life (apparently?????) disintegrate, and thought “but what if I…” and then made it work. Which, what the fuck, Steve?
Anyway, Steve has been optimistic about the possible reunion of the team at some point, and had not removed everyone’s emergency backups from his stolen quinjet. Which, Tony had to admit a little, Steve hadn't exactly stolen as much as he had taken a piece of team property (provided by Tony, but who's counting?) while still technically head of said team. And, really, Steve technically had kept more Avengers on his side, and Tony didn't want to be in charge anyway, so really everything had come out even in the end. Tony kinda wished that Barnes would have let Tony rebuild him a new arm - tech induced orgasms weren't a thing, but if they were - but Tony could admit that the Princess’s tech was more advanced than Tony could have (currently) provided. And that princess was something else, interested in Tony’s nanotechnology and, when he had left some of it with her, had promised him that she could do better by the time Barnes would be visiting Wakanda again. T’Challa had smiled at that. Tony didn't doubt it. He'd thought he was a prodigy. He'd left her with a handshake and the words, “can't wait to see you change the world.” She'd smiled, confident.
It was good to get a pair of clean clothes. It wasn't the first time that the team had stripped out of gross uniforms and into clean clothes in front of each other; turn your front to the wall, be quick, no peaking, not turning around until everyone had finished.
Rogers, of course, had offered his backups to his new boo, but Bucky-Bear had given him a look, and had stooped to pull a set of clothes out of the bag he'd grabbed from the princess’s lab.
Peter, unfortunately, had never been an Avenger before, and had no back up. Tony sighed.
“Clint’s extra stuff is over here,” Natasha said (Tony was still getting used to the blonde thing, which was only slightly less weird than Cap’s beard). “All he ever wears is tac gear or sweats, so something should fit.”
Peter flushed. “Hawkeye?”
“Don't worry, he won't be mad. These are all the throw away clothes we never wear anyway. There may be some pizza stains? Sorry about that.”
Thor stammered for a second, looking at his brother (Tony was just going to trust Bruce’s judgement on that one, he's too tired for any alternative right now), who just rolled his eyes and trilled his fingers, a different set of clothes materializing on his body.
“Holy shit,” Tony breathed.
Loki smirked.
Once he had finished dressing, Tony went to plop himself down in the pilot’s seat, only to find Sam already there.
“You know how to fly out of Wakandan airspace?”
“Fair point. Pepper’s expecting us all at the Tower.”
“10-4.”
“Numbers to you too, Birdman.”
“You know, Stark, somehow I forgot how annoying you are.”
“I'm offended.”
He and Sam locked eyes. Sam lifted one corner of his mouth. Tony patted him on the shoulder and walked over to where Bruce was standing with Thor and Loki.
“So, where you been, buddy?”
Tony tried to stay zoned in for the entire story - space, space, space, Thor and Loki bickering (“-and he was pretending to be Odin so that he could be king-” “And I was doing a fantastic job until you showed up and ruined the whole thing-”) gladiator battles on a trash planet - but his eyes wandered.
Natasha had sat with her back against the wall, body still tired, but mind too alert to rest. She had let Peter sit next to her, and he was talking at her as her eyes scanned back and forth. In between sentences, she handed him a phone and he took it gratefully, and called Aunt May.
Wanda and Vision were sat on one of the two set-in benches that the Quinjet had, not seeming to talk, even though their demeanor read ‘conversation.’
Steve had attempted to stand up with Sam, as much in ‘Cap’ mode as Nat was in spy mode. Barnes had taken as his own the other of the benches, and stared at him for a while, until he quietly called out, “Steve?”
Rogers turned around so fast it was almost funny, and looked at his boyfriend (if that's what they were calling it; they probably had some weird, old-people term for it). Barnes sighed. “C’mere.”
Rogers walked over to him, and Barnes kicked his leg at the same time he pulled his arm, effectively making Cap fall right into his lap with an almost comical, “woah!”
Barnes situated them both - manhandled, really - until he was sitting upright, mostly lounging against the wall, with Steve lying down on the bench, his head in Barnes’s lap. Barnes ran his fingers through Steve’s hair. “I'll take watch, Cap. Sleep.”
“But-” Steve protested, his point slightly undercut by a large yawn.
“No.”
“What if I was about to ask if I should go to sleep? You just said no, so-”
Barnes let his left hand fall onto Steve's sternum. “I am not above physically knocking you out.”
Steve huffed, but settled, and fell asleep in moments.
Bucky caught Tony’s eye as he stared. “Yes?”
“I’ve just never seen Cap go down so easy,” Tony admits. “What kind of black magic do you know?”
Bucky smiled softly, looking down at Steve. “Not magic. I’ve just known him so long that he knows that I’ve got his best interests at heart. He calls it being a mother hen, but he accepts that sometimes I know when he needs a break. He’d visit me, here, and he’d fall asleep for like three days.” A crease appeared between Bucky’s eyebrows. “He pushes himself too hard, he always has. It’s just that now he doesn’t look like a stiff breeze will knock him over, so people just think he can take it.”
Tony sat down on the floor, leaning his head back. “Was he really that small? I, of all people, know science is awesome, but it seems like a little much, you know?”
“However small you’re thinking, go smaller. Barely five feet, barely a hundred pounds. Bruised right up like a peach. Could barely breath half the time. Heart murmurs. He barely thought he’d reach twenty.” Bucky glanced over at Tony. “You know he’s received his last rites three times?”
Tony stole a glance over at the huge sleeping form of Steve Rogers.
Bucky ran his fingers through Steve’s hair again, other hand tracing soothing circles over his chest. “Frankly, it’s a miracle he survived long enough to get the serum.”
Tony didn’t have words.
“I think that’s why he pushes himself so much. Because he feels he’s living on borrowed time.”
“Makes sense,” Tony said, closing his eyes. “What you’re saying.”
“You gonna sleep okay, Stark? I noticed you weren’t on the couch with the rest of us.”
“Don’t need a lot of sleep,” Tony lied.
“Yeah, cause I haven’t heard that one before,” Bucky replied, nodding down to Steve. “Like I told this one; I’m on watch.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You know, in Wakanda I had a lot of time to read up on PTSD,” he gave Tony a pointed look. “Anything wants to take you guys, they’re going through me first. And only a very small group of people could do that.”
Tony swallowed.
“And I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”
“Why are you being nice? You weren’t acting so chummy a few hours ago.”
Bucky shrugged. “You’re right. What’s a little attempted murder between friends?”
Tony laughed. “Steve never told me you were funny. And he talked about you a lot.”
Bucky blushed.
“Don’t let him he’s right, James, otherwise his head won’t fit in the quinjet anymore,” Natasha said tiredly from the other side.
“Seriously, Tony. We’ve got your back here. You can sleep.”
“Keep talking and I will.”
“It’s a good thing Steve has the serum, otherwise you couldn’t hear me talk.”
“He snores?”
Bucky groaned. “Oh, it was awful. I mean, you can’t blame the guy, but it was just gross.”
Tony laughed tiredly. “I’m gonna need to hear the escapades of baby Cap again when I’m more awake.”
“We’ll wake you up when we get back to New York, Tony,” Natasha assured him.
Bucky started up some long winded story with way too much detail, and Tony fell asleep with a smile.