Chapter 4
Steve had been kicked out of his own cabin.
An hour ago, Sam had arrived in his government issued, shiny black car and had given one look at Steve sitting beside Bucky, laughed, and then told him to go outside. He wasn't moping though, he could respect Bucky's privacy and they've spent much of the past week constantly in each others space.
He didn't have to breathe the same air as Bucky to survive, that'd be ridiculous, but it didn't stop him from being bored out of his mind. Minutes ticked passed slowly, the clouds moved at a snail's pace, and Steve's mind started to wander.
It wandered back to the sharp cut of Bucky's jaw and the scruffy shadow of stubble he was beginning to grow. He thought about the slight wave of his hair and wondered if it was as soft as it looked. Lately, Steve's discovered that he had a newfound fascination with everything Bucky.
Every little detail the tall man dropped, Steve would pick up and commit to memory without thinking. Everything about the man was just so interesting.
Steve could admit to himself that whatever he was feeling was getting out of hand he just didn't know what to do about it.
"What's got you looking so dopey and blissed out?" An annoying familiar voice called out to him. "Natasha had told me you had the hots for Buckaroo but I didn't believe her until now."
There, standing on Steve's front porch was the one and only Tony Stark. Filthy rich extraterrestrial entrepreneur/genius. Steve still swore that the alien's ego had it's own gravitational pull.
"Tony, I thought we agreed that you'd warn me in advance before popping up," Steve groaned. He pulled himself up from the steps and gave Pepper a small kiss on the cheek.
"I tried to call on a human phone but their technology didn't work in that quadrant. I'm so sorry, Steve," she spoke elegantly and gave him an apologetic smile. Her partner bounced at her side, full of pent up energy and latched onto Steve with a cheshire grin.
Oh, how Steve hated that grin.
"No, really, is the human okay? I tried to aim for your place but you know how the atmosphere in this galaxy is so dense-"
"You what?!" He pushed his way out from under Tony's arm and threw an incredulous look over to Pepper. "You aimed?"
Tony had the nerve to look surprised, "I think this is the part where you say thank you and… Hail my heroic efforts in returning one of the humans." Blue eyes blinked up at him blankly and he sighed. "Pepper, I thought you said he'd be happy."
She looked up from her gadget, sweeping both eyes over them, "Tony, I thought you said the human was delivered safely."
"It was safe in theory…," he trailed off uncertainly.
"He crashed," Steve ground out while pulling at Tony's obnoxiously bright, expensive space suit so they were at eye level. "He landed in my forest. In the middle of winter. He fainted, Tony. He could've died of hypothermia, you idiot!"
Tony made a little squeaky noise of protest and blinked a few times, "That has to be… The rudest thing you've ever said to me, Cap."
"Don't call me that," he growled into the other man's face and pushed him away. "You're one of the smartest men I know and you couldn't make sure he was safe?"
"That's why I sent him here, Steve. I trust that he'd be safe with you," and really, all of Steve's fiery anger got snuffed out at that. "Plus, I needed to make sure he would stay put until I could check out that snazzy arm of his."
Steve ran a hand down his face tiredly, feeling a thousand times more drained than earlier and even Pepper's little smiles didn't make Stark's presence bearable for more than five minutes.
"Stark, you're required to inform me when you enter the Milky Way," Sam said as he stepped onto the porch. He turned to look at Bucky, "This is the alien that assisted in your escape from Hydra, James. That lovely lady beside him is Pepper Potts, the one and only person that can deal with Tony on a daily basis."
Pepper smiled at him kindly, "Tony has his own charm. It's nice to meet you, James."
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Bucky, please."
"I love to see you man," Tony grinned while slinging an arm around Sam. "Hate to see this god awful suit. I know it's your uniform but give me two minutes with Fury and I'll have you wearing something so much nicer and-"
"Didn't I tell your alien ass to stop meddling with human affairs?" Sam interrupted, pulling his sunglasses off to give Tony the full effect of his glare. "If you're here to bother Bucky then I'm going to have to escort you off of the property and back to your planet."
"Sam, there's no need for threats," he said, waving the man's concerns away and bouncing back over to hug Steve. "I came all this way to say hello to my dear friend Steve."
Bucky and Pepper both raised their brows but said nothing, watching as Sam grunted suspiciously.
"And I'm supposed to believe you had nothing to do with James Barnes being returned?" Tony nodded strongly. "Even though you were being held captive in the same quadrant up until a few days ago? That's a little too convenient, Stark."
Tony's eyes were glued to Bucky's prosthetic so he only hummed in response, tilting his head and mouthing something to himself.
"Stark."
"Yes, yes. I was in that area at the time, captured by some low leveled race when I came across Hydra head quarters," he said slowly, pulling his gaze away from Bucky's arm to face Sam again. "Will I have to give a statement?"
"Now you do," Sam grinned as Tony blanched. "It's for the records, I have to keep everything as accurate as possible."
Steve kept sneaking worried glances at Bucky who was becoming progressively more pale.
"Wait…," Bucky choked out. "You were in that rinky dinky metal suit?"
Tony sniffed, a bit offended, "Well it was technically a prototype made with scraps of their planet's shitty metal- which was nothing like what was used to make your arm, by the way." He pointed at the red star. "That's Hydra's work, non-human metal, some real expensive, rare material."
Steve frowned and cast Sam a wary look, "He'll be okay on Earth with it, right?"
Sam started to talk when Tony cut him off, "Technically, sure. It's incredibly high tech, almost as good as I would've made it myself but it looks like it runs a bit too hot. Am I right?"
Slowly, Bucky nodded and Tony grinned cockily, "Of course I'm right. Metal like that is heavy and just from the outside I can see the heat radiating off of it. Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes," Bucky admitted. He looked ten times too small and kept shooting Steve shy, embarrassed smiles the longer Tony kept interrogating him.
Steve flinched as Tony let out a long string of curses in an alien language he hadn't heard in years.
"Bastards did it on purpose," he clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Sam, if you give me a day or so I can bring the technology to keep Bucky boy here from overheating. If that's cool with you, Bucko."
Pepper began typing on her gadget at lightning speed as Bucky winced.
"I'm not too sure I want another alien poking at my arm…"
"No problem," Tony cut in smoothly. "There's a human doc I know, Banner. He can handle the actual rewiring, I'll just be there puzzling it all out. Alien tech is tricky, all sorts of different parts and elements."
Bucky nodded but still looked a little lost and Steve had made his way over to stand beside him, not quite hovering but not entirely in his own space either.
"Buck, if you don't want to do this then you don't have to. Sam can make him go away," Steve said gently, ignoring Tony's grumbling in favor of watching the warring emotions in Bucky's eyes. "You're in complete control here."
"If it's a human doctor, then I'll do it. I have to get other tests done anyway," he decided, squeezing Steve's shoulder in reassurance.
Tony clapped his hands together, "Wonderful. Pep, we'll need to contact Banner immediately."
"Done already," she said, gadget still in hand. "After you give your statement to Sam, we need to go back to the ship. Thor is upset that you didn't tell him you were safe and demands your presence immediately."
Sam threw his hands in the air in defeat, "Just go talk to the gods first, I really don't want to deal with the paperwork if he decides to come down to Earth again." The agent moved to get into his own car. "Don't forget my statement though, Tony!"
"Wouldn't dream of it," he yelled as him and Pepper began to fade into nothing. "Bye guys!" And with that, they were gone.
For a long time, Steve and Bucky stared at the empty space where the two aliens once stood and then back at each other.
"So when were you going to tell me that your arm was hurting?" Steve asked with a frown. "I have pain medication, it could've helped."
Bucky poked his chest lightly, "And when were you going to tell me you had alien friends, hm?"
"When it was relevant, I would've given you some warning before springing Tony on you though. He's a bit much," he bit his lip and sighed. "I… wasn't too sure how you'd take it."
Bucky laughed coldly, "I tried to take it well? Sam told me aliens are like people, not all of them are horrible and not all of them are great." He shook his head as Steve brightened, because maybe Bucky wasn't as afraid of aliens as he thought. "No offense, Steve, I know they're your friends and it's really nice what Tony offered me but I don't think I can stomach the idea of one of them physically touching me."
He isn't sure what kind of look passed over his face but Bucky was quick to keep talking.
"I'm not saying they're awful, Stevie. Just…," Steve couldn't look at Bucky, his eyes caught on the strings of Bucky's sweatpants. "I just can't."
Steve nodded weakly, "I understand."
"No you don't, Steve," Bucky whispered, grabbing Steve's bony shoulders and squeezing them a bit. "But that's okay, I'll try to not be so damn awkward with them in the future, even if I can't get closer than three feet of them."
And what could Steve say to that? It was dumb of him to think that just because Bucky hadn't ran screaming and crying after being introduced to Tony and Pepper, that it meant he was ready to become friends with every alien he came across.
He lived through the horror of being abducted, experimented on, and kept prisoner for who knows how long. Of course he wasn't comfortable around strange new aliens, Steve couldn't expect trauma like that to be reversed over night.
"Does that make me some kind of racist?" Bucky asked with wide eyes, peering down at Steve in horror of the idea of actually fitting that description.
"No," Steve shook his head and kept his hands tucked deep into his pockets. "No, it makes sense after what you've been through. Don't worry about it."
Then Bucky whipped out that mega watt, colgate white smile that made Steve's heart trip over itself and he flexed his fingers to stop himself from reaching up to feel the curve of that smile.
"It makes complete sense," he said again and watched some of the tension leave Bucky's shoulders. "We should probably head inside though, before more aliens decide to drop in."
"Yeah," Bucky agreed, tugging Steve towards the cabin. "We wouldn't want that, now would we?"