Chapter 9
A sick Steve was a grumpy, miserable Steve. He was snotty, sweaty, and all around gross. He had no idea why Bucky refused to leave his side unless it was to take Lucky out.
Because really, this handsome soldier was strutting around half naked, nursing him back to health and here he was- all sickly and exhausted. To say it was embarrassing would be the understatement of the year.
Now, he was laying in his own bed with his sketchbook propped up against his knees. His mind had been drifting to late night talks with Bucky and the heavy lidded look he'd get when he was fighting sleep.
Thinking about it, pencil lazily running across the paper, Steve could imagine falling asleep beside Bucky again. In fact, he'd prefer it... The human was so much warmer and when they woke tangled up in each other, their whispered good mornings were that much sweeter.
If he was human, it would be easy to confess his feelings but he wasn't. He couldn't just-
The tip of his pencil snapped.
Sighing (he sighed a lot lately), Steve rolled over to the night stand to grab his sharpener when voices filtered through the cabin.
"He's sick?"
"On a scale of harmless sniffles to the black plague, how sick is he?" Another voice asked, footsteps getting closer to Steve's bedroom door. "I might be an alien but I really don't want to- hey, Cap."
Tony and Natasha strolled in with a scowling Bucky behind them, "I told them to wait. Did they wake you up?"
Steve waved his concern away, "I've been up for awhile now but I didn't know anyone was coming over…" Natasha perched herself on the window sill as Tony started running his hands across every surface of Steve's room.
Why? He had no clue, Tony did what Tony wanted and didn't explain himself unless you asked nicely.
"We would've called if we knew your guard dog was on duty," Nat said, crossing her arms and looking out Steve's window at something.
"Lucky?" He didn't know why Natasha would say that, she's the one that convinced Clint to let them keep the dog. "Lucky wouldn't hurt you."
Tony snorted, "I think she's talking about Bucky boy here."
Bucky didn't bat an eye at being called a guard dog, if anything he looked proud. He had been taking care of each and every one of Steve's needs and -Steve could be wrong but- Bucky seemed to enjoy it.
"His fever is finally going down. I don't need RoboCop getting him all riled up, okay?" Bucky mumbled from the door way.
"Ooo, RoboCop…," Tony echoed. "That's a good one, Ed."
"Who the hell is Ed?" The human asked, looking to Steve in confusion as Tony giggled at a picture on his book case.
Steve let out another congested sigh, "It's an anime character, Buck. He has a metal arm-" He turned his attention back to the alien that had begun to flip through one of his books. "Why are you even here, Tony?"
He closed the book with a sharp snap, "Well you're obviously dying. I came to pay my condolences in advance." Tony rolled his eyes when Bucky made an offended noise. "Joking, joking! You're like, 90 something, Buckaroo. Live a little."
Why anyone let Tony wander off without Pepper is a mystery to Steve... The alien could probably start an intergalactic war just by opening his mouth.
Steve sniffled, accepting a box of tissues from Bucky with a grimace. The look of fascinated disgust on Tony's face when he blew his nose was worth it though.
"Icky mucus and germs aside, I popped in to talk to you," the alien eyed Bucky leaning against the door frame warily. "Privately."
From the corner of his eye, Steve could see Bucky's body tense up.
"Why would you need to-" The next few words died on his tongue once Tony raised both his brows. Oh… alien stuff. "Okay. We can talk."
Bucky mumbled something under his breath just as Natasha stood up, "Come on, James. I can show you where Steve hides the snacks he isn't supposed to have."
"For the last time, Nat. It's Bucky," he told her, letting her push him out of the room and down the hall. "Not James."
"That's what I said."
"No it's not," their voices faded into nothing when Tony shut the door, pressing his back against it.
At first, the other alien did nothing more than stare at Steve and it had him clenching his jaw. The longer the silence stretched, the more irritated Steve became.
"Did you need to talk or not?" He snipped, setting his sketchbook aside. "I don't feel well and I'm not in the mood for your games right now."
Tony pushed himself away from the door, pressing a hand to his chest, "It's like you aren't happy to see me or something."
"Tony-"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm getting to it," he grumbled. The other alien sat at the very edge of the bed, his voice dropping flatly. "We're friends right?"
Steve sat up straighter, his spine aching, "Tony what's going on? Is something wrong?"
"It's a yes or no question, Steve." The words were spoken slowly, with absolute seriousness. He couldn't remember a time when Tony had ever used his actual name and it made his gut drop dreadfully.
Something was wrong.
"Yes, who knows why, but yes." Steve let out a sigh and rubbed his face nervously. "Now tell me why you're acting like this…"
"This is completely off the records," he told Steve slowly, pulling a manilla folder out of his jacket. "Sam doesn't know I'm here and if he asks, I never was- alright?"
Steve nodded, completely lost for words. Mind racing, he tried to figure out what this could be about. Was it about him keeping Bucky here? But Sam said that it was okay…
"Use your words, Cap," he said with a dull grin.
"Don't be an ass," he coughed out, his chest felt like it was caving in on itself. "Okay, you weren't here. Just tell me what's going on."
Tony waves the folder around, the big red confidential stamp sent alarms off in Steve's head. Did he really steal files from MIB? If Sam finds out, he might just strangle Tony.
"Doctor Banner told me not to come-"
"And yet here you are," Steve interrupted with a small smile that never met his eyes. He might be friends with the alien but that didn't mean he wanted to sit through an entire narrative. "Why?"
"Bucko's blood work came back," he bit out, sounding pained as he flipped the folder open. "Technically, I'm not supposed to share this with you- you know that right? This is medical information and I can get in serious trouble if Wilson finds out I took this."
Steve figured as much, "Then why go through the trouble of bringing me it? Is Bucky not okay? You said he was okay-"
Tony put the folder down onto the bed, sliding it across to Steve, "His arm is okay. Doctor Banner ran all the other tests and wouldn't let me help but that's not important! This is," he said, tapping at the papers.
Cautiously, Steve reached out to pick the folder up. It was a collection of medical forms- more specifically, Bucky's and his own…?
He flipped through the papers, "What the hell is this? Why are my health files here? These are top secret."
"Article three, box seven," Tony spit out, jumping up from the bed to pace the floor as he spoke. " 'Subject has high levels of potassium.' Do you know what that means?"
Steve shook his head, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he read.
"Of course not, why did I ask?" He continued, ignoring Steve's glare and pointed to the files. "Unless Bucko has been eating lots of bananas- which is unlikely since he wasn't on Earth- he's been experimented on."
"We already know that, Tony," he muttered bitterly.
"No," Tony groaned. "Hydra had this, this serum thing. I don't know the exact chemical make up of it but it had lots of potassium."
Steve wrinkled his nose, "So they gave him this serum…?"Nodding, Tony picked up his pacing again, seemingly pleased that Steve's kept up this far.
"Article seven, paragraph five: 'Subject has symptoms of prolonged radiation exposure.' Do you know what radiation does to humans? No, don't answer that. I'll tell you."
"Tony, I swear to-"
"It damages their cells, mutating it, breaking up their DNA and it could lead to cancer or even death. This is extraterrestrial radiation, Steve, the labs here on Earth have never seen anything like it and if he doesn't get tested, it could potentially kill him," Tony stressed, his voice a low growl. "MIB wasn't going to tell him because they have no way of helping him."
Fingers trembling, Steve shut the folder and shoved it away from him. He knew that Tony was just trying to help keep in the loop around Bucky's condition but this was... This was insane.
Just when he thought Bucky's nightmare could end, something new is unearthed.
"What can we do?" He asked, voice a wobbling whisper. "I don't know what to do…"
"Luckily for you, you have a gorgeous, genius alien friend that has the tech to test him," Tony pointed to himself proudly. "But, Doctor Banner doesn't think Bucko will agree to letting me test his DNA."
And honestly, Steve doesn't think Bucky will either but if it means that he might die… Well, Steve was going to have to convince him. There was no other option.
"Okay," he exhaled. "Okay, I'll ask him but he doesn't want to be touched by an alien-"
"Is that why you haven't told him about you?" When Steve shot him a seething glare, he sighed and threw his hands up. "I'm not gonna lecture you, Cap. It's really none of my business but when I tell you this next part it won't make telling Buckaroo about your alien origin any easier…"
Steve crossed his arms, "What does that mean?"
"There's a reason why your medical files are in that folder," he said, walking back to the bed to pick the files up. "And you aren't going to be too happy when you find out why."