Sentinel

When Tony wakes up he has a nasty hangover so he groans and goes to throw his blanket over his head so he could sleep the day away. “Oh no you don’t, Stark. You wake your ass up and explain yourself,” Rhodey tells him and Tony cracks an eye open to find Rhodey sitting across the room from him looking pissed. Not a crappy dream his stupid hung over mind made up then. God damnit.

“Explain what?” he slurs out though that’s thankfully because he’s tired, not because he’s still drunk.

“Don’t play stupid Tony, I can smell the alcohol,” Rhodey says in his Serious Business Voice.

Fucking damnit. “I just needed something to take the edge off it all, I’m fine,” he says even though the lights from outside were hurting his head. Thank god he wasn’t forced to function during the day, he’d die. The lights that lit the school at night were already rough enough on his eyes. He doesn’t even want to focus too long on Rhodey because his aura was bound to give him an even bigger headache.

Rhodey remains silent for a long time before he speaks, “what do you remember about yesterday?” he asks.

Tony snorts, wondering just how much Rhodey thought he’d drank. “I met a guy, one like me, and we um… tested out a lot of magic so I think that’s why I got a headache but then it just kept getting worse throughout the day. Then after school was I doing some research with Loki and he ended up taking me back here. You showed up briefly but you took off to do homework or something and then I made kind of a bad joke about needing a drink to Loki and well he gave me one. Before you start freaking out though he had no idea that I’ve had some um… issues with alcohol so this isn’t his fault. I was the one who drank it,” he says before Rhodey chews Loki a new one for something he didn’t know about.

That wouldn’t be fair and even if Loki knew Tony had willpower of his own, he could have said no and he didn’t. That was no one’s problem but his own no matter how much Rhodey might try and spin it.

“What about after that?” Rhodey asks. Tony thinks about it but the memories are hazy likely from the mix of pain and alcohol.

“Loki asked some questions about magic I think and then I passed out,” he says. Not unusual behavior on his part really, especially given the circumstances.

Rhodey all but dives for the door and Tony’s body hates him when he dives after Rhodey. “Jesus, where are you going?” he asks, half falling into Rhodey’s path.

Thankfully Rhodey catches him and gently rights him, “I’m going to ask Loki what the hell he asked you so I can figure out what the fuck his problem is,” he says, sounding and looking fiercely protective of Tony.

Tony rolls his eyes, “Rhodey I was drunk and in a fair amount of pain, my testimony is hardly reliable and even if it was and Loki really does have some master plan to do something to me or whatever do you think it’s wise to tell him out and out that you know about it? I thought you guardians were supposed to be sneaky,” he says. Its out and out manipulation on Tony’s part and Rhodey was by no means stupid enough to fall for it but his words give Rhodey pause anyways because something must occur to him.

“You’re right. If Loki has a plan, and I’m damn certain he does, then it probably wouldn’t be smart if he knew I knew. Right now he thinks he’s flying mostly under my radar and it would be wise to keep it that way. So here’s what you’re going to do,” Rhodey tells him and then he gives Tony a handful of Loki Rules that Tony so wasn’t following.

They haggle back and forth for a bit before they finally settle on a solution of sorts. Rhodey had initially told Tony not to go anywhere near Loki without him present but Tony pointed out that that was really suspicious, especially after the night before and thankfully Rhodey agreed. So he was mostly under instruction to act normal around Loki but to watch for any inconsistencies in any stories he told or any other suspicious behavior. Personally Tony thought Rhodey was being overdramatic but he agrees to make him feel better. The downside was that he now had to deliver freaking reports to Rhodey on Loki’s behavior every day and Tony knows there’s no way he’ll wiggle out of that.

Eventually Rhodey goes and gets him some Advil and Tony takes it gratefully before he’s forced by Rhodey to prepare for school because Rhodey was determined to make him suffer.

*

At the feeders Pepper asks Rhodey about any information about that guardian raid Rhodey might have from Peggy but he relays Tony’s story about Loki and drinking from the night before instead, citing that as the reason he had no answers. Tony pouts while Pepper chews him out in her strange gentle but stern way. Once they have established Loki as the enemy, something Pepper was apparently happy to support now, Rhodey tells her that he’s going to ask Peggy about the raid after class.

They all go their own ways, Tony briefly explaining to Rhodey about Charles before he tries to go in the direction of the library Rhodey-free. Except Rhodey reroutes and follows him immediately, “okay excuse you. Go to your own classes before Peggy skins you for being late,” Tony tells him, shooing him off.

“After I meet this Charles guy,” Rhodey tells him, leaving no room for asking questions.

Tony rolls his eyes but lets Rhodey tag along to see how harmless Charles is. Charles, thankfully, is a good sport about this and answers all of Rhodey’s questions before he finally deems Charles not evil and he takes off to class. “He’s protective,” Charles notes, “and remarkably alright with me shoving him out of your mind.”

“That’s probably because I gave him bigger worries last night. And I also lied a little and told him we were practicing with some of your magical abilities,” he says. Rhodey had fallen for it because it made sense and because there wasn’t much in Tony’s mind to indicate it was a lie because technically it was true though the circumstances were nothing like Tony described.

“You know he’ll find out, right? He’s attached to your hip and deeply invested in your well-being and safety. The fact that you’ve managed to keep your um… relationship from him thus far is a miracle,” Charles says.

Tony sighs, “so I know but it isn’t much of a relationship so there isn’t much to lie about anyways.”

Charles’s eyebrows shoot up, “that’s not what your auras suggested.”

“Or my eyes,” Erik throws in. “I know Barnes and the only person he looked at the way he looked at you was Rogers.”

Great, Tony thinks, he’s been upgraded from child in Bucky’s eyes to his new Moroi to protect. This was total bullshit. “Fine, fine, enough of that. What have you found in your research?” he asks Charles.

Thankfully Charles was fond of lectures because he launches into his research on genetics and Dhampirs in particular- he got a PhD in the subject- and how that led to his research on elemental magic. From there he launches into a history of the ways magic was used and the magic that wasn’t accounted for by the other elements. He started comparing the similarities to try and weed out facts from fiction but he found that there were remarkable similarities across the board once he found the patterns.

The connecting bits of information consisted of some kind of mental instability, not specializing in any other element obviously, and unexplained connections to other magic though the magic was usually linked to healing or compulsion. Charles and Tony both had those things though they both had abilities that fell outside of those things too. Like Charles’ mind reading but inability to heal, or how they could both see auras.

“Okay, so we have some places to look but what is it that we’re doing?” he asks. They had to have been connected to some element so what was it?

Charles sighs, “I have no idea, most of this is just stories and speculation that’s barely been confirmed by the two of us and our abilities. A lot of this stuff is from stories of saints too and the stories tend to be written by humans. They just assumed that these were acts of god and I certainly know I am not channeling the Holy Spirit,” Charles says.

Tony laughs, “yeah I noticed that too when I looked up healing and all of that, but this wouldn’t be the first time Moroi have been associated with gods in some way. Any of your research mention the term ‘shadow kissed’ in reference to healing?” he asks. Charles mentions a crazy dead saint and Tony sighs, annoyed with the lack of progress.

Charles, on the other hand, thinks they’ve made all kinds of progress and makes Tony map out when his powers manifested, what he could do, an new abilities he’s noticed, and all his side effects. He does and he asks Charles about his genetic research to pass the time while he wrote everything out. He’s happy to tell Tony about his work and he’s surprised but pleased when Tony could keep up just fine with the jargon. He’s read plenty on Moroi genetics though Dhampir genetics hadn’t occurred to him until he found Charles.

He hands Charles everything he knew and sits back, “so how come you’re at the Academy?” he asks. All that research and his family’s money suggested he could have fucked off with Erik where ever but instead he came here? Tony wouldn’t have made the same choice if he got to study what he wanted like Charles.

“They need guardians here,” Erik answers instead of Charles. Tony was starting to get used to the way he sometimes stepped into conversations when no one invited him though it was still odd to him. Guardians, while they often formed relationships with their charges, were generally seen but not heard if something was going on. This would be one of those situations and yet Erik happily threw his thoughts out there.

“He had one of the worst school records I have ever seen,” Charles says, obviously skimming Tony’s thoughts. According to him he used to have to focus on a person’s mind but now it was a near constant stream of voices unless he either actively blocked them out or if he took something like Tony did sometimes. “No on wanted him as a guardian and I’m fairly certain he wanted it that way so he was rather surprised when I picked him. I’m the wealthy son of a prominent Royal family, the black sheep of the entire country didn’t seem like a good pick but I fought for him and since no one else wanted him,” Charles shrugs, leaving Tony to guess the rest.

“But why?” Tony asks.

“Because by then I had a good grasp on my ability to read minds and knew Erik was hiding his skills on purpose. I never wanted to be part of Moroi society either; I figured we would get along as a couple of recluses if I had to have a guardian. Plus he gets paid to have the pleasure of my company so it’s hardly a terrible deal for him. Until recently it’s worked out well for us but guardians are in short supply and I’ve had enough close calls to give Erik here a reputation for killing Strigoi. They needed his expertise and I could use some bright-eyed bushy tailed Dhampirs for my research. Do you think your friend would supply some hair samples?” Charles asks, eyes bright.

Tony promises he’d talk to Rhodey about helping with Charles’ research and heads out to his next class. His hangover, thankfully, was less heinous by this point even if he still had a nasty headache so he’d at least be able to focus even if he wouldn’t want to. He’s almost out of the library when Erik catches up to him, cutting off his way out. Tony pauses, unsure if he’s supposed to feel weary here because Erik was… unstable. Sometimes Tony noticed Charles’ aura dim, and sometimes he’d outright see a spot in it, but Erik’s aura was darker than anything he’s seen before. The exception was Rhodey but Tony was pretty sure that had to do with the whole ‘shadow-kissed’ thing. To his knowledge Erik has never been kissed by any shadows, whatever that meant. Tony was pretty sure it had something to do with dying anyways and he’s pretty sure Charles would have noticed if his guardian died at some point.

“You said you’ve never really worked a lot with mental instability, that you weren’t sure what you could do there exactly,” Erik says. Tony nods even though he’s pretty sure that was a rhetorical question. “I’m sure you’ve noticed my aura, sometimes Charles’ talks about it when he gets… Point is I know I have issues. A lot of things in my life have left a permanent mark on my psyche, which means I’m a prime candidate for you to test your ability to heal insanity.”

He gets what Erik is asking for and it surprised him, especially given how uncomfortable he seemed with Charles’ mind reading abilities. “I uh… I can see what I can do I guess. Have you died by any chance?” he asks.

Erik frowns at him, “do I look dead to you? Last I checked ghosts weren’t real. Either that or you’re already nuts, in which case then I’ll have no problems using you to heal Charles.” Technically, Tony notices, Erik doesn’t answer the question.

The hairs on the back of Tony’s neck stand on end as he picks up on the implications of Erik’s words. “Yeah, I’m not nuts yet bud and I do have people who would care if I go missing.”

“You have a novice and a mother who’s fallen from grace, none of that is relevant,” he says easily.

“You underestimate just how determined Rhodey can be, and my mom for that matter and even if you didn’t you might be fucked in the head but Charles has a pretty strong sense of morality. I highly doubt he’d be fine with your plan,” he says. He sounds a lot more confident than he feels but he does at least have something Erik wants so he had some kind of way to negotiate here. That and he could always try calling to Rhodey through the bond. He’s never done it before but if he could feel what Tony did when he wasn’t distressed he was sure he could pick up on Tony out and out telling him to get his novice ass to him to save him from his new friend’s mentally unstable nutcase of a guardian.

Erik smirks, “and what makes you think Charles isn’t in on it?” he asks. “He’s a mind reader, it’s hardly like I can keep secrets from him,” Erik points out.

Tony snorts, “one, you two only discovered me the day before yesterday and I outright stated that I wasn’t sure if I could heal mental health problems. And two, I have experience keeping people out of my head when I don’t want them in there regardless of how connected they are to my mind. I don’t doubt you’ve found ways too given that you have an obvious distaste for the power. Now get out of my way before I take my generous offer to try and help you with Charles’ budding insanity back.”

He’s shocked when Erik actually moves out of his way but he doesn’t need a second cue to get the hell out of there while he could. He so wasn’t going anywhere near Charles without Rhodey somewhere close ever again.

*

Bucky gets released so he could heal in his room in the guardian’s section of the campus and moving was a real pain in his ass. Tony healed most of the flesh wounds but he left that nasty gash on his lower stomach that was making his life needlessly difficult. He limps along while he admires the sunrise, happy that most students were off in bed by now. He didn’t really feel like explaining his presence, his wounds, or answering the students’ questions.

He doesn’t expect it, though in hindsight that was stupid, but he runs into Tony. “Hey,” Tony says, rushing up to him. “Are you even supposed to be out because you’re still really hurt, I can feel it.”

Bucky grins at him and leans against a tree for support, thankful that his left arm wasn’t there to get in the way for once. “Yeah I got cleared to go heal in my own room but that’s probably because I made a fuss about being in the hospital.” No one was fond of hospitals but they reminded Bucky of Steve so he had a special kind of aversion to them. Eventually the nurses and doctors got annoyed of his whining and sent him off to heal elsewhere. It was a tactic Bucky has picked up from Steve and he was happy to see it worked even when he’s a guardian instead of a Moroi.

Tony looks him up and down before he steps forward, “if you want I can heal you a little more, I can see your pain.” He’s looking at the air around Bucky and he sighs.

“I’ve had worse wounds Tony, I’ll be fine. You used some kind of ridiculous compulsion to get in and out and usually Moroi don’t use that much power all at once so I have no idea how you aren’t still exhausted.” Steve had been an earth user and moving rocks made him tired let alone anything more than that. Granted he was an exception to the rule but still, Tony would have had to use compulsion on at least five people, some of them guardians with more resistance to it, to get in to Bucky let alone out. And then there was the healing thing too.

He knew for a fact Tony didn’t usually use that much power all at once because he’s spent three months watching him. At any given time he only used a little compulsion and maybe some healing along with pretty much constantly seeing auras. That was no where near the amount of power he would have needed to get in and out of the hospital wing unnoticed by anyone. It made him wonder how the hell Tony managed to pull that off but thankfully Tony feels forthcoming with information today.

“I had some help. I met someone like me a few hours before and it turns out he can do some compulsion on crack. Like he can outright make people not see that he’s standing right there. Anyways Charles helped me out so I only actually used a little bit of compulsion and I healed you some. It’s nothing really, I can heal you more if you need it,” he says, half reaching out to Bucky’s stomach wound before he pulls his hand back looking somewhat pained.

That was… odd. He’s only ever seen Tony heal once but he’d hardly been paying attention when Tony had done that and now he was kicking himself in the ass for it. “Do you… feel compelled to heal me?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes at the poor choice of words but he answers regardless. “Not exactly. But I can see that you’re in pain and I don’t like leaving people there like that, never have. I used to heal Rhodey too before he got ahold of what it felt like through the bond and told me to stop it. I don’t like it but,” he shrugs. It wasn’t like he could force heal Rhodey and if he tried well, that would be futile given how easy it would be for Rhodey to restrain Tony.

“Well I’ll be fine Tony. I mean it when I say I’ve had worse,” he says gently. Even if he wasn’t including having his arm ripped off he’s been in some tough spots that have left him with some nasty wounds. This was part of being a guardian and he’s long accepted that.

Tony sighs, “alright fine. What happened though? Peggy said you guys were there mostly to see if your intel was right and to gather information so how the hell did you end up so,” he waves his hand around Bucky’s wounded gut.

He almost asks how he knew that but then he remembers that Rhodey was a favored student of Peggy’s and the information was just bare enough for it to be accurate but not particularly useful. “It was a bit more than that or that’s how things ended up. We were initially only going to canvas the house that we found because it looked like no one was in it. Of course we were wrong and guardian 101 is to not hesitate when someone comes at you but the Strigoi were smart and sent the humans after us first. Almost all of us hesitated because we didn’t want to hurt them,” he says.

Stupid, they already knew that humans were working with the Strigoi so they shouldn’t have hesitated. Sure wasting a human life would be horrible but they were in league with the undead for gods sakes. They all knew how to incapacitate; the humans would have been easy to clear but no, near everyone froze.

“You didn’t freeze,” Tony says more than asks.

Bucky shakes his head, “no I didn’t but everyone else hesitating meant I got to the Strigoi first and I only have one arm. In a fight that leaves my entire chest open to attack in almost any position I’ll end up in and I had no back up for a solid thirty seconds. It doesn’t sound like a lot but trust me, it is. I managed to stake two and kick the other into the fray of humans so someone else could deal with it but the damn things kept coming. We managed to win by the skin of our asses but it wasn’t without it’s drawbacks,” he says, looking down at his stomach.

“You managed to kill two Strigoi without help?” Tony asks, looking impressed.

“Six, but two were without help yeah.” And the odds were three-to-one and his chest was mostly open for attack. He had to wonder if Steve was acting as his guardian angel now or something because people didn’t come out of those odds alive let alone able to fight several more Strigoi.

Tony’s eyebrows fly up, “that many?” he asks.

He nods, “there was a more than unusual amount of Strigoi in the house. I’m pretty sure we were set up because they were clearly prepared for us. Makes me wonder where the information came from.” Everything had been too perfect on both ends and that made him nervous. If the Strigoi were hand-feeding them cherry picked information they were so fucked he didn’t even want to think about it.

“Jesus Christ,” Tony breaths, “no wonder the novices worship you.”

Bucky gives him a wry smile, “well I’d prefer if you didn’t follow suit. I like that you don’t try and kiss my feet as I walk by.” He also liked that Tony didn’t treat him like a guardian either. It was refreshing to finally be in a role where he was him. Tony’s words from some time ago float back to him. It surprised him that it’s taken so long for him to realize that both he and Tony were placed into narrow boxes that they didn’t like but accepted because it was the best they were going to get. Sure, they both did what they could to get out of their boxes but Bucky will only ever be a guardian and Tony will never outlive his father’s legacy. It was a sad and somewhat painful realization.

Tony must notice because he steps closer to him and reaches out, gently touching the arm Bucky currently had curled around his wounded stomach. He can feel the strange tingly heat from Tony’s magic and then the pain recedes a little, “Hey, I’m alright,” he says even though he was just starting to realize what kind of pain he was in. No wonder Tony kept offering to heal him, now that he wasn’t in nearly as much pain he realized he was on the verge of passing out.

“No,” Tony says, “you aren’t. But you’re a little bit better now. And no worries about me kissing the ground you walk on- the only person I’m willing to worship is myself.”

His tone is cocky but Bucky knew him well enough to know it was all a show, one that was remarkably similar to the way Maria Stark acted. Like she was untouchable, and if someone did have the misfortune of crossing her she made sure you knew she’d fight back. Hard. Huh. Tony was known for being like his father but Bucky wondered how true that was really. “Tony, you regularly use the sun as an attempted sleep aid and doesn’t include the half a dozen other methods of self harm you use. If you’re trying to worship yourself you might want to start actually doing things that make you happy instead of miserable.” Its out before he can stop it but thankfully Tony doesn’t seem to take it too hard.

“True,” he murmurs, “but you told me to go find someone my own age.”

He sighs, “sure I did, because that’s what’s best for you. I don’t… I don’t know what I’m doing here and it isn’t right for me to go messing with your life. You deserve better than that,” he says honestly. He’s been through a lot in the last year and he didn’t need Bucky swooping in and making it all worse.

“And you don’t think I can make that kind of decision on my own?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Things are different when you’re seventeen. Take it from someone who’s been there,” he says. When you were that age you thought you had it all figured out and in that moment you were right, but years later? That was when you knew when and where you fucked up. He’s made enough mistakes to know how that felt.

“Or you know, you can take it from the person who is outright telling you that I’m fine with this. Will I be in ten years? Who the fuck knows, but realistically in five years I could be in a relationship with someone totally different and have that fall apart too. Age doesn’t guarantee anything so I don’t see why you’re so hung up on this,” Tony says.

He isn’t wrong, not exactly. But it didn’t change the fact that he was a grown adult attracted to a high schooler, he should be in jail. Of course Tony didn’t care about that, why would he? Bucky wouldn’t have at Tony’s age. But he can’t safely say he’d care at his age either. That was kind of an experience thing and he was lucky to not have that understanding. “Tony,” Bucky starts but Tony cuts him off.

“Look,” he says softly, leaning into Bucky’s space a little and he only just realizes how close they were. “I get why you’re worried but I’ve never been normal. When I know what I want I know what I want. And I want you.”

The feeling was mutual and he damn well knew Tony could tell even if his aura wasn’t giving anything away. It was obvious enough that he was shocked no one else has picked up on it. So, because he’s weak, when Tony leans up and kisses him he kisses Tony back.