Tony Stark tries. Contrary to popular belief, he really does try. He constantly tries to please those around him because of this subconscious fear that one day he'll get thrown out of his own tower and left to die. After a lifetime of getting abandoned and not appreciated for what he has done, he finally has people that will appreciate him.
So when he wakes up at 2am after a nightmare in cold sweat, he does what he does best; he tinkers. It helps ease his mind. That's how he finds the time to create new equipment for his team. Various new weapons for Natasha. New arrows for Clint. Hulk-proof pants for Bruce. Lightweight yet protective uniforms for Steve. And that's how his day usually goes. He builds stuff until he can't see his hands clearly anymore, or until Steve or one of the others drags him out for something to eat or to spend time with the team or to sleep. As long as they make sure he's taking care of himself. Tony spends so much time trying to make his teammates happy he forgets to make himself happy too.
That's how his life goes, since the Avengers all moved into the ex-Stark Tower. Except it all changes when the Winter Soldier appears. After Steve takes down SHIELD and Natasha dumps all their files on the Internet, Tony spends most of his time trying to decrypt the files.
He discovers something. The Winter Soldier is a ghost living in the shadow of James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky Barnes did not die when he fell off a train 70 years ago. He was found in the ice by HYDRA and brainwashed against his will. He was used as a weapon and killed hundreds of people.
Tony tries to find him. Because he's the only thing Steve has from his past. Steve and Sam are running their own search, taking down HYDRA bases along the way, but have not found a solid lead on the assassin.
In the files, Tony discovers a file with the date of his parents death. He always thought it was a car accident, he never second guessed it. At least until today. There was a picture from a roadside camera of the Winter Soldier strangling Howard. Tony doesn't realize he's shaking until he drops the cup of coffee he was holding. His breathing becomes more strained.
He shuts down the files and lays on the coach he keeps in his workshop. He contemplates what to do with this new information. Steve's friend--no, the Winter Solider--murdered his parents. Tony thinks he should end his search. It's not like anyone knew what he was up to anyways.
He realizes he can't do that to Steve. He was getting so close. He's not searching for the Winter Soldier. He's looking for Bucky Barnes, the Howling Commando, the one who he heard stories about from Aunt Peggy.
A few days later, Jarvis discovers a facial recognition of Bucky on a bus in Bucharest. His hair is longer and he has a beard, different from the pictures from the war. In the pictures he has short hair and his face was clean shaven.
Tony decides he's going to look for him. He tells the team he's going on a business trip to Romania. He tells Pepper he's going to take some time off. Jarvis finds the man's apartment. He's been living there for almost 2 years. He most likely managed to escape HYDRA after Steve took down SHIELD.
He locates his apartment in Bucharest. It's small and old. A nice place to lay low. He knocks on the door and is surprised when it actually opens. Tony grins at the man behind the door. The man looks like he's seeing a ghost.
"Howard?" the man asks, his voice low and rough from lack of use.
"No, that's my father actually. You can call me Tony," Tony tells the man. "Are you Bucky?" He asks.
"Depends, who's asking?" The man responds.
"Well, do you know this man?" Tony asks him as he pulls up a photo of Steve on his phone.
"That's the man on the bridge," he responds quietly, staring at the phone.
"Oh you know more than that, come on."
"No," Bucky answers bluntly.
"Yes you do. I saw the footage. You said you knew him," Tony tries to encourage the sergeant to answer. He locks eyes with Bucky; he notices his eyes are a soft blue, almost grey. The man is stunning.
"His name is Steve. He was my best friend," Bucky answers, looking down at his shoes.
"If you let me in, I can tell you more about him," Tony tells the man.
The man opens the door wider to let Tony in. He points at the suitcase he didn't realize Tony was holding and asks, "What's that?"
"This," Tony lifts up the suitcase and taps it with his other hand, "is my suit of armor." Bucky didn't ask any more questions.
They spend a few hours talking. Bucky opens up Tony about his childhood and about Steve. How they met and how Steve was a skinny little shit that always picked fights. Bucky began to feel more human as he talked with Tony.
Tony picks up on the slight grimace of pain Bucky makes when he moves his arm too much. "You know," Tony begins, "if you come back to New York with me, I can fix that arm of yours. Make it hurt less," Tony offers. "You can also see Steve, I know he'll be happy to see you," he adds.
"Y-you'll do that for me?" Bucky asks Tony, slightly unsure of the offer.
"Any friend of Steve's is a friend of mine," Tony declares and puts his hand on Bucky's flesh shoulder to reassure him.
~~
They arrive at the tower and Tony starts working on the arm right away. "This thing is an insult to all of mechanics," Tony remarks right when he gets his hands on the thing. Bucky just sits there calmly and let's him work. He listens to Tony's constant chatter and out loud thinking. It calms his nerves. His handlers were never careful working on his arm. They didn't ask how he felt or if he was in pain, like Tony did.
"You would expect a Nazi science organization to be able to design a good prosthetic arm, guess not," Tony said when he finished. "So, how does it feel?" Tony asked him as he gave him some space to test out the arm.
"It feels good," Bucky says as he stretched his fingers and arms. "It's not as clunky and it's more lightweight," he adds.
"I think there's someone who wants to meet you," Tony says to Bucky. Bucky nods at him, knowing who he's talking about.
"Jarvis, call Steve to workshop."
"Right away, Sir." Jarvis calls, startling Bucky.
"Don't worry, he's just my computer. He doesn't bite, I promise." Tony assures him.
Steve walks in, "Hey Tony, Jarvis said yo-," and stops dead in his tracks when he sees him.
"Hey Stevie," Bucky says with a small smile.
"Bucky, I thought you wer-," Steve manages before he's cut off.
"I tracked him down to Bucharest, picked him up myself, and fixed 'im up," Tony says and pats Bucky on the shoulder. Steve just gapes at him, his mouth slightly open.
~~
The three of them sit there in the workshop. Just talking about what Steve has done since he woke up in this century. What they've missed out on in the last 70 years. Getting to know each other once again. Tony is learning more about the two soldiers. He actually feels happy for once. He is the one who reunited Steve with his best friend.
If Tony's heart did a cartwheel and his stomach got all fluttery when Steve thanked him and hugged him for bringing his friend back, no one had to know. The little infatuation he had on the super soldier has grown to a full on crush, the ones teenagers get when they like each other.
Bucky stayed in the extra room on Steve's floor. He said he wants to meet the rest of the team in the morning.
The following morning, the team has breakfast together, minus Thor who's in Asgard doing god things. They all welcome the ex-assassin with open arms. Natasha just stares at him with the look she only gives to people she doesn't know if she trusts just yet.
~~
Months pass as Bucky emerged from shadows and wormed his way into the hearts of all the Avengers. Bucky and Clint play pranks on the rest of the Avengers and just wreck havoc in the tower. Bucky grew on Natasha as she realized he is no longer the Winter Soldier at all. Together, they speak Russian and bake goods together. Bruce and Bucky do yoga together to calm down a bit. Steve and Bucky fall into their old routines and try to catch up on 70 years of music and movies, with the help of Sam and Tony. Bucky even visits Sam at the VA and helps out at some of his lectures too. Bucky likes to go down into Tony's workshop and just watch the genius work. He sits on the worn couch and reads a book or plays games on a StarkPad while Tony works.
Sleeping is where he has trouble. The first few nights were the worst. He would have nightmares of those who he killed and they would cream and cry for mercy. He would wake up sweating and screaming and thrashing. Suddenly Steve would be by his side holding him and telling him he's okay. That's he's in Avengers Tower and that he is longer being held captive by HYDRA. He slowly calms down and Steve stays in the bed with him and they fall asleep together, just like old times.
Steve didn't realize he had feelings for his old friend until one day the team was watching a movie together. Steve was sitting next to Tony and Bucky was on the floor with Clint completely divulged in the movie. Steve was watching Bucky and he realized how far he has come since Tony brought him to the tower. In that moment, Steve realized he loved his best friend, not just as a friend.
While Steve realized his feelings, Tony realized he had not only a crush on the Captain, but his best friend as well. He was sure as hell in a dilemma.
Steve finally asked Bucky out and they were happy. They went on dates and cuddled on the couch during movie nights, all while Tony watched on the sideline. Tony realized there was no room for him in this relationship. They were happy together and didn't need Tony ruining that for them.
So when Bucky woke up from a nightmare while Steve was away from a mission and called for Tony, the genius was surprised.
Tony entered the sergeant's room and found him tossing and turning in his bed. He cried out for Tony and Tony came closer to his bed.
"Hey hey, Bucky, wake up it's okay," Tony said to him and slowly stroked Bucky's hair to wake him.
Bucky opened his eyes and found Tony sitting next him. He was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. "I-I killed you," Bucky said, "when you came to my apartment, instead of letting you in, I killed you," Bucky continued as tears spilled from his eyes.
"Hey, clearly you didn't because I'm here now, aren't I?" Tony assure Bucky. He held him close as he shook and if a sob escaped Bucky's mouth, well Tony wouldn't say.
~~
All the Avengers were called in for a mission. Bucky had to stay behind because Fury wasn't sure he was in a stable enough condition, and he understood. He was still able to watch from a live feed and gave feedback on the comms. The battle wasn't anything they hadn't fought against before. Just some crappy villain trying to take over Queens using some crappy robots.
It was going good, they were taking out the robots and Tony was closing in on the source. Until the big one came out. It was at least 10 times the size and strength of the other bots. And it came straight for the Iron Man suit.
"Are you fucking kidding me!" Tony exclaimed loudly.
"Language, Stark," Steve chastised.
"I think I am allowed to use expletives when there is a giant robot on my tail, Capsicle," Tony argued as he shot a repulsor beam at the bot. The bot cornered Tony between two buildings and suddenly it kept shooting at the foundation of the older building. The building came down and Tony got caught in the rubble.
"TONY!" Bucky exclaimed over the comms.
"Iron Man, come in," Steve asked over the comms but it was silent.
"Shit," Clint whispered as he approached the rubble. "Cap, we're gonna need an excavation team here," he ordered.
"Already on it," Bucky said as he got on his motorcycle. He drove the battlefield and found the pile of rubble that used to be a 15 story building. He began digging through the rubble hoping to find the familiar red and gold.
"Buck, wait for the excavation team," Steve asked quietly.
"No, Steve! He could die by the time they get here!" He shouted, suddenly tears were flowing down his cheeks.
Tony thought he was gonna die under that building. He shed silent tears as he accepted his fate and realized he would never be able to tell the two men that he loved how he felt about them. He even planned on taking them to dinner after this battle was over, but now he never would be able to.
His face plate was dented from a large brick being on top of it and it was stabbing him in the face. His blood was mixing with his tears and he couldn't even open his eyes anymore. If we tried to adjust, the rubble on top of him would only crush him more. The rubble around him began to move and if Tony began to cry louder, no one had to know. Sooner or later, he passed out from blood loss, silencing his crying.
Bucky exclaimed in relief as he saw a glimmer of red in the rubble of the building. He began digging in the direction of red of gold suit. The excavation team joined him soon after and they were able to uncover the Iron Man face plate and then the rest of the suit.
Once all the rubble was removed from the suit, Bucky tore off the face plate to uncover Tony's unconscious and bloody face. Relief flooded over Bucky when he out two fingers to Tony's neck and found a slight heartbeat.
Steve approached Bucky with paramedics in tow. "He's still alive, I found a pulse," Bucky said to the paramedics. Bucky hugged Steve tightly as the paramedics took care of Tony. "He can't die, Stevie. I love him," he admitted into Steve's chest as more tears began to flow.
"Shhh, Buck, I love him too. He's too stubborn to die," Steve said as he petted Bucky's hair.
~~
Tony opened his eyes only to be met with blinding bright lights and the scent of antiseptic. He immediately knew he was in a hospital. He thought no one was in the room until he saw the sleeping figure on the small uncomfortable couch in the corner. He recognized the person to be Bucky. Tony didn't want to wake him so he just went to back to sleep.
When he woke up again, he noticed Bucky staring at him. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," he quipped and winked at Bucky, breaking him out of his trance.
"Tony? Oh thank God, you're awake!" Bucky exclaimed as he got up out of the chair and closer to Tony.
"Bucky I have to tell you something," Tony told the other man. This was the time he needed confess his love for the ex-assassin and his best friend.
"Wait, I need to do something first." was all Bucky said before he pressed his lips to Tony's. It was a few seconds before Tony kissed back and they continued to kiss until Tony pulled back.
"What about Steve?" he asked.
"We want this Tony. The three of us in a relationship together. It was his idea too." Bucky said and carded his fingers through Tony's hair.
"Oh," Tony began, "I was gonna say that I had feelings for you and the Capsicle and I was planning on telling you guys after the battle but then I got caught in the rubble and I thought I was gonna die and you would never find me-" Tony rambled on until Bucky cut him off with a kiss.
"Found a way to shut you up, Stark," Bucky smirked at Tony. Steve chose that moment to walk in and he found his boyfriend kissing Tony. Steve cleared his throat and the two broke apart.
"Sorry Stevie, I got a head start," Bucky grinned at Steve.
"Don't worry, I think I'll have time to catch up," Steve replied with a matching grin.
Tony Stark did try. He tried very hard in fact. He constantly tried to make his boyfriends and teammates happy and safe in his tower. He also tried to take care of himself; he was eating and sleeping properly, nightmares be damned. He now had his boyfriends to protect him too. He would wake up in the middle of the night less and Bucky even began to stop having nightmares of his victims. They were happy.