The Pen is Mightier! (penismightier) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2015-02-02 13:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | bruce banner, bucky barnes, clint barton, maria hill, marvel, natasha romanov, pepper potts, r-rated, sharon carter, short story, steve rogers, thor, tony stark, yuuo, yuuo: marvel |
[Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark; R] From Yesterday, From Today (Part 2)
Character/Series: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark, Cast; Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: R
Notes: Continued from Part 1
Title: From Yesterday, From Today
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 4298 this part, 13126 total
Summary: "Tony, you know he hates this music," Pepper said, sitting down at the prepared table in the ballroom.
"Tony, you know he hates this music," Pepper said, sitting down at the prepared table in the ballroom.
Tony looked at her over his Coke can, then set it down, making a point of listening to a few words from the Bon Jovi classic. "I don't see why," he said. Then he flashed her a grin. "I'll have JARVIS turn it off when they get here. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my music."
Pepper shook her head, smiling, then took his Coke and took a drink.
"Please," he said, taking it back once she'd set it down. "Your manners are atrocious, Miss Potts."
Pepper rested her forearms on the table, watching the entrance to the ballroom that led to the elevators. "I'm still not entirely sure why you go to such lengths for those two," she said. "Maybe less so Bucky than Steve. They're proving good on their word, but you seem more enthusiastic about maintaining your friendship with them than I think you should be."
This again. It wasn't an argument they had, not as far as arguments went. Not since Bucky and Cap had covered his butt in Syria, anyway. But it was still a thorn in Pepper's paw, so it remained one in Tony's ass.
"I'm challenging them," Tony said. "I think I've said this before, but you like to keep asking. I want to see them appreciate what I do. I want to see them willing to do just as much back. They haven't let me down so far. And I can still trust them to save my life, so that's something."
"That's something," she agreed. She sighed. "Tony, you might get disappointed this time, you know that, right? Steve was pretty unconvinced that this was a good idea. I'm not sure how enthusiastic Bucky's going to be to your party." She looked at the table of food that the caterers were finishing putting out.
The far end held the cake, a small thing that would probably end up going to Bucky for his sweets reserves, but the surrounding cupcakes would more than make up for the tiny cake. They were frosted in a dark blue.
"Why blue?" he asked her, and when she looked at him blankly, he motioned to the cake and cupcakes.
"Oh, that. Steve said that was Bucky's favorite color. That's why he chose that blue coat he wore during the war."
"Mm." Tony knocked back another swallow of his Coke. "You know, it's weird, looking at pictures of him then, and seeing him now. It's the same face, same age, but it's different. Must be the hair."
Pepper looked at him, looking like she was lost in thought rather than studying him directly, then patted his shoulder. "You know neither of us look exactly the same anymore, either."
At first he didn't answer, making the conscious choice to not follow where her words were pointing him, decided to put that on the backburner. "That's not true. You are beautiful as ever."
That made her smile and roll her eyes before kissing him lightly. "Flattery becomes you, when you're flattering me," she said. She looked up at the others; Sharon and Maria were talking, Tony couldn't hear what, and Thor was sliding Mjolnir back and forth between his hands on the table.
Seriously, couldn't that man go five minutes without it? "Hey, Thor, that's not much of a party favor, you know that?" Tony called over to him, motioning to the hammer.
Thor stopped playing with it and looked at him. "Would you rather I have left it in my room, and if trouble arose, it had to crash through walls to find me?" Smug bastard.
"You win this round."
"Thor just outwitted you?" Bucky said, and Tony looked over at the entryway to see both Cap and Bucky heading towards the table. Bucky was walking slower, eyeing the food and the cake.
"He did not," Tony said. "Some greeting from the birthday boy." He got up, leaving his Coke unprotected from Pepper- who proved he shouldn't have done that by taking the rest of it for herself -and walked around the table to meet them. "See the spread? All for you. Cap said blue was your favorite color. You can thank Pepper for finding this detail out and passing it onto the bakers."
Bucky looked happy, the smile was here, but something was missing in his eyes, and Tony didn't like that. Wasn't even sure he saw it, actually. Bucky looked around Tony to wave at Pepper. "Thanks, Pepper."
"Happy birthday," she said, setting down Tony's Coke can with a hollow sound that said she'd finished it off. She looked genuinely happy, at least, despite the conversation that they'd had for the 4.013x10^27 time. She liked Steve and Bucky, Tony was certain of that much, she just was still dealing with their underhanded deceit.
She dealt with things her way, Tony dealt with things his. They got along pretty well, despite that.
"Thanks," Bucky said again, then immediately got sidetracked by Maria taking her turn at greeting the birthday boy. "Hey, a pretty lady just walked up to me. Must be my lucky day."
"Keep flattering me and it might be an even better day," Maria replied, then hugged him. "Just don't let your imagination get away with you. It won't be that good of a day."
Bucky laughed, leaving his metal arm around her waist, and Tony idly wondered how comfortable that could possibly be. "Life is always entertaining with you around, Maria."
Tony watched while Sharon attached herself to Steve, but not before giving Bucky a bright smile and a 'happy birthday', and Maria motion Bucky towards Thor.
"He's been playing with that thing, waiting for you," Maria said. Bucky walked over to Thor.
Thor had an eyebrow raised at all this, having been apparently waiting patiently for his turn to say 'happy birthday' to their senior citizen friend. "Idle habits are not exclusive to Asgardians," he said, folding his arms on the table, the hammer still in front of him.
Bucky reached out with his left hand to push the hammer away and it just clanged loudly against it. Tony choked on a laugh. Bucky frowned at the oft-thought of as annoying weapon. "Your stupid hammer defies the laws of physics and that offends my sensibilities."
Thor did not look one tiny bit sorry for that. "It was forged in the heart of a dying star," he said.
"Yeah, about that," Bucky said, looking at the hammer with that same annoyed scowl. "What kind of star? A white dwarf? A supernova? Not a black hole, that star's already gone and dead."
"A star on the verge of a supernova," Thor answered without missing a beat. "The star was far too large to merely form a white dwarf."
Tony couldn't help but laugh at the bewildered look on Bucky's face. "His girlfriend's an astrophysicist," he said. "He's picked up a thing or two."
Bucky looked at Thor. "I approve."
Thor chuckled. "I did not realize I needed your approval."
"You don't," Bucky said. "But you have it anyway." He looked around. "I'm guessing Bruce and our other Odd Couple are just late? Or were they not invited?"
"You wound me to think that I'd leave out Bruce," Tony said. "Or the other two. This is an Avengers party. We're all invited. Plus, you got presents coming, and I told those three to be here before the presents were."
Bucky stared at him. "If you got me socks, I don't know if I can keep from chucking them at your head."
Tony did nothing more than to give him a bland smile.
Bruce showed up next, apologizing for his tardiness. "I lost track of time," he said. "JARVIS had to remind me. Happy birthday, Bucky."
Bucky waved. "Thanks, Bruce. Don't worry about being late, I almost was, too."
Bruce tilted his head down, looking at Bucky over his glasses. "You were almost late for your own birthday party?"
Bucky shrugged. "I got caught up in the positron production problem. I was just tooling around."
Tony frowned, getting up and fetching himself another Coke from the beverages section of the catering table. Bucky worked on that problem when he was slammed up against another problem, he'd said so himself the day before. And there was that odd expression in his eyes that hadn't gone away once since coming into the room. Tony wished he knew what it was there for. If he had to guess, it was the age thing, but he felt like there was more to it than that.
He might corner Bucky later about it, if he could navigate them away from Pepper and Cap's watchful gazes.
"Excuse me, sirs and madams," JARVIS said. "But Agent Romanov and Agent Barton are currently on escort duty. They will be here momentarily."
"Excellent," Tony said. He grabbed another Coke for Pepper. "Here, one just for you." He sat back down. "Take a seat, birthday boy. Your gift's on the way."
Bucky blinked, wide-eyed for a second, then he squinted at Tony in a distinctly suspicious fashion. "My presents have to be escorted by Natasha and Clint? Who the hell did you drag in?"
"You'll see," Tony said, making sure his Coke was away from Pepper, despite the fact that she had her own. Tricksey woman might find a way to steal his anyway.
Bucky looked about ready to cross his arms before Maria grabbed his left arm and looped it over her shoulders. "I personally supervised Tony's choice in presents," she assured him. "It won't be anything bad."
Steve raised his eyebrows at her. "You personally oversaw that?"
Tony just laughed.
"I have a feeling the truth is a bit pliable in this group," Bucky said, looking between them all. "You're all in on this?"
"That stands to reason," Bruce said. "We were all together when this was planned."
Tony could see Bucky's brain wheels spinning, and he had a feeling that Bucky had figured out the 'presents' were Peter and Sam, or at least Peter. He probably hadn't figured out about Sam. But Bucky was being kind and letting them pretend to have the element of surprise, and Tony took that for what it was.
"Happy birthday, you old fart," an elderly voice said from behind Bucky.
Tony leaned over to try to see who had spoken, and when Bucky moved to face the speaker, Tony could only assume the old man he saw was Peter. It was either the old white guy, or the younger black guy, and Tony had a hunch it was probably the old white guy. Which mean that the other guy was Sam Wilson.
Natasha and Clint passed their escort missions to join the others at the table.
Bucky shot Tony a dirty look. "I didn't want him to meet you guys. He's too old for your shit."
Peter made a rude sounding noise that Tony almost applauded him for. "If I'm too old, so are you. Hi to you, too."
Tony had a sudden brain disconnect, watching Bucky- a man looking only thirty -hugging a man who looked much older and realizing that the old man was younger than Bucky. Peter was too old to look like he was even related to Bucky, except as an older uncle or something, maybe.
It was freaking weird, that's what it was.
After Bucky had let him go, Peter reached down and picked up a bag he'd set down to hug his brother. Bucky eyed the bag. "What's in the bag?"
Tony could only hear Brad Pitt saying "what's in the booooooox?"
"Something you get later," Peter said. "After food. Now stop being a rude guest of honor and say hi to Sam."
"I don't need my little brother to boss me around," Bucky snapped, but Tony noticed that he turned to Sam anyway. He held out his hand. "I'm sorry if you had to listen to this little jackass the whole trip up."
Sam took his hand laughing. "I'd say it was enlightening, but he didn't have any stories from when you were young to embarrass you with."
"He'd be a liar if he did," Bucky said. "Please tell me that having your charming ass around is my present? Tony was threatening me with socks."
"Naw, just me," Sam said. "And one little old brother with a bag that he won't tell anyone what's in it."
"Hey, guys, come sit down to talk, bring everyone in on this," Tony said, waving them over. "Better idea, Peter, put that bag down, let's do introductions, then everyone get food. The smell has been driving my stomach crazy, waiting for all of you to show up."
"Do you think with your stomach?" Bucky demanded, following the others over to the table.
"Not normally," Tony said. "If it was your food, I wouldn't have waited for introductions, though."
Things went smoothly after that, if Tony did say so himself, and he did, and so it went smoothly. QED.
Cap was the only one not enthusiastic about the food, but he certainly packed quite a bit of it away for not liking it much. Pepper had done an extraordinary job at finding the best caterer with the best Italian food in town, as he expected. She did everything extraordinarily. He said as much, and was met with agreements from everyone.
Including her.
Typical.
"All right, let's see these presents," Tony said, peering over at Peter, as if he might see over the table to the bag hidden somewhere under Peter's chair.
"They're not presents," Peter said. "Not except the monthly Dresden Files book." He dug into the bag by his feet and handed the book over to Bucky.
Bucky took it, reading the back cover. "You know," he said, not looking up from the book. "It might be nice to get more than one a month, you old brat. I can read them faster than that."
"Tough titties," Peter said, and Tony nearly choked on his drink. The others seemed to find it funnier that Tony had nearly killed himself than Peter's language that didn't seem to match a man his age. Peter looked at him. "I didn't kill you, did I, Mister Stark?"
Tony shook his head, coughing. "No, no, not at all. Please, continue Mister Former Military."
"You young people think we old people don't know how to swear," Peter said. Then he heaved a deep sigh, grabbing the bag and putting it on his lap. He pulled a wooden shadowbox with a pointed top, like it was a triangle resting on a rectangle. He set it in front of Bucky. "That's yours." He handed Cap another. "I didn't want to chance the younger generations getting their hands on them when I die. They belong to you two."
Tony leaned forward, trying to see what was in the shadowboxes. Cap and Bucky had gone unnaturally still and quiet, staring at them. Finally, Tony's curiosity compelled him to speak up instead of waiting. "What are they?"
Peter set the bag down out of the way. "Their burial flags," he said. "Mom and Dad petitioned the VA for them in the sixties, when the other MIA war vets from the second world war were declared KIA. For some reason, Steve and my brother were never declared KIA, so we couldn't get their medals, but we bought shadowboxes that had a place for those medals anyway."
Something in Tony's stomach dropped like a lead weight. Burial flags. Proof of death of a soldier. And Cap and Bucky were holding them, signs of their own deaths. Two of the strongest men Tony knew were staring at the flags as if life had stopped the second they'd seen them. Like they were mourning old friends who were gone and buried, and Tony was suddenly very uncomfortable, watching Bucky have to tilt his head back, taking unsteady breaths, and Cap just swallowing tightly, eyes wet.
Tony felt like it was finally sinking in why Cap had tried to talk the Avengers out of giving Bucky a birthday party. Because time wasn't something they wanted to acknowledge.
He suddenly felt a bit guilty for forcing the party issue.
Bucky looked over at Cap's shadowbox in his hand. "You have a place to put your stupid Medal Of Honor," he said, sounding like he was grasping for something to change the mood.
Cap laughed, rubbing his eyes. "And you have a place for all your purple hearts."
"Shut up," Bucky grumbled, then took a breath. "Thank you, Peter, but you didn't have to do this for awhile. You're not dying any day soon."
Peter didn't change his solemn expression. "Bucky, I'm eighty-seven this year. Time's gonna find me sooner or later, and at this age, sooner is more likely than later. I'm not planning anything, I just wanted to make sure those got to where they belonged."
Bucky's attempt at changing the mood was apparently failing. Tony kept quiet, looking at the others, who were all trying to look like they weren't paying attention as intently as they were.
Tony couldn't take it anymore, and he knew Cap and Bucky were probably feeling uncomfortable, so he spoke up with the first thing that popped into his head. "There's more cupcakes up there, if anyone wants one before the caterers clear the tables."
Wasn't the smoothest thing he'd ever said, but it did the trick, attention taken off Cap and Bucky, some people going up to the tables. Cap and Bucky returned the shadowboxes to the bag, along with Bucky's new book, and Peter took it over to sit by the entryway to the elevators to be taken up to Cap and Bucky's apartment.
The party turned to mingling as the caterers cleared the remaining food, conversation taking over the mood and turning it lighter. But Bucky still had that odd look in his eyes, and Tony was starting to understand why.
Peter announced at about eight that it'd be late if he didn't leave for home, and Sam agreed. Tony had JARVIS contact the waiting driver to get the car. The rest of the guests talked about moving up to the penthouse for drinks. Bucky said he'd meet everyone, he was going to drop the bag his brother gave them off at their apartment.
Tony sidled up to Sharon. "Keep Cap distracted, would ya?" he said, voice down to sotto voce. "I want to talk to Bucky, but I don't want protective little brother hovering over our shoulders."
Sharon blinked her pretty brown eyes at him - not as pretty as Pepper's blue eyes, but they were still nice. Cap was a lucky man. "Should I let you talk to him without little brother around?" she asked, not sounding terribly serious in that accusation.
Tony gave her a dirty look. "I'm checking on a friend. I just don't want Cap chasing me off in the name of not upsetting Bucky. Okay? That's it. I promise."
"Consider it done," Sharon said. She caught up with Cap as the group headed towards the elevators, and looped her arm around his. "Escort a lady?"
Cap looked at her with a smile. "I think I can manage that."
Good. Problem solved.
There were too many people for one elevator, so they split up. Tony took a final one- he could've fit in the second, but then he'd be obvious about following Bucky instead of joining the others.
Pepper thwarted him in going up alone.
"So what are you up to?" she asked.
He could see her watching him out of the corner of his eye. "Pepper, I think I screwed up. I think this party was a bad idea and I screwed up. I didn't think, I thought age was just a number. I think the party, having his brother over, the whole age thing, I think it was a mistake. I'm just going to talk to him, sort it out. If I screwed up, I want to apologize. If I didn't, I want to know."
Pepper didn't answer at first, then sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder briefly. "Go see him. I'll cover for you with the others."
He kissed her. "You're an angel." The elevator dinged at a residential floor, and he got off, leaving Pepper to go on to the penthouse without him. He went down the hall to number ten, with Rogers-Barnes engraved on the front door. He refrained from having JARVIS announce him and just knocked.
It took about fifteen seconds before the door opened. Bucky looked as he had earlier, a good look on his face, but an odd one in his eyes. "You know I can find my way from here to the penthouse on my own, right?"
"I'm not here to be your escort," Tony said. "Mind if I come in? I wanna talk a minute."
"Only a minute?" Bucky said, eyebrows raised, but stepped back to let him in.
Tony shrugged, walking in past him. "Might be longer," he admitted. Once the door was shut, he turned back to Bucky. "So wanna talk about what's wrong? You didn't look terribly happy about having all your friends and brother around."
Bucky didn't look as surprised as Tony would've liked him to. He knew exactly what Tony was talking about, which meant Tony was right, something was wrong. For once, Tony actually hated being right. "What the hell are you talk-"
"Don't insult my intelligence," Tony interrupted. "I'm kinda learning to read you. Your heart wasn't in any of those smiles you gave us today. So what was it?"
Bucky didn't look terribly happy about being cornered, but he didn't argue, just looked down at the ground. "It's not that I'm not grateful for the party," he said. "And I need more reasons to see my brother. He's getting old, there's-" A deep, shuddering breath cut him off. He closed his eyes, swallowed, and tried again. "I should be seeing him as much as I can, you gave me a reason. Thank you."
Tony looked away, stared at the bag with the burial flags by the hallway entrance. He'd never seen either Cap or Bucky cry, and Bucky was on the verge of it. He wasn't sure how to react. Soldiers didn't cry, did they?
That wasn't fair of him, he knew it.
"I'd say 'you're welcome', but I think that making you cry isn't something I should be saying that too," Tony said.
"I'm not crying," Bucky protested, rubbing his flesh fingers over his eyes. "It's just been a long day, that's all."
"And that's a lie," Tony said. "Look, I'm not Cap, but I think I made a mistake, having that party, and I want to know if I should apologize or not. Throw me a bone here. Talk to me."
Bucky stared at him, then looked down at the ground. "It- no, it wasn't a mistake. Any excuse for all of us to get together is a good one. It's just... my brother." He took in a deep breath. "My youngest brother is dying of old age and I'm not." Bucky couldn't possibly get away with lying that he wasn't crying anymore. "It's nothing that you did wrong, you don't have to apologize."
Tony reach out and put his hand on Bucky's shoulder, pausing when he realized it was the metal shoulder. "Talk. You need to."
Bucky shook his head. "It's nothing I haven't said before," he said. "I'll be fine."
"Talk."
"Stubborn bastard," Bucky snarled, although that snarl sounded more like a kitten whining. "Have you harassed Steve this way?"
"He hasn't given me reason to," Tony said. He dropped his arm. "Not where I could see it."
Bucky rubbed his forehead. "It's just hard, that's all. Another few years and Peter will be gone. Another year at most and Steve and I will be the last two living World War II vets. Everyone will be gone. Except us. Kinda lonely sometimes, that's all."
Tony couldn't tell if that meant he'd made a mistake or not, but that didn't matter. "I'm a mechanic," he said. "I build things. It's what I do. But mechanics fix things, too. So how can I fix this?"
Bucky looked at him like he couldn't believe he'd heard what Tony said, then he shook his head. "Even if you could build a time machine, it wouldn't fix anything, Tony. What is, is." He smiled, a bit lopsided. "But thank you. You've already done way more than you needed to." He motioned towards the apartment. "Just next time, let me make the food. That'd be a better gift than the party itself."
"Done," Tony said. "Your food is better, anyway." After taking a second to decide that Bucky still looked presentable and didn't need a moment to go wash his face and collect himself, he grabbed the doorknob. "Hey. You got a whole team to talk to. That includes me. And tell that to Cap too, wouldja? You got our backs, we got yours. That's what a team like us does."
Bucky smiled, the first real one Tony had seen all day. "You're all annoying," he said. "Come on, I want a drink. Stop blocking my door."
"Charming, as always," Tony said, opening the door and stepping out.
"You have no room to talk," Bucky said, following him out and shutting the door. The door lock clicked behind them.
"There's always room for me to talk," Tony said. "Now, you said something about a drink, and I'm inclined to agree. We've got friends waiting to share those with us."