Archive of Our Own ^beta

Bucky’s been conscious, aware, and warm for twenty-two hours before he sees Steve again. No one’s told him what’s happened or where specifically he is (words like “classified” and “traumatic” have been thrown around, but he’s a soldier, he’s not gonna fucking break), but it’s really not important when the look on Steve’s face makes his chest tight and ecstatic at the same time. Steve rushes over, fussing like an old mother hen the same as ever, but with lines around his eyes that speak more of exhaustion and pain than aging, the Serum apparently ineffective when it came to feelings.

“Hey, Steven, give a man some air, yeah?” Bucky says, an attempt made at a joking smile, but Steve just looks scandalized at himself.

“Am I too close, you’re not hurt, right? Bucky…”

Bucky huffs a breath, shakes his head, and sets his good hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve, buddy, I’m fine, we’re good. Missed you, barely, but hey I’m back.”
Steve looks hesitant at that. “Do you remember anything?”

“Just the whole ‘fighting robots straight outta a comic book and falling off a train’ thing.”

Steve worries at his lip, like a girl, Bucky’s always told him people find that weird, but Bucky can’t even annoy him about it, he seems too serious. “Bucky, you’ve been gone for a lot longer than you know.”

Bucky shrugs. “Figured that out, you’re not as spangly as you were and no one’s shouted anything about Nazi’s or spies yet, so… Have we won?” he asks, eager to make the air less constricting.

Steve moves back a few steps, and ah, Bucky doesn’t like where this is going. “Well, yeah, we did, but we won almost seventy years ago.”

“… Steve, am I dead?”

Steve toys at the sleeve of his tight uniform, a childish move that makes him seem twelve in that huge body of his. “No, but, well, it hasn’t been 1945 for quite a while.”

Bucky thinks about this for a second, holding the thought like fragile china in his mind.

“So… what’re the girls like then?”

Steve looks like he wants to hit him, so Bucky just laughs.

~*~

Bucky meets Tony Stark three days and two outside visits into this ‘future’ thing.

Bucky hates him immediately.

He’s arrogant and sarcastic and cheeky as all hell and Bucky wants to pop him in the mouth the moment he opens it. Bucky almost growls at him after he talks for five minutes straight. But Steve…

Steve is ok with it. Stares at Tony like Steve’s 80 and utterly exasperated, but Steve deals with it and looks at him funny and Bucky is kept from hurting Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, only because he can’t figure out what that look even means.

Makes Bucky hate him more, but he’s too busy to do anything about it.

“Ok, so, Steve has asked me, personally, to fix you up a new arm, since the scientists here are dreadful and not one of them knows how a proper prosthetic works, the idiots, so let’s have a look.”

Bucky doesn’t want Tony touching him, but Steve puts on the puppy eyes and so Bucky relents, giving his less than complete appendage to Tony to look at.

He stares angrily at Tony’s gelled hair the whole time. Steve looks far too pleased.

~*~

The next time Bucky meets Tony Stark, he’s moved to Avengers tower, supposedly permanently, and he supposes he doesn’t hate Tony as much. Well, he does when he gets his ‘new arm’ attached because holy hell nerves are the worst things to have ever been created on God’s green earth and no one will ever, ever tell him different.

Tony talks up his tech like it’s a child, which Bucky understands despite being a little creeped out by it, and Steve hovers just outside personal space of the both of them and honestly, Bucky didn’t know he could look that small anymore. Especially since he towered over the both of them, dwarfing them like a child with his toys.

(Bucky wonders if Tony wears lifts, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Tony blabbers, and Steve stands there, affectionate smile set firmly in place, and oh, fuck, Bucky knows that look.

He nearly breaks Tony’s hand on accident when they test out his new grip just because his brain tripped over how Steve is in love with a man.

Well, no, that’s not entirely accurate, since Tony Stark is much more than a man, not matter how much it pains Bucky to say. Tony’s a fucking hurricane, and he’s probably been Steve’s rock in the fast moving current of the new millennium. Tony and the modern era go together like a fish in water.

Still, it’s Tony Stark, and Bucky feels insulted by Steve’s lack of taste.

But only a little.

~*~

Steve teaches him about seventy years like he hadn’t (apparently) missed them himself. Steve feeds Bucky information like water to a dying man, and it sometimes has hilarious results, like the time the Internet became a ‘how quickly can you make the other blush or barf’ contest.

(A man named Phil stepped in before they could get too far into their contest, but it’s certainly still a standing wager.)

Steve teaches him about civil rights and the polarization of religion and the decriminalization of homosexuality and everything their beloved country finally got right and the rest that it’s still getting really fucking wrong, and it’s some of the most fascinating things Steve’s ever talk about.

It’s a lot of information, and Bucky always begs off before he gets a headache or his stomach can grumble too loudly, but this seems god for Steve too. Like Steve hadn’t processed the information before he could pass it on to someone else, and Bucky smiles at the thought because that’s so Steve. Steve can only help himself through helping others.

Bucky thinks, briefly, about who could possibly change that, gets a flash of bright teeth and cocky brown eyes and decides that vodka before bed is the best thought ever.

~*~

Bucky tries to steer clear of Steve and Tony when they’re doing that odd tension-filled mating dance that often consists of arguing over what sounds like team dynamics and the amount of sleep Tony gets every night. He meets a fantastic Russian redhead out of this maneuver, but never quite escapes it completely.

It’s when he walks in on Tony and Steve in the kitchen, making out with a ferocity that most likely shouldn’t be involved in sex, with Tony pushed up against the refrigerator, that Bucky knows this is undeniable.

He also feels really violated for the food they’re right next to, but only follows that thought because crap Steve is kissing Tony in the kitchen. Where he eats, where they all eat.

Bucky tries to guess who knows.

~*~

Apparently, everyone knows. He was literally the last to find out besides the media, and that leaves him feeling quite offended and unappreciated, but only for a few minutes. Steve blushes through the entire explanation, and Tony smirks just behind Steve’s shoulder, his expression smug and infuriating and Bucky wants to smack him with his own mouth and then perhaps have a beer with him.

“Relax, Steve, it’s fine, really. You love him a lot, I get that, I do.” Bucky’s voice is soothing, or so he hopes, and Steve softens a little in response.

“Really, Buck?”

Bucky waves him off, making him back up farther into Tony’s space. “You could have totally let me in on it sooner though, you know I’ll love you not matter how much of a little shit your boy toy is.”

Steve smiles that stupid ass smile and Bucky laughs at Tony’s indignant “Hey!”

~*~

Bucky is best man at Steve’s wedding.

It’s weird, how much the world has actually changed (and how much it still needs to) and how much he’s changed, really. Bucky and Tony aren’t ‘BFF’s’ or anything close, but Steve is so ass over teakettle, it’s gross. Bucky only ever wants the best for Steve, and even though that idea usually had a pretty bird and a couple of kids on its menu, this seems to be working just fine for Steve.

The fact that Tony looks so unashamedly far gone when he sees Steve doesn’t hurt much either. Bucky doesn’t hesitate to sneak a picture on his new portable phone to blackmail Tony with later.

When they kiss, Tony way to into it for anyone’s comfort level, Bucky politely looks away and wonder if he should demand a Father-Daughter dance with Steve just to see his face.
As he applauds, he decides it’s totally worth it.