New York (Nico and the Avengers)

27. Secrets pt 2

Steve's POV

"What?" I must have misheard, why would he be involved with a car crash?

"You heard it right, why do you think I know I'll never fit in."

"But, they died in a car crash."

"Not really, their car was crashed, but it didn't kill them...I did."

"But you weren't in control at the time."

"Do you really think Stark will care?"

"...no"

"Don't worry Steve, I know what you did for me, but it's a fact that I will never belong here, in Stark Tower."

"It's Avengers Tower now."

"Maybe that's what it's called, but it's still Starks. And I should tell him."

"Do you have a death wish?! He'll try and kill you!"

"I know, but he deserves to know, as far as I know Stark has no clue who did it, and if I don't tell him I'm sure he'll find out some other way."

"But I don't want you to get hurt."

"I have to do this." I want to keep fighting him, but Bucky always did want to do the right thing. He would have told Tony when we were younger, and I don't want to stand in his way, I can't.

"If you're certain...I'll help you figure out how to tell him. But he's going to react violently, I'm sure of it. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I have to."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"Yes." there's no hesitation, no wavering voice. He believes he has to do this, and if I don't help it'll just end up happening in a worse way.

"Okay, let's try and talk to Tony tomorrow afternoon. We don't want to spoil movie night and I expect you want to get this over with is that right?" I turn to him and he nods. "Natasha and Clint are out, so hopefully no one will figure out why we're so tense. I'll talk to Tony around dinnertime and get him to come, without his suit, and tell him it's going to be a bit upsetting, unless you don't want me to. Maybe I shouldn't tell him that, if I do he'll have a harder time sleeping and so will be grumpy. Yeah, I'll tell him that when he gets up. I'll ask Bruce to stay in his lab or go out to a museum or something, so that just leaves Nico. If I ask he'll probably agree to stay in his room, so no one will interrupt us. We'll want to be somewhere safe for you two to fight and-"

"I'm not going to fight him," Bucky interrupts.

"What do you mean?"

"It's perfectly reasonable for him to get mad at me. I'll protect myself and you if needed, but I won't fight him."

"What happened doesn't give him the right to hurt you! And why would he hurt me?"

"It'll be obvious I told you before him, and he might get mad at you because of it." he's only answering the second question, but I don't want to push him at the moment. "And try and stay out of this please."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to lose each other, and you're going to need to fight together in the future, so bad blood between you could cause serious problems."

"I don't care, you're my boyfriend!"

"And I'm not going to cost you your family, you already lost one!"

Yelling isn't going to do anything, although luckily no one could hear us. I take a breath and force my voice to be quieter even though I just want to shout until he gets it. "Bucky, I can't let you deal with this alone and still consider myself a good boyfriend."