Never Safe

Chapter Four

"The amount of times you have missed missions! And important meetings! You constantly disappear with no explanation! That's the perfect excuse to fire you, you know, so you better tell me what the hell is going on or you are out of here!"

Bucky was sat on a table as Tony stood in front of him, yelling at him. This was the first time Bucky had been back to the compound since he walked out on the meeting, so Tony had been waiting all week to do this.

"I can't tell you-" Bucky argued back.

"Why the fuck not! I can not figure out something that could be more important to you than your job, but it's something you have to keep a secret! What, are you- are you working for Hydra again?"

Bucky stood up, taller and leaning over Tony. Tony tried not to show he was intimidated, but his stance weakened as he took a small step back.

"No, Stark, I'm not. I cannot believe you would actually suggest that after what they did to me. What's going on in my personal life has nothing to do with you-"

"It does when it keeps you from doing your job!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't go on the mission. I will make up for it."

"How do I know you're not going to skip things in the future?"

"You're going to have to trust me when I tell you that what I have to do is more important."

"I don't trust you, and you know damn well why."

Bucky glared at Tony. He decided he'd had enough, and he needed to get back anyway.

"I'm leaving" he said as he shoved past Tony.

"You have one more chance, Barnes!"

Just before Bucky could escape out the door, Peter appeared in front of him.

"Oh hey Bucky" he smiled. "I was hoping to run into you. I left my calculus textbook at your house last night."

Bucky subtly glanced at Tony, who was instantly confused at this interaction. He looked back at Peter. "I'll get it back to you" he nodded before leaving the room.

Peter was about to walk off when Tony stopped him.

"Kid, what was all that about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know Barnes?"

"Well, yeah-"

"Why were you at his house last night?"

"I went over for dinner" he shrugged and happily skipped away.

Tony slowly sunk down into a chair next to the table, stroking his chin in thought.

He sat there alone for an hour, all the possibilities running through his head. He concluded he had to investigate. He needed to know what was going.

Tony asked all the Avengers to join him so that they could discuss it. Minutes later, Steve, Nat, Bruce, Clint, Thor, Sam, and Wanda were sitting round the table as Tony stood at the head of it.

"What's this about?" Steve quizzed.

"Barnes."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Tony, just drop it."

"No."

"What's going on with Bucky?" Sam asked.

"Nothing-"

"That's exactly it, Wilson. We don't know. We need to figure it out because if he screws up one more time with no explanation, he's off the team."

"What?"
"Woah, woah, woah."
"You can't do that."
The others all argued.