Things Bucky Barnes Doesn't Do Well

Tony Stark's Machinations

"I told you, I'm fine," Bucky growled.

"No, you're not," Steve replied, grabbing his arm to stop him from going any further out of the quinjet.

An attempt to shake him off proved ineffective, and Bucky turned around to glare at him. "What do you want, Steve?" he demanded, exasperated.

Steve returned his frown, just as stubborn. "Your arm's not working right, is it? It hurts you," he said quietly, aware that it was one of the few subjects at which he would flinch if someone else brought it up.

Bucky's face lost all expression, as blank as it had been when Steve saw him for the first time since 1945. But the moment passed, and he looked away, looking like Bucky again. "And what would you suggest?"

"Maybe Tony could check it out?" Steve suggested, hiding his relief.

The response was just a curt nod, but it was more than Steve could have hoped for.

Tony was, of course, thrilled with the prospect. His enthusiasm was, unfortunately, not contagious. Bucky was downright surly as they walked down to Tony's lab and Steve mentioned casually that the arm might be damaged.

"Well, let's see what we've got here," Tony said, seeing Bucky's expression and dialing back his excitement at the idea of getting to see the kinds of advanced robotics their enemies had managed to produce.

He gestured toward one of the benches in the lab, and Bucky hesitated just a moment before lifting himself up to sit on it, wincing slightly when he put weight on the arm. Steve resisted the urge to help, and wondered if perhaps he should leave.

"If you could, uh," Tony suggested, gesturing.

Bucky pulled his shirt off, not looking at either of them.

It was something of a challenge to keep from staring at the heavy scarring where the metal was attached to his shoulder, but they both managed. Steve had noticed that Bucky always wore something to cover up that part of his body, though he did not seem concerned about showing the arm itself. Except when undercover, of course.

Bucky held out the appendage silently and Tony moved closer to inspect it.

"It's bothering you?" he asked, frowning a little.

Bucky shrugged; a fascinating thing to watch when one shoulder was metal. "Hurts a bit," he offered.

Tony motioned for Bucky to lift his arm, which he did, and Tony whistled. "The rest of the world is decades away from this," he explained when they both looked at him sharply. "They replaced the major muscle groups in this area with synthetic ones. May I?" he asked, and tapped on Bucky's ribs when the latter nodded. "Replaced some of your bone structure, it looks like. Bet that was fun," he growled.

"It's fine, Steve," Bucky said, and Steve realized his jaw was clenched.

"No, it's not," he replied.

Tony stopped and looked between them warily. "If it's a problem," he began.

"It's fine," Bucky repeated. "Just try to fix it," he added, more politely.

"Did I ever tell you about the time my business partner arranged to have me abducted in an active war zone?" Tony said conversationally, and Bucky raised an eyebrow.

"You have not," he replied.

Tony pulled over a tray of tools and began disassembling the prosthetic carefully, searching for damage while he talked. "The guy was a friend of my old man's."

"Howard?" Bucky supplied, frowning slightly like he always did when remembering something.

Smiling, Tony nodded. "Yeah, a friend of Howard's. Practically raised me after my dad died. Thought we were pals. Anyway, I was over in Afghanistan, demoing some new tech, when our convoy was hit. Couldn't find Rhodey, the rest of my escort was dead." He paused, looking somewhere far away. "I got knocked out, and next thing I knew, I was in some cave."

Bucky hissed as Tony did something wrong, then waved off his and Steve's concern. "It's fine, just jolted me a little," he said.

"Sorry, kid. So, anyway, I wake up, and I've got a bag over my head, and some guy's talking, I don't know, Arabic or something. Then I'm on an operating table and they're putting something in my chest. When I finally came to, there was an electromagnet right here," he tapped his sternum, "and I was attached to a car battery."

"That sucks," Bucky told him.

"I know, right?"

"What did they want?"

Tony paused, frowning at a piece of twisted metal in front of him. "Here's your problem. Looks like you got a bit of shrapnel underneath one of the plates somehow."

"Can you fix it?" Steve asked.

"Sure, just give me a minute." Tony slowly removed the slightly damaged plate and studied it, then set it down and pulled out the shrapnel. "I had about a half dozen of these things heading toward my heart. New Stark technology, you know," he said sardonically.

"And the magnet stopped it," Bucky finished for him.

"Yeah."

Bucky watched silently for a moment, curious, as Tony worked at repairing the plate. "What did you do?"

"They wanted me to make them a bomb. So I made my first Iron Man suit instead, and an arc reactor to fit in here so I wouldn't have to carry a battery around with me the rest of my life. Powered the suit."

"Bet they weren't expecting that."

Tony laughed. "No, they were not. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but it got me out of that cave."

"Into the middle of the desert," Bucky said flatly, and Tony chuckled again.

"This should hold, but let me know if you have any more problems with it. Yeah, I was in the middle of the desert. Good thing my best friend Rhodey was still looking for me out there," Tony added, sobering.

Bucky nodded, glancing briefly at Steve. "That's what friends are for," he said.

Tony cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah, so come see me if you want upgrades or it needs repairs," he offered.

"Thanks, Tony," Bucky replied, and offered his hand.

Tony shook it, and then Bucky picked up his shirt and headed out of the lab. Nodding to Tony, Steve followed his friend. They walked in silence to the elevator and Bucky pressed the button for their floor. He stretched out his arm and inspected it.

"Looks good," Steve said hesitantly.

Bucky smiled. "Thanks. For, you know, everything," he added, carefully looking anywhere but at Steve.

Slightly surprised, Steve glanced over at him and let out his breath slowly. "It was no problem, Buck. I'd do it all again if you need me to."

"I know. Till the end of the line, right?"

"Till the end of the line."

P;t