Shattered Souls | 18+

11. The Reunion

TW: self-harm

Toni spends the following week tinkering in the lab as the reunion looms closer and closer with each passing day. Every time she makes her way down the stairwell into the basement of the Avengers Headquarters, Bucky somehow hears her (he says its super soldier hearing, but Toni suspects he may be a quarter bird) and tags along.

Toni shows the super soldier the intricacies of his bionic arm, some of the gadgets she's been working on (she takes perhaps too much enjoyment in watching Bucky blush at a rather phallic looking one), and she flies around him in her suit.

The first time she shows Bucky her reactor, he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a ten-dollar bill.

Toni snatches it from him with a smirk.

"Does it hurt?" he asks.

"Not so much anymore," says Toni, running her nail along the edge of the metal. She nods at Bucky's arm. "You?"

Bucky flexes the fingers of his vibranium hand and shrugs. "Not since I got the new one."

Toni feels a flare of pride in her chest. She's glad he's not in pain anymore—not physically, anyway. His eyes fall to the scars around her reactor. Some old. Some new. He works his jaw, and Toni knows without asking that it's the latter that bothers him.

"Toni, I—"

But Toni cuts him off before he can finish. "Don't." Bucky's eyes flicker to hers. Toni doesn't meet them, instead focusing on tugging her shirt back down over her chest. "Just don't, okay? That's a can of worms we really shouldn't open."

Bucky nods. "Yeah." He rubs his hand along his jaw and the beginnings of a beard there. "Yeah. You're right."

She knows they should talk about it—Siberia. But they've all been through so much, and the Rogues are coming home tomorrow, and Toni just... can't.

So instead, she says, "Same time tomorrow, Robo Bitch?"

Bucky erupts in a cough that turns into a laugh.

"I don't think I've ever met a woman like you."

Toni winks at him over her shoulder. "There are no women like me."

. . .

They wait on the helipad for the Rogues.

Toni, Nat, and Bucky. Nat is dressed in her old SHIELD uniform, while Bucky is clad in sweat pants and a Harvard sweater Nat got for him as some kind of joke. He hasn't shaved and his eyes are ringed with purple. Toni mirrors his lack of sleep—she hasn't caught any since they announced the Rogues would be returning, besides that time Bucky found her in the lab with grease all over her face from nodding off on the worktable.

Toni is wearing her best suit. Not just for the press that circle around them in helicopters, but for the comfort it brings her. This suit—a crimson red with black detailing—is her armor. It is her steel against watching him come home.

Toni takes in a sharp breath when the quinjet comes into view on the horizon. Nat takes Toni's hand in hers. She runs her thumb along Toni's knuckles, scratched and red from tinkering for hours the night before. And though Nat doesn't look at her, keeping her emerald gaze on the incoming plane, Toni can hear her voice.

I'm with you. I've got your back.

It's a simple gesture. So simple. But it makes Toni wants to crumple in on herself and cry for a week.

Bucky presses his shoulder into Toni's, another small gesture that makes her eyes prickle.

We're both with you.