WinterIron one shots

Not a joke anymore

Word count : 5029

Summary: it starts off innocently enough, but Bucky falls - hard.

————
AN: sorry I haven't updated this for what feels like forever... but in the mean time please check out my work on Novellea (username: janewheeler). Thank you for all of your kind words and support!!

It started out innocently enough.

Tony had been in one of those moods again. You know, the 'dangerously sleep deprived and incredibly erratic/insane' kind of state, where he was switching between practically vibrating on a caffeine-fuelled high and blacking out for short periods of time only to wake up again a few minutes later with a sick feeling in his stomach.

At that moment in time, he'd been in the 'vibrating on the caffeine-fuelled high' bracket, jumping around on the balls of his feet as he scurried through the kitchen, around and around the table much to Bucky and Steve's amusement.

"- and it's really fucking incredible, really, how the nanoparticles we found on the remains of that ship could've been used to fucking...to fucking create, stuff. But then Big Bad Fury has to come and stomp all over my parade, and he takes my little robotic wonders away, cruel bastard. I don't- I don't- it was very mean, but if I could just, just find some way to replicate or-"

Tony continued to ramble to them, hands flailing wildly as his words drifted off into nonsense, until he was simply making noises and hoping they would follow along.
They didn't.

Bucky had glanced at Steve with a raised eyebrow, and his friend simply shook his head in a mixture of amusement and genuine worry, which tony seemed to miss as he danced around and around and around the damn kitchen table- Bucky was getting dizzy just watching the man.

"Hey, hey, babe, chill out. Stop," Bucky said, jerking his hand out as Tony passed near him and grabbing a moving hand.

Tony was pulled back, stumbling a little and ending up with Bucky having to support him more obviously, his hand moving up to the other man's arm in order to prevent him from falling on his ass.

Steve just watched on, his eyebrows raised in surprise at Bucky's unexpected choice of language. To be honest, Bucky himself was a little shocked. It had been a long time since he'd ever called anyone something like that; he usually saved that sort of thing for... other stuff.

But Tony just blinked a few times as he processed the words, then grinned manically and fluttered his eyelashes theatrically, making a swooning notion that ended up being completely real as Tony's knees suddenly gave out.

Instantly, both Steve and Bucky had their hands out, steadying their friend and communicating silently between them as they debated how to handle the situation. Sleep-deprived tony was a difficult one to manouvre, and they had to tread carefully.

"Buckyyyy... did you just call me by a pet name?"

"No."

"Aww, come on babydoll, don't be like that." Tony mumbled into his shoulder, patting at the metal arm gently and crooning a little as if he were stroking a gentle animal rather than the deadliest prosthetic in the world.

Bucky just rolled his eyes and tried to fight off the blush. It was at times like this, when Tony was most open and tired and touchy-feely, that Bucky found it difficult to control the tidal wave of emotions that would sweep over him whenever Tony spoke, or whenever Tony smiled, or whenever tony existed in front of him.

"You need to go to bed. Idiot." Bucky said, frowning down at Tony's face and pulling him up into standing, gesturing for Steve to make room so he could drag Tony toward his room instead of the workshop, where the engineer would undoubtedly scuttle off to if given half a chance.