rekindleme | closed

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Who: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark.
Where: Tony's apartment
When: Backdated to July 4th
Summary: Steve brings Bucky to Tony in hopes of him repairing his arm. It doesn't work out so well.
Warnings: People being idiots.

Ever since he reunited with Bucky, Steve had been doing his best to help him adjust to Saeng Seong. Of course he probably didn't need the help in doing so, but Steve just wanted to be there for him now and spend as much time as possible with Bucky. After all, who knew what was going to happen here. Bucky might be sent home or he could go back, something that he didn't want even though he was going to eventually meet him on Earth.

But for now, he wanted to concentrate on what was happening here. His memories of this city were going to disappear later, so he had to make sure that he made the most of their current situation.

Bucky still wouldn't give out any details about what happened, other than he forgot a lot of things. Mostly their childhood. But he couldn't help that if he had amnesia from the fall, even if it really saddened him. He tried a couple of times to bring up some of their shared memories, but he didn't get much of a reaction. It was upsetting, but Steve just had to stick by him, even if the process was going to be slow. It sorta gave him more of a purpose here anyway, someone that he could help.

Of course, he was just as worried about him not giving any details about his future, even if there was probably a reason for it. Steve didn't like it, but he never pushed the topic too much. He wasn't about to force anything out of Bucky and maybe he would eventually give out some details on his own.

But if he was honest about everything, it had been sorta stressful dealing with this new Bucky. Steve didn't regret being around him though, he would gladly deal with the stress and the confusion. Steve just hoped that Bucky would talk to him more or smile more again, instead of that blank gaze he now had. Luckily, Steve wasn't the type to give up on people, especially if it was his best friend.

It didn't take him long to notice that Bucky's metal arm wasn't working all too well. He hadn't moved it since Steve had been around him, so it wasn't hard to figure out. It was a complex piece of technology and he had no idea how to fix something like that, but luckily he knew someone that probably could.

Tony Stark.

It wasn't hard convincing Bucky to go along with him; after Steve promised that he'd stay with him during the procedure he just nodded silently. So, he was here in front of Tony's apartment, knocking on the door and waiting for the engineer to answer. He probably should have let Tony know that he was coming, but he was just so wrapped up in trying to help Bucky that he kinda forgot to be more polite about this.

He really owed him once this was over.

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Steve frowned, but it wasn't like he could really argue against that. He didn't understand what was going on no matter how much he stared at the scene in front of him. To be honest, he probably wouldn't have enough confidence to fix Bucky's arm even after watching Tony do all this. He wasn't an engineer or mechanic and he didn't want to cause his friend any pain.

However, he didn't want to just follow what Tony ordered them to do.

"Thought you'd enjoy the attention."

"Thought you'd enjoy not giving me attention," Tony retorted immediately without looking up. He waved vaguely at a stack of boxes against the far wall.

"Fine, you want to be helpful, go get me three sets of tubing pivots and, ah, what the hell, a capacitive touch module. Just in case. Any questions, ask JARVIS."

Aha, first issue. A cluster of mechanisms against the wall of the artificial tricep was bent out of place, knocked there by some kind of damage. Tony winced, poking with the screwdriver the obvious signs that the links had been grinding uncomfortably against other parts. Well, that was horrible screeching noise explained. He pulled the screwdriver back to tap it thoughtfully against his chin, calculating the angle and force necessary to push the pieces back into their proper places, or at least close enough to not grind. Tony really hated working on a budget.

Decision made, he grabbed a longer screwdriver, stabbed it into the best place for the proper leverage, and yanked hard.

Given that Stark was only asking Steve to go to the other side of the room as opposed to leave it entirely, the soldier remained calm, eyes moving to the indicated boxes.

But his calm didn't last long; the sensors in his arm, while damaged, were still functioning, and it was certainly enough for him to notice that Stark was doing something a lot more brute force than he was used to. A slight shudder ran through him in lieu of him jerking away, his working hand's grip tightening as he turned his head to look at what the man was doing to his arm. There was a slightly startled, questioning look on his face as he tried to determine what he was doing.

Okay, so he wasn't planning on doing whatever Tony wanted him to do, but he still wanted to help. If Stark needed those parts, he was going to get them. If it was important to fixing Bucky's arm, he wasn't going to put up a fuss about it. Steve didn't know what they looked like, but JARVIS would help him at least.

He gave one last look at Bucky, making sure that his friend was okay with him leaving, before going towards the boxes that were near the far wall. It was sorta a mess, but he would get through it. Steve was just finding the pieces when he heard the sound of metal hitting metal.

"Is everything okay?" Steve asked as he looked back at them.

Tony looked down at his work, mouth screwing over to one side in consideration. Better than it was, he supposed. Now on to the next issue. When he heard Steve, however, his head came up. Oh. Right. Probably should have warned Barnes about what he was doing. As the answer to both Steve's question and Bucky's look, he took hold of the metal forearm and bent it at the elbow a few times, producing a far less ominous sound than the previous screeching.

"Look, no more squeaky."

He glanced from Barnes to Rogers and back and set the arm back down like that explained everything.

"Still a problem with the wiring in here," he continued, turning his attention back to what he'd been doing, this time at least making an effort to announce his actions.

"But this control module is, for lack of a better word, weird. Not that I can't figure it out, obviously, it's me, but gotta say I was expecting something different. I mean, what the hell is this?"

Using the screwdriver as a pointer, he rapped on a metal lump covered in wires coming from further up the arm.

Although Steve's attention returning to them and the resulting lack of noise from the movement of his arm was reassuring, the soldier had hardly managed to lose any of the tension in his posture when he felt a sharp pain shoot through his upper arm and shoulder. Pain was nothing when he was expecting it, but he didn't even consider it a possibility in this situation.

His immediate reaction was to take in a hissing breath through his teeth and jerk away. Hardly a split second after that, his working fist threw a not-exactly-gentle punch in Stark's direction to get him away, a yell making its way out of him despite his clenched jaw.

He watched Tony for a little while longer, but soon returned back to the boxes in front of him since everything seemed to be okay. Steve trusted that Tony knew what he was doing and he was probably the most capable person in fixing Bucky's arm, so he would leave him to that. Besides, Bucky looked okay at that moment. He just needed to concentrate on his task.

He thought everything was going well, he even found one of the things he needed. But that all changed when Steve suddenly heard a hissing sound coming from behind him.

Steve immediately dropped the object from his hand and turned back just in time to see his friend punch Tony in the face. And it wasn't too softly either.

"Bucky!" He yelled as he ran towards the two, unsure why he would do something like that. But he needed to stop him... and probably get some ice for Tony soon.

It all happened faster than Tony could keep up. One minute he was pointing out that strange controller system, and the next he was on his back the floor with a throbbing pain in his face that he really hoped wasn't going to turn into a lump or a black eye. Looking up at Barnes, it wasn't hard to put together what had happened. Why it happened was a totally different matter.

He felt something sharp poking into his back and reached underneath himself to get it, staying on the floor--and even edging back a little--for the moment. When his hand emerged with a tiny metal piece, he realized that somewhere in Barnes' little outburst the flimsy tv tray had been knocked over, spilling the arm parts all over the floor. Shit. Shit. He didn't even hear Rogers yelling, didn't care, the adrenaline from being startled quickly pouring into anger.

"You know, in a minute here I'm going to have to assume you don't want a working arm," he spat. "Because you're sure doing an outstanding job of convincing me."

The assassin ignored Steve just the same as the other man did, glaring down Stark as he covered the gap in his arm with his free hand. Though the initial shock was over, whatever was touched was sensitive enough to continue stinging.

"It's not supposed to hurt," he shot back accusingly. "What the hell did you do?"

He'd managed to restrain himself enough to stay in the chair and not leap at Stark's throat again, but he was all too willing to continue the fight he'd started if the response he got wasn't good enough.

Steve stood in front of Bucky and gripped his human shoulder, trying to stop him from moving forward and hurting Tony any more. Sure he restrained himself from attacking him further, but Steve didn't want to take any risk. Bucky was quick and rather unpredictable after all.

"It was probably an accident."

He didn't fault Tony, this technology was new and he probably made a mistake. Those things happened. Steve was certain that he wouldn't hurt Bucky intentionally, especially since the former assassin could hurt him. Which. He did.

"Sorry, left my handbook for weird future Nazi cyborg limbs in my other pants," Tony snapped.

"Of course it was an accident. Why the hell would I--"

He stopped abruptly with a frown, for a moment no longer seeing Barnes or Rogers before he turned his head away completely, still caught in a thought process. Slowly his eyebrows lifted into something vaguely like horror, and when he spoke his voice was low, missing its usual sarcastic lilt.

"My god, it's your arm."

The look of serious realization on Stark's face made the soldier pause, some of his anger fading although the suspicion remained.

"What?"

Of course it was his arm--they'd already established that fact. What about that was so shocking?

"He's not a Nazi." Steve interjected, unable to stop himself from reacting to Tony's comment. He knew that it was more of Tony's snark, but he didn't care. That crossed a line for him. He didn't say anything else about it though, more worried about what the engineer was talking about.

'His arm.' What did he mean by that?

"What is?"

Tony paused for a few moments longer, and from his expression it was obvious he was going over whatever new information he'd conceived. He'd almost managed to successfully tune out Rogers and Barnes, but the confused looks were burning holes into his skull. Damn it.

"You said," Tony replied sharply, eyes passing over Rogers to stick on Bucky. "You remember them removing parts of your arm."

... Now that he thought about it, it was kind of annoying that Barnes hadn't put it together before Tony. He wanted to ask if the guy always had rocks for brains or if that was HYDRA, but Barnes wouldn't remember, and Rogers would never say yes even if it was true.

"Metal doesn't hurt."

It didn't take long to piece the information Tony gave him together into a relevant conclusion, and what was left of his anger left him, replaced by mild surprise and confusion.

He'd had no idea there was anything left of his original arm under the metal. It was never necessary for him to know, and he assumed everything he was sensing was due to the artificial hardware.

"Oh." That certainly explained the pain. It was doubtful there was enough skin left under the plating and wires to prevent it, should it be touched.

A look of horror crossed his face when he figured out what Tony meant. The remnants of Bucky's arm just in there, along with the metal. It all made sense why it hurt now. He just hadn't thought that any of his arm was left since the metal covered everything up to his shoulder.

Steve didn't know what to say or really do that could help. "Can you work with it still, Tony?"

'Oh'? That was it? Tony shot Barnes a scornful look for his stupidity before pointedly ignoring him in favor of Rogers.

"Can I? Of course I can, Rogers, who do you think you're talking to? I had a chunk of metal in my chest for a few years, in case you forgot, so I'm kind of good at inorganic-organic interfaces."

Tony put his hand to his face and winced at the pain in his cheek that was already starting to swell.

"If the question," he continued, gingerly picking himself up off the floor, careful not to step on any of the scattered metal. His voice settled into a calm tone that on anyone else would've been reassuring, but on Tony it managed to be anything but.

"Is whether I can work with him, then the answer's a big fat not anymore. I gave it a good college try, Rogers, I really did, but your buddy screwed himself over one too many times. Pick up the pieces of that arm off my floor and get out of my apartment. I don't wanna know how he's planning to injure me next."

So was that it? He got his arm taken apart and completely unusable instead of almost unusable, and now they were being told to leave. Who even knew if there was someone else who could put it back together?

He slowly lowered his head, gaze falling to the floor as he tried to think of what to do. He'd clearly made a mistake in attacking Stark that time, that much he could comprehend. It was just difficult to keep himself still around someone he didn't trust working on his arm.

He couldn't recall bargaining ever working with HYDRA, but...

"I won't hit you again," he said, wondering if his word would be enough. Stark probably didn't have much reason to trust him, honestly, but he was willing to offer more for the sake of not being left nearly defenseless.

Right, he should be getting Tony some ice right about now. He deserved that much at least, even though he felt his stomach drop a little at his rant. Stark had every right to be angry and unwilling to work with Bucky anymore, but Steve had hoped that his teammate would still try and help out his friend. He paused for a moment, almost looking hesitant about what he was going to say, but he pushed through.

"Can you give him one more chance?"

Steve didn't know how else Bucky's arm could be fixed and he knew that Bucky didn't want to go around with just one working arm. But... he had hurt Tony twice already and that was after they said he wouldn't hurt him anymore. Maybe Steve could ask him on another day if he was unwilling to do more right now.

Bucky's change in body language and quiet admission caught Tony's attention briefly, but then Rogers had to open his big stupid mouth.

"I've given him about five more chances, Rogers," he barked. "And how many of those has he wasted? Oh, yeah, that's right--all of them."

Once on his feet, he stretched a bit and flinched. Damn it, why did every single super soldier and super soldier knock-off want to beat his face in? And why did most of them nearly succeed? Tony eyed Barnes and gestured irritably at the floor, edging back towards the kitchen to get a drink.

"Since I'm such a nice guy, though, and since you seem to be getting serious enough to not make Captain Puppy Dog Eyes do your dirty work, you get the minute it's gonna take you to pick up your pieces off my floor to list all the reasons why it benefits me, personally, to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again."

He continued not to make eye contact as Stark moved away, his jaw tensing as he stared at the scattered metal parts. He really didn't know what benefit it would be to the engineer to restore his arm back to a functioning state, and he wondered if he'd be interested in anything he could offer.

He guessed it was worth trying. After a slow breath, the soldier got out of the chair to kneel down and gather up the pieces silently, his arm hanging uselessly by his side. Like this, its weight was much more apparent. He definitely did not want to go around like this any longer than he absolutely had to.

Steve looked between Tony and Bucky for a moment, deciding what he should do. He wanted to help Stark, but it looked like he was determined to do things on his own. So, he kneeled down to help pick up the pieces, wanting to be somewhat useful at least.

After a moment, he stood up again to look at the engineer, trying to think of reasons why Bucky should be helped. "You wouldn't have to see either of us again for a longer amount of time."

Barnes looked appropriately penitent, at least. The fact that he apparently couldn't think up any reasons for Tony to fix his stupid arm was a little depressing, but right now Tony was stubbornly irritable enough to not care. Rogers' sad face was more potent, likely because he hadn't tried to strangle and punch anyone recently, and thus was more of a threat to Tony's willpower. He just avoided looking at the super soldier. Problem solved.

"Mm, yeah," he said lightly, pouring himself a cup of coffee from a machine that looked like it may have once been a regular Mr. Coffee.

"Which would only matter if I fixed him and he didn't immediately crush my skull with his evil robot arm. You really gotta work on your negotiation skills."

The soldier carefully moved the tv tray back to its former position with a leg and the hand full of metal parts.

"I'll do whatever you want," he said bluntly, though quiet. It wasn't even voiced as a question or an offer; it was just a fact. He was willing to do most anything for the sake of restoring his arm, and those few things he wasn't he didn't think Stark would force him to do, given he was Steve's ally.

Steve briefly looked at Bucky when he made that offer, but he wasn't too surprised by it. They were both desperate to get that arm fixed; he just didn't want to volunteer Bucky for this without his approval. But it seemed like he was willing to do it and he didn't think Tony would take advantage of him either.

And if he did, Steve would make sure to stop him.

He already knew he owed Tony a whole lot, which wasn't why he didn't bother to say something similar. But he was truly grateful for what he had done so far, he just hoped that Tony would keep going.

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