Who Am I? » [Stucky]

65. Jekyll and Hyde

Bucky and Steve turned up outside the tower, planning to hang with Bruce and Tony for the day, exploiting the opportunity to see the reclusive doctor before he hid away once more, disappearing himself overseas in the heart of some overpopulated country miles off in the middle east. They knew it wouldn’t be long until the gold-hearted doctor returned himself to the medically dangerous field to help heal the less fortunate.

Steve and Bucky hugged drowsily in the lift. Bucky was exhausted from the night they’d spent getting busy and he was practically falling asleep standing up, narcoleptic from enervation. His body was reliant on Steve to stay upright.

“You alright there, champ?” Steve questioned in a hushed sensitive tone, combing his fingers through Bucky’s fluffy dark hair and pecking him tenderly on the forehead.

“Mm…” Bucky grunted in the back of his throat, his sleepless-stained eyes falling shut.

Ping! The lift chimed sharply and the doors parted at the workshop level to reveal Bruce and Tony conversing around a computer interface, faces drenched in a blue hue from the light the screens gave off.

“Yes of course I trust him,” Bruce spluttered incredulously, removing the glasses from where they were precariously perched on the tip of his nose, folding them carefully and placing them slowly in his trouser pocket. “Don’t you?” Bruce’s face was turned into one of scepticism and unsettlement, his brow lowering.

“Of course not. Give me one good reason-“ Tony reared his head and his malicious moody expression transformed in an instant, like someone had flicked a switch, but a glimmer of resentment flashed across his ebony brown eyes, something untrustworthy residing there. “Steve, Bucky,” He greeted them, nodding his head to the pair, Steve more so than Bucky.

“Because-“

Tony held a commanding hand up to Bruce to shut him off. Bruce breathed the words silently and trailed off and awkwardly hung his head, falling utterly silent.

“How are you both?” Tony politely inquired, his eyes fluttering skittishly forth and back between the pair of them, a disdainful smile carved onto his lips. “And do come in…” He beckoned them into the smoggy fume-filled workshop.

Bucky disengaged the hug and dawdled in, holding Steve’s hand loosely, a little hesitant and sticking close by Steve’s side.

Bucky began “Goo-“

“Great,” Tony cut him off. “Steve, a word,” he demanded abruptly, leaving Bucky with a gaping mouth and an offended look on his face, his bottom lip hanging down and then reuniting with the top when he realised his input wasn’t wanted.

Bucky exchanged a worried and tenacious glance with Steve, pulling the puppy dog eyes and clutching his hand tighter.

Bruce looked back and forth between the handful of them, subtly ingesting the spectacle; he could taste the tension on the air and felt his usually plodding rhythmic pulse quicken a tad with stress and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Uh…” Steve grumbled, slipping an arm around the waist of his partner and cuddling him closer. “Sure, what is it?” Steve let a fretful laugh slip, a dry laugh.

“In private, I mean,” Tony stated, his voice dripping with edginess and aggravation. His eyes were cold and his gaze was lacking in depth. He kept a faultless poker face as he addressed Steve.

“Oh,” Steve cooed, slightly thrown.

“Bruce if you’d be so kind as to take Mr Barnes upstairs,” Tony maintained eyecontact with Steve all the while he issued directives.