"You know, it's usually not recommended to lay on the ground in the middle of Central Park in the middle of the night. Can't we just hang out on the roof back at the tower? Best view in the city," Tony urged hopefully. The expectant grin on his face nearly had you drawn in, but you held your resolve.
"Tony, you're Iron Man," you chuckled back, "I'm the safest person around. Now come here, I want to see this with you." You didn't waver when he refused your extended hand at first, but you had your methods with the man. The tiniest little pout of your bottom lip was all that it ever took, and with the glimmer of moonlight leaving him in his best romantic mood, you had won this battle easily.
"Fine," he relented, taking your hand, "but I really don't see what the big deal is. Office lights, people half drunk on the sidewalk, noise that just never stops...New York is New York."
You turned to him with an immediate shift in the mood, slapping your open hand to your chest as you gasped in pure shock and disgust, "you take that back right now! Look at this and dare to say that again." You pushed him out in front of you, his feet stumbling slightly over the flat mound of smooth rocks as you forced him to the top. "Now, Anthony Stark, you look at that view, and tell me that there's anything ordinary about it. Go on, I'll wait."
He gave it his best effort, to try to see something new in a skyline that he had seen a thousand times, both from the ground and from the freedom of his suit. He tried to remember what it felt like when it was the first time, as a boy in his father's plane, when he had nothing but possibility and imagination ahead of him. He really did give it all he had, if for nothing else but to make you at least smile at his effort.
And then it came to him; he knew exactly what was missing and why he couldn't connect with a feeling that he knew was buried too deep in bad memories and forced duty. He needed to make new memories to flush those away and there was only one way to do it. Tony turned around to face you, smiling gently and moving slowly, taking a position behind you and turning you to face him. He took a few steps back, his eyes never leaving yours, but he could see it all perfectly; he had never seen the city like this, and he had given himself a glimpse of what you wanted him to experience. "There," he sighed, "now I get it. I've never seen anything so beautiful."
Your mind was beginning to prepare itself for the end, giving you a review of the best moments of your life, the vast majority of them involving your husband; the man whose future you now couldn't share. There were a few others scattered in there from your childhood, or memories with the team over holidays spent together or difficult missions that brought you closer. But there were a few select memories of Bucky as well, and you willed yourself to open your eyes. When you finally heard him calling to you in your mind even through the strength of the visions constantly playing within it, you couldn't deny your soulmate the one thing that you could still give.
~~~
Your eyes had opened for merely a second, just enough for Bucky to see all that he needed. They knew that he would be watching and waiting for you; they set it all up perfectly so that he couldn't refuse them. The terror that he saw in that second left him immobile in his own fear, and he berated himself for his weakness; you were the one in danger while he sat on his ass in the safety of the most secure building in the country. When did he become this person, and how could you have been chosen as his soulmate when he so clearly didn't deserve you?
"Barnes?" Tony repeated, standing still at the door and just as immobile. "What the hell does that mean? They took her because of you? What exactly did you do?"
"Buck?" Steve joined in, taking a step closer to Tony and ready to hold him back should his emotions get the best of him. Tony was a broken man and the last time that kind of emotion flowed through him, and the last time they were directed at Bucky, it didn't end well. When his friend answered silently and stood to leave the room, it took all of his will to not follow and to keep Tony held back to wait; he had to physically put himself into his path to slow him down. "Tony, give him a minute, okay? He'll come around."
"She doesn't have time for this cryptic bullshit, Steve!"
"Trust me. I know him, and he'll come back. Just a minute, alright?"
"One minute," Tony hesitantly obliged, "one minute is all I'm willing to give, and then I go crack his skull open to get what I want out of it."
"No need for skull cracking, as much as I wanted to bet on that," Sam interjected with a slight nod of his head to the opening door. "Wait...what the hell? Barnes?"
Bucky pushed forward, quick steps moving towards the exit with his hands working frantically to secure his old uniform and to be sure that he had no weapons left hidden within it from old days passed. "I ran," Bucky began. "I thought they forgot about me, after they lost the helicarriers in D.C. I thought I had nothing to go back to, and nothing to hide from anymore since I've been here with you. It's been so long, and they've never tried to call me back."
"Buck, why are you wearing that?" Steve stepped away from Tony for the first time, finding himself caught in a stupor and completely confused; he was also downright scared in an entirely new way. It was an unsettling way that twisted his stomach and threatened to heave all over the floor in front of him, and suddenly his emotions were thrust back to the first time he came face-to-face with the Winter Soldier. "Bucky...answer me."
"Steve, back off. You're not going to change my mind," Bucky answered. "If they've taken her right from her own wedding, they know too much, and I'm the only one who can stop them. There's no way that I'm letting her get into the middle of this. I have to do this before they hurt her any more than they already have."
"By going back to Hydra?! Buck, they'll brainwash you again! This is insane, alright? We can figure something else out!"
"Tony, I know you'll listen," Bucky turned, stepping up to the man, "they put her somewhere that only I would know, and planted her in front of a mirror so that when her eyes opened, I'd understand. This is the only warning I'm going to get." He lowered his voice now, offering a hand of reassurance when it was all he could give, "I'm going to get her out of there. I need you to keep the team from following me. Can you do that? For her?"
Tony considered what was being asked of him, and his first instinct was to talk the man down and to find another option just like Steve had said. But then again, the love of his life was in danger and his thoughts were too jumbled and cracked to put anything else together. He had no love lost for Bucky Barnes, but looking in the man's eyes now, he felt a strong respect and trust for someone he had to concede to for your sake. "I will."
"They warned me so many times about noncompliance, and I was a fool to think that I could ever escape it. I was an idiot to think that I could have this life," he paused, waving his hand around the room. As he did, the rest of the team was staring back at him with a multitude of emotions and a wash of bewilderment. In a short time, he had come to know all of them so much better, and they had offered their trust, almost unconditionally. He didn't want to lose that, but it was clear that the choice wasn't his to make anymore. "Look, everyone, I appreciate all that you've done for me here, and that you've trusted me as much as you have. But please, hear me now. The next time we see each other, this isn't the man you'll see looking back, so I need you to promise me one thing."
"What's that?" Barton asked, taking the bait.
"Promise me that you'll stop me. Promise me..." he paused, clearing his throat and lowering his voice, "promise me that you'll kill me, because now I know that it's the only way to run."
~~~
"Money is no object, you know that."
"Tony, I'm not buying this dress," you argued. "It's one day in our lives, and I'll never wear it again."
"I should sure as hell hope not," he chided with his trademark smirk. "Sweetheart, if you love this one, then you should have it. I really don't know why we're arguing about this. Unless...unless you're goading me just so we can make up later. Hmm? You know all you have to do is ask and I'm good to go."
"Tony! That's not what I'm doing!" you scoffed, slapping him on the arm playfully. "Besides, when are you not good to go?"
Even if you wanted to wear your wedding dress again, it wouldn't matter. Even to try to keep it for any children you might have was an option long since gone. After the destruction and bloody end to your nuptials, the gown was beyond any chance at recovery, and quite honestly you never wanted to see it again.
The memories were still flooding your consciousness when the door to the cold, dusty room finally opened. You were scared being alone here, but the idea of not being alone terrified you even more. You didn't know who would walk through the door, and no idea of what they would want to do to you. You were bound so tightly to the chair that you had not even an inch to give and the feeling in your hands and feet was quickly slipping away. The old, brass doorknob began to turn slowly and your entire body tensed in anticipation. When the hinges creaked and the heavy footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped right in front of you, your fear wouldn't let you open your eyes to see your fate.
You wanted Tony's face to be the last thing you would see if this were to be your final moments.
"(Y/N), I'm here."
"Buck?" you began to cry, looking at his gorgeous face staring back, albeit filled with panic. The stinging pain in your throat was of no matter and wasn't about to stop you from your sense of utter relief. It was an immediate reaction that you allowed for a mere second before reality forced its way back in. You felt his hands exploring the ties that held you, and the threats you had heard from your captors silenced the happy memories you had been playing over and over. "Buck, no, you have to leave. You can't do this. I can't let you do this for me. You can't go back to that life after you've done so much to leave it. I won't let you."
"It's not a matter of letting me, honey. There's no question here." His eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the room, just as they would do every time he was there. He hadn't been in his Brooklyn apartment for some time, and now he would never be again. They really had chosen the location very well. You had helped him find this place, so it gave it a bittersweet tone; the beginning and end of this chance at life, and a reminder that he could never forget where he came from and who owned him. But that realization had to wait, as there was a larger problem looming; when he had connected with you earlier and he had seen your reflection through your eyes, he saw the explosives wrapped around you from every direction that would take out half of Brooklyn if they were set off.
He didn't have the heart to tell Tony that his promise of saving you might not actually work.