Chapter Text
Three months later
Kobik threw down the wrench that she was using, leaving Dummy to scramble with one arm and a series of annoyed beeps, to hold up the velocipede engine.
“Uncle Bob!” She flung herself at the former Hydra goon.
Hydra Bob dropped a handful of packages on the ground to scoop her up. “Hey there, kiddo,” Bob said. He wasn’t really Hydra Bob anymore, Tony thought, but he’d been thinking of the man that way for several months now and it was a hard habit to break.
“Bob,” Tony said. He shifted the velocipede engine back into the lift, patted Dummy’s main strut affectionately. “Mrs. Dobelina.” Because of course Amanda had come with him. She did, these days. Probably more because Stark Industries was back in its proper hands -- which was to say, Tony’s -- and whenever Tony threw a party, he did it with panache.
Why do something at all, if you weren’t going to overdo it, that was Tony’s motto. At least as far as parties went.
“Sorry we’re late,” Bob apologized. He was still tending toward the nervous, and Tony hadn’t decided yet if Bob had come the the conclusion that they were friends -- of a sort -- or if he was their minion, and therefore had to go where they told him. In the end, they’d decided it didn’t really matter. If it made him more comfortable to think of them as his bosses, that was fine. He didn’t really seem to act any different. He was pretty nervous around his wife, too.
Bob was just a nervous sort of guy, Tony decided.
“I’m getting adopted,” Kobik said, self importantly.
“Well, assuming your uncle Bob got the papers we need,” Tony said. Because that had been Bob’s job; infiltrate Zemo’s hideaway and recover Kobik’s papers. Tony could have probably done it without Zemo’s papers, even legally. No one was going to object that Kobik, in absence of blood relatives, was better off anywhere else than as a Stark. But they did want the file that Zemo was sure to have.
Kobik, they’d discovered, was no ordinary child, and Tony would have probably guessed that she’d been tampered with at some point, even without her occasional nightmares. But having the excuse that they needed the papers for the adoption to go through meant Kobik was excited, and Bob had something useful to contribute.
Not, Tony understood, that it had been all that difficult for Bob to run his con-game. No one expected Hydra goons to have any personal initiative. Bob had walked in the safe house, said he was on guard duty, and rummaged through the files until he found what he was looking for, left at the end of the shift.
It could turn the whole Hydra war, having a back door into their operations.
On top of killing Schmidt, which Tony would have been more enthused about if it wasn’t for the whole cut off one head bullshit. There were already snakes competing for the highest positions, and eventually one of them was going to be stronger and smarter -- if not weirder or uglier -- than Schmidt.
“Of course I got them, they’re right--” Bob started to pat at his clothes and pockets, looking steadily more desperate, until Amanda pulled the packet out of her purse, smacked Bob in the back of the head with them, and then dropped them in his hand. “I didn’t even need the backup.”
“Backup? What backup?” Tony wondered.
“The Black Widow,” Bob said, tentatively. “You did--”
“Oh, sure, sure,” Tony said, which was a lie, because they most decidedly didn’t send Natasha to keep an eye on Bob, but it was likely she’d taken it on herself. That being said, if Bob had actually spotted her, it meant she wanted to be seen.
So she was probably still on their side, at least until a better paying job came along.
Tony really needed to think of something for her to do that would keep her out of trouble, long term.
Not today, however.
“Where’s your Daddy?” Bob asked Kobik, not handing the papers over to Tony.
Technically, since Tony and Bucky were only listed on paper as being business papers, and Tony was going to be Kobik’s adopted father, the papers should have gone to him, but Bob had his ideas of what was proper. As far as Bob was concerned, Bucky was Kobik’s father.
“Right here,” Bucky yelled. He was on the roof, finishing up the repairs to the shop’s ventilation systems after what Tony considered a small, somewhat explosive accident, and Bucky referred to as this week’s unmitigated disaster.
That was hardly fair, but when Tony had tried to get Rhodey to explain the difference between a little bitty, barely noteworthy accident and an actual unmitigated disaster, Bucky had threatened to bar the door to the workshop for a week if Tony couldn’t get himself under control, they had a child underfoot, Tony, be reasonable.
Tony was not being unreasonable, really. Kobik liked working in the shop.
“Yes, that’s what worries me,” Bucky had said, and that had been that.
Mother-hen, Tony thought, mock-scowling up at his boyfriend. “Get down here and say hi like a normal person,” he yelled up.
“Sorry t’ inform you,” Bucky said, conversationally, dropping the two stories onto the ground in a heart-stopping jump. He landed lightly on his toes and grinned, “but there’s no normal people ‘round these parts.”
“Show off,” Tony muttered.
Bucky extended his hand for Bob to shake, which was, in and of itself, hilarious, as Bob tried to juggle the paperwork, Kobik, and shake Bucky’s hand without gawking at the new, voltic-powered arm that Tony had built. A gorgeous piece of work, if Tony did say so himself (and he did. Frequently. Because he was just that damn talented, and he wanted to have it acknowledged. Also, the arm was sexy, and the man attached to it was even more desirable. Tony might have an urge to show that off, too.)
“Good to see you again, Bob,” Bucky said. “Come on in th’ house. Knowin’ Tony, he ain’t think to offer refreshments. Amanda, you’re as lovely as a flower, come on inside, get out of this sun.”
Tony rolled his eyes. Bucky was already bringing the Dobelina’s into the house, getting them biscuits and tea (or something stronger than tea, in Bob’s case) and settled. They were planning to host Hydra Bob and his wife for a few days as they relocated from England to New York. It seemed safer to have them a little closer, in case Hydra ever figured out that Bob was the mole in their operation.
Pepper and Rhodey were already installed in one of the guest suites, and later that afternoon, they’d all make a big production of going down to City Hall, where a judge would hear their final case and Tony would officially be signed over as Kobik’s guardian.
Tony smiled as he pulled the door shut behind them. Who would have thought, even six months ago, that he’d be settled with a partner and a child? Next thing, he’d be raising kittens in the kitchen and holding interviews for a nanny.
Bucky gravitated to his side, like a wayward moon, and slid his arm around Tony’s lower back. Tony curled up into the warmth of the man who was his husband in all but name, his partner, his best friend.
“Happy, sweetheart?” Bucky asked him, pressing his lips against Tony’s temple.
“Happy as I can be,” Tony admitted.
And he was.
Later, there would be trouble and strife; they still had to figure out what had happened to Kobik, the extent of her abilities, and how much it affected her. There were Hydra agents still out there.
But for the moment, there was love and light, family and friends.
Tony was happy.
***
Bucky leaned against the door to his daughter’s -- his daughter! -- bedroom. Tony had just finished reading her some bedtime stories. Kobik was insatiable for stories. She never wanted the same one twice, but was always seeking more and new and different. And then asking questions about the stories, which meant Tony was constantly making up new and different answers.
“Why did Goldilocks eat the porridge? Obviously, it was someone else’s?” Kobik had been indignant on behalf of the bears and thought the bears ought to eat Goldilocks to teach her a lesson.
“I didn’t dare tell her that in some versions, they do,” Tony had confessed, laughing.
“All settled?” Bucky asked, bringing himself back to the present.
“She’s asleep for now,” Tony said, lowering his voice. He turned the lamp’s wick all the way down until the room was lit in a soft, bluish glow. Kobik didn’t like the dark.
Bucky didn’t blame her, either.
“We’ll see how long it lasts.”
Kobik had been excited to have all her adult friends at home; even Clint had made the trip, although it was more because Tony promised him an upgrade to some of his trick arrows and the timing worked out than anything else. She was starting school in a few days, and Bucky rather hoped she’d bond with some people in her own age group.
But her excitement meant she’d been very reluctant to go to bed.
The house was almost entirely dark and quiet; when the adults had finally excused themselves, Kobik had left Tony take her off to her own room.
“Now that I’ve got you alone,” Tony said, pressing into Bucky’s side, one eyebrow going up with intent. “You want to tuck me into bed?”
“Hmmm,” Bucky pretended to consider it while Tony gave him a truly epic pout. Thrusting his bottom lip out like that, though, Bucky was helpless against it. He leaned down and kissed Tony’s pleading mouth, licking and nipping at that lip. “Maybe.”
Tony was adorable when he was pretending to be sad, all doe-eyed and trembling chin. Bucky took pity on himself; trying to resist that look for long didn’t seem worth it for something he wanted to do anyway. With a quick scoop, he lifted Tony off his feet, cradled him to Bucky’s chest like a new bride being carried over the threshold. “This what you had in mind, princess?”
“You are quite ridiculous,” Tony accused him, which was fine, since he wasn’t struggling. That would be awkward; attempt to be romantic and end up dumping his beloved on the floor. Tony would never let him forget it.
In the door and Bucky kicked it closed behind them. He let Tony down, slowly, feeling each inch of him drag, delicious and tempting all at once. Tony opened his mouth to say something, and Bucky silenced him in the best possible way, by kissing him thoroughly. Tony answered that argument by melting against him, body quivering with need. A few nudging steps backward and they were on the bed, kissing and touching and caressing until Tony was laying flat on the mattress and Bucky was poised over him, dizzy with his racing pulse.
Bucky’s senses were full of Tony, the soft sounds he made, the way he smelled of motor oil, coffee, and faint burnt tang of voltics. Warm, masculine, perfect. Rough fingers and soft, warm palms. Bucky’s lips drank their fill of Tony’s mouth, tasted his skin. He didn’t want to stop, never wanted to stop kissing Tony, not even for breath or food.
His hands moved with purpose, stripping off the rough workshirt and trousers, peeling the fabric away and revealing that olive skin underneath. Each inch revealed was another place for Bucky to kiss and caress. By the time Bucky got his hands on Tony’s cock, Tony was writhing wantonly, and he made a perfect, utterly lewd noise.
“You’ll have to be quiet,” Bucky told him, teasing one finger around the ridge. “We have guests.”
“Guests who know exactly what I do with you in this huge bed of ours,” Tony pointed out. “Or if they haven’t figured it out, I feel sorry for them.” Tony nipped at the shell of Bucky’s ear and then breathed warm air into it, a sensitive spot that sent him through the ceiling and he made a bit of noise himself.
He paused, stripped off his clothes; wanting nothing more than that skin to skin contact, even if touching and kissing was all they did, feeling Tony’s lithe, muscular body under his was pleasure enough for a lifetime.
Tony, it seemed, had other plans, and he slithered down Bucky’s body as soon as the last piece of clothing hit the floor, his mouth depositing eager kisses down Bucky’s chest, along the line of his hip, just under his navel. His hands were in Tony’s hair by the time that slick, wet mouth touched Bucky’s dick. Tony’s hands slid up Bucky’s thighs, fingers gently shifting along Bucky’s balls. His tongue was downright wicked, doing things to Bucky, licking and sucking and tasting. Bucky was lost in a haze of driving, spiraling need and emotion.
“Christ, what are you doin’ down there?” Bucky demanded when a particularly delicious combination made him arch up with need.
“Loving you,” Tony said, pulling off with an obscene slurp. “Want me to stop?”
“No, never stop,” Bucky told him, chest aching with emotion. Tony played him like a flute, mouth moving up and down with abandon, and Bucky was writhing and moaning, hands clenching in the cool sheets.
“Wait, wait, wait…” Bucky reached for Tony, so close to the edge it was painful.
“You said not to stop,” Tony pointed out with another flick of his tongue. “I’m only doing as you said.”
“Son of a-- come here, you,” Bucky said, dragging Tony up and kissing the taste of himself right out of Tony’s mouth. “I want you with me, every step of the way.”
“I don’t know,” Tony hesitated. “Might be fun to make you come once, and then work for another.”
Bucky went up in flames at the thought. “Maybe so,” he agreed, “but not tonight.” He reached for the bottle of oil they kept near the bed. “Tonight, I want you under me, want to--”
“Oh, well, all right, I’ll make the sacrifice,” Tony mock-grumbled, spreading his legs and cradling Bucky between them, knees up. He slid his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling, blinking pointedly. “I’ll just… close my eyes and think of England, shall I?”
“If that’s what does it for you,” Bucky said, agreeably. He poured a drizzle of oil onto his fingers and smeared the slippery substance over Tony’s hole. Tony made with the pretense of indifference for only a short while before he was gasping for breath and shaking with need.
By the time Bucky was hovering over him, safe in the cradle of Tony’s thighs, Tony was moaning every few breaths.
“Needy little thing,” Bucky accused, rubbing against that muscle with the head of his cock, teasing them both.
“If I admit you’re right, will you get in me?” Tony hooked his legs around Bucky’s waist, pulling him down, heels pushing into Bucky’s lower back.
“Tell me you love me,” Bucky said, more plea than demand.
Tony’s face went vulnerable, all open and loving, eyes wide and sparkling. Bucky knew it, even before Tony said it. “I love you,” he said. “Always.”
Bucky nuzzled at Tony’s mouth, then pushed in, slow and steady, waiting for Tony’s body to loosen around him. Tony was slick with sweat, his body hot and needy, and finally, Bucky moved, sliding in to the hilt. Everything else in the world faded away until there was only the two of them, only the feelings between them. Bucky thrust and Tony rolled his hips to meet him. Their moans and cries mingled together, heedless of anyone now, hearing them. Tony was babbling, encouraging, a litany of love, desire, praise coming out of his mouth and Bucky kissed the words away, swallowing them, taking them in.
Tony got a hand between them, working himself in time with Bucky’s thrusts, each jolt of sensation echoed. Tony clenched and strained and shuddered, a hot bloom of seed splattered on Bucky’s chest. Bucky thrust, once, twice, a half dozen, and then followed Tony into oblivion; everything in him tightening up until it released in a single moment of bliss.
When he came back to himself, Tony was carefully squirming out from under Bucky’s weight. He didn’t go far, just enough that he could cuddle against Bucky’s side.
“I love you,” Bucky told him.
“Just a little, at least,” Tony said, sleepy.
“More than a little,” Bucky told him, kissing his temple, his cheek, the tip of his nose.
“Some,” Tony allowed.
“If you don’t stop that, I’m gonna have to prove it to you again,” Bucky threatened, even if his cock was flaccid and completely uninterested at the moment. Give it time, Bucky knew, he’d be ready again. Especially in the time it would take to get Tony jittery and overstimulated.
“No, no, anything but that,” Tony protested, laughing. “You love me a lot, I know. I know!”
“Sounds like you might need convincing,” Bucky said, rolling him over.
“I’m convinced.”
“Good.”
Bucky settled with Tony spooned against him, Bucky’s nose tucked in the soft hair at the back of Tony’s neck. He would rest, just a moment, then get up and fill the ewer with water so they could clean up. And then, maybe, he’d prove it to Tony again anyway.
Just for fun.