#pre-stuckony

pairing: Steve Rogers/James "Bucky" Barnes, pre-Stuckony

rating: teen and up

characters: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark

Summary: From a tumblr post -

"Howard: about Tony I don't know what to do with this brat! Steve & Bucky: time traveling duo I know exactly what to do with this brat."

(On AO3)

Tony hunched down behind his sunglasses and powered down the street, keeping his chin ducked. It was bad enough he'd lost his wallet that morning, bad enough he'd been recognized at Starbucks and mobbed, bad enough the board meeting had gone to shit, but now there'd been a scheduling mix-up with his driver and he had to walk home. It was that or take a cab where the driver would be surreptitiously taking pictures of him all night. Though, without his wallet, how would he pay for it anyway?

It didn't help that Rhodey and Pepper were both out of town, Bruce was too occupied with his own work to hang out, and Tony hadn't had a date in six months. He was frustrated, lonely, and tired. He hadn't even had time to cancel his credit cards, which almost certainly meant there were going to be several TVs and video games charged to his account by the time he got home and called in the loss. 

"Hey!"

Tony kept his chin down and motored on.

"Hey!" The voice got closer.

"Mr. Stark!"

Tony stilled, sighing, then turned around, trying to ignore the looks that were immediately thrown his way. "What do you - wow." 

"Sorry to shout." The man caught up to him and came to a stop. He was fucking edible. Dark hair, rough stubble, intense eyes.

"No problem. What can I do for you?"

"I saw you earlier in Starbucks -" the man started, and Tony nodded.

"Miss your chance for an autograph?" Tony patted his pockets for a pen.

"Oh, no. You dropped this." The man produced Tony's wallet. 

"What the -?" Tony stilled, one hand still pressed over his chest. "That's my wallet."

"Uh, yeah. I would hope you don't go around dropping other mens' wallets."

Tony snorted out a startled laugh. "No… I just - huh. I lost that like six hours ago?"

"I know. Like I said, I was at Starbucks, I saw it fall out of your pocket at your table, but when I went to give it back, you were surrounded by people. I didn't want to draw attention to the fact that I had Tony Stark's wallet so I let it go. Checked weird fan twitter to see when you usually leave the office and decided to try and catch you in the lobby instead. I was a little late but I’m glad I caught you. Here."

The man handed over the wallet, and Tony took it. He opened it on instinct, and the billfold parted, stuffed with cash. "There's like over a thousand dollars cash in here and you're giving it back? You know you could wrack up like ten k of Switches on the black AmEx and I probably wouldn't even notice, right?"

The man grinned. "Maybe I already did."

That had Tony smiling. "Somehow, I doubt it…" He grabbed a handful of bills and held them out to the man. "Thanks. I have some important shit in here. It would have been a nightmare to replace it all."

The man shook his head, raising his hands. "No, it's fine. I'm fine. Just glad you've been reunited with it." There was something bright and interested shining in his eyes, and it made Tony take a step closer. Fuck but he was gorgeous.

"Really? Nothing? At least let me cover your cab fare."

"I walked. I live just a few blocks that way and work a few the other way. It's no trouble." The man's smile deepened. "Don't worry about it. I've got almost everything I need."

"Almost?" Tony's voice was rough for some reason, but the man was suddenly so close that it didn't matter. 

He turned and pointed to another man who was leaning against the side of a bank just down the street. He had blond hair and shoulders for days and was typing something on his phone. "That's my boyfriend," Tony's wallet rescuer explained.

Tony's stomach dropped with disappointment. He'd thought they were flirting, but clearly they weren't. He resisted the urge to sigh. "Well. I can see how a man wouldn't want for much with that waiting at home. Where's the almost?"

The man leaned in even closer. "We're poly. Still looking for our third. That's the almost."

"Oh." Tony swallowed heavily. "When's tryouts?" fell out of Tony's mouth without permission. The man's eyebrows shot up, and Tony immediately started backtracking. "Shit, sorry. That was so inappropriate."

But instead of slapping him, the man started laughing. He reached out and took Tony's wallet back. He flicked it open and slid one of Tony's business cards out of one of the slots. "My name is Bucky." He produced a pen from somewhere. "The sexy Dorito over there is Steve." He scribbled a phone number down on the card and slid it back in Tony's wallet, then handed it back. "And tryouts are whenever you want."

"Really?" Tony looked down at his completely unviolated wallet, something clenching in his chest. The untouched cash, the safe credit cards, the care in not blurting out in front of the whole coffee shop that he had Tony Stark's wallet - it was all a sign of something Tony couldn't quite put a name to but that felt good and real and special. Maybe something like… respect. "Thanks, Bucky." He opened the wallet and slid the card up to read the number. There was a little heart at the end of it. "Dinner at Amelia's? Friday night? With both of you?"

Bucky grinned. "You're on."

Tony closed his wallet again and slipped it in his pocket. "Thanks, again. It really means a lot that you'd return this instead of selling it on eBay."

"Maybe try a different pocket. Wouldn't want it falling out and being rescued by someone handsomer than me."

"Well, the universe would be hard-pressed to produce such a person." Tony gave Bucky a little nod. "Amelia's. Friday."

"It's a date."

Tony turned and walked away, a spring in his step, head light and spinning. He forced himself to wait til the corner before he looked back over his shoulder. Bucky and Steve were standing by the bank, hand-in-hand, watching Tony. And when Tony shot Steve a little wave, Steve waved back. 

Tony’s familiar is a fox. It’s an odd sort of familiar for a witch. Familiars are mostly cats and birds but they can be other things to do, just not as often. One of Tony’s neighbors has a wolf for a familiar and a girl he went to school with has a rat. He’s never heard of anyone else having a fox before though.

His mother says it’s a mark of his power. Howard says it’s just another way that he’s weird. The media seems to think it’s because he’s looking for still more attention despite the fact that familiars choose the witch, not the other way around. Either way, it’s attention that Tony doesn’t want so he packs up his belongings and his fox, called Bucky apparently, and leaves in the dead of night.

He ends up settling in a small town called Haven, aptly named because it provides a refuge for just about any magical outcast. Tony’s neighbor with the wolf familiar has barely any magic at all and was disowned from his family because of it. The town librarian is a dragon who hoards books instead of gold. The fairy who runs the grocery store is too small and sickly to fly.

In other words, Tony fits in just fine, which is weird. He’s never fit in before so this is kind of a new experience for him. And when he realizes that the town is lacking an apothecary and announces at the next town hall meeting that he’ll be taking over the job, he’s actually greeted with applause, which is kind of nice (Bucky, who spends as much time as a human as he does a fox, leans over and kisses his cheek and tells him he’s proud of him, which is even nicer).

Steve, the fairy who runs the grocery store, lends him the money he needs to get the apothecary off the ground and then winds up being his first customer because he’s caught a cold and needs something for it. Tony hands him a basic healing potion and a box of loose-leaf Pepper-Up tea for the sniffles and then doesn’t charge him.

“You helped me get started,” he points out. “Your potions are on the house.”

“You’re going to regret that,” Steve says. “I need a lot of potions.”

“Then I guess we’ll get to know each other,” Tony says and winks. Steve goes bright red and scurries out with his potion and his tea, trailing glitter as he goes.

“You like him,” Bucky says, sprawling out across the counter, belly side up. Tony reaches over and absently gives him a couple of scritches.

“I like you.”

“So? You can like him too. I like him too.”

Tony glances at him. “You’ve barely said two words to him. I don’t think he even knows you can talk.”

“Which is why you should ask him out.”

A collaboration for @capreversebb 2018!

Fic by: Antigrav_vector Art by: PotofSoup

Fic Title: Quantum Entanglements Fic Rating: Mature Art Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Other Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, POV Tony Stark, canon-typical violence, Post-HYDRA reveal, references to PTSD, Steve has some unresolved anger issues, references to panic attacks, Bucky is better adjusted than Steve somehow, I can't even with these idiots, mission fic, missions gone wrong, comic book science Relationships: Tony Stark & Steve Rogers, Tony Stark & James "Bucky" Barnes, Tony Stark/Steve Rogers Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes Wordcount: 11.5k

Summary: A few weeks after the events of CA:TWS, the team is sorting out the HYDRA bases they've discovered as a result of the data dump Steve and Nat did. What happens next, well. Not even Tony Stark, futurist, could have predicted that.

Let’s just imagine that the Starks are living in New York in the 1920s and that their dynamic hasn’t changed. If Tony were about 14, and Bucky and Steve were their BS ages (18 and 16), it’d go a little something like this:

During his morning rounds, Bucky notices something’s a little different. It’s subtle at first - there’s some change in a cup with his gutter kids. Then it gets a little more obvious - his dock workers have a new pulley system, the Sicilian keeps laughing about something (”My name is- no, you know what, I’m not saying it again. I know you know it Barnes, really, is this necessary?”), and his gutter kids always seem to have a plate of sandwiches. Somebody is moving along Bucky’s route and swiping his chores. Moving in on his people. They’re doing an insultingly good job at it. Bucky’s pride stings a bit. On one hand, he can’t afford to feed all the kids. He knows that. Somebody helping out is a damn good thing - not a lot of people in this city cared about packless kids with the Depression and all. The docks needed the equipment, too, and he couldn’t provide that (though he’d been saving pennies and doing favours left and right). On the other hand, an unknown hanging around his people was enough to get Bucky’s hackles up on a good day. Somebody managing to avoid not only his notice, but the kids’ notice? That was a whole other brand of alarming. Also, he was jealous. So sue him - he never claimed to be a perfect Alpha. He nudges Steve awake well before dawn and drags him out of the house with him. Steve complains - he never wants to go out anymore, not since Sarah passed, but Bucky isn’t going to let him rot away in the dark. They have a mystery to solve. His curiousity and agitation fuel Steve with enough energy he at least begins to look around in interest.“Wha’ goin’ on Buck?”He yawns, squinting into the darkness of an awkwardly shaped alleyway (a great place to hide in the boroughs), “Some filth roll into th’ city ‘gain?”Bucky shakes his head and shushes Steve, keeping his eyes trained on the piece of land his gutter brats liked to hang out at in the early hours. Steve grumbles, but settles in to wait, a supportive presence at Bucky’s side. A slip of a kid (skinny as Steve) walks on absolutely silent feet around the corner. His brown hair tumbles in curls over his ears. His clothes are posh - way too posh for the area - but he moves in a way that reminds Bucky of the Sicilian. It’s threatening. The kid does some sleight of hand, producing a place of sandwiches from somewhere under his coat, placing it down so smoothly Bucky almost doesn’t see it. Everything about this tableau screams WRONG.Bucky growls and the kid’s head whips around. Steve stiffens by Bucky’s side, already beginning to smell like fight and giving their position away. The kid’s eyes focus on a dark patch just below their feet.“Oh, I thought somebody was watching over them…”The kid murmurs to himself. His hands move as he talks and Bucky’s spine goes ramrod straight, nervous that the kid is going to pull a knife or something from his coat (as fast as he pulled out the sandwiches). “I was just trying to help out a little - instinct’s a bitch.”The kid laughs self-depreciatingly. He looks incredibly tired. The wind picks up a little and Bucky can’t resist taking a whiff. He smells…absolutely nothing. He rears back, confused and somewhat affronted because kid’s smell neutral and this one just…didn’t. It was WRONG. Steve takes a step out from behind him, not able to pick up on the same weirdness Bucky was, and slips out of the shadows. Bucky tries to pull him back, however Steve is a slippery jerk even when he was tired (too used to Bucky grabbing at him by now). “We don’t need help.” Steve snarls, confrontational as can be, and then in a grumble: “But thanks for the sandwiches. The kids could use ‘em.” Bucky wants to grind Steve’s face in the goddamn dirt. Always so polite, even when he was rude. Sarah Rogers’ only success: giving Steve manners. Woman must be rolling over in her grave right now with the way he was using them. The kid bats his pretty brown eyes at Steve, a sly grin taking over his face. His fingers dance over his cufflinks as he responds, “You sure you couldn’t use some, too?”Steve snarls, drowning out Bucky’s, but the kid seems to catch it anyway. There’s some fleeting expression crossing his face - it seems a little lonely. “Ah,” The kid mumbles, “I didn’t realize you were somebody’s Prime. My bad - stepping on toes is something of a hobby, I guess. Or a curse.”He ambles away right afterwards, shoulders hunched in on himself and completely failing to notice the way Steve gawped after him. “He noticed I’m your Prime?”Steve demanded, grabbing Bucky by the collar and shaking him in excitement.“Wait - was he being rude?”Steve’s scent shifted to anger, “He was, wasn’t he? That jerk-”Bucky threw Steve over his shoulder for the second time that day, ignoring his kicking and shouting to investigate the plate of sandwiches. He picked one up to smell it - ham and cheese. Nothing else in it. Not poison or anything he could pick up. Maybe the weird kid wasn’t a threat. Bucky was going to watch him until he proved it, though.

It's more cooking porn and Steve pining like a forest. What more could you want from a pre-Stuckony fic?