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Just because Bucky knew that asking Iron Man out was a bad idea didn’t mean that he was willing to admit it.
Look, Sam had good points sometimes but Bucky categorically refused to admit it. They had had this animosity since they met two years ago and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. So yeah, Bucky knew that he couldn’t just ask Iron Man out but because it was Sam who pointed it out as a bad idea, he couldn’t just admit it.
Besides, it wasn’t like Iron Man was really a villain, no matter what SHIELD and the media tried to paint him as. No one who was actually a villain stopped their “evil and nefarious plans,” as Iron Man put it, to save a little girl from a burning building. And yeah, okay, maybe it was Iron Man’s fault that the building was on fire in the first place but Bucky had been there when the building had caught flames. He’d heard the shock in Iron Man’s voice as he realized the fire department hadn’t been able to put out the fire in the warehouse next door and it had spread to the surrounding buildings, the horror when Sam had said he wouldn’t be able to get to the girl in time.
No villain—a true villain anyway—reacted like that. They would have left the girl to die.
But Bucky still knew it was a bad idea to ask him out, even if he was flirty and didn’t mind his metal arm. He could picture that cocky smile in his mind’s eye, imagine those pretty, dark curls, those whiskey brown eyes…Okay, so maybe he was imagining his other crush as the mysterious Iron Man but really who could blame him? They were both wicked smart and snarky and maybe just the tiniest bit arrogant but both Tony and Iron Man had good reason to be arrogant. Tony was the best baker on the East Coast and Iron Man had yet to be stopped by anyone. He didn’t think they could be blamed for being cocky about it.
Point was, he knew that he couldn’t just ask out Iron Man but he could do something about his crush on Tony (and no, he was not pining, no matter what Sam and Steve said). So he was there, standing in front of Sweet Treats at the end of the day, waiting for the evening rush to clear out so he could go inside and ask Tony out and hopefully not make a fool of himself in the process—though if he did, well, that was why he waited until just before closing.
“Bucky Bear!” Tony said delightedly as soon as he entered. “Come here, I’ve got this great new flavor of cupcake that I want you to try. The bakery-that-shall-not-be-named down the street tried something similar a few weeks ago and everyone’s been going to them for cupcakes now which is obviously ridiculous but it means I have to step up my game which, not like it’s hard—hello, have you met me? Anyway, it’s—”
“Baby doll, you’re babbling,” Bucky said with an amused smile. Christ, he liked this man.
“Oh yeah. Anyway, here.” Tony shoved half a cupcake into Bucky’s mouth before he could say anything else or even take it from him. Bucky almost choked on it before he remembered how to chew and swallow.
“Amazing, Tony, as always,” he said truthfully, licking the last little bit of crumbs from his lips. “Kind of spicy. What’s in them?”
Tony seemed frozen, staring at his mouth with a dazed expression on his face. “What?”
Bucky chuckled. That’s promising, at least. “The cupcakes. What’s in them?”
“Oh! Mangoes and jalapeños. I’m thinking about trying out a lime buttercream frosting on them, something like a margarita, you know?”
“And what’s Cake—”
“Ahem!” Tony said loudly, glaring at him.
“Sorry. What’s the bakery-that-shall-not-be-named doing?”
“Just jalapeño. They’ve got some sort of cinnamon frosting and spicy candy on top but I think mine is better.”
“It is,” Bucky assured him.
“You haven’t even tried theirs!” But Tony looked positively ecstatic to hear about Bucky’s loyalty so he knew he was doing something right at least.
“Don’t have to. Yours is always better.” He cleared his throat, scuffing his foot on the clean floor. “So, listen, I was thinking—”
“Could you flip the sign on the door for me?”
“What? Oh, sure.” He headed over to the door, flipped the open sign to closed. He probably could have asked then but he thought that asking Tony out should be a face-to-face conversation. “Tony, we’ve been—”
A timer went off in the small kitchen in the back. “Oh fuck,” Tony whispered. “The macarons.” He darted for the back, Bucky trailing after him, probably looking like a lost duckling. He was allowed in the back. Tony had given him permission after the sixth time he’d shown up at closing time, just to talk to the cute baker, and hadn’t wanted to end the conversation so Tony could rescue a batch of cupcakes from the oven. For as talented as Tony was, he had to throw out half the things he baked because he got distracted easily and forgot to take care of them before they were ruined.
Fortunately, the macarons were not one of the ruined batches—this time—and as Tony was setting them into individual containers to sit overnight, Bucky started to ask again, “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted—”
“Can you hand me that—"
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Bucky hissed. “Will you go out with me or not?”
Tony blinked up at him. “Try that again?”
“You, me, dinner? Maybe not tonight but tomorrow?”
Tony blinked again, slow enough that Bucky wondered if he was maybe about to get turned down, but then a delighted smile spread across Tony’s face. “I’d love to,” he breathed.
“Yeah?” Bucky asked, double checking. He almost wanted to tell Tony that he’d already said yes, there were no take backs, but they were decidedly not children, no matter how they acted sometimes.
He nodded eagerly. “Yeah. Tomorrow, you said? Do you have a place in mind? Cause if you don’t, I know this great little Italian restaurant. It’s near my place and if you want, afterwards—”
“Whoa, doll,” Bucky said, laughing as he laid a finger on Tony’s lips. “Wanna take my time with you. Wanna do this right.”
The look in Tony’s eyes could best be described as pouting but he kissed the tip of Bucky’s finger, giggling when Bucky groaned. “I can do slow,” he promised. “So. What did you have in mind?”
“You like burgers?”
He had no idea how he managed to pick out Tony’s favorite food. They had talked before, about Tony’s Italian mother and how that instilled a love of pasta in him, about Bucky growing up in the Depression and how he thought he hated chicken but really he just hated under-seasoned, overcooked meat. He counted himself lucky that Fury hadn’t seen a point in hiding the fact that Bucky Barnes was back after spending most of the last century as the world’s greatest assassin because it meant that he could share things like his past with Tony without being worried that he would inadvertently reveal something he wasn’t supposed to. And, in return, Tony told him about growing up wealthy, as one of the Starks, and about how he’d walked away from his parents’ company after they died, leaving it to become Stane Industries.
“You must really hate Iron Man, then,” Bucky had commented idly, not really fishing for information on his other crush but still curious. Iron Man almost exclusively went after Stane technology and warehouses.
To his surprise, Tony had given him a guarded look. “Why would you say that?” he’d asked warily.
“Cause that was your parents’ company he’s attacking even if it’s not anymore.”
“Maybe I think it’s good. Maybe I think I left SI because I didn’t want to make weapons anymore but I couldn’t talk the board into changing the direction of the company,” Tony had muttered, apparently forgetting that Bucky could hear everything he was saying. Well, it wasn’t like Tony could be Iron Man so it didn’t matter whether or not he liked what Stane was doing to the company. Whatever Tony’s thoughts were on Iron Man, it wasn’t important and had no effect on their date and Bucky really needed to stop thinking about Iron Man anyway. He had a date with someone cute and Iron Man was unattainable and just barely on the right side of being a villain anyway.
It was a little hard not thinking about Iron Man when he seemed determined to make sure that he was on Bucky’s mind at all times.
He and Tony had barely sat down at their table when his Avengers Card beeped, telling him about an upcoming mission. He groaned and fished out the card, scanning the details of the mission. Iron Man, of course. The villain had been particularly active over the last couple weeks but this one was new; Iron Man wasn’t attacking one of SI’s warehouses this time. He was attacking a children’s hospital.
“What the fuck?” Bucky muttered.
“Your other job?” Tony asked, smirking.
Bucky glared at him but there was no heat behind it. “It’s not like I’m a secret agent, baby doll. Ain’t no need to call it my other job. I’m the Winter Soldier and I’m an Avenger and we both know it.”
“But it’s just so fun,” he teased. “But, really, did something come up?”
“Yeah,” Bucky muttered. “Fucking Iron Man, ruining the first date I’ve had since the 40s.”
Tony frowned. “I’m sorry, did you say Iron Man?”
“Yeah. Look, I’m sorry, doll. Gotta go take care of this. Can we try again tomorrow? I was really looking forward to our date.” He leaned forward before he could think better of it and brushed his lips over Tony’s cheek.
Tony had a distracted look in his eyes but he blushed anyway. “Tomorrow sounds great. Good luck out there.”
Bucky was halfway to the door when Tony called after him, “And Bucky Bear? Be careful!”
Bucky grinned and saluted him. Tony cared about him. Tony didn’t want him to be hurt. He hardly even cared that Iron Man was acting outside of his usual modus operandi because Tony cared about him. They were gonna have another date tomorrow and everything was gonna be fine.
Tony waited until Bucky was gone before fishing his phone out of his pocket. He dialed Rhodey, impatiently drumming his fingers on the arc reactor under his shirt as he waited for him to pick up.
“Tones?” Rhodey said sleepily. “This better be important, do you have any—”
“Rhodey, who the fuck stole my suit?”