The Grumpy Sunshine Series

Kiss and Tell

Originally Posted: 08/23/2022

Tony impatiently waits for this strategy meeting to start. Though he has to confess, strategy was really the last thing on his mind. The conference room doors open to you and Bucky walking hand in hand.

Tony watches the interaction for a moment.

He couldn't exactly make out what you were telling Bucky, but what really confounded him was the way Bucky tossed his head back laughing like a little kid. Tony was by very definition a genius. And yet, this did not make sense to him. Not even a little bit.

He could understand the whole 'opposites attract' thing. And it wasn't even that you two didn't make sense together. It was the how of it all.

And for that he had no answers.

And it was driving him crazy.

He just couldn't reconcile it. Bucky didn't seem like the type to approach the human embodiment of Rainbow Sunshine. However, he could see you walking up to a stone-faced Bucky and greeting him as though 90% of the Compound wasn't scared of him. But the fact that Bucky didn't immediately turn you away was a head scratcher to say the least.

So, he did what any insatiably curious, genius-slash-mad scientist would do. He researched. Or at least, he asked around.

Sam knew the most, but for the most part, he refused to indulge in Tony's curiosity citing the 'friendship code'. Tony scoffed, rolled his eyes, and threatened to dock his pay. And still, Sam refused.

Steve was a little more helpful, seeing as though Steve couldn't keep a secret to save his life. But even Steve couldn't really pin down the how.

His next person was the person that knew everything that happened in the Compound before it even happened. And Nat stone-walled him with a wry smirk. In fact, he felt like he knew less after talking to her.

Wanda had an idea, but she didn't really know anything that the rest of the group hadn't already told him.

No one could give him a definitive answer.

Each time Tony approached him someone new, Steve was just around the corner, ready to scold him for being nosey and reminding him that he should mind his own business.

But that wasn't exactly in Tony's nature. He just had to know.

But especially, especially when he sees Bucky freely laugh as you mumble a quick comment in his ear. What could possibly be that funny while they were waiting to start a team meeting? He could count the number of times he'd seen Bucky smile before you burst onto the Compound, and now, Bucky was smiling left and right.

It was almost unsettling.

And now he was laughing? Freely laughing? And in front of other people?

It solidified Tony's need to know.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore!" Tony announces, abruptly standing up at the head of the conference table. Everyone in the room is slightly jarred by the suddenness of Tony's inquisition, coming to look at him stand at the head of the conference table. "I need to know."

"Tony, don't," Steve warns, already knowing how this conversation was going to play out.

"No, I think, for the good of the team, we need to know this," Tony pointedly says, looking to you and Bucky.

Your back straightens under the intensity of Tony's statement. "Okay, I swear I didn't mean to flood that room-"

"Wait, what?!" Tony asks, eyes widening at your unexpected revelation.