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English
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Part 2 of Realmwalker
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Published:
2022-09-05
Updated:
2023-06-18
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142,658
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43/44
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488
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982
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Happier Than Ever

Chapter 10: "What do you believe? When nobody is watching what do you believe?

Notes:

Oh my gods you guys we got past 300 kudos and we're just hitting chapter 10! Aaaaaaahhh you all are amazing, thank you for the love.

TW - some talks of bullying happening

Title from - Bloodmoney by Poppy

Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Tony came into the lab where Stephen, Ana, James and Vision were at. James and Ana were looking at a tablet, with James’s eyebrows knitted in concern while Ana gave him a smug grin.

“I’m sure he’s gonna love this.” Ana was saying.

“How do you know?”

“Trust me. You wanted my help didn’t you?”

“What are you two doing?” Tony interrupted.

“Picking out James outfit for his date tonight.”

“Ah. Still no idea where he’s taking you?”

“No.” James groaned out. Ana gave Tony a look that meant she knew exactly where they were going.

“Better go get ready then.” Tony teased.

“Alright.” James sighed. “Wish me luck?”

“You’ll be fine. Go.” Ana pushed. James grumbled before heading out.

“I’m glad to see Sargent Barnes looking so well.” Vision said where he sat on the couch.

“Should probably call him James.” Tony pointed out.

“Of course.” Ana then moved to pull up different trainings of Maximoff, Rogers, Barton and Romanoff. “What are you doing Ana?
"

“Trying to solve a puzzle…” She hummed, before Riven spoke up.

“Something’s off with their team and we can’t figure it out.”

“Perhaps I could be of assistance.” Vision stood, putting his book down before coming up behind him. “What is it that you’re looking for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary, with either their fight styles or attitude…” Tony watched them for a moment before going over to Stephen.

“And what are you doing Dumbledore?” He draped himself over Stephen’s back, resting his head on the man’s shoulder.

“Working on a new spell for the newest class.” Stephen turned and kissed Tony’s cheek. “How’s the wedding planner hunting going?” Tony groaned. “You should’ve had Pepper do it.”

“Yeah but she’s been busy being, you know, my CEO so I wasn’t gonna ask her to interview and vet our wedding planner.”

“You know she’d love to help.” 


“I know, but…I feel bad. She’s got enough on her plate with the company and our new releases coming out next month.” Stephen just chuckled, nuzzling Tony’s cheek with his own.

“You’re such a sweetheart.”

“Boss, Happy wanted to warn you while he’s on his way with Michael and Mia, Mia is upset.”

“What why?! What happened?”

“He said it wasn’t anything serious, but…he asks if you have nail polish?” Tony blinked, looking to everyone else.

“What?”

“I’ll text Aunt Pepper.”

——

Apparently the reason Happy asked if they had nail polish was because one of the little girls in Mia’s class decided to brag about ‘getting her nails done with mommy’, specifically in front of Mia and Sarah. When they came home Mia went to Tony and just clinged to him. Tony picked her up, holding her close.

“What happened sweetheart?”

“Becky’s mean…” Is all she mumbled into his neck. Tony rubbed her back soothingly, and looked to Stephen.

“Mia…” Mia looked to her Papa and reached out, getting handed to him and cuddling close. “Let’s get you in some more comfy clothes ok?” Mia nodded, and Stephen took her to her room. Tony pulled out his phone and made a quick call.

“This is Rem.” After that parent day he and Rem swapped numbers.

“Hey Rem, it’s Tony. Did Sarah come home upset?”

“Yeah…yeah she did. She wouldn’t tell me why though.” Tony quickly explained what Happy found out. “I see…looks like I gotta pull out some nail polish.”

“Yeah we’re doing the same. I’ll talk to the school about the teasing.”

“Let me know when and I’ll bring up my concerns as well.”

“Awesome, I’ll let you know when I schedule that meeting. Thanks Rem.”

“Anytime Tony. Tell Mia we say hi.” By the time he hung up the phone Stephen and Mia had come back out, with Mia holding Bruce close.

“How about while we wait for dinner we watch Jaws?” Tony asked, which Mia instantly agreed to. Ana had contacted Pepper about bringing over some nail polish and having a ‘girls night’. She arrived just before dinner, with a makeup box full of different things for manicures. Mia had started to cheer up with Pepper and Happy over, but when she saw what was in the box afterwards she got ecstatic.

“Are we gonna paint our nails?!” She asked, bouncing a bit.

“Yes we are Miss Mia. Let’s pick out a color.”

“Are you gonna paint your nails too Ana?” Mia looked over to her older sister.

“Sure.” Michael watched, before coming over and looking through the different colors.

“Michael?” Mia looked to her brother.

“Hm?”

“Will you paint your nails too?”

“I…” The boy looked torn.

“What’s wrong Bambino?” Tony saw his hesitation.

“It wouldn’t be…too girly for me…to do that…” He mumbled. “Right?” Tony looked to Stephen, who raised an eyebrow.

“Not at all.” They heard Peter come in, he had stayed out for a date with MJ. “Hey Pete! Come here.”

“What’s up Dad—Oh are you guys painting your nails?” He saw Pepper setting everything up in the living room.

“Yeah, I’ll explain why later.” He motioned for the teen to get closer. “Mia was wondering if Michael was going to paint his nails.” Peter blinked, before looking to his little brother.

“Are you?”

“It’s…it feels like it’d be too girly.” Michael bit his lip as he looked to a particular green he found.

“I don’t see how it’s girly. Can I get my nails painted too?” Michael looked up to him.

“You’d paint your nails too?”

“Yeah. Heck I bet dad would look good with this one.” Peter held out a hot rod red. Tony blinked, before grinning.

“He’s right. I would look great with that one.” Which is how they all ended up getting their nails painted with Vision watching. As Ana helped get Michael’s done, Barton and Rogers came out.

“Have you guys seen Bucky?” Rogers asked. “I haven’t been able to find him.”

“Nope.”

“Nu uh.”

“No.” 


“I’m afraid I have not.” Barton noticed what they were doing, giving them a weird look.

“Really? Your kids are getting their nails painted Stark?” Tony ignored him watching Pepper paint Mia’s nails a nice shade of blue. “Isn’t that kinda ga—” Barton quickly shut up as several heads snapped to him glaring. He partially noticed Ana glaring with her ribbons creeping out from her back slowly. “Nevermind. Sorry.” He muttered before he left. Rogers went to the elevator to see if he could find James anywhere else.

“I see what you mean Ana.” Vision spoke up. “Something is wrong. They were never this…cruel before.”

——

“Boss! Boss you’re needed in the living room!” Tony jerked awake, causing Stephen who was holding him to sit up as well.

“Fri? Wha—”

“Rogers saw Loki and James come back from their date.” Tony looked to Stephen, before they both bolted. As soon as Tony opened the bedroom door they could hear the yelling. When they got closer they could make out what was being said.

“Bucky you need to get away from him! Loki what the hell did you do?!”

“Steve Loki hasn’t done anything to me, stop it!”

“But he kissed you!”

“Actually I think James kissed me first.” Loki hummed.

“Now’s not the time Doll.”

“What the hell…you actually want him to kiss you?!” When Tony and Stephen entered the living room they saw James was in between Loki and Rogers who looked like he wanted to strangle the mage.

“Of course I do, I like him!” James said, frustrated. Rogers looked even more heartbroken.

“He’s got to be using you Buck! He…he’s not your type…”


“The fuck does that mean?!” James growled, getting angrier. Their yelling caused others to come to the living room, which made Tony wish Carol and Rhodey were here instead of in New Asgard with Quill’s group to make a second command center.

“It means how could you be interested in a psychotic killer! He’s killed thousands, he tried take over the world!”

“You mean how he was tortured? And how he was forced to kill?”

“You can’t seriously believe that.”

“Of course I can! Because I’ve been through the same thing, hell I've done the same thing!” Romanoff and Barton came up, both glaring at Loki.

“James, you need to calm down love…” Loki said softly, touching Jame’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch him like that! Like you care!” Loki’s eyes narrowed at the captain, before moving past James.

“I could say the same to you. All you ever say is ‘Bucky Bucky Bucky’, you have not listened to your friend when he says he wants to be called James, you keep pushing for ‘the good ol’ days’ when he wants to move forward you act like he’s done nothing wrong when he’s been haunted by nightmares since he woke up in Wakanda!” He sneered at the captain before James took his hand and pulled him back.

“Alright enough.” Before Rogers can say anything else, Tony moved between the two, pushing James and Loki closer to the east wing. Sam and Scott who had walked in, moved to push Rogers closer to the west wing. “Rogers go cool off, please. You’ve ruined what was probably a wonderful date.”

“Thank you.” James said softly.

“Bucky please—”

“No. No you don’t get to say please after you yell at me and my ‘fella.”

“But Buck—”

“JAMES. My name is James. Christ why can’t you listen to me!? I haven’t felt like Bucky since…since the helicarrier.”

“How can you say that you are Bucky!”

“I’m not. Not the Bucky you remember. Just like you’re not the Steve I remember.”

“Of course I am.” James scoffed.

“No. No you are not. You can’t tell me that the Steve from before would’ve done what you did…”

“But I did it for you—”

“I didn’t ask you to! So you even hear yourself?! I didn’t ask you to break the laws, I didn’t ask you to go off on your own to hunt me down…I didn’t ask you to lie. You did that all on your own.”

“What does he mean?” Sam asked. “When he said you lied?” Rogers looked panicked.

“Nothing!”

“Oh no. Not nothing. You don’t get to run from this.” James said.

“James…” Tony warned.

“They need to know the truth.” James told him, but waited for the inventor to nod. “One of the Winter Soldiers missions. December 16th, 1991.” Tony noticed Barton flinch but it didn’t sound familiar to Sam or Scott. “The mission was to extract a briefcase that held a recreated variant of the super solider serum. Any potential witnesses were to be eliminated.” James shuddered, and Tony swallowed hard. Sam started to pick up that something else was wrong. “The briefcase was being transported by Howard Stark, along with his wife Maria Stark.” Tony saw Barton pale, stepping back. “Mission was successful.” He said softly, looking down.

“It wasn’t you Bucky!”

“You knew.” Scott said, stopping James from saying anything. “Oh my god you…”

“You knew…and you didn’t tell Tony?” Sam asked.

“He didn’t know until he went to the bunker to help us with the other Winter Soldiers. Zemo had it all set up. There was…security footage.” Sam stumbled back, looking like he was going to be sick.

“I told him to go alone…as a friend…oh fuck.”

“You knew as well…” Barton said to Romanoff. At the nod Barton swallowed, voice cracking. “When did you find out?”

“During Project Insight.” Barton cursed, before leaving.

“You knew for two…whole years? And you never told Tony?!” Sam yelled.

“He would’ve killed Bucky if he knew!”

“Killed him? Jesus Steve Tony’s forgiven him!” Steve looked to Tony, eyes wide.

“What?”

“I forgave James. Long ago.” Tony said softly. Something seemed to shift in Rogers emotions which Tony has to squash quickly. “He didn’t lie to me for two years.” He looked to James who was shaking a bit, with Loki holding him slightly. “I think you should stay in our wing. I’ll let Carol and Rhodey know.”

“What? No! No he can’t stay with you!” Rogers reached out, but before he could touch Tony James pulled back from Loki and tugged the inventor out of reach.

“Don’t touch him.” James growled, shielding both Loki and Tony from Rogers. “And you don’t get a say in what I do.”

“I suggest you go back to your wing Rogers.” Stephen said, coming up to stand next to James.

“But…”

“Steve.” Sam said quietly. “Go. You’ve done enough damage.” Rogers looked between all of them, before pulling back. Romanoff put a hand on his shoulder as they left for their wing. Once they were gone everyone in the living room seemed to sag with relief. “I’m so sorry Tony.”

“If you’re trying to apologize for having me go after them it’s not your fault. No one but him and Romanoff knew.” Tony looked to James, who was trying to control his breathing. Loki came up and took his hand, bringing it up to his lips. James turned and pulled the trickster close, seeming to need that stability he brought right at that moment. “Not how I wanted your date to end.”

“Tell me about it.” James said weakly. As he pulled back they heard something clink. Stephen, who was closer looked before eyes narrowing.

“What are those?” James gave him a sheepish grin before showing what was around his neck.

“I’m sorry are those…are those dog tags? Are they your dog tags?!” Tony looked to Loki who was trying to look innocent and failing. “I told you to go to the museum to look.”

“And I did. And wouldn’t you know it I found they had something that wasn’t theirs, and realized what better gift to court James with than his dog tags that he lost?” There was a pause, before Scott and Sam started to laugh, and Stephen pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Carol’s gonna kill us.”

——

“I’m going to kill you.” It was a few days later and while Carol and Rhodey knew of what happened, they weren’t too upset about the dog tags. What Loki said was true, and he left fake tags on display instead so they wouldn’t know that anything was amiss. So it couldn’t be from that.

“What did I do?” Tony had just come into her office with some updates on some new armor he was working on for her.

“It’s not you. It’s your children. And Loki.” Tony blinked.

“I’m sorry what?”

“Friday can you pull up the video feed from yesterday?” After a pause. “You know which one.” The screen flickered on and showed one of the halls that was usually used to go from one conference room to another. Maximoff was walking alone from one end of the hall to the other when the lights flickered. She paused, looking around, before hearing a child’s voice echo through the hall as they sang. It made a shiver run up Tony's spin.

“Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run run.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run run.

Bang, bang, bang bang, goes the farmer’s gun.

So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run run run.

The child’s voice was Mia’s while the deep voice was obviously Riven. Maximoff started to freak out, pulling open doors and screaming for whoever it was to come out.

“Ok…and Loki’s in the mix because…?”

“He’s hiding them from Maximoff. They’ve done this to Maximoff, Rogers and Romanoff. Barton just gets Mia’s giggles echoing through the corridor.” Tony tried to keep a straight face, but was failing to do so.

“I…I’m sorry?”

“They have been complaining non stop since this started.”

“I’ll talk to Riven and Ana…cause you know Mia didn’t get the brilliant idea of tormenting them like this.”

“I’ll talk to Loki.” Carol sighed. “One more meeting I’ll have to have.”

“Oh?”

“Barton hasn’t gotten back to Laura about the separation paperwork. Each time I bring them to him he gets upset but then never returns them. It’s infuriating.”

“Good luck with that then.”

That weekend was another one of Michael’s Dnd campaigns, which meant Robin came over to send the night before. Logan arrived with them right before dinner, which Tony offered the man to stay over for.

“Na, appreciate it Bub but I’ve got my own plans.” Logan turned him down. He went over to Mia who was sitting watching a movie. “Hiya squirt.”

“Hi Logan!” Mia went over for a hug, which Logan in turn picked her up for.

“Oof, you’re getting big. Soon I won’t be able to pick you up.”

“That is a lie Logan can lift Piotr!” Robin called from where they were heading to Michael’s room. Mia just giggled. Logan smiled softly, before he turned sharply to see Barton walking by to get to his wing. Ever since that night Barton had been distant from everyone, causing the west wing to feel tense. He paused to look at the TV, his features unreadable.

“Whatcha watching?” He asked quietly. Mia frowned, leaning closer to Logan.

“Robin Hood.” She answered. Tony walked over closer to Logan and Mia, watching the archer. He could see Ana come out of the kitchen and watch as well, head tilting. Something familiar crossed his face as he watched the movie.

“Oh man…I haven’t seen this in forever…use to always watch it with….with….” He blinked slowly, swallowing.

“Clint?” Tony jerked, seeing Maximoff at the doorway of their wing. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Ah…I forgot, you wanted to watch a movie. Sorry Wanda.” Barton seemed to shake off whatever just happened and left with the woman. Logan’s nostrils flared, and he growled.

“Knew that smelled familiar.”

“What smelled familiar?” Tony asked, feeling uneasy.

“Last training I thought I smelled something when walking past the witch. Smelled familiar cause one of ours, Kurt, has this neat teleportation trick he does. When he does though it leaves a distinct smell of rotten eggs. Rotten eggs smells just like—”

“Sulfur.” They all turned to Riven, who was staring at the rogues wing with wide eyes and fangs bared. “It’s sulfur. Shit.” He looked to Tony. “Call Pater. We have a serious problem.”

Notes:

....surprise?

Real quick, for those worried about what this means for the rogues and how they've been behaving you gotta trust me. Please. All will be revealed very soon, I promise.

James and Loki's date! He took him to a nice diner in Brooklyn and they walked the parks nearby. And James wore dark green, cause Loki likes a man in his colors haha. I had to look up if James actually did grab his tags or not and I couldn't find anything so...Loki got them back ;)

I can see Pepper having a bunch of nail polish and such for when she doesn't want to deal with people at the salon so she does her own nails, and she's fantastic at it haha.

The whole 'kids tormenting the rogues' was an idea I had for a little while lol. Song is called 'Run Rabbit Run' and it actually came out just before Steve and James went to war.

See you all Wednesday!