Guys, I FINALLY GOT A JOB TODAY! And I'm super excited and happy about it. I'm going to be one of those annoying people calling you to take a survey over the phone haha. And it's close to my apartment, so I can walk, and I'm super happy about that.

Also, wish me luck with school. It's only the third day but I have SO MUCH HOMEWORK. So naturally, I decided to procrastinate by writing this chapter for all of you.

And because of work and school, I will definitely not be updating too often. o.O Sorry...

Here we have a bit of a time jump, because otherwise it would just be another retelling of CATWS taking up another chapter and I didn't feel like putting forth that effort. Maybe one day I'll write a oneshot of this interim time, but for now we're coming to about the end up CATWS because BUCKY'S BACK!

Okay it's like really brief that he's actually in this chapter but there will be more on him later. This chapter we see Wanda talking with Tony, and that's already huge.

I originally intended for the focus of this chapter to be Bucky and I'd title the chapter "The Winter Soldier", but Wanda wasn't happy about being forgotten last chapter and demanded to be heard. *sheepish shrug*

Anyway, hope ya like it!

It had been a hard eighteen days.

As soon as Tony had realized that Steve had gone to DC without a word, taking Natasha with him for some job at SHIELD, he racked his brain to figure out what he'd done wrong. Because it had to be him, didn't it? He was the only one that Steve talked to, really. And if it had been one of the others, Natasha probably wouldn't have followed, would she?

But try as he might, he couldn't come up with a legitimate reason Steve had left.

It was only six weeks, though, he reminded himself constantly from where he'd shut himself up in the lab. He told JARVIS to only accept phone calls from Rhodey, Pepper, Natasha, and Steve – everyone else could leave a message. And he only put Natasha on there because she was with Steve and might give him information on the guy. Pepper was on there because she would kill him with her stiletto if she discovered she was blocked for longer than a day.

He didn't get calls from DC, though. Steve had gone silent. Natasha wasn't giving him anything. He was left alone in his workshop to tinker with Iron Man's armor and Natasha's updated Widow's Bites.

And then the world exploded.

Not literally. But it might have, if Steve and Natasha and some black guy with a pair of metal wings hadn't stopped it.

Steve had called him, hours before Project INSIGHT was due to launch. Tony shoved aside his fury at SHIELD's secrets and their using his arc reactor technology for such evil and simply focused – with the help of JARVIS – on gathering the information from all of the good guys before it could be dumped online.

And now, Steve and Natasha were returning to the Tower, with flyboy and the fucking Winter Soldier, who had apparently pretended to go along with Hydra before he helped Steve with setting the chips in the helicarriers.

After the data dump, Tony carefully picked through the files on the Winter Soldier. Most of those had been saved, but not all of them. He had discovered the torture and conditioning that the Soldier – Barnes – had gone through. That file he'd found before, about the recalibration and adverse reaction…it wasn't about the arm at all, but about Barnes himself.

He'd spent several minutes retching into a trash can at that discovery.

Instinct told him to keep the worst of the horrors to himself, away from Steve and from the eyes of the world. But the whole world had seen the man with the metal arm who had attacked Captain America in DC. The only way to prove that Barnes had not been the culprit but a victim himself was in releasing some of those files for the world to pick over and prod at.

After that, he couldn't blame the Winter Soldier for his parents' deaths. Oh, it still hurt. But he couldn't put it all on Barnes' shoulders – that wasn't fair. He hesitated to put the kill order for his parents out there for the world to see, but eventually decided to hell with it and let that one slip past, too. If it ever came to a trial for Barnes, that could come in handy.

And he didn't blame Steve for his brusqueness, when he had all but demanded that Bucky be allowed to live with them at the Tower. This was his best friend – their closeness was legendary. They'd grown up together, brothers in all but blood.

At least that's what everyone had thought.

But now Tony knew that the Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes, and the Winter Soldier had been his soulmate once upon a time, which meant that he was Steve's soulmate, and suddenly Steve's distance from his other soulmates made a whole lot more sense. He'd been grieving his lover – hadn't wanted to replace him.

And Tony really couldn't blame him. He couldn't really empathize personally with what Steve had gone through with the loss of his love of over a decade, the man who had followed Steve by joining the Howling Commandoes in World War Two, after Steve had followed Barnes into the War with all he could manage to do. But he tried to imagine losing Rhodey, and the pain that swept through him at the mere idea he thought might be comparable to the agony of losing a soulmate he'd known his whole life.

But still…it hurt, honestly. To be discarded so quickly, now that he had his one true love back. Yeah, he'd only really been friends with Steve for about a month before his going AWOL, but…he'd liked it. Being with Steve. He was nice, and there had been no agenda or expectations other than friendship.

He could only dread what would happen when they actually made it back to the Tower.

"Capsicle!" Tony greeted him as soon as the elevator doors opened onto the communal floor. He felt Bucky tensing by his side for a brief moment before he forced himself to relax. Steve put a hand on Bucky's lower back, trying to reassure him as they walked out of the elevator. He wasn't sure it worked – Bucky didn't even look at him, and his expression was still slightly spooked – but he didn't remove his hand from where it sat.

"Tony," he greeted the billionaire, he thought somewhat placidly, but the slight tightening in the corners of Tony's eyes told him it hadn't been convincing. He examined the man, looking for signs of upset or accusation – mostly for Bucky. He didn't want Bucky to be uncomfortable here – he was already skittish enough. "Thank you for letting Bucky stay."

"Eh, I had extra space," Tony waved off his gratitude like it was nothing, and that – stung, a little. It smacked of the Tony who had known he was Stark – hiding his emotions behind carelessness and bravado. This wasn't the Tony he had become friends with – this was Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

But, he didn't let his feelings show in his expression; Tony was continuing to speak, anyway.

"So, Red October," he addressed Bucky, and Steve wished he understood the reference for that, "You prefer a higher floor, or lower? Lowest residential floor is sixty-two, so it's still pretty high, but you can go as high as ninety. Unless you'd like to share with your bestie – he's on the eighty-sixth floor. Your thoughts?"

Bucky looked startled by the words directed at him, and he glanced at Steve as though for guidance.

"Your choice, Buck," he murmured, rubbing his thumb in gentle movements on his hip almost subconsciously. "You can do whatever you want."

Bucky didn't appear too reassured by this, but fear didn't appear there either, so Steve counted it a win as Bucky glanced back at Tony with a ducked head.

"I'll stay with Steve," he mumbled, almost shyly, which was so at odds with the Bucky that Steve remembered that he almost didn't hear what he had actually said. "If that's alright, Sir."

"Great – I'll have them set up a room for you," Tony said without a pause, eyes watching the brunette with a seriousness that belied the lightness with which he spoke. "And don't call me Sir – Tony is fine."

"You're just trying to make yourself seem younger," Clint said wryly from the doorway on the other side of the room. Steve had only noticed him coming in because he could feel Bucky's muscles stiffen slightly under his hand. He looked past the archer and saw that Wanda had come up behind him.

Tony sniffed at Clint's comment. "Thirty-four is not old," he insisted. "And you're just thirty-three, birdbrain."

"Still younger than you!" Clint sang.

Tony only rolled his eyes at this, before he pointed suddenly at Sam, who had been watching the goings-on quietly.

"And you!" he exclaimed. "I was watching your flying, and you could really use an upgrade. Who made those wings? Hammer? Stone? Doesn't matter. I can do better. You don't need to deal with slow response time or sticking pieces ever again. I should add lasers to them. Do you like lasers? Or would you prefer flame throwers? Where are they? You didn't give them to SHIELD, did you?"

Sam only laughed, not answering the barrage of questions that came his way. "James told me that's what you'd say if you ever found out about the wings," he said teasingly. "Good to finally meet you in person."

Tony's expression morphed into one of utter confusion. "James?" he said blankly. "Who's…" Then his eyes widened with realization. "Wait, Rhodey? How do you know my honey bear?"

Sam raised an eyebrow at the endearment, but didn't ask directly. "Uh…he's my soulmate? He is your best friend, right? Shouldn't he have told you? We met a month ago…"

Tony's eyes widened with rage, and he spun on his heel. "JARVIS!" he barked. "Call Rhodey!"

JARVIS didn't reply, but a moment later, James Rhodes' voice came into the common room.

"Tony," he greeted dryly. "I hope you know exactly how much the brass is upset with you right now. And I get to hear all about it, as the liaison for SI."

"Rhodey," Tony said sweetly, and Steve could hear the steel underneath, "My platypus, my one-and-only…is there anything you want to tell me?"

The other man was quiet for only a moment before he said resignedly, "You met him, didn't you?"

"Yes, Rhodey bear, I did!" Tony exclaimed furiously, dropping the act. "And I had to hear about it from the man himself, a whole month after you two met!"

"I regret nothing," Rhodes said stoically.

"I thought we had something, platypus," Tony sniffed dramatically, but Steve was pretty sure the theatrics weren't all for show. "But you never tell me about important things any more. I can feel you pulling away, honey bear, and I don't like where this is going. I refuse to sign these divorce papers! Tell him, Wilson."

"Sam is there with you?" was all Rhodes said, sounding surprised.

"Hey, James," Sam said wryly, looking a bit amused at the back-and-forth.

"Sam! What the hell are you doing with Tony?"

"He's living here now, Rhodey," Tony said snidely, rolling his eyes. Then he brightened. "Hey! Does that mean you're going to come live here too, then? You don't have to go away all the time!"

"That's something I'll have to talk with Sam about, Tones," Rhodes said with a sigh. And then, seeming to know what Tony was going to say next, went on, "But not right now, with you."

Tony pouted at this. "You could've told me, you know. A whole fucking month, Rhodey!"

"Well, I was going to wait for two more weeks before I told you, and if you think about it you know exactly why," Rhodes admitted, not budging an inch in his stance.

Tony's pout turned into a thoughtful frown. "This is different," he grumbled, and Steve wondered what part he was missing that suddenly their comments made even less sense than usual.

"Sure, Tones," Rhodes said lightly. "I'll talk with you later, okay? I'm off to go clean up another one of your messes and find a way to blame someone else. Sam, I'll call you later tonight."

"Bye," Tony dismissed, and JARVIS disconnected the call.

Tony turned an evaluating eye on Sam. "Well, this changes nothing," he said directly. "I still want to work on your wings. Find me when you have the time." Then he turned to Bucky. "Also, I don't know how comfortable you are with the metal arm, but I would love to get a peek under that hood. It looks like you have a couple of servos not firing right – 's why your fingers won't uncurl. If and when you want that fixed, my workshop is open.

"And speaking of the workshop…" he turned to walk away. "I'd best get back down there. Fucking boot repulsor is still giving me issues. Why Iron Man always busts the left foot is beyond me…"

"Tony," Steve tried to say, but Tony didn't look at him, waving at him vaguely as he walked away.

"Places to be, Gramps," he said dismissively. And then he was gone.

Steve didn't go after him.

Tony had barely begun work on the boot repulsor that was giving him so many issues when he heard the door beep that someone was typing in the code, a moment before the second beep came that the door had opened. He looked up, surprised to see the person come in.

"Wanda," he blurted in surprise. It was the first time she had come into the workshop, though he was pretty sure after Steve and Natasha had left that the woman had considered coming in before. JARVIS had alerted him a couple of times that the witch was walking back and forth near the hallway before she left on the elevator to seek out someone else's company, and he'd supposed that she had been bored, with her twin gone so often now with his soulmates. He'd known that it was inevitable that at some point she would finally venture inside, but he hadn't expected it to be today, of all days.

Not that there was anything particularly special about today. No, two new tenants, one of which was a former WWII-vet-turned-Hydra-assassin and also happened to be soulmates with Captain America – that wasn't a big deal at all. Except that he'd kind of assumed that now that the last member of the soulmate bond was there that everyone would be eager to get to know him. He'd thought he'd have at least three days of solitude before people remembered Tony Stark again.

Wanda entered the workshop like she'd been in there a hundred times before, perfectly familiar and at ease with the location of everything. But he thought he might have caught a bit of trepidation in her eyes before she came forward. Now though, he couldn't detect anything, so he wondered if he might have imagined it.

"What brings you to my humble abode?" Tony threw out, looking back at the boot as he spoke. He was sure it couldn't be anything too serious – she hardly knew him.

"Everyone is busy with Barnes," she said, sitting on one of the stools and picking up a wrench to fiddle with. "Thought you could use some company in the meantime."

Tony gave her an odd look at that before he looked back at the boot, twisting a couple of wires together so they'd intertwine and be easier to place within the metal.

"Well, I could never turn away a beautiful woman," he said airily. "You're probably one of the smarter ones to be down here. Granted, you're only the third one – third woman down here, I mean – but, you know. Only the smart ones are allowed down here."

"Thanks, I think," Wanda laughed a little, twirling the wrench. It took a moment, because Tony was only keeping track of her out the corner of his eye, but then he noticed that she was using her magic to twirl the wrench, the tiniest tendrils of red floating off from it.

"So, how'd you and your brother come by your powers?" he questioned, gesturing toward her as though to remind her of the fact that she was using her powers right then.

"Hydra experimented on us," she said as placidly as though she was talking about the weather. It was said so calmly that it actually took a second for the words to process, and when they did, he paused his movements, shocked at the ready admission.

"You know, you're the first one to ask either of us that," Wanda continued when Tony didn't say anything. "Funny, isn't it? Everyone else wants this soul bond to work with all of us, but we're all so bad at communication that even something as basic as this hasn't even been touched on."

"Well, I'm a bit more removed from it all," Tony said, deciding to take whatever information Wanda shared in stride, and continued on with his work on the boot. "Logic prevails when the heart's not in the way."

Wanda hummed at this, wordlessly agreeing. It was silent for several moments, and in the quiet Wanda used her powers to lift up a few bolts to spin enchantingly around the wrench, like some kind of odd clock.

"How'd you escape them, then?" Tony finally asked.

Wanda snorted indelicately, still moving the tools through their almost hypnotic motions. "You assume we weren't there willingly," she pointed out.

"Well, you clearly changed your mind, at least," Tony pointed out, shoving a screw between his teeth to hold while he messed with the mechanics in the armor. "Hence, the need to escape. I don't think Hydra hands out retirement plans."

"It wasn't too hard," Wanda said vaguely. "You don't know all of my powers."

"That's fair," Tony admitted, setting the twisted wires in place along the seam. "So, why'd you join Hydra, then? And what made you change your mind about it?"

Wanda was quiet for long enough that Tony thought she wasn't going to answer. Finally, just when he was about to ask another question to try and keep conversation going, she spoke.

"I wanted revenge," she said distantly. "We both did. And Hydra offered power – power through drugs and experiments. It was painful, but we felt it was worth it. With this power, we would get revenge on the man whom we blamed for our parents' deaths. We are still working to forgive him…but it does get easier every day."

"Why are you trying to forgive him?" Tony questioned, pulling the screw from his mouth and going to put it in the boot. Hopefully that would get the repulsor working again, because if not he was going to have to dig around a lot more for the source of the problem. "What made you want to?"

Wanda was quiet for a moment, before she said, "We discovered that the man we blamed for our parents' deaths was one of my soulmates. It wasn't possible to hate him so much after that."

Tony stilled. "Iron Man killed your parents?" he repeated, trying to figure out what she was talking about, exactly. Maybe they'd been some kind of collateral damage? Or someone had attacked because of Iron Man? Or maybe it was an Iron Man look-alike?

"Terrorists killed our parents," Wanda corrected, watching him carefully. He noticed that she had set down the wrench and bolts at some point, though he couldn't think of when it had happened. "It was a civil war in Sokovia. Missiles hit our house – our parents died instantly. Pietro and I hid under the bed, watching as another missile fell from the sky, sat right in front of us for two days while we waited for it to go off. It didn't – it was a dud. But we knew who made the weapons – Stark Industries was emblazoned on the side."

Tony's head shot up to look at her – he couldn't help the immediate reaction of shock. There was no judgement on her face, only seriousness, but still he couldn't help the shame that swept through him.

"I killed – my weapons…" he choked, caught between horror and dread.

"They were your weapons," Wanda agreed, tilting her head consideringly. "And yes, there's a bit of resentment for that. But it decreases daily, you know?"

"Why…" Tony stammered for words, feeling very out of depth. "Why would you even think to forgive…"

"One of my powers that I haven't mentioned…" Wanda explained, crossing one of her legs over the other, "Should I choose, I can see into someone's mind. And your thoughts, what you think about yourself…" she shrugged a bit, looking a bit uncomfortable for the first time since coming into the workshop. "I haven't gone into your mind since the day I met you," she told him. "But I can pick up emotions with a lot less control. And I know how hard you are on yourself – about everything. Knowing what kind of person you are, I know that had you known, you would never have allowed what happened in my home country to occur. What happened in Sokovia was no more your fault than it was mine.

"Also," she went on, "It only proves to me exactly what kind of person you are when I tell you all of this, and you focus on the fact that your weapons killed my parents rather than the revelation that I know you and Iron Man are the same person."

Tony paled further as this was pointed out. "Shit," he said. It was true – he'd been so worried about Wanda that he hadn't even thought about and truly realized all of the implications of her explanation. And that she'd apparently known all of this longer than he'd known her – and Pietro too, no doubt.

"I'm not going to tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about," Wanda said. "Neither will Pietro. And yes, that includes telling anyone on the team," she said just as Tony was indeed about to ask that. He gave her a suspicious look, causing her to roll her eyes. "I did not have to read your mind to know that's what you were going to ask," she chided. "I don't know how no one else has figured you out already – you wear your heart on your sleeve, I believe is the American phrase."

"Thank you," Tony said quietly. "And for what it's worth, I am sorry for the part I played in your parents' deaths."

Wanda's eyes became misty for a moment. "Thank you," she said, and with a blink, any trace of tears was gone.

"I don't tell you all of this so that you can feel guilty about it," she told him. "I've forgiven you already. It will take some more time before I can be fully comfortable, because it has been years of resentment, but it will come."

"Why bother trying?" Tony scoffed. "I'm never going to be a part of the bond like everyone else is. You don't have to waste your time with me." He looked back down at his work, unable to look at her any longer – the guilt was too strong.

Wanda sighed, rising to her feet. "You are not a waste of time, Tony. I know what you think of yourself, but no one else thinks that of you. No one who matters, anyway." She leaned down, pressing a brief kiss to Tony's temple. Tony was so startled by this affection that he let it happen.

"We'll prove it to you," she promised, and with those parting words, she left the shop.

Tony stared after her for a long time.

See? I was nice - the cliffhanger isn't even really a cliffhanger. More like...a stumble at the edge of the cliff that kind of makes your heart race for a minute before you go with relief back to the trail.

That analogy got away from me.

Anyway.