Summary: Though Barnes had been living in the tower for almost six months now, things between him and Tony were still a bit awkward.

Which is why Tony is a tad confused when Barnes starts leaving him strange little gifts.

Warnings: Brief description of character injuries and canon-typical violence.

Also, not really a warning, but this is not Age of Ultron or Captain America: Civil War compliant.

AN: My 2016 Winteriron Holiday Exchange gift for dapperanachronism on Archive of Our Own.

~It's the Little Things In Life~

It started with a bright-red Iron Man mug, which Tony found in front of the coffeepot one early Tuesday morning.

Running on only three hours of sleep and no caffeine, Tony filled it up without really looking at it, and didn't realize anything was amiss until he'd brought the cup to his lips and encountered soggy paper.

"Wha…" he started, then peeled off the offending paper - a yellow post-it note with the word 'sorry' written in an unfamiliar scrawl - and squinted at it.

"Jarvis, where did this mug come from?" Tony asked, holding the mug up and blinking at it owlishly.

Now that he'd gotten a good look at it, he could see that it was easily one of the gaudiest things he'd ever laid eyes on. The red was so bright that it almost hurt to look at it for very long, and the 'gold' was just a very dull yellow, glitzed up with what Tony suspected was glitter glue. There was a cheesy, cartoony-looking Iron Man on the front, positioned with a hand on his hip, in such a way that it looked as though that arm was the mug's handle. Very ostentatious.

Tony immediately loved it, and wanted to buy as many as possible so he'd have spares when he or one of the bots inevitably broke it.

"Sergeant Barnes returned with it this morning after his run with Captain Rogers, Sir," JARVIS said, surprising Tony. "I believe it is meant as a replacement for the one that was broken yesterday."

Tony frowned. "Is he still stuck on that? I told him to forget about it," he sighed, eyeing the new mug warily.

It had been an accident, after all; Barnes obviously hadn't meant to give Tony a minor heart attack at two in the morning. He'd seemed just as surprised to see Tony in the kitchen as Tony had been to see him, and besides - if Tony had been paying a little more attention to his surroundings instead of his tablet, he might have noticed Barnes a little sooner. Really, Barnes was the one who'd been wronged - Tony, at least, hadn't gotten a ceramic cup full of (thankfully cold) coffee thrown at his face.

Tony wrinkled his nose at the memory. "Geez, I'm a billionaire. I can afford to buy my own mugs," he grumbled to himself, swirling the coffee in his cup around.

"Captain Rogers made a similar statement, but Sergeant Barnes was most insistent," JARVIS replied, sounding amused to Tony's ear.

Tony huffed, then shook his head. "Yeah, well… tell him thanks from me, would you, J?" he said, reaching for the coffeepot so he could get a refill. "And find out where he got it - I think I want to get a few more."

Even though Barnes had moved into the tower with Steve a little over six months ago, Tony didn't actually run into him all that much - unexpected kitchen encounters in the middle of the night notwithstanding. Tony thought it might have been intentional, on Barnes's part. Though he was slowly starting to warm towards the rest of Steve's friends, he still acted skittish around Tony, which left a certain awkwardness between them. Tony wasn't sure why - he always tried to be on his best behavior whenever they encountered each other (defensive cup-throwing aside) - and Steve had seemed genuinely surprised when Tony had brought it up with him.

In any case, encountering Barnes twice in the same week was something of a novelty for Tony. Which was why it came as something of a surprise when he ran into both him and Steve on his way out of the kitchen.

"No, I'm not letting it go," Steve was saying, clearly agitated, while Barnes looked heavenward, wearing the long-suffering expression of someone who heard a particular rant one too many times. "You can't just pick up a team and move them all the way across the country like that! I mean - what does that leave us with? The Mets? The Yankees?"

"I like the Mets," Tony said in lieu of a greeting, grinning when Cap shot him a dirty look in response. "What's wrong, Cap? Dodgers lose again?"

Steve's scowl intensified. "No," he said grumpily, squaring his jaw. "I was just telling Bucky how ridiculous it is that -"

"You have to go all the way across the country just to see a home game from your precious Dodgers," Tony finished, not quite rolling his eyes. "We know."

Steve huffed in annoyance, but Tony cut him off before he could continue his rant. "By the way, Frosty - thanks for the mug," he said, holding up his new favorite cup and tilting it towards Barnes. "It's nice to know someone else around here knows style when they see it."

Barnes's face flickered briefly in surprise. Then he gave Tony a small, tentative smile - the first one Tony had ever seen from the guy in person, if Tony wasn't mistaken. It did really nice things to Barnes's face, and made Tony wish he'd do it around Tony more often - especially when he looked over at Steve, and the smile turned smug.

"Told you," Barnes said, sounding pleased with himself.

Steve rolled his eyes. "I didn't say he wouldn't like it. I just said he'd probably want to file a lawsuit against whoever made them," he said, looking back over at Tony - and the mug - and then shuddering. "That shade of red is just, well…"

"Eye-catching?" Tony supplied, taking another sip and raising his eyebrows at Barnes, who covered his mouth to hide his grin.

Steve shook his head. "There's glitter in your beard now," he pointed out, mouth twitching despite his serious expression.

Tony shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time," he replied, making Steve's brow furrow and Barnes choke back a laugh.

Because Tony still thought he owed Barnes for pelting coffee at his head, he had JARVIS procure a set of baseball tickets for him and Steve.

Because Tony was also an asshole who liked riling Steve up, the tickets were for the next Mets/Yankees game.

Despite who the tickets were for (or, perhaps in Barnes's case, because of it), they both returned from the game in high spirits, and with only minimal (and mostly good-natured) grumbling from Steve.

"What are you complainin' for, punk?" Barnes scoffed, while Steve plopped down on the couch next to Tony. "You said you didn't like the Mets - what do you care if they lose?"

Steve gave him an affronted look. "I care if they're going to lose to the damn Yankees," he muttered darkly.

Tony grinned, but stopped short of ribbing Steve when Barnes leaned over the back of the couch and set the Mets cap he'd been wearing on Tony's head. Nonplussed, Tony leaned back to peak up at him, and got a slightly lopsided smile in return.

"Souvenir," Barnes offered, rocking back on his heels. "Since you like the Mets so much." Then, before Tony could say anything, he turned and walked off, leaving Tony to blink after him in confusion.

Tony opened his mouth, then shut it and glanced over at Steve, who looked almost as surprised as Tony felt. "What was that about?"

Steve cocked his head, considering. "No idea," he said finally, looking thoughtful as he watched Barnes's retreating form.

"I'm not saying I want to pack up and move to a deserted island," Tony told Pepper as they stepped out of the elevator and into what had become the tower's communal living room. "I'm just pointing out that there's something to be said for stepping out onto your balcony and hearing the ocean instead of New York traffic."

He was feeling a bit grumpy; not only had Pepper woken him up at the asscrack of dawn so he wouldn't miss a meeting, but said meeting had taken up the entire morning and then some. Then, on the way back, they'd gotten stuck in traffic for over an hour, and Pepper had refused to let Tony call a suit to fly them out of it. On top of that, he'd missed both breakfast and lunch, so he was starving.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Says the man who spent most of the time in his ocean-view Malibu home holed up in the basement," she said as she made her way over to the bar.

Tony sniffed. "Still, I had the option," he huffed, walking over to the nearest armchair and collapsing into it. He wondered if he could convince Pepper to make him a drink as well while she was at it. "You don't know how much you miss the sound of crashing waves until you're away from it. Plus, it smelled much better."

"Your house was next to the ocean?"

Pepper squeaked and dropped the wine glass she'd been preparing to fill up. Tony, having caught the glint of Barnes's arm out of the corner of his eye just before he'd spoken, simply looked up at the man and raised his eyebrows.

"It was," Tony said, answering Barnes's question. Then, because he could see Pepper gearing up for a scolding from here, he added, "Barnes, what have Steve and I told you about loitering in dark corners and sneaking up on people?"

"What do I keep telling people about calling me Barnes?" Barnes - Bucky - retorted, walking around the couch and sitting on the arm closest to Tony. He did, however, clear his throat, and tilt his head towards Pepper sheepishly. "Um, sorry ma'am."

Pepper sighed and waved him off, too used to the other strange superpeople with weird idiosyncrasies that lived in the tower to think much of it.

Seemingly satisfied with her reaction, Bucky turned his attention back to Tony, leaning forward as he asked, "Why would you want to live here if you have a house on the ocean?"

Tony shrugged. "Well, said house is actually in the ocean now, so…"

When Bucky cocked his head in confusion, Tony shrugged again. "I don't know - the place is being rebuilt, but it's just easier to stay here if I'm working with the rest of the team, you know?"

Bucky brow smoothed out, and he nodded in understanding. "It… wouldn't be the same without you around here," he said, looking down at his feet instead of Tony, face pensive.

Tony squirmed, something about the remark making him feel self-conscious. He didn't let it show on his face, though, as he shot Bucky a smirk full of confidence and said, "Of course. How would everyone get on without my brilliant mind and charming personality?"

Bucky frowned at him, still pensive, but didn't say anything else.

The next day, when Tony went down to the workshop, there was a conch shell lying on one of his workbenches.

Like the mug, it had a yellow post-it note attached to it:

'Not a house, but at least you can hear the ocean.'

The mug Tony had understood, even if he hadn't agreed with Bucky's reasoning behind it. The baseball cap had been odd, but Tony had been able to blow it off, figuring it had probably been Bucky's offhand way of saying thank you for the tickets.

The conch shell, though… that one was bizarre. It was also, to Tony's confusion, the beginning of a very long line of weird things Bucky kept leaving around the tower for Tony.

Such as a hilariously cute Hulk plush, which Tony found sitting in front of his bedroom door a few days after receiving the shell, a note saying 'They didn't have Iron Man. :(' attached to its chest.

A Statue of Liberty snowglobe with a note saying 'Welcome home', which Tony discovered on the kitchen counter after returning home from a business trip.

A tiny toy replica of one of Tony's sports cars, found sitting on the hood of said sports car, its post-it saying 'Look, just like yours!'

An honest-to-God friendship bracelet, in Iron Man colors, with a note that said 'Sam said I should make this for "therapeutic reasons." Because he's an ass, he doesn't get one.'

Tony knew they were all from Barnes, because it was the same handwriting scrawled on all the notes. He also knew they were all for him, because they were all left in places Tony would find them or, barring that, had his name on them ('Steve, this keychain is for Tony, you are not "the coolest" ').

Most of it was junk, and, strictly speaking, Tony didn't need any of it. Which didn't do anything to quell the little thrill that started going through Tony whenever he found another item.

People didn't ordinarily give him gifts. He was a billionaire, after all. He had everything, and if he didn't have it and wanted it, he bought it for himself - or so most people assumed. When people did give him things, it tended to be out of obligation, and of the 'large and extravagant' variety - insanely expensive bottles of wine you were just supposed to collect but never drink, costly paintings Tony didn't appreciate anyway, or five-thousand dollar watches that matched six others Tony already owned. Things with no thought behind them, and that Tony didn't really care about.

But the little trinkets that Bucky kept bringing him were the complete opposite of that. And, okay, maybe it was silly, to get all bent out of shape over a few knick-knacks, but Tony couldn't help it.

It was… nice, that someone was going to the trouble. To know someone was thinking about him, every time they saw some goofy little toy or souvenir they thought he might like.

Even if the why still confused the hell out of him.

"Do you think he'll be offended if I tell him I actually owned one of these as a kid?" Tony asked Steve one day, holding up his newest gift - a Bucky Bear - for Steve to examine.

Today's post-it message had read 'Who do I sue?', and Tony wasn't entirely sure if Bucky was joking or not.

Steve stared at the bear for a second, then shook his head, as though clearing it. "He'd probably get a kick out of it," he said, and then lowered the newspaper he'd been reading so he could stare intently at Tony instead. "In fact, you should go tell him that. Right now, even. I think he's down on my floor watching TV."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Ooookaaay," he said slowly, but instead of taking Steve's advice, he sat down in the kitchen chair opposite him, and reached for the bowl of grapes Steve had been snacking on.

Steve gave him a disgruntled look, but didn't swat Tony's hand away, like Tony had been half-expecting. Then, when it became apparent that Tony had no intention of leaving, he sighed, and scooted the whole bowl at Tony.

"You know, it's funny," Steve started after a few minutes of silence, returning his attention to his newspaper. "Speaking of things we did when we were kids - I remember this time Bucky had a crush on a girl at our school..."

Tony grunted, and popped another grape in his mouth. If Cap thought regaling Tony with tales from his childhood was going to bore him into leaving his own kitchen, he was sorely mistaken. "Yeah? So?"

Steve cleared his throat. "Well, Buck was usually pretty slick with the girls - guys too, for that matter - but he got real shy around someone if he really liked them. Like this girl. She was nice enough, but she never really seemed to notice Buck, and he couldn't figure out how to talk to her."

Steve stopped and glanced meaningfully over the newspaper at Tony, as though expecting him to interrupt. When Tony didn't, he just looked back down, brow furrowed, and continued.

"So, anyway, since he couldn't figure out how to tell her how he felt, he got this brilliant idea to woo her another way… and he started leaving these little presents for her on her desk."

Tony paused with a grape halfway to his mouth, and saw Steve grin without looking up from the paper.

"Mostly they were silly things. Pretty rocks. Sticks he thought looked swell. Weeds he'd pull up out of the sidewalk - you know, stuff a kid like Buck thought were nice."

After carefully chewing the grape in his mouth, Tony swallowed, then said, "Did it work?"

Steve finally lowered the newspaper, his grin widening when he saw Tony's expression.

"Nah. He was too chicken to actually talk to her, and she never figured out it was him," he said, setting his left elbow on the table and resting his chin in his hand. "I told him next time, he should try to leave a note or something." Then he looked pointedly down at the bear in Tony's lap, which still had a post-it note stuck to its forehead.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Tony glared at him. "And you couldn't have told me this sooner because...?"

Steve cocked his head, the picture of innocence. "Told you what?"

Tony pointed a finger at him. "Oh, no, don't you try that aw-shucks innocent crap with me -"

"What's he tryin' to pull now?" a familiar voice asked.

Tony's mouth snapped shut, words temporarily leaving him when he spotted Bucky standing in the doorway.

"Just telling Tony stories from when we were kids," Steve said cheerfully, smile just a little too bright. "You remember Cora, don't you, Buck?"

Bucky's face went blank. "No," he said shortly, before glancing quickly at Tony. "What have you been -"

Thankfully, the Avengers alarm chose that moment to go off.

The bright side was, they didn't have to go far, because the call was for some maniac waving a bag full of explosives and terrorizing a bunch of civilians in the lobby of a big building in New York.

The downside was, they didn't have to go far, because said lobby was the tower's and said civilians were Tony's employees.

"He knows what the big 'A' on the building stands for, right?" Tony asked no one in particular as he fired up the repulsors and stepped off the balcony.

"Maybe he didn't know we were home," Natasha suggested over the comms, not sounding the least bit winded even though she'd just run the stairs down to the lobby.

Which was actually not that far off from the truth, now that Tony thought about it. Thor was off-world, Clint was with his family, Rhodey was overseas, and Sam and Bruce were both out of town, which currently left Steve, Natasha, and Tony as the only active members to hold down the fort.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's here because of the giant 'A' on the building," Steve said. "Which means this is probably a trap. I've got eyes on him now - he's just watching the elevator, and he's not threatening any of the hostages."

"The elevator?" Tony snorted. "Is he… is he seriously expecting us to take the elevator down to greet the psychopath in our lobby?"

"Looks like," Natasha huffed, before her tone suddenly became more serious. "Cap, do you -"

"I see it," Steve said tersely, at the same time JARVIS brought the lobby's feed up for Tony.

The bomber had set down the duffle bag with the explosives, and was backing up towards the lobby's front doors. JARVIS helpfully scanned the bag without being asked, and brought the results up on the HUD.

Tony swore. "Guys, you need to get everyone clear of the lobby, right now," he hissed, zooming down and blowing through the front doors. He hit the bomber on the way in, purposely knocking him towards Natasha's position, and twisted to scoop up the duffle without landing.

"JARVIS, how much time do you think we need to defuse this?"

"More than we have, I'm afraid," JARVIS replied, just as the bag began fervently beeping.

Tony did a quick scan of the lobby and how many people were left, then combined JARVIS's info on the bomb with what he knew about the tower's lobby.

"Crap," Tony hissed, before making a split-second decision and disengaging the suit. He heard Cap yell at him from across the lobby, but ignored him, and shoved the duffle into the suit's torso. "J, lock it down!" he cried, then turned and bolted towards the cover of the lobby's front desk.

He heard the faint boom as he jumped for the desk, and felt the blast against his back just as he started to clear it.

Tony had a second to spare a thought for the now likely-broken keychain Bucky had given him in his back pocket, and then his head hit the wall in front of him.

Tony knew he was in medical before he even opened his eyes. He could hear the machines beeping, and recognized the antiseptic smell anywhere.

"Hey, I think he's waking up," someone whispered.

"You said that an hour ago," someone else - Steve? - muttered.

"No, I think he's right, look at his eyes," what sounded like Natasha's voice said, which finally prompted Tony to try and crack an eye open.

There was a flurry of movement while Tony's eyes tried to adjust to the light, and then three figures were looming over Tony's bed.

The first one Tony identified was Steve, because he was leaning the closest. Then he noticed Natasha, her hair standing out brightly against the white ceiling. The third figure, however -

"Tony? Are you alright?" Bucky asked worriedly, elbowing past Steve so he'd be closer.

Tony blinked groggily at him, and, instead of answering his question, said the first thing that came to mind.

"You like me?" he blurted, blaming what he was guessing was a head injury and whatever drugs were in his system for removing all of his verbal filters.

There was several seconds of stunned silence, where Bucky simply gaped at him with his mouth hanging open. Then Steve cleared his throat, grabbed Natasha by the arm, and said, "We'll just leave you two to it, then."

Bucky's head whipped around. "What? No, Steve -"

Tony heard the door open, then slam shut. Bucky scowled it for a few seconds, as though he was mentally setting Steve and Natasha on fire, then slowly, reluctantly, returned his attention to Tony. "So, uh…"

Tony sighed, then struggled to sit up. Bucky immediately moved to help, setting up Tony's pillows behind him to make it easier. Once Tony was situated and comfortable, he opened his mouth to speak, only to become distracted by the rest of the room. "What the hell…?"

He wasn't in the medical - they didn't have rooms this big, or with this much privacy, which meant this was probably a private hospital room. It wasn't this realization, however, that gave Tony pause - it was the sight of the balloons.

Because there were balloons... everywhere. Giant, foil balloons with the words 'Get Well Soon!' written on them. Colored balloons, with little smiley faces and hearts on them. At least three or four balloon 'bouquets', each sitting in a different corner of the room, so that they were away from the equipment but also visible to the person in bed no matter which direction they were looking.

Tony turned to Bucky, whose cheeks were pink. "Does the gift shop even have any balloons left?"

Bucky looked sheepish. "Not any good ones," he admitted, and rubbed the back of his neck.

Tony squinted at him. "Are they all from you?" he asked, even though he thought he already knew the answer. "How long have I been in here?"

Bucky coughed. "Yes, and, um…" He looked down. "...eight hours."

Tony stared at him, then leaned back against the pillows. "I…" he started, then stopped and waved his hand around the room. "Did you get new ones every hour? Or was this a 'I-wasn't-sure-which-to-get-you-so-I-just-bought-them-all' sort of thing?"

Bucky's blush deepened. "Natasha said you would like balloons better than flowers," he mumbled, looking very much like a child who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Tony chuckled. Then his chuckle turned into a laugh, which made his head hurt, though he found he didn't really mind. "Do you know that no one has ever - and I do mean ever - bought me a balloon before?" he asked breathlessly, once he got his laughter under control.

Bucky - who'd looked torn between nervousness and alarm when Tony had started laughing - frowned. "I - why not?" he asked, sounding puzzled and, if Tony wasn't mistaken, disgruntled on Tony's behalf.

Tony chuckled again, then reached out and clumsily patted at Bucky's right hand, which Bucky had placed on the handrail of Tony's bed.

"I guess it wasn't something they ever thought I wanted," he said lightly, before clearing his throat and adding, "Though, for the record, I wouldn't have been opposed to flowers, either."

Bucky hesitated, then gave Tony a small, shy smile. "Maybe when you come home?" he suggested, tone careful.

Tony had a brief mental image of stepping out of the elevator at home and finding his floor decked out in flowers instead of balloons. He coughed, then got an idea, and decided to take a chance on it.

"Will these flowers be a precursor to dinner, by any chance?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bucky's eyes widened slightly, looking as he'd just been told something that sounded too good to be true. Then he cleared his throat.

"I… yes, they can be," he said, biting his lip. "But only if you want it to be," he assured quickly, tapping his metal fingers against the bed.

Tony yawned, and shifted around until he was comfortable. "Then it's a date," he said, placing a hand over Bucky's tapping fingers to still them, and then leaving it there.

Bucky swallowed and looked down at Tony's hand. Then he smiled again, wider and a little more confident, and twisted his hand around so they were holding hands properly.

Tony grinned at him sleepily. Then a memory tickled at the edge of his mind. "Oh - before I forget," he mumbled, his eyes drifting shut. "I think the keychain you gave me got melted in the explosion."

The hand under Tony's gave a little squeeze.

"'S'okay," Bucky said, voice gruff. "I'll get you another."

AN: Erm, I feel like I should mention that I know next to nothing about Major League Baseball, and had to look it up to see if the Yankees and Mets could even conceivably play each other. So if you're a baseball fan and I said anything stupid, I'm sorry, and please forgive my ignorance. ^_^'

Thanks for reading!