Steve snickered. "Yes they do," he said, grinning. "Don't drink too fast, Buck, I'm not cleaning up after you this time."

"I'm fine," Bucky said, though he did wait a bit to refill his glass. "Not even slurrin' yet, I'm doin' great."

Steve snorted at him and took his time with his drink. Although he did grab a cookie to snack on too.

Bucky did the same, although he did reach for a cookie with his metal hand rather than his good one. It took him a few tries to grab one without it breaking.

Steve didn't comment on that, but he did grab some of the broken bits. Because he could. It was nice to be able to sit with him and chat like they used to.

After the third broken cookie, Bucky made a face and took the arm off entirely.

"Don't like that thing," he grumbled as he leaned over a bit at the sudden lack of weight on his left side.

"I bet if you let him Tony would make you a house-friendly version," Steve said. Because he'd heard Tony talking about it before.

Bucky blinked.

"What?" he asked. Because that just didn't make sense to him. Although, admittedly, it was partially because of the mead.

"Tony wants to get his hands on that," Steve said, nodding at the detached arm. "And he'll make a lighter version that he says you can use more easily. Of course that's only if he gets permission."

"And what does he get out of it?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew it couldn't possibly be just from the goodness of Tony's heart. Nobody was that altruistic, not anymore, and certainly not anyone who wasn't named Steve Rodgers.

"He gets to figure out how that works and play with new tech that he could possibly market," Steve said with a shrug. "Besides, he tends to make new things for everyone living up here."

"And you really think he'd make something for me?" Bucky asked. "After what I did?" And Bucky knew very well what he had done; he might have been wiped of mission details every time, but he still kept a working knowledge of all of his past assignments. He knew what he had done to the Starks.

"He's brought it up. Multiple times." Steve grinned a bit. "He's been salivating over that arm for a while, and once you actually started working with us he started thinking of other things he could make."

Bucky just stared at Steve in disbelief.

"We're talking about the same guy here, right?" he said. "Anthony Stark? Stevie, there ain't a snowball's chance in hell that one metal arm can break even with what I've got in my ledger."

Steve shrugged. "Then do what Natasha does. Keep working on it however you can."

Bucky just shook his head a bit looking down at the bit of cookie in front of him.

"It's not that simple, Stevie," he said.

Steve sighed. "It might seem impossible, but you've got a second chance," he said quietly. "You'd be an idiot not to try."

Bucky's good hand curled into a tight fist and he closed his eyes, trying to work through the rush of frustration he felt. This was a topic he didn't think Steve would really understand. After all, how much longer would it take before Stark found the file floating around somewhere that detailed the 'auto accident' that killed his parents?

Steve reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Buck, talk to me. I can't actually read your mind." He tried to put some humor in his voice.

Bucky gave a small, humorless laugh.

"How long do you really think Stark'll let me stay when he finds out, Stevie?" he asked. "Or do you think he'll try to beat the hell out of me first and then kick me out?"

"Depends what he's supposed to be finding out about," Steve said cautiously. "He knows a lot already."

Bucky was quiet for a moment.

"What do you know about what happened to Howard Stark?" he asked finally, his voice low.

"Almost nothing," Steve said with a little shrug. "I know that he was in a car accident with his wife and their driver. Tony was still pretty young."

"The car crashed, yeah," Bucky said. He took a breath to steel himself. "It wasn't an accident. It was an assignment."

Steve was quiet for a moment. "I see," he said quietly. "I wouldn't be surprised if Tony knows already."