Unsure of Bucky’s actual stance on the matter, Steve didn’t ask Tony about the cuffs until four days later when he learned Tony had made completely new ones. Two pairs, in fact.

The new magnetic cuffs were definitely not of SHIELD or HYDRA origin. Steve didn't think he wanted to know the thought process behind the result, but he felt it was safe to say no one would be confused about where the cuffs had come from.

They were wider with less potential to bite into skin. The first set was bright blue with little cartoon rainbows and multicolored smiley faces. The interior of the new cuffs was lined with tan suede or something very like it. The outside gave slightly to the touch but was another material and clearly meant to be water-resistant. The second was striped in pink, purple, and blue. The lining was the same purple as the exterior stripes.

"I'd like to be clear," Tony stressed, "that these do not constitute fuzzy handcuffs." He paused. "Or furry ones."

Steve did his best to look confused, but he could feel the blush rising. “Th-anks?” Just to add to his embarrassment, his voice cracked on the word.

Tony Stark gave him a knowing look. “There are a handful of ways to open them. Saying red,” the cuffs opened with with a muffled chh-clunk, “is one of them, but feel free to pick another safeword or multiple safewords. Tell JARVIS what you want.”

“Oh my god, Tony.” If spontaneous combustion was real, now would be a great time.

“I think you mean thank you, Tony.” He smirked. “Sleep, fuck, whatever. These things are safe and comfortable. The sane and consensual parts are up to you two.”

Steve sighed and covered his eyes. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I want to hang you up like in Arizona,” said Bucky, like it was a perfectly normal thing to say over lunch. “The anchors for the bags should be able to take your weight.” They’d installed a pair of heavy bags in the spare bedroom, despite the concerns of nearly everyone Steve knew in the tower that he might become a recluse again without a reason to go to the gym.

They needn’t have worried. Bucky had taken vengefully to his old role of making Steve socialize, even if that now made Bucky himself a terrible hypocrite.

“Okay,” Steve said.

“You’re not even gonna ask what for?” Bucky looked more than a little disgruntled.

Steve shrugged and smiled a bit sheepishly. “Not much you could do that I’d say no to, Buck.”

Bucky’s frown deepened. “Yeah, see, if I said that, you’d worry.”

I’m not the one who was brainwashed and tortured. Not for decades.

“I’ll stop you if I don’t like it.” He still wasn’t fully convinced Bucky would do the same, but that was why Bucky had to be the one in control.

“So, if I wanted you to replace the bag?”

Buying time to consider his words, Steve chewed his bite of chocolate cake slowly before swallowing. “I… might actually feel better if you hurt me.”

With a humorless chuckle, Bucky pointed his fork at him. “Haven’t I hurt you enough?”

I don’t think you could ever hurt me so much I wouldn’t still want you.

He didn’t say it, but Bucky caught his thoughts anyway. “Damnit, Stevie. We’re a fucking matched fucked up set. We fucking deserve each other. Why can’t you believe I feel the same way and there’s nothing you could do to change that?”

Steve took another bite of cake instead of answering. Steve had no good answer to that. Steve knew it and Bucky knew it.

“Well,” said Bucky, “I wanna hang you up and do things to you. Not gonna ask me what those things are?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Steve shook his head. “I trust you, Bucky.”

Bucky only scowled.

There were only a few things that occurred to Steve to expect. Bucky had said like in Arizona, and Steve didn’t exactly anticipate he’d be used for target practice.

It was with a heady mix of nerves and arousal that he helped take down the reinforced heavy bags, stripped, let Bucky snap him into the striped cuffs, turned his back to the door, and then waited while Bucky attached the cable to the joining of the cuffs and hoisted them up until Steve’s bare heels were only lightly resting on the carpet.

Still fully dressed, Bucky looked him up and down, lingering briefly on Steve’s half-hard cock. “Comfortable?”

“Yeah,” Steve croaked.

“Good.” Bucky stared at him for a minute in silence, then licked his lips, turned away, and walked past him out of the room.

After a few minutes, Steve admitted to himself that he might have misjudged Bucky’s intentions.

There was a series of loud noises from the kitchen, followed by Bucky’s multi-lingual cursing.

Steve waited.

“You okay in there, Stevie?” Bucky called, maybe ten minutes later.

“I’m fine, Buck,” Steve promised.

About the same length of time passed again before Bucky came back.

“Close your eyes and open your mouth.”

Steve did and listened to Bucky set something on the carpet. He could smell… almost everything they had that was ready to eat.

“Take what you’re given. No…” Bucky hesitated. “No… chewing.”

Oh God, Bucky. Futilely, Steve tried not to imagine the reason for that hesitation.

The first thing Bucky fed him was a square of milk chocolate. It was easy to let it melt on his tongue until Bucky told him to swallow. Next was a section of orange, bright and sweet and clean. Steve used his tongue to press it against his hard palate until it burst. He sucked the juice out and swallowed the remains whole. The cube of cheddar after that wasn’t a challenge. He rolled it around his mouth until it became soft enough to swallow.

Bucky said, “Good,” and continued to feed him. There were crackers with a variety of jams and condiments, more fresh fruit, more cheese, slices of hard boiled eggs, and various desserts from cookies to caramels.

After a while, Steve’s throat hurt a little from morsels that weren’t quite soft enough and he found himself swaying slightly, waiting for...something. The muscles he was using to keep himself in place didn’t burn yet, but they were slowly getting there. He knew Bucky had a thing about making sure he was fed, but this couldn’t be all Bucky wanted, could it?

The frown was clear in Bucky’s voice when he spoke again. “You’re a rotten liar, Steve. No, don’t say a fucking word. You trust me with you and I trust you with me. If we thought we could be trusted with our own damn selves we’d a’been fuckin’ for months.”

Steve struggled against the urge to speak. He hadn’t been lying.

He couldn't say that Bucky was wrong, either.

“I’m gonna tell you some things for about the millionth time and I need you to listen,” Bucky whispered, suddenly close enough to break against Steve’s neck and ear.

Steve shivered.

“I got ‘em written down and everything so you know I’ve thought about it and I mean everything I say. Gonna listen? Let me have what I want?”

Letting himself slump, Steve nodded. This was Bucky’s show. Steve would do whatever he wanted.

“Good.” Bucky kissed him and smiled into it as Steve responded. “I’ll be right back. I’m gonna put away the plates.”