fossilised | For Steve

Steve and Steve. Tony was enthralled and confused and gobsmacked to the point of silence for the moment, stepping out of the front of his armor to help Bruce lift the small bodied man onto the gurney. He was bloody, his arm was in a medival looking cast, and every single part of him was shrunken. He too had been obsessed with Steve's story when he was growing up but there hasn't been too many surviving photographs of the man like this. He had to be in his twenties, twenty three, if memory served right, but he looked seventeen or eighteen. And that was just fascinating.

"We can lockdown the building right? Give him the entire run of the place? And I need eyes. If he's himself when he wakes up, Steve will need to be there to keep him calm." The Captain gave orders and asked question without going into too much detail. They all stopped to listen, though, and to answer if they could.

"Sure. We can take the building off the grid. Should give him space without risking anyone," Sam said, ignoring the way Tony leaned over the smaller Steve like he was an insect on the end of a pin. He opened his mouth to mention safety protocols when the younger blond groaned, moved, and then settled back down.

"Oh my god, I want one," Tony said.

Steve wasn't pleased. "Knock it off, Tony. Let's get everyone cleared out-- thanks, Sam," he mentioned as he was pulled to his feet. "Leave Buck where he is. The sooner we get everyone patched up and woken up, the better."

"Seriously though," Tony pouted, "why didn't you tell us you use to be so cute? Seriously though, can we give him your title?"

A lockdown of the building sounded like a good idea and they quickly put it into place. Steve assured Bruce that it would be for the best if the smaller Steve was left in the building too, that Bucky would be more likely to freak out further if he woke up without the other Steve there. He ignored the wordless questions about why and how that made him feel, he pushed it down himself.

This was for Bucky.

He chivvied Tony out of the compound from where he had been ordering JARVIS to take a few pictures of smaller Steve (wow, that was creepy), and got it all locked up from the outside. There were cameras, of course, they'd be able to see and hear. If Bucky really and genuinely asked to leave then he'd open it up even if the man wasn't safe, he had promised no jail.

So when Bucky woke up it was in the same position on the floor, with Steve on a gurney nearby. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, frightened and tense, padding over to check Steve's pulse as his first point of call.

"Wake up."

It was half order, half plea.

Sitting around the screens in another building on the compound, the images from the room blown up large st two different angles, they watched as Steve shifted just a little and said something softly. "J, enhance audio."

"Yeah, yeah, just s few minutes," the younger Steve complained, reaching up with his unbound arm to set a hand to Bucky's chest. The blood had dried by then and most rubbed off on Bucky's clothes from the battles before, but he left just a vague smear of an outline at Bucky's collar of two fingers before he reached up again to hold on to the fabric this time. "Buck, you're back right?"

Steve sat up with difficulty, carefully moving his head from side to side as if he had either been afraid of something broken or that he was just feeling dizzy.

"And are we in the future now?"

Bucky would find his friend smiling, one eye closed from the ringing in his head, but nonetheless all right.

And Tony just found the whole thing fascinating.

"One little change and he doesn't become you. Butterfly effect in action right here."

The older Steve just ignored Tony and kept his attention on the screen, his expression carefully controlled but pain in his eyes. He just wanted to be down there helping too, he wanted to be the one touching Bucky and comforting him. Why was Bucky so much calmer with the past version of himself? Did he blame Steve for not saving him?

Heedless that they were being watched, though Bucky assumed that they were because facilities like this were always observed, Bucky reached out to touch Steve very lightly on the chest as though to figure out if he was still breathing.

"I don't know."

At least he was talking in English now, no longer mindless with panic. But he felt fuzzy, indistinct, as though he had lost a part of himself to the Soldier in the last day or so and talking at all felt like climbing up a steep hill for the effort it took. He just wanted to hide, to run, to figure out what the hell was going on.

"We have to get out of here, Steve, it's a facility. They're gonna test on us."

From the gurney, Steve glanced around. It was the same room that he had been wound up back together in and he touched s hand over where Bucky was touching just to make sure that he was real. Everything seemed to be in place and he sighed in relief. "It's okay, Buck. Steve was here a little bit ago. He was trying to get you to calm down." And so was he but Steve was pretty sure he was a failure there. "It was actually pretty amazing to watch. I think you're both about evenly matched. He had your fist and one point and-- oh. Sorry."

He probably shouldn't be gaga over his other self, even if that was no longer his destiny. And he was fine by that, but it was still pretty stellar to see what someone who use to be just like him was capable of doing. Modern medicine was pretty out there and amazing.

Now if only they had a way to cure his asthma right?

Steve ducked his head to show Bucky that he was calm and he was smiling. "I think this is that place he said he'd take you. Is everything in the future so bright?" Because wow. The lights in here were really starting to hurt his eyes, which seemed even bluer now that the pupils were so small. "Anyway, how are you feeling? I think you sicked up everything from breakfast on the carpet and... And I'm sorry. About those people at the door. I should have known better."

Steve was doing a lot more talking than usual, but his voice was soft and the pacing was easy. He was just excited and worried and trying to show Bucky it was all right.

It was good, the right sort of thing to do, because if Steve wasn't scared then Bucky had an anchor to try and force himself to behave. He hated what he had done over the last couple of days, he hated that he hadn't just been able to help out where he should have done. Steve was hurt because of him, he was supposed to protect not make things a heck of a lot worse.

"Don't."

He stepped back, removing his hand from Steve's chest, but stayed close in case he needed support now that he was sat up on the gurney. He had knocked him out, hadn't he? Maybe he had a head injury, he had been out for some time.

"Don't apologise to me, not after what I've done. Your head, does it hurt?"

It was easier to focus on Steve, like giving himself a mission. If he had a mission then he was able to cope with anything, that was what had drilled into him.

Some of this really felt like his fault but he would do as Bucky requested and keep the apologies at bay. He touched the back of his head and pulled away with a little blood on his fingers from where his skull made contact with the wall. "It hurts a little but I'm all right. It's just a little blood." Of course, with Bucky covered in a lot more than that, and having fresh memories of watching that blood arc across the doorway, Steve immediately rubbed his fingers on the gurney's mattress to clean himself off. His stomach seemed to be doing all right too. No need to throw up. Good. He could handle this. "What about you? Anything hurt?"

He made an experimental push to get off of the gurney and after a few scoots to the edge, managed it without too much difficulty. He stood just above Bucky's shoulder, clothing a little too oversized especially around his fine, swanlike neck and wrist.

His arm hurt a lot more than his head but he hadn't really been resting it since the last night he and Bucky had shared a bed. And since Bucky had made him promise to say so, he didn't hold back the ache. "I didn't think to bring any of that medication you brought either. My arm could use some numbing."

Bucky was keeping his distance from him and so Steve let him stay away if he wanted that. He didn't crowd the man unless he needed it.

"Think there's a bathroom here? Gotta be, right?"

Really, Bucky should tell Steve just how important he was in these moments. He acted as an anchor in the storm, something that had pulled Bucky from his fear and was keeping him grounded even in a place like this. Steve was right, it wasn't really a facility, he could see comfortable lounges through the fractured glass of this room. This was just a room meant for containment.

He wanted to get out.

"Yeah, come on, we'll find it together."

He had a momentary fear that the door wouldn't open when they reached it, but it did and they found themselves in the main compound area. Lavish and probably futuristic looking to Steve with the sleek screens and modern decor. Bucky was just comforted by the carpet under his feet... facilities didn't usually have carpet.

"Sorry," he said, after a few moments. "That woman, she was trying to-- I panicked, I was still panicking when we got here. I won't let it happen again."

There were over twenty buildings at the Avengers Compound, most of which had been build slowly for an ad need basis when space ran out on land that housed Howard Stark's technology warehouses. The main building was a beautiful single story ran h style home with ten bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms, a communal kitchen and a recreational area. There was also a dedicated gym with an Olympic sized swimming pool, several lab spaces, training buildings, hangers and more warehouses than Howard thought he would need, all within the hundred acres of protected, secure space that Tony now owned and let the Avengers use at their leisure.

This particular building was a concept piece build especially for Bruce Banner. Everything was reinforced. There were physics labratlry slaces and living quarters and a conference room too. Plus that pool that Tony bad quipped about. Bucky and Steve would happen upon that first since it was just beyond the hall leading from the lab to the lounge. Steve was flabbergasted.

"They don't make pools like this-- wow. I wish I had my trunks!"

Steve might be hurt but he was also extremely easy going when it came to these things, eager to experience and believe in the remarkable nature around him. Bucky might find comfort in that too.

"I don't think I d ever swam in a pool before, just the ocean-- so neat!"

Edited 2017-02-15 21:52 (UTC)

Bucky stayed by Steve's side as they explored this particular building, like a hulking bodyguard or shadow. The only room he refused to enter was the laboratory, halting at the doorway and shaking his head silently in the hope that Steve would understand and not go inside either. Luckily, Steve had always been empathetic and understanding, and so the laboratory was not disturbed.

The pool, though, that was something different. It was soothing, a clear sign that this wasn't meant to be a prison of any kind, and it brought the first modicum of peace to his expression that there had been since the pair of Soldiers had knocked at their door in the past.

"You can't swim with a cast, you'll just waterlog it and sink." It wasn't meant to be a reprimand, it was almost light enough to be a tease. Almost. "If we're still here when you get it off, we can swim. Don't need trunks, it's just me."

He didn't mean that in any particularly lascivious way, it was just a simple fact. Steve had no need to be embarrassed in front of him, he had seen him naked many times in their youth helping him bathe when he was too sick to do it himself.

"...where do you think everyone else is? Steve-- the other Steve, he said more people lived here. But it's just us."

"Maybe they're just giving us our space." Because he was not going to touch the swimming naked with Bucky Barnes topic. It had changed. They had missed. Steve's romantic intention was known. And yeah. It was just really different now. He didn't even mention the teasing, and it was teasing no matter the tone. It made his eyes light up to hear it and his calmness looped back through back and into himself. They were a good pair, playing off of the other. But it had always been that way, right? "You were really upset. I know you are trying to protect me, right? Does this place look a lot like the one you were... Uh. Trained in?"

Steve was very keen on making sure that he understood everything Bucky said or did and why. He wanted to know what might trigger him. He wanted to be able to save him from anything that came up too.

They passed out of the pool area to a bathroom. Finally. It was a little bit like an upscale lockedoom. Without the lockers. Maybe this was just a place to change and shower. That worked though.

"Let me see your hands, pal. I'll help you." With one hand. It should be the other way around but Bucky needed a little affection right now. Steve was glad to give it.

He didn't mind the idea that they were being given space, it was actually pretty sensible considering how volatile Bucky was, but it also put him on edge considering that people were probably watching them. It made him want to find the cameras and destroy each and every one of them until the two of them were really alone.

The bathroom was pleasant, if a bit too big, and he presented his hands to Steve without any argument. They were still stained with blood, bruised, with split knuckles that had already begun to heal. The metal hand was stained too, but otherwise looked in perfect working condition. It took a lot to damage vibranium.

"You shouldn't shower, you'll get your cast wet. We should find a bathtub, get you in that instead."

Then he could dangle his arm over the side where it wouldn't be in any danger. Stupid, he was hardly a doctor, and the injury was his fault in the first place, but he had to protect Steve or he'd shatter into pieces. It was what was keeping him together.

"I don't have anything to change into anyway," Steve said as he methodically rubbed the blood and then the soap he washed Bucky's hand with off of skin. It felt good to be doing something even if it was all just menial labor really. And even if he wasn't very good at it with just one hand himself. He used a cloth found in a cabinet, so incredibly soft that he almost wanted to gasp when he touched it, to gently wipe the blood from Bucky's face.

"There. You look human again," he said because Bucky seemed to appreciate the reminder. And removing the blood was almost like removing the deed. They could deal with it later. He was grateful, and said so, that Bucky had protected him. Grateful to have someone there to stop what would have been his death. His smile grew brighter as Bucky seemed to respond to the touch and the kind words. He was always so pleased to see anything north of frigidness in his eyes. Sometimes that took a whole lot of work though, but he was happy to do it.

Down the corridor was a small kitchen with neat labels on the cabinets and then the lounge that they had passed before, the lab they did not enter and branching off was a sunroom with doors to a patio and then a large bedroom with the biggest bed Steve had ever seen in it. The attached bathroom did have a tub and a shower--

"Who-- how... The person that lives here must be so rich," Steve said. "What if we mess something up?"

"It's Tony Stark."

At least, that was what Bucky had implied from talking to Steve, and it all fitted. He knew that Stark was even richer than his father had been thanks to a lifetime of patents on extremely desirable products. The man was a genius by all accounts, and not somebody that Bucky ever wanted to face. How would he look a man in the eyes who had no idea that the reason his parents were dead was his new house guest?

"You remember Howard Stark? The inventor. This is his son. He's one of the Avengers, Iron Man he calls himself, has a suit of armour and flies about it in saving the day."

Okay, so maybe his notes on Tony, the ones he had started to gather on all of the Avengers before he had been sucked through time, were a little more extensive than that. But he didn't need to say more than that, that was enough.

"The guy at the fair?" Steve was actually blown away. "So his son owns this? Jeez, I knew this was going to be crazy but just wow." Steve didn't have anything to put dos. All of his things were back in the past about seven or eight decades behind them. He wasn't really sad about that though. He didn't have anything or anyone there. This was a fresh start. "I don't even know what half of this stuff is," he said, looking over the television and the fancy switches on the wall.

"You need only ask and I shall assist you," a voice literally said out of nowhere, making Steve spin around twice. "I do not have a body, Mr. Rogers. I am an artificial intelligence created by Mr. Stark. I am integrated into this building and I will assist you in whichever way I am able."

"Artificial-- you're not real...? Are you coming from a radio?"

"In a way, yes and no to both of your questions. I exist but I am bound by programmed parameters. And at the moment I am speaking to you by manipulating the loud speaker system."

Steve looked at Bucky, taking a step forward. "What do we call you?"

"My name is JARVIS."

That made Steve smile. "Nice to meet you, JARVIS."

In the control room across the lawn, Tony twisted his chair to look at Rhodey, who had since joined them. "I want one. Please. I've been very good this year."

Rhodey snorted loudly. "I don't think you've been very good ever in your life, and quit talking like that because it's creepy. He's a person, not a pet dog, and you already know his older self. God, that's weird to say... why did I ever get mixed up in this? I'm just a normal guy."

Bucky had stiffened when the voice came out of nowhere, but he relaxed before Steve when he realised what it was. HYDRA didn't have anything as sophisticated as JARVIS, but they had automated systems that could talk on occasion and he knew about the sorts of technology that were available out there.

"Where is everyone else?"

"All the other residents are currently in compound building seven, Sergeant Barnes, but they can be summoned here within a few minutes."

"No. But we need some painkillers."

He was going to take care of Steve if it killed him.

Hopefully it wouldn't kill Bucky to take care of Steve. Steve would never forgive himself. He was thankful for the rememberance at least. He did need some pain killers. "Is it possible to get something to eat as well?" Bucky's metabolism was probably in overdrive and though he could go without food for days, why make him suffer after he had vomitted out his last meal?

"You'll find plenty of provisions in the kitchen area. If you need help finding it or working an appliance, simply ask."

"Thank you very much, Mr. JARVIS," Steve said kindly, which made Tony groan in the other building.

"Listen, it's not creepy. I just want to trade them out. And build him a suit of armor with a big old flag on the front. I actually miss Iron Patriot," Tony teased Rhodey, who decided to take the higher ground and not open his mouth to rise to that particular jest. Besides, he knew that he was actually poking at Steve's buttons anyway.

Those two had the weirdest love-hate relationship ever and Tony just loved getting under his skin. "Whatever. I'll run over the medication. JARVIS, tell them I'll leave it on the patio and they can get it whenever they get to it."

"I will. Colonel Rhodes. Thank you," JARVIS replied and indeed relaid the message as Steve and Bucky settled into the kitchen going through Bruce's kitchen.

Colonel Rhodes wasn't one of the people that Bucky knew a lot about, he had read his name in passing when it came to Tony Stark, but that was about it. So when JARVIS announced that Colonel Rhodes had left a package on the patio for them, suspicion coiled in his stomach. He managed to push it down, he couldn't keep ruining Steve's life with his stupid broken brain, and slipped out to fetch it while Steve explored the kitchen with its gleaming surfaces and well stocked cupboards.

He came back into the kitchen rattling the pill bottle gently, and set it down on one of the counters near Steve with the lid already popped to help out.

"High grade, be careful, only take one at a time unless the pain is real bad or you're gonna get high."

Bucky then proved himself to be oddly domestic as he crossed to the oven and turned it on without having to think about how it might operate, and grabbed a few things from the cupboards to start chopping vegetables. He probably looked really weird, both to this Steve and to the people watching, the Winter Soldier chopping vegetables and keeping an eye on a scrawny little man as if he were an actual guard dog.

"You don't regret this, do you? Leaving everything for me."

There was so much to read on the food in the cupboard, the packaging all fancy and bright. There were instructions printed on everything and Steve had gotten caught up on the spaghetti. Boil water. Insert pasta. A little salt-- that was just crazy. Pasta took forever to make and how could hard hits of dough turn out properly? He was lamenting over his option to try the pasta out when Bucky returned with a little pill bottle covered in even smaller writing.

"I'll be careful," he promised, putting down the package of pasta for the bottle of pills. Take one three times a day after meals. He set the medication aside and ducked his aching head to find some pots so he could bring water to boil. He was under the sink when Bucky asked the most ridiculous question. He looked up from where he was crouched, face newly washed and eyes only slightly hazed from pain, to smile. "I'm happy with you," he promised. "This isn't the way I saw my life going but neither did I expect to be like the other me so it's not like I feel like I'm missing out. You gave me a way to join the Army, even for a little bit, and that's all I wanted, to serve my country. To be back with you so we could go on that adventure together. This is just a different kind of adventure!"

Pot in hand, Steve stood carefully and looked over the smooth counters. Now he just had to figure out how to light to stove. No. He had to figure out where the stove was first. None of this looked like burners.

A lot of people in life thought that to be able to tell a white lie was a kindness and Bucky was hardly an exception from that, he had never tried to be dishonest but he hadn't been perfect. But Steve never lied and that was a comfort to Bucky now because it meant that he could trust everything that was being said to him. He sure as heck didn't understand it, Steve deserved a better life than trailing after him, but he appreciated it so much.

He smiled and spontaneously leaned sideways to press the lightest of kisses to Steve's cheek, something that made the other Steve's eyes widen in shock where he was watching. They were together...?!

"Let me do it."

He moved to turn on the stove, burners set into the smooth counters in a sleek and expensive design.

"Just tonight, you can do it tomorrow." It was dumb but he wanted to prove that he could do something productive, even something as small as this.

A kiss on the cheek was nothing and no one else seemed to find it all that weird. Well, it was weird that little Steve could soothe Bucky the way that the guy who really knew him his whole life and shared more years with him during the war could not. It was even hard to tell what it was. It happened too quickly and Tony was chatting with Rhodey about suit redesign now that he'd come back from his delivery. Sam was the only one that had seen Steve's face noticeably contort but he kept that to himself. The man was lonely. He missed his friend. He missed being there for himself. Sam couldn't replace that, no matter how much he tried. So that was fine. Had to be.

In the kitchen, Steve had laughed and agreed, watching everything that Bucky did. He questioned JARVIS as to why there wasn't any fire on the cooktop. He wanted to know how the pasta could be bagged like that when it was pretty much a luxury item back home. And then he played with the water dispenser on the fridge for awhile because.... Wow!

Everything was new to him. Everything was different. At least there was no way for him to be bored.

Bucky's meal was one of the best Steve had eaten in a long time. Little blobs of frozen meat and hard noodles and a jar of red stuff turned into an amazing spaghetti and meal all diner in less that twenty minutes. Steve led grace and ate as much as his stomach could hold, each bite a wonder.

"This is real great stuff, pal," he confirmed. If Steve couldn't make someone feel good about themselves for boiling pasta and microwaving frozen meatballs, no one could.

It was a better meal than Bucky had made for himself in a long time. As a Soldier it was all careful portion control and generally for the maintaining of muscle and weight rather than taste, and on the run it was usually freeze dried or fast food so he could be on the go again quickly. He didn't often stay somewhere with a real stove, so this was nice. He ate a lot himself, four heaped plates of the stuff and then put some more pasta on to boil.

"I don't want to stay in here, Steve."

He only brought it up when they had both finished and he had made sure that Steve had taken his medicine.

"They're watching us, I know it. I don't mind..: I'll stay somewhere safe, even in the compound, but no cameras. I'm done with being watched everywhere I go, I want privacy and freedom."

With the mood turning somber again, Steve tried to figure out where these cameras happened to be. They couldn't be so easily hidden, not the kind that he was familiar with at least. They were big and they were noisy and someone would have to come in to get the film and develop it before they could watch it. It was beyond his imagination to think that people could be watching in real time.

"Mr. JARVIS, is there a way to make the cameras here stop recording? Or are there any rooms without cameras we can relax in...?" Steve didn't want to run. Not yet. He was tired, he was in pain. His clothing was horrible and bloody. He wanted to sleep. But he didn't want to be watched while he did it either.

"The bathrooms and both bedrooms of this building are not wired into the CCTV." JARVIS explained, though Steve didn't understand except for the assumption that it meant there would be no recordings made in those rooms. "Mr. Stark has also agreed to disable security feeds from this building for the duration of your stay save for sensitive areas such as the laboratory and rooms with external doors. Will that suit your needs, Mr. Rogers?"

Steve lifted a questioning brow towards Bucky. "Just for today. We can rest and then maybe talk to Steve?"

P"That's fine. Disable them now."

He didn't care if the laboratory was wired into the CCTV because he didn't plan to go in there at all, and he could understand the need to have the exits covered. It wasn't necessarily them saying they couldn't leave, just that they would be aware of it if they did, and that was acceptable. Or... rather he was willing to let it be acceptable because he had to try to trust more and he could see on Steve's face just how much he needed to relax and feel safe.

"Yes, sir. The cameras are now disabled within this building."

Bucky nodded and pushed himself from the table to gather the dirty plates and take them in to put in the sink. He'd wash them up later for now he wanted to enjoy the moments of silence they had together. He wanted these precious seconds of peace, of feeling safe with someone who would never hurt him.

Steve reached out towards the monitor as it went blank before he could help himself and then dropped his hand back, voice a little rough. "Thanks... Tony, thank you for this."

"Yeah no problem. Easy once you figure out the whole dimension hopping. Speaking of, ready to go back? You said Erskine is alive. HYDRA will be making him their next target. We can't risk his research falling into their hands," Tony said, fiddling around with something and not bothering yet to glance up.

Bruce nodded. "It's dangerous. We have to find out where their base of operations is and shut down their ability to go to that particular node. I have some ideas."

"All ears," Tony said before pausing and glancing up. "Not literally. That would be gross. No one would ever love a guy made entirely of ears. Not even Pepper and that's saying something."

While the group discussed their next move, and Bruce revealed a theory about an anchor in the other dimension needing to be destroyed to keep HYDRA (and anyone else) from accessing that node in the multiverse again, Bucky helped Steve undress and ran a bath for him and sat there with him to chat about little things like how to use a remote control and how the dimmer switch on the wall worked.

Steve kept his knees up, attempting to be modest as his arm overhung the tub. The water was warm and stayed warm too. It was amazing. He had to say that he could get use to this future.

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