fossilised | For Steve

For Steve

The war had been raging for a long time now, and James Buchanan Barnes had been drafted some months ago to ship out to Europe and fight with all the others in the trenches and on the front lines. Telegrams came back daily with the news of more brothers, sons, fathers, and husbands killed. More friends who will never return, and still there was no end in sight.

But then something even stranger began happening on both sides of the timeline.

All the newsreels were reporting strange anomalies centred in New York City and Washington D.C. that could only be explained by time itself unravelling in places. Buildings that changed to vast monoliths of glass and steel for a few minutes and then back again, a faded billboard for asthma cigarettes becoming a full colour motion picture of a man eating soup. Some people had even said they had met men and women claiming to be from the future, though this was all hushed up.

It only lasted a few days, and then it was sorted. Sealed, the government official offices said, just a trick by the Nazis to confuse us. Forget it and go about your day.

But there were pieces of the future lost in the past for good.

The Winter Soldier-- Bucky-- whoever he was now, confused fragmented memories all he had to go on, had been thrown through time unceremoniously into a street that looked altogether familiar and confusing. He hid from the authorities who were collecting all the anomalies with ease, even though his manner of dress was out of place now with jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. He didn't change it. He found his feet taking him somewhere only half remembered.

An apartment with a key hidden under an old brick. Why did he know it was there?

He didn't know. He just let himself in, quiet as a whisper, and made his way through to the bedroom where someone was asleep under the covers. Skinny, blond, somehow also familiar (the man on the bridge? The man in the Potomac? The man at the museum? No, that didn't make sense, that man had bulging muscles, but somehow he was sure they were the same). He didn't say anything, just stood there and watched impassively, waiting for the man to wake up.

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"It's a sandwich, just a regular potted meat sandwich, it's not gonna hurt you."

Steve made sure to keep his voice and gestures soothing, heart aching like crazy for this poor version of his friend. He looked so young, so vulnerable, and he was obviously really far under brainwashing. At least he had a lot of experience in dealing with friends who had undergone transformations.

"You're not free, Tony. This isn't freedom, thinking that somebody else has the right to own you and direct you. Our planet is our own. Maybe it's not perfect, maybe we still fight one another, but we are trying to build a better future."

He nudged the sandwich a bit closer.

"It's okay, I won't make you do anything. But why don't you sit down, okay? Tell me who or what the Jotuns are."

Thor had never been particularly specific about the nature of Loki being adopted, just that he was.

"I am not sitting on anything that hasn't been sanitized," Anthony said immediately, "and I am not eating something that I can't tell what it is just by looking at it." He'd starve here. This was a place of cookies shaped like animals and animals shaped like stars and dinosaurs (looking at you, chicken nuggets). It was a place of the artificial. Of chemicals and additives.

Eventually, Steve did get him to sit on the sofa in the next room. It was leather and Anthony seemed comforted by that. It was finally something natural amid all of this white and empty furnishings. He had never felt so alone. Not even when he had been selected to be given to Loki when he was just twelve years old, he had never once felt this alone.

"The Jotun-- well you must know about Asgard. You have a.... You know Prince Thor. He is Asgardian, born and raised to rule Asgard when the All-Father, overlord of all the Nine Realms, passes to Valhalla. This is Midgard. Home to humanity. Jotnar are from Jotunheim. They're frost giants. Loki was born second daughter to Laufey-King, who annexed Midgard and set it to vassalage over a thousand years ago. Her eldest natural sister rules Jotunheim and Loki rules Midgard. She is fair and kind to us. To all of us. We are members of the free markets on Vanaheim, we have status in the federation of Realms Beyond. We don't live in such horrible squalor. Steve, these places? This looks like how we lived five hundred years ago! Salted flayed meats and squat, low buildings. Why hasn't humanity professed passed this? My dad grew up this way, long before I was even born! This is seriously disgusting."

A thousand years was a heck of a long time for humanity, so many generations that it was no wonder that they felt they had no choice in continuing to live under the yoke of someone else. But that also brought into question - how had both Loki and Anthony recognised him as he was now, and not Grant? It had been the war effort that had pushed him to take part in the serum process, if there had been no war for a thousand years then how had he become this sort of man? He had no idea that the healthcare of humanity had progressed to the point where his asthma and other ailments had been healed by the time he was four, and then he had been able to grow and beef himself up in natural ways so that he could stand a chance of being chosen by Thor. All of her slaves were extremely physically fit, they had to be in order to keep up with her on campaign or on the hunt.

He looked pretty disturbed by the whole notion, but at least he finally had Anthony sat down on the couch and talking to him rather than freaking out in the kitchen about sandwiches. He had asked JARVIS to have some take-out delivered to see if any of that would appeal instead, thankfully the amount of money that Tony had made delivery places come out even a few hours to the compound and he could reheat.

"I've never met a frost giant, I had no idea that's what Loki was, though Thor did tell me that his brother was adopted. And this is Earth, that's what we call it, not Midgard." He scrubbed a hand through his hair, feeling well out of his depth. "There are higher buildings in the city. Stark Tower, where the other you lives, is pretty much the tallest building I've ever seen. It's gotta be at least two hundred storeys. Look, can you maybe try to dial back the 'disgusting', and try to meet me halfway? You might even like it here if you give it a chance."

How could Steve have never met a Frost Giant? Even if they didn't rule here, there had to be some sort of relationship with them if there was a relationship with Asgard. Asgard might be the ruling body of the Nine Realms, but Jotunheim was powerful and more ally than vassal. The same could not be said for all of the Realms, but Jotunheim and Asgard had shared a storied history together, one that came to a head in a battle for Midgard that eventually led them to a deeper friendship once Asgard became aware of how badly Jotunheim needed to annex the little Realm and the ruling families of the Realms returned to the practice of fostering children of each other to teach culture and fealty to the next generation.

Anthony was silent for a long moment. He tried to study Steve, to see if there was a frailty behind his eyes as sometimes happened with humans. Medicine had progressed in some ways but human beings were also short lived, generally. Most of the people Anthony had grown up with in the Midgardian Years of the 1950s and 1960s had died two hundred years ago. Only the select few lived as long as he had. Or Steve had.

Most came and lived fully and happily and went again in the blink of an eye. His own father had just passed two decades ago when he made the choice to stop eating the Gift and move on to be with his wife in Hel. His son had already surpassed him and Midgard would be in good hands.

That was the human way.

"First of all, I know it's Earth. It's just easier to use the formal Realm name sometimes. And-- if I'm supposed to give your way of life a chance and understanding? You need to understand that I love my life. Meet me half way, Steve, but don't try to keep me here. Everyone I know and love is back home, same for Queen Loki. I have a family. I have friends. I'm not leaving them, so just-- Stop feeling sorry for me and I'll try to stop feeling sorry for you and your single two hundred story building city."

Odin's beard. One sky scraper. How did these people get by?

It wasn't just one single skyscraper. God above, how had Tony managed to maintain this level of annoying arrogance even when he was a server to someone else? Didn't slavery usually knock all that out of people? But he was almost like himself, apart from the creepy Stepford (and thanks for making him watch that, Tony) thing he had going on about Queen Loki and his position.

"Okay, alright."

He was willing to meet halfway here. He told himself it was Bucky again, on those days where he needed an order and was more Soldier than person, that it was just like when he gave gentle orders to help. Eat something. Sit on the couch. Get a wash. Get some sleep. Until the fog passed and the person came out again, and maybe that was what it would be here. He just needed time around free people to see what he was missing.

"Hey, Thor," Steve said into his earpiece, pretty sure that JARVIS would relay the message even if Thor didn't have his in. "Do you think you could come in here? There's some cultural differences I need a hand with."

He smiled at Tony, trying to make it soothing.

"We've got some pizza and Thai food on the way too, do you think you might like those better than the sandwich?"

"What. The Hel. Is pizza?"

Thor didn't take his time arriving when called, and Anthony actually appreciated that. It made sense for Steve's master to come to him. Their relationship was as deep as Loki's and his own. They were not friends, that would be presumptuous, but as Thor's personal slave, he was so much more. Steve would never understand that it was a two way street. He was beginning to see that now. And Anthony felt so badly for him. Not just because he lived like this but because he would never be aware of how good a life he could have had if this was a progressive world.

"Friend Rogers. What is it I may do to help?" Thor boomed, his body overshadowing the light from the ceiling. He looked ridiculous. Those muscles-- not even Odin had those muscles!

Anthony stood up immediately. Three hundred years of training wasn't going to come to an end overnight. "Prince Thor. If I was rude to you earlier, I apologize. It's just-- You look so different from the Princess I have known the last few centuries."

Wow.

Okay, their world was definitely a horrible dystopia if it didn't even have pizza, what kind of Earth would it be without pizza? Even Steve had enjoyed the odd slice back in the thirties and forties when Bucky had treated him to it at one of the fancy Italian places after he won a fight and got some money.

"Alright, Tony, why don't you sit down again? You don't have to call him Prince Thor, you can just call him Thor. Which, thanks for coming. Sit down. Tony's been telling me about how his world has been annexed by Jotunheim, does that mean anything to you?"

The couch sagged under Thor as he examined this younger version of Stark carefully. How could a human live for centuries? His mind frowned just as hard as his face did. "You do not need to address me as Prince, Stark. This is true, as Steve Rogers says."

Anthony looked confused. "Stark... Uh...? Is that another nickname? Like Tony?"

Thor caught on immediately. "Midgard has adopted the naming practices of Asgard? A fair model. Here, family name is passed on regardless of father or mother's name. Your counterpart is named Anthony Stark. His father and his father's father were also named Stark. And this is the same for most people upon this Realm."

Anthony wrinkled his nose. "Wow. That sounds confusing," he admitted, careful to take a seat again. He was on edge and couldn't help it. "But Jotunheim does it too. And Vanaheim, but they go by a matriarchal lineage... Same as Jotunheim will since Laufey-King only had daughters--"

Thor looked grim. "There was a war centuries ago. Asgard defeated the Jotnar. And...very recently, Jotunheim has been all but destroyed. There are very few that still are able to live upon there-- Stark, are you--"

Anthony looked horrified. "No. No....how could-- Asgard and Jotunheim are allies! What is this place?!"

"Okay, okay. We don't have to discuss the war. I guess things just worked out differently here, but there has to be some Jotuns, right? I mean, you said your brother was adopted, didn't you? So Loki was from Jotunheim originally?"

He knew that Loki was a bit of a sore subject with Thor, but it couldn't really be avoided in these circumstances. He couldn't help but privately wonder if all Lokis were insane dominating people who wanted to take over earth and crush humanity beneath their boots. Because it sure seemed that way.

"So, Tony... Anthony. Your name is Anthony Howardson, then? Is that right?"

Just trying to get the situation under a bit of control. Not helped when Bucky ghosted into the lounge on silent feet, bare now, wearing sweat pants and nothing else, metal arm catching the light brightly. His eyes focused in on Tony, brow furrowing slightly.

"You look younger."

"Buck," Steve said, voice soft. "This is Anthony, like me and Grant, you doing okay? Maybe head back to the garage, Tony might be done using Grant's small hands-- wait, pretend I said that differently."

Bucky ignored the suggestion in favour of coming closer to Tony, voice troubled. "You look a lot like Howard."

Thor wasn't going to get into it, but Rogers deserved an explanation. "Aye, Loki was adopted from the ruins of Jotunheim and raised as an Asgardian, as my brother, flesh and blood. We did not know until recently that he was not of Asgard. It had been a...sore subject."

Anthony was shocked at that too. But about Loki's natural born sisters? What about her mother, the Queen? Oh, he ha questions so he could report back to Loki, but he never managed to get there before Bucky appeared.

He took his time examining the body, the chest and the arm. The arm fascinated and repulsed him. We're these people still replacing limbs artificially? Why not just regrow them? He turned on the sofa, arm over the back, and found himself biting his lip. He was married, sure, but his work with Loki took him away from his family and-- Well, dalliance was not something that was minded much. He was sure his wife took lovers of her own and--

"Howardson, yes and hi there. I'm Anthony. You're... Flattering. Thanks. I'm... Actually I don't know how old I am. I started being given the Gift when I was twenty-one. I've celebrated three centennials since then." He was probably, physically, about twenty-five or six now. His aging had been slowed dramatically.

Tony but not Tony, very strange. Bucky stepped right up close, into his personal space, and reached out to touch his chest as if to make sure that he was real. He ignored Steve and Thor completely, although the tense set to his shoulders said that he would notice them if they actually made a move towards him.

"Does it make you stronger and faster too?"

Was this Gift like the serum? He was pretty sure that even he and Steve would be dead by the time three centuries had passed, but they definitely had slowed ageing and would live a hell of a lot longer than most people.

"Stand up, I want to look at you. You look so much like him, but he was older, a lot older. He's both in my head."

He didn't mean to be cryptic to poor Anthony, but he wasn't having the best evening inside his fractured head currently.

"Not really stronger or faster. I have my suits for that, if Queen Loki needs me to follow her into battle. I think that's only happened once. She's not like the Asgardian Princesses, she doesn't like to hunt as much as Thor or Baldur do," Anthony said as he stood up. "What's your name?"

The leather of his pants squeaked with the leather of the sofa, but he did stand up, and even moved round the edge of the sofa so that he and Bucky were standing near each other. Bucky was just a little bit taller but his eyes were so blue and perfect, his hair longer and lustrous, more like Asgardian men wore, but that wasn't unfashionable with those on Midgard. He looked strong too. It was just that arm--

Anthony didn't ask before he touched it. Or at least tried to. He was the personal slave of the Queen. He did what he wanted. That was another difficult thing to break him of.

"How do you dad? Like from the movies about him?" Anthony frowned. This man seemed...mentally off too. Was that a trait of this Midgard? "You know what? It doesn't matter. How about you? I can fix you. I just need a few things. J, can you take a list?"

Bucky took a half step back when Tony got to his feet and came around, but he didn't move completely out of range or lash out when those fingers came to rest on his metal arm. The plates shifted with a small electronic clicking noise as they realigned under his fingertips, but other than that he didn't move.

"Yes, sir, I am ready to task a list."

"Fix me?" Bucky said at the same time that JARVIS replied, finally breaking eye contact to look over at Steve as though checking he was there. He wasn't about to let someone take him off and zap his brain again to 'fix him'.

His hand balled into a fist, eyes flicking back to Tony. "I know him because--" He killed him, but he didn't want to admit that to another Tony, maybe because it wasn't his Howard that had been killed. "--he worked with me a long time ago."

"Oh! Oh, he made this arm didn't he? Wow. That's amazing. I knew the old man was into cybernetics but...this is probably a museum piece!" Anthony said before he rambled off a list of approximates, both of metals and plastics and chemicals. Some of those chemicals had not yet been formulated yet and a few of the metals hadn't been smelted yet either. When JARVIS informed him that some items were impossible to get, Anthony crossed his arms over his chest and, glancing at Steve, shook his head.

Backwards, poor little reality.

"All right, so we will have to make the raw materials. I wish my wife was here. Particle physics and thermodynamics are her jam. Okay, barring-- oh! Oh wait, she might be! Some version of her at least. Is there a Roberta Rebeccasdottr here? Uh... Her last name might be different." Unfortunately, no one here knew that Bruce's given name was Robert or that his mother's name was Rebecca. There were blank looks all around. "Damn to Hel the fallen-- You know what, that's fine. But your name...? I don't want to call you Hey You for the rest of the trip until we get that arm regrown!"

Steve was actually a little bit surprised to hear that Tony had a wife, and one he seemed so content with. From what he knew about slavery, he thought that they probably wouldn't be allowed to choose their own partners, that it would be about breeding programs and all that distasteful stuff. It wasn't like that at all, mortals could still live and love as they chose, they were servants and slaves, not animals.

"Bucky-- James Barnes."

That name, at least the Bucky part once the James bit had been explained, would probably explain who he was. At least in Anthony's world. James Georgeson had been Thor's personal slave before Steve, had even trained Steve up, before he had died a hero during one of the battle campaigns. Captured by the enemy, tortured, and then killed without revealing any of his master's secrets.

This Bucky frowned at Anthony, wary. "What do you mean, regrown? You can't regrow a limb, it's gone."

It would probably come to him. Eventually. Anthony had been young still when James had been killed, he had been to the memorial service and the victory celebration once Thor brought his murderer's heads home to be mounted. Odin hadn't been pleased by the display but it was Thor's right to avenge her slaves any way she saw fit. They were hers. And oh, she had loved James. Perhaps a little too much. It was said the same of Steven. She had too much of a shine to him.

"Buckyjames Banres? How about we just go with Buck unless you have an odd nickname like the other me?" Anthony grinned. Tony. Honestly. So ridiculous.

"Of course we can regrow a... Oh Odin's beard, this place-- I'm going to help you out, my friend. I promise. I'm going to help your whole backward little planet out. Starting with you. One new left arm and then maybe I'll cure something if you still have diseases floating around." They probably did. "And then after that, I'm going to get myself and my Queen home to a place that makes so much more sense."

Steve finally managed to speak up, having been dumb founded. "I-- Tony-- ANTHONY. You can't just... That's going too far."

Anthony's mouth opened. "Too far? You want this beautiful man to have a robotic, museum quality arm? Are you guys all crazy here? What is going on? Are you brainwashed into thinking any of this at all is all right?"

Steve knew that it was Tony that was brainwashed and it was honestly more and more uncomfortable to be around him, but he wasn't going to stop. He had helped one friend out of slavery, he would help another. Maybe Tony didn't know that he needed to be helped yet, but he did and Steve would be the one to help him.

"I don't want you to regrow my arm."

Bucky felt his metal fingers contract into a fist and then relax again a few times, and he took a step back and away from this strange hybrid of Howard and Tony that he couldn't decide what he felt about.

"This arm is a mark of what I did. I don't want to forget that, not ever."

He didn't deserve to forget that.

"Steve," his gaze flicked up, suddenly a little more pleading. "Nobody is brainwashed here, right?"

"Why won't you let me help-- You know what? That's fine. You guys can be all weird and twisted and backwards and-- Prince Thor, I'm really sorry. I don't mean you any disrespect and on behalf of my Realm and my species, I'm really sorry." He had a lot to tell Loki and he knew his Queen was not going to like it. Not at all.

But first, he did stop to lean into Buck and whisper that he found him really, incredibly attractive and if he wanted a partner while he was here, he was more than willing.

That probably wouldn't go over too well. But then again, Steve's reaction to the look on Thor's.confused face and the half terrified one on Bucky's face didn't go over too well either. "You're not-- None of us-- Anthony, wait!"

"I'm out!" Anthony called, stalking right into the doors. He had seen Steve open the doors outward for him but in his tizzy, he'd neglected to remember that, and for his trouble, he managed to knock himself out cold when the glass didn't allow him to just pass through.

There was a frozen moment of silence after Anthony knocked himself out, before Steve groaned and rubbed at his face. This was all a hell of a lot more of a mess than it had been when Grant had come back from another reality, and he had a feeling it was going to get worse before it got better.

"Thor, could you take Tony to a bed and watch him, make sure to let one of us know when he wakes up. And Buck-- Bucky?"

But it was too late, Bucky had slipped out of the door that Anthony had failed to open and into the darkness before Steve had finished giving orders to Thor. He hadn't liked the look of that face, so like Howard's, unconscious-- dead-- He made his way to the garage where Grant and Tony were working.

He slipped inside and up behind Tony on his usual silent feet, resting his metal fingers very lightly on his spine to get his attention.

An inch away from slicing up his palm with the tool in his hand, Tony glanced over his shoulder and exhaled. He should have known that would have been Barnes. Did he ever just do anything normally like knock? Or clear his throat? Or get in his line of sight so he didn't startle him? No.

Grant was flat on his back, holding something in place as Tony crouched over him making sure it stayed when Bucky's presence caused both to forget what they were doing. Grant had to bite his lip so he didn't ask if Bucky was all right. He knew he wasn't. He could see thst look on his face. He sat up, pulling himself from any dangerous falling objects. His eyes searched the dark face several feet above him.

It was Tony that addressed the man though. "What now?"

He wasn't directly thst towards Bucky. He figured thst Loki and Thor were starting another world war or Steve was being intolerant of cultures he didn't like again.

"There's another you."

Bucky moved a bit closer to Grant, putting himself equidistant between the two men, though his attention stayed focused on Tony. It was a blank sort of gaze with a mixture of discomfort and fear muddled behind it.

"He looks like Howard, like Howard used to look. He's young, he asked me to sleep with him, said he could regrow my arm."

Even though two of those things could conceivably be seen as a good thing, being propositioned and offered a new arm, it was obvious that both had really put Bucky on edge and not in a good place.

Oh, Tony was not pleased. Not at all. Loki had brought her version of him after all and not only was he younger but evidently he was also smart enough to know how to regrow limbs. That rubbed Tony really wrong, and though he should probably be focused on poor Bucky right now, he was much to selfish to do that.

"Don't sleep with him and don't let him regrow your arm," he said simply, though Grant looked equal parts horrified and hopeful. "If you're worried if I want to sleep with you, don't be. I don't want to. My days of playing that game are over."

Minus his dreams about Banner. But those were just dreams. He'd never act on them.

Gross.

He pulled off his gloves and set his tool aside, hands on his hips.

"He's also not my dad. And he's not me. How about you stay here with us? I'll put you to work and no inferior slave version of me will bother any of us." But Tony wanted to meet him in that same awful way that people wanted to see wrecks and taste terrible things even knowing that they won't like them.

He wasn't worried that his Tony wanted to sleep with him, he knew what it looked like when someone looked at another with interest, and Tony had never looked at him as anything other than a friend. At least in here, with Grant and Tony, he was starting to relax a little. Two people he trusted deeply, completely, with only Steve missing to complete the trifecta.

"Yeah-- okay. Just give me orders and I'll follow them."

He didn't often ask to be given orders, preferring now to protect his own autonomy deeply, but sometimes he needed them. They were familiar, soothing almost, and they didn't require him to think.

On a whim, Bucky bent down and pressed a fierce and brief kiss to Grant's lips, the first time he had kissed either one of them in front of someone else, but he needed the contact.

"He looked so like Howard," he said in a murmur.

Tony could handle the orders a lot better than Grant or Steve. He never looked or felt guilty about it and he put those orders to good use. There wasn't any 'sit on the sofa and eat popcorn with us' sort of wishy washy half ordering going to happen here. Bucky was incredibly strong and he could actually tighten bolts better than Tony could with his tools.

Putting the idea of a younger him hanging around and pouring a female Loki wine and feeding her grapes right out of his head for later alone time, he was just gesturing for Bucky to follow him back to his work station when he caught the loss. Damn.

Grant sort of looked the same way, like Miss Scarlet at the plantation, eyes closed and cheeks pink when Bucky pulled away. Tony might have gawked, but Grant looked embarrassed and pleased, licking his lower lip.

So evidently Bucky didn't break up with them. Or maybe he just went for Grant like Tony had suggested? Either way, he mouthed a 'we can talk about that later' to Bucky before the former soldier dropped the bombshell on him.

Tony opened and closed his mouth. "You don't have to be insulting. I bet you look like your dad a little too."

Grant swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah he does--"

"I don't remember."

At least admitting when he didn't remember things had become a little less awkward now, he didn't feel like each lost part of him was a failure, but it was no less sad. To know that he had a father once, but that he couldn't recall anything of what he looked like or even that his name had been George.

"You don't look like Howard so much."

He did, but Bucky had never seen Howard at the age that Tony was now. He was either young, as the other Tony was now, or an old man being killed by the Soldier and nothing in between. It was why the other Tony got to him more than his Tony, and hopefully by the time he got to be old enough to remind Bucky of Howard again then he would be long past being bothered by it.

Bucky moved to do as he was ordered, using his metal arm to tighten bolts of lift heavy bits of machinery wherever he was told, losing himself in the work for as long as they would let him do so.

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