fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

I come from a land of ice and snow

Asgard sat atop the branches of Yggdrasil since time began, and little had changed in their society in the years since. Each Asgardian was long-lived into the millennia, their lands were fertile, their people brave and strong. They had their vassals, their allies, and their enemies. Yet even those who opposed them respected the might of the Golden Dias, and the royalty who sat upon it. Currently that was Odin Borson, though he grew weary more easily now and had begun to consider passing the throne to his eldest son.

He had been blessed with many children, but only two that he considered worthy of his lineage and status. His firstborn, Thor, strong and honourable and everything an Asgardian warrior should be. His second son, Loki, was not natural born, though none knew that but his wife. He was different, a creature of magic and mayhem, of sharp intelligence. Both were worthy, but together they would take Asgard to a new prosperity, he was certain of it.

Midgard, where the mortals dwelt, was a land raided every few centuries for stock. It was seen as a breeding ground, much like a corral for cattle. Mortals were lesser, short-lived and weak, they were fit only as slaves. The last raid had taken place when Loki had been but a baby, nearly a thousand years ago, but the mortals that had been taken had been bred and cared for so that a healthy slave population still thrived. Slaves were given a weakened mixture of Idunn's crop with their food, to extend their natural lives to at least a few centuries in order to make them worth the effort to train. They had no rights, but they were taught well that this was their natural position.

All slave children were raised in a central pen and taught the same when small, those that then displayed talent at cooking, riding, hunting, housework, artisan skills, or singing were then measured off to be specially trained for higher masters. Every five years those who could afford to buy a slave, or those of high enough status to simply demand them, came to the corral and chose. Those who were chosen were special, were envied, and those who were not ended up working the fields out in the far reaches of Asgard, the most menial of work.

Anthony and Steven had been friends since they were little and being raised in the large pens together. Both had excelled, Anthony at crafting and Steven at warrior's skills, but neither were chosen when they were five, nor ten, nor even fifteen. Now, at twenty, it was their final chance to be chosen before they would be assigned to one of the meanest farmers beyond the borders of the great capital. Steven woke Anthony as the dawn rose, mingled excitement and nerves on his face.

"Anthony! Wake up, I've got news! I heard the overseer talking to one of the passing guards, and Princes Thor and Loki are coming to the corral today."

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"Tony is right."

It wasn't often that Bucky publicly disagreed with Steve, especially on matters of leadership, but this was about the possible extinction of their entire race. They couldn't help the children that would be born, they were probably already gone to Asgard, it had been about the nine months required to bear them by now. But they could save the others if they were only smart about it.

"I think he's right, they'll leave and they'll just abandon the humans left behind who aren't any 'use' to them. They'd have long died out by the time they wanted to use the moon again, after all, so killing them would be a waste of energy. It's safer for everyone if we wait."

He knew it felt less heroic, but they'd still save the majority of people who had been taken, and wasn't that enough?

It wasn’t betrayal that Steve looked at Bucky with. It wasn’t even disappointment. He knew very well that what Tony and Bucky were saying made logistical sense, but Steve couldn’t leave it. He was the guy that laid on the wire. He was the guy that ran into certain death. He got people out. He was about to say something more when Tony, still standing, stopped him. “We elected you as our leader and you put an Avengers Council together. Barnes, me, Banner, Barton-- I’m detecting a lot of B names here… Suresh, Nayla, Reagan…” The last three were all scientists, a wise move for Rogers to include them in the council, since they needed a geologist and a behavioralist in addition to the muscle they had now. “Point is, we’re your check and balance. What you say goes only if we have a majority. And if you lose this majority, you’re not allowed to go running off, got it? No stealing the skiff. No destroying our only chance to save everyone.”

Steve pressed his lips together and sat back. Being a leader, he was discovering, was much harder when he didn’t have final say in the matter. But this was a democracy, right? This was a system he believed in.

It was just…painful. “All right.”

Tony sat back down and nodded. “We’ll go in a circle. No need for secret ballots. Barnes already started so I’ll go next. I vote we stay until we know Asgard has left the training moon. Suresh?”

The Indian looked uncomfortable and then slowly nodded. “I…I agree. We can not risk the lives of those who trust us here. We should stay for the time being.”

Bucky hated to put that look on Steve's face, it was just as painful for him as it was for Steve, and it showed in his eyes even if the rest of his expression stayed neutral. He wanted so much to follow Steve's lead, but part of being a good person and a good partner was knowing when to disagree, knowing when to stand up for what you believed in.

That's what he was doing.

He just nodded to show that his vote still stood, and then cast his eyes down to the floor as if ashamed of himself. Part of him was. Part of him saw disobedience against someone with blond hair and blue eyes and thought of a handler, thought he would be punished.

Bruce looked uncomfortable, but he didn't shy away from his own vote.

"The children will have gone by now. The second they were born, they would have been taken to Asgard, we're not losing anyone by waiting. All of the people there now, will be there then."

“Unless they’re killed when they leave,” Rebecca Nayla, the geologist said. She’d been the one arguing with Stark when picking the planet they were on now as a permanent home and she was almost morally opposed to everything the arrogant former playboy stood for. “No. We should go.”

And Tony couldn’t help but bait her. “By we, you mean us. You’d stay here, right?” The woman’s face reddened and though she said she would be better serving their people here, she would go if they needed her. FRIDAY, who had been projecting the tally on the wall (as if they needed it), nonetheless put Nayla’s photo under the Rescue Immediately header opposite Tony, Bucky, Bruce and Mohinder. Technically, they hadn’t needed to even ask since the majority was already for Rescue Postponed, but this was for posterity.

Barton joined Nayla but Julia Reagan voted for the majority.

Steve gazed at the wall, at the tally, and nodded, thanking FRIDAY though she certainly didn’t need it. “All right. We wait.” It was hard. Steve didn’t like doing nothing. “Bucky initially brought us intelligence that the Asgardians spend a year on the moon. We’re into the ten month mark since we were captured. We’ll revisit the topic in two months and mount our rescue shortly after. Any other business?”

Housing and food resources were, as always, part of the agenda and Steve let the others do the discussing with him. He’d be very quiet at dinner later too, lost in thought and feeling guilty that they hadn’t rescued more when they had the chance.

Bucky watched Steve leave after the meeting with that tension to his shoulders that could only mean he was already putting the potential deaths of hundreds there to pile up and potentially crush him. He didn't want that, but he didn't even know if Steve would want to see him now. He might have ruined their engagement, he didn't know, because if he hadn't spoken up then they would probably still be mounting a hopeless rescue.

Instead, he went to Tony.

His friendship with the engineer had progressed little by little, until they relied on each other and were fond of each other. Not in the same way that Bruce and Tony were friends, or Steve and Bucky, but they could sit in one another's company, sometimes in silence for hours as Tony worked, and be comfortable.

"I need your help."

“Okay, Leia, what can I do for you?” Tony asked, flat on his back to finish his upgrades to the refrigeration system. At the moment, all of their rations were being stored here, in the new capital building, with Reagan working with a nutritionist on doling out the goods. They had found that the vast majority of fields outside of the overgrown city limits were filled with edible plants and treenuts and the forests that had wildlife that they could eat as well. Most of the able bodied work force were currently employed as hunter-gatherers and Tony was trying to find a way to preserve whatever they brought in to supplement what they had saved from Earth or brought with them from the skiff in the first place.

Sitting up, Tony pulled his arm out of his gauntlet and looked up at what he assumed was Bucky’s version of a miserable face.

“He’s not mad at you. He’s been mad at me a lot, and I know how that looks,” he said immediately, guessing the reason for this little visit. “But shouldn’t you be talking to him….not me?”

The society was already working well considering how little time they had been here, but it would be in the few years to come that would see whether they managed to continue to work in peace. All it would take was one person not content with their lot and war could start all over again, and with so few in the population, one good battle could all but wipe them out.

Bucky wasn't thinking about that right now, though, nor was he even thinking about Steve being mad at him. He was thinking about something selfish, a gesture that he could give Steve to show him that even when he disagreed, he still wanted to be a partnership.

"I need you to make something for me."

He pulled some very battered dog tags out of his pocket, he had snagged them on the run through the Smithsonian with Steve when they had gone to the irradiated planet. They were his, the only thing recovered from Sergeant Barnes after he fell.

"Can you make me two rings out of these? One to fit my metal finger, one for Steve."

Tony seemed to freeze in place, like a bugging out program. Everything just stilled before his eyes rolled up. “Shouldn’t you propose before you worry about getting rings made-- Oh my god, you idiots are engaged.” Wow. People from the 40s moved fast. Tony held out his hand for the dog tags, glancing over the easily malleable metal. He would have to infuse the rings with a tougher core or they’d just bend and ding out of shape, of course. And he wasn’t a jeweler by any degree but he could make some rings easily.

He didn’t know what he was feeling right now, though. He was happy for Bucky. The guy was young and he’d been through a whole lot. He deserved a little bit of happiness. But Tony just had been so against marriage, that to be involved in this was almost ridiculously similar to poetic justice.

He should have asked Pepper to be his a long time ago…and he had failed. Now he had nothing. Not even the memory of a bond.

“Okay, yeah. Are you making a big deal about this? Or do you just want the rings sooner rather than later?”

Bucky didn't know about Tony's aversion to marriage, but he probably would have asked him anyway had he known. He didn't trust anyone else with this, even if it was a relatively simple task that many people could have done. These dog tags were a symbol of who he used to be, and the bond that he and Steve had shared since the late mid 1920s when they had met, it should be these that made up the rings.

"Soon. How soon can you have them done?"

He shrugged.

"I don't think either one of us are much for ceremony or it being a big deal. We've waited long enough, and there ain't nobody to officiate. We say we're married when we put the rings on, that's enough."

Glancing back at his work, and knowing there was a chance to pause now, Tony pulled himself to his feet and grabbed his toolkit. He handed the dog tags back to Barnes and headed out of the room. “Come with me.” Tony’s workshop was a block away. He had chosen the building because it was barely damaged, had thick concrete walls, and a pretty decent living space above it. He lived in the building alone, as he liked it, and though he might scavenge the other buildings in the future for some better furniture, it suited him just fine. He had something similar to electricity and access to the roof for whenever he had time to get his armor able to fly again. Plus FRIDAY’s servers all fit neatly under the workshop where she’d be safe.

He and Barnes would spend the next two hours working on the rings together, retrofitting one of his tools to make the sizing easier to change before using a pair of titanium rings he already had handy for repair work on the reactor in his armor to act as a base for the dog tag wrap.

“So I never pegged you for a romantic,” Tony said, already padding the form he’d be using for Bucky’s larger ring so that he could make sure the seams disappeared when formed together. He was trying to keep the serial numbers intact here, making it wrap artistically around the band for each. “I could do a better job with better metal but you want this old stuff huh? Do me a favor and figure out where my seam sealant is? Should be-- FRIDAY, spotlight on the cabinet drawer with the sealant?”

Bucky did as he was told to root through the cabinet drawer that FRIDAY helpfully highlighted for him by flickering the lights in that corner of the room because she didn't have complete control over the building as she had at Stark Tower, this place was a lot more primitive.

"It's not romantic, it's selfish."

It was honest to say, and he said it without guile. Tony had done some bad things in his past too, and so he was never coy about his darker parts in this friendship.

"He's mine. He's all I have that's mine, and I'm gonna make sure he stays that way."

“Marriage is less effective than tying him up and keeping him in a basement,” Tony pointed out, mostly to be crude. He could already picture that, the paragon of virtue that was Steve Rogers, would feel the vice grip of the ring and decide to follow the non-binding rules of monogamy that it portended anyway. There was nothing to suggest that he would stray, not with the ring and maybe not even without.

He used his thumb to flick one finished ring at Bucky for him to seal and put into the small glaive he’d built into the wall while he worked on Steve’s ring. And since this was supposed to be selfish, he twisted the metal to make sure that not only was the serial number visible partially around the edge of the design, but so was JAMES B BARNES. There was no better way to be selfish and possessive than to give someone a wedding ring with your name on it to literally claim them.

Given that FRIDAY happened to have Cap’s exact dimensions in her system, thanks to SHIELD, it was easy to size his ring perfectly. Tony took a little longer with this one, and then sealed it himself and stood against the wall waiting for the tempering to finish.

“You need a bachelor’s party.”

It wasn't that Bucky thought that Steve would ever stray, that just wasn't in his nature, it was just that he wanted to know that Steve's heart belonged to him. He had so little that was his, and very few desires in life now, Steve was everything to him. He couldn't find a purpose in protecting like others could, the greater good could go to hell, his purpose was all tied up in one person.

Not the healthiest, but he had been through a lot and it was his only coping mechanism.

"No." It was blunt and immediate. "I'm not gonna have a party, I don't want a big deal, I just want to give Steve the ring and have it done with. So-- if they're done, I'll take them."

A pause, and then: "Thanks."

"You're too serious," Tony called after him, but didn't follow. He should get back to his work but he was going to take a little time to listen to music and clean up. He'd done some fine work today. Both with the rings and with the freezer. There was no rush. Not now that they were going to be sitting on the rescue plans for a little while. He was pleased about that, he really was. Heading to the window, he watched Bucky leave the building and cross the street towards the place that he and Steve lived.

He wished them well. Silently. Very silently.

Steve would at least be home by then, going over figures from this area or that. It was hard to keep up with the blond. He was always active, always trying to make sure he knew exactly what was going on with everyone and every thing.

He looked up and half smiled, half sighed at Bucky. "I thought you might be trying to give me some space. I don't need it, Buck."

Bucky held the two rings in his flesh hand, wanting to solid and cool weight of the metal against his skin. This was when he found out if Steve really was okay with committing to something like this, because this was a real symbol of commitment. Back in their day, marriage really was forever and wearing that ring was a vow, so he knew that if Steve put it on then he'd never take it off.

"I don't like disagreeing with you on things like that, but I have to follow what I think is right."

He wasn't apologising very deliberately, because he wasn't sorry for doing what was right. Just sorry that it had hurt Steve in the process. He held out his hand abruptly and opened it to show the two rings clearly made out of his old dog tags.

"Even when we disagree we're still a unit, right?"

“I value your opinion and your expertise because I know you won’t just be a yes-man,” Steve said immediately, just in case Bucky actually thought that he wanted an apology. Nothing could be further from the truth. “And everyone agreed with you so…It was the right decision. I just—“ He paused, glancing from Bucky down to his hand. He got to his feet quickly because now was not the time to be on the ground when his best friend, his boyfriend, his fiancé, his whatever, happened to be standing there holding rings.

Steve didn’t dare touch them, but he did lean in before blinking back, startled.

“Dog tags-- Oh wow, Buck. These are yours aren’t they? How’d you get them to…” Now was not the time for compliments, Rogers! “I mean uh. Yeah. We’ve always been a unit. I’m with you on this.” And he wanted it badly enough that his knees were shaking. Steve took a step back on one leg and pushed a hand over his mouth, though it couldn’t hide the giddiness in his eyes. “Is this… We’re really going to do this? Finally.”

Bucky kind of regretted that there was no official way to do this, no ceremony that would be able to legally bind them. Steve was the closest thing they had to any authority here, so he would have to just pronounce them both married with the rings. That was what they symbolised anyway, and Bucky knew that he would feel married when he put it on his hand. He'd never take it off again.

"Yeah, Steve. Tony made the rings for me today, I took the tags when we passed through the museum for your suit. I wanted them to mean something, a part of the past neither of us are ever gonna get back to carry with us into our future."

Maybe that was corny, but he said it all so genuinely, before holding out the ring that had been made to Steve's size, with his name and serial number more prominently displayed than the one made for him.

"Put it on and be married already."

“Wait! This is my wedding day, yours too you idiot,” Steve said, pushing Bucky’s hand away. “I look a mess and you smell like…machine oil. This is not happening right now. I need to get changed and you need a shower and you’re going to think up something ridiculously sappy to say to me. More of that past and future stuff, okay? And then you’re going to put the ring on my finger. So give me this one…” He snatched the larger ring out of Bucky’s palm and then really shoved him completely away. “Go down to the Capitol building and wait for me there when you’ve decided to clean up.”

Steve wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Now technically, they should both be getting married in their uniforms but since he didn’t have the time or the skill to try and sew together two outfits in the next hour, Steve just tried to find something vaguely suit-like in the small amount of clothes he rotated. The best he could do was a black jacket and black jeans with a white t-shirt. It was something Tony would probably wear, but he didn’t have time to really worry about that when his hair wasn’t parting properly to the side anymore. He’d spent years training it that way but a few months of just letting it go and now it wanted to do it’s own thing? No way! He tried to reason with it and then doused it with lots of water and hoped it would dry on the way.

He would be the one waiting for Bucky in the rotunda, the dome above them sparkling in the early evening sunshine as it bounced off of the highly polished silver. He could see himself from every angle and it was making him self-conscious. Steve cleared his throat and patted down his hair and clutched the ring he’d be putting on Bucky’s hand so tightly it was leaving a mark in his palm.

Bucky wouldn’t be the next to arrive. No, it would be a woman wearing a black dress with full, natural hair, pure white, tied back into a large bun. She had on a pair of glasses and was carrying a zippered folio. “Captain Rogers? Mr. Stark said you’d be needing my services,” she said, voice deep and eyes kind. “I am… I used to be a retired Chief Justice in California. I was vacationing with my family in Montreal when the aliens attached and you and the Avengers came to rescue us not long after. I know the government no longer exists, Captain, but it still vested me with the power to preside over marriages and, if you’d like me to, I could officiate for you today.”

In retrospect, Bucky should have known that Steve wouldn't let it pass like that without comment, but he hadn't thought anything could be done about it. There were no churches, and even if there had been he still wasn't entirely sure that their marriage wouldn't count as a sin anyway, and nobody to officiate. How wrong he apparently was.

Bemused, he nevertheless took his leave from Steve and disappeared to get himself showered and find some clean clothes. The nicest thing he had clothes wise were his Winter Soldier gear and he refused to get married in that, so he looked out some fresh pants and a hoodie, not the most formal of gear, but at least he brushed and tied back his hair.

Steve, stood in the rotunda, looked startled and then touched. It was really nice of Tony to have thought of this, especially given that they didn't always get on too well, and his smile to her was beaming bright. No matter how nervous he was, he was obviously excited too.

"Sure. I mean, yes, thank you, ma'am, we'd both really appreciate that. We--"

He cut off as Bucky arrived, slipping down the main hall and frowning slightly at the woman in attendance that he hadn't known would be here, ring in his hand and mind almost completely blank of more sappy things to say.

The former justice introduced herself and then stood back against the monolith that rose up towards the center of the dome. They had not been able to figure out what it meant and there was no writing of any sort around it, but it did look beautiful in their Capitol Building and so Steve had decided to leave it…sort of like a mini, silver-gilt version of the obelisk that had once been called the Washington Monument back when there was such a thing. The last time he’d seen it, it had toppled towards the reflecting pool and laid in rubble with only a stump left to mark where it had been.

Steve sucked in a breath as Bucky joined him and he held out his hand, his left, to grasp Bucky’s as they faced one another. Whatever the justice said, Steve wasn’t paying all that much attention. She made no mention of church or state, just some things about love finding a way and how heartening it was to know that it was still here, still visible, despite all that they had been through.

“Captain Rogers?” She waited until Steve looked at her. He’d been so entranced by Bucky, that they were here and about to get married… He’d never even pictured this before. He’d been so sure that even a wish would be a sin and now it was just simple reality “If you’ve words to say, now’s the time.”

Steve nodded and wet his lips and once again, Bucky was the only person in his world. “Gonna make this real short, pal, because I don’t want to wait another second to be yours,” Steve smiled. “I thought I lost you too many times. But here you are. With me. And we’ve already made our promises to be together until the very end but I can’t imagine my life not being yours. I’ve loved you too long and too hard not to be your husband. I’m ready. Been ready for forever.”

Where Steve didn't pay any attention to what the justice said, Bucky listened carefully to every word and took comfort in it. She didn't condemn their love or compare it to one sanctioned by the church, she only spoke of how love could be healing and it was things like this, in the midst of war and chaos, that truly kept people going and made them remember that life could be good.

He knew she was right. It was why the outbreak of war had seen a significant rise in marriages right across America and Europe, men and women scared they might not get much more chance to love each other, all emotions heightened by the uncertainty of the future. That was the same now. Different time, different catastrophe, but the same sort of feeling. He hoped there would be a rash of marriages, repopulating their numbers was something that needed to happen.

Right now all he could see was Steve, though, and the words he said were perfect. A smile touched his lips, peaceful for once, and his words were softer than their usual rasp. "Even when I lost myself, I still had you somewhere inside me. You're what stayed at the core of me, waiting, and you'll always be there. Since I met you, I couldn't do anything else but follow you. I'm real glad you're going to let me mark your dance card for the rest of our lives, Steve."

The justice found her eyes getting a little wet, but she was professional and compassionate as she bade them to exchange rings and make a simple promise to one another, and then pronounced them as married.

It was a ceremony for just the two of them, bound by a law from a land that didn't exist but still meant something to them. The words didn't matter. The repeated what they were told to and bound it with the rings before they were left truly alone to enjoy their first few moments of wedded bliss in silence. Of course, Tony stuck around to walk the Justice back to her home, and maybe to spy the two former soldiers half devouring each other's faces.

Good for them, he thought to himself, and then had FRIDAY buzz Banner to see if he wanted to watch one of the movies they had in her databanks. Like Rogers and Barnes Get Married. A new classic.

It was dark by the time that Steve realized that he and Bucky were alone. The lights here werent automatic and the suns had dropped down below the horizon, their light no longer reflecting in the dome.

"So uh.... So I get to be Steve Barnes now...?"

Bruce was very happy to hear the news when Tony told him, he also believed that love was a good thing in times like this, and nobody had waited longer or deserved it more than those two. It also amused and pleased him that this marked their first leader of the new world being a gay man, hopefully that would allow for a more progressive and tolerant sort of future.

Bucky wasn't thinking about the future. He wasn't thinking about mankind or the planet or anything except the blue of Steve's eyes. He could have stayed in the twilight of the Capitol building for hours more, if he hadn't been interrupted by Steve actually speaking.

"If you want to be, or I could be James Rogers."

He didn't say that they could both keep their names, that wasn't how it worked. When people got married, they took the name of their spouse, it hadn't quite caught up to Bucky the progressive movement of keeping a maiden name in marriage. Besides, he liked the idea of them sharing a name, it was another outward symbol of their commitment.

"Which do you think sounds better? Steven Grant Barnes, or James Buchanan Rogers?"

“You need to keep your identity,” Steve said. He wasn’t a name anyway, he was a symbol. He was Captain America to these people, not so much Steve Rogers. Being Steve Barnes wouldn’t really through them off. Not when he was the last outward sign of America. Long arms moved around Bucky, fingers lacing together at the small of his back to hold him in place. Once upon a time, after their little moment that they had yet, even now, to talk about back after his mom died, Steve thought that in a perfect world, he might one day stand with Bucky at an altar, look up into his eyes, and be his wife.

That induced entirely too many horrific guilt complexes that he’d never really been able to formulate it. But it was different now. There wasn’t an altar, but this was just as official. Bucky looked up into his eyes. And he was the man’s husband.

Just as good, all around.

“And you already put your name on me,” Steve grinned. Yeah. He’d seen the BARNES stretched across the band. “Steven Grant Barnes sounds perfect.”

Bucky smiled; it wasn't the carefree winning smile of the past, this one had decades of torture behind it, but it was still genuine and happy. Steve should be proud that even after everything, he could still put an expression like that on Bucky's face. He reached out and twined metal fingers with flesh ones, just looking at those hands pressed together for a moment or two.

"Guess I did, Captain Barnes."

He loved it, voice soft and almost reverent.

"Knew from the first time I saw you that you were mine, spittin' blood and snot everywhere after being beat up by that kid. I had to punch him down for you, and when you yelled at me for saving your punk ass, I knew-- god, I knew you were gonna leave a mark on me."

He looked up into Steve's eyes, dark blue meeting sky blue. "I know what's traditional for a wedding night, Steve, and I want to. But I don't know if I can."

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