fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

Seventeen seconds was a long time. Too long. All the Hulk had to do was lean forward, an act that would take one second, and he’d be dead. Tony exhaled through his nose and tried arching his eyebrows at the beast. “Can I help?”

Three words. Simple. And with a simple meaning too. All he needed to do was reach through this all and pray that he lived for the armor to arrive…and that the Hulk wasn’t suddenly distracted or angered by the armor once it did. He couldn’t tell FRIDAY to hold off, not yet. And he was pretty sure the whole thing was just a lost cause anyway. He was equally afraid that Rogers and Co would be here any time now too. That would be just as bad.

Can he help smash?

This little human was the most confusing thing that the Hulk had ever met. He thought for a long time, the seconds stretching on, and when he did eventually open his mouth it was just in time for the armour to appear. He roared in sudden surprise and anger, the human had tricked him.

Now it was personal.

What had been a beast at rest now became a predator on the charge, and the Hulk was extraordinarily fast for his size. He snatched out at the red and gold to try and grab him from the air like a little tin doll.

Yeah. Great timing. They were having a report there! Tony twisted in the air and directed his beams towards the rubble ahead of him, blasting it and a lot of dirt out of the ground with it. "How else am I supposed to smash?" Tony called, the face plate flipping up. "I'm just a puny human!"

To show his commitment to the cause, he blasted a tree right in two and swooped down close to the Hulk.

"So what do you say? Can I smash with you?"

Unfortunately for Tony, the Hulk was now far too enraged to listen to conversation or logic. Snarling loudly, he leaped a good twenty feet up and forward to make another grab for the armour. He wanted to pull it apart piece by piece and then smash the little man inside onto the ground until he was nothing more than a paste.

It was like someone trying to snatch a particularly annoying gnat out of the air. He was fast, but so was Tony, so it might just be sheer luck as to which one of them prevailed at this point.

But at least he was coming mainly for Tony and not setting his sights on the village again?

Damn. And he'd almost made a new friend!

Tony was better than fast, he was strategic. When it became obvious that the Hulk was no longer interested in friendly conversation, Tony jetted up and down, left and right, and pretty much slowly led him away from the city. He needed to tire him out, and he could that by giving him a lot to smash while attempting to smash him.

The buildings were great for this and Tony banked and weaved between the remains of houses, all covered in plants or ash from the Asgardian carnage centuries before.

"Boss, this is a bad idea," FRIDAY said calmly, leaving Tony to roll his eyes.

"No, sending the armor was a bad idea but it's done now so all we can do is make--" He had to dodge a hand. "The most of it."

Thankfully, FRIDAY's ability to predict the Hulk's movements came in handy and she flashed likely scenarios across his HUD, keeping Tony one step ahead.

It was a good strategy for keeping the Hulk away from the main bulk of the village, but it wasn't foolproof and the Hulk was smart. He could see after a while when his attacks were being too easily dodged, he had the cunning intelligence to know to switch up his movements to avoid being predicted.

But it would be almost an hour later, when the Hulk was beginning to tire, that Tony would just make the wrong movement and find his leg snatched by huge green fingers that pulled him fiercely down and smashed him into the ground. Probably only the armour kept him from being instantly killed, but that had to break at least one bone.

"The situation has moved to critical, boss." FRIDAY oh so helpfully informed him.

“Yep. Thanks.”

The pain in his leg was intense before FRIDAY activated the numbing spray and applied pressure to the wrenched limb. He knew he was bleeding, though. He could feet the moisture around his toes and that was never good.

“Cap standing by?” Tony grunted because he would not have been the only one to have gotten the Code Green and even if he had, after an hour of this, Loki would have gotten free of the armor and gone to get her brother and alerted the others.

FRIDAY hadn’t alerted him to anyone else even monitoring the situation, though, and Tony felt so alone. He lifted his arms over his faceplate, blasting up at the Hulk’s face with the reactor. It took most of the power but he was likely dead anyway.. He just wanted to distract the beast for a moment to get airborne again.

Actually, none of the others were standing by.

FRIDAY's communication systems with the main village had gone down thanks to the Hulk's attacks, and the other armour had malfunctioned and trapped Loki inside. Every time she attempted to use her magic to either transform or teleport, the damn thing zapped her with electricity and halted what she was doing before it could begin.

The reactor, though, was the last straw in the Hulk's strength and stamina.

Tony could proudly say after this that he was the only person to have ever faced the Hulk one-on-one and survived. Though he might not be able to enjoy that victory, as with the last of his strength the Hulk catapulted the armour away from him and into some ruins, which might just hurt a bit.

Before he just keeled over.

“Sorry, Boss, communication is still down,” FRIDAY told the barely conscious Tony as he laid on the fourth floor of a building whose internal stairs had crumpled long ago. He was barely breathing with his ribs cracked, making every breath he did take like inhaling glass. And he tasted blood now too. Not great. Not great at all. “You failed to reconnect me to the rest of the grid. The Code Green only alerted you in the lab and the Capitol Building. I don’t believe anyone was currently in there.”

Great. Tony laughed, which was a Bad Idea. “Patch me…to Loki…?”

Talking was also a bad idea.

“Sorry, Boss, I’ve lost communication with the other armour as well. You’ve really fallen down on the job here.” FRIDAY was programmed to be a tart. Tony was responsible for that little issue, not that he felt much like apologizing for it at the moment. It hurt too much to talk. And he liked it when FRIDAY nagged and backtalked him. At least someone did it. He let his eyes close, only to feel a jolt to his system. “Bad idea to fall asleep,” the AI reminded him.

But what did it matter when no one knew to come and find him?

It was actually Bruce who would be the salvation of Tony.

After the Hulk keeled over, Bruce once more retook control and ended up a naked and shivering mess on the jungle floor. He had no real memory of what had happened, he never really did except for knowing that he had probably hurt a lot of people, and he pushed himself up as soon as possible to look around.

The sight of the battered and sparking armour on the ground made his stomach sink and he stumbled over to it as fast as he could. It ended with him tugging the faceplate off as best he could and desperately hoping for a pulse.

"Tony? Tony, can you hear me? FRIDAY? If either of you can hear me, release the suit."

"This is not advised, Doctor Banner. The pressure on Mr. Stark's extremities are vital for his survival."

Tony wasn't awake for this. He might have wondered how Bruce had managed to find him stuck up in that building, or how he was going to drag him back down when it was half crumbled. He might also have been pleased to see him, though, but all that there was now was blackness and pain.

"My communication systems are down. I can not ping radios at a distance and we are quite far from the city. I can reach your radio, however. It is intact with your belongings." Not that his clothes would be anything but shreds right now.

At least he could try to reach some people for help unless he wanted to kick Tony down the inner shaft of the building back to the ground.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

He felt a sinking sense of guilt and sorrow create a pit in his stomach, a knowledge that he had most likely killed one of his only friends. This is why it was better for everyone if he remained isolated and alone, somewhere where he could regulate himself and make sure that there were no more incidents.

"Fine. Turn on the radio, broadcast as loud as you can."

Bruce bent down and used every muscle he had to try and pull Tony in his full armour to a more stable bit where he could then work on rigging a pulley system to get him down. All the while he kept talking to be transmitted to the radio, repeating the same thing over and over.

"This is Bruce Banner, I'm east of the village, Tony is gravely injured and trapped in the armour, I cannot get him back alone. I need assistance. This is--"

Steve tended to keep his blue-tooth in whenever he was working out. Most people liked to have on music, but with FRIDAY being down and there being more important things to do than to fix her so she worked in the rest of the city, Steve couldn’t access her databanks remotely. So he listened to the radios instead, to people talking to other people over the single network that they had. Someone was asking for help here…but anyone else could assist with laundry and Steve had learned that he needed to restrict his desire to help everyone to what his skillset was.

He had another meeting with Helblindi later, with the whole council, and he was excited to move forward. Helblindi had even offered them assistance to transport everyone from the moon directly through the void so that they could all start fresh right away. The Asgardians wouldn’t be able to capture them that way. There would be a vote on that tonight but Steve was sure it would go his way.

He was just killing another bag of sand when Bruce’s distress call came in and Steve, panting, blinked at the downed bag before he jumped over it and up the stairs.

“BUCK! WE GOTTA GO NOW!”

Bruce wouldn't be alone with Stark for too long, not when two Super Soldiers jumped out of the brush a few minutes later.

Bucky was never far from Steve's side. Though they were married now, they still hadn't properly shared a bed or gone further than some heavy kissing, but he was obviously a better man now than he had been. He smiled more, muted and small and almost always in Steve's presence, but it was still there, and he regained some of his dry wit that had been stripped by the Soldier. Little by little he was getting himself back again.

But at moments like this where they were needed, where he had to be efficient and on the look out for danger, then he became dead eyed and merciless again. Which was why he was first to Stark's side and already lifting the armour by the time Steve got there to help him.

"It was me," Bruce muttered, obviously distressed. "It was-- Code Green. You need to get him to the medical wing, I have to operate, I think he has a ruptured spleen."

For a moment, all Steve could think was: People actually rupture spleens? It was insensitive and he immediately regretted thinking it, helping Buck with the heavy armor and the man inside. He let his husband do the heavy lifting and he apologized to Bruce before scooping him up to follow after. Two miles was a lot for a normal guy to handle walking and they needed to go. Quickly.

Armor and doctor were deposited in their hospital, which really could have used a lot more TLC than they had devoted to it, and Steve stepped back.

Unlike with Bucky, Tony didn’t have anyone to sit with him, or hold his hand. He didn’t have anyone to wait in the hallway or pray for him. They had been at odds, he and the dark haired inventor, but having found happiness himself, he couldn’t help but really pity the man being forcefully removed from his armor by Bruce and FRIDAY. “Can we help in any way, doctor?”

"You can make sure that nobody comes in here, I need complete silence to operate."

He knew it wasn't fair to ask them to stand on the door like common bodyguards, but all it would take would be one patient wandering in at the wrong moment, or someone coming to help, and his concentration would go. He was hanging on by a thread as it was, still shaking like a leaf because he hadn't managed to decompress since the Hulk had been put back under control.

But damn it, he would make himself capable of this.

He waited until the two were out of the room before he began, channelling his everything into finding all the internal injuries and patching them up. Until he had done all he could do and all there was left to do was wait. If Tony woke up, then odds were good he'd survive as long as he took it easy, but he could just as quickly fall into a coma he'd never wake up from.

With his back to the wall, Steve crossed his arms and stood looking down at his feet. He was that way for the entire operation, until Bruce, wearing a lab coat and a towel, pulled open the doors so that he could get some fresh air. Tony was still unconscious on the table, looking pale and terrible, more gray and ashy and made of wax instead of flesh.

Steve only glanced in before he turned his eyes back to the floor.

“What time is it?” he asked his stoic husband, and Steve frowned to hear that they were about to be late for their own meeting. He didn’t ask if Banner would be coming. And he knew Tony would not be. Being a leader was difficult, but Steve was almost glad to leave the medical wing, still smelling of sweat from his work out. He didn’t have time to change to meet the prince and princess of Jotunheim.

Bucky knew that they were late to meet the prince and princess of Jotunheim, along with the rest of the council who would need to be told that Tony had suffered an accident, for they were concealing Code Greens at the moment. Nobody would handle it well if they knew the Hulk was among them. He had no idea, of course, that the princess was still trapped inside faulty armour and would not be showing up, nor had any way of letting anyone know where she was.

But even despite being late, Bucky still stopped short about halfway there, brow furrowed slightly.

"Steve, come here," he said, voice low. "I just realised something. I walk behind you, half a step, like you're my commanding officer or my handler, not my husband. I want you to hold my hand."

There wasn't anything that Bucky couldn't cheer Steve up about, the blond realized in that moment, immediately holding his hand out for Bucky to take. His smile was soft, his eyes bright. "I'll never let go if that's what you want," he promised. He'd been taking the lack of sex issue pretty well. He wanted it, sometimes he was sure that he really needed it when Bucky was pressed up against him so tightly that they were just about one person. He understood boundaries though. And he was willing to let those boundaries persist until Bucky was ready.

Until then, he'd take any and all contact he could possibly be given, and he lightly lifted their newly joined hands up to his lips to kiss his husband's knuckles.

"There's no commanding officers or handlers here. Just us. And we're equals. We all are here. I want everyone to feel that way. So this is a real good start, Buck, if I can help you feel it."

"I know, that's why I want this." By 'this' he meant their hands being twined tightly together, he wanted Steve to be able to be an anchor against all the things that HYDRA had put into his head. "I don't always know when things aren't right, but you help."

A part of him still felt as if holding hands in public with another man was a scandal and, despite everyone being really understanding and making sure to refer to Steve as 'Captain Barnes', it was as if he were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely people wouldn't really accept this relationship, it just seemed too good to be true.

"You know that centuries from now, kids are gonna learn your name like we learned about the Founding Fathers. Captain Barnes saving humanity to a whole new world."

"No it's going to say Steven and Bucky Barnes. You made all of this possible." Becsuse no one at this point would know that Names was his proper name. It would go into the histories as Bucky being his true and actual name. "Every last part of this is because of you. You saved us. You got us from that moon. It's all you, Buck."

A call came in through his Bluetooth from Suresh and Steve signed. They always knew when to bust in on the best moments. He pulled Bucky somewhat forcefully into his arms and kissed him soundly.

"Duty calls, Sargeant Barnes," Steve grinned.

He would not be grinning upon arrival to see a few annoyed faces and only one Jotun waiting for them. Helblindi tried to explain that Loki often times had flights of fancy that called her from duty and he apologized, but he looked more nervous than annoyed. Steve shook his head.

"Tony Stark was injured this afternoon. He and the princess are good friends. Maybe she was with him around the time-- FRIDAY? Oh. That's right, she's not working here yet-- I'm sorry but I have to go to Stark's lab. FRIDAY might be able to tell us better what happened. Buck, can you stay here in my stead? Keep me patched in through the communicator. I'll be right back."

In truth, however, he wouldn't. And Helblindi and the Council wouldn't be staying around either once Steve reported to his husband where Loki actually was and said he was going to get her.

Loki was an odd mixture of impressed, terrified, and furious as she stood immobile within the armour for hours. She was impressed at the sheer impressive construction of the armour, being able to hold her even with her considerable seidr abilities was no small feat. But it also terrified her. She was not used to being constrained, and the longer this went on with no escape, the more the confines of the metal encasement seemed to press down on her until she could scarcely breathe. It was that which made her angry; she was Loki, daughter of Laufey, she should not be afraid merely by being caught in armour.

She did not fear for Tony, for she believed that he was experienced with this creature that Banner turned into, having no clue that this was his first time meeting the beast himself, and so she thought that he would know what he was doing and would not be injured. Especially not by one he called friend and brother-in-arms.

When eventually the armour opened to reveal Steven Barnes on the other side, she barely gave him a word of thanks. She turned immediately into a bird that looked almost like a falcon, but twice as large with jet black feathers, an ocean dwelling bird of Jotunheim that was the fastest in flight she knew, and shot off into the sky away from her imprisonment.

That left Bucky staring after her with a mildly surprised expression.

"Was that her? Should we tell Helblindi his sister is a bird now?"

"Not it," Steve said, once again grabbing at Bucky's hand. "Not until I've showered. I don't... I try not too thibk too hard about this stuff becsuse I'm pretty sure that if I do, you might as well just lock me up in the looney bin." That was not at all PC but if only Bucky heard him, it could be their little secret.

This all left Mohinder to wander back to the medical wing of the hospital building. He and Bruce had not properly made up after the mess that had happened with the death of the children, but he knew that when it came to Tony Stark being hurt or sick, he would be working feverishly without regard to himself... And wouldn't know when or if to ask for help.

He knocked gently on the door, not looking at the ashen skinned man on the table.

"Doctor Banner...?" He was sort of expecting to be snapped at agsin.

At least the actual operation itself was done, or Mohinder surely would have been shouted at for disturbing him when he needed his concentration the most. But all there was to do now was wait and monitor Tony's vital signs, which is what he was doing. FRIDAY was obligingly piping classical music through the headpiece of Tony's ruined armour, since that was the only way she could really communicate now.

He had no idea what Steve and Bucky had told the others of what had happened to Tony. An 'accident' setting off an Asgardian trap, or a malfunction in the suit, or-- but he knew that they wouldn't out him. It was a relief and then he felt sick with guilt for being relieved when this is what he had done.

He looked pretty ashen himself when the door opened and Mohinder came in, eyes tired and sad behind his glasses.

"What is it?" Not a shout, just a weary question.

"Princess Loki was found on the other side of the planet, practically," Mohinder said, not knowing how much information Bruce was getting with FRIDAY being so sporadic. "She's safe. Captain and Sargeant Barnes went to fetch her. How is Mr. Stark? How can I help?"

He constantly felt as if Bruce elbowed him out of the way but the man worked alone. He knew all about the reasons for that.

And he was honestly surprised that Steve hadnt mentioned the Hulk at all that afternoon. Surely he knew. And surely that was why Tony looked like he'd had his let half removed. No one survived the Hulk, though. So this was amazing. And no wonder Bruce looked at his last end.

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