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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Bruce really didn't like this, it meant that Loki and Helblindi would probably tell the rest of Jotunheim, who would tell their Asgard, and eventually if they actually managed to set up some sort of trade agreements and alliances, that would mean that most of the humans would find out too. He didn't want to live in a place where everyone knew what lurked under his skin, watching people deliberately and fearfully try not to anger him and tread on eggshells around him was simply depressing.

But he couldn't argue against it because what they said made sense, and they had no choice but to agree to pretty much anything they asked for. It would be stupid to pretend they weren't the poor relation in this deal, Jotunheim had the strength and security, they had nothing right now. So he just nodded in silence and let the talk move on.

Loki shrugged a little. "We know little of this training moon you claim the Aesir have been using, but if they are to leave then surely all that needs to be done is wait and then retrieve your fellows when the danger has passed?"

"Unless it's being monitored," Tony spoke up. "Evidently they leave behind the ones they don't want and let them hang out until they cause a war or die of some other cause." He shrugged. "If they see we come back to grab them, that would be bad. It would be better to move as many as possible right to the new planet. If that can be done."

He wasn't sure what Loki was capable of but forming a gateway between worlds had already been done here so why not there?

"We could cut it off at any time if things go wrong. But they have a Loki too remember. And that one is as magical as you."

Loki could not deny that she was at least a little intrigued by this other version of her who had somehow decided to work with the Aesir against everything the Jotnar believed. If she met him, she would likely push a knife into his heart for what he had done, but she would still be interested while she did it.

"Using seidr to travel the branches of Yggdrasil, especially through the Void, is not so simple a matter as you may think. To set up such a large and stable pathway, I would need the help of many sorcerers, it is not something I could do alone."

But it was something to consider.

"Asgard has many sorcerers who could lend their strength, and Jotunheim has a few, Vanaheim has the most. Perhaps it would be well to seek them out in the days remaining to us."

Tony wished he could go. He's had a good time on Asgard. He'd have a good time on these other places too but he was bed ridden and he doubted Bruce would just let him go.

Unfortunately.

"Thank you, for all of your help," Steve spoke up in his place. "You don't have to do any of this for us. We can plead our own case of you need us to." Again, Tony felt a deep sting at being stuck here. He was mad himself not Banner. He'd gotten careless and the Hulk had caught him. It was as simple as that.

Loki would have preferred to take Tony with her, for she would need a delegate from the mortals to do this, but he was obviously in no state to go. So it was decided that Steve would accompany Loki, for he was the most trustworthy and spoke with the most authority. Bucky tried to make a case for coming as well, but the other council members were reluctant to lose both of them in this important tactical pre-planning stage, and so he was forced to back down and agree to stay.

It wouldn't be long after that when Loki and Steve departed, when Helblindi left to return to Jotunheim briefly and take counsel with his father, and all of the others slipped out of the medical building to leave Tony and Bruce alone.

"...I guess I'll find out what it's like to be you, hm?" Bruce said, feigning a lighter mood than he felt. "I'll be a celebrity when this gets out."

Tony felt exhausted. He went through boughts of feeling great and then almost dying and it was, frankly, starting to weigh on him. He didn’t rub a hand over his eyes, he just laid his hand across them, and exhaled slowly as the room cleared of everyone, it seemed, but Bruce. He still had disappointment on his face that Steve got to go off and have more adventures, but that faded when Bruce pawed at the air for attention in some way to regain control on what had happened.

“You’ll like it. You’ll get to sign things you never thought anyone would want signed. And you’ll never be able to have a nice dinner out again.”

These were all things from a life that never would happen again. At least, not any time soon. Tony dropped a hand in his lap.

“Most people won’t believe you. I can right out and announced that I was Iron Man and there were still people that believed it was a bodyguard in that armor and I was just taking credit for it. You have to ignore whatever might happen, Banner, and I know that’s not easy.”

"I hope people won't believe it, because when they do-- Tony, you're not exactly a representation of the norm when it comes to me. When people find out what I am, it's like I'm an unexploded bomb in the room."

Bruce had seen it with SHIELD and even the other Avengers to a lesser degree before they got used to him. People were afraid of him and that made them act as if he were about to kill them any second. Apologising for nothing, getting out of his way as if just being in front of him might make him Hulk out, until he ended up with a cone of silence around him which nobody wanted to breach.

"I suppose it had to get out eventually, we're not living in a big enough world for it to be kept a secret now."

But he sounded so tired.

"I'm your only friend, remember? I'm the only person that counts." Tony's hands clasped in his lap, eyes dull with pain but not with boredom at the conversation. "The Barneses like you. Suresh really likes you. Barton is Barton so he doesn't count. They all know who you are, though. But you're free to hide out with me. And if anyone picks on you, I'll shoot them in the face."

His smile was fleeting because the pain seemed to crank up a notch every single second that passed. It was beyond unpleasant.

He did flip his hand lightly against the mattress though. "You've been living alone because of this secret for so long. You're not alone anymore. So it doesn't have to be a secret."

Sometimes, in moments like this, Bruce saw the glimpses of the man Tony might have been if his father hadn't messed him up and turned him into an arrogant playboy. Everything that had happened since Afghanistan had helped shape him into a better person and he was still getting there, but he was a good man at the heart of it all and Bruce could see it plain as day.

"Then I'm lucky, luckier than I've been in a long time, to have a friend like you."

But don't think that he hasn't noticed the pain darkening his expression.

"Now talk to me, doctor time and not friend time, what's going on?"

"As much as I like to play doctor with you, Banner, it's always friend time. And my leg is falling off. So there's not a whole lot to tell." Minus the introduction of the fever of course. But that was to be expected. Tony Stark was not a lucky man and therefore, there obviously was an infection brewing under his skin.

And why not? He evidently deserved to be in pain and not to go to Vanaheim or have sexy times with Loki and instead have a guy he had feelings for dote on him relentlessly.

Yes. Yes he was a little bitter.

"Your leg is not falling off, I operated on the compound fracture and saved it, but if there's something happening like more pain or an unusual feeling of any kind then you need to let me know."

He wasn't a medical doctor first and foremost, though very few people would think it of him considering how well he patched people up and how much he had learned through osmosis. He supposed it really didn't matter that he didn't have a medical degree now, there were no official board to strip him of anything here, not even any real laws or jails.

"I'm serious, I want to hear about every twinge."

“Then let it be my honor to tell you first that I’m getting some twinges. A lot of them. All at once. Painfully.”

“Mr. Stark is right, Doc. His temperature has increased over the last few hours,” FRIDAY chipped in. “I could be of more help if the repairs to my system were completed, Boss.” She just wanted to remind him of that one.

Tony ignored her. It was remarkably easy too when he was having trouble focusing.

“Great. I love being sick. Favorite thing, no really. Some of my best friends are doctors, did you know that? I have a really great time with all of them. It’s amazing. No joke.” He was sweating. He could feel it. The fever would not be dangerous, it would just lessen his ability to recover as quickly as he wanted. Probably some cosmic AH-HA for Loki.

Bruce frowned, but it was concern behind the expression more than it was anger. Honestly, he could shake Tony right now and hug him all at once, that fear rising up inside him despite knowing that a fever wasn't necessarily a massive danger sign.

"Why didn't you tell me when this started coming on? Tony, I can sort these things out, but I have to know about them to do it, and if you keep them from me then you're going to be trapped in here a hell of a lot longer."

He kept up the steady flow of chiding as he went to get a thermometer and some fresh water so that he could wash under the bandages of the leg and then redo them to hopefully clear out some of the infection there.

"Oh gee, I don't know. Somewhere between the meeting and the meeting?" He shook his head in annoyance, which made him feel dizzy which caused Bruce to pamper him a little more. He had a great bedside manner, he really did. Tony could stand a little pampering too, he decided, and let his head fall back to the pillows as he was fussed over.

Banner was a good guy. He was useful to their community. And Tony hoped other people saw him the way that he did.

At least he was safe from Barnes stalking all around his room because Steve wasn't here. If the doctor demanded bed rest, not even the assassin would be allowed to disturb him.

But honestly, in Tony's opinion, all of the friction between the newly weds could be easily solved. They just needed to fuck already.

Tony wasn't as safe from Bucky as he might believe, there were very few places that could contain or keep out the ex-assassin if he wanted to get there, and definitely not one little building with no defences at all. It would be when Bruce had finally succumbed to sleep in the chair next to Tony's bed, head tilted back and small snores filling the air, that he would sneak in.

He could tell that Tony was awake by the glassiness of his feverish eyes being reflected by what small light shone in the room, but he kept his voice down all the same to avoid waking Bruce and being thrown out.

"You look like hell."

"Can't say I feel a lot better," Tony admitted, voice low as Barnes leaned in. Bruce gave a little half snore as he was briefly startled but then fell back to sleep. He'd been awake since the Hulk released him and was exhausted so at least it would take a little more than whispers to really disturb him.

Tony told him to go to bed but that obviously wasn't happening and he had to admit, he was glad about that.

"First night alone in awhile?" He knew the signs. It was hard to be alone after getting use to someone sleeping next to you. "You'll get used to it. Chin up, Missus Barnes. Your Mister will be home soon."

Bucky was used enough by now to Tony's manner that it didn't phase him at all to be called the missus in the relationship, he was just glad that even if he looked like hell, he still felt enough like himself to banter. Or perhaps that was so deeply ingrained that it would never have failed even if he were on death's doorstep.

"That's not the problem. The problem is that it is a problem, I can't be unable to function without Steve."

He doesn't want to become stifling or over-dependent, though he knows Steve would never tell him to back off, but allowing himself to cope that way isn't going to help him properly recover into a proper functioning human being again.

“That’s why people have friends,” Tony pointed out, his head pounding as he pushed himself up. Bruce seemed to be holding pretty steadily on from that point and it didn’t really matter because Tony wasn’t going to let him kick Bucky out. The guy had been all right to him, never expecting too much, and they’d been through so much together, even if Bucky hadn’t been in his right mind for most of it. “You can hang out with us when the hubby is away. You’ll feel better,” Tony promised.

He stretched his legs out, or rather, one leg out. The other didn’t seem to work.

“Push Banner gently into the hallway and come back here. I’ll gossip with you. That will make you feel a lot better. We can swap stories about how we each spent your wedding night.”

Tony was probably right, that Bucky needed other people and other interests to expand his world beyond Steve. It was hard, because a large part of him still didn't trust the world and still felt far less than human and so it was hard to make connections, but Tony was definitely the best choice for trying with because they had already become at least sort of comfortable with each other.

So he carefully lifted the chair that Bruce was in, not rocking him, and walked it outside the room to let him sleep in the hallway. He mumbled once, but he didn't wake up, just letting his head loll when Bucky put the chair back down.

"...if you're hoping for stories of sex, I can't help you."

Just putting that out there, since the wedding night had been mentioned.

"Please don't hit me but I knew that already," Tony said, nose wrinkling as if anticipating the hit. "You two aren't acting like you've had sex. Or even a handy."

But he knew why. Bucky had shared a little too much with Huk one night and that was something that didn't just leave you. He'd had his own hang ups about sex too.

"I kissed Banner and it got weird."

He wasn't offended by people knowing that he wasn't having sex, though he hoped that it didn't cause anyone to look at Steve in a different light, as someone to be pitied because his own spouse wouldn't even share a marital bed with him in the manner that it should be used.

"I didn't know you liked him like that."

That definitely was awkward, especially if he hadn't reciprocated which is sounded like he hadn't. He doesn't know what he would have done if it had been entirely one sided forever with Steve.

"What happened?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Do you need a diagram? No? You know what kissing is?" He was just being his usual abrasive self was all. "I thought I'd have trouble with women again. After all of that. Banner shared some personal things with me after his childhood and he's listened to me whine and told me to stop being an asshole to you and Mr. Barnes. And the whole party thing-- just one of those times where I wasn't thinking."

Tony smirked. He hoped that this whole sharing thing would help him out in the long run. Being able to talk about it was supposed to help.

Right?

"It's fine. We're better. I told him it didn't mean anything. Probably didn't. I just know that I wanted to."

Bucky wasn't like most people who, having heard something had happened in Banner's past, would be curious and want to know what happened. He knew better than anyone that some things were better left buried and, if Tony hadn't told him, then he wasn't going to even bring it up again.

"Sounds like it did mean something."

Tony had been the one to make Bucky face up to his feelings, the least he could do was the same the other way. Perhaps Bruce might have felt something and been put off by Tony's immediate knee-jerk reaction of covering it up? Hard to tell.

"People don't just kiss someone they don't like."

"Um. Actually. Yeah. That happens a lot. And they fuck people they don't like too," he wanted to point out, but that wasn't what had happened. "He's a good friend. Feelings can get mixed up. Sometimes they're real. Like you and Cap. Sometimes they're just a lot of loneliness and jealousy." He was willing to admit that. He'd clung to the physical pleasure Loki offered too. He'd been doing that all his life. This was really not a whole lot different.

He told Bucky that he slept with a lot of people he didn't much like but had been attracted to physically. He wasn't above telling the other that. It happened. It was what it was. He'd grown out of it with Pepper, of course, but there was no shame in going back to it. Or do he told himself. It was a means to an end. A way to shut his brain off.

"I just want him to still be my friend. Luckily, I almost died and now he likes me again."

Even though he didn't outwardly condemn Tony's actions, the tiniest shift in his expression said that he didn't understand casual sex. That really was a hangup from his time, when people waited until they got married (or at least pretended to in some cases) and sex was supposed to be something reserved for people in love. He could understand going to bed with someone before marriage, but not going to bed with someone you didn't even like.

"He'd be a pretty crappy friend if he didn't like you any more just because you kissed him. Hell, I know that even if Steve hadn't like-- loved me too, he never would've let one kiss get between us as friends."

And Tony deserved to have friends as loyal as that too.

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