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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"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.

"They don't make people like you guys anymore. Actually I don't think they ever have. My dad wasn't like you two," he pointed out, though he knew that Bucky didn't have a whole lot of experience with his father. Just as well. Everyone was better off with as little contact with that man as possible. Nevermind the strides he made in technology, which most of Tony's contributions piggy backed off of.

His eyes drifted towards where he could still hear Banner snore and he snorted in fond amusement.

"I'm going to tell you something else. In confidence. So that I can cement our best friend-ness outside of Banner and Cap." He wanted to tell someone. Bucky seemed less apt to judge. "I slept with Loki. Not kid Loki. Adult Loki. She can shapeshift, right? It was good. Really good. Better than good. It made me feel like myself again and-- don't scowl."

Don't scowl wasn't really an option right now, because something about that seemed pretty wrong. Even if she could shapeshift, surely that didn't change her actual age, did it? Like a kid playing dress-up. He folded his arms and glared down at Tony, not about to go and tell all of the others or fully condemn him yet, but obviously not impressed.

"Isn't she still a kid under an adult costume?"

He asked it bluntly, baldly. Tony needed to face up to what he had done if he had taken a teenage girl to bed with him. Then again, how was he to know that Loki might not be several thousand, an adult, and that was just the way Jotuns looked?

"She's about ten times my age," Tony said, leaning back against the pillows. "But that's exactly why i wanted her to look a little older." He didn't mind confessing these things to Bucky, strangely enough, and it felt good to get it off his chest. "But that said.... It's weird. I get that. Seeing her walk around looking ten is getting to me."

Was he a predator? If he happened to have sex with someone who looked like an adult at the time but looked clearly like a child every other time, was he a pedophile? It worried him.

"She said she's about Helblindi's age. And he looks old enough, doesn't he? Shit. I like her. Loki with boobs I mean. She's pretty great."

Being about ten times his age was comforting in a way, but he didn't know enough about the people of Jotunheim to know if she was a child in their culture or not. He hadn't got the memo that she was already engaged and about to be married very shortly, or else this would be an entirely different sort of disapproval.

"Have you asked her if she is a child in her culture?"

He wasn't ruling out the idea of Tony being a predator but, unlike anyone else who would have discussed this with him, he remained calm and wasn't immediately jumping to conclusions or fierce anger. He knew what it was to be a criminal, after all, and do abhorrent things.

Affecting Loki's accent, and not too poorly either, Tony shrugged. "She's several years past her majority," he said, though the smug amusement of his own depravity fell from his face a moment later. "That other me. Was with his Loki. Probably sexually. It worries me. It worries me that I'm acting out because of Banner, or because of what we went through."

Bucky never asked to be a confidant and tony hadn't meant to make him one but here it was, just all tumbling out in the worst of all possible ways. It made him want to slap some tape over his mouth before he carried on with being dumb and giving everything away.

"Guess it's not a problem now that my whole leg is falling off," he covered, falsely lamenting.

That she was in her majority in her culture made this better, it took out the worrying aspect of if Tony was sexually attracted to children. It still wasn't an ideal situation considering how she looked, but he hadn't agreed to touch her while she was in that appearance so-- Bucky could get past it, even if he knew most people never would be able to.

"Maybe it was because of what you went through, maybe you wanted to have power over someone you've seen have sexual power over you. Or maybe it was just to stave off the pain of rejection, I don't know."

He wasn't going to bullshit Tony, all of these seemed like potential legitimate reasons why he would sleep with Loki.

"Or maybe you just liked her. It doesn't matter, does it? As long as you don't regret what you did. Besides," he said, lifting his metal arm up. "Losing a limb isn't the end of the world."

"Losing an arm and having an awesome replacement arm is different from losing a leg. I can't just wear cut off shorts to show off," Tony said, though Bucky almost always wore sleeves to cover it up. "And we don't have a good amount of vibranium handy, so..." He didn't have any answers for their initial conversation. Neither did Bucky. So it was the best to move on.

He couldn't spend his life repeating similar opinions of himself that others had of the situation. And besides, he was certain that the answer was d) all of the above, anyway.

"But enough about me. What's going on with your not so marital bliss? I think Cap might be the most visually appealing person left alive."

Bucky didn't think that Tony was going to lose the leg. If it had been so desperately injured that it couldn't have been saved, then it would have been amputated already to keep the risks down. It must be at least somewhat likely that he would keep it, even if he ended up with a permanent limp or in need of crutches, or else it wouldn't be there.

He shrugged, brows drawing together in a way that made him look much less like a fierce assassin and much more like a guilty and slightly lost man.

"I want to-- I just don't know if I can." Now it was his turn for confessions that nobody else knew, not even Steve. "I can't even sleep next to him. I wait for him to sleep and then get out of bed, I sleep in the closet and wake up early enough to get back in again."

"Yeah so you know he probably is aware of that, right?" He couldn't imagine that Steve didn't, the guy was by far the most observant guy he knew. Even over Barton and bring observant was his whole job. "It's not like we have the best furniture. He probably feels you leave and come back. Why the closet? If I was caged up for decades that's the last place I'd want to be."

Tony was picturing how this whole thing worked. If Pepper stopped sleeping next to him and refused to have sex with him, he was sure that their relationship wouldn't have lasted. But Steve was a better guy than he was. He'd probably be all right with hand holding and little pecks on the cheek for the rest of their lives.

Bucky had found and roped up the best guy in the world in all ways. Tony didn't doubt that he knew he was lucky but man. You can't own a luxury car and let it stay in the garage.

That was cruel to everyone.

"Might want to talk about it. I know you guys don't do that but you're still Besties right?"

Of course Bucky knew that Steve was probably aware of it, but it was something that they didn't talk about, a fact that somehow made Bucky feel even worse than he did. He didn't want to be denying Steve the intimacy of marriage, even just by sleeping next to him, but he couldn't seem to do it.

"I want to give him what he deserves."

That was 1930s euphemism for sex, and it was the best that Tony was going to get out of him.

"I just can't seem to do it. I try and sleep next to him and it's too exposed, I might hurt him. He's the best guy I know, he deserves to at least be touched by a human being."

"No one is safer with you," Tony pointed out. "Not that need the pep talk. You know that. You just have to train your brain to know that," he said, neither kindly nor rude. "Listen. I've been helping a lot of people with their sexual hang ups lately," he joked. "Banner was a bust but Loki gives it race reviews. Maybe I can shadow puppet act out what I think Cap would like?"

Maybe he was itching to get hit. He was saying some pretty shocking stuff. And he knew what getting hit felt like too.

Tony was pretty sure that one tooth was permanently loosened. Ouch.

"Drawings? I can probably get you some comics to show you what he deserves."

Bucky's expression, which had been open and almost vulnerable as he spilled his fears to Tony, iced over and closed off. He had thought they were friends, why was Tony treating his fears and his problems as though they were a joke to mock him for? It was hurtful and it made him back up a step from the bed.

"Thanks a lot, Tony."

It was said with a low bitterness. It wasn't easy for him to open up to anyone, this really didn't help matters. Not that he was going to stick around to hear any more of it, already turning as if to leave.

"Hope the leg heals soon, be seeing you around."

This wasn't the first time that Tony's abrasive nature caused him to lose friends. It wasn't even the first time with Barnes. He wasn't the sort of guy to call someone back and try to gloss it all over though, and he wasn't going to ask forgiveness or explain. Bucky knew what he was getting when it came to Tony.

The smile died on Tony's face and he settled his head back into the pillows. His heart really wasn't into any of this. Being with regular people (or brilliant self-experimenting scientists or super soldiers) just wasn't going to work.

He was more often understood than anyone bothered to take the time to examine. And they wondered why he acted the way he did? Tony's personality was as much a shield as Bucky's.

"Probably," he answered but didn't ask Bucky to carry Bruce back in. The doctor would return soon enough, probably confused about his location and worried. And that was the best he could hope for until Loki returned from her mission with Steve.

It was lucky that Loki herself had gone on this trip, as most of the realms they visited were honoured that the future All-Mother had personally come to ask for assistance and it gave the whole situation more weight. It was the first time that Loki had truly experienced the privileges that her new station would grant her and it had truthfully been a little overwhelming.

Steve had been perfect as the representative from the mortals, though. So it would be hardly a surprise that they came away with offers of support from Vanaheim to use their sorcerers in helping to create a large enough portal to bring the remaining mortals through, and offer of sanctuary on Vanaheim until a proper planet could be arranged for them.

Having done his duty in that way, Steve still found time to go to the medical bay as soon as he got back, concern and friendly open warmth on his face as he poked his head through the door.

"Hey, Tony. Came to see how you were doing since I had to rush off before."

“Banner still asleep in the hall?” Tony asked, which probably was pretty rude. He didn’t know if he appreciated being ignored or visited more. He was constantly messing up potential friendships as it was and ruining existing friendships. “Buck put him out there when he came to visit. You just missed him.”

It wasn’t Steve that Tony wanted to see anyway. It was Loki. Evidently Jotnar had a different idea of liking someone than humans did because if Loki was laid up in some stupid half functioning medical ward, he’d be there to chat to her for most of the duration.

He had covered his ugly leg at least, and the fever was starting to subsisde. He looked less awful, that was for sure.

"Yeah?"

Steve smiled, the soft and fond sort of smile reserved only for Bucky or mentions of Bucky. It was so obvious how in love he was, he sometimes didn't know how he had managed to hide it for so many years.

"You guys really hit it off, huh?"

That was good. Maybe Steve wouldn't have chosen Tony as his only friend, but he was glad that Bucky had literally anyone and there could be much worse people for him to hang about with.

"Hit it off? Like we have play dates? No. He just stopped by to listen to me bitch," Tony said. He felt some sort of way about that. He didn't think Bucky would share his secrets but how could he know? He might tell Steve and Steve might do something about it.

There was a reason Tony kept to himself. He rubbed a hand down his face.

"He's going through some separation anxiety. You should probably check in on him." And if you can't find him, check the closet. But he didn't say that out loud.

He was an asshole but tried to keep it down to relatively low levels, chasing it up with a little huff of annoyance for his current situation and an ample fold of his arms over his chest.

Steve knew about the closet, of course he did, but he made sure Bucky didn't know that he knew and he certainly had no idea that anyone else would know. He wished it could be different, but he wouldn't stop whatever it took for Bucky to feel safe, even if that meant never sleeping together, never more than kisses.

His smile stayed in place, but his eyes were slightly sadder. Separation anxiety, right, something else to have to deal with.

"I'm glad that he had you to help him out then, Tony. You're a good friend."

"Yeah, I'm really not," Tony bit back, feeling idiotic. Only Steve Rogers could do that to him. Or Steve Barnes. Or whoever he was now. "Not at all. Thanks for stopping by."

Steve felt weird about the exchange. He didn't press because Tony looked uncomfortable enough, so he made his report about their rescue, mentioned that they would be flying a recon mission with Loki in two weeks to get close enough to the training moon to scan it before returning, and that there would be a meeting about it soon.

He left the stoic engineer, and passed the still sleeping Bruce, to try and locate his husband. He had good news to share. And it was all because of Bucky that he could make this all happen.

Bucky had been genuinely offended by Tony and his flippant outlook on his problems, especially when it was hard for him to open up at all and he had tried to be as understanding as possible when it came to Tony's problems in return. It had left him discomforted and twitchy, so he wouldn't be in their little quarters when Steve got back, he'd be up on the roof.

Steve would probably find him because of the shadow through the window, or the faint whirr of his metal arm, things that people without super soldier senses wouldn't see or think to investigate.

He was taking apart and putting back together again one of his guns with practised ease and speed, just something to occupy himself.

Not a good sign at all. Steve proceeded with caution as he went, carefully heading to the roof in a way that would make his presence known long before he came into view. "Been looking for you," Steve said, settling down beside Bucky before stretching out on his back to look up at foreign clouds. The patterns were just as random as he was used to and yet they seemed so different and strange too. He'd miss this little planet, the third he'd made his home on and the fourth he'd visited before Loki shopped him around to Vanaheim. "It was something, Buck. Straight out of some history lesson about feudal Europe. Sort of amazing. I wish you'd come."

If tony was right and Bucky was having anxiety with him being gone? Well he wanted to make sure that the man knew he'd been missed.

"Think you can put that down...?" The clicking was not distracting and Steve was not afraid of it. He just wanted Buckys attention.

He knew it was Steve even before the man came into view, distinctive footsteps and breathing pattern. He was relieved, even if he didn't show as much, only tilting his head up to give Steve a once over to make sure he wasn't hurt. He didn't smile, he still didn't do too much of that these days, but his expression did soften a little.

"Wasn't sure you'd be back so soon."

It had only been a couple of days for him, but it had been nearly a week for Steve due to the time differences between the worlds. He hesitated a moment, before finishing up setting the gun back together and then put it down as requested.

"The people I spoke to were very willing to help us out. Pretty much opposite of what I keep expecting." He didn't have a good track record with that. Usually he had to go and do something heroic on his own before anyone stood to take notice. But this was pretty nice for a change. He shifted his head so that it rested on Bucky's lap. It wasn't the first time he'd done that and it gave him a little thrill. Being close to Bucky like this made him think of all the times he'd hung out with Bucky and Bucky's gal of the hour. And how often Bucky or one of their other friends would let his head be pillowed by the skirts of the girl they were seeing.

He never thought that would be for him and now it was.

"What happened with Tony? He's looking better but... Did you two go at it again?"

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