fossilised | it's a new plot!

Trying to replicate the rub of his temples that so often quieted the voices down, Tony shrugged. “Technically, he called me. And then I hung up on him and called him back.” The self-massaging wasn’t working and so Tony let his hand drop into his lap so he could more fully view James. He knew those sweats. He knew where DUM-E must have gotten them. He said nothing about it. There was no reason why Bucky couldn’t have Steve’s left overs.

No reason at all. His jealousy was ridiculous in that regard and he wanted to push it and everything else he was having heartburn over thanks to the voices away from him.

“I did something stupid, trying to protect the world from myself. And I think I ruined his life,” Tony said, face more stoic than before, as if the emotional capability of it had faded out. “I gotta fix it.”

James didn't know if he believed that everything could be fixed. He had seen and done a lot that had broken not only him, but had broken other people and even whole countries before. Not all of it could be put back together. But maybe the fight to try was what kept them going, maybe this could be fixed.

"How?"

He didn't say that Tony couldn't, nor did he offer his own help. Whatever this was, it was obviously for Tony to fix. Besides which, James was still uncomfortable enough at the idea of having a friend, let alone wading in to help fix his problems.

“I think I have to embrace the ultimate evil,” Tony said, the edges of his eyes rimmed in red from drunken and emotional exhaustion. He took a moment to steady himself in his core before he pulled himself up. He teetered ever so slightly and had to press both hands against the wall. “I think it’s time that I go into politics. FRIDAY, what offices have open seats In New York or California?”

“There is a city council and a comptroller position open in next year’s election cycle for New York City,” FRIDAY chimed in. “There are also several mayoral positions open, but you aren’t able to run for those, Boss. Haven’t put in the time. There is also the office of President of the United States—”

Tony’s head tilted up slowly and his eyebrows seemed to dance back and forth against his forehead.

“Get legal to attend a meeting tomorrow. Malibu office. I’m going to run for president,” Tony said before he threw up all over his shoes.

James just stared at Tony as if wondering whether the surgery had nicked something important in his brain and now he was hallucinating. He knew that a lot of money could go wonders for politics, but... no. Surely he was imagining this.

"How would running for president, or being in politics at all, help fix whatever you did to make Steve's life miserable?"

If it was something to do with him, and Steve suspecting that Tony had James hidden away in his building, then it definitely couldn't be fixed with politics.

“He can’t come home until I fix the Accords without making them look like a sham,” Tony said, using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. He needed to gargle. Badly. He already could see snippets of visions of himself standing behind a podium, of taking the oath of office. He felt like he’d already made it, that this was something he’d done before. He hadn’t, of course, but sometimes things felt like déjà vu. “Only way I can do that is to make some decent changes and… It’s a good idea, isn’t it? I can fix things. I can fix so many things.”

He’d be better than the last person to hold office anyway. He could run a campaign on his own money. And he was not connected to HYDRA at all. (His father didn’t count).

“It’s going to be good. I can pardon you. Steve can come home. I’ll fix this country. And the world. Without robots. That’s always been where I’ve gotten it wrong. Probably.”

"So fix the Accords, why do you have to be the President to do that?"

James took a tentative step further into the room and then had to slide down to sit against the wall, a little light headed. He had to swallow hard to keep sudden bile down, but he was good at dealing with inconveniences like that without letting it distract him too much.

"I remember you as a little kid refusing to go to your school council meeting because you wanted to take apart an engine. I've read articles about how little you attend the board meetings of your own company, I don't think politics is really your area of expertise. You're a guy that fixes things with his hands - a mechanic and a doctor - and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

When he looked up at Tony his eyes, a deep blue, were afraid, though the rest of his expression remained stoic.

"If you want me to help you bring the Accords into question, I can do that."

It was good that James was sitting but oh, it was right next to where Tony had thrown up so the older man stumbled around him and sat on the far side of the other, half leaning against his shoulder. “That’s not fair. You can’t use my childhood against me. I’ve seen myself as president.”

The Soldier used to hear all about these premonitions. They were so varied and changing and didn’t always come true that it was easy to dismiss them. Even if Tony himself did not.

“I don’t use yours against you—“ Bad example. Tony knew almost nothing of James Barnes but he didn’t need to. He knew enough this way. He knew the man from before and he was getting to know this new man with the same face now. “And I can’t save Steve and ruin you. No. No you’re the only guy whose stuck by me. And I haven’t paid. Or been part of a military contract— So no. No. You’re too important to me.”

He needed to stop speaking.

It was a little worrying that Tony hadn't grown out of these voices, or had professional help for them. They were an odd sort of psychosis, nothing damaging by and large other than the mental strain for holding them all inside. Still, James wasn't about to judge when he was hardly the poster boy for healthy minds.

"Then maybe you will be president one day, in the future. When you're older and wiser and care more about the actual politics of the country rather than fixing things for your friends."

A president had to have everyone's welfare in mind, after all, and Tony was doing this just to save Steve and get his little family back together.

"If you let me at it, the Accords will be discredited by the end of the day, and I won't even leave your home."

The moment that the Accords were discredited, Tony would take the fall. He strangely didn’t mind that. If anything, it made sense to him. He had written these to protect the world but the consequences were turning out poorly for everyone. Just like Ultron. “You’re such a dick,” Tony shot back, not even remotely annoyed despite the tone of his voice. “But all right. If you know a way, I’m all ears. Or are you going to embrace some sort of hero pledge and do it all yourself? That sounds like the right sort of dick move,” he carried on, head falling to James’ shoulder.

Steve never called him a dick, but when he was younger and Bucky was just being Bucky, the blond used to tease him about how he would never get a girl to step out with him if she knew the sorts of things he said and did when it was just the guys around. And he would set his head on his shoulder if he was colder than he could withstand on his own (stubborn thing) or if the head and chest congestion was just too bad.

Then again, a young Tony would do this too, head much smaller and hair long and shiny. He needed affection and love and that was his way of getting it.

Two very different people who knew James at two very different times acting the same way probably tripped up James, but Tony had no idea and was too selfish to care anyway.

It did trip him up, but it was also oddly comforting. To have Tony take affection from him in the same way that Steve used to, it made him think that maybe he wasn't completely broken and he could find a way to become human again. Find a way to be with Steve again, because his heart ached for his friend even if he ran from him.

Not in the way that Tony's voices whispered, he and Steve had always been brothers, but that didn't make their love and devotion to one another any less strong.

"I just need you to give me full access to FRIDAY, and to work on encrypting anything I send out so that it can't be traced back here. If anything, I want to make sure that the only people who go down with the Accords will be the people who drafted them; not you, not me, not Steve."

“That sounds a lot more my speed,” Tony agreed, breath smelling too sweet from the vomited scotch. “FRIDAY, new protocol. James gets full use. Like. Not to detonate any nuclear warheads or anything—“

“Boss, we do not have control of any nuclear warheads—“

“Joke, FRIDAY. Just give him what he needs. Tomorrow. I think we both need to sleep.” And sleep Tony did. Right there on James.

[Sorry so short on the subway makes it hard to tag]

James didn't mind that Tony slept on his shoulder, it wouldn't stop him doing what he needed to do because FRIDAY could very usefully bring up a screen in the air to help him get going on digging out some old HYDRA files and videos in a secret backdoor that he knew the password to.

One downside to having so many HYDRA operatives in positions of power, meant that there was almost no piece of legislation drafted or created in any country without at least one of them there. The Sokovia Accords had included four different politicians that were HYDRA operatives. James just needed to gather the evidence, videos, and other incriminating documents that would call their entire professional lives into question and post it on the internet.

The internet would do the rest.

Some of these videos included him. One of the members of congress who helped get this through had been an ex-handler. There were videos of tortures, of violations. He almost buried those again, but he pushed them through before he could second guess himself. Then-- then he waited.

By the time Tony woke up again, the internet was ablaze. He just tilted the screen so that he could see.

This was better than coffee. Tony was fully awake in a moment, moving to his feet after a five minute glance through Twitter. The mix of comments were expected, about twenty-five percent claiming the videos to be faked. Reddit was even more on fire, and Tony took his licks there, America siding with Captain America for being one of the few to understand that the Accords were bogus, and the oversight committee was meant to give HYDRA an edge. Stark was probably getting kickbacks. Or just didn’t care.

He was fine with all of that. People could say whatever they wanted about him. Legal was the one that kept his image as clean as possible, no one else…and certainly not Tony himself.

“This is insane,” Tony murmured, the screen following him as he left the study towards the kitchen to make himself and James something to eat. The blenders went crazy. “No, this is brilliant. You’re still a dick but damn, this is good stuff.”

He flicked to news reports as he pushed more spinach into James’ breakfast and leaned against the counter, watching reports about the craziness going on in the home towns of those accused. “This report might not be for everyone,” one anchor was saying as Tony poured the green smoothie into a tall glass. “The footage has been edited but it clearly shows what appears to be Sergeant James Barnes, the Winter Soldier, being abused at the hands of Senator Jessup.”

Tony closed his eyes and then shoved his hand through the screen to send it away.

James had been watching it all unfold with a morbid fascination. It was so strange to see that a movement had begun and was snowballing in his defence. So many people had seen the footage, and then more had found files in the massive dump that Black Widow had put out there before, and it was all being collated together. His image was shifting from terrorist to victim terrifyingly quickly.

He didn't know how he felt about that.

The news channel might have edited footage, but the raw videos were all available online and people were already calling for the Accords to be scrapped. How could they trust anyone to regulate superheroes if they were going to be revealed to be corrupt? They wanted Captain America to regulate them, they wanted Cap back and then they could trust in the team again.

James looked exhausted, but there was a shine of triumph in his eyes as Tony waved the screen away.

"That fixes it, right? Or-- it's a start, and you can build on that."

“I still want to be president,” Tony said, sticking straws in their morning smoothies before he handed one over to James. “The country thinks I’m corrupt enough that they probably will vote for me.” He was only being half serious as he leaned against the counter, watching James slink over to take the glass from him. He had already safeguarded his family secret and he was pretty sure that HYDRA itself would make sure of it since concealing their heads were always of utmost importance, but he couldn’t help but feel like he had a target on his back.

The families of the politicians that were being indicted were already suffering and more would come their way, even if they were not personally involved.

That seemed hard to believe, though. And Tony would fall, hard, should it ever be determined that his father was pretty damned high up on the roster before HYDRA decided to have him killed.

“But your way is going to be a whole lot faster. A few months instead of a year or two. You’re in luck. Your bestie will be coming home soon. We should make a sign to hold at the airport. I’ll get the glitter.”

He was kidding, of course. His glitter was retained for only really special people to him. And Tony was no longer drunk enough for Steve to be special.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t have FRIDAY patch Steve’s call in a few hours later in the lab when he was hanging out with James watching commentary on the constantly updated footage. Tony smirked. “Yeah?”

“You… Thanks, Tony.”

“Wasn’t me,” Tony said immediately, though he knew Steve wouldn’t believe him. “I wanted to run for president. It’s humbling to know that I can’t always be right.”

James had got quieter and quieter throughout the day. After telling Tony that he hadn't done this to get back his 'bestie', but because Tony had been hurting and wanted to fix things, he had got less and less inclined to speak. The occasional word here or there, but he hadn't said anything in over three hours by the time Steve's call came through. He had just sat in silence, knees drawn up to his chest, and deep blue eyes fixed on the screens showing all the updates with a sniper's focus.

His head snapped up when the call came through, a full body shiver running through him, before he simply got to his feet and walked off. He didn't want to hear Steve's voice, he didn't want to hear what this conversation would be.

Steve didn't hear.

He might have super soldier hearing thanks to his serum, but he couldn't detect Bucky's footsteps from the other end of a phoneline and, even if he had heard something, he would just have assumed it was Tony. He honestly hadn't expected this, but it was both wonderful and terrible. It ached inside to know just how deeply the rot had spread into such high positions of power.

"...sure, well if you know who did do it, then thank them. Thank you. This isn't just for the Avengers, you might have helped get Bucky's name cleared and I know-- I know how hard that must have been for you, I'm real proud of you."

“Thanks, Dad,” Tony shot back, half pleased and half annoyed. He didn’t need Steve’s approval (though he was glad for it) and he wasn’t about to make the other man think, for a second, that they were friends again. Last night’s conversation, for all the strangeness of it, was forgotten and left by the wayside where it belonged. Tony didn’t need to be missed. Steve didn’t need Tony to love him. So that was that.

He did, however, watch James leave, dark eyes tracking the slink of his form straight through the door. He didn’t know what happened there and he’d been too engrossed in watching news anchor commentary to realize that James had been drawing more into himself. Selfish Tony Stark did not learn to be anything but in just two days of having a house guest. Pepper hadn’t even managed it and she had known him for years. He assumed, therefore, that James was just clearing the room because of Steve.

“Maybe you should steer clear of the Tower for now, though. I’ll stop by HQ in a few days when you’re settled. I’ll bring some Brooklyn pizza.”

He tried rushing Steve off of the phone… A part of him was afraid that if he waited to look for Bucky, he’d be gone.

"Tony, no."

Steve's tone of voice was odd, halfway between his Captain's firm orders and a vulnerable Steve Rogers who didn't want to have his friends broken into pieces any more. Maybe Tony had swept their conversation the other night under the rug, but he hadn't. Those words and Tony's actions since, had proven that they were on the road to recovery.

"You're an Avenger, and if we're getting this back together properly, then I don't want to do it without you. We all move in the Tower, or you come to HQ. We're were team, Tony, I want to be a team again."

“I’m still retired, Cap. I’ll help out, I’ll fix whatever you break and bankroll whatever you need, but I’m not coming out of retirement for this. I’ll stand with you when you bring everyone back together and we can hold as many press conferences as you want, but I like where I’m at. And I like not having everyone under the sun living with me. You’re two hours away by car and fifteen minutes by power armor.”

He wasn’t having everyone move in here. He wasn’t giving up his space. He wasn’t putting James at risk.

“This part is non-negotiable. Two days. That’s enough for you to come back and send word to everyone. Assemble the Avengers and this former one will come for the ride, okay?” Jesus, Rogers, stop talking!

Tony hovered by the doorway, looking up and down the corridor for a sign of James. Ha. As if that was possible.

There was no sign of James in either direction, and no noise to indicate where he might have gone after he had slunk away. FRIDAY would be able to tell him, but as she wasn't asked then she would never do something as rude as interrupt a phone call.

"Tony, please."

Steve had no problems showing his emotions or being truthful when he needed to, and he wasn't going to humour this dumb retirement that was born out of guilt and petulance. If they were going to move forward and heal from this, then they all needed to be involved as a cohesive unit from the start.

"I don't accept your retirement. You're one of the heart of the team, and I know that it wouldn't be the same without you. We need you-- I need you. So how about you stop pretending that you're doing anything other than getting way too drunk and moping around, because Pepper already told me that's what you're doing, and agree to come back where you belong. To your friends."

“How about I think about it?” Tony pinched his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “I will think about it. I’m just in the middle of a project right now, all right? I need a little while. You know these things can be sensitive.” He needed Steve to take the bait immediately and he needed to track down his house guest. “You can give me two days, can’t you? Don’t make me devise some sort of anti-Cap weaponry.”

Why wasn’t he just hanging up? Was it because Steve said he needed him? Was it because Steve said he missed him?

“Also, I hope you don’t do this to Barton. He likes having his life somewhere else. In Iowa. Away from HQ. I’m glad to hear it’s only me that you’re sweet on.” Tony hung up the phone after that, hoping that he made Cap uncomfortable, and then immediately as FRIDAY to tell him where James got off to.

James had been unable to stop the panic coursing through him, the sound of Steve's voice was just the final straw that broke the camel's back after a whole day of slowly giving in to it. Though he had been the one to post these things online, the sheer response was overwhelming and every time he saw an argument either for or against him it struck him in different ways.

Now Steve would be coming back and, even though that was what he had been trying to achieve for Tony's sake, it was still terrifying. He'd have to leave again, because Tony kept trying to push him back onto Steve, and he couldn't do that.

"James is currently in the air vents on level six," reported FRIDAY, having scanned the building for heat signatures after he had evaded her cameras by climbing into the vents on level fifteen.

Great. “Sure, that’s normal. I was going to check there,” Tony muttered before he took the elevator down to the lobby, switched towards the local elevator there and rode back up with an uncomfortable but still somewhat flirty woman who must have worked for him in some boring clerical position to the seventh floor so he could access the duct system.

He fitted the door behind him and pulled himself along the surprisingly roomy HVAC ducts, over vents, to where FRIDAY showed him in little blinking lights at junctions where James had gotten himself. Tony laid out on his belly a floor above where James was crouching, but he didn’t fool himself into thinking that his noisy progress wasn’t heard by a guy with hearing good enough to listen to a fly beat it’s wings against a window pane.

He leaned his chin on his forearm though and whistled down at James.

“Hey. There’s better places to hide than here. Unless you’re spying on a women’s bathroom.”

James had heard Tony coming from a whole three floors away. He could have slid out of the vents before he had a chance to reach him, kept scooting around to evade him, but he stayed put. Tony might be able to see through the grill that James was hunched up on his heels, half a man folded in on himself and half a predator waiting to spring.

"I'm not hiding."

That was so blatantly untrue that it was almost embarrassing.

"Leave me alone, I'll be out of your Tower after it gets dark. Too many witnesses before then."

Tony felt his stomach collapse. He looked down at James as if he had just been told that Ultron and FRIDAY were getting married and Vision was the officiant. Bucky might as well have shot him in the gut.

“I don’t want you to leave.” It seemed better to just be honest, though his system bucked against it and he felt a genuine rage that he’d easily told James things that he could never share with another person.

He hadn’t even been able to tell Pep how much he wanted her to stay either. He’d let her go. Wordless.

“So... how about you don’t? You stay here. You’re still recovering. We haven’t gotten a chance to trounce ten year olds at Call of Duty yet either. And where will you go that’s better than this? After everything you’ve just done?”

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sorry for the crappy replies, phone tags are not my friend

I’m so honored to get phone tags!!

Re: I’m so honored to get phone tags!!

Re: I’m so honored to get phone tags!! [ fossi

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