fossilised | Jotunheimr

Jotunheimr

Thor Odinson was not ready to be King.

That much had become suddenly and sharply clear to Odin All-Father, a sharp pain that he would rather not have had. He had been blinded too long by love for his only heir, seeing only his affable way of gaining friends and his strength on the battlefield, but ignoring how he had become spoiled and arrogant. He had glossed over the reports from Thor's tutors that his son had not studied the other realms or the duties of a King as he should, and had instead spent much of his youth carousing with his favoured companions, hunting or getting into trouble together.

But this... this was beyond a childish scrape.

Egged on by his friends, or so it had come out since the act, Thor had decided to go to Jotunheim - a forbidden act - for the sole purpose of finding one of its inhabitants and slaying it. A proof of his mettle as a warrior, to kill one of the fearsome giants, the monsters of the icy realm. He felt ashamed, sick at heart that his only son could be so ignorant as to think that any race were just monsters. He might have hoped these were just rantings, but he saw preparations begin to take place and he knew that they meant to commit treason by disobeying his orders of no contact with Jotunheim and perhaps start another war.

Arrangements were hastily made, pushed through Frigga who had more goodwill remaining to her among the Giants, and when Thor arrived at the Bifrost, he would find Odin standing by the great sword rather than Heimdall, his one eye forbidding.

"Why are you so eager to seek out war, my son?"

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Steve looked over at what Tony had been reading before he suddenly disappeared, but it still didn't enlighten him. Obviously Stark was involved in something, but there were no details. There wasn't even anything that definitely said this Winter Soldier project, whatever it was, was HYDRA.

For all they knew, this had been a project to design winter clothing to help soldiers deal better in cold climate combat. He hated that he didn't have the whole picture and was frustrated at Tony for keeping it from him.

"Tony..."

He rose and followed him to the window. "You're scared one of your folks was on the wrong side of this war, I get that, but if I'm gonna help you then you need to tell me what's going on."

“So that’s the problem. The only known person ever to make it out of the other side of the program bypasses my security measures like they’re nothing. It might as well be hair secured with cellophane tape stretched across a door. It’s possible that he also implanted the information.”

Tony’s shoulders hunch and he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“My whole Tower is compromised, Steve.” Not Rogers. Not Cap. Tony is in real danger of feeling something and that’s a big problem. He doesn’t do well with that.

“I’m going to show you something. And then we are going to track him down and get answers: J? Play back the last few hours of our visitor.”

He didn't think that Tony had ever called him Steve before, and that-- well, that scared him more than pretty much anything else that could have been said right then. If Tony was genuinely concerned that a HYDRA agent had been in his tower and implanted information to implicate his family, then a bit of fear was probably understandable.

But fear turned to incredulity and then outright shock as JARVIS played back the last few hours.

Bucky. Bucky. God Almighty, that was Bucky, and he had a metal arm and he looked like those men who came back from the front with something missing behind their eyes. The actual conversation about the Winter Soldier barely sunk in, he was too busy watching the familiar way that Bucky's lips formed words or the way he sat. His heart felt like he was breaking.

"...where?! Where is he?"

He no longer cared about answers, he just needed to find his Bucky.

“Did you miss the part where he can literally get around my security?” Tony didn’t mean to shout but he did end up doing it anyway. His entire body was on edge and all he wanted to do was grab Steve and give him a good shake. He should have gotten out all of his violence already but Bucky gave him more than enough to play with here.

Bruised up, ego hurting, and if people did actually have souls (he wasn’t convinced) then that hurt too. He couldn’t stand it.

Of course, there was no way that he wasn’t going to put a tracker in the arm he had fixed. He’d done it when Bucky mentioned his mother but refused to deliver the goods. And he’d done it so that there would be no more without warning arrivals of the other guy.

He rolled his eyes. “J? Where’s our resident asshole?”

Steve literally couldn't care less about Tony's security system, he wouldn't have cared if Tony had said that Bucky managed to get a whole circus of performers in here and they were still rampaging around the lower floors, because that was Bucky. The one person in his life that he had cared about above all others, perhaps even above his Mom, the one that had always been there for him and protected him and cared about him.

The person he had failed.

No, right now he cared about literally nothing except tracking Bucky down and finding out where he had been all these years, what had happened to him, and why he had never come back if he had the capability to, since he obviously had the capability to hunt down Tony.

"The target," said JARVIS, unsure yet how to properly address Bucky in his system. "Is currently on the seventeenth floor of an abandoned and condemned apartment block on Keeble Avenue."

It was probably stupid to try and stop Steve Rogers, but Tony had to try physically, he actually initiated contact, moving as if to wrap his hand around Steve’s wrist. Verbally, he shouted ‘hey,’ fairly nonsensical really. Steve was in no way paying attention to him. The guy who had become his closest friend now was thinking like that mother orca from the documentary that just came out, lashing out for his friend.

It didn’t matter who stood in the way. And that was why Tony was standing alone in the Tower half a minute later as Steve races towards the building JARVIS had described.

Bucky had no idea that he had been traced, he was one of the best in the world at escaping notice and he was fairly confident that Stark didn't (yet) have the technology capable to track him - but that was his own mistake for not realising that the man had bugged him even while he fixed his arm.

He was too late to escape by the time that he realised someone was in the building with him, on his feet with a gun pointed at the door as it flew open to reveal... Fuck. How had Steve found him? Obviously Stark had betrayed him, but how had they known where he was?

He didn't lower the gun even a minute amount, expression hard.

"Get out."

Tony would really be up in arms about the betrayal aspect here. It’s not like he and Bucky are friends. They were barely even friendly. And Tony did sort of want to kick his ass from here to the moon so—

So it was probably about right for Steve to be there, unarmed, without even his shield. Maybe that had been stupid on his part because Bucky might lash out, but Steve was thinking with his heart instead of his head. And that was probably the number one complaint that Tony had about him in the friendship department. The blond was effortlessly the dumbest guy Stark knew.

And everyone was dumb compared to him, so you know that isn’t the best vote of confidence there.

“Hey.” Up went his hands. He hadn’t removed the tacticle, fingerless gloves he wore on missions. “I’m just here to talk, pal.”

This wasn't the first time that he had seen Steve, of course, that had been from a distance through a sniper scope before he realised that, for the first time ever, he couldn't follow an order to kill. That had been what made him break free and run, though he still half considered going back because of how fucked his head was.

But it was the first time that he had been close enough to see those big blue eyes looking at him like some kind of whipped puppy.

"I don't have anything to say."

Nor was he lowering his gun.

If Steve could put a number to the pain this was causing the way people do to broken bones or illness, it might rank right up there with the time that he had gotten pneumonia and fell out of bed. Steve had never been a complainer but he would admit to smarting pretty badly after that one. And this? This felt like his gut had been punctured.

“Why not?” he asked, probing gently, never lowering his hands. He didn’t want to spook Bucky more than he already had. “Used to be a time when we would tell each other everything.”

Mostly. Sometimes Steve didn’t fill Bucky in when he did illegal things. Just in case Bucky was ever questioned. Steve might be a do-gooder and a God fearing man but he knew when to step over the line and he was never afraid to do the right thing, despite the law.

There were so many truthful answers to that question - he no longer really remembered the times they told each other everything, he didn't want to put Steve in danger from his programming, he was too broken to even find the right words more often than not. But he went with a lie; a lie designed to hurt Steve and drive him off, to save him from all of this mess.

"You let me fall."

He barely remembered that, only the agony of his limb severing, the freezing cold of the snow, and the look of sheer anguish in Steve's eyes. But he used it to lie anyway.

"I hate you, you failed me. Now get out."

That hurt worse than a bullet or three would have but Steve sucked it up. He could deal with heartache because it tended to be all he felt when he was alone in his apartment reliving memories he couldn’t get away from. It was why he was always so eager to head into Manhattan, despite the traffic. Tony was a distraction as well as a friend, and just maddening enough to make Steve forget that everything he knew was gone or broken.

Especially since Sharon never remembered him anymore. Sometimes that was better than having her remember that he wasn’t at her bedside once a week like clockwork and she was seeing him again for the first time in sixty years.

“I know, pal,” Steve said without wilting, though the pain in his eyes was intense. “I hate myself too. But that’s why I can’t fail you again. Why did you leave Tony’s? It’s safe there.”

No one was taking that flimsy attack as anything real it seemed.

Damn it, it was only when Steve used that damning indictment as a reason to stay and do better, that Bucky remembered just how stubborn the bastard had been even before the serum, and how 'run away' had never been in his vocabulary.

Not good.

"I didn't go there for a long term place to stay, I went for repairs. They're done, so we're done, I don't need to stick around any longer."

Also, he didn't really have any particular desire to sit with Maria Stark's son and endure further hatred for telling a truth that he had warned would not be a good one to hear.

“It looks like there’s more at stake here than repairs,” Steve said, his voice having dropped half a register as he put on his Captain America pants to deal with this now that Bucky had pointed out how his failure had caused… Well, he wasn’t sure. Abuse, certainly, at least at the hands of HYDRA both before his fall and after.

Steve wasn’t going to read into any of that. He couldn’t. His mind needed to stay focused on this task before he moved to the second or third or…however many there needed to be once he was done with this. His loyalty was and would always be to Bucky first.

His country could come second.

“HYDRA. You mentioned them to Tony. HYDRA still exists?”

Having Steve in the same room as him was intoxicating in the same way as imbibing a whole keg of beer, it made his head hurt and the world seem to spin, and it made it really hard to focus on anything. He was scared of having Steve this close, scared of just who it was who could break through decades of programming without even knowing that's what he did from a distance.

"I'm taking care of it."

Why was this happening? He should have just let the damn arm stay broken, it wasn't worth this mess to have got it fixed.

"I told you what I wanted from you, I want you to go away. It's the last time I'll tell you before I make you."

“You don’t have to take care of it alone. And you know I can’t just back down when it comes to HYDRA.” At least, that’s what Steve assumed. He had no idea that Bucky’s head was Swiss Cheese or why it was like that. “It’s not about what you want. I’m sorry what I did to you. I’m sorry I didn’t look harder or longer for you when you fell. You have every right to hate me and I’m not asking for your forgiveness when I don’t deserve it. But if life’s taught me anything, it’s that you can work with people who hate you to get things done.”

Maybe that was a little much to say all at once here. Especially to a guy holding him up, literally, with a gun pointed in his direction. Steve had been prone to giving rousing speeches for a long time now, though.

It might very well be in his upended DNA.

“I know you wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man, Buck. And I’ll go as soon as we work out what we’re going to do about HYDRA.”

Something about that statement struck Bucky as very funny. Had the man he had been before all this really been so moral that he wouldn't shoot an unarmed man? If he had been capable of it, he might have laughed; as it was, his lips just twitched up into a slightly bitter smile.

"You don't know the first thing about me, killing an unarmed man would be the least of my crimes."

He's done it before, and he'd do it again. Hell, he did it earlier tonight, and Steve might be able to smell the faint scent of blood the longer he's here and the more he's exposed to it.

"Go back to Stark and whatever life you have now, forget you ever saw me, it's best for us both."

Death was a smell the super soldier had become accustomed to, though since he had awoken there were all new smells that overshadowed any death that might linger on the streets of New York. The smells here didn’t bother him. Not yet at least. He was too focused on blocking out his other senses so his body could react to movement.

He never would have believed that Bucky could shoot someone not labeled enemy. He knew that as a sniper, sometimes he had to shoot the unarmed to keep their company safe.

But that was different to now. His eyes were so bleak now that Steve decided not to look into them, despite how hardened his own gaze was.

“I don’t care what you’ve done. What HYDRA might have made you do.” His Bucky wouldn’t have done it on his own and Tony had been spouting something about behavior modification most of the afternoon. “I know you won’t shoot me. And you know I was never good at having any sort of life outside of being your friend.”

"Stop it!"

This was burrowing into his head and making him want to go with Steve, making him want to protect him. Something in the back of his mind said that he had always been at Steve's six, from when they were kids to when they were Commandos, he had been there to protect and watch out for his best friend.

But that had been another man, one that died a long time ago in a HYDRA cell, and he couldn't afford to give into that confusing wash of information. His hand trembled slightly, gun still pointed directly at Steve.

"Stop talking like you know the first damn thing about me."

Steve could almost feel his jaw click and he swallowed down as much bile that rose in his throat as he could. This, as Tony might say, sucked.

“I used to know everything about you,” Steve reminded him. “But I get it. It’s been s long time. For us both.” Steve had gone off to war in the middle of the night without telling Bucky. He hadn’t been there to see Bucky off or wave goodbye with the rest of his family.

But they’d seen each other again.

Briefly.

Bucky had changed. So had Steve, all be it more physically. And now they had changed again.

“I can’t lose you again. We haven’t hit the end of the line. I know it, Buck.”

For the briefest second, Bucky looked stricken. The hollow hardness fell away and he looked like someone wounded and scared, about to cry, but it only lasted a moment before fear and anguish overwhelmed everything else. That phrase, something about it was like fire scorching him and he lost control.

With a snarl, he pulled the trigger of his gun three times in quick succession and shot Steve in the gut and chest. He missed the heart and lungs, though, even if he should have been able to hit them from much further away. Panic flooded him when Steve crumpled unconscious and, before he knew what he was doing, he had Steve in a fireman's lift and was sprinting through the city to the sound of honking horns and yells from people left behind.

He didn't stop again until he was stood in front of Tony Stark, no longer caring what the man thought about the truth of his mother. He couldn't say anything, just mutely held out the unconscious Steve in blood-drenched arms.

“Oh my god. Are you a cat? I can feed myself. I don’t need you to show me affection through pain and bring me stuff you kill!” Maybe that was kind of weird? Tony didn’t have the usual reactions to things. It was almost like he was incapable of being human save when he was alone.

“Captain Rogers is not dead. He is losing a great deal of blood, however, faster than his body is able to replenish it. I would suggest, sir, that he go to the hospital.” JARVIS was at least minutely helpful.

“You think? Shit. Fine.” It would take a few moments to get to his cars. “J, clear the path. You,” he pointed at Bucky, “follow me.”

He’d need someone to put Steve in the car. Fuck his life. And his all leather interior.

He didn't follow.

What he did was put Steve down on one of Tony's workbenches and grab the nearest sharp tool that he could get his hands on, and slice straight through his metal arm. It had to have been something in there that let them track him, and so it wasn't safe any longer, and he didn't have the technical know-how to dig it out himself.

So it was better to amputate the problem.

He looked up at Stark, looking more like a feral animal than a person, with blood all over him and tears spilling down his cheeks that he wasn't even aware of out of guilt and fear, and then he just ran.

Tony would be left to haul Steve to the hospital himself. Not that he would be alone for long, as they rushed him off to the OR, an innocuous looking red-haired woman in scrubs sat down next to him as if by random chance.

"A run in with the Winter Soldier, hm?" She murmured over the rim of her take-out Starbucks coffee cup, quiet enough for only Tony to hear. "Is he going to be okay?"

“Do you think I’m in any way capable of lifting—“ But Bucky was gone and Tony cursed before loading Steve up on DUM-E. It was not his most graceful maneuver.

Tony hadn’t ever sat by a friend’s bed before (or waited for one in an emergency room waiting area) so this was a new and weird experience for him. He presses his knees together before crossing them and was just sinking into an old copy of Wired magazine when the voice roused him from a really boring article about the future of AI that he was quoted in but had forgotten he had given an interview for.

Natalie. Natasha. Whoever she was.

Tony tilted back his head and tossed the magazine aside. “Which one? The guy that cut his arm off in front of me or the guy he shot? I haven’t heard about either. Technically, the blond should be all right by now.”

But he was being fucking stubborn.

Natasha had quite enjoyed being Natalie for the brief period she had to be, it had been a nice change of pace from some of her previous undercover jobs - much less painful death and messy red in her ledger. She had even come to quite like Tony Stark, he wasn't as bad as his bluster made him out to be.

"He doesn't miss, you know?" She set the cup on her knee, as if she were talking about something as mundane as the weather and not about a legendary assassin. "So I have to wonder why the good Captain is even breathing with three shots in him."

She ever so gently tugs up the hem of her shirt to reveal a white puckered scar.

"He got me once, a long time ago, and I should know that he doesn't miss."

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sorry had to nip out again, back now

Re: sorry had to nip out again, back now

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i don't have a nat account so pretend Bucky is Nat