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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“I went down in ’44 too, and I didn’t die either. You know that the Army gave me almost 90 years of backpay? And I still can’t afford to live in Brooklyn anymore.” He didn’t want to broach other topics right now. Getting Bucky talking, joking, maybe even laughing was mostly selfish. It made him feel better to have someone again.

Nat and Tony had been great sources of support and comfort but neither were Bucky. Natasha understood that…it was impossible to say what Tony did or did not understand, honestly. Steve had stopped trying pretty early on into their friendship.

“Maybe if we pool our money together, we can get a small place.”

Pipe dream. Most of Steve knew that was never going to happen.

“And then we can work on punching over shooting some more when I get on your nerves.”

The worst part of this was that a part of him really wanted that. Some long-buried bit of Bucky could hear how hard Steve was trying to hold himself together and desperately wanted to help, to take away some of that pain and burden. But he couldn't, he couldn't risk it because he didn't know what was in his head that might set off at any moment and make him into something that would do worse than put a misplaced bullet in Steve's gut.

"You don't need me to afford anything."

90 years of backpay, that'd buy something pretty much anywhere, even Brooklyn for all that it had changed since they lived there.

"And I can't stay with you, I have my own missions now, my own life. It doesn't involve you any more." Even if he wanted it to.

“If one of your missions involves me being your target, I’d say that I’m still part of your life.” Steve had carefully avoided saying that Bucky was supposed to kill him. He couldn’t abide by that thought at all and he hoped that it would hurt Bucky less. He knew it was likely part of this dehumanizing programming that made him think on two different levels, made him unable to manage anything without second guessing which side of himself he was using as the actor and which was a whisper from the past. “And even if it does,” he continued, “I want to be part of it.”

Why couldn’t he be? Because Bucky was dangerous? Yeah, he got that. He could adapt pretty well. He could manage it.

Steve was the safest person to be around. If Bucky snapped, he could take care of himself. And wasn’t this the very thing bullet proof vests were made for?

"You still don't know when to back off, do you?"

It was half weary and half fond, or as fond as he could get now. Steve made it sound so simple, like they could just pick back up where they left off and any issues would be easily solved without anyone potentially dying.

"Maybe you can be a part of it someday, but not now and not yet. Please, Steve, for once in your damn life back off and let me go."

Let him have his choice, and maybe he'll come around on his own one day.

For several long moments there was nothing but silence. “I did let you go once,” Steve said, exhaling enough to brush against the receiver in a puff of air. It might scratch against Bucky’s ear the same was that the breath itself would, and maybe the nostalgia of heat would come along with it. The mind could do funny things after all.

“I let you go and it was the worst moment of my life. You can’t ask me do it again.”

It was cruel to do that and though Bucky might not care so much about cruelty (he did shoot him), Steve was betting that the man beneath the layers really didn’t want to hurt him.

“I won’t come and see you. But I want to talk. Maybe not every day – unless you want that. But every few days. Just to talk. Can you give me that?”

"That's a low blow, Steve."

Even if he didn't really know who he was yet, Steve wasn't wrong that there was a big part of him underneath that didn't want to hurt the other man. It was what had stopped him going for the kill even when he didn't know his own name, and now it wrenched like a knife in the heart with those words.

"You didn't let me go in the first place, I fell off that train, you never even had hold of me. Don't do this, it's not fair."

It was half a desperate plea, because he knew he was close to cracking and just giving Steve what he wanted.

“Life isn’t fair,” Steve says resolutely. “Ma always used to say that so you can’t use that as an excuse when things don’t go your way. What isn’t fair that I didn’t follow you. Or come back to look for you.” But Steve was a greater good sort of person. That’s what made him a good leader. He could let a soldier go if he had to because there had been a bigger evil to fight.

Then. But not now. Now, there was a huge empire of evil still, thanks to HYDRA still being alive and well, but there were also people that could handle it. It didn’t just have to be him. Tony had proved that the first mission they had gone on together. What Steve needed a full platoon for in the past, he and Tony were all he needed now. Warfare had gotten smarter. And deadlier. But the numbers of soldiers needed had shrunken.

“Sorry, Buck. You never should have let me hang out with you at recess if you didn’t want me hanging around with you now. Those are the rules. I’m just following them.”

How was Steve so good at that?

He could get his own way and argue down someone so opposed to him, and make them admire him. Bucky was left twisted up in his own mind, unable to find another good argument to turn this around, and yet unwilling to back down so easily.

"I don't remember that, you know?" He murmured, his voice probably barely audible at Steve's end. "I don't remember hanging around at recess, I don't remember meeting you, I don't really remember anything about you except flashes."

He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling like he wanted to cry, though he forced it down. "Please don't make me do this."

He didn’t want to hurt his friend. He could hear the tears in his voice. He almost sounded heartbroken over wanting Steve to be his friend. And that hurt too. This was going to be cyclical, he realized, but he couldn’t back down.

This was going to be horrible for them both, he knew that. But right now Steve had to be the adult here. Bucky couldn’t be trusted to make decisions for himself. Not yet.

“I’m real sorry, pal.” And he was. “But this is probably the best way to get you to remember more than just flashes of me. Don’t you want to know how we met? Or why I can’t leave you how you are?”

"Yeah."

The response was so quiet that even Bucky barely heard his own voice, and JARVIS had to repeat it at Steve's end so that it would be heard at all. He felt raw from just that one word, the admission that he did want to know how they met and why they were so important to each other. He wanted it more than he wanted anything else, and that's what made this so dangerous.

"Send-- send me a cell phone, I'll take it with me when I leave, I'll call you, okay?"

“I can do that.” No need to, of course, since Bucky wasn’t leaving any time soon. And Tony could just give him one. One capable of being tracked of course, but also capable of being lost or thrown out or destroyed. But again. That hardly mattered.

Not when Bucky was going to be a prisoner in this house and on this island for who knew how long.

Oh, Tony was sure that he’d attempt escape. He was sort of hoping he’d try to build a raft or call for a rescue copter or attempt to swim. That would be some good entertainment.

For now, after Steve hung up, Bucky would be left to his own devices with cold tea but a well stocked kitchen that knew better than to let Bucky try to burn the place down.

Viva la technology.

Of course Bucky attempted to escape, he was damn good at swimming and he was fairly sure he could make it far enough out to sea to either find a vessel to stow away on or hit other land.

No island can hold Bucky Barnes!

But, oblivious to Bucky's attempts to escape, or Bucky in general, someone was hunting down Tony Stark. The poor man was probably tired by now of being hunted, of having aliens and assassins drop it, but his life could never be one of comfort. This man was only here because he had to be, because he got a message from some random source that he believed totally and utterly.

"Mr. Stark?" That would be JARVIS. "There's a man at the front desk attempting to gain an appointment with you, I only inform you because his name is flagged in my system. Dr. Bruce Banner."

Tony had been busy watching Bucky’s third attempt to swim for it (ha!) and noted that he wasn’t beating the last distance he’d hit before getting too tired to turn back when JARVIS bothered him. He very nearly told the AI to mute himself, because he had come calculations to do about the waves and the tides for the next two weeks when his butler said a name that made Tony flash hot to cold and back again.

He stood up too quickly. “Keep me updated if he drowns,” Tony muttered, stumbling for a moment over some junk he had in the middle of the floor, before he rushed into the elevator at the end of the hall.

He ought to have Banner up to his penthouse but he wasn’t really thinking. He was too excited, grinning like a mad man as he made a beeline towards the mousey looking man trying to blend into the houseplants and stuck his hand out. “Tony Stark. Wow. Nice to meet you. I’ve read all of your papers but I’m mostly just impressed by how you turn into a green rage monster.” He had stars in his eyes. Best. Day. Ever.

Bruce was wearing a purple shirt that had some evidence of sweat and travel on it, though he had obviously tried to tidy himself up a bit, and he was carrying a rather battered looking briefcase. He looked around, startled, when someone suddenly came up to him and it wasn't until halfway through the first sentence that he realised this was who he had come to see.

"Oh. Thanks."

Well, that was awkward.

"But I'd actually prefer if you didn't mention that so loudly, or openly, or at all. Anyway, Mr. Stark, it's a pleasure to meet you and I would really appreciate a few moments of your time?"

Bruce could have all of his time. Pepper was or. Steve was mooning over the guy who was trying to drown himself. Bucky was the drowning guy. No one trusted SHIELD. what else was he supposed to do until Bucky could give them real information about HYDRA or his mother?

“Come upstairs.”

“Badge!” Happy cried from the security desk, rushing over, and Stark manhandled Bruce into the elevator, hit the door button, and shrugged as they slid shut before Happy could get to them.

“Gave him too much power,” Tony grumbled before his attention refocused on Bruce for the long ride up. “You’ve come a long way to say hello.”

It was both a good thing and a bad thing that Tony already knew who he was, which was fairly evident given the green rage monster comment. Good, because it would cut down on the amount of explanation he needed to give, and bad because it was never comforting to know that unknown variables knew about the Hulk.

"I didn't exactly come all this way to say hello, I came because I was given a message."

Bruce awkwardly shifted his briefcase under one arm to undo the catches and opened it up, taking out a letter on slightly charred paper and holding it out. The handwriting was neat, but hurried, and the letter short:

Go to Tony Stark. He'll help you. It's not too late to stop what's coming.

"Normally I wouldn't come halfway around the world for an anonymous note, but you see... that's my handwriting."

The last time that Tony had checked in on Banner’s whereabouts, he’d been in India. Half around the world indeed. Tony took the paper and then glanced up, smirking. “You know, if you were anyone else, I’d probably make this into an airplane and chuck it at your forehead. Not because I’m afraid you’ll go King Kong on me but because this sounds ridiculous. Very Star Wars. Okay, Leia. If I’m your only hope, we better figure out just what I’m supposed to be doing—“

But damn. He was collecting odd balls all of a sudden.

Super Soldier popsicle. His best bro. A blue ice giant and his/her Fabio lookalike Norse God boyfriend. Now Banner.

“I’ve got to say, out of all the crazy people that have decided to crash my place in the last few months, you’re honestly my favorite. And I’m not just saying that because you’re the one currently in my elevator.” The Bell dinged and Tony strode our of the elevator first, pausing in the doorway of his surveillance room to watch a tired figure swim back towards the island. Okay. No drowning today. “So how did you get this? Drink?” He’ll pour two anyway.

Already Bruce was wondering if he had made the right decision to come here, Tony really didn't seem like a very calming sort of influence and just being in his presence was already quite unnerving. How exactly was he supposed to help when neither one of them knew what he was helping with, anyway?

"It came in the mail, just like anything else would. Except I've never been Bruce Banner at that address, and I've definitely never written myself any letters."

He ran his hands through messy curls and blinked up at Tony through his glasses, the picture of a slightly flustered and mild-mannered professor type.

"I'd ask how you know about the Other Guy, but I'm guessing SHIELD told you."

“Doctor, you broke Harlem,” Tony said, more matter-of-factly than he probably wanted to come off being. “Technically, you and the Hulk aren’t connected by name but... pretty much everyone on the dark web is aware. Brilliant scientist goes AWOL. Giant beast gets shot at and rampages New York— Bound to be some armchair sleuths who can put two and two together.”

Tony wasn’t going to discuss SHIELD here. Or the defense contract that kept Tony involved in the Green Guy and on Bruce Banner’s general whereabouts.

Fun projects for him. Probably not so fun for Banner to know about.

“Hey J? Let’s do some scanning for temporal disturbances. Any sign of Thor or Loki wandering around eating pigeons?”

That wasn't a fun revelation, especially not to be told as bluntly as that, but it was also kind of refreshing. He had never really met anyone who knew about the Other Guy who dared talk to him in a way that might upset him, usually people were so on edge around him that it was like walking on glass.

"Right." Good. Okay. Just what he wanted to hear. "Are you expecting to see Norse gods eating pigeons?"

JARVIS was silent for a moment as he performed a world scan using several illegally piggybacked satellites, it was important to be thorough when performing a task for Mr. Stark, after all.

"Yes, sir. I have readings of Loki-fyri currently in Kenya, there are no readings of Prince Thor."

“I’ve seen Norse gods cooking pigeons,” Tony said, without any brand of amusement in his voice. He wasn’t joking here, that was something of note, but also he was treating Bruce as a friend. They’d said half a dozen lines of conversation but Tony, who had been a fan of his for a long time now, had already decided that they were going to be close. He’d stalked him enough to get that right.

Tony Stark logic was the worst logic of them all.

He left the room to return to the surveillance room he’d been in previously (Bucky was halfway back to the island) and flicked at one of the projected screens hovering over his desk before he sat back down again. “Let’s see where in Kenya,” Tony muttered, feeling the heat from the other man as he tried to figure out what was going on just over his shoulder.

JARVIS took a few moments to get a satellite image of the Jotun and zoomed in as much as was possible.

“I hope he’s not cooking an elephant. Are there elephants in Kenya?”

The satellite zoomed in on where Loki was racing along the foothills of Mount Kenya itself, though he didn't seem to be actually in pursuit of anything, more just running for the sake of it. He appeared human currently, all pale skin and green eyes, but his clothing was the tanned leathers and braids of a time long past in a civilisation long-dead in this reality.

As they were watching, he shimmered and changed into a strange reptilian bird, the likes of which didn't exist on Earth, and started climbing the mountain in wide sweeping curves.

Bruce's mouth gaped open as he leaned in closer to the picture, unable to believe what he was seeing. Despite what he could change into, the actual existence of aliens or gods or whatever the hell that man was-- it was incredible, the scientific discovery of a lifetime.

"He's-- God on High, he's really Loki, isn't he?"

“Sometimes she. And yes,” Tony said as if this was nothing very major and just something that went on through the course of a normal day for him. “The last time they were here, they accidentally kidnapped Captain Rogers and caused a chain reaction that turned some guy to dust.”

In other words, going after Loki was a dangerous endeavor and Bruce should be kept away from it.

Tony glanced up at a monitor where Bucky’s was seen laying on a beach panting before he turned back to Bruce, eyes bright. “Ever been to Africa?” He knew that Bruce had. Egypt at one point, Morocco at another. Both briefly.

His smile even stated that Tony might know a thing or two that he wasn’t telling either.

He nudged Bruce around towards the door and gave him a small shove. “To your left!” Friends don’t leave friends behind!

Bruce was torn between being gobsmacked that Tony seemed to talk about all of this as though aliens and people turning to dust were no big deal, and extreme excitement about actually getting involved in this sort of scientific breakthrough. Not to mention the nervousness of a situation that might potentially be bad for everyone involved if it proved too stressful for him.

"Uh, are you sure I should be coming along for this?"

Not that he's stopping following Tony along the corridors of his ridiculously sleek and expensive tower.

"I'm pretty sure that I came to you to avoid stress and not go into situations like this."

Tony paused, hand out to keep Bruce from smashing into him. Normally, when it came to dealing with aliens, Steve was Tony’s go to. But not now. Now, Steve was obsessed with a guy trying desperately to escape him and yet still answered the phone every single time Steve called him to talk. They had a weird relationship. Honestly, Tony was a little jealous of it.

As often as Tony said he didn’t play well with others, he didn’t like doing things alone. Pepper was busy with her own stuff. Happy was not a good wing man.

And he needed someone.

“You haven’t had an incident in over seven years,” Tony remarked casually. “That’s better than every else I know. Including me.” Drunken birthday party two years ago anyone? “I’m sorry. I don’t have time for kid gloves. And it’s not my style anyway. If you trust yourself, and I’m guessing you do considering all of your humanitarian work, then I trust you. Are we good? Don’t answer that. You’re coming with. I need a passenger to keep me awake and on course and to keep me from being distracted by my own incredible intelligence.”

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gdi I missed this ):

Re: gdi I missed this ):

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