[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_oneswidow]

The woodwinds in her collection were for noodling mostly, and the violin was for memory of her family, but when Curnen really wanted to play she turned again and again to her guitar. This would probably always be her best instrument. It was the first of the month, she’d been here over a year, and it was probably a check-in day. So she sat on the lawn with her instrument in her lap, sending out a subtle magic to call anyone stranded in their little world this way.

At one point, though, she set aside the guitar and turned her face to the sky. For just a few minutes she required a different kind of magic.

It had been a week now since Scanlan had vanished in the battle. And Pike, too, though Curnen honestly couldn’t have cared less about her going away if she tried. Still. The two of them were family to people very dear to her, people who missed them. And Scanlan had been her friend. You marked something like that with a song.

Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

It was a traditional Irish goodbye, a farewell to friends said with love, drinking, well wishes, and the hope of meeting again. She couldn’t think of a better one for the occasion. And as she sang she twined her magic into her voice in a new way, sending the song to any ears that needed it, ears of those who knew and missed the departed. Not all of them might understand it, not all of them knew what she was, but she didn’t particularly care about that right now. The song was more important than the hiding.

Once the last note had dissipated she picked up her guitar again and resumed her work. If there were anybody out there, they had to know where to go.

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[st_ranger]

The former soldier stood before him, staring at the hand in front of him and wondering if he could get out of the way in time. All mental calculations told him that he probably could not, at least not without being winged in the process. He remains very still, knowing that even the slightest waver could cost him deadly.

He didn't blame the man for wanting to kill him. So many people were after him, even if he didn't blow up the Accords in Vienna like they thought he did. It always ends in a fight, doesn't it?

"2016," he said softly. "Bucharest. I... I was hiding. I... I was trying to buy plums." He blinked, but did not move.. "My face was on a newspaper. The Captain found me. Other people were there. Soldiers. Wanted me dead. I..." A small sigh slipped out. "I jumped. One minute I was falling out of a window, onto a roof, then another roof..."

His voice trailed off and he took a breath, letting it out slowly. "Landed in a road. Road brought me here. I... I didn't blow up that building. I don't do that anymore," he murmured.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

If Tony had not lived the events himself, Bucky would have appeared the rambling madman.

'He's worse.'

If he acted now, the Winter Soldier wouldn't have time to see the way Tony could hardly lift the thermos past a few inches in his left arm, or the way he bore weight to keep pressure off his mending ribs. He had taken the man on once without the benefit of his full suit, but that was with backup. He could say nothing about his chances now--he was essentially limping prey.

"Merry Christmas from 2017." He kept himself talking to silence the devil on his shoulder. His conscience was clawing at his skull, reminding him what would happen if he started a bloodbath here and now. "I know your future. Yours and Roger's. And your past. Try hiding anything and I'll put you down." There was a forced clinical element to his voice, but his blown pupils betrayed all emotion coursing through him. Even with the benefit of a full year to process their encounter, seeing the face of his parents' murderer brought him back to that awful moment in Siberia.

"You're looking a little pale. A little shaky. How do I know where good 'ol Bucky starts and HYDRA ends?"

[st_ranger]

Slowly, Bucky lowered his arms, his eyes still staring into Tony's. He didn't move other than that, didn't want to. He could see that the man before him was beyond angry, bordering on trembling. That is not something that he wanted to deal with. He didn't want to be that person anymore. If the man was hurting, Bucky didn't see it. Not right away. His arm was up and he was facing right at Bucky, so the soldier didn't even try to blink.

"The future," he said softly. "That makes sense now. What she said. Out of space and time..." So, this place was like a way station for people from all different spots. Past and future. His head tilted to the side and he stared at Tony. "I don't want to know the future. Don't tell me." If he hurt Steve, he didn't want to know about it.

How did he tell Stark that he was always pale, always shaky. There wasn't much money for food rations when you're on the run.

"HYDRA..." He frowned. "There are command words. Phrases. The soldier won't come out unless someone says those words. I... I was programmed." His eyes narrowed and he stared at Tony. "I'll never be 'old' Barnes. I don't... I don't remember everything." James shook his head. He hated this. He had been better off alone.

This was why he was hiding. Maybe Tony should put him down? Maybe he wasn't worth the fight? "I didn't mean to come here..." But it was too late now, wasn't it?

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Everything Bucky was confessing, Tony Stark already knew very well. There wasn't a thing about the man Tony didn't know, aside from where he had run off to during his escape with Rogers.

"Scared of the truth? You don't get a pass." The assassin was trying to make requests now? "I didn't get a pass. Not from a first-class seat view of my parents' 'car crash.'"

Tony didn't get a pass from the truth of their deaths. He didn't even get a pass from the truth of his own. Trying to make peace with those facts, now he had to do it in the company of the man who slaughtered his family and whom Steve Rogers turned his back on him for? It was beyond cruel.

'For both of you.'

Tony grit his teeth.

That niggling voice would just not shut up. His arm was minutely trembling with the weight of it all.

[st_ranger]

Bucky Barnes had the grace to look ashamed. He winced at the words Tony Stark threw at him, words that he knew he deserved. He'd done his research when memories started to surface. While he had no control of himself, he could not argue that it was his actions that caused the death of Howard and Maria Stark. HYDRA had seen him as a threat and an enemy, so they had him eliminated. The flashes were dark, violent and he tried not to dwell on them. He didn't remember every death, but he remembered those.

His eyes narrowed, staring at Tony, watching the tremble in his arm. "I don't do that anymore," he stated a little more firmly. He didn't want to have a fight here. And yet, it always seemed to end in a fight, didn't it. His shoulders tensed, he wondered how long Tony would be before he'd have to put his arm down. Soon, it would be too heavy. Soon, he'd have to move and that's when the Winter Soldier would have reacted.

Bucky didn't want to react.

"I'm sorry," he stated. "I... I can't... I'll never..." Bucky sighed. There were no words that were going to make up for what he did, nothing that he could utter to make it right. It was cruel, what this place had done, plucking him here when it knew Tony was here, just to make the man suffer. No matter what the young woman had said, this could not be a mere coincidence.

"I... I don't know what to say."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Apologies? Sympathy? The devil on his shoulder laughed, and Tony felt sick.

"Then don't."

Tony wasn't out for excuses. He wasn't out for pity, much less from the man before him. No, no, no. He was out to get home. And James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier, whoever the hell he was--he was just another wall to smash through. A massive liability with a slippery grip on his sanity.

Letting this man know rest was a decision not of emotion, but of pure practicality. Tony steadied his hand.

'Decisions that, honestly, feel like the right things to do at the time. Then you realize that you're lying to yourself--'

There was that voice again, throwing his own words back at him.

'--and the whole reason was because you really, honestly, just cannot help yourself because of how damn good they would make you feel.'

He clenched his fist. The glow of his repulsor died.

'Like murdering the man who killed your parents and stamped a giant, lingering black mark on your psyche.'

He brought his fist back into the mirror behind him. The sounds of shattering glass were distant and muddled.

[st_ranger]

It was the glass shattering that did it. Bucky jumped back a few feet, hands in front of him as if he felt like the glass was going to come out at him. It wasn't and he knew that, somewhere inside. The sound, still, echoed in his mind and triggered him to react. The only hope he had was that his jumping backward and putting more distance between himself and Stark made Tony realize he didn't want to be a threat.

Far from it, in fact.

He couldn't blame the man for the pain that he had, couldn't take it away. All he could really do was just react, at least until he could get away to his room and hide. He didn't know why the hotel had decided to test him like this, but it had. He wasn't enjoying it.

"I... I'll just go." He didn't know what to say. Tony was telling him not to say anything. He felt like he was at an impasse and he didn't know where else to turn. Any questions he did have about this place, Stark wasn't going to be the man to answer them.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony drew his hand back. With the armor protecting him, the only causality of the night was the mirror itself. Management would have more words for him, no doubt. Let them.

HYDRA. HYDRA. HYDRA.

Home. Home. Home.

Tony repeated them in his head like a mantra.

"A sick dog's still just a dog." Tony's voice came out at a breathless monotone. All his emotions were shut away behind a wall, unsure of how long before it would give if he stayed.

Mercy? Regret? Sorrow? Tony was so far removed from himself he couldn't say why he was honestly sparing the man outside of simple pragmatism. He passed Bucky in an arc as he made for the hall, never taking his eyes from the man.

"Wander off and bite someone and I won't be the only one on your tail. But I will be the first."

[st_ranger]

Bucky frowned. The analogy wasn't far off. He felt like a dog. One who had run away from its master and was trying to be a dog again. He didn't want to be the pet of the master. He didn't want to be controlled.

"I don't do that anymore!" Bucky shook his head, staring at Tony as they began to put more distance between them. He didn't want a fight. He just wished he could get Stark to understand that.

If he had his way, Stark would never see him again. He'd do his best to hide in the hotel and avoid Stark at all costs. "There won't be any biting. You won't have to worry about me," he murmured.

He shook his head, knowing he'd never get a fair shot from Tony.