[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.

Comments

[st_ranger]

"Huh." The kid was younger than he suspected him to be. Bucky wonders just what happened in the future that a kid knew about his arm? Was there more destruction after Vienna? Did he become the soldier again?

His shoulders tensed as he began to worry if he'd hurt someone.

He stares at Peter. "Berlin?" Slowly, his head moved back and forth from side to side, shaking his head in answer to Peter. "I... I was not in Germany. The last thing I remember was being in Bucharest. Then... I was here."

He sighed. "I... What did I do? Who did I hurt?"

[st_arkintern]

"You didn't hurt anyone," Peter says quickly. "I mean, I got thrown out of a window, but that was mostly because of Falcon's drone and I should have been paying attention, anyway."

Peter smiles.

"It takes a lot for anything to really hurt me. I'm Spider-Man."

He probably should have said that earlier.

[st_ranger]

"You... Out a window?" Bucky nods his head, as if he was understanding what was going on. He really wasn't sure that he was, but he could play along well enough. He wanted to be more understanding. It just seemed to be a world of information that was vastly ahead of him.

Being from the past probably didn't help. At least in relation to Peter.

He does give the briefest flicker of a smile to Peter. "You're a human spider?" His head tilted to the side as he stared at Peter. "How does that work?

[st_arkintern]

"I got bit by a spider when I was on a field trip in 9th grade," he says. "It gave me some weird powers, like, I'm tougher and stronger than a normal human."

That had come as a surprise.

"I've got really good reflexes, too. Sometimes, I get this weird tingle right before something happens."

Peter wants to tell him about the web-shooters, but it's starting to feel like he's bragging, and he really doesn't want to sound that way.

[st_ranger]

Bucky nodded. To him, it wouldn't be bragging. It would just be explaining abilities. Bucky raised his metal hand, staring at it. If anyone understood having abilities that you suddenly didn't know what to do with them, it would be him. Oh, he'd been trained as the Winter Soldier, but that was all programming.

Now? Now he wad finally trying to figure out how to put his life back together, skills and memories. Spider bite. Super serum. There wasn't much difference between the two.

"And you know me?" He finally looked up at Peter, tilting his head to the side and his expression softening. "Don't you?"

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, kind of," Peter says. "I mean, I was supposed to web people up. I didn't exactly do a good job of it, though. Things got pretty hectic."

It was hard for things not to get hectic when you were trying to take down a 100-foot man.

"If you want to see it, Karen can pull up the video," he says. "She records everything. I get if you don't want to, though. I'm really excited about the future, but not everyone is."

[st_ranger]

"Karen."

Bucky thought about it. Whatever it was, it was a future event. It had to be, since he did not recognize the kid in front of him. Wasn't there some thing about knowing your own future? He wasn't sure. And yet, there was that small spark of curiosity inside of him. One that he should have not listened to.

"Web... Spider web." Bucky nodded his head. "I... I'd like to see?"

[st_arkintern]

"You should probably know, we were kinda fighting at the time." That seemed important, especially since Bucky seemed to be worried about hurting him. "You didn't hurt me, though and I wasn't angry at you or anything."

A beat.

"I'm still not really sure why we were fighting."

[st_ranger]

Bucky frowned. His shoulders slumped and he looked down at his hands. "There's always a fight," he murmured, shaking his head as if he wished that wasn't the case. He's glad to hear that he didn't hurt the kid. That wouldn't have done well on his conscience.

"Maybe it had something to do with Steve?" Though, he doubted it. No way would the kid know Steve Rogers as anything other than the guy in the museum. "Doesn't matter. I... I won't do that. I don't do that anymore."

[st_arkintern]

Bucky looks... well, he looks pretty sad about all this. About everything. Especially about fighting. It feels like every time fighting gets brought up, the guy looks a little sadder.

So he answers the question with the hopes of segueing the conversation elsewhere and quickly.

"Captain America?" Peter echoes, thinking back to Berlin. "Yeah, Mr. Stark and him were fighting one another. I'm just not really sure why."

Now what? Peter tries to think of something, anything to change the topic.

"Did you need help finding your room?" Okay, probably not the best topic-changer, but it's the best he can come up with last-minute.

[st_ranger]

The pieces begin to really fit together the more that Peter speaks. Steve and Tony were fighting. He was on Steve's side and Peter was on Tony's. Bucky could only imagine what the cause of it was. Me. His head shook. No wonder Tony had reacted so badly to him. It wasn't just what he'd done to Howard. He wondered what he'd done to Tony. He had to have done something to make the man aim at him instinctively.

A small sigh slipped out.

"I... Yes, but... I am not sure I want to go up there just yet." Bucky looked up at Peter, trying to force a smile for him. "Why were you in Berlin? How could Stark drag you into all that. You shouldn't have to do that. You... You are a kid. You have your life ahead of you. Why would you even want to fight a stranger?"

[st_arkintern]

On some level, Peter understands not wanting to go up to his room; he didn't particularly want to when he first arrived either, because a small part of him felt like the second he turned that key was the second time he was committing to making this his home.

He was right on the verge of empathizing when Bucky asked why he was in Berlin, and suddenly, Peter felt embarrassed.

"He didn't drag me," Peter says. He's clearly on the defensive. "I went to Berlin because I wanted to. Mr. Stark needed my help."

[st_ranger]

The soldier frowned. "I... Sorry?" Bucky shook his head. The kid reminded him of Steve in a lot of ways. He didn't even want to fight, but Stark had needed him, so he went. Just like Steve. "I... I don't want to fight you," he said softly. He paused, his shoulders slumping and he took a step back.

"This place," he said with a sigh. "Can you tell me more about it?" Turning away from Peter, Bucky looked around the room. He felt slightly awkward about putting the kid on the defensive. And honestly, he didn't really want to talk about Tony Stark. The man had almost shot him just today. "It looks... Big?"

[st_arkintern]

Peter relaxes just as Bucky's voice lowers.

"I don't want to fight you, either," Peter says, scratching the back of his head. He looks around, taking in the sight of the foyer and remembers that at one point, this place that seemed so small to him once seemed really large.

"People think this place might be a pocket dimension," he says. You can go four hours out before you start heading back, no matter what direction your start running from. That's four hours. It doesn't matter how fast you go. Four hours, you always start coming back."

[st_ranger]

"Huh. Out of time and space," he said. Just like River had told him. He nods his head and turns back to Peter. "Four hours?" He was tempted in trying to test that theory, but that could wait till another day. "Like, it turns you around or you just wind up back here, hmm? Poof?" Bucky bit his lip.

"No contact," he murmured. "No going home." Even if he wasn't sure he wanted to go home, he still wanted to be able to have his choice and not have it taken away from him. He'd been used to controlling choices. "Who... Who else is here? I... I saw Tony." He looks over at Peter and his face says everything. "Stark... He... He wasn't happy."

[st_arkintern]

"Other people you might know?" Peter pauses and thinks. "There's Mr. Star-Lord and Rocket," he says. "They're from outer space. Thor, too." Also from outer space. "Other than that, there's no one else from our world."

At least that Peter knows of. Still, there's one last thing that Peter needs to address.

"I don't really know what's going on with Mr. Stark," Peter says, honestly. If Mr. Stark wasn't happy, there had to be a reason for it, though, right? "I can try talking to him if you want me to."

[st_ranger]

"No!" Bucky raised his hands, shaking his head slowly. The last thing Peter needed to do was anger Stark, especially when he was probably on his good side, not his bad side like Bucky. "I mean, er, no. Don't. I..." He sighed. "You're his friend. Don't ruin that. Don't mention me, he..." His voice trailed off a little. "I don't blame him, if what you say is true about us fighting. He... He has every right to kill me. I'd deserve it."

Bucky shook his head, sighing as he began to slowly pace in front of Peter. "I... I don't know them. Just Stark, well and you now. And Steve." Steve Rogers, who he had not seen and almost hoped the man wasn't here.

"Our world," he said softly. The more he said it out loud, the more he really came to grips with the fact he wasn't going home anytime soon. "Huh. Okay then..."

[st_arkintern]

Peter isn't sure what Bucky would have done to believe that he deserved to die, but Peter doesn't believe that anyone deserves to die. Even if they did really terrible things.

"It'll be okay, though," Peter says encouragingly. "I didn't know anyone at first. People knew other versions of me, but they didn't know me-me. Just alternate mes. Things'll get easier once you start making friends."

[st_ranger]

Oh, if he knew. If Peter knew, he wouldn't want to be friends with Bucky either. And the former asset can accept that. People had been rough with him over lesser atrocities. Tony had every right to hate him and want him dead. Bucky toyed with the idea of just going up to his room and staying there for a while.

He really wanted to at least scope out the hotel and make acquaintances. Trust meant trusting and he wasn't sure he was ready to do that yet, even with the kid. "You sound like him, Rogers." There was a hint of positivity in his eyes and in his smile that he could see in Steve too. Rogers had never given up, not really and truly. He would always be the kid on the ropes.

[st_arkintern]

"Really?"

There's no mistaking the light in Peter's eyes when he utters that word. He looks down, grinning, then manages to (mostly) push that smile away to look back at Bucky's face again.

"We only kinda talked once," he says. "During the fight. He said I had heart. He also asked where I was from. We're from neighboring boroughs."

[st_ranger]

"Oh, you're a New Yorker." That made Bucky smile, just a little. It was a very small smile, but it was there. "New York. The city lights up at Christmas." His voice was soft, quiet as he remembered how the streets used to light up. When they were younger, Steve and Bucky would to take it all in. A free show was a free show.

His head nodded and he gave Peter a fond look. "He'd like you. When he wasn't fighting you." They both grinned just like a kid at Christmastime, that was what made him trigger his memory. "I miss New York."

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, Queens," Peter says. "Cap said he was from Brooklyn. Are you from Brooklyn, too?"

Bucky certainly talks like it.

"I know Mr. Stark's trying to find some way to get us all back home," he says. "I've been here over a year now. I thought I'd stop missing it eventually, or that I wouldn't miss it as much, but... that never really happened."

He still really, really misses it.

"Have you ever been to Delmar's?" he asks. "They were rebuilding when I wound up here, but they made the best sandwiches in Queens, easy."

[st_ranger]

"I... I am." Bucky sighed. He might as well rip of the bandage, he thought to himself. "Steve and I grew up together. Were friends." Best friends, he thought to himself. His heart still aches, unsure about the memories that fly in and out of his mind. "Kids together," he said sadly.

Bucky chuckled. If anyone could get them home, it would probably be Tony. Stark and his technology were known back home. Why would this be any different. "It's hard not to miss what you know." Bucky wished he knew more.

His eyes widened and he stared at Peter. "Sounds... Familiar?" He was sure it was something he passed or seen, but he didn't have any immediate memories of the location. "Understandable. Small bodega? Usually better than large chain that knows nothing," he murmured. "Numbers don't compute. Masses always like the smaller stuff." The ones that made them feel like home. Most people empathized with that.

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, it's great. Not too much bread like the other places." Peter's not happy with the fillings-to-bread ratio at a lot of other places.

"What was Mr. Rogers like when he was a kid?" Peter asks. "There's all this stuff about him at the Smithsonian, but there was never a lot about his early life. Just a lot about everything that happened afterwards."

[st_ranger]

Bucky looked at him with a very serious expression. It wouldn't be clear if he was joking or not. "Bread to meat ratio is very important."

And that did it. The mention of Steve made Bucky's eyes twitch, but in a good way. The corners of his lips turned up as he remembered some of the memories that he'd still been unlocking in his own mind. "He was smaller," he murmured. "Sick. Frail. He..." Bucky frowned. "They wouldn't let him enlist right away. Not healthy enough. Before he was big, he had a big heart."

There was something in Bucky's voice, the way he spoke about Steve when he wasn't around. Even as confused as he was about everything, he could feel how important Steve was to him. It scared him.

"Fighter. Even then. Many fights. Too small to fend for himself, so... I think I jumped in." He chuckled. "Awkward. With women. Didn't know how to talk to them. Was... Was always there. Every memory, he's in it," he whispered. "Art... Liked art. Drew. Sketches... All over the walls."