bakerstreet | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ WOKE UP IN JAIL ]

Where are you? Why is your bed so hard? Why is someone peeing right by your head?
Oh right. Because you got pinched last night. Welcome to the slammer, baby.

• Post with your character name/fandom/options preferences.
• Use RNG to pick your possible scenario - or just go with what you'd like most.
• Reply to other people's tags. Use RNG or decide what your part in the whole kerfuffle is.
• Enjoy the confusion.

Reason(s) you're in jail:

1. Indecent Exposure
Nobody wanted to watch you strut around with everything hanging out, and someone called you on it. Hope they gave you a jumpsuit or you're going to be prison eye candy.

2. Drunk and disorderly conduct
"Wassat, occifer? No... I'm not dru-*hic* drunk. I'm unner the legal limit. Wooo!" No, no you're not. You're way over. Sleep it off, buddy.

3. Vandalism
Oh, you naughty thing. You got busted stealing that 'Chickens X-ing' sign. Or was it drawing boobs on the drive-thru clown? Either way, tsk tsk.

4. B&E
Apparently your friend didn't think you kicking in his window to sneak in and leave him a 'present' was as good of an idea as you thought it was. Well, no love for HIM. *hmph*

5. Grand Theft Auto
The car was BEGGING to go for a ride. It called to you with its sireny car-call. And you just had to answer. If it hadn't been for the damn spike belt...

6. Kidnapping
Trust me, there are better ways to get money to pay for your Bieber concert tickets.

7. Murder
Talk about being caught red handed. You got caught red armed. And faced. And front. You're messy.

8. Any/all of the above
Ooooh... You've been REALLY naughty, haven't you? Actually, you kind of scare me.

Relationship of the person tagging:

1. Cohort in Crime.

2. Person coming to bail you out. (or not)

3. Jailer/Warden.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

"Well, I'll let you get cleaned up. Doors open if you can't sleep again tonight." Steve says as he moves to walk past Tony and to his bedroom door. He want's a shower himself and then he plans on eating something and maybe sketching or writing in his journal. He's taken to writing and drawing so he has a time line of what happened while Bucky was asleep. That way he didn't forget anything, or if something happened to him Bucky would know he'd been happy. Even if he wasn't happy.

"Noted." He gives a wave and slips into his room. Showers, changes, flicks through messages from Pepper about SI stocks and apparently? Things aren't good (they haven't been for awhile, the board is beyond nervous and he can't fix that from this side of the world but it's an old, familiar migraine right now) but that's par the course. In response he sends back schematics for the new Stark Phone and a tablet, as well as the beginnings of (maybe) an agreement that could get him access to observe (not record) some of the technological advancements in Wakanda.

He's got to tread carefully here in so many ways and that's got him tense through his brief appearance at dinner. Vision is pleasant (expected) Wanda is...also pleasant. Which is unexpected, but he'll take it. He manages to be calm and civil and not terribly curt, ducking back to Steve's room with a plate of some kind of pastry filled with nut butter left over from dinner and damn if this isn't a role reversal. He knocks, assuming nothing, and offers the dish as an explanation.

"I know you're always hungry, thought you might want room service with a personal touch."

Steve is once again dressed down in a pair of pajama pants and a white tanktop. He pads barefoot when a knock sounds at the door. He thinks it's probably Wanda or Sam, they're the ones that visit him the most after all. He leaves the sketch book on the coffee table open to a picture of Tony he's 3/4 the way finished with. It's a portrait of Tony in his workshop in NY one of the few times Steve was permitted to see him working with his helper bots.

Steve is surprised when he opens to door and sees Tony standing there. "Thanks Tony. I appreciate it. Did you want to come in?" He asks taking the plate and motioning into the room.

"If you're up for company. Sam mentioned you spent most of the day with Barnes." Which is- well he can't really wrap his head around what Steve gets out of watching a man that's been frozen other than grief; but he generally doesn't get people when things are tangled up like this and emotions are all over the place, and he's given up on trying to predict Steve.

He saunters (some of the old swagger back, the suits help, the work helps, knowing he's not universally loathed helps) to the chair he'd all but staggered to not twenty four hours ago and settles in, eyes flicking from point to point in the room. Seeing what's the same, what's Steve's. "I know when I get all maudlin having Rhodey or Friday poke me keeps it from becoming a full on brood."

"Yeah I did. Sometimes it helps to talk to him even if he can't talk back. If he's anything like me I like to think he might have lucid moments too...and if he does maybe he can hear me and then he wont feel alone or abandoned." Steve says as he puts the plate on the counter and then sits on the couch where he'd been before Tony arrived.

"I admit I've been broody lately but it's more from a place of frustration at being unable to fix my mess. I was never very good with being patient sitting still and patience and sitting still is the only way this issue is going to be fixed. I started to draw again...keeps my mind and my hands busy."

"First step I take is breaking down the mess, seeing what I could've done different, what I can actually fix and what I need to throw money or lawyers at to fix. Failing that- learn to live with it." He has a lot of experience with learning to live with it. Yinsen, the double dealing, the weapons he's built-

The weapons he keeps building.

Steve listens as Tony speaks and nods. He doesn't have money or lawyers but he understands the learning to live with your choices and mistakes. He sits in silence for a bit. It's not uncomfortable for him, he has no idea how it is for Tony.

"I've been thinking...I think once we get this mess sorted out I want to give up the shield. I mean technically I already did but metaphorically. Even if we do make things right and all I think I'm done being Captain America. I think Sam would be good...yeah. I think he'd do right by it. I just...I don't think I can support what it stands for anymore." He runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head in frustration. You know...it's been less than five years [I tried so hard to find a timeline :( ] since I came out of the ice. I went from fighting a war in Europe to waking up in the 21st century. I want to get over everything that happened to me, reconcile all the horror I saw but I can't talk to people who served during the war because for them it was over 70 years ago and for me it was less than five. And the worst part is, nothings changed. We're still at war. We just do it differently now."

Well that's one less thing for him to worry about. Trying to put the team back together would be one issue. Trusting Steve at his back in a fight with the shield- that's not likely to happen easily anytime soon. Working around the legalities and PR of him coming back would be a nightmare and this makes for a simpler transition whenever this is fixed. if it's fixed. "Falcon's not a bad choice."

He's who Tony would've picked back before-

Before.

"You could try talking to veterans from the more recent wars. Different horrors but we've become nothing if not more efficient at doing terrible things to other human beings in the interim." And SI had been a leader in developing most of those.

Ouch...glad he didn't actually come out and say that. As if Steve needs to feel like any more of a failure with Tony. Ironically enough, Steve trusts Tony to have his back in spite of what happened. It would hurt him to know that wasn't reciprocated. Steve doesn't WANT to give up the shield, but he thinks it's for the best. Part of him wanted Tony to disagree with him but he's not surprised he doesn't. at least he supports Sam. That's something.

"Maybe. We'll see." He sighs and just deflates into the couch. He doesn't know what to say right now and putting up the front that he's okay is exhausting. Normally this situation is reversed but lately...it seems like Tony's the strong one while he just kind of exists. He needs to figure out a way to be more useful.

"You never really got a chance to figure out how you feel about this mess." He gestures to Steve, encompassing him from head to toe. "The physical changes, the war, the propaganda. You wake up and they put you right back to work. I know you said you were home with the Avengers after the mess with Ultron but..."

Sore wounds, bruises and stitches and neither of them healed up as well as they pretended, not underneath. "I figured you were avoiding the chance to try and figure yourself out. As the king of evasive maneuvers, I get it."

"I thought I was home with the Avengers. Where else was I going to go? I didn't have anyone else. Everyone I knew was dead or dying. Even Peggy couldn't remember me more than a few minutes at a time. As for the rest...well no point really. Immune to disease, heals from almost any injury, I can hold my breath for more than 10 minutes, I can run through walls, I can jump out of planes without a parachute and be fine. The first time I put my personal desires before those of everyone else this happens." Steve says with a growl of frustration before he just kind of leans back against the couch.

"Well as you're the king of evasive maneuvers, what do you suggest we do now?"

"Don't." They are past the point of repressing shit and trying to bravely soldier onward. Something's got to give and if they keep ignoring everything, it's going to be one of them. It was Tony for a brief period of time and he's- adapting. Fixing himself, trying to fix the situation. Steve's never had a chance to be the one to break.

It's not always as horrible as it seems.

"We gotta face this and deal with it." Again his fingers flick, less at Steve and more between them. "That'll make everything else easier."

"What else can I say? I've said I was sorry, I've told you why I did what I did?" Steve says his eyes earnestly bearing into Tony's. They were never the best of friends but Steve respected him. He trusted him. He liked him a lot even. Tony was something he could count on to be there in the middle of the night when he needed a distraction. Tony was the one with the cool new toys and the compliment to his tactical prowess. They were a great team when they were on the same page. But as previously shown, they were rather epic at falling apart as well.

"This hurts." Steve motions between them. "You're important to me but I don't know how to fix this. You don't trust me and I don't blame you. You'll probably never trust me again."

"Why didn't you tell me before, about Barnes and my parents?" Sure the letter said sparing him and sparing himself and all that trite bullshit, but letters are easy to write and easy to put away. "Knowing ahead of time would've been rough, I get that, but not being blindsided it would've changed everything."

He would've needed time- still needs time- to get his head around it. Distance himself and deal instead of losing his shit in a spectacular fashion. "Everything else I can get over- Rhodey's beaten my face in before and we're still fine-"

In a fight that happened on his terms, when he new the outcome, when he knew he wasn't probably going to die. "It's the lie that bothers me the most. That and both of you going for the reactor. Tactically smart, inwardly traumatic. Part of the reason Barnes is down an arm is the last man that put hand on it tried to pull it out my my chest wile I need it- succeeded, and damn near killed me."

"I didn't tell you because at the time I didn't see the point. I thought it would hurt more for you to find out that HYDRA had done that to you more than just thinking they died in an accident. Murder is harder...or so I thought. Bucky was also on the run. I didn't want you to go after him in anger...I didn't want you to find him before I did and risk either of you getting hurt or you getting killed. I didn;t know if he was the soldier or if he was Bucky.

I also hoped that well...if I could get you two together, that maybe it could just be a conversation we had. A chance for you to talk to him about it calmly. To see that he wasn't a monster who did it because he wanted too. I didn't want to cause you more pain than necessary. I made a bad call and I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry." Steve says his eyes a little misty and his voice a little thick. "I knew your dad, Tony. We weren't friends but I knew who he was. He helped me a lot. And it...it was still hard for me to believe he was gone. It had only been three years since I'd last seen him and he had a grown son, had left a legacy...."

Steve pulls at his straw colored tresses and heaves a long suffering sigh. "I just wanted you to stop Tony. I wasn't trying to hurt you, neither of us was trying to hurt you. We just wanted you to stop trying to kill Bucky. If the arc reactor was still there in your chest...if you required it to live you know damn well I would NEVER under any circumstances go for it. If you even entertain that thought then you never knew me at all." Steve says. "I just wanted you to stop..."

"That's...not a sit down and have a conversation kind of talk, Steve. That's a 'give a guy some warning so he has time to process it before he comes face to face with the last face his parents saw and does something rash' kind of talk." As usual- well meaning and expecting better of Tony, which he ought to know better than to do by now. All he could ever do was the best he could while running on too little sleep and too many ideas- watching the path the world is taking and trying to alter it with will and innovation and always, always finding it insufficient.

He can do more.

He has to do more.

"It was a reflex. A panicked one, but- a reflex none the less. You get used to guarding your weakspots- like I said. Tactically? Smart move." Just. Rattled him- still does, and like every time the thought comes up his hand rubs his chest where the scar tissue lies mottled from the removal. Sometimes he wish he hadn't- his sternum's a mess. "See? Progress. Talking about it."

"I just didn't want anyone to get hurt." Steve pleads with Tony to understand that his intentions had always been good, he'd just wanted to protect everyone.

Steve's always tried to take care of everyone even when he couldn't take care of himself. He expects better of the world, gives people the benefit of the doubt unless they prove themselves untrustworthy. Even now he is not angry with Tony for anything. He understands why he did what he did, doesn't like it. But he understands. Tony had explained his reasons for signing, and Steve already knew why he tried to kill Bucky. He always expected better of Tony, known he was capable of better. "Does it hurt? Your chest?"

"More often than not." In the interest of honesty. "It's mostly mental."

Have a chunk of metal and electronics in your chest for a few years and the absence is startling, even with Extremis mitigating the bulk of the damage initially. "Most of it predates this."

Again, trying to be honest, and he's got no idea how to make Steve look less wounded and miserable- as angry as he'd been this? This is tugging at something behind his breastbone and twisting uncomfortably. "Had a bruise like a bitch for a few weeks afterward though. Most of what I was working on today was a new housing for the reactor that'll hold up against that kind of targeted impact so, hey. Learning experience."

"I'm sorry." Steve says in an empathetic tone. He knows chest pains. He'd felt them acutely his entire life before the serum. He almost wishes he wasn't so 'perfect'. That the scars and wounds from battle lingered on his flesh instead of beneath it. The physical bruises and marks Tony had given him barely lasted a few days, same with Bucky. But the mental ones, they were still there.

"I hope it works out." Steve says honestly. "I'd hate for something irreparable to happen to you."

"Our line of work? It's a matter of time." And he'd hoped that he'd be leaving something worthwhile behind. That even if he didn't survive what was coming that the seeds planted with the Avengers would foster people that could face things he can't. At the end of the day he's a genius, sure. But he's a man in a suit that's only as good as he can design. "But I'm all for putting that off as long as possible."

"I really hate thinking about losing any of you." Steve says honestly. "It's why I take the risks I do..did. So you wouldn't have too. Bucky used to say I had a death wish...maybe he's right. I should have died so many times before now yet here I am. Just can't seem to get it right." He tries to make it a joke, but it's a little to cynical to be a success. "I might just stay here. Let the world forget about Steve Rogers. Fade away into the background and become a nobody once more. Figure out how to help Buck..or if not....let em put me on ice beside him."

"That's a waste." It's not entirely invalid- wanting to be done, wanting to walk away? He can understand that. He'd tried and failed and it's fine, he'll keep on this train till he crashes and burns and he's long since made peace with that. Steve- Steve wanting out?

Kind of surprising. Understandable but- surprising.

"Everything you can do, everything he can do when he gets his head on straight, and you wanna walk away? You don't want to be Captain America anymore, fine, good, great. You want some time to take for yourself, a little leave? You've earned it. You want to go back on the ice because living in the here and now is too damn hard for you? That's bullshit."

Steve gives Tony a hard look before rolling his eyes and accepting his friends...was Tony still his friend?, words. "Do you want some coffee?" He asks needing to move for a moment, to do something other than just sit there. He gets up and moves into his little kitchen to make at least himself a cup of coffee.

"Going into cryo would be the last option, Tony. The last. If there was no hope of me being able to go anywhere, of being with anyone. Of not saving Bucky. I just. I don't know what I want. I don't know what to do. I haven't felt this lost since my Ma died." He's stirring the cup so forcefully the spoon shatters the ceramic sending hot liquid all over the counter. Steve mutters a soft curse and grabs a towel to clean up the mess, angrily shoving pieces of the broken mug into the trash before trying to make another cup.

"Always." Coffee and sheer force of will were all that kept him going most days. Today's a little easier than most but that's an exception rather than the rule. Maybe he can adjust his baseline to compensate for all the new variables in the situation, like Steve wanting to either be dead or sleep for fucking ever.

Not easy to hear even when he's not sure where they stand. It's not-

It doesn't seem right in ways he can't articulate, and he's damn good at finding words for difficult concepts, that's half of what he does. "We can save him, is the thing. I told you I had the data from the book, theories, I sent you that information. And while I'm in no hurry to be in the same room as him anytime soon we can work with the Wakandan doctors on hand to unfuck his brain. It's doable."

Steve had looked over the data Tony sent but he couldnt understand much of it. He supposes Wanda might be able to help too...maybe. Steve returns with coffee for both of them and hands Tony the cup. "Here." He offers him the mug.

"I appreciate you being willing to help him. Wasn't sure it was still on the table and I wasn't sure how to ask."