Chapter 18
Inadvertent PenPals
Barnes POV
4th October
He let out a breath as the pixels fell away, revealing Shuri's lab. They'd been working on some of his memories, mostly to gain insight on how his mind was reacting to the algorithms, but also making serious headway. From what Shuri had told him, his brain was making matters complicated and because of it, she and Dr Stark, and he still hadn't quite gotten his head around that part… But because of his brain, the two geniuses were having to spend even more time working with him. He's pretty sure they could be off ending world hunger or something, but instead they're both helping him.
He figured that the least he could do was work on the memories. Plus he was also working on ignoring the voice in his head. It occasionally got quite chatty and he was learning a few things about it. It liked Shuri, wanted to protect her, a lot. The jury was still out on T'Challa. It didn't like Steve, at all. It found Wings tolerable. Tic Tac was seen as an amusing pet. With Clint, it apparently hadn't forgiven him for that time he'd barged into his room. Wanda was the most perplexing. It never spoke around her, he knew it didn't like her, could feel the rage but also caution. He had no idea what had triggered such a reaction, but then he didn't exactly like the little Ved'ma himself, so he hadn't questioned it. Dr Stark also interested it, apparently not many people had dismantled a weapon in its hands before and although he thought that would be a mark against the man, weirdly, it made him interesting. Interesting enough he was pretty close to calling it a schoolyard crush. It added a whole new layer of bizzare to the situation.
It was also silent in all BARF sessions, especially after they isolated the memories for the words. They had only ran one of those memories when Shuri had noticed a huge road block, that they react absolutely nothing like the other memories. So the pair of them were working on that whilst he was still running through other memories. It took Shuri a while each memory to find an algorithm that would work, but they'd definitely had more success and failures. Which after the abject failure the memory tied with the first word, it was comforting and it felt like he was making a difference, his head felt better in general. He wasn't cured, he still woke up screaming occasionally, some days he didn't want to wake up. Some nights he couldn't sleep, maybe he was imagining it, but he felt hopeful about it.
He still hadn't let any of the others know about Dr Stark's involvement.
Wings had asked why he was so interested in the guy, and he'd just had to shrug it off. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, out of everyone in the house they got on quite well. He just didn't know if Wings would go and tell Steve. Plus, saying 'this thing in the back of my brain stops annoying me when I research the guy' was out of the question.
He doubted he would run to tell Steve out of a bad place, not even in a malicious way. Maybe he'd tell him to prove something good about Dr Stark. But he knew enough about Steve, his reactions when he was mentioned? Yeah. That would not go well, at all.
About as well as telling anyone he had a voice in his head would go probably. It had been easy to shrug of the thoughts as his when his head was fuzzy. Now he felt clearer every day, and they still came and they definitely weren't his.
It was when he talked to it that screwed him over apparently. He knew talking to it was a bad idea, because now it had taken that as an invitation.
A blanket invitation at that.
He even promised to stop calling it Shade if it would occasionally be quiet when ignoring it didn't work.
It wasn't that it spoke a lot really, it just seemed to have zero concept of social norms and appropriate behaviour!
If he was sitting through an uncomfortable team breakfast for example, it would feed him suggestions of throwing a knives at Clint for fun. If Steve was following him or trying to hug him, instead of dodging and leaving, it wanted to punt Steve through an open window. It liked Shuri so had recommended buying a knife for her. It liked knives, but then considering he liked guns he couldn't really argue that. It still wasn't sure about T'Challa, so it wanted to 'observe' him. If this included breaking and entry, then so be it! It wanted to know more about everyone really.
So even though it didn't talk much.
It felt like a LOT.
He pulled the glasses off and decided to think about that much, much later. Hell, maybe it would go away and he'd never think about it again. He wasn't sure if he imagined the laughter at that.
"So, how goes the fight on the codes?"
Shuri practically jumped over and pulled him over to one of the many screens. She always gave him time after a session, to come back to himself. It was small but that kind of thing meant a lot to him.
"Well let's see shall we, Tony messaged last night that he'd had some ideas about our little problem. He's said he was going to work on the integration too."
He had no idea what had the things were that the two of them wrote, but he kind of enjoyed watching Shuri work on the system integration. The notes they left each other in the code were amusing.
" Hmm, he hasn't sent any updated Algorithms today but…"
"But what?"
"Let's just say he's been.. Busy?"
OK, now he was interested because the utterly incredulous face she was pulling right now was hilarious.
"How busy?"
"Well, for one, I recognise none of this."
She waved a hand and blew up what she was looking at and there was a lot, pages and pages worth of stuff he didn't understand. He knew a few coding languages, especially now that he was getting more memories of his time with hydra back completely. He knew his way around a few systems, true it was mostly security related and how to break that security, but it had given him a basis to understand some of the things Shuri had shown him. He couldn't even identify what language this was in.
"How long has the idiot been logged in..?"
Shuri muttered under her breath, bringing up more and more work that Dr Stark had apparently done. He idly wondered if the man actually slept, from what he'd found out, he seemed to practically have several full time jobs and yet he was putting an awful lot of work into this integration.
"I have no idea what any of this means."
"Don't worry White Wolf, I'm not sure I do, he's completely rewritten everything we've already done and then built on it, he's gone way off our calendar. There is work here we hadn't scheduled for months.."
She patted him on the shoulder before dropping down to read everything, he wasn't sure if she was irritated or impressed. Potentially both at the same time.
"Mind if I hide out again?"
"Sure, you're hidey corner is all yours."
She waved at said corner, it was literally just a comfortable chair that had mysteriously appeared a few days ago and a clear table. He liked it, either by accident, or knowing Shuri, on purpose, she had picked a corner where he could easily see the exits and most of the lab yet people didn't seem to notice his presence, no windows so it felt safe.
He barely read half a chapter before ringing jerked his attention out of his book and he looked at Shuri, wondering if he'd have to pack up and run before she answered or something.
"Don't worry, it's just Tony. Probably calling about all this. If you stay in the corner he won't be able to see you."
With that she moved to answer the call and now he was trapped. Did he want to be in the room effectively snooping on a video call? No!
'Yes.'
'See, this is why I'm trying to teach you about social contracts.'
'That's boring. This is fun.'
There was no way to walk around the scope of the camera, and he had no idea how low down the camera could see. There wasn't even a window to jump out of, his main way of dealing with uncomfortable situations. He slumped back into his chair, lamenting how he even got into situations like this as Dr Stark's image lit up in front of her. The man must have been in a lab of his own, it looked quite similar to Shuri's, but more white and steel. Blue holograms flickered around him but he couldn't work out much. There was definitely 'more' in Dr Stark's lab. There was stuff on every surface that he could see and quite a few cups. He wondered if he worked with others as that was a lot of cups really. Some even had stuff stacked on top of them.
Dr Stark was wearing his sunglasses again and a dark red suit, he was also still stretching his back, he could hear it popping and he guessed the mic distorted it as it sounded different than when he did that. Shuri immediately jumped to questioning him about the work she'd had shown him.
"How long have you been working on the integration today Tony, I came down and I can barely recognise it!"
Shuri was trying to look sterm but he could see from here that she was smiling. It was one thing to know they were friends, it was a bit different to see it so clearly. He wondered if the man had gotten his apology letter. Wondered if he had even read it for that matter.
"I didn't have much choice, the latest data packet you sent on Barnes, his mind is adapting too fast. I don't know how it's doing it, his mind seems to move as fast as my algorithms.."
"You sound impressed that his brain is literally screwing with us."
He blinked at that. What? He had thought the problems he was causing with the algorithm had Dr Stark doing more work, why would that impress him?
"What? It's a challenge. I like challenging things."
"Even when it's causing us problems?"
"Shuri have you really watched it when he's in a session? The code changes around the algorithm. No matter how I code it. I literally did not think that was possible."
"And this is a… Good thing?"
"Well, until we get around it getting shot of the words is practically stalled. But I didn't think it was possible for someone's brain to do this. I love impossible things. It's beautiful."
Huh. Okay.
He wasn't sure what to do with this information.
'I like this information, we have impressed the Feniks. This is good.'
Ahuh. Sure, this isn't weird at all. A billionaire genius in America whose parents you killed under brainwashing, likes your brain that is actively screwing him over, making his job harder. Then to top it all off, his uninvited passenger was preening over the compliment.
He really didn't know what to do with this.
It was good that he was still interested in helping him get rid of the words?
He figured he'd go with that because he really had no idea what to do about it. What are you meant to do when someone gushed about how annoying your brain is? No one has ever called his brain beautiful before…
'This is why snooping on calls is bad! You think out confusing things!'
'I like it.'
'Of course you do.'
"So, what's you next step?"
"It depends on him. After the integration is complete, I could write an adaptive program instead, but I'd need to be online to guide it."
That got his attention, he wasn't sure why the other man seemed so tentative about it. He'd been writing algorithms for his mind to run with since the beginning, without them he'd be stuck watching the same memory hundreds of times. He was just happy that he had made this software, that he'd personally edited it and poured his time into it just to help him. He figured most people would have given up by now.
He wondered if maybe he looked uncomfortable because of him exactly. I mean, writing programmes for the person who killed your parents is one thing. Being online at the same time? That must be incredibly difficult for the man.
"I'm sure he'll be fine with it, he's happy for the help. I will ask him though."
"Hmm, still not so sure about that. No matter how much you try to convince me. He is probably only accepting my help because he feels like he has no other choice."
"Why are you boys such idiots?"
He nearly laughed at Shuri's comment but managed to hold it back. Before Dr Stark can comment an awful noise blares from somewhere in his lab. Causing the man to flinch violently away from it before his attention snapped in its direction.
"FRIDAY! Why did you set my alarm to that!"
"Sue told me to set it to something utterly obnoxious so you don't forget to come around for dinner."
A woman with an Irish accent responded, but he couldn't see anyone, and FRIDAY was a peculiar name.
"Crap! Gotta go Shuri!"
Dr Stark sort of flailed dramatically rather than waved and the call cut as he turned to leave. It was quite endearing and not an action that he would have suspected from the huge personality that is Tony Stark.
Shuri muttered to herself before turning to him.
"What that man needs is a vacation."
"Well, that was different?"
"Oh no. For him that's practically normal."
"He seems like he doesn't stop?"
"Nope. Rhodes told me he occasionally has to get the kids to sit on him to make him take a break. So, do you have a problem with it?"
"With what?"
"The program he wants to write, that he'll be guiding, or something. He has that look in his eye when his brain is running ahead of him, but he won't action anything unless you're good with it."
"Sure? I mean, without you two I'd be sitting in the dark space of Cryo."
"Princess Shuri, I have some notes Boss has written up that Sergeant Barnes might find useful?"
He nearly jumped out of his skin when the same Irish voice he'd heard on Stark's call spoke to Shuri. The call was definitely ended however, so he had no idea where that came from!
"Thanks FRIDAY, I'll send them along."
"Um.. who is that?"
"Oh FRIDAY? She's one of Tony's AIs."
"That's right. I'm pleased to meet you Sergeant Barnes."
"Oh, okay, pleased to meet you Miss FRIDAY. So, what's an AI?"
"I'm an artificial intelligence, Boss coded me, I help manage the compound and Boss' life."
"Holy crap that's amazing."
"I'm glad you think so Sergeant Barnes."
How the hell do you code a person? And he'd be damned if she didn't sound smug! The future was utterly bonkers. Or Shuri and Dr Stark were.
Shuri POV
7th October
She was going to kill her brother.
It was a sentiment that she'd felt often these last few months.
Today however she was raw fury.
T'Challa has gone off to some kind of council meeting or whatever, and as such, everything about the rogues had found its way to her. No one wanted to deal with them. She didn't want to deal with them! But evidently, she was the last buck.
She'd woken up to 6 requests for T'Challa to come to the house to speak to Roger's and their current 'situation'. Being that Captain Coloniser wasn't happy that they'd grounded him like the bratty child he was.
"Fine! Send a message back that I will turn up when the Witch has been escorted from the premises. When she's underwatch I will visit to speak of their petty grievances."
"Of Course Princess Shuri."
"And if the answer to that is to moan about the little Witchlings feelings being hurt, they can wait until T'Challa gets back from his business trip."
With that the messenger all but fled and she found herself almost wishing that they'd argue the point.
They were her brothers problem after all, he was the idiot who invited them in, set them up in one of the more isolated villas and was effectively giving them a free holiday! All expenses paid and they always found something at fault.
And because of the precarious situation of harboring fugitives, they'd been backed into a corner by the Select Committee of the Accords Council. They were basically prison guards for people who didn't know they were prisoners until the world was ready to deal with them again. But at least they were being commended for this service instead of prosecuted for harbouring one of the most wanted group of supers at the moment. They only had that because of Tony. T'Challa had only recently discovered that Tony had been involved with it since the beginning. It had amused her greatly that her brother had actually thought that he didn't know the Rogues were in Wakanda, even though she recommended it on arrival, none of them ditched their gear. Tony had set up the deal to favour them behind closed doors, she had been pissed enough at her brother to agree to secrecy, the idea had been to have the Select Committee think they were winning and that they'd come up with it.
As time went on, she was starting to think thay the Select Committee were actually winning. Especially the more she was dragged into matters. The council in Wakanda of course wanted nothing to do with them beyond the potential political gain via the Select Committee, so her family was meant to deal with it alone. The idea being 'you got us into this mess, you get us out of it'.
As she dropped into her seat, rubbing her temples againstaa tension headache, a haggard looking Wolf snuck into her lab. Which was interesting, he'd gone home hours ago after their BARF session.
"What brings you back to my lair today?"
"Same thing that has your face like a thundercloud I bet."
"Why can't they just enjoy their little holiday in peace like normal people?"
"Well that's where you went wrong. They ain't normal. Lil Stevie was the most stubborn bastard Bucky ever set eyes on when he was this tiny skinny thing. He never lost the stubborn edge he needed to be heard, even now when he's, well. Him. People listen, but he still acts like the little guy no one hears."
"I imagine the difference between your friend and what he's become must be jarring."
"Sort of, but Bucky's memories, they don't feel like MY memories, especially the longer I'm awake. Looking at him was hard until I separated that in my head, because he was wrong somehow, too big, too loud. There's been so much time between them, practically a life times worth."
"That would help distance you from him."
"Yeah, for me it's been seven decades, him it's been a flash, so he is still looking for Bucky. Not the real one though, this idolised, eulogised, version of him that I don't think ever existed."
"I'd say I hope he comes around, but I am frankly too mad at him. They've requested me or my brother to speak about 'issues'. Argh."
"Yeah, that. They're going to complain about Steve's situation, Barton should be allowed to contact his wife and to discuss your 'unfair assumptions' on the Ved'ma."
He dropped himself down in a chair, looking utterly exhausted. They'd probably wanted him to be there for this meeting, a united front or some crap. She assumed he'd hopped out of the nearest window as soon as he was able.
"Well we can both hideout for a while. I bet the Witch will scream about my rule of her not being there for at least an hour. I am about to call Tony though."
"You two still working on that pile of incomprehensible code?"
"Yes, and that if Tony is agreeable, I want him to put on his armour, fly to the Accords Council and maybe throw my brother at a few walls for me. Just one or two."
She grinned and it got a laugh out of him, she could almost see him shrugging off the tension from the villa. Straightening up from the hunch he'd come in with, leaning back in his chair and pulling a book from his bag.
"Well I won't lie, that does sound interesting. You sure you don't mind..?"
"Don't be silly, that is your corner, you do what you want with it."
This was also one of the few places she knew that none of the others could find him or get to him. She knew he had hidey holes all over, she'd caught him napping on top of the bookshelves in the library once for instance. When it came to her lab however, he was completely cut off from them. The difference in him when he visited made her want to never send him back to the villa. They had a number of rooms and a private kitchen/common room available in the Palace for out of town guests. It was rarely used, no one was due to visit, it would be perfect for him. But until he chose, she wouldn't make that decision for him. Every now and then though she reminded him it was an option.
She turned back to her screen and put the call through to Tony, but was utterly baffled when T'Challa popped into view.
"You're not Tony."
What the hell was her brother doing in Tony's workshop?
"What delightful greetings I get from my sister."
"Ha ha brother, I just did not expect to find you in Tony's worksh- Peter!"
"Hi Shuri!"
Peter bounced up next to her brother, grinning broadly and bouncing slightly on the spot because of his never ending supply of energy. Harley complained about it often. She glanced around and saw Harley at his desk and Tony was likely helping him with homework most likely given the time.
He then turned and made his way to where her brother and Peter were standing. Harley offered a hand up in greeting too.
"Hey Shuri, workshop isn't always so busy."
"Why does she never smile at me like this? Charming sister, utterly charming."
Shuri rolled her eyes at her brother. He should be grateful she wasn't outright glaring at him.
"Your brother was going to give you a ring to say he made it here okay. He's just being accosted by Underoos here."
Tony was talking animatedly with his hands, and she had become so accustomed to it that she didn't see it. It was the sharp intake of breath behind her that made her actually look and that was when she noticed Tony's arm. His sleeves were rolled up, the left revealing the cybernetic hand that they had worked on and a thick band of scarring.
It was also pretty clear Tony had gotten so overrun with having everyone in his workshop that he'd forgotten to hide it.
She also bet that her brother cancelled that meeting so he could go and talk to the man. The sneak.
After he'd seen the video, he'd been quiet. She was surprised it had taken this long really. They'd both been sitting on this unexploded bomb ever since CERBERUS had sent to too her.
"Well I hope you're having fun brother. Abandoning me with the pests you invited over!"
She pushed everything aside for now, she'd deal with most of it later and her brother was so going to make up for this. He wasn't even at the council! He was at the compound enjoying himself. Also he obviously had managed to get some more information out of Tony.
Oh and when she gets to meet Tony in real life she is so going to punch him, probably after hugging him. The man is infuriating, but in an annoyingly understandable way. Watching that video, he can see why he keeps some things to himself, bottling it up, plus his need to not trouble her, if only he would see it was not a trouble to support friends.
"Next time you can come over Kit-Kat, the rest of my hoard would love to have you over. Today's council meeting was cancelled so he figured why not pop over!"
Sure.
'Cancelled'.
"Yes, I have some kind of interview tomorrow about how Wakanda is integrating with the world, so we thought we'd stop here and then go to the hotel."
"You sound utterly thrilled about that."
Tony's grin about T'Challa having an interview did give her an idea however. A tiny bit of harmless revenge.
"Tony! That's a great idea."
"Huh, What now?"
"You can go on the show with my brother."
Peter and Harley who were stood slightly behind the other two were now trying not to burst out laughing. Peter had his hands over his mouth and was starting to turn slightly red, Harley was grinning and shot her a thumbs up.
"Okay, fine, I'll crash your interview. Now, what were you after Shuri?"
Shuri actually had to think for a second, this call had gotten so derailed she'd almost forgotten the real reason she was calling him.
"Huh, Oh! I was just calling to tell you the next data packets are slowly making their way to you. It'll take a few hours."
Things sent quicker when they cleared both ends, still took far, far too long for her liking.
"Wait a second before you send, I have a surprise."
Tony vanished of camera then and she noticed that her brother was looking in the direction that he went, obviously watching him do something. Harley waved his phone and she realised he'd sent her a few messages.
Harley-did u c his hnd?
Harley-Shuri!
Harley-lk at ur dmnd phone!
She sent him a grin and quickly replied.
Me-Yes. I saw. Dnt thnk he did it on purpose tho.
Harley-Na, Mech is forgetful with it lately
Harley-its gd
Harley-me n Pete wnted to tel u fr ages
Me-I'll play dumb fr now, he'll realise wat hes done ltr
Harley nodded as Tony hopped back into the frame looking excited and a whole bunch of information started coming through on her end. She quietly wondered if Tony was trying to finish the entire integration in a week or something.
Not that she was complaining, not at all, this would make things considerably easier to send to him things.
"Better?"
"Oh yeah, you'll get everything much faster now." .
"I'll be able to finish everything up my end, then all you have to do is push your last changes and I think it might be done."
Done?!
"Done? As if you and my sister will actually stop working on it?"
"Well, mostly?"
She left the fact he'd gone and done months of work go and just laughed at the idea she or Tony would stop messing with it. The integration had started as a small thing, to make linking Wakanda with the rest of the world easier despite the vast differences technologically speaking, but she and Tony had taken it and ran with it. It was practically a living, breathing thing unto itself and she was surprised Tony hadn't coded an AI into somewhere.
"OK, I'm going to herd this lot off for dinner. Bye Kit-Kat."
She caught sight of his arm again and managed to not focus on it, it did however make the video play in her mind again and that was when she had an idea.
"Have fun, I might have some too.."
The call ended and she immediately looked over to her guest who looked like he was in actual pain. It was so sad that he seemed to have more guilt for something that he wasn't even really at fault for that the good Captain had.
"His.. His hand?"
"Yeah, I had my suspicions, but it was always covered. That's the first time I've seen it.. Attached."
She turned and pulled up the files she and Tony had worked on for the hand, including pictures of it, none attached obviously. He'd seen it before, but now there was confirmation. Looking at it felt different, even for her
"Zaebis' Holy shit"
"This isn't your fault you know, when you left that bunker you thought he was fine and you'd just been in a fight."
"Still, I know what it's like to wake up, have a limb just gone and then it's replaced with something foreign.."
"Tony's cybernetic hand is day to the night of the one Hydra made."
"That's something at least. How long did he stay in the bunker for? To do that amount of damage?"
"I don't know, his AIs, they, ah, sent me the video. From Siberia."
He just rubbed his hand across his face and nodded.
"They didn't know how long he spent there, he scrambled things so they couldn't work it out, the only person around at the start of his coma had no idea he'd even left for Siberia as he'd also been unconscious. As far as I'm aware, the only one who really knows is Tony."
"Well that tells us one thing."
"What?"
"It was long, if he doesn't want anyone knowing. He's bottling it up"
Before she could respond to that a message came through, the pests had acquiesced to her demands it would seem.
"Well. Looks like I'm going to meet your housemates."
"Mind of I…"
"Of course you can stay. No touching the weapons!"
She grinned before getting herself ready to go.
"You should show them."
That however got her attention, she had expected him to be… Worse over the video somehow. But he seemed oddly calm about it. He was utterly calm now, more relaxed and straight back having made up his mind she supposed. She nodded and set off to see what they'd complain about today. She'd considered dropping hints of it, but to actually have them watch it, that was interesting.
The trip to the villa moved far to quickly for her liking. She practically blinked and she was stood outside the door, getting confirmation from the guards that the Witch had been escorted from the premises. Even so, she still took a few of the Dora in with her.
Did she just so happen to pick those who had gotten the most fed up with the Idiots? Potentially.
It didn't help that a few of the Dora had now met the strange American their Princess had been video chatting for a while. He'd charmed them, even impressed Okoye somewhat, not that she'd ever admit it. So for the few that knew him as her friend, sitting and listening to their guests constantly bad mouth the man? Then there were the ones who had fallen for her Wolf, seeing him chuck himself out of windows to avoid people had not lowered animosity levels.
The last fight Clint had gotten in, let's just say they might have put him down. Hard.
Apparently he was still limping.
Even so, she didn't want to speak to them.
She much rather be in her lab right now, she'd had a few new ideas that she wanted to bounce off of her Wolf, and some book recommendations for the man. She didn't understand how he could be so.. Different to Rogers.
Rogers expected to be given things.
Wolf expected to be denied things.
It was a small thing, but it spiralled out into practically all of their choices and actions. Sighing again, wishing she was anywhere but here, heck, she'd take her brothers spot on that damned American interview than do this. Straightening her back she practically stalked into the house, her footsteps light as she came to the large, common room and heard Rogers complaining about the Witch 'being forced from her home!' She entered the room rolling her eyes because seriously?
"You agreed to my conditions. If you were so against them, then you could always wait for my brother to get home."
"Princess! We didn't hear you come in!"
"Their whole family sneaks around like cats."
Scott's enthusiastic welcome wasn't dulled by the Angry Archers mutterings. Her brother had told her a lot about Scott, out of all of them(not including Wolf), Scott spent the most time talking to T'Challa. Sam came a close second since he'd gotten very interested in the Accords. Her brother avoided talking to the other 3 unless he was dragged to one of these ridiculous meetings.
"Hi Scott! Thanks for the compliment Barton. Now. Why am I here? You do realise that not all of us are on vacation and actually have duties, right?"
Okay. Maybe she was needling the wall of muscle just a little bit.
"Well, Shuri.."
She just raised an eyebrow over the familiar way he was using her name.
"I don't know if you know what your brother has done, how he set certain restrictions on us? But I need to be there for Bucky and his treatments."
"Oh, you mean how you got grounded for lying, and that one got grounded for getting into fights?"
Rogers had to hold back Barton. It was hilarious.
"Now I don't know if you've heard anything, but.."
"I'm going to stop you there Rogers. Do you want to know why?"
He looked puzzled and she was sure Sam and Scott had edged away from the other pair.
"I actually know what happened in Siberia."
"Steve, what is she talking about?"
Sam paled, as Scott asked tentatively, he and Clint had been absent for the previous discussions just looked confused.
"Well, now, I'm sure you've heard many things.."
"No Rogers. I know. I watched it with my own eyes."
"I'm sure we can clear this up, I don't know who sent you that but they might be trying to manip-"
"You know what. I was going to let you talk yourself into a hole but you have already irritated me so much, I can't wait."
She pulled her wrists up and using her beads, sent the video onto the TV.
"Enjoy."
With that she turned and slammed the door shut behind her. Locking it.
"Don't let them out until they've watched it."
Sam POV
He'd known it was a bad idea.
He'd known it was a bad idea when he'd come down to Steve pacing back and forth.
The day did not get better from there.
Barnes went for his weird tech unbrainwashing therapy, which was doing the man wonders already.
Steve watched the door. Literally. Just sat and watched the door. Even Wanda couldn't draw him away, so she'd been leaning against him the entire time. Talking quietly with each other until Barnes returned and she detached and moved onto Clint.
Clint was in a foul mood, even compared to his previous moods. Which was saying something.
Then everything went quiet for a bit, he went for a walk… not long after he got a bunch of panicked messages from Scott. Begging him to come back. He'd almost walked off into the woods, but Barnes messaged him too and he'd found himself heading back to the villa before he'd really considered his steps.
That's when the bad idea started gaining steam. It was all -
'This is unfair!'
'They're unfairly detaining us!'
'They need to-'
'They should do-'
'They can't do-'
He really tried to calm things down, but it was like a runaway train with Wanda firing up Clint and Steve. It had ended with him, Scott and Barnes stood off to one side.
Then Barnes jumped out of the window.
He'd actually considered following.
Shuri's message came back and he breathed easily. That was the end of it right? No way would Wanda go ahead with it. She was furious about it, but then all the anger that she'd been stirring up came around and Steve practically ordered her out because this was their only chance to potentially influence the younger royal without her brother.
Personally, if Sam had to choose to go up against one of the royals, he'd choose T'Challa. But Steve just saw her age and Wanda suggested it.
So. He'd known this was a bad idea.
Knew it in his bones.
But like a runaway train, he was just stuck watching it go careening on. He could tell Shuri was unimpressed the second she walked in, but Steve didn't see it. He switched to his 'Aw shucks' look in an attempt to charm her, but that was so not going to work.
"Enjoy."
The door closed quietly, but there was a resounding 'click' that told him it was locked. Then there was an almost slow motion of everyone turning to the TV and Steve panicking. But Wanda had riled up Clint too.
Clint knew stuff had gone on when he wasn't around. Steve had told him to not mention it to any of them, he had grudgingly agreed, for now, but he had told Barnes everything. He was not lying to that man.
So, Clint was pissed, and he wanted to know. Scott was looking at the locked door with a forlorn look on his face and Sam wondered for the 100th time, what did he do for his life to be 'THIS'. He dropped himself onto the sofa to watch, because he knew there was no getting out of this room until they did. The walls were probably vibranium or something.
The fact the video stayed also paused on an empty looking base as Clint and Steve screamed at each other told him that.
Scott appeared next to him, looking at the video pensively and he snapped.
"Shut the fuck up! Both of you!"
"Who do you think you're shouting at Wilson?"
"Come on now Sam. This isn't going to help anyone, no one needs to see this."
"See, that right there, that is why I want to see it."
With that Clint dropped down in the loveseat he often shared with Wanda. Leaving just Steve stood behind the chairs.
Apparently that was all it took and the video started. Steve and Barnes walking through the Base.
Stark's immensely dramatic entrance.
The things Barnes said came back to him, Stark stated flat out no one knew where he was. The man laughed it off, but that was a lot of trust to put in a team mate you'd been falling out with.
'Did you really think I wanted more of you?'
Oh great. On top of everything he had to listen to the villain monologuing.
Talking about Steve's eyes like some love lorn teenager.
Why do villains have to do this?
Why must they always make it weird?
He knew Tony found out, Barnes had told him what he remembered, that Stark saw his parents murdered whilst stood near Steve and Barnes. But it didn't quite prepare him to watch it. Scott seemed to feel the same given how pale the man was. Clint looked almost confused but he didn't know about what. But he shook his head and the confusion was gone. Steve was stood as far back as possible, back to the TV. As if he could pretend this wasn't happening.
Steve still trying to lie about it? When it was bloody obvious. Well, he'd seen enough of that recently not to be shocked.
There were a few points in the fight he flinched, yeah, Stark is in the armour, but the line around his neck slamming him down? He'd bet that did some damage. He's still just a normal human in that armour, and walking tank as Barnes described him or not, having 2 super soldier beat on you can't be fun. The walking tank description only works if Stark used it as one, at ranged fighting Ironman was especially lethal. He knew Barnes and Steve came back bloody but it hadn't taken long for them to heal.
The bunker took a terrifying amount of damage that easily could have been directed at Steve or Barnes. He could have probably have killed them both in the shock after he blasted Barnes arm off.
He thought it would end when Steve's shield smashed into the arc reactor. But he ripped it back out, causing Scott to flinch. He had wondered for a minute, if he'd left it in Stark's chest, because Steve did not come back with it.
"That shield doesn't belong to you, you don't deserve it, my father made that shield."
Ah.
That was when the weight of the armour dropped Stark onto his back and Steve left.
He looked back at Steve who was just staring at him, pleading to see things 'his' way. To understand 'his' actions. Maybe he could have, but he'd seen Steve fight against a triggered Winter Soldier, that had wanted him dead. He just watched Steve leave Stark there, with no power, injured, in fucking Siberia, without even a glance back. No man left behind wasn't just a saying to him. It meant something. To see Captain America leave a person he still claimed as a friend like that? It shattered something inside him.
He just shook his head, because whilst he got the instinct to protect a friend, you don't do it at the cost and suffering of another. Clint looked confused before shaking his head again, then he was back to the anger they'd gotten so used to lately.
"You need to stop lying Steve. Is that why we're here? Why I don't get to see my family? Because you lied about your best bud killing Stark's parents?"
The door clicked open which seemed to save Steve from answering as Clint scoffed and stormed out. Steve eventually left and he just stayed with Scott.
Out of him and Wanda both being grown ass adults, Scott had started to make him feel oddly protective, like he was this perpetual teenager thrown into events too convoluted and terrible for him to comprehend.
At least Barnes wasn't here to watch the video.
Maybe he and Scott should go out tonight, let Steve and Clint deal with Wanda when she got back.
James POV
8th October
All was not well in the Villa.
He'd got back when Tictac and Wings were just getting in. Both were more than a little drunk. Okay, they were trashed. Falling over and laughing at each other. Scott had asked to hug him, he'd even agreed because he looked like a sappy drunk that was going to burst out crying if he said no. He managed to trundle then off to their rooms and was locked behind his own doors before anyway came to investigate the noise.
Usually if anyone was drunk, they'd converge on the drunk member.
That video definitely did something.
He wasn't sure if it was good.
Point being, it hadn't been his idea.
He hadn't been the one to speak.
So he'd mostly been freaking out that this thing in his head could apparently take control of him now and talk. That was new. Luckily Shuri hadn't noticed that it wasn't him talking.
So he hadn't slept. Not a wink. The back of his mind was quiet, maybe it hadn't realised it could do that? Maybe it had exhausted itself? He didn't know because this was just too weird. He snuck out and back for his treatment and was now listening to people in the house.
He heard Wings finally wake up, likely very hungover and stagger downstairs so went to join him.
Which was how he, Wings and TicTac found themselves watching TV, eating porridge waiting to see T'Challa on his interview.
The Witch and her Archer even joined them.
This had been a set event yesterday, he had wondered if watching the video would change anything. Seems everyone still wanted to watch T'Challa have his interview. Although he bet for different reasons. Steve thought he'd bring up the pardons.
Apparently there were no bounds to Steve's optimism when it came to their mythical pardons.
He however, was going where his treatment was. Steve seemed to think if they got pardoned tomorrow, he'd leave with them. As willing as Dr Stark seemed to be to help him, he doubted the man would offer him treatment in the compound, so he was staying where the glasses were.
T'Challa had answered a few questions so far about Wakanda and how amazing it was here. As far as he was concerned, they were not getting across the truly amazing parts of it. But he understood that there were parts of Wakanda they didn't want the world to know about yet. The fact they'd come out to the world about Vibranium and that no, they weren't a tiny village that only made textiles was amazingly brave.
Steve thankfully turned up after 5 minutes of discussing the Accords. That definitely would have riled him up. Everyone was a little sedate, yesterday had taken its toll it seemed. Things were finally starting to stack up and he couldn't find himself feeling bad for them, bar Wings and TicTac, considering how awful they'd been to the man they actually expected to help them.
The video had really changed something though. Everyone was tense, TicTac had also abandoned his chair and was now sat on the floor, practically at his feet. Wings had taken up TicTac's old chair, the 3 of them practically tucked into one corner, the Witch and her archer were still sharing the small loveseat on the other side of the room. Steve flopped into the middle of the larger sofa.
"I've enjoyed my trips to America so far with the Accords Council, meeting the other councillors has also been good. Everyone has been very accepting of our plans to open up Wakanda slowly, the people I've met have also been most unlike what I suspected."
" Ah, I assume you mean Tony Stark? What was it like to get whisked off to dinner with our favourite genius?"
Oh fuck
He thought to himself, a minute ago he'd been happy Steve had missed the bit on the Accords… He hadn't expected it to come back to Dr Stark. He knew Shuri was friendly with the man, but he didn't know if he and T'Challa were that close.
" Oh, that was a lot of fun, he told me a lot about what Stark Industries was involved in. "
" Yes, here in America everyone always needs the next piece of Stark Tech. "
Wanda practically growled at the screen, coming to her feet to pace behind the chairs. He was very happy his chair was tilted so he had a good view of the room. The idea of her pacing behind his head was too much. He didn't know how Wings and Steve could do it. It had a knock on effect of waking the voice in his mind, its attention on Wanda.
That was when he remembered. The conversation Shuri had had with her brother at the compound. How could he forget?! Shuri had convinced Dr Stark to join T'Challa for it. Ah crap. It was way too late to do anything about it now.
" We have been surprised lately, Mr Stark seems to be working constantly but he just hasn't been seen much, King T'Challa you've seen more of him than we have lately, how is he recovering?"
"My ears were burning."
He idly considered screaming into a pillow.
At the same time, he couldn't not watch.
Stark, dressed in a black suit and shirt, with a bright silver tie that looked like metal. His sunglasses were the same silver, catching on the studio lights and flashing brightly. There were only two chairs, one for the host and one for T'Challa, yet he confidently strode onto the stage as if he was meant to be there and perched on the hosts desk, crossing his legs at his ankles and leaned back as if it were a perfectly normal thing to do.
'He knows how to command attention.'
Why is he not surprised that its happy about this?This situation was just waiting to explode on them. But sure perv on Stark. That's the important aspect here.
"Hi."
"Mr Stark! We didn't expect to see you today!"
"Well, T'Challa spent last night at the compound and mentioned today's little interview, so I thought I'd tag along."
"T'Challa was at the compound?"
Scott asked, he just shrugged because there was no way of explaining what he knew without inviting a lot more questions.
"Yes, the compound is absolutely gorgeous, it was lovely having breakfast with the Avengers."
"I also heard that you were considering partnering up for some of Mr Stark's initiatives?"
"Oh yes, this man's brain is brilliant, he's going to help me get my inventions to where they're needed. At home and abroad."
"Dr Stark is also great to work with. Not at all what I expected an American businessman to be like."
"What were you expecting?
"Profit driven, uncaring and only caring about their own country. Dr Stark is giving his Intellicrops away for free. In areas where children are going blind from lack of Vitamin A, it is a particularly severe problem in populations where rice is the staple food and diversity of diet is limited, as white rice contains no micronutrients. Dr Stark has created a rice variant with added Vitamin A specifically to help these people. "
"I never knew Stark did things like that, I wonder why he didn't speak about stuff like this? I wi-"
He has been tracking Wanda from when they'd started talking about Dr Stark, when Wings started talking however, her building anger got... redirected. It was almost like he, or the voice in his head, could feel her anger and attention shift onto Wings. He definitely didn't know her well enough to pick up on tells like that, so it was confusing. The information was just suddenly there.
He didn't question it however, he just moved and caught her hand a few centimetres from Wings head. Part of him wanted to recoil because her hands were leaking that red shit and it felt like ice on his skin, like the black of cryo sleep, tugging at him.
'Pain to her hands disrupts her ability'
Then it was just there in his mind, he'd been about to pull his hand back to shake off the feeling, his hand moved practically on its own volition and within the second he'd caught her hand, she dropped to her knees, yelling out in pain. The red abruptly vanished, the cold feeling gone with just a small reminder that had him pushing her hand away. She kept eye contact as she very slowly stood, watching him very carefully. Cradling her hand to her chest.
Then she just left. Which was exceptionally weird. Given her patterns, she could have used this to garner sympathy against him. Instead she watched him warily as if he was the danger and backed off, keeping her eyes on his till she passed into the hall. Like watching a predator that's about to eat you.
Wings was a little wide eyed, looking back and forth between himself and the Witches retreating form. He just shot him a smile and turned back to the TV, rubbing his hand on his jeans to get rid of the feeling whilst trying not to freak out because what the fuck just happened?
'You're welcome.'
'What was that?!'
'I showed you how to combat her ability.'
He didn't bother questioning it further, he got a feeling that it was confused at his questions.
"-uffer from some type of important nutritional deficiency. Biofortified crops are a good alternative to alleviating malnutrition."
"And you're giving these crops away?"
"Generally, the people who desperately need these crops can't afford them, so it makes sense. If giving away some seeds saves children from living blind because they lack a vitamin that is easy to acquire for us, why wouldn't I?"
"I guess-"
"Bucky? What was that? Why did you hurt Wanda?"
"She's fine. If she wasn't she'd have said something."
He pointedly turned back to the screen as Dr Stark was still speaking. Scott was a little wide eyed, but weirdly, Clint didn't seem to have actually noticed that anything had happened, focused on the TV. Wings looked a little peaked, wide eyed but he refocused on the TV. Steve had his unimpressed face on again, but he could ignore that. He'd recently gotten a lot of practice.
"I do have a lot focused in America, trying to end food deserts for example. But humanitarian efforts are for humanity."
"This is what I was talking about."
T'Challa was grinning on the TV, both he and Dr Stark were actually. They were having a lot more fun than how awkward this room was that was for sure.
"So, King T'Challa, how is integration with the world going, from what I've been told your computers don't use the same binary system as the rest of us?"
"Oh Dr Stark and our technicians have been working on it night and day. I was pretty sure it was fine several versions ago, but apparently Dr Stark and my sister are perfectionists."
"I've had tons of fun working with Princess Shuri, she is brilliant. Even some of the younger interns I have at SI love her."
"That explains yesterday then."
Clint mutters and glanced around, seemingly only just noticing that Wanda had left, he looked confused for a second before shrugging and focusing back on the TV.
"I read about your intern project, schools all over the country are involved yes, finding the best and brightest?"
Because he's interested in what Steve will say, he has to ask.
"What happened yesterday?"
"Oh it was nothing Buck, Princess Shuri just popped over but she couldn't help us with what we talked about. We'll have to wait for T'Challa to come home."
Clint was giving Steve such a look of incredulity that it was hard to keep a straight face.
"-making a list of schools lacking funding and am now supplying what they need. "
"That's very selfless of you."
"Na, I just want more scientists in the world."
T'Challa answered a few questions about Wakanda as a frazzled technician ran out with a chair like the one T'Challa was sat in. Dr Stark thanked them before sitting in the chair next to T'Challa.
"King T'Challa, are you people excited to rejoin the rest of the world?"
"Oh definitely, some of my people have been waiting for this for a long time."
"So, Mr Stark, you know the question we want to ask."
"Go on, ask about it."
The tense atmosphere in the room got worse, he was pretty sure he was going to get a migraine.
"We all saw the picture of you in the hospital. We know you were in a coma. We haven't seen much of you since, so we wanted to know how you've been recovering."
"Well, it's been a long road. I'm not at 100%, but I'm working to get there. I might not be in the skies, yet, but there is a lot of work I could do from home."
The man's scarred arm where it met the black metal of his cybernetic forearm and hand flashed in his mind at that.
'Yeah, definitely not at 100%'
He thought to himself, he couldn't help the stab of guilt, even though Shuri had told him it wasn't his fault. He should have known it would attract the voice.
'You think too much.'
He couldn't really argue that. He did think too much.
"We've been keeping up with your work, for someone not on the Accords Council, you do a lot of work for them."
"Of course. It is an important document, for humans and supers alike. Whilst recovering from my injuries it made sense to focus on it. Just a shame I missed those 10 days in a coma."
"Dr Stark seems to never stop working."
"Nope, my physio often gets infuriated with me."
"Do you mind if we ask what injuries you suffered? You've been very close to the chest about them!"
Wings and Scott wince at that, maybe he should watch this video, there are bits of the fight.. Missing from his memory.
"In general people don't think of superheroes getting hurt, so I kept that private. As you can see I'm able to work fine and I'll be flying in no time… but I'll show you one thing."
Steve was instantly leaning forward, everyone was very focused on the screen, but he had a good idea what the man was going to do. Especially as he stood and nearly folded his suit jacket over the back of the chair. Even the studio was pretty silent as he undid his sleeve, folding it all the way to his elbow. The presenter definitely hadn't been expecting the thick band of scars, they looked a little green actually. It was different than seeing it on the video call, high definition and his arms weren't moving as much now. It was also strange as the scarring looked out of place, the black metal was the same colour as his skin somehow.
"What would cause scarring like that?"
Scott glanced around the room, when he didn't get an answer, the presenter talking pulled his attention back.
"That's some pretty severe scarring."
Stark then did something, it looked like he tapped his hand weirdly, with that, the skin seemed to retreat back, leaving the matte black of his actual hand visible. It had actually changed a little since he saw it last night strangely. Two thin, but bright blue lines were now visible. Like last night, he couldn't help the stab in his chest that he'd been part of it, part of the reason another man had metal where flesh would be. Shuri has said that it was different to his arm, but it still wasn't his own flesh hand. It was still something 'other'.
"Yeah, the scarring is pretty bad."
"I'm guessing that is not a covering, or a glove?"
"Nope. After the fight I had severe frostbite, my doctors could do a lot, worked wonders in fact. But they couldn't save everything and my hand, wrist and some of my forearm was amputated."
"Holy fuck."
He glanced at Wings, he was pretty sure that was the first time he'd heard the man swear.
Part of his inability to sleep had been falling down a path on the internet where he was researching frostbite. So he could get behind the swearing.
"How has it changed things for you? I don't know if I could carry on fighting after losing a limb! But I am a lefty."
"Temporarily disabled."
Everyone was pretty shocked that that came from Clint of all people. The man had no love lost for Dr Stark, he'd been quite vindictive in his anger. But now he was looking confused again at the TV.
"How long does it take for frostbite to get that bad?"
Scott asked, glancing around everyone in the room, surprisingly it was Clint again to answer.
" Long enough I guess. But Stark… He survives. It's what he does, against all odds. He survives."
Clint trailed off, muttering whilst staring at the TV, that was a really weird thing to say. But he couldn't puzzle it out.
" I doubt that was from our fight. It was probably something else, he was fine in the armour. He probably didn't spent more than a few minutes there!"
He just gaped, because that's some next level delusion there.
"I'm ambidextrous, so I still didn't have to learn to use a different dominant hand. But this won't stop me. I'm still Ironman, as long as Ironman is required, he will be there, from domestic terrorism, wildfires, bad guys our police can't fight and if aliens come knocking. I will get back up until I'm physically incapable. And probably try and find a way to anyway. "
He couldn't do it. He couldn't just let it go anymore. He couldn't let him just sit there and delude himself into thinking that there was no consequences for his actions whilst another man suffered from them.
"Steve, are you seriously thinking that after we abandoned the man in Siberia, with no power that he got home, then got into another fight that left him, with no power in a freezing temperature zone that lead to severe frostbite and a 10 day coma."
"I guess we should expect such dedication from Ironman by now, after you caught that nuke and flew it into a portal in space, when you did that, did you know you'd be fine?"
"He was fine when we left Buck!"
"Shut the fuck up Steve. You drove your Vibranium shield into the chest of a man with a compromised sternum. Hard enough to kill an arc reactor. Stark's a dick, but at least fucking own that you nearly killed him and scarred him for life."
Clint didn't even look at Steve as he spoke, obviously as fed up with Steve's excuses. Steve paled further shrinking into the chair.
"Oh no, I thought it was a one way trip. The blast knocked the power out of my suit, luckily I fell through the portal and The Hulk, my buddy, he caught me."
"I didn't know."
"After that I guess missing a hand wouldn't stop you after all?"
"That's not an excuse for nearly killing and abandoning someone to a slow, agonising death Steve."
Steve full body flinched from Sam's quiet addition, more affected than Clint's angry mutterings. It seemed most of them had hit their limit.
"Nope, I've always known I could get hurt, but it never stopped me before. It wasn't easy, waking up with a part of you just gone. Sometimes I would wake up and have phantom feelings of it, very strange. If anything it's made me more determined and shown me more people I can help."
He glanced at the socket Hydra installed, it felt like the arm was still there sometimes. Not his own, but the metal one. Like it was still dragging him down. The fact he was partially responsible for inflicting something similar to someone else, that hurt.
'I do not understand why you hate it so much, to me, it was always my arm.'
'It was painful, heavy and maintenance was...'
Thankfully it didn't push him further, he didn't like thinking of maintenance sessions.
"That's, that must have been hard to deal with. Is this why you have gotten more involved with disabilities and prosthetics?"
"I know what it's like to wake up and find metal instead of flesh. We did that to him."
"Partially, I'm sure you know about James Rhodes accident too? After that I started doing research, found out that a lot of people who need disability aids are left unable to get them. When I woke up from the coma, missing my left hand, it sharpened it more. Trying to do things one handed? Not as easy as it seemed. Now I had the contacts and ability to build this for myself, with Shuri in Wakandas help. She helped me through a lot in those early days. When I was back up to two hands I decided to change the disability aids industry. "
"Shuri helped give him his hand back? Did she tell you anything about it Buck? About what made him lose it? "
"Steve come on. You know why he lost it. Frostbite is terrifying and I imagine for a man like him, a man who works with his hands? Lying there, dying in that frozen wasteland, alone, just feeling parts of his body slowly die. That's fucking torture and WE are responsible. YOU need to accept it and stop looking for an easy out. And don't you dare say what we did was fine 'cause he was 'trying to kill me'. If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead."
"-es are expensive, not updated often and for many, hard to acquire. Children wearing prosthetics they've grown out of, powered chairs on the edge of falling apart, ancient crutches that cause more pain than they help. "
" You seem quite passionate about this Mr Stark. "
"Buck, come on.. "
" I've come to see Dr Stark is quite passionate about many things, helping people seems to drive Dr Stark as much as it does Ironman. "
"No. Steve you need to accept this. You need to accept the consequences of your actions and stop running around thinking everything is fine because you're doing the right thing. People died because of us. A man has at least one amputation that we know off, maybe other injuries we can't see. "
That made Steve pale, as if he hadn't considered that there might be other injuries.
"For this instance, It's definitely a case of having my eyes opened. Watching Rhodey not be able to go to his favourite shop because there is a step I never even noticed, or spend 40 minutes waiting for an empty lift. I didn't realise how inaccessible the world was, so I'd like to do my part to change that."
" He was fine when we left, still talking... "
"Well, that certainly is a good goal! We are actually out of time for today, hopefully we can get the two of you back someday. I have a feeling that Mr Stark and King T'Challa partnering up will lead to amazing things for our planet!"
"His pain tolerance is on par with you Cap, but he's not a super soldier to back it up. I saw that fight, I'd be surprised if you didn't break his collarbone as well as fucking up his chest."
Clint was apathetic in his delivery, Wings winced and TicTac look green. Steve... The idiot was just shaking his head.
"So, can you feel with it?"
"Sort of, not the way a real hand does. It's wired directly into my nerves, so I get input, hot and cold. Some textures, it's more information in my mind than feeling."
Steve stood, looking for all the world that he was going to cry, but until he stopped making this about him, he had no sympathy.
"That is amazing, thank you Mr Stark for crashing my show."
The presenter winked at him before turning to T'Challa and crossing his hands over his chest.
Steve practically fled the room. Clint stood and followed at a more sedate pace without another word. He hoped some of what he'd said got through to the thick headed punk. But somehow, he doubted it..
The room was silent for about thirty seconds as the three of them judy looked at each other and burst out laughing as the tension snapped. They needed to get something out, even though they had no idea what they were laughing at, just that the tense atmosphere was gone, leaving them almost giddy.
"Okay, who thinks we should possibly get rid of the TV?"
He didn't know if he was joking or being serious…
For the rest of the day, he avoided the Villa. Steve wanted to talk to him, and he was officially fed up of Steve revisionist ways. It was getting hard to trust anything he said hearing him try to justify Dr Stark's injuries as not his fault, especially when he felt so guilty over them.
He and Shuri did discuss how that video had shaken things up in the house, as well as his little clash with the Witch. She had been caught up in the integration however so he had eventually moved to the library. Out of everyone who could be hunting him out, he had not expected T'Challa to turn up out of the blue.
"Your interview was interesting."
"Did they all watch it at the villa? Oh dear. It wasn't my idea for Tony to join me, you can blame any following chaos on my sister."
"I will make sure to tell her that."
T'Challa just shook his head and pulled an envelope out of his pocket before handing it over. Which was curious, who would be sending him letters? Especially given the envelope was completely blank but sealed.
"I'm going to get some sleep now. America is exhausting."
When the king was gone he pulled the letter out and couldn't be more shocked really.
James
So, I wasn't really expecting this so I wasn't exactly sure how to respond. And the fact that I'm being forced to write on paper, instead of digital, because then Shuri will psychoanalyse me.. Not helping.
But you made the effort, I just wanted to tell you that you don't have to apologise, but I'm grateful for it, Thank you. No one has really done that before.
It was a cascading situation where each part flew out of control before we even realised it, a runaway train full of fireworks that just so happened to be on fire as it fell off a cliff… I tried to stop it, but, well, you know how that turned out.
Before Siberia I had worked out a pardon and such for you but Roge-
Ignore that. I'm trying to not be negative, or at least not mentioning a certain spangled man who shall not be named, and this is the last clean paper in my pad!
So, Thank you for apologising, it's nice to hear it from someone, even though you didn't have control of your act3, you never lied to me. Even though you barely knew me, you told the truth when I asked. Unlike someone who was meant to be my frie
I don't want this dragging anyone down, so it's an event better left for the past? It's not selfish to apologise I don't think? It made me feel better. But I say that just before I say sorry for attacking first, asking questions later. The only one that deserved that was Ro So maybe I'm the selfish one here. I mean, I should have had more control over myself really.
T'Challa told me something similar, that I was temporarily disabled, so it's not on either of you, yeah? You didn't know, so you aren't at fault. Plus, I'm alive! Insert Frankenstein like cackling here.
I really am sorry for my part in the fight.. You didn't deserve that. You had come out of the other side of decades of torture and was welcomed with a superhero smackdown.
And your arm! I took that thing apart, to send the data to Shuri for any help the Wakandans can give you. You felt that, I'm so sorry. I know that the arm hurt, I could see it when I took it apart. But it didn't have to! I know you are probably still in pain too, I know when you have been in pain for so long it becomes normal? But it isn't, I know I'm not anyone important in your life, but tell someone about the pain, Shuri probably would help in a heartbeat. She has a soft spot for broken white boys. I won't take that choice from you though, but just don't hide the pain, you don't deserve to suffer in silence.
By the time you get this, if you watched King Kitty on TV, my hand doesn't hurt, it feels like my hand because we worked out a way of wiring it.. Not important or I'll science babble at you. Always drives people nuts. But if you even want an arm, Shuri can help. It will be different, no pain and it will feel like your arm. Not a foreign thing. I hope you can forgive me for my part, and that BARF (It is a cool name, no matter what anyone says) can be my way of making it up to you.
Also, it isn't your fault I lost my hand, I shouldn't have scrubbed my location or I should have had some back up plan. Escaping is what I do after all, so, again, not your fault, you didn't have a choice but to fight back because of the programming alright? Let's blame the cold for my injuries and the unnamed spangled git. (ugh, ignore that, I shouldn't trash on your best friend, I'm trying to not be a dick here.)
So, I hope BARF is helping. I'm glad you find my coding notes amusing. There are many who say you can't use potato to test everything. They just aren't imaginative enough.
-TS
Also, what's with everyone suddenly calling me doctor?! It's weird. Call me Tony.
Well, that definitely hadn't been what he was expecting. He seemed to write as he spoke, which was quite strange, like he had 5 topics he wanted to talk about at once so they jumbled up but it oddly worked.
Even the scratched out parts, that's when he realised that the back wasn't clear as he held the letter up to the light to try and read what he had started to write about the pardons. He turned it over there was a number of what could potentially be called doodles, but really fancy doodles with occasional utterly confusing math attached, and he was really good at math, had to be to be a good sniper in the 40s. Something about what looked like someone's homework and trajectory or something, with little birds drawn.
He really hoped Dr Stark hadn't accidentally sent him something important like his kids homework. The birds were really cute though.
He was assuming not as it had been jotted down sort of on the corner. Maybe showing someone? There was a sketch of a woman with red lipstick that was pulling on his memory for some reason, which was odd. He stopped to sift through the Bucky memories to find a match and then saw a memory of Peggy. The likeness was amazing.
Then there were several small sketches of what looked like braces. There was also a cat, randomly. No, two different cats. Chasing things around the margins.
It was slightly confusing to look at it all at once and he wondered if this was how the man's brain worked? If it was, his brain was utter chaos.
Considering he had a second possibly person in his head, he found it confusing.
Also, there was his name. James. It felt.. Different.
Now what was he meant to do?
There was a lot to unpack here...
Should he reply?
Had he inadvertently become penpals with Ironman?
