AN: LOOK WHO'S ALIVE GUYS.

it's been like forever, sorry. i'm aiming to get most of my fanfics finished by the end of the month, don't ask me how it's going. but, i do have the rest of this planned out (finally!) so we have an ending. (of sorts anyway)

also, i'm finally editting/reworking this fic on ao3 woo~ haven't made it all the way through yet though.

ANYWAY, as always, unbeta'd, thanks a bunch for the feedback and i hope you like~

Steve follows Tony's directions when they get to New York and eventually (after getting lost twice) they pull up in front of a huge townhouse in the mid afternoon. "Rhodey's parents are off in London for a month so we're good to stay here."

The house is hallway alone is about the size of Steve's living room and its lavishly furnished with things that Steve's fairly sure his mother has dreamt of. They drift in behind Tony, gazing around and hovering awkwardly. It's only when they've set up camp (quite literally) in the front room that Tasha says what everyone's thinking, "So now what?"

And Clint nods along with her, "Yeah, I mean New York is a pretty big place. How the hell are we meant to find him?"

Steve's inclined to agree.

"Awh, come on guys!" Tony says, in what Steve thinks is supposed to be an optimistic tone, "We can find him, I mean how many guys do you know who dress all in black and green and answer to the name of a Norse deity?"

"Goths?" Clint suggests as Bucky mutters, "Right, because he won't be using a false name or anything." Tony glares at him and Steve thinks that this time he just might let Tony smack some sense into his best friend.

"He's right though," Tasha interjects, "I mean Odin's a pretty well known guy, Loki going missing was, like, world wide news. There's no way he'll be using his real name."

Tony makes an odd growling sound, "Right. So, James, how would you suggest we find him?"

Bucky glowers around at everyone and Steve's pretty sure he's weighing up whether to snark off or to actually be helpful. "We find Laufey," he says eventually.

"Give that boy a medal," Tony mutters. "He's clearly some sort of genius."

"Fine," Bucky spits. "Fine. I don't actually care about finding him, I'm only here because you guys dragged me here."

"No ones keeping you here, James," Tony growls. "And no one will stop you if - "

Steve has had enough. He stands up and glares at the both, "For God's sake, Tony! Will you just stop?" They're both staring at him, open mouthed. "And you, Bucky, just calm down. What were you gonna say?"

Bucky shifts and swallows, "I - uh - I was gonna say my old dealer he, uh, he's in New York now. He used to work for Laufey so I thought maybe... I mean it might not get us to Laufey, but..."

Tony actually looks kind of embarrassed. "No," Steve says, "That's good, it's the best we've got. Can you get in contact with him?"

"Um, yeah. I think I've still got his number... I'll go see..." He stands up awkwardly and shuffles over to the door. As soon as he's gone Natasha kicks Tony in the shin, "You better apologise when he gets back. Then you two can sort yourselves out and stop acting like children."

Tony nods apologetically and Clint touches Tasha's shoulder gently, "We should go grab some food for everyone."

Tasha nods, "I need to speak to Steve first, okay?" She jerks her head for Steve to follow her out of the room and Steve steels himself for moment before following. She's leaning against the wall, head bowed. "Do you think this is a good idea?" she asks when he comes to a stop beside her.

Steve exhales, he doesn't know. Going out of their way meet a well known criminal probably isn't the best idea but it's the only one they've got. "We don't have much choice." he says eventually and she nods.

"We could call the police, you know." She says quietly, looking down at her feet. "If we don't, someone will get hurt."

"Yeah, probably. But the police work slowly and who knows how many crooked cops there are in New York."

Natasha smirks at him, "Well this is a day I never thought I'd see, Steve Rogers doubting our great country?"

He smiles weakly at her. "It might have taken me a while, Tasha, but I'm starting to realise that that world my parents taught me about doesn't exist."

She smiles, "Well, welcome to the real world."

Tony goes with Clint and Natasha to get food, he leads them to the pizzeria he used to go to with Rhodey and Pepper. It's killing him, being this close to Loki (if Loki's even here.) He jumps every time he sees someone with dark hair, someone who's Loki's height. The streets of New York are crowded, it's the perfect place to disappear.

They take their time walking back to the house even though Clint whines that the pizza will get cold. Steve and Bruce are waiting for them and they can hear Bucky's voice from somewhere upstairs. Tony turns on the tv as they eat, settling on some inane procedural cop drama that no one really pays attention to. They eat. They wait.

Bucky shuffles in just in time to snatch the last two slices away from Clint and says, "Alexi said he'd meet us at a party later tonight. If you guys still want to do this."

Okay, so Tony feels a little bad about being so dismissive of him early but that doesn't mean that he has to be nice to Bucky - he's still the reason Loki's gone after all. (Well, one reason amongst many.) He squares his shoulders, "Alright, so what's the plan?"

Bucky eyes meet his briefly, "I told him we'd had enough of Malibu and came up here for some fun. He still works for Laufey and I've got an idea about how we get to him." He looks up, expectantly and Tony rolls his eyes.

"Go on, Buck," Steve says encouragingly. Seriously?

"We need Tony. See, Laufey's still setting up, right? So more than buyers he's going to need investors."

"Wait," Tony raises a hand to cut him off. "You want me to invest in a drug empire?"

"Well, it'd make sense right?" Bucky says hesitantly, "I mean you're the only son of a billionaire, all you have to do is act like you're doing it as a big fuck-you to your dad. I mentioned it to Alexi, I can talk him into sorting out a meeting or something…"

"Okay, am I the only one who thinks this is completely insane?" Bruce interjects. "I mean come on guys, we're talking about meeting up with a really, really bad guy here. This is going to blow up in our faces."

Tony sort of agrees but this is also the strongest lead they've got on Loki, he slings an arm around Bruce's shoulders, "Come on, Bruce. We've come this far."

"This is crazy, Tony," Bruce hisses. "Crazy."

Tony tries to smile encouragingly, "Yeah, but crazy is kinda of our thing, right?"

Bruce shrugs him off, "This isn't funny, Tone. You guys could get yourself killed."

"They won't get killed," Tasha says. "I won't let them, don't worry so much - okay?"

He sits back moodily, "Well, I still don't like it."

"None of us do," Steve says, "but unless anyone's got a better plan...?"

No one does apparently so Tony sighs, "Well, I hope everyone's up for a party. I know I didn't exactly pack for playing angry little rich boy but I'm sure I can whip something up from Rhodey's closet."

The party is in the penthouse suite of an apartment block in Brooklyn. The music is loud and repetitive and the air is heavy and warm and smokey, all of this combines to give Steve a pounding headache - which is exactly why he usually avoids these kinds of places.

"Alright," he says, as they hover in the doorway, "We stick to the plan, right?" It's only him, Bucky, Tony and Natasha - Clint and Bruce elected not to come.

Bucky steps forward, its unnerving how easily he seems to fit in with these people. "I'll go find Alexi, you guys stay out of trouble." And then he's gone, vanishing amongst the crowd of people. "I'll keep an eye on him," Natasha says, disappearing after him.

Steve sighs. He has such a bad feeling about tonight. "Guess that leaves me and you, Tony."

"Hurray," Tony mutters, "Lets go get a drink."

Steve spends the next half hour watching Tony knock back illegal shots and chat up girls, he tries to remind himself that Tony's just playing the part but mostly, he just misses Peggy. He hasn't spoken to her since they left, he keeps meaning to but he has no idea how he's going to explain this all to her. He turns down two girls who more scantily clad than Steve thought was possible before Natasha slinks over to them looking less than pleased.

"He's found his drug dealer," she mutters. "Get Tony and follow me."

Steve ends up having to bodily drag Tony away from the girl he's talking too and they follow Tasha through to a room with strobe lights (strobe lights.) It doesn't take long for Steve to work out why she looks so unimpressed. Alexi is a well built man with short dark hair and what looks like a permanent smirk, he's sat on couch, legs up on a coffee table strewn with half empty bottles of alcohol and pills. Bucky's next to him. In fact Bucky's pretty much in the guy's lap. Alexi has an arm tight around Bucky's shoulder and he quirks an eyebrow at them, "And who are you three?"

Bucky blinks up at them and grins, his pupils are blown wide and something cold unfurls itself in Steve 's chest. "Oh, Alexi, these are my friends," he says gesturing vaguely. Then he stands, unsteadily, and clambers over the table to clasp Tony's shoulder, "And this is Mr Tony Stark."

"Ah, so you're the one he was on about," Alexi says, eyeing Tony thoughtfully. He extends a hand a Tony smirks before he takes it. "Bucky tells me you've got some money to spend," Alexi says.

Tony rolls his eyes, "Oh, yeah, you know only a couple of a million. Nothing lavish or anything."

Alexi chuckles, "Okay. This could work. Bucky, why don't you take your friends and go have fun while I talk to Tony?" He says it like he's talking to a little kid and it makes Steve's blood boil (and by the way Tasha's jaw is clenched she isn't pleased either.) Bucky doesn't seem to mind though, he nods and bounds over to them to lead them out.

As soon as they're out of the room Steve grabs him by the shoulder and yanks him back it hiss in his ear, "How high are you?"

Bucky shrugs him off, "Awh, come on Steve, I'm just playing the part."

"James," Natasha snaps, "This isn't fucking funny!"

Bucky snorts, "Yeah, okay, I'm getting a fucking drink." And then he's pulling away and disappearing into the crowd.

Tony doesn't emerge from Alexi's room for another half hour and when he does he's smiling. Steve sighs with relief. "I think we're good," Tony says, a little breathlessly. "He's going to see about setting up a meet with Laufey." Then he giggles. "Oh my god, Steve. I just had a sit down meeting with a criminal. This is fucking awesome."

Steve sighs, "Oh, good, you're drunk."

"Hell yeah I'm drunk, Steve! Have you ever tried to do something like that sober? No. Wait - wait, you're like one of them aren't you? You don't drink! You should man, its good stuff. It makes you feel all warm, you know?"

Luckily, Steve's used to dealing with drunk people so he smiles weakly and gently guides Tony towards the door (where he hopes Natasha is waiting.) "Yeah, well I'm the driver, remember? I can't drink unless you guts want to end up in a car wreck."

"Ah, that sucks," Tony says, patting his arm sympathetically. The music shifts abruptly to what Steve's pretty sure is a Kesha song and Tony says, "Hey! I love this song."

Steve really kind of wishes he had a video camera. "Yeah, not when you're sober."

He gets Tony to Natasha who has apparently spent the last half hour more productively than he has, "I talked to some guys, found a couple of Laufey's," she hisses before eyeing Tony. "Okay, how the hell are you so drunk?"

Tony shrugs, "When a criminal who probably has a gun invites you to drink, you drink."

"Just get him to the van," Steve says, pushing Tony towards her. "I'll find Bucky."

Natasha looks like she might protest for a minute but then Tony leans against her and says very loudly, "So what's up with you and Clint? Are you guys not boning yet?" And Natasha's cheeks colour and she hurries him out of the penthouse.

Finding Bucky is fortunately pretty easy; he's dancing with a girl and a guy, the kind of dancing that would probably make Steve's mother faint. He yanks Bucky away from them and ignores the girl glaring and muttering about jealous boyfriends. Bucky grins blearily up at him as Steve half drags, half carries him in the direction of the door, "Steve. You're like, here."

Steve is really beginning to regret agreeing to this, "Yep, I'm here, Buck."

Bucky leans heavily against him, "I'm sorry," he mumbles, "

Yeah, he's definitely regretting this. "Sorry for what, Buck?"

"Everything," Steve can barely hear him over the music. "Loki, this party, the time I gave you a cigarette and you threw up. 'M sorry I like you."

Steve really doesn't want to deal with this right now. Or, like, ever. "It's okay," he says stiffly. Bucky stiffens.

"You're not okay," Bucky says, trying to pull away.

Steve doesn't stop walking, drags Bucky with him. "Not now, okay, Bucky?"

Bucky yanks him sharpely, Steve stumbles to a halt and Bucky stares up at him, "Steve," he rasps.

(Steve can see Bucky leaning forward and pressing their lips together - he'd be clumsy, he'd taste like vodka and something sweeter - Steve would push him away and Bucky would stumble back with hurt in his eyes. Or maybe Steve wouldn't - )

"Sorry, Buck," is all Steve says.

(Its okay, Bucky won't remember this in the morning.)

When he gets to the car he pushes Bucky into the back with Tony and clambers into the driver's seat. "Trouble?" Natasha asks, quirking an eyebrow.

Steve sighs, "Nothing I couldn't handle."