Steve still struggles to sleep, and sometimes feels as if he's now the only one, besides Tony Stark who keeps ungodly hours. Steve doesn't hear Bucky-James or Harry get up tonight- or rather, this morning- for hot chocolate. The kitchen is deserted. Even Stark seems to be asleep, or he's quite possibly on another trip.
Steve gets back in his too-soft bed and stays wide awake. Giving up, he makes his bed with military precision and heads for the gym to run on a treadmill. He'd like to go for a run outside, and fight any HYDRA agents that make an appearance, but he wants to stay close to James, too.
By the time the sun rises, Steve's pummeling a bag. As he leaves the gym, he can hear students stumbling around, but no excited shouts from Harry.
Harry's door is closed, and Steve hears a high-pitched cough instead of Harry's usual chatter and squeals.
"You okay in there?" Steve asks with a knock. The door swings open, and Bucky- James- is standing there with his long hair mussed, his eyes frantic. "Get some cold towels." he barks.
Steve stands, nonplussed, until he sees Harry laying in bed, several washcloths draped over him. He'd been in Harry's position more times than he could count.
"Go." James growls, and Steve fetches some clean cloths from his own bathroom- a luxury he'd never had before.
Harry's still coughing when Steve returns. His green eyes are dazed, vaguely tracking the gleam of the rising sun off James' prosthetic arm, and his skin shines with sweat.
"Harry will be fine," Hank, a big hairy blue guy, assures James after coming to check on him. Neither Steve nor James are quite so convinced. "Children crash hard but usually bounce back quickly."
"That punk didn't." James mutters, putting his flesh hand against Harry's forehead, covering the scar.
"He doesn't have my laundry list of ailments." Steve agrees. Steve figures the future probably has new illnesses to fight along with new HYDRA agents, but at least polio was eradicated when Steve was in the ice.
James sends Steve to fill the bathtub, then checks the temperature himself before lowering Harry into the water.
Watching James tend to Harry, Steve realizes, is the most of Bucky he's seen in James. Bucky was practically a mother hen when he cared for Steve. James doesn't leave Harry's side for an instant,
Back when Steve was sick, Bucky had to leave for school, and later work, though he clearly hadn't wanted to. In this mansion, James has nothing but time to gently towel Harry off after the bath and tuck him into bed. Steve shouldn't be glad Harry's sick, but James seems better than he's been in days. All his current brooding is clearly related to Harry's health.
Moody clumps in, growls that Potter is compromised, and stands guard outside the room. Tony gives James a phone that allows Jarvis to scan and report Harry's vitals.
Steve finds himself playing delivery boy, fetching cool cloths, soup and tea, even new medicine that's apparently commonplace now. Harry stays in bed, mostly sleeping, though he wakes up periodically and clings to James like a teddy bear.
"I'm here," James presses his flesh hand against Harry's forehead.
Modern medicine is a marvel. Harry's fever breaks far sooner than Steve ever expected. Harry asks about flying and basketball, but James orders him to stay in bed.
Steve's been Harry in this situation. Tiny, surrounded by blankets and arguing he's well enough to do stuff again, while James nearly pins him in bed insisting he's in no condition to be up and about.
Harry has it slightly better, though. Apparently hot chocolate is good for sore throats, but they usually didn't have it when Steve was sick.
James holds the mug to Harry's lips, after ensuring it's not too hot. Harry frowns.
"I'm a big kid." Harry mumbles, and immediately spills the mug on the bedcovers. Steve strips the blankets off the bed and throws a replacement set to James. Even in a mansion, it's somehow shocking to realize how many spare sheets there are, though not as shocking as the washing machines and dryers.
By the second day, Harry is more awake and much more antsy. He tries to get out of bed, but James won't allow it.
Steve hands Harry some paper and crayons. "Art helped me pass the time, when I was sick. Which was all the time."
Harry gets his mad out, scribbling over the paper as he coughs and sniffles. James mutters that Harry hadn't been this congested since they were on the run.
Harry wipes his nose on the back of his hand, ignoring the handkerchief Steve offers.
"I want HYDRA to be sick," Harry snuffles. "So they're stuck in bed."
"Several of them are stuck in cells, now." Tony remarks as he strolls in with several boxed plastic figures, including Iron Man, Batman, and even Captain America. Several of the figures talk, and Iron Man even lights up. Steve wonders if he'd made them- it'd explain why he'd been gone for two days, but didn't explain the absurd amount of tape and twine traps the figures in their boxes.
Harry studies the boxed figures, then frowns at James. "Is this like your crying tube?"
"Cryo." James corrects. "I wasn't tied down, but..."
"There's no toy you." Harry says, looking at the assorted characters.
"He's here." Tony picks up Batman, then grabs Robin and grins. "And here you are. Remember?"
"No!" Harry folds his arms with a scowl.
"Here, make them fight while you're in bed. But if you make Batman win, I'm blasting him out the window."
"The only toy me is the bear you didn't want. But you've got the real me right here. I'm not leaving." James glances at Tony. "Who did you bring?"
"Come on in, doc!" Tony calls.
Steve expects Hank, but the man who enters isn't blue. He's slightly rumpled, with curly hair, and he seems rather uncomfortable, fidgeting with his glasses.
"Looking at this place, you didn't really need me." the man mumbles.
Tony waves that remark aside. "Always could use a second opinion. Don't let Bruce tell you he's 'not that kind of doctor' because he was running a clinic in Calcutta. He's not that Bruce, Harry." Tony turns to the doctor. "I don't think Harry's had his shots, but you know, I'm not entirely sure he's here legally. I didn't even smuggle him over like you, he and James just showed up at my house. Still, in hindsight, Harry really should've gotten shots."
Harry's eyes are wide as he clings to James. "Dudley hated shots." he whispers, saying that his cousin had cried and screamed before the doctor until his aunt promised him all sorts of sweets and toys.
The rumpled doctor turns to Harry.
"I'm all good," Harry insists immediately. He coughs before adding, "I don't need a shot!"
"I'm not going to give you shots."
"Doctor Banner?" Steve holds out a hand. Had Tony really flown across the world and back in the past two days?
Steve isn't all that surprised to realize Tony had. Banner, for his part, only looks slightly surprised to see Steve. Tony had probably filled him in on the flight, and the doctor turns back to Harry when the boy begins coughing.
"Are you a mutant?" Harry asks.
"You could say that." Doctor Banner mumbles it so Harry doesn't hear, but Steve and James do.
"I'm going to be a mutant when I grow up." Harry puffs his chest in pride, then hunches in another coughing fit. James rubs his back.
"Harry's getting better," James proceeds to describe Harry's condition and development in far more detail than Steve would have. Doctor Banner listens and nods, then pulls out a stethoscope and explains what it is.
"Mutants don't need shots." Harry tells him. Doctor Banner gently explains what he's doing, then listens to Harry's heart and breathing. James is tense- he's walked Harry through breathing several times, even though Harry still isn't as sick as Steve had often been.
When the checkup is over, Doctor Banner tells Harry he's been a very brave boy and apologizes that he doesn't have a lollipop to give him.
"He just got new toys. Wait til you see the toys in the lab. The lab's not as great as mine, of course, but it's better than most." Tony pulls Doctor Banner out of Harry's room. The doctor starts to protest that he was planning on going back to Calcutta, but Tony talks over him. "You'll have to come to my place, of course, for science. Seriously, all that hiding out isn't good for you."
"Isn't Captain America hiding here?" Doctor Banner asks wryly.
"He's my secret." Tony replies. "But you shouldn't stay a secret. Besides, we've got some great bad guy bases for the green guy to smash."
Their voices fade from even Steve's hearing. Harry's once again insisting he's well enough to go flying, but James won't budge.
Steve puts his former stage skills to use, acting out several scenarios with Harry's new toy figures. Harry enjoys the show, but frequently interrupts to direct the story himself or give warnings to the toys. "There!" Harry yells as the Joker sneaks up on the toy Captain America and Iron Man. He laughs as the mini plastic shield veers horribly off course, rolling under the bed, but this starts another coughing fit.
"I'm better with the real one," Steve promises as he makes the Captain America figure turn and punch the Joker in the jaw.
Harry claps, then sends Steve to fetch one of his crafts.
Tony pops in again as Harry is slipping the painted toilet paper armor over Iron Man's plastic limbs. "You're making my suit look like a beast."
"Yeah!" Harry holds the toy as if its flying, then throws it, clearly expecting actual flight. Most of the cardboard armor slides off as the toy crashes to the floor.
"I've had landings like that." Tony picks the toy up, replaces the armor, and helps Steve stand the figures on the nightstand so they're guarding Harry's craft mansion.
Harry reaches for Batman, asking Steve to paint it like Logan, "with forks for claws."
Steve brings the paints in so Harry can supervise. As Steve works, Harry throws a miniature basketball at the hoop Tony had placed on the door. He gets frustrated that the ball only flies back into his hands once, but doesn't want James or anyone to pick it up. He glares at the ball for daring to stay on the floor.
Steve's mind wanders to times long ago, when it had been him coughing. Bucky would come home, read pulp fiction aloud while Steve sketched the scenes painted by words. Steve shakes his head as he paints Batman's cowl yellow, to make Wolverine.
He'll never have those times again, but he never thought he'd get Bucky back in any way. Even if James prefers Logan's company and doesn't tease Steve like Bucky used to, at least they're both here.
Logan himself severs the tines from forks for Steve to use as the figure's claws.
Surprisingly, Harry picks up the Captain America figure too, making the toys kick and hurl the basketball around the bed. Wolverine frequently outruns the Captain, who moves slowly with his shield on his back.
Steve looks at the figure of himself. There seems little need for Captain America when Professor X can take down HYDRA single-mindedly. Steve might follow James for a change, and it's clear James is staying here with Harry and trying to renounce the soldier life.
Currently, James is kicked back on the bed with Harry on his lap as Harry narrates a story, between sniffles and coughs. Harry's story isn't about superpowers or grand battles. He tells of a simple trip to a hockey rink. "An' we go see a game, not just on the telly. And then we go see Quidditch, and come home and fly."
Steve finds himself sketching the scenes from Harry's story.
Steve leaves for his therapy session, though he has a strong feeling James will skip his own. Professor X informs Steve of even more developments in taking down HYDRA, that someone at SHIELD wants to meet him, but they quickly shift to more personal matters.
Steve doesn't think Professor X has to read his mind to tell that he's wondering what to do with his life.
Professor X offers to let Steve teach an art class. Steve feels slightly uncomfortable with all the teens staring at him when he first enters the classroom, but soon becomes absorbed with drawing comic book panels of several of the teens using their special powers, then walking between the tables, coaching students on technique and admiring all the student's work.
Some students are drawing on tablets plugged into computers, and Steve is still surprised that the motion on the tablet is captured on the screen.
One student named Rogue struggles to draw a proportionate figure. Her hands are gloved, and she shies away from Steve when he bends down to help.
"I should get Logan to model," Rogue grumbles, but then starts laughing at the thought. She'd teased Logan about Harry's Wolverine figure earlier.
The students are impressed that Steve can draw so well from memory, and Steve doesn't mention that his memory is the only way he can see his ma, or the Howling Commandos or Peggy. Even the old Bucky is just a memory now.
Rogue shares that once she can draw Logan well, she'll draw him cuddling a puppy.
Steve can picture it in his mind and is strongly reminded of James.
Steve finds himself sketching James holding Harry, then expanding over the canvas. Several other figures take shape- Tony, Professor X, Logan, Storm. He keeps going, knowing he's going to add every member of the mansion.
After all they've done for James, they deserve Steve's recognition. Last but not least, he draws himself. Not Captain America, but Steve, with ink-smudged hands and clothes. Harry had literally made the mansion his safe haven, and Steve realizes it's his, as well.
Yay, I posted something before students arrive at school. I have no clue how infrequent updates will be then; last year I felt like I barely had energy to write most of the time. I think I do my best/fastest writing when I'm helping out in a classroom, not running it (I certainly wrote a ton in the second half of July).
I'm sort of helping out this year, not totally running my own room, so who knows.
I'm debating about doing a time skip- I've done several skips of months or even years in my new story The Boy in the Cupboard. But if Prof X Machina can take down HYDRA, I don't really think Loki would even be a challenge. Especially if wizards get involved. Also Storm is basically Thor but with even cooler powers.