entrancelogs | all that's left behind [closed]

Entry tags:

all that's left behind [closed]

Who: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes, Pepper Potts, Lydia Martin, Darcy Lewis, Billy Kaplan, & Carol Danvers
Where: Starting in the hedge maze, then all around the mansion.
When: 05/11
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Steve is back from a year-long trip home and has a lot of people to catch up with. Possible spoilers for Age of Ultron within! This is a closed log, but if you want to be added to it, feel free to contact me.
The Story:
One moment, Steve is in the middle of a training session at their new facility. It's what most of his days are made up of lately, him and Natasha putting their new group of Avengers through their paces. It's all about learning to work together as a team, to act as one unit instead of six separate entities. It's been going well, all four of their new additions ready and willing to show up every day and put their all into it --

But the next thing he knows, he's looking at nothing but green. Steve's grip on his shield tightens as he spins in a quick circle, only to find that Natasha is there with him. But it's just the two of them, and it takes a few seconds of puzzled staring before he realizes that they're in a maze. A hedge maze.

There's only one place he knows of that has a hedge maze, and it's a place he'd forgotten about entirely until this exact moment. To have a year's worth of memories crash back into him all at once is almost enough to send Steve off-balance, and he definitely doesn't have the coherency to speak as it rushes back. This place, the events, the people. Bucky is here. Bucky, who he's spent a year searching for back home to no avail, had been right here all along. Trapped in time. Peggy had been here too, and then there are those who he met and befriended here: Pepper and Darcy, Sansa and Evelyn, Lydia and Carol.

He snaps his head to look at Natasha when he remembers that Bruce had been here too, and they had found something here together, carefully working their way into a relationship long before it happened back home. They'd had the peace and quiet and security to actually make something of it here, whereas at home Natasha has been doing her best to accept that Bruce took off without her. (To keep her safe, Steve knows, but it's not like it stings any less that way.)

So many people had described to Steve what it would be like to go home and then return here, but even with all that he hadn't really been prepared for it. He rubs at the side of his head with his free hand as he finally finds words. "Looks like the two of us are doomed to come and go from this place together." At least, that's what Steve figures happened, but he'd better be sure. "What's the last thing that you remember?"

If it's training their team after cleaning up Stark's hugest mess, then they'll be in business. Or on the same page, at the least.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

She’s honestly a little jealous to hear it put that way, but glad for all of them that Steve isn’t the only one to have come back. Pepper wants to ask how Natasha’s doing, but that’s ultimately something else to come with whatever details Steve wants to share with her from home. It doesn’t matter how long she’d spent in their world; Natasha wouldn’t have remembered the pain and loss of Bruce’s departure there. For all Pepper knows, the connection they’d forged within Wonderland doesn’t even exist outside this pocket universe.

“Tony designed it?” Oh, she’s used to it, but at the moment clueless about just how royal the screw ups are this time. Instead she flashes a grin of her own at Steve; he’s just told her that her lover is alive, and working with a group of people she respects. How can she not be happy about it? “You might want to be careful, Steve. Once you let him start tinkering, he doesn’t always know when to quit.”

One of the many traits Tony has that Pepper loves and hates in turns.

“Was it aliens again?” Pepper sincerely hopes not. Even in her time they’re still recovering from the aftermath of the Chitauri. She hardly wants to think about what a second visit from extraterrestrials might mean for the world, or for Tony, who had such a hard time dealing with the first. Still, it’s easier to ask considering that Steve’s talking about the disaster in the past tense, and claiming success in dealing with it. “How did you talk Tony into that sort of schedule? I mean, he takes his role as Iron Man seriously—for him—but after something like that, I’d expect him to want a team vacation.”

She flows into the move as easily as he does, boosted up on top of one of the hedges and balancing precariously atop the shrubbery, feet braced in the split and arches of the branches. It gives her a much better vantage point than where they'd had on the ground.

"We're on the left side of the maze," she informs him after a moment, gaze searching the puzzle for the nearest exit. "If we follow the path, it's two rights, a left and then a hard right. Or we could go over. Or through, I suppose." That one would be harder, but over wasn't exactly easy either.

"The mansion looks just like I remember it. It all looks just like I remember it. Maybe we haven't been gone that long."

Maybe the familiar faces now swimming back up through her memory will still be here waiting for them.

The moment that Steve gets that text back, he stands from the bed again and starts pacing around the room. It's an agonizing wait, even if Bucky doesn't take that long to make the trip. But it's been so long since they've seen each other, at least from his perspective, and all that time Steve hadn't even known for sure if Bucky was all right. So to come back and know that he's here, as safe as he can be...

Granted, his absence has probably taken its toll too.

Steve hears the footsteps coming from down the hall, and then the barking, and then Bucky's breathing. That last sound causes him to close his eyes, gathering his composure for a few seconds as he turns himself to face the door.

Dodger barrels inside, and while Steve is happy to see his forgotten puppy, it's Bucky's face that he fixates on. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, and there's exhaustion hanging from his limbs, but he's in one piece. He's clearheaded, he isn't running or hiding from Steve, he's here.

The touch at his jaw is unexpected, and Steve tilts into it before reaching out to grab at Bucky's sides and yank him into a full-body hug. Normally he wouldn't be this reckless with how he handles Bucky, but he doesn't have the energy or consideration to be careful right now. He shakes his head and then buries it into Bucky's shoulder. There's no way to explain the reaction, at least not yet, and so instead he just murmurs, "You idiot."

It's probably for the best that Pepper asks Natasha how she's doing herself, just because Steve doesn't want to say more than he should. Natasha isn't one to be as open with what she tells people, or she at least takes care with her phrasing so as to not reveal too much. Steve respects that she needs that level of control, and wouldn't want to mess with it too much.

Pepper's comment about Tony not knowing when to quit hits a little too close to home, given how much damage his tinkering actually ended up doing. It takes a lot of effort not to cringe at that, and he's not entirely sure that he succeeds at it.

No, it hadn't been aliens again, but rather a result of someone being paranoid about their return. Which isn't to say that Stark had been wrong to want to prepare for that in some way, but he shouldn't have gone over their heads on it either. Maybe they had been able to fix his mistakes, but not without a lot of people dying in the process.

Pepper keeps talking and it only drives the nail in deeper, realizing that he has to break this news to her. Steve has no idea how she'll react, but it wouldn't be right to leave her in the dark about it. He lets out a long sigh and runs his hand over his mouth.

Here goes. Steve leans forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. "Well, it all started because we teamed up to search for Loki's scepter. Thor emphasized to us how leaving it in the hands of people like HYDRA wouldn't lead anywhere good" -- though Steve could have told them that -- "so we spent a year searching for it. And we found it. As soon as Tony got his hands on it, he and Banner decided to run some tests on it. Without telling us, Tony decided to use the information he got from the scepter to make an AI system, something way beyond JARVIS. A suit of armor to protect the world from any more alien attacks."

He pauses then, a small shake of his head as he gnaws on his lip.

"At least, that was the idea."

"This morning, and you're only just saying hello now?"

There's a little chiding in her voice but it's not serious. Even if they'd only run into each other by chance Lydia knows that there's other people he'd need to see first - people from home, and Bucky especially. To let his friend know that he was back, that Bucky wasn't alone any more.

Her serious expression drops into a small smile, and there's a nod at Steve's question. It's been a while since it had happened to her - she can't even recall how long it's actually been (it had to have been months since the last time by now) but it's happened, and she knows how he's feeling.

"Twice. Both times I spent months at home. A lot can happen in a few months." Even if you don't live in somewhere like Beacon Hills were a lot does happen. A few months is a good chunk of time to do a lot - and if you were a teenager you tried to do as much as you possibly could.

"Are you okay being back?" Did he have something still to do at home? Knowing that things were effectively paused and that you weren't missing might be a small bit of a comfort - that you weren't missing a fight or saving a life while you were gone, but it wasn't perfect. You still had that thought in your head of what if when you first arrived. Or returned.

She'd been waiting for both him and Natasha to get back, doing everything she could to fill the time with covering their rooms in the demon traps to be safe... But now that Dean was cured, it was time to heal herself. The text has her quickly moving to grab the phone, letting out a small sigh of relief.

Hey - hard to miss when both you and Natasha go poof. Glad you're back.

[A beat.]

Sorry about your room - it's safe to wipe the doodles off. Demon crisis is over.

Billy couldn't imagine going home for nine years only to end up back here. A lot happens in nine years. And so far Wonderland seemed content to keep him here, he wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

He nodded and glanced down the hall as well. He would track Natasha down later, or send her a text. "No one was in the theater, we can go in there."

Everything looks the same? That's probably a good thing. It means that jabberwocky hasn't come back to lay the mansion to waste, at least.

It doesn't sound like they're that far from the exit, so Steve doesn't see the point of destroying the hedges to cut a path through or launching himself on top to go over. It would probably just take longer in the end.

"I'll take the scenic route," he says up to Natasha as he starts walking in the direction she'd indicated. "You can acrobat your way out if you want."

Once Steve makes it through, he circles around to see the mansion and the fields and gardens in between them and it, along with the forest off to the side. They haven't returned to some wasteland, and what more could he ask for?

Steve nods toward the mansion. "I guess we should go make sure our rooms haven't been ransacked."

Steve can tell that Lydia isn't all that serious with her reprimand, but he still puts on a look as if he's hurt. "Come on, you're acting like it's been days." When it's truly only been a few hours. Lydia had of course been on his list of people to contact, but he's been pacing himself. It's not like he minds that they've run into each other by chance, though, and he'll be happy to share a meal with her.

So Lydia has been through this twice before. A few months is a long enough time that coming back here must have thrown her for a serious loop. She sounds casual enough about it now, but that probably hadn't been her feeling on it at the time of her return.

"A lot can definitely happen in a few months," he agrees. "It was a year, for me." And while the entire time had been action-packed, it's really the last month or so that had been a doozy.

Her question is more complicated than it might seem at first, and Steve eyes the table between them as he considers that. Everything had calmed down back home, and even if it hadn't, it's not like time is passing while he's here. "I guess... I'm okay with it. There are people here who I would never be able to know back home, so I'm glad for the chance to see you all again."

He smiles at her and when someone comes around to take their order, he asks for a double-patty burger and some fries. He needs something hearty right now.

The symbols had been a little startling to come back to, although Steve had been able to guess at the reason for them. The whole mess with Dean becoming a demon had become a distant memory until seeing those markings had brought it back to the forefront.

It's good to hear that it's been taken care of in his absence, though. Steve had felt pretty useless to contribute, but it looks like the people closer to the situation had taken care of it.

That's good news, he texts back. I guess we've only been gone for a week, but how have you been?

Chances are she'll have her fair share of questions for him too. This might be a conversation easier had in person, but he'll see how Darcy responds.

The theater would work just fine. It was a pretty big space just for two people, but Steve and Billy had once had a pretty serious conversation there, so it felt fitting.

"Works for me." Steve took off in the direction of the theater. He was pretty sure he still remembered where it was, and he turned out to be right.

The room was outfitted with plenty of comfy furniture, so Steve picked a couch near the door and took a seat, leaving room for Billy. Once they were both settled, he launched into an answer to Billy's earlier question. "Anyway... home was as good as can be expected, I guess. I spent most of it with the other Avengers. We were on the search for Loki's scepter." Steve had no clue if Billy had heard about the staff before or if there was an equivalent in his world, but he waited to see how he responded.

"Any amount of time is long enough when you've missed someone." She gives a little shrug with her admittance, trying to brush it off as if it isn't really anything. Yes Steve, she missed you that much. He'd unexpectedly become important to her - someone she'd call pack. Wonderland pack. At first they'd just talked - had a few nice conversations, and Lydia doesn't know when that changed but she's glad it did. He's someone special.

Lydia gives a nod at Steve's words, his uncertainty about how he really feels being back. At that moment, when you're still a little in limbo between the two places, it does feel stranger. Lydia had been glad to come back to everyone - especially after Allison had died - but at the same time she'd still been annoyed at it. It wasn't right, or fair.

She's interrupted from saying anything when Steve starts to order, getting just a coffee and a sandwich for herself. Her eyes glance up to him at his order - a double-patty burger, Steve? Don't ruin those fine abs now.

"I'm glad you're back. Did something happen at home?" She'd heard snippets of things from his home before, and though she didn't need to know the details she was concerned about what had happened. When Bucky had gone home it had been bad, but it had also been a longer amount of time.

"What, no piggyback ride?"

It's said teasingly as she hops back down off the shrubbery to land lightly at his side once more, moving beside him as they make their way out of the maze. It goes exactly like she'd called it, much easier once they know the direction out. The sight of the mansion ahead of them is familiar in a way that makes her a little uneasy. Why, after everything that's happened, does this feel a little more like coming home?

She nods at his statement and glances over at him. "And see who we have to thank for that, I suppose? You'll let me know what you find?"

And who he finds, for that matter.

Well, it does sound like Lydia had really missed him, which Steve is touched by. The corners of his mouth turn up into a warm smile. Though it also makes him even more guilty that he'd had no awareness of her existence for the entire year that he was gone, though it's not like he had any control over that. It's just another way in which Wonderland has made him feel helpless.

Lydia looks a little bit scandalized about his food order, which is pretty amusing given that he could have gone so much more overboard then he did. His super-soldier metabolism means that not much worry needs to be given to his abs. They'll be fine.

Steve eases back in his seat as he prepares himself to answer Lydia's question. He's gone over this a few times already, though he doesn't need to be as in-depth with Lydia as he was with Bucky and Pepper. It occurs to him now that he must look kind of ridiculous sitting here in a diner booth in full uniform, but it hadn't occurred to him to change. It reminds him a little of the team's stop for shawarma after the Battle of New York.

"You could say that. It wasn't aliens this time, though," he clarifies. "We were dealing with an army of robots this time around, ones that wanted to commit mass genocide." Really it's just one robot, but Steve isn't going to get into all that now. "We found a way to stop them, though." They always do.

Billy followed Steve's lead and took a seat on the couch, turning so he was facing Steve and making himself comfortable. He had a feeling he was in for a story. He nodded along when Steve started to speak until he needed to ask a question.

"Loki's scepter?" He didn't think Loki had a scepter in his world. He tried to think back, pulling up knowledge that he had tucked away after the first Loki died, before the one that was his friend showed up. Access his his Wikipedia would be useful right now. "I don't think he had a scepter in my world or at least if he did he never used it in public." Which was not likely.

Steve, meanwhile, had only just decided that his team was his home, and now he's here without the majority of them present. Granted, he'd been putting together a version of the Avengers here in Wonderland before they left, and depending on who's still here, they can pick up where they left off with that.

He can't deny that he has some good memories associated with the mansion (now that they've been returned to him). It's still a glorified holding cell, but it's filled with people he cares about.

At Natasha's request, Steve glances over at her with a frown. "What, you're not coming with me?" If she's going to dart away to see to something else, then that's her prerogative, but Steve can't help but be curious.

So that was something that didn't overlap between their worlds. Steve leaned back and ran a hand over his mouth as he tried to figure out how to explain it. He wasn't the best person for the job, but hopefully Billy would be able to make sense of his description.

"When he tried to take over Earth, the scepter was a big part of it. It could blast out huge amounts of energy, but more than that, he could use it to take control of another person's mind and make them do his bidding." Steve got angry just thinking back on it, but the only sign of that was how he tightened his jaw.

"He got Hawkeye with it, and tried to do the same thing to Stark."

Billy took that information in and filed it away. That was...something he hadn't known about Loki's attack on New York. "Well, that's new. I don't know if he ever used mind control in my world, I'd have to look into that. He liked to manipulate people more than actually control them. Though I can see why that would appeal to him. The old Loki that is, our new Loki is trying to be good." Or so he said, and Billy hoped.

"So did you find the scepter?"

"An army of robots." Her tone turns incredulous now, a frown joining that. Steve, do you know what she thinks about that? Really. There's so much that could join it - the shake of her head, an eye roll, a sigh. She worries over you being missing and you run into danger? Steve.

"Why is it always armies of things trying to kill you?" Aliens in New York, gods that were rude, and now killer robots? Not to mention what had happened with Bucky. Whilst Lydia doesn't know the specifics of that, and not what had happened between Steve and Bucky, she knows that it was serious enough that it had Steve concerned, and that is something to be concerned about.

Although for all that Lydia is judging Steve - or at least not happy about what goes on for him at home, and his involvement, it's very hypocritical, and it's possibly a good thing that he doesn't know all of the details about her home world. About how involved she is in dangerous situations.

At least he's safe - here and at home. At least they stopped it. This time. For now. Somehow she had to doubt that would be the last thing.

She turns her head just enough to give him a look, one eyebrow arching upwards as a smile plays about the corner of her lips, subdued - barely.

"I just thought that you'd be heading straight far a particular reunion and would want a little privacy for it. I didn't think exhibitionism was one of your kinks, Cap, but if you want an audience, I'll play along."

Whether it's mind control or manipulating people, it's bad news, and Steve's not exactly thrilled that Loki has once again become a thorn in his side now that he's back in Wonderland. Granted, he's been keeping to himself for the most part, apparently having learned his lesson after the last time. There's the other Loki too, but both Billy and Verity insist that he's searching for redemption.

"Yeah, we found it." Steve nods slowly, closing his eyes for a second as he recalls the mess that find had led them down. "Stark and Banner decided that they wanted to study it for a few days before Thor took it back to Asgard, but they used the data they found to work on something else -- without telling the rest of us."

It's something that still stings when Steve thinks back on it. They were supposed to be a team, but when his subordinates decided to sneak around or go over his head, that's when the entire thing fell apart. He thought that taking down SHIELD would fix that, but obviously not. It makes the muscles in his throat go tight, and he swallows around it.

James tenses all over but, lucky for both of them, he manages to catch himself before he makes any other response to being grabbed all of a sudden. If Steve was nearly anyone else, he would have ended up with a metal hand around his throat, at best. But he's the Steve that James remembers so, honestly, James had expected this on some level. Of the range of possible outcomes that had marched through his head during the long nights this week, this is probably the one he's hoped for the most, and the one he's braced for the least.

When Steve buries his face in his shoulder, James reaches up. He squeezes the back of Steve's neck with his real hand so he doesn't have to be overly careful of the pressure and so he can feel the warmth of Steve's skin and tickle of Steve's close-cropped hair against his palm. He's real, he's whole, he's okay. Steve's words startle a soft laugh out of him. It's a week's worth of tension and uncertainty, releasing all at once. "Missed you too, punk."

James wonders how long he's been gone, and what's happened in that time. Just because he isn't physically hurt at the moment, doesn't mean he hasn't gone through something before now. Affectionate as the insult might have been, James wonders if he's done something to earn it in that time.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?"

"To be fair, they weren't just try to kill us. They were trying to kill everyone." Because that makes it so much better. Steve's being somewhat tongue in cheek about the whole thing, but he's not sure how else to tackle something like this. His life consists of constant fighting, and while Lydia doubts it will be the last thing, he knows it won't be.

There will always be someone else trying to seize power or lay everyone else to waste. There will always be a war of some kind to fight. And Steve will always be there with his shield in hand and his team at his back. That's just how it works. He's accepted it by now.

At least Lydia is more questioning his penchant for throwing himself into dangerous situations, rather than the actual existence of a robot army. Because Steve knows how it sounds.

"This was the result of an experiment gone wrong," he explains, leaning his chin into his hand which is braced on the table. There's not much point in throwing Stark under the bus when Lydia doesn't even know him. "It just went really, really wrong, but we managed to keep civilian casualties low." That's one thing to be proud of, but for every step forward there's one back, and his gaze drops. "We lost someone, though. One of our own." Even if Pietro had only just joined their cause, he had also died for it, and Steve believes that needs to be honored.

Billy could see the troubled look on Steve's face. Something had happened that clearly didn't sit right with him. What exactly had they gone through back home? It was a little startling to see Steve looking like that, betrayed, he hadn't seen that look on Cap's face since the superhero registration act and everything that went down with that...oh he really hoped they hadn't gone through that as well. There was something so innocent about the Avengers he'd met here. The ones that hadn't betrayed each other yet, that hadn't realized what levels they could reach just to prove they were right, or wrong.

He resisted the urge to rub his ears. Scars there that were just a reminder of people were capable of.

"What happened?" He asked hesitantly.

A particular reunion. As if Steve could ever forget that Natasha has his number in just about every way.

Maybe she's right, and it's better that he sees Bucky again on his own. No doubt Natasha will have her own reunion with him at some point, although Steve can never quite keep up with the status of their friendship.

"Fair enough," he says, rolling his eyes. He's about to ask her who she plans to seek out first, but then thinks better of it. He knows who it would have been, if he were still here.

There's a few moments of silence as they walk together before he peers over at her again. "Natasha," he starts, tone hushed. "Even before it happened back home -- here, you and Bruce..." There isn't any better sign that it's somehow meant to be, right? But with how things ended back home, Steve doubts Natasha will see it that way.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 2 of 6

all that's left behind [closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

let's pretend life isn't eating me alive

no subject

no subject

no subject

shhh it's fine <3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject