Tilt Chapter 01
Title: Tilt
Rating: R
Pairings: Steve/Tony, Bucky/Toro, Natasha/Maria, Clint/Bobbi
Warnings: Language, violence, implied non-con, post-brain-delete!Tony
Word count: 608
Chapter Summary: Musing and Nightmares
A/N:
A brief note on continuity, since things have changed in Marvel U a bit since I first wrote Drift, and not all of these changes have been good...(Reed Richards, you put down that gauntlet!!), so I'm just going to pick and choose which bits I'm going to use for my timeline...
IIM- up to #16
Ms. Marvel-up to #45
The Torch-up to #4, but without the weird zombie mist
Dr. Strange is still Sorcerer Supreme
Thor is still in charge of Asgard, which is still in Oklahoma
Chapter One
James couldn’t sleep.
That in itself was nothing new. Memories of his past often chose to plague him in the dark hours, one of the reasons the new Captain America tended to patrol at night and sleep during the day. Except that it wasn’t the past that kept him up tonight.
Something was wrong.
The last few days, HAMMER had been acting oddly, confused almost. There was no real way to describe it. The ground troops continued their day-to-day activities as usual, but only because they had nothing else to do. The upper levels of the organization had been suspiciously quiet. According to James’ contacts, Hand had been absolutely frantic about something, and more importantly, no one had seen Norman Osborn since the whole thing started.
All evidence pointed to something being very wrong. And until James figured out whether or not this was good for the Avengers, or meant that big trouble was headed their way, he doubted he’d be getting any rest.
“What are you up to, Osborn?”
“Hrmph? Wha?”
Shit, had he said that out loud?
Beside him, Tom shifted under the sheets.
“You say something Buck?” Tom asked sleepily.
“Nothing important. Just thinking out loud.”
“Thinking, or worrying?”
James chuckled. “Am I that obvious?”
“Yes. So, wanna tell me what‘s bugging you at…” Tom propped himself up to look at the clock, “Four in the morning?”
“HAMMER. They’re up to something. I just wish I had some idea what.”
“Well, maybe Black Widow will have some new intel when she comes tonight.”
“Maybe.” James did not want to think about Natasha right now. Thinking about Natasha got him thinking Hill, and thinking about Hill got him thinking about that damned drive. She’d been utterly convinced he’d know what to do with the thing, but after four weeks, he was still stumped.
If only Steve were here. He’d have known what to do.
Pain
Falling
Hello Captain. I’ve got a surprise visitor for you.
Floating
So cold
WAS IT WORTH IT!!?
Steve jolted awake in bed, his heart pounding in his chest, and a strangled scream in his throat.
Just a dream.
Just a dream.
A hand brushed against his shoulder. He looked up to find Tony leaning over him, staring at him.
“I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
No answer, of course. He was starting to get used to it.
“I’m okay. It was just a bad dream. I’m okay,” Steve told him.
Tony responded by hugging him and putting his head on the larger man’s shoulder.
“I’m okay,” Steve told him again, returning the embrace.
He pulled the sheets up over them both. Tony curled closer, tracing patterns on Steve’s skin with one finger.
Four days.
Four days he’d been hiding out in this dingy hotel room, buying cheap food and clothing with stolen money, praying no one looked at him to closely or started to ask questions.
(My how the mighty have fallen.)
He had to figure out where he could go that would be safe. He had no idea which of his friends were still alive, and from what he’d seen in the papers, he couldn’t trust anyone in the government.
(Captain America can’t trust the United States government. There’s something very ironic in that.)
He had to do something.
(You could always try going home. If Osborn hasn’t found your place yet, chances are the Avengers might still be there. Or are you afraid of what you might find?)
No, that wasn’t it. The others were okay. They had to be.
Tony shifted to tuck his head under Steve’s chin.
“It’s okay,” Steve whispered, “I’ll figure out something. I promise.”
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