#wintersplaything

Meme: Put a ‘♫’ in my askbox and I’ll give you a three song playlist for our characters relationship.

Cage the Elephant, “Back Against The Wall”Tonight I’ll have a lookAnd try to find my face againBuried beneath this houseMy spirit screams and dies again.

The White Stripes, “Catch Hell Blues”If you’re getting trickyLying to yourselfYou’re gonna catch hell.

Tony is practically buzzing beneath his skin.  The progress they've made with the prosthesis is astounding.  They have a prototype to pitch to the board next week and they're all patting themselves on the back, but Tony is off to thank the one who did the most: James Barnes.  Without him, this wouldn't have even been possible, at least not for another several years.  

The prototype still needs work and isn't as affordable as Tony would like, yet, but it's going to get there.  For now, they can put this on the market.  The amount of people that this technology can help... Tony hopes that it makes James happy.  He knows it fills his own chest with a warm sense of pride.

But, the second he steps onto SHIELD property, he knows something is wrong.  The tension is thick in the air and Tony is barred at the first door past the entrance toward the medical facilities.  He frowns deeply at the guard blocking his way.

"I'm here to see James Barnes," he says firmly.

"I'm sorry, Mister Stark, but we can't let you in just know.  There's been an incident-"

"With James?" Tony asks sharply, and maybe that betrays too much.  He likes Barnes, insomuch as you can like someone who's half there, but he's a good man, and Tony has always been a sucker for those.

"Mister Stark, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the guard insists, but Tony is having none of it.  

"So, that's a 'yes'," he says, and in a second there's a gauntlet on his hand, "where is he?"

"Are you threatening-"

"No," Tony interrupts, "I'm showing you that I am equipped to handle Barnes, more than any of you.  Let me in."

The biologist is apparently there twenty minutes early, eager and pestering the SHIELD guards, so Tony sets out to intervene.  He doesn't doubt the younger man's aptitude, and certainly not his passion, but he could do with turning it down just a notch.  Tone smooths things over once he arrives, has the biologist head in to the lab provided to them with all of their things to set up.

The rest of the team is back at the lab, working with the prototype that Tony had developed.  They await images and readings from the surgery to feed to their screens.  While SHIELD prepares on their end, Tony heads down to where he was told [read: pried this information from a sweating guard] that Barnes was.

The door is locked and he gives the guards an unimpressed look.  

"I HAVE AN IDEA COME OVER HERE OKAY BYE" Alysanne said way too loud and way too fast into the phone. Bucky was probably confused and slightly concerned for her mental health.

She had been searching the internet for inspiration when she came across an idea someone had posted. There were pictures of an abandoned building that they had taken on an 'adventure'. 

It was a rare thing to feel like you were being watched. Though it happens to her more often than not, usually some guy across the way checking her out or something. She glanced up from the magazine she was perusing currently while sipping a coffee black. Green eyes scanned the people around her. No one was looking at her here in the outdoor part of the café she had decided to try today and the majority of the patrons out here were female, though that had happened before too, quite often actually. She didn’t swing that way, which tended to disappoint most of them, but a few still slid a number her way anyways.

  After a beat she looked back down at the magazine and flipped the page, acting like she had merely looked up for no reason at all. Still she couldn’t shake the feeling however and she decided to stretch a little and used that to venture a glance across the street. Still nothing, people were walking, minding their own business.

  Well this is frustrating.

Within minutes, Steve had drifted into a restful, comfortable sleep and slept quietly throughout the rest of the night, aside from when Bucky would wake him up. At those times, he wasn't particularly awake or alert but those seemed more the reactions of anyone woken up multiple times throughout the night rather than being related to his injuries. The second time Bucky woke him up, he groggily muttered that he was fine and that Bucky should sleep, but drifted off again before having the opportunity to see if Bucky actually listened to him.

He started to wake up around dawn but remained in that halfway state between sleep and waking until close to mid-morning when he finally opened his eyes. For the last half hour, he'd been more aware and focused, though his eyes remained closed, and he'd taken the opportunity to properly review and process the events of the past 24 hours. With all of those thoughts organized and cataloged, he felt ready to create and implement a plan of action.

The first thing he needed to do was call Natasha. He had no doubt she'd acquired the immediate important information, including whether or not the men who'd broken into Steve's apartment had been apprehended and whether these men were even alive by that time. He hoped she'd tell him they were still alive, for the practical reason of interrogation, but moreso because he couldn't determine whether or not he would tell Bucky if they had died from their injuries. He doubted he'd be able to mask his expressions enough to hide that fact from Bucky and he didn't feel particularly comfortable with the idea of lying to Bucky about that. On the other hand, after seeing Bucky's breakdown after only thinking he might have killed the men, Steve had no idea what the information he actually had killed them would do to his friend.

Stephanie didn’t mind traveling for work, she really didn’t. She got to see new places and do all kinds of new and exciting things with her travel. She didn’t mind sleeping in hotels and the fact that she spent most of her time in new places chasing after arms dealers and assassins. She didn’t mind the work, plus she got to see the city at night and usually for the day after her work was finished before returning home to Gotham.

The part she could do without was the being bruised and sore from fights, it was never fun. And was she ever sore that morning. She had stopped the weapons trade the evening before and blown up the weapons crates, but she still had to track down the buyer. She’d had gotten into a rough brawl to accomplish it. She had gotten her shoulder dislocated in the brawl.

When the blonde walked into the DC diner to grab lunch she felt a lot rougher then she looked. She’d managed to make herself presentable, when she’d rolled out of bed. She couldn’t do much for her arm, aside from sling it to keep it close to herself. Her shoulder needed to rest after being relocated.

“Coffee and a Menu please,” The blonde asked the waitress as she sat down at the counter. She’d taken a seat next to a man, who hadn’t looked up as she sat down. She thanked the woman for the menu and the cup of coffee.