from_the_outside | [AU] How much - how little

"No," says Sharon, for what feels like the thousandth time. "That's not acceptable."

The rest of the flight had been uneventful, and once they landed she'd been grimly unsurprised to see that Stark had sent Happy Hogan, his erstwhile chauffeur, to guide them to the apartment they've been assigned. Stark himself had apparently gone somewhere to get out of his armor, somewhat mollified by having gotten them here and under his thumb.

Except Sharon won't stop kicking up a fuss.

Hogan stares at her as she inspects each corner of the apartment. "I can't cut these rooms off from the central security protocols," he says, slowly, like he thinks she's just misheard him.

"Well, you can," she tells him. "Or I can force a cascade in a couple load-bearing subroutines that will shut the whole damn thing down. It's your choice."

Current Location: Upstate New York

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

marvel_npc

Nat sighs.

"Sharon. How long have you known James? And you thought he would just leave you there in danger? Danger that was because of him?"

From:

from_the_outside

She sighs, too. "Yeah, I know. It was a pipe dream. But I really didn't think Tony would actually hurt me, no matter how much he threatened to do things 'the hard way.'"

She takes a large sip of her drink. "So anyway, Tony whirls around, powering up, and I've got just enough time to get between them before anyone does anything stupid."

She can still hear the flat way Bucky said if you hurt her, I'll kill you. "Which put us at kind of a stalemate. Tony said he wanted answers, so he asked all his questions and between the two of us we answered everything."

Sharon shakes her head. "It wasn't enough, though. How could it be?"

From:

marvel_npc

Well, it had been worth asking.

"I'm surprised he was even as calm as you say he was," Nat tells her, reaching for a piece of cheese and a few grapes. "Tony's been under a lot of strain right now, even before this. Did Steve tell you about the Stark Foundation scholarship presentation?"

Probably not, she knows, so she answers anyway. "He showed a three-dimensional interactive hologram of his parents and his younger self on the night they died, right before they left the house, as part of his speech. That's been what, two weeks ago now?"

From:

from_the_outside

"Jesus. That's taking his self-destructive habits a little far, don't you think?"

Sharon takes a large swallow of her drink and sets it down on the table. "Look, Nat, I see what you're trying to do. Yeah, he's got every reason to be pissed. And he's stressed. Even I can tell that he hasn't been the same since the battle of New York, and then with Ultron and Sokovia..."

She gestures with a piece of apple before taking a bite. "Anyway, it was all over the second it seemed like he was going to make trouble for me or Steve. Bucky was always going to do what Tony said, no matter what I tried. But that doesn't make me any less pissed that Tony showed up wanting to throw down and forced us into coming here. And now he calls us 'guests,' says he 'invited' us? Fuck that."

From:

marvel_npc

"He's protective of the people who matter to him," Nat says, carefully leaving who she's talking about unstated, and waits.

From:

from_the_outside

"Well, so am I."

She shouldn't be drinking her martini this fast without eating more, she knows, but between stress and anger and worry and the pain in her side her appetite is screwed ten ways from Sunday.

Anyway, right now? Alcohol seems like the better choice.

From:

marvel_npc

"I know."

She takes her glass in hand, kicks her shoes off under the coffee table, and curls her legs under and into the corner of the sofa beside Sharon, looking at her.

"I'm on your side," she says, candidly. "Obviously I don't want the Avengers to fall apart like SHIELD did, but that's not all I want here. So... I'm on your side."

From:

from_the_outside

Her smile is wry but real. She doesn't curl up the way Nat does – she can't without hurting herself – but she relaxes a little. "Glad to hear it."

She picks her own drink back up again and takes a sip, watching Nat with interest over the rim of the glass. "So. What do you want?"

From:

marvel_npc

"Oh, lots of things," Nat says, keeping her tone deliberately light even though the look in her eyes is serious as her gaze meets Sharon's.

"But mostly? I want to help."

From:

from_the_outside

Sharon studies her for a long moment, right up until her grin breaks loose, brilliant and unfettered in a way it hasn't been all day. It crinkles up the corners of her eyes and her voice is filled with laughter when she says,

"God, you haven't changed a bit."

From:

marvel_npc

Nat beams at her. How many people would say that to her and mean it? She's pretty sure she can count them on her fingers. Maybe even the fingers of one hand.

"Good," she teases. "That means you won't be surprised when I start poking at you. But I'll even make you another drink first."

From:

from_the_outside

"Hey, I know when I'm being interrogated," she says, laughing, and lifts her almost-finished martini to make her point.

"As methods go, this is a good one."

From:

marvel_npc

"Only a little, I promise." She leans forward to ruffle Sharon's hair and gets to her feet, carrying her drink with her as she goes to mix them a refill.

"So first, you going to tell me why you're moving like you've been hit by a truck or do I have to get tough?"

From:

from_the_outside

She makes a face, more at the question than the hand in her hair, but she doesn't beat around the bush.

"Not a truck," she says. There's clear dismay in her voice; of all people, Nat should recognize it as the I can't believe I let that goober get the drop on me sort rather than anything else.

"Zemo. I cracked some ribs about a month ago; he tagged me a couple of times in the same spot and broke them again."

From:

marvel_npc

She hisses in sympathy.

"And with both Steve and James hovering over you I'm sure you've been cornered into letting someone take a look at it, too," she concludes, adding ice to the shaker. She pauses and holds it up, struck by a thought. "Want an ice pack? Not this - I've got a couple stashed that are the peel-and-stick kind."

From:

from_the_outside

"Cornered is exactly the word. Bucky threatened to walk off into the woods and not come back until I saw a doctor," she says, exasperated.

She's one hundred percent certain Natasha's speaking from similar experience, and exchanges a wry look with her friend. Super-soldiers. Honestly.

"Yeah, that would be great. I flushed the prescription pills when Tony showed up; they make me too drowsy and I'll need to be on my toes. Advil and ice it is."

From:

marvel_npc

"Oh, he did, did he?" Nat sounds amused by that. She shakes up the new batch of martinis, refills Sharon's glass, then refills her own and dumps the shaker in the sink.

"I'll raid my first aid kit for you. Non-drowsy only, I promise."

From:

from_the_outside

"Works for me."

She watches as Nat fills the glasses, a pleasant buzz from the first martini stealing its way through her system. "Honestly, it's like they think we've never broken anything before."

From:

marvel_npc

"Mmm." She brings Sharon's glass back to her and curls back up on the sofa with her own. "I can't decide if it was the way they were raised or if it's just who they are. Both, maybe."

From:

from_the_outside

"Smart money's on both," Sharon agrees, and takes a sip of her freshened drink.

(Like she told Bucky in Polygyros, she doesn't know the details. But she can guess.)

From:

marvel_npc

"Mmm," she says again, and looks at Sharon over her glass. "This is a very polite interrogation, by the way. You can ask me things too, if you want."

From:

from_the_outside

"And you might even answer?" she quips, but it's unmistakably fond. She and Natasha are too similar not to know that their friendship will never not be complicated, but that doesn't make it any less strong or real. Sharon relents a little, putting her drink down.

"I know you've got some skin in this game," she says. "On both sides. When you told me what you told me before... you didn't give me details and you don't have to now. But Bucky didn't trust me in France until I told him about Aunt Peggy and that I was close to you."

The warmth of the vodka is creeping into her cheeks, but her eyes are still clear. "If you want to tell me, I'll listen."

From:

marvel_npc

"Oh, we're going to need more vodka," she murmurs, clearly unsurprised at the direction of the question. "And I don't know how much of it I can tell you. Not all of those secrets are mine... or even his."

She takes another sip of her martini, and there's something almost vulnerable about the look in her eyes.

"He trusted you because of me?"

From:

from_the_outside

This is a slightly weird feeling but the martini is dulling it nicely; she can just study Nat with sympathetic dark eyes.

"Partly," she admits. "But name-dropping you and Aunt Peggy at least got him to listen."

From:

marvel_npc

Nat shakes her head.

"I didn't know he even remembered. What he remembered. Not after what they did to him -- "

She takes a large swallow of her drink.

"-- when we were compromised," she finishes, in a rush. "So very long ago."