Friend or Foe or?

If the world was ending

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❝Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.❞

- The Princess Bride

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Hours turned to weeks, weeks turned to months.

It was another dull day at the compound, like every other day. A repetitive cycle that he'd never get adjusted to. The building was ghosted by the substantial absence of its former residents.

The corridors echoed with an unsettling silence, chirping like crickets in the late hours of night.

News about the Siberian fiasco had spread like wildfire- a huge outbreak amongst the world. It was a viral subject- one which the news seemed to be excessively interested in.
Intellectuals started changing from biased mindsets to more open minded and accepting, proving to be what they exactly resented and argued against, hypocrites. People were more willing to take a look through his eyes too, forging a more sophisticated opinion. Protesters stopped protesting. Resorting to brewing peculiar theories about what originated the 'civil war.' They continued in an unending pattern, no one was their to contradict anything nor to divulge, so they continued with their miraculous rumours.

Rhodey had just finished his weekly session of physical therapy. Constantly pushing his crippled body to his utmost strength in effort to walk again, but the stakes were low and the odds looked in no ones favour. Always huffing and sweating of over stimulation after every little session, body overworked for his current predicament.

Rhodey's struggle with walking and adjusting to his new braces only added to the weight on his shoulders.
The weight of carrying the title of the Avengers and pleasing the world, leaving little to no room to fend his own wounds.

The past significantly contributed to his sleep deprived frame.

If ever he tried to think about the past, he'd find himself in that terrifying, skin crawling bunker again. Reliving how his suit jarred with each blow, how the titanium metal pressed onto his soft skin and sent pain searing in his sternum, slowly destroying his sense of security along with his own dignity.

He'd be lying if he said he gave it his all.

He didn't want to fight Rogers, never dreamed of it. It was a terrible misfortune. They were naive enough to play directly in the game Zemo had constructed for a particular motive. Embracing the roles of their assigned puppets and following Zemo's plot to fruition.

Now that he thinks of it with a more rational mindset, devoid of dismay and careering hurt, Bucky Barnes was as broken as he was. Paralleling his struggles in life. The shame of attacking another victim was monumental, but could you really blame him? It was Rogers who had fucked up his game of captaincy.

Steve 'sometimes my teammates don't tell me things' Rogers had got the wrong impression. Claiming the responsibility of informing Tony about his parents' murder and using his precious 2 years worth of time to confirm of his knowledge when an enemy, a hydra agent bet him to it.

The irony, almost poetic. Steve Rogers, an American icon disagreeing with the wishes of America. Steve truthful and loyal Rogers, stabbing a teammate ((friend)) in the back whilst lying to his face and beating him to the ground after it.

But hey, bygones be bygones.

Ste- Rogers used to be his childhood hero. The one he had a poster lying vacated on his bedroom floor at the early age of 9. Talking to him in times of distress, spilling his heart out to a motionless layer of tree, wishing to grow into a great man like him.

How the tables have turned.

His former hero, putting his all into each brute blow. And finally, embedding that shield through the arc reactor, shattering his heart along with it.

Abruptly changing his direction of thought, he pushes the most haunting memories into the recess of his mind, placing them in an impenetrable box and swallowing the key in his heart.

He'll carry the key and the box till his grave.

Until then, he'll put on his famous mask. A facade of feigned happiness and a constant smile. With the monsters of his nightmare behind the coating- a mixture of despair and betrayal too. The idea of counselling or any method of help sounded foreign to him.

It had been 5 whole months since Natasha had disappeared off the face of the Earth.

"I'm not the one who needs to watch their back."

She was right. He really did need to watch his back. Guard it from people who branded themselves as his friends. Friends who left as soon as they arrived. Friends who tossed his heart like a weightless shuttlecock, hitting it with no mercy and laughing at his efforts of steadying.

Walking past Rhodey's room, where snoring could be hear, he manoeuvred past the furniture in the empty lounge room and leisurely walked his way to the balcony. The lush green landscape was a sight to die for. It seeped the uneasiness from his figure and restored some aspect of peace into the eerily hushed compound. From where he stood, the sun rested above the horizon, reflecting a beautiful twilight sky.

He wrapped his hands around the cold banister, breathing out a sigh of today's stress.

Just as he allowed himself a hasty second of pristine relaxation, his phone buzzed in his pants pocket, lighting up the compartment and sending vibrations wandering around his thigh. He ignored the first time it rang, and the second time and three times after that.

He only-only swiped the green panel and picked the phone up in concern for Rhodey. He didn't want to wake him only minutes after he had finally fought the battle of sleep and kissed consciousness goodbye.

"Hello?"

"Stark," Ross growled, "does it not occur to your mind that i might have something of worth to tell you-" tony yanked the phone away from his ear, waiting out for the ringing in his ear to recede before letting Ross continue his rant.

"Get to the point, Ross." Tony interjected after Ross blabbered on, voice grating with annoyance and a moody tilt to it that manifested that he wasn't up for any bullshit.

"Someone having a rough day? Too bad this isn't going to help." Tony could practically sense the bastard's sneer, enjoying every bit of Tony's rare demonstration of a mood.

"My agents were scattering the area for any signs of activity- because we had been receiving heat signatures- you won't believe who we caught." He pauses, adding a dramatic affect as Tony's gut drips in a new found ominous feeling, a sense of foreboding that makes him nauseous and dizzy with an overdose of emotions.

"We found Romanoff."

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End of the Chapter.

Reality is about to hit.

Just wanted to clarify, this story isn't going to go too into depth about the council and the aftermath of civil war, but i'm not omitting it completely though.

This is more about conflict and the more human parts of the avenger's movies that we rarely got to see. It's Tony/Nat centric, and if that's not your jazz, leave please.

Song name: If the world was ending

I chose it because it resembled the theme of this chapter (and i may or may not love it))