long overdue

[watchesthewatchers]

It's Ricki's little ramshackle apartment, but there Peter is one morning, perched on the loveseat, reading a file, waiting for Bruce Wayne to arrive.

He has a gun, but tucked out of sight, not on his person. Just in case.

Comments

[watchesthewatchers]

Peter goes down and lands badly, stool and his own wineglass coming with him in a tinkle of cracked glass.

He knows he's outmatched, so stays limp as a ragdoll underneath him, breath punched out of his lungs by the impact.

He manages to gasp out;

"Feeling strong?"

[lasiurus]

Bruce punches his jaw, and then again in the same place. Just a little higher and he could have dislocated it, but he wants Peter to keep talking.

Spies come armed, he knows that, so he pins one of Peter's arms under his knee and forces Peter's other wrist around so if he struggles it will snap. This way he can search him with relative ease with his remaining hand.

"Who told you?"

About Rachel. About it being his fault.

[watchesthewatchers]

Perfect. It'll come up with ugly bruising. He gives him a slow, calculating look, and tells him;

"Let my hand go or I'll break it. We aren't playing the game you think we are. You don't want to lose any more than you already have."

[lasiurus]

He just glares at him and digs for that gun. There's not a chance he's letting Peter up if he's armed. Breaking a bone would be so satisfying right now...

But he doesn't know how Ricki would react. He's sure Tony will side with Peter over this, but he'll stress about that later. When no one will see.

"He's not yours anymore. Get used to that."

[watchesthewatchers]

"I'm here to share a bloody curry, not send him into battle unarmed. That's your job."

He snarls, and then thrashes, hard, perfectly and resolutely intent on snapping that bone.

Peter's determination can be, frankly, terrifying.

[lasiurus]

There's a gun involved, which means Bruce is as immovable as a mountain. He would rather let Peter maim himself head to toe than allow him access to a weapon...

And so he lets that wrist snap, and grabs the gun.

[watchesthewatchers]

Peter's head falls back with a gasp, and goes still again in his grip with a careful chuckle.

"Going to shoot me too? For what, not pulling a gun on you? I'd never harm you, he's half in love with you."

[lasiurus]

He takes the gun apart and keeps the clip.

"Sure you wouldn't. You care about him now that he's not on your bankroll, right?"

He scoffs, and gets his phone to call Ricki. And then he'll call an ambulance.

[watchesthewatchers]

The phone rings, and Peter's head lifts sharply. It's from the street outside.

"Let me up, now. He's coming."

Ordering him, quietly.

[lasiurus]

He looks like he might just hit him again. He wants to so badly he's almost ashamed of himself.

He pushes up and goes to meet Ricki; Peter can find his own way.

[watchesthewatchers]

He drags the stool upright with the good arm, and then toes the glass to one side, cradling the hurt arm to his chest.

It isn't long before Ricki answers the phone, voice drifting up as he climbs the stairs.

"Hello, you. What are you up to?"

[lasiurus]

He meets him at the landing, tense and anxious and looking like a kitten that's been stepped on. He gives him a very weak smile and turns his phone off.

"There was a visitor when I got here."

[rickitikitarr]

"Peter still about?"

Asks Ricki, curiously, juggling two bags of Indian food.

"I should have warned you he was in town. I didn't realize you'd be on your way over."

Leaning up the steps to give him a deft kiss.

[lasiurus]

He returns it perhaps a little too fervently, just in case Ricki decides that ought to be the last kiss they have.

"He is. I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd have company, I was just...."

Not the point.

"He doesn't like me. I had to disarm him. Uh, he...broke his wrist. We should probably get him to a hospital."

[rickitikitarr]

"Jesus! Of course he's armed, Bruce-"

Bursting up the stairs, past him, in to the little apartment.

The window is cracked, Peter is nowhere to be found. Ricki staggers to a halt, drops the food on the counter, and takes a deep breath. Then another.

[lasiurus]

Bruce follows slowly, carefully containing himself the way he maybe should have earlier.

He texts Banner: Let me know when Peter gets back.

[rickitikitarr]

"He's half your size and has a quarter of your training!"

Ricki snarls, rounding on him,

"And he's my friend. And you broke his wrist?"

The anger and worry seem to last a second, then deflate, slowly. He breathes out a sigh, pinches the bridge of his nose.

"He manipulated you into it, I'm sure. I forget what he's capable of, you know."

[lasiurus]

"I had him in a hold. I think he broke it on purpose."

No one fights that hard against that much strain unless they mean to do something through it.

He looks at Ricki helplessly, and takes a step closer to see if he'll allow it.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

[rickitikitarr]

"He sabotages things. Compulsively." Says Ricki, shrewdly, leaning back against the counter. "Something about the conversation made him need to get out of here, in a way so as I wouldn't ask him back."

His eyes close, disappointment burning up in his throat.

"We have to get Tony to look for him. He'll go end up getting splinted in some mafia doctor's basement."

[lasiurus]

He squeezes Ricki's shoulder, and calls Tony. He leaves out the part where Peter is injured, and just says that they need help finding him. It's not a far drive from New York to Gotham, but minutes count right now.

Tony starts calling him immediately.

[watchesthewatchers]

Peter picks up for him, teeth chattering by now with adrenaline.

"Hi. Did Ricki call you?"

He's still moving fast.

[profiteering]

"What the hell happened? What's wrong?"

He knows by now what Peter sounds like when he's hyped up.

[watchesthewatchers]

"Nothing that was anyone's fault. It just. Isn't going to happen. Listen, I have to go, I'm safe, I'll talk to you in a few hours, all right? Tell them both I'm sorry."

Peter hangs up on him, and tosses the phone for good measure. No interest in being followed.

[profiteering]

Poor Tony is frantic and tells Banner what little he knows before he heads off to Gotham as fast as he can.

Bruce Wayne is no less anxious, but he disguises it.

"I can go try to find him. I know where a few of the underground doctors are."

[rickitikitarr]

"Not a bad idea."

Ricki murmurs, still pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Bring the gun. Give it back to him. That man has more people trying to kill him than I do, and that's saying something."

He's getting his own out of the bottom drawer now. His hands remain impressively steady, but his voice shakes when he says;

"What happened? How did you get that heated? He was here to meet you properly, Tony was talking about expanding our boundaries. I've- Peter and I have been close for years."