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

[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."

[lasiurus]

"He started things by trying to make me jealous."

He reassembles Peter's gun slowly, but without even having to look at it. That isn't what had set him off, but he offers the gun.

"Here."

[rickitikitarr]

"Well, we won't have to worry about that any more."

He tells him, sliding the gun away, eyes bright and bitter.

"Another near miss for Misters Tarr and Guillam. Go find him, make sure he doesn't die. I'll check the grimier emergency rooms, you check the illegal spots."

[lasiurus]

"Ricki-"

It hurts to see him that way. It happens too often.

"He was trying to chase me off."

[rickitikitarr]

"Peter isn't that obvious. I'll review the footage when I get back."

He promises.

"But I guarantee you, Bruce, you don't understand everything that happened here tonight. Find him, all right?"

[lasiurus]

He nods, deciding to try to use that as an apology. Find Peter. Maybe repair some of the damage.

He begins searching the backdoor doctors.

[watchesthewatchers]

Sure enough, at one just far enough away to be inconspicuous, a man in an impeccable suit is slipping away, arm carefully tended.

[lasiurus]

Even with his skills, Bruce has learned that spies don't take to being followed for long. So he races forward, close enough to be able to grab him if Peter tries to run.

"You left something."

[watchesthewatchers]

The knife comes up between them, quick and deft, and Peter moves back out of grabbing range, fast and displaying far more agility than he had in the apartment.

"He's yours. Back up, now, or I'll bury this in your eye."

[lasiurus]

"Wouldn't you rather shoot me?"

He holds up the gun, but he decides he'll damn well snap that wrist again if Peter tries to stab him.

"Come talk to him, Peter. I won't even be there if you don't want me to be."