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]

"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."

[watchesthewatchers]

He flips the knife away when he sees the weapon, hands lifting, stepping back against the wall.

Funny, how much he looks like Ricki when he feels trapped.

[lasiurus]

He drops the gun and kicks it a ways down the sidewalk toward Peter. Then he does the same thing with the clip.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Please- if you're really worried about him, talk to him. And if you're not, if you really don't give a damn about him, then stop jerking him around like this. Be in or out, but make up your mind."

[watchesthewatchers]

"Out."

He says, without hesitation.

"Now get a god damn measure of respect for him and stop interfering with his work. Do you know how many times I've had to intervene to make sure your amateur snooping didn't end with his brains all over an Indonesian alley? Do you know he's going in to infiltration work without guns these days? You have no idea who he is, what he does, or what he's capable of. Your childish meddling and emotional blackmail are going to end with him dead. Don't come near me again, and don't pretend you're invincible. A sniper on the right rooftop and even you go down. I hate everything you are and I think you're killing him piece by piece and if you take one step closer I swear I'll stab you."

[lasiurus]

"You think I'm killing him? You have him convinced he's alone, while you go crawl into Tony's bed at night. You dangle friendship and then pull stunts like this, and then pretend I'm the problem here? I wish you'd been the one chased out of Indonesia, and I wish Tony had never met you. You might have them fooled, but not me."

Bruce is so tempted to hurt him.

"If I ever see you again here in my city, I guarantee you'll be in a wheelchair for a year. And if you ever hurt him like this again, I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in a hospital bed. I won't kill you, but I can make you wish I had."

[watchesthewatchers]

"How, exactly, do I have him thinking he's alone? I have him here with you, and you're fucking it up!"

Snarling.

"I don't live with Tony. And since you're ducking what I'm telling you, let me spell it out for you; when you followed him, that time I told you not to, remember that? People listened, and I had to move fast and make sure that you didn't cause him to die. This isn't a vague recrimination. You have actively almost had Ricki's brains all over a wall. Stop ignoring me and absorb that, you fucking child."

[lasiurus]

"Who the hell do you think you are, his saviour? He'd be safe if only I weren't around? You're the reason he was over there in the first place. You're the reason he has that shoulder problem, you're the reason he's been shot a few dozen times. You want him safe, tell your boyfriend to pay him off and let him go!"

[watchesthewatchers]

"Who the hell do you think I am? The entire network, everything he's ever had to do, that's somehow on my shoulders? Like I make decisions about where he's sent?"

Scornful.

"You have an awful lot of ideas about Ricki, and very few truths. You can say a great deal about me but none of Ricki's bullet holes are my doing. He was working a different handle when things went south for him. Ask him yourself. If you want to take something up with Tony, you can do it. I'm not involved in that transaction, though I'll admit, I'm not interfering mostly because I'm hesitant to turn him over to you for suicide runs.

As for his shoulder problem, I happen to know I'm not the one who gave him a concussion when I was supposed to be protecting him! Ricki and I are evenly matched, we give as good as we get with one another, you abusive piece of shit."

[lasiurus]

He closes off, smug and distant and very cold the way he does when he's not willing to invest any more of himself.

"You have no idea what I'm like with him, and after meeting you, I like it that way. Tuck your tail and go back to New York, Peter. If he wants to see you, he can find you."

[watchesthewatchers]

He sneers, and pulls out his phone. Dials.

"Ricki?"

Quiet, as the line picks up.

[lasiurus]

Bruce waits, hating Peter and his manipulations. Just standing here is an exercise of will.

[watchesthewatchers]

Peter mostly just listens, clutching the phone in his good hand, smiling helplessly a few seconds in.

"Be careful. I swear, I'll go grey over you."

At length, he adds;

"I know. I will." And then. "You too. I'll send him back to you now, yes? Take care."

He hangs up, quickly after that.

[lasiurus]

"Tony's looking for you."

Tony, with his shiny, expensive cars and fame, in Gotham. Looking for someone in the bad neighborhoods. It's a recipe for disaster.

[watchesthewatchers]

"I can't right now. Tell him I'm at the hospital and I'll find him at his hotel."

He instructs him, scooping up the gun. He assembles it, one handed, and looks up at him.

"Ricki will be tempted to drink. But if he makes it two weeks without, he'll be fine."