But I ain't got a dime so I'll just sit here

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Who| Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers
What| Two teammates, out of the arena and coping with their own deaths and the pains of their friends. Time to drink their sorrows away.
Where| Common area of the Training Center.
When| Before the blackout.
Warnings/Notes| Two boys drinking and exchanging stories.

Bruce doesn't like getting food from Avoxes. He gets suspicious and paranoid, and he'd rather prepare his own.

He'd like to do the same for his drinks, but he'll settle for just staring at the bartender while the drink is prepared and making sure he can see everything that goes in there.

He shouldn't drink, but he can just take a little bit to take the edge off. He doesn't need to watch what he drinks or does for the sake of the Hulk. He can make up for lost time.

Comments

[aboveangrybees]

Steve does as he always does when he first wakes up from the arena - spends a few hours getting his head together. It's not dying that bothers Steve, no really, it's not even at the front of his mind as he opens his eyes again, gaze falling on an all too familiar ceiling. No, it's how he has to fight a panic attack as he flashes back to waking up in New York 70 years wrong. Every time it feels like waking up to a world and time he doesn't belong to, each time feels like his chest will crush itself as it tightens in anticipation of the loss of everything. He needs to remember how to breathe, to reorient himself.

Once those memories fade to black in his mind, Steve is out of his room and looking for his teammates, for Natasha and Barton, for Peggy and Banner.

He only finds the one.

Oddly enough, he found Stark in this same place, drinking, after their first arena. The deja vu of it takes a strong hold of him as he slides into the seat right of the man. His brand is still there, seared into his skin - still marred and disfigured, but without infection - and so he's still inclined to keep people to his left and it out of direct sight.

"Seems I can't make it past the halfway point," he died the same week last arena, later in the week, but the same one none the less.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce arches an eyebrow when he notices Steve slide in so close, but he doesn't flinch away, which is an improvement from how jumpy he was when they first met.

"Maybe that's for the best. It's going to go downhill from here."

The bartender puts a glass of scotch in front of him. He doesn't immediately drink--instead, he just fingers the lip, resisting for just a little longer, as if to prove that he can.

"This leaves... Thor, Tony, and Bucky, doesn't it?" Sif might join up with them. Bucky will react badly to the loss of Steve. Tony is going to react badly to losing Bruce and Steve. It's up to Thor to keep them in line, and who knows if he actually can.

[aboveangrybees]

Steve does his best to give Bruce some space, but it's nice to not see the man flinch, especially when a part of him had expected it. He understand the reasons why the man seems very spatially aware of what's around him.

He looks to the bartender, intending to order, but the man takes one look at him, eyes falling on the brand and turns away to tend another task. Steve's eyebrows inch up, but he says nothing of the matter. Suppose he should have expected his brand to cause such reactions from the natives. It marks him as a traitor and not to be trusted.

"Yeah, of us at least," Steve tries to keep the tired guilt from his tone. Leaving them behind is easily the worst part of all of this. He never plans to win, not really, but he does plan to see his teammates win, yet he can do little outside the arena with his assets frozen.

"They could see it to the end if they stick together."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

When the bartender leaves, Bruce gently nudges his own untouched drink towards Steve. "You need this more than me." And Bruce needs a reason to not drink, because he really shouldn't do that. Even discounting his green condition, he has a family history he'd really rather not perpetuate.

"I think they'll manage it. They're good at pulling together when they have to." At least Thor and Tony are, and Bruce is under the impression that Bucky is as well. There is, of course, the risk of Bucky deciding he had no reason to stick around without Steve, or Tony not managing to curb his obnoxious personality enough. But Bruce has (some) faith. "How are you holding up?"

[aboveangrybees]

Steve considers the glass, he doesn't actually need to drink, he's learned a long time ago how to cope without it, even before the serum, it's more a novelty for him these days - he can get drunk now and his body can take it. Yet, it might be the only drink he's getting tonight, he doubts he'll get much service at even the Speakeasy, so he takes it with a gracious nod. "Thanks."

Yeah, Thor is more than capable, Stark and Bucky too, if they can set their issues aside. He watched only enough footage to find who found him, having hoped the robots would find him first, but no such luck. That didn't do either of them any favors.

The question causes him to pause, before he nods. "Well enough. Dying doesn't bother me, it's leaving people behind, in there, that does," another pause before he looks at Bruce, his gaze considering in a kind way. This was the man's first arena, he knows it's not easy. "How about you?"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Hm." Bruce waves a hand and looks away, an instinctive dismissive gesture. He's used to deflecting concern, because he can very rarely tell people what actually bothers him, but then he lowers his arm and focuses on Steve, because this isn't a man he has to keep secrets from. "Not as bad as you'd think."

He doesn't go into detail, because that would quickly get personal and awkward, but it wasn't the first time he had woken up after 'dying.' Apparently, it's just something you got used to, like stubbing your toe. Unpleasant, but easy to shake off. At least, that was how he liked to think about it. It made it easier to consider, to think of it as inevitable and ultimately meaningless.

"I'm more concerned about the people stuck in there." When he woke up, he was more concerned with Tony and Belle. With the blood on both of them, the way they had looked at him. He'd never 'died' when there were other people around, at least not anyone he could see. That sticks in his head. But then he watched the footage of what was happening, like a trainwreck, and he saw so many awful things in there.

"How many kids do they have in there? Below fifteen, even?" Many of the kids, he didn't know their names, just their faces. But he saw them, running around, growing up too fast. He can handle the thought of Thor and Tony and other Avengers in there because he knows they can take care of themselves, but children shouldn't have to. That gets to him.

[aboveangrybees]

Steve counted at one point, but people have died and stayed dead now, new people came in since, so he knows his numbers are off. Honestly, he doesn't know why he counted, it didn't do him any good. Only made the reality of all of them suffering and dying tangible. It makes his hands ache to take actions he can't just yet.

"Too many. Even just one child in there is one too many." It's the only answer that mattered to Steve. When it comes to the arena, no child should have to suffer that.

Yet, he knows Bruce is a scientist, numbers and facts usually mean something more to the more logical minded. "Around fifteen, gets in the low to mid thirties if you count anyone below eighteen."

Like he said, too many. "Children deserve to be children, not subjected to this."