So I play them like a violin
And I make it look, oh, so easy
🌑
Steve Rogers
Though they spent little time together during the investigation, Steve Rogers is certain he knows Bucky enough. When they found (Y/n) Stark and solved the case, He could understand why Bucky wanted to disappear for a bit. It was tough for him as well knowing he lost Peter's life on his account.
But not three months, and somehow, the texts that Bucky sent to Steve doesn't feel right.
"You can come in now." Steve hears Fury's voice. It took him forever to get an appointment with the head of the FBI.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me," Steve says, looking at the higher-ranked officers who sit calmly on his chair.
"What's this about? I thought you abandoned us for good. We offered you a position here and you wanted to go back to being a private investigator, so do you want the job now?"
"I'm here about... the Spider's case."
Fury stuns after what he heard, but then he shrugs it off. "What about it? We got the murderer, we are praised, the Stark girl went back to her father and everything is over now."
"I have a gut feeling that it doesn't..." He says. Then hurriedly dumbs files and papers onto Fury's table. "I've been looking through the case all over again. Something just doesn't add up."
"Like what?" There's a tone of mockery in Fury's voice.
"Everything! I think." Steve looks like he's losing his mind, "Everything that feels a little bit off, is all covered up. Like how the Stark girl can't even tell where she was kept at."
"She was kidnapped, if she had known where she was, she would have escaped on her own."
"Or how the security cameras in the parking lots of Peter's death day magically don't work all of the sudden. Or the pieces of evidence with Pietro Maximoff's blood on Stark girl's body that was destroyed before it was even analyzed."
"What are you even hinting at?" Fury furrows.
"Wanda Maximoff! She's Pietro's twin. She was never looked into and there are no records of her at all. But what if Pietro wasn't the only Spider? What if he had been working with his twin sister the whole time and right now she's still out there..." He stops, wondering if he should say it, "She's out there... kidnapping Bucky Barnes.
Nick Fury stares.
Nick Fury looks down.
Nick Fury laughs out, starts wheezing, starts crying, and slapping his table.
Steve Rogers confusedly stares back.
"Oh, my dear Jesus... this is all because agent Barnes went to Canada?! Hahaha!" He points at Steve's face. "I thought it was just a rumor."
"What rumor...?"
"Well, you two seem to have cared fondly for each other. Now that he's gone, it's probably so heart breaking that you think you did something wrong."
"This has nothing to do with Bucky, ugh, James."
"Sure."
"His texts seem a little off, so there's a possibility. What if the Spider is still out there because there were two of them?" Steve pursuits. "Our bond is not to be laughed at."
"Listen. I'm going to make myself clear to you. The Spider case is over and done with. All the press only cares about the wellbeing of Ms. Stark now, and I advise you not to dig it up. Because it is no longer your case, and to be honest, you're no use to us anymore. Now I have more work to get back to, I sure hope Barnes finds his way back, but if he doesn't, just go out and get a date will ya?"
Steve grabs his stuff frustratedly and walks our the room as the laughter of Fury follows him. He tried to come here to help, but he was not even listened to.
He walks right out of the office and drops all his papers.
"Uh..." He mutters, then notices hands helping pick it up.
(Y/n) Stark's hands.
"Miss Stark..." He says under his breath. You look back up at him with a still face and an unreadable smile. "What... what are you doing here?"
"Discussing getting a psychiatrist." You say casually. "I always denied Fury's offer about getting me one, but lately thing's been bad. What brings you?"
"Ugh... just. A chat."
You look at him while he is not looking with a dangerous sight. "Thank you for getting me out."
"That's... my job. I'm glad you're better... and keep getting better. Anyway, most progress was from Bucky Barnes and that boy we recruited, Peter Parker..."
That gets your attention to play with him. "Why did your team have to recruit a college kid anyway?"
"We... wanted a new perspective."
Or desperate. You think. "So, you asked him to join the team and he died on your account searching for me, is that right? So basically, he died before of you and me."
"..." Steve looks at you with wide eyes, you stare back innocently.
"At least I know now it's not just me to blame. Have a good day Mr. Rogers." You walk away from him.
•
(Y/n) Stark
I shut the door behind me as I walk into Fury's office.
"Rogers was here," I say, Nick Fury just nods. "What did he want?"
"He doesn't believe the Spider case is solved rightfully yet. And..." He drags his voice. "He's very concerned about his agent friend, Bucky Barnes. You know him? One helping to get you out, miss?"
"Met him a few times," I say nonchalantly. Like he's not in my basement or anything.
Fury smirks at me. I don't fucking care if he knows. I hold his secrets just as much as he holds mine.
I breathe in heavily, "Is Peter Parker still alive?"
"Thought he was in your basement." He teases me.
"The real Peter Parker."
"He died in your arm, miss." He's smiling still.
"But I went unconscious after it and woke up at the hospital. You informed me he died but everyone said his corpse was too disoriented to be looked at. So we never got an open casket, were we?"
His smile drops. I feel like crossing a line, but I would jump through that shit if it would get me some hope.
"Everything you were informed was the way it's supposed to be."
"Stop playing words, I'm a fucking songwriter not a puzzler. Someone dropped a box full of spiders on my doorstep."
I read him intensely, he looks a bit concerned now.
"Must be some crazy fan wanting to scare you."
"They were wolf spiders. Peter used them a lot while playing games with your people, the FBI."
"That boy is dead. He abducted you. And now you're free, what's your concern?"
"I don't feel like I was set free, I feel more trapped now than ever. Crazy fans everywhere, journalists wanting to make a movie starring me about the abduction, my father wants me to exploit my traumas for money. I know you're hiding something from me, Fury." I say firmly.
"That kid really got what he wanted huh?"
"What?"
"For you to love him."
"He didn't get what you promised his parents though. Tell me, is he happy now?"
Fury slowly rises, then looks me in the eye.
"He's not happy. He's fucking rotting, Miss Stark. And you are in denial."
•
Steve Rogers
It's no coincidence he's been having guts feeling and then suddenly you show up to see Nick Fury, Steve tells himself. So, when you walk out of the building and get in the car, he follows.
At the same time, you drive home to your so-called Peter Parker, yet you cannot get over the sight of the last time you saw the real Peter Parker.
He said he loved you as he faded to death, he made you love him by the end of it all when he wasn't trying, he set you free from the pretentious life, and now he's just going to go to hell while leaving you here to suffer? No fucking way.
Your head hurts. If you had taken the pills that were prescribed this could have been prevented. So you stop the engine, close your eyes, and groan in pain. The headache was from all the concussions, and that pain makes you unaware that a private investigator is following you.
When you open your eyes, tears roll. And you stare at the road ahead with a change of mind. You turn left, to the cemetery.
The dawn paints the sky red, you get off the car to the cemetery with nobody but graves burrowed underneath the dirt. You grab a shovel from the gardener's tool and walk faster.
Then you stop at Peter Parker's grave, and the rain starts pouring.
"You must be a new kind of crazy if you thought I was going to let you go."
You say and starts digging. The more time passes, the bigger the hole gets, the harder the rain falls. It feels like forever when you reach the casket, but you don't stop.
Your breathings are heavy and fast, your bruised hands use the shovel to crank the lid open.
Steve Rogers who's hiding in the distance grabs out his phone, pointing the camera at you and the casket...
And take a perfect shot of you opening up an empty casket.
...With a flash on.
•