There's the weak, and the strong, and the best that have no answers

[usavatar]

WHO: Steve Rogers and Clint Barton and Frank Castle, anyone else in Avengers Mansion or who later happens by.
WHERE: Avenger's Mansion, and THE MEAN STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY
WHEN: The night after Steve's arrival
WARNINGS: N/A
SUMMARY: Valeria brings Steve 'round to Avengers Mansion; later he sneaks out to decompress and gets tailed instead.
FORMAT: Any.


Clint
The trip to the mansion is uneventful, for all that Steve gets his fare share of glances on mass transit. He can't blame the people for it - his suit is supposed to be eye-catching, and the fact that he's filthy with the remains of a battle that hasn't happened here makes it all the more so. Valeria knows the city, it seems, and they approach the imposing building in short order after they leave the subway. There's someone out front as they walk up - someone holding a bow.



The Palatial Manse
It feels good to get clean, even if it's in another unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. People who, according to Mockingbird, are dying to see him. That might be the reason he takes a little longer to tend to his injuries, particularly the gash-and-burn across his side. Might be why he doesn't leave the massive bathroom immediately once he's dressed and his hair is combed. He spends a few minutes staring down his reflection without thinking much at all - and then it's a quiet descent to the living room, which he mostly finds by accident.


Frank Castle/Others
It's somewhere between late and early when he feels the mansion quiet down enough that he can find his way out without being seen. Without being seen by more than the accusing eyes of a small dog dressed in a bee costume, anyway. He hits the sidewalk outside of the gates and takes what feels like his first deep breath since arriving. Steve doesn't pick a direction so much as he starts walking and lets his instinct find paths still familiar even in another world. He's not doing this for the sights. He just needs time to think.

Comments

[fronttowardenemy]

There's a lot to learn from listening.

Frank watches the network far more than he'll ever use it. It's discouraging, really, watching how many of them scramble around without asking the right questions. He gets the answers he wants, eventually, by tracking the responses.

This man in the City is Captain America, but not at the same time.

Spider-Man and Bauer and plenty others mentioned it: alternate universes. While Frank tends to avoid that bullshit as much as possible, leaving it to the ones more equipped for it, he can't deny the existence of such things. He has witnessed and experienced too many things for this to seem absurd to him.

The question is: how different is he?

It isn't good to be here after Murdock outed him on the network. Stupid thing to do. It doesn't disadvantage him too greatly to have his existence known -- after all, Spider-Man had found him and that active mouth probably spread it already -- but it's unlikely that any of the Avengers expect him outside the Mansion.

Then the man himself exits the place. Frank isn't surprised or calling coincidence. It makes sense that Rogers wouldn't stick around; after that much insanity he'd want the space to breathe, no matter how ill-advised it might be to jump out into the unknown.

Keeping a safe distance behind, Frank follows.

[usavatar]

For a while he meanders through the fog of enervation, content to bathe in the sounds of the midnight city. It's the first thing to really convince him that there's no clear and present danger here. No aliens from the sky or leviathans storming through buildings on their way to sweep through vehicles on the ground. A phrase by now familiar enough to incite irony drifts through his thoughts: It could almost be home.

That spark of awareness broadens into the realization that he isn't alone on the street and hasn't been for some time now. A few more turns, taken at random, to make sure he isn't imagining things, and then Steve stops. He doesn't have it as bad as he used to, going out at night. He can do it now usually without worrying about being harassed. But clearly there's a first time for everything.

Steve shifts to face whoever it is, keeping his injured side turned away and his guard up. There's no trace of weariness on his face - though there is a spreading bruise, courtesy of Clint Barton. "I'd rather not beat someone else into the ground on my first day here. Whoever you think you're following, I'm not him."

[fronttowardenemy]

When it's mindless wandering, that makes it all the easier to notice that Frank is following him. Honestly, Frank would have been more bothered if Rogers hadn't noticed him. The man he knew was sharper than that, and this one lives up to expectation so far.

When the man calls out, he emerges from the darkness. His coat is buttoned up, concealing the skull, and his hands are at his sides -- having them in his pockets would seem more questionable, so he keeps them visible.

"Know that already," he admits. But who does Rogers think is following him? Would he recognize this man at all?

[usavatar]

There's not even an inkling of familiarity on Steve's part. "Then what do you want? To test me?"

The double-blow of genuine kindness and genuine disappointment in almost everyone who knows his name is somehow ten times worse than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s kid-glove handling of a possibly unbalanced asset. With them, at least, it was protocol. Business. The rage he's had running under the surface for months flares, and he shifts to a ready stance, fists raised.

"Let's get it over with."

[fronttowardenemy]

Frank frowns slightly, his head bent. This man looks younger than the Steve Rogers he knows, and it shows in his reactions as well. The anger isn't unexpected; especially after this kind of hell. He doubted the others took it gently, either. They were a clumsy bunch. No real protocol about them.

"No," he says firmly, his posture not changing. "I won't."

He never would -- not against Captain America. But this man didn't know that. Not yet, anyway.

[usavatar]

The fight eases out of Steve slowly in the silence after the other man speaks, though the hostility doesn't. Even if this guy isn't on the attack, he's still been following in silence for who knows how long.

"What do you want? Who are you?"

[fronttowardenemy]

The questions take a moment. He can answer him honestly about who he is, but it won't enlighten the man to anything at all. Instead, he focuses on the first question, which is much simpler.

"Wanted to see if you're right to wear those colors."

Which betrayed a lot more than it seemed: he knew Captain America, he knew it wasn't the same man as this Captain America, and he gave enough of a damn about it to make a scene on his behalf.

[usavatar]

"So, in other words - you're testing me."

Steve hooks his thumbs over the rim of his pockets, position casual for all that he's still on alert. "Why? Who is he to you?"

[fronttowardenemy]

That is a difficult thing to define. The real answer isn't something Frank is inclined to say out loud; he never would.

Frank is making assumptions -- never a good thing to do -- but by the man's age and his responses, he is a younger soldier than the veteran that Frank remembers. He might not understand the influence he has on people -- citizens and 'superhero' alike.

Himself included. The last thing he recalls is surrendering to the command of this man (no, not the same; different) and giving himself up: a soldier following the order of his superior. When Captain America addressed him, Frank came quietly to prison. He has broken that command, technically, by being free here in this place. Indirect disobedience.

"People will follow you, because of who you are," he stated bluntly. "Important. Easily abused."

It's not really an exact answer to what Rogers asks, but it's as much as he will admit.

[usavatar]

Steve shakes his head, not in denial exactly - he knows what Captain America was to people. What he (an abstract, dissociative 'he') stayed to men and women like Phil Coulson. But the belief that others will follow simply because he leads has never sat comfortably or felt true to him. Now for very different reasons than before.

He focuses over Frank's shoulder. What was it he'd told Barton - I don't know what you expect from me, but I'm not going to lie and say that you'll get it.

"They shouldn't. They don't know who I am." Weariness that has little to do with the day settles into his chest like an old cough. "I'm not here to lead anyone."

[fronttowardenemy]

There's the confirmation of his belief. Frank frowns for a moment, debating, as he watches him with his one good eye.

"They know what you stand for." Which is enough, and there is no question of what that is. Whether or not this is the same man Frank remembers, at the core they are the same; he believes that firmly. He would not have that title, that symbol, otherwise.

"Then what are you going to do?"

[usavatar]

The question catches Steve off-guard. It's not something he's actually been asked. SHIELD kept him in their back pocket until he was needed. Before then, what was needed was always entirely clear. In the interim, before Loki's attack, he'd been too wrapped up in loss to think beyond what he was missing. The future drew itself in increments in front of him, days of talking to doctors and being subjected to physicals until SHIELD had sufficient data on his health and mental state to allow him an apartment.

"I don't know," he says, quietly. He's lost, and acknowledging it is more than he's done before now. "What I've always done. Whatever I can."

[fronttowardenemy]

The honesty in the response is nothing less than what he expects, but it still isn't something he has earned the right to hear. He slips his hands into his pockets, watching him, and he knows what the answer will be.

Like any good soldier, he'll follow a call to arms.

"They'll trust you," he says, referencing the occupants of the mansion that they have left behind. "Whatever you do."

[usavatar]

"You say that, but I'm not so sure." Steve fingers the bruise on his jaw and sighs. With a great deal less hostility, he says, "You still haven't told me your name."

[fronttowardenemy]

"You wouldn't know it."

He's confident in this. Just as Frank himself can recognize Steve Rogers, even through the differences, he imagines Rogers would recognize the Punisher.

Then, even so, he offers: "Castle."

Let him ask the others about it, if he wants. They won't be accurate, but Frank doesn't care for their opinion. It's simple enough to understand, and he feels no need to justify it.

[usavatar]

"I don't know it. That's why I asked." Steve doesn't have his older counterpart's patience. He gives the other man an irritated look. "Should I call you Buckingham, or is there more to it than that?"

[fronttowardenemy]

The first time they met wasn't like this -- at least not the time that Frank remembers -- they had both already known each other, and there was no space for debate. It's not like he can do it better this time around; the result will be the same.

"Frank Castle," he elaborated, and then belatedly: "Sir."

[usavatar]

Frank Castle. The man who keeps surprising him in ways the others haven't. "I'm not your OC, Castle."

But that does confirm the instinct that his man is or was a soldier. One who's seen heavy action. It's not just the way he looks, though the missing eye encourages the idea - it's the way he moves, the way he talks. "Which branch?"

[fronttowardenemy]

"No," he agrees, but he has followed Rogers' command before. It never ends well, he knows this, yet the moments still repeat themselves.

"Marines," he supplies simply.

[usavatar]

Steve cracks a smile at that. "Then I'm definitely not your OC."

Slowly, wondering if the other man might bolt or turn and walk away, Steve offers him a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Frank."

[fronttowardenemy]

Frank watches Steve's hand for a beat too long. It almost seems like taking an unfair advantage to accept the hospitality. This is a man he has disappointed and disgusted.

"You won't think that for very long."

But Frank does take his hand.

[usavatar]

"Maybe, maybe not." Steve doesn't let go at once, keeping his grip on Castle as he study's the other man's face. "I'll decide that once I know you better."

He finally lets go. "Are you hungry? I don't know what's open, but it's still New York."

[fronttowardenemy]

Frank is quiet as the contact lingers, the touch given a deliberate emphasis. It doesn't drag out into an awkwardness, but nonetheless Frank's hands slip into his pockets when Rogers lets go.

Once Rogers knows what he is, Frank figures he'll make that decision very quickly.

"Twenty-four diner down the road," he suggests. Frank has visited enough places; his work keeps him mobile, so eating out is common. "You take a right and it's on the corner."

You because Frank will not be going with him; he'll go left.

[usavatar]

Steve won't press him - he knows when to exercise some patience, as much as he might be restless and curious himself. "Thank you."

He tucks his hands into his pockets, searching for something else to say, a way to tie off this conversation and leave room for another. "Next time if you want to talk you can just... you know, talk to me. The following isn't necessary."

[fronttowardenemy]

Frank isn't so sure about that. When Rogers learns who he is, Frank expects just talking will not be so simple. Even being thanked by this man feels misplaced. Taking advantage of a faulty memory.

Then again, things are different here -- but too much will stay the same. He surrendered to this man once before, and will fall in when he asks again.

"Copy," he says simply, his voice lower than before, and he turns to leave him.