Chapter Text
I could sense everyone in the room. I could hear and distinguish every single heartbeat from each other. There were eighteen people in the bar not including me. fourteen of them had heart rates which had slowed down since they had first walked into the room due to the alcohol which was now flowing through their blood streams. The other four were the workers of the bar. For being in the same room with so many criminals their heart rates were surprisingly calm.
The creak of the door was a piercing whistle in my brain, but instead of reacting I just solemnly took a sip of my drink. As soon as the person entered the room I instinctively listened to the heart beat. The sound was familiar. Soothing in a way. Could it be someone I know? Or someone I knew in my previous life as Peter Parker? It was unlikely that any of my old friends had the means to make the trip to Moscow, so that left the only possibility to be the pesky Avengers.
Fuck .
Obviously I knew what had happened in the world. The second snap had brought everyone back. The Avengers saved the world again and happy endings for all. So why the hell was one of them here? I listened to the heartbeat get closer and closer and tried to identify who it was, but it had been five years since I had spoken to any of them. Five years was a long time. Especially when it came to memory of heartbeats, I’d heard hundreds of thousands if not millions of distinct heartbeast. It took a while before I could quickly identify one.
No mechanical sounds so it wasn’t Stark. Thank God . The last time I saw him he was fading to dust in my arms… don’t think about Titan nothing good will come from it.
Rogers' heartbeat was always slower but had an almost hollow sound to it. This heartbeat wasn’t that.
Banner would stand out in this place like a sunflower in a bean field. So I could rule him out.
I had little to no relationship with Rhodey, Barton, or Thor so that only left one person.
As the trained assassin got closer and closer my sixth sense didn’t go off. You think it would register a trained spy and assassin as a threat wouldn’t you? I kept my eyes trained forward and refused to look at her as the fiery red head took a seat right next to me. She could make the first move.
“I’ll have what he’s having” She spoke to the bartender in English which was strange. Everyone in this bar spoke English but why would she know that? We are in the middle of Russia after all. The bartender looked towards me with a questioning glance. Silently asking if this was ok. I knew Natasha saw this but she remained silent as I nodded to the bartender.
“Get me another while you're at it.”
He silently stepped away and left Natasha and I in silence. We didn’t speak as he prepared the drinks with his back to us. He then turned around and set the drinks on a coaster in front of us. The short glasses held only a clear liquid that could pass for water. Alas it was vodka. When in Rome.
“On the house for you good sir.”
I raised my glass in thanks to him and took a drink. I could tell Natasha was watching to see if I reacted as I drank half the glass in one drink. She raised an eyebrow at me as the ghost of an amused smile danced across her lips. I wasn’t surprised. The last time she saw me I was a nerdy sixteen year old who would ramble on about the newest StarWars movie for hours if I was allowed to. I hadn’t watched the StarWars movies since…since Ned… don’t think about the past. Focus on the future. Focus on the problem at hand.
“What can I do for you Natasha? I doubt you came all the way out here just for a drink. The vodka is great and the company is ok.” As I said this I turned and raised my glass to all the other customers of the bar. They laughed and raised their glasses, which all had vodka in them, to me in respect. I turned back to Natasha who had obviously realized the respect the men and women in the bar held for me as she continued to look at me curiously, trying to read me it would seem. She wouldn’t find anything. I had trained to keep all emotion off of my face for the past five years. No one would be able to read my emotions again.
“ We want you back.” She spoke slowly, stressing the word ‘we’ as she did.
“Who’s we?” We both knew that it was a stupid question. It was quite obvious who the we she was referring to was, but I still felt like playing dumb. Even though she knew that I knew the answer she still answered.
“Tony, Pepper, Bruce, Hulk, Me, hell even Cap wants to see you again. We’re all worried about you. No one has seen or heard from you in five years” Yeah that was on purpose “and when I started to look for you I found some…concerning things to say the least.”
“What’d you find?” I took a sip from my glass as I addressed her. My face schooled to show no emotion but my heart was slowly beating faster. Fuck. What would they do if they knew? Did they know? No, there was no fucking way they could know. I made sure to cover all my tracks.
“It doesn’t matter.” Like hell. I need to know what she knows. “We just want you to come back.” She then took what seemed to be a small piece of paper out of her jacket pocket and slid it across the bar to me. On it was the address of what I knew to be a jet runway. So she wanted to take me back to New York. “Five o’clock, be there.” She then finished off her drink and went to walk out the door when one of the men who I very much did not like grabbed her wrist.
“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a bar like this?” Andrei was obviously drunk and through the heavy russian accent it was hard to make out his exact words but I understood them clearly and so did Natasha. She didn’t seem to bothered and simply narrowed her eyes to a deadly point and starred him dead in the eye and said with an exasperated tone to her words,
“I would let go of me if you would like to walk out of this bar tonight.” The threat was clear in her voice and any sane person would back down but Andrei had a few too many tonight and stood up to face her. Others around them stood up. Most were just preparing to stop a fight should one break out. Some of them exchanged looks but soon all of them except Andrei had turned to face me, for instructions on how to proceed.
“Let her go, sit down, and let her walk away.” My voice was clear and cold. No emotion. All of them sat down and Andrei turned towards me. Thankfully he let go of Natasha, but he started to walk my way. I drank the rest of my glass before I stood up to face him and spoke with venom and malice in my voice. “What did I say about sitting down?” He stopped ten feet in front of me and sneered at me.
“Who is she?”
“Why the fuck would I tell you that? Sit the hell back down before I lose my shit.” He didn’t listen
He made a grand gesture with his hand and turned back to the rest of the bar occupants including Natasha who hadn’t left yet. I guess she wants to see how this all plays out. “Of all the years this man has been here not a single sole could get a emotional response out of him and then this women,” he enunciated his words by pointing a finger in Natasha’s direction “Shows up out of nowhere and low and behold we see emotion, so who the hell is she? I feel like we deserve to know!”
I pulled my gun out of my waistband where it was hidden and shot him once in each knee. He let out a scream of pain and fell to his knees. The weak kneel before me . Natasha was the only one still standing. Everyone else had sat back down and was looking at the scene before them with emotions that ranged from amusement from those who hated him as much as me and sorrow from the few that were close to him. I didn’t look at the Avenger in the room. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like what I saw. Pity, disgust, anger, etc;
Instead I stood over my current problem.
“So you insult the women and then you insult me. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t shoot you in the head and be done with you?”
“P-please sir, I-I didn’t mean any h-harm.”
I quickly pointed the barrel of my gun at his head and pulled the trigger. I looked up to the rest of the bar and made eye contact with anyone besides Natasha. “Take this as a lesson. Don’t ever lie to your superiors. Tell the truth and face consequences. Tell a lie and well…” In lieu of finishing the sentence I motioned to the body that lay at my feet that was now bleeding out all over the floor.
I finally found the courage to look up towards Natasha. To no one's surprise she had a blank emotionless look on her face. I doubt that she no has no emotions for what I had just done as I could hear her heartbeat slowly accelerating, but if she wasn’t gonna say anything about it neither was I.
“I have some loose ends I need to tie up, but I’ll be there.”
“Five o’clock.” With that she walked out the door and into the cloudy afternoon light of the city.
I looked back to those left in the bar and addressed them with a lighter tone knowing it may be the last time that I speak to them for a while. “Clean up the mess, I need to have a chat with the Boss.” With that I left the room and went to the back of the building where there was a narrow staircase which led up to a single office. Before I could even knock on the door the man inside spoke for me to come in. As far as I knew he wasn’t enhanced, just trained. I opened the door and walked into the spacious office which I had not been in for at least a couple of months. The man I came to speak with was sitting at his desk and motioned for me to sit down in the singular chair across from him.
“Ah my favorite American! What can I do for you, captain?” For the leader of the Russian mafia Anatoly always seemed to be happy and in good spirits. Nonetheless he was still a very dangerous man. I sat down in the chair and gave him a small smile before speaking.
“It’s time for me to go home, Anatoly.” His expression dropped the smile and he frowned in sadness at my words. He leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh.
“Ah…I always knew this day was coming. And I understand why you have to go home. With everyone coming back from the dead, yes?”
“Yeah, the people I left, they want me back.”
“Your family?”
I grimaced at the thought of my blood related family, “my blood family is all fucking dead, you know this.”
“Still family is more than just blood. I hope the last five years with the Bratva have shown you that at least.” He raised a questioning brow my way.
“Yes Anatoly you guys are my brothers.” My voice was monotone but I hoped he could sense the emotion behind the words.
He seemed satisfied with this answer. “Good. Anyways I will not keep you. It will be a shame to lose someone of your position and reputation, but we will be fine. Know that you are still Bratva captain. Wherever you go that tattoo” He motioned to my right shoulder where my captain tattoo was. Among all the other tattoos I had acquired throughout the years “will keep you out of trouble and will help you.”
“Thank you Anatoly, I owe you many.”
“I seem to remember being in your debt when this all started. Consider it even.”
I nodded and he stood up and rummaged through his desk and pulled out a high end bottle of authentic russian vodka. “For when you have to see all those people you've been avoiding for five years.” I let out a short laugh as he handed the bottle to me and reached out his other hand for me to shake. “I will miss you my brother. Anytime, anywhere, I will help you.”
“Thank you Anatoly, the same goes for you.” I looked at the clock behind his desk and saw that five o’clock was approaching. I needed to leave if I was gonna make it in time. I nodded to the man and walked back down the stairs and out the back exit to where my car was.
My car was all black with leather seats and red stitching. It was one of my most prized possessions. I needed to talk to someone about getting it shipped over to America. Home. It hadn’t been my home since May had been taken by that stupid heart attack all those years ago. I no longer had a home. I drove away from the bar towards the address on the piece of paper I had stuck in my pocket not daring to look back. Let go of the past. Stay in the present. Focus on the future.