milliways_bar | (no subject)

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teja

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OOM: The World We Live In.

Fury is out back doing sit-ups. Rather more specifically he's got his legs hooked over a tree-branch and is doing sit-ups from that position, curling up toward the sky until crossed arms touch his knees and then relaxing until his head is again pointed at the ground. His sword is hung within easy reach of him, and there are several knives strapped to visible portions of his body.

He has a modern shirt draped near his sword, as purple as his armor, but his boots and trews are proper garments for a man of his time and place. He only wears modern clothing when he must.

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"Sure, right." Billy shrugs. "I'm not unhealthy. I'm also not doing situps in trees."

"Few care to reach the level I must be at." Fury allows, "I am merely a man, not of the Witchbreed. If I were not Fury, however, my world would be destroyed."

Billy scowls. "It's not like using powers is easy!"

Fury tilts his head, "I never said that it is not. However in the absence of such gifts as you have I must rely upon my body alone and what limits I may push it to. It was myself, merely a man, who carried Rojhaz unconscious through the time portal, he did not expect me - he expected one with powers."

Something clicks in Billy's head. "Rojhaz."

"Steve Rogers, he was." Fury says, "But I know him best as Rojhaz."

"Ah." Billy sounds a little strangled. "He doesn't like me much."

Fury raises his eyebrows and says, "He doesn't know you, child. If there was a version of you in his world, that version is dead now."

Billy blinks. "I meant the one in my world."

"You should take care to be more clear." Fury says calmly, "From the sound of it you meant the one I know, and he has not the luxury of disliking any of the Witchbreed - or indeed any other hero."

"Sorry. No. Though I guess our Cap can't really afford to dislike anyone right now, either. He's certainly happy enough to use us."

"Mmm?" It's a questioning noise which is an offer to listen and a refusal to push all at once.

"When we first started heroing, he and Iron Man tried to shut us down. Now there's a war and he's welcoming us with open arms."

"That is the nature of wars." Fury agrees, "We will take whatever we get when the wars come, even if we would prefer leave people in safety's arms."

"Damn hypocritical, to go on and on about protecting kids then send us into situations were we can be tortured--" Billy's voice raises a little, then he deflates. "Sorry. I'm sorry."

"That is the nature of war." Fury says again, "We do things we should not, we do things we would not, we do things we will hate ourselves for one day."

"And is it all worth it, in the end?" His voice says he doesn't think so.

"No." Fury says, "It is never worth the blood on your soul. That is why the old should fight, and the young should be protected. We have, in general, more time to build up callouses against the world."

Billy lets out a slow breath through his nose. "If you say so."

"I have been fighting for most of my life, child. Very close to - " he looks Billy up and down, "I would guess four times your life. From the time I was a child straight through.

"I can think of no greater calling than making sure no other boy grows up to be Fury."

He dislikes being called a child. He might have exploded about it, once. Now he's just defeated. "Why? Why did you pick up a sword and start?"

"Bread." Fury says simply, "And it was a knife. I had not eaten in days; I found a crust of bread. A man grown sought to take it from me."

It's-- less than he had expected, somehow. Billy stays silent, his eyes studying the shoreline.

It always is, when you get down to it.

"I lost, he won. It became the shape of my life and I got much better at it as I grew older. By the time I was your age I had found a way to turn my talents to profit - I was in the army."

Billy's mouth draws into a thin line at that. He can't imagine Fury as a child, or even as losing. "Our times are very different."