InsaneJournal

Who: Jessica Jones and Rumlow
What: Spying, drinking, bonding
Where: A bar and then her place
When: Yesterday and today before this
Rating/Warning: Lots and lots of cursing and vague mentions of sexy time



When Tony finally got off his ass and put money into Jessica’s account, she’d already done her work on the internet. Quick google searches and finding out what she could about the guy that she was being paid to follow. Whatever she saw didn’t seem all that great, especially the Hydra thing but she had come across a lot worse than him. The next step was to actually find him. That didn’t take very long, as she’d gotten the room number of where Rumlow was staying.

Since then, the past couple of days and nights had gone by fairly smoothly. She followed. She kept tabs, she wrote notes. If he’d been doing anything remotely shady, she took pictures of it. But it seemed like this guy was more about keeping his head down and everything.

Tonight he was headed into a bar, so she stayed outside as much as she wanted a drink. She really wanted that drink. Damn. Even the drink in her flask was enough to make her contemplate going inside. Still she was supposed to be discreet, so she was waiting. Though she hadn’t quite realized that she’d been tagged this time. Maybe she had gotten a little too close.

Rumlow wasn’t surprised he was being followed. Stark and strange would have been idiots not to keep tabs on him after all he had done. He had expected something more high tech though, than an actual physical tail.

That was why it took a little longer than usual to pick up on her. Whoever she was, she was good. But Rumlow was good too. He wasn’t doing anything illegal, so he didn’t bother trying to lose her. He was mostly trying to bore her. He was bored as hell himself, so naturally he gravitated toward a bar. Luckily there was no shortage of those.

He had a double before heading back outside. He caught her eye before she could melt into the shadows again and called out, “why don’t you come inside and watch me? Better view.”

From the other side of the street, she’d been just about to climb a fire escape and perch herself in a cold but convenient spot, when he came back out of the bar faster than she had time to move. She thought for a split second about jumping up to the roof. Getting away that way. But was she trying to get away? It wasn’t like she was scared, and honestly could give a fuck less about this job, even with the amount of money it was paying.

She snorted slightly at his comment and then put her camera back into her bag. “Fine, but you’re buying.” Heading across the street, she pushed her way past him and into the bar, before taking a seat. She looked him over. That was some weird kind of magic. “How long have you known I was there?” For her own confidence’s sake, she was asking. And maybe she just wanted to know how good he was at his own job. It helped her build a better profile.

Rumlow waved the bartender over, then glanced over at the woman. “I noticed you yesterday. So I figure you probably been following me longer than that. You’re good, I’ll give you that. It ain’t my first rodeo though.” He ordered a refill, and said to the bartender, “whatever she wants as long as it’s cheap.” He studied the woman. She was attractive in a hard edged way. He could tell there was something different about her.

Yesterday. Not bad then. “Yeah, it’s been a couple of days. They paid me a fuck ton of money to follow you around and make sure you weren’t.. Doing whatever the fuck it is you do.” She didn’t know, and she probably didn’t care. As long as he wasn’t out trying to kill people she actually liked, they weren’t going to have a problem. Especially since Jess hardly liked anyone. Ever.

She ugh’d slightly at his suggestion that they drink something cheap. “Nah. Nah. I’ll pay. I gotta use up this fucking money somehow. Give me the good shit. I’ll fucking know if it’s not the good shit, so it better be the good shit. GIve me a double. Him too.” All of her money went to booze. Well there was some things like rent and keeping the lights on. Food barely. But most of it was booze. And she was getting paid by the hour. Technically she was getting paid to drink. That was okay with her.

“So they really hate you, huh?”

Rumlow wasn’t going to argue with better booze. He didn’t have much money though, so if he was paying it was cheap. He didn’t mind spending someone else’s money though. Especially since they seemed to be getting paid to watch him.

“Well. I’m gonna assume it was Stark that hired you, since Strange seemed more trusting. So yeah. He hates me. With good reason.” He shrugged. Being hated was nothing new. “I kinda threw them for a loop by coming back from the dead and all. “You know my name. What’s yours?” He might as well know who was following him.

The bartender came over and showed off the bottle of whiskey and Jess nodded her head in approval. The drinks were poured and she told him to just keep the bottle open. One hour could probably pay for that whole bottle, so why the hell not drink it? She was so used to making other people buy her drinks that she had forgotten she actually had money in her bank account.

“Yeah, it was him. He hates me too, so.. What the fuck are you going to do?” she shrugged too. “Right.. Right, you were the dead guy who’s back.” The one who made her realize that if he was back, that meant Kilgrave could be alive. It meant Matt could be alive. One was good, the other was fucking horrible. So she was keeping low and drinking her drink. “Jessica Jones, I’m the one who was going to beat up the girl with the big tits if she didn’t get out of my face.”

Rumlow took a deep drink and savored it for a long moment. He’d almost forgotten what the good stuff tasted like. Then he focused on the woman again. Jessica. “Ohhh Yeah.” Well this wasn’t too bad. He’d kinda liked her. “Well, Jess. You mind if I call you Jess? I’m probably gonna do it anyway. You look like a Jess.” He paused for another drink. “I guess the drinks are on Stark.” He chuckled.

She didn’t savor it. She drank it straight back like it was intended. Just to take the edge off. Then she ordered another drink from the bottle that she purchased. “I don’t really give a fuck what you call me. Unless it’s bitch, because then we’ll have a problem.” And she didn’t want to tell Tony that she had to knock the hell out of the guy she was supposed to watching. He’d probably stop paying her. “You’re damn right they are. Any chance to take money out of his pocket is okay with me.” He could stand to give a little, as far as she was concerned. “So you fucked up Captain America, huh?”

Rumlow snorted. “Jess it is then. And yeah. I tried to fuck him up. But I fucked myself up instead. Stupid fucking witch trapped me in some kind of bubble with my bomb.” He shrugged. “So they think I’m gonna try again? That why Stark has you following me?” He shook his head. “I don’t blame him I guess. But I died once. I think I’d like to try and live a little longer. It wasn’t no fun.” He looked sideways at Jessica. “So what’s your deal? You enhanced or what?”

“Yeah well, it’s fucking Captain America. He makes me skin crawl. Probably some closet weirdo or something,” she said making a face. Anyone who was that supposedly perfect always had a horrible dark side. “Pretty much, yeah. That and I think they’re looking for an excuse to like.. Get rid of you. I’m supposed to report in if you do anything suspicious, not just go after an Avenger.” He might as well know, since she’d been caught red handed so to speak. This time when she was drinking, she was sipping it slowly. “Fuck if I know. I was a kid. I had an accident, went in a coma and wound up like this.”

“Yeah. Nobody’s that fucking perfect. I was tryin to do the world a favor.” Rumlow laughed darkly. He was fooling himself but who gave a damn? “What counts as suspicious? I mean I gotta make a living, and I can’t do it legally. What does that leave me? I sure ain’t going after an Avenger. They’re all batshit anyway.” He looked Jessica up and down. “So what can you do? Fly? Shoot lasers out of your eyes?” She looked normal to him. He was pretty sure anyone who could drink like that wasn’t normal though.

The look on her face said everything he needed to know about that. It wasn’t worth the trouble. That’s why she stayed the hell away from the big guys. There were enough problems with the little people to worry about whatever the hell they were up to. “Anything criminal. I haven’t turned you in or anything. I barely get by, so don’t fucking ask me. Ask one of the assholes who put you here what you’re supposed to do. Maybe the magician has answers.” She turned to look back over at him. He kept eyeing her, and she wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. “I don’t fly.. More like fall from great heights. And I can break you in half.”

Rumlow shrugged. “I think I got here on a loophole anyway. I ain’t gonna go stirring up any shit. Just gonna do my thing and drink a lot.” He’d been hoping there would be a way to redeem himself but he’d just been fooling himself. He looked at Jessica again. “Sounds like another Captain America to me.” Lots of people around here could apparently break him in half. He wished he had a gun.

He glanced wistfully at the bottle. “Any chance you wanna spring for another one on Stark’s dime?” He was too sober for this.

Her eyes narrowed at him as she grabbed the bottle and poured him another drink. Then she waved at the bartender to get them another bottle. There. He could have his own bottle and she didn’t have to share. “Fuck you, I ain’t no Captain America. I’m no one’s fucking hero. And I certainly didn’t go punch Hitler, or wear the American fucking flag. I didn’t wake up one day and god oh gee willikers, I’ve been in ice.” Jess rolled her eyes. “And fuck you for thinking I’m anything like that, twice over.”

Rumlow laughed out loud at that. “I think I like you,” he finally said, watching the new bottle appear greedily. “I fucking hate captain fucking America.” He poured himself another drink and held it up in a toast. “Fuck you too, Jessica jones. I’m glad Stark paid you off to drink with me.” If Stark wanted to throw his money away, he was fine with it financing his alcoholism.

Now that they had that out of the way, Jess figured he wasn’t so bad. “That makes two of us. Even though I don’t really know him. But he called me ma’am and that gets anyone on my shit list.” And there was that whole not liking people in general thing that she had going for her. “You know I’m still gonna have to follow you around for a while, right? Cause I want to get paid. Once I get enough to be suitably funded for my booze, then I’ll tell him he’s wasting his time.”

Rumlow pretended to be aghast. “He called you ma’am? I’m surprised you didn’t deck him for that.” He shrugged at her next words. “As long as drinking together counts as you followin’ me? I got no problem with it. Only illegal shit I plan on doing is finding a fight or two to make money off of.” Hopefully and not get into another fight when it came to getting his money.

“If he’d said it to me in person, I probably would have. But it was over the internet,” she said with a shrug. She’d hit people for a lot less than that. “Yeah it counts. I’d rather be in here having a drink than following you around in the fucking cold.” That was the worst. When he was holed up in his room, it wasn’t so bad. She could watch from the building across the way. “I don’t see the need to tell anyone about that, you’re just getting money. You gotta do what you gotta do. Then we’ve got an arrangement. Good.”

Rumlow nodded. “You’re pretty much the most reasonable woman I ever met,” he offered. Probably because she could beat the shit out of most men. She also liked to drink as much as he did. “Sounds like a good arrangement to me. I know you got no reason to believe me but I really ain’t interested in going back to HYDRA or anyone else.”

“And you are absolutely the only person who has ever said that. So fucking cheers.” She held up her glass before she drank down yet another one. That was probably five so far, and she didn’t seem like she was any closer to being drunk than when she started. It was rough having this damn metabolism. “As long as you mind your own fucking business, I don’t give a shit. It’s hard to stop looking over your shoulder when someone’s tried to kill you though. So don’t expect them to stop giving you shit.”

Rumlow sighed. “Yeah. I deserve it, I guess. At least I’m alive and unscarred. I got a building dropped on me, and it didn’t kill me, but I was pretty damn ugly. But now I can’t even use my own face.” He shrugged. “And at least you’re not an asshole. I mean I figured they was gonna send someone to tail me. Coulda been worse.” He was getting pretty drunk, but then again he generally existed at a perpetual level of inebriation. It wasn’t like he was driving anywhere. He focused on Jessica. “So what’s your story?”

Not an asshole. Jessica laughed. “You’re hilarious. Not an asshole. You keep saying nice things, and you’re going to get laid.” No matter what his stupid face looked like. “Scarred huh? Like your face was all fucked up and now you look totally different so you don’t get put in jail?” Huh. She was learning new shit every day. She was amused by his drunkenness. “My story? I mean.. It’s all over the news and on the internet if you want to take a look.” She pulled out her phone and googled herself before sliding it over. There was an article about how she’d murdered Kilgrave, the man who supposedly had mind control over people and forced them to do horrible things. “Unless you’re too drunk to read..”

Everything was hilarious now. Rumlow snorted. “All I gotta do to get laid is tell you you’re not an asshole? I’ll keep that in mind.” He threw back another drink. “I was very handsome,” he explained. “Then I got scarred up. Then I died. Then I came back here. I was my usual hot self again. But I had to get this spell to make me look average so I don’t get arrested.” He nodded. He thought he’d explained that well. He scanned the article. He could read just fine but it still made no sense. “That’s some fucked up shit right there. Kilgrave sounds like a real asshole.”

“And you called me reasonable. That’s the funniest shit I’ve heard all my life.” She poured him another, because she might as well keep him drunk, and by now she was starting to feel like it was taking the edge off. Both bottles were almost gone already. “Oh so you’re usually hotter than this. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe I won’t put a bag over your head when we fuck later.” She passed some money over to the bartender, who was clearly glad they were probably on their way out. “He was. But now that you’re alive, that might mean he might be alive too and if he is then we’re all fucked.” And that’s why she was trying to stay out of the spotlight.

“Yeah. I’m hotter. And I have really good hair.” Rumlow wasn’t sure if Jessica was serious or not but hot damn if he wasn’t entertained by the whole thing. He had drunk too much but he didn’t want to stop either. He hadn’t tried to get up for a while, so he wasn’t entirely sure how drunk he really was. “I don’t know. There are some seriously powerful assholes around here. I’m sure they’ll protect you if this fuckface comes back. Steve fucking Rogers would love to protect you I’m sure.”

“I’ll take your word for it. You should maybe ask that guy who did that to you, if you can have control over when you look like it and when you don’t. If that’s even possible.. I don’t get the whole magic thing,” she said with a shrug. She got up from her stool and wobbled to her feet. At least she hadn’t fallen over. “Steve Rogers couldn’t do shit against mind control. I think the only one who wouldn’t fall for it is probably that magician guy.. Or that witch you mentioned. All the rest of us? Completely fucked.. You coming back to my place or what? I’ve got more booze back there.”

Rumlow lifted his head. When had he laid it on the bar? “I ain’t going back to him. He creeps me the fuck out.” He looked around in case Loki was lurking nearby. He wouldn’t put it past him. He staggered to his feet, and after a moment he was able to stop swaying. “Well if we’re completely fucked…. shit yeah. Let’s drink some more. Lead on.” He wasn’t sure if Jessica was offering booze or sex or both. Or if he could even get it up with this much alcohol in his bloodstream. But he was gonna find out.

“You ain’t that bad looking now. Come on..” She would totally yank him out of that seat if she had to. And since she was taking him home, it was probable that it was both. Hopefully the walk back to her place would sober him up some, and if he couldn’t get it up then there was no harm done. At least the cold outside would help them both brisk up. Her place wasn’t too far away. “Don’t fucking throw up, okay?”

Rumlow followed after her, only swaying a little. “I never throw up,” he promised. He wasn’t kidding. He’d been drinking hard most of his life and his body probably couldn’t function without alcohol. He wondered briefly if the fact that he’d come back to life unscarred meant that his liver had also become miraculously unpickled. He even managed to hold the door for her. The blast of cold air physically hurt him, so maybe he wasn’t even all that drunk.

That made two alcoholics then. She wasn’t about to tell him not to drink, she wasn’t that kind of hypocrite. She took them up to her apartment. The door was actually repaired and a brand new sign was on the door. Alias Investigations. She unlocked the door and let them inside. “You want a drink, or do you think you need some water and to take your pants off?”

Rumlow was impressed by his surroundings. “Wow, you got a real office and everything.” He considered the question. “Just like that, huh?” He hadn’t gotten laid for a while. It wasn’t so easy when his whole body had been extensively scarred. It sounded like fun. “I don’t need water,” he said. “Pants off sounds good though.”

“Yeah, I’m a real private investigator. It’s a business. It’s just usually more.. Messy than this.” Beat up. Shot up. Destroyed. It was only recently that everything that had been cleaned up. “What, you wanna bunch of foreplay? I mean I guess if you wanna make out on the couch or whatever.” She pointed one arm to the couch and one arm to the bedroom. “Your choice. Either way yeah, take off your pants.”




Rumlow stretched, vaguely aware that he wasn’t in his own bed. Where was he? A jail cell or a hospital bed were always legitimate possibilities. He cracked open an eye, wincing at the light. “Fuck.” His mouth felt like sandpaper. He rolled over and felt a warm body. “Fuck,” he repeated as he tried to remember the night before.

Unfortunately for her, the hangover was about as awful as she could imagine it. She hadn’t even been that drunk, but the fast metabolism of her body caused her usually not to feel much of the aftermath. This time though.. Well that’s what she got for drinking two bottles straight. She felt a hand on her and turned to find.. Oh right, that guy she was following. “Shut up, you’re too fucking noisy.”

Rumlow was hungover, all right. But he was so used to it that it barely fazed him. He knew with a couple more drinks he’d feel about normal. “Sorry,” he whispered. He leaned up a little to look at who he was in bed with. Black hair, definitely female. Jones. The private eye who was following him. He looked under the covers. They were both naked. Apparently they’d had sex. He lay back down, searching his memories. He hoped it was good.

That was better. Right. They’d had sex. Yeah she remembered that. It wasn’t half bad, but mostly she was just glad that she hadn’t broken him in half. It wasn’t like he was Luke, able to take her full strength. But maybe she should double check, just to make sure. “I didn’t break any bones, did I?” Surely he would realize by now, hungover or not.

Rumlow laughed, but tried to keep his voice down. He understood hangovers. “Not that I can tell, no. Except maybe my dick.” His memory was coming back, and he was remembering multiple times. He was sort of impressed with himself, considering how much he’d drunk. “I’m not gonna get beat up by some superpowered asshole boyfriend now, am I?”

Jess pushed back the covers and reluctantly sat up, putting her feet on the floor but didn’t actually get up. “Yeah, I don’t know how to fix a broken dick. Sorry. My bad.” She didn’t know if he was kidding, but she probably could have. She gave a raspy, broken laugh. “Does it look like I’m the kind of person who has a fucking boyfriend? No, you’re good. You want a drink?” She didn’t know why she was being so hospitable, she should have been kicking him out by now.

“I think you just wore it out, not broke it,” Rumlow decided with another glance under the covers. He perked up when she mentioned another drink. “Fuck yeah. Another drink. I might even feel human then.” He sat up and looked around for his clothes. “Hey, this saves you time too, doesn’t it? You watching me and all. Remind me to send a thank you note to Stark.” He stood up, giving up on the idea of clothes.

The smirk on her face was enough to say that she was glad that she had worn him out. Sure she could be smug about some things. She grabbed a shirt, and underwear and put them on before getting up and grabbing a drink. She poured two glasses and then handed one over to him. “I’m definitely going to charge Stark for our time last night. Closest I’ve ever been to being a prostitute, but I don’t really give a fuck.”

Rumlow took a deep drink and sighed happily as it went down. He felt better already. “You’re only a prostitute if I paid you. I think.” He looked around again. “You see my pants anywhere?” He finished the drink before he went on. “You should definitely charge him more though. He’s got more money than he knows what to do with.”

“Eh, not like I give a fuck either way.” She was half drinking her drink and half looking around for his pants, but not overly so. She didn’t think he needed them. Yeah she was looking him over and she wasn’t ashamed to do it either. “You’re probably right. I don’t have food or anything, so if you’re looking for breakfast, you’re shit out of luck.”

Rumlow chuckled. He was feeling human again. “A gal after my own heart. Food’s a waste of time when you got booze.” He noticed her looking, and smirked. “You know, if you ever want to make Stark pay for sex again, just say the word.” He looked down again. “Only, not right now. I need a little recharge time.” He looked at Jessica again. “You’re pretty hot, you know that?” He’d noticed last night, of course, or he wouldn’t have gone home with her. But he thought it needed mentioning now.

“Usually I don’t like to dip more than twice, but.. Since I’m following you around and getting paid for it.. Maybe. Don’t worry, I’ll let your dick rest.” She pushed her hair back and then sat back down on the bed, glass in hand. “Yeah, I know. And a winning personality to match.” She really should have been kicking him out of her house. “I ain’t very entertaining, just.. fyi.”

“Yeah well neither am I. I pretty much just drink and get into fights. I used to be a lot more fun.” He sat back down himself. He’d expected to get kicked out, but it wasn’t as if he had any place to be. “So what kind of cases do you usually get? I thought about bein a PI once.”

Okay so they had that in common. She wondered what he meant by more fun. More fun than sex? Yeah. Doubtful. “Mostly people with shitty cheating husbands. But lately.. Since the whole.. Thing happened, it’s been a lot of people with people who they think are shady. Neighbors. Whoever. They think they’ve got powers, or up to something. It’s all kinds of shit. Lots of girls in trouble from shitty boyfriends too.” She shrugged a little. “I take whatever’s a job, if they’re gonna pay me enough money.”

Rumlow nodded. “Lotta weird shit out there. More so than there used to be.” He could see how Jessica could have a thriving business. “But I guess being super strong and unkillable helps out in that business, right?” He glanced over at Jessica. She looked tough. He liked that. “So how did you get mixed up with Stark?”

She nodded her own head in agreement. Yeah. A lot of weird shit. “I’m not unkillable. Not even fucking close. I know someone who is though. Bulletproof. You can’t fucking touch him. I shot him in the head.. He didn’t fucking die.” And that was another mess she would have to clean up. If she ever saw Luke again. “He thinks having a pissing contest about who is more bitchy is fun. I don’t know. I told that chick he hired to go away, and I might have threatened to kick her out.. He got all bent out of shape about it.”

Rumlow shuddered. “Let’s hope he doesn’t show up here. We got enough immortals runnin around.” Rumlow didn’t know Tony Stark all that well but from what he’d heard that sounded like him. “Well at least he’s paying you well. Too bad I can’t go to some tropical island and you’d have to follow me there too,” he chuckled. Not that he’d know what to do with himself on a tropical island. He’d just drink. He could do that here.

Jessica frowned a bit. “He’s a good guy. Better him around than.. All these fucking assholes.” She gestured at the world in general. She would rather have Luke around than pretty much anyone. Of course she had still murdered his wife and everything. “I hope he doesn’t show up cause he’s too fucking good for this shit.” Though she probably knew he was around somewhere. “You inviting me on vacation, Rumlow?”

Rumlow raised an eyebrow. “He your ex or something?” He could tell Jessica had some sort of feelings about the guy. She also probably didn’t want to talk about it. He shrugged. “Well it ain’t like I got a shitload of friends to hang out with.” They seemed to get along so far anyway.

She paused for a moment, trying not to think about things. Finally she just shrugged. “No. That whole uh… mind control thing? It made me fuck up his entire life. So definitely not an ex. We’re sort of on speaking terms.” Considering the shit they went through with the Hand and all of that shit. She guessed they were on speaking terms. “If you go on vacation, I’ll get the fuck out of here any time.”

Well that sounded complicated. “Is he in the city?” He didn’t really want to get in between someone unkillable and Jessica. “Okay you got a deal. If I make enough money, we’ll blow this place. Go someplace warm.” He jumped a little when his phone buzzed with a text. He frowned. Who would text him? He opened the text and felt simultaneously good and bad. It was Barnes. He answered back.

“No.” That was all she was going to say about that. Jess had no idea any more, truth be told. He could be. But then she hadn’t seen him since everything went down. And that was okay with her. She watched him answer the phone. Unceremoniously, she went over to the clothes and picked them up and tossed them at him. “Yeah it’s time for you to go.”

Rumlow looked up. “Sure,” He said. “I gotta go pick up my fake ID. He’s meeting me at my place. You know. For your following purposes.” He stood up and started pulling on his clothes. “Thanks for the booze. And the sex.” Now things were a little awkward, but it could be worse.

“Yeah sure. I’ll be right behind.” As soon as she got dressed or whatever and gave him some time. It wasn’t like she couldn’t find him again. It was pretty damn easy. She waved a bit, dismissively and then went back to her drink.