from_the_outside | [Leipzig AU] good for trouble

"Eyes up," Nakia murmurs, from where she is established at the bar. "Americans."

She could wish that General Okoye had not wanted to join them, but she is doing well enough at keeping to her cover and is monitoring the upper level nicely, including observing a couple more of the American players.

Perhaps she should wish the same for T'Challa, but surely it will help for him to see more of the world, its grimier and more dangerous sections as well as the diplomatic ones.

Except - except this could be a problem. A figure in white draws her attention just as T'Challa remarks, "Just spotted an old friend who works for the CIA."

Somehow, Nakia manages to keep her quick curse silent.

She hears Ross's exasperated sigh at approximately the same moment as she locks eyes with Nakia.

There's a heartbeat, and then she slides her gaze away, smiling at the bartender. "A Vesper martini, please," she murmurs, and leans on the bar. Only then does she allow her glance to return to the woman in green sitting a seat away.

"What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" she asks, keeping her voice to a low murmur.

Edited 2022-03-30 23:41 (UTC)

"Things just got a little more complicated," T'Challa murmurs in her ear. Nakia shifts position just a little as he starts to move across the room toward Ross, and smiles at Sharon.

"They say the gambling here is very exciting," she replies. "How could we not check it out? But I might ask you the same."

Very exciting. It certainly looks like it's heading that direction. She can hear Ross and T'Challa beginning a low conversation, though her earpiece doesn't pick it up completely.

"I don't know about that," she says, thanking the bartender with a smile and taking a sip of her drink. "The tables here are getting cold. You might have better luck somewhere else tonight."

"You are buying from Klaue," she hears T'Challa tell Ross, and it's all she can do to keep her smile in place. She can't even whisper for him to not give their game away, because not only does he have the right as king, but Sharon will catch her in an instant.

"Oh, no, here is exactly where we need to be," she says instead, lightly, and tips her head toward T'Challa. "But if the tables are not to your liking perhaps you should go. We could even meet later, to catch up."

Sharon's glance tracks towards the craps table, where Ross and T'Challa are locked in quiet conversation, then up to the upper level where General Okoye watches over the crowd, and back again.

"That would be nice," she admits. "I hear we have a lot to catch up on. But I'm afraid my date is just absolutely set on staying for the duration. He doesn't like to gamble that often, so when he does, he makes it count."

"Mm," Nakia says, and takes a sip of her drink. "I see. Is he the sort of man to listen to reason?"

T'Challa tells Ross he's been warned and moves away. Nakia makes herself not look over there to see how the other man is taking it. At least the general is keeping a low profile.

A moment later, Ross's voice comes clearly into her earpiece and she has to resist a wince; he's never gotten out of the habit of just talking directly into his sleeve.

"It all depends on the reason," she says, and slants a sidelong glance at where Ross has gone after T'Challa, accompanied by a tiny tip of her head to Nakia so the other woman can keep track of them, too, while Sharon sips at her drink.

"In this case, he's dead set on getting what he came for."

Nakia laughs softly, as though Sharon has just said something exquisitely funny. "He is not the only one."

Almost as if on cue, T'Challa tells Ross, "I am not here to make a deal."

"Then I think things are about to get pretty interesting."

She doesn't watch T'Challa and Ross; there's no way they're going to be able to find a way out of this mess in the next few minutes, so she glances sidelong at Nakia instead. "By the way, you look amazing, girl."

"Thank you," she murmurs, with a smile for Sharon as she runs one hand down along the side of her green-and-black dress. "So do you. That dress is gorgeous."

Interesting, Sharon had said, and oh, but she is right about that. Nakia's eyes widen very, very slightly as she does a quick count of the arrivals who are walking in on the upper level.

"Klaue," she murmurs. Sharon will think it is to her, and in part it is, although the rest is cover for her earpiece. "Plus eight."

"Thanks," she murmurs. "My boyfriend helped me pick it out."

She sees Ross clock Klaue's entrance, then glances sidelong at Nakia and leaves her martini to move around the game floor, Nakia abandoning her whiskey to do the same.

The Wakandans aren't going to stand around and let this deal go down, she knows. But as more of Klaue's men enter the casino, she begins to think he knew what was coming

"I thought there were no weapons allowed in here," Okoye murmurs. "There's not supposed to be," Nakia confirms. She moves as swiftly as she can around the edge of the casino floor without attracting attention.

Trouble is very definitely brewing. All they can do is be ready for it.

Klaue doesn't bother with sneaking around; he strides right up to Ross as Sharon makes herself unobtrusive in the background.

"Well, that is quite the entourage," her boss says, dry, only to endure a barrage of Klaue's idiocy.

It's what he says last that sends a chill through her: "You think they're for you?"

He knows. Somehow, he must have known the Wakandans would show up, as as Ross gestures for the agent with the briefcase, Sharon finds herself tensing.

"It's a setup," Okoye whispers, as six more thugs arrive. Nakia thinks that she is not wrong, but that does not change the goal; only the difficulty.

"We need to move on Klaue," she murmurs, leaning on the nearby gaming table and pretending to look interested.

"Stand down," T'Challa orders. "We can't afford a shootout." She grits her teeth, but holds her position.

She doesn't see how what happens next starts, only the effect. There's a shout and a flurry of movement on the balcony, and then Klaue grabs the vibranium back and pulls a gun as Ross lifts the briefcase in front of his face to take the shots Klaue squeezes off.

Sharon drops and reaches for her Kahr in its hidden thigh holster, then takes aim at Klaue's men on the balcony, trying to keep them from picking off the agents and Wakandans in the crowd.

"Nakia!" she yells. It's too late now to worry about rumbling their cover. "Get T'Challa out of here!"

They can't have the king of Wakanda injured or dead in a shootout in Busan, they can't.

She doesn't bother trying to answer Sharon, being far too occupied with working the floor near T'Challa to guard his back while Okoye deals with the men above. It is not her friend's fault; she does not know their history with Klaue, does not know all that this evil man has done. Nakia drops two of them, plants her high heel in the face of a third, and takes out the fourth that the General drops on her like a goddess from on high with a well-placed throat smash.

Klaue attempts to flee up the steps, and T'Challa goes after him, leaping to catch the balcony railing and flipping over it to confront him. Soon this will be over, Nakia thinks -- and then Klaue raises his arm and fires a blast from some sort of weapon.

As T'Challa is flung back through the air to land on the table a floor below, Nakia runs up the steps after Klaue.

"The hell was that?" yells Ross, but Sharon's too busy tangling with Klaue's men on the floor to answer him, or even to begin to guess. She puts a foot into the side of one's knee, tearing tendons and ligaments and dropping him to the floor, then whirls to grab another by the wrist and send him flying face-first into the craps table.

When she looks up again, the Wakandans are gone, and Ross waves at her. "Carter!" he yells. "Come on, this way."

Okoye is right behind her as Nakia reaches the street. "Do we just leave him?" she cries.

"He'll catch up," Okoye snaps, and flings a control plaque at a nearby car as they pass it. The two of them put on speed and slide into their own vehicle, then speed after Klaue and his men.

They cannot let him escape. They cannot.

T'Challa sprints from the casino into the muggy night air, trusting that Okoye has chosen the right car.

"Shuri!" he shouts. She had better be in her lab, in range of the sand table.

He's standing still in the lab while Shuri runs some sort of wand over him, checking its results on the tablet-- which she nearly drops when T'Challa's voice cracks through the air like a bolt of lightning.

"Yes!" Shuri cries, as a holographic car forms in the middle of the room. She dashes for the driver's side door and slides through it into the seat that somehow still supports her. After that half-second of frozen shock, Bucky's right on her heels, bolting around to slide into the passenger seat of the impossible vehicle as it announces, "Remote driving system activated."

"What the hell?" he mutters. "Hush!" Shuri orders. "I must hear everything."

Edited 2022-03-31 02:41 (UTC)

Which side of the road is it? he hears her wonder, and his impatience gets the better of him. "For Bast's sake, just drive!" he orders.

He hears the car coming behind him and thinks the Panther habit into existence. As his suits frays off his body and the vibranium suit takes its place, he executes an arcing backwards flip and lands on the roof, claws digging in for purchase.

"Where are they?" Bucky demands. When Shuri answers 'Busan,' he tells her, "Right side of the road!"

He could swear he feels T'Challa land on the roof of the car, and Shuri lets out a delighted shriek and slams her foot down on the gas. "Let's go!"

Ahead, the black SUVs carrying Klaue and his men begin swerving off the main road.

They're trying to lose us, Okoye observes in his communicator, and he hears Nakia a moment after, telling them she and Okoye will take the cars peeling off to the right. He digs his claws in as Shuri accelerates, the remote car in pursuit.

They accelerate down the narrow streets after their quarry, past stalls and vendors and other traffic, heading at high speed for a major intersection.

"We're not going to make it," Shuri warns. Bucky starts to reach for the gearshift and emergency brake to throw them into a drift skid, only to hear T'Challa say, "Keep going!"

Suddenly the car tilts up into the air as T'Challa rolls to the side of it and uses his claws to help them corner. Bucky grins, wide and bright. "I've done the same thing with my hand before," he observes, causing Shuri to laugh as the car lands back on the ground and Wakanda's king lands on its hood.

Ahead, Klaue's men open fire on him, splashing his suit with vibrant purple kinetic energy. He leaps for them, clawing his way up the back to the roof, which peels open beneath his vibranium claws as easily as he might pull apart a thin film of plastic.

No Klaue. He reaches in and removes the driver, tossing him behind the SUV and into the path of the remote-controlled car. "Hey, what was that?" Shuri demands, as the car bumps over the unlucky man.

"Don't worry about it," T'Challa tells her, leaping back onto the roof of the car as the SUV drives up onto the curb and launches itself into the air in a chaos of shattered metal and glass. "You're doing great."

They streak onto the bridge over the bay, weaving through traffic and zipping past other cars toward their target. Someone smashes out the back window and opens fire. Reflexively, Bucky holds out his left hand in front of Shuri to protect her, then rolls his eyes at her as she snorts.

"Hey, look at your suit," she tells T'Challa. "You've been taking bullets, charging it up with kinetic energy!"

"Pull around the truck," he orders, and sets himself as Shuri accelerates around the large 18-wheeler. His suit is so full of kinetic energy it's more violet now than black, and as Shuri pulls ahead of the SUV, he leaps to land on its hood.

A second later, the release of kinetic energy sends the SUV flipping back over nose, and he arcs gracefully through the air to land back on the controlled car.

Edited 2022-03-31 03:16 (UTC)

A quick series of exchanges later and it's clear that Nakia and Okoye are out of the chase, but they have a lock on which car the target's in - and Bucky has a lot clearer idea what the hell is going on, as soon as he hears Klaue's name. Shuri spins the wheel and sends them down another street, emerging on Klaue's bumper.

"Faster, Shuri," T'Challa demands, to which she yells, "I'm going as fast as I can!" Bucky opens his mouth to make a suggestion, but suddenly they're out of time as Klaue leans out a window and aims at them.

"No no no no no--" The blast from the weapon hits the car in South Korea, and in Wakanda, Bucky and Shuri fall to the ground as the vehicle is destroyed and the link vanishes.

"Brother!" she screams.

He has no time to reply; the resulting explosion sends him ricocheting off towards a building, where he runs along the wall to gain some control over his momentum before leaping for Klaue's SUV. Leery of the weapon Klaue wields, he chooses to attack the near front tire instead, ripping the whole wheel off and sending the SUV into a flip as its nose catches the pavement.

"Klaue!" he shouts, as he stalks forward, as the man rolls out of the SUV and staggers to his feet, clutching the precious vibranium. Around them, people gather in a curious semi-circle. T'Challa releases his claws with a metallic sound. "Did you think we would forget?" he demands.

Klaue aims the strange weapon at him and fires. It disrupts the suit for a moment, but only a moment, and then T'Challa is on him, ripping the thing free of his arm. "Look at me, murderer! Where did you get this weapon?"

"You savages didn't deserve it," Klaue scoffs, and in a fit of temper T'Challa lifts him by the throat and shoves him against the wrecked car as Klaue begs for mercy.

Mercy! "Every breath you take is mercy from me," T'Challa hisses, and prepares to strike.

"Hai, Ukumkani!" Okoye shouts as they race around the hood of Deputy Commander Ross's car. Nakia is grateful, because the sharp command in the general's tone draws T'Challa's attention.

"Ihlabathi libukele," she warns, desperate. If he strikes, all will be lost in the eyes of the world outside Wakanda, a world they cannot ignore, much though some would wish to.

From her spot in the passenger seat, she can't see Klaue well, but the worry in Nakia's face and voice are more than clear enough.

Next to her, Ross leans out the driver side window. "Come on, guys. Let's go, huh?"

A siren sounds, and Task Force vehicles come following behind as she and Ross get out of the car to take custody of Klaue.

Shuri breathes a huge sigh and her shoulders slump with relief. "He is captured," she tells Bucky. "T'Challa has turned him over to the authorities. Apparently there are many people around and watching."

"There would be," Bucky murmurs. "And if he'd executed him in public like that outside Wakanda -- it wouldn't have been good, Princess. Especially with his particular skills. Captured's better, he can arrange to have him brought here and dealt with. It'll be okay."

"T'Challa will bide his time," Shuri agrees. "He will not leave Klaue there, or with these other men. Not after everything Klaue has done to us, how Wakanda has suffered at his hands."

She removes her communicator from behind her ear and leaves the sand table with a reluctant sigh. "That was fun, though."

"Are you kidding? That was incredible," Bucky tells her, grinning. He can't help but be delighted by the technology, even without the slightest clue about how it could be possible.

Still, he'll feel better once he hears from Sharon. It's not hard to put together the fact that she'd been looking into alternate uses for vibranium a few weeks ago with her sudden trip on Task Force business with what apparently would have been a notable black market sale from a known vibranium thief.

Klaue turns out to be a singularly annoying captive. He doesn't seem to care that he's been captured and instead spends his time singing 'Don't Stand So Close to Me" at the top of his lungs.

As Ross grinds his teeth and the caravan winds its way towards the Task Force's safe room, she takes moment to pull out her phone to text Bucky. It's looking like it'll be a long night – what's left of it, the night is already hurtling toward dawn – and she doesn't want him to wait up if it'll take a long while before she can call.

hey, long night, might be a while yet before I can call I can call tomorrow if it's getting late there

They’d had to start the test series over, but it’s not like he’s in any hurry - and at this point neither he nor Shuri are worried about what the results might show. He’s perched on a stool nearby while she reviews the data, and his attention goes immediately to the tablet when it chimes.

A soft, amused breath escapes him as he looks at the screen. A long night, huh? He just bets.

as long as you’re ok
that’s all I need to know
call when you can
its fine

I'm okay at ease call you when I can

She slides the phone back into her pocket and tries to remember the time difference between South Korea and Wakanda.

The Wakandans, unsurprisingly, are grim and silent through the ride – aside from Nakia, anyway. She winks at Sharon when their eyes meet, and Sharon suppresses a huff of laughter as they pull in to the safe room. T'Challa and Okoye have a low conversation and the General glances over the Task Force personnel as they get out of their cars, then turns to leave.

"She is getting our things," Nakia whispers to Sharon, who nods.

"What?" she says, and gestures to her pretty white dress. "You don't want to stay in evening wear for this?"

"We are quite stunning," Nakia returns, dryly. "Including Okoye. And yet."

She hasn't had the opportunity to observe T'Challa with outsiders like this before, but cannot fail to notice that this, at least, seems more familiar to him than she might have expected. She is going to have to find out more about how things took place in Vienna and Berlin.

"You know we are going to have to come to an agreement, yes?"

"I know that," Sharon tells her. "And you know that."

She folds her arms and looks over to where T'Challa and Ross are talking. "Do you think they know that?"

"Yes, but I suspect they are in very different places as to what it must be."

The Task Force team brings Klaue in and secures him in the little interrogation room with its two-way mirrored window, while he pokes fun at them the entire time.

"He is very irritating," she notes.

"At least he's not telling us all about his evil plan," Sharon points out. "I hate a villain monologue."

She leans onto a desk and watches as the other agents set up monitors and start brewing coffee. "So I hear you met my special gentleman friend."

"Mm," Nakia agrees. "He is very thoughtful. I can see why you like him."

"I'm just in it for the good looks and charm," she says, then slants a half-smile at Nakia to let her know she's joking.

She laughs very softly to keep from drawing attention.

"Of course."

"Is he doing okay?" she murmurs, after a moment. "Really?"

By himself out there in Wakanda, now with Steve and Tony gone, too. She's absolutely certain he's been downplaying what he's been thinking and feeling, not wanting her to worry.

"He is," Nakia assures her. If her friend begins to worry too much, she will hound T'Challa for things he is not yet willing to grant, and that will be detrimental to Nakia's purpose as well as Sharon's own.

"He is very quiet, and has been keeping much to himself, but I believe Shuri is determined to see to it that this changes. T'Challa as well, now that he has more time to give."

"Good."

She lifts a hand and pats Nakia's arm. "I'm going to go change. Back in a minute."

"Take your time," she says, amused, and goes to meet Okoye as the other woman returns to the room with a pack in hand.

"This will be difficult," she murmurs, and Okoye nods. "Yes. But we cannot leave Klaue with them. Under any circumstances."

She finds a quiet part of the safe house and locks the door, then takes out her day clothes to change into before she dials Bucky's number and hits the speaker icon.

She's going to have to multitask if she wants to get a chance to talk to him.

Once Shuri had finished up the tests, she'd agreed to let him hang around in case of any word from the others - especially once he'd promised to share anything he could, too.

That doesn't mean she's not going to get everything possible out of him in the meantime, and he finds himself more than a little amused by the set of tasks she puts him to. Still, when the tablet chimes, he sets them aside immediately and goes to the little side room to take the call.

"Hi."

"Hi, baby."

She unzips the dress and undoes the halter, letting it fall in a whisper of material to the floor, then bends to undo her shoes. "I can't talk long, but I wanted to just check in."

"I'm glad you did," he murmurs. "Busy night?"

"You could say that."

She shakes out her jeans and drags them on, then pulls on a button-down shirt. "I ran into some of your new friends."

“Did you now.” At least he won’t have to try to hide that from her.

“Must have been a surprise for everyone.”

"That's for sure."

She shakes her hair out of its bun and buttons up her shirt. "Not quite sure what's going to happen with everything, but it could had gone a lot worse."

“I bet. Everything and everyone secure?”

He refuses to pry into anything she can’t tell him, but he can at least ask general questions.

"Everybody's fine. And the hard part is over."

Aside from whatever negotiations Ross will need to make with T'Challa. "Mostly just talking left."

That sounds promising, at least.

"Good." His warm smile comes through in the sound of his voice. "I'm glad. For a lot of reasons."

"Me, too."

She tugs on her socks and ankle boots, then picks up her dress and phone, closing the speaker and setting the phone to her ear. "Sorry, baby, I've gotta go. But I'll call again later, maybe once I'm back in Berlin. Okay?"

"Okay," he reassures her. "I understand. Take care of yourself, sweetheart. Talk soon."

"I will," she promises. "Talk soon."

She hangs up and slips her phone into her back pocket, then zips her dress into its garment bag and tucks it into her duffel.

It's probably too much to hope that Ross and T'Challa have come to some sort of arrangement yet, but she's feeling optimistic.

He puts the tablet away and goes to find Shuri to bring her up to speed with the limited information he has. Still, it's promising... at least until the Task Force runs up against the impenetrable wall of determination that's T'Challa when he's set on something.

Then again, they've got more reason to know than most outside Wakanda, so it's not like they're going in unknowing.

An hour or so later, Okoye has returned and the Wakandans have changed out of their evening wear – in T'Challa's case, out of his cat suit – and Sharon goes to join Nakia to look out the window as dawn breaks over the city, casting everything into a cool light.

"Any progress?" she murmurs, tipping her head back at the trio of Ross, T'Challa, and Okoye.

"Not much." They can hear the faint sounds of Klaue's taunting from the room beyond. Nakia ignores it, focusing instead on watching the street. Even as early as it is, the city hums with the bustle of people heading to work or other places, focused on their own goals and needs.

A white service van moves slowly down the street, probably searching for an address on the cramped signage for each building, as she glances at Sharon.

"The king will not be moved on this. Klaue must come with us."

"Ross might agree to that, if he gets the information he needs out of Klaue first."

He certainly won't agree to letting Klaue go without any ability to question him. She slants a sidelong glance back at Nakia. "You know we've got to find out what we can about his network."

"Mm. I know." She glances over at the others in time to see Ross tap T'Challa on the chest dismissively with the back of his hand.

"Your boss needs to keep his hands off King T'Challa," she informs Sharon. Okoye looks like she's ready to put the point of her spear through Ross, and Nakia feels much the same way. "Or this will get much more difficult very fast."

Edited 2022-03-31 16:03 (UTC)

She desperately wants to ask if anyone in this room is currently getting their hands on King T'Challa, but that will have to wait.

"You don't know how amazing it is Ross even let you all in here," she murmurs. Ross likes the king, she knows; enough to relax SOP and let him join in on the interrogation, but –

"Hey," she says, quietly, nudging Nakia. "Ross is going in. We're getting started."

She manages to keep a straight face even as Okoye's disgruntled "Americans" reaches her ears, but all hint of humor vanishes as Ross and Klaue begin to speak.

Sharon doesn't know she, T'Challa, and Okoye can hear what's going on in there, she knows. She turns back to the street and watches it as Klaue begins to tell Ross about the secrets of Wakanda that have been so closely guarded for so long, mixing it up with South American and Spanish legend.

The Golden City. How did he learn so much?

At least it doesn't seem like Ross is buying it. "Wakanda is a third world country," he counters. "And you stole all their vibranium."

"I stole – ?"

Klaue dissolves into giggles, then lunges forward, shifting the chair he's restrained to by a few inches as Ross sits up and away from him. "All of it?" he growls. "I took a tiny piece of it. They have a mountain full of it. They've been mining it for thousands of years and they still haven't scratched the surface."

It's impossible, of course, but it's a strange story to tell, and Ross frowns, slightly, as he thinks about that arm cannon. "If you don't believe me," Klaue continues, "you ask your friend what his suit is made of. What his claws are made of."

He doesn't want to believe it – and he doesn't – but Ross hasn't gotten to where he is without a healthy dose of skepticism. He turns it over in his head, then glances back at Klaue and leans down to pick up his coffee before exiting the room, his expression carefully neutral.

One look at Ross's face and he knows what is coming. He has to appreciate the man's directness, at least.

"Your father told the UN that Klaue stole all the vibranium you had," Ross says, bluntly. "But now he's telling me you have more?"

Beside him, Okoye shifts her stance. T'Challa maintains a polite expression of disbelief as he considers Ross. "And you believe the word of an arms dealer strapped to a chair?"

Edited 2022-03-31 17:04 (UTC)

A white van drives slowly by, then turns behind the building, and Sharon frowns as she sees Nakia watching it. "What's up?"

Nakia shakes her head. "Perhaps nothing," she murmurs, but tips her head toward the agent on monitor duty. Sharon follows as she goes and studies the different camera inputs. "Where's this?" Nakia asks the agent, pointing to an empty alleyway.

The agent gestures with his thumb over his shoulder. "Back there."

Nakia glances up and as their eyes meet, Sharon knows the same worry written on her friend's face is etched into hers, as well. "That van just turned in back there," Sharon murmurs, and Nakia nods.

"Come," she says, and heads into the main room.

He's good, Ross realizes, as he scrutinizes T'Challa's features. He's very good, but he hasn't answered the question, and that's because he's lying.

"How much more are you hiding?" he breathes, only to whirl around as the other Wakandan woman bursts back into the room with Carter at her side. "Kukho into eyenzekayo emva," she snaps, which turns out to be all the warning they have before the wall of Klaue's cell explodes.

People are screaming and yelling as dust billows into the rooms. The one-way glass fractures and then explodes inward as a man in a tribal mask pushes in, firing bursts of bullets from a semi-automatic weapon nudged against his shoulder.

There's no time to think. She sees Nakia stand and the man move forward and is in motion in the next heartbeat. "Get down!" Sharon yells, and tackles her friend as the man squeezes off another scattering round of bullets. She feels a hand push, hard, between her shoulderblades as they drop, but it's not until they hit the floor and she finds she can't get up again that she realizes she's been shot.

"Hold still," she murmurs, cradling her friend across her lap. Sharon has very likely just saved her life, and been badly injured in the process.

Ross is shouting orders, sending the rest of his team running, and T'Challa has vanished through the wall. Okoye gives Nakia a searching look and runs after him as Ross drops down by her side.

"How bad is she?" he demands. "Bad," Nakia murmurs, pulling Sharon's ripped shirt aside to reveal the horrific wound in her spine. "Very bad."

Pain is setting in, along with a horrifying numbness in her arms and legs and torso. It's all she can do to keep breathing, to try and push away the gray film that's trying to push across her vision.

Sharon whimpers, low, her breathing rough and labored, feeling cold all over. She can hear Nakia and Ross talking, but can't tell what they're saying, can't feel Nakia's gentle hands on her back. The fear is a distant thing, coiling up around her, tightening a little more with each terrified gasp for air. The cement floor is cold against her forehead, but she can't lift her head.

She can't do anything.

T'Challa sprints out the door, hot in pursuit – and an invisible hand shoves him back and up and into the wall. As he drops, he sees the masked man lowering his weapon as the van careens back out of the alley, a familiar ring bouncing against his chest on a chain as they vanish.

He stares after them and makes ready to pursue, when he hears Okoye shouting. His General runs out to him, spear at the ready, looking grave. "My King," she says. "Nakia."

Nakia. He'd see her dive to the ground; was she hit, is she hurt? He turns and runs back into the remains of the chaos, then draws to an abrupt halt at the scene before him: Nakia and Ross both kneeling by a wounded Agent Carter. He sinks to his knee next to the woman, her rough gasps for breath scraping across his own heart, and looks at Nakia.

"She just jumped in front of me," she tells T'Challa. Nakia's shifted now to lay Sharon on the floor, hoping to ease her breathing, and is gently cradling her neck and shoulder. There's anguish in her eyes as she looks up at him.

"I don't think she'll make it here. It hit her spine."

Beside them, Ross makes a sound like he's just been punched in the gut. "You hang on, Carter," he orders, trying to keep her grounded to the earth through will alone. "Do you hear me? You hang on, goddammit!"

Edited 2022-03-31 19:46 (UTC)

He meets Nakia's eyes and reads the anguished request in them. Even now, even in this terrible moment, she cannot speak it aloud, but it is clear anyway what she wishes: for them to save this woman, to bring her to the only one who can.

She has helped him before, this Agent Carter, and he knows she is dear to his friend, the Sergeant now left behind in Wakanda, all unknowing. He thinks of how he would feel if this were Nakia, lying here struggling to take each breath, to remain in this world, the one of the living, and a wave of terrible anguish rises in him.

At Ross's order, the woman makes a small whimpering sound that's so much worse than if she hadn't tried to respond at all, and T'Challa reaches out a hand to Nakia, the decision made almost by reflex. "Give me a Kimoyo bead," he says, quiet, and takes the one she offers to him.

He looks to Ross, his free hand up with fingers spread, trying to soothe. "This will stabilize her for now," he murmurs, and gently but firmly pushes the bead into the wound. The woman groans and tenses, then relaxes into unconsciousness as the bead glows gently.

He stares in absolute shock as T'Challa pushes a metal bead into Carter's back. He could swear it glows for a second, violet tendrils of light spreading out from her wound, but there's no mistaking the way her breathing eases, the way her body relaxes.

For a horrifying second he thinks they've lost her. Ross presses shaking fingers to her throat only to find that her heartbeat is slow, but steady.

He looks up at T'Challa. "How?"

He cannot possibly explain, here and now, and not only because of the secrets Wakanda holds. "Give her to us," he says, instead, and holds the other man's gaze with his own intent and worried.

"We can save her."

Ross looks back at him, unable to believe what he's hearing, then tears his glance away to look down at Carter where she lies on the floor, unconscious and unmoving.

She'd been about to die, he knows it. He knows it, and now she's not, through some miracle he doesn't understand.

"Take her," Ross says, roughly, and looks back up at T'Challa. "But I'm coming along."

Edited 2022-03-31 20:22 (UTC)

He hears Okoye's hissed breath. "My King – " she begins, but he shakes his head, sharp and abrupt.

"Would you ask me to leave you?" he asks, in Xhosa, and she subsides. He doesn't have to look at her to see the expression on her face.

He looks instead to Nakia, who nods, minute. "Very well," he says, and gently lifts the unconscious Agent Carter into his arms before he stands, cradling her warm weight against his chest. "Come. There is not much time."

Edited 2022-03-31 20:26 (UTC)

He follows T'Challa, Okoye, and the other woman whose name he still doesn't know as they start purposefully out the door. Ross pauses only long enough to snag the arm of the first agent he finds and snap out a few orders for how to process the scene and report back to him later, that he's seeing Carter to the hospital, and dashes after them.

Nothing makes sense. He ignores that and clings grimly to the present as they make their way to the SUV parked in the next alley over. Ross climbs in the back and helps to brace Carter as T'Challa sets her gently into the car. The other woman climbs in after and does the same, from the other side. Hopefully it's not far to the hospital.

Except they aren't going to a hospital, apparently. Okoye pulls the SUV over just outside the city, beside a large field surrounded by trees, and shuts off the engine.

"Wait," Ross protests. "Wait. Where are we going? You can't just--"

The other woman reaches to touch his wrist, shaking her head at him as both Okoye and T'Challa get out of the car. "Watch," she murmurs. "You will see."

Ross starts to argue, but his mouth drops open when the air outside shimmers and an aircraft appears from out of fucking nowhere, parked in the field.

Edited 2022-03-31 20:47 (UTC)

Nakia hangs back by Ross as T'Challa carefully lifts Sharon out of the car. Her friend is limp in his arms, but breathing, and Nakia comforts herself with the knowledge that if they can just get her back to Wakanda in time, she will be alright.

She has to be.

"Come," she says gently, and sets a hand on Ross's arm. "We will explain on the way. Only come."

Inside the flyer, T'Challa activates a sand table and lays Sharon carefully onto it. Her friend's face is pale, but she did not lose much blood and her breathing, though light, is regular.

Okoye grits her teeth as she watches Ross take up a position at the head of the table, looking down at Agent Carter. She remembers the woman from Berlin, knows that she is close to Sergeant Barnes, that now there are also two others besides Klaue outside Wakanda's borders who have gained knowledge of Wakanda's secrets, but this--

She holds her tongue until she has brought them aloft and set the autopilot on its course, then goes to join them. She speaks only in Xhosa, knowing that Ross will not be able to understand her. Good.

"My king," she starts. "Our mission was to bring back Klaue. We failed. These two are foreign intelligence operatives. How can we possibly justify bringing them into our borders?"

"She took a bullet for me," Nakia says, disbelieving. "And she is my friend. We are just supposed to let her die?"

Ross glances between them, over Sharon's unconscious body, still in a state of shock over everything he's seeing. "What?" he demands. "What are you saying?"

"That was her choice," she snaps at Nakia, then switches to English and turns to Ross.

"I am not speaking to you," she informs him. "I am addressing my king. Be silent and wait your turn."

Okoye turns back to T'Challa. "They are Americans! We are already at odds with their leaders from before, and it is their duty to report back to their country! And as king, it is your duty to protect ours."

"I'm well aware of my duties, General," he says, quiet but edged. He's been standing at Agent Carter's side, looking down at her and seeing not a golden-haired American, but Nakia, silent and still.

"I cannot just let her die, knowing we can save her."

It is hard for a good man to be king, his father had said. Baba, is this what you meant?

Okoye sighs. He will be a good king for Wakanda, she believes that and always has, but these last few weeks have brought difficult times for them all.

"My king," she says again, softer this time. "I will support you in all things. You know that. But you must be ready to answer these questions. I will not be the only one asking them."

She sighs again. "We will be landing at the mountain, I presume?"

"Let me worry about that, General," he says, but it is more gentle as well.

Instead of answering her directly, he switches to English and looks to Ross. "We will take her to my sister," he says, and glances at Nakia. "I must call her, so she can prepare."

"And the Sergeant?" she murmurs - also in English. "He will want to know."

Ross tenses, she notices, and she gives him a sharp look, but the other man does not say anything.

He will – but T'Challa isn't sure of the best way to contact him. "He may be with Shuri," he says.

"If not, we will call him after."

"Your sister? Is your sister a doctor?" Ross wants to know. He's keeping an eye on Carter's breathing, which so far remains steady, but she's far too pale and still.

"Not exactly," T'Challa admits, and lifts his hand to activate another Kimoyo bead.

"Shuri," he says, quietly, and waits for her to respond.

It is late, but only a little late, and besides she is far too excited from the first real trial of the remote driving system to sleep yet, although she had taken pity on Sergeant Barnes and stopped asking him to help her test things half an hour ago. He had been having fun, she believes, but he is still recovering whether he thinks he is or not and she does not want him to overdo.

She has the music turned up in the lab and is dancing from foot to foot as she throws new ideas up into the holographic model. When the call comes through and interrupts the visualization to display an image of her brother instead, Shuri lets out a loud exasperated noise and sticks her tongue out at him.

"Brother! I was designing!" But even as she says it, a closer look at his grave expression and the fact that he is still wearing the Panther habit causes her annoyance to vanish. Shuri waves her hand at the controller and the music goes silent.

"What has happened? What is wrong?"

"There was an incident," he says. It aches to see his sister's brilliance fade into worry, but there is no pretending that the news he has is good. Klaue gone, Agent Carter injured, more outsiders who will learn Wakanda's secrets.

He sends up a silent prayer to Bast to aid him in this hour of need and continues. "Klaue had allies who broke him out of confinement. Agent Carter of the Joint Terrorism Task Force was injured during the attack. She was protecting Nakia."

He waves a hand and sends the data from the flyer's sand table to Shuri so she can view Agent Carter's vitals. "We are bringing her to you."

Her shock is visible. "Klaue escaped?" She would not have thought it possible for that man to evade the custody of her brother and General Okoye.

Shuri brushes it aside for now in favor of calling up the data on a display next to T'Challa's image, and hisses at what she sees. "This broken white girl is very broken," she says, and ignores the strangled noise she hears somewhere off to T'Challa's side. "You should hurry."

"We are coming as fast as we can," T'Challa promises. "Be ready when we arrive."

He elects not to respond to her first question yet. That will be a difficult conversation to have with many... especially W'Kabi. "Shuri, is Sergeant Barnes in the lab? I need to speak with him, also."

"I will," she assures him. "And no, he is not. I sent him to rest half an hour ago."

She frowns in thought. "I can ask one of the guards to send him back, or ... I do not think he carries the one Kimoyo bead I provided when he first arrived. It only calls Mya and he is very reluctant to do anything that he thinks will bother anyone. Oh!"

Shuri brightens. "He does carry the tablet that I gave him. Here." She taps on her bracelet, transferring the communications link code to T'Challa. "He uses it like an antiquated device for video and audio only, but it has holographic projection capability."

Edited 2022-03-31 23:18 (UTC)

"Thank you, Shuri."

He means it, from the bottom of his heart. "Please monitor Agent Carter throughout our flight. We will see you as soon as we can."

After a moment's thought, he adds: "And I would not be surprised if Sergeant Barnes comes back and wishes to assist. They are close."

"Ohhh. I see," Shuri murmurs. At any other time she would be delighted to uncover this knowledge so that she could tease Sergeant Barnes with it, but under the circumstances --

"I will find something he can do to help."

"Thank you, sister."

He sighs, but he has put off this other call long enough. "I will alert you when we are close."

She nods and he finds a small, tired smile for her, then waves his hand and looks at the others. Nakia's expression is full of worried compassion, and he shakes his head minutely at her. "Deputy Commander," he says, looking at the other man. "Please be patient a few more moments, and I will explain all I can."

He doesn't wait for an answer, just moves away from the table where Sharon Carter lies, pale and still, and to a part of the flyer where he can raise a small privacy bubble.

That done, he takes a breath and sends a signal through his Kimoyo beads to Sergeant Barnes's tablet.

After leaving Shuri with her strict orders to 'go rest' ringing in his ears, he'd headed reluctantly back to his apartment, not tired or sleepy in the slightest. He'd almost chosen to retrace the path from the other night down to the lake instead, but decided to wait for morning to avoid the chance that anyone might wonder what he was doing wandering around alone at night.

Having taken a quick shower, he's sitting up in bed and reading when the tablet on the side table chimes. It's not Sharon or Steve, he sees, but a code he doesn't recognize. Bucky sets the book aside and reaches to activate the call, then startles as an image forms in the air above the screen rather than a video appearing on it.

"T'Cha-- er, your Highness?"

The Sergeant looks relaxed and comfortable, his hair drying into a slightly loose mess, and T'Challa wishes with all his heart that he does not have to say the words that will destroy this man's calm.

He has worked so hard for this peace. It seems cruel to distress him – but T'Challa knows he would far rather find out at once than realize his friends had hidden something of this magnitude from him. "Sergeant Barnes," he says, and finds he cannot even attempt a smile. His face is too grave, his eyes too worried.

"I would not disturb you, but I believed you would wish to know. We are returning to Wakanda."

He takes a breath. "I am sorry to tell you that a short time ago, Sharon Carter was injured while protecting Nakia. We are bringing her to Shuri for treatment."

Edited 2022-03-31 23:54 (UTC)

He hears the words, of course he does, but at first they don't make sense. Bucky stares at T'Challa in blank silence, unable to accept what he's just heard.

Understanding sets in with the force of an avalanche in the next instant. He's on his feet before he knows he's moving, as if he could somehow throw himself through the image and to T'Challa's side.

"Injured?" It sounds like what it is: a desperate plea. "Not dead. Not dead--"

"Alive," T'Challa promises. It is all he can do for this man in this terrible time.

"She is stable." He elects not to add for the moment. "I am sorry, Sergeant. It gives me no pleasure to tell you this."

Edited 2022-04-01 00:03 (UTC)

"Alive," he whispers, clinging to that like a child to a promise. "Stable."

Bucky swallows hard, still trying to take it all in.

"Is Nakia okay?"

"Yes." His voice is very, very gentle.

"Nakia is perfectly fine. Agent Carter saved her life."

"Good. Good," he repeats. "I'm glad. Sharon would be too. Will. Will be."

Agent Carter saved her life. He'd just talked to her, not two hours ago, and she'd been smiling, she'd said everything was secure and it was only talking left--

"What happened?"

T'Challa's expression sets, grim. "Klaue," he says, the word a curse in his mouth as the man has been a curse on their land. "Associates of his attacked the Task Force space where he was held and broke him out. One man had a gun, an automatic weapon of some kind. Nakia was in the line of fire."

He will not soon forget the fear that had risen in him then, bitter and choking. "Agent Carter realized what was about to happen and pushed Nakia out of the way. She was struck instead."

Edited 2022-04-01 00:15 (UTC)

"Attacked the-- what the hell kind of miserable excuse is the Task Force using for security?"

Decades-long habits of training conflict with his sudden urge to pace, to move, and he deliberately lets the latter win for three steps before whirling back toward the image.

"You're coming to Shuri? I'll meet you there."

He does not speak against the man's vitriol – he has to be able to vent his feelings somehow – and waits as the Sergeant paces, all controlled grace even in his rage and fear, like a caged wolf.

"Yes," T'Challa says, "but it will be some time yet, Sergeant. Do not expect us before dawn."

Dawn is hours away, and he knows already he'll be aware of every minute's passing. Bucky makes himself focus through a sheer effort of will.

"How badly hurt is she?"

T'Challa hesitates, and knows that in doing so he has already answered the question.

"I will not lie to you," he says, quietly. "It is severe. Enough that we felt it necessary to bring her with us to Wakanda."

To leave her, he knows, would have been a death sentence. He does not wish to speak the words aloud to this man, already so worried. "We will help her. I promise you this. Shuri is already preparing for our arrival."

Necessary. He hears what T'Challa doesn't say as clearly as what he does, and all the blood drains from his face as he stares at him.

"Is she awake?" he whispers. "Can I see her?"

"She is not awake," T'Challa says. Gently, so very gently. The man looks drained dry.

He flicks a glance toward where Sharon Carter lies on the sand table and struggles with himself – it could not possibly help the Sergeant to see her this way, but is that his choice?

"But I will show her to you, if you wish."

"Please."

He says it instantly, without even the slightest flicker of hesitation.

T'Challa sighs, but nods. "Give me a moment," he murmurs, and vanishes the hologram from over his wrist before her lowers the privacy bubble.

The others look up at him, and he glances to Okoye, tipping his head to the side. She understands instantly and gestures to Ross and Nakia. "Come," she murmurs. "Come."

She pulls them aside and towards the front of the flyer as T'Challa comes to stand by Agent Carter's side. She looks perfectly peaceful, her skin pale as porcelain, her hair spread around her as if she were floating in water.

A moment later and he has activated the privacy bubble around himself and the table both, then renews the hologram, turning it so the Sergeant can see her. "As I said," T'Challa murmurs. "She is stable. We are monitoring her closely, as is Shuri, in her lab."

He nods, his gaze fixed on Sharon's sleeping face. "Hold on, baby," he tells her, each word ragged and rough with emotion, watching for any sign that she can hear him, any sign at all.

"Just hold on. Keep breathing. Shuri can work miracles, I promise. She did for me. I'm here waiting for you. Hold on, please."

His heart aches for this man, for them both. Though the Sergeant has refrained from asking him to make an exception for this woman, T'Challa knows it had been his secret wish. Even knowing it would have been impossible, he is sorry, deeply sorry, that this is the way she has come to Wakanda.

The sleeping Sharon Carter gives no sign of hearing the familiar voice, but T'Challa has to clear his throat, which is feeling strangely tight.

"Everything we can do for her will be done," he promises. "I will bring her to you safely, and Shuri will help her. Your Sharon saved Nakia's life. I owe her a great debt."

"That's who she is," Bucky tells him. He glances away from Sharon to T'Challa, just for an instant. "Nakia's a friend of hers, but she would have done it anyway. It's why she joined SHIELD all those years ago. To-- to protect. No matter how --"

He swallows back the tears that are fighting to drown him in a sea of fear and grief.

"Thank you for taking care of her, your Highness. I'll be waiting in the lab when you get here."

"We will fly as fast as possible," T'Challa assures him. "General Okoye will assist me."

He realizes now that he has utterly neglected to mention their other American guest. "And Deputy Commander Ross insisted on accompanying us. I am certain he will wish to come to the lab as well."

His eyes narrow. "Did he."

Bucky takes a second to get a firm grip on himself, then nods. "I'm sure you're right."

T'Challa sighs, very slightly.

"I understand your frustration," he says, "but this was not Ross's fault."

Maybe not, but he desperately wants it to be, wants to have a target to blame. The instant he realizes it, he makes himself get an even tighter hold of his emotions, and nods to T'Challa.

"I understand."

T'Challa's expression softens. "Have faith," he says, quietly. "I will bring her to you."

After a beat of silence, he adds: "I believe Shuri has some things she could use your assistance with in the lab, as she prepares."

"I'll go there now." His gaze shifts back to Sharon, and rests there. "See you soon, baby," he murmurs.

T'Challa allows him a last long look at her, then nods to him. "Soon," he says, and lifts his free hand in farewell before ending the call, feeling wrung out and exhausted.

It's a moment longer before he drops the privacy bubble, a moment of quiet, just between him and the sleeping Sharon Carter. If he says anything to her, it stays between the two of them.

She has been waiting for the bubble to drop, and comes over to his side as soon as it does.

"How did it go?" she asks, softly, reaching out to put a comforting hand on T'Challa's arm.

He reaches to cover her hand with his own and gives her a grave glance. "Let us hope that she is strong," is all he says in reply, and sighs before he squeezes her hands and finds some small, crooked, rueful shade of a smile.

"Stay with her. I must speak with Ross."

She squeezes back, then takes up a position beside the sand table. "He will probably welcome talking to you," she observes. "I think Okoye makes him nervous."

He chuckles, very lightly, then gives her a look full of compassion.

"I did not know you were friends," he murmurs, and has to restrain himself from reaching for her again. "I am sorry."

"Good friends," she tells him, softly. "I have known her for years. We met when she was still an agent of SHIELD, and even worked together sometimes, out in the world. They called her Agent Thirteen, then."

Thirteen. An unlucky number in the Western world. He supposes that speaks to her efficacy. T'Challa nods and glances back at the sleeping woman.

"We will do all we can," he promises Nakia, as he had promised the Sergeant, before he looks back up at her. "You will have your friend again soon, Nakia."

She smiles at him, warm and sure, then tips her head toward the others.

"Go," Nakia tells him. "Rescue the Deputy Commander. Before Okoye stabs him. I will stay with Sharon."

Her smile cannot fail to lighten even the darkest of his moods. He chuckles lightly and holds up his hands, then goes to where Ross and Okoye are standing in a tense detente.

"Deputy Commander," he says. "Come with me. There is much for us to discuss."

He follows the other man across the aircraft to a space away from the others. "So when I asked how much more you were hiding," he starts.

"What the hell, your Highness?"

Across the flyer, Okoye growls.

T'Challa ignores her for the moment and lifts his wrist, the Kimoyo beads there lying dormant. "More than you could ever have guessed," he says, solemn. "And it must remain hidden, Ross."

He doesn't allow the man to sputter a reply, only taps his beads and brings the hologram to life. "Let me tell you the story of Wakanda."

He jumps slightly as the image forms in the air, but makes himself stay silent and watch until T'Challa finishes speaking.

Ross stares at him for several long moments. "So --"

Klaue wasn't lying, he almost says, and then hastily changes tacks as he realizes just how badly that's likely to go over.

"--all this," he says instead, waving his hand at the aircraft around them. "And more. How the-- how have you hidden this all this time?"

"By being very careful with our secrets and protecting our border."

He vanishes the hologram with a wave of his hand. "By deploying our War Dogs out into the world to listen for any news of Wakanda or vibranium."

T'Challa nods at Nakia, including her in that group. "By never allowing outsiders into our country," he adds, and looks slightly rueful. "A tradition which I will now have broken three separate times."

He turns to look at Carter, then slowly turns in a circle, studying the aircraft with new eyes.

"Is this-- is this thing made out of vibranium?" Ross ends by staring at T'Challa again, stunned. "All of it?"

T'Challa looks very patient, and nods.

He reaches out to brace himself against the wall as the shock staggers him, then snatches his hand back again as if he'd touched a hot surface.

"Okay. Okay." Ross takes a deep breath. "So that weapon Klaue had. What was it?"

"It was never meant to be a weapon," T'Challa says, grim.

"In its natural state, vibranium is not stable enough to be moved. My sister Shuri developed a way to use sonic waves to render it briefly inert. The cannon is a bastardized version of a mining tool that works the same way."

Edited 2022-04-01 02:42 (UTC)

"A mining tool." Ross scrubs his hands across his face. "I'm dreaming. I must be dreaming. A mining tool, and it did that?"

"I do not need to tell you that Ulysses Klaue is a dangerous man," T'Challa says, grim.

"I must return to the hunt for him as soon as possible, after we have delivered Agent Carter to my sister."

"He escaped from Task Force custody," Ross says, just as grim. "You won't be hunting him alone."

T'Challa nods. "Under different circumstances," he says, dry, "I would say it is a pleasure working with you again, Deputy Commander."

He stands and nods. "We have some hours yet. Get some rest, if you can. I will alert you if anything changes with Agent Carter."

* * * * * * *

It's been hours since he arrived at the lab to find Shuri still there and already preparing a room. He hadn't even had to ask before she briskly ordered him to help. Most of what he's able to do is move equipment or clean and disinfect things with the light-emitting wand she gives him to work with, but it's something, and every little bit helps keep him occupied enough not to think.

The problem is that now they've done all they can do, and the others still haven't arrived. Shuri is bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, checking things on her tablet, and Bucky has taken to pacing back and forth in front of the lab windows.

"How much longer, do you think?" he asks. "You're still monitoring, right?"

Edited 2022-04-01 02:59 (UTC)

"Yes," she promises, as she has made certain to promise throughout this interminable wait. He is remarkably restrained when it comes to vocalizing his worry, but she sees the tension in his body and hears the tightness in his voice and she makes her own more brisk and confident in response.

"I am still monitoring, and I have seen no change. Which is good, I remind you."

Certainly far better than any negative change. "I think they will probably arrive soon. At the flyer's top speed, the trip should take fewer than five hours."

Which could mean anything, since they don't know how long the flyer had been in the air before T'Challa called, but there's no point in mentioning it. She knows it as well as he does. They'll get here when they get here, and not before.

"No change," he repeats, trying to let himself be reassured by that. "Okay. Okay. Thanks."

She's not sure if it would help or hurt to tell him about how the Kimoyo bead T'Challa used is stabilizing Sharon's wound and her vitals, and ultimately elects not to bring it up.

"Try not to worry," she says, soothing. "Why don't you make a pot of coffee? I am sure the others would appreciate some when they arrive."

He gives her a rueful look at that, but goes to the coffee maker. After all, she's not wrong.

With him busy, she can return to her own fretting, checking and double-checking and triple-checking their set up as well as Sharon's data... which abruptly cuts off, nearly giving her a heart attack before her Kimoyo beads chime.

"I think they are coming!" she calls to Sergeant Barnes, and hurries to the entryway, impatient.

He's at her side in a few long strides, watching impatiently as the indicator on the elevator to the flight platform moves first up, then down toward their level.

Before leaving the flyer, they had given Ross a hooded jacket to wear and placed a blanket over Agent Carter; now, in the elevator, Nakia twitches the blanket back from the woman's sleeping face and gives T'Challa an exasperated look.

"We do not want them to think we are bringing them a corpse!" she scolds, and T'Challa looks slightly abashed before the doors ding open and he can walk beside the floating gurney, their party heading quickly to the lab where Shuri is waiting.

Bucky freezes in his tracks as he sees them, Sharon lying silent and still on a table that's floating in midair beside T'Challa, flanked by Okoye and Nakia, with Ross bringing up the rear. He spares half a second to give the Deputy Commander a level stare, and then all his attention is given to dashing down the hallway after Shuri to reach them.

"Sharon," he whispers, walking backward down the corridor so as not to slow their progress while Shuri checks the table's display. "Sharon, can you hear me?"

Her friend gives no sign of recognition, but Nakia gives the Sergeant a comforting smile.

"I'm sure she can," she says. "And I'm sure it is a comfort to her. Here, Bucky - "

She moves aside, gesturing for him to take her spot at Sharon's hip.

He accepts the offer with alacrity, coming up beside her and reaching for Sharon's hand with his right. Bucky holds on, running his thumb back and forth over her fingers as they walk.

Shuri leads them into the room that they've so painstakingly set up, swinging the gurney into position in front of the medical scanner with its hexagonal cells vibrating around the central display. A blue light starts to run over Sharon's body, and at the end of the table Ross startles.

"What are you doing?"

"Quiet, colonizer!" Shuri orders. "I am working."

She has rarely been so grateful for Shuri's genius as she is in this moment, as the girl rapidly surveys the damage done. Several hexagons blur together to create a screen for Sharon's vitals; others blink with data as it feeds into the system.

The wound is easy to find, even with Sharon on her back. The system throws up an alarm, blinking red, and once Shuri has satisfied herself that she has not missed anything, she returns to it. On the display, a glowing image of Sharon's spine appears, with unhappy orange markings.

Nakia finds herself folding an arm protectively over her ribs, her hand pressed to her mouth. She'd known, she'd seen, but it's an altogether different experience to see the reality of it in the scans.

One bullet was all it took, almost enough to snuff her friend out for good. She shivers at the closeness of it all.

T'Challa steps to Nakia's side as she shivers, reaching to put his arm around her. Beside the table, Bucky remains preternaturally still, watching everything with fierce intensity.

Shuri gestures at the screen, and pulls an image of Sharon's spine from the display into the space above her body. The young scientist pulls her hands apart, separating the vertebrae, and studies the map of orange lines that illustrates the damage done.

"She will live," she says, with assurance. "And she will heal completely."

Bucky drops into a crouch beside the table and lowers his head abruptly to his forearm, gasping in a long, relieved breath.

Edited 2022-04-01 04:11 (UTC)

Ross makes a sound like he's the one who was shot and exhales relief. Shuri smiles, until her Kimoyo beads give a chime.

She glances down at them, then gives T'Challa a warning glance. "W'Kabi is here," she tells him. T'Challa nods and tips his head to Okoye, who follows him out of the medical room as Shuri turns back to her task.

Nakia comes to put a gentle hand on Sergeant Barnes's shoulder where he is crouched beside the table, as comforting as she can make it. Shuri hums to herself and weaves complicated figures of light through the air, then peers intently at them before waving her hands at the group.

"Go on, all of you. I need to prepare her for the procedure to remove the bullet. I will call you when she is recuperating."

He looks up at that, his hold on Sharon’s hand tightening. “Let me help.”

His glance meets Shuri’s and holds. “Let me stay.”

She will let Shuri decide whether to let the Sergeant stay. For her part, she nods and pats his shoulder, then turns to Deputy Commander Ross, who is staring at Sharon like he might be able to will her into waking up.

"Come," she murmurs. "I will take you to the Citadel. Rooms have been prepared for both of you."

Ross looks like he wants to argue, but instead nods to Nakia. “Come on, Barnes,” he says, gruffly. “She needs to work.”

Bucky doesn’t move at first, but every muscle in his body tenses. Slowly, he turns his head to pierce Ross with a cool, remote glare that promises nothing good.

“I’ll go if the Princess tells me to,” he says, soft and cold as falling snow. “You don’t want to push me right now, Ross.”

Ross bristles and opens his mouth, and Nakia finds herself wishing T'Challa were here to get between the two men before Shuri intervenes.

"He can stay," the princess says, almost absently, before slanting a look at the Sergeant. "For now."

Ross looks as though he's bitten into a lemon, but nods, short and sharp. "Fine," he says, then steps forward and looks down at Sharon's sleeping face. "Hang in there, Carter," he says, with gruff affection, and has to clear his throat a few times before he can reach down to circle his fingers lightly around the wrist of her free hand. "We're pulling for you."

It's brief, and then he turns to Shuri, back military-straight. "Princess," he says. "Thank you."

Edited 2022-04-01 12:47 (UTC)

He nods in response to Shuri’s warning, and stays quiet and still as Ross approaches to take Sharon’s other hand.

“Yes, you are welcome,” Shuri says. “Now go, so I can begin.” She checks something on her tablet. “Nakia, they are still above - you had best take the train.”

Nakia nods and guides Ross with a hand on his back. "This way," she tells him, and leads him through the lab toward the train. He still looks a little shell-shocked, but he's handling it well.

"Call us when you have news," Nakia tells the Princess as they leave, then walks with Ross toward the train, quietly talking with him as they go.

Bucky looks up at Shuri and waits for instructions. He doesn’t have to wait long.

“Turn her over,” she says, already back to studying the images in the air. “Cut those filthy clothes away and get rid of them. I will run the sonic cleanser while you bring a drape for her. Fresh clothes are in the changing room cabinet.”

He turns Sharon with gentle care and places her on her stomach, her head turned to the side and hair neatly gathered at the nape of her neck, before going to find the things he needs to follow Shuri’s orders.

While he's gone, Shuri adjusts the table, an aperture appearing at the head of it. She gently adjusts the woman's head, setting her face into the opening so her spine is long and straight, then peers at the wound.

There is only one, for which she is grateful, but it is a bad one. The Kimoyo bead T'Challa used to stabilize her pulses gently with a violet glow, keeping her in a deep sleep and telling her body and brain that things are not so desperate as they seem.

It will be a little tricky to remove. Shuri runs the sonic cleaner and pulls out a tray of sterilized equipment, then draws on a pair of sterile gloves as she considers the best approach.

Edited 2022-04-01 13:15 (UTC)

He returns with everything required and cuts the destroyed shirt free and removes it before moving to the rest. Every movement he makes silently proclaims his experience at caring for a sick person and helping them with their needs.

Bucky places the drape over Sharon, folding it back to her waist, and only then lets himself look at the extent of the wound. His breath comes in sharply and stays.

He knows exactly what kind of damage a bullet like that, with that placement, can do. It’s a miracle she survived long enough for T’Challa to get her here.

Shuri sterilizes the wound and the skin around it, then tells the table to take over life-support function from the Kimoyo bead.

As she reaches for her equipment, she looks up at the Sergeant. "Are you sure you wish to be here for this?" she asks. Her voice is gentle. "It may be difficult to watch."

“I trust you,” he says, softly. “If you tell me to go, I will. I won’t argue. But otherwise, I’ll stay with her. If you let me.”

She should tell him to go, perhaps, but she finds she doesn't have the heart to send him away. "Well," she says, brisk. "If you stay, you must assist."

Shuri indicates the sterile masks and gloves, then puts a mask over her own face. Once he's ready, she hands him a small vibranium bowl. "I will remove the Kimoyo bead first," she warns. "There may be a brief moment of fluctuation as it disengages, but the table will keep her stable."

He dons a mask, then looks dubiously at his left hand before carefully pulling a glove over it. The glove doesn’t tear, and he puts on the other and stands ready with the bowl Shuri gives him.

“I understand,” he says, quietly, and repeats: “I trust you.”

She works quickly and efficiently. The Kimoyo bead offers little resistance as she removes it. As she anticipated, a flurry of alarms blink through the display as she lifts it from Sharon and drops it into the bowl the Sergeant holds. She ignores them, focusing only on the waveforms of the woman's vital signs.

Once they stabilize, she nods to the Sergeant. "Now I will remove the bullet," she murmurs, and carefully works her way into the wound. "Have courage. This is the worst part and it will soon be over."

Whether she's speaking to the Sergeant, to the unconscious woman, or to herself, she isn't quite certain.

“You’re doing great,” Bucky says, keeping his voice low and his words quiet so as not to distract. “Everything’s going well.”

It’s meant for both of them, whether or not Shuri knows it, whether or not Sharon can hear him.

The bullet is more difficult to extract, being lodged in the woman's spine, and Shuri instructs the Sergeant to put down the bowl for a moment and help her by holding the wound open and stable.

Shuri makes a face as she eases the bullet out, her eyes grim. "Guns," she mutters, and drops the thing into the bowl with an expression of disgust. The table beeps at her, notifying her of the cascading effects that are attempting to happen and which she refuses to allow. She focuses intently on the rendering of Sharon's spine in light above the woman herself and works quickly to repair torn tissue and nerves. She repairs the damaged vertebra with a putty which will allow the bone to regenerate, then finishes by running a blue light over the wound, which slowly seals itself without any need for stitches.

She is sweating by the time she's finished, her own back aching, but pleased as she looks at the display. It ticks steadily back up towards normal, and she beams at the Sergeant. "Success."

His answering smile is blinding. Bucky lets himself find Sharon's hand with his own again and holds it gently as he meets Shuri's eyes.

"Thank you," he whispers. "For saving her."

She smiles back, pleased and satisfied.

"You are welcome," she says, and goes to the cabinet to pull out a light robe of soft fabric, which she brings to him. "Dress her in this while I clear these things away. And then she will need rest, and so will you."

He accepts the robe and does as told, cradling Sharon in his arms with gentle care as he dresses her, then laying her back on the table in as comfortable a position as possible.

“Can I stay with her?” he pleads. “So that she won’t wake alone? She’s going to be confused.”

"I will be nearby," Shuri protests, but it's pro forma before she gives in.

"Stay if you like. It will be some time before she wakes, though. At least get a chair."

He nods, and then draws a slow breath.

"Do you want me to call Ross?" Bucky's proud to hear that his voice is steady and calm, both. "He's probably waiting to hear. Sharon should have his number in her phone."

She smiles at him, warm and fond. Even in this stressful moment, he is trying to do the right thing.

"I will take care of it," she says, and goes to the pile of Sharon's discarded clothing to find her phone, then unlocks it with the unconscious woman's fingerprint. A quick search reveals Ross's number, which she copies to her Kimoyo beads. "And I will call Nakia and T'Challa also."

"Okay," he murmurs. "I'll be here if you need anything. Or if they do. Anything. Anything at all."

Bucky retrieves a chair and sets it up by the table so that he can watch over Sharon, then leans back in it to wait.

Things are pretty strange when she opens her eyes.

Not just because of what she sees through her blurry vision, but because it's frankly kind of a surprise that she's opening her eyes at all, because she's pretty sure she got shot and she's likewise pretty sure she was dying basically immediately after that.

So maybe she's dead? And there really is some sort of afterlife?

... An afterlife with softly beeping machinery and muted lights overhead?

Sharon blinks and shifts, moving her shoulders against the surface she's lying on. Her feet feel cool – and she can feel her feet, which is a welcome surprise – and she looks down to see her bare toes wiggling. "Huh," she says, her voice rough and groggy. "That's weird."

Edited 2022-04-01 14:40 (UTC)

At the sound of her voice he goes from dozing to awake in a single heartbeat.

"Yeah, I know, baby," he murmurs, laughter in his tone as he reaches to take her hand. "It takes some getting used to. Give yourself a second, okay?"

Curiouser and curiouser. She rolls her head on the flat surface and looks over as a warm hand reaches for hers, and notes as she does so that there's no pain at all in her back.

So probably she is dead? Because she thinks otherwise she'd be feeling pretty terrible right now.

Another clue that none of this is real: Bucky's sitting there next to her, looking a little drawn and worried even as his eyes watch her, warm and bright. "Hi," she murmurs, pleased.

If this is some weird hallucination her brain is giving her before it checks out for good, she'll take it. "Fancy seeing you here."

She's clearly not all the way awake yet. His smile softens, becoming even more fond as he lifts her hand to kiss her fingers, then covers their joined hands with his other one as well.

"You're going to have questions. I'll answer them when you're ready," he promises. "But first - everyone's okay. Nakia wasn't hurt. Ross is safe. And you're going to be fine."

She frowns, slightly. "Fine?"

That can't be possible, can it? In fact, none of this should be possible. She shifts again, her frown deepening as she tries to feel anything left from the bullet that had hit her. "I got shot," she says, like she's trying to make it real, prove it to herself.

She definitely did – she remembers because she was there and also because you don't forget getting shot – but there doesn't seem to be any sign of it now.

Sharon sits up, swinging her legs over the edge of the table, and lifts her free hand to feel down between her shoulderblades.

Nothing. "Didn't I?"

"You did," he says, softly. "You put yourself between Nakia and the bullet, they said."

He squeezes her hand, very gently. "T'Challa stabilized you, and brought you home. Here. To Wakanda. And Shuri healed you."

Edited 2022-04-01 14:54 (UTC)

She looks at him, bewildered. "How long ago?" she asks.

Her legs still feel strong; she doesn't feel as though she's lost the muscle she must have after convalescing long enough for there to not even be a scar on her back. "How long have I been out?"

"Less than a day," he says, just as softly as before.

"I know it sounds impossible. But it's true."

"You're right," she says, after staring at him for a second. "That's impossible."

Her fingers tighten on his, but it's less from affection and more the desperate clinging of someone trying to keep from dropping off the side of a building. "All of this is impossible. Wakanda? Ross? You? I don't – "

She looks around and feels like her mind is shattering. The space she's in is some sort of... she can't even parse it. It doesn't look like any hospital she's ever been to. There's the faint beat of music coming from nearby. "What the hell?"

"I know," Bucky murmurs. "Believe me, I know. It's the secret that's the real reason why Wakanda keeps its borders closed. I'll tell you everything. I can tell you everything, now. But first--"

He stands, moving carefully so as not to disturb her, and gets as close to the table as he can.

"Come here, baby," he asks. "Please?"

She shifts towards him as if in a dream, setting her bare feet onto the cold floor and shivering.

It's the cold that snaps her out of it. Can you feel cold in a dream? "This is real?" she asks, her eyes on his face. She's too confused and desperate to hide anything she's feeling; it all floods across her face without filter.

"It's not just my neurons firing off a last hurrah?"

"It's real," he promises. The confusion in her eyes cracks his heart, and he can't hold back any longer. As she shivers, he scoops her up into his arms, cradling her to him, careful to keep his arm low enough on her back to not put any pressure on the site of her previous wound.

"It's real. You're here. You're safe. I've got you."

She's suddenly weightless, enveloped in warmth, tucked against him, and it's beginning to filter through that this might actually be real. And if it is...

"Oh my god," she says, lightly hysterical, and reaches her arms around him. "Baby."

He holds her a little more tightly, unable to help himself.

"Sharon," he murmurs, searching her face. "Hi, baby."

"Hi."

She's not sure if she's about to laugh or cry or some mix of both as she lets go, freeing her hands to cradle his face like she's been longing to do for so long. "Hi."

He leans in to kiss her, gentle and sweet, then tips his head to rest his forehead against hers.

She closes her eyes, then instantly opens them again to be able to see him.

"Everyone's okay?" she reiterates. "Nakia's okay?"

"Everyone's okay," he promises. "Nakia included. You saved her life, baby."

He hugs her a little tighter, then gently lowers her back to sit on the table.

"Let me get you a pair of slippers, then we'll go find Shuri."

"Good," she says, heartfelt. Hopefully she'll be able to see Nakia soon, prove to herself that her friend is all right.

She hates that he puts her down, but sits obediently... aside from how she keeps reaching to rub her fingers over the spot where she'd felt the bullet hit.

To distract herself as he goes searching, she looks around. "This place is wild," she muses. "Is it a hospital?"

"It's a lab," he says, as he straightens up from the bottom shelf of the cabinet with a pair of soft black slipper-socks in hand. Bucky brings them over and goes down on one knee to start fitting them to her feet, then glances up at her.

"Shuri's lab. Welcome to the headquarters of the Wakanda Design Group."

"You know, I could have sworn Wakanda wasn't the kind of place to have a design group," she says, but it seems fair academic.

She looks away from the impossible room for a moment to watch him, smiling. "Prince Charming," she murmurs. "I'm not much of a Cinderella at the moment."

"Hey, I'm not the royalty around here," he teases back, then stands and holds out his hand to her.

"And that's the thing. Turns out what everyone thought they knew about Wakanda was wrong. Come on. I'll show you."

She takes his hand and slides off the table, then laces her fingers with his and takes a breath.

"Okay, Barnes," she says. "Lead the way."

He squeezes her hand, reassuring, and leads her through the arched opening and out into the main lab, where displays of inventions and experiments in various stages are arranged in illuminated glass cases.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that show the heart of Mount Bashenga, a mag-lev train races by in elegant silence on its stabilized track.

"Princess," Bucky calls, and at her worktable near the window, Shuri turns around with a bright smile. "Is she-- she is!" She hops to her feet and crosses the room to join them. "Agent Carter. It is very nice to meet you."

"Sharon, this is the Princess Shuri," he murmurs. "King T'Challa's younger sister, the head of this lab, and my savior as well as yours."

Edited 2022-04-01 16:42 (UTC)

The view through the plate-glass windows would be dizzying even if she hadn't just woken up from impossible surgery. Sharon keeps one hand firmly in Bucky's and reaches out the other to shake, more by reflex than by choice.

"I'm still pretty sure this is a dream," she says, "but it's nice to meet you regardless. And on the off chance maybe-dream-Bucky is right and it's real, then I guess I've got you to thank for saving my life. So thank you, Princess."

"This is no dream," Shuri tells her, taking Sharon's hand in a firm grip for a moment before letting go again. Her grin is even brighter now, and satisfied. "This is Wakanda."

Very dryly, Bucky says, "They have a lot of fun with watching how people react to the discovery."

"Hey!" Shuri protests. "You would too, if you were me."

"Okay," Sharon says, slowly, her eyes caught on the train that streaks silently by, like a silver fish darting through a pool of dark water. "Wakanda. And – "

But that flips a switch in her head and she rounds on Bucky, her eyes suddenly wide and worried. "Klaue! What happened to Klaue?"

He and Shuri trade a quick, grim look before he answers her.

"He got away," Bucky tells her. "For now. Some associates of his broke him out - that's how you got hurt."

Reluctantly, he adds, "Ross is here too. He can bring you up to speed on the mission."

"He is?"

Not here here, apparently, as she glances around. "I should check in with him. Is my phone around somewhere?"

"Yes, it is," Bucky says, after giving her a very patient, completely disbelieving stare. "But no. How about we call Nakia first? And maybe she can walk him over, instead."

He looks at Shuri. "Assuming you aren't about to kick us out, that is, Princess."

"I am not," Shuri says, "because I need to check her over and make sure all is well. And you," she says, pointing at Sharon and drawing the word out: youuuuuuuuuuu. "Need to rest. Not to go running around trying to find out what happened to Klaue! There are people here who will do that. You almost died! So go sit down!" she adds, as Sharon opens her mouth to protest.

"Wow," Sharon mutters. "Pushy."

Shuri gives her a stern look and she lifts her hand in surrender. "I mean, 'yes ma'am.'"

Edited 2022-04-01 19:12 (UTC)

"Much better answer," Bucky murmurs, the corners of his mouth twitching as he fights back a grin. "Trust me, you don't want to argue with her when she's putting you through tests. Come on."

Bucky leads her to the chair that he usually uses for his own check-ups, figuring that since it has both a good view of the lab and the windows she'll appreciate it.

"Princess, seriously though, could you call Nakia? I'm sure she'd want to know Sharon's awake." He taps his wrist and gives Shuri a bright-eyed look of anticipation.

Shuri's expression softens and she nods as she comes near. "Yes, of course," she says, but instead of reaching for a phone, she taps a bead on her bracelet. "Nakia!" she says, brightly. "Look who is awake!"

Sharon gasps as a tiny, perfect hologram of Nakia from the waist up appears over the beaded bracelet. "What?" she says, a little too loudly, and almost gets up to get closer before she remembers she's supposed to be sitting down.

She stares at Nakia. "Look at you!"

The tiny Nakia laughs, delighted. "Look at you!" she returns. "Awake already! Shuri is going to have to tie you to a bed."

Bucky moves around behind Sharon so that Nakia can see him as well. "Don't worry," he tells her, "the princess already read her the riot act. But she's doing great."

He looks at Sharon. "Don't think that means you can get up again yet, though."

Nakia laughs and peers at Sharon from Shuri's wrist. "How do you feel?"

"I feel fine," Sharon says. "Deeply confused, but fine. Boy, you really buried the lede about Wakanda, Nakia."

Her friend laughs again, a little ruefully. "I know," she says. "But I am happy to finally be able to show you my home."

"She couldn't tell you," Bucky murmurs. "Really couldn't. There's a whole history as to why. But you're here now, and that's what matters."

He can't hide his smile at that, and doesn't even try. Shuri wrinkles her nose at him. "Oh, is that so?" she laughs. "I know some people who will be disappointed to hear that."

Bucky grins at her. "Unless Sharon says otherwise, yeah, that's how it is."

She leans her head back against him and smiles, then reaches back and up for his hand. "It would have been nice not to have to get shot to make it happen," she says, and tips her head back to look up at him, her eyes warm and bright.

"But you won't hear me complaining about the rest of it."

Edited 2022-04-01 19:47 (UTC)

"Yes, it would have," Nakia agrees, as Bucky's grip tightens abruptly on Sharon's. "But you are here now. Shuri, will you be keeping her there long enough for me to come, or should I wait at the Citadel?"

"It depends," Shuri says, brightly, and Nakia gives her an exasperated look. "Then I shall be right there. Do not let them leave."

"See you," Shuri says, and ends the call, which is probably just as well because Sharon is squeezing Bucky's hand back and tipping her head back to try and see his face.

"I'm fine," she murmurs, then adjusts, since she actually has no idea. "I feel fine. Walking around and everything."

"We'll let the princess be the judge of that," Bucky informs her. "But I'll agree you look a lot better than when you got here."

"That is certainly true," Shuri agrees, bustling over to a table and returning with some sort of metal wand which she begins running over Sharon's body, in the air, her eyes on her tablet.

Sharon opens her mouth, then rethinks what she was going to say, remembering how Bucky had looked when she opened her eyes. "How bad was it?" she asks, with some trepidation.

"If T'Challa hadn't been there, you would have died," Bucky tells her. He keeps his tone gentle, but there's nothing he can do about the bleak shadows in his eyes.

"If they hadn't brought you to Wakanda, you wouldn't have made it. Even at that, it's a miracle you lived long enough to reach Shuri. Without Wakandan technology, you wouldn't have."

Well, she'd thought she'd been dying. It doesn't feel great to be proved right.

Sharon blows out a breath and holds onto his hand. "I'm sorry, baby," she murmurs, watching him as Shuri continues whatever it is she's doing. "I'm so sorry I scared you."

"You saved Nakia," he replies, just as quietly. "I'm putting the blame on Klaue, where it belongs."

Bucky takes a deep breath and squeezes her hand. "But please try not to get shot again, okay?"

"Good advice," Shuri agrees, brightly. "I will not always be there. There!" She steps back and casts the image from her tablet into the air so that Sharon can see. On one side, her form shows all the damage from her arrival scan marked in orange - and on the other, it shows the current state, with no signs of injury or scarring at all.

Sharon looks at the original image and blanches, her free hand instinctively lifting to rub at her back.

"That's incredible," she murmurs. "It shouldn't be possible."

Shuri beams at her. "It is here."

Bucky squeezes her hand again, trying to reassure her. "Princess Shuri's pretty good at the impossible," he says, dryly. "She was already well on the way to getting the controls out of my head before Tony got here. She's the reason I'm free."

"Mr. Stark helped," Shuri points out. Bucky shrugs. "You did it together."

Edited 2022-04-01 20:41 (UTC)

"Then I owe you twice," Sharon says. "And I didn't get to say it when it happened, so thank you, for that."

Her fingers are tight in Bucky's. "That was the best call I've ever gotten."

"No, you do not," Shuri says, firmly. "I was able to help, and I was glad to. Besides--"

She flashes a quick bright grin at Bucky.

"--I enjoy a challenge, and he certainly presented me with that."

He huffs a soft breath of laughter. "Least I could do."

"I guess we both have," Sharon says, and grins up at him before she looks back at the princess.

"So how's everything look, doctor? Will I ever play the violin again?"

Edited 2022-04-01 21:29 (UTC)

Shuri lets out a delighted laugh. "Not if you never did before!" she teases right back, and looks at Bucky. "Oh, I like her."

"I do too," Nakia says, as she comes around the curve of the corridor and into the main room, Everett Ross trailing behind her. Bucky squeezes Sharon's hand once more, then lets go and steps to the side so that Nakia can sweep past him and hug her friend. "Don't you ever scare me like that again."

"I thought he said you could work miracles?" Sharon says, grinning, right before Nakia sweeps her into a hug. She stands to hug her friend back, fierce.

Her memory is a little fuzzy, but seeing that man in the mask aiming at Nakia... it's not something she's ever going to forget. "Don't get shot at, then," she murmurs, but she really can't tease about it. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"You, too," Nakia tells her, almost fiercely, and hugs her again.

Behind them, Bucky and Ross trade a look before Bucky tips his head back and to the side, indicating that the other man should feel free to approach Sharon. Ross circles around to where she can see him and clears his throat.

"Carter," he says, gruffly. "You're looking a lot better."

"Thank you, sir." Her emotions are still so raw that she almost hugs him, too; she's so grateful to see his gruff, familiar face.

And the fact that he's here means he refused to let them take her without him. A wave of affection washes through her for her grumpy boss. "I feel a lot better."

She remembers his voice, the orders to keep breathing, to stay alive, and she knows he must have been as worried as she's ever seen him. "It's really good to see you."

Ross jerks his head in a nod of agreement. "Just so you know, you were the only serious injury," he tells her. "Martinez took some cuts from glass when the window blew out, and people are generally pissed off, but most everyone managed to duck and cover."

Bucky, watching silently and intently from the side, finds that he has to stifle a smile as Ross adds, dryly, "Maybe I'll send you back through training on how to do that."

"When did this turn into a performance review?" Sharon wants to know, but there's no heat in it.

"Come on. Like you wouldn't have done the same thing in a heartbeat."

Shuri comes around to tug at Bucky's arm. "Show them the sitting room," she suggests, under her breath. "You are certainly familiar enough with it, and how to access the kitchen stocks there."

He manages to choke back a wry laugh. He certainly is, with how many different types of snacks they'd ended up getting from there for Tony and how long he and Steve had spent there. "On it," he promises her.

"Good. I will tell my brother, and come to join you once I know."

Bucky nods and raises his voice. "Okay, everyone. Come with me. Give the princess her lab back."

Sharon takes his hand again as Shuri gestures them out, and goes where he leads them, Nakia and Ross walking along with them.

"So..." she starts, and glances between Nakia and Bucky. "Not a poor third-world country."

"No," Nakia replies, smiling, and says nothing more. Bucky's own smile is quick and bright.

"No," he agrees. "Probably the richest and most advanced country in the entire world. You've seen a little of the technology, but as for resources, just to give you an idea..."

He tips his head toward the windows they're walking past. "That's a vibranium mine," he tells her. "We're inside Mount Bashenga. The entire mountain's made of vibranium."

Sharon stops dead, which tugs at his hand as he keeps moving. "Mountain? The entire mountain?"

She turns to look back out the window, her mind spinning, trying to comprehend.

It's a little like car tires spinning in snow. She's still not quite up to her usual snuff.

Ross starts to say something, only for Nakia to shake her head at him. "Give her a moment," she murmurs. "You at least had smaller things to experience first, and T'Challa's explanation."

Bucky stops when Sharon tugs at his hand, and goes to stand with her by the window. "The entire mountain," he murmurs. "They use it in everything. For everything. It's amazing what you can do with it - so much more than anyone else ever dreamed."

It doesn't take a genius to extrapolate why she's never heard of any of this, why Nakia never told her, why Bucky had been so evasive, why she wasn't allowed in the country.

"Got it," she murmurs, her eyes huge as she looks out onto the mountain's interior, lit with glowing blue. "And I can't tell anyone, right?"

"Right," he confirms, very quietly. "From what T'Challa told me before--"

He gives a quick look to Nakia, who nods, her expression grave.

"I was the first outsider that's been invited in for a long, long time. Centuries, I think. Then Steve and Tony - although invited's a stretch there. Now you, and Ross. That's it."

His expression hardens. "Klaue doesn't count. He sure as hell wasn't invited. And he's going to be stopped."

Sharon's expression hardens. "Yeah, about Klaue."

She turns to Ross. "What's the plan, sir?"

Bucky gives Ross a flat look, and Ross gives him a hard stare right back before he looks at Sharon.

"Wait for his Highness, Carter," he says. "The Task Force isn't running this op. The Wakandans have been after Klaue for a long time; we're going to be assisting, not leading."

She glances back and forth between them, frowning slightly, then nods, grateful that Ross hadn't tried to sideline her completely, that he hadn't brushed her aside.

"Okay," she says, simply, and looks up at Bucky as her stomach growls. "What was that Shuri said about a kitchen?"

"It's part of the sitting room. Waiting room. Lounge. Whatever you want to call it," Bucky says, and gives a tug at her hand to start her moving again. "And it's really well stocked. You wouldn't believe how fast Tony Stark can go through snacks."

Nakia pushes the door open into the comfortably appointed area with multiple chairs, tables, and couches, walls covered with Wakandan art on printed and woven fabrics, and a long counter with cabinets along one side of the room. Bucky lets go of Sharon's hand so that he can open a cabinet or two, showing their contents and including the hidden refrigerator cabinet, before he goes to start the coffee maker.

Edited 2022-04-01 22:59 (UTC)

Sharon looks through the cabinets and selects a package of dried mango slices, chewing on them as she looks around.

She still feels perfectly fine, but out of deference to Bucky and her friends, she soon takes a seat on one of the couches, watching as Bucky makes a pot of coffee, as Ross pauses in front of one of the prints, clasping his hands behind his back and frowning as he considers the art. "Tony must have been like a kid in a candy store in this place," she observes, thinking back on the lab they'd just left.

"He and Princess Shuri were swapping ideas before we even got out of the throne room that first day," Bucky tells her. He fixes a cup of coffee for Sharon and brings it over. "Sorry, no cinnamon."

Nakia smiles. "We can remedy that. For next time."

"It's okay," she says, and smiles up at him as she takes it.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He brushes a hand lightly over her hair, then looks a question at Nakia. "Coffee?"

She shakes her head and settles lightly on the couch beside Sharon as Bucky goes over to Ross. "How are you feeling?" Nakia asks, searching her face. "With everything. I truly wish to know."

"Honestly?"

Sharon sets the coffee in her lap and smooths a hand over the light fabric of the robe she's wearing, shaking her head. "Overwhelmed. Nakia, I really thought – "

She casts a quick glance Bucky's way and lowers her voice. "I really thought that was it," she murmurs. "When I woke up here I was sure it was just my brain having one last hallucinatory party."

She reaches for Sharon's hand and holds on. "I can understand that," Nakia murmurs. "It is a lot to take in."

Sharon curls her fingers around Nakia's. "But physically, I feel okay," she goes on.

"Tired. A little sore. But I've felt worse after a tough sparring round. It's pretty hard to wrap my head around."

"We have advancements in science here that are beyond anything the world has dreamed," Nakia agrees. "And Shuri is brilliant, an unparalleled genius. I am glad you are feeling better. Physically. The rest will come with time."

Her eyes sparkle with warmth. "I am so glad to be able to show you my home at last."

Edited 2022-04-01 23:21 (UTC)

"I can't believe you've kept this under your hat this whole time," Sharon teases. "I knew you were good with secrets, but come on!"

She lets go of Nakia's hand to put an arm around her friend's back. "And now you super owe me forever. Let's talk life debts."

Nakia lets out a bright peal of laughter. "We will have to update our running tally!" she teases.

The sound draws both Bucky's and Ross's attention from where they're standing by the coffee maker. Under his breath, Ross mutters, "You're sure she's okay? Really okay?"

"Yes." Bucky pours a cup of coffee for himself and passes Ross an empty mug for his own. "She is. I promise."

"So?" Sharon asks her, smiling as she lifts her arm away and nibbles on another mango slice. "Happy to be home?"

"Always," Nakia tells her, sobering a little. "There is nowhere else like Wakanda. I miss it greatly when I am away."

The place, and the people - especially certain people, and she meets Sharon's eyes in silent understanding.

Sharon gives her a small, pressed smile, and nods.

"I get it," she murmurs. "And I'm sure... Wakanda is very happy to have you back."

"For as long as I can stay, yes," she agrees. Her glance flickers toward Bucky, then back to Sharon.

"But I suspect you understand the choice."

Edited 2022-04-01 23:42 (UTC)

Her own glance lingers on Bucky, drinking him in. It's been so long since that day on the tarmac.

"Yeah," she says, quietly. Not that she had much of a choice before, but that's not really the point. She looks back at Nakia and deliberately lightens her tone. "Too bad. I was really hoping to have a queen in my friend circle."

Nakia laughs, and leans into her side for a moment. "You still might," she teases. "I have yet to introduce you to the Queen Mother."

Sharon chuckles, but her glance keeps returning to Bucky.

"Do you think T'Challa might let me stay for a little while?" she asks, not quite able to kill the wistful note in her voice.. She hates to do it, but Nakia is the one who understands best

"Yes," she says, firmly. "Now that you are here, yes."

Gently, she adds, "He has missed you, you know."

"I've missed him, too. Like crazy." She looks rueful. "I told him I'd find a way, but honestly this was not what I had in mind."

Not making him think she might die; not worrying her boss and her friends and requiring emergency evacuation to Shuri's table. Lifting her voice, she calls: "Hey, Barnes!"

Her smiling glance goes to Ross. "You, too, sir. Come on, there are plenty of seats."

"I should hope not," Nakia scolds, as Bucky trades a look with Ross and starts across the room. He takes a seat on the couch on the other side of Sharon, and Ross chooses one of the chairs for himself.

"Should I ask?" Bucky drawls, looking back and forth between the two women.

"Just catching up," Sharon says, and reaches for his hand. She's starving for his touch, but she contents herself with lacing their fingers together for the moment.

"Did Shuri say T'Challa was going to come down?"

"She said she would call him," Bucky says, and looks at Nakia, who looks grave.

"He may be with the Council. Or with General Okoye," she says, and Ross immediately looks like he's bitten into a lemon. "I didn't know she was a general," he mutters. "No one mentioned that."

Nakia smiles, a little, before she continues. "Not everyone is happy about the presence of outsiders here, already. It will be worse when more realize that foreign intelligence operatives are among them. Not to mention that there is ... much unhappiness, that Klaue escaped."

"I can see why it might not have been a very popular decision," Sharon says, wry.

But T'Challa is a good man. He wouldn't have let her just die. "But I really appreciate that he made the call that he did."

"As am I," Nakia says, as Bucky's hand tightens on Sharon's. "And he has already defended it, and will continue to do so. It was the right thing to do."

Bucky realizes something, and glances at Sharon. "I mentioned that friend of his, before," he says. "W'Kabi. He's also the leader of the Border Tribe. Having Steve and Tony cross the way they did was kind of a slap in the face. And..."

He trades a look with Nakia, who nods, and Bucky finishes, "Klaue was the one who killed his family. So I'd expect he's pretty unhappy right about now."

"I guess he would be," Sharon murmurs, and looks at Ross.

"Maybe he'll be inclined to think a little more highly of us if we help catch Klaue again?"

Ross nods, jaw set. "Not that we wouldn't anyway, but can't hurt."

"At the very least, combining your intel will help," Bucky observes.

"Still," Sharon says. "What a way to kick off T'Challa's reign."

It's a good thing he's popular with the people.

"It is not ideal, but no good thing comes easy," Nakia says. "And besides--"

"Besides, what?" Shuri asks, bouncing into the room. "Something interesting, I hope." She drops into the first chair she reaches.

"Politics," Nakia tells her, and Shuri grimaces. Bucky swallows a laugh.

Sharon laughs at the expression on the princess's face.

"Definitely not as interesting as the stuff you get up to here in the lab, seems like."

"Much more boring," Shuri agrees. "Better my brother than me. I am too busy for all those meetings."

Bucky fights to control his expression, but laughter dances in his eyes.

"The it is just as well you are not invited to them," comes a mild voice from the door, where King T'Challa stands, hands clasped at his back, a small smile on his face as he looks at Sharon. "Agent Carter. It is good to see you up and about."

Sharon stands, automatic, though she doesn't let go of Bucky's hand. "Your Highness," she says, and finds that words fail her. They clog in her throat, none of them enough.

"Thank you," is all she can say, after a moment. "You and your sister saved my life. I can't ever thank you enough."

T'Challa gestures for her to resume her seat. "You saved Nakia," he counters. "So I am happy that we were able to help."

Bucky squeezes Sharon's hand.

She sits down, her leg pressed warmly against Bucky's, her fingers still laced in his.

"She's well worth saving," she says, lightly, and gives Nakia a small, crooked smile, which her friend returns before Sharon looks back at T'Challa. "I hope we aren't interrupting anything," she says. "And congratulations on the coronation."

"Thank you," T'Challa murmurs. He strolls into the room, passing behind Shuri, and takes a seat of his own across from them. "I wanted to see for myself how you were doing," he says, ignoring his sister's impatient huff, "and to suggest that you, Agent Carter, and you, Deputy Commander Ross, join me and General Okoye tomorrow morning to discuss the problem of Ulysses Klaue."

Bucky goes absolutely still, and stays silent.

"Of course," Sharon says, as Ross nods. She can feel Bucky's stillness beside her, and squeezes his hand gently.

"You know my stance on this already," Ross tells T'Challa. "The Task Force – by which I mean Agent Carter and myself, here – is ready and willing to assist you in apprehending Klaue, by whatever means necessary."

"I appreciate that," T'Challa says, gravely. Nakia studies him for signs of strain, and finds more than she would like.

Something has been troubling him since they returned from Busan. Certainly there is a great deal that could be troublesome, as she had just been telling Sharon, but she thinks that there is something more. Still, if he is not willing to talk about it yet, there is very little she can do to draw it from him save to wait, watch, and be ready to listen.

Tomorrow morning. For all she wants to make sure she knows what's happening, she's just as happy for it to actually happen after she's had a little time to adjust.

Apparently Shuri is thinking along the same lines. "Do not strain my patient!" she says, whacking at her brother, who is far enough away that Shuri's fingertips barely brush his arm. "She still needs rest."

"I thought you said you fixed her?" T'Challa says, a glint of mischief in his eyes, and Shuri tsks at him.

"I did," she says, with perfect certainty. "But that does not mean I want her running around after criminals just yet."

"Hear that?" Bucky drawls. "Don't get shot again. It'll upset the princess."

Ross snorts.

"Well, there goes my big plan to get shot again," Sharon says, dry, and makes a face at him.

"Good," Bucky says, and this time Nakia laughs.

"I don't think anyone is in danger of being shot today," she observes. "But as Shuri says, you still need rest. Should we all return to the Citadel? You have not even seen anything of Wakanda yet except the lab."

The Citadel. Sounds fancy. "Yeah," Sharon says. "Okay, that sounds good. I should probably find my, um, clothes at some point, too."

Not that this robe isn't comfortable, but she's not sure she wants to be walking around in it for too long, especially if there's the possibility of meeting other people.

"Not those clothes." Bucky fails to offer any other explanation than that, and Shuri rolls her eyes at him.

"What the sergeant meant to say is that your old clothes were ruined," she explains. "I have things you can wear from here."

"And I have already arranged replacements for you in your rooms," Nakia finishes.

"Oh," Sharon says. "'Kay."

Ruined. She grimaces slightly, but what's she going to do about it? "Those sound great. Both."

"Come with me," Nakia says, standing. "I will show you where to change."

"Here," Bucky says, before Sharon can follow her. He pulls Sharon's phone from his pocket and hands it over. "You'll want this."

She takes her phone from him with a small smile. "Thanks," she murmurs, and follows Nakia back out of the lounge area

"If you are all heading back, then I will leave you to it," Shuri says. "I have work to do on my new gauntlet design."

She dashes a mischievous look at Bucky. "Perhaps I will incorporate parts of it into your new arm, when you are ready."

Ross makes a small choking sound. "She's making you a vibranium arm?"

Bucky opens his mouth to answer, but Shuri beats him to it with a loud sniff. "Of course I am! What else should I make it from?"

Her shirt definitely is ruined, but she pulls out her jeans and ankle boots and gives Nakia a sad look until her friend laughs. "I will have them washed and returned to you," she promises, and offers Sharon a light sleeveless jumpsuit in a geometric pattern and a pair of sandals, both of which Sharon takes gratefully.

A few minutes later, they return to the group, chatting lightly about the places in the city where Nakia likes to shop when she's home. Sharon slips her hands into the pockets of the airy jumpsuit and smiles at them all. "Ready?"

The three men stand as they return to the room, and Shuri laughs and hops to her feet as well. “So polite,” she teases. T’Challa sighs. “Shuri.”

She wrinkles her nose at him and puts a gentle hand on Bucky’s arm. “Come back soon. I will have things for you to test,” she promises.

He nods and she bounces off to Nakia and Sharon. Ross moves closer to Bucky and asks under his breath, “Things to test?”

Bucky slants a look at him, but recognizes the signs of someone fascinated by the near-impossible tech rather than trying to poke him for intel. The corner of his mouth turns up in a wry smile. “Stuff like you wouldn’t believe. You know she was driving that car in Busan? From here. Holographic remote control.”

Ross stares at him, then breathes out a laugh. “God, what I wouldn’t give to try something like that myself.”

It's nice to see Bucky and Ross chatting a little more easily, though there's clearly still some tension between them. She smiles and comes to join them in time to hear the last part.

"No way," she laughs. "All the way from here? That's insane."

“The remote-driven car in Busan,” Bucky explains to Nakia and T’Challa. Nakia laughs. “But it is true,” she promises. “Okoye placed the control disc herself.”

Bucky nods. “I was in the passenger seat. Heck of a ride.”

"Now I really wish I'd caught up with you when you guys split from the casino," Sharon tells Nakia.

“Oh, that car was for T’Challa,” Nakia says, flashing a smile at him. She comes to loop her arm through Sharon’s and starts leading her out the door, Shuri having already vanished down the corridor to the main lab.

“He had to catch up. Our car was vibranium.”

Ross makes another strangled sound. “That car? All of that was vibranium, just scattered about?”

“We reclaimed the parts,” T’Challa says, mildly. “We have some experience with this kind of thing, you must understand.”

"I guess you must be."

She still feels pretty overwhelmed, but Nakia's covering for her and she loves her friend a little more for it. It lets her look around with wide eyes as they leave the lab and make their way to the train platform, where a sleek maglev train is swooping in just as they arrive.

"And I thought Europe had a good system," she mutters to Ross.

“So did I. Until yesterday. Look,” Ross tells her. He points out the window of the train at the gleaming poles that lean in and out as other trains pass. “They’re transporting raw vibranium on those. And those glowing things are sonic stabilizers.” He glances at her, a little sheepish. “I asked a lot of questions.”

Bucky leans against the wall by T’Challa as the train begins to move. “I hope you’re having fun,” he murmurs, low and wry. “With as much trouble as we’ve brought you.”

“It is not that much trouble,” T’Challa says, firmly. His smile flashes for an instant. “And I must admit, it is a lot of fun to see how you all react.”

Ross points out the various areas of his own interest and Sharon listens as Nakia tells her about the mountain and its history, then blinks and lifts a hand to shade her eyes as the train streaks out of the mountainside and into a brilliant blue-sky day.

"Wow," she breathes, as her eyes adjust and she can see over the sun-soaked grasslands. There's a herd of antelope bounding away into the wide sprawl of Wakanda's lands on one side of the train, and what looks like a city sprung from a science fiction novel on the other. She's never in her life seen anything like it.

“Birnin Zana,” T’Challa says. “The Golden City. And there, that is the Citadel, my family’s home for generations.”

“This would be why I never showed you the view from the window,” Bucky says, dryly.

"Yeah, I'm realizing that."

The train curves towards the Citadel, covering ground at an impossibly fast, smooth speed. Nakia points out the details of the city as they come into view, how greenery is everywhere, how the skyscrapers use thatch and other traditional building materials in their designs.

"I will take you into it later," Nakia promises her. "The markets are especially fun to walk around."

Ross is listening to Nakia just as intently as Sharon is. Bucky looks at T’Challa, and finds him watching Nakia.

“She has wanted to do this for a long time,” T’Challa murmurs. “She believes we should do more in the outside world.” He glances at Bucky. “Your Captain Rogers said much the same. What do you say?”

Bucky breathes in and out, slow and careful. “That you could do a lot of good, but that there are and have always been good reasons for your secrets, too,” he murmurs. “So if you were going to change any of that, you’d likely want to be careful about how you do it.”

Everywhere she looks, the past and present and plans for the future are evident, from the materials used to the designs to the techniques leveraged to bring them to life.

"It's beautiful," she says, wholehearted and without hesitation when Nakia asks her what she thinks. "It's the most incredible place I've ever seen."

Her friend beams, joy a warm lamp behind her eyes. "Yes," she agrees. "I think so, too."

T’Challa gives a thoughtful nod and says nothing more, and Bucky doesn’t push. He straightens from his position against the wall as the train begins its long arc toward the Citadel platform.

“I must meet with Okoye,” T’Challa says. “Nakia?”

"I will show Sharon to her room," Nakia says, and smiles at her. "As much as I would like to show you more, Shuri is correct; you should rest. There is time. But after, I may go into the city."

"I'd like to see the city, myself," Ross says, surprising another smile out of Nakia. "If you wouldn't mind company."

"I would not," Nakia tells him, pleased. "I welcome it."

“Then I will see you later,” T’Challa says, as the train comes to a stop and the doors slide open, whisper-quiet. “All of you.”

“Your Highness,” Ross agrees, with a nod of farewell. Bucky also nods, and moves to Sharon’s other side.

Sharon eyes the women in armor flanking the door as they go in, but Bucky seems relaxed and Nakia seems to barely notice them, except to smile at them as they pass.

"Dora Milaje," she explains, seeing Sharon's bemused expression. "The royal guard."

Sharon nods in understanding and takes to looking around once more as they walk through the building with its graceful halls, high ceilings, and wide windows.

“Remember Ayo and Mya from Berlin?” Bucky murmurs. “They’re Dora, too. Amazing skills. You’ll see.”

He stays near as they walk, but not so near as to make her feel crowded. Bucky looks at Ross. “Where’d they put you?”

“A really nice suite,” Ross says. “In, uh, the “fifth tribal wing,” whatever that means.”

For some reason, Nakia looks both wry and amused at that. "It is a very nice suite," she agrees, and glances at Sharon, a small smile playing around her lips.

"I think you will like yours as well."

Sharon shakes her head, huffing a laugh. "I'm sure I will," she says. "Everything else here is pretty amazing, so why wouldn't that be, too?"

“It is,” Bucky agrees, even as the glimmer of suspicion grows to near certainty as they make the turn into a very familiar hallway.

He glances at Nakia, who smiles innocently at him.

They arrive in front of a door with potted and vining greenery at either side – as most of the doors have, plant life seems to be everywhere – and Nakia shows her how to unlock it, then gestures her inside.

It's a small suite with a cozy living area whose windows take up most of one whole wall, offering a gorgeous overlook across Wakanda's countryside towards the city. Nakia takes her into the bedroom and shows her the ensuite with its luscious tub and rainfall shower, then the closet which she has had filled with clothes in Sharon's sizes.

All in all, the rooms are bright, cheery, and comfortable, and she has to say they're probably at least as nice as her apartment back in Berlin. "It's great," she tells a beaming Nakia. "Thank you, Nakia."

While Nakia shows her around, Bucky stays by the door with Ross. After a second or two, he asks, “Think you can find your way back here?”

“I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction,” Ross insists. Bucky watches him studying the hall, then sighs and relents. “Look,” he starts, and points out the patterns in the artwork that help to identify the level and wing where they are, explaining that each one has its unique design.

She and Nakia return to the door, and Ross clears his throat as he turns towards her. "Rest up, Carter," he tells her, gruff. "That's an order."

"Yes, sir," she says, her mouth twitching. "Enjoy your trip into the city."

Nakia laughs. "He will," she promises, and gives Sharon a hug. "I am so happy to have you here," she murmurs. "And that you are well."

Sharon hugs her back, tight. "Me too," she says, soft. "Thanks for everything."

“Thank you,” he says, simply, as Nakia pulls back. Her answering smile sparkles with amusement.

“You are welcome. We will see you later,” she tells him - tells them, and turns to Ross. “Come with me.”

Bucky looks at Sharon as they depart. “I should leave you to rest,” he murmurs, reluctantly. “But I won’t be far.”

She gives him a faintly disbelieving look.

"How far is not far?" she asks, even though it's about to be a moot point.

He smiles, and nods to the side to indicate direction.

“Next door.”

She realizes what happened in the next second and laughs, shaking her head at the departed Nakia before she steps forward to tug at his shirt.

"Show me your room," she suggests, smiling more.

He laughs, a soft huff of breath, and takes her hand to lead her out her door and the few steps needed to his own.

Bucky opens it onto an apartment that's styled very similarly to hers, but which has obviously had a person living there for a few weeks. Several books are evident in different places - one on the table by the armchair, itself next to its lamp by the window, a few more lined up neatly against the wall on the counter.

The blinds are open, letting in the view of the landscape and the city beyond. The bedroom door is open, and the bed is made with military precision... and the purple throw is folded neatly across the pillows, as though it's a pillow itself.

She looks around, running the fingers of her free hand lightly over the armchair and the books next to it, then looks at the purple throw, folded there over his pillow.

"Nice room," she murmurs, and turns to look at him for a long moment, the look in her eyes warm and complex and happy, before she lets go of his hand and steps in to put her arms around his neck, hugging him close.

"Ah god, baby--"

One arm goes around her waist and the other beneath the swell of her hips as he lifts her off her feet, pressing her against him. He tips his head to kiss her, deep and seeking and a little desperate.

She shifts in his arms to wrap her legs around him and cradles his face in her hands, kissing him over and over, driving her fingers into his hair. "Bucky," she murmurs, against his mouth.

"I missed you so much."

"Yes," he whispers, and kisses her again. "So much. Every day," he tells her, between kisses, as he carries her toward the bedroom.

"I'd see you on that screen, and wish I could just reach through it, and--"

He keeps his arm tight around her waist for support and raises his right hand to her cheek. His fingers are trembling as he brushes them over her skin, then pushes her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. Bucky curves his hand over the nape of her neck and kisses her again.

It's been so long and so much has happened, and she almost died yesterday without having seen him again. Her breath catches and her eyes close, her expression almost sore as his shaking fingers brush gently over her cheek and tuck her hair back over her ear, the way she'd imagined so many times.

She can't keep her eyes closed, has to open them to drink him in, adoring and more than a little desperate as she kisses him back. "Every day," she tells him back. "I never stopped thinking about you. God, I wanted to teleport here somehow, be right next to you, wake up and see you – "

She kisses him again and again, shifts to kiss his jaw, his throat, driving her fingers into his hair and gripping.

He moans aloud as her fingers tighten in his hair, tipping his head back in response to her pull and giving her full access to his throat, shivering at the feel of her mouth on his skin.

Bucky reaches the foot of the bed and braces his knee on it, leaning over to lower her to the quilt, her hair spilling over his hand like a golden cloud.

"I need you," he whispers. "Sharon, baby, I need you."

"I'm here," she promises. "You have me. God, baby, when I woke up and saw you – "

It's all too overwhelming; she wraps her arms around his neck and draws him down with her as her back hits the mattress, finding his mouth for another kiss, deep and drowning.

He shudders, hard, and lets his weight press her down into the bed, kissing her over and over again.

"T'Challa called me from the flyer," he tells her, between kisses. "To tell me what had happened." As he talks, his hand finds the fastening of the jumpsuit and he begins to tease it open. "I asked to see you, and he showed me. You were so badly hurt, baby, I thought--"

He stops there to kiss her again, wild and wanting.

She cradles his face in her hands and kisses him back, over and over. "I know," she murmurs. "I thought so too, back in Korea."

In the few coherent thoughts she had after being hit. "All I wanted was to be able to see you again. Somehow."

And, miracle of miracles, she had. And so much more – she's fine, absolutely fine. A little tired, but there's nothing left of the pain or fear or weakness. She wriggles beneath him, shoving the straps of the jumpsuit off her shoulders and down over her arms before she reaches for his shirt, tugging it towards his head. "Baby, please – "

"Yes," he promises, and lifts up enough to let her strip the shirt over his head, throwing it aside. "Anything. Everything. Anything you want of me, baby, yes."

Bucky pulls her jumpsuit the rest of the way down and slides it over her hips, then down her legs and off, dropping it to the floor.

She makes a low, wanting sound and reaches to undo his pants, pushing them over his hips and down toward his feet.

"You," she says, and presses her mouth to his throat, where his pulse is jumping. "I need you."

He draws a harsh, shaking breath at the touch of her lips, then kicks the last of his clothes off and pulls back so he can lean down and kiss her again.

"You have me," he promises, when the kiss breaks, each word low and rough with desire. "I'm yours."

Bucky kisses her again, then trails more kisses back along her jawline and down her throat as he curves his right hand over her body, petting and stroking.

"Baby," Sharon gasps. "Baby, baby – "

She pushes her head back into the purple throw, enveloped in him, his scent all around her, and runs one hand into his hair, the other down along the long beautiful line of his back. She can't stop stroking and touching him, touch-starved and needy.

Beneath his lips on her skin, her pulse is flying, beating strong and quick, leaving her flushed and breathless and shivering.

"Yes," he murmurs. He's almost dizzy, intoxicated by her, wanting to hear more of her breathless cries, to feel her arching against him. Bucky kisses the side of her throat, feeling her heartbeat rapid against his lips, then finds the spot at the curve of neck and shoulder that she likes so well and draws on it, working her skin with his tongue.

As he does, he runs his hand over the curve of her breast, teasing her nipple with his thumb, then back down along her side to the swell of her hip and lower. He cups the center of her and tweaks the sensitive bud between his fingers, circling and pressing.

She moans as he finds that spot at the curve of her shoulder with his mouth and shakes with a small cry as he teases her with his fingers. Running her palms down over his shoulders and chest, she spreads her fingers wide over his ribs and circles over his nipples with the pads of her thumbs, then strokes one hand down his side to his hip.

"Yes," she breathes, and slips her fingers between his legs to stroke along his length. "Bucky, yes."

He groans, pushing into her hand, into her touch. "Take me in," he murmurs, placing sweet, deliberate kisses like a strand of pearls across her neck to the other side and finding the mirror spot there to kiss, trying to drive her wild.

"Take all of me."

She shivers, her heart fluttering, and shifts beneath him to bend her knees and open for him, guiding him to herself until he's slipping in and she can curve her hand at his hip instead. "Come here, baby," she murmurs, and threads her other fingers up into his hair, nudging her cheek against his head as she rocks her hips up against him.

"Have all of me back."

He draws on her with his lips as he presses into her, then raises his head and finds her mouth with his as he does it again, finding their rhythm, rocking back and forth with her.

"Sharon," he murmurs between kisses, raw and uneven and with his whole heart in each word. "My sunshine, my sweetheart, mine. And I'm yours. I'm yours."

"Yours," she echoes, breathless. "As long as you want me. All yours, baby. Every part of me."

She winds her leg with his and wraps her arm around his back as shivers rush through her, over and over, as they stoke the fire that's been banked for too long. "My sweet man," she murmurs, her kisses deep and desperate. "God, I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

"Always," he promises, and kisses her again and again as she tangles herself with him, as he runs his hand over her body, caressing every sensitive place.

"And good. Don't. Stay with me, as long as you can," he tells her, and kisses her again, fierce and wanting, pressing deep and starting to move faster. "Stay. I've missed you so much, baby."

"I will, I – oh – "

Words begin to fracture as he moves faster, pushes them further, as pleasure ripples through her. "I want to be with you, I want to stay... Bucky, please – "

His name is a low cry as she pushes her face into the crook of his neck, clinging to him as she rocks up beneath him like waves rolling toward shore. Every overwhelmed feeling, every moment of missing him, has her hands running over his body, has her kissing him with every ounce of longing she's felt over these long, long weeks.

Each soft cry and breathless sound lashes through him like fire, setting him alight from the inside out. He wraps his arms around her, holding her tight, keeping her close as he drives deep into her warmth, becoming as near to one as two people can be.

It can't last, no matter how much she wants it to. He feels too good and she's too overwhelmed, every nerve lighting like she's feeling each touch for the first time. She doesn't know if it's her near-death experience or her newly rebuilt spinal cord or his touches and kisses that are driving her wild, but she's soon cresting the wave of pleasure as it rushes through her.

Every muscle tightens, every nerves lights, tingling and sparkling, as she cries out and allows herself to ride the edge, as she squeezes him and grips her fingers into his hair, hard and firm, trying to bring him with her.

He holds himself back, wanting her to reach her pleasure first, but then she cries out and tightens around him and pulls his hair and he's lost, lost and falling over the edge with her into the wild storm of ecstasy with a hoarse, raw cry of his own.

Shivering in her arms, he clings to her as she does to him, cradling her close, unwilling to let her go.

She pants for breath, holding him tight, and presses her face into the crook of his shoulder, breathing him in with deep gulps of air.

"Oh my god," she says, a lightly hysterical giggle in her voice. "I really needed that."

He turns, bringing her with him as he rolls onto his back, and kisses her hair.

"Makes two of us," he murmurs.

She settles onto his chest and makes a soft contented sound as his mouth presses into her hair.

"I meant it, you know," she murmurs, drawing light patterns on his skin with her fingertips. "I already asked Nakia if she thought I could stay for a while."

His arms tighten around her, just a little.

"What did she say?"

Sharon props her chin on her hand and smiles at him, infinitely sweet.

"She said yes," she tells him. "She thinks T'Challa will let me stay a while."

He slides his right hand up into her hair and kisses her, fierce and a little desperate.

"Then stay," he whispers, when it breaks. "I know it's not fair to ask. You have a job, you have a life, and I -- I shouldn't ask, but. Stay. For a little while. Please."

I know you understand that choice, Nakia had said, and oh, she does. She could never stay here forever, not when there's so much good work to do out in the world, but that's not what he's asking.

"Baby," she murmurs, and kisses him again. "I will. I'll stay as long as I can. It broke my heart to let you go that day."

She pulls back and smiles, reaching a hand to run her fingers along the curve of his face like she'd wanted to do so often, caressing the edge of her phone instead. "Besides, between Busan and Siberia and the Red Room, I'm pretty sure I can take a solid chunk of time off work. Ross might even make it mandatory."

He tips his face into her touch, his eyes half-closing before he opens them again, needing to see her.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again," he murmurs. "I wasn't going to give up. But."

"You would have," she promises. "We would have found a way. Somehow."

She runs her fingers gently through his hair, toying with the tips. "It would have been a bummer not to see you for a year or two, though."

"I wasn't going to ask you to wait, either."

He studies her face like he's trying to memorize her, feeling that if he doesn't she might vanish.

"But you're here now. You're here. And alive."

His arms tighten again.

"I'm here."

She lifts her hand from his hair and reaches back between her shoulder blades, finding only smooth skin. There's not a scar or even a pucker that she can feel.

"I think that was the most scared I've ever been," she says, softly. "And I couldn't do anything about it at all."

He covers her hand with his, tracing lightly over the spot where she was wounded. "Does it still hurt any?"

"Not even a little."

She lifts her hand away and lets him touch the spot. "Do you see anything there? I can't feel any scarring at all."

"There isn't any." He places his hand flat over where the wound had been.

"I know. Shuri let me assist. I was afraid to leave you, and she let me stay."

She breathes into his hand, feeling her heart beat, feeling the blood move, feeling her lungs expand, and smiles at him, warm and sweet.

"No wonder I feel so good," she murmurs. "You take such good care of me, baby."

Sharon presses a kiss to his chest and leans her cheek for a moment on the same spot, feeling his heart steady and strong beneath, before she looks up again. "Thank you for staying with me. I'm sure it wasn't easy."

He shakes his head, very gently. "All Shuri. I owe her anything she ever asks for from now until the end of time. T'Challa, too."

Bucky tangles his fingers in her hair, feeling the silky texture of it.

"You and me both."

She tips her head into his touch, thinking of how he'd murmured about her hair the night after his procedure and smiling at the memory. "Still like silk?"

"Uh-huh." He draws his fingers slowly through the sun-bright locks, then does it again.

Her hair slips through his fingers as he draws them through, falling light as dandelion fluff on her shoulders and back and on his chest, the waves loosening which each pull of his fingers through them.

"It feels nice," she says, smiling still. "I love how your fingers feel in my hair."

"I do, too," he murmurs, then cradles the back of her head as he leans up to give her a sweet, lingering kiss.

She kisses him back, then shifts along his body to bracket his head with her elbows, letting her hair ripple down around them like a waterfall of gold.

"Kiss me again," she demands, teasing. "Don't stop yet."

Edited 2022-04-02 21:03 (UTC)

His smile is warm and bright as sunlight.

"Okay," Bucky murmurs, and draws her down to him for kiss after kiss after kiss.

Her laugh bubbles up as she kisses him back... and back... and back.

She lets herself drown in him, in all the touches and caresses she's missed so much, in his warmth and sweetness. "You're so sweet," she murmurs, and kisses him again. "My sweetheart."

"Yours," he promises, and kisses her back. Bucky draws his fingers through her hair once more, and curves his left hand over her hip, then slowly traces along her back with a feather-light touch.

She leans down to press a kiss into the side of his throat.

"Yours," she murmurs back, engraving the promise like a tattoo on his skin.

He groans deep in his chest and draws a shaking breath.

"Baby."

"Oh, how I missed that," she smiles, and kisses him again, then lightly bites at the muscle of his neck, just scraping his skin with the edges of her teeth.

He can feel his body responding even as he says, "I was going to let you rest."

Bucky strokes his metal hand up and down her back, shivering at the sensation of her teeth on his skin.

"I'm resting," she says, and shivers as his cool metal fingers run along her flushed bare skin. She presses a few more kisses along the line of his neck, then bites a little harder at the crook before laving the spot with another kiss.

"I'm lying down and everything."

"Uh-huh," he says, laughter in his voice. "Sure you are."

His breath catches at the sweet, sensuous bite, and shudders out in another laugh. "I think you're trying to drive me crazy."

Edited 2022-04-02 21:52 (UTC)

"Wow. That seems like a very serious charge, Sergeant Barnes."

God, she loves hearing that laugh in his voice after so many weeks of wistfulness. She works her way back up along his neck and runs the edge of her teeth delicately over the thin shell of his ear. "Sounds like I should go back to my room and leave you alone."

He shudders at each touch, curving both arms over her waist.

"Can I convince you to stay, instead?"

"Well, I don't know," she murmurs, smiling into his skin.

"Can you?"

"Good question," he teases. "Let's find out."

Bucky rolls them both over, bracing with his left arm as he does to make sure he doesn't rest his weight too heavily on her, then takes her mouth in a slow, thorough kiss.

She grins and winds her arms around his neck, sinking her fingers into his hair and drawing them through in slow caresses.

"I'm a very tough sell," she tells him, but she can't even say it with a straight face, just dissolves into giggles as she kisses him again.

"Is that so?" He blinks at her, trying to look innocent. "I'll just have to do my best and hope that's enough."

He lays his left hand against her cheek and kisses her again, lingering over the taste of her mouth, then slowly trails cool metal fingers along her throat and over her collarbone as he keeps kissing her.

She shivers, goosebumps lifting in the wake of his cool metal fingers.

"You're a menace," she tells him, arching up into his touch. "An absolute menace."

"Who, me?"

Just as slowly, just as deliberately, he brings his hand down to her upper chest, then cups her breast, and kisses her again as he rolls her nipple between thumb and forefinger.

She gasps and arches again beneath him as he teases her still-sensitive skin, the cool metal of his fingers soothing the nerves that leap confusedly to life once more.

"Bucky," she murmurs, and kisses him again, deep and drugged.

"I'm here," he whispers back, and kisses her once more before he pulls away with a smile.

"Lie back and rest, baby. I'll take care of you," he tells her, and lowers his head to trace kisses along the line of her throat, working his way lower with deliberate care as he keeps teasing her with his fingers.

"You always do."

Always. In every possible way. She'd been independent for so long that she'd forgotten how nice it is to let someone just take of her, just because they want to.

She threads her fingers into his hair as he kisses along her throat and tips her head back into the mussed purple throw to give him more space.

He takes his time, savoring each inch of her skin, the changing contours of neck and shoulder and upper chest. Bucky places kisses along her upper arm, learning the shape of her, before making his way back in, unhurried and thorough.

All the while, as he laves her with sweet, lazy kisses, his left hand continues to caress her, moving from her breast and across her belly with slow, teasing strokes, going lower and lower still before stopping short of her center and drifting back up again.

She makes a slightly strangled sound and laughs, tipping her hips up on reflex as his hand drifts away again.

"Now who's teasing?" she asks, but she loves every second of it, every slow, sweet kiss and deliberate caress. "I feel like I get to learn you all over again," she adds, running her hands over his hair and down along his neck and shoulders.

She's not too keen on the absence part beforehand, but there's a lot to be said for reunions.

"You do," he promises. "We both do. And it's only teasing if I don't follow through."

His hand moves down again, hovers, and then strokes delicately along her inner thigh as he says, "...eventually."

Sharon shivers and trembles and laughs.

"Menace," she says, deeply affectionate, and laughs again.

He smiles, quick and bright, and leans up to give her a deep, drugging kiss before he pulls away again and bends down to capture her breast with his mouth, drawing deep and fluttering his tongue over her nipple while he cups the back of her thigh with cool metal fingers.

Sharon arches up, pressing into his mouth, and slides her foot up the sheets to brace it on the mattress as his metal hand curls around the back of her thigh.

"I guess you really did miss me," she teases, before a slick of his tongue sends her pushing her head back into the pillows with a moan.

He hums assent into her skin, tracing each changing texture of her with the tip of his tongue and the press of his lips before he draws back slowly to the very tip, then pulls off and says, "Every day. Every night. Every morning. Always."

He draws his fingers over her thigh down to the back of her knee, then her ankle, then slowly and steadily back up again, going higher and higher as he switches to take her other breast in his mouth, giving it the same focused attention and care.

"Me too," she whispers, and makes a small sound as he captures her other breast in his mouth. The combination of his warm lips and tongue and cool metal fingers send competing sensations racing through her, leaving her trembling and wanting.

"All the time. If I hadn't been able to talk to you at night, I think I'd have gone crazy."

"I'd hang up the call, and I'd lie awake staring into the dark, and I'd wish..."

He shifts, leaning on his right elbow so that he can cup her breast with that hand, teasing one nipple with warm fingers and the other with his tongue.

As he does, he traces the fingers of his left hand over the delicate folds of her opening, barely touching, just enough to send sensation shivering through her without doing more.

Sharon groans and rocks beneath him, trying not to push too much for more until he plans to give it.

But it's sweet torture, what he's doing to her. She pushes her knee out, offering herself up to him without even a hint of reluctance. "All I wanted was for it to be real," she says, her breath coming faster now. "To wake up and see you there instead of my phone on the pillow."

Edited 2022-04-02 23:23 (UTC)

"It's real now," he promises, and as he does he pinches her nipple and slides two fingers into her at the same exact moment.

"Bucky – " she gasps, her body lifting off the mattress as she presses up against him, his fingers sending a shock of pleasure through her stiffened, tender nipple and up through her core. "Ah – "

Her body responds to him just as eagerly as during the rush of earlier, the sensations now more luxurious and complex. She closes her eyes and surrenders herself to them, her heart fluttering in her chest. "God, baby."

"Yes, sweetheart," he murmurs. He shifts again so that he can soothe her nipple with kisses and the caress of his tongue, putting his right arm under her for support as he cradles her close - and as he crooks his fingers within her, pressing in deep and out slow, stroking the spot deep inside while he circles his thumb on the bud of nerves at the apex of her thighs.

She runs trembling fingers through his hair and lightly digs blunted nails into the backs of his shoulders, flesh and metal alike.

"Mm," she sighs, rocking her hips gentle and slow, matching the pace he's setting with his fingers, each stroke sending waves of electricity through her. He's setting himself to slowly driving her crazy, and it's absolutely working.

He leans up and kisses her again as he works her with his hand. "You look so cute when you bite your lip," he murmurs, nibbling at it himself. "Did you know? You're so beautiful, baby. In every way."

She laughs, breathless, and finds that she bites her lip without meaning to, caught up in his teasing and touch.

"I love that you think that," she murmurs, her voice thready and thin as he continues to drive her out of her mind. "The way you looked at me when I put on that dress – "

"It's true." He kisses her again, this time more deeply, moving his hand just a little faster.

Sharon whimpers and pushes her head back, her hair spreading over the now impossibly rumpled purple throw.

"Baby," she breathes, sliding a shaking hand up the nape of his neck, curving it gently at the back of his head. "Please."

"Beautiful," he murmurs and kisses her again, as he abandons all teasing and does his best to tip her over the edge of passion into the long, sweet fall.

It's not long before his dedication overwhelms her entirely and she holds him tight as her climax washes through her again, muted and longer-lasting and perfect, leaving her a shivering mess in his arms. She presses kiss after trembling kiss to his mouth, his cheek, his shoulder, every part of him she can reach, then exhales, long and slow, her hands gentle on his back and at the nape of his neck.

He cups her gently once he withdraws his hand, petting her through the aftermath, then kisses her just as gently as he takes her in both arms and holds her close.

She makes a soft sound and mouth a kiss along his shoulder, then laughs, a little dopey.

"Okay," she murmurs. "That rest is starting to sound like a pretty good idea."

Bucky smiles at her.

"Do you want to stay here, or do you want me to come with you to your room?"

She makes a face at the thought of getting up and laughs silently.

"Here's good," she answers. "If you don't mind."

"Mind?" Bucky kisses her. "You've got a heck of a sense of humor sometimes, baby."

More seriously, he adds, "Stay. Please."

"Okay," she murmurs, a happy warmth lighting in her chest like a candle. "I'll stay."

She lifts a hand from his skin and touches the purple throw, her expression turning wistful. "I'm glad you had this with you. It meant a lot to me to know it was here."

"To me, too," he says, softly. "It was a big ask of you and Steve to get it, but I'm glad."

"I heard he brought your camera, too," she says, and strokes her fingers along the soft wool of the throw before resting her hand lightly on his arm.

"Maybe we can replace some of those photos you had to delete while I'm here."

His smile shines like sunlight.

"I'd like that."

She touches the corner of that smile with the tip of her finger, then leans in to kiss it, feeling as warm as if she were lounging on the beach in the sun.

"Me, too. I'd like that a lot."

He tucks her hair back behind her ear and cuddles her closer.

"Are you warm enough?"

She hums a contented sound and tips her head into his touch. "I missed that," she murmurs, her eyes sliding closed. "It feels so nice."

She blinks them open again at his question. "Actually, do you mind if we get under the sheets?"

"I don't mind, baby," he murmurs. Bucky leans in and gives her a quick kiss. "I don't mind at all. Hold still."

He rolls to his feet, then bends to scoop her into his arms and cradles her against him while he pulls the covers back. Once done, he lowers her gently back into the bed and tucks the sheet and quilt back over her.

"Wait here for a second," he murmurs, and vanishes into the other room to retrieve a pitcher of water and two glasses.

Sharon snuggles down deep in the bedding, tucking part of the throw under her cheek. She turns her face into it and breathes deep; it smells like him, and her pillow hasn't in weeks.

At the soft sound of his footsteps, she pillows her head on her arm and wolf-whistles at him as he comes back around. "Baby, you're a knockout."

He chuckles at that and comes to sit beside her on the bed. Bucky pours her a glass of water and holds it out.

Sharon sits up and fluffs one of the pillows behind her so she can lead against the headboard, then takes the water and downs half of it at a gulp.

"I know it's not night," she points out. "You don't need to stay in here with me if you're not tired, baby."

The corner of his mouth curves up as he fills his own glass, then sets the pitcher on the table on her side of the bed and reaches to switch glasses with her.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

She beams at him and reaches up to push her mussed hair out of her face, then laughs as he switches glasses to give her more water.

"Okay," she says, simply, and puts her glass aside, then pats the open bed next to her. "Come on, soldier boy. Let's get a little downtime."

He finishes his water, leans over to kiss her, then goes around and crawls into the other side of the bed.

"Rest, baby," he murmurs. "I'm here with you."

She waits until he's crawled in between the sheets and has gotten settled, then pushes herself over to press against him, sliding one leg over his and tucking herself against his side, her arm draped over his middle.

"Stay," she murmurs, letting her eyes drift closed. "Stay with me. I don't want to wake up alone anymore."

He puts his arm around her, rests his other hand over her arm on his body, and kisses her hair.

"I'm here," he murmurs. "And I'll stay. I'll be here when you wake."

"I missed you so much," she whispers, and settles her cheek a little more closely in the hollow of his shoulder.

"Don't let me sleep too long, okay?"

"Okay," he promises, having already decided that however long she sleeps is how long she needs to rest and heal.

"I won't."

"Okay."

She runs sleepy fingers over his side and muffles a yawn. "Sweet dreams, baby."

"You too, sweetheart," he whispers. "You, too."

[Leipzig AU] good for trouble

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