[AU] these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul

[from_the_outside]

They've all entered a kind of tense détente after the ill-advised dinner party. Tony throws himself into work, Sharon and Pepper mostly avoid each other, and Steve, Vision, and Nat continue with oversight duties.

And the thing is... Tony's working it out. 

Not a removal, exactly, but he's getting close, he'd told them, to at least blocking the commands. It's not perfect and it's not a permanent solution, but it's a step in the right direction. It's also a step in the direction of Tony needing to test the words on Bucky himself, and so Sharon and Steve are on extra high alert, keeping an eye out for any indication that Bucky's retreating into himself again. Sharon's mostly moved into the room they share in Steve's apartment for that very reason, though she still isn't wholly comfortable with being in Steve's space all the time.

He's away today, working with Sam and Rhodey on a veteran's outreach program, so it's Sharon who walks with Bucky through the halls of the compound towards Tony's rooms. "It's you and Vision with Tony today," she tells him, and glances across the distance they're careful to maintain when not alone behind closed doors.

"How are you feeling about everything?"

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"You can just run a self-cleaning cycle," Wanda tells him, her voice soft. She studies the pie itself, noting Sharon has no idea what; all of their mistakes that added up to an oven full of smoke instead of pie, she guesses.

"You can trust Wanda's expertise," Vision tells them. "She has become quite the amateur baker."

"Vis, please," Wanda says, but Sharon can see the faint pink staining the tops of her cheeks. Wanda dips a finger into the juice leaking from the sad puddle of pastry and filling that never became a pie, and her eyebrows lift. "The cherries are good," she says, encouragingly, and looks between Bucky and Sharon. "Do you have more?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Lots," he says, simply, and goes to pull out the rest of the cherries in their bowl, displaying that instead of the wreckage of the pie-that-wasn't.

"They are good," Bucky adds. "I don't know if you ever go down to town or not --"

From what he's seen, he's not sure Vision and Wanda leave the compound that much at all.

"--but Agent Carter was kind enough to come with me this morning after the session with Tony. There was a farmer's market."

[marvel_npc]

Wanda looks from the bowl of glossy, plump cherries to the disheartened expressions on the faces of Sergeant Barnes and Agent Carter to the sad attempt at a cherry pie.

It's actually quite easy to tell what they got wrong: there was too much liquid, they didn't line the oven, the pastry seems to be melting instead of crisping, they didn't cut vents into the top, the oven was probably on too high...

She looks at Vision, who raises his eyebrows knowingly at her, and feels as though he, too, is seeing the innocent, disappointed bewilderment in these two normally competent people and recognizing that that only human reaction to it is sympathy.

"I could show you how to make one," she says, before her nerves can get in the way. "A cherry pie, I mean. If you want. Since you have so much fruit left."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky's smile is startled at first - then spreads across his face like sunlight at dawn.

"You wouldn't mind? I'd hate to be any trouble."

He glances at Sharon to see her opinion.

[from_the_outside]

She'd put up with a lot just to be able to see that smile of his, but her own sense of injured pride has kicked in, and she'll be damned if she closes out the day without successfully making a pie.

"Please," she says, laughing. "Save us from ourselves."

Wanda looks a little surprised, but glances at Vision and receives an encouraging smile. "All right," she says, and casts a wry glance at Steve's oven. "We'll use the community kitchen."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Probably a good plan," Bucky agrees, a little ruefully, and closes the oven door. "I'll turn this on the - self-cleaning cycle, you said?"

He studies the console until he finds the right setting, and programs it to start. "Hopefully that'll be done before Steve gets back."

[from_the_outside]

"It should, no problem," Wanda says, in her soft Sokovian accent. She looks a little askance at Sharon, then appears to brace herself. "Come on," she adds. "Bring the cherries."

Sharon picks up the bowl and gives the rest of the kitchen a rueful glance. "I guess we probably don't need anything else from here."

[nerves_of_ice]

"We need flour," Bucky says, with a wry, amused look at Vision. "That wasn't down there, we found."

He picks up the bag. "Hogan showed me where the pantry stores are, so if there's anything else we need that's not in the community kitchen, I can go get it."

To Wanda, he adds, "Thank you for this. I really appreciate it."

[from_the_outside]

"I would be faster," Vision points out, and Wanda nods.

"I think I have everything else we need in my own kitchen," she says. "But Vis, will you grab some tapioca from the pantry? Cornstarch is fine if there isn't any."

"We should bring the cream, too," Sharon reminds Bucky. "That at least I can make without disaster."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Right." He pulls it from the fridge, then gives the mess in the pan a dubious look. "I'll... just let that finish cooling before I get rid of it."

[from_the_outside]

Sharon gives the not-a-pie a sad glance and shakes her head, then follows Wanda and Vision out of the kitchen, the bowl of cherries cool in her arms.

Once they reach the hall, Vision nods to them all politely, then drifts rapidly off in what Sharon assumes is the direction of the pantry, leaving them alone with Wanda, who seems to tense, very slightly.

Sharon's not sure why, exactly; she really hasn't gotten a chance to get to know the young woman at all. But she can still give Wanda something else to focus on, right?

"So, any idea on where we went wrong?" she asks, light and smiling. "Aside from, um... everywhere?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He can tell Wanda's nervous, and given his previous conversations with Vision, he's pretty sure he knows why. Maybe being around Sharon will help. In the meantime--

"Don't hold back," he tells Wanda, with a warm, reassuring smile of his own. "Both Agent Carter and I can take it."

Wanda gives him an uncertain glance, almost searching, and then says, "Maybe a a few things, from what I saw? For one, um. Did you drain the cherries?"

[from_the_outside]

"Drain them?"

It's probably pretty obvious from her expression that she hadn't even considered that as an option.

[nerves_of_ice]

"That's a no," Bucky tells Wanda, with a ruefully amused grin. "Hey, I bet you know the answer to this, I couldn't figure it out before - is the butter in the crust really supposed to be in pea-sized pieces? We kind of squashed it all together."

[from_the_outside]

Wanda's mouth twitches, and Sharon thinks she's probably suppressing the urge to laugh. "Yes," she confirms. "And it's best if it was really cold. Did you take the butter out to warm up before you mixed it in?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"No, I got it straight from the fridge," Bucky replies, glad to have done something right. "But I scooped it right from the container by the tablespoon instead of trying to cut it into little pieces."

[from_the_outside]

Wanda's forehead crinkles. "What do you mean, you scooped it? Didn't it come in sticks?"

Sharon shakes her head. "No, Steve had this tub we thought we'd use up first."

Wanda's face goes through an incredible series of expressions, before she licks her lips and apparently locks herself down. It looks like it takes some effort. "Wait – you didn't use real butter?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky blinks at her. "Of course we did. Now that it's not rationed any more," he says, a little wryly.

"Steve and I used to use margarine for things, and of course that's been a long while ago, but it's still pretty neat to not have to worry about it-- anyway, it was real butter. It said so on the label: whipped butter spread."

[from_the_outside]

Wanda's mouth twitches harder and her eyes crinkle at the edges in a way that Sharon suspects means she's trying very, very hard not to laugh. It makes her like the young woman more.

"It might have been real butter," Wanda says, dubiously, looking as though she's thinking the odds are pretty low. "But even whipped real butter isn't good for baking. There's too much air in it, so you don't get the right ratios of fat to flour."

[nerves_of_ice]

"... oh." He looks even more rueful than before.

"Well, at least we'll get it right from the start this time." He glances at Sharon. "I guess I should have been taking notes from that show."

[from_the_outside]

"You and me both," Sharon says, just as rueful. "But it was fun to try, anyway."

[nerves_of_ice]

Wanda looks back and forth between them, trying to hide her surprise. The Sergeant seems a lot more at ease with Agent Carter than she'd have thought.

"What show?"

[from_the_outside]

"The Great British Bake-Off," Sharon tells her, then frowns. "Or, I guess it's The Great British Baking Show here in the States."

She laughs. "I've watched so much of it... but I guess I didn't really learn anything."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It's different to just watch something, rather than doing it," he protests.

[from_the_outside]

"Excellent point, Sergeant," Sharon says, amused.

Wanda leads them into the community kitchen room, where Vision waits with a small packet of what Sharon assumes must be tapioca or cornstarch. "Will you require anything else?" he asks, all politeness. "I am at your disposal."

Wanda beams at him. "Not just yet, Vis," she says, and looks at Sharon and Bucky. "We'll make the crust first, okay?"