[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]

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?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Okay," Bucky says, and thumps the flour solidly down on the countertop.

"I'll get the butter. The right butter, this time," he promises, solemnly, and goes to check out the community fridge.

[from_the_outside]

Wanda looks after him, then turns to Sharon. "Agent Carter," she says. "Um, if you'd get the – there's a food processor on the shelf over there."

"Food processor?" Sharon says, taken aback, and Wanda nods. "Okay, coming right up."

[nerves_of_ice]

He comes back with a stick of butter, having read carefully to confirm that it's butter, actual butter, and nothing more than butter, and having also confirmed that there's enough of it to make the six tablespoons that they'd used before.

"What next?" he asks Wanda. "Put us to work, wherever you say."

[from_the_outside]

Sharon hauls the food processor over, observing with interest as Wanda pulls the bag of flour toward herself and reaches in to stir it up with a spoon.

"Best way to measure is by weight," she says, "but if you don't have a scale, then spoon the flour out, like this. Nice and light."

She demonstrates, spooning flour into a measuring cup, then hands both cup and spoon to Bucky. "You try. And we'll need one more stick of butter."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I can get that," Vision offers, and drifts over to the fridge.

Bucky holds the cup carefully in his left hand and mimics how Wanda had spooned the flour out, then smiles and passes it to Sharon so that she can try.

[from_the_outside]

She takes up the cup and spoon and carefully measures flour into the cup, then dumps it into the food processor when Wanda indicates she should do so.

"Vis can be our sous chef," Wanda says, smiling gently at Vision as he floats around the room, retrieving butter, sugar, and salt. "Ice water, too," she asks, and Vision fills a glass with ice and water, then brings it over.

Wanda turns to Bucky. "Now cube up those sticks of butter and put them in the food processor, too."

[nerves_of_ice]

He finds a knife and a cutting board and does as instructed, keeping the cubes small.

"How'd you learn this?" he asks.

[marvel_npc]

Wanda pauses on her way to the freezer. "Oh – "

She's not sure he'd understand; him or the Task Force agent. Not the way Vision does, about how the shows she watches were, for such a long time, her only source of comfort. "I – I watch a lot of old tv shows. And the... women, the mothers and the wives, were always baking. I thought... it seemed like a nice thing to be able to do. You know, comforting. Everybody likes pie."

She draws out a bottle of vodka from the freezer and blushes slightly at the way the Task Force agent raises her eyebrows at it. "Secret ingredient," she says.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I can see that," Bucky murmurs, then grins in pure delight as she pulls out the vodka.

"Seriously? Sharon, you have to remember to tell Natasha about this. Maybe she'll share her vodka for next time."

[marvel_npc]

"It makes the crust extra flaky," Wanda says, looking curiously at the two of them. Sharon, he'd said. Should she find it strange that he's addressing the agent by her Christian name?

She shakes it off and comes back to the counter as Agent Carter carefully adds the scant amounts of salt and sugar. "Now close up the processor," she instructs, "and give it a couple of pulses."

The agent does so, looking dubious, but breaks into a grin as the sharp blades pulverize the butter, leaving the mixture the texture of very coarse sand. "Okay, that's much easier," the woman says, laughing."