[ WWII AU ] what a night to go dreaming

[from_the_outside]

There's no doubt that things have shifted, a little, since the day they spent tangled up together in that sun-dappled cottage, tucked away in the trees behind the nearby town. The other Howling Commandos have, seemingly by silent agreement, stopped flirting so outrageously with her, though she's caught Jim and Gabe giving Bucky more than one fondly exasperated glance. She still dances with all of them, and enjoys their company, but they yield the floor to Bucky at the end of the night, and he's the one who, as she said she wanted, walks her back to her tent. 

And then there are their rendezvous' out in the field, where she still checks, each night, for a portal opening in the air. It never comes, but she spends hours there with him, walking and laughing and dancing under the starlight, stealing every moment they can together.

Aunt Peggy says nothing, but Sharon knows she can tell things have changed. There's a worried frown that lives between her brows, but she doesn't forbid her niece to see Steve's best friend, knowing it would only backfire.

Other things change not at all... like the morning tests Howard still makes them do. They're nearing the end of the sequence today, and she lets go of Bucky when Howard tells her to, careful not to linger. It's difficult to say what Stark thinks of his findings; he mutters to himself and snaps at his assistants, but all she can glean from it is that the resonance is still fading at a regular rate from her cells.

But none of them know why.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"Me, too."

They stroll along the path they'd taken that first night she was here, when she'd teased him about it being a date. Over there is where they paused walking back to the camp and kissed for the first time; up ahead is the stretch of meadow where they'd danced and everything had shifted around them. She'll come back here, she decides. When she makes it home. She'll come back and find this place where they'd spent so much time together. And maybe it'll feel like he's just a few steps behind her on the path, like any moment she'll see him come walking through the dark.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky can't decide if he's grateful or sorry that they'll be packing up to head back to London soon. If Howard's experiment tonight works, being here at camp without her will be like being haunted, he's pretty sure - but at the same time, leaving this place will be like leaving her behind, just as she'll leave him to return to her time, her life. Either way, it's not anything he can control. She can't either, not really.

For now, he watches the play of sunlight through the trees against the gold of her hair, and holds on to this moment with both hands.

[from_the_outside]

In the daylight, the little hill and the meadow beyond it look real and solid, far from the dream she remembers. She strolls with him up the gentle incline, then lets go of his arm when they reach the top.

Settling herself down in the grass, she pats the spot next to her and smiles at him, much as she had that first night, when he decided to trust her. "Take a load off, Sergeant."

[nerves_of_ice]

He chuckles at that. "Yes, ma'am." Bucky sits easily down beside her, legs outstretched as he leans back on his elbows.

"It's nice here, isn't it?"

[from_the_outside]

"It really is."

She studies him, the way the sunshine kisses his skin, the long lean line of his body, and smiles.

This time, there's the glint of mischief in it. "I brought a little treat for you."

[nerves_of_ice]

Surprise is written in his features as he looks over at her.

"You did?" She looks as though she's anticipating something, and he's curious as hell. "What is it?"

[from_the_outside]

She reaches into the pocket of her skirt and liberates the familiar rectangle of her phone. God bless Stark tech, the thing had still turned on when she tried it earlier. He really had cracked long-lasting, sustainable energy.

"The rest of my things are back in my tent," she tells him, thumbing the phone into life. "But I did promise to show you some photos."

[nerves_of_ice]

He sits straight up, utterly fascinated, and leans over to look at the device in her hand.

"That's the smallest darn camera I've ever seen or heard of, by the way," he tells her.

[from_the_outside]

"It's more than a camera," she tells him. "But the photos are probably the only thing on it that'll work right now."

Tragically, wi-fi and streaming music stations won't be invented for a few more decades.

She navigates to her folder of photos, and flips to the ones she'd found earlier and marked, then hands him the phone with a smile. On the screen, a younger Sharon smiles up at him, though there's something slightly exasperated in her expression. She wears a white dress and her hair is curled and a corsage blooms at her wrist. "There you go," Sharon-of-now says, amused. "My debut."

[nerves_of_ice]

He holds it with care, half-afraid it'll come apart in his hands, and scrutinizes the photograph with increasing delight. "Look at that," Bucky marvels. "You're gorgeous, baby."

[from_the_outside]

She laughs and reaches to swipe her finger across the screen, showing a new photo of her in the same outfit, but standing arm in arm with a handsome gray-haired man who shares her same smile.

“My dad,” she tells Bucky.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I can see the resemblance." He tilts the device a little, making sure to see the picture from every angle. "The two of you look happy."

[from_the_outside]

“He was happy I went through with it, and I was happy to make him happy,” she says. Reaching again, she swipes past a few more photos and lands on one of the mountain house, her parents standing in front of it, smiling and waving.

“This is the house in Virginia.”

[nerves_of_ice]

His jaw doesn't drop, but it's a near thing. Bucky stares at the enormous house, then at Sharon.

"House? That's a mansion!"

[from_the_outside]

“What? No.”

She leans to look at the house, trying to see it through his eyes. “I mean, I guess it’s a pretty big house…”

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky laughs. “If it’s not, the future must be a heck of a place. That’s amazing, baby.”

[from_the_outside]

“I never thought of it as being a mansion,” she says, but his good humor keeps her from being too embarrassed.

There are so many other photos she wants to show him, but for now she just scrolls back to that first one, of her in her deb dress, and lets him look as long as he wants. “I wish I could show it to you in person.”

[nerves_of_ice]

"Well, you have to realize I'm used to a different style of house," he teases. Bucky reaches to brush his finger lightly over the hair of the Sharon in the picture as he says, softly, "I'd like that, too."

[from_the_outside]

She sets her head against his shoulder and looks at the little screen of her phone, then reaches to take it from his fingers, gently.

“Smile,” she tells him, and curls against his side as she holds the phone out and snaps a photo of the two of them, sitting here together in the sun.

[nerves_of_ice]

He does, unable not to as she curls against him, then gasps as he sees the image coalesce.

“Will you look at that.”

[from_the_outside]

“Like magic, isn’t it?”

She turns the phone so he can see the photo better, and grins at his delight. Maybe she shouldn’t have given in, but she wants to have a visual memory of him. “I guess it might be harder to get a photo you could keep, though.”

[nerves_of_ice]

“Since I don’t have a magic camera, yeah,” he agrees. Is there even a camera in camp he could use? The journalists aren’t here right now, and there aren’t any newsreels planned until they get back to London. Ignoring the ache at the thought of an opportunity missed, he looks up at her and smiles.

“I’m glad you have it, though.”

[from_the_outside]

"Me too."

It's a bare murmur as she studies him. "Is there anything we could use? Does anyone have a camera?"

She hates the idea that she'll be gone and he won't have anything to remember her by – aside from the little starry night lamp, which she can't bring with her.

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head. “The newsies aren’t at this camp, and I don’t know if anyone else has one.”

He tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and smiles at her. “But I’ve got a good memory.”

[from_the_outside]

A smile flickers over her lips and she tips her head into his touch, but she can't hold herself back. She leans in, swift, to press her mouth to his in a sweet, slightly desperate kiss, the ache in her chest spiking at the thought of losing him to time and to the written destiny she knows awaits him.