[ OOM ] don't need a parachute, baby if I've got you

[from_the_outside]

Less than 72 hours after she'd left Wakanda, she's back, watching the Citadel fill the flyer's viewscreen. An easy mission, a solid meet, and a small triumph for her. None of it out of the ordinary for Agent 13, but she's still glad she'd saved Giulietta from field work for which the other woman is woefully unprepared.

All in all, a success, and she's smiling as she heads out and into the warm Wakandan sunshine, her tote bag over her shoulder. 

That smile only grows as she glances across the landing pad and sees who's waiting for her there. "Hey."

Sharon wrinkles her nose at him and changes direction to head his way. "Miss me, huh?"

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[nerves_of_ice]

"You know it." Bucky comes forward to meet her, smiling down at her. "Hi, baby. Did you have a good trip?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yeah."

She puts her hands on his chest and stretches up to kiss him. "But coming back to you is definitely the best part."

[nerves_of_ice]

He kisses her back, setting his hands at her waist. "Want to drop your things in your room and unwind a bit? Or do you need to report in?"

He leaves it circumspect to whom, to avoid anyone overhearing the name.

[from_the_outside]

"Already done," she tells him, landing lightly back on her heels. She shifts the strap of her tote a little higher up her shoulder. "I'm free and clear."

She grins at him. "My room, then down to the hut?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sounds good." He moves to her left side with the ease of unconscious habit. She seems happy and relaxed and he can't help but be both relieved and glad.

[from_the_outside]

She takes his hands and twines her fingers with his as they head off the pad and into the Citadel itself, the air cool and quiet.

"Do anything fun while I was gone?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I might have reworked the entire area around the hut to stay busy," he admits, inviting her to be amused at him. "Swung by the local, too."

They make their way through the Citadel with ease, and Bucky trades a nod or two with occasional members of the Dora as they pass.

[from_the_outside]

He could just have easily have come out and said, directly: please tease me. She is amused, visibly so. "Reworked it how, exactly? There's not a lot there to rearrange."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not once I got done cutting the hay and getting rid of the rest of the deadwood," he admits. "But we're set for winter. Possibly multiple winters."

[from_the_outside]

"Glad to hear it."

And there are worse ways to blow off steam than cutting hay and chopping wood. "In that case, why don't we have that fire that was so rudely interrupted tonight?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sounds like a good idea to me." He tugs at a lock of her hair, then tucks it behind her ear and stands to the side so she can open the door as they reach her quarters.

[from_the_outside]

"That's me: full of good ideas."

Said no one ever. She unlocks the door and heads into her apartment, stepping aside so he can follow her in and so she can set her tote down on the nearby bureau. "So, how was the local?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not bad," he says, closing the door behind them. "A little weird. How was Monte Carlo?"

[from_the_outside]

"It was fine. Easy."

She toes off her sneakers and tosses her socks into the laundry, then goes searching for a pair of sandals. "What do you mean, weird?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He wanders over to lean against the counter by the coffeemaker and sink, watching as she rummages in her closet. "Well, it started getting weird when Wei Ying - Wei Wuxian - cast some kind of spell on a napkin holder. It grew legs and ran away screaming."

[from_the_outside]

She glances over her shoulder at him, frowning, then shakes her head and resumes her search.

"Yeah, I guess that is pretty weird, even for that place. Sounds harmless enough, though."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It was. Noisy, but harmless." He stays relaxed where he is. "Ran into Max, too. A couple of her friends are having some trouble. She'll probably want to talk to you about it, whenever you next see her. She's trying to investigate."

[from_the_outside]

"Okay."

She discovers the sandals beneath a blanket in the corner and digs them out, then slips them on before turning back to him. "Sounds pretty low-key, all things considered."

[nerves_of_ice]

"That part was, anyway." He suspects he looks as wry as he sounds. "So Monte Carlo was easy? Find anything interesting?"

[from_the_outside]

"More like I positioned myself to hear about something interesting, if it comes down the line."

She's distracted, though, by the look on his face, and frowns again. "That part?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sounds promising. What'd Fury have to say about it?"

She frowns, and he shakes his head, trying to indicate it's nothing serious. "Yeah. A couple of things were a little less low-key. One, Lucifer has wings - er, again. He's not too happy about it, though."

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, he was as effusive as ever. I think he said as much as 'good work, Thirteen.'"

She'd spent the flight back wanting to go over every inch of the mission with Bucky, and she still plans to, but something about the way he's talking about the local is pinging all wrong in her head. A couple of things. "He's not?"

Wings. She'd love to have wings. "Wait, what do you mean, 'again'?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sounds like him." From what he knows, anyway; Sharon knows him better, of course. Thirteen. It hasn't been all that long ago when Sharon was refusing to be called that, saying it wasn't her any more, and deep relief uncoils within him.

It doesn't matter that he was worried. It wasn't rational of him to be as worried as he was, and he knows it - that's his problem to work on. What matters is that Sharon's doing what she always wanted to do, and doing it well, and is happy about it.

"Yeah. Again. He cut them off when he left Hell," he explains. "And now they've grown back, and he can't get rid of them."

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, man."

She hasn't even seen Lucifer since that Halloween party. Sharon makes a mental note to look for him the next time she's at the bar, and gives Bucky a rueful glance.

It really is hard to change the foundational blocks of who you are. She knows that, and so does he, for different reasons. "That sucks. How's he doing?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Stressed," he says, succinctly. "But coping."

Maybe a little better than he was. Bucky can hope, anyway.

"He found a new drink for you, he says. A non-alcoholic one. With cinnamon in it."