[ 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?"

Comments

[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."

[from_the_outside]

She can't help laughing at that. "I guess, after Halloween, he probably thinks that's safest."

Well, she'd had fun, anyway. Even with the hangover the next day.

[nerves_of_ice]

He grins, quick and bright. “Maybe. He’s pretty fond of you, I think.”

He straightens from where he’s leaning against the counter and reaches to brush her hair back from her face again. “I told him you were visiting friends in Europe. Just so you know.”

[from_the_outside]

"I'm pretty fond of him right back."

She comes closer, tipping her head so he'll have to brush her hair back over her shoulder once more, teasing. "Well, that's one way to put it. Although I like to think I have better taste in friends."

[nerves_of_ice]

He chuckles and does it again, letting his fingers slide through her hair as he does.

“Well, yeah. You know I can’t argue with that.”

[from_the_outside]

"Sounds like it was a pretty exciting time at the local."

Inanimate objects animating, the Devil having an existential crisis... maybe it's par for the course for that place. "I guess you did keep busy."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Mm-hm.”

She’s not wrong.

“Went hiking with Wei Ying, too. Ended up camping overnight.” His tone shifts into something a little bemused. “Had a sort of tea party with some ghost friends of his, even.”

[from_the_outside]

"Well, that sounds..."

Weird? Creepy? Strange as hell? "...nice."

She gives him a faintly dubious look. "But no zombies this time, I hope."

[nerves_of_ice]

He winces, just a little. "No zombies, no. Ran into a little trouble with a hunter, but no zombies."

Bucky shakes his head. "Every time I think I've got a handle on that place, something shifts."

[from_the_outside]

"What do you mean, hunter?"

She frowns at him, her brows tugging together. "Wait, where were you guys?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I mean hunter. Rifle and everything. Except he wasn't hunting deer." Bucky looks as annoyed by that as he sounds.

"We were headed for the mountains on the far side of the lake, and cutting through the edge of the forest to get there. Only the path shifted, I think."

[from_the_outside]

"Uh huh."

That dubious expression is just settling deeper onto her features. "This being the forest where you were last attacked by an enormous undead rabbit, if I remember rightly."

The feeling of accomplishment that's buoyed her all the way back to Wakanda is slowly dissipating. "Was he a new patron or something?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Which is why we were headed for the mountains instead."

He watches her expression change, and hates himself for it - bitterly, deeply, and without reserve.

"Not new, I don't think. He seemed familiar with the existence of the bar, anyway. And not a patron."

Damn it all to hell, and him with it.

"A werewolf."

[from_the_outside]

"A werewolf."

She has to be precise, here, because it's always a good idea to understand exactly what happened and what the threat is. Was? Is? "You had trouble with a werewolf."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Some. I'm not hurt," he assures her, quickly. "I didn't get hurt. Neither did Wei Ying. And I, uh, collapsed a small cave on the hunter."

[from_the_outside]

"You better not be," she warns. "I said I'd push you into the lake and I meant it."

Fear rises, coppery, in her throat. She swallows it back. "Was there a reason you guys decided to go hiking around the area that famously shifts around people instead of staying at the bar?"