[oom] something in my mind freezes up from time to time

[from_the_outside]

She hardly has any time to protest when Nakia appears like a vengeful storm sweeping into Shuri's lab and hauls Sharon away like a child who has snuck out of bed.

"Nakia –!"

"I will return her once she is ready," Nakia tells Shuri, who looks like she's barely holding back laughter, and then drags Sharon down the short corridor to the train platform, tapping out an order on her Kimoyo beads as she does.

"Do I get to know what's going on?" Sharon complains, and Nakia gives her a flat look.

"Stretch your arms up as high as you can," she commands, and when Sharon hesitates snaps: "Well?"

Annoyed, Sharon does as requested, but can only get her left arm about halfway up before wincing and letting it drop again. "As I thought," Nakia says, patronizing, and ushers her onto the train.

What follows is a series of tests and scans Sharon submits to with poor grace. "I'm fine!" she protests. "It's been six weeks!" But the Wakandan doctors either don't believe her or are too scared of Nakia to ignore her orders, and Sharon finds herself on the business end of a needle or two and several strangely warm lights that do something uncomfortable to the ribs she'd broken and then re-broken.

"Why does it hurt more now?" she complains, and Nakia smiles peaceably. "Because you did not take care of them before and now they must heal properly. You will be fine tomorrow or the day after."

And whatever arguments Sharon makes, she refuses to hear.

---

Nakia keeps her resting for the remainder of the day, feigning deafness when Sharon asks about going either to the lab or to see Bucky, and the evening and night pass without incident. She does manage to see him the next day, but it's brief: Nakia had swept in shortly after sun-up with coffee and breakfast and informed Sharon she would be taking her to meet several of the different tribes. And that it would likely take all day.

So Sharon contents herself with waving to Bucky from a distance as she and Nakia pass by: the children must have been freed from their lessons because they're clamoring around him. She meets a slew of people whose names she tries her best to remember and returns to the Citadel that evening with a few colorful braided and beaded bracelets around her wrist and several yards of beautiful cloth one of the village women had pressed on her. She doesn't know what to do with it; Nakia takes it with a secretive smile and promises to find a purpose.

But the next morning, she's up and out before Nakia can show up with plans again: the doctors had said she would be fine today, and she has somewhere she needs to be. After she's made use of the coffee maker she'd wheedled out of the kitchen staff, showered, and changed, she's heading down the halls of the Citadel to the station.

Shuri had said first thing. They may already be there.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"I don't know," she says, a little archly. "I'm very cute in a baseball cap."

But the cloak does what she needs it to do, which is to create even a slight boundary between her and peering, interested eyes, and she relaxes quickly once it's become clear not as many people are looking.

They still are, but she can keep her head in the hood and ignore them for the most part, and that's almost as good as being totally anonymous. She can feel free to peruse the stalls and chat with the sellers, all of whom are friendly and curious and more than happy to let her exclaim over their various wares.

And there are plenty of fruit stalls. Maybe she will get some snacks for her room.

[nerves_of_ice]

For his part, he hangs back as a near-silent escort, offering his opinion when it's asked and otherwise ensuring she's not jostled in the crowd of an increasingly busy mid-morning market.

It's both harder and easier than he thought it might be, but he thinks he's handling it okay. As they round one corner, he catches sight of three of the Dora Milaje doing a little wandering of their own, and they trade nods.

[from_the_outside]

One of the stall owners helpfully changes a twenty euro bill for her when she buys some dried fruits and roasted nuts, and she folds the new Wakandan money into her pocket with thanks before turning to find Bucky.

He's running interference, she realizes; hanging slightly back like a bodyguard, not unlike that night in Leipzig.

She smiles without noticing why, and cocks her head at him. "Do you need anything while we're here?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"No," he says, honestly. "I don't need anything."

He doesn't. Any of the things he's thought of so far would be a frivolous purchase.

"Are you finding everything okay?"

[from_the_outside]

"Okay, but do you want anything?" she prompts, undeterred.

He'd said he was taking little steps into that. Having opinions. Wanting something just because. And where better to exercise that right?

For her part she nods. "Sure. I'm just looking, mostly, anyway. It just feels good to do something sort of normal."

Maybe once she gets more used to the crowds, she can make this a more regular thing.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I--"

He looks around again, then back at her.

"I don't see one." Bucky shrugs. "Some other time."

He smiles at her. "I'm glad you're having fun."

[from_the_outside]

She looks around, too, then lifts her eyebrows at him.

"Don't see one what?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He hesitates, but then--

"A camera," he tells her. "A small one. One I can use one-handed."

Bucky shrugs.

"But it's not important. I don't need one."

[from_the_outside]

She gives him a funny look, and shakes her head. "You don't need to need one to justify getting one. And with the tech this place has, I'm sure we can find something perfect."

She chews on her bottom lip for a second, studying him. "Why don't we try the other market? You said it was bigger, right?"

Reaching for his hand, she starts tugging him decisively through the crowd. "Is it in walking distance?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"It is, and it is, yes," he protests, as she drags him along after her, unresisting in other than words. "But Sharon, wait, I don't need it, I really don't, it's not important--"

[from_the_outside]

Her hood has fallen off her hair to bounce against her shoulders, but she doesn't even notice because he hasn't let go of her hand and he's not actually protesting in any way that matters.

"All I hear is 'Sharon, I want a camera but I'm weird about getting things for any reason other than survival, so I need you to make it happen for me,'" she says, blithe, eyes dancing.

People are watching, but it's with an amused mix of indulgence and curiosity, and she hardly notices them, is too focused on his hand in hers, his unresisting weight tugging on her arm.

(And she hasn't even noticed that, for the moment, she's stopped worrying about his past – or potential present – with Natasha.)

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sharon--"

"Do we need to rescue you?" T'Challa is leaning against the side of a stairway to the east, the one that Nakia is sitting on, and he looks very amused by the spectacle before him.

Nakia looks a little less amused, her eyebrows raised high.

"Sharon, what are you doing to this man?"

[from_the_outside]

"Reminding him he's allowed to have things just because he wants them," she says, and Nakia's eyebrows arch up even higher.

Sharon frowns at her. "Like a camera, Nakia."

Her friend's gaze drops to where Sharon is still holding onto Bucky's hand, then flicks to Bucky's face with an expression Sharon can't interpret.

T'Challa's is much easier: his eyes are sparkling and he looks about a second away from laughing out loud. "So, no rescue mission is needed?" he asks Bucky, all good humor, and Sharon scoffs.

"Who could possibly need rescuing from me?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He can read Nakia's expression as plainly as if she'd shouted her thoughts aloud, and hopes she'll notice that Sharon has hold of him and not the other way around. But she's got a point, all the same, and he gives her the tiniest possible nod in acknowledgement.

"There were some people in Greece and France who might have had different opinions on that," he tells Sharon, his tone bland, before he gently tugs his hand free and moves toward T'Challa.

"No. All clear. You're safe to go back to whatever you were doing... which was what exactly, again?"

[from_the_outside]

Her smile flickers a little when he extricates himself and moves away, her now-empty hand feeling slightly useless. She sticks it into her pocket and wrinkles her nose at him. "They didn't get opinions."

And they certainly don't have any now. She moves over to hop up on the half-wall next to Nakia, nudging their shoulders together. "Hey."

"'Hey,'" Nakia mocks lightly in a frat boy voice, and Sharon laughs. Her friend runs a finger over the brown and cream cloak, admiring some of the gold threads in it. "This is very nice. Did you get it today?"

"Bucky did," she admits, and shows Nakia the hood, then shrugs. "It was...more people than I'd been around in a while. The hood helped."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Spending time among my people," T'Challa says, a little loftily, and pretends to duck away from Nakia when she gives him a look. "And shopping with that one, when she took an interest in coming to the market today. As were you, I see?"

Bucky makes a noncommittal noise and leans against the opposite wall.

"Sharon hadn't seen your markets yet," he says, easily.

"Mm-hmm," agrees T'Challa. "Of course."

[from_the_outside]

"And what do you think?" Nakia asks, after shooting an exasperated look at T'Challa that makes Sharon grin.

She shakes her head and lifts her hands. "Like everything else here, they're great. We were just heading to the larger central market to see what else is available."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sharon mentioned a camera?" T'Challa asks, looking back and forth between them. He still seems to be suppressing mirth for some reason, but has it under control.

Bucky shifts position, a little uncomfortably, and nods.

"Yeah. It's not anything important, though--"

"You are a photographer?"

He hesitates, then finally gives in and nods as he admits, "It was a hobby. Once. Sort of. For a while."

[from_the_outside]

His admission gets a small, faintly triumphant smile from Sharon, who adds: "He had a really nice camera before."

That probably got smashed up during the fight in Bucharest. "And he'd need something smaller and lighter now." She's not very up on camera technology, but she's reasonably sure that if anyplace in the world can provide a small, one-handed, quality camera, that place is Wakanda.

She tips her head and looks a question at T'Challa. "Do you know if we can find one like that in the bigger market?"

[nerves_of_ice]

None of them press him on why, at least not yet, which is good. It'll give him time to figure out how to explain, if he needs to. How learning to use the camera had taught him different ways of looking at the world, bit by bit, for purposes other than to find the best target. (Although it had certainly helped there, too.)

"Perhaps," T'Challa says, with a glance at Nakia to seek her opinion. "And if you do not, I am certain that we--"

"T'Challa." His voice is low. "You've already done so much for me. Are still. This isn't important."

T'Challa looks at Bucky, who looks back. The two of them have a silent discussion for several seconds before T'Challa nods agreement.

"Only if you let me know if you cannot find something. Eventually."

[from_the_outside]

It doesn't need to be important, she wants to tell him. Just let people take care of you.

But it's clear he already feels as though he has a debt he can't pay back, or that T'Challa has done too much that he hasn't deserved, and he's been pushed enough this morning.

She pushes herself off the half-wall and comes over to him and T'Challa. "Then we should get looking, huh?"

It's to Bucky, warm and a little gentle, before she turns her attention on T'Challa. "Any recommendations for sight-seeing while I'm in the area, Your Highness?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He's very careful not to look at Nakia as he tells Sharon, "If you want, but there's no hurry... if you wanted to go sightseeing instead."

T'Challa smiles at Sharon. "Several, but I believe Nakia has been planning many things for you to see already, and I know better than to interfere with that."

[from_the_outside]

"No, this first," she says, firmly.

She turns to grin at Nakia, though her smile falters slightly at the look on her friend's face before it's replaced with a fond smile.

Directed at her, Sharon notices. Nakia had been looking at Bucky before. "There's a beautiful waterfall I'll take you to," Nakia promises. "This afternoon, maybe. It's especially pretty at sunset. We can take a picnic."

"Sounds romantic," Sharon teases, and Nakia winks at her. "Okay. This afternoon." Turning back to Bucky, she gives him a satisfied look. "That leaves me with the whole rest of the morning. That's plenty of time."

[nerves_of_ice]

"You win," Bucky mutters, a little wryly. "We'll look for a camera."

T'Challa swallows the chuckle that threatens to escape and looks at Nakia.

"Shall we go with them?"

[from_the_outside]

She gives him a smugly satisfied smile and laughs as Nakia chides a smiling T'Challa. "Don't you have real work to do, lazy?"

He walks over to her and offers a genteel hand to steady her as she hops off the wall before leaning down to give her a kiss, apparently unfazed by her scolding. "Let M'Baku wait," he says, tucking Nakia's hand into his elbow and strolling back towards Sharon and Bucky. "It will make him feel important. Besides, it is good to get out among the people."

Nakia scoffs and whacks lightly at his arm with her free hand, but doesn't move away. "You just like it when the little old ladies at the market flirt with you," she says, and he shrugs and smiles, not arguing.

"Shall we?"

Sharon shakes her head and laughs, then lifts her hands in surrender. "I'm ready."