[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

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head. After all, it hadn't been an argument; they were in perfect agreement. He hurt Sharon, even if he hadn't meant to, and he can't be what she wants and needs, and Nakia is determined to protect her friend.

"No, why?"

[from_the_outside]

"It seems like she's annoyed with you."

She gives Nakia's back a curious glance as they walk: maybe there is some other explanation. "I guess I can get it out of her later."

Easy enough, if they'll be spending the evening together. For now, she opens up the bag of dried fruit and roasted nuts she'd bought earlier and holds it up after popping a few in her mouth. "Snack?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He shrugs, very slightly. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

If he tells Sharon not to bother he's pretty sure she'll immediately start trying to figure out why. Nakia's on her own.

Bucky smiles, a little, as he glances sideways at Sharon. "I'm not hungry. Thanks, though."

[from_the_outside]

"Suit yourself."

There's a convenient pocket in this cloak; she stashes the trail mix there and turns her attention to the city around them.

Walking in T'Challa's wake offers multiple benefits, one of which is the fact that while people might look their way, they're just as likely to be looking at T'Challa and Nakia as her. And it feels like tacit support, permission for her to be here. Not just as a fugitive desperate for asylum, but as a guest and friend. She keeps the hood of the cloak down, and takes advantage of her expanded sightlines to absorb as much as she can.

Bucky had told her she did the tourist thing well before, and she'd said that the secret was to actually enjoy it. And she does, especially when they enter the main market area and are surrounded by shops and stalls, bright colors and good smells, and what seems like thousands of happy people, all delighted to see their King out and about.

[nerves_of_ice]

"He's a good king," Bucky murmurs, just loud enough for Sharon to hear. "A good man. They love him, and he's determined to do right by them."

He seems comfortable enough, walking in their shadow. A very few whispers of "White Wolf, that's the White Wolf, see, T'Challa's Wolf?" thread their way through the air, but he pays them no attention.

"Sure you don't want to start with looking for something you want?" Bucky asks, louder, drawing an amused glance from T'Challa and an assessing one from Nakia. "Any of you," he clarifies, quickly.

[from_the_outside]

"If I see something I like, I'll just go for it," Sharon says, breezily. "Where should we start?"

The market is segmented by product type: they stroll through booths full of fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and fish, flowers and herbs before coming to a section full of textiles and notions: beautiful fabrics and beads, hand-sewn clothing and blankets. There are art stalls that remind her of the Spinnerei, book vendors, blacksmiths offering a wide range of elegantly designed vibranium tools and tech.

And a whole section that outshines any technological conference Sharon had ever been to, full of tablets and e-readers and holographic generators and more with functions that she doesn't even recognize. She whistles low under her breath.

"This seems like the right spot."

[nerves_of_ice]

Nakia laughs. "Maybe now you realize why I was so annoyed with that stupid phone in Cairo. My standards are very high."

"I am glad to hear that," T'Challa agrees, and laughs as she swats him on the arm.

Bucky smiles a little, but he's paying more attention to the booths than to the banter. One in particular draws his eye. At first glance, it looks to be an artist's gallery, landscape photos and macro-lens images displayed beside each other - but at second glance, the photographic equipment laid out below each stunning image makes it clear what was used to take each picture.

[from_the_outside]

"Now I know why you were so annoyed with any other tech," Sharon admits. She smiles at T'Challa's teasing, but her attention is on Bucky as he looks around and catches on a particular booth.

She glances from the equipment to him and back again. "Those look kind of promising," she says, encouragingly. "Want to take a look?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He's clearly and visibly hesitant, but after looking around at the rest of them, Bucky nods and starts slowly toward the booth.

There's an older man sitting in a comfortable canvas chair in the back, his skin leathery with age but his hands deft on the lens he's cleaning. He doesn't even glance up at their approach.

"Look all you like," he says, evidently to a stubborn bit of dirt caught in an edge. "My work speaks for itself."

[from_the_outside]

She puts her hand lightly on the small of his back, as he's done so many times for her, more for support than for direction, but drops it as they get close to the booth. "Your work is beautiful," she tells the man, looking at the photos for a long moment before glancing down at the equipment beneath each.

Cameras are far from her area of expertise; she waits to see if there's one in particular Bucky's looking at, then glances back at the photographer. "We're interested in some equipment, actually," she says. "Can you tell us a little about what you have?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I know," the photographer grumbles in response to her compliment, but it's the question that finally gets his attention. He looks up at Sharon with more interest than before.

"Equipment, is it? Why not just use your phone camera?"

Very quietly, from where he's standing a step behind Sharon, Bucky says,

"Because a phone lacks depth."

[from_the_outside]

"Not for me," Sharon says, smiling, and tips her head back at Bucky. "For him."

The man glances past her to Bucky. "But efficient," he says, clearly testing this potential customer. "And easy. Point and click. Isn't that what all you young people prefer these days? Access over artistry?"

He nods to Bucky's left shoulder. "Hard to switch lenses with only one hand."

Sharon bristles – nobody is asking his opinion on what can or can't be done with only one hand – but the man is still eying Bucky speculatively. "What have you used before?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Easy's overrated." Low still, but certain. "Just as well I feel that way, considering," he adds, shrugging his left shoulder.

Bucky's very quiet for a moment, then concludes,

"I had a Nikon D4S. Before. I liked the light range it could handle. I don't... didn't... use... mirrorless."

Satisfaction flashes in the photographer's eyes, and he sets his lens aside and gets to his feet.

"Give me your hand," he orders, and Bucky holds out his hand, palm up.

[from_the_outside]

"Mirrorless technology has improved a great deal in the last few years," the man says, going to one of the cameras laid out and picking it up, then unscrewing the lens and replacing it with another. "Full-frame sensors, up to thirty frames per second – and without the mirrors, the camera is much lighter."

Apparently satisfied with the lens he'd chosen, he sets the camera down on Bucky's palm. "This is a good choice for a travel camera," he says. "But nearly as good in a studio. Light, sturdy, weatherproof, interchangeable lenses."

He gestures at Bucky. "See how it feels."

[nerves_of_ice]

It's a test as well as an offer, he's sure. Carefully, he closes his fingers around the camera.

(Everything's a test - no. No. That was then, not now. Not here.)

It's light enough without being fragile. He braces it against his body and shifts his grip, then hefts it in his hand, getting the feel of it. Thumb control is right-sided, and additional adjustments are on top right, within easy fingertip reach. It's clear the left side on this model is used primarily for stabilization and card storage - which will make it feasible to operate.

Slowly, he smiles, and it's warm like the sun's dawning.

"Yes," he says, simply.

[from_the_outside]

That smile is worth everything from the last few days. She wishes she had any idea how to use any of these cameras to try and capture it, but without the knowledge or the equipment, all she can do is look at him and try to commit it to memory.

She's not sure any picture could do it justice, anyway. Can any photo make her chest feel like a room slowly filling with sunlight?

The photographer, clearly delighted at finding a kindred spirit, smiles as well. "I have a few lenses that work with that model," he says. "If you're interested, I can throw in a few SD cards as well."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Definitely interested," he agrees. "Figure I've got some work to do before I can manage a telephoto lens again, but macro and wide-angle and a standard zoom--"

"I can do you one better," the photographer tells them, and pulls a box out from under the table, where it'd been half-hidden by a drape. Carefully he lifts out the lens contained within. "New tech from the Wakanda Design Group. Takes anything from far-range true telephoto to macro with better quality than I've ever seen before, and the size is nearly flat." He flashes them a broad grin. "You'll still have to do the wide-angle separately though."

Bucky looks at the logo for Shuri's lab on the box, and huffs out a breath of laughter. "Figures if anyone'd come up with it, it'd be them."

He shakes his head, still amused, and reaches for the hidden clip where he keeps his card. "Whatever you're asking, I'll pay it. Thank you."

Bucky glances to the side, then, and adds, holding Sharon's gaze --

"And thank you. For insisting."

[from_the_outside]

She meets his eyes and shakes her head, smiling. "I'm glad you found something great," she says, simply, and watches as the photographer hands Bucky's card back to him and starts packing up the camera and its bag, the WDG lens, another lens that she assumes must be the wide-angle, and a series of SD cards. "And I'm looking forward to seeing your photos."

Especially since these won't all have to be of old museum exhibits.

In the meantime, she'll hold onto the memory of that smile and the warmth of his back under her hand when she briefly presses her hand to it. "I feel like you're going to have a lot of fun playing around with it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Maybe," he agrees, and tries not to let his thoughts linger over the feel of her hand against his back. "I guess we'll see."

The photographer hands over everything in a canvas bag with a shoulder strap, and Bucky swings it to his shoulder without difficulty as he thanks him again.

"You're welcome -- your Highness!" His eyes widen as T'Challa walks up, Nakia at his side. T'Challa crosses his arms over his chest, and the photographer does the same, still a little wide-eyed with surprise, but pleased as T'Challa says,

"Thank you for your advice, and your skill. We appreciate it as well."

[from_the_outside]

She manages to resist the urge to laugh, either at the photographer's surprise or at T'Challa's flair for the dramatic.

(When she catches Nakia's eye and her friend rolls hers, she knows Nakia is facing the same challenge.)

"You honor me. It was my pleasure," the photographer is saying, and, given his annoyance with the world and people in general only moments ago, Sharon thinks he's being sincere. Nakia is looking over his photos with a practiced eye, and she'll be surprised if one or more don't find their way to the walls of the Citadel before nightfall.

Sharon takes a few steps back to keep from crowding the booth, and looks up at Bucky. "I'd say this was a successful trip," she says, pleased: with him, with the seller, with T'Challa and Nakia, with herself, with the day thus far.

She got what she came for, anyway.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I think so too," he murmurs, a small smile on his face as he looks down at her.

[from_the_outside]

She has the sensation again of a thrill melting from the top of her head down under the combination of his gaze and that tiny smile, and can't stop herself; she takes the half-step forward she needs to come close, let her fingers catch his, and look up into his face with warm eyes.

"I'm really happy for you," she says, softly. "You deserve it."

They're still surrounded by people. She's mostly forgotten them.

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head in denial, but squeezes her fingers all the same - and then lets go and steps back as Nakia turns from the booth and secures Sharon's other arm with a bright smile.

"Now that you have finished your shopping," she says, "are you ready to come with me for that picnic? The waterfall is truly spectacular, you will love it."

Bucky, meanwhile, moves to join T'Challa, who has finally finished talking with the photographer.

[from_the_outside]

She laughs as much in surprise as in delight and reaches across herself to put her hand over Nakia's. "I'm all yours," she promises.

"Good," Nakia declares. "We'll go back to the Citadel first to collect what we need. And the trip from the Citadel is nearly as beautiful as the falls themselves; the train goes deep into the River Tribe province."

She begins walking Sharon off as she speaks, leaving enough time only for Sharon to wave a slightly bewildered good-bye to Bucky and T'Challa – who looks nearly as bemused as she feels.

"See you later," she tells them – tells Bucky, and offers a last smile before she and Nakia vanish into the swirling crowd.

[nerves_of_ice]

"She is very annoyed with you," T'Challa says, as they watch Nakia and Sharon leave. "I do not believe it is your fault, but..."

"I know," Bucky sighs.

"Give it time. At least you do not have anyone comparing you to a gazelle."