[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]

"Just one of your many fine qualities," she teases back, and smiles at him, a little wry.

"I'm sure I will."

She looks at him for a moment more, warm and pleased, then pushes up onto her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Good night, Steve," she says, and cracks open her door. "Take care of yourself, okay? I've still got that protective detail perspective. Stay safe."

He nods, and she smiles at him a last time before opening her door and disappearing into the room beyond.

[nerves_of_ice]

When Steve returns, Bucky's deep in consultation with Shuri on how to pick the exact right memes to send Sam Wilson for the greatest possible impact, by which he means as much annoyance as humanly possible. Both T'Challa and Nakia are looking on, amused and resigned in varying degrees.

"Oh! And this one!" Shuri projects something labeled 'Millennial Falcon,' and Bucky grins. "Sure, why not?"

He glances up as Steve comes back in, trying to get a read on him. He seems pleased about something, which is probably a good sign. Bucky's glad. He is.

"Captain Rogers!" Shuri calls, and pulls up another image. "I have so many things for you to share with your friend Sam."

Steve shoots Bucky a very suspicious look, and Bucky does his best to look innocent.

[from_the_outside]

She barely thinks about her nighttime routine as she goes through it, changing into soft sleep clothes and brushing her teeth. Her mind is too busy chewing on that brief conversation with Steve in the hall by her door.

Brief, but...big, she thinks. After all, he's proved her right: he cares about her, but not in the way Bucky thinks he does. And maybe he's a little sad, the way she is, about their missed opportunity, but that didn't seem to be his main concern.

If he knows, or guessed, then she can imagine what he'd wanted to suss out. The only person more protective than Bucky Barnes in regards to Steve Rogers is Steve Rogers in regards to Bucky Barnes.

So even though she's tired, she doesn't go to bed yet, just curls up in the armchair and leans her chin on her hand, watching the shattered glass art spin slowly on its wire, catching the moonlight and reflecting it along all its fault lines and gold wire and gray metal, and letting her thoughts spin slowly along with it until they unwind enough for her to be able to sleep.

[nerves_of_ice]

He bides his time, while Steve takes up a seat on the chair nearest his own and listens with polite attentiveness to Shuri's animated explanation. They have time, after all - a little while yet. Eventually he'll have the chance to ask what brought Steve here in the first place.

"I have met Sam Wilson," T'Challa observes. "Briefly. He has quite the sense of humor."

"That he does," Bucky agrees, very dry. "He'll be the first to tell you about it, too."

[from_the_outside]

Steve relaxes into his chair, chuckling. "All I know is that I pronounced 'gif' wrong one time and he hasn't let me hear the end of it since. You wouldn't believe the amount of senior citizen material he has up his sleeve."

Sam speaks his mind without fear of judgment or reprisal, and he respects that. It's a good quality in a friend and a useful one in an ally.

That doesn't mean he's going to pass on Sam's message to Buck, just because Sam said it. It seems like the right call to make.

[nerves_of_ice]

"He called my habit a 'cat costume'," T'Challa points out, and Shuri shrieks, while Bucky chokes back a laugh. "He did not! A costume? Please," she sniffs.

"I'm almost sorry I missed that," Bucky says. "Almost."

[from_the_outside]

Steve grins.

"If it helps," he says, knowing full well Sam would kill him for this, "whoever logged his wings at the JTTF labeled them 'bird costume'."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, it helps," Bucky assures him, while Shuri starts laughing again and T'Challa looks smug. "It helps a lot."

[from_the_outside]

Steve laughs and shakes his head. "He can never know I told you that," he warns.

...It's probably for the best not to tell them about Sam's near pet-owner levels of affection for Redwing.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Maybe I can talk Sharon into letting him think it came from her," Bucky replies.

"She'll want to keep you out of the line of fire, too."

[from_the_outside]

"I'm sure you could," Steve says, a little more pleased about it than the joke really warrants.

He can't help it; he's happy for them. And when being happy for them was the dominant response to Nat's teasing jab, he'd known for sure exactly where he fit into it all, and that's here: as Bucky's best friend. As Sharon's new friend. "Careful, though: our tab's getting pretty long with her, pal. Pretty soon we'll have to pay up."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve seems pleased at the thought, and he's glad to see it.

"You've got a point there," he says, lightly. Beside T'Challa, Nakia's glance has sharpened the slightest bit as she listens. "She's done a lot for us."

Much, much more than she had to. More than almost anyone else would have.

[from_the_outside]

"Well, I'll leave the negotiating to you," Steve says, amused. "I get the feeling she'll give you a good deal."

Sharon Carter. Brash, bold, resourceful, owner of a deep, secret well of compassion and a moral compass that won't budge. In so many ways, she is so like Peggy.

And isn't that part of it all, too?

[nerves_of_ice]

He gets the feeling Steve's finding something funny that he himself is missing; his best friend is practically radiating satisfaction. Bucky eyes him a little more closely than before.

"On your behalf, sure."

(He misses the way Shuri stirs in her seat, and the warning look T'Challa shoots at her.)

[from_the_outside]

"Don't sell yourself short, pal," Steve says, light but sincere.

This isn't really the way he wants to have this conversation, though, so he turns politely over to Shuri after catching her movement out of the corner of his eye. "Speaking of people we owe," he starts, and she waves at him, laughing.

"My work is pro bono," she says, smug. "You could not afford me otherwise."

"Shuri," sighs T'Challa, and she beams back at him. "Just kidding!"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Well, she's not wrong," Bucky observes. "One of the lenses I picked up today was created by the Wakanda Design Group. Top quality."

Shuri stares at him, surprised. "You could have just asked."

He shakes his head. "You're already doing enough. Have done enough. All of you," he adds, including Steve in his quick glance around.

[from_the_outside]

"Bet that'll make for some good photos," Steve says, cheerfully ignoring Shuri rolling her eyes and waving Bucky's gratitude off. She and her brother share a generosity of spirit that's hard to come by, these days.

But then, he did always put his trust in individual people, and he's rarely regretted doing so.

Reluctantly, he glances at his watch: the night is moving on, but there's still time. He just needs to make sure he's well out of the Wakanda airspace by dawn.

[nerves_of_ice]

"It should."

He doesn't miss Steve's quick glance at his watch. He doesn't want to ask the next question, either, as he doesn't want this night to be over, but when has time ever really been on their side?

Keeping his voice carefully neutral, and keeping any hint of resignation from bleeding through, he asks,

"Time to go?"

[from_the_outside]

"Not yet." Bucky doesn't say it and he's keeping his expression and voice neutral, but Steve knows him too well not to hear it anyway, because he feels it, too.

They have time, now, but not enough. It's never enough. He tells himself that someday, someday soon, things will change and they can be side by side again, deep in each other's pockets, because the truth is that being without Bucky is like being without half of himself. It always has been. "Another hour or so, maybe."

Enough time to find a way to talk to Bucky, just the two of them. He has enough time for that. He'll make it, if he has to.

[nerves_of_ice]

Sitting quietly as they talk, T'Challa notices when something passes between the two of them, something far greater than the simple question-and-answer can convey.

A bond such as this is vanishingly rare. He has known it for a while now, although he raged against it when he was so furious at Rogers for protecting his friend at all costs, in Bucharest and in Berlin and in Leipzig. He had realized its true depth and strength in the snow outside the facility in Siberia, with the two of them broken and bleeding and still ready to stand against him and the entire world, if need be. Honor had demanded he offer sanctuary and aid. Friendship demands more.

"It is dark, and late enough now that no one will notice if you wanted to show Captain Rogers more of Wakanda than just this room," he says to Bucky, and watches as the other man's gaze instantly goes to Rogers with a silent question.

[from_the_outside]

"That would be great," Steve says, instantly, looking back at Bucky. "The next best thing to seeing it in daylight. What d'you say, Buck? Give me the ten cent tour?"

It's not the first time he's grateful for T'Challa's tact, and he's sure it won't be the last.

[nerves_of_ice]

"You got it," he says, flowing to his feet with innate grace.

T'Challa nods, and stands as well. To Steve, he says, "It was good to see you again. Be safe, when you go, and know that you can always call on us should you have need."

[from_the_outside]

"Thank you again, your Highness," Steve says, gravely. "And if I can ever do anything to help you, just give me a call."

He says his farewells next to Nakia and Shuri, then waits with his hands in his pockets, standing easily next to Bucky as he watches the royal family of Wakanda make their way out of this room.

Once they're gone, he turns to Bucky with a smile. "Okay. Where to?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Well, you've already seen the Citadel, and Shuri's lab, and everything in between," he drawls. "The city'll be quiet this time of night, but I was thinking..."

An amused smile curves his lips.

"... I know you're more of a city boy, Rogers, but how would you feel about seeing some of the countryside?" A beat. "The goats'll be asleep, though."

[from_the_outside]

"I think I can take it," Steve laughs. "I don't lose all ability to function if there isn't a bodega around the corner or a deli across the street, you know."

There weren't a lot of green and growing things around them during their Brooklyn boyhood, but he's got to admit they've been doing a hell of a lot for Bucky here. "Let's go. I'll just have to meet the goats another time."