[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]

"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."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'll hold you to that," he teases, and falls in at Steve's left to lead the way out of the Citadel and down to the grassy field behind it.

"It never stops surprising me how everything works together here. The mines, the city and the Citadel, and then just steps away there's... this."

The air is fresh and clear, and the star-filled night sky unfolds above them.

[from_the_outside]

His shoes make soft sounds on the grass and he takes a deep breath of the fresh, sweet air before tipping his head back and looking up at the stars for a long moment.

"Reminds me of when we used to sneak up onto the roof and look for shooting stars," he says. "Not that we could ever see much in the way of stars in Brooklyn, even back then, but..."

He trails off and looks over at his best friend, smiling at what he sees. "You really like it here, don't you?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"It's peaceful," he says, simply, then looks back at Steve. "It's been a long time since that was even an option."

A beat of silence falls, and he glances up at the sky.

"It's nice to know it's here, is all. That it exists somewhere."

[from_the_outside]

"Kind of puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?"

He looks back up, too. It's so clear here he can see the Milky Way stretching like a river across the sky.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sure does."

He leads Steve over the top of the hill and onto the long slope down toward the lake, then stops and points at the hut.

"See that? Home sweet home, for now."

[from_the_outside]

He nods approvingly. "I like it. It's got quite a view."

It's nothing he would have ever expected Bucky to want, back when they were young and brash and full of themselves and the beating heart of the city around them –

But that was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then. "Seem like you've got everything you need," he says, as they walk slowly down the slope, then smiles. "Including the best fake nurse I know practically on call."

There's a pause, and he reconsiders. "Actually, I don't think she knows anything about nursing at all. Better not to chance it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It's simple," he says, dryly. "Simple's about what I can handle right now. You saw the flat in Bucharest."

He huffs out a wry breath at Steve's next observation. "Yeah, no. She came to the lab for the scans today, but I think it shook her up a bit."

[from_the_outside]

"Yeah?"

It's difficult to imagine Sharon Carter being visibly shaken by anything. "Why do you say that?"

(He's not surprised to hear she was there for the new scans. It fits with what he'd guessed and she'd confirmed.)

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yeah. You were quiet when you were looking around, before it all went to hell, but I saw you. I know how it looked." Bucky slants a glance at him and shrugs. "I'm still figuring out how to live like a person again, rather than a thing. Simple helps."

He says it matter-of-factly, without weariness or rancor. Since they're talking about this, Bucky decides to lead Steve to the hut so he can see for himself.

As they reach the bottom of the hill and start that way, he explains,

"Not all the memories are good. Hit a pretty bad one today - nobody's fault."

[from_the_outside]

"There's a lot to be said for keeping it simple. For anyone."

He stays at Bucky's shoulder as they head towards the hut. "I can see why that might upset her," Steve says, tactfully. "That kind of thing's not easy to watch."

Harder still to live, but Bucky knows he knows that. And there's an added helplessness when you see someone you care about suffering, knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it.

From what he knows of Sharon, she hates to be helpless.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods to that, and then, with a wry smile, silently points out the sleeping goats in their pen on the other side of the hut before he continues.

"I guess not." He shakes his head, and looks sideways at Steve. "I brought her up to speed, so you won't have to go through all of that again with her. She knows everything, pretty much."

[from_the_outside]

He nods, firmly, after smiling at the goats, and looks at Bucky. "Good."

There's a pause, and then he says, in the serious, straightforward way of someone used to charging straight into the line of fire: "I'm glad you've got her here with you, Buck. She's a hell of a woman."

[nerves_of_ice]

"She is," Bucky agrees, without hesitation.

"I know how much she means to you."

[from_the_outside]

"About that."

It's at least a little easier broaching this subject with Bucky than with Sharon herself, but he still wishes he were a little better at it. "Talking with Sharon's one of the reasons why I came tonight. You, too."