[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]

She's holding herself very still.

"That sounds like good advice."

[nerves_of_ice]

A small, wry smile quirks the corner of his mouth.

"I thought so too."

[from_the_outside]

She nods. Be careful, warn Shuri and T'Challa in her head.

She hasn't been. Not careful enough. She's pushed him already too far and too fast multiple times, and she knows – she knows – he's not where she's at. "I should give you some time to take it, then," she says, softly.

There's a bird beating at the inside of her breastbone, trying wildly to get out, but she's going to keep it – and this wary, surprised glow that's trying to shine out of her eyes – as tamped down as possible.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Okay."

It's very quiet, and he stays where he is, by the water, watching her. No matter what he does, no matter what he thinks or could think or feels or could feel -- she's got some thinking she needs to do as well, evidently, after what happened this morning.

[from_the_outside]

"Okay."

But she doesn't move, either, just stays where she is, a few feet away, looking at him.

(It's after four in the morning. Nobody is doing any thinking now.)

There's a long moment where she just watches him with serious dark eyes, and then she does finally move – but not away.

Instead, she takes the few slow steps she needs to come stand in front of him, then puts one light hand at the corner of his jaw and reaches up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

When she settles back down again, she's smiling, though it trembles a little at the edges. "Food for thought," she says, lightly.

[nerves_of_ice]

He remains still as she approaches, although his eyes go dark and startled as she sets her hand against his face and stretches up to him.

When she pulls back, the way her smile is shaking slices into him like a knife.

Silently, with deliberate care, he lifts his hand and places it against the curve of her cheek. He runs his thumb lightly back and forth over her bottom lip, studying her expression as he does, then leans down and kisses her.

[from_the_outside]

She's breathing so fast and so shallowly when he studies her with those serious eyes of his that she thinks she might need to dig up a paper bag to breathe into – but it stops being a problem when he cups her cheek with his hand and his thumb brushes over her lip, because she stops breathing altogether.

And then he leans down and she closes her eyes, slides one hand up into his hair and settles the other carefully on his chest, and stops keeping track of anything so useless as air.

[nerves_of_ice]

He doesn't try to deepen the kiss, keeping it gentle and sweet and lingering. When it breaks, he rests his hand on her shoulder and meets her eyes.

"Nakia warned me not to be careless with you," he says, very quietly. "And I don't intend to be. There are things we both need to think about."

Swiftly, before she can respond to that, before she can even consider protesting, he tells her,

"But no matter what - never think I didn't - never think I don't care."

[from_the_outside]

She settles her hands on his chest when this kiss breaks, feeling like a million lightning bugs are flickering into life just beneath her skin, and smiles slightly even as she takes a deep, rejuvenating breath in through her nose, her eyes on his.

"I won't."

If she didn't think it before, she certainly couldn't now.

She studies him, all solemn eyes and quiet sincerity in the dark. "Do you want me to stay away for a little while while you think things through?"

It might make the thinking easier. She has a tendency to dispense with thinking completely and just rush headlong into action.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not unless you want to."

She's searching his face, and he spends a moment studying her in turn, not sure what he might see. What he might expect to see, for that matter.

No answers present themselves. After a moment, he squeezes her shoulder lightly and lowers his hand back to his side.

[from_the_outside]

She huffs a laugh and brings her own hands back to her sides. "You should know better than that by now."

She'll stay away if that's what he wants. Otherwise? All bets are off.

Taking another deep breath, she tips her head and gives him an arch smile. "For now, I'll just say good night."

A pause. She amends. "I mean, good morning."

[nerves_of_ice]

He chuckles, very softly.

"Good morning. Go get some sleep."

[from_the_outside]

"You too."

She shakes her head and smiles to herself, then walks back to retrieve her sandals. She pauses a moment to look over at him, but only lifts her hand in a small wave, and heads back to the Citadel.

[nerves_of_ice]

He stays where he is until she disappears over the hill. Only then does he retrieve the camera and stand and throw and take them all inside. He puts the equipment on the table and drapes the throw over a chair, then toes off his shoes and lies down to stare at the ceiling.

If he falls asleep, the bleating of the goats will wake him. He doesn't think he will.