[oom] the rules have changed since I learned to play

[from_the_outside]

Five days has never felt so goddamn long. Fortunately, there's a lot to do.

She throws herself into mission prep, spending hours strategizing with Steve and Nakia and T'Challa and Ayo, going over the exit paths Bucky had outlined, discussing their bid, their timing, their plan, their back-up plan, their back-up to the back-up. 

She works with Shuri on the newest iteration of her suit: improved, stab-proof, and locked away inside a chic gold bracelet. It takes a little while for her to get used to how it responds, but after a few hours of testing and adjusting, she can call it into being with a second's thought.

She and Steve have long calls with Fury, going over the intel he's collected on the other guests. There's only one Fury's really concerned about, a representative from the crime-soaked island of Madripoor. The rep's name is Kwan, but it's the person he's representing that has Fury worried. 

"This guy calls himself the 'Power Broker,'" he tells her and Steve. "Word is he takes it literally. If someone out here is looking to merge Chitauri tech and vibranium, it's this asshole."

But even she can't be in meetings all the time, and at least once a day she packs her laptop and intel into her tote bag and heads down to the little hut by the lake where she checks on the goats (all doing just fine under K'Senge's care), the hut (untouched), and more often than not sits for an hour or more under the shade tree, trying not to picture Bucky lounging next to her.

Steve sometimes accompanies her. He's doing his best, she knows: he always seems to be nudging her to eat something or reminding her when it gets late that she should sleep. And he's good company. It's not his fault he isn't his best pal.

Who is absolutely everywhere she looks: in her room, down by the lake, in the meeting rooms, in the lab; everywhere.  

She'd been sitting beneath the shade tree the afternoon after he went under when Anwuli, the little girl with the pretty beaded bracelets, came shyly up to her, holding out a small bouquet of wildflowers. "From the White Wolf," she told Sharon, who took the flowers, wordless, as everything she'd tamped down in the lab threatened to spill right back out of her.

"Thank you," she'd said, and the little girl had flushed and run off.

That had been five days ago. She's received four more bouquets since. They sit in water in her room, filling it with a faint sweet fragrance as she looks at herself in the mirror, putting the final touches on Irma and waiting for Steve to arrive.

Nearly time.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

They're well-prepared for the mission, Steve thinks. Between them all, which includes Bucky before he went under, they've looked at every angle and considered every possibility that they could think of. If there's a plan to be made, they've made it, and three others as alternates just in case for every one. He himself feels as comfortable as 'Ryan Devlin' as he's ever going to be.

He's still worried about Sharon, though. He's not sure whether or not she's like this before every mission, but he suspects not.

Which is why Steve shows up a little earlier than planned and knocks on her door.

[from_the_outside]

She's in the bathroom, straightening her hair, when the knock comes, and she glances at her watch with a frown before going to the door to let him in.

"Morning," she says, stepping back and holding the door so he can enter. "Eyes bright, tail bushy, huh?"

[marvel_npc]

"Something like that," Steve agrees. "Good morning. Had breakfast yet?"

[from_the_outside]

"Not yet."

She lets the door close behind him and nods to the coffee maker. "Want some coffee?"

[marvel_npc]

"Coffee sounds good," he replies. "Want I should go to the kitchen and bring something back?"

[from_the_outside]

Chances are high that he's not going to stop asking until she eats something, so she gives him a small smile and nods.

"Sure," she tells him. "Whatever looks good. I'll have a fresh cup for you when you're back."

[marvel_npc]

"Thanks," Steve says, and vanishes out the door to the kitchen. He's already eaten, but he brings back something for himself as well as for her, figuring that'll make it more likely that she actually eats more than two bites.

He's also learned by now not to bring back too much, so he keeps it simple: a plate of the spiced pieced bread called fit-fit, a small pot of yogurt, and a bowl of mixed fruit that's mostly guava and some berries he doesn't know.

He walks back in and makes straight for the table to set the small tray down.

[from_the_outside]

As promised, there's a steaming cup of coffee on the credenza for him, along with some milk and the sugar pot – she doesn't actually know how he likes his coffee, so she just nods at it to him as she comes in from the bathroom, fixing an earring into her ear. "Thanks, Steve," she tells him, and brings her own coffee over to sit at the little table.

(She slept... okay. No worse than usual. She's gotten plenty of rest to be sharp for the mission.)

She dishes out a little of the yogurt and fruit and gives him a small smile. "Feeling ready?"

[marvel_npc]

He adds a little milk to his coffee and joins her at the table.

"Sure. It's a different role," he admits, taking a piece of the bread, "but other than that, it's just another mission. Right?"

The question is only slightly bland.

[from_the_outside]

"Pretty much," she tells him, amused. He's done well; even she would have a hard time recognizing Steve beneath 'Ryan Devlin.'

"Although I used to have jurisdiction when I went on missions like this."

Him, too. She sips at her coffee and takes a few bites of yogurt and fruit.

[marvel_npc]

"There's that."

She's eating. Good. He'll take what he can get.

"It's a little different without it, true, but stealth's still stealth."

[from_the_outside]

"Still with Fury, too," she points out. "Some things don't change."

Her instinct is to get up and get the mission plans, go over them with him one last time, but even she knows that's not what they need to do right now. They'll brief with the team on the plane and once more with each other when they get to Prague, and Steve knows his business. So does she.

But that go go go mission tunnel vision is making it hard to think of anything else to say or do. "It's too bad we're both wanted criminals," she says, lightly. "Prague is beautiful this time of year."

[marvel_npc]

"There's that, too," he admits.

"Next time." Steve smiles, warm and reassuring.

[from_the_outside]

There he is, the eternal optimist. "Maybe," she agrees, and turns her attention to her coffee and breakfast. "We should head to the landing pad after this."

They decided it wouldn't be strange for Irma and her bodyguard to be escorted out of Wakanda and brought to the jet which will take them to Prague. T'Challa, Ayo, and the rest of the field team will follow them, cloaked, but they won't reconvene again until after everything is over.

They have their equipment. Shuri will be in contact with them the whole way. There's nothing left to do but to get out and do it. She takes a few more mouthfuls of yogurt without really tasting it, her mind already in Prague.

[marvel_npc]

He'll shift roles as soon as the door opens, but for now it's just him and Sharon. He stays quiet, though, watching as her gaze goes distant and carries her miles away.

Everyone has their own version of mental readiness in the hours before a mission. He's seen enough different versions over the years to be sure of that.

He doesn't think she's looking for reassurance, even unconsciously. Nor is she nervous, not in the way a rookie would be. She's already gone, almost Irma, deeply competent, and after a few more seconds, he decides not to interrupt her thought process.

Not unless things don't change after all's said and done, anyway.

[from_the_outside]

She blinks back into herself after a second and gives him a faintly wry smile as she grabs a piece of bread to eat with the rest of her coffee. "How's Sam enjoying working with Fury?" she asks, amused despite herself.

"Something tells me he's not a big fan of this old-school spy stuff, either."

[marvel_npc]

Steve laughs. "Better than last time. I think. Nat says they haven't butted heads too much, anyway."

[from_the_outside]

"Fury probably likes Redwing," she points out, grinning. "Drones are right up his alley. Even though they aren't usually so... whimsical."

She tips back the rest of her coffee and swallows her last bite of bread, then gets up to grab her pack and turn back to him, giving him a last wry smile that's only Sharon for the next little while.

"Ready, Mr. Devlin?"

[marvel_npc]

He smiles back at her, bright and open and somehow almost mischievous, before he finishes his own coffee and gets to his feet.

As he does, he lets himself go quiet and intensely focused, and silently promises his absent best friend that everything will be okay.

"Of course, Ms. Kruhl," Devlin says. Very politely.

[from_the_outside]

Irma Kruhl is like what you might get if Sharon Carter, rather than growing up with SHIELD, had grown up with HYDRA. She's competent and efficient, wears mostly black, keeps her emotions to herself.

And, like Sharon Carter, she is very, very good at what she does.

She and Devlin arrive at the landing pad precisely on time. The smile she gives King T'Challa is perfectly polite and doesn't touch her eyes at all. "Your Highness," she says. "You have been a perfect host. I very much hope we will see each other again soon, yes?"

[marvel_npc]

"I hope the same," T'Challa replies. At his side, Okoye stands quiet and still, merely observing.

"I am pleased to have had the chance to get to know you, and what Skyline has to offer Wakanda - and what Wakanda might offer in turn."

[from_the_outside]

"I look forward to it," she says, and nods to Ryan to puts the bags on the flyer that will take them to the airport before following him on and relaxing, however briefly, back into Sharon Carter as she straps herself in.

It's going to be a long few flights.

[marvel_npc]

The flyer lifts off. T'Challa stays where he is, watching, until it vanishes in a streak across the sky, then goes back inside with Okoye. They'd all discussed this, too: while it's not likely that they're being observed, it's best to be careful and not be seen leaving immediately.

Besides, not only is there no way that the flights 'Kruhl' and 'Devlin' will be taking can outpace Wakandan technology, he already knows where they're going.

[from_the_outside]

Stepping off the second of a multi-hour flight still perfectly pressed and without a hair out of place is a particular skill of Irma's, but she still needs to prepare for the auction itself.

Which is good, because they can set up camp in the suite of rooms they'd arranged beforehand with plenty of time to sweep for bugs and cameras and darken the windows.

"Clear," Sharon tells the connection at her wireless earbud, and turns to Steve. "Okay," she says. "Last run-through. Let's go through the checklist."

[marvel_npc]

Steve presses the tiny switch on the device Shuri had pressed on him a couple of days ago. "It will block directional microphones and other such things," she'd promised him. "And it is so new, no one will know it even exists, much less how to counter it."

He sets it on the table and nods to Sharon. "You recite and I confirm this time, or the other way around?"