[oom] an indentation in the shape of you

[from_the_outside]

Her room is closer. If he had to get up to take care of the goats, she'd walk them back down to the little hut by the lake, but K'Senge will still come by in the morning, and her room is closer.

"Follow me," she says, and steps back to take his hand in hers, then walks with him through the quiet halls of the Citadel until they reach her door. She unlocks it and draws him inside, then closes it firmly behind them again. 

Her heart is racing, anticipation chasing sweet fire through her veins as she puts her arms back around his neck. "Welcome to my humble abode," she murmurs, smiling, and kisses him.

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[from_the_outside]

"Okay," she says, simple, and goes to sit on the edge of the bed, toeing off her sandals as she does.

It's good to see him back in this little space. The hut had seemed lonely without him. "Tired?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"A little."

He comes to sit beside her on the bed.

"Are you?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yes," she tells him, straight-faced. "It's late and not all of us spent the last three weeks napping."

She leans to nudge his shoulder, her expression teasing and fond. "But I'll stay up with you if you're not ready to go to bed yet."

[nerves_of_ice]

He's not, but he doesn't know why. It doesn't make sense.

He tugs at a lock of her hair and smiles back at her. "No, let's call it a night," he says.

[from_the_outside]

She studies him for a second, considering whether or not to take him at his word, and nods. "Okay."

Leaning over, she kisses him gently, then gets up to get undressed, folding her clothes neatly on the seat of one of the chairs.

At some point she should see how much Steve told him about the mission... but not now. There will be plenty of time for that tomorrow, or even later.

[nerves_of_ice]

He follows suit, then pulls back the cover and sheet for them. Morning will come soon enough - it's only a few hours away, and everything else can wait until then.

(It'd come either way, he reminds himself. Might as well get some sleep first, while he can, before he begins to untangle what the future now looks like.)

[from_the_outside]

She slides into bed and waits for him to join her before settling at his side and pillowing her head in the hollow of his shoulder, her arm coming over his stomach.

"Nice to have you back," she murmurs, smiling as her lashes droop. "My other pillows seem very sub par now by comparison."

[nerves_of_ice]

He chuckles at that and settles his hand gently on her arm.

"Good night, Sharon."

[from_the_outside]

"Good night."

Her eyes are closed before she finishes the second syllable, and it isn't long at all before her breathing lengthens and deepens and her whole body relaxes. She hadn't been lying about being tired.

She's asleep before she knows it, too warm and comfortable and content to do absolutely anything else.

[nerves_of_ice]

It takes him longer, his mind buzzing too much to allow for easy sleep yet. He lies quietly in the dimness of the room, listening to Sharon breathe beside him, and thinks about everything that's happened in the last several hours and weeks, everything that he's been told or experienced.

It helps to walk through it, he finds, treating it like parameters and intel, and knows even as he does it that this may be a different sort of problem.

He'll deal with that later, now that he can. Starting tomorrow.

Eventually, he's able to slip into a light, mostly-restful doze, until the sounds of birds outside wake him somewhere in the hour before dawn.

[from_the_outside]

The dreams she has are vague and muddled and none of them are enough to wake her. She sinks into sleep like a rock sinks into water and stays there until some small motion from Bucky has her blinking sticky, tired eyes open into a pre-dawn gloom.

She makes a sleepy, questioning noise. It's still far too early for anything like words.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Go back to sleep, baby," he murmurs, brushing her hair back from her face. "You don't need to get up yet."

[from_the_outside]

She mumbles something that sounds a little like you sure? before turning her face into the pillow.

If she says anything after that, it's too muffled by the cloth and stuffing to understand.

[nerves_of_ice]

He smooths his hand gently over her hair once more before he gets to his feet. Bucky pulls on his clothes, takes the water pitcher, and goes outside.

The goats are asleep in their pen as well - evidently K'Senge's gotten them onto a more reasonable schedule in the last few weeks. He's careful not to disturb them as he quickly washes up and fills the pitcher. Back inside, he sets water to heat and measures coffee into the French press as quietly as possible.

As soon as he pours the heated water into the press to brew he carries it outside so that the scent won't wake Sharon. One more trip, and he has everything he needs. He settles on the ground outside at the side of the hut and waits for the sun to rise.

[from_the_outside]

He's as quiet as is humanly possible, but it isn't humanly possible to be absolutely silent while making coffee. She's tired enough that she sleeps through most of it anyway, but it's only about half an hour later before she wakes up for the third time and decides she may as well just get up.

... For now, anyway. She rolls out of bed and pulls on underwear and her tank top and eschews pants in favor of just wrapping the green throw around herself before she makes her slightly bleary way outside. "Hey."

Her voice is tired, but at least she's communicating in actual words. She feels this is a huge improvement. "Want some company?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He's sitting on the purple throw, a second cup of coffee in hand, and looks up at her with a warm smile.

"If you like."

She's wrapped up in the green throw and sleepy-eyed, hair a little tousled, and he finds her absolutely adorable.

[from_the_outside]

She makes an affirming sound – back to non-verbal communication, she thinks blearily, way to go, Carter – and pads barefoot over the grass to sink onto the purple throw next to him, leaning back against the hut wall as she does.

"Sleep okay?" she asks, after another few minutes of sleepy blinking at the dim world around them.

For all she's not a morning person, she does love this: the gray quiet pre-dawn world, the birds just beginning to sing. It feels like they're the only people in the whole world.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Well enough." He's still smiling, watching her blink at the world rather than the increasing light in the distant sky.

"Want coffee?"

[from_the_outside]

"In a bit," she says, after giving it a long few seconds of thought. He's likely to get up and make it for her and she wants to let him sit here for as long as he wants.

She rolls her head against the wall and finally clocks the fact that he's watching her, all fond amusement, instead of the sky. It makes her smile back at him, sleepy and affectionate. "Morning."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Good morning," he says, and leans in to kiss her.

[from_the_outside]

She hums a sound that might be an answer and kisses him back. When she pulls away again, the look she gives him is tired and sleepy-eyed but oh, so very fond. "Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day."

Looking up at the wide arc of the sky above them, she takes a deep lungful of clean, lake-scented air and sighs it out again. "So, what are your plans for your first day back as a real boy?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Both eyebrows rise skyward. "Does that make Shuri the Blue Fairy?" he drawls, before shaking his head.

"I don't know yet. I figure there'll be some follow-up from yesterday. I also need to speak with T'Challa about what he wants."

He sounds calm about it.

[from_the_outside]

"It's very sweet that you think I've thought this metaphor through this early in the morning," she tells him, amused, then keeps her eyes on his face as he continues.

Her own eyebrows track up towards her hairline. "What he wants?"

She's pretty sure the only things T'Challa wants when it comes to Bucky are for Bucky to rest and recuperate and find some kind of peace.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'm impressed you came up with at all when you're still prying your eyes open." He takes another swallow of coffee and holds the mug out to Sharon, just in case, as he nods to her question.

"Uh-huh."

[from_the_outside]

"I am a woman of many talents," she says, as imperiously as she can when her jaw cracks with a huge yawn directly afterwards. Accepting the coffee mug, she takes a sip, grimaces, and hands it back to him.

"It sounds like you think he wants something specific."