[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]

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."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I don't know what he wants now, that's the point," Bucky informs her, and starts to get up.

"Let me get you a cup."

[from_the_outside]

She puts a hand on his shoulder and gently but firmly draws him back down. "It's fine, I can get one in a bit."

For now, she rests her hand on his leg and gives him a quizzical glance. "What makes you think he wants anything at all?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He settles back against the wall of the hut and shrugs.

"He's kept his promise," he points out. "So things might be different now."

[from_the_outside]

That small frown from the night before is back, camping out between her brows.

"Maybe," she says, skeptical. "But I wouldn't want to be the one to suggest to T'Challa that maybe he thinks his promise is no longer valid or that he might want something in return for it."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky sighs.

"That's not what I meant."

[from_the_outside]

"No?"

She leans her head back against the wall and watches him rather than the pale pink beginnings of dawn.

"What did you mean?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"He promised I'd be free of it." Bucky turns slightly to face her. "As of yesterday, I am. Shuri did the impossible, and invented something new to do it. He kept his promise. They both did."

"So now they've got a--" He cuts himself off there and rethinks what he was about to say, then takes a different tack.

"It just seems like I should offer to help with... whatever. If he wants."

[from_the_outside]

"I'm sure he'll appreciate the offer," Sharon says, diplomatically.

She's not going to touch the topic of whether T'Challa might want to use Bucky with a ten foot pole. She's on thin enough ice with him just in general already.

"But I think you'll find you're more to them than a promise they made, Bucky. Whether they want the help or not."

[nerves_of_ice]

He starts to speak, then stops himself, and makes himself consider, really consider, what Sharon's trying to tell him.

Finally:

"I know." He says it slowly, as if testing the words. "I ... I do know that. It's just ... I mean, it feels like I should...."

[from_the_outside]

"I know, baby. It's okay."

Her hand firms a little on his thigh, and she shakes his leg a little, coaxing the way he does when he tugs at a lock of her hair. "T'Challa is a good man and he cares about you. You're his friend. You're Shuri's friend, too. And there are a lot of things you can help with. He knows that."

And he's a king, who doesn't always have the luxury of personal choice. "So offer. Like I said, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. But I would be very surprised if he felt there was any kind of obligation involved."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky nods, then leans his head back against the wall of the hut and looks out at the brightening sunrise.

[from_the_outside]

She shifts enough to lean her head against his shoulder, her hand still familiar and warm on his leg, and breathes deep of the clean, cool air while around them the birds begin to wake and sing and dawn slowly filters into the sky at the horizon.