[oom] let me lead you to the promised land

[from_the_outside]

 It is intensely weird to step back through the door into the bright Wakandan afternoon, but the denizens of the strange-as-hell Bar at the End of the Universe were right: no time has passed at all.

She wishes it had. This just makes it seem even more impossible, a dream she can't begin to explain.

Bucky's had coffee and she's had wine and both of them are full of Sunshine's cinnamon rolls, which is all good except for how her go-to busywork of making coffee to give herself a second to think is even more unnecessary than usual. She goes into the hut to grab the wool throws instead, taking them over to the shade tree as her mind whirls.

There's a lot to take in. And a lot to think about.

"So," she says, once she's sat down. She loops her arms around her knees and studies him. 

"That was interesting."

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

He shrugs. “I try.”

[from_the_outside]

The people in the bar, at least, seem to appreciate him the way he deserves. That's enough to make Sharon warm towards them a little more.

(She's still feeling a little cool about Zinda Blake, the irrepressible pilot who'd planted one on him the second he stepped through the door, but that's her own problem.)

"Anyone else I should keep an eye out for next time?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, I don't know - there's lots of people to meet. Sometimes they might be gone for a while, so it's hard to say anyone'll be around on a regular basis, or anything like that."

He considers for a second, and then it hits him, and he grins.

"Maybe a couple of people, though. Remember the kid from New York? Spider-Man?"

[from_the_outside]

"The one Tony brought to Germany?"

She blinks at him, then looks amused as the penny drops. "That's how you knew his name."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky grins. “He’s a heck of a kid. Smart as a whip, too.”

[from_the_outside]

"Yeah?" she says, grinning back. They're back on more solid ground now, and she's glad; she'd hated feeling even a little out of sync with him.

"What's he like?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“Friendly. Lots of enthusiasm. Admires Steve and Tony both. Pretty earnest, and serious about the superhero thing. I like him,” Bucky tells her.

[from_the_outside]

"Good," she says, firmly. "He'll need all that."

It's a tough row this kid has chosen to hoe, but hell – it's not like she's one to talk. She frowns a little. "He's not the one who gave you designs for an arm, is he?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“No, that’s SecUnit. You didn’t meet them yet,” he says. “Or Fives, who’s offering prosthetic tech from his universe.”

He looks perfectly innocent as he adds, “He’s a soldier too. Works a little with a guy named Kenobi.”

[from_the_outside]

Sharon opens her mouth to respond, then closes it again with a bewildered frown.

"But – " she says, a little at a loss.

[nerves_of_ice]

“Yeah, I know,” he says, a little ruefully. “I’m not sure how it works either. Best explanation I’ve heard is that stories cross over, so what’s a story here is real elsewhere. There are even different versions of us in parallel universes, some, anyway. I’ve met a couple of people who know a different Steve, for example.”

[from_the_outside]

"So..." she says, slowly. "Not fictional."

Except also yes, fictional? "Does he knows there are movies about him?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“I don’t know. It’s not done to bring it up,” he cautions her. “Some people freak out at the idea. In my case Steve and I already knew about the comics from the war, so it wasn’t a shock.”

[from_the_outside]

"Got it," she says. "So if I see a Jedi – "

Still intensely weird! " – pretend like I have no idea who they are."

[nerves_of_ice]

“If it helps you can say I explained the concept,” he offers. “The only Jedi I’ve met is Kenobi, but there are a few pilots around.”

[from_the_outside]

She considers this, then nods. "Okay," she says. "That makes as much sense as anything else about the place does."

[nerves_of_ice]

“I know it’s a lot to take in.”

His smile is very wry.

[from_the_outside]

"Understatement," she says, dryly amused.

"But don't worry. I'll get there in the end."

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods, and squeezes her hand.

[from_the_outside]

Her smile turns rueful; he'd been pleased and smiling and now he's gone quiet and she can't help wishing she'd reacted in some other way. Some way he'd expected. Or wanted.

Except then she wouldn't be her and he'd said he liked her. The way she is. "Don't worry, baby," she says, softly, and squeezes his hand back, one corner of her mouth tilting up, wry and crooked.

"Anything else I should know?"

Like, for instance, any other flings she might run into without warning. "Or that you want to tell me?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“I’m honestly not sure,” he says, after thinking about it for a few seconds.

“Or— well, I saw Wanda there once too, not long ago. They’re doing okay.”

[from_the_outside]

"Wanda Maximoff?"

She'd been at the airport in Leipzig too, hadn't she? Sharon frowns, thoughtful. "Well, that's good. I could have used that place when I was on the run, honestly."

Somewhere safe, even without time moving outside the door? It would have been worth it just to get a breather.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods. “Yes, her. And yeah. I did, a few times.”

Something else occurs to him, and he tells her, “That’s where I got the plant. The one I had in Bucharest.”

[from_the_outside]

"From a friend," she remembers.

"One I met today?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head, smiling.

“No. Her name’s Ysalwen Surana. You can’t miss her - she’s got white hair and a tattoo on her face. She’s a mage, from a world called Thedas.”

A beat.

“It was a housewarming gift.”