[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]

“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.”

[from_the_outside]

She hates that she relaxes a little. "Sounds striking," she comments, trying to picture it. Her?

"I guess a mage isn't too surprising, considering it's a magic bar."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Pretty much,” he agrees. “She’s got a giant dog, too. His name’s Liranan.”

[from_the_outside]

"Okay, that's great," Sharon says. She's a dog person, herself.

"Maybe I'll meet her next time. You could ask for a new plant," she points out. "Considering you have another house to warm."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Maybe,” he agrees. “I think you’d like her.”

[from_the_outside]

"I probably would."

Although he'd been slightly optimistic about her liking some of his other friends. To that end, there's something a little cautious in her casual tone when she adds, lightly:

"In the interest of avoiding any other surprises, is she a friend like Lucifer? Or a friend like Zinda?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky eyes her.

“Neither,” he says, mildly.

[from_the_outside]

Her eyebrows lift, just a little.

"What does that mean?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“Exactly what I said,” he returns, still mild. “We’re friends. We’re allies. She understands what it’s like to be imprisoned and used. I went to Thedas with her to help out with a couple of things. Her partner, Zevran, is an assassin too. He’s a trip.”

[from_the_outside]

It's been a while since he's decided to willfully misunderstand her or talk around an actual answer, and her mouth twists a little unhappily.

Fine. She can drop it.

"Sounds like you've all got a lot in common," she says, instead of anything else. "So what's Thedas like?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“Kind of like a medieval world crossed with what we think of as a fantasy one, I guess,” he says, watching how her mouth twists. “Elves, dwarves - wyverns to fight—“

He stops.

“Sharon, what is it you really want to ask me?”