ostavil | 001 wakanda

001 wakanda

There's peace in Wakanda. Bucky had spent a little while under the ice while Shuri figured out a way to work on his deprogramming and while it's been a painful process, it's a necessary one and he's glad for all her work on the tangled knot that's HYDRA and the mess inside his brain. It's all wired incorrectly, a bomb that never went off but still needs to be defused, and he's scared every time she goes in there that something will go wrong and he'll attack her; it hasn't happened yet.

When he isn't working with her or Ayo, he has a little hut to himself where there are goats and sometimes children come visit him to see the curious white man who has taken up on the fringes of Wakandan society. Steve has visited a few times but when they announce a visitor this time, it's apparently not Steve. They're still at the palace being received, though, so Bucky takes the time to tidy up where he's been staying as much as he can one-handed; he's neat by nature but he also isn't used to having company come by either.

Who could it be? Sam? Sharon? Bucky isn't sure who would come to visit him aside from those two and Steve. Tony Stark certainly wouldn't and he isn't sure the Wakandan government would even let him in. Would Wanda come to see him? He's not certain. He imagines she's in hiding the same as he is, trying to avoid the Sokovia Accords and their inevitable consequences on her. It seems she's suffering more from them than anyone else, even himself, so he doesn't think she'd risk coming to see him.

He catalogs the other people he knows and he comes up with Natasha. He's got a strange history with her. He's shot her twice while the Winter Soldier but curiously, both times, he'd shot her non-fatally. It's almost as if he'd known that she needed to live even if he didn't know her and that's not what the Winter Soldier does. He doesn't leave loose ends. He kills whoever is necessary, even an innocent bystander, and Natasha has been actively opposing him both times he's encountered her. Even when he'd been activated by Zemo he'd attacked her but didn't take her down. There's something in him that protects her and he wonders why that is and always has. He doesn't know why she'd visit him but he wouldn't turn it down, either, so when he hears someone at the door he calls for them to come inside.

"Come in, I'm not busy." He's just finishing up wiping down a counter in what counts for his kitchen and when he comes into view of the visitor, he sees that it is Natasha. Curious.

"Hi."

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"Yeah. I just...don't know how to be that guy and I'm afraid to have emotions about...that. I don't think it's fair to not be who you love and expect anything. I need to remember."

It's difficult to say that because he wants to be with Natasha. He wants what they had before he knew even if knowing the truth is better than living a lie. Knowing is better than not knowing all around.

"So I don't want you to feel tied down."

"James, you can focus on you because that's enough. I'm a big girl, and I can keep myself safe, I promise." She takes a step closer to him but doesn't reach out to touch him, just meets him half way incase he wants to come closer.

"You don't always have to try to protect me like that. I know what it's like for things to change, for people to change, but I know that somewhere in there, those memories are. I know that it wasn't a completely different person I was in love with, just a part of him..." she says with a smile, because she's sure of that.

"Besides, you were dreaming about me, which says to me you like me too."

"I never said I didn't like you," Bucky says. Like feels like too weak a word for the feelings he had been developing for Natasha before everything came out about him having worked with the Widows before and them having a relationship while he was still under. He had been falling in love with her and now he feels like he's encroaching on another man's woman.

"And yeah, I had dreams. I never stopped wanting you. I just feel like I'm encroaching on the ghost you loved. I feel like you're a widow and I'm the new man coming in after your husband died except the husband was...me. A different me."

And clearly a more confident him.

She cocks her head to the side a little bit thinking on his statement which is different and and interesting way to look at it.

"And would you think that about someone who's husband died? That her second husband was loved any less then the first one?" she asks softly, like she's trying to judge his reasoning there. She's a little frustrated in the way that he always seems to be convinced he's right about everything -- but it's also just like how he always was, so there's also some assurance to that.

"Tell me about your dreams James."

"I don't know how I'd feel, Natasha. It's a pretty unique situation, don't you think? This one? I think it'd be different if it was two different men but this like...two halves of myself and I can't access one half of it."

Bucky makes a frustrated noise and when she asks about the dreams, he thinks that's easier to address.

"Dreams about showering with you, about lying in bed with you, about stealing you little things just to make you happy. You loved that man. Me. But I don't remember it the way I remember us curled up and watching movies, you know?"

She wants to get frustrated at that, ask him if that means she shouldn't be allowed to like this one now then, but she doesn't. She just focuses on what he says about the dreams.

"Those sound like memories, not made up ones. You used to fold me these little paper currency bills into flowers, or give me other trinkets." Her face has a little bit of a sad smile when she remembers that and shakes her head.

"When I was missing you out there working, I was missing watching movies on the couch with you too you know, you can stop trying to assume you know exactly how I feel, and just ask."

"Look, I just...I needed to know. You're not wrong for telling me. Steve's files showed me enough to confirm I was there. I'm sure what you've brought me will tell me even more about what I did when I was in the Red Room and why I was there."

Bucky runs his hand through his hair; it's so long now that it gets in his eyes easily and still gets tangled.

"I just don't want to let you down. That's all."

"Hey... James..." She says quietly and she reaches out to take his hand.

"You're not going to let me down, okay? That much I am sure of," she adds softly smiling at him and squeezing his hand for a moment in reassurance. She brushes her thumb over the back of his hand quietly and just gives him a moment to process all this.

"Nothing else, literally, is gonna run me off okay. Just, please, stop trying to apologize and push me away and let me be by your side."

"Yeah, I'm just overthinking it," Bucky says. It's hard not to overthink it though because this is such a strange situation and he doesn't think anyone else would have to compete with their past self in a romantic relationship. It's just...yeah.

"It's just difficult to know there's a part of me missing and not know how to get it back. I feel like it's not fair to either of us for me to not have it, you know? I guess it'll come back eventually, though."

"Don't you think that spending more time together, would probably help with some of that?"

It's quite, she's not going to beg him to let her stay there. She still wants to run away sometimes when he gets like this, but she's figuratively digging in her heels and not letting herself turn this time.

"Stop explaining, just feel."

"Just feel," Bucky agrees. There's no harming in just letting himself feel and he remembers when Natasha said he'd feel stupid about feeling nervous with her and now he understands what that meant and, well, he does feel a little stupid about it. He offers his hand to her.

"Remember when you said I'd feel stupid about being nervous? I think I know what you mean, now. I didn't have to feel nervous because you already knew me, right? Or some of me, at least."

She squeezes his hand and steps a little closer, looking up at him with a gentle smile. The kind that's soft, and she's kept just for him all these years.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I meant, you already had me hook line and sinker, there was nothing for you to worry about. I'm a sure thing Barnes, and you're going to think you're extra dumb when you were suggesting I'd probably rather be off with one of your friends yeah."

"Well, I'm pretty sure Steve's heart is taken," Bucky says, laughing softly. He's never seen anyone look at a person the way Steve had looked at Peggy Carter and he's not sure why he ever entertained the thought of Steve and Natasha being together.

"But I guess you could say my heart's taken too," he says, squeezing her hand back. "Come on inside. I'm not the kinda guy to just leave a girl standing on the porch when she's the most beautiful girl I've ever met."

She melts a little bit when he says that. She really wants to throw herself at him and wrap his arms around him and just give him a big hug but that just feels a little too much.

"Lead the way, James.." She says instead but she doesn't let go of his hand as she follows him into his home quietly. She knows she's been pushy, and a lot and she'd like to just let him a relax a little bit more.

"You always told me I was the prettiest girl in the world.." she chuckles, "My pretty little spider" She says off hand in Russian, but with an American accent like he speaks.

"I didn't use spider. I couldn't possibly have used something as on the nose as spider," Bucky says, giving her a narrow-eyed look. He leads her inside and goes to get them both something to drink while he turns that over and over in his head. Pretty little spider. Nah, no way. That's never a nickname he'd use.

"Vixen," he substitutes, still in Russian. "That's more like me, I think. I won't believe spider until I remember it myself or have video evidence."

And the latter cannot possibly exist.

She grins at that, hoisting herself up on his kitchen counter to sit taking the drink he hands her and takes a sip looking over at him pointedly as she says it. It's somehow very funny to imagine that this James is much cooler and convinced he is then the one he knows.

"Just so you know, I told you the other Widows used to talk about you, but it was bullshit... you're right you only had eyes for one vixen." She says reassuringly with a grin.

"Guess I'm just too prefect."

"I told you that was bullshit. No one would describe me as fun," Bucky says. It's light-hearted this time, though, not broken and brittle and painful. It's something he can laugh at a little bit now because it's been bandaged over. It's not fixed, not at all, but he can poke a little fun at it.

"I would say I would need a personality transplant to be fun but that's not actually funny since I had one," he adds. "But me only having eyes for you? That tracks. I don't think there's any woman alive or dead who could hold a candle to the great Natasha Romanoff."

"You know, I'm starting to think you've gotten a hell of a lot funnier, James." She says fondly and holds out her arms for him to come closer to her sitting on the counter. She wants to wrap her legs around him a little bit but him standing between them will make it up to that idea.

"I'm sure there's prettier women out there in the world, but I'll settle on being the prettiest in your eyes, because those are the only ones I care about anyways. Plus, let's be honest, I could kick pretty much anyone elses ass."

Bucky moves to stand in front of her so Natasha can wrap her arms around him while she's still sitting on the counter. She's so short that doing this basically makes her the same height as he is and he finds it amusing that finally, this is the way they get face to face.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not funnier. The truly funny version of me died in 1945. I think what I am now is laughable, which has the root of laugh but does not, in fact, speak to my ability to deliver jokes. And yes, you could kick everyone else's ass."

She sets her drink on the counter and drapes her arms around his neck and smiles at him, he's handsome and it's easy to get lost in his eyes. She just looks at him fond, quite for a moment before adding. "Maybe we need to get a comedy movie list then, get your comedy sense up in reaction to it. Bet you'd pick it up soon..."

She takes one of her hands away to bring it up to comb through his hair with a gentle smile.

"It'll get better James, you just have to give it time. When I first got out I was so afraid all the time, kept looking behind my back constantly."

"What did my hair look like then?"

It's an impromptu question, only asked because Natasha has her hand in his hair again and it feels so good that he almost can't string a sentence together. He wonders if she touched his hair like this back then, back during those times he doesn't remember. His dreams showed him with long hair but he has long hair now so he might have simply imagined it that way because it's how he looks now.

"Was it like this?"

The first question he's asked, and she's more then happy to answer that. She smiles at that carding her fingers through his hair a bit quicker in response to it.

"It was long, just like this," she says with a smile. "Sometimes when your head was hurting you'd lay your head in my lap and I'd just run my fingers through your hair for hours, it's why I decided to ask to wash it."

She explains the first day they'd spent together here in Wakanda.

"I thought it might help you relax still to this day."

"Huh. I did like it when you washed it," Bucky admits. He likes her touching it right now, too, and her description of stroking it while his head's in her lap sounds like the most relaxing thing in the world. He realizes now that her washing his hair had been just as much for her as it was for him.

"I thought nobody had ever done that for me," Bucky says. "But it felt so good that I didn't know how to ask for it again. Guess you know me better than I know me at this point considering you can fill in all my blanks."

She combs her fingers through his hair a bit more, brushing some out of his face. He’s handsome, she wonders what he would look like with shorter hair, she’s pretty sure he’d be handsome no matter how his hair was.

“Not all of them, but some. And I’d be happy to fill in what I can for you whenever you want … if you ever decide that you do.”

“I can wash your hair again tomorrow for you if you want, it looks nice today still, I don’t think it’s quite ready for another wash yet.”

"Maybe we could see about actually doing it in a shower this time. Unless that's...crossing a line. It doesn't have to be sex, it can just be a shower."

They've both seen each other naked dozens of times, surely, even if he doesn't remember it and he's not so out of control that he can't see a woman naked and not keep his hands to himself. It can just be hair washing. It's just more convenient in the shower.

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