White | B. BARNES

Chapter 36

Play the song to get the full effect of the following scenes. Read slowly and savor the moment. It's a MUST:

📍 Wakanda | January 2018

"Ndizokubona ngomso, (Xhosa: I'll see you tomorrow)" Sapphire said to the kids who were around her.

They stood up and said their goodbyes.

2 years is a short time to find your place.

Living as a guinea pig isn't the way of life.

Assassinating others will only last long until you get bored of it.

Definitely, prison isn't the place.

The royal family of Wakanda gave her the privilege to stay in their land. Of course, she turned heads when the citizens first saw her, but they welcomed her warmly.

But one thing remained, she still couldn't offer her name to others.

Eventually, she started to go by the name "Snow."

The kids were amazed by how pale she was from head to toe when they first met her. And she was compared to the snow on their mountains.

They were the kindest in the world with a heart of warriors.

Sapphire decided to make herself useful and asked the king if there's anything she could help around.

But what does she know aside from causing danger, death, and pain?

And the past years, Sapphire found herself to be good at teaching children despite her dislike towards others.

It was a good way to practice her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics.

Maybe, she was good at children because she wanted them to have a nice childhood like what she didn't have.

A childhood where they are helped to understand to gain knowledge and not force them like what happened to her.

Aside from that, she trains with the warriors of Wakanda every other day. They also helped her learn the language in 3 months.

However, 2 years is a long time when you're waiting for someone.

And that someone is your safe place. 

But Sapphire worked on not depending on him.

She wanted to be healed from her past when they touch again.

They are still times when she wakes up from a nightmare, and those blue eyes aren't there to keep them at bay.

Simply, she held on to his dog tags and the necklace Bucky gave her.

It wasn't easy to navigate her path all alone.

And loneliness became her best friend.

It keeps her company, especially on occasions like this.

It was now night time, there was a bonfire, and everyone around gathered having fun doing their tradition.

Children were laughing.

Lovers were uniting.

The family was holding each other as she sat all alone, observing everyone.

Fiddling with the pendants on her neck, she stood up and walked inside the lab.

Shuri, god bless her heart, told her that it will always be open for Sapphire as long as she doesn't touch anything.

Sapphire stood in front of the man she was waiting for, for 2 years now.

Bucky's eyes were shut closed, keeping those blue eyes hidden from her. He lied there frozen.

"Hey, Buck," she spoke quietly, stepping closer to his cyro and pressing her hand gently on the glass.

She always did this every time she visited in hopes to reach his mind, but she couldn't.

She felt her eyes well up, feeling the cold glass against her palm. "The nightmares are slowly fading away now," She always let him know what was happening in her life.

"I miss you more today," Sapphire let her tears drop as she closed her eyes, attempting to reach his mind.

Shuri said that once I did, then it's an indication that he's finally okay and can come out.

But every trial Sapphire did, it seems to fail. 

The woman was slowly feeling dejected as she couldn't reach him for the past 5 minutes now.

"She is strange, but so was I for liking her."

Sapphire gasped, hearing the familiar voice and finally entering his mind.

In his head, she saw them in Bucharest, dancing to Your Song.

"Her stormy eyes represent the color of chaos."

Sapphire could hear his thoughts during that moment.

"Those eyes can cause destruction to others but never to me."

With her eyes still shut while crying, she continued to listen to him in her head for the first time in 2 years.

"With her in my world, I'm not just surviving."

Then, his memory shifted to the day before he went inside the cyro. 

Bucky was wiping her tears away, "I don't like my last memory of you to be crying."

"I love you, James," Sapphire placed a hand on his cheek, sweeping his hair back. "No matter how much I say it, while you're going to be in there, remember that I'll always love you more than that."

Sapphire saw Bucky's perspective when he stepped inside the cyro. His eyes shifted from Steve to her, who mouthed an "I love you." 

"I'm going to come back home, Dollface." And his last thought before he closed his eyes and was frozen were, "I'm not giving you up that easy, Sapphire."

"Snow?"

Sapphire was snapped out of the link when Shuri called her as she entered the lab.

"What happened?" Shuri asked, seeing the lady in distraught.

She finally saw how beautiful she looked in his eyes like what he had said, the first time they made love.

Sapphire began to grin while she laughed and cry. She must have looked crazy to Shuri because she carefully stepped towards her. 

"He's coming home."