Fire and Ice

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Kate wakes up slowly, the sun peeking through the red curtains in front of her. She blinks, sitting up and remembering where she is and why she's there. Feeling better rested than normal, she gets up, gets ready, and grabs some fruit for breakfast. She eats it outside in the warm sun, occasionally glancing at Bucky's hut. Either he's wandered off or he's still asleep, and she's willing to bet it's the latter. His curtains are closed.

What can she do today? Bucky won't want to talk about anything, and in any case she isn't sure how that will help the deprogramming without having everything with her. She has the file, but not the program she and Shuri started, unfortunately. What are they going to talk about, though, if they don't talk about each other? Personal things. Maybe if she thinks about which questions to ask him, chooses ones that won't bring up bad memories... That was the hardest thing in the world to do before, when he was asking her about science. She basically gave up altogether.

She lays back in the grass, just outside of the fire pit they used last night to make dinner. In the distance, she hears voices and footsteps, likely children. They don't come nearer though, and she can't see them unfortunately. Even though she shouldn't, she would love to really explore Wakanda. She was a bit disappointed she didn't get to see T'Challa become King. She's learned bits and pieces of the culture and the language, but she wants to know more. It's such a beautiful, vibrant place, and out here, in the Border Tribe, it looks totally different than it did in the citadel. It smells like fields — grass and dirt and the animals kept off in the distance. There's beautiful flowers and trees and open fields. It's almost perfect, though it's hot. And she doesn't have sunscreen.

Bigger, closer footsteps approach from the direction of Bucky's hut, and Kate sits up, watching him exit the hut in new clothes. It's a red, robe-like thing (Kate wishes she knew the name of it) patterned like hers, secured by haphazard knots and a belt. His outfit, though, includes a blue cloth to cover his left shoulder.

Kate wasn't quite sure of the proper way to put her outfit on either, but she did her best. It must've been even more difficult for him. He squints against the sunlight, taking a bite of the fruit in his hand.

"Look who decided to wake up," Kate says.

He rolls his eyes as he sits next to her, mumbling something she can't make out. His eyes, faint bags under them, find hers. And still she can't help but notice how alive they are. Tired, but alive. He sighs. "What's on the agenda for today?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I didn't come here with an itinerary."

He finishes his breakfast, then discards what's left of his fruit. "You stayed." It isn't a question.

"How else would I be here?" she says.

He looks over at her; she can feel his eyes on her, but she won't meet them. Her stomach begins to twist in knots, and her leg begins to bounce until she realizes and makes herself stop. This isn't like when she met Steve for the first time. This is ten times worse. He's her favorite Howling Commando, her main mystery now solved, and there's no one else out here to fill the silence or give them something to talk about. Especially when his past is something he doesn't want to talk about, and she's so focused on not asking the wrong thing that nothing seems right. But something got her through dinner last night. Maybe sarcasm, maybe humor, maybe something else. She just needs to find it again. But it's hard with his eyes on her like that.

"Why?" he asks.

A laugh bursts from her chest. "How come you get to ask all the questions?"

He chuckles. "Alright, fair point. You can ask me one, too."

"Deal."

He holds his hand out to her to shake, and she takes it, feeling the callouses, the warmth. She's already warm, but it's different. She faces forward, eyes roaming the foliage, the broad leaves lifting toward the clear sky and the bright flowers. "T'Challa asked me to stay. He offered me the opportunity to work in the labs. I accepted. I couldn't say no — especially when Steve pushed me to do it, too."