Clutching || Bucky Barnes (3)

24

T'Challa was waiting for them at the entrance of the base, the snow whipping round his frame like a curtain of white and a slumped figure hanging over his shoulder. His cat mask seemed understanding as they walked out. The three of them with heavy shoulders, weary with the knowledge of what had broken in that room. The friendships that would never be the same again. Trust, loyalty and faith had been left there on the floor and it hung over Basil and Steve like a cloak. Bucky seemed to know what they had sacrificed there and the guilt of it was readable in the grim line of his mouth and the tense set of his shoulders. 

"Zemo?" Steve greeted with a wave to the man hanging over T'Challa's shoulder. 

The black panther nodded. "I caught him outside. He thought he could just take the easy way out. I stopped him and will be taking him back to my country to face his punishment". Basil would have commented on that if his head wasn't still in a daze from the enormity of his actions. He used his powers to threaten to harm someone. That made him feel nauseous. His abilities had always been used for escape or defence, every time he harmed someone it was with his hands or a weapon. His ability only used to stay alive. He was a doctor. He never wanted to be a soldier. He never wanted this. 

T'Challa was watching them. "What are you going to do now?" 

Steve sighed deeply. Basil pressed the pads of his fingertips into his eyes in a hopes that the pressure would remove the dull bone weary exhaustion in his chest. The avengers were lost. The friends he had built in this scary modern world gone and disjointed. Henry was god knows where, probably on the run for helping them. Phillip was in a care home and with age catching up on him. The rest; Sam, Wanda, Clint were all under custody. Nat was gone and Tony hated them. The fragile semblance of normality and a life he had managed to build in London was ruined. He couldn't return to work, to his flat, to what comfort he'd had. It made a soft sound escape his throat, a sob mixing with a sigh. Then he was rubbing his eyes and lifting his head. He had been through too much to cry now. 

"We go on the run", he spoke before Steve could. 

"They will be looking for us", Bucky added. They all knew that 'they' meant everybody. 

"We will need to break the other's out", Basil nodded. "I don't trust Ross to have kept the agreement I made with Rhodes and Nat. I don't trust any government man any further than I can throw him". 

"You can't throw anyone", Bucky muttered. Basil scowled at him but the familiar jibe eased the sickness in his chest. He hadn't lost everything. He had something that he hadn't had before. 

"Anyway, this is where we part Your highness", Steve sighed. He slung his shield over his shoulder and held out a hand. The snow dotting his hair and pricking his cheeks. Basil shivered and huddled in his coat, the snow tangling in his curls. 

T'Challa glanced at the hand and the mask eyes crinkled slightly as if in a smile. (It was hard to tell through the material). "Actually Captain, Corporal, Sargent. I think we shall be spending a little more time together. In payment for my false assumptions and refusal to believe you, may I offer you refuge in my kingdom. They won't find you there. You will be safe". 

Basil and Steve exchanged wide eyes. Then the two of them glanced at Bucky. The long haired man blinked but they both knew it as an answer. Steve let out a breath of relief and a slight smile caught his lips. He held out a hand again and this time T'challa took it. "T'Challa, we would happily accept your offer". 

T'Challa nodded. "Good. Come, my plane is over here". Then he was walking through the snow towards the right. Basil glanced around but saw nothing but miles of snow and mountains. Nothing to mark a plane other than the Shield one they had arrived in. The three men trudged after the king in confusion.