you & me. legal. forever.

21. Showdown

The following day, after a morning of sightseeing and last minute preparations, Zoe found herself trying to relax for a little while before getting ready for the main event.

Bucky had taken his things to get ready in another room so she could have some quiet time before the festivities. As she relaxed under the spa-like shower, she thought about how insane her situation was.

She laughed to herself that she not only was about to marry a fucking Avenger, but she was doing so in the palace of a foreign country, surrounded by other fucking Avengers and assorted super people, friends and family of super people, and god knows how many foreign dignitaries.

Times like this, she wished she drank, smoked, had a valium, something, as her nerves were running wild. She tried to maintain her composure and just be in the moment, like she reminded Bucky to do all the time.

As she got out of the shower, she wrapped her hair in a towel and slipped on a robe. Pepper and Sarah were supposed to come by to help her get ready, even though she really didn't need the help. Her dress was simple enough to put on, she wasn't planning on going crazy with her hair or makeup, and Shuri had already taken care of her other surprise for Bucky that morning.

As she passed a mirror, she dipped the back of the robe to see the new tattoo on her left shoulder blade, already healed courtesy of advanced Wakandan tech, and smiled. She hoped he would like it. When he showed her his embossed arm plate, she almost told him her plan. She, Shuri, Okoye, and Ayo had planned her traditional Wakandan ink as soon as she had relented to having the wedding there. Ayo had insisted that this made her not only a sister of the Dora Milaje, but officially claimed her as a warrior's wife.

Zoe was touched by their sentiment and was absolutely game for whatever they wanted her to get. As she touched the design, she felt her heart flutter at the thought that he now had a permanent place on her, just like she had on him. The design was simple, some traditional petroglyphs marking her as part of the family and identifying her as the owner of the heart of their White Wolf. It made her so proud to be part of his extended family, though at the moment, it did little to calm her anxiety.

As she walked out of the bathroom to start getting dressed, she heard a thud. She turned around to see where the noise came from and her blood ran cold.

"Zoe?!" an exasperated voice called from the darkened corner.

"What the actual fuck?" she breathed. "How the hell are you here?" She would know that voice anywhere...

"What are you doing in Wakanda?!" Steve Mother Fucking Rogers stepped out from the shadows. "Where the hell is Bucky?"

"How are you here right now?" she cried. "You died years ago! I know, I skipped your goddamn funeral! What the fuck is going on?"

"Strange came and got me..." Steve looked around the room. "When I woke up this morning, it was 1952..."

"Well it sure as shit isn't 1952 right now, asshole!" she yelled. "What the hell are you doing here? Today of all fucking days?!"

"I don't know! Strange told me it was an emergency!" Steve couldn't stop staring at her. She looked so different from the last time he saw her. When she had left the compound, she was a lot curvier, her hair shorter, and she looked so defeated.

Now, she was looking more like how he remembered her before the blip. Sure, she was extremely upset, but she had that spark, that ferocity, that fight back that he had found so magnetic all those years ago. She looked so strong and beautiful, like she did before the world fell apart.

The fire in her eyes that he had missed, the one that he tried and failed to reignite when they were together was back and somehow even brighter. Whatever had happened to her in the intervening years, it certainly looked damn good on her...but that was not the point right now. "What the hell are you doing here?"