Fire and Ice

•60•

He wakes up to dim lights and low voices. Everything is hazy, for a bit. Is that food? He's starving. He tries to ask for some, but his mouth won't move right. He just mumbles.

Quick footsteps approach and then a woman is leaning over him, freckled with an orange ponytail dangling over his forehead. "How are you feeling?" she asks.

This time, he manages to say something, with a giggle. "Great."

"Does your arm hurt?"

"What arm?"

On his other side, he hears laughter and laughs along with it, though he doesn't turn to its source. He looks at this woman. She sighs and the air hits his face. "Do you know who you are?"

"Bucky Barnes," he says, an automatic response, then reaching up to poke her cheek. "And you're Kate. Kate Carson." He laughs. "Hey, we both have the same letters. What's that called? A... A literature?"

"Alliteration? But- Never mind. Do you know where you are?"

"With you."

"Where?"

"In the lab, I guess."

The more they talk, the more things start to come into focus somehow, although he was sure he could see fine before. Somebody is messing with machines, poking him or something. His arm feels weird. The left one. He shifts to look down at it, then sees that it's not there.

He screams.

Kate jumps back, and he starts laughing. "Oh, I forgot that was gone."

"Did you drug him up more than you did last time?" Kate asks.

Shuri replies, "A little."

"It's more than a little."

"I wanted to make sure he couldn't feel anything."

"I feel great," he says. "But my shoulder-thing is tingly."

"To be expected."

"Cool."

"As soon as you're more yourself, and you've eaten, we'll attach the new arm and make sure everything is working properly."

He yawns. "Cool. I'm starving."

"I'll go get you something."

"But-" Kate starts, though Shuri is already walking away. Bucky waves at her until she's gone.

He turns to Kate. "She's like twelve, right?"

Kate laughs. "Close enough."

He closes his eyes, opens them again. The lab is cold. His arm hurts a little bit, but not too bad. Kate walks away, and he frowns, but then she comes back with a glass of water with a straw in it. He sits up and takes it from her. "Thanks."

"You feeling more like you yet?"

"What am I supposed to feel like?"

"I don't know. Quiet... ish. Serious... ish. Perpetually tired."

"Sounds like me." He looks over at her, the straw still in his mouth. She's sitting next him, watching, fidgeting with her hands. "How do you feel like? Wait, no. Do you feel like you?"