I've Loved You A Hundred Years (I'll Wait For A Hundred More) [STUCKY]

Chapter 11

Bucky didn't sleep at all in the mangy cell, counting the scratches on the wall and how many splitters he could pry off the old wooden bench in the room. The first ray of sunlight was blocked by a impeccable Wakandan king and a rather disgruntled Sam Wilson.

"What the shit, Barnes?" Sam said in exasperation. "Tell me they got it all wrong, cause I know you love my best man Steve." He rubbed his hand over his face, looking weary. "Did you...Winter Soldier or something?"

"Samuel." T'Challa cut off his fiancé. "Buchanan, I demand a worthy explanation." Bucky sighed, hating the sound of his full middle name. No one called him that but his dad back in the forties. He forced himself to stand eye level with T'Challa.

"Whatever you think I did to Steve, I can swear on my life I didn't hurt him. I was trying to save him from the other guy who pulled the plugs."

"And where is this other guy?" Sam drawled, his brown eyes honestly curious.

"He escaped. I...I'll admit, I lost my temper. When I saw him trying to run, I...I strangled him until I realised Steve needed me more. So I punched the guys lights out and tried to find the on button for the capsule. When I hit, what I'm guessing was the emergency button, your guards came in and arrested me instead of him. He was gone before they even got there." Bucky cursed to himself at his own foolishness of letting the guy out of his sight.

T'Challa's face contorted into confusion and disbelief, brows furrowed deeply.

"How could anyone have broken in in the first place? Our walls are practically impenetrable!" T'Challa smacked the bars with a flat hand, exhaling harshly from his nose in frustration.

"T'Challa, I hate to set a bad rep but...I'm pretty sure he was Wakandan. He was probably inside already." T'Challa paused at Bucky's words, looking at him incredulously.

"The possibly is...hard to swallow, but we must take all precautions. Samuel, can you get-"

"Already on it. I'll tell her to bring the I.D database. You got the man's face in that pretty little head of yours, Barnes?" Sam spiked a brow high.

"Photographic memory. Worst of the serum." Bucky admitted.

"Gotcha. I'll be back." Sam left the room on quick feet, leaving Bucky and T'Challa alone.

"...You know, I never thought you could do anything of the sorts. Hurt Rogers, I mean." The King said apologetically. Bucky gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"Oh, I can. I have, many, many times before."

"But not anymore." T'Challa said with a certainty that made Bucky look up in those soulful eyes. "I don't think you could harm a single hair on Steven's head." It was the conviction in his smile that made Bucky want to believe he was right. He could hurt Steve, but he didn't want to. That was the difference between T'Challa's belief and his own...

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Shuri came down with her tablet, projecting her screen in a hologram for Bucky as she swiped through faces of men with facial scars.  It was a plentiful file actually, but Bucky knew who it was when he saw it.

"Him. That's the guy I punched." T'Challa took the tablet and looked over the picture with a purse of his lips.

"Shuri, get Okoye on top of this now. Search the entirety of Wakanda if you must. We will not let traitors run free among us."