The Deadly Nightshade | { BOOK 1 of The Flower series }

[48] Meeting Thanos

Bucky watched as doctors wrapped a new white bandage around his left shoulder from where his arm was missing. He changed out of his dark Winter Soldier uniform from earlier. He now wore a white tank top and white pants. Jade sat beside him on a metal table. At first, he was surprised to see her but remembered that she tried to help him escape the HYDRA base in Siberia when her father was trying to kill him.

T'Challa was welcoming to Jade's arrival, and the bionic soldier was intrigued at his new attitude towards Bucky and Steve, but she wasn't going to question it.

Bucky's crystal blue eyes fell on the cryo-freeze machine that he would soon be getting into. Jade gripped his thigh in comfort. "You finally got what you wanted."

Bucky sent her a tight smile, them both knowing that what she just said was a lie. He glanced back at the machine. "Yeah, I guess I did."

Jade snapped her fingers, remembering something. She hopped off the table and walked over to a chair with a plastic bag. She opened the bag and reached inside, pulling a carton of plums out.

She walked back over to Bucky and handed them to him. "I know it's probably late to eat them, but we've been kind of busy lately."

He stared at her in shock. "H-how—" 

Jade shrugged her shoulders. "I was keeping tabs on you. Anyways, this is my apology for chasing you out of hiding, locking you up, and well attacking you at an airport."

Bucky cracked a smile and wrapped her in a hug. "Stop. What you did for Steve and me was more than enough payment even when we weren't on the same side. Let alone, you deciding on your own to break the rest of the team out of prison."

Jade sighed sadly as she saw her friends in those cells. "I never wanted any of that to happen, I never wanted it to go that far, but I was one of the reasons why it did."

"You were doing what you thought was right," Bucky clarified. "We all were. Besides, they decided to join Steve and me. It was up to them, not you, or me, or Steve."

Jade grinned in his brown hair. "Now, you sound like Steve."

Bucky chuckled, taking a deep breath. "Well, he is my best friend."

"Besides, you protected me so many times during HYDRA, and I had to return the favour." Jade rubbed his back gently. "As much as I hated those dark times, it wouldn't have let me meet you."

Bucky pulled back. "Me too." He ran his hand through his brown locks. "Remember that one mission we did when an ice cream truck got in your way, and you blasted the wheels off as it crashed. You stole ice cream for the both of us."

Jade slowly nodded, scrunching her eyebrows together as the memory flashed through her mind. She laughed. "Yeah, and you didn't accept the ice cream."

Bucky grinned, shrugging his shoulders in an 'oh well' motion. "I was focused on doing the task at hand."

"Yeah, but who turns down ice cream?"

Bucky sent her a pointed look as he gestured between him and her. "Nightshade and the Winter Soldier."

Jade playfully rolled her amber eyes. "Clearly, Nightshade was in the mood for ice cream because I remember I ate the ice cream."