[oom] see right through my walls

[nerves_of_ice]

As T'Challa stares at the hologram in the palm of his hand, he can already feel the headache forming. "She what? No. Never mind. Bring her to me in the throne room, when she arrives. I will deal with her myself."

He clears the image, then taps the Kimoyo Bead again. "Nakia. I need you."

* * * * * * * * *

"You cannot be serious."

"I don't see why this is a problem. You brought Everett Ross here--"

"Ross was dying! And he was never allowed to know that the man he was seeking was here! Nakia, I have made a promise to protect him."

"She is not a threat. Not to him."

"I will be the judge of that."

Nakia throws up her hands. "Fine. You will see. I hope it does not bother you that I stay and watch?"

T'Challa smiles. "Of course not."

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"The dirt's not so bad," she says, almost smiling, but it fades again at his question.

"Are you – no, you wouldn't ask if you weren't sure." She sucks at her teeth for a second, looking back him.

"Concussion," she says, finally. "Fractured shin. Some bruises."

Her mouth goes wry, and she puts her right hand over her left ribs. "Broke these guys again. I guess they hadn't quite knit up all the way, so..."

So when she hit the table, they cracked like brittle twigs. "But nothing life-threatening. I promise."

[nerves_of_ice]

"You can ask me questions," he says, quietly. "You can ask me anything. Please don't... don't change yourself, for me."

He is very still, and very tense, as he absorbs what she's just told him.

[from_the_outside]

"Not to worry," she says, and her smile is back, small but warm. "It takes more than a little dissociative episode and a guilt spiral to stop me from Sharon Carter-ing all over the place. I'll be prying into your personal business and asking you annoying questions again in no time."

But he's so tense. She lifts the hand that he'd covered and wraps her fingers around his. "It's okay," she says, putting as much reassurance into it as possible. "I'm okay. Really. I get a little sore and stiff on my left side sometimes, but I bet Shuri can fix that right up."

It could have been a lot worse, but he knows that already. There's no point in saying it out loud.

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods, but stays silent.

After a few moments, he shifts position again, starting to get to his feet.

He doesn't pull his hand free in order to do so.

[from_the_outside]

He doesn't let go of her hand, so she gets to her feet too, in order not to let go of his.

"Where are you going?"

Well, where are they going. He's not getting rid of her yet.

[nerves_of_ice]

"You asked if there was a spot by the lake that I liked."

He starts walking again, drawing her with him.

[from_the_outside]

"Oh, yeah."

That feels like forever ago already. "I almost forgot."

But she doesn't like his silent focus right now, even if he hasn't let go of her hand yet, which is nice. "Are you sure you're okay? And not, say, feeling guilty about hurting me in Berlin?"

See? She told him she'd be back to asking annoying questions in no time.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I already felt guilty about that," he points out.

There's a large thicket ahead, one that goes all the way down to the water, cutting off the path along the shore. It has an enormous tree poking up out of the middle of it, with a canopy of branches that overhang the entirety of the thicket, and it looks impassable.

Bucky walks up to the edge of the thicket, tugs his hand free, and reaches into a tangle of branches. He lifts, and the tangle rises upward to waist-height, revealing a small, roughly-hacked path behind it.

"Go on through."

[from_the_outside]

"Hmm." It's skeptical, but she doesn't challenge him on it. Yet, anyway. She waits patiently while he tugs at the knot of branches.

At his invitation, she gives him a quizzical half-smile, but just shakes her head and moves past him, onto the new path.

[nerves_of_ice]

He ducks through after her and pulls the knot of branches back in place, hiding the path again.

"Just follow it through," he says. "It opens up ahead."

It does indeed open up ahead, into a small clearing at the base of the tree. A cut stump at the base of the tree has been roughed into something of a seat, with a hide draped over it and the trunk of the tree serving as the back of the makeshift chair.

The lake itself makes up one side of the clearing, water gently lapping at the shore between where the thicket breaks.

[from_the_outside]

She walks slowly to the water's edge and pauses there, looking out across the lake's calm, flat surface. It's not terrible wide or long, but it's big enough – and this clearing is so perfectly bordered by the thicket – that it feels like they're miles away from anything or anyone else.

A little breeze spirals in from off the water and tugs at her hair; she idly pushes it back behind her ears and out of her face. "It's beautiful."

Beautiful, serene, soothing. Safe. Exactly the kind of place he should have.

She turns to look at him. "Thank you for bringing me here."

[nerves_of_ice]

It's beautiful, she says, and as he looks at her, backlit by the light over the lake, he thinks that she's exactly right.

"You're welcome."

Bucky nods to the chair. "It's a little messy, but it's comfortable. If you want."

[from_the_outside]

She looks at the chair, and then at him, as if weighing her options.

"You take it," she suggests. "You're the one who's been running around with kids and...other kids, I guess, all morning."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky shakes his head at her, instead walking over to lean against the tree beside the chair.

[from_the_outside]

She huffs a laugh, shaking her head and walks back over to sit down, then looks up at him, pert.

All innocence. "We could have shared, you know."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I don't think so," he says, a little dryly.

"Anyway. I figured we were less likely to be interrupted here than out there in the dirt."

[from_the_outside]

Undeterred, she looks cheekily up at him.

"Well, I'm going to get a crick in my neck if you're looming up there and I'm sitting down here. Next time we'll just have to bring the throws."

Confidingly: "Don't worry. We can keep them six inches apart. You know, like that time we slept together. There was plenty of room then."

Her smile is so cheerful.

[nerves_of_ice]

It's obvious she's trying to bait him, and he refuses to fall for it, so he says nothing in response to her teasing jab.

He does, however, unbend enough to take a seat on the ground and lean back against the tree trunk from there instead.

"They'd snag on the branches," he says, finally. "I'll bring a grass mat instead."

[from_the_outside]

Good enough. She tips her head back against the tree trunk and looks down at him, eyes warm.

"See? Told you. There's no changing me."

Not for lack of effort by plenty of exasperated parties, but –

She likes who she is. And he does, too.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Good," he says, simply, and looks across the clearing at the water for a while before glancing at Sharon.

"The kids call this the 'Wolf's den,'" he tells her. "They know not to come in. They're not missing out on anything because the path wasn't here until I made it."

A beat of silence.

"So if you want me to bring you up to speed... this is a good place to do it."

[from_the_outside]

Her smile fades, and she looks back out over the water with a small sigh.

"May as well get it over with."

Rip the band-aid off fast, right?

Still, she's silent for a long moment, watching tiny ripples ring out over the water beneath the skinny legs of some water-walking insect she can't name.

"Okay." She's calm, she's composed, nobody is going to interrupt them, there's natural beauty all around. There isn't a better time or place. "What happened after I left you three in Leipzig?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"We went to the airport. Met the others there, when it was time - Wilson and Steve had called them. Lay low for a bit before the rendezvous. Took a little while for them to get there, but..."

He shrugs.

"Barton brought them in - a guy named Scott Lang, and Wanda Maximoff. Steve figured we'd need all the help we could get to stop Zemo, given what he was after."

A beat of silence falls, and his mouth twists.

"What we thought he was after."

[from_the_outside]

She shakes her head, watching him now instead of the water.

"What was he after? Why did he – he did so much to get a few minutes with you. What did he need it for?"

[nerves_of_ice]

His gaze has drifted back out toward the water, but it's settled somewhere in the space between.

"He told Steve he wanted to see an empire fall."

Bucky's voice is utterly weary, and his eyes are empty.

"When the power went out, at the JTTF. He told me he wanted to talk about my real home. And asked for a mission report. One report in particular. December 16, 1991."

[from_the_outside]

Her lips move as she silently repeats the date, brow furrowing.

Why does it sound familiar?

December, 1991. She's seen that date in files, recent ones. Tony Stark's files. And she vaguely remembers Aunt Peggy, her eyes sad but dry, and a slew of news reports. But Howard and his wife had died in a car cra –

She can feel her face draining of color again, but it's a fair bet she's going to feel that way through most of this story. "The Starks," she says, in barely a whisper, hoping to God that she's wrong.