[oom] in the dark house you have seen the sun rise

[nerves_of_ice]

Ayo had suggested - firmly - that it would not be wise for him to be a part of the response team that's standing ready in case anything goes wrong, and he can't say that he disagrees with her. Instead, Bucky goes to Shuri's lab when 'Irma' and 'Ryan' leave for the meet with the distributor and listens in from there.

Nothing goes wrong. He's glad; they all are, he knows. Once it's clear that they're on their way back and not being followed, Shuri takes off her earpiece and turns to him. "Well. That is good. Everything is going as we had hoped. So now I must ask you - are you ready to proceed tomorrow as we have planned?"

He removes his own earpiece and sets it aside before he answers her. He doesn't want there to be any chance that he'll be overheard, not about this. "Yes," he says, quietly, but without hesitation. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." One corner of his mouth twitches in a rueful smile. "Is it okay to say that I'm a little nervous?"

Shuri takes his hand between hers and holds on. "Of course it is okay," she tells him. "It is no small amount of trust that you have placed in me. This I know."

They sit there in the quiet for a while before he squeezes her hand and lets go. Shuri bounces to her feet and smiles at him. "Now go," she says, attempting a stern manner and failing due to the laughter in her bright eyes as she orders him around. "Do something fun today. I will see you in the morning."

"Okay," Bucky says, and gives her a quick answering smile before he walks out.

He goes back to the hut by the lake. Whether or not that'd been what Shuri had intended, he doesn't know, but it's more peaceful than anywhere else, and right now that's all he wants. Besides, if anyone's looking for him... well, they'll know how to find him there.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"Good luck," she tells them, and starts building the tower again.

"Although it's pretty sad if it takes two super soldiers to beat one normal woman at a kid's game."

[nerves_of_ice]

“She’s got a point,” Steve says. “Buck, I think it’s gonna be up to you.”

“Me?”

“I just lost to her,” Steve points out, very reasonably.

[from_the_outside]

"Don't tell me you're chicken, Barnes," she teases him, grinning.

"I thought you were supposed to be good at strategy. This is nothing."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Okay, you’re on.”

Bucky shakes his head and moves up close to the tower.

[from_the_outside]

The real problem is she can't distract him this time the same way she did last time, because Steve is here and that would be maybe weird, definitely rude, so she's got to try a few other tricks unstead.

He's got that intent focus thing down, though. He's for sure more of a challenge than Steve.

[nerves_of_ice]

He studies the tower, winks at Steve, and smiles innocently at Sharon.

“Please, go ahead.”

[from_the_outside]

"Hmm," she says, suspicious, but leans forward to start tapping out the first of her chosen blocks.

It comes easily, but it'll only get harder as they go.

[nerves_of_ice]

He watches intently as she pulls the first block, then quickly removes his own first block and lays it in place. The first several proceed back and forth easily before the first challenging block comes into play.

Bucky goes to pull it out, pauses with his hand over it, and stares Sharon dead in the eye as he removes the block and puts it in place.

[from_the_outside]

That unblinking stare might scare a political target, but he's going to have to do better than that with her. She bats her eyes innocently at him and taps the next of her blocks out, completely ignoring Steve, who is chuckling to himself nearby.

She lays the block on top and considers the tower they're making; she might need to go for a few harder blocks if she wants to win this one.

[nerves_of_ice]

He gives Steve a look which results in the other man holding both hands up, then shakes his head, chuckling a bit, and turns back to Sharon and the tower. Bucky considers it for a moment, then eases the next block free. He flips it over in his fingers, considering.

"I'm more used to breaking things down than building them up," he observes, and sets the block carefully on the edge. "But I guess it's really just doing it in reverse."

[from_the_outside]

"I don't know," she says, teasing. "You've been pretty good at breaking these towers down, too."

She has won more often than him... but not always. She opts to be reckless with her next block, working one from the bottom of the tower and balancing it carefully on the top.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Daring," Steve observes.

"Reckless," Bucky counters, and reaches for his own next block.

[from_the_outside]

"Faint heart never won fair lady," she says, amused.

"... Or Jenga, as the case might be. What's the fun in playing it safe?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"You have a point," Bucky drawls, and stacks his block on top of hers, rather than beside it, then tosses her a challenging grin.

[from_the_outside]

That grin of his still gives her the whammies, and she takes a second to appreciate it before studying the tower carefully.

After a second, a grin lights her own face, and she very carefully edges a block out from the opposite side of where he'd stacked his last one, then delicately sets it atop his.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, I see how we're playing this," Bucky observes.

Steve shakes his head. "Better you than me, pal."

"Well," Bucky says, as he starts pulling a block very slowly from a lower level, "some things are worth the risk."

He manages to get the block out, then makes himself still the way he would if he were sighting a target. After a long moment of perfect immobility, he stacks the block on the now-growing single-width stack and lifts his hand in the same motion.

The tower sways, but remains intact.

[from_the_outside]

Well, she made this bed, she's going to have to lie in it. She's barely breathing as she slowly works a block from the increasingly empty side and pauses like a deer in headlights when the tower sways drunkenly.

Holding her breath, she waits until it's stopped moving, then carefully, carefully places the block on top of his last. There's a brief moment where she thinks she might actually have done it – and then gravity kicks in and the whole damn thing comes tumbling apart while she laughs and laughs.

"Oh well," she says, spreading her hands in a what can you do? kind of gesture. "I pass my champion's crown on to you."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve applauds, and Bucky gives a seated half-bow, laughing.

"For this round, anyway," he amends.

[from_the_outside]

"True," she tells him, grinning. "I'll be coming after it again, once you're back on your feet."

For now, she puts the blocks back into the box, and glances around. "Anyone need a coffee refill?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky considers it, and shakes his head. "Although I should probably try to scare up something resembling food," he says, dryly. "If you two are sticking around to risk my cooking instead of going back to the Citadel, where you'll have actual food with actual taste."

Steve gives him a pointed look. "You know, you could come up there with us."

[from_the_outside]

"Your food isn't that bad," she tells him, amused.

Maybe it's not all that flavorful, but they could probably scare up some actual seasonings for him at some point, right? "Counter-offer: I'll go up to the Citadel and bring back some food. How's that for a good compromise?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"That's nice of you, but I know how bad it is. So what you're offering sounds good to me," Bucky tells her, and Steve nods, then asks, "Need help carrying anything?"

[from_the_outside]

"Nope," she tells him, and stands, dusting herself off. "You guys hang here; I'll be back soon."

She gives them both a mock-salute, then turns to head to the Citadel, tying her hair back into a ponytail as she goes.

(They deserve all the time they can get together.)

[nerves_of_ice]

They both watch after her as she walks up the hill. It's Steve who speaks first.

"I'll look out for her, you know."

"I know." He says it very, very quietly. "I'm counting on it."

[from_the_outside]

It's about an hour later when Sharon comes back down the hill, this time with a pack over her shoulder and a cooler in one hand. There's practically enough food in the pack for a squad of super soldiers – the cooks here like Steve and Bucky as much as anyone – and she'd packed as much of the things she knows he likes as she could find: fresh fruit and cheese, some of that flatbread they'd had the last time, and so on.

Hopefully they're hungry. And haven't resorted to just throwing Jenga blocks at each other.