eighty-six.
At first, the girl said nothing, greeting Peter only with a glance of the eye over his shabby appearance before she turned her full attention to her brother.
"You have brought me another sad white boy, Brother? What am I meant to do with this one?"
T'Challa sighed softly, "He is different."
She scoffed. "How can this one be different, Brother? He looks just as sad and broken as the last one."
Peter didn't quite enjoy being spoken about as if he weren't standing there and while he momentarily forgot that the two people before him were the King and Princess of Wakanda, he made sure to let them know it.
"You don't have to talk about me like I'm some child in the next room. I'm standing right here, and I don't like being talked through."
Behind him, he heard Okoye stifle a laugh and he watched as two members of the royal family looked over at him with a little bit of disbelief in their eyes, and all was quiet before the princess smiled.
"I like this one, Brother, you may go."
T'Challa's only parting words to the pair were "play nice". And Peter wasn't totally sure what that meant because he was still focused on the fact that having an attitude towards the ROYAL FAMILY got him the princess's favor. He was dumbfounded. He was used to his attitude getting him in trouble over everything else. He watched over his shoulder as Okoye followed T'Challa back out the doors, but not before she spared a glance to him over her own shoulder.
He turned to the princess who was already looking at him. "So. You're the Spider-Boy?"
He shifts, muttering under his breath. "Spider-Man."
She laughed. "Apologies, Spider-Man. I'm Shuri and this is my lab."
He looks around at all of the things around the room. Monitors, the large windows, the Black Panther suits in the corner. He nods, though he's not really listening because she's not saying anything. "I'm Peter.. It's a nice lab."
When he next looked at her, she was looking around her gigantic lab with a soft look of wonder. "It is, isn't it?" She turned her gaze to him and smiled. "I'm not a doctor, but I'm on a team with said doctors to monitor the health of you and your baby. This has never happened before in the history of... Well ever, I suppose. But you have my word that we'll do our best for you, and for the child."
And for some reason, despite all he'd been through in the last months... no, year? How long had it really been? He was no longer sure, though, he'd barely been sure in the first place. He glanced to a large doorway across the room where he saw May and The Soldier standing together, just watching... Which, would be absolutely terrifying if they were real. Though Peter supposed it should be scarier to him that they aren't real. It meant that he was starting to slip, which was bad. Every time he saw them he felt safe and peaceful, but in the back of his mind, he wanted to dig into his wrists and pull his own veins out for being stuck with them and the things they represent.
Quickly he turned back to Shuri. "Hey, are there any anti-hallucination medications that won't hurt the baby?"
On the other side of the world was Bucky, waltzing around with a smirk, acting like he owned the place because let's face it- he does. He tosses open the door to the apartment and finds Steve there, reading a book. The first thing he does is pull Steve off of the couch and into a breath-stealing kiss. He didn't miss the way Steve clung to him. How Steve tightly gripped the fabric of his shirt between his fingers, how he tried to desperately pull him closer although there was already no space between them.
"A week... it's only been a week Stevie, but it's been too fucking long," he muttered against the slightly chapped lips of his lover. "But I remembered something, you know? Just during the ride back. I remembered something, Stevie, from the train... From all those years ago..."
Steve shook his head, "Buck-"
"Steve, listen to me... I remembered waking up in the snow... Briefly, and there was blood, and it was mine and it hurt so bad... But... I was being dragged, and despite that and all the blood and all the people, all I could think of was... I wondered what happened to you. The train was already long gone, and I kept looking around... I wondered if maybe you fell too and..."
"Bucky..." Steve ran his thumb along Bucky's stubbly jaw.
"No, I... I couldn't bear the thought of them having you too. I couldn't..." Bucky's face contorted into one of disgust, or anger, or sadness, or all of the above as he cupped Steve's cheek. "When I realized they didn't have you, I was glad... Stevie, I was glad that it was me instead of you. I was glad they couldn't hurt you."
"But they did hurt me, Buck... They hurt you. They had you all that time, and I... I thought you were dead. We all did. I wrote a letter to your family..." He could tell that Steve was getting choked up now, and he watched as the blonde pulled away from him and walked into their bedroom. He returned with a small, rusted compass in his hand. Inside was a photo of Peggy, but he watched as Steve bypassed it completely and pulled it from its place to reveal a small photo of Bucky himself.
Bucky couldn't help but chuckle. "You... You had that in there all this time?"
"It was a crime back then, Buck. And... And there was no word then, for what I was- what I am, and..." Steve's hands were beginning to tremble, just as they always did in times like this. "And I never knew how to tell you, so I didn't, and then you were gone away with the 107th and there was Peggy, and she understood. She understood and I was so afraid... Buck I was afraid to love you. I was worried what you might think of me."
"You were worried, about what I, James Barnes, who regularly chaperoned girls on their dates and made out with the boy who lived next door to my parents when I was young, might think of youStephen Rogers, who was the most innocent little twerp in the world and had an obvious crush on me?"
"Yes, and it wasn't obvious." Steve huffed.
"It was, and I regretted every day I didn't ask you about it. Even after you confessed finally, I regretted not asking you sooner... We wasted so much time being afraid Steve."
"But... We don't have to be afraid anymore... Everything is so different." Steve looked up with a hopeful smile and a soft look in his eyes. "We can be free here, Buck. In the same town that once would've jailed us for it. It's amazing. I wouldn't give this up for anything."
"Not even Peggy?"
Steve laughed and touched his own chest, some weird kind of reaction to laughter, Bucky guessed. "No. Not even for Peggy."
"You know..." Bucky started as the pair left the apartment, on their way to visit Peggy in her nursing home, "You still owe Peggy a dance."