𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 | bucky barnes

32: Words

"And he told you this?"

She had explained it to him. And Steve thought it very true. Not a pressing matter, seeing as they had just destroyed the last HYDRA facility... but still. Surprising.

"They erased his memory..." she said. "Why wouldn't they be able to do it to me?"

"It was already very possible," Natasha said.

"And what that man said... it just convinced me more," Cat explained.

"So... HYDRA trained you."

"According to Bucky's theory."

"We just blew up the last facility where they could be storing files. The last facility period," Steve pointed out.

"I was born in 1990," said Cat. "They could have digital files. Hell, they put a man's brain into computers in the 1970s. I'm sure mine are digital files."

"So they took you. They trained you. They made you forget," said Sam.

"Yeah," said Cat. "I guess so."

"So what now?" asked Natasha.

"I want to know what I did."

"Whoa," said Steve. "How are we supposed to know if it's something horrible? Something we're not ready to learn?"

"I am ready. I don't care. I want to know." Cat put her head in her hands for a couple of seconds and took a deep breath. "Who knows how many years of my life were taken from me! I want to know what i did. I want to know what happened. Whether I like it or not. Because I still did those things."

"But you weren't being controlled," said Natasha. "That means you did those things and you knew it."

"They made me forget. I want to remember."

"Okay," said Natasha.  "We'll decode some files.  Find your past."

"Thank you."

——— ✪ ⍟ ✪———

Cat and Natasha talked for a while after that. Just... as friends. Nat told her what she had done while she was gone— about her sister, the Red Room, the Black Widows.

Cat liked talking to Nat. It was nice, having a real friend. She was sure Nat wanted someone to tell it all to. She didn't mind listening.

"Hold on," she said, just as Nat was telling her about her mother's plan. "Backtrack. You caused a prison riot?"

"Just to get Alexei out of prison."

"Alexei is your.. dad, right?"

Nat laughed a little and nodded. "Pretty much," she said.

"Okay, just had to clear that up," Cat smiled. "Go on."

Nat continued explaining what had happened to her in the three days she was gone.  Cat listened intently.  At some details of the story she would laugh, other moments left her on the edge of her seat — like when Yelena, Natasha's sister,  stuck her baton into Dreykov's plane's turbine and blew it to pieces.  But the story eventually came to a close — ending with her coming back to The Raft to help get the team out of there.

"So when did you dye your hair?" asked Cat.

Nat played with her her hair and smiled.  "Just before that," she said.  She let it go. 

"You know, I should cut my hair," she said. 

"Your hair is so pretty, though!"

"It'll still be pretty," she said.  "Just shorter.  What do you think?" Cat mimed cutting her hair with her fingers.

"Yeah, I think it would look good," nodded Nat.

"Oh, and you and Barnes can have the same haircut," commented Sam from the front seat. 

Natasha rolled her eyes, and Cat laughed.  "We'll match," she said.  She saw Steve smiling and shaking his head out of the corner of her eye.

Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to find a home.  After all, a home didn't have to be a place.  It could be a person.  People, even. She could find a home in these people.

In Bucky, too.

Cat missed him.

——— ✪ ⍟ ✪———

Steve and Cat dropped Natasha and Sam back at the places they were staying. They said their short goodbyes, then went back toward Wakanda, with the files.

Something was off when they got in. It just didn't seem— well, Wakanda. Cat didn't know what had happened, but she didn't expect it to be anything good.

They landed back at the lab carefully, in a bit of a daze from the surroundings around them.  T'Challa came to greet them; he was scratched up and a little bruised— he looked like he had been through quite a fight. 

Steve smiled and shook his hand to greet him, and Cat did the same, as it was the polite thing to do. 

"What happened here?" asked Cap.

"That," began T'Challa, "is a long story.  There is a short version, if you like."

The three of them began walking into the lab, Bucky's files in Cat's hand. She listened intently.

"Please," said Steve.  "Did something happen?  I could have helped if you needed."

"It was our fight," said T'Challa.  "But thank you.  A man came here— the son of a man my father had killed.  His brother.  My cousin— his name was Erik Killmonger.  He challenged me for the throne— a fight to the death— and won.  Or at least that was what he thought.  When he got his throne, he did things that... well, for lack of a better term, had never been done in Wakanda before.  And it took quite the effort to get the throne back."

"And where's your cousin now?" asked Catarina. 

T'Challa looked down.  "Dead," he said. 

"I'm sorry," said Steve. 

"Death is never the end," said T'Challa.  "He at least got to see something he'd always wanted to see before he was gone."

Steve and Catarina nodded in silence, listening to his story.  They saw a figure running out of the lab and towards them, and once they got closer, Cat realized it was Shuri. 

"Catarina!" she said excitedly.   The two girls shook hands quickly, smiling. 

"Shuri!" said Cat, as they shook.  "You okay?" she added. 

Shuri nodded.  "I'm alright.  What about you?  I see the suit's been put to good use."

She looked at the spot where the suit had ripped and the bullet had grazed Cat's arm.  Catarina looked at the injury, and touched the skin around it shortly. 

"It's fine," she shrugged, turning back to her friend.  Shuri raised her eyebrows as if she didn't believe her.

"So," Shuri said, as the four of them walked into the lab.  It was messier than last time they had seen.  "Do you have the files?"  She looked down at the beige folder in Cat's hand. 

Cat handed it to her.  "All of them, right here," she said. 

Shuri smirked.  "Then let's get to sciencing."

a.n.:

ITS CRINGY AND IM SORRY  but you cannot tell me shuri wouldn't say that bc she so would, she'd put on a goofy smirk and tchalla would roll his eyes at her bc he's such a big brother

i literally miss tchalla and chadwick boseman so much. i wonder what the next black panther movie is going to be like?

anyway, don't forget to vote!!

molly, who's very sorry it's tuesday whoops