Two of a Kind | Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 39: Back to Wakanda

"It's very nice, Bicky, but the flexing," Claire brought her hand up and gestured to his arm. "Has got to stop. You know I'm gay and in a serious relationship with Wanda." Bucky brought his hand up to clutch his chest as a fake gasp escaped his lips.

"Claire Stowell! How dare you make me out to be some common floozy!" Bucky shouted in mock offense. Claire laughed and playfully slapped his non-metal arm.

"I'm just making sure, Bicky." Bucky rolled his eyes and sighed.

"How long are you gonna call me that?" Claire shrugged and giggled.

"I don't know. Till it gets old, but you want to hear a secret?"

"What?"

Claire leaned in towards his ear and cupped her hand around her mouth and his ear and said in a whisper, "It will never get old."

When she pulled away, Bucky sent her glare until a smile broke out on his face. Then, realization hit him, and he looked around them as if he was looking for something, or someone.

"Hey, where's Wanda? Is she here?"

"Yeah, she went inside with Same." Claire gestured to the direction that they went in and Bucky nodded in understanding.

"How's she doing? Last time she was here..."

"She's good. She's doing much better." Claire looked down. She didn't like to think about that day. Finding Wanda unconscious laying in the grass with her hand tightly grasping her neck had scared her more than...anything really. Bucky's smile fell and guilt washed over his features.

"I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to trigger anything. I just—"

"It wasn't your fault, Bucky. These things...sometimes they just happen. For what it's worth, she doesn't blame you," Claire said as she reached a hand up and rested it on his arm. A smile soon returned on his face and he pulled her into another hug.

"I'm glad that you're happy." Natasha cleared her throat and the two pulled away and looked back over at her, Steve, T'Challa, and Bruce.

"Come on, you two. We got work to do."

○○○

T'Challa led them into his palace and into Shuri's lab. Vision laid on a table as Shuri stood over him, a holographic in-depth image of the interior of the Mind Stone elevated above him and in front of her.

"Woah. The structure is polymorphic," Shuri mutters out loud as she studies the structure of the stone. Bruce stepped up to her and cleared his throat.

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asked as she furrowed her brows. Vision looked over at him from the table, as if he was asking the same thing. Claire bit her lip to stop from laughing and Wanda lightly smacked her arm.

"What?" Claire whispered and Wanda rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Because, we didn't think of it," Bruce said with uncertainty. Shuri smiled and looked over at Claire and Wanda.

"I'm sure you did your best," Shuri said in a reassuring voice with a smile before looking over at Claire and sending her a look. Claire giggled quietly to herself. Shuri went back to studying the hologram of the stone, trying to figure out a way to fix this situation. The gears in her head turned as she mentally solved the problem. The air soon became serious, and Wanda's face dropped in worry.