"Stop jittering. You're making me nervous."
"I can't help it, we haven't seen our friends in two years."
"Ah ah," Bucky whispered back, giving her a pointed look. "Your friends. I can only claim Steve."
August continued bouncing on her toes, watching the quinjet lower out of the sky. Tentatively, Bucky reached behind her head, tucking her tight fishtail braid into her collar.
"Hey-" August reached back, moving to untuck the braid, but he gently pushed her hand away.
"Grab-able objects, Aug. You don't want to get flung around out there by your hair, do you?"
He ran a flat hand over her hair, before tucking her in and giving her a kiss on the temple. The quinjet was landing now, King T'Challa and his Dora Milaje moving to greet the newcomers.
"C'mon," He stepped after them. "Lets go say hi."
She slipped his hands into his, the two of them walking towards the quinjet, thinking to herself excitedly.
When all of this is over, you're going to make the best father.
The ramp to the jet lowered, and over the bald heads of the Dora, she could just barely make out the Avengers disembarking. First Natasha and Steve, followed by Sam, Rhodes, and an unfamiliar tan man, with Wanda and Vision bringing up the rear.
"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something-" Steve clasped T'Challas hand.
Behind Steve, the unfamiliar man awkwardly bowed. T'Challa frowned, shaking his hands at the man.
"We, ah, we do not do that here." The king looked back to Steve. "So how big of an assault should we expect?"
"Uh, sir, sir," The man stepped in front of Steve, who gave him a look. "I think you should expect quite a big assault."
"How we looking?" Natasha asked, tilting her head upwards to stare the king in the eye. His jaw locked.
"You will have my Kingsguard. The border tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." He cast an expectant look behind him. His gaze met Augusts and she shot forward, dragging Bucky along with her.
She slammed into Sam, wrapping him in a bear-hug. He gasped in surprise, but upon seeing her familiar black eyes, embraced her in response, picking her up and twirling her around.
"And a semi-stable, elderly assassin married couple." Bucky mused as he smiled at his wife, happily reuniting with her best friend.
Bucky wrapped Steve in a hug, the two men patting each other on the back.
"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked, stepping back and taking Buckys hand in his. Bucky shrugged, his wife bouncing around between the group, excitedly greeting Natasha and Wanda.
"Married and boring now. Not too shabby, for the end of the world." He looked over Steves shoulder, eyeing his wife. "You gonna come say hi?"
August scurried over to the two men, wrapping her arms around Steves torso. He hugged her back, giving her a grin.
"There's my favorite little nuclear warhead." He pulled away from her. She moved to Buckys side, taking his hand. "You up for this?"
She shrugged, unable to push the grin from her face.
"Something tells me that what I can do might be of more use on the battlefield rather than watering a tomato garden."
"Hey, you make good tomatoes." Bucky reassured. She smiled, waving him off, turning back to Steve.
"You're missing half of your team here. Where's Tony? Or is he still so mad about getting whooped in an airport terminal, that he's going to let the world end over his pride?"
"Tony is off-world," Steve rubbed his beard. "Caught a ride on the ship that invaded New York. Along with Peter Parker and Riley Hearst."
"Peter-" August blinked. "He's 16! Dear God, and how the hell did Riley Hearst end up on a spaceship?! Last I checked, she was a run-of-the-mill kinda human."
"She's been studying with some wizard guy, I don't know-"
"Steve, ah, I think you broke your robot." Next to them, Bucky tilted his head, gesturing towards Vision, where the wounded red alien was currently being held up by Wanda. Steve followed his gaze, opening his mouth to respond.
"Do not worry," T'Challa stepped in. "I know how we can fix that."
The group followed the King into the palace, taking an elevator to the top floor. Once inside, they were greeted by princess Shuri. She helped Vision onto a vibranium table, beginning to scan him down.
"You're telling me that this lil' girl can match up to Tony Stark?" Sam, who had taken the spot on her right opposite Bucky, asked. August shot him a look.
"Not really a fair comparison," She mused. "As if Tony Stark could ever match up to Shuri."
"She's, like, fifteen."
"Okay?" August chuckled quietly. "When I was fifteen I was making tornadoes and and could cause earthquakes just by thinking about them. Don't go assuming that every teenager is an underachiever just because you were."
"Ah-" Sam's jaw dropped open. "Woah, firecracker, hey. Marrying that guy made you mean."
He looked over Augusts head at Bucky.
"Way to go, you ruined my best friend."
"No." Bucky stared at him with a poker-face. "She's just funny now."
"You wanna take this outside? Cause I'll drop-kick you right out of Wakanda, rude-ass motherfu-"
"Woah, hey!" August hissed with wide eyes, looking from her husband to her best friend. "Girls, girls, you're both pretty, okay? Now shut up, the super-geniuses are talking."
And they were. Up front, Shuri had finished her scan of Vision.
"The structure is polymorphic?" The princess mused, examining the diagram on the screen.
"Right," The man, who August had learned was named Banner, nodded. "We had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."
"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri cocked an eyebrow.
Every eye in the room, including Visions, looked to Banner. He pursed his lips awkwardly.
"Because..." He clicked his tongue. "We didn't think of it?"
Shuri gave him a cocky smile.
"I'm sure you did your best."
"Can you do it?" Wanda asked, shutting down Shuri's boasting. The princesses face fell solemn as she examined the red-haired woman.
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She looked to T'Challa. "It will take time, brother."
"How long?" Steve asked. August looked to her friend, noting the concern on his face.
"As long as you can give me." Shuri nodded.
Overhead, an alarm began to beep. August nervously looked to Bucky, who was holding her hand even tighter. Okoye held her hand out, a holographic image appearing above her wrist.
"Something has entered the atmosphere."
Steve nodded at August, Sam, and Bucky, who obediently ran out of the palace. They skidded to a halt near the quinjet, and August raised a finger to her earpiece.
"Steve, we have a situation here." Her eyes were cast upwards towards the sky, watching as meteors rained down towards them.
No, not meteors, she realized. Spaceships. They smashed into the barricade that covered Wakanda, bursting into fiery pieces.
"God, honey." Bucky released her hand, hoisting his gun in his arms. "I love this place."
"Don't start celebrating yet, guys." Rhodes' voice crackled on over the earpiece. "We got more incoming outside the dome."
The ships began making landfall just outside the Wakandan border, sending a ripple throughout the barricade. She watched in horror as waves of creatures began throwing themselves out of the ships, sprinting towards the border.
"Where we headed, Steve?" She asked nervously over the earpiece. "These guys are heading our way. Fast."
"A ship is coming to round you guys up now. We're headed to the front lines." He answered. August looked to Bucky, who met her gaze.
"You ready to kick some alien ass?" He asked, mustering a bemused but nervous smile. She reciprocated his smile.
"As long as I'm doing it with you."