[8 Years Ago.]
"This thing turns invisible? This... awesome... All of this... is awesome!" Scott's overly excited, more amazed than Bucky was when she first found out (just an hour ago) herself.
T'Challa (ever in his grace, but also in his gratitude and to his honourable words) had Nomble and Yama fly out in one of the Talon Fighters and they'd found them after only an hour later of waiting in the snow. Bucky had been almost as amazed with the smaller aircraft as she had been with the King's, and the two members of the Dora Milaje politely introduced themselves with the following orders that they would pilot for the Captain and his friends, but nothing more. Steve was obviously more than grateful and understanding and agreed without any hesitation.
When they get to the Raft, Nomble has already rendered the craft invisible to both the naked eye and (because of advanced Wakandan technology) to any man-made radars. Minutes before that, Steve's trying to reassure Bucky that this isn't all for nothing and that he would do it over and over again if it meant having her back, and far, far away from HYDRA.
"Like I've told you countless times before, and like you told me in the first place; I'm with you 'til the end of the line." He gives her that terribly adorable boyish smile that Bucky always adored just as much and before she can even open her mouth, he's already diving out of the craft and into the night and its dark oceans.
Bucky feels useless, she knows she could still help, but doesn't know if she'll be able to swim with just the one fucking arm. At least it doesn't hurt. Tony got her just under her shoulder, and now that the metal has been destroyed, thankfully there's no pain, because the mechanics have been fried with along it. She knows HYDRA had to put the pain receptors in the arm so that she could report any internal damage to them. But it still never made the pain suck any less. It felt as real as any other pain.
She doesn't know how long she's lost in her thoughts, but it must be pretty long, because she's finally pulled out of them by the sounds of people.
Well, more people.
Not like the two Dora Milaje are any more talkative than Bucky...
Bucky glances up and her eyes widen and for the third time this night she is utterly amazed by what she sees...
Both Wanda's hands glow with the same red whispy mist that encircles her friends either side of her. They all float up into the cabin, Wanda staying aloft as she gently places the Captain on his feet first. Sam follows with Clint and then finally a fidgeting Scott before Wanda herself lands gracefully. The door pulls shut behind them all and the craft is quickly moving once again.
Bucky watches the red mist - magic(?) - slowly disperse, Wanda's hands being the last place it disappears from and the supersoldier's more curious now than amazed. Ironically, Bucky thinks, Wanda glances with amazement at her surroundings when she looks like she suddenly realises where she is.
The group all share their hugs, some giving Bucky a wave and Sam actually walks over to her, surprisingly. "You good, Barnes?" He actually looks like he cares to know and that surprises her, too.
"I'm really sorry about all of this." Bucky may find this man slightly grating - and OK, maybe she's (a little) jealous that Steve seems to have a new best friend - but she wants him to know that she's not ungrateful. Even if he helped her for Steve's sake, she wants him to know the Winter Soldier is far from who she really is.
Or once was anyway...
"Yeah, you better be. I got incarceration on my record now."
Bucky almost chokes back oncoming tears until she glances up to see the teasing smile on his face, lighting up his (pretty) dark pools. She still chokes, but now it's more of a damp laugh as she curses him under her breath. "Dick." – but very much enough for him to deliberately hear.
Sam chuckles with her, but his is for his own secret victory of getting her to smile. He's only ever seen her smile once until now. He's glad it's because of him. He doesn't know why, exactly, he just is.
Steve takes the lead then - he asks each of them (apart from Bucky, of course) if they have any plans for themselves already or if they want to tag along with him. And when he says this, Bucky knows he won't be staying with her in Wakanda.
She knew it all along, deep down; Steve would never take advantage; could never ask the King for more than he'd already freely given. And he could also never abandon his friends.
She knew it all along and she's definitely grateful, but she's also terrified. She knows he will never leave her, that he will come back for her, but it suddenly doesn't bring her as much comfort when it's now actually sinking in that she will probably have to relive every single bad thing she ever did as the Winter Soldier...
Scott's the first to answer, practically swooning over the Captain as he proudly tells them all he's, "got somewhere I can lay low, don't worry about me, Cap... Uh, Captain... America."
Clint informs Steve that he's going to meet up with Nat, and that he'll be in contact "asap" and then informs the Dora Milaje on where that is.
When Wanda bids her last farewells and suddenly disappears out of thin fucking air - Bucky will never get over that shit - it's only Sam left with them then and he goes to sit opposite Bucky after she pretends she wasn't earwigging on his and Steve's conversation. She knows what he's going to say, the curiosity and slight wariness in his expression tells her as much, but she plays along anyway.
"Steve said the Wakandans can help you."
Bucky almost wants to smile when he forcefully seems to use the word "help" and she knows he's really thinking "fix" and she's not even offended.
(Heck, she agrees with him at this point. She knew she wasn't really free from HYDRA - "...all it took was for me to hear those damn words again...")
"Hopefully." She simply says, because she doesn't want to get her own hopes up. She doesn't know if she could handle being crushed on this inside, just that little bit more.
"You can do it." Sam nods - to Bucky, he looks strangely sincere. "I know they 'programmed' you to complete your missions by any means necessary, but you can't programme determination like what I've seen."
"You mean when I tried to kill you? Three times? That the determination you're talking about?" Bucky shoots him a deadpan look.
Again, he surprises her with a chuckle, and Sam shakes his head - because damn, Steve wasn't kidding on her dark humour. "Actually, yes." He nods again. "But also, because you pulled Steve out of that river 2 years ago." He smiles slightly when she frowns, looks slightly confused. "You didn't even know who you were at that point, but you still saved him, because something deep inside your head was telling you to. I know only the small parts of what Steve told me - how they repeatedly brainwashed you –" He moves on quickly to make his point, but mainly to stay far away from such topics - especially when she's suddenly looking slightly panicked – "That's all he told me, I swear." She nods and seems to relax a little and Sam feels the relief wash over him, but somehow ignores it as he carries on. "My point is; even after all of that, you still managed to reconnect the dots all on your own. You're still you - that's one thing they tried and failed to take from you."
Bucky suddenly wonders if Steve figured out she was listening in on them and somehow "had a word" with Sam without her hearing. It feels more like it's the other way around to her, but she doesn't question it. It's nice. Talking to someone that isn't Steve. Actually talking to them and having them talk to her from what seems like the heart. It makes her feel like maybe his words are true and that maybe not everyone will look at her the way they have been for so very fucking long.
Sam suddenly chuckles to himself and leans back in his seat. "Sorry... I'm a counselor... Old habits." He grins rather bashfully, and something twinges in Bucky's heart that hasn't pleasantly done so for 70 fucking years...
[Now.]
Zemo had gotten the same little girl to lead them all to where the memorial is being held and that is the last thing he does, for now, when John immediately handcuffs him to the nearest thing he can. He and Lemar stand guard either side of the Baron and Bucky stands as close as she can so that she can hear if anything bad happens...
Sam goes in alone, makes them promise to wait and Bucky just knows Captain Douchebag is going to be the problem. Oddly, she briefly misses Zemo's "antics." And the Captain only proves her right when he's the only one to grow quickly impatient after only five fucking minutes.
"This is such a bad idea. We shouldn't have let him go - I shouldn't have let him go."
Bucky rolls her eyes before calmly noting; "It hasn't been 10 minutes yet, John. Just sit tight, and let Sam do his thing."
It takes nothing at all this time for her to anger him as John glares over at her. "I know you're like, a 100 years old or whatever, but don't patronise me."
"106." Bucky simply replies, only very slightly glaring back at him. She doesn't know why that's important, but fuck him, she thinks. "Sam knows what he's doing." Unlike some people currently carrying a shield that doesn't belong to them. "Just wait. Didn't they teach you tact, John?"
John scoffs, a bitter scoff, she notes. He stalks over to her and narrows his eyes. "This is all just so fucking easy for you, isn't it, Barnes? With all that serum running through your veins..." He scoffs again when she only stares blankly back at him. "You really wanna have Sam's blood on your hands on top of whoever else's you got?"
Lemar frowns, but says nothing. Recently, he's becoming slightly disturbed by his friend's erratic behaviour...
Zemo's eyes widen slightly - because fuck, even he wouldn't dare go that far... Well, not unless he really, really needed to anyway. He glances between then two of them, but mainly hopes that Jane will hit the idiot. At least once.
Bucky is no amateur to a bit of mental torture, which is why she simply gives him a bittersweet smile as she says, "Well –" She sighs. "– now you're just hoping for a reaction."
Good fucking luck, John, she thinks, try beating being beaten and raped in both body and mind for seventy fucking years...
He looks even angrier, if that's even possible, but he doesn't say anything, and now Bucky knows, now that she's gotten a good enough look at his eyes.
The eyes tell you a lot about someone. Bucky knows a pulse can be controlled, a breath can be contained. She's one of the world's leading experts on such matters. But she also knows that rarely can the eyes ever tell a lie, but only if you know what to look for...
And now, Bucky knows...
John is jealous. Jealous of her. Jealous of what she is. He is jealous of them all - his particular hatred for Karli, now only sinking in for Bucky.
Bucky simply continues to stare calmly back up at him then, and says - no - demands, "We wait for Sam."