Stark's team was now overstaffed. He'd managed to recruit someone from Queens while she and Vision were busy being attacked- a scrawny boy named Peter Parker who was too obsessed with Carine's ability.
"You can manipulate electricity? Holy crap! With your power and an invention of mine, we could power the whole city for decades! C'ourse, I left the machine back home..."
T'Challa had found it amusing to see Carine deal with Peter nipping at her heels. Both of them still held grudges against each other, no matter how hard Stark tried to make them get along. Vision kept himself busy by teaching himself how to cook, Rhodey flew around the city to keep an eye out for Steve every five minutes and Stark was always cooped up in his office.
He'd forbidden her from using the simulation cells, too. Last time she tried to go down there J.A.R.V.I.S had spewed some nonsense about safety, but Carine knew Stark didn't want her down there because he didn't want her to evolve more. But that didn't seem like his intention when he called everyone down for an emergency meeting.
"That's a suicide mission," Vision was saying. "You cannot expect her to be able to go up against three people on her own." The current debate was concerning Stark's decision to send Carine to convince Cap one more time to sign the Accords, since she was the most powerful person they had after Wanda left.
Stark sipped from his glass. "Look, I don't think you should underestimate her. She did manage to take down Barnes last week in Berlin."
"Temporarily," T'Challa added. Carine glared at the prince from across the table. Stupid cat, she thought. She sent a mental spark of pain to his chest and smiled when she saw him wince.
In the end it was a clean split down the middle. Natasha, Stark and Rhodey thought she could do it and do it well, while T'Challa had absolutely no faith in her abilities, Peter said it wasn't safe and Vision was just overly concerned.
"Alright, seeing as I'm the head of this team and I pretty much make all the decisions and, not to mention, pay for everything you guys own, Carine's going." Stark reclined in his chair, still nursing his drink. "Nobody is allowed to object."
And that's how it was. Rhodey and Natasha flew her back to Berlin, where Nat knew for a fact that Steve was hiding out. "It's actually more of a shared hiding spot," she explained. "I used it when I was working for the bad guys, and Steve uses it literally all the time as a gym." Carine laughed.
They landed the jet a short distance away from the safehouse. Natasha watched as Carine put on her backpack, thinking of the odds that she could convince Steve to come back. "This is your communicator," she said, pressing a small device into Carine's ear. "Under no circumstances should you lose it. I need ears on you at all times." Nat hesitated a little, then grabbed Carine's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "Be careful. Remember, if it doesn't work out-"
"Come right back here," Carine finished, pulling away. "Got it. I'll see you later." Both Rhodey and Natasha smiled as she ran off the jet and into the streets.
"I didn't know you had feelings," Rhodey teased.
Natasha turned her head and sighed. "What can I say? I've always wanted a little sister."
It wasn't until she arrived at the safehouse that she realized Natasha was listening in on every word Carine heard. That meant that she'd heard all the little things she was whispering under her breath as she ran through the streets. People found it creepy because Carine liked to repeat stories to herself when she worked, just to keep herself comfortable, of course.
"You had a boyfriend? When you were how old? God, Carrie. I never knew you as that type." Carine could hear the smirk in Natasha's voice. She mentally slapped her forehead and reminded herself never to speak in Nat's presence ever again.
"Shut up," Carine rolled her eyes despite the grin on her face. "He's old news."
The safehouse was dark and grey. The air was disgustingly moist when Carine entered, probably because of the leaky ceilings and countless puddles. "I got in," She glanced over her shoulder as she updated Nat.
"Okay. Are you just going to run in there and give a speech, or..."
"I was valedictorian in high school. I should be able to swing that," Carine replied, looking around the room. "Any great opening one-liners you'd like to share?"
"Woah there, Tony Stark. No. Just get in there and try not to kill yourself, will you?"
Carine was about to make a move when Steve and Sam suddenly emerged from a room, talking loudly. Their topic of conversation? Bucky and Carine.
"Have you seen him like this before?" Sam was asking Steve, who was frowning at the ground as he walked.
"More times than I can count. Girls were easier to win over seventy years ago." The voices grew softer until Carine's couldn't hear them anymore, and that's when she made her move.
She shifted and checked one last time that the two men weren't in the building anymore, then she ran into the room they had come from. She found Bucky staring at the floor, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands.
"Buck," she said, keeping her voice soft. "Remember me?"
He lifted his head slowly, his eyes shining in the light from the cracks in the ceiling. He chuckled a little, a little sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sigh. "How could I forget?"
"You know why I'm here."
"No, to be honest, I don't." Bucky pulled himself into a sitting position and locked his blue eyes onto Carine's. "And I really don't want to know, either. I just...I really want to talk to you."
Carine inhaled sharply and then lowered herself onto the floor next to Bucky's chair. Her head was level with his knee, and that's where she leaned it. "Okay," she breathed. "Let's talk."
Bucky was taken aback by the sudden gesture to say the least, but he let her keep her head there anyway. It was quiet for a few moments before Bucky broke the silence himself. "I'm sorry I tried to kill you."
Carine closed her eyes. "I'm sorry for trying to fry you alive." She started playing with his shoelace. The habit had started when she was little and progressed into adulthood- she needed to keep her hands busy.
"It was smart. There's no other way to subdue me when I'm like that, anyway."
"No other way except almost killing you?"
"Sounds about right."
"Bucky, you shouldn't think of yourself like that. Because you're not." It was then that the full meaning of Bucky's earlier sentence sunk in. There's no other way to subdue me when I'm like that. How had Carine 'subdued' him? With electricity. It dawned on her that she was the only one that could do that in the team (although there was probably someone like her in the X-Men). Then she realized. The reason why Stark got her was to keep Bucky in line. By almost killing him.
She decided that she wouldn't tell Bucky. The poor guy's got enough to sort through, she reasoned.
"Have you ever liked anyone?" Bucky blurted, making Carine jump a little. She shrugged. "Since we're doing personal stuff," he added quickly.
"I had a boyfriend once. He had silver hair and thought the world went slower than everyone else thought it did." She rolled her eyes at the memory. She had been so young and naïve, only fifteen, and she thought she found someone she loved. Heck, they were even considering making her a member of the X-Men before she broke up with him and went to college. It lasted two years, and there wasn't anything after that. "Why? Do you like someone?"
Carine heard a little click through her earpiece and she could only figure that Natasha had decided to stop listening. She felt grateful for that.
"I think so."
There was yet another silence, until Carine sighed and said, "It's fine. I know that you don't want to say whatever it is you're thinking because you think you're some kind of monster. But who you are is not what you did, okay?" The cold truth was that she knew he liked her. Carine had seen it when she tried to look into his mind that one time. She told Wanda that she couldn't see what he was afraid of, but she'd really seen herself. A reflection of herself, lifeless and dead. That's how she knew. If he didn't love her, why would his worst fear be losing her?
She got up to leave soon after the thought. Deciding that Steve and Sam wouldn't listen to her anyway, she was about to head back to the jet and report negative when she stopped in the doorway, her fingers resting on the solid concrete. She glanced behind one last time.
"When we are married, will you teach me to dance? Steve says you're good."
"How do you figure that'll happen?" He asked, bemused.
She shrugged. "Sometimes I drink and sometimes I know things." She tapped her temple and grinned. "But most of the time, I know a thing before it happens."
Rhodey was asleep when Carine got back. Natasha sat with her arms folded, and she looked like she hadn't moved since Carine left.
"That was fast," she commented.
"They refused to come. I was in and out in no time."
Nat shook Rhodey awake, and they flew back to New York.
Stark was pacing the room. Natasha had returned with Carine and reported negative, and for the first time in a long time, he was nervous. He had J.A.R.V.I.S running scans on the suits every ten minutes.
"Thirty-six hours," he kept saying. "Thirty-six hours to catch them and subdue Barnes."
Vision frowned. "There will be a battle soon. We must focus on that for now."
"Tony, you started a war," Natasha said. "We're seriously understaffed. It's time to start training her again. Open up the simulation cells."
Right then T'Challa looked up from the newspaper. "Carine failed the first time. Why do you still think she's your greatest asset when she's already proven wrong?"
The room was silent after that. Unbeknownst to them, Carine had heard most of their conversation. Part of her wanted to lash out at them for talking about her the way they did. She didn't, though. Carine sighed and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. When she pulled them away she found black streaks of mascara on her palms. That just made her even angrier. In a feeble attempt to calm herself down, she tried to remind herself of her own oath. "I will remain kind and courageous no matter what I endure. I'm stronger than that." Back when she'd written this down in a small journal with yellowing pages, she didn't know what her 'that' meant. Now she did.
From where she was standing right outside the room all of them were in, the others had a clear view when she stormed into the landing and out of the facility. Carine wanted to leave, to go somewhere, anywhere but there with them in that stupid building, but she didn't know a place. Oh wait, she thought. I do.
That's how she ended up on the roof of Steve and Nat's warehouse, sending blinding bolts of electricity into the night sky. The air around her crackled with every burst. It made the citizens who were still awake think it was storming outside. Carine wondered why she was here. Not why she'd fled from the facility, but why she chose to run here. It was the last place she should have been.
As cliche as it already was, it got even more so when she noticed Steve sit down not too far away from her. Carine kept her eyes on the dim street below her.
"Nice sky," Steve said suddenly. Carine frowned and looked up but when she did, she regretted it.
Steve looked mildly impressed. "When did you learn to do that?"
"I don't know. I didn't."
"Didn't what?"
"I didn't learn it," Carine replied. "It just happened."
More silence. Then: "You're very brave, you know."
Carine finally brought her gaze to meet Steve's. "How d'you figure?" Her voice was low and rocky, like she needed time to think before saying anything.
Steve's eyes softened. He's just a big ol' teddy bear, Carine thought. A big, ninety-year-old teddy bear.
He shook his head and let out one of those chuckle-sigh combinations. "You got guts to think this is your fault." Before Carine could say anything, he continued. "If you're willing to take responsibility for something you didn't do, I think you're pretty tough."
Carine let herself smile- she knew this way Steve's way of telling her it wasn't her fault. That nothing was her fault. "Y'know, I wasn't expecting to talk to you tonight. About all this." She waved her hand, trying to symbolize her this.
Steve grinned. "I know," he said. "I'll go get him for you."
Then Carine understood. She stood up suddenly, and almost lost her balance and fell off the warehouse. "How long?" She asked. "How long have you known?" Despite herself, she felt a smile tugging at her lips.
Stopping at the door to the roof access, he looked back at her. "Long enough."
Barely ten minutes later, she heard another rain of footsteps make its way up the stairs. The silver door burst open, and Carine felt some kind of warm feeling wash over her.
"I got your message," Bucky said, leaning against the door. "You must have some really great control to have managed that."
Carine shrugged. "I didn't mean it like that, but I guess writing 'you hurt me' in the sky with lightning isn't a very subtle cry for help."
One step closer. "Why are you sending cries for help in the sky?"
"No. I don't want to talk about that. Can you just... sit? Here? With me?"
So he did. Bucky tried his best to be supportive for her. He draped his arm across her shoulders and allowed her to lean into him. God, I hope I'm doing this right. Bucky tried to ignore the fact that he hadn't loved someone like that in almost seventy years, and kept making attempts to convince himself no, he was not out of practice.
Carine found it nice nevertheless. She thoroughly appreciated the effort Bucky was making for her. The quiet that followed was peaceful, but Carine wanted more out of this meeting. Apparently Bucky was thinking the same thing.
"Do you want me to help you train?" He offered. Carine shifted in his arms and looked at him uncertainly.
"Isn't that fraternizing with the enemy?" She asked.
"Aren't I already fraternizing with the enemy?"
"By cuddling with her?" Bucky blushed, and it felt weird. He didn't have any reason to blush in the last seventy years, after all. Shoot. I can't be out of blushing practice, too.
Bucky lifted himself up off the ground once Carine did. "The way I'm going to do it is a little different," he began. "We're going to play."
"Play?"
"Yeah, that's what I said."
Bucky took her hands and led her to the middle of the roof. He didn't let go when they'd gotten there, and Carine had never felt more relieved. Okay, maybe except for that one time she didn't get hit when she jaywalked when she was eleven, but still.
"You managed to write in the sky earlier on," Bucky was saying. "I want you to do that again, but this time, tell me how you feel. About everything. Let the sky know what you think."
Carine closed her eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered how the last time she shut her eyes around Bucky was when she almost ended his life. Her eyes flew open. "I can't."
He didn't say anything. It was like he knew that she was going to try again anyway. She didn't need his say so. So she did it again, abandoning her vision and concentrating on the words. The words. There were so many things she could've written about, but didn't.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Bucky staring at the sky, eyes wide.
"What?" She asked and then looked for herself. "Oh."
Instead of a word or a sentence, there was a glowing form of an owl in the sky. It resembled a constellation, but once Carine got distracted and took her mind off it, the owl dissolved into thin air. Well, it actually dimmed out like a lightbulb.
"Woah," Carine breathed.
"Again," Bucky grinned, eyes still locked onto the sky.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the night sky was filled with different animals. Carine had found that if she concentrated enough she could project more than one animal at a time, and soon after that she figured out how to make them move.
"This is amazing!" Carine laughed. "I never knew I could do this."
Bucky smiled. "Now you do."
Without thinking, Carine threw her arms around Bucky, still laughing joyfully. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck, and felt the cool metal of his arm from beneath his shirt on her cheek.
"I hope you know that there's beauty to what you do, Carrie." He felt unsure about whether or not he was entitled to using her nickname, but once it came out of his mouth it felt nothing but natural. It was like he was meant to call her that from the very beginning. "You're not the monster you think you are."
Carine pulled away from his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "I...do know," she told him. "But promise me you'll remember you're not what you think you are, either."
"Promise."
Carine shifted her hands a little from where they were on his shoulders. "Good."
Both of them found themselves leaning in, and before either one of them could think they were kissing. They were kissing- what both of them had always wanted. Carine moved her hand to cup Bucky's cheek, and he put his hands on her waist, and it was perfect.
When they broke it (albeit reluctantly), Bucky smiled.
"And yes, Carine Cadell- I will teach you to dance."