I'd been in Wakanda for a while now, helping T'Challa where he needed it. Which wasn't that often, really. He had so many other people to help as he needed. But I guessed that having an elemental on your side doesn't always go unnoticed and can come in handy sometimes.

As usual, I was sitting in his sister's lab. That kid was a genius and had so many fun toys. Hardly a day went by that we weren't discussing different things to do with tech. She was surprised at how fast I got to understand the technology that the Wakandans had, even more surprised when I started making suggestions that confused even her. It would be fun to put her and Tony in a room together. Just the thought of Tony still made me feel a little uncomfortable. I knew how much I meant to the guy, knew I was like a daughter-figure for him. Some kind of… what's the word… protégé? Something like that.

At any rate, he'd probably moved on. Found another kid to look after. Not that I was really a kid anymore, just had the mentality of one some of the time. Alright, most of the time. Not my fault I was half Asgardian and so aged slower. I leaned closer to inspect my work, squinting slightly, cursing my glasses as they slipped down my nose slightly…

Just as the wiring sparked, some of the little, overly hot sparks hitting my nose, getting my fingers.

"Shit!" I leaned back too fast, ending up falling off my seat and hitting the ground, hard, landing on my side. For a moment I didn't move, didn't even breathe, then released an angry sigh, pushing myself into a sitting position, folding my legs and glaring up at my workbench.

"Can't be nice to me for one day, can you, you stupid piece of –"

"Plum still beating you?" Shuri taunted as she entered the room, grinning almost too much. I glared at her, holding my arm up so she'd help me to stand. She crossed over and did as I'd implied, waiting with that annoyingly smug grin on her face as I dusted myself off.

"That bot doesn't always beat me," I muttered, touching my eyebrow, which still had a rather nasty cut on it, "And when it does, I get my own back."

"Sore loser." She taunted, darting out of my range as I scowled.

"That robot isn't meant to beat me up quite as much as it does," I growled, "I didn't program it to try to kill me, just hit me."

"I didn't do anything!" Shuri objected.

"Uh-huh. There's a tonne of coding in there that isn't mine. True, not designed to kill me, but still designed to fight me more nastily than what I programmed it to do."

"T'Challa also uses your bot! Maybe he did the programming!"

"I have never seen T'Challa fighting Plumbum, not to mention it's your signature all over the coding," I half smiled, shaking my head slightly, "And before you tell me I needed a challenge, I was trying to guilt trip you." I turned back to the desk I'd borrowed and sighed, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of my left eye before another sigh escaped me. I sat back down and picked up a soldering iron again, going back to work. Shuri didn't move away. Usually she did when I started working again, but I wasn't too concerned, continuing working as though there was nothing out of the ordinary. We stayed silent for maybe two minutes before Shuri spoke again.

"When was the last time you went to visit Sergeant Barnes?" She asked, taking me by surprise and almost causing me to burn myself as I jumped slightly. I only just managed to get my hand out of the way in time, turning on my chair to throw the girl an incredulous look.

"What?"

"Well, you used to visit him reasonably frequently when he got out of stasis, and now you don't go visit him so much."

"Yeah, because I have too much to do." I muttered, turning away before she could see that I was blushing, putting my head down and once more trying to concentrate on my work.

"Not really, nothing that no one else couldn't do," Shuri commented, "So?"

"So… what?"

"When was the last time you visited him?" I sighed, staring dumbly at the motherboard I was looking at. Eventually I shook my head.

"Lost track," I admitted, "Two, three weeks maybe?" I pushed my glasses up my nose with one finger, getting back to work.

"Why?"

"I told you, Shuri. I've been too busy. With everything that happened with your brother, with getting Plum working, with trying to sort out PARROT –"

"Did someone call?" The AI I'd made asked, making me sigh and hang my head again, Shuri grinning. She knew how much the AI could annoy me. I wished I could say that T'Challa's little sister had something to do with it, but PARROT was made before I started living with the Wakandans.

"No, PARROT, no one called. You were being mentioned in passing."

"It's rude to talk about people behind their backs, you know."

"You're not a person, you're a computer."

"Well aren't you rude."

"No ruder than you are." I muttered, Shuri laughing in the background. She then crossed over to me, a slight bounce in her step.

"We should go for a ride." She said, too cheerfully. I looked at her suspiciously.

"Where to, and in what?"

"Flying!" She exclaimed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "And it's a surprise!"

"You're taking me to see Barnes, aren't you?" She shrugged, leaning on my desk.

"Maybe, maybe not." Another sigh escaped me, and I looked back at Plum's arm, my eyes unfocussed. I needed a break. I hadn't slept in three or four days, and the coffee was starting to wear off. I probably looked like shit, but Shuri was being polite and not saying that. The kid had seemed to take a shining to me. I called her a kid, when her mental age was probably about on par with mine.

"Why do you want me to see Barnes so badly?" I asked, still staring at the insides of the robotic arm before me. For a moment it seemed like Shuri wasn't going to answer.

"I think having someone he knows around every now and again will help him," I couldn't help but laugh, confusing Shuri, "What?" I smiled, shaking my head.

"Barnes and I don't actually know each other very well, and what we do know is from back when we were both…" My voice trailed off and the smile slid from my face, "When we were both… Uh…" I cleared my throat, "When we were both working for the wrong people," I finished, looking up at her, shaking my head, "I'm probably the last person he'd want to see right now."

"Is that why you've been staying away?" Shuri asked, seeming confused. I shrugged.

"If that's what you want to believe, sure."

"Come on, Ty!" Shuri whined, "Just go and see him!"

"If I go and see him, that's an if, not a when, then it'll be on my own. No offence."

"None taken," Shuri thought for a moment, then started walking off to get back to her own work, "Would it influence your decision if I told you he's been asking about you?"

My whole body tensed, heartrate quickening. I hated that. From the sniggering I heard, Shuri hadn't failed to notice my reaction.

"Shut up." I grumbled before she could say anything.

"You're as bad as T'Challa." She taunted. I shook my head, silently laughing slightly.

"No idea what you're on about." I called back, then went back to work as best I could. Despite no longer having external distractions, I couldn't concentrate. Why the hell would Bucky be asking after me… Though I wouldn't put it past Shuri to have told me that simply to get a reaction out of me. If that was her plan, then damnit, it was working.