"Come, much more for you to learn," Shuri said.

The ride back to her lab was calm and quiet. If the engine was roaring beneath them, Bucky couldn't hear it.

Bucky. The name finally felt right, felt like his.

At first, his time in Wakanda had been filled with appointments with Shuri, therapist visits, and too many pills to swallow in one gulp. It hadn't been that long since they declared him stable and asked how he wanted to spend his time.

The farm was a refuge. He woke with the sun to feed the goats and tend the crops. He had planted every seed and built everything but his hut. The fence had taken several days to complete. Everything took a long time with one arm, but the work was good. It made him sweaty and tired and gave him the space to come back to himself.

Lessons with Shuri weren't like any he ever had before. In the beginning, there had been pain and frustration as they worked to detangle the mess of his mind, but there were also breaks and support and relief. Now there was no pain at all. They walked together through his mind, making sure everything hummed as it should, pulled out any knots they found.

But Shuri said he still had much to learn, and he wasn't sure what that meant. Bucky used the techniques he had learned, focusing on the reality of his concerns and working through any discomfort he felt. Whatever came next, it would be ok.

After only half an hour, Shuri pressed a button and Bucky was lifted from the table that analyzed his brain waves and neurons. The cushions reshaped into a chair beneath him. "I have something for you," she said, a smile played on her lips, though Bucky noticed a crease in her brow too. She handed him a slim rectangle roughly the size of a hardcover book.

He turned it over in his hands. It was textured black plastic but only one side was sealed, so he knew it could be opened like a book. Wakanda was full of technology more advanced than what any of the sci-fi novels he read when he was a kid imagined. The plastic brick he held didn't look too impressive compared to what else was in the lab, but he hadn't opened it yet. He wasn't certain that he wanted to. Bucky looked at the brilliant young scientist, waiting for an explanation without asking for it.

"It's a laptop. A computer. You can use it to keep up with what's going on in the world. Entertain yourself."

Bucky held the laptop between them, gesturing for her to take it back. "My goats are all the entertainment I need, and I don't want to know what's going on in the world."

Shuri made an exasperated sigh, but she didn't actually look upset. She put her hands behind her back and turned away from him. Bucky put the computer behind him on the chair.

"That's too bad," Shuri said. "Steve will be disappointed."

"Steve?" Bucky couldn't keep the longing out of his voice. He had only seen Steve once since they'd woken him up and it had been a short visit. After that, they'd barely spoken.

He knew Steve was a fugitive and had to keep moving. Bucky wanted him to be safe, to keep helping people however he could. That's what Steve did. But he also wanted to wake up next to Steve. He wanted Steve to help him feed the goats and watch the sunset. Because he remembered.

He remembered everything. Remembered the games they played on their walk to school. Remembered dragging Steve out of fights whenever he could. Remembered their first kiss, warm and too wet. Remembered the way his hands shook the first time he touched the skinny guy he had loved his whole life. Remembered how they said I love you for the first time, mid-fight not long after they moved in together. Remembered the war. Remembered Steve saving him. Remembered falling.

But the falling and all that happened after didn't matter. Not anymore. He was alive. Steve was alive. Bucky knew who Steve was. He knew who Bucky was. As much as he loved his goats, he knew he'd go with Steve if only he asked. But Steve was too good to be that selfish, so Bucky had to let him go, had to let Steve help however he could. Because that's what Steve did.

"He was looking forward to talking with you again," Shuri said. "He wanted to see you."

Bucky twisted in his seat, grabbing the computer from where he left it. "He can see me with this?"

Shuri nodded. "It's like a phone conversation, but you can see one another. Want me to show you?"

"Please," Bucky whispered. It wasn't as good as Steve being with him, but it was so much more than he had now. "Please, Shuri."

She smiled at him. "Of course."

Bucky wasn't sure what time it was where Steve was, but it was already past his usual bedtime. That was ok. Steve was worth waiting for, but Bucky was tired. After Shuri showed him how to use the computer, he had come back to the farm and worked until sunset. Then, the children who called him White Wolf brought him dinner, giggling as they ran away.

He usually ate, checked on the animals one more time, and went to bed. Now, he had watched the clock on the computer tick off forty-three minutes and his eyelids were starting to sag, but Steve was supposed to call in seven minutes. He could wait seven minutes. He could wait forever.

All the sudden, the screen flashed blue-not the deep cornflower blue of Steve's eyes, but a glaring cartoon blue that made his eyes hurt. A grating melody of beeps filled his hut. By the time Bucky pressed the answer button, he was more focused on getting the sensory attack to stop than on who would show up when he clicked on it.

"Bucky?" Steve's voice was excited but hesitant. "Can you hear me, Buck?"

"Steve? Steve. I'm here. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. There you are. You look- Wow. You look really good, Buck."

Bucky smiled, looking down at his crossed legs then up through his eyelashes. Seeing Steve sent his stomach twisting in the most excitable way. "I feel good. What about you? Everything ok out there?"

"I'm doing all right," Steve said. "We're still not staying in any one place more than a couple weeks, if that. How are your lessons going?"

"They're down to once a week. I went today, but only for a little while. Shuri wants me to use this thing to keep up with world events, so I guess that's the next step."

Steve's mouth clamped shut, but it didn't stay that way for long. "You don't have to do that, Buck. Not if you don't want to. You take care of yourself. That's what matters most."

Bucky let out a dry laugh and shook his head. Even from however many thousands of miles away he was, Steve could sense Bucky's uneasiness. He'd raise hell with Shuri if need be, even though she was the one most responsible for Bucky's mended mind.

Steve wouldn't let anything hurt Bucky ever again, not if he could stop it. The show of fierce protection filled Bucky with a warm rush of affection and a heavy dose of snark. "Don't be such a punk, Rogers. She's just trying to take care of me." When Bucky's eyes met Steve's again, the picture was clear enough to see the wetness blurring the blue irises. "Hey, you ok?"

Steve blinked away the moisture and shook his head as if to clear it. "Yeah, Buck. I'm great. That's just- That was the first time- You haven't called me that, joked around like that, since before...everything. She really did bring you back, didn't she?"

"Yeah, pal. I'm here. It's me."

"I've missed you so much," Steve said. His eyes were wet again.

"I've missed you too, punk."