Day after Bucky went back into deep freeze

Steve sat at the wood table, running a fingernail along the un-sanded grain. He watched how the flow of the wood looked so much like water and the craftsman who made the table allowed the tree to tell the story of what kind of existence it lived through the growth rings. The grooves were subtle, some thick some thin; just like his life. There were plenty of thin years but then they got better. His fingertip found a knot in the wood. The scar divided the grain of the board as an ironic image of his current state, separated from Bucky once again.

Rogers sighed heavily with melancholy.

Shuri entered the room holding plates of something steaming hot and smelling delicious. "Captain Rogers. Are you hungry? I understand you have not eaten anything today." Her tone was light, friendly and young. There was a sparkle of humor in her eyes.

Looking up with a wan smile, as he didn't want to be rude, he replied, "Thank you, your Highness. I'm fine."

Shuri set the plate down before Steve and then sat opposite him with a firm expression. "Firstly, Captain, it is Shuri. Not 'Your Highness' or princess or any nonsense like that." She chided gently, "But we have a rule here in Wankada, and that is that there are no adventures before one is properly fed."

Rogers smelled the exotic spices and it looked vaguely like his favorite Irish stew from his childhood. His stomach rumbled in anticipation and his appetite would always be his downfall. "I would not want to be rude, Your- I mean Shuri. Thank you. Please, just Steve. I'm not a Captain anymore."

Shuri laughed lightly, her eyes sparkling with intelligence, "You should see how T'Challa eats before a mission! Like … how do you say it, a pig?"

Steve had to chuckle at that comment, imagining the lithe King tucking into a pile of food like a ravenous teen aged boy. "I can taste why. This is wonderful cooking."

Shuri wiped her mouth, "You are welcome. It's my mother's recipe."

Rogers froze in amazement from the flavors rolling over his tongue. The empty stomach beckoned for more. "You made this? Yourself?"

A playful frown creased her brows, "My goodness. Do you think I can do nothing around here? Besides being a genius, my mother taught me all my cooking skills. When I was a younger girl, T'Challa would beg me to make his favorite sweets when mother had taken them away because he was naughty."

Swallowing, Steve kept his mouth shut and averted his eyes, not wanting to offend further.

"Relax, Steve. I am jesting with you. I know you are not used to royalty who are not pampered hand and foot." Her pearly smile was reassuring. The cables in his shoulders relaxed a fraction. As she watched him eat, she could see the stress of Bucky's choice weighing heavily upon him. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions about Sargent Barnes?"

Reflexively, his chewing stopped, and his jaws tightened, eyes still downcast.

"No."

"If it is troubling to you, I will not."

"S'ok."

Shuri regarded the war-torn soldier for a moment, her keenly observant eyes picking up the smallest nuances of movement and discomfort. Perhaps her fact finding should go in a different direction.

"I've read a lot about you over the years. You have been through a very unique ordeal."

A sarcastic smirk caught his lips, "'Ordeal'. That's one way of putting it."

Shuri put her fork down and regarded him carefully, "I do not mean that in a flippant way, Steve. I study A.I. systems and try to make them more intuitive. The hardest thing I try to program into them is resilience, compassion and understanding. You can make a robot do whatever you want it to, but you can't give machines a purpose. They can have a directive, it's not the same." Rogers shifted in his chair as she continued, "You have purpose. You possess all those qualities and although I knew you were chosen for the Supersoldier program, I now truly understand why."

Rogers looked up at her like her words were cool water on burns. Echoes of Erskine floated up and that reassured him that somehow, no matter how difficult it was to keep his compass, that someone else saw in him what Erskine and Bucky did so long ago.

"Thanks."

"I mean that. You are a true man of honor and loyalty. You see the good in people, the real person beyond their pretenses."

Steve was almost blushing in flattery.

"And that is why I need you to tell me everything you know about Sargent Barnes, so I can dig behind the Hydra madness and find him to bring him back."

Bucky's name and the word Hydra snapped Rogers back from his temporary comfort zone. His eyes hardened.

"Are you comfortable doing so?"

Steve swallowed and looked across the room. He heard glass crunching under his boot and the smell of sulfur and old wood in the air. Peggy's voice whispered, "He damn well thought you must be worth it."

"Yes. I am."