Chapter 17: Monsters

Bucky watched the birds in the trees in the cool morning air. He'd already slashed the weeds and grasses around his compound, reveling in the feel of the dirt on his hands and the smell of the freshly upturned earth. His muddy panga sat by his feet as he drank a steaming cup of chai.

Bella and her strange following of creatures had disappeared with the dawn two days previous and he hadn't seen her since. Clearing the ever-growing plants sapped some of his overflowing internal energy. He could pretend he wasn't as horribly curious as he was as long as he kept himself busy.

His neighbor remained an enigma. He never saw her sleep, but he initially assumed it was because she slept when he did. He never saw her eat, but she brought him food when he was recovering, so he assumed she had eaten some as well. But now all he really knew was that he didn't know much.

After witnessing Bella's statue-carrying stunt, Bucky had to admit that her position as the princess' bodyguard had to be based on something other than pity or patronizing.

"Are you planning to bask all day in the mud like a hippo?" Bella's voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw her approaching in her Dora Milaje uniform, spear in hand. He swiftly lifted his arm and threw his machete directly at her head with a speed that would have decapitated a normal human. She caught it without blinking and clicked her tongue.

"Do you normally greet people by throwing pangas at their heads?" she asked, gripping the worn handle of the sharp blade in her free hand.

Bucky looked at her for a moment before grinning. "Well, at first I was going to say 'no' and that I just wanted to see what you'd do, but then I realized that probably isn't an accurate statement coming from a former assassin."

"I'd throw it back at you, but, I mean, seeing as I am stronger, faster, and have two arms, it hardly seems fair, mzee."

"Oh, you're asking for it now, doll face," he said, jumping up from the ground and charging into her at full speed. He expected her to crash to the ground. Instead, he found himself bouncing off her solid form and face planting into a mud puddle. He tried again. He lunged to grab her around the legs to topple her but she blurred away, too fast for him to catch, faster than he had ever see a living creature move.

He pounced again and again. Yet each time Bella escaped with ease and stood as nonchalant as a crocodile in the sun. Finally, Bucky flopped back on the ground laughing, covered head-to-toe in red mud, with a trickle of blood coming from his fat lip.

"Are you bored or something?" Bella asked, glaring at him with a hand on one hip. "Or is this just an extra warm welcome today?"

"Nah, I just want to know what exactly you are," he said.

"I figured as much," she responded, deflating slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after you stalked me and not so covertly spied on me for an entire night, I figured you would start asking questions."

"You knew I was there?" Bucky asked, not masking the slight edge of disappointment in his voice.

"Of course. You are about as quiet as a thunderstorm," Bella said. "Even if your unique heart beat didn't give you away, your scent would. I can pick up your scent from a mile away."

"Huh. You're breakin' my heart. Here I thought I was all sly and stealthy," Bucky said. "So, how come you didn't call me out then?"

"I was busy," she said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, why spoil your fun? You must have been pretty bored to spend all night following me around."

"Oh, bored am I?" Bucky said with an evil grin. He grabbed a handful of mud as thick as chapati dough and threw it squarely on her red and gold-clad chest.

"Wewe! Tabia mbaya! Nitakupiga sasa!" she shouted furiously. She attacked and drenched him in her own handfuls of wet earth. When Bucky tried to crawl away, she grabbed his legs and flipped him face first into the mud. She held his arm and legs imprisoned in her grip. He writhed as fiercely as he could but couldn't slip himself out.

"I give up! I give up!" he finally said, laughing. She released and he stood. "I offer my heartfelt apologies for any offense I have given. You are queen of the lake, my lady," he said with a mock bow, the mud dripping off his body in specks and clumps.

"I'm not sure I should forgive you for that," she said, glaring.

"You will because I'm charming," he said with an annoyingly smug expression on his face. "Now, I think I've earned an explanation. I've been going crazy for two full days wondering what exactly you are and now you get to tell me."

Bella quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "You got me muddy. I don't think I owe you anything."

He looked up at her with his brilliantly green eyes boring into hers, urging her to surrender. "Please?"

She hugged her knees with her arms and looked back at him, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Fine, but only because you are gonna find out eventually anyway."

"Well?"

"If you want to move to a different spot after you find out, I won't be offended. I know some people are a little freaked out by what I am. And, just so you know, I've never fed from a human, only animals and even if I did want to drink from a human, I wouldn't drink from you because you don't exactly smell human. You smell…weird…I mean, not like weird as in yucky, but weird as in inedible," she rambled, wrinkling her nose.

"Woah. Slow down there cowgirl…I was waiting to hear you were a Wakandan science experiment on gene modification or a Black Panther kitten or something. What's all this about eating me? And, by the way, I'm not sure whether I should be offended or complimented that you don't want to eat me. I'll have you know, dames usually find me delicious."

Bella rolled her eyes before continuing. "Yeah, I, uh, the Wakandans found me on their border when I was already changing. I'd been found already and bitten. We don't know how I got to their border…."

"How 'bout you start from the beginning of the story instead of the middle, sweetheart? You're losing me."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she mumbled under her breath, not intending him to hear, but he heard anyways.

"I, uh, basically, when I was in Washington, I fell in love with a vampire. He killed the mate of another vampire who wanted to eat me. My vampire lover ditched me soon after. He broke up with me and skipped town and then the vengeful mate came after me. She killed my dad and friends and tried to kill me, but some friends helped me to escape. They faked my death and I ran. I travelled the world trying to keep her from finding me but then the vampire found me anyways. I don't know how I escaped her but I woke up in a hut with T'Challa next to me and I've been here ever since."

Bucky sat mouth agape for a few moments. "I can honestly say that is not what I was expecting you to tell me. Your life is like a bad teenage-romance-turned-horror movie."

"Isn't it awful? I mean, I'm sure it all made a lot of sense to my 17 year old self…the whole falling in love with a creature of the night and all, but really?"

"So your memory issues…."

"Yeah, I can't remember much from before, only after. Most of what I told you I only know because Chuck Norris did a reconnaissance mission in my home town and dug up all the gory details of my former life.

"Since I'm kinda invincible and nearly immortal, and I have some kinda crazy supernatural shield that protects people from magic and mental attacks, the old King, God rest him, offered me the job of guarding Shuri and also guarding Wakanda. He gave me citizenship in the country and basically adopted me into his family. So, yeah, that's me."

Bucky stared at her for a long moment before grinning again, "So, what you are saying is that I just got my ass beat by a vampire?"

"I'll do it again if you make fun of me."

"Killer diller! I'll find ways to tease you every day if it means you'll take me down like that again. That was the most fun I've had in decades."

Bella laughed. "It would be my pleasure." She suddenly turned serious. "Aren't you freaked out?"

"Nah, doll, why would I be scared of you?"

"Ummm, you know, the whole blood-drinking monster that could kill you without blinking thing?"

Bucky remained unperturbed. He shrugged his good shoulder and dug his booted foot into the grass to knock off some dirt. "I don't fear death anymore. Death and I are old, old friends. When my end comes, I'll deserve it. And death by gorgeous vampire sounds heaps better than death by former enemy or vengeful soldier. If you want to take me out, have at it, but I won't fear you for it.

"Then there's the whole 'creature of myth and legend' thing, but honestly, how am I any different?

"And monster? Hardly. Considering I've killed hundreds of more people than you have…I think, of the two of us, I win the deadly monster card."

"You sound like you hate yourself."

"I hate what I've done, what I've been used to do, even if it wasn't me in charge of the doing. I'm not really sure how to not hate myself for that."

Bucky watched Bella pick a flower out of the grass and twirl it in her fingers. She seemed to struggle putting her next words together, like she needed a tugboat to pull them into being.

"It took me awhile to come to peace with what I've become. I mean, as I told you, at first I was relieved that I'd no longer have a revenge-thirsty vampire on my tail and I wouldn't be in danger for my life, but I also was no longer the me I'd been before. The old Bella died along with my family and I'd never be normal again. I'll always be slightly outside of humanity. At least here I don't have to always pretend to be something I'm not."

"You ever heard from your former heart throb?"

"No. He never came back or tried to contact me."

"What a fat-head."

"I remember being sad about it before…and angry…but I don't remember the details of what happened. That's been buried with the old me. That doesn't mean I want to go out looking for him though."

"Yeah, can't say that I blame you," Bucky said with a yawn. He flopped onto his back again and let his gaze drift upwards to the pale blue sky.

"Looky there," he said.

She turned to follow his pointed finger.

"What?"

"If you look up at that cloud there, you will see the distinct shape of a steam train."

Bella watched the fluffy white cloud gathering billows in the sky.

"You are wrong. That's definitely a wildebeest," she replied.

"My pride can only handle one beating a day and I've already reached my limit," he said, turning to look at her with one eye.

"I see. Your still feeling bruised from your earlier defeat. What a nice looking steam train."

"That's a good girl," he said with a hearty laugh.

Oooooooooooooo

Translations:

Panga: machete

Mzee: old person

Wewe! Tabia mbaya! Nitakupiga sasa!: You! Bad behaviors/manners! I will beat you now!