"Welcome back."

Shuri caught sight of her friend on the landing pad, standing with her face to the sun as the wind tossed around the belted skirt she was wearing. The princess trailed just half a step behind her brother as they marched away from the jet, through the parallel rows of the King's Guard. Charlotte smiled at the princess' casual attire despite the formal greeting on the landing pad. While her brother sported royal black and purple robes, Shuri had opted for a simple silvery dress with gray leggings and white sneakers. Her braids were gathered behind her head in a long ponytail that nearly reached her hips.

As the Wakandan siblings approached their friend, Charlotte crossed her arms in respectful salute of the king.

"It still feels so weird to do that," Charlotte said.

"Why?" T'Challa asked, dropping his crossed arms and quizzically raising an eyebrow. "You did it for my father."

"Yes, but I never saw your father get thrown into a puddle of shit by a rhino."

Shuri burst into laughter and pointed at him. "Oh, I almost forgot about that! You stank for days! Mother made you sleep outside one night!"

"Next time try harder to forget," T'Challa said as he started to walk away from the giggling women.

"That reminds me," Shuri said, dropping her voice so only Charlotte could hear, "I have a video to show you later. Better than the rhino."

"I told you to delete that footage!" T'Challa called back over his shoulder.

"Did you? Whoops."

Charlotte laughed and started to follow Shuri back inside the palace. "How was your trip?"

"Productive. I am glad to be back though."

"Why? Had enough of playing teacher?"

Her face twisted in disgust. "No, I've had enough of eating squid and kimchi. I watched one man eat an octopus that was still alive! Did you know that people die every year in Korea from choking on tentacles that are still squirming? It's disgusting!"

"Oh, what, like fried grubs are any better? Remember when you had me try that worm thing?"

"Yes, and it is better because," Shuri held up a defiant finger, "mopane are cooked and seasoned and you can't die from eating it."

"Really? 'Cause I kind of felt like I was going to." Shuri snickered and Charlotte fought to keep up with her as she turned down a descending hallway. "Where are we going?"

"I need to get something from my lab. How have things been here?"

Charlotte had been dreading this question all day and her short, high-pitched answer betrayed her. "Good."

Shuri gave her friend a long sideways glance. "You liar."

"I am not lying! I helped Ota with his farm while he was away hunting. I've been down to the city to do some souvenir shopping and even went for a few hikes on some of my better days. Things have been fine."

Shuri opened a large glass door and waited for Charlotte to pass through first. "Have you seen much of Barnes?"

"Almost every day."

"And? Does he still seem uncomfortable?"

"Sometimes." Charlotte peered at the glossy black walls around them, illuminated by white, glowing runes that matched an equally bright floor. She had to quell a deep, magnetic line that started to etch into her thoughts. "He has good days and bad days. Like the rest of us."

Shuri gave her a sympathetic grin. Another turn into a different hallway and they eventually emerged into a familiar chamber with a white spiral ramp in the middle. Charlotte lingered in the open space of the lab while Shuri purposefully walked over to a metallic door the height of her waist.

"I want to show you something I started working on in Korea," she said as she rummaged through shelves that were spilling cold mist.

The princess walked back over to Charlotte, carrying two green bottles in her hand. She offered one to Charlotte, who gave her a quizzical look.

"You were working on beer?"

Shuri frowned. "What? No, I'm offering you a beer. Do you want it or not?"

Charlotte took the beer, laughing. "Damn. For a moment there, I got really excited."

Shuri shook her head, grinning. Charlotte followed her over to a pristine white table, where she quickly summoned a holographic display screen. With a few agile flips of her finger, she transferred an image file, then pulled on the image to expand it.

Charlotte nearly spit out her mouthful of beer.

"While we were working on the vibranium in Korea, I had a few ideas for Barnes. It's just a draft of a prototype, but it could be really cool."

The other woman stared wordlessly at the holograph. It was missing a red star and the metal was no longer reflective aluminum, but it was an unmistakable prosthetic arm. Dark, almost black, with coppery angled lines running through the plates. A thickening pit churned in her stomach.

"It's made of vibranium, but we can use imaging panels to disguise it to look like a normal limb. Of course, it will be lighter than his other one, making him faster and more agile. And – get this – I'm working on a biometric programming integration that would allow it to actually learn from him. The first educated source of vibranium!" Shuri caught sight of her friend's face. "What? You look like you've seen a snake."

Charlotte drew a deep breath, giving herself time to choose her words. "It's impressive, as always, but it seems…counterproductive."

"I wasn't planning on giving it to him tomorrow," Shuri scoffed. "It will probably take a few months to get it properly calibrated, but I thought Barnes would eventually like his arm back."

"Shuri, you and I both know that is not just an arm."

"Right, it's a highly advanced prosthetic."

"With weaponized capabilities."

Shuri threw up her hands. "Charlotte, what is your point?"

"My point is I thought we were supposed to be deprogramming him as a soldier, not re-arming him." She smirked despite herself. "No pun intended."

"Charlotte, the arm doesn't make him a soldier." Charlotte blinked as the words soaked in like water on sand. "I'm not going to give him a piece of plastic with some wires and hooks for fingers because it's physically impossible with his anatomy. And yes, I agree, this is a horrible thing to show him right now given where his head is at. But one day he'll need it again. He may even want it again, eh?"

The doe-eyed woman looked lost in space.

You can't unbuild a soldier. Not completely.

She shook her head and glanced down at the open mouth of her beer bottle. "I doubt it," she mumbled.

"What?"

"It's not just about fixing him, Shuri. It's about humanizing him."

Shuri stared at her friend long and hard. Bracing herself, Charlotte took a swig of beer. A large swig.

"You've been deprogramming him, haven't you?" Charlotte meandered away from Shuri, who dragged her hands over her face. "For Bast's sake, Charlotte. Why? Why do you have to do the one thing I told you not to? Eh? What the hell happened?"

"Shuri, please don't be mad. Everything's fine. No one got hurt."

"You are both damned lucky. There are a lot of people here who still see Barnes as a threat. If he had injured the wrong person, the council could deny him his asylum here in Wakanda. That's why T'Challa forbid it."

Charlotte's chest went cold. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you promised me you wouldn't put yourselves in that situation in the first place!"

"That was before I realized that he was struggling just to make it through every minute of every day." As if on cue, the skin on her shoulder rippled in a flash of pain, igniting a sharp point of anger. "It's a horrible feeling."

"Then you should've got Hanta involved. Or me! We could've helped!"

"How?" Charlotte clipped. "There's nothing you could've done from Korea. Most of your team is afraid to go within five feet of Bucky after the incident in the lab. Forgive me for breaching protocol, but this is about more than just your fucking science experiment!"

Charlotte clenched her jaw shut before she could say more and hung her head as she waited for a crippling spasm to pass. Her insides churned, though whether from the pain or from guilt at lashing out, she couldn't tell. Shuri had brought her to Wakanda to help and all Charlotte had managed to do was hospitalize herself and disobey orders. Was it really worth it? Was he worth it?

The pain hit a new high note and Charlotte gripped the tabletop next to her. The holographic screen that showcased the new arm suddenly flared white before it flashed into nothing, while a glass pane somewhere behind her popped as a large crack splintered through its center.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled and brought her head back up, wincing as the red-hot nerves in her neck coiled and screamed.

Shuri said nothing. Her arms were crossed tightly against her chest, her chin angled high as if to deflect Charlotte's words. Standing beneath her stern gaze, Charlotte thought her friend looked impossibly tall. Poised, battle-ready, elegant. Like her brother.

Like a queen.

Suddenly feeling very small, Charlotte turned and left the room, cursing the pain that kept her from making a swifter exit.

The princess kept her eyes drilled into the wall across the room, letting out a frustrated sigh only when Charlotte had gone. A part of her knew that Charlotte's words were hollow and only fueled only by pain, but another part of her didn't want to accept the apology. Shuri hated the pain scapegoat. For Charlotte's first several months in Wakanda, she had allowed Shuri to endlessly test, scan, measure, and collect anything she wanted, but she never figured out the source of her pain or exactly how the mechanisms in her brain had been altered. The scientist in her hated that all of the experimentation in the world couldn't fix her friend. So while Charlotte endured the pain, Shuri weathered the outbursts of anger as a constant reminder of her failure. And she hated that the most.

A soft sound like tinkling ice grabbed her attention. Glancing over at the cracked glass panel, Shuri watched as delicate fingers slowly branched out from the main fracture. The venous offshoots produced their own branches, which fed more lines, each branch becoming thinner and fainter until Shuri realized she was looking at the scored imprint of lightning.

Shuri wrapped the black shawl tighter around her as she descended the grassy hill toward the bonfire. The night wasn't particularly cold, but she suspected her travels and lack of sleep in the past 28 hours were beginning to catch up to her. Her mind was a beehive and not even several hours of senseless tinkering in her lab was enough to quell her restlessness. Somewhere past the midnight hour, she gave up and decided to stroll the dark, cool palace corridors. That's when she spotted the lone bright light flickering down in the valley, in front of a particular hut.

"Did you decide it was a good time to cook marshmallows?" she asked, earning a half-hearted grin from the former soldier. He was sitting on the sandy ground, wrapped in his red and blue robes and stoking the fire with a long, smooth branch.

"Hello Shuri," he offered plainly. "Did you just get back from Korea?"

"We got back earlier today. I just can't sleep."

"Makes two of us."

Shuri let the fire fill the silence with its hissing and crackling while she did a quick study of Bucky's face. The skin around his eyes looked dark, even in the firelight, and he was definitely due for a shave, but he looked healthy enough otherwise. Shuri silently scolded herself. Of course, he looked healthy – super soldiers were designed to be healthy, no matter what.

"How have you been feeling?" she asked.

He looked up at her through the flames. "Did you talk to Charlotte?"

"Briefly. And yes, I briefly wanted to strangle both of you."
Bucky stirred the fire, which blazed in response, casting a brighter light onto them both. It was then that Shuri caught sight of a few healing gashes around Bucky's left shoulder, beneath the knotted robes.

"What happened while I was gone?" she asked.

His gaze turned broodingly towards the flickering cathedral of flames. "The confusion was getting worse. I couldn't keep track of who I was, where I was. Charlotte offered help and I eventually took her up on it. Maybe leaving the sequence incomplete for too long messes things up. I don't know."

Shuri blinked. It was an astute observation that she couldn't argue against. At least, not at hour 28 going on 29.

"I'm sorry. I really wasn't trying to make things harder for you. I was just trying to keep everyone safe."

Bucky half-grinned. "I never doubted that for a second."

A few moments passed, both of them staring dazedly into the flames while the nightly African chorus of frogs and insects sang around them.

"The bleeding effect," she murmured. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bucky look up at her, wordlessly asking. "Your brain stores data in specific places, which is what allows us to differentiate between dreams, reality, and memory. If there's damage to one of these places, or you have an inability to process the data, then the information can "bleed" into the wrong areas."

"Sounds wonderful."

"It sounds worse than it is," Shuri said quickly. "We figured there was a good chance this would be a side effect. Your mind is dealing with a huge influx of information. It will just take time to sort it out."

"Don't suppose you have any idea how long?"

Shuri took a deep breath. "A few months? Give or take a few days."

They both grinned dimly. The princess took another long look at Bucky. She thought of the prosthetic prototype in her lab and imagined it affixed to his empty shoulder. Dark and glinting in the firelight as a metallic shadow, unable to feel the warmth of sunlight or the coolness of a night's breeze.

It's about humanizing him.

Shuri shook her head, fondly cursing Charlotte's annoyingly accurate magnetic mother earth intuition. "Did Charlotte say anything to you about when she'd be leaving?"

Bucky's brows furrowed. "Leaving?"

"I guess that answers that question," Shuri huffed.

"But we haven't gone through all the words."

Shuri swore someone threw a rock and it hit her squarely in the back of the head. "What?"

Now Bucky's face thoroughly reflected her own confusion. "We still have two words left. Why is she leaving?"

Shuri started to laugh deliriously. Embarrassed, she dragged her long fingers over her face. "I thought you had finished the deprogramming," she half-giggled, half-groaned, "but I guess Charlotte never actually said that and I just assumed! Well, you know what they say about assuming. It makes an ass out of you and me." Bucky stared blankly at her. "Get it? Because of the way it's spelled? Ass, u, and me."

Bucky shook his head, though more out of pity than reply.

"Ah, maybe that's my cue to go to bed, eh?" She started to step back from the bonfire.
"So then, she's not leaving?" he insisted, trying to sound casual.

"No. Not yet anyway. I'm sure eventually she'll need to return to the life she put on hold for us. Although sometimes I wonder if she should just stay."

"Why do you say that?"

Shuri thought carefully, realizing her filter was rapidly vanishing with each conscious second. "She cares about you. A lot." She paused. "Maybe that's her bleeding effect."

Bucky went very still, as if doing so could hide the effect of his heart thrashing against his sternum. When he said nothing in response, Shuri restarted back up the hill, wondering if she should've kept her mouth shut instead.

"Try to get some sleep, if you can," she said. "Goodnight, Sergeant Barnes."

"Goodnight, Shuri."