With the Amended Accords signed, Maggie and Steve were able to take their hands off the wheel a little. Much of the infrastructure and systems for the Accords were being set up, by people far more qualified than them, so they both accompanied Bucky to Wakanda.

Before they left, Maggie got a text from Rikki:

I think I'm almost ready. I do want to meet all of them, just not yet. Could you give me my dad's contact information?

Rikki was perfectly capable of finding their dad's contact information on their own, but Maggie saw the text for what it was - a confession, and a plea for support. Maggie called Rikki back to give them the information, and helped talk them through some of their fears. I don't know what having a normal dad is like either, she told the teenager. You make up the relationship as you go along. It can be whatever you want it to be.

Rikki still seemed nervous, but more assured. Maggie was sure they'd be alright while Maggie was in Wakanda.

Wakanda

"We are almost there now."

Maggie, Bucky, and Steve pressed closer to the cockpit window of T'Challa's royal airship, piloted by the head of the Dora Milaje, a woman named Okoye. Her second, Ayo, sat by T'Challa and Nakia in the passenger seats.

Maggie had been a lot of places across the world. But she'd never been here. And there was a sweeping kind of beauty to the mountain foothills they soared over, shrouded in mist and clouds. They descended into a valley carved with gorges, herds of white animals thundering down them. The gorges opened up into vast fields of grass, where Maggie could see a few small settlements of basic hut-like housing, surrounded by herds of animals.

Then they flew over a mountainous jungle. Maggie's gaze roved across the surroundings, searching for whatever could be T'Challa's home. But she still saw nothing.

At the pilot's seat, Okoye turned to trade a glance with her King, and Maggie frowned at the mischievous glint to the woman's eyes.

The ship crested lower, lower, until the canopies of the trees in the jungle were visible.

"Are we landing?" Steve asked hesitantly, though Okoye had made no move to slow the ship. Maggie's heartbeat ratcheted up and she darted a glance back at T'Challa, who watched with a faint smile.

The trees were rushing toward them now. The ship was headed straight for them on a collision, Okoye's hands steady at the controls, and Maggie sensed Bucky and Steve tense up at the same moment as she darted for the controls -

The ship plunged into the trees and Maggie's eyes squeezed shut and her breath left her chest - but instead of the ship being torn apart and the sudden slam of impact, she sensed… nothing. Her eyes snapped back open just in time to see the holographic shimmer over the cockpit give way.

Maggie almost choked as she fought to catch her breath back, reaching back blindly for Bucky. Her hand met his arm and she gripped tight, as if the hold might steady her, prepare her for the sight that had just unveiled itself below.

The jungle had been an illusion; they now found themselves soaring high over a vast glittering river, and on the banks sprawled a city like a complex organism of metal and glass. Hundreds of towering buildings of unusual and unique designs bristled between the two foothills of the valley, peppered between with monuments, green spaces, and flatter residential sprawls. Okoye piloted the ship over the city and down, where they could see that the metropolis was arranged into arcing blocks. They blurred past skyscrapers and bustling streets, and Maggie found herself almost plastered against the cockpit window trying to absorb it all before it rushed past. Behind her, Bucky and Steve stared wordlessly.

"Welcome to Birnin Zana," came the soft voice of Nakia, glowing with pride.

There - a vast solar panel affixed to the top of a building. There: a pyramid-like building made of some kind of burnished brown metal. Domed skyscrapers and trains that whizzed past. Maggie tried to etch it all in her memory. The airship crested low, bringing them to what had to be the centre of this vast city; a palace complex of two soaring towers connected by a bridge, built up on a hill. Maggie's ears popped as they came down to land on a flat strip at the base of the complex.

Maggie turned, and met Bucky's wide eyes.

"Your home is beautiful," Steve said diplomatically, recovering enough to turn to T'Challa.

"You haven't seen the half of it yet," T'Challa smiled. "Come, I think my mother and sister are waiting to meet us."

They all filed down the stairs at the back of the airship, and Maggie found herself awestruck anew at their welcoming party: a whole troop of Dora Milaje arrayed in gleaming red and gold armor, their Vibranium speartips glinting in the sun. They flanked the path toward two intriguing women; the first an older woman in an elaborate silver flaring headdress, with intricate designs woven into it. She wore a sleeveless dress of the same color that swept to the ground, laced with black geometric designs. Beside her stood a younger woman, probably only a couple of years older than Rikki, wearing a black and silver jumpsuit with an orange asymmetric vest, a riot of quirky color. Her hair was braided into an elaborate updo and she wore shiny white Nikes.

Maggie's eyes widened as she followed the others toward the two women, though she sensed that she, Steve, and Bucky were being stared at as much as they were staring. Steve took the lead; they'd gone for civilian clothes rather than their uniforms, so he wore neat slacks and a button down; T'Challa had assured them that they did not need to dress fancy, though being faced by the elaborate and elegantly dressed older woman ahead made Maggie shift uncomfortably in her dark jeans. The Wakandan air was hot and dry at this time of year, but the sun on her skin was refreshing.

T'Challa was first to the women, throwing his arms wide as he hugged the elder, his mother. She smiled as she embraced him.

"Your speech was wonderful, my son," she beamed as she pulled away, touching his cheek. T'Challa turned and fist-bumped the younger woman, who must be his sister Shuri. Nakia kissed the queen on the cheek.

"Yes, yes, you changed the course of our country's entire history," Shuri said dismissively. "Now tell us about the Americans you have brought."

T'Challa turned, hand outstretched to his guests. "This is Captain Steve Rogers."

Steve held out his hand and the Queen shook it with an amused smile, followed by Shuri.

"And this is Margaret Stark, and Sergeant James Barnes."

"Call me Maggie," she said at the same time as Bucky said "call me Bucky," and they glanced at each other with a smile before they glanced back. Shuri's eyes sparked.

"This is my mother Ramonda, the Queen Mother of Wakanda, and my sister, Princess Shuri," T'Challa completed his greeting with, touching his sister's arm.

"You are very welcome in our country," Ramonda said with a gracious nod. "If my son's plans come to fruition, you should be the first of many visitors. We hope to be gracious hosts." She cast a glance at her daughter, who sighed.

"Yes, very welcome." Shuri shifted her weight.

"Thank you for having us," Steve said. "We can't thank you enough for the offer."

There was a small, awkward pause. Maggie glanced up at the huge palace towers.

Shuri sighed again. "Are the formalities done now?"

Her mother closed her eyes briefly. "Yes, I believe so."

"Great!" Shuri darted forward, straight for Bucky, and Maggie tensed minutely by his side. But Shuri paused a few feet away and made a 'come here' gesture. "Come on, let's go get started. We don't want to stand around here all day."

Bucky's eyebrows rose. But after a second to eye the young woman he straightened his shoulders and stepped forward. Maggie went with him, at his left side. They followed Shuri into the palace, followed by Steve and T'Challa.

Shuri talked the whole way through the palace as she led them to her lab. Mostly about T'Challa's speech at the UN, and her recent visit to Oakland and how she'd tried Dunkin Donuts and thought it was disgusting. Maggie was so dazzled by their arrival, and the grand, beautiful spaces inside the palace, and merely being in Shuri's presence that it took her a good fifteen minutes to actually speak.

"You're the engineer, aren't you?" she finally said as they followed Shuri down a brightly lit glass tunnel; they were underground by now, weaving their way below the palace.

Shuri looked over her shoulder with an incredulous glance. "Engineer, that is such a small word for what I am. Is that what you call yourself?"

Maggie shrugged. "It's what my degree's in."

Shuri pulled another face. "Degree." But then she started walking backward, her eyes on Maggie. "I have to say, I am a big fan of your wings. I thought the thrust output ratio solution you devised was clever, somewhat similar to what we do with our airships here. And the helmet, with the eyes?" Shuri waved a hand over her own face. "Very cool. I keep trying to convince my brother his suit is not cool enough to look at, but he says it doesn't matter." She scoffed. "He still does not realise that just because something works, it can always be made better."

Maggie found herself smiling, still in step with Bucky.

"I can hear you, and my suit is perfectly cool enough," T'Challa called from the rear, in a long-suffering tone.

"Anyway," Shuri said, waving a hand as if he was inconsequential. "We are here now." She passed through a flourescently-lit doorway into what looked like a cavernous space beyond, and as the others followed through, the sensor lights inside lit up.

Maggie's gaze instantly jerked upward - they'd walked into a huge carved out section beneath the mountain, the walls all natural black rock; Vibranium, it had to be. Shuri's lab was built into this vaulting cavern; they walked onto a sleek glossy black floor with flourescent glowing lines cutting through it, which curved around a huge central pillar painted with graffiti-like colourful geometric designs. A white ramp circled around the pillar, circling up and up to what looked like an alternative entrance at the very top of the cavern. Worktables were arranged around the inside of the space, screens and devices lighting up as their owner strode into the room. Strange inventions and projects were arrayed along worktables - Maggie's gaze skipped from a piece of shimmering dark blue fabric with what looked like computer chips sewn into it, to a white metal plate attached to dozens of glowing blue wires, pulsing gently. An arcing screen built into one wall glowed with representations of what Maggie guessed were molecules.

One whole side of the room was made up of windows, looking out to an enormous space underneath the mountain; mag-lev trains zipped by, bearing loads of what had to be yet more Vibranium. The space beyond was so vast that Maggie couldn't see the far walls, just pillars of load-bearing stone, cut through with shimmering purple. It was like a whole other city of rock and metal underground.

Maggie didn't watch where she was going as she paced across the glossy black floor, her head twisting one way and another as she absorbed everything she could about the space, Shuri's projects, and the underground metropolis beyond. She sensed Shuri drift over to one of her worktables, and Steve and Bucky follow behind at a slower pace.

Maggie had so many questions she found herself speechless.

Bucky was the first to speak. "I know you said no promises," he said in a low tone. Maggie tore her gaze away from Shuri's ten-foot long holoscreen and looked back to Bucky. His eyes were on the Princess, who leaned against one of her worktables. "But… you really think you might be able to help me?"

"If anyone can," Shuri said confidently, "it's me. You won't be the first broken white boy I've fixed."

Maggie swallowed a laugh.

Shuri gestured to the central pillar of her lab - there was a flat medical-looking bed in a hollowed out section at the base. "Lie down, and we will see what we can see."

Bucky's gaze flicked to Maggie. For a moment, they just looked at each other; Bucky's eyebrow twitched. She could see how nervous he was about all this, and despite the strange charm to Shuri and her lab she was still a scientist, in a scientific lab. And Bucky had only ever had bad experiences with them.

Maggie dipped her chin. She didn't understand half of this stuff either, but in this space she saw curiosity, and care, and altruism. This wasn't the lab of a butcher or a torturer.

Bucky blew out a breath, nodded, and then made his way to the bed.

Shuri spent the next twenty minutes preparing a series of lightning-fast scans, working on a her workshop screens as well as the ring of Kimoyo beads around her wrist to generate holo-images of Bucky's body, scans of his brain, and readouts of things Maggie didn't even understand; but they appeared to make sense to Shuri, who observed it all with keenly sharp eyes and a comment here and there.

Bucky lay flat, eyes on the underside of the hollowed-out space he lay in, fidgeting occasionally. Steve, Maggie, and T'Challa watched Shuri work. The Dora Milaje watched from the doorway.

Shuri also asked Bucky questions about the programming he had endured under HYDRA. Bucky swallowed, but dutifully described what he could remember from his first days after falling from the train, to the decades after of rounds in the Memory Suppression Machine, and the trigger words. His voice was rough and low as he spoke. He had told all this to Maggie two years ago, and it seemed less difficult for him to say it a second time. T'Challa and the Dora Milaje listened with dark expressions.

"I, uh, I provided T'Challa with the scans and notes I've been using the past couple years as well," Maggie ventured after a few minutes, hanging back but desperately trying to see everything Shuri was doing.

Shuri tsked without taking her eyes off the holoprojection from her Kimoyo beads. "Brother, what are you doing withholding data from me?"

"Apologies," T'Challa sighed, touching his own Kimoyo bracelet. A moment later, more projections appeared around Shuri's workspace, and she eyed them. Maggie recognized some of the brainscans they'd done a while ago with Bucky, as well as her collated research on neuroscience, and the data recovered from HYDRA on what they'd done to their Winter Soldier. Shuri flicked through a few of the proposed therapies, medications, and devices Maggie had designed to try to treat Bucky's trigger words.

"These are quite good," Shuri complimented. Bucky's head lifted and he glanced over.

"Alright," Maggie murmured, a little suspicious of Shuri's bright tone.

"For the technology you were working with, I mean it!"

"Uh huh." Maggie narrowed her eyes. She glanced back at Bucky, and he winked. She smiled and turned to Shuri. "So… talk me through it. What are you thinking right now? What's the process?"

Shuri's eyes finally left her work, and she shot Maggie a slightly assessing look. "It involves some technology and scientific processes that you have never experienced before."

"Even better."

Shuri's lips curved into a smile and she glanced at her brother, who only nodded. "Alright then."

Shuri launched into an explanation of everything she'd done so far and everything else she planned to do. Maggie only understood roughly 50% of what she was talking about, constantly startled by new terms and strange new ways of going about solving problems. Steve and T'Challa quickly zoned out, and as the scans and discussions continued, Bucky slowly fell asleep on his bed.

Maggie had never been more thrilled in her life.

That evening, after Shuri had confirmed she had all the data she needed for her and her team to move forward with analysis, Maggie, Steve, and Bucky had dinner together in one of the suites they'd been given. T'Challa had passed on his regrets that they could not host a royal dinner that night, as he had diplomatic work to do after his visit to the UN, but promised them a proper welcome banquet in a few day's time.

So it was just the three of them, eating Wakandan delicacies at a beautiful mahogany table, overlooking the city of Birnin Zana. The sun was setting, making the river and the skyscrapers blaze with gold. Beyond the city the mountainous jungle stretched away, jagged on the horizon.

"I feel like I'm on a different planet," Maggie murmured, swallowing a spiced cut of meat.

Under the table, Bucky squeezed her knee as he raised his eyebrows at Steve. "Long way from Brooklyn, aren't we?"

Steve, who'd been staring out the window, looked back and blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, we are." He shook his head as if shaking off a dream. "And you're happy to work with - with Shuri, Buck?"

"She's not what I expected," he said with a quirk to his lips. "But I'm starting to think that's a good thing."

"I love her," Maggie declared. "I want her to adopt me."

"She's much younger than you," Bucky pointed out.

"All the same."

"Does the science… make sense, to you?" Steve asked hesitantly. "It's all Greek to me, but that's the same back home."

"Oh my gosh," Maggie leaned back in her chair dramatically. "You don't even - it's like…" she searched for the words, her hands gesturing fruitlessly. "Imagine I'm a - like an ancient Sumerian, and I've just invented the wheel. Then Shuri comes along and she's riding a bicycle. And it's made of fucking Vibranium. I can get the basic concepts, with a bit of explaining to fill the gap, but she's a few steps ahead."

"And that's fun for you?" Steve asked doubtfully.

"Of course it is," Bucky laughed. "When's the last time anyone taught a Stark something they didn't know?"

The next few days in Wakanda passed in in a blur of sun-baked excursions into the city, and the cool darkness of Shuri's underground lab. Shuri's team of engineers (they laughed at the term, too) were remarkable, and Bucky became ever so slowly more comfortable with the scans and the questions. They were making good progress with understanding his trigger words; a blend of physiological and mental programming, they said.

Maggie found herself getting headaches trying to understand everything around her, but she didn't let that slow her down. The Dora Milaje kept a close eye on her as she explored every inch of Shuri's lab, and asked to see other parts of the underground complex. They wouldn't let her in the Vibranium mines, but they let her ride one of the mining trains, which zipped underneath the city at incredible speeds. Shuri seemed to enjoy Maggie's enthusiasm, and they quickly fell into a habit of long conversations involving Shuri explaining the new terms and devices Maggie had encountered, and debating over the best ways to solve different problems, from the best design for an electrochemical cell, to the best toppings on a pizza.

Steve seemed awed and daunted by it all, and seemed to prefer the gleaming, bustling city to the lab underground. Maggie caught him sketching once, and though he refused to show her his drawings, Maggie was glad he was starting up old hobbies again. T'Challa checked in on them all periodically, usually too busy with his kingly duties (and his new-ish relationship with the woman named Nakia) to stay for long.

Maggie had called Tony at least once per day; things were fine back at the Avengers Facility, quiet even. The Accords were still being processed and turned into an actual bureaucratic system.

One afternoon Maggie strode down the long, gleaming underground corridor toward Shuri's lab balancing three cups of coffee in her hands. She'd quickly fallen for the beautifully dark local roast here; one of Shuri's team had said that the Vibranium in the earth enhanced the flavor, and Maggie wasn't sure whether they were fucking with her or not, but it did taste great.

She strode through the flourescently-lit doorway into Shuri's lab as she had a dozen times before, and instantly picked up on Shuri's low voice:

"You should tell them, Sergeant Barnes, they will want to talk about it with you." Shuri and Bucky were out of sight behind the central pillar.

"I'll tell them when it's ready," came Bucky's low voice. He sounded tired.

"Tell us what," Maggie said as she rounded the central pillar, the coffee in her hands almost forgotten and her heart already thrumming with panic.

Bucky was sitting by Shuri's worktable, as she stood on the other side from him, her hands planted and her eyes serious. Bucky glanced over at Maggie's voice, then sighed and closed his eyes.

Shuri glanced between them, taking in Bucky's tired resignation and Maggie's insistent stare. She whistled under her breath. "I think I will give you two a minute." She held up both of her hands, stepped away from the table, and quickly left the lab.

Bucky looked up at the clank of Maggie setting their coffee mugs down on the worktable.

"Don't lie," she said, facing him.

"I wouldn't lie to you," he said softly, but couldn't seem to meet her eye. A resigned sadness she hadn't seen in a while hung on his face, bringing out his years. He wore a t-shirt, with a synthetic sock over the remnants of his metal arm.

Maggie paced toward him and reached out to touch his jaw. His three-day old stubble bristled her fingertips. "What is it?" she asked in a softer voice.

"I've been talking to Princess Shuri about…" he swallowed and looked up. "Please, just let me get this out before you interrupt, I know you're going to hate it."

She shuffled closer so her legs pressed against his. "Okay."

He took a deep breath. "They have a version of cryogenic technology here," he began. Her brow knotted, but she didn't interrupt. "Painless, safe. Especially for someone with the serum. I asked Princess Shuri if they could put me under until she's figured out the technology to fix me, because she thinks it could be months. It would mean I couldn't hurt anyone again." He searched her eyes desperately. "I know that's a long time, and I - I understand if that's too long for you to wait."

Her lips pressed together, but she'd promised not to interrupt.

"But I think this is what I need, Meg. I couldn't stand it if I hurt someone again. Hurt you again." He shook his head. "It's safer this way."

A long silence passed. Shuri's lab was utterly silent, not even a hum of airconditioning or the reverberation of the mag-lev trains outside to shatter the stillness.

"Okay," Bucky murmured, his eyes still on her face. "Say something."

She let another long pause pass. Her fingers on his jaw flattened, until she was holding his face in her hand, looking into his sea-grey eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do," he said easily, his head tilted up toward her.

"Trust me that this isn't the right move, then," she said softly. She traced his face and watched his expressions shift and flicker. "Not just because I want to keep you with me, or because I think the sight of you frozen behind glass might-" her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. "Because it's not the right move for you," she murmured. "So many people have taken your life from you. Stolen years and memories and thoughts and choices. Don't do it to yourself as well." Bucky's eyes gleamed bright, and she shook her head. "I know you're scared of what might happen, but…" she paused to take a breath. "Shuri seems positive. Stay safe here, if you need to, away from the world, but don't steal more time from yourself."

He eyed her for a long time, looking up into her eyes, his jaw in her palm.

"Okay." He let out a shaky breath. She could see the fear in his eyes, and she closed her eyes for a moment in relief.

That was easier than I thought. But she knew he'd been acting out of fear when he'd asked that of Shuri, and he had heard the sense in Maggie's words.

"Better to feel scared, than to feel nothing at all," she said, rubbing the sides of his neck. It took a while, but after a few moments she felt the tension in him ease, and the fear receded. Her lips curved. "Let's see what else you can feel."

He snorted at the flirtation in her voice. She climbed into his lap and buried her face in the side of his neck, and moments later he was gasping under her touch. The Wakandan coffee went cold.

Steve returned to the States after a week; things might be quiet at the Avengers Facility, but they still needed their Captain.

Maggie decided to stay a while. Bucky didn't feel safe outside Wakanda, and so in Wakanda she would stay. T'Challa offered for them to stay in their suites in the Royal Palace, but Bucky asked if there was anywhere quieter; Birnin Zana was great and Maggie couldn't wait to explore it further, but she agreed that some quiet would be nice.

T'Challa had given them a knowing look. I believe one of my Dora Milaje comes from a village a few miles from here. I will arrange it for you.

The next day, Bucky and Maggie awoke to three small faces staring down at them, daubed in yellow and white paint.

Maggie noticed them first - she blinked up at them blearily, her hair mussed up on one side of her head and her whole body loose and slow from a good night's sleep. But then Bucky, his arm tucked over her, sensed the extra presences and he jerked bolt upright -

The kids turned and ran, giggling.

Bucky's shoulders slumped and he sighed in bemusement, before twisting to look down at Maggie. They shared a simple cot, which took up about a third of the small, thatched hut that had become their temporary home. There were decorations of carved wood and burnished metal on the walls, a grass mat on the floor, and a few modern Wakandan devices like a refrigerator and a cooker against the far wall. Her prosthetic leg was propped by the doorway, which was more of a hole in the wall than a door, with a pair of hanging translucent curtains over the entrance. That explained how the kids had just walked straight in.

"Easy, soldier," Maggie chuckled.

Bucky unsnared his arm from their sheets, and leaned back over Maggie as she laughed under her breath at him. He pressed his forehead into her shoulder. "T'Challa didn't mention the home invaders," he mumbled, still half-asleep.

Maggie ran a hand up the side of his chest and up to the fabric sling over his arm. He'd accepted a few clothes from the locals when they arrived last night, including a red tunic-like wrap. Morning light shimmered through their curtain-doorway, and Maggie could already sense the heat rising; the ends of Bucky's hair were curling. He let out a long, slow breath against her skin. "This place suits you," she murmured.

"It's quiet," he sighed.

It wasn't - Maggie could heard birds calling in the jungle, the lapping of water on the lakefront only a few yards away, and low conversation; the small settlement was a mile or two along the lake, but the adults said they came further up to fish in the mornings. They'd all been introduced last night, and they were welcoming and fascinated by their new visitors.

It wasn't quiet here, but it was just what they'd needed.

Maggie stretched, unfamiliar sheets sliding over her skin and her mouth cracking in a yawn. Bucky's warmth was comforting over and around her, but she knew in a few minutes as the sun rose even higher she'd get too hot. When she opened her eyes, Bucky was watching her, his dark hair haloed by the golden light spilling into the hut.

"Do you like it here?" he asked. "It's… not exactly like the places you're used to."

"Same for you," she countered, and shifted up the cot a little more so she could sit up. Her leg stump pressed against Bucky's knee. She reached out to straighten the sling over his shoulder. "I like it here," she confirmed, and broke into a smile. "I like you here. I'm looking forward to seeing what me here is like."

"You won't be able to stay away from Shuri's lab long," he teased, leaning in.

"No, but it's a short trip. I promise I'll be home for dinner, honey," she teased right back, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "But seriously… I know we're here for a reason, waiting for Shuri to figure stuff out, but… screw it. Screw the Avengers, and the Accords, and all of it." She spread her hands. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter, quite a lot," he replied, eyebrows raised.

"I know, I know, but also… it doesn't. Because all I want is to be here with you. Figuring out what we're going to do today." She beamed. "It's my mission."

For a moment he watched her, his eyes tracking over her face, taking in the look in her eyes, the quirk of her lips, the no doubt birds-nest of her hair. She leaned back against the clay wall of their hut, which pressed cool against her bare shoulders.

"This place suits you too," he finally said. "Don't know how I got so lucky."

"I know right, you hit the jackpot with me-"

He snorted and dove forward, silencing her with a kiss.

Maggie and Bucky made that little spot on the shore of the lake their home. They wore amalgams of Wakandan fashion as well the few clothes they'd brought with them, exploring the lake and the jungle that stretched away behind the hut. They were visited occasionally by Shuri or T'Challa, accompanied by Dora Milaje, and they got to know the different warriors' names.

Sure enough Maggie could not stay away from Shuri's lab for long, and when Bucky wanted to set off exploring on his own, she'd take a trip into Birnin Zana and spend the day learning and observing. And she started to get the itch.

After about a week T'Challa, apparently still guilty about breaking her wings, allowed Shuri to gift Maggie a small amount of Vibranium. And she built herself a brand new pair of wings.

She did not change the original design much, but the incorporation of Vibranium naturally made them sleeker, faster, more powerful. She couldn't wait to show them to Tony.

Oh, and there was the minor, very cool feature, where they could be stored in a single strip of Vibranium lined around the wingports in her back, practically invisible, and could expand to their full size within three seconds. The first time she tried them out (in Shuri's lab), she'd let out a whoop so loud that every single one of Shuri's team had flinched, and the Dora Milaje had leaped to battle stations.

When they'd all looked over to see Maggie standing there in her jeans and t-shirt, with two huge, glinting wings arcing to either side of her, their eyes had widened. So turns out I can impress Wakandans, she'd thought smugly, looking over her shoulder to see the sharp talons at the ends of her wings, the translucent webbing between the Vibranium bones that glowed with a hint of red. She shivered at the rush of cybernetic feeling that flowed from the wings, through her wingports, and into her nervous system. She didn't know if it was the Vibranium, or her newer design, but the wings felt so much more alive than they had before. She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.

It had been months.

She flexed the wings, feeling the cool air of the lab pressing against their metal skin, then pulled them in tight, pressing hard against her back. It felt like embracing an old friend. When she opened her eyes, Shuri was grinning.

"Those are cool," she exclaimed.

"Thank you for giving me the Vibranium," Maggie breathed, reaching out to touch the hard ridgebone of her left wing. She felt the touch as a gentle brush of pressure, and a hint of warmth. She glanced back at Shuri. "You're not getting it back."

Shuri spread her hands and bowed her head, smiling. "A gift. If I thought you would turn it into something ugly, I wouldn't have given it to you."

"I'm also definitely telling Tony about your nanite theory," Maggie murmured as she turned, trying to get a better view of the wings as they tapered down toward her back, and flowed into the metal ports on either side of her spine. All of this, generated from two small strips of metal. One of the Dora Milaje, Ayo, dodged back to avoid the tip of her outstretched wing. "Sorry!"

"Go," Shuri laughed, making a shoo gesture with her hands. "Wings are not made for standing around in labs. Go fly."

"You are a smart woman," Maggie agreed. She retracted her wings with a snick - not all the way, just so they were tucked up against her back - and started racing up the ramp winding around the central spire of Shuri's lab. She wasn't flying, but her feet felt light with the weight of her wings pressing her down.

Maggie and Bucky went from hiking all over the countryside, to flying. The little village near their hut got used to the sight of black wings flashing overhead as Maggie carried Bucky through the sky, the both of them whooping and pointing out things they saw in the vast tapestry below. Then they'd soar up high, right up into the clouds, until Maggie retracted her wings; then it was just two people falling, falling, and never hitting the ground.

For weeks they explored, and flew, and invented, and danced, and laughed. They walked barefoot along the lake and got sunburnt in the burning Wakandan sun. They cooked meals they knew, and others they'd learned from the nearby villagers, and burned their fingers in their campfire as music from the past seven decades played over their borrowed speakers. They found themselves looking after the three goats that had somehow come along with their hut, and learned to fish, and watched the technicolor sunsets over the veld. After two years of Bucky being confined to the Tower, and then the Facility, having all that space around them felt dizzying.

Maggie had been a lab-coated Stark Industries engineer, had been the armored Wyvern, the professional and serious Avenger. She'd never been this… this barefooted, sunburnt and metal-winged person she had become here in Wakanda, with Bucky, happy to spend a day reading and exploring and kicking her feet through the water, sometimes without seeing another soul other than the long-haired and blue-eyed man at her side. The world felt so much bigger as it stretched around them.

When Bucky was feeling up to it they went on city trips into Birnin Zana, where they admired the miraculous arcing buildings, the colorful markets full of wonderful technologies and foods, the mag-lev transport, and stared and got stared at in their turn.

As wild and strange as their lives had become, they never switched off entirely. Technology was ever-present in Wakanda, for one thing, from the high-tech automatic sensors in the fishing nets the villagers used, to the electric fridge in their hut. But they also stayed in touch with the outside world; Steve checked in often, as did Tony, and Maggie sometimes managed Avengers business remotely, with her phone pressed to her ear and her feet dangling in the lake.

One morning, Maggie woke to a text from Rikki.

Hi Ms Stark, I just wanted to let you know that things are going really well with me and my dad. We've been meeting up for a few weeks now, and he asked for permission recently to tell a few of his family members, and I don't mind. I figured I'd tell you that I don't mind if Mr Barnes finds out as well.

Maggie smiled down at her phone as she replied:

That's great to hear, Rikki. I will let him know. Do you have any questions for him?

She found Bucky down at the village a few minutes walk away; one of the local women, Efe, made a great maize porridge that they'd both become fond of. The villagers were great neighbors - accommodating of the fact that Bucky only had one arm, and eager to share stories and food and stories. They seemed bemused by Bucky and Maggie's more 'primitive' background outside Wakanda. The kids in the village had taken to calling Bucky ingcuka - Wakandan for White Wolf. Maggie's less-nice nickname was isithunzi Apep when she was wearing the wings, as she often was; Apep's shadow. Apep, it turned out, was in Wakandan mythology the same as in Egyptian mythology; a primordial and evil serpent who tried to swallow the sun. The kids never said it with malice, and Maggie supposed that seeing her flared black wings blocking out the sun from time to time had inspired the name.

Maggie ate breakfast with Bucky, Efe, and a few of the other villagers, then led Bucky away from the village, back to their hut.

When she sat him down, she could tell Bucky was nervous.

"Did Shuri say something?" he asked, fidgeting with his shoulder sling. "Is something wrong with the - the therapy?"

"No, nothing like that," she said quickly, reaching out to touch his knee. Bucky had been going into Shuri's lab regularly for further scanning. Shuri had come up with a plan for 'neurological realignment', as she called it, but she'd been correct when she initially predicted that development of the right technology and application would take a few months.

Maggie took a deep breath. "I have something to tell you."

When she was finished, Bucky sat back on his wicker chair, stunned.

"I am sorry I had to keep the secret from you," Maggie murmured. "But it wasn't mine to tell."

"It's alright," he said faintly. He shook his head. "I - but I remember Rikki. They're so smart."

"The Barnes's are a smart family."

He glanced at her. "Sure, but I ain't that smart."

"Maybe your sisters had the smart genes," she teased.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Bucky ran his hand through his hair, breathing out. Then, suddenly, his brows came together and his mouth turned down. "But… Rikki's been all alone."

"Not alone, they've had their abuela, and a very loving family on that side."

"But - you know what I mean. All this time, they could've been…"

"I know." Maggie shifted her chair around until she was next to him, and she reached over to rub his back. "Sometimes it takes a while for a good thing to come along."

She spent the next few minutes telling him everything she knew; from the initial blood results, to Rikki deciding to meet up with their dad, to what Maggie knew about their first meetings.

"I'm glad they're… I'm glad." Bucky's hair was all mussed up from how much he'd been running his hand through it in stress, hanging over his eyes. He looked to her. "You've known a while?"

"Shock of my life, I tell you that." But then she smiled. "You're more similar than I realized, though. Rikki hides behind their hair, sometimes." She tucked Bucky's hair behind his ear. "And they grit their teeth just like you do, when you get stubborn." His jaw instantly loosened as if in protest. "And they've helped me more times than I can count." She sighed. "Your family are special, Bucky. And I hope one day you'll be ready to let them into your life."

He sat silent a long time, and Maggie's gaze wandered out to the reflection of streaky white clouds in the lake. Finally, he took a deep breath.

"I… will. I want to."

Maggie held her breath, afraid he might change his mind if she spoke. This was a big change from the they're better off without me attitude from earlier in the year.

Bucky rubbed his knee. "I miss 'em."

She ran her hand through his hair, stroking the back of his head.

"Shirley's eighty five now. Last I remember she was twelve, didn't even reach my shoulder. Kept stealing Becca and Nancy's clothes, drove 'em mad."

Maggie smiled.

"For what it's worth, doll…" He looked up. "You - you're my family too. Hope you know that."

Maggie was so touched by the words that her throat closed up, and her hand stilled in his hair. Bucky's hand landed on her knee and squeezed.

"Yeah," she finally said, thickly. She nodded quickly. "You're mine too."

He leaned in and they kissed, slow and warm in the morning sun.

After a moment, Maggie chuckled. "You realize this means you're stuck with Tony, then. Brother in law and all that."

"Well, you're stuck with Steve," he replied easily. "And, I guess… Rikki too."

She smiled. "I can think of worse things."

Reviews

Strawberrycheeze: I just had to have a Maggie/Yelena interaction ;)