Bucky sat at the little table an hour later, fiddling with the tie Steve had knotted for him and wishing he could do something about the too-long hair that swung across his face as he looked down. With a frustrated groan he tried to tuck it back behind his ear yet again.
"I can help with that." Shay said from behind him.
Bucky wondered if it was glow that made his scalp tingle under her touch as she gathered his hair into a knot near the base of his skull. When she'd finished with the tie, she adjusted the edge of the white kente sash across his shoulder and smoothed the lapel of his jacket down.
"There, now you're ready."
"Right." He grunted sarcastically and rose from his chair as a door opened and closed in the hall.
"Did I miss a memo?" Steve asked, a strangled half laugh registering in his voice.
"What are you talking about?" Shay asked as Bucky turned to face them both.
Bucky matched Steve's fresh-faced and slack-jawed expression at Shay. She wore a sleeveless tunic gown that fell to her ankles, simple as the cut might be the dress could never be called simple. Shimmering white silk covered in golden embroidery patterned after the concentric rings of the scar under her left collarbone. A purple kente knotted on one shoulder like a sash, black leather sandals and the intricate collar of beadwork that contained her suit completed the look.
"The two of you sure cleaned up nice, so I must have missed the memo about going dancing later." Steve answered cheekily.
A car engine and the gentle crunch of tires on rock was followed by the soft warning wuff of Pippin.
"You look pretty sharp yourself, Cap." Shay smiled back at him. "I'm ready if you are?"
The car pulled up in front of the palace's public entrance and was immediately surrounded by flashing cameras.
"Are you sure your ready for this Bucky?" Steve asked, concern scrunching his brows.
Bucky swallowed heavily and nodded, though he couldn't help scoping out the crowd through the windows as security forced them back.
The driver opened their door and Pippin leapt out first. A ripple of surprise pushing the previously reluctant reporters several steps further back as the grey wolf posted himself just past the door.
Steve stepped from the car first, smoothing his jacket and maintaining that poster boy smile. Bucky followed hesitantly, nerves seizing as questions erupted around him. A touch on his elbow pulled him out of his stupor and he took Shay's hand in his own, helping her from the car and tucking her arm in his. Pippin stepped into position a half step behind them, covering their backs as people swarmed across the gap the car left in its wake.
Steve paused occasionally to answer a question or shake a hand. "Yeah, definitely." "Bucky's been my best friend since the 20's," "No." "There was no other fair outcome." "Of course, I'm thrilled!"
An eager young voice caught Bucky's attention, "Barnes, what are your plans now?"
"You don't have to say anything." Shay whispered in his ear.
He shivered at her breath on his cheek and increased their pace to the open doors, smiling at Steve's personal campaign on his behalf and grateful down to his bones for the woman on his arm.
T'Challa met them at the door, his arms spread wide in welcome. "White Wolf, welcome." Camera's flashed as he clasped hands with Bucky first, then Shay and Steve, "Lady Mercy, Captain Rogers. We are honoured to have you with us." He patted Pippin with a smile and gestured for them to follow him into the hall.
Camera flashes and questions were silenced by the heavy doors closing.
T'Challa washed his hands in the basin just inside and they each did the same, taking in their surroundings as they dried their hands on the cloth provided.
People lounging around low tables that were entirely dwarfed by the high ceiling and the raised dais at the furthest end. The gentle hum of conversation quieting as the small procession passed up the room.
Bucky scanned the end of the room, looking for a table with room for three, T'Challa would of course be sitting at the long table on the dais where his mother, sister, and fiancé waited.
Fredricks sat at a table with his assistant and a few of the U.S. dignitaries that had sat in on the trial, VanDusen sat across from him and seemed to be in engaged in deep conversation with another man Bucky couldn't name.
There were no vacant seats.
Steve, Bucky, and Shay, with Pippin still at her heel, paused at the foot of the wide steps as T'Challa walked up to take his place with Nakia at his right hand and the Queen mother on his left.
"Come my friends, you are the guests of honour after all." T'Challa waved them up with a wide smile.
Attendants pulled out three seats and Bucky and Steve were seated to the right of Nakia while Shay was given the seat next to Shuri who grasped her hand in barely restrained glee.
"I'm so glad you are here Sharice; I feel like we haven't seen each other lately and it's such hard work to keep smiling politely when there's no one to talk to."
"What then, am I, child? Table decoration?" Ramonda murmured from Shuri's other side, her lips barely moving though her eyes crinkled. "It is good to see you, Sharice."
Shay smiled at them as T'Challa began his speech, praising the international effort to clearing Bucky's name and declaring the banquet: "a celebration of justice," he ended with a gracious welcome and as he finished a line of servers bearing large platters fanned out across the room.
"Now we can speak freely," Shuri said, with a final squeeze to Shay's hand. "I've been working on an upgraded alert system for your suit, fully integrated with Friday of course."
"Alerts for what?" Shay asked, genuinely curious.
"The energy output of your gift primarily, Peter had a good setup but he hadn't enough time to fine-tune the energy readings."
"Have you passed it by him? Much as I appreciate your efforts, it is his design." Shay questioned gently.
"Of course!" Shuri looked baffled at the suggestion that she might be offending her new tech-savvy friend. "He's the one that suggested it, after…" her voice faded away and she looked at her plate, suddenly solemn and unnaturally still.
"After I died." Shay murmured softly, remembering the way he'd clung to her in the hospital, that heightened sensitivity of his coursing through her senses with uneasy relief. "So, how does it work?"
Ramonda caught Shay's eye over her daughter's bobbing hair and Shay read the gratitude in her face.
"Oh," Shuri seemed to snap out of her funk and rambled on through the better part of the meal, talking about coding and sensors, emergency adrenaline and the defibrillator they were trying to build into the suit.
Shay listened, ate and watched. The gnawing anxiety was lifting and like smoke it now began to clear. The trial was over, there was no longer any need to run.
Pippin shifted at her feet as the tables below were cleared, tilted, and rolled away. Drummers began to tap out a simple rhythm, other instruments and voices built up the melody and harmonies, and people swayed onto what was now a dance floor.
Steve approached her side and offered his hand, "would you care to dance?"
Smiling, Shay accepted, letting him lead her down into the crowd as Shuri wolf whistled.
"I have to warn you Steve, I don't know the steps." Shay added as dancers swirled past them.
"I don't doubt that you'd pick it up if you tried," Steve chuckled and pulled her into a gentle two-step off to the side where they wouldn't bump into anyone, "you got the waltz quickly enough."
Shay slapped his shoulder affectionately, "you never told me I was your first dance partner. And there you were, teaching me as if you'd been doing it for a century!"
"Who told you that?" Steve asked, curiously.
"Bucky."
Steve chuckled softly, his gaze landing on where Bucky stood on the sidelines. "I used to be the one waiting in the wings, jealous of how easily he could pick up a bird."
"Smoothtalker, that Bucky Barnes?" Shay prodded softly, recognizing the mist of memory in his eyes.
"Slick as they come, used to be. The first girl to turn him down was Peggy, shocked him out of his boots."
"She had her eyes on a certain captain I'm told."
"Hmm." Steve agreed, adding, "I loved her."
Shay rested her head on his chest and they swayed for a minute in silence.
Steve cleared his throat and his voice was unnaturally bright when he spoke again. "But she found a good man, had a life. And I've got a life now, and a family of sorts."
Shay straightened up and glowed her understanding. "You just have to decide what you're going to do with it."
"Captain America is… I can't exactly quit."
"And no one is asking you to, but Steve Rogers is a veteran, and he can do whatever he wants."
"You sound like Sam."
"Because he's right." Shay asserted gently, "what have you done in the past six years that you enjoyed?" She saw him begin to answer and cut him off, "not fighting related."
He considered her question for a long moment, his gaze drifting across the room absently. "Rebuilding. I don't miss being on the run, but what we were doing then, helping people rebuild their homes and lives…"
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Shay responded thoughtfully, "so do that, disaster recovery will never not be needed, and you'll still be in fighting shape if something else comes up."
"I'll think about it." Steve cleared his throat and the mist seemed to clear away, leaving a mischievous grin in its place. "We could really make Bucky jealous you know."
"What did you have in mind?" Shay smiled back, stepping carefully to avoid knocking Shuri over as she passed.
"A waltz."
"To this music?"
As if on cue a new song began, the timing of a waltz though the melody was unrecognizable. Bucky was within hearing range now and Steve raised his voice a little more than necessary to say, "come on Shay, they're playing our song!" and twirled her into his arms.
Shay laughed and followed his lead, "laying it on a little thick don't you think?"
"He's got a thick head." Steve said, low so only she could hear. "Ma didn't think much of the jitterbug or mamba, she always told us if you really want to win a girl's heart you've got to waltz."
"Starks party- what exactly were you trying to accomplish?" Shay asked, using the connection to anticipate his movements as he led her across the floor.
"Make him pull his head out of the ground and realize that he cared about you."
"He- no." Shay paused. It took a nudge from Steve to get her back into step. "We barely knew each other- he followed me around looking mutinous every time I trained or used my gift, he didn't-"
"I'm not saying he was in love with you already, but his protective streak runs deep."
"And I was fragile in his mind."
"No." Steve shook his head, "you were important, he just hadn't figured out why yet."
The dance ended with a twirl and a tap on Steve's shoulder.
Bucky knew what Steve was doing when the waltz began. He was rubbing Bucky's nose in the fact that he hadn't asked her first. A fact made more obvious when Steve improvised more twirls and tight choreography than the dance required. There was a time that seeing Shay in Steve's arms would have wakened the green monster within, before he understood the love they had for each other wasn't romantic, now he was just pleased to see them so free.
He scratched behind Pippins ears absently, the wonder of his acquittal still turning his brain to jelly.
"Nice night for dancing, eh Buck?"
Steve materialized before him and Bucky looked around, expecting Shay to be close by. But no. She was still on the dance floor, now being twirled by Fredricks.
"Green isn't a good colour on you Buck."
"Shut up Steve."
Azele approached her as the song ended, and Shay was pulled, laughing, into a dance circle. Finally, she left the floor, flushed and breathing heavily as she grasped Bucky's hand unexpectedly.
"Do you want to-" she started and then paused to catch her breath.
"Sure, yeah."
To his surprise she led him down the side of the hall, through a half-hidden door, down a corridor and through another door to a private courtyard he hadn't seen before.
Shay sighed with relief at the cool air, tilting her face up to the sky. The moon and stars alone lighted their path through the garden. Her warm hand still held his and he wondered if she noticed.
"Having a good time?"
"I am." Shay responded lightly, then turning to him, more serious, "are you?"
"It's all… a bit, much." he squeezed her hand gently, but didn't let go. "This is, I think, my favorite part."
Shay smiled, a blush rising to her cheeks, looking at their joined hands. "It's definitely mine."
"You want me to break it to Steve, or should I?" Bucky quipped, trying to break the moment of tension.
But Shay was looking at him, with the moonlight reflecting the gold in her eyes, baby curls escaping from the braid that hung over one shoulder. Her free hand brushed over the sash he'd been given to wear. A perfect match to her dress.
The question hadn't quite formed on his tongue when she answered it.
"A new Kente. Shuri told me it was created to represent foreign-born ambassadors and allies of Wakanda."
That pulled him up short. Shay read the emotion on his face and the responding deep sense of reassurance she offered through her touch perfectly countered the doubt that had risen in his mind.
"It's not an obligation, Bucky. It's a show of their faith in you."
"Too much faith, I'm afraid." He shook his head slowly, eyeing the edge of the cloth in her hand. "Steve, T'Challa, you… how can I ever repay…"
"Just live, that's all that any of us want for you." Shay stumbled as she spoke and Bucky redirected her fall into his chest, supporting her with his vibranium arm. "Sorry." She murmured her apology into his collarbone.
"You're tired," Bucky stated gently even as her trembling legs gave her away. "I should get you home."
"I'm alright, but we should probably get back to your party."
Shay set her hands on his chest, steeling her legs under her. Bucky didn't let her go, instead using his right hand to tuck a few flyaway hairs behind her ear and chuckling as they simply popped back out of place.
Time seemed to slow.
Bucky bit his lip and Shay followed the movement before locking eyes with him again.
"Thank you." Bucky whispered, running his knuckles gently across the edge of her jaw. "For everything." He hesitated, trying to think of better words, words that meant enough to mean everything.
Shay's palms on his chest glowed. Golden light reflecting off the silver jump wings and the oak leaf pin on purple that decorated the ribbon rack just above the left pocket of his uniform.
He leaned in just as she pushed to her toes, and their lips met.
At first fierce with all that words alone could not express, they kissed; him cupping the back of her head with one hand and holding her close with the other; her hand on his shoulder, lifting herself up to match the insistence of his lips.
Softening, slowing. Sweetly parting.
Shay pulled away first, smiling at him before tucking her face once again into his chest, snaking an arm around his middle so he couldn't escape. Bucky settled for resting his chin on her head with a little satisfied grunt. Several long moments passed as Bucky's heart rate slowed under Shay's palm. Nocturnal insects and Doves chirped, hummed, and cooed in the distance.
"Steve 'll come looking for us soon."
Bucky hummed and answered huskily, "We could hide."
Shay laughed, "and give him a challenge? He'd love that, but we've got a flight in the morning and I'd rather not spend all night being hunted by the most persistent person we know."
He groaned, but amusement crept into his voice, "I finally get to kiss the girl of my dreams and Steve is still stealing my moment."
"Sorry." Shay grinned up at him but slumped a little in his arms as her legs trembled once again.
Bucky's grip on her waist tightened just enough to support her weight. "Alright Angel, let's get you home, we'll deal with Steve later."