I haven't forgotten that Harry hasn't decided whether to treat Bucky yet. He still has to get to those discussions first lol. Idk why it's taking me so long to get there.
After they had cleared out and Bucky had been given a belated change of clothes, they were invited to dinner. Both he and Harry were lagging slightly behind the royal siblings leading the way to the dining room. Harry felt James glancing at him surreptitiously a few times and casually glanced back, smiling minutely and raising his brows in an open expression.
"Can I, uh…" Barnes had a conflicting expression on his face; half intrigued, half anxious. Harry gave him a tiny, encouraging nod to continue. "Can I see your uh… wand? That's… what it is, right?"
Harry blinked in surprise for a few seconds before flourishing his holly wand from his wrist holster again. "Yes, you're right." He twirled his wand as he spoke, "for us magical folk, our wand is like… an extension of ourselves. Though it may seem like a generic tool we all use, each wizard has a special bond usually only with one wand in their life. We can use other wands, but as the wandmaker I got mine from said; "the wand chooses the wizard"."
"My wand was accidentally snapped years ago, when I was on a fugitive on the run. I was very lucky to have an almost legendary tool I could use to repair it. Normally, there is no fixing a broken wand. When I had to make do with wands I stole or conquered, it never felt the same. Casting was hard, control was finnicky, and my magic just never really responded as easily."
James was listening attentively, glancing down at Harry's wand and then looking away. He startled when he felt a touch on his hand. Harry had supported the back of his right hand and lifted it up, placing the wand securely in his hand and wrapping his fingers around it.
"I shouldn't—" wide-eyed, James hurriedly trying to turn back to Harry and return the wand.
"It's okay," Harry simply smiled, "I trust you." At James' disbelieving look, his smile turned teasing, "just don't try throwing it at anything."
Still slack-jawed and shocked at the trust Harry was showing him, James quickly shook his head in response. "No, no, of course not." He gulped, then looked down at the wand in his hand. It felt… well, honestly, like a piece of stick. It was smooth, and had a clear handle grip. He would've wanted to run his fingers over the wood to really feel the texture but with one hand he couldn't. Instead, he turned it around from this angle to that and inspected it.
For all intents and purposes, it really didn't look like anything special or out of the ordinary. This must've shown on his face as the next thing he knew, Harry was chuckling, "not as interesting as you'd thought, huh?"
Dinner was… an experience for James. His memories from before the War was vaguely about tasteless starch and potatoes, very rarely some chicken. Then as the Winter Soldier he never remembered actually eating… anything. After HYDRA was exposed and he became a fugitive, he didn't exactly cook much, and hanging around in a restaurant was out of the question. At least he did remember having access to fresh fruit and vegetables from the local market; but aside from that he mostly kept a stock of frozen or instant meals that he survived on.
The spread before him was bordering on overwhelming; the sight, colours, smell… and he hadn't even tasted anything yet. He didn't know what most of the things here were, and he had a sinking feeling that the T'Challa – or more likely Shuri – had requested some American dishes made to make him feel at home.
He sat silently and watched as the others started digging in, grabbing food from different plates, apparently making some food combinations that he wasn't aware of. He ended up just deciding to mimick their choices, but could already feel a headache coming on.
Then, something silver glinted in the edges of his vision and he glanced down to see a fork and knife dropping off a thick cut of steak on his plate. Following the cutlery up and up, he saw Harry's – increasingly familiar – quirk of lips. "My friend Hermione always brings me to try new food joints every time we have lunch. I love it, given how bland our food usually is – and wizarding food isn't much better, though we do have a lot of great desserts – but sometimes you just can't go wrong with good old boring, right?"
James had not even realize there was steak at the table but—wait, he's just spotted it, crammed in between something that looks suspiciously like mac and cheese and… potatoes? And another bowl of fruit, prawns and… mayo?
Shaking his head, James turned back to his plate and cleared his throat. "Thanks," he grunted. He snagged a cup from the group of them along the edge of the table, passing one over to Harry who thanked him in return. "You gonna change it into wine for us?" he joked without really thinking.
A beat. Then the dry joke registered and T'Challa choked on his food, Shuri started cackling in amusement and Harry… Harry had frozen in place, but then his head slowly turned and with a full deadpan, pulled out his wand and brought it over the lip of the glass. James' jaw dropped open as he and the siblings watched, enraptured.
In a split second, though, Harry huffed out a laugh and tapped James lightly on the head with his wand. "I'm a wizard, not Jesus." But then he flicked his wand and said, "this is the best I can do for you."
Suddenly the cup in James' hand felt a little too… smooth, and he jumped in surprise to see a white dove cradled between his fingers. In his shock, he'd let go and the dove flew up and off, perching on a high surface, cooing and rearranging its feathers. James stared in shock – or was that awe? Maybe both – at the dove until he heard Harry tapping his knife on James' plate.
"Eat your bloody food, James," Harry rolled his eyes. "You've had plenty of time to gape at magic all day."
Closing his mouth and turning his head down, he picked up his fork to realize his steak had magically – yup, he knows exactly what that means – appeared to have been cut into bite-sized portions. Harry had nonchalantly cast a quick cutting charm when he'd realized that James wouldn't have been able to cut the steak with his one hand. It was a small gesture, but James appreciated it all the same.
During dinner, Harry brought up the possible need for a secluded – maybe even secure – place for James to reside in during his treatments. Harry personally preferred to avoid anything that looked like a hospital or ward for extended periods of time. Perhaps somewhere near nature, which may also serve as a calming and peaceful retreat.
"Regardless of who does it, James' case will require a lengthy amount of time. At the very least until he no longer qualifies as a risk to others – whether by us or himself – it would be good to have a permanent place set up. Rather than simply a room or lab that he 'comes in' to."
Shuri nodded thoughtfully, seeing the reasoning behind his thought process. T'Challa hummed, "not a problem. Wakanda is full of uninhabited land, and we also have many smaller villages scattered around that are occasionally manned by the Border Tribe. We can even set up a small community with you; perhaps with some of the Dora and other healers. Have supplies brought over with regular check-ins."
"That sounds good," Harry nodded, then turned to James, who seemed to be enjoying his steak. "What do you think, James?"
Said man looked up, as if surprised to be addressed. He heard their discussion, but didn't think they would need his input. At his blank stare, Harry added, "any thoughts… maybe requests? Things you might want or need? Things you don't like? Or maybe you'd even prefer to stay here, within the city? Of course, our work can be done anywhere, so it's up to you as the patient to call the shots."
There was silence for a few moments as James gathered his thoughts. "I don't… anything's fine."
Dramatically rolling her eyes and throwing up her hands, Shuri replied, "don't 'anything' us, Sergeant Barnes! At least give us something! You want a five-story indoor waterpark, you want us to release pheasants and deer so you can hunt your own dinner, you want a freakin' GoPro so you can film vlogs about your 'life in Wakanda' to send to Rogers or upload on YouTube. One thing!"
James was taken aback at her outburst. In the time it took her to say all that, Shuri had stood up, slammed her hands onto the table and leaned in towards him, a challenge burning in her eyes. James' mouth popped open as they stared and each other and he began to realize she was not going anywhere until he said something.
"Uh… I want…" he could feel Harry and T'Challa's gazes on him now too. "I just—maybe I would like… if the bed wasn't too soft," he practically whispered. "And if the food was a bit… simpler." He winced, hoping it didn't sound rude given they were eating right now. At least Shuri had slowly sat back down now. They stayed silent in case James wanted to add anything else.
After nothing else came, Shuri crossed her arms and nodded sagely. "Hard beds, plain food," she sighed theatrically. "What an absolute diva. Next you'll be asking us to provide cutlery for you to eat with! I didn't think you'd be so high-maintenance, Sergeant. You've completely shattered my ideals about you."
After a second, she glanced up and smirked cheekily. James felt the corner of his own lips pull up slowly, but in genuine amusement as he merely huffed in response. "Sorry. Guess I'd better wait for a bit before I asked for some state-issued, scratchy clothing then."
The table soon erupted into chuckles and grins all-round. "I'll see what I can do," Shuri sniffed haughtily.
Don't ask me why Ramonda is missing. She was supposed to be there but then I wrote half the dinner scene before I remembered lmao.
I know the 'baffling dishes' Bucky described aren't African dishes but I just pulled out the first dishes that came to mind that would look the most weird to him hahaha.
Also if you're wondering why Bucky is so withdrawn in this (esp compared to how snarky he could be like in civil war), I'm working off the idea that he's basically just come off civil war, where he had to relive going back under as the WS with Zemo, and also his f-d up past basically being the cause of the Avengers splitting up. He's basically all kinds of messed up, unsure and fragile right now.
