Sweat prickled at her skin as she crept forward, her gun stretched out in front of her. She kept low, placing one foot gently in front of the other as she leaned slightly around the corner to see what was coming.
Her stomach twisted with anticipation as she checked behind her, left and right before she pushed forward…
Bang!
"So-rryyyy," Bucky whined from deep in the darkness behind her.
A smile of amusement came to Harper's lips as she straightened up, the lights coming on as she did "All good?" she asked as she took her virtual reality goggles off and pushed them to the top of her head.
"I tripped," he replied in a low grumble, copying her actions and pushing his own goggles from his eyes to the top of his head. His brows were furrowed with frustration and his eyes lowered as he shoved his gun into the holsters at his hip.
"Hey, come on," Harper said, stepping up closer to him and placing her hand on the top of his arm "You're still getting used to being without," she said, her eyes flickering to his left side "We're taking our time, remember?"
He rolled his eyes "I hate taking my time," he said with a huff. He didn't want to be off balance, he wasn't used to it, he wanted to be fighting side by side with her in the simulation. He didn't want to be holding her back.
Harper raised her eyebrows, placing her hands on her hips "You're not holding me back," she said, chuckling as he looked taken aback "You didn't say it outloud, I can just read you," she added with a smirk "The whole point of the simulation at the minute is to get you back on track and build you up again."
He pursed his lips and kept his frown for a second before he spoke again "You gotta tell me if I'm starting to annoy you though."
"Never," Harper answered, sticking her tongue out toward him before she unclipped her holster belt and hung it up on one of the hooks on the wall, her goggles following soon after "You're doing fine!"
He scowled over to her as he followed her lead and hung his virtual reality equipment up too. "Fine," he repeated beneath his breath, only letting a smile come to his face when she stepped closer to his side and grinned up to him "So, what's the plan now?" he asked, draping his arm around her shoulders.
"Aha! There you guys are!" Shuri's voice answered for her as they left the simulation and entered the lab "C'mere," she said, waving Bucky over as she pulled a tape measure out from the pocket of her jacket.
Bucky looked slightly concerned as Harper wriggled out from beneath his grasp "Uhm, okay," he said, sounding concerned as he stepped closer to the princess, throwing a glance over his shoulder to the encouraging Harper "What...what is it we're doing?"
Shuri raised an eyebrow and looked up to him from where she was wrapping the tape around his chest "I'm measuring you," she said shortly, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.
Harper let out a laugh as she crossed the room and grabbed a bottle of water from her desk "I've learned to just not question it," she said, handing him a bottle of his own as Shuri began measuring his back.
"Always the tone of suspicion with the two of you," Shuri said with a tut, pausing her measuring to scribble numbers into a notebook pulled from another pocket "How are you feeling anyway?" she asked, sounding like a doctor on her hundredth appointment that day "Any pain?"
Bucky glanced between the two of them for a couple of seconds before he shrugged his shoulders "I'm fine," he said, not really answering the question.
"Hmm," Shuri answered, going back to her measuring and scribbling.
Harper watched on in amusement as Shuri wandered around Bucky, wondering if the confused and slightly panicked look on Bucky's face was how she looked during her first couple of days in the lab "Okoye said you're working on new spears for the Dora," Harper said, reaching over and glancing through a few of the new pieces of paper which had landed on her desk.
"Okoye has asked me to look at working on new spears for the Dora," Shuri corrected her, her tone distracted as she continued her work "They need updated uniform before they get new weapons."
"I'll let you tell her that," Harper said, widening her eyes and pulling a face.
"And Sergeant Barnes needs a new arm before anything else."
Bucky's eyebrows shot up "You-you don't need to worry about that," he insisted, watching her rolling her tape measure back up before popping it back into her pocket "And how many times? It's Bucky."
Shuri waved him off "Let me have this project," she said, flipping through her book before placing it down on her desk.
"Don't rush on it though, don't put other things aside for me," Bucky insisted "I'm doing okay an arm down."
"I'm sure you are, this is just in case," Shuri answered absent mindedly. She missed the slight wince flashing across Bucky's features but Harper didn't.
"Shuri likes to live her life on 'just in case'," she said, pushing away from where she had been leaning against her desk. Crossing over toward him she placed her hand on his shoulder, watching him relax at her touch "It gives her an excuse to keep making things."
"Making things," Shuri scoffed beneath her breath. "She talks like I'm a kindergarten kid making finger paintings."
There was an amused expression on Bucky's face as he glanced between them; Shuri glaring across to Harper out of the corner of her eye while Harper pulled out her tongue.
"Anyway, you aren't getting out of anything," Shuri said, turning to him with an eyebrow arched "Have you done your homework?"
Bucky rolled his eyes as he dug into the pocket of his jeans to retrieve his phone "I downloaded that app, snaptalk-"
"Chat," Shuri interrupted "Snapchat."
"Snapchat," he repeated with yet another eyeroll "But I still can't use it. How do I get the little hotdog on the screen again?"
Harper watched on as Shuri let out an over dramatic sigh, taking the phone from him and waving for him to follow her over to her desk. She pulled up a chair for him, the two of them bending their heads over the phone screen so she could show him, yet again, how to use the filters on Snapchat.
Pulling out her own chair Harper sank into it, switching her computer back on to answer a few emails. She kept one ear on what they were up to, the entertainment endless as Bucky coughed on his water while Shuri explained what horny on main meant and expressed his confusion over the imagery of the different memes.
It continued for the following couple of hours, until Harper's eyes began to sting beneath her glasses and she realised the time.
"I, uhm, I'm gunna head off," she said, unable to hold back her smile as she got to her feet to see Bucky and Shuri examining a picture of British chef Gordon Ramsey calling someone an idiot sandwich closely "Are we still on for tonight?" she asked, slightly concerned, when she received quizzical expressions in reply.
"Oh! Yeah, of course," Bucky answered, glancing over to the clock in the bottom corner of Shuri's computer.
"Don't worry, I'll have him there on time," Shuri promised, the two of them almost staring Harper down before she nodded.
"I'll see you later then," she said with a smile as she turned to leave the lab, throwing one last glance over her shoulder to see their heads bent together once again.
After their picnic Bucky had promised her the dates would become a regular occurrence. He didn't want them to just be about training, Hydra and muddled memories, he wanted them to be, as he said, normal in some kind of way.
"I want us to build something for ourselves, something that isn't based on what happened to us," he'd said just before they'd parted ways after the picnic.
It almost felt weird to be as happy as she felt as she opened up the front door of her apartment. Everything felt lighter and less monotonous as she crossed the living room to get to her bedroom, on her way to try and put together some kind of outfit from what little clothes she owned.
She frowned when she spotted a garment bag laying on her bed. Glancing around, as though someone was going to jump out at her, she approached it slowly.
There was a tag, a card, on the top so she leaned over to turn it to where there was a message written in looping handwriting.
Have fun tonight! Okoye
"I should have guessed you'd be the one to break into my place," she said with a chuckle as she picked the bag up and zipped it open, another card falling out.
Bending down she let out a laugh as she recognised Shuri's handwriting 'I helped!'.
She shook her head, tutting at her friend as she whispered "Of course."
Hanging the bag up on the back of her door she continued to unzip, gently unfolding a dress from inside. It was beautiful, embroidered black with an a-line skirt and capped sleeves. "Wow," she breathed as she lifted it down, unravelling the coat hanger from the bag and holding the dress against herself, turning to the mirrored wardrobe to the right of her bed. It came to her mid-thigh, the neckline high enough so she could still tuck Bucky's dog tags beneath it.
It was possibly the most beautiful piece of clothing she would ever get to wear.
...not that she would tell Shuri that. The suit custom made for her would always top that list whenever Shuri was around.
Hanging the dress back up Harper turned to grab her towel and dressing gown, brushing through the knots in her hair as she made her way into the bathroom and switched the shower on.
She took her time in there; humming along to whatever tune was stuck in her head as she lathered up her hair. She allowed the warm water to run over her back, getting out the knots in her shoulders this time, as she ran a razor over her legs.
Turning the water off she reached out from behind the shower curtain for her towel, quickly rubbing it through her hair before drying herself off and wrapping it around her head. Tugging her dressing gown on she made her way back into her bedroom, brushing through her hair once more as she sat on the edge of the bed.
She didn't usually spend time on her hair, preferring to let it air dry or to twist it into braids overnight, but this time she reached for the hair dryer. She curled it with her round brush, framing the waves around her face while still trying to maintain the slightly messy style she usually went for.
"This is why I don't usually do it this way," she grumbled, in her native French, beneath her breath as the clock ticked on and she finally was able to put the hair dryer down "And now make-up," she said with a sigh as she opened up one of the drawers of her bedside cabinet.
She kept the natural look with the make-up Shuri had gifted her. A touch of foundation and concealer balanced off with some powder, blush and bronzer, she dusted on a beige shade of eyeshadow across her lid before shaping her eyebrows and applying a layer of mascara. There was a nude lipstick at the bottom of the bag that she swiped across her lips before spritzing some of the perfume Nakia had gotten for her on her neck and wrists.
Standing before her mirror she scrunched her nose up; the hair and the make-up looking so out of place on her.
"Thank goodness for you, hey?" she said, plucking the dress off the hanger and carefully changing into it. Knowing just how terrible she was on any kind of heel, Shuri and Okoye had left her with a pair of plain black flats which she slid her feet into once she was zipped up and ready.
Her eyes were closed as she turned back to the mirror and she found herself standing there for a couple of seconds. The last time she had dressed up had been for a new years party she went to with Ryan a few years back and even then it was just a denim skirt and a strappy top.
She opened them slowly and one at a time, the reflection staring back at her someone she almost didn't recognise.
The knocking on the door cut through her shock, replacing it with nerves surging through her stomach until it burst into butterflies.
"Right," she said, leaning over and plucking the silver clutch bag containing her phone and purse that had been hiding in the bottom of the garment bag "Let's go," she said to herself, brushing her hands down the dress and looking at it from all kinds of angles for one last time before she left the bedroom and made her way toward the front door.
Her breath caught in her throat when she swung the door open. Standing on the other side was Bucky, hair pinned back in his usual bun, wearing a crisp, new looking suit.
"Wow," he breathed as he turned and took her in, a smile coming to his face as he held his hand out for her.
"Wow yourself," she said back, nudging his arm with her shoulder once she had locked the door behind her and fell into step beside him.
"Hmm," he answered, shifting beneath the jacket uncomfortably "T'Challa and Shuri have cleared the restaurant for us," he explained as they made their way across the quiet streets toward one of Wakanda's nicest restaurants "They are oddly pushy."
"I know," Harper chuckled with a shake of her head "I think they all got sick of me moping around while you were gone."
There was a smile on his face as he came to a stop just outside of the restaurant's door, turning around to face her "I haven't been on a date like this for a very long time," he admitted.
Harper's eyebrows raised "Well, I've got you beat," she said with a shrug of her shoulders "I've never been on a date like this," she continued "Ryan wasn't a special date kinda girl and the ones before her were more wanna go to the cinema? types of guys."
Bucky scoffed "That's one thing I'll say about this time," he said, shaking his head "No chivalry," he continued, letting go of her arm and opening up the door for her.
"Okay grandpa," Harper laughed, wandering through to be met by one of the servers.
They were taken through to the empty restaurant and treated just like how the guests of the royal family should. They were brought whatever they wanted whenever they wanted and left alone to chat in between, the staff were polite and attentive...
"They're freaking me out a little bit to be honest," Harper whispered as she leaned over the table toward Bucky "Do you think they're back there bitching about us because the rest of the place is empty?"
He laughed, "They're far too polite for that."
Her eyebrow arched as she straightened up slightly, keeping her arms rested on the table "Do you have any of that residual pain? That Shuri was talking about before?"
He chewed on the inside of his cheek before he shook his head "I told you, I'm okay."
"And yet I don't believe you," she answered, resting her chin in the palms of her hands and tapping it with her finger "I know you're lying."
"It's just a bit," he sighed, sitting back in his chair and averting his eyes. They'd had pleasant conversation all evening, he'd made her blush more than once, and he didn't want it to deviate from that "Adjusting my stance, my walk, to accommodate the missing limb. I've never had to before."
"I know," Harper said, "That's why I'm asking, I'm concerned about you."
"Well you don't need to be," he said, trying to be reassuring as he reached out and grasped onto her arm. Lowering it down he laced their fingers together "I'm here. We're not running from anyone...technically and we're together. Does anything else matter?"
Harper bit down on her bottom lip before she nodded "I guess," she said in a quiet tone, glancing over to her from beneath her lashes "But if you are in pain, ever-?
"I'll tell you."
"You promise?"
"I promise," he said, unravelling their hands to hook his pinky through hers to seal it "Now come on, it's getting late," he said as he let her go and pushed himself to his feet.
"Got to have me home before midnight or I'll turn into a pumpkin," Harper teased, also getting to her feet and reaching out to grab hold of his hand.
They stopped at the counter to thank the staff who had been so helpful for the entire night. T'Challa had insisted the night was on him so there was no reason to exchange money but Harper still reached into her purse, leaving them a hefty tip from the wage she earned for the work she did for the outreach programme.
"I had a really good time tonight," she said with a smile as they made their way to her apartment, their hands joined between them.
"Me too," Bucky answered as they came to a stop outside of her door. Tilting his head to one side he gently reached below the neckline of her dress, pulling the necklace out until the dog tags were laying in the palm of his hand.
"They kept me company while you were gone," she explained in a whisper as he turned them over to read what was on them "Shuri gave them to me with your book and t-shirt after you went under."
He nodded his head, his thumb ghosting over the raised letters and numbers "They look good on you."
"You can have them back if you want," she offered as he let them go, his fingers brushing against the skin of her neck as he adjusted them so they were laying properly.
"I like you wearing them," he said, his eyes meeting hers as his hand cupped the back of her neck. Stepping closer to her he pressed his lips to hers, her arms circling around his waist beneath his jacket as his fingers pushed into her hair.
They pulled apart reluctantly, Bucky placing a soft kiss on the tip of her nose before pressing his forehead against hers "I'll see you tomorrow? For training?" he asked in a whisper.
Her grip on him tightened, she didn't want to let him go. Not yet. "Or you could come in," she offered "For a night cap?"
There was a grin on Bucky's lips as he stepped away from her, reaching up he tucked her hair behind her ear "I'm old school remember," he said, placing another kiss on her cheekbone "I'll see you tomorrow. For training."
She watched as he walked away, leaning back against her door allowing her gaze to follow him until he was out of sight. Opening up the door she stepped inside and closed it behind her, after the continual days of going back there feeling lonely and isolated she couldn't stop the smile from growing on her lips.
"Good night," she said out loud before she headed into her bedroom, her heart full.
?album=189&pid=14792#top_display_media - the dress Harper wears
Thanks for reading!
tumblr: sgtbuckyybarnes