[ Ashes blossom on the battlefield, and for a second, her heart stops. It's Wakanda all over again... until she realizes it's not her but her opponent that's crumbling into ash.
She's shaking from exhaustion. Her left forearm is still strapped to her broken shield, if only because she'd used the belts as a torniquet to stop the bleeding. She limps forward anyway, straining to see through the smoke and the damage and the bodies. She'll run through her list, make sure everyone on the team's accounted for. But she has to find him first. ]
Bucky! Anyone seen Bucky? [ He'd arrived with Sam, she was sure of it, but she'd lost track of him during the fight—
Her knees give way, but arms catch her before she crumples. She turns her head and lets out a sound that's half a laugh, half a sigh of relief as he lowers them both to the ground. He'd made it back, and he'd made it out of the fight that shortly followed. He looks like shit, but she probably looks worse. She can feel her injuries now that the adrenaline's wearing off, and she knows they're bad, even with the serum speeding up her healing. ]
Buck, listen. [ She drops Mjolnir to cup his cheek with a grimy, gloved hand. ] There's somethin' I gotta tell you...
[ Three times she'd thought she lost him. Three times he's come back, somehow. Yeah, she'd been an idiot. But this time, he will know he is loved. She doesn't care that he doesn't feel the same way — about himself, or for her. She's loved him since that day in high school, when they'd snuck out to Coney Island, and he'd convinced her to get on that damn rollercoaster with him then held her hair while she threw up into a garbage can afterward. It doesn't feel like she ever got off it. ]
[ He doesn't know how, but after being gone and then suddenly back in a blink of an eye, that battle had been hard but it felt like nothing. It felt like a goddamn dream until he could feel it in every step he took in the aftermath. Stark seems like he had been the biggest loss they might've had - he can't say he knows too many of the Avengers beyond the ones Steph is around the most and anyone who came through the portal from Wakanda - but he is scanning around for faces. Mostly he's looking for the people he's met, even if it's been in passing, because he knows it's what she would do but he's also looking for her.
It's instinct that has him rushing forward to catch her, to keep her from falling on her ass and is ready to launch into a tirade about how she never learns how to back away from a fight or to fall back when there's enough people around to take the burden for her, when he stops because he can tell it's difficult for her to get out words. He's motioning for anyone around, knowing that there's others who are looking for wounded or trying to take stock of anyone who's already dead, even if he's also following the line from her grimy glove down the rest of her arm, to see if it needs anything like the arm she currently has a make-shift tourniquet around. ]
Hey, it can wait, Rogers. I'm not goin' anywhere. [ He puts on an air about him, like he feels even a little bit confident like he would have, in the past. Instead he's worrying that these injuries might be worse than the ones he gave her on that helicarrier years ago now, because he's half ready to just carry her somewhere away from the battlefield and find some first aid in what was left of whatever the hell this place was. ] I think they got rid of all that shit in my head and from what I can tell, no one's left from that purple guy's army. We've got time.
You're back. [ That's what she fixates on. Not that they've won, not how exhausted she is, not the damage or the casualties. She drops her hand from his cheek to draw him into a hug, as tight as her injured body would allow. At first it seems like she's holding on to him because she's hurt, but what he initially mistakes for a cry of pain is actually a sob tearing from her throat. ] You were gone, for five years. I... I thought I'd lost you for good...
[ She'd mourned him, again, and still it hadn't been easy for her to accept. For all she talked about moving on to those attending her support group meetings in those dark years since, she was the one who couldn't. It wasn't just about failing the world — the universe — either. A huge part of it was him, because he was finally getting better, finally finding his peace... but she'd brought the fight to Wakanda, and even if she hadn't, the Snap would've taken him anyway. Why couldn't it have been her? Why was she, who had been born to die, the one who kept surviving somehow? It wasn't fair.
But now he was back, and maybe, just maybe, things would be okay.
She pulls back to look him over, as if she wasn't doing worse. A part of her had expected not to survive that fight. She certainly didn't expect Mjolnir to come flying into her hand when she had nothing else to fight with. But none of that mattered compared to having Bucky back. ] You okay? We gotta get you back to... I don't know, the Compound's totaled, maybe—
I'm back. You can't get rid of me that easily. I'm with you 'til the end of the line, remember? [ There's a hint of...something, an emotion that wants to clog his throat up, since there's a worry now, from the way she's talking. He left her worse than this ( he thinks ) when he pulled her up out of that river, but it's possible there might be injuries he hasn't become aware of yet. Maybe in the past five years something's happened with the serum he doesn't know about because he wasn't here and it has him worrying. ] I'm alright. I've had worse.
[ He's talking about losing his arm, waking up to find out he was being held by the enemy he'd been fighting against and his arm had been replaced and the time he lost most of the metal arm to Stark. It might not have been his real arm, but it was something that had become a part of him for long enough and was attached to him, so it may as well been losing something like that all over again.
He's glancing away from her - just for a couple of beats, nothing more - to get an idea of what was left of the Compound, his mouth forming a tight, thin line as he grows contemplative. ]
Doesn't look like there's much to get back to. Some rubble, but that's not gonna give a lot of cover for some medical care. [ He's not thinking of himself in this - he came in during the middle of this fight, he doesn't think he has any reason for someone to take a look at him - because his main focus is on her, on getting her somewhere she can rest and recover. ] Those sorcerers, they might be able to get us a portal out of here.
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i couldn't find an appropriate meme toplevel sooooo
She's shaking from exhaustion. Her left forearm is still strapped to her broken shield, if only because she'd used the belts as a torniquet to stop the bleeding. She limps forward anyway, straining to see through the smoke and the damage and the bodies. She'll run through her list, make sure everyone on the team's accounted for. But she has to find him first. ]
Bucky! Anyone seen Bucky? [ He'd arrived with Sam, she was sure of it, but she'd lost track of him during the fight—
Her knees give way, but arms catch her before she crumples. She turns her head and lets out a sound that's half a laugh, half a sigh of relief as he lowers them both to the ground. He'd made it back, and he'd made it out of the fight that shortly followed. He looks like shit, but she probably looks worse. She can feel her injuries now that the adrenaline's wearing off, and she knows they're bad, even with the serum speeding up her healing. ]
Buck, listen. [ She drops Mjolnir to cup his cheek with a grimy, gloved hand. ] There's somethin' I gotta tell you...
[ Three times she'd thought she lost him. Three times he's come back, somehow. Yeah, she'd been an idiot. But this time, he will know he is loved. She doesn't care that he doesn't feel the same way — about himself, or for her. She's loved him since that day in high school, when they'd snuck out to Coney Island, and he'd convinced her to get on that damn rollercoaster with him then held her hair while she threw up into a garbage can afterward. It doesn't feel like she ever got off it. ]
we make our own space to do things, duh!
It's instinct that has him rushing forward to catch her, to keep her from falling on her ass and is ready to launch into a tirade about how she never learns how to back away from a fight or to fall back when there's enough people around to take the burden for her, when he stops because he can tell it's difficult for her to get out words. He's motioning for anyone around, knowing that there's others who are looking for wounded or trying to take stock of anyone who's already dead, even if he's also following the line from her grimy glove down the rest of her arm, to see if it needs anything like the arm she currently has a make-shift tourniquet around. ]
Hey, it can wait, Rogers. I'm not goin' anywhere. [ He puts on an air about him, like he feels even a little bit confident like he would have, in the past. Instead he's worrying that these injuries might be worse than the ones he gave her on that helicarrier years ago now, because he's half ready to just carry her somewhere away from the battlefield and find some first aid in what was left of whatever the hell this place was. ] I think they got rid of all that shit in my head and from what I can tell, no one's left from that purple guy's army. We've got time.
no subject
[ She'd mourned him, again, and still it hadn't been easy for her to accept. For all she talked about moving on to those attending her support group meetings in those dark years since, she was the one who couldn't. It wasn't just about failing the world — the universe — either. A huge part of it was him, because he was finally getting better, finally finding his peace... but she'd brought the fight to Wakanda, and even if she hadn't, the Snap would've taken him anyway. Why couldn't it have been her? Why was she, who had been born to die, the one who kept surviving somehow? It wasn't fair.
But now he was back, and maybe, just maybe, things would be okay.
She pulls back to look him over, as if she wasn't doing worse. A part of her had expected not to survive that fight. She certainly didn't expect Mjolnir to come flying into her hand when she had nothing else to fight with. But none of that mattered compared to having Bucky back. ] You okay? We gotta get you back to... I don't know, the Compound's totaled, maybe—
no subject
[ He's talking about losing his arm, waking up to find out he was being held by the enemy he'd been fighting against and his arm had been replaced and the time he lost most of the metal arm to Stark. It might not have been his real arm, but it was something that had become a part of him for long enough and was attached to him, so it may as well been losing something like that all over again.
He's glancing away from her - just for a couple of beats, nothing more - to get an idea of what was left of the Compound, his mouth forming a tight, thin line as he grows contemplative. ]
Doesn't look like there's much to get back to. Some rubble, but that's not gonna give a lot of cover for some medical care. [ He's not thinking of himself in this - he came in during the middle of this fight, he doesn't think he has any reason for someone to take a look at him - because his main focus is on her, on getting her somewhere she can rest and recover. ] Those sorcerers, they might be able to get us a portal out of here.