My Name Is Bucky [FemBucky&Sam]

Social Butterfly

[7 Years Ago.]

Jane's willingness to do whatever it takes (as often as it takes) is what Ayo both first notices and then quickly grows to admire the most about the broken soldier. How that she is still so lost, yet still so determined not to be. Even when Ayo knows it hurts her indescribably so, both inside and outside. Ayo knows all about how this woman has known nothing but pain and suffering for longer than any human should ever have to know of. But it's the fact of that pain being forced upon her, and now, this (new) pain, she so willingly accepts.

Ironically, Ayo thinks, pain is the price of true freedom. And that, in itself, is a paradox, because the Wakadan warrior does not actually believe that wars are the way to win peace. Peace is not something you take, it's something you have or create. And Jane seems to know this, too.

That is when the Wakadan warrior instantly recognises another warrior – not just a soldier following orders – in the woman who shares the fire with her, each and every night, without fail and without argument. Ayo sees Jane clearly then, and then she really does know for sure, for herself, that this white woman; this White Wolf is worth saving...

Ayo likes to think she is a good enough judge of character – because the only thing she's been trained for herself is to notice any threat that comes her King's or her country's way – to suspect the real person that was born before the Winter Soldier; Sargeant Jane Barnes herself, used to be somewhat of – what Americans call – a "social butterfly." It doesn't happen over night, but Ayo quickly comes to realise that Jane actually does like to talk to people. But obviously only with the people she feels most comfortable with these days. And when Ayo realises that, too, she feels her own (slightly) "stone heart" – as Okoye infuriatingly calls her – warm to know that the delicate White Wolf trusts her, feels safe with her.

It is her job to protect this woman, after all.

At least, until Jane feels she can finally protect herself again...

At first, neither of them talk, only ever having spoken to introduce themselves to one another by that point. Weeks pass by then, and Ayo continues to stare at Jane intensely each night as Bucky stays silent and just as intensely continues to stare into the flames until even her super-retinas can take no more. Bucky knows she's just being patient with her and it's all that Bucky needs, all she ever needed from anyone. And one night, Bucky suddenly just feels so fucking grateful, that her entire body begins to tremble a little with the rather raw and overwhelming emotion. And Bucky can feel Ayo's stare burning almost as hotly into her skin when she notices and it only adds to her elatedness when Ayo is calm – isn't afraid of Bucky, doesn't even look a little worried – and simply continues to sit there in their comfortable silence.

By day, Bucky spends her time in the lab with the Princess and only talks because the kid literally forces her to. And obviously because Bucky doesn't want to be rude to the very person trying to save her very existence. And maybe also because Princess Shuri is absolutely the most bubbly person she has ever met and her quirky but infectious little grins suck Bucky in before she even knows what's happening. Seriously, she thinks, the kid's sweeter than Steve fricking Rogers, and she really does think that is saying a lot!

OK, it's possible (positive) that the supersoldier is slightly (overly) enchanted with the Wakadan Princess – who also happens to be smarter than Bucky can even begin to comprehend (so doesn't even try to.) She's utterly endeared by the teen, loves the fact that Shuri makes her forget where she is and who she is. Even if it's only for those few hours a day.

Bucky will take what little joys she can get in (what's left of her) life. It's how she had been living since escaping HYDRA's grimy clutches.

On Bucky's eighth month in Wakadan, and on her second month of coming out of cryo-sleep, the Princess turns slightly serious on the supersoldier. And it's an expression that Bucky has seen plenty of whenever the kid is lost in concentration (which is a lot of the time.) However, it's not something that - Bucky has come to note – the overly friendly and completely warm Princess ever really is with people. Unless you count whenever her mother – the Queen Mother of Wakanda – scalds her or whenever she's arguing with her brother – the King of Wakanda.