Light - A Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers Short Story

-Two-

Bucky didn't exactly know how things worked in Wakanda but he knew that they informed Steve and he would visit today. Bucky even took a shower today, he knew it was no extraordinary thing to do but it were the small things that made him feel human. Human again after all these years of being aware of what's happening but not able to control anything, being frozen and brainwashed.
He shuddered as he remembered all of this. Even the hair on his arm stood up, clearly visible in the light that flood through the window under which he sat and that drew little specks of gold and red on his skin. Swirling around on it as the sunlight broke into colour as it encountered the glass surface. Bucky looked out of the window. Wakanda. It looked so peaceful and his mind stroke the thought that he probably didn't even deserved all of this. He tore apart so many families and he hurt so many people. 

The door swung open and Okoye, one of King T'challa's soldiers stepped in. "White wolf." They kept calling him like that. "Bucky", he demanded. After the winter soldier incident he couldn't get used to people calling him other names than his birth name.
"Mr. Rogers will arrive any minute.", Shuri smiled as she entered behind Okoye. "Please, come with us.", Bucky did what was they wanted and followed them through the building or castle or whatever the heck they called it.
The whole last day Bucky questioned himself what he would do, what he would say when he'd finally meet Steve again. Because, the last time they hung out just because they wanted to do so was, well that was even before the army. After that and after Steve took the Serum and rescued Bucky and all the other soldiers it was only war preparations and strategy talking. Then as Steve found him in Romania it was only fighting or talking a bit about what happened, then they fought Stark and then he came to Wakanda where he was currently and already for 6 months, sometimes being awake but never more than a few hours until everything crashed again. Bucky knew that he and Steve wouldn't be the same anymore because they in fact, really weren't anymore. Steve was Captain America now who joined the Avengers. Bucky was the Winter Soldiers who killed a lot of people and who was one of the reason why said avengers split up.
They stepped outside into the warm sun and the calming wind. They stood on, what looked like a giant platform, he knew was for the hovercraft. "You excited?", Shuri asked who now stood on his right. "You sure I'm already able to do this? I don't want to immediately attack him right as he lays a foot on this ground.", Bucky looked straight into the sky, worried. "I am sure. In fact I think he will be good for your health. I've seen a lot of emotions of yours in connection with him.", Bucky could feel that she was smiling. Probably because he didn't quite understood how Shuri did and knew all those things and how they worked, but then Bucky remembered that he didn't really knew how anything in this century really worked.
"Relax, look, he's coming.", and it was true, the hovercraft came and landed on the platform. Various people came out of it and talked to all the people standing outside the castle. Steve was one of the last. He had his hair brushed back and a beard. Quite long, but it suited him. He had a worried expression on his face and looked around until his eyes spotted Bucky, Shuri and Okoye. They all stood further to the right than the others and Steve made his way up to them. Bucky took a small step into Steve's direction, and another one. And suddenly Steve was there, in front of him. They looked at each other.
"Stev-", he was cut of as he was pulled into a hug. A hug. He couldn't remember when his last hug was. It felt centuries away which probably was just the case. It felt good. It felt safe. For the first time in a long time, something felt truly safe.
Bucky wrapped his right arm around Steve and relaxed.
"Hello", he heard Steve say and replied with a soft "Hey", Bucky didn't wanted to let go and it seemed like neither did Steve.  "How are you?", Steve asked, not breaking the contact. Bucky chuckled lightly. "Not too bad, still very vulnerable and not completely myself. But we're getting there.", it was true, every action, every move he made was still exhausting and it was hard for him to focus. "That's nice to hear, really.", Steve slightly pushed Bucky back a bit, looking into his face, his hand still on Bucky's shoulder. It almost seemed like his eyes started tearing up but he couldn't tell as Steve pulled him into a hug again. He didn't really know how long it lasted but he also didn't really care.
Shuri smiled at them as they finally broke apart and Okoye... well somehow Bucky never saw her with a different expression than a slight frown and wake eyes. "Come on, I will show you a place where you can talk and have time on your own, I guess you have quite a lot to talk about.", Bucky wasn't quite sure of that, considering that most of the last 70 years he was either frozen or brainwashed but he still followed Shuri.
After a short walk out of the city they came to a small cliff on which you could sit on top of and a river streamed down into a little lake until it made its way even further down the cliff. Shuri showed them the place and then walked back saying that they could take all the time they needed. Now they sat there, listening to the water as it fell down and hit the rocks down to there feet. Well probably a round 20 meters down their feet.