The Perk, Wednesday Noon

[weirderthanthou]

You ever wake up feeling like everything around you was coming apart, and yet you were fine? Jesse wouldn't be able to tell you why, exactly, but that feeling had settled in the pit of her stomach, drenching her in unease.

Town Hall just made it worse, so by the time the morning was almost done with, she decided to head out. Here, to the Perk, with her foot tapping impatiently against the floor as she waited for her coffee to show up.

"Seriously," she muttered.

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[shapethecentury]

Bucky nodded. It was just a quiet little thing.

"They are," he agreed, "and they could."

But.

"I just don't want them to."

[weirderthanthou]

"But you won't know if they'll have to until you expose them to that risk," Jesse pointed out. "Which you're going to have to do sometime."

[shapethecentury]

"Sometime," Bucky agreed. That much, he could agree with. "But not yet."

Another sip.

"Hoping I'll... feel something. First."

A balance, maybe. Or something approaching it.

[weirderthanthou]

"Like a switch getting thrown?" Jesse guessed.

[shapethecentury]

"Something like that," Bucky replied. Soft and pensive.

Then he gave a wry huff, aimed more at himself than anything else. "If that's even a thing that's possible. But I want to give it more time, if it is."

[weirderthanthou]

"Well, time, you've got," Jesse said, her mouth quirking into a small smile. "So I think that's fair."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky considered that. And then quirked a faint smile back at her.

"What about you?" he asked, because that was enough about Wakanda, and his broken brain. "Did I miss anything?"

[weirderthanthou]

"Do you ever miss anything important?" Jesse asked wryly. "The island is quiet. Somehow it doesn't end the stream of paperwork, but..."

[shapethecentury]

"I don't know," Bucky replied, lifting his cup again. "You might've bought new plants."

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse laughed. "I wouldn't do that without you around to stare at them all confused," she said. "And I... should probably not turn my apartment into a rainforest."

It was starting to get there.

[shapethecentury]

"Why not?" Bucky asked.

It was a teasing thing, but there was warmth in it.

[weirderthanthou]

"Because it'll probably get very... buggy?"

[shapethecentury]

"I think they've got solutions for that, too."

He gave her shoulder the gentlest nudge with his.

"But I guess if you don't wanna be outnumbered in your own apartment..."

[weirderthanthou]

"Oh, I'm already outnumbered," Jesse said, flashing him a wry smile. "The plants are pretty needy."

[shapethecentury]

"Yeah, but those guys stay in their pots, at least," Bucky retorted, not even a little bit seriously.

At least, except: "As far as I know, anyway."

[weirderthanthou]

"I mean, it's Fandom," Jesse laughed. She sipped her coffee. "...And the pots could start moving around."

[shapethecentury]

"Well, if they start doing that..."

He shrugged.

"Call me, I guess?"

[weirderthanthou]

"Oh, are you going to menace them with your big broody scowl?" Jesse teased.

[shapethecentury]

"And unnatural strength," Bucky deadpanned.

What?

[weirderthanthou]

"I think you could probably cow the plants with just natural strength," Jesse said wryly.

[shapethecentury]

"I can't tell the difference anymore."

Mostly joking? But not really.

He took a sip. It turned out to be the last one.

[weirderthanthou]

"What is that like, anyway?" Jesse asked, looking at him. "It's one of the few of those I don't have."

[shapethecentury]

"Being freakishly strong?" Bucky replied, with a touch of something wry. He considered his empty cup, then set it down on the table. "Nowadays it's mostly just never having to worry about not being able to lift things."

He glanced over at where his left arm wasn't.

"Sort of."

[weirderthanthou]

"I'd say I need to remember that next time I need to carry a sofa up the stairs, but..."

Jesse wiggled her fingers.

[shapethecentury]

"I'd just get in the way," Bucky surmised, wryly but not without a little smile. (At her fingers. What of it?) "It's okay. I'll... try and make myself useful some other way."