no time for rest ( closed )

[abide]

Who: steve ( abide ) + bucky ( dislocked) + wanda ( seeingscarlet )
When: 05.22 ( afternoon → evening )
Where: medbay + mero deck
What: steve thaws out again after nearly a month. a lot of things have changed.
Warnings: none for now!


b u c k y

[ There are no real thoughts when he wakes up.

It's like falling, jumping—a jerk, and he's gasping for breath, the bite of cold tearing through his skin and into his heart. His fingers are stiff when he tries to reach up and grasp an edge of whatever it is he's laying in, the lip of the cryotube both icy and hot to the touch. Sensation is an odd thing, slow to return to the parts of his body further from his heart, and each inhale aches to the bone. He hates this, he thinks somewhere in the back of his mind before it drifts forward to the forefront, and suddenly, he's sixteen again in the middle of a hard winter where he could never get warm or take a full breath. Everything shudders as he rolls over, and the pain is surreal, strong enough to choke a noise out of him that's half-cough, half-grunt. Where is he? What had he been doing? He hasn't opened his eyes, and everything is black. ]

Buck-- [ Still sixteen, and he's searching for blankets that don't exist, a hand that would always be there for him to grasp. For a blinding moment, he's terrified he's gone. ] Bucky?

[ Nothing's there for far too long, not until his mind catches up with his body, and while he feels dizzy, he realizes he's not actually a kid anymore. The fear drips into a lucid knowledge of waking up like this once already, of living a handful of years out of time, and then, of the Moira. It doesn't quite connect, not entirely, but at least he's sitting on his own and shivering as his body takes over the process of trying to warm itself. The medbay is too pristine, smells too clean, but it's an odd comfort in the aftermath of coming to much too fast. When his friend's face falls into his line of sight, Steve feels himself smiling unconsciously, lips still devoid of much color and hair damp from the cryo-liquid. He doesn't trust his legs to work just yet, most of him is still trying to unlock and loosen itself, but he can grin.

And sort of talk. ]

You know... I had this weird dream. [ Some of the memories are blurred, sorting themselves out into order. ] Thought I'd lost you.

w a n d a

[ Somehow, he misses her in the medbay.

There's a lot to think about now that he isn't submerged in the weird liquid of the cryotube, now that he can think beyond a slow ramble that doesn't make much sense, and Steve realizes he's also missed, well, a lot. There are messages on his MID from weeks ago that he hadn't been able to respond to. There's something strange going on with the planet they're currently stopped at, and there's no one left in his room. He stands in the doorway looking at the neatly made oval-shaped beds, crossing over to his before sitting on the edge of it. The weight of the silence is almost too much for his freshly-revived mind, but he's been alone so long that it comes second-nature after a minute or two.

He takes time to search the MID and its directory, seeing less faces than he remembers, and it's something he's still trying to work out even as he finds Wanda in the device and begins to type. She might not like the surprise of the words, but Steve to connect despite his separation from everything else. ]

Are you okay? [ The status of his team is unclear, but at the very least, he will check in individually until he has a full story. ]

Comments

[seeingscarlet]

[It falls flat over text, and unlike some people (Natasha), Wanda chooses not to needle him over it. Usually.]

The library. But I can come to you.

[She's not sure what cryo does to someone but after being under for almost a month, it wouldn't be surprising if even Steve felt a little off.]

[abide]

Yeah. [ There's no hesitation in that. ] Yeah, if you want. I'm in my room.

[ For now, at least. He needs to figure out what to do now that he's out of cryo, sort out the information he's missing. Steve's also sure Wanda knows where it's at, but just in case: ] Mero 009. No one's here.

[seeingscarlet]

Be there soon. No napping.

[She remembers where it is - hard to forget when she's obligated to go by it on the way to her own room. 15 minutes later there's a knock on the door, though Wanda can sense Steve's presence, bright and strong, on the other side of the steel.]

[abide]

[ There's a quirk of his mouth at that comment, having decided that he wouldn't do any of that long before being told. Despite the inevitable exhaustion that comes from it, Steve needs to be focused on where to go from here—a future that isn't so precisely lined out. He moves to let her in as soon as she knocks, offering a careful smile. ]

It's good to see you. [ He feels the slightest pull of awkward tension as he stands there. ] How's everything been?

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda says nothing for a moment as she enters the room. Has he heard about Amissis-Re and the alter-Ingress? Because after what she's seen, she really doesn't know how to answer that question.]

...I saw Novi Grad again.