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Really, his first mistake was not taking Thor’s word for it. The Asgardian ale had hit Bucky like a ton of bricks. After three he could barely tell which way was up and he had developed an unsettling sinking through the floor type feeling. Bucky had been so engrossed in the little plastic 2025 tiara that Natasha had set by his side as she’d passed by, that he hadn’t even noticed the latecomers making their way into the penthouse right under the wire.
“Steve wasn’t kidding,” a sweet voice murmured as a blurry figure knelt down before him. “You are not looking well, Bucky.”
He squinted hard, leaning forward until he was practically nose to nose with the girl in front of him. “Hey,” he slurred, palm landing on her shoulder as his vision finally settled long enough to get a good look at her. “Heyyyy you look like my girl.”
“Your girl?” she chuckled, hands coming to rest on his knees, “Thor really did a number on you, huh?”
Bucky shook his head, wincing as the world began to spin again. “No. No, you do. You look like her. Just a little bit. I miss her a lot.”
Shuri had to do her best to keep down her laughter. Strange as it was to see him inebriated to the point of utter disarmament, she had to admit it was also quite endearing. “Buck, it’s me. It’s Shuri.”
“No,” he pulled away from her then, shaking his head once again. “You can’ be her. She’s got a country to run. ‘n Africa. She ain’ in New Yorrk.”
“Okay,” Shuri murmured, taking his face between her palms. “Buck. It’s me. Right here.” She waved a hand in front of his face. “Princess Shuri.”
The world stopped spinning as he focused in on her. “Wow,” he whispered, reaching out to cradle her face in his hands as well, “You really are her.”
“Yeah, I am. It’s really me.”
“Wh-what are you doin’ here?” he asked, his eyes wide in awe. Since he’d joined up with the Avengers several months prior they'd had to maintain things long-distance. And it had been hard, waking up every morning in an extra-long twin in the newly-minted Avengers Tower, rather than in their little hut at the Wakandan border.
“Did you really think I was going to miss my chance for a New Year’s kiss, hm?”
He smiled then, a genuine thing that even she didn’t get to see all that often, before he leaned forward and grabbed her, pulling Shuri clumsily into his lap. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, letting his chin come to rest on her shoulder. “But...you’re not the Princess here. Not right now, anyway.”
Her eyebrows shot high at that and she whipped around to face him. “Oh really?”
“Nope.”
He popped the p as he slapped the 2025 tiara onto his own head. “I’m the princess.”
Shuri let out a howling laugh, sliding off of his lap and sitting back on her haunches as the room began to clear out around them. “Is that right?” Oh, how she’d missed him.
“Oh, yeah. I have the crown.”
“Are you two coming out here or what?” Sam called in from the balcony where the dozens of others were crowding toward the banister, passing around champagne flutes and waiting for the ball to drop. In a clumsy mash of limbs, Shuri heaved Bucky to his feet and they made their way out into the cold of the night.
Shuri batted away Dummy’s attempt to deliver their champagne flutes with a polite No, he’ll have water, thank you. Only a moment later did she have to smack away Thor’s ale-laden fist with a much less polite absolutely not.
Once things around them had settled into a low, anticipatory hum, Shuri finally took a moment to let out her breath and take it all in. She was surrounded on all sides by the people who meant the world to both she and Bucky. Off to the far left, she noted, Natasha was perched atop Steve’s shoulders so she could see over the tops of the others’ heads. And to the right, nearest to the banister, Peter entertained little Morgan while Tony and Pepper watched on and sipped at their champagne. With Bucky’s warmth against her back, T’Challa off one flank and Sam the other, she couldn’t have been more content. There couldn’t have been a better way to welcome in the New Year.
And as the ball dropped and the confetti fell, she turned to Bucky and pressed a kiss to his lips that they both had been longing for, for all those months that they’d been apart.
“Happy New Year, Sugar.”
“Happy New Year, Princess.”