Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
“I know what she did was unforgivable.” Steve chanced a glance at T’Challa as the words came out of his mouth. T’Challa, hands clasped behind his back, didn’t move. Didn’t look at him. “But she’s not a bad person.”
T’Challa turned his head at that. “I do not fault her for what she did, Captain Rogers.”
“You turned her in to Ross.” The words, tinged with just the slightest hint of bitterness that made him cringe, escaped before he could help himself. The last thing he needed was to get on the bad side of the king of Wakanda, especially now.
But if Steve’s words bothered T’Challa, he didn’t show it.
“We all did things that we are not proud of now,” T’Challa said, and Steve wasn’t quite sure if he meant himself, Steve or Natasha.
He decided not to ask.
“I have to help her,” he said.
“Of course you do,” T’Challa said. “You love her.”
He said it so simply. Like it was just a basic fact along the lines of the sky being blue. Just something everyone knew.
“I do,” Steve said, because there wasn’t a point in denying the obvious.
“And she loves you.”
Again, he said it like a fact. Steve felt his heart clench slightly, but he managed a nod. “I think she does.”
“But yet you do not think you could ever have a relationship with her.”
It still wasn’t a question. Steve frowned. Had Bucky spilled all the details of his life before he went into cryo?
“She’s not the relationship type.” That was an understatement of the year, but it was the best he could do for now.
“How do you know if you do not try?” T’Challa asked.
Steve thought about all the million ways he could answer that, all the ways he wanted to answer that. Instead he said, “We have to save her first.”
T’Challa nodded, and Steve thought he almost saw the barest hint of a smile.
“You will.”