THREE.
in your arms!

❝ tell me, father, which to ask forgiveness for: what I am, or what I'm not / tell me mother, which should I regret: what I became, or what I didn't?❞

⎯ unknown, via pinterest

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN the world ends and is reborn?

This is the very question humanity asks themselves every hour of every day since the battle against Thanos ended, when Tony Stark sacrificed himself to bring half the entire Universe back into existence. Following the events of that renowned battle, the world tries to pick itself back up. Piece by piece, layer by layer, and stitch by stitch they try to mend the shattered fragments of their weary hearts.

The Governments of the world try to help, funding the GRC and other such charities to help with relocation and rehabilitation. Those who are not in need of aide grapple with the aftermath of dying and coming back to life. Some come home to find their mothers have passed on, others back with their family, but their minds still healing. The cases of mental health in children has risen, the shock of being revived too much to bare for so many young ones.

From the dust comes heartbreak and suffering, not the expected elation from everyone in the world. While there are glimpses of happiness, it is not large, and does not spread through every person on the earth.

It definitely hasn't reached the young girl and broken man walking down the streets of Brooklyn. The younger of the two walks quickly, trying to get ahead of the man trying to console her. His hands are in his pockets, his face contorted with agony as the girl keeps a steady pace.

"Reine!" he calls her, but the girl doesn't want to listen. "Reine, come on." passersby watch the two, narrowing their eyes at the man, wondering where they've seen him before. They steer clear of the girl, whose eyes swim with pain and whose frown makes them flinch. Bucky jogs to keep up, grabbing Reine's arm softly and turning her around. She pulls it away.

"What?" she asks, her words harsher than she means them to be. "What, Bucky?"

"When Doc talked to you alone..." he says, moving them off to the side as a large clump of people pass by. "What..." he sighs. "You seemed off. What did she want to talk about?"

"It's not your business." Reine says softly. Bucky's face darkens.

"It is my business." he replies. "Okay, I know you don't like the sessions..." Reine looks away. "I'm just trying to help, Reine. Come on." Reine shuffles her feet, clenching her fists.

"She asked me about my dream." Reine finally says, and Bucky pauses. "About what happened last night."

"Oh." is all Bucky can manage out. Regret sparks in his gut, remembering how hard he'd held Reine when she'd woken him up, how he'd been on the verge of snapping her arm off, thinking she was a threat. He takes a deep breath and puts a hand on her shoulder, seeing her lips starting to quiver.

"I told her." Reine says. "Bucky, I told her about your dream." She steps into his arms, putting her head on his chest, and Bucky instinctively wraps his arms around her body. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's okay." He says into her hair. "It's okay." Reine holds back her sobs, her head like a lead weight against him. "Reine... we're going to figure this out." She steps back, heaving in breaths through her struggling lungs.

"Do you really think she's gone?" Reine asks, her voice hoarse. Bucky sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"I don't know Reine," he finally answers, his tone frail and weak. "But if the Wakandans couldn't find her, if we couldn't find her, and she didn't make her way back to us..." he leaves the rest unsaid, not because she'll know what comes next, but because he can't finish the sentence, throat locked up and lungs closed in. Reine sniffs, her hands shaking at the prospect of her mother being truly gone.

Whatever Raynor wanted Reine to start thinking has worked, and doubt creeps into the girl's heart, inching along her bones and digging into the marrow. The reasoning finally starts to take hold. Her mother is a smart woman, a resourceful one too, and if she was still alive, wouldn't she have found them by now?

Marina knows where Bucky grew up, and knows he'd always talked about moving back to Brooklyn when the fighting finally stopped. She would have gone to the Wakandans, who knew where Bucky and Reine had moved to. Marina would know how to find them, and yet she was not there beside the two, not smiling at Bucky's attempts to kiss her, not messing up Reine's hair from where her daughter hugs her side. Marina Castell is nowhere to be found, dropped off the face of the earth, and if the data is correct, she has been for the past three years.

Reine turns away, crossing her arms over her chest, biting down on her tongue until the salty tang of blood fills her senses. Bucky follows after her, placing a comforting hand on the small of her back.

"We're going to find out what happened to her, hermosa." Reine flinches at the nickname, normally so comforting to hear the word roll off his tongue, but now it feels like a curse. "I promise."

Reine looks up at him, tears glistening in her round, wide eyes. "Bucky," she starts. "If mama is—" but she's unable to finish, as the sound of two men arguing reach their ears, and the father and daughter realize they've come to their apartment building, and share a look, knowing exactly what's happening.

Reine's comment is forgotten as the two walk out to the back alley, where the garbages are kept, and find the person they both expected to see. Yori, an older Japanese man with hair as white as snow and (in Reine's opinion) the most adorable smile in the world, throws a bag of garbage down to the ground in front of another younger man.

Reine and Bucky come closer, and Yori's voice grows loud. "Mr. Nakajima!" he calls out. "It's Mr. Nakajima." Reine and Bucky share a look, and move forward. Reine goes to Yori and tugs on his sleeve, pulling him back while Bucky gets in between the two, trying to break up the fight.

"Hey! Hey!" Bucky says loudly. "Yori, what's going on?" Yori turns to them, and when he sees Reine, his frown lessens.

"Yeah, Yori," the little girl continues. "I thought we were getting lunch." Yori sighs and points to the young man. Reine peers at him with an authoritative eye, making the college boy squirm at the fifteen-year-old intimidating gaze.

"Unique is putting his trash into my trash." Yori says, gesturing with his hands to add more emphasis, and Reine's mouth curves only slightly upwards.

"It's trash." the other man argues.

"Be quiet." Reine says to him, while Mr. Nakajima wraps an arm around her shoulders and raises the other one to Unique.

"And the time has come for me to smack—" he goes in to hit Yori, but both Bucky and Reine pull him back, the young girl amused by the wave of childish fury, the other man sick and tired of having to constantly break up fights between the old man and his younger neighbors.

"Whoa!" Bucky says, and Reine holds Yori back as Bucky mouths Hang on and turns to the other man of this battle. Reine pats Yori's arm comfortingly, and his wave of anger lessens.

"It's just trash." when Bucky turns to him, the guy speaks again, taking his gloved hand. "Hey, man. I'm Unique." both Reine and Bucky raise the same eyebrow at the name. "It's like Monique, but it's got a 'U' in there for uniqueness." Reine holds back a snort.

"Cool." she mutters under her breath at the same time Yori says. "That's absurd." Bucky stays strangely silent on the matter. He and Reine whirl Yori around to move further into the alley, keeping a firm grip on the man to make sure he doesn't go after "Monique with a U" again. Honestly, Bucky thinks, Yori is just as bad as Reine sometimes.

"Sorry!" Reine calls out to Unique before the group of three walk away from the trash cans and the carefully avoided fight.

"Yori," Bucky says. "You can't keep fighting with your neighbors." Reine loops her arm with Yori's while Bucky fights with him on the other side, and the two share an exasperate look as Yori tries to worm his way away from them.

"No, go away." Yori says stubbornly.

"Come on," Bucky continues, "let's go get some food." Yori shakes hi head again and let's go of Reine. the girl pouts and moves around him to come up beside Bucky.

"What about Izzy!" she exclaims, and Bucky nods his head fervently.

"We always go to Izzy on Wednesday." he finishes.

"I'm not in the mood today." Yori argues. He starts to walk away, waiving to Reine before turning back around. Reine sighs and crosses her arms, heart a little less heavy as the old man distracts them from their sorrows. Yori seems to always have that effect on Reine and Bucky, bringing out the best in their souls, letting them forget the hardships.

"Hey," Bucky calls out, suddenly getting an idea. "What if I buy?" Yori stops in his tracks and turns back around. His face is one of conflict, but when he notices Reine's feeble attempt at puppy eyes (she's not very good at being soft), his eyes give it away, and the old man relents.

"Fine." Yori says, then points to them with a warning finger. "But no talking."

✧

When they get to the restaurant, in typical New York fashion, the weather has turned sour, rain pouring down through the pewter grey cloud above, soaking everything in a fresh spring waterfall. Bucky covers Reine's head the inside of his jacket as they walk towards the store, whereas Yori has conveniently remembered his umbrella, yet it's only big enough for one.

Reine and Bucky won't stop giving him harsh looks, but the old man barely notices, his mind somewhere far off, unreachable as the sun.

Inside the restaurant is crowded and hot, steam rising from bubbling bowls of soup and the cold smell of fish and rice fill the three's noses as they weave their way through the groups, hoping to get their usual spot at the bar, where the nice waitress Leah always works.

The first time they came here, Leah was the one to introduce them to all the new foods that Reine had never seen before and Bucky had never heard of. She would give them tips and discounts on all the latest specials, encouraging Reine, who had only ever known her mother's horrible cooking as the Spanish cuisine in Madrid. The girl was as foreign to the word sushi or curry as she was to the food. IT had taken quite a bit of getting used to fully appreciate the intense and delicious flavours, but now Reine has gotten into a rhythm, understanding how to eat the food of different cultures. She loves it very much.

Today is not different, and because of the intense therapy session before, both Reine and Bucky decide to try something different. Reine's feet don't touch the ground form where she sits on the bar-stool, and Bucky reaches over every once in a while to keep her from falling off as she spins and shuffles in the seat.

Yori laughs and digs into his food, while Reine and Bucky do the same. Yori picks up the discarded newspaper to his side and opens up the pages, while Reine takes her chopsticks and chews her food contently. The memory of the therapy session and Dr. Raynor's words have been pushed near the back of her mind, and the girl is given a much needed break. Of course, the reverie is short lived, as it always is nowadays.

"Take a look." Yori says, showing the newspaper to Reine and Bucky. The girl is slightly annoyed. She must stop to look up, as this new roll Leah gave to her is the most delicious thing she has ever tasted, but for Yori, she puts down her chopsticks.

She wishes she hadn't. Yori has landed on the In memoriam page. Her stomach twists sharply.

"Nobody made it past 90 this week." Bucky freezes, his mouth stopped chewing, and he looks down to Reine beside him. She stares straight ahead, and he can see her neck straining from beneath her jacket.

He needs to do something, anything, and so the man unwisely blurts out. "So young. Such a shame." Yori nods and Bucky silently curses himself. Reine gives him a glare worthy enough to take down gods, and he closes his eyes for a moment, trying to will the images of his wife away.

He had meant it as a joke for Reine, as he himself is 104, and not dead. He hadn't thought, his dedication to moving on going deeper than he meant it to. But the words have come out, floating about the room, squeezing the air out of both of them.

Yori notices, and after a moment, understanding dawns on his face.

Bucky was the one to tell him, a couple months after moving back in. Yori and them had become fast friends, finding each other when they were at their lowest point. Yori was alone, his wife having died long before, and Bucky and Reine trying to adjust to life without Marina. The old man had noticed Reine's constant barricading herself in her room, the clenched fists and scabs covering her hands. He knew anger, and when he'd gone to Bucky, the reformed soldier couldn't lie.

Yori knew Bucky was married, and that Reine is his stepdaughter, but that the mother is now gone.

"Oh," Yori says, putting a hand on Reine's shoulder, shoving the newspaper. "I'm sorry." he continues. "That was... wrong." His usual spunk has gone, replaced with a solemn voice tinged with something deeper. Reine shakes her head, bottom lip trembling, the therapy session and Bucky's conversation coming back to her.

The bliss has been shattered. But why should Reine be surprised? It always is, these days.

The peace from Wakanda and Madrid are gone, replaced with paranoia and heartbreak. Which makes Reine, already on the verge of exploding, moving to the point of destruction. It makes Bucky, a soldier with a healing mind, close to shattering once more. It makes the world, processing their destruction and rebirth, fall to their knees, governments collapsed and system broken.

The peace is gone, burnt to a crisp, and in this moment, Reine isn't sure it's coming back.

"It's fine." she says, because she has to. She has to put on a brave face, to keep the anger under her skin under her skin, never to unleash. She doesn't know what will happen when it does. It won't be good, whatever happens. Bucky rubs her back, something reine has always found comfort in, even when she had first met him. He would rub her back when forcing her to do homework in Madrid, and she'd always worked better those times. In Wakanda, Bucky had rubbed her back while she lay dazed and sun-soaked out in the fields, her mother at her side.

The feeling bring any warmth to her now, but she lets Bucky do it, knowing he takes comfort in thinking he's protecting her.

"You guys didn't order the usual, huh?" Leah's sweet voice makes Reine look up, and the woman smiles at her. Reine, who has a very low tolerance for mostly anybody, gives her a weak grin back. Leah is probably the closest thing to a girl-friend (friend that's a girl) Reine has. Despite being way older than Reine, Leah is easy to talk to, and doesn't speak to Reine as if she's a bomb set to explode (though the girl would agree with the analogy).

"Feeling a little adventurous?" She speaks in an easy manner, like a friend or confidant. The first time Bucky and Reine walked in, the young girl noticed immediately that Leah had been eyeing her step-father. A couple days later, Yori had taken her aside and spoke of Marina. Leah hadn't looked at Bucky twice since then, something Reine was grateful for.

Still, Leah was a friend, to both of them, and Reine was thankful she hadn't distanced herself from them after learning of Reine's mother. The young Castell swallows thickly, unable to respond. She turns to her food while Bucky gives Leah an apologetic look.

"You two should ask her over." Yori's voice makes both Reine and Bucky turn to the old man, simultaneously shaking their heads, terrified looks on their faces. "You could use a friend."

"No, Yori—" Reine starts, but it's too late. Yori turns to Leah, beckoning her over. He then points to both reine and Bucky.

"They would like to have you over." Reine groans, her hand landing on Bucky's shoulder. "Maybe to Bingo, or a night of pinochle?" Leah smiles while Reine and Bucky shake their heads. It seems like a joke, like Yori is teasing them, but both know its something more.

They don't want to meet new people. They don't want to follow Raynor's orders and make connections. It brings a fresh round of suffering upon their hearts, a burden neither wants to carry. If something bad happens again, if they're ripped away from each other again, Bucky and Reine won't be able to handle losing someone else.

They just can't.

Bucky tells Leah. "We're really sorry about him." Reine nods her head ferociously. Leah smiles and continues to wipe down the counter in front of her.

"Why are you sorry?" she asks, and Reine raises an eyebrow. This is not the reaction she'd thought Leah would have. "Let's do it. Maybe we could like a fun game night?" Reine is left speechless and Bucky dumbfounded.

"Wow." is all he can say, while his step-daughter remains silent. Game night, a tradition back in Madrid, and even into Wakanda. Reine remembers how competitive Bucky would get as her mother took his properties in Monopoly, or how upset her mother became when Bucky beat them in every round of blackjack.

Game night was theirs, and somehow, it feels wrong for it to be played by anyone else than Reine, Bucky, and Marina.

"Tomorrow night, then?" Yori interjects as Bucky goes back to his food, hand still on Reine's back. She shrugs it away, and the man looks up. The young girl can't bear to look at the hurt worming it's way through his features. Bucky's shaking hand goes back down to his side, and he pushes his plate away, having lost all appetite.

"Tomorrow night's great." Leah answers, then stops when she sees Reine's face. "You down, reine?" the girl forces her head up. "We can team up and beat your dad at battleship." the young woman winks, and Reine smiles sadly.

"Okay." she says, forcing the words out of her mouth, despite the bile the rises at the back of her throat in doing so.

"But not Pinochle." Leah says, and Bucky laughs, a dry, hollow sound. Reine's shoulders sag. The air around the two grows darker, a tightness clogging up their senses.

"What's wrong with pinochle?" Bucky asks.

"Yeah?" Yori backs up his claim. Reine looks down and can see Bucky's hand still twitching. He clenches it into a fist. It's as if she can see through the gloves, watching the metal whir and grind. Reine remembers the day Shuri came running down from the palace with a large case in her hands. At that time, Marina and Bucky weren't at the hut, going off for a day alone.

Shuri said she'd stolen it from T'Challa's room, and if Bucky ever needed it again, they'd give it to him. Reine had run her fingers down the metal, admiring the vibranium and yellow seams going along the arm. Then, she'd thought it was beautiful. But now, knowing that arm was the start of another war, a death, she can't look at it the same way.

That arm is a curse. Their whole lives are a curse.

"I have a shift." Leah says. "But if you guys wanna come back here, I should be done around 10:00." Bucky keeps the smile on his face until Leah turns her back, then lets out a breath, the grin falling off his lips like water running down a stream.

"I can't believe you did that." Bucky says to Yori over Reine's head. "I know you say we gotta make friends, but that is not the way to do it." He takes the shot glass he's just filled with an alcohol Reine doesn't know and downs it in one gulp, face twisting at the burn. Reine wishes she was allowed to drink, or even just take a sip of an alcoholic beverage. She's heard it helps make you forget things, and right now, Reine would really like to forget everything.

"Yori?" Bucky's voice makes her turn, and they both look at the man beside them. Their eyebrows furrow in unison at the sight of their neighbor staring at the red bean mochi on the counter. His eyes are glazed over brimming with tears, and his face holds a look the others know instantly. Pain.

Reine's voice is soft and delicate, for once. "Yori? What's wrong?"

But when Yori answers, it's in Japanese, a language Reine doesn't know. He speaks quietly, voice cracking, and after a moment switches back to English.

"Um." turning down to Reine. "It was my son." Reine looks down, knowing exactly what his tone means. "He had a job with a consulting company." Bucky stiffens next to Reine. "He was working abroad, and he was killed."

Reine turns to Bucky, her eyebrows furrowing at the tightness of his jaw, the anguish lurking in the quiver of his lips. He knows this, Reine realizes, but there's something else he's not telling her.

"The police said 'wrong place, wrong time,' but..." Yori continues. "I will never know what really happened to him." Reine's throat is tight, tears brimming her eyes. Never know what really happened.

"I know what that's like, Yori." Reine says softly, her accent peaking through, thick and heartbreakingly gentle. Yori smiles softly and takes Reine's outstretched hand.

"I felt it was strange." he tells her, then reaches up his other hand to place it over his heart. "In here." Reine nods. She looks over at Bucky, and when his eyes meet hers, they narrow, his face unusually tense. Reine frowns, her own features sharpening. Bucky looks away, unable to hold contact, but it's enough to give Reine all the information she needs.

Reine's breath leaves her body in a dizzying gasp, trying to keep her tears contained, so as not to let Yori know anything is wrong. She stares at Bucky, and he knows she's watching, knows she's figured it out, which makes it all so much worse.

When Reine and Bucky leave the restaurant, running down the pouring streets towards the apartment, Reine lets the tears come, and Bucky can't hug her, can't support her, because every time he tries, the girl pushes him away.

When they get home, Reine immediately rushes to her room and slams the door closed so hard the wood cracks. Bucky knocks and knocks, trying to comfort her, trying to explain himself.

But it's too late, because now Reine knows; she knows that Bucky killed Yori's son. 

a/n: this chapter is very loosely edited, so there might be run-on sentences and strange phrases, and if so, I'm sorry. 

ANYWAYS, what did you think of this chapter? It's a bit of a short and filler one, but it's starting to set up Reine's conflict and show their relationship with Yori as well as Leah, two characters I wish were in the show more, I love them! Next chapter is gonna be intense with lotttsss of pain, so I apologize in advance. 

As always, don't be afraid to comment, vote, and follow me! 

Love you, Mal