milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Uh-huh, you've said," Bucky informs him. "But you're going to have to work harder than that to scare me."

He scrapes the last of the soup from the bowl and sets the spoon back in it.

"You fed your arm to a yao, I'm not sure it's physically possible." Wei Wuxian snorts, because there's 'Attempt the Impossible', and then there's 'Ram Your Head Into a Stone Wall', and he's pretty sure he knows which one this is.

He shrugs, and doesn't deny it. Bucky tests his left arm, which stopped its weird vibration when Wei Wuxian stopped playing, and looks at him.

"So now what?"

"So now I take that one option that worked properly, and make sure I'm not going to cause some new problem if I actually put it on you, and then figure out how I'm supposed to carve that thing without breaking it or any instrument I bring against it." He doesn't sound at all put out by the work - if anything, he's excited by it. He loves inventing, and he has a deep and ground-in need to be helpful, so. Ticks all the boxes.

Watching the way the younger man brightens at the thought, he wishes he could introduce him to Shuri somehow.

"I don't know how you'd carve anything into vibranium without using vibranium to do it, basically, but I can ask Shuri - my doc, the woman who made this," he clarifies. "I have to let her know how it's doing anyway, since this is still a prototype."

He holds his arm out, turning it back and forth in the air so they can both look at it. "See? Not a scratch on it."

"It really is impressive - we don't have anything like it, to be sure." Look, he knows he's not actually to blame for the Wens attacking Lotus Pier.

(He knows this in his head, when he's fully awake, and sober. Otherwise, all bets are off.

But he's still avoiding thinking about the what if that could be if such things were possible in his world, if it would have meant Madam Yu would have been more willing to take his hand, if it would have meant Lotus Pier would have stood a little while longer, if... well. If.

"Does it have sensation, as well as movement?"

"Yes, but it's different from what I can feel with my right hand," Bucky tells him. "For one thing, it doesn't register pain - that's by design. It feels pressure so I can tell damage potential, and some degree of texture and other stuff through what Shuri calls haptic feedback, but... I don't know. Mostly it feels like itself."

Edited 2021-10-16 01:48 (UTC)

"Truly remarkable." Wei Wuxian nods, "Though at least I don't have to worry about your new scars hurting!"

He gives him a wry half-smile. "Not even a little."

Good! Then I will be terribly ruthless." Wei Wuxian beams, and hops off the bed to fetch Bucky's bowl. "Do you need more soup? You should eat up, so your doctor isn't mad at me!" He declares cheerfully, and heads for the door.

He makes it three steps.

Wei Wuxian was once one of the top cultivators of his generation. He has never quite managed to forget that, despite it being nearly two decades since he was last at full health. Turns out, a spot of demonic cultivation, plus a fight, plus pouring energy into fixing the side-effects of demonic cultivation is quite a drain on a tiny, fledgling core.

He makes a small sound, like a trod-on mouse, and wobbles where he stands.

"Whoa--"

It's been a long, long time since Bucky Barnes spent his days keeping a sharp eye on a fairly fragile Steve Rogers, but he hasn't lost either the instinct or the ability to spot the signs of imminent collapse.

He goes from the stool where he's sitting to Wei Wuxian's side in a single leap and throws his arm around him to catch him before he can fall.

"Hold on to me. Take a deep breath. You okay?"

Wei Wuxian makes an honest attempt to rally, his grip catching on Bucky's sleeve, something small and scared behind his eyes.

But honestly, he needs to learn how to manage with a less powerful core before he ends up collapsing in the middle of a fight.

His grip slips, nerveless fingers falling open, sending the bowl clattering to the floor from his other hand.

That flicker of fear in the younger man's glance makes something twist deep inside him.

"It's okay. I've got you. You're going to be okay," he tells him, and scoops Wei Wuxian up in both arms, as easily as if he were a child. Bucky carries him the three steps back to the hospital bed and sets him down on it.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?" He wasn't wounded in the fight, Bucky knows, at least not visibly, so maybe it's a cultivation thing, or a chronic illness, or--

Wei Wuxian blinks at the ceiling blearily, trying to get his bearings. This never happened, once upon a time. Even when he was coreless and drenched in resentful energy, it happened much less than this. He doesn't like this, flattened by what should be an easy afternoon's romp.

Damn it, Mo Xuanyu. Couldn't you have put even a little effort into this fledgling core before handing it over?

"Ah, Bucky-xiong, it's alright, I just... forgot my limits." He sighs, grimacing at the idea of still having limits. "Forgive this weak and fragile man, eh?"

"Overdid it, huh?" There's something more than a little wry about the way he says that. "Yeah, my best friend used to do the same kind of thing. All the time."

Bucky pulls up a chair beside the bed, but doesn't sit down yet. "Sounds like you need a bowl of soup yourself. Take it easy for a second while I whistle up a waitrat, you hear me?"

"Aiyo, such worry." Wei Wuxian laughs, aiming for light and ending up somewhere in the realm of 'breathless'. "I won't antagonize any yao, promise." He swears, with a sloppy three-fingered salute.

"Better not, or I'll have to start punching them again," Bucky says, dryly, and goes to the door. He wasn't kidding about the whistle, either, letting out a piercing one the second he spots a rat passing at the end of the hall.

Bucky crouches down when it reaches him and holds a low conversation with it, then leans against the door waiting for it to come back. It doesn't take long. He thanks it and carries the tray it brought over to the side of the bed, where he places it on a metal table.

"Okay. Water, because that usually helps, and two kinds of soup - the one you got for me before, and a good old fashioned New York chicken noodle. Cures everything," Bucky tells him. "Take your pick."

"This one would be honored to try some of your miracle soup." Wei Wuxian asks, with his prettiest manners. He's embarrassed, really, to be so weak in front of others. It's bad enough when it's Lan Zhan or his baba, who at least know why, and understand, but...

Ugh. He hates this. Stubbornly, he struggles to sit up, gnawing on the inside of his cheek to keep from going down again.

"Here." The easy, matter of fact way he moves to help lift Wei Wuxian up into a sitting position speaks volumes about how often he's done something just like it in the past.

Bucky pulls the tray table over in easy reach for him, and sits down in the chair beside the bed.

"Ah, thank you." He might be bitter as all hell about being this frail, but unlike some people, Jiang Cheng, he knows how to be at least somewhat graceful about it.

"Don't worry, I will be less fragile in the future, for sure." For one, he's pretty sure he knows exactly who the cut on his arm is for, so at least he can be properly settled in this body. And he'll have more time to work on this core, so it doesn't sputter out at the worst moments.

No thoughts to actually taking it easy or anything, nah.

"Sure you will." It doesn't sound like he's humoring him; it sounds like he's taking him at his word. Bucky knows very well just how far stubbornness can get you.

"Need help with the soup?" he asks, aware of how Wei Wuxian hadn't been able to hold the empty bowl. It's just as matter-of-fact as before. "If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as a turnabout for patching me up."

Has Wei Wuxian mentioned he hates this? He suddenly, viscerally, wants his shijie. It would be okay, if it was her - he could joke about being three, and she would laugh, and it'd all be fine.

But he won't ever see her again, so... he'd better get used to it. Right?

"Mmm, I think you'd better - I want to taste this miracle soup, not wear it." He agrees, forcing his face to be just a bit thicker for now.

Bucky nods, and picks up the spoon. It quickly becomes apparent that he's done this before, too.

"Back when I lived in Brooklyn," he says, "when Steve -- you might not have met Steve yet, he's around here sometimes, though. We grew up together. He's pretty healthy these days, but back then he got sick a lot."

It's no secret, not when Steve's past is on display in the Smithsonian.

"I used to grab this soup from down at the deli on the corner. Better than any doctor. No offense to your friend, mind you."

"Hey, it won't be me she's stabbing in retaliation." Wei Wuxian points out - maybe if Wen Qing is busy stabbing Bucky, Wei Wuxian will be able to escape without being accosted. Win!

This is absolutely not what would happen, but let a boy dream.

"Mmm, it is good soup though."

"I try to avoid being stabbed when I can," Bucky says, dryly.

"Anyway, glad you like it."