"Normal is an ideal. But it's not reality. Reality is brutal, it's beautiful, it's every shade between black and white, and it's magical. Yes, magical. Because every now and then, it turns nothing into something."

Tara Kelly

"What?" Ophelia blurted.

"What!" Sam exclaimed, catching the attention of everyone else who was previously enjoying the end of the festivities. Wanda turned and glanced cautiously between Bucky then Ophelia, then quickly rid herself of any worry of the situation that had unravelled, and offered a soft smile. Her smiles were always sad, Ophelia noted, and yet the beauty behind them was the strength that she emitted.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Bucky asked, looking exasperated, excited and somewhat shocked at his own words. "I don't want anyone else, just you, O. For a long time, you struggled with not knowing who you were, but you're you. Last name be damned, Ophelia, you're you. Nothing has changed that, not HYDRA, not me, not death... But something that always bothered you was not having more to who you were. Although you can light up a room and make friends with any person on the planet, you always wanted something more."

"Yeah..." Ophelia whispered.

"So, take my last name... Even though it doesn't really represent who I am today, it's a name that was mine a long time ago, but I want to share it with you. I want to share my whole life with you, every last part of it. I'm still going to struggle with a lot of things, O, and I'll never be able to give you a normal life. But this, this is something I can give you."

"We never really did do that normal thing, did we?" she asked.

He cracked a smile. "No, no we didn't."

"Well?" Sam asked. "The suspense is killing me."

"What?" Ophelia looked around, confused now. Everyone was staring at her and Bucky, and Bucky was staring at her, his hands snaking around hers now. T'Challa stood watching with a serene look on his face. M'Baku looked like he was about to burst with excitement. Wanda, however, was solemn, seeing the love between them, and worrying for what would come from this. She had the right to worry.

"What's your answer?" Bucky asked, bringing her back into the moment. The moment that everyone was eager to see how it unfolded.

"Oh!" Ophelia assumed everyone would already know and hadn't thought to reply the way they did in the books and movies. "Well, obviously."

Cheers erupted and Ophelia felt massive arms wrap around her and Bucky. M'Baku's huge body enveloped both of them and squeezed the breath out of their lungs. When he released them, he had a large hand on either of their shoulders, looking between both of them with bright eyes and massive smile. One that nearly put Ophelia's to shame.

"This is a union I wished to see," M'Bkau said. He looked at Bucky. "It took you too long to have the guts to do this."

"There were a few hiccups along the way," Bucky said, nearly blushing at all the attention he was getting. It did not slip his mind that some of those hiccups were death, and some of those hiccups were still lingering. "Never thought I'd be the type to get married."

"There's a lot of things we never thought would happen," Ophelia said. "Look at us now."

Pulling her aside, Bucky shifted away from the limelight in order to speak with her without anyone else listening in. He placed his hand on her cheek, and instinctively she dipped her head to the side, putting pressure against his palm. His fingers were calloused and tough, and yet they felt perfect against the smooth skin of her cheek.

"This isn't how I imagined my life. If someone told me I would fall in love with a prisoner of HYDRA, I wouldn't have known what to say. Maybe I would have said I didn't understand love, how could I fall in love? I've always strived to give you normal, without realizing that normal is circumstantial. Normal is not something we achieved by other people's standards, but I think this... You coming back, me coming back... I think that's starting to be our normal."

Ophelia made a soft, thoughtful hmm sound.

"That's it? 'Hmm'?"

"You're back to normal," she whispered. "Whatever our normal is."

He chuckled, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Then, hand in hand, the two rejoined the celebration, which was more than what all of Wakanda was celebrating now, it was the fact they were going to get married. Ophelia didn't quite understand marriage, but over the years she understood how it was important to some, and she didn't need to understand it to see it was important to Bucky. She wondered how long he had thought about it when they lived in Romania, had it ever crossed his mind? When she complained about her lack of a surname? Not that they ever could have married then, not when they were fugitives running from the law.

It was T'Challa who approached them next, placing a hand on Bucky's shoulder first, and nodding at him. There were no words that needed to be exchanged, as though the two of them had long ago learned to speak with only a look. Ophelia cocked her head to the side, wondering how drastically things changed after she died. The T'Challa she had known wanted Bucky dead, this T'Challa was someone else entirely. Someone soft and kind, someone with a king's heart.

He turned to Ophelia then. "I long watched this one suffer. Now, I will get to see him thrive."

It was a simple statement, but it carried so much weight. Ophelia beamed at T'Challa, leaning against Bucky's shoulder. Her head bonked his metal arm, but she said nothing. She was used to it, she loved the way it stood out, the way it made him different from everyone else. Just like her scars made her different from everyone else. Every life that was lived was so different, and Ophelia hoped that her second life would be much different from her first.

M'Baku started to shout at his children, distracting everyone from the excitement, which was toning down at last. Ophelia did not like remaining in the spotlight, and neither did Bucky. She wondered if she would sleep differently tonight, if she would feel different knowing one day soon she would be Ophelia Barnes.

Looking across the massive palace balcony, she made eye contact with Wanda. Those solemn eyes almost looked happy, happy for Ophelia, and yet devastated she could not have the same thing. Wanda lowered her gaze first, dropping her head as she did so, and tucking her hands into her coat pockets. She turned away and walked towards the edge of the balcony, looking up at the stars.

It was in the way she moved that Ophelia knew; once Wanda left Wakanda, the barrier would be gone.

Ophelia needed something else to stop the pain in her head, and she needed it fast.