The Engineer (Bucky Barnes x OC)

Chapter 7- Boring lab tests

For the next few hours, we mainly looked over a bunch of analyses.

Bucky was put in a deep sleep and Shuri scanned him a bunch of times, trying to get an idea of what we were working with.

"How's it going?" I asked, grabbing the bag of Cheetos that Shuri had laying out and popping it open.

"Good, so far," Shuri replied, her back to me as she typed a bunch of different things into the computer.

I grabbed a Cheeto and popped it into my mouth, then set down the bag, feeling like I was gonna hurl. It tasted like styrofoam coated with cheese.

"Shuri, how do you enjoy these?!" I demanded, swallowing the piece of edible styrofoam. "It's ridiculously artificial,"

"I don't," she responded, "I keep them around for my American patients because they seem to like them a lot,"

I made a face at the bag and washed off the strange orange powder that now coated my fingertips.

"There is no way people actually like that," I said. "My mother would have a fit if she saw me eating that! And I don't blame her, either, it's disgusting. It doesn't even taste like real food,"

Shuri spun around, exclaiming, "I know, right! I will forever be confused by Americans,"

"To think I lived with them my whole life," I sighed. "I see people eating junk food everywhere, but my mother always told me it was a waste of time and money,"

"It is," Shuri went back to her work. "They're really just for when you get hungry and don't want to make anything,"

I sighed, sitting down in a chair next to a sleeping Bucky.

"You don't like those ridiculous foods, right?" I asked quietly, as though he could hear me.

I wasn't expecting a reply, and I didn't get one, either.

"Thank god," I said anyway, as though he'd told me he felt the same as I did about junk food.

Shuri laughed from across the room.

"Are you two getting along alright?" she asked.

"So far, yeah," I answered. "We found a few similarities,"

"Such as?"

"Well, we both know Ava Rogers-Wilder. Apparently, she's a good friend of his, because he looked like he was reminiscing when he told me about her,"

"That's good to hear,"

A moment of silence developed between us.

"How long do you think the process will take?" I asked softly.

"I don't exactly know yet," Shuri replied honestly. "It's as I said- complicated. I can't just look into his thoughts, I have to analyze his brain and make assumptions,"

"What are those assumptions?"

Shuri stopped typing and turned to face me.

"I don't have enough behavioral info, but if you do your job well enough, I might have a finalized draft by the end of the week. Can you tell me what he was feeling when he got here?"

"Nervous," I started. Shuri spun back around and began to type again. "He was nice to me, but he seemed timid,"

Shuri continued to click away. "Anything else?"

"Well... he asked if he would need to stay locked up in his room during his stay and looked like he wanted to protest when I said he didn't,"

Shuri froze. "Really?"

"Yeah, I was kinda concerned about that,"

"You really don't say," she replied sarcastically, typing furiously into the system. "Did he say anything else like that?"

"Nope,"

Once she was finished, Shuri turned back to me. "Do you mind doing something that's not watching me work?"

"Yes, ma'am," I responded semi-sarcastically. She snorted and jerked her thumb backward, a subtle way of telling me to get off my arse. I put my hands up in surrender and approached my central computer, opening up a few documents and trying to find something to work on.

As I scrolled through a few newly uploaded folders, I found a hard drive sitting next to my mouse. I cautiously plugged it in, downloading everything onto my computer.

All I could find was one folder titled "blueprint- 9.3".

Curious, I clicked on it.

The folder opened, revealing a few documents. I opened up one of them to find the top view of what appeared to be a robotic arm.

"What's this?" I asked.

Shuri stopped typing and approached my side. "It's an arm, dimwit,"

"No, like, where did you get it?"

"Oh, that's what Bucky used to have for an arm," she said calmly. "I was hoping you could build him one like that, preferably one that will snap him out of his triggered episodes. Just until I figure out how to flush their effects from his brain,"

"Triggered?"

"Yes, he gets triggered by certain words. The list should be in your folder titled safety and protocols,"

"Thanks,"

Shuri went back to her computer, and I scanned around mine until I found what she was talking about: a document called "Bucky Barnes- Triggers"

I opened it up and read through the list:

Longing

Rusted

Furnace

Daybreak

Seventeen

Benign

Nine

Homecoming

One

Freight car

Below the words were supposed reasonings behind them.

Longing- we believe it is because he wished to remember his life before getting brainwashed.

Rusted- perhaps referring to his metal arm, in some way.

Furnace- reasoning unknown, may have to do with HYDRA punishments.

Daybreak- perhaps symbolizing a new life.

Seventeen- reasoning unknown

Benign- reasoning unknown

Nine- could be referring to the Greek myth of the Hydra, for the Hydra has 9 heads

Homecoming- reasoning unknown

One- perhaps because he was the first winter soldier, or perhaps a symbol that he was alone.

Freight car- we know that this is probably because he was thrown from a freight car, landing him half dead in a freezing river.

I stared at the words and their meanings, speechless.

"This poor man..." I whispered, clicking through a few more documents.

"I know, right?" Shuri replied. "Do you have any first-minute ideas or plans?"

I thought for a second, casting Bucky's resting figure a glance.

"Yeah," I said slowly, turning back to my computer. "Yeah, I think I do,"