The Engineer (Bucky Barnes x OC)

Chapter 23- New Arm, Who Dis

Bucky hadn't wanted to leave the lake that morning.

We'd sat by it, silently letting our feet get buried in the sand and feeling the cool liquid soak them. It was soothing, like something massaging the top of your foot.

"It's pretty, isn't it? The water?" I'd asked, resting my head on his shoulder. "It sparkles under the sun quite majestically."

"Just like your eyes," Bucky'd replied airily.

I'd smirked. "Oh, stop it."

"I'm not kidding!" he'd protested, kissing my temple lightly. "Your eyes are emeralds, Nico."

"If you say so, Buckeroo."

Bucky had laughed. "Who's 'Buckeroo'?!"

"You!" I'd exclaimed. "Unless you forgot that your name was Bucky. Again."

"'Who the hell is Bucky?'" he'd said, mocking himself.

"You the hell is Bucky!"

We both had laughed, and our eyes met. I'd smiled, feeling a blush in my cheeks. He'd done the same, glancing down.

"I... I talked to you, last night," he'd said softly. "Do you... do you remember?"

"N-no," I'd replied. "What did you say?"

"Er- I spoke to you in Spanish, because that helped me when I had nightmares," he'd explained.

I'd felt the blush go even deeper.

"Y- you're fluent?"

"...yeah... I understand what you said now that I can comprehend the words. They sounded weirder in my dream than they do now..."

I'd felt incredibly embarrassed and looked down completely, suddenly very interested in playing in the sand.

"You know... I said something else, too," Bucky'd said, almost teasingly.

"Hmm?"

"Я люблю тебя," he said softly.

I'd stared at him, knowing fully well that no words in Spanish would ever go together in the way he'd just voiced.

"It's Russian," he'd explained quickly.

"I can't speak Russian, Bucky."

"I know. I'd said it to you in English last night, but you probably don't remember."

"I don't," I'd admitted, "So how do you expect me to figure it out?!"

"Figure it out, Nico, you're smart. Я люблю тебя."

"Could you write that down?"

"So you can look it up? No."

I'd sighed. "And you expect me to figure this out."

"Indeed, I do," he'd teased, kissing my cheek. "You'll figure it out, sooner or later. I promise."

I'd rolled my eyes. "If you say so."

~

"Nico, are you even listening to me?!"

"Yes! Of course!"

Liar.

I'd been daydreaming. What were the words? It sounded like "yeh leh boo teh blah", but I knew that wasn't the correct spelling. I'd pronounced it best I could to my computer, and it had come up as "Я люблю тебя". I would've never guessed that. It looked as though it should've been pronounced "are noon eee ooh tee ore", but I wasn't exactly fluent in Russian, as you may have been able to tell.

I'd written it down and was going to look it up when I realized that doing so would probably be immoral on my part. Bucky had told me not to, so I reluctantly did as he wanted me to and stopped myself from looking it up.

"So what did I just say?!" Shuri demanded.

"Um... give the arm to Bucky because I'm done with it?" I guessed.

Shuri sighed, walking over to me and rapping her knuckles against my forehead.

"THIS THING EMPTY!" she shouted as loud as she could, then shoved me backward a bit roughly. "YEET!"

I laughed, massaging my forehead as she snickered at me.

"Empty, I tell you," she mused. "Empty."

"Alright, alright, I get it!" I said, putting my hands up. "But honestly though, I have a question. Do you know what this-" I pointed to the Russian Bucky had said to me on a piece of paper, "-means? Bucky said it to me, and he said it's Russian."

Shuri glanced at it, then smirked.

"Look it up," she suggested.

"He said not to!"

"Then how are you supposed to find out what it means?"

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID!!"

"Well, I won't tell you, but I know how to make him tell you," Shuri said.

"How?" I demanded.

Shuri grinned. "Ask him to say it in Spanish."

~

"Wow, Nico... thank you,"

Bucky examined the new arm I'd attached to his stub, impressed. It was black this time, with gold stripes and zigzags in the crevices.

"It isn't a problem, Bucky," I'd replied, thinking about Shuri's request absent-mindedly.

"Now I can hold you with two arms," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah."

"Are you alright? You seem a bit off."

I gave him a fake grin. "I'm fine."