All Our Flaws Are Aligned [COMPLETED]

Discouraged

A few days later, you were in Tony's lab fixing up DUM-E's arm, which had started sticking whenever he tried to move. Apparently. You weren't entirely convinced that DUM-E was actually this...clumsy. You always had a sneaking suspicion that the robot was a lot smarter than he liked to let on. You thought he just liked the attention.

Sometime in the afternoon, someone knocked on the door. You looked up at it, silent, waiting for them to leave. After yesterday, you weren't risking Tony's disapproval again. They knocked again. You stood up, wiping your hands on your jogger bottoms, and slowly walked over. You tapped the square in the middle of the door, which expanded into a tech version of a peephole.

Bucky was standing on the other side.

You breathed in, annoyance building inside you. Well, you thought, he'd already seen you once.

You swung the door open.

Bucky's eyes widened as he looked down at you, leaning your hand on the door handle, your other hand on your hip.

"He's not here." You said bluntly.

"Oh...when is he back?"

You shrugged with one shoulder.

"Today?" He tried again.

"It's Tony, he comes back when he wants. Why do you need him?"

"Uhh..." Instead of explaining, Bucky lifted his left arm, which, as soon as it was lifted above his shoulder, started crackling and short circuiting again.

You raised an eyebrow at him.

"Twice in four days? Should just take it off you." You said sarcastically. Bucky's eyes narrowed.

"Can you fix it? Or do I have to wait?"

You huffed, loudly, and spun on your heel, heading into the lab. You left the door open, hoping he was smart enough to understand that that meant 'yes'. When you heard the door close behind you, you were pleasantly surprised. Seems he was smart enough.

You pointed to a couple of bar stool looking seats by the counter, and headed to your den to grab your toolbox. Tony had the instruments, sure, but they weren't yours. Tony's tools felt weird in your hands.

When you came back into the room, Bucky was sitting there without a shirt on. You paused for a split second, wondering why he didn't leave it on, then remembered he had walked in wearing a long sleeve top. Probably just wanted a reason to show off his chemically engineered muscles.

You slammed the box onto the counter, hiking yourself up onto the stool opposite him, and immediately grabbed his arm, pulling it towards you and pressing a pattern on the plates by his elbow joint. There was a hiss, then part of the metal shifted aside, revealing the internal mechanisms and wires. You chewed on your bottom lip for a moment as you raked your eyes over the system, then pulled your phone out of your pocket.

"Are you...searching how to do this?" He asked with suspicion in his voice.

You smirked at his lack of faith in you.

"You asked me to fix it." You retorted. "I'm fixing it. Just pulling up the programme to diffuse the moisture."

A sizzling noise brought his attention back to his arm as steam started to escape through the gaps in his plating.

"There was condensation in there. I assume you went swimming with it?" You asked, a bored tone to your voice."You're not mean to swim for a long time with a fucking metal arm." You muttered, but he heard it either way. In all honesty, you weren't trying that hard to be quiet.