Gallium // Bucky Barnes // 18+

59. Tell me the truth.

I've been down, kicked
Like around six thousand times
since I was a kid
As a child, picked on, clowned
Countless times I've been outed
Gotta remind myself of it every now and then
So the route I went's self-empowerment
In a hole, taught myself how to get out of it
And balance it with talents, wit
'Cause life is like a penny (life is like a penny)
'Cause it's only one percent
Who overcome the shit they've underwent.

~ Leaving Heaven.
(By: Eminem, Skylar Gray.)

Perfectionists. A term which is used for people who find perfection. They seek perfection, not from others but from themselves, from their output and their work. These people tend to get so involved in their activities that they usually forget that there's an outer world which is still revolving and thriving.

Krystal is one such girl. In her words, "I don't pick up any work until I'm absolutely certain, I'm the best at it.". Pick pointing her own flaws has been a toxic friend of hers. More so now that Bucky chose someone else over her, atleast in her eyes he did.

In the recent past, Peggy and Krystal were slithered into a situation where they had to wrap up their work on the government skyscraper project. The timing was absolutely not ideal and neither was the deadline given to them.

"I think I left it on your desk?" Krystal answered in sort of a question.

After taking a very short coffee break in the last 6 hours of persistent work, she was on her way back to her office, speaking with Peggy on her phone.

"Krys, I'm in my office right now and I can't see it anywhere." Peggy said looking around on her desk.

"Do you need that file right away?" Krystal said in exhaustion, finally reaching her office and taking her seat.

"Not for another..." She looked at her watch, "30 minutes, give or take."

"Ugh." Krystal groaned, scrunching her brows with her eyes closed. "Okay, I'll look around then." She added, keeping her coffee cup on her desk.

"Thank you, Krys." Peggy hurriedly said before hanging up.

All of the major players at the firm, Bucky, Steve, Peggy and Krystal were working day and night to reach the deadline. Bucky and Steve tried to pull some strings but the approaching elections did nothing good to them. Peggy and Krystal had been rushing through their works while the men helped them along in reviews as quick as they could.

For a firm which believes in quality over quantity, it was hard to flip through the pages and overlook the minor problems but you know, perfectionists, these are the icks that could keep them up at night. Giving their best output, was the mentality what was making it harder to flip away for all of them.

Krystal put her coffee cup on her desk and flickered the files kept on it looking for the one Peggy asked for. Not finding it there, she moved over to other places she might keep the file.

"Where could it be?" She muttered to herself fumbling through the stacks of documents.

"The long table beside your desk." Krystal flicked her head to see Bucky standing beside the door, with his palms shoved in his pockets.

"What?" Krystal asked with tucked eyebrows earning a soft chuckle from Bucky.

"The file you're looking for-" Bucky said, "You always keep the files you have to give out on that table and then forget that you've kept it there." He added, pointing at the table.

Krystal had her eyes squinted with her hands on her hips and then hesitantly turned her head to look at the table which had a couple of documents.

"That's not possible-" she rushed over to the table and started looking, "I looked here-" she found the file there and sighed, "apparently not." She said in almost a whisper looking down at the file.