Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm

Bucky Barne's Metal Arm

As far as Bucky was concerned, there were two things his metal limb was good for; murdering people, and being used as an excuse to spend time with Tony Stark. Considering he was all out of people to murder, he was mostly concerned about the second part.

Since Steve had found him and dragged him back to the Avengers Compound, his childhood friend had been insistent on him exercising his free will. The problem was there weren't many things he really wanted to do. In fact, after having a long bath, a good night's sleep, and a home-cooked meal, Bucky had really reached the bottom of his list. Because the one thing he really wanted was something he should not peruse - Tony Stark.

Tony Stark, whose parents he's murdered with his own hands. Tony Stark, who'd been told this by Steve long ago, and still helped look for him. Tony Stark, who let him stay in the compound. Tony Stark, who was so smart and kind and wonderful and...

And it didn't matter if Bucky had feelings for him. Tony was in love with Pepper anyway, Bucky could never compete with her, he didn't even have red hair! And she had the advantage of not having killed Tony's parents in the name of Hydra, that had to be a pretty big plus. Tony wasn't even gay.

Bucky had always been gay. He'd known it from a young age, when every boy he knew became interested in chasing skirts and all he wanted to do was hold them down and 'wrestle.' But instead he dated dozens of girls, each one pretty and nice, but all interchangeable. Had he returned from war, he would have married one of them; which would have been unfair, but in those days there was little else a man could do. Now he could marry a man, divorce him, and then marry him again. The future was amazing in that way.

But he couldn't have Tony, and that was okay, he could resist. Well, he could resist most of the time. There weren't exactly a lot of situations where he and Tony could just hang out together, so he favoured creating these situations himself. Usually in the form of breaking his metal arm. It was a surprisingly easy thing to do, if you knew what you were doing. Bucky knew his arm well enough to stick a screwdriver in just the right place to mess with the mechanics of it, then he would go running to Tony, claiming he had absolutely no idea how it happened.

Tony was a gifted engineer, and could fix the actual problem in a matter of minutes, but it always involved pulling Bucky's arm apart, and with all the plates and screws, this could take up to an hour. Yet he never complained, and he never accused Bucky of being the source of the breakage, he just fixed it, idly promising to make Bucky a newer, better arm, yet that never happened.

Until it did. After months of Bucky coming to Tony every couple of days, the genius had finally got fed up, and had constructed a new arm, with all the durability Stark technology had to offer. It was early evening when Bucky made his way to Tony's lap, holding his broken metal arm theatrically, hoping to get another how with Tony, when he was greeted by him holding the new contraption, looking oddly proud.

"Here, I made you a new one," he said with a grin, clearly very pleased with himself, "it's much better; unbreakable, more flexibility, smoother use, it's even easier to use, try it on!"

Bucky was shocked, how could he say no? His malfunctioning arm was the only thing that kept him even remotely connected to Tony, and if he started breaking this new one, Tony would find out, he'd figure everything out.

"Uh, thank you," he said slowly, trying to seem happier than he was. He managed a small smile, and detached his current arm, ready for to put the new one in its place.

"I've been looking at your joint socket," Tony said, walking over to him and measuring it up, "it was easy enough to recreate. Sorry it took so long, I've been busy."

"You didn't need to do this," Bucky offered, "not for me. You're always so busy..."

"It's fine, what are friends for?" Tony smiled, clicking the new arm into place.