Mosaic (Bucky Barnes X OC / Winter Soldier x OC)

Chapter 11: Valeriy Ayers - Ice Packs (Part III)

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"Aaaand... there. How's that? That do anything?" I asked, twisting two stripped wire ends together and pulling my tweezers out of Bucky's arm.

Those silver fingers made a fist. The movements slightly less twitchy than it was before. I could hear a gear whirring and skipping. Going to have to find that, eventually. It made the little tech geek left in me cringe. And with that spark of blue, I knew there were loose wires deeper in the arm.

"Better," Bucky replied, still testing out his finger movements.

At that, I dropped one set of tweezers on my chest and blindly tapped on the muscled side next to me. My hand grabbed at the air and waited when the clacking of ball bearings filled the room.

After a minute, Bucky handed me a can. A system we worked out over the last three days to use the epoxy spray to connect and waterproof the wires without me losing the damn wire trying to shake a stupid can.

"And that should be everything on the surface level," I announced, tossing the can back to him.

"There's not much of a difference."

"The more important things should be towards the center? Better protected there. I'm guessing that's where we'll see the biggest improvements."

With a sigh, I started digging deeper into the arm, moving things a little to peek behind them and searching anything to be pushed back into place or a wire that needed reconnecting. I knew a few people who'd take all this apart in a fit of rage just so they could reorganize the mess in here. I was very close to becoming one of those people.

"You're not running for the bathroom as much anymore," Bucky pointed out after a few more reconnected wires.

I huffed in response. It's why it took three days to get to deal with most of the surface damage. As good of a spot I was in a couple minutes ago, going deeper into the arm definitely unsettled my stomach. Again.

"You've helped a bunch though," I commented. "Kept me out of my head. You haven't flipped out either, for how much of a fuss you made before we started."

"This arm could crush you," he retorted almost instantly.

I laughed, shoving a gear into place. "Got my arm caught up in a security door or two, so nothing new. If that helps."

"No. It doesn't. It really doesn't."

"Ehh," I shrugged.

Broken bones and the like never bothered me much unless I was in this very situation. Stuck and probably surrounded. Otherwise being an Ayers meant I head the best treatment. Only took a couple of months to be all dandy to do the next thing that pops into my head. That was if I felt like being patient enough to be fully healed between bouts of utter stupidity.

Finding another broken wire, I couldn't help but think, 'Well, don't you look important?'

Being all orange and hanging out of another mysterious black box with a bunch of other wires running out of it, and it was old. Very old. Like a few other wires in here. The kind I haven't seen used outside of the ancient toys Gramps' made when he was my age. Maybe even younger.

'Should probably update some of these wires.... Someday.... Maybe....'

Finding the other half of it, I stripped a portion of the insulation on each end before pulling them together for twisting.