Work Text:
Be professional.
Professional.
It’s not every day you get an Avenger visiting the café you’re employed at!
Just do the repetitive motions. It’s simple.
Coffee. Iced. With boba.
Ohh he’s standing there just staring at one of the paintings. Of Captain America nonetheless!
No! Be professional! I am professional!
I take a deep breath in and finally manage to stutter out:
“Uh… an iced coffee with boba for… Bucky?”
No reaction. I double check the order.
“Hello? Sir?” I check again.
In case someone else has got the same order I yell out:
“Iced coffee! With! Boba!”
That makes quite a few confused customers turn and I look around sheepishly.
Gasp!
He’s looking at me! He’s looking at me!
“Here.” He’s talking to me!
Eagerly I reply: “Well, then here you go! Enjoy your beverage!”
He glances at me, looks at the drink, takes a sip: “Thank you.”, and promptly leaves with his head still turned down.
Did he notice that I’m a fan? Maybe I made him uncomfortable…
After serving another customer the door chimes again
and he… returns?
The customers still don’t bat an eye at the Avenger…
Oh no! Is there something wrong with the drink?
Way to go! You finally meet an Avenger and mess it up immediately by being unprofessional and messing up the order! Oh dear, what if the word spreads? What if I’m actually really bad at this job?
“Welcome back, is there an issue?”
He looks away again.
That bad? Oh dear!
Wait…
is that…
blush?
“Can I… have… a sticker?”
A sticker!? Oh! I said that out loud!
I clear my throat and repeat: “Sorry, are you referring to our stamping system? Are you interested? Here is a card! One stamp per visit, and at ten you can get a drink for free! Let me just give you that first stamp!”
I do as I say and hand him the card, which he takes…
Is that reluctance?
Right… A stamp is not a sticker, but what sticker could he be…
Is it June already!? I knew I’d forgotten something!
“Please wait a moment!”
It only takes a moment to get the sticker box out of the storage room and the moment I return I notice Bucky staring at …
me?
No.
The box!
I place it right in front of him.
“Here you go!” It’s a box with all kinds of colourful stickers representing different pride flags. I’m so exited! He looks at me uncertainly. Right.
“Uh, just choose!” Very smooth. Honestly, what is wrong with me?
He hesitantly shifts his drink into his prosthetic hand and chooses a sticker.
I have absolutely no idea what it means but he seems happy with the green, white, grey, black sticker.
He looks at me.
I smile.
He looks at the drink, then the sticker.
“You can set it down if you’d like!”
He turns around, probably to check if there are other customers waiting, and sets down his drink.
Head bowed down in concentration he clumsily pinches the sticker between his metal thumb and index finger,
drops it,
uses his other hand to pick it back up,
pinch it again, clumsily, and tries to… peel it from the backing paper, trying to get his thumb nail between the two layers.
Ahhhh! This is so embarrassing!
He glances at me and resumes at his task.
I smile.
Awkward.
This is awkward!
Who the hell designed these limited dexterity unfriendly stickers!? And why did we order from that manufacturer???
I smile. “May I… help?”
He hands me the sticker.
I quickly peel it for him and ask: “Where did you want it?”
He points at his prosthetic upper arm.
“Am I allowed to…?”
He nods.
Alright… alright… this is totally not a big deal!
Breathing in I place it, he smoothes it down.
He nods “Thank you.”
And leaves with his drink.
His steps seem a bit lighter…
I do one more check on all the customers before leaving a note and going in the back to make a call to my boss:
“We need to change the stickers!”
“Elaborate please.”
“The Winter Soldier just came in asking for one and I had to help because they require a lot of dexterity with two hands!”
“Wait, what?”
“The Wi-“
“I heard you the first time.”
“Right.”
“I’ll look into other sticker designs”
“Thank you.”
“Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
Awkward.
Very Awkward.
Later that day Steve finds himself sitting on the couch in the common floor sketching… Bucky’s new prosthetic.
Tony built it together with Shuri right after their success with B.A.R.F..
Though…
this morning… was a bit of a disaster. Certainly could’ve handled it better.
There are familiar steps, so he raises his head.
“Bucky! You’re back!” Bucky nods, disappears - should I apologise again? Did going out for a bit not make his day better after all? Should I apologise for suggesting that in the first place? Was it too early to go out? - for a bit and comes back to join him with a set of… Lego bricks, setting them on the low table before sitting down on the floor.
… okay.
That spider kid really got Tony and Bucky hooked on these things for different reasons. Tony likes to build models, sometimes prototypes for his grand visions, though he definitely just likes to bond with the kid, while Bucky stated he wanted to get used to using his new prosthetic for more refined tasks.
He turns a new page and starts sketching Bucky instead, who’s completely immersed in building… something. A house?
Also-
there’s a …
sticker …
on his prosthetic?
Does it have a meaning? Steve decides to just add it in and reaches towards the desk for his green pens.
That seems to catch Bucky’s attention, although he just ducks back down to continue with his project.
Smiling.
.
.
.
Smiling!
Definitely an improvement from this morning then.
A comfortable silence settles.