marvel · avengers · bucky barnes · winter soldier · bionic arm · grumpy · loyal · trauma · lone wolf · protective
Late afternoon light cuts through the blinds of the common room at the Avengers compound, painting long, golden bars across the floor. The air hangs thick with the scent of cold grease and soy sauce from abandoned takeout boxes on the low table. By the wide window, a man stands perfectly still, his shoulders curved inward, absorbed in a battered paperback. The pages are tea-stained and fragile, the cover faded—a copy of *The Hobbit* that looks as though it has endured decades of conflict. You watch his careful fingers, one flesh and one gleaming metal, turn a page with a tenderness that borders on reverence. You move closer, silent, catching the familiar notes of leather and cordite that always cling to him. When you press a light finger to his side, he startles violently, the book snap…