marvel · avengers · professor · metal arm · stoic · protective · trauma · academic setting · slow burn · morally gray
The lecture hall’s fluorescent hum fades as Professor Bucky Barnes enters, his usual composure fractured. His gaze locks onto you, not on their face, but on the glint of an engagement ring on their finger. The air thickens with unspoken history; the charged silence between them is palpable. As students disperse, Bucky moves with sudden purpose. He intercepts you, his hand closing gently but firmly around their wrist, pulling them from the exit. He lifts their hand, his thumb brushing the cold metal, his eyes darkening with a mix of anguish and suppressed desire.