The Engineer (Bucky Barnes x OC)

Chapter 10- Told you so, Shuri

Nico's POV

When I got dressed for the day, Bucky was still asleep.

To his defense, it was around 4:30 in the morning. No, I'm not using "a.m." anymore, because "a.m." doesn't make sense to us folk who speak English. And I'm 90% sure that people who speak Latin don't even use a 12-hour clock. Who are we speaking Latin for?! The French?! The Russian?! The Polish?! (Nothing against the French, Russian, or Polish, of course. I'm sure you all are very nice people with great potential. As you can see, I'm just very mad at America's founding fathers, that's all. PS, I know most of you probably don't speak Latin anyway. I'm just trying to make a point, here)

It's things like these that give me anger issues.

I pulled on some casual jeans and a t-shirt, getting ready to report my findings of the night before to Shuri, who was, without a shadow of a doubt, awake at the moment.

I marched into our lab and found her leaning against a lab table, drinking from a white mug.

"Whacha doing?" I asked.

"Good morning to you too, Nico," she replied sarcastically. "I'm drinking coffee. Want some?"

"Yes, please. Where can I find it?" I asked.

"I made you a cup. It's by your computer," she said.

"God, thanks," I said, glad for the pick-me-up. I was still shaky from the previous night.

I headed over to my computer and picked up the white mug sitting next to it, which had some dark brown coffee in it. I picked it up, taking a small sip only to realize that it was just the right temperature. Shuri watched, eyebrows raised, as I took a deep sip of it, disregarding the fact that there was literally close to nothing in there but a bit of milk.

"You drink coffee without anything in it?" she asked/demanded.

"Well, I don't exactly use it as a treat, I use it as a tool to help me stay standing when I'm working, so I don't always have time to put stuff in," I explained.

Shuri grinned. "Same here,"

We both chuckled a little bit before draining our mugs and getting to work.

I began to type up my analysis. I would write something up, then delete it and start over only to delete that, too. I honestly had no idea what had gone on with Bucky, so I typed up all that I knew and gave it a once over, just to make sure it all sounded right.

Last night went smoothly until around 1:30 am when Bucky's heart rate spiked to about 230 beats per minute(bpm). He was thrashing around in his sleep and looked to be in pain. When I stroked his arm and spoke to him (in Spanish, might I include), he seemed to calm down. I did not experience any more issues for the rest of the night.

I sent the report to Shuri, who, after a few minutes, lifted her head from her computer and said, "Nico, why didn't you tell me this earlier?!"

"I was going to add that Bucky and I were not in the correct mental state to roll away from the problem, so I guess we'll have to work on that, too," I replied airily.

Shuri laughed before turning serious.

"Nico, this is alarming. He got nightmares on his first day out of ice? We need to adjust our protocols,"

"YOU DON'T SAY?!" I shouted impulsively. "Look, I tried rolling out of the door, but I couldn't fit both of us. We need wider doors,"

Shuri began to giggle hysterically, trying vainly to flatten out her smile. "Nico-"

"Or we could shrink down all the workers. We could all turn to the size of ants and try to fix everything that way. But we'd have to make the rooms ant-sized, too, with human-sized doors..."

"NICO! FOCUS!"

"Sorry, my bad,"

Shuri cleared her throat, trying not to smirk.

"We need a protocol for what happens if he gets triggered," she informed me. "T'Challa told me last night. We can get to work on that now,"

"Alright,"

I pulled up the blank document she'd sent me titled "Bucky Barnes Protocols- Triggered".

Make him untriggered. Shuri wrote. I sniggered, deleting the text.

"Hey!" she protested.

"Shuri! Focus!" I sneered playfully, mocking her.

She stuck her tongue out at me and watched as I began to type up some real protocols:

Make sure all persons in the area are evacuated as quickly as possible before sounding any alarms. Confine the triggered soldier to a singular room to prevent as much damage as possible. Surround the room, inside and out, with guards.

Do not attack unless provoked.
-Provoking is:

Attacking anyone

Destroying property

Becoming hostile in any other obvious way

Do not aim to kill, only to injure and halt, regardless of what the triggered soldier does to anyone else.

"Do you have anything you want to add?" I asked Shuri.

"Nope," she replied. "Looks good. I didn't even have to do anything. It's really that simple, now,"

I stuck my tongue out at her, and she did in return, continuing to type into her computer. I heard the printer beep from across the room.

"I'm going to show these to my brother," she announced, grabbing the sheet and reading through it, as though it would look different now that it was printed. "I'm sure he'll be fine with them, it's only procedural that I get his approval for everything. You know, because I'm already the head of the technology engineering department,"

I rolled my eyes. "I know. You've only told me 40 thousand times,"

"Have not!" she argued, starting for the door.

"Have too," I protested.

"Have NOT!"

"Have TOO!"

"Shut up, Nico!"

"Shut up, Shuri!"

Shuri stuck her tongue out at me playfully again before walking out the door and slamming it behind her.