Soft Robotics ✧ Bucky Barnes

(autonomous[3.05]);

"Relax. It's for enemies."

"HYDRA's enemies, you mean?"

"Um, sure, since this half of HYDRA is technically the other half's enemies."

"Grace!"

"Relax," I repeated. I followed my own advice and sat down on the floor cross legged. "Come play mind chess."

I'd never liked chess before, but it was a good enough pastime now that there was nothing else to do. Colin got up and sat facing me, mirroring me. We stared down at the empty concrete floor in front of us.

"Go first," he said.

"e4," I said.

"e5," he said.

"Knight f3," I said.

"d6," he said.

There was actually something more fun about playing without a chessboard, just visualizing the pieces and their locations based on verbal moves. Colin and I were perfectly, completely, evenly matched too, and often used the same strategy at the same time. That part was frustrating. Yesterday, Colin had invisibly flipped the invisible board after a particularly long stalemate.

"What would you do if you got out?" I asked him, adding "d4" when he eyed me impatiently.

"Bishop g4," he said. "I don't know. Pay back some debts to society for all the fucked up shit I've done? Something like your boy, I guess."

"d4, e5," I said, capturing a pawn. "Tony would give you your job back if I vouched for you."

"Bishop f3," he said, capturing my Knight. "You'd vouch for me?"

"Queen f3," I said, capturing his Bishop. "I never said that."

"d6, e5," he said capturing a pawn. "So what are you saying?"

"Bishop c4. I'm saying I would consider it if you escaped with me."

"Knight f6. What's in it for you?"

"Queen b3. Nothing. I owe you. I want to help you."

"Queen e7. I don't buy it."

"Knight c3," I said. "It was the same with Bucky. He didn't believe me for a while either. But sometimes people are just nice to you. Sometimes people just see good in you."

"c6," he said. I waited for him to continue, but he didn't add anything else.

"Bishop g5."

"b5."

"Knight b5," I said, taking the pawn he'd just moved solely because I was annoyed. "I'm trying to help you."

"c6, b5," he said, his pawn easily taking the Knight I'd moved into harm's way.

"Bishop b5. Check."

"I know I'm in check, Grace. Knight d7," he said, protecting his King. "I don't understand why you'd help me. I only helped you so you'd get the Avengers to help me. You know that, right?"

"Castle queenside," I said. "I know. But we're not exact clones. I've got a bigger heart than you."

"Rook d8," he said, still defensive. He sighed. "Don't say that. Honestly, I would've helped you regardless. You've got no reason to believe that, but it's true."

"Rook d7." I took his Knight.

"Rook d7." He took my Rook.

"Rook d1," I said. "I believe you."

"Queen e6," he said. "You're too trusting."

"Bishop d7. Check," I said. "I haven't been wrong yet."

"Stop announcing check, Grace. It's condescending. Knight d7," he said, taking the Bishop I'd just moved. "I don't trust you not to fuck up and get us killed."

"I tell you when you're in check to be friendly, dude," I paused, imagining the board. "If I win right now, will you escape with me?"

"What, leave it up to chance? You only win half the time."

"It's like flipping a coin," I said. (Except it wasn't. He was too distracted to study the board and see.)

"Okay. Yes. Fine. Bet my life on a game of chess. That's all anybody thinks it's worth anyway."

"We'll unpack that later. Queen b8. Check," I said.

"Knight b8," he said, and took my Queen.

"Rook d8. Checkmate."

He opened his mouth to speak, probably to yell at me for saying "checkmate," since he already knew, but the banging of the door down the hallway made him scramble to his feet. I winced when he stepped on the imaginary chessboard. "What the—this can't be good, Grace. It's the middle of the night."

I rose to my feet and watched the door expectantly at the sound of the code. It slid open. I looked down at the ground outside our room.

"Hi, JANE!" I greeted happily. She waved a front tentacle in reply.

A/N: this is a game of chess I found online that was done in a performance of the Barber of Seville in 1858. The moves aren't important except for when Grace explains them—even then it's just a tool to build tension and show them bonding as friends lol.