Spiderman Oneshots

A helping arm

Requested anonymously a long time ago. Sorry for the wait, and sorry everyone that I haven't updated for a while. Contains nwh spoilers.

Pepper picked up on the sixth ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Bucky. Barnes." He really didn't want to do this, but it had been weeks and he was getting desperate.

"Oh, Bucky, hi. How are things?"

It had been almost a year since Tony's sacrifice. Things were still bad. Bucky knew Pepper had it worse than all of them, which is why he'd been so reluctant to contact her.

"Can't complain. How's the little one?"

"Morgan's doing okay. She likes her new teacher, which is a relief after the disaster of last year. Anyway, I'm sure you're calling for a reason?"

"Yes. It's probably a lot to ask, but... well, my metal arm's been malfunctioning lately and nobody can figure out the tech so I was wondering if maybe Tony left the original blueprints lying around," Bucky said apologetically. His arm had broken a month ago and had been stiff and painful to use for a week before it stopped working altogether and he'd had to take it off.

"Oh," Pepper said. "Um, I'm not sure. I haven't really been through his things yet, you know. I just haven't really had time. But you're welcome to come and have a look if you think it'll be helpful. Morgan's at a friend's house on Saturday, if you're free to come over then?"

"Saturday is perfect, Pepper. I really appreciate this, thank you. And sorry for bothering you."

"Oh, it's really no problem," Pepper said politely. "See you on Saturday."

"Yeah," Bucky responded, and ended the call. Then he called another number, which went straight to voicemail. "Cancel the plans for Saturday, something else came up. We'll reschedule."

Come Saturday, Bucky was knocking at the door of Pepper's beautiful lake house. She opened it with a slightly harried smile, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear. "Hello, come on in. I have to go to a last minute meeting, so I'll have to leave you alone. Help yourself to any drinks or snacks, call me if you run into any problems. Sorry for bailing."

"It's fine. Thanks again for letting me come and look."

Pepper nodded, and then she was gone. Bucky was left alone in the house of his dead teammate.

Once he'd located Tony's office, Bucky started searching for any papers that looked relevant to his bionic limb. It was difficult with only one arm, so progress was slow. As he searched, he took in the office around him, this little untouched slice of Tony. He was all around, in the frantic scribbled notes on the backs of official documents, the half-assembled bits of tech strewn across the desk, the lamp that, once turned on, beeped and wheeled itself around to shine light wherever Bucky was searching.

He spotted the corner of a blueprint and lifted a stack of paper from a drawer, shuffling through it. Something dropped out of the pile and landed on the floor with a crunch. Grimacing, Bucky set down the paper on Tony's chair and crouched to retrieve the fallen object. It was a photo frame, the glass cracked from the fall. Inside the sleek black frame, looking more content than Bucky had ever seen him, was Tony Stark, standing next to an excited teenage boy.

Standing up and waiting for the lamp to angle itself so he could see better, Bucky frowned at the picture. They were holding a framed certificate, but Bucky had to turn the photo upside-down to read the writing. It was a Stark internship award, with Peter Parker printed in the name slot. That solved the mystery of who the kid was, then. One of Stark's many lackeys.

But no, that wasn't quite it, was it? Stark wouldn't pose for a photo with just any kid, let alone such a goofy one, with an upside-down certificate, bunny ears and silly grin. Plus he'd actually gone to the effort of printing, framing and keeping it in his home. Why would he do that for some random intern?