Bucky
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"I can tell." I rolled my eyes at her, if she'd thought she'd been subtle about that, she was lying to herself.
The reality of what was happening currently still wasn't sinking it, Juliet was in my room, she'd come here of her own free will, to try and talk to me.
It seemed like she wanted to work something out, like she didn't want to be scared of me, like she didn't want to hate me, and I couldn't blame her for either, but everything inside me wanted that too. I didn't want her to be scared of me, or hate me. I didn't want anyone to be scared of me really, but especially not Juliet.
The one thing I really wanted, wanted so badly it almost hurt, was for her to stop looking at me the way she always does, the way that take me back to those years, that makes me close my eyes and I can't tell if I'm him again.
A thought came to me, a way to ease that look, I didn't think I'd ever be able to irradiate it completely, but if it was less often, that could help both of us.
"Can I show you something that might help?" I asked her, pushing forward on the bed, I watched as she visibly stopped herself from flinching, I could see how much it took for her to not shrink back from me.
I resisted the urge to sigh at her, reminding myself again it wasn't her fault.
"What?" She asked, seemingly rooted to the spot.
"Something that you can use if you have to." I moved to the end of the bed, pushing the sheets away from me but not moving any closer.
"This arm, it's from Wakana, they're the ones that helped me, when everything else failed, they finally made it so those words would never work on me again." I told her, she'd know what words, she'd heard them enough.
"They don't work anymore?" She asked, eyes widening, like she hadn't known that.
Which if she hadn't been paying enough attention to not even know I'd been in New York with the avengers, which Cam had told me was a fact, then she probably wouldn't.
"Not anymore." I shook my head, I didn't think getting her to test it would go over well with her.
"They made this arm too after Tony destroyed the one Hydra made." I grazed my hand over the surface, the fact it wasn't the silver one didn't make it any easier for me to look at though.
"I remember it." She assured me, gulping, staring at the scars that would never go away with wide eyes.
"Well, when they made it for me, they also built in a fail-safe." I told her, the only other person that knew that was Sam, and it was only because all those years ago when we'd been trying to get to the bottom of the Flag Smashers, he'd seen the Dora Milaje use it against me.
"What do you mean?" She asked, curiosity burning in her beautiful eyes. I struggled not to gasp as she looked back into my eyes, no matter who she was, no matter what I knew she felt towards me, her beauty wouldn't stop hitting me in the gut whenever she looked at me.
"The built in a way to disable my arm in seconds, the only other person that knows about it is Sam, but he doesn't know how to do it, he just knows it's there. I'm going to show you." I told her, watching the shock cross over her face.
"Why?" She breathed, eyes back to the scars. I wished she'd stop, I hated them as much as I hated the arm.
"Maybe it will make you a little less scared of me." I told her truthfully.
Thanks to Cam I wouldn't be able to leave the compound, she'd made it pretty clear she'd never forgive me if I left, even temporarily and I couldn't hurt there like that, so I was stuck here.
