The next day he once again took over the shift of his colleague but Tony wasn’t in his lab, which Bucky took as a good sign and assumed the guy was getting some rest. He hoped at least, maybe he was just working from home, which was still better than sitting in a lab coughing his lungs out. He cared about the guy.
Bucky checked the lab every day during the time he had the additional shift but Tony didn’t come to the university that time, at least not during the time Bucky was working. He found himself missing Tony and hoped he would get over his cold soon.
The arm hadn’t acted up again, Tony’s fix had worked wonders, and Bucky went back to his regular shift without further problems. He thought about pretending to have another problem just to visit Tony again, but he decided against it and one day after the end of his shift - several weeks after their first meeting - he went to the coffee shop off campus and then made his way down to the lab.
Bucky felt awkward and out of place in the university hallways without his janitor jacket but he pulled himself together and went straight to Tony’s lab and he already heard Tony cursing at someone from two labs away. He approached slowly and peaked in, he had suspected another person but Tony seemed to be alone and was cursing at something on the table.
Bucky knocked on the door. “I come in peace.” He held up both to-go cups as an offering and stepped into the lab. To his surprise Tony was alone.
“Bucky, hey, you came back! Is the arm acting up again?” Tony waved him over, he wore safety goggles and was holding an electric soldering iron, when Bucky rounded the tables he could see what Tony had been working on and cursing at. There was a tiny robot sitting on the table with exposed electronics moving his ‘head’ - to Bucky, it looked like a fancy go-pro camera - around and was making chirping noises.
“Shut it, Dum-E! I’ve got a friend here, be polite.” Tony gave the robot a little tap on the head, then turned to Bucky. “Oh, you brought me coffee, I love you forever.”
Bucky handed him one of the cups which Tony greedily drank from. “Dummy?” Bucky asked.
Tony nodded. “D, U, M dash E. My newest project, I am testing out an AI in a practical application but something seemed to have gone wrong while I transferred the program and he turned out a little funky. He keeps running into walls and breaking himself, but it’s okay, he should still be functional and it will be interesting to see how the program develops. He should be able to learn from mistakes and eventually be able to navigate without problems. I’m going to write a paper about it once that happens.”
Bucky eyed the little robot curiously. “That is awesome. He looks a little bit like Wall-E! Except less square and without claws.”
Tony laughed. “I was a bit inspired by Wall-E but I’m waiting to give him something to grab with until he learns to not run into things.” He leaned back against the table and took another sip of his coffee. “So what brings you here? Arm’s doing okay?”
“Yeah, the screw hasn’t come loose again thanks to you.” Bucky demonstrated by bending his elbow a couple of times.“ I’m off my shift now and just thought I’d visit you. Make sure the cold hasn’t killed you.” Bucky shrugged and smiled shyly. “But I have to say you are looking good, great even.”
Tony actually blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh.. thank you.” He hid his face behind his coffee cup and they both fell into an awkward silence.
“Uh.” They both started at the same and then stopped and laughed. “You first,” Tony said, grinning.
“I was wondering how’d your paper go?” Bucky said, sipping his coffee and trying to be as casual as possible about it.
“Good! Really good! I had the genius idea of having Jarvis write the paper.”
Bucky choked on his coffee. “You did what?”
“I let an AI write a paper about AI learning.” Tony grinned mischievously.
“And that worked?” Bucky was flabbergasted.
“It did! It took a while but eventually, Jarvis managed it. He got stuck in a loop for a while and I thought I’d have to write it myself after all and refine his program some more but he gathered information about AI learning techniques and then implemented the processes into his own code and then he was able to write a paper about it. It was amazing to watch while I sat sniffling in bed.”
Bucky’s mouth was hanging open. “What kind of genius are you? Holy fuck. Why are you even talking to me, I’m dumb as bread!”
“Hey now! Don’t call yourself that. You’re able to repair your own arm.” Tony pointed out. “And you understand what I’m babbling on about.”
“That’s hardly an accomplishment. I just put the screw back in and I didn’t even do that right, you had to fix it properly. And that I understand anything you’re talking about - ” Tony shut Bucky up by putting his finger over his mouth.
“You’re not here to talk about my paper, are you?” Tony lowered his eyes at him but didn’t remove the finger from Bucky’s mouth and Bucky had to use his free hand - his left - to remove it to talk again. He didn’t let go though and wrapped his metal fingers around Tony’s flesh and bone ones.
Tony was right, he had been curious about the paper, but that wasn’t his main reason why he had come back. Over the past weeks he couldn’t stop thinking about Tony and coming back to the lab and seeing him again, seeing that dazzling smile again, had screwed him completely. Bucky had to admit that he had crushed fast and hard and had wanted to ask Tony out. But now, knowing how far apart they are intellectually had really taken the wind out of Bucky’s sails. He wasn’t sure he should even try.
Tony looked at him, his deep brown eyes searching Bucky’s. “Come on, spit it out, Robocop.”
Bucky’s mouth was suddenly too dry to talk and his heart was threatening to burst out of his chest. “I-…” He didn’t get any further because in the next moment he felt something sharp poke his side and he jerked away from the desk with a gasp. “What the hell?”
Tony laughed before Bucky realized what had happened. On the desk, Dum-E was wriggling his head at him and rolling back and forth making clicking and chirping noises sounding very much upset about something.
“You were taking too long, terminator,” Tony smirked and then he had the audacity to wink and Bucky’s face turned beet red.
“Fuck, just… go on a date with me, okay?” Bucky blurted out clasping Tony’s hand with both of his and hoping he didn’t sound too pathetic.
Dum-E’s chirping turned in a long warbling as he spun on his own axis in a little happy dance. Bucky was thoroughly confused but tried to focus on Tony who was holding back a laugh.
“Right now?” Tony asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Bucky blinked. “Uh…sure, if you got time.” That had come entirely unexpected but Bucky took what he got and went with it.
“You know where to go?” Tony removed his hand from Buckys’ and packed away his laptop, pulled on his jacket and then picked up Dum-E. Once he got the robot securely under his arm he took his coffee cup again. He bounced on the balls of his feet looking extremely eager to get going.
“I’ll figure something out,” Bucky said and moved to wrap his arm around Tony’s shoulders, who leaned into the contact immediately giving Bucky the courage to pull him to his side. This had turned from very confusing to amazing in a matter of seconds. He took the initiative and led Tony out of the lab grinning from ear to ear the only problem now was where to go for their date because Bucky had no idea.
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