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He was pretty sure that no one living in the safe house had any kids under the age of five, so why was there a kid walking about unattended. She was currently staring at him, his arm specifically. He assumed the fact that it was shiny was probably what had caught her attention. She reached out toward the arm, he tried pull away from the girl, but she wasn’t deterred.
“You have a pretty arm.” The tiny girl said as she touched his left arm.
The plates reacted to the child’s hand on it and they whirred and shifted, so it caused the girl to move her hand up his arm to see the plates move. She kept staring at the plates, and Bucky just didn’t what to do with that either, so frozen in a hallway was what he went with as his course of action.
“I’ve never seen an arm like that, I really like it.” She said as she finally dragged her eyes away from his arm to his eyes. She was clearly looking for a reaction but he couldn’t quite give it to her at the moment.
Oh god, a child said my words, oh god. It was all he could really process, his soulmate was a child.
“You’re supposed to say thank you when someone says something nice to you.”
Well now you’ve made quite the impression, haven’t you.
“Oh is that right?”
“Hey those are my words! You’re mine!!”
Her eyes lit up as she said the words. She threw herself without abandon at his legs and hugged them. Blind trust, as only a child could, was what her actions showed. His arms just laid limp at his sides until he slowly raised them, his left newly minted “pretty” hand cradled the back of her head and his right arm hugged her to him.
“Darcy!” Clint said as he came in running to the hallway.
“Clint, look he said my words!! He’s mine! Look at his pretty arm!”
“You always go big or go home don’t ya, Darce,” Clint muttered.
He realized he didn’t even know the tiny girl’s name until Clint said it.
“Duh” Darce muttered against his legs.
“Clint, so who’s the kid?” Bucky requested the information he really felt he needed to know, he wanted to learn as much as possible about this tiny tyke.
“You didn’t even get her name and you're already hugging her,” Clint sassed.
“She really didn't give me a chance to get a word in, she went straight for the arm.” Bucky shot straight back.
“It is a pretty great arm. She does know how to pick’em.” Clint chuckled.
“Clint who's kid is it?” Bucky really needed to know more about this girl, so he used his most effective glare
“That is Darcy Lewis shield sister to Thor, she was in a lab when an experiment went wrong, and she turned into a child. Normally she’s an adult, but while the serum the science squad dropped on her wears off she’s stuck in fun size form with us. ”
He felt his shoulders tense as he realized that the situation was even more complicated than he first thought. He felt Darcy move her hands in a soothing manner on his legs.
“How long do they think it’ll take?”
“She should be back to normal by the end of the day.”
He finally let himself relax as he hugged her tighter to him, as he let out the breathe he was holding. She was going to be okay.
“So how about we break up this thing you two got going on for now, and we pick it back up after Darcy is back to normal tonight by going on a date? And then when you two get married I will take credit for it.” Clint little shit Barton said.
The little girl in his arms slowly became a woman. He immediately let go, stepping away from her so he could take her in. She was beautiful.
“I say we go on that date now, what do you say, Pretty Arm?” She said with a questioning eyebrow and a look that promised him a lifetime of sass and fire.
“Are you asking my arm or me?” He answered back.
“Well I mean I wouldn’t mind having a date with the arm, but I think I might like the person attached to it better? Or at least a certain set of words on our bodies seem to think I might. I’d like to find out if that’s true. Are you up for it?”
She paired the question with an open palm, which he did not hesitate to take into his metal one, As he said, “I’d love to.”
“And they lived happily ever after.” He heard Clint whisper as they exited from the room.