For Alexa, this day was just like any other day at the bookstore. She would walk around the store to arrange the books, sign off any books to customers and have people complain about her unresponsiveness. It wasn't her fault of course; the customers had simply disregarded the massive worded sign on the entrance door that said "We have a hearing impaired and mute employee. Please be respectful! P.s She is very good at reading lips". Angie, Alexa's friend and manager, had to deal with all the hassle and she must have to repeat the sentence "She's deaf and mute!" at least 20 times a day to rude customers. Unfortunately, Alexa couldn't leave this job. Due to her disability nobody else would take her on and she only managed to get into the bookstore because Angie being the good friend she is wanted to help out. Therefore to avoid the continuation of rude customers complaining about Alexa's disability, Angie assigned her to putting on music and putting away books that customers bring back. Alexa couldn't complain because of the fact that she couldn't get a job anywhere else and she got to spend weekdays with her friend. At the end of the day it was always the same for Alexa. She would go home, make sure her cat hadn't escaped out of the apartment window (again) and watch TV without the subtitles on. Alexa was fairly good at reading lips but she believes there is always room for improvement in everything you do, so she would spend her evenings improving her lip reading skills and eating Pop-Tarts (duh). She struggled to sleep every night fearing that she would wake up and someone had stolen everything she owns because they realized she was deaf when they broke in. This was an over exaggeration to most people, but Alexa didn't exactly live in the safest area of town because of what she could, and couldn't, afford. So she panicked about people breaking in all the time.
For Bucky, this day was just like any other day at The Avengers Facility. He would wake up, sort himself out for the day, put on a baseball cap and some gloves then walk for miles until he found something remotely interesting. Bucky thought he must have been everywhere by now considering he had been doing the same routine for a year – and he absolutely had been everywhere. In fact, he'd walk past the same bookstore nearly every time he went on his little adventures and he started to think that maybe he should go in to borrow a book. Bucky needed a hobby according to Steve, so what better hobby than to start reading. Expand his mind and imagination. Steve was usually always super busy but this evening Bucky managed to catch him in a calmer moment. He was looking at old photos in the lounge room when Bucky walked in to tell him about the new hobby he'd been considering, "Hey Steve, I've been thinking about my new hobby that you're always bugging me to get" Bucky blurted out, making Steve jump and drop the photos causing them to spread out all over the floor. "Damn it Buck! What have I told you about sneaking around like that? You're not on assassin duty" Steve scolded Bucky just like he did nearly every day about walking around too quietly and having barely audible breaths meaning no one could hear him when he entered a room. 9 times out of 10 someone would jump and tell him off. Bucky let out a sigh and a "Sorry Steve" before going on with the conversation, "Anyway I think I'd quite like my hobby to be reading. I walk by this bookstore all the time and it looks nice in there. Last time, I looked in the window and there was a book that was worded entirely in Romanian – I think I'll start with that one". Bucky didn't realize how much he was gushing about books until he noticed Steve smiling with that "you're waffling again" smile. Yes, Bucky did waffle all the time and every time he didn't notice that he was doing it. He couldn't help himself. He missed talking to people, he missed enjoying things and he missed people's company, especially Steve's. Like usual Bucky got way too ahead of himself and started going on at Steve about how he might even make some friends at the bookstore if he goes there regularly, maybe even daily, which he definitely plans on doing. Steve just patted him on the back and said, "I hope you make some friends too, Buck. We could do with some new faces around here".
The next day when Alexa went into work she expected it to be exactly the same and it was. It was the same up until Bucky walked into the shop at precisely 13:47. Alexa didn't know that he'd come in of course because she had her back to the door and was rearranging some books on a shelf. Bucky looked around for a bit trying to find the Romanian book he'd spotted in the window the other day. "Maybe someone is borrowing it already" He thought to himself and he continued to look for another 10 seconds until he noticed there were so many books he might be in here all day looking for it. He spotted Alexa from across the room rearranging books but he wasn't sure if she actually worked here or not, either way it would be a good way to make a friend so he walked over to her anyway. As he approached her, he hesitated slightly. What was he going to say exactly? There could be more than one Romanian book in the store and he could make himself seem like an idiot by just saying "Excuse me, do you know where the Romanian book is? Also would you like to be friends?" In his mind the scenario didn't seem great and it seemed like something kindergartners would say to each other. But it was too late now, he was standing behind Alexa and the first thing that came to his mind was to tap her on the shoulder – he thought it was a polite thing to do. Alexa almost jumped out of her skin at the sudden contact of another human being. She spun around dropping a few books in the process which made her face quickly burn with embarrassment. Sometimes Alexa couldn't believe how much of a klutz she was. Bucky bent down to pick up the books and handed them back to her equally as embarrassed. He shouldn't have tapped her; he should've gone where she could see him. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Bucky panicked, "I didn't mean to make you jump". His tone was filled with anxiety at what he'd done to her but sure enough she couldn't hear a damn thing so she was squinting trying to read his lips which appeared to be moving at a fast rate. Bucky picked up on Alexa's squinting and thought she was glaring at him. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should just leave. I hope you're okay" Bucky spoke quietly and defeated with a frown on his face. Alexa's eyes widened when she realized that it looked like she was probably mad at him, but she wasn't. She'd managed to read most of what he was saying so before he turned around to walk out, she placed the books on the shelf messily and quickly shook her head at him then pointed towards her ears. Alexa decided against trying to use actual sign language because he most likely won't understand it. The response she got was just another frown so she ushered for him to follow her to the door where the sign was. She opened the door and pointed to the sign which informed customers of her deafness. Bucky raised his eyebrows and went to say something, but quickly stopped almost forgetting within those few seconds that she was deaf. Alexa smiled at him and thought it was quite adorable how this guy was actually respecting her instead of immediately complaining to Angie. Then she pointed at the sentence in brackets underneath that informed him she could read lips. The part in brackets annoyed Alexa slightly because, although she wasn't very good at reading lips, none of the customers took it into consideration and just completely ignored her as soon as they were told she was deaf. Bucky nodded in understanding and took a few moments to actually look at Alexa. She was a brunette just like him except her hair was longer and shinier; it also looked a lot softer than his. Her eyelashes were long from the mascara she was wearing and her face was basically symmetrical. The next thing he noticed was her lips. They were naturally quite pink and plump, and the teeth behind those lips were perfectly white and straight. Alexa had been looking right back at him the whole time he was at her. His jawline was to die for and his eyes were so blue it was enticing. He thought she was stunning and she thought much the same thing about him. But they didn't let each other know that for they'd literally just met and hadn't even exchanged names yet. Bucky didn't want to seem like a creep, neither did Alexa. Yet again, Bucky did the first thing that came to his mind and held out his hand for her to shake. He immediately felt like an imbecile because she was a lady… How were men supposed to greet ladies again? Bucky had forgotten what he was like in the '40s no matter how much Steve told him he was possibly the world's biggest ladies' man. Nevertheless Alexa shook his hand in return then pointed to her name badge which obviously read "Alexa Day" and Bucky responded with, "Bucky Barnes". The funny thing about this was that Alexa fully understood that his last name was Barnes; however she couldn't read the first name from his lips. So she ushered for him to follow her again. This time she was walking him over to behind the till where she kept a white board and pen for when customers did try to communicate with her. The words permanently on it said "I'm deaf and mute. Please talk to Angie!" and this made Bucky smile for some odd reason. Alexa didn't notice him smile because she was too busy rubbing off the words with the sleeve of her jumper then writing the question "I didn't quite catch that. What was your first name?" Underneath that Bucky wrote "Bucky". If Alexa could laugh then she would. Not to be rude, but because she'd never heard the name Bucky before and it sounded quite funny in her mind when she was thinking it back to herself. Instead she just smiled up at him, because he was evidently much taller than her, and rubbed the words out so she could write "Interesting. I've never heard that one before. Sounds funny in my mind (no offence)" to which Bucky responded with a chuckle. She noticed the movement in his shoulders and chest which she recognized as laughing. She wished she could hear him laugh instead of just seeing him laugh. Bucky wiped away her words and wrote "My real name is James. I got the name Bucky from my middle name Buchanan". Alexa wrote underneath "Equally as interesting! Can you spell out how I would say that? I can't figure it out in my mind". Bucky wiped away the words again but he had to think about how to write how you would say Buchanan in your mind. He scrunched up his nose and pouted his lips whilst trying to think about it and Alexa smiled at him. She thought he looked cute like that. Bucky finally figured it out and wrote "B-you-can-un". Alexa immediately smiled and squeezed her eyes shut, throwing her head back for a moment because what he wrote was nothing like how it sounded in her mind. Obviously no sound emitted from her lips but Bucky figured out that she was laughing. He still frowned though; he wished he could hear her laugh instead of just seeing her laugh. When Alexa managed to regain herself she wiped away his words and wrote "That sounded nothing like I originally thought. I thought it was like butch-a-nan. I'm an idiot! :)" This resulted in Bucky chuckling again. That wasn't the first time somebody thought that's how Buchanan was pronounced. He wrote "That's okay. Your cuteness makes up for your idiocy" without thinking about it. Bucky had gotten too caught up in the moment (nothing new there) and immediately went to rub out the words but Alexa had already seen them. His face was burning with embarrassment like Alexa's was earlier when she'd dropped the books at his feet. Alexa only smirked and wrote "Thanks. I suppose I could say the same about you. Did you come to get a book or did you just want to make me jump?" She made a reference to early on making them both smile. Bucky nodded and wrote "Any recommendations?" This time Alexa didn't usher him to follow her, she grabbed his hand and started pulling him over to what she considered the good part of the shop. Here lies the comic books and manga. Maybe it was a little childish but Alexa thought they were great. She loved the idea of having the writing already matched up with drawings so she didn't have to spend too long imagining the scenario herself. They spent a while in that part of the shop. Bucky would point at something and Alexa would either put her thumbs and smile or put her thumbs down and stick her tongue out to emphasize that it was rubbish. Eventually, Alexa picked up a comic she really enjoyed called 'Captain America'. This character had only recently been brought into the comic book world and she thought he was great. In all fairness, Alexa had no idea he was actually a real person as she wasn't very up to date with things and she tended to avoid the news because she didn't like seeing all about the devastating stories. Bucky obviously knew all about him, it was his best friend after all, but he considered that she didn't know that they were friends (or that he even existed) so he took the comic book from Alexa and they went back to the till so she could stamp it for borrowing. She wrote on the board "It's a really good comic. I like his character. He seems like a humble man". Bucky was so tempted to write that he already knew him but went against that and wrote "I'll get back to you on that one after I read it. I'm sure I can pick out some flaws". This was a perfect opportunity for Bucky to tease Steve behind his back about his outfit. Bucky thought he would save that for tomorrow when he brought the comic book back so he would have something to talk about with Alexa. He also planned on learning some basic sign language, out of respect for Alexa. Alexa managed to pull him away from his daydream when she shoved a form and a pen in his face. Bucky smiled and saw that the form was asking for information like his name and address. He was about to write on the board what this was for but Alexa had already written "We need your address in case you don't bring the comic book back. You'll get a return notice or a fine depending on how long you steal it for" Bucky nodded and started to write his details on the form. As he was writing, he noticed Alexa writing on the board again. When she showed him it said "Please bring him back. He means the world to me" then stuck her bottom lip out and pointed at the Captain America comic book in Bucky's hand. He took the board and wrote "I would never steal from you. But if I don't pay the fine, are you going to come and get it back from me?" Alexa raised her eyebrows at him and wiped away the words so she could write "Maybe. I'll see you tomorrow Bucky". She smiled as she waved at him. Bucky did the same back before leaving the bookstore with a Captain America comic in hand. Steve was definitely going to go on all evening teasing him about this. Bucky could already tell.