The sixteenth tea date
"Hey, Baz."
"Yeah?"
"I've got something to show you."
"Bitch, I swear, if you pull out a ring I'm gonna jump out the window."
Bucky smiled and put his face in his hands.
"No, Baz. Just…trust me."
Baz watched as Bucky pulled off his right glove to reveal…a perfectly normal human hand. Baz raised an eyebrow at him.
Then Bucky pulled off his other glove. Baz gasped as she saw the mechanical hand. It seemed to be homemade, with 3-D printed parts and duct tape everywhere. Bucky flinched at her sharp intake of breath.
"Oh, my God, Bucky!"
"What?" Bucky's face stayed scrunched up, expecting her to be upset or scared or both.
"This is amazing! Did you make it yourself?"
"…Yeah, I did. You're not mad that I didn't tell you?"
"Why would I be? It makes sense that you'd want to keep it hidden."
"Really?"
"Hell yeah. I'd wait this long to show someone my scars and imperfections too. Speaking of which…"
Baz started to take off her shirt. Bucky's eyes widened.
"Baz!"
"What? You've seen me naked before."
Bucky blushed slightly and Baz pulled the shirt over her head, then turned around to show off her back.
"What do you think?"
Bucky stared at the crisscrossing net of scars on her back.
"Baz…what happened?"
"I was in the army," Baz said, putting her shirt back on. "Some bastard threw a grenade at me."
Bucky sat quietly for a moment. Baz began to get nervous.
"Say something! Are you gonna comment on it or what?"
"You were willing to give up your life for your country." Bucky's voice was almost a whisper.
"I guess."
Bucky smiled. "You're the bravest person I know."
"Bucky, I was broke. My parents couldn't pay for college and I didn't wanna work in a McDonald's for the rest of my life. The decision had nothing to do with bravery."
"The fact that you even saw it as an option, though…It's amazing."
Baz sighed. "Thanks." She grabbed Bucky's mechanical hand. "Now lemme have a look at this."
As Baz inspected his arm, Bucky told her the story of how he made it. Bucky told her he had been in the Marines, causing her to smack his (real) arm for not telling her when she'd showed him her scars. He had been next to an enemy IED when it blew up, though he hadn't been as lucky as Baz. He'd lost his entire left arm up to the shoulder. When he got home, he'd built the arm and padded all of his shirts and jackets in the left sleeve. He'd also made some padded leather gloves for himself, which he wore everywhere.
"So," Baz asked, "why didn't you just decide to ditch the gloves and walk around with a robot hand? You'd be like a superhero!"
"I don't like it. I don't like not being fully human. I'm part robot now and I can never change that."
Baz nodded. "Well, I want you to be comfortable. Wear your gloves around me if you need to."
"I don't think I will, considering how much cooler you think I am with a robot arm."
Baz laughed. "Oh my God, Bucky!"
