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Those beautiful blue eyes narrowed in a way that was questioning something. Didn't feel like confusion about how not to get me to land on my face. There was too much irritation in the way his eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to shoot you," Bucky repeated.

With a sigh, I dropped the topic. "How's your studying going?"

His head tipped in an almost meek nod. "I remembered some... from... from...?"

I knew where from. Auntie's Irene's stories about how Bucky would self-study and tutored them whenever his sisters were confused. He even had some college level subject materials floating about in his memories.

"...I finished with the mathematical portion of the practice questions, and I'm still working my way through the science portion," he practically reported, sounding more robotic than Eve ever did. Something seemed to click in his mind and with a small smile, he quickly added, "Your notes and the videos online made it all easier to understand.

"...How in the hell did you get so much done?"

For having requested all the practice exams when he found out about them this morning, that was a lot of work. Even took Eve some time to sort them out by subject and load them into a tablet for him. Luckily for the printer, he didn't mind writing on the screen.

But still, finishing one subject in the span of the few hours I was out and add to that his staggered sleep cycle, it was an insane task. I doubt I was the only one eyeing the processing power of his brain.

"That's amazing," I smiled.

At the words, Bucky's face lit up. His posture straightened out. A happy spring to his steps.

"When you're done pacing around, just toss me somewhere," I said, slipping my glasses on to get started on the usually weekly dose of bullshit. The lenses filled with videos of people being gunned down. "I have a third world president to overthrow since he pissed off the parents.... Maybe I can get the white knight guy elected."

"...What?"

The sudden stop in the rather comfortable pacing had me blindly flailing about, trying to cling onto him. As much as my brain knew he wasn't going to drop me, my body was dumb enough not to realize that. Pretty sure my elbow hit a bone structure of his, and I pray it not be that beautiful face of his.

"Sorry," I managed through a clenched jaw. My rib did not appreciate the random flailing.

I tipped the glasses down and spotted a red circle on the cheek bone of that beautiful face. It was warmer against my palm compared to the rest of his cheek.

"What do you mean overthrow a president?"

"The guy's a war criminal? He shouldn't even be president. And personally I don't like dealing with that egomaniac. So why not get rid of him before he somehow makes peace with the parents? I'd rather not have to visit him again."

I gave a shiver at an unpleasant memory of not quite escaping the "invite" to watch a village being used as target practice.

"What did he do...?" he whispered so softly I barely heard it.

I knew what Bucky was asking about. More than likely read it on my face somehow. But it wasn't something I wanted him to know.

The "invite" to pick up a gun. Odinga's been trying to teach me how to shoot ever since. I still pretended to shut my eyes and gunned for the rooftops.

All this from a relocation bribe gone wrong. Just as I expected. The greedy bastard swallowed the funds and relocated the villages six feet under.

"He reneged on an agreement with us," I went with instead. Still somewhat answered the question stated. "It was our last foothold in Africa. A couple of the other countries seized all our properties there and kicked us out.... We're a little more than pissed."

Bucky merely sighed, dropping the topic in favour of plucking his cinnamon bun from the toaster oven. Not a single movement to put me on my feet again.

A content groan escaped from Bucky at the first bite. It rumbled through his chest and against my side. As he chewed slowly, his head lightly leaned against my shoulder, mumbling something that sounded like a thanks.

He finished the bun in the time his feet took us to the hole in the floor. As always, he lowered me like I'd shatter to pieces if he wasn't ridiculously careful. Set me on the upper level of the flower couch.

He managed to catch Zeph before the giant bastard could tackle me and crack my head against the fireplace. That'd make washing my hair way more annoying than it was with only the hand cast.

It's amazing watching somebody hold the damn dog up. The rest of us were stuck with rolling them from location to location. I couldn't even move them much with my arms. Had to shove them about with my feet. And here Bucky was holding Zeph as if he was made of feathers.

I could practically see the gears turning in his head as he thought about where to place Zeph. He ended up setting the sneaky little bastard next to me. Took a moment to make sure that a paw wasn't just dropped dramatically onto my ribs.

I couldn't help but grin at how Bucky settled down for another round of studying. The laptop playing a Khan Academy video and a binder of my high school physics notes at his side. The tablet rested under his arm as he wrote across the screen. His hand barely paused between the flashbacks.

Maybe someday he wouldn't find the need to keep his cybernetic arm on the opposite side of me.

Ixie cozied against his side as if that had always been her spot.

I plucked one of the neatly folded fluffy blankets. Likely Bucky's doing before he jump scared me. I crunched it up in a poor attempt to make it into a comfy pillow for my head while I settled down on my back. A good position to prop my bad ankle up on the floor to rest on another once neatly folded fluffy blanket.

'Fucking hell. Why won't you be comfy?' I questioned the blanket pillow.

A nudge against the top of my head had me looking up. Bucky had leaned back, tablet balancing on his knee. Without a word or a glance, his shoulder shrugged a little. I laughed, signalling Eve to raise the petal to a good height and happily scooting myself until my head rested comfortably on his shoulder.

As my fingers ran through his hair, his head tilted just the slightest, touching mine. The day's stress drained out of us both. No tension in his shoulders and no pounding headache bothering me.

All settled in for the next couple of hours, I pushed the glasses back to the bridge of my nose. This really was the comfiest way to work.

Time to take everything from a man but his life.

If done perfectly, he wouldn't even have the choice to blow his brains out.

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Author's Note:

Sunday updates may or may both happen. Thinking of slowing down go two updates per week until everything I have for this story is posted.

If you enjoyed this part, please consider leaving a vote. They're very much appreciated. ^^

And a big thank you to TinselA/Bunny Carrot (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7591081/) and the Anonymous Fifth Beta for Beta-ing this chapter.