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His hands held onto mine, pulling them away from his face and so very carefully flipping them this way and that way. I could practically feel his eyes dart over my exposed skin.

He did the same with my legs. Probably checking for injuries that weren't there. No bite marks. Just a fucked up ankle encased in black metal.

Either way, far more awkward than my arms.

I stopped him when he tried to flip up my shirt, tugging his grip off the hem. After a few times of that, I sighed. "Bucky, you're not looking up my shirt."

At that, his cheeks flushed bright red, and he quickly hid his hands behind his back. "I-I... I didn't mean.... I –"

"I'm not hurt."

"...You're not?" he asked, looking so confused.

"I won't even bruise from that fall. Eve cushioned me."

"But you were... you were in pain. Y-your screams...."

"I'm not hurt. Eve just stimulated my nerves to feel like a fall and that I was being bit. None of that's real."

I hated how he flinched when I placed a hand on his knee.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know how to explain this whole thing to you.... I was hoping to wait until you trusted Eve a bit more... or at least wasn't so wary of her. Seems she has a different plan...."

"...I asked her where you were..." he mumbled, staring at some white spot in front of his legs. His hand gave a little wave to the ether.

"We call this the Game Floor. It's similar to the holograms but with a few more elements to it. This entire floor is made up of minuscule robots that I can program to interlock and form shapes. They started out this big."

"Oh my god, you actually kept the first iteration?" I grabbed onto the head sized cube that pushed out from the floor, smiling at the memories.

I haven't seen this in years. They made the most blocky models. Barely functioned. And those fucking corners hurt. Next batch had rounded corners.

"Now we've perfected them down to nanites."

"Eve can render anything here with a mix of the nanites and holograms. Our take on claytronics. She can do even more if we wore visors. Could have one of us feeling like a giant and the other like a mouse."

"I should be able to with the separate room method. I've been dabbling to work around the visors."

As the words echoed through the room, a white wall separated us for a moment before Bucky grew and grew. Or was I the one who was shrinking? Or was both happening...? All the white everywhere made figuring that out stupidly hard.

Bucky cautiously reached out towards me with his massive hand. His bigger than me fingers wiggled in curiosity.

With a shrug, I pushed onto my feet and ran at his hand, leaping onto his pinky. He suddenly laid his hand horizontal and my plan to climb up landed me flat on my face.

None of it hurt too much. Eve had my right knee take my weight over my ankle. The fall into Bucky's hand was not much different from hitting a super squishy bean bag since he wasn't actually there. Only the sudden change in momentum was irritating my ribs.

By the time I managed to peel my face off his hand, he had slid me to the center of his palm and brought us somewhat face to face. A probably teeny tiny Val face and a giant ass Bucky face. A really giant ass Bucky.

I think Eve shrunk me to about two Bucky finger width's tall.

"You're so small," he stated.

"This is pretty cool, huh?"

"I... expected your voice to be squeakier."

"I could make that happen."

"Please don – Damn it! Eve!"

I tried to slap the voice modulator away from my mouth only to have my hand go right through it. Fucking nanites.

"I hate it when my voice is so damn high. I sound like one of those bloody kids in Chinese cartoons.... Thanks."

"That voice was grating."

I glanced up at Bucky's beautiful face and laughed. If only words came out of him as easy as they danced across his face.

"Go ahead. Poke if you want to. You can't hurt me here. The only ways to get hurt here is if Eve lets that happen or two people are actually interacting with each other. Eve, don't do any of the pain things with anything involving Bucky."

"No change in plans then. I don't particularly feel like being associated with Hydra of all things."

"How is this possible...?" Bucky asked, brows so very furrowed.

A massive shadow loomed over me, and his fourth finger slowly curled my way. He tapped the top of my head a couple of times. The lightest of touches.

"I merely altered the environment around you. Enough to change your perception of reality."

"We... usually don't introduce people to this aspect of the Game Floor until later..." I admitted.

"You're the one who brought it up."

"Pick a place, Bucky. Anywhere. Oh! You like space, right? Maybe another planet?"

"M-Mars...?" The up tilt to his eyebrows so adorable on his confused face.

At his word, the white faded into the oranges and greys of Mars' surface. Layered rock formations grew from the floors. Dusty clouds loomed over us. None of the white left in the matter of a few blinks.

Bucky looked more normal sized here, while I still sat on the palm of his hand.

"Is this really Mars?" he asked, spinning in circles and taking it all in.

"I've rendered this according to the Mars rover images. Here, a nifty space base I stole from one of my children's designs and maybe... spacesuits for a more authentic experience."

White fabric crawled up our legs while white dome based structures clawed up from the ground.

I saw Bucky jump. Most definitely saw Bucky jump again. But I didn't feel him jump. I wasn't bouncing off his hand. I guess he kept it still while he hopped a few times.

"You can control how much I weigh?"

"I have my ways. After all, the gravity on Mars is –"

"3.711 meters per second squared," he rattled off, bouncing his way over to the dome buildings.

His thumb pinned me in place. Probably worried about me flying off. The space suits saved me from having to spit out my hair due to the wind of moving so fast. Enhanced bouncing at this size was insane.

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Author's Note:

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.