Stupid Toaster (BuckyxReader) One-Shot

“Does he always look blankly at things like that?” you asked Steve, coking your head to the side curiously.

“Yeah...pretty much.”

Bucky was currently in the living room sitting on the couch in front of the TV. His dark blue-green eyes locked on the TV screen with no emotion whatsoever. You and Steve had been assigned to help Bucky readjust to this human world and after debating what to teach him for over ten minutes, you had Bucky plop down in front of the TV and now it looked like he was watching Jersey Shore. A show you thought MTV had stopped playing years ago.

“So tan…” he commented when Snooki appeared on screen.

You and Steve exchanged a look with another, shrugging. You had no experience with dealing with men out of time. Steve had been taught by someone else and you were just assigned to this because Fury knew you had good patience.

“So what do we teach him?” Steve asked yet again.

Your eyes wandered over to the kitchen.

“How about we teach him how to use whatever is in there so that he could at least live his morning normally?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Steve awkwardly shuffled towards Bucky, telling his friend from the past to follow him to the kitchen with you. He merely looked up and grunted. Without a single word he got up and followed both you and Steve into the kitchen. You looked around the kitchen of Stark Tower, wondering which appliance you should teach him how to use first. Sure JARVIS could do whatever Bucky asked for in a flash, but he needed to learn these things too. It wasn’t like he was going to stay in Stark Tower forever.

“Alright let’s start with this,” you pointed to the machine on the counter. “That’s a coffee machine. Pretty simple thing to use so you should pick this up faster than Steve did.”

“Hey!” Steve said. “In my defense I just didn’t want to end up breaking it.”

“Sure, sure,” you chuckled.

Bucky merely continued to look at you both with his blank stare.

He walked over to the coffee machine, metal arm rising to touch it. He pressed the on button but nothing happened. This made him frustrated so he hit it again, except this time harder. Again nothing happened so he kept on pressing it, each time harder than the last.

“Whoa, Bucky, wait!” you exclaimed, pushing him away from the machine. “It isn’t even plugged in.”

“Seriously?” he stated.

“Yup,” you clucked your tongue. “Happens to the best of us though.”

You plugged it in, Steve grinning as his friend pressed the button again only for you to inform him that he needed to place the actual coffee in the machine. You brought out a small carton of coffee, handing him the spoon and then instructing him how many scoops of coffee he should put in the filter in order to make one cup. He followed your instructions and snapped the lid of the machine down, pressing the button and looking relieved to hear it come to life.

“Yay you’re learning,” you smiled.

“What should we do next?” Steve asked, smiling as well.

Bucky shrugged, his eyes focusing on every drop of coffee that fell into the pot. He was a little observant one, now wasn’t he?

“How to use a blender?” you suggested. “I kinda want a fruit smoothie anyways.”

“That works.”

“Blender?” Bucky said puzzled. “Isn’t that the weird machine that makes lots of noise?”

“That’s exactly the one!” you beamed.

His eye twitched at the idea of learning it but he didn’t protest. You got on your tippy toes to reach the cabinet that had the blender in it, both Steve and Bucky going to help but Bucky reached the cabinet first and brought down the blender for you. He looked annoyed at the machine which made you giggle at the idea of a grown man irritated of such a simple kitchen appliance. Steve gathered the fruit the kitchen had such as blueberries, raspberries, and bananas and more. The three of you sliced up the fruit in silence, Bucky popping a few blueberries in his mouth from time to time. You had met Bucky a few months ago when Fury was still debating on what to do with him. Although he was a skilled ex Hydra agent, his knowledge on the modern technology wasn’t vast. Fury found this to be surprising and then you came into the picture along with Steve.

You found the assassin to be fairly handsome. He had trimmed his long hair and he no longer had his old, raccoon eyes look. He looked just as he had years ago when he was just Bucky Barnes—Steve’s best friend since the beginning.

Now the two boys were slowly rekindling their friendship day by day. While cutting the bananas, Steve got a message on his phone. He pulled it out, read the text and sighed.

“I have to go,” he said. “Fury needs me to deal with something back at the base. Think you can handle Bucky here?”

Bucky cut his piece of fruit loudly, his eyes snapping to Steve when he did so.

“I’m not gonna hurt her,” he said.

“I know,” Steve nodded. “But back then you always caused all sorts of trouble. I don’t think that part of you has changed…”

Bucky looked down at his knife, his eyes avoided Steve’s gaze. The super soldier smiled weakly in your direction and was soon leaving the kitchen.

“Alright, have fun you two.”

Steve left the kitchen. Now it was just you and Bucky cutting fruit in silence. Somehow you saw him become less tensed.

“He’s trying hard to be your friend, you know?” you said.

“I...I know…” Bucky whispered.

“Then when are you so….tense around him?”

He shrugged, muttering, “I’m still trying to make sense of things." He set his knife down. "When I look at him, I see my best friend but not just that. I see who I used to be and it sickens me to think that those bastards changed me so much and I just let them....."

You put your hand on his shoulder, eyes softening.

"You know that's not true, Bucky," you said. "Those scientists messed with your head. Sadly, they brainwashed you and you couldn't help it. What those bastards really did was steal your life."

“Yeah…” he muttered.

Your hand dropped to your side with a sigh. This wasn’t just about teaching Bucky about technology. He needs emotional help as well. But Bucky wasn’t an openbook. He kept his emotions to himself, all bottled up. You hoped that with each passing day, he’d be able to expose more of himself. Till then you would just focus on cheering him up a little.

The sliced up fruit was placed in the blender and you added some milk as a base. You told Bucky what each setting on the blender stood for and instructed him to place his hands over the lid of the blender to prevent any of the contents from spilling out. He pressed the button to make the blender come to life with a loud whirring sound. His body shook slightly, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips tugged downwards in a frown.

“You really do hate that machine, don’t you?” you asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh-huh.”

“Well at least it looks like the smoothies are almost done.”

“It is?”

He turned around you momentarily to look at you curiously but his hand had left the lid of the blender. In that split second, the juice had shot right up and splattered the walls, ceiling and Bucky’s face. Thankfully you just got a few dabs of the smoothie juice on your shirt and on your cheeks.

“Sorry…” he mumbled when he saw the mess he had created.

You swiped your finger across his smoothie covered cheek, putting it in your mouth and humming in content.

“Wow this tastes really good!”

Bucky sighed but perhaps just for a moment, you saw him smile.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

After cleaning up the kitchen, you had put whatever contents of the smoothie that was left in the blender in two glasses. You and Bucky were only able to have half a glass since the rest had been soaked up by papers towels and were now in the trash. But you were okay with that. Bucky took one gulp of his smoothie and nodded in satisfaction.

“Good, right?” you grinned.

“Yeah,” he nodded, pouring the rest of his in your glass.

You looked up at him confused. “I thought you liked it?”

“You can have the rest…”

“Oh, um, thanks,” you blushed.

He nodded. You looked around the kitchen and wondered what else you should show him. Bucky’s stomach then growled, breaking the silence, and you got an idea. Snapping your fingers, you set your smoothie aside and grabbed some bread and pulled the toaster out. Without having to say anything, Bucky was already standing behind you and wondering what it was that you were doing.

“You’re hungry, right?”

“A little.”

“I’ll help you make a sandwich,” you offered.

You opened the fridge to pull out some mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, and ham. You told Bucky to place the bread into the toaster after he had plugged it in. You then had him press the small lever down so that the bread could turn into toast.

“It ate my bread,” Bucky stated flatly.

“Huh?”

“It. Ate. My. Bread.”

Before you knew it, Bucky was sticking his fingers into the toaster. But not his regular human fingers. Oh no. It was his metal fingers.

“Bucky don’t!”

And cue Bucky getting electrocuted.

♣♣♣Extended Ending♣♣♣

“Stupid toaster,” Bucky muttered underneath his breath.

You were both lying down on the kitchen floor, you eating a half burnt sandwich. After he had been electrocuted, Bucky’s body tensed up and now he was lying down on the floor so his muscles could relax. He literally could not move. You lied down with him, thinking it was best to teach him about technology some other time.

Steve then strolled into the kitchen.

“What on Earth happened?” he asked shocked. “(Name)? Bucky? Are you guys alright?”

“Oh we’re fine,” you nodded. “Bucky here just got electrocuted because he stuck his metal fingers in the toaster.”

“This is why I was afraid to leave you two alone,” Steve sighed.

“It could have been worse,” you said.

“How?”

“(Name) could have been the one who got electrocuted,” Bucky mumbled.