The Red Band
Pepper walked into the lab holding the four coffees and stack of folders for the two scientists. Tony had messaged her asking her to bring them the coffee as well as the files for him as they were close to a break though and didn't want to break their concentration. As the doors closed behind her she saw Tony typing like a madman on his holo computer talking intently with JARVIS.
"Tony I-" She started before a hand on her shoulder startling her slightly. Looking over quickly she relaxed seeing Bruce there with a smile on his face.
"I'm sorry for startling you Miss Pepper but Tony is in the middle of solving this big problem we're working on and doesn't want to be interrupted hence the red band on DUMMY." He said pointing. Pepper turned and saw there was indeed a red band on DUMMY holding equipment next to Tony, confused she turned back to Bruce.
"What's with the band? I've never seen him use that before."
"It's a new thing we started doing a few months ago, I was working on a special gamma radiation containment field and Tony kept breaking my concentration so I started putting a red band on my computer to let him know when I wanted to be left alone, eventually Tony started doing it too when he was close to a break through on whatever new suit upgrade he was working on so I wouldn't stop his train of thought."
"And it works?"
"Quite well actually." Pepper was impressed, not only was Tony making a effort to not interrupt Bruce when he's working but he even started using it himself. After leaving the coffees and files with Bruce she headed back upstairs and made a special order online, two days later a package of red bracelets arrived and she passed them out to all the members who either live, or frequent Stark tower explaining the function of them. While many of them questioned it they still accepted the bracelets.
After that day the bracelets became a common thing around the tower; someone having a bad day and wears their bracelet? Leave them be. Someone gets back from a tough mission and wearing it? They'll talk when they're ready. It turned out to be a great system everyone agreed that although they were hesitant at first its great for when you are not in the mood to talk to anyone. The day Bucky came to the tower Steve made sure to tell him about the bracelet before giving him his very own. The bracelet instantly went onto Bucky's wrist and stayed there for almost a month.
"Hey Buck you gonna join us for breakfast tomorrow morning?" Steve asked as he threw a punch toward Bucky's face, being the only two super soldiers they were the ones to train with each other. The brunette man groaned in annoyed dodging the blow and sending his own toward the blonde.
"Steve I told you I don't want people asking me a bunch of questions, that's why I haven't taken this bracelet off since you gave it to me." Steve grabbed his friends wrist and twisted so he held Bucky's arm behind him gripping his shoulder making him grunt in pain.
"They won't Buck, besides you've been here a month and have yet to really interact with the rest of the team." Steve released his friends arm and Bucky rubbed his sore wrist.
"Look its our monthly pancake day tomorrow morning, we make all sorts and just relax and have fun, I think it'll be good for you. " Bucky sighed and ran his metal fingers through his hair, he knew Steve was right in that if he was going to work with the team and start fixing some of the mistakes he's made in his past he had to interact with them at some point. Heading to the shower rooms they got cleaned up before heading for their own rooms for the night. In the morning Bucky was hesitant at first before leaving his room and heading to the large shared kitchen. The rest of the team was already there mixing different pancake mixes and laughing away, looking down at his wrist he slowly took off his red bracelet and walked out to join them. Just like Steve said no one asked him about his past or the things he did as the winter soldier the only thing they asked him was what he liked in and on his pancakes. It wasn't long before he found himself laughing and chatting with the others although not as much as the rest of them it was a start. As soon as the breakfast was done however the bracelet went right back on and Bucky returned to his room but despite this the team was extremely happy that it came off at all, and that with luck it will happen more in the future.