Tease
Bucky ignored the glances from the people in the lobby of the Avenger's Tower; Tony had hired a great staff to make sure things were running smoothly, but nearly half of them were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who knew exactly who he was and what he could do, so a lot of them were always wary of him. The rest of the staff were just civilians who kept their distance because of his metal arm. And the reason Bucky was in the lobby? He was getting the mail for everyone in the Tower.
Yeah, Tony's told him that he's already got people who sorted all of the mail and were tasked with delivering it to their rooms, but after an incident were a rather...interesting magazine managed to find its way into Peter's room rather than Clint's, Bucky decided it might be best if one of them actually goes and gets the mail and he was more than happy to do so. "Afternoon, Mr. Barnes!" One of the staff who was no longer bugged by his arm greeted, a warm smile on his lips. "Hey." "I'm guessing you're here for the usual?" Bucky chuckled with a nod and he was handed the large, plastic container that was filled with all of their mail. Because some of them had a lot more mail than others (Tony Stark), the staff just separates it all with pieces of paper so they don't get mixed up.
Barnes thanked the man and then left the lobby area, going back to the first of many floors that housed all of the Avengers. He always started with the top floor of all of their rooms and worked his way down since the pile of mail is usually a paper weight once he gets to the third floor of the living quarters. He wasn't surprised at the near mountain of mail Tony had, doing a quick glance over each piece and throwing away the ones he knows Tony won't bother with; the man did have an actual trashcan outside of his room for that purpose alone.
Next up was Bruce and while he didn't have a much as Tony (no one had as much as Tony, ever), he still had a healthy amount, Bucky noticing that he had re-subscribed to a magazine he used to like a lot. Steve came after that, his pile usually just stuff he had one of the others buy off Amazon so he could try and catch up with the culture and history he's missed while he was frozen in ice; if he had something that he thought Bucky would like, he'd usually find it on his bed after Steve was done with it. Clint and Natasha were next, and both had identical piles, expect Natasha had a travel magazine to replace the...interesting one Clint had.
After them was Sam, Rhodey, Vision, Wanda, and T'Challa. They all had just a couple pieces of mail with a magazine or two thrown in, so it was a quick thing for Bucky to do. Which left his own mail and Peter's. He decided to just take both piles and drop off the container back in the lobby. When he came back he flipped through his stuff; just a couple pieces of junk mail, a package that most likely had the information HYDRA had of him that he requested so he could understand and try to recover his lost memories, and then the two magazines he actually read. One was a gun magazine and the other was a knife magazine; Tony had teased him about both, but he really likes the knife one just because he's actually developed a kinda nervous habit of toying with a knife.
Bucky honestly can't tell you when that started, but anytime he's becoming stressed out or feels the start of an episode crawl over him, he'll pull out one of the many knives he keeps on his person and start to twirl it between his fingers and do tricks if it's one of his butterfly knives. All that was left now was Peter's mail and the kid only had one thing: his final report card. Peter's been waiting for this for a good two months, eager to know if he needed to take that summer class after all; Peter was missing two credits in his English, and a credit and a half in his Social Studies, but Tony had convinced the school to let him graduate with his class in exchange for his teachers giving Peter a much harder assignment towards the end of the school year to make up the missing credits. Bucky took a moment to open up the sealed item and what he found on it was something he needed to discuss with the teen.
Peter was tinkering with an old invention of his when a sudden knock on his door made him nearly jump out of his skin. "W-Who is it?" 'It's Bucky. Can I come in?' He heard the older man's voice through the door and Peter sprung to his feet, quickly unlocking the door. "Yeah." He stepped back as the door opened and saw Bucky, giving his fast friend a smile, but it died off when he saw the look on his face. "Is everything okay?" "...We need to talk." Peter swallowed nervously, but nodded his head, moving away from the door so Bucky could come inside.
He shut the door behind him and moved to lean against the desk Peter had just been at, the teen instantly on his bed with his head hanging a little lower. "This came in today." Bucky started, holding up the report card for Peter to see. Barnes saw as Peter's shoulders slumped, his head falling down as well as his eyes. "I took a look at it so you wouldn't be able to lie to Tony; after all, he's been waiting on this too." "I...I know." God, Bucky didn't think the kid would sound so defeated. "...What did it say?"
"You passed."
Peter wasn't sure he heard that right. "...What?" "You passed." Peter finally looked up at Bucky, thinking this man has lost it since when he saw the older man's face, his expression was so grim and full of worry. He thought the man was lying...until he noticed he was fighting off a smirk. "You fucker!" Peter shouted as he lunged at the Winter Solider, the man finally breaking into laughter as he easily caught him in his arms, quickly stepping away from the desk and spinning the kid around for a moment. "Oh, you serious?!" "Yeah! Take a look." He handed the piece paper to the teen and just watched as his face lit up.
Despite everything Peter's been through, the kid managed to get A's in Math and Science, and B's in everything else; only now, he had all of his credits and a 3.6 GPA. "Oh my GOD! Yes! Oh, I've got to tell Mr. Stark!" Bucky chuckled, ruffling Peter's hair to get his attention. "Why don't you try one of the labs? He mentioned he and Bruce were gonna work on one of the many projects they have." "Alright. Thank you so much, Bucky!" Peter squealed as his arms wrapped around Bucky, but while he returned the hug, Bucky noticed something that sent an odd pulse through his body.
The teen slipped out of his arms and ran off to relay to Tony the good news. And Bucky just stood there, the phantom sensation of Peter's slender arms still wrapped around his middle. He knew the kid was smaller than him, as well as shorter, but...Bucky wasn't sure what that pulse he felt really was; he felt an even stronger urge to protect Peter, but strangely, he also felt a tingle of arousal with that urge, his thoughts drifting to just how easy it would be for him to overpower and dominate the kid. No. Don't go there. Bucky mentally scolded as he shook his head, quickly leaving the teenager's room before he did something, whatever it was he didn't want to know.