Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1

Easy A (Bucky Barnes x reader)

Studying during a mission was probably the worst idea that you had ever come up with, but with a huge final exam looming over your head tomorrow, you really had no choice. You couldn't sit out this mission, and you couldn't skip the test, so riding in the jet to your destination with a textbook opened on your lap was the only way to come to a solution.

"What's your topic?" Bucky asked as he gently moved your other study materials to the floor and took the seat next to you.

"Advanced pharmacokinetics and genome-based therapeutic regimens."

He looked at you with wide eyes and a confused look across his face. "Try that in English this time?"

"That was in English, Buck," you laughed. "Oh, man I feel like I'm understanding it about as much as you are right now. I'll be lucky if I pass this exam tomorrow."

"Have you thought about asking Banner to study with you?" Bucky grabbed the book from your lap and flipped through the pages, shaking his head at every turn, "this looks to be more up his alley than anyone else."

"Ha," you scoffed, "clearly you've never worked much with Bruce. The man is a genius, and so far beyond me that I can barely follow along."

"I highly doubt that, (Y/N). Not everyone can do what you're doing. You should give yourself more credit."

The jet began to land, so you grabbed your book from Bucky and threw it in your pack along with your other school items, exchanging them for your mission gear. You stood to take your place at the back of the jet, waiting to disembark. You looked to Bucky when he moved to stand at your side as he always did, and hit the door release.

"Let's get in and out, alright Barnes? I'm gonna need to pull an all-nighter if I have even a shot at scraping by."

~~~

Hours later you woke up to a banging on your door, drool on your textbook, and a post-it note stuck to your forehead. "Hold on," you mumbled, yawning and dragging yourself from your bed to the door and the incessant knocking.

"What?" you snapped as you swung the door open with your eyes barely a squint. "What do you want?"

Bucky chuckled quietly, trying his best to not break out into a full laugh in front of you. He reached up hesitantly and pulled the post-it from your head and handed it to you very cautiously as to not upset you even more.

"Dammit." You reached up and snatched the paper from him, leaving the door open for him to enter and turning to head back to your bed. "I just lost three hours."

"Have you taken a break at all?"

"Didn't I just say I lost three hours?"

Bucky sat on the edge of your bed, taking great caution to not shift any of the materials that you had laid out around you. "It's 4am, (Y/N). Are you really doing yourself any good? You either know it by now or you don't."

"Did you need something, Buck?" Your voice was filled with annoyance, even though you know he was there with his best intentions. You tried to fight back a yawn, but failed miserably, leading to more and more to follow. "I need to get back to work."

"Yeah, I think you need to get back to sleep."

"My test is at 10. I need to make up for lost time."

Bucky put his hand over the text that you were reading, bringing his face down close to you so that you would look up at him. "How is taking a test when you're exhausted any better?"

He was right. You certainly wouldn't pass if you fell asleep in the middle of it. "Okay," you sighed, "let's make a deal. You give me two more hours, then I'll sleep until it's time to go. Deal?"

He gave you a skeptical look, but finally held out his hand and relented. He took your hand in a firm handshake and nodded in agreement. "Deal."

~~~

"What time was her class over?" Sam asked, watching Bucky as he stared out the window for the last hour. "Because you're driving us all nuts pacing around and acting all nervous like that. You look worse than she did when she left."

"She's been working so hard, and I just want her to do well, alright? Is that so wrong?"

Sam raised his hands in defeat, smiling to himself when he heard you coming up the stairs to the lounge where the rest of the team had gathered. "Not wrong at all."

When Bucky saw you enter the room he ran to your side with an excited grin and an anxious look in his eyes. You were exhausted and your brain felt like mush, but it meant too much to him to find out how you did for you to retreat to your room before sharing your results.

"Come on, (Y/N), spit it out! How did you do?"

"It was the hardest test I've ever taken," you said quietly, "I didn't think I would ever get to the end. It was awful." You pulled the folded paper from your bag and handed it to him, trying to not give it away in your expression.

Bucky looked at you, then around the room at the group, taking a deep breath as he slowly unfolded the paper in his hands. His eyes widened at the sight of the 'A' across the top; he laughed out loud, grabbing you by the waist and spinning you around as you began to laugh with him.

"I knew you could do it, I knew it!" He set you down clapped his hands, turning to the rest of the group, "I think we need to celebrate this, right guys?"

"Okay," you interrupted with a long yawn, "but I think I've earned a nap first." You grabbed your paper back from his hands and turned to leave, dragging your tired body up the stairs toward the elevator. "Oh yeah," you paused, "be ready, Buck. One more final next week on laboratory examination and diagnostic reasoning. Another all-nighter for sure."

Bucky quickly ran after you, taken aback at the thought of doing this all over again and how stressful this time had been. "Okay, hold up. I think we need to talk about this. (Y/N), come back..."