He'd grown to hate this damned metal arm.

Specifically, the red star painted prominently on his shoulder, that he'd started to absentmindedly scratch and try to pick off.

It only reminds him of HYDRA - of the Winter Soldier; of killing innocent people, and of trying to hurt Steve (this one horrifies him the most). It's almost gone, he encouraged himself, though the ghost of the bright red shape is still there glaring at him, guilt eating away at him constantly.

Steve and Tony notice him picking at it one day. He finds a bottle of nail polish remover (Natasha's) and tries rubbing it off - of course that doesn't work, but only made the arm feel sticky; rusted. The hell kind of paint did they use?

It's Steve who first suggests that Tony give his prosthetic a few upgrades. "You know, cleaning, tune-ups, that sort of thing?" he'd say. Bucky reluctantly complies (it meant he'd have no left arm for at least a few days). Tony knows exactly what Steve means, though, when he says cleaning.

When Steve returns the arm to Bucky, he's got this smirk on his face that Bucky's sure means he's up to something. He reattaches it, not noticing Steve's own little addition to the upgrades at first, but then he sees it. And he's speechless.

The star, that awful, blood-red star that'd only ever reminded him of horrible things - it's gone. Well, not entirely gone - it's been painted over with red and blue, with a crooked red outline, then white, then red again. It looks just like Steve's shield. Though messy (Steve hand-painted it) and the color of blue was just a tad off ("Tony, we have to get it done today - we don't have time to get a new tube of paint,") it is perfect. And Bucky loves it, but he isn't quite sure how to tell him so, so he wears the biggest grin he can manage, tears welling in his eyes as he punches Steve lightly on the arm and whispers,

"Punk."

Steve happily plays along. "Jerk,"