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Who hogs the blankets?
“Hey, doll,” Steve greeted his daughter at the door and bent down to kiss her forehead. The pricking of his beard, as usual, made her giggle.
“Hi Dad,” she answered dutifully.
Steve waited for a beat or two, but no one else showed up, so he promptly sat down to pull Sarah to his lap.
“Did you make your babysitters disappear? What are you up to?” He tried to stay serious. It wasn’t too hard. Being an Avenger and a superhero made one’s tolerance for weird pretty high. If Sarah would answer yes to that question, Steve wouldn’t be surprised at all. Okay, maybe a bit, since it was Bucky and Nat they were talking about, and they were able to stand their ground even if faced with Sarah Rogers who is dubbed as Queen of Mischief in the superhero community.
The 6-year-old in question just shrugged. “Nothing, they’re just busy.”
Steve’s eyebrows arched. “They should be busy looking over you.”
Sarah shrugged again. “They had a fight,” she explained with all of her age’s seriousness.
“A real fight or a stupid fight?” Steve tried to clarify.
Sarah wrinkled her forehead, thinking about the question.
“Stupid fight,” she decided. “About blankets. But they yelled.”
Steve released a relieved sigh. “Okay. And what did you do while they were busy with each other?”
“I asked Jarvis to put Frozen on for me. I don’t want to hear them kissing in the end! They are gross!” She made a face, which Steve find irresistibly adorable, and tightened his hold around her tiny waist, laughing a bit.
“Why, I kiss you all the time and that’s not gross, right?”
“But they kiss on their mouths! And they make sounds and all!” she protested, which only intensified Steve’s laugh.
“Okay, okay. What do you say if I check on them if they’re still gross or not? You can finish the movie if you didn’t do already.”
“I did, I’m watching Tangled now! But Jarvis paused it to me,” she admitted. Steve usually didn’t let her watch more than one movie at once, but he decided to shut up this time. It wasn’t Sarah’s responsibility to restrain her appetite for Disney, but the ones who were assigned to watch over her. Steve will have to talk to them about this. Again.
“Okay, so go back to that and when I’m done with scolding Bucky and Nat then we’ll have a singing contest, deal?”
Sarah wriggled herself free from the embrace while nodded excitedly. “I’ll gather in the best songs!” she agreed, then run to the TV room. “Do you wanna build a snowmaaaan,” she hollered while disappeared behind the door.
***
“Give it back!” Natasha sneered.
“You started it,” Bucky stated.
“I’m a highly trained, professional operative,” Natasha stated coldly, “if I wanted to steal your blanket, I’d do exactly that before you’d even notice it.”
“Lies,” Bucky huffed. “Just admit you’re a hoggler.”
“I shan’t admit what’s not true, especially not in front of the hatchling. You suggest telling lies is acceptable?”
“That blanket is MINE, it belongs to MY SIDE, and you are totally not allowed to steal it!”
The voices were a bit muffled, since they came from the blanket fort.
An honest to god, adult size blanket fort that took all the space the living room could offer. They even pushed aside some furniture – or built it in, Steve wasn’t sure from this angle. The fort was tall enough that he could go in if he condescended to his knees and wide enough for adults to lay down in it. It seemed like a stable construct. It seemed like it was made with precision and care.
Steve cleared his throat.
The argument stopped, and a dead silence fell to the room, like the pair didn’t dare to even breathe for a second.
Then Bucky poked his head out. “Hi, Stevie,” he grinned, then disappeared back inside. “We’ve split up the resources evenly, Nat,” he continued like nothing happened.
“Excuse me,” Steve spoke up and he straightened his spine even more, hands on his hips. “Didn’t you two forget about something?”
This time Natasha emerged, if only partly, half of her face remaining in the semi-darkness of the nest. “Talk to your friend, Rogers, because he’s a lying liar who lies and I might hit him if he keeps this up.”
Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and summoned his patience.
“Bucky. Natasha. May I remind you that you were supposed to watch over Sarah while I was away?”
“She’s fine, Stevie,” Bucky, still inside, answered with a huff. “She’s here and—“ He cut the sentence abruptly. “Oh.”
“Oh indeed,” Steve deadpanned.
“Shit,” Natasha hissed softly and sounded like she was burying her face in a pillow.
“Exactly,” Steve agreed.
“Uhm,” Bucky tried.
“I’m all ears for your excuses.”
Telltale silence followed the words for a few seconds. “You have to understand, Steve,” Bucky gathered himself first. “It was an important argument to settle.”
Steve’s sigh was exasperated. “You two are totally banned from babysitting.”
***
As punishment, Bucky and Nat weren’t allowed to leave the blanket fort. Which might not sound bad, but considering Steve and Sarah were howling Disney songs above it, it probably was. Especially because Sarah insisted Auntie Nat to sing Let it go with her, and Uncle Bucky was obliged to perform Love is an open door with her, and Steve made sure it was always Bucky’s turn with the villainous songs and Natasha’s with the cheesy love confessions. They deserved it, after all, and Steve was pretty sure they secretly enjoyed every minute of it, just were too proud to admit.
They sure looked like they were in physical pain when they limped their way to the door at the evening. Steve held back the last comment as the final stab until they were out of the apartment.
“Oh, and by the way,” he called after them. “Both of you is a shameless hogging monster, just for you to know.” He slammed the door to their noses as they gaped at him.