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“All right, what do you wanna wear today?” Tony asked as he opened Peter’s sizeable closet. The boy himself was sat on his bed in his pyjamas with Spidey on his lap. Tony had allowed Peter to have his breakfast in his pyjamas on the sofa today, but now it was time to get dressed and ready for the day. After all, they were expecting visitors soon.
“Green!” Peter exclaimed, pointing at his pastel green shirt. It was one of his favourites because of the dinosaur printing along the sleeves.
“Great choice, baby. And matching dungarees?” Tony suggested and pulled out the military green dungarees, to which Peter nodded in approval. “Okay, up you get.” The mechanic said, placing the clothes on the bed next to Peter and then gesturing for him to lift his arms so that he could pull off the pyjama top.
“Is Bucky here yet?” Peter asked eagerly, practically vibrating with excitement as his Daddy pulled off the pyjama pants too.
“Steve and Bucky will be here in an hour or so. They have an appointment at the hospital, remember? They will head over as soon as they are finished.” Tony said, helping Peter get his arms and head through the shirt correctly.
“Is Bucky sick?” Peter asked hastily, a worried expression on his face as Tony held the dungarees to the ground so that the boy could step into them.
“No, no, baby. He’s getting a new prosthetic. So, now you two can play outside as Bucky will be able to move and use his new arm a lot more.” Tony explained as he pulled the dungarees on, fastening the straps. Peter seemed somewhat eased by the explanation, but still chewed on his thumb in deep thought. However, he did not voice his worries so Tony went ahead and reassured him the best he could. “Bucky is still the same Bucky, even with a new prosthetic arm, Pete. You don’t have to treat him any different. I’m sure he’s just as excited as you are about your playdate today and he would be very disappointed if he finds you in a mopey mood, huh?” Tony said, pulling his boy close in a hug and showering him with kisses on his face.
“Ahh! Daddy, stop!” Peter giggled, pushing his Daddy away half-heartedly. After a moment of playful fighting, the little one seemed like his usual giggly self, all worries forgotten. As they headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth, Peter repeated his original question.
“Is Bucky here yet?”
An hour or so later and after repeating the same question five more times, Steve and Bucky finally arrived. By the front door, Tony and Steve barely got to greet one another before Peter and Bucky dashed off to play together in the large backyard.
“I figure the appointment went well.” Tony laughed. The two older men watched as the boys rounded the corner of the mansion home and headed to the back of the large property. The closest neighbour was nearly a mile away, so the boys had more than enough privacy to be as little as they wanted to.
“Yes, it went great, even though Bucky regressed during it.” Steve said and Tony made a sympathetic sound in the back of his throat as he let the visitor in. “Yeah, I know, we both kinda panicked for a minute, but Stephen was kind enough to help out.”
As the two Daddies chatted and caught up on things inside, the two boys were sat by the stairs leading up to the veranda at the back of the house.
“You have a metal arm now, that’s so cool!” Peter exclaimed, studying Bucky’s left arm with keen eyes. The dark-haired boy pushed his shirt sleeve up further to show his new arm.
“It’s made of titanium and aluminum. And lots of plastics, like acrylic.” Bucky said proudly with a grin on his face, lifting his arm and flexing his fingers. The movement was slow and stiff, but still a significant improvement compared to what Bucky’s previous prosthetic could do. He could not move his fingers at all with the old one, just his wrist. Due to the lack of flexibility in the old arm, Bucky found it to be more of a burden than useful, so he was reluctant to wear it all. That was why Peter was more used to a one-armed Bucky and the thought of him with a metal arm frightened him at first. But like his Daddy has said, Bucky was still the same Bucky.
“Does it hurt?” Peter asked, touching Bucky’s forearm gently, like he was handling glass. The arm felt cool to the touch, even on this gentle late spring day.
“No, just pinches and itches sometimes.” Bucky replied, flexing his fingers again and watched with a grin when the arm actually obeyed his commands, unlike the old one. The studying of the prosthetic was left short as a butterfly flew in between the boys, fluttering its wings on Peter’s nose. The boys darted after the insect and began chasing it from flower to flower.
“No, come back!” Peter begged, groaning in frustration as he ran after the butterfly. He had tried to get the small insect on his hand, but had just frightened it instead. “Where did it go?”
“Here, Peter!” Bucky shouted, crouched down by a tiny yellow flower by the swings. Peter joined him and the two little ones sat in silence and watched the butterfly, studying its white wings in fascination. Carefully, Bucky extended his right arm to try and get the butterfly on his finger. Both boys gasped in a breath when the butterfly climbed onto Bucky’s finger.
“Whoah! Look at its legs!” Peter laughed, leaning in closer to watch the insect rub its legs together. “It looks silly. Like it’s plotting a plan. Oh no!” Peter exclaimed as the insect flew away once more, but this time the boys realised it was exhausting to chase after it. Instead, they began chasing one another in a game of tag.
“You can’t catch me, you’re too slow!” Bucky teased, shrieking playfully when Peter came sprinting after him. The dark-haired boy chose to be strategic and ran behind the sandbox, which had quite tall walls surrounding it, so climbing over it wasn’t easy. On the opposite side, Peter slowed down and whenever he went in one direction, Bucky would go in the same direction, using the sandbox to his advantage.
“Come on! That’s not fair!” Peter reasoned, trying to be fast and circling the sandbox to the right, but Bucky was just as fast and went to the right too. While keeping intense eye contact, both boys panted as they circled the sandbox. Eventually, Peter grew impatient and took a step back to jump into the sandbox and ran over to Bucky who was stood on the other side.
“Ahh!” Bucky laughed loudly, running away as fast as he could, but Peter was catching up to him.
“I got you now, Bucky!” Peter shouted, stretching his arm out to grasp his friend. However, the boy was rougher then he thought and tugged on Bucky’s arm. It turned out to the left one and with Peter pulling in on direction and Bucky running in the other, the prosthetic came off and landed on the ground with a thump. Both boys halted suddenly, stunned at what had happened.
“Bucky?” Peter asked softly. He knew he had messed up and the look on his friend’s face broke his heart. The dark-haired boy looked devastated and dropped to the ground, fisting at his eye with his right arm. Taking a deep breath, Bucky let out a long wail, which caused Peter to also tear up and both boys shouted at the same time.
“DADDY!”
Less than 5 seconds later, the veranda door flew open and both Tony and Steve came running across the wooden floor and down the stairs to the lawn below.
“Peter, what happened?” Tony asked, rushing over to his boy. Steve did the same and crouched down to Bucky, noticing the prosthetic arm on the ground in between the crying little ones.
“Bucky, sweetheart. Talk to Daddy. What happened?” The blonde Daddy asked gently cupping his boy’s face and wiping his tears away with his thumbs.
Both boys were too upset to talk for a while and just cried in their Daddies arms, hiccuping loudly and drawing in sharp breaths in between sobs. While comforting the boys, Tony and Steve caught each others eyes. They already had a pretty good idea about what happened, but they still wanted to hear it from Peter and Bucky.
“It’s okay, Pete, it’s okay. Can you tell Daddy what happened?” Tony urged gently, a hand rubbing at Peter’s back and the other in his soft curls. Sniffling twice, Peter brought his thumb to his mouth before explaining with a shaky voice.
“Bucky and I played tag and then I chased Bucky and I ripped his arm off. It was an accident, I swear, Daddy! It was an accident… I didn’t mean to…” Peter whimpered, too ashamed to look at Bucky and Steve who were stood a couple of metres away from them. Tony and Steve looked at one another before Steve turned to look at Bucky.
“Is that what happened, Buck?” Steve asked with one arm wrapped around his boy’s shoulders. The little one nodded twice, keeping his eyes turned away from his left side, where his stump was sticking out from under his shirt, the empty sleeve now in his lap. “I see. I’m sure this was just an accident, yeah? What do you think, Tony?”
“I agree. These things happen when little boys play a bit rough, right? Just an accident and nothing that cannot be fixed.” Tony assured, wrapping an arm around Peter to bring them closer to the other couple. “Come on, Pete? Shall we help Bucky get his new arm back on?”
The boy nodded, sniffling one last time before bending down to pick up the arm and handed it to Steve.
“Thanks, Pete.” Steve said with a smile before addressing Bucky, who had also stopped crying but was still hanging his head. “Buck, love. You wanna put it back on?”
With the tiniest nod, the dark-haired boy agreed and let his Daddy lift his shirt to expose his left side. Both boys watched in silent fascination, and slight unease, as Steve adjusted the silicone cover on Bucky’s stump before slipping the prosthetic back on.
“Peter, would you mind go fetching the strap that’s in my bag? It’s a dark blue one.” Steve asked the brunette boy, figuring that his guilt would be eased if he felt helpful. The boy dashed off obediently to fetch the strap. As they waited for Peter to return, Tony crouched down beside Bucky, who was still looking quite upset.
“I didn’t get to look at your arm until now, because you two ran off so quick, but that’s an awesome arm you got, Bucky.” Tony praised and the boy smiled a little, sitting up straighter and glanced quickly at the two men by his side.
“Thanks.” He mumbled, lifting his right hand to his mouth to pull at his bottom lip.
“You’ll be the coolest kid around with a metal arm, yeah? I wish I had one.” Tony laughed. Bucky blushed at the praise and smiled again.
“I got it, Uncle Steve!” Peter exclaimed as he returned with the strap from inside.
“Thanks, buddy.” Steve said, accepting the strap from Peter. "Now, Buck, I think we’ll use the strap that the doctors gave us, yeah? Just for now so that it surely won’t fall off again.” Steve explained with a soft and reassuring tone and went ahead and unscrewed some bolts at the top of the prosthetic. Then, he fastened the strap on one side and wrapped it around Bucky’s upper chest and fastened it at the back. Carefully, Bucky tried moving his arm again, flexing his fingers and grinned when it worked just like earlier. With the help of his Daddy, Bucky got his shirt back on.
“Peter.” Tony said and Peter snapped his head up to look at his Daddy. “We know that it was an accident, but what do we say still?” He hinted. The little one thought for a moment before addressing Bucky, fiddling with his fingers as he did so.
“I’m sorry, Bucky.” Peter said quietly, looking at Bucky shyly.
“It’s okay, Pete.” Bucky replied with a small smile. “It was an accident.”
Peter seemed beyond relieved by Bucky’s words and knelt by him to hug him tightly. Both Daddies smiled at the adorable sight and let the boys have a moment before interrupting.
“Well done, Pete.” Tony praised, once Peter pulled away from the hug and settled onto the grass next to his friend. The incident seemed more or less forgotten as both boys were now smiling, but their eyes were still slightly red from the crying. Tony figured a new activity would be a good way to get the boys back in their playful moods. “You two wanna come and help Steve and I finish lunch? I bet you guys are hungry.”
“Yes, Daddy!” Peter squealed and jumped up from the ground. “Come on, Buck. We are having grilled chicken.” The brunette boy said, extending his arms to help Bucky up. Once they were both on their feet again, Peter led Bucky inside hand in hand.
“Christ.” Steve groaned quietly as he and Tony walked after the little ones. “I got really scared for a second there. I was half expecting a bloody scene or something.” The blonde man explained, placing his hand over his heart.
“That’s the life of a Daddy.” Tony chuckling nervously, knowing exactly what Steve was talking about.
Luckily for the two Daddies, the rest of the day went by smoothly with a delicious lunch and a movie for the boys while Steve and Tony cleared the table and kitchen. Once they were done with that, the two older men went to join Peter and Bucky in the living room, only to find them fast asleep cuddled up to one another on the sofa and snoring softly.