Work Text:
“Daddy! Daddy!” Bucky calls from across the hallway as he exits the elevator and comes bounding towards him.
Sam smiles and turns around, setting the stove top temperature to low as he does.
“What is it, baby?”
Bucky screeches to a halt in front of Sam, nearly crashing into him, and holding a stack of coloring books up at him.
“Steve came back from the doctors late, and I was wondering where he was which is why I went downstairs to see him but he just got home and he said he went shopping cause he wanted to buy some art stuff at the store after his appointment and he bought some big drawing pads but he also got me more coloring books!” He exclaims, words slurring, and panting after saying that whole sentence with just one breath.
Sam laughs and makes a mental note to thank Steve for buying Bucky more coloring books. Sam’s not the only one who loves to spoil Bucky.
“That’s so awesome!” Sam exclaims, equally as excited as Bucky since their fridge is currently his favorite art gallery. “Now come sit at the kitchen table so you can start coloring and so I can finish lunch for us.”
Bucky beams, nodding in agreement before scrambling towards the table.
Bucky sits down on the light blue seat cushion, wiggles his diaper-padded butt into the seat, and puts the stack of coloring books on the table, spreading them out like a fan as he decides which book he wants to color in first.
Bucky chooses the coloring book in the middle, carefully restacks the rest in the corner of the table, and then flips through the pages of the book he’s chosen, tongue sticking out as he decides on which page he’s going to color.
Sam smiles to himself before turning his attention back towards the stove. He raises the temperature and stirs the unicorn and rainbow shaped macaroni a few times, to soften them up, before he has to drain the pasta and the water into the colander.
There’s nothing worse than al dente macaroni in cheese.
Sam can hear Bucky humming to himself as he colors, tongue sticking out as he concentrates on coloring his coloring book and petting Alpine who’s just made her way onto the kitchen table. Sam recognizes the song from one of Bucky’s shows, a cute and colorful show about a magical alien boy whose mother is an alien but who died in childbirth and so he is now being raised by three aunt-figures while he tries to learn more about his heritage and learns how to use his powers as he aids in helping his aunt-figures on their magical space adventures while learning some family secrets along the way.
The show is incredibly deep and sometimes even a little dark for a kid’s show, which is why Sam previews the episodes beforehand so that he can block the episodes that need blocking, so nothing ever triggers Bucky when he watches the show. Sam has to censor quite a few episodes of that show from Bucky because of the nature of some of those episodes.
There is an episode where a lost green alien creature has amnesia and was turned into a “corrupt” monster and during the episode, she goes through the process of trying to remember who she is and tries to communicate with the main character, something she fails to do, and she ends up forgetting again and is locked away someplace else. This episode is one that Sam immediately put on the episode on Do Not Watch List for Bucky. There is another episode in which one of the alien protagonists tries to make another character think she isn’t worth anything as she trains her into becoming a loyal swordswoman to the main character of the show, there is even an entire song sung about the whole process which Sam also immediately blocked with the very useful child protective locks that FRIDAY helped him set up when he first became Bucky’s Daddy.
But the show isn’t all bad, because it has amazing LGBT representation and speaks volumes about issues most kids shows don’t discuss. There is even a particular episode in which two characters express extreme guilt for hurting other people during the course of the show but learn to realize that it’s okay to feel that guilt and it’s okay to be upset about hurting them but they also realize that it wasn’t their fault that they hurt those people and they even learn to cope with their PTSD using meditation. Of course, when Bucky first saw the episode there were tears, but eventually, it became his favorite episode and the song became a lullaby for Sam to sing to Bucky when he’s having a bad day.
Sam begins to hum along with Bucky, stirring the pasta occasionally as stated by the directions and keeping his keen parent peripheral vision turned on just in case. Luckily for him, Sam’s got extra eyes in the room, Alpine and FRIDAY both have a hand in helping him keep an eye on Bucky.
When the pasta’s done Sam turns off the heat. Taking a hot pad, designed with the colors of the American flag, Sam picks up the pot up by the handle and dumps everything into the colander watching as the steam from the boiling water rises and hits the ceiling.
“Daddy!” Bucky calls from the table, jerking Sam’s attention towards him immediately. “Come look at my picture!”
Sam smiles, places the pot back on the stove, and goes to see Bucky’s latest masterpiece.
Sam can tell from the stack of coloring books that they’re all Disney themed and he can also see that the one that Bucky’s currently coloring is Disney Princess themed.
“See!” Bucky says, holding up the coloring book up high so Sam can see the picture.
It’s the scene from Sleeping Beauty where the prince, Philip kisses princess Aurora to wake her up from Maleficent’s curse. Bucky’s taken his own artistic liberties with the picture though. Rather than using the light skin-tone crayon in the box, Bucky’s colored in the prince with his dark skin-toned crayon, and instead of sandy colored hair, the prince now has jet black hair. And from the movement of the crayon marks, Sam can only assume that the spirals represent curls. He’s wearing a brighter red cape than he did in the movie and grey pants with black boots. It doesn’t take a genius like Tony Stark to figure out who Bucky had in mind when he was coloring in the prince.
Bucky’s even changed princess Aurora’s color scheme. Though her skin-tone stays the same, her blonde curls are now brown curls and her light blue dress that she wears in the movie is now a darker blue color. Her golden tiara is now sparkling silver color, courtesy of the glitter crayons Natasha bought for Bucky last weekend.
Sam’s extremely impressed with Bucky’s coloring as well as enamored with how creatively Bucky’s input themselves into the fictional setting of Sleeping Beauty.
“It’s amazing baby!” Sam exclaims, beaming with pride.
“Do you see what I did Daddy? I made them us!” Bucky says, bouncing in his seat, and startling Alpine awake from her third nap of the day.
“I do baby, I make a handsome prince don’t I?”
“Yes! Cause you are a prince Daddy!” Bucky asserts. “You helped saved me from the sleeping curse like Phillip did for Aurora! Cause I was asleep for a long time too and true love’s kiss broke the spell!”
Sam’s smitten and even a little teary-eyed after Bucky’s proclamation. Even he can see the similarities between him and Bucky and Aurora and Philip. He can see the same similarities in many fictional pairings he’s seen in media.
“Aw baby, you’re so sweet.” He says placing a kiss on top of his head. “I’d kiss you a billion times if I needed to break more spells.” He kisses Bucky’s right cheek and then the left one and then repeats kissing all over Bucky’s face again and again, until Bucky’s a squirmy blushing mess in his chair.
“Daddy.” Bucky whines. “My face is all wet now!”
“Maybe I’ll cut it back to a hundred then.” He says. “And maybe we can take a bath later, how’s that sound?”
Bucky nods and uses his sleeve to wipe his face.
“Can you put it on the fridge Daddy? Please?”
Sam nods and takes the coloring book from Bucky’s hands. Carefully, Sam tears the page along the dotted lines of binding and rips the picture out of the book. Proudly, Sam takes the picture towards the fridge and using a magnet in the shape of the letter ‘A’ he sticks the picture to the fridge and steps back to admire yet another picture among Bucky’s other works of art.
“I’m thinking I need to buy another fridge for more of your amazing coloring,” Sam says aloud.
“Oh!” Bucky says, turning in the chair so that his knees are where his butt is supposed to be. “I saw on the computer; you could get a bulletin board to hang up on the walls so you can put more pictures up!”
Sam contemplates the idea and makes another mental note to order somethings online later. A bulletin board would be perfect. If he bought one that was long then he could hang it across the barren white walls of their hallway. It would certainly liven up the place, and plus, Sam’s a sucker for being able to show off his baby’s art pieces. His Daddy side just can’t help but be immensely proud of him and all his little accomplishments. Each step forward he makes regressed is another step forward in his recovery when he’s not regressed.
“I think that’s a great idea honey,” Sam says. “Now get off the chair like that, you could fall and get hurt.” He warns.
Bucky smiles, nodding in agreement, and hops down from the chair.
“I wanna help stir in the cheese in now, can I please? Can I?” Bucky asks.
“Well since you asked so nicely, sure baby, let’s go finish getting lunch assembled.”
“Yay!” Bucky jumps and trolls the short distance from the kitchen table towards the stove. Sam will have to watch Bucky, of course, to make sure he doesn’t get burned while stirring in the cheese packets, milk and butter into the pasta. Sam also has to set up the side dish as well, a bowl of red seedless grapes would go well with macaroni and cheese and Bucky seems to agree with him.
A Daddy’s work is never done.