Work Text:
“Please daddy, please”, Winnie shouts, jumping on her parents’ bed, while Bucky is putting Rebecca in her crib, “tell me a story.”
“Winnie, stop jumping and shouting, your little sister is sleeping”, Bucky answers, turning to his elderly daughter.
“It’s time for my bedtime story”, Winnie pouts, still jumping on the bed.
“Alright, alright”, Bucky gives up. “Come here”, he adds, grabbing the chestnut-haired little girl, who squeals when she feels herself being taken off the mattress.
Bucky pushes the door of Winnie’s room, turns on the light, before sitting her down on her tiny bed.
“So, what are we reading tonight ?”, Bucky questions his three years old daughter.
“Mommy bought this book today”, Winnie takes a book made of cardboard.
I Love You to the Moon and Back, the title says.
“A joyful celebration of the love between a parent and the special little person in his or her life”, Bucky reads at the back of the little blue book. “Let’s settle down young lady.”
Winnie grabs her cuddly toy Pooh, and slides under the covers. Bucky sits next to his daughter, leaning his back against the headboard.
“I love you to the moon and back”, he starts. “I love our time together as we start each happy day”, he starts, turning the first page, and showing Winnie the drawing of a daddy or a mommy polar bear, with their little one.
Alpine enters the room at the moment Bucky turns the next page of the book. The white cat stretches before jumping on Winnie’s bed and lays next to the little girl. As soon as Winnie’s fingers start to scratch behind his ears, Alpine starts to purr.
Little traitor, Bucky thinks, before continuing his reading. “I love our bath time silliness, the way we splash and play !”
“I love it too when we get silly, when it’s bath time and we splash all the water in the bathroom”, Winnie laughs and Bucky smiles to her.
“We’ll climb the highest mountaintops, hold tight and you won’t fall. I love to share the magic of the shining skies above”, he continues. “And to think of all the different ways that we can show our love… Like when we’re touching noses”, Bucky leans towards his daughter reading those words, touching her nose with his, and the tiny girl giggles. “Playing chase. Or seeing friends.”
“Like when I see Morgan and run after her and run after me, she’s my friend and we’re playing chase”, she states.
“Exactly”, Bucky answers.
“And you daddy, do you play chase when you see uncle Tony and uncle Steve and uncle Thor and auntie Nat ?”, Winnie innocently asks.
“Not really sweetie, we’re more like chasing the bad guys. Let’s go back to our story, would you ?”
Winnie nods, and Bucky turns another page.
“Our love is always with us and it never ever ends. So snuggle safely in my arms; our day is nearly done”, as said in the story, Winnie snuggles a little more in her father’s side, burying her little face in his chest, her hand still on Alpine’s head. “I love you to the moon and the stars, my precious little one”, Bucky ends the story, feeling that his little girl is falling asleep.
He closes the book, puts it back on the nightstand and stands up before laying Winnie on her pillow and covers her with her blanket.
“I love you to the moon and back daddy, and mommy too and Rebecca too”, Winnie says with a sleepy voice.
“I love you to the moon and back too, baby. Sleep tight”, he responds, kissing her forehead, watching her drifting to sleep, Alpine settling down on her stomach. “I suppose that you’re staying here ?”, he questions the cat, that just look at him, before putting his head on his paws.
Bucky sighs, those two really get along. He turns off the lights, and slightly closes the door and checks if Rebecca is still asleep. On his way back down to the living room, where Y/N is waiting for him, he grabs a bottle of water and drinks half of it. When he reach the couch, it’s to find is wife watching some TV show.
“How did it go ?”, she asks him.
“Very well”, he answers, sitting next to her. “Winnie made me read the book that you bought today. And she told me that she loved me to the moon and back. I should tell Tony that to be loved to the moon and back is better than being love three thousand”, he smiles at her. “She also said that she loves you and Becca to the moon and back. Thinking of it, I love you to the moon and back too.”
“And, I love you and our girls to the moon and back”, Y/N tells him, scooting closer to him, putting her head on his shoulder, his arm around hers.