Chapter Text
Beloved
Bucky’s twitching in his seat. He’s trying hard to hide it – Steve can’t help but smile momentarily at the concentration etched into his partner’s face. He must catch it from the corner of his eye because in the next second he goes truly still which brings a soft chuckle bubbling out of Steve.
With a pinched scowl Bucky grumbles something under his breath in an attempt to look highly offended. It’s completely ruined by the light blush dusting his cheeks. He’s been caught red-handed, no denying it. Bucky Barnes is nervous – no, nervous doesn’t even touch on the emotion roiling in his chest, sending tingles shooting through every limb. He’s even sure his arm has them despite how it’s a piece of metal and if it’s feeling tingles it’s more likely from something shorting out in the complex prosthetic. He should probably mention this to Tony. He catches himself mid-ramble, fully aware that the only reason his mind can’t seem to stay on one topic for more than a few seconds since they got home is what’s going to happen shortly.
When Steve reaches over to take Bucky’s hand and smile reassuringly, he can’t help the blanket of safety that immediately settles over the nervous tingles. Everything will be okay Steve’s warm eyes promise him even as Bucky picks out his lover’s own anxiety over the situation. They continue in their bubble of silence, content for the moment to allow the other to be swallowed up by their own thoughts.
The sharp chirp of Steve’s phone makes both super-soldiers jump and then hurriedly scramble for the little silver device. Bucky grabs it first from its position on the table and fumbles with it for a moment before he remembers how to unlock the stupid thing. It’s a message from Natasha announcing they are arriving at Stark Tower. Such a simple collection of words yet it makes Bucky’s eyes dart up to Steve’s in momentary panic as he croaks out, “They’re on their way up.”
Steve takes a deep breath and shakes his head to clear his jumbled thoughts. “Okay. Okay good. Uhm, we should – we should…yeah I have no idea what we should do.” Steve rubs the back of his neckin embarassment.
Bucky snorts at his dork of a boyfriend and lifts his fingers to try and sift them through his hair. It’s only then that he realises they’ve forgotten something crucial. “Shit, Stevie! We need to get changed!”
Steve doesn’t have time to so much as widen his eyes before Bucky’s hauling him up and pushing him into the bathroom ahead of him. When Steve catches sight of his reflection in the mirror, the question dies in his throat as he realises what Bucky is panicking about. Dried blood caked on his left temple, dirt smudged across every available piece of skin and dark red-brown staining from a particularly nasty wound inflicted on one of his more daring attackers splattered across the once-white star and stripes of his suit.
“Fuck.” He mutters, taking up Bucky’s lead by snatching a poor unsuspecting towel to clean off the worst of it.
The blurted curse only makes Bucky pause for a second in surprise before he’s biting back a grin at the ridiculousness of the situation. Two super-soldiers standing in a pristine white bathroom trying in vain to clean blood off battle gear before their friend the Russian spy arrives on their floor and changes everything forever. Trying his best to bite back the laughter desperate to escape him, Bucky offers a freshly wet towel to Steve, tossing the soiled ones in the basket beside the sink.
This is something they will have to get used to, and fast, Steve muses. No more walking into the apartment and collapsing face-first on the nearest available surface, in full gear, covered in whatever muck they’d accumulated during the latest mission because they were too tired to shower.
Armed with wet towels they set to work on making themselves look presentable as quickly as possible. There’s no time to change, not with Nat already in the elevator and halfway up to their floor by now, so they settle for scrubbing the blood from their gear as best they can. Hopefully it’s enough to obscure exactly what the stains are.
“Ma would kill me if she knew we were doing this.” Steve groans, rubbing emphatically at a particularly bad blotch on his shoulder.
Bucky grins, “Don’t see nothin’ wrong with greetin’ our kid in blood-soaked armour, Stevie. It’s not like it’s even our blood.” Bucky makes a show of checking himself, and then Steve, over with small pats before leaning back and with his best poker face says, “Now, if it was your blood, Punk, then your Ma would have more than summin’ to say about your irresponsibility.” Steve laughs long before Bucky cracks his faux-serious expression.
After a few seconds their chuckles die out. There’s a moment where Bucky spots the outright fear in the soft blue eyes he loves so much. “We’re really doing this.” Steve whispers shakily, the enormity of what they’re about to take on crashing down once more.
Bucky gives a firm nod, “We’re really doing it.”
Steve leans against the sink and tips his head back, suppressing a groan. “What if we completely mess up, Buck? What if exposing someone else to our crazy lives is truly insane? You heard that social worker – she needs a stable environment where she can feel safe. There’s no such thing as safe for us!”
Bucky takes Steve’s face between his hands before more of his panic-filled chatter can make it past his lips. “Enough of that, Soldier.” He presses a feather-light kiss to Steve’s nose. “There’s a little girl on her way up right now – our little girl – and we’re gonna be the best damn parents this side of the galaxy for one reason.” He pulls away just enough to make sure Steve knows there isn’t an ounce of doubt in him when he says, “We love her. Okay? Everything else is second to that.”
After giving Steve a moment to let his words sink in, Bucky playfully shoves Steve’s shoulder and offers a cocky grin. “Besides, her dads are Captain America and The Winter Soldier. Her guardian is a millionaire tycoon with a brain the size of Jupiter. She has both the Black Widow and a Norse God wrapped around her pinkie. I think she’ll be fine.”
Steve can’t deny the truth in Bucky’s words. She’ll be the most loved and protected child on earth. A thought makes Steve’s nose wrinkle in horror as he whines, “Ah, God, Buck. Tony’s gonna spoil her wrotten.”
Lacking the heart to tell Steve the spoiling has long since begun Bucky opts for kissing the grumble right off his love's lips. Three booming thumps on the front door has the pair tensing up as their hearts jump wildly in a mixture of excitement and fear. She’s here.