Work Text:
When Natasha walked into SHIELD advertising on Tuesday morning, Sam, Wanda, and Clint were already squeezed around Wanda’s cubical.
“What’s up, dummies?” she asked, cutting through their hushed voices.
Clint shushed her with more volume than was strictly necessary as Sam ushered her into their little circle.
Nat narrowed her eyes as she assessed each of them. Wanda seemed engrossed in her phone, but there was a small, knowing smirk on her lips. Sam looked annoyed and… a little defensive, arms crossed over his chest and a glint in his eyes.
She was able to get the most information from Clint, picking up a whole host of clues with a quick scan of his body language. That particular mix of excitement, anxiety, confusion, and fear could only mean one thing. The way all of their eyes kept flicking to his office just confirmed it.
“What happened with Rogers?”
Other than a breathed “How do you do that?” from Clint, her question was met with silence.
“Well?” She cocked one perfectly shaped eyebrow and fixed each of her colleagues with her sharp gaze.
“There’s a guy no one’s ever seen before in his office,” Clint shifted his weight and looked down at his feet. “Nat, Rogers doesn’t let anyone into his office.”
It was true. Steve preferred to keep business meetings to conference rooms and phones. He’d told her once that he needed a space that was just his, somewhere he could escape to that wasn’t sleek and manicured. Needed a room decorated only for himself, where he had the freedom to leave sketchbooks lying on his desk next to framed pictures of Bucky and their cat.
This, along with Steve’s utter inability to mix his personal and professional lives, had led to his unfortunate reputation around the office: intimidating and cold. Natasha had known Steve Rogers since he started dating her college roommate all those years ago. She knew he had a heart full of gold and righteous indignation, and she ached for him sometimes, seeing how closed off he forced himself to be at work.
That said, she never passed up an opportunity to toy with her coworkers. When Nat had accepted the job, she and Steve had agreed to keep the whole “friends with the boss” thing under wraps. Nowadays they only saw each other on the weekends, and no one in the office was aware of their friendship.
“What’d he look like?” She kept her face carefully neutral.
Sam scoffed, “Like a self-important hipster. I swear, I will never understand why those guys are allowed to run companies.”
“That doesn’t tell me the color of his hair, Sam.”
“Yeah, yeah. Um, brown hair. In a bun ,” Sam said the word like it’d personally offended him.
Nat rolled her eyes, turning to Clint and Wanda.
“I guess … well. He was hot,” Wanda said in a bored tone. “‘Bout Rogers’ height. Muscley, too. I dunno, he wasn’t wearing a suit or anything.”
“Why’re you so interested?” Clint asked.
Nat smiled slyly. “Just wanna know who the mighty Mr. Rogers finally let inside his Super Secret Sanctuary.”
With that, she turned and strode to her desk.
••••
An hour and a half later, Clint skidded to a stop in the kitchen, panting and tripping over his words.
“Nat! Nat, c’mon! It’s the-- the guy from earlier-- He’s leaving.”
Nat looked up from her freshly peeled tangerine, arched an eyebrow, and followed Clint back out to the main room. She didn’t know the specifics of why Bucky was here for the first and only time in five years, but she had an inkling. And if her intuition was right, there was no way she was missing the looks on everyone’s faces.
Sure enough, when they rounded the corner, there was Bucky. Leaning against the reception desk alongside Steve, who was laughing softly, the corners of his eyes crinkling and tips of his ears a little pink. Bucky had taken his hair out of its bun and was threading his fingers through it while grinning wickedly at whatever he’d just said to make Steve blush. Nat smiled at the sight. She hadn’t seen Steve at ease in this building in far too long.
Then Bucky leaned in close to whisper something to Steve, their familiarity and intimacy unmistakeable in how he rested a hand on Steve’s waist. How, as he pulled back, he lightly stroked his fingers over Steve’s beard while he undoubtedly joked about the growing speckles of gray. By now, a small crowd had gathered, all wanting a glimpse of the mystery man who could make Steve Rogers laugh and blush . Natasha just sat back, a small smile threatening to pull at the corner of her lips as Bucky’s eyes slid to meet hers over Steve’s shoulder.
Nat remembered how long it had taken them to get here, comfortably showing their affection around strangers. Bucky and Steve had both grown up in traditional catholic homes, where kissing boys meant hushed whispers and dirty stares on the street. Meant family and neighbors kept their children away as if homosexuality were a virus as well as a sin.
Shortly after she’d met Bucky, during the winter of their freshman year, Nat had sat by Bucky as he called his baby sister. Nat could still feel the crushing grip he’d had on her hand, see the tension vibrating across his shoulders like a cloak when Becca had picked up. And she could still hear the bone-deep sigh of relief when Becca told Bucky she loved him. As much as Bucky insisted his family’s toneless greetings and refusal to hug never got to him, Nat knew he carried it with him everywhere.
By the time he’d met Steve at 16, they were both too scared to start anything. It wasn’t until they’d met again during Nat and Bucky’s senior year of college that they actually admitted how they felt (with a lot of pining and some big shoves from Natasha, thank you very much).
Steve hardly ever spoke about his own upbringing, but from what Nat had pieced together, his mom had been his only island of safety. When she’d passed away, he’d been left alone, scrambling to prove his masculinity to himself and everyone around him. Nat always laughed when Bucky told her stories of Steve at seventeen, five foot three and a hundred pounds soaking wet, defending someone’s honor. Apparently, he’d managed to find a metal trash can lid once and held it up like a shield against a guy twice his side. To this day, “Punk” was one of Bucky’s favorite pet names for him.
As Bucky and Steve’s relationship had deepened, Natasha had witnessed Bucky’s acceptance of himself grow right alongside it. Still, they were far from a “public displays” type of couple; preferring to keep to lingering glances and brushes of hands unless they were alone. Which just made their current behavior even more strange.
Steve pulled himself up to his full height and cleared his throat, turning to face his employees and meeting Nat’s eyes. “Hello everybody,” he addressed in his Work Voice. Nat always thought of it as another layer of the mask he wore. “If I could have your attention, I want to introduce you all to Bucky.”
Glancing at the others, Nat saw confusion written plainly on all of their faces as they wracked their minds for gossip they might’ve heard about “Bucky,” and murmured questions to people around them, hoping for more information.
Steve, of course, waited for the room to quiet down before he continued. “Bucky is my … My husband.”
Nat covered her grin with her hand as the room erupted into a flurry of excited whispers. She found Steve’s eyes with her own and mouthed “ Why?” as clearly as possible. Bucky understood before Steve did, knocking their shoulders together with a laugh as he passed on the message.
“We’re…” Natasha tracked the movement as Steve laced his fingers with Bucky’s, hidden between them. He tripped over his words when he continued, sounding little like the stiff, formidable boss his employees knew him to be. “Well, we’re adopting a child. A daughter. Soon. We’re starting a family. And... um,” he glanced at Bucky, who gave an encouraging little nod. Probably squeezed his hand too, Nat thought with a smile. “I want them to be comfortable here. I’m going to make an effort to be more myself at work…” Steve seemed to have run out of words, chewing on his lower lip, eyes flitting around the room.
Thankfully, Bucky stepped forward and saved him from his own awkwardness. “So, hi, I’m Bucky. Well, James, really, but no one calls me that,” he gave a small wave. “I’ll probably be around here a lot more, so get used to it. I’ve wanted to bring Steve lunch for years , and he’s finally letting me, which isn’t a privilege I take lightly.” Bucky looked knowingly back at Steve, eyes dancing as they shared a fond smile. “Now, he’d probably prefer if you all got back to work, but seeing as it’s a special occasion, I’m gonna mingle for a while.” He clapped his hands together, then turned and smiled softly at Steve as he squeezed his arm.
Steve nodded, and when Bucky turned back to the group, he was wearing his trademark cocky smirk. And headed straight for Natasha. She smirked back. She couldn’t wait to see Sam’s face when he found out her best friend was this “self-important hipster.”
Bucky sauntered up to her, raised his chin, and said in a deliberately casual tone, “Hey, Nat.”
She was right. Sam’s face was priceless . So was Clint’s. But Sam’s expression held just the right balance of shock, betrayal, and amusement to make Nat suppress a laugh. Hell, even Wanda looked a little shaken.
Sam looked slowly between Bucky and Nat like he was trying to connect two dots that were galaxies apart in his mind. “Wait a minute. You know him? Rogers’ husband ? How the fuck do you know his husband? ” Sam asked with disbelief.
“NYU,” Nat said.
“Best friends since our first day, ain’t that right?” Bucky still had that same cocky grin on his face. He’d always loved surprises, as long as he was the orchestrator.
She rolled her eyes and pushed at his arm as she said fondly, “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You were clingy.”
Clint’s eyes were still wide, mouth slightly agape, watching the whole thing like it was a tennis match. Nat had no doubt he was reading their lips to make sure he didn’t miss anything. When his brain seemed to catch up with their words, he frantically signed, “Does that mean you’re friends with Rogers too?”
Without missing a beat, Bucky signed back, “Of course. Nat comes over all the time.”
“You can sign?” Nat was usually the only one in the office that he could sign with, and Clint looked positively thrilled. If they weren’t at work, he probably would’ve jumped up and down, clapping his hands like a toddler.
Sam cut in before Bucky could answer. “Clint, c’mon man. You know I can’t keep up when you sign that fast. And I know for a fact you’ve got your hearing aids in.”
With a huff and a quickly signed “ Stupid hearing people ,” Clint said, “Fine. But when Bucky comes in again, you’ve gotta get someone to translate or leave the conversation.”
Sam sighed, but nodded nonetheless.
“So, speaking?” Bucky asked, turning to Clint. When he rolled his eyes and nodded, Bucky continued. “I’m hearing, but yes, I sign. I work with veterans, so it comes in handy.”
Sam raised his eyebrows at Bucky. “Army?”
“Yeah. Just a year after high school, then I was sent home and got this fancy thing,” he pushed the left sleeve of his red henley up to the elbow, tapped his metal forearm, and gave a dry laugh. “Was a little hard to figure out signing with the prosthetic at first, but I’ve pretty much gotten the hang of it now.”
As Bucky spoke, Nat watched Sam’s expression morph into one of reluctant respect with maybe a hint of friendliness. She knew Sam had been in the military - a paratrooper - before settling down with a desk job at Steve’s advertising agency. If he could get over the length of Bucky’s hair, they could probably become friends at some point.
Well, maybe not until he got more comfortable around Steve. Steve, who was approaching their little group with a brighter smile than this building had ever seen on him.
“So,” Nat said to Bucky once Steve stood by his side, “what were you even doing here in the first place? And I saw you come in this morning, so don’t you dare say you came in just to let the office know Steve’s not really a hardass.”
Bucky chuckled, and the look he shared with Steve could only be described as besotted. “We had a call with the adoption agency.”
“ The call,” Steve added, grinning ear to ear.
Nat’s eyes widened. He couldn’t mean...“ The call?”
Bucky nodded. “We’re flying over in two months.”
Nat couldn’t help it, and she didn’t really want to, when she threw her arms around Bucky’s neck in a tight hug. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he tucked his face and laughed into her neck as she whispered in his ear, “I’m so happy for you, Bucky.”
When Nat pulled back after a long moment, Bucky’s eyes were a little teary, but she didn’t dare say anything because she knew hers were, too. Bucky and Steve had been on this road for almost three years now. Had gotten to the final stages twice before, but both times it had fallen through.
The first expectant mother they’d matched with had decided to keep the baby four days after the birth. It had been heartbreaking, of course it had. But they’d understood what they were getting into from the start, that the mom could change her mind at any time. The second… that one was harder. They’d matched four months before the due date, had gotten to know the mom while they waited. Then, when it was only three weeks away, there’d been an accident. The police said the other driver was drunk. The doctors said they did everything they could.
Yeah, that one had been hard on them. Especially Steve. Nat had stayed with them during the days after the accident. Had ordered food and answered the phone for them as they grieved the loss of a friend and a future they had thought was theirs. That was a year and a half ago now.
After that, they’d changed course and decided to adopt internationally instead. They’d jumped through all the hoops again; the application, the home study, and the parenting classes - and sent in their dossier. And then they’d waited. Nat thought the waiting might’ve been the hardest part. She’d seen them grip tight to their little thread of hope every time the phone rang, and try their hardest to keep that hope alive when it was only the agency making sure their passports were up to date.
But now. Now it was really happening. Ten days ago, they’d gotten a referral for a little two-year-old girl from China. And today, they’d apparently just had the call with their agent to set up the details of their two-week trip. Everything seemed to be finally coming together. God knows, after all they’d been through, it was about damn time.
“Three things,” Natasha said, beaming. “One, is my spot as ‘Auntie Nat’ still reserved?”
Steve sounded almost offended when he immediately answered, “Of course.”
At the same time, Bucky scoffed and said, “As if there’s anyone else we’d trust with her.”
“Good. Second, now that people know we’re friends, I am definitely putting a picture of us on my desk. And third … I need to see those pictures of her again. And so does everyone else.”
When she glanced back at her coworkers, Wanda was the only one that actually looked interested. The guys were both watching her with furrowed brows, faces caught somewhere between What the hell? and Who are you?
“Fine,” Nat said, rolling her eyes and taking hold of Wanda’s hand. “Wanda needs to see them.”
With a smile, she turned and walked back toward the kitchen with Bucky, Steve, and Wanda in tow. Just short of the doorway, she couldn’t resist turning back toward Sam and Clint with a smirk. “When you guys manage to pick your jaws up off the floor and accept I’m a real person with feelings and a personality, you can come find us.” After a beat, she added, “The kid’s pretty damn cute.”