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“Move it kid,” Bucky was doing his best to look serious but the corners of his mouth were struggling to stay down.
“No,” AJ replied. Not as good at hiding his smile and trying his best to make his mom’s ‘you better do what I say’ face. “You move.”
“Ok kid, you asked for it.” With that AJ clamped his hands down as tight as he could on the seat of the kitchen chair he was sitting in and locked his ankles around the legs. Bucky lifted him, chair and all, high in to the air turning around it and sitting in his own chair no longer blocked by AJ. Once seated Bucky put AJ down next to him as AJ laughed in delight.
In the Wilson home there was a huge round dinner table with five chairs where they all would gather for meals. It was tucked up almost against a wall with one seat that needed to be filled before everyone sat down. Since it was usually empty that became “Uncle Bucky’s” spot whenever he came to visit. It became a game that when Sarah called everyone to the table the boys would sprint to their seats to block him out. He took turns with the boys on which side he’d go in from hoisting them in the air to their absolute delight.
It was another piece of putting a life together that Bucky cherished.
****
“Boys breakfast,” Sarah called through the house. Bracing herself for the chaos about to be unleashed.
Bucky stayed laying on the couch listening to the thump, thump, thump of children’s feet clamouring down the stairs. He pretended wake up just as they passed bouncing out of the couch and making an act of trying to beat them to the table only to lose by a narrow margin.
This time he walked up to Cass’s side.
“You’re not going to move your seat up are you,” Bucky asked Cass.
“No,” Cass replied looking more like his Uncle Sam every day.
“Ok then,” Bucky leaned in giving Cass time to secure himself to the chair. “You asked for this.”
Bucky swung Cass chair and all in to the air in a mirror image of the movement with his brother the night before. Putting him down gently next to him he then turned to look in to the kitchen.
“Good morning Sarah,” Bucky called. Turning his most charming smile towards her.
“Good morning Bucky,” she returned smiling back at him, eyes soft. Bucky’s stomach did that flip flop thing it always did when she looked at him like that. She dropped a giant bowl of hash browns and another of scrambled eggs then went back for the plate of bacon. Bucky started scooping out food for the boys, more hash browns for Cass and more eggs for AJ before serving himself food. Sarah sat down with the tray of bacon grabbing a couple pieces before all the boys evaporated the plate.
Sam came in to the kitchen just in time to grab the last piece of bacon and drop it on his own plate.
“Morning sis, morning guys,” Sam said grabbing for the eggs. Bucky passed him the hot sauce without needing to be asked.
“Thanks for making breakfast Sarah,” Bucky said gazing at her adoringly. Sam paused chewing to glare a warning at Bucky. At this point it was all for show. Sam knew that they were working on the start of a relationship but he had too much fun poking at the old man to stop. Besides his sister was a grown woman and made her own decisions. Honestly she could do way worse then the hundred plus year old man with a staring problem. He knew that Bucky would protect her and the kids with everything he had. In addition to that it was nice to see her happy again.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “It’s nice to be appreciated” she finished glaring at the rest of the table’s occupants.
“Thanks for the food Mom,” Cass added.
“It’s really good,” AJ chimed in.
“Yeah Sarah, thanks for breakfast,” Sam added.
“No problem. Ok I’m going to head out if you guys are still ok to drop the boys at school before you get picked up for the airport?” Sarah asked grabbing her keys.
“Yup, we got them,” Sam confirmed.
Cass and AJ jumped up to hug their mom goodbye and Bucky having finished his breakfast used that as his opening to escape and started clearing the table.
“Bye mom,” the boys chimed together as she swung her purse over her shoulder.
Bucky carrying a stack of plates in one hand and the empty serving bowls stacked in the other leaned over to kiss Sarah’s cheek on his way to the sink.
“Good luck with Dr. Space cape or whatever,” she called on her way out the door.
“Thanks,” Sam said laughing. “See you in a few days.”
Bucky pulled a yellow rubber glove over his left hand.
“Isn’t that thing waterproof?” Sam asked as Bucky started on the dishes.
“Well, it is,” Bucky replied holding the bright yellow appendage up as if inspecting it. “I just hate cleaning it out when stuff gets stuck the between the plates. It’s gross.”
“Fair enough.”
****
After getting the boys off to school Sam and Bucky were on their way to Afghanistan on their military transport traveling with Torres. Both were thumbing through the brief for their mission.
Someone was selling alien tech to the rebels up there. They needed to go in, extract or destroy the tech and find out as much intel as they could about the supplier. Usually they would not ask someone as high profile as Captain America to participate in this kind of mission. Unfortunately the dangerous nature of the tech involved made it imperative that they get in and and out with as much intel as they could. The CIA was on point and they were the muscle for the operation to keep it quick and quiet. The details they had were very limited, for security reasons, but they would find out more on arrival.
In the meantime they had several hours to kill.
“So you can feel when things are stuck between the plates?” Sam asked.
“Kind of,” Bucky replied. “The sensory feedback is there but it’s light. The best comparison is like when you have something stuck between your teeth. You know the problem is there but you don’t feel it in your teeth exactly, you feel it in your gums but you still know which teeth are the problem.”
Torres looked like this was the greatest day of his life. Sitting on the edge of a cargo container listening to Captain America asking the Winter Soldier about his vibranium arm.
“I think my life has peaked.” Torres said absentmindedly. “No one will ever believe me that this is happening. -Hey Sargent Barnes,” Torres continued. “Could I take a selfie with you?”
“Don’t push it kid,” Bucky replied. Settling deeper in to his seat, leaning back and closing his eyes.
“I’ll tell you what Torres,” Sam called out to him. “Once we arrive and I get suited up you can take a selfie with me, but until then let’s get some rest. The time change is going to be way worst if we don’t sleep now while we can.”
“Really? That would be amazing,” Torres replied barely containing his excitement.
“See Buck,” Sam called out across the plane. “That is how you get to be everyone’s favourite Avenger.”
“Well I’m not actually an Avenger,” Bucky quipped back. “I’m just a guy that showed up for a fight. Also I told you not to call me that.”
“Steve called you Buck when he was Captain America. You saying I can’t call you that now? Why is that Buck?” Sam asked with his best false innocent grin.
“God damn it Sam,” Bucky called back but Sam’s teasing was getting to him. Bucky’s face way pulling in to a smile no matter how hard he fought it.
“Wait,” Torres interrupted. “Wouldn’t Captain America get to decide who’s an Avenger now?”
Sam’s look of absolute delight was mirrored by Bucky’s look of absolute horror.
“No!” Bucky said.
“Yes,” Sam called back.
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s too late. My mind is made up. I here by declare you the newest Avenger.”
“I hate you.”
****
The mission didn’t exactly start off as expected. That is to say their intel was total garbage, the blue prints of the building were from two evil lair renovations ago, and there were at least two times as many goons as previously thought. Thankfully there were two full Avengers on hand or the mission could have gone very differently.
With updated intel from Redwing they came up with a revised plan. They were going to divide in two groups. Sam with a larger team would take on the front of the base being as loud and flashy as possible. This would allow 3 groups of two , including Bucky and Torres, to sneak in the back, download what they could and then blow the place to hell alien tech and all. It was a good plan in theory.
In practice there was actually about three times as many goons, not two, and a whole secret subterranean lab hidden beneath 6 ft of concrete.
Bucky had run out of ammo about 5 minutes ago and was pushing forward through the base mainly through hand to hand combat. Torres was following closely behind him until they got to a giant room filled with computer work stations divided by low partitions.
“Fucking open concept,” Bucky mumbled to himself. “I can’t wait for this to go out of style. So much easier to guard a damn door.” Bucky had been strategically placing plastic explosives pre-rigged with remote detonators as he went through the building. He placed his last two on support beams in this computer hub then made his way back to cover Torres.
Torres was typing furiously at a computer. Pulling a USB stick out of the chest pock of his tactical vest he inserted it in to the computer.
“I just need like 3 more minutes and we can get out of here,” Torres let Bucky know.
Just then two goons entered the room from opposite sides. One armed with a knife and the other a hand gun. Both looked caught off guard to find them there.
Bucky probably could have caught the blade that was thrown at Torres mid air like he usually did but the other asshole started shooting at them. Taking the knife in the shoulder seemed like the best idea at the time. Bucky was covering Torres and himself from the gunfire with his vibranium arm. Bucky changed angles to deflect the bullets from the shooter in to the knife thrower, then pulled the knife out of his shoulder to throw at the shooter.
“Oh my god, that was bad ass.” Torres said in awe. “Are you ok?” Bucky grunted a nod. Then Torres grabbed the USB stick and tucked it back in to his pocket and zipped it up.
Together they snuck back out the way they came. Met up with the 2 other teams and then radioed in for everyone to get clear. Once they got the ok they detonated to explosives and took off to meet up with their evac.
Overall the mission went off relatively without a hitch. Sam got a little punched in the face, and Bucky got a little stabbed in the shoulder but he took the blade meant for Torres so it all worked out ok.
Really all of them had come out of other battles far worse for wear. Nothing left to do but head home after a job well done.
*****
Sam was sleeping off the time change and the boys were quietly doing their homework in the living room. Sarah and Bucky found themselves with a nice quiet moment sitting on the porch out back watching the sunset. They were sitting on the porch swing, Sarah tucked under his right arm, head resting on his shoulder.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” Bucky started twirling some of her braids while he was spoke.
“Oh, oh,” Sarah joked back. “Don’t strain yourself.”
“Ha, ha,” he replied tapping her on the nose with his left hand. “Seriously though. My lease is ending in a few months for my apartment in Brooklyn and I think I should look for a place out here. I could help more with the boys, maybe pick them up from school so you don’t have to leave work early so often to get them. What do you think?”
Sarah rested her hand on his jean clad knee and slowly slid it up his leg digging her fingers in to his thigh just a bit. Turning to look him in the eye with a challenging look.
“I think that I am way more interested in having a place to hide away with you than I probably should.”
“Jesus,” he said eyes darkening and taking a deep breath. “I’ll get a hotel right now if that’s what you want.”
He brought his hands to her face tilting her head to meet her her lips. Tongues sliding together. Sarah’s hand skipped where he wanted it and came to rest on his chest.
Sounds in the house had them pulling apart and taking calming breaths.
“So that’s a ‘no’ to getting a place near by?” Bucky joked looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Crossing his legs legs ankle resting on knee to hide some evidence of his interest.
“Ha,ha,” she repeated back his earlier words. Returning her head to rest where his shoulder met his chest and listening to the gentle beat of his heart. “I think that it would be great to have you around more often. All jokes and fun aside you are one of the best things that have happened to me in a long time. I don’t want to waste any time.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” he answered resting his chin on the top of her head and breathing in her vanilla lavender scent. “And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
****
End
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