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Number one: T'Challa is the strict parent, Bucky is the spoiling one.
Hilariously wrong.
Like honestly couldn't be more wrong.
It was the funniest one they came across in the first years, also the one most of their friends assumed as well, so it really wasn't that big of a deal that the newspapers dragged that one through the rooster.
Bucky just couldn't stop laughing about it.
Laughing as he watched T'Challa chase Tez another round around the living room, even though she was already wearing her pjs and had been meant to turn in for a last bedtime story fifteen minutes ago. Lia was asleep, but Bucky had no doubt she would wake up soon if the ruckus continued, bedtime was precious and one of the many rules he had set down right from the beginning.
Small children needed rules and routines, especially small children who had been traumatized, Bucky wasn't making that up, he had read enough about the topic by now. But routines went right out of the window on the first day of T'Challa coming by to stay with them for a while. T'Challa meant candy, meant greasy food and cake at all times of the day. Baba meant hugs and being carried everywhere, meant little presents and smartphones to poke around with.
Baba coming around meant Bucky could read about five books in four weeks.
Tez shrieked when T'Challa grabbed her again, swinging her high into the air and then letting her drop down against his chest again, cuddling her and blowing raspberries in her shoulder. Tez laughed and laughed and Bucky smiled at their antics, rejoiced in the knowledge that he was not going to be the one to wrangle her into bed soon. Or convince her to stand up for breakfast and cereal tomorrow morning.
Bucky liked healthy food, he liked to know where his food was coming from and he preferred his own grown vegetables to those bought in some store any day, and he liked to see his kids eat healthy as well. He was not overly strict, it wasn't like he didn't cave in then and now, he just made sure there were routines, steady going to bed and morning routines, teeth brushing. He wanted his girls to dress like they wanted but also not like lumps, and he wanted good manners to be ingrained in their heads. Polite and nice.
And once they've reached that point, homework was going to be non-negotiable. Homework first, then playtime.
If that made him the strict parent and in the future maybe even the uncooler one, then so be it. And screw those newspapers and journalists, thinking just because someone spent seventy years as a mindwiped puppet meant that he couldn't straighten his spine anymore. The girls loved him, even though he made them eat their greens and brush their teeth and did not allow them to eat cake for breakfast.
Shuri had, upon Bucky pointing out just how much T'Challa was spoiling the girls, just laughed and told him that when it comes to big round eyes, tiny noses and long hair in pigtails, her brother had never been able to say no.
"Baba, again, again!" Tez cried when T'Challa set her down and Bucky snorted when he caught the slight sign of regret forming in those brown eyes of his better half, but he leaned further back into the couch and focused on the book in his hands. Everyone had their own battles to fight.
"You need sleep, my little wolf, if you wanna grow tall and strong." T'Challa said quietly but out of the corner of his eyes Bucky could see how Tez pouted, bottom lip sticking out, trembling slightly and 1...2...3..."Okay, one last time but then it's really time for bed."
And a full out win for the little girl.
Yeah sure, press, T'Challa was the strict one, dream on.
Number two: Their children are wild and unruly and loud.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
That one nearly sent T'Challa into an hour long rant over privacy and the nerves those people had on them. Pacing up and down the length of the bedroom while Bucky frowned at the ripped seams of the princess dress for Lia's doll, biting down on his lip.
"Who do they think they are? How can they dare to make assumptions over the characters and behaviors of my children when they never even met them? Five pictures, that's all they have, how can anyone read something off of five pictures?" T'Challa grumbled and growled and god he was just so angry.
The American press was the worst ever.
Sending out so many false reports and rumors and blowing even the smallest assumption up into a freaking big article. It was insulting, it was degrading and it was absolutely not okay for these pigs to call his perfect angels such horrible things.
He had met royal heirs less well behaved, less well mannered and definitely less smart than his perfect little wolves. They weren't loud, they weren't unruly and they sure as hell weren't fucking wild.
"Language." Bucky commented absentmindedly from the bed, needle and thread in his hands now, eyes solely focused on the torn blue fabric.
"Seriously?" T'Challa turned around to look at him, "Those people are basically calling our children freaks and you're having a go at my language?" Bucky glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow, "Okay, I know how much I am overreacting at the moment but I will not let some bastards call my perfect little angels adjectives that usually are just used for out of control pets." He spit out and went back to pacing, trying to be silent, it was close to midnight and the girls were asleep and he had no intention to wake them up.
"You know what I'm more interested in, right now?" Bucky asked him and went back to sew the dress, "Wondering just when you set a google alert for us, Steve was bad enough already."
"It's convenient." T'Challa mumbled in defense and Bucky snorted, "Come on, aren't you angry, too?" He whined and then threw himself face first into the bed next to Bucky, energy finally draining out of him.
"Course I'm angry, livid over what they're writing and making up, but we know it's not true. Our families and friends know that it isn't true, and that's what's important. Not what those idiots are writing, but the truth. Tez and Lia are two of the most well behaved polite girls I know." Bucky said with a proud smile and then leaned down to kiss him, "Don't let this get to you so much, next week they're gonna write that the girls are too polite, or they're going to move on and find another target."
"I love you." T'Challa breathed out, rolling until he was pinning Bucky's legs to the bed, "I love you so much." Bucky grinned and set the not even half fixed dress back onto the nightstand to pull T'Challa up and closer.
"I love you, too."
Number three: Their children are longing for a mother.
Wrong and stupid.
Some rumors were just so stupid that Bucky couldn't help but laugh for hours over newspaper articles or headlines that Steve send him. ("I'm not buying those magazines." - "Stevie..." - "Listen, I need something to talk about with these mothers at school." - "Have you tried talking about your kids?") Longing for a mother.
Yes, because men were just unfit to raise children and every girl needed a mother around to survive and turn into a woman, that was just how biology worked, huh? If there was no mother, girls couldn't grow into women, they became monsters instead. Dear god, and they had told him the backslash over raising children in the countryside as an ex-assassin would be bad.
Bucky wondered what the media said about children who had to grow up with their Dad because their mothers abandoned them, didn't want them. Did they predict a future as monsters for them, too?
Tez and Lia didn't long for a mother, they were happy children who loved their Papa and their Baba and had never given even the slightest signs over finding it weird that they didn't have a mother anymore. Tez remembered their biological one still, remembered this cold woman who never was sober enough to do the simplest things like braiding hair or just dropping a kiss to a terrified little girl's head. Lia remembered nothing but the cold streets from the time before Bucky had found them.
His girls had two fathers, wonderful quirky uncles and an amazing aunt who was always reachable to talk, who would always be there in case his girls did end up needing a woman's advice. But Bucky had no doubt that T'Challa and him were ready and set to face and deal with whatever was going to come their way in the future.
Bucky wasn't afraid of periods. He wasn't afraid of bras.
All those people screaming for traditional family pictures could come and let themselves be punched in the face, they could come and let themselves by told what he knew these girls' mother had done before the drugs had taken her selfish ass away. She certainly had not been a mother. Mothers could be heartless, fathers could be heartless, mothers and fathers could both be unfit to raise children, genders didn't save you from that.
Children needed someone to love them, to raise them with love and respect and encouragement. And Bucky and T'Challa had all that and more.
"No, no! You're doing it all wrong!" Lia called out and wriggled off of Shuri's lap as she let go of her hair, Bucky looked up from the internet pages on his laptop – Steve and his stupid google alert – and then raised an eyebrow when Lia stomped over to him, "Papa, please." She begged and held out her hairbrush and hair ties.
Bucky sent a deadpan look at the stupid article still open in the tab and then picked Lia up, quick hands brushing long brown hair, sending an apologizing look to a scowling Shuri.
"Papa can teach you, Auntie." Lia said, smiling with big content eyes and Bucky muffled a chuckle into her hair as he began to divide the strands, "Can we play tea party with Auntie, Papa?"
"That depends very highly on when your Baba is coming back from dress shopping with your sister, littlest wolf, because they're bringing back flour that we need to make the cookies." Bucky answered and then tied the end of the braid, letting it bop down against Lia's back.
Bloody journalists could stick it elsewhere with their stupid rumors. His kids didn't need a mother.
Number four: Their children had to have been terrified of Bucky in the beginning, after all he was the terrible Winter Soldier and what trauma that could mean for both girls.
So epically wrong.
T'Challa got that article forward to his phone by Sam while waiting for his bags at the baggage claim area at the airport in Bucharest and he snorted so loud that nearly half the people surrounding him turned to look at him.
What bullshit.
What utter bullshit.
If there was anyone in the world the kids had never been afraid of, then it was Bucky. Who let Tez steal fruits from his market stand, who gave her more a week later. Who saved those girls from the streets. Who gave them a warm home and loving care. Who gave them a new life.
He remembered how thin both girls had still been the first time he had come for a visit roughly five days after Bucky had taken them home with him, how big and unsure their eyes had been while they had watched him. How careful and shy they had been until Tez had made that one first step, while her little sister had still been wary after two days. He remembered how angry he had been when he had learned under what circumstances those girls – his girls – had landed on the streets, thrown away like stray dogs.
Tez and Lia were afraid of many things, Lia even more so than Tez, he supposed her age had a lot to do with that. The world was scary for them, people were scary for them, because no one had ever treated them with kindness until Bucky had came along.
But there was one thing they had never been scared of, and that was Bucky himself.
Still grumbling he put his phone away again and grabbed his bags, making his way over to the exit while his mind was still working itself over stupid gossip reporters' works.
The only thing that had caused trauma in his daughter's beautiful little heads and souls was their drug addict mother and their alcoholic father who in all honesty should have never been allowed to have children in their state of mind. It was the fact that no one had done anything to save those kids, no one had done anything to prevent them from ending up on the streets where a five year old girl had needed to steal and beg to make sure her sister and herself survived.
And for fuck's sake, why couldn't they finally let that bloody ongoing discussion and comparison between the Winter Soldier and the man Bucky was now come to an end. It hadn't been the Winter Soldier who had saved these girls, it had been Bucky Barnes.
They weren't afraid of the Winter Soldier because they would never get to see him, the assassin everyone still kept on waiting to see again was dead, dead and gone, never to be seen again.
“BABA!”
He snapped his head up and all negative angry thoughts disappeared immediately, making room for the blissed out bone deep happiness taking over every cell in his body when he caught sight of brown curls barreling through a quickly parting crowd towards him. Letting go of his bags, he dropped down on one knee just in time to catch Tereza as she flung herself at him, pushing quick arms around his neck, kissing his cheek before pressing her face against his neck.
“Hello, my little wolf.” He said and hugged her close, all thoughts over stupid magazine headlines forgotten. Tez wriggled free again quickly, steady bundle of endless energy, and she grabbed the handle of one of his bags and pulled it along while he grabbed the other one and followed her. Followed her over to where Bucky was leaning against a pillar, Lia on his hip, watching the crowds maybe even more distrustful than her father.
Afraid of Bucky, ridiculous.
Bucky saw him first, breaking out into a smile and pushing himself off from the pillar, “Judging by that frown on your face, you saw that article, huh?” He greeted him and T'Challa groaned, accepting the kiss Bucky gave him, both of them ignoring the quiet 'gross' that Tereza muttered right next to them. T'Challa ruffled her hair when they pulled apart again and she grinned up at him, poking the full bag she had been pulling.
“It's stupid.” T'Challa pointed out and Bucky snorted, blowing a light raspberry against Lia's cheek who giggled and lost the scowl on her cute little face, hands reaching out for T'Challa, “Hello, my sweet little angel.” He greeted his little sweetheart and took her into his arms, Lia giggled louder, pushing herself up against his chest to touch her nose to his. Neither of them really knew where she had gotten that gesture from but they found it utterly adorable.
“Of course it's stupid.” Bucky agreed and grabbed his bag so that he could carry Lia, “It's gossip, Chall. Fox News as a source. What are you even expecting?”
“You're not bothered by it?” T'Challa wanted to know and Bucky laughed, gently pulling Tez left when she turned right outside the airport building.
“I was woken up by butterfly kisses all over my face this morning. Lia helped me make breakfast while Tez took Misha to bring the animals out onto the field. And then we spent hours making cake and cookies and drawing a welcome poster for Baba. Then I got to sit down for a fashion show to determine which outfit would be best to greet Baba at the airport.” Bucky listed down and T'Challa found himself smiling more and more with every word as they approached the jeep, “I didn't have time to be bothered by anything today.”
T'Challa sighed, trying to push those thoughts out of his head while Bucky opened the trunk and put the bags inside, letting Tez help. They buckled the kids into the booster seats on the back seats and only when the doors were closed did Bucky pull him into his arms and kiss him again.
“Stop thinking about it, okay? We both know it's not true. If they want to keep talking about the Winter Soldier, then so be it, as long as they let me live my life and leave us and the children alone, they can say whatever they want. I know that our kids love us, that they trust us and never have been scared of us.” Bucky quietly said to him and T'Challa nodded, kissing his forehead.
“And that's all that matters.” T'Challa finished it for him, “Let's get home then, I wanna see that welcome poster.”
Number five: Is a man from the thirties even fit to raise children in today's time? Man out of time unfit to raise well adjusted children?
Just come out and fight him face to face.
They were in New Orleans when that one appeared on several internet platforms and then the bigger gossip ones as well, visiting the Wilson family a week after Riley's birthday.
“Uncle Steve, no!” Tereza called out and swooped in between Steve and the tablet in his hands, quick fingers flying over the display to save the game he had been about to lose again, “Like this!” She said in English, turning her head sideways to see Steve's reaction. Both girls spoke good English, more fluent than many politicians T'Challa had been forced to interact with.
And that was mostly Bucky's achievement. Bucky who spoke English and Romanian with them, who spent a lot of time making sure Tez's homework assignments were done correctly. She was home-schooled, and Lia would be too, security and distance reasons, but both girls were smart and so far excelled at what they were being faced with.
Technology included.
“But that's what I did.” Steve complained, looking truly puzzled and Tez heaved a sigh that was so much Bucky that T'Challa had to hide his grin in the soft yellow blanket that was wrapped around the baby in his arms. Sady Wilson was asleep, completely oblivious to her father's attempt to comprehend the game Tez had been trying to explain to him for half an hour now. After she had learned it from Riley in under three minutes yesterday.
From the kitchen he could hear Bucky and Sam laughing as they prepared the meat for the barbeque they wanted to throw later, and out on the patio Riley was chasing after Lia. If these weren't well adjusted children, then T'Challa had no idea where the stupid norm was supposed to be.
Their girls were smart, could read way beyond their age level, spoke two languages almost perfectly and were picking up random words in Russian and Wakandian already. They knew more most plants than T'Challa himself did, they handled the animals on the farm with complete ease, they helped Bucky out on the market. They were polite, well mannered and absolutely perfect.
And of course they threw a temper tantrum from time to time, had bad days where they wanted to be moody, but they were children, they were allowed to misbehave then and now.
But seriously? A man out of time unfit to raise children? What was that even supposed to mean? Bucky raised their girls with good values, with a healthy view on money and work and family, he was a fast learner and good in adapting to new things, and he taught the same to their children. Couldn't be better in T'Challa's eyes.
Number six: It's all just a PR stunt to let the aloof Black Panther have a softer side in the eye of the public.
So wrong and what the hell?
Bucky blew up at that one. It was the first one that sent him into angry outbursts that had him rant and pacing angrily on the living room floor while the girls played outside with Misha, throwing the ball and letting him bring it back to them. The sun was shining after a long weekend of just rain and gloomy sky, the new baby sheep and baby goats were skipping over the meadows, happy to explore in the first warm days since their births.
The cats were sprawled across the patio floor, soaking up the sun since hours. It was such a beautiful day, there wasn't even dishes or laundry to be done. No harvesting today, no big dinner preparations needed.
And there he was, not enjoying the day, but freaking out over newspaper headlines.
“Do you remember nine months ago when you told me that I'm overreacting and shouldn't take things so serious?” T'Challa's voice came over the speaker of his laptop, the hologram next to the coffee table moved its lips and T'Challa's face frowned at him.
“That was then, this is now.” Bucky snapped and then groaned, dragging both hands over his face he stopped his pacing to sit down on the couch, looking directly into the camera of his laptop.
“Nine months ago, the papers were making up stupid rumors about the girls that everyone would immediately see to be utterly wrong if they spent even a second in their presence.” He went on, “This here now? This is a slap right in your face, this is a personal hit, this is not something that can be disproved by just waiting it out.”
“Buck...”
“No, don't Buck me here. This is not okay, this is implying we took these girls in...adopted our children because your publicity needed a better image, needed some softening. That isn't fair to you, it's not fair to me and it sure as hell isn't fair to our daughters.” He yelled in the end, quickly reigning himself in again before his voice could rise any higher, “Our daughters are not a publicity stunt, they are not some tool to soften anyone's image to the eyes of people who don't give a shit anyway.”
“Bucky...”
“Why is this not bothering you?” He snapped at the hologram, watching with anger in his veins now how T'Challa sighed and dragged a hand over his face himself.
“It is bothering me, okay? Of course it's bothering me, I don't find this good either, but there...What should I do, Buck? Make a statement? Give them the attention they want? Say something that they can use against me? We know the truth, our family and friends know the truth, and this will blow over just like any other bullshit they created.” T'Challa told him, affected but not completely swept away into fury like Bucky had been about five minutes after reading the headline.
“It crossed a line. This is a direct hit against our family, and I don't like it when someone moves against my family.” Bucky grumbled and then fell back against the couch pillows, T'Challa watched him closely.
“I'm coming home.” He said then and Bucky snapped his head around to stare at him, mouth open for a protest immediately, “No, don't try and stop me. The hearings for the new additions to the Accords are basically over. I don't need to be here for the last figments of detailed descriptions. I'm coming home, I want to be with my family right now. You need me right now, and I need you, too.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Bucky. I'll be there in a few hours.”
--
T'Challa was in the middle of a cuddle pile between two kids, a dog and two cats when Bucky switched to CNN for an evening check in, a habit he had grown used to. And sitting in his favourite armchair with a book on his lap and a smile on his face, he did blink in more than just shock when he saw T'Challa being confronted by several reports and paparazzi outside the UN building in New York.
“What the...” He began and then quickly pressed his lips shut again when Tez glanced his way, T'Challa looked up where he was mostly buried under their youngest and Misha by now. The dog slipped to the ground with a distinctive whistle though and Lia squealed when he swung her upright and fully onto his tighs, “What is this?”
“Just because I didn't want to rip someone a new one, doesn't mean I wasn't pissed at them.” T'Challa said and Bucky quickly looked back to the TV screen, the T'Challa on screen, wearing that sharp dark blue suit from the hearing still, was walking with quick determined steps towards the car waiting for him. He ignored the people calling for him as best as possible until something crossed over his face and he stopped with a dangerous little smile on his face, back in his living room, Bucky raised an eyebrow.
“Why are you leaving this early?” Another reporter from CNN kept on shouting over the chaos of questions floating around and T'Challa turned to him, “Has something happened with the Accords? Have there been arguments again?”
“The hearing for the Accords went wonderful, we added good and well thought through new details to it to make their execution easier and more comprehensible.” The man who had led a country not three years ago answered calmly and Bucky couldn't help but chuckle over the gobsmacked look on the reporter's face.
“Then why are you leaving early?” The question came again and on screen T'Challa smiled just as sweet as the real one sitting on the couch surrounded by their daughters and cats did.
“The rumors that FOX News has been circulating about me and a supposed PR stunt have hurt my family and me deeply and I am flying home early now to be with them and assure them that I love my partner and my daughters very much. I do not care over what the American press is saying about me, but they hurt my children with this and I cannot stand for that. Have a beautiful day.” And then he walked off towards his car and in the background the reporters zeroed in on the red faced FOX colleague.
Bucky grinned and turned off the TV once the replay of that moment was done and then got up, crossed over to the couch and picked Tez up just long enough to take her place next to T'Challa. He repositioned her on his lap and leaned against a strong shoulder, Misha placed his head on his right knee.
It didn't matter what the world had to say, they were happy. Their family was happy.