Chapter 9

1K 24 2
                                    

I walk into my room to find Bucky and Bear rolling around on the floor.
"How was the talk with your dad?"
"We made up."
"That's good. Just remember it's Saturday afternoon, you have until noon Monday."
"I know. How's Bear?"
"Oh he's just a bundle of joy. You should take him to the store to pick a toy out."
"Ooooh yeah maybe dad and I can do that tonight. I'm gonna introduce him to the team." I say scooping Bear up.
"Heyy I was having quality bonding time." Bucky whines.
"Oh be quiet Bucky." I walk out of my room immediately greeted by Nat.
"Is that a puppy?" She whisper shouts.
"Yes it is, his name's Bear."
"Oh he's so cute. If you every need babysitting I'll be more than happy to do it. You're such a cutie." She coos gushing over Bear. This is one of the few times I'm convinced she has a heart.
"Gimme gimme." She says reaching her hands out as I hand her Bear. "Does you dad know?" She asks while rocking Bear gently.
"Well not yet. But I'm getting there. I promise."
"We have a puppy!" She shouts jumping up and down like a little kid.
"Puppy? Where?!" Peter asks sliding out of his room.
"Jr got a puppy today." Nat explains.
"Ooo can I hold him pleaseee?" Peter begs.
"Sure Pete. Nat share Bear." I say causing her to pout.
"Does your Mr Stark know?" Peter asks.
"No not yet. I'm going to tell him now because we did end up making up. So can I have my dog please?"
Peter whines and hands Bear back to me.

We walk to the main floor to find Sam and Steve watching tv. Bear starts barking at the sight of new people but they are both too engrossed in the show to even notice. Bucky takes this as an opportunity to get back at Sam for being a jerk. He fills a large pot so the freezing cold water and I help him slowly walk over behind the couch.
Bucky whispers, "3...2...1 NOW!" He yells as we dump the water on Sam.
"WHAT THE HELL GUYS? THATS IS FRICKEN FREEZING. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Sam yells infuriated and Bucky and I just laugh. Nat and Peter start laughing and after a few seconds even Steve starts laughing.
"I hate you all." Sam mutters.
"Then why do you stay?" I ask.
"ThEn WhY dO yOu sTaY?" Sam mocks and I throw the pot at him in response which he catches thankfully.
"STARK YOUR DAUGHTER IS FUCKING CRAZY!" Sam yells.
"I know she's my daughter." I hear dad yell faintly from the lab.
"Well I need to go change now." Sam says leaving the room.
"Is that a puppy?" Steve asks.
"Yeah it's a puppy, his name is Bear and he's only like 5 or 6 months old."
Steve looks like he's about to cry.
"Steve what's wrong?" I ask.
"I could never have a puppy as a kid, I was too sick to take care of it and they always riled up my allergies." He explains.
"Here you go Steve." I say placing Bear in his lap. Steve sits in awe as Bear sniffs his shirt and licks his nose.
"Mine now." Steve mumbles against Bear's head.
"Hey where are Thor and Loki? I want them to meet Bear since they dong have dogs in space."
"They just left for Asgard a few hours ago." the British voice of JARVIS says over the loudspeaker.

"Okay well I have to go tell dad I now have a dog so can I have Bear please?"
"Can it wait just like 5 more minutes?" Steve begs.
"Fine just 5 more minutes." I say sitting down next to Steve and leaning on his shoulder. I close my eyes and before I realize it I fell asleep.

"Steve." I mumble groggily.
"Hey kiddo."
"What time is it?"
"About 3:30. You had a little nap." I lean closer into Steve trying to absorb his body heat and he pulls a blanket over the three of us.
"Keep napping if you want sweetheart."
"I-I can't. I have to get read-" I'm cut off by my own yawn.
"You're tired just lie down and I promise if you're still sleeping I'll wake you up before 4:45."
"Promise?"
"Promise." He confirms.
"Mmkay then." I say putting my head back down getting comfortable. I drift in and out of consciousness just enjoying the peace and quiet. I'm too tired to notice Sam creeping up behind me with a large pot of cold water.
"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!" Sam shouts pouring the freezing water all over me soaking me and Steve in the process.
"Asshole." I mumble. All of the commotion brought everyone into the living room.
"Sam now I'm all wet." Steve whined.
"You both deserve it." Sam says laughing. "Specially you Jr."
I go up to Sam and slap him across the jaw. I go to hit him again but he grabs my arm putting an immense amount of pressure on fresh cuts. I try my best not to wince and thankfully nobody notices anything.
"Stark your daughter is a hazard." Sam yells to my dad across the room.
"Let me go Sam."
"No I know you're gonna come after me again."
"Sam I swear to god if you don't let me go."
"Not until I'm sure you're not in rage mode." Sam taunts. He knows how to get under my skin and in this moment he's demonstrating that perfectly.
"Fuck off Sam." I forcefully pull my arm out of Sam's strong grip and I can tell that some cuts have reopened.  Everyone is too tense to move as I glare Sam down.

Bucky's thoughts
Doll tap your leg twice if you need help.

I discretely tap my leg twice signaling to Bucky that I was in fact not okay. I turn around and head upstairs to my room to change. I change into dry clothes and Bucky comes in minutes later to help.

"Alright lemme see you arm."
I roll up my sleeve revealing my arm all cut up and red.
"I'm sorry doll."
"What for you didn't do anything Bucky."
"If I hadn't pranked him earlier he wouldn't have come for you this afternoon."
"It's fine no biggie."
Bucky rubs a cotton ball with peroxide over the cut causing me to tense.
"You ok doll?"
"I'm fine just keep going."
Bucky rewraps my arm and leaves. It's now right around 5 so dad and I will be leaving soon. I make sure my arms are covered and head out to look for him. The first person I cross paths with is Sam.

"Listen J, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been teasing you so much I mean it was Bucky's idea to prank me earlier. If anything I should go after him." I stay silent for a minute looking down at my feet.
"You know I love you kid." Sam says pulling me into a hug. "Are you okay?" He asks pulling away from the hug.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"No im Jr."
"J"
"Sam I'm fine. Promise."
"Okay."

I head towards the lab to find dad sitting cross legged on the floor playing with Bear.
"I see you've met Bear."
"So when did you get a dog?"
"Today. With Bucky."
"Listen Jr, I'm not mad just next time please ask first."
"Deal. I have to go shopping for Bear, can we bring him tonight?"
"Glad you asked because tbh I wasn't up to fancy sit down dinner tonight."
"Me either." I say scooping up Bear.

Dad and I head out to the car with Bear sitting content in the back seat. We grabbed some cheeseburgers and fries and Dad happily shared fries with Bear.
"Does Bear want to pick out some toys?" Dad asks in a childish voice. Bear hasn't even been at the compound for 12 hours and my dad is gushing over him. We walk into the pet store and let Bear pick out anything he wants. He grabs a few chew toys, a bag of treats, a tempur-pedic dog bed, and a moose stuffed toy.
"Jr we need this!" Dad says excitedly holding up an iron man dog costume.
"Okay yeah that is kind of cute. Add it to the carriage dad."
Dad walks around the store quickly picking out some more items for Bear. He was having too much fun with this. After checking out we bring everything home and the three of us go on a walk. Dad and I talked about anything and everything. I missed spending quality time like this with him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and he in turn put an arm around my shoulders. We eventually take a break and sit on a bench watching the sunset.

"Hey dad?"
"What's up kiddo?"
"Can I tell you something?"
"Jr you can tell me literally anything and I'll be here to listen to you no matter what."
I nod my head and take a minute to try and figure out what I want to say.
"Are you ok Jr?" He asks more concerned.
I slowly shake my head no and my eyes sting with tears. Dad wraps his arms around me rocking us back and forth. "What's wrong baby?" He asks quietly.
"You can't tell Pepper." I mumble shakily.
"I won't I promise. Just tell me what's going on."
"I uh. I've been going through some stuff I guess. And y'know being an avenger is pretty time consuming so I always had a decent distraction but I haven't been going on missions recently so I don't have that distraction, and I'm left alone with my thoughts, and umm that doesn't always end too well for me. And I don't know what to do about it. You can't get mad at Bucky though. H-he found out on his own and I made him promise not to tell you." 
"Hey hey, I'm not going to be mad at anyone. I promise. Can I see your wrist?"
I don't say anything in protest so my dad takes my arm and rolls up my hoodie. He carefully unwraps the gauze and exposes the fresh cuts. His eyes start to water a bit but he says nothing. He rewraps my arm and pulls me closer to him as I start to silently cry into his shoulder.
"Baby this is my fault, I should have seen something was wrong. I mean I saw you change but I didn't do much about it, that's my fault. I'm gonna help you, I promise." He says kissing my head.
"I wanna go home dad."
"Ok let's go home."
Dad walks Bear for me and had his unoccupied hand around my shoulder. He randomly kept kissing my head and every once in a while he would pull me closer so I knew he was there. When we get back to the compound we go straight to my room stopping to talk to nobody. I quickly change into pjs in the bathroom while dad waits by my bed.
"I love you J." He whispers.
"I love you too dad."
I lay down exhausted.
"G'night kiddo."
I just mumble something  inaudible in response while I watched dad leave and I soon I was out like a light.

Avengers: Jr. Stark (Avengersxteen)Where stories live. Discover now