Growing Together: Green Series 8 (Pre-Serum Omega!Steve and Alpha!Bucky AU)

Four

Arriving just as the other players were leaving the field, Steve kept an eye out for his player. Seeing Tony pass by with another boy, Steve wondered if he had been too strict with Oliver. After all, they were good boys. They always minded and didn't do bad things. At least, not on purpose. Perhaps he should be nice and let Oliver –

The passenger door slammed shut, causing Steve to jump nearly out of his skin. Whipping his head around he reprimanded, "Not so rough, yeah?"

"Sorry," Oliver muttered, buckling his seatbelt.

For a moment, Steve just looked at him. Cautiously asking, "Everything okay?"

"Yup," Oliver enunciated. Glancing at Tony and the other boy before aggressively turning to look out the window. When Steve didn't immediately start driving, Oliver snapped, "Can we go?"

"Yeah," Steve nodded, pulling away from the curb and waving at the man he assumed was Howard Stark's assistant. Again, wondering if he had made the right choice. Especially with Oliver clearly in a mood and his scent sour.

The rest of the ride was spent in near silence. Even the kiddos in the back hardly made a peep. If the air wasn't so tense, Steve would enjoy the quiet. After all, having six loud kids was a noisy, stressful thing to have constantly going in the background.

However, this wasn't a peaceful silence. And Steve was concerned. Sure, Oliver hadn't been the easy, happy little boy that he had once been. But he was usually more talkative. Especially after practice.

When they finally pulled into the garage, Steve was more than just a little relieved. Until Oliver raced into the house before Steve could even cut the engine. Sighing, Steve knew that whatever was bothering his oldest was bad. Then, he worried that the other little junior high shits had done something to him. Especially since Steve had experienced bullying when he was Oliver's age.

Glad that the kids were able to unbuckle themselves, Steve herded them into the house and looked in the direction of the staircase. Wanting to help Oliver, but not knowing how. Trying to think about how his mom handled this stuff when he had returned home from school in a similar mood. And all he could remember was that every time Sarah came to talk with him about his day, she came with a plate of cookies or brownies or cupcakes – on a particularly bad occasion – for them to share.

Deciding to take a page out of Sarah Rogers' book, Steve got the ingredients around to make Oliver's favorite cookies. Knowing that giving the older boy some time was the key to this working. The chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies were just a perk.

"Can I help, papa?" Kit asked when Steve returned from the pantry with his arms full.

"If you want to," Steve smiled, setting the items on the island counter.

As Kit climbed onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar, the girls noticed and hurried to climb onto the other, empty seats too. Smiling, Steve got a large mixing bowl and got to work mixing the ingredients together while the wall oven pre-heated. When everything was mixed together, Steve divided the dough so the kids could feel like they were helping.

Watching as the kids balled up small parts of dough, Steve decided that they had it covered and got their dinner out of the fridge. As he got the prepped meal ready to be baked in the oven, the kids filled their baking sheet with cookies.

Getting the cookies in the oven first, Steve told the kids, "Go play."

Of course, none of the kids were going to argue as they ran off to play with their toys. Cori pretending with her stuffed animals. Bitsy playing with the toddler LEGOs with Kit. Meanwhile Nevie returned to the breakfast bar with some Play-Doh.