Distressed // Steve Rogers

7 - Nothing Changes That

"The feeling's mutual, Buck."

"I know." He rubbed her swollen ankles while she closed her eyes and for a moment a comfortable kind of silence enveloped them. It was peaceful and calm and Bucky took a deep breath. 

This, he thought, is all I need. If this is all I get - this family - then I'm okay with that.

"So." He glanced back to the unstable crib and grimaced. "Steve. Where is he?"

"He's dealing with one very jealous eight year old," Talia grumbled.

"I thought she was excited to have a sister coming?"

"Brother." Talia peeked through one half open eyelid and grinned when she saw Bucky roll his eyes. "And that's not why she's jealous."

*

"Stupid boys." Jamie sat cross legged on the rug, her fingers clawing at tiny lego bricks and pulling apart the little buildings they had built together that morning. "I hate them. They're stupid and mean and stupid. I'm never going to talk to him."

"Ladybug." Steve sighed as he sat himself down in front of his daughter and took the lego from her hands. She reached for more so he took that too, and he waited. He waited for her to look into his eyes. "You can't just pretend he doesn't exist, honey. He'll figure it out."

"No he won't." Her lips pulled into a sad little pout and Steve held back a smile. She was the image of her mother when she wasn't getting her own way. "Uncle Bucky is stupid."

With those word Steve grinned and Jamie climbed through a small path in the sea of lego, crawling into his lap and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Baby?" His hands brushed over her hair as he rocked her gently. "You want Uncle Buck to be happy, yeah?"

She didn't say anything. In her silence was a sea of answers. It was in the way she held a little tighter around Steve's waist and buried her face a little closer into his chest. There were answers in the shuffle she did to make herself smaller and the huffed sigh that filled the air. Jamie wanted Bucky to be happy. Jamie just didn't know why he couldn't be happy as things were.

"Just because he has a date, it doesn't mean he doesn't love you, Ladybug," Steve soothed. "He loves you so much. But Uncle Buck? Well, Uncle Buck is a great uncle, isn't he?"

She nodded against his chest and Steve chuckled.

"Don't you think he would be a good Daddy one day too?" 

She shook her head.

"No? Why not?"

"Daddy's are boring. Uncle Bucky's not boring."

His laugh vibrated in his chest and as he pressed a soft kiss against his daughter's hair he heard a little giggle spill from her lips.

"Ouch, Jamie. That hurt."

"He's going to stop coming to see me." Jamie's voice was small and afraid. 

"No, baby. He won't do that. Uncle Bucky would never leave you. He's just going to bring someone new for you to play with. And hey, if you like her you two can team up and play pranks on Uncle Buck. Does that sound good?"

"Fine." Jamie crawled off of Steve's lap and turned her back to him as she resumed her destruction of JameCity LegoTown. "But she can't play lego."

*

Bucky stood in the Rogers living room, a comb in one hand and a tie in the other, as Talia appraised him.

"The hair's done, Buck. You can put the comb down now." She grinned when he sighed. "And no tie. Undo a button. Yep. Like that. Now put on the blazer." Talia stepped back, her hands resting lightly against her bump and she tilted her head to the left as she let out a low whistle. "If she doesn't want you, I might leave Steve for ya Buck."

Steve laughed from the kitchen and Bucky grinned.

"Now, Doll. Years ago I would have killed for the offer... but well... you're old news, Widow." Bucky grinned as he ducked - the cushion that had been thrown at him bouncing off of the wall and coming to a thudded stop at his feet. "Even your aim is tired. Damn."

The sound of Talia laughing pulled Steve from the stove and back to the living room. His arms wrapped around his wife as he stood behind her, pulling her against his chest as he peppered kisses along her shoulder and up her neck and his hands came to rest against hers on her stomach. 

"Don't worry, Runaway. You're not old news." He kissed her neck again lightly as she giggled. "You're perfect."

Bucky turned to face Jamie, sitting at the coffee table with a small pile of books in front of her, and pretended to puke. When she didn't even smile he frowned and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Why are you so grumpy?" He poked her side and she shuffled a little away from him.

"I'm not grumpy."

Her eyes flicked over the words on the page in front of her as she huffed and Bucky leant forwards, swiping the book out from her grip and closing it before placing it behind his back.

"Nope. You are. Now tell me why or I won't bring back ice-cream." He pushed the pile of other books out of her reach as she tried to take one. "Is it the suit? Is Mommy lying to me? Do I look stupid? You have to tell me. Best friends tell each other when they look stupid. Like that time I told you you looked stupid when you were dressed as a ladybug."

Jamie's face crumpled in confusion.

"I've never been a ladybug."

"You have. You were less than a year old. You just don't remember it. But I told you to your face you looked stupid. So do I look stupid?" Bucky grinned when Jamie pushed her lips into a tight frown. She was close to a smile. He just needed to push the right buttons.

"If you tell me, I'll bring back two flavours."

A ghost of a smile. And then big, fat, rolling tears.

"You're going to like her more than you like me. And then she'll be your best friend."

Bucky laughed as he scooped Jamie over to him and pulled her onto his lap, his metal thumb gently brushing against her cheek as he pushed her tears away.

"That, my tiny little green eyed monster, is not humanly possible. How could I ever have a better best friend than you?"

"You mean it?" Her voice was shaky and small and Bucky squeezed her tighter.

"Of course I do, Baby Widow. You're my partner in crime. My person. Nothing changes that. Nothing, you hear me?"

"So you won't leave just because you like her?"

"Nothing's making me leave you guys, you know that. Okay?"

"Okay."