Longing (Steve Rogers x reader)

Bucky's insight

Steve was distraught when you left, and buried himself in the corner of the room to do his painting. He sent texts to almost everyone on the team asking if they knew where you were, as well as to you but you were not answering. He was only able to relax when Bruce wrote back and told him that you were with him and Natasha. He started out with just a blue base on the canvas, but ended up pulling a reference photo from his phone from when you went to the butterfly sanctuary with him, and he started painting one of the pictures where you had a butterfly in your hair, and you were looking at one on your hand. He sketched with a rigger brush, then worked mainly on the background before he worked on the middleground and foreground. The painting was coming together nicely but still needed quite a bit of work. He heard a knock at the door before it opened up and in came Bucky carrying a six pack of beer.
"Trouble in paradise?" Bucky came all the way in and set the beer on the coffee table unceremoniously.
"I hope not," Steve grimaced and cleaned his brush. He put his wet painting pallet down and sealed it so the paint would not dry up, and brought his glass of pigmented water and the brushes he had used to the kitchenette sink and washed them thoroughly with soap and water. He set the clean dish and brushes to the side and sighed since Bucky's only response was to open a beer and sit down on the chair and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Do you mind?" Steve asked him.
"Not at all" Bucky shrugged and kept his feet planted, and a relaxed demeanor. He grabbed another beer and cracked it open and held it out expectantly. Steve sighed and came over to accept it before he took a seat on the love seat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He took a sip and gave a heavy sigh. "I can wait all day, Punk" Bucky prompted him.
"I brought up kids," Steve admitted.
"And she ran?" Bucky asked him.
"Right out the door with her knitting needles and yarn. She's over at Nat and Bruce's place" Steve grimaced.
"What did she say?" he asked him.
"She doesn't have anywhere to go if she got pregnant. She's scared. I tried telling her she would always be with me, but I can't tell her I'm in the process of buying us a real home for weekends and if she does end up pregnant" Steve took another sip of beer and rubbed between his eyebrows.
"Just give her time. The way you two go at it, I'm surprised she isn't already" Bucky chuckled.
"This is serious," Steve frowned.
"Well I hope you wouldn't take it lightly" Bucky shot back quickly. "In fact this is very serious," he added. "She puts everything she has into missions, and gets hurt often enough. What would she do if we pulled her from missions? Until you have that house to give her reassurance, she will think she's going back on the street again for taking that step with you"
"You see it more from her perspective than mine" Steve winced.
"Well you are easy. You've been waiting over a hundred years for the perfect partner, and you just want it all at once. You've been dating just over a couple of months, and you're already primed and ready to pop the question, and start a family after all this time. It's not the forties anymore, we don't get to just jump the gun like they did in the old days" Bucky shrugged. "In fact, you should probably talk to Tony about what would happen if things just went the way you wanted them to."
"I will" Steve took in Bucky's words and really seemed to be deep in thought. The two of them both finished their beer's. Bucky grabbed a second one and opened it and took a long drink before looking at Steve expectantly. "What? Now?!" Steve asked in surprise.
"Your girl is over there probably having a panic attack over this and you are sitting there painting. Be the man of action that she knows and loves" Bucky rolled his eyes at his best friend. "I'll be waiting right here with Roxy and Tom until you get back"
"Okay, if she comes back..." Steve started to say.
"Yeah yeah, stall her till you get back" Bucky nodded and Steve jumped up.

Steve knocked on Tony's suite door a few times before the door opened up to Pepper in an oversized cerulean blue sweater, and black leggings. Her strawberry hair was up in a messy bun, and Tony was sitting in his oversized suite with a black track suit on. They were clearly taking advantage of a day together watching movies and Steve had the good sense to look a little contrite.
"Steve? What are you doing here?" Pepper asked, inviting him in. "You never come over" she added, standing back with her arms crossed worriedly.
"Is this about Y/N, because I have no idea where she is" Tony put his hands up. "But I can check the hallway cameras," he added quickly.
"She's with Nat and Bruce, it's not really about that" Steve came in and Pepper gestured to one of their overstuffed chairs for Steve to sit down. Steve took a seat and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees again.
"You smell like beer," Tony remarked. "At least I know you can't get drunk unless it's with Asgardian mead, but you don't smell like that," he added.
"What if Y/N gets pregnant?" Steve asked, jumping right to the subject. Pepper went over and sat beside Tony on the couch and she gave a knowing smile and Tony heaved a sigh.
"Then she works in the lab, it's not like she doesn't have the brains. She gets a year maternity leave, and then we will put her back in the lab and into training until she's mission ready again. If she doesn't want to do missions, then we let her stay in the lab" Tony said simply.
"We talked about this," Pepper said softly.
"What would she do in the lab?" Steve seemed curious.
"Well, we need someone to do data entry for now. Once that's all caught up, we would train her in biochemistry with Bruce. He would probably have a field day teaching her. Maybe once she's ready we will send her to school to get a full degree" Tony shrugged. "She's fast on her feet, and with computers. I could even train her on my end of the lab" he added with flourish.

"So she would always stay on the compound?" Steve asked for clarification.
"She's a part of this family, of course!" Pepper said quickly.
"Pepper is right, she is a valuable member of this fucked up family and we wouldn't want her anywhere else" Tony agreed.
"Is that what you were so worried about?" Pepper asked him.
"It's what she's worried about," Steve said softly, looking relieved.
"We could start now, pull her off missions and start her in the lab" Tony offered.
"I don't think she would like that," Steve chuckled and shook his head.
"LIke it or not, she's been getting injured and I don't like it" Tony advised him. "She's precious to us," he added a little hesitantly. "I'll talk to her," he decided.
"Let me talk to her, she might think she's in trouble if you do it" Steve gave a ghost of a smile.
"If you change your mind, let us know" Pepper reached out and touched Steve on his arm. He gave a nod and stood up.
"Thank you for talking to me" Steve said and let himself out again, hearing both of them say anytime as he left. He walked slowly down the hallway, pausing outside of Nat and Bruce's suite and pressed his ear against the door. He could hear a movie playing on the other side of the door, and he nodded to himself as he walked away.

Steve walked back into his suite and saw Bucky had left him one beer and he had Roxy up on his lap, and Tom on his shoulder just purring away. Bucky had also turned on the TV and was watching a documentary on space, seeming perfectly calm and at peace.
"Did you do it?" he asked Steve without looking up.
"Yeah, they already had a game plan in place" Steve nodded and took the last beer before sitting down. He ran his fingers through his hair and gave a soft sigh. "I should have known Tony would be one step ahead of me" he gave a slight chuckle.
"Tony's a smart man, but so are you" Bucky paused his show. "What now?" he asked.
"I'm going to let her have her space and I'll talk to her tonight. I was reviewing the mission dockets for the week, and there isn't much for us to do. It's mainly staying in and gym time. Wanda, Vision, Scott, Pietro and Peter are headed out for a mission together on Wednesday. Shield hasn't contacted us for backup on anything, and they are getting data on why Hydra was trying to trap you and Y/N in a room. It's mainly playing it by ear at this point" Steve confided.
"Did you do that on purpose?" Bucky asked him point blank.
"Tony had already created the docket, I just approved it and reviewed some of the missions that Shield is working on. There's nothing too big for them to handle that they would need one of us to help out on. The good thing is we will all have half days in the gym and the rest of the time we will have to ourselves" Steve said and the two of them went into a calm silence.
Steve started thinking again about the possibility of children and having a family of his own. It was something he had always wanted, and had always been waiting for the right partner to have to go with him down that road. You were perfect. You were all he wanted. He had left the door open a crack and looked over to make sure that you weren't coming in. Bucky unpaused his show and turned it back on. Steve watched with mild interest, while he started planning in his mind how he was going to pop the question. He knew he had already taken you to Paris, but you seemed to enjoy the smaller things in life too. You didn't need to be impressed by big displays of love or money. He considered bringing you back to Paris to the same restaurant and then proposing on the Eiffel tower, but that seemed almost too cliche. He considered a weekend away, but he also knew that you missed going to Clint's place on the weekend. You loved his family, and they loved you. He took several things into consideration and formulated his plan. "Hey punk, it's time for supper" Bucky turned off the tv. Steve had barely noticed so much time had passed. He heard you, Bruce, Nat, and Loki out in the hallway, and Loki's cryptic comment as he had passed by and it made him wonder, but also hope. He cleaned up the living room with Bucky's help and then followed Bucky out of the room with Roxy and Tom in tow. Bucky paused at his suite to open the door a bit wider and Alpine came out and climbed up his leg and perched on his shoulder as they made their way to their evening meal.