"That very night in Max's room a forest grew and grew and grew until his ceiling hung vines and the walls became the world all around and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and day and in and out of week and almost over a year to where the wild things are." Y/N points at a monster on the page Nat currently is reading on. The redhead looks at her and smiles. "Yes, it's one of the wild things."
"Scary."
"You think so?" Y/N nods and looks up at Natasha "Bad." She points at the book again and scrunches up her nose. Nat smiles at her again, ruffles shortly through the braid she had made and turns back to the book. While she reads, she feels Y/N's watchful eyes on her. "And when he came to the place where the wild things are, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till-" A loud crash sounds through the room and startles Nat for a moment. Y/N stares wide-eyed at her and clings to her arm until a second later tears jump to her eyes, and she starts crying. "Oh, Y/N." Nat quickly pats her back and rubs circles into it while she glares daggers at Sam. The man curses and picks up remnants of his scattered plate on the ground. She lets go of Y/N for a second to put the book to the side and as she turns back around Y/N is gone. She stares at the spot where the little girl had sat just seconds earlier. "Y/N?" She looks at Sam, but he shrugs his shoulders and picks up his food. "Y/N?" Nat looks around widely but sees the little girl nowhere. The redhead scrambles up and looks around once more before her eyes meet Clint's, who sits on the bar and watches Sam. He smiles and winks at Nat. Then he places his index finger on his lips and points with his thumb on a diaper-butt that peeks out from behind the bar. Natasha grins at him and slowly tiptoes over. Y/N crouches on the ground, rolled into a tight ball with hands over her eyes. "Y/N? What are you doing?" She tickles Y/N's sides and for a second, she forgets her sobbing and squeals but after Nat picks her up into her arms she returns to crying. "It's okay, Y/N. Sam just dropped his plate. He scared you pretty much, huh? Stupid Sam." Y/N nods and clings to Nat. The assassin stares once again at Sam who mouths a quick apology before he runs out of the room. Nat sighs and walks back to pick up the book before she walks to the elevator. "I bring her back. Let's wake up your lazy dads, okay, Y/N?" She calls to Clint before she looks at Y/N. The whole walk Y/N cries and Natasha can't calm her down. She doesn't knock on the apartment door from Steve and Bucky. She just bursts in and kicks open Steve's bedroom door. Bucky jolts up with a gasp and looks around confused whiles Steve just turns over and continues sleeping. Both men had asked Nat to watch Y/N for a bit so that they could get some sleep. Y/N had made it a habit to wake up four times at night for the last three days because of a nasty cold which obviously came with a headache. So, neither Buck nor Steve got much sleep.
"Nat?" He rubs his eyes and yawns before he really focuses on the red-haired woman and his daughter. "What's up with her?" He slips out of bed and takes Y/N in his arms, rubs her back and looks at his friend. For a second, he looks back at Steve, then he shoves Nat out of the room and closes the door. He guides her over to the living room and sits down. "We were reading this book." She drops it onto the coffee table. "Ah. 'Where the wild things are'. She wants to look at it a lot lately."
"I know. She knows quite a lot about it." Nat smiles at Y/N but the little girl just ignores her and sobs into Bucky's metal shoulder. "Well, sometime into the story, Sam dropped his plate and scared her. I couldn't calm her down and since I watched her for over three hours now, I thought I bring her back and let you guys deal with it."
"I see." Bucky rocks Y/N and swings her a bit in his arms which makes her actually giggle. A smile forms on Bucky's lips and he chuckles at the little girl. "Thank you, Nat. For watching her."
"No prob. Just try to sleep more. It's not necessary for both of you to stay awake and comfort her. I think one of you is enough. She won't die if she doesn't see both of you in the middle of the night. You're just spoiling her." Bucky nods and sets Y/N back down onto the floor while he guides Nat to the door and says his goodbye. The moment he returns to the living room he stops instantly and stares. "What are you doing, doll?" He chuckles and watches as Y/N bubbles at him and continuous what she's doing. She rolls around on the floor and into his direction. "Papa." She laughs and reaches out her hands to get picked up. "Up, up." Bucky laughs and picks her up but not without blowing a raspberry at her cheeks. She squeals and laughs and pushes his face away from hers. "You can walk very well, young lady. You can even crawl. So, why the rolling?"
"Roll, roll." She laughs and claps her small hands against each other. "Papa, berry."
"Berry? Okay." He blows another raspberry on her cheek but Y/N laughs and pushes him away again. "No, berry. Swawberry."
"Ah, strawberry." Bucky nods and looks back into the hall. Steve's door is still closed and there's no sound coming from the room. Despite his annoying, light snoring. "Papa!" Y/N bounces in his arms and pouts at him. "Berry." She pulls on his hair and he winces. "No, Y/N. No pulling. That hurts."
"Berry." Y/N pouts again. "Not until you apologize, baby girl."
"No."
"Y/N."
"No."
"Then you don't get any strawberry jam."
"No." Y/N whines and bounces on his arm again. "Berry." Bucky shakes his head and sits down on the armrest of the couch. "No apology, no jam." Tears spill down her cheeks again and she shakes her head. "No."
"Come on, baby doll. It's not that hard." He kisses her temple to show her that he still loves her, even if she's not apologizing, but it takes several minutes of clam talking to her until she mutters the tiniest sorry Bucky has ever heard. "There we go." He kisses her again, with raspberry, of course, and sets her down on the carpet before he walks over to the kitchen. He throws a look back at the little girl. Y/N rolls after him. He snorts and starts laughing. His laughing increases when he sees Steve standing in the doorway to the living room who just stares at Y/N. His hair is messed up and Bucky can see that he just woke up. The look he gives Y/N shows that he considers that he's still dreaming and lying in his bed. He stares for a solid minute until Bucky walks over to him and pats him on the shoulder. "You okay, pal?"
"Y-yeah." Steve rubs his eyes and looks at Y/N again. She sits next to the fridge and watch him with her innocent eyes. "She did that, right? Tell me I didn't imagine that."
"No. She did, Stevie. Man. You have to be tired if you think you have hallucinations." Bucky laughs and claps the blonde on the back and walks over at Y/N. He scoops her up and spins her around. She laughs and clings to him until he sets her back down and starts working on a jam sandwich for her. Steve just eyes her for a moment longer until she calls his name. "Stebe. Daddy."
"Yeah, doll." Steve smiles at her and walks over to sit on the ground next to her. He doesn't feel like sitting on the chair and Bucky just snorts at the sight. Steve leans against the counter and lets Y/N crawl all over his lap. Bucky gives her the first sandwich he finishes and by the time he gives Steve one and sits down beside him to eat his own, Y/N managed to get the jam all over herself, on Steve's sweatpants, the floor, the fridge and the cabinets on the counter. Steve eats his sandwich quickly, scrambles up and walks to the couch. He falls down and as soon as his head hit the pillows he starts snoring once again. The brunette shakes his head at him and looks at Y/N. "He leaves the mess to me. Is that fair?" But Y/N doesn't answer. She sucks on her jam-hands and looks at him. "How about we mess a bit with your old man, hm? Wanna draw on him?"
"Yes." Y/N claps her and smiles at Bucky. "Draw, papa."
"Okay." Bucky smirks, picks the dirty girl up and quickly walks into the kids' room to get some pencils from Steve's pencil-box before he returns to the living room. The pencils can be used to draw on skin when they are wet. He fills a glass with water and dips the pencils inside. Bucky passes a pencil to Y/N and she quickly starts to draw on Steve's cheek. The blonde groans and scrunches up his nose but doesn't wake up. Bucky lets her draw for a few minutes until there's no more room to draw something onto him. He makes quick work of stripping Steve out of his dirty pants and leaves him in just his boxers. Then he grabs Y/N and walks into his bathroom. He fills the tub with water and strips Y/N and himself down. He grabs one of the rubber ducks from his sink and throws it into the tub before he steps in himself with Y/N in his arms.
They sit for a while and Bucky watches as Y/N plays with the duck. She drowns it and lets it float back up or fills it with water after Bucky shows her how and lets it splash in his face. She cries just a little as he carefully washes her hair. She does that often now after Bucky managed to get soap into her eyes one time. Steve had shown him how to avoid it afterwards and it never happened again but Y/N seems to believe that Bucky intends to do it again. She never cries when Steve washes her hair. "You're feeling a lot better; doll, do you?" Bucky runs around the bathroom with a towel in hand. Y/N ducks under his hands with a giggle and crawls between his legs to avoid the towel. Bucky lets her have her way for a few minutes, hoping she will be tired and fall asleep quickly at nap time. When he catches her, he rubs her dry and dresses her into a purple jumpsuit before he tugs her into her crib. He sits next to her and pushes her down with one hand. She struggles for a minute or so, before she grabs her elephant and snuggles up to it. "Story, papa?"
"A good night story? Okay. Which one?"
"Monster."
"The monsters again?" He raises an eyebrow at her before he sighs as she nods. "Fine. Wait here, I get the book." He probably can tell her the story by memory now but even if he could Y/N always insist that they have the book in hand. She wants the pictures, not the story. He steps into the living room and searches for the book. The soldier finds it on the coffee table where Nat had left it and grabs for it. Steve grabs it at the same time and he's a tiny bit quicker. "Steve. I have to read it."
"Nope. I'll do it. You get settled and rest a bit." The blonde yawns and then pecks Bucky on the cheek. "You watched her while my tired ass slept. It's my turn now."
"You're just proposing because she goes to sleep so you have nothing to do."
"Exactly."
"Punk."
"Jerk." Steve kisses Bucky on the mouth and pushes him down on the couch without breaking the kiss. He runs one hand through Bucky's damp hair before he breaks the kiss and smiles at him. "Sleep." Bucky sighs defeated and while Steve leaves he stares at him. "It's my ass. Stop staring."
"It's America's ass, Stevie." Steve turns around to him and groans. "Tony told you?"
"He did." Bucky smirks at him and waves him off. Steve grins but turns around and walks to the crib while he shakes his head. "This man." He mutters to himself as he steps in and looks to Y/N. "Daddy, papa?"
"Papa's going to sleep, baby doll. I'm reading the story, okay?"
"'Kay." Y/N nods and settles back down. She faces him as he sits down, with her elephant pressed to her chest and almost half over her face. "Okay. Let's start."
* * *
"Now. Doll, go and play."
"Daddy, too."
"No, daddy makes the picnic. Stay in sight, okay."
"No." Y/N pouts at him and Steve is about to sigh and agree to playing with her but she's already crawling away a few feet to collect all the daisies she can get. Steve looks over the green place. Some people run around but, on the grass, where he sits with Bucky and Y/N, there's no one. Even the pavilion is empty. Now and then he sees some new recruits sitting there and eat their lunch or take a break from running. He doesn't mind, and he knows Y/N doesn't either. She's not as often down here as Steve had hoped after they build it for her. But she takes both of them down here occasionally. That is, as she was big. She wasn't big since this mess happened. And Steve worries. He talked to Bruce about it, but he had no solution for the problem because he didn't know what triggered the dropping or how to end it. They're still searching and it is just a matter of time until one of them drops, too. "Hey. Stop thinking. You get wrinkles from it." Steve looks over to Bucky who smiles at him. He softly reaches out and lets his metal hand glide over Steve's back. "What's bothering you?"
"The usual."
"The dropping." Bucky frowns knowing. Steve already talked to him about it and he has to admit that he's worried, too. Steve nods and runs his hands over his face. "I don't know, Buck. This is just..."
"Stop it, Steve. Yes, we're worrying but it gets us nowhere. Just... Just appreciate what we have now. Okay?" Steve lets out a dry laugh. "It sounds like something your therapist would say." Bucky shrugs and nods. "He did. He told me it's important to live in the now and not in that past. We shouldn't always think about the 'if's' but appreciate what we have now. And I have to admit that it helps."
"I know, Buck. Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I know he helps you a lot."
"Hey. It's okay. I'm not offended. I know it's hard for you. Just as hard as it is for me. But we manage. Whatever comes. We have the support from the others." Steve snorts and looks up to him. "I don't trust them enough to take care of us three. We're a handful."
"I know and I rather have them not to look after us but we don't have much of a choice though. They will manage. I hope. Now come here and give me a kiss before I punch you."
"Yes, sir." Steve leans in and kisses Bucky. They get a little lost in it but at some point, Steve leans back again, a dreamy smile in his face. "We should get her back now, hm? Hey, Y/N, come ba-" Bucky watches as Steve looks around. "Y/N?" Then he looks around, too. Y/N is nowhere to be seen. "Y/N!" Bucky jumps up at the same time as Steve does. They look over the whole grass field and walk around to peek behind the few trees. Steve even goes as far as to walk the whole way down to the lake but comes back empty-handed. Bucky furrows his brows and looks around before his eyes land on the pavilion. He motions for Steve to check it out and together they all but run up to it. The moment they hear the giggling they feel themselves relax. "Y/N. Thank god." Steve crouches down in front of her and Bucky is right beside him. "Daddy, bug." Y/N stretches out her hand and shows all the red little bugs on it to him. Steve sighs in relief and lets his head hang low. "No, no." Y/N whines and Steve's head shoots back up. He watches as one after the other the ladybugs fly off her hand and away to some flowers. "Bye, bye, bug." Bucky laughs, because it sounds a lot like she says goodbye to him and picks her up. He spins her around making her giggle and Steve chuckle. "Come on, you little spy. Let's eat some sandwiches." The blonde stands up and takes the still giggling girl from Bucky. He kisses her cheeks a few times and holds her just a bit closer than normal.
* * *
By the time they're back inside and stepped out of the tub, where they all three had taken a bath together, Y/N is tired. She whines a bit but hangs like a bag of potatoes in Bucky's arms. He chuckles and rocks her while he waits for Steve to get dressed. Then he passes her to the blonde and gives her some soft kisses to her cheeks and an Eskimo kiss to the nose. Just as Steve turns around to leave the room with her, Bucky speaks up. "Steve, wait." The blonde turns back around and watches as Bucky quickly slips his boxers on and walks over to press a longing kiss to his lips. As he parts, he looks almost shy. "Can- Can we sleep in her room tonight?" Steve smiles and runs one hand down his cheek. "You miss her more than you're willing to show, huh? Sure. Just make the room ready and get in bed." Bucky nods and presses another kiss to Steve's lips. Steve smiles at him and watches as he turns around to slip his sweatpants on. He sees Bucky's back muscles flex and, yes, he's looks at Buck's butt, too. Then he leaves before Y/N can make a sound and walks into the kids' room. He sets her down in the crib and lets her hold one of his fingers. "Now, sweetie. What do you want to read before sleeping? Peter pan, maybe?"
"No."
"No, hm. Alice in Wonderland? Or maybe the ugly duckling?"
"No. Monster."
"Again?"
"Yes." She lets go of his finger and smiles at him while pointing in a random direction to show him the book. "Man, I fear your turning in a monster yourself."
"No monster, daddy. Y/N." Steve chuckles at her and rubs her cheek with his hand before he gets up to get the book. "Yeah, yeah. Y/N the monster."
"Noo. No monster."
"You're right. You are way too nice to be one." He smiles down at her before he sits down on the chair next to the crib and starts reading. The moment he notices that she's asleep he stands up, wraps the blanket around her small frame and gives her the last good night kiss before he walks into Y/N's room to snuggle up to Bucky.
* * *
She opens her eyes to the dark room. Her stomach grumbles and she lets out a small whine. Slowly she sits up and looks around, rubbing her tired eyes and holds on tight to the small elephant in her hand. Carefully she grabs the rods of her crib and pulls herself onto her feet. She barely manages to look over the railing, but she sees enough. She shakes the rods, but they don't twitch, just rattle a bit. "Papa?" She calls out and listen but there's no sound. Papa is not scrambling up and walking down the floor. There's no groaning or light in the hall. "Daddy?" She listens again and as she still can't hear any sounds; she huffs a frustrated breath and looks around. She grabs her elephant and throws her over the railing before she tries to lift herself on it. It takes some tries. She falls on her butt, more often than not, but after the fifteenth time or so, she manages to sit on top of it. Her lucky angel somehow protects her from falling down and breaking her neck. She just hits her head hard on one of the rods and whines before she slaps it and whines as now her hand hurts. Free from her jail she looks around and inspects the room in the dark. She picks up some books on the floor and looks at them, even if she can barely see anything. Then she grabs a car and drives it over the carpet before her stomach grumbles. She searches for her elephant and finds it still lying beside her crib. "Elli, hungry." She grabs it and waddles out of the room into the dark hall. Knowing exactly where she wants to go, she walks through the hall into the living room and from there to the kitchen. "Elli, jam." She lets the elephant fall to the ground and grabs the handle of the fridge. She pulls and with a hard one she manages to open the door. The light blinds her and she cringes for a second. She searches through the fridge and then the door before she finds the glass Bucky had used that morning. Holding herself upright with one hand on the door she pushes herself on the tip of her toes and reaches up as high as she can. She actually manages to grab the glass and with a smile takes it out of the door. She lets herself fall to the ground and on her but. "Jam!" She cheers and pulls on the lid, turns the glass around and slaps it against the ground. The lid is stuck. It won't budge or even make a sound. The little girl frowns at it and whines. An idea pops into her head. "Papa, open, Elli." She grabs her elephant once again, the glass in her arms and leaves the kitchen. The door of the fridge still open and the light illuminating the room. She stomps down the hall and looks into Bucky's room. The bed is empty, so she tries her daddy's room. Walking up to the bed she sees that they're not there either. "Daddy?" Tears jump into her eyes, mixed with the feeling of being left alone, and she almost starts to cry as the calm and soothing voice of FRIDAY speaks up. "Your daddy and papa are in the empty bedroom, Y/N. Should I wake them?"
"No. I can." Y/N looks up at the ceiling and smiles. "'Ank you, 'day."
"No problem Y/N." Y/N smiles and quickly rushes out of the room, almost falling in the process until she stands in front of the door that leads to the empty room. Both, Steve and Bucky, had explained that it is her room when she's older but that it's empty now, so they always call it either Y/N's room or the empty room. Y/N slips in and walks to the side of the bed that's facing the door, where Bucky lies with his back to her. "Papa, open." She holds up the jam glass and waits but Bucky stirs for a second and then rolls over to face her, still asleep. "Papa." She raises Elli and throws her directly into his face. Bucky grunts and wakes up slowly. He rolls onto his back and rubs at his tired eyes before he looks at the elephant in confusion. "Papa, open?" His eyes dart to Y/N and for a moment he just looks at her. "Holy fu-!" He interrupts himself and slaps his hand to his left. Directly onto Steve's chest. He wakes up with a start and sits upright in bed. "What? Where? Who?"
"Steve!" Bucky still stares at Y/N. "Daddy, open?" She directs her gaze to Steve, and he just copies Bucky as his eyes fall on her. Y/N pouts and crosses her arms as both adults just look at her. "Papa?"
"How?" Bucky whispers and its barely audible but it's enough to push Steve over the edge. He falls back on his back and just starts laughing while Bucky still stares at his little girl. In a daze he takes the jam glass from her and opens it. She happily takes it and smears a large hand of jam over her face while she eats it.