Bucky and I were taking a break, finally, after shoveling driveways and sidewalks all morning. I can't remember how we volunteered ourselves for it, be we ended up going up a couple blocks on our street, on both sides. Luckily we didn't have work, so it wasn't like it was stopping us from doing anything important, but it sure was tiring. I hated January and February, when the snow came more frequently and it was heavy and halted almost everything-basically when the worst part of winter came. I hate it so fucking much.
"I'm going to be sore," I grumbled.
"You should work out more," he laughed, clapping me on the shoulder. "That was nothing for me."
"You're also a fireman who jogs in the morning no matter the weather...like a psycho."
He snorted, "Lady's love it though."
"Does Kim love it?" I teased.
"You bet your ass she loves it." I rolled my eyes. He and Kim had been dating for a while now. They were weirdly kissy and cuddly-not really how I expected Bucky to be. For example, they have movie Mondays, and cupcake Saturdays, stuff like that. It was a little weird honestly, but Bucky seemed happy, and that's what's important.
Speaking of relationships, I still haven't said anything to him about me and Connie. I don't even know if he knows we've been dating for the past two weeks. Part of me knew he was smart enough to put it together, but another part of me said I should still tell him, as a respect thing. I know I would want him to tell me if our rolls were flipped.
"So..." he raised an eyebrow as he chugged down his water. "Uh..." Terrible start off.
"What?"
"Has Connie told you...?"
"Told me what?"
I scratched my neck, looking away from him as the words tumbled out of my mouth. "That's we've been dating for two weeks." He didn't say anything, so I glanced at him to see his reaction. He was staring at the counter appearing to be thinking hard about something, before he looked up at me with narrowed eyes.
"You've only been dating for two weeks? I thought it was longer."
"What?"
"I thought you started dating after the thing for your job."
My eyes widened, "So you knew we were dating this whole time and didn't say anything?"
"What was I going to say?" he laughed. "I don't care of you date her."
"Oh...I thought it was like...weird I guess."
"Please, why do you think I told you to take her to the event thing or whatever? She wouldn't shut up about you." Wow. "So yeah, I knew. Besides, it's not that hard to see her walk across the street when she leaves-how could I not know?"
I shrugged, "I guess it wasn't much of a secret."
"We should double date! Double date...Friday or something."
"Connie specifically told me we should never go on a double date together."
He gasped, "Why?"
"Because we'd just sit there looking at you and Kim in disgust as you make out in front of us. And, she said she'd feel weird with you there."
"Actually...I see her point. I don't want to watch you guys all...couple-y." I rolled my eyes. "No double date then."
"Fine by me," I chuckled.
"Hey, but seriously man, I don't care about you two dating...I just don't want you guys to fuck each other up. Like, know that I'll kill you if you break her heart. And I'll never let her forget if she fucks something up with you."
I nodded, "I respect that."
"Sweet." I chuckled and tossed him another water bottle.
----
A couple hours later I was picking Connie up from work, waiting at the side of the building since it was the only place I could find a spot. I texted her, saying I was there, and stared out the window. She walked around the corner a couple minutes later, bundled up in her winter attire. I laughed at the completely fed up look on her face as the wind whipped her hair around her head.
"Hey," I greeted when she climbed in the car.
"Hi," she sighed before leaning over to kiss me. Before I pulled away she hooked a hand around my neck, pressing little kisses all over my nose and cheeks. I scrunched my nose, trying to turn away or tell her to stop-but she was relentless. "Wait, one more."
"Get off me woman." She finally let go, giggling at my probably rosy cheeks. I merely rolled my eyes and headed towards Pointer. "How was your day?"
"Very stressful."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah, there's something wrong with the computer system and it put everything out of whack in the whole building. Everyone's behind and deadlines are getting missed, things can't get sent or received."
I shook my head, "Something like that happened at the Inc. and we basically had to stop everything for a couple days so things could get fixed."
"Oh, I hope that doesn't happen."
"I'm sure it'll all get worked out."
She shrugged. "What about you? How was your day?"
"Bucky and I shoveled snow all morning then we fell asleep on the couch. And now my shoulders are sore."
"Aww, I'll give you a massage later."
"Perfect." I glanced at her, "You look nice and warm today, by the way."
"Well, it's damn near freezing out here. I had to wear my comfiest sweater to keep from turning into an ice cube."
I laughed, "Understandable." I saw her smile from the corner of my eye. "Bucky and I were thinking about going to the Rec Center tonight with Archie. They're having a free-for-all football match and we thought it'd be pretty fun. Do you want to come?"
"I..." she paused then changed her answer. "Sure."
"You don't have to."
"No, no, I want to. I'll cheer for Archie."
I smiled, "Alright then."
We arrived at Archie's day care and I parked in my normal spot. "Are you going to come in?" She froze for a second before simply nodding and unbuckling her belt. We walked up the small path and I held the door open for her as we walked in. The kids were all crowded around Jackie as she showed them something on her phone. After a quick glance around the room, I spotted Trisha towards the cubbies and gave her a wave.
"That's Trisha and Jackie, Archie's teachers," I told Connie, getting a nod in response.
Trisha came up to us, offering a smile. "Hello, Niall."
"Hey Trisha, how was today?"
"Very nice. Not accidents at all, and Archie drew a picture on the board for us."
I chuckled, "Did he?"
"Yup," she turned around to call Archie over. He walked towards us, rubbing his eye as he looked up at Trisha. "Do you want to tell Niall what you drew today?"
"No," he mumbled.
"What?! Why not? He'd love to know." Archie just shook his head as stepped towards me and hid his face in my knees. She looked at me and sighed, "I guess he'll tell you later."
I smiled, ruffling Archie's hair, "Yeah, I'll get it out of him." Trisha smiled back before looking back at Archie. Her eyes moved to Connie now, and her face paled.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I'm sorry. I'm Trisha." She held her, shaking Connie's hand a couple times.
"It's alright. I'm Connie."
"Girlfriend," I chimed in as I picked Archie up.
"Girlfriend?!" Trisha gasped then clapped a hand over her mouth. "I-sorry I just remember when you were very anti-girlfriend."
I shrugged, "Things change I guess."
A grimace of a smile stretched over her face, "That's lovely. I'm happy for you!" I smiled back, though I could sense the situation getting awkward. I took Archie over to get his coat and hat, helping him get it on before leading him to the door. Connie and Trisha were just winding up with conversation when we approached them.
"Well, have a good night! See you tomorrow-hopefully the weather will be better...or worse so we can cancel daycare."
"Hopefully," I chuckled. "See ya."
We went back to the car and headed back home once Archie was buckled in. Connie and I talked to him about what he did in daycare. He was very chatty with Connie-especially for her to still be relatively new to him. He loved asking her questions because according to him 'Connie knows a lot' and it seemed like he wanted to test how true that was. Everything that came out of his mouth was a ridiculous question that Connie usually had to make up an answer to. Honestly, I'm still just happy he liked her so much.
"Niall?"
"Yes?"
"What's today?"
"Today's Wednesday. Why?"
"I have something to do because it's Wen-day."
Connie and I chuckled, "What do you have to do?"
"I have to open mail and talk on the phone and buy shoes."
"Wow, that's a lot of stuff! Do you think you can get it all done before dinner?"
He let a sigh, as if his life was so exasperating with his busy Wednesdays. "I hope." I wanted to know so badly to know how this popped into his head, but I was happy to play along. It'll give me something to do before I have to make dinner then go to the Rec Center.
----
"What's first to do, Archie?" Connie ask, the three of us standing in the living room. "The mail right?"
"Yeah."
"Did someone right you a letter?" He looked up at me, asking the same question.
Thinking on my feet, I said, "Yeah! Bucky wrote you a letter from the firehouse. I can't believe I forgot to show it to you!" I jogged out of the room and upstairs, scrambling around for paper and a pen. I found the notepad that Bucky left over here once-it was from the firehouse and had the seal in the bottom right corner. Quickly, I scribbled a little message to Archie, trying to make it look different from my usual handwriting, before stuffing it in an envelope, sealing it and running it back downstairs.
"Here it is," I handed him the envelope and he snatched it away, ripping it open-almost ripping the letting inside too. "Well? What does it say?" I was interested to hear what he'd come up with since he couldn't read.
"There was a fire!" he gasped. "But Bucky stopped it and everyone was saved."
"What a hero," Connie laughed.
"Bucky is a superhero. He's big like one."
I frowned, "I'm not like a superhero?"
"No."
"Aw," Connie put a hand on my shoulder. "C'mon, maybe he's like Spider Man. They're both skinny with little chicken legs."
I shot her a fake glare, "You're not helping." She giggled and hugged my arm, resting her head on my shoulder. "What's next Archie? Talk on the phone?"
"Call Livy!"
I glanced at the clock, "She's at work right now. Want to call grandma or gramps?"
"Yeah! Gramps." I dug my phone out and dialed my dad. I didn't even bother waiting for him to pick up before putting the phone on speaker and handing it off to Archie. "Hello!"
"Hang on, you have to wait for him to-"
Dad's voice interrupted, "Niall, what's going on son?"
"Gramps, hello! I'm on the phone."
"Archie? Big man, did you call me yourself?"
"No, Niall did."
"Oh, he's your secretary, huh?"
Archie shrugged, "Where are you Gramps?"
"I'm at home. Where are you?"
"I'm at home too!"
"That's great! What've you been up to? Being good?" He nodded, still not completely understanding that Dad couldn't see him. They went on chatting about this and that. Connie's hand tightened around my arm to get my attention. When I looked down at her, she gave me a soft kiss on the cheek.
"Cute," I whispered to her.
She smirked, "I really should be working right now, but this is too cute to miss."
"Some time off won't kill you."
"It appears so."
"Mhmm," I wrapped my arm around her and leaning in to kiss under her ear.
Shortly after Connie and I started dating, we both agreed on taking things slow. She, well both of us, were busy with work, and I had Archie to take care of. It wouldn't be smart to jump into a relationship and end up struggling to balance that and our own individual lives. We'd kept it pretty traditional, going out on a couple dates here and there, having the other (and Archie) over for dinner sometimes. Neither of us ever slept over and we didn't really make out either-we were kind of just hanging out and I didn't have much against it. I'd rather we take it slow than rush into things and have it ruined.
"Bye, bye Gramps," Archie said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Bye Archie! Be good for Niall, yeah? Tell him I said hello."
Archie looked at me, "Gramps says hello."
"Alright," I laughed and picked up the phone. "Hey Dad, Archie just wanted to talk to you, but I'm about to make dinner."
"Okay, was good talking to the little guy. Hope you're good too. And Connie."
I blushed, "We're all good. Talk to you later Dad." He laughed before we finally said goodbye and hung up. Whatever Archie's last thing to do today was forgotten as I announced dinner was about to get made. Connie sat at the kitchen table, pulling her laptop out of her bag-probably giving into her itching need to work-while Archie helped me make an actual dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.
"Don't cook those," Archie frown, pointing at a little string bean.
"Why?"
"I don't like them."
"They're good for you."
"But-"
"I'll just cook a couple, okay? I want you to eat them."
"Do you have to eat them?"
"Yeah." He let out a grown before stomping down the step stool. "Where are you going Archie? Dinner will be ready soon." Without a response, he walked towards the kitchen table, clambering into the seat next to Connie. "Don't bother her, she's work-"
Connie looked at me, "It's okay! He can sit with me."
She said something to him that I couldn't hear, making him giggle a little as he peered over her shoulder. I smiled to myself and went back to cooking.
----
After dinner, Archie and I changed to get ready to go to the Rec Center. Connie was still working, frowning at her computer and writing things down in her notebook. I told her she was welcome to stay at my house to finish whatever she was doing, but she insisted she wanted to tag along. As I predicted, she mostly sat on the sideline, occasionally looking up from her iPad to watch a bunch of father and sons run around a football field.
At one point I ran over to her and put her iPad in her purse. "Come play with us," I offered, taking her hands in mine. I ignored the fact that my hands-and whole body really-was disgustingly sweaty. She tried to make excuses.
"I can't." She said shaking her head. "I can't run in these shoes. I'll make a fool of myself. What if I fall? Do I have to race someone?"
I wrapped my arm around her waist, still trying to tug her onto the field, "It'll be fun."
"But I don't know how..."
"You just kick the ball."
"Niall-"
"Sunny! You came out from under your gloomy work cloud to play some football?!" Bucky shouted from one of the small goals. While he wasn't looking Archie kicked the ball into the net, giggling when Bucky finally realized. He ruffled his hair before saying, "Give it a go Sunny."
She huffed and crossed her arms, "You only want me to do it so you can watch me fall."
"Well, yeah," he scoffed.
"I don't want to get dirty."
"We have a washer...but fine. Go ahead and be a stick in the mud."
"Hey..." she frowned, "I am not a stick in the mud."
"Oh, yes you are." He looked at me, wiggling an eyebrow. "It's alright. There's nothing wrong with being boring and no fun to be around. I mean, you could always keep Niall around with your riveting talk of stocks and politics, right?"
She blushed and glanced on at me before shoving Bucky's shoulder, "Shut up," she gritted. I will never stop finding their bickering funny. They were just like a pair of little kids, arguing over every little thing, just long enough for one of them to win. I laughed to myself as they went back and forth, Bucky teasing Connie while she tried to remain unaffected.
"Stick in the mud," Archie laughed, joining in now.
"Look what you did! Now he's calling me that!"
"Because it's true," Bucky laughed.
"No, it's not! I'm interesting..."
"Oh," Bucky gave her a patronizing nod. "I'm sure you are. You're very interesting Constance." She let out a frustrated groan before picking the ball from Bucky's feet. "Oh! What's she going to do now?!"
She carried the ball to the penalty line, clearly annoyed by her brother's teasing before slamming it down on the ground. "She's gonna shoot!" Archie cackled, running out of the way with his arms flailing around. I got out the way too, letting the two of them settle their dispute in whatever way they saw fit.
"Might wanna take your shoes off, Connie," I told her. She froze before kicking of her heels. I watched as she wiggled her toes in the plastic grass and black gravel, cringing at the texture. "Think she'll make it?" I asked Archie.
"Bucky sucks!" he said with the utmost certainty. "Connie can do it."
"C'mon! Let's get this over with Sunny!"
She glared at Bucky, a deadly glare too, one that said he'll never hear the end of it if she makes this. Even I was getting excited as I watched her take a couple steps back. I wanted to shout at her to use the top inside of her foot, to take a couple steps to the left before she ran up-I wanted to help her out. But, I kept my mouth shut and watched on with my hands on my head, not caring that there were about twenty other people on the field with us.
She took a deep breath before charging up to the ball. She looked so odd in her formfitting, knee length, pencil skirt and long sleeve frilly blouse, running like that. I watched as she kept running and kicked the ball, with her toe, sending it flying right towards Bucky's face. Instead of smacking it away, he ducked, avoiding getting his face smashed in, and the ball hit the back of the net.
"Yaaaayy!" Archie cheered running towards Connie.
As I approached her she whimpered, "Ow, ow," as she hobbled around putting her shoes back on.
"You're supposed to use your laces to shoot, rookie."
"Doesn't matter," she grinned. "Suck it."
He walked towards us an appalled look on his face, "You nearly took my head off! That's not fair!"
"Oh, waah, are you going to cry about it now?"
"You cheated!" Archie hugged Connie's legs, still cheering for her over yet another squabble taking shape. She put a hand in Bucky's face before bending down to pick Archie up, thanking him for his congratulations. The scene tugged at my heartstrings.
"Bucky sucks," Archie said again.
"You know what Archie? I'm just trying to live my life, I don't need your ridicule."