Our Own Little Fairytale
“Daddy, daddy, wait!”
“Yeah, baby girl?”
“Can you tell me a bedtime story?”
“Sure, princess,” Bucky said, sitting down on the bed, sinking into the dark purple duvet. “What about?”
“Uh...” She made her thinking-face, tapping her chin dramatically. “OOH! Can you tell me how you met Mommy? And how you fell in love?”
Bucky laughed. “Sure, sweetheart. Well, you know how Daddy’s different from other Daddies, right?”
“Yeah, ‘cause Daddy has a big strong metal arm!”
“Yeah, well, the people who gave me this arm,” Bucky clapped his left arm, “made me do really bad things, and I was really kind of messed up in the head after, so I ran away. And then Mommy found me and she took me to Uncle Steve, and they helped fix me up. And from the moment I saw Mommy, I thought, ‘Wow, she is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen!’”
“Aww!”
“And so I told her, when I was feeling more like myself, I told her that she was the prettiest girl in the world and I asked her out on a date.”
“And what’d she say?” you daughter asked excitedly.
“Well, at first she said, ‘Bucky, you haven’t slept in a week, you’re delusional!’” He mocked your voice. “And I said ‘Okay, but if I wake up and you’re still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, which you will be, will you go on a date with me?’”
“And then what’d she say?”
“She said that if she was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen when he woke up, she’d go on a date with me.”
“And!??”
“Well, I went to sleep, slept for three days straight. She talked to Uncle Steve when I was asleep, asked him if I actually thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. And Uncle Steve, being my best friend, of course, said that I’d been thinking about her all the time since they’d found me, and wouldn't shut up about her. And you know what Mommy said?”
“What?”
“That she thought about me all the time too. That she had a big ‘ol crush on me. But, of course, everyone does.”
Your daughter giggled loudly, and you heard her from down the hallway in the bathroom where you were brushing your teeth. As soon as you finished, you went to her room to see what was going on.
“–and then she shook me awake, because Mommy didn’t watch Sleeping Beauty and doesn’t know how to wake your true love up–”
“Like Prince Phillip did when he kissed Aurora?”
“Like Prince Phillip did, right. And then she asked me if she was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and of course I said yes, and she kissed me and said that Uncle Steve told her about the big ‘ol crush I had on her, and she said that she had a big ‘ol crush on me too.”
“And then I gave him a bunch more big ‘ol kisses,” you said from the doorway.
“Mommy! Daddy was just telling me a bedtime story!"
You smiled at her.
"Yes, and it's past bedtime, young lady. You'd better get to sleep," you said in a mock nanny voice. "Goodnight, Stephanie."
"Goodnight, Mommy. Goodnight, Daddy."
"Goodnight, sweetheart," Bucky said, turning off the light and closing the door behind him.
You turned to Bucky, starting down the hallway toward your bedroom. "So you finally decided to tell her?"
"At her request, actually."
"Weird. Usually she just wants a plain old fairytale."
"We have our own little fairytale. Starring you as the gorgeous princess, and me as the daring prince," he began. Then, muttering the next part under his breath, "and HYDRA as the villain..."
"And it turns out switched this time, isn't it? I'm the one who saved you. I'm the gorgeous, yet brave princess that fought the dragon for you."
"Only because the dragon had kidnapped me."
"Yeah, well, that won't happen again. I took care of it. Don't worry, dear prince," you said, clapping him on the shoulder, "I've got you."
"Actually, princess," he said, suddenly picking you up and holding you like he did on your wedding day, "I've got you." You laughed.
He carried you inside your room, throwing you down on the bed and crawling over you. "Now, isn't the rule generally that once you save the princess, you get to have your way with her?"
"You know, I've never heard that, but I like the sound of it."