Oh No!
Sorry for the delay with this update, I’ve been hating what I write and always overthinking everything, so it gets scrapped, and I start again, but I have finally sat down today and stuck with it.
I’m not 100% happy with it but it has everything in it I wanted for this chapter.
Hopefully, I can get to the next scene started and it will help me push along and update like I want to do.
please excuse my mistakes, I suck at grammar and spelling as it is, but my editor tool is not working right now.
Oh No!
Things had been going great at the compound.
Steve Rogers continued to go on missions for Shield, as well as spending his free time in the company of his best friend and an adorable five-year-old.
Steve would get up early to go for a run around the compound leaving Harry and Bucky fast asleep, spread out in the captain’s bed, taking up all the free space available while at the same time snuggling up and offering comfort to one another in their sleep.
While out on his run Steve would often catch up with the many people he had met during his stay at the Stark facility, stopping to jog on the spot while engaging in light conversation with the many workers of Stark Industries.
Some mornings Sam Wilson would be around to accompany him if the man wasn’t off at work at the many other facilities he helped out at.
Steve had invited him back to the Avengers common room to introduce the man to Harry, but the ex-Air Force Pararescue man had taken work within Shield, returning to trauma counseling he seemed to have a never-ending list of patients.
It was good to catch up while they could, always saying they would make time to meet up for real but never being able to find the time. Living in the modern age seemed to mean you never had any time for socials anymore. After a good two hours of running Steve would head on back to his room to see if his roommates were ready to face the day.
Bucky would usually sleep in till around 7.30 or 8, having typically not fallen asleep till the early hours of the morning, Whatever sleep the ex-assassin had managed to get was usually disturbed and restless. Whenever he roused from his fitful sleep, Bucky was always accompanied by a drowsy Harry, who sleeps just as well as the ex-assassin.
Both were just stumbling out of bed by the time Steve was exiting the shower after his run. At around five-past-eight in the morning all three of them headed to the kitchen to start on breakfast.
Making meals together helped Harry see the fun side of cooking, Steve would let him add the ingredients when making pancakes as well as help to stir the mixture before Bucky began to cook them. The five-year-old was an expert at picking out the best oranges to use to make orange juice. Spending time in the kitchen with his family made the young boy so happy, Steve was so glad he could help to show him what being family was really like.
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Tony was taking every opportunity he had to spend time with the trio, If he wasn’t in his own lab working, he was hanging around, in the common area watching movies, and playing games with his son.
It took time for them to settle into a comfortable routine and be able to hold conversations with each other without Tony’s usual level of sass and offenses being thrown around at the other two adults. Tony would always be Tony, there was only so much censoring he could do long-term.
Despite the differences in personality and mannerisms the small group had quickly become like a family, slowly they had gotten to a point where they could be in each other’s company with no snide remarks or belittling comments.
The billionaire was just happy to be able to get to know his son. Harry was still quiet and tended to shy away from anyone other than Steve and Bucky, but the kid was trying, he was giving Tony the benefit of the doubt as the older man hadn’t done anything to make him weary, Harry was allowing them to interact more and more every day. Learning to enjoy the company and trusting that he was safe and being cared for like he should.
Tony was still wishing he could have a closer bond with his kid. He wished for a relationship with his son to be completely different from what he had with his own father.
He was never going to make the same mistakes as Howard Stark.
Upon arriving at breakfast that morning Tony dived right onto the fresh brew of coffee and began to devour it with gusto.
Today seemed to be a pancake day, one of Harry’s ultimate favorite foods so far. Tony always loved watching his son pick some of every fruit to add to his stack, as well as a healthy amount of syrup, seeing as he wasn’t quite clear for too much sugar it was only a small amount added, Harry wasn’t a fussy kid when it came to food, he was willing to try anything he was presented.
At mid-morning Friday informed the group of the arrival of one of their team members.
“I thought she was off on a mission for the rest of the year” exclaimed Bucky, Harry had gone right to Steve and clung to the muscular man’s leg at Friday’s announcement.
“Triple threat is great at what she does, did you really expect her to take so long? Should start calling her Karaops” Tony snarked as he perused the fruit bowl. Harry had buried his face in Steves's trouser leg as the others were discussing the arrival of Natasha. Tony was quite upset that he wasn’t the one Harry ran to for comfort. But the genius knew he couldn’t show it,
‘Baby steps Tony, BABY steps.
The redhead assassin made her way into the common room wearing her signature leather jacket and jeans. Her face was an unreadable mask, always blank and never revealing any emotions.
“Hello boys” Nat greeted.
“Natasha, it’s good to have you home” Steve greeted his teammate.
“It won’t be for long I’m afraid, Duty called and all that, Fury is calling you in on a big case Steve.” The redhead said while eyeing Harry who was still clinging onto Steve’s leg and peering up at the newcomer.
“I guess I got to go to work,”
Steve said as he bent down to pick Harry up.
“I have another job to do buddy, you going to be good for Tony and Bucky”?
“Silly question Capcicle , My son is always good,” Tony said as he took Harry from Steve. Feeling relief flood his body when Harry didn’t protest the change in position.
“Alright, it will be just like all the other times I go to work kid? It won’t be for long” Steve informed ruffling the little boy’s hair affectionately.
“I don’t want you to go” Harry wined softly from his place clinging to Tony.
“You will be fine kid; you have daddy Tony and daddy Bucky looking after you” Steve spoke before he made his way to his room to grab his Go bag.
He hated goodbyes.
He always felt like he was letting Harry down, but Harry would be just fine without him there, he had two dads looking after him. It’s not like anything could really happen at the compound anyway.
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Agent Haywood knew he was being watched very carefully since the Stark child mission.
He was just thankful he wasn’t caught bribing the lab tech off to hide the files,
He had someone bury them deep, in the lowest levels of the base and not even Haywood knew the location of them after he got what information he needed from it.
It was like walking on eggshells wherever he went people always watching his every move to try to find any truth to the rumors that were spread. When he found out who it was that leaked the intel, he was going to find them and make sure they regretted it.
Luckily Haywood knew how to convince others that it was just workplace gossip, and he had no clue as to what they were talking about.
It had infuriated him that Rogers had taken off with his potential asset, his boss… his true boss was coming down hard on him for the whole mess.
He had a lot of work to do if he wanted to get the brat back, slip away with him, and begin his new training to become the best weapon HYDRA had ever had.
They had lost their other asset; Bucky Barnes and it was about time they got a new one, even if it would take years to get the kid as good as Barnes, HYDRA had nothing but patience.
Haywood had to play it cool, his plans had to wait for the opportune moment before he could have his sleeper team move out. All they needed was Stark to take the kid out and then a prime distraction to grab the kid.
May plans centered on the tiny brat, so much riding one stupid kid. Being stuck at the French base was working in his favor right now. It would be suspicious if he made his way to America, it was a waiting game, and Haywood was a very patient man.
Steve had been gone for two weeks with no update of his return, Bucky had called Agent Hill multiple times for information but was always told it was classified and he wasn’t approved for briefing.
He had tried to get Stark to hack in to get the mission reports, but the genius was not as worried about Steve as Bucky and Harry were.
Tony had been busy trying to keep his kid distracted and focused on other things instead of what was happening with Steve. Bucky was so close to storming Shield and demanding Fury tell him everything.
It had been a tense few weeks for the three of them with no word. Harry was having more nightmares and Bucky was sleeping less and being grumpier during the day, he had snapped at Tony in irritation more than once while Harry was around, resulting in Tony sending him for a time-out as if the man was Tony’s own child.
Bucky would take himself to the gym and work off the angst and frustration. After a few hours, he was ready to rejoin Harry and apologize for snapping at Tony, which was started only because Harry said it was the right thing to do.
Tony seemed to be fine and understood, he never let it show if it was getting to him. The genius was just so focused on spending time with his son and was thriving on the attention he was getting.
Harry was opening up with Tony more and seemed to be completely fine with spending time with his dad alone. The kid still wouldn’t sleep in his own bed and would always crawl in with Bucky at night after the nightmares had started.
“I want Steve, Bucky,” Harry whispered one night when the nightmares were particularly bad, and he couldn’t fall back asleep.
“I know bud, so do I, but the punk just had to run off and continue to be the hero. He’ll be home soon; I just know it.” Bucky whispered back, running his hand through Harry’s hair to soothe the sleepy boy.
Steve better be home soon, and when he does show up Bucky made plans to have words with him about his continued employment with Shield.