Chapter 4
"Remind me again, why are we building the bad guys' space station?"
Peter looks up from the floor where he has all four thousand and two Lego pieces scattered around him. Bucky's eye twitches from the thought of the kid losing some tiny detail and then throwing a fit over this. He sits on the couch, trying not to move his heavy boots much – God forbid he steps on anything and breaks it.
"Cause it's cool , don't you understand?!" Peter gasps dramatically, scandalized.
Bucky smirks. It's so much fun to get all these childish reactions out of him.
"Shut up and watch, you're gonna miss the best parts!" The boy points to the screen.
Bucky lazily throws a pillow at him.
"Watch your mouth, lil' punk."
Peter ducks from it and giggles.
"I want pizza for dinner."
"Fine, if you also eat a big salad with it." Bucky's eyes are glued to the screen, where two of the most hilarious robots he's ever seen are bickering like an old married couple.
"Okay." Peter agrees easily, leaning on Bucky's leg.
Mark and Dum-E sleep on the couch near Bucky, keeping an eye on the dog cookies package that Steve gave him.
Outside, heavy rain is drumming on the roof and mosaic floor of the patio, the sound soothing and lulling. Bucky's been at this babysitting gig for a little over twenty-four hours now, and so far he's giving himself an eleven out of ten stars. Both Steve and Tony were clearly overreacting. Or maybe Peter is less of a brat when Tony isn’t home. Or maybe Bucky just has a special talent for handling the kid. Yeah, must be that one.
Not like Peter is being an absolute angel. They've had a few hiccups – about eating breakfast (“Only want yolks in my eggs, no whites”), about walking the dobermans (”I wanna go to the park, Buckyyy”), about the rain starting exactly when the kid wanted to go swimming. Bucky juggles it all like a pro, even if he says so himself – with bargaining, threatening to call Tony, and distracting Peter with the movie and Legos. The secret is in approaching Stark’s baby almost like an actual five year old – not like Bucky has any experience in that, but he’s improvising.
Everything got even easier when he puts “Star Wars” on – Peter starts blurting out excitedly one fan fact after another, and Bucky gets surprisingly invested into the story himself.
“This shit is ineffective.” He snorts, nodding to the lightsabers and prompting the kid to let out a scandalized gasp.
“Whaaat? Look how beautiful they are!”
“Mhm. I’d shoot his head off before he’d whip that shit out.”
Peter jumps up.
“You don’t understand, they’re driven by the Force!”
“Shmorce, my ass.”
The kid stomps his foot, and Bucky smirks. It’s fun to get him so riled up.
“Daddy promised to get me like the real one!”
“Hopefully without the actual laser though.” Knowing Tony, Bucky wouldn’t doubt for a second that he can get his boy a real working thing. “You’d cut your ears off in a moment.”
The kid actually pounces him, and Bucky spends the next ten minutes shaking from laughter and letting the boy attack him like a puppy.
***
They make a break in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and Peter spends the whole dinner discussing who can get dressed as who for Halloween.
“You totally should be either Luke or Anakin – we haven’t watched those parts yet – and-”
“It's either Harrison Ford or no one.” Bucky deadpans, pointing to the salad. The kid immediately digs in, apparently too excited to argue.
“Well,” he hums thoughtfully, still munching. “Stevie makes a good princess Leia, so.”
Bucky just can't wait to see Steve's face.
The rain starts falling even harder as they pick their marathon back up.
“That's who you should be,” Bucky smirks, pointing at the big-eared green creature on the screen. “Tiny, and almost as annoying as you.”
When Yoda shows off his powers, Peter's ecstatic .
They go through Cloud City and witness Lando Calrissian's betrayal, experience the Jedi training and Han's iconic ‘I know’ – and Peter nearly ruins the dramatic moment asking Bucky if that's how their love confession with Steve went.
Bucky nearly flinches when Luke loses his hand. Okay, maybe he does flinch a bit. And definitely squeezes his eyes shut for a second. He opens them wide when he feels something – someone – wrapped around his shoulders.
Peter is holding him. Bucky suddenly feels as if not only his arm, but his whole body is made from metal and unable to move. Inside, under all that metal, something is melting.
"It hurts?" The kid's voice is soft and sad.
Bucky sees his fingertips caressing the metal arm gently.
"It's-" He swallows hard, throat closing. "Not anymore."
"Good." Peter tightens his hug, clinging. "Did you make those who did it to you pay?"
Bucky can't help but crack a wicked mirthless grin.
"Yes."
"Good." The kid repeats firmly, cold iron notes in his voice.
He releases his hug eventually, but keeps sitting close, as if glued to his side. Bucky barely follows the movie events after that. If he just focuses on this moment, he can pretend that this – the coziness, the softness, the… family – is his real life.
‘It can be.’ Steve’s voice rings quietly and sadly in his head. ‘It can be yours if you just let it. Nothing is standing between it and you, except yourself.’
But Bucky knows how it works, he knows it too well . The more people you let close, the more soft spaces you have in your heart, the more love you let bleed into your life – the more weak spots you expose. More people get hurt, more chances to get destroyed. No. Bucky’s never letting it happen. Not anymore . So he shakes Steve’s darn voice out of his head and sits a bit further, distancing himself from the kid.
***
Everything goes south on Sunday afternoon.
“Excuse me, come again?” That's all Bucky can blurt out.
He stares at Steve on the laptop screen. Steve winces, his blue eyes guilty and concerned.
“I'm sorry, Buck. You know we both would give everything to be there, to head home tonight as planned.” Steve's jaw flexes. “Shit just got more…complicated.”
Cold creeps down Bucky's spine.
“How complicated?” He sets his jaw, mirroring Steve without even realizing it.
“Significantly.” Steve pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Nothing that we can't handle, but… Let’s just say we need more time to take care of the issue.”
“While you two need to keep laying low.” Tony walks into the frame, looking like he hasn't slept a minute since departure. “Keep looking after the kid, and under no circumstances he is to leave the house.”
“He's gonna be thrilled .” Bucky muses sarcastically. “I guess I'll have to play the bad news carrier role, huh?”
“Well-”
“Already played it.” Peter's sullen voice catches everyone off guard. Bucky turns around – the boy's peeking around the corner, hands angrily clutching a soccer ball, eyes stormy.
“Baby!” Tony starts, but Peter just flips the middle finger - at all three of them, apparently - and throws the ball at the laptop, missing and not breaking the screen by some miracle.
“PETER!!!” Bucky barks out in unison with Tony and even ever so patient Steve.
“Fuck off!” The kid yells and runs away.
On FaceTime, Tony looks even more tired now. Riiight. It's just what he needs now.
“Damn it.”
“We gotta get going.” Steve sighs out, glancing at their boss.
“Gimme a break.” Tony groans, rubbing at his left arm.
Bucky and Steve exchange a look. They both know it's an old wound peeking up its head when Tony's getting too nervous.
“I'll take care of it.” Bucky promises. “Don't worry about this, I got it under control.”
“Thanks, Buck. Keep me updated.” Stark nods while Steve is giving the heart eyes.
Bucky finishes the call, gets up and goes searching barely two minutes after Peter stormed off. But the little shit is nowhere to be found.