James "Bucky" Barnes was a man of few words and many secrets.
One of his biggest secrets was that he was born an Omega.
Even his best friend Steve didn't know his true nature, always assuming that the brash young soldier was an Alpha. Considering the army didn't want to recruit Omegas in the forties, Bucky continued to let everyone think that way.
When he got captured by HYDRA,they discovered the truth and hid it through various drugs and suppressants. After all, they couldn't have their perfect murder machine going into heat during a mission. Even after he was free of their control, he had yet to have a cycle, and thought he probably never would again. Of course, he was proven wrong late one night in his hut in Wakanda, when he entered into the worst heat imaginable.
It was Sam who found him.
Sweet, beautiful, Sam....an Alpha who smelled like sunshine and roses, who went from being an annoyance to a friend to a crush that Bucky felt he didn’t deserve to have. He pushed his way into the structure, causing the former assassin to back up against the wall.
"Buck?"
"You should leave...."
"No way am I leaving right now, you're in heat...and it's a bad one from what I can tell."
Bucky looked up at him with tears streaming down his face.
"You don't want this, Sammy, you don't want me..I....I'm too broken for anyone to want me."
"Now that's a lie," Sam whispered as he took Bucky's face into his hands," Because you're not broken. You're stubborn and annoying as hell, but also strong, resilient, and beautiful. You have a scent like fresh snow on the first day of winter, and it soothes me in ways I can't comprehend...how could I not want you?"
What little resolve Bucky had broke just then, as he gave a small laugh before surging upwards to press his lips against Sam's. The kiss started soft but quickly intensified. Clothes flew in every direction as they rolled around the floor of the hut.
It was a good two weeks before anyone else saw them again. Steve would leave food and water by the doorway during that time, blushing furiously at the sounds his friend's activities before fleeing, Shuri following behind with a gleeful cackle.
For the first time in a long time, Bucky was truly happy.
Then, Thanos came along and obliterated everything.
*********************
It felt weird,coming back after five years of nothingness. Things had changed so drastically that Bucky was afraid he'd stepped into another nightmare.
The biggest shock was Steve. During the time they'd been gone, he'd finally decided to get his head out of his ass and make up with Tony. He and the omega now lived together in a remote cabin and had a daughter named Morgan.
He'd also decided to give up the shield.
The final battle with Thanos would have killed Tony had he not established a mate bond with a super soldier. Because of the scare, Steve decided it was time to give up the fight and focus on his family. So he officially retired and passed the shield onto Sam.
Sam....there was something else that felt different.
They hadn't had much time together before the snap, so Bucky wasn't sure that the Alpha would still want him. His fears led him to withdraw from everyone for months, save his therapist, and he resigned himself to the same lonely life he'd had before.
Except Sam wasn't going to tolerate that one bit.
He tracked the supersoldier down to the rathole apartment he was staying in, kicked open the door, walked straight up to Bucky, and pulled him into the filthiest kiss the omega had ever participated in.
"Does this mean you still want to be with me?"
"Did Shuri take your brains out along with those trigger words? Of course I want to, you're mine James Barnes....only mine."
Then he took Bucky to bed and spent the rest of the night establishing just how much he wanted his omega.
*************
After cementing their bond, Bucky followed his mate back to the man's hometown in Delacroix, Louisiana. There he met Sam's sister Sarah, a sassy Beta raising two little boys on her own.
He adored his Alpha's nephews, and they loved him in return. Spending time with them reminded him of his early life when he took care of his little sisters.
They also made him yearn for a child of his own.
He knew that Sam would like to have kids someday as well, but after everything Hydra had done, he wasn't sure if it was a possibility for him anymore, something he confided to Sarah one night while Sam was out taking care of Cap business.
"You need to talk to Sam about this."
"I know I do....but what if he rejects me afterwards? Alpha's aren't known to stay with an Omega that can't give them pups."
"You stop right there Mister," Sarah chided with a firm glare," I don't know how they did things in your day, but I can guarantee that Sam is not like that. Besides, he loves your fool ass, even if you are old enough to be his grandfather."
"Hey!" Bucky huffed indignantly," I happen to be pretty spry for a guy who's 106."
"Whatever you say, Grandpa."
When Sam got home later that evening, it was to the sight of his boyfriend and sister rolling in the floor from laughing so hard.
"Dang, what did I miss?"
At that they started laughing even harder, and Sam just shook his head.
Whatever it was, he was just glad to see a smile on Bucky's face again.
**************
Despite Sarah's confidence, it still took Bucky three more weeks to broach the subject with Sam. Unsurprisingly, he was just as supportive as his sister said he would be.
"Bucky, I love you, all of you, and as much as I'd love to have kids with you, it doesn't bother me if we don't."
"It doesn't?"
"No, it doesn't," Sam murmured as he leaned back against the cushions, cradling his mate against his chest,"they have new fertility treatments for omegas, but I know you're wary of doctors after what those Hydra bastards did, so we could always adopt."
Bucky thought about it as a snuggled into Sam's neck. Adopting would be a sound solution to his problem. However, he couldn't get the image out of his head of a little girl with his Alpha's dark hair and his blue eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before letting it out.
"No, Sam, I want to try for my own. Even if it takes getting poked and prodded again....I'd like to try."
"Then on your next heat, that's exactly what we're going to do."
**************
So on Bucky's next heat, they tried to make a baby.
Then they tried on the one after that, and the one after that, and so on. A year went by, but they still hadn't managed to conceive. Because Bucky had a different physiology than other omega's, he had to get modified fertility treatments from Shuri, and the pain and mood swings from them were almost more excruciating than Hydra's chair.
It got to the point that Sam begged him to stop, because he couldn't bear to see his mate in so much pain.
Reluctantly, Bucky agreed with him.
***********
It was a few months later, around Christmas, when something happened.
Bucky had been roped into decorating by Cass and AJ, with Sarah constantly scolding them for trying to hang ornaments off of his metal arm instead of the tree. He'd been feeling a little off for the last couple weeks, but he didn't want Sam worrying while he was out on a mission, so he kept it to himself.
One of the boys shoved a gingerbread cookie into his hand, and the smell immediately made him clamp his hand over his mouth and run towards the bathroom. Bucky just barely made it to the toilet before spewing the entire contents of his stomach out.
Sarah came inside just as he was rinsing his mouth out, a worried look on her face.
"You okay? I thought you supersoldiers didn't get sick?"
"We don't normally. For some reason that gingerbread smelled terrible."
"You don't think it's....."
Bucky turned around and looked at her in shock.
"I..don't know, I mean it's possible but...I...what should I do?"
"You're going to come with me, I'll send the boys over to the neighbors for awhile."
Once the kids were secure, Sarah drove them to an all-night pharmacy where she and Bucky purchased several pregnancy tests in a variety of brands. When they got back, she offered to go into the bathroom with him, but he shook his head. This was something Bucky needed to do on his own.
************
He paced back and forth anxiously waiting for the test results. Bucky was so resigned to disappointment, that at first he didn't believe what he was seeing. But when the two pink lines didn't go away, he started to shake.
He dug through the bag and did test after test. When they all ended up with the same result, he sank to the floor and cried tears of joy.
He was finally pregnant.
**************
Sam wouldn't be back until Christmas eve, so Bucky told Sarah not to say anything to anyone just yet. The only person he did tell was Shuri, who squealed and then immediately sent a jet to pick him up so they could check that everything was going well. When he arrived in Wakanda, his nerves increased tenfold. He only relaxed when he made it to the lab and was greeted by an overly excited Alpha princess.
"Bucky! This is the most wonderful news I've gotten in ages! I told you things would work out!"
"You certainly did....so uh,what kind of tests did you need to run?"
"Just some standard blood work," Shuri said as she typed something into her tablet," and an ultrasound to see how far along you are. Just head over to that table there and show me that six-pack before it gets ruined."
Bucky rolled his eyes but did what she instructed. Shuri sat in the chair next to him and squeezed some kind of gel onto his abdomen. It was a little cold, but compared to being in cryo multiple times, it might as well have been scalding.
"Do you remember when your last heat was?"
"They've been kind of sporadic lately, but I think it was about two and a half months ago?"
"I think you're right," she said as she moved the wand across the gel," baby appears to be measuring around eight weeks,see?"
She pointed at the screen and Bucky felt his heart leap into his throat. He could see the tiny blob that was his and Sam's baby. His eyes stung with emotion, and Shuri seemed to understand how he felt, because she quietly left the room after handing him a print of the pictures, giving him time to collect himself. He stared down at the photo until his vision blurred. He was pregnant! This was truly the miracle of miracles.
He couldn't wait to tell Sam.
**************
Christmas Day in the Wilson household was a loud affair. The boys felt the need to wake everyone up at the crack of dawn to open up presents. There was yelling and arguing while paper flew all over.
Bucky loved it.
While Sam was distracted, he went to grab the surprise Sarah had helped him put together. He came back with a plain looking stocking, and handed it along with a card to his mate.
The Alpha looked delightfully confused as he read the card.
"Congratulations on your promotion, from air force pilot to Captain America to....Daddy?"
Quickly, Sam poured the contents of the stocking out, revealing all of the positive pregnancy tests and the photo from the ultrasound. In addition, there was a small box inside, and with shaking hands he opened it to reveal a wings pin that said junior pilot.
"Buck....you mean you're? We're?"
"Yes, Sammy, I'm pregnant. You and I gonna have a baby."
If Bucky thought it was loud before, the noise was practically deafening with the way Sam whooped and hollered as he picked Bucky up and spun him around the room.
"We're having a baby! We're actually having a baby! This is incredible!"
The Alpha finally lowered his mate to the ground, and pulled him in for a deep kiss. By the time they broke apart, both men were panting as Sam leaned his forehead against Bucky's.
"I love you so much, my omega."
"I love you too, Alpha."
************
The pregnancy was difficult. Bucky would often complain about headaches and dizziness in addition to the morning sickness. Worried about his mate and future pup, Sam decided to take a leave of absence from being Captain America. At Shuri's suggestion, they moved into a wing of the Wakandan palace near her labs so she could keep an eye on things.
As the months went by, the fatigue increased dramatically, to the point that Bucky would spend more than half the day in bed. Sam didn't mind though, because it gave him a chance to spoil his supersoldier lover with back massages and foot rubs. He also loved exploring the swell of the omega's abdomen, marveling at the little life growing within it.
***********
"Pilot to Co-pilot, can you read me?"
"I'm not sure that they're going to be able to respond from the womb, Samuel."
They were laying on the couch in their suite, Sam pressing his ear against Bucky's stomach in the hope of feeling some movement.
"They might not talk back yet, but everything I've read says that they can hear their daddy, isn't that right my little bean?"
"Are you sure you don't want to know the gender, Sam? Then you could call them something besides bean."
"Nah, I'm good, besides we've already got a name picked out."
"Yeah, for a boy," Bucky chided gently as he rubbed Sam's arm," it could be a girl, you know."
"Is that what your hoping for?"
"Maybe....I mean, before the war, I used to help take care of my little sisters, so I got some experience in that area."
Sam had never heard Bucky mention his family before, and he immediately went on alert when he noticed how tensed up the omega had become.
"Buck....when's the last time you saw your sisters?"
"I said goodbye to Emma in 1943, right before I shipped out. I found out she got killed in a car accident back in 1945, a few months after Hydra got ahold of me. My baby sister Rosalie...I called her Rosie for short, she wound up in the same nursing home Peg did. I managed to find her a couple years after my memories came back, but hers were practically gone. She only remembered who I was the day before she died."
Sam heard a sniffle and looked up to see tears running down Bucky's face. He quickly repositioned them to where Bucky was laying on his chest, feeling the dampness spread across his shirt as his lover cried.
"They deserved so much better than what they got,Sammy. But life failed my sisters.....I failed them too."
"Nonono, you had no control over what happened to them, and I can guarantee that no matter what went down, they remembered you as the brother that loved them."
Bucky didn't respond, just continued to sob into the Alpha's shirt. As Sam rocked him back and forth, he thought that maybe jú they had the perfect name for a girl after all.
*****************
"You're going to wear out the floor pacing like that."
"Quiet, rich boy, that's my family in there."
Sarah was all nerves as she paced back and forth in front of the doors to Wakanda's medical wing. She'd flown in a week ago to be close to Bucky as his due date was fast approaching. Then last night, she'd received a knock on her door from one of the Dóra Milaje, informing her that the Omega's water had broken, and that he and Sam were in the delivery room with Shuri.
Steve Rogers was also in the room with them. As Bucky and Sam's best friend, and the only person strong enough to withstand the bone-crushing grip of a laboring supersoldier, he wanted to be there to help them through the birth.
Meanwhile Steve's mate and child were out in the waiting area with Sarah. She didn't mind Tony, but her sass tolerance was at an all-time low at the moment, and he was one comment away from being slapped silly.
Judging from the way the omega went silent, he knew it too.
Suddenly the doors opened, and Sam stepped out, cradling a small pink bundle. Both Sarah and Tony stepped up to take a peek at the new addition.
"Sis,Tony, I'd like you to meet Miss Emma Rosalie Wilson."
"She's beautiful!"
"Definitely a looker, are you sure she's yours?" Tony cracked before flinching as Sarah smacked upside the back of the head, "Ouch! I was just kidding, Sarah, no need for violence."
"That's what I thought you'd say, now hand her over."
Sam handed Emma over to her aunt, who cooed and awed at her right along with little Morgan. Tony smiled at the sight of his daughter holding the baby before turning to Sam.
"Barnes doing okay?"
"Yeah, he's resting right now. Steve and Shuri seem to think that the serum will heal things up pretty quick."
"That's good, guy deserves a break for once...we all do."
Sam nodded at him, glad that the bad blood of the past was no longer rearing its ugly head. A small whimper from across the room grabbed his attention, and he went to take the baby from his sisters hands.
"Sounds like someone's ready to go back to mama," He cooed at the little girl in his arms before looking up at Sarah," Are you going to be staying in Wakanda for much longer?"
"Just until tomorrow, Cass and AJ can only behave themselves for so long."
"Alright,we'll call you once we land back in the states."
"Sounds good, take care and give Bucky my love."
Sarah left to go back to her room, and Sam took Emma back inside the medical wing. Bucky was laying there sleeping while Steve watched over him. When he saw the other Alpha he smiled, stood up, and walked over to plant a kiss on the baby's head before leaving, presumably to take his own mate and pup home.
Sam sat in the chair next to the bed just as Bucky started to wake up. The omega didn't say anything, just made grabby hands until he was handed his baby.
"How are you feeling sweetheart?"
"Good, really good. I can't believe she's finally here, Sammy."
"Neither can I," Sam said as he petted the girls tiny head," we sure make good-looking kids, Buck."
The ómega didn't disagree. With dark, curly hair, mocha skin, and deep blue eyes, little Emma was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
And she was all theirs.
Sam watched the two with a smile. Then, making a decision, he reached over for his duffel bag and removed something he'd had carefully hidden for awhile now.
"I was going to wait until Christmas, but I think this is the best moment for it."
He put a small Christmas stocking onto his mate's lap. Bucky used the arm that wasn't holding his daughter to pick it up and shake out the contents. Inside was a silver band with several blue sapphires embedded in the middle. He looked up in shock as his Alpha got down on one knee beside the bed.
"Sam?"
"James Buchanan Barnes, you've given me the most wonderful gift a man could ever ask for. Would you do me the honor of letting me give you my last name, and spending the rest of our lives together?"
Bucky gave a watery laugh before nodding. Sam slipped the ring on, then put his arms around his mate and leaned in for a deep kiss, being careful not to squish the precious bundle between them.
This, Bucky thought, this moment was more exhilarating than anything else he'd ever experienced.
The day the Sunshine melted his snow.
