Chapter 13
Bucky watched as Peter’s head turned towards the camera, felt the way Natasha’s grip on his hand tightened. That look in his eyes hurt, there was so much pain there, so much fear but the worst part was the disconnect. He believed them. He believed that they didn’t care about him.
“Turn it off, please. Just turn it off.”
“What? Turn what off Spider?”
“The camera, please just turn it off.”
“Well then, say bye bye Itsy Bitsy. They aren’t going to be seeing you again for a long time.”
Bucky almost screamed at that, he didn’t want to see Peter like this, of course he didn’t none of them did. But the longer it played then the more accurate the tracking would be, Peter knew that, but he believed them though didn’t he, he was laid there thinking that they were just sat here watching him get cut up. Not caring about him. Did it even play long enough for Stark to get a location?
“Stark, please tell me you got something?” Natasha pleaded; well, he could hear the pleading he knew she would sound detached to most of the others. “Tell me you got a location.”
“I didn’t get a specific location, but I got the location down to a ten-mile radius, I know it’s not ideal but it’s something. The only problem is that there are a lot of places to search in that ten-mile radius where they could be hiding. So, it isn’t going to be a quick search and I don’t think we can do the whole split off into pairs thing we did for the first search, it wouldn’t be safe. But I think we may find him in two to three days, unless they move.”
Okay so that wasn’t great, it could be worse, but it wasn’t what any of them wanted to hear, Wanda was sobbing in Clint’s arms, Pepper was slumped against Tony, Steve and Sam had their heads in their hands, Thor was just staring at the blank screen and Nat. Well Bucky could feel her start to shake, shake with what he wasn’t sure, fear, sadness, rage it could just be all free, her eyes were blank and the only way he knew she was shaking was because she was allowing him to know. If you were to just look at her you wouldn’t see it, but she had pressed herself into his side, she wanted to leave.
“Alright then, I know we want to start searching now but we can’t.” At those words the whole room turned to look at him, shock and anger filtering through the majority of their expressions. “It’s late, most of us are exhausted, so we go to bed now and we all set out tomorrow. Try and get some sleep because you’re going to need it.” With that he pulled Natasha up and directed her towards the elevator. He needed to get her away from everyone before she exploded, she loves and trusts her family, he knows that, but he also knows she doesn’t like them seeing her vulnerable.
It wasn’t until they stepped out onto Natasha’s floor that she dropped Bucky’s arm, he followed her as she walked away to the kitchen. Natasha hadn’t actually said anything yet and Bucky is worried, worried about what she was going to do first, somehow, he didn’t expect her to grab a glass from her cupboard and throw it at the wall before sliding down the floor herself, but he sat down next to her anyway.
“We’re going to get him Nat.” At those words she finally made eye contact, but from the look in her eyes he knew it those words didn’t comfort her the way he had wanted them to.
“We’ve been saying that for how long now? We’ll find him. We’ll get him back. He’ll be okay. But we haven’t and he isn’t. We’ve failed him James. I thought we had failed him when we couldn’t find him, now after that video? We allowed him to get hurt. Sorry about the glass.” Natasha’s eyes fell back down to the shards on the floor.
“I know Nat, I know. Don’t worry about the glass, I’m surprised you didn’t do worse, I sure want to.
“I don’t want to let it all out, I want to hold onto it because the moment I find them men I’m going to tear them apart.”
“Alright then instead of thinking about all of this why don’t we think of something else, something better, because I was serious, we do need to get rest so that we can go searching in the morning?”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going to think of good memories, okay? I want to know the first moment you can think off when you realised that you cared about Peter.”
“Okay then.”
It was a random Wednesday when Peter came bounding onto the floor, Natasha was sat reading while Clint and Sam played Mario Cart, everyone else was scattered around some on their floors and some, Tony and Bruce, in the labs. She expected him to run in, realise Tony wasn’t here and run off to find him. But he didn’t. He stopped in front of her.
“Miss Romanoff?”
Looking up from her book she noticed Clint and Sam staring at the two of them, they needed to mind their own business, it’s not like she was going to hurt the child.
“What?”
“Can you – I mean sorry hi, could you come with me please?”
Huh?
“Fine, where are we going?” Natasha asked him, closing her book before standing up.
She expected to have to keep up with him as he turned and bounded back, what she didn’t expect, was for Peter to grab her hand and drag him with her shouting, “To my room!” over his shoulder.
Getting to his floor Natasha again didn’t know what to expect, she had no idea what he wanted, and she didn’t like not knowing. She wasn’t close to Peter, Stark dragged him into this mess, so he was Starks responsibility. Was she scared of getting close to him? Yes, in a way, he went out there every night and put himself in danger, getting close to him opened herself up for pain.
“Stay there for a minute.” He told her before he ran off to his room. What on earth was going on? He was gone for about two minutes before he walked back in with a wrapped box and in that moment, she allowed her confusion to show on her face. “Here.”
“What is it?” He had just shoved a box into her arms. “Why have you given me this?”
“It’s a present, a present for you. Do you want to open it? You don’t have to keep it, or like it if it sucks just let me know it’s nothing special.”
Okay yes, his rambling was sweet, she didn’t understand why he had given her a present but right now she was more curious about what the present was. So, she began to open it and there in the box was a pair of knives, the two knives were quite thin in design but clearly sharp, without even using them she knew it was Vibranium, knew despite them being thin they would hold better than her others. There were two needles slightly sticking out from the bottom of them and at that she turned to Peter, the question clear on her face.
“Well, you know how you have your Widow Bites? When you pull the needle out of the knife it releases electricity into it, only the knife part not the handle, and the electricity lasts for about five minutes. The best part is only you can pull the needles out, they have a fingerprint scanner and I only put yours on so that you would feel safer using them. They aren’t the best thing I know I just had the idea. Do you like them?”
Natasha nearly missed that last bit, his voice dropped to a whisper as if he was afraid of her answer, so she allowed her smile to show and surprisingly she didn’t regret. The shock she expected to see on his face of her showing any emotion wasn’t there like it had been on her teammates, no he just looked happy to see have made her happy.
“I really like them Peter, but why’d wrap them up like this if you just had an idea to make them? When you finished them, you could have just told Friday to get me to come down to the lab?”
At her questions she watched as Peter got uncomfortable again, his body tensed, and he averted his eyes back down to the floor, all of the joy from earlier seemed to just drain out of him. Did she scare him?
“Peter, you can tell me I won’t be mad. I promise.” Peter began to shuffle his feet, why was he so uncomfortable? “It’s okay Peter.”
“I – I overheard Tony and Bruce talking about birthdays, when they got to you, they talked about how they didn’t know when your birthday was, and they didn’t think you knew either. That made me feel sad because people should have a birthday to celebrate them even if they don’t want anything big. I can’t give you your birthday because I don’t know it, but today, the 20thof June, as you know, is the first day of summer and I thought of an idea to make you something that I thought you would like and give it to you today. I thought maybe today could be a kind of birthday. A you day! I know it’s a bit dumb and I know you don’t want to spend it with me, but you deserve a day for you, if that makes sense. Sorry I rambled again.”
Natasha couldn’t help but stare at Peter for a moment. She tried so hard not to get to know this kid, thinking the only thing it would bring her was pain but listening to him she didn’t get it, he was so sweet and innocent, yet he went out every night and saw the horrors of New York and bounced back like a puppy.
Looking back down at the box on her lap she wanted to cry, no one had ever done anything like this for her, not even close. Yet here was this kid who she hardly knew just wanting to give her a day, a kid she removed herself from, a kid she hardly spoke to, a kid she had tried so hard to keep away from.
She should have known he’d find a way in eventually, even if he didn’t intend to.
Pushing the box onto the table next to her, Natasha abruptly stood up and before she could think twice pulled Peter into a hug. For a moment he tensed, and she thought she had messed up but after a second he melted into her embrace, he was small enough that his head fit perfectly on her collar.
“It’s perfect, thank you Peter. One thing though,” she gently pushed him far away enough that she could place her hands on his face and ensure he looked her in the eyes, “You are the only person I want to spend my day with today, okay? So, go get dressed and meet me in the garage, we’re going to make a day of it.”
The soft giggles that earned her made all of it worth it.
Alright then so she cared for the child a little bit, she just didn’t know how much yet.
“He was so nervous on that day; I never would have guessed someone would do that for me. We decided that night on the car ride home that 20th June would be our day. He wanted it to be all for me, was worried it becoming ‘ours’ would take it away from me, it took me half an hour to convince him that sharing it with him was what made it so special. It was that day our little family started, and I didn’t realise it, for so long I thought ‘Okay so he’ll become Stark’s kid and we’ll be there in the background’ I never for one moment thought he’d become my kid. I was right, caring for him would bring me pain but I wouldn’t change it for anything. We better bring him home in time because I’m not celebrating that day without him.”
“Hey, Nat, it’s only April, we have time. You heard Stark it should only take three to four days to get him.”
“It’s Hydra James, I want to believe it, but anything could go wrong. So, if we’re reminiscing, when did you realise?”
“Alright then I’ll tell.”
Bucky came to the tower four months later than everyone else, Steve finally managed to drag him in. He recognised mostly everyone but there was one person who at first glance he had no recognition of. A pair of brown doe eyes turned to look at him, fear clear in them, he was clearly a child.
“H-hi! I’m Peter Parker!”
Bucky could hear Steve chuckle next to him before he walked over to the child and nudged him.
“Kid, he has no idea who Peter Parker is, you know this. He hasn’t met Peter before.”
“O-oh I – I forgot that. Sorry! Hi Mr White Wolf Sir I’m Spider-Man!”
Wait, the child in front of him was Spider-Man, the person he tried to punch, the person Sam had flung out of a window. Spider-Man was a child? He didn’t get time to ask Spide- Peter, any questions as Stark came upstairs to drag him back down to the lab.
“Stevie? I tried to punch a child.”
All that earned him was a chuckle from his friend as he directed him to where he would be staying from now on and he didn’t see the Spider-Child for two days.
Then he woke up at around 2am and Friday directed him to the communal kitchen, seeing as he didn’t have one on his own floor yet. He still couldn’t believe Stark had given him his own floor.
Making his way down he could hear two voices, one was Natalia he recognised her voice, the other was only a little familiar meaning Peter, which was then revealed by Natalia herself before he walked in.
“You need to sleep Peter.”
“I tried, it didn’t work, anyway I’ve got work I can do now and get ahead with it so it’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t okay, growing boy’s need their sleep,” that was when Bucky walked through the door behind Natalia, “Isn’t that right James?” She said before turning around to see him smirking, “You can’t sleep either? What am I going to do with you boys? Sit down and I’ll make you a hot chocolate while I make Peter another one. Then you’re going back to bed!”
“Excuse me? Mr Wolf?”
“It’s Bucky, kid.” He said turning to look at Peter. If it was possible, he looked so much younger right now then he had the first time he saw him.
“Yeah, good luck with that James, he hasn’t dropped the Miss/Mr thing with any of us yet, it’s driving Wanda crazy seeing as she’s only a few years older than him.” Natalia smiled at Peter before sliding his cup in front of him before passing Bucky his, her hand ruffling his curls as she came around to sit next to him.
“Yeah, yeah whatever. Anyway! Mr Wolf? I’m sorry I grabbed your hand when he fought. I hope I didn’t upset you in any way.” Hearing that Bucky’s gaze snapped to Nat, thankful that Peter didn’t notice too busy staring down at his drink, looking at him she softly tilted her head at him, be gentle. Got it.
“Pete, you didn’t hurt me at all don’t worry about it. I should be the one apologising to you for trying to hit you, all you did was prevent me hurting you, you don’t have to be sorry about that.”
Watching as those doe eyes turned to look at him again, he let a small smile grace his features, he didn’t know why but he felt the urge to just protect. The smile he was graced with made his worries wash away as happiness spread into those Bambi eyes and Peter held his hand out.
“Truce?”
Which he couldn’t help but chuckle at.
“Sure kid.”
“He should have been scared of me. But he wasn’t, he was so warm and open, and I knew instantly that this kid was going to be something, I just didn’t think he would mean this much. I didn’t think me, and you were going to become parental figures to a fifteen-year-old genius mutant with spider abilities.”
Natasha laughed before placing her head onto his shoulder, to which he kissed her head, and he leant his head on hers.
“We’ll bring him home Nat, I can promise you that.”