Chapter 1
It started with a loud screech that set every set of nerves in his body alight with fear.
The sun had already set as he was laying in his bed, scrolling through the news article about the threat dismantled by the new Captain America with a huge grin on his lips and proud glint in his eyes. He always knew Sam had what it took.
That is when the offended screech had ignited a flame he had long let go.
In all the hundred something years of his life Steve had never had a reaction as fast as he did in the moment when he runs towards the source of the noise.
Thamp Thamp Thamp. His heart screams loudly and every inch of him can hear the attack of his heart against his rib cage as if trying to escape itself to assure the kids’ safety clearly. The fear surrounding every cell, every piece that joins to make his body whole, grows and grows until he can’t think, feel, or do anything other then run like his life depended on it. Which it did. He prays through the countless steps he takes in his run, he prays his kids were safe. That they remember what he had tought them for situations like these.
In all his years since he passed on the shield to Sam this is the first time he regrets it as he pulls out the gun from the secret safe on the hallway floor and the makeshift shield tony made for him in case of emergencies.
Expecting a complete army of Hydra soldiers here for him and his family Steve prepares himself for a fight. Every moment of his life he has been afraid of the dreaded day. Even after all the security they had, he somehow always predicted this day would come. And even though he feels a little relieved you are not home and in safety he also finds himself wishing you were here so he could have some help saving his kids.
The emergency button to alert Bucky and Sam has been pressed, others were far away today. He would just have to stall until Bucky or Sam or both if they could find a safe place for their own children could come and help.
His first priority right now are his children.
And with that in mind, he rushes through the living room door, banging it open with a harsh kick, his gun raised high, eyes roaming around in search of the intruder
“Oh my god!!” His 13 year old daughter screams, horrified before she along with all three of her siblings raise their hands in surrender
Steve looks around the room in confusion, his eyebrows furrowed as he assess the situation.
His 15 year old son sits with his legs bent and hands raised on the edge of your favorite sofa that you had purchased from IKEA, besides him sit all three of his siblings, the other end of the couch is occupied by his 13- year old daughter while both the 6 year old boy and 3 girl year old girl are in the middle. All of them have their hands raised in surrender, looking fearfully at the gun.
“Dad?” his oldest cautiously asks and Steve realizes his gun is still raised and pointed at the kids and he moves it to point down, pulling the safety back on and looks around.
Pieces of glass, varying in their shapes and sizes decorate the entirety of his living room floor, from the looks of it and the center table laying on the floor. Steve has a fair idea where the glass may have come from.
He sighs but before he can say anything, the window behind the kids is shattered with a loud bang and then a screech of glass breaking and a figure breaks in.
Steve quickly raises his gun at the figure while the person does the same. Their long dark hair cover a portion of their face. The light of the chandelier above his head shines as its light is reflected back from the man’s metal arm.
“Bucky?” Steve questions as he looks his friend over. His hair is completely disheveled and seem to be hastily tied together using a rubber band. A shirt that Steve is sure is inside out, awkwardly covers his chest and he still wears his pajama shorts. Several knives protrude out of his pocket which Steve is pretty sure he put in hastily.
Bucky nods his head, gun still raised, looking around for an intruder and completely prepared for a possible fight.
When he is done with his assessment and finds no one in sight, he turns back to Steve, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, the gun still raised now points at Steve
Steve closes his eyes for a second and faces his gun down again before sighing
“Max answer in yes or no, did someone break into our house?”
“Yes” the young boy answers, his arms still raised and Steve quickly regains his alert stance looking around as Bucky does the same
“Uncle Bucky did” the boy points at Bucky accusingly
With that Steve whips his head towards Bucky who gives Steve a look as if asking seriously? before Steve turns back to his 15 year old and sighs
“Except Bucky did anyone break in?”
“No”
With a sigh Steve drops his gun, making his way towards his kids, not caring about the glass pieces that pierce into the souls of his shoes he hastily put on. He goes on and takes all four of the hooligans in his arms and they hug him back in a big family hug before he pulls back and assess all their faces, looking for damage
“You all okay?” they collectively nod their heads as Bucky carefully makes his way towards the small party
“What the hell dude?” he says and Steve glares at him
“Bucky”
Bucky rolls his eyes
“What the Heck dude?” He puts extra emphasis on Heck
Steve just shakes his head and turns back to his children
“What happened here?”
Lana snifs a cry as she looks at her father
“Max was cleaning the center table when the glass fell off”
“The center table glass fell of while cleaning?” Bucky asks startled
“Anna spilled water on the table and Mom says wood gets bad if water stays on it so we were cleaning the water but it got under the glass so we slanted the table so the water could come out by gravity but instead the glass slid off due to it”
Steve sighs
“God, please tell me no one was around when it fell ” Steve says worriedly looking at all four of his children
Lana shakes her head
“We made the little kids sit on the couch when Max and I slanted the table. The glass slid off towards the forward side while we were behind it and then we quickly climbed on the couch”
Steve sighs in relief and takes a look at both of his older children’s feet just to make sure.
“Good good” he nods, still trying to calm himself from his initial shock as he examines their blood less, dirty but still blood less feet
Little Anna taps her tiny hand on his thigh to catch his attention and Steve looks at his 3 year old. She motions towards his feet and babbles before tears start to fall down her eyes. Outsiders may never understand what his non verbal baby often says but Steve knows clearly what she is asking and he quickly takes her in his arms, placing her in his lap and hugging her tight, running his hand up and down her back
“Daddy is fine sweaty” he coos “Daddy’s shoes saved him”
She keeps crying trying to recover from her initial shock before Aiden follows the lead of his younger sister and starts crying as well and Steve pulls him in the hug too.
He tries to console the children as they keep crying, their older siblings trying to lighten the atmosphere by banging Anna and Aiden’s toys together to catch their attention. Something that only increases Steve’s boiling irritation.
Steve sighs, looking at the sky before he motions for a shocked Bucky to come close
“I pointed a gun at my children” Steve whispers in Bucky’s ear
“Yeah man” Bucky says “Think you’ve traumatized them for life?”
Steve glares at his best friend before turning back to look at the kids
“Its fine, its fine” Steve pats their backs before pulling away to look at their faces. A jolt of guilt spreads through him as he looks at their faces, red with fear and he sighs before wiping off the tears on both their faces with the edge of his sleeve
“Dad” Max calls out from his side “We scared you didn’t we?”
Steve turns to his oldest and nods his head
“Its fine. I’m just a little paranoid”
“A little?” Bucky snorts “You know how frightened I was when that alarm rang through? You ruined my dinner by the way. Now what am I gonna tell Sam?”
Steve just rolls his eyes and ignores his best friend
“I’m sorry dad” Max whispers and Lana nods her head besides him
“I’m sorry too Dad”
Steve just shakes his head
“No, no need to apologize. Its fine”
“We didn’t think the glass would fall off” Lana shakes her head “Mom bought it so we thought it was glued in”
“Who even put it together?” Bucky asks crossing his arms and before Steve can turn to glare at him, little Anna starts to babble again
“Dadadadadada” She smiles at Steve, clapping her hands proudly. Steve gives her a smile back and Bucky lets out a laugh
“That explains so much”
“Just sh-” Steve shakes his head and stops himself from saying any bad words in front of his kids. He would have to find Bucky later to give him a piece of his mind.
“He was gonna say shut up right?” Lana turns to Max who just nods his head
“Yup”
Steve swallows at that and has to close his eyes for a second before he turns to glare at the two
“What? Dad we know what shut up means” Lana rolls her eyes
“Watch your tone with me young lady” Steve raises an eyebrow at her and then sighs “Just don’t say it in front of the little kids”
“I will never understand one thing” Bucky says scratching his head “I mean why are we so careful in not saying any bad language words in front of the kids when they will eventually learn them in the future”
Max and Lana laugh at his comment, the little kids copy their older siblings as they too let out a series of laughs themselves and Steve finds himself smiling at the scene before Bucky’s words really sink in.
Anna raises her hands forward asking Bucky to pick her up
“Buck Buck Buck” she babbles as Bucky takes her in his arms and turns back to the glaring Steve after shooting a wink at both the older kids’ direction
“I mean my parents tried so hard not to curse in front of me and yet here I am” Bucky motions his hand in an up down gesture
“Yup and they are so proud” Steve rolls his eyes
“How come you are allowed to roll your eyes but I’m not” Lana asks crossing her arms
“Because I’m an adult” Steve sighs and raises a finger at her to stop her from saying any further. He was not in a mental state to have one of those daily debates with his daughter “Yes the moment you turn eighteen you can roll your eyes as much as you like”
Lana just sighs
“I’m gonna tell Mom” she sends him a look and he suddenly sees so much of his wife in his daughter that he has to hold back a smile. This one really is a handful.
But before Steve can say anything about it Max takes a deep breath in horror. Everyone in the room turn to look at him
“Mom” he says horrified “What are we gonna tell Mom?”
And the silence that follows is pin drop. They know it is because at that exact moment the hair pin Anna had taken out of Bucky’s hair falls down on the floor and they can all clearly hear it.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh god” Lana screeches “no no no no no”
“Mom spent at-least 6 months looking for the perfect table” Max says as he pulls at his hair “We have to do something, Dad what do we do?”
“We?” Steve raises a single eyebrow at his son “What are you gonna do son and what it is is that you are gonna tell her the truth”
“Are you crazy?” Lana screams “She will kill us, do you know how close Ana and Aiden were to that thing?”
Steve narrows his eyes at her “How close were they exactly?”
Her eyes widen as she realizes her mistake and gives him the fakest laugh he has ever seen. A laugh that may as well qualify as a cry.
“What? Hahahaha What? They-they were really far- far away.”
“Lana” he says sternly
“They were on the couch Dad” Max sighs “Promise”
Steve stares at his son for a second and then nods his head
“Lets just clean this up first” Steve sighs “Then you can tell Mom”
“No no no no no” Max whines as he takes hold of Steve’s hand “You don’t understand. Mom can’t know”
Steve raises an eyebrow at his son
“She will find out eventually”
“Dad please” Lana whines and puts her arms around him and Aiden to take him in a hug. Max moves to join the hug to before he pulls away and motions for Bucky to give him Anna. With Anna in her brother’s arms all four children hug Steve
“Dad please” The two older ones whine together while Ana laughs as she is made part of the hug
“Dadadadada”
“Dad please please” Aiden is now begging too, helping out his siblings.
“Mom and I are on the same team”
“There is no team in family Dad. We are all together” Max says resolutely “And just think about how heart broken Mom would be when she finds out what happened to her favorite table that she spent 6 months looking for, not to mention the fact that she warned you against putting it together yourself”
Steve whips his head to look at his son in the eyes who shoots Steve a knowing look and in this exact moment he decides Bucky is not coming anywhere near any of his children ever again
“Not to mention how you were boasting nothing can go wrong in the house in your presence when Mom was leaving.
He will agree that had him
“Fine”
“Yeah” Bucky claps his hands and Ana joins him
“Mission: Replace the table”
Steve lets out a breath but before he can say anything Aiden points towards the floor.
“That is a gun” he says, his eyes directed towards the gun Steve had dropped on the floor along side his makeshift shield
Steve’s eyes widen in fear and he shots Bucky a horrified look who just shrugs and discreetly pushes his own gun under the sofa with his boot clad feet. Not even trying to protect the gun from the little glass pieces.
“A real gun” Aiden is now impressed and tries to get off the couch to reach the object of his fascination
“What?” Steve laughs loudly taking hold of his son from the waist and bringing him to his lap,he laughs again, a laugh that surely contests his daughter’s in the best horrible fake laugh contest “That’s not a gun”
“No that is gun” Aiden states excitedly “I have same gun”
The moment stops right there and he can feel several eyes him. Bucky behind him chokes on his own spit and Steve’s heart seemed to have stopped beating.
How the fuck did his kid even have excess to any of his or your guns? He was pretty sure you had them in high tech password protected safes all over the house that were impossible for children to access. Then how? Were they careless in one of the hiding spots and the little boy has now procured a gun.
His little boy had a gun.
What the hell was he gonna do now. This surely is parenting low right? Oh god. What was he gonna tell you?
His mind is fighting with itself trying to find the right words or actions for a situation like this and when it turns up blank, he tells himself that saying anything would be a step. But anything does not seem to leave his mouth and so he sits there, looking at his son with his mouth open and a low pitched noise the only voice coming out of it.
This was more than what he was trained for
If it were some other day, Max may have had enjoyed his father’s predicament and the expression on his face. But today it feels the old man has had enough of these mind blowing problems for his age and so he decides to pull his father out of his misery
“Yes Aiden” He says and Steve shoots him a warning look which he promptly ignores “This is exactly like your nerf gun. Dad and I had a gun war today but because of the broken table we had to cancel it”
Aiden furrows his eyebrows “I wanna gun fight”
“Yes” Max nods his head “we were all gonna participate even Lana and Anna, but maybe tomorrow”
Aiden stares at his brother for a second before shrugging “Okay”
A surge of relief is all Steve can feel at the moment and he shoots a thankful look at his son who just gives him a teasing smile
“Nerf gun is this toy gun dad” Lana whispers in his ear as she comes closer “I know you have a hard time understanding modern things”
Bucky lets out a laugh from behind him as Steve closes his eyes
His kids are gonna be the death of him.
———-
“Okay I called Sam and he’ll be here soon” Bucky re-enters the room careful not to step on any glass pieces
All the kids sit on the sofa with their feet up as they watch Steve carefully swipe off the pieces
“What is Uncle Sam gonna do?”
“Take care of you guys while Steve distracts your mother and I get a new glass”
“Wait wait hold on” Steve stops his work “Why am I the distraction?”
“You are her husband” Bucky says matter of factly
Steve shakes his head
“Me crashing her girls’ night is suspicious especially when I specifically told her to take time away from the family” Steve says “Why can’t Sam do it?”
“He’s tired dude” Bucky says crossing his arms “Being Captain America is exhausting”
Steve rolls his eyes as he crosses his arms. How would he know anything about that right?
“And taking care of six kids is relaxing”
“Well two of them would be put to sleep, two would be too guilty and would take care of the remaining two”
Steve shakes his head
“Okay fine then you go distract her”
“She’s your wife”
“And your friend”
Bucky crosses his arms before he huffs a sigh
“Fine I will distract her”
Steve nods his head and turns to his children who all sit obediently on the sofa. Even little Ana and Aiden stay silent and Steve can’t help but smile at them
“Its fine” he sighs as he sits down in front of them after having cleaned the floor and wiping it out with flour dough to make sure no pieces were left “Its just a piece of furniture”
He moves both his hands to his eldest son and daughter’s cheek who he knows would he extremely scared
“I am not angry” he smiles at them and Lana nods as tears stream down her face
“Thank you” she says and Steve’s heart breaks too much for his daughter who has been through so much in her life “One time I broke this glass cup and Max took the blame and he hit Max and he broke his hand”
She starts crying and the little kids stare at their sister in concern and shift towards her as Max puts his arm around her. Aiden wraps his short arms around her arm and hugs her as Ana offers her her Peppa pig stuffed toy
“Its okay sweety” Steve says softly taking his daughter in a hug and trying to control the extreme rage he feels towards her previous adoptive father.
Max and Alahna were both in the system since they were born having no knowledge of their respective biological families. They were both separately adopted in the same family and became siblings through the adoption. But as cruel as life was, their adoptive father turned out to be extremely abusive while the mother turned a blind eye to it.
The abuse was generally targeted towards Max and he always took the beating for Lana too. It was not until the father decided to attack Lana one day that Max decided enough was enough and contacted DCS.
They were separated despite their pleas to be put together even if it were a group home and were finally reunited when You had fallen in love with Lana 5 years ago during a visit to her group home and when she told you about her lost brother, you decided you would adopt them both.
Steve had just needed to meet them once before tearfully declaring they were his kids.
“If someone” he says patting her back “anyone touches anyone of you guys, I will make sure they are punished”
And he means it. With everything in him he means it. He knows they think by punish he means put them in jail like he made sure had been done to the abusive man. But he also knows they don’t know the revenge he took for every single ounce of pain that man put his son and daughter through, his personal justice.
“I love you dad” she says and he pulls back, smiling at her and repeating the words back before patting Max on the shoulder who tries to hold back his tears, He pulls Max in for a hug too patting his back before pulling away and pulling both Ana and Aiden in each of his arms.
“I love you guys more than you can think of” he kisses the heads of both the kids in his arms who still look at their older sister with concern. His heart feels full with how much all his kids loved each other and cared for one another.
Steve sighs, shooting a look at Bucky. Time to lighten the mood.
Bucky jumps up from where he was sitting cross legged on the floor, watching the happy family scene.
“Okay, now that we are proceeding towards the next step of our plan, I need to ask you a question”
He turns to Max in all seriousness and Max looks back, seriously listening to whatever his uncle has to say
“Can you cook?” Max furrows his eyebrows before shaking his head
“No, I-I”
“What the heck kid?”
“Bucky!”
“I was supposed to cook the food while Sam took the kids to the store before your alert sounded. Now what am I gonna do?”
“So you were gonna make my 15 year old son cook dinner for you?”
“For all of us”
Steve rolls his eyes, shooting a glare at Bucky as Aiden and Ana let out little laughs as he tickles them.
“Just order pizza, Sam would understand”
Bucky rolls his eyes
“Fine” he says crossing his arms “But you better learn how to cook kid, we can’t just order pizza all the time”
Max laughs at that and shakes his head
“We can order pizza anytime”
“Nice point”
“I will never understand how Sam agreed to have children with you”
“My children love me and so do yours” Bucky winks at Lana and Max and they nod their head, laughing
“That’s because you spoil them”
“Kids like it when you spoil them”
“Of-course they do-” Steve shakes his head “You know what? I’m gonna put these two to bed while you order pizza and then we can wait for Sam after which we’ll get a new glass”
“Dad” Max calls out and Steve turns back to look at him “Can I come with you”
“You wanna put these two to bed?”
“No no” He looks exasperated “To find the new table”
“No” It doesn’t even takes him a second to reply
“Please” Max whines and Lana decides to join him
“Please dad” She makes perfect use of the remnant tears that still remain on her face as her eyes sparkle and Steve feels his resolve breaking “It was our fault. We wanna help”
Steve tires to shake his head but that resolve takes no time to break as a fresh tear slides down his daughter’s face
“Fine” he sighs before begrudgingly leaving the room
The kids he carries in his arms loudly giggle as Bucky makes faces to them behind his back before he shuts the door to the living room, he just knows Bucky is imitating him with the way his kids laugh.
Well at-least they were laughing.