Clint
Bucky meets the Beta child Steve has adopted at night, he's restless and can't sleep because when he closes his eyes all he sees is blood and pain and his Omega's tears.
He's making his usual rounds around the Tower, he's already checked the security of the outside and is now checking the inside, Tony has asked him to stop but Bucky can't, not when his family resides within.
So he wanders when he can't sleep, peaks in on Natasha who throws pillows at him, drags Tony from his lab and bundles him in a blanket cocoon and puts on cartoons for him to fall asleep to and makes sure Bruce is still in bed and Hulk is not wandering around his Other's floor, restless and on guard.
Stevie always whines when he leaves their bed but he goes back to sleep when Bucky assures him he'll be back before morning, that he's checking on their kids.
Some nights, particularly bad nights, Bucky will even make a call to Sam, the Alpha does not live in the Tower and Bucky cannot insist, the other man is not their child, no Sam is more like what the Howling Commandos had become, brothers, still family but not his to protect but rather his to fight beside.
Bucky hasn't been searching the other Avengers out, he does not want to surprise them, does not want to force anything though his instincts scream at him each time he allows his Omega and their children to go out to fight whatever Villain has cropped up, but Bucky also knows he's not ready to be back in the field, Sam has been helpful with that and a few other people he knows, not the Fury man, Bucky will never be able to trust a man that didn't notice Hydra growing in his agency.
The boy is perched on the top of the fridge, Bucky almost misses him but for the way he shivers and shakes.
He instincts tell him to comfort, to reassure but Bucky knows nightmares, he knows that while he and Steve have adopted them as their children that the Avengers are not actually children.
So Bucky makes coffee, he plates up two pieces of the cake that Steve made after dinner for later today for dessert, the one he forbid the children from eating the night before.
"Steve's going to be mad at you." The Beta spoke up as Bucky replaced the rest of the cake in the fridge.
Bucky looked up at him.
"So you don't want a piece?" Bucky asked as he held up the second plate.
The man looked at him and Bucky could see his indecision before the Beta climbed down to join him at the kitchen table.
"Steve makes the best cake." The other muttered as he ate.
Bucky ate his cake a little slower, he still had some trouble with rich foods, and chocolate was rich, seventy years of a liquid diet was hell on a body.
Bucky had done a lot of reassuring Steve those first few days after they arrived at the Tower because he couldn't keep anything down and Sam and Tony had been horrified but both had done some researching for Steve to help get him back to solids and Bucky was sure Tony was working on a supplement for him to take in the mean time, probably with Bruce.
"It's scary." Clint said softly, staring down at the half eaten cake in front of him, his arms were curled around his plate like he was afraid Bucky would take it from him.
Bucky watched the Beta and said nothing.
"Having someone take you out of your head, having them twist you into someone else." Clint continued.
"Yeah." Bucky agreed, he'd heard about the fight that had brought the Avengers together, about what Clint went through by Loki's hand, but honestly at least the Beta had it easy, had gotten magicked instead of tortured to get taken out of his head.
Not that it wasn't still awful but Bucky remembered fading away slowly over the years, losing pieces, forgetting Steve's name, having the names he gave their lost children stolen from him one by one until he only remembered where he buried them.
"It's worse when you're trapped." Bucky said softly, picking at his own cake.
Clint looked up at him, curiosity on his face though Bucky knew he wouldn't ask, not with his own damage lingering.
"When you know what you're doing is wrong but you can't stop. When it becomes very clear your body is not your own." Bucky continued, "It's easier when you don't remember, when they take you out of your head again." Bucky found Clint's eyes, "It's the worst thing when you know you cannot save them but you try anyway."
Clint stared and then turned back to his cake for a moment before looking back at Bucky, "How do you live with it? How do you move on?"
Bucky shrugged, "Don't know. But you live with it because you have to, but you remember you got family there for when the nights get scary, when the memory of their hands dragging you along creeps up to drag you down. You remember that your family is there to pull you up and carry you until you ready to stand up again."
Bucky reached out to grasp Clint's shoulder.
"That's what family is for, least that's what Steve has always told me." Bucky gave another shrug and Clint burst into laughter.
Clint twisted his hand to grab Bucky's wrist and didn't let go as they finished their cake and put the dishes into the sink to wash later.
"Can we watch a movie, I don't want to go to bed yet." Clint asked, voice small, more child than adult and Bucky wondered if when Clint was young he'd asked the same question only to be sent to bed anyway, scared and alone.
"Yeah, let me just tell Steve that I'm going to stay up for a bit." Bucky told him, "You go set up the movie."
Clint grinned and ran to do that while Bucky completed his rounds of the Tower and told Steve that he'd be staying up with Clint for a while before returning to the common area where Clint had set up a movie that seemed to be called Star Wars and was squirming excitedly.
"Come on, you're gonna love this." Clint grinned at him as he returned and came to sit next to him.
Bucky sincerely doubted that he would like something with War in the title after all he'd been through but looking at Clint's excited face he had to smile.
"I'm sure I will." He said softly as Clint played the movie, and it didn't even feel like a lie.
Bucky woke in the morning to Steve gently tucking a blanket over himself and Clint.
"Shh." His Omega murmured against his lips, "Go back to sleep, I'm going to get started on breakfast, you two look comfy."
"Mmm, had a nightmare, watched Universe Fight." Bucky mumbled and let his Omega's laughter carry him back to sleep.
He thought he heard him say "Star Wars" but that was just ridiculous.
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A/n: Clint's sort of hard, i know he's supposed to be deaf but i needed him to be able to hear, and i'm not sure if he's married in this universe.
But of all the Avengers Clint has the most in common with Bucky aside from Natasha, being brainwashed isn't the greatest bonding tool but it helps that someone gets it.
And Steve forgives them eating the cake because they obviously needed it after the night they had but that does not stop him from making them assist in baking a new one for after dinner that night because they totally ended up eating the whole cake as they marathoned the Star War movies.
Clint's actually shocked that they didn't wake anyone up when Bucky screeched when Vader revealed himself as Luke's father, they definitely needed cake after that.
So, rereading chapter 1 I sort of feel like Tony should get a second chapter because Bucky doesn't really interact with Tony. And for the most part Bucky and Tony's interactions have involved Steve's presence so I kinda want a chapter where Bucky and Tony interact without Steve since all the other Avengers are getting one on one time with 'Dad'.
What do you guys think?