Photographs
The next morning, Steve asked Friday to have Clint and Nat report to his office bright and early. Clint was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when Steve set the unfolded photo on the desk in front of him.
Nat turned to look at Clint, who still hadn’t figured out what was going on. “One fucking day. You couldn’t even make it one fucking day?!” she hissed, smacking him upside the head, hard.
Clint’s eyes flew open as he finally woke all the way up, and he grabbed the photo off the desk. He began to open and close his mouth repeatedly, not quite sure what to say until he finally settled on a simple, “Fuck.”
“I’m waiting to hear the explanation here guys,” Steve said, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Uh, well, you see, I was babysitting my neighbor’s kid?” Clint offered.
Steve just raised his eyebrows and sighed, waiting for the truth.
“Alright. Alright fine.” Clint grumbled, “But you can’t tell anyone you figured it out from me. I don’t care if you say you were keeping me under surveillance to make sure I didn’t do something stupid, but please please please don’t tell anyone.”
Steve nodded his head once, not promising anything, and Clint opened his mouth to continue. Before he could speak, however, Nat slammed her foot down on his. He whimpered, shooting her a glare as he leaned down to rub his foot.
“Seriously Nat?” Steve huffed, “There’s literally a photograph here of you together with Loki, Thor, and [Y/N]. Are you really going to pretend you know nothing?”
Nat merely shrugged and leaned back in her chair to mimic Steve’s posture. After a beat, Clint leaned back too.
“Okay look. You can either explain this to me, right now, alone. Or, I go get Tony, Bruce, and Bucky and tell them you’ve apparently been seeing [Y/N] and show them the photograph. Which route works better for you two?” Steve asked, frustrated.
“Steve. I know you better than that, you wouldn’t do that. You and I both know it would only hurt Bucky” Nat reasoned, not budging.
“True. But at this point, I’ve got three team members lying to me for who knows how long? This stops today, and I need to know what’s going on.” Steve was willing to play hardball if she was. When Nat didn’t speak, and Clint wouldn’t even look at him, he continued, “Friday? Would you please ask Bucky, Tony, and Bruce to come here? We need to have a team discussion.”
“Certainly, sir” Friday’s voice echoed throughout the now silent office.
Nat and Steve sat in their chairs, neither one willing to be the one to budge. Not on this. When the door to Steve’s office began to open, Clint jumped to his feet and slammed it shut, jamming his chair under the door.
“Uh… What the hell?” Tony asked, his voice muffled by the door.
“Sorry Tony, I uh, I got some personal business with Cap here. Y’know. Come back later?” Clint hoped that would be the end of it.
“Tony - “ Steve started to speak but was cut off by Clint hissing at him to shut up.
“Fine! I’ll talk!” Clint whisper yelled at Steve.
“Sorry Tony, guess we’ll talk later? Can you let the others know?” Steve said, sitting forward in his chair and smiling at Clint.
Nat turned to Clint, “Seriously?! Are you fucking kidding?”
“This better not be some sex thing” Tony yelled, and they heard him retreat down the hall.
Clint moved away from Nat, out of her immediate reach and turned to Steve, “I’ll tell you but you can’t tell the others.”
“Yeah, no deal. I can’t promise that” Steve shrugged, “But I can say I’ll do my best to keep private stuff, private.”
Nat muttered under her breath in Russian, and Clint’s face paled. Steve cleared his throat, and Clint sighed, sitting on the desk next to Steve. His chair was still keeping Steve’s office door firmly shut.
“I was out yesterday and I saw [Y/N]. She was ice skating with Thor and Loki, said she was only back for a day trip. She didn’t want anyone here knowing but said I could hang with her for the day. I asked if Nat could join us, and she said fine. We hung out, she left” Clint rambled.
“So how many times have you guys seen her since she left?” Steve’s face was unreadable.
“Just this once. She hadn’t been back on planet since she left, promise.”
Steve grabbed the photo back from Clint, and pointed at Aspen, “And who is this?”
Clint turned to look at Nat and swallowed before shutting his mouth. She glared at Clint, and the two began to sign to each other in ASL rapidly.
“Okay. Seriously, someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on” Steve was getting pissed at this point.
“We promised not to tell anyone, Steve. And she finally agreed to let us come visit her now. She’s going to kill me for you finding out” Clint sighed.
“Look. I get it. But, if this is what I think it is, this is something we have to discuss. Please, just help me out here, guys” Steve paused before pointing at Aspen again, “Who is this?”
Clint’s voice sounded defeated, “That’s Aspen. She’s [Y/N]’s daughter.”
“You mean Bucky and [Y/N]’s daughter?” Steve clarified.
“Well she didn’t outright say it, but since Aspen’s birthday was two days ago, sure seems that way. And I mean… Just look at the kid” Clint shrugged.
“Fuck.” Steve sighed.
~~~~~~
Two hours later, Steve found Bucky alone in the training room. Bucky was sitting by the weights, catching his breath from a particularly rough work out when Steve approached.
“We need to talk, Bucky.” Steve’s voice was determined as he took a seat across from Bucky.
“What do you need?” Bucky asked as he wiped the sweat off his face.
“I need you to tell me what happened the night you broke up with [Y/N]” Steve started.
Bucky sighed and brushed him off and went to get up, "Steve. We've been over this, let it go already. Seriously."
Steve placed his hand on Bucky's shoulder and held him in the seat, his face serious, "This is important. You know I wouldn't be bugging you about this if it wasn't, I need to know everything that happened."
"What's going on?"
"Just tell me from the start. I need to know everything that happened between the two of you that night."
"Steve, seriously. What's going on." Bucky's voice was unsure, it wasn't like Steve to be this pushy on a subject like this.
When Steve said nothing, Bucky sighed and gave in, "She was getting ready, I got the alert about the mission, went in to talk to her. I told her I couldn't do it anymore, and she asked me to reconsider. Then I went on the mission."
"So, she didn't tell you anything that night? At all?"
"What's going on?" Bucky was growing nervous, "Is she okay? You're worrying me."
Steve stayed quiet for a long moment before he spoke, "Bucky, I think [Y/N] was pregnant."
Bucky froze, looking at Steve guardedly, “Pregnant? What? No. She wasn’t pregnant? She'd have said something...”
Steve didn’t say anything aloud, just handed him a photo. He’d had Friday help him trim the photo so Clint and Nat were left out. It was just you, smiling with Aspen.
“No. No, she. She wasn’t pregnant, Steve.” Bucky’s voice was beginning to break as he studied the photo, studied his daughter for the first time.
“You didn’t know” Steve sighed..
“I-I have a daughter?” Bucky’s eyes never left the photo, “Where is she, Steve? This looks like New York, wheres [Y/N]?”
“They left last night. From what I can gather, they only came in for the day” Steve refused to mention that Clint or Nat had seen you.
“Thor knew? This whole time? Thor knew and he didn’t tell anyone?” his metal hand tightened into a fist.
“She probably made him swear not to tell” Steve sighed, defeated.
“He should have done something! Said something!” Bucky growled, getting to his feet and storming out. In his hand, he gently carried the photo of you and Aspen.
“That went well” Steve muttered, heading to the lounge. It didn’t dawn on him that today was Wednesday, the day Thor always came for his visit.
~~~~~~
Angry yelling drew Tony to the kitchen around noon. He rounded the corner, not quite prepared for what he saw. Thor was standing in the middle of the room, not saying a word as Bucky yelled at him. Bucky reared back and let a punch fly, hitting Thor direct in the shoulder. Bucky continued yelling at him, and all Tony could hear was your name.
Steve came tearing around the corner, followed closely by Clint and Nat. Clint and Nat stood by Tony, watching silently as Steve raced forward, trying to grab Bucky’s arm to stop him.
“Where is she, Thor?!” Bucky yelled, his arm pulling back for another punch when Steve grabbed him.
Bucky struggled to get out of Steve’s grasp, the hurt and betrayal overriding everything. Steve wouldn’t let go though and stepped in between the two of them. Thor still had yet to move, not defending himself or moving to attack. Bucky ripped his arm out of Steve’s grasp and stepped back away from Thor, his metal hand balling up into a tight fist again. For a long moment, no one moved.
“You need to take me to her.” Bucky’s voice was hard.
“I’m sorry Bucky. I won’t go against her wishes.” Thor’s voice was tired. He was tired of lying, tired of hiding, but you were his sister and you’d asked.
“That’s my daughter, Thor. You can’t keep me from her!”
“[Y/N] is Aspen’s mother. She gets to make the decisions, Bucky.” Thor sighed
“Aspen?” the fight seemed to drain out of Bucky as he repeated her name. The memories of that weekend slammed back to him. He could still remember the taste of your lips as he kissed you for the first time to really sell your identity, or at least that’s what he’d said when he finally kissed you.
“Please Thor… I need to fix this” Bucky’s voice was soft, a whispered plea.
~~~~~~
You were in the indoor training arena with Lady Sif, trying to forget about yesterday. It had been great to see Clint and Nat again, but they were the past. Aspen and your life here on Asgard was the future, and you needed to remember that.
You narrowly dodged Lady Sif’s attack. You’d been too caught up in your thoughts again, and she’d almost gotten the drop on you. You spun to face her again and stopped dead at the sight before you. Someone was standing in the entrance, and your heart began to pound as you recognized them.
“Bucky..”