Chapter 2
Y/N quickly walks over as the baby, drowned in Steve’s clothes, starts wiggling and vanishing under the fabric. She pulls the shirt away, shoves gently a hand under his head to support it and picks the naked, small child up. “Hey. Yeah, hello.” She adjusts Steve in her arms, as his blue eyes meet hers, so that she can hold him comfortable in her arms and stokes his chubby cheek with her finger. She cooes a bit at him and rocks him to calm him down and walks over to the others, Lady follows her and lets out a happy bark while her tail waggles. She probably feels that Steve feels better now. The others look at the bald baby and Y/N swears that she hears Clint say ‘Damn, he’s cute’. “Holy…” Sam looks over her shoulder but says nothing else. The room is silent except for the cries of the baby. Y/N rocks him and looks up at the team before she looks back down at the little human in her arms. “Hey. Mommy is here. Are you hungry? Yes?” She speaks to Stevie in a hushed voice while dancing from foot to foot and rocking him to calm him down. And it works. “He needs clothes.”
“I’ll have yours somewhere.” Y/N looks up at Tony with a questioning gaze. “I couldn’t throw them away. We still don’t know if this was a one-time thing. And I don’t want to buy new ones and have you running around naked if that happens again.” Y/N smiles at him but shakes her head. “I was one year old. It will be too big. He’s probably about… three months I would say. And the clothes are mostly dresses. No. You don’t want dresses, do you? No.” She cooes at the baby and Steve makes a goo sound. “Yeah. You know what, you and mommy look in her bedroom, okay? Mommy has the old clothes from your uncles. Do you want that? Yes? Their nice clothes. I had them on, too, when I was a baby. You’ll be the prettiest baby ever. Do you want that?” Another goo sounds through the room and his hands come up and grip on her necklace. She swears she hears Clint and Sam curse about how cute Steve is, together this time and how Nat slaps one of them while scolding them for swearing in front of the kids. Y/N smiles at the boy, one hand joining his on the necklace so that he won’t rip it down from her neck. “You have your old baby clothes?” She looks up at Clint and smiles. “Couldn’t throw them away. No one knew if I wouldn’t end up having kids and maybe be too poor to buy clothes.” Clint raises an eyebrow but Y/N shrugs and walks out of the room. Lady settles on the feet of Bucky’s stool und looks up expectant. Bucky quickly passes the dog some of his lunch before he pulls on Bruce’s hand and the man turns to him. “Why is Stevie a baby? Will I be a baby, too? I don’t want to.” Bruce rubs his hands unsure and frowns. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Do you feel like your becoming a baby?” Bucky shakes his head, still holing one of Bruce’s finger. “Then I don’t think you will become one.” He smiles down at him and sits down next to him. Bit by bit the others sit down as well. Everybody except Wanda. “Wanda. What is it?” Vision stands back up and places his hand on her arms. She shakes her head lightly. “Nothing, Vis. I’ll be right back.” The young woman leaves as well. The others look around unsure of what to do but soon start to eat. Tony looks at Bruce and they exchange a glance. “What do you think of this? Will it be permanent? Is he always getting to this age now?” Bruce shrugs his shoulders. “I really don’t know. We still don’t know what happened back there. I think Steve is so under pressure right now that his serum decided his normal dropping isn’t enough and got him to drop once more. We’ll have to see if this stays like this, though.” Tony nods and stares back at the door Wanda and Y/N vanished trough before he takes a cup of coffee and takes a sip.
Y/N walk back in a few minutes later. She has Steve probed up at her chest as he chews on her necklace, supporting his butt and his back. The baby looks around and Y/N uses the opportunity to shove a little wood-ring in his hand and frees her necklace from his grip. He starts chewing on the little wood-ring as soon as her hand leaves it. His eyes fix on Bucky. “Wah..” He stretches out a hand in the boys’ direction and Y/N chuckles. “Yes. That’s Bucky. Your brother. He beautiful, too, just like you, is he?”
“Wha.” Steve bounces and a small smile drops on his face and shows his gums without teeth. Steve wears a jumper in a soft yellow with little white sheep’s and small orange flowers on it. It’s still a bit too big for his small frame but fits him. Y/N walks over to Bucky and crouches down, so that Bucky can look at Stevie. Lady jumps up and presses her wet nose at Steve’s cheek, making him giggle. Bucky’s eyes are wide and his mouth hangs open. He reaches out with his metal hand but stops before he can touch the blonde. He stares at his hand, unsure if it’s okay to touch his, now really a baby, baby-brother. Y/N just nods at him but before either of them even can do something Steve wraps his little fingers around Bucky’s pointy finger and shoves it into his mouth. Bucky giggles and extracts his fingers, wiggling them a bit until Steve manages to grab on again. This time the ring finger is shoved into his mouth. “Y/N.” She looks up to see Wanda walk in. She has a small bottle in her hand and passes it to her. “What is this? It’s warm.”
“I remembered a recipe for baby milk that I learned when Pietro and I watched over the kids from our neighbor. I don’t know if he likes it. I hope he’s not allergic.”
“Thank you, Wanda. I appreciate it.” Y/N smiles at her and looks at the stool beside Bucky. She stands up and adjusts Steve so that she can hold out the bottle. Steve lies in her arms, reaches out and as soon as the bottle hist his lips, he starts sucking as if he’s starving. “Slowly. You choke on it, Stevie.” Suddenly a fork with noodles is in front of Y/N’s face. She looks up and sees Bucky holding it to her. She smiles and takes the bite, humming. “Thank you, Bucky.” Bucky beams at her does it a second time. Y/N takes the bite again, smiles but shakes her head as the next fork comes. She blows a kiss to his hair. “Bucky, sweetie, you need to eat it yourself. You can feed me when Stevie is finished if you want. Okay?” Bucky looks a bit sad, if his falling smile is any indication, but he nods and returns to eating his noodles himself.
It takes a bit until Steve finishes the bottle but soon, he does. Y/N grabs a towel and throws it over her shoulder before she hoists the boy up and pats his back. Bucky looks curious and Y/N smirks at him as soon a loud burp sounds through the room. The brunette giggles and pats Steve’s butt. The blonde reaches down at Bucky, making some noises. Bucky gives him one finger that soon finds its place back in Steve’s mouth. “Y/N…?” She looks up and finds Tony standing beside her. “Do you want to hold him?”
“Ah… yes.” Y/N looks at the billionaire as he shuffles in front of, quite blushing and all shy. It’s a new side on him, but she likes it, even if it doesn’t really suit his image. Carefully she gets Bucky’s finger out of Steve’s mouth and passes the confused blonde over to Tony. She adjusts his hands a bit so that he can hold Steve properly. Steve stares at the man for a moment than he squeals with a bright smile an bumps his head, a bit too forcefully, against Tony’s shoulder. The billionaire laughs and starts pacing with the boy through the common room. Lady follows each of his steps, keeping watch over the blonde boy. Y/N sits down and looks at her son. “Bucky…” She whines and taps his shoulder. “I’m hungry.” Bucky looks at her in confusion because she’s clearly capable of feeding herself. But Y/N whines again and plants her forehead on the small boys’ shoulder. Bucky looks around and Y/N can hear how Nat passes him a bowl of noodles and whispers something. Bucky nodes and turns back to his mommy. “Open up, mommy.” She lifts her head and smiles as Bucky has a bowl in his hand and a loaded fork in the other. She opens her mouth and Bucky starts to feed her. He giggles and makes train noises or lets the fork fly like a plane for Y/N to catch it. Sometimes he drops the noodles by accident on his or her pants but she gladly ignores it for the greater good of Bucky finally having some fun after this mission. The friendly atmosphere is interrupted by a loud discussion that comes into the common room. Everybody looks up and suddenly Pepper and Rhodey stop discussing whatever it is and just stare as they enter the room. Tony’s is still pacing and Y/N follows Pepper’s and Rhodey’s gaze to the man who is holding an unknown baby in his arms, softly speaking to it and looking down at it as if he just sees the most amazing thing in the world and can name it his own. Y/N stops Bucky’s hand who is about to pass a new forkful to her. She kisses the tip of his nose and stands up, walking straight to Rhodey and Pepper. “He’s looking happy, don’t you think?” Slowly Pepper and Rhodey let go of Tony and instead stare at her. “Who is this?” Rhodey asks. “What did you do to Tony?” Y/N giggles and points at the man. “There he is. That is the billionaire, play boy and philanthropist you’re asking for. With a soft spot for little and chubby babies.”
“Who is this?” Pepper asks again and stares in disbelieve at her boyfriend. “Don’t worry Pepper. It’s not a child from his one nightstand or something. It’s Stevie.”
“Wha- No, never. That? That is Steve?” Rhodey stares at the child in disbelieve and Pepper lets her mouth hang open. Then Tony looks up and sees them. He stops pacing immediately and gets red once again. Then he clears his throat and walks over in a few quick steps. He passes the now sleeping child to Y/N arms before he looks at his two friends. “Well, that was… unexpected.” He rubs the back of his neck but Pepper takes the awkwardness away in pressing a kiss to his nose. “You’re looking good with him.” Y/N swears the man blushes even more and Rhodey seems to have detected that as well. He starts teasing the man immediately who groans and shoves them both out of the room. He waves shortly at the rest before he’s gone as well. Y/N walks back to Bucky and looks up shortly before she smirks a Bruce. “Here Bruce, Can you hold him so I can finish eating?”
“I-I don’t think that’s a goo-” Y/N passes the child to his arms without letting him finish and sits down next to Bucky. “You’re holding him like a bag of potatoes.” Nat steps up beside the scientist and adjusts him. “Better.”
“Nat. Please.”
“No, no. Hold him. Just don’t get green. You’re doing good.” She smiles at him and gives him a peck on the cheek. Lady sits down next to Bruce now and licks his arm in a quick manner before laying her head on his lap. She stares at him lazily. To be fair, Bruce looks like he could get green any second but Y/N knows he’s just scared that it actually happens. She takes another bite from Bucky, the bowl now almost empty. “Bruce. It’s okay. You’re doing good. Have some fate in yourself.” The man looks at her with an unsure expression but it softens a bit. “So, Buck. How about we go out today? The weather is nice. Maybe uncle Sam or Clint play some soccer with you?” She squints up at the men who nod. Bucky nods, too, and not even half an hour later Sam, Bucky, Clint and Y/N, with Steve in her arms, are on the grass outside the compound. Y/N sits on a bench and watches them, occasionally she looks down at Steve who woke up crying and now clings to her, his eyes closed but still sniffling and chewing on the ring. “Now, baby. Where are your pretty eyes?” She strokes his cheek with a finger and Steve really opens his eyes gazing up at her. “There they are.” She smiles at him and tickles his side and makes him squeal and giggle. She adjusts him on her lap and the small boy immediately finds Bucky. “Bah..” He reaches out for Bucky and looks up at his mommy. “Yeah, Bucky’s playing with your uncles.” The baby makes a sound as if he hums and places a hand into his mouth despite holding the ring in his other hand. She smiles at him and kisses the back of his head while watching the boys play.
* * *
“Oh, Stevie. Now, sleep. Hush and sleep.” She rocks the baby and tries desperately to get the small boy to sleep but he’s not buying it. Instead the little child screams and whines and cries while holding tight on Y/N’s hair which gets painful now. She sighs and looks at Bucky who is already ready dresses and sits on his bed, waiting for Y/N to get him in bed. She frowns and then starts humming the same song from the day before. It takes a while but with rocking and humming he goes to sleep pretty quickly. Carefully not to startle him back awake she puts him in the crib Tony has brought as she was a kid that one time. She puts the sheep next to him and walks over to Bucky. “Hey, big boy.”
“Mommy, up.”
“Oh.. a small boy today?” She smirks but picks him up and rubs her nose at his cheek. She sets him back down, though, takes his hands and kneels in front of him. “Listen, Bucky… Do you want to sleep at uncle Tony’s or aunt Nat’s place today?”
“No. Why?”
“Because I think it would be better.”
“Noo…” Bucky starts whining but Y/N strokes his cheek and silences him. “Hey, hear me out. Stevie will wake up often at night now. I fear you will not get any sleep.”
“No!” He almost shouts and Y/N quickly turns back to Steve’s crib but the little one sleeps deeply. Bucky stomps to the ground and crosses his arms. “Okay, okay. I see. Then let’s get you to bed.” She smiles at him and Bucky soon relaxes and lets himself be tucked in and reading to sleep.
The second time Steve wakes up he does as well and starts crying, too. After that, he sleeps in Y/N’s bad. She thinks he regrets not taking the offer to sleep at someone’s else place.
* * *
The sun is a bit blinding on the clean floor but neither Bucky nor little Stevie seem to be bothered about it. Bucky builds something, Y/N can’t quite identify with his blocks while Stevie lies beside him. He has one of Bucky’s wooden bricks in his hands and starts chewing on it, still gazing at his big brother.
Y/N looks back at the kitchen counter where Wanda shows her how to prepare the bottle. It doesn’t take more than five minutes to heat it up and while she does Wanda prepares some breakfast for her and Bucky. Lady lazily sleeps on a couch but looks up as Bucky stands up. The brunette takes the block out of Steve’s grip and makes him whine but he quickly garbs Steve’s hand, who holds on tight. Bucky helps his brother on his feet but Steve collapses back down on his butt. Y/N turns to look at them and grins. “Bucky, sweetie, Stevie can’t walk. He’s too small.”
“But we have to wash our hands.” He looks adorable confused at her and Y/N suppresses a giggle. “You’re right. Come on.” She picks up the baby and Stevie starts to pull her hair in delight. She winces and carefully entangles his hands from it before she reaches down and takes Bucky’s hand. “Lady, stay.” The dog jumps down from the couch and ignores the command. She walks next to Bucky, her tongue lolling out. She looks a bit as if she smiles and Y/N just shakes her head. Quickly, she walks to the nearest restroom and ushers Bucky inside. “Do you need to use the toilet first?”
“No, mommy.”
“Okay. Then wash up.” She watches carefully as Bucky washes his hands and then helps Steve with it. The boy laughs and slashes the water a bit around, wetting himself and Y/N and the whole mirror. She grimaces a bit but ignores the wet mirror. Quickly she ushers Bucky back out to Lady who’s patiently waiting outside. For a second, she watches as Bucky pats the dogs head. Normally the boy has to wash his hand again because of the dog smell but Y/N is too tired to argue about that. Steve is still tugging on her hair and she feels herself get a bit frustrated. Wanda pokes her head into the hallway. “There you are. Breakfast is ready. Vis, Clint, Nat and Sam are joining us.” She smiles kindly at Y/N but frowns as she sees Y/N’s face. The woman looks back into the common room before she walks across the hall to Y/N. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just tired. Stevie screamed four times this night.”
“I’m sorry, Y/N. I should have shown you how to make the bottle yesterday.” Y/N just shakes her head and waves the thought away. “It’s not your fault, Wanda. And I don’t think that he woke because he was hungry. He probably had nightmares.” Steve looks up at Y/N and bounces in her arms, squeals and tugs hard on her. “Ow. Stevie, stop that.” She takes his hand from her hair once again and as he tries to get them back on it again, she holds them down. Steve whines and Y/N can already see the tears in his frustrated eyes. “Oh god. Wanda. Let’s get him this damn bottle.”
The bottle actually managed to prevent the crying from Steve. Bucky shoves his breakfast into his mouth as if he would starve any second and he still managed to sneak some of it to Lady who sits by his side. “Bucky, would you stop feeding Lady your breakfast? You can fill her bowl when you’re finished.” Bucky glares at her for a full second before his head gets quite red. The rest of the morning is slowly calming and nothing major comes on. Clint, Nat and Sam leave soon for the debriefing with Fury and Wanda leaves to get Vision out of the compound for a few hours. Tony had vanished with Pepper sometime that morning and is probably not around for a while. So, that leaves Y/N alone with her boys and the puppy. She doesn’t know where the others are and as long as everything goes by smoothly, like now, she doesn’t really care.
It’s around lunch time Y/N figures that something is a bit wrong. “Mommy? Can we go to the park? It’s boring here.”
“Sorry, sweetie. We need to eat lunch first, okay? And then Stevie needs his nap.”
“Okay.” A bit sad, the boy shuffles back to the ground between the couches and Y/N watches him for a second before she sighs. “Wha.. bah.” Steve points at Bucky and looks at her with his big blue eyes. She smiles down at him and kisses his cheek before she blows a raspberry on it. Steve squeals and swats her head away only for her to return to his other cheek. She doesn’t see Bucky’s jealous gaze on her.
A little later she sits in their apartment on the couch and watches the baby sleep in her arms while she sips a cup of tea. “Mommy?” Bucky tugs on her sleeve and she looks up. “What is it sweetie?”
“Can I go and play with uncle Sam?”
“Shh, a bit quieter. You’ll wake up Steve. Uncle Sam is out today. You’ll will have to wait.”
“Okay. Can I watch some cartoon?”
“No, Bucky. That will wake him, as well. I’m sorry. Go play with Lady for a bit, okay?”
“Okay.” Bucky lets his shoulders hang and slowly walks back into the playroom. Lady jumps up from her spot next to his cars and action figures but Bucky shoves the puppy away only for her to return to him. She jumps up and down next to him, begging for some pats. “Go away.” The dog doesn’t understand and instead continuous what she’s doing. “Go away!” Bucky almost screams and shoves her away from him with a bit of force and pushes her out of the room before he closes the door behind himself. Silent and angry tears run down his cheeks and he slides down on the door. A few blocks lay beside him and in a rush of anger he starts throwning then around, kicking his toys here and there, pulls out blanket after blanket from the drawers and throws Steve’s pencils and papers through the room until it’s a mess. Then he curls together on the ground and cries silently.
When he calmed down enough, he sniffles and looks around. He’s still mad and angry. He hates mommy. She has only eyes for his stupid baby brother now. He opens the door silently and sees Y/N walk into the kitchen. Steve sits on the ground next to Lady who whines a bit as the boy tugs at her fur. Bucky walks over and Steve looks up. “Bah.”
“Yeah, yeah sweetie. Mommy needs just a second.” Y/N calls out of the kitchen. She hasn’t heard Bucky come out of his room. The brunette looks still at Steve and clenches his hands. He wants to punch him so bad, make him cry and regret taking his mommy from him. Steve looks at Bucky again a smile on his face but Bucky growls at him. “Stop smiling at me. I hate you!” He’s about to push Steve as the boy starts crying. In that moment Y/N comes back out of the kitchen, a bottle in her hand. “Bucky!” She takes one of his hands and pulls him up to stand. “What do you think you’re doing?!” She’s half shouting and looks at him angrily. Bucky feels his eyes water again as she picks Steve up and shushes him gently. “I expect better of you Bucky! I’m disappointed.” His stomach sinks at the words and he vibrates witch guilt, sadness and anger. “But he takes you from me!” He shouts back in full volume. “He makes you to stop loving me!” He wipes at his eyes fiercely and turns to leave. Y/N realizes what’s happening and quickly grabs his wrist with her free hand. “Stop, Bucky.” She says it a bit gentler now but the boy doesn’t care. He tries to hit her hand and pulls and tries everything to get away from her but she tightens her grip on him and pulls him over to the couch. Then she sits down, spreads her legs and pulls the boy to sit between them.
“No. Let me. I hate you.”
“James Buchanan Barnes! You’re stopping this instantly!” Y/N’s voice is harsh and stern and she knows that Bucky gets antsy when he hears her speak like that but just now, she doesn’t know how to stop him before she accidently drops Steve or he gets punched while Bucky squirms. The boy goes still and just cries and sniffles. He doesn’t lean in on her, how he used to do, but he doesn’t run off either. “That’s better.” She tries to get the annoyed tone out of her voice and to give it more persuasiveness, she kisses Bucky’s hair. Bucky angrily rubs his hair as she leans back and stares at the carpet and Lady at his feet. The dog doesn’t seem to mind the shouting. Instead, she curls into a ball and simply goes to sleep. “Come here, honey.”
“No.” Bucky crosses his arms but Y/N ignores his gesture and pulls him to her chest. For a minute she just strokes her hand over Bucky’s tummy to calm him while she still holds Steve in her arms who's still sniffling. She leans forwards and kisses Bucky hair again before she leans her forehead on the back of his head. “I love you, Bucky. Quite a lot even.” Bucky just pouts and says nothing. Y/N sighs and with her free hand she reaches and tries to unwind his arms. With a bit of a struggle she manages and before he can do something with his now entangled hands; she drops a sleepy Stevie in his arms. “No. Mommy. I don’t want him.”
“You’re holding him for a second, Bucky.” She leans over his shoulder and kisses his cheek while she still supports Steve in his arms. The blonde looks up at Bucky and rubs one eye. His other hand grabs Bucky’s shirt and holds it tight. He pulls it a bit down but doesn’t do anything else. “You know, Bucky, I really love you. I love you so much I can’t come up with something to compare it to. But I love Stevie as much as I love you. And normally I spend equal time with you. You’re right that I don’t have much time for you today. I’m sorry for that, sweetie.” She kisses his cheek again before one of her hands wipes at the tear stain on his other cheek. “I know you feel lonely and not loved. I know it feels like I abandon you and don’t want you. But that’s not true. I will never leave you alone. For nobody. But you see your brother here. He’s so small at the moment and he can’t care for himself. I need to carry him because he can’t walk. I need to change his diaper because he can’t use the toilet. I need to hug him because he feels scared if he doesn’t see me for a few minutes. But I know you can do all these things because you’re already such a big boy. And I know I can rely on you. I’m sorry I didn’t talked to you about it but please, please believe me when I say that I love you so much. And I know Stevie loves you, too.” As if to confirm it Steve starts giggling and reach for Bucky’s hair. “Bah.” He pulls it a bit and squeals as Bucky get his hand away from him. The little chubby hands instantly wrap around his metal hand pulls it to his mouth and start sucking on his fingers. “You see. He says he loves you.” She kisses Bucky temple and looks at the brunette. From what she can see of his face she sees that he still has watery eyes but he’s smiling. She kisses him again before she extracts her other hand from Steve. And combs it through Bucky’s hair. She starts braiding Bucky’s hair and pulls her hairband out to fix Bucky’s braid while the boy starts to wriggle his metal finger away from Steve so he has to catch them. Now and then Bucky allows Steve to get one finger and laughs when Steve sighs and chortles when he gets one. “Bawy.” Steve looks up slaps Bucky’s cheek. Thanks to heaven he doesn’t have as much strength as he usually has. “Hm. That’s the sign, Bucky. He loves you more than me. You’re the first thing he can say.” Then Y/N blows a raspberry on Bucky’s cheek and makes him laugh and squeal, too. He leans back and gazes at her. “I love you, mommy.”
“I love you, too, my hero.” She places a last kiss on his cheek before she helps him to give Steve his bottle.