Nurture

"So... you're saying that Tony is one of the children that Hydra made you have?" Steve asks, finding it a little difficult to believe what Bucky is saying.

Tony Stark... is Bucky's son? That's... Steve's not sure what to think about that. But if it's true, then maybe that's part of the reason Tony doesn't like Bucky? Though then that would be implying that Tony knows about this already, and he's never mentioned anything about it, so Steve is inclined to believe that he has no idea about this.

"Why would I lie about this?" Bucky asks, momentarily stopping in his pacing back and forth in the middle of the room. "Why would Wanda make me see something that's not real?"

He knows that Wanda wouldn't just show him something that's not real. She's got no reason to do anything like that. And now that he thinks of it, and has actually seen it, it makes perfect sense for Tony to be his son.

Hydra sent him to kill Tony's parents on the day Tony was born, and he himself was very pregnant. The baby that he remembers being there that night was Tony, but he wasn't the son of Howard and Maria Stark. It was his child that he ended up giving birth to while out on a mission.

"How am I supposed to tell Tony?" He sighs, sitting on the bed. "The guy already hates me enough as it is, and he'll hate me even more once he finds out that he's really my son."

He has to tell Tony this, the guy has a right to know. But he doesn't know how. How is he supposed to tell someone that the people who he's believed to be his parents for the last forty years aren't really his parents? Bucky can't even begin to imagine how that would feel.

Sighing, Steve sits down next to Bucky, wrapping an arm around him. "We don't have to tell him yet." He says "We can always wait a bit before we tell him."

Honestly, he's dreading what'll happen once Tony finds out that he's Bucky's son. Much lie Bucky, Steve has a feeling that it's not going to go down very well at all. This is some big and shocking news after all. It's highly likely that Tony is not going to react well to this....

But no matter the reaction to this that Tony has, he deserves to know. They can't just keep this hidden from him forever. And Steve would hate to keep it hidden from him for too long. Not after what happened the last time he kept something hidden from him.

Bucky sighs, resting his head on Steve's shoulder. As much as he doesn't know how to tell Tony, he is afraid of how he'll react to it, he doesn't want to put off telling him for too long. He kind of just wants to get it over with already.

"I just want to get it over and done with." He says. "The sooner we tell him, the better."

"I know it's not my place, but..." Wanda starts. "I'd suggest not rushing off to tell Tony too fast." She says. "Give it a few days for you to properly process it all."

"Wanda's right, Bucky." Steve says. "I know Tony deserves to know about this, but we can't go and tell him too fast or too soon. Not when we haven't had nearly enough time to process this information properly."

They're right. Bucky knows that Wanda and Steve are probably right that it would be best to wait a bit until they tell Tony. As much as Bucky wants to get it over and done with though, he's afraid of Tony's reaction to this news. It's not exactly something you can just bring up in casual conversation. And Bucky isn't even able to have a casual conversation with Tony in the first place.

But... despite everything and all the possible reactions Tony may have - and how nervous Bucky is to tell him - he deserves to know. Bucky can't keep this news from him forever.

Sighing, Bucky nods. "Okay."

He still does need time to process this all himself. This is... this is big news, that he's known for barely half an hour now. He needs more time to process it all.

Looking over towards Wanda, he gets up and pulls her in for a hug. "Thank you, Wanda."

He's forever grateful about how helpful she's been. He's grateful that she agreed to help him with this, even if he's not sure what to think about the results.

Wanda smiles, hugging him back. "You're welcome, Bucky."

Once they've pulled out of the hug, Bucky places a quick kiss onto Wanda's forehead. He's not sure if he would've been able to figure this out without Wanda's help. Well... he might have been able to, but it wouldn't have been easy.

And now... now that he's figured this all out, he wants something to help keep his mind off of all this for the time being before he decides when he's going to tell Tony about it all.

"Steve? Can we go out and see if we can find Sam and Francis?" He asks, turning to Steve.

He both needs and wants his son with him right now. Help him get his mind off all of this for the time being.

Nodding, Steve grabs his phone out of his pocket. "Of course. I'll send Sam a text and find out where he is."

******

"Alright, Francis." Sam says, picking the toddler up as he runs towards him. "Your dad just texted me. He and your mommy are gonna come and meet us out here."

Well, meet them at a café near the park as Bucky seems to be wanting food.... Steve had sent him a text not too long ago wanting to know where they are so they can meet up with them.

Sam guesses that they must be finished with what they needed to do. Though he hadn't mentioned any results in the text, so Sam can only assume. And hope that things turned out okay and that Bucky's remembered what he needs to. But whatever it may be that he needed help remembering, Sam just hopes that it wasn't anything bad. That's the last thing they need right now.

"Okay!" Francis says. "I want ice-cream!"

Sam laughs a little, adjusting his grip on the toddler. He promised he'd get the kid some ice-cream, so he's gonna get the kid some ice-cream. It's likely it'll take a bit for Steve and Bucky to meet them at the café anyway, so there's time to get an ice-cream for Francis then walk down to the café.

"Alright." Sam nods, looking around for any ice-cream trucks parked up around the park.

It doesn't take him long to spot at least six of them. Which is a little surprising, considering the weather is starting to get colder. But it is the weekend, and there's a good amount of kids out at the park with their parents.

"Okay, buddy, what one do you want?" Sam asks, once they reach one of the trucks and it's their turn to order.

"That one!" Francis says, pointing to a vanilla cone with red and blue sprinkles, and a chocolate wafer stick.

Sam nods, setting Francis down on the ground next to him so he can grab his wallet out of his pocket to pay for Francis's ice-cream. He contemplates getting over for himself, but ultimately decides against it. He'll get something from the café when they meet up with Steve and Bucky.

Once Francis has his ice-cream, the toddler happily eats it while walking through the park at Sam's side.

Sam's decided that instead of walking straight to the café to wait for Steve and Bucky, that they'll go for a little walk through the park for a bit. Give Francis some time to eat his ice-cream before heading to the café. And it's no doubt going to take at the most 20 minutes to get into town, considering the new Avenger's compound is a bit out of town now. Which is a considerably good thing. No need to worry about the paparazzi swarming outside the compound every day.

Although, they still have the issue of paparazzi following them around when any of them are out in town....

There seem to be a couple out right now in fact, lurking around the park with their cameras trying to get photos of him with Francis. Which Sam is annoyed about, but since he has Francis out with him right now, he chooses to ignore them in favour of making a scene by going up to them and cussing them out. Not only would he hate for Francis to see that, and for the paparazzi to overwhelm the poor kid, it would just result in bad press for not only him, but all the Avengers.

And honestly, they've already had enough bad press, and there's likely only going to be more coming by the time Bucky's trial comes along. No doubt all the tabloids will try to villainize him even more than they already have been.

"Hey, kiddo, once you're finished with your ice-cream we'll go off and meet up with your mom and dad, okay?" Sam says.

All Francis does is nod as he walks a head of Sam a little, but close enough for Sam to grab him if he has to.

Sam can't help but smile at the kid. He loves him like he's his own son, and he'll do whatever he can to protect him and look after him if anything were to ever happen to Steve or Bucky.

******

"Tony Stark is supposed to be your son?" Sam asks, finding it a little difficult to believe the words coming out of Bucky's mouth. "Tony is one of the children Hydra made you have?"

He's just been told by Bucky what the results are to whatever it was that Wanda had helped him with in order to figure out what this missing memory is. But in truth Sam is having a hard time processing this news. Tony Stark is Bucky's son? That's not at all what Sam was expecting to hear.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear. But this? That's definitely far from what he was expecting.

"After seeing it for myself and reliving the memory, I know it to be true." Bucky says, picking at the chicken salad roll on the table in front of him. "Honestly, considering it all happened on the day Tony was born, I should've known straight away."

"Well to be fair, Buck, I think it's reasonable to believe that Hydra had wiped your mind after you returned, or you chose to block it out of your memory altogether." Steve says.

Bucky sighs, nodding. "I guess." He says, looking down at Francis who's seated next to him, brushing the toddler's hair out of his face as he munches away on a bowl of hot chips, completely oblivious to the adult's conversation.

"So, you told Tony yet?" Sam asks.

He'd hate to think about how the guy will react to this news judging by his obvious feelings towards Bucky that clearly aren't friendly. But if Tony reacts badly to the news, then Sam is ready to step in and prevent him from doing anything that may hurt Bucky, and he's certain Steve is too.

Sam isn't about to let Tony hurt Bucky in any way for something he had no control over.

"We haven't told him yet." Bucky says. "Honestly, I'm not sure how to tell him."

It's not something that you can easily tell someone and expect them to just be okay about it. Sam knows this - well, he doesn't personally know this himself, but he can already tell that it's not easy. And Sam knows that Bucky must be terrified to break the news to Tony.

Who would've thought that the Winter Soldier would be terrified of something?

Which is what Sam would be thinking if he didn't know Bucky as well as he does. And Bucky isn't the man that the media portrays him as. In fact, Bucky isn't the Winter Soldier.

Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier are two completely different people. One is the brainwashed and mind controlled dog of Hydra, and the other is a war veteran and a prisoner of war.

"We're going to wait a bit before we break the news to Tony." Steve says. "Bucky still needs time to process the news himself before we can tell him."

"I don't want to put off telling him any longer than necessary though." Bucky adds. "He deserves to know about this."

The right time to tell him though? He doesn't know. He guesses an argument could be made that Tony should be told straight away, considering what happened the last time something was kept from Tony. But... at the same time, Bucky hasn't fully processed the news himself, so he'd rather not say anything straight away.

Maybe he could wait a couple days. A week at most. That should give him enough time to figure it all out, and by then it's likely that he will have processed the news properly. But then again, Tony will no doubt be pissed he wasn't told straight away.

Then on the other hand, Tony would still likely be pissed (possibly?) if he was told straight away. He might think it's just all one big lie. There's really no win-win situation here. There's no way that Tony won't react badly at this news no matter how and when he's told....

But either way Tony deserves to know, and they can't keep this from him. Boo matter what his reaction will be.

******

As soon as Bucky has finally gotten Francis down to bed for the night he makes his way out into the living room, settling down on the couch next to Steve. And Steve wastes no time in wrapping his arms around Bucky and pulling him in closer.

"Francis in bed?" Steve asks, running his fingers through Bucky's hair as he rests his head on his shoulder.

Bucky nods, closing his eyes as he snuggles up closer to Steve, just enjoying being in his alpha's hold.

Unfortunately, he can't enjoy it as much as he would like to. His thoughts are much too preoccupied with what they had found out earlier. That Tony Stark is his son, and he has to figure out when the time is to tell him.

He doesn't want to put it off for too long, but at the same time he has no idea how to tell him. This isn't an easy thing to tell someone after all.

"You okay?" Steve asks, noticing that Bucky's mind seems to be elsewhere.

"I'm just worried about how I'm supposed to break the news to Tony." Bucky says, shifting a little so he's facing Steve.

Sighing, Steve leans sheen to kiss his forehead. "It'll be okay, Buck. You don't have to tell him until you're ready, and I'll be right there with you when you tell him." He says. "I promise."

Bucky sighs, snuggling back onto Steve, resting his head right back on his shoulder. He's glad that Steve has promised to be right by his side when he decides to break the news to Tony. He's not sure he'd be able to do it alone....

Unbeknownst to Steve and Bucky, they're being watched. Spied on from another room.

Tony Stark is seated in his office on his floor, the very top floor of the compound watching the pair of them on his laptop. He's hacked into F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s database to keep an eye on them.

"Thank you, Steve..." Bucky can be heard through the laptop speakers. "I'm not sure I'd be able to tell Tony without you being there with me."

Tony watches them closely. "Tell me what...." He mutters, voice barely above a whisper.

There's something they're hiding, and Tony intends on finding out exactly what it is.

Too busy watching the live camera feed in Steve and Bucky's apartment, Tony Barry notices Pepper opening his office door and making her way inside. He does however smell the coffee she's carrying.

"I made you a coffee." She says, walking over to Tony's side with a mug of hot coffee.

"Thanks." Tony says.

He hadn't asked for her to make him any coffee, but he appreciates it nonetheless. But honestly, he's craving coffee right now. Maybe Pepper has something that goes off each time he's in need of coffee. Or she just knows him too well, and can tell when he needs one.

"You're welcome." Pepper says, leaning down to give him a quick kid on his cheek.

And then she gets a good look at the screen of the laptop. It's a live camera feed from inside Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes's floor.

"Are you really spying on them, Tony?" She asks, shocked that Tony would even think of doing something like this.

She knows he's not fond of Bucky in the slightest, but she didn't think that he'd actually spy on them.

Tony doesn't look up at her, his gaze fixed on Steve Rogers and his omega. There's something that the two of them are hiding, and at first, Tony didn't think much of it. Let them have their secrets. But then they had mentioned his name, and now all Tony wants is answers.

"They're hiding something, Pep." He says. "And I need to know what."

"Does that really give you the right to spy on them?" Pepper asks. "Do they even know that there's hidden cameras in their apartment?"

Tony shakes his head. "It's not so much hidden cameras, but F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s feed in their room. She sees everything in the facility. I've just hacked into her database." He says. "And it's my facility, I can do as I please."

"And that gives you the right to spy?" Pepper asks, not liking Tony's actions right now.

To be honest, Tony doesn't have an answer to that. Yes, it's wrong to spy on them, he knows that. But he feels the need to check up on Barnes and Rogers, Barnes in particular.

And hell, this little spying session has something for him to be concerned about. Frankly every other time he's done this, the pair of them have been rather... boring to watch. But this time... now there's something to be concerned about.

He has a theory of what it could possibly be. Something he's been thinking about a bit since Steve and Bucky had told them everything, and about what had happened while they were staying in Wakanda. Though he hadn't really thought too much about it until after what Bucky had told him outside Bruce's lab....

It's something he doesn't want to be true at all, but... it very well could be true.

Either way, Steve and Bucky are hiding something that appears to be about him, and Tony would rather they not stay quiet about it for much longer. Especially if it may be what he fears it is.

He just hopes they come to him about it soon, and don't stay quiet about it for long. He doesn't fancy a repeat of last time Steve hid something from him....