The Warner Bros sign showed up on the TV and up at Steve looked a pair of beautiful blue eyes. “What do you want to do now bub?”
“Another one?” Bucky mumbled around his thumb. Steve had long before given up on keeping him from doing that.
Steve looked out of the windows to his left. The blizzard outside was still going crazy. He had decorated their apartment in the tower beautifully because it was Bucky’s first Christmas since he had been saved from Hydra and not been under 24/7 supervision by Shield. “For sure. Which one?” Usually, Steve wasn’t one to watch more than one movie in a day, but it was his first full day with Bucky alone in a long time, and he knew that the cuddles were doing his boy good because he hadn’t slept well in the past few nights.
“Ohhh can we watch Mr. Peppers penguins?” Steve knew Bucky absolutely adored penguins, so he nodded. “And get a hot chocolate before?”
“Hmm okay but only this time.” Even though his metabolism could destroy four times as many calories as a normal person, and Bucky would usually run around the apartment naked for at least half of the day, Steve didn’t want them to have too much sugar. He knew how sugar could destroy lives, and he definitely didn’t want that for Bucky.
Bucky followed him to the kitchen, where Steve took out all the supplies he needed. He turned around from the stove to find Bucky just as he had expected to see him; trying to sit on top of the counter but failing miserably because he was too small and the counter too high. So he decided to give him a lift.
“Thanks, daddy.” Bucky was beaming at him. He was obsessed with sugar.
Steve threw the cocoa powder and the milk in a pan and turned around again. “Hey, how would you feel if, when the snow turns all dirty and melty, we would go to one of Tony’s islands and enjoy some time away?” Aside from all the traveling he had done for Hydra, of which Bucky had thankfully no recollection of, he had not yet left the United States. And seeing by his eager nod, he was totally up to change that.
Steve stirred the contents in the pan around, turning the milk brown. “Oh, but before we can start the movie, I’m gonna need you to get me something.”
Bucky smiled, he loved the ‘missions’ his daddy gave him sometimes. Yet Steve knew this one was not gonna make the boy happy. “What is it?” Bucky whispered.
“I’m gonna need you to get me a pair of pull-ups.” Just as Steve had expected, Bucky’s face fell and his eyes turned glossy.
“No.” The tears started to spill over. Steve could tell Bucky was tired because he usually tried to keep from crying in front of him. (still failing every time)
“Come on baby.” Steve used his thumbs to wipe some of the tear streaks away, which were replaced with new ones right away. “You know what happened the last time you had hot chocolate.” Steve couldn’t really explain himself, but hot chocolate made Bucky have to pee really bad without noticing it. Maybe it was the warm milk combined with all the sugar, another argument why he didn’t like sugar.
“I’m not a baby, I’m a big boy!” Bucky was literally sobbing; Steve hadn’t seen him like this since the first few weeks he’d been here.
“I know Buck, of course you are.” He wiped at the boy’s face once more. “But you know, even big boys have accidents.”
“Really?” Bucky’s eyes grew big.
“Yes. What do you think why uncle Tony built a filter system into his suit? Or imagine Bruce, when his bladder shrinks from Hulk size to human size?” This always worked. Bucky thought their friends were extremely cool.
“What about you, daddy?”
“Oh yes, me. I’m the worst of them all!” he exclaimed, making Bucky laugh. “My suit is designed so that no one can see in a fight. But all the jumping and that well… It’s not nice.” That was in no way true, Steve was a superhuman after all. But he knew that that had been the final set off to get Bucky to wear pull-ups.
“Okay, I will go and get them.” He held up his arms so that Steve could put him down again and then ran off.
Meanwhile, the chocolate milk was ready, and Steve filled it into two cups. Bucky was back in the kitchen before he could even open the whipped cream container.
The boy stood in front of him, ready for his daddy to pull down his pants and help him with the pull-ups. Steve did just that, crouching down in front of him.
When Bucky was stripped down to no pants, Steve picked up the pull-up on the floor next to him, and Bucky held onto his shoulders in order to step into it. Steve couldn’t say that he didn’t like James’ dick… Or that he would like to fuck him. But who he wanted was James, not Bucky. And James rarely showed anymore. Steve was happy that Bucky was doing good though. James had gone through so much, and the kind of protection Bucky had made for himself was fair. The therapists had said that the best thing would be to just let little Bucky live like that, and at some point, James might be the main personality again.
They had said that Bucky was lucky. Other people with DID tended to be way sadder and most of them would attempt suicide at one point. But since little Bucky seemed to be able to keep James at bay, who was definitely the sadder of the two since he had experienced the worst kinds of torture, he would be able to live almost a normal personality. Just in the wrong body. Sure, he would cry more than other ‘4-year-olds’, but he did seem like a happy child. Bucky didn’t know about his other personality, whereas James did.
Of course, Bucky had the psychological effects of PTSD like the bed-wetting, the flashbacks, the nightmares, even the tendency to self-harm sometimes (he would bite himself and drive his fingernails far into his skin), but Steve was always there to reassure him that he would be fine.
When Steve had pulled up Bucky’s pull up and made sure it sat around his hip perfectly, he got up and gave the boy a hug. “I love you very much Bucky.”
“Me too daddy.”
“Okay now go and sit down on the couch, I’ll come over in a minute.” When Bucky had turned around, Steve gently gave his padded ass a pat and then went back to work.
“Here goes.” The perfect hot chocolate was put in front of Bucky; whipped cream, liquid chocolate, chocolate flakes, marshmallows… Steve had thought of everything.
“Thank you, daddy.” Bucky gave Steve a kiss on his cheek and took the cup into his hand.
“Just be careful kiddo.”
“Uh-huh.” It didn’t take long for him to have a cream mustache. Steve had left the toppings on his chocolate away and thus was finished rather soon.
Bucky took his time, and his stomach expanded slowly. Hot chocolate made him sleepy though, and soon he was all cuddled up against Steve’s side.
The movie was about to end when Steve noticed Bucky fidgeting next to him. He didn’t think much of it; the boy sometimes did that before falling asleep.
Once the movie was over, Steve was half asleep and Bucky got up to get the remote.
“Daddy! I’m a superhero!”
Steve was startled awake with those works. “What? Why?”
“I peed my pants.”