"Jamie, sit down and eat," Steve said, prodding the almost four year old to sit correctly in the kitchen chair, pushing it up to the table.
James, who was affectionately nicknamed "Jamie", was "wired" as his parents put it. He never ran out of energy and hated to sit still for anything. Even eating breakfast, he was crouched on the chair on the balls of his feet, like a rocket ready for launch, like he might miss something if he sat on his bottom. He downed the rest of his Cheerios and slurped the milk out of the bowl.
"I'm done!" He announced, pushing the chair back and moving across the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink. He climbed up on the counter and placed his bowl in the sink, turning on the faucet to rinse it out. He placed his palm against the spout to make a beautiful spray that went everywhere.
"Hey, hey!" His other father, Bucky, came into the house from his morning run and grabbed him under the arms to pull him off the counter.
Steve raised his eyebrows over his coffee mug, trying to hide his smile. Bucky set Jamie on the floor and wiped sweat from his forehead with his non-bionic arm. The bionic arm didn't bother Jamie. It had been part of his life since birth.
"How was your run?" Steve asked.
"Good," Bucky said, sitting down in one of the kitchen chairs.
Jamie bounced over to him and scrambled onto his lap, swinging his feet. Bucky wrapped the bionic arm around him and kissed the top of his head-thick, dirty blonde curls that were feather soft to the touch.
"Daddy, I'm hungry," he said.
Steve set his coffee cup down.
"You just ate two bowls of cereal," he reminded him, but took the loaf of bread and retrieved two slices to make toast. He knew their son had a freakishly high metabolism and could eat and eat and eat.
"Want some toast?" Bucky asked him, and Jamie nodded, tracing patterns against the lines running across his father's bionic appendage.
Steve fixed some toast and slathered them with peanut butter, setting them on the table in front of Jamie, who scarfed them down. Bucky smelled him and made a face, which made Steve grin.
"You need a bath tonight," he told him.
"Yeah, tonight," Steve said. "I'm taking him to the park today."
Jamie finished the last few crumbs of the toast and climbed off of his father's lap. He bounced around the kitchen a little bit longer, sloppily retrieving the milk from the fridge and pouring himself a tall glass, spilling a lot.
"Woops," He said, and Steve handed him a roll of paper towels.
"Can Zachary come to the park too?" He asked as he cleaned up his mess. Zachary was Tony Stark's son, almost three.
"I'll call Tony and see what they're up to," Steve offered.
Jamie drank the entire glass in about ten seconds and climbed back onto the counter to put his glass in the sink. He started to press his hand against the spout again and Steve playfully swatted him on the seat of his pants. Jamie grinned sheepishly at being caught and climbed down.
"Go brush your teeth," Bucky said.
--------------------------------
Jamie and Steve didn't drive to the park, they ran. It wasn't that far from their home, and the weather had an early spring chill. Steve jogged more slowly so his son, who had shorter legs (though he was a gangly four year old), but Jamie didn't run out of breath like most children, like most people. Most people. Steve had wondered at first, but he and Bucky knew after just a year or so that the DNA change in their bodies had passed to their son. Of course, Jamie was only one of theirs biologically-they had both offered sperm, but requested not to know whose was used for the in-vitro process. It didn't matter. They were both his fathers regardless.
"Stop," Steve ordered as they slowed to a cross-walk, holding his arm out in front of his son.
Jamie jogged impatiently waiting for cars to pass, watching the little man symbol on the walk signal. When it lit up, he tore across the street, Steve catching up to him. Once they got to the park, they made their way to the large play structure where a lot of children were already playing. Steve watched, hands on his hips, as Jamie shimmied up to the very top, the part that curved like the top of a castle, and jumped down onto the mulch. Some parents gave Steve a disapproving frown, but he just smiled at them politely.
"Swings, Daddy!" Jamie said after growing bored of climbing everything and hanging upside down off the monkey bars.
Steve followed him to the swings. A little girl was sitting on the swing beside Jamie and she smiled at him. He smiled back and began kicking his feet together violently, thrusting his body forward to get a good rocking motion going. In a matter of seconds he was swinging dangerously close to the top. A couple of times he'd looped himself clean over. The little girl slowed down to watch him in awe.
"I'm gonna jump, Daddy!" Jamie announced, the entire swing set rocking slightly.
"Go for it!" Steve told him.
"ONE!" Jamie shouted. "TWO!"
"Three!" Steve finished and Jamie flung himself from the swing, limbs flailing, and landed several feet away in the grass, rolling.
Two mothers covered their mouths and watched as Jamie clumsily got to his feet and wiped grass and dirt out of his hair. He grinned at his father who gave him an approving nod. The mothers looked at each other, shaking their heads, and scurried away.
"Can we go walk on the trail?" Jamie asked, running up to his father, slipping his little hand into his.
"Sure," Steve said. "Lead the way."
The walking trail led to an adjacent park. In the middle was a bridge over a tall bridge over a small stream where turtles and fish swam below. Jamie hopped and skipped ahead of his father, stopping to collect rocks or to look at bugs crawling on the ground. His other father, Bucky, had informed him if he was quiet enough, he could see rabbits on the trail, but Jamie had yet to see one.
"I want to go running with Daddy tomorrow," he announced suddenly, thinking of his other father.
Steve only nodded. He and Bucky didn't do the "Daddy" and "Papa" bit. They were both "Daddy" and it worked out fine. They always knew who Jamie was addressing or referring to.
"You need to get up very early to go running with Daddy," he told him. "And you're kind of a grouch to wake up."
"I won't be a grouch," Jamie promised.
When they got to the bridge that separated the two parks, Jamie climbed on the railing and stood up, running back and forth across it. A couple pushing a double stroller coming onto the bridge gasped.
"Little boy, get down!" The father said, sounding like he might have a heart attack.
Jamie stopped, looking at them with genuine confusion. He looked at his father.
"He's fine," Steve assured them.
"That's very dangerous!" The mother said. "If he falls, he could get seriously hurt."
Jamie squatted down on the railing, hands on his knees, and peered down. He HAD fallen down there before, but didn't get hurt. He got wet. And a fish rubbed against his bare leg, but mostly his father, Bucky, had scolded him for not listening when he told him to come out and didn't let him have an ice cream bar after dinner.
"Daddy!" He announced excitedly. "A turtle!"
"Wow," Steve said, moving to lean on the railing beside him. "Look, there's another one swimming up to it."
"There's a little one and a big one!" Jamie said. "It's me and you! And there's another big one! It's Daddy!"
The woman and man hurriedly pushed their stroller across the bridge. Steve turned to look at Jamie, who was staring down at the water. In all of his years, he never imagined he'd wake up in the future, save the world, save his best friend, marry his best friend, and have a super soldier serum little boy. What a wild ride it all had been, and he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
"Come on," he said, taking him around the waist, hoisting him onto his shoulders with one arm. "You wanna go fast or slow?"
Jamie grinned leaning forward so close that his cheek was pressed to Steve's.
"Fast," he said, and Steve took off running at top speed, making Jamie squeal and laugh and his father ran across the bridge and through the park.
-----------
"Bath time," Bucky said, walking into the living room to toss a pair of little pajamas and underwear on top of Jamie, who was lying on the floor, head turned sideways to see the TV.
"No." Jamie threw the clothes to the side.
Bucky prodded him with his foot. Jamie rolled onto his stomach. Bucky kicked him on the seat of his pants lightly.
"Don't kick my butt, Daddy," Jamie said, covering the seat of his pants.
Bucky leaned down and picked Jamie up by the ankle, dangling him upside down. Jamie started laughing. Bucky smelled him and pretended to make a face.
"Bath," he said again, carrying him like that to the bathroom.
Once they were in the bathroom, Bucky started the bath water and Jamie stripped. He started to pee in the toilet and Bucky snapped his fingers at him, pointing at the seat. Jamie lifted the seat up and then started to pee.
"Don't make it too hot," he told his father as he flushed.
"I never make it too hot," his father replied.
"Sometimes you do," Jamie said. "Touch it."
Bucky dipped a bionic finger into the tub. Jamie stomped his feet.
"No! Your other hand!" He said.
Bucky couldn't hide his grin. He splashed his hand around in the water and said, "It's fine. Hop in."
The tub was filled with a variety of bath toys and action figures. Jamie dunked his head under the water to get his hair wet. Bucky squirted some shampoo into his hair and scrubbed. Jamie pushed his soapy metal hand away and pointed at his real hand.
"Just that one," he commanded.
Bucky shrugged one shoulder and scrubbed his son's head with one hand.
"Can I go running with you tomorrow?" He asked, dunking an Iron Man figure into the water.
"If you don't make a great big noisy fuss about getting up before it's light outside," his father said.
Jamie took his Captain America action figure and tried to stuff up into an empty body wash bottle. It wouldn't fit.
"I didn't see any rabbits at the park," he said. "You said there's rabbits."
"I'll wake you up early tomorrow," his father told him. "We'll go running at the park while it's still dark, and you'll see plenty of rabbits."
Jamie grinned at the idea and took a big plastic pitcher they kept in the tub to fill with water and pour over his soapy head. He did it again and again, shaking his head. He clumsily washed his own body with a bar of soap and Bucky cleaned behind his ears. After the water was let out of the tub, Bucky dried him off with a towel and Jamie ran out of the bathroom to fetch his pajamas off of the living room floor.
"Forgot something?" Steve asked, one brow raised as Jamie flung his towel aside and stepped into his underwear.
"I'm naked," he announced with a grin, pulling his underwear down to show his butt.
"Hey!" Bucky entered the living room, picked up the towel, and lightly snapped him with it.
Jamie laughed and pulled on his pajama bottoms. He then pulled the top on, backwards, and Bucky pulled it back over his head and turned it around.
"Is it already bedtime?" Jamie asked.
"Not yet," Steve said. "You have thirty minutes."
"Wanna watch cartoons?" Bucky asked him.
Jamie shook his head and moved over to Steve, hanging around his waist.
"Airplanes," he said.
Jamie loved airplanes more than anything and had books an posters and toys. In the basement, there were model airplanes that he and his father built together. Steve had enjoyed model airplanes as a child and was happy that Jamie found interest in it too.
"Are we gonna work on the B-24 Liberator some more?" Steve asked.
Jamie nodded and tugged at his hand. Steve followed him down to the basement where a long work bench was filled with model airplanes, both completed and in progress. Jamie climbed onto the stool next to Steve's and waited patiently. Model airplanes were the only things he enjoyed doing sitting still. Steve sat beside him and they began to work on the little airplane.
"I'll ask Tony to rig it up to fly," Steve said. "Like he did the last one."
"Yeah!" Jamie grinned and made airplane noises, picking up one of the completed pieces and flew it around in circles.
"You flew planes, Daddy?" He asked, even though he had asked him before and knew the answer.
"I flew planes in the war," his father replied, giving him a half smile. "I flew a plane right into the ocean."
Jamie's eyes widened with wonder.
"And then I was asleep for a long time under the water," his father continued. "And I was woke up because a bad guy was trying to take over the world and they needed me."
"Was the bad guy a big alien monster with sharp teeth?" Jamie wanted to know.
"He wasn't big with sharp teeth," his father said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "He had a big magic staff, though."
Jamie climbed from his stool onto his father's lap and leaned his head against him.
"Stop talking about it," he said.
Steve frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Stop," Jamie whined.
"Oh, no, Buddy, he's gone now," he assured him. "He's in jail. Far away jail."
Jamie looked up at him.
"Can he get out?" He asked, his eyes full of worry.
"If he does-"
They both turned to see Bucky coming down the basement stairs.
"Then we'll tear him a new one," Bucky said, moving to take him from Steve. "He wouldn't wanna fight me and Daddy together."
Jamie smiled a little.
"So he can't get me?" He asked.
"Nobody will ever get you," Bucky said.
"Nobody," Steve agreed.
Steve looked at his phone and said, "Bedtime."
Bucky carried Jamie upstairs to his bedroom and placed him in the bed, pulling out a toy airplane from under the covers.
"If he ever did try and get you," he told Jamie, looking around the room that looked like Ground Zero. "He'd get trapped in this mess before he ever made it to your bed."
Jamie laughed and snuggled under the covers.
"You need to clean this room tomorrow," Bucky said. "You might sink in here under all these toys and we'd never find you."
Jamie yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"Get some sleep," Bucky said, kissing his forehead.
Steve came in next and kissed him too.
"Night, Buddy," he said. "Remember. We're getting you up bright and early tomorrow."
"So we can see a rabbit," Jamie said sleepily.
"Yeah," Bucky said.
--------------------
"Jamie?" Bucky said quietly.
Jamie opened his eyes, raising his head slightly from his father's shoulder. They were all sitting on the trail, the sky not quite light yet. Steve had decided to go too. Jamie, of course, had been a grouch waking up and slept on Bucky's back the entire way to the park and onto the trail.
"Look," Steve said quietly, pointing.
Jamie stirred and raised his head all the way. A few feet away, a rabbit skittered across the path into the woods. He was alert now, and climbed onto his father's shoulder, Bucky balancing him with his metal arm. A few more rabbits did the same.
"A BUNNY!" Jamie shouted, scrambling down and began chasing them.
Steve and Bucky laughed and shook their heads as Jamie tore down the path and followed him.