Chapter 3
Steve and Bucky sit cuddled up on the couch watching a movie with Clint and Natasha. Steve and Bucky have never seen it and aren't really paying attention. It's some movie about a random hotel with creepy twins. Steve was a bit iffy about them watching a horror film when Bucky wasn't feeling that great, but Bucky insisted it was fine. However, Steve noticed that Bucky's only picking at his slice of plain pizza- weird, since Bucky's always loved meat-lover's- and how he's looking just slightly pale.
"Baby, you okay?" Steve whispers in Bucky's ear. "Is the pizza bad? Do you feel sick again?"
"I'm fine Stevie, just not that hungry," Bucky replies. "The pizza's fine."
"Buck, I know when you lie," Steve says. "You look pale, baby."
"Fine, I'm just feeling a bit nauseous," Bucky sighs. "It's probably nothing though."
"Hey guys, whatcha watching?" Tony asks, sitting next to Steve and Bucky, with Bruce next to him, carrying two more pizza boxes. "Ooh, The Shining always a classic. You guys want some more pizza, they gave us two free everything pizzas?"
Tony has the streaming box of pizza practically under Bucky's nose, and he recoils as his head begins to spin and feels the nausea ratchet up a few notches. The strong smell of onions and some other toppings, combined with the bloodbath on the screen is suddenly a bit too much for Bucky.
"Excuse me for a second, I'll be right back," he says as calmly as he can muster while he feels the cold sweat break out on his skin as his body gets hot and his stomach roils. He gets up slowly and walks out of the room until they can't see him, then he quickly runs into the bathroom and shuts the door. He braces himself against the sink and takes some deep breaths to calm his stomach a bit. He suddenly hiccups and ducks his head to retch over the sink. He then spits in the sink and takes a deep breath of relief when it seems that the nausea has subsided for a bit, but he decides to stay in here for a little bit so as to not take any chances. Then someone knocks on the door.
"Hey, Buck, you okay in there?" he hears Steve ask through the door.
"Come in," Bucky says. Steve is by his side before he even finishes the sentence.
"Are you okay? Did you throw up? Are you gonna throw up again? Here let's sit by the toilet," Steve asks, practically radiating worry and concern. Bucky nearly laughs at how worried his boyfriend gets over him and smiles because of how much he loves Steve and how much he feels loved and cared for by Steve.
"I feel okay now, just got a little nauseous back there and didn't want to risk puking all over you guys," Bucky laughs. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't need to throw up, since I got pretty close earlier, before going back out. The movie must have gotten to me a bit, or maybe that pizza Tony brought us."
"Oh, I'm sorry the movie upset you," Steve says, frowning. "You wanna just go to our room and just cuddle and continue watching that series we started on Netflix?"
"Steve, are you asking me to Netflix and Chill?" Bucky asks, smirking.
"There will be no 'chilling', just cuddling," Steve says, smiling and rolling his eyes. He then puts his arm around Bucky and kisses his cheek before saying, "C'mon, let's go tell the others we're turning in early tonight."
They walk back to the movie room and Steve says, "Hey guys, sorry but we're going to turn in a bit early tonight."
Clint, Natasha, and Bruce nod in understanding, whereas Tony whistles and says, "Okay, just use protection. We don't need any super soldier-assassin hybrids running around."
"Very funny, Stark," Bucky says, clearly unamused before he and Steve leave and go to their room. Since they're both already in their pajamas, Bucky climbs into their bed while Steve turns on the TV and sets up Netflix.
Steve then crawls into bed next to Bucky and puts his arm around Bucky. "So what do you wanna watch?" Steve asks. "I keep hearing about that show Orange is the New Black from Natasha. Do you want to start watching it?"
"Yeah, if you want," Bucky says, yawning at the end of his sentence. "It doesn't matter to me, I'm pretty tired."
Steve turns off the TV and kisses Bucky's forehead. "Are you sure you're feeling okay, Buck? Tomorrow we have the Memorial Day Barbecue that Tony planned, but we can always raincheck if you feel sick."
"I'm just tired, Stevie," Bucky says. "Can we just cuddle?"
"Of course, Buck," Steve says, turning off his light and getting under the covers with Bucky. Steve faces Bucky and wraps his arms around his waist, pulling him close. Bucky then puts his hands in Steve's hair and they just admire each other for a bit before falling asleep.
----------------
When Bucky wakes up the next day, he sees that Steve isn't next to him. Bucky looks over at the clock on Steve's nightstand and sees that it's already almost two o'clock. I definitely slept too long. Bucky thinks to himself as he rubs his eyes, feeling a headache already. He gets out of bed and decides to go get some tea for the slight queasiness he feels starting in his stomach. However, when we walks into the kitchen he is greeted by absolute chaos. T'Challa is furiously mixing something in a bowl that Sam pours bananas into, Natasha is tasting some red mixture before nodding and pouring some beef into the pot, Bruce is chopping up some lettuce, and Steve is sucking his finger.
"Oh hi, Bucky," Steve says, smiling and going over to kiss Bucky. "I just made some of that apple cake you like. The one with the custard sauce. Burnt my finger taking it out of the oven, but it's fine now. Oh, and the Guinness Cake is almost done cooling down, do you wanna help me frost it?"
Before Bucky can even say anything, Tony and Clint burst into the kitchen holding a bunch of shopping bags. "Okay, so we got like forty pounds of ground beef, twenty pounds of ground turkey, twenty packs of hot dogs, about forty packs of each type of bun, and all of the condiments anyone could want- we even found some of that purple ketchup." Bucky may not know a lot about this century, but he knows that ketchup shouldn't be purple. Bucky swallows and remembers why he came to the kitchen in the first place.
Bucky goes over to the pantry and grabs some ginger tea, mentally thanking Sam for restocking the cabinets with tea yesterday. He heats up some water in the microwave, since the entire stove is being used, and places the tea bag into the water. He grabs the mug and walks around the kitchen to see what everyone else making. Sam is helping T'Challa make a banana pudding while his ice pops are in the freezer, Bruce is making a salad, and Natasha is making borsht. Bucky feels his mouth water when he smells the borsht; Natasha always makes it really good and Bucky loves it, but now he feel like he needs it.
"Natasha, is okay if I have some of that?" Bucky asks, feeling his eyes widen.
"Yeah, you can have some later, when everyone else does," Natasha replies, chuckling. "Besides, it's still really hot and tastes better after sitting for a few hours."
"Oh okay," Bucky says, feeling his heart sink a little bit.
"You can have a spoonful if you want though, just to try it out," Natasha says, holding a spoon out to him. He nods and takes the spoon, practically moaning when the stew touches his tongue.
"Oh my god, it's amazing," Bucky says, licking everything off the spoon as Natasha chuckles.
----------------
Bucky never really liked when Tony threw parties. They were always too loud, with too many people, and most times people looked scared of him. The parties would always make him feel extremely uncomfortable, and he would usually come for a bit just to be polite before leaving early.
However, that wasn't the case with this party.
The music wasn't at an obnoxiously high volume, there wasn't an insanely large group of people, and thankfully those people didn't look scared of him. Bucky felt like he fit right in with this group; there was one man made entirely of metal and a blue woman.
Bucky was standing by the bar area drinking a ginger ale when a British voice says, "Cleft chin, genetic mutation."
Bucky spins around to see a pretty handsome guy standing next to him and looking at him. "What?" Bucky asks.
"You have a cleft chin," he says. "It's a genetic mutation caused by a dominant gene and lack of a recessive gene. The chin has this 'cleft' when-"
"Really Charles, I turn my back for two seconds and I see you talking to someone else about their genetic mutations," says a taller blonde man, who rolls his eyes and smiles at Charles. Then, he notices Bucky and his mouth drops open and his eyes widen.
"Holy shit, Charles, it's Bucky Barnes," the man says, breathlessly. Then, he shakes Bucky's hand and says, "Mr. Barnes, I'm Erik, Erik Lehnsherr, oh my god, I just want to say thank you for your service I admire you Mr. Barnes, oh my god Steve Rogers."
Bucky turns from shaking the man, Erik's, hand to see that Steve has appeared right next to him.
"Yes, that's me," Steve says, smiling at Erik.
"Oh my god, Charles," Erik says, shaking Steve's hand. "Mr. Rogers, sorry about your shield back in '44, I was frightened. Did you ever get it fixed?"
Oh, Erik. Bucky thinks, the memory hitting him like a truck. Back in 1944, they were on a mission when they heard that the Nazis were making a weapon, so when they went to the location, they found a young boy who screamed when they came in and raised his hands and dented Steve's shield. His name was Erik Lehnsherr.
"Erik, calm down, dear, your blood pressure," Charles says, sighing.
"Ficken my blood pressure!" Erik exclaims. "Charles, Captain America and Sergeant Barnes are standing right in front of us. Peter! Wanda! Come here!"
Within two seconds, a teenage boy with silver hair and a girl with long brown hair are standing next to Erik.
Erik beams at them and says, "These are our children, Peter and Wanda. They're twins. Children, this is Captain America and Sergeant Barnes."
"It's nice to meet you," Wanda says, smiling shyly at the two of them. Peter, however, was anything but shy.
"It's nice to meet you. Our dad, well, our magnetic dad, loves you guys. He tells us all the time about how he admired you when he was a boy, and how he-" Peter says, talking rapidly until Erik cuts him off with a look that could kill.
"Wanda, would you and Peter go get your father a water, please?" Charles asks. Wanda and Peter nod and wave goodbye before going off to get the water.
"Oh, teenagers," Erik sighs. "They're quite a handful, yes, but I wouldn't trade this life for anything. Because of your heroic deeds, I was able to get out of Auschwitz, meet my wonderful husband, and have two beautiful children. Thank you."
"It was no problem, really," Steve says. "I'm glad to see how happy you are and what a wonderful family you have."
As Steve and Erik discuss family and domestic life, Bucky feels himself getting a bit emotional at the thought of having a family with Steve.
You'd both make wonderful parents. Bucky hears in his head and looks around to see who said that. He sees Charles smiling at him before he hears something else. Do not be alarmed, I'm a telepath, but I assure you I am not digging through your mind. You're just projecting. Would you like to go somewhere to talk? Bucky nods and Charles whispers something to Erik before kissing his cheek and leading Bucky to a table in the corner.