Chapter 7
"I'm sorry, what?" Tony asks, Bucky still heaving next to him.
"Mr. Barnes is currently experiencing morning sickness due to his pregnancy, Sir," JARVIS repeats.
"Oh my god," Tony mutters to himself as he starts putting all of the pieces together in his mind: the sickness, the inability to do certain yoga poses, the no drinking screwdrivers, the way Steve was attached to James more than usual. "Well I'll be damned; we're going to have a super soldier-assassin hybrid running around here soon."
"Super soldier-assassin hybrids," Bucky replies weakly when he finishes, emphasizing the plural word. Tony raises his eyebrows.
"Twins?"
"Yeah."
"How long have you two known?"
"About a week and half."
"Can I be a godfather?"
Bucky rolls his eyes before smiling slightly and replying, "Yes, Tony, you can be a godfather."
"Awesome."
"Now if you'll excuse me," Bucky says, getting up from the bed, "I need to go stick my head in the toilet."
Bucky hopes that Tony doesn't follow him into the bathroom, but he's out of luck when he feels a hand on his back once he starts heaving again. Tony rubs his back and ties his hair out of his face, and is thankfully quiet. However, Bucky then hears Tony chuckle to himself and he lifts his head from the toilet questioningly. Tony asks, "So are the babies going to be called Babies America or the Winter Babies? Will they have matching outfits with Steve or you? Barnes, these are the real questions."
"If you hadn't been so nice to me moments ago, I would throw up on you," Bucky deadpans, before flushing the toilet and leaning back against the wall. Tony looks to be thinking to himself, and then suddenly gets up and exits the bathroom. Bucky closes his eyes, relieved to have some peace and quiet, when suddenly someone is tapping on his shoulder. He opens his eyes and sees that Tony is offering him a bottle of gatorade.
"Yeah, I don't want you to dehydrate, and your baby daddy always has gatorade lying around because he likes how it tastes, so here you go. You're welcome."
"Thank you," Bucky says, offering Tony a weak smile. Even though it didn't sound like much, Bucky knows that in Tony-speak, that means a lot. Bucky takes some small sips of the gatorade and lets his hand absentmindedly drift to his stomach.
"I'm not really an expert on this whole growing a human thing, but can you already the feel them?" Tony asks, sitting down in front of Bucky.
"Not yet," Bucky replies. "They're still too small. I guess it's more of a comfort thing for me. Almost as if I can feel them." Bucky notices that Tony keeps glancing down at his stomach. "Do you want to feel? I mean, you won't feel them yet, but if you want to touch, you can."
Tony nods casually, as if it was no big deal, but Bucky sees how his eyes light up as he places a hand on Bucky's recently softer stomach. Tony then asks, "How far along are you?"
"About ten weeks," Bucky replies. "We found out a week and a half ago. We wanted to wait to tell you guys."
"Are you feeling better?" Tony asks, looking at Bucky with concern.
"Eh, still a bit nauseous, but nothing new there. I can deal with it," Bucky replies casually as he stands back up and walks over to the sink to rinse out his mouth. He looks up at his reflection in the mirror and groans, "Ugh, I look like shit."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, you just puked your guts out, no one looks great after that," Tony says, patting Bucky on the back.
"Yeah, and this whole puking thing hasn't allowed me to get much sleep," Bucky sighs. "And I sometimes want to eat something weirdly specific, but then I get nauseous when I look at it, and it was at least somewhat bearable when Stevie's here, but now he's not and he's out doing god-knows what..."
"Wait, Barnes, are you crying?"
"I'm not crying I'm just a little misty-eyed, okay?" Bucky cries. "You try growing two tiny humans and see how you feel!"
"Whoa, hey, I'm sorry," Tony raises his hands in defense. "There's no judgement here, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Do you need anything?"
"Well..."
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Sam wakes up early to go for a run, like he always does, and then walks into the kitchen as usual to grab one of his smoothies. However, when he turns, he almost drops his smoothie when he sees one of the world's deadliest assassins sitting at the counter quietly and going to town on a small blueberry cheesecake.
"Holy shit!" Sam exclaims, startled. "Man, we've got to get you a bell. What are you doing?"
"Eating," Bucky replies, with a look that screams duh.
"I can see that," Sam says, glancing down at the half-eaten cake. "I mean why are you just eating a cheesecake at like five in the morning? I thought your stomach was bothering you last night."
"My stomach's fine now," Bucky replies, eating another spoonful of cheesecake. "Besides, I was hungry."
"Oookay..." Sam says, eyeing Bucky a bit suspiciously. Bucky blinks at him and goes back to eating his cheesecake.
"Alright, Barnes, I picked up that ice cream that you tried last week and finished, by the way you owe me a quart of ice cream, those spicy lime red things that are in a purple bag, tacky I think, some plums, and those Little Debby cakes you wanted," Tony says, unloading several grocery bags onto the kitchen island.
"What in the hell is going on?" Sam asks. "Are you throwing a party? Is it because Steve is coming home today and y'all are trying some new things out in the bedroom?"
Bucky nearly chokes on his cheesecake before replying casually, "Actually, I just ran out of snacks and Tony was going to the store, so I had him pick them up."
Sam stares at Bucky before sighing, shaking his head, and saying, "Whatever you're planning, I don't want to know. Do you want to come with me for a run in a bit?"
Bucky's about to reply that hell yeah he'd love to go for a run, but his stomach gurgles loudly and he's suddenly shooting up from his chair and bolting for the bathroom.
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"Hey," Natasha says softly, coming into the bathroom. Bucky opens his eyes and looks up at her from his spot on the floor where he has sprawled out in between bouts of nausea and puking. "You've been in here for almost two hours, I brought you some ginger tea."
"Thanks," Bucky replies, sitting up slowly, so he doesn't get dizzy and puke again (he learned that the hard way; he and Steve had had to discreetly dispose of the whole comforter set). He takes the hot drink from Natasha and nearly sighs in delight at how the tea soothes his stomach.
"Hm, I thought that whole morning sickness thing was a myth, but I guess not," Natasha says casually, sitting down next to Bucky.
Bucky chokes on his tea before asking, "How did you know?"
"I didn't, but I had a hunch," Natasha replies. "You and Steve have been more inseparable than usual recently, and you've been feeling sick, so at first I was worried that something was seriously wrong. Then I remembered that experiment that they did on you. Are you okay?"
Bucky lets out a long exhale before replying, "At first I was upset at how they still interfere with my life, but then it really hit me that Steve and I are having babies and that was kind of put on the back burner."
"Babies?" Natasha asks, tilting her head to the side, ever-observant.
"Yeah, twins," Bucky smiles weakly. "You know Stevie, always needing to go that extra step."
"Wow, James, congrats," Natasha says, smiling. "I'm so happy for you two."
"Yes, you're going to be a godmother," Bucky says, knowing that she wants to asks, but doesn't want to be too forward about it. Natasha positively beams at him. "Don't say anything yet though, since I want to wait for when Steve comes back tonight. So far, only you, Bruce, and Tony know."
"How do Bruce and Tony know before me?" Natasha asks teasingly.
"Well, Bruce is the one who told me I was expecting," Bucky replies, "and Tony just found out at like two in the morning today because he heard me puking my guts out and JARVIS told him. It wasn't anything personal, don't worry."
"I know, James," Natasha says, standing up. "Are you feeling better or do you still want to wait here for a bit?"
"I think I can go out now, the tea helped a lot. Thanks for that by the way," Bucky says, taking Natasha's hand and getting up from the floor. He brushes his teeth and washes his face before they go back outside where Tony and Bruce are watching something on National Geographic while Sam and Clint are eating and talking about something.
"Ah, Winter lives," Tony says, lightly chuckling. His expression then changes to mild concern as he asks, "How are you feeling, Barnes?"
"Better," Bucky replies, feeling a bit embarrassed at all the attention directed at him, everyone wanting to know how he was feeling after very obviously throwing up.
"James, would you like a smoothie?" Bruce asks, starting to get up. "I would have made you one, but Tony told me it would be best to see what you wanted first."
"No thank you, Bruce, I'm good with my tea," Bucky replies, taking a sip of his tea. "Do any of you guys know what time Steve is coming home?"
Tony smirks and Bucky worries that he may spill the beans about the babies, but Tony just says, "Well, Barnes, eager to see Cap, are we? He should be coming back tonight, at least that's what I last heard."
As if on cue, JARVIS says, "Sir, Captain Rogers is requesting to land on the roof. Do I have permission to grant landing clearance?"
"Yeah," Tony replies, before turning back to Bucky. "Well, there ya go, Winter, your boyfriend's back."
Bucky rushes to the elevator and groans at how long it takes the rest of them to get into the elevator. The elevator doesn't move nearly fast enough and Bucky strongly considers just getting out and climbing up the building himself, but they eventually make it to the roof. Steve is in the process of landing the jet, causing everyone's hair to blow around in the wind, making Bucky grateful that he tied his hair back. Bucky shields his eyes against the sun and watches Steve land.
The second that Steve exits the plane, Bucky all but rushes over and kisses Steve, who lifts Bucky and twirls him around in an embrace. When Steve sets Bucky down to recompose himself, as he had gotten a bit short of breath and queasy, Bucky notices the fading black eye Steve has.
"What the hell happened?" Bucky nearly shouts, faintly touching the thankfully fading bruise.
"Oh, it was just the mission," Steve looks down, "I was caught a bit off-guard."
"Off-guard? Off-guard!" Bucky is shouting now and feels how his breathing has picked up. The other Avengers walk over and stare at the couple, unsure if they need to intervene or not.
"Buck, I can explain-"
"Don't 'Buck, I can explain' me, Rogers," Bucky's actually pissed. "You punk, I can't believe this. I thought you said it was a simple mission."
"It was," Steve says, still not meeting Bucky's gaze.
"Then explain your black eye!" Bucky exclaims. Then, Bucky suddenly has tears in his eyes and cries, "Stevie, you need to be careful. You can't leave these babies without a father before they've been born!"
"Aw, Buck, don't cry. I know, I'm sorry, I'll be more careful next time," Steve says, pulling Bucky close to him, just as Bucky hears someone, probably Sam, gasp. Why is Sam being so dramatic? Bucky asks himself. Then his eyes go wide as he realizes what he just let slip.
Fuck.