Steve's Baby

chapter 1

It's been 3 years since Steve came out of the ice. 3 years since Nick Fury asked him to join the Avengers Initiative. 3 years in a different world, a different time, unfamiliar and unsettling, but he's been getting used to it.

 Steve never wanted another little after waking up in the future. Call him selfish if you must, but he just couldn't do it. He knew he could never love another baby like he loved his little Bucky. He still had nightmares about the train. If only he could have reached a little farther, tried a little harder, maybe he could have saved him.

 It was awkward, back then, being so small and sickly, yet testing as a caregiver. Everyone was so sure he was a little. So the news that he was a caregiver was a shock to his family and friends. 

 Bucky had been tested before Steve - because he was a year older, and testing is on a person's 13th birthday. Bucky was a little, so Steve was elated to be a caregiver. It meant that once he was 18, he could legally become Bucky's caregiver, and that's exactly what he did.

 Steve did his best to take care of Bucky, it was hard with the little money they had, and his poor health, but they made do. Bucky worked on the days he was big, bringing in money for the rent, food, and other expenses. Steve tried to find odd jobs here and there, babysitting other littles, sweeping up in shops, bagging people's groceries at the market, stuff like that.

 They were happy, regardless of how much money they had. Steve loved his little baby and Bucky loved his daddy. So when Bucky was drafted, Steve didn't want him to go.

 "I thought they couldn't draft littles!" He'd said.

 But it turned out they could, and would, so Steve tried to sign up too, he wanted to be there for his baby.

 But the army wouldn't take him, too many health problems, they said. It didn't stop him from trying though, again, and again, and again.

 Then he met Dr. Erskine, and became a candidate for an experimental serum. He got to go train for the military while he waited for the procedure. The serum made him big, and strong, and eliminated his ailments. 

 At first, they still wouldn't let him fight. They made him do show work, trying to sell bonds and dancing on stage. He just wanted to go fight alongside Bucky. 

 So when he got word that the 107th - Bucky's unit, was captured in Azzano, he disobeyed his orders and went to his baby's rescue.

 From there, they fought together, Steve and Bucky and the Howling Commandos. Until the train. When he couldn't reach Bucky's hand. And he watched with tears in his eyes, his heart seemingly splitting in two as his baby fell to his death.

 He had nothing to go on for after that, so when the time came where his only option was to sacrifice himself to save others, he didn't have to hesitate. He crashed into the ocean, letting the frigid waters consume him.

 When he woke up in the future, the year 2011, it was disorienting. He knew no one, and knew nothing of these modern times. The pain lingered, even now, so long after the train. To him, it hadn't been that long. But he was slowly learning to cope.

 Until the Winter Soldier showed up. They fought, and fought, until Steve knocked off his mask.

 "...Bucky?"

 "Who the hell is Bucky?"

 And just like that, the world stopped turning.