before the storm / bucky barnes

011

THE tension between Bucky and I the past week have been completely agonising. Steve gets back in a of week or so (if everything in the mission goes as planned), and I don't know if I could survive another day without him here to lighten up the mood.

It doesn't help that Peter's more awkward around Bucky now than before. You'd think that after he locked tongues with your best friend that you'd perceive him as a person with feelings instead of an intimidating killing machine.

"What're you thinking about?" Dad questions, as suddenly I shake myself back to reality and turn to look at him.

"When did you come up here?"

"I've been standing here for like, 5 minutes,"

"Yeah!" I almost jump out of my chair as I hear Pepper close the refrigerator door behind me. "I've been raiding your fridge since I got up here!"

I laugh breezily as she makes her way to Dad's side, and furrow my eyebrows.

"What's going on?"

"We have something to tell you," Dad smiles and reaches his hand out for Pepper, who was eating my pretzels, dipped in my cream cheese.

"You're engaged!"

"Cass, you already knew that,"

"Yeah, but you never told me – Vogue May 2018 Issue told me," I shrug.

"Oh, well, we're engaged! But that's not the thing we wanted to-"

Looking back at Pepper, I notice that of all things, she's eating cream cheese. And then it clicked.

"You guys are pregnant!"

"How did you-?"

"Pepper hates cream cheese,"

"You ruined it!"

"I was hungry!"

"This is amazing! Oh my God, I'm gonna start crying. How far along are you? When did you find out? Am I the first person to know? What's the sex of the baby? I'm so excited!"

"Around 6 weeks - 2-ish weeks ago -  yes you are - we don't know yet and oh my God me too," Dad and I grin at each other and have a semi-freakout as Pepper munches on her pretzels.

"You guys should just be lucky you're not the one carrying the baby,"

"Still excited, Peps!"

"Aren't you excited to be a Mom?" I gush, walking over to her with my arms open as she places her food onto the ledge next to her.

"Star, I've been a Mom since you were brought into our lives,"

Shooting her a grin, I give her a big hug.

"That was a compliment, by the way,"

"Yeah, I got that,"

-

Jumping awake at the sounds of the all too familiar wails coming from Bucky's room, the floorboards creak under my feet as I quickly rush out of bed and through the hallway to push open the door. Silently moving towards the bed and slipping under the familiar covers, I grab both of Bucky's shaking hands and press them onto my lips before pressing my forehead on his, my hands making their way onto either side of his flushed cheeks.

"Shh, Buck. You're alright," I mumble, I feel his arms snake around my small frame before pulling me close to him, his eyes blinking open.