Stucky Halloween: 2020

Signed

Bucky Barnes was pacing the floor and Rosie watched him curiously. Little Rosie, blonde curls like her mother but she had her father's eyes, and sometimes Bucky realised it hurt to see the woman who'd left be reflected in his daughter.

That -- woman, he wanted to know her by worse names but woman was all he would say; that, or her name, obviously. That woman left them when he needed her most, and... she was gone.

Who she was didn't matter anymore. What mattered was the fact that Bucky Barnes was a single father with a four-year old kid who didn't recognize that her mother wouldn't be around anymore.

Then a year passed, and two -- and Rosie understood. She understood that her mom wasn't coming back, and it was just the two of them.

////

It was outside of a support group when he met Steve Rogers, army veteran who'd lived his entire life with PTSD and had recently gotten out. Bucky had been pacing the halls on his phone, waiting for his babysitter to pick up, tell her he'd be home late -- and he found himself tearing up.

"Here's Rosie -- " and she was on the phone, and for a moment Bucky felt like the worst parent on earth when she so innocently asked if he was okay.

"Hey, hey kiddo," he wavered and tried to talk around the lump in his throat. "I'm gonna be home late, okay, so Alice will be with you a little longer."

"Why?"

Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, honey, my work was longer today." That was a lie, but a small enough one to tell, he figured -- he didn't need his little girl knowing he went to a support group and therapist once every second week. "I'll be home soon, okay?"

"Okay... " She sounded unsure, and Bucky forced himself to take a deep, quiet breath. "I love you, Dad."

He smiled a watery smile. "I love you too, kiddo, so much."

Steve was never one for eavesdropping but someone crying alone in the middle of the hall was a little hard to ignore. Once Bucky had wiped his eyes and hung up, sliding his phone into his pocket, Steve quietly stepped closer and raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey, you all right?"

Bucky gave a start and glanced at him briefly, turning red at being caught in such a state. "Yeah, just -- it's a lot," he relented and Steve nodded, as if he understood.

"You're Bucky, right?" He looked at him. "I, uh, remember when you were sharing... I'm Steve," he hastily interrupted himself, and Bucky offered a shaky smile.

"Sorry, I'm usually more put together-- "

"Hey, um-- if -- if you ever need to vent, or... anything, um -- I'm a good listener."

Bucky studied him a moment. "Why would you do that for someone you don't know?"

Steve paused. "When... I was in a rough patch I would've wanted someone to offer it to me." He shrugged, looked away. "In case it might help."

Bucky's smile broadened slightly and he sniffled. "Thanks, Steve, I'll keep that in mind."

He would follow him up on the offer, and so it came to be that every second Thursday around 12:00 (their lunch breaks at their respective jobs seemed to work meeting-wise), Steve and Bucky would talk over coffee and commiserate together. Besides spending time with his daughter, it was the only solace Bucky had.

Two years later they began dating.

////

"Okay, Rose, Alice will be here tomorrow night," Bucky mentioned as he began clearing plates. Rosie slid from her chair, reluctantly helping with clean up.

"Steve coming over anytime soon?" Rosie focused on loading plates and Bucky hesitated a second.

"Not anytime soon. Why?"

Rosie only shrugged at first, then said "you're happy around him."

Bucky smiled at that, didn't argue. "Well, it's up to you, kiddo, you matter first and foremost." He rinsed the plates. "Do you like him?"

Rosie snorted. "I guess," she finally mused, and that was as good an answer as any according to her because she finished up, washed her hands and flounced onto the couch, kicking her legs idly.

Bucky was worried about bringing Steve over; worried about introducing more pain into Rosie's life, and his own. Steve had agreed that the last thing he wanted was to possibly make matters worse, so that's how it remained for another year -- then, once Bucky was sure nothing would end in a horrible trainwreck, he started inviting Steve over more often.

It came to the point where Rosie was comfortable enough around Steve that he was essentially accepted into their small family.

Not officially, though.

////

It was another game's night and Steve was over, sitting politely beside Bucky while Bucky loosely held his hand. Rosie had become bored with charades and had taken to drawing.

"Can you draw?" she asked Steve pointedly, and he moved to kneel on the floor next to her.

"I'm not very good," he dismissed but accepted the pencil crayon and paper she offered to him.

"Everybody can draw, just draw," she stated and focused on drawing her latest character, a polka-dotted suited man with an acorn hat, cleverly named "Acorn-Man".

Bucky joined them as well and noticed that, including the drawings of Acorn-Man, Rosie had written up a paper -- he picked it up. "What's this, Rose?"

"Oh!" She took it from his hands and passed it to Steve, then a marker on the ground. "Adoption papers," she said, and that gave the adults pause.

"For Steve? Hon, we can't exactly adopt -- "

"It's letting someone into the family," Rosie countered stubbornly and brushed her hair away from her cheeks. Steve looked at Bucky, and Bucky just stared back, speechless. "Will you sign it?"

Bucky's chest swelled and he refused to get emotional but Steve simply grinned, signed his name, and Rosie hugged him.

"Well, that's that," Bucky murmured as he smiled at Steve, adoringly. Steve smiled back.

////

This idea hit me super late last night and I hope it makes sense! Not very dialogue driven but I liked it :) oh, and the acorn man is a reference to the little kid I used to babysit who drew a similar superhero 😅