AN: So it seems that I like making Bucky and Clint babysit Danielle? Which begs the question, where the heck are Luke and Jessica in this world?!
Anyway, um, this kinda came out of nowhere, but is sort of related to my other short The Hearts of Children, in which I borrow the ageless 'so and so has been de-aged' AU (ha, pun). So if you like this, check that out maybe for some more kid!Bucky/kid!Clint feels? ;-)
Castles, Dragons and Princes
"No, Clint, not like that!"
Aborting the motion to put the turret directly onto the main body of the castle, Clint blinked at Bucky in confusion, so Bucky pointed to the piece, where he'd been about to put it, and shook his head. The message got through, and Clint frowned at the pink turret.
"I don't get it," Bucky moaned, squinting at the instructions again. Well – 'instructions'. They were as easy to follow as the old Bible Steve's mom had at her house when they still lived in the 1900s. Steve could have drawn much better instructions. He pointed to the picture of the turrets he and Clint held. "It says here they just screw on," he said aloud, "but what to? There ain't noting screwy about them!" Suddenly, a small hand appeared on the page, and he looked up to find Danielle staring open-mouthed at him just a few inches away.
When Steve had told Bucky he would be in charge for the afternoon while he went to a special meeting (about him and Clint, Bucky thought), Bucky had been pretty excited. His parents had let him look after Rebecca just once when he was ten, and that had only been for half an hour while they went to give Mrs McGeachie flowers and bread after her husband had died. Now he was looking after Danielle (and Clint too, 'cause Clint was younger than him), and he and Clint were failing to build the princess castle Thor had bought her for her birthday.
"What do you want?" he asked, and sighed when she reached unsteadily for his nose. "That belongs to me," he grumbled, standing up and lifting her by her underarms. "If you wanna grab something, grab one of your toys." He set her down on her play mat, picking up an elephant and waving it around. "He's got a big nose for you to hold."
Danielle stretched eagerly towards the stuffed elephant, grasping its trunk firmly in her hand and pulling it away from Bucky. She proceeded to inspect it thoroughly, pulling at its large ears, squeezing its body, and waving it about wildly until it was obvious the toy wasn't going to break from her doing so – it even withstood being chewed gummily.
Bucky watched her with amusement until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to Clint, who lifted his hands and signed J-A-R-V-I-S. "JARVIS what?" Bucky asked, lifting his hands and shoulders and raising an eyebrow.
Clint ran over to the instruction sheet and hoisted it up, then pointed towards the ceiling where they were both certain JARVIS lived (robots weren't that clever – Bucky knew it was really just a man in the roof). He dropped the paper and signed, He can read for us.
"Oh." Could he? Bucky knew JARVIS was super smart, but could he read something through a ceiling? Worth a try, he decided, looking down and seeing Danielle had crawled over to Clint's shoelaces and was seeing how they compared in durability to the elephant's trunk, said elephant now squashed between her hand and the floor. Bucky looked up, wondering where he had to speak to for JARVIS to hear him. "Uh, Mister JARVIS?"
JARVIS responded instantly; "How can I help you, James?"
"It's Bucky," he muttered, then picked up the instructions for the princess castle and held them up flat. "Can you read this for us please sir?" he asked.
"I can. Would you like me to display them for you?"
"Huh?"
Without warning, a blue image appeared in the air in front of them. It looked like the instructions, only they weren't flat – they looked like they could actually be a castle! The separate pieces were moving, coming together then separating again, and Bucky could step closer until he saw the – film? – was properly showing him how to put the caste together.
"Whoa…"
"I believe this might be the piece you are looking for," JARVIS said, and one part of the moving drawings glowed red. It fit on top of the main castle body and had a riveted neck that the turrets screwed onto.
"Oh – right! Uh, thank you Mister JARVIS!"
"My pleasure, James."
"Clint!" He pointed to the glowing piece, signing and saying "Find it." Clint tugged himself free of Danielle and climbed up onto the couch while Bucky got on his hands and knees to look beneath it and around the floor. It wasn't long before a thud sounded behind him, and he watched Clint dart over to Danielle's play mat and pick out the two pieces from among her pile of toys, holding them triumphantly above his head.
After a brief celebration (and a stern word with Danielle that may have gone unheeded), the boys went back to fixing up the princess castle, attaching the turrets properly then putting in the floors and walls, the stairs, the kitchen, the bathrooms, all the furniture, and finally the doors and window shutters. Job done, they collapsed in a heap on the floor, where Clint signed At last into the air.
They rested their tired minds for a moment until Bucky sat up and Clint picked up Danielle, placing her in front of the castle. She stared up at it before rocking forwards and shoving her elephant onto the second floor with a little noise.
"D'you like it, Danielle?" Bucky asked, watching as she used the castle to pull herself up on her knees. He glanced around for the plastic figures that had come with the thing, motioning to Clint to grab the prince once he'd found the princess. "Look Danielle," he cooed, "here's a princess for you. She belongs in the castle." The baby ignored him. "Alright then, how about a prince?" He pointed to the figure in Clint's hand, and Clint tried getting her attention with it. "Aw, come on," Bucky whined as she began to crawl away. "All that for nothing?"
Clint shrugged when they shared a look, fiddling with the prince in his hands. That have Bucky an idea – he took the prince from Clint and scooped the dragon off the floor, then tapped his ears pointedly. Clint made a face. Do I have to?
"Please?" Bucky said, and Clint relented, pulling out his hearing aids and slipping them in. "We're gonna play Save Danielle!"
"We are?"
"Yeah!"
"How?" Clint asked with a frown, and accepted the prince figure that was pushed back into his hands.
"You're the prince," Bucky explained, "and I'm the evil dragon who's kidnapped baby Princess Danielle! You have to rescue her!" And with that, Bucky hoisted Danielle and her elephant off the ground and ran towards the kitchen, laughing 'maniacally' as he went. "I'm the evil dragon, and I've stolen the baby Princess and her royal elephant! I can't wait to have them both for dinner!" He blew a raspberry into the side of Danielle's neck, making her laugh.
"Not if I can help it!"
Bucky turned round as Clint leapt into the kitchen, prince figurine brandished like a sword. He gasped dramatically as Danielle squealed. "Curses, it's Prince Hawkeye!"
"I'll save you, Princess!" Clint cried, and with that the chase was on. They ran all around Steve's fancy apartment, climbing over the chairs and the bed, going under the dining table and hiding behind doors as Bucky kept his hold on Danielle, until eventually Prince Hawkeye's magical arrows were too much for him and the evil dragon was slain. Exhausted, they agreed to put on a movie and spend their energy making sure Danielle didn't fall off the sofa.
"Bucky?" Clint said halfway through the film.
"Yeah?"
"Why was I the prince?"
Keeping Danielle from wriggling out of his lap, Bucky shrugged. "Princes slay dragons," he said. "Dragons are big and nasty and think they can hurt whoever they want. I don't have – I mean, I didn't have any dragons to fight, but you did." His eyes darted to Clint for half a second. "Thought you might like to beat one for once."
Understanding what he was trying to say, Clint smiled at him. "You could still have been the prince."
"No I couldn't." Bucky let Danielle go, and she crawled over to Clint.
"Why not?"
Sinking into the cushions a little, Bucky unconsciously tugged at his left sleeve and moved his arm out of view. "I'm not good enough to be the prince," he mumbled. "It's always Steve."
Unsure what to say, Clint stayed silent, taking the elephant Danielle was offering him. As soon as he had it she was back in Bucky's lap, trying to crawl across him and onto the arm of the couch. Bucky held her carefully as she pushed up onto her knees, letting her see over the arm of the chair but keeping her from falling. Clint smiled again. "Danielle thinks you're a prince," he said, then moved over until he was snuggled into Bucky's side, head resting on his shoulder. "And so do I."
A few seconds later, Bucky let his head rest against Clint's, and Clint didn't have to look to know he was smiling too (maybe blushing). They only half-watched the film, more interested in Danielle when she pulled Bucky's metal hand up and stuck his fingers in her mouth. Bucky complained about having his fingers chewed but he didn't stop her, and by the end of the film she'd fallen asleep with his hand still in her much smaller ones. He was afraid to move, but a couple of minutes later Steve returned. He put Danielle to bed, and commended the boys on their success with the castle before asking what they wanted for dinner.
Later, at bedtime, when Bucky was in the toilet Clint called out to Steve and asked him: Do you think he could be a prince? Steve grinned – perhaps chuckled, too – and nodded. Clint settled into bed when Bucky returned, and smiled into his pillow. If Steve thought Bucky was worthy of being a prince, then the only person Clint needed to convince was Bucky himself. He fell asleep planning how to do just that.