For a prompt on the Avengers kink meme, round 24, page 14. The prompt was for Bucky, somehow, to gain a huge fan base of little girls. It led me here, I'm ashamed to say. Even more ashamed to say that I went to the trouble of going through the Disney princes until I found someone appropriate. Hope you like it.
"Bucky is Not a Disney Prince"
Bucky heard crying, barely distinguishable beneath the crashes and gunshots and screeches and screams coming from all directions while giant robotic wasps whirled around every street and through every alleyway. It was down one such alleyway that he ran to the source of the crying.
A young girl was hiding behind a cardboard box on the far side of a line of dumpsters. It was smart; the wasps seemed to be attracted to the scent of blood, and the stench of rubbish would cover that neatly. He was almost tempted to let her stay there, and come back for her later. But the possibility that she could run into the street unknowingly or – even worse – find herself at the mercy of another human being pricked his conscience. He squatted before her, tucking a strand of his medium-length hair behind his ear.
"Hello," he said. She peered out at him, big brown eyes wide with terror… and interest.
"H-hello," she whispered.
"What's your name, sweetheart?"
"M-Mary."
"Mary, do you live nearby?" She shook her head. "Where's your family?" She shrugged, still staring at him. He sighed. "How did you get here?"
"The big bees scared me, and I ran away. But they didn't follow me here."
"Do you have parents?" She nodded. "Do you know their cell phone numbers?"
"N-no."
"Okay." He held out his hand slowly. "My name's Bucky Barnes."
She blinked, and then grinned widely. "Yeah! I've seen you in the toy store. My brother has Iron Man and the Hulk."
No accounting for taste, Bucky thought. "That's right. I'm Captain America's friend."
"You're a hero!"
"Well… okay. Will you come with me? I'll take you somewhere safe, and then we can find your parents after all the… they're wasps, actually, after all the wasps are dead. Or de-powered, technically, since they're mechanical…" She continued to look at him blankly, if in awe. "Anyway. I promise, I won't let anyone hurt you."
Without hesitation, Mary put her hand in his, and Bucky drew her out, amazed that she was showing him such trust. Just because there were a few action figures of him around, a fact which never ceased to confuse him. He hoisted her up on his hip, keeping his dominant hand free, and checked both ways before leaving the alley. Clear. But they had to move fast. Bucky clicked on his comm. unit.
"Iron Man, where's the nearest SHIELD safe point?" he asked. Mary gasped, and held on tighter. There was no wasp in sight, but Bucky kept an eye out, just in case.
"Two blocks south of your location, Barnes," Tony replied.
"Thanks." He continued to listen to the orders flying around over the comms, all while running with Mary plastered to his side, on alert for further threats. Then she squealed.
"There's my mom!" she said, pointing at a window. Bucky glanced there, and saw a woman waving from behind a table in an Indian restaurant. Another good place to hide, with all the spicy food as a cover. Bucky checked their surroundings once more, then walked into the restaurant. He handed Mary over to her mother.
"Stay here," he said. "Someone will inform you when it is safe to leave."
"Well, we're not gonna run out of food anytime soon," one of the waiters joked. Bucky half-smiled, then stroked Mary's dark hair with his flesh hand.
"Keep safe, Mary," he said. She beamed at him.
"Thank you, Bucky," she said. Bucky nodded, turned on his heel, and marched out of the restaurant.
Just before he left, he heard Mary say to her mother, "He looks like Prince Eric, doesn't he, Mommy?"
"…and he was so handsome, just like a Disney prince," Mary said, throwing her arms wide, as she finished telling her friends all about when Bucky Barnes saved her life. "He carried me like I didn't weigh anything, and he touched my hair, and I asked Mommy for a Bucky doll. She said she'd get one for me today."
"You're so lucky," Beth said, and she sighed. "I wish he'd rescue me."
"I asked Daddy if I could marry Bucky, but he said that I'm not old enough to marry anyone yet, and that a man like Bucky must already have a girlfriend," Mary said. She slumped a little. "I guess I'll have to wait."
The others were silent for a couple of minutes. Then…
"I want a Bucky doll, too," Amy said.
"Me, too," Emma declared.
"So do I," Beth said.
Soon, every one of Mary's friends agreed that they all wanted Bucky dolls.
And that was how it began.
Every couple of days – basically, whenever Bucky interacted with Tony Stark – the 'genius' referred to Bucky as Prince Eric. He even changed Bucky's ring-tone to 'Kiss the Girl'. Bucky ensured that Tony would never feel compelled to make the same mistake twice. Even though he earned a disapproving frown from Steve, it was worth it for Natasha's snort of amusement when she witnessed the conversation. Bucky was proud of himself for 'using his words', as she said.
"Guess what I found out," Tony sang, bounding into the kitchen during lunch one day, a couple of weeks after the robotic wasps had been decimated.
"What's that?" Bruce asked warily. Bucky understood the apprehension. Anything which made Stark grin like that promised bad things for everyone else.
"JARVIS has been trailing through the data for me," Tony said, perching on a stool. "I didn't believe him at first, but he showed me video footage of the stores. It seems that Barnes's little rescue act has spawned a whole new demographic of followers."
Bucky had a bad feeling about where this was going.
"What demographic?" Steve asked. It sounded as if he was catching on as well.
"Girls aged six to eleven," Tony said. Clint sniggered, Natasha chuckled, Bruce sank his head into his hands, Thor laughed heartily, and Steve groaned. Tony just grinned evilly.
Bucky hated his life. And his so-called friends. And their significant others and sidekicks, just because they weren't here to defend him.
"Mr. Barnes, Brooke Anderson, Entertainment Tonight. How are you?"
Bucky stared at the attractive blonde woman who was confronting him. He glanced at the camera, and then back to her.
"Uh, I'm okay," he lied, feeling like a cornered animal. He never should have agreed to come along to the red carpet premiere of a documentary about circuses. But Clint had been interviewed for it, and made the other Avengers come along.
"We've noticed that you've become a trend with elementary school girls," Brooke said, smiling. "My older daughter's asked for a Bucky doll for Christmas."
"Oh. Well, I hope she likes it," Bucky said, and he scratched the back of his head.
"What do you think of your biggest fans being pre-teen girls?" she asked.
"I, uh… sort of feel like I don't, uh… deserve it," he said. "I mean, I've done some good… stuff, but I've also done some bad stuff, too. I wouldn't say I'm a good role model for anyone." Except budding villains, he thought.
"Buck, we're going in soon," Clint said, poking his elbow. Bucky glanced at him, grateful, and then back to Brooke.
"Look, it's nice," he said. "I don't understand it, but it's nice. I just don't think I'm the kind of guy good girls would like. Uh, gotta get going now, but it was nice to meet you, Ms. Anderson. Say hi to your little girl for me."
He 'allowed' Clint to pull him away, sighing as soon as they were out of earshot.
"You've just signed yourself up to another way of fans," Clint said. "You know that, right? The bad-guy-turned-good-with-a-heart-of-gold? They're gonna eat that up."
"God help me," Bucky muttered in Russian.
Three days before Christmas, Bucky and Natasha were making a hot chocolate run. Ever since Thor discovered that the best hot chocolate in New York came from a coffee stand only a couple of blocks from Stark Tower, Tony had been in a snit about the others preferring to go out, rather than using his coffee maker, and had forbidden them to use it for anything. No great loss, when you needed a degree in rocket scientist to operate the damn thing.
Stamping his feet and rubbing his hands while he waited, Bucky continued to observe the surrounding area. They took turns between watching the coffee maker and keeping an eye out for trouble. Despite his vigilance of all things eye level, Bucky was still surprised when he felt something tug on his coat. He looked down into a pair of golden eyes set in a dark face, surrounded almost entirely with a brightly-coloured beanie. He raised his eyebrows.
"Aren't you Bucky?" the girl asked.
"Yes," he said.
She turned and shouted at her… mother? Older sister? Who knew these days?
"I told ya it was him!" Then she turned back to Bucky, and pulled something out of her pocket. Long-ingrained instincts had him tensing before she produced a pack of gum. She opened his hand and placed the gum in it, and then closed his fingers around. He stared at her.
"Thank you?" he said, confused.
"Maybe you can sign my Christmas present?" she asked. Then she dashed back to the end of the cue, where her mother-sister-whatever was waiting in line. She extracted something from one of the shopping bags, and ran back to Bucky. His eyes widened when he realised that it was a teddy bear made to look like him.
"I… didn't know they made those," he said.
"It's one you make yourself," she said. "You pick out the bear, then you fill it, and give it a heart, and then you pick out clothes. I was gonna go with an angel, `cause Mommy wishes I was an angel, and `cause Daddy's an angel now, and Mommy's in the funny people's hospital so I almost got a nurse. But then I saw the superheroes, and you were there, and you're my favourite, so I asked for you instead." Then she took a breath. Everything else was silent around them.
"Here," the coffee guy said, holding out a marker. Bucky took it, and wrote 'Keep fighting the good fight, Love Bucky xo' on the bear's silver sleeve… presumably meant to be his arm. Choking back the lump in his throat, he hugged the girl for a few seconds, gave her the bear and a kiss on the cheek, and handed back the pen. Then he walked the girl back to her… god, Bucky hoped she was the girl's sister. While the girl was stuffing the bear back in its bag, he pulled out a hundred dollars, folded it, and tucked it into the woman's jacket.
"Buy her the other outfits, too," he whispered. She nodded, tears streaming down her face. Bucky returned to the front and handed a ten dollar bill to the coffee guy. "Whatever they want, it's on me."
By this time, the man had finished their order, and Natasha was holding half their drinks. Bucky picked up the rest, and followed her back to the tower. They were quiet on the way, and Bucky could tell that she was thinking. He was trying hard not to think about the girl back there, and how he'd never even got her name.
When the story went viral online later that day, he found out that it was Tricia, and her older sister was Pamela. Pepper and Darcy – who was staying with them for the holidays while Thor and Jane were in London – both cried, along with Steve, when they all saw the report on the news. Tony didn't have any snide remarks. However, when it was mentioned that Pamela was struggling with medical bills for their mom, and the funeral expenses for their dad, Tony got JARVIS to find out where Pamela worked so that he could offer her a better job at five times the salary.
Over the holiday period, there was a noticeable climb in the sale of superhero merchandise, especially after averting another major threat to the East Coast. Posters had been available for months; but it was the increased sales in Bucky posters that surprised. At least until Darcy was browsing online one day and came across the newest Bucky Barnes fan site.
"Okay, so it isn't exactly smart for teenage girls to take pictures of their bedrooms and put them on the internet," she said. "But since they're mainly shrines to you, it should be okay. Apparently they have a stringent vetting process for each submission."
Bucky stared at the photographs as Darcy scrolled down the page. The girls who were posting these seemed to range from twelve to fifteen years old. Clint, who was perched on the kitchen bench behind them, clapped Bucky on the shoulder.
"Congratulations, Barnes," he said. "You've become the idol of teenage girls going through puberty. You know what that means, right?"
"I'm trying not to think about it," Bucky said, stomach turning at the thought. "This is wrong."
"It's cute," Darcy insisted. "Hell, I'm above the age of your demographic, and I'm gonna get me a poster of you and stick it on my wall. Might even get myself a Bucky bear."
Bucky muttered something about role models and insanity. Clint kicked him gently.
"Cheer up," he said. "You should love the female attention. Keep being all self-effacing and gallant, and you'll have women Darcy's age falling all over you. That'll make you happy, right? You could have whoever you want."
"Not whoever I want," Bucky said. He kept his eyes on the laptop screen as he heard Clint hop down from the bench and wander out of the room. He noticed Darcy watching, however, and waited for her to speak.
"You could totally tap that," she said.
Bucky snorted delicately, and wondered how the female of the species had changed so drastically over seventy years.
He was further tormented by his younger fans when one girl took her brother's Hawkeye action figure and had a tea party with it and her Bucky action figure. Her brother tweeted pictures of them. Soon, more pictures of tea parties with 'Bucky' popped up all over the place, and Bucky wondered how these people had so much spare time.
Admittedly, he spent his spare time replying to fan mail. At least children and young teenagers didn't write creepy stuff. There were some marriage proposals, even a few from the older women Clint had predicted. If Bucky thought he could discourage this by being rude and obnoxious… he still wouldn't do it. Not when so many people were looking up to him, to a disturbing degree. He was a reluctant role model, but a role model nonetheless, and damned if he was going to screw it up just to be contrary.
The fan mail and tea party pictures weren't the torturous part, though. It was when a certain faction of his fan-base became convinced that he had a crush on Hawkeye.
Their evidence:
1 – When rejecting marriage proposals, he wrote that he already wanted to marry somebody else, and that they didn't know it, but he hoped that maybe they would one day feel the same way. Considering that he used neither feminine nor masculine pronouns, they seemed to take it to mean that he was being coy, and that he was gay or bi. Not wrong, but they were too perceptive.
2 – Whenever they were out together, Bucky would usually sit beside Clint, more often than he sat beside anyone else.
3 – During battle one day, Clint saved Bucky when he fell, and when they were arguing about it afterwards – apparently 'like an old married couple' – Clint hugged Bucky after yelling at him for taking stupid risks. Yeah, like that wasn't the pot calling the kettle.
4 – Winterhawk is a 'cute ship name'. (Thanks, Darcy.)
So what began with a tea party and circumstantial evidence became a hash tag, and every one of their interactions was examined and commented on. Fan fiction and fan art became a thing, and no, Bucky did not spend hours looking at it just because he maybe-sort-of-did have a crush on Clint. No. Stop with that knowing look, Natasha.
Mid-February, there was a huge increase in fan mail, as usual. But this time, Bucky received the largest amount. He sat in the middle of his room, surrounded by envelopes – mostly pink and red – and a letter opener in his lap. He shifted all of the mail to one side, and picked up an envelope from the top of the pile. He slit it open, and pulled out the card. On the front was a wonky-shaped heart, hand-drawn, with 'Be my Valentine' written in the middle. 'Valentine' had had to be squashed to fit in. Bucky smiled, and read the message on the inside. 'Dear Bucky, my name is Jaya. I'm eight. Happy Valentine's Day. Love, Jaya. xxxooo'
Bucky twisted around and grabbed his notepaper and a pen. He wrote a reply to Jaya, addressed an envelope to her, and slid the paper inside. He sealed it, kissed the back and wrote 'SWAK'. Then he put it aside for a stamp later, scrunched up the red envelope and threw it away, and carefully placed her Valentine beside him.
It took several hours to get through, which wasn't helped when Happy brought more mail for him. He took a little longer over his replies to Mary and Tricia, who'd both written to him, and took extra care with their cards.
No matter how embarrassed he'd felt when this whole… insanity began, he now felt like the luckiest guy in the world. Little girls from all over the world loved him, and he was starting to wonder whether maybe it was okay. That maybe he did deserve a little bit of their love. Even if he didn't deserve their admiration and adoration, he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
He swept up all the discarded envelopes, scooping them into rubbish bags. It was as he was staring at the cards he'd received that there was a swish, followed by a dull thunk. He turned, letter opener in his hand before he'd even thought about arming himself, and stared at the arrow embedded in the wall. He recognised that arrow. He sneaked a look at the open vent, worried and bemused that Barton could be sneakier than him.
Ignoring the fact that Clint was visiting him on the most romantic day of the year, Bucky reached out and pulled the arrow from the wall. It took a few tugs, and he knew he would have to cover the hole with something before anyone noticed that it was there. He pulled off the envelope tied to the arrow and slipped out the unsealed flap. He extracted a card, clearly handmade, with a photograph of the two of them glued to the front. Heart pounding, Bucky opened it.
'Barnes, Be my Valentine? Yours, Clint.'
Bucky dropped the arrow and envelope, only holding onto the card, and he swallowed. Without turning his head, he called, "If this is a prank, Barton, I'll kill you."
"If it's not a prank?" Clint asked from right behind him. Bucky whipped around, relieved to see that Clint was a good few feet away. "If it's real? What'll you do?"
For an answer, Bucky hauled him close. Before he got any further, though, Clint pushed him back with a single finger.
"I want you to know," he said, "that just because you're the Disney prince of the superhero world, it doesn't make me a Disney princess."
"Just kiss me," Bucky said. Clint complied.
I was going to leave it with Bucky hauling Clint close, but then decided that one last Disney reference was required. Which gave me the title of the fic, to be honest, so it was a good decision. I hope you agree with me. (And I've never seen Entertainment Tonight, so I have no idea how in-character Brooke Anderson was.)
Please review!