The Art of Trick or Treat
ghostlywhitedirewolf

This was supposed to be super fluffy and then angst happened. Oops.

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Bucky didn't understand why there were hoards of children wandering around the Avengers tower in fancy dress. Some as witches or zombies, others as Captain America and Iron Man, amongst other questionable outfits.

He tried to back away, not wanting to cause anyone to start screaming if they saw him, but finding himself surrounded by cooing adults.

Bucky knew he didn't exactly exude 'child friendly' despite him remembering his little sisters; he had been good with them.

Steve caught his eye from across the room and started to move towards him, dodging small children as he went, fully dressed in his Captain America outfit.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve asked as he reached him, seeing the unmasked panic on Bucky's face.

"Why are there kids everywhere? I just wanted to get some tea and I couldn't find you, I'm just gonna go." Bucky told him, starting to turn around when Steve caught his arm gently.

"Wait, they're just trick or treaters, Tony does this every year for the kids of a local orphanage who wouldn't get the chance otherwise. They get to meet us and have candy and Pepper organises for them all to choose their own fancy dress. It's a great cause. Some of these kids have never had the opportunity to do this. You should stick around, all you have to do is smile and listen to them and give them candy. Even act scared if one of them tries to frighten you." Steve explained

He gestured to the gaggle of children before him, crowding around Tony in his Iron Man suit, Bruce fully painted green (Bucky could guarantee that that hadn't been his idea), Pepper dressed (appropriately) as Superwoman, Sam in his army gear, sporting his wings, Natasha and Clint as themselves (minus the usual entourage of weaponry) and finally, Thor as Thor.

"I don't think it will take much acting to be honest." Bucky muttered, eyeing the children before him warily. "They won't be scared of me?"

He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, which didn't do much to hide his metal arm, and his hair loosely pulled back into a bun. He knew that his face was pale and his eyes dark from lack of sleep. The last few days hadn't been great for him and he knew that people could tell.

Steve laughed slightly. "No, Buck, they definitely won't be scared of you. Half of them already know who you are from the Smithsonian and the exhibition there. You just have slightly longer hair now."

Bucky nodded, still not convinced, but willing to try for Steve. "Don't leave me? Not until I know that they won't be scared."

"I promise, I'll be right here. Sam's just over there if you wanted to be close to him if you're feeling overwhelmed. If it's too much you can go back upstairs. Whatever you want." Steve smiled reassuringly at him.

"I won't hurt them, right?" Bucky whispered, knowing that Steve would hear.

Steve looked at him, a mixture of fondness and pain on his face as he replied. "No Buck, I know you won't. Come on."

Bucky allowed himself to be led into the hoards of children, suddenly bombarded with questions as to who he was. Steve pressed a bucket of candy into his hands.

"This is Bucky," Steve said, motioning towards the other man, clutching the bucket of sweets nervously, scanning the kid's faces for signs of distress, pleasantly surprised when he found none.

"He's your best friend! That's what the museum said!" One little boy gasped and Steve laughed.

"He sure is, but you'd better ask him for sweets now before he has chance to eat them all himself." Steve told them with a wink and Bucky found himself smiling despite the tension he felt.

There came a chorus of "trick or treat!" and Bucky followed Steve's example, handing out candy and smiling at the ridiculous face paint that some of the kids seemed to be sporting. Halloween had never been a big thing in their area when they were younger, people seeing it as begging in a time where no one had anything, but he remembered his sisters dressing up as witches and pretending to scare him and Steve.

Eventually he found himself beginning to relax, the kids questioning him about 'Captain America', eager for stories about him, and he forgot his nervousness, starting to enjoy it.

"Decided to join the party did you?" Sam asked as he clapped a hand to Bucky's back, careful to speak first to avoid startling Bucky.

"Coerced more than decided," Bucky admitted, "but I'm glad I was."

"Bucky says that Captain America used to be small and when he was small he used to get hurt a lot. And he said that he likes cherry pie!" One of the little girls told Sam excitedly and the other man raised an eyebrow.

"Got hurt a lot?" Sam smirked.

"I can't tell a kid that her hero used to get beat up!" Bucky mumbled and Sam laughed, nodding in agreement.

"I'm proud of you man, you've done well here. The kids all love you. They all want to be Captain America's best friend." Sam squeezed Bucky's flesh shoulder in a supportive gesture.

Bucky smiled slightly, looking down in embarrassment at Sam's praise.

"They weren't scared of me." He admitted quietly, shooting a quick glance at Sam to gauge his reaction.

"Of course they weren't. You're not the bad guy here. Hell, you're giving away free candy, I'm pretty sure these kids wouldn't care if you decided to kill all the adults in here as long as they still got their sweets." Sam told him, glancing around at the kids who were all starting to pack up their things, it finally time for them to leave with their respective adults.

Bucky grinned at him in an attempt to lighten his mood. "I want my share of candy when this is over."

Steve groaned as he slipped into bed beside Bucky and pressed himself up against the ex-assassin's side, arm snaking around Bucky's bare waist as he pressed a light kiss to the underside of his chin.

"There's only so many kids I can handle in one room, and tonight, was too many." Steve mumbled against Bucky's skin and the other man smiled. "And, thanks to you, I was offered so many cherry flavoured sweets that I think I'd die of diabetes before I finished them all, serum or no serum."

Bucky laughed, turning his body to the side so that Steve's face was pressed against Bucky's chest, allowing him to curl himself around the other man.

"Thank you." Bucky said, kissing the top of Steve's head fondly.

"For?"

"Not letting me run away. Showing me that I'm only a monster in my own head." Bucky's voice trailed off as he reached the end of his sentence; letting the magnitude of his words sink in.

"You're not a monster, Buck. You could never be a monster." Steve planted light kisses to Bucky's chest as he spoke, the gesture intimate without really going further. "The only monsters were HYDRA. Not you."

Bucky's arms tightened around Steve at the name. "I'm sorry we have to keep going through all this, I know, deep down, I really do, I just– I forget sometimes. Get lost in a memory; remember what it feels like to end someone's life with my bare hands. I get lost in that feeling. Sometimes I need to rehash everything to get it all back in order in my head."

"Don't ever apologise for doing what you have to do to make things make sense. I will repeat this forever if I have to." Steve looked at him, one hand reaching up to tilt Bucky's chin down towards him so that he could capture the other man's lips in a searing kiss.

"I love you." Bucky mumbled against Steve's mouth, tasting cherry sweets and allowing the familiar scent that was all Steve to engulf him.

"I love you too Buck, Happy Halloween." Steve pressed their foreheads together.

"Hey Steve?"

"Yeah Buck?"

"Trick or treat."

Steve laughed gently, "I don't have any candy."

"You'll just have to come up with some other treat then." Bucky told him with a wink, pressing a light kiss to Steve's mouth.

Steve laughed and shifted, flipping them so that he was straddling Bucky, looking down at the other man fondly.

"I'm sure I can think of something."

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