WARNING!: Chapter 10 will overlap this one at the -)Two Months Later(- mark. This cast is huge and I want to do Harry and MJ justice for their development in the next chapter. Tony's perspective will also be a big part of the next chapter.
Chapter 9 - I'm Fine
When Bucky finally came home that night, it was early enough in the morning that he was surprised to see Loki awake.
"You know her," he accused.
Bucky gave his friend an unamused look, "What the hell do you think you are doing? Trying to separate Harry from his mother, really, Loki, really?"
Loki's chest puffed out, "Harry chose us."
Bucky groaned, "That is not the point, that isn't a choice you should ever have forced him to make."
"It was Natasha-"
"It was you and your blasted insecurities," Bucky snapped. "Why didn't you tell me Harry's mother was alive?"
"Because Harry is mine, not hers, she gave him up."
"She gave her life for him."
"Why do you even care about her?" Loki demanded.
"You mean aside from the fact that she is Harry's mother?" he emphasized, "Natasha Romanoff is the only person I have ever trained over any significant portion of time, or retrained, I should say. Also we have been lovers off and on for the last seventy years."
"You fucked her?" Loki asked, "Tonight?"
Bucky raised a brow, "Since when do you care how I spend my mornings?"
"Since you've decided to fuck my son's mother."
"Jealous?" Bucky taunted.
Loki's upper lip twisted, "I'd sooner bend over for a viper. You were supposed to be on my side."
"I thought Harry's birth parents were dead. If I had known otherwise, then I might have mentioned Natasha has been the only person since waking up to Hydra's tender care to remind me that I was human."
"And here I was, thinking that's why you're friends with me," Loki said derisively.
Bucky paced, "I'm friends with you, you fucking idiot, because I enjoy your company. Because, despite all your moronic tendencies and self-sabotaging mannerisms, you are, at heart, a decent being who sees me as a person in turn. Natasha and I were, are, lovers because we endured the same hardships, because we are attracted to each other."
Loki was quiet for a long moment, "She is also friends with Steve Rodgers."
Bucky threw up his hands, "This is not a discussion about my relationships, this is a talk about you lying to me and Harry about something as monumental as his mother being alive! You essentially kidnapped him!"
Loki's face grew angry, "That ritual she used was about intention. Whatever the fuck Lily Potter thought she was doing, she knew that she was selling her soul and Harry's to a foreign power. It seems rather unlikely that she believed in the Norse gods, or that she knew anything about Aesir. 'Harry's mother' might as well have been selling her and her baby's soul to a demon."
"Natasha wouldn't do that?"
"Have you asked her?" Loki demanded, "Ask her what her intentions were, go ahead. She was playing with forces she didn't understand, things she likely believed to be 'the dark arts' like most soul magic is, both in this universe and nearly every other. She isn't some innocent victim. She's dangerous."
"So am I."
"But you would never hurt Harri," Loki countered.
"She was likely desperate," Bucky said, ignoring that as the Soldat, he very likely would have hurt Harry.
As he had been made to hurt Natasha in the past.
"You think that makes it better?" Loki challenged, "Her intention was to trade her life and her son's future for his survival. Surely, you of all people, understand that there are worse fates than death. They were lucky it was my name she invoked."
"I think you would do worse if Harry was ever endangered," Bucky retorted.
Loki almost smiled, "Like bluffing about his mother's status of dead or alive?"
Bucky rubbed his face and went to the fridge for a glass of water, "I'm not taking your side on this one."
"Do you think your Captain will?"
Bucky spun on him, "What is wrong with you?"
"Thor knows you're here, Thor knows Harry, Thor and Romanoff are friends with Rodgers; the Captain is going to find out you are alive soon."
"Why do you care?"
"Because tell me you wouldn't still be his friend if he walked through that door right now?"
"You think this is the same as not telling Harry and I about Natasha?"
Loki smiled in triumph, "Exactly."
"You are a fucking asshole."
Loki sat down beside him and said with far too much cheer, "I'm giving you the chance to be better than me."
Buck put his face in his hands, "I hate you."
Loki's voice sobered, "You should tell him."
Bucky didn't answer.
The truth was, he didn't want to be the one to let Stevie down. The little punk had grown up to be everyone's hero, while Bucky, who had once been Steve's hero, had become the villain.
He just couldn't bring himself to do it.
-)0(-
Natasha nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice said out of the darkness, "You look like you had a good night."
She tried to suppress the heat that rose to her cheeks, she was never embarrassed about who she shared her body with, especially not with Steve, of all people.
Except that who she had spent the midnight hours with would most definitely concern Steve.
"Tasha, you alright?" Steve asked, standing up from the couch, his blonde hair illuminated in the dim light from the kitchen.
"Fine," she managed, feeling like the worst type of hypocrite.
Not telling Steve about Soldat, she had been a minor mercy, but she hadn't ridden the Winter Soldier into the night, she had hot passionate sex with Bucky Barnes.
She hadn't even made it to the shower yet, and she had the sudden irrational fear that Steve would smell him on her.
Why hadn't she pressed this topic with Bucky? Surely he should have been the one to tell his old best friend who had been essentially time travelled to the future that he wasn't alone.
"You sure?" Steve pressed, sounding worried.
She couldn't meet his gaze, she skirted past him, "Yeah, all good, I just need a shower."
And maybe beat something up.
Funny how complicated her life could get in a single night. But tomorrow she would see Harry again, and that was all that really mattered.
Until Fury called.
-)The Next Day(-
Harry deflated when Bucky came into his room.
It was late, Harry had stayed up waiting, but the look on Bucky's face said she wasn't coming back.
Bucky sat down beside him, "She will be back State-side in a month or two. Her plane just landed, and that is the last we will hear from her until she is on her way back."
Harry felt pathetic.
He didn't know her. It shouldn't matter that she wasn't coming back, maybe it would be better if she just didn't come back. Clearly she had more important priorities.
"Harry, you alright?"
"I'm fine," he lied.
Merlin, he was such a baby, he was on the brink of tears.
Pathetic, pathetic.
Bucky wrapped an arm around his shoulders pulling him close, "She's coming back, Harry, I promise. She's possibly one the most capable women on the planet."
Harry token in a shaky breath, "But I told her to leave," the words came out in quickening rush, "I didn't even get to thank her, or tell her I love her, or ask about my birth-father, and I didn't even-" get to know her when I had the chance.
But the words choked off and he squeezed his eyes shut.
He. Would. Not. Cry.
Harry could almost hear Dudley laughing at him. Never mind that Harry only ever cried when Dudley or his gang managed to smash his glasses into his face or break something.
So he shouldn't be crying now.
And he wasn't crying, but his chest ached.
He had told his mother to leave, his mother who had died for him.
Poor repayment for their sacrifice, Remus's words echoed in his mind.
"Harry, look at me."
Harry forced himself to breathe, forced himself to look, "I'm sorry," he said, " I'm being stupid."
Bucky shook his head and said gently, "Emotions aren't stupid, son."
"I'm not a child," Harry said, bringing his shoulders up.
Bucky squeezed his shoulders, "But that's the great lie."
Harry blinked, "What is?"
"That being an adult makes the emotions easier to deal with. It doesn't, sometimes, they are just easier to ignore, but that has consequences of its own."
Harry sat up straight, "I'm going to be okay."
Bucky ruffled his hair and Harry felt a fresh wave of affection for this man. He didn't know where he would be without him.
-)Two Months Later(-
"You alright?" Bruce asked the next morning.
Steve shrugged, "Sure."
Truth was, not great, he was feeling very managed by his friends and wasn't at all looking forward to tonight's get together. One, because being paraded before a bunch of party-goers had never been his thing, and two, because Sam Wilson would be there.
Ordinarily, that would be great, aside from Natasha, Sam was his closest living friend (aside from Peggy who forgot he was still alive every ten minutes). But what wasn't great was that Sam was moving into Stark Tower, moving away from his home and career in D.C. purely for Steve's benefit.
Steve had finally given up trying to talk Sam out of it, but, as always, he was left feeling out of place and like a burden.
The present he had received, the sketchbooks, were a reminder of who had been, of everything he had lost. When he was young, he would have given just about anything to be able to keep up with Bucky.
For the simple ability to breathe without pain.
Now, he had that, and yet he lost just about everything else.
He had the money now to go to college, but even if he pursued art, became a comic book artist, people would only buy his stuff because of Captain America, not because they liked his art.
He hadn't told anyone this, of course, especially not Sam, because he already knew what Sam would say.
Steve looked up from his coffee, flushing slightly at Bruce's look of concern.
"I'm fine," Steve said again.
Bruce held his hands up, "Alright, just remember you're not alone."
But that's exactly how he felt, outdated in a world that had long ago moved on without him.
His melancholy lasted through the day and did not abate for the party, he only barely kept it from Sam. Even then, he wasn't totally sure he had fooled anyone.
Steve wasn't totally paying attention to the shenanigans of his friends, Thor, Tony, Rhodey, Clint, Bruce, Hill, Coulson, and Sam.
Bruce went first, fake roaring and not at all taking it seriously.
When Sam pushed Steve forward to try at lifting Thor's hammer that had been placed lightly on the coffee table, he wasn't really trying or expecting the Hammer would move.
The next thing he knew, he felt a shock of electricity, like a taser and nearly dropped it on his feet.
There was a 'thunderous' silence.
Thor was looking down at the Hammer as if it had personally betrayed him, Steve backed away from it, the toast of ozone on his tongue. He did not want alien magic, he had quite enough to deal with.
Coulson didn't say anything, but he was smiling, eyes sparkling with hero worship.
Steve respected and liked Coulson, but sometimes his level of awe could be… intimating? He supposed. Most of the people close to him after his transformation picked on him more than they glorified him. Steve would take a ribbing almost any day, well, except from Tony. Tony was like a sullen child, everyone else was just trying to lighten the mood.
"Huh," Sam said, standing up to go toward the hammer.
To the room's amazement, Sam was able to lift the hammer as well. Steve wasn't surprised, Sam had a bigger heart and was a stronger man than Steve ever had been. If 'Captain America' could lift the hammer, 'the Falcon' sure as shit could.
Sam apparently was affected by the magic, though Steve could have sworn a wash of wind swept around him. Sam tested the weight of the hammer in his grip, before gently setting it back on the table.
"That was weird," Sam stated.
Tony was gaping at them, so Rhodey tried next and was unable to lift it. That seemed to slightly malify Thor, the Prince of Asgard looked like he was having an internal crisis.
Sam and Steve sat beside each other, both slightly shaken by the magic of the hammer andon the same page about not discussing it here.
Tony was attempting to lift Thor's hammer when Natasha walked into the 'after party'.
"Finally," Hill said, "the testosterone was killing me, Pepper left hours ago."
Natasha, who was still dressed in her tactical gear, managed to somehow unzip her boots, kick them off, and keep walking, all while making it look absurdly graceful. She folded herself into a seat beside Bruce and took up the drink that Tony had left unattended.
"Mission go that bad?" Hill asked.
She spared the other female agent a hostile glance, "Fuck you and Fury both."
Coulson's expression gave away how surprised he was at Natasha's hostility to authority.
The relaxed and amused air of the night despaired as even Tony cooled down on trying to best magic with mechanics.
"What happened?" Steve asked.
Natasha shook her head and grumbled, "I asked for one personal day and was denied."
Steve exchanged a look with Sam who was staring at Natasha as if trying to solve a puzzle.
"You were needed on that assignment," Coulson said, "Without you, we would have been there for years."
"But it couldn't have waited one day?" Natasha asked.
"He didn't want to see you tonight?" Thor asked, apparently the only one in the room that had any clue about what was going on outside of Coulson and Hill.
Natasha huffed, "He's at his friend's house."
Tony grinned, "Who, your boyfriend?"
Natasha shot Steve a guilty look, which Steve didn't understand, before she asked, "Where's Pepper, Tony, sick of you already?"
Jeez, was she in a foul mood.
Thor, again, proved he knew what was going on, "His friend is still adjusting to being a tiger."
Natasha, and everyone else, frowned at him.
"But things have been getting better since Bucky started teaching them self-defense. Your son is very strong. Still weak for an Asgardian but Loki says he's going to be as strong as a Jotann one day."
"You found your son?" Bruce asked
Tony shook his head, "Loki is in New York?"
"Did you say Bucky?" Steve asked, sitting forward.
Natasha gave Steve another guilty look and his mouth fell open, "Bucky is alive!?"
Thor laughed, completely blind to the chaos he was causing, "Very alive, he helped save Asgard from an invasion of dark elves."
Steve blinked, then waved his hand, "Wait, James Buchanan Barnes is alive and he's been to Asgard."
Thor nodded, "Hydra kidnapped Loki and Loki in turn stole Buchanan from Hydra. Our mother helped him heal. He moved back to Midgard to help raise Loki and Natasha's son."
The silence was so deep, even a normal person could have heard a pin cross from across the room.
"When?" Steve demanded.
Thor shrugged, "A few months ago."
"I mean when did you find Bucky?" Steve said through gritted teeth. He couldn't believe Hydra had gotten to him.
"Oh, after the attack on New York," Thor said gaily.
"That was more than four years ago!" Steve exclaimed, standing to get in the prince's face.
"I didn't know you knew him," Thor said innocently.
Steve just barely kept from screaming, because sure, it wasn't as if Steve knew Asgard's history any better than Thor knew theirs. However, he turned on Natasha, "When did you find out?"
"I only found out my son was alive recently, before my last mission," she said which almost explained the guilty look, but there was something off about her response.
"When did you know about Sargent Barnes being alive?" Sam asked.
Natasha was quiet for a long time, that strangely no one -not even Tony- interrupted. Finally, she sighed and looked up to meet Steve's gaze, "I met the Winter Soldier sixty-eight years ago, Steve."
Steve gaped at her, "How? How old are you? And you've been keeping this from me the entire time we've known each other?"
"I was born in 1928," she said.
"How?" Tony asked, his expression that of a man trying to solve an impossible riddle.
"You think Steve is the only person with super-surem?" Natasha shot at him. "I was one of dozens of the Russian's test runs. I may not be able to lift a car but my healing and longevity were increased."
"You're old enough-"
"Stark," Natasha cut him off, "If you finish that sentence, I swear, I will hurt you."
"Was Bucky also injected with the super-surem?" Steve asked, the world feeling like it was falling out from underneath him.
Natasha sighed, but inclined her head in the affirmative, "Germans, not as good as your own, but better than mine."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Steve demanded, truly hurt.
"Because he killed my parents," Tony said, tone dead.
Steve spun on him, "Bucky wouldn't have killed Howard, we- we were all friends."
"He didn't have a choice," Natasha offered.
"The hell he didn't!" Tony roared, "The Winter Soldier, you called him the Winter Soldier. I thought it didn't matter, I thought it was likely that my parent's killer was either dead or close enough to it, but now you're telling me he's immortal. Fuck that, I'll kill him."
"No!" Steve exclaimed, "No, there has to be an explanation."
"Buchanan is a good man," Thor said, "Natasha is right, it wasn't his fault. It took both my mother's and Loki's magic to bring him back to himself."
"Take a deep breath, man," Sam coaxed quietly.
Steve did as instructed, but it didn't help. His gaze went back to Natasha, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't I tell you your best friends had been saved by the Nazis to serve as their personal mind wiped weapon for decades?" she snapped, "I don't know, Steve, let's examine that shall we? Say I had told you, you would have gone after him."
"Damn right I would have," Steve said, his temper rose.
"And," she continued, clearly angry as well, "he would have killed you. Not because he's the better super-soldier but because he wouldn't have hesitated. He was Soldat, not Sargent Barnes, and the Winter Soldier has never had mercy for anyone."
"You don't know him," Steve said in denial.
She shook her head, standing to her feet as well and pulling down the zipper on her tactile vest, "He was my teacher, Rodgers, my teacher, my lover, the man who kept me alive when I first tried to leave service," she gestured to Clint, "Years before SHIELD ever reached out a hand to me. But when I did leave, and Barnes and I had conflicting missions," she pulled up her shirt to show a sizable scar on her torso, "He shot through me to achieve his objective, bye-bye bikinis."
Coulson gave a soft snort and muttered, "Yeah, I'm sure you look terrible in them now."
Steve ignored it, "You were his lover?" He thought of how she had come home the other notes, "We live together, how could you not tell me-"
"Until two months ago, I would have said the Bucky Barnes you knew was long dead. Steve, he has a kill count longer than I do, longer than you are tall. I didn't think there was anything left of the man you knew."
Thor shook his head, "No, Sergeant Barnes is a good man."
"So why not tell me then?" Steve demanded, "Why not tell me when you knew he was healed enough to raise a child?"
She sighed, "Because that is between you and him. I don't know what his reasons are for not contacting you."
Clint held up a finger, "Can we briefly return to the subject of your son, who you had seventy years ago?"
Natasha sank back down to the sofa, "Only thirteen years or so have passed in the other universe, my son Harry, is only fifteen."
"And the father is Bucky or Loki?" Hill asked.
Natasha glared at her, "Neither, my husband died in the other universe we are from. Loki is how he, we, got to this universe."
"So I guess you really are a widow," Tony said tactlessly.
"That was ill spoken," Thor, who was typically the worst offender, informed the Man of Iron.
Steve was so done with this company, "Where does Bucky live now?"
Natasha looked at him for a long moment, then sighed and pulled out her phone.
"You have his number?" Steve demanded.
She didn't answer him, just dialed the number and a moment later, Bucky's low tones answered, -He isn't back yet, Tasha, I told you he was spending the night.
"At a girl's house?" she challenged.
-They are just friends.
"You really believe that?" Natasha said with a teasing note in her voice.
-You really think a teenager could pull off that big of a lie, to me? Bucky, because it had to be Bucky, the real Bucky, answered.
"Speaking of which, Thor blew your cover, and Rodgers is listening to every word we say."
There was long silence, then, -Where are you?
"Stark tower."
-I'll be there in an hour.
Then the connection clicked off.
Steve shut his eyes and took in a deep breath.
Bucky was alive.
"Are we just going to gloss over the fact that he murdered my parents?" Tony asked.
Natasha flipped her hair back, "We have an hour, how much do you want to learn about Hydra reprogramming techniques?"
The next hour was one of the hardest of his life. Steve understood why Natasha never said anything to anyone, because if she had, Bucky would have been arrested or put down.
It was frankly amazing that anyone could recover from the atrocities done to him.
Tony excused himself before Bucky showed up.
-)*(-
Steve basically ignored Loki as he pulled Bucky into a hug the moment he walked through the door. It was hard not to cry.
Bucky pulled away and reached up to ruffle Steve's hair, "Don't get weepy on me, punk."
Steve swallowed hard, "Thanks for the present."
Bucky gave him a half smile, "Don't mention it."
There was an awkward silence, in which thought of a million things to say, finally he settled, "I'm so sorr-"
Bucky walked around him into the room, "Don't, Stevie. Not your fault."
Steve followed, feeling stupid as Bucky sat beside Natasha, putting his metal arm across the seat behind her. She passed him a beer without comment.
Loki and Thor were taking up the seats on the other side of the couch, leaving Steve to sit across from them with Sam and Clint. Hill and Coulson had left for the night which meant short of Tony this was a full Avengers assembly.
But no one, not Bruce, Thor, Natasha, Clint, Sam, nor Rhodey said anything.
"Fun party," Loki observed.
"This isn't a party," Tony said, coming back into the room, seeming a little unsteady on his feet as he pointed at Bucky, "You personally killed my parents."
Bucky nodded, "I did."
"What? No, defense?" Tony challenged.
Bucky cocked his head, his longer hair following motion. He looked far too casual, "Judging by the expressions on everyone's faces, on Thor's face," Thor looked incredibly quiet and somber. "You know why I did. I have no other defense, I can only tell you that I didn't want to do it and that I ended them quickly."
"Fuck you."
Bucky said nothing.
"Fight me!" Tony roared.
"I will leave if you ask me to," Bucky said peaceably.
Bucky had always been level headed, but this…
There was something deeper in his old friend now. Bucky always had charm, a ladies man, a good nature, and a level head. But this seemed different. Like the building could be on fire and Bucky would simply saunter out at his own pace with his drink in hand.
Tony deflated as if Bucky had sucked the wind out of his sails. "I saw what Hydra did to you. JARVIS, my computer. showed us the video. You suffered."
Something flashed in Bucky's eyes, and Steve fought off a shiver from the 'conditioning of the asset'.
Electric shock therapy to the point of near-lobotomization.
Cryo-freezing.
Getting hosed down with freezing cold water, the water pressure reaching the point of pressure that could rip a man's skin off. Had it not been for the surem, Bucky would have died from that treatment.
Hell, he would have died of shock or hypothermia if he had been fully human.
"For killing my parents," Tony went on, "I'd say you deserve it."
Bucky inclined his head, "I might think the same, had you been the one to murder my parents, orphaning me and my sisters."
Tony stared at him, "Hydra can't use you like that again, can they?"
Loki answered for Bucky, "No, he's free. And if you threaten him, I will take everything you ever loved away from you."
Tony gritted his teeth, "I won't threaten him, so long as it can't be repeated," his shoulders drooped and Rhodey placed a hand on his back. "You have suffered enough."
Bucky held Tony's gaze for a long moment before he said, "Thank you."
"Can we move on to something interesting now?" Loki asked.
Tony snorted, "Shit, and I thought I was a narcissist."
"Compared to Loki, you're a saint," Bucky said, visibly relaxing.
Loki slouched into Bucky's side, "I don't need to give a shit about humanity, not my job."
"You're not better about Asgardians," Thor remarked.
"Good thing I'm not the oldest then, isn't it?" Loki retorted.
Steve shook his head, "You've really been living with these two for over four years?"
Bucky shrugged, "It hasn't been boring."
"What's Asgard like?" Banner asked.
"You could have asked me that," Thor said sullenly.
"Yeah, but all you ever do is wax poetic about your superiority," Rhodey said.
"That's because we are superory," Loki said.
"It's ghadie as hell," Bucky said, "Gold everywhere and all they do is sporting events, drinking, and lazing around. Not that I blame them exactly, but it is akin to the worst stereotypes of Greek Mythology. But instead of incest, it's the complacent victory over the nine other realms."
"We were victorious, we brought order, and-" Thor began.
Loki snorted, "If it wasn't for Buchanan and I, Asgard would have fallen to the Dark Elves."
"And Jane!" Thor protested.
"Loki saved Jane," Bucky stated.
Loki's smile was smug, "And now that the Reality Stone doesn't exist Thanos's plans are completely ruined."
Tony rubbed his face, "Wait, hold up, back up, 'the Reality Stone' and Jane, you mean, Dr. Foster, the astrophysicist that found Thor and-"
"Hit him with her car and tazed him, yes. It is true love between them," Loki said.
"I thought it was that girl, Darcy who tazed him?" Bucky remarked, then teased, "I still think it's funny tazing works on the supposed 'God of Thunder'."
Thor's response was in angry Norwegian.
Tony waved his hand, "Hello, back to the main topic; Infinite Stone on the loose, and I think you're referring to the planetary conference a few years back. And remind me who Thanos is again?"
"The one who attempted war on Midgard," Thor said, "The one who tricked my brother."
Loki's nostrils flared, but he didn't refute it.
"And you got rid of one of the stones?" Rhodey said.
"Yes," Loki said, his self satisfied demeanor returning like the tide, "the stone had the ability to shape reality, so I used it to create a reality that the stone no longer existed in anymore."
"What about the stone in New York, for the scepter?" Clint asked.
"Hydra has it," Bucky said.
"And you didn't think to go get it back?" Rhodey asked.
"Yes," Bucky said with a note of sarcasm, "because running back to the people who could enslave me with a word is a genius idea. It took me three years before I was able to root out all of the programming."
"Why haven't you two done anything?" Clint asked, pointing at the two would be gods.
Loki shrugged, "It's not my problem to solve all of Midgard's issues. Besides, better Hydra have it than Thanos."
"I disagree," Rhodey said, then directing his words toward Thor, "You could have at least told us about it."
"I told Coulson," Thor said.
"Great," Tony said into his drink.
Sam was looking between everyone and asked, "What about the kid?"
Natasha's glare would have cowed a lesser man, Sam just gave her an dazzling smile.
"Harry is adorable," Thor gushed.
Loki turned his chin up, "He's a powerful magician."
Bucky just shook his head, a soft smile on his lips he hid with a sip of his drink.
"Your son is a magician?" Steve asked.
"Wizard," Natasha corrected.
Loki snorted and said something in Norwegian that made Thor hide a smile. Natasha told them both off in Russian causing both Clint and Bucky to suppress smiles of their own.
Steve's heart contracted, he could hardly get it around his head that Bucky was alive. Despite the fact that he had hoped for it almost every day since he let him fall.
Now? Now to know how much his friend had suffered, he felt as if he had so much to make up for.
"When do we get to meet him?" Tony asked, "Peter is here all the time and Romanoff has practically adopted him."
"Peter?" Loki and Bucky echoed.
"Yeah," Rhodey said, "Peter Parker."
Bucky glanced at Natasha, "You're the one teaching him ballet?"
She nodded.
"Wait, how do you two know Spider-Man?" Steve asked.
Bucky and Loki stared at him, before exchanging a look between them and laughing.
Steve was smiling despite the fact that he didn't understand what they were laughing about, to hear Bucky laugh again…
It was a miracle.
"Seriously," Tony asked, "How do you know the kid?"
"Peter and Harry attend the same school," Loki said, "they are friends."
"They've been over for movie nights regularly," Bucky added.
Sam shook his head, "Small world."
"What is Spider-Man?" Bucky asked, "I know the kid is in shape but-"
"He can lift more than Steve can," Natasha supplied, "and he has super senses."
"Good to know," Bucky concluded.
"Pretty sure the spider was radioactive," Bruce said.
"Junior Avengers," Tony said with a sigh.
"No," Loki said, "my son isn't joining your little club."
"My son," Natasha said, glaring over Bucky to Loki, "will not be kept-"
"Harry wishes to remain unchecked by the public," Bucky intoned, "and you all will respect that."
"No one knows about Peter," Tony said.
"The internet knows who your intern is," Bucky countered, "It wouldn't have been hard to put together if Peter ever made any slips in front of me."
"What about accidental magic?" Natasha asked, "I slipped up all the way into my last year at school at Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Tony asked, "Hog-Warts. What kind of asinine name is that for a school?"
"A. it's British," Natasha said, "B. the type of school where turning someone into a frog is a matter of legality not possibility."
Tony raised both his brows.
"Weren't you originally British?" Steve asked.
Natasha shrugged, "In another lifetime and considering our wizarding Hitler was British, I think I'll take my Russian nationality and stick with it."
"We are teaching Harry Russian and Norwegian currently," Bucky informed her.
"Good," she said. "Mandarin and Hindi might be good also."
"I would second those choices," Bruce approved.
"I thought you were captured by the Germans, Sergeant?" Rhodey said to Bucky.
Bucky shrugged, "Hydra is not purely German, nor do I even think it started in Germany. Besides, they loaned me out to the Russians often enough. I preferred them, they actually let me sleep rather than putting me into the cryo freezing."
Natasha put a hand on Bucky's thigh and he leaned into her a little in acknowledgement, a lovers' gesture.
Natasha said Bucky had trained her, which made Bucky very dangerous but also meant that the likely reason Bucky hadn't been stored away was so that he could keep training Nat.
To make her into a mindless weapon as well.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, everything about this was fucked up.
"Isn't that a little advanced for most kids?" Sam asked.
Bucky nodded, "It is, but since he's let Loki start tutoring him, he's been doing better in leaps and bounds. Individual learning seems to be helping him a lot."
"Hogwarts," Loki said snidely (and even from an alien, Steve agreed with Tony about it being a nonsense name), "Obviously didn't care about his learning. He's as smart as Parker but you would never know it."
Bucky nodded, catching Steve's gaze, "He has your habit of being humble and self-sacrificing."
"If he was human he would be dead," Loki said.
Natasha stiffened, "Because he was targeted by Voldemort?"
Loki sneered at her, "Worse things have happened to him than 'the Killing Curse'."
"That doesn't sound good," Steve said.
Natasha sat up fully and Bucky caught her hand, "This is not the place for that. He hasn't told us everything yet and until he does, it is pointless to speculate."
She glared at him.
"Sounds like an interesting kid," Banner said.
Loki grinned, "You have no idea."
"The thought of you raising a child is among the scariest things I've ever heard," Tony observed, "That he's Romanoff's kid just makes it worse."
Clint made some type of sign to Natasha who inclined her head.
Steve had to ask, "Do you like being a dad, Buck?"
Bucky's smile was warm, "I love Harry, and he reminds me of who I was when we were young and I was helping raise my sisters."
Tony dunked back his drink, then sighed up at the ceiling, or maybe JARVIS, "This is too surreal."
Natasha leaned back into Bucky's side so that Bucky was acting as lounge between her and Loki. She said, "You have no idea."
Tony stared at her, "You both are literally older than Capisicale. You," he pointed at Bucky, "Were awake for most of it, and you," he pointed at Natasha, "have been awake for all of it."
"And she lived through her twenties twice," Loki informed them.
Natasha shot him a glare.
Loki smirked at her, "You're still a child compared to me and Thor."
"Maturity and age are not interchangeable, Mr. Mischief," Bucky said, ruffling Loki's hair.
Which Loki attempted to shrink away from but Bucky still managed to spike the black hair regardless. Bucky gave Loki an expression like he found him adorable as Loki ran his hands over his head smoothing his hair back.
And yeah, if you ignored the fact that Loki was a semi-murderous alien with enough magic to distort reality and practically no empathy for anyone but himself, he was sort of cute. Like an indignant cat who had fallen into a bucket of water.
"So, Stevie, thanks for talking to Harry in D.C., he really opened up when he came home from that field trip," Bucky said.
Steve stared at him blankly until it connected, "That British kid, that was Harry?"
Sam started laughing, "Oh my God, that kid was great, he had no idea who Cap was."
Steve shook his head, "He said he was having a hard time adjusting. No wonder he said his dads were weird."
"Well, there's an understatement," Tony groused.
Bucky's phone rang with the New Hope theme song.
"Star Wars?" Steve asked, amused as he had only recently been roped into watching that movie with Peter and Natasha.
"People keep mistaking Buchanan for Mark Hamil," Loki said.
Bucky held up a finger to the room as he answered the phone, "Harry."
-Hi Dad, Harry said, Steve's hearing was good enough to hear both the words and the accent.
"What's wrong?"
There was a long pause, then, -MJ and I need a way home.
"Where are you?" Bucky asked, his voice going pleasant and deeper, a tone Steve knew meant he was in deep shit.
-The jungle.
"Harry, we are in New York City, there isn't a jungle anywhere near here, and as it is after midnight, the botanical gardens should be closed."
There was a guttural growl near scream, cut off harshly by a vicious roar.
"What the hell was that?" Bucky demanded.
-A jaguar, MJ got it though. Listen, Dad, I don't know where we are. It's just super dark, humid, and the trees are enormous. Harry paused and there was a scuffling and static sound.
"Harry!" Bucky, Loki, and Natasha yelled together into the phone.
The line went quiet, then, another rustle, -Sorry, dropped the phone, but we got it.
'It' presumably meaning the jaguar.
Harry continued, We still don't know where we are.
Then a famine voice closer to the phone, -Jaguars are native to Central and South America.
Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose with his metallic hand.
JARVIS said, "The signal is coming from near a town called Leticia in southern Colombia."
"How the hell do you get to Colombia in a few hours?" Natasha asked.
-Magic, Harry answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Natasha's jaw snapped shut as she seemed to physically restrain herself from retorting to that level of sass.
Bucky was trembling a bit as he asked, "Are you currently safe to stay where you are?"
-Yes, MJ's roar scared everything off.
"What magic did you use to get there?" Loki asked, "Can you use it to get back?"
-No, we don't have a sling ring.
"A what?" Loki asked.
-It's a focus object, Harry answered, sounding very proper with his accent, again reminding Steve fondly of Peggy when the world was falling and she was treating everything like another Tuesday in the suburbs.
"We have a private jet, to go pick them up," Natasha said, "We can be there in ten hours."
-Good thing it's a weekend, MJ remarked.
"And where do your parents think you are, Ms. Jones?" Bucky asked.
-At Harry's place, Mr. Winter, MJ said, unrepentant.
"How old are you two?" Steve asked.
-Fifteen, the two teens answered.
"You two are in so much trouble," Bucky said as he stood up.
-At least I didn't get stabbed this time, Harry quipped.
"Stabbed?" Natasha, Steve, and Bruce asked.
Echoed by those without super hearing.
"Keep your phone on power save battery mode, with the location on and don't use it unless absolutely necessary. Also try to keep it dry," Bucky instructed as Natasha led them all to Stark's private landing strip. "Are you safe to stay where you are?"
-Yes, the teens both answered.
"Don't eat or drink anything, don't get bit by anything or get any cuts of any kind. You both can survive ten hours without food or water."
-I've gone longer without, Harry said, -Thanks Dads, and Mum. See you tomorrow.
Then the little brat hung up.
Bucky very carefully shut his phone and pocketed, and Steve finally saw how angry he was. The shaking was born from contained violence.
"When was he stabbed?" Natasha asked.
"About a week or so before you met him," Bucky said, his strides long as the entirety of the Avengers assembled to make an internal pick up of two teens who had managed to get portalled to Amazon Rainforest.
"Is this normal?" Steve had to ask.
"It's been about four, five months," Loki said, "This is only the second incident."
Bucky said something harsh in Russian.
Natasha sighed.
Personally, Steve was just happy to have his best friend back.
AN: Please, consider donating some feedback if you're still enjoying?