Pool Day

Whether or not some may believe it, Bucky actually paid attention to all the rambling Tony did while fixing his arm.

Now, Bucky was no Harvard student. He'd had to drop out of high school to help out his family in the Depression by working at the shipyards. Wasn't long before he found himself on a boat headed for the front lines in Europe, and after that—well, the rest was literal history.

But he wasn't stupid—the brains were there, if fried by electricity, frost-bitten by ice, and a little under-informed. So in short, informal bursts, he got to round out what was lacking in his formal education by stumbling along after the smartest mind in his world, like a child on short, stumpy legs plunging through his father's footsteps in the snow.

Thanks to Tony, he learned snippets from several different branches of science—quantum and theoretical stuff didn't interest him as much, but he paid a lot of attention to engineering. He learned about some of the hypotheses, theories, and laws that smarter people than him drew up to explain the rules governing the universe.

But there were some things even Tony couldn't teach him—laws of the universe that he'd learned through his own observation.

And one of those was: Wherever the Barton Clan went, noise levels increased by at least 500%.

The piercing voices of children in the Common Room on a hot weekday afternoon told him, even before he saw them, that Clint had brought the whole posse.

"Wandaaaaa! Pietrooooooo!" Lila and Cooper came streaking into the room, yelling at the top of their lungs.

Pietro winked in from the dorms, and Wanda ran in behind him, and it wasn't five seconds of enthusiastic greetings before Pietro was giving Lila the world's fastest piggy-back ride, Cooper yelled about fairness and begged Wanda to make Pietro take him next, Nathaniel toddled right for the nearest electrical socket, and Laura plunged after him.

Dang. And the book Bucky was reading had just gotten good too.

Never mind. He marked his place, set the book aside, and slung his elbows over the back of the couch to watch. This would be fun.

Pietro screeched to a stop, platinum-blonde hair flying, and Bucky could have sworn he saw smoke rising out of the carpet. "Done! Okay, off now."

"No, again-again!" protested Lila, at the same time Cooper tugged on Pietro's shirt and yelled, "My turn!"

"Only one of me, malicki!" cried Pietro. "You want me die or what?"

"Wanda!" screeched Lila, right in Pietro's ear, but he just winced and didn't lose the grin. "Can you make me fly?"

"Fly?" repeated Wanda, half-amused and half-worried.

"No fair!" yelled Cooper. "You got a piggy-back first, I get to fly first!"

"No, no, no-no." Clint finally stepped in, waving broadly with his hands. "I know you're excited to see them, but Wanda's not making anyone fly until we get to the pool."

Lila gasped. "Pool!" She squirmed, and Pietro had to bend down quickly before she slid off his back.

"Wait!" Clint plunged after them, a huge yellow tote bag thumping on his back, as Lila and Cooper tore off in the direction of the Commons' swimming pool. "You gotta put your swimsuits on!"

Laura, meanwhile, had finally wrangled Nathaniel away from the electrical plugs and perched him on her hip. She turned to look at Wanda. Wanda looked at her. They both shared a very similar look of "I am so sorry for their craziness".

Laura took a deep breath to collect herself, put a smile on her face, and finally said in a voice that was a bit too high-pitched, "Hi!"

"Hi," Wanda answered, with a sympathetic half-laugh.

"How are you?" Laura asked, still frazzled.

"We're good," Wanda answered in kind.

"That's good." Laura looked at Nathaniel, who was still wriggling and trying to get away, and then back to Wanda. "I'm so sorry."

"You're okay," Wanda said, still laughing, and stepped forward with her arms outstretched.

Laura pulled her into a one-armed hug, with the little squeeze and "mmmn" noise that moms do. She grinned and whispered conspiratorially, "How's it going with that boy?"

Wanda rolled her eyes and looked embarrassed. "Ma..."

Pietro crossed his arms and looked very put-out. Bucky snorted.

Laura raised her eyebrows, still smiling at Wanda. "Well?"

Wanda didn't actually look all that unhappy with the interrogation. She tipped her head until her hair spilled over her shoulder and whispered, "Saturday."

"Ooh!" squealed Laura as Wanda held back a giggle. "Exciting! Can he join us?"

Wanda shook her head and smiled. "Not today. He's busy running tests in the lab. Maybe next time."

"Aww. That's too bad. I did want to see him."

Wanda giggled, and Pietro grunted his displeasure.

Laura laughed and pulled him down into a hug. "Hey, stinker. You staying out of trouble?"

"No," Wanda sighed.

"No," Pietro grinned.

Laura barely had a chance to laugh before Nathaniel yelped and grabbed two pudgy fistfuls of Pietro's shirt.

"Oop," said Laura. "I think he wants you."

"Of course he does! Hello, little me." Pietro took him from Laura's arms and swung the giggling toddler over his head. "You know who is the best company here. How are you? You look very fat."

Nathaniel gurgled and stuck his fist in his mouth.

Pietro nodded sagely. "Good to hear."

Bucky figured that things had calmed down enough that he could make his entrance. He stood, stuck his hands in his pockets, and ambled towards the group. Wanda and Laura were talking about girl things that didn't quite interest him—eventually, Natasha also appeared, and after exchanging hellos, joined the conversation with them—but Bucky headed for Pietro, who'd perched Nathaniel on his skinny hip and was making faces at him.

Bucky leaned his face down to Nathaniel's level. Pietro noticed, grinned, and turned so that the little guy could see.

Two wide, olive-green eyes in a pudgy face stared back at him.

Bucky smiled. "Hey, stinker."

Nathaniel promptly reached for Bucky's face. That was to be expected—the little guy knew him pretty well by now, from his occasional visits to the farmhouse to unwind from work, and in that time, Nathaniel had developed a fascination with Bucky's scratchy, dark stubble.

But those sticky, drooly fingers had just been in his mouth, so Bucky leaned back and away. "Hey, cut that out," he said around low laughter. "Little punk."

Pietro laughed, right as Laura turned to look.

"Oh, hey!" she said, in genial surprise. "There you are."

Bucky's smile felt shy. Some combination of the manners his ma had drilled into him, a hyper-awareness of how dangerous he was compared to Laura, and a general shyness with someone he didn't know all that well (but had nonetheless been very kind) made him want to shrink into a little ball and hide.

But he didn't. Instead, he just said, "Hi."

Laura stepped up and took Nathaniel from Pietro. "Did Clint call you about putting up hay?"

Bucky's eyebrows jumped towards his hairline, but he finally recalled something about that. "Oh, yeah, yeah." He scratched behind his ear. "Steve told me 'bout that. Been busy lately, but we should have a free weekend in a couple weeks."

Laura nodded, looked at Nathaniel, and continued to bounce him on her hip. "You can just swing by anytime. Clint and I are always home."

Pietro snorted. "And here I thought I was only one they use as workhorse."

Bucky shrugged and grinned. "Well, ya know, if we get free food out of it, how can I say no?"

That earned a laugh out of him, and also out of the ladies, which felt pretty good to hear. Nathaniel didn't laugh, of course, and went back to munching on his fist.

Laura nudged her head towards the nearby hall and began to turn away. "Well, we're going to the pool, if anyone wants to join us."

Pietro was already gone in a blue blur. Wanda ran backwards for a bit, shouting, "we'll be there!", and then chased after him.

Natasha leaned in next to Bucky, almost bumping his shoulder with hers. "You coming?"

He smiled and answered softly, "I'll ask Steve."

She looked up, green eyes piercing, and her voice almost a whisper. "You know how he is about water."

Bucky nodded and heaved a sigh. "Yeah. But he said he wanted to work on it, so."

Natasha's smile was thin, but genuine. "Okay." She patted his shoulder and walked past him, waving over her shoulder. "See you in a bit."

Bucky could only assume that when HYDRA made the Winter Soldier, they never expected that he'd be here—in blue trunks, kneeling at the side of a pool, and listening attentively as Lila Barton showed off her new swim floaties.

"That one's Jasmine, and A-war-ra, and Cinderella, and Belle..."

There were princesses on them. It was apparently very important that he knew all of their names.

"And Ariel!" Lila sounded very proud. "Ariel's a mermaid."

Bucky nodded. "I could tell by the tail."

He could hear Natasha and Wanda snickering behind his back, but he ignored them. This was important to Lila, and he wasn't about to snub her just because his friends were a couple of jerks.

Besides, it seemed kinda familiar. "What's that one?" he asked, pointing to a princess with a bob of black hair and a red, blue, and yellow dress.

Lila craned her head over her shoulder to look. "Oh, that's Snow White."

Snow White. The name went off like firecrackers in his head. All of the sudden, he was at the back of a theater in Brooklyn, crouching among the popcorn kernels on a dirty carpet and straining to hear the crackling audio and see the larger-than-life projector screen...

Lila kept talking. "She's got seven dwarf friends, and a prince who gives her a kiss to wake her up. There's also an evil lady who makes herself old, and a really cute bunny."

Bucky shut his eyes and shook his head to clear it. "I saw that movie," he rasped.

Lila shrugged. "It's okay. I like Ariel better."

Cooper was paddle-kicking by the side of the pool, but he pulled himself to the bank and wrinkled his nose. "You watch princesses movies?" he asked. "But you're a guy."

Bucky grinned. "Well, I watched that one." He looked again, and the details slowly began to come back. "I think...yeah. Snow White must'a come out when your Uncle Steve and I were kids."

Cooper gasped and pushed himself up on his arms. "You mean in World War II?"

"Before World War II."

"Whoa!" Cooper dropped back down into the water. "Snow White is old!"

"No she's not!" protested Lila.

Bucky just chuckled. "Yeah, she is, doll. Or at least the movie is." He sat back, ankles crossed, and grinned at nothing in particular. "Actually, y'know, it's funny. Stevie an' I didn't even have the money to buy a ticket those days, so we snuck inta' the theater after it had started to watch."

Lila gasped. "But that's bad!"

"Did you get caught?" asked Cooper.

"Yep." He chuckled. "But I guess the doorman felt bad for a couple a' scrappy kids like us, an' let us watch the rest a' the movie, after we'd missed the first bit."

Cooper heaved himself out of the pool and crawled, still dripping, to sit beside Bucky. "But if you don't buy a ticket, that's cheating," he said with a frown. "Isn't that wrong?"

Bucky smiled warmly. "Yeah, pal, it is. An' it's no excuse neither, but we were young and poor and needed a little fun.

"And anyway," he added, leaning in close to them, "it was like seein' the future. Animation was brand new stuff back then; nobody had ever thought a' makin' a movie with drawings before, and it darn about blew our minds. But next time, we actually pulled our weight, and paid for tickets to see Dumbo."

"What's Dumbo?" asked Cooper.

Bucky frowned. "You ha'n't seen the one with the elephant?"

Cooper shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

"What elephant?" cried Lila, leaning on Bucky's knee. "I wanna see!"

Bucky just smiled. "Well," he said, "guess I'll have ta show ya sometime."

Yep. Definitely never would have expected this.

It was about ten or fifteen minutes into the pool party that Cooper's voice reverberated off the concrete and tile walls.

"Squirt gun fiiiiight!"

Bucky had been standing by the side of the pool, chatting with Wanda and Pietro about something, but they paused when they heard him. Cooper ran by, gave the twins super-soakers, tossed more into the pool by Clint and Lila, and ran off again.

"Hey, what am I," yelled Bucky, "chopped liver?"

"Here ya go." Cooper shoved something into his hand and dashed away.

Bucky stared.

Then his nose wrinkled.

It was a little lime-green squirt gun, no bigger than the palm of his hand. When he pulled the orange trigger, a hair-thin stream of water trickled out with a noise like dweeennn.

Immediately, he could hear the snickers. At least Wanda had the good grace to hide it in her hand, but Pietro was basically cackling out loud.

"Aww," cooed Pietro through his laughter, "the fearsome Winter Soldier has a leetle baby gun—"

Bucky shot him in the eye.

"Argh!" Pietro recoiled.

Wanda's eyes widened, but she only laughed harder.

"Why, you—!" Pietro raised the super-soaker and fired.

Tss. The handle slid back with no resistance, and only a few drops of water sprayed out.

Empty. Pietro's eyes were wide, and his lips a flat line, as he looked down at his useless weapon, and back up at Bucky.

Bucky smirked and shot him again.

"Ow! Enough!" Pietro sped away in a blur.

Bucky shot Wanda, and she shrieked and ran away. "No, no, no, don't!" she cried. "I wasn't laughing!"

"Get back here, ya little jerks!" roared Bucky, charging after them.

Wanda paused to plunge her water gun into the pool and fill it, and Bucky took that opportunity to shoot her in the head.

"Hey!" she cried through her laughter. She turned, and a jet of water hit him in the stomach.

"Ow!" Bucky staggered back and tried to return fire, but his little gun (dwee dwee dween) didn't do much against a super-soaker. Wanda hit him in the face, which smarted and got water all in his eyes, and then (dwee dffft—) his gun ran empty.

Bucky and Wanda stared at each other. They paused. Snorted. Snickered, and dissolved into giggles.

"This is dumb." Bucky looked at the tiny gun in his hand, his wrist limp. "I wanna refund."

A jet of water hit Wanda in the back. "Hey!" she yelped, but the second she turned around, she laughed. "Pietro!"

"Every man for his self!" cried Pietro, and with his water gun at his side, he dove into the pool.

Wanda gave chase, and Bucky looked on with a grin. Soon the siblings were caught in deadlock, Pietro firing from the pool and Wanda firing from dry ground, both of them trying desperately not to get hit and yelping and laughing when they did.

Bucky saw his chance. He dropped the squirt gun and crept up behind Wanda, crouched low so she wouldn't see him.

She was perfectly distracted. Even Pietro didn't seem to notice before it was too late.

Bucky grabbed Wanda by the waist and knees and scooped her into his arms, and she shrieked in surprise. "Geronimo!" crowed Bucky, and he threw her into the pool.

Wanda flailed in midair for a second and then hit the water with a mighty splash. Pietro had to charge out of the way, laughing his head off.

When Wanda came up for air, her hair hung in dark, wet strands over her face. Bucky had to lean into his knees, he was laughing so hard.

"Gotta watch your six, Maximoff!" he called.

Wanda glared through her hair, smirked, and then raised her hand. A three-foot ball of water, ringed in red energy, came with it.

Bucky's mouth snapped shut.

"You'd better watch yours," she growled with a smirk, and hurled the ball forward.

Bucky yelped and took off running. He rounded one corner of the pool and ducked, just in time for the ball to slam into the wall behind him and dissolve in a splash.

"Hah!" He pointed and laughed. "Work on your aim!"

A wall of water hit him in the back, knocked the wind out of him, and hurtled him forward and into the deep end.

Saltwater swamped his mouth and shoved up into his nose. Lungs burning, he kicked his feet and dragged himself to the surface.

Back in the air again, he gasped, coughed, and sputtered. Pietro was already howling in laughter, and Wanda twirled a strand of water in the air over her finger.

"You were saying?" she asked, looking mighty proud of herself.

Bucky had found his rhythm treading water, so he sighed, coughed, and started to swim toward them with a chuckle. "Yeah, I guess I deserved that."

Wanda smirked. "As you Americans say, darn right."

Steve joined them later, in bland khaki trunks and a white t-shirt that he didn't mind getting wet. Clint, Natasha, Wanda, and Pietro were playing a four-way monkey in the middle with Lila and Cooper, tossing a beach ball over their heads, while Laura supervised Nathaniel in a dinosaur floaty that was bigger than he was.

Bucky, meanwhile, was swimming laps. He found Steve seated on the edge of the pool, with his legs in the water only up to his shins, and staring down at his bare feet.

Bucky frowned and pushed closer. "Hey."

Steve barely looked up. "Hey."

"You a'right?"

Steve took a shivering breath and stared at the water. "Yeah, yeah, 'course," he answered. Then, quieter, he added, "It's harder to do when there's not a mission attached."

Bucky pulled himself a little bit closer and held on to the edge of the pool. He couldn't quite keep the worry out of his voice. "You don't have to push yourself."

"No, I do, I—I do." Steve was throwing his jaw out again, in that stubborn way that meant there was no dissuading him anymore. "I've gotta deal with this."

Bucky couldn't help a little fond annoyance, even on top of his worry. "A'right, fine. Jus' take your time."

"Uncle Steve!"

That was a new voice. Steve's head flew up, blue eyes full of surprise. "Yeah, Lila?"

Lila doggy-paddled up to them on her floaties, face flushed from exercise but very enthusiastic. "We're playing volleyball! You're on my team!"

A tiny smile broke on Steve's face. "Ah—"

Bucky shook his head. Steve wasn't getting in the water anytime soon, but it wouldn't do to disappoint her. "I'll play for ya, Li. C'mon, let's go."

"No, no, it's okay." Steve was putting on his brave voice. "I'll be there in a minute."

Bucky turned and frowned at him, but Lila didn't seem to get the hint.

"Okay! Hurry up!" she said, and paddled away, feet splashing behind her.

Steve eased himself off the edge of the pool and into the water. It crept up to his waist, licking at his ribs through the white tee, and he took a slow, deep breath, and let it out.

He was shaking. Bucky could see it. He slid up to Steve's side, hoping it would communicate that if Steve went under, he would catch him. "You're okay," he whispered.

Steve looked at him and smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I know." But he still stepped closer and grasped Bucky's arms, steadying himself, as if it would stop him from going under.

"What about you?" asked Steve. It was a classic play, trying to take attention off of himself, but Bucky couldn't be mad at him. "You don't look so good."

Bucky sighed, grasping Steve's arms in return. A nasty film of guilt coated his insides like black sludge. "Can't help but feel bad when I was the one who dumped you in the river."

Steve paused, feet firm on the bottom of the pool, and the longer he looked at Bucky, the warmer his smile became. "HYDRA dumped me in a river," he said, looking him right in the eyes. "You fished me out."

Bucky was quiet, staring at him, turning the words over and over in his mind—and slowly, letting them wash away the guilt that still clung to his chest.

Bucky smiled, pushed forward, and bumped his forehead against Steve's. Steve chuckled and pushed back. They stayed there for a little while, eyes shut, nose to nose, and Bucky could hear Steve's breathing starting to even out.

Good. They'd chip away at guilt, and they'd chip away at fear, and one of these days, their demons would be dead and gone forever.

Until then, they'd take it one step at a time.

"Hey!" yelled Pietro. "Are you still kissing, or can we play now?"

Little jerk. Partly embarrassed, but mostly just angry, Bucky whirled around and roared, "I'll tell you what you can kiss, Pietro!"

"Nuh-uh!" snapped Laura, with a Mom Glare that could cut glass. "None of that! My kids are here."

Bucky blanched and sank into the water, until only his head was above the surface. "Sorry, ma'am."

Steve laughed—honest to goodness, hands in the water so he could hold his knees, shaking so hard he nearly doubled over, laughed—and Bucky wouldn't have been happier if someone handed him a million dollars.

One day at a time. They'd make it.

It was long after the swimming was over, when everyone had changed out of their swimsuits and into their day clothes, that the Bartons and the Avengers were hanging out in the Common Room, chatting about anything and nothing. Natasha pestered Clint about getting back on the team full-time, and Laura told Steve and the twins entertaining stories about her attempts at raising chickens.

Bucky sat on the carpet, his long hair still slightly damp and drying, while the Barton kids crawled all over him. Nathaniel was asleep in his lap, conked out from swimming; Cooper had brought out some little flip-screen game console and was giving a very involved lecture about Pokémon; and Lila had gotten bored coloring with markers in her princess book and began drawing on Bucky's left arm.

"Lila!" Cooper scolded her, and she immediately flinched back. "You can't draw on the bad arm!"

Bucky frowned. "It's not a bad arm."

Cooper looked confused and unsettled. "But Dad said..." He looked this way and that, and then leaned in and whispered, "H-Y-D-R-A...gave it to you."

Oh. Bucky's voice softened slightly, but he didn't back down. "Yeah," he said simply, after taking a deep breath. "They did. But it's not a bad arm. It is what I do with it. If I use it to hurt people, it's a weapon. If I use it to save them..."

He shrugged, then looked over his shoulder, and noticed that the colorful sleeve of Crayola marker ink hadn't yet climbed all the way up his arm. "You missed a spot, Lila."

The adults kept talking for at least an hour. Lila had lots of time to draw. Bucky couldn't quite make out everything that she'd put on his arm at the end, but she was eager to explain.

"What are the blobs there?" asked Bucky.

"They're not blobs!" She sounded affronted. "They're flowers!"

"Ahhhhh." Bucky stared at them for a long time and still could not see flowers, but he supposed that was just as well. "And what's this? An animal?"

"It's a kitty cat!"

"Kitty cat," Bucky echoed very seriously. "Of course. Is that a cat too?"

"No, that's Daddy," Laura giggled. "And Mommy, and Cooper, and me, and Baby Nate!"

Baby Nate was a circle with a wobbly smiley face and four lines sticking out. Bucky could only assume those were arms and legs. He swallowed a laugh. "It's great, Li. Spittin' image. And who are these two?"

"You don't know?"

"Nope."

"Really don't know?"

"Don't have the slightest clue. You're a regular Picasso."

"Just guess!"

"Are they elephants?"

"No!" she said through laughter. "It's you and Uncle Steve!"

And then, Bucky could see it. She'd drawn one figure's arms with two different colors, one black, one grey, and the other held something that could generously be described as a red, white, and blue amoeba.

Bucky's chest felt all warm and fuzzy. He wanted to make a joke about it, but decided against it at the last second.

"I love it," he said instead, very sincerely. "Thank you, Lila. It's a vast improvement."

"You're welcome," she said, and she looked very proud of herself.

Bucky later immortalized her art piece by taking a picture of himself, flexing the metal arm in front of the bathroom mirror.

"Kid oughta be a tattoo artist," he said later, when showing the picture to Steve.

Steve just laughed, and Bucky saved the photo as his lock-screen. It stayed there for several months to come.

All in all, a really good day.

A/N: A wee bit late again, but hey! My first chance to use the "Steve has hydrophobia" headcanon. Mmm, sweet angst.

Next time, a glimpse into another side of the story during If: Then:. Reviews are yellow tote bags.

Tbc...