This is a fan made story. I don't own the rights to Captain America, any of its characters or any characters within the MCU… Much to my disappointment. This will have some violent content and possible triggers. Steve/Bucky Established Relationship. Constructive criticism is welcome but if you don't like it simply because you don't like the line of thinking, please don't attack me for it.
Chapter 5: It Takes a Village for Breakfast
A few hours after Bucky and Steve had fallen asleep, FRIDAY announced that both babies were awake and crying. Bucky shot out of the bed in a defensive stance before becoming aware of his surroundings. Steve felt a pang of concern since Bucky was never this alert before WWII. He pushed the thought aside for concern for their sons instead.
Bucky went to change George and Joseph's diapers, as he had been taught earlier by Clint, while Steve went to the kitchen to prepare bottles for them. He obtained hot water from the filtered tap and mixed the formula into it in each bottle, carefully measuring out the amounts that Dr. Cho would be appropriate for night time feedings.
When, Steve entered the nursery, he found Bucky finishing with Joseph's diaper. George was back in his crib, though still fussing. Steve quickly set both bottles aside to pick up the boy and cradle him in the correct position before retrieving one of the bottles and slipping it into the baby's mouth. George immediately started to drink from it as Steve moved to one of the two rocking chairs next to the cribs.
Bucky joined him with Joseph and the second bottle, following his lead. It wasn't long before the bottles were both drained and babies were burped asleep. Once they were back in their cribs, Bucky and Steve put the bottles in the sink to deal with in the morning and went back to bed. They were woken three hours later and proceeded with the same method.
However, this time, just as they were leaving the nursery, a silent Rebecca stood at the door of their room with a silent, and slightly terrified looking, Sarah. Steve immediately crouched down before the trembling blonde, "Did you have a bad dream?" He asked gently.
Sarah merely nodded her head. Steve's instant response was to wrap the scared little girl in his arms. She instantly clung to him. He still wasn't certain as to why she had become instantly attached to him but hoped it wasn't because he was just the first nice person she had ever met. Bucky beckoned to Rebecca and they all went into Steve and Bucky's room, the girls both curled up in between the super soldiers. Sarah clung to Steve as he whispered gently a story about his mother until she and Rebecca both fell off to sleep.
When Steve woke next, it was definitely morning judging by the faint sunlight coming from the one window near his bed. What had woken him wasn't the light however, it was a slap of a small hand as Sarah had shifted in her sleep, now sprawled out and taking up a third of the California King by herself. He couldn't help smiling at the view before him, even if he was perilously close to being edged off his own bed. The blonde and brunet girls separated him from Bucky but on the other side of the bed his lover smiled back at him over the ridiculousness of nearly being pushed off their own bed by the much smaller forms.
Steve carefully shifted so that his feet touched the ground without creating too much movement on the bed. Bucky followed suit quickly. Once safely out of bed, Steve went to the nursery to check on the twins. Finding that they were both still sleeping soundly, he went to use the bathroom before going to the kitchen provided. He looked through the cabinets and refrigerator for a few moments before sighing.
Bucky wrapped his arms around Steve from behind and rested his chin on Steve's shoulder, "What's wrong, love?" The endearment made Steve's heart thump louder than ever.
"We don't really have any food here besides what we have for the babies. I forgot about that. All my food, and clothing and stuff like that is at my apartment. We're going to have to go to the shared floor to eat," Steve stated softly.
"Or we could raid the shared kitchen for what we need now and get the food from your apartment later so it doesn't get wasted. It isn't like you are going to be living there anymore right? I mean there is no way six people, no matter how small four of them are, can comfortably live in a place that small," Bucky responded simply enough.
Steve glanced at the clock. It read 6:32 am and he nodded his agreement, "Sounds like it could work. Thor and Tony tend to sleep late and Nat will probably be preoccupied with Natalia if she is awake already. You stay here, just in case any of the kids wake. I'll do the raid. Pull out the pans we will need though, and maybe throw the bottles from last night in the dishwasher too."
Steve pulled away and gave Bucky a quick peck on the lips before going to the elevator and pressing the button. It opened almost instantly and he stepped in, pressed the button to the shared floor and waited while the elevator rose. Once he reached his destination, he made a beeline for the kitchen area and pulled out a big bowl quickly. He then grabbed some of the fruit on the counter, a package of bacon, a carton of eggs and a small jug of milk and stacked it in the bowl so that he could easily carry it back. He then grabbed a full gallon of orange juice in one hand while wrapping his arm around the bowl of food he would need to prepare breakfast.
As he made his way back to the elevator, he found it opening to reveal a tired Natasha holding a very sleepy looking Natalia. She took one look at him and let him enter the elevator without exiting herself. She then pressed the button to his floor for him and smirked, "I didn't have any food either. You can cook for us too since it looks like you stole half the food anyways."
Steve cracked a smile and fought off a chuckle as the elevator doors opened to his floor. Bucky was bent over searching one of the lower cabinet for a skillet, his butt fully in the air in the process. Since he was only wearing boxers, Natasha whistled her appreciation of the view while Steve cleared his throat and set his bounty on the counter. Bucky had hit his head at Natasha's whistle and extracted it from the cabinet to glare at her.
Steve just chuckled before going to a completely different cabinet and pulling out the two needed skillets. Natasha shrugged at Bucky's glare, "Just appreciating the view. You are very nicely built. If Steve didn't already have a claim on you, I might have even had a go at it."
"No, you wouldn't have. Bruce is back. If he isn't hunting you down to try to talk things out yet it is probably because he isn't sure how you being a mom changes the dynamics of the situation yet," Steve stated with ease. "Buck, can you chop up the fruit, I was thinking just some scrambled eggs and bacon with a side of fruit salad. We don't know what they've been feeding the kids so simple is probably best for now."
"Actually, Dr. Cho caught me before I went to sleep. She said based on the data from the files Tony got, they essentially were fed nutrient rich gruel. Who knows what that tastes like," Natasha shrugged as she let her daughter snuggle into her shoulder while she sat on a nearby chair. "You know, I am surprisingly pleased with Tony's foresight to have gotten all the data from that compound's systems. It is probably going to save us a lot of annoyance on trying to figure out the important stuff."
"I know what the gruel tastes like, it tastes like crap on cardboard. They essentially took everything that necessary in terms of a balanced diet and threw it in a blender. I watched them make the food for me enough times. Damn am I glad that I don't have to eat that anymore. Nor will the girls," Bucky's expression made his opinion on the food he was given by Hydra clear. He was focusing on the fruit making the pieces small enough for a toddler to eat. "I probably wouldn't have eaten it without the mind control and the fact it was the only way to survive."
"Well, that's in the past. They're going to enjoy this food if I can help it. Also, it is probably best to avoid swearing, at least in front of the children. We don't want to set a bad example for them," Steve gently chastised as he starting laying the bacon on one of the skillets to cook before cracking open most of the carton of eggs and poured a small amount of milk into the large bowl he had taken from the main kitchen.
He put a bit of salt and pepper in the eggs as well as a few other herbs that Natasha really wasn't watching him closely enough to recognize. She sighed before nodding her agreement about the swearing, "That's probably a good idea. We don't want a bunch of snarky miniature Tonys with attitudes to contend with. On another, child related note, how are we going to work getting clothing for the kids? It is probably best to not bring the boys at least. I mean, baby clothing is easy to figure out sizing wise and five kids between three adults is probably going to be a bit much considering two are babies."
"Who do you recommend watching them?" Steve asked skeptically as he poured the first bit of egg into the second skillet and turned the bacon.
"Dr. Cho said she wanted to do a more thorough examination of the twins. She and her army of techs can handle them while we get the stuff for them and girls. They're all medical professionals," Natasha shrugged with ease.
Steve and Bucky both tensed however. Bucky actually turned and glared at her, "Why does she need to do a more thorough examination of the boys?" His voice held a level of hostility that surprised Natasha.
"The procedure used to create them is still in the animal testing phase, like they are still only doing it with mice kind of stage. She wants to make sure that there aren't any medical or health issues stemming from what Hydra scientist did to get the twins. To say it was highly unethical would be a major understatement. She's just being very careful and thorough as a doctor. She only wants a tiny sample of their blood so she can do the gene sequencing to check for anomalies and run through a non-invasive full body cat-scan," Natasha spoke soothingly as she adjusted Natalia. "She's just doing what a good doctor would do in very uncertain circumstances."
Steve relaxed as he removed the bacon from one skillet and the eggs from the other before refilling both skillets with more food, "That makes sense, I guess. It might even be a good idea for her to do that with the girls too. There is no telling what Hydra might have done to them on the genetic level if they are messing with extremely experimental processes for creating kids."
"I am sure that Dr. Cho will be happy to do the same for Sarah and Rebecca. I need to talk to Tony but I will probably be insisting on it as well for Natalia," Natasha commented as her daughter started to wiggle about. She released the small girl who immediately climbed off her lap and ran over to the door to Steve and Bucky's room where Rebecca and Sarah stood.
"What is that smell?" Rebecca asked hesitantly. Sarah nodded her agreement at her confusion.
"Breakfast. Go wash your hands and then sit down at the table," Bucky answered as he pulled out plates from a cabinet, having finally found them after several minutes looking for them. He also extracted some bowls from the same cabinet and started to fill them with the chopped up fruit.
Steve emptied the last of the food that was being cooked onto the plates he had going and turned off the stove. With one plate in each hand he brought the steaming piles of eggs and bacon to the table and set them in the center. Natasha was now helping Bucky carry all the bowls of fruit so he pulled out three regular glasses, a plastic cup and two sippy cups out of another cabinet. He filled each with orange juice, putting lids on the sippy cups.
Just as Steve finished, FRIDAY announced the boys were awake. Bucky and Natasha went to change and retrieve them while he filled another set of bottles with hot water and mixed the formula into it. When the three girls came out of the bathroom, some water splashed on their nightgowns, he directed Rebecca to put Natalia and Sarah into the booster seats that were on two of the chairs.
As Natasha and Bucky came out of the nursery, Steve took Joseph from Natasha and slipped the nipple of one of the bottles into his son's mouth. Bucky retrieved the second bottle and did the same with George. Natasha meanwhile moved to the table and started serving out the eggs and bacon onto each plate. The girls all got small servings while Steve and Bucky got a large amount and she herself got a normal person amount.
Steve and Bucky waited until the boys finished eating before putting them into what was called a 'play yard'. It had little dangling toys, so Steve supposed that it was accurate in a way. They then finally sat down to eat and both broke into laughter at the sight before them. Natasha was eating with the normal grace of an adult and each of the girls were clearly attempting to copy her with varying degrees of success.
Sarah had only taken a few bites with the child sized spoon before abandoning it altogether and fisting the food and putting it in her mouth. Natalia was making an effort with the child spoon but was clearly struggling to keep her eggs on it. Rebecca, having a fork since she was older had no issue with the eggs but seemed to believe the bacon was eaten the same way and since Natasha hadn't eaten any of her own yet, had no indication that it wasn't.
"Rebecca. You can eat the bacon with your hands. The fork is for the eggs and fruit," Steve said gently, holding a slice of bacon with his right hand before eating it quickly. The brunet understood immediately and with relief seized the bacon in her hand and took a bite and her eyes widened in delight to a comical degree.
Bucky had to fight the urge to laugh at his daughter while Steve nodded and began to eat in earnest. Natalia had also gotten the hint about the bacon but decided to abandon the spoon altogether in favor of hands like Sarah had. Natasha sighed at this, "I understand your daughter abandoning basic eating skills, she's your daughter and will likely need as much food as you do, but really, you had to corrupt my girl too?"
"You think the serum affected my genetics to that degree?" Steve asked after he swallowed his current mouth full. While he let Natasha answer, he kept eating.
"There's a good chance, I would say. I mean, men generate sperm as they go so if it affected you to a genetic level then it stands to reason that that trait would be passed to all of your children as well," Natasha was completely unfazed by the topic but both men blushed.
"I suppose that makes sense. Dr. Erskine did say it would affect my whole body," Steve sighed as he put more food before Sarah who had cleared her own food and started to reach for Natalia's. "Does that mean we should be feeding the boys more too?"
"You would have to ask Dr. Cho. I think it is more likely that they will need to be fed more often rather than a lot at once. Babies don't have big stomachs after all," Natasha commented, as she finished her food.
"Can I have more?" Rebecca asked softly.
Bucky smiled and put a small amount more on her plate, "I guess that goes for you too, huh? I know you are stronger than average so you probably have the metabolism too."
"I'm always hungry. They didn't give us a lot of food. They also weren't nice either. I missed you daddy," Rebecca's words made Bucky freeze before he smiled at her.
"I missed you too. Even if I couldn't remember for a while, I still missed you. I am glad you don't have to deal with that anymore," Bucky's words made the girl smile back as she ate what he had given her.
"When you finish that, get cleaned up and changed ok? We are going to get you guys some more clothing. Well, you guys and your daddy more clothing. He probably needs a haircut too. I'm going to clean Natalia up and get us both dressed to go," Natasha said, smiling at the others as she stood and collected Natalia from her booster seat.
"You don't have to get your hair cut if you don't want to," Steve stated to Bucky with a smile at his lover's offended expression. "You probably do need more clothing though. I can't imagine you managed to fit much into that bag of yours."
"No, I'll get a haircut. She's right. I do need it… and clothing… and a shave," Bucky said as he stood and collected his empty plate as well as Nat's and Natalia's. Steve, now finished with his food as well took his plate and the abandoned cups.