Steve and Bucky walked to the front to finally get some relief in the form in food. Sam's cooking could rival Rhodes.
"Sorry about that, I had to handle something. Morning Sam," he paused and looked to his first charge, that had his back to them and was prodding his pancakes.
"How'd you sleep?" Sam handed him a plate of breakfast which Steve more than happily ate, "Better than me?"
The responce was a scoff, "I was pinned down," he reached over and wiped syrup from Bucky's mouth, "And both of my bed mates are clingers." Tony had spent the night asleep in his arm and on his chest, while Bucky had nearly crushed his sternum with his metal arm and held his left arm with the other.
"Sounds like quite the event," Sam finally sat to eat himself. He wanted kids from time to time but being subjected to candid parental details such as that always helped him to be grateful for his current childless state.
"Yep, always something new."
The rest of the day wasn't too eventful. Mainly Steve praying and hoping the bruises Bucky left on Tony's throat disappeared before Rhodes got home. It wasn't bad enough that Rhodes was probably going to have his neck for not telling him that he'd brought Bucky home, no need to add the physical evidence Bucky had grabbed Tony.
Sam, not sure what to do, offered the idea of getting Bucky some clothes his own. It was needed so he was sent off to get them.
"Why am I getting them?" Sam pocketed the money.
"Because I have to be here to watch those two. Leaving them alone causes too many problems."
"Well, Ok. What size does he wear?"
After giving Sam a guess to what sizes and leaving him to figure out the other details of which Bucky would need, he decided to go check and see how the winter solider was doing.
Currently Bucky was watching the sea from the window, enjoying the serentiy of it all. He noticed the blond enter his area but felt no need to acknowledge him.
"Are you angry?" Steve looked at the back of his friend's head. He got no responce so he inched closer and asked, "Do you think I wouldn't have handled the situation?"
"I still don't understand why I was the only one hit." Bucky mustered.
The father figure walked over and stood next to him, as to get his attention better, "Tony gave you a geniune apology. Do you know how I know?" the solider looked, "Because I never even mentioned apologizing to you."
He scoffed, "He should have apologized."
"You're right, he should've, but when he did you choked him. So do you see how he saw no benefit from doing such?" Bucky looked off, "He acted without thinking and he was sorry for it. Yes he was still going to be scolded, but he did feel bad."
"Feeling bad and apologizing doesn't fix everything," he said spitefully.
"And neither does choking someone," Steve made sure to look in his eyes, "I warned you if you got too rough with him again I'd spank you, and to be frank I didn't even keep my word. I was very lenient because I understand that you had a right to be upset with what he did."
The blond looked over his ward's expression for a moment, ". Don't be afraid to tell me how you're feeling. I'm going to help you learn to cope with these emotions you have."
The man looked to his feet, "I...I was angry and I didn't trust you to deal with it. And I was angry you punished me...But I shouldn't have been, because I was wrong."
Steve could see he was struggling to deal with this after years of being a shell of a person, not allowed to think, feel, or care. He was proud to hear him verbalize how he felt.
"You weren't wrong to be upset at Tony, you just handled it the wrong way." he rubbed his shoulder, "Want to go for a jog? It's a good way to release some stress."
Sam finally got everything he figured the new guy would need and was able to return back to the penthouse. "Hey Steve?" he looked about and noticed a note, stating where Steve and Bucky had disappeared to, "Great," he sighed and went to put the bags in the solider's room, then decided to check on Tony.
Before the retiree could even get to the basement the phone rang. Since no one else was around to answer he picked up.
"Hello?"
"Uhm? Hello? Who is this?" Rhodes raised a brow.
"This is Sam Wilson. Whose this?"
"James Rhodes. Where are Steve and Tony?"
"Steve went for a jog and I'm not sure where Tony is I was just going to check on him." he looked to the door.
"OH, ok then. Well tell him I called to check on him and I'll try calling back later."
The dial tone alerted Sam that the man on the other end hung up so he put the phone back to it's base and went to see about this other kid.
As per usual Tony was down in the basement, walking about the counters and playing angry bird as he waited for his new item to finish up.
"What are you doing up there?" Sam raised a brow.