Author's note: Not really a Steve/Bucky based story. I thought it'd be time I provide some backstory on Peter Parker.

Summary: Bucky's little sister isn't as innocent as he thought she was. Regardless, he still loves his family.

Bucky Barnes is all about family. It's his thing. He has two very loving parents and three great sisters (most of the time. They can be pretentious assholes). Although Pam is currently on a navy base in God knows where and Aileen lives all the way out in LA. So for the most part it's just him, his parents and Rebecca.

And Peter, of course. Which had been the newest addition to their already-large family.

To Bucky, Peter was this little energetic ball of innocence. He made Bucky feel like an actual person, like it was okay for him to touch a child with hands that were used to kill millions of people. It's a nice feeling to actually hold a living, breathing human being rather than one dying in his arms on the battlefield.

Bucky's the second oldest of three sisters, which naturally makes him very over-protective. He's beat up more ex-boyfriends than he can count.

So imagine how he felt when some fake, smug-looking bitch came up to Rebecca and called her a slut. Bucky had immediately stepped in, demanding an apology from the girl until her 500-pounds-of-muscle boyfriend showed up to intervene.

It didn't end well. More for the boyfriend than Bucky.

That's basically how Bucky finds himself with a slab of meat on his left cheek and his sister patching him up. He's thankful the prosthetic is okay, because he managed to do quite a number on the boyfriend and Rebecca won't admit she's secretly happy.

"Slut-shaming is wrong. End of story," Bucky says with a firm conviction.

"Agreed," Aileen echoes back from the laptop.

"Guys, it's really not that big of a deal—"

"What do you mean it's not a big deal?! The girl friggin called you a slut and you just take that?!" Aileen demands and glares daggers at Rebecca who doesn't even flinch in the slightest. Even though she's on the other side of the country, Aileen makes sure to video-chat at least once every two weeks when she isn't busy on some new book. Except when life-changing events like this happens.

"Beck, I know confrontation isn't your thing—"

"That would be James' and my job."

"—But don't brush it off as no big deal. You didn't deserve to be called that," Bucky says gently as he fixes the gauze around his hand. His mom has already killed him (twice). Pam on the other hand will be proud to know Bucky actually put his military training to good use.

"Look, sibs, chill. She's just some loser bimbo from my graduating class who couldn't even land a stable job. She's not anyone important trust me," Rebecca sighs. She packs up all the first-aid supplies and adjusts the bandaid on Bucky's forehead. She makes eye contact with him and he can tell she already looks so done.

Aileen never knows when to back down from a fight though, so Bucky cringes internally and externally when she asks, "Okay so then what if someone called Pammy a slut?"

There's a beat of silence, during which Rebecca's jaw tenses up and her eyes narrow so much it looks like she's squinting due to poor vision. Nobody outside their family knows that when Rebecca's eyes do the thing, it means she's mad and you better get out of her way because she will snap at any moment and it won't be pretty.

"Pammy's the youngest, so that's different," Rebecca justifies in an eerily calm voice. But Bucky knows better and he's about to take cover for the oncoming shit storm.

She smiles serenely at the laptop screen which Aileen returns with her own challenging gaze.

Bucky's already on the edge of his seat and is slowly inching further and further off. Any minute now. Any minute and one or the other will snap and—

"Are you two done?" Winifred stands in the doorway with her hands on her hips. She's got a wooden spoon in her one hand and Bucky is suddenly reminded of childhood memories of running away from that spoon. He shivers involuntarily.

"Ma—" Aileen starts to protest but Winifred puts a hand up.

"No, I don't wanna hear it." She takes off her apron and hands it and the spoon to Rebecca.

"What? Mom—"

"Kitchen. Now."

It looks like they're having some kinda silent fight through their eyes. Eventually Rebecca sighs, slips on the apron and heads into the kitchen to take over the cooking.

"And you young lady—" She points to Aileen who visibly shrinks back "—We're going to have a talk about this. I'll call you later, and you had better pick up. I don't wanna hear any excuses about late chapters, the printer's low on ink, etc. etc."

Aileen nods dutifully with a "Yes, ma'am" and cuts the line.

The only noises in the room now are the static from the computer and those coming from the kitchen. Winifred hadn't ordered Bucky to do anything, so maybe he's in the clear?

She suddenly turns to him, making him jump back in his seat. "Will Steve be joining us for dinner?" She asks curtly.

"Uh—"

"I'll take that as a yes." She spins on her heels and marches back to the kitchen without sparing another glance back.

Needless to say Bucky's scared shitless.

"I think your mom's scarier than mine, and that's saying something."

"Trust me, no one can beat Winifred Barnes. I think even my dad is scared of her half the time."

Steve chuckles softly and shakes his head. They're lounging outside on the porch steps spooning ice cream into their mouths. Bucky's pretty amazed ice cream trucks still come through this neighborhood. He hasn't seen one since he was a kid. And Steve well, he was allergic to just about everything at that point so ice cream was out of the question.

They keep getting ice cream all over their faces, and one of them always ends up wiping it off the other with their thumb or kissing it off instead. Bucky feels very sticky, but it's so worth it.

"Sorry you had to drive down by the way. I would have come to pick you up," Bucky says.

"Nah don't worry about it. Work was stressing me out, so I really needed that drive," Steve reassures. He's already done his ice cream, having finished it in two whole scoops. He sets his trash on the side and throws an arm around Bucky's shoulders.

Bucky sighs in contentment and snuggles into the warmth. Steve smells like strawberries and paint. It's a good smell, one Bucky wouldn't mind waking up to every morning. He sighs again and feels Steve's hand running up and down his prosthetic. Technically he can't feel anything in that arm, but he detects the pressure and weight of Steve's hand and it's enough to give him the chills.

"By the way, what happened to your face? Did you get into a fight or something?" Steve asks casually.

Bucky stills under him but manages to recover quickly. He told Steve about the bimbo and the almost-shit storm and his scary ass but wonderful mother. He just forgot to mention the part about the fight. And the beefed up boyfriend who looked like he was on steroids. He tries to distract Steve by nuzzling his face in the crook of his neck and sucking the skin, but not too hard that it'll leave a hickey in the next three minutes. He hears Steve's breath hitch and his Adam's apple bobbing slowly.

"Why do I feel like you're trying to—"

"Okay first off: how dare you. Second: am I not allowed to make my boyfriend feel good?" Bucky asks in a mock-hurtful voice.

Steve rolls his eyes and flicks Bucky on the forehead. "Somehow I sense ulterior motives behind this."

"I am astounded that you would have so little faith in me." Bucky places a hand on his chest and shakes his head disappointedly. "And here I thought you loved me."

"I question that everyday," Steve mutters.

Bucky stares at him open-mouthed, his eyes widened in a very comical way. This makes Steve break down laughing until Bucky punches him in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Oh please, you can take it you heap of muscle."

Again Steve rolls his eyes and leans in to rub his nose against Bucky's hair. Bucky giggles at the ticklish-ness and doesn't even try to push Steve away.

"Don't get too rough out here. We have neighbors you know."

Steve's face turns bright red at having been caught by Rebecca's very pointed eyebrow. Bucky just rolls his eyes.

"What do you want Beck?" Bucky sighs from the interruption.

"Ma wants to see you in the kitchen," she says blandly.

"Okay if this is about the table cloth—"

"It's not." And the way she says it is just… all wrong.

Bucky sits up straighter to get a better look at her face. She looks tense, with her lips pursed and her fingers tapping repeatedly against her sides. Something must have happened to make her look so tense. Bucky's betting it has to do with the slut incident.

"Bucky," she says pleadingly.

"Alright alright, I'm up." He rises up from the steps and throws an apologetic glance over his shoulder. Steve, bless his soul, just waves him off like it's not a big deal.

Bucky treks through the house until he's met with his mom's back by the kitchen sink. From this angle, he's reminded of an older version of Becca. She may be the second youngest, but she bares the strongest resemblance to their mother. Aileen has her eyes, while Pam and Bucky look more like their dad than anything else.

"You wanted to see me ma?" Bucky asks a little nervously. He feels like he's 8 and getting in trouble all over again for leaving the sprinklers on all night or forgetting to wash the dishes. His mother hadn't been very forgiving over that one.

She turns around to face him with a certain hardness in her eyes. She's not mad per say, but she looks just as tense as Becca did a minute ago. Was it possible they fought or something?

"Come here." She jerks her head in her direction.

Bucky does so obediently and leans his hip against the counter. "What's up? I'm not in trouble am I?"

Winifred shakes her head and smiles sadly. "No, no you're not. But we do need to talk."

Bucky always hated those words, back then and now. Whether it was the puberty talk or the 'you-can-like-whoever-you-want-so-don't-be-worried-about-us-judging-you' talk, he always dreaded them. Even now he can feel this ever-growing pit in his stomach.

"Rebecca, she…" Winifred sighs and tries to shake the tension off her face. "She has her reasons, you know."

"You mean about being called a slut?"

She smacks him in the arm with her soap-covered hand. "You know what I mean."

"No, I really don't but do enlighten me." He crosses his arms and puts on his best stern face.

Winifred looks down as if to reconsider, then looks back up and meets Bucky's eyes head on. He almost feels like he has to take a step back from her.

"What do you know about Peter's father?"

Okay, now that he wasn't really expecting.

"Uh, not much? But what does this have to do with Beck?"

"Everything pretty much," she responds matter-of-factly. She sighs and wipes her hands off on her apron. "The situation with Peter's father is.. complicated. There's a reason Rebecca won't talk about him."

Bucky raises an eyebrow to prod her on.

She sighs again and holds the counter to steady herself. "The reason Peter's father isn't around is because he's married to someone else."

Bucky feels like he just got punched in the stomach. "Come again?" He chokes out. Is she saying what he thinks she's saying?

"The father's name is Richard Parker. He and his wife, Mary, were unable to have a child. I don't know when and how this happened, but it was during Rebecca's senior year in college and you had already enlisted at that point. She met Richard and Mary through a mutual friend, someone by the name of May? Anyways, she heard about their situation and volunteered to be a sort of surrogate mother for them. It was supposed to be a gestational surrogacy, but—" She takes a breath and closes her eyes. "—It seems there were.. complications."

"Um okay? What do you mean by 'complications?'" Bucky asks confused.

"Oh heavens no, there weren't any health complications or anything. But.. Rebecca never said much, but it wasn't that hard to figure out. She and Richard had an affair."

Bucky starts coughing violently and now he's the one having to steady himself.

Winifred continues on anyways. "She was always talking about this so-called 'boy' she was seeing, but she never elaborated and always said it was a no-strings attached kind of thing."

"Wait wait wait wait, just, wait. Hold up." Bucky holds his hand up to stop her. "Are you saying… that this Richard guy is the actual biological father of Peter?"

She nods.

"Fuck," he breathes out. He places a hand on his forehead. "How long have you known about this?"

"I didn't figure it out until it actually happened. By then Rebecca was already pregnant and I had only just found the medical papers."

"And the wife… she thinks…?"

She nods again. "She has no idea. She thinks it was totally by surrogacy, but none of it actually happened."

Bucky needs to sit down or he really is going to pass out right then and there. His baby sister. Had an affair. With a married man. Is this real life?

A thought suddenly occurs to him. "But wait. If the wife doesn't know anything about this, how did Peter come into Rebecca's possession in the first place?"

Winifred frowns suddenly and lowers her voice. "The parents died in a plane crash. Peter was originally supposed to stay with his aunt and uncle, but they didn't have the means to raise him and Rebecca thought it'd be best if Peter was raised by her, his real mother."

That explains everything. It explains why Rebecca was so unwilling to talk about Peter's father before [flashback to chapter 5], why she avoids the topic in such an obvious manner that Bucky knows she's hiding something. He just never thought to bring it up again if it was that bad. But he didn't realize how bad it actually was.

"And the slut thing…?"

"Apparently she was an old friend of Rebecca's, and she was one of the few people she told about her affair with Richard. According to her, things fell apart after college. They haven't talked since until today," Winifred explains.

They stand in silence. Bucky has no idea how to react. Should he be mad? Should he be relieved to finally know the truth? He doesn't fucking know.

"Please don't be mad at your sister though," Winifred says in a quiet voice. She wraps her fingers around his hand and squeezes. "I know what she did was wrong. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement, but she's making up for it by raising Peter. She could have abandoned him like any mother in that situation, but she took responsibility for it. She knows she has to do this."

She looks at him with pleading eyes, and it's like he gets it. He can't be mad at his baby sister, because his mother has a damn good point. She didn't abandon Peter, she didn't just forget about him. She made a decision, one that would change her life forever. Granted she didn't make the best choices, but his sister sacrificed so much to raise Peter. He feels a new-found respect for her.

He covers his mom's hand with his own and gives a reassuring squeeze. "I won't be mad, I won't. I don't know if I can vouch for Aileen though." It's meant to be a joke, but his mom groans anyways.

"Don't get me started on that one. I still have no idea how I'm going to start that conversation. With you I knew it would be different, but Aileen…"

"Yeah, I know. She's a feisty one," he chuckles. They stare at each other and smile. "Thank you for telling me this."

She beckons him to bend down and kisses him on the forehead. "I just thought you needed to understand her reasons, that's all." She cups his face, then goes back to clearing the remaining pile of dishes in the sink.

Bucky takes that as his cue to leave and sets out to find his sister. It takes shorter than he expected because right when he walks out he finds her sitting on the couch with Steve.

"Hey," he calls out gently.

"Hey yourself." Her eyes look a little red, and from the look on Steve's face she must have already told him everything.

The great thing about Steve is that he isn't looking at her with pity. He's so empathetic and understanding. Bucky sighs and seats himself beside Rebecca.

"So, let's start from the beginning shall we?"