Fluffy prompt: Baby's first Christmas.
"Is she sleeping?"
Darcy started. She hadn't heard Bucky walking up behind her, but then she never did. She'd told him a thousand times not to creep up on her, and he swore he wasn't doing it on purpose.
She turned to find Bucky leaning against the door jam, staring at the crib where their daughter lay. "Yeah, I just got her down."
"You should rest."
"I'm good. She slept for hours today and Jane had her for a few hours too." She rose from the chair to tiptoe the few steps towards him. He opened his arms for a hug, though his gaze never left the crib. He'd been like that a lot over the past few weeks.
It had been a strange year.
"I got her something," he mumbled into Darcy's hair. "I know she won't appreciate it yet, but when she's a little older…"
Darcy tipped her head back so she could see his face, the equal parts trepidation and hope he wore. He was still adjusting. She was too, but for him this was a complete one-eighty from where he'd thought his life was going. "Can I see it?" she asked.
He nodded, but before they left the room he crossed to the crib, bending over to the brush the lightest of kisses onto Becca's forehead. Then he led Darcy to the living room.
His boots were abandoned beside the door, his jacket tossed across the back of a chair, and she rolled her eyes. House training him was still a work in progress. At least there wouldn't any weapons in the things he left lying around anymore.
He was examining the decorations in the living room, the ones she'd managed to throw up while Jane watched Becca. She'd intended to have a theme, or colour scheme, or something tying it all together, but in the end it was a mismatch of items she'd scrounged from their friends and her mother's loft.
"I tried," she said with a shrug.
"It looks beautiful," he replied, gracing her with her own forehead kiss. "Feels like home."
She beamed at that, tucking herself into his side. "So what did you get her?"
"Uh…" She glanced up at him when he hesitated, watched him try to run his fingers through the hair he'd recently cut short. "It's nothin' special. But it's all we used to have when we were kids, so I thought…"
"Go on." She nudged him in the side, and he paused before rifling through his jacket pockets, retrieving a brown paper packet. He unfolded it on the table to reveal a little red felt stocking, trimmed with white fleece, and with Becca Barnes stitched onto the front in green.
"There's this little craft store in Williamsburg that had them hung in the window and they caught my eye. The lady inside said she'd add the name for a little extra. We used to have them hung over the fireplace in our apartment."
"It's adorable!" She beamed up at Bucky. "I know we don't have a fireplace here, but when we move we can look for a place with one."
His relieved smile made her melt a little inside. Sometimes it took a lot of encouragement to convince him that he was doing the right thing, had made the right choice, and since Becca had arrived he'd retreated back into hesitation and diffidence.
He'd been so hesitant with her from the start. She'd had to do all the chasing, even to get him to be her friend, encouraged by Steve who didn't want Bucky to be so isolated. It had taken months for Bucky to admit that he wanted more from her, and more months still before she'd convinced him that it was okay to act on that. And then he'd insisted on being the gentleman Steve protested he'd never been before the war…
Hydra were the ones who'd thrown a spanner in the works. Bucky's file had listed him as being sterilized when he was captured, one of the reasons Bucky had tried to distance himself from her. He couldn't give her a family, and they'd had several heartfelt conversations before she'd eventually convinced him that she was okay with that, because she'd rather have him than nothing at all.
Except super soldier healing apparently reversed vasectomies and you should always use condoms if you aren't completely sure. A couple of months after first sleeping together, the slow-burn shuffle of their friendship into romance was suddenly shunted onto fast forward. Then here they were a week before their first Christmas together with a month-old baby and a too-small apartment.
"I got you something too," Bucky continued.
"I'd hope so! You know, Christmas hasn't changed all that much," she teased. "Gifts are still a requirement between romantic partners."
"It's not really a Christmas gift and I, uh, kind of wanted to sound out the idea before I gave it because you might not want it-"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "This is sounding kinky."
He huffed at her and she shut up. "I know that a lot of things are different nowadays, and people are okay with being together without making things official, and that's okay, this isn't because I'm hung up on tradition or anything. But we're a family now, and I like that we're a family. I know we're still learning how we fit together, but I love you and I want us to be a permanent thing-and I think that no matter how much how I learn about you, it's not going to change my mind, not after all we've been through together, and-"
God, he was adorable when he rambled. And adorable wasn't the kind of description you used about an ex-assassin with a metal arm lightly. She cut in to save him from himself. "Bucky, did you get me an engagement ring?"
He stopped, mouth hanging open as he processed her stealing his moment. "Maybe?" he finally replied, hedging his bets based on her reaction to the idea.
"Oh, thank god, finally!" She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
"Was I supposed to?" he murmured into her hair.
"If you knock a girl up, it's still good manners to suggest it. Especially if she's the love of your life." It wasn't like he hadn't called her that before they ever got horizontal.
"The twenty-first century makes my head hurt," he moaned, and she giggled. "But there are some benefits to it." He pulled away to kiss the tip of her nose.
"Me?"
"You. Becca. Pizza delivery. In that order," he added in a rush when she squeezed his hip. "Maybe a tie for the first two."
"Good save." She kissed him back. "So when do I get to see this ring?"