Life After Death

by Team Damon

Sequel to Breath of Life. He's overcome a lot to get to where he's at, but he still has a long way to go. She knows that it's not going to be easy, but she also knows that he's worth it. And neither of them have the slightest clue what in the world they're doing. Bucky/OC, post-TWS and non-Civil War compliant. Now complete!

24. Chapter 24

One month later, Bucky was leaning against a kitchen counter and watching in mild boredom as the tower's resident bickering old married non-couple stood on opposite sides of the table, looking over plans for something and squabbling almost instantly as soon as one of them had said one word. Bucky merely drank his coffee and watched, pretty much used to this by now regardless of the mild entertainment value.

"No, no listen - look, I brought the prototype and everything," Tony said, holding up a gray cuff-looking thing, which Steve just half-glared at. "Now I know you're set in your ways like a typical geezer, but -"

"It's not that," Steve rolled his eyes. "But I am used to holding my shield a certain way and changing that would be -"

"Better?" Tony guessed. "I told you I would upgrade your suit."

"And I told you I was fine with it the way it is."

"And that's your first problem," Tony said, stepping around the table carrying the cuff. "Here, just let me show you how it works. You'll think it's real swell, trust me."

Giving up with a sigh, Steve held out his arm while Tony clamped the thing around his forearm, and Bucky turned around to dump his cup into the sink.

"Then you just click this here, which would go right here near your wrist, and then your shield comes to you, just like..."

Then, after Bucky had rinsed out his cup and began walking towards the hallway, he passed the table and then a sudden magnetic pull rapidly ripped him by his left arm off of his feet and to his left, where Steve was sitting. As he scrambled back up to stand, he realized with faint shock that his arm was stuck to Steve's, or at least to the magnetic cuff that Tony had just put on it, leading him to almost exclaim, "What the hell?!"

Tony just looked at the sight before him and raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Forgot his arm was made of the same stuff. I'll have to recalibrate since this would probably happen a lot."

Bucky tried to yank the arm away, but it wouldn't budge, and Steve looked at Tony in mild alarm and said, "Turn it off!"

"Right," Tony said, pushing the button that was supposed to disable the thing, but when nothing happened, he just scratched at his head and said, "Well then. How about you two come down to my Ironcave and I'll see about... detaching you. Unless you don't mind this. Honestly this looks like the start to a bad comedy."

When Tony got nothing but glares from both men, he shrugged and said, "Follow me."

Bucky looked at Steve when he heard the man sigh, then try to yank free a couple times himself, but it was no use. Then as Tony started to walk away, Steve glanced at Bucky and then smiled and said, "Well, this is a new one."

As unnerving as it was to be literally stuck to someone else, Bucky gave Steve a half-amused look in reply and then they started walking, awkwardly at first and then even more awkwardly as they tried to compensate for the other as they followed Tony to the elevator.

"Your arm is heavy," Steve muttered as he looked down at their arms, as if he hadn't known that fact until that particular moment.

Bucky shot him a look. "I never noticed."

"Now, kids," Tony said, stepping into the elevator as they followed. "Don't make me break out the 'get along' shirt."

"Very funny," Steve muttered once they were inside and the elevator doors closed. Bucky tried pulling his arm away a few more times, uselessly of course, and Steve sighed and said to him, "Well, at least I'm stuck to you and not someone else."

"Like me?" Tony piped up. "That would be fun. You know what would be an even better bad comedy? First he gets stuck and then I, in my suit, come flying out of nowhere and get stuck too."

"That sounds more like a nightmare than a comedy," Steve replied.

"Depends on who's writing it," Tony shrugged. "For example, if girls on the Internet wrote it, we'd all end up making out in the end. Or worse. Probably a lot worse."

"Oh for the love of God, Stark," Steve half-wailed, face scrunching up as the elevator door opened. Bucky had more of a quietly uninterested initial reaction until he saw Steve's, at which point he started laughing due to how easy it was to make him squirm uncomfortably.

"Well, have you Googled yourself lately? And have you heard of fanart? Seriously, look it up one day, 'Steve Rogers fanart'," Tony said as he walked out in front of them, leading them out of the elevator and down a mostly bare hallway. "Good stuff."

"I somehow doubt that," Steve muttered, and Bucky, putting the terms together in his head, wondered what exactly might be floating around the Internet. His inner jerk made a mental note to check someday, for the sake of torturing Steve. Then Steve narrowed his eyes and asked, "Wait - why did you look that up?"

"Curiosity?" Tony shrugged, glancing over his shoulder. "But no. Some of it's really great. Impressive stuff. And then some of it..."

Bucky watched Steve's face grow ever more concerned. "What?"

Reaching yet another elevator, this one protected by about a thousand different security measures, Tony turned around briefly and said with a wave of his hand, "Apparently... a sizable portion of your artsy fans think you'd prefer being on the bottom."

Concern gave way to instant but very brief embarrassment before Steve's eyes grew wider and he all but demanded, "Wait. Then who is on top?"

"... Not answering that one," Tony replied as they all boarded the elevator.

Though he wondered the same thing as Steve, Bucky kept quiet, still highly annoyed with the arm situation, glancing up when Steve sighed and muttered, "Sometimes I still feel like I'm not ready for this century."

"Embrace it," Tony suggested. "One day I found a drawing of me tied up and half naked, being seduced by Loki of all people."

Steve stared for a moment before asking, "Why?"

"Why did I find it or why did they draw it?"

"... Both?"

Tony shrugged as the doors opened. "So here we are. Welcome to my playground."

Subject thankfully changed, Bucky looked up as they stepped into a very large, mostly circular space, that looked very much like a mad engineering genius' secret lair. Tony's famous suits were housed inside glass cases that lined the walls, and equipment that surpassed state of the art was everywhere. As Tony walked through the room, monitors and holographic displays sprang to life, and it really was like stepping directly into the future.

Steve was equally somewhat dazed by it all, but maybe a bit less impressed, and regardless of their reactions, Tony quickly steered them to two chairs that he had thrown together and said, "Sit down and get comfy. I'll get you pried apart in a minute."

Sitting as directed with sighs exhaled at nearly the same time, Bucky and Steve both floundered for a moment on what to do with their arms and where to put them while they sat there. Eventually they decided on just letting them sit there between them, almost making it appear to the casual observer as if they were holding hands, and as Tony rummaged around some feet away, Steve said, "I hope we never meet a bad guy who can magically control metal. We'd both be screwed."

"Good thing somebody like that doesn't exist," Bucky pointed out, though if he really thought about it, who was to say someone like that wasn't out there somewhere? The world was certainly weird enough now.

Bucky then felt his arm jerk up and to the side, and he looked at Steve to find him at fault after having reached to itch his nose with the affected hand. "Sorry," Steve muttered, putting the hand back down.

Then Bucky had an alarming thought. "What if he can't un-stick us?" he asked.

"Well, I mean, I'm sure that worst case, he can just cut the cuff off me. And then get it off you somehow." Then Steve paused. "Unless he stalls on purpose for the sake of torturing us."

"Heard that," Tony called over his shoulder. "Have a little faith, Cap."

Bucky tried to be optimistic, unwilling to imagine what might happen if Natasha came sauntering in and decided to take advantage of the situation by making out with Steve while Bucky was forced to sit there an inch away and try not to cringe.

But someone very different ended up sauntering in instead, behind Pepper, who was the only other person in the world with equally unlimited access as Tony. Bucky watched as Pepper walked in and made Tony immediately stop what he was doing and ask why in the world she had come down here in the middle of the day, but Bucky didn't hear Pepper's answer because he was too busy grinning softly at Summer. She was trailing behind the CEO in her black pencil skirt and light purple blouse with her hair up behind her head, looking around with a wide-eyed, childlike wonder, and it took her a full few minutes before she even noticed that Bucky and Steve were even there.

"Oh! Hi," she smiled, coming closer to them and then pausing as her eyes went to their stuck-together arms. "Are you two holding hands?"

"No," Bucky half-smiled, lifting up the arm to show her the magnet situation.

"Oh," she laughed, shaking her head at herself. "That makes more sense. I think?"

"Stark was trying out an upgrade to my suit when this happened," Steve shrugged.

"I mean I wasn't gonna judge if you guys decided to, you know, hold hands for awhile, for some reason, but... anyway," she smiled, visibly making herself stop rambling. "I can't believe I'm down here."

"Why are you down here?" Bucky asked, half-aware of how Tony and Pepper were still mildly bickering behind Summer.

"Well, Deanna, Pepper's actual assistant, had to go home early today, so I'm sort of filling in and doing the actual important stuff today for the first time," Summer explained quietly. "Which is just crazy because I was already stressed out with David's birthday being tomorrow and Paul getting here in a few hours, which oh, by the way, if I'm not off by then, can one of you make sure and let him in when he gets here because he's got his new baby with him and..."

As Summer kept going a mile a minute, Bucky smiled at her nervous energy until he felt his arm being jerked again, and he looked at Steve to find the man about to itch his face again just before he said with a groan, "I'm sorry, I keep forgetting."

"Not to worry, I'm back," Tony said, stepping in front of Summer and then giving her a look like he had just noticed she was there. "I never gave you clearance for my super secret superhero supercave."

Summer blinked. "Uh... I, uh..."

"She's with me, obviously," Pepper called out over her shoulder as she worked on one of the computers in the room, probably the reason why they were there in the first place. "Can you bring me the stick now?"

Summer then smiled and quickly turned around, USB device in hand as she hurried over to help her boss, and that was when Tony stole Bucky's attention back by saying, "All right, arms out."

From there, getting unstuck turned out to be rather simple. A bit of tinkering on Tony's part finally disabled the magnetic pull of the cuff, and once Bucky and Steve were thankfully free again, Tony immediately started examining the device and muttering to himself about how to fix it. Bucky just stretched out his arm, happy to have control of it back, but then his expression became annoyed again almost instantly once the plates in the upper part of the arm tried to shift and failed. He stretched it again, moved it a little, but produced the same result. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel right, and it was bothering him.

Steve noticed this and asked, "Your arm okay?"

Bucky sighed and looked down at the arm, shrugging a little as he said, "I don't know. It's been like this since the mission."

"... That was a month ago," Steve pointed out. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Bucky only shrugged, still frowning at how the arm wasn't doing what he wanted it to. "Must be some shrapnel in there or something. I can't really feel it, so it's hard to really tell what it could be."

After a pause, Steve said, "You could ask Tony to look at it. This is the kind of stuff he deals with every day. He'd probably know what to do."

Though Bucky couldn't help but hesitate at the idea, Tony, who had been seemingly not listening and in his own world some feet away, suddenly straightened and then turned around slowly.

"Did I hear that right?"

Bucky, even more hesitant at the instant cross between glee and over-eagerness on the man's face, paused and then glanced at Steve as if looking for guidance. Steve just nodded and said, "If you can trust anybody to fix your arm, it's him."

"What a rare genuine compliment," Tony observed, then looked back to Bucky. "He's right though. Can I?"

There was no point in finding a reason to say no, Bucky realized, because there really was nobody better qualified than Tony Stark, and despite the rather complicated and bizarre history between the two men, Bucky had noticed that ever since Tony had seen the video of him following the night that he had caused the deaths of Tony's parents, Tony had been treating him differently than he used to. There was more of an understanding there now, and while Tony still wasn't exactly warm or overly friendly, Bucky felt more at ease around him now. And that was a welcome change.

"Do you know... how?" Bucky asked quietly.

"Uh... yeah. This is what I do. I fix things. All I need to do is have a look at the arm first and have JARVIS check a few things and then I can get started."

Really, he didn't have much of a choice, but even if he did, Bucky couldn't see much of a reason to say no. He finally nodded, and then Tony flashed a smile and was suddenly bursting with energy as he all but flew about the room, gathering the right equipment and barking orders to JARVIS. One would suspect that Tony had been waiting for this moment for quite awhile and was now just about overjoyed that it had come. Bucky glanced at Steve, who just smiled and shrugged, and across the room, Summer glanced over her shoulder and gave Bucky a smile of her own.

He smiled back, quite aware of how different past repairs to his arm had been, and quite relieved that those days were over. Now, instead of having to deal with HYDRA and their clinical yet inhumane methods of dealing with him, he just had to survive Tony Stark's snark for awhile.

---

Summer's brief visit to Tony's lair had ended as soon as Tony had begun inspecting Bucky's arm, which she hadn't even known needed repairs until she had turned around and saw what Tony was doing. She needed to get back to work then, but not much longer later, Pepper let her take her lunch, and after asking very tentatively if she could go back to where Bucky was to spend her break, Pepper had called Tony and gotten the okay from him.

And now that was exactly where she was headed, armed with food that was half for her and half for Bucky, though he hadn't asked for it, and she could almost giggle at the thought of eating lunch in a room literally surrounded by various multicolored Iron Man suits.

Once she got there, she sent a text from her phone and then waited for someone to let her in - she would probably never have clearance for this room and she was okay with that - and when the door opened, it was Steve waiting on the other side.

"Hi," she chirped, walking in and listening to her heels click on the ground as she walked. She felt extra-professional today, having filled in for Deanna and actually done an okay job of it so far, and with her brother's impending arrival later in the afternoon, she was in a fantastic mood.

"Hey," Steve greeted back, closing the door behind her. "On a break?"

"Yup," she smiled, walking in front of him and then briefly pausing when she saw Bucky sitting back in a chair, staring down at his arm while Tony, at his left side, sat backwards in a chair wearing protective glasses and holding two tools to his arm that she did not know the names of. She felt an immediate sense of relief, though, because when she had first heard that there was something wrong with Bucky's arm that Tony was going to repair, she had immediately envisioned Tony having to take the entire thing off and then reattach it, but thankfully, that seemed to be just another example of her tendency to overthink things.

Instead of that mental image, what she saw looked pretty calm and almost routine, but she stepped closer cautiously before she realized that it wasn't exactly surgery and that she wasn't contaminating a sterile environment. Bucky heard her heels and looked up, small smile appearing instantly on his face that she mirrored as she made her way to sit across from him, in front of some table littered with various tools and expensive-looking tech stuff. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Tony answered for Bucky, not looking up from the arm as Summer handed Bucky a sandwich she'd thrown together for him. He gave her a look that told her she hadn't needed to do that, and she gave him one in return that told him to just hush. Tony went on, "He had some shrapnel stuck in the plates from the last mission."

Sitting down, Summer's eyes widened slightly and she said, "That was a month ago! Has this been bothering you all this time?"

Bucky shrugged. "It didn't hurt. It just... hasn't been working completely normal."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Summer asked, utterly aghast.

"His other girlfriend already asked him all that," Tony piped up. Then Tony glanced up, did a double take at the sandwich Bucky had just taken a bite of, and then he asked Summer, "Where's my sandwich?"

Summer paused, unable to tell if he was just being sarcastic. "You... didn't ask for one?"

"I might be now."

Steve, leaning against another table opposite Summer, said, "She's on her break, Tony. She has better things to do than make you a sandwich."

"Fine, then you make me one," Tony replied, turning back to Bucky's arm and then adding as an afterthought, "I like turkey, and don't go crazy on the mayo."

Summer stifled a laugh at the pinched, annoyed expression that crossed Steve's face, then resumed watching Tony work on the arm for a moment before a text from her brother stole her attention.

ETA is now about three more hours, Paul said. Sarah's about to explode from the excitement of meeting Captain America.

Summer grinned and texted back, Guess where I am. I am in the room where Tony Stark keeps all of his Iron Man suits and builds them. I am not joking.

Paul sent back a meme of a cat with a very shocked and wide-eyed look on its cute face, and that was the last she heard from him, as he and Sarah had just gotten on their last connecting flight to New York. Setting her phone down and now mostly done eating, Summer turned her attention back to Bucky and listened as Tony sat back for a moment and started asking questions.

"So," he started off, "I got all the shrapnel out and got everything working right again, but... as long as I'm in here... I could throw in a few upgrades."

Bucky's eyebrows furrowed slightly and he asked, "What kind?"

"Well for one," Tony took off the protective glasses and sat back, "I can add a holographic function so you don't have to use that thing Nat gave you every time you go out. I just installed one on one of my suits, actually, and this arm - even though it's ancient and this kind of technology should have been impossible for its time - is set up perfectly for it. I can also rewire a few things, improve overall function, add a system check so that next time a bullet decides to shatter inside it, you'll know and won't walk around like this for a month."

Bucky only waited a moment before nodding and asking, "How long will this take?"

Tony pondered that for a moment and then shrugged, "Twenty minutes tops."

"Dang," Summer muttered. When Tony then glanced her way, she added with a shrug, "Sometimes I forget that I'm surrounded by geniuses who can do everything you just said in twenty minutes."

"Genius, singular," Tony replied before getting up and preparing for his next tasks. Then he stopped, turned and looked at Steve, and asked, "Seriously, though - where's my sandwich?"

For the duration of her break, Summer sat there, occasionally checking her phone and watching with full interest as Tony continued working on the arm and Bucky sat perfectly still, sometimes watching and sometimes not. She thought about how much easier Bucky's life would be now that he would have a built-in holographic disguise that would make his arm appear normal to the world, and to think that all this time all it had taken was literally a few minutes of tinkering to make that happen - it was kind of dumbfounding.

Also dumbfounding was when Tony started muttering to himself in what may as well have been another language for as much as Summer understood it. She listened with wide eyes as he rattled off mathematical equations to himself, stopping what his hands were doing for a moment to look up at the ceiling as he inched closer to the answer to his problem. That wasn't surprising. What was surprising was how Bucky listened intently and then solved the equation for Tony, uttering the answer like it was fairly simple math and not something Summer couldn't hope to repeat if her life depended on it.

Tony stared up at Bucky in shock for a minute before saying, "My God. You do speak English."

Summer's wide eyes flickered to Steve, who looked quietly pleased, and then back to Bucky who seemed rather nonplussed before she asked, "How did you know that? What even was that? Algebra on crack?"

"I... don't know," Bucky admitted, as he looked to Steve for an explanation, like she noticed he often did when he remembered something that he couldn't quite line up with the rest of what he knew.

"You've always been good at math," Steve explained.

Then Tony snapped his fingers and said, "Sniper. That's what it is. You guys had to do it the hard way back then."

"... How does shooting people involve math?" Summer asked, feeling like the quintessential dumb civilian asking dumb civilian questions.

"It has to do with calculating your coordinates, the rotation of the Earth, the wind, position, things like that," Steve explained.

"Oh," she said, having known none of that. She then looked at Bucky, who was apparently a closeted math-smartypants, and then shrugged as she said, "Well, I can quadruple most recipes without using a calculator. Sometimes."

Bucky smiled warmly at her, and she tried not to laugh at herself and the mile-wide intellectual disparity that she now thought was there between them. But, to be fair, she often saw things from a perspective unfair to herself, and it wasn't always a very accurate one.

Tony wrapping up his comprehensive repairs and upgrades coincided with her break nearing its end, so she was gathering up her things and getting ready to head back up when Tony started checking his work. He showed Bucky where to press to activate the new holographic function, and on the first try, the image of his arm blurred, pixelated, and then refocused as silver gave way to flesh tones and displayed a normal arm for all to see, calibrated to look exactly like his other.

"There we go," Tony said as Bucky held out both of his arms to compare the two. "Man, I'm good."

Summer cocked her head a little bit, suddenly a little jarred at the very normal sight before her. His hand being disguised was something she was used to, but never the entire arm, and she very quickly decided that she didn't like it much. This was what he must have looked like decades ago, before everything had gone to hell, and in that sense she could appreciate it. But it wasn't him now, and she wished that he didn't live in a world where he had to hide the arm at all.

Almost to her relief, Bucky switched the image off, and then the arm reverted back to normal. Then Tony started explaining how to use a few other new features, and Summer stood up from her seat, checking the time one more time and then shoving her phone back into her purse, mentally calculating how long she could procrastinate until she'd be late.

"And then this is something that'll check for damage and even do some minor repairs in the wiring or sensors if something happens. It only takes a minute or two, and..."

With the room silent aside from Tony droning on, Summer heard a very faint but distinct buzzing sound, and thinking it was her phone, she pulled it from her purse and checked it only to find it dark. She then looked around for a second or two, only to end up realizing that the sound was not coming from anyone's phone or device, but instead from Bucky's arm.

Her eyes, suddenly wide, darted from the arm in question to Bucky's gaze, finding it equally stunned as he stared at her, both of their jaws dropping, hers more than his. Neither had to say a word to express their mutual shock that something that had begun as a joke before it ended up in a story she had written was now... somehow... very real. His arm was seriously vibrating.

Steve's brows furrowed, fully understanding what he was seeing, and Tony just raised a single brow as he stared at the arm and said, "... Huh. I didn't actually mean for that to happen." He then looked at Bucky, followed his gaze to Summer, then added, "Though I get the feeling Christmas just came early for one of you. Every pun intended."

As the vibration slowly died, Summer felt an unbearably hot blush engulf her face as Bucky's previously stunned expression curled into a shameless, even devious, smirk, and it sent her stomach into a frantic flutter that echoed her suddenly racing heart. It was all incredibly embarrassing, but the look on his face and the unspoken promises in his eyes of what awaited later far eclipsed the discomfort that came with Iron Man having just unintentionally turned her boyfriend's artificial limb into a custom-made... toy.

She had literally no hope of being able to focus on work the rest of the day.

"Didn't need to know that," Tony said, cleaning up his tools, and Summer actually clamped her hand over her mouth when she realized in horror that she had just spoken her last thought out loud.

Bucky just laughed at her, still looking extremely pleased at her reactions and very mischievous, and Steve was shaking his head and trying not to laugh himself. All Summer could do was eventually squeak that she was going to be late getting back to work - which was true, as she was already a few minutes late by now - and then painfully tear her eyes away from Bucky before rushing the heck out of there before she decided to come back to work considerably even later for the sake of... testing. For science.

She was able to slightly breathe again once she was out of Tony's lair and back within the safety of the elevator, at least until her phone buzzed - of course - and made her jump before she grabbed it and read the just-received text from Bucky.

I know what you're gonna be thinking about all day.

She breathed a sigh of relief. That wasn't so bad. He could have really gone for it and made her still very present blush reach epic proportions.

Then her phone buzzed again.

I'm just gonna think about you sitting there and squirming behind that desk, trying to focus on your work instead of how wet you already are for me.

And there it was. She groaned and dropped her head against the elevator wall, already squirming as she typed back, Stooooopppppp. Then she aggressively added some crying-face emoticons and sent it, regretting having ever taught the man how to text.

He sent back a winky face. A winky face. Then after that, when the elevator was near the top of the building, he added, I don't think I can wait until you're off work, now that I can't get that picture of you out my head.

It took a few seconds for what he was saying to sink in. Once it did, she bit back a whimper and this time cursed having written that thing awhile back, because revealing to him through her writing how much she liked it when he talked like this had opened the floodgates of filthy words from his lips and she wasn't sure how much more she could take before she just combusted. You are killing me, she replied as the elevator finally came to a halt and the doors opened.

After getting back on the clock and taking shelter back behind her accursed desk, which had unexpectedly become a prop in Bucky's apparent fantasy, she dropped her phone on top of it and took a deep breath. She had emails to get to and phone calls to deal with, neither of which were aided by her continuing distractions. But they were some distractions.

She managed to ignore her phone and read one email before she gave in and read the three new texts she'd just gotten, taking a deep breath of courage first.

I picture you sitting at your desk with your legs crossed, squeezing as much as you can as you picture what I'm doing to myself.

She noisily dropped a pencil that had been in her hand and cringed, immediately doing exactly as he had pictured as soon as she had read the words. She could just picture him, back in his own room now, gleefully ruining her day with just a few texts. Then she moved on to the next message.

I'll text you later. I need both my hands.

She rolled her eyes and very nearly slammed her head on the table.

I love you.

One day, he was going to be the death of her, and there was no escaping it. Face the color of a tomato and fingers shaking slightly with just how affected she was, she quickly replied, I love you too you big fat evil diabolical jerk. I am so uncomfortable now. For so many reasons. Thanks.

When he didn't answer until ten minutes later, she tried not to think about why that may have been, and instead did her very best to focus on her actual work for the rest of the day.

It was a long, long day.

---

After having to work a bit past her scheduled time off due to Deanna's absence that day, Summer finally got off of work and was texting frantically on her phone to determine where Paul was and if he had landed safely and if he was on his way to the tower yet. She barely looked up from her phone the whole way there, and as soon as she was off the elevator and through the doors of the little "apartment" shared by herself and a number of Avengers, she looked up and had to stare in silence for a moment.

There was Paul, snapping a picture from his phone as Sarah just about bounced with glee while she watched Steve hold their tiny one-month old daughter. Not too far away, David was curled up on the couch next to Bucky, watching his uncle with his usual shyness and wariness, and Summer felt an instant sense of sadness at having missed the chance to greet Paul and Sarah and introduce them to everybody, but it was gone as soon as it had come. There was literally nothing to be sad about when it came to what she was looking at.

Paul looked up and instantly broke into a face-splitting grin. "There she is! And oh my God, she looks all professional and crap!"

Summer smiled and braced herself, because where most brothers would just give her a normal hug and go on with their visit, Paul instead all but ran at her and tackled her with all the affection of a sibling who desperately missed their other half.

After letting out a mildly pained "oomph" and nearly falling over, she laughed and hugged him back and asked, "When did you guys get in? You never answered my last text and I was about to freak out!"

"Sorry," Paul said, pulling away, smile plastered to his face. "I know you said to text you and make sure you were there to let us in but Bucky let us in."

She raised an eyebrow. "Bucky? He's Bucky now? Not Voldemort?"

Paul just gave her a vague look, one that made her suspect that some kind of talk between them had happened between himself and Bucky that she wasn't privy to, and then he put an arm around her shoulder and said, "Come meet my awesome new kid."

On the way, Sarah clobbered Summer with her own hug - one with an added whisper of "Captain America's holding my baby and I think I'm gonna die because he's even hotter in person and you live with him oh my God" which made Summer snort with laughter - and then she was taking in the adorable sight of Steve with a baby herself. She didn't know how much experience he had with babies in general, but even she had to resist the urge to melt at how he was smiling at the baby, and she wasn't the only one - Natasha was watching as well, standing nearby and keeping up her poker face, but even she couldn't remain completely visibly unaffected. When he glanced up and noticed Summer, he quickly snapped out of it and then began the process of handing little Marina to her aunt.

She hadn't gotten to hold several of Paul's kids when they were this little, so Summer was prepared to soak it all in as she took the little bundle of pink from Steve into her arms. The baby was dressed in a flowery pink dress and warm, frilly ruffled socks, and on her head was a rather large pink bow. She felt as light as a feather and she was sleeping soundly despite being passed around from person to person, eyes shut tight and cheeks plump and healthily pink. In short, she was absolutely amazing.

"Oh my God," Summer smiled, feeling tears instantly forming behind her eyes as she gazed down at her niece, "you are perfect."

"Totally," Paul proudly beamed. "And check out her hair under that giant bow."

Summer lifted up the band of the bow just slightly, and though there wasn't a whole lot of hair to speak of just yet, the wisps that were there were distinctly a gingery blonde color. She then looked up at Paul and grinned, "Seven kids later, and one finally got your hair."

"And I could not be happier," he admitted with a pleased grin. "She's gonna have freckles too. I just know it."

Summer shook her head, still smiling so widely that it hurt, and then she glanced over to the couch and caught David's stare just before he tried to act like he hadn't been looking. She carefully then made her way over to the couch, slowly taking a seat on David's unoccupied side, and as she adjusted her hold on Marina, she held her so that he could see her and said, "See the baby? This is your new little cousin, Marina."

He shrunk a little closer into Bucky's side, but his gaze on the baby was curious and increasingly fascinated. Summer looked up and caught Bucky's eyes not on the baby but on her, and something within stirred at the softness in his eyes. She wasn't sure what it was that she felt, or what it was that she saw in his eyes - after all, he was used to the sight of her with a child, so that was nothing new. But then his gaze flickered down to her arms, and briefly scanned over the child before looking back up at her, that same softness growing the longer that he stared.

All she could do was smile at him and the look down at Marina, not sure she was quite ready to go down the road that her brain was about five seconds away from skipping down. Holding a new baby while her son sat glued to the side of a man whom he seemed to adore, in his own quiet, subtle way, more and more every day, all ran the risk of making her feel things that she was sure they weren't ready for yet. Though, judging by the way that Bucky was looking at her, maybe one day, they would be.

Before the sweetness of it all could get to her and get the waterworks started, Summer got up and returned Marina to her mother, and just in time, because she had just begun to squirm awake. "She's perfect," Summer said to both Sarah and Paul. "Seriously. Even with the ginger gene and all."

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Sarah replied. "Oh, can I ask you something? ... Somewhere?"

"Sure," Summer said, watching Sarah glance at Steve with slight goo-goo eyes before she led them away into the kitchen.

Once far enough away from everyone, Sarah bounced slightly on her feet to soothe Marina and then whispered, "I can't believe you live here with these people. I knew because Paul told me, but seeing it is just..."

"I know," Summer grinned widely.

"And Captain America!" Sarah scream-whispered. "He is... oh my God."

"Isn't he at the top of your 'okay to cheat with' list?" Summer asked.

Sarah nodded enthusiastically. "And I have never been more confident in that choice before. But your guy!"

Sarah then started speaking her native Spanish, and Summer had no clue what any of it meant, but she was pretty sure most of it could be roughly translated to "hubba hubba". "Oh yeah. I know. He's..."

"Yes," Sarah agreed, though Summer hadn't been able to find an actual sufficient word. "And he doesn't seem nearly as scary as Paul made him out to be."

"He's... gotten less terrifying over time," Summer shrugged.

"You look different," Sarah then observed, taking Sarah by surprise. "And I don't just mean your clothes, though you look great with this look, but... you're happy now. I can tell."

Summer couldn't help but smile. "Is it that obvious?"

"Oh yes. And I'm happy for you. David looks good, too."

"He's doing really good," Summer nodded. "Better than ever, actually."

Marina then let out a tiny little wail, and as Sarah pat her back to comfort her, Summer said, "Well, go on and make yourself comfortable, feed her, whatever - I'm gonna go change and then I'll have dinner ready."

Sarah nodded, giving Summer one last brief side-hug before heading back to the living room, and Summer did exactly as she said she would. She went to her room, took her hair down, peeled off her clothes and then threw on the first thing she saw, which was a pale yellow sundress, and after kicking off the heels that she didn't need to wear anymore, she headed back out to the kitchen.

Having thought well ahead earlier that day, dinner was an extremely easy affair, a one-dish slow cooker deal, so it was ready almost immediately. Getting everyone to sit down and eat it was another matter entirely - Natasha had to step away for a call, Sarah was momentarily stuck on the couch feeding Marina, and David had gotten on the Playstation while Summer had been changing, and he was quite unwilling to give it up. In the end, Summer relented and let David eat leftover pizza as he played his game, since he didn't like that night's meal anyway, and she sat down to eat once the other adults had at last assembled.

At first, it was surreal. Having her family there, in the flesh, on a casual visit in the skyscraper that she called home along with some of the world's most remarkable people - it was kind of ridiculous, but also completely awesome. Not too long ago, Bucky had been her well-kept secret, and Paul had been in the dark about everything. Now here they all were, like it was totally normal and everybody was okay with each other, and she couldn't believe her luck. She hadn't even caught Paul glaring at Bucky yet, though to be fair, the night was young.

"So," Paul asked once they were all sitting down at the oversized table, "hows life at... Avengers Tower these days?"

"Good," Summer replied. "Aside from it almost blowing up that one time."

"Yeah, you mean the night I had like a million heart attacks," Paul said. He then looked over at Steve and Natasha, who were sitting on his side of the table, and asked between a bite of food, "You all catch who did it?"

"We did," Steve nodded. "And the Tower's safer now."

"I hope so," Paul replied. "Because... I mean... if this place isn't the safest building in the country aside from the White House, then I don't even know what to say."

"It pretty much is," Steve assured him.

"Know what would help make it even safer, though?"

Summer gave Paul a look and said, "Paul... don't say it."

"What? I was just gonna suggest some protection spells. Salvio hexia," he said, waving his fork like it was a wand.

"I missed your nerdiness," she smiled, glancing up at Bucky briefly as she took another bite of food. He smiled softly at her as he chewed as well, and she didn't think much of it when she felt his cool left hand come to rest on her knee, just below where the hem of her dress ended.

"So you're a doctor?" Natasha asked, glancing at Paul as she leaned past Steve. When he nodded, she asked, "What kind?"

"Internal medicine," he replied, the look on his face giving away how unabashedly thrilling it was to have an Avenger ask one such a question.

Summer grinned faintly and kept eating, then glanced to her right again when she felt Bucky's thumb start gently swiping back and forth just above her knee. He was looking down at his plate, but then he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, and something about the way he looked at her reminded her of all of those texts from earlier and how there was a very interesting night ahead of them. She cleared her throat, then took a sip of water before asking impulsively and against her better judgement, "Did you... take care of that problem you had... earlier?"

She didn't miss the amused surprise that flashed in his eyes, but it didn't stop her from instantly regretting the question. Nothing good could come from bringing that up again, especially here, regardless of the other conversations happening around the table.

"Yeah," he nodded, a knowing but faint smirk on his lips. "But it's kind of a... recurring problem."

Fighting off a blush, she smiled and replied, "I think I know the feeling."

"I bet you do."

The hand on her knee tightened almost imperceptibly, and she decided that she needed to change the subject at all costs. "Um... so how's dinner?"

His fingers shifted, and then his hand moved further inward, and he replied quietly, "Delicious."

She just stared at him, wondering how in the world he managed to make everything he said sound so incredibly dirty. Or was that just her imagination? Maybe it was just all in her head...

Then his grin returned, and his hand began to slide up higher, slipping under her dress, and she almost choked on another sip of water that she had just taken. She looked around quickly, and once she was satisfied that nobody was looking their way, she hissed under her breath, "Bucky, stop."

But all he did was meet her gaze challengingly, grin spreading on his lips as he mouthed back, "Make me."

That was the moment that Summer realized just how deeply in trouble she was.

Theoretically, she could have made him stop. And those two words were his maddening way of letting her know that if she wanted, he would stop, though he knew full well that she really did not.

And so, he held her gaze as his hand moved steadily higher, slowly enough to torture her but fast enough to make her heart race with anxiety. She forced herself to look away, gulping and vowing inwardly that she would act perfectly normal and handle whatever he happened to throw at her. She could do this. She had this.

Fingers now dancing along her inner thigh, they gave her a quick and gentle pinch. She jumped and bit down so hard on her fork that she was sure the entire room had heard it.

She apparently had nothing.

Across the table, Natasha was regaling Paul with a tale of a time that she had once posed as a doctor, and Sarah was staring at Steve like she was a twelve year old girl at a One Direction concert. Meanwhile, Bucky leaned in close enough to whisper in Summer's ear as his hand continued its teasingly slow path up her thigh.

"Make sure you save room for dessert."

Swallowing a mouthful of food that was doing nothing to calm her down, she slowly turned to glare at Bucky, but the look on her face looked nothing like a glare. It was more along the lines of an open-mouthed blush, and his eyes flickered down to her parted lips as his grin widened.

"I didn't make dessert," she muttered, trying oh so hard to make the conversation about actual food, because if it was about that, maybe she could calm down. But she knew she still wouldn't, all because of the damn hand creeping closer and closer to somewhere it shouldn't be.

Then he was close again, whispering again. "That's all right. We both know you like the taste of something else even more."

A shiver shot down her spine at the same moment that her face went up in flames, and she used all of her self control to not slam herself face-down on the table. And she had thought the texting earlier was bad.

"I can tell by the way you lick it off my -"

She kicked him, as hard as she possibly could with bare feet, under the table. Paul glanced over at the sound it made, but his attention was quickly stolen back, and then Summer was back in her own private torture zone, feeling like she was going to either scream or explode or just melt into a puddle on the floor. Maybe all three, in that order.

And all the while, his hand never stopped moving. Her legs, previously crossed at the ankles, were farther apart than they should have been, welcoming his touches despite how she knew she shouldn't, and all the while, he never did anything more than tease. Just when he'd get close enough, he'd draw back down her leg, towards her knee, and start the path all over again. He leaned in a third time as his fingers started grazing dangerous territory again, and she held her breath, mentally preparing to either slap him away or drag him under the table.

"I wish I could have you under the table right now... have I ever told you that when you moan when your mouth is... around me, I can feel your voice... vibrating?"

And that was when his arm quietly, inconspicuously, but torturously hummed to life, and right when his fingers had finally stopped their teasing and gone where they were needed.

Her mouth fell open, and she covered it with her hand, trying to pass it off like she was just leaning her chin on her hand. Bucky leaned away but his hand didn't budge, and she was fairly sure that her heart had stopped and that she was just a ghost now, about to float through the ceiling. And nobody seemed to notice anything.

And then, just as she thought she might pass out, his hand was gone. She widened her eyes and looked at him, both hands back where they belonged as he took a nonchalant drink of water, like nothing had ever happened.

"Later," he mouthed as he set his glass back down, looking quite pleased with himself.

And he called her a tease.

Relieved, disappointed, and light years beyond frustrated, Summer took one more look around the table, and unexpectedly noticed Natasha looking her way. The spy's lips were quirked slightly as she shook her head just a little bit, and Summer got the distinct feeling that Nat had likely noticed from the beginning but just had the good sense and decency to keep it to herself and help distract the others at the table.

She smiled uneasily and then stared down at her plate, cursing Bucky's name into oblivion in her head.

"You okay, Summer?" Paul asked, and she looked up to find him looking at her in concern. "You kinda look like a strawberry."

"And you look like an orange puked on top of your head," she shot back. "What's your excuse?"

"Fair enough," he shrugged, going back to eating.

Summer glanced at Bucky one more time, only to find him watching her in sheer amusement. He stayed on his best behavior throughout the rest of the night, and she wasn't sure if she was happy or infinitely disappointed about that.

After that particularly intense dinner, Summer left the cleaning up to Steve, who offered, and then helped Paul and Sarah get settled into their room. More than exhausted after having flown in all the way from California on three separate airplanes, Paul promised Summer that he'd get up early enough to help her put together David's birthday surprise after he passed out for the night. After that, she hugged him goodnight and left them alone to sleep away the day of travel, leaving her to focus on getting David settled in and asleep before his big day of turning six. Being incredibly eager for his first birthday in the tower, David went to bed early to hasten the day's arrival.

And that left Summer with only one more thing left to do before she called it a night as well.

Walking purposefully out of her room and down the hall, Summer marched up to Bucky's door and knocked on it, staring at the door with determination as she waited for him to answer it. As soon as he did, wearing a maddeningly stupid grin that pissed her off almost as much as it made her stomach flutter, she grabbed him with both of her hands on the neck of his shirt and pushed him inside, hissing in the angriest tone that she could muster, "I am going to kill you."

Door closed behind them, she kept walking him back towards his bed as his grin only widened and his hands immediately sought her hips. "First the texts while I was working, and the images you put in my head," she said, "and then that crap at the dinner table. What the hell are you trying to do to me?"

When he tried to kiss her rather than answer her, she expertly avoided his lips and then, as the backs of his legs hit his bed, pushed him down so that he sat on the edge and her hands were on his shoulders. He looked up at her with unhidden lust in his eyes, clearly enjoying her unusual show of slight aggression, and his eyes only darkened further when she lowered herself down and straddled his lap, moving her hands into his hair as she said, "You're a jerk."

Then before he could reply, she kissed him, hard and fast and in a way that made him instantly groan against her lips and pull her impossibly closer. "And I'm so gonna get you back one day," she added breathlessly before he resumed the kiss, ravaging her mouth the way that she had known he would after their entire day of teasing.

"You already did," he murmured before she reached down and grabbed the bottom of his shirt to pull it over his head. After she tossed it to the floor, she looked first at his now-mussed hair and the dog tags she was pretty sure he hadn't taken off since she had placed them around his neck a month ago, then met his gaze once his hand took her chin and forced her to look up. "That was me controlling myself at dinner. You have no idea how hard it is for me to stop when it comes to you."

She swallowed reflexively and whimpered a little when he kissed her again. "... You're still a jerk," she managed to mutter when his kisses left her mouth in favor of her neck, all while his hands started gathering up the skirt of her dress around her hip.

"A jerk with a vibrating arm that you've been fantasizing about all day," he retorted, breathing heavily against her throat as his hands ground her hips down into his lap.

"That and... other things," she admitted. "I regret ever showing you how to text."

He chuckled and then lifted her dress up and over her head, tossing it on top of his shirt over the floor. "If you want to watch me that bad, all you have to do is ask."

But before she could formulate an answer, he turned them around and had her lying underneath him on the bed, kissing her with a fury that made her lose all train of thought and forget any words she might have wanted to say in return. He didn't let up, getting off the rest of their clothes in a dizzying rush as she just hung on, trying to stay afloat and also trying to keep her voice down since, after all, her brother ears didn't need to be defiled the way the floor's other inhabitants ears had been multiple times before.

She suppressed a squeal of surprise when he unexpectedly flipped her over on her stomach, then growled lowly in her ear, "On your knees." An indecipherable noise was her reply as she scrambled to obey, and as soon as she did, he gently eased her up by a fistful of her hair and then said again into her ear, "Hands on the headboard."

Not entirely used to being bossed around like this and not minding it in the least, she gripped the top of the panel of wood in front of her and felt her heart racing a mile a minute as he marked her neck, little sounds escaping his throat as his metal hand came to rest on her lower stomach. Feeling all of him pressed against her from behind, needing the anticipation he had built up in her head all day to finally be over, she let out a small, uncontrollable moan when his right hand pulled her face towards his and he kissed her so deeply that it might have been almost just as good as what she knew was coming.

Then, his left hand slowly moving lower, his lips brushed hers as he looked into her eyes with a gaze every bit as heated as her own as he asked, "Ready?"

Her lips parted further but she found that she couldn't say a word, and then his hand finally stopped its torturous descent. He didn't take his eyes off her as he shifted the arm, and then made it rumble with its light but perfectly steady vibration, and she gasped first before dropping her head back against him and nearly biting a hole into her lip to keep from crying out the way she needed to.

"Careful, sweetheart," he grinned against her cheek, and she was too far gone to register the new term of endearment. "Might wake up that baby down the hall."

"I hate you," she managed to choke out.

He merely smiled against her skin and at last ended his own misery, letting out a low, breathy, deep moan into her ear as he replied, "I love you, too."

---

The next morning, Summer looked around the living room area cautiously before turning and giving the okay to Paul to bring in the special, and very large, item that they had just picked up from a toy store fifteen minutes ago.

"Don't need any help here," Paul said, dragging the box inside and then readjusting his hold as he continued dragging it across the floor. "Definitely no need to offer."

"Sorry," she said, going to pick up the other end so they could move it more easily. "I'm kinda used to being around guys who can pick up cars without really trying."

"I can see that," Paul said, eyebrows going up for emphasis. "So where's this going?"

"Spare room down this hall," she said, gesturing to her right. "It's gonna be David's playroom for now."

"Where is he again?"

"Downstairs, with Steve, who's giving him his first present of the day," Summer grinned as they moved down the hall. "Tony made it. It's a smaller exact replica of Steve's shield. Made of non-dangerous material, of course, but Tony said it'll feel heavier and just like the real thing."

"I want one," Paul said with suddenly wide eyes. "Seriously. Can I have one too?"

"Maybe for your next birthday," Summer grinned as they finally got into the room. "But I figured you'd rather have a replica of the Elder Wand."

"I need both!" he half-gasped. "Who could stop me if I had the Elder Wand and Captain America's shield?"

"... You have a point," she agreed as they set the box down and then both sighed as they put their hands on their hips, mirroring the other without realizing. "Alright. Ready to help me assemble this giant castle... thing?"

"It's gonna take up the whole room," Paul said, looking around the somewhat small, unfurnished room.

"Yup. But he'll love it," Summer said, starting the process of opening up the box starting at one corner. "So. Am I ever gonna hear about this secret conversation between you and Bucky or are you just gonna keep changing the subject when I bring it up?"

"Hey, you kept him a secret from me for months," Paul reminded her. "You have no room to complain there."

"Sure I do," she argued. "So come on, spill."

Paul sighed, helping get the box open as he replied, "He complained about how you snore in your sleep and I told him about that time I caught you making out with a teddy bear when you were six."

"I don't snore!" she protested. "The worst complaint he's had there is from my hair going everywhere because he's woken up choking on it like twice."

Paul stuck his fingers in his ears and immediately exclaimed, "La la la, don't want to hear about you and him sleeping in the same bed, let me live in denial, la la la!"

She rolled her eyes, then scrunched her face and said, "And I did not make out with a teddy bear."

"Yes you did, and I have the old pictures to prove it," he said.

"Whatever. Anyway. Stop trying to change the subject. What did you really talk about? More 'I'll kill you if you hurt my sister' stuff?" When Paul remained mum, she made a noise of exasperation and said, "Oh my God, would you just spit it out?"

"It was a good talk, okay?" he finally answered, just as they started pulling pieces out of the box. "Nothing for you to get so antsy about. He actually spoke this time unlike last time, so that was nice."

"And what did he say?" she asked, locating the assembling instructions sheet and sitting down on the floor as Paul followed.

"Well," Paul began, "I asked him if this -" He gestured to the tower, "- was a permanent thing for you guys. He said he didn't know because you apparently just left some guy's farm and really liked it there? So naturally I asked if that meant you and him would be getting your own place eventually and he said yeah, if you wanted to."

Summer's eyes bugged out of her head slightly as she looked up from the instructions. "Oh my God, Paul - we hadn't even talked about that yet!"

"Well, there you go, I saved you the trouble," Paul grinned annoyingly.

"Next you're gonna tell me you asked him when he's gonna propose," she rolled her eyes.

"I did."

Eyes widening even more and face paling, Summer was one breath away from screaming when Paul held up his hands and laughed.

"Kidding! Oh my God, kid, I'm not that stupid." As she sighed deeply in relief and dropped her face into her hands, Paul added, "But I did ask him how serious he is. I mean, you've been together awhile and I know you've said it was serious, but I asked him if he was in it for the... you know... long haul, especially since David's so attached to him."

"And?" she asked impatiently.

Paul paused only for a few seconds before he replied, "He said he can't imagine life without you."

"And what did you say?" she asked.

"I made him promise that as long as you're here, in the middle of all this weird superhero Avenger crap, that he'd keep you and David safe."

"He already does," she replied quietly.

"Yeah but Summer, this tower almost broke in half a couple months ago," Paul pointed out. "This place might not always be the safest place for you guys, and I have no choice but to trust him that he'll take you somewhere else if he needs to."

"The chances of me walking outside and getting in a cab and dying in an accident are probably way higher than the stuff you're thinking," Summer replied.

Paul then gave her a look and said, "How many encounters with the HYDRA people have you had since you met him?"

Summer stared for a moment before muttering, "Like three."

"And how many car accidents have you had?"

"Okay, okay, I get it, but -"

"No you don't," Paul shook his head. "When he says he loves you I believe him. I do. It's obvious just by seeing how he looks at you. But that's not the point because I'm all the way on the other side of the country, and he's here, and I can't do a damn thing to protect you like I used to, but he can. And that's what I told him."

"And what did he say?" she asked quietly.

"He got this kind of dark... miserable look on his face for a minute and then said he couldn't live with himself if anything ever happened to you because of what he did or didn't do, something like that," Paul replied. "He's very... I don't know. Intense. I got the feeling that it was something he had already though about enough on his own."

"Yeah, it is," she nodded. "We went through this weird week where he was paranoid about basically breathing near me because of these stupid bruises he accidentally gave me when we were -" She looked up to find Paul listening in mild horror, and she cleared her throat and said, "Well, you don't need to know the specifics, but..."

"No, I don't," he agreed.

"Anyway - yes, my safety is his number one priority. And David's safety," Summer said. "You really don't need to worry."

"But I will anyway," he shrugged. "You know it."

"Yeah, yeah," she replied, and a brief silence fell for a few moments.

"I can't believe I'm gonna say this," Paul said, "but somehow, the Winter effing Soldier ended up being the best guy you've dated and the one I trust the most with you. I don't know if that reflects well on him or just horribly on your past judgement."

She laughed and then shrugged, "To be fair, he's only my second 'guy'. So my judgment is so far 50% decent, and that's more than what most girls can say, right? And I mean, look at you. You dated some real winners before Sarah."

"I... well," he shrugged, unable to really argue that point. "But still. This is still super weird and if our dad was still here - just wow."

"And Grandma," Summer added. "I don't know if she would have beat him over the head with her umbrella until he swore to leave me alone or if she would have made him cookies and hot chocolate and made sure he had a warm blanket and a decent bed to sleep in."

Paul thought for a minute before deciding, "Both. Definitely both."

Summer smiled and then laughed, feeling a familiar sense of longing come over her, to have this every day and not be so far away from her only sibling anymore. Phone calls and texts were nice but nothing beat the real thing, and in a life that had taken one bizarre turn after another as of late, Paul's presence was grounding and soothing to her always-racing mind.

"You want to hear something horrible?" Paul said with a grimace. "After we went to bed last night, Sarah made this offhand comment about how she wondered what all Bucky's arm can do, and she was like, 'well, it's metal and seems to run on some kind of power, so do you think it might vibrate?' and I almost jumped out a window because that is not something I needed to hear and plus I don't even know why she'd wonder about that because that just sounds ridiculous. Like oh, here's this weird giant metal arm we're gonna stick on you, and by the way, it doubles as a giant... you know."

Poker faces had never been Summer's strong suit, so all she could do was badly hide a smile and say nothing, though the look on her increasingly embarrassed face said it all. Paul stared at her for a moment and then made a face of complete and utter misery before muttering, "I am going to literally pour bleach in my ears to cleanse my brain now."

"Don't do that," she chuckled, "just look on the bright side. You have a very happy sister."

She then burst out laughing at Paul's miserable groan, which was followed by a bout of fake crying, and she felt like she was home again. She continued to tease him periodically as they finally got down to assembling David's present, and after a few more minutes, she heard a light tap on the door that turned out to be from Bucky.

He peeked in slowly and asked quietly, "Need any help?"

"Yes, actually," she smiled. "I don't know how good you are at assembling stuff, but we suck."

"I don't suck," Paul protested as Bucky made his way inside the room. "I've got seven kids. I'm used to this."

"Then why have you been staring at the instructions like they're in Japanese?"

"Because they are in Japanese!"

Bucky sat down next to her as Summer laughed at Paul, and then he took the instructions from her with a small smile that she returned as he turned his eyes to the paper.

"Is Japanese one of your many languages?" Summer asked as he examined the instructions.

"No," he replied, turning the paper over. "But this is."

She didn't have to ask what, because then he was reading the instructions in what she quickly realized was French. And he didn't just read them to himself, he mumbled most of the words out loud, and it was impossible for her not to stare and soak up the language flowing impressively fluently from his lips. In the midst of her open admiration, she caught Paul staring at her with a vaguely nauseous look on his face.

"Oh please," she snapped. "Don't give me that look. I've seen the creepy look you get when Sarah starts saying God knows what to you in Spanish."

"That's different," Paul replied. "Because then that's you suffering instead of me, and that's how it's supposed to be."

"Well then maybe I'll be as sickening as possible to finally get my revenge on you," she grinned.

"Please no," Paul muttered. "I actually will jump out the window."

Summer laughed, and for the next hour, the trio put David's gift together, now that one of them could actually read the instructions, and it was nice. She and Paul chatted and Bucky would chime in on occasion, but mostly he just worked quietly, looking her way sometimes and smiling like there was nowhere else he's rather be than sitting on the floor with her and her brother, trying to make sense of the crappy instructions that came with her son's main birthday present.

"Man," Paul said when they were done, looking at the finished product, "this thing is sweet. I would have loved this as a kid. It's too bad you gotta keep it inside, because if it was outside, it would be perfect for play wars. Like. Epic medieval reenactments."

Summer had to agree, looking at the castle. It really did take up the whole room, and it had it all - turrets, a functioning gate, everything but a moat. It was a shame to keep it here in a room, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

"If we were still at the farm," she said a bit wistfully, "I could have put this outside and David could have had a war with the Avengers on his birthday."

All was silent until Bucky slowly turned his head towards her, and he said quietly, "Who says he can't have that here?"

Five minutes later, Summer was smiling from ear to ear, about to give her son literally the best birthday ever as she and Paul walked behind Bucky, who was carrying the giant castle in one hand out of the room and towards the elevator. A deep, friendly voice speaking quietly at the dining table got her attention on the way, and all three of them stopped when Summer saw Thor, dressed casually, sitting with a woman she had never seen before.

"Ah, hello, my friends," Thor smiled as the woman turned to look at them herself. Summer immediately knew she wasn't looking at some random human woman, because she was not only stunning in an unearthly way, but she was also dressed strangely, in boots and thin dark pants and a light but luxurious-looking cloak that was probably way too warm for the current weather. Summer was busy staring at her long black hair in deep admiration when Thor placed his hand over the woman's briefly and said, "This is Lady Sif, one of the bravest warriors Asgard has ever known, and one of my closet friends. Sif, this is Lady Summer, and her brother Paul, and the man with strength to rival our race is James, but he goes by Bucky."

Sif smiled at all three of them, and Summer was pretty sure she now understood what a "girl crush" was, especially if this woman was seriously a badass warrior on top of it all.

"Hello. Very pleased to meet all of you," Sif nodded, and while Bucky seemed ready to move on and do what they had planned, Summer was too busy staring at the two Asgardian specimens before her, and she wasn't the only one.

"My list," Paul hissed in a whisper. "You know, the list of people I'm allowed to cheat with. I think I just updated it."

"... Would it be weird if I said I did too?" she whispered back.

"No, but somebody should inform Tom Hiddleston. He won't be happy with the news."

"He's still on top of the list," she replied. "It's just that he was the entire list and now -"

" - Now you'd go gay for a hot alien chick."

"Not completely gay but maybe I'd consider -"

A quiet noise from Bucky suddenly alerted Summer to the fact that she and Paul were literally just staring at Sif and Thor while whispering amongst themselves. She quickly turned bright red and smiled, "I'm sorry! We are completely weird and not representative of the rest of Earth's inhabitants. I mean Midgard. And you're both ridiculously pretty and it burns our human eyes."

Bucky shook his head imperceptibly while smiling just a little, and then he glanced at Thor and Sif who simply appeared amused.

"You are just as Thor described you," Sif told Summer with a smile, whose jaw instantly dropped to the floor.

"Thor described me?!"

After having a mild breakdown at the thought and muffling a scream with the back of her hand, Summer was finally able to calm down and stop fangirling inside long enough to string together a handful of coherent words. "So, um, while I've got you both here, I'm trying to put together a last minute sort of play-war for my son, because his birthday is today, and -"

"It is?" Thor asked with a smile. She nodded, and he asked, "A play-war, you say? What sort of war?"

"Well, because me and my brother got him this huge castle, and we were thinking - well, it was all Bucky's idea actually - but we were thinking that we could set up the castle down in the gym since we can't put it outside, and then sort of let him play war with... the Avengers."

Thor grinned widely and replied, "This sounds fun! It is a surprise for the boy?"

Summer nodded enthusiastically. "Does that mean you're in?"

"Yes, why not?" Thor replied, then turned to Sif and asked playfully, "What say you, good Lady?"

Sif smiled back and shrugged, "I have nothing better to do today."

While nearly jumping up and down with glee, Summer noticed something in the way that Sif spoke to and looked at Thor, and while she had never really "shipped" two people that she knew in real life, she instantly shipped it. And apparently Paul did too.

"Why are they not married with tons of beautiful little alien babies?" he asked in a whisper to her ear.

"What would their ship name be?" Summer whispered back. "... Shor? Thif? Those are awful."

"Have you ever put your name and Bucky's name together? Because I have. Sucky and Bummer. You all are literally a Sucky Bummer."

Summer slowly turned to Paul and made a face at him. "Oh my God, you're right!"

Meanwhile, Bucky glanced at Thor and the new visitor and shrugged, to which Thor smiled. Bucky was simply happy to see Summer happy with her brother, and the two Asgardians watched them like they were a fascinating display at a museum.

"What interesting friends you've made here, Thor," Sif said not in a demeaning but rather very sincere way.

"Indeed," Thor smiled back. "You'll soon understand why I will be sad to leave one day."

---

Silent as he may be, it made David all the more perceptive to the world around him. He was aware of how he was different from others, though his awareness was not as strong as it would be when he was older. For now, he made it a habit to listen to everything, remember everything, and understand as much as he possibly could about the world around him. Like when he took his toys, disassembled them, and then learned how to put them back together through trial and error, he picked apart everything he heard and processed it in ways that most kids did not, then put it all back together to form a clear picture in his head that he could understand. And today, he understood three things.

First, it was his birthday, and he was turning six. This was important because he had heard his mother muttering about needing to get him in school this year, and he didn't like the sound of that. It would be different, and he didn't like different. He liked things the way they were now. He liked the room downstairs that he spent four or five days a week in, playing with other kids, especially Kylie, the little girl who had taught him how to sign. He liked coming back upstairs and seeing the faces of his action figures come to life in the people he now lived with. He liked beating Bucky at Mario Kart, and liked it even more when he'd play toys with him. He liked being put to bed with his favorite stories, feeling his mother's warm hugs as he drifted off, and then waking up to do it all over again the next day.

The next thing he understood was that this birthday would be different from all the ones before. Already today, he had gotten the best present ever, his very own Captain America shield that looked like the real thing. In fact, he was clutching it now, walking down a hallway as his mother held her hands over his eyes and his free hand was held in a larger, distinctly metal, hand. She had a big surprise for him, she said, and he had no idea what to expect. Before, his birthdays had always happened in their old, smaller house, and it was just the two of them, a few little presents, and a cake that was so big that he had no hope of finishing it. She would always try to explain that they didn't have a lot of money to buy things but that she did her best, and he had tried to understand, though he still wasn't sure what money actually was. He understood even less why she seemed to always end up crying at the end of his birthdays. She didn't cry as much now, though, and he was glad about that; he didn't like it when she cried.

The third thing that he understood was that all of this could change in a day, and everything that he liked about where they were and who they lived with could change. It had several times, ever since he had noticed a weird man sleeping outside of their old house what felt like forever ago. At least, that's what his mother had said, that the man was sleeping. Then she had helped him inside, and ever since then, the man his mother called Bucky had been around a lot. More than anybody else ever had been, including the guy with the red hair she told him was called "Uncle Paul". David liked Bucky. He didn't want him to leave, or for them to leave him, but nothing ever seemed to stay the same for long, not since he had come into their lives. And so, David learned to listen extra hard to what everybody said, using his own silence as an advantage to understanding and, if he could, trying to anticipate what would happen next.

But no such changes seemed to be on the horizon today, and when he was finally told to stop walking and open his eyes, he did so with a renewed surge of excitement. What he saw made his little jaw fall to the floor.

He was standing in a very big room, one he had never been in before, and there were some big machines shoved to the side and out of sight to make room for something that he at first thought couldn't possibly be his. It was too big, too much like stuff he saw on TV that they couldn't "afford", whatever that meant, but this... this was his present?

"Surprise," his mother exclaimed happily as he continued to stare dumbly at the castle. Behind it was sheets or curtains or something that had been thrown up over the white wall, and various boxes were around the castle, draped in green fabric and - he thought - meant to look like trees or something. Whatever it all was, it looked like he was stepping into one of the intricate play-worlds that he created in his head with the help of his toys. All that was missing was a princess in the castle's tower that needed saving.

"Do you like it?" she asked excitedly, moving to stand in front of him and kneeling down a little so she was at his level.

All he could do was nod, slightly at first, and then more enthusiastically as he then broke into a huge smile. But he had to make sure of one thing before he hugged her. He pointed to himself and then looked at her inquisitively. She looked down at his finger and then back at his face, and then said, "Yes! Yes, it's yours, sweetie. It's yours forever."

And then he hugged her, with all of his might.

He was so utterly excited about getting to play with the amazing thing every single day that he almost didn't notice how everyone was there for some reason. After he hugged her, he looked behind them and realized that it really was everybody - Bucky, Steve, Thor, a new, tall lady he had never seen before, a shorter one with red hair that he knew quite well by now and was still terrified of, Sam, Uncle Paul, and Aunt Sarah, along with their little baby that he thought looked sort of like a goldfish. Why were they all there?

"You're on to something, aren't you?" he heard his mother say just before he turned back around to look at her. She was smiling. "This is just a part of your surprise. This is the other part."

She then pulled out a water gun from behind her back - a big one - and held it out to him. "You get to have a water gun war with the Avengers. And your new giant castle."

It was settled. This was the best day of his life. It was the best day of anyone's life.

And he was so happy that for awhile, he stopped listening to every last word uttered in his presence, and he simply just had fun.

But, there was a moment when everybody was gearing up with their own guns and taking roles and positions in the mock-battle that he looked up and saw his mother hand Bucky a gun, one of the biggest ones, and he watched her smile happily and tell Bucky that she loved him before giving him a peck on the lips. The peck part grossed him out and always would, he had decided back when they had first started doing that, but the "I love you" - that was important. It used to be that he had only heard those words come out of her mouth, and since he didn't like talking, he never said them back. Then this Bucky guy had come along, and when David had first heard him tell his mother that he loved her, David had watched closely as she had smiled in pure joy and said it back to him. Not long later, David had decided to sign the term to her, to see if it would make her just as happy as it had when Bucky had said it. It had made her even happier, he thought, because she had cried in a happy way and hugged him so tight that it hurt. He thought it would have just made her happy, but it made him feel happy inside, too. Now he signed it to her all the time, and it never failed to bring a smile to her face.

This time was no exception, as he ran to her and gave her another hug before signing the words to her again. Her face lit up and she hugged him again, and he decided that he wanted things to be like this all the time - his mama happy, smiling and laughing, and Bucky there too, always more quiet and serious but, most importantly, always there.

"This was Bucky's idea," she whispered in his ear before pulling away from the hug. "Go give him a hug."

Needing no further encouragement, David pulled his arms back and then ran the short distance to where Bucky stood, smacking into his legs and giving him a big hug that apparently surprised him, because it took a minute before he leaned down and returned the hug.

He liked Bucky a lot, but he wasn't sure what he was. He knew from watching movies and seeing his friends at daycare that some kids - maybe most kids - had not just moms but dads too. One time his mother had explained that he did have a father, but he was far away and he wasn't a good guy. David had translated that to mean that he was a villain like in the movies, since there was only good guys and bad guys in those, and if his father hadn't been a good guy, then he must be bad like Scar from the Lion King or maybe like that Hans guy from Frozen. He wondered what had made him bad, and what he had done for his mother to say that they were better without him.

Bucky, however, wasn't bad. David knew that for a fact. He had watched Bucky save people, just like the good guys did in those same movies, and like how his friend Captain America did all the time. Bucky helped them. He liked to dance with his mother, which David thought was kinda weird, but it made her laugh and that meant that it was good. But David still liked Bucky best when they played together. Bucky never beat him at anything, and he had loved the little action figure that David had painted on for his birthday. David was still giddy about that one.

So, if his real dad was bad but Bucky was good, what did that mean? What was Bucky? Would he leave eventually, when things changed again, like David knew they would? If he never left, if he was always there, and he always took time to play with him and hug him back like he was now, did that mean that maybe Bucky loved him like his mama did? He never said he did, but David never said anything at all, and words were only part of what he thought about when he tried to figure something out. As little as he was, he knew that something could be true without someone having to say it. Just like how broccoli was disgusting despite how nobody was willing to admit it around him.

But, these mysteries would still be there to ponder later - and he would - so for now, he simply drew back from the hug and beamed up at Bucky before all but hopping away towards the castle, where he listened to the others as they figured out who would go where.

"Who's gonna be the bad guy? We need a bad guy," Steve said.

"You could play the bad guy for once in your life," Sam suggested with a grin.

"He wouldn't be very convincing," Natasha chimed in. "I'll be the villain. Kid's still scared of me anyway."

David eyed her warily and stepped closer to Steve's side. He wasn't sure about her. He might never be sure about her, especially after one time he saw her kissing Steve in the kitchen. He just couldn't understand why grown ups liked to do that so much.

"We need someone to save," Thor noted, setting down his hammer to pick up his own water gun, which looked small and ridiculous in his big hands. He looked down at the thing, which he surely had no clue of how to operate, as Sam spoke up again.

"Like a damsel in distress? Stuck in the tower?"

David was suddenly reminded of Princess Peach, locked away in a tower by the evil Bowser until Mario came to save her, and he decided that they did indeed need a blonde princess to save. Unfortunately, there were no blonde girls in the room. He looked around thoughtfully, and when his gaze ended up back on Thor, he smiled and pointed first to him, then to his castle.

Thor just stared for a moment before furrowing his brows and asking, "Me?"

David nodded rapidly. The tall lady with black hair standing next to him nearly doubled over with laughter, and Steve patted David on the shoulder and said, "Good call, kid. He's certainly got the hair for it. Go on, damsel in distress. Head to your tower."

Handing his water gun to Sif, Thor sighed and shrugged in defeat, heading towards the castle. "If my brother was alive to see this day, he would never let me hear the end of it."

"I'll never let you hear the end of it," the lady grinned at Thor, just before she looked at David and smiled as she stepped closer. Then she knelt down slightly and said, "My name is Sif. I come from Asgard, like Thor, and I am a warrior just like him. Can I offer you my swo - my... what is this device called again?"

"Water gun," Steve replied.

"Can I offer you my water gun this fateful night as we charge to victory?" she said, smile growing, and David quickly decided that he liked this Sif lady a lot as he nodded excitedly.

Then he turned around and glanced at Thor, who was looking at Sif and smiling in a way that reminded him of the way that Bucky looked at his mama, but the thought was quickly pushed aside as Steve said, "What else... oh, a knight. We need one of those."

David quickly pointed to Bucky, who looked more than a little surprised by the role. But he walked forward anyway, and with those key roles filled, David was fine with everyone else being soldiers and starting the game.

Steve was happy to step back and let Bucky take the lead, but really David was the one in charge, because before Bucky did anything, he asked David first.

With Thor kneeling on the floor behind one of the turrets of the castle, his face peering through a window and looking quite silly, and Natasha standing behind the castle looking perfectly villainous, Bucky asked David, "Ready?"

David nodded. He was born ready for a water gun war with the Avengers - and a war it was.

As Thor wailed in a high pitched voice for his gallant knight - who was Bucky - to save him from the evil Queen, David followed Bucky around the whole set-up, taking shots at Steve and Sam (who were apparently on the side of evil) while Sif helped them, and within no time at all, everybody was soaked and screeching with laughter. Several times, Bucky grabbed David's arm and they would dive behind one of the tree-boxes for cover, only to have Natasha appear out of nowhere and unload her gun directly on top of their heads. As she "reloaded", David helped Bucky make progress on the castle, which was still being guarded by Steve and Sam, though Sif managed to disarm both men and then take them prisoner. She really was an awesome warrior, David realized.

And that left just the evil queen to be dealt with, as she was back and full of ammo.

"You're outnumbered," Bucky informed her. "Let the... Princess go."

"And why should I?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow, her short red hair stuck to the sides of her face.

"Save me!" came Thor's high pitched whine, and David giggled - he couldn't help it.

"Last chance," Bucky said.

But when Natasha didn't budge, Bucky gave David the signal, and then they both fired at her at full blast. She fell back with a great, dramatic flourish, then stuck her tongue out and closed her eyes, while trying very hard not to laugh. David raised his gun in victory, stole a high five from Bucky, then pointed urgently at Thor.

"Oh right," Bucky muttered, stepping closer to the "princess" and extending his hand. "You're... saved."

"My hero!" Thor said, still in that weird high pitch, unable to control his laughter now that it was over. But it wasn't over, not yet. David pointedly motioned to his own lips, then his cheeks, and it took a minute for either one of them to grasp what he was saying, because they weren't familiar with the fact that Peach always gave Mario a kiss on the cheek as a thank you after being rescued. David was nothing if not a stickler for the rules.

"Oh," Thor said, confusion turning briefly to mild distaste, then resignation as he shrugged and said, "Well then. For Asgard."

Bucky, who was still lost as to what David had been trying to convey, then suddenly froze as god of thunder himself pecked his cheek in gratitude. He jerked back slightly and then stared at Thor as if he had gone utterly insane, but Thor just clapped him on the back and laughed heartily, as did just about everyone else in the room.

Now the game was over.

Except... it wasn't.

After shaking off the unexpected kiss, Bucky had waved off everybody's laughter and then came over to David, patting his shoulder and then bending down as he smiled and said, "You did good, kid. But we have one more thing to do. As you can see... your mom is dry over there, next to your Aunt."

David looked, and it was indeed true. That just wouldn't do.

He picked up his gun and turned to head straight for her, but Bucky stopped him and pointed to his chest as he said, "Aim here. Okay?"

Though he had no clue why Bucky wanted him to aim at his mother's chest, David nodded anyway and went on his way, keeping his gun down to avoid suspicion as he walked up to his smiling and very happy mama.

"Whoa, you are soaked!" she exclaimed, brushing his hair back. "But you did so good, beating the evil queen and saving the princess! In fact, I bet that you - "

She shut up abruptly as he raised his water gun and mercilessly drenched her shirt with the water that he had left. She just stood there, staring at him open-mouthed and gasping a little - the water was cold - until he was empty, at which point her expression grew angry as she looked past him to Bucky, who she yelled at, "You told him to do that, didn't you? Oh yes you did, don't give me that look! This is not a wet t-shirt contest! You know what..."

She then scrambled for a gun of her own, and when she found one, David ran away giggling towards Bucky, who motioned for him to hurry up and come take cover with him from the angry, wet, squealing lady who was now out for blood.

David laughed noisily as he and Bucky took cover behind a box, and while he had no idea still why Bucky had told him to aim where he had and why that had made her so mad, he didn't care, because this was awesome. His mother, while currently a bit annoyed, was happy. Bucky, judging by how he was grinning and waiting for the oncoming assault, was happy too, and David, for his part, felt so happy that he could burst.

If life stayed like this forever, just like this, he didn't think he could ever be sad again. This was perfect, absolutely perfect, and he hoped that nothing ever, ever changed.

A/N: I am excited to post this chapter for a few different reasons. One of which is because arm reasons (lol, it was a long time coming) but the main one is David's POV here in the last section. I'd been wanting to use his perspective for a scene but hadn't had one that fit well enough until this one, and it was exciting and also a little worrying to do, because I wanted to get it completely right and I've never written from a special-needs pov before (or a six year old's, for that matter), but I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope you all will like it too :) My thanks to midnightwings96 for helping me out with this (and every) chapter, and ooooh, one of our favorites is coming up next :) I'm still in the early stages of writing it but it's one of those chapters we've been looking forward to forever. Also, just to mention this, I think this story has maybe... 10-12 chapters left. Not totally sure, but I think it's around there. But I'll still be writing a continuance once it's over and be posting oneshots that continue the story. So yeah. Anyway. My thanks to you guys for reading, reviewing, following, you're all the BEST and I look forward to your comments greatly every week. I'll see you all next Monday :D