Follow up to "I Am A Grownup" way back in Book One

Bucky didn't sign up for this.

"Be an Avenger, they said," he grumbled under his breath, "it'll be fun, they said."

"What you say, Jims?"

Bucky looked down at you, his grouchy mood starting to soften at the innocence looking back up at him with wide eyes; they were eyes that he loved to get lost in as he would lie next to you each night, but not in this version. Now when he looked into them, he felt awkward and uncertain, as they were the eyes of a child after you had been de-aged in one of Loki's tricks. Bucky was a bit of a prankster himself, and this was how you repaid him for a particularly cruel one, after seeing how well it worked when the team punished you the same way not so long ago.

"Nothing, doll...(Y/N)," he sighed, "just thinkin' out loud. You okay?"

"Yep," you said quietly, stretching into a long yawn, "but I'm sleepy now." Reaching your hands up and pouting just a little, you whimpered for his help, "can you carry me, Jims?"

"Why? Your legs broken?"

In that moment, Bucky knew immediately that he had screwed up, and his attitude needed to get in check. Your lower lip began to tremble just the slightest, and the moisture of tears built to line your lashes as your emotions started to bubble up in your throat. Dropping your hopeful hands down to hang limp at your sides, you sniffled and ran your forearm over your eyes to catch the drops before they could fall. "No, they ain't."

"Aw, shi-...shoot," he corrected, "come here. I'm sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to make ya sad. I can carry you upstairs."

"Okay!" you smiled widely, as if the tears were just a ploy now that you had gotten your way. Thrusting your arms up eagerly, you laughed as he lifted you against him, and wrapped your arms around his neck to hold on tight. "Don't carry me with the metal one! It pinches!"

"Fine, scoot over."

You helped him to shift you to the other arm, and once you were finally settled to your contentment, you yawned again and rested your head on his shoulder as he made his way to the elevator. The sounds of the rest of the team coming home from their night out perked you up enough to sit up again, much to his dismay, thinking that he could finally put you to bed and leave you to wake up tomorrow back in your adult form as Loki had promised. He had been in charge of your care all day, and he was fully exhausted. He had made lunch four times until he finally found something that you would eat, and when dinner came around he went straight for take-out in his limited patience. The two of you had played for hours on end, and he honestly had no idea how you were even still awake, much less able to sit up with a second burst of energy now at the sight of your team coming home.

"No," he whispered sternly, "it's bedtime, (Y/N). Don't even think-"

"Sammy!" you cheered, releasing him to clap your hands together. "What you bring for me?"

"Just what I promised, cutie," he laughed, making his way over to you both, "your favorite dessert!" When he reached out for you to take the small bag from his hands, he was abruptly halted by a metal hand slapping it away from your reach.

"Sam, come on, I was just putting her to bed. No sugar."

"Well that's just mean."

"It's being responsible."

"Jims is mean."

"See," Sam huffed, "told ya."

"Don't argue with me in front of her, Wilson. That's setting a bad example. Rules are made for a reason."

Seeing that the two men were on the brink of a full-on argument, Steve made his way across the room to join in, hoping to diffuse the situation. Instead, he couldn't help but take Sam's side, despite the fact that it was out of character for him to do when it came to Bucky. "Right, like the one about not engaging in 'extracurricular activities' in public team areas that the two of you broke just yesterday. I don't know if there's a safe seat to sit in on the quinjet anymore and I'm having it professionally cleaned because of you guys. You're not exactly one to be reciting the rule book, Buck."

"You and that stupid rule book. Whose side are you on, man?"

"It's not about sides," Steve argued, and it took Bucky's full attention as they continued to argue. It took his attention so well, in fact, that Sam had coyly slid his hand closer to you and out of Bucky's line of sight, allowing you to sneak a few bites of your dessert before your babysitter could stop you.

"Hey! Sam, dammit, what did I just say?"

"Language," Steve scolded. "She is a child, Buck."

"No, she's not! It's (Y/N) shrunken down to a tiny troublemaker! She swears all the time!"

There must have been something in the harsh tone of his voice, or the squeeze of his arm when he snapped at Steve, but whatever it was, it startled you enough to bring a wave of tears that you couldn't stop. Your body shook with each gasping breath and cry of fear that you had no idea how to stop. As an adult, you would never have responded to something so trivial this way, but as a child, you were a slave to whatever your emotions wanted to do.

"Oh, honey, come here," Sam cooed, reaching out to take you from him, "he wasn't yelling at you. Stevie messed up."

Steve turned to him with his mouth open in shock, and an incredulous look in his eyes at the insinuation, "no, Stevie did not. You're the one who gave her sugar after Bucky explicitly told you not to. You're the one who messed up."

Bucky kept his hold on you and didn't let Sam in, going so far as to turn his body to get you as far from his hands as possible. The two men kept their argument going, so focused on each other that he was able to step back slowly and carefully until he reached the elevator and the doors to the lift closed in front of him; he could still hear their voices sparring back and forth even as the two of you got further away.

"You mad at me too?"

"No, doll, I'm not mad at you. I'm just tired, that's all."

"M'kay, Jims. I go sleep now."

Another long yawn from you left him hopeful that the sneaked dessert from Sam hadn't been enough to fuel hours more of mischief, and Bucky was more determined than ever to get you tucked in for sleep for the night. All he had to do was wait out the night and you would be back to your normal, full-grown self, and he couldn't get the hours to pass fast enough. All he wanted was to sleep this day away, but once he had you nestled in for the night, he found himself unable to move from your side, watching you as you slept instead. He was taken in by your innocence and thoughts of what your childhood must have been like. He watched you for so long, in fact, that he fell asleep next to you rather than on the couch as planned, and when his heavy eyes opened again the next morning, they sprung open wide at the sight of his restored girlfriend.

"(Y/N)! Baby, wake up!"

"No, Buck, not now," you groaned, rolling over, "I feel like hell."

"No, that's not...(Y/N), you're you again," he laughed, giving you a gentle nudge, "I'm just so damned relieved, you have no idea! And for the record, when we have kids, Sam is never allowed to babysit."

Despite the ache of every muscle in your body from the transformations you had undergone, you turned yourself over to face him, slowly opening your eyes with a wince and trying to see him past the glare of the sun behind him. "FRIDAY, can you destroy the sun for me?"

"I'll draw the shades instead, miss. That's more likely to avoid global destruction, if you don't mind."

"Whatever, just kill the lights." As the shades were lowered and your eyes began to adjust, you looked at Bucky again and considered what he had just said. It was a discussion that the two of you never had, and honestly, you had never even had a discussion about any kind of future together before this. He wasn't a man to be very open about feelings and futures, because every time he was given something good in his life, he had been tortured and had it stripped away; he decided that to talk about you was only making another risk. "Buck, you've never said anything about us beyond whose room we're sleeping in for the night. Now we're having kids?"

"Well, not now," he clarified, "but someday maybe. I don't know, seeing you as one has kinda brought me around to the idea. I could imagine a couple of little (Y/N)s running around, causing trouble, but so sweet while doing it." Bucky stopped and his expression became introspective, his eyes moved with his thoughts as if he were following them as they bounced around inside his brain. "I mean, yeah, at first it took everything in me not to strangle ya when you wouldn't listen to a single word that I said-"

"I'm sorry that I was such a pain."

"I don't know, maybe...maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not really father material after all," he sighed with a shrug. "I'm not the best with patience, and from what I've heard, it takes quite a bit."

You pushed yourself up on your elbow and pushed your body slightly closer, "yeah, it does, but you've never really had a chance to try. Before this, the only kid you've ever been around is Steve, right?"

"You don't even know how right you are, doll," he laughed, "and let me tell ya, he was nowhere near as adorable as you. Just don't ever tell him I said that. That'll turn him into a whiney baby faster than anything that Loki could do."