revivalproject | ★ 2 ★

WHO: Adult!Bucky!Cap and you?
WHERE: Around this snowy planet they're on.
WHAT: It's tough to be an adult when your best-friend-slash-boyfriend is not. Or, come to think of it, most of the people you know...
WHEN: Anytime during the Us Make For They event~
WARNINGS: Just Bucky-appropriate swearing, I think?

Bucky knew better than to just shove the first - or fifth - thing he came across in the village into his mouth. And once he saw the effect it was having on others... well, he doubly knew better. Which means, of course, now he is one of only a few adults in a sea of super-powered and/or hyperactive children. It... kinda feels like old times, except during actual old times, Steve was a lot easier to keep up with.

Either way - Bucky's got experience. He can be found doing his best to chase down kids and make sure they're dressed warmly enough, not getting into too much trouble, and getting enough non-candy items to eat. Once the candles appear and start multiplying, he might start hoarding the ones he can get his hands on - some of which turn out to be power crystals, so hey. There's that. His bunk on the Bloodsport - which is where he goes to catch catnaps, few and far between though they might be (thank God for being a super soldier) - has started to accumulate what looks like a year's worth of candles and power crystals on, around, and underneath it. Look, you can never have too many supplies.

After a day or two, he decides he's calling in reinforcements over the network:

Adults, sound off. We should each try taking a couple of kids apiece, based on who's got the resources to manage which powers or abilities or whatever. If we split up the responsibility, I think we've got the best chance at keeping everything under control.

I call Steve. And anyone else no one wants to handle, I guess.

He also shoots his beardy, metal-armed counterpart a text after he discovers the sweaters their hosts left for them: Hey. I think we're supposed to share. You want first dibs?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bucky grins a little - in a way, it's nice, real nice, to be able to give Steve hot cocoa and anything else he needs. It's a real change from how things actually were growing up, and Steve reminds him every time he's grateful for every little thing.

(And maybe he's learning that Steve wasn't only largely an indoor kid just because he couldn't always play outdoors. But then, he's not surprised, given his talent with art.)

"Yeah, we got both those things, pal. Come on, cocoa first." He does his best to transfer the tiny super soldier's grip from his shirt to his hand, and starts leading him toward the ship, since they can just get what they need from the dispenser there. Plus, Bucky's kept himself - and his things - on the ship, because he doesn't feel comfortable sleeping in the houses here. "Maybe you could draw me a comic, since we don't have any here to read."

Steve swings their joined hands as they walk, smiling. "I suppose I could," he says brightly, already thinking of a fun plotline. Something starring Captain America and his partner, Other Captain America. It was an awesome, almost unbelievable future, the two of them had here. Part of him still thought it was all a joke, that both of them got to be a superhero. But funny enough, Steve was warming up to that idea a lot faster than he was to the other weird fact he sort of, kind of remembered but not quite.

"Do I draw you comics as your boyfriend?" The way he says 'boyfriend' shows how seriously he's still not taking the whole idea. "Are they all gross, kissy, mushy stuff?"

The question, admittedly, takes Bucky just the slightest bit off guard. Then again, maybe it shouldn't - Steve was way more precocious as a kid than he was once he did a little growing up.

Also, it's really cute; he can't help but smile. "Nah. I mean, you draw. But if you've done any comics, I haven't seen 'em."

That smile widens, and he reaches down to muss Steve's hair. "But if you did, you'd probably be too embarrassed to draw the gross, kissy, mushy stuff. That's private," he teases, enunciating each syllable, trying to make this normal even when it's really, really not - but then again, what is normal anymore, really?

He does add, though - teasing aside - "I won't do anything weird, Stevie. You know you can trust me. Okay?"

Steve stops walking a second, his face a moue of confusion. "You're Bucky. Old Bucky but you're still Bucky. Of course I trust you." And with that he keeps walking, thinking to himself as he went. He even starts swinging their hands again as they go.

"I don't think I'd be too embarrassed." Any sign of weakness has to be categorically dismissed. "I still dunno that I really like all the kissing junk. But if I did then I wouldn't be embarrassed. Other people aren't embarrassed so why should I be?" He puffed out his chest a little, now standing on principle.

Bucky can't help the wash of relief at that; he manages to keep it off his face (he's got a better poker face than you, Steven), and instead just smiles. "Good. That's good to know, kid."

Because he would call you kid even if you were big right now. He gets that right. He's older, no matter what.

He does glance down curiously as Steve keeps right on going. "Well, it's not so much embarrassed in front of other people, as..." Bucky tries to find a way to put this. "Y'know how when you're new to something, and you just don't have a lotta practice? I think it's more embarrassed like that."

He squeezes Steve's hand, though, tugging him closer. "I'll let you in on a secret, though. You're a fast learner. You always were, y'know? With new drawing stuff, too. I think you like learning stuff - when it's not in school."

"I like being good at things," he confesses back, feeling grown up to be trusted with a secret. He walked closer to Bucky and gripped his arm with both hands so he could jump a little and use it to stay off the ground. Little Steve seemed to like constantly being in some sort of movement.

"How can ya need to practice kissin' though? Don't you just..." He makes an exaggerated fish-face and sucking noise at Bucky before laughing. "Seems pretty easy. Maybe I just don't like it and I'm pretending so I don't hurt your feelin's." That made sense to him.

If only he remembered how enthusiastically he pursued each and every chance to practice.

"Did I learn bein' a hero fast?"

Bucky smiles at that - yeah, he figured - and tenses his arm enough to support Steve doing whatever gymnastics he feels like as they walk. It kinda makes sense, he figures - Steve might not be an outdoors kid, but with strength and energy, of course he'd want to stay moving. It's nice to see, in a way - the same kind of nice as knowing he won't keel over if he catches cold, which is a damned relief.

He does laugh, though, when Steve makes that dumb face, elbowing him just a little bit. "Yeah, that face right there? That is why you need practice, pal." He isn't even going to touch how much Steve seems to like practicing, given it's kind of a weird subject to talk about with a seven-year-old. But he is pretty sure that Steve likes it. When he's old enough to understand, anyway.

Bucky cocks his head, considering the question as they step through the outer hatch of the ship and he gets them headed for the galley. "Yeah, you did," he finally decides - and then amends, "Honestly, you don't need to learn to be a hero. You already are, just by being you." Which is dumb and sappy, but also the absolute truth. "Being strong just makes it easier. So - yeah, you learned how to be strong pretty fast, from what I know. You saved me and didn't even break a sweat. But you learned being a hero a long time before that."

Steve looks up at Bucky with wide eyes and an even wider smile. He's young enough right now that the words go to his head but he's still Steve so he isn't the kind to start boasting. If anything, he just looks proud of himself. It wasn't something he was able to feel often when he was this age the first time around.

"I saved you? You always saved me," he admits in the safe space, here. "I guess I was just payin' you back for always being there for me. But still. It's swell that I am good at helping people. 's all I really wanna do."

Honestly, Bucky knows it can't make up for an actual childhood of being treated like crap by all but a handful of people, but Steve maybe deserves to feel good about himself this time around.

"I know, buddy," he says, smiling back. "I know that's all you wanted, and I want you to know that you get it. But you gotta remember to make time to be happy, too, right? If you only care about other people, that means you're not saving yourself, and that ain't right."

He knows Steve will probably forget all of this anyway, and he knows Steve has gotten a little better about this very thing. But still, it seems like it might be worth it to try to remind him of it a little, especially when he's younger and ideally more impressionable. "We can save each other. Like a team. It's not about payback."

★ 2 ★

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