iwasbeingafather

"Mmm." He hums his amusement into a smile, leaning forward to steal another kiss.

"Selective memory? Kidding. C'mere gorgeous, let me pamper you a little more." Guided into the shower, doors closed, water on, Bucky reaches for the shampoo and squeezes a small amount into his palm and massages it into the man's scalp.

There's something about someone else taking care of him that he loves. Maybe it's because he's always been taking care of others. He had always been the one in charge. It's a nice change of pace to not be.

"Guess I'll just have to step it up a little, start spoilin' you." Accompanied by the brush of his lips against warm skin, chasing goosebump to goosebump to find the pattern hidden amongst them.

"C'mon, don't invite me to a shower and not deliver." Legs off the bed in seconds, hand slides down the length of Andy's arm, across soft knuckles to slide between his fingers. Laced together boot strap tight.

It's a struggle to walk and strip, takes the tip toe of his bare feet to catch the lax bit of a pant leg and tug them down. Nearly trips on the shedding.

"Spoiling me? Well, I'm not going to say no to that." This really was the best way to wake up in the morning. The house felt like a home again. Maybe for the first time in a long time. "Hey, when have I ever offered a shower to share and not followed through."

Only once that he could think of. But that hadn't really been his fault. He would blame that on work for sure. "I could take you to work for sure. Imagine my coworkers surprise when Bucky Barnes appears in the office." They'd probably actually be pretty excited. They'd have a ton of questions to ask him.

Plate in hand, coffee of his own balanced in the other, hands it over and slides in next to him to kiss a bearded cheek.

"Should know by now, pamperin' you is my job. And I love it. Pays pretty damn well too." In the way those eyes light up at the sight of him, the gentle slope of those shoulders downward in relief. Laurie, from what he was told, could never appreciate a man like Andy. A god damn shame but it's his win.

"You eat, I'll get your briefcase packed while you shower. Jacob's eaten, I'll see him off to school." Poor kid's been closed off a while now, but lately he'll get a glance or two out of him. Maybe even a word or so. And he's lucky, he knows. To have both of them, damaged as they all are it's a nice fit.

"You know, I'm gonna get used to being pampered all the time. What are you going to do then?" He had to admit that it was nice to wake up and have someone there to take care of him.

It wasn't a fight every morning. There weren't a lot of days when they did fight. It was just peaceful. Something that Andy cherished quite a bit because in the past their lives had been nothing but chaos.

"You sure you don't want to join me in the shower?" He asked, having a bit of his breakfast. "Because, I wouldn't be against it." What? He's having a good morning so far. Why not run with it?

"Next to you? Who wouldn't?" A tease, but not really. There's no joke about it. He hasn't slept this well in...well since- Snakes his way up to kiss the fluff of a beard, chuckle into his ear and nose along the shell.

"Jus' let me take care'a you. Speaking of-" The covers come off and he's sliding to the edge of the bed, old creaks and groans of a mechanized arm wrung out with a roll of his shoulder, swung circle wide as he finds his boxers and a pair of clean pants.

"You would be surprised." Jake hadn't liked sleeping in the room with him even when he'd been scared of thunder growing up. He said that Andy moved around too much. Laurie would usually go sleep in Jake's bed instead. Why was he thinking about that at the moment?

"You don't have to take care of me." But he knows Bucky wants to and that's all that really matters. He needs to stop protesting so much. He's just not used to anyone taking care of him. He's the one who always took care of others. "You know this view is one of the best in the morning. You should stay more often."

A hand in his hair, twirling the short locks around calloused fingers feather soft. Travels over dome and between pillow and scalp to work in some liquid bone touch.

"I'll even bring you lunch too. You want breakfast?" He's been learning. Boring eggs and toast just won't cut it to feed a mind half as brilliant. Cereal's out of the question.

"You're runnin' low on coffee grounds. I can swing by the store, pick some up." Bucky noses his way in close, breathes the scent of sleep and faded beard wash.

"I forgot about breakfast." He admits, with a soft chuckle. Somedays he eats it and others he just grabs his coffee and runs to the office. The office could order an entire breakfast if they wanted to. They weren't far from a diner, after all. But he wasn't going to do that today. He could eat at home.

"See now lunch, I'll appreciate because that guy with the sub cart that comes around the office? It's terrible." So terrible that he's not sure he has the worse to adequately describe it.

                                      𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫

“I never loved you. Never.”

“I thought you were the one for me. But, you’re not the one for anyone.”

“You think what we had was real? It was an act. You’re a joke.”

“Love is for fools. Money is stability. I have to leave.”

“We were always doomed to end up here.”

“I made it–I made it here. Please, just stay with me.”

“You can stay awake, right? You can do that..I know you can.”

“I knew you were mean sometimes. But I never thought you were cruel.”

“We’re from two different worlds. This was never going to work.”

“I love you. But I’m not in love with you.”

“I thought you believed in me. That was a lie too, wasn’t it?”

“You’ll forget me tomorrow because I’ve already forgotten you.”

“You’re too damaged for anyone to love.”

“I used to like who I was. I was fine with it. You made me hate myself.”

“You thought I still cared? Hilarious.”

“You took away a year of my life. I can’t get that back.”

“You cannot be serious. You thought I’d choose you over them?”

“Nothing is more important than my career. Nothing. Not even you.”

“Tell me to leave and I’ll walk out forever. Just say it.”

“Tell me you don’t love me. Tell me we meant nothing.”

“Maybe somewhere in the universe, we made it work. Even if that wasn’t here.”

“I think knowing you has made my life better and worse.”

“Only you would choose to leave me on our wedding day.”

“I don’t want it back. I don’t want that ring back. You keep that.”

Chris evans as Andy Barber