Who: Maria Hill, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Gabe Barnes and Maggie Rogers What: We are Family When: Thursday morning (post steve/v & bucky/kara & steve/bucky) Where: Maria’s house to Theirs Warnings: Nope Status: Closed/completed gdoc
Maria Hill was not having an easy year so far. She’d gained herself not one but two exes, one of which was a member of the Avengers. She let herself be goaded into a fight by the other ex which had resulted in her sporting a sprained wrist that was just healed. Things were just beginning to get back to something resembling normalcy, so of course that had to go straight to Hell.
There were a couple of surprises waiting for her in the kitchen when she woke up this morning. They were lucky she was out of the habit of walking around with a gun in her hand. As it was the older of the two had the good sense to explain quickly if sullenly which left Maria only with questions that would sound stupid after the speech. All she could do was stare for a few moments before ordering them to stay where they were while she got dressed. The younger sighed, rolled his eyes then made coffee to go.
The coffee was acknowledged with a nod of her head, accepted then gulped all before she made a shooing motion at the two toward the door. What followed went something like this…
“What? Where are we going?”
“Oh, man you’re not going to make us go to school are you?”
“No. To your fathers.”
“Hey! Why are you holding my hand?!”
“Because if you’re anything like me or your dad you’ll slip away in a crowd.”
“Will not!”
“Uh huh. I could put my arm around you.”
“OHMYGAWDGEDDOFFMEMOM!”
“That’s what I thought. Move!”
Fifteen moody minutes later Maria was standing on the porch of the house Steve and Bucky lived in holding the hands of a fourteen year old blonde girl with blue eyes and a thirteen year old dark haired boy with similar eyes. Even now she refused to let go, instead nodding at the door. “Someone knock or I’ll yell for them.”
“Jesus, mom…” Maggie rolled her eyes with a sympathetic sigh for Gabe then knocked on the door.
***
Behind the door, the house was already in disarray. Between the four adults who lived there, they had more kids than they could combat and pile the usual teenagers on top of that and it was bound to get completely out of control sooner rather than later. It was a miracle anyone managed to make it to the door in good time.
Steve was carrying a disgruntled looking little boy, all blonde hair and long limbs, on one hip when he opened the door, took one look at Hill and the two teens she had in tow, and stepped back, setting the kid on the floor and sending him off to play with the other little ones.
“Come on in.” He wasn’t asking any questions. Presumably one or both of the kids belonged to him, that was the way of things when this happened. It didn’t occur to him that Bucky might also be involved
***
Bucky was slowly wrapping his head around everything, mostly by cooking as many waffles, eggs, sausage and bacon as they had to feed two super soldiers, a Kryptonian, and a number of children from a number of timelines. It was enough to make his already scrambled brain more messed up.
Someone knocked on the door and Steve volunteered to go get it, since he was up to his elbows cooking. He'd been surprised and pleased by the arrival of Becca, and then surprised and quietly pleased about Tim, but when Maria walked in with two teenagers, he had a feeling this was going to be a very weird time, however long this lasted. He could see himself in the boy and Steve in the girl, which meant somehow he'd ended up with Maria in some fashion or another.
"Grab a plate, get some breakfast," Bucky suggested, finishing on the waffles he was currently making before pouring in some more batter. Once those were set, he got a big mug and filled it with coffee, wordlessly handing it to Maria.
***
“Hi Dad!” The girl had chimed out pleasantly, much to Maria’s dismay, as she hugged Steve. “Mom’s in one of her moods again.” Now Maria looked more than a little put out for that.
“That’s Maggie,” Maria said. “She’s yours.” With her arm around the boy, she pulled him in against her with a plastic smile on her face. “This is Gabe. He calls Barnes daddy.”
“Dad…” the teenager said sullenly.
“Excuse me,” Maria answered flatly. “Dad.”
Then she followed Steve to the kitchen where they found Bucky furiously making breakfast. She gave Gabe a small push to the small of his back. “Go. Eat. Say hello.”
***
Steve just hugged the girl back, one armed and not nearly as awkward as someone might assume; he’d been through this enough times that he’d just learned to accept that was the way things were, and treated every kid like they were actually his. “Maggie.” And a nod to the boy that was all good-natured uncle. “Gabe.”
So far, the ones who had invaded the house had all belonged to some variation of the four adults living there. Steve had known it wouldn’t last, though, could only hope that everyone who was much newer to this place than he was was doing alright. He didn’t have the time to go around and check in with each and every one of them as more and more kids showed up.
They were just going to have to go along with it until they found out just how many there were.
“Welcome to Madison Valley,” he told Hill, dryly amused, a hand on her shoulder. “At least you’re in good company for your first time with this.” He nodded toward Bucky. Kara, too, was around somewhere living through this insanity for the first time.
***
Bucky could tell from the way Maria sent the boy to him that he was the father. "Morning Dad," he said - Gabe, from what he'd heard in the hallway thanks to Steve's voice - and Bucky just nodded, letting the kid set what he wanted or expected from him.
"Morning," he replied, gesturing to the plates. "Grab one, we've got waffles, eggs, sausage and bacon. Plenty more where that came from, so don't be shy."
"Yea, I know." Gabe looked kind of sour, like he was tired and hadn't gotten much sleep and didn't want to be around anyone, much less a house full of kids and teenagers and adults. This ought to be interesting, he thought, as he watched the kid take a plate and fill it up, before taking a seat at the far end of the table.
He glanced between Steve and Maria, wondering if they were all okay. Steve, at least, had experience with all of this.
***
Maggie bounced up to Bucky to get a plate of food, but not before she planted a kiss to his cheek. “Morning, Uncle Bucky.” He too got a sunny smile from her that hadn’t yet been directed at her mother. Maria herself look a little tight around the eyes and jaw, even more so now that she wasn’t running herd on a couple of teenagers that appeared out of nowhere.
“Just coffee is fine,” she said flatly as she walked away to find an empty place in the kitchen. Steve, at least, would recognize Maria as being on edge and not dealing with this as well as she was trying to portray. It was almost the same look she had when Fury had been “dying” on the operating table.
***
Steve did recognize, and was quick to offer assurance, not bothering to hide it from any of the kids. By now, they all ought to know what was going on. “It’s usually only for about a week.”
He might’ve forgotten to tell Bucky that part, too, so that killed two birds.
“If it’ll make things easier, we can squeeze these two in here too, hey Buck?”
They’d just moved into a bigger house to accommodate their suddenly expanded family so, why not expand it more?
***
Bucky managed to keep the surprise mostly hidden as Maggie pressed a kiss to his cheek. He'd instinctively given her a half hug when she got that close and smiled. "Morning Mags," he replied, shortening her nickname further. At least with the teenagers, they had a better idea of what was going on. He made a mental note to take Gabe aside after breakfast, just to get to know the kid better.
Even if it was just for a week. He leveled an annoyed look at his best pal for skipping over that vital piece of information.
"Yea, we can have 'em over," Bucky agreed easily. He did want all of his kids, regardless of how likely they might or might not be, under one roof, preferably theirs. It wasn't that he didn't trust Maria - that wasn't even remotely the case. He just wanted to enjoy this for the time they had, and that meant getting to know all of his kids as best he could.
"At the very least through the weekend, with the party."
Gabe perked up at that, Bucky was pleased to see.
***
Maria was torn between hugging Steve then running for the hills and taking responsibility. The latter won out. It was just how she was. Maria never turned away from duty regardless of how awkward it was.
“I don’t want to add to what you’ve already got going on here,” she said almost into her coffee. “I have the space at the house. I just felt the two of you should know.” Both kids looked at their respective fathers with a look that said oh god please don’t let that happen!. Maria frowned, but there was a tightness to her eyes that hinted that those looks hurt. Was she really that bad of a mother?
She ignored the looks and her feelings about them. “What party?”
***
Too bad for the kids, Steve would be quite happy to let that happen. He figured it was mostly just a place to sleep; when these things had happened in the past, the kids had all wound up gathering wherever there was room, wherever was convenient, with whoever they wanted to hang out with. And, having a teenager of his own, all the time not just when the town decided he should, he knew they’d be independent enough to take care of themselves during the day at least.
“We’re doing Easter.”
Being pretty sure that he and the girls had just invited the whole town at this point, he just let it be a reminder. For anyone but their house, it could easily be forgotten if they were overwhelmed with kids.
***
Bucky rolled his eyes rather theatrically, much to the amusement of the children present. He set more food on the kitchen table and let Steve do most of the talking. He paused before going back to the stove to have half a waffle for himself. He also stole a piece of sausage off Gabe's plate, just to see how the kid was going to react.
Gabe just halfheartedly glared at his dad, much to Bucky's delight. So that was something of a common occurrence. "At least it's not a birthday party. Just wait til the party you guys throw for his 125th. You guys always throw a crazy party, but those 5 year milestones are the most ridiculous," he informed them, which had Maggie nodding in agreement.
"Gotta celebrate each one," Bucky replied with an unapologetic shrug. He ruffled Gabe's hair before heading back to make a few more pieces of sausage.
***
Maria had been keeping a really low profile after breaking Thor’s heart. Her ongoing fight with Peter didn’t help matters. Unless someone came right up to her and shouted information in her face there was a really good chance she missed knowing about it. It wasn’t as if she were the most social creature in the world anyway.
“Oh,” she said with a blink then looked at Bucky. “I still say you don’t look a day over eighty three.” It was a joke, or her attempt at one.
“Smooth, mom,” muttered Gabe.
“Well sure,” Maria said ignoring her son. “These guys can definitely be here. And they’ll need a place to be when I’m working. If you guys don’t mind the extra bodies.”
Expectant and hopeful eyes turned to look at their respective dads. Maria felt this would assuage her sense of responsibility, still let the kids do what they wanted and potentially get her out of being social in a situation where she might have to run into Thor or have to answer awkward questions. They seemed to enjoy it better with Steve and Barnes, anyway.
***
Steve had thought Hill was funny, and laughed. He wasn’t far behind, but had a little over a year until he was in the triple digits and was going to lord it over his friend until then.
“A couple more faces are always welcome,” he said, and punctuated it with a pointed look at Hill. One that said it would be nice if she showed her face for a while at least. He understood not being the most social, he generally kept to himself and his own business, and he wasn’t going to start prying, but some things were just important.
To him, at least, this was.
A second later his glance was back toward the kids and he nodded. “We’ll figure it out.”
He’d said exactly that to Bucky earlier in the morning.
***
"Hilarious," Bucky replied, rolling his eyes at the very ridiculous joke at his expense. He wasn't actually mad though, and the very slight smile proved as much. He did think Maria and the kids should be there for the weekend, at least. There was a part of him that just wanted all the kids, plus Kara, V, and Steve for the holiday, but he knew that wasn't fair.
"Easter's mandatory though," he told her. "Not sure if we're separating between family and crazy people, but you're invited whenever." It was Bucky's attempt at reassuring her that she was still welcome around their home, no matter what craziness was going on. He absolutely could not picture himself having a child with Maria, but he did respect her as an Agent.
***
“Oh, so you’re inviting Barton.” More statement to Bucky than question. Clint qualified as crazy with his shenanigans. Maria turned a blind eye to it all since more often than not Romanoff ran herd on the archer, and it was all Clint’s way of handling his issues.
“Fine,” she said with a bland look at Steve since he was being insistent. “Dinner tomorrow. If it’s okay these two can spend the night and have Friday with you guys then I’ll arrive Saturday.” Maria sighed as she pushed her hand back through her hair.
Honestly, Maria couldn’t imagine having kids with anyone let alone Rogers and Barnes, yet the two teenagers currently inhaling breakfast were evidence to the contrary. She didn’t want to think about it, mainly because they were reminders of what she’d recently lost between Peter and Thor. Ugh.
***
“Yeah,” he agreed. They’d make the room somehow. Once they figured out how many they were putting up full time for the week. It was a good thing they’d recently moved, even had an extra bedroom they could make use of. They had plenty of space for this, more than ever before. It would work.
Out of nowhere, fighting broke out in the living room, and it sounded like Molly was at the center of it; Steve just sighed. As if parenting wasn’t difficult enough every other day. “I’ll handle that,” he volunteered. “You all make yourselves at home, Bucky’ll take care of you.”
Before disappearing, he gave Hill another look that said they were going to talk, later, tomorrow, soon, and Bucky a clap on the shoulder, a low: “You’re doing great, pal.”