Who: Ty Johnson and Bucky Barnes What: Grocery chats When: Saturday afternoon Where: The Grocery Store Warnings: likely none Status: Closed/Partial gdoc TBC
Bucky had been giving a lot of thought lately to the idea of just staying at home instead of working at the garage. V had probably been joking when she'd suggested it, but the idea did have some merit. He could plant a nice little garden for them, grow his own vegetables, herbs and spices. As he looked through the produce at the grocery store, the idea became all the more appealing. It just didn't look particularly fresh, or at least not as fresh as it could have been.
"I suppose this is alright," he mused as he finally settled on two of the bunches of asparagus. Bucky added that to his already fairly full cart. It would probably even save them money in the long run, too. As he moved onto the next thing on his list, he ran - quite literally - into someone else's cart with his own.
"Ah crap, sorry." Bucky looked up to see Ty. "Oh hey man. What's up?"
***
Ty, too, struggled a lot of days to find produce that was up to his standards. His tastes leaned toward market fresh and that just wasn't available here. He made do, but it wasn't ideal. Luckily, Jane was usually happy enough with whatever he made and didn't care much about the ingredients that went into it.
A solid jostle to his cart while shopping startled him, enough that the bit beneath his hand frosted over, before he realized who it was and smiled faintly. "Just looking to put something together for dinner. You know." He tended to do the shop for things every day thing rather than over stocking the house like Americans seemed to prefer doing. "Figure we've got to get the nice, quiet evenings in while we can."
Before too long there'd be a baby in their house and quiet dinners together would be a thing of the past. He tried not to mind that much. He tried to feel excited about it. He was still mostly just scared.
***
"Somehow I'm disappointed every time I check out the produce," Bucky replied. He definitely wanted to cook with the best of ingredients, had gotten accustomed to the farm to table mentality that Wakanda had, and found himself missing it more and more. He'd been ready for the simple life before Thanos had come.
"She's due soon now, right? Early June?" Bucky had a habit of skimming the network and he liked Jane. She hadn't ever asked him questions when he'd shown up to her lab just to enjoy the peace and quiet. He liked watching her work, similar to how he'd watched Shuri work every time he'd gone to her lab for a check up. After everything, it was hard to believe that he found comfort being in a lab, but he did. He didn't question that sort of thing these days.
"The quiet's pretty much gone as soon as the baby's born, at least when they're not sleeping. But you know we'll always be happy to babysit when you guys need a night to yourselves."
***
"Early June," he confirmed with a nod. With it being so close, Ty would like to say he was ready. He'd like to say he was looking forward to it. He couldn't. Just like he couldn't wave off the offer like he was sure he was probably supposed to. A new parent shouldn't be looking for ways to get away from their baby for a night before she was even born.
But this wasn't planned and it wasn't something they'd ever really wanted to do. At least not that they'd talked about before jumping in and doing it. And if Ty had anywhere to go he knew he couldn't say he wouldn't have just shot through and not done this at all. He loved Jane but he still didn't think he could be any kind of real father.
"We might have to take you up on that. Honestly, I'm not so sure we're ready for the lifestyle change." They'd been working on it, preparing the house and everything and they'd be alright. More or less. He hoped.
***
That was close. It hadn't been all that long ago that Veronica had been at that stage of her pregnancy and she'd very much wanted Keith to just show up already. He could only imagine how Jane was taking it and offered a reassuring smile. "You're nearly there." The waiting was one of the hard parts. The timing gave him a mental note to make quite a few meals for them to just heat up as they went, since a newborn tended to take up all the time and attention you had. Their little one was going to be the center of their lives from the moment she was born. If he could help that transition, he absolutely would.
"Maybe not," he agreed. He'd spent enough time watching Jane to know she probably was going to need help adjusting to being a mom. "But the good news is, you guys have a strong circle of support and more than a few friends who've been through all of this." Bucky wasn't going to lie and say it wasn't a huge shift in lifestyle. "And from what I've seen? You figure it out pretty quick." He hoped that would be reassuring.
***
"A few experts in our community, yeah," Ty agreed. People with kids had to make things easier. They had people they could rely on when they didn't know what to do or felt overwhelmed. "And we've got my granddad; he's seen a few babies in his time." Olaf had a lot of years and a fondness for babies as long as they weren't going to be his own. Which Ty got. It had to be hard to watch the people he loved grow old and die around him. And with a lot of people that meant difficult explanations that couldn't be given.
Hopefully that would be better here. Where people knew and where they had a lot of years ahead of them if they were lucky.
"I hope you're right though. Because right now I'm not sure that I know anything."