bucky barnes + laura howell + Charlie Givens + Roo
low | complete
Laura & Bucky
As promised, Bucky stopped by Frizzante a couple of days after he’d seen Charlie at Angel’s Hollow. Some of the what-ifs that had been brought back up still lingered, but for the most part, had dissipated. He first stopped by for a couple drinks and wasn’t disappointed. After a little while, he ended up next door at Chapa for something to eat and soon saw the young girl that was Charlie’s boyfriend’s sister that the two had been taking care of. She was sitting at one of the tables, so once he had his own bite to eat, he joined her.
“You’re Laura, right?” He asked. “I’m Bucky, a friend of Charlie’s.”
Laura didn’t say anything but just nodded and took a bite of her sandwich. Bucky glanced around to see who all was in earshot, and when he saw that the coast was clear, he leaned in a bit. “I hear you like animals. Not just dogs and cats, but all kinds. Cows and goats...”
At that, Laura’s interest started to rise. She nodded again, but this time stopped eating and looked to see who was around too. Her eyes went back to Bucky’s as if to tell him to keep going.
“Have you ever thought about asking for a pig?” He asked her, speaking quietly as if he was sharing some kind of super special secret with her. “Most of them grow big and like being outside, but there are some that are a little smaller and make good pets. One might make a good friend. Have you ever seen the movie or read the book called Charlotte’s Web?”
Now there was a smile. Laura brightened at the thought of the children’s movie she’d watched with her mother countless times when she was younger. “You mean like Wilbur?”
Bucky nodded. “Yep. Exactly like Wilbur. I always liked Templeton the best. When I was younger, I used to sing that funny song he sings when he’s eating all of the food at the fair.”
Laura covered her mouth with her hands to hide a laugh. “I liked the mama goose and the baby goose.”
“Ah, yes Jeffrey. He and Wilbur made a good pair, didn’t they?” Bucky smiled again when Laura nodded. A moment later, he noticed Charlie coming out of the kitchen, so he sat back and put a finger to his lips. “A pig,” he said with a wink. “Would definitely make a great pet, and I bet you could convince your brother and Charlie too. He’d be some pig.”
Picking up his drink that he’d gotten to-go, Bucky stood and gave one more smile to Laura who was laughing again. “I’ll see you later, Laura. Or wait - if you get your Wilbur by the next time I see you I might have to start calling you Fern.” Another wink and Bucky started for the door, waving to Charlie as he caught her eye on the way out. It was a long shot, but he hoped the little girl could get herself that pig.
Laura & Charlie
“I’m sorry, what did you just ask for?” Charlie asked as she looked at Laura while in the kitchen of Chapa. Charlie had dragged Laura in to try some new fancy grilled cheeses (also it was just an easy way to feed the girl dinner) when she was pretty sure she heard Laura start on a story that ended with something about a pig. She’d gotten distracted with cutting a tomato when the pig came up and knew full well she’d missed something.
“Did you just say something about a pig?” Charlie added as she handed over a slice of the tomato and ate a slice herself. She wouldn’t be surprised.
Unphased by Charlie’s reaction, Laura nodded and kicked her legs back and forth in the chair. Her legs were never long enough to reach the floor. “Yes. A pig.” She had the most innocent and sweetest of looks on her face when she looked up at Charlie.
“Like Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web. Pigs make good pets,” she said, repeating Bucky’s words from earlier. She knew asking Eric would get her a definite no right off the bat, so usually when she made these types of requests, she tried asking Charlie first. It didn’t always work out as she planned or hoped.
All Charlie could think about was why didn’t she ask for another dog or a cat, or a hamster or hell even a snake would make more sense. Looking back over to Laura she raised her left eyebrow at the way she said that they made good pets.
“Pigs make good pets?” She asked looking a little suspicious, and when was the last time they’d read Charlotte’s Web? Charlie couldn’t remember.
“So, where did you hear about pigs being good pets?” She asked as she put together another grilled cheese.
“Mmhm,” Laura mused and was mostly oblivious to Charlie’s suspicions. After talking to Bucky in Chapa, she’d tried searching about pet pigs and had seen some really cute ones. Of course, she had only been looking at the pictures and ignored any text about how to take care of them.
“One of your friends told me.” Because that was supposed to make it seem much more legitimate rather than her coming up with the idea all on her own. “He said you can get smaller ones instead of the real big ones.” She wondered if they still liked to roll in the mud. That would be funny. Besides, the dogs sometimes liked to play in the mud. What was the difference?
Putting the sandwich on the grill, she looked over at Laura. "A friend of mine huh?" She asked curious about who in their right mind would suggest a pig to Laura. Between goats, the chipmunk and more Charlie was really trying to think down the list of people who would do that.
"There are some small pigs, but I'm pretty sure they take a lot of work to take care of." She warned. "Besides, how do you think the dogs would get along with a pig?"
Laura nodded. “Yes. A friend.” She sipped the water glass before continuing. “He said his name was Bucky.” She didn’t really know anything about him other than him saying he was her friend and that he liked Charlotte’s Web, but he seemed nice.
“They’d like him!” She insisted, getting kind of excited. “They’d sniff him and think he smelled funny. He wouldn’t smell like their bacon strips, though, so they wouldn’t try to eat him.” She put her hands together. “I’d take care of him too. Really good. And I’d take him on walks before and after school.”
“Bucky,” Charlie said looking away to hide her laugh. She looked back to Laura. “He’s a friend I got to know when I was travelling Australia.” She wasn’t going to go into detail about it, but she didn’t think Laura would ask too many questions anyways. She’d already told Eric anything he’d wanted to know long ago.
“They would, would they?” Charlie had to try not to laugh at the thought of what Laura was saying. “But do you think the dogs would like the little pig? Or the pig would fit in with the family?”
Ooh, Australia. Laura had heard a few stories about Charlie’s travels, and of course, the first thing she wondered was what if she asked for a koala or other Australian type of animal. Thinking on that for a second, she mentally shook her head. Nah. She still wanted the pig. Or the goat or the cow. Or something equally as farm animal. A horse. One of the tiny ones.
“Yes,” she said confidently. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. “They’d like him, and so would Eric. He could even name him!” That might help, right? Eric had already said no on the others, so Laura had to find a way to make him think this was a good idea.
“Eric would like the pig?” Charlie had a really weird image of Eric grumbling around the house talking to a little pig. The little pig running after him and sort of oddly listening to the little guy. She had to shake her head away about that image.
“Well, I guess you can go ahead and ask him,” Charlie said as she pulled the grilled cheese off and cute it into four and pushed the plate over to Laura as she stole one of the pieces.
Laura’s eyes widened in a bit of surprise and excitement about asking her brother if they could get the pig. She was already thinking of names to name him; she didn’t want to go with Wilbur since that would just be copying the movie, but something like that. A proper name. She nodded at Charlie and started munching on the sandwich, showing her appreciation with a wide smile. She was going to have to think of a clever way to ask Eric to make him say yes.
Laura & Charlie + Bucky + Roo
Showing up at Bucky’s place wasn’t really something that Charlie thought she’d be doing any time soon, especially not with a cute puppy and Laura in tow with her. Knocking on the door, she looked down at the puppy petting it on the head. “Don’t worry, he’s going to love you.” She told the puppy.
Knocking she looked to Laura as they waited for the door to open. “So, did you pick a name yet?”
Reaching up, Laura patted the puppy on its head. It was really cute, and even if she couldn’t get the pig, she liked being able to help pick out the puppy for Bucky. She shook her head. “I dunno.” Naming a pet was hard, and she’d only ever named a pet hamster before, never a dog. Charlie had told Laura a couple things about Bucky and how she knew him, but the only thing she really thought of when thinking of Australia was the animals. Koalas, crocodiles, kangaroos, and more. And then she thought about Winnie the Pooh - Kanga and Roo. Kanga was the mommy, and Roo was the boy. “Roo?” She asked right around the time the door started to open.
“Roo it is,” Charlie whispered smiling down to Laura.
Bucky had finished eating some lunch not long before when he’d settled down on the couch to watch some TV. Some sort of game was on that he was only half paying attention to, and a knock at the door caught his attention. Turning the TV down, he stood up and wandered over to the front door. When he looked out the peephole, he saw Charlie, Laura, and…. a dog.
Opening the door, Bucky leaned in the doorway and looked between the two girls and the dog before ending back on Charlie. “Well, this is a surprise visit,” he said with an unsure smile and gave a pointed look to the pup. “With an extra surprise guest, it looks like.”
It took all her power not to start laughing as she watched Bucky’s expression. She looked between the dog and Laura and back up to Bucky keeping her expression very serious she handed over the leash to him.
“Well, Laura and I were talking about how she wanted a pig, Charlotte’s Web kind of pig and how they made really good pets.” She said with a slightly fake on purpose smile. “And we decided that while a pig wasn’t exactly right for us, that you needed a furry friend and Roo here seemed like the exact right fit. Laura picked him and named him.” She added before letting her expression change to somewhat serious even though she was struggling not to laugh.
Bucky looked even more confused when Charlie quickly made the motion of handing the leash over to him. He didn’t take it from her yet, though, but instead listened carefully to her explanation. The mention of Charlotte’s Web and pet pigs made him pause, and Bucky probably looked very sheepish in that moment. “Pigs, huh?” He nodded and acted as if it was the first time he’d ever considered having a pig as a pet. “You know, I’ve heard that before too. That pigs make very good pets. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
Leaning over, Bucky used a hand to shield his words from Charlie and whispered, albeit a very loud whisper, to Laura, “You totally sold me out.”
Not bothered at all, Laura patted the puppy’s head again. “Look, he has different colored eyes.”
“That he does,” Bucky said once he looked at the dog again. He had to admit that it was a really cute dog, unusual eyes and all. “Roo, huh?” He said and settled his gaze on Charlie with a small smile, and opened the door further so that they could come inside.
Charlie nodded as she waited for him to take the leash from her. “Yeah, pigs,” she added as she watched him ‘whisper’ to Laura. “Well, we got to thinking that you needed a friend, and you did mention your life had been pretty quiet lately.” She added as she followed Laura and Roo inside.
“Laura named him,” she said with a soft smile before looking back down at the pup. She knew full well that if Bucky didn’t really want the dog, she’d be taking the dog home with a really interesting conversation of why she’d brought home another dog.
“I did mention that, didn’t I?” He said and smiled before shutting the door. They all walked into the living room, and Bucky sat down on the couch. Shortly after, Laura sat next to him and reached out her hands to call the puppy over to her. Roo bounded over in awkward puppy fashion, and Bucky reached down to rub his head. In return, Roo started licking the palm of his hand with his tail wagging back and forth.
“Well, since you’ve already named him, maybe you’d want to keep him,” he said, testing the waters since he didn’t want to upset Laura if she had any hopes of keeping him herself.
Laura shook her head. “No, we got him for you. I’m still asking for the pig for Christmas.” Or a cow or a goat again. She went back and forth depending on her mood.
Bucky couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “I guess he would keep me company behind here, yeah?” He asked and got a nod from Laura. He picked Roo up and leaned back on the couch, sitting him in his lap. Roo’s tail was still wagging, and he could barely keep still. There were so many new smells ands things to see.
Charlie watched the two of them, well the three of them. “Yup, I especially I liked the hint this morning at breakfast.” Charlie smiled as she watched Roo pretty much decide that Bucky was his new family.
“Roo seems like a firehouse kind of dog anyways, not a hardware wine kinda dog.” She told him as if that was something that made logical sense. Really, if Laura asked for another dog, Charlie would have been thrilled.
“I think he approves of you Bucky,” she added with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah? Think he’ll like riding on the back of a rig?” The other guys probably would appreciate having a furry friend around, although, he might wait until the dog was older before he took him by for overnights.
“You never know,” he said. “I think Roo here might have some fine tastes.” He grinned and watched as the pup became distracted and flopped off of his lap and over to Laura. “I think I approve of him too.”
With Laura distracted with the dog, for now, Bucky was amused watching her play with him but eventually turned his attention back to Charlie. “See? She’d be great with a piglet.”
Charlie was laughing as she watched between Bucky and Laura. She glanced over at him when he brought up a piglet. “Yeah, and we’ll make sure you have to pig sit.” She said with a smirk. “Daily.”
“Hah,” Bucky laughed aloud and shook his head. “I think I might prefer the goat,” he said and glanced back over to Laura who was busy playing with the dog. He’d have to figure out a way to let her stop by to see him every now and then.
After a moment, he sighed a bit and looked to Charlie again. She was watching Laura and Roo, and he just smiled. “Thank you,” he said after a moment. “I think he’ll be good company.”
Looking back over at Bucky she shrugged. “Figured you could use a little bit more company.” She told him with a soft smile before looking to Laura.
“Well, think we should take him and Bucky for a walk? Or leave Roo and Bucky here to get bonded?” She asked Laura.
Laura grinned at the question and looked to Bucky for confirmation of a walk or not. She really wanted to take Roo out and play with him a little more… even if technically it was to help Bucky get to know him. She liked the dogs at their house, but Roo was still a puppy. Puppies were fun.
“I think a walk sounds like a good idea,” Bucky said, noticing Laura’s reaction at the possibility. “Maybe we can stop on the way back for a few supplies? Food and a couple toys?”
“Oh, I got you some food already, but a new toy and some treats are probably in order.” She said getting up and watching them get the puppy ready to get out. She looked at Bucky. “There is some dog food in my car.” She added as she headed out after Laura and Roo.