Chapter Text
“Buckaroo.”
Bucky doesn’t look up, just continues to glance between his calculations and the tiny robot he’s attempting to work on while ignoring Tony.
“Buckarino.”
The thing is, Bucky learned a long time ago that sometimes he just has to act like he can’t possibly hear Tony over the noise of the workshop. If he entertained Tony every time the man got bored, Bucky’s work would never get done. How Tony gets any actual work done is generally a mystery, especially now that he’s a dad and doesn’t try to work himself to death by staying up for days on end.
“Jarvis, would you please alert Mr. Barnes that –”
“Jarvis, no need,” Bucky says, rolling his eyes before finally looking up at Tony, eyebrows raised. “My name is neither Buckaroo or Buckarino and you know that, Anthony.”
Tony shrugs and slides across the room on his stool so he’s right up against Bucky’s desk. “Buckster, then. I need you, you’re my only hope.”
With a sigh, Bucky leans back in his chair, accepting that he’s abandoning his work for now and splays his arms out. “Whatcha need, Tony? Clearly I have all the freetime in the world right now, while I’m at work. Working for you, might I add.”
“Happy has an appointment this afternoon and can’t pick Morgan up from school, be a pal and run over there at two? You can take whichever car, as long as it has a booster seat in the back – those are the only ones Pepper deemed acceptable for our child to ride in,” Tony says, banging his fist twice on Bucky’s desk like it’s no big deal what he’s asking. He pushes away, rolling his stool back over to his workstation. “I’ll have J call in so your name is on the pickup list, thanks Buckyboy!”
By now, Bucky is used to Tony’s ability to steamroll the conversation without even letting the other person respond. Tony only uses the ridiculous nicknames when he knows he’s about to be really obnoxious. Like now, pulling this stunt of wanting Bucky to pick up Morgan from Kindergarten. It’s not that Bucky doesn’t like Morgan – he adores her, actually. It’s just… he’s not Tony’s errand boy. Braving a sea of five year olds is not his idea of a good time. “Why can’t you go pick up your daughter?”
Tony winces and promptly pretends to look very interested in whatever is on the main screen in front of him. “Pepper said I’m not allowed to go near the school without her because last time, I tried to upgrade all their tech and install Jarvis into their system.”
“Of course you did,” Bucky groans, rubbing his face with his flesh hand. He’s trying to not let the frustration build – Pepper has been out of town for the past few days, and Tony’s list of people he trusts, especially with his child, is very short. “Okay, okay. I’ll go pick her up.”
That’s how Bucky finds himself in front of one of New York’s fanciest grade schools (only the best for Morgan Potts-Stark), looking at the directions for where to go for pickup that Jarvis had put on his phone. That’s when he notices he forgot to grab his glove from his desk. Shit. At least he’s wearing long sleeves.
Back in Bucky’s day, he walked the couple blocks home from school. Even in Kindergarten, since both of his parents worked. It was the early 1990’s, no one thought twice about a five year old kid walking ten minutes home by himself. Now, to pick Morgan up, he has to stand in the sea of nannies, bored older siblings, and what looks like an actual parent or two. He sticks out like a sore thumb, even if Happy is the one that usually does this. (Dammit, Happy owes him one.)
As soon as the kids start spilling out into the yard, Bucky keeps a sharp eye out for Morgan’s brown hair. He barely notices the couple of adults corralling the kids, too busy making sure he finds the child he’s looking for. The last thing he needs is for Morgan to think she’s been abandoned because Happy isn’t here.
Bucky hears the cry of “Bucky, what are you doing here?!” before a tiny body slams into his legs, Morgan’s arms wrapping around his thighs.
“Hey kiddo, Happy is busy so your dad sent me today,” he says, giving her a gentle pat on her back, ready to grab her backpack in case someone tries to snatch her (highly unlikely) or she tries to dart away from him (also highly unlikely, given how much she loves Bucky).
“Oh!” Morgan exclaims, grabbing Bucky’s metal arm. “Then you have to tell Mr. Steve that you’re here so they don’t think you’re a kidnapper!”
Bucky almost stumbles as she pulls him, not expecting it at first, and as soon as he rights himself and looks where she’s dragging him (as much as a tiny five year old can), he almost swallows his tongue. If the man they’re approaching is “Mr. Steve”, then Bucky might be willing to take over for Happy more often. Every day, in fact. Fuck the guy is gorgeous – just Bucky’s type, too. Tall and clearly built like a brick shithouse under that cardigan that shouldn’t look good on someone Steve’s size, but it does on him. Before Bucky opens his mouth to probably say something stupid and definitely inappropriate around a bunch of kids, Morgan introduces them.
“Mr. Steve! This is Bucky, he’s not scary! My dad made his arm!”
Mr. Steve looks momentarily speechless down at Morgan before he seems to collect himself and raises his eyes to meet Bucky’s, and well – Bucky is screwed. No guy this hot is single, swings in Bucky’s direction, and would have any interest in a guy with a metal arm. “I got the message that James Barnes would be picking Morgan up today?” Mr. Steve asks, raising an eyebrow in question.
Bucky doesn’t miss that Mr. Steve is trying not to look down at Bucky’s metal hand, especially since Morgan so helpfully pointed it out, but it doesn’t bother him – not anymore, at least. He’s also endlessly amused by Morgan’s fascination with it; she's going to be just like her dad when she grows up. “That’s me,” he says, reaching for his wallet out of his back pocket. “James is my first name,” he comments before pulling out his driver’s license and showing it to Steve. He gave up explaining why almost no one but his mother calls him James years ago, unless they ask.
“Great, nice to meet you! I’m Steve Rogers, Morgan’s teacher,” Steve says enthusiastically after glancing at Bucky’s ID. He looks back down at Morgan before squatting in front of her. “Remember the bake sale we talked about today? Don’t forget to give your mom or dad the information sheet that’s in your backpack, okay?”
Oh, Bucky did not know he had a soft spot for people who treat kids Morgan’s age like actual people, instead of babies. He’s seen too much of that over the years with his own niece and nephew. Well, he definitely has a soft spot for that now. Or he just has the beginnings of a crush on this gorgeous Kindergarten teacher. It’s just that – fuck, Steve is hot.
“I won’t forget, Mr. Steve,” Morgan says, suddenly sullen. She tugs on Bucky’s hand and looks up at him. “I’m ready to go, Bucky.”
Bucky shrugs when Steve quirks an eyebrow at him. He hasn’t spent enough time with Morgan to know if such a drastic mood change is normal. “Nice to meet you, too – I’ll shoot a text to Pepper about the sale and Happy should be back like usual tomorrow. C’mon Morgan, I need to get back to work.”
Steve stands and gives them a wave before Bucky navigates back to where he parked the car, taking special care to keep an eye on their surroundings even though Morgan is safely holding his left hand. After he makes sure she’s secure in her booster seat, he gets in the driver’s seat and looks back at Morgan through the rear view mirror. “Why the frown, Charlie Brown?” he asks. Even though he’s never picked her up from school before, he’s sure she’s usually talking Happy’s ear off by the time they’re on the road.
Morgan crosses her arms over her chest. “Mr. Steve wants stuff for the bake sale but it has to be homemade, and Mom’s not home and Dad would just tell Happy to order something.”
Bucky laughs because while Tony is a certified genius, he’s an idiot in the kitchen. He does well enough to keep himself and Morgan fed while Pepper is gone – especially if Pepper meal preps for them before her trips, but baking is definitely not one of his skills.
Baking is one of Bucky’s skills, though.
It takes about two seconds for Bucky to make up his mind – and if the potential of seeing Steve again is what swayed his decision, no one needs to know. “I’ll bake something for you, kiddo.”
“What? You will!?” Morgan exclaims, kicking the back of Bucky’s seat in excitement. “Thank you! What are you gonna make? Can it have unicorns? I love unicorns!”
Bucky’s going to have to look at the information sheet to find out if each individual item needs to be packaged or not, since that’ll dictate what he can and cannot make. Even if he has to do something simple like a cut out cookie, he’s sure he can make unicorns work. He’s managed all kinds of different characters for his niece and nephew. “Let me think about it, but you can definitely have something unicorn related.”
Morgan kicks the seat again. “Yay! I think we should use sprinkles!”
Now this is Morgan back to her usual self. She definitely takes after Tony in the exuberance department. Bucky laughs as he carefully navigates back to the Tower. “Of course there will be sprinkles, kid.”
***
Bucky usually spends his evenings working (shut up, he’s not turning into Tony), binging TV shows, or falling down endless YouTube rabbit holes. He hasn’t dated – or even had a date – in a few months (okay, maybe more than a few) nor does he spend a lot of time out with friends.
He loves his friends but ugh, other people.
Now he’s veering from his usual routine to browse Pinterest for various unicorn dessert ideas. He’d be lying to himself if he says he wasn’t looking for something a little impressive to stand out, so Steve will notice. Steve’s probably straight and happily married – though he wasn’t wearing a ring (Bucky checked) – but a guy can dream, can’t he? Steve is just unfairly hot with his thick beard and all those muscles, perfect to hold Bucky down with – sue him, he has a very obvious type.
Since they’re technically selling the goods, each individual item does need to be fully packaged but that still leaves so many options. Bucky scrolls through various cupcakes, macaroons, cake pops, sugar cookies, and mini cheesecakes for inspiration.
He eventually decides on cupcakes and immediately orders individual clamshell containers so they’ll be delivered in time. Not to toot his own horn (ok, maybe a little bit) but Bucky is really awesome at multicolored frosting and piping it to make it look professional. He blames Becca’s love for cupcake towers for any of the parties she’s held for her kids.
It doesn’t take long before he’s also added gold unicorn horn toppers and cupcake wrappers that have unicorn faces on them to his order.
Is Bucky being a little extra? Yes. Is Bucky imagining Steve being so impressed with the cupcakes that he asks Bucky out right then and there before railing him into next week that night? Maybe. Does he realistically know there’s absolutely no chance of that happening? Sure, but… it’s a very nice thought. It’s been too long since Bucky’s been fucked by anything other than his favorite toys.
Way too long.
He jots down a few extra items on his grocery list – including sprinkles – before switching gears and pulling his work laptop out of his bag. An extra hour (or two) combing through his calculations won’t hurt anything. No one has to know – except for Jarvis, but Bucky has him sworn to secrecy.
***
“So what’s this I hear about unicorn baked goods and you suddenly being my daughter’s favorite person in the world?”
Bucky waves his fingers on his left hand. “She only loves me for my shiny arm – which she loved telling her teacher that you made, by the way. Kid’s school is having a bake sale next week and I offered to make her something.” He shrugs, like it’s no big deal (it really isn’t – Bucky can make cupcakes in his sleep by now). Tony is eerily perceptive though and there’s no way he can find out that Bucky has a crush on Morgan’s teacher after talking to Steve for a grand total of two minutes.
Tony pouts and tosses a wrench up in the air, catching it with his other hand. “I could’ve – well, no. I couldn’t have made anything, but there’s that bakery that Pepper loves – “
Bucky cuts him off with a shake of his head. “Nope, didn’t Morgan show you the form? It has to be homemade, which is why I offered. She was kind of bummed, I think she thought she’d be the only kid not bringing anything.”
“So you swoop in and save the day, out of the goodness of your heart,” Tony says, arching an eyebrow like he doesn’t quite believe Bucky. Which, to be fair, makes sense. While Bucky and Morgan get along great, he’s never seen her outside of the workshop before yesterday. He’s certainly never been involved in any aspect of her life besides showing her what he’s been working on.
Bucky shrugs again and looks back down at his work. “Not a big deal, Tony. It’s just a few cupcakes.”
“Huh,” Tony says, and it’s clear he has something else to say but DUM-E interrupts him when he sends Tony’s coffee mug flying. “The hell do you want, you piece of junk? I should’ve thrown you in the dumpster years ago. I have a five year old and you’re the reason I have unbreakable travel mugs around here.”
***
Just a few cupcakes ends up being three dozen. In Bucky’s defense, that’s usually the amount he makes for parties. If they don’t all sell, he’ll just bring them to the breakroom on his floor of the tower. Interns love free food – especially sugary free food.
He’s put way too much time and effort into piping the frosting just right onto each one, but the results look amazing, he has to admit. They’re so cute with their gold toppers, pink and purple pastel frosting with edible gold sprinkles, and unicorn wrappers. Instagram worthy, for sure, if he had the energy to edit the photo just right.
Instead, he texts a picture of one of them to Tony so he can show Morgan before school.
It’s late, and Bucky is exhausted, but he’s sure it’ll be worth it when he hears about Morgan’s reaction in the morning. Never mind the fact that Bucky cannot stop thinking about how he’s going to see Steve again, however briefly.
This is stupid. Bucky spent less than five minutes with Steve and yet he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him – his body, his smile… the little flecks of gray in his beard. Bucky is heading into dangerous territory, because while he does want to settle down and maybe get married, being attracted to a (very likely) straight guy isn’t going to help him in that department.
He’s thirty-six and acting like a teenager with a crush.
That isn’t going to stop him from making sure that Steve sees his cupcakes tomorrow. He gets them gently packed away in his fridge before face planting in his bed. It’s way past his bedtime.
