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“So you have 3 kids now,” Racheal says, leaning forward in her chair. “with the new arrival off baby Nathanial.”
“That’s right.” Bucky nods his head, smiling to himself. After all the moaning he did about being forced to guest appear on the Racheal Show, he had to admit it wasn’t that bad. His red chair was comfy and she was funny.
“So how old are they all now?” She asks.
“Uh. Nate is 5 months, Lila is 7, and Cooper is 11.” Bucky says. “But Lila will be 8 in a few days”
“We have a video of when Lila first met Nathanial. This is just precious.” A video started playing on the screen behind their seats, Bucky turned to see his Lila walking, hand in hand with Clint up to where Bucky was stood holding the new-born baby. Lila’s face lit up when she reached up to the baby’s blanket to pull it off his face a little bit and Nathanial’s hand wrapped around her finger.
“That’s cute-” Racheal started when the video ended, but was cut off when the crowd ‘aww-ed’ at whatever picture is on the screen behind him.
Bucky turns and sees a picture of Cooper holding a new-born Nate. Nathanial is asleep and Cooper has a look of awe on his face looking down at the bundle of baby and blankets in his arms.
“That was the first time they met.” Bucky remembers.
The next picture is of Bucky’s smiling face, with Cooper on his back and Lila hanging from his extended arm and Nate in a pushchair in front of them.
“That’s adorable. So what’s it like having a baby now with the bunch of you? Is it as easy as you make it look?” Racheal asks.
“What are you talking about ‘easy as we make it look’? do you not see the bags under my eyes and the constant ‘help me’ face?” Bucky laughs. “No, it’s amazing. I never saw Cooper and Lila as new-borns so it’s a new experience but it’s just… it’s amazing.”
“We have seen all your Halloween costumes and they look so cool. Is that like a thing in your household? Halloween?” She changed the subject, looking back at the next picture that made the crowd erupt in more awing and cheers.
It was from last Halloween, the first one with Nathanial. The whole family was in the picture. Lila was dressed as Rapunzel, from Tangled, in a purple dress. Cooper dressed as Flynn Rider, with a blue vest over the white shirt and a satchel; he was holding Nathanial who was dressed as the little, green chameleon. While Clint and Bucky were dressed as the ginger thieves, in black leather coats and big boots, Clint with an eye patch and Bucky with long sideburns.
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Bucky chuckled at the picture of his family all making faces at the person taking the picture. His family. It’s still so surreal after three years. After the whole Hydra thing he didn’t know what was going to happen to him and even when the Avengers took him in, a happy family was not what Bucky was expecting to happen to him.
“That’s just adorable. The whole Tangled theme”
“Yeah, Halloween’s always fun. We had just watched it and I think it was the only princess movie character that Cooper would agree to dress up as so…” Bucky explained, looking closely at Clint trying to look at the eye patch with his one eye.
“And the year before that you did Toy Story…” The picture changed again to one of Bucky and Clint dressed as the green, toy soldiers, Lila as Jessie, and Cooper as Woody.
“Yeah. That was fun. Although we had our feet on these like green snowboards so it was more like the toys and they were so hard to move in, that when I was walking down the hallway I fell face down and busted my nose.” Bucky said.
Racheal just laughed along with the crowd at the story and watched as the picture changed to normal ones of the whole family at a circus, and at Disney land or just ones that Bucky and Clint took at their home.
“Is it hard leaving them when you go off to fight bag guys?” She asked absentmindedly.
“Of course it is. I mean when I walk the dog I miss them so staying away on missions is really hard. You miss the noise and having to weave your way around all the toys in the house.” Bucky says, “Sometimes you find I even find myself missing the nights I have to get up to stop Nate from crying and the stuff that really ticks you off when it’s happening. Those moments seem to kick you in the chest hardest, like nearly every night we are away, Clint and I wake up at 2 in the morning because that’s when Nate would wake up at home.”
“Wow, so like you wake up even when he’s not there to wake you up?”
“Yeah. Our bodies are kind of trained to do it now I guess.”
“That’s interesting. Unfortunately that’s all we have time for.” The crowd boo’s at her words. “I know. He didn’t even take his shirt off.”
Bucky laughed, along with everyone. Half-heartedly saluting at the camera when Racheal waved.