#buck ITS THE FATHER

[lordherondaie]

[jakes3resin]

Modern Reincarnation AU Part 4 ✨️

Part 3

"John?"

Bucky storms past Jack into the townhouse. It's rude, but he'll apologize later. He doesn't know why he came here instead of his apartment. Old habits dying a hard drawn out death, maybe? He hadn't been thinking clearly. Hadn't been thinking at all really until he found himself waved through by his father's security detail.

"Oh, is that John?" He hears his father call out, dress shoes clicking against hardwood as he walks closer, but Bucky stomps up the stairs towards his room before he sees the man. His breaths come out in rushes as tears keep burning his eyes.

Shit, he thought he'd gotten those under control on the train.

Slamming his door, he slides down until he rests against the floor. He tosses his bag to the side wincing at the sound it makes. Hopefully his laptop survives. At some point he does actually have to do the work he went to the library to finish.

The library.

Buck and Curt.

They wouldn't, Bucky tells himself. They wouldn't. Curt was one of his best friends, and Buck loved him. They...

Fuck they were roommates! Why the hell were they talking about that shit in public? In the place Bucky considered his? Why even pretend? Why drag Bucky into this? Why?!

Bucky buries his face into his hands. His chest hitches as he tries not to sob. He doesn't want his father or Jack to worry about him. He doesn't want to talk this through.

He wants...

He wants Buck. He wants the other to pull him into his arms. To kiss him again as if today had never happened. There was something else about being with Buck, something he'd never felt with anyone else be they friend or lover. He made Bucky feel safe and wanted. Wanted not because of his family and connections but because he was himself.

Buck would know how to make him feel better.

He laughs quietly through his tears. Distantly, he can hear Jack briefing his father downstairs, the words faint but he hears his name and tears used together. His laughter is more sob than anything else. Of course, the one good thing he'd found would end up belonging to someone else. Story of his life.

✨️

There's too much work to do. At least that's the excuse Bucky gave himself for not confronting Buck and Curt immediately. There wasn't time for a confrontation and subsequent blowup of his life.

At least that's the lie he tells himself.

Bucky chews on the straw of his iced coffee as he skims yet another chapter. There's a pumpkin muffin in front of him that he swore would be his reward for getting through this fourty page reading. Midterms have come and gone, but Bucky still has deadlines to meet and research to complete. He can't sit in his room forever, as much as his father and Jack would sometimes prefer that. Better protection from whatever sent Bucky crying to his room as his father would argue. Better protection for his father's political career Jack would quip.

Speaking of protection, Bucky glanced to the side of the cafe towards his security detail. At least these guys attempted to blend in. His father must have briefed them on his track record with previous details. Bucky smirked around his straw. They'd be easy to lose come rush hour. A bit of fun even.

Bucky turned back to his reading, squinting down at the words.

"American airmen during World War II had a dismal life expectancy. It was not a matter of if an airman was going to be shot down but when. Once downed, airmen faced an uncertain 'reception committee,' as Second Lieutenant Kenneth C. Reimer noted in a drawing he made as a POW in Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany... 'for every [ground combat] soldier killed in action, three or four others would be wounded; air combat was completely the opposite. For every man wounded, three were killed.'"

"Bucky?" A hand settles on his shoulder jolting him out of his reading.

Bucky kept his shoulders loose as he turns around. Buck stares down at him, a bright smile on his face that Bucky can't help but match despite his grief. It wasn't even something he could control. Buck smiled at him, so he smiled back. Bucky felt pitiful.

Buck's sky blue eyes are clear and happy as they dart across Bucky's face. There's no sign that he realizes Bucky overheard him yesterday.

Bucky lifts a hand to calm his detail, all alert now after Buck's friendly greeting. He sees the nearest agent settle back into their chair but knows none of them are relaxed. He darts a look up at Buck, peering at the other through his glasses to see if he'd noticed the disturbance.

Buck's gaze, as it always does, doesn't leave Bucky's face. Even when he rounds the table to sit down, his eyes are pinned on Bucky and nothing else.

"Sorry I couldn't meet up yesterday," Buck dumps his bag onto the chair next to him. Bucky's smile twitches. Buck sits down across from him. His legs tangle with Buck's own under the table, Buck's foot gently bumping his ankle.

"It's fine," Bucky chomps down on his straw. "How was your advisor meeting anyway?"

"It was good," Buck smiles at him, not even a hint of guilt on his face. "Real good."

Buck had told Bucky he was called to fill in a shift yesterday and that was why he supposedly hadn't been able to meet up. A lie Buck hadn't even bothered to remember. His advisor meetings were also always in the morning on Thursdays. Today was Tuesday.

Buck was still lying to him, and he wasn't even guilty about it.

✨️

"I went by your place yesterday. You weren't home." Buck swings their clasped hands through the air.

"Hmm?" Bucky glanced away from the traffic around them. His detail were staying a conspicuous ten feet back, but they were annoyingly keen when Buck offered to walk him back to his apartment.

Bucky would lose them another day.

Buck laughed, deep and airy. Bucky struggled not to lose himself in it. That was what made this so hard. Bucky still loved Buck, and Buck still acted like Bucky was his whole world and then some.

"Oh," Bucky finally processed what Buck had said. "No, I went to my dad's for the night."

"Really?" Buck squeezes his hand. Bucky hates how much comfort Buck's touch gives him.

Does Curt receive the same...? No Bucky doesn't let himself finish the thought.

"How was it?" Concern bleeds into Buck's voice. Bucky hates how genuine it sounds. He's starting to use that word more than any other. The longer he looks at Buck, the more he has to hate to save his heart.

"Fine," Bucky shrugged stepping further away as they came to a stoplight. "The usual."

"The Bucky I know wouldn't give such a short answer," Buck stepped closer eating up the space Bucky had put between them. "Not unless something happened yesterday. Come on, you okay?"

Bucky felt the words bubbling up his throat.

I saw you. I saw him. Why are you here staring at me like I'm the most important thing in the world when you have him? Why are you doing this to me? I love you. I love you so much it feels like my soul hurts. I hate you.

"Spent most of the night avoiding his staffers." Bucky lied. "Barely saw him, Jack either, yet he still asked me to move home at breakfast."

Buck nods, accepting his lies. Was that what they were now? Not a relationship, simply a lie? Bucky wasn't sure anymore. His heart thumped against his rib cage, anger and love in every other beat, but he wasn't sure which would win.

Buck had become his whole world in such a short amount of time. He thought the feeling was mutual, but yesterday showed just how stupid Bucky really was.

"How about this," Buck nudged his hip. "Why don't I stay over tonight? We'll binge a few movies, order something, and have night in. Then,"

Buck paused with a stupid grin that, despite himself, Bucky still found charming. Fuck, he was truly pathetic for this.

"I'll sweep you off your feet and take you to bed. How does that sound?"

"Won't Curt be expecting you?" The question pops out of him without meaning to. Gale furrows his brow, confusion growing in his eyes.

"Curt won't miss me tonight."

Sure, he won't, Bucky thinks bitterly.

✨️

"John," Jack's voice was a surprise. Especially considering it was his father's number calling him.

"You've gotten much better at your Jack impression," Bucky answers just to be annoying. "Does he know you impersonate him on official numbers?"

"You're not as funny as you believe."

"Ooh, you even have his disapproving tone down. I feel like he's in the room with us!" Bucky laughs. He peers around the corner. Buck's still where he left him, buried in his phone texting someone.

Bucky doesn't let himself think about who that person is.

"Your father wants to invite you to a dinner tomorrow. You can even bring that boy that walked you home. The one that hasn't left." Pages flip in the background as Jack talks. Probably governmental reports his father was supposed to read.

"You know you're not his chief of staff anymore?" Bucky leaned his hip against the counter. "You don't have to read reports or wrangle his kid to government dinners to help his image as a family man. You're his husband now, you're the family."

"You're my kid too by that logic, so wrangling you gets to stay on my resume." Bucky snorts out a laugh. "Besides, it's not a state dinner or anything. He just wants to see you."

Guilt gnaws at his heart. Buck pokes his head into the kitchen, phone no longer holding all of his attention.

"Fine," Bucky groans. "But if he brings up the apartment again, I'm walking out with my food on my plate even if it's the good plates."

"See you tomorrow at 7 then. Bring your boy." Jack hangs up without a goodbye.

✨️

It'll be me, and it'll be you, Buck.

Don't count on it.

Bucky jerks awake. His dream flashes through his head too fast for him to remember anything. Scenes superimpose over each other, words jumble together. At least this one wasn't a nightmare. Those always left him shakey and off balance all day.

His dreams have always been vivid, ever since he was a kid. The child psychologists he'd gone to had said it was normal and simply a sign of a well developed imagination.

Bucky runs a hand through his hair groaning when he glances towards his bedside clock. It's nearly an hour until he has to get up, but he knows that he won't be getting back to sleep before then.

Buck lays curled up next to him on the bed. Bucky reaches out to brush a hand through the other's hair. Buck twitches leaning into the feeling for half a second but doesn't stir beyond that.

Bucky sighs. Extricating himself from Buck's long limbs takes time. Somehow in the night, Buck had nearly fused them together as if even asleep the man refused to let him go. Arms layered over arms. Legs tangled together. It's an excellent distraction from his dreams but not from the problems of the waking world. If only he could forget those once he woke up like he did his dreams.

It's only when he's pouring water for his coffee that he realizes he recognizes the voice from his dream. A first for him.

It'd been Buck's.

✨️

(Not a confrontation I know, but it builds my AU lol)

[vessel-full-of-stories]

Kid.

[dazzle02]

When he was a kid, Evan made a Mothers Day card for his Mum at School one year. Everyone was making them, and he was really excited. She was not interested in it at all, and he later found it thrown away.

He did the same thing on Fathers Day, same thing happened.

Both times broke his heart.

The next time Mothers Day came around, he wanted to cry. Everyone in his class were making these cards and so excited about giving them to their Mums, how happy they'd be and how much they'd love them. Evan knew that wasn't the case for him. He knew who would appreciate a card though, who loved him more than anyone. Maddie.

So he made Maddie a Mothers Day card. She cried when he gave it to her. She put it up in her room, and then kept it in a box with all the other drawings and stuff her little brother gave her.

It became a tradition. Every Mothers Day, he'd make Maddie a card. Even when he got to an age where it wasn't really cool, he'd get her a card.

He never actually stops. Even when she's with Doug, he sends her one every year, just as he sent the postcards. And just like with the postcards, she keeps every one of them.

The first Fathers Day after Maddie and Chimney get married, Buck gives Chimney a card referring to him as his Step-Dad as a joke. He does this at work in front of everyone, they all find it hilarious.

That also becomes something he does every year. Chimney keeps them all too. He'll never admit it to Buck though.

[d0ntb3stup1d]

made this with my guy gale cleven in mind

[someguywriting]

gerbils can develop music tastes and my gerbils like traditional country music

[try-set-me-on-fire]

Rewatched Eddie Begins yesterday and at the start his mom is talking about how Ramon was out of town for each of the kids, and how Adriana had been an emergency C-section. In the retirement party episode the story about little Eddie crashing the truck when his mom went into labor was also Adriana. So Eddie was alone and scared and his mom was in emergency surgery and when his dad finally showed up he needed comfort and got yelled at instead.....

[tommygettingwrittenoff]

my favorite thing about bt is when there's an opportunity for buck and t to have a deeper connection, but then t just shuts it down. like, go girl, give us nothing!!!!

[stagefoureddiediaz]

The secret ingredient is love and sharing the secret ingredient is an act of love, because Bobby wouldn’t share that information with anyone else

[lover-of-mine]

No but like, Buck is scared of being the one that's left behind, of being alone and now we are in a situation where Eddie is scared if ending up alone because Buck is the one that leaves him. Buck died, yes, that one is not his fault, but filled a lawsuit without talking to Eddie and it broke Eddie. Even when Eddie left the 118 he made a point of keeping Buck as close as possible, even inviting Buck's girlfriend to his home when it's very clear Eddie doesn't like Taylor. But Buck left Eddie. He came back yes, and Buck is allowed whatever feeling he had and we know feels guilty for it, but it's interesting.

[icyfox17]

i failed at going to bed early but HEYYYY i think i'll be posting a fic tomorrow isnt that exciting :)))

[beansschool]

Found family fans really won this week, didn't we

[mooncalf87]

dreaming of the day when I get to cut contact with my father

[gaysonlyocean]

!!!! okok i hc Adam to have like. lazy eye because

a) i have one!! and we love projecting onto our favorite characters.

b) that entire six sequence and the end of vol 4. his eye!!!

plus I never see characters with lazy eyes ever which, expected ig, so I make up for it by giving it to my favorite characters

sorry if this doesn't make any sense! I also just woke up-defnotadam

OUGHGHHH I LOVE THAT!!!!

i am full support of this hc :]

[harrowharkwife]

I can’t believe I just woke up to this 😅 Does the whole sperm donor theory comes just from the TVline snippet? Fandom absolutely skipped over the obvious threesome suggestion (quite possible as Eddie “gets involved” with the singer and if it implies something even remotely romantic for Eddie we know how Buck gets) and jumped straight to sperm donor thing? Threesome is sort of close to Buck’s current storyline of being single and realising he’s better being alone for now but the last time he talked about being a father was in season 1 maybe. No offence but it’s the most outlandish theory ever since “Maddie is actually Buck’s mother”. Am I missing something that makes it so believable to others?

cranky cause you can't handle fun theories, huh?

POV im washing this rancid ask down the drain

[lesbiradshaw]

911 constantly trying to push the agenda you should forgive your parents no matter what they do to you like. that made sense for some of the characters but every single one of them ? sometimes family doesnt deserve to be forgiven sawwry!!!!