#like pen pals!! but its with the kids of the bus!! and cassie gets to be their messenger!!

[teachingoutsidethebinary]

Spark of Love: Part 2

Summary: Steve, Bucky, and Nat take Remington clothes shopping while Tony and Sam set up her room.

Characters: Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, OFC Remington

Warnings: mentions of prior abuse

Word count: 1171

A/N: Special thanks to @bloo-moon-freak for helping me with the series!

Read previous part here

It was official: Remington was staying. While Sam and Tony made sure the spare bedroom on the third floor had all of the furniture it needed, Steve, Bucky, and Nat took her to get more clothes.

“What do we even need?” Steve asked as they walked down one of the aisles. The store was packed with shirts, pants, jackets, and more, and none of them really knew where to start. Remington sat happily in Bucky’s arms, still wearing Steve’s oversized t-shirt.

“Well, we better figure it out soon because people are staring,” Nat whispered. She glared right back at a nosy woman who gave Remington’s outfit the stink eye.

“Doesn’t Scott Lang have a kid?” Bucky asked as he shifted Remington in his arms. “Why don’t we ask him?”

“Bucky, that’s brilliant!” Steve exclaimed. He pulled out his phone and dialed Scott’s number. Thankfully, he picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?” Scott answered.

“Scott, it’s Steve. I need your help-”

“Captain America needs my help!” Scott yelped. “Absolutely! I can change into my suit and be there in-”

“Not that kind of help,” Steve interrupted.

“Oh,” Scott replied, a twinge of disappointment in his voice.

“We found this kid on a mission and decided to keep her-”

“A kid?! Kids are best, Cap!” Scott replied. “Just be careful because now they’re in diapers and soon they’ll be dating and learning how to drive, and…”

Scott kept rambling on, and Steve looked at Nat helplessly. She took the phone out of his grasp.

“Lang, Romanoff here,” she said, brusquely. “Listen, Remington has no clothes and we don’t know what to buy. Can you help?”

“Oh hey, Natasha,” Scott replied nervously. Flashbacks of their encounter in Germany flew through his mind and he decided to get down to business. “Clothes? Um, well, kids actually need quite a lot. You got a pen?”

Nat took out her own phone and opened a new note.

“Go ahead,” she replied.

“Okay, two questions. How old is she, and is she potty trained?” Scott asked.

“She’s about four, and she used the bathroom earlier today,” Nat replied.

“Good! That’ll save you on some stuff since she’s not super little,” Scott answered. “So, socks and underwear are a must. It probably wouldn’t hurt to buy a few packs of pull-ups for the first few nights either.” He paused and hummed thoughtfully. “Since it’s summer now, I would stick to the basics. Shirts, pants, pajamas, some dresses if she likes that stuff. Where is she living?”

“The Tower.”

“Stark’s got a pool in there, right? So definitely a few bathing suits. Oh! And shoes! Don’t forget the shoes. You can get a winter jacket and warmer clothes once the weather gets cooler, but that stuff should cover it for now.”

“Thanks, Lang. One more question...how many of each?”

“Well, that depends,” Scott replied. “I mean, I would definitely get three or four weeks worth of underwear and socks. Kids have accidents, ya know? And they can get pretty dirty. I mean, once Cassie found this HUGE mud puddle and…”

“Lang!” Nat interrupted.

“Oh, right!” Scott said, sheepishly. “Anyway, for the shirts and other stuff...what was her situation like before this?”

“Not good.” Nat stepped out of Remington’s earshot. “She was being held by HYDRA, so who knows what they did to her.”

“Oh, man,” Scott whistled. “Well, then, think of it like this: you guys are probably the first people to buy her new stuff. If it was me, I’d spoil her. But it’s really up to you.”

Nat paused and considered Scott’s advice. “Okay. We really appreciate your help,” Nat replied.

“No worries! Good luck!” he said.

Nat ended the call and handed the phone back to Steve.

“Well?” Bucky asked. “What do we need?”

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Nat replied, a smile growing on her face.

Instead of splitting up the list, they let Remington pick out what she wanted. Every time she smiled or pointed at something, Nat immediately found her size and put it in the cart. Steve and Bucky thought it was a little excessive, but one determined look from Nat shut them both up.

They quickly learned Remington loved purple, blue, and grey. Her underwear and socks were different shades of each color, and she even picked out a package from the boys’ aisle with monster trucks on them. She also wasn’t too picky about what designs were on her clothes. Bucky held her up to each rack of clothing, and Remington pulled off the shirts she wanted. The cart soon became filled with shirts with dinosaurs, princesses, ninjas, flowers, and more. She scrunched her nose at the dresses but let Nat put two grey ones in the cart.

Pajamas and pants were easy too. Steve saw no reason why a four-year old needed jeans, so he kept her at the legging and sweatpant sections. It also made figuring out her size a piece of cake since he could just pull the elastic around her tiny waist to see if it would fit.

Shoes sucked. Remington didn’t want to sit still long enough to try them on, and when she started to fuss, the lights began to flicker. Bucky managed to measure her foot size before the lights blew out and grabbed a bunch of different styles in her size.

By the time everything was said and done, they walked out of the store with six big bags of clothes and a bill that would make Tony Stark wince. But when they watched Remington bounce out of the store wearing her new black leggings, a purple tutu, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt, they knew it had been worth it.

She held Nat’s hand as Steve and Bucky carried the bags.

“You know, you could help us!” Bucky complained.

“I could,” Nat sang, “but then we wouldn’t have arms for bags of TOYS!” She stopped in front of a local toy store and Remington’s eyes grew wide.

Steve and Bucky almost protested again, but their hearts suddenly melted as Remington held her teddy up to the window display.

“Look, Teddy!” she whispered. “Toys!” She turned and walked over to Bucky and Steve, wrapping a little arm around each of their legs.

“We go get toys Bu-ee? Stee?” she asked. “Please?” She looked up at them with hopeful brown eyes.

“Yes!” the two supersoldiers replied almost immediately.

“Yay!” Remington shouted. “Toys Nat!” She grabbed Nat’s hand and pulled her inside the store.

“Oh, we are so screwed when she gets older,” Bucky groaned.

“Older? Pal, I think we’re screwed now,” Steve replied, following the two girls inside.

While Remington had picked out her clothes, she let Teddy pick out the toys. She held it up to each shelf and whispered in its ear. She would either nod in satisfaction and pull the toy off the shelf, or shake her head and move on. Teddy picked out a tea set, remote-controlled cars, coloring books, a food play set, and more. It really had a ball in the LEGO aisle, and Nat grabbed at least twelve different sets. Teddy was also apparently as voracious reader, because it insisted on picking out a variety of books from the back of the store.

When they all got back to the Tower, everyone was exhausted. Somehow, Nat had managed to avoid carrying any of the fifteen bags total, and Steve and Bucky were thoroughly shopped out. They dumped the bags in the kitchen and pulled out a pair of pajamas for Remington to wear.

Bucky carried her up to the third floor with Steve and Nat following closely behind. They could hear Tony and Sam putting the finishing touches on the room as they walked inside.

“Just in time!” Tony announced, clapping his hands together. He walked over to Remington who stared at the room in awe. “What do you think, kiddo?”

Remington kicked in Bucky’s arms until he put her down so she could observe her new surroundings. The room was painted a light blue and accented with a grey rug. A simple twin bed on a dark wooden frame sat against the wall with guard rails on either side. Steve had texted Tony her color preference, and he bought a dark purple comforter with grey sheets. Remington ran her hands over the soft fabric and tucked Teddy underneath the covers as she continued to explore.

She walked over and opened the empty toy chest and adjacent closet. There was also a tall bookcase because Tony was convinced she was going to be a big reader.

“We put my toys and books here?” she asked.

“We’ll put them all away tomorrow,” Steve promised.

She nodded and walked back over towards the bed. A small lap glowed on top of the nightstand next to her bed, and Remington held her hand up to it. Small sparks flowed between her hand and the lamp as the air around her hummed. She nodded and smiled in satisfaction. Walking over to the wall of windows, she looked out over the city.

“Look! Lights!” she cried, smushing her face against the glass.

“You can mess with the lights in here, but leave those alone, okay?” Sam asked.

“I try,” Remington promised as she turned around. She waddled over to the adjoining bathroom, but barely paid any notice to it. Instead, she walked over to each Avenger and gave their legs a hug and looked up at them.

“Thank you Stee. Thank you Bu-ee. Thank you Nat. Thank you Sam. Thank you Tony.”

Everyone choked back tears of adoration as she made her way back to the bed and snuggled under the covers with Teddy. Her eyes fluttered shut, her breathing slowed, and soon, she was fast asleep.

No one moved. In fact, they probably would have watched Remington all night if they hadn’t been so tired themselves. Tony turned off the main lights and carefully closed the door, leaving it open a crack.

“Wait!” Steve whispered. “She forgot to brush her teeth!”

“Let it go, Cap,” Sam insisted. “She’ll survive one night.”

“I installed a few cameras and baby monitors,” Tony informed the rest of them. “We’ll be able to hear if anything goes wrong.”

“Sounds good,” Sam replied, yawning. “You guys ready for this?”

Truthfully, they probably weren’t. With a life as crazy and demanding as an Avenger’s, parenthood wasn’t really something they were expecting right now. But Remington deserved something much better than her life at HYDRA, and these guys were determined to give it to her.

They were going to be just fine.

TAGS: @buckyappreciationsociety @bloo-moon-freak