(no subject)

[semi_stable]

The modern technological era comes with its fair share of problems, but Bucky will give it one thing: learning stuff is a whole hell of a lot easier. When he decides that he wants to build a small pen off the side of his outbuilding, all he really needs to do is watch a few videos on the internet. He doesn't even have to talk to anyone, and that's just another bonus.

After checking on the new arrivals out in the workshop, Bucky loads Bopp up in the truck and heads to the hardware store, loading up a flatbed cart with wood and nails and whatever tools he needs that he doesn't already have. Luckily, the store also has the basics that he'll need to go inside the pen, including a trough and bags of hay and feed, so he doesn't even need to make a second stop.

Once they're back home, Bucky opens the back door to let Alpine out. She winds around his feet and headbutts Bopp, and both animals trot after him as he heads toward the workshop. He wants to get started right away, kind of needs to, so he gets right to it, determined to finish by the end of the day.

By the time afternoon rolls around and the sun is high in the sky, Bucky's stripped down to a white tank and worn jeans. He uses the elastic around his wrist to pull his hair back into a small loop at the back of his head, grateful that it's long enough now to get it up and off his neck.

He cuts the wood by hand, working the saw back and forth at each mark he's made, and then takes a short break to wipe sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist.

"Bopp," he says to his dog, who is laying in the shade and chewing on a bone while Alpine snoozes on a tree brunch above her. She lifts her head and looks at him. "Why don't you go get me a beer?"

He isn't actually expecting her to do anything, and he smiles a little to himself when her head tilts at the question. "Is that a no?"

Comments

[thewrongpath]

"Don't let him overwork you, madam," Loki said to the dog as he strolled around the side of the house and into the backyard. While he was seemingly unaffected by the heat, he had opted not to wear all black, for once. Instead, he wore skinny jeans and a loose, slightly billowing button-up in a pale, sage green. He was barefoot, and when the dog bounded over to greet him, he dropped into a graceful crouch and gave her all the scratches she deserved.

"Fetching beer certainly isn't in her job description."

With a flicker of green, a can (swiped from Bucky's fridge with the aid of magic) appeared in his hand. He lobbed it at Bucky with a smirk.

[semi_stable]

At the sound of Loki's familiar voice, Bucky sets the saw down and turns around to watch his approach and feels his brows lift in slight surprise. Loki is dressed casually, collar of his pale shirt unbuttoned a little to reveal the hollow of his throat, dark hair soft and curled around his ears. Bucky immediately wants to touch him, but he hangs back while Bopp runs up to him with all the eagerness that Bucky feels.

"Yeah, she's got it pretty rough," he says, cracking a laugh as Loki tosses one of Bucky's own beers at his head. He catches it with a soft clang of metal against metal and holds it against his temple for a moment. "Look at you, being so helpful."

[thewrongpath]

"I aim to please," Loki said wryly, rising to his feet and crossing the distance between them. "What's all this, then?" He arched a brow. "I can't imagine you're expecting to confine Bopp to a quarter so woefully below her standards?"

He cut a look to the dog, and for a moment, it might have appeared as if they'd exchanged some secret between the two of them.

[semi_stable]

As Loki approaches, Bucky straightens up from his crouch and shifts the can to the side of his neck before letting it drop to his side. At the question, and the shared look between them, Bucky lets out a genuine bark of laughter and shakes his head.

"No, definitely not," Bucky tells him, stepping forward to give Loki a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth before pulling back. He's sweaty and dirty, so he keeps his hands to himself.

"Well," he begins, brows lifting as he gives Loki a too-innocent smile. "You like Bopp, right? And you like Alpine?"

[thewrongpath]

A crease settled between his brows and he let out a grumble of protest at that brief kiss, but the smile on Bucky's face was enough of a distraction.

Oh, yes. That smile was trouble.

"Why do I feel like this is a trick question?"

[semi_stable]

“You’re the tricky one, not me,” Bucky protests, feeling charmed when Loki’s lips stay pursed for a brief second after Bucky pulls away, like he was expecting more.

“I’m just asking if you’re fond of my animals, but it’s okay. I already know the answer,” he says with a knowing smirk. Bopp has Loki wrapped around her little paw, as evidenced by all the toys and the extravagant bed that seem to all just have appeared in Bucky’s house. “You like those animals, so I’m hoping you’ll like these, too.”

He goes over to open the door of the workshop, and two baby goats, one black and one white, immediately come tumbling out, bleating as they get to their feet. Bucky looks down at them and then over at Loki, holding his hands out to present the pair with a hopeful smile on his face. “I have goats now.”

[thewrongpath]

The two little goats hopped jauntily in his direction, knocking clumsily into one another and screaming their tiny heads off.

Loki tried, and failed, not to smile.

"So, you're populating a petting zoo? I suppose everyone needs a vocation."

[semi_stable]

Bucky can tell that he's trying to fight it, but Loki smiles and Bucky grins in return, laughing as he follows the goats toward Loki. Bopp trots over to sniff curiously at the goats while Alpine snoozes on a tree branch, seemingly entirely unconcerned.

"I took care of goats in Wakanda," Bucky explains, stepping quickly in front of the black goat when it tries to wander off. "They gave me the job to help me feel useful, I think. But I really enjoyed it. It helped me."

Some days, when he was at his lowest, the goats were the only thing that would drag him out of his tent. He couldn't lie there in a depression, wallowing over his life, because that meant that the goats wouldn't eat, and that wouldn't be fair to them.

"There was an ad in the pet supply store about these two needing to be rehomed, and I have the space now," Bucky says with a sheepish shrug, sliding his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "It seemed like a no brainer."

[thewrongpath]

"Oh, yes, truly. Not a brain in sight," Loki teased him, and dropped into a crouch to get a better look little beasts, who immediately began attempting to hop atop his shoulders, despite still being a bit small for such feats.

"It's a shame you don't have room for horses."

[semi_stable]

"Har har," Bucky replies, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking as Loki warms to the goats. One of them headbutts him in the thigh while the other tries to jump in his lap, and Bucky wishes more than anything that he had his phone.

"Not unless I expand." He glances curiously toward the untouched land next to his property, feeling some impulse to buy it and build a stable just because it might make Loki happy. "They have stables here. If you ever want to go riding."

[thewrongpath]

"If you plan to tag along, I wouldn't say no," Loki said, something wistful in his smirk. "I haven't ridden a horse since accompanying my brother and his warriors on their many foolish adventures."

Scooping up one of the goats and holding it against his chest, Loki stood, ignoring the creature as it began placidly chewing his shirt.

[semi_stable]

"Is that how they'd describe them?" Bucky teases, but his smile is soft and fond and his gaze lingers on the curve of Loki's mouth. He knows that, even with his current new project, he'll be calling the stables before the day is through. "Of course I'd go with you. I'm no Asgardian warrior, but I can stay up on a horse."

He's a little surprised when Loki plucks one of the goats up from the ground, holding it close and getting dirt on his pristine clothes, and Bucky thinks that he might fall a little harder right then and there. The other goat bleats impatiently, jealous ofthe attention, so Bucky lifts it up with his metal arm to hold it close. "You should help me name them."

[thewrongpath]

"Should I?" Loki said, brow arched in playful skepticism. The goat in his arms stretched its little neck out to try and get its mouth around his hair, and screamed when it found that it couldn't.

"Well, they need names befitting the monstrous little beasts they are, don't you think?"

[semi_stable]

"Leave it to me and I'll just call them Night and Day," Bucky says with a slightly bashful shrug. "I'm not the most creative."

The goat in Loki's arms wriggles and yells, and Bucky laughs softly and he steps up to Loki, reaching out to tuck Loki's hair behind his ear and out of reach. "Sorry, little one, but you can't have that."

With his fingers still stroking the side of Loki's neck, Bucky gives him an amused, almost playful smile. "It's a very big responsibility, naming kids together."

[thewrongpath]

"Nótt and Dagr," Loki said, with a thoughtful frown. "Fitting, if not creative."

Chuckling softly, Loki caught Bucky's wrist in his hand, thumb brushing gently against the nervous thrum of his pulse.

"Oh, very clever wordplay there," he teased, turning briefly to let the goat squirm from his arms and hop to the ground, where it continued thrashing about like a happy little demon.

"I can't say I'd be shocked if I turned up one day to find you having adopted some poor, unfortunate waif."

[semi_stable]

"Knot and Dagger?" Bucky replies with a playful smile, butchering the language just to try and amuse Loki. He watches as the goat hops off, feeling a certain sort of warmth as Bopp chases after them, herding them back toward the warehouse and away from the beach. Loki's arm curls around his wrist and Bucky looks back at him, laughing softly and shaking his head.

"Oh, I doubt that very much," he says as he leans in to give Loki another kiss, this one lingering a bit before he pulls away. He's sweaty and dirty, but he doesn't think Loki will mind too much. "Human children can talk back, and I hear that locking them in a pen overnight is frowned upon."

Bucky can't really imagine himself as a father. He used to, way back when his life was normal, but not anymore. It became an impossible thing, and now it feels almost strange to even think about.

[thewrongpath]

"Whatever you like," Loki said, pointedly and playfully avoiding the bait. Bucky smelled of sharp sweat and a earth and a bit of goat, but Loki didn't mind in the slightest.

Humming thoughtfully into the kiss, Loki pulled back just far enough to say, "Seems a shame. I think you'd do parenting rather well."

Because Loki was Loki, he might have been teasing, and because Bucky was Bucky, Loki was content enough to let him believe he was.

[semi_stable]

"I'll put those on the shortlist," Bucky replies, moving his hands to Loki's hips when he pulls back. The comment about him being a father throws him a bit and though he's almost sure that Loki is teasing him, but there's something in his eyes that says that maybe he isn't.

"Well, I know a lot about what not to do," he says with a soft, almost awkward laugh. "But the only woman that I'm sleeping with assures me it won't be an issue, so I don't really see it happening. I'll just have to channel that energy into my growing menagerie."

The goats go bouncing by them in the opposite direction, herded along by Bopp, and Bucky smiles over his shoulder at them for a moment before turning to look at Loki again, expression curious. "What about you?"

[thewrongpath]

Laughing, Loki said, "I'm the last person who needs to have children." With a sweeping gesture out towards the universe, he added, "If I do have any out there, it's for the best I don't interfere."

His tone was lightheartedly dismissive, but betrayed the self-loathing he spent so much effort to keep hidden.

[semi_stable]

Bucky opens his mouth to make a joke about Loki not knowing if he has kids somewhere out there in the universe, but snaps it shut again when he realizes that he can't say with one hundred percent certainty that he doesn't either. No, he doesn't think so, and his odds are much slimmer than Loki's, but he supposes that it's possible. He always tried to be careful, but there were a lot of women across a few different countries that he had one night dalliances with before everything went to shit. It's a very sobering thought, and he's thankful that Loki distracts him from it until he catches the look on his face.

"You love fiercely," Bucky tells him, because he doesn't know what else to say. None of them are in any place to be raising children, not with all of their collective trauma, so there isn't much sense in talking about it. Instead, Bucky reaches out to curl his metal hand around the back of Loki's neck, squeezing at the tight muscle at the base of his skull. "I guess you'll just have to help me raise these goats." His brows lift playfully. "I'm in no position to teach them about having horns. That's on you."

[thewrongpath]

A god of chaos, an agent of destruction and mischief, had no business creating anything. Still, a very distant part of him longed to know what it might feel like to make something good, for once.

"Fiercely, if not wisely," Loki countered, with a faintly teasing smirk. Gripping the back of Bucky's neck in a returned embrace, Loki took the change of subject with a bit of relief. At the mention of horns, Loki rolled his eyes. "Hilarious," he said flatly, gripping the nape of Bucky's neck playfully tighter.

[semi_stable]

“Loving me isn’t wise?” Bucky asks, smirking softly as Loki grabs the back of his neck and draws him in closer. He puts his free hand on Loki’s chest, holding it there for a moment before reaching up to take Loki’s chin between his thumb and forefinger.

“It’s because you’re now a stepfather to a pair of goats, isn’t it?” He jokes as he leans in, nudging his nose against Loki’s before giving him a brief kiss.