chapter one
some bonding time

nova barnes always wondered why bucky/james, her now adoptive father had chosen to adopt her. she knew who he was now and who he had been in the past. to her, he didn't seem like the kind of man who wanted a child. and definitely didn't seem like the kind of adult who wanted a child with some kind of superhero like ability.

nova didn't know why he had adopted her, the reasons that she came up with in her head were no where close to the actual reason — she believed on some level that nova was adopted by the ex-brainwashed hydra assassin, because maybe the avengers thoughts she was a dangerous girl. she had stolen from a grocery store once, that's where that thought came from.

but lucky nova, that wasn't the reason. the truth was, bucky barnes had been told he needed to "open up", yes the man with the metal arm needed to open up more. and in even more detail, he was instructed that he needed a family, a group of people who he could lean on and spend valuable time with.

that's where nova came into play. bucky had taken it too literally, but who could blame him? after all, he had been trained to follow orders, no matter the order. nova had been the answer to a task — not that anyone would ever tell her that straight to her face, yet. she was the key in moving forward, and ultimately, no one knew how special she would be now that she was intertwined in buckys life.

"nova!" bucky let out a short yell for the girl. she had been cooped up in her room for hours now. he didn't know why, but had an idea that she was in there practicing with her power.

nova was a lucky girl — some might say unlucky, but no, she was lucky. sam always joked that she won the dad-ery ( dad lottery ) and she did.

most days. today was not one of those days.

nova plucked articles of clothing off her clothing hangers and threw them behind her. she was looking for a specific sweatshirt and couldn't find it. sweatshirt after sweatshirt, shirt after shirt, hit the floor with a whoosh. the purple sweatshirt she was so desperately trying to find was the first thing bucky, her adoptive father, had boughten for her.

it was her favourite sweatshirt she owned.

today marked seven months since bucky had signed the paperwork and nova was legally his child. and they had a plan to sit on the couch, rent a few movies, a gorge themselves on junk food.

and nova wore the sweatshirt every time they did. bucky wore a run down captain american sweatshirt that nova had boughten him with her first pay check.

and nova felt as if she was betraying her adoptive father by not wearing it.

"Новая!" bucky shouted outside her door. like a very stubborn, stupid teenager, nova had placed her desk chair under the door knob so bucky couldn't get in and see her tearing her room apart.

bucky tried to open the door, he did. he didn't want to use his super strength yet — the first few times he had, he broke the door handle.

"nova barnes!" the very, very old man ( who still looked young ) yelled once more before he nudged the door open. okay, more like forced and slammed the door open quietly.

nova didn't notice that bucky was standing in her doorway, watching as nova started to panic. she looked around tearfully and when she couldn't find what she was looking for, the teenager plopped down onto the ground and placed her head into her hands.

bucky took a step forward. he was quiet, like he had been trained to. he moved all the way into the bedroom until he was crouching beside nova.

"nov?" he asked softly. he reached his non metal hand out ( even though he knew nova liked the metal one more, she thought it was a great reminder of what he overcame ) but hesitated. he didn't wanna scare her.

"im sorry." nova apologized as she sniffled.

bucky was confused to say the least, he had no idea what was going on or why the girl was crying on the floor. "what's wrong nov?"

nov — that made nova feel safe, like she wouldn't be hurt. it made her feel like a daughter to a father, a feeling that was new to her.

"i can't find my sweatshirt."

bucky let out a sigh, he knew one day that the teenager would fuss over some clothing. sam had told him all about it, the fun of children.

"did you look under your bed?" bucky suggested and nova quickly moved away from the man beside her to search under her bed. the sweatshirt wasn't there.

"i lost it!" nova cried even harder, her breaths were being much more ragged and short. "the purple sweatshirt."

bucky let out a sigh. "its okay nova. we'll get you a new one." he wasn't mad.

"b-but it's our father - daughter anniversary sweatshirt."

oh, that sweatshirt. bucky smiled. he smiled! "nova... did you check the washer?"

nova shook her head and muttered a small 'no'.

"how about we go and check, huh?" bucky wrapped his arm around novas shoulders and walked with her towards the small laundry room.

there it was. the purple sweatshirt sticking out of the clean laundry basket. nova rushed forward, buckys arm dropping to his side as she did so. the raven haired girl picked up the sweatshirt and hugged it close to her chest.

bucky didn't know much affection. he knew torture. but this, the feeling in his chest was new. he hadn't felt it before.

"oof." bucky let the air be knocked out of him as nova ran into his chest, her arms wrapping around him tightly.

"thank you." her voice was ever so quiet, but he heard her.

»

"what are we watching tonight?" bucky asked as he held an insane amount of junk food in his arms.

"we haven't walked the back to the future ones. how about those?" nova asked, flipping through the choice of movies she had.

"sure." bucky sat down beside nova and placed a popcorn bowl into her waiting hands.

nova leaned her head on buckys shoulder as she pressed play. the older man tensed up but relaxed when the feeling his chest retuned. he felt like a dad.