An-Peter's has a bad day, or maybe a bad week or maybe a bad every single day. But he still doesn't want to tell the team why, and he's drawing like he always does when he's upset. Bucky decides to help Peter in any way he can

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"What're you drawing now?" Bucky asked quietly, sitting down next to Peter who sniffled and hurriedly wipes his face. He looked down at the drawing and shrugged.

"Uh, a cat named Jonathan from a show on Netflix," Peter answered thickly. He wiped his face again making Bucky sigh quietly. Peter wasn't just having a bad day, more like a bad week. He'd been coming home to the tower in varying states of upset more and more over the course of the last month. And he always without fail refused to talk about it, not with May when he went home for the weekend, not with Tony in the labs, not with the team. No one.

"I didn't know you liked cats?" Bucky pressed. Peter glanced up at him and pointed the end of his pencil at the drawing.

"Sure. But this one has a hat. And is named Jonathan." Peter said, sniffling again and going back to drawing Jonathan's whiskers. Bucky had always found himself watching Peter draw, he was used to watching Steve draw but he didn't really do that anymore. And Peter was good, really really good.

"He looks a little grumpy," Bucky said quietly. Several members of the team had looked up to watch the interaction. Peter narrowed his eyes and placed down his pencil.

"What do you want?" He asked bluntly. Bucky blinked for several moments before grinning.

"You are terribly perceptive," Bucky said, grunting and shifting so his legs were straight and not under himself, knees and ankles clicking as he moved. Peter smiled slightly.

"You and your old man bones are just obvious." He said smugly, putting his pencil down and digging through his pencil case for his permanent marker and outlining it before colouring in the background. Bucky was chuckling to himself, about to say something when Peter looked up at him, locking eyes with him with narrowed eyes.

"What if I don't want to go to college?" He asked suddenly, eyes flickering between Bucky's. Bucky opened and closed his mouth several times before nodding to himself. Peter reddened and looked back down at his paper.

"Well, I do want to go to college, just. Just not for what everyone thinks I want to for." Peter blurted out. Bucky nodded slowly, glancing at Tony who's eyes were wide.

"Well, first you don't have to go to college if you don't want to. You aren't obligated to go to college or any type of education you don't want to do. It's important that you do what you want to do. Not what everyone else wants." Bucky said gently. Peter shrugged weakly.

"What do you want to do? What does Peter Parker want to do?" Bucky asked with narrowed eyes, tying his hair up at the top of his head while Peter stared at his drawing.

"Does it matter?" He asked quietly. Bucky sighed.

"It matters for you. For who you want to be. For who you are." Bucky said gently.

"It's just. Everyone thinks I want to do calculus and algebra and physics and biology and chemistry and I like those subjects and they're fun and I'm good at them. I just, I." Peter sniffled and pushed his notebook away from him and capping his pen.

"You're safe here Pete. You know, non of us are gonna judge you in any way shape or form." Bucky said gently patting the top of Peter's hand as he sniffled again and wiped his face.

"It's not fun when everyone is expecting you to be that best at what you're doing and puts so much pressure on you. It's not fun when you aren't doing it for you anymore and I'm not anymore. It's just I don't want to do great things. I don't want the whole world looking in on me. That's why I wear a mask. Because there are no expectations." Peter said quietly. Bucky nodded encouragingly for him to continue.

"I don't want to be a physicist. Or a neurosurgeon. Or an engineer. Or, or a fucking trauma surgeon." Peter said thickly. Bucky nodded again fro him to continue, sighing when Peter didn't.

"Okay, what do you want to be?" Bucky asked gently. Peter reddened and sniffled, hiding his face in his hands and mumbling something. Bucky snorted and gently pulled Peter's hands away from his face.

"Enhanced hearing or not I didn't catch that one." He said. Peter sighed, looking up at the ceiling with Bucky still holding his hands firmly.

"A tattoo artist and a piercer." He said eventually. Bucky glanced down at the drawing book and cocked his head.

"That makes a lot of sense. And you know, even if you're smart you don't have to spend your life doing something you hate. We'll all support you." Bucky said firmly, glancing at the team who were all nodding in agreement. Peter shrugged weakly.

"Thank you." He said quietly. Bucky chuckled and let Peter's hands go, patting his arm.

"No problem kiddo. Now I gotta ask, can you draw a really really cool duck on me?" Bucky asked. Peter's head snapped around to look at Bucky incredulously.

"You want me to draw a duck on you?" He asked. Bucky nodded in clarification which made Peter snort and pick up his pen.

"This is gonna be the coolest duck you've ever seen." He said with a laugh, pulling Bucky's arm towards himself.

Five years later Peter's first tattoo was the same duck he'd drawn on Bucky's arm, and Bucky could often be found dragging about his duck friend.