Work Text:
“Hey honey,” Steve said quietly, poking his head around the door frame, “how are you feeling?”
“I’m okay, Papa,” Sasha sniffled, “Just wish my nose would stop runnin’ so darn much.” He punctuated this particular remark with a violent sneeze, groaned, and snuggled deeper into his pillow nest, looking about as miserable as any pup could look. Steve’s heart gave a small squeeze, and he stepped further into Sasha’s bedroom, running his hand over Sasha’s forehead, both pushing his unruly brown curls back out of Sasha’s eyes and checking for a fever. He and Bucky were both pretty sure that it was just a simple summer cold, but it had knocked the normally energetic pup down flat for the past 24 hours, so they were both checking on him regularly to make sure it wasn’t something more serious.
Steve in particular was being plagued with flashbacks to his own childhood bouts of just about anything and everything and wondered yet again how his mother’s nerves handled him being sick all the time. He himself was feeling jittery even though logic said that Sasha was fine, the cold would run its course and he’d be back to himself in a few days. This, however, was Sasha’s first time being sick since Steve and Bucky got mated, and so Steve was in charge of watching Sasha today while Bucky was out on a job. Bucky had assured him he would do fine as he ran out of the house this morning, but Steve was less confident in his abilities as a nurse than his Alpha.
“I know, kiddo, I’m sorry that you’re nose is so drippy,” Steve soothed, “Do you want some tea or soup? The steam might help loosen up some of the gunk and it’d feel good if your throat is sore at all.”
Sasha hummed in response, but his eyelids were already drooping, and his breath evening out in sleep. Steve smiled down at the pup, watching as he fell completely asleep before he got up and crept out of the room. He’d check back in after a bit, and see if Sasha was hungry or thirsty then. Until then, he could keep himself busy with some straightening up around the house, and maybe get started on a pot of chicken noodle soup for dinner, and ask Bucky to swing by the store and pick up some bread and cheese to go with it on his way home tonight.
When Steve next checked on him, Sasha was awake and starting to feel a little restless after almost all day in his bed. Well acquainted with this restlessness, Steve ushered Sasha to the living room, grateful that their couch was a giant, cushy monstrosity that was perfect for nesting on, a gift from Bucky to Steve when Steve had moved in right before they had mated four months ago. Sasha waited, sad and miserable while Steve created a quick nest for him, and crawled in with a whine of protest after Steve told him he had to stay awake long enough to drink something and nibble on a few crackers. At seven and a half, Sasha was still sweet as could be most of the time, but he had flashes of stubbornness that Steve knew would give him and Bucky a run for their money during his teens, and he half expected to come back out and have to wake Sasha up again to get the tea and crackers down him.
He was pleasantly surprised then, that when he reemerged from the kitchen Sasha was still upright and awake, wedged into the corner of the couch with a blanket pulled up around his shoulders, and his old, well-loved teddy bear, Toffee, sitting in his lap, Sasha’s fingers stroking one of her ears. He took the tea and put the crackers in his lap, slowly beginning to work his way through both, with no prompting from Steve. Steve settled in next to him, and after a minute, Sasha asked,
“Papa? Can you read this to me, please? Daddy always reads it for me when I’m sick.” He pulled a small, green book out of his blanket nest, holding it out for Steve’s inspection.
Steve grinned in response, reaching out to take the book. Sasha snuggled back with a pleased smile of his own as Steve cracked open the book and began,
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
***************
That was how Bucky found them when he got home that night; snuggled together in a giant pile of pillows and blankets, Sasha in Steve’s lap, clutching Toffee to his chest, a small pile of Kleenexes beside him along with other detritus that comes from one being sick cluttering up the coffee table. Steve had on his glasses, and his hand holding the book that he was reading to Sasha was propped up on a pillow so that he could see the page over the top of Sasha’s frankly ridiculous bed-head. Both of them were so engrossed in the story that they didn’t hear Bucky come in the kitchen door, and he took a moment to observe. Steve was doing voices for all the different characters, and Bucky grinned when he realized what story Steve was reading to Sasha. He waited until Steve finished with his page, until he came forward, observing,
“You know, I often don’t know what I have in my pockets either.”
“I know,” Steve looked over his shoulder, grimacing, “I have to clean them out before they go in the washing machine, and I think it’s best if they stay a riddle most of the time.”
“Daddy!” Sasha exclaimed, clambering over the back of the couch, “Papa’s reading me The Hobbit!”
“I see that,” Bucky laughed, pressing a kiss to Sasha’s forehead, and then leaning over to kiss Steve as well, “are you enjoying it so far?”
“Yes! The dwarves are so funny, and poor Bilbo forgot his pocket handkerchiefs, and Papa said that’s like Kleenexes, and I feel so bad for Bilbo, having a runny nose is the worst with nothing to wipe it with.” Sasha exclaimed, flopping back into his nest of blankets, huffing as Steve handed him a Kleenex, but he did obligingly blow his nose. Bucky grimaced in sympathy at his small whine of discomfort; Sasha’s nose looked as red as one of Bilbo’s prized tomatoes. Steve nodded in agreement, putting a bookmark in between the pages of the well-worn book.
“Do you know what helps runny noses?” Steve asked, “Chicken noodle soup and bread and cheese.”
Sasha cheered at this announcement, and Steve got up from the couch, coming around and kissing Bucky in greeting, and Bucky laughed when Sasha made a gagging noise and muttered about ‘mushy adult stuff.
“Hey doll,” Bucky said, “How’d your day go?”
“It was good,” Steve waved a hand at the living room, “Sasha slept most of the day, but got restless this afternoon so we decided to camp out in the living room for a change of pace.”
“Good strategy,” Bucky mused, “I’ll go strip his bed so he has clean sheets after dinner?”
“That would be great, and I’ll go start heating up the soup and cutting the bread and cheese.”
“Awww,” Sasha whined, his big green eyes peering over the back of the couch sadly, “But I wanted to find out if Bilbo finds his way out of the cave or not!”
“Tell you what, Sashenka,” Bucky said, leaning forward and ruffling Sasha’s curls, “after Daddy and Papa do a couple quick things for laundry and dinner, we can eat here on the couch and then Daddy will take a turn reading the book so Papa doesn’t loose his voice and we can read until bedtime. How does that sound?”
Sasha grinned, an exact replica of Bucky’s own bright smile, and Steve’s chest glowed warm with love for his Alpha and his pup.