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“So, how would you feel about it if I told everyone I cheated on you?”
Bucky set the forkful of eggs he had been about to put in his mouth back onto his plate. “I beg your pardon?”
“You know.” Clint shrugged. “Like, if I just. Made it public knowledge that I had cheated on you?”
Bucky was incredibly confused at the turn their Saturday morning breakfast had taken. “You—what?”
“Well, so. Yesterday, I went over to Katie’s to try and fix that stupid shower drain again, as if the problem isn’t her hair needing to get snaked out every few months, and she was crying, and so of course I asked why she was crying, and it turns out she’s pregnant—”
“Kate Bishop?” Bucky said with disbelief. “You cheated on me and got your twenty-year-old tenant—who is over two decades your junior—pregnant? Is that what you’re telling me right now?”
Clint choked on his coffee, slamming the mug so firmly on the table that Bucky was surprised it didn’t shatter. “What, no! Of course not!” he exclaimed once he could breathe again.
“Then what are you saying?” Bucky scratched the back of his head. “I’m confused.”
“Sorry, I’m going all out of order.” Clint sighed. “Kate’s ex is terrible, and she doesn’t want him to have anything to do with the baby. But she also doesn’t want to get an abortion either. I didn’t ask her why—not my body, my choice, or my business—but it does mean that if someone doesn’t claim paternity, her punk-ass ex might have rights in the situation, which neither of us wants for her or the kid.”
Comprehension dawned on Bucky’s face. “Oh. You want to claim paternity despite knowing the kid isn’t biologically yours?” He shook his head. “You walking human disaster.”
“I won’t if you don’t want me to,” Clint told him seriously. “I know I’m a chaotic asshole, but I meant my vows. I can find another way to help Kate.”
Bucky leaned forward and rubbed his temples. “I want to talk to Kate myself, see what she thinks before I make any decisions.”
“So it’s not a no, then?” Clint asked cautiously.
“It’s not a no,” Bucky confirmed. “Go text your mistress, let her know your husband wants to talk.”
Clint snorted into his coffee. “Oh, I’m going to never hear the end of it am I?”
“If we go through with this, everything will change.” Bucky met Clint’s eyes, expression serious. “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
Clint shrugged. “My life has reset and changed so many times now, but in the end it’s always gotten me where I need to be. It got me you, didn’t it?” He leaned over and kissed Bucky on the cheek, and Bucky turned his head so that it turned into a proper kiss. They broke apart only when Alpine jumped up between them into Bucky’s lap to plead for attention of her own.
“You know,” Bucky told her as he scratched her head, “soon you won’t be the only baby around. Gonna have to divide our attention.” Pausing in thought, he turned to Clint again. “Will we have the baby around here? Should we baby-proof the place?”
Clint’s mouth twitched into a smile. “I thought you hadn’t said yes?”
“I haven’t,” Bucky said, a little bit too fast. “But Kate is still your friend and lives in the building. She often pet-sits. It’s a reasonable assumption that she would bring the baby to visit us sometimes.” It wasn’t what he had meant, and they both knew it; but this was a big and scary thing they would (potentially) be doing. It deserved talking about.
“Even if we do decide to go through with it, the baby wouldn’t live with us full-time. It’s mostly a formality; we wouldn’t need to be…involved. And you especially wouldn’t be, if you didn’t want to be.”
“Are you saying you plan to be a deadbeat baby daddy?” Bucky frowned. “Because that doesn’t sound like you.”
Clint rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. This will already drag my name through the mud once people think I cheated on my husband with a woman half my age who is also my tenant. I’m not gonna add being a deadbeat dad to that.”
“Of course you won’t.” Bucky took a sip of his coffee. “Being a sugar daddy and paying off your mistress is way better optics.” Looking down at Alpine, who was currently making biscuits on his lap, he smiled. “Wouldn’t you agree?” She made a small purring sound that Bucky decided to claim as agreement with his words.
“I love you,” Clint said fondly, and Bucky grinned.
“I know.”
Clint rolled his eyes again before chugging the last of his coffee, grimacing when he tasted how disgustingly cold it was. Standing up, he stretched before smacking a kiss on the top of Bucky’s head and scratching Alpine between the ears.
Bucky felt something—both familiar and not—lurch in his chest. He had promised himself that he would sleep on it, not making any decisions without considering all the answers first. But, in his heart, he knew that not a no had already been transformed into yes.