Summary: Bucky gets sick and Clint and Natasha are his unwilling caretakers.
Word Count: 557, literally the shortest thing I’ve written.
Content: Sickness obviously, but nothing serious really? Tony being a child. Lots of fluffs and giggles.
A/N: So this was really impromptu and I wasn’t even planning on posting it here but Tumblr was acting up so here I am. Can’t really complain because it gave me insight as to why I can never just write little short stories or headcanons. If I do, I just don’t deem them as worthy enough or long enough to post here, or I don’t think of them as a short story or headcanon but more as an outline or idea for a longer story. I’ll try to get better at it! Inspired by this drawing by the lovely @manarin and the reblogs below it.
Bucky gets sick for the first time since anyone has known him, except Steve obviously. But even Steve doesn’t remember Bucky ever getting sick, probably because he was always sick himself or too busy getting beat up in alleys, the punk. Anyway, Bucky gets the flu and everyone is really worried at first because this thing has a body count, but Bucky just gets sick, because he’s a super soldier of course. As a scientist, Bruce is really impressed and intrigued though and it spreads through the news that this flu strain is strong enough to even get super soldiers sick and before Bucky even sneezes the flu has been dubbed the super flu. #super flu is trending by the end of the day. Peter still swears he had nothing to do with it. (It was Tony).
So Steve goes to get more medicine and soup and he leaves Natasha and Clint in charge of Bucky because they got their flu shots like any sane person does. (Everybody else got theirs too but nobody wants to take the chance, ‘cept Tony, but he’s too busy enjoying Bucky’s antics to help. Bruce suggested Bucky rest and told Nat and Clint to take notes on anything he does.)
The flu has Bucky straight up delusional. He has memory lapses and when he wakes up after Steve leaves, he thinks he’s the Winter Soldier again. He is thoroughly convinced that Nat is his handler and keeps asking when the next assignment is. Clint suggests threatening to reprogram him unless he takes a nap which earns him a slap from Natasha. Instead, Nat just tells him he can’t try out the new grenade launcher OR have his beloved Škorpion on his next assignment. Bucky trudges back to bed grumbling under his breath like a toddler in Russian. When he wakes up he comes sauntering out into the common area nearly trips over the carpet when he sees Nat. He keeps calling her ‘Dot’ and asking her when they’re going to go dancing. Tony in the meantime is recording everything ‘for Bruce to study later’ and is having the time of his life. Clint and Nat finally convince Bucky to sit down and watch a movie, Toy Story, with them, during which he falls asleep.
Together Nat and Clint manage to haul Bucky back to his room with Tony filming the whole way. Nat noticed Bucky’s fever has spiked and calls Steve to tell him to get more ice packs and to hurry his American Ass™️ back to the compound because she could’ve made some solyanka soup from scratch in the time he’s been gone and Tony is about to get that camera shoved up his ass. Just as Clint and Nat throw gently lay Bucky back on his bed, he wakes up. He sits up and immediately starts whining about wanting a tea party. Nat just stares at him for a second before turning around but Clint grabs her arm and stops her like ‘you are not leaving me like this.’ ‘You bail and I will tell everyone about Budapest.’
One thing led to another and by time Steve gets back, they’re on their third cup of imaginary tea (thank God Sam locked up his tea after the incident with the hose) and Tony is on his third camera battery the floor in tears.
