Brooklyn - Steve Rogers X OC Spinoff

18 - Maddison

Maddison did as Steve requested, trusted him. She headed into his attached bathroom and got ready for the morning. Steve had told her he'd gotten her pajamas to wear while they opened gifts. She smiled when she saw the pajamas, an adorable red fleece pair of pajama pants with reindeer and wrapping paper patterns on it with a solid red t-shirt. She did her morning routine, changing into the pajamas before heading back out into the bedroom. Steve was already dressed in a matching outfit and he was working on changing Avery into the same. But, being Avery, the adorable morning lover she was. She was just giggling and squealing away, swatting away his hands and making faces as if she wanted kissed.

Maddison just stood back and admired how Steve handled her. He'd take her hands, kissing her tiny knuckles and calling her pumpkin, he'd listen to her babbling so intently as if she was actually saying anything and every time she made a kissy face, Steve would oblige. He'd never get anywhere getting her ready like this, but it sure was cute.

"I'm in an infinite loop." Steve called out, looking back to smile at Maddison. She'd noticed, everytime he'd take Avery's hands to put her pants on, she'd make a kiss face. Everytime he'd give her a kiss, he'd let go of her hands. She watched as he tried letting her tug on his beard, hoping to distract her while he got her pants on, she didn't fall for it.

"I noticed." Maddison said with a laugh. She was torn between intervening or letting him handle it. She knew he wanted to handle it, he wanted her to know that she could count on him. But she also knew that wrangling a squirmy baby wasn't an easy task if you were scared of upsetting them. "Just ignore the kiss face, she'll get over it." She promised him.

Steve looked back at her, making what looked like a pouty face. "Everytime I deny her lovins, she pouts. It breaks my heart." He said. But he listened to her advice and finally got Avery dressed. Maddison chuckled when Steve picked her up, holding their faces next to each other and showing her the pouty face and puppy dog eyes Avery had. "She's breaking my heart." He said, mimicking her sad face.

Maddison approached the two, ignoring Avery's reaching for her face, nibbling on her tiny fingers instead. Avery let out a squeal of laughter, slapping her hands away but smiling happily. "See, she's already over it." She promised.

Steve reached for Maddison before she could turn around and walk away. His hand grabbed onto the back of her neck, his long fingers holding the column of her throat and pulling her towards him. Maddison happily leaned against his chest, standing on her toes until she could reach a kiss to his lips. "You did good." She told him, assuming he needed the reassurance. The smile on his face proved her theory right.

"Thank you." Steve told her. Maddison smiled and nodded, Avery excitedly smacking her in the face pulled her attention from him though. "Let's go see if Santa came." He said, letting go of her neck to let her walk away from him.

Maddison was blown away when she walked down the stairs, Steve right behind her. Everything was beautiful, Christmas music played softly, the fireplace was lit and the tree was lit up and sparkling. The entire downstairs smelled like vanilla, cinnamon and everything sweet. Boot prints went through the house, leading to cookies and snacks for reindeer. It was beautiful. She even noticed Bucky taking pictures of everything as well as pictures of the three of them seeing it all. Avery was clapping and squealing excitedly, babbling away at the sight of everything.

"You did all this for us?" Maddison asked, turning around to look up at Steve. He nodded, smiling down at her, his free hand held onto her waist. "Buck and I did, for you." He said.

Maddison closed the distance between the two, standing on her toes to kiss him, her hand holding onto the hair at the nape of his neck. "Thank you." She said against his lips. Jackson and Scott were the only two to put this kind of effort into her and Avery, even they didn't do as much as Steve and Bucky had done last night.

Jackson and Scott showed up shortly after that, just as blown away with the lengths they'd gone to as she was. They had their own trunk full of presents for Avery as well as Maddison. Of course, Bucky and Steve headed outside to help them carry it all in. "I don't think I've properly thanked you for inviting us over for Christmas." Maddison said to Emilia. She was in the kitchen, making a gorgeous breakfast feast while also prepping a few things for dinner.

Emilia just waved a hand dismissively at her, giving her a warm smile. But it felt like the fake smile she used to give, back before Bucky was found. When she did her best to convince us she wasn't unhappy. "What's going on, Emilia? Did Bucky do something?" She asked. She highly doubted that man did anything to upset her, he seemed like a Saint. But why else would she be pretending to be happy?

Emilia paused the mixing she was doing, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "It's been almost a year since we got James back, I just kinda hoped by now we'd be having Christmas with our own baby, too." She admitted in almost a whisper, as if she was worried anyone but Maddison would hear her.

"Babe, we can leave if we're upsetting you. I didn't know you were going through that, I'm so sorry.." Maddison said with a frown.

Emilia shot her head up, her face turning to a frown of its own. "Absolutely not." She said immediately. "We absolutely adore having you both here!" She added in.

Maddison watched the guys come back in. Steve, Jackson and Scott headed towards the livingroom while Scott made Steve give him a tour of the home. But Bucky headed straight for Emilia. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, speaking quietly into her ear. His gloved hands rubbed her stomach while he spoke, kissing her ear periodically as he did so. Maddison realized he was comforting her, either he could hear her from outside somehow or he saw a look on her face when he came in. Either way, it was adorable how Emilia leaned into him and closed her eyes, whispering things back to him so quietly that Maddison wasn't sure any sound was even coming out of her. She did her best not to watch them, but damn, even their simple interactions you could tell how much they loved each other. Hell, even just watching how Bucky looks at her, you can tell he lives and breathes for Emilia.

Forcing herself to walk away from the two, she went on the hunt for the guys. Scott and Steve were missing, the designer in Scott probably had Steve showing him every inch of the home. Jackson, however, was on the couch with Avery.

"Steve did all this?" Jackson asked, gesturing to the fully decorated downstairs.

Maddison smiled and nodded, scooping Avery out of his grasp. "He and Bucky did." She said. She smiled as she looked around at all the tiny details, the two obviously put a lot of work into it. They obviously planned it all in advance, too.

"That man loves you." Jackson blurted out, making Maddison turn her head to stare at him like he'd grown a 2nd head. "We've been on one date, Jackson." She defended.

Jackson waved a hand at her, scoffing. "What even qualifies as a date? Cause I've seen that man at your house like every other day, for hours at a time. Did you not just sleep over? Sounds like a hell of a lot of dates." He argued. "You're wearing matching pajamas, you're driving his car that has a magic gas tank. Face it, babe. You're dating." He informed her with a knowing smirk.

Maddison blushed at that. She was dating Captian America, and not just a date, dating. Damn. "That doesn't mean he loves me." She defended. Dating didn't equal love, it didn't even equal exclusive. But she kind of assumed she was the only one he was putting this much effort into, at least she hoped so.

Jackson shook his head at her, even rolling his eyes. "No, it doesn't. I forget you're either blind or stupid. Babe, you should see the way that man looks at you both, he loves you. Both of you, actually." He defended.

Maddison didn't have a response to that. Did he love her? He couldn't...not already. But could he ever? She hoped so, because her feelings for him seemed to keep growing. And it wasn't just the money he spent on her, she kind of hated that. No, it was the effort he put in and how he paid attention to them both. It wasn't that he paid for takeout so often when he'd come over, it was that he knew when she'd had a rough day and wanted to make her life easier. It wasn't how he'd lent her a car and seemingly always filled the gas tank, it was how he never even mentioned filling the tank...like he didn't want recognition for it, he just wanted to make her life easier. It wasn't that he bought Avery things for teething, it was that he recognized that she was struggling. He paid attention to them, he cared.