Prompts

All I Want For Christmas

He's still in the lab when his phone rings. Bucky barely notices it, he only picks it up when Jarvis tells him he has a call. Sighing, he wipes off his hands on his jeans and picks up the phone.
"'Lo?" Bucky asks, tiredly. He's been working in the lab nonstop, despite the Christmas season. Today he's been here for fourteen hours, more than Tony's personal record.
"Hey, Buck," a voice over the phone says. He smiles, it's his wonderful husband, Steve's voice that came through the phone.
"Hey baby," he answers. He puts his phone on speaker and continues to work. He's almost done, just a few more details then he can worry about the looks. He can't stop just yet, he had too much to lose.
"Bucky, are you still down at the lab?" Steve asks, suspiciously. When he's met with silence, Steve makes an angry noise over the phone. "You're still there?! Bucky you told me you were done an hour ago. You should have been home an hour ago, so I got worried and called."
He feels guilty but it's overpowered by the guilt he felt before when he disappointed his daughter, Sarah. She was the whole reason he was here. Sarah is his whole world, for her birthday, he had brought her a big pink stuffed bear even though she wanted a My Life Doll and felt guilty when it ripped and she had an allergic reaction to the cotton inside of it. After that, he was determined to get her the best gift this year, and the gift she actually wanted. He remembered it clearly, he wrote it down so he wouldn't forget and even asked her again.
His memory hasn't been good to him when he came back from the army with an arm less and enough brain damage that would make a brain surgeon cry. He came back and used his degree to get him the job in Stark Industries, a very high paying job, and since he was "almost as genius as Tony Stark" according to Tony himself, he gets access to his own lab and unlimited resources.
After asking Sarah for the tenth time what she wanted and the answer was still the same, and he still couldn't find it in any store, he opted to make it himself, and he wants it to be perfect. It has to be perfect. Sarah is his little girl, she went through so much this year with her diagnosis of cancer, her severe allergy attack, and two hospital visits, she deserves the best. So after weeks and weeks and weeks of designing and engineering, he was finally almost done making her a robot unicorn.
"I know, I know," he says distractedly. "I'm sorry," he rushes out. At Steve's scoff, he apologizes again. "I really am sorry, baby. I know I promised I'll be home but I'm almost done with Sarah's gift."
He just finished it, now all he has to do is get it painted and add the hair for the mane and tail, he's not by any means an artist, that's Steve, but he has a team for that, and Parker loves helping him on his little side projects. He smiles, he finally going to give his baby girl something she deserves.
"I don't get why you're working yourself so hard on this. You've been at this for weeks. I know you blame yourself for her allergy attack that happened but trust me it wasn't your fault. And I think something that Sarah would really like for Christmas is to see you, you haven't been home early enough for her to even say goodnight."
Steve's right, he knows, but he can't help but blame himself. He can't help but want to give her something that would help her forgive him, (even though Steve says she was never mad).
He sighs. "Alright, I'm coming home this time. Tomorrow I'll just come back to pick this up from Parker and then I'll be done"
The next day, his unicorn is found painted and with fur on it, sitting in his office. He smiles, Peter always does such good jobs, he needs to give the kid a bonus.
*~*~*~*
On Christmas when Sarah finally unwraps her present from him she shrieks with joy. The unicorn clutched in her hand has many special features and when he tells her all of them she bounces off to play with it in excitement. The horn on the unicorn glows many different colors, it sings her favorite songs when a button on its stomach is pressed, it walks around on its own and talks with the AI system he programmed into it. He realized he might have gone a little overboard when Steve stares at him incredulously but he feels it's worth it when Sarah's laughing and playing with it all day.
During the day he gets stopped by his little girl and her little unicorn, he even gets to play with her. Sarah treats the unicorn like it's her new best friend, dragging it around the house and showing it all the rooms. He thinks his project is a job well done.
"Good night, Sarah," he says when he finally tucks her in for the first time in weeks. "I hope you like your gifts."
Sarah nods and giggles as he attacks both her cheeks in kisses. "Yep!" She answers. "It was the best! But I like my unicorn the bestest," she says loudly, still a little to filled up with sugar.
"Oh?" He questions, but really on the inside, he's congratulating himself for doing such a good job. "How come?"
"'Cause you made it for me, daddy. So that makes it even more bester. It's special now, 'cause it's just for me," Sarah declares, truthfully. She stares up at him with her big brown eyes and smiles. He surges forward and wraps her in a huge hug, if his eyes get a little misty there's no one around to see it. Bucky thinks this is the best gift he could get for Christmas.