Title: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair

Disclaimer: not my characters. Title from Langston Hughes.

Warnings: implications of past child abuse; all the fluff in nine realms

Pairings: Steve/Bucky

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 345

Point of view: third

Note: Here's the final chapter.

Yasmin doesn't remember her mother beyond fragments of a song and a bright, warm laugh. She doesn't remember her uncle beyond a sense of overwhelming fear.

She knows her parents weren't Daniel and Lisa Taylor, but not their actual names.

She remembers Bucky, though. She remembers that he held her until the fit passed, and that he helped her find food and shelter and clothing, that they went on adventures and saw movies and read books. She remembers that he said he didn't have a name and so she gave him one, the same name as her greatest treasure of all.

William Taylor is Yasmin's uncle but she never calls him that. She knows that she could call him Dad, and she thinks he must be just like a dad – but Megan and Angelo don't have dads, so she's not sure.

He's Bucky. He's Bucky just like Bucky Bear, and like the Bucky in the Captain America comics, and just like in the history books. Bucky Barnes was a hero, and even though Yasmin can't tell anyone –

"Are you ready?" Steve asks, knocking on the doorframe and peering around it.

Today is Yasmin's eighth birthday and everyone's going to the beach, Angelo and his aunt, Megan and her moms and sister, Lucia and Martina and Rodrigo and Yelena and Simon, and Bucky and Steve.

"Let's go!" she shouts, throwing herself off the bed and trusting Steve to catch her.

He's not Captain America anymore; they explained that when he got back from New York. He's retired to Florida just like the snowbirds Mr. Quintin complains about, the ones who muck up the traffic.

"Steve," she asks, poking his chin, "when are you and Bucky gonna get married like Megan's moms?"

Steve chokes and she hears Bucky laughing from the living room, where he's gathering up all their beach gear.

"As soon as we're both ready," Steve tells her, and then he and Bucky share that goopy love look.

"I'm gonna be the flower girl," she says.

Steve kisses her cheek. "Of course you are."