And then there were children. Clint blames the magic. Or possibly the former marriage. Alternatively, it was that shady alternate universe’s fault. Regardless, suddenly, Clint and/or Bucky are responsible for tiny humans, and hey, dumpster fire tendencies aside, it doesn’t always go so bad. Is it because Clint’s canon backstory helps him know exactly what to avoid when raising a kid, or did Bucky help his ma with his sisters back in the forties? Or is it just that Clint’s kind of eternally part child anyways? The verdict is still out.
Barnes, Barton, and Nine Brats by @intermittently-ava length: 10k | rating: T | tags: de-aged avengers, magic, feelings development, nightmares summary excerpt: During a massive battle, the Avengers are turned into small children. All except for Barton and Barnes who are delegated to caring for them while Pepper, Jane, and Bruce are trying to find a cure. In the midst of the chaos caused by crayons, wet tissues, and bed time stories, Bucky and Clint obliviously discover things about each other. Why this one? This fic utilizes the age-regression trope to help Bucky and Clint realize that each others’ competence extends beyond the battlefield, and each others’ compassion extends, perhaps, to each other. The author also manages to capture some really key, heart-string tugging characterizations in the tiny versions of the team.
Paternal Error (In Which Clint Keeps Picking Up Strays)by: EVVS length: 34k | rating: T | tags: barton farm, canon-adjacent, kid!Peter, teen!maximoffs, teen!kate, adopt all the strays, nightmares, recovery summary: Bucky has never once thought of being a parent. Not since the Winter Solider happened. Until he falls in love with Clint Barton. And that idiot just keeps collecting children for his flock. Now Bucky has to pretend like he’s good at parenting. Why this one? This fic exemplifies another common trope in winterhawk: adopting all the strays. Both Clint and Bucky identify with being left behind, and are equally determined not to let that happen to these kids, no matter how difficult it is as C&B themselves cope with canon-typical trauma.
and when the cold wind’s blowing by: @pantstomatch length: 7k | rating: T | tags: single dad!Bucky, werewolves, no powers au, snowed in, cabin fic summary:When he sees the wolf he thinks fuck it and thinks it’s probably a decent way for a moron like him to die. -or- Clint gets snowed in with Bucky and his daughter over Christmas. Why this one? This fic pairs a common kidfic theme – single parents – with two killer tropes most winterhawk folks can’t refuse: werewolves AND cabin fic aka aw, stuck in a cabin together, no.
Complete State Circusby @winterhawkkisses length: 8.4k | rating: T | tags: guardian Bucky, gymnastics instructor Clint, mutism, ASL summary excerpt: “Hey,” she says, with a painful looking grin. “Welcome to Hawkeyes’ Circus Training. D'you guys need me to tell you about our available classes, or do you already have something in mind?” Why this one? This is a real heartstring tugger disguised in deceptively adorable circus-themed wrapping. This fic showcases a great-with-kids Clint and a Bucky who’s doing everything he can to create the best environment possible for his child.
Outnumberedby: sara_holmes length: 18k | rating: T | tags: no powers!au, and they were neighbors, veteran!Bucky, single dad!Clint summary: Bucky Barnes returns to Brooklyn ready to get back into the world, make friends and sleep with Steve’s super hot neighbor. The fact that the guy turns out to be a single dad to two-year-old triplets who spend most of their time causing mischief, trouble and mayhem doesn’t deter Bucky at all. Steve would like it on record that he thinks Bucky is insane. Why this one? This fic has a sassy yet soft Bucky reclaiming his life post military service, and brings new life to the trope of ‘chaotic but competent in the field’ Clint – it’s just that the field here is wrangling three toddlers. It also has found family feels as other marvel characters round out the apartment community to support Clint.
The next six fics show different amazing interpretations of clint&bucky + kids, and are in descending order by length.
au where kara crash lands like a year after clark and the kents pass her off as clark’s teen birth mom who just escaped a bad family situation
“this is Kara she just escaped a cult which is why she doesn’t know who Jesus is” would absolutely work on small town america. trust me I’m a professor.
Worth noting. Kara/Supergirl joins the legion first so then after she’s grown up and moved out as superwoman and CLARK gets to join, he’s like “Brainiac 5 did you fuck my mom?”
Although we’re tongue-tied and breathless We won’t let our worries dictate who we are Throw out the old doubts, We won’t let our worries dictate who we are La la la, la la la la la la Don’t forget who you are
speaks friggin epics about the relationship between Bart and Wally. Because while there were a lotof positive, influential things flowing between them, a lot of their relationship, from the time Iris brought him back from the future up to just after the incident with Linda and Zoom, was really, really negative.
Wally wasn’t ready to handle the responsibility of raising and training what was essentially the world’s fastest toddler, so he pawned it off on Max. Bart would probably be an insanely different person if Wally (and Linda) had raised him in Keystone. After Max vanished into the Speed Force, Wally passed him over yet again so that Jay and Joan could take care of him. That being said, at the time, Wally had a lot of his own stuff going on, but look at it from Bart’s perspective. His only family in this time period either has to stay away from him for his own safety (Iris), wants to destroy him (Thad), or seems to outright dislike him (Wally). No wonder he latched onto Jenni so hard when she came to the 20th century.
Wally wasn’t born with his speed, like Bart was, so he couldn’t actually relate to him at all. He’d had time to learn how to deal with how slow the rest of the world got at times, Bart didn’t. So of course, Wally came to think of him as a restless, stupid kid by default. Because he never spent any time with Bart in order to learn otherwise. One of my least-favorite panels of all time comes from the first issue of the 03 Teen Titans series, because it says exactly what Wally thinks of Bart, and sets up Bart’s attempt at transformation a few issues later:
Impulse never will. That’s it, that’s their relationship. Wally is stuck on the belief that Bart will always be the dumb, impulsive kid he teamed up with every few months. Which is why, after Deathstrokes kneecaps him, Bart heads for the library. To learn. Because he can do something that no other speedster can: Bart has the power of memory. He can remember everything he reads. More than that, he can remember when the past changes, because he’s not from the past. He can detect shifts in the timestream based on what he remembers about people. He remembered Linda when literally everyone forgot her, Bart is not stupid. But he’s so used to people telling him that he is, that his first step in ‘growing up’ is to acquire more knowledge.
And then he takes the leap to be Kid Flash…and Wally still doesn’t believe he’s changed. Teen Titans, issue 6:
Wally, he is doing all of this for your approval and you are verbally shitting on him. You told him that he didn’t try hard enough to honor the legacy of the Flash, and now that he’s trying harder, he’s ‘trying too hard’. This drove me insane, because goddamnit Wally, remember Sins of Youth? When you were constantly fucking up because you were a kid again and Bart was the adult, and he didn’t try and make you feel like an idiot at every turn? Because I remember that. It was great! Too bad no one ever mentioned it again am I right folks.
After the incident with Zoom, and Wally had his identity made secret again, he stopped being so much of an ass to Bart. Bart hadn’t even had to think about it before going to protect Linda. Linda had never treated him like a pest or an idiot, and had always made attempts to understand him and communicate with him on his level (when she made him ringbearer at their wedding, she told him to keep the rings safe with video game lingo). Linda has always been more of a cousin to him than his actual cousin, and it took the wrath of G-d literally reaching into reality and twisting before Wally saw that and augh that was just…
When Bart died and Wally came back, he ‘avenged’ his cousin, and then almost promptly forgot about him again, until the museum was on fire. When Bart came back to life, when Max came out of the Speed Force, when the Flash family really got to be a family again, we could have gotten to see the repaired relationship between Wally and Bart (his daughter idolized Bart, for heaven’s sake)…but then Barry’s series was a thing and the reboot happened, and now we have nothing.
I know no one asked for these thoughts, but here they are.
I’m glad I can always count on Grey for good speedster meta, bolded are my favorite points. Here’s some more panels to back this shit up
BART HAD SURGERY W/O PAIN KILLERS AFTER GETTING SHOT IN THE KNEE AND HIS FIRST CONCERN WAS WALLY NOT FINDING OUT!! I CAN GUARANTEE YOU VIC HAD SOME WORDS TO SAY ABOUT THAT.
There’s obvs a ton more but my speedster tag is too long to go through and I have to finish packing
