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bloodthirsttrap · 1 year

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Eve Rogers: Female Captain America AU

Chapter 1:

It was only four in the afternoon, and Eve Rogers already had a bloody nose.

The sun was just starting to hang low in the sky, casting harsh shadows in the alley of the brick buildings she was currently sandwiched between. Her only way out was blocked by a varsity jacket named Douglas with too much pomade greasing his oversized head.

“You’re gonna have to let me through eventually, Dougie.” She sniffed, straightening up and wiping her nostril with the back of her wrist. “You can’t stand there forever.” Douglas snorted, planting his feet. “If you’ll even fit through.” He smirked at that, like he was first person to corner the market on fat jokes. Eve rolled her eyes, determined as hell to mask how much it actually bothered her. “Real original. If the army doesn’t work out you really should consider a career path in writing. You got the stuff.” Eve huffed and attempted to push past him, she hadn’t taken two steps when his large hands connected with her shoulders and heaved her into the brick. Her head snapped backward against a faded draft poster, which would have been ironic if her ears weren’t ringing as loud as they were. She fell forward then, catching herself on her forearms and scraping both her elbows on the rough asphalt. She wheezed- her lungs hurting both from over exertion and the force of all her weight knocking the wind out of her. She couldn’t even muster the breath for her next snide comment, all her focus was on getting her knees under her so she could stand. Douglas drew his leg back, with barely a push from his loafer on her hip he had her rolled over on her back, still gasping for breath. Her vision was blurry, but the ringing had subsided enough for her to hear a third voice shout.

“Hey!” Then the familiar thud of knuckle against cheekbone. Eve coughed and pushed herself back to her knees. She couldn’t let Bucky find her flat on her back again, he already though she was enough of a joke as it was.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?!” Another thud, most likely a kick in the pants. Eve lifted her head enough to see Douglas stumble through the matted strands of hair that fell out of her hat. “She’s twice my size.” Douglas cited before he ducked out of the alley to avoid another heavy handed blow from James Buchanan.

“How come you never scream? I’m sure someone would come running if they thought a woman was in danger. ” Bucky questioned as he held out a hand to help her to her feet. She waved him away, instead supporting herself on the wall, pulling herself up on her own. Eve was smart, but she didn’t need be to pick up on what he meant by that. If someone thought a pretty girl was in danger they would rush to her aid, when they saw it was just her- they’d have to help out of obligation. “And what are you wearing?” He tacked on, scrunching his face while he took in her men’s trousers and dress shirt, her blonde hair stuffed artfully into a flat cap. She’d darkened her brows with some eyeshadow which was probably smeared halfway down her face with the sweat she felt pouring off her. “Women can’t enlist.” She stated simply, feigning confidence though she didn’t meet his scrutinizing blue eyes.

Bucky laughed then, tossing his head back. Eve snapped her hurt gaze back to his face. The sun was bright behind him and she squinted, holding a hand up to the glare. She couldn’t see him,but she knew he was flashing his perfect teeth. “So you thought-“ He was holding his side now, laughing straight from his belly. “You-thought-what exactly did you think would happen when they stripped you down to your skivvies, Private?”

She looked away again, tearing the hat off her head and letting her hair fall. Long, silky, strawberry blonde and the one aspect of herself she actually liked. She couldn’t help but imagine what her hair would look like on a different body. One with less blubber. Now she used it to hide her embarrassed blush from her best friend.

“I don’t know.” She admitted, tossing the cap in a nearby dumpster. “I thought I’d try.”

Bucky tilted his head. “You’re a crazy broad, you know that?” He said as her eyes adjusted to the sun, and she spotted his uniform. Her stomach dropped. This was the day she had been dreading for months, ever since he enlisted. “You got your orders.” Eve observed, nodding to his outfit. He pressed his lips together and looked down at her. She hated when he looked at her like that, like he pitied her. Like she was his chubby kid-sister, and not an actual human being. “The 107th,” He rocked forward on his heels. “Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out for England first thing tomorrow.” He was trying not to sound too proud, but she knew inside he must be beaming. And as if he wasn’t a lady killer before, the way he looked in that uniform was practically homicide. Eve dropped her head. She knew she never had a shot with him, but at least he kept her around. Now it was like she was losing him forever, and there was nothing she could do.

“I wanna go with you.” She quietly admitted in a moment of vulnerability that made the smile fall off his face. He must have known, or at least suspected how she felt about him. He certainly wasn’t shy about making it clear he didn’t feel the same way. The grin reappeared on his face as soon as it had left, and he ruffled his hand through her hair roughly. “And rob all the boys of Brooklyn of your charms? C’mon kid, use your head.”

Chapter 2:

Eve should have known by now that when Bucky said his girl he actually meant one of his girls because when she arrived at Stark Expo in her best dress, with her hair in curls, he was waiting out front with a brunette on his arm. Absolute knockout, of course. She looked like she had jumped straight from the side of B-17 and into his lap. Bucky turned his blue eyes to his childhood friend and she couldn’t help the smile that spread over her face when they lit up they way they did.

“Hey, look at you!” He stated, ushering her forward with a hand on her shoulder. Buck leaned into her and said “You look great.” Giving her shoulder a warm squeeze, then returning to the bombshell. Eve pressed her lips together in an attempt to stay silent as they weaved their way through the crowded auditorium. It wasn’t long before she was trailing behind the couple, a position of which was not out of the norm for a night with Bucky. Eve’s blue eyes were wide with wonder, sweeping over the endless sea of progress before them. It was enough distraction to soften the sting of Buck’s date grabbing his hand and leading him away from Eve to the front of the crowd. A melodic giggle erupted from the dark haired girl’s ruby lips and he grinned down at her like he’d forgotten his friend was even there. Eve made herself as small as she could behind them. It was as if she was standing in water, surface smooth as glass and any movement, any twitch out of line would disturb the mirror image. She felt so out of place. Everywhere she looked there was something more shiny and sleek than last and here she was dead center. Buck only invited her out of guilt, she should have known her place and stayed home. For his sake.

The lights dimmed before she could plan her escape route though, and Eve’s melancholy inner monologue faded out when the music began to swirl past the stage. She had heard stories about Howard Stark, seen his picture a hundred times at least in the newspaper, head his voice on the radio. That was nothing compared to seeing him all in one. He was devastatingly handsome. His dark hair was slicked back with a shine that caught the theatre lights above. The sharp lines of his tailored tux electrified his every move and sent a shiver down her spine. He commanded the stage with three steps forward a smile. Evie held her breath when with just a wave of his arm, he made a car lift off the ground.

“Holy cow..” Bucky gaped in front of her, and Eve stood on her toes to see past his uniformed shoulder. When the floating mechanics suddenly began to spark and sputter out, the car crashed back down to the stage. Howard must have made a joke to lighten the mood because laughter broke out around her, and Bucky glanced back over his shoulder with a smirk only to see Eve caught in Stark’s magnet of charisma. She took a step forward, past Bucky, just as Howard swept his gaze over the audience. When he caught her enchanted stare, he winked. He turned on his heel then, echoing something else into the mic that Eve couldn’t hear with her heart pounding so loudly in her ears. The entirety of her skin pricked up in goosebumps.

“He winked at me..” She exhaled to herself in disbelief, though clearly loud enough for the Sergeant to hear because he jutted his chin up and gave a sharp laugh. “Ha-Evie, you’re just a kid. He probably couldn’t even see you with all the lights.” Her eyes flicked up to him in accusation and hurt. She opened her mouth to respond but snapped it shut when he turned back around to murmur something in his dates ear before Eve could get a single word out In her defense.

Eve’s eyes welled when she turned and slipped through the crowd.

Bucky was only three years older than her, yet sometimes he failed to see her past the age of twelve. It might have been different if she ever got dates, if she had other friends, if she had a singular fiber of her identity that Barnes wasn’t tangled up in- but she didn’t. He was her favorite person. Her only person. When her parents were alive, they weren’t exactly pillars of support. When they died, Bucky was the only one left standing by her side. The only one watching out for her. The only one who ever looked twice in her direction. He liked to joke that her kept hr around because she made him laugh, but there had to be something more for him to stay in her life all this time. Not romantically, of course, she wasn’t that niave…but something. And that was the something she would hold on to. That was the something she would remember about him when he left in the morning. Not the something that caused him to ignore her all night at the sight of a prettier face. Not the something that made her face burn with frustrated tears. Not the something that would never love her back.

Eve wiped her cheek with the heel of her hand, walking so fast toward the door that she almost collided face first into Uncle Sam. She sniffed lightly, staring into the steely eyes of the poster and pressing the fabric of her sweater under her eye to hopefully stop her mascara from bleeding down her face. She followed the line of advertisements down to the enlistment booth and watched the girls waiting outside for their brave boyfriends to step out and tell them they were going to be heroes. The words in front of her echoed over and over again in her brain, spinning out until they were distorted and unreconisable. I WANT YOU. She scoffed to herself. No you don’t.

She took two steps forward, a firm hand on her wrist stopping her before the third, yanking her back down into reality. “Eve.” Bucky’s voice was a stern warning against whatever scheme he knew she was planning. He could always read her. Even when they were apart, somehow, he always knew what she was thinking. Eve didn’t turn around, not even when the gentle tug at her wrist compelled her to.

“I don’t want to be here anymore.” She said suddenly. She wasn’t even quite sure where here was. The Expo? Brooklyn? Her permanent stature as Bucky Barnes’ sidekick?

“So go be a nurse.” He responded cooly, then quickly continued “Go help out that way, you could-“

“I don’t want to be a nurse, damnit!” Eve spun, attempting to shove him backward, but the proud Sergeant stood his ground, her feeble attempt rendered pointless. Bucky’s oblivion had made her anger finally boil over and tears once again cut hot streaks down her face. How could he always be so cavalier in her weakest moments? How could he not care? He pressed his lips together, exhaling through his nose in the way he did to let her know he would hear her out.

“I don’t want to be a nurse,I don’t want to be a secretary, I don’t want to work in a factory I don’t want to be on the sidelines or in the background anymore! I want to fight, I wan’t to be on the front lines, I want to help—I want-“ Eve couldn’t find the strength to finish that sentence. She would never have the strength to finish that sentence. It was those three words. Those three words that would seemingly echo in the back of her mind for the rest of her life. I want you.

“Rogers, listen to yourself.” Bucky took a step forward, his eyes shone bright with concern, as if she was talking about jumping off a building. His hands secured themselves to her shoulders and he ducked down to her level.

“You can’t fight in the front lines-you-you can’t even take care of yourself here. You’d get killed….not to mention it’s not even possible. You’re a woman.” Her bottom lip trembled as she listened to his voice without really hearing the words.

“You have no idea what’s possible.” Eve spat, knocking his hands from her shoulders in a surge of self confidence that took them both aback. Bucky clenched his jaw as he moved backward and away from her.

“Y’know what, fine,” He shook his head, tongue running over the front of his teeth. “You wanna go try to get shot in the mud, fine. Go try your luck, Eve. Go see if they’ll take you. They’re going to lock you away in a damn madhouse if you keep talking like this. Don’t come crying to me when they plug high voltage into your skull and you can’t remember your name.”

Bucky began to walk away, headed back to his date when Eve’s heart dropped into her stomach with the realization that this could be the last time she ever saw him- the last thing he ever said to her. She wanted to run, to stop him, but her body froze in place. She only managed a small sob, and his name.

“Bucky!” She whimpered, and immediately, he turned.

He was never one to linger in their embraces. Each time he hugged her it had been stiff, distant. He’d wrap an arm around her and hold her for only a moment before he let her go. He was always very careful not to get to close. That’s why Eve gasped so loud when his body collided with hers, wrapped both his arms around her waist and pulling him flush against him.

“I’m sorry.” He said with his face in her hair. “Oh Evie, I am so sorry.” Eve’s arms were up over his shoulders, her own face in his neck and she sobbed.

“Don’t die,Buck. Please don’t die. Please don’t leave me behind. Please don’t die out there.” He pulled back just enough to see her face and his eyes were almost frantic as he searched hers. He laughed lightly, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. She reached up to press her hand to his face, and to her surprise, he put his own fingers over hers, holding it there.

“I’m with you ‘till the end of the line” They grinned at one another, until finally it was time for him to back away. He glanced over his shoulder, pointing a finger at her and shouting over the crowd.

“Promise me one thing, Rogers, before I go!” Eve smirked, laying her hands on her hips.

“What’s that, Barnes?”

Bucky cupped both hands over his mouth and yelled,

“Run like hell!”

Intro to Howard Stark

That memory seemed so distant now. Like she was watching him walk away through a fogged window, over and over again.Though Bucky’s smile was as clear and crisp in her mind as it has been from the day they met. His pale blue eyes, and the way he said her name their very last night together. The scent of his aftershave on her sweater. Her tear-stains on the collar of his uniform. These things were branded permanently on her psyche. These things haunted her, always. These small flashes of feeling. Every brush of his hand, every laugh they shared, each and every time he unknowingly broke her heart. They burned bright as cannon fire behind her irises. So close, and just out of reach. Locked away in her brain forever. With him. Eve’s fingers, now lithe and feminine-no longer the thick and unsightly ones she used to have-touched over her reflection in the mirror. It had been two years. Two years and no word from Bucky. He had missed so much. Sometimes Eve felt like when he left her the night of the Stark Expo, he was stepping away into another world. Another dimension. It was as though he vanished completely from her universe. Would he even recognize her now? The super-soldier serum had changed a lot. Her skin was clear, and pale like porcelain. The extra weight had melted away in that lab and left her lean, but athletic. Eve never thought she would know what it would be like to have a waistline, a flat stomach. Eve never thought she would know what it would be like to be beautiful. She had once been 5’5”, now she stood at a comfortable 5’7”-almost six feet tall in the right pair or boots…or heels, as was preferred for her. She didn’t get to choose her own clothes. Especially not on performance days.

“Miss America, you forgot a little something.” Howard Stark sat on her white vanity table and took a small gold cylinder from his vest pocket. Eve scrunched her nose and tilted her head to one side.

“Is that a shell casing?”

Howard threw his head back and gave an exuberant laugh. “Evie, you’re truly off the cob-no-“ He pulled the top of the tube upward and off, twisting it from the bottom to reveal it was in fact, lipstick. “Picked it up on my way back from Paris-that’s France-and I just knew would be your color. It’s called ‘Rocket’s Red Glare’-sounds better in french-You’re going to love it.” He said, holding it up to her face. Eve took it from his hands gingerly and raised a brow. “I know where Paris is...but thank you,Howard.”

Stark watched intently while Eve leaned forward into the mirror and spread the color over her lips. Two years ago, this man was a god in her eyes. An untouchable phantom of imagination in a tailored tux. Now he was bringing her lipstick and fluffing up her hair. With his hands, like he was fussing over the engine of an automobile. When Dr. Erskine died, Howard was the only one left she could trust. The only one who knew what the serum was truly capable of. Certainly more than flashing her legs in a star-spangled cocktail dress and selling war bonds. Not that he seemed to mind catching a show now and again.

“Stunning, just stunning.” Howard interjected her thoughts characteristically. Swiftly, he hopped from his seat on her vanity and circled behind her, clapping both hands on her bare shoulders and dropped his face right beside hers in the mirror. He gave a devilish grin at their reflection. His teeth were impossibly white in the bulb-lit frame of her mirror.

“What a pair we make. Evie, you’re going to make an honest man of me yet.”

Eve gave a small laugh. She never took his flirtations seriously, he was just being Howard. He could never seriously pursue her, no, it was just his way. His hands lingered another moment, then they were gone, taking him with them as he exited her dressing room and wished her good luck.

“Thank you.” She said to the empty room, looking back up at herself one last time. Howard was right, the lipstick was stunning. Eve forced her lips to stretch across her face in a smile, but her eyes still reminisced about a boy from Brooklyn.

“On in five,Miss America!” A voice yelled from just outside the room and she was quick snap back into character. She heard her cue music starting up, and she was out the door, leaving Brooklyn-and everyone in it- behind her.

#female!captainamerica #buckycap #buckybarnes #captainamerica #fanfic

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