#i mean...... the soviets Probably know that steve's gonna try to go after bucky and save him at some point

[windowlessatmosphere]

Put a Ring on It, Ch.6

Read on AO3

Summary: Bucky's married Steve twice already, but since third time's the charm, they're gonna go for one more. He just needs one thing before they can start planning—his wedding ring.

“Natalia, I swear to God, if it’s not  fucking  here–”

“We’ve checked less than 30% of the facility, James,” came the swift interruption.

“I know, but–”

“But nothing,” she returned. “You can start worrying once we’ve cleared the building. Deal?”

“...Deal.” Bucky forced his answer out through gritted teeth, clearly displeased.

“Look on the bright side, man,” Sam chimed in. “This run has been  way  easier than the last one.”

Bucky and Natasha both snorted at that.

“Records storage versus a containment facility for HYDRA’s greatest weapon,” Natasha had clear amusement in her voice as she continued, “wonder which one will be harder to break into?”

“Fair enough,” Sam allowed, continuing to rifle through the folders in the open drawer in front of him.

“I might have something,” Natasha called out. Her brow was furrowed as she sat in front of the computer, eyes scanning across the screen.

“What kind of something?” Sam asked, still poring over the folder in his hands, which seemed like it was probably at least ten years too late to be relevant.

“A map with storage locations,” Natasha replied. Bucky immediately stopped what he was doing to peer over her shoulder. “It hasn’t been updated in a while, so it may not be accurate anymore,” she warned, eyes flicking to Bucky for a moment.

“Don’t care,” he shot back at once. “It’ll give us a better idea than just checking the entire facility.”

“I agree,” she replied, the note of warning still obvious in her tone.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“James…” she stopped him, raising an eyebrow.

“What.”

“If it’s not there, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s gone. We’ll continue looking.”

“...Fine.”

“Great, then. Anyway!” Sam attempted to break up some of the tension in the room, which was akin to trying to clear six feet of snow off a driveway with only a pair of chopsticks. He clapped his hands together loudly, which finally got them to break eye contact with one another. He resisted the urge to cower at the twin glares he received. Make that just  one  chopstick, he corrected mentally. “Where to?” he asked, grinning broadly and attempting to ignore the general vibe in the room.

“Third floor. I’ve got the layout,” Natasha responded before nodding towards the door. “Let’s move.”

Bucky followed after her at once, leaving Sam scrambling to put the folder back and close all the open drawers before realizing it didn’t matter in the slightest. Not exactly important to clean up after yourselves when breaking in and likely burning the place down afterwards.

Sam hurried into the hallway after them, jogging slightly in order to catch up. Natasha slipped open the door to the stairwell and disappeared behind it without making a sound. Sam watched as Bucky followed, just as silently. He finally reached the door himself, wincing at how loud it seemed in the utterly silent corridor. He was met with clear looks of judgment from both his teammates, which he pointedly ignored. His deepest apologies for not being an internationally-renowned ex-Soviet assassin, but not everyone could be, even if the other two thirds of his team might have disagreed.

Once they reached the third floor, Natasha signaled to Sam and Bucky to stay put before opening the door a crack and slipping into the hallway. Sam strained to hear, but never got anything more than a dull thud, which he figured could have been the air conditioning just as easily as it could have been anything else.

Natasha reappeared a couple minutes later, looking nearly identical to when she’d left, apart from her hair being slightly mussed.

“All clear,” she reported, smoothing her hair back into place. Bucky nodded at that, taking point as the three of them exited the stairwell, only pausing occasionally to get instructions from Natasha.

“This one,” she nodded almost imperceptibly at a door coming up on their left. Bucky sped up, yanking the door open without waiting to see if they would follow.

“The east wall of file cabinets is our best bet,” Natasha relayed to the two of them once they were all inside. Bucky nodded and immediately walked to the other side of the room and opened the first drawer. Sam took the other side of the wall, trusting that Bucky knew which way was east, since he certainly didn’t. Natasha ended up in the middle of them, working towards Sam while Sam and Bucky both slowly made their way towards her.

After a while, about three cabinets in, for Sam at least, he opened a new drawer and pulled out the first file. This one was… thick  . A  lot thicker than most of the files he’d already checked out. The label was in Russian, so Sam ignored it and flipped the file open. He looked through the first couple pages before he stopped dead. Bucky was staring back up at him from an old, worn photograph, clearly taken during the war if the uniform was anything to go by. He looked the same, it was clearly the same person that Sam knew now, but he couldn’t get over how  different Bucky looked. He shook his head, clearing his mind and continuing to look through the rest of the file. Most of it was in Russian, but Sam found a good number of documents in English, including an army physical of Bucky’s and a letter from Bucky’s sister, Becca. He kept looking, eventually stopping at a thick manila envelope that had been sealed. He flipped it over, but all the labeling was in Russian. Of course. He set the rest of the file to one side and sat down, putting the manila envelope in his lap to open it. He paused when it made a slight clinking noise, the sound of metal on metal.

Natasha and Bucky’s heads both swiveled to face him immediately at the sound. Sam gulped. He’d wanted to go through it on his own first, make sure he’d found it before getting Bucky’s hopes up. Too late.

Bucky stalked over, holding his hand out for the envelope which Sam gave over without any hesitation. Natasha and Sam watched with bated breath as Bucky ripped open the envelope and tipped the contents into his open palm. Sam heard metal clinking again, but couldn’t see what Bucky was holding from his position on the floor, even with the way he was craning his neck. Natasha came up behind Bucky, glancing over his shoulder to see if he’d found what he was looking for. Sam watched her for a reaction he could interpret, positively or otherwise, but found no change in her expression or body language. She only nodded at Bucky, face clear of any emotion Sam could recognize.

“Did you–?” Sam finally broke the silence, unable to stop himself any longer. Bucky’s head snapped up at his words.

“Yeah,” he responded after a beat. “Yes. It’s here,” he stated, though it sounded more like a question than it should’ve. Sam couldn’t help the grin that came over his face.

“That’s great, man,” he laughed, getting up off the floor to take a look himself. He peered into Bucky’s hand, clapping him on the shoulder when he saw a simple gold ring and dog tags bearing the name Steven Rogers. “Nice work, man. Steve’s gonna be over the moon.”

“Mission objective completed,” Natasha had a touch of approval in her voice. “Let’s move out.”

Twenty minutes later, Steve put his sketchbook down to pick up his phone and read the text Bucky had just sent him.

  Got it. Love you. Coming home.

#stucky #steve rogers #bucky barnes #stucky fic #avengers fanfiction

[villainelle]

☕ + mcu fandom post endgame?

update: uhh not me realising u said fandom after writing a whole ass essay: this fandom has been so divisive since civil war tbh. i wish people would hold the writers a little bit more accountable for their writing than hating on fans who’s characters have done something they don’t like. it’s like, a lot of the uh things that happen in the mcu that people have a problem with is just a case of really bad writing. (see below hhuuhwhuwe)

prev answer: ahhhhhhhh. okay i have a couple of thoughts. so obvs, post endgame marvel is largely tv shows atm. i think....it’s a transparent business decision and a good one, mind you, for marvel lmao. i think there’s several reasons. for it. first and foremost, obvs the avengers have disbanded so there isn’t a new group to carry future movies. secondly, splitting into several tv shows not only allows marvel to launch its own exclusive streaming platform, but ensures more viewers have to watch the shows for the future movies to make sense, y’know? 

in terms of my opinions about the shows, atm i’m most surprised by wandavision which i didn’t expect to enjoy. i was worried they wouldn’t pull off the humour and sitcoms but they did a great job acc. i think both shows however suffer from pacing issues, particularly in the last episode where they try to tie everything up and it kinda falls apart bc there are too many antagonists — tfatws particularly struggles with it, i mean what the hell was the 180 turn on john walker in the last ep i’m still so ???? about that whole mess. a bit worried for loki but it’s the only tv show that probably doesn’t impact the upcoming movies as in it’s own alternate timeline.

black widow is still such an insult imo. firstly i dont think its the right place to put in the mcu - ideally you’d want the black widow after catws bc that’s when nat leaked all the shield files and her own past, so it makes more sense for her story to be situated into the timeline at that moment. the whole movie feels redundant given the character’s death has already happened, it’s like...it doesn’t really matter what happens bc u know how she dies anyway, and the emotional impact of it is lessened bc of that. the thing is i get why the russos killed natasha — bc mcu!clint has been so destroyed by....everything idek....there would be so little emotional impact with his death. that does not however mean i don’t still hate it lmao. it truly makes me furious that female characters are so outweighed by male characters in the mcu that the russos managed to kill both the only female guardian, and the only female avenger. 

endgame!steve’s arc.....i pretend i do not see it. i really do. i lowkey talked about it on my blog a lot when endgame came out, bc it was sooo regressive in my mind and since the russos set up the rules of time travel to mean things could not be changed without creating an alternate timeline (mind u they broke that anyways.), then what that means for steve is that he had to go back in the past and do nothing for the timeline to continue as it did. (meaning, ignoring his own frozen self, ignoring bucky’s capture by hydra and the soviets, etc, etc). a lot of people hate on aou, and rightfully so in many ways, but that doesn’t change the fact that there were some pretty significant arcs in that movie that people wanna ignore - one of which is that steve has made his peace with being in the present. the avengers are his family, bucky is there as well, peggy has married and has told him to move on, and even his flashback is a kind of horror sequence of pretending “it’s over, we can go home” while people die around him.

for me, i think i miss the early movies so much. the og iron man movie, and catfa and catws, as well as the avengers are my top favourites. i really appreciate those storylines the most bc they exist on their own. once we got into phase 4, and the tv shows, it felt like every movie was an advertisement for the next with the way they threw cameos in. the most obvious being civil war with the spiderman reboot. in fact civil war in general was so redundant when you realise infinity war and endgame are literally gonna be like, “yeah all of that that we just talked about? it no longer stands”, and i mean this both re: the accords, and re: bucky, bc at no point somehow in the following movies do we even get a MENTION of bucky from tony. you’d think with endgame you’d at least have one line. it could have been as simple as tony saying: “we’ll get them back cap, all of them. barnes included.” 

send me a ☕️ and a topic and i’ll talk about how i feel about it

#listen i have many thoughts....im sorry this is so long IJWEJIWJIE god the mcu makes me annoyed <3 i pretend civil war does not exist. #answered #replies #robert-deniro

[boop-le-snoot]

For your celebration- take me and Tony to Latvia. What would we do on a date?

Okay, this is pure crack. Basically, a selfship - thanks, Letsby! For those who do not know what a Latvia is - it's a tiny (1.3 mil people) post-soviet country in Eastern Europe. Yes, I live here and yes, I am suffering. Tony Stark could buy Latvia without causing a dent in his budget. I absolutely cannot take this prompt seriously 😃🔫 So here's a video of what my country actually is like and why this would be a disaster! Now with Wikipedia links for y'all to see what I'm talking about.

• "Oh no, I don't think it's a good idea," You mumble, giving the largest, scariest side-eye to Natasha, who's piloting the quinjet with a poker face worth of a master bullshitter. It was her idea for the team to see your native country - you're pretty sure it's revenge for eating her bagels last month - but you can't do anything about it because Bucky is already excitedly yapping to Steve about how he spent a whole month here eating nothing but different varieties of cooked potatoes in the early 2000s and how much he liked it.

• It's not the WW2 veterans you're worried about, it's not the spy agent duo that probably had been in much worse places and definitely not Bruce - you know firsthand that the deep Asia can get much, much less comfortable than your little country. Your boyfriend however... Every time you try to picture him on a casual street somewhere in the capital city, your mind just glitches and hangs up an error sign. His shoes cost about twice the price of the two-room apartment you used to live in with your parents as a child.

• "C'mon, short stuff, how bad can it be?" Says Tony without lifting his eyes and it's obvious he's... Googling. It wouldn't be the first time Americans have assumed your motherland is either a city in Russia or a region in Poland. You're used to it - and you never hesitate to confuse them in turn, speaking in a language nobody's even heard about. Somwhere behind you, Bruce snorts.

• As you land on SHIELD-owned ground, a small private airport away from the city, you can't help but inhale a lungful of the cool, damp air. The air here is certainly much less polluted than in NYC. "Okay, Nat, what do you need from me?" You ask, phone at the ready.

• "Drive the car, here's the address, that's our hotel. We'll take the one in the garage," And sure, you still remember your city as if you had never left. Your team stares at the line of Wolkswagen mom vans that are neatly placed for your convenience. "Gotta blend in," Natasha's eyebrow makes an appearance as Tony begins to bitch at the ten-year-old cars that definitely do not have the usual luxuries of full size American SUVs. You feel a headache start somwhere behind your temples.

• Potholes. One after the other, you jump each time a tire catches on one, focusing your attention on driving and trying to ignore Clint's whining. It's not like you can avoid them - the road does its best impression of Swiss cheese quite successfully. "This is the industrial port, this is a hill that we like to call a mountain," You mumble with a straight face as you pass a particularly tall piece of dirt. "This is the Victory Park - Bucky may want to visit, lots of veteran names inscribed on the monument there if you ever knew any Russians during the war," You continue rambling, seeing Tony stare around in surprise.

• He looks exactly as out of place as you thought he would. "Reminds me of that time we had to stay in Chelyabinsk," He mutters and you swallow a chuckle at the obvious shiver of discomfort. Tony wasn't made for adventures in rural Russia. He screamed like a little girl when he saw a rat and Bruce nearly hulked out having decided to go to the local shops and practice his Russian - it was minus twenty nine degrees Celsius that day.

• You pass the river, going over the bridge and into the heart of the city, Old Town, where buildings stand older than America itself and the roads are cobblestone. The Americans look around with eyes as wide as saucers and that makes you laugh a little; you start full-on belly cackling as the hotel receptionist pops her gum and gives Tony the keycard to your room with absolutely zero indication she recognised any of the superheroes. Steve blushes.

• "We want to go exploring, gonna come with?" Bucky's text hits the group chat a little after both of you have showered and unpacked. Tony is occupied on his tablet and you're already cringing, inwardly preparing yourself for the inevitable avalanche of questions. He replies "Yes!" to Bucky before you can even unlock your phone.

• "What do you mean, seventeen kinds of potato dishes?" Steve's eyebrows are nearly hidden by his hair as he stares at the menu of a... You couldn't call it a restaurant by any means. A café, maybe. It's what you had stupidly offered when Bruce timidly questioned you about the local cuisine. "With peas? And what is that - lard?" Steve sounds disgusted, muttering about not eating such culinary perversions even during the Depression era. Naturally, Tony takes exactly the things Steve is so outraged about.

• Bucky, however, is in heaven. You and him chat with the server in fluent Russian with Natasha occasionally adding a quip. Bruce's, Tony's and Steve's staring makes you feel like a hippo in a zoo. Predictably, Tony hates his food and you switch your porkchops, thankful he's actually eating and not whining - looking at you, Barton.

• It doesn't get much better than that. Tony hates the spotlight, dislikes being bothered on the street but the absolute indifference that people around you all show towards the very public group of superheroes begins to unsettle him. You walk around the old town, Bucky on one side and Tony clutching your arm like a lifeline, while you tell your friends about the various ancient buildings.

• Bucky does recognise a few names at the Victory monument and you respectfully give him and Steve some time while you feed the ducks. "It's so depressing," Tony eyes you with a sort of respect. "I don't know how you lived here for twenty years."

• Natasha snorts. "It's peaceful," But she doesn't add more, seeing your face fall. Bruce quietly nods, content to just sit on the bench and observe the quacking birds, the pale blue skyline and the trees gently rustling in the wind.

• "You should see the countryside," You can't help but shiver. "So many ghost towns with population under five hundred people. It's creepy," These days, you're used to the bustling, busy USA, to large cities and lots of travel. Even the capital city of your country seems too quiet, almost unsettling, compared to New York city. Or even London or Budapest.

• Bucky and Steve finally gather themselves with the former discreetly holding Steve's hand. "Maybe we can go to the sea? It's warm today," You don't have the heart to refuse. It's summer and it's about 24 degrees Celsius, the weather pretty good for swimming - of course, you don't expect the Americans to swim, so it's just you, Nat and Buck who pack their swimsuits.

• The seaside is peaceful - not many people on the secluded beach you take your friends to, and predictably, the water is freezing cold but in a good, familiar way. You and Natasha have the time of your lives, swimming, splashing while the rest of the team sits and watches you on the shore, wrapped up in their hoodies, munching on some snack or another.

• You're pretty sure your lips are blue when you exit; with a shriek, Tony attempts to jump away as you wrap your cold, wet self around him, but it's obvious he's enjoying your happiness. "Don't get sick, dear, I don't want your germs," He chortles, but wraps you up in a large fluffy towel and hugs you for extra warmth. You retaliate with a sloppy kiss, dragging your wet hair all over his shirt.

• As you return to New York, you find Tony deep in thought throughout the day. He casts glances at you when he thinks you're not looking; Bruce is the same, and even Clint adopts some kind of an obvious thinking process. "What?!" You finally ask, fed up with the unusual behaviour.

• "Just glad you're with us," Tony kisses your hair. You prepare yourself for more and more questions.

Letsby, I'm cackling.

#bunny's headcanons #tony stark x reader #but it's selfship basically lmao

[the-goddamn-queen]

The Girl I Thought You Were

Bucky Barnes x Readers

Warnings: swearing, brief death/torture mention, zero knowledge of the legal system

Word Count: 2058

Summary: Scoring a position working for the Avengers reveals a lot more about your past than you anticipated.

A/N: For @sunmoonandbucky��‘s 1.5k Constellations Challenge! My prompt was the Legally Blonde line “if you’re going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you’re not the girl I thought you were.” Post-Endgame, but no one died.

You were lucky, you suppose, with the job you’d managed to find. The snap yanked you out of your senior year of college, and when it spit you back out, you didn’t have a degree or the money to finish it.

A non-descript assistant position wasn’t exactly ideal, but it was something, plus they were offering housing for people who’d been ‘blipped.’

You walk up to the shoddy office building, second guessing yourself at every step, but what other choice did you have? You reach the door and give it a firm tug, stumbling backwards when it doesn’t open as you expect it to. You try a few more times with the same result. Had you gotten the time wrong? The address? What this a set up? Your anxiety spikes, and you begin to back away when an Irish woman’s voice prompts you for your name and appointment time.

You manage your name through chattering teeth. “I-I’m just here for the assistant interview.”

“Ah, yes, Mr. Stark’s 3:00.”

Mr. Stark? As in Tony? It couldn’t be.

The door swings open of its own accord to reveal a completely normal office space.

Completely normal, that is, until you step through the hologram straight into a very high-tech elevator.

You barely have time to register the change before the door slams behind you and the elevator starts to drop.

A few moments later, you’re spit out the other side of the elevator into a surprisingly plush conference room.

“Six months away from graduating top honors in political science and intelligence from Columbia University. What happened?”

You snap from your daze to focus on the voice in front of you. The man who spoke was still covering his face with your file, but you’d recognize his voice anywhere. “You’re Ironman.”

“And you were on course to be recruited by the CIA. What. Happened?”

You cleared your throat in attempt to rid your voice of any nervousness. “The university wouldn’t reinstate my scholarship when I, uh, came back, and I didn’t exactly have the money to finish paying since my accounts had been closed for…five years.” It felt weird saying it out loud.

Tony dropped the file to look you over. “Well that’s shitty.” His blunt choice of words shocks you a bit. “I’ll have to have a word with board about that one.” Tony stands and flicks his wrist, opening up a holographic screen that he starts tapping on. “Don’t worry, kid, you’ll get your degree.”

“Mr. Stark, I don’t understand. Is this part of the interview?”

“Interview?” He shakes his head. “No interview. You have the job,” he says as he rounds the table, “this is more of an…” he gestures vaguely to the room, “orientation.”

“So, am I to be your assistant, Mr. Stark?” you question. You’re still pretty confused considering the situation.

Tony gives you a strange look. “Assistant? Is that what FRIDAY posted?” He huffed a laugh and went back to punching at the hologram. “And you can do away with the formalities, kid, ‘Tony’s fine.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand.”

Tony waved away the floating screen and faced you. “I had FRIDAY mockup an ad to attract you specifically,” he said pointing at you, “which is funny to me ‘cause your resume’s too damn good for an assistant.”

You stiffen. He was right, of course, but your field wanted a degree. “Who’s Friday?”

“My assistant.” He takes a step forward and claps a hand on your shoulder making you jump. “And you’re our new government liaison. Welcome to the Avengers.” He pulls away. “Let me show you to your room.”

 The fake office/bunker, it turned out, was temporary while the compound was rebuilt, and being the government liaison basically meant you were the face of the Avengers during negotiations. And no matter what you said, Tony insisted that you were the only person for the job.

You were pretty sure, though, that he was just desperate because the first assignment he gives you is the renegotiation of the Sokovia Accords.

You spend the next month pouring over the original documents and interviewing various Avengers for affidavits.

Steve and Natasha help you outline the full events of the Battle of New York, Wanda gives her own account of the battle with Ultron, and Bucky, poor Bucky, gives you every single detail of how Hydra tortured and brainwashed him.

Clearly, he liked talking to you, though, because after that, he started stopping in pretty regularly, bringing you food, coffee. One time he actually brought a pillow to your office because he caught you asleep on your desk.

A few days later, he brought a blanket.

 The day before the hearing, he brings you two takeout boxes and two forks.

“Am I supposed to double fist this orange chicken?” You’re surprised manage humor through your focus.

“Of course not.” He drags a chair from the corner and plops down across from you.

You glace up, brows furrowed. “I’m done with interviews, you know. You don’t have to hang out with me.” You weren’t trying to kick him out or anything, you just didn’t want him to feel obligated.

“Yeah, I know,” he replies with a mouth full of food.

You stab your fork into the chicken. “Why do you keep doing all this?”

“Why do you keep doing all this?” Bucky counters, gesturing to the plethora of notes you have laid out for tomorrow. You’d been studying them since daybreak to make sure it was perfect.

“It’s my job,” you say defensively, shuffling some of the papers out of his reach.

“A job that you’ve repeatedly claimed you’re not qualified for,” he points out.

“I’m just anxious, okay?” You sigh. “I’ve been going over old videos, and there’s this one fucking senator—”

“Who’s not there anymore.” You both know why. He was Hydra.

“Sure, but there’s always going to be more like him.”

“Look, if you’re going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you’re not the girl I thought you were.”

You look up at him, shocked by his choice of words. “And who, exactly, do you think I am?”

“Why’d you take the job?” It wasn’t a question, really. He believed in you, they all did, he just wanted you to admit it.

“Well,” you have to word it right, “my parents were SHIELD—”

“You’re lying.”

Your eyes pop. He knows. Of course, he knows. Who else does? Tony, probably. Nat, definitely. Columbia, for sure. It was the real reason they took your scholarship, well before Thanos got to you. The history wipe, the name change. None of it could’ve lasted, anyway.

You take a deep breath, eyes down. You’re not sure you can look at him now.

“My parents were Hydra.” You steal a glance. Bucky’s eyes are sympathetic. You wonder if he knew them. “Hardly knew them, though.”

“You grew up in the Red Room.”

You nod. “I escaped when Hydra fell. I wanted to be better. I had to be better.” A tear drips onto the corner of one of your pages, but you can’t bring yourself to care. “But I’m a fucking pariah.”

You feel Bucky slide one of his hands into yours, and you squeeze down, using it as an anchor as you sob. “Me too.”

You stutter and look up at him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—” He shakes his head to cut you off. “I just tried to hide it but I couldn’t keep it up I got found out and kicked out –”

As you ramble, you don’t notice Bucky rounding the desk until he wraps his arms around you, effectively shutting you up.

You instinctively reach your arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder as you cling to him. “I just wanted to start over.” He lowers the two of you down until you’re practically sitting in his lap, your face still buried in his neck. Bucky smooths his hand over your back as the tears die down.

“You’re gonna get your second chance, doll,” he whispers into your hair, “that’s why you’re here.” Then he adds quietly, “that’s why we’re all here.”

 You could almost feel Secretary Ross’s eyes burning a hole into your head, but he’s not your problem at the moment. The panel of senators sitting in front of you were much more important. You’d given them everything, you just hope you can handle whatever they throw back at you.

A few of the committee members that had been convening finally pulled their heads away from each other. One of the women leaned into her mic.

“Miss, is it true you were once part of the Soviet training program ‘The Red Room?’”

Your heart clenched. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And how did you find yourself in this program?” she pressed.

“I don’t see how this is relevant—”

“Just answer the question.”

You take a deep breath and glace over to Bucky. He offers a warm smile, nodding at you to continue. He has faith in you, it’s all you need.

“My parents were members of the shadow organization, Hydra—”

“The Nazi organization—”

“If you would allow me to answer your question, senator,” you fire back, “and if I remember correctly, a number of your colleagues were involved in Hydra as well.”

“They are answering for their crimes—”

“And my parents died for theirs.” A stunned silence fell over the courtroom. “They threw me into the Red Room when I was three years old. Hell bent on turning their own daughter into a weapon.” You were half standing now, but still leaned in on your mic. “They ruined my life. I carry no allegiance to them or the organization that tried to brainwash me and countless others. I was lucky. I escaped and got to go after my second chance. Thanks to the Avengers, we all got a second chance.”

It starts with one person, but it doesn’t take for the entire gallery to erupt into applause. The committee head practically has to yell into his mic about reconvening the next morning. It wasn’t over, but you sure as hell made an impression.

 “Don’t you think this celebration is a little pre-mature?” you ask as Tony hands you the glass bottle.

“No way, kid,” he insists, “you earned that beer. You did us proud today.”

You smile and start to turn from the bar but stumble back when you smack straight into a pillar.

“Shit, sorry, you alright?” Oh, okay. Not a pillar. You look up.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine,” you reply, not realizing you still had a hand on Bucky’s chest.

He smiles down at you. “Walk with me?” He offers an elbow.

“Sure.”

The two of you wander the hallways for a while before you stop him. “You knew me didn’t you? In Hydra?”

Bucky parts hips lips for a moment and then nods, and you see his eyes get glassy.

“Bucky, what is it?”

“Nothing, really,” he shakes his head and you can tell he’s fighting tears. “Yeah, I knew you.”

“I didn’t know you though. Bucky why are you crying?”

A tear escapes and he chokes on a sob. “Because I watched you die.”

You feel it then. The echo of the electricity weaving its way into your head, latching onto bits and pieces of memories and frying them into obscurity. The realization hits you, and you grasp at Bucky’s face, forcing him to look you in the eyes. You let the blue run over you until your own tears start to fall. “I didn’t die,” you reassure him, smoothing with wet cheeks with your thumbs.

“They let me think it killed you.”

You choke out a laugh. “You know it takes a hell of a lot more than that to kill me.”

He smiles at that and pulls you a little closer. “You really are the girl I thought you were.”

You take a deep breath and lean in just enough to press you lips to his. Bucky sighs into you and returns the kiss. The two of you stay that way for as long as possible, letting the connection work a balm over the charred parts of your brain until all that was left was the memories of him.

“They made you forget me,” he murmurs against your lips.

“I could never forget you.”

#bucky #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #the winter soldier #the winter soldier x reader #the winter soldier imagine #the winter soldier fanfic #avengers #avengers fanfic #avengers x reader #avengers imagine #1.5kconstellationswritingchallenge

[end-o-the-line]

Trying to track the Winter Soldier through both canon and history....god help me....

As a follow up to the First Avenger timeline, insomnia brought us here.

February 1945 - Bucky falls from a goddamn train in the Alps. We've gone over this.

Okay, we know Bucky was in Russian/Hydra hands by early '45. The first thing to look into is Operation Paperclip. You may recognize this from TWS, but it was not made up by the MCU, it was a real thing. In May of 1945, a U.S. Army Major Robert B. Staver sent a telegram to the Pentagon, pushing the idea of capturing and using German scientists toward the war effort in the Pacific. They proceeded to do just that, housing captured scientists in southern Bavaria. So smart, keeping the Nazis in Germany and stuff. By November, the project had been renamed Operation Paperclip. For secrecy?

Most of the early objectives of this operation were to keep the German scientists from emigrating to non-’murica friendly countries and continuing their work. Eventually, the US realized it was just fine for them to continue their work, as long as it was for them. By the end of the war, Germans with 'marketable' knowledge were being 'recruited' through ‘orders’ for their families and such to report to Allied bases; the important ones were then moved to ‘secret’ locations (one was code-named DUSTBIN and it was proooobably in the desert near Los Alamos idk) and ‘questioned’; detained for months at a time.

Some of these scientists were later removed and charged for their war-time actions. Since we know Zola was still part of SHIELD when he built the nightmare computer in the 70's, he obviously wasn't one of those charged with the atrocities he committed. None of the scientists were free to roam until at least '47. That leads us to believe that Zola couldn't have gotten his hands back on Bucky for at least 2 years, likely more. It's possible Zola never got his hands on Bucky again, if you take Bucky's memories as more like amalgams and assume he just uses Zola as the face for any and all faceless scientists he encountered. It's not out of the question.

Moving on. Bucky is found by Russians, and since we've been over that too, needless to say it's highly unlikely that many Russians were deserting the Red Army to go be buddies with a mostly Nazi-associated Hydra operation at the end of WW2. The Russians and the Nazis were not friends, mmkay, Russia lost nearly 40 million people during WW2, and only 9 million of those were in combat. But, by the time the first traces of the Cold War come around, Russians in Hydra would definitely be a thing, just like Americans in Hydra would be a thing. Again, the date 1947 comes into play, as that's a pretty accepted start date of the Cold War tensions. But.

But.

Bucky was found by some very lost Russians and brought in, where they took him fuck knows where to pimp his ride. There's not much we can take from the MCU with the meager flashbacks, but there is a very clear timeline from Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol. 2. I'll fill in what I can from the MCU, since that's what this is focusing on, and rely on the comics for what I can’t.

March 23, 1945 - Bucky's KGB file is created by the KGB branch in Dnepropetrovsk Region, USSR, which in 2016 became known as Dnipro Raion, Ukraine. (**Thanks to Morrighan on AO3 for this translation!) Of note is the giant Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory, built by German POWs starting in December of 1945, which was planned by the Russians as a secret military machining plant. It wasn't under way at this particular date, but the supplies for such large industry were, and it stands to reason the future Fist of Hydra would have been brought to a place that was intended to become the center of the Soviet secret weapons think tank.

May 7, 1945 - Bucky dies. Like, literally. The comics are clear on this, that when the Russians found him he was frozen solid, and dead. One of them had been on a mission with the Commandos, though, and after seeing Bucky in action, suspected he had the serum just like Steve (he didn't, he was just a badass), so they thaw him like a Thanksgiving turkey to try to get tissue and fluid samples. When he's thawed, he's dead as a doornail. They revive him, though, and even the scientists are kind of shocked it worked, since he did not, in fact, have the serum. What he did have was the memory of how to kick ass, which they learn the hard way haha, so they sedate his ass until they can get all their samples from him. Having said that, MCU canon directly controverts this. MCU Bucky DOES have the serum, that's been made very clear from several of his feats of strength that did not include the metal arm, and he was obviously not flash frozen in the Alps because he remembers shit. So. Do with that dichotomy what you will, just thought I'd share.

May 21, 1945 - After determining that they can't recreate the serum from him, and that he's gonna kick their asses if they let him stay conscious, Bucky is put into cryo-freeze. Even the scientist making the notes is all IDFK about the order when it's given by Karpov, he's like birch is crazy.

In the flashback scene from TWS where Bucky's metal arm is being attached, the doctor uses a handheld electric bone saw.

The patent for the first hand held reciprocating saw was filed on June 27, 1952. Trust me. You do not want to try Googling that, okay, let me take the hit on those visuals. I spontaneously became a vegetarian. Anyway, it's safe to assume the flashback scene of Bucky getting what remained of his arm cut off was at the least 7 years of captivity later. Since Bucky hasn't aged any more than the Capsicle did, it's safe to assume, and mentioned in those pieces of comics canon, that the Russians essentially said *shrug* and stuffed the half-dead American soldier they found in the fridge for a decade like my grandmother used to do to the stuff she canned every summer.

Since the cryo containment they stuff him back into after he has the metal arm was actually in the operating theater, hence already tested and in use (and mobile, apparently? what did they do push him around on a handcart?? that would be the worst job) it's a pretty safe assumption to make that even MCU Bucky was almost immediately put on ice after being captured because he kept trying to kill folks, and kept that way until at least mid to late 1952, if not later.

Personal tangent? If the Russians/Hydra already had a Cryo tank to conveniently throw Bucky into, one can assume they had a use for it, right? My personal theory is that it was for Super Soldiers, meaning someone had at least theorized that a Super Soldier could be frozen. How many fucking Cold War resources do you think were put toward hunting for that fucking Valkyrie in the Arctic?

June 1954 - The date comes from Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol. 2 again, and it gels with the info above about the arm-attachment so I'm going with it. Bucky becomes the 'Fist of Hydra' and is then put back on ice because the Fist of Hydra tries to strangle his doctor. It would be super easy to split his time and say he was with the Russians until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, then was transferred to Hydra's control, but this Fist of Hydra line makes that impossible. So even though the Russians in the form of the KGB had him, they were obviously still working under or with the Hydrapus. Bucky worked for Department X in the Comics, but that's not an MCU thing, so. That's where the MCU and the comics diverge wildly, and make this a migraine-inducing task. Right after they let him out of Cryo, Bucky escapes, but since he's in the middle of the goddamn Soviet wilderness, he doesn't get far.

1959 - The first page of the file Steve receives from Natasha about the Winter Soldier is probably dated 1959, from the KGB branch in Lvovsky Region, USSR, which is the Lviv Region in Ukraine. The area is super varied in landscape and population, which could have served as a proving ground of sorts for a weapon like the Winter Soldier. This can probably be taken as a pretty clear date for when the Winter Soldier officially became 'active' under the direction of the KGB. That's five years from the metal arm being attached to becoming the Asset, during which you can only assume they were working on the base programming for what would later become the wipes.

1964 - This is technically when the Winter Soldier's kills start being counted, if you take Natasha's 'the last 50 years' literally. So I'm going to ignore pre-64 history, pretty much, and assume that the 5-10 years after June 1954 were spent turning Bucky into The Winter Soldier with mindfucking, training, languages, ect. It's important to note that in the comics, Bucky was never tortured, per se. Not physically, I guess, though the defining line of ‘torture’ here is thin. He was already an amnesiac, so they used a combination of sensory deprivation and 'Mental Implantation' experiments to make him loyal to them. You don't make someone loyal by beating the shit out of them, you know? There's also evidence in the movies in the way Bucky reacts to people; he is clearly in charge of the STRIKE team, not taking their orders; he doesn't flinch when Steve touches him, nor does he mind one bit the Wakandan doctors who are hooking him up to IVs, ect. He does not outwardly behave like a man who was subjected to decades of beatings or what have you.

Look at that cupcake, Jesus.

Since MCU canon is sparse with language info, I'll go with Comics canon on this; Bucky has stated that before Hydra, he spoke six languages. Hydra's own notes state that he spoke four. We'll go with Bucky on this one, since he would know amirite. I can't figure out what all 6 were for sure, but there is solid evidence that he spoke fluent English, German, and Russian. The other educated guesses would add Japanese, French, and Italian to that tally. It's also possible his sixth language was cursing, because even Deadpool is shocked at Bucky's language when he goes back in time and meets him during the War. Those are the most likely, simply because they were the relevant ones to the War effort and where he was deployed. There's a panel with War-dressed Bucky speaking Chinese, but wtf dude I mean....he was too young to be sent to China at any point before the War broke out, and there's no reason the War Department would have taught him fucking Chinese in the 40's when he was up to his ass in the European Theater, so that panel might be an alternate reality thing, idk.

After Hydra, he was additionally fluent in Chinese (probably post-Hydra, fuck that panel), Spanish, Polish, Romanian (MCU canon), and he became passable in Kree. At one point when he is Bucky!Cap, Steve seems to be under the impression that Bucky can also understand a dog barking. I don't know if that's a Bucky thing or a Steve thing, but it's apparently canon that Bucky talks to animals like a crazy cat lady enough that Steve thinks he's understanding them. Idfk dude.

Sooo, TL;DR:

WW2-era: English, German, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian (probably), and foul language.

Winter Soldier-era: Chinese, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Kree, and dog? Probably a lot more, probably ALL the Soviet Bloc languages, tbh, I just don't have hard evidence of them. Ehhhh.....

.....while I at first assumed he was talking about the other Soldiers collectively in this scene, we could also assume that Bucky is telling Steve and Sam all that info about the other Soldiers because he's listing his own stats. So it's possible Bucky himself speaks upwards of 30 languages by the time he breaks free from Hydra. In addition to the Soviet Bloc, if he also spent a lot of time in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, all those different dialects could easily add up to 30+ languages.

Most of the 'training' he was given during that proving ground period would basically have been the Russians field-testing him and being all WOO he already knows this, because Bucky was already a Grade A Badass. They would have updated him on new technology as soon as it was available to him, because he can obviously fly SHIELD fighter jets without blinking an eye and is rather fond of commandeering random flying machines . . . I imagine he’d only be able to steal one of those and then realize he doesn’t know how to work it once.

1959-1964 - I got sidetracked. Anyway. There is some chatter in the fandom that Bucky killed Kennedy. If we take the 50 years thing literally and go with the 1964 date, he probably didn't. If we take it almost literally and infer the 1959 date on his file was from his first field test or mission, he . . . really could have killed Kennedy. I do like to mix my movies, though, and imagine that Bucky was sent to Dallas, met up with Magneto trying to stop him, hai there metal arm, and got wrapped up like a burrito in a chain link fence before he could fire a shot.....

Anyway....despite how well-armed the Winter Soldier is . . . jesus I just re-read this and realized I made a horrible pun but I'm not changing it because it made me laugh, most political assassinations are not usually by gun or knife. You can't have plausible deniability if you shoot someone in the face. That's why the Winter Soldier's reputation is as both assassin AND spy.

So I’m going to highlight some real-world events that you could ascribe to the Winter Soldier through the years, if you are so inclined to write these things in stories. Dates and locations are between the spades, for ease of tracking this sneaky bastard's possible real historical movements. Bold dates are confirmed by MCU canon.

♠ September 11, 1973 - Santiago, Chile ♠ The apparent suicide of Chile’s president, Salvador Allende - with an assault rifle – during the Pinochet coup. Being honest, this was probably the CIA, but still.

♠ early December 1977 - Cairo, Egypt ♠ David Holden - a writer, journalist, broadcaster, and possible CIA agent - was the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Times, and is shot in still unexplained circumstances just before the peace talks between Egypt and Israel. With his connections, and possible CIA ties, there is no telling what this guy was up to, or who would have wanted him to stop doing it.

♠ April 17, 1978 - Kabul, Afghanistan ♠ Mir Akbar Khyber, an Afghan intellectual and a leader of the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), was killed outside his home. I don't know how. His death led to the overthrow of the republic, and to the advent of a socialist regime in Afghanistan.

♠ December 23, 1978 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia ♠ Malcolm Caldwell, a British lecturer in southeast Asian studies and a Marxist writer who was a vocal supporter of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was killed for no apparent reason other than being a douche. This one's interesting because there was a witness: About 11:00 p.m. that night [Elizabeth] Becker was awakened by the sound of gunfire. She stepped out of her bedroom and saw a heavily armed Cambodian man who pointed a pistol at her. (Sounds familiar right??) She ran back into her room and heard people moving and more gunshots. An hour later a Cambodian came to her bedroom door and told her that Caldwell was dead. . . He had been shot in the chest and the body of a Cambodian man was also in the room, possibly the same man who had pointed the pistol at Becker. Three days later, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ended Khmer Rouge.

In comics canon, the Winter Soldier goes rogue some time in the 70's - I think, I cannot find it - on a job in NYC after seeing his little sister Rebecca on the street. Hydra tracks him down and pets him on the head and takes him back because he doesn't know why he bolted. After it becomes obvious that he's having issues, he shadows the head of the program (Lukin, the dude from Civil War) for two years as his personal bodyguard, then is put back into cryo. It isn't until after this stretch that the mind wipes start, because his behavior is degrading more and more and he becomes harder to handle. There is a ten year stretch here in the late 70′s to mid 80′s, basically, that this could have gone down.

♠ August 17, 1988 - Bahawalpur, Pakistan ♠ President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan dies in a plane crash, along with 31 others, including a shitload of important politicians I don't want to bother listing. Witnesses report the plane flying erratically, then nosediving and exploding on impact. An investigation concluded it was a 'criminal act of sabotage'. Zia-ul-Haq's most enduring legacy was his indirect involvement and military strategies against the USSR's war in Afghanistan.

♠ November 24, 1989 - Peshawar, Pakistan ♠ Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian Islamist leader - who Wikipedia claims is also known as the Father of Global Jihad - was killed with his two adult sons by a car bomb. In a narrow street across from a gas station, a bomb that had a 50-metre detonation cord led to the sewerage system where the assailant presumably waited. He literally laid in the sewers waiting, that's hardcore. Anyway, Azzam both controlled the jihadi forces who had fought against the USSR in Afghanistan and opposed the extension of the Islamist war to targets in the non-Islamic world. His protégé was a man named Osama bin Laden.

♠ December 16, 1991 - Upstate New York like a goddamn hipster ♠ Yeah, Mission Report and stuff. Howard and Maria Stark are murrrrrderrrrred in a car. (I have actual real meta that circles around this but that’s for a different bout of insomnia I guess).

♠ December 25, 1991 - Siberia, probably, jesus is anyone still reading this? ♠ The USSR is dissolved. It's likely they moved all their Hydra assets into Pierce's control shortly after this, meaning the Soldier became 'the Asset' and moved to DC like a politician. The scenes from Civil War with the other Soldiers going all Mutiny on the Bounty had to have happened somewhere in December of 1991.

♠ 6 April 1994 - Kigali, Rwanda ♠ The plane carrying Rwanda’s and Burundi’s presidents, Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, is shot down as it prepares to land, precipitating the Rwandan Genocide and the First Congo War. That's one hell of a precision strike, if you want chaos.

♠ November 11, 2004 - Gaza Strip, probably? ♠ Yasser Arafat dies in a Paris, France hospital, for reasons that are still not clear but apparently began to develop on October 25, 2004. Many believe he was poisoned by polonium laced into his clothing and belongings, which is why this one is sort of hard to place for a Winter Soldier location. I'm assuming he would have at least accessed the home in Gaza City, Palestine?

♠ July 30, 2005 - a mountain range in southern Sudan near New Kush ♠ John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Sudan’s new vice-president, dies in a helicopter crash after the January 2005 peace agreement, which leads to rioting in Khartoum.

♠ 2009 - Odessa, Ukraine ♠ The Winter Soldier visits Odessa so he can shoot Natasha Romanov in her bikini line, plus an engineer dude or something I'm too lazy to go looking for the story tbh, we've all seen the movie.

♠ May 4, 2012 - just outside nuke range of Manhattan, New York ♠ The Battle of New York. If I was Hydra, I'd have my greatest weapon poised and ready to go kick some alien ass if all else failed, kwim, but not so close as to be exploded. You can't rule the world if someone else has already conquered that shit.

♠ within a week of Monday, Memorial Day, May 26, 2014  - Washington, DC ♠ (brilliant date analysis from Katie_P on AO3!) Nick Fury is almost killed, twice. It's apparent that the Asset's home has moved from Siberia in the 90's to a bank vault in DC at some point in the last . . . IDK, 23 years. . We all saw the chase in the street, but the Soldier takes his shot through one of Steve's walls using thermal imaging on his scope, then plays ultimate frisbee with Captain America for a minute before saying fuck it and going back to the bank where they keep him.

Then some moron doesn't read his instruction manuals thoroughly and sends Captain America's dead best friend to kill him without anticipating the inevitable joint Cap/Asset system error.

Anyway. The Soldier saves Steve's dumb ass one more time, then bolts and heads back to the bank to utterly fuck that shit up, but he doesn't kill anyone there. He specifically says he has enough blood on his hands, and lets them all live. Then he ghosts and doesn't resurface until he smells plums two years later. As settled as he was in Romania, he probably spent at least half a year of those two years there.

That's all I got.

Okay Jesus, so that was a lot of work. Comics mentions that I didn't include? Steve and Bucky knew Wolverine during WW2. They fought together several times. And later, the Winter Soldier helps Wolverine escape from the Weapons X Facility, which Wolverine doesn't find out until much later. I don't know when that is and . . . God help me, I kind of don't care at this point? Also, one panel has Bucky claiming that he killed Hitler. If so, good.

#bucky barnes #the winter soldier #history nerd rants #research #fic reference #history sorta #timeline #meta maybe? #captain america #MCU detail references

[nedxwynert]

Definitely Unexpected | Bucky Barnes x Reader

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(gif not mine)

Summary: Ever since you could remember, you and Bucky have been friends. When you heard he was leaving to go fight the war, it burned a hole in you. But one night, something definitely unexpected happened when someone showed up at your door.

Warnings: mainly fluff, cheesy shit, Bucky being cute

Word Count: 2,036 (whoops)

A/N: Okay, so I was thinking about a movie I adore called The Holiday and I was picturing a scene in it. So, yes, the title is the name of the scene with Jude Law and Cameron Diaz. If you've watched the movie, you'll get what I mean by this and I totally recommend you watch it cause it's an amazing movie. Anyways, enjoy.

Masterlist

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The paper boys around every corner of Brooklyn didn't help with your fear as they were shouting the header of the war that was going on, saying 100 planes crash in battle over a convoy in Channel ; fight off Italy indecisive! $4,848,171,957 more is by Roosevelt for defense; not to send men to Europe!

As a woman like yourself, you couldn't just go and sign up. The only big reason you were fearful of these Nazis and Soviets taking over almost all of Europe and gaining power, was because none other than your closest friends were heading into the war, but James was shipping of to England and that was far from Brooklyn and it pained you to hear that and feared that he will never come back.

You and James were friends since birth and then you met Steve later on who you didn't get too along with since you were the little girl who liked to rip her dress and skid her knees from climbing and doing activities that most girls wouldn't do. He was the one to watch in the back and always be hesitant of doing something like taking a big jump. You couldn't be the one to have tea parties and doing each others hair. You wanted to roll up your sleeves and pant legs and hunt frogs and stealing pennies from the streets and rush in candy shops and buy as much as your sweet tooth ached for till your pockets were empty of cash and full of delicious chocolates, Babe Ruth's, Tempters, and Abba-Zabas.

Now those days were only a memory as James was signed up in the army, Steve trying to enlist, but the poor guy was too thin and underweight to even pass and get listed, even though he wanted to help fight in the war but can't. And as for you, you were a woman and couldn't just get up and try to fight along with your friends due to the feminism in this time, men just telling you to go back home and cook dinner like a 'good girl'. It irritated you whenever you heard that, yet it led to your job that also makes your life even worse.

You worked at a small diner not too far from your apartment. Although, you get paid a lot and you were thankful for that, but the people's behaviour towards you is one you hate the most everyday that makes you really want to quit your job, but you needed money to stay in your tiny apartment and survive till this god awful war was over. You felt men stare at you as if they were removing your clothes with their eyes, having names called to you that made your blood boil. The white skirt and shirt with the black apron you wore for your job was thrown off you once you reached back home after long hours of being in the diner, snuggling into some more comfortable clothes like a pair of nice pants and a loose shirt and catch up reading your book or perhaps finish a painting you were working on. Thank god for Steve teaching you his incredible art skills.

Sitting on the hard uncomfortable couch in your living room, the sounds of the radio playing in the background, you work on a painting of what would be your place -- but a lot more prettier and what you would love to live in if you could, your grey shirt splotched with many colours as you've used this shirt many times to paint before as your (hair colour) hair was pulled back nicely and tied with a blue ribbon. It always made you smile as the ribbon came from Bucky back in eighth grade, tied to a (favourite flower) for thanks of helping him get away with accidently crashing his bicycle into the principle's fancy car.

As you hummed along to the softer and slower songs from Louis Armstrong that came from the radio, you were in deep thought while the thin brush stroked the canvas with paint, smiling slightly while thinking back to the good days of playing with Bucky and Steve after and in school. But while you went to get some more red to paint some curtains, you found out you were out and let out a heavy sigh before standing up and walking to the kitchen where you put the paint at. The song didn't stop and neither did your humming. Well...that was when you heard a loud knock on the door, frightening you as you yelped at the sound.

Someone was wanting to see you this late at night?

Panic hit you as you realize you couldn't just open the door almost covered completely in paint. But who would be only knocking on your door just to judge you by your messy clothes. This wasn't work.

"In a minute!" Saying loudly for the person to hear on the other side of the door, you rush to the sink to scrub off the paint on your arms and hands, skipping on drying them before heading over to the door, fixing your clothes like a girl trying to get ready for her crush to walk by her. But when you took a deep breath in, ready for answering the door, you reached for the doorknob and turned it. The old door would squeak on its hinges a bit as when you went to look up to see who it was, you felt your tired heavy eyes widen immediately in the size of dinner plates.

"Thought I'd leave without saying goodbye?" There was that husky voice you missed. It was Bucky, dressed in his nicer uniform with that stupid grin on his face as blue eyes were fixed onto your shocked face then next looking at your grey shirt that was almost just a completely coloured in paint. More of a grin came to his lips, making your cheeks burn a dark red.

"I thought you left to England," you spoke at a more bitter tone than you expected as his brows furrowed at how you weren't all too excited to see him, those eyes then looking at the art mess on your shirt. "Hey, eyes up here soldier." Hearing your words, those blue eyes looked back to your (eye colour) orbs, seeing how his body tensed at the new name as it only made you smile a bit with a hint of a blush on his cheeks (which was new for you to see him to ever blush).

"Sorry, I never saw a lady's clothes be covered in paint before," the soldier said in a snicker.

"Well, you shouldn't think I'm one of those posh girls. You know me, Bucky." You would giggle softly, an awkward silence falling soon after. Teeth bit at your lower lip and those (eye colour) orbs looking around as he was doing the same, wondering who was going to start to talk and that's when you saw him shiver. "Do you want to come in? It's pretty cold out and I think it wouldn't be too bad to have some company. I mean, if you aren't busy at the moment." And there you went, biting your lip again, looking up at the man you've been writing in your diary for years like you were one of those teenager girls who try to flirt with their crush and gossip about the things of him to their friends at school.

"(First name) (last name). Look at you. Being the sweetheart like you've always been." You rolled your eyes at him as he walked into your apartment, removing the hat that went with his uniform and hanged it onto the rack before his eyes went to search and look at your apartment for the first time. "Nice place you have here." You would look at Bucky while closing the door with a scoff before walking back into the kitchen to wash some of your paint brushes which probably are close to being hard as a rock by now from the paint drying on the bristles. While you listened to the floorboards creak from the soldier's weight from oitside the kitchen, Bucky had insisted of being the guy who gets a bit nosey and starts to look through the sketches on the couch, his mouth gaping from being impressed by your work. "Well fuck. Stevie sure taught you how to draw. You sure you didn't trace this?"

A blush came over your face, smiling while you would dry the paint brushes with a rag. You never thought anyone would be impressed by your art. Steve was an artist at heart, but you had to read books and attempt to make a dog not look like a cat. It took many years for you to achieve this now talent you do in your spare time.

"If those were traced, they would've looked ten times better." The sound of Bucky's laughter made your heart race, smiling a bit as you would walk over to him in the living room where it was warmer from the heater.

There were shared glances as it came back to the awkward silence, hearing the cars outside and the sound of some footsteps above from the other people who lived in the apartments. But when you went to look at Bucky again, this time you saw that he had something bugging him and it looked like he was trying to say what was on his mind.

When you would part your lips to say something, his eyes tore from you and focused them more on the drawings scattered on the couch, a mumble coming past his lips. Something like an I and a don't want to.

"Pardon?" You would walk closer to him but only a few steps as you didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

"I don't want to go to England." Pain drenched his words as you could hear him just breaking inside from just by the sound of his voice.

"I don't want you to either," you said in a soft whisper. "But England would probably look like home, so I don't think you'll get too home sick. I know I do and it's fine if you are t-"

"That's not what I'm gonna miss, (name)." The sound of his voice breaking from the pain that shot through him, it was breaking you too. To see your childhood friend who had your back all the time and now seeing him in what looked like the brink of tears. When his eyes met yours, his whole body changed and his face. It was like you saw hope in his eyes this time.

"I'm gonna miss you." As he stepped closer to you, the sounds of the outside world became silent to you, focusing on Bucky as he stood in front of you, head tilting up from the difference in height. "I mean, I'm gonna miss Steve too-- but, I'm really gonna miss you." You were lost for words, staring at the blue eyed soldier like a kid looking at a fish tank. "And I uh. I actually came here to say one last thing before I left and I wanted to say it to you face to face instead of a letter, and that is that I.." A warm blush went over his face, looking down as you could tell he was nervous to finish his sentence due to his posture and how he would be playing with the hem of his shirt or anything to try to free from his fear. It made you smile everytime and he looked cute everytime he did it.

But that smile faded when you would feel his hands cup both sides of your face, your heart beating a million miles and hour as his face inches closer to yours to where you could at the slightest feel his hot breath over your lips. Then he said it. For years you wanted to hear this from someone, and you didn't expect to hear it from the man you've had a crush on for years and those dreams have become a reality.

"I love you."

Thank you for reading! Did you enjoy? If so, please consider to heart and reblog. Many writers today don’t get much credit for the hard work they put into their writing. And with that, have a wonderful day! :)

#bucky barnes #reader #40's bucky #captain america #marvel #fluff #cheesy #cute #bucky barns x reader #painting #fanfic #i love him #oof #definitely #unexpected

[berjhawn]

WINTERNIGHT - Chapter 4 - Sledgehammer

Warnings: Fighting, death, blood, vampires, Lycans.  Pairings: Bucky Barnes X Vampire Reader Parts: 

Preview

Chapter 1 - Night

Chapter 2 - Learning to Trust

Chapter 3 - Lucian

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Chapter 4 – Some years later.

Bucky stared at the video clip playing before his eyes. It was her, there was no doubt about it. She hadn’t aged a day since he last saw her. “She hasn’t aged a day.” Bucky says his eyes focusing on the paused frame of her walking down the subway platform. She looked good. Her (H/C) hair was longer now hanging down to her waist. Her eyes had remained the same. Their piercing silver color was hard to hide from the CCTV feed.

“I had to call in a few favors; but I found all the information I could on her.” Natasha says and he nods.

“Thanks Red.” He says as he runs a hand through his hair.

“Now that I’ve done this,” She says as she pulls out a chair and sitting down beside him. “You gonna tell me why you’re looking for her so badly?”

“Red, I can’t explain it.” Bucky replies letting out an exasperated sigh.

“James, I know what she is. You looking for her is dangerous, both for you and her.”

“I know, but you don’t understand. It’s like she’s calling for me.” He answers honestly making Natasha narrow her eyes at him.

“There’s something you’re not telling me Barnes.” She replies folding her arms over her chest as she leans back in her chair. Bucky ruffles his hair before he leans back in his seat and says, “When I fell off the train, a group of soviets found me.”

“I already know this part.” She says nodding slightly at the memory.

“What you don’t know is that, after they found me, she found them.” He says his eyes finally meeting hers.

“What exactly happened all those years ago James?” Natasha asks and he sighs.

“She saved my life. She didn’t have too, but she did.” Bucky says making her eyes widen slightly.

“You didn’t?” She asks and he nods.

“I didn’t know what was going on at the time, I mean I kind of knew; but I was so out of it from the pain and the blood loss it didn’t register in my head till later.” He answers his eyes looking back at the screen to see her face.

“Now I know why you need to find her; but I’m warning you, it’s not gonna be easy. Her kind’s been hiding for centuries having a silent war with the wolves. If they know about your guy’s history, the wolves could use you against her.” She pauses for a moment, “Or her against you.”

“I know.”

“Are you sure you want to keep this from Steve?” She asks and he nods.

“For now. I don’t need him in the middle of this. Besides, if I can, I want to do this without involving him at all.”

“So, you won’t tell your best friend, but you’ll use your old girlfriend and her contacts.” She comments and his eyes fill with pain. “Before you reply, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad. I know I have some friends in love places. If the roles were reversed and I needed to find someone that important to me, I’d do the same.” She answers honestly making him nod.

“Thanks again Red, I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t thank me just yet Barnes.” She says as she unfolds her arms and placing them on the table leans forward. Opening the file, she flips to a page and then turns it to him. “This is where she’s staying. She’s not the same girl you remember.” Bucky looks at the picture to see the heavily guarded mansion and he gulps down a breath of air.

“She used to be such a recluse, like she feared humans.”

“That may be who she was, and for good reason; but who she is now, I’m not sure she’s the girl you remember.”

“I’ll know when I talk to her.” Bucky says as he closes the file and standing up leaves the room to read it.

“I hope you’re right, I don’t want to see you hurt anymore James.” She replies after he’s gone.

Bucky walks to his room and quickly starts to pack. From what the info said she was in Budapest. It didn’t exactly state why or what she was doing there but it did say that she was staying at the nearby coven Ördögház. He’d have to make a few calls to get there but he would make it. Somehow. After making sure he had everything packed he sent a quick text to Steve saying he would be out of the country for a few days and then walking back to the dining room saw Natasha still sitting at the table fiddling with her phone.

Bucky knew that this was silently hurting her but there was nothing he could do. He needed closure from Night and he wasn’t going to stop until he got it. Running a hand through his hair he walks up behind her and placing his metal hand on her shoulder leans down and gently kisses the top of her head. “I’ll make sure to keep in touch.” He says when her hand reaches up to grasp him.

“James, I don’t think this is such a good idea. I can’t help but feel like something bad is about to happen.” She replies and he nods.

“Your instincts are usually on point.” He states gripping tightly to her the worry filling his insides now. “But I need to do this. I’ll call you when I land. Take care of Steve.” Then with one last squeeze of his hand he releases her shoulder and heads for the door.

Landing at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, Bucky makes his way to where his contact was waiting for him. He searched the crowds until he saw Hunter standing off to the side with sunglasses and a leather jacket on. Bucky shakes his head as he quickly makes his way over to him. Nearing him Bucky says, “I swear it’s like you Shieldies all have the same incognito look.”

“I like the shades, and the jacket looks amazing on me.” Hunter replies making Bucky shake his head before hugging the agent.

“It’s good to see you again.” Bucky replies as he slaps Hunter on the back.

“I hear you’re here hunting?” Hunter asks as he pulls out of the hug and the two of them head to the exit.

“In a way.” Bucky replies nodding his head slightly. “Just looking for an old friend.”

“And it just so happens that friend is at the top of the deadly female list.” Hunter jokes and Bucky nods.

“I’m just looking for answers. I mean she disappears and then Hydra finds me. It’s a little suspicious.”

“Just a bit.” Hunter replies as he motions toward the parking garage. “I wasn’t sure when you’d get here exactly so you get to pay for parking.”

“It’s the least I could do. Thanks again for putting me up and helping me find her.”

“Don’t thank me just yet mate. You don’t know how scary this place truly is.”

“I have a feeling I’m about to find out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s fifteen until sunset.” I hear Selene say and I nod. My mind had been wondering lately and it wasn’t a good thing. This mission would be a good way to get my mind straight. I couldn’t remember how long exactly I had been here or what I was doing now since Victor was in hibernation. I could have left, I had what Lucian wanted, so why did I stay? Was it Selene? Probably. She was like a sister to me. Even after I left and came back it was like nothing had changed. I was thankful for that.

“I feel like all I do now is what your ass.” I say making her smirk.

“I feel the same about you.” She replies checking her guns to make sure she had enough ammo.

“I don’t want to be that person, but I’ve noticed something.”

“And what would that be?”

“Don’t shoot me, but I feel like Kraven has been exceptionally pervy lately.” I say reaching forward to grab an extra set of handguns, you could never have too many when fighting Lycans.

“Well you’re not wrong.”

“I wish I could shoot him.”

“This is why you and I get along.” She adds sliding the slide of her gun back to check her ammo. I chuckle slightly my eyes moving from her back to the window. “You miss him, don’t you?” She asks and I quickly clear my throat. It wasn’t too long after I returned and Victor went into hibernation that I told Selene about Bucky. I’d never heard anything about him, whether he made it home to America, had a family, or if he died on the way. I hadn’t heard anything from Angel in all these years either. The only solace I had was in knowing that neither the vampires nor the Lycans had gotten ahold of him.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t; but he’s most likely dead by now. It’s been what seventy years?” I say reaching up to caress the silver chain around my neck.

“I’ve forgotten how long it’s been. I stopped counting the years since I was created.” Selene says and I nod. I am about to say something else when Kahn comes into the room.

“There’s been talks of Lycan sightings near the cathedral.” He pauses for a moment glancing in my direction.

“We’re on it.” Selene replies and I nod. “We’ll take Rigel and Nathaniel with us.”

“Be careful out there you two.” Khan says and we both nod.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You know one thing I like about being a vampire is we can’t get sick from standing in the cold rain.” I say to Selene making her smirk as she looked down at the crowd below from our perch high upon the roof of the old cathedral. I glance over at Rigel who was diligently working with his camera searching, while Nathaniel guarded the metro entrance. I sit impatiently as I wait for either of them to make sound when a scent fills my senses. It was Raze. I quickly move over to the window and looking down instantly spot him long with some other wolf.

This was not going to be good. I was not about to hurt one of the people that raised me. I feel Selene tap my arm and I grit my teeth. Rigel jumps down first, followed by Selene, and then finally me. I couldn’t protect Raze but maybe I could divert my vampire comrade’s attention long enough for him to get away. Selene, Rigel, and I slip down the stairs and into the station before Raze and his pal were able too. We position ourselves at different places and wait. I watch the crowd nervously until I spot Selene staring at a human with a strange expression.

I take in a breath and I feel my throat clench. The human she was staring at smelled familiar. I couldn’t place the scent exactly but I felt like I had smelled it before. I look past the human to see Raze and his pal basically powerwalking behind this human and I pause. Were they following him? No, that couldn’t be right. I am about to move closer when Raze stops. I stare at him for a moment until he turns around. I follow his eyes to Rigel and I groan inwardly. The little vamp had gotten too close. Without so much as hint, Raze yells out, “Bloods!” and then just starts firing relentlessly on Rigel and the people around him.

Rigel fires back but is too slow as he is pelted with bullets. I stare in anger as I watch him slowly turn to ash in front of me. I tilt my head in confusion as I see the light emanating from within him. These were no ordinary bullets. I hear return fire and I turn to see Selene firing back at Raze and his pal. I hear a woman let out a groan of pain and I turn from the fighting to her. Reaching her side, I try to pull her out of the line of fire. I quickly place my hands on her would as I try to stop the bleeding. I feel someone next to me and I look over to see the human from before.

I stare at him in shock for a second until one of the Lycans grab him and start to drag him away. Pulling out my gun I quickly shoot him making him release the human and turn and run. I glance back at him for a moment before I follow the Lycan. Selene close on my heels. We follow him down into the sewers and then separate to look for him. I guess Selene found him first cause all I heard were her guns. I returned to the tracks to find Nathaniel dead and I grit my teeth. I quickly make my way back to the car to wait for Selene. When she arrived, she told me all about the noises she heard in the sewers.

I listened to every word as we drove back to the mansion. When we arrive she and I make our way to the armory where Khan is. I sit back and try to think about what had just happened when Kraven walks in followed by his lackeys. I listen in as he interrupts Selene and Khan’s conversation. “You expect me to believe that a mangy animal came up with a bullet specifically engineered to kill Vampires?”

“No, I’m betting it’s military. Something they stole. Some sort of high-tech tracer round.” Khan replies and I clench my fist.

“I don’t care where they got these things. Rigel is dead, and Nathaniel Could still be out there. We should gather the Death Dealers and head back down there in force.” Selene says and I shake my head.

“Absolutely not. Not now. Not for a random incursion. The awakening is only a few days off, and this house is in a state of unrest as it is.”

“Random? They opened fire on us in full view of the public. And from the commotion I heard down in that tunnel-”

“You said yourself you didn’t actually see anything.”

“Look I know what I heard, and I know what my gut tells me, and I am telling you there could be dozens of Lycans down there. Who knows, maybe more. Hundreds.”

“We’ve hunted them to the brink of extinction.”

“Kraven’s right, Selene.” Khan says and I roll my eyes. “There’s not been a den of that magnitude for centuries. Not since the days of Lucian.”

“I know that, Khan. But I’d rather you prove me wrong by checking it out.” Selene says and I look from her to Khan who looks at Kraven who says, “Very well, have your men tighten things up. We’ll have Soren assemble a search team.”

“No, I want to lead the team myself. With Night.” Selene says motioning to me making Kraven narrow his eyes.

“Absolutely not! Soren will handle it.” Kraven growls and I grit my teeth as he turns from her to me and then back to Khan as he says, “Hundreds, really?”

“Victor would believe me.” Selene states before turning and stomping off. Kraven glances at me for a moment and I narrow my eyes angrily at him. He knew I didn’t like him. He is about to say something else but I cut him off by following her. I follow her until she reaches the stairs that lead to the elders sleeping chambers. I pause for a moment and let her go the rest of the way on her own. Instead I make my way up to my room and once inside I close the door and let out a heavy sigh. I hear a knock on my door and I open it to see Erika and I groan inwardly.

“What do you want?” I ask gripping tightly to the door handle.

“Kraven wants you and Selene dressed for the party tonight. Amelia’s envoy is arriving.” She replies quickly before she turns and scurries off to her own room. Rolling my eyes, I decide to forgo the party and head to Selene’s room where I find her staring at her computer, the pictures from Rigel’s camera on her screen. I watch as she studies each one of them.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just going to lie here on your bed, avoiding my vampiric duties.” I say making her chuckle. A few minutes later Erika comes into her room carrying a practically see through dress and I groan. I fiddle with my necklace for a moment until I hear Selene say, “They were after you.” I instantly pop up and walk to her side to see her looking at the picture of the human Raze’s friend tried to take.

“I thought that for a moment when he was next to me, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.” I say over her shoulder making her furrow her brow.

“He’s attractive… for a human.” I hear Erika say and I groan inwardly. She annoyed the hell out of me.

“Who’s attractive?” I hear Kraven asks and I fold my arms over my chest as I say, “Hasn’t anyone ever heard of knocking?” I watch as Erika leaves and Kraven gives me a glare like he’s ordering me to leave but I stand my ground. “You know I was planning on having you by my side tonight.” Kraven says to Selene and I roll my eyes.

“Take Erika. She’s dying to be at your side.” Selene retorts causing me to snort slightly.

“If you ask me. You take this warrior business far too seriously. You can’t undo the past no matter how many you kill.” He closes the distance between him and Selene as he adds, “And Besides… What’s the point of being immortal… if you deny yourself the simple pleasures in life?”

“Ugh,” I say rolling my eyes sounding as grossed out as possible.

“Do you see this human?” Selene starts changing the topic.

“What of him?” Kraven asks annoyance clear on his face.

“I can’t be positive but I’m beginning to think the Lycans have-”

“Blast!” Kraven says cutting her off as a noise is heard outside. He glances out the window before he turns back and says as he heads to the door, “Put on something elegant, both of you, and be quick about it.”

“Kraven, I’m serious. I think they were following him.”

“Other than for food, why would Lycans stalk a human?” Kraven asks and then leaves before Selene has a chance to answer him.

“You know I really wish I could shoot him.” I say as I move back to look over her shoulder.

“I’m surprised you haven’t.” She adds a smile attempting to fill her lips. “Says here his name is Michael Corvin.” I nod as I head toward the door.

“Well, shall we be off?” I ask and she nods. We quickly sneak out of the mansion and to the garage where we kind of steal a car and head towards Michael’s address. If only I had known what would happen while we were there maybe I could have stopped it from happening.

Will Continue In - Reunions Suck

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