My main blog is @skarabrae-stone, and I'm Skarabrae_stone on Ao3. This is very much a Stucky blog, but I post about other Marvel-related stuff, too. How did I end up spending so much time angsting over these beautiful idiots? Who knows, but now I'm in it for the long haul-- or dare I say, 'til the end of the line!
Are you a Stucky shipper? Wish you had more people to talk about the ship/characters/Marvel with? Then consider joining the WinterShield (Steve/Bucky) server on Discord!
We are a server dedicated to fans who ship Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Our focus is on canon, fanworks, and headcanons pertaining to Steve and Bucky (with occasional friends), with channels for discussing Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans as well. We also have a poly-friendly channel, for those who are interested in shipping Steve/Bucky with additional characters!
We're always happy to see new members; anyone interested can check us out at https://discord.gg/gkffA4S .
also idk but I'm still feeling like I'm struggling with this app, I'm just still unsure of how to do everything here😬 I'm not even sure how to search for moots, maybe I'll do some intro later, i hope
people keep dropping hints around steve & bucky about gay marriage being legal. increasingly blatant hints. until eventually natasha gets annoyed with all the talking-around-it and just goes "you two know you can get married now, right?"
and steve's like oh, no, we absolutely can't. it's completely illegal.
natasha: i know you know that's not true. honestly you're going to qualify for commonlaw within the next 2 years, if all that pre-war stuff living together counted.
steve: i'm not saying it's illegal because we're both men, i'm saying it's illegal because he's legally my father.
when bucky got drafted and started worrying about steve, they'd found out about adult adoption. they'd happened to know a very sympathetic clerk (sarah rogers had been his nurse when he'd nearly died a few years before) who'd passed the paperwork through despite the unusual nature of circumstances. so if bucky died, his pay and his property would get passed on to steve as his heir.
someone suggests they could, you know, undo the adoption? and get married? but both steve & bucky are like, eh, this marriage thing seems unsure. i mean it only just became legal, who's to stay it'll stay that way? the adoption thing's lasted over a 100 years now, and it hasn't caused any problems for them yet. they'll just keep being legally related and socially married, thanks so much for the consideration.
my rewatch of CA:TWS a few days ago did make me sorta uncomfortable with how natasha was written, mostly in the fact that she kept harassing steve about dating women. repeatedly. throughout the Entire Movie. not to mention non-consensually kissing him which was kinda gross
I know fandom has a reputation for randomly deciding characters are gay, but the first two Captain America movies repeatedly show Steve being painfully uncomfortable when women make sexual/romantic advances towards him. He gets kissed three times by three different women, twice obviously non-consensually where he is clearly not okay with the situation, and one kiss where he just doesn't reciprocate or do anything. other characters are constantly nagging him about his sexual/romantic interests or experiences and he is consistently politely deflecting
Like I don't know what the fuck the audience was supposed to think here, actually. What do you expect me to conclude. It's genuinely so difficult to see this character as anything other than a gay man. If you don't want a character to be gay, maybe don't create dialogue, plot, and acting direction that is banging pots and pans screaming "THIS CHARACTER IS NOT ATTRACTED TO WOMEN. HE HATES IT WHEN SEXY WOMEN KISS HIM. HE HAS NO INTEREST IN WOMEN. EVERYONE IS PRESSURING HIM TO LIKE WOMEN ROMANTICALLY BUT HE DOESN'T WANT TO"
@bekstek I was so embarrassed about Steeb's missing feet that I girdled up and drew them in. Reposting with this addition because Steeb has feet now and I didn't even die drawing them or anything.
i feel like i'll always hate civil war for what it took away, even if i love it. i was watching a video analysis of captain america: the winter soldier where they basically said winter soldier set up SO much just for it all to be discarded, and it's fucking true. 2 years of sam and steve on the fucking run, looking for bucky? nah, they're partying in age of ultron and whilst we're at it shield is basically back, yay stakes are gone! oh and black widows movie should've been in between winter soldier and civil war, not after her unceremonious death. it would have literally been the perfect time. there were like a thousand threads they could've pulled on and they gave up on ALL of them. this isn't even about how bucky has been absolutely fucked over because there was so much potential for everybody with relationships and character growth that was all thrown away because "lol it would be really cool if they all fought"
I realized that I've never done a list of my favorite Steve/Bucky fics, so here it is! First rec list of 2026!
but hey, you're all right by beardsley (Teen And Up Audiences | 5,522 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings)
Summary: This is not my fault,' Tony lies. 'It was supposed to be a joke! Christ.'
'Thanks to your joke,' says Coulson, 'we now have a code three-four-delta, with the variable being a Russian immigrant. We're checking his background right now, but it might take a while. Meanwhile, I suggest you civilian-proof the Tower. If any SHIELD intelligence is compromised, I will hurt you.'
Yes, this is the story where the Winter Soldier is a Russian mail-order bride. Everything goes about as well as you'd expect.
Also available as a podfic read by sisi_rambles (@sisi-rambles)
Every Tree That is Pleasant by spitandvinegar (@spitandvinegar) (Teen And Up Audiences | 13,525 words)
Summary: “As near as we can figure,” Tony said, “we had two incredibly ridiculous things happen at once. The first was Cap and murderbot activated a device that was sort of the juiced-up remote version of the thing that they used to scramble Barnes' brains back in the day. The second is that Mad Madame Mim here panicked and tried to get the universe to move them out of the room, and instead accidentally sent them to outer space.”
“To another dimension,” said Wanda, as if that was the point that made all the difference.
Also available as a podfic read by sallysparrow017 (@laheylupin)
More below the cut!
Ring the Bell Backward by Dira Sudis (@dsudis) (Teen And Up Audiences | 13,234 words)
Summary: "I know how it is," Wanda said. "Being half of something. I would go anywhere if I knew he was there waiting for me."
Also available as a podfic read by sallysparrow017 (@laheylupin)
only living boy in new york by beardsley (Mature | 2,683 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings)
Summary: Steve wakes up in a VA hospital in Manhattan, and nothing is the same.
Situation: Normal by redcigar (Mature | 3,155 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings)
Summary: AU wherein Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers never met, Steve somehow manages to rescue the Winter Soldier anyway, and Avengers Tower ends up with the world’s angriest duckling and a whole new brand of entertainment.
-
(“He was dragging him out of the river,” Natasha argues later.
“Nat, be honest, he was going for the Full Monty.” Says Clint.
“I’m pretty sure we interrupted him in the middle of giving ‘emergency CPR’,” Tony agrees, “Or the stage after emergency CPR. Emergency Dick? Is that a thing?”
“That’s not a thing,” Natasha and Clint reply.)
Also available as a podfic read by quietnight (@quietnighty)
Have Sunlight, Too, and Clover by chaosmanor, yamyamyam (Explicit | 15,426 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: Steve wakes up in the future, only to find that... everyone but him is part wolf now?! Hydra's attempts to replicate the super-soldier serum resulted in a virus that induced wolf-y features and WELP that went poorly.
Now he's tracking down an actual full-on werewolf with the Avengers, y'know, to pass the time, when suddenly his body decides to wolf up after all. Dramatically. Meanwhile, that full-on werewolf they were chasing turns out to be oddly familiar...
Chrysalid by IamShadow21 (@iamshadow21) (General Audiences | 2,819 words)
Summary: You're not ashamed of them, not really. You just wish that if the serum was going to give you super strength and health and ridiculous head wings, the government would have at least given you something less humiliating to do than parade around in fancy dress.
Closed Book by AggressiveWhenStartled (@aggressivewhenstartled) (Explicit | 38,880 words)
Summary: Bucky woke up with a headache, a mouth that tasted like something had died in it, and hands-down, swear-to-god, the most beautiful man he had ever seen asleep in his lap.
Bucky was also, he realized after a moment, strapped down to a hospital bed with about six different monitors making unsynced, equally piercing, beeps. Beyond that he couldn’t quite see—there was a hideous floral curtain pulled around the bed, and while he could just make out figures moving in the room beyond it, the pattern made his head pound even worse the longer he looked at it.
So. That was concerning.
Also available as a podfic read by quietnight (@quietnighty)
Lessons in Normality by relenafanel (@relenafanel) (Explicit | 38,002 words)
Summary: Things Steve knows about his boyfriend Bucky: How he looks with his face relaxed in sleep. That he can perfectly flip pancakes. The way he’s open about things Steve is still adapting to, like therapy and depression and sex toys and being a millennial. The way he laughs with his mouth wide open and his eyes squinted, and the cheerful way he cheats at cards and loses at laser tag.
The way he seduces Steve with a knowing glint in his eye. The way Steve responds to it, stronger each time, taken by his beauty and competence and snark and compassion (or the compassionate way he boots Steve in the ass when he needs a push).
Things Steve doesn’t know about his boyfriend Bucky: That he’s an undercover operative gathering intel on Hydra, SHIELD, and which Steve is affiliated with.
Otherwise known as The Honey Pot AU
The Necrofloranomicon by leveragehunters (@leveragehunters) (Teen And Up Audiences | 47,569 words)
Summary: Bucky didn't want much. Just to keep his head down, to sell his scavenged flowers in peace, and to stay off Shield's radar. His life would have been a lot easier if his flowers weren't dead and if being a necromancer wasn't illegal, but easy or not, he was getting by. Steve didn't want much, either. He was happy working for Shield, he had good friends, and overall his life was going just about the way he wanted it. Problem was, being happy with your life was generally an invitation for fate to throw a spanner in the works—and in Steve's specific case, it was going to be a spanner named Bucky.
(A love story about flowers, trust, and magic and the choices we make about doing what's right.)
Also available as a podfic read by Tipsy_Kitty (@tipsyxkitty)
to memory now I can't recall by Etharei (@etharei) (Explicit | 102,600 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: While on a mission storming a HYDRA facility, James Buchanan Barnes touches one of the many strange alien devices collected by the Red Skull. He does this, in fact, twice— in the past, and in the future.
Next thing he knows, Bucky Barnes is opening his eyes in the 21st century, which is full of great gadgets and coffee, and at least includes his old pal Steve. (And, inexplicably, a different Stark.) Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier finds himself in the middle of World War Two, helping Captain America hunt down HYDRA (which is at least familiar), pretending to be Bucky Barnes (which is not), and figuring out the very noisy group of soldiers who call themselves the Howling Commandos.
Not a Perfect Soldier by TooManyBattles (@captaintoomanybattles) (Mature | 93,354 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: In a world where HYDRA was wiped out in the '40s, Steve is found by the Army rather than SHIELD. General Thaddeus Ross wants a perfectly obedient super-soldier at his command, and to that end, he sets out to break Steve to his will. As Steve struggles to come to terms with all he has lost, his life in captivity is only made bearable by the presence of another prisoner-- another super-soldier known only as "Soldat".Then the Avengers strike a deal with Ross to "borrow" him for missions, and Steve is faced with a team who dislikes him, an organization he doesn't trust, and the question of what he's willing to do to escape Ross's clutches.
Dragging You Down by AraniaArt, Kamiki (@araniaart, @shipperhipster) (Explicit | 81,016 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings)
Summary: In a divergence from the canon storyline, Hydra experiments with occult legends of a more demonic bent. When Bucky is captured at Azzano, something more insidious than a knock-off super soldier serum is done to him, but the full effects take some time to completely set in. Bucky struggles with building impulses and an increased libido while trying to keep his interest in Steve from boiling over and ruining Steve’s chance at the life he deserves.
Out of the Dead Land by orphan_account (Mature | 62,707 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings)
Summary: Someone is building machines that look and act like people.
Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes.
Also available as a podfic read by quietnight (@quietnighty)
cascades. by orange_crushed (@robotmango) (Mature | 152,138 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: “Holy shit,” Howard says, crackling through the speakers. “You alive in there?” Lying is a sin, of course, but Steve’s not sure what else he can do. He’s already lied to the government and Bucky and God Almighty; and himself, himself most of all. He ought to tell the truth. That he’s not quite what they hoped for. That perhaps they should put him back into the ocean.
“Probably,” he says, instead, listening to Howard’s tinny laughter; and waits for the blast doors to unlock.
Also available as a podfic read by quietnight (@quietnighty)
On a Pale Horse by leveragehunters (Monkeygreen) (@leveragehunters) (Teen And Up Audiences | 25,765 words)
Summary: Fast and fierce, the Horse Guard protect the Kingdom and its people, and they welcome anyone into their ranks-noble, commoner, or peasant-so long as they can ride a horse like they were born to it. Guard Barnes—Bucky—has come to the Kingdom's largest horse fair to find a new horse. He's supposed to choose from one of the approved horses; instead he finds himself buying a tall, skinny, angry stallion with the ridiculous name of Steve. Bucky can't leave him behind, but he's nothing like what Bucky's looking for and everything Bucky doesn't want.
But Bucky's more right than even he knows because Steve's not a horse at all. He's a man under a curse, victim of a powerful sorcerer's temper and magic, and he's bound to never, by action or deed, reveal what he truly is.
It's gonna be one hell of a ride.
Also available as a podfic read by Tipsy_Kitty (@tipsyxkitty)
Demon Seed by SucculentHyena (@succulent-hyena) (Mature | 92,478 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: [Transcript 00:11:48]
MS: You were with him the most throughout the course of events, both before and after. Your account could shed light on something we may have missed.
JB: What difference will that make?
MS: It could make all the difference. Captain Rogers’ case is unprecedented, he’s the most intact victim we’ve ever recovered-
JB: [laughing] You call that intact?
-Excerpt of Interview with Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes regarding the Incident.
Lamb and Martyr by Dira Sudis (dsudis) (@dsudis) (Explicit | 39,589 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: "You could, though," Steve said. "If you were willing to hurt me."
Man in the Box by buckybleeds (@buckybleeds) (Explicit | 29,239 words | Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con)
Summary: This is the fic I've been referring to as "the horrible boxfic."
Hydra wins and Steve gets put into a put into a sex vending machine in the Strike team locker room.
Into That Good Night by Nonymos (Explicit | 73,540 words | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence)
Summary: Steve Rogers has lived for entirely too long—long enough to see the world's end. The heroes are gone, and the Earth is pushing what's left of mankind towards the exit.
But when a makeshift team rises from the ashes, when a mysterious presence all but drags Steve there, he begins to think there may be hope yet. As they shoot for the stars one last time, Steve will get proof yet again that the future is nothing if not an echo of the past.
the great thing is bucky barnes is Like That with no greater textual justification. like yeah steves fucking crazy and special and everything but theres some built in reasoning. his mom was a single mother nurse and his dad died in the first war so hes got Sacrificial Lamb blood doubled up. he had 10 million conditions and illnesses and the life expectancy of a butterfly, anybody who survives as much as he did is going to be unique and have a unique perspective. hes deeply socially isolated for things beyond his control and despite an immense innate compassion. of course hes throwing himself on grenades, his concept of death and self-identity is warped to an extreme.
bucky meanwhile is basically the ideal Normal Cool Dude in every way and hes just crazy anyways. what falling in love with a blonde guy does to you
”#oh absolutely, #the quiet agony of knowing there is a very good chance they won’t stick the landing, #when you don’t have proof it’s going somewhere bad yet but the warning signs are there, #but you can’t just back out because you really want it to be good”
