Rating: Explicit (Explicit chapters are clearly marked and skippable, can be read as Teen and Up Audiences)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers
Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical lack of realism about psychological issues, MCU-compliant through Winter Soldier, Happy Ending, First Time, Frottage, Shovel Talk, Captain America's shovel talk is goddamn terrifying, Anal Sex, Shower Sex
For a man capable of disappearing so utterly that even the international intelligence community thought he was a myth, it didn't take them long to find the Winter Soldier.
For a man who supposedly wanted to be found, the Winter Soldier fought like a wildcat when Steve and Sam finally cornered him.
(Post-CA:TWS) Steve and Sam have found Bucky, but they're going to need some help to bring him back to himself. A story about friendship, love, and the family you choose. (One-sided Bucky/Steve in the past, eventual Bucky/Tony. Some other pairings if you squint really hard.)
"You've fallen in amongst murderers and thieves, here, Barnes. We're still at war. When we have the leisure to subdue, we try for it, but sometimes -- most of the time, even -- it's not possible. We like to think it's in the cause of the greater good. That we've saved more lives than we've taken. That they're all bad guys. But they're probably not. Some of them thought they were the good guys, and were only following orders. Doing what they thought was right."
Set shortly after Cap 2, this is the story of how Steve and Sam find Bucky, and then take him to Stark Tower to take care of him and hopefully help him become the Bucky Steve once knew again.
In this, Tony takes on a key role as one of the people taking care of Bucky, and soon a bond between the two starts to form, eventually leading to incredibly well written, hot shower sex.
In the background, however, the baddies continue to exist...
Basically, a great story that is well written with lots of avenging, scary cooking, helpful JARVIS, and character development that made me flail excitedly at my ereader as I read on.
(Also, Captain America gives Shovel Talks. Several. You're welcome.)
So this fic was at once quite what I expected and not what I expected at all. The concept is simple: Sam and Steve find the Winter Soldier/Bucky, bring him in and together with the other avengers they try to de-brainwash him. Simple as that, and yet not.
It's the little things that make this fic awesome: the way that Bucky and Steve resolve their argument, the fact that Natasha oversees the deprogramming of Bucky and why, and the way that Tony and the team handle Bucky and his Baggage (and Steve).
And besides being a great "De-brainwash Bucky" fic, there's also a baddies plot going on in the background, which weaves in with the main plot nicely at the end.
Another, unrelated thing that I really liked about this fic (which is also stated above with the rating) is that the author gave the sexy scenes their own chapters and didn't make them very important for following the plot, allowing people who might not be into that to skip them easily and still being able to enjoy the story.
