the end does not always arrive
with the crash of a thunderstorm.
there are no screaming winds
and no rain to drown your sorrow.
no lightning rips the sky in half.
no stars plummet out of the night.
sometimes, when it all ends
the battlefield is empty.
the cannons are silent.
the grenade never burst.
the bullets are still sleeping in the gun.
sometimes,
you skip the blaze of a wildfire
tearing down a hundred years of growth.
you skip the supernova and the volcano.
you just end
with the ashes:
nothing but leftover pieces,
too small to hold in your hands,
fluttering away in the wind.
and all you have left
is scattered dust on the ground,
not enough even to bury–
only enough to disappear
like it was never there.
sometimes,
it just
There’s a storm above. The water above him is dark, angry; he can feel the tension threading through her, holding her hostage. The water is empty of life other than him, the usual hustle and bustle tucked away safe, deep, where the wind-churned waves can’t affect them. Bucky had never claimed to be the smartest person around, and he doesn’t try to now, drifting in the storm-sea. The crystal in his trident hums at him, so he hums back, gently threading energy out of it and gifting it back to the water.
A dark shape cuts through the water above him, and his grip instinctively tightens on the trident. It’s big, too big to be an animal, now that the whales have moved on to follow the warmth. A boat, then.
Humans.
Bucky can’t help himself. One kick, two, and he’s pushing up through the storm-torn water, breaking to the surface with a gasp. The boat, ship really - it’s far too large to be anything but, is still passing by. Bucky hunkers down, just under the surface, unwilling to let himself be seen even though it’d get the whole reveal job done in a blunt sort of way.
There is movement on the deck, the storm whipping up water and making it hard for Bucky to see exactly what’s happening. Then, something falling, and Bucky finds himself striking out, swimming towards the ship to find out what it is.
It’s disappointing, really. An empty crate, contents probably scattered across the deck of the ship. He hears a yell, looks up, and as a wave picks him up, pushing him towards the deck of the boat with its swell, something else comes tumbling down.
Whatever it is, it’s moving.
Bucky kicks his legs, breaking the surface as the wave recedes, and has a moment of stunning clarity, that it’s a person falling towards him before he has to stop thinking and act instead.
Almost entirely on instinct Bucky hums, magic resonating through him before he pushes it out into the waves. Bring him to me.
i am so profoundly excited that my months-long collab with THE ONE AND ONLY @beardysteve for the @capreversebb 2018 goes up a week from today (!!!) so here is a lil pre-war teaser/snippet/sneak peek for your reading pleasure <3
(as always, thanks to my in-fucking-credible beta @rivertam-art for combing through every word i write, twice)
“You’re a stubborn ass, you know that?” Bucky accused when Steve refused the orange slice he offered him.
“Who, me?” Steve asked, pointing at his scrawny chest.
Bucky chucked the orange peel at his head, which Steve dodged, waggling his eyebrows at Bucky in victory. In return, Bucky put an orange slice in his mouth to make it look like he had a big ol’ orange smile.
“How’s it taste?”
Bucky gave him a thumbs-up. When he got to the end of the orange, which was huge – what was in Florida water, anyway? – Bucky swore he couldn’t finish it and simply insisted that he and Steve each take one of the two remaining slices. Steve caved because he could tell it would make Bucky happy, which was all he was trying to do, anyhow.
They tipped their slices together, and Bucky said, “L’Chaim,” and they bit into their respective slices.
The sweet tang gushed on his tongue, juicy and potent; Bucky moaned happily into his own slice, relishing the burst of flavor. They slurped loudly, happy to be gross together without a lady present. No better way to punctuate their last sticky and sweet summer together than with something sticky and sweet.
Story/Art Rating: M/G
Story: @viperbranium | Art: @beardysteve
Relationship: Steve/Sam, future Steve/Sam/Bucky.
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word count: 8181
“I kinda put that together,” Sam tells him. Steve lets go of his hand, and then his eyes grow wide and he gasps.
It’s automatic, like breathing. You meet someone, you shake hands, and you look. Let your perception expand, reach out with feeble fingers and try to find something to hold on to, on the off chance that this will be the time it finds a kindred soul.
Sam’s used to this, to the open mouths and the eyes like saucers and the sounds of surprise. But where people are usually mostly shocked, there’s such profound ache and longing in Steve’s eyes upon seeing Sam’s halo, that it almost makes him wish this could be true.
Shout-out to the mods for being awesome and working their asses off to make this event as great as it was!
Biggest bear hug ever goes to @beardysteve for being absolutely incredible and putting up with me and for having created such amazing pieces. I was completely captivated, and I can’t wait to continue playing with this verse. <3
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Brock Rumlow, Other Marvel Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz inspired, Merman Bucky, mentions of past illness, physical abuse mention, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Fluff and Angst, Anatomy Differences, Bucky has two dicks (I'll just come out and say it), Double Penetration, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Hand Feeding, Rimming, Bottom Steve Rogers, Top Bucky Barnes, Depressed Steve Rogers, Identity Issues, Depressed Bucky Barnes
Summary:
The island is both a blessing and a curse. The enki fish cure sickness, but their magic cannot be taken away from the island. Steve is forced to live out his days on an island too small for his loneliness. He struggles to sleep, listening to the wails of the waves outside his window, or he thinks it's the waves.
Then he meets a merman called Bucky. Bucky has streams of secrets. Secrets that could tear the two apart.
