Bucky Barnes, college graduate (just), is on his way home from graduation weekend. Its a long drive, why he has an apartment a block away from the university, but nothing he’s not used to, and sometimes you need to be home y’know?
his parents left a few hours before him, he’d gone out with a few friends after the ceremony, but had stuck strictly to soda for the night
Everything’s going fine, when his car gets hit by a drunk driver, knocked over, and ends up in a lake
he’s knocked unconscious by the impact with the water
He wakes up not entirely sure where he is, but he’s pretty sure he’s not in Kansas anymore
And I mean he could be wrong, but he’s pretty sure the person sitting beside him has tattoos. That are moving. But then again it could be the headache
He wakes up again, in a house that smells of medicinal herbs, and nope, that guy’s tattoos are still moving, and the person next to tattoo-guy has wings
his first words after the crash are what the fuck followed by an ow what the fuck? as his ribs remind him of their impact with an airbag.
wing-man snickers, moving-tattoo-guy chastises wing-man then says something about going out to get a healer. Bucky and wing-man are left staring awkwardly at each other. Wing-man introduces himself as Sam, and Bucky’s too distracted by the feathers he’s dropping to do more than wave.
A now very confused recent college graduate Bucky Barnes is roped into this fantastical adventure where the Fae Folk are trying to Not Die Out, and it turns out his rescuer, Steve (tattoo-man) is not only one of the leaders of the Fae, but kind of stupidly attractive and he doesn’t even realise it
like boy does he not realise it
it’s equal parts endearing and frustrating really
Time passes, Things happen, friends are made. He gets invested in this world and this Fight and these people and just as things start to fall into place, gets hit, blindsided by something and pitching forward onto the stone hall floor.
He wakes up on the bank of the lake, sirens loud in his ears
But before he can really feel upset, the firefighter that pulled him out of his car pulls off his headgear, all reassuring smiles and gentle hands as he helps Bucky sit up, and he recognises those eyes
(Bucky’s not sure what’s real anymore, but the tattoo on his arm looks real and the new scar on his arm feels real but so does this life and this Steve and he thinks he’s going mad until he sees a flicker of red magic, the flash of brown hair, the pleased little glint of Wanda’s eyes in the reflection of a shop window, and he thinks, maybe, this was his story all along)
i’m writing this please don’t tag as ‘on my list’ or ‘someone write this’
