An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
In a different timeline, Bucky and Steve have the opportunity to take a quieter path, with some bumps along the way. Featuring: an idyllic farm, dogs named after Disney characters, the Soul Stone, a smattering of plot, and a fairytale ending.
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“Here’s how I see it,” the psychiatrist says. “In 2014, you discovered your employer was the old Nazi organization you died to stop. You found out your best friend, who had died in front of you, was actually a POW who had been brainwashed and tortured. Said best friend vanishes after trying to kill you. Two weeks later, you disappear as well. That sounds like someone vulnerable to radicalization.”
Steve closes his eyes, tries to visualize Bucky sitting among the flowers, outside their home. The dogs are playing around him. “I want a lawyer.”
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I love this sweet work. It’s time more people read of an Alaskan love story!
ModLacy asked for my top favs of all time, so here it is! I reread these stories pretty regularly and if I was stuck on a deserted island, I’d pick the below 5 fics:
“Cascades” (M, 152k) by orange_crushed
“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.
+ Alt WW2. From the Mom list. Steve gets powers, Bucky breaks from Hydra, and they are so in love it hurts.
++ "He only has one try left in him. He only has one chance. He steadies himself. He takes a breath. Please, he thinks, through the hole in the world. Through the last window home. He can’t see the other side from here; just the light it gives off. Please, send me back somehow. Send me back as anything. As a bird that sings on his windowsill, but not too loud. Send me as a ray of sunshine that falls on him in the morning when the bed’s still warm; as someone who’ll always leave a newspaper in the booth for him at Harry’s. Please, send something. Send me back as a kindness. Please. Let me be something for him.”
-☆-
“Metallurgy” (M, 22k) by eyres, art by TheFriendlyPigeon
The battle quieted for the moment, the great metal giant turns, at last, and sees Steve. Dark, almost human hair frames a sharp, steel face - but, Steve is caught by its eyes. They’re bright silver, sparking in the sunlight, shot through with gray and blue, visible even at this distance. Something about them nags at Steve, calls to him, reminds him of…
Instead of making the Winter Soldier, Hydra transfers Bucky’s consciousness to a metal body, locking his mind within a prison of steel and programming. However, Bucky is stronger than they could’ve ever imagined.
+ WW2 to Avengers. From the Robot list. Bucky’s time is running out, and he only wants Steve to be happy. Yearning and devotion
++ “Bucky cracks open his eyes, silver glinting in the growing sunlight. “Steve?” he says and how had Steve not known it was him every time he said his name? No one says his name like that but Bucky.”
-☆-
“jamais vu” (E, 13k) by Claudia_flies
They’re all gathered in the top floor private conference room because Tony wants to set up a Strike team, and he’s making some really excellent points. The Avengers aren’t a stealth operation, Steve has to admit.
He just doesn’t like it.
+ Shrunkyclunks. From the Sex Pollen and a/b/o lists. After a mission gone sideways, omega Steve and alpha Bucky start having hot sex keeping each other company in the evenings
++ “What the hell are you doing?!” Steve bellows, kind of horrified at how he sounds like a scandalized maiden aunt. “Have you ever popped a knot in tactical pants?!” Barnes sounds near-on hysterical. “Kevlar is not known for its give as a fabric!” “You have it on pretty good authority right now that I do not have an idea of what it’s like to pop a knot in tactical pants,” Steve yells, and Barnes goes quiet.
-☆-
“Too Long We Have Tarried” (E, 19k) by kototyph
Bucky picks up the ring and holds it between them. “Steven Grant Rogers,” he says solemnly. “Will you marry me?”
+ Post WS. From the Fake Married list. Bucky’s proposal started as a joke, but quickly escalates to becoming a full-blown wedding. Along the way, Steve and Bucky address their actual feelings.
++ “When I got to Europe, to France, those first few months— everyone, every single guy in the 107 thought you had a sweetheart you were engaged to back home. I couldn’t figure it out, because I never saw or heard about a girl like that. I wondered for a while if you’d been hiding her from me. The guys, they said— they said, when things got bad you wouldn’t shut up about her. [...] Yeah, I was mad. Here was a girl I knew absolutely nothing about, and you were going to marry her? I couldn’t believe it. Some pretty little dame you hadn’t even wanted to introduce me to. [...] It didn’t occur to me until after... after the train. After almost everything. There was only one blue-eyed blond I knew you’d promised to marry.”
-☆-
“where can i put it down?” (T, 6k) by layersofsilence
The beach is deserted, and the waves loud. Today the very sea chatters, buzzing with the news: there’s going to be a mating. There are only four days between the announcements and the ceremony - and then Steve sees his mate’s face, and his heart sinks. He knows that face. He loves - he’d loved that face. Right up until he’d seen it again, and wasn’t that a laugh?
+ Fantasy AU. From the Mermaid list. Merman Steve has an arranged marriage but is still pining after a lost love from five years ago. The drama!!
++ “As if you ever would have come away with me! [...] When our plans were to leave the sea. You would’ve dried out and your steps would’ve felt like walking on knives-” “Fuck you,” Steve says; his vision blurs, his eyes hurt. He thinks he’s crying again, for the first time in years, but it’s hard to tell underwater. “I would’ve done it. It would’ve been worth it. I loved you.” That makes James jerk away like he’s been burned. Steve hates him. “Fuck you,” he says again, blurrily. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
After Steve becomes an unwilling subject in Ross's pet weapons project to make a next gen super soldier, Bucky is awakened from cryo to join a daring rescue operation to save Steve from an impenetrable government base on the Antarctica coastline. When things go belly up, Steve and Bucky must strike out on their own across the hostile landscape, with Ross's men close behind.
AKA 'The one where Steve throws a snowmobile at a helicopter.'
Author: eyres
Pairing: Steve/Bucky
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 53412
In a nicer reality, we have President Bucky or President Steve, or one of them related to the president. Below are my Top 5 Favorite stories:
“No Faraway Shore” (T, 56k) by eyres
President James Barnes has spent his career saying that the defining moment of his life was when he discovered that Steve Rogers had sacrificed himself while Bucky had lain in a New York hospital bed with only one arm.
Now, Bucky would say it was when SHIELD told him Steve was alive.
The one where Bucky is President, Steve makes friends and enemies in the future, and a wedding in the Rose Garden has to wait until Hydra is defeated again.
+ WW2 to Defrosting. Bucky gets his Steve back and it’s everything you ever wanted. Vice President Pierce (yikes, right?), Project Insight, and happy endings
-☆-
“Five Times TJ Hammond was Mistaken for Bucky Barnes (and One Time He Wasn’t)” (T, 10k) by eleanor_lavish
Looking in the mirror that night, TJ tilts his head this way and that, trying to see the angles of his face better, the cleft in his chin, the blue eyes under dark eyebrows. He glances down at the history book open on the counter, a black and white photo of a guy in an Army uniform smiling up at him with the same eyes, the same chin. James Buchanan Barnes, it reads. TJ looks back up at the mirror. Thomas James Hammond looks back at him.
“Nice to meet you, Uncle Bucky,” TJ says, and his reflection smiles back.
+ Defrosting to Post WS. After the helicarriers, Bucky hides out with his Great Nephew until he’s ready to see Steve again.
-☆-
“The Royal Crown Cures Not The Headache” (T, 20k) by mambo
Prince James is the "People's Prince", second in line for the throne of the United States, and the most eligible bachelor in the world.
So why does Steve find Prince James crying at the Princess' wedding?
+ Shrunkyclunks. Bucky and Steve spend a lot of time together, and figure out what they want after a kidnapping threatens the line of succession. (Bucky lives in the White House so I’m counting it here and not in the Royalty list)
-☆-
“Political Ties” (E, 3k) by AidaRonan
Steve and Bucky are both running in the 2020 election against Schmidt. Polls show them leading the pack as the country inches closer to primaries, but Steve thinks Bucky sits a little too close to the center, and Bucky, well, it's hard not to listen when a guy like Steve speaks.
(Based on a Twitter conversation about rival politicians Steve & Bucky wherein Steve radicalizes Bucky with his dick.)
+ Modern AU. Steve fucks Bucky in a bathroom and gets a vice-president
-☆-
“Mr. Brightside” (T, 5k) by crinklefries
“How would you rank it?” Bucky asks, abruptly. He pushes a hand into his messy, sweaty curls and Steve watches him hungrily. “Your inauguration.”It’s not presidential, to watch the son of your Vice President hungrily, but maybe he should have had more at dinner and less at the...after dinner. “Top five for sure,” Steve says. “Maybe top three.”
+ Modern AU. President Steve gets to know Bucky at his inauguration ball. Joyful and magnetic
Trying to be someone else was harder than it seemed. Secret identities, mistaken identities, and identity reveals. Below are my Top 5 Favorite stories:
“Take You For a Ride (On my Garbage Truck)” (T, 20k) by GoodbyeBlues
"This is it," Bucky murmured to no one but Mother Earth herself, blades of greenery tickling his lips as he sang his dying whale song into the ground. "This is where I perish."
...
Despite how it often looks, dramatic millennial Bucky Barnes is not actually homeless. He's just really, really bad at flirting.
+ Modern AU. Hilarious misunderstandings. Steve is the sweetest guy alive, Sam is a Good Bro, and Bucky’s a Disney princess
-☆-
“How to Woo the Winter Soldier” (G, 21k) by writeonclara
“I think I’m ready to date again,” Steve said.
“What,” Natasha said.
“What?” Clint said, lowering his binoculars. He blinked at the dumbstruck look on the Captain’s face, then followed his gaze to where he was staring dopily at—at the Winter fucking Soldier.
“Steve, no,” Clint groaned.
Or: Steve courts the Winter Soldier.
+ Post Avengers. Steve falls in love with Bucky (again) and gets questionable courting advice from the internet. Bucky’s reluctantly charmed despite himself
-☆-
“Strange Visitor (From Another Time)” (E, 51k) by Niitza
James Barnes, rising star reporter of the New York Bulletin, has a plan. One, find out all there is to know about New York's newest vigilante Nomad, starting with his true identity. Two, write a masterful piece about it. Three, win a Pulitzer and become the envy of all his peers. Four, enjoy.
Or, you know, something like that.
One thing's for certain, though: he sure as hell isn't going to let that fucking asshole newbie Grant O'Connor steal his spotlight.
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Or: the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman AU no one asked for.
+ Shrunkyclunks. Love has a way of throwing ambition off track. (Names may change, but hearts stay the same)
-☆-
“the secret circuit home” (E, 3k) by ftmsteverogers
In which Bucky escapes Azzano on his own with the other Howling Commandos, rough around the edges, but alive. He makes it back in time to watch Captain America's godawful performance, not knowing that it's his best friend up there in tights.
Then he hits on him after the show.
+ Post Azzano. Steve takes Bucky back to his trailer for a personal morale boost
-☆-
“Dirty Pics” (M, 3k) by lillupon
There’s this one guy Bucky slept with three months ago who still sends pics of his ass whenever Bucky asks. What can he say? Grant’s got an ass that just won’t quit.
+ Shrunkyclunks. Hookup to friends to potentially more, if Steve ever finds the right time to tell the truth.
-☆-
-☆- And a freebie! -☆-
“Metallurgy” (M, 22k) by eyres and TheFriendlyPigeon
The battle quieted for the moment, the great metal giant turns, at last, and sees Steve. Dark, almost human hair frames a sharp, steel face - but, Steve is caught by its eyes. They’re bright silver, sparking in the sunlight, shot through with gray and blue, visible even at this distance. Something about them nags at Steve, calls to him, reminds him of…
Instead of making the Winter Soldier, Hydra transfers Bucky's consciousness to a metal body, locking his mind within a prison of steel and programming. However, Bucky is stronger than they could've ever imagined.
+ WW2 to Avengers. Reposted from the Robot List because it’s a gorgeous story. Bucky can’t even say Steve’s name, but Steve figures it out anyway
-☆-
*More identity fics in De-Serumed, Teacher AU, Spy AU, Hitman AU, Sign Language, Video Games, Weddings, Other People’s Weddings, Medieval AU, and Mythology lists
The Adaptable Educator's Book Review - "Dali" by Elizabeth Keevill and Kevin Eyres
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