yes pleaseeee give us angst with the undisclosed bear attack!! i love crying :)
Pairing: Lumberjack!Bucky x Reader (just Bucky in this one, he doesn't know you yet lol)
Word count: 1.2k
Warnings: injury, angst!!!, you asked for this
a/n: Here’s a link to the series Undisclosed. Thank you for this little writing inspo before I head to work <3
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Bucky concluded that all the moments in his life had been leading up to this. The late nights always spent at the same diner. The early mornings building the house he would surely live in until he was old and gray. The days, all counted in these very woods, working with the people he had known since childhood.
He had always been here, always been a part of Stowe Mills. And as he laid in the snow and felt the coolness seep into his jacket—felt the pain slowly numbing in his left arm—he knew he would always stay in Stowe Mills as well.
Bucky couldn’t move. It was as if he was rooted to the ground by an intangible weight, rendered unconscious by a pain he no longer felt. But Bucky was far from unconscious, and the tingling in his fingers and toes meant he soon would be. If it wasn’t the blood loss that would take him, it would be the hypothermia.
There were many things Bucky hadn’t done. He hadn’t done all the bucket list items he was sure normal people had—skydiving, bungee jumping, traveling the world. He had never ridden a bull or been to the beach or even gotten a tattoo. And sure, as he sunk further into the snow and felt his body tremble, skydiving sounded nice, important even.
But Bucky was mourning other things. Things like Natasha and Maria’s wedding and Steve’s first kid. The day Sarah finally retired and the moment Sam would finally admit that he sucked at poker. He mourned Greta’s sour face as he tracked snow into the library and all the moments in his sister's life he would surely miss.
Bucky mourned that he would never fall in love.
He wouldn’t know a gentleness reserved only for him—would never get to wake up and pull someone closer in the home he never intended for one. He would never feel like he belonged to someone, something, other than Stowe Mills and this job that followed him through his life. He took a long breath and looked out as the air he created turned white under the trees.
“Buck, you out here?”
A tinge of surprise coated Bucky’s dry throat, but he couldn’t call out. Instead, he listened as Steve’s boots crunched in the snow, and he considered how far away from town he was. How many miles Steve would try dragging him before he fell unconscious.
“Is that—Bucky!” Steve shouted, and then his pace picked up. “Bucky, I swear to god that better not be yours.”
He must have seen the blood, or maybe the bag he had dropped as he ran. The ground started shaking by his head, and Bucky was beyond relieved that he was now face to face with Steve and not Sarah; Sarah didn’t need to see this.
“Oh my god,” Steve choked out, one hand coming up to Bucky’s head while the other assessed his arm. “What happened to you, buddy?”
“Bear,” Bucky rasped out, eyes feeling heavy now that Steve leaned over him. It must have been a childhood comfort thing, feeling like he could finally sleep.
Steve cringed, ripping his scarf from his neck and tying it in a knot around Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky felt a whisper of an ache there, but mostly he felt cold. Steve was hauling him up from the ground before he could protest.
“I’m gonna get you some help, Buck, alright? You just stay awake. I promise you’ll be okay.”
Bucky wasn’t sure if it was all his time in the military, or if Steve’s ax work made him so resilient, but Steve was running with him on his back. He was pushing through the snow with a seamless ease and keeping him firm against his body, and Bucky wanted to tell him not to worry so much. But Bucky also felt his eyes slipping closed, so there wasn’t much he could say.
“Hey, awake, Bucky! You hear me? You stay awake or I’m gonna…I’m gonna—” his voice cracked. His steps faltered. “Stay awake,” he finalized.
He thinks he stayed awake. Maybe. All that registered was the pounding of Steve’s fist on the doctor’s front door and his exhausted huffs as he pleaded with the older man to come to the clinic. Because it wasn’t as if Stowe Mills had a 24/7 emergency room; it wasn’t often that people knocked on death’s door at… four in the morning? Bucky didn’t know the time.
Steve was on the phone with someone. The lights in the clinic gave him a headache. The doors pounded open and a softer voice broke through the space.
“Is he okay?” Becca. It was Becca and she was frantic for some reason. Bucky tried to blink and catch her, but he felt foggy all the sudden, more weightless.
“I—I don’t know. I brought him here as fast as I could but there was so much…so much—Becca, they’re taking him down the mountain.”
A calloused hand gripped his own—not Becca’s. Bucky was sure Steve made Becca wait out in the hall. He’d have to thank him for that if he woke up later.
“You’re gonna be okay, man. We’ve all got you,” Sam assured, low and deep by Bucky’s ear, as if he wasn’t exactly sure he could hear him.
How many people had Steve called? Surely the entire town didn’t need to race in at such a crazy time, just to watch Bucky lie on a table. But he thought about it, and Bucky would be doing the same for each and every one of them. For hours if he had to. He’d mourn this if he slipped away… his family, he thought, as something poked into his right arm.
Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and did his best to grip Sam’s hand, but the doctor had given him something to warm him up, he figured, and it was making him feel fuzzy. He already felt fuzzy earlier. Sam had enough of a grip on his fingers for the both of them.
And then he was slipping into some strange unconscious where time didn’t make sense. He could hear counting, Steve’s voice the loudest as he was raised onto some stiff surface by multiple hands. He felt soft touches on his face, a flash of red hair and an ache in his head as he fought the urge to fall asleep.
He heard a loud wind, a raucous disruption to the usually quiet town as the biting air of winter met his skin once again. Someone was crying. Maybe it was him, but he didn’t think so. And then he was weightless again, and falling into a sleep that he wanted to welcome.
Bucky was in a helicopter, and the last thing he remembered before slipping into darkness was that riding in a helicopter had never been on his bucket list.
He smells like wood, sometimes pine or chedar. You smell like kitchen, sometimes tomato soup or chicken pot pie. At the warm cabin in the middle of nowhere, it is the scent of both warmth and comfort. The ding of the oven matches with the thump of his boots. Warm arms covered with folded flannel sleeves slither around your waist as you put down the plate on the table. Both of you stay for a moment to watch the sun sets in between the trees outside. It is peacefully quiet with the sound of crackling fireplace. He puts his head on your shoulder and kisses your cheek. You giggle as his beard tickles your skin.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Rebecca Barnes Proctor
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Modern Bucky Barnes, Cabin Fic, Age Difference, Steve is 33, bucky is 20, Jewish Bucky Barnes, Implied/Referenced Sex Work, Secret Identity, Snowed In, Lumberjack Steve Rogers, Shrunkyclunks, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Past Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Mentions of Cancer, Hurt/Comfort, Past Underage Sex, Unhealthy Relationships, Getting to Know Each Other, Consent Issues, Injury Recovery, Bad Decisions, Learning From Your Mistakes, A Very Good Dog - Freeform, Caretaking, Spooning, Thirsty Bucky Barnes, (Consent Issues are mild.), (They only take place in Chapter Three.), (Please see notes at the end of Chapter Three for a play-by-play warning.), Christmas, Hanukkah, Holidays, Christmas Dinner, Gift Giving, Love Confessions, Slow Dancing, dance lessons, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, safe sex, First Time Topping, Switching, Communication before sex, Rimming, Multiple Orgasms, Coming Untouched, Bucky Barnes & His Magical Prostate, New Year's Eve, Angst, Break Up, Identity Reveal, Family Reunions, Family Drama, Steve "Sad Errands" Rogers, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Happy Ending
Series: Part 1 of All That You Are to Me
Summary:
Seven years into an isolated retirement after the Battle of New York, Steve has carved out a place for himself in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. He has a best friend (his dog, Lady), a frenemy (a local black bear named Rufus), and a cabin in the middle of the woods, an hour's drive from the nearest town. As November comes to a close, he heads into town to pick up supplies and ends up with a stowaway.
Bucky hasn't had much luck over the past seven years. Disaster caused his family to move from New York to Indiana, and his life has steadily fallen apart ever since. After one too many heartbreaks, he decides to hitch his way back to the last place he remembers being happy: Brooklyn. He's in the homestretch when he finds himself stranded in a half-empty tourist town in the Catskills and decides to take a chance crawling into the back of someone's truck.
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AKA the "Lumberjack Steve/Twink Bucky" fic of our hearts. Bucky spends so much time thirsty as hell.
