Once upon a time, everything was beautiful, nothing hurt, and Stucky lived happily ever after. Below are my Top 5 Favorite (non-Disney) stories:
“a marvelous gift” (T, 74k) by biblionerd07
Bucky Barnes has a curse: he has to obey any orders he receives. It gets more complicated when he becomes best friends with Steve Rogers--the prince who will one day be king.
+ Ella Enchanted AU with fantastic MCU parallels. Mutual pining, Hydra abuse, curse breaking, and happily ever afters for everyone except Zola, Rumlow, and Pierce.
-☆-
“Cynics are Simply Thwarted Romantics” (NR, 13k) by Reccea
"It could be alien technology," Natasha offered, folding her arms over her chest. "Something he stumbled on. They're still finding things from the Chitauri so it's not impossible. But the simplest answer is the most likely."
"How is magic the simplest answer?" Stark asked.
Or
In which Steve is Sleeping Beauty and true love's kiss doesn't have to be requited. Or does it?
+ Post WS. The villain of the week has a preference for fairy tale curses. Mutual pining and two True Love Kisses
-☆-
“This Enchanted Place” (M, 41k) by layersofsilence
When the chill of winter starts to sneak through the forest, all the swans on the lake prepare to migrate away from the castle and the royal lake and into warmer climes.
All the swans, that is, except one, who cannot bring himself to leave for reasons unknown even to him. Frustrated with himself, he prepares to spend a long, cold winter on his own - but then he meets Crown Prince Steven Rogers and begins to suspect there is more to him than his own shape lets on.
+ Swan Lake AU. Bucky is turned into a swan, remembers who he is, and tries to save his Steve before it’s too late
-☆-
“Once Upon Some Bullshit” (T, 12k) by machine_dove and Sproings
Bucky really hated magic. He had always hated magic, ever since the first time he'd been forced to believe in it, back in the trenches in occupied France.
He hated it even more now.
A beautiful white swan was standing where Steve should have been, and Enchantress was fucking giggling like the asshole she was.
In which magic is terrible, Steve is sick of this bullshit, and True Love Conquers All
+ Post WS. Steve transforms into a different animal every day, and only True Love’s Kiss will break the curse.
-☆-
“Once Upon a Beanstalk” (T, 31k) by leveragehunters
Everyone knew how the story went: climb the beanstalk, brave the terrible giant, and if you were lucky and clever and quick you could come away with fortune enough to change your world. If you weren't…well, not every story had a happy ending.
Bucky's problem was that his story had gone wrong before it started. He wasn't braving the giant for a chance at fortune, he was climbing the beanstalk to save his skin—ironic, when he knew the giant was probably going to stomp him flat.
Except he didn't. Didn't stomp him flat, didn't send him back down the beanstalk, didn't act much like a terrible giant at all. He was kind in a way Bucky didn't know how to deal with because everyone knew that wasn't how the world worked. But Bucky was slowly coming to understand that at the top of a beanstalk nothing was what it seemed and that sometimes, with enough determination, what everyone knew could be changed completely.
+ Jack and the Beanstalk AU. Bucky climbs up, falls in love with the “Giant”, and gets chased around by the golden goose.
-☆-
*More Stucky Recs here
