Made for the @buckybarnesbingo Discord Party Game - and as a fill for a Bucky Barnes Bingo Square .
Note - the owl, otters, waterfall, stream and lantern are all photos I took personally.
Used Prompts from the game: Whiskers and Wings
Title: Unexpected
Square filled: Y2 - Wings
Ship: WinterWidowHawk
Rating: G
Wordcount: 955 (HOW? This was supposed to just have a small caption?? Not a freaking mini story - i’m supposed to be in BED!)
A Fantasy Au where Bucky gets away from HYDRA and finds himself lost in the woods. Without a better idea, just trying to get as far away as he can, he follows a stream going deeper and deeper in, stumbling and finally stopping when it becomes too dark for even him to see.
But then a light beckons him on further, and he can't resist the call of it. It illuminates his path, all pine needles and fallen leaves, the light always staying just out of reach. He should be scared. He should be panicking. HYDRA could be right behind him - the light could be HYDRA - but he keeps going anyway.
Finally, he stops beneath a lampost, old iron and warm golden glass, nestled in among the branches of a tree. It doesn't belong here, and yet it does.
The light of it reflects off a waterfall and a ledge that seems to go behind it. He'll need to hide from HYDRA and he needs to rest, so he cautiously edges behind the waterfall, finding himself in a large cave.
He goes deeper into the cave and there's another light and he’s just as entranced as he was the first time, unable to stop his feet from moving forward. The fear he should be feeling has been replaced with calm. Not the calm that HYDRA forced on him, the calm of an empty mind and blindly following orders.
It’s a kind of calm he hasn’t felt in decades, the calm of peace, of serenity. It’s… beautiful and he doesn’t want it to end.
Then the light gives away and he finds himself in the mirror image of the same woods he’d left behind - only it’s daytime now, not night. He wonders, at first, if he’d gotten turned around, if he’d lost time. But there are other things that don’t add up.
Like the fact that he’s suddenly sprouted wings, of all things.
Bucky had often wished he could fly free but this was… nothing like he’d ever expected.
He flapped mostly white wings clumsily, trying to launch himself into the sky. He wasn’t sure what kind of bird he’d become, but the light was far too bright and his eyes squinted against the sun until he slid back under the canopy of leaves. He flew and he flew, over the waterfall and continuing to follow the stream towards its source - he didn’t want to get lost and it was as good a direction as any other.
Hydra would never find him now, he thought.
What had wrought this magical change, Bucky didn’t know, but if it kept him free of HYDRA, then that was all he really needed.
He flew for hours - Or maybe days - just reveling in this newfound freedom, when something attacked him from above. Bucky desperately tried to fight back and get away from the larger bird, but could not quite do it, unused to the form as he was. An arrow flew between him and his attacker, scaring the other bird away. Bucky tumbled, exhausted and injured to the ground, where a red haired woman picked him up.
She soothed him, carrying him in his arms as he hooted up at her pitifully and struggled weakly to get away. People meant danger.
He’s brought back to a cottage by a lake, nestled in the trees so closely you almost couldn’t see the structure was there. They are met there by a man with a bow and the two of them take him in.
They do not hurt him.
Bucky watches warily, and now even if he knew how to become a man again, he doesn’t wish to, for surely they’d turn on him if he did?
But they help him, heal him, talk to him and around him, like he can understand every word that they say. And he does, but how do they know that?
The archer is a tall man, and she calls him Clint. The redhead is smaller, and he calls her Tasha. And they talk about things that don’t make sense. They talk about shifters and witches, magic and worlds and Bucky’s head is whirling. They must be crazy. He must be crazy. This was some weird fever dream, an escape from whatever HYDRA was punishing him for this time.
Right?
It’s all so impossible that everything that comes after rocks his world. Because a few days later they bring him outside to get some fresh air and their bodies shimmer and twist and their human forms fall away to reveal a pair of river otters that dive into the lake and swim and play.
He watches them, fascinated, and he wishes… he wishes he could join them. Every day he’d spent with them, he’d found no evidence of evil, and every indication that they could be trusted. They’d left him alone for hours at a time, and now he knows why, as they spend time in the water, diving and swimming. Playing tag, he thinks.
At last, they come up out of the water and shake their fur dry, curling around each other in the sun, basking in it, taking a small nap.
And when they wake, they stretch and shimmer and twist again and they’re human again. And he’s watching them in so much fascination, so much yearning for that same sort of closeness and touch, that he doesn’t realize he’s done the same.
Until they smile at him, and hold out their hands and draw him into their home.
“It’s nice to meet you at last,” Clint says, grinning at him with kind and understanding eyes.
“We’ve been waiting,” Tasha says, her smile smaller but no less genuine.
