If there’s anything in the world Bucky Barnes could compare Steve Rogers to, it was the sun. The fiery passion that burned under his skin, the burning rage that fueled his actions, the soft warmth of his love, the radiance that he filled rooms with. So bright was his Stevie, so gentle and loving and at the flip of a switch ready to fight for everyone and everything he loved. And always so ready to fight for Bucky. Steve Rogers was sunshine, Bucky Barnes thought, and god, how lucky he was to have Stevie at the center of his universe.
Summary: It's 2011, men are allowed to marry, and Bucky is dead.
The future isn't all that's strange. Together in peacetime for the first time since before Steve took the serum, Steve and Bucky struggle to find their place -- and each other -- in the middle of a new millennium, new bodies, and new dynamics.
Or, just because you wake up in a century where everything you've repressed is magically okay, that doesn't make it easy.
Pairing: Steve/Bucky
Words: 81,114 | 12 chapters
Tags: Unresolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant
⭐⭐⭐/5
Warnings for obvious spoilers!
I didn’t start reading Marvel fics until late into the rise of the Sebastian Stan obsession of Tumblr when One Direction had fallen and people were scrambling to find a new fandom to join. I’d always been a big comics fan, but not fan enough that I was reading fics about Steve and Tony, y’know?
But then, a 1D-turned-Stucky-mutual reblogged this beautiful fic and suddenly I was enlightened.
Slow Work was started in 2012 and completed in 2014, so like the tags say, this fic isn’t Winter Soldier compliant. Still, lorata’s version of the Winter Soldier’s story is so well written it just as well have been the actual movie. True to the name, Slow Work is 81k words of Steve and Bucky dealing with their friendship and 70 years of period-homophobia and pining. Like lorata says in the first chapter’s notes:
This is a lot of introspection, a lot of feelings, and a lot of two men struggling to figure out what in the hell is going on.
At the beginning that’s about Steve, who is accidentally caught up in New York’s gay pride parade. From the first few paragraphs of Steve’s POV I could tell the characterization was going to be spot on. The guy is just a complete asshole, and growing up with the comics before the movies I felt like that was true to Steve’s character. From the moment Steve is told that Bucky is alive to actually getting to see Bucky, we see something that I feel a lot of post-Hydra fics don’t do: we see Bucky’s recovery through Steve’s eyes. We get what he’s feeling, and even though there’s a huge time jump, Steve’s reactions don’t seem rushed.
Halfway through the fic, we get to Bucky’s POV. While Steve has had time to deal with what the Brave New World has in store for them, Bucky hasn’t. He’s still learning to modernize his ideas, especially when it comes to his beliefs on sexuality.The whole second half of the fic can be summarized by Chapter 4’s summary:
In which culture shock is the story, not the punchline.
Both Steve and Bucky learn to navigate through the new depths that is Modern America, but also their relationship. So if you’re looking for some slow burn, friends to lovers with a dash of angst—then this is the fic for you!
My Favorite Moments:
"Nope," Bucky says. "This is why you never could get the girls, y'know. You always did everything the wrong way, though fair enough, everybody gets this one wrong. Movie first, afternoon showing, and then you have something to talk about at dinner and you have plenty of time to take a walk or whatever afterward without worrying about it being mugger o'clock. See? Science." I actually used this logic on a date and it works so, so well. Bucky Barnes is truly and Intelectual.
"Some people say you only get one great love but I think they're wrong," Steve says, and funny how he remembers being twenty and thinking he'd never even get that far. "I think you get as many as you need...” This was so good, the first time I read it I screenshotted it and saved it :’)
“Kiss me,” Bucky whispers. Steve chokes, and when he finally closes the distance it feels like coming home.
word count: 613
warnings + notes: cute, quick fluff. i liveblogged ca:cw today and i couldn’t escape my stevebucky feels so here you go. a brief nsfw-ish mention but it’s barely there. title taken from g-eazy+ halsey’s song him & i because i cant stop listening to it and it gives me all the stevebucky feels lol
“You sure about this?”
“I can’t trust my own mind,” Bucky says, a pained smile gracing the corners of his mouth. “So until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think going back under is the best thing. For everybody.”
Not me, Steve thinks. Not me.
“Give us a minute?” Steve whispers, not breaking eye contact with Bucky. Bucky swallows gently as the lab techs exit the room. Steve stays standing, looking at Bucky like he’s the only thing in the world worth staring at. If Steve’s being completely honest with himself, he has seen so much (too much) in his long lifetime, but the time spent in the presence of Bucky (his Bucky, always his) will always outweigh the bad.
“Kiss me,” Bucky whispers. Steve chokes, and when he finally closes the distance it feels like coming home.
Despite the passion behind it, it’s the gentlest kiss they’ve ever had. Steve feels a pang of regret as the feeling of Bucky pressed against him like this takes him back to the Brooklyn days. They were always so hasty, so caught up in each other that they never took the time to explore each other. There was never any time; they lived paycheck to paycheck in a world that seemed out to get them.
Steve pulls him closer, snaking his arm around Bucky’s waist. Bucky responds in kind, letting himself attempt to relax for the first time in decades. Steve feels like he’s on fire for the first time since the day Bucky fell. It’s like all of the parts of himself he had hidden away, all of the parts he had given away to Bucky, and all the parts he was just waiting to give to him, are suddenly awake and flooding his senses. Steve steps back for a moment to keep himself calm, breathing in sharply through his nose. I know how to make you cum, but how do I make you mine?
There has to be a God, Bucky thinks to himself when Steve moves to cradle his face instead of holding his waist. No mortal man is ever this lucky.
“Damn it,” Bucky whispers, and Steve breathes deeply, pressing his forehead against Bucky’s, trying to stabilize himself. Steve’s eyes flutter closed.
When Bucky finally sobs, it sounds like the howl of a wild animal. The force of his crying racks his body in tiny motions. All Steve can think is how Bucky never deserved this; he didn’t deserve any of it. Steve feels vaguely nauseous as he holds Bucky tightly. Bucky has always been his anchor. They never got the chance to adjust to each other in their new bodies. Stolen kisses behind the backs of the Commandos in the middle of war-torn Europe don’t count.
They were kids then. It’s so very different now; everything is heavier. They never talked about what happened to them. They were never able to confide in one another about the war. They have lost so much of themselves, not just too each other, but in the decades between their lives. There is before and there is after, but the during seems to fade into white noise. Steve is reminded of how much he’s missed this. The small moments were always the hardest. Learning to live without his other half nearly killed him.
In this moment, it feels like they’re telling each other everything. Steve’s always been at a loss for words when it comes to Bucky anyway.
This is all they need right now.
“Come back for me,” Bucky whispers after a long time.
“Always,” Steve murmurs, his lips a faint ghost against Bucky’s ear. “Always.”
I’ve logged on to tumblr like five different times today and then promptly forgotten why and just scrolled for a while.
Anyway. I FINALLY started writing a fic the other day. So far, the first, like, three pages are Steve and Nat snarking at each other on the phone. I’m enjoying myself.
