Long sam/bucky Fics Masterlist
After-Action (ao3) - gigantic E, 39k
Summary: Bucky’s developing something of a rhythm. He goes to therapy, attends to a name on his list, and then finds Sam, laying the adrenaline at his doorstep. And each time Sam has let Bucky come in and take him apart.
a heavy heart to carry (ao3) - merlypops T, 62k
Summary: Bucky laughs, the sound distinctly watery as his fists tighten in anger. Sam grips Bucky’s shoulder gently, his palm settling on the vibranium through sun-warmed leather. Bucky tenses, waiting for the disgust to saturate Sam’s face at the reminder of the metal arm and all of the carnage Bucky wrought with it. The disgust never comes. Sam’s hand slips up higher instead, so that the pad of his thumb can gently brush the warm skin at the nape of Bucky’s neck. Bucky shivers, eyes falling shut.
Bucky feels broken. Sam helps him carry on.
Set throughout The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
birds flying but i’m still there (ao3) - overnights N/R, 45k
Summary: “Shit,” Sam says, staring at the thin golden ring on his finger. He blinks quickly, like he’s pushing through it all: the hangover, the too-bright sunlight, the pure insanity of this moment. Bucky watches the dark curl of his eyelashes, staring for just a second too long.
Sam blinks again, then starts to laugh. “Shit. Well, I guess we’ll have to file for annulment.”
And maybe it’s the leftover buzz of the alcohol, or maybe it’s the way that Sam has started to feel like safety to him, but something makes Bucky blurt it out; he clears his throat and says, “Yeah, or we could just stay married.”
Final Lap (ao3) - kumotsukii sam/bucky, peggy/steve, carol/maria T, 192k
Summary: Sam Wilson gets to Formula 1. He is expecting things to go normal until he witnesses the worst crash in history. The number one driver, his idol, Bucky Barnes crashes and goes MIA.
Can he find Bucky? And when he does what adventures come along with it?
gator around the warm beds of beginners (ao3) - napricot E, 39k
Summary: “What no one told you about miraculously coming back from the dead was how it was a total goddamn shitshow. Because yeah, Sam was alive, and yeah, the apocalypse had been averted, sort of—he wasn’t clear on if it counted when the apocalypse had still happened but all the people who’d died came back. But at his last count, Sam had lost: five years, two best friends, a home and/or place to live, practically all of his stuff, and—okay, this one wasn’t so bad—his fugitive status. Sam had gained: Captain America’s shield and Bucky.”
How Sam and Bucky get by, after Thanos is defeated. Or: the story of how two idiots become roommates, partners, friends with benefits, and maybe something more, if they could just stop being so oblivious, while they wait to find out if their Steve’s ever coming back from his trip through time.
ghosts that we knew (ao3) - wilsonsnest T, 46k
Summary: Sam (reluctantly) agrees to do a commission for Steve’s rich but extremely reclusive friend, James Barnes.
Sam just stared at the other man, the feeling of being watched suddenly overcoming him. God, what kind of weirdo didn’t even come to greet their guests? It was one thing to be a rich recluse, but another thing to just completely ignore people wandering around your house.
“Steve, this is really weird.” Sam stressed. “This isn’t weird to you?”
Grow To Be (ao3) - Sororising T, 110k
Summary: Sam flops back down onto the bed, shoving a few of the pillows behind his head and upper back - there’s way too many for one bed; if you multiply that by thirty bedrooms there must be -
“I can’t do math when I’m drunk,” he says mournfully. “Bucky, come here and help me do math.”
Bucky lets out a small laugh. “Bet you say that to all the girls.”
Sam doesn’t know how to unpick that sentence. He isn’t even going to bother trying; he just waves his arm around in Bucky’s general direction, hoping that he’ll make contact eventually.
I’ll explain everything to the geese (ao3) - napricot E, 50k
Summary: Bucky is so competent that it hurts my feelings is not a rational complaint to have about a person, and yet, after a year of being Captain America and partnering up with Bucky for the new and improved, post-Blip Avengers, that’s kinda how Sam’s feeling.
It’s not great. It maybe leads to Sam making some rash, ill-advised decisions like claiming he has a previously undisclosed superpower, and then getting caught in a web of lies when he ends up actually developing that surprisingly inconvenient superpower. Talking to birds had seemed like a harmless superpower, but it turns out that birds have a lot of opinions, and they don’t hesitate to tell Sam about them, especially when it comes to his supposedly subpar courting skills. Which is ridiculous, because Sam isn’t courting Bucky. Right?
I’ll Keep What I Wish For (ao3) - sassyseme E, 129k
Summary: Sam’s brother Gideon returns one night after years of silence, and he doesn’t approve of Sam being with a former Winter Soldier or that his younger brother is gay…
Is Not General Incivility the Very Essence of Love? (ao3) - KK_Banyu sam/bucky, steve/sarah T, 141k
Summary: This is my take on a “Pride and Prejudice”-inspired AU, set in modern day Washington, D.C, in which Sam fills the shoes of Elizabeth Bennet and Bucky Mr. Darcy
i will soar, then (ao3) - pinballbrain T, 61k
Summary: Bucky Barnes gets a new therapist. But he’s not the only one who needs to. aka bucky gets his shit together and does right by sam.
Life is too Much Like a Pathless Woods (ao3) - Epitome_of_the_Username M, 172k
Summary: Bucky has a long way to go to fit into the present. As his therapist keeps telling him, recovery isn't a straight road. Sam's insisting on being an annoying part of his life, refusing to let him disappear. He hates it as much as he relies on it. Sam's pretty great for a guy he hates. Maybe hate is a strong word. And it might be untrue. He might actually like him a little. Okay--a lot. But no one needs to know that.
Excerpt: Sam looked nice in his suit, that was a plus. Bucky maybe stared for a second too long, taking in every inch of Sam—ignoring the look Sam gave him when he was caught. Bucky stared at everything. This wasn’t news. Sam could get over it. “Are you always so perky?” Bucky asked, diverting attention from his staring, he’d gotten good at looking as long as he wanted and then starting a fight with Sam to throw him off balance. It was not flirting, he kept telling himself.
Pick a Star on the Dark Horizon (ao3) - artist_artists T, 38k
Summary: In 1945, a Hydra experiment gone wrong sends their prisoner Bucky Barnes to the year 2025, where he meets Sam Wilson for the first time.
In 2025, Bucky is stolen from his happy life living and working with Sam and sent back to his Hydra cell in 1945.
Both of them love Sam, and both of them are trying to get back to where they belong without destroying the universe.
Running with Knives (ao3) - eden22 E, 108k
Summary: On his last tour in Afghanistan, Sam is sent on a mission with an external contractor, an aggravating and secretive man named James Barnes. The fact that the mission goes completely FUBAR is in no way helped by him hooking up with Barnes afterwards, though at least he can comfort himself with the fact that he won’t ever have to see him again.
Almost thirty years after escaping HYDRA, Bucky is still in survival mode, avoiding any real connections with other people as he tries his best to keep existing in the aftermath of what was done to him. Sam Wilson should be just another in a long string of meaningless hookups, someone he will never see again.
But when has anything in either of their lives ever been that simple?
sounds like an angel (he might be a demon) (ao3) - wikiangela M, 150k
Summary: When Sam agreed to help Steve find the Winter Soldier, he’d never expected what would happen and how fucked he'd be. And it all started with a phone call.
Or, Sam and Bucky's story through the years 2015-2024.
Start Here (ao3) - howlingbuchanan (penmarks) M, 110k
Summary: “Tell him you will never know any better. Pretend to understand why that isn’t good enough.”
or
An exploration of grief and trauma through Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson, who also happen to be accidentally, absolutely, and unconditionally in love.
Take Off the Foo Foo (ao3) - Motashu M, 41k
Summary: Bucky’s old life tracks him down to Chinatown, NYC, and Sam kind of throws a wrench into things.
The Promise of Cheesecake and a Decent Wine (ao3) - QuestinWitchFace E, 217k
Summary: Bucky convinces Sam to go on a fake date to a fancy restaurant because he wants to take advantage of the two-for-one date night special the restaurant is running for queer couples during Pride Month. After a photo of the two of them on their "date" gets out, Sam and Bucky must navigate a world that thinks they're dating, as well as their own feelings about themselves and each other.
Tags subject to change as needed; CWs at the beginning of chapters that need them.
to be alive (ao3) - napricot E, 113k
Summary: An alternate take on canon where Sam and Bucky have been secretly meeting up since after CATWS.
we could jump the state lines (we only get the one life) (ao3) - notcaycepollard E, 33k
Summary: It starts in Paris.
“You can’t steal things just because you like them,” Sam tells Bucky, feeling innately that this is a losing battle, and Bucky cocks his head to the side, considers Sam very thoughtfully.
“Really,” he says. “I’m stealing you, aren’t I?”
