#@araniaart

[crash-the-mode]

There’s like ten fics I’ve read like 30+ times

I think authors underestimate how many people reread their works/chapters.

That’s why, when I’m rereading WIPs or old works, I always leave a comment. Just a little hey, I’m rereading this and it is still great goes so far, actually

[ultfreakme]

I am desperately search for this multiple part Stucky canonverse fic with incubus Bucky. The whole incubus thing happens because HYDRA in the fic are full whacko mode doing demonic rituals, and they find one to make Bucky into a demon. Steve rescues him, obviously, but Bucky's now a freaking demon and going through the war with all these demonic changes happening to him and he's like "ah fuck, I'm tangibly, literally evil, there is no going back from this". He's specifically also an incubus so he's dealing with THAT and learning he fights better after the....if he uhhhhh.....does the incubus thing, cue internalized homophobia. There's an entire second part of the fic series which is just detailing his time post-fall off the ravine with HYDRA. He loses his arm and it grows back all demon-like with scales. Like we're talking full demonic shebang, there was even really great fanart of it out there. There's a final fight with demon bucky and another demon it was awesome.

is ANYONE knows this fic I'm talking about PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reply with a name or drop a link I'm on my last straw ;_; I am DYING without it. It was so popular

EDIT: I FOUND IT!!! I FUCKING FOUND IT!!! It's still here it's not deleted ;_;

If anyone else is interested it is the Falling's Just Another Way to Fly series by AraniaArt, Kamiki

[defilerwyrm]

This is @araniaart petting their ridiculous broken ball python Jubilee, who just really loves head pets and cheek rubs

[themculibrary]

Supernatural Elements Masterlist 3

part one, part two

20th Century Limited (ao3) - Speranza steve/bucky E, 52k

Summary: "Where am I? Where is this?" and he was in Brooklyn, he was on a beach, the train was shaking around him. He was in the plane, ice splintering up onto the windshield. He was in a tank, tubes trailing from his face, from his groin. Christ, he was cold. There was still ice on his fingers. He was in the Grand Canyon. He was in Times Square. This couldn't be Times Square. Where the hell was this? "Tell me! Where am I, who are you, where's—" —Bucky?

A Villain State of Mind (ao3) - Mikkeneko T, 54k

Summary: Written for the Norsekink prompt: "SHIELD has Loki in custody, with the gag on to keep him from spellcasting, but they don't really know what to DO with him. They can't give him food or water or attempt to interrogate him with the gag on, and they don't dare take it off. Their solution? Call in a telepath! But Charles Xavier may find more things in Loki's head than SHIELD bargained for..."

dragging you down (ao3) - AraniaArt, Kamiki steve/bucky E, 81k

Summary: In a divergence from the canon storyline, Hydra experiments with occult legends of a more demonic bent. When Bucky is captured at Azzano, something more insidious than a knock-off super soldier serum is done to him, but the full effects take some time to completely set in. Bucky struggles with building impulses and an increased libido while trying to keep his interest in Steve from boiling over and ruining Steve’s chance at the life he deserves.

Endgame (ao3) - YunaYamiMouto tony/stephen T, 196k

Summary: The rouge Avengers are pardoned under the influence of King T'Challa and it is up to Tony to 'welcome' them back. But as he and his new team are at the private airport, an unexpected fight breaks loose and the fate of the whole universe is changed when a wizard places himself as Tony Stark's protector.

Falling Into You (ao3) - sabrecmc steve/tony M, 53k

Summary: Tony and Steve end up as fuck buddies after the events of The Winter Soldier until Steve calls it off. When Loki's spell wipes all of Steve's memories since the last time Loki was in town, Tony decides it will be so much easier to just not tell Steve they had something of a relationship. Spoiler: It isn't.

Or, how Steve fell in love with Tony and forgot about it, and how Tony fell in love with Steve and realized it.

Folded Feathers (ao3) - Era_Penn peter/wade T, 4k

Summary: Of everyone who ever saw Peter's pitch black wings, only three people stayed: Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and Gwen Stacy. Two of them are dead. Peter refuses to show his wings to anyone else, ever.

And then Wade Wilson comes along with his gorgeous white and gold wings and ruins everything.

(Except, he's the only one who can make Peter laugh, these days, so maybe it's just a painful sort of fixing.)

Green with Envy (ao3) - SailorChibi T, 8k

Summary: After Tony left the Avengers, he decided to take his money with him. It didn't take Steve long to figure out that something had to be done about that, even if it meant letting Wanda use her powers on Tony again. But the best laid plans don't always go the way you think they will.

How a Hellhound Broke A Curse (ao3) - AngeNoir bucky/tony T, 9k

Summary: Tony Stark has two good friends, both of whom are nowhere near him right now. Which is fine! He will break this thrice-damned curse on his own, thank you. That was the literal wording of it, after all - You will drown everything, until you learn how to stand on your own two feet and grow up were the exact words Ty had said before he waltzed out of Tony's life.

So Tony's standing on his own two feet. He's not asking for help. Even as he literally is drowning his plants, even as he's drying up and wasting away because he can't retreat to his parent tree, even as he feels more and more isolated, he isn't going to beg Ty to break the curse. He has his dignity.

And then...

Then, he has Bucky.

Old Souls (ao3) - the_writer1988 pepper/tony, wanda/vision T, 167k

Summary: Tony Stark dies October 17th 2023.

And wakes up on the 30th April 2016, three days before Lagos.

Three days before the breaking of the Avengers begins.

But now he has a chance.

A chance to do it all over again.

And not die trying.

Rise Up (ao3) - Wix tony/stepen N/R, 52k

Summary: Tony leaves the Avengers in the wake of Ultron when he refuses to standby and approve of their choices. Fate's quick to step in though and show that where one door closes, another one just might open.

The Evidence (ao3) - StrivingArtist bucky/tony E, 16k

Summary: Didn’t notice. Right. Sure. Two brilliant minds, two super spies, and a god didn’t notice when the chattiest man they knew stopped making sound. They just seemed happier than before. Brighter and more cheerful than before. They just seemed like they were more comfortable with him around when he was stone silent.

Fuck it.

He knew they noticed.

And he knew they liked him better this way.

The Ghost of Heroes (ao3) - Enigmaris, ScarletNightFury danny phantom/spiderman T, 291k

Summary: New York City isn't prepared for a ghostly invasion. The Avengers are finally all in the same place again. Thor and Bruce are back from space with a semi-reformed chaos god and a thousand refugees in tow. Steve and the Rogues have got their pardons and are ready to start being heroes again. But Tony isn't ready trust, neither is his new protegee Spiderman. The fractured team can't seem to come together. It's a good thing then that Danny Phantom is ready to save the day. That doesn't mean anyone is prepared for when he keeps showing up.

The Innkeeper's Guide to Love and Werewolves (ao3) - justanotherpipedream bucky/tony T, 3k

Summary: “I only followed your advice,” said Bucky. His eyes were dark, darker than normal this close to the moon. He wore a black leather jacket, his favorite red henley and jeans. A pair of black leather motorcycle gloves stuck out of his jacket pocket.

Tony was furious that the werewolf’s hair still looked effortlessly perfect, even after a trek through the woods.

He eyed Tony up and down with a grin, his fangs peeking through. “You told me to mark my territory.”

“I told you to take care of it. Not to destroy my flowers and smother your scent all over my inn.”

The Killer and The Kid (ao3) - tisfan bucky/tony T, 13k

Summary: Imagine Tony getting deaged into a 5 or 6 year old, but instead of the team finding him, Bucky, still on the run and struggling with himself and the winter soldier, does. Bucky tries to take care of him, learning of all of Tony's issues and the abuse he went through. Eventually he has no choice but to come in and bring Tony to the avengers. After Tony comes back to himself they deal with the aftermath

CA:CW compliant, happens after Bucky is put back in cryo.

The Reasons That Lie Beneath (ao3) - itsallAvengers steve/tony T, 10k

Summary: When Loki decides to be a little shit and curse Steve Rogers with a cuddling spell- the Avengers are suddenly the victims of crushing hugs and constant hand-holdings. And weirdly- Steve has a strange attachment to Tony in particular.

But Loki's trick reveals more to Tony than he had ever expected, and now it's time to face some terrifying realisations that come with the curse.

Tony needs more fucking coffee to deal with all this.

the Witch & the Wolf (ao3) - ara_the_samwisian steve/bucky, clint/natasha E, 162k

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a boy named Bucky. This boy was like others you might know. He liked to fight wolves, pretend he was a knight, and wage magnificent wars against the most villainous of villains. He played knights and vanquished all the villains he and his friends could imagine. But then he grew up, and the villains vanquished him. And there was another boy; Steve. He was not much like other boys you’d know, or maybe he is, depending on the sort of boys you know. Wars were not his ideal session of make-believe. He liked to befriend wolves rather than fight them. He was a boy, but he grew up long before he should have. Adventures always start with kids like that. Bucky was the boy who took too long to start the process of growing up and then grew up all in one night. Steve was the boy who grew up much too quickly to have been a boy in the first place. This story might sound like it’s about just one of these boys, but that’s not really true. It’s not really about either of them, because to say that it’s about one of them would be disingenuous. Candidly, this story is about what they grew up to be. The wolf and the witch that befriended him.

To Get Lucky (ao3) - SailorChibi loki/tony T, 5k

Summary: While Steve was running around the world trying to avoid the law, Tony figures out how to save James Barnes.

Steve, in all his narrow-mindedness, does not like that one bit.

When I Think (Oh, it Terrifies Me) (ao3) - celli steve/tony E, 8k

Summary: Look, some mornings you wake up and little green men are invading New York City; some mornings you wake up and you can hear Captain America's voice in your head. Tony has been an Avenger long enough that he saves his freakout for important things.

[ineffableclassics]

After the failed Armageddon, Crowley faces unexpected and disturbing problems with his corporation. His first instinct is to hide it from Aziraphale, there's no need to worry him, he's certain he can fix everything before the angel ever has to know.

Words: 31,207

Status: Complete

Rating: Explicit

By @entanglednow

[shackleton2]

I read the demon Bucky series yall. So much fun. Stucky romance, WW2—present, Hydra trash party, porn with supernatural elements, satisfying plot, action, oh my, definitely porn, so much more. My favorite thing was the emotive tail :D

Forever laughing at myself for being surprised when I get way into the more far-out AU scenarios

I loved mer-Bucky

I loved were-Bucky

I loved multiverse vampire Bucky

I loved android Steve

I loved selkie Bucky

Sitting there before I start reading like hmph I dunno I read Very Serious Fanfics I'm an Intellectual🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐

10 seconds later devouring it like omg where has this been all my life

[fandomfluffandfuck]

Re: the tag on that Bucky-with-horns pic, if that's your jam, you should definitely read AraniaArt's 'Falling's just another way to fly' series! It's phenomenal!

related to this

"Falling's just another way to fly" by AraniaArt

Oooh! Thank you so much for the recommendation!

That sounds so interesting 👀 I will definitely be looking into that

[ao3feed-ineffablehusbandz]

[Artwork] I didn't mean to Change

[Artwork] I didn't mean to Change

by AraniaDraws (AraniaArt)

A piece I did for the"Wiggle on 2" Good Omens fanzine! The zine focused on snake, and snake-adjacent aspects for Crowley from Good Omens - and I had a ton of fun making a weresnake take on Crowley - Aziraphale comforts him when the moon rises, forcing his transformation!

Words: 0, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

Additional Tags: Snake Crowley (Good Omens), Transformation, Animal Transformation, Were-Creatures, weresnake, Monsters

From https://ift.tt/AGemVqY https://archiveofourown.org/works/44884384

[lordzannis-blog]

A Broken Soldier

AvoidingAverage

Summary:

"Steve Rogers went into the ice a grieving man, tasting Bucky’s name on his lips and Peggy’s sorrow in his ears. He emerged a blank slate." Steve Rogers wakes up in a world full of aliens, men of iron, and a past complicated by the heroism of a man he no longer remembers being. He has no interest in remembering the pain that drove him into the ice without the parachute that might have saved him. No desire to know about the best friend he lost or the woman who moved on without him. He has more important things to consider...like killing the Winter Soldier.

man on the wall (man in the dark) by Spacedog

In another version of Brooklyn, in an uncanny New York City, on an earth just on the edge of unfamiliar, Bucky Barnes—a mid-ranking engineer in Stark Industries’ brand-new department of prosthetics and medical robotics—should be coming home from work. But along comes a spider, and, unwittingly, his life goes upside-down. Quite literally.

Sacrifice Play by HaniTrash, The_Reverend

What should have happened when Steve and Bucky reunited on the battlefield. And then something that really shouldn't have, as far as Steve is concerned.

Falling's Just Another Way to Fly by AraniaArt, Kamiki

his series explores a parallel-to-canon "What if" Hydra experimented with occult legends of a more demonic bent. When Bucky is captured at Azzano, the seeds of something more insidious than a knock-off super soldier serum are planted in him, but the full effects take some time to completely set in.

Flare by WishingStar

a soulmate au series

All Sinners A Future, All Saints A Past by BlackUnicorn

Steve Rogers was dead. He had died the moment Bucky had fallen off the train but Captain America had lived on and not even a plane crash and 70 years of cold and ice could change that, leaving him stranded in a new century. A new world. But it was fine. It really was. As long as he didn't let himself think. Or sleep. And then, one day, Bucky came back.

it Has Fanon Peggy carter if you dislike canon mcu peggy for many reasons

say it soft and it's almost like praying by Somanywords

Natasha says, “Look, whatever the truth is about you, we have no way of really knowing the Winter Soldier's intentions. He’s not all there, he’s not who you remember. He’s a hot mess, Steve.” “Why does everyone think that?” Steve says, and he’s nearly yelling, but not quite, because he doesn’t need to, not when they’re so close. “Why does everyone keep saying he’s a mess—have you seen me? ”

Skip the Charades by BonkyBornes

Longing by fannishliss

Why Hydra chose those specific triggers words to lock down Bucky's brain, and how Steve and Wanda work to undo them.

This series uses experimental styles and shifting povs, so every chapter is a little different.... Moving from angst to the happy ending we so desperately need for them

What Might Have Been by AraniaArt, Kamiki

It has President Steve Rogers

No Such Men Return by GlassCaskets

When he is thirteen, Bucky Barnes decides he has to learn to fight to protect the people he loves. This singular mission never really stops. OR: Filling in the gaps between three Captain America movies and the life and times of James Buchanan Barnes and the first and best thing he ever loved: Steve Rogers.

Waking Up by WolfenM

Steve looks to the Avengers for help with a newly-found Bucky. Can they undo all the damage that's been done to the man by HYDRA?

The Bucky Barnes Recovery Project by FrostyEmma

A complex story of love, redemption, and pancakes.

We Were Here All Along by giselleslash for thorstbench post catws au

After the events in DC Bucky shows up at Steve’s door. All Steve wants to do is hide him away from the world so when Natasha offers the use of one of her safehouses Steve takes her up on it. Now the two of them are together, and on their own, nothing but two ghosts haunting a cabin in the woods desperately trying to get back to each other.

The Sole Unquiet Thing by belial

Didn't You Love Me? by charmedward

“I’m still dangerous, Steve. I sleepwalk. I could slit your throat with a kitchen knife and go back to bed without realizing. Just ‘case I’m me now don’t mean I'm always gonna be me. You get that, don’t you?”

And he should be saying yes. Yes I know you could kill me, could lead all our enemies right to my front door and let them in. Yes I know you aren’t that man I went to war with. But Steve doesn’t say that. With a glance at Sharon, he sits up straighter and squares his shoulders. It’s the look that Sam has taken to calling “Steve’s taking on the world’s burdens” look.

"We’ll make it work, Buck.”

Long Way Home by Malexxx

“What’s my name?” He saw something change in Steve’s eyes. Suddenly the man in front of him looked incredibly… sad. He could hear it in his voice too when he answered. “Your parents named you James Buchanan Barnes. But to me, you’ve always been Bucky.” Bucky. He had heard that before. Even before Steve had said it on the Helicarrier. There was something very familiar about that word. Or was it the way Steve said it? Or: What would have happened if Steve and Bucky were together in the forties, and the Winter Soldier doesn’t leave after pulling Steve out of the river.

we are here now by randomhorse

“He was a soldier, like us,” Steve says. “He killed people like we did, but he never had a choice. They put us on pedestals and him on trial, how is that fair? How do you fight a fight like that if not dirty?”   Which Bucky is healing, but Steve is more broken than either one of them realizes.

Transatlanticism by ohleahmarie post catws au

A Winter in the Sun by faeriecap post catws au

"Kiss me once, and kiss me twice, Then kiss me once again, It's been a long, long time. Haven't felt like this, my dear, Since I can't remember when, It's been a long, long time. You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you, Or just how empty they all seemed without you, So kiss me once, then kiss me twice, Then kiss me once again... It's been a long, long time."

After SHIELD falls, Captain America tries and fails to find the Winter Soldier... Until the Winter Soldier finds him. Turns out he wasn't Hydra's only secret, and as Steve and Bucky try to re-acclimate to life together, what (and who) they find in the process will change everything as they know it.

The Story of Us by moomoomeep

Steve follows Bucky. Bucky follows Steve. "Til the end of the line, right?" "Yeah, end of the line."

Me Against Your Memory (It's a Two-Step Recovery Process) by thisiswhatthewatergaveme

Steve takes a breath. He blows it right back out. It’s the Winter Soldier who speaks first. “Why does he have my face?” -- The Soldier needs answers. It's the only mission he has left. And the mission is all he has. But HYDRA doesn't let a good thing go easy-- and a home unremembered isn't much of a home at all.

while it hasn't been updated in years be sure to comment, they still love it when a reader made a comment they stopped finishing .

Out of the Wreckage by eosaurora13 post catws au

After the helicarriers crash into the Potomac, Steve discovers more about the Winter Soldier while what's left of Bucky wanders Washington D.C., trying to remember the man he saved. Everyone else tries to help them pick up the pieces. Except there's a lot more to what happened to Bucky than anyone realized and Hydra is willing to do whatever it takes to get him back.

In Hell, We Stand By You by Annaelle

Steve wakes up alone, without Bucky, to a future he could never have imagined. He fights aliens, picks up boxing again, writes little notes that Bucky will never be able to read and struggles to find his place in this Brave, New World. He does not, thankfully, have to do it on his own. Steve Rogers-centric. Canon Divergent. Stucky Endgame.

I Left Myself in 1943 (Who the hell is Bucky?) by originalblue

You have a mission, but your mind is being split in two, and there's a man on the bridge, and you know him. You don't know why, but you know him.

Hurts Like Hell by onymousann

Steve falls from the Helicarrier only to wake up, severely injured, to the realization that the Winter Soldier has absconded him away to an abandoned Hydra facility. He doesn’t know why the Soldier rescued him from the Potomac, or why his masked captor treats him as anything but a captive, as he undertakes the task of nursing Steve back to health. He also doesn’t know why certain things the Soldier does resurrect echoes of a man long-dead. Echoes that make Steve’s heart ache with grief.

Series

Part 1 of ocean eyes

despite the threatening sky and shuddering earth (they remained) by praximeter (Zimario)

“They really didn’t want the mask to come off.” Hill thumbed through the scans, and pulled out a film that she then handed over to Sam, face mostly expressionless but for the flat line of her pursed lips.

Sam accepted the film and held it up to the light, angling so both he and Steve could see it, squinting at the outline of the Winter Soldier’s skull, and the blips of unnatural white that showed up, God, in his brain, not to mention about half his teeth, plus the mask, with its thin protrusions—

“Those are pins,” Steve realized. He looked over at Hill. “The mask—it’s nailed to his face.”

Hill’s face was as unmoved as ever. “Like I said. They really didn’t want it coming off.”

i keep these memories in a lockbox (even I don't know, even I don't know) by infinite_wonders

Frankly, he doesn’t understand why he’s even here, at the blond man’s-- Steve Rogers’, Captain America’s-- bedside, watching him suffer and letting it hurt his heart as much as it does. Except, that’s a lie, isn’t it? Or, that Canonical AU where Bucky gets found and, three months into his tenure with SHIELD, gets to have the amnesiac's version of an existential crisis about the dying former best friend that he can't remember.

Winter Heart by destieljunkie

A training mission goes sideways and Steve is stuck on lockdown when he gets an unexpected assignment. To bring in the Winter Soldier. Nothing at SHIELD is as it seems and Steve suspects the serum is fading just when Bucky resurfaces with no memory of his past. Hydra doesn't intend to let their best assassin go without a fight but Steve refuses to give up the man he loves a second time. Willing to sacrifice his shield and everything he is to convince Buck that he’s worth saving.

From Ice and Ashes by phansomedevil

Steve asks: “How do you move on?” Sam’s eyebrows shoot skyward. He whistles air out from pursed lips. “Do you want the therapist's answer or the real one?” “Surprise me.” “The truth is – you don’t get over it,” Sam says, his voice low. “Not when it’s that close to your soul. Not when he’s someone you built yourself up around. Maybe you fall in love again, maybe you don’t. It won’t feel the same. He’ll always be coming up in your peripheral.” As the bus pulls to a stop in front of them, Sam grips his shoulder. “But you still gotta keep living your life. For his memory, yeah. But mostly for yourself.” *** Steve Rogers learns what it means to be a queer hero in a complicated modern age. He tries to move on from the pull of the past, and his lost loves, but fate rarely lets him catch a break.

Oh, my darling by boopboop

Murdered while walking home with his fiance, Steve turns his back on a chance at peace and is now trapped on earth with only the dead who can see or hear him. Unable to do anything but watch as Bucky becomes lost in his grief, Steve's real purpose for remaining becomes clear when he learns that his death wasn't just random, but planned by someone he trusted with his life. Facing the reality that Bucky is now in more danger than ever before, Steve's only chance at saving him and avenging his own death is in the hands of a psychic who adamantly doesn't want to believe in ghosts. aka A dead guy harasses a long-suffering PTSD vet in an attempt to protect his fiance from the backstabbing asshole who killed him. Aka the Ghost!AU no one but Brenda asked for. Tissues on entry. Please take all complaints up with management.

waterlogged by Team_Free_Tardis_Deduction

A missing scene, because we all wonder what happens when the cameras are off. Steve and Bucky take a third plunge, this time together. This time it's Steve that drags Bucky to shore. This time they're almost not so lucky. ft. CPR, man tears, and a helicopter

The Man On The Bridge by LokiNeedsHugs1031

Steve Rogers rescues Bucky from Pierce just after the fight on the bridge. FIX IT FIC

Bucky Runs (his mouth) & Comes (back home) by Jacqueemackee, shax92

The camera cuts to a cell phone video, shot vertically, of the banks of the Potomac with Bucky hunched possessively, almost predatorily, over Steve's beaten and dripping wet body, (replacement?) mask somehow back on his face, everything concealed except his eyes and forehead. Off-camera one voice calls for an ambulance as another voice asks, "Are.... are you a new Avenger? Did you just save Captain America?"

Bucky looks up, eyes momentarily confused but quickly turning to a stormy glare before snarling, "I fucked Captain America. In the ass."

(The mask doesn't come off until the helicarrier. This complicates things.)

I'm sitting here wondering just how alive or dead the Stucky fandom is right now in 2023.... I have no idea bc I just started liking them....

Feeling like this rn

[hopelessartgeek]

Demon!Bucky commission, for Falling’s Just Another Way To Fly, a series by @araniaart and @shipperhipster!

[flowerfan2]

Moondance - Cap Reverse Big Bang

Stucky, M, 30k words, A03. Canon compliant through CACW; canon divergent.

Artist:  @araniaart and on A03 Author: @flowerfan2 and on A03

Summary:  Steve and Bucky are faced with a new challenge after Bucky is poisoned during a mission; it changes his behavior and his body in increasingly perplexing ways.  Bucky struggles with telling Steve what’s going on, but when Steve finds out his secret, it seems like things will be okay anyway… until they’re not.

 Or the one where Bucky’s a werecat.  Steve thinks it’s hot, at least until he realizes he could lose Bucky for good.

Many thanks to Arania for working with me and creating the amazing artwork that inspired me, to @perryavenue for being the world’s best beta, and to everyone at @capreversebb for running this great challenge.

  See Chapter 1 (NSFW) under the cut or read it all on A03.

“Holy shit, Steve, that feels good.”

 Bucky is sitting on the edge of the bed, his head thrown back and his hands clutching the mattress, while Steve kneels on the itchy hotel carpet in front of him.  He slides off Bucky with a satisfying pop and grins when Bucky quickly looks down at him, eyes blown wide with lust and one eyebrow raised.

 “You gonna finish what you started?”  Bucky asks, voice low.

 “I could,” Steve says, giving Bucky’s cock a teasing lick, “but I really want something else right now. Unless you object.”

 Bucky responds by grabbing Steve with both hands and tugging him up on to the bed, meeting his mouth in a fierce kiss.  “No objection here,” Bucky mumbles against Steve’s neck, starting to kiss down his bare chest.  

 Steve lays back and lets Bucky play, squirming as Bucky takes his time worshiping Steve’s pecs and sucking on his nipples.   He lets the fingers of one hand tangle in Bucky’s hair, and smiles as Bucky pauses to look approvingly up at him through his long eyelashes, then continues his ministrations.

 Sure, not everything has been smooth between them since Bucky came out of cryo in Wakanda, finally de-triggered and slowly gaining confidence in himself.  But recently this – the sex – has been awesome.  

 It’s been almost six months now, and Steve thinks they have found their rhythm.  Mostly they have a quiet life, keeping house together in Brooklyn, each trying to find their way in this new century that still doesn’t seem quite real to either of them.  More and more they’ve been taking part in Avengers missions, too.  Bucky hasn’t come out and said it, but it seems to satisfy something in him to be a part of a team again, to be working towards a common goal, one that as best they can tell isn’t evil.

 And if the thought of going out and fighting the bad guys gets both of them hot, well, ain’t no one complaining.

 Bucky has finally made his way down Steve’s body, nosing against his thigh to move Steve where he wants him, fingers sliding back to tease, when Steve’s phone rings, immediately followed by Bucky’s, which bounces off the night table and falls on to the floor.

 “Fuck.”  Bucky sits up on his knees, hands sliding down Steve’s legs.

 “Or not,” Steve says, twisting to get the phone.  If it hadn’t been the ring both of them had set for emergency Avengers business, he’d have ignored it.  But the whole reason they’re in this stuffy hotel room outside of Panama City is because there’s a former Hydra operative threatening to let loose some kind of robot army nearby, not to fool around on scratchy sheets.

 Steve listens to Coulson’s instructions, nodding.  “Yeah, Bucky’s right here.”  He glances over, reluctantly watching Bucky squeeze his naked ass into his tac pants. “We’re on our way.”

 ******

  The good news is that Coulson located the robots before they got to a more populated area.  The bad news is that they’re in some kind of rainforest, and it’s hot as hell.

 Tony and Steve are leading the way through a village that has seen better days, residents slamming the doors of their ramshackle buildings as they pass by.  Natasha’s on flank, and Bucky and Clint are in the rear, Bucky staying on the rooftops as much as possible to provide cover.

 The robots appear from around a corner, first just a few and then a dozen all lumbering towards them, hissing as they move.  

 “They kinda look like the creatures from Alien,” Clint says through the comm link.  “Steve, that’s a movie where-”

 ���Seen it, thanks,” Steve says under his breath, as Clint continues to tell the story.  Clint’s right, though – the creatures do look a little like the alien that Sigourney Weaver battled with, walking upright, with sharp teeth, and long bony tails waving back and forth behind them.  But the heads are different, rounder, with strange pointy ears that twitch as the creatures move.    

 “Are we sure those are robots, not some kind of living thing?”  Steve asks, when his shield comes back for the third time with slime on it.

 “Affirmative,” Tony says, taking out three of the creatures in a row.  “Jarvis says they’re robots.  Just made to look like monsters.”  

 “Why the hell is that necessary,” Natasha asks, sending widow bites flying towards a robot that slipped past Steve’s shield.  “Aren’t evil robots bad enough?”

 Just then there’s a shrieking noise, and a circular object slams into the road next to Natasha. Tony swoops in and flies her away as they all brace for impact, but there’s no explosion.  Instead smoke pours out of the device, and a noxious smell hits Steve’s nose.

 “Masks on,” Tony shouts into Steve’s ear.  “Unidentifiable, but probably not good.”

 “Smells like skunk,” Clint says.  “I hate skunks.  Why’d they pick skunk?”

 Steve pulls his facemask on, twisting to see if he can see if Bucky is doing the same.  Bucky really doesn’t like having anything on his face, and Steve hasn’t needed to ask him why – the muzzle he used to wear as the Winter Soldier is probably not something he wants to remember.  But after an incident last month where a mad scientist drenched them all in sleeping gas Coulson had insisted that Bucky be prepared to wear a face mask if necessary, and Bucky had grudgingly agreed.

 “Buck, you okay?” Steve finally asks, unable to locate Bucky while simultaneously aiming his shield at the robots which are still coming at them.

 “Too fucking hot for this,” is the reply.  “Anyway, the smoke isn’t coming up here.”

 “Bucky, you have to wear it, smoke rises, you can’t take the chance-”

 “Calm your tits, Cap. He’s got his mask on.”  Tony flies over Steve’s head and slams down next to him, shooting at robots all the while.  He’s probably smirking inside his helmet.

 Steve wants to yell at the both of them, but he’s too busy right now to get distracted.  Any more distracted, anyway.

 It’s a risk, he knows, going out on missions with Bucky.  Because Steve can’t help but worry about him.  Rationally he knows Bucky is more than capable of taking care of himself, but after all they’ve been through, to lose him to some random bad guy isn’t something Steve wants to contemplate.  But Bucky made clear early on that he wants to fight, and Bucky’s not so keen on Steve being out here without Bucky to watch his six, and so here they both are, sweating and cursing in a hundred-degree rainforest and shooting at lumbering robots.

 *****

Bucky did put his mask on, he’s not an idiot.  He can smell the vile smoke as well as anyone on the team, and he doesn’t actually have a death wish.  But his hair and skin are drenched in sweat, and the damn thing keeps sliding to the side and cutting off his ability to breathe through his nose.

 He shoves at the mask again, trying to readjust it, but it just gets worse.  Bucky tries to ignore it and focus on taking out the robots (they look scary, and there are an awful lot of them, but they don’t seem very good at evading Bucky’s shots), and he’s successful for a few minutes, but then he starts coughing and nearly chokes with the effort to get more air.

 He flattens himself against the roof he’s lying on and takes off the mask, trying not to breathe until it is firmly affixed on his face again, but he can’t stop coughing long enough. The air he finally inhales is thick and leaves a sour taste in the back of his throat, but it doesn’t seem to do him any harm, and at least once he’s done he can breathe properly.

 It seems to take forever to stop all the robots, but no one gets hurt, and they finally make their way back to the quinjet.  They’re all sticky and miserable, except for Tony, who steps out of his suit clean and fresh as a daisy.  Clint kicks his shin as he struts by on his way to the front of the plane, and Tony just rolls his eyes at him.

 “Not my fault you don’t want a suit,” Tony comments, seating himself next to Steve.

 “I don’t need a suit,” Clint mutters.

 “What you need is a shower,” Natasha says, sitting down next to him.  “Shove over and try not to drip on me.”  Natasha has managed to find a towel somewhere, and she’s wiping herself off, frowning as she unzips her slime-speckled jacket.

 Bucky’s further back on the bench, peeling himself out of his tac gear.  His hair is drenched in sweat, and he catches the hair tie Natasha tosses him without even looking.

 “Thanks.”  He pulls his hair back into a little bun, relieved to at least get it out of his face.

 “Pozhaluysta,” Natasha replies.

 It amuses Natasha to speak Russian to Bucky.  It had bothered him, at first, an unwelcome reminder of so many bad things that had happened to him.  But as he has come to terms with things and focused on wiping out the red in his ledger, as Natasha phrases it, he decided he might as well put the tools that Hydra had given him to good use.  And it’s convenient to speak Russian with her when he doesn’t want the others to know what they are saying.

 It particularly drives Steve nuts, which is fun.

 By the time they get back to Avengers Tower (it’s a new one, but just as swanky as the first) the sweat has dried everywhere, and Bucky is considering throwing his clothes in the garbage.  They’re all spending the night here so as to be on hand for the debrief tomorrow. Bucky doesn’t mind – the shower’s way better than the one in their Brooklyn place.

 Steve gets a call from Coulson as soon as they reach their floor, so Bucky happily snags the first shower. It feels good to be clean, but he’s got a whopper of a headache settling in, so he pulls on some sleep pants and a t-shirt and crawls into bed.

 Steve joins him sometime later, curling up behind him and pressing a kiss to the back of his shoulder. He smells like coconut shampoo.

 “Buck, you okay?”  Steve smooths a hand down his arm, and Bucky slides back against him.  

 “Mmm, I’m fine.  Just tired.”

 “Me too.”  Steve shifts, settling against Bucky with his hand around his waist.  “Love you.”

 “Love you too.”

 *****

When Steve wakes up, he’s alone in the bed.  This isn’t too unusual – sometimes one or the other of them just has too much energy in the morning to sleep in.  Although Steve had been hoping for a little not-safe-for-work activity this morning, he also sees the logic of waiting until they get back to their own apartment.

 Steve spends a few minutes sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee, reading the paper (an actual paper, one he can hold in his hand, thank you very much).  Turns out Tony likes to read real papers too, and has no problem having them delivered to anyone in the Tower who is interested – it was one of the things they had bonded over when Steve first joined the Avengers.

 Things with Tony are more complicated now.  After the whole war over the Sekovia Accords, with the Avengers taking sides and Tony trying to kill Bucky, well, it was probably too much to expect that everyone could just forgive and forget.

 But while Bucky was in cryo back in Wakanda, Tony had read the Winter Soldier’s file, and done some digging, and then some more.  Then he had helped organize a mission to take down a Hydra base, one that Bucky’s intel had led them to, and saw for himself one of the places they had kept Bucky, including the machine they used to wipe his memories over and over.

 Afterwards Tony had gotten a message to Steve in Wakanda, and they started talking again.  Steve hadn’t been present for the conversation Tony and Bucky had when Bucky came out of cryo, but the fact that Tony had made Bucky a brand new vibranium arm pretty much said it all.  Tony saves the best tech for his friends.  

 When Steve finishes his coffee he pulls on jeans and a thin sweater and goes looking for Bucky.  He’s not in the common area, or the gym. Steve takes the elevator up to the roof and walks out on to the elegantly landscaped patio.  It’s pleasantly warm for early spring, and Steve smiles as he sees Bucky off to the side of the pool, facing the edge of the roof. He’s sitting in some kind of twisty yoga pose, eyes closed, sunning himself like a contented cat.

 Bucky opens one eye as Steve approaches, and blinks lazily at him.  “Morning.”

 “Morning.”  Steve sits down next to Bucky and takes in the view. He also looks at the city.

 “It’s not time for our meeting yet, is it?”

 “Nope.”

 Bucky untangles his legs and stretches out, shifting to rest his head on Steve’s lap.  Steve strokes his fingers through Bucky’s hair, and Bucky moans softly.

 “Hey, you okay?”

 Bucky shrugs. “Headache.  But that feels good.”

 “Okay.”  Steve doesn’t push, just keeps winding his fingers through Bucky’s hair and rubbing his scalp.  Bucky’s been doing so well lately, he’s allowed to have a down day.  Or maybe it really is a headache.  The serum doesn’t cure everything, at least not right away.

 They sit there in comfortable silence until Steve’s phone pings with a reminder, and they have to go to work.

 *****

 Bucky’s up early, again. Although, to be fair, he never really fell asleep.  It’s been this way for days, now, and it’s wearing on him.  He doesn’t think Steve has noticed – he stays in bed until Steve’s breathing evens out, and then puts in another hour or two lying next to him before he gives up and goes into the living room - but it’s getting ridiculous.

 He thought Steve might have been getting suspicious when he found him napping on the couch yesterday afternoon, but Steve just grinned at him and made him shove over, wrapping his strong arms around him and dozing off himself.  But sleeping during most of the daylight hours isn’t really constructive, and sooner or later someone’s going to notice and start talking about therapy again.

 The frustrating thing is, Bucky feels good.  He’s in a better place mentally than he has been in oh, what, seventy years or so. But Steve won’t buy that, not when he finds out Bucky isn’t sleeping right.

 Bucky decides to take a walk, pulling on a light jacket and going down to the street.  There’s a bakery nearby that should be open already, and he and Steve both love their fresh bagels.  The morning is overcast, and Bucky hisses in displeasure as raindrops start to fall the moment he leaves the store.  His jacket doesn’t have a hood, so he’s left hunching his shoulders and dashing as fast as he can back to the apartment.

 Steve is awake when Bucky gets home, but the bagels distract him from the fact that it’s barely 6 a.m. That and a text from Coulson Bucky apparently missed during his attempt to run between the raindrops.

 At least this mission doesn’t involve a rainforest in South America.  Instead they’re headed to somewhere in rural Maine.  It’s just going to be Steve and Bucky, following up a lead on a former intelligence officer who may or may not have gone over to Hydra.  

 “Can’t they send a junior guy to cover this kind of thing?”  Bucky asks, swiping through the information Coulson sent them.  

 “I guess if he is Hydra, he could be pretty dangerous,” Steve replies, although the look on his face says he agrees with Bucky.

 “But what’s he doing in Maine?”

 “Reenacting a Stephen King novel?”

 Bucky and Steve had gotten hooked on King’s books, first The Dead Zone, and then The Shining and The Stand. Bucky started reading 11/22/63, but put it down after just a few chapters.  While the Winter Solider didn’t have anything to do with Kennedy’s death, a book about political assassinations just didn’t hold the same escapist value for him compared with King’s more straightforward horror stories.

 Steve frowns at Bucky’s comment, and takes another bagel out of the bag.  “I’d like those stories to stay fictional, actually.”

 “Like Hydra doesn’t do stuff far worse than Stephen King dreamed up,” Bucky retorts.  He immediately regrets his words, though, as Steve’s face falls.

 “Buck, I’m sorry, you’re right-”

 “Shut up, it’s fine.” Bucky stands up and walks into their living room, stretching his shoulders.  He doesn’t want to fight with Steve, especially not when he’s feeling so dopey.  Right now, all he wants to do is collapse on the couch.  Which gives him an idea.

 “Hey, whaddya say we watch one of those Stephen King movies?  You know, in preparation for the mission?”

 Steve takes Bucky’s suggestion at face value and they quickly do some google research to find out which of his movies is most realistically set in Maine.  Turns out lots of them are.

 They’re barely twenty minutes into Cujo when Bucky falls asleep, his head resting heavily against Steve’s broad shoulder.

 When Bucky wakes up, he’s curled up with his head on Steve’s lap, a fleece throw blanket over his body. The credits are rolling – and they’re not the credits from Cujo, they’re from the second King movie they selected. Bucky’s been asleep for more than four hours.

 Steve waits until Bucky sits up, but then he takes Bucky’s hand and squeezes it.

 “Tell me what’s wrong,” Steve says, soft but urgent.  “Please.”

 Steve may be easy-going, but he’s not oblivious.  

 Bucky bites his lip and shakes his head.  “Nothing.”

 “Bucky,” Steve pleads.

 “No, I mean it. Nothing’s really wrong.  I’m just not sleeping well.”

 But even as the words leave his mouth, Bucky knows he’s lying.  Because something is wrong.  He might have been fooling himself up until now, but suddenly he’s certain, deep in his bones, that something is wrong.

 Steve’s not buying it, either.  “I’ll call Coulson and tell him we’re not going tonight.  ‘Tasha and Clint can do it.”

 “Clint’s in Arizona, with Fury.  And Tony, and Natasha.”

 “Well, you can’t go.”

 “I can, Steve.  I don’t need that much sleep – you of all people should know.”

 Bucky sees Steve consider this.  It’s true, neither of them need more than a few hours of rest, and can easily get by on none at all for a day or two.  It doesn’t explain why Bucky is so goddamned sleepy during the day, but there is no scenario that includes Bucky letting Steve go after this Hydra goon by himself. If it takes a little misdirection to get his way, so be it.

 “Fine.  But you’re going back to sleep when we get to the plane.”

 “Fine.”

 ******

Steve lands the quinjet in a field not far from the ramshackle house the target is staying in, and they jog quickly into place.  Bucky positions himself on the top of a nearby barn and watches through his rifle scope, even though Steve protests that guns aren’t necessary for the mission; they’re just there to watch and observe.  Better safe than sorry, Steve, have you learned nothing yet?

 Steve edges slowly up to the house, places listening devices by several of the windows, then withdraws to the shelter of a tree.  His hair glints silver in the moonlight, and Bucky frowns – he might as well be shining a spotlight on his head, the idiot.

 Bucky stares out into the night as the hours pass.  Much to his surprise, far from being sleepy, he feels as if all his senses are heightened.

 When a man comes down off the porch and starts walking towards Steve’s location, Bucky feels a familiar calm settle over him.  It’s their target, no question.  The man is walking strangely, his arms held out just a little bit from his body. Bucky focuses on the shape of his coat, noting the bulge around his midsection.  The man pauses, moves to touch one hand to his opposite wrist, but he never reaches it – because Bucky fires, two quick shots, and the man is lying on the ground.

 “Bucky!  What the hell!”  Steve is yelling through comm and sprinting over to the man.  “You weren’t supposed to shoot him, we need to follow him, he wasn’t supposed to know we were here-“

 Bucky speeds past Steve and reaches the man first, quickly pulling a band off his wrist.  The man is motionless on the ground, and Steve stares at what he sees when he unzips his heavy coat.  “Bucky… he was wearing a bomb.”  Steve’s voice is quiet.

 “Yeah, I know.”  

 “You – you knew?” Steve looks at the device in Bucky’s hand.  “Where was that?”

 “On his wrist.”  If he had touched it, he would have set off the bomb – which from the looks of it would have blown Steve, Bucky, and everything in a ten mile radius to smithereens.

 “How the hell did you see that thing on his wrist?”  

 Steve’s right to ask, Bucky realizes.  Now that he sees it up close, the band is just a slim thing, narrower than a man’s watch. And the bomb, while deadly, didn’t really take up much space under the target’s jacket.

 The question goes unanswered as they contact Coulson and wait until someone comes to retrieve the body. But when they’re back in the jet, Steve turns to Bucky with a nervous expression on his face.

 “Tell me you agree – I know you’re a great shot, one of the best, always have been – but that was extraordinary, even for you.”

 “Yeah, Steve.   Yeah. It was.”  Bucky presses his lips together.   He saw the detonator on the guy’s wrist – and he saw the bomb under his jacket.  From an impossible distance.  In the dark.

 “I can’t explain it,” Bucky goes on.  “But… it’s a good thing, right?”

 Steve looks away, fixing his eyes on the instruments as the plane lifts off.  “Yeah, of course.  Sure. You’re right.”  

 They don’t talk about it again, not on the rest of the ride home, not in the car from the Tower back to their apartment, and not when they tiredly tug off their clothes and pull on pajamas.  They don’t talk at all.  It’s almost as bad as the terrible sense of wrongness that has taken root inside him.

 The sun is coming up by the time they fall into bed together, too shaken to do anything but hold each other tight.  Bucky’s grateful that it’s morning.  At least he can go to sleep for a few hours.

 *****

Steve wakes to Bucky’s mouth on his, and his hand sliding under the waistband of his sleep pants.

 “Bucky?”

 “Steve, god, you’re gorgeous,” Bucky murmurs, nibbling at Steve’s jaw and then back up to his lips. “Wanna blow you.  Can I blow you?”

 Steve’s still half-asleep, but his body isn’t, and he quickly gets with the program.  Steve groans as Bucky slides down his chest and takes him in his mouth, bringing him to full hardness within moments.  There are things they should be talking about, he knows, but it’s been days since they’ve done this, and it can’t hurt to have a little fun first, right?

 Bucky pops off with a slurp and grins up at Steve, who apparently has been babbling his thoughts out loud.  “Definitely can’t hurt to have a little fun first.  Although…”  Bucky licks a stripe up Steve and swirls his tongue around the tip, “you should give yourself a break.  It’s really not little.”

 Bucky sucks him down again, and Steve can’t take his eyes off of him, his brown hair falling around his face and over Steve’s body, the muscles in his flesh arm clenching and releasing as his hands roam over Steve’s overheated skin.

 Bucky comes up for breath, letting his hands slide up Steve’s chest, stroking and caressing his pecs. He braces himself on one hand and rolls a nipple with the fingers of the other, just the way Steve likes it, until Steve feels a sharp pain and draws back in surprise.

 “Steve?”

 “Fuck, that really hurt.”

 Bucky looks panicked for a moment, looking down at his metal hand, but it’s flat on the bed beside Steve, not in any danger of hurting him.  “Steve?  What’d I do?”

 Steve’s clutching his chest, and when he moves his hand to look, he sees three long scratches from his collarbone down to his nipple, blood welling out of the deepest one.

 “Steve?”  Bucky’s voice is high and breathy, and Steve struggles to calm himself down before Bucky loses it.  

 “Hey, I’m okay, I’m okay.” Steve reaches down and pulls Bucky up towards him, ignoring the sting in his chest.

 But Bucky isn’t calming down, and he pulls away from Steve, scrambling off the bed.  “What’d I do?”  he repeats, looking around the room as it there’s a clue hidden in yesterday’s discarded clothes.

 “Bucky,” Steve says again, lacing his voice with authority.  “Bucky, you just scratched me.  It’s not a big deal.  Come here, let me see your hand.”

 Steve meets him at the foot of the bed, and makes him sit down next to him.  Bucky holds out his flesh hand, and they both freeze for a moment, looking at it.  His fingernails are long.  Really long, like Pepper’s when she’s dressed up for a charity ball.  And pointy.

 Bucky tries to pull his hand away, but Steve holds it tight.  He can feel Bucky trembling.  

 “Maybe it’s the serum,” Bucky says finally.

 They both know this makes no sense – it’s never made his nails grow long overnight before.  

 “We need to tell someone.”

 Bucky shakes his head. “No.”

 “Really? You want to wait to see what other weird shit happens?  Think this through, Bucky.”

 Bucky stands up, pulling away from Steve.  He’s regained his composure, at least on the surface.  In some ways, this isn’t going to help – stubborn Bucky is a lot harder to convince than panicking Bucky.  And neither one of them likes going to the doctor.

 “I’m going for a walk. Need some air.”

 Bucky stalks out of their bedroom, only to return a moment later to yank some clothes out of his drawers.

 Steve sits on the edge of the bed, taking deep breaths, and trying not to think about how much the stupid scratches on his chest hurt.  He can wait Bucky out.  He’s done it before.  

 And Steve’s not about to go behind Bucky’s back to Coulson or anyone else.  It has to be Bucky’s decision, to get help from someone more qualified than Steve.  Whatever else Steve thinks about this situation, that much is crystal clear.

 *****

 Bucky’s nearly ten blocks away from their apartment when he finally slows down.  He has no fucking idea what’s going on with him, but whatever it is, it’s changing him.  And he hurt Steve.  That’s unacceptable.

 He turns off into an alley, slides down on the ground and buries his head in his hands.  Two crap hands, now – a metal hand he still doesn’t trust, no matter how fancy Stark made it, and his one remaining flesh hand, now trimmed with deadly talons.  They’re both covered in black gloves at the moment, the ones he puts on to hide his metal hand, and he can feel the pointy nails of his right hand stretching the leather of the glove.

 Bucky knows he ought to tell someone.  But he doesn’t want to.  With every fiber of his being, he really, really doesn’t want to.  He doesn’t want to get poked and prodded and experimented on. He’s not about to go into cryo and give up his agency altogether – that was a horrible idea, as it turned out, and he’s never doing it again.  He could run – get away, somewhere where he can’t hurt Steve.  But he’s tried to keep Steve safe by staying away from him before, and Steve isn’t very good at letting him go.

 He sits there for a while, until his butt gets sore and he realizes that he’s so hungry he’s considering picking up the crumpled McDonald’s bag on the ground a few feet away and seeing if anything is left inside.  Time to face the music, he thinks, and gets up off the ground.

 When he gets back to the apartment, after a quick stop along the way, Steve is sitting in the kitchen . He’s got on a t-shirt with a flannel over it, and Bucky can’t help but wonder if he’s bothered to clean the scratches, or is just relying on the serum to heal them properly.  Steve points to the cup of coffee he’s got in front of him. “Want some?”  Bucky nods as he puts the bag of groceries down on the counter.

 “What’d you get?” Steve asks.

 “Nothing much. Chicken and mashed potatoes from the deli.”

 Steve helps him plate it and they sit down together at the little table.  Bucky bought two servings for each of them, and it only takes minutes until they’re mostly finished.  Bucky gnaws at a drumstick while Steve refills their coffee mugs.

 “I know you’re scared, Buck,” Steve says.  “What can I do to help?”

 Bucky looks at Steve, so earnest and sincere.  “You’re not going to make me tell someone?”

 Steve fixes his eyes on Bucky.  “I’m never going to make you do anything.”

 “I’m… I’m not ready yet,” he says, hating the way his voice is shaking.  “I need a few days to…” To what? he wonders.  To be free, even if it’s just for a few more days?

 “Whatever you need, Bucky.”

 “Just… stick around, you know?  In case I get worse?”

 Steve nods solemnly. “There’s not a damn thing in this world that could take me away from you.  Not now, not ever.  We’re gonna get through this.”

 Steve is well known for his stubborn streak, and his optimistic belief that he can conquer any foe. But when it comes to Bucky, well, he tends to come out on top more often than not.  So Bucky will pin his hopes on this, on the word of Steve Rogers, and let the chips fall where they may.

 ******

They fall asleep in front of the television, after Bucky silently cuts his fingernails and files them until there’s no white left at all.  Steve wakes with a start to the sound of their front door closing.  He’s on his feet in an instant, alert for any sign of an intruder, but there’s no one there.  Not even Bucky.

 He makes a quick sweep of the apartment.  Bucky’s favorite leather jacket is still hanging in the hallway, his leather gloves tucked into the pockets.  He counts the guns he finds, and the knives, and lets out a long breath when nothing seems to be missing.

 Remembering the morning on the Tower when he found Bucky looking out over the city, Steve slips on his shoes and goes up to the roof of their building.  The light of the full moon makes it easy enough to see that Bucky isn’t there, either.  

 Steve doesn’t want to believe that he’s gone, not for long, anyway.  Bucky had said he wasn’t ready to tell anyone, that he needed some time, and that’s probably what this is about.

 But he asked me to stick around, Steve thinks.  He wanted me near him, in case something went wrong.  So why would he run away?  

 Steve wishes he could call Natasha, or even Tony, and get some advice.  Better yet, get some backup, someone to keep an eye on Bucky, at least let him know where he is, if he’s okay.  But he just told Bucky he wasn’t going to make him do anything, and he wasn’t going to bring anyone else into this.  Telling the Avengers that Bucky has gone AWOL, even if he doesn’t mention the weird changes in Bucky, would clearly be a betrayal of that promise.

 Steve sits back down in front of the television, mindlessly switching channels.  He watches a crime procedural for a while, wincing at the predictable stories.  Amazingly, one of the plotlines involves a family whose son has gone missing, but the police won’t let them file a missing persons report until twenty-four hours has gone by.  Bullshit, Steve thinks.  The worst stuff happens right away.  Waiting twenty-four hours will only increase the chances of something terrible happening to your loved one.  And yet that’s what Steve is doing, too.  Waiting.

 *****

Bucky stumbles back into the apartment in the wee hours of the morning.  He’s disoriented, and finds himself in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet seat with his head in his hands.

 He remembers feeling an irresistible need to be outside, and then the urge to run.  But now he’s back home.  His whole body aches, like he’s been in a fight, but he doesn’t remember fighting.

 Bucky gets to his feet and finds some painkillers in a drawer.  He swallows a handful down dry and turns to leave the bathroom when he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror.  He leans closer, and sticks a metal finger in his mouth, pulling his lips aside to see his teeth.

 Holy mother of god. He’s got fangs.  

 Bucky staggers backwards and bumps into a shelf, sending shampoo bottles crashing to the floor.

 “Buck? Everything  okay in there?”  

 No, nope, no, definitely not okay in here, Bucky thinks, but he can’t seem to form any words.

 “Bucky?”  Steve sticks his head into the bathroom, face radiating concern.  Bucky hadn’t even closed the door behind him.  “I heard you come in.”

 Bucky can see Steve struggling not to ask him where he’s been.  Damn it, he didn’t mean to run out on him.  What the hell is going on?

 Steve apparently wins his internal battle, and refrains from chastising Bucky even a little, opting instead for a heartfelt, “You all right, Buck?”

 “Yeah, I’m all right.” Bucky grabs the bottles off the floor and puts them back on the shelf, avoiding Steve’s eyes.  “Just needed some air.  Sorry to worry you.”  He tries to keep his mouth closed as much as possible as he speaks.  He thinks he might hyperventilate, though, and that would give him away for sure.

 Steve’s face softens, and he steps closer, setting a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.  It grounds him, just a little, and he focuses on his breathing.

 “It’s okay,” Steve says softly.  “I’m just glad you’re back.”

 “Me too,” Bucky says. He doesn’t miss the confused look that passes over Steve’s face.  He wants to cling to Steve, bury his face against his warm skin and let the world go away, but he’s all too conscious of the freakishly sharp teeth in his mouth and he can’t relax.   “Think I’m gonna shower.”

 Steve backs up a step, always so considerate when Bucky asks for space, even though part of Bucky wishes that for once he’d push back.  

 “Okay, sure,” Steve says, flicking his eyes up and down Bucky’s body, as if reassuring himself that he’s all in one piece, whether or not he’s truly okay.  “I’ll, um, I’ll go for a run.”

 ******

Steve pounds the pavement so hard it’s a miracle he doesn’t leave cracks in the sidewalk.  He knows recovery isn’t linear, knows from his own experience that even when he thinks he’s doing fine, he can have a down day or three for no reason at all.  But he doesn’t think that’s what’s going on with Bucky.  It’s not a Winter Solider thing, it’s something new, something more that happened to him, and it’s getting worse.

 Yesterday Steve thought that at least Bucky was opening up to him about it.  Neither one of them seemed to have a clue what was wrong, but at least they were on the same page in their cluelessness.  But none of it explained Bucky’s disappearance last night, and the terrified look on his face when Steve found him in the bathroom this morning.

 Bucky has that look on his face sometimes when he wakes up from a nightmare.  Although they’ve been getting less frequent, it still breaks Steve’s heart every time.  But each time Bucky has let Steve hold him, seeming to find comfort in his arms.  He doesn’t pull away, not like this morning.

 Steve cuts his run short, suddenly certain that whatever is going on, Steve doesn’t want to leave him alone.  That’s what Bucky asked for, yesterday, before he disappeared – for Steve to stick around.  

 When he gets back to the apartment Bucky is curled up on the sofa with a book.

 “Hey, babe.”  Steve crosses swiftly to him and presses a quick kiss to his lips.

 Bucky startles. “Hey.”  There’s a wan smile on his face, and Steve supposes it’s progress. “You stink.”

 Steve grins.  “Sorry not sorry.”  He leans down again and tries for another kiss, but Bucky turns his head to the side, digging his face into Steve’s neck.

 “Guess I can live with it,” Bucky mumbles into his skin, his arms coming up to hold Steve tight, his hands bunching in Steve’s t-shirt.

 “I was gonna take a shower, but I can stay…” Steve says, trying to gauge Bucky’s reaction.

 “Nah, I’m okay.  Go get clean.”  Bucky lets him go, his eyes flickering up to Steve’s for a moment before he turns back to his book.  

 Steve rushes through his shower and is soon joining Bucky on the couch.  Bucky doesn’t say anything, just shifts around until he’s curled up, head in Steve’s lap, eyes quickly drifting closed.  Steve strokes his head and Bucky hums in appreciation.  This position seems to be a favorite of Bucky’s lately.  Not that Steve minds, but it’s different.  And difference is not a welcome visitor, not when it seems to be imposing itself on Bucky without his consent.

 Bucky sleeps nearly all day. Steve orders pizza for them, but Bucky just picks at it, eating all the pepperoni and sausage and leaving most of the rest.

 “You could have said, if you didn’t want pizza,” Steve says.  Bucky usually isn’t quiet about his desires, not when it comes to food (or sex, for that matter).

 “What?”  Bucky looks down at his plate, as if seeing it for the first time.  “Oh. Sorry.”

 “You don’t have to be sorry, dummy.  You want something else?”  Steve opens the refrigerator.  “Roast beef sandwich?”

 “Nah, it’s okay.” Bucky retreats back to the couch, leaving Steve to put away the leftovers.  Steve  busies himself for a few minutes emptying the dishwasher and going over what he wants to say to Bucky.  He’s hoping to get him to agree to talk to someone about this tomorrow.  He thinks they should start with Coulson – it’s relevant to their job, frankly, and Bucky probably needs to be evaluated before he can go out on any more missions.  If Coulson wants to handle it differently, well, they can discuss it.

 But when he returns to the living room, Bucky is fast asleep, and Steve can’t bring himself to wake him.  Maybe it’s just a virus, or some form of the flu, and all this sleep is his body’s way of fighting it off.  Sleep is good.  He’s not going to argue with sleep.

 But he’s not going to let Bucky sneak out on him again, either.  

 This time when Steve joins Bucky on the couch, and lets him curl up against him, Steve doesn’t go to sleep. And when Bucky wakes up and slips out of the apartment, Steve is close behind.

 In the light of the full moon it’s not hard to keep an eye on him, at least for the first few blocks. But then Bucky turns into an alley and by the time Steve gets there, there’s no sign of him.  Fire escapes on either side provide possible options as to where he’s gone, but Steve spends hours looking, with no luck.

 He traces the path they often take when they run together, and adds a few detours, finally ending up down by the docks.  It’s even emptier here than usual, no shifty looking characters staking out their territory. It strikes Steve as odd, but no more odd than everything else that’s been going on.

 There’s an abandoned warehouse several blocks in, and when Steve sees a broken window that hasn’t yet been blocked up, he thinks he may have a lead – that, or he’s found the drug dealers newest favorite hiding spot.

 He breaks a bit more glass out of the window and carefully steps inside.  The first room he comes to is empty, but in the second, there’s a lump under a blanket on the floor that could definitely be a person.  Steve’s heart beats hard against his chest.  Oh, Bucky, what are you doing here?

 Steve walks quietly over and crouches down, but then he freezes, one hand in the air on its way towards Bucky’s head.  Because it’s Bucky’s face, but… different.  His dark hair now extends down his neck and over his shoulders, and his ears are pointy and covered in a light coating of dark fur.  Bucky’s flesh hand is clutching the edge of the blanket, up under his chin, and it’s got dark fur on it, too.  And those sharp nails.

 Steve has a sudden flashback to finding Bucky in Zola’s Hydra lab, a horrible chorus of <i>no no no this can’t be happening to Bucky</i> running through his head. But Bucky seems to be sleeping peacefully, curled up tight under this ratty blanket.  He doesn’t seem to be in any pain.  

 As Steve watches, a long tail flicks out from under the blanket, waves back and forth a few times, and then drifts down over Bucky’s body.

 It’s surreal, and Steve can’t quite believe it.  But then in the past few years he’s fought with a giant green rage monster, and a god with a mighty hammer, and a man who can shrink himself down to the size of an ant. Not to mention T’Challa, who might have something interesting to say about Bucky’s current situation.  

 Steve may be a man out of time, but he’s never been short on brains.  If he’s willing to suspend disbelief, it’s clear what has happened to Bucky.  He’s a werecat.  Werepanther. Leopard?  Something big, and strong, and definitely feline.  Huh.

 Steve lies down on the cold floor next to his friend, his lover, and lets his mind process this information.  He doesn’t flinch when Bucky shifts closer to him, as if instinctively seeking his warmth. Bucky’s ears twitch, and then he settles, nuzzling against Steve’s chest.  He’s still Bucky.  And Steve is still Steve.  He’s not going anywhere.

Read the rest on A03.

[10yrsyart]

aaaaa love the new update to D&D - and you always work in such lovely little easter eggs/details -I love the demon making the upside-down-sign-of-the-cross in the bg when Aziraphale calls, and AJ slowly realizing with maths who lives in the flat.

thanks guys! glad you enjoyed the newest bit ^-^

perfect! adds to the Zira hand cookie headcanon :y

aaw that’s very nice to hear, thankyou uvu they’re just my own hands haha they are ready to be held 

thankyou! :) my Book boys decided they’re married sometime soon after the Apocalypse. it’s on my To Draw list!

aah thankyou so much! ^//^ i really enjoy putting little gags in like that, i’m always extremely pleased when everyone catches them.

i’ve had this in my inbox for a while now cause i don’t know what to make of it. but it still makes me laugh, so thankyou XDD

[enelica]

So Crowley, when you change into a snake, do you became a smaller/younger snake, too?

Yessss

[themculibrary]

Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier Masterlist 2

part one

Abstraction (ao3) - EliotRosewater T, 112k

Summary: Bucky Barnes wasn't the only thing from the past that had been resurrected.

By Any Other Name (ao3) - Argenteus_Draco bucky/natasha T, 14k

Summary: “Steve," Sam says, "that doesn’t explain anything. Who else is is part of ‘they?’ Why would you send Barnes anywhere that isn’t serious psychological counseling? And why, for the love of God, does fondu make you giggle like a schoolgirl?”

In which Bucky reconciles with his past, Steve reconciles with his friends, and Natasha reconciles with herself. Bonus appearances by Sam Wilson and Tony Stark who, surprising no one, is the functional one.

can salt taint sea-flowers, grief, happiness? (ao3) - stellahibernis steve/bucky M, 18k

Summary: “But you’re my friend.”

Steve blinked, his lips twisting, and Bucky was sure he understood all too well, could see everything that was going on in his head with more clarity than Bucky really wanted to. Yet, the question Steve asked still felt like being punched.

“Am I really?”

When Bucky realized he’d need help after escaping from Hydra after the helicarriers fell, he returned to New York. The Avengers helped him get better, and he was doing well enough, but there were still things that were difficult, among them his relationship with Steve.

There were things he felt he had to hide, and he tried to keep them from interfering, but they only ended up driving a wedge into their relationship, and what was worse, he didn’t realize how bad it was until Steve was already leaving, getting on his bike and heading out to find his own peace.

Damaged (ao3) - AraniaDraws (AraniaArt), witchwood_hull steve/bucky T, 25k

Summary: Steve Rogers meets a dog, foils Project Insight, finds a friend, takes a break, and discovers an answer to a very important question.

Bucky Barnes meets a dog, fails a mission, gains his freedom, explores a city, does his job, and regains the joy of being human.

Fragments (ao3) - The_Heart_of_Leo T, 1k

Summary: All Steve wants is for Bucky to remember. All Bucky wants is to not forget.

i can feel the cold changing us inside (ao3) - tesselated steve/bucky M, 24k

Summary: Months later, when he’s sitting on the bench in the park in Washington D.C. he knows Steve Rogers jogs in, when Steve stops dead in his tracks looking like he saw a ghost (and really, he did), the first words out of his mouth are, “Have you been to Brooklyn lately?”

++

a post-tws bucky recovery fic

I Found You (ao3) - AWriting bucky/clint, steve/sam, pepper/tony M, 15k

Summary: Bucky always knew Steve would catch up with him eventually. He just assumed it wouldn't be for quite a while. To his surprise, it's not even Steve who finds him first.

i'm going to leave you shivering (ao3) - buries steve/natasha E, 5k

Summary: While on mission to find the Winter Soldier, Steve and Natasha hide out in one of Fury’s safe houses in the middle of nowhere. When the snow settles in and their heat goes out, they have to rely on one another to keep each other warm.

Memories From My Heart (ao3) - christywantspizza steve/bucky G, 3k

Summary: A year after pulling Steve from the Potomac River and letting himself be convinced to stay in the The Avengers Tower with him, Bucky still hasn't remembered the true nature of the relationship he and Steve used to have. Steve, being true to himself, prefers to give Bucky space and decided that telling him they used to date would complicate things, so it's up to Natasha to fix the situation and give them a nudge in the right direction.

Moose (ao3) - GalaxyThreads G, 8k

Summary: OR: How Bucky getting a therapy dog accidentally causes Loki and Bucky to become friends. (Post-Winter Soilder AU) (gen)

see the stars again (ao3) - radiantbeams steve/bucky, past steve/peggy N/R, 22k

Summary: Bucky stared at the smoke coming off of his cigarette. He sighed, hanging his head and pressing the heel of his hand into his eye. “I’m so lost, Steve.”

Steve took a risk and reached out to grip the sleeve of Bucky’s jacket. He leaned forward, holding on tightly to Bucky’s shoulder and pressed their foreheads together. He breathed out shakily and tried to keep his voice steady.

“I’ve got you, Buck-- I’ve found you.”

--

Everyone’s always searching for something; it’s knowing when you’ve found it that’s the hard part.

Scream 'Til the World Has Gone Deaf (ao3) - Kilameia T, 2k

Summary: Steve’s memory is perfect. Sometimes it’s more of a curse than a blessing. Sometimes memories play out in front of him. Sometimes nightmares do instead.

With HYDRA in the process of being burned to the ground, Natasha is learning that Steve Rogers is more human than Captain America ever was.

Seventeen (ao3) - Face_of_Poe G, 2k

Summary: Sam Wilson is very happy chasing cold leads on their missing person's case; said missing person is less keen on the matter.

Social Distancing (ao3) - DementedPixie steve/bucky G, 10k

Summary: After the events of The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers enlists the help of his friends to find Bucky and to offer him a home.

there's a bear in the woods (ao3) - itsnotbleak steve/bucky M, 64k

Summary: James is not Bucky Barnes. He’s not the Winter Soldier either. He’s a blank slate. A whole new person. He knows he can shoot pretty straight and he doesn’t like green jello; he knows he thinks Harry Potter is stupid and he thinks he might be able to speak Mandarin. Beyond that he’s a mystery. He doesn’t know himself, and he sure as fuck doesn’t know Steve Rogers.

Here’s the thing: James hasn’t been entirely truthful.

In which James Buchanan Barnes, whoever the hell he is, is just trying to get on with paying off his debt to society, and he doesn’t need Captain America following him around like a lost puppy. Meanwhile, Steve’s overjoyed to have his best friend back, honest, whether he remembers him or not, Tony thinks he’s probably going to murder them all, and Natasha thinks it can’t hurt to be prepared. Sam would just like them to get some therapy. Oh, and Hydra’s up to no good in Brighton Beach.

we create our own demons (ao3) - andibeth82 clint/natasha T, 20k

Summary: She reminds him of a fire burning angrily through ravaged villages, of a wolf on the run and a light in the darkness. She reminds him of anger and fear, of death and salvation all at once. She reminds him of Natasha, and, Clint realizes a few seconds later, that’s because she is.

[Post Winter Soldier, Clint and Natasha attempt to rebuild their lives without S.H.I.E.L.D. Meanwhile, Hydra has perfected Extremis and is using it to hone its deadliest weapon yet – clones of the Red Room’s greatest assassin, Natalia Romanova.]

[portraitoftheoddity]

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away...

Commission for @araniaart for her Demon!Bucky AU!

[tasteslikekeys]

My half of an art trade with @araniaart!! I had all too much fun designing my take on Demon!Bucky from her epic and ongoing Falling’s Just Another Way to Fly series. GO READ IT.

 I’ll be here trying to reign in my now very loud urge to draw gobs of Gargoyles fanart...