#I think the important things are all here? also there's considerable rambling and I cannot write an entirely Serious post to save my life
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Iâll just make a list or Iâll never get this done, but this is about divergences in how I write lorâthemar. I am canon based (but as always also very reliant on my own headcanons to expand stuff and fill in blanks) up to Legion.Â
he was friends with sylvanas once upon a time, but to make a call back to that after it has literally been ignored most of the time is lazy and the way itâs done just makes it seems like he didnât care. his relationship with her is complicated, both because of what it was in life and because of their interactions after she died, with lorâthemar not being able to trust her and the other dark rangers in silvermoon and sylvanas extending a hand then wanting more of his people to die on a battle they werenât ready to fight. I donât think thereâs been trust from either side for a long time, but sylvanas is his oldest ally amidst the other leaders, in spite of how sketchy an ally she is.
honor, as a concept, is not in his top five priorities probably. honor helped them very little in fighting arthas, or dealing with kaelâthas, or restoring their kingdom, and while lorâthemar understands its value, he doesnât place it above the well being of his people (see also: would switch factions in the blink of an eye if it guaranteed itâd best for the sinâdorei).Â
he does have limits though, and burning teldrassil, murdering most kaldorei and making them undead afterwards just hits too close for comfort
like, deceiving the kaldorei so teldrassil would have a smaller defense force, then marching on it and taking it for the horde? sure. thatâs all fine and good. but blowing up the entire thing and killing everyone and making the ones left undead is just. Too Much.
with all of that what I mean to say is: from that moment he has 0 allegiance to sylvanas. he doesnât like night elves but what sheâs doing would bother him enough I canât see him not confronting her about it. it was different with garrosh, who he not only didnât know on a personal level and had no ties to, but who he knew enough to be wary of from the start (and to know voicing his issues to would only make things worse). he knew sylvanas, he has some tie to her still, and even if he didnât, thereâd be the emotional reaction of seeing someone who was dear to him and who he chooses to remember fondly for what she was in life suddenly appear to be following on the footsteps of the very monster she gave her life to fight.
how sheâd deal with it is ofc up to sylvanas. for the most part, it doesnât change things heavily because in spite of that lorâthemar wouldnât withdraw from the horde. he has negative levels of trust in humans, thinks the alliance is in fact rather stupid to be following a child and is very aware that between the kaldorei and jaina there wouldnât be much of a welcome to his people either.Â
thatâs all to establish this is the important thing when he switches sides. couldnât give a single fuck about sylvanas raising humans against their will, sheâs been doing that for a while.
still! given he voices his opposition at the beginning, wouldnât it make a lot of sense sylv sends him to nazjatar, given she was sending people to die? so yeah! sends him on the boat with nathanos to fight the alliance
he ends up in nazjatar, as he canonically does. ends up leading the horde forces there when nathanos fucks off to do his thing. gets to befriend thalyssra somewhat while there.Â
lorâthemarâs decision to work with the alliance is one he does solely out of need. he wonât ever be truly friendly to jaina until sheâs at least been held accountable for murdering his people in dalaran. walking away is a fine lesson and all ty taran zhu, but itâs not fair to his people that he let it go while jaina faced no consequences whatsoever.Â
on that note, vereesa can choke heâs never making amends with her ever
windrunners stop fucking things up challenge
anyways! back to bfa! he respects baine, but his imprisonment is really just the last drop, not what prompts switching sides on its own.Â
I just think itâs more fitting with him, as a character, to make this less about the horde and honor, given those are not the things that drive him as a character or even a leader.
ultimately it does lead him to the same realization that they canât fight azshara and nâzoth or whatever while also still fighting the alliance, a goddamn lot of people already died in this war and keep it going will only make things worse, but sylv doesnât care and is sending them to die and imprisoning those who oppose her so itâs time to switch sides ig
I know in canon heâs all like âI had hoped my old friend would see reasonâ while talking to the PC but I think itâs also important to note that I donât write lorâthemar as being genuinely open towards anyone he doesnât have some degree of trust towards. his feelings are private (and he often pushes them to second place when it comes to how he feels vs what must be done or just his job so). itâs not something he would speak of in general tbh unless prompted to, and even then itâd be more âI had hoped sheâd never go that farâ more so than âhoped sheâd see reasonâ
he really doesnât feel guilty for saurfang dying idk what that was about
I maintain heâd very much be like âwill you be warchief again, thrall?â as soon as that was being discussed, because he wonât be warchief thanks but no thanks
is ok with signing the truce. keeping the war going is of no benefit to quelâthalas or the horde so
rip talanji but sometimes it be like that
he is very on board with the council idea. the sinâdorei have already suffered plenty under shitty warchiefs and the idea of a council making decisions instead is a big improvement on his opinion
thalyssra is a tentative friend at most. lorâthemar doesnât trust people easily to be quick in considering anyone friends fast. back in legion, he did not interact with her, liadrin did --- his friendship with her only begun after legion/early bfa, and while he does see her in a friendly manner, thatâs it tbh
so like, I do not write him being in a relationship with her as canon has it
a moment in verse never happened
during what would be the shadows rising timeline heâd be very concerned with finding out what sylvanas is up to because she could be a threat to all of them and they have 0 clue what is her goal.Â
anything that happens in the book in regards to him specifically, too, I do not follow. he wouldnât be the one to suggest open negotiations with kulâtiras (did I mention jaina never faced any consequences for what she did and thatâs unfair to his people)
heâd take a very personal interest in the council to guarantee the best for the blood elves always.Â
the only way I can accept shawâs spies catch him writing something like âMy dusk lily bends more each day toward the sun.â is if he was aware he was being spied on and did that purposefully to give the alliance useless information tbh (and had a moment of lol what if I write some shitty poetry and make them think thatâs how I spend my time)
other than that yeah no heâd not do that unironicallyÂ
lorâthemar can be very diplomatic if he wishes to be, and heâs not prone to being open with his thoughts/emotions when heâs acting as regent lord, and by extension as a member of the council. he can also be a bitch when he doesnât think diplomacy is necessary.Â
heâs learned a lot being part of the horde, and definitely grew with it too. he certainly is a much more tolerant person he was in the past, and has come to see many of the other races in a different way than he used to. I do think he doesnât want to leave the horde as he may have once, but his loyalty will always be first and foremost to the sinâdorei. his morals are not orc or tauren morals, and like, when it comes to do the honorable thing or what benefits his people, heâll do what benefits his people. what I mean with all of this is: donât expect my lorâthemar to be crying about saurfang and yelling honor and holding hands with jaina kasndfkjsdfn
he also doesnât look 5 thousands years old. let lorâthemar be pretty like he deserves to be.
#* muse: lor'themar theron / SUNGUIDED.#* general: headcanons / WHO TELLS YOUR STORY?#* character study: lor'themar theron / THE SURVIVINGâ THE HEALINGâ THE REBUILDING.#it's purposefully close to canon to fit with things that happen and make things easier for us all#kasjndfkjsdnf#but from a character point of view it's enough to make him Not that thing he is in recent canon bc I do not like#I should proofread but I won't I'll just post if#it*#kajndfkjsndf#long post cw#I think the important things are all here? also there's considerable rambling and I cannot write an entirely Serious post to save my life#* out of character: the mun / THAT GLOOMY GIRL WHO SIGHS A LOT?
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YOU MAKE ME FEEL SPECIAL!
SYNOPSIS: niko as your boyfriend
CHARACTERS INCLUDED: niko ikki aka my boyfriend hello
WARNINGS: swearing, pretend all the boys go to the same school and they're all friends for plot, normalize not writing serious boys as someone that practically hates their s/o and never opens up to them god bless, also no such thing as ooc since we dunno shit ab him so everything i say is law. SUPER LONG LOL, it's like 2k+ words ïżœïżœïżœïżœ
A/N: i love my boyfriend and i'm v happy about all the attention he's getting (even if he will prob will b subbed out đ) this was fun to write bc i think he would b very soft as bf and also i hate the notion that stoic and serious = boring and detached in a relationship. also first post w the new user yayyyy rip yoichisagis an end of an era for realsies.
FOR: fox anon my beloved this one is for uđ©
it takes a while for you two to get together, just because niko wants to think things through and be sure heâs making the right decision, as well as him being naturally apprehensive about this whole dating thing.
when you do eventually start going out, keep in mind you're probably his first real anything, so-
niko needs to take it slow for the first month or so because he needs time to adjust and get used to being in a relationship.
when he gets comfortable around you, niko starts to talk a lot more.
niko starts to talk about his interests more-soccer, stem stuff (idc i'll die by my hc that he's a stem boy), etc. and niko's really happy that you're genuinely interested in what he has to say :)
and as your relationship progresses, niko becomes more inclined to share his inner thoughts.
âthis song is so bad, i hate it and how it's everywhere,â like, babe that sucks, but what do you want me to do, take it off the radio myself? đ
you find out that nikoâs kind of a hater LOL, but itâs okay, because it means he can be himself around you <3 and the mini debates you have with each other are fun.
heâs someone you can take shopping with you if you need a solid second opinion.
âikki, is this cute?â you niko as you adjust the shirt you tried on in the fitting room mirror.
âno.â heâs so straight up LOL. âthe blue one from earlier was better.â
âthis one?â
âyeah, that one. you look really pretty in it.â
ngl though, nikoâs not much of a mall person. he'd just follow you around like a little puppy LOL, but he doesn't mind too much because it's for you.
communication is important to niko!!!!! he wants someone that he can have real conversation about the things that matter to him, so he rly makes an effort to have that kind of connection with you.
niko's naturally funny but he isn't aware that he is lol.
but when he does try, i feel like his humor comes in the form of sarcasm and dry wit. likes poking fun at you here and there with a lighthearted jab.
"you're so weird, y/n," is the most common one.
nikoâs naturally closed off emotionally (male aquarius đ) but i, personally, think heâd really try and push himself to be more open with you, especially if you expressed for him to do so </3
he'd be really appreciative of someone patient and understanding of the fact that he doesn't open up easily, though.
but eventually, you become the person closest to him- niko confides in you a lot, which heâs grateful for because he usually holds everything in.
not one for pda or other lovey-dovey things in public, other than the occasional holding of hands but behind closed doors, nikoâs so soft around you, itâs like heâs a completely different person.
also, i feel like nikoâs real handsy with you, i get the vibe heâs super touch starved đ
although it does take him a while to get used to physical affection, once he has, niko cannot get enough. heâs always touching you when he has no real reason to.
(and because you're his first relationship, i feel like itâs just natural that nikoâs going to be kind of clingy towards you.)
âyou okay, ikki?â you ask as niko suddenly wraps his arms around your waist from behind, resting his chin on your shoulder.
âmhm,â he mumbles. âjust wanna be close to you.â
niko likes when you sit on his lap when heâs on his computer. you can have your arms wrapped around his neck, your head resting in the crook of his neck, or you could just be on your phone or whatever, it doesnât matter, niko just likes you near him.
you guys donât really talk to each other when you do this, aside from niko occasionally checking up on you and asking if you need anything from him.
but other than that, you guys just enjoy each other's touch in silence. itâs one of his favorite things to do with you.
however, if you start kissing him in the middle of whatever heâs doing and keep it up for long enough, niko will drop everything to make out with you right then and there (also one of his favorite things to do with you).
speaking of kissing- you kiss niko first.
niko would try to plan your guys first kiss out because he wants everything to be perfect.
but, he ends up taking forever to execute it because he keeps overthinking and you can only wait so long before kissing him, so you take matters into your own hands.
his kisses are sloppy and juvenile at the beginning, but heâs smart and learns quickly what you do and donât like.
likes being kissed on his jaw and forehead the most :')
if the team ever happens to see niko kissing you, they're gonna be so annoying đ
"yooo niko's making big moves âŒïž" "my son's growing up on me!đ©" "good job *pats on the back*" and niko is red all over as he drags you away from them, muttering about how childish and annoying they are đ.
but, they're all very supportive of you guys, even if they're embarrassing as hell đ.
they even give niko relationship advice- which luckily, he doesnât follow (most of the time), because, letâs be honest, if you're getting unsolicited dating tips from a bunch of teenage boys, itâs probably bad đ.
youâre the only person niko shows his forehead to. just know that having the opportunity to see it means that niko trusts you more than anyone else :â)
repay his trust by kissing his forehead lovingly and showering him with compliments whenever you can !!!!!!!!!!
ây/n, whyâre you so embarrassing,â niko says under his breath, blushing as you hold his face and litter soft kisses on his forehead, rambling about how cute he is.
always looks for you in the bleachers when he has a game and youâre always the first person he talks to after.
and the fact that you make an effort to come as often as you can means sooo much to him. definitely considers you to be his biggest fan.
real classy with nicknames- uses âmy love/love,â and âdarling,â the most.
his favorite petname from you is "pretty boy." gives him butterflies each time he hears it.
the first time you call him that, he's confused, but after you explain that being called pretty is basically the highest compliment a boy can receive, he gets all soft on you.
only uses instagram to like and comment on your pictures and that's it đ.
comments stuff like âyou're so prettyâ and "beautiful," without any emojis because niko refuses to use them LOL.
remembers the compliments you give him! they help with his self esteem and i feel like he values your opinion a lot.
so, tell him all about how cute and smart and talented and hot and funny he is and how much you love him and he'll replay it in his head 24/7.
i think he prefers to be the big spoon, unless he's sad- then he really wants you to hold him.
niko gives me homebody vibes, so expect relaxed dates, but still nice, yk?
what i mean is niko's not gonna take you out to get gas station food and call it a day đ he's classier than that and he always puts in effort towards dates.
he always plans them ahead of time and takes into consideration what he thinks you'd enjoy. and he insists on paying đ€.
but, niko always does something special for days like your birthday or an anniversary, like go somewhere fancy if you wanted to or buy a nice gift you've been eyeing for a while.
helps you with your schoolwork, 100%. most of the time niko tutors you because he wants you to actually learn the material, but if you're feeling lazy and just wanna get it over with, niko will just give you the answers.
this is a big deal because i love him and all but, niko gives me the vibe he's super stingy with his work đ.
"this is the last time i'm going to just give you the answers, y/n." niko sighs out. "you have to start doing your homework by yourself."
niko's said that dozen of times but he's still giving you the answers free of charge. can you guys say #whipped �
LOL speaking of school, if you ever text him during class, i highly doubt that niko would entertain you đđ (it's out of love, though)
y/n đ: hiii baby imy đ„°
pretty boy: do your work, y/n.
y/n đ: ALL I DID WAS SAY HI
pretty boy: pay attention.
y/n đ: fine ur so lame đ
pretty boy: whatever you say. i miss you too, by the way.
he likes to moves your hair out your face because he wants to see your pretty face better.
which is why you have to do the same with him đ„°!!!!!! makes him blush like crazy.
gets soooo soft when you post him or even take pictures of you and him together :') just the thought of you wanting to show him off makes him soooo happy.
he won't entertain you if you make a tiktok, though LOL. he's very stubborn in his belief that it's stupid.
just stands in the background with his arms crossed if you try to make him do a dance or something đ (he does think you look cute, though).
niko has such nice eyelashes but i doubt he's aware of it 'cause he's, y'know, a boy đ.
"my eyelashes are ... cute?" he questions. niko wasn't even aware that such a trivial thing like his eyelashes could be considered cute.
"yes, oh my god," you gush. "they're so long and nice, i wish mine were like that," you groan, examining yours through the camera of your phone.
"you're so weird, y/n," he says, a blush staining his cheeks. "your eyelashes are nicer," he mumbles as he kisses your forehead.
he's one of those people that prefers to be alone, but you're the exception. you know?
niko likes to keep to himself most of the time, but that whole thing doesn't apply to you, because he'd choose to be with you over being alone anytime :')
#THIS WAS SO LONG CHRKST#ilysmni i love you so much niko ikki#not a dating hc but i really thinkche has the kind of headphones that tsukki has đđđ#niko ikki#niko ikki x reader#niko x reader#blue lock#bllk x reader#bllk#blue lock x reader#blue lock imagine#blue lock headcanons#bllk headcanons#niko ikki headcanons#niko ikki imagine#ikki niko#ikki niko x reader#bllk imagines
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I understand Phupha. I really do. And I desperately want to ramble about his motivations through this story, so read on if you want to go through the journey of Phuphaâs character depth with me!
(Note: I havenât opened the tags or anything yet since watching the episode because I genuinely wanted to get all of my own thoughts written out before I bring in influences from other people, so if someone made a post like this already, I apologize and I promise I didnât see it!!)
Letâs look at Phuphaâs decisions and thought processes right now. He received an order from Tianâs dad to protect Tian in the village. When he received that order, he had never met Tian. Of course he wasnât going to say no, and of course he was going to assume that Tian was a rich kid with poor intentions coming to the village. How many rich kids before Torfun had come to the village and abandoned ship when things got tough? Plus Phupha cares about the kids; he probably hated seeing these teachers enter and exit their lives so often. Not to mention, it probably would have made Phuphaâs life easier to not have to take on this extra duty of caring for Tian.
But then Tian showed up, and things changed so quickly. Sure, maybe Phupha helped him extra at the very beginning out of duty, but in doing so, he got to know him even more quickly. And through that, feelings developed so fast. Letâs look at Tian bathing, for example. Phupha knew Tian had a bathhouse at his home, and yet, he took him to the waterfall. Why? Was that not wasting his own time? He so easily could have said, âYou need a bath? Behind the house.â And yet, he took him to the waterfall anyways, for no real reason. Perhaps it was to test him, but more than anything, I think he was just trying to tease him and spend time with him. And when he slept at his house, sure, maybe it could have just been to protect him out of duty, but asking Tian what he had for dinner just because he wanted to talk to him was never in the order given by Tianâs dad. That was solely because he enjoyed Tianâs company.
We all know that Phuphaâs care for Tian was never just out of duty. It may have started that way, but it so quickly progressed past that. Which is why Tian finding out his father was involved must have been so devastating. It completely contradicted what he was so certain was true. I mean, hell, drunk Phupha even confessed to Tian. He knew Phuphaâs feelings were not out of duty, but he was still lied to (which is a whole rant on its own).
Iâve been thinking a lot too about Phuphaâs love language. From what I can see, his top love language is acts of service, and more specifically, through his protection. Phupha loves the village. He loves the forest. And he loves Tian. When Tian started to understand Phuphaâs love language, I think he recognized that as being Phuphaâs expression of love toward him. And because Phupha protected him so strongly, Tian read that as Phuphaâs love for him being so fierce (which it absolutely was, of course).
As their relationship blossomed, Tian continuously thanked Phupha for protecting him. And on surface level, yes, he was genuinely thanking him for keeping him alive and safe in the village. But digging deeper, he was thanking him for loving him, because he recognized Phuphaâs expression of love is told through his dedication to keeping the people he loves and the forest safe. So when Tian was sitting by Phuphaâs bedside begging him to wake up and continue protecting him, it wasnât just him wanting Phupha to keep him safe. He was literally begging him to wake up and continue loving him.
Hence why, when the bandaid was ripped off and he found out his father had ordered Phupha to protect Tian, he started questioning where the line was between duty and love. And then Phupha wouldnât admit to Tian that what Tian perceived as acts of love and not duty were exactly that, acts of love, that he hadnât been imagining it. Not only that but when the emotions got high, Phupha lied to him, saying it was never personal and that it was all for just his job, breaking Tianâs heart.
Do I agree with the way he handled it? No. I think the saying harsh words to make Tian hate him rather than communicating properly was absolutely the wrong way to go. But do I understand it? Yes.
Before going any further into that though, letâs talk about Phuphaâs reasoning for siding with Tianâs father over Tian. First of all, the obvious is that Tianâs father is a well-respected authority figure, who also easily has the connections to ruin Phuphaâs career (not that he necessarily would but he could if he wanted to). As much as we all want Phupha to disregard Tianâs fatherâs orders, we all know heâs in a tough spot. He doesnât just love Tian; he also loves the village and the forest, and he dedicated his life to protecting them. He has to weigh that into his decision too.
But beyond that, Phupha has so much respect for his late father. A lot of the lessons he did not understand when his father was alive were lessons he came to understand as he carried on his fatherâs missions. He said earlier in the show that he did not understand his fatherâs dedication to the forest until he dedicated his own life to it. He recognized the wisdom his father tried to pass on to him that he was hesitant to accept.
And so to have Tianâs father telling Phupha that Tian has a good life back in Bangkok, of course heâs going to project some of his respect for his own father onto Tian and Tianâs father, failing to recognize that the two situations arenât the same. In addition to that, he probably does have a feeling of âif my father was still alive...â And knowing Tianâs father is there wanting to take care of Tian and see his life progress, of course heâs going to respect that. Thatâs why Phupha even told Tian he shouldnât think less of his father.
Plus weâve seen how watching Phuphaâs mother grieve affected him personally. When Tianâs father mentioned how his mother hadnât seen her son, and knowing how she almost lost Tian, Iâm sure there was also some guilt for wanting to keep Tian to himself when he watched his own mother grieve. Of course, Tian hadnât passed away like Phuphaâs father, but the feeling of loss is similar enough.
I also assume there are some cultural differences regarding family dynamics and respect that I cannot speak to given I am not Thai.
So from that perspective, of course he started to believe that Tianâs father knew best. He didnât know how miserable Tian was in Bangkok; he didnât get to see the way Tianâs frown turned to a smile or how suddenly bright his world became when he came to the village. He never saw any of that.
And if we move on past Phuphaâs family history, we all know Phupha is fearful of vulnerability. Heâs closed himself off his entire life, it seems, from love. And by the time he hit 30, he probably accepted that would be his life: protecting the forest and returning to an empty bed. Opening himself up to Tian was not easy for him, and now when he finally allowed himself to dream of a less lonely life, itâs been threatened. And to avoid being hurt any further, heâs choosing to throw it away himself. It gives him the false perception that this was his own choice, not someone elseâs. Iâd even go as far as to say him losing his father is an example of a time when he had pain thrown at him that was not his own choice, and thereâs probably some trauma from that that he still has to work through. Then he similarly lost Torfun and has had to work through that pain as well. Is it healthy to push his own happiness away at the first sign of trouble? Absolutely not. Plus it hurts Tian. But does it make sense given everything we know about him? Absolutely yes.
(Side note: Tian did the same thing before the surgery. He was wreckless because it gave him a sense of power regarding his own fate when it felt like his pain was being controlled by someone or something else.)
So now here we are, episode 9, Phupha is trying to do the right thing. Of course this story is showing us Tianâs perspective mostly, and so we empathize with Tian more. But I think itâs really important to acknowledge how Phupha is a character with so much depth, who will make mistakes just as Tian did and who deserves to receive the same forgiveness and consideration we give Tian.
When we look at Phupha, we know his intentions are good. He genuinely loves Tian, and especially throughout the events of this episode, he finally started to see how the guilt Tian felt about Torfun was eating him alive, how he was trying to live his life to make up for the life she had lost rather than for the life he had been given. And because he loves Tian so much, he wanted better for him.
Thatâs why he made him promise to value himself and to live his life for himself from now on. Of course, we all know thereâs a disconnect between what he wants for Tian and the options heâs presenting Tian to pick from.
But just like Tian had a bandaid ripped off, Phupha did too. Tian thought Phuphaâs intentions were purely out of love and started questioning why he made the decisions he did. Phupha thought Tianâs love for the village and even for him were straight from his own heart, and then when he found out Tian was purposely living his life as Torfun did, he didnât know what to make of his intentions anymore. Of course, just as Tian was never wrong about Phupha acting out of love when he was protecting him, Phupha was never wrong about Tian acting out of love when interacting with the children and the rest of the villagers.
Yet he doesnât know that. In his mind, Tian was always living someone elseâs life. In his mind, Tianâs life must have been back in Bangkok because suddenly it didnât seem like it was here. Suddenly the life he was living here in Pha Pun Dao was Torfunâs. And then when Tian starts insisting heâll stay if Phupha tells him his feelings, of course heâs going to suddenly feel like it would be selfish to do so. Like I said, now he believes Tianâs life really is back in Bangkok. And he has Tianâs father telling him that too.
And we know he always believed that to some extent, given his response to the rangers when they wanted Tian to extend his stay. He told them he had college to finish and a bright future ahead of him. He hadnât believed his future would be in the village and certainly not with him. It was when he allowed himself to be more vulnerable that he gave in and asked Tian to stay. But now with everything that happened since then, no wonder he felt selfish not wanting Tian to leave.
Acts of service. Phupha showing his love through protection. This right here is Phupha trying to protect Tian once again. This is Phupha trying one last time to show Tian his love language. Even if heâs hurting Tian in the process.
All of this is to say, is Phupha in the wrong right now? Yes. Of course. Iâm going to write a separate post about Tian and how I believe this story will end, but we can clearly see how Phupha is contradicting himself right now. He wants Tian to choose himself and live his life for no one else, and yet he isnât giving Tian the option to stay in the village for himself. He immediately threw away the idea that that was even a possibility, and itâs hurting both him and Tian.
But Tian has been in the wrong many times before, despite having a heart of gold and good intentions. And thatâs where Phupha is too. He wants to do the right thing, but his own guilt and fear are keeping him from even seeing the true right thing.
Like I said, Iâm going to write an entirely separate post about how I believe this story will end and why I think the ending will be beautiful. But Iâm not worried. I think this is a test of not only Tian and Phuphaâs relationship but also the two of them as individuals. I genuinely really love Phupha as a character, and I respect the way he tries so hard. Heâs allowed to be wrong too sometimes.
#phutian#phupha x tian#a tale of thousand stars#atots#1000 stars#this was a LOT oops#I just think Phupha has SO MUCH DEPTH that people overlook because heâs Tianâs love interest#I think being angry at him for his decisions right now is very justified#but I also think it doesnât do him justice to act as though they are not in character#I think heâs a beautiful character and I am so grateful to see him grow too#I ADDED A 'KEEP READING' BECAUSE I'M ON DESKTOP NOW
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This is just going to be a ramble about everything Sherlock. Youâre most welcome to discuss or just ignore it. I needed the space to vent.
I watched Sherlock. Again. I think itâs beginning to become my annual tradition. And I have a crisis. Donât get me wrong, I am always Sherlollian at heart. Itâs just⊠I have doubts sometimes. And what triggered those doubts this time was the fact that Sherlock calls Molly âJohnâ. Twice. And then Irene Adler. And then one post on Tumblr. And many, many more.
OK, these are just my random thoughts. Enjoy if youâre willing to read them.
 1. âJohnâ. âMollyâ.
We often mix up names of people we consider to have the same place in our lives. Which is good, right? Right. Only, in Sherlockâs case, weâd have lean into the theory that Sherlock does love John romantically and feels the same way about Molly. Or concede the fact that he loves them both platonically. Neither of these options is really satisfying, isnât it? Well, thatâs why Iâm struggling⊠One could say heâs in denial of feelings for Molly and identifies them as friendship, as this is the strongest, purest relationship in his life, the only one he describes as emotional and the closest heâs ever had to love. Besides, Molly and John are similar in one way â they both share the same â medical â knowledge. Of course, Sherlock doesnât realise her other qualities until The Reichenbach Fall when she says she can help him whenever he needs it. Itâs not until sheâs honest with him again and tells him, without a shred of grudge, that she knows she means nothing to him, that he realises he has at least two friends. He calls her âJohnâ when his mind is busy with something else, so thereâs no room for any purposeful confusion. The same thing happens in The Empty Hearse. What else can it mean if not friendship?
 2. Nothing Hits Like Irene
Irene Adler is created as the love interest for Sherlock. Is she, though? Well, we see Sherlock utterly confused upon their first meeting. We also see him flirting and creating an atmosphere of sexual tension for the first time. OK, he saves her but then she vanishes, he got over her, I thought. And all was fine until The Lying Detective came and Irene Adler sent a text to Sherlock, first in such a long time. John, of course, suggests that if Sherlock should be romantically involved with anyone, it should be her. And then it hit me.
Irene Adler is the symbol of chemistry in Sherlockâs life.
Sheâs a dominatrix. Sheâs all about sex, thatâs obvious. At the critical point of The Scandal in Belgravia Sherlock says: I believe John Watson thinks loveâs a mystery for me but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very distractive. Sherlock discovers that he, indeed, can have chemistry with people. He doesnât mention love, he merely says sentiment, referring to the crush Irene Adler had on him. She is, indeed, a simple distraction â you can see it clearly in his memory palace when he yells at her to get away. But Molly⊠Molly stays. She leads him through the entire process of surviving a shot.
And then Irene Adler returns in The Lying Detective. John confesses to Sherlock about texting with a stranger met on the bus. And that he wanted more. Sherlock says everyone gets to be human sometimes. Even he canât resist the urge of replying to Irene Adler sometimes. It was all about attraction again.
And thatâs why sheâs not considered a romantic relationship in his life. John rambles about love changing him, to be more specific, the love of his woman changing him. But he says Ireneâs a dangerous criminal. How would that change Sherlock in any way?
In The Final Problem, upon deducing the coffin, John suggests Irene Adler but sheâs not his first thought in general once they all hear that this is about someone who loves Sherlock. Sherlockâs response is very telling: Donât be ridiculous. Look at the coffin. It seems like Sherlock pieces the puzzle at once â the coffin, plus the ânameâ on the lid â it couldnât have been Irene Adler.
And thatâs why Sherlock calls her The Woman. As a symbol of his sexuality. The Woman whoâs woken up certain impulses in his life.
 3. Makeshift Gauge
Who is she?, Sherlock asks John in His Last Vow.
Based on what Mofftiss duo said about Molly, she was supposed to be featured in two episodes top. Yet, she stayed. The uncanonical character not only stayed but became fansâ favourite. I think she became a useful tool for Moffat and Gatiss. I think that not only she represents Sherlock heart (of which existence he has no idea at first) but later becomes our makeshift gauge. For what? For measuring Sherlockâs progress. See, itâs like when you live with someone, you donât notice when they put on weight or grew a little but those who see less of them will notice all changes right away. So, when Sherlock runs around with John, we donât notice the change in his behaviour at once (also because heâs always been nice to him, from the very beginning), we need to focus to see that. But Molly pops by once per episode and we see how Sherlockâs perception changes. In season one, he has good intentions, but they turn out bad. In season two, heâs more neutral but doesnât restrain himself from rude comments. And Molly is being Molly â tells him heâs rude in her natural, soft way and he says sorry. For the first time. Without anyone making him do that. Almost the same happens in The Reichenbach Fall â but this time, Molly doesnât let herself be fooled by Sherlockâs arrogance and just ignores it, going straight to the point. She says: âIâm here for youâ and lowers his defences. In season three, he spends an entire day with her, smiles at her and is the sweetest, softest Sherlock weâve ever seen. Moreover, when Lestrade asks him about her helping him solve cases, he says: [John] is not in the picture anymore, implying that she not necessarily had to be a temporary replacement. In season four, he says I love you to her.
What can we deduce about his heart?
 4. The Eurus Conundrum
We could write an entire book about Eurus and not even be able to grasp her spirit. Iâm not going to do that right now.
I have issues with what happened in season four finale. I mean â Molly, of course. Mycroft says Eurus and Jim Moriarty met five years ago, so before Moriarty revealed himself to Sherlock. They both planned the entire game for Sherlock. Does that mean Sherlock never really won with him? Does that mean Moriarty let him use Molly to âwinâ? Since she was included in Eurusâ plan, we can safely assume Jim knew about Molly back then. At first, when I saw Moriarty saying We both know thatâs not quite true [that you donât have a heart] in many Sherlolly fanvids, I was like naaaaah. He didnât see her as one of the important people in Sherlockâs life, it couldnât have been a reference to their meeting. But now⊠how deeply back in time was Eurusâ plan allocated? Which events did she predict?
Or maybe Iâm missing something? Any thoughts on this?
 5. Sherlock Evergreen
I once came across a post here, about how BBC Sherlock is literature, about sir Arthur Conan Doyleâs struggle with his own genius character. He was over with him, didnât feel like writing any more of his stories so he killed him, but fans demanded more. He kept writing, although he hated it from the bottom of his heart. Season four, so often considered as the worst of all of them, is a way of saying that Sherlock character is, unfortunately, invincible. Immortal. He will live forever. We canât kill him, no one can. Even his creator couldnât have done it.
In season four, Sherlock goes back to the start. He is a clean slate again. He went through the entire process of change â became a good Sherlock, considerate of other peopleâs feelings and emotions, appreciative, supportive, loving, ready to mend what he broke. That interpretation, although very good, kind of killed my Sherlolly spirit. But I guess every interpretation like this would do it. If we stop treating characters like real human being, weâre left with what they really are â a construct, tools, puppets in the authorâs hands.
Based on this, I think weâre safe to say there will never be a fifth season of BBC Sherlock (gosh, how I wish I was wrong!). Why? Because, despite what Moffat said in an interview once (after season three finale he said theyâve plotted out the entire fourth and fifth season â liar, liar, pants on fire!), season four had the perfect ending. As mentioned above, Sherlock became a good man and Mary Watson summed up what Sherlock is all about: two man, a genius junkie and a former soldier, who solve the weirdest, the toughest of cases together in flat on 221B Baker Street. Now, Sherlock is ready to be taken over by other artists who may find a new way to tell his story (though, I donât think so) all over again.
And thatâs a big, big shame⊠I think I speak for at least most of Sherlollians when I say weâd like to see Sherlock and Mollyâs first encounter after the call. The finale really closed all the story arcs and subplots, except for this one. I mean, câmon. You donât have to be a Sherlollian to be annoyed by this â just remember that it was such a âbiggieâ that Moffat was asked about this in an interview. And this may be another reason as to why we wonât ever get a fifth season of Sherlock â because that would mean taking a side. And none of the creators will do it because Sherlock cannot be an open-and-shut case. It has to be like literature: big, open, twisted, unclear and full of room for interpretation. As long as thereâs no certain explanation â yes, Sherlock loves Molly, no, Sherlock is gay â we create more and more content out of the need of closure. Thanks to the room for interpretation, the story lives. I mean, itâs been four years since The Final Problem airing and here I am, discussing BBC Sherlock still.
 Coming back to Sherlolly⊠donât worry. Though Iâm still not sure that we can harvest any hard evidence for Sherlockâs feelings for Molly (other than friendship and respect), Iâm still a Sherlollian. There two new fics waiting for me to pull myself together and write them. I think itâs good to have doubts â it means my brain hasnât rotten yet and I can still be critical, Iâm able of having my own opinions.
 Thank you if you managed to read it all! Iâd love to discuss if you have any conclusions. If not, thatâs fine, too. I just needed it get it out of my system.
PS WHY DOES MY POSTS IN ENGLISH SOUND SO SOPHISTICATED IN MY HEAD BUT WHEN I PUT THEM IN WRITING, THEYâRE SO SHITTY?!
#bbc sherlock#sherlock#sherlock holmes#john watson#irene adler#molly hooper#sherlolly#molly x sherlock#thoughts#eurus holmes
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Hello, everyone! Can you believe this is the third time I've started the recap for this chapter? Between a dying computer and a mass edit during my monthly state of, "Oh my god get rid of everything we can't let people know that we wRITE!" this project is cursed. This is the version though, I can feel it. Be positive!
Now, where were we? It's been some months (RIP) since I last posted, so I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's forgotten what's going on in this insane novel. A quick recap before the recap then: new teams have formed, no one is happy about it, Sun and Velvet went off to a shady club run by The Crown and â shock shock, surprise surprise â got themselves into a heap of trouble. That's the long and the short of it. We have to wait a while to find out what happens to them though because this chapter is focused on Coco.
We learn that Professor Rumpole has sent Coco and her new team â Team ROSC â out into the desert to take care of the grimm around the city's borders. To say that Coco is disappointed in this assignment is an understatement. We learn that they've been at this for a week straight and have gone without showering or a change of clothes that entire time (no one packed a bag?), so for a second I was hugely sympathetic. You know this vine?Â
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I feel this vine in my soul. Give me hot water and hot coco or give me death. Besides, work is work and dangerous, physical work without a break or basic comforts is incredibly taxing. Toss in the extreme heat of a desert and I'd be pissed at everything too, no matter how important my work was. That's human.
Yet instead of humanizing Coco like this, it turns out she doesn't care at all about the hardship involved. It's fighting grimm that she's annoyed by. She thinks that "Searching for the person or persons kidnapping innocent people for some unknown but dark purpose was way more useful than fighting Grimm far from the city" and I'm just like, Coco, honey...
Do you know what your career path is?
IT'S TO KILL GRIMM.
Okay, there's admittedly a justification here, but it's a stupid one. Coco goes on to say that "This area was called the Wastelands for a reason." She's snarky about it, saying that it wastes âher time, her talent, and her patience," but the real takeaway is that it's, you know, a wasteland. Deserted of grimm and of people. What's the point of defending an area that doesn't need defending? A huntress' job might normally be to fight grimm, but when those grimm aren't around and kidnappers are, that's a whole new set of priorities.
The problem with all this is that the Wastelands is definitely not deserted and it's definitely not as far from the city as Coco would like to imply. In just a few paragraphs an alarm is going to trip and Coco will find six grimm roaming in a pack. Then she finds a person. Then that person says she needs to get back to see someone in the city within half an hour. So there are grimm, there are people about, and this area is apparently close enough to the border that you can get back to the city proper, on foot, and then get wherever it is youâre going in a bustling metropolis... all within half an hour. By that logic these grimm aren't out in the boonies, they're right outside everyone's door.
Yet Coco isn't convinced, saying that "Post Beacon [killing grimm] had been for a noble cause, but this just felt like ⊠busywork." I cannot possibly emphasize enough that this is the job she signed up for. Not to be a detective specializing in missing people, not a war hero always on the front lines of a battle, but one of many huntsmen who perform the daily, routine, very necessary task of protecting the people from grimm. With "protecting" covering both immediate threats and preparatory work that ensures more threats don't come about â like taking care of grimm outside before they become a larger threat. You know what would have happened if Beacon had a daily chore of students killing grimm within a few miles radius of the school? There would have been far less grimm charging a mass of unprotected students when negativity unexpectedly skyrocketed.
And, as always, I am aware that Rumpole is the likely villain here. From a writing perspective, this is very much presented as her getting Coco out of the way so that she can go about her nefarious deeds in peace... but that doesn't erase the fact that the task itself is a sound one. Rumpole's motivations don't matter here, only Coco's annoyance that she... has to do her job?
I mean yeah, everyone complains about their job to one extent or another, but can you imagine if you stumbled across a firefighter complaining about all the kitchen fires they've had to put out lately? "It's so boring! There are much better things I could be spending my time and talent on. I mean, that inferno that took out a city block last year? Putting that out was noble. But routine fires? House fires? Giving lectures on how to prevent fires in the future? Ugh, I can't believe the department expects me to do this grunt work." Meanwhile, you're sneaking off, hoping that this firefighter is never called to your house, nursing mild worries about how much they're romanticizing the recent tragedy that took so many lives...
Complaints about the job turn into complaints about the teams, which makes far more sense for Coco's character. Anyone's, really. Despite my insistence that it's a good thing they're learning to fight with people other than their three besties, that was absolutely a sudden and rather traumatizing change, just given how attached the teams already are. I'm not at all surprised that Coco is struggling to cope.
She says she misses her friends, obviously, but also "surprisingly, Coco missed being in charge."
...That's supposed to be surprising? Coco, you love being in charge! How is this in any way a revelation?
Apparently it is though, stemming from how bad Reese is as their leader. As with so many things in RWBY, I find myself disagreeing with a perspective that's presented as a fact: "She liked to lead by group vote, which wasnât leading at all." Yes... it is? We could go down a rabbit hole of literal definitions â to lead is to direct, to direct is to regulate, to regulate is to direct again â but ultimately our understanding of a word does not adhere to the dictionary alone. It's a knowledge built on experience and I would hope that everyone's experience with the term "leader" includes that person considering multiple perspectives before making a decision. A leader doesn't impose their view on a group without due consideration of their preferences and needs â that's a dictator â a leader guides the group based on feedback and their personal knowledge. If that feedback and knowledge results in a standstill, or if their knowledge outweighs preferences, they are the deciding vote because the people have previously said, "We trust your decisions" through the act of making them leader in the first place.Â
Asking for a group vote isn't avoiding leadership, it's an act of leadership. Reese decided that these situations warranted a majority rule. She further decided that whatever they settled on was indeed an appropriate course of action. Leadership skills are required to assess a situation and determine whether it's appropriate to vote on in the first place. If I announce to a group that we're voting on whether we go to the movies or the museum, I've done the work to determine that both of these choices are of roughly equal value and roughly equal availability. I haven't hit on any snags like, "The only movies playing are mindless blockbusters and I want this to be an educational outing" or "The museum is too far away. We'll never make it to dinner on time." Figuring out that a group can vote is its own kind of work. This avenue is particularly useful when the group is of roughly equal standing. With a few exceptions (like Ruby and Jaune) huntsmen classmates are all the same age, underwent the same training, and have had the same combat experiences. This isn't a case of one elite huntsmen lending their knowledge to an otherwise green party, it's a school randomly pointing at a somewhat outgoing individual during orientation and saying, "You. You're leader material, I guess, even though you've done little differently than the person standing beside you." Someone has to lead and Vacuo's switcheroo proves that anyone can be the leader if they're just put in that position. Coco claims a group vote is just "passing the responsibility off to your team" and yes! You want to share the responsibility because you are a team. They are a group of four equals working together with one person to guide them, they are not a boss with three subordinates. Why wouldn't Reese utilize the skills and ideas of those teammates? When making a decision, why wouldn't she see if everyone believes it's a good idea to do Thing A as opposed to Thing B? Unless Reese is outright ignoring her own ideas, beliefs, or gut feelings to cater to the others â which there's no reference of â this is good leadership. She's assisting her team in making decisions as a whole, rather than arbitrarily imposing her view on three others of similar skill and experience.
Yet Coco acts like because Reese doesn't go, "We're doing Thing A! End of discussion!" it's not leadership. Which, frankly, says a lot about how the RWBY-verse sees leadership as a whole.
I realize I'm rambling a great deal, so let me quickly provide a different media example. I'm currently immersed in Star Trek: Voyager and in season two, episode 14 "Alliances," Captain Janeway is faced with a difficult choice: align herself with a violent and so far untrustworthy species, or risk traveling through this quadrant of space without any allies. At first she's entirely against the idea of an alliance, going so far as to say that this isn't a democracy. She's the captain, dammit, she makes the decisions! But her first officer begs her to reconsider. Then the crew express disappointment â even disgust â that she won't consider this alternative. Then her chief of security, being a Vulcan, provides a persuasively logical argument for why an alliance is worth the risk... Long story short, Janeway finds herself in the minority and changes her decision accordingly. She attempts to garner an alliance and the fact that she was right â the species wasn't trustworthy and the alliance fails â is entirely beside the point. She realized that the majority voice matters. As far as we know, Reese is already practicing what Janeway learned.
ANYWAY the point is none of it matters because these characterizations are a mess. Coco also throws out that Reese "dressed like she was a twelve-year-old hanging out at the mall" and supposedly acts like one too. We're not given any examples of what that behavior looks like and, sorry, but I'm not personally inclined to judge someone based on their fashion sense. It would be great if this story actually engaged with some of the flaws the characters demonstrated, rather than just throwing them out to exist in this unacknowledged void.
Not that Coco's fashion-focused personality is really that important. Truly, the best thing about all this is how contradictory Coco's own thoughts are. She also listens to her teammates... except when she doesn't. She know when to go with their ideas and when to dismiss them for her own... except when she gets it totally wrong. As with so much in RWBY, this doesn't feel like the author giving Coco deliberate flaws that the story will grapple with down the line, it just comes across as a nonsense philosophy about leadership we're not meant to examine too closely. Coco gets to make references to the fact that her own, supposedly superior leadership is filled with holes, but heaven forbid she engage with that.Â
She ends all this with the thought that no matter what she might decide, she trusted her team to "do what she demanded of themâ and is now extending that courtesy to Reese. This I'm inclined to praise Coco for. No matter what she might be thinking, it doesn't appear as if she's tried to undermine Reese (well, not yet. More on that at the chapterâs end), and she doesnât appear to be refusing to listen to that leadership, even if she doesn't like how it comes about. As we're about to see, Coco has her team's best interests at heart, no matter the challenges they're facing.
Her thoughts turn back to her old team and we get... this.
Velvet was with a team that didnât recognize her awesome capabilities. Fox was withdrawing, having lost his family for the second time. Yatsuhashi was going mad with worry about Velvet and his teammates, knowing that he couldnât be there to protect them, and worrying he would accidentally hurt someone on his new team.
This is so unnecessarily dramatic. First, how does Coco even know any of this? Because it's been heavily implied that the old teams are barely in contact with one another. See: Velvet refusing to loop anyone in about the club and Coco stuck in the desert for a week. Second, why aren't they in contact, at least those who aren't on away missions? The entire group is acting as if changing teams means they're no longer allowed to be friends â family, as Coco puts it â when the relationship between Team RWBY and Team JNPR creates the opposite expectation right at the start of the series. Clearly, people from different teams can be close. Yatsu's worry that he might stumble using his semblance with new people is the only conflict that holds up here. Everything else has fairly straightforward solutions. Velvet needs to prove herself to new people. Yatsu needs to text Velvet if he's that worried about her. And Fox "having lost his family for a second time" is a pretty ridiculous exaggeration. You're attending the same school! Your family is still living down the hall if Vacuo has dorms like Beacon! In what world are these students unable to interact largely as they did before? They're acting as if the school has outright barred them from hanging out, rather than doing what will no doubt occur the moment they graduate: force them to work with different people. Just catch up with Fox over dinner!Â
Honestly, this chapter is pretty short, I'm just continually bewildered by this story.
To get back to the actual plot, something trips a sensor the group has set up and Coco responds to the situation in what I think is both a smart and empathetic manner. Previous experience has taught her that it's likely just a lizard, so she doesn't want to wake up her team for no reason. Disagreements aside, she cares enough to let them rest â "Theyâd probably appreciate the extra sleep." However, if it's a "rare case of something she couldnât handle alone" she'd immediately call for help. Great plan! It's not often in this novel that I feel like I enjoy the characters, but this little moment actually had me liking Coco. Which, yes, I realize is a complicated claim. Characters should test the reader to a certain degree, mirroring all the personalities we see in real life, including biased, mean, or contradictory people. It's often a good thing to write a character that your reader is frustrated with. That can be the point! The problem with Myers' writing is that it isn't the point. Coco, as the former leader of our heroes in this tale, should be someone we enjoy spending time with and her flaws should be the basis for growth, or an acknowledgement that she is an imperfect, but well-rounded person. As it stands, flaws in this novel just sort of... exist? They bop around in the RWBY universe with almost no acknowledgement from the narrative or other characters, leaving the reader with little to nothing to take away from the text. Is Coco correct in her judgement? Is this a bias she needs to work on? Is she putting on a facade and her natural instinct to care for her team is the real Coco hidden underneath? Who knows! Sheâs just frustrating to read about most of the time and nothing comes of that.Â
Regardless, she heads out into the desert, using the night vision glasses Velvet made her.Â
Now see, this would have been the perfect thing to introduce before Velvet was fixing relay towers after the expert was injured. Remember how I said the novel didn't do enough to establish Velvet's own expertise? Not that a pair of goggles is really comparable to fixing a communications issue, but it still would have gone some way towards convincing me that Velvet is this super impressive tech gal, capable of handling any and all situations that might come her way.
But no, we get this impressive display of skill after Velvet's knowledge was needed in a pinch.Â
The glasses help Coco navigate the terrain, allowing her to both see in the dark and zoom in on things in the distance. This allows her to spot the six jackalopes that tripped the sensor, as well as the woman currently fighting them: Carmine, a villain from After the Fall that I know nothing about. Ah well. Note though what I said at the start, that Coco's dismissal of this assignment is based entirely in its supposed uselessness. Yet now here we have a pack of dangerous grimm and an enemy to content with.
Also, this is where Coco moves from kindly teammate to overconfident fool. She said she'd call for backup if she needed it... and she clearly needs it! From what I can gather, all of Team CFVY lost to Carmine last time they met up. But now she wants to risk fighting Carmine alone? Go get the others!
She doesn't, of course. Carmine doesn't notice Coco at first. She's talking about how she has to get back into the city. "Heâs going to kill me if Iâm not back to the Mirage in thirty."
As said, this also implies that Coco isn't nearly as far out as she initially suggested. If Carmine can feasibly finish this fight, cross the desert, navigate who knows how much of the city, and meet up with the mysterious "he" all in under half an hour, then Coco is patrolling pretty much right at the walls. AKA, the area that absolutely needs to be grimm free.
Luckily for those of us who are reading the books out of order, Myers gives a quick recap of Carmine's significance. Last book she had kidnapped Gus and "held off the combined might of Team CFVY in the desertâ (oh hey, I was right), presumably escaping afterwards. Now here she is again, likely up to some new, nefarious deed.Â
Our of curiosity, I googled to see what she looks like and...Â
WHAT IS THAT OUTFIT?Â
Coco watches as she works to keep on top of the six grimm, debating whether she should help or walk away, but when Carmine is taken unawares, Coco acts without thinking, throwing herself into the fray.
Sometimes decisions were like thatâyour body already knew what to do while your brain was still processing the situation. Only in this case, Cocoâs body wasnât necessarily the clearest judge of character. Her brain would have said that Carmine didnât deserve her help.
Now see, this is a scene I can get behind. The entire RWBY-verse is based around a type of superheroism: people with unnatural abilities, fantasy weapons, and extensive training devote themselves to protecting the people from various threats. Yet too often RWBY fails to convince me that these people are actually heroic, taking the standard flaws of a character and unknowingly exacerbating them to the point where I think, "Is this meant to be a commentary on the anti-hero? Or a critical look at these fantasy formulas? Because we've got the elements of that here, but no indication that the authors realize they're writing something other than that standard story." But this? This works for me. Coco, as a huntress, is so conditioned to help others that her body responds instinctively to someone being in danger, regardless of who that someone is. She outright admits that if she'd had the chance to think about it she would have decided against helping Carmine. The fact that she recognizes this and move anyway says a lot of good about her. Well done, Coco!
We see later that Carmine probably didn't need the help, but between the two of them the grimm really don't stand a chance. What's interesting though is how chummy the two are while defending themselves. Coco comments on Carmine's tendency to talk to grimm (like she does) and Carmine freely offers information about her movements, the fact that she lost her other sword, and that her partner, Bertilak, needs to "recharge a little" before getting back in the game. Carmine asks Coco if she'd like to team up with her instead (she does not) and the two have a number of flirty exchanges to top things off:
âIâve been dreaming of a rematch with you,â Coco said.
âYouâve been dreaming about me? Iâm flattered.â Carmine winked.
***
âHot date with the Crown?â Coco asked.
âDonât be jealous, darling.â
I bring all this up not as a criticism of the buddy-enemy dynamic (it's a favorite of mine), but simply because of something that happens next. Before we get to that though, I admit that I am on the fence about the flirting. Given that I haven't read After the Fall (assuming this characterization exists there), I know that Coco is a lesbian mostly via RWBY cultural osmosis, rather than through the text. This is one of the few (the only?) times that I've gotten a hint at her sexuality, yet it's associated with predatory behavior. Carmine, her enemy, is the one who turns an angry dream into a flattering one, the hot date with the bad guy into something to be jealous of. I'm honestly struggling to remember what, if anything, Coco has had to say about women in this book â this is what comes of such slow recapping and I acknowledge that this is entirely my fault â but I'm nevertheless discomforted by knowing Coco's canonical status, knowing RWBY's struggles with queer rep, and then reading a scene where the most overt representation thus far is the bad guy twisting Coco's words into something sexual.
I'm no purist. Give me a good enemies-to-lovers fic any day of the week, but that doesn't mean that kind of dynamic is the best to pull from in a franchise already facing heavy criticism for its queer rep.
Especially since the moment the grimm are gone Carmine turns her sai on Coco.
This is the "something that happens next" that I referenced above. It's weird to have them attacking one another after a whole scene of pretty genuine companionship. Coco doesn't help Carmine as a consequence of defending herself, she willingly gets involved. They tease one another. Carmine appears to answer her questions honestly. There's both implied and overt references to how well they work as a team. Then, suddenly, Carmine is outright trying to kill Coco, not just with her sai but by burying her alive. It's not the sort of banter that Ruby and Roman used to engage in, trading fake compliments and, in Roman's case before his death, legitimate feelings while attacking one another. Nor is Coco prepared for an attack the moment the grimm are gone, and she's not surprised by it. Itâs just this sudden change that feels rather jarring.Â
Though it's far from the first time BTD has failed to convey the emotion of a scene. Here's another example rnow. As said, Carmine is attempting to bury Coco alive by moving the sand with her semblance. That's horrifying enough on its own, but remember that Coco is claustrophobic. Yet none of that panic shines through here. She comes across as indifferent throughout the attack, thinking back to summers when her brother tried to bury her while she sunbathed, amazed that she could ever consider this fun. You know who Coco sounds like in this scene?
At no point during this attack did I get the sense that Coco believes sheâs in serious danger, let alone that she's struggling against a long-term phobia. The only time I even remembered that claustrophobia is meant to be a challenge for her is when she throws out the oh-so casual line, "One of her worst nightmares was being buried alive." Oh really? Because it doesn't seem like it! Coco is calm enough to remember that she used to be able to hold her breath for exactly three minutes and forty-two seconds. That doesn't feel like a character fighting against her worst nightmare.
So this scene isn't exactly compelling. Which is too bad because, as said, Coco as some other nice moments in this chapter.
However, during all this we do learn a little more about Carmine. Prior to getting trapped in the sand, Coco comments on how shockingly strong she is. "Carmine should have been at least a little bit worn down from fighting Grimm," but she's not, "She seemed nearly unstoppable now." Coco hits her full in the face, but she doesn't seem fazed. Earlier in the chapter there was that comment about how she previously took on Team CFVY alone and at the end of the battle Coco observes that Carmine "still seemed as fresh as she had at the beginning of the fight. How was she even doing that?" My basic reading comprehension skills tell me that this is setup for something, likely some change enacted by the Crown. Surely the text wouldn't put so much emphasis on Carmine's strength â have Coco questioning it to this extent, framing it as unnatural â unless we were going to get an answer, right?
But this is RWBY, so I'm not inclined to count my chickens before they hatch.
The rest of Coco's team arrives and it's then that she decides to pull the super dangerous stunt to free herself. Yeah, yeah, I get that she's suffocating and needs to do something now, can't wait to be dug out I suppose, but the timing is pretty ridiculous. The cavalry has arrived, yay! Time to blow myself up.
Seriously. She blows herself up. Using her own semblance, Coco focuses on one of her gravity dust bullets and detonates it, causing all the others in her arsenal to detonate too. It gets her out of the hole and "knocked her Aura down to a dangerously low level."
So... letâs see. Coco can literally detonate a bunch of explosives on her person, after suffocating under stand, after fighting Carmine, after fighting grimm, after a week long mission, and her aura doesn't break... but Yang's does from a single Neo slash?
Okay, RWBY.
Reese and Olive try to attack Carmine together, but end up eliminating one another's attacks. I like that a team actually has some realistic difficulties for once. Coco, however, is internally an asshole, calling them "idiots" and saying that they need to learn to coordinate their attacks. Thing is, she apparently hasn't done anything over the last week to help with that. She's been too busy complaining about Reese's clothes.
Carmine runs off as more grimm show up, drawn by Coco's non-existent panic. To her credit she does thank the others for saving her... but then immediately tries to downplay that. âIt wasnât a fair fight,â Coco spat when Reese (correctly) points out that she's the one who was ambushed. She also starts giving orders and when Reese (again, correctly!) goes to point out that she's the leader, Coco talks over her, saying they can't waste any more time out here because she has reason to believe that Shade has been compromised. She needs them only because she's out of bullets and low on aura, but they definitely need her because "letâs face it, Iâm the best strategist around for miles."
Coco's a strategist?
And why does she sound like a villain trying to convince the heroes to work with her? Sheâs already part of the team!
Putting all that aside for the moment, we're back to this prideful characterization. I liked the well-rounded Coco from a few pages ago who balanced caring for her team with the likelihood of needing backup. Now she's flinching from the idea that she'd ever need help (hello, Sun characterization too) and snatching Reese's role the moment she's given the chance. So much for respecting her position. If the book wants me to believe that Reese is unfit to be leader and this is a golden opportunity for Coco to right a wrong... how about we actually show Reese being a bad leader?
Regardless, yay working together? The chapter ends with them presumably taking out the grimm before heading back to Shade, along with an important revelation. Prior to leaving, Carmine asked Coco why Yatsuhashi and Fox weren't rushing to her aid. It's only now that Coco realizes she didn't mention Velvet. Why? Perhaps because Carmine already knows where Velvet is, which obviously doesn't imply anything good.
And that's the end of Chapter Ten! Can you tell I never know how to finish these recaps? Describing cliffhangers doesn't have quite the same punch as, you know, actual cliffhangers. You all just have to suffer through my mediocre endings with me.
But would you look at that! Turns out the third attempt at writing this was the charm! :D
See you for Chapter Eleven! đ
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As per my last post, here's a couple things I wanted to talk about after watching squid game. I watched it fairly recently but there may be some points I'm forgetting or remembering wrong so don't judge me too harshly ~â
Feel free to gently argue with these points, or agree! I wonder what other people think about these, and if anyone thought the same.
This is mostly about Gi-hun's characterisation because it was one of my favourite aspects of the show. I also really loved the styling and aesthetics of the show (which is another ramble for another day).
â Gi-hun's motivations as a protagonist and where did they go? Where did the new one come from?
They do a very nice job of setting him up as a flawed protagonist in the scenes before the game is introduced by showing how he interacts with who he's closest to, and a stranger:
âą When he runs into Sae-byeok and knocks her drink on the floor, he takes a moment to fix it and hand it back to her while he's running from debt collectors who probably want to kill him.
âą He took the time to try and get his daughter a nice gift and meal for her birthday. The gun lighter was probably for a little light-hearted moment, and she doesn't hate it...?
Whether she actually was happy about just getting tteokbokki for her birthday dinner isn't super important, but it is notable that she tried to make her dad feel better about it. We don't really know how long Gi-hun previously lived with his daughter, if at all, but we know that she was raised to be considerate of other people, kind of like her dad!
There are more examples for sure, but those are just off the top of my head.
âą Side note, I like how they didn't tell us how or why he got into so much debt. They may have said or hinted to it at some point and I forgot, but for now I'll just assume that after he lost his job, he fell on super tough times and took out loans to just get by. If that was the case, then that just reinforces how desperate he was for money.
âą Alright. So we know this guy needs money to pay off his debt so he doesn't, like, get his kidneys taken out or something. But his biggest motivator (that doesn't threaten his life) is just to be a good dad, and to be able to provide for his kid.
We also know that he's somewhat considerate of other people.
So they showed this throughout the series... until the end, where suddenly taking down the squid game is more important than seeing his daughter. Huh? I feel like that turn betrays his entire motivation and it does not make sense. The show makes it pretty clear that the people running the game are ruthless and cannot be overcome, especially not by one person.
What happened that made him turn into that kind of main character? I didn't fully hate the ending, but it was not satisfying. Get on the damn plane.
â Aside from all that, there was one moment which I didn't quite understand, which was the scene where Gi-hun goes to ask his ex-wife for money to pay for his mother's hospital bills, and his interaction with the stepdad.
So we know that Gi-hun gambles, 'forces' his way into his mother's bank account, and has his arm twisted into selling his physical rights, but he can't accept being handed money? Not even to help his ill mother? What?
[Speaking of his mother, I think it's a shame that she died at the end because we could have seen how far Gi-hun would have gone to pay her back. Would he just pay for her hospital bills, or pay for her to live comfortably, or even pay her back all the money he took from her? How much does he care about her? Not only that, but it would have been nice to see some backstory about his childhood, and it would have even fit with the games being games from their childhood. Missed opportunity imho. Seeing tiny Gi-hun and Sangwoo play the normal squid game and then transition into them beating each other up on the playing field would have destroyed me.]
Of course there could be a number of reasons he refused the money, but they don't really tell us why. Sure, there's probably a history of bad stuff with him and his daughters stepdad (since the stepdad even says something along the lines of "you shouldn't have let him in/why is he in here," yet the scene plays like this is the first time he's asking them for money, and the stepdad even pities him enough to hand him some cash.
Okay so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Gi-hun gets mad enough at being handed some cash for whatever reason.
(He also says "money isn't everything" in this scene which is interesting.)
So him hitting his daughters stepdad could just have been to show that he acts impulsively on his emotions, and of course he was angry. About... being given money?
Maybe it was simply the catalyst into him wanting to be a good, as him hitting the guy would have been easy for a kid to look at go 'he's a violent person and hit someone,' but that makes his action in the final scene make even less sense. He literally got what he wanted. This drive to end the game came from nowhere, and seems pretty impossible.
So yes. I love how Gi-hun was written as a protagonist. He's already 3-dimensional by the first episode, especially concerning the main drive of the show (money).
Another tiny note:
â The police officer subplot didn't really go anywhere. It was engaging and I liked it, don't get me wrong! It was interesting to be able to look into the workings of the game from an outsider's perspective.
It could have been a setup for a s2 (which I really don't think it needs), as we don't know if the photos and videos actually got sent through, but there was too much going on for it to not lead anywhere beyond that. The brother reveal would have meant a little more if we knew more about either character perhaps.
So the brother won the game, then he became the front man. (Please tell me if I remembered that wrong) Why? How? If he won, then he would have first-hand seen the horrors of the games.
This also inadvertently set up the "Gi-hun will probably win because he's the protagonist... wait... will he have to become the next front man?" thought I had my head. I fully thought that it was heading in that kind of converging path. Made the ending a little more unsatisfying.
Anyway, thank you for reading all this!
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Living With It
I started to hijack @ifIhadmypickofwishes thread about âpeople talking in circles for hours about how everything is terribleâ because it stirred a memory I wanted to re-visit. So instead of further rambling over there, I want to remember this memory on my own blog.
The memory was âliving the long, slow group trauma,â as told by an Archivist who brought her organization through Hurricane Katrina. I may not be remembering it quite right, so these arenât her words, itâs my memory of what she said about 15 years ago.
The thought was âyou canât live in the adrenaline rush of âfight or flightâ when the trauma takes a long time to unfold. Adrenaline is for short bursts of activity, a few seconds, a minute or two maybe. If you have to do a stressful thing for a long, long haul, you need other modes.
She realized after the initial disaster there was another disaster beyond that one, and another and another. Things werenât going to be ânormalâ again for a long, long while, maybe never again âthe way things were before.â But you have to live long enough to get to whatever better state you can get to, and you have to build the better state you want to achieve.
She called the response âTend and Befriend.â It meant: protect whatâs important and take care of each other, and let others take care of you. Share resources instead of competing for them.â
So âtendâ doesnât mean just âthe archives,â (which was what her team wanted to focus on first, being archivists.) Tend means âtake care of the archivists.â Eat, sleep, follow safety protocols, take breaks (yes, even you), take care of your families, wear protective equipment correctly, seek medical help when needed, deal with your stress constructively, take care of the team, organize shifts, make plans, delegate tasks, communicate, support each other physically and emotionally. This will enable you to do the work you have to do, which is to rescue and restore the collections. Staff first, collections after. When you take care of someone else, you do smart things you sometimes wouldnât do for yourself, so you have to allow them to return the favor and take care of you, too. Mutuals take care of each other.
Befriend doesnât have to mean enjoying each otherâs company or being likeable (although those wonât hurt). It means share resources instead of competing for them, make alliances with other teams/agencies, seek outside help, get funding and policy support from higher up or outside. Build trust, be considerate, keep commitments and, yes, that includes setting boundaries/schedules/priorities and communicating them. Friends keep each other informed about whatâs going on and what is needed, and respect each otherâs shared trauma/resource needs. Be understanding and forgiving when needed. Ask for help. Accept help when offered. Express appreciation and make sure people feel their efforts are valued regardless of how productive they are. Terrified, exhausted people are less productive, but making an effort counts. She said that as pack creatures, we have an instinct to âcircle the herd to protect whatâs important,â and we should use that instinct to bond together and work as a team, not against each other.
As a manager, she said her role was to set the example by taking breaks, eating, etc. and also giving permission to her staff to perform acts of self care, and ordering them to do it when necessary, and also to focus all the panicked energy of the team into constructive action by setting priorities, schedules, establishing goals, etc. Worried people donât think well, so they need simple, clear tasks, and a way to measure achievable victories. If you cannot fix the whole problem, fix the parts you can fix. Â Keep the team moving in a useful direction and coordinate the roles together so folks donât mill around and trample each other accidentally, or scatter. And keep going, together. We may not get âthere,â but we are bound to get somewhere. When we look back on all this, how we got here will matter.
We are going to want to feel proud of getting through all this. We were there when it all happened, and we did what we could. It was unimaginably hard. We must have been impossibly strong. We were stronger together.
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whys it a worthless video essay? genuinely curious on your thoughts :0
The racism mostly!
Disclaimer: iâm white, and not meaning to speak for any person of color! My opinions on this are formed based on what i noticed in combination with what i know about racism, and I believe that in this case iâm right about what iâve observed. That said, my observations are open to criticism from any black people who might be reading this and feel like weighing in, as my only personal experiences in bigotry are with my identity as a queer person. In short: iâm not an expert, but i do have eyes and what they see is repulsive. Anyway this will be rambly.
First and foremost, The Tragedy of Droids by @popculturedetectiveâs editing directly connects the Droids in Star Wars with the atrocities of chattel slavery in the americas, and the perceived connection is at times hinted at in the script.
@4:10 into the video â...theyâre also bought and sold like cattleâ is a quote i caught when trying to find the following time stamps, because the editing is the real beast here.
Thereâs also @ 4:35 âyou can probably guess where iâm going with this, because the social arrangement iâve just described is one of property and owner. And a property relationship between two intelligent beings that gives one absolute power over the other is called slavery.â
In this video essay, there are multiple times when the visuals cut between Roots and the droids of Star Wars. This is important because Roots is a mini series based off the family history of the black man who wrote the book, Alex Haley, and the scenes being directly juxtaposed with Star Wars droids are the scenes from it where black people are on slave ships or being sold at auction. TToD essay, which was at the very least presented by a white man, wants the viewer to connect robots and black people for the sake of the essayâs argument. TToD essay wants the connection between real black human beings who actually lived and suffered and died in the real damn world to, i cannot stress this enough, machines.
To anyone who is reading this and not seeing why thats fucked up, because they view the droids as people, hereâs the problem. Droids arenât people. No matter how you slice it, no matter how much you love them, theres actually no way for us to be sure that 99% of droids are sentient beings, that are self aware, and that feel things. Droids in the Star Wars universe are constructed to be tools that talk to you and have fun personalities. Some droids might be self aware and sentient, but the likelihood is that the vast majority arenât due to being what they are. Tools. This is in stark contrast to black people, because black people are, uh, people!!
At 4:00 into the video essay, we start to see the cuts between Roots and Star Wars. Pop Culture Detective cuts between C-3PO/R2-D2 being sold to Lukeâs family and a black woman being put in front of a crowd of white people to be auctioned off. This same sequence of cuts is used again later in the video essay.
At 28:20 into the video, a clip from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used wherein Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg, a black woman) is talking about slaves and slavery, how there have been disposable people in history. This clip on its own is so, so good. It aired in 1989, and I have no idea what the political climate was like for black people then (im not as well versed in history as i would like) but i can guess it probably wasnât good!
â...They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because its too difficult or too hazardous. You donât have to think about their welfare. You donât think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.â
And then Pop Culture Detective uses this (to me) powerful line about atrocities done to human beings... and cuts to R2-D2 serving drinks to Jabbaâs crew. PCD says some bullshit about how star wars is using the droids as an allegory for slavery but has nothing to say with the metaphor, and then it cuts back to Guinan to finish her speech. Might i say: what the fuck. What the fuck.
I canât find it right now, but i distinctly remember there is also a bit where the visuals cut straight from a black manâs face to the face of an astromech.
And the cherry on top is that the clones are in this video... and never mentioned. Okay actually iâm going to talk about this videoâs treatment of the clones and how utterly fucked up it is because i was so caught up in the âthis essay wants you to think of the horrors of chattel slavery done to black people as being even remotely comparable to the existence of R2-D2â that i forgot to talk about the clones.
Okay so this video does not mention the clones at all. It uses clips from the clone wars and clips from the prequels movies with clones in them, but the clones arenât even so much as talked about in passing. The closest we get is this brushing off of the issue in general @29:50:
âRemember, this is a universe where humanoid slavery exists as well, but its presented as unambiguously negative, though not exactly something the heroes are in a rush to abolish.â
Which is said about Anakin and his mother. And its not like they forgot about the clone wars and to talk about it at all! No, they had this to say on it @15:10. See if you notice anything.
â...But what about Battle droids?... Well, the separatist droid army in the prequels seems specifically designed as little more than canon fodder. Making the bad guys unfeeling robots avoids the messy moral complications and mass casualties that would result from an interstellar war. If battle droids arenât alive then the audience doesnât have to care when thousands of them are killed in extended battlefield scenes. Indeed weâre encouraged to think of these types of droids as mere objects and to cheer at their dismemberment.â
Drink it in yâall, iâm still absorbing it. Iâll note that sections of this were played over clips from the first battle of geonosis, and there were clones on screen. So, PCD completely sidesteps the issue of the clones, seemingly unaware of the actual explicit enslavement of brown men who are unquestionably living thinking feeling people, in favor of projecting humanity onto every single droid including the infamously poorly programed B1 Battle droids.
I donât know what else I can say on that besides the fact that some obscure ass clips from the clone wars are used to humanize the robots, implying that PCD watched tcw and missed the episode where Slick calls the Jedi slavers.
Thereâs other problems with it as a whole, like the essayist completely failing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all droids are sentient, or that even most droids are. No consideration is given to the purpose, construction, or make/model of droid into the question of âare they sentientâ? And weâre left with the implication that your average mouse droid is at all relatable to a black person.
In fact, PCD in this essay seems to actually imply that r2-d2 and bb8 being sentient-ish robots weâre supposed to empathize with, and the battle droids being not that, is due to a failure/breakdown of internal logic. And not that theyâre, you know, different machines...?
I have so much to say on this mess, but this is long enough as it is. In conclusion, Pop Culture Detectiveâs video essay should have been about the clones, but it chose to focus on droids instead and in doing so dehumanized black people in an attempt to humanize robots.
Iâll leave you with this quote from the video, but edited slightly to be instead about the clones.
â[Slick]âs observations about [clone] slavery could have been an opportunity for Star Wars to finally grapple with the uncomfortable fact that...the good guys seem to have been keeping sentient beings in a state of perpetual servitude.â
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While we see a comparison with SyaoSaku and Akiho/Kaito (They might need a ship name soon), there is also this interesting contrast. Even though SyaoSaku still needs to work on communication, they do have that great level of trust when they do interact. With Akiho/Kaito, we see them having casual conversation with little issue. But when things get serious or concerning, there is some level of dismissiveness and gaslighting from Kaito, much to Momo and all of our detriments.
Thank you very much for posing this question anon, as I think I havenât said everything I wanted to say in my analysis post, and I will use this space to ramble a little bit more about âthat sideâ of the parallelism in this last chapter...
(long rambling under the cut)
First thing first, they do already have a ship name! :D The japanese fandom has named them âYunaAkiâ. Why they chose âYunaâ over âKaitoâ is not clear, it seems it sounded better. After all, we donât know which is the given name and which is the last name. As itâs a fake name, it probably doesnât matter.
Yes, I totally agree with you. I think, probably the whole meaning of the chapter was to show how different can be the outcome for two similar situations, if you keep your heart shut and donât trust the person youâre supposed to care for.
As you said, Syaoran and Sakura still have some minor communication issues going on, but theyâre working on them and they are solving the situation, this chapter was another proof of that. Itâs incredible to think that most of the resistance actually comes from Sakura, but...
Syaoran has accepted and decided to be frank with Sakura, to the point of being even too blunt, sometimes. Sakura, instead, keeps sweeping her negative emotions under the carpet, but Syaoran is slowly pulling her out of that behavioral pattern.
What do we have on the other side, the YunaAki side?
We have, first of all, two battered souls who are trying to cope with their past, each in their own way.
One is doing her best to leave her past behind, with a positive attitude, and doesnât let the occasional moments of discomfort to halt her progress. She might trip and fall because certain scars are simply too deep to heal in such a short time, but we see Akiho being stronger and stronger, everyday.
One...is basically just doing what Sakura does, sweeps everything under the carpet, the problem is that he doesnât do that only with the negative emotions, he does that with everything. Even the emotions that are supposed to give him joy and happiness. Heâs completely, impossibly shut in himself, and doesnât let anyone in, not even the creature who is supposed to be his ally in his âquestâ.
Itâs very important to keep in consideration Akihoâs and Kaitoâs pasts, when analyzing their behavior, because their pasts still have great influence on their mindsets. Akiho struggles to let go the âIâm good for nothingâ mentality that her clan has engraved so deeply into her heart, while Kaito thinks heâs still that brooding, dull, aloof kid who used to walk down the hallways of the Association all alone, watched from a distance by all the other magicians.
In this chapter, those behavioral patterns came out completely in the sunlight.
But while Akiho took her own patterns and decided âI donât want to be this way, Iâve already changed so much because of you and I want to help you in returnâ, activating a sort of âpositive responseâ, Kaito saw her getting closer and insisted in barricading himself behind that thin wall that heâs built around his heart.Â
Itâs not by chance that I wanted to make the parallel with the SyaoSaku situation more obvious with the use of the âknocking on the doorâ metaphor, since thatâs really what I felt when Iâve read the chapter.
We have a boy and a girl in love with someone and seeing that loved one in pain. Both kids try to be of help because they canât stand to see them bearing all the burden alone.Â
And thatâs when trust comes into the picture.
I am saying trust, and not love, because I do think Kaito loves Akiho (and here I have to specify again that we donât know what kind of love is, but at the very least he has affection for her).
While Sakura trusts Syaoran to the point of not losing faith in him even when he revealed to be the one who took the Sakura Cards, or even despite all the dreams with MCF Syaoran sheâs having, Kaito doesnât trust Akiho. He cannot trust her. Heâs too afraid of what would entail to let Akiho closer than the safe distance they have right now.
There are many reasons for this.
One, the most obvious: heâs about to die. He is going to die and that, in his mind, is a certainty, because he needs to save her before itâs too late, and even if the time rewindings wonât kill him, probably the last taboo magic will.
Thereâs absolutely no point, in his head, to get closer to her.
Two, actually accepting her offer for help would mean that at some point he would have to explain why heâs so worn out, and all thatâs behind it. With that, he would inflict on her a pain even greater than the one heâs living on his skin. He has carefully avoided to let her know *any* thing about the terrible spell that is at work on her, in order to give her a life as normal as possible, and he wouldnât nullify that for anything in the world.
Three, heâs terribly afraid of human connections. To the point of turning himself blind to the beating and stirring of his heart. Heâs still convinced that he doesnât have a heart, just like when he was in the Association.
But Momo was clear: no matter how strong you are, or what kind of life you live, no one can ever stay the same, if theyâre given the trigger to change. And Kaito has already had that, when he decided on that fateful day, âIâll goâ.
He just has to stop refusing to admit it.
It was painful to see him going in circles, in hope to avoid where Momo was getting at in chapter 51, and the saddest thing of it all is that it seems this is an automatic behavior, he seemed genuinely confused when Momo said âYou missed somethingâ. âMissedâ, past tense.
Akiho is terribly scary to him, when she runs on her assertiveness and starts making questions. This was obviously not the first time and he knows that sheâs damn observant when she wants. Everytime Kaito changed expression, everytime something was wrong with him, she always caught on.
Dammit, she loves him, what else is she supposed to do? She canât turn a blind eye on him.Â
But this is all too scary for him, because she demands a connection heâs afraid of. Letting someone inside of you means to see your comfortable, perfect, reassuring bubble getting turned upside down, because in a relationship of any kind, you are two, not one. Each with their own expectations, behaviors, personalities. While he has already changed his lifestyle to adapt to one that would be healthy for Akiho, he isnât definitely ready (or so he thinks) to change his heart. And thatâs why, when Akiho mentions that she has changed parts of her thanks to him, he is definitely triggered and literally runs away, interrupting her attempt to tell him âIâm here for you. Let me in. Tell me whatâs wrongâ.
He doesnât want to hear that she changed thanks to him, because that would force him to realize that heâs changed too, thanks to her. And whatâs more scary than aknowledging that youâre not the same person anymore, that you already have a seat ready in your heart with her name on it?
His feelings are most apparent in the âstupidestâ things, like going all the way to cook character bento only for her (that's definitely, definitely, not a butlerâs duty), or let nonchalantly slip âbecause itâs youâ without even realizing what that implies (and making Akiho blush furiously) (talking only manga side here, the anime had one huge display of what he feels and we all know which scene it is).
You can well understand why Momo feels so frustrated with him, when the situation is in plain sight and yet he turns a blind eye on it.
So gaslighting and dismissive, we were saying. Thatâs his defensive reaction because he actually feels like the one attacked, in that moment.
And when he realizes that lies donât work, he just panics, and instead of elaborating a better lie, he totally cuts her short and runs away. He couldâve said âThanks Akiho-san, but Iâm fine, reallyâ. But no.
That explains quite well why he was shaking, after that. I know CLAMP have skillfully thrown that symptom among his conditions worsening, as soon as he left Akihoâs room, so everyone thinks he was shaking because heâs in terrible shape, and maybe itâs partly true, but I donât think he wouldâve been surprised, if the trembling was caused by his health. He knows heâs dying. He doesnât wonder why he has heart attacks, he knows what causes them.
Instead, with this, heâs so confused that he even slightly laughs, like he canât believe what heâs actually feeling.
This is gonna be a rough journey, for Kaito (and for us), because the more he goes on and the more his time narrows down, the more he seems on the brink of insanity. He needs someone interrupting this slippery slope by force, someone who understands where he is coming from, and understands his biggest problem of turning away his eyes from his heart.
Yâall know who I am talking about, right? :D
#cardcaptor sakura#Card Captor Sakura#ccsakura#yunaaki#reply#yuna d. kaito#akiho shinomoto#clear card spoilers#ccs spoilers#chapter 52#Anonymous
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as with everything else in life, Iâm late to making this post. I tend to make one around Jan 1st every year, but itâs now a few days after that, and all i can say for myself is that time is non-consequential during a pandemic, right? right.
anywho, this is my usual âthank you for keeping me going this yearâ post, but with even more fervor. 2020 would not have been nearly as tolerable without you all in it. and when i say all i really do mean all. thank you to anyone who follows me here or has read and supported my work on AO3 or has sent me a message or an ask or even just likes my posts. you can never know how many peopleâs hearts youâve touched, lives youâve made better, but iâm telling you now: you made me smile and laugh and feel love in a year that could have easily stolen all that. thank you for sticking around.
a few more specific shoutouts are under the cut to keep from flooding your dashes. i hope youâre all having a wonderful start to the new year.
much love, mari
to @anniemurphys: ria, i cannot thank you enough, for so many things. you played such a vital role in turning this year around for me. your friendship, and the friendships youâve helped me make through book club, kept me smiling from week to week. i never wanted to leave our meetings, no matter how long theyâd already gone. I could listen to your literary analyses and life advice for days on end. youâre such a kind, patient, loving person, and Iâm so lucky to have you in my life. hereâs to another year of freaking out over taylor swift albums and the power inherent in voluntarily turning oneself into vegetation.
to @bigdsgirl: heidi, youâre one of the sweetest, most hard-working people i know. you amaze me, and you graciously humor my latest hyper fixationsâsomehow always knowing, always reblogging content related to what iâm obsessing over at the moment. you give such great advice and have such a calming presence that i love being in chats and on calls with you. i cannot wait for more zoom movie nights in 2021.
to @hellodinoflower: raptor, youâve supported me for so many years now, and whenever i feel down about my writing iâll go back through the comments on some of my old fics and yours always make me tear up. youâre so thoughtful and kind and excited about my work that i cannot help but be the same. i hope you enjoyed the little dino reference in pride & publishingâi tried my best, i really didâand i hope youâre doing well. sending you so much love.
to @soyforramen: soy, i promise iâll get to your head canon asks some day. i promise i havenât forgotten them; iâm just uncreative and uninspired, but what else is new. you, however, are brilliant and kind and thoughtful, and your guidance in making both life and fic-writing decisions has been so important to me this year. wishing you so much luck with school this year, and even more happiness.
to @ithoughtyoulikedmereckless: rach, where to even begin? youâre the person i talk to when iâm feeling happy or sad or annoyed or angry or pretty much anything, really. our FaceTime convos are my favourite, no matter what time of day we have them at (somehow, the ones at 10pm are just as crazy as the ones at 3am, and i donât really understand how or why, but i love that for us). iâve learned so much about myself through my conversations with you, and you keep me level headed when i start doubting myself too much. you understand me on such an amazing level and iâm so lucky that you reached out to me so many years ago. iâm so lucky that we just happened to find each other on here and just so happened to move near each other this year. i still cannot believe i get to see you in person and go on walks in the woods with you. youâre such a talented photographer, writer, painter, baker, and all around artist; an incredibly kind and funny person; and i aspire to be you. iâm rambling now, but just know that i love you.
to @catthecoder: lav, my light, my love. seeing your icon and username on my dash makes me smile so hard. you just give off the best vibes and chatting with you always leaves me feeling like iâve been basking in the sunlight for the past few hours. we need to make a resolution to sprint with each other more often this year, even if 2021 is going to be as hectic as ever, as i find so much joy in reading your snippets as we go along. youâre such a wonderful writer, and i often read your gift to me from years ago for inspiration and comfort. i hope youâre doing well and am sending so much love.
to @stirringsofconsciousness: stirrings!! i know youâve had a super busy year, but you still made time to chat with me and iâll be forever grateful. i often think about the advice youâve left for me and the thoughtful responses youâve given to my personal posts and find so much inspiration in your own words and actions. i also still cannot get over the time when you sent me a post of artful vases because you thought of me when you saw them. mortifying ordeal of being known who? anyways lol, i just wanted to thank you for being in my life and wish you a happy 2021.
to @heavy-lies-the-crown: alex, i just wanted to thank you for putting your time and energy towards answering my incessant questions this year. youâve been an inspiration to me as a writer ever since i first found your work, but youâre also an inspiration to me as a person, and iâm always thinking about the advice youâve given me. i hope you had a wonderful end to 2020, and that 2021 brings you even more joy than seeing your posts on my dash brings me. much love.
to @stonerbughead: maria, you brought so much happiness to my 2020. your support for my work took my breath away every time, and I swear I nearly cried when I saw your latest comments on pride and publishing. you put so much time and energy into this fandom, and into supporting the people in it, and I hope you know that it doesnât go unnoticed. we all love you, and weâre so lucky to have you; your fics are brilliant, your podcast highlights are a joy to read, and your disdain for ras is hilarious. thank you for being you. sending lots of love.
to @sullypants: sully, itâs been years and i still marvel at how lucky i am to know you. youâve taught me so much, from how to be more thoughtful to how to navigate therapy and self-love to how to be a kinder person in the world. you introduced me to ask polly and you send me really nice asks and youâre one of like four people who interacts with my posts on a consistent basis, which makes me feel a little less alone in the world, if that makes any sense. iâm going to stop myself from rambling on or else i might cry, but i just wanted to thank you forâhere comes the clicheâchanging my life (doesnât everyone we meet change our lives, in some way or another? but youâve changed mine considerably, and for the better). sending you so much love (in the form of both yellow and blue heart emojis)
to @justcourbeau: mel, our paths cross less frequently now than they used to, but that doesnât mean i donât think about you and the conversations weâve had, or smile when i come across your posts on my dash, or when i happen to open up instagram once in a blue moon and see youâve posted on your story. please never stop sending me sparknotes memesâespecially cask of amontillado ones. your words of advice from the night i called you, distraught, a few years ago live in my brain rent free, and i will continue to carry them into 2021 with me. i hope 2021 treats you well, and that you achieve all you want and more. sending you an immense amount of love.
to @protectorofthesmoll: your string of comments on pride and publishing made me cry multiple times, i swear. i still read them back every so often, when iâm trying to muster the courage to start up on the new chapter. your support means so much to me, and it amazes me how far back it goes: Iâm pretty sure I have at least two asks of yours sitting in my inbox, from back in 2018 when I had barely any followers or supporters, both of them writing prompts that I never filled. i promise iâll get to them one day. anywho, i just wanted to thank you for your support this year, and every year before that. wishing you so much love and happiness in 2021.
to @panalegs27: 2020 was the year of figuring out that we have so much in common: a hatred of dating apps, confusion over tumblrâs obsession with the raven cycle, and an attraction to logan lerman with gray hair. thank you for chatting about all of these things, and more, with me; seeing that youâve sent me a post always makes me smile, and our conversations make me laugh. wishing you even more love and laughter in 2021.
to @indiebughead: maria, itâs been so lovely getting to know you more over the course of this year. i love listening to your stories and living vicariously through you, lol. (i want updates on new neighbor boy, asap!) thank you for listening to my petty rants and for encouraging me to make bad decisions and be salty on main when i want to be. i couldnât have asked for a more supportive conspirer ;) sending lots of love.
to @redundantoxymorons: iz, youâre one of the smartest, most eloquent, most supportive people i know. i know 2021 will be both stressful and exciting in many ways, and i wish you all the best. i know youâre going to thrive wherever you end up, and iâll cheer you on as you navigate this new world, just as youâve done for me all these years. iâm so lucky to have you as a friend, supporter, and beta, and all of our conversations bring me so much joy. pls continue to gush about taylor swift and rec books and send uquizzes with results that make me feel Known in 2021. i love you very much <3
to @cracklr: leda, iâve missed your passive aggressive smiley faces, but your gushing insta comment more than made up for that, i promise :) sending you so much love and happiness in this new year <3
to @dottie-wan-kenobi: dottie, the posts we send each other make me so upset, but in a good wayâthe âif i just had to see this nasty shit then so do youâ kind of wayâand i love that about our relationship. who else would understand how disgustingly hilarious something is other than my wife? no one, thatâs who. i often think about how you were the first friend i made in fandom, and iâll be forever grateful for that: i couldnât have found a better person. i love you so much, and am sending you all my love.
this list of shoutouts is really much shorter than it should be, but my brain is currently friend and i cannot seem to think properly anymore. therefore, iâm going to call it a day and reiterate my above statements that I love you all, and I hope you have a fucking amazing 2021.
#i can't find my 2019 one of these so i've decided i need to start tagging them with something so i can read them back#so for posterity:#end of the year appresh#anywho#none of this is edited or read over#so if it's embarrassingly cheesy or there are typos... welp
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my home is your body, how can I stay away?
I WROTE MY FIRST FIC. And I was brave enough to post it. So, if you want to read a fake-friends-to-real-lovers Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes post-Endgame AU where we pretend that Steve and Natasha are still alive and well in the 21st century, you can check it out below or read it on AO3.
Title: my home is your body, how can i stay away?
Rating: Explicit
Category: M/M
Relationship: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes (background Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanoff)
Additional tags: itâs like fake/pretend relationship, but itâs actually fake best friendship, fake friends to real lovers, post-Avengers Endgame, Epilogue What Epilogue, Natasha Romanoff Lives, Steve Rogers Stays, is everyone bi?, ambiguous barbershop quarter, bisexual Sam Wilson, bisexual Bucky Barnes, bisexual Steve Rogers, bisexual Natasha Romanoff, Captain America Sam Wilson
Words:Â 30,367
Link to AO3 here
Summary:Â "Anyway, I think if we team up, we can convince Steve that weâre best friends now. Then heâll get jealous and remember how much more important we are to him than Natalia.â
Sam considers this carefully. Heâs never been pressed so close to Bucky before, their faces only inches away from one another. From this distance Sam can see how long and thick Buckyâs eyelashes are. He can smell the pleasant scents of Buckyâs clean sweat and spicy aftershave.Â
He wants to press his thumb into the cleft in Buckyâs chin.
âYeah, that sounds like a great idea,â Sam hears himself say.
âGreat!â
After they save the world, after Steve leaves and returns again with a smiling Natasha tucked tenderly underneath his arm, after all the happy and tearful reunions, after Tony Starkâs funeral, Sam Wilson takes a minute to sit his ass underneath a tree and freak the fuck out about the fact that heâs just been dead for the last five years.
Heâs listening to a robot tell him for the fifth time that his motherâs number is âno longer in service,â his hand shaking as he presses redial on Steveâs borrowed cell phone. He wants to call his sister, wants to find out what happened to his niece, but he canât remember his sisterâs number and the only thing he can think of to do is just to keep calling his mom over and over again. Heâs starting to really settle into the panic attack, gulping for air as his heart pounds wildly in his chest, when Bucky Barnes squats down beside him, perfectly balanced on those lean and powerful thighs.
âYou OK?â Bucky asks quietly. Sam shakes his head silently, too overwhelmed to even begin to answer that question.
Like people are just OK after waking up five years in the future. Like people are just OK after turning to ash and then reforming into a human being. What is he even made of right now? Is he made of the same atoms and cells he was made of before he turned to dust? Is he even the same person? Did Sam Wilson die? Is he just a new Sam Wilson that Bruce Banner created out of thin air, a brand new body with the same memories as the first Sam Wilson? God, what is this Ship of Theseus nonsense, everything about this is so fucked upâ
âOK, I need you to breathe,â Bucky says gently, interrupting Samâs spiral into actual fucking madness. Bucky grabs Samâs hand and pulls it to his chest. âCan you feel my chest moving? Feel me breathing in and out? Stop thinking, close your eyes, and match your breaths to mine.â
Sam squeezes his eyes shut and focuses on the feel of Buckyâs chest rising and falling underneath his hand. Buckyâs sternum is flat and bony underneath Samâs palm, but he can feel the gentle rise of Buckyâs strong pectoral muscles underneath his fingers. Buckyâs skin is warm through his shirt, and Sam focuses on the solid feel of him as he follows Buckyâs slow and deep breathing. Buckyâs thumb presses firmly against the inside of Samâs wrist. Thereâs an anxious tingling all over Samâs skin, washing over him from head to toe, making Sam afraid that heâs going to buzz right out of his skin.
But Bucky is breathing deep and slow, and Sam lets himself relax into it, feels himself fall in sync with this not-quite-stranger, his best friendâs best friend, who is very considerately trying to keep Sam from falling apart.
âYouâre doing great, Sam,â Bucky praises gently. âJust keep breathing, youâre doing great.â
âI hate this,â Sam mutters.
Bucky strokes his thumb over the sensitive skin of Samâs wrist and leans closer, hesitating briefly before resting his forehead against Samâs.
âJust breathe, Sam. Youâre doing so good,â he murmurs softly.
Sam feels a warmth uncurling deep in his belly, reacting to Buckyâs closeness and his quiet praise. Is Bucky the most instinctually effective peer counselor in the world or is he actually seducing Sam right out of a panic attack? Sam absolutely cannot think about this now, he needs to focus on the original source of his practical and existential terror.
âI hate every part of this,â Sam admits, frustrated. âI hate that I canât get in touch with my mom. I hate that I donât know if my niece is OK. Bucky, who has been taking care of my niece?â
âHey, itâs OK, Sam.â Bucky says, his tone gentle and reassuring. âWeâll find your niece. If she survived the Snap, Steve and Natalia would have kept track of her. They wouldnât have just let her disappear into the system. You have friends.â
âRight,â Sam says, feeling that glacier sitting atop his chest begin to recede a little. âOK. Friends. Steve and Natasha will know how to find Michelle. I just need to ask Steve and Natasha how to find Sarah and Michelle.â
âGreat! See, you have a plan now and everything,â Bucky says encouragingly. âEverything is going to be fine. Youâre going to be fine, Sam.â Bucky leans back onto his heels, and Sam breathes a little deeper as the world comes into sharper focus.
Sam nods. This is all going to be fine. Heâs alive, heâs breathing, and he has his hand on Bucky Barnesâs warm, firm chest. Buckyâs eyes are kind, and Sam can almost understand, maybe for the first time, why Steve cared so much about bringing Bucky home. Maybe Bucky isnât so bad. Maybe everything is going to be fine. Sam can just about manage, now, to stuff all this panic inside his chest where it canât hurt him. If he just stuffs it in there forever, he will never have to deal with it.
Sam takes a moment to congratulate himself on his healthy coping strategies.
âYouâre not too bad at this, man,â Sam says. âWhere did you learn to handle a panic attack like that?â
âWell, I mean, I had a lot of them after realizing that I was responsible for literally dozens of grisly murders,â Bucky replies dryly. âBut also I spent like fifteen years obsessing over the state of Steve Rogersâs lungs and trying to keep him from dying of asthma so he could grow up and be Captain America.â
Right. Captain America. Thatâs the other thing heâs panicking about.
âHey, what just happened?â Bucky asks gently. Bucky strokes his thumb over Samâs wrist. âYour blood pressure just shot way up again.â
âTell me youâre not some kind of human sphygmomanometer,â Sam says. âI donât have the patience for that level of weird right now. Stop monitoring my blood pressure. Thatâs creepy.â
âOK,â Bucky says slowly. âSorry. Whatâs going on?â
âSteve asked me to be Captain America. Says heâs not retiring, but heâs needed off-world for a while, and he thinks I should be the one to carry the shield.â
Suddenly, just like that, the strange, tentative peace between them shatters. Buckyâs face turns white, then flushes a deep red.
âSteve asked you to be Captain America,â Bucky repeats coldly. All traces of warmth are gone from Buckyâs face, and Buckyâs mouth settles into a grim line. âExcuse me a moment.â
Sam sighs as Bucky stalks off in Steveâs general direction.
Bucky returns a few moments later, Steve in tow, the two of them having some kind of whisper fight that Sam canât really hear.
âCanât believe you would do thisââ
ââyou know heâs a good choiceââ
ââsupposed to be your best friendââ
ââcâmon, Buck, you know I wouldnâtââ
Bucky yanks on Steveâs wrist as they approach Sam.
âOK, first of all, Steve, where the fuck is Samâs family?â Bucky demands.
Steve pales, then looks genuinely contrite. âOh, God, Sam, Iâm sorry. I should have told you right away. Sarah and Michelle, they survived. They both survived the Snap. Theyâre living in your momâs apartment in New York.â Steve hesitates for a moment, then adds, âYour mom was one of the ones who disappeared. She was at home watching Michelle when it happened. She should be safe. Weâll get a phone to her right away.â
Sam feels his stomach plunge at the knowledge that Michelle is five years older. He already missed two years of her life on the run with Steve after the Accords. Would she even remember him?
âNat has your old phone stashed away. It should still have all your contacts in it. Natashaâshe paid the bill. Every month you were gone. She never gave up hope weâd get you back,â Steve says, looking proud and a little teary-eyed.
While Sam works on processing the fact that his six-year-old niece is now his eleven-year-old niece, Steve rambles on about Natasha, and how brave she was, and what a rock she was, and how she kept everyone together, and how she sacrificed her life to save everyone, for kind of a while. Samâs honestly kind of surprised. Steve and Natasha have always been close, but Samâs never seen Steve as openly effusive about anyone other than James Buchanan Barnes Before The War, Steveâs most favorite person ever.
âOK, thatâs great, Steve,â Bucky interrupts in a frosty tone. âBut whatâs this about Sam being the new Captain America?â
âOh! Carol wants Natasha and me to go with her to a couple of planets that are struggling to organize after their populations suddenly doubled. Actually, I thought maybe you could come with us, Buck?â Steve offers. âI know how much you love space andââ
âNo, Steve, I think Iâll stay here with Sam,â Bucky says stonily, glaring at Steve. Sam is a little stunned.
âWhat? Why?â Steve asks. He looks a bit like a confused golden retriever. âI thought youâd jump at this opportunity, Bucky, you reallyââ
âI really think I should stay here. Since Iâm Captain Americaâs right hand man and all. And since Sam is Captain America now.â
Sam doesnât really know what to do with all of this, because it seems like thereâs really a lot going on here between Steve and Bucky that he doesnât want to get involved with. And honestly, heâs not one hundred percent sold on the idea of working with Bucky at all, since they hardly even know each other. Today is the first time theyâve really interacted in a way that isnât hostile or at the very least kind of pissy, and to be honest the uncomfortable sexual tension Sam felt earlier wasnât exactly welcome.
But then a thought occurs to him, and Sam is instantly filled with delight. âSo wait. What youâre saying is that youâre going to be my sidekick!â
âWhat, no, Iâm not going to be your sidekick, Iâm going to be your partner,â Bucky argues.
âNuh uh, nope. Itâs right there in the comics. Bucky Barnes was Captain Americaâs sidekick,â Sam says with a smirk. âAre you gonna wear the outfit?â
âWhat outfit?â asks Bucky, narrowing his eyes.
âOh! The outfit with the little booty shorts?â Steve asks.
âIâm not wearing an outfit with little booty shorts,â Bucky says scornfully. âIâll wear my regular outfit.â
âLeather bondage gear it is, then!â Sam replies. He feels more cheerful already.
***
âSo what else did we miss?â Sam asks later, when theyâre all settled in at one of the cabins on Tonyâs property.
Steve and Natasha are tangled up together on the sofa, Natashaâs legs slung over Steveâs lap and her head resting against his chest. Steve and Nat have been trading inside jokes and finishing each otherâs sentences all night, and it kind of seems like Sam and Bucky must have really missed a lot, because Sam doesnât remember Steve and Nat being so telepathically linked before he got dusted.
Bucky is sitting alone, tense and uncomfortable-looking, in a chair near the fire. He must still be pretty pissed at Steve for choosing Sam over him as the next Captain America, because he keeps shooting murder glares at Steve through narrowed eyes. When Steveâs not gazing adoringly at Natasha, heâs busy having a silent argument with Bucky through a complicated series of expressions that include rolled eyes, pleading looks, clenched jaws, and prissy, pursed lips. Sam is honestly feeling pretty left out right now, because thereâs a lot of unspoken communication going on here between basically everyone but him.
Steve heaves a frustrated sigh, tears his gaze away from Bucky, and responds, âWell, they built a giant wall between the United States and Mexico. It was a pretty big deal, lots of people were really unhappy.â
âSeriously? Half of the entire United States population disappears, and Americans are still freaking out about immigration from Mexico?â Sam asks incredulously.
âOh, no, we didnât build the wall. Mexico actually built the wall,â Natasha says. The wicked look in her eye suggests that this is going to be a good story.
âWait, what? That stupid promise actually came true?â Bucky asks.
âWell, kind of?â Natasha says, giving a little so-so motion with her hand. âMexico didnât actually build the wall because of illegal immigration, though. They built it after a bunch of riots and border skirmishes in late 2020.â
âSo, what? Gang violence? Drug cartels?â Sam asks.
âNope. It was the season finale of a television show on the CW called Supernatural,â Steve explains, as if this doesnât make the whole thing somehow even more confusing.
âYouâre telling me that we were gone for five years and now CW shows are a source of tension between the United States and Mexico and they built an entire wall about it,â Sam says, raising his eyebrows.
Sam is dubious as hell about this new foolishnessâheâs starting to feel a lot more sympathetic towards Steveâs frustration with all the impenetrable pop culture references people expected him to graspâbut Bucky visibly perks up at the mention of Supernatural. âOh, how did that go? Is Destiel canon yet?â Bucky asks.
âNo,â Steve responds at the same time that Natasha replies, âSi.â Then they both cackle wildly, as if this is some seriously comedic shit, and honestly, Samâs getting a little annoyed with all their inside jokes. He sneaks a look over at Bucky to see how heâs responding to all this, and Sam is relieved to feel slightly less like an asshole when he sees that Bucky doesnât look any more charmed by Steve and Natashaâs Abbott and Costello routine than Sam feels.
âOK,â Sam says slowly, really drawing the word out. âSo I guess if I want to understand all of thatââhere, Sam gestures broadly at Steve and Natasha, attempting to convey his incredulity at their unnecessary dramaticsââthat you just did, and apparently also current U.S. foreign policy, Iâm going to have to watch a TV show on the CW.â
âItâs fifteen seasons, it makes for great depression watching,â says Natasha, shrugging. Bucky nods in agreement. âAnd Steve was pretty genuinely moved by the relationship between the two brothers.â
Steve confirms this with a solemn nod. âThey were brothers, but they were also best friends.â
âAnyway it was better than a lot of the junk we watched while you were gone,â Natasha continues. âHalf the time Steve and I spent in bed together we were just binge watching trash tv and getting overly invested in the love lives of twenty-five year olds pretending to be teenagers pretending to be detectives.â
Bucky shoots Sam a significant glance at this, somehow communicating half the time they spent in bed together? with the tense raising of his eyebrows alone, and says, âSam and I will watch Supernatural together. Iâll get him caught up.â
And yeah, maybe fifteen seasons sounds like an awful lot of time to commit to spite-watching a television show with Bucky just to handle how weird he feels about Steve and Natashaâs whole new bed sharing thing together, but then Bucky stretches his arms over his head and reveals a pale sliver of belly, little trail of hair drawing Samâs eyes pleasingly downward.
âYeah, all right,â Sam says. After all, this Supernatural show does sound pretty important to this sketchy new future Sam didnât ask to find himself in.
Bucky turns to Steve. âSo when do you and Natalia have to head out?â
âProbably in a week or two. We want to make sure everythingâs settled here before we head out.â
âA week or two, Steve, really? You think Samâs going to be ready to be Captain America in a week or two,â Bucky says flatly.
Sam thinks Bucky sort of has a point, but out of loyalty to Steve and his own sense of competence he keeps his mouth shut.
Steveâs shoulders hunch defensively. âItâs going to be fine, youâre going to do a great job supporting Sam.â
âI shouldnât have to support Sam, Steveââ
âBucky, câmon, you know I wouldnât haveââ
âNot even a supersoldier, Steveââ
âSam doesnât have to beââ
Natasha is listening to this argument with a fond look on her face, like she actually missed this shit while they were gone.
âOK, listen,â Sam interrupts before Steve and Bucky get too distracted by their bullshit. âThe Captain America thing is huge, yeah. But I feel like maybe we also need to be concerned about the worldâs population suddenly doubling instantaneously? Thatâs kind of a big deal.â
âOh!â Steve lights up. âNatashaâs had a plan set up for that since like a week after you guys disappeared. Sheâs spent the last five years preparing for every contingency, basically every scientific or magical possibility that might bring you guys back. In fact, phase one has already started, getting lines of communication open to reconnect families and arranging emergency housing.â
Steve beams down at Natasha, and thenâSam canât even fucking believe thisâNatasha actually blushes in response. Steve and Natasha are, respectively, the most repressed and tightly controlled people Sam knows, and now theyâre acting like emotionally healthy people who express their feelings in front of other people? Sam is suspicious as hell, and when he looks over at Bucky, Bucky is bug-eyed, looking frantically and significantly at Sam with that unmistakable are you seeing this too, what the fuck expression on his face. Sam hates the fact that things are so weird now that heâs bonding with Bucky over this.
âPepper Potts is coordinating everything through the Avengers Foundation,â Natasha says. âShe needs something to do right now, and sheâs basically the most frighteningly efficient person I know, so. Your only job right now is figuring out how to work together without killing each other.â
Natasha eyes them both a bit skeptically, and Sam is instantly offended at this implied slight to his professionalism.
âBucky and I are going to do great,â Sam says. âWe are definitely going to be absolutely fine at working together.â He shoots Bucky a hard look, daring him to disagree.
âAbsolutely fine,â Bucky repeats dutifully, then hesitates. âYouâre sure, though, right, Sam? You really want to do the Captain America thing?â
âDefinitely,â Sam confirms. Bucky searches his eyes for a moment, then nods, apparently satisfied with whatever he finds.
âGreat!â Natasha says with a pleased smile, and shares a satisfied look with Steve.
âAnyway,â Sam says, changing the subject, before they can figure out Sam has no fucking clue how to be Captain America and definitely doesnât feel certain about working with Bucky Barnes. âWhat else did we miss while we were gone? How did Brexit go?â
âOh, God,â Steve says.
***
The next morning, Sam walks down to the cabinâs kitchen for breakfast and finds a disaster.
âIs this a murder board?â he asks, aghast.
The wall next to the kitchen table is absolutely covered in papers that have been hastily pinned up, and there are at least eleven different colors of string stretched together in a complicated web over top of them, forming a bizarre rainbow of crazy. Where did Bucky even find that many different colors of string in the middle of the night? Did he break into a Joann Fabrics?
The kitchen table is littered with papers as well, and Sam counts six different green tea bags sitting on a napkin next to Buckyâs mug. âHave you been up all night?â
âNo! And yes!â Bucky answers, his eyes red rimmed and wild, looking simultaneously exhausted and absolutely frantic with energy. He cards his fingers through his hair in frustration. âDo you know how much money Stark was spending on the Avengers Initiative after you guys blew up SHIELD? The litigation team! The insurance premiums! The property damage settlements! Weapons and technology! Research and development! Sam, the cost was astronomical!â
âWait, this is all financial stuff? I thought this was more of, like, a traditional murder board situation here.â Sam pauses, then struck with sudden uncertainty, he asks, âIs financial stuff part of Captain America stuff?â
âWell, I mean, kind of, yeah,â Bucky responds. He stands up and restlessly paces the tiny kitchen. âYou didnât think you were going to just run off with the shield and, like, live off the kindness of strangers or something, did you?â
âObviously, no,â Sam says, offended. Actually, thoughânot that Sam is going to admit itâSam hasnât had a real job in so long that he sort of forgot that this was going to be an issue. âWait, did you get all this stuff by hacking Stark Industries?â
âWell, yeah,â says Bucky, defensive now. âI didnât want to be rude and ask Ms. Potts in the middle of the night. Also I killed her daughterâs grandparents.â
Sam considers this for a moment, then shrugs. âYeah, thatâs fair,â he says. âSo what about the funding we had before? Is that gone?â
âItâs not gone, but thereâs no way the money in Steveâs and my bank account will be enough.â
âWait, you and Steve share a bank account?â Sam asks, raising his eyebrows.
Buckyâs forehead wrinkles in confusion. âWell, yeah, of course. Why would Steve and I need separate bank accounts?â he asks, looking puzzled.
âWhy would you...â Sam repeats faintly. âOK. Moving on from that codependent nonsense, you and Steve were the ones funding us while we were on the run? Steve never said.â
âWell, I mean, I did steal a bunch of money from HYDRA, and Steve had some backpay saved up. But thereâs no way Steve and I have Captain America money. Stark barely had Captain America money. Sam, he was spending down his entire fortune on the Avengers Initiative. Did you guys know he was doing that?â
Sam closes his eyes, shaking off the waves of guilt and grief he felt at the mention of Tonyâs generosity. âNo, I didnât,â he says quietly.
âYeah,â Bucky says grimly. âItâs bad. Like, really, really bad. You arenât an international fugitive anymore. If you want to be Captain America, you wonât be able to just save people, destroy a few buildings, then dash off to the next country before the police catch up to you. You have to actually deal with the fallout afterward. And, most importantly, and I cannot stress this enough, you need actual income. Was Stark seriously the only one of you with a real job?â
âI mean, yeah?â
âOf course he was,â Bucky says, deflating and leaning back against the counter with a thud. âGod, youâre all idiots. I went off to war in the 1940s and I left one Steve back at home. Then I fell off a train, woke up seventy years later, and found out that Steve managed to find an entire team full of Steves, and each one of you is just as beautiful and heroic and stupid and utterly impractical as he is.â Bucky raises his metal hand to massage his temples, apparently fighting a headache so powerful that even his serum-enhanced regular arm isnât strong enough to deal with it.
Sam carefully ignores Buckyâs insinuation that he finds Sam beautiful and heroic. Instead he pours Bucky a glass of water and slides it over to him. âOK, so what do we do?â
âWell, youâre not going to like it.â
âIâm not, huh? Just tell me.â
âWe have to rebuild SHIELD,â Bucky states firmly. âWe have to get in touch with Nick Fury.â
âAbsolutely not,â Sam says.
âSam, itâs the only reasonable choice. We canât afford to privately fund your career as a superhero, OK? I mean, the insurance? The legal team? Iâve drafted fifteen different budgets and thereâs no way we can get this off the ground. But if we rebuild SHIELD, thereâll be funding and qualified immunity. You wonât even have to work directly for SHIELD. You could be an independent contractor.â
âI donât like this.â
âI know. But itâs the only way.â
âIs Fury even going to listen to us, though?â Sam asks skeptically. âLike, will he even hire you? You shot him, like, five times.â
Bucky grimaces. âYeah, that wasnât great. But listen, the manâs probably been waiting for this moment for years. If he can get Steve and Nataliaâs public support behind SHIELD 2.0? Heâll seize the chance.â
âShit,â Sam says.
***
When Steve and Natasha come downstairs, sleepy and happy looking, casually emerging from the same bedroom that Sam knows only has one queen size bed, like bed sharing is just a regular part of their regular lives now, Bucky introduces them to the financial murder board.
âSo if you really want to do this, if you want Sam to be Captain America, we need to rebuild SHIELD,â Bucky concludes.
âSHIELD?â Natasha perks up. âWeâre getting the old gang back together?â
âNatasha, like, 40% of the old gang were secret Nazis,â Steve says reproachfully. âAnd more importantly, Nick Fury didnât notice they were secret Nazis.â
âHe definitely started to suspect something was wrong near the end there, though,â says Natasha.
âWell, heâs our best shot at getting government funding, so unless you want to ask Tony Starkâs grieving widow for money, I think this is the best we can do.â Bucky turns to Natasha. âNatalia, you know how to get in touch with him, right?â he asks.
âI do. Pepper sent out working satellite phones via courier last night. They should have arrived by this morning. Iâll give him a call,â Natasha says. âHeâs going to love this.â
âYour mom should have gotten a phone too, Sam,â Steve says. âIâll text you her number so you can give her a call.â
âThanks, man,â Sam says, relieved. While Steve works on sending Sam his momâs contact infoâdoes Steveâs phone have a holographic display? Does Old Man Steve know how to work a phone with a holographic display?âSam asks Bucky, âHow did you even pull all these records together, by the way? Are you like a secret accountant?â
âBucky worked as an actuary before the war,â Steve responds absently, thumbing at some buttons on his phone screen. âHe was getting his degree in mathematics before he dropped out to enlist.â
âAn actuary?â Natasha asks thoughtfully. âI can see that. That actually makes a lot of sense.â
âIt paid the bills,â Bucky allows.
When Sam receives Steveâs text with his momâs contact info, he steps outside for a bit of privacy. Sam watches Steve and Natasha leaning together through the sliding glass window as he waits for his mom to answer the phone. Sam feels a pit growing deep in his belly, a black hole thatâs been sucking in everything Sam could have lived and built and experienced in the past five years, leaving him empty and lonely and lost, missing parts of himself that he should have been gaining. Inside, Bucky is standing alone in front of murder board, his shoulders tense, while Steve and Natasha talk and smile and touch each otherâs forearms.
âSam? Sam, baby, are you OK?â
âMom!â Sam exclaims. âMom, Iâm OK. Iâm OK.â
âThank God,â she says in relief. âWeâre OK too. Sarah and Michelle, theyâve been living in my apartment. Michelleâs eleven years old now, Sam. We missed five years of her life. How did this happen?â
And Sam tells her how it happened. He tells her about the battle, and then the second battle, and then realizing that he had died and was resurrected by magical stones. He tells her about Bucky Barnes, standing there in disgruntled disbelief when Steve and Natasha explained that theyâd woken up five years into the future, his only reaction to state flatly, âI was told that this wouldnât happen to me again.â
When he tells her that Steveâs asked him to be the new Captain America, Samâs mom gasps in surprise. âCaptain America? Sam, are you sure?â
âYeah, Mom. I am sure. I think I could really do some good,â Sam says softly.
âDo you have good people around you? Do you have people who will take care of you?â
Sam thinks of Steve and Natasha leaving for space in a few weeks, moving on to bigger and more complicated catastrophes, superheroes whoâve grown so powerful and competent and amazing that theyâre needed elsewhere, on worlds larger than their own. And then he thinks of Bucky Barnes staying up all night to do superhero math so Sam can be Captain America, even though Bucky is apparently pissed that Steve chose Sam for the honor instead of him.
âYeah,â Sam says. âI have people who will take care of me.â
***
That evening, Sam and Bucky sit at the table and watch Steve and Natasha put together the most disgusting struggle dinner Sam has ever seen. Steve is piling gross stacks of bologna onto bread and seems to think condiments are optional, while Natasha has dumped a bag of iceberg lettuce into a bowl and poured an entire bottle of ranch dressing on top of it. This, she insists, is a âsalad.â Steve and Natasha move expertly around each other in the kitchen like theyâre performing a choreographed dance, casually touching each otherâs shoulders and hips as they slide past each other. Obviously theyâve created this sort of repulsive dinner situation more than once. What have these two been eating for the last five years? Sam canât resist glancing up at Bucky to catch a look of horror on Buckyâs face, his nose scrunched up in disgust.
When Steve sets their plates of dry bologna sandwiches and the soggy bowl of lettuce onto the table onto the table, Bucky suddenly announces that heâs vegan.
âYou are?â Steve asks suspiciously. âSince when?â
Sensing an opportunity, Sam rushes to support Buckyâs desperate ploy to avoid this dinner. âBucky and I are both vegan, actually. Itâs new.â
âReally,â Natasha says. âYou and Bucky do stuff together now. Stuff like going vegan.â
âUh huh,â Sam says staunchly.
The best way to handle Natasha is just to brazen it out. Sheâll suspect that youâre lying, but she wonât actually say anything until she has proof. Unfortunately, sheâll stoop to any and all meansâhowever invasive or connivingâto catch you out. Sam guesses he and Bucky are both vegan forever now.
âGo ahead and eat your dinner,â Bucky says. âIâll just make Sam and me something while you guys eat.â
While Steve and Natasha eat and trade inside jokes and talk about a bunch of political events Sam does not understandâdid Michigan actually successfully secede from the Union?âSam watches in astonishment as Bucky prepares the most incredible looking burrito bowls Samâs ever seen in his life. In like twenty minutes, the dude whips up some chipotle lime black beans, diced tomatoes, corn, fajita veggies, and quinoa, then proceeds to make pineapple mango salsa from scratch using a mortar and pestle. Where did Bucky even get these ingredients? The last time Sam checked, the fridge was almost empty.
Bucky looks relaxed and capable, and Sam watches the muscles in Buckyâs back shift and move as he chops and grinds and sautĂ©s. Buckyâs got a kitchen towel slung casually over his shoulder, and a few strands of hair at his temples curl a bit in the steam coming off the stove top.
âSo what else did yâall get up to in the last five years?â Sam asks.
âOh! Should we tell them about theââ Natasha begins, her eyes lighting up.
âYou mean the dude with theââ
âWith the plastic fangs!â Natasha finishes, wheezing with laughter. âWhat was that guyâs name? Oh, Godââ
ââBaron Blood!â they exclaim in unison, cackling.
Sam canât help but feel a little annoyed by how easily Steve and Natasha finish each otherâs sentences. Sam knows, intellectually, that Steve and Natasha lived each one of the five years that went by in seconds for him and Bucky. He knows that Steve and Natasha have always been close and that it makes sense for them to, like, trauma bond after everything theyâve gone through together. But heâs never felt so left out by his own best friends before. He looks over at Bucky, relieved when he sees his own feelings of frustration and isolation mirrored on Buckyâs face.
âWait, you fought the Bloody Baron from Harry Potter?â Bucky asks.
âNo, it was Baron Blood, not the Bloody Baron.â
âWas the guy an actual baron, or were his parents just rich and tacky? Was his first name Baron?â Sam asks, fascinated despite himself.
âI think it was, like, a self-appointed title?â Natasha says. âI donât think he was a real baron. Anyway, Steve decapitated him with his shield.â
âHe was a Nazi vampire,â Steve explains.
âLike an actual vampire? Are we fighting actual vampires now?â Sam asks.
âI think so,â Natasha says doubtfully. âSteve had to soak his shield in holy water blessed by the pope first. It was a whole thing.â
âWait, are you guys talking about Todd?â Bucky asks. âBrown hair, red eyes, ranted a lot about what an important superpower echolocation was?â
âYes! Did you know this guy?â Steve asks.
âEh, we werenât close or anything. But there were some weird ass HYDRA experiments in the eighties and nineties. Most people these days think the Satanic Panic was a myth, but actually HYDRA really did have agents trying to indoctrinate daycare kids into supernatural cults. Todd was one of the evil brainwashed HYDRA daycare kids, volunteered to get some really hinky stuff done to him to try to create a master race of genetically pure vampires. Oh, and he was super obsessed with you, Steve.â
âOh, God, was he ever,â Natasha says. âLet me tell you what he did when he got Steve tied up in his gross dungeonââ
***
While Natasha says goodbye to Bucky, squeezing Bucky and muttering something in Russian in Buckyâs ear, Sam is startled to feel Steve grab him tightly and pull him into an aggressive hug. Sam takes a minute to breathe in Steveâs familiar, comforting smellâstill wearing Bay Rum even after all this timeâand rests his chin on Steveâs strong shoulder.
âWe love you,â Steve says, then hands him off to Natasha.
Natasha gives him a sweet kiss on the mouth. âWeâll miss you,â she says.
When Steve and Natasha disappear into the distance, Sam looks over at Bucky. âWe, we, we,â Bucky says wryly.
***
Six weeks later, Sam and Bucky have formed a pretty solid partnership. Theyâre still living in one of the cabins on Tony Starkâs property in upstate New York for now, but theyâre scheduled to report for duty at the new SHIELD headquarters in New York City on Monday.
Steve and Natasha are coming back to Earth this evening, scheduled for security briefings and press events promoting the resurrection of SHIELD, promising the public that Sam is going to make a great Captain America and that there definitely arenât any more secret Nazis in the upper echelons of power at SHIELD.
As far as Sam can tell, Buckyâs still pretty pissed at Steve for asking Sam to be Captain America instead of him, but fortunately that grudge doesnât seem to be carrying over to Sam. Instead, Bucky is perfectly pleasant and helpful as hell, which is pretty terrific considering the fact that Sam could use all the help he can get right now. Learning how to use the shieldâespecially while flyingâis complicated as fuck and Sam probably would have lost patience pretty quickly without Bucky reassuring him that Steve was shit at math and definitely was not doing trigonometric calculations in his head while he fought.
âDoes Steve seem like the kind of guy whoâs doing a lot of thinking while heâs fighting? No, this is all practice and muscle memory,â says Bucky, clapping Samâs shoulder. âCâmon, Steve and Natalia are scheduled to get here in like an hour. Letâs take showers and get ready to meet them for dinner.â
Itâs humid as fuck outside and Buckyâs shirt is drenched in sweat, clinging so tightly to his skin that Sam can count each one of his abdominal muscles individually. Bucky raises a water bottle to his mouth and takes a long pull. Sam watches a drip of sweat slide down Buckyâs throat.
âYeah, good plan,â Sam says. A cool shower sounds really refreshing right now.
***
When they meet Steve and Natasha for dinner, Sam nearly forgets that he and Bucky are pretending to be vegan until Bucky orders a wheatberry salad and then kicks Sam underneath the table. Sam grimaces and reaches down to rub his shin, looking regretfully at the shiny picture of the giant burger and fries that Steve ordered on his menu.
âIâll have the wheatberry salad too,â Sam says, trying not to sound too sad about it.
Steve and Natasha are bursting with stories about space. Theyâre happy and full of excitement, and if anything, theyâre somehow even closer than when they left. They have very strong feelings about Kree politics, and they tell a lot of stories about famous people from space that Sam does not know. They touch each other constantly.
The wheatberry salad is amazing.
âSo what else happened while we were gone?â Bucky asks, mercifully changing the subject from the boring Kree legislative process. âHow did the last season of Game of Thrones go?â
âOh, it was incredible,â Natasha raves, her eyes lighting up. âDavid Benioff and D. B. Weiss were taken in the Snap, so they had to hire this fantasy author named Brandon Sanderson to write it. Everyone was really skeptical about how it would goâespecially with half of the cast goneâbut he did an amazing job. Itâs now considered one of the strongest finales of any show in history.â
âYou know, I never could get into Game of Thrones,â Sam remarks. âAll those big-budget fantasy dynastic political dramas are just so unrealistic.â
âSee, thatâs what Shuri said when I told her I was watching it to research living in a monarchy after I moved to Wakanda,â Bucky says. âBut then her secret illegitimate cousin traveled from across the sea to claim her brotherâs throne in a trial by combat. And then her supposedly slain brother dramatically returned from the dead with the help of a magical herb in order to defeat the usurper in battle, so.â Bucky lifts his shoulders and raises his hands in a sort of smug, so who turned out to be right there? kind of shrug.
âYeah, OK,â Sam concedes, tipping his head to acknowledge the point.
âItâs crazy that weâll never know how much better it could have been with Benioff and Weiss at the helm, though,â Steve says, and Samâs stomach drops a bit as heâs hit by another wave of wrongness, that same ears-ringing, tunnel-vision-forming wrongness heâs been feeling since he dramatically returned from the dead. Because whatâs the deal with Steve being so literate in pop culture that he not only watches hit prestige dramas but actually knows the names of the writers? To Sam, it was just a few weeks ago that Steve declared Star Trek: The Next Generation âa bit too flashyâ for his taste.
âHey, did George R. R. Martin ever finish the books?â Bucky asks hopefully.
âNo, he died,â Steve says.
***
Later that night, after Steve and Natasha have conspicuously gone to bed together, Bucky grabs Samâs hand, puts a finger to his lips, quirks an eyebrow, and leads Sam silently into a small closet on the first floor of the house. The closet is full of thick winter coats that push Sam and Bucky right up against a wall, their bodies pressed tightly together. Bucky turns on the flashlight app from his phone to give them some light.
âWhat are we doing in here?â Sam whispers.
âItâs the only place in the house where Steve wonât be able to hear us. Just keep your voice down,â Bucky explains.
âOh, shit. Weâre not plotting to overthrow SHIELD again, are we?â
âNo!â Bucky says. âItâs been like six weeks. HYDRA wonât have a secret majority interest in SHIELD for another twenty years at least. Look, have you noticed how Steve and Natalia are, like, obsessed with each other now?â
âYes! What is with that? I thought I was Steveâs best friend!â Sam hisses.
âWell, you and Steve are definitely close friends,â Bucky says skeptically. âBut best friendship is an exclusive relationship. Itâs the closest and most intimate connection you can have with someone. And you can only have one of them. Your best friend is someone you would kill for, someone that you would die for, someone you would come back from seventy years of brainwashing for. Someone you would drop the very symbol of everything you believe in for. So, I think we can all agree that I was Steveâs best friend.â
Bucky looks pretty self-satisfied after that whole speech.
âI donât think we can all agree that you were Steveâs best friend,â Sam says, tilting his head skeptically.
âWell, I was, but the point is that I donât think I am anymore. I think Natalia might be Steveâs best friend now,â Bucky whispers, irritated.
âI know! I hate it,â Sam confesses. âSteve and Nat and I used to all be best friends. Now they have all these inside jokes and I feel left out all the time.â
âAgain, Sam, you canât have two best friends,â Bucky corrects. âAnyway, I know we havenât always gotten along in the past, and maybe some of us have made mistakes like kicking people off helicarriers or wrecking their cars, but I think if we want Steve back, we might be able to work together on this.â
âIâm listening,â Sam says.
âOK, so I think we need to try to make them jealous.â
âI donât think Nat gets jealous. Does Steve get jealous?â Sam says doubtfully.
âOh, Steve gets jealous,â Bucky confirms. âDid you know that like five seconds after I admitted that I remembered growing up with Steve, he immediately started getting passive aggressive about some redhead named Dot that I spent three dollars on back in 1937? It was like the very first thing he brought up.â
âOh, God, was Dot short for Dolores?â Sam asks. âSteve complained about her all the time while we were out searching for you.â
âThat was her!â Bucky says. âSteve was so jealous of Dolores. Anyway, I think if we team up, we can convince Steve that weâre best friends now. Then heâll get jealous and remember how much more important we are to him than Natalia.â
Sam considers this carefully. Heâs never been pressed so close to Bucky before, their faces only inches away from one another. From this distance Sam can see how long and thick Buckyâs eyelashes are. He can smell the pleasant scents of Buckyâs clean sweat and spicy aftershave.
He wants to press his thumb into the cleft in Buckyâs chin.
âYeah, that sounds like a great idea,â Sam hears himself say.
âGreat!â
***
The next day, while Steve and Natasha are busy in meetings with Rhodey and Fury, Sam moves into his new apartment in Brooklyn. Itâs not actually so much his new apartment so much as it is Steveâs old apartment, but apparently Steve doesnât need it anymore since heâs spending so much time out in space with Natasha and he âcan always just stay with Nat while Iâm in town, itâs no trouble, Sam, Natasha and I are used to bunking together.â
Sam actually has a lot of questions about how used to bunking together Steve and Natasha are.
Samâs unpacking his clothes when he hears the doorbell ring. His spine stiffens and his fingers twitch for a weapon. Steve and Natasha are both scheduled to be out for hours still, and Steveâs a pretty private guy. Sam doubts many people know about his apartment.
He grabs a gun from his safe, loads it, and walks silently toward the front door.
âSam, I know youâre in there.â
The muffled voice on the other side of the door is thankfully familiar. Sam feels the tension in his chest release and he lowers his gun. Itâs just Bucky.
Unfortunately, all that tension in Samâs chest immediately returns when Sam opens the door to discover that Bucky is, for some reason, carrying a duffel bag and surrounded by cardboard boxes. Samâs stomach sinks.
âWhat the fuck, Sam?â Bucky complains, shoving past him into the entryway and setting down his bag. âYou didnât even look through the peephole to make sure no one was holding me at gunpoint? If weâre going to live together youâre going to have to be a lot more careful about security. I have a lot of enemies.â
âIâm sorry, if weâre going to live together?â Sam repeats, horrified. He puts the safety back on his gun and sets it down onto the counter.
Bucky rolls his eyes. âUm, yes? Remember our whole fake-best-friends plan? You literally just agreed to it last night. Here, help me with these boxes.â
Bucky goes back into the hallway, where he bends over to lift a box labeled âpots and pans,â his skinny jeans stretching obscenely over his ass and thighs.
âYeah, OK,â Sam says, and follows him out into the hallway.
***
âOK, so, explain this to me again: why does being fake best friends mean that we have to be actual roommates?â Sam asks later, passing Bucky a beer.
Theyâre sitting on Samâs couch now, surrounded by fifteen boxes labeled, variously: âfavorite grenade launchers,â âcrossbows,â âguns (1 of 10),â âscopes and silencers,â âmarijuana,â and âwarm sweaters.â
âIs this beer vegan?â Bucky asks, checking the label. âHold on, Iâm gonna need to look this up.â
âWait, are you actually vegan?â Sam asks, watching in astonishment as Bucky pulls up an app on his phone, types in the name of the beer Steve left in the fridge, frowns, and then gets up to put the beer back into the fridge. âI thought we were just pretending to be vegan to avoid Steveâs bologna sandwiches and that gross salad.â
âWe were! But then I looked it up afterward to make sure I could pull this off in front of Natalia and I actually read a lot of really harrowing and kind of horrifying stuff about animal agriculture,â Bucky says, grimacing. âAnyway, if we want Steve and Natalia to believe that weâre best friends, weâre going to have to live together. Steve and I always lived together, and Steve moved in with you like five seconds after he met you.â
âTo be fair to Steve, he did make it two very sad years living alone in the most depressing apartment I have ever seen, and he didnât move in with me until you shot a man through his walls,â Sam says.
âThat was just an excuse,â Bucky says, waving his hand airily. âSteve and I spent the entire winter of 1937 living in an uninsulated attic apartment with a broken window. If Steve didnât want to live with you, he would have just slapped some duct tape over those bullet holes and gotten an extra blanket.â
Sam considers this and then reluctantly concedes the point. Heâs seen Steve look unnervingly comfortable in some pretty horrific living situations over the past couple of years.
âAll right, fine. But do we really need every gun ever made in our living room? I feel like surrounding yourself with this amount of weaponry has got to be an unhealthy coping strategy.â
Sam feels pretty confident about thisâheâd been like three-quarters of the way through his Masterâs coursework to become a licensed professional counselor when Steve Rogers bulldozed his way into his life.
âAnd what are we going to do if we need to take down SHIELD again, Sam?â Bucky demands. âHow much do we really trust Nick Fury? Anyway, we arenât storing these in the living room, Sam, that would be tacky.â
âUh huh,â Sam says, his stomach sinking. âAnd where are we storing them?â He has a bad feeling about this.
âIn the spare bedroom, of course.â
âWhat spare bedroom.â
âThe spare bedroom-slash-armory! We only really need one bedroom, Sam. Steve and I always shared a bedroom.â
âDid you,â Sam says. âAnd I suppose you shared a bed too.â
âOf course we did. Why would Steve and I need separate beds? We were best friends.â
Bucky gives Sam an odd look, like he thinks Sam in the one being strange about this. As if indefinitely sharing a bed is just normal best friend stuff. Sam wants to believe that this is some kind of Depression era, growing-up-in-poverty sort of thing, but honestly Steve and Bucky are just so intensely weird about each other that Sam is pretty sure that itâs actually a Steve-and-Bucky thing.
Sam thinks about sharing a bed with Bucky every night. He wonders if Bucky wears a shirt to bed, or if Bucky slides into bed bare-chested, wearing only a pair of shorts or maybe even just some tightly fitted boxer briefs.
âAll right,â Sam says, sighing.
***
Later that night, when theyâre lying in bed catching up on Supernaturalâhe has got to know how this show somehow became relevant to international geopoliticsâBucky leans over to pull a huge bag of weed out of the nightstand. Then he slowly, carefully rolls the fattest joint Sam has ever seen. Itâs somehow absolutely massive but still structurally sound and perfectly balanced. Sam puts the show on pause because he has a lot of questions about this.
âWhere did you learn how to do that? Does marijuana even work on you?â Sam asks. âDid you learn how to do this as part of that whole Eat Pray Love thing you did while Steve and I were looking for you?â
âWhat? No. Steve taught me how to do this back in the thirties.â
âExcuse me, Steve Rogers taught you how to roll a joint in the thirties? Steve âCaptain Americaâ Rogers knows how to roll a joint?â Sam asks, scandalized.
âYes? I didnât have any other friends named Steveâactually, Steve was always my only friend,â Bucky says offhandedly. âAnyway, Stevie started rolling his own asthma cigarettes when he was like twelve, had those perfect long-fingered artist hands even when he was little. Then when he started art school he started bringing home marijuana after class. Heâd roll us a joint and weâd sit out on the fire escape and smoke before bed every night.â
âSteve Rogers,â Sam says, wonderingly. âWhat a little punk.â
âRight? Iâm always saying that but no one ever believes me. Here,â Bucky says, passing the joint over to Sam. Sam hesitates for a momentâhe hasnât smoked pot since before he joined the Air Forceâbut then he gives a mental shrug, figuring that SHIELD probably isnât going to drug test him. Yeah, Nick Fury is kind of a dick, but Sam doubts that heâd give a shit about a little recreational marijuana use.
Sam feels a little thrill when he raises Buckyâs joint to his lips, the paper still slightly damp from Buckyâs saliva. He seals his mouth around the end of the joint and sucks in deeply, sharing this wet vicarious kiss with Bucky, who watches Samâs mouth with interest. Sam feels the sharp burn in his lungs as he holds in the smoke, then coughs violently when he exhales, passing the joint back to Bucky.
âDamn,â he says. âThis stuff still works for you?â
âYep,â Bucky says. âHYDRA wanted to make sure theyâd still be able to drug the shit out of me when they were experimenting with their own version of the serum, so unlike some reckless assholes who actually volunteered to get the bona fide serum, I can still get stoned. Which is I guess some small consolation for spending seventy years on some pretty intense amphetamines and weird psychosis-inducing experimental drug cocktails.â
âYikes. Well, that makes sense, I guess,â Sam says. âSorry.â
âItâs fine.â Bucky pauses. âWell, itâs not fine fine. But Iâm fine. Now.â
âIâm glad,â Sam says, and he realizes he means it.
***
The first time Sam fucks up as Captain America, he finds out the answer to a great personal mystery: why Steve Rogers was considered âthe greatest tactician in American military history.â
Itâs not because Steve is actually a great tacticianâin fact, Steve is an instinctive fighter, brash and brave and most of all impulsive.
Apparently, the real reason Steve was considered the greatest tactician in American military history is because Peggy Carter was the greatest tactician in American military history, and Bucky Barnes was the greatest bullshitter in American military history.
When Maria Hill orders them to Furyâs office for debriefing after that disastrous mission, Bucky grabs Samâs arm and digs his nails into the tender skin on the underside of Samâs forearm.
âWhatever you do, do not say anything,â Bucky hisses. âJust shut the fuck up, and let me handle this. I mean it.â
âI need to take responsibility for this, Bucky. Steve would take responsibility for this.â
âSteve would absolutely not take responsibility for this,â Bucky states firmly. âTrust me, Iâve been bailing that little punk out of trouble for one hundred years. Do not say anything.â
When they get to Furyâs office, Sam witnesses an actual miracle. Fury begins by asking them a series of terse questions in a clipped tone that slowly grows more and more agreeable as Buckyâs answersâcalm, thoughtful, and pleasantâmake Samâs actions sound both necessary and entirely reasonable. The tone shifts from an interrogation to a more customary debrief, and by the end Furyâs countenance is less thunderous and more just his sort of standard expression of grim disapproval.
The truly bewildering part is that Buckyâs explanations for Samâs behavior are so convincing that Sam himself is now questioning whether he even fucked up at all. Nothing Bucky says is a lie, and Samâs not even sure he would characterize anything as misleading, but nevertheless Sam slowly moves from the distinct impression that both he and Fury considered the mission a failure, to the cautious notion that maybe heâd actually made the best of a bad job after all.
When Fury dismisses them, he offers them a gruff, âExcellent work, gentlemen,â and then he actually claps Sam on the shoulder as Sam walks out the door.
What the fuck.
***
âExcuse me, are you some kind of hypnotist or sorcerer?â Sam hisses when they return to their office. âWhat the fuck was all that?â
âShould we get Thai food for lunch? Iâm thinking pad see ew,â Bucky muses, scrolling through the menu on his phone. âWhat about you?â
âGet me the tofu pad thai,â Sam says. It turns out Bucky wasnât wrong about the environmental impact of animal agricultureâthatâs actually some deeply sobering shit, and Sam feels like he should probably try to be a good role model now that heâs Captain America. âSeriously, though, I did fuck up that mission, right? I wasnât imagining that?â
Bucky sighs. âSam, you made the right call. Maybe Fury wouldnât have agreed immediately, but I didnât spend my entire life justifying Steveâs aggressive self-sacrificing bullshit to people in positions of authority for no reason. Steve knew when to step up and do what was right, sure, but he also knew when to shut up and let me do the talking afterward.â
Everything about Steveâs career in the Army makes so much more sense now.
âThanks, man,â Sam says, awkwardly. He hesitates a moment, then asks, âYou really think Steve would have made the same decision today?â
Bucky gives Sam a long, considering look. His gaze is solemn and sympathetic, and his lips press together in a sad smile. âSam, youâve got to stop comparing yourself to Steve.â
***
Sam misses a lot about Steve, but he very specifically does not miss running with Steve. Thatâs because Steve is an asshole, and while Sam may enjoy the view from behind when Steve laps him for the fiftieth time, he definitely does not feel like Steve deserves to act as smug about it as he does when Steve is quite famously the recipient of performance enhancing drugs.
Sam and Bucky are running their usual route in Prospect Park, feet pounding together in rhythm as they listen to the dope ass Carly Rae Jepsen playlist Bucky made for them on their headphones. It turns out that Samâs been putting up with a lot of shit from Steve that wasnât actually necessary, because despite being a full year older than Steveâor is it four years younger, now, after the Snap?âBucky has managed to develop some pretty cool taste in music. More importantly, Bucky seems mercifully content to run at a speed that is completely normal for unenhanced people who are still in fantastic shape and also have great legs.
Speaking of great legs, Samâs having kind of a hard time handling the length of Buckyâs running shorts today. Buckyâs legs are long and strong, lightly muscled and flexing attractively as his steady stride eats up the pavement, and his thighsâ
âSo how come Steve wonât run like a regular person?â Sam asks, reluctantly dragging his gaze away from those lean, golden thighs.
âDid he try to give you some shit about how he has to run that fast to stay in shape as a supersoldier?â scoffs Bucky. âNo, Steve runs that fast because Steve has anger issues and a high sex drive. Otherwise heâd be starting fights and jerking off four times a day.â
Samâs breath catches a bit in his chest and he tries very hard not to stumble at that. âOh?â Sam asks, trying to sound casual. âAnd you? Youâre not jerking off four times a day?â
âLiving with you, sweetheart?â Bucky says with a wink. âOf course I am.â
***
This isnât actually Samâs first time living with a Russian assassin, because he spent two years on the run with Natasha, so heâs used to a lot of weird ass habits. But one thing that confounds the shit out of him is why Bucky insists on navigating Brooklyn solely through a maze of gross alleyways that smell absolutely foul.
Steve and Natasha are finally home from their peacekeeping or worldbuilding or diplomatic journey through the starsâwhatever the hell theyâve been doing for the past few monthsâand Sam and Bucky are on their way to meet them at a cafĂ© for lunch.
âMan, are you sure weâre not going in circles? I could swear weâve passed that blue dumpster at least twice already. Is this some kind of spy thing where weâre doubling back to lose a tail or something?â Sam asks.
âNo. And this blue dumpster is the blue dumpster behind the hipster cafĂ© with the oat milk latte that you hate, the one with too much cinnamon,â Bucky explains patiently. âThe other two blue dumpsters are behind the artisanal pickle shop and the thrift store where the secondhand clothes actually cost more than they do when you buy them new.â
âRight,â Sam says with a heavy sigh. Then he perks up when he sees their favorite stray cat. âOh, hey, itâs Steve the cat!â
âAw! Hi, Steve!â Bucky coos. He reaches into his pocket to toss a few treats toward the skinny, ill-tempered cat, who eyes them suspiciously before hissing viciously, his scraggly hackles raising. Steve the cat ignores their treats, presumably offended by their insulting attempts at charity, and Sam and Bucky positively melt at this pointless and self-destructive display of spitefulness.
âHeâs so cute!â Bucky says.
âI love him so much,â Sam agrees. âCâmon, letâs leave the treats here and keep going. Maybe heâll eat them after we leave.â
âWe should stop at the pet store on the way home and pick up a different brand. Maybe Steve has allergies,â Bucky suggests.
âGood idea,â Sam says, nodding.
As they head toward their lunch with Steve and Natasha, Samâs surprised to realize that he feels pretty relaxed and confident about their whole fake-best-friends plan. Usually heâd be having some kind of heart palpitations at the thought of trying to pull one over on Natasha, an actual spy who actually lied to the actual God of Lies and actually succeeded at it, but instead Sam thinks that he and Bucky might really get away with this whole fake-best-friends thing. It helps that Bucky looks so cool and self-assured walking beside him, hips loose and easy and confident as those long legs lead them toward their whole best friends debut.
Eventually they weave their way out of Buckyâs trash labyrinth and make it to the cafĂ©, where Steve and Natasha are waiting at a table along the sidewalk. Steve and Nat look happy, laughing and chatting animatedly, their body language intimate and relaxed. Sam feels a brief moment of apprehension, but Steve smiles broadly when he sees Sam and Bucky approach, and Steve and Nat both stand to offer hugs and kisses in greeting.
âWeâre so glad to be home,â Natasha says, sitting back down with a sigh. âDo you know that after spending the past few months trying to navigate alien bureaucracy, Iâve actually missed filling out post-mission paperwork at SHIELD? Do not repeat that to Fury.â
âFuryâs already trying to convince Natasha to train as his replacement when he retires,â Steve brags, putting his arm around Natashaâs shoulders. The flash of envy Sam feels at Steveâs obvious pride in Natasha is swiftly overwhelmed by Samâs genuine happiness for her. He canât think of anyone heâd trust more than Natasha to be the next Director of SHIELD. Probably she wouldnât let in any secret Nazis or mad scientist artificial intelligences at all.
âThatâs great, Natalia,â Bucky says warmly. âHow soon can you start? I already hate working for Fury.â
âWell, Iâm pretty sure Fury has like three decoy replacements lined up and at least another decade of weird mind games in him before heâll seriously consider retirement,â Natasha says, nodding her head approvingly. âAnd to be fair to Fury, heâs probably still pretty pissed about that time you nearly killed him.â
âActually, Fury really likes Bucky,â says Sam defensively. âJust last week Fury even thanked him for giving him the chance to fake his own deathâsaid heâd been looking for just the right opportunity for years.â
Bucky smirks and nudges his knee against Samâs underneath the table. Sam deliberately doesnât move his leg away, warmth spreading through him from the point of contact.
âI feel like I should be surprised that Bucky won Fury over that quickly, but honestly it makes sense. The nuns loved Bucky,â Steve says, rolling his eyes.
âFury does have kind of a weird nun energy, doesnât he,â Natasha says thoughtfully. âIâve never really thought about it before but now Iâm kind of obsessed with the idea.â
When theyâve finished orderingâbacon cheeseburgers for Steve and Natasha, falafel salads for Sam and BuckyâNatasha asks them how theyâre enjoying their new vegan lifestyle.
âHave you been eating a lot of aquafaba?â Natasha asks, too innocent by half.
A surge of triumph wells up in Samâs chest. He knows that Natasha is testing them, and he knows that theyâre going to pass this test.
âAquafabaâs actually more of a baking thing, sort of an egg white replacement,â Sam explains, biting his lip to resist shooting Bucky a smug grin. âAnd Bucky doesnât eat anything with added sugar, so we donât do a whole lot of baking.â
âAnd since when is Bucky such a healthy eater?â Steve asks incredulously.
âSome of us got hasty Nazi knockoff serums, Steve,â Bucky replies. âIâm like a hundred years old. How do I know if I can just eat whatever I want and still have perfect blood pressure and cholesterol like you? Also, do you know how much weâve learned about nutrition since you and I were in school? When was the last time you even got a physical, Steve? Natalia ought to be making sure you take better care of yourself. I make sure Sam exercises and eats a sensible diet.â
âI stay fit,â Sam agrees.
Bucky smirks and lets his eyes travel along Samâs biceps and shoulders. âYeah, you do, sweetheart.â
âHey, Iâve been meaning to get a physical, OK? But my primary care physician was taken in the Snap,â Steve says defensively. âI didnât have time to find a new one. Iâve been very busy.â
âIâm actually finding this all very interesting,â Natasha says, her chin propped on her hand and her voice low and amused. âHas Bucky always been this fussy and meddlesome?â
âOnly when it comes to my best friend,â Bucky explains with great apparent sincerity.
Steve chokes on his soda, coughing and sputtering violently, and Sam looks up from his salad to grin and catch Buckyâs eye. Natasha gives Steve a few strong thumps on the back.
When Steve recovers from his coughing fit, he narrows his eyes in disbelief. âIâm sorry, your best friend? Is Sam your best friend? Because I thought Sam was more like your best friendâs best friend.â
âWeâve gotten really close since we moved in together,â Sam says earnestly, slinging a friendly arm around Buckyâs shoulders.
Itâs not even a lie, really. Theyâve got a pretty great routine going, and Buckyâs an easy roommate. They wake up every morning and drag themselves out of their shared bed, sleepy and warm, and head out for an early run, letting Buckyâs bomb ass running playlist and the exertion of their run build up the physical and emotional energy they need for the day. They take Buckyâs weird secret assassin route through the alleys to and from the subway every day, and when they come home in the evenings they catch up on all the movies and music and weird political news theyâve missed in the past five years. They smoke a joint together in bed every night before they go to sleep, and they laugh and swap stories and usually make fun of Steve. Itâs all very comfortable and cozy. Itâs actually, Sam is startled to realize, the closest thing to home heâs felt in the past two-slash-seven years.
âSo you moved in together,â Steve says, his voice awkward and high pitched. âThatâsâso great!â
âSpeaking of moving in together,â Bucky says innocently. âHave you guys decided where youâre going to live? We can move the weapons out of the spare room at our place if you want to move in with us.â
âIâm sorry, the spare room? Itâs only a two bedroom apartment, Bucky!â
***
Sam is happy to be back in the field with Steve and Natasha, but he canât shake the slight uneasiness that comes from thinking heâll be able to predict their actions, that heâll be able follow the rhythm of their fight together, only for the two of them to do something totally different than what he expects at the worst possible moment. It turns out that five years was just long enough for Steve and Natasha to fall perfectly in sync with one another and out of sync with Sam.
Itâs Sam and Buckyâs first official SHIELD mission with Steve and Natasha, and everything is going mostly fine except for the fact that instead of turning into nice, clean piles of dust like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, these gross ass vampires are exploding like giant bags of blood every time you slay them. Itâs super nasty and definitely unhygienic.
The vampires are feral, mostly mindless leech-like creatures that donât seem to have a lot going on in their probably decaying brains. So on top of dying in a rather revolting sort of fashion, theyâre not even sexy or sophisticated or even European the way pop culture has promised him. The whole experience is a real letdown, and it isnât even really dangerous so much as it is messy and tedious.
âLast one!â Bucky calls out, firing his crossbow straight into the heart of a vampire standing in front of Steve. The vampire explodes in a disgusting spray of borrowed blood, drenching Steve from head to toe in its recycled bodily fluids. Sam stifles a laugh.
âGod damn it, Bucky,â Steve complains, his face twisting in distaste. âJust for that Iâm taking first shower on the Quinjet.â
Sam gives Bucky a discreet fist bump when they climb aboard, whispering, âNice shot, man.â Bucky snickers.
Steve is always so funny when he gets all prim and fussy, like some kind of stuffy Victorian schoolmarm. Itâs kind of adorable.
In order to fit a full decontamination chamber and shower into the Quinjet, thereâs only one of them, so they have to take turns showering. Sam and Bucky have a sort of medium amount of blood on them, while Natasha has somehow managed to escape the whole gory ordeal without a single drop of bloodâor even sweat? Literally how is she so pristine?âanywhere on her. Since theyâre only in New Jersey, not too far from home, Natasha decides she can wait until they get back to SHIELD headquarters to shower.
âSo whatâs the deal with all the vampires?â Sam asks. âI thought you and Steve killed that Bloody Baron guy.â
âWe did,â Natasha replies, frowning. âIt must have been a nest he left behind. Usually new vampires are too stupid or underdeveloped to feed themselvesâtheyâre sort of like human babies that wayâbut I guess after their vampire dad guy died they must have gotten hungry enough to try to find something to eat on their own. I would have thought that theyâd have all starved to death by now, though.â
When Steve finally exits the shower a thousand years later, he shoots them a smug smile. âGood luck fighting over who goes next, guys,â Steve taunts, in an irritating, self-satisfied sort of way. âThereâs probably not enough hot water left for both of you.â
âOh, thatâs fine,â Bucky says casually. âSam and I always shower together anyway. We can share. Câmon, Sam.â
Bucky grabs Samâs wrist and tugs him along toward the shower, and Sam uses every ounce of energy he has left in his body to keep his facial muscles firmly under control, refusing to offer any kind of reaction whatsoever to that frankly shocking claim. What the fuck, Bucky? On the plus side, though, Sam has the pleasure of watching Steveâs eyes widen and his stupid smirk fade as horror slowly sets in.
Natashaâs face, of course, lights up in surprise and then sheer fucking delight at this unexpected turn of events, because Natasha loves drama.
âWhat,â Steve says weakly.
âYeah, itâs no big,â Sam says, nonchalant as hell. âWeâll be out in a few minutes.â
Steve and Natasha whisper furiously at each other as Bucky pulls him out of the room.
When Bucky shuts the door to the decontamination chamber behind them, Sam falls back against it, running an open hand down his face and groaning. âBucky, man, what are you doing?â
âWhat?â Bucky asks, eyes wide and guileless. Heâs unbuckling the chest fasteners on his uniform, and Sam decides to take a moment to indulge his purely intellectual curiosity about how exactly Bucky straps himself into all that tactical fetish gear.
âSteve and I always used to take baths together,â Bucky says. âDo you know how long it took to heat up buckets full of water on the stove just to take one bath? And by the time one person was finished, the bath water would be dirty and cold! And Stevie was so little, it was just easier to bathe together so weâd both stay warm, especially in the winterââ
While Bucky prattles on about Depression-era plumbing, filthy shared tenement showers, cold water apartments, the potential dangers of cold baths for people with weak lungs, and how extremely normal it is for best friends to shower together, Sam watches Bucky methodically strip down to bare, sweaty skin.
âDo you need help, sweetheart?â Bucky asks, amusement in his voice.
âWhat,â Sam says absently. His eyes are intently following the path of a bead of sweat thatâs sliding slowly down the hills and valleys of Buckyâs well-defined abs.
âYouâre still dressed.â
âOh! Right. Yes. I mean no! I donât need help.â
As Bucky turns on the water and adjusts the temperature, Sam undresses hurriedly, tossing his bloody uniform into the laundry container marked âBIOHAZARDâ and stepping into the shower with Bucky.
âNow, Sam, I just want to say: itâs OK if you get hard,â Bucky says sincerely, clearly trying but then utterly failing to hold back a grin. He looks directly into Samâs eyes and claps him on the shoulder. âYou know, Steve and I alwaysââ
âDonât say it,â Sam interrupts. âDo not say it or I will kill you, I swear to God.â Literally the last thing Sam needs, as he desperately tries to redirect the flow of blood running to his cock, is to think about Steve and Bucky showering together with erections. Jesus Christ. Sam is not made of fucking stone.
âIâm just saying, itâs perfectly normalââ
âI will kill you, Barnes,â Sam warns.
âItâs the beauty of nature!â Bucky proclaims with a shit-eating grin, then easily dodges Samâs half-hearted blow to the face. âAnd if it makes you feel better, I will be making literally no effort to avoid ogling you, so.â
Sam rolls his eyes and suppresses a smile. âWhatever, man. Help me wash my back.â
***
After they shower together on the Quinjet, Bucky apparently decides that thereâs no reason for them to stop showering together now that theyâve started. So every morning when they finish their run, Bucky follows Sam into the bathroom, stripping off his sweaty clothes and just stepping right into the shower, waiting for Sam to join him. And at this point it feels like maybe it would be weird if Sam said something, like maybe he should have said something the first time Bucky decided they were the kind of friends who took showers together, but quite frankly the first time Sam was so distracted by the shift and pull of Buckyâs muscles as he tugged off his shirt that Sam didnât think to protest.
So now they shower together every morning, and they share the same body wash and shampoo too, because Bucky says that they already smell just like each other from spending so much time together that it doesnât really make sense for them to use different products. Plus, Bucky explains, with two full grown men in the shower at the same time, thereâs just not enough room to clutter up the space with a bunch of different bottles.
Sam is pretty sure that Bucky just likes it that Sam smells like him, though. Buckyâs weirdly possessive that way, and it turns out that maybe Steve is too, because every time Sam gets up close in Steveâs space during training, Steveâs nostrils flare, the briefest look of jealousy crossing his face.
So, on the plus side, their plan is definitely working.
On the down side, however, Sam has exactly zero opportunities to jerk off now, and heâs about to spontaneously fucking combust out of what is probably fatal sexual tension. Because every morning, Sam wakes up to a soft, sleepy Bucky pressed against his back, hips grinding gently against Samâs ass. And every morning, Sam watches Bucky get sweaty and breathless on their run, thin t-shirt growing slowly more transparent, clinging to those perfectly sculpted pectoral muscles. And then, after all that, Sam has to actually get naked and shower with the guy, who is not at all shy about the way his erection springs up out of his running shorts as he pulls them down his hips.
And all of thisâthis whole fucking blue balls-inducing, brain-melting, sexually frustrating journey into madnessâhappens before Sam can even get a goddamn cup of coffee. It is eight in the fucking morning and Sam is about to die from his boner.
âHey, Sam?â Bucky asks, giving himself a critical look in the bathroom mirror. âCan you cut my hair?â
âDo I look like a barber,â Sam replies flatly.
âNo, but I feel like if weâre going to your momâs today, I should probably look sharp, right? And I just donât feel like the long hair goes with a suit.â Bucky frowns. âThere are probably plenty of videos about hair cutting on Youtube, right? Iâll bet you could figure it out.â
Sam does not remember inviting Bucky to his momâs house with him today, and he has no idea why Bucky is planning on wearing a suit, but he does remember how Bucky Barnes had looked in those old photos, with that classic haircut highlighting his sharp cheekbones and that perfect fucking jawline. Heâd looked like an old movie actor, like Cary Grant or Gregory Peck, and Sam has always had a weakness for handsome men who look like they could take you to church and then take you straight to bed so youâll have something to confess about next week.
âYeah, all right,â Sam agrees.
It turns out there are actually a bunch of tutorials on how to cut hair on Youtubeâapparently there was a whole thing that happened in 2020 where everyone had to cut their own hair for a while?âand after two or three videos Sam feels reasonably prepared for this potential disaster.
He sits Bucky down on a chair in the kitchen, because Buckyâs hair is thick and long, and Sam wants to make sure he can sweep everything up nice and easy when theyâre done. When Sam runs his fingers through Buckyâs hair to start trimming the length, Bucky groans softly, his eyelids fluttering closed.
âForgot how much I like having my hair touched,â Bucky murmurs.
âOh, yeah?â Sam says, biting his lip. He wonders if Bucky also likes to have his hair pulled, and for a moment he regrets ever letting Bucky talk him into this hair cut, because he thinks heâd like to see Buckyâs long hair twisted around his fist as he guides Buckyâs mouth down onto his cock.
âI never had a professional haircut before the Army,â Bucky confesses. âMy mom always cut it for me when I was a kid, and then when I moved in with Steve weâd do it for each other. We always needed money back then, couldnât afford a barber.â
âHold still for a moment,â Sam says, touching Buckyâs jaw and gently guiding his head into the right position. He runs the clippers over the back of Buckyâs neck, fingers pressing lightly against Buckyâs temples to move him where he needs him. Heat blooms deep in Samâs belly at the way Bucky shivers under his touch. When Sam finishes trimming the sides and back of Buckyâs head, he leans down to softly blow the excess hair off the nape of Buckyâs neck. Bucky moans quietly, biting his lip and arching his back almost imperceptibly. Pretty little goosebumps rise on the back of his neck.
âTake a look,â Sam says quietly, handing Bucky a mirror.
Bucky turns his head left and right, preening a bit as he admires the tidy cut Sam gave him. He looks gorgeous, hair neatly trimmed in a way that draws focus to that devastating bone structure.
âNot too bad for your first try, sweetheart,â Bucky says, grinning. âThink your mom will like it?â
âOh, I think she will.â
***
When Samâs mom opens her door to see that Sam has brought a friend to visit, she looks delighted at this unexpected turn of events.
âSam, baby! Itâs so good to see you! Come in, come in!â she exclaims, pulling Sam in for a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek before leading them into the living room. âAnd who is this handsome young man?â
âThis is Bucky,â Sam replies, shooting his mom a warning glare. Do not embarrass me, he communicates silently. She widens her eyes in response, giving Sam an overly innocent look and covering her heart a touch dramatically with her hands. Moi? her body language says. Sam is not fooled. âBucky is my co-worker. And my roommate. And my friend.â
âHello, Mrs. Wilson,â Bucky says, smiling like a goddamn choir boy. âItâs so nice to meet you. I hope you donât mind that Sam invited me along today.â
Sam most definitely did not invite Bucky along today, but he feels like it would be rude to point that out in front of his mom, who looks very impressed by Buckyâs whole general existence. She looks even more impressed when Bucky presents her with the vase of lilacs he insisted upon buying along the way.
âThese are lovely, Bucky! Iâm always happy to meet one of Samâs co-workers slash roommates slash friends,â she says teasingly. âAnd donât you look nice! Sam, doesnât he look nice?â
âYou didnât have to wear a suit to meet my mom,â Sam says with a sigh, rolling his eyes.
They already had this whole argument before they left, but Bucky was adamant about wearing the suit, and honestly Sam didnât work that hard to try to talk him out of it. Sam didnât even know that Bucky owned a suit, let alone one that was so perfectly tailored to those shoulders and those slim hips and those long legs. Once Bucky actually put on the suit, Sam suddenly felt like all of his objections were a bit trivial and unnecessary. So now, like an idiot, Sam is also dressed up, wearing a button-down shirt and a navy blue blazer to visit his own mother.
âItâs a Sunday, Sam,â Bucky says reprovingly, in a tone that suggests that the day of the week is somehow relevant to his sartorial choices. Samâs mom nods approvingly at this, so maybe itâs some kind of weird older generation thing that Sam is too young to understand.
Sam feels a bit ill at the unwelcome realization that Bucky is technically older than Samâs mother.
Samâs mom serves them tea and cookies while they catch up, and Bucky is unfailingly polite, charming in a sincere sort of way that Sam should have expected from all of Steveâs stories about growing up together in the neighborhood. It occurs to Sam that Bucky probably developed this skill as a self-defense mechanism against the inevitable havoc that Steve wreaked in their lives, using it to keep the two of them out of trouble with mothers and teachers and, eventually, commanding officers.
When the subject of Captain America comes up, Samâs mother frowns disapprovingly and says, âI just donât know why that boy asked you to take on this kind of burden. Is he even retired? Why couldnât he be Captain America?â
Samâs mother always refers to Steve as that boy.
âThatâs what I said!â Bucky exclaims. âI was furious when Steve said he wanted to pass the shield on to Sam. Why did Sam need to be Captain America? Sam was already a superhero. I mean, he was the Falcon! He could actually fly. How cool is that? Steve could never flyâSteve just fell, usually without a parachute. Being Captain America just meant doing the same thing Sam was already doing, but with an unfamiliar weapon and a lot more attention from bad guys. It seemed so risky and unnecessary.â
Sam is a little stunned at this revelation. He thought the reason Bucky was mad at Steve about the whole Captain America thing was because Steve hadnât chosen him to be Captain America, not because Bucky was worried about Sam.
Samâs heart thumps a bit in his chest, warmth flowing through his veins to thaw out a part of him that he hadnât even realized had been just a tiny bit frozen, an icy chunk heâs been carrying around inside of him ever since heâd accepted Steveâs offer to be the new Captain America. Bucky looks soft and sincere, and Sam didnât know how much he needed to hear that someone believed in him just as he wasâthat there was someone who didnât just think that heâd make a good Captain America but that he was already a pretty great superhero all on his own.
Samâs mom nods enthusiastically. âExactly,â she says, then turns to Sam. âI like this one, Sam. He seems so much more sensible than that other boy. That one was always getting you into trouble.â
Bucky chuckles. âOh, Steve is good at getting people into trouble. But the thing about Steve is that Steve attracts people who are just like him, people who are good and brave and ready to stand up for whatâs right no matter what the cost. Sam was fighting for what he believed in long before Steve ever came along. You raised a good man, Mrs. Wilson,â Bucky says, smiling softly at Sam.
And Samâs heart breaks a little in his chest at this, because he doesnât think that Bucky realizes that Bucky is the very first person Steve attracted who shared his innate goodness and integrity, because Bucky doesnât think heâs a hero like Steve and Sam.
Samâs mom is clearly pleased by Buckyâs compliment, and she looks proudly over at Sam. âSam is the best man I know,â she says, her voice strong, full of conviction. âIâm glad he has a partner who understands that his heart is just as valuable as his training.â
âSamâs heart is exactly why Steve chose him as Captain America,â Bucky says. And then he tells her stories about Samâs new job, stories that are carefully edited to minimize the danger they had faced and to maximize Samâs capability and competence in dispatching various minor villains. He tells her about all of the countries theyâve traveled to, all the little boys and girls whoâve looked at Sam with stars in their eyes. Bucky makes sure to include Steve in these stories too, subtly but effectively touting Steveâs unflagging loyalty and care and dependability.
Sam remembers Steve telling him that Bucky was the first to shout âLetâs hear it for Captain America!â when they returned from Kreischberg, successfully distracting Colonel Phillips from any disciplinary action he might have been contemplating against Steve for going MIA. Itâs hard to throw the book at someone whoâs actively being celebrated by hundreds of grateful, cheering soldiers.
Bucky, Sam is beginning to realize, is the greatest hype man Sam has ever seen.
âThank you so much for a lovely afternoon, Mrs. Wilson,â Bucky says with a kind smile. âIt was really nice to meet you.â
âCome back next weekend!â Samâs mom replies enthusiastically, giving Bucky a warm hug. âYou can meet Samâs sister Sarah and his niece Michelle. Theyâll be sorry they missed you this week. Sam, dear, come give your mother a hug.â
When Sam pulls his mother in for a hug, she whispers, âIâm so proud of youâ in his ear. Sam flushes a bit, feeling awkward and self-conscious.
âThanks, Mom,â he says.
***
That night when theyâre lying in bed, passing a joint back and forth, Sam makes a long overdue confession.
âI was mad at you, you know,â Sam says apologetically. âWhen you ran away. And when you didnât come back after Peggy died. I thought you werenât being a good friend to Steve. I donât thinkâI donât think I was being very fair to you. And Iâm sorry.â
The thing is, Steve had told Sam a lot of stories about Bucky, about how charming and funny Bucky was, what a good friend he was, what a good sergeant he was. In Steveâs stories, Bucky was a giant, a larger-than-life sort of figure, a man who never gave up and never let anyone down.
And maybe Sam bought into all of that mythologizing, because when Bucky didnât come back to Steve, Sam felt betrayed on Steveâs behalf. And he realizes now, with a sharp pang of regret, that this reaction was deeply unfair to Bucky, based on the legend of Bucky Barnes rather than the man. Because Bucky was supposed to be the loyal Howling Commando from Steveâs stories, Captain Americaâs Sergeant and Steve Rogersâs Best Friend, the hero who always rescued Steve when he needed it, even when Steve didnât think he needed rescuing.
And Steve had so desperately, desperately needed rescuing, especially after Peggyâs death. Sam would never forget the sight of Steve Rogers, Captain America, tired and small and so very fragile, dipping under the weight of Peggyâs coffin as he carried her down the aisle.
When Bucky turns to face Sam, there are lines of grief in the corners of his eyes. âI was sorry about Peggy,â Bucky says quietly. âShe was my friend too.â
Sam reaches out to brush his thumb along Buckyâs cheekbone, cupping Buckyâs face in his hand. Bucky raises his hand to cover Samâs, cool metal against Samâs skin, and Bucky shivers a little under his touch.
âYouâre a good friend, Bucky. Iâm sorry I thought you werenât.â
âThank you, sweetheart,â Bucky says with a tired smile.
***
When Steve knocks on their open office door, he looks with surprise at the sign on the doorway. âSam Wilson and James Barnes?â Steve reads aloud, looking concerned. âSam, they didnât give you your own office? I feel like Captain America should get his own office. Do you want me to talk to Fury? Because you shouldnât have to share with Bucky.â
âNah, itâs cool,â Sam says casually. âFury gave us two offices, but we just figured it was easier to share since weâre always together anyway. Buckyâs office is our murder board room.â
Steve looks disconcerted by this. âOK,â he says, frowning. âWell, I just came by to let you know that Nat picked up another HYDRA facility on her radar, right near where we found those vampires in New Jersey. She sent you an e-mail with the details.â
Sam doesnât know why Steve needs to stop by to tell him something that Natasha already sent him in an e-mail, but whatever. Thereâs something a little bit hesitant in Steveâs expression, a little bit lonely, and maybe Steve just came by because he wanted an excuse to see them.
âThanks,â Sam says, with a warm smile. âCâmon, letâs go over to the spare office to tell Bucky to put it on our murder board. Make sure you tell him how great it looks, by the way. We spent like thirty minutes at Joann Fabrics picking out just the right shades of yarn to tie everything together. He actually has a whole color-coded system for it, with a key in an Excel spreadsheet and everything.â
While they walk down to go see the murder board, Steve tells Sam all about Buckyâs job as an actuary before the war. Apparently all those years doing informal risk assessment calculations to try to keep Steve from killing himself while they were growing up led to an actual career. âHe was actually in college for mathematics when he dropped out to enlist.â
âI wonder if he put that on his resume when he applied for the job,â Sam says. âActually now that Iâm thinking about it I wonder how Bucky fit like 80 years of experience as an actuary, a commando, a brainwashed assassin, an international fugitive, and then a goat farmer on a one-page resume.â
âWait, Fury actually made you two submit resumes?â Steve raises his eyebrows.
âNah, just Bucky,â Sam replies, grinning. âI think Fury just wanted to give him a bit of a hard time after he shot him. Bucky actually wrote one up for him too. Wouldnât let me see it, but if Natasha just so happens to find it anywhere on SHIELDâs servers at some pointâŠâ
âIâll let you know,â Steve says, chuckling.
When they get to the spare office and see Bucky tacking up some new papers on the vampire murder board, Steveâs laughter catches abruptly in his throat. Buckyâs newly short hair is styled today in an appealing combination of his old, neatly parted look and a more modern fashion.
âBucky?â Steve says breathlessly, his voice thick with emotion.
âOh, hey, Steve,â Bucky replies awkwardly, raising his hand to his newly cut hair a bit self-consciously. âHow does it look?â
âGreat!â Steve says fervently, eyes shining. âYou lookâGod, you look so great, Bucky.â
âThanks,â Bucky says, biting his lip shyly. âSam cut it for me. Had to look respectable if I was going to meet his mom.â
Steve looks unexpectedly stricken for a moment, but then recovers quickly. âWell, it looks great,â he says. âAnd you met Samâs mom! Thatâsâgreat. Thatâs also great.â
âShe loved him, of course,â Sam says, rolling his eyes. âHe wore a suit. And he brought her flowers.â
âBucky always did bring my mom a flower when he came to visit, even if he had to steal it from someone else,â Steve says wistfully. âThatâsâthatâs so great that he still does that.â Steve looks dreadfully, deeply jealous right now, although Sam honestly canât tell if Steve is jealous of him, jealous of Bucky, or jealous of Samâs mom. Probably a weird combination of all three.
âWell, it turns out Bucky is great with moms. Even put in a good word for your sorry ass while he was there,â Sam says cheerfully.
âWow! Good! Thatâsâthatâs so good,â Steve says, his voice a little weak now. âWait, does your mom not like me? Actually never mind. We can talk about it later. Iâll justâIâll just be going now. I can see that you two have a lot of work to do, so Iâll justâgo.â
When Steve leaves, Bucky raises an eyebrow at Sam. âYou think maybe the whole make-Steve-jealous plan is actually working?â Bucky says wryly, the corner of his mouth tugging up in a crooked smile.
Sam stifles a laugh. âYeah, just a bit.â
***
Sam and Bucky are just getting out of the shower after their run on Saturday when they hear an unexpected knock on the front door.
âIâll get it,â Sam says, pulling on a t-shirt and a hoodie. Buckyâs still standing in front of the closet, clad only in a gratifyingly small towel as he takes his time deciding what to wear today.
When Sam gets to the door and opens it, heâs surprised to find Steve and Natasha standing in front of him. Steve looks a bit sheepish, but Natasha appears utterly relaxed, at ease in the way that she always is no matter whatâs going on or how weird Steve is.
âSurprise!â Steve says awkwardly. He raises his hands briefly like he might be attempting some sort of jazz hands or something, then clearly thinks better of it and sticks his hands in his pockets where they canât get him into trouble. âWeâre here to take you guys out!â
âSam, sweetheart, whereâs our blue sweater?â Bucky calls out from the bedroom.
âSweetheart?â Steve repeats thinly.
âOur blue sweater?â Natasha repeats gleefully.
Bucky emerges from the bedroom, hands smoothing out a few wrinkles in the aforementioned sweater as he tugs it into place. âNever mind, I found it,â Bucky announces. âHey, guys.â
âWell, hello, Bucky. So you two share clothes now,â Natasha observes, the corner of her mouth curving blithely upward. âIsnât that interesting?â
Whatâs particularly interesting, Sam thinks, is that he is ninety-nine percent certain that he saw Steve wearing that same white t-shirt Natasha has tied neatly at her waist just the other day.
âOf course we share clothes. Why would Sam and I need separate clothes? We wear basically the same size, even if Samâs shoulders are a bit nicer than mine,â Bucky says, winking at Sam.
âYour waist is trimmer, though. Youâve got that nice lean look going on, itâs really working for you.â
âOK!â Steve interrupts, sounding a bit frantic. He and Natasha trade a few weird, indecipherable looks back and forth and Natasha rolls her eyes. âSo we were thinking we would take you guys out this morning, have some best friend time.â Steve says this last part with particular emphasis.
âGreat, where are we going?â Bucky asks.
âActually,â Steve says, âwe were thinking about splitting up. Sam, how do you feel about going to a ball game with me?â
âSure,â Sam says, raising his eyebrows in surprise. âWhat are Natasha and Bucky going to do?â
Natasha and Bucky have a brief conversation in Russian, gesturing back and forth a bit before Natasha flatly states, âBucky and I are gonna go to yoga and then get mani pedis.â
âOK,â Sam says, raising an eyebrow in skepticism. Honestly he probably doesnât want to know whatever it is theyâre really planning to do, if only for the sake of plausible deniability. Sam wonders if he and Bucky should think about getting married at some point so they donât ever have to testify against each other. He should bring it up later, probably not in front of Steve.
***
Steve and Sam are sitting in the sun, relaxing at a Mets game, and Sam has missed this so much. Itâs spring, still a bit chilly, but the sun is out and the dayâs warming up quickly. Steve looks happy and relaxed, golden hair shining in the sunlight and a little bit of pink on his cheeks and forehead that will fade away before theyâre even home from the game tonight.
âSo you and Bucky are getting along well,â Steve says, glancing at Sam out of the corner of his eyes.
Sam hums noncommittally, taking a sip of his water. Heâd checked the app on his phone to see if any of the beers they had on tap were vegan, but unfortunately none of them were. Which is fine, really, because Buckyâs been nagging him to drink more water lately. In fact Buckyâll probably ask Sam about it when he gets home, so now Sam will be able to tell Bucky yes, he had a bottle of water today, heâs staying hydrated.
âYou donât think Buckyâs a bitâmuch?â Steve asks uncertainly. âSome people used to think he was a bit overbearing.â
âNah, heâs cool,â Sam says mildly, then hesitates. âBut, well, he doesnât have much use for privacy, does he? I mean, heâs always soâaround. And so attractive! And sometimes a man needs some time to himself, for personal, intimate things. You know what Iâm saying?â
âYouâre dying of sexual frustration, arenât you.â Steve smirks, with a knowing little glint in his eye.
âGod, yes.â
âOld Bucky Barnacle. So thatâs still his move, huh?â Steve says, his voice wry. âWell, good luck with that. If history repeats itself, Iâm sure the situation will eventually come to a head one way or another.â
Sam doesnât know what to do with that ominous remark, but since itâs such a nice day he decides to let it slide.
âBucky did say something to me once, kind of struck me as odd. He said that you were his only friend growing up. Whichâthatâs not true, right? I mean, heâs so handsome and charming andâsurprisingly sweet. I feel like a guy like that would have a lot of friends.â
Steve laughs ruefully. âYouâd think so, right? But Bucky never really seemed to want other friends, and honestly a lot of people thought there was something a bitâfunny, about him. And about me.â
âFunny like maybe you two were a little too close?â
Steve rubs the back of his neck, looking a little flustered. âYeah, maybe,â he admits. âWe were always together. God, Bucky used to get so jealous when Iâd make other friends. But he loved me, wanted me to be happy. I think he was happiest when we were a part of the Howling Commandos. He just wanted me to be around people who valued me and appreciated me, I think.â
âHe liked Peggy a lot,â Sam says mildly, carefully.
âHe talked to you about Peggy?â Steveâs eyes widen slightly in surprise.
âWe talk,â Sam says, careful to keep his tone guarded. Sam doesnât know how much Steve and Bucky have really had a chance to connect after Bucky came back from Wakanda, doesnât know how much Bucky is comfortable with Sam revealing. He gets the feeling that Steve and Bucky have been dancing around a lot of things for about eighty-five years now. âHe likes Natasha too.â
âDoes he,â Steve says, with a small, speculative smile.
***
Theyâre sitting on the sofa, catching up on Riverdale, and Sam canât believe how much better the show has gotten since the Decimation forced them to write out Archie Andrews. Theyâve just finished the episode where Betty Cooper reveals that the murdered Jason Blossom was actually just a clone of the real Jason Blossomâwho apparently was in the witness protection program the whole timeâwhen Bucky suddenly announces, âI think we should practice kissing.â
âYes, absolutely, one hundred percent,â Sam agrees immediately, then pauses. âWait, why?â
âWell, Steve and I used to practice kissing all the time, so itâs obviously a pretty normal best friend thing to do,â Bucky reasons, gazing earnestly at Sam with wide, too-innocent eyes. âI feel like it would be suspicious if Steve found out I havenât kissed anyone in almost eighty years and my so-called best friend didnât help me get back into practice.â
Then Bucky pulls his right arm across his chest, casually stretching the strong muscle in his shoulder, the thin material of his t-shirt straining over his firm bicep. And wow, Bucky really should have been a lawyer or a politician or something, because Sam always finds his arguments extremely convincing. Heâs honestly the most persuasive guy Sam has ever met.
âYeah, OK,â Sam says. âCâmere.â
Bucky leans toward him, hand coming up to touch Samâs face gently. Buckyâs so close that Sam can feel Buckyâs soft breath against his mouth, and Sam leans forward to rest his forehead against Buckyâs.
âOK?â Bucky murmurs.
Sam hums in response, leaning forward to touch his lips softly to Buckyâs. Buckyâs hand trembles a little on Samâs face, nerves or anticipation, but then Buckyâs grip tightens and he pulls Sam closer, opening his mouth to capture Samâs lips between his.
The kiss starts out soft and sweet, tentative, and then slowly grows more passionate. Sam gasps when Buckyâs teeth pull gently at his bottom lip, tugging his mouth open so Bucky can slip his tongue inside. Sam moans and strokes his tongue against Buckyâs, heating burning through his veins as their tongues slide wetly against each other. Sam can feel Buckyâs heart beating right against his own, through their shirts and their skin and their sternums, a pounding, frantic rhythm that matches the pulse of blood traveling directly to Samâs cock.
Sam tangles his fingers in Buckyâs hair, gripping the short strands in his fist and tugging gently, pulling Buckyâs head right where he needs him. Bucky pitches forward a bit, off-balance, bracing his hands on Samâs thighs before climbing eagerly up onto Samâs lap. Bucky is making sweet, urgent little sounds that send a shiver of want down Samâs spine, and Sam has to pull back for a moment, take a minute to breathe and let his racing heart settle in his chest.
âSam,â Bucky says, pupils dilated and dark. âFuck, sweetheart.â
âYeah,â Sam breathes, panting and fighting to keep his hips still, trying to keep from shifting them up against Buckyâs. âThat wasâ.â
âGood?â Bucky asks, lips curving into a crooked, cocky grin.
âIt was all right,â Sam replies casually, feigning nonchalance. âI think you still need more practice. Câmere.â
***
They practice kissing a lot after that, which is great, and also lucky, because when Bucky hisses âkiss meâ to Sam in the middle of a HYDRA raid, Sam doesnât even hesitate.
Theyâre sneaking into that New Jersey HYDRA facility Natasha found near the gross vampire lair, and Steve and Nat are breaking into one end of the facility while Sam and Bucky creep through the other. Theyâre trying to be quiet, donât want to be caught before Steve and Natasha have a chance to get the data off HYDRAâs servers, so when a HYDRA goon stumbles into the hallway with them, Bucky hauls Sam right up against him and kisses him fiercely.
The HYDRA goon makes a noise of surprise and confusion, clearly baffled by the two heavily armed men making out in the middle of a research facility, but Samâs having a hard time paying attention to him over the feel of Buckyâs lips, which are spit-slick and firm and insistent against Samâs. When Bucky starts grinding his hips against himâwow, Bucky is really selling thisâSam lets out a low moan that Steve and Natasha will almost certainly hear over the comms.
âWhatâs going on here? Youâre not supposed to be here!â the goon says.
Bucky releases Samâs lower lip from between his teeth with a loud pop. âHuh? Oh, sorry, guess we got carried away,â Bucky says sheepishly.
âThatâs OK, justâhey, wait! Youâre the Winter Soldier!â the goon exclaims, apparently catching sight of Buckyâs metal arm.
Steve and Natasha burst into the hallway at that moment, and when the goon turns back around to face them Sam pulls his shield from its harness and throws it at the man, who falls to the floor like a sack of bricks. Sam catches the rebound.
âOh, hey, guys,â Bucky says with a grin, casually reaching down to readjust the lines of his uniform from where Samâs fists had wrinkled it during their makeout session. âYou didnât have to come help out. We had everything under control here.â
âHad everything under control here,â Steve repeats. âWe saw you on the security cams necking right in front of a guard!â
âWell, sure, but the guy caught us red-handed sneaking down the corridors. Thank God Buckyâs such a quick thinker or that guard would have thought something was suspicious going on,â Sam says, shooting Bucky a grateful smile. Bucky grins back at him. âUsing the old pretend-to-be-a-couple-making-out scam was a great call.â
âA great call?â Natasha says, raising her eyebrows. âYouâre dressed as Captain America and the Winter Soldier and youâre right in the middle of their facility. In what way did you appear to be two passionate lovers out for an innocent stroll?â
âTo be fair, that guard would have no idea if Captain America and the Winter Soldier had a more than professional relationship,â Bucky points out.
âAnd are you questioning Buckyâs professional judgment as a master of covert operations, Natasha?â Sam says reproachfully, shaking his head in disappointment. âBucky was a ghost for over fifty years. I think the man knows how to keep from blowing a cover.â
Steve sighs heavily, rubbing his temples in frustration. âLook, letâs just do a quick sweep through the basement, OK? Itâs the only place left that we havenât checked out.â
When they make it down to the basement, Sam is surprised to find that the whole thing has a very distinct incel-with-a-sex-dungeon vibe to it. Which is not really an aesthetic that he thought HYDRA would be embracing, but heâs learned to roll with it when it comes to the weird shit that HYDRA gets up to. The room looks moldy and kind of wet, with a clammy cement wall that has an actual, albeit cheap-looking, coffin propped up against it, right next to some rusted metal chains that look like a serious tetanus hazard. Thereâs also a microwave and a pretty expensive gaming PC down here, screen turned on to one of those gryphons and gargoyles MMORPGs.
âIs someone living down here?â Bucky asks, wrinkling his nose in distaste. âOr, even worse, is someone living in that coffin?â
Thereâs only one way to find out. Steve walks over to the coffin and yanks it open, jumping back in horror when a man wearing a neck brace and plastic fangs pops out and cries, âSteve! I knew you wouldnât be able to resist coming back for me and my vampire babies. And youâve found my new dungeon!â
His creepy red eyes are on fire with ecstasy.
âEw, itâs Todd,â Bucky says, making a sour face. âI thought you killed that guy.â
âYeah, me too,â Steve says with a frown.
âMy name isnât Todd,â Todd says peevishly. âItâs Baron Blood. How would you like it if everyone called you Bucky instead of the Winter Soldier?â
âEveryone does call me Bucky.â
When Todd has the nerve to look judgmental at this, Sam narrows his eyes and snaps, âBucky is a great nickname.â
âItâs very cute,â Natasha agrees.
âI gave it to him,â Steve says, nodding proudly.
âDid you,â Todd says, eyes widening in alarm. âI didnât mean to imply that Bucky was a bad nickname! Not at all! In fact, I love it. I was justâpointing out that it might be a tad unprofessional to use someoneâs regular name in this kind of formal confrontation between a superhero and his archnemesis. I mean, this is really more like a work meeting, so I think itâs best if we just stick to titles, right, Captain America?â
âYou called him Steve, earlier,â Natasha says.
âWell, the relationship between a superhero and his archnemesis really is such an intimate connection,â Todd purrs.
âGross,â Bucky says.
âAnyway,â Steve says loudly, âSam is Captain America now, Iâm just a regular SHIELD agent. And Iâm actually kind of in between call signs right now, so you can justâjust call me Steve, I guess.â Steve looks a bit queasy at this.
âWonderful, Steve,â Todd says smugly, his smile sharp and unnerving underneath those plastic fangs. Then he turns to Sam, looking him critically up and down before disdainfully stating, âI certainly wonât be calling him Captain America, though.â
âWhy not? Thatâs pretty rude, Todd. Weâre having a work meeting.â Natashaâs tone is disapproving.
âWell, for one, Iâm racist,â Todd explains. âBut also there will only ever be one Captain America, and thatâs Steve Rogers. This guyâs just the Falcon.â
He says it scornfully, and Sam honestly might have felt a little insulted, but instead he remembers what Bucky said to his mother, that the Falcon was cool, that he could fly, that Sam was a superhero before he ever met Steve Rogers. And so Sam stands tall, raises his head high, and does his fucking job because he is a hero and a professional.
âWhatever, Todd,â Sam says. âIâm going to have to arrest you now.â
Unfortunately, Todd chooses this moment to reveal that he has the ability to transform into a swarm of bats, each of them wearing a tiny neck brace and plastic fangs as they form a small cluster and fly right out of the room and presumably away into the night.
Sam sighs in frustration. âYouâre out there somewhere, Blood Baron, and Iâll find you!â he calls out after Todd.
âNo, you wonât!â Todd shouts from a distance.
Sam puts his hands on his hips and narrows his eyes. âYes, I will.â
âNope!â
Bucky looks around the room, sighing in disgust as he takes in the mess and chaos from dozens of vampire bats flying about, leaving bat fur and guano everywhere.
âGreat, now weâre all going to have to get rabies shots,â Bucky complains.
 ***
Sam and Buckyâs whole fake-best-friends plan is working phenomenally well, because ever since that Saturday Steve and Natasha had showed up unexpectedly to take them out, theyâve been regularly scheduling what Steve insists upon calling âbest friend dates.â So long as theyâre all in the same city, every Saturday they get together in pairs or as a foursome so that no one ever feels left out and everybody gets some quality time with each other.
When Steve and Sam hang out, they usually go to a game or to the gymânot to do any serious training, just to spar, getting sweaty and screwing around trying out new moves on each other. The best part is that for whatever reason the other SHIELD agents seem super reluctant to work out at the same time as them, so Sam and Steve always have plenty of room to wrestle and grapple around on the mats, pinning and taunting each other until someone gets frustrated enough to really slam the other one around a bit.
Sam has no idea what Bucky and Natasha do on their mysterious outingsâthey claim theyâre going to drag brunches or yoga or spin class, but Sam can only guess what kind of sketchy shit a pair of formerly Russian former assassins might get up to together. Thankfully theyâre always careful to mastermind their operations in Russian, presumably so that Sam will never be forced to reveal anything incriminating about them if heâs questioned. Bucky takes care of him like that.
Samâs dates with Natasha are always super weird and funâthey usually end up going to see some kind of crazy conceptual art exhibit or avant-garde foreign film, then get coffee afterward and pretend to be fancy art critics. Or theyâll wander around old flea markets and antique stores and look for insensitive gifts for Steve and Bucky.
Sam is pretty sure that Steve spends his dates with Bucky doing something really homoerotic and intense like drawing semi-nude portraits of Bucky in 1940s military uniforms.
Actually, if theyâre not already doing that, Sam should suggest it. He could probably try to pass it off as âhealingâ or âcatharticâ or something, and maybe Steve will even show him the drawings afterward now that Sam has so much experience critiquing art with Natasha.
Today Sam and Natasha had planned on going to an outdoor art fair for their best friend date, because itâs funny to buy Steve tacky cat art and then watch him fumble for an appropriately gracious response, but this morning dawned with the sound of thunder rumbling ominously in the distance. By noon itâs pouring rain, a thick wall of icy water erupting from angry gray clouds, and Natasha is soaking wet when Sam answers the door.
âJesus, Nat!â Sam says, ushering her into the apartment. âLet me grab you a towel for your hair. Do you want a change of clothes?â
âSure, but donât worry about the towel,â Natasha says with a careless wave of her hand. She opens the duffel bag sheâs brought with her to reveal a barberâs cape and a pair of shears. âYouâre going to cut my hair!â
âOh, Iâm going to cut your hair,â Sam grumbles, rolling his eyes. âWhy does everyone seem to think Iâm a barber?â
Sam leads Natasha into the kitchen and pulls out a chair for her before heading into the bedroom to try to find a pair of sweats that might fit. Natashaâs tiny, petite even when she wears heels, and itâs easy to forget that about her when she always stands so tall and confident. Sam wonders sometimes if thatâs how Steve looked before he got the serum, all tiny and full of courage and swagger. Sam definitely does not think about how he and Bucky might have a type, and instead he grabs a t-shirt and the smallest pair of joggers they own, the ones that pull nice and tight over Buckyâs thighs and ass, before heading back into the kitchen.
Instead of waiting in the chair, Natashaâs standing in the nude, unselfconscious, wringing her clothes out over the sink. Her skin is pale and damp, glistening even in the dim, stormy light of the kitchen. Sam swallows and allows his eyes to trace the path of a drop of water sliding down the side of her neck only until it hits her collarbone, then looks away.
Sam clears his throat and tosses her the bundle of clothes. âHere, put these on,â he says, keeping his gaze averted while he grabs her wet clothes out of the sink. âIâll put yours in the dryer.â
âLeave the bra out! If you put it in the dryer youâll ruin it!â Natasha calls after him.
Sam rolls his eyes. âI have a sister, you know!â
Sam hangs Natashaâs bra up above the dryer, and damn, he can see why she doesnât want him to ruin it. Itâs gorgeous, black and lacy and expensive-lookingâsexier than the three no-nonsense cotton bras that Natasha rotated between during those two years on the run. Sam smiles as he fingers the lace along the band, a gentle wave of happiness cresting over him at the thought of Natasha finally allowing herself to wear something beautiful.
When Sam returns to the kitchen, Natashaâs dressed, cozy and comfortable in Samâs favorite t-shirt, joggers rolled up around her waist in an attempt to keep them from hanging onto the floor. Sam tries very hard not to feel any sort of way about how Natasha looks in Sam and Buckyâs clothing.
âSo what am I doing here?â Sam asks. He flicks on the light and wraps the barberâs cape around Natasha, snapping it carefully at the back of her neck. Natashaâs hair is already damp, and Sam combs it straight, parting it just above her left eyebrow the way she likes. Heâs lost track of the number of times heâs watched her straighten and style her hair this way over the years. âDo you want to keep any of the blonde?â
Natasha shrugs. âNope, just lop it all off.â
âYouâre lucky Buckyâs hair was long enough that I had to watch a bunch of videos on how to cut womenâs hair too,â Sam says. He uses the comb to pull her hair taut and then trims off the bleached ends. âActually, youâre lucky youâre beautiful enough that you can pull off an at-home hair cut from a dude with exactly one professional reference.â
Natasha rolls her eyes and reaches back to pinch Samâs leg in response.
âCareful!â Sam warns, jerking back to dodge her unnecessarily strong fingers. âIf I slip with these scissors, youâre gonna end up with the same haircut I gave Bucky. Do you want to be matching Russian murder twins? Steve and I wonât even be able to tell you two apart anymore.â
Natasha gives him a sly look from beneath her lashes. âAre you saying you and Steve would mind if Bucky and I switched places on you once in a while?â
Sam bites the inside of his cheek and ignores the massive trap Natasha has laid for him, all giant wooden spikes sticking out of a hole in the ground that Natashaâs barely even bothered to camouflage with leaves.
âYou and Steve are nasty,â Sam says. âDonât get me and Bucky involved in your business.â
âSam,â Natasha teases in a sing-song voice.
Sam ignores her and focuses on trimming her hair, watching the blonde strands drift down to the tile floor. The kitchen is silent around them, quiet enough that Sam can hear the hum of the refrigerator over the soft sounds of the rain pitter-pattering outside, finally beginning to slow.
âSam, â Natasha says.
âIâm almost done,â Sam interrupts. He trims one last stray hair thatâs escaped from the rest. âYou like it just below your shoulders here? If you part it in the middle youâll look just like you did when I met you.â
âSamââ
âHere, take a look,â Sam says, handing over the mirror.
He unsnaps Natashaâs cape and busies himself with cleaning up, bringing Natashaâs scissors over to the sink to wash them. Sam soaps up the scissors and watches the storm move off into the distance through the kitchen window. Thereâs a ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds off to the west, just beginning to hint at the promise of a pretty day ahead.
When heâs done cleaning the scissors, he turns back to face Natasha and catches her smiling at herself in the mirror. âSam!â she says, her eyes bright and sparkling. âI do look just like I did when you met me.â
âYeah, Nat, you do,â Sam says with a fond smile, tugging on a lock of Natashaâs hair. âYou look just like yourself again.â
The corner of Natashaâs lips tugs up in a wicked grin. âYou think Iâve still got what it takes to bring down an entire secret government agency?â
âNat, you donât need to bring down an entire secret government agency. Youâre gonna run one someday.â
***
The next Saturday Sam and Bucky are making their way through the alleys of Brooklyn on their way to lunch with Steve and Nat, and Sam canât honestly say that the smell of dumpsters is really doing a lot for his appetite. Heâs hopeful that they might run into Steve the cat, but otherwise it would really be nice to just go the regular way for once.
âMan, I donât think weâre being followed,â Sam says. âDo we really have to go through the whole trash maze today? Canât we just walk on the streets like regular people?â
Bucky looks concerned. âWait, what do you mean being followed? Do you think weâre being followed?â Buckyâs spine stiffens and he looks alert, eyes darting back and forth to check the alley entrances for suspicious characters.
âNo? But isnât that why we walk through all these alleys every time we go somewhere?â
Bucky looks shifty for a moment, then embarrassed. âNo? Itâs really more likeâOK, so the truth isâI donât actually know my way around Brooklyn through the streets,â he mumbles.
âIâm sorry, you just said what now,â Sam says flatly. âBucky, you grew up here.â
âI know, OK?â Bucky lifts his arm to scratch the back of his neck self-consciously. âBut do you know how many fights Steve got into in these alleys? We didnât have cell phones back then, Sam! The only way to make sure Steve was safe was just to take the alleys everywhere and hope Iâd run across him before he got himself killed.â
âOh my God, you really are the worldâs best best friend,â Sam marvels. âNo wonder Steve wouldnât shut up about you.â
âYeah, yeah,â Bucky says, rolling his eyes and trying to hide a pleased grin. âAll right, sweetheart, show me how to get there the fancy way. Lead on.â
So Sam leads Bucky out of his weird little warren full of dumpsters and feral cats and into the sunny streets of Brooklyn. Their shoulders and hands bump a bit as they walk along, and Samâs heart beats a little faster when Bucky briefly tangles their pinky fingers together and gives him a little squeeze.
When they get to the restaurant they find Steve and Nat sitting close together, grinning and laughing and looking fondly at one another, and Sam is surprised to find that he doesnât feel even the slightest burn of envy at their casual display of intimacy. Instead his heart swells with affection for them, his best friends, and Sam feels thankful that whatever trauma and heartache theyâve suffered over the last five years, at least theyâve finally learned how to express all those emotions theyâd been keeping locked so tightly inside of them.
Steve and Nat seem lighter, happier, quicker to offer smiles and physical affection and verbal assurances of love. Itâs kind of sweet really, Sam thinks.
Steve and Natasha look happy when they see Sam and Bucky arrive, standing up to give them big hugs and quick kisses on the cheek or the lips. The four of them chat for a while about what else Sam and Bucky have missed over the last five yearsâtheyâre still catching up, working their way now through the four legendary albums Taylor Swift released after her boyfriend was lost in the Decimation. She dropped all four albums at the same time, received massive public and critical acclaim, then disappeared for the next four years. Sam is profoundly unsurprised by the revelation that he and Bucky share an appreciation for hot, artistic blonds.
When the subject turns to work and thus to Todd, Sam groans. âSo whatâs the deal with that guy anyway? I thought you literally beheaded him.â
âI did,â Steve says with a grimace. âBut he had that whole neck brace situation going on? So I guess heâs using it to just sort ofâhold everything together.â Steve looks a little nauseated at the idea.
âTodd is so gross,â Bucky complains.
âYou soaked the shield in holy water blessed by the pope, though, right?â Sam asks, frowning. âToddâs Catholic, so it should have worked.â
âWe did,â Natasha confirms. âSteve took a trip to Rome and went to a special mass and everything.â
Steve turns to Bucky, looking displeased. âOh! Did you know that they do the mass with the priest facing you now? So now he can see if youâre goofing off in church. And they donât do it in Latin anymore, so they expect you to actually listen too.â
âRemember when Father OâConnell caught us sneaking comic books into our hymnals and Ma wouldnât let me see you for a month?â Bucky says, shaking his head and letting out a low whistle. âShe always did think you were a bad influence.â
âI honestly thought you were going to die every single night when you snuck up that death trap of a fire escape to my bedroom in the pitch darkness.â
âWell, câmon, like I was really going to go an entire month without seeing my best friend?â Bucky says, scoffing. âPlus that was like the same month we discovered masturbation so forgive me for being willing to risk death to come see you every night.â
Natasha snorts a little at that, and Sam makes sure to look directly in front of him at Steve so that he does not catch Natashaâs eye.
âAnyway,â Natasha says loudly, clearing her throat. âI think our mistake was in getting holy water blessed by the wrong pope.â
âThe wrong pope?â Bucky lifts an eyebrow. âThereâs only one pope, Natalia.â
âNot anymore!â Natasha says cheerfully. âAfter the Snap, there was a huge schism in the Catholic Church between the âfaithfulâ and a group of people who thought that what we actually experienced was the Rapture. There was this whole conspiracy theory that the old pope and a group of cardinalsâwho were all taken in the Decimationâdeliberately suppressed information about the Rapture because it conflicted with Catholic teachings. So the remaining âfaithfulâ cardinals elected one pope, but then another group of cardinals broke off and elected a different pope.â
âWhat,â Sam says.
âYup!â Natasha says, eyes alight with amusement. âSo the schismatics moved their Holy See back to Avignon in France, but before they did, theyâget thisâcollected the old popeâs ashes and put them on trial.â
âWhat,â Sam repeats, mouth dropping open in disbelief.
âIt was the most batshit insane Medieval farce of a trial I have ever seen, and I grew up in the Soviet Union.â Natasha tips her head in reluctant approval at this lunacy. âSo anyway, now there are two popes, and theyâve each ex-communicated the other.â
âSo if Todd is a follower of the schismatic pope, then I guess we need to go get some holy water blessed by that guy instead?â Sam says.
âNatasha and I can go,â Steve offers.
Bucky narrows his eyes at this and bumps Samâs knee under the table. âNah, Sam and I can go. The last time I was in Avignon, I was in the infantry and it was being bombed by the Germans,â Bucky laments. He knows how guilty Steve feels about the horrors Bucky witnessed in the war before Steve rescued him from Kreischberg. âPlus Avignon is really beautiful this time of year.â
âIt will be a healing trip,â Sam says earnestly.
***
One of Buckyâs many mysterious superpowers is that no matter where they are in the world, no matter what part of any city, no matter what language everybody is speaking and whether Bucky can speak it too, Bucky can disappear for fifteen minutes and magically return with the best weed Sam has ever smoked.
Theyâre at their hotel in Avignon, relaxing after a pretty tense dinner with Pope Stephen Xâknown apparently to âregularâ Catholics as the Antipope of Avignonâand his loony band of schismatics. Sam has already expended the majority of todayâs allotted emotional energy pretending that everything this guy did wasnât deeply weird.
âDo you think heâs actually going to release a papal bull against Destiel?â Bucky asks. He sucks on the end of their joint, cheeks hollowing out attractively as he inhales, before he exhales and passes it back over to Sam.
Theyâre on the roof of the hotel, where theyâre probably not technically allowed to be, but Sam used his wings to get them up here anyway and heâs sure they have some sort of diplomatic immunity or something, right? Probably. They have a gorgeous view of the Rhone, painted dark purple in the setting sun, and the Palais des Papes looks Gothic and romantic as hell surrounded by Medieval ramparts.
âI donât know, man,â Sam says, shrugging. He feels warm and lazy. âI tried to tell him itâd be political or religious suicide or whatever if he did. Like 40% of the worldâs Catholics live in Latin America and theyâre all Destiel believers down there.â
They lapse into silence for a moment, and then Bucky says, âHey, Sam? Do you ever think about submarines?â
âI mean, occasionally, I guess,â Sam says thoughtfully. âWhy?â
âI dunno,â Bucky replies, leaning back and looking up at the sky. âItâs just so funny thinking about all the submarines floating out there, hiding from each other. Like, what a ridiculous thing we all decided to do. We just send people out for months at a time and tell them to find other submarines but not to let other submarines find them. And like every major superpower does this, and it costs billions of dollars.â
âThatâs a good point, but also youâre high as fuck,â Sam replies, stifling a grin. âWhere did you even get this weed?â
âFrench Mafia,â Bucky responds blithely.
Sam shakes his head in disbelief, wondering when that became a thing. He pours another glass of wine from the picnic basket they brought up with them and takes a sip. âThis is a nice ass spread, by the way. You really know how to make a guy feel special.â
Bucky grins in response, and oh, Sam knows that grin.
âCâmere, baby,â Sam says. âLetâs make out.â
***
It takes a while for Natasha to track Todd to his new lair, but eventually she finds it in the Free State of Michigan. Like everything else about the world after the Snap, everything about that situation is confusing as hell too, because when Michigan seceded from the Union, the Upper and Lower Peninsulas actually split apart from each other. It wasnât even because one peninsula wanted to leave and the other wanted to stay eitherâthey both wanted to leave, but the Lower Peninsula refused to let the Upper Peninsula tag along with them, arguing that they didnât contribute enough to their tax base.
So now the Lower Peninsula is an independent country known as the Free State of Michigan, while the Upper Peninsula is still a part of the United States of America and is known simply as Michigan. They fought a lot over which peninsula got to keep the name Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula only narrowly won that battle after Ohio got its trashy ass involved.
Finally, after the Battle of Toledo and the total shit show that was the Second Michigan-Ohio War, the United States government finally agreed to let the Free State of Michigan leave so long as they got to keep the Upper Peninsula and call it Michigan. So now the Lower Peninsula is a libertarian hellhole called the Free State of Michigan and Sam has to use his passport to get there.
âDo you even need a passport?â Bucky asks. Theyâre in the middle of fighting Todd, whoâs not actually that good at fighting but is very good at exploding into a group of bats every time they try to land a punch. âYouâre Captain America. I feel like this is a situation like the Queen of England, where she doesnât need a passport because all passports are issued by her.â
âI donât think that all American passports are issued by me,â Sam says doubtfully. He should probably check with Nick Fury or maybe the President about that, though.
Todd re-forms back into a person just to be a dick and tell Sam heâll never be the real Captain America.
âYouâre an asshole, Todd,â Sam informs him. Then, before Todd can become bats again, Sam slings his shield, already coated in holy water blessed by the Antipope of Avignon, directly at Toddâs neck, busting through his brace and re-severing his head.
 âNice hit,â Bucky says, whistling in admiration.
Unfortunately, this doesnât seem to do the trick, because Todd just stands up, gropes blindly for his head, and once he finds it, he poofs into a swarm of bats, each one cradling its little head in its right wing, flying off into the night at a distinctly wonky angle.
âDamn it, Todd!â Sam calls after him. âWhat the fuck do you even believe in, man?â
***
They donât stay at a hotel in the Free State of Michigan because itâs a dystopian nightmare where every hotel room is a smoking room and Sam is genuinely concerned about being hunted for sport, so they take the Quinjet back to New York.
They get in late, showering perfunctorily and climbing into bed nude together, too tired to bother pulling on pajamas. When Sam wakes up in the morning, he can see that itâs really more like mid-afternoon, the sun streaming in through their curtains, filling the bedroom with soft, diffused light. Bucky is pressed up against his back, too hot and just a tiny bit sweaty, his hard cock nestled up against Samâs ass.
When Sam shifts a bit against him, reluctantly considering the prospect of getting up and starting the day, Bucky makes a discontented little noise and wraps his arm around Samâs chest to pull him back.
âNo, come back here,â Bucky mumbles, voice rough with sleep. He throws his leg over Samâs, trapping him into place, and drops a warm kiss onto the back of Samâs neck. Sam shivers at the feel of Buckyâs lips against the sensitive skin at his nape, and Buckyâs hand wanders down Samâs chest and along his flank as he subtly grinds his cock into Samâs ass.
Sam lets out a low chuckle. âOh, thatâs what you want?â he asks with amusement.
âYeah, sweetheart,â Bucky breathes. âThatâs what I want.â
Sam turns over to face him, capturing Buckyâs lips in a slow and dirty kiss. Bucky moans softly, and his hand slides down to blatantly grope Samâs ass, fingers kneading into the hard muscle. Buckyâs cock is pressed against his, and Sam canât resist grinding a bit against him.
When Sam pulls back from the kiss, he asks, âYou sure about this? Sex changes things.â
âSure Iâm sure,â Bucky says, grinning. âI mean, itâs been awhile, but Steve and I alwaysââ
âDo not tell me you and Steve used to fuck back in the day.â Sam groans, willing his brain not to indulge those mental images.
âWait, did you and Steve notââ
âNo!â Sam says defensively. âSteve and I were best friends, not boyfriends.â
âSam, first of all, itâs totally normal to fuck your best friend, itâs called friends with benefits. I looked it up, and itâs a thing.â Bucky sounds placid, relaxed, his tone entirely too reasonable, his expression even and unbothered. âAnd second of all, you and I are only pretending to be best friends, so itâll be even more fine for us.â
Bucky shifts his hips against Sam again, and Sam stifles a low moan. Sam is absolutely going to go along with this nonsense. God, all of his relationships with all of his friends have gotten so deeply weird ever since Steve came into his life. Steveâs boundary issues with Bucky are infecting the entire rest of the team.
âYeah, OK,â Sam agrees, then gasps as Bucky leans down to lick and then gently bite Samâs nipple. The sensation goes straight to Samâs cock and he canât resist thrusting his pelvis up against Buckyâs hard abs. âFuck, baby.â
âYeah, sweetheart,â Bucky says, licking his way down Samâs chest, mouthing and sucking at the skin on Samâs lower belly and thighs, soft and gentle and careful, like maybe he doesnât want to leave any bruises. Sam wonders if thatâs a leftover habit from fucking Steve, if Bucky hadnât wanted to leave marks on Steveâs pale, delicate skin, still so quick to bloom purple even now that his bruises fade in a matter of hours. As Sam pictures Buckyâs mouth on Steve, licking and sucking at him the same way that heâs torturing Sam now, heat spreads through his entire body, his skin on fire.
Bucky spends an excruciatingly long time just teasing and kissing around Samâs cock before he finally, finally runs his tongue slowly up Samâs hard length.
âFuck,â Sam curses, fighting to keep his hips still. Bucky looks up at him from beneath those long lashes, and Sam feels a sharp tug in his lower belly at the sight of those gorgeous gray eyes. âFuck, please.â
âIâve got you, sweetheart,â Bucky says soothingly.
He presses a soft kiss to the tip of Samâs cock and then wraps his pretty lips around him and slides down, maintaining eye contact as he takes Sam deep into his mouth. Sam gasps at all that wet heat surrounding him, shocked by the fire racing down his spine as he feels Bucky swallow him down.
âBucky,â Sam says helplessly, reaching down to put his hands in Buckyâs thick hair, soft and still messy from sleep.
Sam shifts restlessly, trying not to fuck Buckyâs mouth as Bucky leisurely drags his mouth up and down Samâs cock, his pace maddeningly, frustratingly slow. When Bucky slides all the way down to the base of Samâs cock, taking his entire length into his mouth, Samâs hips jerk involuntarily and his fists clench in Buckyâs hair.
âFuck, baby, I needâI needââ
Bucky pulls his mouth off Samâs cock and Sam moans at the loss of that tight heat. Buckyâs eyes are knowing, his lips spit-slick and pink, so pretty and swollen.
âI know what you need, sweetheart,â Bucky says sympathetically, wickedly, his voice rough from Samâs cock down his throat. âYou gonna let me fuck you, Sam?â
âYeah, God, yeah,â Sam says. Samâs pulse leaps at the thought, and he takes a deep breath to try to force his racing heart to calm down, to steady his shaking hands.
Bucky kisses his way back up Samâs chest, leaning over Sam to whisper in his ear, âSo gorgeous, sweetheart. Gonna make you feel so good, Sam.â
Bucky reaches into the top drawer of the nightstand to pull out a condom and a bottle of lube. Sam starts to turn over, to bring himself up onto all fours, when Bucky stops him and says, âNo, stay there, sweetheart. I wanna see you while I fuck you.â
Bucky grabs a pillow and slides it under Samâs ass, pulling Samâs knees up and spreading his legs apart so he can look at him. Sam trembles under Buckyâs gaze, his skin prickling as Buckyâs eyes roam greedily over Samâs body.
âFuck, Sam,â Bucky says reverently. âAre you ready?â
âYeah,â Sam gasps, arching his back when he feels the slick press of Buckyâs finger at his hole.
He tries not to clench up, tries to relax his muscles as Bucky slides a finger smoothly inside him. Bucky is sweet and soothing, praising Sam as he works his finger in and out of him, telling Sam how beautiful he is, how good he feels, how much Bucky canât wait to be inside of him. Samâs poor, neglected cock is dripping precome onto his lower belly, and Sam reaches down to take himself in hand, giving his cock a gentle stroke.
âJesus, sweetheart,â Bucky says, his eyes hot and admiring as they watch Samâs fist moving over his cock.
Sam keeps at it, leisurely jerking himself off while Bucky works a second and then a third finger into him. Buckyâs eyes are dark and hungry, and Sam feels aroused and exposed and needy, desperate for more, ready for Buckyâs cock to fuck him open and fill him up. Heâs panting and gasping, chanting, âPlease, please, pleaseâ as Buckyâs fingers stretch and pull at his loosening rim.
âYou want it?â Bucky says, ripping open the condom package, pulling out the condom and sliding it down the thick, flushed length of his cock.
âPlease, yes, I need it,â Sam begs.
And Samâs embarrassed by his eagerness, how desperate he is for it, but the humiliation only makes him more aroused, his cock hardening further under his hand. Heâs always so quick to say yes to Bucky, so quick to be tempted even against his own common sense, and Jesus fuck is he grateful for that now because that is Buckyâs cock sliding into him, pushing past the tight ring of muscle at Samâs entrance and filling him up.
Bucky grabs Samâs legs and hitches them up around his waist, sliding another inch of his thick cock deep inside Sam, whoâs gasping and panting beneath him. Samâs knees tighten around Buckyâs sides, gripping him tight and using his leverage to pull Bucky deeper into him. Sweat begins to form at the small of Samâs back and behind his knees, prickling at his overheated skin.
âSam,â Bucky moans. âGod, Sam, you feel so good, sweetheart.â
Bucky bends down to steal a wet, filthy kiss as he slides his cock deeper, pushing that last, final inch all the way into Sam. Buckyâs hips are flush against him, and Sam feels so connected to Bucky, with Buckyâs tongue sliding slickly into Samâs mouth and Buckyâs cock thrusting deep into Samâs ass, and Sam swears Buckyâs heart is beating in time with his, twin rhythms pounding faster and faster until Sam feels like theyâll both burst into flames.
âCâmon,â Sam urges. âI need it. Please, baby.â
âYeah,â Bucky breathes, leaning down to give Sam one last kiss before he braces himself on his arms and starts moving, slow and deep and dirty, into Sam. Samâs head falls back as his back arches, and Buckyâs teeth nip gently at the exposed skin of Samâs neck. Sam reaches down to grab Buckyâs ass, and Bucky inhales sharply when Sam pulls him, hard, so far inside him that Sam feels like heâll choke on Buckyâs cock.
âSamâSam, youââ
âYeah, baby, pleaseââ
âGod, Samââ
Bucky fucks him so slowly, so sweetly, that Sam feels like heâs going to float off into space, lost in the feel of Buckyâs cock hitting that sensitive spot before dragging back out against his tender rim. Sam moans every time Bucky hits his prostate, feeling his balls begin to tighten and draw up against his body. Buckyâs pace slowly shifts from controlled and relentless to wild and irregular.
âSam, Sam, look at me,â Bucky groans. Sam opens his eyes to find Bucky looking wrecked, his lips swollen, eyes dark and dazed, looking beautiful and so utterly focused on Sam. Their eyes meet and Bucky holds the contact, biting his lip and moaning. âSam, Sam, Iâm gonnaââ
âYeah, câmon, do itââ
Bucky comes with a choked cry, shuddering and thrusting his hips erratically against Sam. His body shakes and shivers, breath coming in heavy gasps against Samâs mouth.
Sam groans and focuses his attention back to stroking his cock, his hand moving faster and faster as Bucky pants and recovers above him. Samâs almost there, so close, when Bucky leans down to kiss him, teeth biting gently at Samâs bottom lip, and stars explode behind Samâs eyes as he spills over his fist.
Bucky is slow to pull out of Sam, kissing him lazily before removing the condom and then collapsing on top of him. Sam wraps his arms around Bucky as they breathe and let their hearts settle, pressed tightly against one another.
âGod, Sam,â Bucky says, voice muffled by Samâs neck, sounding happy and exhausted and overwhelmed.
Sam lets Bucky rest on top of him for a while until he begins to feel suffocated by the weight of an entire supersoldier resting on him. He nudges Bucky to the side a little, and Bucky rolls onto his back, pulling Sam over to rest his head on Buckyâs shoulder.
Sam wonders if Bucky understands that âfriends with benefitsâ usually donât make love to each other the way that Bucky just made love to him.
âGood, sweetheart?â Bucky asks, pressing a kiss to the top of Samâs head.
âYeah.â The corner of Samâs mouth turns up in a grin. âYou did all right.â
âYou were pretty good yourself,â Bucky says appreciatively. âThought I was going to die when I got inside you. Christ, sweetheart.â
They lapse into blissful silence for a moment, and Bucky reaches over to grab Samâs hand and pull it onto his chest. He plays with Samâs fingers idly, intertwining their fingers and then pulling back to stroke his thumb over Samâs palm. Bucky seems utterly relaxed and content, and Sam hates to break the comfortable silence but he just has to ask.
âSo,â Sam says casually, âis that always how you fuck? All slow and romantic and full of eye contact?â
âWell, I mean, Iâve only ever had sex with Steve, so I guess so?â Bucky says, frowning. Sam is a little stunned at this revelation, eyebrows shooting upward in shock, because Bucky is one of the most attractive men Sam has ever met and Sam now knows for a fact that Bucky knows how to seduce someone if he wants it. âI guess Iâm not really sure how Iâd fuck someone other than you or Steve. I mean, maybe Nataliaââ
Sam decides to interrupt Bucky before he finishes that interesting thought. âRumor has it that you were a real smooth operator back in the day, though, taking ladies out on the town and double dating with Steve and going out dancing all night. Youâre saying you never seriously tried it on with anybody else?â Sam asks in disbelief.
âWell, I mean, there were girls,â Bucky says slowly. âBut I sorta got the feeling that they didnât really take me seriously? Like, they were happy to go dancing with me, and theyâd give me a sweet kiss at the end of the night, but if I tried for anything more theyâd just pat me on the cheek and tell me to say hi to Steve for them and I really should take out their friend Betty next week.â
Bucky shrugs, obviously baffled by this behavior, but Sam suddenly understands exactly why Bucky wasnât very successful with the ladies, and Sam really should have been way less surprised by the fact that even the sheltered Catholic girls of 1940s Brooklyn could tell that Bucky and Steve were deeply weird about each other and Bucky wasnât exactly available.
âDid you ever want to get married and have a family?â
âSure, someday,â Bucky says carelessly. âBut Steve and I were still young when the war hit. I thought weâd have more time together. And then we didnât, and Steve met Peggy, and you know how everything went after that.â
âIt didnât bother you when Steve found Peggy?â
âNo, of course not,â Bucky says, his eyes shining and earnest. âPeggy was a doll. And Iâve been in love with Steve my whole life. I knew weâd always be best friends. It never even occurred to me that I could ever really lose Steve, not in a way that mattered. After all, who can ever really come between someone and their best friend?â
And thatâexplains a lot about Buckyâs near fanatical devotion to the very concept of best friendship. Sam shakes his head at this, knowing that thereâs probably no point in trying to shake Steve and Bucky out of the wacky coping mechanisms theyâve developed for 1940s homophobia. After over a hundred years that shit has got to be way too deeply entrenched in their psyches.
Sam resigns himself to embracing their crazy on this particular issue. At least Bucky is hot.
***
Sam and Bucky are visiting Samâs mom, and Sam doesnât know how his mom knows, but somehow she definitely does know that something is different between Sam and Bucky, and boy does she look thrilled about it.
âThank you so much for the lovely flowers, Bucky!â Samâs mom gushes. âAnd you thought to bring a dish for dinner! Sam never used to bring a dish with him to dinner.â She beams at Bucky, so clearly approving of all of the changes Bucky has brought to Samâs life, then looks meaningfully over at Sarah and Michelle. âAnd donât they look handsome!â
Michelle simply nods obediently at this, because sheâs eleven and not particularly impressed by Samâs too-formal attire, but Sarah gives him a quick once over and then raises her eyebrows in mild surprise at his tailored blazer.
Sam and Sarah have a quick conversation through facial expressions, communicating âWhatâs all this then, Sam?â and âDonât make a big thing about it, Sarah,â and âIs he your boyfriend?â and âShut up, Sarah!â through a series of suggestively waggled eyebrows and narrowed eyes and teasing smirks.
âI hope it wasnât too much trouble for you to plan a meal without meat, Mrs. Wilson,â Bucky says with concern. âIf itâs too much or you donât want the hassle of meal planning, youâre all more than welcome to come to our apartment for dinner on Sunday nights.â
And the thing is, Buckyâs not being smarmy or insincere about it at all. He would be genuinely happy to have Samâs family over for dinner every Sunday night, because Bucky likes cooking and he likes Sam and he likes families, and maybe Samâs starting to feel some kind of way about all of Buckyâs effortless charm and openhanded generosity and muscular thighs.
âSo you and Sam are living together,â Sarah says with interest. Even Michelle perks up at this, finally glancing up from her phone, where sheâs been texting rapidly or possibly live tweeting this entire embarrassing conversation.
Bucky puts a casual arm around Samâs shoulders, and come on, Bucky has to know how this looks to Samâs family, right? âYep, for probably around six months now, right, sweetheart?â Bucky says, smiling at Sam.
And suddenly Sam realizes that maybe Bucky doesnât know how this looks to Samâs family, because Bucky has such an extreme lack of awareness regarding normal friendship boundaries, and also because theyâre so far deep into this whole fake-best-friends thing that this is just the way that the two of them act now, all the time.
And, really, Sam has to blame Steve and Natasha for this too, because the two of them are only encouraging this madness with all the âbest friends datesâ and the excessive physical affection and their own overly invested relationship. Literally no one in Buckyâs life is modeling basic relationship boundaries for him, no wonder he slipped through the cracks of normal human friendship behavior.
And Sam must be crazy too, because he just smiles back at Bucky and says, âYep, that sounds about right, baby.â Because Sam isnât really all that concerned about normal human friendship behavior when Bucky looks at him like that, gray eyes all warm and soft and pleased, like Samâs the best thing heâs ever seen.
Samâs heart beats a little faster in his chest, warmth traveling through his veins, and oh, this is a thing.
âYou know, when you and Steve were living together, he never invited us over to your place,â Samâs mother points out. Thanks to all of Buckyâs hard work rehabbing Steveâs tarnished image in Samâs motherâs eyes, Steve has been upgraded from that boy to Steve, always stated with a faint moue of distaste.
âSteve and I were international fugitives, Mom,â Sam replies, his tone patient. âWe didnât have a stable place to invite you to.â
âAnd whose fault was that!â Samâs mom says triumphantly.
âMom, I made my own choices when it came to the Accords.â
âSamâs not a follower,â Bucky agrees, and itâs sweet that Bucky thinks so but Sam realizes now that that is a complete lie, because Sam has done nothing but follow Bucky along in this foolishness ever since he felt Buckyâs body pressed up against him in a closet. âAnd if anything itâs probably my fault how everything went down. I was the one they blamed for that bombingâSteve and Sam were just trying to help me. They really are the best friends I could ever ask for, and Iâm still not sure I was worth everything they went through for it.ââ
And maybe itâs just a fluke of the phrasing, maybe Bucky didnât really mean it, but Sam canât help but notice that this is the first time Bucky has ever used the plural form of the term best friend.
âOh, dear, that wasnât your fault!â Samâs mother protests. âYou were framed for that bombing!â
âWell, it certainly wasnât Steveâs fault either, Mom.â
Samâs mother sniffs. âWell, I still think Steve could have made more of an effort to get to know your family.â
âIâm still friends with Steve, Mom,â Sam says, rolling his eyes. âOur friendship is not past tense, weâre not, like, broken up or something.â
âThen why isnât Steve here for Sunday dinner with the rest of the family?â Samâs mother gestures around the table at the five of them, and Samâs heart skips a beat as he realizes that his mother is including Bucky in the family.
Sarah and Michelle are observing this conversation with ill-concealed glee, unabashedly enjoying Samâs friendship-slash-relationship-slash-familial drama. Buckyâs arm is still wrapped around Sam, his thumb rubbing absent little circles on Samâs shoulder, and Michelle is tapping away on her phone as she watches. Sam doesnât have high hopes for this staying off the internet when he catches Michelle snapping a surreptitious photo of Sam tucked in snugly under Buckyâs arm.
Itâs Buckyâs metal arm, too, so no chance of passing Bucky off as some random dude.
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, Sam thinks. He leans over and gives Bucky a soft kiss on the mouth right in front of his family.
***
Sam and Bucky are fooling around on the sofa after finishing season one of The Mandalorianâapparently Pedro Pascalâs bedroom voice really does it for both of themâand Sam is finally getting the chance to trace Buckyâs abs with his tongue the way he imagined every single time he jerked off in the shower back before Bucky started taking showers with him.
Sam shifts down to suck a bruise into the sharp jut of Buckyâs hip bone, and Bucky moans underneath him. Bruises donât last any longer on Bucky than they do on Steve, but Sam still likes seeing Buckyâs fair skin mottled with fresh marks, likes the possessive little thrill it sends through him to see Buckyâs perfect flesh marred by Samâs mouth and teeth.
âSam, please, suck me, sweetheart,â Bucky begs.
âYeah,â Sam agrees, pulling Buckyâs boxer-briefs down his hips and watching in satisfaction when Buckyâs hard cock springs forward, flushed and thick and perfect. Sam is impatient tonight, wants Buckyâs cock in his mouth now, and he leans forward to swallow Bucky down in one long, slick slide.
âFuck, Sam,â Bucky moans.
Sam grabs Buckyâs hips as he bobs his head up and down, fingers digging in tight, bruising, to keep Bucky from thrusting into Samâs mouth. Bucky is strong enough that he could easily break Samâs hold but he doesnât, squirming restlessly underneath Sam, frustrated and needy and desperate.
Sam pulls off Buckyâs cock long enough to take in a big gulp of air before he slides back down, taking Bucky as far back into his throat as he can, and Bucky moans brokenly when Sam tightens his mouth and lips around him. Sam sets a steady rhythm, swirling his tongue around the head of Buckyâs cock and then sucking him back down again, spit slicking up the way. Sam reaches up to roll Buckyâs balls between his fingers, squeezing and tugging gently, admiring the heft of them in his hand.
âGod, Sam, Sam,â Bucky chants, hands fisting in the sheets to keep from grabbing Samâs head and fucking his face. âSam, sweetheart, I love you. I love you so fucking much.â
Sam moans around Buckyâs cock, and Bucky cries out, tapping Samâs shoulder in a desperate warning before he breaks Samâs hold on his hips and thrusts forward, flooding Samâs mouth with come. Sam swallows him down, bitter and salty, and then leans forward to rest his head against Buckyâs pelvis and catch his breath.
âGod, Sam,â Bucky says, panting. He looks flushed and beautiful, and Samâs heart feels like itâs going to explode in his chest.
âI love you too,â Sam says helplessly.
Bucky looks awestruck for a moment, then says, âCâmere,â in a rough voice.
He pulls Sam up and gives him a quick, hard kiss, then reaches down to unbutton Samâs jeans and slide his hand around Samâs cock. He strokes Sam firmly, a brutal pace that drives Sam half out of his mind. Samâs already so hard from sucking Buckyâs cock, can still taste Buckyâs come in his mouth, and he wonât need much to get there.
âBaby, please, I needââ
âI know what you need, sweetheart,â Bucky says comfortingly. He buries his head in Samâs neck, biting down on the thick cord of muscle that leads to Samâs shoulder, and Samâs back arches in pleasure. Bucky strokes him just a little faster, almost enough, thumb rubbing at that sensitive spot right beneath Samâs glans. âCâmon, sweetheart, come for me.â
And Sam does, come splattering over his lower belly, mind going blissfully blank and toes curling in pleasure. While Sam comes down from his high, Bucky reaches up to cup Samâs face in his hand, stroking his thumb tenderly over Samâs cheek. âGod, youâre gorgeous.â
Sam leans forward to kiss him, losing himself in the warm heat of Buckyâs mouth, their lips moving in a slow, gentle slide against each other. They make out lazily for a while, hands roaming appreciatively over each otherâs bodies, until Sam reluctantly pulls away to clean up.
When Sam returns to the living room, Bucky is sitting in the dim light of the television, chewing anxiously at his lower lip. Sam plops down next to him, turning on his side to face him and putting his feet in Buckyâs lap.
âDid you mean it?â Bucky asks uncertainly. âIt wasnât just, like, a heat of the moment thing?â
âI did,â Sam confirms, his voice sure and steady. âDid you mean it?â
âGod, yes, Sam. I love you.â
They look at each other dopily for a while, then Bucky tugs at Samâs legs to urge him further down the sofa, closer to Bucky. They curl up together and enjoy the comfortable silence until Bucky says, âTell me something youâve never told Steve.â
Sam thinks for a moment, then groans. He covers his face with his hands, peeking embarrassedly through his fingers, and says, âOK, so I went through a phase, when I first got out of high school, where I told everybody to call me Snap Wilson.â
Bucky laughs incredulously, then claps a hand over his mouth to stifle it, mostly unsuccessfully. âIâm sorry, you told them to call you what now?â he asks gleefully.
âI told them to call me Snap Wilson,â Sam grits out. He is already regretting this, but Bucky looks so fucking elated that Sam canât bring himself to care too much about the inevitable teasing heâs going to receive. And itâs Bucky, not Steve or Natasha, so Sam knows that the ribbing wonât be too savage.
Bucky is already trying to suppress his wild grin, pressing his lips together until they turn almost white. âSo was this like a rough time you were going through, like trouble at home or something, or did you just think Snap Wilson sounded cool?â His voice is a mixture of genuine concern and barely concealed amusement.
âI just thought it sounded cool,â Sam confesses.
Bucky laughs in delight, and Sam gives him a sour look, poking him in the side. âYeah, yeah, your turn now, buddy,â Sam says. âTell me something youâve never told Steve.â
Bucky sobers up, clears his throat and says, âI didnât enlist in the Army.â
âWhat?â
âI let Steve think that I enlisted, because I didnât want him to know that I had to drop out of college to pay for his medical bills when he got sick the winter of â41. Got called up shortly after, told him that I enlisted.â
Samâs heart breaks a little at that, for Bucky, because he would have done anything to take care of Steve, and for Steve, who never would have forgiven himself if Bucky had gotten drafted and sent home in a body bag on his account. To this day Steve still feels guilty about leaving Bucky behind in that ravine, even though he had no reason to believe that Bucky could have survived the fall, and anyway Steve drove a plane straight into the Arctic like a week later and couldnât have rescued Bucky anyway.
âSo wait, how does Steve think you paid for his medical bills?â
âI told him I got paid to pose for some dirty pictures,â Bucky says with a saucy grin. âThen he asked to see them and I had to beg one of his photographer friends to take some for me to try to sell the whole embarrassing lie. Honestly I was a little flattered that Steve had exactly zero questions about the whole thing, like of course someone would pay to see me jerking off wearing a pair of womenâs stockings.â
Sam raises his eyebrows at that. âAny chance those pictures are still around somewhere?â
âIâm pretty sure Steve burned them all before he headed out on the bond circuit,â Bucky says with regret, then brightens. âBut on the plus side, I think I just came up with a great idea for the erotic portrait series Steveâs been working on during all of our best friend dates.â
Sam grins cheerfully at this. âNice.â
***
A month later, theyâre in Eastern Washington with Steve and Natasha, fighting off a horde of formerly human white nationalist cult members who are now a group of largely mindless but probably still racist vampires.
The vampires arenât much of a threat, but there are a bunch of them and theyâre good at causing enough chaos that itâs hard to get close to Todd, whoâs in a neck brace again and back on his bullshit.
Samâs done a ton of research on Catholicism since the last time they met and heâs still not sure how to finally kill this guy. The holy water blessed by the Roman pope didnât work, and the holy or possibly unholy water blessed by the Antipope of Avignon didnât work, and Samâs pretty much run out of popes to get holy water from. Out of a commitment to preparedness Samâs brought along vials of leftover holy water from each pope, but heâs honestly not sure if theyâll be much help to them if neither of them even works.
Sam, Bucky, and Steve are all covered in blood from the vampires theyâve slain so far, but as usual Natasha still looks perfectly pristine as she lectures Todd on his many sins and hypocrisies. God, she even had the audacity to wear a white uniform to this. Samâs heart swells with affection for her.
âI thought you were supposed to be Catholic, Todd. Itâs not very pro-life of you to create all these vampires,â Natasha says, shaking her head in disapproval.
âIâm just trying to make humanity great again,â Todd snaps defensively through his ridiculous plastic fangs. âSociety works best when there are a few strong leaders and many weak, dependent followers. HYDRA believes in order. The Catholic Church used to believe in order tooâit used to understand the value of an authoritarian system of governing its followers.â
And just like that, Sam understands Toddâs belief system. âHeâs a Sedevacant!â Sam announces, pointing a finger in triumph.
âWhat?â Bucky asks, firing a crossbow into a vampire trying to latch its fangs into Steveâs calf. The vampire explodes in a shower of red, and Steve wrinkles his nose in disgust but keeps fighting. At this point thereâs not very much of Steve that isnât covered in blood, and Sam hopes they arenât all going to have to worry about bloodborne diseases from this whole gross situation.
âRemember all those changes in the Catholic Church since you and Steve were kids? Those all came about after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Sedevacants believe that the church lost its way and fell into heresy when it embraced modernism. So according to them there is no valid popeâthe seat of the pope is actually vacant,â Sam explains, tossing his shield off to behead a vampire looming over Bucky.
âThanks, sweetheart!â Bucky calls, blowing him a kiss.
âGreat,â Natasha says, irritated. âAnd how are we supposed to get holy water blessed by no one? Wouldnât that just be regular water?â
Sam frowns in dismay at this terrible, zany loophole Todd has apparently discovered.
Todd cackles triumphantly. âYou canât! Youâll never be able to kill meâthereâs no holy water on earth thatâs been blessed by no one,â Todd boasts. âIâm invincible!â
âNot so fast,â Bucky says, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. âSam, do you still have both vials of holy water?â
âYeah, why?â
âMix them together!â Bucky says. âHoly water blessed by the pope plus holy water blessed by the antipope will cancel each other out.â
Toddâs eyes widen in horror. âNo, that wonât work!â
âItâs simple math, Todd,â Bucky says smugly. âSam, do it, Iâll cover you!â
Samâs hands are steady as he unscrews the tops of the bottles, sure in the knowledge that Bucky will have his back if any vampires try to latch onto him while heâs busy. He coats the shield in holy water from each of the vials, making sure to cover every square inch. Then, with a mighty throw, he launches the shield toward Todd, nailing him directly in the throat.
When Toddâs head is blown back off his body, he explodes into a bloody, disgusting mess.
âGross,â Steve says.
The baby vampires stumble around, confused and lost without their leader, and it only takes about twenty minutes for Sam and the others to slay the rest of them now that Toddâs dead.
 Sam makes a mental note to use all of his influence as Captain America to get Bucky an honorary doctorate in mathematics from Harvard or Yale or something after all this.
***
Sam and Bucky spend forty-five long minutes showering off all the blood after their showdown with Todd and his racist vampire gang, the last fifteen of which are spent with Bucky pressed up against the shower wall with Samâs tongue in his ass.
âFuck, sweetheart, please,â Bucky begs. Heâs trembling and squirming, spreading his legs shamelessly for Sam. âFuck me, Sam, please.â
Sam reaches down to squeeze the base of his cock, liquid heat pooling in his belly at the thought of sliding his cock into that tight hole heâs been eagerly, methodically loosening. Buckyâs hands are pulling at his own ass, spreading his cheeks so sweetly, so obediently for Samâs mouth. Sam traces a finger around Buckyâs wet rim, poking in just a bit to test him out, and Buckyâs thighs twitch and shake around Samâs face.
âYou think you can take it standing up?â Sam asks, giving Bucky an assessing look.
Bucky bites his lip and sobs a bit, panting and gasping, his face pressed up against the shower wall. Bucky looks wrecked already, so pretty, and Sam decides to take pity on him.
âCâmon, baby, letâs go to the bedroom,â Sam says, standing up and shutting off the shower.
He wraps Bucky in a towel and leads him to the hotel bedroom, and Bucky shivers prettily in the cool air, goosebumps rising on his clean, damp skin. Sam crowds Bucky against the mattress to warm him up, leaning his head down to dip into the wet heat of Buckyâs mouth, sliding his tongue against Buckyâs in a dirty kiss that leaves them both moaning.
Sam grabs the lube and Bucky spreads his legs eagerly, obscenely, and the sight is so erotic that Sam feels like heâs been punched in the gut, breathless with desire and desperate to plunge his cock into all that tight, willing heat. His hands shake a bit as he fumbles with the lube, and he coats his fingers until theyâre nice and slick, ready to slide right in with just the slightest amount of pressure.
Bucky gasps when Sam slips one long finger into him, biting his lip and arching his back. âSam, moreâI needââ
âI got you, baby,â Sam says, sliding another finger in next to the first. Buckyâs mouth gapes open, his throat emitting a choked off little cry, and Samâs cock is achingly hard at the sound, weeping messily against Samâs belly, dripping little trails of precome. Buckyâs a quivering mess underneath him, and Sam presses wet kisses between Buckyâs thighs as he ruthlessly opens him up. âGod, look at you, baby.â
Sam gives him another finger, and Bucky takes it, keening and begging. âMoreâpleaseâSam, I want your cock.â
âOh, you think youâre ready for it, baby?â
âYes, please, Sam,â Bucky whines, and Sam reluctantly removes his fingers, climbing up to settle his body over Buckyâs, letting gravity pull him down so theyâre pressed tightly together. Bucky may be sweet and pliant underneath him now, but Sam knows how strong he really is, how easily he can bear Samâs weight.
When Sam starts pushing his cock inside of him, Bucky gasps, mouth opening in a small o of pleasure. Sam fucks Bucky shallowly until he grows impatient, needs to go deeper, grabbing Buckyâs thighs to pull them up so he can bend Bucky in half underneath him. Buckyâs limbs are long and flexible, moving easily as Sam moves him right where he needs him. Sam bites his own lip, hard, as Buckyâs hole pulls him in, clutching greedily at Samâs throbbing cock.
When Sam slides all the way home, Bucky gasps and says, âSam, Sam, waitââ
Sam pauses, his cock buried fully inside Bucky, panting harshly at the effort of keeping his hips still.
âYeah, baby,â Sam says, voice straining. âWhat do you need?â
âSam,â Bucky says, and he sucks in a deep breath, closing his eyes and visibly working to control himself. âSam, I need to tell you something.â
Sam looks down at Bucky and waits, letting Bucky take the time he needs to settle. Samâs hips are flush against Buckyâs ass, his cock seated fully inside of him, and he feels so connected to Bucky, like theyâre two parts of the same whole.
Bucky pants raggedly for a few moments, squirming and restless under Sam, until he calms again, opening his eyes to look at Sam. Buckyâs lashes are long and gorgeous and damp, his pupils dark and dilated.
âSam, I have to tell you,â Bucky says, flushing prettily, his wide eyes so earnest and sweet. âIâsomewhere along the way, I want you to know, everything became real for me. Youâyou really are my best friend.â
Sam closes his eyes, heart so achingly full in his chest.
âYouâre my best friend too,â Sam says softly, seriously, because he knows this is important to Bucky. âI love you.â
âLove you too, sweetheart.â Buckyâs eyes are wet and shining.
Sam grinds his hips against Buckyâs ass, his lips curving up in a dirty grin. âYou gonna let me fuck you now?â Sam asks. Bucky gasps, hands coming up to grip Samâs back, fingers digging in bruisingly hard.
âYeah, Sam, yeah, fuck me,â Bucky breathes.
Sam pulls out and then slams his hips back into Bucky, who gasps in surprise, spine arching in pleasure. Sam sets a hard and deep rhythm, letting loose all of the leftover tension and stress from the fight earlier, taking all that frustrated energy out on Buckyâs willing body. When Sam nails Buckyâs prostate, Buckyâs hands scrabble over Samâs back, clutching and pulling at him frantically. âYes, there, there,â Bucky says, voice desperate and breathy.
Sam drives his cock into Bucky faster, pounding harder as he feels his balls tighten and heat race up his spine. Heâs close, so close, and he leans down to brace himself on one elbow so he can reach down to grab Buckyâs hard cock. He can tell from the noises Buckyâs making, those sweet, high whimpers, that Bucky isnât far behind him. When he strokes Bucky hard, his fist sliding brutally up and down Buckyâs cock, Bucky arches his back and comes, spilling all over his sweaty chest.
The sight of Buckyâs come, pearly and glistening over his taut abs, sends Sam over the edge. Samâs hips jerk and stutter, his thrusts erratic, shuddering as he feels his balls empty into Buckyâs tight hole. He wants to collapse, wants to let go and fall onto Bucky, let Bucky catch him and hold him, but instead he pulls out. Bucky whines quietly at the loss, and Sam canât resist reaching down to rub his fingers against Buckyâs wet, puffy hole, admiring the slow trickle of Samâs come dripping out of him. Bucky shivers at the touch of Samâs fingers to his abused hole, probably raw and oversensitive, and Sam reluctantly drops his hand.
âSorry,â he says, kissing Buckyâs knee in apology.
âSâok,â Bucky slurs. âLike it when you get all vulgar and possessive on me.â
âSpeaking of possessive,â Sam says, heaving out a heavy sigh and collapsing back onto the bed next to Bucky, hooking his ankle over Buckyâs. âCan we talk about the whole fake-best-friends thing? Like, where are we with that and what was our endgame there?â
âWell, I guess I was wrong about only having one best friend,â Bucky admits, looking at Sam out of the corner of his eye and grinning bashfully. âAnd I guess the plan was justâmake Steve jealous.â
âAnd?â Sam prompts.
âAndâI think that was it? Iâm not really sure where I saw it all working out,â Bucky confesses.
âI feel like maybe youâre not all that great at planning without a murder board.â
âIâm a visual planner,â Bucky says defensively. âAnd it seemed kind of disrespectful to make a murder board about Steve given the fact that I did, in fact, try to murder him several times as the Winter Soldier.â
âThatâs fair,â Sam concedes, tipping his head to acknowledge the point. âBut weâre good now, right? I mean, weâre best friends with each other, weâre best friends with Steve and Natasha, Steve and Natasha are also best friendsâand Iâm kind of crazy in love with you.â
âWhat Iâm hearing you say here is that my crazy plan worked.â
âYeah, OK,â Sam says, hiding a smile. âMaybe it did.â
***
Itâs a Saturday, and Sam and Steve are on their best friend date, and Steve is kicking Samâs ass in the gym. Sam knows, intellectually, that heâs in fantastic shape and that thereâs no shame in being beaten by a scientifically enhanced human being. That doesnât mean that it doesnât still hurt his prideâand his back, motherfuckerâwhen Steve manages to take him down hard without even having the decency to break a sweat.
âI think thatâs about enough for today. I feel like Iâve done a pretty good job wearing you out,â Steve says, smirking like an asshole, because he is an asshole. âLetâs hit the showers.â
When they get to the SHIELD locker room, itâs nearly empty, the way it usually is on Saturdays. There are still a few particularly dedicated SHIELD employees roaming about, mostly new guys. For whatever reason most of the seasoned employees stay away from the gym locker room on Saturday afternoons when Sam and Steve work out. Today, when people catch sight of Sam and Steve walking in, they blanch and immediately speed up with whatever theyâre doing, hustling out of the locker room like itâs on fire or something. In under two minutes, Sam and Steve are the only ones left.
âItâs weird how everybody always leaves when they see us coming in to shower together,â Sam remarks, stripping off his sweaty shirt and tossing it in his locker.
âI wonder if theyâre intimidated by us,â Steve muses, then takes a moment to admire Samâs bare chest. Steveâs eyes are hot and appreciative as they travel lazily up and down Samâs torso.
Sam shrugs in response, then winces as he feels a muscle tighten up in his back. âOuch,â Sam hisses. âMan, I know Iâm not twenty-five anymore, but damn, I really donât need the reminder, you know?â
Steveâs brow furrows in concern. âHere, let me take a look at that when we get in the shower.â
They finish undressing and then get into the shower together. They share a stall, because Steve read an article about water conservation that he apparently found very inspiring, and also because sometimes itâs nice having a buddy with you. Sam lathers himself up, and then out of habit he reaches over to spin Steve around so he can wash Steveâs back too.
âGod, that feels good,â Steve moans, the sound of it echoing in the strangely empty locker room. Sam spends a good few minutes really working Steve over as he scrubs Steveâs back, groping and kneading at Steveâs lats and traps while Steve moans and arches his back in pleasure.
When Sam finishes, he gives Steve a little pat and says, âOK, you do me.â Obligingly, Steve turns around to rub Samâs back, massaging the tight muscles, his hands sliding easily over Samâs skin with the slick of Samâs body wash.
âThis where it hurts?â Steve murmurs, digging his fingers into Samâs lower back. âGod, youâre really tight here.â
âYeah,â Sam says, groaning at the pleasure-pain of Steve working at the sore point in his lower back. He huffs a frustrated, petulant sigh. âYou know, sometimes I feel like the more I lift, the tighter I get.â
âMaybe you should start going to yoga with Bucky and Natasha,â Steve suggests. âActually, theyâre starting a class in about twenty minutes. If we hurry up in here, we could probably meet them there if you want.â
âWait, Bucky and Natasha are at yoga today?â Sam asks in disbelief. âYouâre telling me that Bucky and Natasha go to yoga? Thatâs what theyâre doing on their best friend dates?â
Suddenly, Steve looks very anxious and very guilty.
âWait,â Steve says slowly, apprehensively, âBucky does tell you what he does on his best friend dates, right? HeâI mean, you do knowââ
âYeah, Steve, I know,â Sam says, his tone dry. âI just thought yoga was, like, a cover for something. I didnât think they were actually going to yoga.â
âOh!â Steve brightens. âYeah, itâs doing some really amazing things for Buckyâs flexibility. And for Natashaâs ass.â
Sam shrugs. âAll right, then, letâs head over.â
Sam and Steve finish up in the shower, moving more quickly than their usual leisurely Saturday afternoon locker room shower pace. Samâs skin is still a bit damp under his fresh gym clothes, but the air outside is warm, and heâll be sweating again soon anyway once he starts working out in the humid yoga studio.
When Bucky and Natasha see Sam and Steve, their faces light up with big smiles.
âHey, sweetheart!â Bucky says, coming over to give Sam a hug and a kiss while Natasha does the same to Steve. âYou and Steve are done earlier than usual.â
âYeah, he whooped my ass,â Sam admits, scratching his jaw.
Sam and Steve switch hugging partners, and Natâs body feels small and strong in Samâs arms when she goes up onto her tiptoes to give him a warm hug and a kiss on the lips. And when Sam sneaks a look downward, he notices that Steve was not lying about all the great things yogaâs been doing for Natashaâs ass.
Sam lets go of Natasha and turns back to Bucky. âSo you and Nat really do yoga,â Sam says, shaking his head ruefully. âYou know, all this time, I thought you two were doing some secret spy shit that you were trying to keep me from having to answer questions about? I was half-convinced that we should be thinking about getting married just so we wouldnât have to testify against each other.â
Steve and Natasha raise their eyebrows in surprise, but Bucky looks pleased at that. âWell,â Bucky says, lips curving up in a crooked grin, âletâs not take that marriage idea off the table just yet.â
Natasha clearly aims for a sober expression, but the corner of her lip twitches and her eyes sparkle with mirth. âYou know, I canât say that weâll definitely never get up to any secret spy shit, Sam. Maybe itâs not a bad idea to keep that in your back pocket.â
Steve raises an eyebrow and nods thoughtfully. âPlus, do we even know if Buckyâs still considered an American citizen?â
âIâm honestly not sure,â Bucky admits. âBut being married to Captain American should grant me automatic citizenship, probably.â
Sam shrugs placidly and slings an arm around Buckyâs shoulders. âSounds like a good plan to me.â
After all, Samâs mom always did say that happiness was being married to your best friend.
#winter falcon#sam wilson x bucky barnes#sam wilson#bucky barnes#steve rogers x natasha romanoff#marvel cinematic universe#the falcon and the winter soldier#ambiguous barbershop quartet
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So, I said i'd do this a while ago and I haven't rewatched Utena to look at it with this perspective but I guess I wanna go through the thoughts a bit, organize before I actually I do whenever that actually happens which knowing me as personally as I do could be anywhere from never to like 2 weeks from now because lmao let's go.
So let's talk about the Third Main Character of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Nanami Kiryuu.
So I'm not joking, and while she doesn't get the explicit focus of Anthy or Utena, I think it's interesting that of literally every other character she get's somewhere near the most amount of episodes focusing on her or things directly related to her. Depending on how you wanna count it (and this is very much an informal count, I just went to wikipedia read the episode blurbs to see if they were roughly A nanami centric episode) she has anywhere between 6-11 episodes that revolve around her.
Now even if we take that at the conservative amount that's 6/39 episodes that focus explicitly almost solely on her, and what's neat is that those episodes damn near without fail serve as ciphers for what's going on with the rest of the story.
Well Cipher may be incorrect. They serve to explain what the hell just went down in much less loaded terms and also infinitely funnier because of how absolutely ridiculous they tend to be.
But if we take the more extreme number there, that's about a quarter of the show revolving around this one singular character who is simultaneously treated as a joke and also remarkably has a lot of....I don't want to say insight, but I was struck by how much Nanami actually understood of the actual problems going on even as she actively fucked up and bought into a lot of them herself. That probably deserves some qualification, and For the moment I'm not going to because like...one this is a thing that struck me towards the end of my first watch so I wasn't looking for it all the earlier times, and it may also straight up be a character development thing because Nanami also ends up (if you think the movie is a sequel mind you) being the only other person who out and out escapes Ohtori.
So...Here's the thing I guess. Anthy is, under the Ohtori role scheme, A Witch acting as a Rose Bride (she's both, which breaks the strict binary that it want's to enforce). Utena is a Rose Bride acting as if she's a Prince (She's both actually, which breaks the gendered nature that it wants to enforce). And Nanami is straight up a Witch who wants to be a Rose Bride (Who realizes in the end that wow both of those suck actually, at least in full)
And that's basically the crux of the series put in real dumb terms, and how that all breaks down as the characters break those molds and and the limits and power of the system end up showing themselves as thread bare and illusory as everything else in Ohtori but that's 39 episodes worth of drama and sword fights you've presumably seen.
But When I say she's the third main character I don't mean it in the sense of like...Oh She's ALSO a major important character. By rights, Nanami doesn't really actually have a specific impact on much of anything. She get's attention sure, but as far as actually influencing events she's basically a footnote. A Couple of spots but mostly? Nothing of particular import.
So...How exactly is she a main character then? That's a pretty big claim to be made I think, and I think part of it has to do with Nanami's well...Invisibility and irrelevance. She is dismissed, she's played a fool, she's given absolutely no realt attention nor treated with any kind of seriousness. She exists at the margins, interacting with the story, someone who get's fought over or with, is bitchy and does some pretty messed up things and that's...about it really.
So basically, she's a perfect example of both a witch and a rose bride. Someone who is, in the system, cursed to be irrelevant, to barely exist as a person really. She clearly has her own desires wants and fears, we get to see them in action constantly...But they're played as jokes. They're played as stupid haha what an idiot things compared to the literal same questions and concerns being played out by the Prince (in Utena) and the Witch/Rosebride (In Anthy). Because unlike them, she is for the most part, absolutely subordinate to the system. She's trying to fit into it exactly, whether she's aware of it or not (and for most of her time in the show she's not).
Like we see the absurd and traumatic hurt that Anthy goes through. We see the damage it all puts on Utena. But as far as Ohtori is concerned they're real actors, at least in part because they are flouting the rules or else are so vital that they CANNOT be dismissed. If you're playing your role though, especially if that role is rosebride/witch you don't get to be relevant. You get to be a speed bump at best, a threat that is swiftly overcome by the heroic prince or maybe a prize.
So what's interesting then, is Nanami's development alongside the main duo mirrors what happens with them. Subservient to the system, trying to fit into it even if it may not in fact fit. Like there's nowhere i'm particularly going with this but I find it SUPER interesting that Nanami's dueling outfit is if anything MORE masculine then the literal wannabe prince Utena's. If we're taking stuff like that into account, Anthy Bedecked in Dresses, Utena with her Skirt suit thing and then Nanami who's just short of dressing straight up and down like a guy save for the slight heels kinda says something though damn if I'm not sure what.
So actually, yeah, no there is somewhere to go with this. I called Nanami a Witch who wants to be a Rose bride earlier and I think that's wrong. We're still using symbols of the fucky Ohtori system of roles here, when like one entire whole prong of the point is that it's not actually viable or useful beyond a very very limited point, but it probably would be considerably more accurate to say Nanami is a Prince who WANTS to be a Rosebride But Ends up being a witch. Because one major characterization of the Prince is proactive action towards reaching their goal, no matter the cost to themselves. Which in Nanami's under this logic, is a cost of immediate relevance, as well getting to be an active player, where she would actualy be a natural shoo in for the role save for the whole gendered nonsense involving it.
If anything, the implied end results of Nanami taking some active action to just ollie out of Ohtori towards the end reinforces this. Under the story book rules of things in Ohtori, The Witch has captured the Prince (Anthy to Nanami) under their thrall and is constantly tormented by them until they escape or else overcome the thrall...Which Nanami DOES by saying she wants out of this shit, and then taking action to do that. I'm strugglign to recall exactly where, but I also remember this scene towards the end where she basically resigns from the student council's dueling circlejerk, which I read to be her realizing it's a rigged game and just not participating.
Again, there's a bit of assumption given we see her still actually IN ohtori in the final episode, but then that's basically everyone once Utena get's the Retcon, and a chunk of this assumes the Movie is Canon to the Show in the sense of a Sequel, which I think is a fair read. Like realizing the problem and then actually taking the steps to fix it is hard, especially if you haven't like gone as far in as you could have and especially especially if you've built part of your sense of self under being part of it so...
Yeah. Again, more rambling and notes for whenever I actually succeed in watching it again.
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11x01 Reaction Post
Random thoughts on and reactions to 11x01; no careful analysis or anything, just the bits and pieces that's not likely to make it into meta proper but which I still want to make note of so I can go back later and remember what my initial reaction to the episode was (since my impressions are likely to change as the season unfolds). Mostly Gallavich related, because duh, but there's disordered rambling on a bit of everything. Under a cut (God I miss LJ sometimes) because this got long.
Ian looks damned good as the homocidal muscle. I don't do AU:s, but if I did... On the other hand, Frank as a member of the Chicago âEightâ looks like a werewolf. Less interested in that AU. And listen, I get that they couldn't get Emmy Rossum for this, but I really miss Fiona showing up in a few random olden day pictures. She's gone, but she's still a Gallagher dammit! Carl at the slaughter house looked weird â and part of me thought that was appropriate because slightly off editing would be a sweet way of communicating that it's all bollocks, but the rest of shots looked okay (Debbie as a milk maid and Frank as the aforementioned werewolf) or good (everything else) so no.
The sound of a baby crying is a horror matched only by persistent lack of sleep so I feel for Lip and Tami so much. Here's to all parents who managed to get through the first year without murdering anybody! I think that maybe you don't get enough credit... I, for instance, want to kill someone just hearing Freddie cry in the background for half a minute. Not sure it bodes too well for their relationship for them to be so ready to spend every night apart like Lip suggests, but a, what wouldn't you do for a good night's sleep, and b, love the thought of Lip spending more time at the old house. Could see them breaking up during the course of the season, though. Not sure how I feel about that â Tami's my favourite out of Lip's love interests, but having too many of the couples staying together all through the finale wouldn't feel quite right (for Shameless) and I don't see them breaking up Ian and Mickey or Kev and V. Don't really expect Sandy or Debbie to last either, but since it's more of a casual thing it might have more of a casual end.
Do you remember when the promo dropped and there was Concern about That Look on Ian's face after he kisses Mickey, and I tag theorized about it being because Mickey stole his coffee? Turns out there wasn't really A Look in the actual episode, but I sure as hell was right about the coffee, and I want noted somewhere. Maybe there should also be a small diploma? A golden statue seems a little over the top, but I mean, if you insist...
I appreciate that Ian is very adament about it being their money but when Mickey thinks it's their breakfast it's suddenly every man for himself. Do you share or not, Ian? Hmm? (Let the record show that I'm joking, please. Ian is damned right to take his toast back, and I say this as a âperson most likely to steal their partner's toast right out of their handâ. I also love that Mickey completely gives up on breakfast when he can't have Ian's toast and just grabs a beer instead.) The kitchen scene is glorious and I just really like their dynamic here; the casual kiss, âI only make breakfast for husbands who have jobsâ, how relaxed it is even when Ian's a bit annoyed, Mickey being so... Mickey. I do wonder what went through his head when Ian started talking about their wedding present money, though â he seems worried for a moment, but then shrugs it off, and that could be either bravado or just actual lack of concern. I tend mostly towards the latter, since Mickey quite genuinely figures this isn't a big deal (even though he still recognizes that Ian will probably think it one). Please note that he immediately offers to get money when Ian mentions that they need more of it coming in. Not his fault Ian vetoes his methods, right? (Also love that Ian's objection is due to him not wanting to be separated from Mickey, rather than any moral qualms about robbing stores.)
Okay, the gag ball. Would they really keep it like that if they were actually using it? Maybe either of them just tossed it there after taking it off, I suppose... Yeah, I don't know. Not what I'd imagined them being into, but that might be my own extreme lack of enthusiasm for gag balls and harnesses talking. Either they're into it and if so, you do you, boys, or it was a gift and they're keeping it around and semi-prominently on display for shits and giggles. (But if it was a gift, they did try it at least once, right?)
Mickey in the bath remains stupidly and surprisingly gorgerous. Incidentally, I really don't think his question about the meds is any indication of him not thinking them important, but there's little wonder that Ian bristles at the mention of them. Maybe not be an ass just to prove a point, eh, Mick?
I've already talked about how hard Ian is trying here but let's just take another moment to congratulate our boy on his persistent attempts at mature communication. Though he might have given some actual consideration to Mickey not wanting to save the money if he's really serious about them making decisions together... But he gets there! I think this whole situation â which would royally piss most people, including me, off â is actually particularly difficult for Ian, because he might well see Mickey's behavior as uncomfortably reminiscent of Frank and Monica's destructive habits and yeah, that would fuck him up. And still! He forces himself to calm down! He takes Mickey's hand! He refuses to let himself be distracted by Mickey looking SO INSANELY PRETTY I CANNOT EVEN UNDERSTAND IT! Ian, I salute you!
[starwars_eu_nerd_mode]KORRIBAN! YES! HA! TAKE THAT DISNEY! You take your new so-called âcanonâ and your âMorabandâ and you fuck right off. I salute you, Bitcoin Boy![/starwars_eu_nerd_mode]
Ah, the porch scene... This one I do have a bunch of thoughs on that will probably make it into meta proper one day, so I'll leave it for now. It was the one that took the most thinking about for me to square (still not a lot, it should be noted), but now I'm actually very happy about it. (Full disclosure: none of their scenes feel quite right the first time I see them these days, because I'm just so very on edge about what's to come that I kind of miss the forest for all the trees you know? It's not a Shameless thing â it's always like this when I'm extremely invested in something and have waited for it for some time. Will it fit with how I see the characters? Will it be cringey? Will Mickey suddenly profess a love for hideous Hawaii shirts? Also, what are they saying because English is hard... But then I watch them a couple of times and they sink in and I start to get giddy over them. I guess watching actual canon unfold always requires a little bit of re-calibration if you've been busy fanoning while waiting for it to arrive, and while I love that sort of interpretative work, thereâs also the fear that the show will veer off into a direction I cannot easily follow.)
Mickey's insistence that he spelled monogamy wrong does genuinely amuse me. Not to mention the whole âNo more parking tickets for me!â - âYou don't have a car, dumbass.â Also, Mickey being friendly with Carl kills me, in a good way. Family FTW!
Frank's storyline fails to stir even the vaguest hint of interest in me, as per usual. For all his talk of family in this episode, the lack of interaction with any of his kids is striking. If he's to have any value at all this season I'll need him to get involved in the rest of the Gallagher's storylines (which seems like it might be happening at least for a bit later on, so I'm vaguely hopeful?). I find but faint intrigue in Carl's and Debbie's stuff, but it doesnât annoy me either so I'll call it a win. Kev and V are (almost) always a delight, but do anyone else feel like their kids are only props, even to them? I don't know... I just don't think there's a connection or sense of realness to their relationship, you know? Maybe it's just me... Anyway, here's to hoping V turning pageant mom changes all that! Oh, and I'll need Liam to have some more screentime and stuff to do.
The Tommy and Kermit thing was weird. Eh. Whatever.
Sandy is so gorgerous. I can't. The Milkoviches really be bringing it this episode.
This is only the second season I've watched episode by episode as it airs (other one was S6) and it's a curiuos experience. I think that by and large, and particularly in later seasons, Shameless works better when you binge it, but I love the delightful anticipation of waiting for a new episode and the feverent discussion that follows. Sometimes I also despair over the ferverent discussion that follows, but... you know. It is what it is. Admittedly, any attempts at meta this early in the season is a precarious venture at best, since we don't have the whole story, and it might be wiser to abstain but it's just so much fun, so I'm not very likely to stop.
All in all, I love the Gallavich stuff, am intrigued by Lip & Tami and Kev & V's lives, okay with whatever Debbie and Carl's got going on, hot for Sandy, bored by Frank, and missing Liam. It sets up a lot of promising things, but as an episode all unto itself it felt a bit empty â probably because there were no real plots and the storylines didn't intersect as much as I would have liked them to. Shameless is best when it's about family, which both the show and Frank seems to recognize, but there's little narrative follow-through on that realization in this episode; everyone is pretty much doing their own thing. Adored the Lip and Ian convo, and that house party scene was wonderful, but so short. Think we'll get more of all of them together going forward, though, and more actual plots too, so I'm very excited about it all. Can't wait for Sunday!
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HEY hereâs Danni yet again ranting about writing bc all I ever do is read books on writing and stare at my WIPS and cry. Iâm gonna ramble a bit on word choice and how I personally like to go about that, since I keep running into âUSE THESE WORDS INSTEADâ posts and wanted to deposit my thoughts to anyone particularly interested in âem.Â
Ok, so a lot of times I come across those Tumblr posts that are like âUse any of these words other than this general one in your writing!â and I legit always look at the list of âsynonymsâ and about half of those words do not have close enough definitions to be used interchangeably. Words used irresponsibly can result in just as much dissonance as bland/basic word choice, so nothing is gained. But as a pretentious, flowery writer who loves romantic and poetic prose, I canât deny the importance of varying word choice. So, what do we do? If these posts give the impression of simply listing the synonyms list of commonly used words that I canât just switch out easily, how can I change my word choice to keep the flow and avoid stagnancy?
Allow me to offer a pretty boring but still important standard for your consideration: Try to refrain from switching up word choice just for the sake of switching up word choice.
Itâs definitely good to incorporate a wide vocabulary in your writing, not just to retain the interest of your readers, but also fosters language development and comprehension skills for yourself! But at the end of the day, if youâre looking up synonyms for a word and none of their definitions really fit the idea youâre going for, then youâve already got the perfect word. Use language deliberately, and use it well.
BUT!!! What if you still want to vary verbiage, but your storyâs context/scene are making you feel trapped in a specific realm of generic words. Hereâs another one that I almost always use in my stuff -- and itâs Re-thinking your scene to generate more evocative language.Â
This strategy is sometimes disguised as that whole âChange your Settingâ tip you might come across in writing advice forums. But if your storyâs setting needs to be specific and cannot be changed, then definitely I recommend this instead.Â
Sometimes, the scene I have in my head, the way my characters interact with the plot and each other -- there are only so many words befitting of those strict and specific instances. So, I re-imagine the scene -- not so much the weather or setting, but more figuratively speaking. I imagine myself some dwinky little director man, changing the lighting, re-writing possible dialogue, re-thinking character presentation, doing the scene exactly the same except âa little to the leftâ (lol) -- all for the sake of discovering just what word-choice can really make this scene âpopâ. While I donât have the energy to write it all out (if you do, like wow I envy u sdhgjfg), I already spend a lot of time daydreaming, so this is perfect for those dreamers who already fixate on their storylines. For instance, changing the âlightingâ of a scene can affect the tone, thus changing what syntax structure I want to use; a scene I might cast in blue, somber colors might employ more poetic, gothic writing, words more pertaining to heart-wrenching emotions that reverberate like cathedral bells in the ribcage. Or, that same scene cast in summery daylight of orange and yellow can demonstrate more vitality, naive and seemingly eternal, leaving a brightness in your smile and a twinkle in your eyes. See what I did there? Get a little silly with it - Hell, sometimes when I make that figurative lighting ironic, contrasting like a sad scene with a âhappyâ tone, it evokes a strange emotion seldom realized in life, but somehow so exceedingly real that it tends to become my more favorite scenes in a fic. While these can be very trial-and-error and might not come across the way you hoped with your readers the first few times, itâs always worth trying if you find it particularly fun.
Right. So weâre still left with that initial question of how can I vary my writing without simply switching up words used in a synonym list?
Well, first, please always look at the definitions of each of those âsynonymsâ. While, yeah, they are definitely synonyms, but thereâs a reason why theyâre separate words. Always have confidence that the words youâre using are the best words you can be using in a scene (or at least pretend to have confidence, since literally thatâs me everyday of my life). Get friendly with online dictionaries (personally I like online the best bc theyâre databases and therefore update a bit easier than a traditional print dictionary). If youâre feeling spicy, seek out a wordâs historical usage - sometimes, it can give an extra dimension of POP that can sometimes feel like an Easter egg for readers and rewards those who either seek out that information or already know it.Â
For the record, Iâm very much an âemotionalâ writer. I like passionate language, words that particularly strike a chord with me. Your story may not play well with this advice, so disclaimer hgfhggfh - BUT certainly there is plenty reason to beware of just spamming âFind & Replaceâ all your common words to try and sound better in your writing. Seek out those whoâs writing resonates with you. Seek out references and support. Curate your learning experiences so that your writing skills evolve in the best way they can in your amazing care. Certainly donât just listen to me - try new things, see what works and what doesnât, and proceed from there. But like, seriously, letâs move on from the whole âsaid is deadâ propaganda - educate, donât replicate.
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Could I request 57 & 28 from the fluff-hurt/comfort list with some platonic Ralbert perhaps?
i see stars (and i think of you)
Albert's not having a great time. But one late night phone call to arguably (definitely) the best friend ever might make it better, even if said friend insists on driving over in the middle of the night. Racetrack just hopes that Albert knows that he wouldn't do this for anyone else.Â
A/n: Thanks for the prompt and sorry it took a bit to get around to, I hope you enjoy it! As always this is cross-posted on ao3
CW: Some swearing
Raceâs phone is ringing. Itâs one in the morning and heâs almost asleep when it goes off. Heâs tempted to decline the call and block whoever dared to call him, heâs also tempted to throw his phone across the room. He does neither of these things. Instead he half-assedly reaches for his glasses and practically jams them onto his face, and finally checks the caller ID. Oh, itâs Albert. What the fuck does he want now?
Itâs only by virtue of about a decade of friendship that Race picks up. âAlbert I swear to all that is holy if youâre calling me to talk about some fuckinâ alien conspiracy theories I am hanging up and ending our friendship immediately,â Race says, not even giving Albert a chance to speak.
âRace you canât seriously tell me you donât believe in aliens, can you? Theyâre out there!â Albert replies indignantly. Race is all of two seconds away from hanging up when Albert continues, âNo, but seriously Racer, I- I really need someone to talk to right now.â
âOh shit Albo, whatâs up?â
âIâve just been having a bad day. Well, week,â Albert takes a shuddering breath.
And Race is suddenly more awake. He knows that Al wouldnât have called him this late for something like this if it wasnât serious. âTalk to me, Al,â Race says softly.
âI just⊠why are you my friend? Why are any of you guys my friends?â
âWhat?â
âYou heard me Race, I- Iâm not especially skilled or smart,â Albertâs voice breaks and he starts talking faster, âan-and I just need to know why you like me.â Raceâs heart breaks, pain radiates from his chest and he feels sick to his stomach. His friend sounds like heâs about to cry. Albert almost never cries.
âOh Albert⊠youâre my best friend in the world,â Race breathes out, âyou may not be the most booksmart but that doesnât mean you arenât smart, youâre fantastic at skateboarding and researching things and taking care of your plants and you always find the best rocks and youâre the only one who can match me when we talk about astronomy. Those are all skills arenât they? Youâre also funny and you put up with so much of my shit, youâre like, the most loyal person I know and youâre always there for your friends when we need you. Whatâs there not to like?â
â... A lot,â Albert mumbles.
Race is insistent, âWell I canât think of a single thing, besides, you know me too well to think that Iâd lie to you about something like this. You know what? Iâm coming over. Iâll see you in like twenty minutes Albie.â
âWait, Race, you donât need to-â Race hangs up. Too bad for Al, Race has already made up his mind. Itâll be easier to talk to him in person and maybe heâll be able to slap some sense into Albert if he continues to think poorly about himself. No one is allowed to talk down to Raceâs best friend besides Race himself, not even said best friend.
He drags himself out of bed and briefly considers just driving to Alâs as is, but quickly reasons that if he wants to stop by a store on the way over heâd need to put on pants. He fumbles around for a pair of sweatpants using his phone as a light. Finds a pair that doesnât seem too dirty and throws them on, then makes his way downstairs quietly, grabbing his keys and wallet on the way out the door.
Heâs about three steps outside when he shivers in the cold air, maybe not grabbing a jacket as well was a bad idea. Welp, too late for that. Grumbles to himself about how cold it is and how late it is on his way to the car and nearly all the way to the nearest twenty-four hour convenience store. Albert is so lucky heâs Race's best friend, he wouldnât do this for anyone else. Like, seriously, heâs out here in a stupid store at stupid oâclock getting weird looks from the cashier while he looks for some stupid star stickers (theyâre not stupid but Race is tired and grumpy and cold and he wants to complain) for his stupid friend (also not stupid: see earlier note). Not only that but Race is spending his hard earned money on these little glow in the dark star stickers just to make him feel better, well Albert better appreciate all that Race does for him.
He moves through the checkout station as quickly and with as little speaking as possible. He knows that glow stars are a bit of a weird thing to be buying at this hour, but heâs got a plan and they are a vital piece. Race takes his receipt and the stars and throws them in the passenger seat of his car and continues his drive to Albertâs house.
When Race arrives he grabs the stickers and hops the fence to walk down the side of Albertâs house. He walks down the narrow alleyway and crouches down about three-quarters to the end, slides through the open window in Albertâs room in the basement. Smiles to himself, he always enjoyed entering his house this way, thereâs just a certain thrill that makes him feel like heâs in a heist or something. Though the way the window sill scrapes at his back is certainly less fun.
âYou didnât have to come over, Racer,â Albert says the moment Racetrackâs feet hit the floor.
âYeah well I did, and I come bearing gifts,â Race proclaims. He quickly surveys the room, the only light on is the lamp on the bedside table and Albert is sitting on his bed, phone in hand and looking the slightest bit like he was trying to hide the fact that heâd been crying. That was mildly concerning, Race was glad Albert had called him.
âWhat?â
âWell since it seems you have little object permanence-â
â-Whatâs that supposed to mean!â Okay maybe Race shouldn't be teasing him right now, but maybe it'd be even weirder not to.
Race shakes the packet of stickers at Albert. âI have acquired some objects to be here permanently when I am not so you cannot possibly forget that I am the best friend ever.â
âAre those glow in the dark stars? Like for a ceiling?â Albert looks more confused than anything. That is⊠disappointing but expected.
âYes, my dear friend, they are,â Race says with all the drama one would expect of the one and only Racetrack Higgins.
âOkay, but why?â Race falters. Heâs not exactly prone to thinking things through but he was certain this made sense. However, Albert still doesnât seem to get it.
âWellâŠâ Race continues much quieter and considerably more nervous, maybe this is a stupid idea, âwe always talk about the stars ân stuff and whenever I look at them now I think of you.â
Fuck, that was sappy, and not exactly to the point but important nonetheless. And Albert still looks like he doesnât get what he's trying to say. So Race continues, now almost rambling, âAnd I kinda thought that maybe you did the same thing so if we put these on your ceiling then whenever you feel down on yourself or like I don't like you for some reason youâd see the stars and think of me and know that Iâll always be here for you, ya know? Best friends for life ân all that. Do you really think I would have done this for someone I didn't like or who wasn't a good friend?â
There's a moment where neither of them speak before Race starts cracking his knuckles nervously. âIt kinda sounds stupid now that I say it out loud.â
âNo,â Albert chokes out, and Race swears he looks like heâs about to cry, though maybe that was just from before Race and he hadnât been paying enough attention, âitâs not stupid.â
Race shoots him a look that screams âAre you kidding me?â, now that heâd said it out loud he was almost certain it was a stupid idea. Seriously, who gets a call from their friend who is clearly having kind of a hard time and then proceeds to hang up on them, buy some cheap little decorations, and show up at their house like that would fix anything? God, what was Race thinking? âOkay, itâs a little ridiculous,â Albert amends, âbut that is such a Racetrack plan I shouldnât have expected anything else.â
âI⊠don't know what you mean by that AlbieâŠâ
âIt means I like it and think it's a good idea,â and Albert gives him this grin, like heâs something precious, and it makes Race feel all warm inside. He loves being able to make the red-head smile like that. âIn fact, weâre putting these up right now.â
âOh, so now youâre making me do work? After I came all this way? Youâre lucky youâre my best friend Dasilva,â Race teases, but heâs already opening the package to get going. He wonât admit it but he thinks that them putting up the stars together makes it a little more special. Reinforces the idea that theyâre a physical reminder of Race and that he loves Albert enough to go through all this trouble for him.
Both boys get to work quickly, dragging furniture around to stand on and filling Albertâs ceiling. They laugh and joke as they work, occasionally trying to create actual constellations only to have the other mess it up. Race is almost successful at creating a dick out of stars before Albert notices and derails his art piece, leaving Race pouting and Albert caught between laughing and telling him off. By the time they finish they are both in considerably better moods and utterly exhausted.
âYou gonna sleep here, Racer?â Albert questions, already half-asleep. Race takes off his glasses and sets them on Albertâs nightstand.
âIf you think you can get away with waking me up in the middle of the night, making me drive all the way over here, forcing me to work for you, and then not giving me any cuddles in return then you have got another thing coming mister. Now scoot over bitch,â Race demands, not waiting for Albert to move before flopping down onto the bed half-way on top of the other boy.
âStupider isnât a word,â Albert says. He adjusts himself anyways, moving over to give Race some more room. Once they are both situated Albert wraps his arm around Race, allowing him to curl into his side. Albert sighs contentedly, holding his friend close and looking at his new ceiling decorations. There really was no way heâd ever be able to look at them and not think of the boy next to him and how much he cares for him. âHey Racer,â Albert hesitates, âthanks for⊠everything.â
ââS no problem Albie,â Race burrows his head into the crook of Albertâs neck and mumbles, âIâd do just about anything for you.â
#albert dasilva#racetrack higgins#newsies#newsies live#newsies writing#newsies fanfic#racetrack higgins & albert dasilva#albert dasilva & racetrack higgins#platonic ralbert#orange writes#word count: 1.8k#asexualbert#requests
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â„ ; hu tao & wangsheng funeral parlor
let it be know that baizhu has very specific feelings about the funeral parlor but a distinction must be made that his feelings about the place is quite different than what he thinks about the 77th director , hu tao . they are two separate things in his head & he has a different opinion on the two . what he thinks about hu tao has nothing to do with the funeral parlor itself & vice versa , but he will admit that the since having gone under her management , he tends to keep a distrustful & weary eye on it . but he never acts on his bias . he merely keeps things professional .
lets start with HU TAO first :
let it be known that at least 2/3rds of bubu pharmacy does not like or appreciate the 77th director of wangsheng funeral parlor . it is very obvious with qiqi that she DOES NOT like hu tao . the girl is smart enough to know that she is two - faced , like baizhu , but UNLIKE baizhu , she pretends that things are a - okay & there is a genuine fakeness about her . in case people need a reference to what qiqi says , here the english translation of her thoughts about hu tao .
â  i despise hu tao . i need cold , but she is too hot - blooded . i cannot smile easily but she cannot smile convincingly . she wants to bury me , so i wish she was dead .
i bring up qiqiâs thoughts on this matter because while baizhu has his own personal reasons for taking care of qiqi ( which i will discuss in a later post ) , he does take qiqiâs opinions into consideration . her happiness is of the utmost importance & it is quite obvious that there is some sort of distress with hu tao .Â
baizhu is also not so keen on having the director near the pharmacy alone & is quite exhausted that he constantly has to put most of his energy in preventing her in putting qiqi to rest . even if hu tao claims that she simply only wants to be friends with qiqi now instead of trying to bury her , he always acts as a barrier for her & will not let her see qiqi .Â
in baizhuâs eyes , he can see hu tao is putting a front but it is also because he doesnât want her to take away something that he is still trying to study himself . that and the amount of time he has put into keeping her away means that he has very little time trying to study qiqi himself . in other words , he is a bit irate that hu tao is taking most of what little energy he has .
in case it is a little confusing as to what his thoughts are on hu tao , understand that he dislikes her greatly . not to the point of hating her like qiqi , but he would rather she take her business elsewhere . it is a full time job in itself to make sure that she doesnât ruin his studies and it is not something he likes because he would rather focus his energy in studying and figuring out a cure for himself . she genuinely is taking away much of baizhuâs lifespan due to her hot - bloonded behaviour . she is exhausting , and baizhu doesnât like being consistently tired by the same thing every single day .
he is very short & curt with her . with reason of course . yet he somehow manages to still have some professionalism with her . after all , while he may not like the young woman , there is still reason for him to have positive relations with the funeral parlor .
with that , we can move onto wangsheng funeral parlor :
unlike hu tao , baizhu doesnât mind the funeral parlor at all . for him , they could still be considers a business partner and may still have future dealings with them . no , he does not have outrageous pricing because of them . i will repeat , he did not offer 3 mil mora for everlasting incense because of the funeral parlor and its director . while he perhaps considered it , he could have also simply declined business in the first place , he still finds that he needs a source of income than anything , especially since he is not afraid to go through shady dealings .Â
changsheng has even said it herself , baizhu will overcharge and swindle people for personal gain & profit ( as seen in regards to the traveler ) , but it moreso has to do with the fact that he just needs the money into personal reasons . it wasnât because of the funeral parlor . in fact , it may have been more so with having to do with the fact that the incense was for morax & would know that the incense would most likely go to â waste â . as he was slightly aware of what was going on .Â
in fact , he is very aware of the people who work at wangsheng & what they do there . he knows that they may need to do business with bubu & is often lax in most of their dealings . not that he gives anybody breaks but since the pharmacy has ingredients that would be helpful for not just the living but for the afterlife , he has his doors open for them . he finds many of them pleasant to work with , it simply is only the current director that he has a problem with . Â
i am sure that i will ramble off some other time , but for now this is all i have .Â
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