#but now i think sam and peter should get a turn | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scoonsaliciousupdates · 5 months

Text

1.3 Major

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lily McIntire, trainer for new SHIELD recruits at the Avengers Tower, has been in love with her best friend, Bucky Barnes, from the moment she met him. She's been content with her role of the #1 girl in Bucky's life, even if it means she has to sabotage a romantic relationship or two. It'll be worth it when he realizes that they're meant for each other, right? There's just one small problem: Lily McIntire never expected Bucky Barnes to fall for You.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language,

Word Count: 3.1k

Previously On...: Bucky got his first glimpse of you.

A/N: Accidentally posted this to the wrong blog. Apologies!

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

You were having so much fun getting better acquainted with Nat and Wanda that you didn’t even notice when the pool game broke up and its players meandered over to join you. Nat made quick work of introducing you to everyone, and you were fortunate most of them were so famous, you already knew their names, otherwise you would have been lost in a whirlwind of new faces.

Everyone was exceedingly friendly as you went around shaking hands– Peter (that was the first name of the boy Nat had called ‘Parker’) was entirely too enthusiastic in his handshake, but it was endearing, all the same. Thor bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to your knuckles, and you were almost positive you saw Wanda swoon by proxy out of the corner of your eye. Steve’s handshake was firm, but basic (‘boring,’ you couldn’t help but hear Wanda’s voice say in your head), and Sam was brazen and went in for a kiss on the cheek– not that you minded in the least.

When it came time for you to be officially introduced to Bucky, you found yourself practically tingling with anticipation. God, he was even better looking up close.

“Major,” Nat said, giving you a sly smile, “this is Bucky. Bucky, this is my friend, Major.” He took your hand in his, enveloping it, and the heat radiating from where your skin touched sent an electric current down your spine. “Major.” You watched the way his full, pink lips formed around the syllables, as if he was tasting your name, rolling it around in his mouth, something to be savored. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

You offered him a shy, half-smile that you hoped looked flirty and not cringe-inducing. “It’s really nice to meet you, too, Bucky.”

You smiled stupidly at one another before you realized you’d been holding hands for just a little too long. Reluctantly, you let go before you looked too weird.

“I’m Lily,” the petite blond woman you’d noticed him with earlier said, stepping forward slightly so that Bucky had to take a stumbling step back from you to make room for her.

“Watch it, Lil,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady himself. “You almost bulldozed me over.”

The other woman flashed him a smile before turning back to you, her gaze now hardened. She took your hand and shook it firmly, almost aggressively.

“Major,” you said, matching her pressure with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Lily.”

“Should we move this party to a booth?” Sam asked from where he stood a few feet away. “This table ain’t big enough for all of us.”

You had to agree– the high top you sat at with Nat and Wanda was not nearly large enough to accommodate your enlarged party. You all made your way to a back corner of the bar, where there was a large, circular booth available.

“It’s gonna be a tight squeeze,” Nat said, eyeing your group, “but I think we can manage it.” You all began awkwardly sliding in, and by some miracle (or Nat’s manipulation, you weren’t quite sure), you ended up pressed against Bucky on one side of you, and Sam on the other.

“Hi,” Bucky said shyly to you once everyone had gotten themselves settled.

“Hi,” you replied, trying so very hard, and failing, not to blush as he looked down at you with those beautiful blue eyes.

“So, Major,” Sam said from where he sat on your right, “how did you come to be friends with our Natasha?”

“Wow, wasting no time in interrogating the new girl, huh, Sam?” you asked him with a teasing grin.

“Hey, it’s not often we get such pretty new company in our midst,” he said, giving you a playful nudge. “Barnes was our last newbie, and he’s ugly as fuck.”

“Nat’s a customer of mine.” You ducked your head in the hope of hiding your blush at being called ‘pretty’ by an actual Avenger as Bucky shoved Sam over your head. “We’ve known each other… what? About half a year now, Nat?”

Natasha nodded. “Major owns her own business.”

“That’s really impressive,” said Bucky from your left. “It must be nice to be your own boss.”

You nodded. “It is. It’s stressful, but it’s also really freeing, really rewarding.”

From Bucky’s other side, Lily snickered. “Please,” she said, drawing attention to her. “Half the time these “women small business owners” are just morons who got sucked into an MLM; a pyramid scheme. So, which one is it, Major.” You didn’t like the way she sneered your name, but you opted to ignore it. “Herbalife? Beachbody? Oh god, don’t tell me it’s Mary Kay?” she giggled.

“Uh, no,” you said, feeling defensive, though you weren’t quite sure why. “I own a place called The WarZone?”

“Hold up,” said Peter enthusiastically. “Isn’t that the rage room by Sunset Park?” You nodded, pleased to have someone recognize it. “That place is sick! You own it?!”

“Yeah,” you said, self consciously brushing back a piece of hair that had fallen into your face.

“Me and my friends go there sometimes on the weekends,” Peter chirped. “It’s awesome!”

“You’ll have to let me know when you visit next,” you said. “I’ll make sure to sign you and your friends up for the VIP package, no charge.”

Peter’s face was elated. “Seriously? You’d hook me up like that? Wow, you’re amazing!”

“Absolutely,” you shrugged your shoulders. “A friend of Nat’s…”

“Sorry,” said Steve, cutting in before Peter could continue to gush his thanks, “for those of us who were born before the invention of the television, or on another planet,” he cast a friendly nod to Thor, “what’s a ‘rage room?’

“Only the single greatest invention the Japanese ever came up with,” Nat said, throwing a wink at you. “So, like, imagine you’re angry. Like, fucking pissed. And you need to get all that shit out of your system. You go to a rage room, and you pay them money, and they give you a hammer, or a baseball bat, or whatever you want, and you just go to town smashing the shit out of everything you can get your hands on! It’s so much fun!”

“And you do this often, Natasha?” Thor asked, bemused smile crossing his big face.

“At least once a week,” she said. At her friends’ curious expressions, she raised an eyebrow. “What? You think you lot are all peaches to live with? You’re lucky I go as often as I do, or you’d all probably either be dead or violently maimed.”

“That… actually sounds amazing,” Bucky said, turning to smile at you. “I’d love to check it out sometime.”

You fought to keep the pleased grin from growing too wide across your face, when Lily spoke up. “Ick, but Jamie,” she said, “then we’d have to go all the way to Queens.”

“She’s got a location in Midtown, too,” Nat offered. “That’s the one I go to.”

“I can definitely set you up with a VIP time slot, if you’d want” you said to Bucky. “Just let me know when you’d like to come check it out.”

“That sounds great.” Bucky awkwardly maneuvered himself so he could pull his phone out of his back pocket. “Put in your number, and I can call you when I know when I’m going to be free.”

Oh, smooth, you thought as you took his phone from him. Very smooth, indeed. You couldn’t help but notice his phone wallpaper after you’d entered your contact info– it was a picture of him and Lily, smiling together in front of a giant Christmas tree, his arm around her shoulder, and both of hers wrapped around his waist. If Nat and Wanda hadn’t assured you otherwise, you would have sworn they were a couple just from looking at it.

You handed Bucky back his phone. “Here you go,” you said. “Just call whenever you’d like to set up a time.”

“So, the entire thing is just people coming in and destroying stuff?” Lily asked, confused. “I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t see how something like that can be lucrative enough for you to make a career out of it.”

“We do alright for ourselves,” you said, not feeling comfortable with discussing how much money your business brought in. It wasn’t enough for you to be making the cover of Forbes or anything, but you were far above comfortable now.

“Alright?” Nat asked, laughing. “You’ve got five locations in the tri-state area and are looking into opening a sixth! With at least thirty-five employees under you! I call that a bit more than ‘doing alright!’” You shrugged your shoulders demurely, though secretly basking in your friend’s praise.

“I can’t see how that kind of place could even make a profit,” Lily scoffed, “Let alone afford to pay that many people an actual living wage.”

“Indeed says starting salary there’s $75,000 a year, plus benefits,” Peter said, looking up from his phone. “Is that true, Ms. Major?”

You chuckled at his polite addition of a title to your name. “That’s starting, yeah,” you told him, and by extension, Lily. “But it’s more based on education and experience, plus you get an automatic raise after a 90 day probation period.”

Sam let out a low whistle. “Well, aren’t you just the savvy businesswoman?” he asked with a smile. “Too bad we didn’t have Tony come out with us tonight; you two could have a lot to talk about.”

Holy shit, Tony Stark, you thought. You hadn’t even considered that knowing Nat might put you on the path to meeting someone like him. It was too fanciful to even imagine.

“Well, I don’t see the appeal of it,” Lily interjected, seemingly determined to find some sort of fault with your business. “It just seems so wasteful to me. Not very environmentally friendly at all.”

“You know, that’s actually an interesting point,” you said, leaning around Bucky to look at her. “We have contracts with the boroughs and cities we operate in, taking things that would normally go into landfills, like old tvs, furniture, china and glassware, stuff like that, and have people smash them to smithereens. It ends up taking less space in the dump when our clients are done with it, and we painstakingly go through everything that’s left to make sure whatever can get recycled or reused, does.”

Lily pouted, obviously displeased with your answer. “It just seems so… violent.” She wracked her body in an overly dramatic shiver.

“I can see why it would appear that way,” you said casually, “if you’re not familiar with them. Though there are studies that suggest it’s a really healthy outlet for expressing anger and getting stress relief."

“I just don’t understand the appeal,” she said finally, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

“That’s okay,” you said, nonchalantly shrugging a shoulder. “It’s not for everyone, and that’s fine.” You shifted your focus back to Bucky and gave him a wink. “It’s a hell of a lot of fun, though.”

Bucky smiled and bit his bottom lip. “Sounds like it,” he said, a flirtatious glint in his eye. “Seems like a guy could get quite the workout doing something like that.”

“Oh,” you pressed your thigh firmly against his under the table, “it’s definitely my second favorite way to work up a sweat.”

Bucky’s gaze flickered between your eyes and your lips. “That so?” he asked. “Well, then, I guess I have no choice but to see how hot and bothered it gets me.”

“I think you’ll be very satisfied with it, Sergeant,” you said, and both of you knew you were no longer talking about his visit to The WarZone.

“Oh, I have no doubt it would be a mutually satisfying experience, doll,” he said. You bit your cheek to hide the smile that was threatening to escape your face.

“Jamie–” Lily began, trying to get Bucky’s attention back on her, but before she could continue speaking, Wanda spoke over her: “So, Major, I didn’t think to ask before, is that a nickname or what?”

You turned to the redhead and nodded. “Yeah,” you told the group. “My real name’s (Y/N), but my employees started calling me ‘Major’ when we first opened and they thought I was being too much of a hard ass,” you said. “It’s just kind of stuck since.”

“Wow,” said Lily, disdainfully. “It’s actually kind of disgusting that you go around calling yourself that.” At all the questioning looks that came her way, she put her hands up defensively. “What? Stolen valor is a real thing, you know. And it’s vile. You’re sitting here with two World War II veterans; you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Lily,” Bucky began chastising, “it’s fine, seriously; Steve and I don’t mind, do we Steve?”

Steve shook his head. “Of course not. It’s just a nickname.”

“It’s actually not,” you spoke up. All eyes turned to you, now. “When I graduated high school, I couldn’t afford to go to college, so I enlisted. I spent eleven years in the army, did three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during the war,” you said. It wasn’t something you enjoyed talking about, so you always spared the details. “‘Major’s’ not just a nickname; it was my rank at retirement.”

The table was silent for a beat as everyone took in your words.

Until Sam broke it with a raucous laugh. “Holy shit, Cap” he said, slapping his knee. “New Girl out-ranks you!”

The tension that had built around the table at Lily’s accusation of stolen valor broke as almost everyone laughed at Sam’s comment, making jokes about how you would be the only one who could give Captain America orders. Only Lily remained unsmiling, looking down petulantly into her glass. Conversation naturally broke into smaller groups, then, and you were glad to have all the focus off of you.

“You know,” Bucky murmured, leaning down to talk directly into your ear, “you seem pretty amazing.” The way his lips brushed the shell of your ear sent a pleasing shiver down your spine.

“I’m just a regular girl,” you responded, feeling incredibly shy all of a sudden.

Bucky pulled back to take in your face. “Nah, I highly doubt that,” he said. “You strike me as something special.”

“You are quite the charmer, Sergeant Barnes,” you said, playfully pushing at his shoulder.

“It’s working, then?” he asked, smirking. “I’m charming you?”

“Hmm,” you pretended to mull over his words for a moment. “It’s still too early to tell,” you said eventually. “But I’ll let you know.”

Bucky’s grin was boyishly adorable, and you loved the way his eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled. You could stare into them forever, you found yourself thinking. Where had that come from? You’d only just met the man!

“Are you always such a flirt, Sergeant?” you asked, trying to keep yourself in check.

“Only when the girl’s exceptionally pretty, Major,” he winked. But then, a bit more seriously: “No– not always, not much at all, actually.”

“That’s a shame,” you told him. “You’re quite good at it. Seems like you’d be doing the ladies of the city a great disservice by not doing it more often.”

“Haven’t much felt the need to,” he said, and you had to hold in a gasp when you felt his hand land on your knee, his thumb tracing small circles into your covered skin. “Is this okay?” He whispered, looking up at you through his lashes. There was something inherently vulnerable in his gaze, as though he was fully expecting, yet terrified, for you to tell him no and to fuck off.

“Yes,” you whispered breathlessly. There was something so sexy about the fact that he’d even asked, and you truly believed that, if you had told him no, it wasn’t okay, he would have immediately stopped and apologized.

One by one, the members of your party left the booth and made their way to the bar’s small dance floor. Soon, it was just you and Bucky. And Lily, of course, but you were trying very hard to not notice her and the angry expression she wore.

“You ever dance, Sergeant?” you asked, as you watched Wanda squeal with delight as Thor picked her up and spun her about.

“Oh, Jamie doesn’t dance,” Lily supplied for him, matter of factly. “He finds it ridiculous.”

You raised a questioning eyebrow at him. “Ridiculous? Interesting.”

Bucky shot an annoyed look in Lily’s direction. “I never said it was ridiculous, doll,” he said to you. “Just… You know about me and Steve, right? How we’re…”

“Really old?” you offered with a teasing smile. “Positively geriatric?”

Bucky chuckled. “Yeah,” he said, “really old. We used to go to dance halls a lot when we were kids, back in the late ‘30s, early ‘40s. It was basically the thing to do. I danced all the time back then.”

You nodded, smiling at the image of a younger Bucky cutting across the floor, twirling a girl in his arms.

“My point is,” he continued, “the music now? I don’t know how to dance to that.” He jerked his chin toward where Nat and Sam were dancing– or more accurately, grinding– against one another. “It’s practically like speaking a foreign language.”

You considered his words. “I have an idea,” you said, sliding around to the edge of the booth and standing up. Bucky followed you with his eyes, expression curious, as you made your way over to the bar’s digital jukebox. Swiping your debit card, you quickly selected the song you wanted to play– something contemporary, but that still had a bass line, a vibe, that Bucky could relate to.

Once your selection was confirmed, you made your way back to the booth. You held out your hand to Bucky. “May I have this dance, Sergeant?” you asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. “What part of him not liking to dance don’t you understand?”

“Relax, Lil,” Bucky said, putting down the glass of bourbon he’d been nursing before sliding out of the booth to take your hand. “What kind of soldier would I be if I ignored a request from a superior officer?”

He beamed at you as you led him over to the dance floor, occasionally looking back at him bashfully.

“Holy shit, New Girl got Tin Man on the floor,” Sam called from where he was dancing with Nat. “Never thought I’d live to see the day!”

Bucky scowled at his friend before you turned to face him. He took both your hands in his and pulled you closer to him. “I really hope I don’t embarrass myself in front of you, doll,” he said with a smile.

“Just dance the way you like,” you said, enjoying the sensation of holding both his hands in yours, though you barely noticed the left one was gloved, “and I doubt that would even be possible. I’ll just follow your lead.”

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x you #bucky x reader #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky x female reader #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes fanfiction #james bucky buchanan barnes #james buchanan barnes #mcu bucky barnes #james barnes

233 notes · View notes

leclerc-s · 5 months

Text

paint the town red - part thirteen

TONY, PLEASE DON'T KILL YOUR FIRST DRIVER

series masterlist

"LECLERC I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW-" tony was cut off by hurried steps. the steps came to a stop at the front of the door, bianca and charles stood silent, hoping it was cause tony to go away. they prayed to every deity out there that it wasn’t a paparazzi or a hotel staff member.

"what on earth are you doing?" pepper potts' voice is heard asking tony. the couple on the other side of the door let out a breath they didn't know they had been holding in.

bianca and charles turned to frantically find a way out of their current predicament. they were trying to figure out what on earth they're supposed to do next. charles turns to look at bianca, "what do we do?"

"how am i supposed to know? i've never been in this position before? do i sneak out the window? what do i do?" bianca frantically asked.

"do not sneak out the window," charles said, "we're thirty stories up!"

"i got kidnapped by obadiah stane when i was a kid. i can easily get to my room from here," bianca paused for a moment, "and we are way higher than thirty stories."

"we don't have time to unpack that right now," charles said, "am i potentially going to die right now?" bianca shrugged, "what do you mean you don't know?!"

"LECLERC! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR!" tony shouted again.

"tony, calm down," pepper pleaded.

"CALM DOWN?! MY DRIVER HAS BEEN DEFILING MY BABY! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO JUST CALM DOWN?!"

"ooh," a different voice is heard saying, probably harley, "you're dead tony," that had definitely been harley.

pepper is heard chuckling, "did you just yell at me?"

"no, i-" tony cuts himself off, "pepper, that- he- my baby."

"she is a grown woman anthony," pepper tells him.

"but he's a whore," tony rebutts, "my baby deserves better than that."

the door to charles hotel room opens, bianca and charles stand on the other side, both shocked. the ferrari team, tony, and pepper stand opposite of them. carlos looks close to tears from laughter, harley is holding him up, truly the only reason carlos hasn't collapsed. sebastian looks like he would rather be anywhere else then there, while isaiah looks constipated, but that could just be the hangover.

"i am not a whore," charles argues.

"anyone who dates my daughter is a whore unless proven otherwise," tony says nonchalantly, his gaze set on pepper. realization dawns on him, he slowly turns to look at charles, the monegasque freezes, "you."

tony launches himself at charles, before sebastian jumps to grab him, isaiah helping him. bianca pushes charles behind her, carlos and harley being no help. peter is simply watching the situation with wide eyes, while pepper rushes to pull her phone out, calling someone.

"dad," bianca begins, "think very wisely about what you're about to do."

"oh, i am thinking," tony says, "i'm thinking that i should be asking f.r.i.d.a.y. to bring my suit. i'm about to murder that- that- twink!"

"twink?" charles questions, cocking his head to the side, "what is a twink?"

harley snorts, "tony, you can't go around calling people twinks."

"sure i can!" tony argues, "he's a twink whore who defiled my baby!"

the sound of the elevator opening is heard, several footsteps come running down the hallway. the sight of tony being held back by sebastian and isaiah send bucky and sam into a fit of laughter. steve smacks both of their heads, causing them to calm down. with them are also yelena, natasha, and joaquin.

"great!" tony says spotting steve and bucky, "bucky, can i borrow your metal arm?"

bucky stares at tony, before staring back down at his arm, “i’m afraid to say yes. what are you going to do with it?”

tony turned to glare at charles, who is still partially hidden by bianca, “i’m about to pulverize a twink.”

sam quickly realizes what’s going on, “LECLERC! IT’S LECLERC?! OH I JUST LOST SO MUCH MONEY!”

joaquin laughs loudly, “I JUST WON SO MUCH MONEY!”

“i’m not giving you my arm so you can kill your 1st driver. i have been apart of enough murders against my will, ferrari’s golden boy will not be added to that list. i already have a president on that list.”

“you people have a so many issues,” isaiah muttered, before pausing, processing what bucky had said, "you killed a president?" bucky winked at him and isaiah began wondering which president it could’ve been.

“do you maybe think, you’re overreacting tony?” steve questioned, “it’s charles. you like charles.”

“i liked him better when he wasn’t sleeping with my daughter!” tony shouted.

“who said we’re sleeping together?!” bianca questioned.

“harry!”

“you two were in the same hotel room,” sam pointed out. bianca glared at him, “because we were drunk samuel! people who are dating take care of each other!”

“i would never do anything-” charles began but was cut off by pepper glaring at her husband, “since when do you believe a thing an osborn says?”

“this is not something that should be happening in the middle of a hotel hallway,” sebastian said, “maybe we could head inside?”

“yelena stop giving everyone a play by play! put the phone away!” natasha scolded as they headed inside charles’ hotel room. yelena scoffed, “the people deserve to know.”

suddenly the elevator dinged, alerting them to the presence of more people arriving soon. everyone froze, waiting to see who it would be. clint, alex, kate, lando, max, america, scott, and george all ran out of the elevator.

“don’t kill him!” lando pleaded, “he is but a man in love!”

“kill him,” max argued, “that puts him out of contention!”

“i can’t believe you would stoop so low verstappen,” kate muttered.

“oh shut up,” max argued, “you said you would enjoy watching charles get beat up by an old man pushing 70.”

“HOW OLD DO YOU THINK I AM?!” tony shouted.

“old enough to live through the great depression?” america tried.

everyone stifled their laughter as tony made a sound of disapproval. tony turned to glare at charles, “i know you’re not laughing twink.”

“stop calling him a twink!” harley scolded the older man. tony rolled his eyes. bianca smiled politely at her dad, tony shook his head, “don’t give me that smile.”

“dad,” bianca tried, tony cut her off, “a driver? you just had to date a driver? you couldn’t go for an engineer or something? what about isaiah? he’s a great guy!”

“dad,” bianca tried again, tony once again ignored his daughter, "i mean seriously, anyone would've been better than my driver! you couldn't have picked like oscar? or logan? hell, i would've settled for max."

"i have a girlfriend," max pointed out. tony waved him off too, "or you could've gone for fernando. maybe jenson? or mick? or even lewis!"

"i'm pregnant!" bianca shouted. the room fell silent, before it exploded into a flurry of words and emotions, "i'm actually not but no will listen to me!"

"i'm about to die and you're making jokes?!" charles questioned, running around the room, being chased by tony, "i'm going to kill that monegasque twink!"

"why is he calling him a twink?" america asked, no one answered her question, being to occupied with trying to separate tony and charles. tony, who was currently trying to smother charles with a pillow while charles was trying to carefully throw tony off of him. carlos and harley were still in a corner of the room laughing as tears streamed down their faces.

"ANTHONY EDWARD STARK!" pepper shouted, causing the room to fall silent again, the only sound being carlos and harley's giggles. pepper marched towards tony, prying him off of charles, "you will leave that boy alone, sit down, and listen to what your daughter has to say," she turned to look at the crowd in the room, "as for the rest of you, all of you will get out!"

the small army that had been gathered in charles' hotel room quickly ran out, all of them pushing each other to try and get out of the room faster. pepper approached charles and helped him stand up, she quietly led him out of the room as tony sat on the couch.

charles stopped at the door turning around to stare at bianca, before turning to look at pepper, "will she be okay? he won't- he won't hate her, will he? for being with me?"

"oh," pepper quickly realised, "oh no, he won't hate her. tony's just- he has a flair for the dramatic. when it comes to any of his children he's quite over protective," she led charles out of the room without him realising it, "you should've seen him when he found out peter was dating mj."

the father and daughter duo sat quietly, one on the bed and the other on the couch. tony finally turned to look at his daughter, "why him? i don't mean why a driver, why charles? you could have anyone els-"

"i don't want anyone else," bianca cut her father off, "i'm happy with charles."

"bianca, it's charles."

"that's exactly why i want him, because it's charles!" bianca shouted at her father, "the same charles who texts me good morning and good night every day. the same charles who has memorized my coffee order, no matter how complicated it is. the same charles who begs for just a few more minutes of enzo’s cuddles with a giant pout on his face. the same charles who’s been asking me for weeks to tell you about us because he thinks i'm ashamed of him!"

“so why didn’t you?”

“because once i tell you that makes it real and when things are real people get hurt. i don’t want to get hurt, not again.”

“oh tesoro,” tony softly said, rushing to hug his daughter. bianca wrapped her hands around her father, crying as she told her father, “i don’t want to get hurt again.”

they sat there for what felt like hours, but was only minutes, "are you ashamed of him?" tony whispered.

"no dad, i think i love him."

"you think or you know?" tony questioned, "because if you think i'll give him crap for the longest time but if you know, i might learn to accept it. of course, i will give crap sometimes."

bianca looked up at her dad, eyes wide, tears falling from her eyes. tony swore she looked so much like the little girl she once was. the same little girl who cried when she accidentally crushed a worm or who cried watching marley and me. bianca always wore her heart on her sleeve but this it was difficult what she felt.

"oh," bianca whispered, "oh. dad i love him."

"and what are you going to do about it?"

"buy him a dog."

"what?" tony asked, "why would you get him a dog?"

"that's not important dad!"

"okay fine, get him the dog."

"dad," bianca said grabbing her dad's face, "i'm in love, be happier for me!"

"i'm happy for you, but i will pulverize that twink if he ever hurts you."

when i get my hands on you, you're fucking dead osborn.

is that a threat stark? i don't think daddy dearest would love to learn through the media that you're threatening me.

oh i bet you would just love that. but i know how to make you disappear osborn, you're own father would never even question it. don't fucking contact my father ever again.

maybe i should show charles what a psychotic bitch you are

that's psychotic to you? personally i would think it's the giant purple space man who loved shiny rocks but to each their own 🤷🏻‍♂️ - charles

you're both insane and you deserve each other.

bisous 😘 - charles

daniel ricciardo is he still alive? or did he get killed by tony stark?

lando norris as much as kate would've loved to see that, he's still alive.

max verstappen well as far as we know. when we left the room and he was still alive.

daniel ricciardo YOU PEOPLE JUST LEFT HIM THERE??

daniel ricciardo HE COULD GET PULVERIZED BY IRON MAN?

alex albon not pulverized but he did get called twink repeatedly. oscar piastri charles got called twink by tony stark? lando norris it was honestly hilarious.

charles leclerc i lived bitches!

charles leclerc thanks for having fucking confidence in me.

charles leclerc i can still hear you laughing carlos.

carlos sainz the highlight of my career

carlos sainz this was better than winning my home race.

george russell okay as hilarious as it was it wasn't that funny. carlos sainz george you don't get to have an opinion. shut up.

max verstappen it was pretty funny.

charles leclerc I ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF IRON MAN!! STOP MAKING FUN OF ME ASSHOLES!

alex albon okay, twink, shut up. it was hilarious.

logan sargeant imagine getting beat up by a man in a coca cola suit.

lando norris why the hell does he get to make fun of the avengers?

logan sargeant I'M AMERICAN BITCHES!!

logan sargeant except for natasha and wanda. i'm actually terrified of them. and nick fury. they are very scary.

oscar piastri he gets special privileges because he's american.

daniel ricciardo i think the avengers might cry when logan gets a podium.

logan sargeant you bitches wish you could be supported by the avengers.

tony stark ALL OF YOU KNEW AND YOU SAID NOTHING??!!

peter parker i didn't know.

harley keener okay, in my defense, she said she would take my lab privileges away and you know how sacred those are to me.

isaiah atkins i just wanted to know how far those two would take it. same goes for seb.

carlos sainz it was funny to watch them scramble each times someone asked who they were dating.

ollie bearman harley kept dropping hints and i put the piece together

arthur leclerc i wanted to see my brother get pulverized by iron man.

sebastian vettel you told me, and i quote, ‘i don’t need her to tell me who it is, i’ll figure it out on my own. i’m a genius like that.’ so i didn’t tell you.

sebastian vettel you can only blame yourself for this anthony.

tony stark STOP! I CAN'T BE BLAMED FOR THIS SEBASTIAN!!

charles leclerc is this a safe space?

tony stark go away you twink.

isaiah atkins tony, you can't call him a twink.

tony stark i can in private. in public it's a different matter.

charles leclerc listen. i can deal with him calling me a twink.

bianca stark-potts father you will be nice to him or so help me i will tell mom.

ollie bearman does this make me their child??

arthur leclerc tony's going to kill him now because he's a grandpa.

harley keener tony, there had to be a reason enzo loved him so much.

tony stark I AM A GENIUS HOW THE HELL DID I NOT PUT THE PUZZLE PICES TOGETHER?

sebastian vettel clearly you're not as smart as you thought you were.

tony stark i can still fire you sebastian.

isaiah atkins do you know how many italians and tifosi you would piss off if that were to happen?

carlos sainz i'd quit.

charles leclerc so would i.

tony stark i could care less about you charles. bianca stark-potts dad. tony stark i mean, oh no charles, what would i do if my 1st driver left the team?

isaiah atkins i should've gone to mercedes when i had the chance.

peter parker I KNEW YOU WERE A BLOODY TRAITOR! YOU WOULD WORK FOR TORGER INSTEAD OF US?

isaiah atkins THIS PLACE IS HELL! T

isaiah atkins HE OWNER IS CONSTANTLY CALLING HIS 1ST DRIVER A TWINK! CARLOS IS ALWAYS FLIRTING WITH DEATH (NATASHA)

isaiah atkins AND CHARLES IS DATING BIANCA (SAID OWNER'S DAUGHTER)

isaiah atkins THIS IS HELL FOR ANY PR MANAGER!

joaquin torres PAY THE FUCK UP BITCHES!! I WAS SO RIGHT!!

sam wilson of course she had to go for the silly little monegasque man.

sam wilson YOU COULDN'T GO FOR THE AMERICAN OR A BRIT??

clint barton SHE'S DATING CHARLES?? WHY NOT FERNANDO??

queen shuri and how exactly did you people figure it out?

america chavez osborn told tony, who caused a scene at the hotel.

tony stark i did not cause a scene...

harley keener you called him a twink repeatedly. and threatened to bust out the suit to pulverize him.

scott lang honestly the signs were all there, it's on us if we didn't put them together.

bucky barnes the best part was when bianca nearly gave tony a heart attack by declaring that she was pregnant

tony stark that was not funny barnes

bianca stark-potts oh but the look on your face was hilarious.

america chavez i got excited i thought i was going to be a godmother.

wanda maximoff if anything i would be godmother.

peter parker well who gets to be godfather. it's me right?

kate bishop they have children what are you people talking about?

tony stark WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT BISHOP?

yelena belova she is clearly talking about enzo and oliver. they are bianca and charles children.

harley keener funny, ollie said the same thing earlier.

bianca stark-potts add anthony jr to the list.

joaquin torres wait, are you actually pregnant?

bianca stark-potts look it's anthony jr!

tony stark what kind of ugly rat is that?

natasha romanoff aww he's adorable. is he for charles?

peter parker should i be getting my girlfriend a dog?

wanda maximoff she's an mit college student living on campus. a dog is not a good idea. peter parker oh, maybe a snake or spider is a a better idea. carol danvers do we need to remind you of what happened the last time you were near a spider?

cassie lang OH CAN I GET A DOG??

hope van dyne NO! scott lang no freakin' way. cassie lang booo!!

harley keener please tell me you were able to convince charles to name the dog anthony jr.

bianca stark-potts i haven't given the puppy to him yet, but i will try my hardest to get him to name the puppy anthony jr just to piss off my dad.

tony stark this is why i'll never like your boyfriend

steve rogers he's leading the championship and he is part of the reason why ferrari is constructor's champion. cut the guy some slack.

yelena belova so who won the bet?

wanda maximoff joaquin.

joaquin torres ALL OF YOU THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY! BUT I WAS FUCKING RIGHT!!

sam wilson he's never going to let this go. ever.

bucky barnes oh good. and i have a mission with him next week. i'm going to suffer.

america chavez i just don't think it's unfair that i wasn't allowed to bet

riri williams you knew who it was! america chavez i still would've loved to win some money riri!

stephen strange this. this is my personal hell.

may parker so tony finally figured out who bianca was dating?

tony stark WAS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T KNOW?!?!?!

happy hogan i didn't know james rhodes i didn't think she was dating charles. i was confident it was lando. peter parker i also didn't know.

may parker what gave it away was the monaco post.

tony stark HOW THE FUCK DID I NOT SEE IT COMING??

pepper potts tony, he's exactly her type. i don't know how you didn't see this coming from the start. tony stark I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD HAPPEN!

bianca stark-potts dad, you said you would stop being so dramatic.

tony stark i said i wouldn't give charles anymore shit. i never agreed to stop being dramatic.

tony stark my oldest daughter is dating a driver. i'm allowed to be dramatic.

harley keener that was the highlight of my day. best choice i've ever made working for ferrari.

harley keener i've never seen tony turn that shade of red. it was glorious.

tony stark i'm telling nebula.

bianca stark-potts YOU ARE NOT TELLING YOU ASSASIN ALIEN DAUGHTER ABOUT MY BOYFRIEND! IT'S BAD ENOUGH NAT AND WANDA BROKE INTO HIS APARTMENT tony stark NATASHA KNEW BEFORE ME? THAT'S BETRAYAL BIANCA!

tony stark i can be a dick to him all i want and no one can complain.

pepper potts anthony stark, you will be nice to that boy or so help me.

pepper potts he's a good kid and it could literally be worse. so please. shut up about it already.

tony stark but pepper

pepper potts anthony, that boy was terrified you would be upset with bianca for dating him. as i said, he's a good kid, stop worrying.

may parker well, i managed to get time off for texas so i expect to meet the boy there.

james rhodes pepper's right, it could be worse, she could be back with harry.

happy hogan you do realize this is the exact reason she never told you.

tony stark all of you are against me.

bianca stark-potts you're so dramatic dad. this is why i didn't tell you in the first place.

i may have done something rash and i need your help.

once, again. i am not helping you hide harry's body if you've killed him. i wouldn't survive in jail.

he's still alive.

unfortunately.

okay, so what did you do? and does it involve anything illegal?

why do you automatically assume i did something illegal? i can do things legally!

well did you do something illegal? also, i’ve met harley

well between us harley is the idiot not me. he’s the one who decided it was a genius idea to send peter after the former us president.

bianca, what did you do?

i got another dog. he's so little that i'm afraid enzo might crush him.

mon chou, he's adorable but what does that have to do with me?

do you want him? if you can't then i'll give him to someone else or even morgan.

she's been asking dad for a dog. apparently the llamas aren't enough for her. it also doesn't help that kate has pizza dog.

kate named her dog pizza dog?

his name is lucky but he loves pizza so we call him pizza dog.

CAN I HAVE HIM?

okay, here's the truth, he was originally he was for you but i chickened out so i told you a lie.

oh mon dieu. i get a puppy??

oh i could seriously tell you i love you right about now.

do it.

i dare you.

i will. i swear.

liked by biancastark_potts, michellejones, cassie_lang and others

charles_leclerc the best present i could ever receive.

view all comments

username now who gave you that dog mr.eclair?

↳ username i think the better question is who's hand is that mr. eclair?

username HE'S A DOG DAD GUYS!!

maxverstappen1 cats are still better. make sure your girlfriend knows that.

↳ charles_leclerc she wants me to let you know that you're wrong. she's ready to fight you.

↳ maxverstappen1 tell her we'll settle this on the track in baku.

↳ harleykeener LMFAO!! YOU'RE GONNA LOSE VERSTAPPEN!! YOU SHOULD BE USED TO THAT BY NOW!!

username oh how cute 🥰

username charles leclerc becoming a dog dad in 2024 was not on my bingo card but it is so fucking adorable.

harryosborn hmm. seems familiar

↳ biancastark_potts i will fucking drop kick you osborn.

↳ peterparker i will tie you to the red bull garage. i learned that threat from isaiah!

↳ harleykeener i will send the cavalry after you bitch. fuck off.

cassie_lang oh do tell what is the adorable pooch's name.

↳ charles_leclerc undecided, it's all depending on how much i want to live.

↳ tonystark leclerc i swear to god.

landonorris you win the constructors championship and your girlfriend gets you a dog. it's not fair, i want a dog.

↳ alex_albon then go adopt one lando

↳ landonorris it's not the same alex.

michellejones i've been informed of what the calvary planned. i vote you name him leo anthony, to upset tony.

↳ charles_leclerc it's not like he can kill me without being the main suspect. leo anthony it is.

↳ joaquintorres THE CALVARY WINS!

↳ tonystark if charles goes missing, it wasn't me.

↳ pepperpotts anthony. behave.

↳ tonystark yes ma'am

series taglist: @burningcupcakefire @spilled-coffee-cup @evans-dejong @elliegrey2803 @bingewatche @arkhammaid @sunflower-golden-vol6 @lorarri @ironspdy @mypage-myfandoms @be-your-coffee-pot @vellicora @enchantedthoughts @stopeatread @hobiismyhopeu @lilsiz @alessioayla @niniluvsainz @au-ghosttype @six-call @embrosegraves @justtprachisblog @bionic-donut @nichmeddar @landonorizzz @unluckyyoshi @cool-ultra-nerd @kami10471633 @int3rnetgf @fernandoswarcrimes @skynel09 @arieltwvdtohamflash @brekkers-whore @camdensreg @mycenterfold @dear-fifi @chiliwhore @nothaqks @nataliambc @prongsvault @georgeparisole @kailyn-g05 @bella-1 @butterfly-lover @emilyval1 @winchesterwife27 @namgification @octopussesarecool @jensonsonlybutton

click here to be added to the paint the town red taglist

¡leclerc-s speaks! i love just randomly throwing in taylor swift references.

¡disclaimer! this is in no way making assumptions about the people involved in this story, this is all fake. it is a fanfiction please don't take any of what is said seriously. this is all for entertainment purposes and as a creative outlet for me. enjoy!

#leclerc-s #paint the town red series #f1 instagram au #f1 x oc #f1 oc #f1 smau #f1 social media au #f1 #formula one #f1 fic #formula 1 fic #f1 x female oc #charles leclerc x female oc #marvel social media au #f1 x marvel crossover

166 notes · View notes

deathbyathousandspiders · 9 months

Text

“ cuddle bugs. ,,

(( REQUEST PART FOUR )).

mcu!peter parker x reader.

!!! read part one | two | three | five here. !!!

IN WHICH — you fell asleep on your best friend’s shoulder during movie night and now things aren’t going the way you anticipating. how far will things go before one of you confess your feelings?

✨masterlist✨.

3.2k.

Peter found it quite amusing how every single trip to the compound kitchen somehow involved Sam Wilson. He wasn’t sure how or why, but perhaps, Sam had been planning this strategically. Every time he went to grab a snack, or make a cup of cocoa, Sam happened to beat him there and lurk in the corner. He also happened to make it his goal to tease him about his feelings for you.

“You going to the holiday party tomorrow night?” Sam asked, a smirk coating his lips. “I heard there’s gonna be mistletoe.” His eyebrows wiggled as he went to sip from his drink. “You should take Y/N and go find it.”

Just the idea of kissing you made Peter’s legs turn to jelly. He’d tried to picture what such an intimate moment would be like with you, but he couldn’t fathom it. He especially couldn’t fathom it when he had to try and picture the rest of the team there, watching. Peter knew he had to make the moment extra special, and if the team was there ogling you both, that would make things extra awkward.

Taking a deep breath, Peter sighed to try and tame how big his grin had gotten. “I’m not gonna do that. I can’t.” He saw the way Sam’s eyes widened a bit, and Peter figured that it was because he’d gotten confused. “I just don’t want..” Peter trailed off, wanting to find a way to explain without getting extra cheesy. He wasn’t sure why Sam wasn’t holding eye contact anymore, leering behind Peter’s shoulder, or why he looked so shocked, but Peter knew he needed to find his words sooner than later.

“You don’t want to kiss me?”

Fuck.

Cold. Everything ran cold with panic. Panic and regret and sadness and desperation to fix this. Peter turned on his heels, meeting your eyes in the state they were; in a state he hadn’t been exposed to. You were hurt, and he could tell. What was so painful for Peter to realize was that he could read that you weren’t just hurt by his words, you were hurt by him and his actions. It sliced at his heart in a way that he didn’t think was possible. He couldn’t tell if the sound of shattered glass came from your heart, or his.

“Y/N, I–”

It absolutely crushed him to see you take distance when he got closer. Peter knew he didn’t set up his point well, but he hated that he couldn’t explain it to you. He hated every second that he couldn’t spend giving you the security that you needed.

“No, no. It’s fine.” You seemed to understand it. Or, you tried to make it seem like you got it. Like it registered the way he wanted it to, but it didn’t. It could never. Peter felt like the scum of the earth; unforgivable, and douchey unlike any other. He felt every single hurting syllable when you said: “But you don’t have to make kissing your best friend sound like such a chore.”

Your tone of voice when you snapped at him was almost as haunting as the sight of you walking away so quickly. Peter wanted nothing more than to rush after you and explain everything, but he also wanted to respect your boundaries. Luckily, Sam rushed after you so that he didn’t have to.

He turned back to face Peter, “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.” And that was all he needed to say to give Peter some peace of mind. At least, a little peace of mind.

Peter didn’t know that Sam’s plan was to dupe him into a partnered stakeout with you. He didn’t know that the two of you would be stuck, in a car, alone, for hours. He didn’t know that it was an actual mission. A serious, dangerous, very important mission; and Peter had no idea that Sam and Bucky fully went out of their way to be your guys' backup for the stakeout if it started escalating.

Yet, there you were: alone, in a car, Peter in the driver’s seat, and you riding shotgun. The Prius was parked on a street corner, just as Peter was instructed to leave it by Fury himself. It had already been two hours. Two hours had gone by, and neither of you had spoken a word to the other. Silent, in superhero suits, listening to the wind rattling the windows and the car occasionally click and hum in the quiet.

It was awful.

It was the third longest period of radio silence between the two of you, right next to when you had laryngitis in the fifth grade and when you avoided him senseless three days ago. And Peter didn’t want the silent treatment to go on any longer.

He knew he had to say the first word. He needed to. He just didn’t know how to fix the mess he made, or get you to stop staring out the dashboard like you were mad at it. He knew that the anger you expressed to the sheet of glass was actually directed at him.

Peter tapped his fingers along the steering wheel, pulled at the spandex fabric covering his fingers, and tried to run through and rationalize any and every outcome that could occur once he opened his mouth. You were his best friend, and had been for as long as he could remember. He wasn’t going to let this be the rift that tore your friendship apart.

His eyes finally stuck to your figure for longer than a second’s glance. He saw the way your face was barren, relaxed. It was a look you had when you were lost in thought. Taking a deep breath, Peter tried to suck as much of the thickened tension as he could.

“Y/N, I’m sorry–”

Your eyes shut tight, and your face scrunched in a way that had regret immediately wash out Peter’s bloodstream. You didn’t even look in his direction when you said the word: “Don’t.” Your tone was sharp, trying to slice off any remnants of the conversation; a conversation that you were well trying to move past.

Peter’s lips pressed into a thin line, hiding how frantically he wracked his brain for the right words to say. “But I need to explain myself! Can’t you let me do that?” His body posture craned towards you. One leg tucked beneath the weight of his torso as he looked at you. His brows knit together in desperation, and his eyes sent you a leer that could break you into pieces.

But your walls were becoming too thick for his shattered stare.

You huffed out a breath of frustration. “Peter, I don’t see what’s there to explain.” Your tone was short, stiff, and stuffed with something you hoped sounded like a backbone. Lying to yourself wouldn’t stop the fact that you were hurting, silently grieving over the loss of your expectations. Grieving over the loss of what could’ve been between you and Peter Parker. “You don’t want to kiss me! What else is there to understand?”

“That’s not true!” Peter was quick to defend himself, his voice growing a bit in the process. “I do want to kiss you–”

Scoffing, you also raised your voice a little. “God, Peter! I don’t want your pity!” You couldn’t believe him. He was just pulling shit from his ass to try and make you feel better. “I don’t need your pity either!” You sunk deeper into your seat, a crossed expression staking claim in your eyes, and your arms folding over your chest to hold your ground.

Peter could physically feel the distance you were putting between the two of you. He studied you, how irritated you were, how much hurt he caused. “Y/N, it’s not pity–”

“Harley asked me out.” You cut him off, finally looking at him. It was the first time your eyes had met since yesterday. The first time you let your guard down a little. And the way his eyes widened at you, you could tell this was the first time he’d seen you in such a dimming light; perhaps you really were slipping through his fingers, out of his grasp.

His silence said millions of words, yet none of them were satisfying. It felt so much worse, quite frankly. What you really wanted from him was the reassurance that he felt the same way. It wasn’t just about a kiss, rather than wanting a romantic connection. It wasn’t about the misunderstanding, but the way he’d go about fixing it. And it wasn’t about Harley asking you out, you wanted to see how Peter would react.

The look in his eyes mirrored yours. It was a glisten of betrayal, and the lingering stare of denial. Peter looked at you like it would be the last time he was allowed to. He didn’t know where to go from here, and it was obvious.

You let out a sigh, irritated and remorseful and heartached. “Harley asked me out, and I–” Pausing, you looked straight ahead, unable to meet Peter’s eyes while the words muttered from your lips. “I think I’m going to change my answer.”

Peter’s breath caught, and you could hear his hushed thought process. He filtered through the words you said, and kept searching for the phrase or touch or look that would convince you to stay with him. To choose him.

“I–”

You couldn’t even stomach the sound of his voice. Your nerves spiked much higher than you’d anticipated. What were you even getting at? Making him jealous? All you felt was guilt. Embarrassment. Suddenly, you were nervous. “I need some air.” You choked abruptly, fleeing from the passenger’s seat and exiting the vehicle.

Peter sat in the driver’s side, frozen in his place as he watched you walk further from the car. He couldn’t deny how much of a gut punch your words were, but he also kept replaying the way you’d phrased it like a broken record.

‘I think I’m going to change my answer.’

Even you seemed uncertain about it, and if Peter had any chance with you, he knew he needed to act now. Just as went to get out of the car and follow you, he felt his spider sense heighten. Blood ran cold and the world moved slow as he watched the scene. From behind a bush merely fifteen feet from where Peter was, you were grabbed and pulled out of sight.

“Shit!” Peter panicked. He slipped his mask on, updating KAREN to alert Sam and Bucky. He was lucky that whoever had taken you didn’t spot him, but he felt every fiber of his being spiral about how to get you back. When Peter said he was afraid of losing you, this was not what he meant.

And he was going to do everything in his power to bring you back safely.

Shuttered and softened gasps fell from your lips as your eyes opened, and you watched your breath visibly leave your mouth. Was it below freezing in the room? It had to be. It was the middle of December, after all. Your skin ached as you gained consciousness, every inch of your body screaming for warmth by the time you’d finally come to.

Some scrawny white man with disheveled hair and a short–sleeved t-shirt stood in front of you, holding you in whatever darkened room you seemed to be in. He stood rather close to you, much closer than your comfort levels permitted. He didn’t seem any bit irked by your presence in the slightest.

Maybe that was because your wrists were tightly chained to exposed water–pipes spouting from the floor, or because he’d finally discovered your super–heroine identity. Either way, the light in his eyes was anything but frightened or angered or even confused.

In fact, his eyes scanned your body with marvel and awe. It sent a shiver down your spine.

“Astonishing..” His accent was thick through his words, letting the statement fall heavy with the sigh it traveled through. “It’s working…”

Your blood ran even colder at the words, stilling your posture for a millisecond. What chilled your bones even more was when your body broke out into an intense fit of shivers, and the man laughed. A laugh that was maniacal, entertained, psychopathic. Psychopathic, and relieved.

Thick clouds of steam left your mouth as your breaths drew faster in panic, indicating just how below zero the temperature was. You could barely muster out the words that your throat shoved out: “Wha–what’s so funny?” You asked, clearly freezing.

Now, a bit more serious, the man leaned disarmingly close to your face, eying you in a way that sobered your mind, soul, and being.

“You’re cold.”

The muttered words only caused more confusion, until you finally noticed the two broken syringes on the ground to your left, and how the liquid oozing from the shattered glass had frozen over. It was ice. You became aware of the sweat caking the hairline of the man in front of you, and how disgustingly consuming the warmth of his breath was.

The room wasn’t cold, you were cold. And you were left to assume that it was only a matter of time before you froze to death.

Quite frankly, as much as the dude yapped your ear off with his “diabolical” plan, your brian was clouded with more pressing matters: how you left things with Peter. You didn’t know how long it would take for the team to find you, or if you’d even make it to see this guy get his ass kicked. Either way, you knew Peter was overthinking.

And so were you.

The wave of relief that cast over your body when Sam broke the door down was indescribable. You hadn’t known how long it had been, or how much time you had left, but pins and needles pricked every inch of your body and you’d spent however long shivering just to try and shake the feeling.

Peter immediately swooped down from the ceiling at Sam’s cue, webbed the guy to a wall, and rushed to your aid in the blink of an eye. Not a word was said until he unclasped the restraints and pulled you into a hug. It was the quickest hug he’d ever given you; record time of point–two seconds. “Jesus Christ! Y/N, you’re fucking freezing!!” It were though he hadn’t heard your teeth chattering this entire time.

You could only look at him with a concerned crinkle in your brow, unable to speak through the chill you kept continually catching.

“KAREN!” Peter called out, his mask still on over his face. “Turn on the thermal–heater–protocol thing!! Pronto!” Hearing his panicked demands almost brought you peace, yet nothing could compare to how nice it felt to finally come in contact with warmth.

It barely helped at all, but the contrast was enough to notice. All and every part of you melted into Peter, giving him unspoken permission to pick you up and carry you to the Quinjet. His touch didn’t waver as he sat down on the plane, and his jaw didn’t unclench until his response was requested. His protective demeanor provided a sense of safety, yet it felt tugged from beneath you with one quick statement.

“We should probably call Harley and tell him you’re alright.”

The disappointment tugging at his expression was enough to shatter your heart into a million pieces. You could tell that it broke his just the same, too.

Your head shook against his chest as he sat you down on a bench, seating himself closely beside you to keep you from whatever fridged feeling this kidnapping brought upon you.

“Harley doesn’t– He doesn’t need to know.” Confusion washed over Peter’s face so quickly, you nearly forgot the rut you dug yourself in. “Pe–Pete.. I owe you an apo–ology.” The words were almost impossible to mutter out. You were only getting colder by the second.

His attention was so fixated on you, eyes glued to yours, brows sewn together, and thoughts racing circles trying to grasp whatever you could mean. Peter’s eyes studied your face for the possible answers, but he was getting ahead of himself.

There was nothing left to do other than to come clean. The confession was yours to make, and the look Peter gave you only made that more apparent. His emotions pierced your soul, all his sincerity and curiosity and genuity and eagerness. It was almost like he knew what you were trying to choke out between shivers. Or as though it were his job to fix whatever you presented broken.

You couldn’t tell whether the rapid rhythmic heartbeat was your own, or Peter’s, but either way, you had to force these words out before they staled with the lump in your throat. “I–I–” You took a deep breath to still your chattering teeth, feeling Peter’s grip tighten reassuringly around you in the midst of it. “I was upset that you didn’t want to kiss me.”

The apology flashed in his eyes just as he went to open his mouth, but you weren’t finished. “I was upset, because I–” You nearly sped through the sentence, but halted. “I—” And it were though you froze in place, right then and there. You completely froze, stopped moving, stopped breathing.

Panic. It washed over you like panic, sheer uncontrollable unexpected panic. Your blood ran cold, and if it weren’t for the feeling of your body washing white, you would’ve thought you were dying.

Peter calling your name almost sounded fake. It was so distant and faint that you swore you were dreaming. However, with a small hitch of your breath, reality hit you a lot harder than necessary. Your entire being shook, spazzing in this cold and freezing state. So much so, it was painful.

You knew you were being hugged and blanketed by Peter’s protection much more intently. The press of his biceps communicated that he felt like he was to fault for this. The dazy holler of his voice told you that he felt responsible and sorry and nervous. There wasn’t anything in the world you wanted to do more than to fight against this and assure him that you were okay. You were going to be fine.

Bucky walked over with a sense of urgency, relaying to Peter a medical analysis that Bruce laid out. He stated things about your condition that the author was far too lazy to look up you couldn’t make out in this fridged trance.

Every inch of your body had stopped shouting for warmth and instead now screamed for it, for relief. It begged and pleaded and bruised its knees just for some sense of stillness from whatever blizzard was injected into your system.

So cold, too cold, everything blurred to white. Every sound was washed out, every sensation pricked in spears and spikes against you, and every thought felt too heavy to handle. You weren’t sure how or when, but at a certain point, you passed out. Consciousness suddenly became too overwhelming for your fragile limp little body.

Part of you wasn’t sure whether this was better than feeling the sting of Peter’s rejection, but you knew that was a demon you’d have to face sooner than later. You made a promise to yourself right then and there that regardless of what and when, the next time you saw Peter Parker, you’d tell him how you’d really felt.

You were going to tell your best friend that you’d been in love with him. And still very much so were.

tag–list : @helen-on-earth @ellebutnotwoods @hufflepuff-n-fluff @petersparkerss @tommysfrog @zelzablues @mavex @thatmarvelchick19 @parkersmaterialgirl @justtuesdays @coralineyouareinterribledanger @abucketofweird @cayleejx16 @thievin-stealing

335 notes · View notes

srgntjamesbuckybarnes · 11 months

Text

The List (7)

Summary: When a hit list spreads around New York, Bucky’s ex-wife is the only one with any information.

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Mafia Bucky Barnes x Ex-Wife Reader

Warnings: Implied sexual content

Word Count: 2.4k

A/N: Not Beta’d. Sorry for the long wait. How do you think this story will end? Will Bucky and Y/N get a happy ending? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Series Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Chapter 7

Most people hope their first marriage is their only marriage. If anyone asked Y/N years ago, she would have agreed. She could have gone without divorcing Bucky, but marrying the same man twice came pretty close.

Y/N smacked her ruby stained lips in the mirror. The edge of her burgundy nails traced the corners of her lips.

“You look beautiful as always Y/N.”

Y/N rolled her eyes at the man through the mirror. Sam stood behind her, a soft smile on his lips.

“Thank you, Sam,” Y/N replied, his eyes flickering back to her own reflection. “Do you have the dress?”

The sun seeped through the window dusting Bucky’s bedroom in an orange glow. Sam ran his hand down the front of his ash gray suit. A smirk danced along his lips as he plucked a long cloth white bag from the bed.

“I went to three stores for this. The look on the faces of everyone in the stores when I told them I needed a dress for prison was priceless.” He unzipped the bag, twirling the hanger between his fingers. “Believe me when I say it's not easy shopping for a prison bride. What do ya think?”

Facing Sam, Y/N couldn’t contain her excitement as she leaped forward to snatch the dress from his grasp. It was modest yet elegant. With her back to Sam once again, she held the dress against her bodice. The dress wasn’t form-fitting like most and the neckline was higher than usual, but she felt beautiful, respected.

“The prison doesn’t allow visitors to wear plunging necklines or skirts with slits so Bucky will have to wait to get a glimpse of the goods,” Sam teased.

Y/N threw her head back as she laughed. “No, it’s beautiful, Sam.” She turned, patting his chest. “You did great. Besides, Bucky’s already seen the goods.”

Sam snorted.

“Help me with this?”

Sam nodded, tugging the zipper of the dress down while Y/N unknotted her silk robe.

Click.

“I heard of bachelorette parties getting crazy, but I didn’t expect you to stoop as low as Wilson.” Steve chided in the doorway. His blue eyes darker against his charcoal suit.

“Ha, ha. Very funny. Do you have the paper?” Y/N questioned, crossing her arms to keep her robe closed.

Steve tapped a folder against the trim of the doorway. “One marriage license for Mr. and Mrs. Barnes.”

“The rings?”

Steve stalked toward Bucky's dresser, producing two familiar rings.

Y/N gasped. Her bare feet padded across the floor until she was in front of Steve. “Is that-”

“Bucky’s old wedding ring? Yeah. The guy is sentimental.” Steve shrugged.

A million emotions pulled at her chest. She squashed the thought that she was repeating a mistake. They were different now, but she had to ask, “What about his mother’s ring?” It didn’t feel right to call it her ring. They were divorced. It was his mother’s first, it belonged in the Barnes family, that’s why she gave it back.

Steve frowned. “I don’t know.”

“You sure you want to get married at the prison?” Sam piped up dangling the dress between his index fingers.

It wasn’t like they would be getting married in the courtyard or mess hall. Y/N nodded. “There's a chapel-”

Everyone froze at the sound of wheels on gravel. All of Bucky’s men were in the house. Steve was the last one out, no one should have made it past the gate. Where was Peter?

“Are you expecting someone?” Sam whispered.

Before Y/N could shake her head, Steve was taking control. It was his instinct and Bucky would never forgive him if he let something happen to Y/N. His blue eyes found Y/N’s tossing the folder and ring on the dresser. “Stay here,” he commanded in a hiss. Then he was gone, his gun in hand.

Eyeing Y/N’s state of underdress, Sam grabbed his own gun from the back of his pants. “Stay here. Keep away from the windows.” Just as fast as Steve had vanished, Sam did too.

Y/N growled, aggressively tying the string of her robe in a knot. She was supposed to be in charge, not hiding like a damsel in distress in her bedroom. Drawing her own gun, she raced down the hall ignoring her lack of shoes. After being in a shootout at the gala, she knew her presence could be the difference between life or death.

When she reached the front door, a bunch of Bucky’s men had already flocked to the front of the house, each with a gun pointed at a sleek black car. Y/N knew Bucky had a lot of men working for him but seeing them all at once was overwhelming. Nevertheless, she made her way through the crowd slotting herself between Sam and Steve. She could feel the latter shoot her a glare, but she ignored it. They had bigger problems, but she knew sticking with Sam and Steve was her best bet at making it out of whatever this was.

The tinted windows left everyone on edge up until the moment the driver’s side opened. Cropped brown hair peeked over the top of the car followed by two peace signs.

“We come in peace.”

Lowering the steel piece in her hands, Y/N waved her hand. Everyone lowered their gun before Y/N engulfed the man in a hug.

“Thanks for calling off the guard dogs,” Tony mumbled.

Y/N pulled away staring into the man’s square framed glasses. “What are you doing here?”

Peeking over Y/N’s shoulder, Tony nodded at Steve. “Heard you were getting married today. I wanted to deliver my wedding present in person.”

She wanted to tell Tony he didn’t have to get her anything, but the words were stuck in her throat when the car door behind Tony opened. In a memorable blue suit, the very one Y/N had dropped off at the prison, stood Bucky Barnes. The men began to whisper but Y/N sucked in a breath. The sight of the man on a normal day was enough to leave her speechless, but she wasn’t sure he was really standing in front of her. If he wasn’t and it was all a dream, she didn’t want to say anything and ruin it.

Bucky grinned, eyeing each of his men before his steel blue eyes locked with Y/N’s. With his arms outstretched he announced, “Daddy’s home.”

His voice was enough confirmation that her fiancé was indeed standing in front of her, free from prison walls. Shoving her gun in Tony’s chest, she leaped into Bucky’s arms. With support from one of Bucky’s hands under her and her legs securely wrapped around his waist, Bucky’s free hand wrapped around the back of her neck pulling her into a searing kiss.

“What are you doing here? Did you escape?” Y/N panted, as Bucky settled her back on her feet. His arms remind around her holding her close.

Bucky laughed, “No, I’m on probation for good behavior courtesy of Tony’s top-notch lawyer, but he did.” He jabs his finger over his shoulder toward the car.

Tony knocked on the hood of the car. “It wasn’t easy either. You’re lucky Barnes.”

The back seat behind the passenger’s side door opened and for what felt like the millionth time that day, Y/N was shocked.

Thor.

Y/N gripped Bucky tight. “You brought an escapee here? To our home?”

The corners of Bucky's lips twitch at the word home. He was home. More importantly, she was home. “You said he’s a good guy. I trust you.”

“Lady Y/L/N, good to see you again.” Thor plucked her from Bucky’s arms and spun her around.

Despite his trust in Y/N, Bucky was still wary of Thor. As friendly as he seemed, Bucky had seen him fight. The man was unpredictable. It was better for everyone if he could keep an eye on Thor. To make sure he wasn’t going to run off to his brother.

“No one is going to look for him here, but I bet they’ll be knocking on Loki’s door soon enough.” Tony offered.

“Good to see you too, Thor,” Y/N returned his hug. He had always been kind to her, and she would have been glad to call him her brother-in-law. Unfortunately, his brother wanted her dead.

When Thor released her, she accepted Bucky’s outstretched hand. His hand then found a home around her waist, holding her against him as they made their way toward where Sam and Steve were standing. “Is this what you’ve been wearing to greet all of my men when they come home?” Bucky growled, pinching the silk hugging her body.

Y/N jumped. “No, I-”

“Welcome back Barnes,” Sam greeted, shaking Bucky’s free hand. Steve on the other hand nodded at Bucky and retreated back into the house with many of the other men. Y/N would have found it odd had Steve not had any updates on Bucky through her.

When they reached the front door, Bucky cupped Y/N’s jaw planting a kiss on her lips. Y/N melted into the kiss, but it ended too soon for her liking. Bucky pulled away, his thumb brushing the smeared lipstick from her lips. “I’m gonna make an honest woman out of you.”

Standing in the wedding gown Sam picked out, she admired her appearance. Now that Bucky was out, they could discuss their plans more freely, but that didn't mean he was free. His ankle bracelet was enough to keep him trapped in the confines of his property. A sitting duck away from police like a gift wrapped up and delivered on Loki’s doorstep.

Bucky had spent the hour chatting with his men and getting up to date on matters outside of Loki’s drama. Y/N used that time to finish getting ready. Steve was busy making arrangements for their wedding to take place at the house. Y/N and Bucky agreed to meet to get married before dinner, but Bucky was greedy. He spent far too long without her during their divorce and once he got her back, he was shipped off to prison. Bucky didn’t want to waste another moment without her.

Bucky kissed the base of her neck. His nose ran up the side as his lips paused against the shell of her ear. “You look beautiful.”

“It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her gown before the wedding.”

Bucky snorted, “We’ve already done the traditional wedding once and the only thing that not seeing you all dolled up before the wedding did, was prevent me from tearing the dress off you.”

Y/N chuckled, spinning in his hold to face him. “Well, you did promise to fuck me only wearing this.” She held her left hand at eye level. Bucky didn’t miss the wiggle of her eyebrows past the gap between her fingers. Y/N stepped back unzipping the back of her gown. Like a film, Bucky couldn't take his eyes off her. She was his favorite movie, and she was the star. He’d gladly stand by her as the supporting actor. When the dress pooled at her feet, she slotted her bare skin against Bucky’s clothed chest. Bucky’s Adams apple bobbed as she brushed her lips against his own. A seductive whisper on her lips, “Fuck me.” Bucky groaned, gripping her hips as he stumbled backwards. He shook his head, his legs hit the bed and he plopped onto the mattress, taking his fiancée with him. Slipping out from the collar of his white button down was a small white gold ring on a chain. Staring up at the woman straddling his lap Bucky moaned, “No. Fuck me.”

While Y/N would have gladly married Bucky in an intimate setting between the two of them, Bucky wanted to proudly show her off. Everyone knew her but she was home. She was his, and he was hers. They had found their way back to one another. With the underlying threat looming in the air, if tonight was all they got, Bucky was going to make it the best night.

Happily drunk and giggling, Y/N locked eyes with Bucky from across the room. He sat leaned back in a chair at a small table watching her from across his meeting room turned ballroom. His index finger and thumb stroking his beard. She crossed the makeshift dance floor pausing a moment to talk to Sam.

“She’s having a great time.” Steve sat beside Bucky, nodding at Y/N.

Bucky hummed, “I think everyone is.” There was a long moment of silence between the two before Bucky spoke again. “Thank you.”

Steve tilted his head, his eyebrow raised. “It wasn’t hard to set up. You’d be surprised what people can do with a week's notice.”

Bucky nodded. “I meant thank you for taking care of her while I was gone. I was going to wait to thank you for the wedding until it was officially over so I can properly thank you for everything.”

Y/N met Bucky’s gaze once again.

“You're newly married and by law not allowed to leave your house. I doubt you’ll have time for any thank yous.” Steve teased, wiggling his eyebrows.

Before Bucky could respond, Y/N was standing in front of him. Her hand outstretched as if waiting for him to kiss the back of it. Bucky admired the white gold ring, a stark contrast against her red nails. He was pleased she accepted his mother’s wedding band once again. It was a ring the two most important women in his life had worn; he had only given to one person, and he didn't intend to give to another. A ring he kept close to his heart since she had given it back, since she had given his heart back. He was delighted to return the ring and his heart to her, where they belonged.

“Bucky, come dance with me.”

Bucky grasped her hand running his thumb over the rings as he had the day he first saw her wear the engagement ring. His eyes traced the vein extending from her ring finger up her arm.

“Please husband,” Y/N whined.

Steve chuckled, “You better go dance with your wife, punk.”

Bucky didn’t need to see the rest of the vein hidden beneath her dress to know it led to her heart. Just like the ring he had given her, she had him wrapped around her finger. After kissing the rings on top of the vein shooting directly to her heart, Bucky grinned up at her. “Lead the way, wife.”

Next Chapter

Taglist: @vicmc624 @winterslove1917 @unaxv @hangmanscoming @globetrotter28 @athenabarnes @shara-ne @mal-adaptive-dreams @jvanilly @d3m0n8ch1ld @ppbhquinn @alysianc @firstcashheroathlete @malum-forev @missvelvetsstuff @animegirlgeeky @blue786sworld @blackwood-bodecker-housewife @alessandraavengers @ozwriterchick @nerdgirljen @emily-roberts @pandabearrrrrrr @venting402 @barewithme02 @introverbatim @buckybarnessimpp @mega-kittyglitter-1 @yung-griffyndork0 @toriluvsfics @samahenoyrhye @motivation-idontknowher @pics-and-fanfics @po55um @devil11197 @keeperofsecrets6411 @natasha-died-4-our-sins @marvel-marauder16 @sugamilkteaxkookiesxcream @mcu21lover19 @imgaybutimstraight @buckysbarne @playboystark @sargexcapsprincess @eviltinkerbell14 @quethekillerqueen @barewithme02 @buuuuuuucky @reader-without-a-story @5lutty5arah

250 notes · View notes

winterspiderpurrs · 5 months

Text

Bucky was just exiting the debrief room after returning from a mission with Sam when he spotted Tony and Steve talking to each other. They were both looking at what Bucky recalls is an ipad, swiping images across the screen. Steve nodded along as Tony rattled on. Tony glances up when he enters the room and waves him over.

" First, I'm still going to do what I want. But what do you think of Peter getting his own place?"

Bucky blinks, looks at Steve, and then back at Tony.

" He likes living with May for the most part. He already has an apartment you set up for him in the tower, as well as a room at the compound and your lake house. Plus, if he isn't there, he visits Ned"

Steve nods and points to the ipad,

" and he seems like a fella who wouldn't want you to buy him a duplex. In Queens or not."

" He is in college. He needs privacy, especially with the Spideymonkey gig he still insisted on doing."

Steve and Bucky move to look at each other. They know what Tony isn't saying. That Peter needs a place he could bring someone back to.

" Just talk to the guy and see if he wants that."

Steve squints for a moment at Bucky when he says that.

**RING RIIINNNNGGGG RIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGG**

Bucky pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at the screen. It's Peter calling.

Tony, being Tony, looks over and notices as well who is calling. It doesn't even pass through his mind why Peter would be calling Bucky.

" Oh hey, let me talk to him," states Tony and he reaches for the phone.

Bucky was already in the process of answering and was moving the phone out of reach. In those few moments, the phone accidentally went to speaker mode.

" No hey its my phone."

" Just let me see it I paid for it"

Bucky ends up clenching the phone too hard in his metal hand and ends up muting the phone, but the speaker is still on.

Peter's voice comes through.

" Hello? That's some weird voice-mail message you got there. I'll help you set up a good one later. Anyway, you're probably in your debrief still. " heavy sigh could be heard, and the faint breeze of Peter probably swinging on his webs.

" I'm just now done with patrol. I've had a shit day of finals, and I smell like a dumpster cause I fell into a dumpster after I got stabbed. "

There was a pause before he quickly said," but don't worry, it's already healed, but yeah shitty night. I haven't slept since yesterday. So I'm gonna be exhausted when you get in. But I ordered some chinese for us, swinging to pick it up now, but it should still be warm by the time you get home. I apologize in advance if I have already passed out in bed when you get in. But I promise you amazing welcome back home morning sex. And I'll fix those waffles you like. But remember we are going to May's later for Passover since we couldn't yesterday. On Friday, we were invited over to the XMansion to celebrate there unless something else doesn't come up. But yeah, I'm rambling."

He sighs a little." I missed you. I'll see you at home in a bit. Love you, " you hear some rustling." Hey Miss Jenny, " "I got you extra egg rolls. " " Aweso-" the phone hangs up.

Everyone is staring down at the phone before Steve and Tony turn to look at Bucky.

Tony had no clue when Peter and Bucky would have gotten together and is now trying to piece together instances that should have stood out.

Steve, though, he was starting the suspect for a while now. The few times he visited Bucky's apartment, he noticed differences. The apartment seemed lived in compared to before. House plants, a video game console, a vast collection of movies that showed up on bookcases along with more photos and just more personal touches.

"Well. Looks like I need to get home. Don't call me"

Bucky tucks the broken phone back in his pocket before he quickly leaves.

Steve eyes Tony warily.

" But... no. When did the terminator get with my kid?"

"He isn't a kid anymore he is 22"

" Zip it, capsicle! "

#writing prompt #winterspider #peter parker x bucky barnes #winterspiderpurrs

79 notes · View notes

aquietwritingcorner · 20 days

Text

Unexpected Patient

For @tmnt-write-fight for @dandylovesturtles

Title: Unexpected Patient Prompt: Outsider POV of anyone getting rescued by the turtles Fandom: TMNT 2003 Word Count: 2855 Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl Rating: T Characters: OC (Samantha Craik, Peter Craik), Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, Casey Jones Warning: NA Summary: Samantha Craik did not expect for a stop at a corner store on her way home from her shift at the hospital to put her in life-threatening danger, but it did. She also didn’t expect for the life-threatening danger to put a new patient in her lap, but, well, it was, apparently, a night of unexpected things. Notes: Sam is a character I’ve had around in some form since I was 13, and Peter since my early 20s. I have fun sticking her in fics here and there. This isn’t their first appearance in TMNT fics, as I lent the both of them out to some friends in the late 2000s for their Fast Forward fics. Unfortunately, those are long lost, which is a shame, really. Back up your favorite fics, y’all! ff.net || AO3

___________________________________-

Unexpected Patient

Samantha Craik cursed in her head. She’d have cursed out loud, except she was positive that saying anything out loud right now was not a good idea. Normally this wouldn’t have stopped the fiery red-head, but there were children in this store and the last thing she wanted was for anyone to get hurt on account of her temper. Her blood boiled as these punks pushed through the store, demanding money from people and stealing from the shelves. Stars, Peter was gonna kill her. She should have just gone on to the subway station after her shift at the hospital ended and made do with whatever food they had there instead of stopping for a quick snack.

One of the gang members brandished a knife at her. “Hey—gimmie your money.”

Sam glared at him, but reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet. He swiped it from her, opening it, and then frowning. “This is it?” he said.

“If you think I had money, do you think I’d be working at this hospital?” she shot back at him jabbing a finger towards the hospital’s crest that was on her lab coat. “I’m barely out of residency! I’ve still got loans to pay off!”

“Tch.” The punk looked at her disdainfully. “I’ll make more money hocking this wallet then what you have in it.”

“Well pardon me for being poor!”

The punk gestured with his knife. “Get over there with the others!”

Sam made her way over to the other customers, one of the punks taking a moment to look at her. Sam narrowed her eyes at him. Yeah, she recognized him. He was a Purple Dragon, and he’d been in and out of her ER a few times. Several of these guys had. And yet, here they were, doing the same crap that got them in her ER to begin with.

“Hey—you got that money yet?” the guy called out, clearly their leader.

“Yeah. Getting the last of it now,” a green-haired punk called out.

The leader nodded and turned back to look at them. There weren’t many people in the store. Sam hadn’t expected there to be, not this late. There was the cashier, a teenager who looked far too stoned to properly see the danger everyone was in; a man who appeared to be in his late sixties, leaning heavily on a cane in a way that told Sam he probably was going to need a knee replacement soon; a young immigrant woman and her two children, none of which seemed to understand much English, but clearly understood the gestures with the guns and knives; and her, a thirty-year-old doctor, straight off of what was supposed to be a twelve hour shift that had turned into a fifteen hour one instead, because sometimes that’s just how it was.

Maybe her mother was right, and she should see about transferring to one of the hospitals in the richer areas of the city.

“Hey!” a punk from outside came running in the door. “The nut with the hockey mask is coming! And you know what that means.”

The leader cursed, and Sam found herself really hoping that the kids didn’t understand English.

“I was hoping not to deal with any green freaks tonight. Alright—bag up what we’ve got and let’s get out of here.” He looked at the group. “And just for good measure—”

He leveled the gun at the old man, and Sam realized just what he was about to do. She moved, shoving his arm up. Was it the smartest thing she could have done? No. Was it what she did anyway? Yeah.

“Leave him alone, you fracking jerk!”

The shot missed, pinging on the light fixture instead, and the man growled and tried to shake her off. In for a penny, in for a pound, she figured. Sam threw herself into fighting him, something that she wasn’t completely useless in. But she was no fighter, and it didn’t take long for the punks to have her pinned to the ground, the gun on her.

“Let go of me you fricking punk!” she snarled, still fighting.

“Since you’re so eager,” the leader said, and she could see him aiming the gun at her out of the corner of her eye, “then you can be the example.”

Oh yeah. If she made it through this, her husband was definitely going to kill her.

Still, she growled and struggled, not willing to just give up and give in.

And then the door slammed open, and something burst in.

“It’s the freaks!” someone shouted, and the gun was suddenly off of her and fixated on something else, going off as a fight broke out.

Sam wasn’t a stupid woman, and she knew an opportunity when she saw it. Despite the grip the man that was still holding her had on her long hair, Sam twisted in his grasp, kicked him right in his junk, and then twisted her head to bite the hand that still had her shoulder. The man let out a gasp, and Sam rolled, not getting to her feet, but scrambling back and away from things.

The woman with her children were cowering, and Sam looked them over, trying to find any sort of cultural distinguisher on them. She knew a few words in different languages, and she hoped she guessed the right one.

“Go!” she said, her accent terrible, and pointed towards the storeroom door. The woman’s eyes lit up in understanding, and she grabbed her kids’ hands, speaking rapidly to them and tugging them with her. They all moved like they had escaped violent situations before, but Sam didn’t have time to spare more than an observation about that.

The stoned teenager must have had more sense than she thought, because he was gone, and the old man, seeing where the woman had gone, was already following along. Good. Then it was just her.

And then, suddenly she found herself being yanked backwards by her hair, a strong hand pulling her by her long braid. She had the presence of mind to try to twist around, her hair long enough to give her that freedom, but it didn’t work, and she realized that the leader of the punks had her as he pulled her to him, wrapping an arm around her neck. She struggled, insults pouring from her lips as she did, but she stopped when the gun was put to her head once more.

“No one move, or the lady doctor here gets it,” he said.

Sam twitched in his arms and growled. “Glad to know me saving your scummy life means something. Next time I’ll give it the attention it’s worth!”

“You,” he said, “don’t say nothing either.”

Sam growled again but switched her attention to looking at who else the punk was addressing. Her eyes widened as she took in who—or what—was in front of her. Four green figures, turtles, all wielding some sort of weapons, and a tall, dark-haired man in a hockey mask with a hockey stick in his hands.

Somehow, he looked the most out of place out of all of them.

Sam had heard rumors of the turtle men before. She’d not put much stock into the stories at first. All sorts of crazies came into the ER, especially at night, and some strung out druggie or beat up punk talking about karate turtles just made her double check their toxicology report. You never knew when there was a bad batch on the street.

But the stories persisted, and she heard them from other places as well. She still hadn’t quite put her faith in those stories. It all seemed like some sort of gimmick to her. But now that the proof was in front of her, well, she couldn’t help but conclude that maybe she should have paid a bit more attention to those rumors.

“Let her go,” the one with the blue mask said. “She’s an innocent.”

“If she hadn’t of interfered, we’d have been gone before you four freaks got—wait, why are there only three of you,” the leader snarled.

And that was when everything went even more wrong than it had so far.

The Dragon went to move his gun from her head to point at one of the turtle men. Sam took the opportunity to jerk her head forward to bite the arm that held her in place and reached back to grab him in a very personal way and twist. At the same time, something came flying out of the air and embedded itself in the Dragon’s hand. A turtle-man leapt forward and tackled her down and out of the way. And at the same time, the gun went off.

The Dragon howled in pain, there was a shout of pain from the opposite direction, and someone screaming “Donnie!” A thud came from the direction of the Dragon, a clack from the direction of the turtle men, and the turtle man that had tackled her out of the way and had somehow kept from squishing her, came up on his feet, setting her on hers before he rushed over towards the turtle Sam could now see being supported by the man, his red mask tails streaking out behind him.

“What the he—” Sam said, mostly to herself as she took in the scenes in front of her.

The turtle with the blue mask stood over the downed Dragon. The man was clearly bleeding out, and Sam was more than a little certain that there was nothing do to save him. A turtle man with an orange mask was hurrying from the direction of the counter towards the other two turtles and the man. The man was lowering a purple-masked turtle to the ground, clearly supporting him.

Well, it seemed pretty clear what she needed to do.

Shaking off her shock and falling back into her professional mindset, Sam hurried forward.

“Move,” she said bluntly, watching as they settled the purple-masked one—Donnie, she presumed—on the ground, the orange-masked one using his lap as a pillow for the other. She could hear the blue-masked one’s footsteps behind her.

The red-masked one whirled on her, clearly upset, his strange, pronged weapons held in his hands. “Look, sister—” he started.

Sam was having none of it. “I said, move!” she snapped at him. “I’m a doctor, I can help! Unless you’ve got a better idea?”

“Let her see Don, Raph,” Leo said. “She might can help him where we can’t.”

Raph seemed to want to resist for a moment, but he stepped back and Sam moved next to the injured turtle.

“It’s not too bad,” Donnie was saying through grit teeth. His hands were already at his thigh, trying to tie a tourniquet around it.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said, reaching into her scrub pockets and pulling out a pair of gloves. She pushed her long braid behind her shoulders, pulled the gloves on, and got to work.

“Donnie, right?” said as she worked.

“Y-yeah.”

“Alright. And the rest of you?”

“I’m Mikey,” the orange-masked one said.

“Leo,” the blue-masked one offered.

“Raph,” the one with the red mask said.

“Casey,” the only other human said.

“Alright. I’m Dr. Samantha Craik. I work in the hospital down the road,” she said. She looked up at Donnie. “I’m going to take good care of you, alright? But I’m gonna need some information. I’m not familiar with turtles, much less whatever you are.”

Don chuckled a little, but then stopped when it hurt. “I’ll see what I can do, Doc,” he said, clearly trying to breathe through the pain.

Sam just nodded. “I’m assuming you don’t want to go to the hospital?” she said.

“No.” The answer came quick and sure from Leo, and Sam nodded.

“Alright. In that case, here’s what I need.”

The store had the most of the things she needed and Donnie’s bag helpfully provided the rest. Donnie had gotten lucky. The bullet hadn’t hit anything important, and it was fairly clean in-and-out wound. Ideally, she’s have hopped him up on painkillers, taken some scans, put him on a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and gotten him some blood, but none of that was possible at the moment.

Instead, she snapped out orders to the other turtle-men, sterilized things as best she could, and got to work, cursing the Purple Dragons with every spare breath she had.

“Idiotic low-life—hold his leg still—punks who can’t figure out that—keep that pressure!—that all they’re gonna have is a short and—this is gonna hurt, Donnie—violent life where no one will ever want to remember them—you’re doing good—and they’ll either—almost done with this side—die young or rot in prison—”

“I kinda like you,” Raph said to her.

“I’ll add that to my resume,” she shot back immediately, not even thinking about it. Mikey laughed, but it seemed to ease the turtles and their human friend a bit.

Finally, she sat back, putting things away and stripping off her gloves. “There,” she said. She looked over at Leo, as he seemed the most responsible of the bunch. “He needs to stay off of it. I don’t know if you have access to antibiotics, but those can’t hurt. Keep it clean and wrapped. Those stitches will have to be taken out, so—”

“We can handle that,” Leo said. “We’ve done it before.”

“Although it’s usually Donnie doing this kind of stuff,” Mikey said.

“I’ll… be able to do it… by then…” Donnie said, his face still pinched in pain.

Sam nodded. “Fine.” She hesitated. “If you need anything, come find me. Something tells me you don’t have a lot of medical access.” She looked around and picked up a discarded piece of cardboard and pulled a pen out of her pocket. “Here. That’s my number. Call me. Or come to the hospital and ask for me, or Peter Craik—my husband,” she said at Leo’s look.

He took the number and tucked it into his belt, even as Raph was kneeling in front of Donnie, shell to him as Mikey and Casey helped Don sit up. In the distance sirens sounded.

“We will,” he said. “Thank you, Dr. Craik. But for now, we have to go. Raph?”

“Good to go,” Raph said, standing up with Donnie clinging to his shell.

“See ya, doc!” Mikey said with a wave.

The four of them headed out the back, but Casey hesitated for a moment. “Ya good, Doc?”

Sam sighed. “Well, someone has to stay behind and explain this—and something tells me that you shouldn’t be here anymore than them.”

“Heh. Maybe,” Casey said. “Seriously, though, thanks Doc.” He headed out the back as well, following behind, leaving Sam standing in the middle of the store with a dead Purple Dragon and several that were tied up—although she had no idea when that had happened.

She sighed and sat down on the floor as the sirens got closer. This was going to be a mess.

Sam was right. It was a mess. She had to explain over and over again that some vigilantes had come in and saved them, that one had gotten wounded, and that she had done her best to treat him, as per her oath, but that, no, she didn’t know what they looked like under their masks and that, no, she had no idea who they were or where they had gone. By the time it was all over with and the police accepted her statement, the sun was up, and her husband was waiting on her.

“Sam!” he said, rushing towards her. “Are you alright?”

“I’m tired, my hair is a mess, I had my life threatened, I had to do field medicine, and I’ve not slept in nearly twenty-four hours,” she snapped. “What do you think?”

Peter just grinned at her. “I think that, if you’re snapping like that at me, that you’re probably alright. Let’s get out of here.”

The two left the police station, and headed home, Peter holding Sam’s hand. They were quiet for a moment, and then, softly, Peter murmured to her.

“So, are you going to tell me what really happened?”

Sam didn’t answer for a moment. “…when we get home,” she said.

“Why didn’t you tell the police?” he asked, not condemning, but clearly curious.

“Because sometimes, ‘do no harm’ is more than just the patient’s body,” Sam said irritably.

Peter laughed. “And that’s why I love you,” he said.

“Because I take my oath seriously?” Sam demanded, shooting him a look.

Peter grinned at her. “Because when you’ve decided something’s your duty, nothing can stop you—especially if it’s for the good of your patients.”

Sam harumphed, but he wasn’t wrong, she reflected. And as they walked down the street and down into the subway station she should have entered into last night, Sam wondered if she’d ever see those particular patients again.

After all, a good doctor always followed up.

#tmntwritefight #tmntwritefight fic #tmnt #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #outsider POV #OC

32 notes · View notes

cinnamontoastcrunch-15 · 8 months

Text

Today's @wolfstarmicrofic prompt is bleed, and it's part 2 of the microfic I wrote yesterday!

Part 1 here

I also have a slight issue, which is that this part is 1,291 words. It definitely isn't a microfic anymore, so no need for a reblog :)

Remus is finding it much harder to be around Sirius.

It's awful of him, and he knows that. None of this is Sirius' fault. In fact, he doesn't even know what has happened, which is another thing Remus is minorly regretting. Sam hasn't come back to the hospital wing, which is confusing the hell out of Sirius.

Still, in a few days, he's free, and he can go find Sam himself. Remus sees him do so.

They're all sitting on the field, Remus trying his best to study while Peter manages to beat Sirius and James in chess at the same bloody time. Sirius, surprisingly unbothered by the loss, glances up from the board. His smile dies immediately, and Remus frowns, confused.

"Two seconds, guys," Sirius says, pushing himself up off the grass and walking away.

Remus turns, wordlessly following Sirius' path-

Straight over to Sam.

Shit, this is going to be a trainwreck, and it's all Remus' fucking fault. That little acknowledgement means Remus can't take his eyes off the scene, and he can see Peter turn his own attention to it. None of them can hear the altercation, but Sam's friends look like they're chiming in at times, until Sam turns around and they all lapse into silence. He turns back to Sirius, and it's clear as fucking day that Sam's temper is rising.

Eventually, he throws a gesture towards Remus as he speaks, and Remus catches Sirius' hand tighten around his wand.

Yeah, he can't let that happen.

Without giving it a second thought, he heads over to the two of them. The moment he gets close enough, he grabs Sirius' arm, keeping him from lifting his wand.

"Oh, right on bloody cue," Sam huffs, frustrated. "I'm surprised he didn't trip over his own fucking feet to tell you what happened-"

"Don't fucking talk about him like that!" Sirius says, and Remus is really working to keep him from doing something he'll regret. Remus honestly couldn't care less about what Sam thinks of him.

"Sirius, don't worry about him. It's fine," He says carefully and, thankfully, Sirius seems inclined to listen. As he turns to walk away with Remus, Sam decides it's a smart idea to speak up again.

"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend, you clingy little twat."

"Okay, no, it's not fine," He says decisively, turning and swinging his fist before he has a chance to think about it.

As it turns out, punching someone hurts.

His fist collides with Sam's face before anyone has a chance to register what's happening. Pain shoots through his hand, but not as much as is clearly hitting Sam, who staggers backward, hand flying to his cheek. To be fair, Remus could have hit him in the eye or even the nose, and he didn't. If anything, he's been nice.

Sam clearly doesn't think that.

"You're fine. It's not like it's going to bleed or anything," Remus says plainly, before Sirius has grabbed his hand and is practically dragging him away.

They get into the castle, and Sirius immediately pulls a tapestry back, taking the two of them into one of the many, many secret passageways they hide in during pranks. The curtain falls, and Sirius launches into a tangent immediately.

"Remus John Lupin, you are the most confusing person on the face of the fucking earth!" He exclaims, really throwing Remus.

"Uh... sorry?"

"I know things have been weird, and I know I've had a big, big fucking part in that. I've been trying to move on, with Sam and all that. Then I say your bloody name, and you go out of your way to avoid me! That all makes some kind of sense, I get that. Still think you should have told me yourself if it made you that uncomfortable, but whatever. Now you're punching people because they insult me?! What the ever loving fuck is going on with you? I want the truth, Remus."

The moment everything is laid out in front of him, he realises just how it looks. Christ, he's really cocked everything up, hasn't he? Still, Sirius is looking at him in that way of his that Remus just can't say no to. It's the look that makes him fall into Sirius' eyes and want to tell him everything.

Yeah, there's no getting out of this, is there? Sirius can read him like a fucking book, he can't exactly lie his way out of it.

"Okay, er... I- I wasn't uncomfortable about the whole... saying my name thing. I'm just..." Merlin, this is difficult. He shuts his eyes and forces himself to take a breath. He can do this. Their friendship has survived worse. "I'm still in love with you." The moment the words are out, everything seems to get a little easier to say. He glances down at his hands, fidgeting with his fingers as he weighs his next words carefully. "I don't think I ever stopped. It's what made fifth year so difficult, really. That I just- I think it's impossible to fall out of love with you. I just don't want to rock the boat, or anything. Not when we've just become friends again. So I've just been trying to deal with it on my own. This just made it a little more difficult to hide. Then Sam got all pissy, and I just- Christ, Sirius, he turned on you so fucking quickly, I just couldn't- I couldn't handle it."

When he finally risks glancing up, Sirius is staring at him, shock clearly overwhelming him. He seems lost for words, and Remus has no clue if that's a good or a bag sign. His eyes dart across Remus' face, searching and, after an agonising few seconds, Sirius reaches out and pulls Remus into a hug. It's so sudden, so startling, that it knocks all of the air out of him.

Sirius isn't done, though.

He pulls away, both of his hands make their way to cradle Remus' face, and then they're kissing. Remus really isn't sure if he's the one who leaned in or if it was Sirius, but he's not fucking complaining. As it turns out, you can really miss somebody's lips. Kissing Sirius again reminds him of every time he has attempted to map out the complete and utter perfection that is Sirius Black's mouth. He, almost involuntarily, wraps an arm around Sirius' waist, his other hand sliding into Sirius' hair. It's like his heart is careening towards Sirius, seeking out Sirius' own, all while beating an endless pattern of Oh, my love, there you are, here you are, why have you been gone for so long?

Unfortunately, breathing exists, and the two of them have to pull away to keep from suffocating. Honestly, though, that would be a heavenly way to die. To replace the kiss that is still lingering on his lips, Remus opts for pressing their foreheads together.

"I love you. So fucking much," Sirius breathes. A smile is already making it onto Remus' face, as he reaches down and grabs one of Sirius' hands, squeezing it gently.

"Oh." It's the only thing that his brain can functionally come out with right now, but it draws a chuckle from Sirius.

"We're idiots, Moony." It's Remus' turn to laugh at that, seeking out Sirius' lips briefly, capturing them in a short, soft kiss.

"Yeah, we really are," he agrees, lifting a hand to cup Sirius' cheek, brushing his thumb across the warmth of the other boy's blush.

"Ah, well. We got there in the end, didn't we?"

They did. They actually bloody did it. They found each other again.

For the first time in a year, Remus feels as though there's a weight off his shoulders.

#i LOVE teenage wolfstar #they're just so clumsy and sweet and UGH they're so much fun to write #i'm going to post both parts as a single oneshot on ao3 #so enjoy that whenever I get around to posting it!#wolfstar #sirius black #wolfstar oneshot #marauders #remus lupin #remus x sirius #young marauders #moony x padfoot #atyd marauders #marauders oneshot

111 notes · View notes

r0semultiverse · 5 months

Text

Was Celia drunk as fuck or is this something supernatural?? 👀

Who the fuck is Jack?? 👀

Alice is such a delight, I love her!

Oof so one or both of them have trauma involving grandparents then.

I love Samama & Alice so much. 💜 They have a great dynamic!

Oh shit, right, Gwen is probably still getting over Mr. Bonzo too. 👀

"I just… I dunno. When I left the coffee shop, it felt like someone was following me."

Please don't take away Alice, she's one of my faves! I hope this post doesn't age poorly. Watch me have to quote this post very soon.

OH NO, is it that [ERROR] following her??? 😰

"Don’t joke about that, mate. I was dreaming about it all day." Okay, yeah, that's a creature.

Sam & Alice are both about to run into a creature... 👀

"Classifying unspeakable horrors all night for no discernible reason?" @/entities-of-posts & @/which-entity-this-post-serves is that you? :]

Hmm, now why is this episode called "marked?" I assumed Mr. Bonzo was gonna find his mark, but maybe Alice is marked by an entity/creature that was locked in the Magnus Institute?

"giving up the ghost" okay so someone saw an apparition? Honestly not sure what entity this episode is about so far.

It's giving The Corruption ✨🧟‍♀️⚰️ (maybe The Buried)

"It’s just that one of the graves had a body in that was too well-preserved for the age it should have been." 👀👀👀

This thing is about to jump out of the grave & run off, isn't it? 🏃‍♂️

"The back was completely covered in this complicated tattoo of a ship sailing across an open sea towards an open horizon." Peter Lukas?!?!?

Oh 100% The Buried, without a shadow of a doubt.

Lots of tattoo & carvings in walls imagery in this sequel prequel sidequel, isn't there? 👀

Hey wait, that's Ink5oul from episode 2, isn't it? 👀 Ink5oul definitely feels like a conduit or vessel for The Flesh or some other kind of entity.

Okay, there's something weird going on with this place, the salt water & waves near this cemetery are kind of seemingly enticing them to come drown in it's waters. In the very least it's messing with these guys' mental states! Pretty freakkyyyy! 👀🌊

Also the repeated emphasis on dreams is interesting this episode, wonder if that'll play a part in something later on. 👀👀

"If it’s any consolation, he’s with the sea now. The deep will care for his bones." I literally called it!!

I think Gordon Alan Johnson also wants to be with David. 👀🌊🌊

I don't know, Gordie, I think you did it! Unless Ink5oul is collecting tattoos like an alternate universe version of the Leitner books. Wait yeah, what if the tattoos are like conduits for the entities of this world or even the original one? 🖌

Another way to look at this is asking... Is The Deep a new entity/fear or is it a servant of a fear like The Vast? I stg there was a colossal water monster at some point in The Magnus Archives!

Okay so yeah, there's already a precedent for this. Also feels like The Lonely, The Buried, The Corruption, The Vast, & maybe even The Flesh are all involved in this one though I don't know if Flesh (Ink5oul) is working with or against the other fears at this time.

Gwen, you can tell your coworkers what's wrong, oh my fucking god. Please. Celia, you have me so invested in whatever is going on with you.

Weird unexplained noise at 17:44 too as Celia enters the office. Wonder what that's all about, maybe it'll come up later on.

"He is one of our Externals." Okay; so, there's more of them & they have their own secret hitman title too!

Mr. Bonzo when he was on TV

"And they usually like it." I bet fear creatures do like it when you scream. That makes a lot of sense actually.

Also what's that weird "boowomp" noise as they're talking or is it just the OST? 👀

Is Gwen going to be turned into something not quite human at some point? Just throwing darts at a board with that speculation, but wouldn't that be wild?

Okay; so, these little digitized noises are absolutely important!

I wonder how many times & when people have lied so far throughout this season. 👁️👁️

#someone should draw those two ( sam & alice ) in the style of that show at this rate. I have more questions every week i stg #is mr. bonzo gonna find his mark or is Alice dyer marked by [ERROR] place your bets!#okay so themes of coffins; decay; & rotting things; feels like the corruption or maybe even the buried #I stg if that weirdly aged guy is Peter Lukas somehow I'm gonna scream; it's an AU; anything can happen #Love seeing Ink5oul again; it's cool that they aren't just a one off character & are getting involved in the greater story #leitner tattoos canon??? maybe?? is this the equivalent of jurgen leitner books?? perhaps #the big water monster is giving The Vast energy; a lot of these feel like fear entities collaborating in this world #now I'm curious who the other externals are... is ink5oul one of them? They seemed to delight in reactions.#is this government organization called the magnus institute or what do they call themselves now? also who is mr bonzo after?#I wonder if the black ops guys that showed up to that charity place on hilltop were a counter organization or the government?#mine #op #tmagp liveblog #tmagp 11 #tmagp spoilers #tma spoilers #tma #tmagp #the magnus archives #the magnus protocol

38 notes · View notes

sjsmith56 · 4 months

Text

Faces of Bucky Barnes

Summary: One shot of an interaction with the multiverse that affects Bucky Barnes during a tough time in his life.

Length: 7.4 K

Characters: Bucky Barnes from 2024, Bucky Barnes from 1938, Jim Barnes (son of another AU Bucky from 1971), Bucky Barnes from 1998 (AU).

Warnings: some references to drug use, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, and suicide but it’s not really a dark fic.

Author notes: Set at the same time as Spider-Man: No Way Home but only connected in a roundabout way. Also slightly connected to What If? Season 2, Episode 2, What If? ... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Images in the banner were created by the author using the Microsoft Copilot App in Designer mode.

🌃 🌉 🥡

It was Bucky's favourite place to go when he needed to get out of his head for a while. A rooftop on an empty warehouse that overlooked an approach to the Brooklyn Bridge was the perfect location to sit at night and see the bridge that he had grown up with all those years ago, before the war, before HYDRA, before the Avengers. Before everything became fucked up again.

This time, it was Alexander Ross who set in motion the latest attempt to rope Bucky into doing something he didn't want to do. The man just wouldn't take no for an answer.

"You served your country before, then you served HYDRA. I'm just asking you to serve your country again. Then we'll call it even."

Those were his exact words. As if Bucky's service in World War II wasn't enough, all by itself. As if fighting Thanos twice and containing the Flag Smashers also wasn't enough. Why couldn't Bucky just be left alone to do what he wanted? Why couldn't he tinker with old cars and motorcycles, keeping them in good repair for enthusiasts who still appreciated how things were made before. The sound of a siren on the bridge caught his attention and he focused on a police car in pursuit of someone. That part was still very much the same now as it had been then, even though the subway cars and vehicles crossing the bridge looked different. There were always going to be people who lived on the wrong side of the law and those who would hunt them down.

Why did Ross think it should be him doing the hunting? The man wouldn't even say who it was he wanted Bucky to hunt down but deep down the super soldier knew that Ross saw a lot of good people as enemies and that's what bothered him the most. For all he knew Ross wanted Bucky to go after Sam, or even Peter Parker, and that would never happen.

Peter Parker, that kid was facing problems just as bad as Bucky had it. He just couldn't seem to catch a break. Why couldn't they leave him alone as well? Let him go to college, marry his girlfriend, have a family. He was a good kid, and a smart one. But no, certain segments of society were out to pigeon-hole him as a threat.

"Stop," he said out loud. "Breathe. Peter will be okay. You can tell Ross no and you'll be okay. Life will go on."

A sound of a portal opening behind him made him shake his head. How did the sorcerers always find him? He turned around to see if it was Dr. Strange or Wong, but he didn't expect to see what he saw there and stood up, facing the young man, with his face, his much younger face, dressed in a brown suit.

"What just happened?" The younger version asked, his face a mask of surprise. "I'm in Brooklyn, cuz that's the Brooklyn Bridge so that must be Manhattan but it ain't nothin' like the New York I know. Who are you?"

His Brooklyn accent was strong, much stronger than Bucky's accent of 2024. He studied the current version carefully, lingering on his eyes, recognizing him. Approaching him where he stood near the edge, he looked up at him, puzzled that this older man with his face was taller.

"Are you me?"

Fuck it. The guy just walked through a portal from the 1930s based on that suit that Bucky remembered wearing then.

"James Buchanan Barnes, born March 10, 1917, is the day I was born, in Indiana," replied Bucky. "Moved here when I was a little kid. You?"

"Same," he replied. "You're older and taller than me and dressed different. What year is it?"

Older Bucky smiled a little. He read a lot of science and fantasy fiction when he was younger so the thought of it being a different year obviously came easily to his other self.

"2024, and before you say that makes me 107 years old, yes, I am that, technically. But there's a reason I'm still alive and I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you. What I can do is phone someone to get you back home."

The younger Bucky smirked. "Hate to break it to you, pal, but there ain't a pay phone up here."

It was older Bucky's turn to smirk as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialled Dr. Strange. His smirk turned to a frown as the call went to voice mail.

"Hey, Strange, it's Bucky Barnes," he said into the phone. God, he hated voice mail. "I'm talking to a version of myself from ...." He looked at his younger self. "What year exactly are you from?"

"1938, was headed out for my 21st birthday party. Supposed to pick up Steve then meet Dot and a bunch of friends at a dance hall in Rockaway Beach."

Fuck, he was such a punk then. "The younger version of me says he's from 1938. Are you messing around with the multiverse again? Call me back, or better yet, get over here. I'll keep my phone on so you can locate it."

He hung up then noticed his younger self looking curiously at it.

"It's called a cell phone. There aren't many pay phones these days as nearly everyone has their own personal phone, even homeless people. It's used for more than that. You can pull up maps, watch movies, television shows, play games, even pay for things."

He shrugged. The younger man looked back at the Manhattan skyline, his eyes taking it all in.

"I can still see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building," he said, "but look at the height on some of those others. People live in those?"

"Most are office buildings," replied older Bucky. He sighed. "Not sure what's going on as you shouldn't be here. The guy I phoned is a sorcerer acquaintance. He should be getting back to me."

"Sorcerer? Seriously? They're around in the future?"

"They were around in the past," said older Bucky, "but more hidden and secretive. The ones now have had to be more visible because of ... stuff."

The sound of another portal behind them had them both turning to the source. Young Bucky's face transformed into something incredulous as the telltale sparkle of light appeared and grew larger, except it wasn't a sorcerer who came through. It was another version of Bucky, definitely from the multiverse because he was young, but he looked like he came from the 1960s or 1970s, as he had long hair, a Fu Manchu moustache and wore bell bottom jeans and a jean jacket. He came through, watching the sparkling circle close then noticed the others standing there.

"Far out," he said, as the portal closed behind him. "That was some trip." He noticed the 1930s version of himself. "Cool threads, man. Got a 1930s vibe going there." He looked closer at the two of them. "Weird. You look like me, except you're older and you're younger. Dude, what's happening?"

"Did you understand that?" asked 1938 Bucky.

"Some of it," said original modern Bucky. "Not sure what's going on, but I think you two appeared here from your original universes. What year was it before you came through the portal?"

"1971," replied the long-haired version. "I smoked up a little while ago, thought maybe I was hallucinating. This is real? What year?"

"2024," answered 1938 Bucky as he glanced at original Bucky. "He smells of reefer."

"Reefer." The long-haired man laughed. "They haven't called it that since the 1940s. What do they call it now?"

"Weed, mostly or cannabis," said original Bucky, sighing. "Can't believe I'm having this conversation. It's legal now, at least in New York, so they refer to it by brand names as well."

"No shit!" The long-haired man laughed again. "Like, you can buy it in a store?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Bucky dialled Dr. Strange again, getting another voice mail prompt which made him hang up. This was definitely a multiverse thing but the fact there was a version of him that was born after the war meant he wasn't just in his original time frame. He was in different ones as well. Unless ... this guy was his kid.

"What's your name, when were you born and who were your parents?" he asked. "Sorry, just trying to keep things straight."

"Jim Barnes, Jr., born in 1950," said the long hair version. "My dad was James Buchanan Barnes, Sr., and my mother was Dolores Barnes. They split up when I was about 10.

Fuck, this guy was his kid. 1938 Bucky glanced at him, obviously thinking the same thing, as he mouthed Dolores' nickname, Dot.

"Why did they split up?"

"My dad was never right after the war," said Jim. "Lost his best friend in 1945 when he fell off a train during a mission. Tried to drink himself to death but never seemed to get there. He could out drink anyone, so he just got angry and eventually it got too dangerous for us to be around him. Us three kids stayed with Mom." He shrugged. "Not sure I'll be seeing any of them any time soon. I decided to go to Canada when I got my draft notice. It's just a matter of when."

Modern Bucky felt his stomach do a flip. Steve must have fallen off the train in this man's timeline, an event that obviously affected him deeply. This son of his was 21, in 1971. It meant he likely was drafted into the Vietnam War and didn't want to go. He glanced at the 1938 version of himself, who was frowning at this revelation.

"It was because of a war in Southeast Asia," Bucky murmured. "By all accounts it wasn't supported too well by the population. Some burned their draft cards and went to Canada. Stayed there, too." He looked at Jim sympathetically. "Can I ask you something? Are you strong? Like really strong? Can you handle your alcohol well?"

"Yeah," said the younger man suspiciously. "Takes a lot to get me buzzed. Sometimes, it's not worth the trouble." He frowned. "I'm not a coward. I am strong but I don't want to fight anyone. It's a bogus war, man. Rich boys can get deferments or get into the Coast Guard or the National Guard and not have to go over but even they've been involved in some killings. The killing of those four students in Ohio last year was the last straw for me. I'm not firing against American citizens."

His dad obviously never told anyone about what HYDRA did to him and he passed on his abilities to his kids. No wonder he was trying to drink himself to death. The guilt over Steve's death ... wait, if Steve fell, did he become.... He shook his head, clearing that thought.

"Your dad, is he still alive?"

Jim swallowed, looked at the Brooklyn Bridge with obvious pain then back at Bucky.

"No, he put a bullet in his head a couple of years ago, after my older brother Steve came back from Vietnam missing an arm. That's another reason I'm not going. If anything happened to me, it would kill my mom and as fucked up as I am, I do love her. I love Steve and Rebecca as well."

Bucky placed his hand on Jim's shoulder, patting it sympathetically. The sound of another portal drew all of their attention as the circle formed. What stepped out shocked Bucky, as this version of him wore a uniform that was obviously his universe's version of Captain America, complete with a dull silver-coloured prosthetic arm. His hair, longer than Bucky's but shorter than Jim's was clean and somewhat styled. He looked startled at the 1938 version of Bucky, then puzzled at Jim Barnes. Finally, he noticed modern Bucky, specifically the metal hand and approached him.

"What year?" he asked, gesturing to the skyline.

"2024," replied modern Bucky. "I've been out of HYDRA for ten years. You?"

"1998. I was sent to be Russia's contribution to a threat to the world in 1988 and escaped but I ended up in a car accident a couple of years later. Went into a coma. When I woke up it was 1994 and my old arm was gone but Tony Stark made me a new one. Somehow the damage that put me into a coma neutralized the trigger words. Peggy Carter asked me to be Captain America for the Avengers. What else was I going to do?" He shook his head then looked at the two younger men as they stood gazing at the Manhattan skyline, so different from what they were used to. "I take it these two are other versions of ourselves."

"Not exactly," said Bucky, gesturing to the 1938 version. "He's an original. The other one is our son. In his universe, Steve fell off the train and we tried to drink ourselves to death, never telling anyone what we were or accepting it."

"Shit, does he have ...?"

Modern Bucky nodded. "We should tell him, as it appears he's self-medicating a lot, unsuccessfully. Mind you it's 1971 in his world and he's just made the decision to be a draft dodger." He hesitated for a moment. "My words are gone as well, courtesy of a brilliant scientist. She designed this arm for me. You should know that Steve is alive."

"What? They said he was lost in a plane crash in 1945."

"Frozen in the ice. In this universe, they find him in 2011 and thaw him out. The serum kept him alive. He stayed here until last year then went back in time to be with Peggy. Cap in this time is another guy, Sam Wilson. He has wings."

"They didn't ask you?"

Bucky shrugged, then looked over to the Brooklyn Bridge. "Too messed up in my own head. I killed a lot, including Howard and his wife, in my timeline. I remember them all."

"I'm sorry." Cap Bucky placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder. "You are a good man. I killed a lot for HYDRA as well, but Peggy never held that against me. Neither do the other Avengers. I guess Howard died of cancer when I was in a coma. What you do in the here and now is what should define you. Easier said, I know, but still true." He took a breath. "So, what are we going to do? Sit here and wait for a sorcerer to appear? I could use something to eat."

Bucky looked at the others. "You guys hungry? I don't live too far. We could pick up some takeout and beer. I left a message for Dr. Strange. Once he checks his messages he should come and help get you back to where you belong."

"Food is good," said 1930s Bucky. "What's takeout?"

The other three smiled the same lopsided smile and Bucky gestured to follow him down a fire escape. They stopped at a Korean place that was still open, with the proprietor waving to Bucky from the kitchen, as he was a regular customer. He ordered several servings of everything, knowing that three of the four of them could easily finish it, choosing Korean fried chicken, beef and pork bulgogi, green onion cakes, japchae, bibimbap with rice, and kimchi. Although the staff gave the other three some second and third looks, they didn't say anything.

"This universe has seen some strange things, including aliens, androids and sorcerers," explained modern Bucky. "Seeing three other versions of me doesn't even come close to weird."

After dividing the food bags between them they made one more stop at a 24-hour liquor store with Bucky getting a couple of six packs of beer and a bottle of bourbon. They crammed into the elevator of his building.

"I only have a one-bedroom place," said Bucky. "Not much furniture but I'm good on the floor if you others want to take a chair. I'm living on an army pension so it's what I could afford."

When he handed off the food and booze to the others to unlock the door, he opened it and stepped back to let them in first. They filed in, dropping everything off on the small kitchen island.

"This is nice," said 1930s Bucky. "Clean, small but if it's just you it's enough. Nicer than that slum Steve is living in."

Both modern Bucky and Cap Bucky nodded, remembering that tenement room their best friend insisted on living in. Taking his meagre assortment of glasses out, Bucky poured out some bourbon in each one, holding his glass in front of him.

"Here's mud in your eye," he said, draining it in one gulp. "They've been kind enough to provide us four servings of rice, just take what you want from each of the other containers and dig in."

For the next few minutes there was no sound as they all went after the food, transferring portions into their individual rice boxes. Modern Bucky sat on the floor, leaning against the wall as the other three took the armchair, and the two dining table chairs that were there. Cap Bucky eyed the bedding on the floor.

"Sleeping there?"

"Yeah, bed's too soft," replied modern Bucky. "I manage a few hours every night."

Jim swallowed his food and looked critically at the two artificial arms. "What's with the arms?"

"Not sure I can tell you, exactly," said Cap Bucky. "Let's just say this Bucky and I have a shared experience where we lost our flesh arms, went through some shit, then got a new life and new arms in the process."

"Were you born in 1917 as well?" asked 1930s Bucky. "He already told me."

"Yeah, I was. Don't know if you'll go through what we went through. Jim's dad didn't, at least not the way we did."

"He had both of his original arms," said Jim. "But he was one angry guy. Ma said before the war he was a lot of fun but after ... he was a different man. She still loved him, but he hurt her and us, more than once."

"I would never hit a woman," stated 1930s Bucky. "Not Dot, I loved her."

The other two Bucky's looked meaningfully at each other. On a hunch, modern Bucky signed to Cap Bucky, who sat back and watched, nodding his head. He signed back, as the other two realized what they were doing.

"What can it hurt?" asked modern Bucky, verbally. "They've already seen two different versions of us, and how New York looks in the 21st century. Maybe, this Bucky is this guy's dad. If he understands what might happen, he can deal with it better, and I'm sure Jim would like to understand more of what his dad went through that made him the way he is. It can help him with his own timeline and whether he should go to Canada."

The bright blue eyes of Cap Bucky seemed to harden for a moment then they softened.

"Alright, we tell them both everything," he said. "We can't change our past but maybe we can change their futures."

For the rest of that night, the two Bucky's with prosthetic arms told their stories, amazing each other with the synchronization of their journeys until Cap Bucky's took a turn when he listened to Howard Stark and didn't kill a boy who only wanted to get back home to Earth. Both 1930s Bucky and Jim Barnes questioned them about details, about the things that they wished they had done. By sunrise, the 1930s Bucky had loosened his shirt and tie and was lying on top of the double bed in the bedroom. Jim Barnes had taken his boots and jacket off and was lying next to him curled up with his hand hanging over the edge. Cap and Modern Bucky still sat in the living room, leaning against the open wall, while finishing the bourbon.

"So, where exactly is Steve in 1998?" asked Cap.

"Buried in a glacier in the Arctic," said Bucky, reaching for one of his notebooks and tearing a sheet out. "Here's the coordinates." He watched as Cap looked at it, folded it up and placed inside a hidden pocket. "They were on a display in the Smithsonian. He's alive and they should be able to resuscitate him. I don't know if your universe will go through with what mine did but if it does, aliens start to show up in 2011, then Tony tries to make Ultron in 2014 to protect the Earth. Instead, Ultron went a little crazy and decided to kill humans. Aliens start looking for the stones ... that blue Tesseract is one of them ... and Thanos comes calling in 2018. If he does, remember to go for the head. Don't let him snap his fingers or else half of all life, everywhere, is just gone."

"What about you?" There was sympathy and understanding in Cap Bucky's eyes. "What's going on with you?"

"A powerful man wants me to work for him." Bucky looked at his metal hand. "By work, I think he means for me to hunt other enhanced individuals and bring them together so that he can control them. I don't want to do it but he's in a position to make my life miserable if I don't." He looked around at his little flat. "This isn't what I ever envisioned for myself. I'm 107 years old, living on an army pension that barely pays the bills, while waiting on the army to give me my back pay for all the years I was basically a prisoner of war. Half of society thinks I should have been shot for what I did as the Winter Soldier, and the other half are indifferent to my existence."

"You have friends though, right?" Modern Bucky felt his face get warm. "You don't think you're worthy of friendship, do you?" Cap sipped his bourbon, thoughtfully. "Obviously, I didn't kill as many people as you did when HYDRA, then Russia had me in their control, but the body count was still up there. I became a kind of vigilante when I first got away from them. I could hear calls for help and would get to people who were being assaulted. I hid myself a lot. Then, I got hit by an armoured truck and knocked out. Stayed that way for four years. When I woke up, Peggy Carter was sitting next to my bed. Tony showed up within the hour. A few of the Howlies showed up, old men all of them, but they were so happy to see me. None of them ever forgot about me and Peggy apologized for not looking for me, even though she suspected who the Winter Soldier was years later. I could have been angry, but the fact was that I could have also escaped sooner than I did. I just convinced myself that I was too far gone and not worth saving. I was wrong. Don't give up on life, Buck. If you don't want to do what this guy wants you to do, then don't do it. Call in your friends, tell the newspapers, expose his plans to the daylight. Fight for your right to have a life, to be just another face in the crowd."

"You make it sound easy." Bucky sighed. "I'm just tired of it. You know what I really want to do? Fix motorcycles and cars from the 1930s and 40s, find an understanding woman who doesn't mind listening to the old music with me, maybe dinner out or dancing once in a while, having a couple of kids and playing catch with them in the back yard. Getting old ... God, how I want to grow old." He rubbed his face. "Sounds pathetic."

"No, not at all," smiled Cap Bucky. "Sounds pretty perfect to me."

A portal began forming in Bucky's living room and both men stood up. Dr. Strange strode through.

"I got your message," he said, taking in Cap Bucky. "How many?"

"Three, although one of them isn't me. He's, my son."

Strange frowned. "Your son ... interesting. Well, get them out here and I'll send them back."

Modern Bucky went into the bedroom while Cap Bucky stayed out in the living room with Dr. Strange.

"Can you do me a favour?" he asked. "Is there any way you can make him appear like another face in the crowd?"

"That's what got me into this mess," said Strange. "A similar request from another person. You mean, no one would know who he is?"

"I mean, I think he would want to keep his friends because he doesn't have many and he shouldn't have to start at the beginning to find new ones." A crease appeared in Cap's forehead between his eyes. "All he wants is to live in peace, fix old vehicles, find the right woman and grow old. Is that too much to ask?"

Strange looked carefully at this version of Bucky, noticing the uniform. He had obviously come to terms with his own past if he was Captain America in another universe. The Bucky from this universe came out of the bedroom followed by a younger version of him from what appeared to be the 1930s and another from the 1970s. They were both rubbing their eyes as if they had been asleep for a while. The younger Bucky's eyes grew large at the sight of Dr. Strange.

"Sorcerer?" Modern Bucky nodded making the 1930s version grin. "Far out."

Jim Barnes grinned at the use of his term by the older Bucky. "He doesn't look like Gandalf."

"None of us do," deadpanned Strange. "Alright, let's get you two back to where you belong. No talking about what you've seen or heard. Frankly, people in your times will think you've had a psychiatric episode if you do, so keep it quiet."

With a wave of his hand the first portal opened, and 1930s Bucky quickly shook hands with the others before stepping through. Once that portal closed, he opened another one for Jim Barnes who looked thoughtfully at the two Bucky's then waved when he stepped back into 1971. Cap Bucky extended his metal arm to modern Bucky and the two men with the shared HYDRA past grasped each other's arms before releasing them. After he stepped through the portal only Bucky and Dr. Strange were left.

"Busy night?"

"You don't know the half of it," said Strange. "Is everything alright, with you, I mean."

"Thaddeus Ross is pressuring me to join his "team," said Bucky. "I think he wants to use me to hunt down enhanced individuals. Even though the Sokovia Accords are toast he still wants control of us."

"What do you want?"

"To find my own way, one that doesn't involve hurting people, or having to justify why I should be allowed to live," said Bucky, frowning. "I just want the life I was supposed to have if HYDRA never get their claws into me, unless I ended up a serial killer anyways, because I don't want that."

"That's fair," said Strange. "Excuse me for a moment." Bucky watched as the sorcerer did his thing with the Time Stone. When he came out of his momentary review of time, he looked at Bucky and smiled. "I don't think you have to worry about Thaddeus Ross too much. As for the rest, I'm sure things will look better. How was it visiting with two versions of yourself and a version of your son?"

"Interesting," admitted Bucky. "I should try to get some sleep. Cap and I stayed up all night comparing our HYDRA experiences. I'm glad to see another version of me got away from them."

Dr. Strange said nothing, just smiled his grim smile, opened a portal and stepped through.

March 15, 1938

"So, there's no connection between having your birthday celebration now and the Ides of March?" asked Steve as the two friends headed to the train station. "I was surprised when you canceled out last weekend."

"Nope, unless you're all planning to stab me in the back," said Bucky, waving to Dot and her friend. "Now, Margie is shy like you, but she's into art. Dot says she's always drawing something."

"She looks nice." Steve blushed as his friend put his arm around his shoulder and drew up to the two young women. "Hi, Dot."

"Hey, Stevie," she said, after receiving a kiss on the cheek from Bucky. "This is my friend Margie. She's in the art program at Pratt."

"Yeah?" His face brightened. "I just had a year at Auburndale but couldn't afford another year."

"Auburndale's good," said Margie, liking Steve's blue eyes and ready smile. "I was lucky to get a scholarship to Pratt. What's your favourite medium?"

Steve offered her his arm as they went up the steps. Bucky took Dot's hand, pulling her towards him, and wrapping his arms around her.

"Thanks for waiting until this weekend and finding him a date. I didn't want Steve to feel like a third wheel."

She shrugged; her red hair vibrant under the streetlight. "I don't know why I didn't think of pairing them together before. They're alike in many ways. Steve's a good guy. He just needs to loosen up a bit."

Bucky grinned then his face grew serious as he gazed at her. "I love you; you know. Have for a long time."

Her face changed at his declaration, as she smiled then placed her hand on his cheek. "I love you, too, Bucky. Now let's go dancing."

With their arms around each other they followed the other couple up the stairs to the elevated train station, waiting for the one that would take them to the dance hall at Rockaway Beach, the second dance of the spring season.

April 7, 1971

Jim stepped off the train, placing his satchel over his shoulder as he walked towards the exit. When he stepped back into his time after being in the future, he wasn't sure what to expect. But ending up in the library at Brooklyn College wasn't it. Hopefully, he still lived in the same house with his mother, brother Steve and sister Rebecca. On the train ride to their neighbourhood, he thought over what happened to him. It had been an interesting experience, that was for sure. Perhaps, he could write about it in his journalism class. His stop came up and he made his way to the door, stepping out into the cool spring evening air. It was only a short walk from the station to the house.

"You got mail!" His mother called as he stepped inside.

How she always knew it was him coming in was interesting. He looked at the return address, Department of Defence. Shit, it was his draft notice. His last deferment didn't go through. Stopping dead in the hallway in front of the stairs he stared at the envelope wondering whether to open it.

"You better deal with it sooner rather than later," said a familiar voice that shocked him.

"Dad? I thought ...."

His dad put his finger up to his mouth. "It's me," he whispered. "It's been hard waiting for this day, waiting for this version of you to come home and know the truth. I remembered what you wore that night."

"I thought we couldn't change our past," said Jim, as his dad took him by the elbow into the living room.

"I changed my future and that changed yours, but you had to get back here to know it," said the older Barnes. "I didn't join the 107th. I became a pilot and Steve became a reporter, drawing comics of the various soldiers he met as he covered the war. Some other guy became Captain America. Some other guy became the Winter Soldier. It still worked out for them because they were different guys, and their futures were different than ours."

"But our Steve still lost his arm," said Jim.

"Yeah, but he didn't lose us because I didn't lose your mom and you kids. We got him through it, and we'll get you through whatever that letter says." He placed his calloused hand on his son's face. "I think that's why you were there so that I would know you, know what you went through as a kid because of how I dealt with the things that happened to me in your timeline. I've tried really hard to be a good man, Jim."

His eyes were glassy as he said it and the two men hugged. Then Jim opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, making a sigh of relief.

"Coast Guard," he said. "They've taken my ... when did I become an experienced sailor?"

"Since I started taking you kids out on sailboats when you were kids," smiled Bucky. "Don't worry, it should come to you, once you integrate into this timeline. Your brother, Steve, ended up on a patrol boat in the Vietnamese river system, lost his arm when he was shot from the shore. With the Coast Guard, you could end up working from home. You don't have to go to Canada, although you'll have to cut your hair and shave that monstrosity off your face."

His grin showed Jim that his dad was joking, and they hugged again. Both men thought back to that night when they went from their respective times into the future and met two other Bucky's who had gone through hell. Something drew them there, to fix both of them, and to fix what was wrong between them. It was meant to be.

May 17, 1998

Bucky was with the team when they located the Valkyrie just under the top layer of the glacier. It had shrunk from when the aircraft crash landed into it in 1945. Since then, the one wing tip was slowly exposed, to the point where it showed up on an aerial survey done by the Greenland parks service, close to the coordinates given to Bucky in 2024. Carefully they had used steam to thaw out the door into the large aircraft, finding it mostly undamaged inside, although a lot of ice had built up from all the water that seeped in from the glacier. Then a corporal called to them when he spied the shield and Bucky hurried over there, brushing the frost away from the body that lay encased in ice under the shield.

"Steve," he whispered, confirming his identity.

The extraction team came in, carefully unthawing the ice several inches underneath the frozen remains, then lifting the icy block onto a stretcher, then into a Chinook helicopter. Bucky sat near Steve's body, watching as the block of ice was wrapped in thermal blankets to slow down the rate of the ice melting so it was gradual and wouldn't put his body into shock. By the time the large helicopter landed in Thule, they had the special medical unit set up, with Peggy and Tony waiting as Steve's body was wheeled in. None of them slept well over that week as they did everything they could to keep the thawing process stable. When the decision was made to start warming the body they waited anxiously, hoping that the information given to Bucky was accurate. Ten days after he was transported there, Steve Rogers opened his eyes and saw himself in a hospital room, with tubes and IV lines coming in and out of his body. He shifted, setting up a bunch of alarms, which brought a number of people running. The person he noticed first was already there, with a head of dark hair, long in length, a several day-old beard, and the blue eyes of his best friend, Bucky.

"Hey punk," said that best friend, grinning at him. "I thought I told you not to do anything stupid until I got back."

"Buck." Steve tried to raise himself, but several hands came out to stop him. "You're alive. You fell."

"Yeah, I did." Bucky smiled sadly. "I'll tell you about it later. The important thing is that we found you. A lot has happened since you went into the ice, but now that you're here, I think things are going to look up."

The two friends looked at each other with affection. Catching up would have to wait, as a team of medical personnel arrived to document the momentous occasion when a frozen body was successfully reanimated after over 50 years encased in the ice. It was one for the history books.

May 31, 2024

It had been almost two weeks since that night when the three portals discharged the two Bucky's and Jim Barnes on the rooftop of the building. Bucky had kept a low profile since then, although he phoned Sam, telling him about Ross's ultimatum to him. Sam was angry about that and raised a very public stink, which made Ross back off, although Bucky still had the feeling someone was watching him from afar. More than likely, he was being paranoid. On this Friday morning, he got up, hearing about a particular motorcycle for sale in Bensonhurst. When he got off the train he began the short walk to the shop. Frowning at the Closed sign on it when he arrived, he peeked inside the window, then noticed a back door was open. Heading around to the back he saw a woman, sitting in a lawn chair, with her feet up on a crate, a coffee on another crate while she closed her eyes in the sun.

"Excuse me," he said, making her eyes open, frowning at him. "I called about the World War II motorcycle. The man said I could come this morning to look at it."

She ran her eyes over him, then sighed. "That was likely my deadbeat brother. He's taken the bike. Said he had a buyer for it in the Bronx. Personally, I think he took it to his loan shark, to pay off some of his debt. Sorry that you came all this way for nothing." She shook her head, seeming to fight off some tears. "Hell of a way to run a business but what do I know? My dad left it to both of us and he's running it into the ground, while I'm trying to make it a going concern."

"Well, I guess the price he quoted was too good to be true," said Bucky. "I'm sorry to bother you."

He turned to leave but she called out to him. "Hey mister? There's another classic motorcycle in there. Needs some work but whatever price you want to pay for it, I'm willing to let it go for that. Otherwise, the bank will just seize it when they foreclose."

"I don't want to take advantage of your situation," said Bucky.

She stood up, surprising him with her height as she was only a couple of inches shorter than him.

"Come in and have a look at it, you never know," she replied, walking towards the open door to the shop.

They stepped inside and right away, Bucky felt comfortable with all the motorcycles in various states of repair. He saw several from the 1940s as well as some 1950s models. She stopped beside a silver motorcycle that seemed to be complete, a 1958 Triumph Tiger 100. He kneeled down, looking carefully at the engine, then stood up and examined the finishings.

"She's beautiful," he said. "What's left to do?"

The woman shrugged. "Honestly? I'm not sure what I'm missing. She starts up fine, then about a mile into the ride she starts running rough and by the time I get her back here she gives up the ghost. I've put a lot of time into restoring her but I'm missing something."

"You're the mechanic?" He noticed her look of dismay at his comment. "I'm not being critical. I'm impressed." He stuck his hand out. "Bucky."

"Angel," she replied, shaking his hand, then noticing his smile. "Yeah, it's my real name. I guess my great grandpa took one look at me when he came to the hospital just after I was born and said I was an angel. He's the one who started this shop, after World War II. He was responsible for the motor pool for the Howling Commandos, Sergeant Bruno Moretti."

She pointed to a large, framed photograph on the wall. With a smile, Bucky went over to it, grinning at the picture of the Howling Commandos as he bent closer to it. That's when Angel saw him in the picture, then looked back and forth between the man standing beside her and the man on the old photograph.

"You're Bucky Barnes."

"Yeah," he replied, then straightened up. "You're Sarge's great granddaughter. Did you know him?"

"No, he died when I was about a year old. Grandpa told me his stories about the Howlies ... that's what you called yourselves, right?"

Bucky nodded his head, feeling nostalgic at the moment. "They were a good group of guys. Sarge always kept us supplied with working vehicles. Didn't even mind when I would tinker with the motorcycles. Showed me a few things as well. Sometimes, I'm amazed I still remember it."

"Well, you've been through a lot," replied Angel. "It must be hard at times, stuck in a future that is so different. Sometimes .... Never mind." She looked away, slightly embarrassed.

"No, it's okay," said Bucky. "What were you going to say?"

"Well, sometimes I feel like I'm out of my right time," she said. "I mean, I like the old music, and even though I'm a mechanic, I'm kind of a girlie girl when I'm not knuckle deep in a greasy engine. It must be worse for you sometimes. I imagine you missed out on a lot of things because of what happened to you." She looked away again. "Sorry, I'm babbling."

"I don't mind. You're honest without being cruel and that's a good quality."

They stood without talking for a moment, comfortable in the silence, then their peace and quiet was shattered by the arrival of Angel's brother, Tony. Right away, Bucky didn't care for the guy, wondering how he was such a jerk compared to his sister. Eventually, he found that he had to leave before he was tempted to punch Tony and headed out the back door. Before he got very far, he heard his voice being called and turned to see Angel walking towards him. She handed him her business card.

"Stay in touch," she smiled. "We can go for coffee or something. If you want."

"Yeah, I would like that." He looked at her again. "Do you have your phone with you?" She nodded. He phoned the number she gave him, making her phone ring. "Save my phone number. We can talk about the different things you can try to narrow down that problem with the Triumph. Or maybe you can talk your brother into selling his share in the business to someone else."

They were looking at more than each other's eyes when he said that. Then Angel smiled and saved Bucky's phone number to her contacts. They began to walk away from each other then both turned to look back at the same moment, making them chuckle. With a wave, Bucky headed towards the subway station, feeling pretty positive about his prospects.

Please support the author by reblogging. Comments are also appreciated.

One Shots Masterlist

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes au #james buchanan barnes au #bucky barnes oneshot #multiverse #james buchanan barnes oneshot #1930s bucky barnes #what if #whatif bucky

32 notes · View notes

writing-house-of-m · 1 year

Text

Welcome to the Team

Wanda Maximoff x Reader x Jeff the landshark

Summary: Jeff meets the team

A/N: Here is part 2 of my Jeff AU. In celebration of today being a year since I first posted a fic there will be a double bill of Jeff! The final 1 year celebration request includes Jeff too so you can expect that later on. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this part, it's practically a crack!fic 😂

It is unusual for everyone to be sitting in the lounge area on a random Friday afternoon. But you have put it off for long enough so it is time to finally rip off the band-aid.

You are standing facing the group of heroes who are all looking at you expectedly with Wanda standing right behind you. You look over your shoulder and see her give you an encouraging smile, waiting for you to start talking.

Taking a breath, you begin. "Okay. I know you're all wondering why we've asked you here today." And before you can get anywhere the Avengers must think this is the cue to start a guessing game.

"Wanda's pregnant!" Tony exclaims.

Some of the quicker thinkers widen their eyes and reflexively look at you.

You point at him to quickly shut down the thought, "No."

"Really? There have been some weird noises coming from your room lately," Sam thinks aloud.

Once again you are stopped before you can comment.

"You're moving out together?" Bucky asks.

You're about to decline the accusation but then they all come flooding in.

"You finally proposed?" Natasha questions.

"Wanda proposed?" Steve opposes.

"Oh wow, I really thought it would be you to pop the question, Y/n. What a twist," Carol, who you don't even know why she is here, says.

"You got a dog?" Peter speaks with a hopeful look in his eye.

"A cat maybe?" Bucky decides to add his own input. Along with Bruce who follows with, "Perhaps a rabbit?"

You turn to see Wanda amused by the whole thing. Turning back around, you have to raise your voice to be heard, "QUIET!" This manages to restore some order to the meeting you called.

"Thank you," you relax. "None of you are right. Actually I guess Peter, Bucky and Bruce were close."

You see Peter raise his hand for a fist bump but Bruce mistakes it for a high five so it turns into an awkward closed hand around a fist situation. Bucky is too far from either of them to celebrate the small victory.

"There is a new addition to the compound, his name is Jeff," you announce.

"Who names a hamster 'Jeff'?" Peter asks.

"No way, it's going to be a parrot. Or some kind of bird right?" Clint 'The Hawkeye' Barton guesses.

Once again this starts off a new guessing game - What animal could it be?

"Monkey," "Raccoon," "Fox," "Guinea pig," "Chameleon," "Duck!"

You begin to question your life choices, how did you ever end up in this situation? Maybe you should have set this gathering up like a game show at least then it might have been fun for you too.

Instead of stopping them this time you take a seat until they hopefully tire themselves out.

"No, no. From the noises I heard it's definitely a goat," Sam remarks.

You decide it's hopeless when the discussion doesn't look like it will cease. Giving up the waiting game you nod your head to Wanda rolling your eyes, you can tell she is holding in her laughter for your sake.

She leaves the area and after a few moments she returns with Jeff. It is only when the pitter patter sound of footsteps close in do they realise you are no longer standing directly in front of them. Instead you are next to Wanda with a new being between you.

You could hear a pin drop now that everyone's gazes are fixed to the little guy.

"Everybody, this is Jeff," you introduce your new roommate.

The attention seems to make Jeff nervous, you don't know if he has ever had this many eyes on him. Possibly when he was captive in the lab. You realise this could be traumatic for him so you guide him to step behind you.

His two front feet grip your leg as he peers round to see everyone still looking at him.

Wanda sits on the floor close to him with a hand resting on the fin on his back. "It's okay Jeff, they're all friendly," she reassures him.

"Is that a fish with legs?" Clint asks, "Oh man, I was way off."

"He's a shark," you say matter-of-factly. When you see everyone's expression change to a worried or frightened one you clarify further in hopes to calm their nerves. "A landshark!"

It doesn't work.

"Y/n, what the hell is a landshark? You better start explaining and fast," Natasha all but threatens you. You can see one of her hands has disappeared behind her back meaning she is defensively readying a knife behind her.

"He's not harmful, he's really friendly," you say. Then you remember some things you have read about sharks so are quick to add, "Also sharks are misconstrued as being vicious when they're actually not. They get a bad rep even though they're basically puppies of the ocean. Did you know, more people are killed each year by coconu-"

"Y/n!" Natasha interrupts.

"Right," you say, gathering your thoughts and glancing down at him. "He's nice and friendly and really playful. A bit of a clutz too. We've had him hidden in our room for about two weeks now."

This seems to bring Tony's attention away from the shark to you, "Oh really? And you didn't think to mention this to the person who pays for everything around here?"

"We were going to tell you after the first night he stayed but didn't bother because we didn't think he would be here for this long. Dr Cho was trying to get a specialist in to take a look at him but there were delays," Wanda momentarily takes over for you.

"Oh, so Cho knows. That's great," Tony comments sarcastically, "as well as the specialist, right?"

"Yes. Plus two others who work with the specialist," you add much to Tony's dismay.

Jeff seems to be a bit more comfortable because he has come out from behind you. He tugs on your pant leg wanting to be picked up by you so you oblige and feedback to the group what you have found out so far.

"They finally looked him over a couple of days ago. No one knows where he has come from or why he looks the way he does. The working theory is that he was experimented on which fits with what Wanda saw in a flash the first time she came in contact with him."

Jeff starts squirming in your arms so you nod to Wanda to continue while you try to settle Jeff by whispering words of affirmation to him. Telling him none of these people will hurt him as you rub up and down his back.

"From the tests and interacting with him so far he seems to be able to understand us and in addition to being able to breathe air he can breathe underwater too. The more time we spend with him the easier it has been to communicate," Wanda finishes, while she scratches under Jeff's chin which helps calm his nerves.

Everyone looks on in silence as Jeff pulls away from you slightly. You speak in a low tone asking if he wants to say hi to the team. Which, reluctantly, he agrees to.

There is a strong bond between you, even if it hasn't been too long since you found him, so he knows he can trust anyone you want to introduce him to.

You go to place him on the ground but he whines a little while clutching your shirt. Instead, you stand back up and he turns in your arms facing the expecting crowd.

He raises his little hand in a wave speaking in a small voice, "Mrr."

In a second everybody's eyes soften and you hear a collective 'aww' sound out.

Maybe you should have started with this.

They are all about to rush over but you stop them from doing so with a hand out in front of you while taking a step back. Wanda moves swiftly standing between the incoming horde and Jeff.

"One at a time," she requests.

Peter makes his way over first and greets Jeff introducing himself.

It definitely must be a sight, all of this.

A young couple holding a shark as if he is a baby. It is only inevitable that someone asks, "So, is Jeff like your child then?"

And of course that person has to be Natasha.

…

The Jeff you are looking at now is unrecognisable to the Jeff from half an hour ago. He has lossened right up.

After everyone introduced themselves Peter decided to show Jeff his web slingers and, against yours and Wanda's wishes, hung Jeff upside down from the ceiling. The excited noise and wide smile was enough to make you step back. But not too far back just enough, in case you needed to catch him.

After that he spent some time with Carol who showed him a glowing fist. Natasha smirked at Wanda and you as she twirled a knife around her fingers, Bucky doing the same which turned into a contest.

When they weren't looking you picked him up and moved him away from the crazy movements.

As the only member with kids Clint simply spoke to him like he was a baby, Steve said he didn't have any tricks for him but maybe one day he would show Jeff his shield. Sam asked Jeff if he wanted to pet Redwing which he happily did.

Even now Tony has been playing tricks with him, making a coin disappear then reappear from behind Jeff's ear. He had to borrow a coin from someone first, it would have been more surprising if Tony had any small change on his person to begin with.

Next is Bruce who tells Jeff there is someone else he should meet then transforms into the Hulk. Jeff looks at the green giant in wonder then puts his arms up to be picked up so he can be the tallest in the room. When Hulk sees Jeff he crouches down so he is eye level with Jeff, sniffing and surveying him. He chuckles, calls Jeff 'a puny baby' then picks him up and places the landshark on his head.

Shortly after everyone takes their leave. Clint is on his way home to his family, Natasha goes to train with Bucky following behind her. A Hulk-less Bruce returns to the lab with Tony. Steve, Sam and Carol are discussing a mission they are assigned to lead and Peter says he has some homework he needs to finish.

"What a day huh Jeff?" You breathe out, exhausted. Jeff looks at you like a small child while trotting around, jumping on the couches and back onto the floor excited about all the new friends he has made.

"I think Jeff is going to be just fine here," Wanda says to you as you both watch him, side by side.

"Hello good people of Earth!" You hear a familiar loud voice sound from the entrance disturbing your peace. And when he makes it in front of you, he is his usual happy self.

"Hi Thor... What are you doing here?" You ask, confused.

"I'm here for the meeting, of course," Thor says in his cheery voice.

"I didn't know you were on the mailing list," you say a little tiredly trying to think back to the email you sent out.

"I didn't know he knew how to check his email," you hear Wanda's side comment next to you.

"Well, I am the strongest Avenger after all," Thor boasts, "I should be here for all the little talks and what nots."

"Right," you say a little unsurely. "Err, the meeting is over now but it was to introduce a new resident to the compound."

You see him spot Jeff who peeks his head over the backrest between you and Wanda. He is looking at Thor in awe with his mouth agape much like he did when he saw Hulk.

As he climbs over the back rest you stand and Jeff stands next to you in front of Thor his head tilting back as he trails his eyes upwards from the hammer Thor is holding to his face.

"This is Jeff," Wanda says.

"Jeff the landshark," you add.

Thor has seen plenty of creatures in his lifetime so it's no surprise he doesn't react in a negative way. "Oh, how wonderful! Welcome to the team, little landshark!" Thor's voice booms excitedly.

You don't get a chance to tell Thor that Jeff is not a part of the team, only that he is staying with you in the compound because, before you know it, he lifts Jeff onto his shoulder and walks away with him.

Sighing heavily you place your hands on your hips when you hear Thor talking about a battle, going into excruciating details about how he killed a group of enemies. You are a little wary of how Jeff is going to respond to the gory details of war.

Wanda stands and moves behind you. She wraps her arms around your waist, kissing your shoulder. "He-" Wanda was about to say something but is cut off short when you both hear an excited squeal from Jeff in the distance so she rests her chin and giggles against you instead.

"I was going to say he's going to love whatever story Thor brings up, but that's kind of obvious now," she says, smiling into your shoulder.

You sigh again, "I know. But now he's going to want us to talk about all the fights we've endured and I don't think it's good for him."

Next, you hear some scuffling making you cringe because it sounds as though some equipment has fallen and crashed to the ground. Not long later you hear the sound of fast little footsteps making their way in your direction.

Then you hear Thor shout, "JEFF! GIVE THAT BACK."

Well this can't be good.

Before you can move from your spot Jeff runs past you with Mjolnir clutched in his mouth. Wanda has stepped beside you and when you glance at each other you see she holds the same shocked expression as you.

You both then turn to see Jeff's figure running out of the entrance doors. Wanda is clearly amused but you speak aloud the question on your mind, "How is he worthy and I'm not?" You ask, insulted.

Wanda wraps her arms around your neck, her fingers playing with your hair, "It's okay honey, you don't need a hammer telling you anything I don't already know."

She is leaning in to kiss you but a new voice enters your ears.

"Sestra! Come look! There's a dog in a shark costume out here!" Pietro exclaims, "And he's holding a fake hammer too!"

It is official.

Jeff has met the whole team.

83 notes · View notes

missvelvetsstuff · 1 year

Text

The Wrong One

Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Reader met Steve while he was on the run and stood behind him through everything. Until he saw Peggy Carter.

Chapter 12: Moving Again

Warnings: swearing, angst

While they felt some relief at Steve accepting some responsibility for this mess, Y/N couldn't help but over think and worry.

"You know, it would have been better if Steve had just come and talked to us instead of getting the press involved. I mean, now the world knows there's a super soldier baby and the press knows where I live. I doubt it would be hard to figure out where she is." She ranted

"I don't trust Steve's motives, going straight to the press seems, I don't know, questionable. Like he's more concerned with salvaging his reputation with the public than actually trying to accept responsibility."

She thought for a moment. "I hate thinking like this but what if we gave Winnie a tracker chip? I mean, I might be paranoid but that way we could always find her. In case Steve or whoever tried something."

Bucky nodded "That might not be a bad idea. Now that he's confirmed everything to the world, those bad actors that are building Hydra, and other criminal organizations, back up might come looking."

He paused for a moment, nervous to broach the subject "Do you think your place is really safe? I mean, now that it's public knowledge."

She growled at him "You know we wouldn't be in the position if you and Sam could keep your mouths shut. What kind of spies can't keep one damn secret?" Her voice rose at the end and Winnie whined "Oh no baby, I'm so sorry. Your father and uncles are just dumbasses."

Bucky looked at his feet "I know, doll. I'm so sorry and plan to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I didn't think Steve would cause so many problems but I never thought he would leave you for Peggy without even telling you so I don't seem to be the best judge of who he is these days. I'll do whatever I can to fix this."

She sighed "I don't know, Bucky, you may be right. My house might not be the safest place anymore. I need to talk to Pepper. Before I go home."

She sent a text to her friend to stop by and visit when she had the time.

They spent most of the day relaxing and bonding with Winnie. She gave Bucky smiles when she heard his voice and Y/N had never seen him light up like when she did.

Pepper stopped by at dinner time, followed by Happy who carried a number of take out bags from her favorite steak house.

Pepper set down a huge arrangement of pink roses in a crystal vase and gave them a big smile. "Look at this happy little family. We have to have some pictures done." She turned to Happy "Can you see if Peter can come by tomorrow and get some pictures?"

Happy nodded "Of course. She's beautiful."

Y/N smiled and thanked him.

Pepper set out food and made a plate for Y/N, trading Winnie between them.

While they ate, Y/N brought up her concerns about security. Pepper had seen Steves presser and had been concerned herself.

After thinking for a few minutes Pepper figured it out. "I know you don't want to move again but I think Bucky is right, your place has been exposed but I think I have a solution" she smiled "On the same property where Morgan and I are living, there's another cabin. 3 bedrooms and a fully updated kitchen, like my cabin. It's been empty for a bit so needs to be cleaned and the security would need upgrading. It's on the other side of the lake so you'd be close but still have your privacy."

She looked to Happy "Can you make some calls and get that started?"

Happy nodded and left the room.

Pepper started cleaning up their food "You should stay here in the Tower until the cabin is ready. Shouldn't be more than a week and you'll be safe here. We can take care of the move so you don't have to deal with all that."

"Pepper, I don't know how to thank you. It's so much."

Pepper shook her head "Then don't worry about it. I'm glad to help and the cabin has just been sitting there gathering dust." She smirked at Y/N "Besides, it'll be nice to have a sitter close by."

Y/N grinned "I don't know how soon I'll be up for babysitting a kid as active as Morgan but yeah, when I'm healed. Of course."

That evening Steve came by again obviously pleased with himself "Did you see it? I fixed everything so we can be happy together again."

He picked Winnie up from her bassinet, waking her up.

Bucky wanted to mention that Winnie had just fallen asleep but bit his tongue and watched to see how Steve would handle her.

Y/N shook her head "No, Steve. We won't be together again. I thought I made that clear. And while I appreciate your attempt to make things right, now everyone knows for sure there's a super soldier baby and the press knows where I live. My house won't be safe for us anymore."

Steve smiled brightly "You can stay with me. I'll protect you both." Winnie wasn't happy about being woken up and started squirming in his arms.

She sighed "It's like talking to a brick wall. No Steve we're done. I have a place to go but will be staying in the Tower until it's ready."

His smile fell "Where is it? I can go make sure it's secure." Winnie started fussing, not familiar with the scent or voice of the person holding her.

Bucky spoke up "I don't think that's a good idea. We will be here for now and can meet here for visits after that. The fewer people who know where they live the better."

Steve bristled "Why can't I ever talk to Y/N without you butting into something that's none of your damn business? You are always with her like some pathetic puppy." Winnie felt the tension and started bawling, trying to push away from him.

Bucky glared at him "It's my business because I've been here when you weren't" he quickly took Winnie from Steve and she calmed right away for him which only upset Steve more.

"She won't get used to me if you don't let me hold her." Steve snapped. "You won't let me hold her, won't tell me where they're moving to. Seems like you're working pretty hard to keep my daughter away from me. I thought we were all going to be adults about this."

Bucky smiled down at Winnie who gave him a big, drool filled, toothless grin. "You don't need to be holding her when you're all wound up like that. The rest is for their safety"

He took her hand and planted a raspberry on her palm and she laughed at him. He whispered softly "That's my girl."

Steve clenched his jaw, angry and frustrated at his own daughter preferring his friend over him. He sat on a chair in the corner of the room and sulked.

Y/N rolled her eyes at him acting like a baby but kept her mouth shut.

The next week was relatively calm. Steve stayed in the Tower too and did everything he could to get Y/N and Winnie alone. Bucky's presence alone was enough to upset Steve. He was still angry about Bucky's bond with Winnie and the tension didn't help her like him any better. He also refused to change diapers at all, something about it being womans work and even mocked Bucky for doing anything Y/N or Winnie needed.

Y/N had a discussion with Helen Cho and a tracking chip was implanted on Winnie. She only cried for a moment.

Finally it was time to move into her new house. They waited until Steve was out of town for the day in the hopes of keeping the location secret from him.

Y/N had a feeling he was closer than she wanted and would find out where she was living before too long.

Y/N was overwhelmed at the cabin. It was perfectly rustic on the outside but had every possible convenience inside. The interior was freshly painted and most of her furniture had been moved already.

Once they were settled in and everyone else had gone Y/N and Bucky took Winnie to sit on the swing that took up half of the front porch. All they could hear were crickets and frogs with the occasional owl or other bird chiming in. The sky was clear and full of stars that Winnie was staring and pointing at as Bucky named the constellations for her.

Life was relatively quiet for a few months. Bucky helped Sam on missions when needed but was always anxious to get home to his girls.

Winnie was growing quickly, already trying to crawl and getting into everything.

Y/N healed quickly and worked the baby weight off chasing after a baby that shouldn't be so mobile yet.

Y/N and Bucky were cautiously taking baby steps towards each other although they hadn't done anything more than some heated making out.

Steve finally learned how to change a diaper, since Y/N insisted he learn how to care for Winnie properly before he was allowed to take her on his own.

When she was 6 months old Steve had finally learned how to change and feed her well enough that Y/N was convinced he could care for Winnie on his own. That didn't dispel her concerns that he might try to disappear with Winnie but Y/N started letting him take her for a few hours or even an entire day but not overnight.

One weekend when Winnie was almost 8 months old, and trying to walk, Steve came to take her for the afternoon but promised to have her back before her bedtime at 7pm.

Y/N and Bucky went on a date to a nice restaurant where they were in their own little bubble for a little while. When her alarm went off they hurried to meet Steve at the tower only to find he wasn't there yet, even though they were almost 20 minutes late. Y/N tried not to panic.

Bucky squeezed her hand "I'm sure they got caught up in traffic or something. Steve was always a stickler for punctuality so I'm sure he will be here soon."

Y/N nodded hesitantly, it had taken a lot of time and counseling for her to trust Steve with Winnie away from her. She laughed nervously "I know, we've been doing this for 2 months and he's always here on time so maybe I should trust him but it's hard and she's everything to me."

"I know doll, just give him a little longer and she'll be back in your arms where she belongs." Bucky tried to reassure her even though he was getting nervous too.

When she looked up and saw it was over an hour since their scheduled time, Y/N started to panic.

Bucky tried to soothe her with little success so decided to call Steve and see what was holding him up. His heart stopped when the recording told him the number was no longer available.

Y/N looked to him hopefully but her stomach fell when she saw the look on his face "What's wrong Buck?"

He shook his head and stammered "Says the number isn't available."

Her eyes grew and tears started to gather right away. "No, no, he wouldn't hhe he promised. Maybe he blocked you or..." She tore through her purse in a panic, looking for her own phone. Maybe she missed his call.

When she found her phone she saw there were no calls or messages and quickly hit Steve's name on her contacts. Bucky knew from her face that she got the same recording and he pulled her close.

He was going to kill Steve when he found him.

Chapter 13

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #james bucky barnes x reader #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes x you #angst with a happy ending #steve rogers x reader #the wrong one

92 notes · View notes

mrsbarnesxxx · 1 year

Text

Matilda...

Warnings: Bucky's trauma, nightmares, pet names, songfic, mention of knives

Summary: You help Bucky learn to love.

"Bucky, you talk of the pain like it's all alright, but I know that you feel like a piece of you's dead inside." You say placing your hand over his heart. "You showed me a power that is strong enough to bring sun to the darkest days. You've been so strong through everything you've been through, but you don't have to be strong anymore. You can let it all go and feel things again. Listen, I know it's none of my business, but it's just been on my mind." He fakes a sad smile and I reach for his hand. "Listen, your birthday is on Friday and I think we should have a party. Now I know that you probably won't want to, but I think it'll be good for you. I'll plan the whole thing and you can choose the guest list and all that, but I think you would learn that you're not alone and that all of us truly care about you. Your choice, just know that everything that happened wasn't your fault. Think about it." You say giving his hand a soft squeeze before heading into the other room.

~~~~

"Okay." Is all Bucky says after he pounds on your door at 2 am.

"Okay?" You ask stepping aside as he lets himself in.

"The party." He says pouring himself a drink before downing it in one drink.

"Really?" You ask excitedly and his stone cold façade breaks but just for a second as a smile peaks through.

"Yeah." He says.

"Thank you for trusting me with this, Buck." You say placing a hand on his arm, the right one. Thumb caressing it through his jacket.

He smiles and you pull him into a hug. He remains stiff and you laugh.

"Come on, give in. Give in, it's okay." You laugh and he softens, wrapping his arms around you too.

~~~~

"Come on, Buck. You'll be late to your own party." Sam says pounding on the door.

Bucky comes out in a light blue suit, a white button up under it, hair in a messy bun.

"Get all dressed up for her?" Sam teases.

"Shut up." Bucky says pushing past Sam and towards the party. He sees you waiting outside the doors for him. Hair down, curled lightly, resting on your shoulders. Lips pained a soft rose, light blue dress flowing beautifully around your figure, but what really caught his attention was the grin you were sporting. Your smile was always infectious and he had to fight the smile that threatened to creep onto his face, but ultimately lost when you started giggling.

"Well, Mr. Barnes, don't you clean up nice." You smile reaching out to take his hand in yours.

"Could say the same for you, doll." He smirks looking you up and down again. You blush under his gaze as he is usually very reserved. I mean the two of you had been stealing glances, and dropping light teases every now and then, but not like the look of love in his eyes tonight.

"May I present to you, your 100th birthday party!" You say dramatically and throw the doors open.

He looks around and is absolute awe of what he sees. It's absolutely perfect. The light is dim as to not blind everyone, soft 40s music played in the background. He saw a bar and could smell the steak that was being grilled. Everyone was here, the Wakandans, Steve, Natasha, Sam, Tony, Bruce, Thor, even Peter.

"I-thank you some much, doll. I can't believe you did all this for me." He says tears pricking his eyes.

"You haven't even seen the best part yet!" You squeal and point behind him. He turns to see a banner draped over the doorway in bright letters spelling out "happy birthday old man!"

He lets out a laugh. A real laugh that he hasn't let out since the 40s. "I love you." He says and then his eyes widen as he threatens a look at you, fearing he's just ruined everything. But when his eyes meet yours, all he sees is love and a wide grin on your lips.

"I love you too." You smile, reaching up and pulling his lips down to yours. The kiss is soft and slow. Experimenting and slightly terrified, but loving and secure all at once.

"Happy birthday." You whisper pulling away from his lips.

"Let's go party." He smiles, wrapping an arm around your waist as the two of you glide through the room as if you've been together for 100 years.

~~~~

"Buck?" You ask sitting up when you see him pacing in the dark. You reach over to turn on the lamp. Suddenly a dim light fills the room and you see bucky standing there. Sweet glistening off of him.

"Sweetie, what happened?" You ask. He puts out his hand to stop you. You don't you just want towards him and touch his face gently. "Love?"

"Had another nightmare." He says.

"I'm sorry love. Do you wanna talk about it?" He shakes his head no. "Okay. You okay?"

"I'm fine doll." He smiles sadly.

"Come to bed." You say kissing him lightly.

"Okay, doll." He says smiling slightly. He starts to bend down to get back onto the floor.

"Baby?" I ask softly making him stop in his tracks. "Will you stay with me tonight?"

He gives in easily and lays down with me. I quickly cuddle into his chest. Placing my head on his bare chest my arms around his torso and one leg over his. I feel his heartbeat slow and I place a kiss just below his tags.

"Goodnight bucky."

"Goodnight sunshine."

~~~~

"Are you still having those nightmares?" He asks and I stop. A soft smile spreads across my face.

"Not really. Only the occasional one." I say.

"Good." Sam says. "Because of her?"

"Yeah." I smile.

~~~~

"You're back!" You yell happily running to Bucky. You jump into his arms and he catches you pulling you close and spinning you two around.

"I'm back sunshine." He soothes softly playing with my hair. Bucky finally releases you after a few minutes. You know he needs the hugs just as much as you do.

You finally release him from your bear hug and take his hand instead. Unable to stand not having his touch when he's home.

"Come on, I'll make you boys dinner." You say pulling bucky into the kitchen. You start to make dinner as Sam sits at the table. Bucky wraps his arms around your waist as you cut vegetables. He starts kissing your neck after a minute.

"Bucky!" You giggle pushing him away. "I have a knife."

"Knives don't scare me, doll." He says playfully. I slap his arm, "Go sit."

Sam watches with a smile because finally, after years and years of torment and horrors, his friend is finally happy.

#mrsbarnesxx #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes x reader #mcu fanfiction #marvel #matilda

92 notes · View notes

anonymityisfunwriter · 1 year

Text

The Jar

☀️Part of The Grumpy x Sunshine Series☀️

"I could do this all day."

"Jar!" Sam shouts, sitting beside you as you watch Steve and Peter in the middle of a training session.

"What?" Steve squawks, stepping off the training mat. "No! That's like the third time this week!"

"Well, maybe you should think about the things you say," Sam retorts.

"Jar?" Peter questions, looking to you and Sam.

"Hero jar," you explain.

"For when someone does something heroic?"

"For when we start acting like hero stereotypes, Steve," Sam pointedly remarks, gesturing to the jar in the corner of the training room. Steve grumbles something under his breath, before pulling out his wallet and trudging over to the jar, "That includes catchphrases!"

"Just for saying catchphrases?" Peter asks.

"No." You shake your head, wondering how you could explain the jar to Peter, "It's like...Like when Sam starts talking about Redwing like he's a real person. Or when James complains about Redwing. When Nat does that pose in the middle of a mission."

"Or when Mr. Stark makes a sarcastic joke when he's getting beat up?" Peter guesses.

"Exactly!"

"So what's your thing?" Peter wonders, turning to you.

"Me? Pfft.. I don't do anything like that," you scoff, dismissively waving your hand.

"Oh, please," Sam humorously snorts. "You're just as bad as everyone else."

You indignantly huff, crossing your arms, "I am not!"

"You absolutely are!" Sam turns to Peter, "Her thing is when she tries to make friends with the bad guys. Or when she goes on and on about seeing the humanity in everyone-"

"Or when she wears obscenely bright clothes on missions," Steve adds. "Do you know how hard it is to camouflage yellow?"

"Or when-"

"Alright, alright, Peter gets it!" you interject.

"Wait, so why do I never have to put money in the jar?" Peter asks the room.

Steve claps a hand on Peter's shoulder, "Oh, you do, but Tony usually does it for you."

"Sam didn't think it was fair, but Tony puts in 100's for you and we're saving it for a vacation," you explain.

"And with how often Steve has to put money in the jar, we should be there any day now," Sam teases.

Grumpy Sunshine Series Grumpy Sunshine Drabbles AnonymityIsFun Masterlist

Reblogs and comments are always appreciated 💛

Taglist: @marianita195 @meli18gonzalez@ludicbouquetfromearth@matchat3a@famousbreadcherryblossomsstuff@valoraxx@blue786sworld@buckyandgeraltsupremacy@geminigengar@ansaturn@ecolle@lexhalstead3@ybflkmj@mediocre-daydreams@shanye1112@thegirlnextdoorssister@toomanyfanficsbruh@moonlightreader649@breathtaking-cynthia@mirikusashes@beans-and-toast@niyahcoca@katiechikin@elxvrr@antiheroxsblog@infamouslyclumsy@krissydclayton93 @buckysbarne @deadheadwbedhead @qualitygiantshoepsychic

89 notes · View notes

3mcwriting · 1 year

Text

Any Fan's Dream, Part 20

Taglist: @secretly-sirens, @zeeader, @imdoingathingmom, @x-theolivia, @ainsley-official, @huntress-artemiss, @hoohoohope, @ourgoddessathena, @wiintaersoldier, @vine-enthusiast, @afraidofshrimp, @myfturn, @im-better-than-your-newborn, , @mjaudrey, @igotthisasajokeyetimstillhere, @starr60, @coldmermaidhologram, @daenerysluvrr, @viperchick47, @marvelwomen-arehot, @mynightandstars

So, recently this fic hasn't had much interaction, and I'm not sure why. One of you told me that it can be buggy and hard to reach, so I'm sorry abt that but if you ever wonder abt updates, I'm gonna start up dating every saturday. Just go to my masterlist, then to the afd masterlist and to the new chapter. Hopefully you're all able to find it now.

Any Fan's Dream Masterlist

Synopsis:

When you look around and see Avengers Tower in front of you and Peter Parker beside you, you wonder how the hell you managed to get into the MCU.

The quinjet landed, the atmosphere inside sobering up.

Everyone was checking their gear, ensuring they had everything they needed before they went into the bunker.

"Is there anything else we should expect inside?" Steve asked you.

You shook your head, but stopped, remembering something. "Actually- he isn't planning on using the Winter Soldiers inside, he's going to kill them. Shit, I can't believe I forgot to tell you."

"Is there anything else?"

You racked your brain. "Well, he plans to lock you in the room and force you to watch the video of the Starks and Sergeant Barnes, but that's easy enough to avoid if you aren't all in one place."

"Okay." Steve nodded. "Thank you." He turned to the rest of the individuals gathered. "We'll be going in in two groups. 3 and 4."

"There's eight of us, though." Wanda pointed out. "Is somebody staying here?"

Your stomach dropped.

He better not do what you thought he was going to.

"(y/n) hasn't had enough training for this," Steve stated. He looked at you. "I can't let you go out there. You just had a concussion and you don't have your Iron-Man suit. It isn't safe."

You had to take a moment to reign in your frustration. "It isn't safe for anybody out there. I should be able to go. Plus, I know what he's planning. None of you are tech people, I can help you." Your argument was all over the place, but your points were still valid.

Unfortunately, Steve had more valid points.

He pulled you aside and spoke to you quietly. "You had less than a month of physical training, you were recently injured, you don't have any sort of equipment or protection, and this man wants to tear the Avengers apart. What do you think would happen if you got killed here?"

"My death wouldn't tear the Avengers apart." You almost scoffed, hating the fact that he had a point in terms of your combat prowess. "I'll stay close to you. I won't engage in fighting. But you have to let me help."

Steve thought about it, eventually coming to the conclusion that with a whole team of them against the one guy, you would probably be safer with them than outside in the quinjet by yourself.

"Fine." Steve conceded. "But you absolutely can't engage. When we start fighting, you get away, okay?"

You mulled it over. "Alright."

"Okay, new plan." Steve spoke up, catching the attention of the rest of the people. "Two groups of four. Wanda, Scott, Clint, and Sam, you're a group. Thor, Bucky, (y/n) and I will be a group. The goal of this is to make sure the team stays together. Make sure nobody gets hurt." Everyone could tell who in particular he was worried about getting hurt. "If you find Zemo, call it in."

You looked at the different hallways, unsure of which way led where.

In the movies they never really focused much on this so you couldn't say you knew which way to go, but who could blame you? You never expected to somehow end up in the MCU so it wasn't like you had studied for it. You just had your memory to go off of, and as good as your memory was in remembering Marvel stuff, you hadn't managed to memorize every moment of every Marvel movie.

You just hoped that you had given them enough time to arrive before Zemo wound up killing all the other Winter Soldiers. After all, they were people like Bucky who had been brainwashed and tortured for decades, they didn't deserve the treatment they'd been subjected to.

But now, there you were, unsure of which hallway to go down and simply following Bucky and Steve, Thor standing beside you while the two of you followed.

You weren't stupid. You knew why Steve had told you to stay with Thor. Thor was strong enough to protect you rather easily if need be and Steve himself was too occupied to look out for you. You just wished you'd been able to have more training before this, at least then you would be able to pull your own weight in terms of self-defense. Instead, you were just brought along because the rest of the people there weren't exactly geniuses with technology.

Especially with the people in your group.

Steve and Bucky weren't exactly caught up on current events, better yet, the technology. Thor wasn't even from Earth and was hopeless with tech.

You were tense, knowing that this was probably one of the most serious moments of your life. You felt doubt start to wiggle its way into your mind, but you pushed that wriggly worm down, instead focusing on how you had just compared doubt to a worm and wondering if your mind was just fucking weird.

You refocused on the situation at hand, scolding yourself internally because this situation really didn't need you zoning out and getting lost in your mind. That was fine late at night when you were trying to fall asleep, but it could present a bit of a problem if fighting started and you were stuck thinking about doubt as a worm. Well, a wriggly worm to be specific, but-

No. Focus, (y/n).

You took a deep breath, looking around the rather ominous hallways the four of you kept turning down, wrinkling your nose at the smell. It was musty and dusty and you were worried you'd end up sneezing and give away where you were. That wouldn't be ideal.

Steve and Bucky climbed up a couple steps, you and Thor following right behind them.

In the movie, Bucky had led Steve and Tony to the large room that held the Winter Soldiers, so you assumed that was what was going to happen now. But you were concerned. In the movie Zemo had made a trap for them. With the plot changed, you didn't know if you had arrived early enough to stop Zemo before his trap was set and the Winter Soldiers were killed.

You arrived in the room and there they were.

It was dark, so dark that if the containers the people were kept in didn't have their own light, you would be blind to your surroundings. You took in a sharp breath, looking at the people sitting in those strange cells. You wanted nothing more than to run up to each of those cells and inspect the glass, ensure that there weren't any bullet holes and the people behind the glass weren't murdered in their inhumane confines.

But you knew you couldn't do that. That would be stupid. So you stayed behind Steve, looking at the cages and trying to discern if someone had indeed shot through them. Unfortunately, the lighting as bad as it was, you were going to have to get closer to actually tell.

As you moved closer, you felt your anticipation grow. From what you could see, none of the cells had any holes in them.

You almost gasped, but restrained yourself. Unless you were missing something or your eyes weren't reliable, none of the Winter Soldiers had been killed. Sure, they all looked dead because of whatever cryo-freeze thing that Hydra put them in, but none of them had the execution style shot in their head.

Zemo hadn't yet shot them.

You'd arrived before he could do so.

It wasn't a great time to do so, but you almost smiled. After all, that meant you had managed to change the plot enough that Steve and Bucky were able to arrive before Zemo could set up his plan. It also meant that these six lives hadn't been lost.

You were already thinking about if you could convince T'Challa to take them back to Wakanda and get them the treatment Bucky was able to get there. With that, maybe those people would be able to escape Hydra's influence and finally be able to live for themselves.

"I was going to get rid of them before you arrived, but I suppose I can do that later." Helmut Zemo's voice crackled over the old intercom.

Steve and Bucky instantly went tense and battle-ready. Thor moved closer to you, ready to shield you from whatever was going to happen.

"Unfortunately," Zemo continued, "I didn't expect your arrival so soon. But as I said before, I can deal with that later."

"You killed innocent people to bring us here," Steve's voice held an undercurrent of anger you'd never heard in person before. "Why?"

"An unfortunate necessity," Zemo conceded, "I do apologize to you for any injuries you might've retained, (y/n)(l/n). The bombing was important to the plan, although the deaths are regrettable."

You almost said 'No problem' out of habit but managed to stop yourself from doing so because it was just a bit of a problem.

"Don't speak to her," Steve ordered. "You caused so much pain. For what?"

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you."

You knew why Zemo had done what he did, and while it was tragic, it didn't excuse bombing a building.

"Again, my apologies, (y/n)(l/n). I never wanted to hurt any children."

You almost felt insulted by that but then realized it was probably best to just ignore the statement. There were, after all, more important things to worry about. Besides, you felt uneasy. Sure, you knew things were much better than in the movie but you had the horrible sense that something was going to go horrendously wrong.

Your eyes swept the room, roving over the six empty glowing cells, the corners hidden by shadows, the-

Wait a fucking minute-

Empty cells?

Oh, fuck.

"Guys, the cell things are empty," you alerted the people with you.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck where were they?

You flinched when the lights in the cells went out, darkness crashing down like a tidal wave, ready to pull you beneath and leave you never to be seen again.

"As I said before," Zemo's voice came over the intercom again, "I did not expect you all so soon. And unfortunately, the Iron-Man isn't here, which messes up another plan of mine. You really have thwarted a couple of my plans and it is quite annoying; but as you Americans say, 'the show must go on'."

"I know he said he was going to kill them, but I think he decided to give them one last go before he did." You tried to control your voice as you spoke, but it was rising as you got more nervous. You looked around uselessly, the darkness too thick for you to see anybody or anything. You felt the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, every muscle in your body tensing as your nerves rose.

You reached out, knowing Thor was right beside you only a couple feet from you when the lights went out. "Thor, are you there?"

"I am right here, Lady (y/n)." You felt relief wash over you when you heard his voice. "Do not move, Lady (y/n), let me find you."

"Okay." Even with the comfort Thor brought you, every moment of silence in that pitch-black room made you more and more uneasy.

You felt a hand reach out and grab your arm, almost giving you a heart attack.

"Lady (y/n), is that you?"

"Ye-"

Your words were cut off, a hand covering your mouth while another one wrapped around your waist and pulled you backward. You tried to scream, but the hand over your mouth only muffled the noise. Remembering the training Natasha had taught you, you desperately tried to get out of the assaulter's grasp but to no avail. Your movements were too slow, too amateur to work on an assassin trained for decades.

"Lady (y/n), where did you go?" Thor's voice held uncharacteristic urgency. "Lady (y/n)?"

"(y/n)!" Now Steve's voice was breaking through the silence, the cry of your name reaching your ears and while you wanted nothing more than to respond, you were left to try to scream, again only muffled noises.

"I think I heard her," Bucky's voice popped up. "(y/n), try to make as much noise as possible."

You screamed, the noise still muffled but louder than before. The person holding you wrapped an arm around your throat, applying pressure slowly. You tried to claw at their arm, use your legs to knock them off balance, but nothing worked. They were too strong, stance too sturdy, and far too well trained for your efforts to do much more than annoy them.

You clawed desperately at the arm as the person but more and more pressure on your throat. Although the arm was only choking you for mere seconds, it felt never-ending. Something was happening to you, your airway being closed off, you felt like you were...you couldn't- you couldn't....breathe...

The lights in the cells turned back on, leaving Steve, Thor, and Bucky looking for you anxiously. Unfortunately, they weren't left with much time to search for you when six people came out of the shadows and decided to attack.

"WHERE IS LADY (Y/N)?" Thor thundered, voice rough thunder is loud.

Steve was focused, desperately trying to keep the two assassins back but too distracted by looking for you to focus. He had let you come along with them, he had allowed this to happen. If you were dead....

No, you couldn't be dead.

"YOU WILL NOT TELL ME WHERE SHE IS? FINE, I HAVE NO NEED FOR YOU THEN." Slamming his hammer on the floor, Thor sent out shocks of electricity at the two people trying to attack him, knocking them unconscious. In quick succession, he managed to render the rest of the assassins unconscious as well.

No longer occupied by trying to defend himself, Steve searched the room for you; Bucky and Thor followed his lead.

They looked up as footsteps approached, running footsteps.

Instantly on guard again, they all tensed, ready to fight the newcomers.

Wanda emerged, Scott behind her. A few moments later, Clint and Same came in, escorting a bound Helmut Zemo with them.

Footsteps loud against the stone floor, Steve stormed over to the incapacitated man. "Where is she." His words a demand for answers, not a question.

"I told you I did not want the death of a child on my mind." Was all Zemo said.

Wanda tilted her head. "He ordered one of the Winter Soldiers to knock her unconscious before the fighting began." She had read his mind, desperate to find out where her friend was.

Weak coughing was heard from one of the shadowy corners. "I...I'm over here."

67 notes · View notes