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pandalandalopalis · 3 years

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The Things We've Done - Bucky Barnes x Telepathic Reader [Epilogue]

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Story Synopsis: All you wanted was simplicity. You had moved to Washington, DC for a better start - to get away from what you were, to get away from what you were expected to be. You never thought you’d meet the Captain America in a bar just three days after moving. You never thought there would be a dangerous person in your apartment just hours after meeting him.

Beginning with the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Hydra sends its most deadly weapon after a powerful telepath untested in the range of her abilities. Intrigued by the broken pieces of his mind, the two of you make an agreement: he helps you hide from Hydra, and you repair and salvage what’s left of his memories.

Chapter Synopsis: Today is the happiest day of your life.

Read it on AO3

Epilogue

A/N: There are a few things I need to say before we go into the Epilogue. I started this story over two years ago, in August of 2018. I had posted the first chapter just before going on a school exchange to Ireland, and I was terrified of being on my own in a different country for four months. This story really helped me get through that. I loved writing it and I loved reading all your responses to it.

I need to say . . . the latter parts of this story were really difficult to get through. When I started this story, my parents were still together. They’re not anymore. They separated just after this story turned one year old, in 2019. It’s been a really hard and long journey for me. Honestly, the story felt very difficult to write at times, because I didn’t really know what love felt like anymore.

Things are better, now. They’re still really hard sometimes, but it’s better than it was. I’m really happy I finally get to finish this story, although it makes me a little sad that it’s finally done now. (Though it’ll never truly be over, I still want to do drabbles and what-if storylines and stuff like that, because I don’t think I’ll ever really let go of this story.)

I’m so grateful for you guys. I’m so glad that so many of you enjoyed this story. I really, really enjoyed writing it. And I hope you guys like this Epilogue :) So, uh, about the Epilogue. This was supposed to be short. Well, maybe not short, but, like, average chapter length at least (like 2k is what I would call average for myself).

IT’S THE LONGEST FUCKING CHAPTER IN THE WHOLE SERIES. IT’S 10,900 WORDS. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN. HOW DID THE EPILOGUE END UP BEING THE LONGEST CHAPTER IN THE SERIES. HOW I DO THIS. WHY I DO THIS.

Anyway, I really hope you guys like it <3 <3 Love you all so, so much.

Two Years Later

“I just don’t know what the protocol is for this.”

You laughed at Matt’s words, high and light, although your heart pounded in your chest. It was a dizzying high of nervousness mixed with anticipation.

“Like am I supposed to be talking you into this,” Matt continued, “or am I driving your getaway car?”

“You can’t drive.”

“You get the point.”

Natasha came to sit next to Matt, smoothing down her dress and taking a sip of her champagne. “I’ll drive the getaway car.”

You laughed again. “Why does there need to be a getaway car?”

“I’m just preparing for all possibilities,” Matt answered. “You didn’t exactly give me a job description when you asked me to be your maid of honour.”

“You’re my closest friend, besides the groom. It’s like an honourary title,” you explained. You said a thanks to Wanda as she handed you a glass of champagne, and she sat down in one of the empty chairs in the dressing room.

“I still think it’s a little awkward to have me as your maid of honour,” Matt said, adjusting his red-tinted glasses. “Because. Well you know.”

You took a sip of your champagne, shaking your head. “Bucky’s going to be Steve’s best man at Steve and Natasha’s wedding.”

Natasha nodded. Matt raised an eyebrow.

“So?”

“So, whatever relations we might have had before we ended up in our current relationships doesn’t matter. Especially when they didn’t mean anything,” you explained.

It took Matt a second to understand what you were talking about.

“Ah.”

You heard Wanda snort through her nose, and you looked over at her. “What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

You burst out laughing, surprised at her thoughts. “Wanda!” you exclaimed.

“You didn’t have to read my mind!” she defended herself.

Natasha leaned forward. “What did she say?”

You couldn’t stop the amused smile that had taken over your lips. “She was thinking that she’s the only person in this room who hasn’t slept with either the bride or the groom.”

Matt choked on his champagne while Natasha howled with laughter, and you joined her.

The past was the past. The only thing that mattered was now.

Today you would marry James Buchanan Barnes.

❤❤❤

The safest place to hold the wedding was on Genosha.

The island had been your home for the past two years. It took a lot of work to build it into the city it was now, and it was a long time before you could even call it that — but now the island prospered.

Things with the US government were still rocky. Half of the Avengers were still technically classified as war criminals (including your fiancé), which made Genosha the safest place for them. A large gathering of superheroes, both labelled war criminals and not, was a security risk and having the wedding anywhere else was just not a good idea.

As much as you wanted your wedding to be in Romania.

It was okay. It didn’t matter where you married Bucky. It didn’t matter where you two lived. As cheesy as it sounded, the only thing that mattered was that the two of you were together.

Because after everything you two had been through, that was the only thing you cared about. You wanted to spend the rest of your life with Bucky, wherever you were, whatever you were doing. So long as you two were together.

Holy fuck why were you suddenly so nervous right now.

“Your heart is beating really fast,” Matt whispered to you. Your grip around his arm tightened as he walked with you. “Do you need me to tell Natasha to start the getaway car?”

You hit his chest. “Would you stop it with the getaway car? I’m not getting cold feet. I just. . . .” You couldn’t describe how you were feeling. A million emotions at once. Anticipation and anxiety and excitement and all those things that made you buzz underneath your skin.

“You love him,” Matt offered you.

Gratefully, you took that, and you held onto it.

“I love him.”

❤❤❤

“Stop fidgeting.”

“Shut up.”

It was a beautiful day outside, warm and sunny and breezy with the area around them filled with flowers. But standing next to the altar, Bucky felt more nervous than he had ever had in his life, and Sam was not helping.

“Getting metal feet?” Sam quipped and Bucky refused to look at him, staring straight ahead.

“You’re not funny, you know.”

“Oh I’m hilarious. I just think Hydra erased your sense of humour.”

Knight in shining metal arm, the shared joke flitted through his mind, and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. The memory of Y/N, barely withholding her laughter, smiling at him in that way that made his heart feel light and unrestrained. He tried to hold onto that as some of the nervousness returned — that stupid, useless, unnecessary anxiety that came from who-knows-where and that he didn’t know how to dissipate.

“Everyone gets wedding day jitters,” Steve offered, and he clapped Bucky on the shoulder.

Bucky nodded, taking a sharp breath in. He looked over the guests, many chatting to each other as they waited.

He spotted Melita and Andrei Mikalos sitting near the middle. They smiled and waved at him, and he smiled back. It had been difficult explaining the truth to them —and not to mention a risk— but both Bucky and Y/N wanted so badly for them to be there. They reminded them of Romania, of their home of two years. The couple reminded them of the beginnings of their relationship, the moments they had when they were just starting to fall in love.

Mrs and Mr Mikalos took it as well as to be expected — there was confusion and disbelief at first, but eventually understanding. Most of all, after the destruction of their apartment by the authorities trying to take Bucky into custody, Mrs and Mr Mikalos were just glad that Bucky and Y/N were alive and safe.

In fact, the first time they had gone back to Romania to visit, Mrs Mikalos had opened the door and wept at the sight of them. She had hugged Y/N and then Bucky in a tighter embrace than he had thought her capable.

Bucky had proposed that night. They invited Mrs and Mr Mikalos the next day.

He smiled at the memory. He had been so nervous about asking her — he didn’t even know why he was ever afraid that she would say no. This was both something that they wanted and had wanted for a long time — even longer than they both realized, for a time.

Bucky had told Steve the truth about that during his bachelor party. It was a very simple, low-key party: just drinking with the guys and talking. At one point during the night, Steve had been going over his Best Man’s speech and asked Bucky if he could put a certain story from 1945 in it.

❤❤❤

“Hey, Buck,” Steve said as he had his notebook open and a pen in his hand. “I’m trying to write my speech for the wedding and I— Do you remember that time in 1945 when we were having that drink in that bar in —shit I can’t remember the name of the town but I think it was in Italy— Anyway, you went after this woman and danced with her for like fifteen minutes and came back like, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl’? You remember that?”

And Bucky did. Vividly. Intimately. More than he was sure Steve remembered of it. To Steve, that night was just one of many others, where his friend said something a bit out of the ordinary. To Bucky . . . it was the first time he had met the love of his life.

Bucky smiled. “Yeah. I remember.”

“Well, I thought about putting that story in the speech,” Steve went on. “Something about the first time you realized you were ready for marriage. ‘Cause, you know. You used to be kind of a ladies’ man.”

Sam laughed. “Bucky used to be a ladies’ man?”

Steve grinned. “Yeah, and he was good, too. All the girls loved him.”

Bucky scratched his head, a shy sort of smile on his face.

“This guy, Bucky, this guy had moves?” Sam asked with a laugh of disbelief. “This guy got game?”

“Well, actually, Steve. . .” Bucky began, “. . .that story goes a little differently than you remember.”

Steve’s head tilted. “What do you mean?”

He ran his hand through his hair. “That woman in the bar. . . . The woman I said I would marry. . . . That was Y/N.”

Sam shifted in his chair to face Bucky. “Wait, what?”

“What do you mean that was Y/N?” Steve asked, understandably confused.

“I mean that Y/N, in 2017, got into trouble with some Brotherhood members,” Bucky explained, “and a portal-maker sent her back in time to 1945. That’s where she met me. And I met her. For the first time.”

They all stared at Bucky. Then, finally, Steve broke the silence.

“Holy shit.”

“I know.”

“Hang on, hang on,” Sam said. “So in 1945 you met a woman and you said you were going to marry her. And then everything happened and seventy years passed. Then you found her again. Then more stuff happened. And now . . . you’re marrying the woman you said you were going to marry in 1945?”

Bucky nodded. “That’s about it.”

Sam shook his head, a smile on his face. Then he, to Bucky’s surprise, clapped Bucky on the shoulder. “You did good, man.”

Bucky smiled to himself as Sam sat back down. “Maybe he does got moves,” Sam added.

Steve shook his head with a smile, looking at Bucky. “The woman from the bar was Y/N. . . . You two really were made for each other, huh?”

Bucky shrugged. “Well, I don’t know about that. We just . . . fit together.”

Steve took a sip of his drink. “2017. . . . So she was meeting you when she already knew you.” His eyebrows knitted together. “But, wait— when in 2017?”

Bucky tapped his metal finger against his glass, the sound making a clink clink clink clink. “Before I found her again.”

His eyebrows rose. “She met you in ‘45 when she hadn’t seen you in almost a year?”

Bucky nodded. “She told me that she honestly thought that seeing me there would be the last time she would ever see me.”

Steve blew out a breath. “That must have been hard for her.”

“It was.”

Steve put his empty glass on the floor, then glanced back at the journal in his lap. He picked up the pen resting between the pages, and started writing.

❤❤❤

Music began to swell and Bucky’s heart rate jumped up again. Anxiety was replaced by anticipation as Bucky straightened his posture and looked to the back, where Y/N would be in just a few moments.

He was so goddamn ready to marry her.

Flower girls were first, followed by little Morgan Stark carrying the rings— with Pepper carrying her because she was only just over a year old. Pepper handed the rings to Steve, who gave Morgan a high five. Then Morgan made grabby hands at her father, who was standing up there with them.

That’s right. Tony Stark was officiating their wedding.

He had offered. And when he did, Bucky didn’t know how to feel at first. The two of them had a complicated history, and to be honest . . . Bucky wasn’t sure if Tony ever really forgave him.

But Tony had spent two years helping them build up Genosha, chipping in with money and resources and time and ideas. Bucky and him had gotten to know each other.

Offering to officiate Bucky’s wedding was a gesture.

A gesture that said everything. That meant everything.

Pepper handed Morgan off to Tony and all the other guests aww’ed as he held her.

The bridesmaids were next— Natasha and then Wanda behind her. Natasha came to stand next to Steve, and the two gave each other secret smiles that would have been totally obvious if Bucky hadn’t been otherwise preoccupied. Wanda took her place next to Sam, then the guests rose to stand.

It was like he got the wind knocked out of him.

For a moment, Bucky forgot how to breathe as Y/N came into his vision. It wasn’t that her hair or makeup or dress made her any more beautiful than she was every day. What made her more beautiful was her walking down that aisle, walking down to him— both with the knowledge that these were the first steps to the rest of their lives.

Hi, her mind whispered to his.

Hi, he whispered back.

And Bucky could feel the overwhelming emotion pool in his eyes as he finally took in the design of her wedding dress. It was completely strapless and sleeveless, her arms bare and the tattoos there on display for everyone to see. He had no doubt that the dress was also backless (which it was). If this was the dress she chose, Y/N wanted everyone to see the Phoenix inked into her skin, and to see all of it. She wasn’t hiding anymore. She didn’t have to hide anymore.

Your grip on Matt’s arm loosened as you finally saw him.

Bucky, standing at the front of the room. He looked as nervous as you felt, but something relaxed in him when he saw you. Steeled, even. Like he was more ready to marry you than he had ever been.

So were you, you decided.

A couple months ago, when Bucky had asked you to cut his hair, you weren’t sure about how it would look. If he would look different than the Bucky you knew. And he did look different— But as you walked down that aisle, you decided it was the best kind of different. Because Bucky wasn’t just your friend or your partner or your fiancé anymore. He was going to be your husband.

Hi, the whisper slipped from your mind to his, unable to wait until you were actually with him to speak.

Hi, came the reply, as tentative and full of anticipation as yours had been.

And as you saw the emotion in Bucky’s face as he took you in, the tears in his eyes, overwhelming emotion filled your own. He was sending you thoughts of your dress, your wedding dress that let everyone see the whole of your tattoo. The Phoenix on your back.

You had wrestled with the idea for a while. When you had first gone shopping for wedding dresses, there were so many that were sleeveless, or strapless, or backless. So many different dresses that would show off parts of your tattoo. And as you tried on a dress that completely covered all of that up, as you looked at yourself in the mirror, you finally decided that you didn’t want to hide it anymore. You didn’t want to hide from it. Didn’t want to hide from the world any longer.

So you wore your tattoo on your back proudly, although it terrified you, because you needed to take back what it meant to you. With the black bands around your wrists gone, you were no longer bound to a future that you could not control. The Phoenix was a part of you, and the danger had passed. You would own the tattoo not as something your mother and the Hellfire Club had forced on you, but as something you had chosen yourself. To save Bucky. To save everyone. To save yourself.

For love. Your connection with the Phoenix had been born out of love.

Let everyone see that, instead.

Your heart pounded in your chest as you finally joined your hands with Bucky’s, and you let it. Let the anticipation and emotion wash over you as you stared into the blue of his eyes and realized that this was it.

His thumbs stroked the back of your hands, although he took a moment to wipe a stray tear from his face and you did the same. A bright smile settled on your lips and a softer version of your own settled on his.

You weren’t even really hearing Tony saying the opening remarks. You were sure he was saying some kind of joke, because you dimly recognized the laughter that came from your guests. But all you were focused on was Bucky. And all he was focused on was you.

I gotta admit, Doll, Bucky’s voice whispered to your mind. I’m really nervous.

Me, too, you admitted back. I think that’s normal.

You look beautiful.

So do you.

No, I mean. . . . He inhaled. You took my breath away.

You inhaled a deep breath, too, so many swirling feelings in your chest. I want to marry you so much it hurts.

Good thing that’s what we’re doing here.

Your laughter carried silently through both your minds.

Then Tony turned it over to the two of you to exchange your vows. You had both agreed on the vows you would give and wanted to say them together. But first, you each had prepared something that you wanted to say to each other.

The two of you had decided that you would go first. Bucky squeezed your hands as you took another breath.

Then began.

“Sometimes, when I dream, I see all these different versions of us,” you started. It wasn’t a metaphor. The Phoenix let you see into worlds that were not your own, into different universes and timelines. “Versions of us that haven’t met.”

A version of Bucky spending time in Stark Tower, where Tony Stark had converted the building into a place for the Avengers to stay. They all lived there -- Bucky, Steve, Tony, Natasha, Thor, Bruce, Clint. Bucky still struggled with nightmares and the things he had done.

A version of you, working as a specialized therapist for mutants. Using your telepathy to help people. In your dream, you saw a woman sitting across from you, a client who wanted her memories erased. She was bold and angry and self-medicating. You refused to erase her memories but offered to treat her, instead. It took some time, but she agreed. You helped her work through her trauma and thoughts of revenge. You helped her realize why killing a man named James Buchanan Barnes was not what she wanted, and would not make things better for her.

Ultimately it was her choice, but you had helped save his life without ever meeting him.

“Versions of us that bumped into each other briefly, only to go their separate ways.”

A version of the two of you in a bar. Bucky had saved you from a man who was annoyingly insistent on buying you a drink. The two of you talked for hours.

You moved to Washington the next morning.

“Versions of us that met later.”

A version of Bucky that had dealt with Thanos and being dead for five years before being brought back. A version of him that had court-mandated therapy and almost zero friends and was just trying to get by, day-to-day.

A version of you that had been the Phoenix for fifteen years. A version of you that felt the absence of the Infinity Stones and half of the people of the universe and it left you unstable. A version of you that went to the Hellfire Club for help, only to get turned into a weapon for five years, until half the population returned and you took your life back. Still unstable.

A version of you that had moved to a new apartment building because you had accidentally destroyed the last one.

You were Bucky’s new neighbour. One night, he found you on the rooftop, unable to sleep because of the nightmares. He had come up for the same reason. You bonded over nightmares and messy lives and not telling the other the huge secrets you both kept.

In one of your dreams, you stood in a bar in Madripoor with Bucky, Sam, and Helmut Zemo of all people. Bucky wore garb reminiscent of what Hydra made him wear as the Winter Soldier. You wore a backless, sleeveless dress, showing off your tattoo. Zemo called Bucky “Winter Soldier” and you “Phoenix”.

The two of you bonded over being living weapons, over being controlled by secret organizations that used you to hurt and kill and gain power.

“Versions of us that met in a different point in time.”

A version of you that had pissed off the wrong Brotherhood member. A version of you that got thrown through a portal and ended up in some kind of facility with Captain America and his best friend running around. A version of you from 2014 that ended up in the 1940s.

There was nothing you could do about being there, so you told them you were a medic and you joined Captain America when he created his Howling Commandos.

It was Bucky you grew closest with. Sitting outside with him by the fire, in the middle of the night when neither of you could sleep. You dreamed of the Hand — He dreamed of Zola experimenting on him.

At some point it became more between the two of you.

You knew about his future. You knew about the train and his death.

You tried to stop it.

Failed.

“Versions of us where the timing didn’t work.”

A version of you that was young, only seventeen years old. A version of you that went to school with Peter Parker. A version of you that became his friend. A version of you that found out that he was Spider-Man and got involved in that life.

You met Bucky Barnes when you met the Avengers. To him, you were the kid’s friend and nothing more.

A version of Bucky that didn’t fall off the train. A version of Bucky that mourned the death of his friend after the plane crash. A version of Bucky that lived a long and happy life.

A version of you that volunteered at an old-folks home.

The other volunteers and staff called him ‘James’, but he always told you to call him ‘Bucky’. Sometimes you’d sit for hours listening to his stories of war and Captain America and the Howling Commandos.

When he died, you went to his funeral and told those stories yourself.

“Versions of us still trying to save each other, even when things went wrong.”

A version of you that chose wrong. A version of you that chose to leave Bucky to protect him.

Thanos happened. Bucky died. You became the Phoenix, in a violent and grief-stricken way. The Hellfire Club spent five years carving you out so they could control you.

Everyone came back.

Bucky spent months trying to find you.

In your dream, Bucky stood in front of you, you with your glowing eyes and expression void of emotion, of anything. He tried to convince you of who you used to be. You told him that whoever that person was, that person did not live inside you anymore.

Someone fired a gunshot at him. You stopped the bullet without meaning to. Looked at your betraying hand and wondered why.

Maybe there was still a part of you left in there, somewhere.

“There are so many different versions of us. Good and bad.”

A version of you walking up from cryosleep in a Hydra facility in Siberia. A version of you that Hydra had captured a few years earlier, put in a facility with the other Winter Soldiers, and forgotten about you.

It was Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes who had rescued you when they found you there, amongst the Winter Soldiers, your file saying that you were something different from them.

You watched Iron Man come to fight Captain America and his friend. Watched Bucky lose his arm.

Lost control. Incapacitated Iron Man. Helped Captain America take Bucky from the facility.

Offered to help fix his mind.

A version of you that went to the Avengers for help when the Infinity Stones were destroyed and half the population left this . . . void, and the Phoenix raged inside you, making you an unstable thing.

You stayed at the Compound. Helped where you could. Spent most of your time in the power-dampening box that SHIELD had created once to deal with enhanced and mutant and inhuman people.

Five years later, when the Avengers had collected the Stones, you couldn’t help yourself. The Phoenix would not allow anyone else to handle them but you, but itself.

You took the Stones and snapped your fingers. Brought everyone back.

Unharmed as you were, you didn’t have the strength to fight when Thanos’s forces came.

Tony Stark was forced to use the Stones himself. And as he lay dying, you let the Phoenix’s power flow, and you saved his life.

Tony Stark rebuilt the Compound. You lived in it with Bucky and Wanda.

You had all lost things.

With the Stones gone once again, you were back to being an unstable mess, the void returned to claim you.

Bucky was trying to figure out who he was. Trying to figure out how to live a normal life again. How to reconcile for the things that he had done.

Wanda was grief as a person. Vision was gone, and she didn’t know how to handle his loss.

Somehow, the three of you living in that Compound managed. Leaned on each other. Found a way to . . . live again. Together.

A version of you that was taken to Sokovia like Alexander Pierce had promised you. A version of you that was experimented on by Strucker.

A version of the Winter Soldier that was ordered to go with you rather than go fight Steve Rogers.

He was ordered to keep the Weapon safe. To keep any unauthorized persons from touching you.

In your dream, a Hydra agent had gotten frustrated with you enough to hit you. The Soldier had clamped his metal hand around his neck and lifted him up against the wall. After he was ordered to let go and the agent was ordered to leave, you felt the Soldier’s eyes on you. Assessing you for injuries. He left your cell, then.

Came back with a packet of ice.

A version of you that was acquainted with Prince (then King) T’Challa. A version of you that was asked for help. A version of you that was asked to come to Wakanda to help a man whose memories had been broken, whose mind needed fixing and trigger words removed.

In your dream, you stayed in the hut next to James Buchanan Barnes. The children adored him and called him ‘White Wolf’. After a time, he asked you to call him ‘Bucky’.

You helped him with his mind, in the sun and the peace and the quiet of Wakanda.

You grew closer.

Then Thanos came and everything fell apart.

Another version of you from 2014 that was sent back in time. This version of you ended up in the 1980s.

You made a life for yourself. But then you helped one too many people— and unfortunately gained a reputation as a telepath that Hydra could not ignore. They forced you to work with them, lest you lose your life. For the people you interrogated for them, you tried to make it as quick and painless as possible.

The Winter Soldier was assigned to watch you, escort you, protect you, handle you. Watch you and escort you to make sure you didn’t escape; protect you to make sure no one deprived Hydra of their telepath. They regularly wiped the Soldier’s mind, but . . . you kept his memories for him, after that first time you had met. Although he wordlessly confronted you about it, he didn’t tell Hydra what you had done. You kept his memories for him every time they wiped him.

Priorities began to change. The Soldier began to put your safety above his missions.

In your dream, the Soldier had been injured, and you were helping patch him up. There was a closeness and intimacy there that was foreign territory for you both.

Finally, he said, “I’m going to get you out of this.”

You couldn’t let him. You knew Hydra would punish him for it. Worse, they would wipe his memories for real and he would be back to square one.

You told him to come with you. That the two of you would run, together.

You spent the night with each other.

Intimately.

The plan was meant to work. You were both meant to escape.

But someone had noticed. Someone had noticed how the Soldier’s priorities changed.

Hydra deemed you a liability. They couldn’t have someone influencing their Asset and undermining their conditioning tactics.

The next time they took the Soldier for a memory wipe, they came for you while he was gone. Stuck a needle in your neck. Knocked you out. Threw you in a cryo-chamber.

They successfully wiped the Soldier’s mind. Then they sent him to kill Howard and Maria Stark.

You woke up twenty-seven years later. The world was new and damaged.

You wondered what happened to the Soldier.

Bucky wondered what happened to you, too.

“But I am so lucky that this is the version that I got.”

The version of the two of you that met in an unfortunate way, but made the best of it by helping each other. The version of the two of you that ran to Romania and hid there. The version of you that helped piece Bucky’s memories back together. The version of Bucky that was slow to open up to you, and the version of you that was slow to open up in return. The version of the two of you that found ways to connect to each other. The version of the two of you that found comfort in each other at night; the version of the two of you that stopped each other’s nightmares. The version of Bucky that fell in love with you first. The version of the two of you that explored each other’s trauma. The version of the two of you that saw the worst of each other. The version of the two of you that accepted the other anyway. The version of Bucky that traced your tattoos and scars; the version of you that traced his own; the version of the two of you that found a way to undo the trauma inflicted on the other. Maybe not undo it all the way, but start to heal.

The version of the two of you that got separated. The version of you that had to live without Bucky for almost a year. The version of Bucky that had to live without you for almost a year. The version of you that grappled with your feelings for Bucky, when you didn’t know if you’d ever see him again. The version of you that discovered the terrible truth of your future and how Bucky was involved. The version of you that refused to admit that you loved him because somehow you thought that distancing yourself from him would save his life.

The version of the two of you that reunited, that hugged each other so tightly you thought you would never breathe again and it didn’t matter. The version of you that finally accepted that you loved him. The version of you that almost left because of it. The version of you that chose to stay, to tell Bucky the truth about everything. The version of you that finally admitted that you loved him — the version of Bucky that kissed you and kissed you and kissed you and told you that he loved you, too.

The version of you that became the Phoenix out of love, to save Bucky, to save everyone. The version of you that stopped Thanos and the terrible future. The version of you that created Genosha and provided mutants and anyone else who wanted a safe place to live their lives.

The version of you that almost died. The version of you that didn’t die. The version of you that unbound yourself.

The version of the two of you, living happily together, building up Genosha.

The version of the two of you here, now, at your wedding.

The version of the two of you that loved each other and that was enough.

Bucky’s hands squeezed yours, and you smiled widely at him through the shallow pools resting in your eyes, tears of joy and overwhelming love. “To be honest. . .” you continued, “. . .I never thought I’d get here. I never thought I’d get to stand here, with someone like you, that I love so much, in front of all of my friends, and family,” the family that you chose, “and get to tell all of them . . . how much I love you.”

Bucky’s own blue eyes were filling with tears again. He smiled at you though he was trying not to cry, trying not to let the emotion completely overwhelm him. And though he was failing, the brightness that you felt inside for him radiated throughout you and you shared that with him.

Relief bubbled up from inside you as you made your next admission. “I get to plan a future with you. You are my future. I don’t know what that future might hold, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I don’t want it all planned out. I just want to live it with you.” You inhaled. Focused on the blue of his eyes and the watery smile on his face and let it ground you. “James Buchanan Barnes. Our love was not love at first sight. Far from it. But you saved me. In so many different ways. You saved my life, more times than I can probably count. You saved the person that I am. When I wanted to be anything but myself, you looked at me, and you loved me, for everything that I am, all the good, and the bad, and the terrible.”

Bucky’s thumbs brushed over the backs of her hands, soothing over the memories. In that moment, more than anything else he just wanted to hug her. Squeeze her body as tightly as she needed it, and let her hold him back as tightly as he needed it.

“Unapologetically, you saw me,” she continued. “All of me. And I saw you. This person who was so like me. Who knew my pain. Who understood it.”

Bucky did. More than anyone else, he knew her pain because it was a pain that he had experienced for himself. And she understood his pain in return.

“And I know it took me a long time to realize what I felt for you. But I’m here now. And I love you more than words can say.” She smiled at him and he smiled back, that fluttering in his heart returning.

I love you, too, he whispered to her mind. I love you so damn much.

You squeezed his hands as his expression became nervous again. Bucky reached in his pocket to pull out a sheet of paper, his hands shaking a bit. You kissed the top of his knuckles of the hand still in yours, eliciting a small laugh from Bucky and awws from your guests.

“The first first time that I met you,” he began, “was love at first sight.”

A memory that Bucky projected to you. Of 1945 from his point of view — seeing you and bumping into you and being absolutely enamored with you.

“I saw you across a crowded bar and danced with you and told Steve that I was gonna marry you.”

Bucky, a little breathless, his heart hammering in his chest as he spoke the words,

“I’m gonna marry that girl.”

“The second first time that I met you was not love at first sight. I didn’t remember who you were. I didn’t remember anything. You hadn’t even met me yet. Because the first first time that I met you was not the first time that you met me.” Bucky looked out toward the guests, then. “That’s, uh, some complicated time travel stuff that happened. What a world we live in, huh?” Laughter rang out, most notably from those who had first hand experience with the weirdness that came with superheroes and aliens and enhanced people and mutants. Bucky looked back at his notes, the paper crinkling in his hand. He found his place again. Sometimes he’d read directly from the page, and sometimes he’d look at you. “But,” he continued, “the first time you met me, you saw what I was. Maybe not who I was, but . . . that I was lost. That I was alone. That I needed help, even though I’d never say it.”

Bucky stood in the Smithsonian, looking at the image of himself, an image that he did not recognize, with the name ‘James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes’ attached to it. That wasn’t him. It looked like him, and maybe at one point that was supposed to be him, but. . . .

He didn’t know who he was. And he didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing now. He didn’t even know how he was supposed to feel. Happy that he left Hydra? Grieving the loss of a life he had never known? Angry for what had been done to him? He didn’t completely understand that, either. There were so many gaps, and things were coming back too slowly. He still barely understood who Steve Rogers was and what he meant to him. He knew he meant something to him. He had felt it. And the Smithsonian was saying they had been friends since they were young.

But reading about something and knowing something were two very different things.

What was he supposed to do next? Find Steve Rogers? He could. But he still didn’t know him.

Hydra would want him back. And nearly anywhere else he’d be considered a criminal for the things he’d done. Things he . . . didn’t even remember.

That made him feel. . . .

He was still trying to remember how to feel. What emotions were like. He couldn’t even put names to what he was feeling. Or if he was feeling anything at all.

He wondered what happened to the woman in that cell.

He couldn’t decide if he cared or not. Couldn’t figure out if he was supposed to care or not.

Was curiosity the same as caring? Was guilt the same as caring?

He couldn’t tell if that’s what it was. If he was feeling any of that.

Was emotionlessness easier? Was not feeling easier?

Being free was a good thing.

But he didn’t know what he was supposed to do next.

A woman came to stand next to him. You came to stand next to him. Even though he didn’t look at you, he realized who you were.

A little voice inside his mind said, Oh. It’s you.

He didn’t like that little voice. Because he was still struggling to figure out what to feel. How he felt. He didn’t like the little voice because it was him. And he didn’t know who that was yet.

“Looks like you didn’t need my help after all.” His voice still sounded foreign to his own ears.

“I did,” you said. “I shouldn’t’ve had to do that. Now Hydra knows for sure what I am. Now they’ll never stop chasing me.”

He didn’t want to look at you. He didn’t know how to . . . empathize yet. He said, “What do you think would’ve happened if they had decided that you weren’t who they thought you were? I know you’re not naïve enough to think that they would’ve let you go.” If you were that naïve then you were a fool. Hydra was merciless. It was that that he knew with an absolute certainty.

“If it meant that they wouldn’t have made me hurt anyone, then I could’ve lived with that.”

“No, you wouldn’t have.” He finally looked at you. You were hugging yourself, your eyes on the ground. He needed to make you understand this. “Because they would have killed you. Because Hydra doesn’t leave loose ends.”

He didn’t know why he needed to make you understand that.

When you looked at him, he looked back to the exhibit. Something about eye contact . . . he couldn’t bear it. Your eyes looking into his, like he was a person. . . .

He didn’t know how to be a person. He didn’t know how to feel like a person.

He focused on the picture of Bucky Barnes, instead. Stood in a silence that felt like forever.

How was he going to do this? . . .Live his life?

“My second day in the city I visited the Smithsonian,” you said. “I visited this exhibit.” He could feel your eyes on him. “I knew you looked familiar somehow.”

Why were you still here? “What do you want from me?”

“Let me help you. I can fix your memories, put them back together. I’m not saying it would be easy, or quick, but I could do it.”

He finally looked back at you. Looked you in the eyes and tried not to balk from it. He didn’t understand you. He didn’t understand why you were here. “Why would you help me?”

You shrugged. “Would you believe me if I said I’m doing it out of the goodness of my heart?”

No.

He’d been making his own choices for less than a day, but even he knew that nobody would do that. Why would anyone? Everyone always wanted something. Hydra always wanted something.

A sigh left your mouth. “Fine. If you need a reason so badly then how about this: Hydra knows what I am now. I can’t afford to let them catch me again; I won’t let them catch me again. I need you to help me run from them. Don’t forget, Hydra is probably looking for you, too. We go on the run together; you keep Hydra from capturing me and I piece your memories back together.”

He looked back at the exhibit because he couldn’t handle the way you held his gaze any longer.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He had no plan. He wanted to come here, to the Smithsonian, to see the exhibit on Captain America and himself and. . . . Then what? He was free, free from Hydra, but he didn’t know what to do with that freedom.

But.

You were offering his memories back. The thing that he was missing. That he didn’t know if he could put together by himself.

Memories. Real memories. Of his life. Of who he was. Of Steve Rogers. He could still remember the tears in his own eyes and the overwhelming mix of feelings that hit him like a freight train when Steve Rogers had said, “‘Cause I’m with you ‘till the end of the line.” The recognition there. The flip that switched in his head.

You were offering him a chance. To figure out who he was.

He didn’t know how to feel about you. He didn’t know you. He still didn’t really understand why you wanted to help him. Especially when he didn’t help you.

But Hydra wanted you. He knew what that felt like. You wanted to stay out of Hydra’s hands as much as he did.

You were offering an exchange. His memories for protection from Hydra.

Why you would trust him to protect you. . . .

That felt strange. That felt wrong. He didn’t feel like the kind of person you trust.

But he needed his memories. He needed his memories more than anything else.

So he needed you.

“Okay.”

“You offered to put me back together, when I was broken, when I didn’t know how to fix myself,” Bucky continued. “You looked at this person that had been made into a weapon, and you weren’t afraid. You decided that I was worth helping. You decided that I was worth saving. That I was worth more than what I had been made into. You helped me figure out who I am. And part of that is who I used to be, but part of it something new. Something you helped create. I am who I am because of you. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you for that.”

You squeezed his hands when he looked at you, and you shook your head.

You already have, you told him. Just being with me.

Bucky smiled at you, then took a pause as he looked back through his notes, and his smile widened when he found his place.

“And then I fell in love with you, and that was a completely different ballpark,” Bucky said and you laughed along with some of the guests. “I just knew, then and now, that you are everything that’s good in my world.” You took a deep breath in, that swirling, overwhelming emotion returning to settle in your chest. “And I didn’t know . . . how to handle being in love with you. I didn’t want to scare you off. I didn’t want to lose you, because you were the most important thing in my life. I loved you, and I love you, with everything that I have. And I would have stayed with you in that apartment in Romania for the rest of my life, if you would have had me.”

I would have, you whispered to him.

“But I’ll follow you anywhere you want to go,” he continued, his smile growing. “Because when you look at me, you don’t see a weapon or a soldier or something irreparable. You just see me. Like I see you.”

You wiped away a few tears that had left your eyes. Even Bucky had to pause to collect himself.

“We both have scars.” He put his notes back in his pocket. Took his metal hand and ran his fingers up and down the ink on your hand and wrist and arm. The hand and arm that had caused him so much pain; the tattoo that had caused you so much pain. It didn’t feel like pain, now. It felt like love. “And things we have to heal from. But we’ll do that together. We have the rest of our lives to.”

You really, really wanted to kiss him, then.

Bucky really, really wanted to kiss her, too.

But now it was time for their vows. They had come up with them together, things that they wanted to promise each other. He squeezed Y/N’s hands for the thousandth time and she squeezed his hands back.

They looked into each other’s eyes, and said it together.

“I promise to always tell you the truth, especially when the truth is hard.” All the things the Winter Soldier had done. All the things Y/N had done. Y/N’s truth about the future and the Phoenix. Finally admitting to each other that they were in love with the other. Impossible things to say out loud, but they did it. And they would continue to do it.

Trust in this relationship. Trust in your partner.

“I promise never to run away when things get difficult; whatever I face, we face it together.” There was a time when you considered running to save Bucky’s life. Because you thought it would save Bucky’s life. The Phoenix showed you what would have happened if you had, and it was the terrible future that Irene Adler had put into Tony Stark’s head. No matter what, neither of you should make the decision to deal with things on your own.

You are stronger together than you are alone.

“And I promise to see you, and only you, as you see me.” Even as Bucky held your hand with the metal of his left arm. The vibranium that was a reminder of his time as the Winter Soldier. When you looked at it, you didn’t see that. Just an arm. Just Bucky’s arm.

Even as Bucky looked into Y/N’s faintly gold-ringed eyes. The reminder of the being that lived inside her, the Phoenix that chose her as its Host. When Bucky found her gaze, he didn’t see that. Just her eyes. Just her eyes that looked into his and only reminded him why he loved her.

It had been Bucky who added this one. He knew that even after two years, looking in the mirror and seeing those gold rings still made Y/N a bit anxious.

“It terrifies me,” she had confessed that night she had told him the truth, the whole truth, about the Phoenix, “and I can’t even imagine what it would be like . . . to be on the outside, to look into someone’s eyes and know that one day . . . that will be staring back at you.”

“All I see is you.” That’s what he told her. And that’s what he wanted to make sure that she knew. That’s what he wanted to promise her. And have her promise to him in return.

Because when Bucky looked at Y/N, he just saw the person that he loved. And he knew that’s what she saw when she looked at him, too.

When they had said their vows, Tony gestured to Steve. “The rings?” He shifted Morgan to his other side. “You didn’t lose them already, right?”

Steve chuckled and handed one of the rings to you, and one of the rings to Bucky.

“With this ring,” Bucky said as he took your left hand in his and slid the golden band onto your finger, “I choose you to be my wife.”

Your heart and eyes filled as he did so, and the happiness that you felt was indescribable. You took his left hand. “With this ring,” you said, slipping the specially-made-for-metal-hand golden band onto his finger, “I choose you to be my husband.”

Bucky’s eyes crinkled as his face broke into his widest smile yet, a laugh of relief leaving his lips, as if he couldn’t believe it. You laughed, too, unable to believe it yourself.

Tony grinned. “By the power vested in me, by the Council of Genosha that granted me this power that I will totally not abuse in the future, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You two can kiss now.”

Eagerly, Bucky cupped your face and brought your lips to his, sealing the bond between you. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and barely heard the clapping and cheering from the guests. All you could hear, all you could feel, all you could understand was Bucky. Bucky with his hands on you, Bucky kissing you, Bucky becoming your husband.

Your husband.

Bucky was your husband.

When he finally pulled away, he pressed his forehead to yours, eyes still closed.

And you’re my wife, he whispered back to you, and you smiled, opening your eyes again.

You met his blues and he grinned at you.

❤❤❤

You closed your eyes and tried to breathe properly.

You were sitting in a chair in front of all your guests, with Bucky kneeling in front of you. With his hands on your legs and his head under your dress.

The garter toss was a strange tradition, indeed.

You had done the bouquet toss just before. When you had thrown the flowers over your head, it landed in the hands of the girl that Peter Parker had brought with him. His face had gone scarlet, and some of the guests aww’ed. The girl acted like it didn’t matter, although you could tell she was secretly pleased.

And now the garter toss. The garter toss was the male version of the bouquet toss — same idea, whoever caught the garter would be the next to get married. Bucky explained that people used to think the bride’s dress was lucky, so they would try and rip a strip of it off for themselves. The garter was meant to be a piece of the dress that you could give out, and therefore solved the whole dress-ripped-into-pieces-by-the-guests thing.

You were more interested in the part where the groom had to remove the garter, a belt that went around your thigh, either with his hands or with his teeth.

You wanted to see if he could even do it.

Well. He was doing it.

You could feel his breath on your inner thigh. His voice spoke in your mind, You doin’ alright up there?

I’m trying not to tangle my fingers in your hair.

Bucky’s grip tightened on your leg at the insinuation. He pressed a kiss to the inside of your thigh in response.

Your eyes flew open, trying to keep your composure in front of all your guests, and you swear you heard Bucky chuckle. Then your garter was slipping down your leg, down until Bucky’s head surfaced from under your dress, the fabric trapped between his teeth. He kept going until he got the garter over your foot and finally off you.

Guests raised drinks and cheered, and you heard loud laughter from some of them.

Bucky took the garter from his mouth, turned around, and tossed it behind his back.

It was Vision who caught it. Wanda grinned next to him, half-covering her face in his arm from embarrassment. He smiled back, a little confused by the tradition, but happy to see her happy.

Bucky looked back at you with a large grin, and you shook your head at him. He ran back over and pressed a big kiss to your cheek, leaving you giggling.

❤❤❤

“How’s your food?” Bucky whispered into your ear. The two of you sat at the front with the rest of the wedding party, where everyone could see you.

You gave him a strange and amused look. What are you doing? We can literally talk to each other without speaking, you don’t need to do the secret whispering thing.

He leaned back over to your ear. “Yeah, but this looks cuter.”

You pulled back to look at him, then looked out at your guests. Some of them were indeed looking, amused and adoring at the groom whispering to his bride.

You leaned in close to him. “You’re such a dork.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled and you smiled back at him.

But you know what’s cuter than whispering to each other? you asked, finding his eyes and staying there.

What’s that? he replied, his blues not leaving you.

Having a telepathic conversation where it looks like we’re just getting lost in each other’s eyes.

Bucky laughed through his nose when he realized what you were doing. Then, for a moment, there was silence between you as you really stared at each other, unable to break the other’s gaze.

Until Bucky’s eyes dipped down to your mouth. Then he smiled and looked away, his nose scrunching and eyes crinkling as he laughed.

Clinking came from the other side of Bucky and he forced himself to turn toward it, to tear away his attention from Y/N. He wrapped his arm around her instead.

His wife.

Bucky found himself smiling all over again.

Steve was clinking his spoon against his glass. The room fell silent.

“I met Bucky when I was twelve years old. I was fighting some bullies in an alleyway—”

Bucky served his friend a sharp look. “Fighting?” he interrupted.

“Okay, okay,” Steve conceded, “I was getting beaten up by some bullies in an alleyway. And Bucky, who was walking by, saw this scrawny, stubborn kid who wouldn’t stay down and he helped him. He’s my best friend, and my brother. I love ya, buddy.”

“Get on with it or I’m gonna cry,” Bucky said, only half kidding.

Steve chuckled and checked the notes in his journal before continuing. “Along with being my best friend, Bucky was also quite the ladies’ man.”

Bucky covered his face with his hand and Y/N laughed. The smooth-talking tendencies of the person he used to be was never something that came back to the person he was now, and he never understood the ease he used to have when it came to women and relationships.

It didn’t matter now, anyway. He had his person.

Didn’t make it any less embarrassing, though.

Steve continued, “He always had a girl on his arm— sometimes two.” Oh, kill me now. “And he seemed like the kind of guy who was never gonna settle down. But then, one day, in 1945, in a bar overseas, we were talking about the future and marriage and he said to me . . . that he wanted that.”

Y/N found Bucky’s hand on the table.

“He said that he wanted to settle down,” Steve went on, “and have kids and grow old with someone. Now, hang on, because this is where the story starts getting good. After we finished our conversation, Bucky looked out into the crowd, and his eyes caught on something. He set down his drink without a second word and strode across the dance floor, like a man on a mission. When I spotted him next he was dancing with a woman, and I didn’t really think much about it because, like I said, ladies’ man.”

Bucky shook his head and Y/N laughed again.

“But then he came back.” Steve paused for dramatic effect. “And he said, he said to me, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl’.”

Bucky looked over at Y/N to give her a smile, only to find her already looking at him with a smile of her own.

“Now,” Steve said, “if you were paying attention earlier, you know where this is going. But just in case you weren’t, here's where the story gets really interesting. Seventy-five years pass. It’s a few nights ago at Bucky’s bachelor party. I ask him if I can put this story in my Best Man’s speech, because it’s the first time he told me he had an interest in getting married, and it’s a good story even though he’s not marrying that woman from the bar. And then he tells me, ‘Well I’ve been meaning to tell you something. The woman from the bar . . . is Y/N.” Steve looked to her as he said it, and she smiled back at him. “Y/N had gotten thrown back in time to 1945 and somehow, someway, she ended up in the same place as Bucky. She had known him for two years at that point. And Bucky just met her, but he already knew he wanted to marry her. And y’know what? He was a pretty good judge of character.” Steve gave Y/N a smile. “The thing is . . . when Y/N ended up in 1945, she hadn’t seen Bucky for a year.”

You gave a shaky inhale at the reminder. Bucky’s thumb stroked your arm, and you leaned into him.

Steve continued, “She didn’t think she was ever going to see him again. So seeing Bucky in 1945 must have been so difficult for her. Bucky told me that she thought that seeing him there was the last time that she would ever see him.”

You nodded with a watery expression and Bucky squeezed you tighter to him.

Steve made a point to look at you as he spoke. “But thankfully she was wrong. Because she did find him again. And now they’re married.”

You gave a watery laugh and Bucky rubbed your arm.

Steve smiled. “How I met Y/N is not important to the story. What is important is what came after. I met her five years ago but I didn’t really get to know her until the past two years. And I’m really glad that I got the chance to know you, Y/N. You’re already like a sister to me. Now you’re my family.”

Y/N’s eyes filled with more tears and even Bucky felt a little choked up in his throat.

“To Bucky and Y/N,” Steve said, raising his glass. Everyone else did, too. “Buck, seventy-five years ago, you said you were gonna marry her. You did it. I love you guys.”

There was more clinking of glasses and cheering when Steve was done, and Bucky had to get up to hug him. Both Bucky and Steve had to wipe tears from their eyes and they laughed and Y/N got up to hug Steve as well.

It was the happiest Bucky had ever been.

It was the happiest you had ever been, too.

And it was just the beginning.

❤❤❤

It was the late, late hours of the night and you and Bucky were finally heading home. It had been a long and fun wedding reception, but the two of you needed to be well-rested to leave for your honeymoon tomorrow.

You were being driven home by Tony’s wedding present, and actual car with the F.R.I.D.A.Y. A.I. programmed into it. It proved useful tonight since neither of you were sober enough to get behind the wheel. Not that you were wasted, just too tipsy to drive safely.

Thor had brought special Asgardian alcohol with him that allowed Bucky and Steve to actually get drunk. It was the first time you had ever seen Bucky like that. It was hilarious. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you wanted to look at it) his super soldier metabolism was working just fine, so he wasn’t as drunk as he was anymore.

The car missed the turn to your apartment.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” you murmured. “You’re going the wrong way.”

“This is the way I was programmed to go,” came the female Scottish accent. You sighed and leaned forward to do something about it, when Bucky pulled you back.

“Why don’t we see where it takes us?” he said.

You stared at him, the beginnings of a smile on your lips. “What did you do?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You sat up, suddenly more awake. The car continued down the road, then finally stopped when it reached some houses.

Stopped in front of one house in particular.

It was a tiny house but lovely, with stonework and a chimney and pretty windows. It looked like the kind of house you would live in if you came from a fairy tale— like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Sleeping Beauty with her Fairy Godmothers.

Bucky got out of the car and walked around it to open your door. He held out his hand and helped you out.

“What is this place?” you asked him.

Bucky reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he pressed into your palm.

It was a key.

“It’s ours,” he said.

You looked at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

He nodded, looking a bit nervous.

Then you smiled and threw your arms around him. Bucky hugged you tightly to him and you kissed him with your hand still wrapped around that key.

“Do you like it?” he asked when he finally let go of you.

“I love it.”

Bucky grinned and picked you up, literally bridal style, and began carrying you up the path to the door.

He gestured with his head to the house next door, just a little ways down the road. “That one is going to be Steve and Nat’s.”

“Really?” you said with a smile.

Bucky nodded. “They just finalized it yesterday.”

You were glad. You knew it would make Bucky very happy to have his best friend so close.

When you got to the door, you fit the key in the lock and turned it. Bucky toed it open, then carried you over the threshold.

❤❤❤

“You’re my husband,” you whispered to Bucky as you lay naked next to him in the dark, your eyes only half open. His chest rumbled as he laughed softly. “I can’t stop saying that. You’re my husband.”

Bucky kissed you then, his hand cupping your cheek.

And you’re my wife, he said to your mind. “I can’t stop saying that, either,” he added aloud when he finally pulled away.

“We should sleep,” you whispered, drawing circles on his bare chest. “We have plans tomorrow.”

“But you're my wife,” Bucky said, his mouth dipping to your neck and giving it a wet kiss there. You giggled and tangled your fingers in his hair.

He pulled up again, this time just taking a moment to look at you.

Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

Bucky kissed you softly, briefly, then whispered, “Is there anything you want to do when we get back? I know you said you didn’t want the future all planned out, but. . . . Do you want to make plans with me?”

You stroked your thumb over his cheek. “. . .There’s an empty room in this house,” you said.

He swallowed. “Yeah, there is.”

You took a breath. “Do you want to make it not empty with me?”

The smile Bucky gave you then was a little bit nervous, but more than anything it was happy. “Yeah. I do.”

You kissed him.

This wasn’t the end of your story with Bucky. There would be good times and difficult times and everything in between. Things you would have to face and deal with and still learn from. But all of that, you would do together.

You loved Bucky Barnes, and he loved you. And the rest of your life was open to you both.

The End

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading. Love you all <3 <3 Let me know what you think!

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stressisakiller · 3 years

Text

As You Wish

Steve Rogers x Reader Soulmate AU

(As you wish Part 2)

Summary: What happens when after moving into Stark Tower you run into a certain Captain

Warnings: None really, fluff, like one cussword a little bit of spice

Word Count: 2.4k

A/N: Fluffy chapter yay! Let me know what you think and if you have any requests for future chapters! Thank yall for reading!’

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Life working side by side with Tony was dangerous. When Killian attacked Tony it was you not Pepper who was taken and subjected to the Extremis serum. This caused you to heal crazy fast and gave you super strength, which was pretty cool but not very useful for someone who spent most of their time in a robotics lab trying not to crush something when it wasn't working.

You later discovered that Killian mistakenly believed that you were in fact Tony's soulmate, while you had always thought that it was Pepper. She quickly refuted your claim when you told her, pulling the back of her jeans down enough to show the smiley face that graced her butt cheek. Turns out that her soulmate was none other than Happy the head of security.

About six months after the battle of new york, after Tony and the whole Killian/Mandarin situation, Tony asked very nicely if you would move into the Avengers tower with him. He needed to get the Avengers tower going, and after everything that happened and his panic attacks, he really didn't want to live there alone. He was also hoping that if you lived in the tower that the avengers would be more willing to as well. By this point you had met and become friends with most of them save for Captain America, he hasn’t been around much. He was trying to find his place in this new world and taking as many missions as Shield will give him in order to feel needed

The tower was much different this time than the last time you had been there. There was less plastic film and dust everywhere and all of the construction work was done. Most notably, the wall on Stark's living room floor was no longer a gaping hole.

The top eight levels of the tower were for the avengers. The penthouse was where Tony stayed, no surprise there. The level directly below was his lab space which was restricted access for the most part and then there was the common level under that. The common level was composed of a large kitchen and dining area, as well as a massive living room with the biggest tv you had ever seen. This floor also houses a theater, and an arcade room equipped with pool tables and any other game you could think of. Tony is such a child sometimes, not that you were complaining you loved to play pool. The next three floors are where you and the rest of the Avengers would live. You would each get your own suite that you could arrange and decorate however you saw fit. Each suite includes a kitchenette, and small living room that was separate from the bedroom, and a massive ensuite bath. The lowest two levels were dedicated to the training room and medical ward, as well as a giant pool and sauna area, these floors allowed for outside access as long as they were vetted.

Six months later, life in the tower was going well. You, Tony and Bruce, were the main people living there. You could understand that though, Nat and Clint were constantly out on missions for shield and mainly stayed on base in DC. Tony told you that Steve was currently living in an apartment in DC. He didn't want to live on base but he was running missions for Shield on and off. Thor was off-world with Loki so life was pretty quiet.

Then there was a mission that the Captain went on that didn’t go the way he thought. He was wounded and brought back a captive. You were in the common area when the door was thrown open and a bloody Steve Rogers burst through carrying a soaking wet girl over his shoulder.

“The Medical wing, where is it?” He questioned voice hard from pain or fatigue or both.

“This way.” you hurried off, not looking behind you, you knew that he would follow.

When you arrived, you called for Dr. Cho and Steve told her what was going on and placed the girl on a stretcher. The nurses pushed her to a room to monitor her until she woke up. He was then shown to a separate room to be looked over and have the bullet removed.

That night Tony pulled you into the living room to watch your favorite movie, the princess bride. It was about halfway through when an exhausted Steve came through the door and flopped down on the couch beside the one that you and Tony were currently lounging on. It was coming to your favorite part, Buttercup was currently yelling at the Dread Pirate Roberts and about to push him down the hill.

“Oooh,” you said hitting Tony’s shoulder, “I love this part,” you spoke along with Wesley as he rolled down the hill, “As you Wiiiisssshhhh.” you clapped your hands together, “that will forever be the best reveal ever.”

You didn’t notice Steve’s stare as you said those words. Holy Shit he thought his tattoo finally made sense, and yet the girl that fate said was perfect for him had her legs thrown over Tony’s lap and was leaning against him while watching the movie. He stood quickly and stomped out of the room, today was just not his day.

You look over at Tony confused when Steve left.

“What the hell do you think that was about?” you asked, growing more confused as you noticed the smirk on Tony’s lips.

“Why are you smiling like that?” You had to stop yourself from slapping him when he started to laugh.

“What the hell, Stark, tell me what's going on?”

“I think that Capsicle just realized that you're his soulmate.” He said through chuckles.

“What the fuck do you mean he realized that I’m his soulmate?” you asked your whole body going still as you waited for him to elaborate.

“I thought you had realized this earlier,” he said looked genuinely confused, “The captain is your soulmate, I’ve known since we had that movie night after finding him in the ice. Your tattoo is his dog tags with the flower of his birth month and a phrase that I’ve heard him say multiple times while next to him in a fight.”

You just sat there frozen trying to comprehend what exactly the man sitting in front of you was saying.

“You know, he may be a little jealous that his soulmate was cuddling someone else since he probably doesn’t realize that you're like a sister to me. You should probably go after him.” His words seemed to break you from your trance as you threw yourself very clumsily from the couch to follow after him.

“Jarvis, where did Rogers go?”

“He is in the training room miss.”

“Thanks, J”

You ran all the way down, opening the door you were met by the scene of Steve hitting a punching bag so hard that it broke and flew off of its chain.

“You know, I’m not sure that those are made to withstand the punch of a super soldier, maybe I should design one that can,” you said leaning against the wall and trying not to show the fact that your heart was beating a million miles a minute.

“And why would you feel the need to do that, I’m sure Stark has plenty of things that he needs you to design that are more important than a Steve-proof punching bag.” You could tell that he was gritting his teeth as he spoke, reaching for another bag. You step towards him slowly, making sure not to walk too quickly from fear of him leaving.

“Well I’m sure that the great Tony Stark can take care of himself, and anyways, I think creating something to make my soulmate's life easier is more important.”

He slowly pulled his eyes from the punching bag that he was hanging onto the hook to look at you, pain obvious in his eyes.

“Really? Cause you seemed pretty comfortable with him.” you could see the vulnerability in his eyes as he spoke, he had gone through so much already.

“Yes really, Tony is more like an annoying older brother than anything. I’ve been working around him for the past five or so years, trust me when I say that I have no desire to date him. You on the other hand.” You made sure that your voice turned teasing on the last words, you wanted to make him smile, you hadn’t gotten to see that yet.

“Well good, cause I think I may have to kick his ass if you did.” You could hear the teasing lilt in his voice and the hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. But as quickly as it came it was gone.

“How long have you known?” his voice cracked a little as he spoke. You let out a small huff of a laugh.

“Would you believe me if I told you that Tony had to tell me when I was confused as to why you left the room?” His eyes snapped to yours.

“Really? You didn’t know?”

“After not meeting my soulmate by the time I turned 25 I just pushed it to the back of my mind, I stopped trying to figure out what my tattoo meant and I focused on my work. Plus there were a couple of life-threatening instances that distracted me." You joked. You weren't 100% sure how to handle this situation, your main friend group consisted of a playboy philanthropist and a science nerd that turned into a giant green guy when angry, not really the best people to show you how to be vulnerable.

“I understand that," he said pausing before continuing, "part of my problem was that my tattoo didn’t show up until after I came out of the ice.” he looked down at his hands and you noticed that they were fidgeting, he must be just as nervous as you.

“I didn’t know that,” you murmured, deciding to ask the question that was begging to be asked.

“What is your tattoo, if you don’t mind me asking?”

He shook his head, “Not at all.” he stepped towards you and pulled up his sleeve, and turned out his arm so you could see the flesh just under his armpit. As soon as you saw the tattoo you burst out laughing.

“Of course that’s what my mark is, man I’m such a nerd.” You clutched your stomach as you laughed, tears coming to your eyes from the range of emotions that you are currently going through.

“Can I ask why I have this tattooed on me?” He questioned, clearly curious to the reasoning as to why he had a movie quote on his arm forever. You were finally able to pull yourself together and sober up from the surprise of his tattoo.

“That movie came out the year after I was born and it was my mom’s favorite movie to watch with me, we watched it at least 4 times a year. But we always made sure to watch it on my birthday as a family, it became an integral part of my life, plus it’s just sooo quotable.” you said with a smile, “Do you want to look at my tattoo?” you asked motioning at your arm with your head. He slowly nodded, not able to find the words.

You slowly pulled your sleeve up, showing him the inside of your forearm and the dog tags that graced your skin. He stepped forward gently taking your arm in his hand so that he could study the markings on your skin. Tracing the outline and the words that he could see before smiling.

“What does it mean?” you asked softly looking at him through your lashes.

“It’s um,” he cleared his throat, “it’s my dog tags or at least the lower one is, it says my name, then Captain America and the city I was born in, Brooklyn. The top one however is something that I always seem to say when I’m getting beat up in a fight in order to remind myself that I could do it. And the flower… I think it’s the flower from my birth month? I was born in July so I think it’s a reference to that.” You nodded at his explanation, his fingers still gently tracing over your skin, causing goosebumps to pop up from the feeling.

“So, would you like to watch the movie with me? We can start it over so that you won’t be lost. I know that you struggle with pop culture, old man.” You smirked at him as you spoke, he just rolled his eyes.

“Be careful, this old man could still show you a thing or two.”

You laughed out loud at that, your laugh changed to a squeal when you felt him wrap his arms around your legs and throw you over his shoulder.

“Ahh, let me down!!” you beat at his shoulders trying to get him to release you but he wouldn’t budge, he just continued to carry you until you ended back in the living room and he threw you down onto the couch. He wasn’t even breathing hard after carrying you up 2 flights of stairs, jerk.

Tony was nowhere to been seen as you restarted the movie. You ran and grabbed some more popcorn to share, pouring in some M&Ms before plopping back down next to Steve and pulling on your couch blanket. It didn't take long for you to cuddle into his side and for your eyes to droop.

Steve smiled at you when he realized that you had passed out before you even got to the part he had walked in on earlier. He didn't mind though, he just got comfortable and pulled you in closer before allowing himself to relax and fall asleep.

Tagged Users: @writerwrites

#steve x reader #steve rodgers x reader #steve rogers #steve rogers imagine #marvel imagine #marvel #soulmate #soulmate au #soulmate tattoo #captain america imagine #captain america #captain america x reader

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broughttoyoubytheletterf · 3 years

Text

Telling the Family (ficlet)

At one time I was going to write an entire series of how different people react to finding out Elizabeth is running for President but this is the only one I ever finished. I’m cleaning out old files, so here have it.

“You have to talk to your family you know.”

“Hmmm?” Henry continues to keep his eyes on the book in front of him.

Elizabeth plops down on the other side of the bed, disturbing Henry and causing him to give her an annoyed look. “I’m just saying, you should have a conversation with them.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The campaign,” she responds simply. She settles into bed, pulling the covers up to her waist and grabbing a policy book from the floor.

He stares at her, agape, “Really? You’re just going to throw that out there and leave it to me? Isn’t it a little early to tell them anyway?”

She avoids his gaze and flips open the binder. “Give them some time to process everything, you know Maureen will have thoughts she needs to share. Plus, it’s going to be an invasion of their privacy as well.”

He huffs. “Well shouldn’t you be there when we talk to them then?”

“No.”

When she doesn’t elaborate further, he tugs her reading material out of her hands. “You’re telling me that you’re ready to face the scrutiny of the entire country but you won’t come with me to talk my family.”

“Yes,” she says blithely. She looks thoughtful, “What do you think the chances are that Maureen votes for me?”

He laughs. “Eh, I’d say about 75%, she’s mellowed out a bit since Dad died. So there you go, another reason to come with me, get some experience stumping for votes with intransigent constituents.”

Mulishly she says, “I don’t wanna.”

“Petulant isn’t a good look on you Elizabeth.”

She side-eyes him. “I’m not being petulant, I’m being realistic, I think the chances are better that she votes for me if I’m not there. Also, you’re lying, you like all my looks.” She laughs and straddles his lap.

He grips her waist and smiles. “You’re right.” He leans forward and blows a raspberry on her neck. “But you are coming with me.”

Two weeks later she is sitting on a couch next to Henry at Maureen’s house. She is bouncing Maria on her knees and the four-year old is squealing in delight. She still doesn’t know how Henry conned her into coming and got it to actually happen. She’s dealing with no less than three separate international incidents that could spiral into crises at any moment, but Henry hadn’t let her use that as an excuse. She’s dragged half the State department with her it feels like, Jay is in DC holding down the fort but she has Blake, Kat, Nina, and Daisy in the motorcade out front and Matt is down the street at a coffee shop feverishly writing a speech.

Henry is tapping his feet next to her. He had been uncharacteristically quiet on the drive here, though that could have been because she spent most of the time on the phone, doing her best to restrain herself from yelling at her entire Bureau of East Asian Affairs. She’s not usually a yeller, so maybe Henry is not the only one nervous about this conversation.

Maureen comes back into the room, balancing a tray of glasses. “I have coffee for everyone, but I’m afraid I only have regular creamer, none of that flavored stuff.” She looks pointedly at Elizabeth as she sets her load down. Elizabeth barely keeps herself from rolling her eyes, she asked for vanilla creamer once, a decade ago, and Maureen still likes to act like it was the height of privilege. The child on her lap is getting restless, so she puts her down and she runs off to play.

After everyone is settled into their seats with their drinks of choice, Maureen breaks the now heavy silence. “So is there a particular reason you gathered us all here? Is one of you dying or do you just like to see your subjects scurry?”

Elizabeth lets out a breath, clearly Maureen is feeling particularly intractable, which does not bode well for this discussion, but she also knows that the other woman mostly gets that way when she’s scared. She responds quickly, “Both of us are fine, as are the kids, they send their love by the way.” It’s almost imperceptible, but Maureen relaxes. “The reason you wanted to talk to everyone, all at once, is because…” she rehearsed twelve different was to say this but she still feels unprepared. Henry reaches over and squeezes her hand.

As if saved by the bell she hears the front door open, and when she looks over Kat and Blake are standing there, wringing their hands. She looks at them expectantly. Kat grimaces, “Apologies all for interrupting,” she focuses her attention on Elizabeth, “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we just heard back from Chen’s office, he says they’re moving forward with their plans, immediately, they’ve already started..”

Elizabeth interrupts, her face turns murderous, “Get me Chen on SVTC now.” She might yell that last word. She stands up, “I swear, China is going to be begging us to sell Taiwan drones by the time I lay out the alternatives, which reminds me, Blake let Russell know I am 100% behind repositioning the fifth fleet, maybe some military posturing is just what we need, remind them that we have our own array of antiship missiles and that they do not want to get into a damn shooting war with us. Especially over some fucking drones.” She stalks over to the doorway. Kat looks taken aback, Elizabeth rarely curses at work, or ever. She doesn’t even want to look back and see what Henry’s family looks like.

She purposefully softens her tone, though she feels like preventing World War III, for the fifth time this year, merits some coarse language. She gestures towards Blake who is already on the phone, “Tell Russell I think Conrad should call Li. Ask if he wants me on the call.” Blake nods. “And I swear if this is the Assistant Secretary’s fault again, I’m firing her, I don’t care whose niece she is.” She slams the front door behind her.

Henry stares at the closed door for a moment, and sends up a quick prayer for peace, both for the world and in his family. He turns back towards his family, who look a little aghast. He’s not surprised, Elizabeth has done her best to not talk about work around them, and she definitely never lets her temper show like that. He smiles in what he hopes is a disarming way. “So, that might take a bit, so why don’t we talk about something else? Shane, how’s the new job going?��

Shane starts to respond, but Maureen stops him, “I’m not going to wait around while Elizabeth is off starting wars, so just tell us whatever it is you wanted to tell us Henry and then you can both gallivant back to DC.” Maureen’s husband squeezes her shoulder in support and Erin and Shane are purposefully avoiding his gaze so he imagines that he isn’t going to be able to put this off until Elizabeth gets back.

“This is really more her thing than mine, so it would be best if she could tell you.” Maureen glares at him. “Okay, okay, we just wanted to talk to you guys about some changes in our life, changes that might effect you, though we’ll do our best to prevent that.” They all shift nervously. “Well you’ve probably heard the rumors and speculation, but we wanted to let you know it’s true, Elizabeth has decided to run. She won’t be announcing for a while yet, we’re thinking in about four months, but we wanted to let you know now.”

They stare at him blankly, until Erin asks, uncertainty in her voice, “Run for what?”

He almost laughs, because he forgot for a moment that there is a whole world that doesn’t follow politics obsessively, that doesn’t spend every second enmeshed in world affairs. “President,” he responds simply.

That sends them all atwitter and there’s lots of cross-talk and yelling and accusations. He spends the next 45 minutes fielding questions, from Elizabeth’s position on abortion (he tells them they’ll have to ask her, he’s well aware his wife is ardently pro-choice, but he’s not stepping on that landmine before it’s necessary) to, once the kids wander back in, whether that means they can get free tickets to football games.

Elizabeth slips back in, she looks marginally more relaxed, so he takes that to mean there are no nuclear missiles currently incoming. Maureen spots her first and pins her with a glare. “So I hear you’ve decided you want to be an actual queen.”

Elizabeth moves further into the house and resumes her seat on the couch next to Henry. “Well democratically elected is the plan,” she says lightly and reaches forward to grab her now cold coffee. Maureen guffaws. “And really that’s only if I win, which is still a relative long-shot.”

“Once again you’re only thinking of yourself.” Oddly, Henry notes, Maureen’s voice doesn’t have its usual venom.

Elizabeth takes a sip out of her cup. “I like to think I’m thinking of the greater good, how to ensure a better future for our country and the world. Believe you me this isn’t something I sought out, I never thought I’d do this.” Henry struggles to hide his smile, because Elizabeth sounds exactly like a politician, she doesn’t think she’s ready, but in moments like this he sees it. And if he calls her a politician to her face he won’t have sex for a month.

#Madam Secretary #Elizabeth McCord #fic #ficlet #i don't know #feeling some sort of way tonight so you get this #i was going to write one for a lot of side characters #ray merchant #jareth #juliet #craig sterling #etc etc #but i could never get it off the ground

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vaguewriting · 3 years

Text

vague fic fragment #4

solangelo rwrb au

Will was seventeen when his mom became the president of the United States, and there were some things that he hated.

He hated moving out of his childhood home in Texas, even if it was incredibly cool that he got to live in the White House. He hated having to transfer schools for his last semester of high school (and had begged Naomi for the months leading up to her inauguration to let him finish school online). (She didn’t go for it.) He hated that they’d all been too busy with campaigning and then packing and then moving, and that when Will finally got his driver’s license, it said DC instead of Austin.

But everything else, well. That was all really cool.

When they moved into the White House, back when Will felt like he had more reasons to feel bummed out than anything, he made himself a list. He liked making lists. They helped him relax, and they helped remind him of what was important - homework that was due the next day, or cities that they were visiting along the campaign trail. During the first year of his mother’s presidency, he made a new list. A list of every good and awesome and okay thing there was about being the First Son of the United States.

First and foremost, Naomi had made history. In 2016, a female Democrat from the great state of Texas reached over 300 votes by the electoral college, and she had done it all without a husband by her side. And Will wasn’t going to let himself be upset about moving schools while his mother made history.

And point one, subsection A, there were now a good handful of states separating them from Will’s father.

His two best friends - Annabeth and Magnus Chase, daughter and nephew-turned-adopted-son of Vice President Frederick Chase. Annabeth had been helping her father’s campaign since she was old enough to speak, and had been crucial to Naomi’s ascent to the White House. Magnus had always been there to share his weed whenever Will got anxious. (The media had dubbed the three of them The White House Trio because they’d been so active in their parents’ campaign.) (Sometimes The Golden Trio, but that was usually more mocking.)

The three of them had all become something of minor celebrities. Sure, they were no Kardashians, but they got invited to events. The only event that Will could remember attending that wasn’t entirely political was his junior prom.

They traveled - all over the world! Will was pretty sure he had no reason to tag along to some of the places that his mom went, but he’d barely left Texas before the campaign started.

He got to meet so many amazing people. There were doctors who cured cancer and lawyers who fought for justice and so many people out in the world that wanted to help. Will had gotten teary eyed on more than one flight back to DC after some visits to different youth shelters across the country.

Oh, and did he mention the plane? The private jet that he got to fly in? He’d never flown before, and he knew that Air Force One had definitely gotten him spoiled for air travel ever again.

He was going to meet royalty.

His newest addition to the list was scribbled out in a rush after his mother announced that they would be attending the Olympics in Rio - and Will got to choose which events they got to see! (Well, some of them.) (Okay, he got to pick one, because they were only going to be there for a day or two.)

His choice was clear to him in an instant. He knew from some light social media stalking - he was a teenager who was suddenly famous, he didn’t know how things worked yet - that there was supposed to be a special guest at the soccer fields. And he knew exactly who that special guest would be.

The Prince of England.

He had always known for as long as he could remember - for as long as he’d known what royalty was - that there was a prince about his age. There had been a girl in Will’s third grade class who had once told him that she was going to marry the prince and become a princess, and then someday, a queen. Well, Will didn’t want to rule a country. He was just on the hunt for a new friend.

And how cool would it be to have the Prince of England as a friend?

Suck it, Molly, Will couldn’t help but think as he, Annabeth, and Magnus wandered around the VIP area at the soccer fields. They were so high up above the stands that he didn’t understand how anybody could see anything that was happening in the game, but he figured it didn’t matter, since he wasn’t there to watch, anyway. He was there to search.

“You know, chances of finding him here are ridiculously low,” Annabeth pointed out, not for the first time, as they started another lap around the stadium. “A prince is going to have a huge security detail, even bigger than ours, and everyone in this section is so surrounded by buff guys in suits that--”

“And girls,” Magnus cut in.

“What?”

“Guys and girls,” Magnus told her. “Or, sorry, women. Half of our security team is female, you can’t generalize like that.”

Annabeth elbowed him and rolled her eyes. “Oh, whatever. You knew what I meant. And the point I was trying to make is that--” She cut herself off when she walked straight into Will’s unmoving form. “Will?”

“That’s him,” Will whispered, eyes glued on a boy his age, standing beside a single bodyguard.

Prince Nico was shorter than Will by a few inches, and was wearing a well-tailored black suit, as always. He tended to look like he was either on his way to a funeral, or on coming back from one. He stood with perfect posture, his pale hands clasped behind his back, though the way he held himself made Will think he wanted to lean over the rail to get a closer look at the game. Will knew he’d be here somewhere. Nico loved soccer.

“I’m gonna go say hi,” Will mumbled, ignoring Magnus’s, “Maybe you shouldn’t--” because he was already walking.

His first word to Nico was, “Um,” and then, “Hi, um, Your Highness.”

Nico looked unimpressed. There was a pout to his lips and a coolness to his eyes that he never showed to the camera. (No, not coolness. Coldness.)

“I’m Will,” he continued, unable to stop the words now that they’d already started, and he held out a hand. Nico didn’t take it. “Um. Will Solace, I’m the--”

“I know who you are,” Nico told him. His voice was quiet, yet held commanding authority. Will wondered if that was something he’d learned alongside table manners and perfect posture. That authority in his voice was giving off a vibe of quit bothering me.

While Nico had clearly trained his tongue well, Will had never learned how to shut up. “You do?” he asked with a bright, genuine smile - he still hadn’t perfected a fake smile for the cameras - and looking at it seemed to cause Nico pain. “That’s… That’s crazy! I mean, I’m, like, a total nobody compared to you. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you! Can I hang around and watch the game with you?”

Nico’s head turned back toward the field below, and Will took that as a yes, until he heard a whisper from beside him, voice accented in that way that nobody’s but Nico’s was: “Can you get rid of him?”

Will’s heart plummeted.

Thankfully, he didn’t get the opportunity to react (though he wouldn’t have minded a chance to apologize) before Annabeth was tugging on his arm. Above the thoughts suddenly swirling in his head, he thought he heard Annabeth saying, “Sorry, Your Highness, he didn’t mean to intrude,” before he was dragged away.

They started back around the stadium, returning to their starting point - something of a suite that had been reserved for the US president and her guests.

As he flopped down onto an empty couch, Will added one more item to the list of things he hated: Nico di Angelo.

#vague fic fragment #mine #nico di angelo #will solace

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buckyscrystalqueen · 4 years

Text

Too Smart for Your Own Good: Part 2

Pairings: Machine Gun Kelly x Reader, (Past and Future) Henry Cavill x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, one night stand, unprotected sex

Word Count: 2,129

A/N: Doesn’t have a completed end yet, but just giving you more content to try to get myself out of a writing funk.

Part 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” Your father, Negan, chuckled as you got off the golf cart in front of the trailer you’d be celebrating Christmas in again, like you had for three of the past ten years, at the Los Angeles County State Prison.

“Hi, daddy.” You breathed in relief, grateful to spend any amount of time with the only family member that you could completely trust. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry fucking Christmas to you, too, Princess. Fuck you, give ‘em.” He barked as he pulled the bags of food and your clothes off the back of the cart before you could even think to reach for them. You simply rolled your eyes and grabbed your guitar case before thanking the officer and heading inside the family visit trailer. “So what kinda trouble did you get into this week?”

“Well…” You sighed as you sat down at the small table in the kitchen. “… I went to Cleveland on Saturday and flew back yesterday morning. Pretty sure I got pregnant, too.”

“You fucking what?!” Your dad roared as he slammed a box of Mac and Cheese down on the counter. “Fucking Henry?”

“Henry is not coming back!” You shouted back, defensively. “And does it fucking matter? I made a choice, two choices actually, to sleep with some douche bag and not take Plan B after. It is what it fucking is.”

“So what, you're just gunna throw away your fucking life…” He started as he went back to throwing groceries in the cabinets, angrily.

“No, I made the choice to not be fucking alone any more!” You interrupted as you looked over at him. You couldn't hide the hurt in your eyes when he turned around to stare at you, shocked that you were actually talking about your emotions.

“Sweetheart…” He breathed as he abandoned his task and came over to sit down in front of you. “You are not fucking alone…”

“I am alone, daddy.” You nearly whispered as you put your feet up on your chair and wrapped your arms around your legs. “Mom’s dead, and you're in here for who knows how much longer. And Henry…” You scoffed and shook your head. “Henry isn't coming back. He loves being some hit shot doc the Army more than he ever loved me. So other than my research, which I've all but abandoned anyways out of sheer boredom, I have nothing. I have no one, daddy. Just the occasional visit from Ashleigh and some of the harlots from the club. Maybe a once a month lunch date with some of the people from UCLA. But that's it. So I made a choice not to get the morning after pill after I stared at the box for over an hour and weighed out the pros and cons. And I would much rather raise a sperm donor baby than be alone in that house anymore.”

“OK.” Negan whispered with a nod as he rested his hand on your bent knee. “OK. I don't fucking like it, but I will get on that train all the fucking same.” Tears welled in your eyes as you rested your cheek on the back of his hand, and you closed your eyes to hide them. “So I'm gunna be a grandpa?”

“Maybe.” You choked the slightest bit as you opened your eyes to look at him again. “It just happened but I know I'm ovulating…”

“Eww fucking gross.” He fake gagged to get you to smile as he pulled his hand free and got up to finish putting groceries away. “I don't wanna hear that shit.”

“That's what you get for raising a daughter with no filter.” You pointed out as you propped your chin between your still bent knees.

“Fucking gross.” He repeated with a laugh. “So the fuck was in Cleveland? This fuckin guy?”

“Ashleigh’s client. He’s a rock rapper that needed someone that could learn music fast and played the guitar well. So Ash landed on me. But dude is a total self absorbed prick. B minus in… well in the broom closet.”

“I'll have Simon kill him.” He said almost 100% seriously.

“You are not going to kill this idiot for being bad at sex.”

“No, I'm gunna fucking kill him for laying a Goddamn hand on my daughter.” He responded with a smile as he balled up the last empty grocery bag and put it in the recycling bin.

“You're an idiot.” You laughed as you grabbed your guitar and got up to sit outside for a while.

“Hey, be nice to your old man.” He huffed as he grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a pack of matches off the table and followed you out front to enjoy the California sun. “And go easy on me today.”

“Yea fucking right.” You laughed as you sat down on one of the plastic lawn chairs and pulled out your guitar, which took you almost a year of bribery to be able to get it into the jail it now lived in in the first place. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Pain in my Goddamn ass.” He grumbled around his cigarette as he moved his chair out off the shade and pulled off his blue prison issue shirt for as long as he could get away with it. “Alright… rock music from the 70’s.” You nodded at the category and tuned your guitar before picking an easy AC/DC song to start with. Which is pretty much how you always spent your days when you visited your father in prison.

——

Your office hadn’t looked so chaotic since you were working on a regular basis, but as of that morning, every available surface was covered in every single medical textbook, (with a focus on pregnancy and pediatrics) and motherhood book you could get your hands on. The dry erase board that usually had your equations to see if your Milky Way black hole theory was a possibility, had been wiped clean and replaced with columns upon columns of notes, to separate the ridiculous from the actual facts you would need to go through a pregnancy and raise a child.

You were blazing through the ‘Essential Neonatal Textbook’, when your house phone rang, startling you the slightest bit and forcing you to pull your attention away from a long list of the benefits of cord blood. You sighed and snatched up your headset as you set the book down to work through all of the information and pick out the more important bits and pieces to make the best informed decision.

“Ms. (Y/L/N)? I have a Colson Baker here to see you.” Your fingers froze with the cap of the marker in one hand and the marker itself in the other.

“You can let him in.” You sighed as you took a step forward and started a new list under the newborn column in the middle of the board. You heard the line click in your ear and you wrote quickly, trying to get some of the information down so you knew where to pick up when you came back inside. You got a short start and reluctantly forced yourself away from your research to let your guest in. You started to work out your ideas vocally as you opened up the two gates and watched his purple Lamborghini pull into your driveway. You waited just long enough for him to make it half way to you, before you turned and headed inside to add more to your cord blood list with him following behind you.

“Umm… what the fuck is this?” Kels asked as he looked at the board over your shoulder in shock.

“Did you vaccinate Casie?” You asked as you continued to write.

“You’re fucking pregnant?!” He shouted over you as you capped your marker and set it back down on the easel.

“I am pregnant.” You said evenly as you walked over to find the ‘The Umbilical Cord Blood Controversies in Medical Law’ book to cross reference the former textbook. “Did you vaccinate Casie?”

“Were you gunna fucking tell me?” He shouted as you flipped through the pages, easily reading 20,000 words a minutes despite the distraction of your visitor.

“I was neither planning on telling you, nor keeping it from you.” You said simply. “I want nothing from you, Mr. Baker. I don’t need money, and I don’t need you to step up to be a father. You were a one night stand that I chose to not take Plan B after. My choice, my child, my body, my life.” He looked at you completely lost for words as you set your finished book down and headed back to the white board to add and change notes. “I would like your family medical history, though. I could easily do a diagnostics test and an MSS while I’m pregnant but…”

“Oh, I’m gunna be fucking sick.” He groaned behind you as you finished your idea and turned to move on to the next section. You grabbed the trash can and handed it to him on the way past as you tried to keep your thoughts as straight as possible, relatively unsuccessfully.

“I don’t wanna be alone.” You sighed as you looked over at him for a moment. “And after the way you treated me that night, the way you just used me and threw me away like I didn’t mean a Goddamn thing…” You exhaled through your nose and shook your head as you looked away from him and out the back door to the ocean.

“I don’t care that you’re not happy here, Mr. Baker. I don’t care if you want to be in this child’s life or not. I don’t care if you see me or this child as a mistake, or what you see us as at all. I just don’t care. What I care about is having a calm, healthy pregnancy, and becoming a mother. And I will not tolerate having someone come into our lives to walk in and out of it because he never wanted us in the first place. Nor will I tolerate someone treating me like I’m worthless trash in front of my child.” Kels didn’t say a single word as you shook your head and turned back around to go back to work. “Stay as long as you want. I have work to do.”

As Colson sat and thought, you went over to find a book about banking cord blood so you could round out that column. The next column was pros and cons of breastfeeding verses formula, which was a lot more extensive than you originally expected due to the varying opinions on length and benefits, but after reading through seven different books, and writing and erasing conflicting notes, he finally spoke up.

“Breastfeed for a year.” He almost whispered as he watched you work. “That’s what we did with Casie. And yea, we vaccinated her.” You nodded your head as you erased the idea you were writing and stood up to make a note in the vaccines column. “I don’t turn my back on my kids.”

“OK.”

“I’m sorry.” He continued as you capped your marker “It’s no excuse but I was high as fuck and running on adrenaline. I used you and that was shitty as fuck.”

“Yes it was.” You agreed with a nod as you leaned against the front of your desk and crossed your arms over your chest.

“Well I’m fucking sorry.” He said a little harshly. “And I’m sorry for knocking you up.”

“Pregnancy happens, Colson.” You breathed with a shrug of your shoulders. “I’m obviously a little more prepared since I actually made the decision…”

“Yea, that’s a fucking understatement.”

“OK, you can fucking leave and I can file a restraining order.” You snapped. “What’s done is done. I’m pregnant, you’re the father, your kid and my kid have a new sibling. You’re not going to have to pay child support, I’m taking primary custody with open visitations. And no, I am not going to date you. Not now, not ever. You left a sour taste in my mouth and I want nothing to do with you or your crazy lifestyle.”

“You’re just making this super fucking easy, aren’t you?” He asked as he pushed himself out of his chair. “I’m outta here. I’ll get your number from Ash and I’ll be in touch.” You rolled your eyes and gestured toward the door behind him.

“You can see yourself out.”

“Such a fucking bitch.” He muttered as he stormed out the doors and through the atrium to leave. You let out a huff and shook your head as you went back to your research.

“Idiot fucking sperm donor.”

Part 3

#machine gun kelly x reader #mgk x reader #colson baker x reader #henry cavill x reader #too smart for your own good

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trillian-anders · 4 years

Text

chambers - v

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

warnings: violence, angst, slow burn

word count: 3273

description: Post-Endgame. Steve Rogers has passed away from old age. The one remarkable thing is that no one knew his heart would be in the condition it was. He was able to save one more life. After receiving his heart, strange things start happening. Including something that would change your life forever. (Very loosely based on the Netflix series of the same name.)

an: a little shorter than the others, but! I just had a hellish weekend at work that’s not quite over yet and writing this between tables makes it a little better so... enjoy loves.

The community center was in Brooklyn, the large brick building housed many different projects. An after school program for kids, a homeless shelter at night, various ‘anonymous’ meetings during the day. This wasn’t like the typical VA. It was very much a hodgepodge group of people brought together by the circumstance of Sam Wilson being a good human being. Sam Wilson was probably one of the kindest people you’ve ever met.

You didn’t belong here, maybe this was a mistake. You were standing very awkwardly off to the side, holding a cheap styrofoam cup of coffee. If anything this dress was definitely a mistake, the button up t-shirt dress you figured was a nice middle ground of looking nice but not trying to look too nice, but everyone else’s jeans and t-shirts made you feel like you should have just worn jeans and a t-shirt. The exception was Sam, who ran the group. He was in a nice button down and slacks, but even Bucky was just in a black t-shirt, jeans and a leather jacket.

You were trying not to think about it.

“Are you going to be okay while we make some rounds?” Sam asked you. The two wanted to leave you momentarily to go and greet people they know, “Grab a drink, we’ll be right back.”

You didn’t belong here. These men and women who actually lived it. You flinched at the memory that plagued you last night. Boot camp. It was rough, but Steve made it through. Not without sore bones and an asthma attack or two. But it wasn’t you.

You feel like a fraud.

You could feel yourself at a different time, a darker room. People who were a little more sad.

After the blip, when everyone came back, the world was a mess. People who had moved on now had their spouses, partners, kids back. Some of them had new kids, had gotten remarried. Others had died during the blip. The accidents caused by disappearing drivers, pilots. People who couldn’t handle the loss. People returning was just as bad as people disappearing. But everyone picked themselves back up a little easier.

There was optimism with loss. Iron Man, Tony Stark. Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff. Captain America, Steve Rogers. They sacrificed their lives in order to save everyone in the entire universe. There were murals of their faces in every borough of New York City. You passed three on your way in.

“This VA is a little different than the one I ran in DC,” Sam said, “But it’s pretty much the same.” There was a mural of their faces in this community center. It made you a little sick. You could almost feel him looking over your shoulder, Steve, hot on your back. Like he was actually there.

“You don’t have to say anything.” Bucky told you as the three of you parked the car, “Get some coffee, eat some snacks. You can just observe.” He was trying hard for you, hand on your back, rubbing slightly to comfort you, but you felt empty when he walked away to talk to a man who was much older. Someone who was almost his actual age, in a wheelchair playing cards with men not much younger than him.

It wasn’t hard to forget that Bucky was supposedly in his hundreds. It was 2025, the guy was 108 years old. He looked to be in his 30s. You felt like you were a hundred, suddenly the coffee wasn’t that bad.

“New here?” A man sidled up next to you, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the metal coffee server next to you. He was handsome, but had the same hollow look in his eyes that you’d often seen in Bucky and Sam. Even Steve. You scraped your fingernail gently against the styrofoam. Nervously you answered,

“Yeah,” You took a sip from your coffee. Fraud. “I’m just here with some friends though,” You explained, gesturing to Sam. “I’m not- I haven’t.” He chuckled, stirring his creamer with one of the wooden stir sticks before studying you.

“It’s okay,” He smiled. Charming. “You don’t have to explain.” His hair looked like it was cut with kitchen scissors, you noticed. Shaggy and reaching around his ears. Five o’clock shadow, motor oil around his nail beds. “I’ve been coming here for about a year now,” He explained. “It gets easier.” Sip of coffee and a sweet smile. “No matter what brought you here.”

“I’m Y/N.” You offered him your hand. He grinned, his teeth were perfectly straight.

“I’m Eric.” His hand was rough and calloused in yours, a shiver went through your body when you noticed he had dimples. “Do you wanna sit by me, maybe?” He gestured over to where Sam and Bucky were setting up the circle of chairs. You looked over at the both of them, who seemed intent on trying to not pay attention to your conversation. You tugged your bottom lip between your teeth as you stared at Bucky for a moment more, heart aching,

“Sure.”

He refreshed your coffee for you and sat a little too close to make you comfortable. You didn’t notice Bucky and Sam exchange a look, before Bucky decided to sit on the other side of you.

“You okay?” He asked, nudging your arm softly, eyes pointedly glancing at Eric. You nodded silently, giving him a soft smile.

“Yeah, I’m good.” You could tell he felt unsure, shifting down in his seat so he could look at Eric from behind you.

Bucky was unsure about this guy.

“He’s just being friendly,” Sam assured him as they brought out the metal folding chairs from the utility closet. “We left her alone for a while, she obviously was uncomfortable.” Bucky huffed grumpily.

“He’s trying to hit on her.” Sam rolled his eyes.

“Relax Buck.” Sam unfolded the papers from his pocket and laid them on the chair he’d be using, “She’s fine.” It didn’t stop him from heavily taking the chair next to yours, leaning back in his seat to examine the guy as he talked, trying to read him and see what he was all about.

“I lost my wife in the field.” He said. Your heart broke, “We were in separate divisions. I’m a marine, she was in the air force.” You could see Bucky shift in his seat. “During the blip she was running drills with a teammate, the plane went down when her teammate blipped.” Eric’s eyes were watery when they met yours, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “I had blipped myself so…” He swallowed harshly. “When I came back… I had nothing to come back to. I always thought if either of us were to die at war it would be me y’know? The air force is typically pretty safe.”

“We were all affected by the blip,” Sam explained, “Some in more ways than others. You’re very brave for sharing that with us.” Bucky grunted next to you and you looked over at him, sunk down in his seat, hands in his jacket pockets, starting ahead at Sam.

“I’m so sorry.” You whispered to Eric, placing a hand on his arm. He looked at you with a watery smile.

“I’m trying to move on,” He explained to the group. “It’s been two years since I’ve been back and I think it’s finally time.” The group clapped for him in encouragement.

The air here was tense. Everyone had a story like this, something similar anyway. Sam lost his best friend out in the field. A girl named Ally lost her right leg in Afghanistan. A man named Neil’s daughter died overseas in war, he fought in Vietnam. It was heartbreaking. These people were laying themselves bare, exposing their insecurities and their fears. Their never ending night terrors and crowd anxiety. Slowly, over time, the room became lighter. More relieved.

“You think you’ll be back?” Eric asked you as people were collecting their belongings. You shifted your empty coffee cup between your hands, looking at Bucky behind you.

“Maybe,” You said with a nervous smile.

“We just have to clean up and then we can go if you want,” Bucky interrupted, giving Eric a tight smile before looking at you.

“We can stay if you wanted to play some cards or something?” You offered. Bucky had promised one of the older men from earlier that he would stick around and play a hand or two. He shrugged, looking over at Sam.

“I’m just saying, the first time is kind of intense,” Eric was standing off to the side awkwardly during this exchange where Bucky seemed to be ignoring his presence. “If you wanna go back home we can.” His hand lay comfortingly on your arm.

You shake your head, “No, go ahead. I’ll be fine.” He nodded once, eyes drifting back to Eric’s momentarily before grabbing both of your chairs and walking away.

“Your boyfriend is scary.” Eric laughed nervously.

“Oh he’s not-” You gestured towards Bucky, “He’s not my boyfriend, we’re just like-” You didn’t know how to properly explain it, “Roommates.” Sounds about right.

Relief crossed Eric’s features, “Oh good,” He walked with you back over to the coffee and continued as you poured yourself another cup, “So it wouldn’t be too forward of me to ask you to dinner?” Your hand stilled under the coffee server, looking up at the man beside you.

He was handsome and from what you could tell he was kind. It just wasn’t the right time. You had so much going on. How would you even begin to explain the compound? He had to know who Bucky and Sam were.

“Is that a no?” He chuckled nervously. You sighed and looked down at the black liquid in your cup.

“I’m sorry,” Your eyes met his crestfallen ones, “It’s just…” you looked over at Bucky and Sam, sitting down to join the older men in a game of poker. “I’m recovering from heart surgery and it’s been…a process.” A soft smile broke out on his face,

“Not technically a no… can I at least give you my number?” He offered, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Maybe once you’re a little more out of the process?” You’ve never really dated, having been too sick for most of your life. This could be your chance to go on an honest to god date. Flowers, dinner, everything. You were still so unsure of your feelings. Steve’s and yours mixed all together in this overflowing pot you’d been trying to keep from spilling over.

“Sure,” You pulled your phone out of the pocket of your dress, exchanging numbers with him. He was charming and if that dimple was anything to go by, you could imagine caring about him. Someone that seemed as broken as you felt. Maybe. In a different place, a better life.

“Stay safe out there.” He called as you left to join Sam and Bucky at the poker table.

“You too,” You called back, choosing to pointedly ignore Sam and Bucky’s questioning looks.

“What was that all about?” Sam asked teasingly. A blush spread across your cheeks,

“Nothing.” Bucky was stiff next to you. They dealt you in, a game you’d never played before, but the older man--Louie--assured you he’d help you out. He was wearing his Vietnam veteran hat and he told you that you reminded him of his granddaughter.

“You shouldn’t really be dating right now.” Bucky said later on in the car on the ride home. Sam gave him a side eye,

“Buck, chill.” Sam glanced at you in the rear-view mirror.

“It’s none of your business frankly.” What the fuck? “I told him no.” You pulled your phone from your pocket, sinking down in the back seat.

“I’m just saying,” Bucky shrugged, looking out the car window, “You should be focusing on figuring out whatever is going on with you right now.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” You snapped, glaring at the back of his head. God his hair was shiny. “What is your problem?”

“Yeah, Bucky, what’s your problem?” Sam pulled up to the gate of the compound, scanning a key card to enter. He grumbled in the passenger seat,

“Something’s off about that guy.” He explained to the both of you, “I don’t like him.”

“Something off like what?” You asked angrily, leaning towards the passenger seat. “Him asking me to dinner or him crying about his dead wife?”

“I don’t know yet.” You rolled your eyes, shifting away from him.

“This is just like that time Barbie Goldstien asked me to the Sadie Hawkins instead of you, you literally swore she was doing it to be mean.” You accused. Heart dropping out of your chest practically as you realize what you just said. The car was parked and the three of you sat in a tense silence. No one moved. Your throat was closing up, where did all the air go? Bucky practically ripped the car door off, kicking it open with his foot, leaving it open. He walked four paces away towards the front door before turning and returning to the car, ducking his head back in to stare you down, face enraged,

“She did ask Steve as a prank, I told her to either go with him for real or to fake sick otherwise I was going to tell everyone about her pissing herself in the hallway in the first grade. So my intuition was right.” Car door slammed and he was stomping up to the house, leaving the two of you in a strange silence. You tossed your head back, looking at the sky from the back window of the car, tears welling in your eyes.

“I can never win Sam.” He leaned back against the headrest sighing heavily. “I’m losing what’s me and what is him.” He looked at you from the rearview mirror, you lifted your head to look at him.

“Bucky is never going to be easy.” He explained, “He’s trying.” You know he is. “He’s trying.” Sam repeated again, rubbing his eyes.

You didn’t see either of them for the rest of the night.

“I’m getting better at it,” Wanda said, her powers. Practicing. They were incredible, powerful. She was strong, “I lost a lot of confidence after what happened in Nigeria, but I’ve come a long way since then.” She was lifting things in the gym, both of you in workout gear, she was showing you how easily she could lift heavy objects, but you already knew that. You’ve already seen it. “I try not to use the mind warping unless I actually have to.” She explains. You remember that too. She’d shown you Peggy.

She’d shown Steve, Peggy.

You could almost feel her dress beneath your fingertips, swaying side to side, dancing in your living room. Nat King Cole crooning over the speakers of the record table under the window that faced the rose bushes you’d planted for her, their buds just peeking over the windowsill. A roast was in the oven, it was Sunday.

“I was thinking of taking a Holiday,” She whispered against your chest. “We could go to the beach?” You hummed in contentment,

“We can do that.” You flitted back to the quiet singing coming over the speakers. This is what you wanted wasn’t it? Peggy was in your arms, shield and hammer packed away. For all intents and purposes you were a house husband. Coming out whenever Peggy had something she needed your help with, but for the most part…

You cooked, cleaned, you’d recently been discussing having a child.

Who were you now?

You were just Steve Rogers.

Just Steve.

“Hey,” Wanda was in your line of vision, “You okay?” You hummed,

“Yeah, did I have another seizure?” She shook her head.

“No, you just kind of drifted off, like daydreaming.” Huh. “You had another memory?” Her brow was pinched in concern.

“Yeah,” You shake your head as if clearing a fog. “I did.” You sighed heavily, rolling back to lay down on the mat beneath you, staring at the ceiling.

“What was it about?” She asked, sitting herself next to you.

“Peggy.” You gave her a tense smile. “It’s so strange to love someone—remember someone—in such an intimate way, someone I’ve never known myself… but Steve loved her.” Wanda nodded, hand coming to rub your back soothingly.

“He left all of us for her.” Emotion thick in her voice.

It was hard to remember that Bucky wasn’t the only person that lost Steve. The only person who was devastated by him leaving. He left handprints on all of these people’s lives and just left. “The only selfish thing the guy’s ever done in his life.” Sam told you with a humorless laugh.

No.

Steve’s done a bunch of selfish things.

The accords.

You felt the self-righteousness. The belief in being right. A part of you still staunchly believes you did the right thing, the only thing you could have done. The only thing Steve could have done. But you know that it could have been handled differently.

Steve was clouded by thoughts of Bucky and the need to protect the man who always protected him. Bucky was a good kid. Better than Steve ever was. While Bucky was taking care of his Ma, his sister Becca, and Steve himself, Steve was off getting into fights and trying to illegally enlist in the war he would lose Bucky to.

Bucky was really good at science and math, he liked dancing and music, he loved the movies. He had time for all of those things, when he wasn’t pulling twelve hour shifts at the canary and picking Steve’s sorry ass off the street where his face had found someone’s fists.

You suddenly realized why Bucky looked so tired.

He’s been tired his entire life.

“I can understand why he did it,” Wanda continued, “If I had the chance to have either of them back…” You nodded solemnly, the two of you coming to hold each other in the middle of the gym.

“That’s the thing though right?” You stared over her shoulder, watching Bucky as he entered the gym, eyes catching yours, “If we all got everything we ever wanted the world would probably be a much more terrible place.”

You were trying to sleep when the first text came in,

Eric: Hey, I know this is a little soon and you said you weren’t ready to date, but everyone has time for friends right?

You stared at your phone screen in the dark, thinking about the man you had met earlier in the day. You’ve always felt pretty average. You knew you weren’t ugly, but you wouldn’t exactly compare yourself to Gal Gadot or anything. You’d just never had the time for actual dating. You were born with heart problems, they persisted throughout your entire life getting increasingly worse until you found yourself on the table under a knife getting the heart of a deceased super soldier. In high school, prime dating years, you spent more time in the hospital than in the classroom and you were sickly, pale, always with bags under your eyes and a crushing fatigue.

You’d never been approached like this before.

You’d never been asked on a date before.

You’d never had someone ask you for your number and then text you the same day before.

This was new.

So what are you supposed to do? You stared at your phone screen in the dark, the light from it illuminating your face as you typed out your reply.

Do you want to get coffee sometime?

taglist // @nutellakirb @witch-of-letters @torntaltos @emotionallysalty @bookish-shristi @saturnki @jennmurawski13 @geeksareunique @albinotigerpython @an-lover

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #Steve Rogers #Avengers #captain america #sebastian stan

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justmywriting1313 · 4 years

Text

I Passed (I think) And I Am Back!!! (For some time) (Fic schedule and just some FYI’s)

Heyyoooo loves!!! I hope you guys are having an amazing week besides quarantine and whatnot and are safe, happy and healthy!!!😊😊

Okay so I am posting this for a couple reasons... The first is to say I am SOOOOOO SORRYYYYY I haven’t been responding to asks, messages, and requests!!!!! If any of you take psychology or have studied it you guys know its very very very difficult. Despite enjoying it i am so close to having a mental breakdown every-time i see my book. Besides taking a stupid hard course i take 7 courses in total 😖😖... Yes I am well aware that I am very dumb for torturing myself like that haha but anyway I also have a side job of selling art (Paintings/ Portraits) so I can make some extra cash to support myself. You guys can imagine how busy that had made me!! But for the next two weeks I have no courses so I promise to reply on time (that includes the ones i am yet to reply to 😅😅) and post One fic every two three days!

The second thing I want to say is a HUGE GINORMOUS MASSIVE THANK YOU! 🥺🥺🥺 I expressed on the top of my last fic that some people had been mean to me about fic writing because I take so long (separate notes: if you put ‘You are Worth it’ together its 11 fricking thousand words...omg!!) However, the amount of people who sent in submissions and messages telling me how much they love my fics and that its okay for me to take time honestly made me tear up. I get stressed super easily so when i read them they literally made me so happy and excited to write more fics. On top of that i don’t often stand up to people cause i think why bother especially on the internet and so for the first time i did and SOO MANY OF YOU SUPPORTED MEEEEEE!!!! YYAYAYAY!!! I am so grateful and reply to each one of you but still wanted to say a collective thankyou!! 💖💖💖

Okay Third thing, So if any of you have read my bio you know I have ADHD. For those of you who dont know it roughly means organisation, attention and just focusing does not come naturally to me. Why i am telling you this is because it explains why I have a hard time texting back cause i usually put it in the back of my head and then forget about it. I cant promise ill fix it right away but ill promise to do my best that I can!!!!!

Okay Last thing which is Fic related and so you guys might notice/care about more 😂😂😂 Okay soooo I had started this blog a long time back however I didnt think I was any good at the time so I didn't continue posting stuff. Then I put the ‘You are Worth It’ fic for Lucifer and honestly the reaction I got to that was so heartwarming!!! (Ps if you ever ever ever feel that way I am right here... believe me when I say I know how it feels. I am a curvy Indian writer/ painter! You guys have no idea how much I have stood out and have felt the way the m/c in that fic did so I will always be open to listen without any judgement whatsoever if you ever feel the need to talk to someone!!!!) So I continued writing and put out the other parts to that fic as well as a Beel fic and despite that not doing as well I am still so happy to see you guys liked it. Earlier I was going to stop putting up anymore out but i’ve decided I will continue the blog and hopefully give you guys writing you love just as much 🥰🥰🥰 However I wont lie it gets a bit overwhelming so I thought best to put a few rules up (and also tell you all the fandoms i write for).

RULES:

Some of these Fics are very clearly 18+ so pretty please if you are below 18 don’t read them. I am trusting you guys enough (I have a feeling I will regret this) so if you are not 18 then don’t read them!!!!! I will make plenty of all-user-friendly ones so yeah!

Second I refuse to write anything even remotely Racist and sexist. Also if I am not comfortable with a certain kink/ type of fic I WILL NOT WRITE IT. I am happy to write whatever you request but if I am not comfortable with it I will let you know so please understand and respect my boundaries.

If the characters in the fandom are related I am sorry it’s not happening. If they are sharing an experience with M/C? Sure! For example Beel x M/C x Belphie? Perfect! However Beel x Belphie is NOT happening.

Lastly Do not Harass me about a certain request. If you have requested something be patient and if you still want to now the status of it just drop me a polite message and i’ll be more than happy to tell you. (this also helps me remember just incase i forget)

FIC SCHEDULE:

Okay now for the fic schedule of what to expect in the next month. I am not giving dates for all of them cause honestly i am scared of what you guys will do so this is just rough. Also for those who sent the ask ill tag you guys and for the anonymous ones... yeah idk hehehe 🥰 A- Angst/ F- Fluff / S- Smut. Also firstly crossed out fic titles mean i’ve already put them up and they are finished secondly once this list ends i’ll put out another fic schedule with the next fic’s that are in progress just being edited!

Also I’ll try to sprinkle in some HC’s in between so i keep giving some kind of writing!

Two can Play at that Game... (Mammon x M/C) Multiple parts and very smutty. 18+ (Hopefully in the coming week) A/F/S

I am Here... I’ll always be here (Diavolo x M/C) Multiple parts A/F

The Italian Way of Life (Beel x M/C) Don’t know how many parts F

Compliments (Beel x M/C) (This is the ‘You are Worth it!!’ but with Beel instead) Multiple parts A/F/S

Smile For me! (Demon bros x M/C) Multiple parts A/F

Stay (Lucifer x M/C) Two different endings A/F/S

My Own Slice of Heaven (Diavolo x M/C) Multiple Parts F/S

Thats it for now but ill probably add more later after replying to everyones submissions and messages to see the new requests. For now lets see if i can even do all of these.

OTHER FANDOMS I WRITE FOR:

MARVEL

BATBOYS (technically dc i guess)

STAR TREK

PEAKY BLINDERS

LOTR AND THE HOBBIT

Okay honestly I have so many i cant even remember so as and when i remember ill add 😂😂

Okieeeee I think thats a wrap sorry thats so long but anyway please drop in more requests and asks and don’t forget to reblog!!!! Love you guysssss and byeee

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jas-michaud · 4 years

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𝙹𝙰𝚂'𝚂 𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝚄𝙽 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙴𝚁𝙰𝚁𝚈 ft. @redgrve

may 29 - june 7 ( my house )

june 7 - 12 ( disneyland )

june 12 - 19 ( louis goes home & i visit @mariguinto )

june 19 - 26 ( i fly to dc to stay with louis & his dad )

@gallaghertasks

they linger on campus a little after graduation ( jas insists on a room 207 + her breakfast together post ceremony and yeah she cried!! ) but don’t waste that much time before flying to montreal to visit jas’s family. thankfully for louis, it’s only a 2ish hour flight so he’s not that sweaty when jas’s older sister picks them up at the airport! her parents wanted to but her father is working and mila insisted she do it because that’s way less scary for a boyfriend though lbr louis is losing either way, he wants her whole fam to like him. surprisingly, mila decides to be chill the whole drive there and jas is thankful because she was positive her sister was gonna try to scare him just to be annoying!

they get to the michaud household and her little sister bee ( not that little, she’s nineteen lol ) runs out to hug jas and then she hugs louis and acts like she just got carried away but it’s because he’s cute and we all know it! jas’s mom doesn’t come out because she is in the kitchen making louis-friendly brownies and these pictures on the internet lead me to believe they taste better than they sound. louis is probs flustered by the attention but hello this is the family that produced jas, they are happy to do the most. a couple hours pass and her mother starts making dinner ( her mom is home because she’s a teacher so it’s summer vacation for her too obvs ) and her dad comes home and she hugs him and truly in that exact moment realizes she will not be there for father’s day and almost cries. and then realizes she will be with louis’s dad for father’s day? and she imagines louis still doesn’t rly know how to celebrate? do they ignore it every year?? she is determined to get him a present when she finds something for her own dad!

louis is nervy because dentists are scarier to him than spies but jas’s dad is nice and simply not scary and also i’m in love with him. bed time! jas is like it was a long day i won’t try to seduce you in my childhood bedroom this one time ❤️

they do canadian shit for the rest of the trip and jas continues to try teaching louis german. jas is so happy to be home, and to be home with louis specifically, and even if they both have to lie about their college and what louis is planning to do with his life it still feels like things are kind of amazing and on their last day in canada she finally starts thinking about the fact that they’re going to disneyland and!!!!!!!!

JAS BRINGS A PEN AND YES SHE IS MARKING UP THE PARK MAP THEY NEED TO DO THIS RIGHT OR WHY DO IT AT ALL!!! they only have four full days at disney. the day they get there is mostly just getting settled in the hotel and they watch a movie but jas falls asleep halfway through i hope they aren’t cursed to never successfully watch movies together. DAY ONE: a treat for the boyf, they’re gonna start with galaxy’s edge. then it’s frontierland, new orleans square & adventureland! it’s probably hard for louis to find stuff he can eat in the park so jas has made a list of restaurants in each area that might have at least one item she thinks is safe but also she has brought snacks!! meanwhile she is eating churro funnel cakes and mickey mouse ice cream bars and drinking mint juleps or whatever the fuck. she has a sugar high every damn day and then passes out every night which is why she initiates morning sex tmi? DAY TWO: gotta start with main street!!! then tomorrowland, fantasyland and toontown. they watch the fireworks, jas gets privately emo because she just l*ves her boyfriend, he probably almost says it then there’s a loud ass firework and he is stressed bc of loud noises ( lowkey i don’t like fireworks bc same ). DAY THREE: california adventure, baby! hollywood land, followed by grizzly peak and then cars land. they dip before it’s too late to hang out in the hotel and i am giving louis designated gaming time. DAY FOUR: the rest of california adventure which is just pixar pier, pacific wharf and paradise gardens park. they go out somewhere fancy because i say so. and because this is their last night together for a week. which is literally no time at all but jas cries a little when he leaves her at the gate to go catch his separate flight.

jas was originally supposed to go on vacation with the guintos, then the vacation was cancelled and she made plans with louis because she is very aware that she won’t see him that often next semester and she is...not okay but anyways! he said he wanted to go visit his dad alone for a week so she got to tell mari that she could visit after all and yay!!! because not seeing mari for a full month was wild! she facetimes louis every day which is unnecessary but it is what it is. and ofc she facetimed mari pretty much every day when she was with louis. they don’t do anything too wild, just hanging out in los angeles, but it’s still perfect and a lot of fun and she’s like bye see you in berlin love you miss you already.

louis picks her up at the airport in dc and she hugs him as if they haven’t seen each other in months and it’s generally a gross display but what else is new. she meets his dad and their dads are so different which is not surprising and his dad is so much unlike louis which is also not surprising but over the course of the week she finds certain mannerisms and expressions that they share and it’s amazing how genetics find a way despite everything! she likes his dad and hopes he likes her and when they leave for berlin a few days before the internship starts, it seems like?? he likes her and she?? is so happy. louis shows her as much of dc as he can in such a limited amount of time and even tho she’s a canadian she finds it all very interesting, probably more than most 21-year-old americans would! she also sometimes thinks about how georgetown is there but they don’t go to see the campus or anything, it’s just weird to think about.

they fly to berlin and louis tries to sleep through most of the flight and jas just likes having his head on her shoulder what is this the lizzie mcguire movie haha and when they arrive in berlin he is pretty well rested but she is dreaming of sleeping for the next five years.

#i wrote this at 4am and i wrote too much and i just. I Just #gallagher:task

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Future State is the Next Evolution for DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Never let it be said that Brian Michael Bendis doesn’t know how to keep busy. The prolific writer has had his hands full since coming to DC in 2018. Arriving with much fanfare on both Superman and Action Comics, Bendis also relaunched Young Justice, co-created a new DC mainstay in Naomi, wrote the excellent Batman: Universe, shepherded the Event Leviathan mini, and more. All of these books introduced new characters, re-tooled existing ones (such as aging up young Jonathan Kent to his mid-teens), and set various wheels in motion throughout the DC Universe.

And in the midst of that he also rebooted the team with the largest roster in all of comics, the one that brings with it the most complex web of continuity, the one that requires the most amount of worldbuilding by virtue of its 31st century setting. I am, of course, talking about the Legion of Super-Heroes.

It’s been a little over a year since the launch of Bendis and Ryan Sook’s ongoing Legion of Super-Heroes book, which kicked off in the Superman titles, brought the now Legion-aged Jon Kent along (any good Legion needs a Superboy…it’s the law), showcased some truly spectacular new character designs in Sook’s art (new costumes and regular redesigns for Legionnaires may as well be the law, too) and established what the 31st century of the current DC Universe looks like these days. In true Legion fashion…well, it’s a lot.

The book seemed to reach a stopping point with its twelfth issue, taking a brief hiatus. But not too brief, because as part of DC’s Future State initiative, which offers tantalizing glimpses of the DC Universe to come across the entire line, Bendis returns to the 31st century with the two-part Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes, this time aided and abetted by Riley Rossmo on art. And like Sook before him, Rossmo followed one of those unspoken Legion laws and gave a bunch of the Legionnaires new looks. Great new looks.

But…isn’t Legion of Super-Heroes by its very nature ALREADY a Future State book? Not exactly, and fans of the recent series will find plenty of surprises even as it picks up on story threads from the main series. Oh, and if the roster wasn’t big enough already, there are some Legionnaires you haven’t seen yet, and some fan favorites everyone has been waiting for. Bendis told us all about it…

(This interview has been edited for length)

Den of Geek: Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 kicks off with a time jump from where we last saw the team in Legion of Super-Heroes #12. What can you tell us about that time jump?

Brian Michael Bendis: We were going to do a time jump after the first 12 issues, regardless. That was the plan because it’s in the DNA of Legion where you don’t have to, if you don’t want to, there’s no reason to stay [in one time period]. You don’t have to do monthly, to monthly, to monthly, like you would on Superman or Batman because it’s a shared universe and anything that happens in one book affects all the other books.

Whereas Legion, because it’s a thousand years in the future, you can do five years later. You can jump and bounce around and show the story from different perspectives. So the jump was always on the list of things to do with Legion. And then DC called and said, “Hey, Future State!” And I’m like, “Oh, great. Already in my notes.” It was all already planned. It’s the future, of the future. I liked that, so I leaned into it hard.

The issue isn’t clear about how much of a time jump it is, though.

No. The hint I will give is that it’s not as big of a time jump as people might think, considering the dramatic changes that have happened around them.

Is that time jump, and whatever it is that happened, tied to the “Great Darkness” that was being teased in the latter part of the main run? Or is this a separate event?

It is a separate event, but it doesn’t stop the momentum where they’re headed. They’re concerned that this is The Great Darkness. They’re like, “Oh, this is The Great Darkness. We can deal with it.” And then they go, “Oh, shit. This wasn’t The Great Darkness. This was just a mild case of darkness.” As bad as the event was, there’s something else coming. They live in almost…not fear, but in dread of what this Great Darkness is, how it may manifest itself, and whether they’ll be ready for it when it comes.

It’s funny, when I spoke to you before the launch of the book, I had asked you about the potential to touch on existing Legion stories. At the time, you were like, “No, we don’t want to do that,” and you specifically mentioned The Great Darkness Saga as one where “people know what’s going to happen.” And clearly you’ve found a way around that.

I think when we brought back Secret War or other things at Marvel, you want to find something that fits the label, but elevates. You don’t want to just repeat the beats of something people have already seen. I personally like it when, if you don’t know anything about the history of the Legion, it completely works. But if you know everything about Legion, we’ve got something for you. That’s been my goal from the get go.

You had said that the time jump was already probably going to be baked into the book anyway.

It was. It was like my third note when I was making my notes for Legion. It was like, “oh, and we don’t have to follow a linear timeframe.” We can tell stories from anywhere in this period, even going to prequel stories and then stories that go before they were all gathered as well.

How much of the specifics of that were in place before it became Future State? Was Riley Rossmo on art already on the table? Or did that happen later?

No. I’m very happy to report that Riley was the first name requested, and he immediately said yes. I had worked with Riley on a couple of things. There’s something about his work that very deeply speaks to me. I just was like, I would like to see more Legion with him.

I said, “This is a grand opportunity. Just go nuts.” That’s what you want for someone like Riley, to give him an excuse just to use all his tools and all his imagination. He took it from there.

And the script was really like… sometimes you write scripts, and they’re emotional, and sometimes they almost take on a list of drawing prompts. I was just prompting him to go as crazy as he wanted to go, and I would then take the ideas from there.

How did you settle on which Legionnaires would be part of this? Did Riley have input into that as well?

I 100% said to Riley, “Who do you want to draw?” I do this with anybody I can. If there’s any space in which we can meet. I’m like, “What would you like to draw?” I’ve learned through many years and many collaborations that just asking brings a level of craft and quality to the finished product that everyone gets excited about. When an artist points to something and says, “I want to draw that,” they’re telling you, “I’m going to draw the hell out of it and this is going to be amazing.” So I always try to make it work.

He had a list of characters, some of which I already knew he was going to pick from our past work together. I was able to use most of them. Also, I told him what the hook of the story was, so it was easy to cast. There were some character needs we had, like Saturn Girl, but he had already picked them.

One of my favorite things about the Legion in general, and then particularly about this run of it, it’s always about how the characters evolve and how the costumes get redesigned on a regular basis. This was the first opportunity since Ryan Sook did the designs in the main run for that to happen. Did you discuss any of Riley’s designs beforehand?

I told him “Here’s what’s happened to them, here’s who did it, here’s why, and make your choices. Here’s what’s motivating the character.” And then sometimes he came to me with designs where I went, “Oh, I can write a whole of stuff about that.” So, yeah, it was a nice mix.

It’s nice to see the Duo Damsel change happen.

See, I agree with you and I hated it at the same time. One of my favorite storylines of all time is the Duo Damsel thing. But it’s also like the biggest tragedy in comics to me. It’s like a haunting thing. It’s losing a limb but it’s a whole person. So, I was excited to write it and dreading it at the same time. I knew I would feel it and I knew that Riley would bring a lot to it too.

You’re able to encompass that whole thing in just a couple of panels too. It was really powerful.

Well, if I remember correctly, that’s how they did it back in the day too.

Yeah. It was like, she came back and they’re like, “Wait, you’re alive.” It’s like, “well, kind of…”

Yeah, and no one knows what to say. It’s just so unique, the tragedy.

There’s a lot of characters who appear in this issue. Shadow Lass, Ultra Boy, Brainiac 7, Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy, Chameleon Boy, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Blok, Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, and Element Lad. I rattled off the people that I know for sure because they’re throughout most of the book. And then page eight and nine, there’s this spread and there’s a few Legionnaires that I can’t quite identify. Is that Shrinking Violent and Polar Boy? Who are some of these others?

That’s the Substitute Heroes. Time jumping was number three on my list of Legion notes, but I think the Substitutes was number eight. May I say, hilariously at the announcement of this relaunch of a Legion of Super-Heroes, the first comment was, “Substitute Heroes.” I was like, bring them. We don’t want the Legion, we want the Substitutes. I was excited to bring them in here, and it seemed like a good place. And also, Riley was the right person to infuse them with new energy.

Who’s the guy wearing the Superman crest and the hood?

You will find out next issue. A payoff’s coming.

On page 23, you give Bouncing Boy possibly his most badass moment ever. How long have you been planning that Bouncing Boy moment in your head?

Riley made it the most badass moment ever, I will say. If you really do some pseudo-super-Legion science, he really does add up to be the most powerful Legionnaire. I just thought it was a great way to celebrate that character, which I love.

That panel’s great. I almost want to see it in 3D.

Everyone gets their moment and then every once in a while, just something really special happens in the collaboration and you’re like, yeah, good. I absolutely wanted Bouncing Boy to have that kickass of a moment.

I have one more question about one of the mystery Legionnaires. There’s another great shot, another great spread at the end of the book. There’s a guy who is carrying a laser sword of some kind. I don’t recognize this character.

That’s Ferro Lad and his sword. He has a sword now. I love that design.

There’s one more issue of Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes out in February, but there’s no Legion in DC’s solicitations for March and April.

But there are Legion plans coming. Legion is a hard book to make. There’s 34 lead characters, and we try to shove as many of them on panel as often as possible because that’s one of the best parts of the Legion is the scope of it.

I think you can kind of tell from the jam issues and the fill-ins and the level of quality, attempting to keep it at the highest quality possible, yet still delivering that very special Legion feeling…instead of fill-ins that may not be up to the quality that we were doing, we’ll stop, get a story ready to go, and solicit it when it’s time. There’s more to come.

I know that’s frustrating for some people and some people just want it monthly. I get that, but not all books are created in the same way. It’s art. Even though it’s commercial art, it is art. The pandemic also takes a lot out of the schedule. When we’re ready, we’ll put out more. We’re planning stuff that connects to what’s going on in Justice League as well. Not to connect the two, but that is 100% within what’s happening.

Do you already have your artistic collaborators lined up for the next arc of the book?

Yes.

You’re not going to tell me, are you?

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No. It’s very, very good news. I’m absolutely delighted, but honestly, I don’t want the person stolen. Sometimes that has happened to me. I don’t mean to be vague, but right now, I don’t want to oversell something that is down the line.

One of the cool things you did in the main run of the book was introduce legacy characters that fans don’t usually associate with the Legion, like Dr. Fate and particularly Gold Lantern. I want to know what kind of feedback you got from fans on those.

Well, I was actually quite delighted. I thought the purists were really going to hit us hard on any additive stuff, but most Legion fans know that almost every run of Legion has had the added characters to the roster.

It gets frustrating only because when there’s been a lot of time in between Legion books, so some of these fan-favorite characters from past runs don’t get as much face time because you’ve introduced Gold Lantern and “oh, Gold Lantern is standing in front of Ferro Lad. We want more Ferro Lad!” Which I understand, so you better make sure Gold Lantern is interesting enough that no one feels slighted because it’s not Shadow Lass. I must say the additions, particularly of Gold Lantern and Dr. Fate and Monster Boy, all seem to go over very well and I was grateful for that.

Our biggest pushback was on redesigning the costumes. That comes with every Legion redo as well. So I pointed that out. But part of it is that some of the biggest fans in the world have already dedicated cosplay, and we messed up their cosplay. This happened in the X-Men too when we redid Magneto’s costume. People were screaming at us. We’re like “Oh, because you bought the helmet. Okay. I’m sorry. I get it.”

But I just don’t think they take away from each other. I just know from Legion past and other franchises I’ve worked on that anything you’re earnestly adding to it is good, even if it’s got pushback in the moment. I live in a world with the things I’ve gotten pushed back on the hardest ended up being huge movie moments that everybody applauded 10 years later. “Good job on creating Ronin!” I’m like, “Really? Where were you when it debuted? Because people were ripping my face off.”

So compared to stuff like that, I think the Legion fans have been just really, really generous and cool about where we’re going. I think they can tell we’re real Legion fans and we’re not messing around, and we’re taking it seriously. Even though you may not agree with every choice we’re making, you see we’re making loving choices.

Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 is on sale now. We’ll have more from Brian Michael Bendis about his upcoming run on Justice League very soon!

The post Future State is the Next Evolution for DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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sweetwriting · 4 years

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TimKon Week 2020 Day 3: Whaaaaaaat is that?

Category: Gen or Pre-slash

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Fandoms: DC Comics, Teamverse

Continuity: Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint Future AU

Summary: Seriously? They had been called for that?

Word Count: 1211

AN: Welcome to round Three.

Hello everyone. Since my mom's basque (her dad went from the Spanish side to the French side, the regions have their own cultural differences but then there's also those added by the French/Spanish separation. It's a bit weird) even if she moved to Paris when she was young and both her parents passed away before I was born, most of what I know comes from her. I don't actually use much of it here. Because I can't get into the details I'd want to go into which is why the Supernatural theme is pretty light.

Prompt: Supernatural (I don’t write smut so for once I won’t combine the prompts)

Can be read on AO3

Tim had just rejoined the Titans a few months ago and, while he was happy to be with his friends again. He had to admit that sometimes the weird things that happened around them were just….A bit too much. Even for him (and he had learned to take things in stride years ago). So now, here they were. In a country that wasn’t really one. Separated in two by the countries they officially belonged to, with which they shared the official language. Separated by a mountain range called the Pyrenees. Which was where they were right now. And according to his GPS, they had crossed over from the Spanish side to the French one.

He wasn’t sure what was going on. Or he did somewhat. The Giant in front of them had sort of explained. He was just glad Cassie’s mom had taught her some ancient languages to talk to him. Bart probably could have helped but he had been distracted and came back after the giant had started talking with Cassie. Which was weird. She was flying so they could talk face to face but the Giant was dressed like a fishermen from an old tale while Cassie was wearing jeans.

They had been called there by an American tourist who saw what looked like a Giant come down the mountains. Most of the people in the surrounding area didn’t even seemed fazed when they had snooped around.

Right now he was lounging against Conner who was playing with his fingers (apparently his gloves’ texture was too weird. It kinda felt like watching a kid play with Slime). While Bart was trying to explain one of the games he had created. Tim and Conner had been there when he had. So Tim knew he should probably stop him from telling Rose of all people. But she had tried to calm down a bit and Conner did trust her. Sort of.

Cassie turned to them.

“Ok so this guy’s called Olentzero and he’s basically the Santa of this place. He’s the last of his kind and their name is literally written as Gentils around these parts. I don’t know who speaks French or not but it means nice….so…yeah. I think we were called for nothing. He said there was a nice inn not far from here if we wanted to settle for the night. He’s scouting to see the houses he should be bringing presents to in a few days.”

Tim Conner and Rose groaned while Bart pouted, but he got over it quickly and started talking to Rose again who rolled her eyes and muttered a “might as well”.

- - -

They all bid goodbye to the Giant, Gent-something and looked at Tim’s phone and then his GPS to find the inn he had mentioned. They chose to go to the town in civilian clothes and paid for two bedrooms with two beds. The boys had no problem sharing and Cassie and Rose ignored each other most of the time. Or rather, Cassie ignored Rose’s taunting. When she went to the other room to wake the boys up she had seen that they had brought the two beds together and were basically just cuddling each other. If she had known she’d have joined them. It couldn’t be worse than having to deal with Rose. Except for the ex-boyfriend awkwardness.

She woke them up and they all left after eating breakfast. As annoying as it was that they had travel only to find out there was no actual threat, it was a nice place to visit and she had found a creature from a mythology she didn’t know much about and she couldn’t wait to tell her mom. So she turned to Tim who was piloting their ship back to the US with Conner leaning against his seat from behind and playing with his hair. It was a bit weird. They had never had issues with casually touching each other, but neither of them were good at initiating affection-filled gestures when it wasn’t needed for comfort in relationships that weren’t romantically induced. But since Tim had come back to the Teen Titans, they became more common.

It was probably to the trauma of losing Conner for Tim, and the trauma of Tim being so lost he wasn’t there to welcome his best friends back for Conner. Neither really wanted to let the other go. It was kind of the same for all of them really. But they took it a step further for each other (and that’s counting giving in every time Bart asked for a hug).

Things were better between her and Conner. The truth is that, even if breaking up had been hard, she had realized that she had moved on from him while he was still dead. It still wasn’t easy to accept but she was getting there. And celibacy seemed to do him some good. There was a weird time when he and Rose had kind of flirted but it never went past flirting and she stopped soon enough because, just like with Kid Devil, Rose had found someone she could actually get along with…kind of. It was strange for Cassie to even think of, much less admit, but it was true. It would probably be better for Rose anyway. Or was it just wishful thinking? She wasn’t ready to let Conner go yet. She knew that, even if she had no choice in what he did. Growing up was hard and annoying. She often spent time alone. Kiran wasn’t available and the 5 of them were the main team that went out in the past few weeks. Which was annoying as both duos were composed of one person she’d like to hang out with and one she’d rather avoid. Bart with a crush was cute though. He had gotten over his crush on Kiran when he realized boys weren’t really her thing. She just hopped Rose would be careful when rejecting him.

Wait.

She turned to Conner and Tim.

Oh.

She wasn’t sure what to think. Both of her ex-boyfriends….even if she never really counted as an actual boyfriend. Things made sense.

Did they know?

She looked more closely at them. They were joking around about weird things happening every time Tim went to France or something. Ugh, she knew that look. And she had never seen it on either boy’s face, ever.

Well that stung. She knew hers and Conner’s relationship hadn’t been that great but still. To be faire she didn’t know much about Tim’s romantic history and Conner’s was filled with creeps. She was probably the most normal girlfriend he’d had and she was Wonder Girl. Wasn’t that why he had broken up with her in the first place?

It was probably best for both boys if they didn’t realize anything for now then. She didn’t want Conner to find someone else yes, but more importantly, her boys were too hurt. She didn’t want them to form a relationship if they risked hurting each other because of bad experience. She’d only act if in ten years they were still two oblivious pining idiots.

Either way they were going to be fine.

Maybe that was Olentzero gift for her. Realizing this.

AN: Jentilaks are giants, it's true that some french people called them with the french word for nice, but that's not what it actually means. It' s just a play on words that happened over time. Anyway, they threw stones but have disappeared when Christianity started in the Basque Country and only Olentzero remains. I love Basque Mythology even if very little remained from pre-christian times. It's interesting to see how the myths were adapted to christianity as they were converted very recently compared to most of Europe.

#TimKon Week #Conner Kent #TimKon #Tim Drake #Cassandra Sandsmark #Rose Wilson #Bart Allen #Friendship: Teen Titan's Core 4 #OTP:TimKon #BrOT3: TimKonBart #BrOT4: TimKonBartCassie #DC Comics #Teen Titans v3 #Post Crisis

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Random note....I actually really enjoyed a lot of Robin War, even if just because it was one of the rare occasions we got to see all four brothers on the same page and working together for the most part.

(Just FYI, all of the following is just in the context of me talking about like....a fandom interpretation or read of Robin War, rather than strictly just the canon itself. Because Robin War, like so much of New 52 canon, IMO, just flat out doesn’t WORK the way it tries to.....it claims to be set when Dick is at most 21, and Damian’s like 14, and each of the boys having only been Robin for about one or two years max, including Dick himself, which means Jason was only believed dead for like barely any time at all, and who even knows what they settled on for whether Tim was actually Robin or Red Robin all along or like....point is, its dumb, and all of that just doesn’t work LOL, not if you want ANY degree of emotional resonance from a story like that at all.

There’s no weight of history to ground all of that in, if you ask me.....that sort of grassroots movement where a bunch of kids are willing to fight and die to inspire their city, like....that doesn’t come from watching a succession of three or four boys each be this Robin guy starting five years ago, tops. Sorry. Not buying it. So like, read the following in the context of what if Robin War was really an extension of previous DC continuity, which for the sake of my sanity and well, enjoyment, is my usual read of most things Rebirth related).

So anyway, I did largely like Robin War, particularly for a lot of the interactions, but the one thing that really could have made it better IMO is like....the understanding from even just one other character, of what all this must have looked like to Dick. Like, yeah, Dick himself said that this was his responsibility, because all of this started with him, and that was why he was manipulating all of them into a position where he thought they’d be safest from harm while he tried to negotiate with the Court.

But while they heard him, it was always clear they didn’t really get his position there, or at least give it too much weight....there was a clear sense of them mostly kinda rolling their eyes and being like “Dick and his martyr complex again.”

Except.....was it really ever about responsibility and it being his mantle originally, or was that just the explanation he gave because it was the one he felt that at least they’d accept? As so rarely have the others really ever focused much on trying to understand or empathize with what Robin means to Dick?

And this isn’t strictly about the name itself and whether or not it was his mother’s for him or Robin Hood or the colors or anything specific, but rather all of it as a whole, because the bottom line is however you separate the individual components, Dick was Robin because he didn’t want to be Batboy - being the Dark Knight’s sidekick wasn’t in and of itself the appeal for him, that possible mantle didn’t offer him anything he wanted......Dick was Robin because one way or another, the whole combination of it all added up, to him, as a way to still be true to himself and his family, what mattered to them. It was his parents’ legacy long before it was ever his legacy.

Point being, the one that would really add something to Robin War for me would be any other character’s understanding that perhaps Dick’s need to do this all by himself, his need to see everyone else out of the line of fire, even if it meant getting them locked up.....was never really truly about responsibility or it being ‘on him’ for being the first to wear the mantle/create the mantle. It wasn’t strictly about him having been the one to begin this, as he said.

IMO, it would make more sense if read or understood as....this was personal. In a way that it never would be for any of the others, not because they were less Robin than he was by the time each of them became something else, but because Robin just was something different to them and always had been to some degree. But this was who Robin had always been to him....a reminder of his parents....and here all these other Robins were....being hunted by the Court of Owls, which itself was also intrinsically linked to Dick in a way it wasn’t to anyone else.

I’d argue that it wasn’t a sense of responsibility driving Dick here, but fear, a kind of possessiveness, and a deep-rooted need not to see his family’s colors stained with anyone else’s blood. He watched his parents die in the costumes the Robin costume was modeled after, and when he put on that costume to go do something incredibly dangerous night after night in it....there’s no way he could have ever expected that he was starting something, or that anyone else would follow in his footsteps, let alone do so wearing that same costume or colors. And yet all of that happened and more, which means by the time Robin War happened, in a blended continuity or honestly, even just in the New 52 timeline.....

Dick, who likely always expected to be the last one to wear that costume, never expected to have to see anyone else die in those colors, let alone someone he cared about, most naturally assumed that if anyone else died in them, it would be him and no one else....

By the time of Robin War, Jason had died in them. And then Damian. Depending if you make a canon blend or not, Steph too. And now dozens of strangers none of them had ever met were all wearing them without the slightest clue where they’d come from, one of them had seemingly shot a cop in the Robin name (even if ultimately that was discovered to be due to the Court framing one), and this kid had been killed in turn.

Its very plausible IMO that Dick simply couldn’t handle the thought of seeing any more blood shed in his family colors and name, that had originally just been intended to be the legacy of the family he’d already lost, and probably die then with him....and yet because of his choice to use these colors and names in an effort to honor his parents, that very same choice of memorial had ended up bloodied in amounts that greatly outmatched the blood they’d already been weighted down by when Dick first set out to fight for and save people dressed as his parents’ legacy.

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jadeile-writes · 4 years

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Fanfic Progress Update 53

Hell-o! It’s Saturday, so it’s the time for Fanfic Progress Update! Stay tuned to the end of this post for a spoiler-y glimpse into the next chapter of Adventure gone Mini AND Hah! Our afterlife is the most hilarious bushwa, dearest.

Current WIPs:

Adventure gone Mini

Fandom: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / The Minish Cap

Summary: Sidon is given his very own Sheikah Slate, the first replica Purah has managed to make, and sets out to travel with Link with the intention of registering warp points for convenient travel in the future. However, when a malfunction shrinks them down to the size of bugs, and they meet little people called the Minish, they have to change their plans from “fun adventuring” to “getting out of this mess”. Not that those two have to exclude one another. Link/Sidon.

Progress: Chapter 35 is the current latest chapter and was posted on 26th of February. Chapter 36 is 1/3 done and is scheduled for 18th of March.

I update this fic every three weeks on Wednesdays.

—–

The Dad Deer (workname)

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary (temporary): Every year, for a single month, the Radio Demon gets… emotional. His antlers are in velvet and he’s pumped full of hormones that make him behave quite unlike himself. How? Suddenly, everywhere he looks, instead of seeing fellow demons all he sees are helpless, innocent little fawns that nobody is taking a proper care of! Solution? Adopt them. Adopt all of them. Whether they want it or not. (crack taken seriously. Gen)

Progress: This is my next project, AND it’s co-authored by Maximillian! Yay, a collab, this should be interesting! : D Nothing except some rough ideas have been written yet. The planned chapter count is 5, but that may still change. I want to have at least two chapters written before posting anything. No progress since last time, as I decided to do some drabbles/oneshots first to produce some quick content.

—–

Hah! Our afterlife is the most hilarious bushwa, dearest

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary: This is not a stand-alone story! This is a oneshot/drabble collection in the universe of “Shit, the Radio Demon is a part of my afterlife”. Read the main story before bothering with this one.

I decided to give my readers a chance to throw Radiohusk prompts at me, and had the Afterlife-verse as an option to set the stories in. Everyone liked that, so this fic is now a thing. Enjoy the extra mischief from these two dorks!

Progress: Chapter 1 was posted on 27th of February. Chapter 2 will be posted on 3rd of March (Tuesday), and chapter 3 on 6th of March (Friday). Chapter 4 has also been written. I have no idea how many chapters this will have. I mean, okay, I have 16 individual prompts left, but some of them will probably be combined and some may be skipped completely, so... *shrug*

Does the posting schedule look familiar? It should, because it is. This story will follow the same posting schedule as Afterlife, and that means two chapters a week, on Tuesday and Friday.

I’ll also post a sneak-peek for Tuesday’s chapter on these updates. I’m indecisive about doing a separate sneak-peek for Friday’s chapter like I did with Afterlife, as this is not a linear fic and thus it’s not as big of a deal. What do you guys say? Comment your opinion on this post; if you guys are loud enough, I’ll do it.

—–

Other WIPs I’m not currently working on but intend to get back to someday:

PoE Drabbles (Pillars of Eternity)

DC Drabbles (Justice League)

Diaphanous Relations (Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore’s books)

Rolling with it (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Possibly worth staying for (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Experiment in Romance (Hazbin Hotel) (I moved this here as it’ll be a while before this’ll be relevant)

—–

That’s it for the WIPs! Here is the promised sneak-peeks into Adventure gone Mini and Hah! Our afterlife is the most hilarious bushwa, dearest. (Note: the text may end up slightly different in the fic itself due to more editing happening before publishing). Enjoy!

Mini

Link grinned at Sidon, way more excited than the occasion probably deserved. He watched as a new batch of Minish unloaded themselves from the mouse cart, and finally the Minish driving it signaled for the waiting Minish, and Link and Sidon, to come forward and board the it.

Why yes, they had finished eating and gotten ready to continue their journey, when a helpful Minish had stopped them and informed them that the mouse cart to the next city should arrive within the next ten or so minutes. Of course they had chosen to wait for that instead, both because it saved them a five hour walk and turned it into a two hour ride, and because of course they wanted to try the mouse cart now that the opportunity was there. Link had no way of knowing for sure, but he trusted that none of the Minish they had dined with were Vaatians; surely they would have caused trouble already if they were going to. So, sitting in the cart with them for about two hours didn't feel like an awful idea this time around.

Bushwa

Alastor hummed to himself as he approached the room where he knew the soon-to-be-erased fellow was hiding, quite ignorant to his fate, thinking he was as perfectly safe as he had been year after year. Hah, not this year. Not after that stupid stunt on the last extermination day that had cost Alastor two of his subordinates. No, this day was going to be the last day of that fool's miserable existence, and Alastor was going to watch his soul be torn from his body with much glee.

Or that had been the plan anyway. He had the niggling feeling that it wasn't going to happen. Something much more important would prevent him from putting his plan into action. What, he didn't know, but he knew he would find out soon. The dread was building in the pit of his stomach and it would explode into a moment of absolute terror as soon as he walked past that painting on the wall. He knew that without a single doubt.

He stopped walking for a second, waiting for the feeling of déjà-vu to pass before continuing his humming and striding forward again, now with more urgency in his steps even though he was back on the script.

That’s it this time. See you next Saturday!

AO3 FFnet Purple Crayon Ko-fi

#Fanfic progress update

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sojourner-between-worlds · 4 years

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Burn the Ships, Chapter Three

A/N: This is twice as long as the previous two but, hey...It was...sort of necessary, lol. And somehow I also managed to crank it out in half the time! *shrugs* lol. It’s also, like, 93% dialog I’m sorry, lol. ...I also feel like I should point out that it’s, like, 1:30 in the afternoon by this point in the story and it was, like, a little after 7:00 in the morning when Steve tasked him with this, so Jerry has had plenty of time to put this all together. :P

To any UK readers: It came to my attention while writing this chapter that Alex’s alias in Scorpia Rising is different between the UK and US editions. The UK edition has it as Alex Brenner, while they changed it to Alex Tanner in the US version. Why they would change that is beyond me, but they did. Since I’m American myself, I stuck with the US edition’s alias for this story.

. . . . .

Chapter Three

Steve took a deep breath as he stepped out of the elevator. He needed to find Alex; they had to talk about what happened, and he wanted to apologize for flying off the handle. When he’d gone back to the truck to find the kid gone, he’d panicked. His worry had manifested as anger, and he needed to make that right. But he also had to get Alex to understand that it wasn’t okay to put himself in harm’s way like that.

Rounding the corner, he pushed through the door into HQ and headed for Chin’s office. He paused outside the door; Alex’s back was to him, and Chin was focused on whatever he was saying, a smile on his lips. They were apparently getting on very well, and Steve was loathe to interrupt that, but all the same, he knew he’d have to eventually.

“Steve?”

He turned his head to find Jerry staring at him, leaning against the holotable. Ah, yes; the other reason he’d come back to the Palace. “Yeah, you get something?”

Jerry hesitated. “Yeah, and you were right that you probably weren’t going to like it.”

Steve sighed as he approached. “Alright. Let’s have it.”

“For the record, this is one conspiracy theory I’d hoped I would never prove.”

“Conspiracy theory?” He raised an eyebrow. Sure, they’d proved a couple of his theories true, and Jerry had certainly been helpful in numerous cases, but Steve wasn’t ready for him to reduce this kid to that just yet.

“Also for the record, it didn’t start out that way,” Jerry tacked on quickly.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. “Fair enough. What’d you find?”

“Okay, well, I took the liberty of pulling security footage for the Place to get a photo to help, and then I ran him through missing persons like you asked. No hits. I thought at best, no one filed a report, and at worst, no one even noticed he was missing. Working under the assumption that he’s possibly in the foster care system, group homes are notoriously understaffed, after all, so either one would be plausible.

“Anyway, when I didn’t get a hit there, I moved on to the DOT. Interestingly enough, no hits there either -- not even a learners’ permit even though he told you he’s fifteen. But, again, not really unprecedented if he’s in the system.

“Next, I ran him through the UK’s database as well as the Department of State’s database to see if he has -- or ever had -- a passport. He had to get into the country somehow, after all. Now, brace yourself, because this is where it starts to get weird.” Jerry brought up a file on the holotable and flicked a set of images up on the screen. “Between the UK and here, I got a grand total of five separate passports.”

“And you’re sure they’re all the same person?”

“Facial rec confirmed it. These all belong to the same person.”

“So what are you telling me, Jerry? That this teenager has forged documents?”

“If they’re forges, they’re incredibly good as they all appear to be standard government issue.”

Steve took in the documents more thoroughly: British issues to Alex Rider, Alex Friend, and Alex Tanner; American issues to Alex Gardiner and...Alex Rider? “Wait -- there are two issued to the same person.”

“Right you are. I’ll come back to the whole ‘multiple passports’ thing later, but that was the lead I followed first, so. The British-issued one is the one that’s been used the most frequently and was invalidated this past July -- the same time the American one was issued. As it turns out --” Jerry swiped an image up on the screen of two sets of legal forms -- “he was also granted citizenship at that same time. Coincidentally -- or not so much -- that also happens to be when he was adopted by Edward and Elizabeth Pleasure of San Francisco, who are also former residents of England. According to the forward of his book on Damien Cray, they moved there after Mr. Pleasure was badly injured while on vacation with his family in the South of France. He also revealed that that attack was the result of the research he was doing on Cray. He moved his family to California for a fresh start shortly thereafter.”

“Okay, well that makes sense then. Did you reach out to them?”

“I would have, but that’s impossible.” Jerry pulled up a news article from September 17th, the black letters in sharp contrast to the white background: Three Killed in Car Bombing: Journalist Edward Pleasure and wife among the casualties. “Turns out they had a daughter as well, but she wasn’t with them; the third casualty was a by-stander. According to social services, she went back to England to live with an aunt and uncle, but Alex went into the system. He was in and out of foster homes, never staying in one place too long, until early November when he was sent to a group home in Sacramento. He was only there for about a week, though, before this guy --” he brought up a photo of a man with dark hair and darker eyes -- “showed up. Supposedly he’s still in this guy’s custody.”

“Possibly human trafficking?”

“Central Intelligence Agency, actually. His name is James Branning. Fifteen years of service to the CIA. Lives and works out of DC.”

“So -- what? They come out here for vacation and Alex somehow gets caught up in drug trafficking? I don’t buy it. Not to mention, what was this guy’s interest that he went all the way across the country just to foster a kid?”

“I agree with you, and I’m getting there. I did say there’s a conspiracy theory here, remember.”

“Right.” Steve gestured towards him with one hand. “Please, continue.”

“I ran those names against the flight manifests for all inbound flights from the DC area from November through yesterday. Surprise, surprise, I got no hits on either name. On a hunch, I ran Alex’s aliases through as well, and while there is no record of Alex Rider coming to Hawaii, there is an Alex Gardiner who arrived through Kahului Airport on Maui on December second. I pulled airport security footage for that day and found this.” Jerry brought up a still shot from said footage of Alex walking along next to a man who was clearly James Branning. “Branning came onto the island under the alias Mike Wingert, and given that they both traveled under an alias, I don’t think either of them were here just for a vacation.”

“Whoa, hold up, Jerry,” Steve interrupted, holding up a hand. “Are you trying to tell me that Alex is working for the CIA? Because you are aware of how crazy that sounds, right?”

“I know -- I do know how it sounds, but it all adds up. Look, I started off saying that I never wanted to prove this right, but… the teen spy out of MI6 has always been the most credible conspiracy theory out there for one simple reason: anything and everything relating to this disappears from the Internet within hours -- even on the dark web. You can talk about JFK and Area 51 and everything else you want, but not the teen spy from MI6 because it’ll disappear. Everything I had on this prior to today was from a few dedicated individuals willing to ship FedEx. I know it sounds crazy, but I honestly don’t think it is -- especially now.”

Steve sighed. He had to admit it was brilliant even if terribly unethical. No one would ever suspect a kid, after all. Part of him didn’t want to hear any more of what Jerry knew, but in the end, he said, “Okay. Help me understand it then. Tell me everything you’ve got on this prior to his arrival in the US.”

“Well, I won’t bother with everything,” Jerry admitted. “A lot of it is still just conjecture, but I will tell you about the stuff that’s most relevant.” He paused bringing out a newspaper clipping from a folder sat on the edge of the table. The photo was blurry but showed a person dangling from a parachute through the roof of the science museum in London. “This is where it all started. An unidentified individual broke through the skylight and shot both the Prime Minister and Herod Sayle.”

“I remember hearing about that. There was never a formal press release of any kind about what actually happened. There was speculation it was a terrorist group, but no one ever took credit for it.”

“And the high-tech Stormbreaker computers never launched. To this day, no one knows why.”

Steve frowned. “Okay, but why is this attributed to some ‘teen spy’?”

“Eyewitnesses. I mean, MI6 tried to tamp down on it obviously, but…” Jerry shrugged. “No one could confirm without a doubt that it was a kid but, like I said before, all the chatter disappeared within hours. We all knew then that clearly we were on to something or they wouldn’t be trying so hard to cover up any mention of it. So we all kept our eyes and ears open for anything else in the news that could prove our theory.”

Jerry pulled all of Alex’s alias passports up on the screen again as he continued. “All of these passports have something in common: they’ve all only been used once. That by itself is strange because there’s record of them leaving England -- or, in one instance, America instead -- but never returning. On top of that, the dates they were used all line up with major events that myself and my fellow theorists previously attributed to the Teen Spy. For example, Point Blanc Academy in the French Alps. It was exposed as being a cover for experimental cloning within weeks of Alex Friend’s arrival in France.

“And, according to his real passport, Alex was in France with the Pleasures when Edward was injured when their vacation rental exploded. Not too long after that, Damien Cray -- the very man he was researching and whom he himself revealed was the reason for the attack -- is killed in England aboard Air Force One while the president is having tea with the queen. Seems a bit too coincidental to me.

“Moving on from that --” he pulled out yet another newspaper clipping -- “we have the first ever space hotel -- the Arc Angel -- that explodes in orbit before its completion. You wanna know who entered the US right before that happened with the guy who was funding that project? Alex Rider. And the next place he pops up is Australia only days after that -- only days after a pod is seen entering orbit immediately after the Arc Angel was decimated. Based on trajectory, that pod was estimated to set down somewhere in the Pacific. On top of that, I don’t know what he was doing there, but he didn’t get back to England for almost a month.”

“Gotta be honest, Jerry,” Steve cut in with a sigh. “Right now all I’m hearing is that this kid is well-travelled. Outside of the multiple passports that may or may not actually be his, you’ve got nothin’ solid.”

Jerry nodded once. “Yeah, I’ll give ya that, but this last one is a doozie, so hold onto your hat, Commander.” He pulled out another article, this one from only six months before.

“Back in July, the American Secretary of State traveled to Cairo, Egypt, to give a speech on education but never got to finish it because halfway through shots were fired inside the venue. But it didn’t stop there, and the firefight continued outside, in the midst of a traffic-jammed street. The only reason we know this is because of amauter phone camera footage taken from one of the cars. Thanks to my connections, I am one of the few people who has that footage. It was uploaded to YouTube but, just like everything else, was quickly removed. Before it was taken down, one particular person had the presence of mind to download it, so here we are.”

Jerry connected a USB drive to the table’s system and played the short video. It was unfocused -- the person recording jumping at every gunshot -- and blurry from the evident torrential rain, but the person crouched behind a car and firing at someone off-frame was unmistakably Alex. He turned from his cover and ran, dodging between stalled cars as the rain continued to pound down, and a second later, the person pursuing him appeared as he rushed passed the car.

Steve felt his jaw drop. “What the…”

“My thoughts exactly,” Jerry continued as he disconnected the drive. “Remember how I mentioned he could have been involved with Point Blanc Academy? What if Dr. Grief had actually been successful in his attempts at cloning?”

“Because I currently don’t have a better explanation of...that, let’s just say that’s true. Why? Why would this supposed clone go after the American Secretary of State?”

“Because if Alex really was working for MI6 and someone pinned that assination on him and could prove he was working for MI6 at the time of the assination --.”

“It would have torn relations between us apart.”

“Exactly. I think the whole thing was a set up from the start.”

“I don’t know, Jerry --.”

“Don’t make a judgment call just yet. I have more you need to see.”

Steve rubbed wearily at the back of his neck. “Alright. Continue, then.”

“In all the hub-bub surrounding the failed assassination, most people would have overlooked this much smaller article that appeared in the same issue.” Jerry took out a small article from the folder, the headline reading American Killed near Siwa -- Local authorities still investigating. “Apparently the vehicle exploded, killing the woman driving instantly. We were never sure how exactly these two events were connected, but we were sure they were, so I thought it worth looking into further. I ran the name from the article, and it came up empty, but I thought if Alex was there under an alias -- which he was, by the way, under Alex Tanner -- then, if it’s connected, maybe this woman was too. So I looked for obituaries with the same date of death and found just one that fit the bill.” He put it up on the screen. “Meet the late Jack Starbright. According to the obituary, her parents are still alive and well living in DC, so I took the liberty of reaching out to them since there’s not much info here to work with. It took a bit of persuading, but they eventually told me about their late daughter.

“She went to London not quite ten years ago to study Law. In order to help make ends meet, she started looking for a job she’d be able to manage around her studies. She ended up answering an ad for a sort of live-in nanny-type thing. It was absolutely ideal because not only was it within a reasonable distance from campus, but room and board were provided and expenses covered on top of a modest paycheck. The man who offered her the position said he had to travel a lot for the bank he worked for and he needed someone to look after his nephew when he was away. That man was Ian Rider, and his nephew was Alex Rider.

“They went on to tell me that even after she finished her degree, she stayed at the Rider’s. She spoke very highly of them both, and Alex is the reason she never moved back to the States. When Ian died almost two years ago, that was just more incentive for her to stay so Alex wouldn’t be left alone.

“But here’s the kicker: I dug into it a little more after I hung up with them and found that, during that time between completing her degree and Ian’s death, her visa lapsed and wasn’t renewed until almost a month after Ian’s passing. On top of that, when it finally was renewed, it was permanent.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. If her visa expired, that means she was there illegally. They would have prosecuted her instead of granting a new one -- much less a permanent one.”

“And this is where my new and improved theory comes in.”

“I’m all ears, Jerry.”

“I don’t think Ian Rider was a banker like he claimed. I think he was a spy, too. He wasn’t killed in a car accident as his obituary states; he was killed on the job. The day he died and the day Alex parachuted through the skylight are barely a month apart. Based on that, I think whatever happened with those Stormbreaker computers is what got Ian killed, and his death is the reason Alex got involved. Moreover, they convinced him to do it by offering Jack a permanent visa rather prosecuting her. The visa situation had been previously overlooked because, of course, Ian knew the right people through his employer, so they just looked the other way until it was convenient not to. Alex, then, proved so useful that they kept finding ways to convince him to work for them.

“Then Cairo happened. Jack went with him for whatever reason and ended up dead. Between that and fighting someone with your face, the end result was probably pretty traumatic. Maybe they realized how unethical they were being, but more likely they realized he wouldn’t be bouncing back from that experience any time soon and decided it was better to let him go. Enter the Pleasures who offer to adopt him and give him a fresh start out in California. But then that goes sour, and he ends up in the system instead.

“Because he had an American alias prior to this, it’s possible that he had also worked for the CIA previously, so when he went into the system, they saw that as an opportunity. They sent an agent to take legal custody of him, and that brings us all the way up to this morning when the Coast Guard fished him out of the bay.”

Steve leaned back against the holotable, silent for a moment as he tried to process the last twenty minutes. “I gotta admit, that was a wild ride from start to finish.”

“Then you don’t think it’s true.”

“When we first met, yeah, I probably wouldn’t have bought a word of it. Now…” Steve trailed off with a sigh. “Now, I don’t know. It all sounds pretty crazy, but I feel like dealing with the crazy is kinda part of the job description at this point.” Steve pushed off the table and started back for Chin’s office.

“So what are you gonna do?”

Without missing a beat, Steve replied, “I’m gonna go find out the truth.”

. . . . .

Tag list: @diekatimitdemhutohnehut @ghostly-homo

(Let me know if you’d like added/removed!)

#alex rider #hawaii five-0 #crossover fanfic #fic: Burn the Ships

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tzigone · 5 years

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Favorite characterization of Dick Grayson

What's your favorite era or writer for Dick Grayson? What characterizations do you like or dislike?

Here are my opinions. I may ramble a bit. Sorry about that.

You can skip this paragraph if you don't care how I ended up here and which comics I’ve read - it's not particularly important, I just wanted to share. First, while previously having seen on-screen versions of Dick Grayson, and read a bit of DickBabs fanfic (Batman: TAS sold me on them before the show went directions I loathe), I never actually read any issues of DC until 2015ish. Had been a Marvel girl because they didn't do reboots, but then they destroyed Peter Parker's marriage and rebooted the universe, so I abandoned comics for a while. But then I saw some reruns of Young Justice cartoon. So I read some fic. Many fics incorporated comic characters. There I discovered Spoiler, who I really liked the idea of as Spoiler (someone who works against Batman's wishes and doesn't obey his orders and refused to back down, but isn’t a killer). So I read the Robin series for the first 100+ issues (quitting when I knew War Games was near because the storyline sounded bad). But that made me decide to read the Nightwing comic that stared in that era. Really liked that, and really liked Dick Grayson (on-screen portrayals had already lead me to favor him). Then Birds of Prey, Dixon-era, too. Then, because I liked Dick, the Original and New Teen Titans. Original was too Silver Age for me, but really enjoyed 1980-1986ish New Teen Titans (thought it went downhill after that, and abandoned when I reached 1990 issues). Also read assorted Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age comics. So I have relatively broad, but very shallow knowledge of most Bat-eras, with more in-depth knowledge of the '90s and much less of post-2000 (mostly fic, which isn't always representative of the comic).

While I have opinions on various Bat and non-Bat characters and storylines, I'm starting with Dick here. He was my favorite. It's so dependent on writing (as is ever character), and right now he’s Ric, and that is something I’m not interested in.

While I absolutely like aspects from other eras, and I dislike some aspects from these eras, my favorite time periods for Dick are probably 1980-1986ish and 1996-2000. There’s some good 70s stuff and I like certain dynamics of him as guardian/mentor to Damian (and some stuff with other family), but as whole, these two eras in his titles (Teen Titans and Nightwing) are my favorites. For his characterization as stand-alone (rather than his relationships with other characters).

Golden and silver age Dick merit a bit less discussion. Characters weren’t as distinct from each other back then. Nor, really, as consistent. But Dick was sometimes regarded as quite a mature young man in the golden age. Responsible, good grades, intelligent, etc. But so was Speedy - like I said, not much distinction. Despite some impressions, in the stories I read I did not notice Robin to make lots of puns or be unusually cheery and smiley.

Come to the mid-60s and Dick was so much a teenager. I mean the original Teen Titans fairly scream with it early on (so much slang, really folks). One writer I didn’t like had him behave like an idiot (I’m not the only one who thought so, judging by the letters pages, though opinions were split). Really, though, in the early original Teen Titans it felt like writer(s) were trying to push the “teen” thing too much, and they sometimes came off like caricatures. But it was a time in comics when stories and characterizations were shifting and there were, IMO, both failures and successes in trying to embrace new and different.

The ‘70s were okay. Some bits I liked, and some I didn‘t. Dick is usually responsible in Detective Comics stories. He did a little bit of playing the play-boy (with Silver), which isn’t my speed, since I like the idea that Dick, unlike Bruce, doesn’t put on a facade in day-to-day life. Had a few girlfriends - very normal and not either stunningly celibate or shockingly promiscuous. Though the entire 70s was one year of college for Dick.

I am not at all fond of the "goofy" Dick that seems to have popped up fairly often in the past 20 years. They often seemed to have seriously dampened his brainpower and detective skills (because Tim is the smart one and the detective and for some reason they can’t both be that). I’m not a fan of separate out all Batman’s skills and assigning one to each Robin. It makes the Robins all less than Batman and inferior to him and sets that they will never be his equals and that I do not agree with. Now this is by no means a *consistent* thing, but it does happen, and it does irritate me. I don’t like seeing characters diminished.

I really love old-school Dick. Back when he was young (late '70s to mid '80s), they showed us how mature he was (probably to contrast his youth and make him a viable peer to older heroes). Both Wally and Roy commented on it. Roy said how he always felt so much younger (issue where he got custody of Lian). Wally though Dick was always on top of things (Kory and Donna knew better). Heck, Terry's (Donna's ex) bachelor party was another fine example how much more of an adult he was than some men twice his age. He was pretty cerebral, a fantastic detective, a good fighter, etc. He could hang out and have fun, too, of course. He wasn't a stick-in-the-mud. He was too closed off and unwilling to talk sometimes (moreso with his team, and perhaps because he thought he needed to project confidence as a leader?). He was, in a reverse, quite willing to talk about other people's emotional issues. Sometimes as a friend, and sometimes as a leader. He behaved most immaturely when dealing with Batman, particularly as their relationship became more difficult - there were times when they brought out the worst in each other. Though it wasn't steady, of course.

We really got to see Dick as a leader in this era. Someone people respected and looked up to. Not that his team always agreed with him or that he was always right, but that but that he was a person that people did have trust in. And that he usually did a good job of deserving it. It’s not just other teenagers, though, but the older heroes respect him as well. It’s also the first time we a real, substantive romance - with Kory. Saw where he floundered and how he loved, and such. Which I thought worked well until it reached a point where I thought it needed to end, and it didn’t (or rather it did end, but didn’t stay ended). Readers who like the ship, though, will likely have a different perspective, if they are like me (I just blame the writing when this sort of thing happens with ships I prefer).

Batman: Year Three - not the best story. I don't remember most of it, to be honest. But one thing I really liked was the highlighted difference between Bruce and Dick. It hits that Dick is more emotionally healthy than Bruce. That Dick had the emotional support Bruce lacked as a child (I don't think continuity had yet settled on the idea of Alfred as a father-figure to Bruce). That could segue me into changes in Bruce's backstory and characterization, but I'll refrain. I will say that I preferred Dick with the nice-nuns orphanage to Dick-in-juvenile-facility (though I really, really like Dixon's run on Nightwing). It makes Bruce less of a "rescuer" of Dick, which I prefer. I do not like the idea that Dick was doomed to end up dead on street (or a criminal) if not for Bruce. Though I admit to preferring old-school Dick-goes-directly-to-Bruce's-home, no matter how unrealistic. I dislike the entire Talon thing even more. I hate the back-projecting of more angst and more terrible things, like his parents being murdered wasn't bad enough.

Now we come to Nightwing series. I really liked Dixon's run. I'm a DickBabs fan, so seeing them get together was great. I did read he wanted Dick/Donna, and I'm glad that didn't happen. Partially because I'm a DickBabs fan, but also because I really, really liked the platonic friendship between Dick and Donna during the New Titans. And I liked that it was platonic and that a friendship - rather than romance - could be so very important. I don't think friendships get near the credit they should as important relationships in fiction, and so often fans want them to be romantic. And the older I get, the more I value good fictional friendships and sibling relationships and so on. For the record, I also really liked the Vic/Gar friendship. And I still tend to think of Donna, rather than Wally as Dick's BFF. Though he has many friends.

Anyway, I really liked seeing Dick working on his own and having his own city. He was finding his own path and his rogues were being developed. I liked the idea of him as a cop, and I enjoyed Amy. I liked a lot of his banter with Barbara. But not just the banter, the serious stuff. Dick was looking for a real, long-term, serious relationship. And Barbara was the hesitant one - for understandable reasons. It's an everyday reminder of the things they used to do together. Things he can do that she no longer can. And she really wants to.

Of course, in this era, he was totally a big brother to Tim, a relationship he never really had with Jason (post-crisis). Now, Bruce's character was becoming worse and worse in this era, so that provided some conflict for Dick. Early in the series, Bruce wasn't that bad yet, and he and Dick had some nice bonding/reconciling moments. And so some of the issues were just on Dick's side. He has, since at least the Titans days, had a persistent need to prove himself Batman's equal. To others and to Batman. I was kinda peeved with Donna when she said he'd never be as good. He thinks Bruce thinks less of him on occasions when Bruce doesn't. But Bruce still treats him like an underling a good portion of the time. He expects Dick to take orders with no questions and doesn't give him full details of plans and doesn't listen to his opinions or consider Dick's needs. Way too often, Bruce just puts his goal ahead of everyone else. That's an issue with Bruce. But Dick feels like it's Bruce not seeing him as equal. Which it is, IMO, but mostly in the sense that Bruce tends to put himself/his goal above all others in terms of importance (a problem that has only gotten worse with time).

I wasn't real fond back-projection/retconning of the Dick/Babs relationship over the years. Or her de-aging. I like her at least 4 years older than Dick. With no involvement when he was in highschool. Flirtation when he was in college (1970s Batman family issues), sure, but nothing really happening until he's in Bludhaven and in his mid 20s and the 5-7 year age gap doesn't matter because they're both adults. I much prefer her pre-crisis background with Batman to the post-crisis one, but that's a topic for my post on her.

Then the Devin Grayson era - I don't agree with all the positions of the author, but I do agree about Devin Grayson: http://theflyingwonder.tumblr.com/post/107703923021/you-made-me-curious-and-i-couldnt-resist-it-tell and I think way too many of her aspects stuck with the character. Which I guess makes her a success, but doesn't work for me at all, because I don't like the character she describes at all and he is not Dick to me. I've read her interview on Dick Grayson and her perception of the character was just nothing like mine. She acts like he's not a thinker (even though got called too cerebral in the old days). She acts like Dick either "fights or fucks" everyone he meets, and totally disregards so many other types of relationships. Now, the Mirage-rape had already happened (and was horribly handled), plus the Raven-mind-controllish thing (also didn't work for me), but Grayson made Dick the sleeps-around type. That was specifically contradictory to earlier characterizations where Dick was the committed-relationship type - something he actually discussed with Roy at one point. I liked Dick being a relationship-only guy, it was a big contrast with Bruce (particularly post-Crisis Bruce). I don't like Dick being Batman-lite at all.

Not Devin Grayson, but Nightwing Annual #2 - ghastly. So incredibly out of character for who Dick was back then. Another not-my-review at http://theflyingwonder.tumblr.com/post/93534635531/can-you-explain-the-nightwing-annual-2-thing. Though I would go further in that it's reason I don't like post-Kory’s-political-wedding Dick/Kory. It felt like a lot of build up to "love isn't enough" and then he basically chunked his beliefs to stay with her, which makes the relationship a bad thing to me. Here's my less-well-worded thoughts when I read the wedding. http://tzigone.tumblr.com/post/170389768364/nightwing-and-starfire

So, Dick's life in Bludhaven was destroyed. His life as independent hero was destroyed. I enjoyed Dick with the Titans, but him in Gotham is a no-go to me. Because he goes back to being an appendage of Bruce. He's working in someone else's city, he's a subordinate (at least with Bruce is actually there).

I haven't read as much of the Dick/Damian relationship as I maybe should have. While interested in their dynamic, I'm not keen on Dick's wider characterization. I do not like lothario-Dick. And I do not like Batman-lite Dick. So I deeply disliked him taking Robin from Tim and giving it away without discussing it, just like Bruce did to him. Yeah. To top that off, I unlike many, did not like the first 12 issues of Red Robin, so there wasn't even pay-off. And then later we'd get Dick faking his death and hurting his family for the sake of the mission (Batman's mission). Too Batman-like. I do get incredibly frustrated with that no matter how badly he treats them, Bruce's "kids" keep coming back and following his orders. I didn't like his non-masked storyline, in N52, either. Sadly, at least Barbara (who I don’t like being a student of Bruce’s), Dick, and Tim have all adopted some of Bruce’s worse traits in regards to secrets and manipulation at one point or another.

But my biggest thing is that Dick all to often (not always, but even once is too often) gets treated like a joke. He's the lovable brother, and that part is okay. But he's all cuddles and cartoons and Disney and most of his maturity is just gone. This is heavy in fic, but it's present in the comics, too. At 19 he was man, and now he's a man-child. Not when he's working, I mean, but in personal life. Lex Luthor says he's not a big thinker and some people agree. And that is just totally wrong to me. For me Dick, while far from perfect, is a person that has earned and has respect not only from his peers, but from the first-generation heroes. And it just gets worse later. Late Pre-Crisis they de-age him and he's 21 in N52 (when it starts anyway). And I hated his de-aging, and Barbara's. It feels like they're being drug backwards and not allowed to grow up. Even though Barbara *started* grown up and Dick had pretty much been a man even during his endless year at Hudson. I don't like the idea of Dick as someone people don't take seriously. Bart or Booster, maybe is someone villains don't take seriously, but should. But Dick, at least as he reaches his adult years, should be someone that people (villains and colleagues) do take seriously and respect. Thought without the intimidation Batman has, at least with criminals. I will say I do think it was done partially to keep Batman from getting too old to do the job, but I still don’t care for it.

Don’t get me started on Dick and what he thought was Bruce’s body and the Lazarus pit.

I thought the entire issue with Dick and Bruce after Bruce’s failed wedding was bad. Dick tries to be the goofball. They try to redeem it at the end, but it falls flat because he was stupid enough to think it would help in the first place.

Some people seem to think it's the sweetest thing ever if Dick moves back to Gotham and lives in the manor and Bruce takes care of him, and that's just a no-go to me. It's infantilizing. He's grown up and should be allowed to grow up. I see a lot of infantilizing of Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian. I get why it's done (to see Bruce the dad), but dislike it intensely. It's demeaning to me. I like Bruce the dad, too. But he can be a dad to adult children and treat them like adults (well, the grown ones). And yes, like equals, but that it what I think the relationship between adult parents and children should be. Though it’ll be a long time before Bruce gets to a point where he’ll consistently do that.

Side note: the comments on Dick's body get a little old. I totally get that he's stunning. I'm cool with Kory or Barbara or his current girlfriend enjoying his body or complimenting him on it. But sometimes it seems like various characters (usually female) are discussing him like a piece of meat. Particularly frustrating when his hero colleagues do so. I know a good bit of this comes with me binge-reading, making it seem more often than when issues are read a month apart.

#Richard Grayson #Nightwing #Batman #Bruce Wayne #Barbara Gordon #koriandr #koriand'r

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