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forasecondtherewedwon · 3 years

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The Great Madripoorian Snake Off

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Pairing: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes Rating: M Word Count: 3950

Summary: All Sam argued was that Bucky shouldn't have to pretend to be the Winter Soldier. He never suggested Bucky pose as his husband instead.

The Baron—with his garage of vintage cars and his popped-collar bullshit—starts getting a little too comfortable. Somewhere between his prison cell and his private plane, he begins to act as though he’s the one running the show, so when he states, despicably blasé, that Bucky will need to go undercover as the Winter Soldier, Sam tells Zemo no. Not as forcefully as he forbade him from speaking earlier, but firmly enough that Sam thinks it’s clear that he won’t be changing his mind.

“But it’s the only way,” Zemo says, spreading his hands. “As the Winter Soldier, he is a very believable bodyguard.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need to act like a bodyguard,” Sam argues.

“A show of strength is—”

“Is that really what we need? I thought we were trying to fly under the radar. If we’re advertising Bucky’s capabilities like that, doesn’t that make us a target?”

“Yes,” Bucky mumbles, mostly staying out of it.

Sam’s irritated that Bucky’s not standing up for himself, not pushing back against Zemo’s half-baked plan. Having Zemo here is a lot to deal with, Sam gets that, but if they don’t fight him on this shit now, he has a bad feeling they’re going to regret it when they end up in a firefight. Whatever. He’ll speak up on Bucky’s behalf to save them both grief in the near future. He hopes Bucky would do the same for him.

“Whether or not you acknowledge what he is…” Zemo begins again.

“Who,” Sam says, gaze flicking to Bucky’s face, which is tilting down as he avoids eye contact. “Who he is.”

“…you have the risk of aggression.”

“Buck?” Sam checks. He stares until Bucky’s eyes dart up to meet his. “You gonna keep your cool in there?”

“Best behaviour,” he promises. His blue eyes are suspiciously steady, like always.

“That means,” Zemo translates with a finger raised to complement his interjection, “he’ll react whenever and however he feels he needs to. There is no guarantee it will align with your own conduct.”

“Yeah, man, I know,” Sam snaps.

Like he needs Zemo to explain Bucky to him; Sam knows Bucky. He knows he’s stubborn at best and a reckless hot-head at worst, but he also knows Bucky’s working on that. There’s no need to state how little Zemo expects from Bucky right in front of him. If anybody’s gonna complain about Bucky’s aggravating habit of doing the opposite of whatever Sam wants him to, it’ll be Sam.

He’s still glaring at the Baron when Bucky shifts in his seat, hands clenching in his lap. Sam’s eyes go to the fists, then up to Bucky’s face.

“You see that?” Zemo asks, sounding deeply amused as he nods towards Bucky. “He’s going to insist on playing a bodyguard.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ignore him,” Bucky says, quick and low like a kick to the ankle.

“He’s ready to jump to your defense,” Zemo says. He’s grinning, propping his elbows on his armrests and lacing his fingers—looking like the villain he’s already been sentenced for being. “He shows a strong instinct to protect you.”

“Put Bucky with me then,” Sam says reflexively. He glances at Bucky. “If that works for you.” His gaze slides back to Zemo after Bucky’s subtle nod. “If you don’t dress him up like he’s the Winter Soldier and make him act like he’s the Winter Soldier and have him take goddamn orders from you like he’s the Winter Soldier, who’s gonna know? We’re counting on people not being too perceptive, right? That’s why I’m using this Smiling Tiger dude’s identity instead of a made-up one.”

“That’s true,” Bucky says. His tone is gruff as he backs Sam up. “You can’t have it both ways, Zemo. Either we’re both pretending to be real people or neither of us is.”

“I don’t understand,” the Baron says affably, looking between them with a smile. This plane’s gotta hurry up and land before Sam gives in to the urge to stick Zemo’s head in the toilet and flush. “Smiling Tiger and the Winter Soldier are both real people.”

“No. They’re not.”

The silence strains with the pressure behind Bucky’s words. It feels to Sam as though Bucky’s just thrown up a forcefield between himself and Zemo, forbidding him access to the Winter Soldier. Sam can see the disappointment on Zemo’s face, but that asshole will have to wait to express it because the plane’s easing into its descent, circling over Madripoor before setting down on a private airstrip outside the city.

From the hangar, Zemo conducts a short, hushed phone call while Sam watches him with crossed arms. Doesn’t seem to be anything sinister for the moment, because the only result of the call that he witnesses is the arrival of a narrow selection of men’s clothing—including a pair of garish suits. The man who brings the garments laughs with Zemo while Sam and Bucky change in the bathroom off the hangar’s office.

When they see each other, Sam appraises Bucky. His outfit is dark and nondescript. Pricey in its details, but forgettable to anyone who doesn’t have good reason to look closely. (Sam tears his eyes away.) In contrast, Sam’s been urged to choose between the brightly-patterned suits. Layers of fabric and layers of necklaces to top it off. Not exactly Sam’s choice if he were to dress himself in anything on Zemo’s dime, but the Baron insists, flashing him a photo of Smiling Tiger to strengthen his case for bold fashion choices.

“I thought we were making characters up,” Sam says when he looks away from the screen, fiddling with his jewellery.

“This will be easier,” Zemo swears.

He dismisses his contact and the three of them—Zemo, Sam, and Bucky—walk out of the hangar, heading for a bridge with swooping arches and the lights of Madripoor beyond. Apparently, a car will catch up with them. They have until that time to work out their cover without anybody listening in.

“So I’m supposed to be Sam’s bodyguard?” Bucky checks. “Is that what’s happening?”

“You can’t be Smiling Tiger’s bodyguard,” Zemo answers, dismissing it with a wave of his hand.

“Why not?” Sam demands.

“Smiling Tiger is never seen with a bodyguard. Everyone knows he has them, but they remain at a distance.”

“Why’s that?”

“Arrogance, most likely,” Zemo says with a smile that Sam would definitely call arrogant. “Smiling Tiger affects an untouchable persona. The presumption of invincibility may not allow him to enjoy a terribly long life, but what committed criminal does?”

“You’re doing alright so far,” Bucky remarks flatly.

Sam sighs and gets them back on track. He’s already fed up with Zemo and these heeled shoes suck, so he’s losing what patience he had.

“What’s Bucky’s role then?” he asks. “We’re sticking together. If you get us some clandestine meeting with somebody who can tell us about the super-soldier serum, we’ll have to be able to explain who Bucky is.”

“Whoever he is, he’s in your orbit, not mine,” Zemo says. “That’s what you decided on, even though my plan would have worked flawlessly—”

“I don’t have any sympathy for you not getting to play puppet master with the Winter Soldier. It’s not necessary, just you looking for any chance to fuck with Bucky’s head. How about you get over it and show a little of the craftiness that helped you break out of prison?”

“Thanks to me,” Bucky notes.

“You want a new plan?” Zemo asks. “Ok. You’re together.”

“No shit we’re together. Like Sam said.”

“No, no,” Zemo says, smiling like he’s about to be a real dick. “You can be Smiling Tiger’s boyfriend. No—husband. That could be useful.”

Bucky stops in his tracks and Sam grips Zemo’s arm to force him to halt as well.

“But...” Bucky says.

“Yeah,” Sam agrees, though Bucky doesn’t get any further in words. His eyes are considerably more expressive, but Sam can’t read them, the emotions flying past too quicky, a kite flipping around in a strong wind.

“It allows James to be near you,” Zemo tells him, “and would explain any protective gestures. It’s the simplest solution. Tell me I’m wrong. I know you enjoy doing that.”

“You’re wrong.”

But Sam isn’t so sure about that. They all begin walking again and, by unspoken understanding, allow Zemo to drift slightly ahead. Bucky moves silently to Sam’s side.

“You think this is a good idea?”

“For the record, I don’t like it,” Sam says.

“Neither do I. We’re almost outta time though.”

Sam looks sideways and narrows his eyes at Bucky’s determined expression.

“You’re not fighting this very hard. Is it because you and Zemo have been in cahoots since the prison?”

“We’re not in cahoots.”

“Then why are you so fine with this?”

“It’s better than being the Winter Soldier,” Bucky says.

“The nickname’s a downgrade though,” Sam quips back. Could be a bad time for a joke, but if they’re doing this he can’t have Bucky going into it with that bleak attitude. They need to be more at ease with each other.

The thought alone makes him want to shove Bucky from this bridge and lean over the side to watch the splash.

“Mr. and Mr. Smiling Tiger,” Bucky says miserably. “Fuck.”

“For all I know, Zemo’s making this guy up,” Sam hisses, glancing at the Baron’s back, “so I have to use a stupid name and wear a stupid suit.”

“Seems a little petty for Zemo.”

“He’s gonna try to break us with the small stuff, just you watch.”

“You’re being paranoid,” Bucky tells him.

“That’s exactly what somebody who’s in cahoots with Zemo would say,” Sam accuses. “He’s been working on you since you left me out in the hallway and went in to meet him in his cell alone.” He tugs on the hem of his fitted jacket. “Gotta be vigilant.”

“Whatever you say, Smiling Tiger.”

“You know, I don’t want to hold hands with you, but I’ll do it just to irritate you more than you’re irritating me.”

Bucky glares at him.

The hand-holding is supposed to begin and end as a bluff, but when they get in the back of the car together and Zemo twists around in the passenger seat to give them a significant look, Sam figures he’s trying to get some show of affection out of them. Zemo’s obviously paid the driver—and the hired guns flanking the car on their motorcycles—but this is Madripoor, where competing interests pay competing sums for tip-offs; Sam can admit to himself that, not too far from here, multiple somebodies probably already know Baron Zemo and Co. are in the city. Any one of Zemo’s hires could be reporting on them. He swallows and inches his hand across the middle seat towards Bucky’s.

Zemo gives him an approving nod and a dorky ok sign that makes Sam roll his eyes. When he’s facing forward again, Sam bumps his hand into Bucky’s. With a jerk, Bucky goes from staring out his window to down at their hands.

“Just do it, man,” Sam says under his breath, glancing at the side of the driver’s face.

“Nothing I want more,” Bucky says with zero enthusiasm. He flips his hand over for Sam to grasp and adds, “Babe.”

Just for that, Sam intertwines their fingers to make the hold as intimate as possible. He sees Bucky’s jaw tighten, but before he can probe his staring eyes for meaning, Bucky’s looking out the window again.

Not letting go immediately goes from part of the act to a competition between them. Sam catches the driver peering at the two of them in the rear-view mirror and yanks their joined hands over so the back of Bucky’s rests on his thigh. In obvious retaliation, Bucky clamps Sam’s hand securely when the car rolls to a stop in Low Town, forcing Sam to scoot across the back seat and climb out Bucky’s door.

“You could look a little happier about this,” Zemo suggests, motioning to their rigid arms while they maintain a squeezing hand-hold, as if the Baron’s about to attempt to red-rover his way between them.

“That better not be you telling me to smile,” Sam warns.

“I thought Sam’s nickname was supposed to be ironic,” Bucky says.

“What do I know,” Zemo says. He raises his hands in a gesture of harmlessness—that Sam absolutely does not buy—and leads them up the street.

“He’s not wrong,” Bucky turns his head to mutter as Sam’s gaze roves over a series of seedy deals conducted right out in the open. “You could loosen up a little. You look mad. It’s suspicious.”

“Oh, I could loosen up?” Sam shoots back. “Try wiping that death-stare off your face for five minutes.”

“Hey, I’m allowed to look like this. I’m acting protective, remember?”

“Well, maybe I look mad because your hand’s all sweaty.”

“It’s your hand that’s sweaty!”

“Uh, no.”

“You want me to switch hands?” Bucky asks, eyes boring into Sam’s and startling him because, beneath the exasperation, there’s unmistakable fear. Could be the situation, or the fact that they’re kinda putting their lives in Zemo’s hands here, or that he expects Sam to recoil at even the suggestion of clasping his Vibranium hand like a lover would.

“Yeah,” he says. “Gimme the other one.”

They stare each other down until Bucky shrugs it off, refusing to switch. Sam hopes he knows that he would’ve, that it doesn’t need to be a big deal, and that it’s probably just all Zemo’s talk of manipulating Bucky into playing the part of the Winter Soldier that has him extra wary of his own prosthetic. His Vibranium hand is currently covered by a leather glove and Sam’s glad the Baron can’t see the sleek metal when he looks back at them with greedy eyes full of an agenda Sam’s certain they only know a piece of.

“Almost there,” Zemo tells them.

“I’m gonna try not to attract attention,” Bucky says quietly, making Sam stop with him before they can enter the bar. “I might not talk much.”

“That’s fine,” Sam assures him. “We’ll let Zemo take the lead. You just stay close, alright?”

Bucky nods and they duck inside, following the back of Zemo’s high collar as they weave through a crowd of disreputable characters. It’s packed in here. Sam tries to keep his chest out, his head up, his body moving like this suit is type of thing he wears all the time. Bucky releases his hand to walk behind him, leaving Sam’s palm clammy and cold.

When Sam stops abruptly to let Zemo reach the bartender first, Bucky walks into him. Honestly, his solid presence is a relief and Sam shuts his eyes to reset for a second before turning his head partway.

“That a knife in your front pocket? I thought we were being inconspicuous.”

“It is inconspicuous,” Bucky replies, brushing past him to stand at his side instead of right against his back. “Nobody’s gonna know it’s there unless I have to pull it out.”

“I know it’s there.”

“I wasn’t counting on you pressing your ass against it.”

Sam opens his mouth, but all he can do is make a disgruntled noise before Zemo’s turning away from the bartender with a smile to wave Sam and Bucky forward.

“Ah,” says the Baron. “Will you join me, Smiling Tiger?”

Repeatedly telling himself to keep his shit together, Sam comes up to the bar, leaning an arm on the surface. He isn’t expecting pushback from the bartender, but maybe Zemo doesn’t have quite as much clout in Madripoor as he imagines; the bartender holds Sam’s eyes for a moment before glancing pointedly to Bucky. Sam can feel Bucky hovering at his back.

“My husband,” Sam states. Probably best to keep his answers short. He might look like the real Smiling Tiger, but he has no idea whether or not he sounds anything like him.

The bartender just stares back, then drops his gaze to Sam’s hand, splayed on the bar top. Shit. He knows what the man’s thinking: no ring. Although Sam’s totally good with leaping out of the back of airplanes, being required to improvise with words has him panicking. If he and Bucky had thought to come up with an excuse for why a guy like Smiling Tiger—who’s evidently comfortable being decked out in jewellery—wouldn’t wear a wedding ring, he could deliver it now, but without rehearsing? He’s not a smooth or practiced liar.

Defensively, he draws away from the bar and feels his shoulder hit someone. Bucky. Sam looks from where his shoulder is pressing into Bucky’s chest, then up to his eyes. Wordlessly, he asks for assistance. Bucky leans forward to make his voice heard over the noise of the room and Sam exhales slowly in swift relief. But that’s until Bucky says to the bartender, “Just between you and me, Smiling Tiger says he won’t wear a ring until I find him something that looks better wrapped around him than my mouth.”

The bartender doesn’t react. Sam’s trying not to either, but the expression Bucky petrified onto his face when he spoke can’t look natural. He glances at Zemo, who appears to be unequivocally enjoying their sloppy storytelling. Lifting a glass, the Baron toasts Sam and Bucky.

“Newlyweds,” he says.

With titanic effort, Sam manages a tight approximation of a smile, then angles his face away to speak to Bucky.

“Why the hell would you say that?” he groans.

Bucky gives him a brief glance before returning his gaze to the inscrutable bartender. He fucking beams at him, at the same time replying to Sam from between his clamped teeth.

“Because we’re deeply in love.”

“According to you, the only thing I’ve been deeply in recently is—”

“The usual, Smiling Tiger?” the bartender asks, cutting off Sam’s mumbled conversation.

He nods and the man puts his back to them as he prepares whatever Smiling Tiger’s signature drink is.

“I believe it,” Zemo offers, murmuring into his drink as he tips it back.

“We didn’t ask,” Bucky tells him.

Sam can still feel Bucky standing there, making casual contact that alters slightly as he speaks. What is he doing? Shifting to put himself between Sam and Zemo? The Baron might’ve been right about his protective instinct, though Sam’s sure as hell never noticed this before. No, Zemo’s gotta be wrong. These are extreme circumstances—stressful circumstances—and he and Bucky are just putting their backs together (figuratively), ready to defend against an attack from anyone but each other. That doesn’t mean anything except that they’ve been in combat together and developed a certain amount of dependability and, alright, trust.

“The chemistry is there,” Zemo continues casually, dissecting after being blatantly told not to. “The history, the tension. It’s absolutely electric.”

Zemo is spared the merciless comeback forming in Sam’s mouth when the bartender slaps an entire dead snake down in front of them and starts to gut it. Even Bucky flinches against him. Sam can’t remember the last thing he ate, but he has a bad feeling he’s going to be reminded any second when he ralphs it up between his fancy shoes.

“Hey,” Bucky says, grabbing his arm and turning him away from the bar.

Sam wants to knock his hand away because he can’t break character now. This could be some kind of test, ordered by the person Zemo brought them here to make contact with and carried out by the bartender. Sam needs to be unfazed by this and he’s taking shallow breaths through his mouth (because what he doesn’t need to do is find out what that snake’s corpse smells like), striving to regain his composure.

And Bucky… well, Bucky just has to fuck that up for him.

Vibranium fingers take gentle grip of Sam’s jaw as Bucky tilts his head and plants a firm kiss on his lips. Sam hates that this is easier to improvise than a spoken lie. And he’d be lying to himself if he couldn’t admit that he’s thought about this. A dozen times, just today. He grabs Bucky by the hips, hauling him against him. In his head, thoughts and stimuli are unfolding and collapsing like his wings—the thick slicing sound of the bartender’s knife, Who the hell does Bucky think he is, kissing me out of nowhere?, the puff of air leaving Bucky’s nose and hitting Sam’s cheek, All of this is Zemo’s fault, the soft feel of Bucky’s bottom lip between his teeth, Fuck that, Zemo’s not getting credit for this, the ridge of the knife in Bucky’s front pocket as it pushes against Sam’s thigh. That is still the knife, isn’t it?

When Bucky breaks it off, he looks a little dazed. Sam wants to laugh and tell him, Hey, that was your idea, but there seems to be a lag in his ability to banter. At the sound of a glass being set on the bar behind him, he recalls what was going on right before Bucky initiated that kiss and from what, therefore, Bucky was trying to spare him.

“Thanks,” Sam mouths.

Holding his gaze, Bucky nods.

Sam rotates to find a shot glass with something distressing floating inside. His stomach lurches like a student driver’s ride as he stares at the slimy lump in the glass. Bucky moves around him to prop an elbow on the bar, excitement in his eyes, clearly ready to watch Sam swallow whichever organ the bartender just harvested for his consumption. What a dick. So much for Bucky protecting him.

It makes Sam shudder just to close his fingers around the glass, but when he catches Bucky looking like he’s suppressing a laugh, he suddenly knows exactly what’ll make him feel better.

“I hate for you to waste a good snake,” Sam tells the bartender. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Bucky’s face fall. “You’ve got plenty of choice pieces left. Pour another one of these for my husband.”

With the final word of his order, he takes his hand from the bar to smack Bucky’s ass.

“I was just starting to think about forgiving you for breaking Zemo outta prison and you had to look at me like you can’t wait for me to down this snake drink,” Sam says, focusing on Bucky while the bartender takes his knife to the snake a second time.

“So this is the punishment?” Bucky asks.

“I believe it’s more of a trust exercise,” Zemo offers. Oh, that’s right, he’s still here. Between the nastiest drink-making process he’s ever witnessed and making out with Bucky, Sam actually stopped being aware of Zemo. “Really, it’s symbolic, James. Sam would like for the two of you to go through this together, to strengthen your bond with a shared experience. The gesture is quite moving.”

“Can we get one for the Baron too?” Bucky requests as the bartender sets his drink in front of him. “Wouldn’t want him to feel left out.”

Zemo attempts to wave it off, but Sam piles on with an “I insist,” and apparently an insistence from Smiling Tiger is worth more than the manners of a backpedalling Helmut Zemo in this city. Or the bartender doesn’t like the Baron either.

“We’re gonna talk about that kiss later,” Sam informs Bucky, ignoring Zemo’s expression of pure dread.

“Why don’t we talk about it now and skip the—”

“Because I said so.” Sam raises his shot glass in Bucky’s direction. “Cheers.”

Watching Bucky reluctantly lift his own drink from the bar, Smiling Tiger finally smiles.

#my writing #tfatws #tfatws spoilers #The Falcon and the Winter Soldier #Sam Wilson #Bucky Barnes #Helmut Zemo #Sam Wilson x Bucky Barnes #sambucky

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

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Stark Spangled Banner

Ch32: The Impossible Choice. Part 1: So Was I

Summary: Tony catches up with Steve, Katie and Bucky in Siberia and as the events unfold he learns the truth about how his parents were killed.

Warnings: Bad language, angst!

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: Wonderful edit again from @angrybirdcr

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Chapter 31

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

The jet wasn’t fully fuelled so they couldn’t fly at full speed, meaning it took them a few hours to reach the wide, flat, snow-covered landscape of Siberia. Once they touched down, Steve cut the power and Katie stood up and moved to the back of the jet, opening the closet that held the Avenger’s weapons. Bucky stepped over and started examining the rack of guns labelled ‘Romanoff’ before he selected a light machine gun.

Katie reached over to grab two 9mms and twirled them in her hands before she slotted them into the holders on her thighs. Bucky watched her through the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow as she reached over to select another larger rifle.

“Sure you can handle that thing, Sweetheart?” He asked, his tone was gently teasing and Katie snorted, whilst behind her Steve gave a chuckle.

“Stop flirting with my wife, Buck, and I’ll have you know she’s a trained sniper, give you a run for your money.” He spoke, almost proudly, as he slung his shield onto his back.

“That so?” Bucky’s mouth twisting into a grin. Katie simply smiled in response and cocked the larger gun, looking down the sight to check it was all clear.

The three of them stood together, Katie in the middle of the two super soldiers, waiting for the exit ramp to descend as Steve tossed his helmet in his hand.

“You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?” Steve asked suddenly, looking over at Bucky as the cold air hit them.

“Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?” Bucky frowned

“You blew three bucks trying to win a stuffed bear for a redhead” Steve smirked.

“Right, what was her name again?” Bucky asked, a tone of amusement on his voice

“Dolores.” Steve answered instantly, smirk still on his face “You called her Dot.”

“She’s gotta be a hundred years old right now.” Bucky said.

“So are we pal” Steve said, clamping his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. The ramp was now almost completely down. Steve placed his helmet on, fastened the strap under his chin and the three of them descended.

“Well it aint quite a freezer truck.” Katie mused.

“I hate the cold.” Bucky sighed as they trudged through the snow.

“Yeah Stevie isn’t exactly a fan either. Although he still runs the Air Con at like minus twenty.”

“No, I don’t.” Steve sighed, and Bucky gave a bark of a laugh as the two of them began to playfully bicker.

“Our bedroom is freezing.”

“Look, I run at a higher temperature than you.” “Yeah yeah.” Katie rolled her eyes, gun still raised as she looked around.

“Our place was always cold in the winter.” Bucky mused, and then he laughed again “Hey Katie, once when we were kids, we built a fire using all this spare and wood we found in the outhouse.” “Yeah, your dad gave us a whack each round the back of the head as he’d been saving it to build a table.” Steve grinned again. “My ears were ringing for days.”

Katie smiled as the two men shared a laugh, it was nice to see them caught up in memories. But their reminiscing was short lived as they had reached the entrance to the bunker. Bucky turned round, just to make sure no one was behind them as Katie looked at the large, steel door set into the rock. It was open.

Bucky and Katie both raised their guns towards the gap.

“He can’t have been here more than a few hours” Steve shook his head as they stopped just outside,

“Long enough to wake them up.” Bucky sighed.

Steve looked at him, before his attention went back to the door and he stepped forward, into the cast iron bunker. Katie followed him in, Bucky taking up the rear and a couple of meters in front of them was a caged elevator. The three of them climbed in, Steve pressing the button hanging from the top and they descended into the depths of the bunker in silence until it reached its destination with a soft thud.

Steve nodded to Bucky and then heaved up the cage door, Bucky readying his gun as they walked slowly down a corridor, keeping close to the wall. This time Bucky went first, Katie second, Steve following. Katie kept her gun raised, eyes sharp as she looked round into an alcove full of junk, the place seemed to be nothing but a dumping ground. They continued to move down the corridor before a loud thud rang around, causing them to spin around. Bucky aimed his gun back down the corridor, as did Katie, whilst Steve pulled his shield in front of him.

“You ready?” Steve asked, looking at Katie, then over at his friend as he took a slight step forward so he was almost shielding them both taking a step down the flight of stairs in front of them.

Katie nodded as Bucky replied “Yeah.”

The double doors at the bottom began to open, but it wasn’t another super soldier that greeted the trio. It was Tony in his full Iron Man suit.

Katie stared in surprise as her brother retracted his helmet.

“You seem a little defensive.” Tony quipped as Steve strode down the steps towards him, shield covering his body. Katie followed a yard or so behind, her gun now by her side.

“Well, it’s been a long day.” Steve replied, shield still raised, not quite sure what Stark was doing there. Bucky shifted slightly and Tony turned his head to look at him.

“At ease, Soldier. I’m not currently after you.”

“Then why are you here?” Katie asked.

“Could be your story aint so crazy.” Tony shrugged, not quite meeting her eyes.

“Sorry, is that you admitting you’re wrong?” She raised her eyebrow slightly at her brother.

“Maybe.”

“Ross?” Steve looked at him.

“Ross has no idea I’m here. I’d like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself”

“Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork” Steve quipped as he lowered his shield “It’s good to see you, Tony.”

“You too Cap.” his brother-in-law smiled softly before he looked over at Bucky who still had the gun raised “Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you’re killing me. There’s a truce here. You can drop…”

Steve motioned at Bucky to lower the gun and he did.

“So how did you find us?” Katie asked.

“I went to the prison. Spoke to Sam.”

“How are they?” Steve asked.

Tony hesitated “Angry, mostly at me. Clint especially but, they’re, ok.”

Katie looked at him, she had the feeling he was holding something back but now wasn’t the time.

“What made you change your mind?” Bucky asked Tony. He may have lowered his gun but because his Captain had asked him to, but he was still unsure.

“I got an update from the Berlin police.” Tony turned to face the man. “The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as you were captured. They dispatched a Dr Broussard from Geneva but he was intercepted by the man who questioned you.”

“You got a name?” Katie asked her brother.

“Yeah, Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian Intelligence. He ran Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad”

“Sokovia.” Katie sighed as Steve groaned. “Is that place set to follow us around for the rest of our days?”

“You think that’s what he wants with these Super Soldiers?” Steve asked. “Some form of army to get revenge?”

Tony made a face, shrugging. “Your guess is as good as mine Cap, but I reckon so, yeah.”

Tony re-engaged his helmet and the four of them set off to continue the search. Katie felt bolstered by her brother’s appearance, and Steve also felt hopeful that they could sort this out then go home, together, and work through the whole unholy mess that had been left in the wake of the Accords.

They moved cautiously and silently through the bunker until Tony, who was at the front, turned right into a smaller corridor at the end of which was a vast chamber.

“I got heat signatures.” He said gently.

“How many?” Steve asked.

“Uh…one.”

“One?” Katie frowned. She looked at Steve and then the two of them turned to Bucky who shrugged, equally as puzzled.

As they all walked up the three small steps into the chamber, Katie could just about make out several huge pillars when the lights in each of them snapped on. It was then that the all saw they weren’t pillars, they were capsules. Each containing an enhanced soldier surrounded by some form of hazy, yellow mist.

The four of them looked around, bewildered when the PA system crackled into life, causing Katie to jump.

“If it’s any comfort, they died in their sleep”. The voice spoke as Bucky looked up at the solider in the capsule nearest to him whilst Katie continued to the next, her gun still raised. It was then that she noticed there was a bullet hole in the glass and a shot buried right between the female soldiers eyes.

He’d killed them.

“Did you really think I wanted more of you?”

There was another pause as Katie turned to look at Steve and Tony who were walking slowly through the middle of the chamber to her right, towards the machine that was used to wipe the soldiers’ minds. Bucky and Katie exchanged a puzzled glance. None of this added up. Why had he killed them? What had he come all this way for if he didn’t want to activate them?

“I’m grateful to them, though. They brought you here” the voice said, and then a window lit up to their right. Zemo was in there. Steve hurled his shield at the window but it simply bounced off the glass and returned to him where he was stood by Katie’s side.

“Please, Captain.” Zumo spoke with amusement. “The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets”

“I’m betting I could beat that.” Tony shot, as he and Steve rounded the chair to the right, Bucky and Katie to the left.

“Oh, I’m sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you’d never know why you came.”

“You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?” Steve stepped forward so there was just the glass separating his face from Zemo’s as he glared at him.

“I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you’re standing here, I just realized, there’s a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw.”

Steve drew back slightly, frowning as Katie reached his side.

“You’re Sokovian.” She stated, watching the man, his brown eyes flickering to hers. “Is that what this is about?”

“Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell.” Zemo shook his head. “No. I’m here because I made a promise.”

Steve studied Zemo as he asked “You lost someone?”

Zemo bowed his head and clicked his tongue. “I lost everyone. And so will you.”

Steve watched as Zemo pressed something and then a screen just behind them, to the right clicked on. He shot another look at Zemo before he made my way over to it, Katie following.

“An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one which crumples from within?” Zemo spoke and Katie glanced back at him, Steve doing the same “That’s dead forever.”

Katie looked at the screen, the still image that was portrayed was somewhere very familiar. Her eyes flicked to the date on the freeze frame. December 16 1991. And in that split second she understood.

One which crumbles from within…

This was about splitting the Avengers up, pitting them against one another.

“I know that road.” Tony jerked her out of her thoughts from where he stood to her right, “What is this?” he spoke louder, aimed at Zemo who didn’t answer.

Tony glanced back at the screen and Katie felt herself grow cold as the footage began to play. The Stark siblings watched as their parent’s car entered the frame and crashed into a tree. And then the Winter Soldier rode up and got of his motorbike.

“Shit.” Katie mumbled, as besides her Steve shifted a little and she glanced at Tony, who’s unease was increasing, his brow furrowing as he watched the driver of the car, their dad, laying on the ground. Tony inhaled deeply as the footage progressed and the Winter Soldier walked over to their dad who had struggled out of the car and hoisted him up by his hair and stared down at him.

Tony wasn’t watching the screen anymore. He was stood, eyes fixed on Bucky who had his head bowed. The soldier took a deep breath and glanced at Tony, his eyes locking with the man’s. Tony looked away and back to the screen as the tears began to freely fall from Katie’s eyes. On the footage the Winter Soldier reined blow upon blow upon her father before dragging him by his collar and shoving him back into the driver’s seat. She felt Tony take her hand, his Iron Man Gauntlet tightening painfully around her fingers as The Winter Soldier rounded the car and reached in through the window.

At that point she couldn’t take it anymore and she turned away, supressing the sob that was rising in her throat and pressed her face into Steve’s chest were he stood beside her side on, watching Tony carefully. He gently placed a hand at the back of his wife’s head before he glanced back at the screen to see the Winter Solder aiming a gun at the surveillance camera, shooting it.

There was a moment’s pause and Katie moved and looked over to where Bucky was stood a few paces behind them, his head bowed, shoulders slumped in disgrace. He looked up, his own tears clouding his eyes and then Tony lunged, and Bucky’s face contorted into panic, his rifle flying up as Steve hastily moving to stop Tony grabbing his arm.

“Tony, Tony.” he conciliated.

Tony looked down at the screen again, before he looked up at Steve, the tears glistening in his eyes as Katie wiped away her own with the back of her hands.

“Did you know?” Tony asked his voice barely audible.

“I didn’t know it was him.” Steve began, his voice pleading as he looked at Tony.

“Don’t bullshit me, Rogers!” Tony cut him off before Steve could continue, his voice full of fury. “Did you know?”

There was a pause, before Steve sighed and dropped his head slightly. “Yes”.

Tony pushed Steve away before he glanced back at the screen.

“Tony.” Katie pleaded as he turned to look at her. “He didn’t know for sure, not until we-”

“You knew as well?” Tony asked, his voice cracking as he looked at his sister and her face crumpled.

“I knew they’d been murdered, but not by him. Not until yesterday, I swear.”

At that Tony’s chest tightened with betrayal and heartbreak and he stepped back, his chin jutting upwards twitchily before he re-engaged the Iron man helmet. He pushed Katie out of the way and as she tumbled left, he punched Steve hard, sending him to the floor. Bucky started to fire, bullets easily deflecting off Tony’s Iron Man suit and Tony shot a beam at Bucky, disarming him and then flew across the chamber, slamming him into the floor. “Tony, please!” Katie shouted, as Tony jumped on Bucky’s chest. Steve stood up, threw his shield which hit Tony, distracting him momentarily before he tackled him from the front, barging him backwards. Then Steve was on the floor, then Bucky was there, it was getting really out of hand and Katie was powerless to stop any of it.

“You need to go.” Steve instructed as he cut the restraints that Tony had fired at him off his legs.

“I can’t! He’s my brother, Steve!”

“That wasn’t a request.” Steve repeated firmly “Go, get Zumo. If we don’t apprehend him, then all this is for nothing.”

She hesitated for a second.

“Katie!” He yelled, as he jumped up, shield raised, his voice full of authority. “Just do as I fucking tell you!”

With a shuddering breath, she looked at him.

“Steve, please…”

“GO, NOW!”

With a final, shuddering breath, she turned and ran. Back the way they had come, the sounds of blasts and yells and metal on metal growing fainter and fainter as she sprinted down the corridors, the tears in her eyes hindering her view and sense of direction.

Every so often snippets of the footage flashed across her mind. Her mom and dad, pleading for their lives before Bucky, no, the Winter Soldier coldly executed them. This entire situation was a mess, and she had no idea how any of them were going to come back from this.

Whether they could ever come back from this.

Eventually she made it outside. The snow had been falling, almost completely eradicating any sign of the three sets of footprints that were hers, Steve and Bucky’s, leading into the bunker, but there was one set leading away.

She took out one of her pistols, having lost her rifle in the chamber somewhere, and began to follow them, eventually coming to a thicket of trees. As she approached she could hear the sounds of voices, it sounded like one of them was talking via a phone.

“You should’ve seen his little face. Just try, okay? I’m going to bed. I love you.”

It was a woman’s voice and then Katie spotted Zumo, he was sat by a rock, looking at the phone in his hand. As she approached someone else emerged from the corner of her eyesight and she spun, raising her gun. It was T’Challa, Black Panther suit fully engaged. He gestured at her, palms up, before he retracted his helmet and spoke to Zumo.

“I almost killed the wrong man.”

“Hardly an innocent one.” Zumo shot back, no sign of surprise in his voice at them two of them being there.

“This is all you wanted.” Katie shook her head sadly, the cold snowy wind whipped her hair about her face and it stung her cheeks which were wet with tears. He looked up at her, eyeing the gun which she still had trained on him. “To see us rip each other apart?”

“My father lived outside the city.” Zemo began to explain “I thought we would be safe there. My son was excited. He could see the Iron Man from the car window. I told my wife, “Don’t worry. They are fighting in the city. We’re miles from harm.” When the dust cleared and the screaming stopped. It took me two days until I found their bodies. My father, still holding my wife and son in his arms. And the Avengers?” He looked up at Katie and she saw the hatred in his eyes as he glared back. “You went home”

“None of us wanted any of it.” Katie shook her head, eyes welling up again “There isn’t a day goes by where I don’t wish things could have turned out differently. We tried, but we couldn’t save everybody.”

“I knew I couldn’t kill you.” Zumo ignored her. “More powerful men than me have tried. But, if I could get you to kill each other…”

Kill each other.

Katie swallowed, her thoughts returning to Steve and Tony back in the bunker.

“I’m sorry about your father. He seemed a good man. With a dutiful son” Zumo looked up at T’Challa.

“Vengeance has consumed you. It’s consuming them.” T’Challa blinked ruefully and retracted the claws in his gloves. “I am done letting it consume me. Justice will come soon enough”

Zumo smiled thinly, and for the first time Katie saw that he had a gun in his hand. “Tell that to the dead”

As he raised the gun to shoot himself, T’Challa grabbed the shaft of it, absorbing the bullet and shot in his hand before he rolled round behind Zumo, getting him into a headlock.

“The living are not done with you yet.”

All three of them fell silent and Katie slumped onto a rock, her head in her hands. Whatever happened now, it didn’t matter. Zumo had gotten what he wanted. The Avengers were split, right down the middle, Tony and Steve were pitted against each other. Her brother and Husband.

And she had no idea what she was going to do.

*******

The fight went too far. Tony blasted Bucky’s metal arm off of his body which sent Steve off into a frenzy but he lost his shield in the fracas that had ensued. And now, he stood in between Tony and that final blast that the billionaire knew would end his parents’ killer once and for all. And Tony was going through him if he had to.

“He’s my friend.” Steve pleaded breathing heavily and he looked at Tony hoping to get through to him. Surely he understood it wasn’t Bucky that had done it, it was HYRDA, it was always fucking HYDRA!

“So was I.” Tony answered flatly before punching Steve in the face once, twice then throwing him into the opposite wall. Steve coughed, spitting out blood, then began to unsteadily work his way back up to his feet. “Stay down,” Tony warned aiming his repulsor beam at him “Final warning.”

Steve lifted both his hands in a fighting stance shrugging slightly as he said, “I can do this all day.”

I can do this all day… those words roused Bucky and, for a moment he was in an alley, bailing the little blonde punk out of a fight. Well, why break the habit of a lifetime? He grabbed Tony’s ankle with his remaining hand, distracting him and Tony turned kicking him in the face rendering him unconscious again. Seizing his chance, Steve leapt up and grabbed Tony from behind and, with a monumental heave he lifted him over his head, Tony tried to fly away but with his failing jets it was no use and he landed hard when Steve threw him down onto the concrete.

And then Steve was on top of him throwing punch after punch, grabbing his previously discarded shield bringing that down onto the mask until it broke and fell apart revealing Tony’s frighten gaze to Steve.

Steve raised his shield one more time and Tony brought his hands up to cover his face but that wasn’t Steve’s intention, he couldn’t and wouldn’t ever hurt him like that. Instead, he brought it down hard onto the arc reactor. Tony lowered his arms and stared up at Steve with a mixture of surprise, betrayal and resentment and the soldier looked back at him, his own face contorted with remorse as he rolled off to the side of the now useless suit.

Both men took a moment to catch their breath as fatigue and exhaustion begin to set in, Steve was the first to move as he pulled the shield from the chest of the suit and hooked it back onto his arm. He glanced back at Tony one last before time, wishing it could be different before making his way over to his best friend and pulling the barely conscious man to his feet.

“That shield doesn’t belong to you,” Tony spat turning over on his side. “You don’t deserve it. My father made that shield!” he shouted angrily.

Steve paused. Howard had made that shield, yes. And he had betrayed the man’s memory by keeping the true nature of his death a secret. Taking a deep breath, he realised Tony was right, he didn’t deserve it after all. Captain America was a righteous man, fighting the good fight, a moral man…and Steve Rogers had been selfish and arrogant thinking he could act as he had without consequence. With an immense air of sadness he shrugged the shield from his arm and let it clang to the floor. Then he proceeded to carry Bucky up the exit and out into the snow.

The sound his shield made as it hit the concrete was a noise that Steve knew would be forever ingrained in his mind.

The sound of him leaving Captain America in a bunker in Siberia.

**** Chapter 32 Part 2

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #mcu #mcu fanfic #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fic #chris evans #chris evans characters

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jamesbi-canonbarnes · 3 years

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Going mad ok so I understand Bucky is not the white wolf in the comics and has nothing to do with the person who goes by that moniker in the comics. If I thought we were going to get the actual white wolf story from the comics in the mcu it might make me feel Bucky can’t be called white wolf, but the thing is they have already been calling him white wolf, which leads me to conclude already either 1) they will never introduce comics white wolf anyway, whether they keep it a shallow nickname or possibly let Bucky take more of the story of white wolf and subsume/replace that character (thinking about Arnie Roth hours) or 2) they will treat it as a mantle that can be shared and passed on like the cap mantle and others. I find option 1 much more likely as I don’t see room for the comics white wolf in the mcu. If either, I have no problem with them expanding Bucky’s identity as white wolf, as this is a completely different universe than the comics, and they have ALREADY NAMED HIM SO. (Not that we can’t judge the mcu for choices we think are bad, we can. But divergence alone is not my problem).

I think the thing certain tfatws viewers are hitting on is that the show seems like it’s setting him up to take on a new name. In the first ep he literally says “I’m no longer the winter soldier.” Just from that and the strong subtext surrounding it, in order for him to properly hit his development/arc he would *have* to either *himself* choose a new “alias” name or explicitly/verbally accept that name again as his in healing but he does NOT, he’s called only “Bucky” and “Sergeant Barnes” in the last episode, and throughout the show he calls himself and is called “white wolf” (in the context of healing-restitution-reconciliation/invoking peace and rehabilitation/acknowledging his own goals) plus being called Bucky/buck/James/barnes etc. in varied but mostly neutral or at least averaged out to be neutral context. He is only called Soldat/ws by zemo and by strangers in madripoor iirc, and certainly not in the context of healing. And while I believe he either does call himself the winter soldier or strongly implies that at least in ep 5, it is again not in a context of healing but of self hate and fear, showing how he sees himself and how he has NOT reclaimed the name. His last statement on the fact is to Yori, where he says “he was murdered by the winter soldier.. and that was me... I didn’t have a choice.” *was* and “I didn’t have a choice.” But now that he does have a choice, what is the choice???? Closing the chapter on that era??? Seems like (sunset, right?). But it never textually hits either of the conclusions earlier laid out (choosing to reclaim the name or choosing a new name). This makes it feel like his development is unfinished, and IMO it feels like it doesn’t really make sense to leave it unfinished if he was going to continue using that name because he would only have to say like one sentence to tie it up, whereas any other name would take more than that. So it only makes sense narratively to leave it unfinished if he still requires further development, like a second season or a movie worth, to figure out his name (we know his name is very important to him- “it’s Bucky” “my name is Bucky” “my name is James Bucky barnes” “you don’t get to call me that” etc.) he has his chosen (reclaimed) person name, now he needs to choose (and/or reclaim) his hero name. We just saw him realize that saving ppl is what he wants to do (“[free] to do what?”->”be of service” -> “thank you for saving us”) (he now NEEDS a hero name/hero identity) and on the other side we saw him retraumatized when he stepped back under the winter soldier name in ep 3. The show frames his completing his amends as putting his past behind him (literally getting rid of it in the form of leaving the book and not returning to therapy) but it does not answer the question of what’s in front of him (besides Sam). We have seen him subtextually reclaim his prosthetic arm(using it for good in the last two eps and finding joy from it) AND his “white wolf” nickname(verbal reinstatement from Ayo and a happy physical response from Bucky), but NOT the “winter soldier” name. Even the arm is not the same prosthetic he used as Soldat but one that is inextricably wakandan, and therefore is not enough for me to be a symbolic stand in for the name.

Yes I agree that him reclaiming the name in the comics is healing and meaningful and could be the same in the mcu if they actually put in the work to draw that explicitly (which IMO they have not, and I don’t trust that they will) but it is not the only way to heal and move on, the same can be done by choosing his own new name, his own moral grounding, his own chosen family. (Ayo’s “you chose us. Chose me.”) there is not one right way to heal.

The thing is, the show did not address the name, and the arc feels unclosed due to that. It is annoying that they have him say he is not the winter soldier at both beginning and end (and middle w zemo in ep 3) and yet the title calls him that throughout. If he had specifically reclaimed that name in the show I would be perfectly happy with that, but he did not. The fact that they changed Sam’s name but not bucky’s when their journeys of healing through choosing heroism and finding a new identity are purposely paralleled feels off. It feels off because of the way they framed the show, and not bc I personally have an independent desire for him to change his name. (Although I do think a lot about chosen names from the perspective of trans healing, and I think that’s something to consider here). White Wolf is the option presented, and I can certainly see why people are hitting on it based on the text of the show.

If he eventually takes the name “White wolf” as his hero name I do agree it should have more build up/development and for me personally to accept it I would require a much deeper connection with wakanda than Bucky now has. Possibly we will get it in cap 4, possibly there are not plans to give Bucky real further development, only to keep him on as a sidekick. I don’t personally see him “earning” that name as IMO it would require a major shift away from being cap’s sidekick and into his own separate (distinctly not America-centered) storyline which is what I don’t see happening. But at the same time, mcu has already demonstrated a willingness to give shallow development for its choices, and this could be another example of that being telegraphed. Or who knows, maybe the above points that make his arc feel unfinished are just due to sloppy writing. I won’t rule that out, but I will appreciate if comics readers stop trying to gatekeep mcu fans excited about the possibilities of a universe that is literally not the same universe! It’s an au! The creators can and will change whatever they want. While we can of course judge those changes, I’m much less comfortable judging viewers for reading possibilities presented by the canon text just because the possibility represents a change from the comics.

TLDR MCU-only fans are not stupid for reading what was given to them in the text of the show they’re analyzing and coming up with a desire to have Bucky choose the name White Wolf as an alias. The choice to incorporate comics in your reading of an mcu property is a *choice* that is value-neutral and not a necessary step for either consumption or commentary.

#tfatws meta #tfatws #the falcon and the winter soldier #white wolf discourse #Bucky Barnes #diss course meal babee #long post for ts #mine #this is the mcu where everything is made up and the comics don’t matter

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thesharondefenseleague · 3 years

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ok not technically about sharon but like does it seem like the team cap vs team Ironman stuff is worse now? Like I remember before it came out and even sometime after the team stuff was just which set of characters you liked more. Not so much the actual issues. And after it came out it seemed like most agreed that the situation was contrived a bit to make these guys fight. Which ...you know makes sense considering the comics its based on had the same problem ( though the comics are worse) 1/2

But now I see alot more salt ( especially at Cap) for the events of Civil War. Like not in like a this was ooc and I hate the direction they went , it was more no this makes sense for Cap and Tony actually, also Tony is right and Caps being a dick. I haven't noticed as much for cap stans @ Tony they don't really talk about CW much. Like was I just unaware of that drama right after CW? Or did people actually get saltier? 2/2

It’s (for lack of a better word) upsetting that this movie gets this much level of discourse over sides. This movie isn’t worth the debate of who was right/wrong.

Straight-up, I was always leaning Team Tony in the comics, and the movie made it stronger, because of how the story treated Wanda, Clint, and Scott. I hate the “I drop my life because Steve told me to” crap every movie writes, when two of those characters have families that they sacrificed for this?? No they wouldn’t the last movies they appeared in established that they wouldn’t?????

Listen, because I’m gonna rant and put it under the read more, but TL;DR: Civil War was already a bad story, and the movie was much worse, because it missed the most important part of the battle: the middle ground.

Civil War needs a strong knowledge of Marvel to go into comic-wise. Everyone is and isn’t a player, and you need to read it all to know where every single person stands, both hero and villain. It’s icon status would not exist if it didn’t have 1) the official public unmasking of Peter, and 2) the immediate death of Steve after. But there are so many other important people tied in that you can try to read the comic, but you won’t know seventy-five percent of the characters without doing research first. It doesn’t help that this is a story with seven official issues and a hundred tie-ins.

Comic Lesson:

The Sokovia Accords? Fuck that. It was the Superhero Registration Act, and this issue was set solely in the US. Why? A group of D-List heroes on a scuzzy reality show started a fight with a group of D-List villains, and one blew himself up right next to an elementary school. Many people died, majority being young children. At a funeral service that Tony attended (don’t think many others did, if any, that were heroes), a grieving mother spat in his face, hence why he backed the SHRA from the start. When it was presented to everyone, Sam said fuck that, and officially, Falcon is the first to vocally go against it. Then Steve did it on a SHIELD aircraft to Maria Hill’s face (she was relatively new when this began). Because Steve and Tony were the most public figures on each side, they were the faces, but they were not the showrunners. SHIELD and Maria Hill ran Team Iron Man with Reed Richard’s tech. Nick Fury from an undisclosed location used his many secret hideouts and funds to run Team Captain America in secret, with Steve and Sam being the ones running as the face of the fight.

Major players include but are not limited to: Hank, the FF (mostly Reed and Sue), Hulkling, Tigra, Daredevil, Goliath (who dies in battle), clone Thor (who kills Goliath), Punisher, etc.

The one thing that was present throughout the whole story was side-switching. Every issue had someone switching sides. It was a major ordeal every time, and everyone had reasons. Peter because SHIELD was shady. Cassie Lang and YA Vision because they wanted safety and Scott had recently died (not because of CW, but Wanda was killing people). Sharon was threatened into staying with SHIELD by Maria but was a liaison to assisting Steve. Half of the heroes in the movie weren’t even in the actual book event. Wanda was in hiding. Clint was looking for her (and then banging her, because comic book Clint gets around). Scott, as mentioned, was dead. T’Challa just got married and didn’t want to be involved. This Vision was a different version using the body of Iron Lad, and his name was Jonas (adult Vision is named Victor Shade). Bucky was running missions for Fury in other countries. I’m still miffed that they got to be involved but the movie didn’t have room to include Fury and Maria, the two people actually in charge in this game.

I’ve read this comic several times. I took a class where we had to read the book, watch the film, and discuss sides. And here’s the conclusion: no matter whose side you take, you can agree with the other side, and you’re actually in the middle ground of it, but if you had to pick, this one was slightly more persuasive. It’s a very complex issue that the story went into. Tony saw unchecked heroes as a risk and didn’t want to have another incident that would cost hundreds of innocent lives. Steve saw government control as the potential unchecked risk and didn’t want heroes to be controlled by a single power. But they saw the other side as right too: Tony tried to stop SHIELD from apprehending Peter when he defected, and Steve realized that their fighting was proving the point of how dangerous heroes could be when civilians physically had to stop him from killing Tony. Because that was the point: they were both right and wrong. Superheroes could be dangerous, but government registration and control could abuse them and manipulate heroes. Didn’t help that the Negative Zone was the fucking worst thing ever, thanks Reed, Tony, and Maria.

The movie took out the middle ground, and moved this into international territory. It wasn’t one country, but 117. It wasn’t a group of unchecked heroes who caused the major conflict, but one specifically. It wasn’t dozens of heroes, but just a dozen. It wasn’t children dying, it was rulers of countries. And it wasn’t one major storyline that the movie was focused on, but several (the Winter Soldiers, Bucky, Zemo). It liked two things about the comic: two groups of heroes fighting, and Steve beating the shit out of Tony. And this story was adapted by a pair of writers and a pair of directors who don’t care about following the canon of other movies, including their own, so they just did whatever the hell they wanted and bastardized a story that was already a mess and a half to begin with. And it took a story that made you think every character’s decision and motive through and decided nah, fuck that. We’re gonna make major decisions, and you have to pick one to agree with, because the other was designed for you to hate them. Civil War was a debate, not a literal war, Russos, thank you very much.

The movie took a shit approach to the question of whether or not heroes need checks and balances, because it wasn’t interested in answering that question, it liked battle scenes because you like the paintball episodes they directed for TV. If you’re in 2020 and wanna still fight about who was right and who was wrong in the movie, the answer is: the movie is wrong, go read the comic. Cap 3 is the worst Marvel adaptation, and a strong contender for worst movie. I could rip this shit apart all day.

~Mod R

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what-is-your-plan-today · 4 years

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Stark Spangled Banner Ch32: The Impossible Choice

Summary: Tony catches up with Steve, Katie and Bucky in Siberia and as the events unfold he learns the truth about how his parents were killed. A dramatic show down ensues and Katie finds herself forced with an impossible choice: her brother or her husband.

Warnings: Bad Language words.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Please don’t hate me for this one... it’s a tearjerker

The jet wasn’t fully fuelled so they couldn’t fly at full speed, meaning it took them a few hours to reach the wide, flat, snow-covered landscape of Siberia. Once they touched down Steve cut the power and Katie stood up and moved to the back of the jet, opening the closet that held the Avenger’s weapons. Bucky stepped over and started examining the rack of guns labelled 'Romanoff' before he selected a light machine gun.

Katie reached over to grab 2 9mms and twirled them in her hands before she slotted them into the holders on her thighs. Bucky watched her through the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow as she reached over to select another larger rifle.

“Sure you can handle that thing, sweetheart?” he asked, his tone was gently teasing and Katie snorted, whilst behind her Steve gave a chuckle.

“Stop flirting with my wife, Buck and I’ll have you know she’s a trained sniper, give you a run for your money.” he said, almost proudly as he slung his shield onto his back.

“That so?” Bucky asked, his mouth twisting into a grin. Katie simply smiled in response and cocked the gun, looking down the sight to check it was all clear.

The 3 of them stood together, Katie in the middle of the 2 super soldiers, waiting for the exit ramp to descend as Steve tossed his helmet in his hand.

“You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?” Steve said suddenly, looking over at Bucky as the cold air hit them.

“Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?” Bucky frowned

“You blew three bucks trying to win a stuffed bear for a redhead” Steve smirked.

“Right, what was her name again?” Bucky asked, a tone of amusement on his voice

“Dolores” Steve answered instantly, smirk still on his face “You called her Dot.”

“She's gotta be a hundred years old right now.” Bucky said.

“Well it aint quite a freezer truck.” Katie mused.

“I hate the cold.” Bucky sighed as they trudged through the snow.

“Yeah Stevie isn’t exactly a fan either.” Katie said “Although he still runs the Air Con at like minus 20”

“No, I don’t.” Steve sighed, as Bucky gave a bark of a laugh as the two of them began to playfully bicker.

“Our bedroom is freezing.”

“Look, I run at a higher temperature than you.” Steve shot back, looking at her “Yeah yeah.” Katie rolled her eyes, gun still raised as she looked around.

“Our place was always cold in the winter.” Bucky mused, and then he laughed again “Hey Katie, once when we were kids we built a fire using all this spare and wood we found in the outhouse.” “Yeah, your dad gave us a whack each round the back of the head as he’d been saving it to build a table.” Steve grinned again. “My ears were ringing for days.”

Bucky and Katie both raised their guns towards the gap.

“He can't have been here more than a few hours” Steve said as they stopped just outside,

“Long enough to wake them up.” Bucky sighed.

“You ready?” Steve asked, looking at Katie, then over at his friend as he took a slight step forward so he was almost shielding them both taking a step down the flight of stairs in front of them.

Katie nodded as Bucky replied “Yeah.”

The double doors at the bottom began to open, but it wasn’t another super soldier that greeted the trio. It was Tony in his full Iron Man suit.

Katie stared in surprise as her brother retracted his helmet.

“You seem a little defensive.” Tony said as Steve strode down the steps towards him, shield covering his body. Katie followed a yard or so behind, her gun now by her side.

“It's been a long day.” Steve replied, shield still raised, not quite sure what Stark was doing there. Bucky shifted slightly and Tony turned his head to look at him.

“At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you.”

“Then why are you here?” Katie asked.

“Could be your story aint so crazy.” Tony said, shrugging.

“Sorry, is that you admitting you’re wrong?” she asked, raising her eyebrow slightly at her brother.

“Maybe.” Tony shrugged.

“Ross?” Steve looked at him.

“Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself”

“Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork” Steve quipped as he lowered his shield “It's good to see you, Tony.”

“You too Cap.” his brother-in-law smiled softly before he looked over at Bucky who still had the gun raised

“Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop…”

Steve motioned at Bucky to lower the gun and he did.

“So how did you find us?” Katie asked

“I went to the prison.” He sighed, “Spoke to Sam.”

“How are they?” Steve asked.

Tony hesitated “Angry, mostly at me. Clint especially but… they’re, ok.”

Katie looked at him, she had the feeling he was holding something back but now wasn’t the time.

“What made you change your mind?” Bucky asked Tony. He may have lowered his gun but because his Captain had asked him to, but he was still unsure.

“I got an update from the Berlin police…” he said, turning to face the man. “The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as you were captured. They dispatched a Dr Broussard from Geneva but he was intercepted by the man who questioned you.”

“You got a name?” Katie asked her brother.

“Yeah, Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian Intelligence. He ran Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad”

“Sokovia…” Katie sighed as Steve groaned, “Is that place set to follow us around for the rest of our days?”

“You think that’s what he wants with these Super Soldiers?” Steve asked. “Some form of army to get revenge?”

Tony made a face, shrugging.

“Your guess is as good as mine Cap, but I reckon so, yeah.”

Tony re-engaged his helmet and the 4 of them set off to continue the search. Katie felt bolstered by her brother’s appearance, and Steve also felt hopeful. Hopeful that they could sort this out then go home, together, and work through the whole unholy mess that had been left in the wake of the Accords. Still, they moved cautiously and silently until Tony, who was at the front, turned to his right, into a smaller corridor at the end of which was a vast chamber.

“I got heat signatures.” He said gently.

“How many?” Steve asked.

“Uh…one.” Tony said as he walked into the chamber.

“One?” Katie frowned. She looked at Steve and then the two of them turned to Bucky who shrugged, equally as puzzled.

As they all walked up the 3 small steps into the chamber Katie could just about make out several huge pillars when the lights in each of them snapped on. It was then that the all saw they weren’t pillars, they were capsules. Each containing an enhanced soldier surrounded by some form of hazy, yellow mist.

The four of them looked around, bewildered when the PA system crackled into life, causing Katie to jump.

“If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep”. The voice spoke as Bucky looked up at the solider in the capsule nearest to him whilst Katie continued to the next, her gun still raised. It was then that she noticed there was a bullet hole in the glass and a shot buried right between the female soldiers eyes.

He’d killed them.

“Did you really think I wanted more of you?”

“Please, Captain.” Zumo spoke with amusement “ The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets”

“I'm betting I could beat that.” Tony said, as he and Steve rounded the chair to the right, Bucky and Katie to the left.

“Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came.”

“You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?” Steve stepped forward so there was just the glass separating his face from Zemo’s as he glared at him.

“I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized… there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw.”

Steve drew back slightly, frowning as Katie reached his side.

“You're Sokovian.” she said, watching the man, his brown eyes flickering to hers “ Is that what this is about?”

“Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell.” Zemo shook his head “ No. I'm here because I made a promise.”

Steve studied Zemo as he asked “you lost someone?

Zemo bowed his head and clicked his tongue. “I lost everyone. And so will you.”

Steve watched as Zemo pressed something and then a screen just behind them, to the right clicked on. He shot another look at Zemo before he made my way over to it, as Katie followed.

“An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again…but one which crumples from within?” Zemo spoke and Katie glanced back at him, Steve doing the same “That's dead… forever.”

One which crumbles from within…

This was about splitting the Avengers up, pitting them against one another.

“I know that road.” Tony jerked her out of her thoughts from where he stood to her right, “What is this?” he spoke louder, aimed at Zemo who didn’t answer.

Katie glanced at Tony and could see his unease was increasing, his brow furrowing as he watched the driver of the car, their dad, laying on the ground. Tony inhaled deeply as the footage progressed and the Winter Soldier walked over to their dad who had struggled out of the car and hoisted him up by his hair and stared down at him.

Tony wasn’t watching the screen anymore. He was stood, eyes fixed on Bucky who had his head bowed. The soldier took a deep breath and glanced over at Tony, his eyes locking with the man’s. Tony looked away and back to the screen as the tears began to freely fall from Katie’s eyes. On the footage the Winter Soldier reined blow upon blow upon her father before dragging him by his collar and shoving him back into the driver’s seat. She felt Tony take her hand, his Iron Man Gauntlet tightening painfully around her fingers as The Winter Soldier rounded the car and reached in through the window. At that point she couldn’t take it anymore and she turned away, supressing the sob that was rising in her throat and pressed her face into Steve’s chest were he stood besides her side on, watching Tony carefully. He gently placed a hand at the back of his wife’s head before he glanced back at the screen to see the Winter Solder aiming a gun at the surveillance camera, shooting it.

“Tony, Tony.” he conciliated.

Tony looked down at the screen again, before he looked up at Steve, the tears glistening in his eyes as Katie wiped away her own with the back of her hands.

“Did you know?” Tony asked his voice barely audible.

“I didn’t know it was him.” Steve began, his voice pleading as he looked at Tony.

“Don’t bullshit Rogers!” Tony cut him off before Steve could continue, his voice full of fury. “Did you know?”

There was a pause, before Steve sighed and dropped his head slightly. “Yes”.

Tony pushed Steve away before he glanced back at the screen.

“Tony.” Katie said as he turned to look at her. “We didn’t know for sure, not until…”

“You knew as well?” Tony asked, his voice cracking as he looked at his sister and she began to cry again as she nodded, and Tony’s chest tightened with betrayal and heartbreak.

He stepped back, his chin jutting upwards twitchily before he re-engaged the Iron man helmet. He pushed Katie out of the way and as she tumbled left he punched Steve hard, sending him to the floor. Bucky started to fire, bullets easily deflecting off Tony’s Iron Man suit and he shot a beam at Bucky, disarming him and then flew across the chamber, slamming him into the floor. “Tony, please!” Katie shouted, as Tony jumped on Bucky’s chest. Steve stood up, threw his shield which hit Tony, distracting him momentarily before he tackled him from the front, barging him backwards. Then Steve was on the floor, then Bucky was there, it was getting really out of hand and Katie was powerless to stop any of it.

“You need to go.” Steve instructed as he cut the restraints that Tony had fired at him off his legs.

“I can’t!” she said stubbornly, “he’s my brother, Steve!”

“That wasn’t a request.” Steve repeated firmly “Go, get Zumo. If we don’t apprehend him, then all this is for nothing.”

She hesitated for a second.

“Katie!” he said, voice full of authority.

“Alright.” she swallowed “but please...don’t…”

She trailed off as Steve gently touched her face before he leapt up, shield raised. Then she turned and ran. Back the way they had come, the sounds of blasts and yells and metal on metal growing fainter and fainter as she sprinted down the corridors, the tears in her eyes hindering her view and sense of direction.

“You should've seen his little face. Just try, okay? I'm going to bed. I love you.”

“I almost killed the wrong man.”

“Hardly an innocent one.” Zumo shot back, no sign of surprise in his voice at them two of them being there.

“My father lived outside the city.” Zemo began to explain “I thought we would be safe there. My son was excited. He could see the Iron Man from the car window. I told my wife, "Don't worry. They are fighting in the city. We're miles from harm." When the dust cleared… and the screaming stopped. It took me two days until I found their bodies. My father… still holding my wife and son in his arms. And the Avengers? “

He looked up at Katie and she saw the hatred in his eyes as he glared back. “You went home”

“None of us wanted any of it.” she shook her head, eyes welling up again “There isn’t a day goes by where I don’t wish things could have turned out differently. We tried, but we couldn’t save everybody…”

“I knew I couldn't kill you.” Zumo ignored her. “More powerful men than me have tried. But, if I could get you to kill each other…”

Kill each other.

Katie swallowed, her thoughts returning to Steve and Tony back in the bunker.

“I'm sorry about your father. He seemed a good man. With a dutiful son” Zumo looked up at T’Challa.

“Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them.” T’Challa blinked ruefully and retracted the claws in his gloves. “I am done letting it consume me. Justice will come soon enough”

Zumo smiled thinly, and for the first time Katie saw that he had a gun in his hand. “Tell that to the dead”

As he raised the gun to shoot himself T’Challa grabbed the shaft of it, absorbing the bullet and shot in his hand before he rolled round behind Zumo, getting him into a headlock.

“The living are not done with you yet.”

All 3 of them fell silent and Katie slumped onto a rock, her head in her hands. Whatever happened now, it didn’t matter. Zumo had gotten what he wanted. The Avengers were split, right down the middle, Tony and Steve were pitted against each other. Her brother and Husband.

And she had no idea what she was going to do.

*******

The fight went too far. Tony blasted Bucky's metal arm off of his body which sent Steve off into a frenzy but he lost his shield in the fracas that had ensued. And now, he stood in between Tony and that final blast that the billionaire knew would end his parents' killer once and for all. And Tony was going through him if he had to.

"He's my friend." Steve pleaded breathing heavily and he looked at Tony hoping to get through to him. Surely he understood it wasn’t Bucky that had done it, it was Hydra, it was always fucking Hydra.

"So was I." Tony answered flatly before punching Steve in the face once, twice then threw him into the opposite wall. Steve coughed, spitting out blood, then began to unsteadily work his way back up to his feet. "Stay down," Tony warned aiming his repulsor beam at him "Final warning."

Steve lifted both his hands in a fighting stance shrugging slightly as he said, "I can do this all day."

I can do this all day… those words roused Bucky and for a moment he was in an alley, bailing the little blonde punk out of a fight. Well, why break the habit of a lifetime? He grabbed Tony's ankle with his remaining hand, distracting him and Tony turned kicking him in the face rendering him unconscious again. Before he could react Steve grabbed him from behind and with a monumental heave he lifted him over his head, Tony tried to fly away but with his failing jets it was no use and he landed hard when Steve threw him down onto the concrete.

And then Steve was on top of him throwing punch after punch, grabbing his previously discarded shield bringing that down onto the mask until it broke and fell apart revealing Tony's frighten gaze to Steve.

"That shield doesn't belong to you," Tony spat turning over on his side. "You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!" he shouted angrily.

The sound his shield made as it hit the concrete was a noise that he knew would be forever ingrained in his mind. The sound of him leaving Captain America in a bunker in Siberia.

*****

Katie had no idea how long she sat waiting, lost in her thoughts and worries but eventually she heard a shuffling noise and spun round to see Steve supporting Bucky who was missing his metal arm. Both men were bloodied, battered, but alive.

“Where’s Tony?” she said standing up, looking at Steve.

Steve took a deep breath, “In there. It got out of hand but he’s ok.” Katie immediately headed to the door of the bunker.

“Katie, he won’t listen.” Steve shook his head sadly as he called after her “This…it’s too far gone to fix.

“I have to try Steve, he’s my brother.”

She left the sentence hanging, not looking back as she moved back into the bunker. She had to try and talk him round, make him understand this was what Zemo wanted… it was the last chance to try and sort all of this out. If she couldn’t then there was no way Steve could go back. No way he would go back.

And she was going to lose one of them.

“Tony.” she said gently, walking towards where he was sat, back against a wall in the depth of the concrete building.

“You know, when Rogers asked for your hand in marriage I couldn’t have been happier. Finally you’d met someone that treat you well, looked after you…now, I wish he’d never come out of that fucking iceberg.” He snarled up at her.

Katie took a deep breath. “You’re upset, I get that.”

“Really? You do?” he said, sarcasm dripping off every word “Oh that’s good because I thought for a moment you were missing the point.”

“What is the point, Tony?” she asked, softly “Do you think for one minute that I like what happened to our Parents?”

“How long have you known?” he looked at her.

“Since we took SHIELD and Hydra down.” she bowed her head.

“2 years?!” his voice rang round the cavern. “You knew for 2 fucking years?” “I didn’t know for certain it was him until yesterday, I swear.” she took a deep breath “But Steve is right. It wasn’t Bucky that did it. It was the Winter Soldier.”

“Oh god, he’s brainwashed you as well.” Tony groaned, banging his head against the wall “That man murdered our parents!!”

“No one is brainwashed, it’s simply a fact. Hydra murdered our parents.” she sniffed slightly

“BUT HE DID IT!” Tony yelled, “And whilst that mind control is in there he’s a danger and he needs to be dealt with.”

“He needs help.”

Tony laughed, scornfully “Frankly if you believe that, you’re the one that needs help.”

"We both know what it’s like to be tortured, to have your dignity stripped from you in a way people cannot possibly imagine.” she turned to her brother “And for us it was weeks Tony, fucking weeks. He endured it for 70 damned years." "He killed our mom!" "And he saved my life!" Katie said, her voice cracking "The Winter Soldier did those things, not Bucky Barnes.Tone, this is tearing me in two. I can’t choose between you, I can’t do it!" "You already chose." "No, I didn’t. I did what I thought was right. Not just the Accords but coming here. And you know it was right too, deep down or you wouldn’t be here either. You saw those soldiers in there, it could have been so much different." Tony snorted. "For once in your life just admit you'd follow Rogers anywhere..." Katie shook her head, sniffing slightly as her eyes misted over "Look, You're my brother, my father even, and I love you so much, but he is my husband and I love him, with everything I have.” Tony looked at her, and turned away. He felt betrayed, by them both. But as much as he hated what she had done, he loved his sister beyond belief and he knew no matter what happened here there would be no winners. If she stayed her heart would break at losing Steve and she would probably end up inside that shit hole pokey until some agreement or deal was done. And if she left, she might be free, but then he would lose her.

But above all Tony knew the thing that would break her the most was having to make that choice, a choice between a life of freedom on the run with Rogers, or a choice between being locked up or with him. He couldn't see her go through that, he couldn't see her locked up and miserable and without the man she loved, and who clearly loved her. Tony knew, there was nothing else to do, he had to make the choice for her. And moreover he knew he had to be the one to lose.

"I don’t even wanna look at you right now." His voice cracked and he turned away "Get lost, go on." "And go where?” her voice was strained. "Wherever your precious Captain is running to. And you best run fast. Because if Ross gets hold of you, you're both gonna be in that pokey with the rest of them and I'll make sure Rogers never sees the light of day again." "And me?" She said, her eyes wet as she looked at him. "You went against the accords." He shrugged, unable to meet her eye "Maybe they could get you a double cell" Katie felt her heart breaking. Her brother, the man who had been there all her life, was actively pushing her away. This is what it had come to. But just as she was about to argue, try and see they could get a way through this, he delivered the final blow. "You know, I'm glad mom and dad ain't here to see this, because they'd be so ashamed of you...” he took a deep breath before he delivered the blow he knew would kill her, and he was going to hate himself for it. “You disgust me." That. That there. Was the moment Katie felt her heartbreak. "Tony." her voice cracked "Tell me you don’t mean that." "I mean every word." he lied. Because he didn’t. He didn’t mean any of it. He was beyond proud of her, how strong she was. But he knew, this was the only way she could be spared the agony of a shitty choice.

With a shaking sob Katie stood up and began to walk across the cavern slowly, giving Tony a chance to stop her but he didn't. As she reached the start of the corridor she stopped, taking a deep breath and turned back to look at him through her tears.

“Me not telling you about mom and dad was a mistake. But I did it to save you from all this, save you from hurting because I figured you’d seen enough over the past goodness knows how long.” she shrugged, wiping her face “I’m so sorry Tony.”

He looked away, not meeting her eyes because he couldn’t. “Just go.” he said softly.

She walked from the cavern as calmly as she could. Once she was out of site she began to sprint, wanting nothing more than the comfort of Steve. She was that wrapped up in her thoughts, twice she took a wrong turn and hit a dead end, screaming in frustration, before eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime she burst out into the snow before collapsing onto the floor, a loud agonising wail erupting from her chest.

“Katie?” Steve saw his girl fall to her knees, the noise she made chilled him to the bones. He sprinted straight towards her, ignoring the aching all over his body from the blows he had taken over the past 3 days or so. He dropped besides her “Honey?”

Katie took a deep breath before she looked up at Steve unable to voice her emotions or explain what happened. She simply bowed her head again and shook it. Steve sighed and placed an arm round her shoulder “Come on.”

With his help she rose to her feet, looking round. There was no sign of T’Challa. Zemo or Bucky.

“Where is everyone?” she asked, sliding her arm around Steve’s waist, more for support than anything else.

“T’Challa left about 2 minutes ago. He’s taken Zemo to the United Nations.” Steve said as they trudged through the snow.

“Least Bucky’s in the clear.” she sniffed, always searching for the positive.

“He’s not.” Steve sighed “Even if he’s proven not guilty they’ll want to lock him up, especially whilst Hydra are in his mind.”

They stopped at the bottom of the ramp to the jet.

“T’Challa has offered to help.” Steve turned to Katie, taking a deep breath as he knew this was it. The point at which she was going to have to make a decision on what she did next, and his heart was breaking for her. “He’s given me the coordinates to Wakanda and says he has someone there who could assist in fixing whatever it is Hydra did to Buck’s mind.”

“If the UN catch on he’s harbouring him it’ll cause even more trouble.” Katie sighed. “I know, which is why they can’t find out.” Steve said looking at her “T’Challa is going to tell the UN that me, you, Bucky and Tony are here, so they can send a craft out to pick everyone up. Then the cover story is that in the meantime Bucky and I escaped, and no one knows where we have gone.”

“Think they’ll buy it?” she asked, ignoring for a moment the fact that he had said Bucky and I, not Bucky and us.

“They’ve no reason not to.” Steve said after a moment.

“And he really thinks he can help him?”

Steve nodded. “So that’s the plan. Take Bucky and lay low for a while, at least until I can figure out what to do next”

He paused for a moment and then looked up the ramp before taking a deep breath and looking at her.

“I didn’t want any of this to happen” he sighed, “and if you don’t want to come I’ll understand.” he took a deep breath, as he grabbed both of her hands, the tears swimming in his eyes “I don’t ever want to force you to make a choice so whatever you do decide, I’ll understand, I just want you to know that I love you, I’ll always love you.”

Katie looked up at him, his last words were barely audible above his choked back sob. She knew Steve wasn’t ever going to go back, he couldn’t go back. He wouldn’t settle being behind bars but he was offering her a way out, a chance to stay with Tony. Her husband had never, not once through this entire situation pressured her to take his side. And she hadn’t taken his side, she had done what she believed was the right thing. But now, when it came down to it, there was simply no choice for her to make. Tony hated her, the Accords had finished the Avengers, Ross would make sure she was locked away…and the thought of Steve not being with her broke her more than anything.

There was nothing else left for her to do but go.

Her eyes misted over as she looked up at the man who was her world, her everything. “I can’t stay.” she whispered “Not without you. Please don’t leave me.”

“Leave you?” his voice cracked and he pulled her into his chest, hard, hands pressed at the base of her back and her head as she fisted her hands into the dirty material of his uniform. “Never, Doll.”

“Then get me out of here.” she pulled back to look up at him, gently using her thumbs to wipe away the tears on his face that had run down below the line of his helmet.

“Are you sure?” he had to ask again. “Because if we do this, there’s no going back. You might be able to sort things with Tony if you stay.” “When I’m locked up in prison?” she shook her head “What’s the point in that. Besides, we both know that you wouldn’t stand for it. You’d break me out in a week.”

He gave her a soft smile, she was right. He would. She leaned up to place a soft kiss on his lips before she turned and strode up the ramp into the jet, wiping her eyes and putting her weapons away silently. Steve followed her in and she turned to look at him when she spotted Bucky who was looking significantly worse for wear sat on one of the seats.

“You ok?” she said gently. He looked up and gave her a small smile.

“Yeah, look, I’m sorry, I really am.” his voice cracked and his head hung again.

“I know.” she said sadly as she touched his shoulder and headed over to the co-pilots seat.

Steve settled in the pilot seat just in front of her, removing his helmet and punching in some co-ordinates. Moments later the jet was airborne.

“Auto-pilot locked. ETA 4.5 hours” Katie muttered, reading the computer before she stood up and dropped her hand on Steve’s shoulder “Think it’s about time I patched you boys up.”

“Start with Buck.” he said gently, standing up “He’s worse than I am.”

She moved to the back of the jet and began rummaging in the first aid boxes gathering various things before she told Bucky to sit on the gurney in the medi-bay area of the jet.

“This is probably gonna sting a little.” she said, biting her lip as she began to wipe gently at the various cuts and bruises on Bucky’s face. If it hurt he didn’t give any outward signs that it did. She then moved to the back of his head, clearing up a nasty gash from where he had taken a hit and once that was done she checked his arm, there was no new wound, but his metal arm had been removed just below the shoulder blade, leaving the metal socket intact.

“Does it hurt?” she asked him gently.

“No.”

She looked at Steve, shrugging as if to say that she had done the best she could and he nodded, looking at Bucky.

“Why don’t you rest?” He said, nodding over to the seats. “We’ve got a while before we arrive and I doubt any of us had much sleep last night.”

“You guys certainly didn’t…” Bucky said slyly. Katie shared a look with Steve who she was amused to see had flushed from the neck upwards, the patches of his face that weren’t dirty were now a bright crimson.

“Walls in hotel rooms are thin…” Bucky continued, grunting slightly as he dropped into one of the seats, leaning back and closing his eyes.

Katie bit her lip as Steve sat down on the stretcher, same place Bucky had sat before. She studied his weary face and noticed that there was a huge bruise forming on his right cheek and a smaller abrasion on his left. His nose had at some point been bleeding and there was a split in his lip, but all in all his helmet had saved him for the most, as he was nowhere near as bad as Bucky. She gently wiped at his face, as tenderly as she could to avoid hurting him. She cleaned off the dirt, dried blood and then the cut above his eye, before moving to the one on his lip. As she touched it with the antiseptic wipe he hissed slightly.

“Stop being a baby…” she said, teasingly as she continued. He opened his eyes and simply watched his wife’s face intensely. Her eyes were red rimmed from her crying and he couldn’t help but wonder what Tony had said to her when she had gone back in. But he knew she would tell him when she was ready. Eventually she finished and dropped the wipe she had been using into the dish to my right, and he placed both his hands on her hips and pulled her closer to him, so that she was stood in between his legs.

“I love you so much.” He said gently. She brought her hand up to brush across his now clean but bruised face and sighed.

“I know.” she said gently, placing a soft kiss onto his lips, careful not to aggravate any cuts further. He would heal fast, he always did. In a few days there would be no evidence of any of these.

From over in the corner of the jet there came a soft groan “Get a room…preferably not next to mine.”

*****

It was 3 hours into the journey when she told Steve everything. What Tony had said, how he had told her to leave, and that he was disgusted with her, and Steve’s heart broke for her as she cried again, her tears falling to his shoulder as he sat and simply held her before insisting she also took some rest. He knew what Tony had said was bullshit, the man was ridiculously proud of his sister, and he found himself understanding why he had done it. To save her from an impossible choice. Tony was as selfless as the next person where his sister was involved.

About 45 minutes or so later, when Katie was fast asleep, Bucky woke up and he noticed Steve was sat in the seat at the front, simply staring out of the window.

“Got anything to drink?” he asked, and Steve’s head snapped round.

“Should be some water in the fridge, hang on…” “I lost my arm Punk, not my legs.” Bucky grumbled, heading over to where Steve was directing.

“Glad to see your attitude is still as bad as ever.” Steve raised an eyebrow as Bucky threw a bottle to him which he caught in his right hand.

“Yeah well, there are somethings even being brainwashed can’t get rid of.” he sighed as he headed over to the seat by Steve. Clasping the bottle in his knees he worked the top off with his right hand and took a deep swig.

“Do you really think they can do it? You know, get whatever Hydra put in my head out?” he asked.

“T’Challa seems to think so.” Steve nodded, looking at his friend.

“Well, perhaps when he has we can catch up properly…” Bucky’s voice was wistful.

”Like old times huh?” Steve said with a twinkle in his eye.

Bucky smiled before he grew serious again. “You know I did think about finding you, but…”

Steve looked at him for a moment and then leaned forward slightly. “How much do you remember?” he asked.

Bucky sighed, “I remember most things, about my life that is, but at first it was just a big jumble. That’s why I wrote it all down...”

The two men fell silent again, Steve full of his own guilt again for not going back for him that day he fell from the train. He could have spared him all of this.

“How did you do it?” Bucky asked suddenly, making Steve look back at him “Wake up 70 years in the future and just carry on?” “Katie.” Steve said instantly “I came out of the ice, I’d lost everyone I knew, had no idea what to do…but then I found her…almost like it was meant to be.”

“I thought Steve Rogers didn’t believe in fate?” Bucky teased “What was it you used to say? You make your own luck?” Steve chuckled “I didn’t, I mean I don’t really, but whatever it was be it fate, luck, circumstance…I’m just glad it happened.” he trailed off, smiling, before he carried on “You know, I loved Peggy but that was nothing to what I feel for Katie. I can’t imagine being without her.”

Bucky looked at his friend, smiling. He had always known that when Steve found the right dame he would fall hard and fast, and it was clear he had. After all of his bad luck before the war it was nice to see the man so happy and loved. But Bucky wasn’t going to let it lie without the chance to tease his friend. He grinned and looked at him, a cheeky smile spreading across his weary face.

“Yeah she’s pretty hot too. How did a punk like you manage to pull a gal like that?” “Buck!” Steve said exasperatedly as Bucky laughed.

“I’m just playing with you Stevie. I’m glad you found someone.” Bucky said gently. “Just gutted I wasn’t at the wedding, well properly anyway. You looked happy though when you came out of the church.”

“I was. And I wish you could have been there properly too pal.” Steve said, his voice taking on a teasing tone “But Sam made a pretty good substitute best man.”

“Wait, you had Seagull as your best man?” Bucky’s tone was indignant.

“He’s a good friend.” Steve said.

There was another pause.

“You know I haven’t thanked you yet.” Steve said gently “For saving her life.” he nodded over to where Katie was curled up in a seat under a blanket “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.” “Right time right place.” Bucky shrugged “You know, I didn’t recognise her at first, just heard all this screaming and…well she was in a bad way.” “I know.” Steve said, softly “They…they hurt her.” Bucky didn’t need to ask what they had done to her. He could imagine.

“She’s ok now though, right?”

“Physically yeah..” Steve nodded “mentally…she still has nightmares sometimes but don’t we all? She’s strong though, way stronger than me…”

“I dunno from the noises I heard last night you seemed to be pretty strong.” Bucky quipped and Steve groaned

“Sorry, our walls at the compound are soundproof so…” he offered an explanation, blushing again.

“Yeah, well the first time we just kinda ignored it but then when you started again an hour later, then again, well…frankly it was a little gross.”

“Guess we just got a bit carried away.” Steve felt the heat spread up his neck.

“Sam said you were showing off.” Bucky smirked causing Steve to snort. “You got some stamina, bud, I’ll give you that.”

“Something we both thank Dr Erskine for on a regular basis.” Steve shot back cheekily and Bucky barked out a laugh.

Then the alert on the cockpit started to go and Katie sat up, rubbing her eyes as the noise roused her. Steve shot her a smile, pretty sure he was still blushing, and then turned to look at the dials on the cockpit

“Hey.” she said, approaching the front, dropping her hand to Bucky’s shoulder as she pressed a soft kiss to Steve’s head “We here?”

“I think so.” Steve frowned, “The co-ords are telling me to drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0…only...”

Katie looked ahead, it was nothing but a thicket of what looked like jungle.

“You trust T’Challa?” she asked, settling in a seat behind him.

“Yeah.”

“Then do it.” she said simply, looking at him like he was an idiot.

Bucky smirked slightly and Steve rolled his eyes, but obeyed all the same. They passed through the trees as they simply disappeared, like a computer image and they were left with the skyline of a beautiful city. Katie let out the breath I hadn’t even realised she had been holding.

"What the fuck?" Bucky whispered, and Steve laughed in agreement.

*****

They were welcomed by T’Challa’s Mother, younger Sister Suri and a few members of his King’s Guard. T’Challa was on his way back from the UN and wouldn’t be back for an hour or so, so in the mean time they were given something to eat and a place to clean up, Katie taking her time in the scalding hot shower in their luxurious suite. Steve had stayed with Bucky and she was glad, as she broke down once more thinking about Tony, wondering where he was. Once she had cried all the tears she had left to cry, she dried off and crawled into the bed passing out almost immediately. She didn’t feel Steve climb in besides her later on that night. He stayed awake for a lot longer than she did, having spent the evening with T’Challa who had filled him in on what the UN had said. Tony was home ok, he knew that much, and the authorities had accepted T’CHalla’s explanation, essentially meaning he, Katie and Bucky were outlaws. For once in his life he had no idea what to do next, and the guilt at dragging her into this was eating him up. With a sigh he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

The next day felt slightly more positive. After breakfast Suri took Bucky into her lab for a scan on his brain. Bucky had worried that going into a scanner would remind him of the machine Hydra used and could bring out the Winter Soldier again, but Suri had simply smiled and shook her head, before using what looked like a beaded bracelet to perform the scan.

Now she stood over a tablet looking at the image.

"Your mind has been fighting this the whole time." she said tapping a few places on the tablet and bringing up a hologram image of Bucky’s brain for them all to see. She pointed to a bright, pink line which snaked all over the image “That's what they put in there but it hasn’t melded properly, which I suspect is why you required constant…how to put this…recalibration I suppose.” she pondered something before she turned to look at the soldier and smiled. “I can fix this.”

"Really?" Bucky said, his head jerking up as he looked at her, his eyes shining.

"I may have to engineer something new equipment wise, and it could take me a few months to do it- but it is reversible." She nodded, voice oozing with confidence as she looked at the scans of Bucky’s brain on the screen

"How?" Bucky frowned, hardly daring to believe what she was saying. He would be free…

“I can cut it out.” she said, like it was something she did every day. “Like I say, it has not melded to your brain. Think of it as foreign object, not a part of you, and all foreign objects can be removed."

Katie squeezed Steve’s hand as Steve let out a loud breath as he looked up at the ceiling. Bucky was going to be ok. He glanced down at his wife who smiled at him, as they both turned to see Bucky’s eyes were wet as he wiped tears off his face. Suri dropped a hand to his shoulder.

“You won't have to live with this anymore, Sergeant Barnes." she said to him.

Bucky looked at her, then to Steve before his face crumpled and in a stride Steve had closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around his friend in a brotherly hug as Bucky sat on the bench, unable to believe that he was going to be free, finally free from Hydra. Katie watched the two of them as T’Challa gently squeezed her shoulder as he and Suri made to leave the room. She followed them, pausing in the doorway to turn to look at the two men, Steve stepping back from Bucky to look down at him as he wiped at his face, a teary smile crossing his features.

It had cost them everything, but at least there was something good going to come out of it all.

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themaskedwriter · 5 years

Text

Knock Out

Boxer!Bucky x Reader

Summary: Bucky used to be a world famous boxer and he’s been out of the ring for too long

Warnings: violence, injury, boxing, surgery mentions

Word counts: 4000+ (Sorry not sorry)

Clues:

- This isn’t my first time in the ring with a fic

- I’m known for being long-winded

- I really need to post more writing on tumblr instead of Ao3

Bucky’s left fist flashed between the two fighters, making contact with his opponent’s shoulder, right before the bell rang. At the sound, the two fighters distanced themselves and moved into their corners of the boxing ring. You could tell Bucky was beginning to tire; his past stamina hadn’t completely returned. His coach, Nick Fury, and cutman, Steve Rogers, were ready and waiting. Coach Fury was going over Bucky’s opponent’s, Brock Rummlow’s, weak spot where he wasn’t blocking. Steve was gently checking a small cut which had opened over Bucky’s left eye. He quickly butterflied it shut in hopes it would mostly halt the bleeding until the fight was over.

“He’s got this Y/N,” Natasha said from the left of you in the stands. The both of you sat in the front row of the stands. Being Bucky’s girlfriend had its perks, one of which was front row seats to all of his matches. Nat had been a great boxer in the past, but she had decided to take a break and try coaching for a while which meant she would sit with you during fights.

“Of course he has this Natasha,” Tony stated cockily from the other side of you. “He knows I put a lot of money into bring his ass back from the dead.” At his statement, you glared at Tony. The man was the owner of the club and you loved him, most of the time, but you were not in the mood for jokes.

“Tony, you know I’m more concerned about his health than your money,” You responded coldly as you returned your eyes to the ring. Bucky was still breathing hard from his last round of fighting, something he had never done before his injury. Normally he could make it twelve rounds at the regional level without breaking much of a sweat, but instead he was huffing air by the 8th. You worried for not only his physical health but his mental state as well if he couldn’t win this match. It was his first fight since his injury and all you could hope for was a win.

The bell rang once again, and the announcer called for the 9th round to start. Bucky and Brock squared off against each other, looking for an opening. Bucky initiated the fighting with a 1-1-2 combo to Brock’s chest. This consisted of two jabs and a cross. To throw Brock off, Bucky had performed the cross with his left hand rather than his right. Seeing Bucky use his left arm so well made your mind race back to a different fight.

16 Months Ago

You cheered exuberantly from the front row of the stands as always. Bucky had won the US National championships for the super middleweight class and was now trying to qualify for the Olympics. He was competing in a regional fight to increase his seasonal score, so he would qualify for the World Series of Boxing. Getting into that fight would almost guarantee him an Olympic slot. He was fighting Helmut Zemo, an up and comer in the boxing world. The two fighters were in the 5th round and Bucky was ahead by a drastic amount of points. He smiled as he fought, knowing this fight could be his ticket to the Olympics. He had been dreaming of being on that international stage since he was a child when him and Steve started boxing lessons.

Zemo was tiring out. He was slower to dodge punches and wasn’t ducking completely under the hits. Bucky began picking up in rhythm and intensity of his hits, hoping for a knockout to cut the match short. With a smirk, he landed his signature left hook to Zemo’s temple, effectively putting the man on the floor. Zemo tried to stand but couldn’t as the official counted to ten. When he hit the final number, the official called the fight and held up Bucky’s arm to signal his victory. The crowd erupted into a roaring cheer. The biggest grin you had ever seen was present on Bucky’s face and you could tell he was trying to hold back tears. As you raced towards the ring to congratulate him, the world seemed to move in slow motion. Zemo slowly rose from the ground, an astonishing ferocity driving him forward. You tried to yell for Bucky, but the sound of the crowd overpowered your voice. Zemo raged forward and punched Bucky in the left shoulder. Bucky’s eyes went wide when he felt the hit and he dropped to his knees from the pain. The official rushed to detain Zemo but Bucky was kneeling on the floor, eyes-wide and filled with horror. You knew something was wrong by the haunted look in his eyes.

“Bucky!” you screamed as you pushed through the last of the crowd and climbed through the ropes. Bruce, the team doctor, reached Bucky at the same time as you did.

“Bucky, I need you to stay very still for me so I can look at your shoulder ok?” Bruce explained calmly. Bucky just nodded.

“Bucky?” you asked firmly, but you received no response. “Bucky look at me.” You demanded of the man. His eyes finally slid to meet yours.

“I’m done Y/N. I’m not going to fight in the Olympics.” He stated with a watery voice. He was still trying to hold back tears, but this time ones of heartbreak.

“You don’t know that sweetheart,” you comforted. “The World Series isn’t for another month, you could still fight.” Bucky had always been an absurdly quick healer and you had no doubt he’d be ok to fight by the end of the month.

“He might,” Bruce muttered. “He has a dislocated shoulder. There may be other damage to the ligaments and muscles, but it looks like the bone made a clean sweep. There’s no bruising or discoloration. I will need to set the shoulder immediately though so there’s no further damage. Bucky this will hurt. Probably a lot.”

As Bruce got into position to set the shoulder you grabbed Bucky’s hand with one of yours and his chin with the other.

“I’ve got you Bucky,” You told him while firmly squeezing his hand. Bruce counted to three and on the final number, set the shoulder. A loud pop sounded out and Bucky’s face contorted in pain. He wrapped his right arm around you and pulled you close to him, burying his face into your neck. You felt stray tears on your skin as he tried to even out his breathing.

Bruce continued inspecting his shoulder for further damage, but on the surface level saw none. He instructed Bucky that he would need to go to the ER for MRIs to see if there was deeper tissue damage. Bucky said something against your shoulder, but you couldn’t understand the mumbled words.

“Bucky? What did you say?” you questioned. He released a shaky breath and sat up slightly.

“I can’t feel my shoulder.”

It was nerve damage. His axillary nerve in his left shoulder had been damaged with the dislocation. Bucky had no sensation in his left shoulder or his upper arm. The doctors told him they could fix it with surgery but had to wait a minimum of three months before attempting it. The main point of this: Bucky wouldn’t be going to the Olympics.

One thing Bucky had not lost his ability to do was duck a punch. All of Brock’s punches that should have landed on Bucky’s face were deftly dodged. Bucky was quick and tactile which made him a close to perfect defensive boxer. Brock attempted to land a right cross on Bucky but he quickly ducked the hit and delivered two more jabs to Brock.

13 Months Ago

The doctors had agreed to do the surgery. They were going to take part of a different nerve and attach it to the damaged one in his axilla. Bucky was due to the medical center at six the next morning. He had tried to go to bed early but he was unable to fall asleep from the anxiety. You crawled into bed next to him and curled up against his right side. Ever since the injury, Bucky had been hesitant to have anyone near his left shoulder. He was worried of further damage, but also didn’t like the idea that he couldn’t feel it if someone touched that area. His arm wrapped around you and pulled you closer to him.

“It’s going to be ok Bucky,” you comforted as you reached up to caress his face. “They’re going to do this surgery and then you can go back to doing what you love.” He looked apprehensive at your statement, something else was obviously eating away at him.

“Talk to me tough guy,” you urged.

“What if something goes wrong? There’s always a risk with surgeries on nerves that they’ll fuck it up. What if they make it worse? What if I can’t box anymore?” You could see the worry showing on his face as he looked down at you. Terror showed in his eyes at the thought of never being able to box again.

“Dr. Strange is one of the best surgeons in the country and Dr. Cho is incredible with her advancements in physical therapy. You’re going to get through this. I promise.” After more reassurances and soothing touches, Bucky finally fell asleep.

The next morning you both were quiet as you got prepared to go to the medical center. Upon your arrival, Bucky was told to take a seat and wait for a few minutes. You could tell he was still anxious from how he sat with his head down and foot bouncing rapidly. As you sat, you grabbed his hand and held it tight. Your other hand turned his face to see yours. Your eyes met, and you passed reassurances through you gaze. When his name was called he kissed you fiercely before following the nurse back. At the door he stopped and sent another longing glance to you. All you could do was send him what you hoped looked like a reassuring smile. He turned and walked away while the doors shut behind him. All you could do was wait.

Brock was a strong fighter for the regional level and it showed. Most local boxers would have been exhausted by now, but the man’s stamina persevered to match Bucky’s. He had been worn down by some of Bucky’s hits, but he was still standing and still punching harder than you would like.

12 months ago

A couple of weeks after Bucky’s surgery, he began going to physical therapy. The surgery had been hugely successful and Dr. Strange had connected the new nerve tissue with no issue. He had a positive outlook on Bucky’s recovery. Since the surgery, Bucky had been in a sling to keep his shoulder immobile while the nerve tissues grafted together. So far, the healing process had gone well, and he had been good about keeping the arm in place. The price of regaining sensation was the return of pain. There were multiple nights when you would wake up to a cry of pain emanating from the man beside you because he rolled over onto his shoulder. Nerves were sensitive, especially after surgery, and Bucky was wary of taking too much pain medication. Because of this, he was in pain a lot. You were there for him as much as you could be, helping make meals, shower, and get dressed. Every menial task had become a significant hurdle to climb over, but you made it through. Steve had come by on his off days to keep Bucky company or make lunch while you were at work. Sometimes Natasha would come too, but she was only free to visit at odd hours because of the schedule at the gym. Bruce called every day to check Bucky’s progress, while Tony had just called once to see how the surgery went.

You drove Bucky to his first physical therapy appointment with Dr. Cho. She took his history and then sat him down to explain the process. She confirmed that it would take a lot of work to retrain his arm to fully function again, but with his cooperation it could surely be done. She started with basic range of motion exercises. She would move his arm for him in different directions to get test his flexibility and allow the muscles to begin working again. She had you watch so you would be able to perform the exercises at home. She also had him try gripping towels and other soft objects to make sure his brain was still successfully sending signals to his hand. Bucky was sweating by the end of the session because, even though it doesn’t seem like much to most, the different activities had worn him out.

On the drive home, he seemed aggravated but you knew from past experience to let him have some time to think. When you arrived at your shared apartment, he swiftly opened the door and then slammed it shut. The noise startled you and you watched as he stormed into the building without you. When you finally made it up to your apartment, the sounds of off rhythm punches could be heard. You slowly made your way into one of the spare rooms which had been turned into a gym. Upon entering, you saw Bucky slamming his right fist into the hanging punching bag. The pace was haphazard without his left hand, and you could see a couple tears running down his aggravated face.

“Bucky,” you called calmly, but he didn’t answer. He just kept hitting the bag. You tried again, attempting to keep a calm tone, but had no luck. You finally screamed his name when you saw him attempt to cock back his injured arm. He froze.

“Bucky don’t try it,” you urged as you made your way over to him. Placing yourself between him and the bag, you reached up to cup his face.

“Look at me baby, please just look at me.” Bucky’s eyes slowly lowered to meet yours. His left arm was still slightly raised to punch, and you could see it shaking with the exertion it took to keep it there. You moved one hand from his face to the upper portion of his left arm. Gently, you applied pressure, trying to make him lower his arm. After a moment of resistance, he let you push the injured limb down to his side again. At this, he let out a large breath, and his face crumbled further.

“I can’t do this Y/N,” he whispered forlornly. “I can’t even move my arm by myself most of the time. How am I ever going to box again?” His eyes dropped again as he tried to contain his growing despair. You tilted his chin up so that your gazes met again.

“Bucky Barnes, you will box again. I refuse to lie and tell you it will be easy. It’s going to fucking suck for a while. But we’re going to get through this. You’re going to get through this. You just have to stay strong and do what the doctors tell you.” As you talked, your thumb stroked his injured shoulder where you had been holding it. His eyes fluttered shut at the sensation.

“I almost forgot what that felt like,” he murmured. “I thought for a while I’d never feel it again.”

“You’re starting to heal Bucky. Look how far you’ve come in a month. You went from not being able to feel or use your arm to having sensation again. And I know grabbing on to towels repeatedly may not seem like much, but that’s a big jump from not being able to do anything.” You said all of this with a soft smile which Bucky returned.

“Ok,” he stated. “I’m going to do this.” His voice held conviction rather than sadness and a light had returned to his eyes. He leaned down and place his lips gently against yours. The kiss conveyed so much gratitude and hope between you both. He pulled back slightly, pressing his forehead to yours.

“Thank you.”

Bucky was determined. It was evident on his face. He was going to win this match. His punches grew stronger and faster. The combinations he threw were for higher points and more precise. Brock was able to land a few more light jabs to Bucky’s chest but you could see him begin to worry.

6 months ago

Bucky had been thriving in physical therapy. Dr. Cho had finally cleared him to begin boxing again. Steve had come over to the apartment to oversee Bucky’s first official day of training and to make sure he didn’t push himself too hard. When Steve arrived, you pushed him into the hallway outside of your door to talk to him. You double checked Bucky was still in your room, changing into workout clothes, before shutting the door.

“I’m going to make this quick Rogers. The doctor said there might be some pain when he begins training again because of how long it’s been, but if you see him grimacing more than usual you make him stop. Got it?” you commanded with a stern expression. You knew Bucky was going to push himself as hard as possible, but you weren’t willing to let his stubbornness get in the way of his recovery. Steve vehemently agreed before you opened the door behind you to let him inside. As you were shutting it, Bucky emerged from your bedroom. When he saw Steve, the two embraced and patted each other on the back. Bucky made his way to you and wrapped his arms around your waist to pull you close. He had a large grin on his face.

“Promise you’ll be careful?” you questioned worriedly. Bucky had made you promise not to come in during training, knowing you would fret over his every movement. He understood your fear of him reinjuring himself, but you also understood it would hinder his recovery at this stage.

“I promise doll. I’ll go easy with it today,” he reassured you with a squeeze and a brief peck on the lips. After the two men retreated into the at home gym, you went to sit out on the balcony to try and relax, but also to avoid hearing Bucky train. An hour later, a hand nudged you awake. You had fallen asleep at some time during the hour. Steve now stood above you with a grin. You shot up from your chair looking around for Bucky. Steve interrupted before you were able to ask questions.

“He did great,” Steve informed you. “He didn’t push it too hard and worked hard on keeping his form correct instead of hitting hard. We mainly worked on that left hook of his. He’s inside grabbing an ice pack like the doctor told him too.” A heavy sigh of relief left you at Steve’s explanation. You made your way back through the door and saw Bucky sitting on the couch icing his shoulder with an enormous grin on his face. He had done it.

Brock was in serious trouble. He could no longer keep up with Bucky’s hits. He tried to duck out of the way or block the punches, but Bucky was too fast. More hits were landing on Brock’s face and the man was starting to look dazed.

1 month ago

Bucky sat next to you in a chair in Tony’s large office. The club owner had called you both down to the gym that morning with an excited tone. It wasn’t the first time you had been back to the gym with Bucky since the injury. In the last couple of months, Bucky had moved his training back to the boxing gym and out of the home gym. He had improved immensely in that time and was sparring every day. Today was supposed to be an off day focused on recovery from an intense week of training, but Tony had insisted you come to the gym.

Tony cleared his throat before he began.

“So, I booked you a fight,” He stated simply. Bucky’s eye lit up at Tony’s declaration and began rapidly asking for details.

“Slow down tin man,” Tony said. “His name is Brock Rumlow. The fight will be at a regional level and in about a month. We’ll hold it here to give you a home field advantage.”

At Tony’s explanation, Bucky began laughing. It was a hearty laugh you hadn’t heard much of in the last year and a half.

“I’m going to fight again? I’m going to fight again!” he yelled as he bolted up from his chair. “Y/N! I’m going to box again!” As you stood up to join his celebration, he wrapped his arms around you and swept you off your feet. He spun you around as he laughed, happiness and excitement surrounding him. When he placed you back on your feet, your eyes met.

“You’re going to box again!”

Brock was getting desperate. His latest punch had been dangerously close to illegal and you could tell he had been trying to get in a kidney punch to slow Bucky down. Bucky grunted, but then delivered a perfect left hook to Brock’s temple. Brock dropped. He laid unmoving on the ground as the official counted to ten. When he reached the final number, he grabbed Bucky’s left arm and raised it high in the air. The crowd erupted into cheers. You rushed to the edge of the ring where Coach Fury met you to let you through the ropes. After you climbed through, you raced to a waiting Bucky and jumped into his open arms. Your legs wrapped around his torso as he held you tight to him, burying his face into your shoulder. You felt a few happy tears wet your shoulder as you felt his smile there as well. He placed you down and you felt multiple sets of arms embrace the two of you. Nat, Steve, and Bruce had joined you huddle of excitement as they cheered for Bucky’s win. Tony stood off to the side speaking with Coach Fury, a smirk on his face.

As the other stepped back, Bucky kissed you passionately. His lips crashed against yours, and his arms moved to your hips, pressing you against him harder. Your arms wrapped around his neck as your hands made their way to entwine with his hair. After a few moments, you pulled away from a smiling Bucky, a look of pride in both of your expressions.

“You did it Bucky.”

“No doll. We did it.”

#fic

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trekkele · 4 years

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Hi bit of a random question here with a probably unnecessary prelude. You seem to like Captain America and support the view he supported in CA:CW, which is fair enough. I'm not asking about that though. What I wanted to ask was your opinion was on the Siberia part of CA:CW. I personally think that whilst it wasn't right for Tony to attack Bucky and Steve, I do think it was understandable, as he'd just seen his parents been murdered and the person who did was right next to him. What do you think?

Oh hi! Glad you’re still around, you always have great questions! And this is a doozy, lemme tell ya.

I have, a lot of issues with that part, mostly because of how canon was changed over the years (originally the winter soldier was not involved, it was a mob hit with possible ties to Hydra) and how impractical it feels: to wake up the WS, reprogram him, send him to New York/America, and have him go after someone he once knew, when those are all things that have previously broken his programming. All that just to shoot a tire out of a car? Not worth the time and risk.

And then have a video laying around, convenient, when every other record of it being a WS/Hydra hit was apparently destroyed? Nah man, thats just...overly serendipitious for Zemo’s plot.

[[MORE]]

But that’s not you’re asking. You’re asking if, in the moment, Tony was justified for going after the person he was told had killed his parents. Yes, he kind of was. Had he punched Bucky and tried to take him in for murder, that would be one thing. Had Bucky been a mercenary hired to kill the Starks, and had chosen to kill them, that would be another thing.

But the problem is the buildup of that entire movie was trying to prove something about teamwork, communication, community, and ‘Bucky Barnes is a fucking victim here’. (Ok really, its, dont be fucking racist)

What happened in Siberia was a real clusterfuck of wrong place, wrong time, wrong last 24 hours of misunderstanding and miscommunication (dear G-d fucking communicate), and wrong players. Steve couldn’t let Tony kill Bucky, Bucky finally doesn’t want to die, and Tony was already pissed at the two of them and willing to let that drive him. He was not in the wrong exactly, (but uh. If you want to walk around wearing a small army base worth of weaponry, please learn some coping skills that aren’t ‘blow shit up’) but he wasn’t entirely right.

If this had been the first five minutes of the movie instead of the last five, I would have been a lot more sympathetic actually. Because Tony has, in the last two hours of screentime - given a ‘pity me’ speech right before mocking some kid in the crowd, supported a bill that would affect everyone without consulting everyone, supported a bill with direct negative effects on human rights, insisted everyone be held responsible for actions he deliberately concealed from them, refused to consider second opinions on said bill, and shot a paramedic for trying to do their job. Oh yeah, and had everyone arrested without due process and dumped in an underwater prison controlled by someone who wants to vivisect his teammate’. He’s not been acting like someone we should really root for. (I will never forgive them for making him trust Ross, I’m sorry.)

He also first asked Steve ‘did you know?’ which is not an indication of presence of mind (i don’t remember the correct term) but does show that he had some sort of ‘wait wait what?’ Going on. The way he attacks Bucky is desperate, but also calculated to an extent. (Side bar: imo, Steve didn’t know. He thought Hydra did it, but using the WS, as i mentioned, was impractical. And Steve understands the importance of the practical application of resources. When he said yes, he was 1. Redirecting Tony’s anger in a direction he could control, and 2. Answering whether he had known Hydra had them killed.)

There’s also the matter of - has Tony been living under a rock? The evidence of what Hydra did to create the winter soldier is probably not hard to find, especially if Steve’s been running after him for (idk what the timeline is like) a year? More? Tony is nosy enough to find those files and see what they did. He knows Bucky isnt the WS, kind of like he isn’t the suit. Difference is, he built it and put it on, didnt have it forced into his head, and when the government threatens to control him, he says (in this order) fuck off, no, and finally: I’ll take it off. He gets to walk away. Bucky and Steve, Natasha, Wanda, Vision, they don’t.

I know this isn’t exactly what you asked, since it’s technically a yes or no question, but the context makes it so much more then that. It’s a question of, can you, a hero with enough firepower to destroy a city, control yourself in a personal situation? And the answer is no. And that means you probably shouldn’t have enough power to destroy a city in your control 🤷🏻‍♀️.

So tl:dr: Tony is justified in his momentary anger and shock, not in his continuous desire to kill/hurt Bucky and Steve (and his inability to move past his personal trauma for the good of the world/others). Get a therapist, punch a brick wall.

#asks #oh look i wanted to rant today #marvel posting god help us all #THE READ MORE BETTER WORK THIS IS A MEGILAH

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rose-lighters · 5 years

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Time to rank every MCU film

Yes I am doing that oh so original thing of ranking every marvel film from worst to best. Criticisms and debates are welcome. (Disclaimer: I like all these films unless stated otherwise)

X. Incredible Hulk - I haven’t seen it. Sorry.

21. Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - I can honestly say I hated this film. The only likeable part of the whole film was the soundtrack and the first few minutes with Groot dancing. Beyond that it was dull, cringy and oh so predictable. The second that Ego (???) appeared and said he was Quill’s dad I was just like “Oh so this guy’s the villain then” and noped out of there. I never saw past that point and don’t intend to.

20. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - People praise this film till kingdom come and I for one do not get it at all. Many say that it is unique in moving away from the typical superhero film and towards the spy genre. Maybe I just don’t like spy films but it is in no means a great Marvel film. I liked it enough but it’s so forgettable I had to google the plot for this review. I liked the characters and all but it just never stuck with me as anything special.

19. Guardians Of the Galaxy - Maybe I just don’t like the guardians??? I don’t know but this was another film that just didn’t stick with me. I like Rocket and Groot but beyond that the Guardians themselves hold no interest with me. I don’t care for the humor particularly and whilst the music is great that really shouldn’t be the best part of a film unless it’s a musical.

18. Avengers: Age of Ultron - People hate this film, I however do not. It’s an okay Marvel film, I don’t care for it enough to hate it. I like that scene where they’re all trying to lift mjolnir and I think I liked the ending (I watched it like two years ago so I don’t remember that well) but I have to agree with a lot of the criticism of white washing the Maximoffs (despite how much I love Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor Johnson, it was still shady). I didn’t hate the ‘giving Hawkeye a family’ like a lot of people did because the already made it clear he wasn’t like comic Clint.

17. Thor: The Dark World - Now we’re moving into films I do like (I love Marvel films more than I dislike them, it's literally just GOTG2 that I don’t like). This was a good film from what I can remember (as I said it's been a while since I’ve seen a lot of these films). I liked the story arcs, I liked that it was set in places other than America and space (ok, so I’m from England, sue me), I loved Tom Hiddleston in this film and I like Darcy. All in all it was an enjoyable viewing, a little dull at times but generally harmless.

16. Doctor Strange - This would be further up if it wasn’t for how dull the first half hour or so is. I had to go back and watch this months after I had first tried just because the start was so boring. Once I moved past it however it was a great origin film. I liked the humour in it and I have always had a soft spot for magic so it was a brilliant film. The effects were absolutely stunning and on aesthetics alone it would place as the second or third best marvel film. I loved the good guys and was genuinely rooting for them despite Strange being a bit of a snarky arsehole.

15. Iron Man - Is this a very important film? Yes. Is it a great film? Also yes. Do I remember it? Not at all. Okay, so I remember some stuff and what I do remember was great but to say its a film that sticks out would be a lie. It’s THE origin story in as much as it’s a formulaic one: flawed character is traumatised and realises their flaws in the process, is influenced by important person, becomes a hero and is betrayed. It works though. That’s the thing, it works so damn well that its almost not in the formula. It's a great watch and honestly RDJ looks great in it (so not the point but I digress). That bit with Stane ripping out the arc reactor made me feel betrayed and I kinda knew it was coming. ( https://tonynatashas.tumblr.com/post/184375713429/that-scene-in-iron-man-where-obadiah-stane-is this post explains why this scene is so great important)

14. Captain America: The First Avenger - Another (enjoyable) origin story. If Sebastian Stan wasn’t in it it would probably be three places down but hey I have a type. No but seriously this was a great film because not only did it show off the brilliance of Roger’s transformation and gave us an idea of who he was and what motivates him but it also then gives us details of his waking in the 21st century and begins to expose his issues with this time travel (for want of a better phrase). This film shows you what you’re gonna get whilst still having pretty good effects, a good, solid storyline and a pretty badass comic book villain. The serum guy creeps me out though and there are so many ethical issues of that level of human experimentation on a person whose only friend went off to war, had Steve died they chose someone no one would really miss which is so concerning.

13. Captain Marvel - A lot of people may have a criticism of this film being so far down but for me it needs to be. I like superhero films where the main character overcomes a flaw and amnesia is not a character flaw. This is a good origin story but it is not a great marvel film. I like Carol but I don’t love her. I love the fact that we have a superhero film with a female main character and i liked that scene where she talks with biker guy but it felt like Samuel L Jackson was a more interesting character at times. I often rate characters on humor so there’s that. It was a good film but I’m mostly looking forward to what will be done with the character as she has so much potential.

12. Spiderman: Homecoming - This is a weird one for me. It’s the only marvel film I own on DVD and it’s the only one I like where I skip scenes. I can not deal with cringy humour so I skip 80% of the jokes and awkward moments in this film however it’s a really good film. It’s funny and the music is great, I love Zendaya and Jacob Batalon probably more than Tom Holland, their roles are great and the film’s emphasis on friendship is one of the elements from the Iron Man and Captain America films that I love just further amplified. The references to Ferris Bueller and the fact that it is, at its core, a teen flick makes it a brilliant film. The vulture twist was also amazing.

11. Ant-man and the Wasp - I feel like it isn’t talked about enough but I really bloody love Scott Lang. He is one superhero that I can really get behind because above all else he is just the nicest guy. He is probably one of the most human seeming characters in the MCU and it always makes for such an enjoyable viewing. This could probably draw with ant-man in terms of great films. I loved Ava Starr so much and my heart really went out to her and that FBI guy was a total joy to watch. The Ant man films are so funny and light hearted that they don’t have that sort of weariness that other MCU films have. If only Luis told more stories in the MCU.

10. Ant-man - Honestly just look above. Also I love Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne so much. The villain was kind of eh but I loved the heist aspect.

9. Black Panther - I watched this film for Shuri and to an extent because I felt obligated to so I had low expectations. People were talking about it for the significance of fighting for equality (which I am all for, don’t worry) so I was expecting it to not live up to the hype and it didn’t. That being said it was a bloody great movie. The movie was beautiful, the use of colour and the CGI tech was so damn pretty. The plot was brilliant and for a while I wanted Erik Killmonger to win, he put forward a good argument and I like a ‘baddy’ so to speak. The fights were great and I was so here for their version of going under cover finally not being a hoodie and cap. Was it over hyped? Hell yeah. Was it still a great film? 100%

8. Iron Man 3 - This gets a hell of a load more crap than it deserves, mostly from comic book fans who can’t stand that their precious mandarin was a hoax but honestly I respect the fuck out of marvel for that. Rather than having a stereotypically asian terrorist they turned that stereotype on its head and made the white guy the actual terrorist. Ben Kingsley is one of my favourite actors and he was amazing. I, obviously, also loved the representation of PTSD as a serious issue and how it was displayed in all of its real ugliness. For once it didn’t just show a damaged person who was fixed with romance. So yeah, this film was a masterpiece.

7. Captain America: Civil War - Zemo may just be my favourite MCU villain to date, why? Because he fucking won. This was a film about a man who knew his victims and rather than stupidly trying to attack the big scary strong guys he exposed them and made the best of circumstance. He got under Captain America’s skin and played him like a puppet. This was more than just a villain, this was finally a smart villain. Not to mention that this film had some of the best action sequences and heart breaking moments whilst still having time for a laugh. It’s also the first film (in my opinion) that called out Steve’s morals and his obsession with the past. Bucky was hot used against him and it showed that above all else, even the little people, Steve’s loyalties are with his past.

6. Thor - Most people would disagree and rate this film far lower however for me this was the start. I didn’t grow up watching superhero films because I didn’t like watching TV as a kid so it wasn’t till I was 13 that I saw a superhero film and this was it. I honestly watched it because my friend had it on DVD and I thought Tom Hiddleston looked hot but from what I can remember this was one of the best films I ever saw. I wasn’t too bothered by Jane Foster but I absolutely loved Darcy, Loki and Thor. Whilst I’m not adopted I do know what it is like to be the younger and smarter sibling with an older thuggish brother who is still the favourite so I loved Loki with a passion and was so upset when he fell.

5. Iron Man 2 - This was the film that made me realise that I liked girls, Scarlet Johansson in a black cat suit and red ringlets was an amazing thing to little 13 year old me. Beyond that it was just a solid film, it had spies and daddy issues and sass and Samuel L Jackson. What more can you want?

4. Thor: Ragnarok - This is the peak of Thor, I’m calling it now. Never had a director before been able to capture the absolute chaos of Loki and the sweetheart-ness of Thor so brilliantly. As far as representations of characters this, Captain Marvel and Iron Man 3 may just be the best of all the MCU. This is the full completion of Thor’s arc, this is the film that the first Thor set up. Finally Thor is ready to be King. This film had so much humour but still set it all up so perfectly that it was more than just a comedy. Jeff Goldblum was amazing and honestly Taika Waititi should direct the whole of the MCU. He knows the characters better than anybody.

3. Avengers: Endgame - I cried three times. That scene with the portals was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed and whilst many criticize much of the plot I don’t have too much I’d change, though in fairness I did like the cursed child so maybe I just have a soft spot for all things time travel. Dynamic timelines are not used in cinema enough and the three alternate timelines create have all sorts of implications for future films in the MCU. If Thor is not fat in the next film this may go down to 20th though.

2. Avengers Assemble - This is the film that I believe best represents what the MCU has to offer. It’s a light hearted superhero film with all the characters that were needed at this point in time. For its time it was ambitious and honestly it shows. I loved the dynamics between the characters, the plot was engaging and not overly complex and even if you haven’t seen any other MCU films it makes perfect sense. In some respects it probably is the best the MCU has to offer.

1. Avengers: Infinity War - Oh boy do I love this film. This isn’t just a film, this is the film. Did it have the same emotional impact as Endgame? Fuck no but it didn’t need to. It was serious. It was funny. It had just the right amount of just the right characters and may I just say that is the best that Captain America has ever looked in the MCU. I (controversially) really loved Gamora dying and most of the Guardians being dusted. The memes were great.This was the most ambitious cross over event since Wizards of deck with Hannah Montana. One thing that I can’t get out of my head though is Bruce’s comment of “broke up like the beatles?”. Does that make Bucky Yoko Ono?

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rickrakontoys · 6 years

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Pre-Infinity War MCU rankings

How I'd rank the current 18 movies, from my least favorite to most favorite, with some brief thoughts:

18. The Incredible Hulk (5/10): I barely remember this one... and I dont like Hulk's look here. Liv Tyler gasps all her dialogue. Ed Norton did an ok job I guess, but I didnt get much of a lasting impression.

17. Iron Man 2 (6/10): I remember being extremely annoyed by Tony and his behavior, and the blatant Avengers setups. Least we got War Machine out of this. Whiplash could have been great if he didnt have to share the villain role with Justin Hammer. (Also, without this mess, we wouldn't have gotten Jon Faverau's amazing film "Chef", which was made in response to his frustrations making IM2)

16. Thor: The Dark World (6/10): Forgettable plot and villain. Some chuckle worthy scenes. Not sure what else there is to say. You could tell the movie was butchered trying to fit Loki into the plot. There is barely any chemistry between Thor and Jane.

15. Thor (7/10): Decent intro to the characters and world of Asgard. But the movie looks strangely cheap, especially the New Mexico town. I never felt Thor and Jane could be a thing, despite their performances being good. The cast all around was terrific too (Hopkins as Odin is great). Loki was a great, tragic villain though. Thor breaking the bifrost is immediately undone by the Avengers...

14. Iron Man 3 (7.25/10): I enjoyed the deconstruction of Stark and common comic book tropes. What they did with the Mandarin was pretty ballsy and I respect that. I don't even remember the true villain's name... Having Tony deal with PTSD was also interesting.

13. Ant-Man (7.25/10): Surprising that this worked at all. Pretty fun ride, if a tad generic. Cool shrinking visuals. I look forward to the Wasp.

12. Doctor Strange (7.5/10): Again... plot is generic as hell. Forgettable villain. But very cool visuals. And I love the leitmotif and main theme music.

11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (7.75/10): I loved Ultron but felt he could have been a bigger threat. The middle of the movie plods... badly. Some wasted potential for sure. The third act action is comic book action nirvana. You could tell the movie was meddled with by the studio... I don't blame Joss Whedon at all for the film's shortcomings. He was obviously frustrated with it too.

10. Spiderman Homecoming (8.25/10): Gives us a great young spidey and a terrific villain. Seriously... Michael Keaton makes this movie work. The scenes with Peter and Tony are good. The supporting cast is good too. I wish they gave spidey a more memorable theme song for the movie.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger (8.25/10): I don't know why this movie resonates with me more than with other people. The look of the movie is gorgeous. The themes sincere. The music is wonderful. The performances are memorable. This movie showed us that Chris Evans was the perfect man to play Captain America. Hugo Weaving gave us a menacing yet charismatic Red Skull. One too many montages though. "The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan" is seriously catchy! Classic Disney songwriter Alan Menkin helped write it... no wonder!

8. Guardians of the Galaxy (8.5/10): How could a movie with a talking raccoon and a senient tree man be this good? Its all about the building of a family of friends, borne from people with broken pasts. Ronan is utterly forgettable, hence why I rank it here. The supporting cast is otherwise stellar. And the soundtrack... now thats how you integrate it into a movie's soul.

7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (8.75/10): Took the characters of the first movie to new places. Elevated them, broke them down, made them weep. The jokey dialogue can get grating. But thematically wonderful. Lots of small touches that gives life to even the most minor of characters. Everyone has an arc! Ego is a fascinating fellow, and seems genuinely likeable, until the revelation of his madness. The Sovereign are pompously silly and didn't amount to much of a threat (though I dont think they were supposed to be). The cinematography is sublime. The colors intense and vibrant. The soundtrack used impeccably. Just a wonderful piece of cinema. Others may disagree about it, but I rate it highly. It feels like a personal film by James Gunn.

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (8.8/10): Truly great and heartfelt while being relevant to the current times. A movie that brought Cap to the modern age, while haunting him with a spectre of the past. It just works on so many levels. Alexander Pierce didnt leave a big impression as the villain despite being played by Robert Redford. Could have been more intimate exploration of Cap and Bucky's relationship. Despite being called "The Winter Soldier", the focus is more on the fall of SHIELD... At least this gave us Falcon and some cute chemistry between Steve and Natasha.

The TOP 5 were very hard to place...

5. The Avengers (8.8/10): That this movie worked at all is a miracle. That it was actually infinitely watchable is amazing. This was the sign that the MCU ahead was heading to good things. The cast was excellent together. The dialogue refreshingly snappy. It made Loki into a staple of the MCU. The Avengers theme was memorable. Lots of fan service without it being intrusive... the middle act can be a bit slow, but it is otherwise nicely paced and tonally even. The look of the movie can border on TV production values at times... but it manages to overcome any shortcomings by being so darn fun.

4. Captain America: Civil War (8.8/10): This movie broke down our well-known heroes and gave us a villain in Zemo that is mysterious, tragic, and understated. Revenge permeates the themes of the movie, but the true heart of the movie is friendship and Cap's desire to hold onto the final relic of his past, Bucky. Motivations are clear between most of the characters and neither side of the conflict is right or wrong. Some Avengers are just along for the ride, but everyone nonetheless has a moment to shine. New characters are introduced (mostly) seamlessly (T'Challa is woven into it naturally, Spidey... not so much but he leaves a great first impression). The airport battle was a fantastic bit of fan service fun before the gut wrenching emotionally driven climax. The final showdown between Cap and Iron Man was like watching two parents fight over a child. This is a comic book movie that had ideas, and though it didn't totally follow through on some concepts like the Sokovia Accords, it did give us an emotional rollercoaster that built upon our pre-existing attachment to the characters. This movie was a true culmination of all that came before.

3. Thor Ragnarok (8.9/10): This movie felt the most fun and thoroughly enjoyable out of all the MCU. It may not be thematically challenging or very deep, but it isn't trying to be. For pure intentions, it accomplished what it sought to: make a fast and funny Thor-Hulk buddy comedy, and reinvent the God of Thunder as a likeable, dunderheaded oaf. Hela seeths with sultry menace. Korg is simply a treasure. Valkyrie is a drunken badass. Grandmaster is.... Jeff Goldblum. The score is the best in the MCU, instantly setting the tone. Led Zepplin's Immigrant song used twice to great effect. Quotable, hilarious dialogue. Korg. Taika Waititi injected new life into the MCU after a few serious installments. This reminds me of the goofy "fun" episode of a series before the finale. I love this movie!

2. Black Panther (8.9/10, bumped up after my second viewing): Epic world building and a villain that outshone the hero for once. It may have its flaws in plotting and pacing (the first hour is meandering), but what it tried to do is highly admirable. The supporting cast is great. The look of the movie is utterly beautiful. The action scenes are the least interesting part of the movie oddly enough due to bad execution and dodgy CGI. It has plenty of ideas regarding Wakanda and its place in the world, and the duty to use great power to help others. Killmonger should have been the chief focus beside T'Challa... You can tell Ryan Coogler made this film with his full heart. This is the only MCU film to make me tear up. With a few tweaks it could have been the best of the MCU.

1. Iron Man (9.5/10): Nearly everything here works. Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast, and turned Tony Stark into a household name. There is genuine chemistry between him and Pepper. Obadiah Stane is a likeable yet menacing villain (Jeff Bridges playing a bad guy?! He's terrific at it!). The action scenes are exciting and not too overdone. The score is energetic (why isn't Iron Man's leitmotif from this movie used more often?!). This movie wasn't bogged down with setting up a universe. It was allowed to be its own thing. But from this success, all the rest followed.

#mcu #movie review #marvel cinematic universe #iron man #thor #black panther #doctor strange #guardians of the galaxy #antman #hulk #avengers #marvel

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forasecondtherewedwon · 3 years

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They’re Sayin’ (You’re Gonna Be My Man)

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Pairing: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes Rating: T Word Count: 2217

Summary: Sam calls Bucky too soon after he's left Louisiana, looking for advice he doesn’t really need and getting a conversation he didn’t really expect.

Sam’s supposed to wait until news of the Flag-Smashers’ movements comes down the line to get in touch with Bucky. He doesn’t. It’s sooner. It’s almost right away.

He’s sure Bucky’s gotta be out of the state, but he doesn’t know whether he’s made it back to this alleged apartment in Brooklyn (on some level, Sam’s aware that he keeps making jokes about the conspiracy of the apartment’s existence because it’s his way of daring Bucky to invite him over sometime). When he calls Bucky up, he knows he might catch him on a plane, in a cab, with a buzz of voices around him as he scowls at strangers in an airport or stomps down a sidewalk. But, other than Bucky’s voice on the other end, Sam just hears quiet, so he figures the guy made it home.

“You never told me if you had any tips,” Sam accuses straight off.

Shifting his feet, he tamps down more of the grass he’s been practicing on, squinting when sweat rolls into his eye. He just finished a brisk mile with the shield on his arm, getting used to the weight and the bulk of it, and he’s ready to start throwing again.

“Tips for what?” Bucky asks. “Fixing the boat? General life stuff? I know we had a good talk, but I think I take advice better than I give it.”

“Which is not saying much,” Sam points out with a laugh. “You suck at taking advice.”

“Until recently.”

“Until recently,” Sam allows. He takes a deep breath and leans over to the side, stretching from his run and tapping his hand on the Vibranium disc currently propped against his leg. “Nah, man, for the shield. How to throw it, how to catch it, how to pull off some of Steve’s fuckin’ boomerang tricks.”

“I thought you were gettin’ the hang of it,” Bucky says in his ear.

“I am. I just realized that, when I had you here, you did a lot of standing around and catching the shield on that cyborg arm of yours. Not a lot of active advice-giving.”

“You really want me telling you how to do your job?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, nobody said that. I am simply aware of the fact that you’re one of very few people alive who’ve handled this thing, and maybe the only one who did it with any actual competence.”

“The level of flattery is astounding,” Bucky says dryly.

“You want more, you gotta help me out,” Sam jokes back.

“Well, show me what you’re doin’.”

Sam glances around himself. Flat lawn. Waning daylight. Tall trees wrapped in the pads he’s been ricocheting the shield off of. No place good to prop his phone.

“I gotta get somebody to film me,” he realizes. “Lemme call you back.”

“Everybody’s gonna be filming you with the shield pretty soon. Only question is whether you’re doing something impressive in news footage or looking like a jackass in some kind of Avengers’ Greatest Fuckups reel.”

“Shut the hell up. I thought we were gettin’ along now.”

“Just trying to be motivational. Am I not doing it right?”

“I think you better look up the word ‘motivational’ in the dictionary while you wait for my call,” Sam suggests.

He disconnects and hangs his head, shaking it even as he smiles.

His legs are screaming for a thorough, post-workout stretch and maybe some ice on his shins—they’ve been taking the brunt every time he digs his feet into the ground and braces to snatch the returning shield from the air—but what’s another quarter mile? Sam runs to Sarah’s, arms pumping, stride a little different now that he has to accommodate the shape of the shield.

When he gets there, the boys are playing soccer on the lawn and he calls through the screen window to the kitchen to get his sister’s ok to borrow them as his training assistants. They get even more excited by the bestowing of this title and its implied responsibility than by the sight of the shield. That’s pretty incredible. Sarah caves to a temporary borrowing (supper’s almost ready) and they’re off.

On the way back, Sam lets AJ carry the shield. Seems like a nice break for himself until Cass requests a piggyback.

“Alright,” Sam agrees with a sigh, crouching in front of his nephew. “Hop on.”

Captain America’s benevolence is limitless. At least, it is this evening. When his back’s killing him tomorrow from absorbing the shock of a hundred shield throws, he will not be so easily persuaded into giving piggybacks.

In the clearing, Sam pulls his phone from the zipped pocket of his shorts and videocalls Bucky, who picks up on the first ring. His face is too close to the camera, but it’s good to see those blue eyes and the crinkles that are either there because he’s smiling in greeting or he’s confused about how a videocall works. In a few seconds, Bucky figures out for himself that he needs to hold the phone farther away. It makes Sam miss him. Also makes him a little worried because he can see the blank, white wall of Bucky’s apartment around his head. No paint, no art. Sam can’t even hear a TV or anything in the background.

“You’re not busy,” he observes.

“Not really, no,” Bucky admits.

“You coulda stayed here longer.”

“Nah, you needed time with everything, not me constantly looking over your shoulder. Shield’s yours now, Sam. I’m gonna be at your side, but you and the shield… I got no say in what that relationship is. I understand that now and I’m trying to respect it.”

“So when you’re actually doing the right thing, let you back off?”

“That’s right,” Bucky agrees.

“I’ll try to remember in case it ever happens again.”

Before Bucky can defend himself against Sam’s teasing jab, Sam passes the phone to AJ, camera turned so Bucky will still be focused on him when he starts throwing the shield again.

“Got you propped up on my human tripod,” he informs Bucky, reaching above the phone to playfully shove the side of AJ’s head. “So watch your mouth.”

“Can I say hi?”

“Don’t be a smartass,” Sam warns.

And, of course, Bucky eggs the kids into a long ooooh, like they’ve caught him breaking his own rule. Which they have. But Bucky was being a smartass and the opportunity to let him know is not something Sam likes to pass up.

He’s stretching now—maybe for himself, maybe for the camera pointed his way—gripping his ankles in turn and holding his heels to his ass until he feels the pull in his thighs. Bucky’s not wrong about having this time to himself. Just him and this legendary object that’s feeling more right on his arm every time he slips it through the straps. Still, he misses what they had going the last two days. Not him and the shield, but him and Bucky. Having him here like that… It was different from every other experience Sam’s had with him. Bucky was still, in turns, a grouch and a showoff and a staring machine and a shithead (flirting with Sarah, come ON), but he was also more convincingly a person than Sam’s had the pleasure of seeing him before. At ease and multi-faceted by nature instead of the necessity of adapting in the face of a threat.

Bucky smiled.

They didn’t always bicker.

He looked damn good in the morning when they leaned against the kitchen counter, not talking, sipping their coffee.

Sam wants those minutes back so bad. Living with Bucky here was incomparable to living with him overseas. Lotta reasons for that, including not having to share the space with Baron Zemo. Mostly because this is home and Sam liked pretending, while Sarah did some well-deserved sleeping in and the boys got the hems of their pajama pants wet in the dew in the backyard, that it was real. That this breath between their fights (no longer with each other) could last and that this is where they’d hold it. It could be their kitchen, their mugs, their tousled sheets Bucky’d climbed out of, looking all rumpled and lovely and shit.

But Bucky doesn’t know what Sam pretends and Sam sure as hell isn’t going to tell him. He’s just going to keep faithful to their usual dynamic, trying for less glaring. Not a word to unsettle things, as much as he’s curious how they might handle things being unsettled. As much as his mind plays back the blinding glint off the water as they rolled up their sleeves and went to work together in a way more meaningful, more personal, than they ever have before. Plays it back all the time.

No. Quiet. Sam needs to figure himself out first and knows Bucky’s working on doing the same. Maybe sometime—but probably never—they can see how those selves overlap. All they need to make fly right now is being Captain America and… what’d that moron call himself? The White Wolf? Son of a biscuit…

“Let me see him!” Cass says excitedly, recapturing Sam’s focus.

It’s his brother he’s talking to and Sam watches fondly as AJ turns the phone to show Bucky a grinning Cass, being careful to keep it steady. Pretty damn sweet. Cass even waves while Sam stands there, watching and doing shoulder rolls.

“Hi, Uncle Bucky!”

Sam feels like he just whipped the shield out and caught the return in his stomach. He strides over to the boys and AJ passes the phone back without being asked. He’s stifling giggles despite or because he senses that his little brother shouldn’t have said that.

“One minute,” Sam tells Bucky, hardly glancing at him because he just can’t. He tilts the camera towards the ground and raises expectant eyebrows at his grinning nephews. “Did somebody tell you to call him that?”

In unison, the boys go, “No, Uncle Sam,” which is suspiciously adorable. But they aren’t liars.

“Did you hear somebody call him that?”

AJ and Cass glance at each other and that’s enough for Sam. They won’t answer, so he knows it’s Sarah who’s made this joke, put this idea in the kids’ heads. They won’t give her up though, because they’re Wilsons and they’re loyal to their mother.

Sam turns the camera back on himself, unprepared for the upward tick at the corner of Bucky’s lips that make them even harder to look away from than usual.

“My sister must’ve—”

“I know,” Bucky interrupts.

“You know?”

“Yeah. Sarah called me that to my face.”

“She did what?”

Sarah having her joke is one thing, but saying it to Bucky takes things a little far, in Sam’s opinion. Bucky could think Sarah’s serious. He could think she’s saying that because Sam’s said something to her. Something about coffee and bedsheets and the sweet ache he felt in his chest when he saw Bucky’s smile in the golden light of dawn.

“Last night, before she put the boys to bed. You were in the shower, I think.” Bucky reaches up absentmindedly to run a hand over the top of his head; the flex of his bicep in the long-sleeved shirt he’s wearing and waiting for the end of this recollection are both torture for Sam. “They wanted to hang out with me, but Sarah said, ‘Uncle Bucky’s gotta get some sleep. You’ll see him tomorrow.’ Something like that.”

Now, when Sam’s truly learning the meaning of flabbergasted, Bucky’s mouth cracks into a wide, self-satisfied smile.

“You made that up,” Sam guesses helplessly.

“Nope.”

Sam knows that, with his nephews’ inability to lie and Sarah’s lifelong history of messing with him as evidence, but it would’ve been a convenient escape from the reality of his sister (and possibly the boys too) addressing Bucky as if he and Sam are together.

“Tell me you told my sister to drop the ‘Uncle.’”

Another thing Sam knows: that Bucky didn’t do that. Bucky seems happy to prove his fears correct; he shrugs.

“Sounded kinda nice,” Bucky defends. That makes Sam soften. He knows Bucky doesn’t have any living family, that he’s been struggling to allow himself to make friends. Maybe he just likes being told he belongs to them and that Sarah’s joke makes it effortless for him. Then, Bucky adds, “Pass me back to my nephews.”

Sam points a warning finger at him.

“Watch it.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The crease between Bucky’s eyebrows deepens as Sam watches the pain in the ass pretend to be stern with him. “Just throw the damn shield. I thought you asked for my help.”

“I did.”

Releasing a cautious sigh, Sam hands the phone to AJ once more. The boy’s got his silliness under control and he accepts the job solemnly.

Sam’s two steps away, hefting the shield onto his arm, when he hears Bucky shout, “And my hand in marriage!”

The boys’ laughter has them rolling on the cool grass, the phone clutched in AJ’s grip, and by the time Sam wrestles it away from his nephew, the camera’s swung all over the place. Showing Bucky the sky, the dirt, some quality footage up AJ’s nose, and probably—almost definitely—the way his words made Sam smile.

#my writing #tfatws #tfatws spoilers #The Falcon and the Winter Soldier #Sam Wilson #Bucky Barnes #Sam Wilson x Bucky Barnes #sambucky

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