Like a Lichen

Bucky smiles, soft and knowing. “You think I didn’t know what he was gonna do? C'mon man, I’ve been looking out for this punk for a long time.”

Still, Sam holds the shield out in front of him.

Bucky pushes it back. “Not me, Sam. Not this go round.”

With a nod, Sam steps away, going back towards the vehicles. Bruce steps up, hesitates, then goes to sit by Cap, having his own goodbyes to say. When they’re done, Bruce and Sam look to Bucky, quiet and sorrowful.

“If it’s all the same to the two of you,” says Bucky, “I’d like some time alone with the Captain.”

They nod, moving to pack up the quantum platform. Bucky waves them off. “I can handle that. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be here a while anyway.” He waits while Bruce gives him a few extra instructions, then watches as they drive away, before finally walking towards the little bench.

“So Cap,” starts Bucky, “how long do I have to wait?”

“You don’t usually call me Cap,” comes the reply.

Bucky shrugs. “Way I see it, you may be Steve Rogers and you may have been Captain America, but you’re not my Steve. And you’re definitely not my punk.”

“How’d you know?” asks Steve.

“Paid attention to the timelines. The tesseract had the most recent timeline to return to. And for it to go back the right way, you still had to go in the ice. Now, you coulda made that happen and then came back, but you couldn’t do that and save him. But you could stay. Have the life you dreamed about.”

“Bucky…”

Bucky shakes his head. “Don’t. There’s a lot of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff as they say that I don’t quite get. And you always had two great loves.” He squeezes Cap’s hand. “At the end of the day though, they still had to find you in the water. So lemme ask again, how long do I have to wait?”

Cap laughs. Looks at his watch. “About 9 minutes at this point.”

“Then I guess you got time to tell a few stories.”

At 8 minutes, Bucky gives Cap’s hand another squeeze, stands up, and walks back to the platform. He fires up the buttons again.

This time, Steve, his Steve, appears in front of him, still in the quantum suit.

“Punk.”

“Jerk.”

Bucky doesn’t wait for Steve go get all the way to the ground. He’s pulling him into his arms halfway off the steps. “I missed the fuck out of you.”

Steve reaches his hand up, strokes Bucky’s cheek as he leans in. Steve still kisses like he always has, like he has something to prove and like he knows he proves it well. Bucky kisses back, letting himself finally fall into the arms of the man he loves, has always loved, will always love.

i think you’ve come to the wrong blog to complain about that because i’ve clearly stated in some of my answers and posts that i think that sending him back in time completely invalidates steve’s arc as a whole, & any character development he’s had since he woke up in the future. 

bucky is a part of the problem because he’s one of steve’s closest friends. including nat and sam and the other members of team cap. steve has worked so hard to find a purpose in the future, and sending him back in time was an easy way out. steve is the type of person who will always stand up for what’s right, who will always keep fighting (physically or mentally) and sending him back in time invalidates all that he worked for & shows blatantly ignores everything the mcu has built him up to be. 

i really don’t care if endgame steve is close to comic steve bc this is mcu steve we’re talking about. mcu steve always stands up, never gives up, and would never leave his friends (including bucky). a simple, easy life isn’t one he can have, because his personality doesn’t allow it. a white picket fence was never his future. 

Shipping part aside, as @peterssquill said, sending Steve back in time was taking the easy way out. We’ve watching him grow as a character for the last 8 years and in that time, he has, contrary to popular belief, actually adjusted to the present. He is no longer a man out of time. He has his convictions and will stick to them, yes, but that has nothing to do with the era he was born and more with his strong moral compass. By sending Steve back to the past, he is being portrayed as selfish (yes selfish, and I’ll elaborate in a bit) and still stuck in the past even thought, he isnt’! In addition to the friend abandonment, these are the main reasons why the Steve in the last five minutes of Endgame IS out of character, and seriously, that Steve: #notmySteveRogers.

Let’s now address the paradoxes and inconsistencies of Steve’s stay in the past - and yes, I realise it is a fictional, sci-fi movie, but I just can’t turn a blind a to the obvious plotholes here. 

Firstly, let’s make it clear: Steve is going back to the past, his past, not an alternative timeline where he didn’t exist and he and Peggy start a relationship as a brand new couple. I’ll say it again, just to be clear:

Steve is going back to his past where he already exists

This is very important, because we need to keep in mind that no matter what year he jumps to in order to start his relationship with Peggy, he has to deal with the not so little problem of what the f*ck do I do with my past self?

Here’s a couple of ways Steve can handle this dilemma:

1. he can go back to just after he went into the ice and randomly pop up like tada! (insert jazzhands) hey guys, isn’t the serum great? I’m alive! 

Two things could happen here:

A. Then he and Peggy start that family he wanted and then the whole problem of Daniel goes away because Peggy wouldn’t even need to start a relationship with Daniel if she was already with Steve. (And yes Peggy will also, despite being super intelligent, will ignore the fact that Steve looks/acts waaaay older now than when he went in the ice… hmmmm, but hey, second chances, amiright?) And yes, Steve and Peggy would go look for Bucky because Steve is gonna save this past!Bucky the same way he couldn’t save future!Bucky.

Except.

What to do with himself in the ice? Well, in order to keep up the charade, Steve will have to let past!Steve stay in the ice and try his damnedest to make sure that no-one goes adventuring in that part of the world. He gets to live his happy life with no-one the wiser and then buys himself time to figure out a way to deal with his still iced past self.

Conclusion: Steve is a selfish, lying, douche who is willing to let someone - his own self - stay in the ice and suffer possible de-thawing and trauma in the distant distant future unless he actually finds a way permanently make past!Steve go away. This is not Erskine’s Good Man ™ and not character development and #notmySteveRogers.

or.

B. Steve can come clean to everyone, find past!Steve, save past!Bucky and fight past!Steve for Peggy’s affections like a Good Man ™ would. But the question here is: why would Peggy choose future!Steve over past!Steve? All she knows is past!Steve and past!Steve is the one who she has come to care for. Future!Steve is a different person with new experiences and not someone familiar to her like the way past!Steve is.

2. he can go back in time where she’s already married to Daniel and force himself into that relationship. 

Conclusion: Not a Good Man ™ and not character development and #notmySteveRogers. Assuming that Peggy even decides to leave her husband for Steve. And if she does, then I question Peggy’s morals and character in this too.

And then of course there’s the other dilemma of how to deal with frozen past!Steve again… hmmm..

…

I’ve read other theories that Steve apparently was already Peggy’s husband and just closing the loop, and okay, as nonsensical as that is (bearing in mind he is going back to his past where he went into the ice, not some alternate universe) we can work with that.

Except.

Steve is already Peggy’s husband, meaning: Peggy’s husband already exists and is most definitely NOT future!Steve. So what’s he gonna do about that? He has two options:

3. Get rid of past!Steve and take his place through murder and lies, in that case, Not a Good Man ™ and not character development and #notmySteveRogers.

Or.

4. Show up, tell the truth and fight to insert himself into that relationship. Again, Not a Good Man ™ and not not character development and #notmySteveRogers.

In conclusion: Steve going back to the past to be with Peggy goes against the Good Man ™ that we know Steve Rogers is. He is self-sacrificing and realistic and logical and intelligent and loyal, and there is just no way the ending of Endgame portrays this.

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk

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@chaos–god asked for Bucky, Natasha and Carol and their pets Liho, Alpine and Goose. 

Bucky is at this point just totally confused about what’s acceptable in America in 2019 when you’re not Avenger vs. when you are and where Rocket comes from and has totally lost track of norms. He’s just exhausted, hunched over a little table eating chicken nuggets all beaten up in his Bucky outfit half falling asleep, Rocket passed right on the table, when a McDonald’s server who’s just trying to live slowly walks up.

Server: (clears their throat) Um…s-sir?

Bucky: (dazed, eating nuggets)

Server: Sir, you can’t have that animal in here?

Bucky: What animal?

Server: The um…that raccoon there. There are health codes.

Bucky: (nudging Rocket) Hey, Rocket.

Rocket: (turning over) Five more minutes.

Server: Uh

Bucky: (shrugs) He’s really tired, sorry. (nudges Rocket) ROCKET. We gotta go. You’re against health codes.

Rocket: (stirring awake) I’m what the hell?

Server: Oh my God.

Bucky: (mouth half full of nuggets) They said we gotta go because you’re against the health codes.

Rocket: (jumping to his feet, pointing at Server) WHAT THE HELL? HOW ‘BOUT YOUR FACE IS AGAINST HEALTH CODES! I JUST BEAT UP A GODDAMN SPACE WORM THE SIZE OF THIS JOINT AND YOU’RE TELLING ME-

Bucky: (sighs, gets up, sticks Rocket under his arm, grabs bag of nuggets) Sorry for the trouble.

Server: Uh

Rocket: (stuck under Bucky’s vibranium arm)  GODDAMN DESCRIMINATION IS WHAT IT IS! YOU CALL THIS AMERICA! I KNOW CAPTAIN AMERICA, MY FRIEND, AND HE WOULD NEVER STAND FOR THIS-

A day at the Brazilian Beaches with Bucky and Rocket!

Exclusive fanart I did for Sebastian for CCXP 2018.

Home. Post black panther.

My brain: “To be crushed by Sebastian Stan’s thighs”

Me: “Umm, you know, just to be happy:)”