marooned_poet

and when bucky had nothing he had steve

who laid his flesh hand on steve’s heart and punched him until he was bloody instead of using his metal hand to crush his throat. who keeps his hand on steve and lowers the metal arm after hearing the vow of ‘til the end of the line effectively choosing his humanity over what he was made into

I’m sure hydra wanted steve to see the the man that killed him. an added cruelty, an exploitation of his biggest weakness, a sick joke. could he hurt the face of the person he loved? but they didn’t consider that the winter soldier wasn’t just bucky barnes’ face. even watching his programming fail after one word, they still believed their science would triumph

they didn’t understand that “but I knew him” wasn’t just ‘he looks familiar’ it was ‘but this is someone I love’

Okay... Now let's all love Steve Rogers, because Bucky was smiling like an idiot around him years earlier until Marvel murdered his character development in their hatred of Stucky

2. peggy carter and howard stark created an organization in steve’s honor and then recruited hydra/nazi agents including zola (who they knew had experimented on bucky) leading to the infiltration of the govt and are inferred to have known bucky was the winter soldier. so what, steve would be fine w that?

3. sam wilson is captain america. if they wanted steve to come back so badly, than old man steve should have been an imposter & steve himself should have come back as nomad

4. steve & peggy with a baby in a white picket fence house in the 50s? talk about bad self insert au fanfic.

Well. Can y’all imagine how much more meaningful it would’ve been if they had used someone Steve actually knew for the majority of his life? Someone he looked up to in the comics and is the reason he is the man he is?

What if the picture in the compass was of Sarah Rogers instead?

As I said, in the comics, she was his true north and always taught him to stand up for himself and for others, regardless of what the world had to throw at him. She taught him to be kind and good and never gave up on him, even though she had all the cards stacked against her. Like. She was an Irish Catholic immigrant in 1920’s America and a single mother of a heavily disabled child. She had to have been even more stubborn than Steve to make it through. And, of course, she must’ve loved Steve with all her heart and Steve obviously must’ve loved her, too.

So, imagine Steve packing what little he has before he ships out to Camp Lehigh and making sure he grabs the one and only picture he has of his ma. It’s seen better days for sure, but she never liked getting her picture taken, so it’s all he has. Imagine him keeping it close by and making sure it’s extra hidden from the other soldiers once it’s clear that they have it out for him. Imagine him pulling it out after he’s got the serum, tracing his fingers over her face and wondering if she’d even recognize him now. Imaging him getting his hands on the compass itself and immediately putting the picture inside, grateful to finally have a safer place for it.

Imagine him, finally, on that plane. Bucky is gone. He feels he has nothing left to live for now, so the solution is obvious. Maybe he could jump out and live before the plane crashes, but he simply doesn’t have it in him. This is the end of the line. But, despite all of that, he’s still scared. So, he pulls out the compass and leaves it open on the console. Seeing his ma’s face is an even greater comfort than he could’ve predicted.

“Wait for me, ma…Bucky. I’m coming. Wait for m—,”