Multi-Fan

gospel, for the fallen ones

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23736478

Bucky Barnes is puppy fat and cheeks that are round, yet to be carved out by time. Steve Rogers, however, is too pale skin pulled tight over bird bones, a walking memento mori; death always slightly too close to him, and the other kids - they treat him like he’s contagious, hissing and spitting. But Bucky knows better.

(or: 5+1 times Bucky knew he loved Steve Rogers, and one time he asked to marry him, a study through the decades.)

For the anon who sent the prompt ‘Stucky proposal’. Sorry it’s a little late. 

I’ve been crazy busy with work lately, but I finally finished this little comic inspired by the amazing fic Kaleidoscope, which found a warm place in my little heart. (And it has a fully finished sequel now!! Go, read it and send author all the love!)

When he first joins the Avengers, he's given his garish little outfit, the cowl, the bright red gloves and boots, and his signature shield of course, because that's what people recognize him by. Everybody else in the group has some kind of weapon (Nat's got her guns and probably a stash of knives, Clint's got his arrows, Tony can shoot laser blast thingies with his suit, and so on), but Steve's only given the shield. Which, I get it, he can absolutely use it to attack as well as to protect himself - but that's not quite the same, is it?

And I mean, this guy fought in actual WWII, he was on the front lines for close to two years! He's no stranger to guns,

he was storming HYDRA bases and blowing up buildings and tanks, with nazi soldiers still inside them, for god's sake!

And he looked pretty smug about it, too:

I mean, he's not actively looking for people to kill, and it's not like he immediately goes for the kill when he fights (he seems to tend more towards incapacitating first, though it depends on the situation), but the thing is, he is willing to kill if need be.

BUT. But it's like they just don't want people to see him with a gun in his hand. Definitely not when he's fighting aliens on national tv, and apparently neither is he issued any firearms when he's going on secret spy missions for SHIELD, either - not that I remember anyway, but obviously I could be wrong.

I'm just. Just thinking about Steve, especially during his first year or so in the 21st century, realizing more and more how his image has been twisted to serve whatever purpose was more convenient at the time, and how it's being twisted even further now that he's back.

There's this undeniable, concerted effort being poured into making him more palatable to the public.

They want him polished. They want him as an ideal to sell. They want Captain America the war hero, but he can't be directly associated with violence or with the brutal, blood-soaked, dirty-handed reality of war; so he's a soldier who fought in the war, but somehow he's never killed anyone (such a preposterous idea! Captain America? Kill someone? Perish the thought!), and the war itself is a vague, distant kind of war that belongs in the past, or possibly, occasionally, in a Hollywood movie that will gloss over the worst parts of it.

They don't want Steve the war veteran who's plagued by a severe case of survivor's guilt (not to mention all the other glaring PTSD symptoms). They want to sell Cap the goody-two-shoes who spends his time helping doddery old grannies cross the street, Cap the pedantic good little soldier who does cringe-worthy PSAs and Always Follows The Rules, and fights the bad guys in the Right Way because he's a Good Hero who Doesn't Enjoy Violence and has a strict no-killing policy, obviously.

So he can't be seen wielding a gun, because uhhh that would kinda ruin the vision they're going for here.

Besides, getting your gob smacked by the shield is definitely way more brutal than they show in the movies. It does have a range of injuries it can inflict but since Chris Evans puts his pussy into throwing that thing, I'm left to also assume that thing has definitely gotten brains all over it at one point.

The only reason it's different from John Walker is the principle by which it was bloodied, DEFINITELY not because it's the first time it's seen blood.

I am however wondering if it was a propaganda thing for SHIELD to leave him gunless in 2012... because it's strange to let only the 'blood in my ledger' and 'mind controlled' people fight aliens with a gun.

:(

I have so many feelings about the concept of Steve not being able to acknowledge his reality as a veteran because people are busy painting him as a family friendly spandex wearing fella from the reels.

OMG??

The rest under the cut:

When he first joins the Avengers, he's given his garish little outfit, the cowl, the bright red gloves and boots, and his signature shield of course, because that's what people recognize him by. Everybody else in the group has some kind of weapon (Nat's got her guns and probably a stash of knives, Clint's got his arrows, Tony can shoot laser blast thingies with his suit, and so on), but Steve's only given the shield. Which, I get it, he can absolutely use it to attack as well as to protect himself - but that's not quite the same, is it?

And I mean, this guy fought in actual WWII, he was on the front lines for close to two years! He's no stranger to guns,

he was storming HYDRA bases and blowing up buildings and tanks, with nazi soldiers still inside them, for god's sake!

And he looked pretty smug about it, too:

I mean, he's not actively looking for people to kill, and it's not like he immediately goes for the kill when he fights (he seems to tend more towards incapacitating first, though it depends on the situation), but the thing is, he is willing to kill if need be.

BUT. But it's like they just don't want people to see him with a gun in his hand. Definitely not when he's fighting aliens on national tv, and apparently neither is he issued any firearms when he's going on secret spy missions for SHIELD, either - not that I remember anyway, but obviously I could be wrong.

I'm just. Just thinking about Steve, especially during his first year or so in the 21st century, realizing more and more how his image has been twisted to serve whatever purpose was more convenient at the time, and how it's being twisted even further now that he's back.

There's this undeniable, concerted effort being poured into making him more palatable to the public.

They want him polished. They want him as an ideal to sell. They want Captain America the war hero, but he can't be directly associated with violence or with the brutal, blood-soaked, dirty-handed reality of war; so he's a soldier who fought in the war, but somehow he's never killed anyone (such a preposterous idea! Captain America? Kill someone? Perish the thought!), and the war itself is a vague, distant kind of war that belongs in the past, or possibly, occasionally, in a Hollywood movie that will gloss over the worst parts of it.

They don't want Steve the war veteran who's plagued by a severe case of survivor's guilt (not to mention all the other glaring PTSD symptoms). They want to sell Cap the goody-two-shoes who spends his time helping doddery old grannies cross the street, Cap the pedantic good little soldier who does cringe-worthy PSAs and Always Follows The Rules, and fights the bad guys in the Right Way because he's a Good Hero who Doesn't Enjoy Violence and has a strict no-killing policy, obviously.

So he can't be seen wielding a gun, because uhhh that would kinda ruin the vision they're going for here.

Bonus: 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26616712

part 2 of the pirate au ✨✨

The Highwayman’s Baronet

Rating: T

Word count: 125,525

Summary: Steve Rogers has returned from the war. He has made his fortune, but lost everything in return. He is reeling from grief and at a loss of what to do with himself when the son of an old friend writes to offer him a home. He takes up the offer, but finds himself embroiled in a plot to bring down the country and raise Hydra from the grave. Can he uncover the traitor, save the handsome baronet, and avoid being hanged as a highwayman?

A Regency Steampunk AU featuring highwayman!Steve, Baronet!Tony, treason, nefarious plots and a dash of magic.

Written for the @cap-ironman Big Bang 2020.

SO MANY thanks to my amazing artist @noririna who has made incredibly gorgeous illustrations for this fic, you need to go and check them out [link to come]. 

its a pirate au babey!!

plus some extras:

im sorry. i’m so sorry. i’m very extremely sorry. here is steve and bucky as centaur babies. again, sorry.

@rayrayhaywire sent me a stucky tweet, i sent one back, and this snippet spawned in my brain so i wrote it in ten-ish minutes because the writing inspo suddenly struck. just treat it as crack please. 😭😭

though tbh this was a nice little break between trying to write something serious, i love my little crackfics. (i actually have a mostly-written spiderverse au that is the most ridiculous thing ever, i may post it here sometime. also treat that as a joke if i do. idk) 💀

~

Bucky Barnes has now been promoted to the status of god. 

A much warmer five minutes ago, Bucky had been sitting in the living room, attempting to read a book— the attempts were being interrupted by his little sister making commentary, like she’s on a radio talk show, while staring out the frosted windowpane that overlooks the yard between their apartment building and another brownstone. The empty plot was supposed to be the site of yet another building, but apparently the builders never got around to it, because it’s been the go-to place of pickup baseball games for the past few years. In the summers, it’s full of weeds and dried-out dirt where the grass used to grow before it all died to the heatwaves. In the winters, it’s iced over in a failed attempt by the Brooklyn kids (“the menaces,” as the neighbors would say) to make an ice-skating rink, and then covered with snowdrifts and turned into a fortress for snowball fights. Today, it’s abandoned except for the one person stubborn enough to go outside in the season’s first below-freezing snow spell to make a snowman. As Bucky goes to join his spying sister at the window, he’s gotta say— it’s a pretty sorry sight. The head keeps falling off, and so do the stone buttons of the snowman’s nonexistent shirt, but the kid’s got spirit. 

“I think that’s Steve Rogers,” Becca says, squinting out the window. “Ma was talking to his ma yesterday. They moved in last week.” And, with wide eyes and an expression so dramatically grim that Bucky almost laughs, “he almost died, like, twenty times.” 

“Oh,” says Bucky. “Then what the heck is he doing out there?” 

Becca shrugs. The snowman’s head falls off again. They stare, giving a moment of silence for the unfortunate snowman, and for Steve, who will hopefully be spared the snowman’s fate. 

And then Bucky can’t take it anymore. He pushes Becca to the side and unlatches the window, a wave of frosty air hitting his face as he leans outside and shouts two stories down. “Hey, dipshit— you’re gonna get sick, come back inside.” 

The kid looks around dramatically, flailing his arms to the sky as he turns towards the window. “GOD?” He yells at a much louder volume than needed. And, looking Bucky straight in the eye— “I know you work in mysterious ways, but you should really watch your language.” 

Alright, then. That's how it’s going to be. 

If Becca’s got the facts straight, the skinny punk is Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers is his next-door (or rather, next-floor) neighbor, and Steve Rogers is an idiot. 

And somehow, right then and there, Bucky just knows that Steve Rogers is going to be the bane of his existence. But somebody has to do damage control, and unfortunately, as the appointed god of skinny punks, it seems that the duty has fallen to him.

Has anyone else done zombie Bucky yet?