#caughtinanocean

< 10,000 words

The description in this is just so delicate, and the emotional punch it packs is considerable. This is the Bucky waking up out of cryo in Wakanda tearful reunion that you’ve been longing for.

20,000 - 50,000 words

This was a reread. I read an animal transformation fic (and then several more) and it made me want to reread this one, where Winter Soldier! Asset! Bucky is transformed into a dog and (unsurprisingly) gets adopted by a lonely Steve. They are what each other needs, and this is a beautiful, touching ultimately feel good story.

First things first, leveragehunters’ On a Pale Horse is one of my favourite Stucky fics, so I was predisposed to a) like a Bucky is a horse transformation fic and b) compare any horse transformation fics to that one. This story really stands up. It’s different enough that it doesn’t feel rehashed, and the essential things I love about On a Pale Horse (winning trust, equine devotion, essential goodness of the ‘rider’ character, stubborn not-a-horse antics) are all here.

Second things second, I was a horsey girl growing up. I love horses. I loved that so much of this story was about building trust between Steve and horse!Bucky, and I enjoyed all the talk about halters and lunging.

This story has so much heart and humour. There’s the usual gang (Sam is delightful here), and such a kind, stubborn, good Steve. I really adored it.

*Examines fingernails* so, you know that animal transformation fic reading binge I mentioned earlier? This is the last one. In fact, I went to leveragehunters’ AO3 page looking for On a Pale Horse (have I said how much I love that fic enough yet?) after reading The Winter Stallion, and found this story instead. It’s a Ladyhawke AU. I had to google what Ladyhawke was, and didn’t bother until after I’d read the fic. You don’t need to know anything about the film to enjoy this story. It is set in a medieval fantasy world and features my favourite flavour of pre-serum Steve (stubborn, slightly bitter, quick and with so much innate goodness, honour and self-sacrificing idiocy). He falls in with the unlikely, bickering and mysteriously-cursed duo of Bucky (grumpy, oddly vulnerable, ultimately awesome) and Sam, who is kind, witty and Sam (is there ever a bad Sam?). Also, importantly, there is a horse and he is the best horse (just ask Bucky).

We are (briefly) back to the real world after my animal transformation fic spree. And oh my goodness, if you read nothing else on this list, read this fic. It’s a Winter Soldier recovery fic except that it isn’t, it’s a Steve recovery fic. Steve has all his powers in this story, but he is so human. He is brave and loyal and snarky, but he is also so, so vulnerable, and this story shows him feeling lost and little and hurt in a way that not many stories do. Bucky is equally awesome - he’s so clearly the Bucky of the 1930’s whose main objective was keeping Steve safe. This story also has one of my favourite versions of Tony as a side character.

> 50,000 words

Alright, we have skipped happily back into medieval fantasy land for this fic. It features another of my favourite kinds of AU Steves. He’s strong and clever and has proven himself in battle, and has the confidence that goes with that, but he still remembers being the scared young man defending his village with tools not weapons. He’s honorable and down to earth, strategic but also so open to love. This fic has some of my favourite tropes (identity porn! Forbidden love! So much pining!) and is such a fun romp through this ‘swords and honour’ landscape.

And now a different kind of swords and honour. I’m very late to the party in reading this, but if you haven’t come across this Shrunkyclunks story, then do yourself a favour and settle in to read. This fic has so much humour, warmth and passion with a side of politics (but in a good way!) Bucky is a civil rights attorney, and the fact that the story is tagged for period typical homophobia and transphobia and is set in the modern day tells you the rest.

But what this story does really well is make you passionate and pissed off (alongside Bucky and Steve) about civil rights, whilst primarily being a romance story that is fun and positive. There are so many deft character touches as well that round out the supporting cast into lovable, memorable individuals (Yelena!!).

WIPs

I’m trying to be better about reading WIPs. In that spirit, here are two that I’ve started and which I’m really enjoying.

Currently 10/27 chapters posted (74,000 words)

In which MCU-verse Bucky and Steve retire and move to Florida. Steve gets into surfing and Bucky is busy gardening. Okay, my summary sucks but this story is brilliant. I’m a sucker for fic where the author clearly knows their shit. Florida is sketched so well in this story that it’s practically its own character. The story is about how being in this place (that is shown for all its wonders, flaws, and idiosyncrasies) is challenging, helping and healing a Bucky and Steve who are both in pretty bad shape at the beginning.

Currently 5/30 chapters posted (24,000 words)

“Let this be light work” (T, 8k) by caughtinanocean

On the run with Sam and Natasha, Steve finds the words to describe his commitment to Bucky. As with most of Steve’s decisions, there are unintended consequences.

“It’s no use,” Natasha tells Sam. “You won’t get him to go out and flirt. Steve here’s a married man.”

They’re somewhere in Croatia, and Sam’s been hard at work, trying to pull Steve away from a busy night of sketching and staring at his phone. He wants to go out and drink plum brandy and dance with the locals.

“You should go without me,” Steve says, hazy. Married. A married man. Isn’t that something?

+ Post CW. Steve considers Bucky his husband, so he tells people he’s married (even though he’s not)

-☆-

“Skype Right” (E, 7k) by Kalee60

Steve didn’t like the idea of Skype, but it was a necessary evil in his line of work, especially when his friend and co-worker, Sam, refused to leave DC and Steve was never leaving Brooklyn.

He wasn’t expecting to see the literal man of his dreams wandering around in the background of one of Sam’s calls, one who, once they got to talking, proved to be everything Steve had ever wished for.

So what was he to do? Because it appeared the man he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with, was dating Sam. Wasn’t he?

+ Modern AU. Steve gets a crush! Skype chats, mutual pining, and long-suffering Sam. 

-☆-

“you’ll find something waiting” (E, 3k) by cobaltmoony, Nonymos

These times are odd times. Steve’s forgotten what it meant to have a circadian cycle; he’s overtaken the sun around the globe more than once in less than a week. He sleeps when he’s tired, and eats when he’s hungry. There are no more movies he needs to watch, no more books he needs to read, no more small talk, no more silent apartments, nothing beyond the endless string of missions and how he can fit his immediate needs in there. It’s like being back in the European theater, this mixture of constant strain and exhilarating freedom.

+ Post CW. They never defined their relationship, but a strip tease and Skype sex can fix that right up

-☆-

“love is blind (steve and bucky are just dumb)” (T, 4k) by wearing_tearing, talkplaylove

“You shouldn’t have interrupted their date, then,” Natasha pipes up, finally showing her face as she gives Bucky a wave and a tiny smile. “I like the hair.”

“Thank you.” Bucky preens a little. He ignores the teasing about this being a date; Nat and Sam somehow got it into their heads that Steve and him were dating via Skype calls. They’re not. They’re just friends who video call sometimes. Friends do that.

+ Post CW. They’re absolutely dating; they just don't know it 

-☆-

“a line that goes all the way” (E, 45k) by napricot

"About six months after he left Bucky in cryostasis in Wakanda, Steve got a text from an unidentified number: He is awake and well, and wants to see you."

Steve and Bucky reunite and reconnect, with some help from modern technology.

+ Post CW. Steve visits, and leaves, visits, and leaves. One day, he’ll stop circling and stay for good. In the meantime, there’s always Skype.

-☆-

-☆- And a freebie where they missed their Skype date -☆-

“Where The Lovelight Gleams” (T, 2k) by heartsdesire456

For the past thirteen years, Steve and Bucky have said 'Merry Christmas' to each other every year. Some years, they weren't together when they said it, but when Bucky was deployed, apart from one year when Bucky's call got interrupted by action, they always managed a 'Merry Christmas' in Bucky's weekly Skype call.

It was Christmas Eve and Bucky's Skype call time had come and gone.

Steve couldn't imagine a worse Christmas than one where he didn't get to tell his husband Merry Christmas.

+ Modern AU. Steve doesn’t get that call, but he gets something better

-☆-

“Take Our Ashes to the Ocean” (E, 27k) by caughtinanocean

Bucky is Steve's guardian angel. When he's taken after losing his wings, Steve must go on a journey to save him. Urban fantasy AU.

“But I'll protect you,” the stranger says, and that's when something strikes through Steve, bright and loud, and when he looks at the stranger—just a boy, taller than himself, but probably younger—he sees fire and wings.

+ Pre-WW2 to Azzano. Bucky shows up when Steve needs him most. He loves Steve more than anything, and Steve loves him right back

-☆-

“And There But For the Grace” (T, 48k) by leveragehunters

Magical Realism AU where demons exist and Steven was an angel lured to Lucifer's side in the war in Heaven. After the war, they threw him down into Hell, no longer an angel, but a demon.

Some humans know demons exist, summoning them out of Hell to use as weapons. Desperate to escape Hell, Steven answers a summons only to find himself bound to serve HYDRA. When they send him to possess Agent Peggy Carter, the encounter doesn't go as HYDRA expects and Steven is set free to roam the earth.

Sixty years later, frantic to escape another summons, willing to do anything to stay unbound, he takes refuge inside the killer sent to slaughter the summoner. The killer has a metal arm and a mind like broken glass and Steven soon discovers he isn't the only one hiding inside of it: he finds the man the killer's body belongs to. Fragile and lost, the more Steven seeks him out the stronger he becomes, until the day he remembers his name: Bucky. Determined to protect him, Steven will do everything in his power to set him free and keep him that way.

(Chronologically, this stretches from before Captain America: First Avenger to a year or so before the first Avengers movie but has spoilers for Civil War.)

+ Reposted from the Writer Spotlight because if you haven’t read this yet, I desperately need you to. Steve might not be an angel anymore, but the goodness never left him

-☆-

“How To Draw Fallen Angels” (E, 28k) by BetteNoire

Steve Rogers, smol angry artist, helps out a guy having a panic attack in a museum café. No good deed, as they say, goes unpunished.

+ Modern AU. When it’s Stucky vs the Vatican, put your bets on Stucky. Incomplete, but worth it!

-☆-

“Flash” (M, 9k) by debwalsh

Earthbound Angel Bucky Barnes has been searching for the right artist to free his wings for centuries. Millennia, in fact. How surprised is he to find himself drawn to a tattoo shop of all things, and one run by an old friend, the Norse god of Thunder? Shocked is the least of his emotions when Bucky Barnes meets tattoo artist Steve Rogers. 

+ Modern AU.  Lovely concept of getting your wings back

-☆-

“Demonique” (E, 39k) by BetteNoire

“Oh come on, Steve. You look at me like you want to put me on a pedestal and worship me. You look at Barnes like you want to tear his clothes off with your teeth. Tell me why you two aren’t...?” Peggy smirks at him, because of course this amuses her greatly.Steve fidgets, trying not to blush. “Peggy, I can’t—“Peggy steps closer. “Steve. Is this an American peculiarity? Because in the British army, as long as you’re discreet, that sort of thing between two men is fine. I mean, some of our greatest war heroes, and so on.”“It’s not... that...” Steve cringes. It’s Bucky’s tentacles. And how badly he wants them inside him.

+ WW2 to WS. There was never a serum. There was, however, a deal with Bucky.

-☆-