#stuckoni

Equilateral by FestiveFerret @festiveferret

It was the way Steve had said, “I found him,” the desperate, agonized hope, that had Tony replying with, “Bring him home,” without any hesitation.

But now, now he was hesitating like fuck.

Penny Candy and Sparklers by StrivingArtist @striving-artist

James Buchanan Barnes: formerly the Winter Soldier, formerly Captain America’s right hand man, formerly a sergeant, formerly a dock worker, formerly Stevie’s best friend…. currently a glorified prisoner of Prince T’Challa…. had trouble wrapping his head around all those former selves. He spent too much time thinking about all the bits of him that he kept gluing back together to pretend he was a person anyone would want to keep. He spent even more time picking at the cracks, pointing the flaws out to himself. Only thing he did more than that was make sure no one else noticed how far he was from human.

So, James Buchanan Barnes, who didn’t know what to call himself, who didn’t know how to go forwards, agreed, and moved back into the tower where his best friend lived with a husband orphaned by the Winter Soldier.

Hide A Heart of War by RayShippouUchiha @rayshippouuchiha

“You’ve got war in your heart boy,” Howard sneers, “don’t ever try and pretend to be anything but what you are.”

Tony feels the familiar burn of a flower mark being etched into his skin but he doesn’t look, doesn’t try and check to see what it is. Instead he keeps his eyes on Howard and his hands cupped around his bleeding mouth and nose.

Of Spiders and Super-Soldiers by AuddieAussie (Juulna’s note: I come back and read this all the time when I need some family feels and a smile. :))

After the hell that was Ultron and the Sokovia Accords, Tony doesn’t blame the team for wanting nothing to do with him. To make up for past mistakes, Tony disappears into his lab and focuses on using his money and brains to provide the Avengers with more fancy tech than they’ll ever need. By doing this, he also doesn’t have to worry about Steve’s grim frown, Bucky’s hateful gaze, or everyone else’s cold annoyance.

For six long months, this formula worked, but then fate decided to be a Loki-like dick and Tony wasn’t sure how it happened, but in the span of one week, he’d somehow acquired a kid.

and you needed someone to show you the way by SailorChibi @tsuki-chibi

Tony knows what the team really thinks of him. It’s a delicate balance: they tolerate him because of his money and his toys, and he gets to stay on the team and fight with them. He’s okay with that. So long as he hides the fact that Steve’s and Bucky’s names are written on his skin in the most embarrassing act of one-sided love affection ever, everything will be fine.

It just figures that a fantastically stupid villain, a kidnapping plot and a video camera will bring Tony’s well-kept secret out into the open.

The Mechanic, The Soldier, and The Captain by AvocadoLove (Juulna’s note: this is sad)

HYDRA need a replacement for Zola’s genius, and they have years worth of experience breaking and brainwashing a good man into something they can control.

Beware of Super Soldiers And Their Enticing Laps by Confused_Emo

Tony’s eyes shifted back toward the remaining occupants of the room only to realise there was literally no space in the sitting area for him.

This apparently was the best time for Bucky to make suggestive gestures, as the soldier patted his thigh lasciviously, “Why don’t you come sit on my lap, plenty of space right here.”

Just Far Enough by TheSopherFly (Juulna’s note: please read the tags. This is triggering and sad and angsty but fucking phenomenally well done and one of my all-time favorites… And I don’t like angst at all.) 

Tony couldn’t honestly remember how long it had been like this. Probably since the day he’d called T’Challa and offered his help. At first it had just been compulsive self-denial: you can’t eat until you’ve drafted your opening remarks, until you’ve finished your research, until you’ve rewritten every last colon and comma and apostrophe in those Accords so that everyone can come home.

Those goals had been realistic. Lately, they’d become impossible. Until everyone forgives you. Until you forgive yourself. Until you make up for every bad thing you’ve ever caused.

He was fine. He was coasting in a dangerous place, but he was fine. He wasn’t taking it too far - just far enough.

Trinity by cinaea (immediately followed by pt. 2: Volition)

He’s become the kind of monster he all but died trying to stop.

A D/s, soul-bond AU set in modern day. More than two years ago, Bucky Barnes was lost during a Howling Commandos mission and captured by HYDRA. He and fellow prisoners Clint and Natasha—all submissives—are treated as slaves and forced to carry out terrorist attacks for their masters. An attack by the Avengers enables their escape but leaves Bucky with an incomplete soul bond to two superheroes.

Vowing to never be imprisoned again, Bucky and his friends go on the run from HYDRA, from law enforcement, and from the two dominants who will do anything to find him.

Don’t Tell Pepper by Crematosis

Tony convinces Steve that it is totally okay to include Bucky in their relationship because nobody will ever know. They’ll keep it a secret from the team and they’ll absolutely keep it a secret from Pepper because she’ll only yell at them.

Like most of Tony’s good ideas, it comes back to blow up in his face.

Underneath the Mistletoe by DreamcatchersDaughter @dreamcatchersdaughter

5 times Tony gets caught underneath the mistletoe and one time he doesn’t (and thank fuck for that).

and another like it by the same author:

Christmas Kisses (aka Sam is So Done With Your Shit)

Their mutual pining is driving him crazy, but its okay cause Natasha’s got a plan.

The Colors That Bind Us by yasminakohl @stuckonstoney

When Steve Rogers was six a boy saved him from a bully, then sky went from white-gray to brilliant blue.

When Bucky fell, the world stayed colorful and everyone told him it was because of the serum, he believed them.

When he woke from the ice and he finds the black and white he’d expected years ago, sixty-six years ago it seems, he’s crushed.

Now there’s color again, this time it comes with amazing reds and golds.

Until he wakes up and his sky is brilliant and his color mate is trying to kill him, his first color mate.

Will Steve ever be able to have his blue, red and gold?

The Melting, the Spark, and the Suffocation by btBatt @batterology

“So, Bucky,” he said, clapping his hands. “You ready to change the lives of asthmatic little punks everywhere?” Bucky sent a skeptical look Steve’s way.

“It seems to be my calling in life,” he said. Steve just smiled. He looked a little like he was having a moment, one of his oh-my-God-I-have-Bucky-back moments, so Tony smiled too.

“There are worse things,” Tony mused.

“Hear, hear,” Natasha said.

The Limitations of Wax by RayShippouUchiha @rayshippouuchiha (Juulna’s note: This has been untouched for quite a while but there are separate WiPs being written and branched off of this – and completed – that are fantastic, and the core character study in this fic is fantastic so I still recommend it.)

Toni Stark grows up with the tale of Icarus swirling in the back of her mind. Instead of taking it as a precautionary tale about hubris and overreaching she decides it’s more about the limitations of wax.

Years later when she builds herself wings of her own she makes sure to build them out of better material.

Difficult Conversations by yumekuimono @yumekuimono

HYDRA had brainwashed their Asset into silence, and then muzzled him to boot. It’s not that surprising that Bucky no longer considers talking to be one of his strong suits. So why does he keep having to have difficult conversations?

Or, the road to loving Tony Stark is never an easy one. (Juulna’s note: Eventual/Pre-OT3)

Strip it Down by Batfink

“Think about who you’re talking to Bucky. I am the technology king. What you’re asking me to do goes against everything I hold dear.” Tony looked positively distraught.

Bucky slid his hand onto Tony’s cheek, tilting his head until their eyes met. “Crying, Tony. Over the fucking washing machine.”

Giving a Friend a Hand by neunundneunzig (seasidesunset)

Bucky gets Tony’s help dealing with… anatomy malfunctions, and it turns into much more.

Operation: Knuckleheads by FestiveFerret @festiveferret

Bucky is enjoying his new, post-Winter Soldier life at Avengers Tower, until he discovers that the constant tension between Steve and Tony was caused by a recent (and mysterious) breakup. Determined to make his friends happy, Bucky gives himself a new mission: figure out what went wrong, and get these two idiots in love back together again.

Compass Heading by antigrav_vector @disco-pinecone

So… It’s complicated. Steve went and got himself killed on a mission, and, somehow, in the aftermath, Tony ended up getting together with Barnes. He’s still not entirely sure how that happened, really, but he’s not about to question it too hard. He’s enjoying it too much.

Then, because the universe loves turning his life upside down, they find Steve. It’s been two years, and things have changed, but Tony still cares about the asshole, and that, right there, is a problem.

Too Damn Short by MrShyRockstar

“I’m too short for this shit.”

This literally sums up this little ficlet. Tony’s too short, Steve is clearly (to anyone with eyes *coughnottonycough*) pining, and Bucky is just watching everything with exasperated amusement. That is all.

Put Your Arms Around Me, Hold Me Tight by StarSpangledBucky

Tony and Bucky desperately need to sort out the kink in their relationship, before they both lose Steve, or one of them does. It isn’t until the second week Steve is away on a mission that Tony goes through a nightmare, and Bucky decides to comfort him. From there, it gives them a chance to talk. And by the time Steve comes back, he’s more than satisfied by the results.

Minefields by arianapeterson19 (Juulna’s note: Please heed the tags! Content is triggering for abusive relationships.)

Being in an abusive relationship was a bit like needing glasses. He didn’t realize it until the damage was done.

Funny how people assume only men can be abusive.

And a new fic by a new author I would like to recommend to people to read:

Lonely Boy by thereddame @the-red-dame

Tony gets a visit from a Tony from a different universe and she needs him to help keep her children safe until Girl-Tony can kick some HYDRA ass. She’s being pretty tight-lipped about the father but he’s got a sneaking suspicion it’s Steve. Hey, maybe he can get ‘best babysitter in the universe’ award after this? 

I’m sure since you are sending me an ask you know about my fics (though maybe not my oneshot), but I’ll list them anyway. ;)

Necrosis by Juulna

Necrosis (from the Greek νέκρωσις “death, the stage of dying, the act of killing” from νεκρός “dead”)

Tony always thought he’d die first, of the three of them. He’d accepted it, even. Hell, he wasn’t even sure that Steve or Bucky coulddie. Shows how much he knew.

Hanging From a Cross of Iron by Juulna

Toni Stark never - not even once - had a soulmark appear. Not one she can remember, at any rate. But when one finally appears, and the date of her rendezvous seems impossible to meet, does she decide to move on with her life, and forget the words written upon her skin?

Of course not. She’s Toni fucking Stark. Making the impossible possible is practically her family motto.

Well… there we go! I hope that that suffices for recommendations? If you want some more, I’m happy to provide them! Happy reading, and don’t forget:

Leave the authors your love in the form of a kudos and/or comment!

Stuckoni Mob Au where Toni met them while working undercover as an escort. The commandos were never the biggest issue in the city, but they were the best bet the FBI had for getting someone inside and finding out about the groups that are a problem. The Commandos long standing mutual hatred for Hydra has been the cause of half a dozen shoot outs and dozens of deaths. 

So, Toni is sent in, under the cover of a student trying to pay her way through school at Columbia. She goes to some event with Hammer (gag) specifically bc she knows that Rogers and Barnes will be there. They are infamous for bringing mouthy brunettes home with them, so this wasn’t a totally unrealistic plan. 

Cue the classic trope.

Steve and Bucky are infatuated, and have her around whenever possible, and Toni can’t help but see the good in them. She keeps making her reports though. For months she’s been feeding information through Rhodey (who is living off campus as her faux student roommate) to the Bureau. It gets Dugan arrested, but they can’t get anything to stick and have to let him walk. 

Then it gets Clint arrested, and when he’s let out on bail, the Commandos vanish him to the midwest where his sister is until they can find the mole and bring him back. 

Toni finally hears something useful, but rather than report it, she just... skips the meet up. She saw how upset Bucky and Steve were that Clint got caught and maybe it’s just a temporary hesitation, but for that day, she couldn’t do it. 

But. Since she missed the check in, the FBI have the NYPD pick her up for soliciting and bring her to the department head: Ross.

Three things happen at this point. 

First, the Commandos, who were tracking their bosses’ girlfriend, report it back to Steve and Bucky. they, naturally, tap their contact in the NYPD to make sure the case goes nowhere, and promise themselves they’ll keep a better eye on her. 

Second. Toni gets called out for hiding information and is fired by Stane. She protests it immediately and files a complaint up the chain  to Pierce to be reinstated, but that’s a multi week process, and like hell is she going to quit her assignment in the meantime - she just wont have support to do it for a while. 

Third. The boys’ contact in the NYPD reports back that Toni Carbonell wasn’t picked up for soliciting, and within a few hours, they have a file on their desk showing everything from Toni’s graduation photos six years ago at 16, to her FBI badge. 

Naturally. this is when Toni shows back up at their place. 

The fact that they don’t shoot her on the spot is a sign of how much she means to them.... and they don’t lay a hand on her, not once. They don’t have to. What they say hurts far worse. 

Bucky in particular knows exactly what to say, exactly where to hit to break her emotionally. 

The overall message is clear: we see you again, and you won’t survive the encounter. 

Toni leaves, and doesn’t start crying until she’s on her third drink at the first bar she found outside of the Commandos territory. After that she can’t stop. Crying on Drinking. 

Her cell was FBI property, and was confiscated, her debit cards were for her fake identity, and are now useless, and her only cash is being spent to get plastered. She doesn’t have her keys, her gun, an ID, anything. 

And she doesn’t care. 

In fact, she barely even notices she’s being attacked until her arm dislocates. 

Meanwhile, Steve and Bucky are decidedly not mourning her absence as they check everyone’s loyalty, and they’d appreciate it if the boys could stop walking on eggshells around them. If the commandos are acting like its real, then the boys might have to admit it was, and they can’t handle that. 

Two days later, they get a call. Someone claiming to run a group called the Ten Rings says they have Toni.

Bucky hangs up. 

Another day. Another call. Steve hangs up. 

It’s obviously a play by the FBI to get her back into their good graces. 

Two more days, and a voicemail with blurry audio that could potentially be Toni, but they’re not sure. 

One week after they found out what she was, an unarmed FBI agent walks into their favorite cafe, asks the waitress to let the Commandoes know he’s there, and, three hours later, with the cafe emptied, Steve and Bucky sit down opposite James Rhodes, who hands them the package he got that morning, video and photos, and a blood sample, proof that the Ten Rings have Toni.

Angry at her or not, both of them blanch at what they’re shown. 

Then Rhodey explains; this was delivered to the FBI. Rhodey took it to Stane right away, was told they’d put their best men on it. Was dismissed. Couple hours later, he saw the envelope in the shred bin, grabbed it, and came here. 

Lays everything out, explains that, at best, there’s assholes in the Bureau, and at worst, they’re working with the Ten Rings. 

Asks what Steve and Bucky are going to do about it, and leans back in his chair to grab his now-cold coffee. 

there’s a long, long, miserable silence, and Rhodey thinks this is the end. He’s gonna be shot, and Toni’s gonna get killed. 

Toni and Steve are alive -- Toni has a plan -- because Barnes has been their surrogate. Sick fucks that they are, their captors had realized the weak point the second they pulled Barnes from Toni’s cell on the first day, and both Avengers had tried to break free. They’d seen it, and used it ever since.

And not once has Toni seen Barnes look broken. Furious, glorious, radiant, and indestructible, but never broken.

So something is different.

“Barnes.”

They don’t even know the civilian’s first name. Her wallet didn’t make it into the kidnap-mobile, and the jumpsuit she’d worn just had her last name. Barnes refuses everytime anyone asks for her name.

Trembling a little, the woman manages to meet Toni’s eye.

“Stark,” she croaks, “uh. sent me. They sent me to - uh - to tell you to behave.”

“Sorry, no can do, never been a model anything, definitely not a model kidnapee.”

“They have a buyer.”

Toni’s head snaps to the side, looking at Steve, needing the reminder that he’s still breathing. “Buyer?”

“Delivery tonight.”

“They’re delivering us? Do they use UPS or Fedex?” Toni keeps her voice angry, even as she starts dancing inside. Their trackers were carved out on the first day, but they never found the one in the reactor. They never took it. And if she can get above ground, Jarvis will have a suit on her location within a few hours. If she’s unconscious, Jarvis will activate subprotocols and handle the threat independently. Thanks to Barnes, she’s strong enough to fight. Thanks to Barnes, once the drugs clear, Steve will be ready too.

Barnes, still kneeling, grins around her black eyes and the blood crusting on her face.

“Private courier, Stark. Only the best for billionaires.”

“And you’re here so that--” Toni stops the second she hears Steve groan. Both women watch as the super soldier claws his way to consciousness, dazed by the elephant grade drugs he’s on, and both smile when they see his confusion turn into righteous anger.

That’s her Steve. Always Down for a  Fight.

“Hey, sweetheart, cap, dearheart, my capsicle, good to see your eyes, babe.”

“Toni.”

“Yeah. Hope you’re up for a trip, babe, we’re gonna spend a couple weeks on one of the islands. Starting real soon. You want to do Majorca again? Or something in the Pacific?”

“What?”

He’s still bleary.

“They found a buyer.” Barnes explains.

Steve’s eyes clear then, locking onto Toni’s and the faith and trust there nearly knocks her over, even after four years together. He doesn’t need to know the details. He doesn’t need to know anything except that Toni has a plan, and she knows he can see it in her eyes. Steve doesn’t need anything except the way that Toni’s eyes have gone a bit murdery and giddy to know they’re going to be okay.

Barnes coughs, and pulls them out of their borderline eye-fucking.

Steve, her wonderful, observant, brilliant Steve, takes one look at Barnes and asks in his captain voice, “They sent you to tell us that?”

“Sent me to tell you to behave yourselves, since the two of you don’t have a reputation for making smart choices.” Barnes sasses.

“But that’s not all is it?”

Toni catches on to what Steve saw a moment before Barnes moves. She’s too bulky. Barnes isn’t a waifish thing, she’s well muscled and compact, but it doesn’t look right, not after how all three of them have withered down in the dark. One hand, the right, which is less injured than Barnes’ left, shifts her shirt up enough to show them the explosives wrapped around her stomach.

That… complicates things.

It’ll be remote activated, and Toni is very good, but she can’t actually move faster than a C4 detonation. She’s not sure she can get around the detonator to deactivate it without tools, and certainly not while they’re under guard.

Barnes, being an idiot, and far too loyal to the idea of the Avengers than she ought to be, reaches towards them in a ‘whatcha gonna do’ gesture. The shock collar on her neck goes off instantly. Still shaking, Barnes gets to her feet when the door opens automatically, giving Toni a quick apologetic glance, before returning to their captors.

It’ll be a few minutes. Toni knows that. Hydra is nothing if not good at keeping a system. Barnes will go back up the shaft to wherever the rest of Hydra’s agents are, and then the speaker overhead will click on so her screaming will play in their cells. A tiny, dissociated part of Toni’s brain knows it’s brilliant. Can’t damage the merchandise, and if they hurt Barnes in front of Steve, he’d probably hulk through the chains, drugged or not. This keeps both Toni and Steve on edge, unable to rest, unable to relax, but suffering. Like when the prince had to have a whipping boy.

But for now, they have a few minutes.

She can stare at Steve and they can soak up whatever reassurance there is to be had.

Above them somewhere is this woman that saw two of the heavy hitters for the Avengers, two of the most powerful people on the planet, and the most famous couple to boot, and said, yeah, give them a hand. Barnes could be home, having a snack and enjoying some internet fame for seeing two Avengers get snagged. She could have done the totally rational thing and stayed safe, or, you know, run away from the nazis. Barnes didn’t. In a work uniform and boots, hair cut in a dramatic side shave, looking exhausted, she’d tried to help.

Toni knows that Barnes is going to be one of those guilts she never erases. Not from her own mind, not from Steve’s. This isn’t going to fade.

That’ll be later.

For now. They’re alive. They’re going to be above ground that night. They don’t need more. They’re going to be fine. They’ll get above ground, and the three of them will escape. Then they’ll work on getting Barnes the help she’s definitely going to need.

Toni tries to put that promise into her eyes as they hear the static of the speaker crackle.

***

“Barnes? Gorgeous? Hey, Barnes!”

Bucky shudders, blinking, flinching from the headlights aimed at her face. It’s Toni shouting, trying to get her attention. She coughs, and sees a bit of red spatter, and yeah, that would explain Toni’s freaking out. Sort of. Not really.

Bucky isn’t exactly someone important, and Steven Rogers is all droopy and drugged, so Toni should really check her priorities.

The two Avengers are tied to truck. One to each axle. It’s big enough that not even Captain America is going to be able to lift it. Whoever they’re being sold to isn’t trusted enough for this Hydra cell to meet them face to face. It really is a delivery. They’re going to be left in this middle of nowhere field to be picked up like Amazon has upgraded their selection. The missile silo they’d been kept in is somewhere behind them, and Bucky has blurry memories of pissing off one of the goons when they got above ground. After that was just the blue tinged pain of the shock collar.

Like they needed both the collar and the metric fuckton of explosives she had over her chest to keep her under their control. Like they needed either.

Four years of hero worship of them as a couple, six of Toni Stark as Iron Man, and a lifetime of reading Captain America biographies and comics meant all that Hydra had to do was point a weapon at one of them and she’d do as told. Which was how her brain had shut off and Bucky had tackled a Hydra nazi that day in the park.

Not her brightest moment.

Of course, a few hours later, when she realized they were hurting her instead of hurting the Avengers, part of Bucky got giddy. This at least, she could do for them. Bucky couldn’t break them out of their cells, couldn’t call the cavalry, couldn’t even prevent them getting taken, but it was pretty obvious that the other option had been Hydra torturing Toni. Captain America wouldn’t have taken that well.

Like this, Bucky is doing what she can to keep them safe. Safer.

Both Avengers are bloody and beaten, but nothing they can’t recover from.

Dragging a smile from god knows where, Bucky finds Toni’s eyes and gives a tiny nod.

Fuck, but if Bucky is right and they’re about to kill her, there’s not much in the world she’d rather be looking at than Toni Stark and Steve Rogers. Gorgeous goddamn bastards. Toni’s eyes are so bright Bucky has a delirious thought involving spontaneous lasers. Steve has that Captainy determination thing going on that is the source of about half of Bucky’s celebrity crush.

And yeah, fuck it, she’s calling them by their first names in her head, why not. She’s pretty sure they’ve heard her screaming while Hydra soldiers -- nope, not thinking about that -- but she’s been having imaginary conversations with them for years. Now she’s met them, so she’s calling them Steve and Toni and not even feeling bad about it.

There’s a hand in her hair again, wrenching her as high as she can go on her knees, and someone is saying… something.

She’s never been great at understanding accents, and with the shock trauma, it’s worse.

Based on Steve’s darkening features, it’s not nice.

In the last week she’s watched the couple hold entire conversations with eye contact and facial expressions, and been astounded how they did it.

Then Steve turns to make eye contact with her, and there may as well have been neon above him. The promise he’s making with the look he gives her is more comfort than she’s felt in years.  She doesn’t have details, but for a second, she doesn’t need them. Captain America just promised it was going to be okay, and she doesn’t know how to doubt that. His eyes flick sideways, and somehow makes it an order.

Bucky obeys, looks to Toni, and finds a mirror to Steve’s promise.

It’s going to be okay.

They have a plan. Or. Actually, Cap’s catchphrase to one side, it’s probably Toni that has a plan, but they’re a unit, so what does it matter? And both of them are promising her it’s going to be okay.

“Bored! Bored! Just deliver us wherever we’re going, and shut up!” Toni snaps, pulling the attention away from Bucky as tears well in her eyes.

“Whatever you think you’re going to gain from this, you should enjoy it while you can.” Steve adds.

“We are known as the Avengers after all. Vengeance is our very best thing.” Toni finishes.

Bucky grins at the ground. Those two idiots.

It’ll be done soon.

It’ll be done.

“They’ll be here to retrieve you soon enough.” The guy holding Bucky’s hair says.

“Good, because I’m bored!” Toni taunts. “Am I going to have to listen to you monologue the whole time while we wait? Because seriously, that would be torture.”

Bucky actually snickers at the joke, and at Toni’s absolute lack of tact before the collar goes off again.

This time it isn’t Toni’s teasing shouts that get Bucky’s focus, it’s Steve’s quiet firm repetitions of her name. Bucky tries to grin, realizes how much blood is in her mouth, and has to stop to spit. Which ends up being more of a drool over herself type thing. Probably not her most reassuring action. Once Steve has gotten confirmation she’s conscious, he turns to their captors again.

“Finish this then. If we’re to be retrieved after you leave, secure Barnes and be done with it. Nothing left for you in this game.”

The soldiers chuckle in a way Bucky has been conditioned to hate. “We are done.”

There’s a reason Toni Stark is known as a genius, and Steve Rogers is a master tactician.

Both of them catch the meaning long before Bucky does. Both of them pale beneath injuries. Both of them look at her, and the first part that Bucky understands is that they’re apologizing. Unspoken, again with the eye to eye communication trick they have, but they’re apologizing.

And that…. that’s a very bad thing.

Bucky expects the collar, or a gun at her neck, or for the explosives to detonate, so she’s surprised when the soldiers drag her to the closest truck. The Avengers don’t shift at all. They’d already worked out what was happening. It takes Bucky longer.

It takes until she notices that the rest of the soldiers are loading up for an departure. Bucky starts to panic, looking up for a miracle in the shape of the quinjet, or one of Shield’s helicarriers, then across the cold barren field with the massive truck. She’s searching for another answer, and failing to find one. Steve and Toni were sold. Bucky wasn’t. And it isn’t a get one free deal.

Bucky forces her breathing to calm down, reminds herself that they can’t blow the vest while they’re standing next to her, and thinks back to every idle daydream she’s had. She’s a New Yorker, it wasn’t outside the range of possibility that she’d end up in a crisis situation with some member of the Avengers. She’s had all kinds of mental conversations and given plenty of brave speeches in her head while the subway was running slow. She’s thought about all of this, and she always wanted to be brave.

It’s harder when it’s real.

And really, she’s the expendable one. If Hydra is going to keep one of them, better it be her. Toni has a plan, Bucky’s sure of that. The two of them will be okay.

And it’s nice to think that they’d have saved her too, that they’d planned to save her too.

Looking at them, they’re both trying to figure out how. It’s pointless. Steve is coherent but still floppy and weak. Toni is brilliant, but the suit is her firepower. They can’t do anything to help.

No saving today, just avenging.