Bucky Rogers

Comic books weren’t Ronan’s thing, so he had no idea who the handsome mechanic husbands really were. He’d grown up on mythology and Niall Lynch’s larger than life stories, which were usually about himself and his sons. His gaze drifted in the direction of his gesture where the other man had disappeared. It would have been easy to take offense to that and conclude Bucky didn’t actually want to be standing here talking to him, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt more like an offering, as though he’d picked up on Ronan’s wariness and understood it.

“Downside of the job?” he said instead, one eyebrow raising in amusement. Fortunately, working at the farm didn’t require him to converse with anyone besides his coworkers, and often not even then. He didn’t have to work at all if he didn’t want to, but he liked the excuse to be outside with the animals, and it kept him from harassing Adam at his office all day. He glanced over his shoulder at the car, his expression softening ever so slightly without his permission. “My boyfriend keeps telling me I’m going to blow out a sidewall. He’s usually right about that kinda thing.”

.

There were some habits that would never be broken, some skills that would never be lost. Being able to quickly and accurately read people was one of them. Body language and where a person looked said a lot more than people ever thought it would. "Definitely," he huffed out a soft chuckle. "I'm happier tucked under a hood or in my kitchen than I ever am in a public setting." It was a small offering that once wouldn't have been so small, but give and take and trying seemed to be the ticket here.

He shifted enough to properly look at the car and saw the young man's expression shift. He kept his smile to himself, but it was something he recognized because he knew that his face had always done the same thing when Steve was the real source of it. "Car guy, that boyfriend of yours, then," he nodded in understanding and gestured at the car. "May I?"

Ronan wouldn’t call his life here settled, but there were worse places he could have been stuck. It could have been not on a ley line, for example. He wouldn’t last long in a place like that before the nightwash appeared. It could have been a big city with no open places. It would have been a slower death of the soul, but a death all the same. The farm wasn’t the Barns, but it was homey enough with Adam there.

He couldn’t help the way his gaze lingered on the parting touch, his chest aching a little with it. He’d like to be able to touch Adam that freely in public without worrying about who was watching or how much he was giving away. It wasn’t a secret that they were together; Ronan would never do that to either of them, but he couldn’t entirely shake the way he’d been raised. “Ronan.” He nodded once, his expression not shifting from slight wariness. That was less hostile than his usual expression, though, so probably an improvement.

.

He didn’t even let the expression on the young man’s face bother him in the slightest. For the longest time, his wasn’t the friendliest or most inviting either. Life and circumstances had a way of causing that. Bucky took full advantage of the time that he was being allowed to live in and love Steve, because it was a gift compared to where and when they came from. After everything they had been through, they deserved to live and love unapologetically.  “It’s nice to meet you, Ronan. That one,” he pointed back over his shoulder where Steve had disappeared off to, “is my husband, Steve. We tend to divide and conquer, and it’s my turn to do the people thing.” He shrugged lightly, a slight smile pulling at the corner of his lips. Tipping his head at the car, he looked at him curiously, “What brings you two in here today?” 

He wasn’t sure he would ever want to keep his hands off of Steve, even if they’d been this way for decades. The long time apart and repeated losses certainly added to the need to be close, but it had been there long before any of it. He was happy to live a life curled up against Steve filled with soft touches and kisses and more when they weren’t out in a forest. 

Mia could handle a lot, but someone being kind to her in the middle of her breakdown wasn’t one of those things. If he’d yelled at her, she could have gotten angry, and that would have been so much easier. Instead, she just had to feel this, all the way through. She leaned against him, tucking her face into his shoulder as she cried. She imagined it was how being comforted by a dad would feel, but she wouldn’t know. Oliver hadn’t been there for most of her life, and never for anything like this.

There was something black and awful rising up in her, the source of all this pain. She couldn’t stop it from coming out, but still, it felt like choking on the words, like she was pulling out something sharp that had been lodged deep for a long time. Nevermind that she’d never once mentioned the Green Arrow to anyone in Sallow Hills, and there was no context for this conversation. Then again, Mia had daddy issues written all over her.

“Why did he have to die?” she sobbed, clinging to him. “I just got him back. Why did he care more about being a hero than being my dad? He’d rather die for the whole world than stay alive for me.” She wasn’t being fair; she knew that. A whole world against one sad little girl would never balance. But he’d always made that choice. It was the reason she’d grown up without him. Why did it always have to be him? Why couldn’t he choose her, just once?

.

He waited patiently for her to choose to curl into him, hoping she would take at least some of the comfort he was willing to give her. When she tucked her face into his shoulder, his arm slid around her while the other slid over her hair. It wouldn’t surprise him to learn just how much she had buried, how much she hadn’t really dealt with. Trauma was nothing easy to process even if you wanted to. 

Staying silent, he let her get it out, just making sure he held tight to her. Sometimes the hardest thing to process was someone actually being there for you when you weren’t used to it. His throat went tight with the realization that she was the daughter of someone like Steve, someone so good that they made the hard sacrifices. It made him that more determined to stay as retired as the universe would let them. 

“I’m sure he wanted to be with you, sweetheart, more than anything. But if the choice was him or you, that’s no choice,” the words were a soft murmur into her hair. “He chose you, in the hardest way, I bet. I’m sorry he’s not with you. It isn’t fair to you, at all.” 

ronan lynch + bucky barnes

@vvhite-vvolf·

··It was inevitable that Ronan would end up at Caddick Garage. While he was fully capable of doing basic maintenance on his father’s car (he still thought of it as Niall Lynch’s, even after all these years), the reckless abandon with which he drove it meant he would have ended up in there at some point. One of the fields on their farm was designated specifically for doing donuts and building ramps that may someday spell the end of his suspension. Seeing the mechanic husbands together in town had only sped up the process.

There wasn’t anything wrong with the car aside from needing a general tune up, but there was a pull to see them again or maybe talk to one of them. Ronan wasn’t sure whether he was trying to prove to himself that the magic of them was real or that it wasn’t. Most people were shitty when you got to know them. Probably he’d be better off not meeting them, ever, but either way he had to know. The angle at which he parked the charcoal BMW in the drive suggested insouciance, but he took his time getting out. There was nobody outside, but the garage doors were open.

He thought he’d prepared himself to see them together again, but even just talking together at the counter, the easy smiles, the way they were angled slightly toward each other, the casual brush of a thumb over a wrist, made him aware of the pulse beating in his throat. Without any particular public display of affection, no one could deny that they were together and obviously meant to be. Between the metal arm and the broad shoulders, no one would ever dare to give them shit about it either. He wasn’t sure what was on his face, but he thought there was a flicker of something like understanding on the blonde’s before he disappeared into one of the bays.

.

He liked the way their lives had settled into something stable, practically predictable in a way that was comfortable rather than boring. They had built their home, their life, out of the wreckage of their past and the mistake of wandering into a town in Wales. Bucky had been here long enough to recognize significant additions and the sight of the BMW in town had become regular enough to tell him it belonged to a recent addition in town. 

Spending their time planning out their day and what needed to be done was pretty normal for them, and Bucky always looked at Steve like he hung the moon. They had always moved together like they belonged in one another’s orbit. Soft touches, smiles that always filled him with warmth, they were constant and wonderful and he didn’t think he could ever get used to it entirely. 

The sight of the younger man who stepped into the garage out of the BMW had a small smile coming to his face in greeting. He recognized that carefully controlled look, his hand brushing along Steve’s side as he moved away. “Hi, I’m Bucky, welcome to Caddick’s,” he greeted, stepping out from behind the counter.

She hadn’t expected it to hit her so hard. It shouldn’t hurt so much to lose some random job in a town she didn’t even want to stay in, but Mia knew it was more than that to her. The Prince was the only place in Sallow Hills where she really felt like herself and like no one expected anything different from her. She didn’t have to pretend to be happy or heroic or anything else.

She also knew that if that was the only thing, she wouldn’t be crying about it. This had much more to do with Oliver than it did with the fire. Everything she hadn’t allowed herself to feel since the funeral was welling up inside of her, sharp-edged and ugly. It refused to be shoved back down again, even when he knelt in front of her.

If anything, the offer just made her cry harder. She nodded without looking up, not moving out from under that soft touch. She hadn’t given Bucky–or anyone here–any reason to be that kind to her. She didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t have the energy to keep pushing everyone away right now.

.

His heart ached for her, the normally angry and fierce young woman finally letting herself feel something. It was hard to hold up a front sometimes, and all it ever took was one real trigger. He’d had his own meltdowns in similar fashion. All the physical exertion and ignoring it in the world wouldn’t help for long.  Seeing her nod, he shifted to sit next to her, his hand never breaking contact with her. “Come here,” he murmured, his hand drifting softly over her hair in comfort. He had done it before with Rey, and long, long ago with his sister. Everyone needed a safe place and a person to turn to. If she was going to let him be that for her, even for a moment, he would. 

a real fucking legacy | mia & bucky

@vvhite-vvolf·

Mia crashed hard the night after the fire and slept through half the next day. Her throat still felt raw from the smoke, her muscles aching from the effort of helping drunks out of the building. Nobody had been seriously hurt. Her father would have been proud, and that stung more than the fresh burn on her arm. She could feel it closing in on her as she paced around her empty room. Without a shift to work that evening, she felt restless and adrift, and the longing to be out of Sallow Hills was stronger than ever–as was the bitter knowledge that she truly was stuck here.

She made regular use of the gym in town, but as long as the weather cooperated, she preferred the woods. It was quieter and had less traffic, with one or two obvious exceptions. Steve and Bucky knew where she trained and sometimes stopped by to say hello when they heard her out there. She’d been methodically shooting arrows and throwing knives for at least an hour, her muscles burning in protest, before her feelings finally caught up with her. The Prince was gone. Her dad was gone. Her hopes of getting back to her brother again might as well be gone too.

She’d have denied sitting on the freezing ground and sobbing like a child to anyone who asked, but she was too deep in her meltdown to even look up at the sound of footsteps. She had no doubt Bucky could sneak up on her if he wanted, and she recognized his deliberate steps. If someone had to witness her falling apart, he was probably the least offensive option. There was something dad-like about both of the soldier mechanics, and she had a feeling they would have made easy friends with Oliver.

,

He’d been concerned after the fire at the Prince, glad to know that Mia hadn’t been seriously physically hurt. The rest was up for debate, but he doubted that she would really show anyone that she was hurting if she could avoid it. With what he’d learned of her, he figured that she would make her way to the woods when the lack of a work shift got to her, so he made his way where he knew he would find her.  The sound of sobbing made his heart wrench, but he didn’t quicken his steps in worry. It would do no good here. Instead, he made himself absolutely, clearly known, taking careful steps that made noises with each one that she would hear. He made his way to her and crouched down in front of her, within reach but not invading her space. 

“I’m here,” was all he said, but he knew it was probably all that he actually needed to say. It wasn’t a small offer, not when he was making it. Slowly, he reached out to brush a hand lightly over her hair with a soft question, “May I?” 

“Are you saying I should kill you if I get the chance?” She raised an eyebrow. Somehow, that did not make her feel any better about this encounter. He hadn’t done anything overtly threatening, but she wasn’t sure he could be anything but menacing with his size, that arm, and the way he handled a knife. Mia hadn’t killed anyone since she got here and wasn’t planning to, but if she had to save herself, she wouldn’t hesitate.

“You know who likes solitude and quiet? Serial killers,” she said flatly. If he didn’t want anything but wasn’t going to leave, she didn’t see any reason to waste the time she’d set aside for training. She slid the knife in her palm back into place and picked up the others, keeping him always in her sight as she went back to target practice. “Don’t care. I’m not staying.”

.

“Not at all, I would really rather you didn’t,” he admitted with a slight lift at the corner of his lips. She wouldn’t really like what would become of her life, he thought, if she did that while stuck here in Sallow Hills. “I’m saying that recognizing a potential threat’s a good idea, and there’s a few of them around here.” As soft as he might be these days, he knew that he was still a force to be reckoned with. 

“Or people who spent too long fighting other peoples’ battles,” he pointed out with a shrug. Her insistence that she could leave made him shake his head. “Yes, you are. Whether you like it or not. There are people who have been stuck in Sallow Hills for years. You’re not different and you won’t be the last.” 

Bucky had stopped taking the time to think about life outside of Sallow Hills. It wasn’t one he was willing to entertain, not when it meant losing so much. He didn’t trust the rest of the world to just let them stay in their happy bubble. They had fought enough, lost enough, that he didn’t want to lose this too. Not when Steve laughed and smiled the way he did, looked at him the way he did. 

His eyes darkened lightly as he watched him, a slow smile on his face as he brushed his finger across his lower lip. “Good, have to make sure you get enough,” the words were soft and teasing, flirtation wrapped in love like it always was. “What do you think?” 

That urge to fight every fight had mostly burned out of him. He didn’t know if he’d credit it to age. It was more that he was finally in a place, both literally and figuratively, where peace felt possible. He loved being a married man with kids and a house and a cat (he guessed), rather than a soldier or an Avenger. He was still Steve Rogers though, and he wasn’t capable of ignoring a cause that needed him.

He curled around him, enjoying the closeness, a soft laugh rumbling through his chest at the answer. He’d guessed he wasn’t fooling Bucky at all, and it was reassuring to be known so well. “I think we can help,” he said softly, knowing he didn’t have to explain it to him. The woods weren’t known for being safe, and while Steve was definitely more of a city boy, they were both good at protecting. He’d feel better about people wandering around in there with some backup.

.

They didn’t have to fight anymore, and he had the opinion that they’d both done far more than their fair share of it. He wasn’t surprised that they were both burned out of the fight for the most part. Sure, a good reason wouldn’t keep either of them out of one, never would. 

He loved feeling the gentle rumble of his laughter, and would have known what it looked like on his face without even seeing him in that moment. “I know we can,” he agreed, brushing a hand softly along his arm. “We’re a lot more equipped for those woods than most of the people that would be going in there.” 

come morning light | stucky

@vvhite-vvolf·

For as peaceful as they found Sallow Hills compared to their world outside the barrier, it had its moments of chaos. The disappearance of yet another mayor had triggered a lot of fallout, from the new election campaigns to the renewed interest in investigating the others who went missing. Steve didn’t have any personal experience with that, but he knew he’d be climbing the walls again if that were ever Bucky or the kids. He’d never stop looking for them.

A quiet night at home seemed like the best thing for both of them. He knew Bucky didn’t need protecting, but making sure he had some peace and downtime was high on his list of priorities. It always settled something inside him to be making dinner together in their kitchen, a much-needed bit of normal. He wrapped an arm around his waist, pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder.

Unfortunately, Steve wasn’t particularly prone to peace himself. “Do you want to go to that meeting tomorrow about the missing people?” It had been bothering him since he’d first heard about it, and he didn’t think he could leave it alone. There wasn’t a lot of call to be a hero here, but it was a small thing where they could potentially make a difference.

.

There was so much happening in the town, a higher than normal level of noise buzz. He’d taken advantage of the slow day at the garage and gone home, stopping at the grocery store for everything they’d needed. A night of peace, tucked in at home with Steve, felt like exactly what they needed.  He had wondered how long it would take for people to finally rise up and take notice, to do something about it. Now that it was happening, he knew that it was only a matter of time before him and Steve were involved in some part of it. He knew his husband, and he knew that it was incoming.  Leaning back into him, he hummed softly in happiness at just having him close. He tipped his head to brush his lips over his jaw. “We can, because I know you, baby,” he teased softly, “and you know I won’t let you go without me.” 

There had been a time, most of his life really, that he wouldn’t have believed he could be happy like this. He had certainly, at no point in the last eighty years, thought that peace could be a part of his daily life. Steve did that for him, gave all of that to him. Knowing it would be disturbed outside of Sallow Hills, he wasn’t inclined to leave. 

Close was never close enough when it came to his husband. He could happily spend most of his life in his lap, wrapped around him. That soft groan made him shiver and he was rapidly rethinking their plans to have their picnic outside. He brushed his lips over his finger where he’d scraped his teeth and had to force himself to sit back some. Reaching over, he picked one up for him and held it up in offering, the look on his face patient and slightly teasing. “Try one,” he encouraged, his voice a bit on the husky side. 

“We do make a good team,” he agreed, smiling but perfectly serious. They’d been partners in most aspects of their lives long before they were romantic partners. Bucky was his favorite person, the one he trusted with anything. Being able to make easy decisions together about how to paint their house or what to cook for dinner was a blessing he’d never expected.

He took advantage of that space to press soft kisses against his neck, teeth scraping gently over his skin. “I’m feeling very …terrorized,” he teased in a low voice, laughing softly. His arms tightened around him, and he nuzzled gently into his neck with a murmured I love you. He unwrapped one arm to pull a container of little pastry things (he had no idea what they were–the theme of the picnic was tiny, cute foods) closer and offered him one.

.

“The best,” he murmured happily. He had never expected this to become his life, so filled with happiness and love. Being married to his favorite person, his best friend, and building a life with him was everything. From their house to their family, he loved the life they had together. 

He shivered slightly in his hold, a breathless laugh escaping him from the sheer delight at the moment. “You should be,” he teased, pressing close and sinking his hand into his hair with a content sigh. Tipping his face into Steve’s hair, he smiled into it and returned the soft I love you. Watching him pull out one of the pastries, he hummed and leaned forward to simply nip it from his fingers, his teeth scraping gently. “Mmm, that’s good,” he murmured.

“If I was being rude, I would have aimed for you.” Given that catch, she probably still would have missed though, and her brain was already buzzing with strategy in the event she had to try it for real. A lot of knives, or arrows, in quick succession or all at once, maybe. Don’t go for the obvious hit. He couldn’t catch everything. Unless he was a speedster, and then she was hopelessly outmatched with her current equipment.

“What do you want, then?” Mia couldn’t relax as long as she didn’t know the answer to that question. Maybe not even then, depending on how honest it was. He wasn’t being hostile, unlike her. If she had hackles, they’d have been raised. If she could have electrified herself like a fence, she would have. “Then we’re clearly not from the same place.” It was practically a trend in Star City, but that didn’t make him safe. Oliver Queen had enemies all over the damn world.

.

“You know what, that’s fair,” he accepted with a small chuckle, “But I would have also just called it smart.” She was clearly smart and well trained, it was interesting to see. Different from a widow, because she was clearly emotional, even if it was annoyance or something similar. But he could see her mind racing through how to take him down if it came to that. 

“I was just walking and heard you. Not many people choose the woods, and for good reason. My husband and I live on the edge of them, we like the solitude and the quiet.” He gave an easy shrug, unbothered by the hostility since he’d brought it on himself. “No, definitely not. You’ll find that’s going to happen a lot here in Sallow Hills, though.” 

There were years where Steve’s smiles had been scarce and he felt like he’d lived every single one of those hundred years. Bucky made him smile, brought back the teasing and playfulness, made him feel like a person instead of a captain. “I can’t remember the last time that happened,” he admitted with a soft smile. That was one of the nice things about this place. They didn’t have to choose between bad and worse decisions all the time.

Taking his hair down and shifting closer was plenty distracting. He immediately had the urge to run his fingers through it, but his hands were full. When they’d succeeded in unpacking, his arm tightened around his waist. “You’re a menace, Rogers,” he murmured, brushing his lips against his neck at the edge of his shirt, his turn to be distracting. “You choose.”

.

To Bucky, he had always just been Steve. Sure, he’d have followed him to the ends of the Earth, and he had, but that was because of Steve Rogers, never because of Captain America. “Not surprising, since I have a really great partner to bounce off of,” he teased easily. The life they lead here, the choice they had to make, they could almost all be made out of love and they wouldn’t go wrong. 

Feeling Steve’s hands in his hair was one of his absolute favorite things and he couldn’t help but be a little sad his hands were full when it got shaken free. Settling across his lap when they were done unpacking, he smiled slowly, his arms curling around his shoulders, fingers linking behind his neck as he tipped his head back. “I live to terrorize you, Rogers,” he chuckled, a little breathless and happy about it. “Dessert,” he murmured softly.

Nobody human could have caught that knife, and she went still and wary, wondering if she should bolt. She’d be faster on rooftops than in this fucking jungle though, and if he wasn’t a human, he could probably catch her. She decided she was better off here with her weapons than leaving them behind to stumble through the woods, but the other knife slid into her palm in case it was needed.

“It’s rude to sneak up on someone.” She glared, backing away as he got closer and nodding for him to put it with the rest of her weapons. Peace or not, she didn’t want to be within arm’s reach. The metal one didn’t look like something she could fight easily. “Do I look like I want to be around people? I only fight humans, if that’s what this is about.” She’d have recognized him from the bar if he’d been there, but word got around. She was counting in it if she wanted to make any more money fighting. Mia already knew she wouldn’t win a fair fight against this guy, no matter how good she was. That’s why her dad taught her to take every advantage.

.

“It’s rude to throw knives at people,” he pointed out with a little chuckle. Entirely too much of his life had been spent rooted in violence and teaching for him to be bothered by her reaction or attitude. A quick flick of his wrist buried the knife in the ground next to her small pile as he raised an eyebrow. He recognized the antagonism of someone forced to fight for their lives and just live it.  “Do I look like I really care who or what you fight?” He was nonchalant and visibly relaxed, unbothered by anything she had done so far. He wasn’t one to make a problem where there wasn’t one. “Bows aren’t the most common weapon of choice. I’ve only met one who did it,” he tipped his chin to her bow.