recs and links

Long, supremely satisfying time travel story where post-CATWS Bucky and WWII era Bucky magically swap places for a while. Highly recommended.

Steve's trying to help Bucky but he's kind of a mess too, so it doesn't go as well as he'd hoped. This is really melancholy and lovely. *sobs*

Bucky gets caught in a time loop the day that the insight carriers launch. It takes him a while to figure out how to fix it, but it also gives him time to remember Steve and himself and how to be a person again. Oh Bucky.

The Avengers rescue a baby from HYDRA and Bucky gets attached. I could read a million words of Bucky + babies.

"Did you miss me on the plane?" The towel falls away altogether. Rogers sits back on his heels, forehead scrunched up, blinking rapidly. "Yes, Buck," he says, in a voice that suggests he is in the early stages of asphyxiation by invisible noose. "As a matter of fact, I did." His marble-blue eyes are glassy with a sheen of moisture. The Asset experiences a surge of emotion he can only describe as guilty panic. He is fairly sure making Captain America cry constitutes a war crime by the standards of the Geneva Convention. Bucky is grumpy and Steve is emotional. Oh my heart.

modern day Steve and Bucky swap bodies - and places - with 1938 Steve and Bucky. It sounds really cracky but the story does a nice job of taking the emotional consequences seriously.

Steve grows a beard on a mission. Bucky really likes it. Oh this is great - it has shaving, tickle fights and pining. Mmm...good.

Lovely, quiet Bucky recovery fic.

Bucky's not doing real well, but while he's dogsitting while Steve is away, he ends up breaking up a dog fighting ring and becoming the pet whisperer. Oh Bucky.

Bucky pines stoically when he and Steve get jobs working backstage with showgirls, and he thinks Steve's in love with someone else. Lovely.

When Sam's wings need to be rebuilt, Tony introduces him to T'Challa. Adventures happen. I enjoyed this.

ALWAYS BE WONDER WOMAN

The Winter Soldier reports to a safe house after DC, but nobody shows up to retrieve him, and he starts to remember things. And when he does, he wants to help destroy HYDRA, and he ends up hooking up with Coulson's team. Oh Bucky. Oh Steve.

"I know your step which is unlike any other step," Steve said, coming closer still. "I love you because you're the one I chose to love, and you still are. I don't care what your name is now. I know you when you're standing in front of me." Steve and Bucky via The Little Prince. *sobs*

really good steve/bucky vid. it made me cry.

Bucky and the Hulk come to an understanding, which helps during a battle. Aw anger management bros.

Stephen Strange turns Bucky into a puppy. Steve Rogers adopts a stray dog. HYDRA wants its favorite pet back. (Sorry!) This is a really lovely story - it has a fairy tale feel to it that I really dug.

Long, vivid, startlingly lovely and genuinely moving story of how Bucky recovers. (It's 90k words of second person, which may be offputting to some, but works because of the way Bucky dissociates and has to learn to think of himself as a person again.)

Natasha tries to work her shit out, with an assist from Steve and Bucky.

Natasha and Steve are both touch-starved. Bucky figures out a way to fix it. Lovely.

After the events of Thor 2, Natasha and Clint team up once more with James Bond. I enjoyed this a lot. (Sequel to Second Mouse.)

"Okay, so, from practically-legendary merciless superhuman assassin with a metal arm to sad hobo with a metal arm in, what, two months? I mean, sure, living in DC takes its toll on people, but sheesh." Tony leans back in his chair. "Make that sad psychotic hobo." The marks of metal fingers on his throat are blooming black-purple, and he's not going to get his voice all the way back to normal for some days yet. The Avengers help Steve help Bucky. I enjoyed this.

I really enjoyed this look at Bucky making an effort to show Steve he's ready to be on the Avengers, though it has some formatting and punctuation issues. (Also, it's in 2nd person, and I know that bothers a lot of people.)

You're eating pizza -- plain cheese, because your stomach twisted at the sight of the pepperoni and sausage -- with the girl when it occurs to you: "Did we ever tell Steve we were going to marry him?" The girl tilts down her sunglasses and looks at you with raised eyebrows. "If you want to marry Captain America, that's your own business. Leave me out of it." She takes a dainty bite of her pizza. "Unless I'm your sister again, in which case, what the fuck, Barnes. What the actual fuck." "Sorry," you say, looking down. You got confused again, but you remember that the girl isn't Becca now. Her name is Kate Bishop. She and Clint Barton are both codenamed Hawkeye, which they appear to think is perfectly normal, and everybody else finds a little strange. The girl stares at you for a long moment. She says, "Captain America acts like it was HYDRA that screwed you up, but you were kind of fucked up to begin with, weren't you?" You look up, twist your mouth into something like an expression. You hold your left hand up, pinch your forefinger and thumb about half an inch apart. Maybe a little. Oh Bucky. He and Kate team up to save their respective partners.

The Winter Soldier does not work for SHIELD, because SHIELD no longer exists. Neither does he freelance. The original Black Widow is his employer. She assisted Captain America and the Falcon in tracking him for six months and captured him outside Prague, pinning him to the interior wall of a metal shipping container with magnets. "From what I understand, you're recently defrosted and have been comprehensively brainwashed," she said in clipped Russian. "Do you want me to return you to base?" "No," the Winter Soldier said. The Black Widow nodded. "How about years of therapy?" The Winter Soldier shook his head. Unexpectedly, the Black Widow smiled at him. "Yeah, me neither. Want a job?" Hee! Kate and Bucky team up reluctantly at the local J. Crew.

"I begged my mom to make this so many times when I was little, she finally taught me how to do it myself. First thing I ever learned to cook." Bucky looked at Steve as he chewed. Finally he swallowed and murmured, "Date squares." Steve grinned. "That's right! Yeah, you got your Ma to teach you those because I liked 'em so much." Bucky nodded. "Lots of butter," he said approvingly. Sam squinted at him. With his wild-man hair and crazy-man arsenal, Bucky bore almost no resemblance to the clean-cut soldier from the history books, let alone a small boy trying to feed up his even smaller friend. Sam cooks for Steve and Bucky on their roadtrip of revenge. I really enjoyed this.

Steve figures out a foolproof way to bring Bucky back to him. Oh heart.

Sirius goes on the run instead of going to Azkaban, and with some help from Remus he tries to prove his innocence. I enjoyed this a lot.

Steve and God (and Bucky) throughout his life. really well done on the historical details and Steve's progressivism.

Lush, hot story full of Bucky pining stoically until he doesn't have to pine anymore. *happy sigh*