recs and links

Bucky and Clint bond over baking and also time travel. Hee!

Steve gets de-aged. The Winter Soldier takes care of him as they hide out from HYDRA (and the rest of the world). Oh my heart.

“Steve, I love you,” he’d said. To many Steves. Not to this man, maybe, but to the jumble of different Steves that existed inside him. The same Steve. But also all the different measurements of Steve, the different sizes he’d occupied. To every one, he’d said the same thing. Bucky tries to remember what it means, to love Steve. Oh my heart.

“Sometimes...” He sighs again. “Sometimes, I... I’m so sure this isn’t real. That I ain’t real. That I’m, I’m having a dream and I’ll wake up in the TB ward, or on-- or like Buck, on Zola’s table, maybe that’s it, maybe he’s experimenting, trying to get me to give him classified information with my dreams--” His voice is rising, growing tighter with each word, but Sam just nods. He’s learned that, in conversations like these, you let the vet take the lead. Steve is looking at him, though, expecting him to say something, so he does. “That sounds tough,” he says honestly. Steve let out a shaky breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess that’s one word for it. But I’d never-- this ain’t something I could dream or hallucinate. The showers on base weren’t hot, and there sure as hell weren’t any in the trenches. Maybe on leave, you might go to a hotel or a brothel, and once we were billeted in this English country house, but it isn’t something I’d ever got used to. So-- so this must be real. I couldn’t imagine it.” Oh, Steve.

If there was only one reason he's your best friend, it'd have to be his heart— the enormous, unbelievable, incredible expanse of it. So when he grabs your shoulder and digs his thumb into your collarbone, anchoring you to the ground, eyes staring bright blue holes into your face, pleading for you not to go at it on your own, you stop. You listen. And you try to remember. I'm not crying, you're crying. *sobs*

Steve and Bucky have makeouts but don't talk about it, until the strain of not talking about it takes its toll. Aw, boys.

Peter comes home. His grandfather has been waiting. I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face.

I could read a million variations on this "Hydra made clones of Steve and/or Bucky and now Steve (&/or Bucky) has to take care of them" thing that's suddenly popular, and this is a particularly sweet version. ♥

Go way beyond pie.

“Oh, Captain America,” Bucky calls, voice a dangerous sing-song. The edge of a blue shoulder and elbow he can see don’t move an inch. Stopping completely about four feet away from the tree, Bucky crosses his arms over his chest, feeling utterly unimpressed. “I can see you,” he calls, to a response of nothing. “Steve. You're behind a tree that isn't as wide as your shoulders. I can literally see you.” Finally, Steve moves. He appears from behind the tree, thumb tucked in his belt and expression carefully nonchalant, smiling at Bucky like he wasn’t an idiot who had just got himself shot. “Oh hey, Buck.” "Don’t you," Bucky begins, voice threatening as he scans Steve and spots a new tear in his uniform, across the side of his calf. "Don't you ‘hey Buck’ me," he tries, but Steve is still looking at him with a stupid winning smile fixed firmly in place, and it’s no good, Bucky is starting to laugh. "Stop grinning at me, punk, I'm mad at you," he insists. "Oh my god, you were hiding behind a tree, how have you survived this long-" "Dumb luck," Steve says. This is adorable.

Steve is getting really tired of the Avengers cockblocking him and Bucky. Hee! This is adorable.

The Winter Soldier rescues a little girl having an asthma attack, and suddenly everything in his life changes. Oh Bucky.

Five times Steve tries to find Bucky a family (pre-CATWS). Oh heart.

When the Avengers all get de-aged, Bucky has to step out of the shadows to help. Oh, Bucky. *heart*

In which Oliver once worked with the Winter Soldier and now he's trying to save him.

Eliot teaches little girls how to fight. Darling!

Tony gets Bucky a therapy llama. Hijinks, as they say, ensue. Hilarious.

Steve discovers some letters Bucky wrote him during the war. Lovely.

Clint doesn't really understand why the Winter Soldier starts hanging around his apartment building, but he rolls with it, and everything else that comes along. I liked the first half at the apartment more than the second half fighting AIM/HYDRA etc. but the whole thing is fun.

Really lovely story of Gamora and the others building a home.

Absolutely darling story chock full of Thor being the most delightful Avenger ever.

Really lovely post-Winter Soldier Bucky/Natasha.

Clint and Natasha take Bucky in while he heals. A little rough technically (punctuating dialogue) but heartfelt and wistful with a nice Clint voice.

Bucky brings Steve a mission he can't handle himself. Natasha comes along for the ride. Wonderful.

Really lovely story about Bucky's recovery and how people (other than Steve) try to help him.

Very hot Steve/Bucky/Peggy.

"The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect." 50,000 words of Bucky transforming himself back into a person, with some help from Natasha, Jarvis, and the old people brigade. Oh my heart. This is SO GOOD. Highly recommended.

An Asgardian animal that makes people cuddly gets loose in the tower. The Avengers try to recapture it without things getting too weird. This is adorable!

Natasha - who she's been and who she is now, and what it means for her relationships with Steve and Bucky. Nice melding of comics and movie canon for her backstory.