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crushedbyhyperbole · 2 years

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Rockets of Love (Bucky x Plus!Reader)

Chapter One

Summary: You are MoonDragon, a sassy gamer girl with a reputation for badassery. Your game of choice? Orion Protocol.

Bucky is a retired Army veteran who plays for The Avengers clan.

What happens when you two meet? Well... that’s what you’re here to find out!

Words:

A/N: This is a Gaming AU with long-distance logistics. This is written as a plus size cis female reader. I started writing this a while ago and it’s still a WIP but I wanted to start getting it out there. I update AO3 more than my tumblr so there will be extra chapters there before they hit here. There is gaming speak and are some acronyms may be used but I’ll post those for each chapter. Game descriptions heavily based on Unreal Tournament 3 which i used to play s hit-tonne of. I hope you enjoy.

Acronym/term glossary for Ch1: DM - Deathmatch TDM - Team Deathmatch HP - hit points or damage points Frag - kill KDR - Kill/Death Ratio

Warnings: Gaming-typical violence and death, self-esteem issues, language/profanity, morbid humour. This will become explicit 18+ at some point in the story, so fair warning.

***18+ content - for whatever reason I label this for adults only - minors do not read/interact***

Rockets of Love Master List

It’s true what they say; the anonymity of the internet breeds confidence. At least that’s how it was for you.

In real life you were diffident. Not debilitatingly so, but enough to for you not to put yourself out there when it came to relationships. You were single, by a combination of choice and circumstance; self-esteem issues lead you to see traps and tricks in even the most sincere of compliments, no one got through your defences. At least no one you met face to face. Not anymore.

Your outward displays of confidence were defence mechanisms. Offensive humour, self-deprecating humour, and sarcasm were well used antics in your arsenal of tricks to hide how insecure you were about your body. Now so much a part of who you were that you couldn’t remember a time when you weren’t that girl who made obscene comments just to keep people at arm’s length.

There’s nothing better than offending people to keep them away.

You were employed (semi-happily) in a job that paid well and gave you everything you needed to pay bills, keep your family home, run your car, and have holidays; top tier client support for Pulse, a multi-national tech solutions company. You’d been there almost eight years and you had no desire to move on or up – you were comfortable.

If you had the choice to do anything you wanted, you weren’t sure what you would to do instead. That would involve thinking about yourself on a deeper level, which wasn’t something you liked to do.

Anyway, that was you in the real world.

Digitally you were MoonDragon. A sassy and confident girl gamer. Skilled and formidable, with a reputation for badassery that preceded you into every game you played. Your current game of choice – Orion Protocol; a fantasy first person shooter with an arena style multiplayer. Never had a game hooked you quite as badly as this. You’d been playing for almost two years now, and had been recruited into a clan six months ago.

The Avengers were a well-known clan. Only elite players were asked to join, but more than that, it was like a family. Good team dynamics, good sense of humour, lots of respect and support. Team members were recruited after being vetted by one of the founding members, Steve Rogers aka Captain America, Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier or Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow. That’s how you were picked up.

+Flashback – six months earlier+

You’d just saved Cap’s ass in a public team deathmatch when he was on the ropes with no ammo and only a basic issue pistol to defend himself. Jumping into the fray on some temporary perk rocket boots, you’d sniped the heads off three jerks who were ganging up on poor old [AVG]Captain_America.

“Thanks for the save, MoonDragon.” He said, picking himself up and running for a nearby weapon spawn.

You rarely talked in game with randoms unless coordination was needed (and rarer still for banter) but when he spoke his voice was that of someone older, not some annoying kid, so you decided to reply.

“No sweat, dude.” You said stiffly. “Three on one is a shitty deal, unless it’s a porno.” You muttered, probably too quietly to be picked up on the mic.

Captain America laughed hard. “They didn’t seem to cause you any problems.” He said finally.

“I had the element of surprise.” You couldn’t help a small smile that tugged your lips upward. “It’s easy to get the drop when they’re all trying to teabag the infamous Captain America.”

“I’m infamous now, am I?” The amusement in his voice was clear.

“I’d say so.”

“Good to know.” He sounded like he was smirking.

“Everyone knows who you are.”

“Is that so?”

“Pretty much.”

“Is that how you’ve got such a high KDR? You’re following me around picking off my would-be killers?”

It was a little flirty how he was talking to you and to be honest, you kind of liked it.

A new player joined the room but didn’t spawn onto a team yet.

“You caught me.” You chuckled. “I’m sneaking up behind them and pegging them with my plasma strap-on while they’re distracted.”

Captain America was howling with laughter so much he got himself killed.

“Wait! Did I just hear strap-on and pegging?” Another smooth deep voice spoke up.

[AVG]The_Winter_Soldier had spawned onto your team, evening-up the teams up at six a piece.

“Hey man!” Captain America greeted his clan mate.

“What’s going on, Cap? Those asshats on the other team are talking so much shit about the two of you, I just had to listen in to see what the fuss was about.”

You knew that when someone joined mid-game but didn’t spawn in that they were privy to the conversations from both teams. It was a bit of a glitch with the game but wasn’t really an issue unless people were bitching about members of the other team and thought no one could hear them. Which happened. A lot.

“Well, MoonDragon here saved my ass a couple’a times but other than that I’m just messin’ around until the wife gets home from Pilates class.”

It was unusual for people to talk about their personal shit this openly but you supposed that these two clan guys knew each other pretty well and there wasn’t really anything too revealing in the information, no names or addresses etc.

“MoonDragon, huh?” The Winter Soldier said. “How about you, me and Cap here go give team blue a run for their money?”

“Oh lord.” Cap chuckled. “I feel some rage quits coming on.”

“Alright, Winter.” You said, accepting the callenge. “I’ll do my best to keep up.”

“Keep up? You’re already owning the match.” Winter said incredulously. “Tell you what, next match we’ll start? Give me a fighting chance at a score that good.” He seemed friendly, like his Clan mate.

“You got it.”

“Awesomeness!” Winter said, and you could almost hear the smile in his voice. It gave you a smile of your own.

It felt good to have a bit of banter with a couple of players who weren’t arseholes or annoying prepubescent kids.

Orion Protocol was an R-rated (for violence) game, yet kids as young as 12 were playing the damn thing. You weren’t a fan of kids at the best of times, and although you didn’t want to traumatize them, you also didn’t want to have to censor yourself because they were playing a game they weren’t old enough to play. Let’s say you didn’t go out of your way to be overly obnoxious but when some asswipe came for you, you pushed back no matter how old they were.

The game ended with a red team victory and the blue team were very vocal in the post-game chat. Five of the six were members of a clan tagged [KTA] and the sixth player left once the game was over. You didn’t blame them, all that squawking of young teens was unbearable.

“You guys are going down.” [KTA]69er said.

“How appropriately inappropriate of you to say so.” You said with a chuckle.

Winter and Cap got it, they laughed too.

“We’re gonna fuck you up so bad even your mom’s not gonna recognise you.” [KTA]Assassin piped up, brashly.

“Don’t start, kid.” Cap warned.

Two of your own team dropped out, probably not looking forward to getting killed by a bunch of trolling kids.

“What does [KTA] even stand for?” You asked, dryly.

“Kiss the anus.” Winter threw it out there.

You snorted but stifled your laugh. “Kinky toe appreciators?”

Cap almost choked.

“Kill Them All, you fucking morons.” [KTA]Assassin said bitterly.

“Oh, we’re morons, are we?” You said sardonically. “Judged by a twelve-year-old whose balls haven’t dropped yet. Peachy.”

“Oh, I like this one.” Winter said with a short sharp laugh. “Can we keep her?”

“I’m not twelve, I’m fifteen. And your mom wasn’t complaining about my balls last night when she was sucking them.” [KTA]Assassin was clearly the mouthiest. The other five were barely audible mutterings compared to this little shit’s ranting. “She’s gonna let me fuck her in the ass tonight too.”

“Well this is awkward.” You said, faking sincerity.

“What’s wrong with this kid?” Cap was almost offended.

“Yeah we know where she lives and we’re going round to fuck your mom in the ass tonight.” [KTA]69er piped up.

At least they didn’t assume you still lived in your parent’s basement.

“Good luck with that kiddos, I think she might be a little indisposed.” You sighed, knowing exactly where this was going.

“She’ll be more than that when I’m done with her.” [KTA]Assassin laughed shrilly.

“Shame the next map is Nexus instead of Proxima Centauri.” Winter said softly. “I fucking love that map.”

Proxima Centauri was one of your favourite maps too. You knew it like the back of your hand. But Nexus was a good map too, with its compass point warp gates high-up in the main room of the map, and its winding corridors around the outside. It would prove to be a very fun match if you, Winter and Cap played well together.

“Well, kid, I’ll leave you a shovel by the gate but you better clean up after yourself.” You said in a cautioning tone. “Bring your own lube though.”

“You’re stupid, what do I want a shovel for?”

“If you really want to fuck my mother you’re gonna have to dig her up first. It’s been a while so she might be a bit dry for ya.” You got the words in before the countdown ended.

“Oh shit!” Winter was guffawing.

“Decomposed. Indisposed. I might get those two mixed up occasionally.” You knew just how to aim for shock value.

“Goddamn girl, you are bru-tal!” Winter was still laughing.

“Sorry.” You said the word but you weren’t sorry. “Kids and assholes piss me off.”

In real life you wouldn’t dream of letting all of the words that formed in your head actually come out of your mouth, some of them -yes, but not all; they were so much more offensive and pretty damn harsh. But online, with your identity hidden, anything was possible. That’s why these kids and assholes found it easy to talk smack and threaten people, because they were untouchable. Well, so were you.

“Don’t apologise. Christ! That was hilarious.” Winter shut his mic off for a moment as the game was loading. A phone rang over Cap’s mic before he shut his off too.

The game started and you didn’t wait for your cue. You ran to the nearest weapon spawn, bumping right into [KTA]Assassin who had already picked up a scatter gun. You knifed him in the throat and, jumping up and back, you shot him repeatedly in the face with your default pistol before he could shred you to pieces.

“FIRST BLOOD!” The game announcer called.

With the scatter gun that had been dropped by your victim you picked up more ammo from the weapon spawn and cut a path through the map to collect your favourite things: Sniper rifle, singularity grenades and rocket boots.

“Good start!” Cap came back on audio first.

The teams were uneven, five to four. Your team had a randomer who kept getting killed. You felt sorry for them because with you and the two [AVG] guys, all of the blue team’s points were from your fourth man getting fragged.

“Hey, I’m gonna run with, um, CHUCKNORRISCAT.” You read his name carefully. “See if I can’t make his life a bit easier.”

“And she’s a team player!” Winter said appraisingly, as if making a point.

“Sounds good.” Cap said approvingly. “We can split it, pick him up when we see him spawn.”

The [KTA] kids came for CHUCKNORRISCAT like the hordes of hell. Each time you took them down they would come running at you again, practically throwing themselves on your bullets like lemmings. There was no logic to their plan, giving out free points on the off chance that they might get one for themselves. Dumb kids.

“This guy is sticking to the corridors.” You informed them. “But he’s bound to catch a rocket or a grenade sooner or later. Can one of you come pick him up for me, I need to resupply?”

“Sure.” Winter said, and you could hear a fire fight on his audio. He obviously played with his TV on loud whereas you played with a top-quality headset. “Where you at?”

“By the scatter gun again, headed towards the triple health.”

“Assassin has the double damage perk.” Cap said. “Almost got me.”

“Where’s he at?” Winter groaned. “I hate these kids and their damn powerups.”

“In the main room.” Cap said.

“If it’s there they’ll use it.” You chuckled. “I like me a shiny pair of rocket boots.”

“That’s different. Boots take skill.” Winter grumbled and you almost giggled.

You’d laughed more times these last two games than you had all week.

Winter joined you, dropping down from the upper level to shadow CHUCKNORRISCAT.

“This pussy better be worth it.” He teased.

“Who turns down pussy?” You teased back.

All three of you laughed. It felt good to let loose a little where it was safe and no one had a right to judge you.

“Cap might. He’s a good boy.” Winter said playfully.

Cap scoffed. “Tell my wife that.”

You slipped away into the main room so you could use one of the warp gates to pick up a stash of singularity grenades which were on a long spawn timer that you mentally kept track of.

“Hey, don’t go through there.” Winter sounded concerned. “Double damage, remember?”

“There’s about twenty-five seconds left on it by my count.” Cap informed you.

You didn’t respond, using your rocket boots to boost into the air as soon as you cleared the doorway. Rockets started flying and some of them were targeted. Three of the five [KTA] team were in there waiting, guarding the warp gate that lead to the double damage power up. It was pretty futile because the power-up was already in play and with a five minute countdown on the respawn it wouldn’t be ready again for some time.

“Three of them in here.” You said.

“I’m on my way.” Winter huffed.

You dodged a homing rocket with a nimble wall jump and pinged a no-scope sniper shot at the kid who was camping on the west warp gate platform.

“HEADSHOT!” The deep voice of the announcer called out.

“No, stay with Chuck’s pussy.” You said, switching weapons. “Two left now.”

Switching weapons quickly, you let out a stream of rockets to herd the empowered and glowing form of [KTA] Assassin towards a wall and behind some crates. The kid moved to the corner where you herded him and you switched to the scatter gun, filling that whole corner with pellets that rebounded around behind the crates, shredding him to pieces.

“DOUBLE KILL!”

“Last one is running for the south corridor.” You informed. “I have the DP.”

“DP?” Cap asked.

“Double Penetration.”

“Never heard it called that before.” Winter snorted. “That’s gonna stick.”

You threw a couple of scatter shots against the door frame hoping they’d rebound after the escaping [KTA] kid.

“TRIPPLE KILL.”

“Did you just spam that shit off a goddamn door frame?” Cap laughed.

“It worked didn’t it?” You smirked. “DP’s done. Five minute countdown.”

Communicating with others like this felt weird but right. You had a feeling that you were even good at it.

“Would you look at that?” Winter said in awe. “Chuck’s pussy just got a double kill!”

“Don’t mess with Chuck, or his cat.” Cap praised.

The rest of the match continued to be all jokes and fun. Cap and Winter died once a piece, much to their chagrin, but all in all it was a complete clusterfuck for the [KTA] kids.

With three minutes to go or five kills left to get for a red team win. the whole blue team were camping out in the main room, waiting for the DP to spawn again.

“As much as I want to go in there and kill them, I’m feeling a bit patient.” Winter said.

“That’s not like you.” Cap teased. “You afraid of a couple’a kids?”

“Nah, I’m just tryin’ to maintain my KDR prowess in front of the lady, man.” Winter joked.

“I’m no lady.”

“That’s true. You’ve got a mouth like a sailor.” He laughed.

You couldn’t help but smile at his teasing.

“Well she’s doing better than both of us so I’d say she’s not impressed by your KDR, Buck.” Cap sounded like maybe he was rolling his eyes.

Buck? Weird.

“I totally am!” You said playfully. “I’m so impressed.”

They both laughed as they threw grenades into the room, aiming high up for the jump gate platforms. One was off target. It clinked against the wall and bounced down towards where you were behind cover. The five [KTA] kids were spamming shots all over, it was only a matter of time before one of them caught you if you stayed put. That grenade was headed your way too, and own-team grenades meant friendly fire.

Leaning out, you snapped your sniper sight, quick-scoping. You plugged a shot into the grenade, exploding it early before it had the time to reach you.

That gave you an idea. You had one singularity grenade left and one jump left on your rocket boots.

“I’m gonna hail Mary this shit.” You said. “If I die it’ll make you two look better, if not it’ll be the best play I’ve ever made.”

“Well, we’re so far ahead there’s not enough time left for them to get even three kills on us so knock yourself out.” Cap said. “Is there anything you need?”

“Couple of rockets to push them together and away from the warp gate would be nice.”

“You got it.” Winter said.

The play went down like this: Cap and Winter spammed a few rockets at the gate end of the platform to push the group to one side, you shot a few at the far end to keep the group together. You caught a few rogue bullets but still had enough health to make it. You engaged your boots, tossing your last singularity grenade up to the roof where it ricocheted down and slightly behind the group. At the end of your jump you hit a wall, rebounding at an angle you quick-scoped and expertly sniped the grenade just as one of the kids realised there was a grenade dropping on his head. He threw himself off the platform but it was too late. The sniper shot exploded the grenade and the resulting singularity expanded in a glowing wave before sucking everything back on itself, including all five [KTA] players.

“VICTORY!” The announcer called with fourty-five seconds left on the clock

“No fuckin’ way!” Winter said in a strong New York accent that was more noticeable than before. “All five?”

“Best. Play. Evaarrrr!” You were pretty proud of that one.

“So, why haven’t we seen you around before?” Cap asked sceptically.

“You have.” You said. “We’ve played together a few times actually, but I usually keep my mic off.”

“I think I’d remember a style like yours.” Cap didn’t seem to believe you.

“When you’re kicking ass you don’t always see what the rest of us are doing.”

“But still…”

You received a friend request from Winter. Not the default message begging ‘please be my friend’, and not the creepy kind that guys sent gamer girls when they want to flirt for nudes.

FROM: [AVG]The_Winter_Soldier – Re: Join us?

“You got my message?” He asked.

“I got it.” You said with a sigh.

“Well?”

“I dunno, man. It’s a commitment I’m not sure I’m ready for.”

“You got down on one knee already, didn’t you, Buck?” Cap mocked him.

“What can I say? I’m a sucker for a jumping headshot on a moving target that’s not a head but a fucking tiny grenade instead.” Winter chuckled.

“That’s high accolade coming from you guys, thanks.” You really did feel good about yourself. These [AVG] guys were awesome players. Cap and Winter were two of the best you’d seen in the public circuit. You’d never played clan but you’d seen videos on youtube – clan play was rough.

“The offer’s there.” Winter said. “Think about it.”

You’d been too caught up in your discussion to realise that the next match was loading. There had been no chatter from the blue team once the mics were open but then again you hadn’t realised that they’d all left as soon as the match was over.

“Looks like we’ll have to find another game or wait for this to even the teams automatically.” Cap said. “Probably means it’ll be us against her.”

“Yeah I’m not taking that matchup.” You laughed. “You guys will pulverise me.”

“Yeah ok, you and your 68:0 ratio says otherwise.” Winter grumbled. He sounded cute.

“One more kill and you’d have made it into his score card hall of fame.” Cap teased.

“Hey, I’m gonna hit the hay, but it was cool to meet you guys.” You had work early and really couldn’t be arsed to hear your boss, Angela, bitching about how you looked tired, again.

“Aww, well alright little lady.” Winter put on a terrible southern accent. “It was a pleasure.”

“We’ll see you around sometime. Now I’m going to be looking out for your name.” Cap said. “What do you normally play?”

“Um, deathmatch, team deathmatch and singles.” You said.

“One-on-one?” Winter perked up. “That’s cool, I love a good duel. Hit us up sometime.”

“He’s the dueller, not me, but I’ll play.”

“Thanks guys. Good games and g’night.”

You quit the game but before you were shut out of the chat channel you heard Winter say to Cap.

“She’s crazy good! And soooo fucking cool.”

You blushed as you packed up your gaming gear, stowing it tidily away in the drawers of your desk. You’d had immense amounts of fun with those two but getting to know people wasn’t something you did well. Online was different though, there was this buffer between you and the real world, a veil that kept you hidden and allowed you to only show the parts of yourself that you wanted others to see, even if those parts weren’t wholly you but something completely fabricated. Kind of like that theory that every hot chick online was an obese sweaty mummy’s boy still living in mummy and daddy’s basement.

You laughed out loud, a little jubilant that the [AVG] guys had been so stoked with how you played. Winter’s friend request still lay unopened in your inbox. You’d really need to think about it before you decided to join them. You supposed that you could accept the friend request but hold off on joining their team, assuming they wouldn’t be offended if you turned them down. Honestly you never thought you’d be good enough for a clan but that just goes to show that you weren’t the best judge of your own talents.

It was a couple of days before you accepted Winter’s friend request, and then Cap’s. You learned that their names were Bucky and Steve. You met Black Widow and learned that her name was Natasha. After 1 month of playing with at least one of the three founding members every night, you finally agreed to join The Avengers and hadn’t looked back since.

Rockets of Love Master List

#bucky barnes x reader #plus size reader #badass reader #gaming au #smitten bucky barnes #long distance relationship #bucky barnes x plus size reader #bucky barnes x you #no use of y/n

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