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the-darkness-does-not-bargain · 1 year

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oh i like the concept of ava being around for longer

feel like she definitely deliberately gives conflicting stories of how she ended up as immortal all the time

betcha they probably have like a book to consult on their arguments and how they ended and/or were resolved, but you bet their ass they manage to have the same/similar arguments time and time again just for the heck if it, especially since they’ll tamper w it or put stuff like “and lilith said my opinion on star wars, and media in general is the bestest ever and no one could top it (😏), and that’s the resolution to the great prequels vs sequels debate of the 1900s” “i would die before i ever said that, i’ll kill you for that pun, and i do fucking top.” “Funny, that’s not what you were asking me to do last ni- *unintelligble scribbling turned into line of pen unmistakebly being dragged off of paper*” (they’re both tops w each other and 90% of the time, vv competitive about who gets to top)

there’s probably a bunch of random housing advertisements & like, bank loan advertisements or something, ava collects em as part of the bit but also because wants to make it clear that regardless of her reasons, lilith can leave anytime she chooses to do so, if she wants to, partially because of knowing lilith’s baggage around expectations & shit bc of her family, partially bc of her own issues around feeling like a burden

i feel like lilith’s probably a bit of an animal expert in this au, because at first she just wanted to know shit about bats to make sure she wasn’t like, accidentally flipping off other bats in bat language, and also the best animals to feed from, taking in location & how easy it’d be to hunt em, how much blood they’d yield, etc, but she found stuff really interesting and she branched off from there

picturing beatrice stumbling into ava & lilith’s lives through shenanigans

beatrice either being the cursed prince from beauty and the beast (beatrice turned away the sorceress who cursed her because she didn’t want to risk anything that might make her seem like a lesbian bc of her parents (or she placed “the mission” over the woman) so she doesn’t let the young wonan stay the night, nd the sorceress cursed her and was like “until you find a true love you will stay like this” (while beatrice x ava x lilith is probably a thing, the specific true love that will break the curse is self love), and she meets ava & lila because turns out ava & lilith have been using beatrice’s castle as a vacation place, and partially bc of size of the castle and time (beatrice usually visits friends when ava & lilith go to the castle) they never managed to cross paths or even learn about the other/s’ existence til now, and now they’re spiderman_pointing_meme.jpg

or beatrice being a werewolf, and if she’s a werewolf she ends up in ava & lila’s apartment bc beatrice accidentally stumbled into the wrong apartment and ava saw no harm in letting her stay for a bit and/or ava mistook her for a wolf friend if theirs or something

regardless lilith & beatrice do not get on at first (maybe bc of a long petty feud between vampire & supernaturak wolf & wolf related entities) so just picture grumpy lil hissing bat!lilith when she encounters beatrice initiallly lmao

Mostly, she does it for a laugh, but part of it is because her own memories of the event are spotty either due to sheer temporal distance or possibly repression. But there's something to be said for making the story of her life whatever she wants it to be, and who is left to contradict her? Maybe she tells Lilith somewhere along the way, or maybe she doesn't. And Lilith knows about secrets, so she respects and goes along with whatever version Ava tells.

Probably after the first century or two of living together, they start to notice the patterns in their arguments and write them down, and they will absolutely pull out these enormous, ancient as dirt books and find the exact page they need to gloat about this or that rhetorical victory.

I refer to a set of previous tags on who tops and how. They have a fist fight before sex and the winner tops. Ava can't die and Lilith heals pretty fast. Eventually, this evolves into playing dice or card games (but not Uno, since the Incident of 1998) or even doing household chores when neither are motivated to clean.

If the two of them were stomping about Roman Gaul, then they both know how to ride horses. Lilith definitely rides a horse better than she drives a car, and during the intervening years of being a bitty bat girl, she learns all about the different species of bats and how to talk to them. Sometimes a wild bat makes its way into their house, and Lilith will argue with it about breaking and entering.

Ava does ensure that Lilith always has the space and resources to leave if she really wants to. And maybe Lilith does disappear sometimes, for like a month or two, but she always comes back, and Ava is always waiting with a smile. Ava knows about loneliness and connection perhaps better than anyone on the planet, so she understands when Lilith needs to be alone and exactly how to welcome her back.

I love werewolf!Bea. When Beatrice comes into the ancient gay weirdness that is this relationship? Chaos, at first. Centuries of well-worm routines thrown out the window. Ava welcomes it, but Lilith is much more a creature of habit than she, and it's a difficult adjustment to say the least. Lots of fights. Lilith in bat form hissing and spitting while flapping above wolf!Bea growling and threatening to bite her right out of the air. Ava becomes an animal wrangler in a way she never imagined being.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Mercy Thompson series and its lore regarding werewolves, because they don't age but time is their enemy because it can slowly drive them crazy. And if Bea is aware of this and then meets these two shockingly old immortals still behaving relatively normally, it might give her hope for her own chances. And Bea would be a helpful blood source for Lilith in emergencies when Lilith isn't able to hunt for whatever reason, since wolves are strong and heal quickly. Their own relationship starts like that and grows from there until Bea is seamlessly integrated into the throuple like she was always there.

#warrior nun #ava silva #sister beatrice #sister lilith #fallenhaloguard #ava x beatrice x lilith #beatrice x lilith #ava x lilith #immortal roommates au

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ao3feed-buckybarnes · 3 years

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Longing

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2RxMBEj

by elwenyere

"Hours later, when everything was well and truly fucked, Bucky would recognize the exact moment when he should have benched himself. It had happened in the dazed split-second between Sam flashing him a smile as he swan-dived out of the plane and Bucky almost leaping right after him, his parachute lying forgotten on the floor.

Because that had been the first real sign that his head wasn’t in the game, and as Bucky knew from both more- and less-recent experience, it was highly inadvisable to have your shit even a little bit scrambled when the mission at hand involved possible HYDRA bases."

Words: 2878, Chapters: 1/4, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel), James "Bucky" Barnes, Sarah Wilson (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Shuri (Marvel), Ayo (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Stephen Strange

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson

Additional Tags: Post-TFATWS, Mission Fic, Sort Of, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Memory-Related Temporal Shenanigans, First Kiss, Angst with a Happy Ending

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2RxMBEj

#bucky #IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #bucky barnes #james barnes #the winter soldier #james barnes

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raining-v-coffee · 7 years

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Clara/12th Doctor fic recs (One shots)

*Multichapter ~my notes

Angel Of The Morning

The message on the psychic paper was short and to the point: I’m looking for the best doctor in the universe – dickwads and time wasters need not apply. Not their usual kind of thing, not that anything they really did counted as usual.

But a summons is a summons... although much to Clara and the Doctor's consternation, they discover that the red-suited sender is just as blunt and foul-mouthed in person.

Keep My Glass Full

Clara hadn't even wanted to attend the party, not really. But Nina had insisted, and so now here she is, determined to have a good time... even if all she can think about is a certain Scottish Time Lord. When things take a sour turn, she realises how much she needs him to take care of her.

Baby Please Come Home

The Doctor had brought them carefully back to London, right after they'd left - or so he'd said. In fact, they're in Glasgow... and he's made a slight temporal error regarding the date of arrival. Suddenly alone and uncertain of what to do, Clara turns to a policeman for help, only to learn that she's been reported as a missing person... and the bad news doesn't end there...

I See The Hope In Your Heart

At Coal Hill, Clara Oswald is not a five foot two saver of alien worlds, occasional Time-Lord-hand-holder and all-round genius. She is, instead, a five foot two English teacher with a fondness for the Regency Era and a full-time preoccupation with her students' welfare, occasional coffee-drinker, and general force to be reckoned with. But when one of her students begins to act strangely, Clara has to work out how best to handle the situation... and she ends up finding help from an unusual source.

~Trigger warning for mentions of self harm

O Christmas Tree

Alone with only the Michael Bublé Christmas Special for company, Clara had resigned herself to not getting into the Christmas spirit - unless that spirit was gin. So when the Doctor turns up with a real Christmas tree for her flat, she's touched by the gesture... until six hours later, when the tree starts to warble well-known seasonal songs at maximum volume.

The Christmas Spirit

When her phone rings in the middle of the night, Clara is surprised to find Osgood calling. She's even more surprised to discover that the world isn't ending, but instead she's needed to come and collect a drunk Doctor from the UNIT Christmas party.

The Teacher and the Visualizer

What would you do if you had access to a device that recorded everything that ever happened in time and space? If you're Clara, you look for the equivalent of funny cat videos and embarrassing old images of the Doctor.

Child of Mine

The Doctor said bringing a new human aboard the Tardis would be a distraction, he was right...

Composing a Symphony

Clara wakes to an unexpected serenade by an unexpected source.

The Last and Yet

Prompt: Write a twelveclara fanfic based in In The Forest Of The Night, in which the Doctor is wrong about the solar flares and the earth is destroyed, therefore Clara becomes the last one of her kind.

Like Stars

Twelve and Clara have a quiet evening of babysitting.

Effective Escape Plans

Trapped down an alley, with guards encroaching, the Doctor and Clara need to come up with a plan to paper over the petty theft, drunkenness, and bickering.

Voicemails

Occasionally the Doctor spams Clara's voicemail box. Going through them usually provides an entertaining way to decompress after class.

please, just see me

Please, just see me, she hears him beg, the memory of his voice hers and hers alone.

Because the man sitting before her could no longer see her.

With-holding

After a relaxing trip to Peramus IV, Doctor gets a bit uncharacteristically handsy with Clara, and she's determined to figure out why.

Through His Eyes

Tumblr prompt: Bodyswap!

Clara comes to better understand some things about The Doctor, incuding why he shys away from her touch.

Tiny Human

The Doctor and Clara babysit for Rigsy. Fluff ensues.

Never Cross A Time Lord (or Those He Cares For)

Something's bothering Clara and she won't say what, which causes the Doctor to worry.

Youth

After a run-in with the Sisterhood of Karn, the Doctor comes over to Clara's looking a little different than normal. young!12 AU

It's All Been Done

Clara time travels in dreams but she thinks it’s just dreams and thinks nothing of it. She also keeps meeting a man named Doctor in her dreams, but she thinks he is just a figment of her imagination until one days she collides with him in real life. She thinks she has finally gone crazy.

Temples, Dreams, and A Nudge in the Right Direction

The Doctor and Clara travel to a planet and do a favor for a local, which prompts them to do something both had been holding back from.

Twist and Shout

Clara and the Doctor get separated during a Mardis Gras parade on New New Orleans, leading Clara to have to find him again. The Doctor causes shenanigans once they are reunited.

Carer & Caretaker

The Doctor and Clara take care of each other when they're ill. Post Last Christmas

A Duty of Care

“Please, don’t even argue,” he said, holding out his hand. Clara saw not only the fear in his eyes, but the hope that she would take his hand and they would run off, travelling happily ever after. She wanted to, she really did, and would have had it not been for one tiny detail. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the cheek; a kind, tender gesture.

“I… this isn’t an argument,” she replied.

~Babyfic, super cute

miles to go

“Clara, why would you want to go for a boring old run when we could just pop over to Galafaxorous, accidentally insult the king’s malodorous son, and then be chased by his brain-sucking guards?”

Sometimes Clara has nightmares, but she learns how to cope.

Hay and Elephants

The Doctor and an injured Clara seek shelter from a winter storm. Huddling for warmth ensues.

Green Blaze

The town is called Mistletoe. Clara objects, because those are tumbleweeds, not mistletoe, and she can tell the difference.

Teacups

He was a teacup that could be dropped. He knew it because he'd been dropped before. He was a teacup that had been mended over and over.

Things to remember, a partial list

He is not an idiot. He has a perfectly functioning mind, if not a perfectly functioning memory, and he knows the sound of an early-model TARDIS when he hears one.

Solar flares

Two sentient stellar beings, in close orbit around each other, exchanging plasma, in an epic romance that had taken millennia to consummate. One would envelope the other in a few million years, and then they would burst outward in a supernova, bringing their love to a spectacular end. Their light and their love would be ash, but not now, and not any time soon. Today, now, in the glory days of their love -- or so the Doctor described it -- their names swirled across their surfaces as sunspots, dots and whorls in the plasma. The written language of stars.

The Edge of the World

The Doctor remembers Clara, his memories return in a flood, and he makes some questionable choices. Luckily Clara is there to pick up the peices

For Better, For Worse, For You

Clara notices the Doctor changed in ways that are more "suited" for her between 11 and 12.

On Some Planets, You Realize, This Means We're Married

Post-Christmas reunion, the Doctor and Clara go for a little peaceful togetherness time. "Bonding ritual" is taken a bit too literally.

(Major Whouffaldi fluff, for which I would apologize if I was sorry.)

Feeling a bit rough

Sometimes things get to Clara.

Bathtime

Pretty much what it says on the tin. Bubble beards, splashfights, hoodie sharing/stealing...

Storms

Of all the things that might potentially put a Timelord straight to sleep, it had to be something that Clara had good reason to avoid.

Dusk

He's been chasing her since Christmas. She's finally too tired to keep pretending she's fine.

Mercy

She's had enough of thinking she heard his voice, of waking up to everything looking the same when it's far from it. She's had it with mourning someone who is still alive. Post Hell Bent, whouffaldi reunion fic.

Recalculating

Prompt: Clara and the Doctor being domestic in the TARDIS, Doctor busy fixing something or writing maths on the black board, so Clara flys the TARDIS like its second nature.

Not a Bother at All

Prompt: Could you do a story where it's Twelve taking care of Clara instead of Eleven?

Announcements

How do two different Doctors take the same news five years apart? (Clara, baby, fluffiness.)

Back Up Again

(Prompt) Clara is hurt from the radiation in Into the Dalek and she blacks out/ has hallucinations

Jigsaw

(Prompt) Twelve reads to Clara? (A little off the prompt, more about telling stories, and sharing an adventure.)

That Subtle Knot

The Doctor tells his story, then reaches out to touch the waitress's hand. And freezes.

To Days To Come

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara accidentally meet a future incarnation of the Doctor. They both get a small nudge towards living life to the fullest. Set sometimes before Face the Raven.

Zero Hour

One final trip before Clara goes back to face the raven...

we're so delicate

Clara has to cope with multiple losses while still living in the present. Eventually, she discovers she isn’t alone.

Not Quite a Lullaby

Nearly being murdered inside a Dalek is more than mildly traumatizing. The Twelfth Doctor and Clara both emotionally vulnerable after the fact, especially as it relates to Clara's need for sleep.

The Memory of Sunrise

Twelve and Clara end up stuck on an island overnight and Clara takes the opportunity to explore just why the Doctor changed so much when he regenerated and what exactly happened on Trenzalore.

No Stranger to You

From a prompt on Tumblr: ""Get out of the way!" also 12/clara and if you dont like those then maybe "You look like you could use a hand." ? :))))". Angst and righteous, justified anger in regards to what Clara’s had to endure, and the little regard paid to that trauma. Alternate ending to Deep Breath.

~I really like this. A lot of people seem to dislike Clara, and I do think she can be a bit much sometimes. However, I really liked this season sue to the fact that she set herself very clear lines and tried her best to stay with them. The way the Doctor was written was inconsistent during this season, and I don’t think it was fair the way he treated her.

Christmas with the Oswalds

The Doctor ends up spending Christmas with the Oswalds, and Clara changes her feelings about that as the evening progresses.

Partly inspired by a prompt asking for a mistletoe kiss.

Five Little Sparks

The Doctor might like a bit of bossy, and it takes a few times for Clara to realize.

Cooking Clara

Twelve and Clara enjoy the figurative fruits of culinary labour, with absolutely absurd results. (from a Tumblr prompt asking for Clara to make omurice and for Twelve to find himself oddly addicted to it.)

Permission to Own a Cat

Clara gets a cat. The cat refuses to follow the Doctor's rules for life on the Tardis.

that talent for insatiability

or: The Doctor and Clara chalk it up to fate. au.

Clara Oswald & Her Bad Influence Friend

A dumb short AU where the TARDIS is a shitty car and Twelve is some shady dude Clara knows and everyone at Coal Hill is like "wtf who is this guy and how does Ms. Oswald know him." Absolute crack.

the carer & the caretaker [video]

It’s the oldest story in the universe: the carer and the caretaker fall in love, which travels across all of time and space. It’s a love story, of sorts.

Get behind the universe

Chin tucked, eyebrows lowered, eyes deep in their cadaverous sockets and full of small-scale, personal murder. The Doctor is furious at the ill treatment she has received.

don't see you for one week and the fellow suddenly decides he's in need of a proper secondary school education!"

The Souffle

Pure Whouffaldi Fluff as the Doctor tries to help Clara on her quest for the perfect soufflé.

Sky All Full of Stars

Clara Oswald thinks, You can love someone without liking them all the time. Twelve, Clara, and a surprise appearance by a surprise guest. Surprise! (No spoilers.)

From the Garden You Can See the Wild Wood

Twelve/Clara Red Riding Hood AU.

Under the Weather

Clara is sick. What on earth is the Doctor doing with her tea kettle?

The Strategist

Victorious Queen Clara's guards bring her a captive that suit her very specific tastes: gray-haired and lean. This one isn't what he appears to be, however.

The Deep and Lovely Dark

The Doctor is afraid to sleep and eventually it catches up with him.

Stars on his fingers

"I just want-- I want a night in. At home. With quiet company. While my ankle is all swollen like this. I want a pajama party."

The Doctor heard "quiet company" and knew he could provide that. And possible he'd take the opportunity to do something sneaky and helpful with her ankle. He clapped his hands together. "Right! A pajama party you shall have."

Sittin' in a Tree

The Doctor's jumper is full of holes, and Clara can't seem to help herself....

lay your armor down

A spot of completely non-sexual dom!Clara and sub!Twelve.

Unravel

This is who he is now, what he's chosen to become.

make a dragon wanna retire, man

Clara walks into the console room on a Monday and announces, without preamble, “I think we should get a pet.”

if you're looking for heaven

It'll take some getting used to, but he does like it. Liked it the old way too. In fact, to an extent that might be worrying, he likes a lot of things Clara chooses to do or say or wear. (He doesn't want to use the word besotted when it comes to her but, well...)

Twelve and Clara. After Christmas they just keep running.

Winterlong

"Gallifrey is back, in some pocket somewhere it was never meant to be in, churning up the rest of the universe like meat in a grinder, and the Doctor is full of golden energy and regeneration chemicals that he hasn't had to handle for hundreds of years. He's full of memories, too; she knows that he's left some things unsaid, dreams of centuries of blood and fire that wake him with quiet gasps more often than he thinks she knows. She knows that there's more beyond that which he doesn't tell her. A time lord is not meant to cope with these things alone. " Or: A series of scenes from the start of their first winter together through the end of their first winter.

Watermark

Do you know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart? They're both ridiculous.

Bad Dreams

Clara Oswald has dreams. She doesn't always like them.

Set post-The Witch's Familiar and involves spoilers (like a fair amount), so if you haven't seen Series 9 Episodes 1 and 2, I'd hold off on reading this.

Returning Echoes

After the events of 'Listen', Clara starts to experience strange dreams, thoughts and feelings. The echoes of her shattered selves begin to catch up with her. Can the Doctor help?

Honesty Mature

Set immediately after "Last Christmas." Neither of them will admit they're addicted to each other, but they've both been through the withdrawal and the effects can't go unaddressed.

What I Mean To Say Is Mature

What happened between the Doctor finding Clara inside of the Dalek, and them making their great escape to the Tardis? We might never know, but I needed to explore a what-if...

Time Period: Four days in late September, roughly 3 months after Death in Heaven.

Repairs Mature

The Doctor rescues Clara in the nick of time, but that's not the end of it.

The Thief Mature

The Doctor just smashed up the TARDIS console, but he needs to get away from there. He shoves his fingers into the telepathic matrix and goes... somewhere. He doesn't care where. The TARDIS cares, however. This is what happened in between the visit to Gallifrey and the meeting in the cafe.

Writing to Reach You Mature

Clara's not been feeling herself lately, and it just keeps getting worse.

Or: Written based off rumours of who Missy is (sort of), and sort of based on trailers for Dark Water and the Finale.

Post Season 8, before Last Christmas. Earth is suffering the ravages of the worst storm in recorded history and Clara suspects an extra-terrestrial reason. But if it’s something alien what’s it got to do with the Doctor and can Clara come to terms with her own personal tempest of feelings when the Time Lord crashes back into her life?

Twisted Terrors Mature

"He has this incessant urge to get involved in other people’s business, this saviour complex that makes him think the lives of others are his responsibility, but it took Danny Pink dying to make her see the error in that assumption."

The Wedding Tree Mature

For once an encounter with an advanced civilization was not going to end in war, catastrophe, disaster, or even a pell-mell run toward something or away from something. It was just a lovely thank-you ceremony for the two of them, that's all, followed by a lovely night high up in a tree house. With one bed. Wait.

Conjunction Mature

All of time and space, out there in a blue box. Where do they go first, and what do they do? The Doctor shows Clara a wonder.

for you alone i will be weak Mature

The Doctor and Clara reunite and carry on.

Come Back In Two Halves Mature

Doctor Oswald and The Clara embark on an exciting adventure of existential panic.

So let us melt Mature

The Doctor explains to Clara why he's alone, even when he's holding her. She does something about it.

The Seen & Unseen Life of a Carer & Her Time Lord Mature

Clara remembers the Doctor is very alien, but it doesn't really matter too much. Post-Last Christmas.

Come Back In Two Halves Mature

Doctor Oswald and The Clara embark on an exciting adventure of existential panic.

tessellate Explicit

So. They're just people who live together and touch each other sometimes.

Control Explicit

Clara's immune system is reset and she and the Doctor must deal with the resulting plethora of illnesses that result all at once, including one that can't be immediately seen. Lots of gratuitous fluff, some plot, and more smut than I think I have the capacity to ever write again.

Boy From School Explicit

"How did the Skovox Blitzer end up in the school where I teach? Why there?" She looked up and shot him a dirty, knowing look. "The school has been there for years. No aliens, no strange happenings…I

Chocolate Powder (Slow Warmed Then Whisked) Explicit

Clara and the Doctor share a nightly ritual now she's full time on the TARDIS but its about to change. Whouffaldi. Smut angst fluff. E/M rating. Post Last Christmas. One shot.

~New addition. Edited 3/9/2017

Love Is

But it was what had brought them to this point: kneeling together on an ancient, dirt-caked circuit board, so close and yet – separated by the one thing that had always kept them apart. The one thing that might have made everything different if only they had the courage to *talk* to each other. Hell Bent missing scene.

To my Master Post of Doctor Who fic recs <3

I also have rec lists for Harry Potter and Naruto.

#doctor who #clara oswald #12th doctor #doctor who fic recs #fic recs #oneshots #twelfth doctor

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elwenyere · 1 year

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I was tagged by @cabezadeperro to talk about five things you might find in my stories (thank you so much for the tag!!!).

1. Playing around with time. I love temporal shenanigans and memory-related plot fuckery and 5+1 times and characters who can’t afford to look back and/or forward or it all might fall apart.

2. Yearning. I think even my established-relationship fics tend to be pretty heavy on the yearning, because I’m really drawn to the Big Yearning: the way an acquaintance with loss sharpens our attention to presence.

3. HANDS. So many fucking descriptions of hands. A lot of intimacy is in the hands for me, and I can’t stop writing about it.

4. Metaphors and similes. I do actually try to cut some of these during revision, because I can get very carried away with it, but I love trying to find figurative language to represent experiences that might otherwise feel hard to put into words (like physical pain) or that I write about so often that I need to find ways to keep them fresh and crunchy for myself (like kisses and moments of fear and pangs of longing).

5. Someone going to medical. I love these characters, and the way I express that love is by throwing them around a little bit so that their beloved can touch them with strong and gentle hands (see 2 and 3).

This was a really fun one, and open tags for anyone who would like to play! @ me with your five things, friends. <3<3<3

#tag games #writer post #thank you maría!!!#feel free to jump in beloveds

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elwenyere · 3 years

Text

Longing

Pairing: Sam/Bucky

Words: 11.7k

Tags: Post-TFATWS, Mission Fic, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, First Kiss, Memory-Related Temporal Shenanigans, Angst with a Happy Ending

Hours later, when everything was well and truly fucked, Bucky would recognize the exact moment when he should have benched himself. It had happened in the dazed split-second between Sam flashing him a smile as he swan-dived out of the plane and Bucky almost leaping right after him, his parachute lying forgotten on the floor.

The tip about this particular location had come from Zemo. Or, at least, Zemo had seemed like the most likely of Sam and Bucky’s occasional sources to reach out to them by having someone stick a Soviet cypher into Bucky’s copy of The Two Towers.

“Our mutual friends are recruiting again,” the note had read once they decoded it. “Not everyone has let go of the Winter Soldier.”

“I don’t trust it, man,” Sam had said, his eyebrows knitting together as he stared down at the transcription. “If this is legit, why’s he acting like we’re in the goddamn Da Vinci Code?”

“He’s dramatic,” Bucky had replied with a shrug. “He likes to show off.”

“He likes to show off through you,” Sam had amended, the furrow in his brow deepening from “concerned” to “worried.”

“Hey, I don’t like the guy either,” Bucky agreed, careful to keep his tone light, “but you know you won’t be able to forget about it. If there’s even a chance the tip is real, you’ll keep yourself up for weeks wondering if we missed something.” He nudged Sam’s foot gently with his toe. “And I don’t know if I can handle you when you’re sleep-deprived. Last time we had to pull an all-nighter, it was like working with a seasick cat.”

“You love cats,” Sam had smirked, nudging back at Bucky’s foot.

And fuck if that wasn’t exactly the problem, Bucky thought, feeling the now-familiar warmth curl up in his chest as Sam swooped overhead on their approach to the bunker. Bucky had been doing his best to keep his feelings under wraps — Sam had enough on his shoulders dealing with the constant visibility of being Captain America without having to worry about getting sad puppy eyes from his partner every time he turned around — but the more time they spent together, the harder it was getting for Bucky to keep a lid on it.

“No sign of life from Redwing,” Sam announced, making a final loop around the perimeter of the bunker as Bucky got into position near the metal doors. “But there’s something blocking me from running any internal scans. Anything on the ground?”

“Overgrowth around the door is intact — no impressions or footprints in the soil,” Bucky responded. “If anyone’s here, they’ve been locked inside for weeks.” He paused to examine the panel controlling the front doors. “And I could’ve told you all that ten minutes ago, for the record, so again, I gotta question how much value your pet drone is adding to this operation.”

“Oh you’d like me to believe that, wouldn’t you?” Sam asked mildly. “But you showed your hand when you had Shuri make me a flock of little baby Redwings — you old softie. I think I’ll even name one of them after you. We can call him the Winter Sparrow.”

“Hilarious, Sam,” Bucky replied, trying to stifle a snort and not quite succeeding.

“I can hear you laughing.”

“You’ve never made me laugh in your life.”

“How did you spend decades as a stealth assassin and come out such a terrible liar?”

Read the First Chapter on AO3

#sambucky #sambucky fic #mission fic #pining #getting together #memory-related temporal shenanigans #fic took the writer a ridiculously long amount of time #i really hope you enjoy!

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elwenyere · 3 years

Text

Longing, Chapter Three

Pairing: Sam/Bucky

Words: 11.8k

Tags: Post-TFATWS, Mission Fic, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, First Kiss, Memory-Related Temporal Shenanigans, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: "Hours later, when everything was well and truly fucked, Bucky would recognize the exact moment when he should have benched himself. It had happened in the dazed split-second between Sam flashing him a smile as he swan-dived out of the plane and Bucky almost leaping right after him, his parachute lying forgotten on the floor."

When Sam gets caught in a memory machine, Bucky goes in after him.

Check out Chapter Three or read from the beginning.

Excerpt under the cut

After a few long moments of feeling like he was being dragged backward through rushing water, Bucky landed on his knees, and he reached down instinctively to brace himself against the planks of a small dock. He would have known the bay around him in his sleep — the smell of a salt marsh at low tide rushing over him, unmistakable, with his first breath of humid air — and by the time he opened his eyes, he was already prepared to see the Paul and Darlene bobbing serenely in the harbor.

The boat looked fresher now, its sides smoother than they’d been when he and Sam had started their work months ago. The prow was tinted orange by the last blush of setting sun, and when Bucky glanced in the direction of town he saw two figures approaching from the pier: Sam and Sarah, both dressed in black and looking years younger than the last time he’d seen them in this spot.

Bucky ducked out of view behind a stack of wooden pallets as they approached his position. They seemed deep in conversation, their heads angled toward each other as they walked, and Bucky took advantage of the quiet to grant himself exactly one minute to panic about Zemo.

Or, if not to panic, at least to seethe silently at finding himself in this same position once again: neatly trussed up in a hell-bound handbasket by Helmut Fucking Zemo.

That shifty, sweet-toothed bastard had wanted them here — had wanted Sam here — and wanted it badly enough to lure them halfway around the world into a trap set by an organization he abhorred. Why? If he wanted them dead, there were much simpler ways to do it. What could Zemo possibly be getting out of trapping them inside Sam’s memories?

The obvious answer, which Bucky was trying very hard to face calmly, was that tricking superheroes into watching the Winter Soldier wreak havoc had worked for Zemo before. Maybe, despite his words at the memorial, he hadn’t really changed his mind about Bucky. Maybe this whole exercise was designed to turn Sam against Bucky — to remind him what the Soldier really was, underneath.

“You’re not listening to me, Sam,” Sarah protested, the volume of her voice rising high enough to cut through the noise of Bucky’s thoughts. “Is it so hard to believe that there might be things going on here that I understand better than you?”

“I know you’ve been working hard, Sarah,” Sam responded. “You’ve been working too hard. That’s what I’m saying. The boat needs repair, and you need a break, and now that Dad’s gone, it’s my job —”

Sarah cut him off by slugging him fiercely on the arm.

“Don’t pull that shit with me, Sam,” she retorted. “Your job is out there: Avenging. That’s what you decided. And look, I get why it’s hard for you to be ready for the biggest threats in the universe and also keep track of the bills that were keeping Mom and Dad up at night, but life didn't stop for us just because you started taking calls from Captain America.”

#sambucky #sambucky fics #a chapter in which the author tries something and hopes it works #memory-related temporal shenanigans #almost done!#thank you for reading

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