So I give you a Shrunkyclunks soulmate AU, rated M:
Everyone has a soulmate. Everyone.
Since the counsel has been keeping records, there has been one exception to that rule, and considering the man, no one was very surprised. After all, Captain America, ne Steve Rogers, was the exception to all the rules.
So when he plunged into the Atlantic in a plane loaded with enough explosives to take out the entire Eastern Seaboard, the nation mourned him, but the counsel breathed a sigh of relief. Their perfect record – a soulmate for everyone – was intact.
Steve meets Bucky Barnes on Valentine’s Day, because God has a particularly cruel sense of humor.
— —
“You’re charging /how much/ for roses?” the man — later revealed as Bucky Barnes — asks.
“It’s Valentine’s Day,” Steve says as an explanation, then sighs as he rings the man up on the cash register. “Don’t worry, your sweetheart will like them anyway.”
The man snorts.
“What?” Steve asks.
“Not for my sweetheart, for my sister. She’s in high school, and this asshole guy’d been leading her on for months, and all we could do was watch while she pined after this little fuck. Meanwhile, this guy’s having her edit his essays, drive him places… You know, the shit that asshole high school guys do when they’re going on a power trip. Anyhow, yesterday he asks out this girl right in front of my sister, asks her if she’s happy for him, which of course she’s not. She gets home, my mom calls me, and we hang out and watch rom coms together, and that’s when we come up with the plan.”
“The plan?” Steve asks, leaning in a little closer.
The guy smiles, almost sheepishly. “Her math teacher is a friend of mine from undergrad, so I call him up. These flowers, a few cards, and a big ol’ box of chocolates are gonna be on her desk.”
“Lemme guess, the asshole sits next to her?”
He grins. “Indeed, he does.”
“She’s in on it, right?”
He nods. “‘Course, it’d be weird if she wasn’t. She’s gonna tell everyone that they’re from her overnight camp boyfriend or something, who has been begging to get back together with her. I dunno, she’s got the whole thing set up, but she promises me that it’s gonna make this jack ass jealous, and that’s the important thing.”
Steve laughs. “Yeah, it is,” he says. “Bet your girlfriend is jealous, too,” Steve asks, and okay. He’s fishing a bit.
The guy raises an eyebrow. “Actually, I’m single right now,” he says. “I’ve got all these grand romantic gestures stored up with no outlet. It’s a real problem.”
“What a problem to have,” Steve says. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten flowers on Valentine’s Day, in any context. And that’ll be $42.88.”
“Ouch,” the guy says as he inserts his debit card into the chip reader. “I’m Bucky, by the way.”
“Steve,” Steve says, then adds, “but you probably could’ve gathered that from the name tag.”
Bucky chuckles. “Thanks Steve,” he says as he takes his card out and puts it in his wallet.
“No problem,” Steve says, handing the flowers over to Bucky. “And good luck with your grand gesture.”
“Thanks,” he says, taking the flowers. He pauses, and pulls a rose out of the bunch. “Here,” he says, handing it to Steve.
“What?” Steve asks.
Bucky moves it a little closer to Steve. “A flower. Happy Valentine’s Day, Steve.”
“Oh, uh…” Steve says, taking it. “Thanks,” he says, a little lost for words.
“You’re welcome,” Bucky says. “Though it’s not quite a grand romantic gesture.”
Steve shrugs, trying not to blush. “It’s sweet,” he says.
Bucky just smiles and leaves the store.
— —
He comes back in the next day. “One tulip,” he says, bringing a yellow tulip up to the counter.
“Sure thing,” Steve says, then asks, “How’d the gesture go?”
“Perfectly,” Bucky says. “By the end of the day, he was telling her that he regretted everything, and she was telling him that she’s too good for him.”
Steve can’t help but smile. “Good to know, and that’s $4.21.”
Bucky pays with his debit card. “Yeah, gotta focus my energies elsewhere now,” he says.
“Good luck with that,” Steve says, handing him the flower.
“Thanks,” Bucky says, then hands the tulip back to Steve. “Enjoy the flower!” he says, before leaving the store.
Steve stands there, eyebrows furrowed, looking at the flower in his hand. “What?” he mutters to himself.
— —
It keeps happening.
Bucky comes in, he buys a flower — a different one every day — and hands it to Steve. If he doesn’t come in, he orders one online with the direction “give to Steve, please.”
“This is ridiculous,” Steve says after a month.
“I’m supporting a local, independently-run business,” Bucky responds as he hands Steve an amaryllis. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Steve amends, but he takes the flower anyway.
— —
He’s started keeping them in his apartment as a mismatched, ever-changing arrangement. When a flower starts to wilt, he presses one of the petals and keeps it in a little book.
He sort of loves it.
He also sort of loves Bucky, but that’s a different story.
— —
They get to know each other, even though they just talk for a few minutes a day. Bucky is an architect who lives a few blocks away and passes by the flower shop on the way to work. He spends a lot of time with his mom and his sister (his dad isn’t in the picture), and he likes cheesy movies but not cheese — he’s lactose intolerant.
“We have that in common,” Steve says.
“Then it’s a good thing that I’m giving you flowers and not chocolates,” Bucky says as he hands him a peony.
Steve takes it and gives it a sniff. He really does like the smell of peonies. “What’s your endgame here?” Steve asks. “It’s been four months.”
Bucky shrugs, smiling. “Dunno,” he says. “I honestly don’t. I just wanted you to have fun.” He pauses and shoves his hands in his pockets. “If it gets annoying—“
“It’s not,” Steve says, too quickly. “It’s not annoying,” he says.
Bucky looks up, smiling. “Alright then,” he says.
“See you tomorrow?” Steve asks.
Bucky nods. “See you tomorrow.”
— —
When Bucky walks into the shop on Valentine’s Day, his face lights up.
“Steve?” he asks, looking at the flower arrangement in the middle of the shop and the accompanying valentine, made from the dried petals of 365 flowers.
“I thought you could use a gesture,” Steve says. “And a date for tonight?” he adds on, hopeful.
“Are these…?” Bucky asks.
“The flowers, I saved a petal from each one.”
“Oh my God,” Bucky says, looking down and biting his bottom lip. “I’m gonna have to step up my game if we’re gonna start going out,” he says.
So how long have I loved you for? Womb to tomb, sweetheart. Since before I was even here at all. I get it now, you understand. Your ma was right. It really is a stupid question.
an ae board inspired by the fantastic not easily conquered series because jesus christ apparently I’m still not over it
“Because I’m me,” says Steve, his voice reedy and hurt. “Because you’re you. I’d be killing myself. How do you not know that? All this time, how do you not—?” He swallows hard, but his throat closes up anyway. He confesses, “I died too. When you left me. I died too.”
— not easily conquered
nec aesthetic series 5/?
File this under “this is gonna hurt, but I’ll probably read it anyway”
I won’t lie, this fic hurts more than you’ll ever see coming, it will rip you apart and leave you with a whole new appreciation for Stucky. It’s worth all the pain though, best thing I’ve ever read hands down and I won’t ever stop recommending this one.
Bucky’d never wanted to admit that he only felt alive when Steve was touching him as though sculpting him from clay. Some days, Bucky wished that Steve could—wanted to encase himself in some viscous substance just so Steve could recover him with his hands, guide his true shape into form. So he could become manifest by way of artistic vision.
(In Wakanda, Bucky tries to find himself. Steve tries to find him, too.)
Steve snorts, helplessly charmed. “Harold like your gang boss uncle Harold?”
“A gentleman does not name his goats and tell,” Bucky says solemnly, but he leans a little more firmly against Steve’s side, and there are crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes when he smiles.
Seven months after the end of Civil War, Bucky gets to be the one to save Steve and both of them find their way home. With some help from their friends.
T’Challa gives Bucky a jet when he leaves to go find Steve. “Do not break this,” he says, like Bucky is a child. “It is worth more than your arm.”
Living as a fugitive is hard. Living as a man who has to wake the love of his life from cryo is harder. Why? The codes in Bucky’s brain don’t have a fix yet, but Steve has worse news to deliver. Bucky’s dying slowly from self-destruct protocols inside him. Now, it’s a race against time to save Bucky once and for all.
And maybe finally tell Bucky that Steve’s been in love with him since he was a sixteen-year-old kid in Brooklyn. Oh and not get extradited by the UN from Wakanda. That’d also be great.
When he was young, he used to dream. All the time. Used to remember his dreams, too.
But then came war. And ice. And the nightmares were waking, and the timeless vacuum was silent. No breath in his lungs, only wisps of oxygen to his brain. Pure, improbable stasis: there were no dreams.
This, though. This is different. This is beautiful, and peaceful, and there’s Steve, and—
“Shuri, me and Steve… we’re not –” “Could have fooled me.” She shook her head, muttering under her breath in Wakandan as she connected a series of wires in his arm. “My brother offered him the nicest guest suite in the palace and you know where he decided to stay instead?” She pointed an accusing finger at him. “In your hut. That has one bed.” – Steve visits Wakanda and Bucky decides he’s done being afraid of his feelings.
“So you got these safe houses scattered all over Russia?” Steve jokes into the soft hair over Bucky’s temple, not pulling away, “Or did we just get lucky?”
Bucky shakes his head and then replies, “Got myself a few. It’s been a long two years.”
“Yeah pal,” Steve nods, burrowing further, “I hear that.”
Steve, the face on the screen said, dropping its gaze. I wanted to say first of all, thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I’ve had a lot of time to think here in Wakanda, and… A sigh, seventy years of weariness in one breath.
Then he looks up again. I wasn’t worth it.
Bucky chooses to fix himself. And Steve realises he’s nearly lost Bucky again, because he’s been too busy being Captain America to be a friend.
the1timetraveller 