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Captain America fic recs
I fiiiiiinally wrote up some actual recs. These are cherry-picked from my AO3 bookmarks - only a small fraction of the fics I've read and enjoyed in the fandom (so much good fic!) but it's a start. Obviously this is weighted very heavily towards the characters/pairings/tropes that I prefer, and minus the handful I've already rec'd in their own posts. Spoilers for Captain America 2 in pretty much all of these; some include Agents of Shield spoilers.
Gen
Hollow and Honeycomb by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
kaikamahine (11K)
Several years before Sam was born, a Supreme Court ruling decided that those who carried and visibly expressed a hereditary winged trait could not be mutilated, amputated, or otherwise altered without their consent, nor could they be discriminated against for housing, employment, etc. based on their possession of wings. The world that Sam grows up in is one that remembers when it had been different. [Wing!fic AU.]
This story is amazing. Hands-down one of the best stories I've read in this or any other fandom. The worldbuilding is incredible, both the OCs and the canon characters are amazing, the way the fic weaves in and out of canon events is beautiful ... basically this is one of those stories that you keep coming back to because there's just so much. My biggest regret about this story is that the OCs (Sam's family, Riley's family, Bucky's family) aren't actual canon characters so we'll never see them onscreen.
Recursive bydomarzione (67K)
In the wake of the HYDRA revelations, Steve Rogers finds himself both a pawn of the rebuilding SHIELD hierarchy and the leader of a newly-independent Avengers. He’s got masters he can’t run from, teammates he can’t let down, and a best friend who is turning his newly remembered past to ashes. But when a blast from a mysterious device seemingly sends him back to 1944, Steve has to decide if he should he change his past and risk ruining his future by fixing his greatest mistake. (A Life on Mars homage.)
Fantastic long, well-researched, plotty gen, with a really unusual (and absolutely wrenching) plot. This is one of those rare stories in which I had no idea where it was going or how (or if) things were going to work out; it was a breathless read right up to the end. (Note: this story contains an unwarned-for major character death. FYI.)
Brothers in Arms bycopperbadge (11K)
Bucky Barnes gets a tune-up, a new pet, and a home.
Sweet and fun post-Winter Soldier Bucky recovery fic, with great team.
The Undertaker's Children byrosepetalfall (14K)
Bucky’s dad always says what they do is important.
“We give people the dignity they deserved in life,” he says, seriously.
Uncle Danny laughs at that. “Jimmy-kid,” he says, “your old man has got some real trumped up notions of what it is we do. Death ain’t beautiful. We just help create the illusion that it can be.”
A great fic with spot-on period voice, about Bucky and Steve's Brooklyn childhood. There's such a strong sense of community here; I think that's the thing I loved most about it, how clearly you can feel the interconnected web of the Barnes and Rogers families and their neighbors.
Lay Back, Lay Back byUltrageekatlarge (10K)
Bucky can't sleep.
Post-WS recovery fic, heartbreaking and sweet with lovely h/c and team.
That Kind of Day byNeery (5.4K)
Carolyn Brown's having one of those days. Her truck's been stolen, she's about to lose her job, and now a crazy Hydra assassin has broken into her apartment to ambush Captain America.
Great outsider POV on the aftermath of CA:TWS.
How Bucky Met Steve byeverybodylies (1K)
Bucky tells the Avengers the story of how he met Steve. Sort of.
A really cute and very "them" take on the scenario in the title.
Steve/Bucky
Fluff bycadignan (10K)
“Dr. Foster, this is a tower full of highly trained soldiers, spies, and geniuses. If we can’t track down and subdue a frith—um, small Asgardian mammal, then nobody can,” Steve says. He tries to look reassuring. It must not be working. She’s still looking around like it might pop out at any moment.
“Frithrkottr,” she says. She takes a deep breath and tucks some errant strands of hair behind her ear. “It’s furry. Kitten-sized.”
“A real cause for panic,” he says, trying to make her smile.
She doesn’t look calmed.
I'm reccing a sex pollen story, wtf. Except it's not sex pollen, it's cuddle pollen (technically, alien cuddle pheremones) and it's cuddle pollen with explicit discussions of cuddle consent and basically this story is just a warm fluffy ball of happy fic feelings in which I want to roll around FOREVER.
Out of the Dead Land byemilyenrose (62K)
Someone is building machines that look and act like people. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes.
This is a well-known story in the fandom so a lot of you might already have read it, but its fame is well deserved! I dragged my heels for a long time on reading it because the premise is so incredibly sad (the Winter Soldier doesn't remember being Bucky, but he pretends he does) but once I took the plunge, what I discovered was an absolutely fantastic story in which Bucky and everyone else are beautifully, wonderfully themselves (Tony in this story is amazing, oh Tony) and Bucky's slow journey to reclaim himself is fabulously done.
(You Can't Choose) What Stays and What Fades Away byTaste_is_Sweet (3.3K)
Everyone is born with the first words their soulmate will ever say to them in deep black writing on their skin.
The words fade to light grey when a soulmate dies.
Sometimes new words replace them, whether they're wanted or not.
(These were the words Steve was born with, running in a messy, uneven line across his skinny little chest, beneath both his collarbones: You okay, pal? Those jerks didn't hurt ya too bad, did they?
Steve woke up from the ice in 2011 with the words, Who the hell is Bucky? circling his heart, in printing so precise it barely looked human.
Steve hated them.)
There are lots of soulmate AUs out there, and they're often not my cup of tea, but I absolutely loved how this one handled it, particularly the inclusion of platonic soulmates. This is one of those stories that gives me aaaaallll of my Steve/Bucky/Natasha/Sam cuddlepile feels.
Saturdays byfmo (5K)
They meet at a soup kitchen. Neither of them knows their name, but one of them goes by Steve. Or: falling in love and living with poverty in 2014, not 1939.
Sweet-ouchie fic in which they are both their canon selves, but Bucky's not the only one with amnesia. And they click anyway, without knowing why.
Other pairings
there's trees in the desert since you moved out byirnan (Steve/Natasha, 37K)
aka Team America's Excellent Adventure: wherein Natasha Romanov kicks off a road trip and talks about her feelings, Steve Rogers moves back to Brooklyn and learns to kiss (and talks about his feelings), Sam Wilson takes a sabbatical and racks up a simply astronomical cell phone bill (and talks about his feelings), and Bucky Barnes blows people up off-screen and (in a shocking twist) talks about his feelings.
A lovely rebuilding-post-Cap2 story, focused mainly on Natasha's emotional journey, which is rare enough to be notable, but Steve and Bucky and Sam are all wonderful in this too, and this story also gives a strong sense of the world around the characters -- we get just enough glimpses of SHIELD's rebuilding to get a good idea of how much is going on in the background that we don't see. Involves some comics canon, though it's explained/reimagined for the MCU, but might still be a little disconcerting for readers without a comics background (like Clint's ex-wife Bobbi Morse). I particularly loved how Bucky and Natasha's comics backstory was worked into the MCU world. The Steve-Bucky-Natasha triad and all their respective relationships are beautifully developed in this. (Sweet babies!)
i set fire to my maps bymusesfool (Bucky/Natasha, 3.5K)
In which Natasha's road trip of self-discovery intersects too frequently with the Winter Soldier's for it to be coincidence.
Another great Natasha-rebuilding-her-life story, this time with Bucky rather than Steve, although as in the above story, the other relationships within the triad (Natasha + Steve, Steve + Bucky) are also sweet and well-drawn. (I don't precisely ship Steve/Bucky/Natasha as an OT3 but I do ship them as sort of a giant cuddle pile, and both this and the above story give me lots of that.)
The Steve Rogers Appreciation Society byBethWinter (Steve/Peggy, possibly a little Steve/Bucky, 3K)
Bucky and Peggy are members of an exclusive club.
Sweet (and slightly sharp-edged) 1940s-era Peggy and Bucky friendship fic.
three words that became hard to say bysuzikiblu (Sam/Bucky, 2K)
“I wanna step out with Wilson,” Bucky says, audibly traumatized. Steve blinks again, and lowers the shield.
“Uh,” he says. “Come again?”
Thoroughly adorable Steve-Bucky friendship fic with a Sam/Bucky background pairing (though Sam doesn't actually appear).
All the pain
Heh, I separated this out from the above gen recs because while most of the fics here are rec'd because they make me FEEL HAPPY THINGS, what this made me feel was largely ow.
imbecamiel has an excellent series about Brock Rumlow and Winter Soldier!Bucky. What I love about this is that Rumlow is not actually that sympathetic -- the author never loses sight of his brutal pragmatism, ruthless amorality, and tendency to treat the Winter Soldier as an object rather than a person -- but he's very convincing as an ultra-pragmatic mercenary who thinks like one. This is not "Rumlow is a good guy underneath it all"; this is "Rumlow is a guy who collaborates willingly with a Nazi organization and will do anything to get the job done", but he's also a human being who cares about his men and is scarily easy to empathize with. (Gen)
Gen
Hollow and Honeycomb by
Several years before Sam was born, a Supreme Court ruling decided that those who carried and visibly expressed a hereditary winged trait could not be mutilated, amputated, or otherwise altered without their consent, nor could they be discriminated against for housing, employment, etc. based on their possession of wings. The world that Sam grows up in is one that remembers when it had been different. [Wing!fic AU.]
This story is amazing. Hands-down one of the best stories I've read in this or any other fandom. The worldbuilding is incredible, both the OCs and the canon characters are amazing, the way the fic weaves in and out of canon events is beautiful ... basically this is one of those stories that you keep coming back to because there's just so much. My biggest regret about this story is that the OCs (Sam's family, Riley's family, Bucky's family) aren't actual canon characters so we'll never see them onscreen.
Recursive by
In the wake of the HYDRA revelations, Steve Rogers finds himself both a pawn of the rebuilding SHIELD hierarchy and the leader of a newly-independent Avengers. He’s got masters he can’t run from, teammates he can’t let down, and a best friend who is turning his newly remembered past to ashes. But when a blast from a mysterious device seemingly sends him back to 1944, Steve has to decide if he should he change his past and risk ruining his future by fixing his greatest mistake. (A Life on Mars homage.)
Fantastic long, well-researched, plotty gen, with a really unusual (and absolutely wrenching) plot. This is one of those rare stories in which I had no idea where it was going or how (or if) things were going to work out; it was a breathless read right up to the end. (Note: this story contains an unwarned-for major character death. FYI.)
Brothers in Arms by
Bucky Barnes gets a tune-up, a new pet, and a home.
Sweet and fun post-Winter Soldier Bucky recovery fic, with great team.
The Undertaker's Children by
Bucky’s dad always says what they do is important.
“We give people the dignity they deserved in life,” he says, seriously.
Uncle Danny laughs at that. “Jimmy-kid,” he says, “your old man has got some real trumped up notions of what it is we do. Death ain’t beautiful. We just help create the illusion that it can be.”
A great fic with spot-on period voice, about Bucky and Steve's Brooklyn childhood. There's such a strong sense of community here; I think that's the thing I loved most about it, how clearly you can feel the interconnected web of the Barnes and Rogers families and their neighbors.
Lay Back, Lay Back by
Bucky can't sleep.
Post-WS recovery fic, heartbreaking and sweet with lovely h/c and team.
That Kind of Day by
Carolyn Brown's having one of those days. Her truck's been stolen, she's about to lose her job, and now a crazy Hydra assassin has broken into her apartment to ambush Captain America.
Great outsider POV on the aftermath of CA:TWS.
How Bucky Met Steve by
Bucky tells the Avengers the story of how he met Steve. Sort of.
A really cute and very "them" take on the scenario in the title.
Steve/Bucky
Fluff by
“Dr. Foster, this is a tower full of highly trained soldiers, spies, and geniuses. If we can’t track down and subdue a frith—um, small Asgardian mammal, then nobody can,” Steve says. He tries to look reassuring. It must not be working. She’s still looking around like it might pop out at any moment.
“Frithrkottr,” she says. She takes a deep breath and tucks some errant strands of hair behind her ear. “It’s furry. Kitten-sized.”
“A real cause for panic,” he says, trying to make her smile.
She doesn’t look calmed.
I'm reccing a sex pollen story, wtf. Except it's not sex pollen, it's cuddle pollen (technically, alien cuddle pheremones) and it's cuddle pollen with explicit discussions of cuddle consent and basically this story is just a warm fluffy ball of happy fic feelings in which I want to roll around FOREVER.
Out of the Dead Land by
Someone is building machines that look and act like people. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes.
This is a well-known story in the fandom so a lot of you might already have read it, but its fame is well deserved! I dragged my heels for a long time on reading it because the premise is so incredibly sad (the Winter Soldier doesn't remember being Bucky, but he pretends he does) but once I took the plunge, what I discovered was an absolutely fantastic story in which Bucky and everyone else are beautifully, wonderfully themselves (Tony in this story is amazing, oh Tony) and Bucky's slow journey to reclaim himself is fabulously done.
(You Can't Choose) What Stays and What Fades Away by
Everyone is born with the first words their soulmate will ever say to them in deep black writing on their skin.
The words fade to light grey when a soulmate dies.
Sometimes new words replace them, whether they're wanted or not.
(These were the words Steve was born with, running in a messy, uneven line across his skinny little chest, beneath both his collarbones: You okay, pal? Those jerks didn't hurt ya too bad, did they?
Steve woke up from the ice in 2011 with the words, Who the hell is Bucky? circling his heart, in printing so precise it barely looked human.
Steve hated them.)
There are lots of soulmate AUs out there, and they're often not my cup of tea, but I absolutely loved how this one handled it, particularly the inclusion of platonic soulmates. This is one of those stories that gives me aaaaallll of my Steve/Bucky/Natasha/Sam cuddlepile feels.
Saturdays by
They meet at a soup kitchen. Neither of them knows their name, but one of them goes by Steve. Or: falling in love and living with poverty in 2014, not 1939.
Sweet-ouchie fic in which they are both their canon selves, but Bucky's not the only one with amnesia. And they click anyway, without knowing why.
Other pairings
there's trees in the desert since you moved out by
aka Team America's Excellent Adventure: wherein Natasha Romanov kicks off a road trip and talks about her feelings, Steve Rogers moves back to Brooklyn and learns to kiss (and talks about his feelings), Sam Wilson takes a sabbatical and racks up a simply astronomical cell phone bill (and talks about his feelings), and Bucky Barnes blows people up off-screen and (in a shocking twist) talks about his feelings.
A lovely rebuilding-post-Cap2 story, focused mainly on Natasha's emotional journey, which is rare enough to be notable, but Steve and Bucky and Sam are all wonderful in this too, and this story also gives a strong sense of the world around the characters -- we get just enough glimpses of SHIELD's rebuilding to get a good idea of how much is going on in the background that we don't see. Involves some comics canon, though it's explained/reimagined for the MCU, but might still be a little disconcerting for readers without a comics background (like Clint's ex-wife Bobbi Morse). I particularly loved how Bucky and Natasha's comics backstory was worked into the MCU world. The Steve-Bucky-Natasha triad and all their respective relationships are beautifully developed in this. (Sweet babies!)
i set fire to my maps by
In which Natasha's road trip of self-discovery intersects too frequently with the Winter Soldier's for it to be coincidence.
Another great Natasha-rebuilding-her-life story, this time with Bucky rather than Steve, although as in the above story, the other relationships within the triad (Natasha + Steve, Steve + Bucky) are also sweet and well-drawn. (I don't precisely ship Steve/Bucky/Natasha as an OT3 but I do ship them as sort of a giant cuddle pile, and both this and the above story give me lots of that.)
The Steve Rogers Appreciation Society by
Bucky and Peggy are members of an exclusive club.
Sweet (and slightly sharp-edged) 1940s-era Peggy and Bucky friendship fic.
three words that became hard to say by
“I wanna step out with Wilson,” Bucky says, audibly traumatized. Steve blinks again, and lowers the shield.
“Uh,” he says. “Come again?”
Thoroughly adorable Steve-Bucky friendship fic with a Sam/Bucky background pairing (though Sam doesn't actually appear).
All the pain
Heh, I separated this out from the above gen recs because while most of the fics here are rec'd because they make me FEEL HAPPY THINGS, what this made me feel was largely ow.
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no subject
And hee, that's always fun, isn't it? Except for the problem of not being able to find something new to read ... but I'm glad you were able to find at least a few things! You might also enjoy looking through my bookmarks, because I've been bookmarking just about everything I read and enjoyed enough that I might want to find it again (well, except the ones that are so completely idficcy that I don't want to admit I'm reading 'em ^^).
no subject
I post a rough round-up of fic and meta and things I've liked every week or two on my journal. They're not organised at all, but you might find some stuff there that you haven't seen elsewhere. There's a lot of cute tumblr prompt fic on the list, for example, that doesn't often get tidied up and crossposted to AO3, but is still adorable.
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