History Fanfic / BuckyBarnesGetsHisGrooveBackAndOtherInternationalIncidents

* BaldWomen: Natasha mentions that she once found herself in [[NoodleIncident a desperate situation]] that led her to attempt to create her own hair dye by mixing motor oil and expired Soviet-era food coloring. The experiment was a failure, and she was forced to shave it all off. She also later decides to mark a change in her life following some events by shaving her hair into a half-centimeter-long buzzcut. Not quite bald, but it has a similar effect. Fury likens her to a fifteen-year-old cancer patient, and although most modern close-cropped hairstyles remind Steve of lice shaves, he genuinely thinks she makes the look work.

** Barnes and Sam have a chat at one point, which leads to Sam telling him he still hasn't forgiven Barnes for trashing his car back in DC, not mentioning it was a rental. Sam starts jokingly describing the car as a fancy, ostentatiously-styled Lamborghini. [[spoiler:At the end of the story, Barnes cuts a deal with Tony. A bit later, Sam gets a call from his sister asking why there's a Lamborghini parked in their parents' driveway. Sam winds up basically giving his mom the car.]]

* AudioAdaptation: The two main installments of the series have been [[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1441249 adapted to podfic]] by quietnight, who has since become a beta reader-cum-second parent to the original fic. The podfic is highly polished- each chapter is opened with an excerpt of whichever song the chapter's title references, there are musical inserts where music is referenced in-story (such as when Steve's [=StarkPhone=] starts playing [[Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice "America, Fuck Yeah"]] as its ringtone, courtesy of Tony), and voice modulation applied to dialogue where appropriate. Your commute or next round of house work has just gotten more enjoyable!

** At one point, Barnes realizes that Bucky and Steve had sexual relations, and resolves to himself with no small amount of bitterness that the last thing he wants to do is [[spoiler:run up to Rogers and drop trou]]. [[spoiler:When he does finally reunite with Steve for real, he's injured, and Steve needs to find a vein to give him an emergency blood transfusion. The vein in Barnes's flesh arm is too hardened to use thanks to HYDRA, so Barnes winds up pulling his pants down to give Steve access to the vein in his inner thigh. And reveals that he's not wearing underwear.]]

* HeroWorshipper: Sam is a huge fan of Colonel Rhodes. He practically preens when Rhodey compliments him on his flying during the DC incident, and has to call his mom immediately afterwards to gush about how Colonel Rhodes ''[[ThatCameOutWrong touched his skin]]''- no, shook his hand. With the War Machine gauntlet on, but ''still''.

* HandSignals: During Natasha's Red Room days, she was frequently partnered with the Winter Soldier on ops throughout her teens. Since the Soldier wasn't very good at speaking, the two wound up developing their own system of hand signals that's more complex than standard military hand signals, but doesn't quite have enough in the way of syntax to qualify as a full sign language. It's built on a foundation of HYDRA/Red Room military-style hand signals and has some unique signals of their own devising for certain common phrases like "what are you doing" or "why break cover", and other concepts. These include "handlers", which is described as a "jerkoff motion", perhaps miming a handler yanking on a chain; "partner", which is tapping the knuckles of both fists together and likely has connotations of referring specifically to two people who fight together; "unsafe", which is a finger cocking a firearm trigger; "hunting", which is drawing a crosshair over the heart; and "allegiance", which is tapping the side of a shoulder where most military uniforms would put an insignia, and is apparently distinct from "affiliation". They don't have a sign for "sorry", though, so Natasha has to make one up by signing "mistake" and pointing at herself. A bit later, Natasha texts him a video of her signing to him, and is able to convey "mission tomorrow immediate departure combat expected heavy assault rendezvous coordinates to follow", followed by "red money airborne metal combatant", referring to Iron Man.

* FlatWhat: When Sam tells Natasha that Barnes broke into his hotel room and traded him macaroni and cheese with bacon for his iPod Touch, it turns out to be so far outside all expectations she had that she feels something in her brain short-circuit, and asks if that's supposed for be code.

* FlatWhat: When Sam tells Natasha that Barnes broke into his hotel room and traded him macaroni and cheese with bacon for his iPod Touch, it turns out to be so far outside all expectations she had that she feels something in her brain short-circuit, and asks if that's supposed for be code for something.

-->Barnes-thing can’t really pick out what’s causing the hallucinations, because it could be one of any five billion fucking things, or a combination, or maybe there ''is'' no cause and it could just be a great new feature of his fucked-up brain.

** Natasha plays Never Have I Ever on long road trips, once tried jerryrigging her own hair dye while on an op, organizes HYDRA intel in a glittery pink notebook with a fuchsia pen with pompoms and a charm dangling from the top, and nearly squees in delight when Barnes, Steve, and Sam steal her a monster truck snowplow.

-->Oh, god. This is Steve’s drag ball phase all over again, except this time it’s ''Carter'' and she’s got a knife. [Bucky] doesn’t know if it’s better or worse with the knife.

-->[Steve] can play ''nice''. He’ll be a perfect fucking gentleman. He’ll be the nicest brick that's ever been thrown through the FBI’s window.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Various governments and entities that want to take Barnes to trial, put him to work for them, or both start setting up sensors that can detect Barnes and Motherfucker, as they put out similar energy signatures. Tony does some scans, and suggests that they just park Motherfucker right in the lobby of Stark Tower, since only certain Avengers even know what Motherfucker looks like, and that Barnes move to Manhattan, because it turns out they're basically indistinguishable energy-wise from the Chitauri detritus that's still turning up around Manhattan years later. If anyone asks, they can just call Motherfucker a really ugly modern art piece. [[spoiler:Barnes winds up not accepting the offer because Motherfucker has come to his aid of its own accord and he's accidentally commanded it before, and he's afraid that a stray thought or even a nightmare could make Motherfucker zip out of the tower and destroy Tony's lobby.]]

* HiddenInPlainSight: Various governments and entities that want to take Barnes to trial, put him to work for them, or both start setting up sensors that can detect Barnes and Motherfucker, as they put out similar energy signatures. Tony does some scans, and suggests that they just park Motherfucker right in the lobby of Stark Tower, and that Barnes move to Manhattan, because it turns out they're basically indistinguishable energy-wise from the Chitauri detritus that's still turning up around Manhattan years later. If anyone asks, they can just call Motherfucker a really ugly modern art piece. [[spoiler:Barnes winds up not accepting the offer because Motherfucker has come to his aid of its own accord and he's accidentally commanded it before, and he's afraid that a stray thought or even a nightmare could make Motherfucker zip out of the tower and destroy Tony's lobby.]]

* HandSignals: During Natasha's Red Room days, she was frequently partnered with the Winter Soldier on ops throughout her teens. Since the Soldier wasn't very good at speaking, the two wound up developing their own system of hand signals that isn't quite a full sign language. It's built on a foundation of HYDRA/Red Room military-style hand signals and has some unique signals of their own devising for certain common phrases like "what are you doing" or "why break cover", and other concepts. These include "handlers", which is described as a "jerkoff motion", perhaps miming a handler yanking on a chain; "partner", which is tapping the knuckles of both fists together and likely has connotations of referring specifically to two people who fight together; "unsafe", which is a finger cocking a firearm trigger; "hunting", which is drawing a crosshair over the heart; and "allegiance", which is tapping the side of a shoulder where most military uniforms would put an insignia, and is apparently distinct from "affiliation". They don't have a sign for "sorry", though, so Natasha has to make one up by signing "mistake" and pointing at herself. A bit later, Natasha texts him a video of her signing to him, and is able to convey "mission tomorrow immediate departure combat expected heavy assault rendezvous coordinates to follow", followed by "red money airborne metal combatant", referring to Iron Man.

* DragQueen: According to the prequel side story ''Better than to Bend'', Steve had a drag phase back in the thirties that seems to have involved him wearing lipstick. (It comes up when Peggy Carter's putting lipstick on Bucky, only she's combining it with knife-play as well.) This isn't too out there, actually- the particular neighborhood where Steve grew up in the comic canon, was, in real life, a major {{Gayborhood}} back during their time, complete with illegal drag shows. (Or drag ''balls'', as they were known at the time.) This gets a CallBack of sorts when Steve mentions in ''If They Haven't Learned Your Name'' that once, a bunch of bored USO showgirls twisted his arm into letting them try their makeup on him.

** Chapter 1: "Have It Out" by Mother Mother
** Chapter 2: "Come With Me Now" by Kongos

** Chapter 4: "Звезда По Имени Солнце" (''Zvezda Po Imeni Solntse'', "The star called Sun") by Viktor Tsoi
** Chapter 5: "Grounds For Divorce" by Elbow

** Chapter 11: "With You In My Head" by Unkle

** Chapter 13: "No Way" by Doomtree
** Chapter 14: "I'm Not Done" by Fever Ray
** Chapter 15: "Upside Down & Inside Out" by OK Go

* ShoutOut: All of the chapter titles in ''If They Haven't Learned Your Name'' are the names of different songs. The accompanying [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8190439/chapters/18766054 podfic]] opens and closes the recording of each chapter with an excerpt from the song in question.

** Steve is no slouch in this department, either, having gotten the ''real'' serum. His caloric requirements are almost to BlessedWithSuck levels for him because he's more susceptible to starvation and malnutrition than a baseline human- it was found during the war that he can go almost 72 hours on almost no food, but after that, he'll go into a state of lethargy where he basically falls asleep on his feet.

* SeriouslyScruffy: Barnes is technically homeless for the full duration of ''If They Haven't Learned Your Name'' in addition to being severely mentally ill, and doesn't usually have access to clean clothes, or facilities where he can bathe or groom himself, never mind that he's usually too mentally disorganized to keep up on the latter. So for most of the story, when he's not in his tac gear, he goes around dressed in random clothes that he steals from donation bins and charity shops. [[GoingCommando And no underwear.]]

* VillainTeamUp: It turns out that [[spoiler:AIM, as depicted in ''Film/IronMan3'']], is in cahoots with HYDRA, and that the events of that film were most likely coordinated with Insight Day, in order to [[spoiler:keep Tony and Stark Industries occupied and prevent their interference, if not end it altogether. If AIM kills Tony, that leaves SI floundering either to topple on its own or for HYDRA or AIM to take, and if not, they've hopefully stalled Tony long enough for Insight to launch all the way, and a Helicarrier can just take him out then- win-win. The partnership continues even after the failure of Insight, with AIM harboring a lot of ex-HYDRA R&D and scientific personnel intermixed with non-HYDRA personnel in a way that makes it hard to run ops against their bases.]]

** When Natasha catches up with [[spoiler:Rumlow]], she beats the hell out of him with a heavy soup ladle for a while, then trusses him up and tears into him very politely and sweetly about how you might be able to kill Russia, but you'll never win against it, and that you can't take the Russia out of the ex-KGB assassin, and how stupid it was of him and HYDRA to leave her alive. After that, he freaks the hell out and starts spilling his guts on assorted HYDRA intel, and then Natasha makes it clear to him that she already knew everything he was going to say and that he's no longer needed. He begs her for his life because he still has intel she could use, dammit, to which she responds by [[spoiler:taking out her knife and carving him up into steak tartare]].

** When Natasha catches up with [[spoiler:Rumlow]], she beats the hell out of him with a heavy soup ladle for a while, then trusses him up and tears into him very politely and sweetly about how you might be able to kill Russia, but you'll never win against it, and that you can't take the Russia out of the ex-KGB assassin, and how stupid it was of him and HYDRA to leave her alive. After that, he freaks the hell out and starts spilling his guts on assorted HYDRA intel, and then Natasha makes it clear to him that she already knew everything he was going to say and that he's no longer needed. He begs her for his life because he still has intel she could use, dammit, to which she responds by taking out her knife and carving him up into steak tartare.

** At one point, Barnes realizes that Bucky and Steve had sexual relations, and resolves to himself with no small amount of bitterness that the last thing he wants to do is run up to Rogers and drop trou. [[spoiler:When he does finally reunite with Steve, he's injured, and Steve needs to find a vein to give him an emergency blood transfusion. The vein in Barnes's flesh arm is too hardened to use thanks to HYDRA, so Barnes winds up pulling his pants down to give Steve access to the vein in his inner thigh. And reveals that he's not wearing underwear.]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: According to Natasha, this is SOP for the particular circles she moved in between escaping from the Red Room and Clint recruiting her for SHIELD- betray or hurt someone if it's convenient for you, because they'll do it to you eventually. Even years later, post-Insight, it's still her first instinct to hoard secrets in case she needs them later for leverage, even when it would be expedient to not keep them. Early on, she keeps a couple secrets from Steve that would have aided in an op, and it rightfully pisses him off. That, combined with how much she liked the feeling of having someone's trust and being trusted in return that ultimately got her to defect to SHIELD in the first place, are what convince her that she needs to stop and make a change.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Various governments and entities that want to take Barnes to trial, put him to work for them, or both start setting up sensors that can detect Barnes and Motherfucker, as they put out similar energy signatures. Tony does some scans, and suggests that they just park Motherfucker right in the lobby of Stark Tower, and that Barnes move to Manhattan, because it turns out they're basically indistinguishable energy-wise from the Chitauri detritus that's still turning up around Manhattan years later. If anyone asks, they can just call Motherfucker a really ugly modern art piece. [[spoiler:Barnes winds up not accepting the offer because he's accidentally commanded Motherfucker without intending to before, and he's afraid that a stray thought or even a nightmare could make Motherfucker zip out of the tower and destroy Tony's lobby.]]

* SwitchingPOV: The POV rotates between the four leads- Steve, Sam, Natasha, and Bucky -with a couple sections from Rhodey offering insight into how things are going on the home front post-Insight.

* PhenotypeStereotype: Joseph Rogers, according to his son Steve, had the stereotypical Irish red hair. Steve's friends joke about him not taking after his dad in that respect, but his narration says that his beard comes in red, which is why he's always clean shaven. In his words, the world is not ready for a ginger Captain America. In ''come as you are'', Steve's codename in his communications with Barnes is Ginger.

* DrowningMySorrows: While on their forced European vacation, Steve and Sam get smashed at a bar in Croatia (Steve has to take a sip of some kind of mysterious liquor every minute to remain drunk) and commiserate about their respective fallen friends, and those friends' sexual practices. Eventually, they wind up crying into each others' shirts.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Steve mentions that during the war, he and the other white members of the Howling Commandos tried disguising themselves as German soldiers once, only to get busted immediately because their pants weren't tailored tight enough to pass for real SS officers.

* AudioAdaptation: The two main installments of the series have been [[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1441249 adapted to podfic]] by quietnight, who has since become a beta reader-cum-second parent to the original fic. The podfic is highly polished- each chapter is opened with an excerpt of whichever song the chapter's title references, there are musical inserts where music is referenced in-story (such as when Steve's [=StarkPhone=] starts playing [[Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice "America, Fuck Yeah"]] as its ringtone), and voice modulation applied to dialogue where appropriate. Your commute or next round of house work has just gotten more enjoyable!