Fanfic Recs / Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Proof that the remaining 10% is worth being assassinated by the Winter Soldier for.

These are recommendations made by Tropers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. No name recommendations will be shot with a Škorpion. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page. They are listed in the alphabetical order by title.

Please be advised that these fics contain major spoilers for the film.

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Authors and Websites

taralkariel

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Comments: A fanfic writer who writes stories for Star Wars and The Dark Knight Trilogy, she has written some excellent Winter Soldier fics, which are in-character, provide an excellent bromance between Steve and Bucky and provide insight into Bucky's mind. Two of her fics have even made it onto this page!

Sholio

• Recommended by: reathfroge
• Comments: Brilliant at characterization and interpersonal & team dynamics, particularly unconventional character combinations like Pepper and Bucky or Bucky and Sam.

Griselda Banks

• Recommended by: Huldra
• Comments: This author is brilliant at angst, fluff and bromance, and she doesn't stray from character. Will make you smile, laugh and cry, often in the same story.

Shipping Fics

All of You by bulma90_13

• Recommended by: Katie-P
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky, Steve/Some of Bucky's other personalities
• Summary: In a way, Steve thought, he did get Bucky back. He just got a little more than that. Bucky's abuse by HYDRA has left him with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Steve takes it upon himself to become his keeper.
• Comments: Have tissues on standby. This one sneaks up and pulls the emotions out of you.

The Fourth of July series by Agent25

• Recommended by: The Other Theme
• Status: In Progress
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter
• Summary: "A series of stories following the life and times of Agent 13, Sharon Carter, and her interactions and friendships with agents of SHIELD, Avengers, and most importantly Steve Rogers Watch as she grows, matures, falls in love and searches for the world's greatest burger in an increasingly strange world. "
• Comments: A great series that shows Agent 13 in a way never approached in movies and a connection with Steve Rogers with a strong and long-lasting base that is not based only on romanticism, especially for those who love the Canon-comic -pairing and the history of the MCU with all the details and reminders.
• Trope page

Light of the Grave by Sororising

• Recommended by error-cascade
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Natasha Romanov/Sharon Carter
• Summary: A slow burn fanfiction through a series of vingettes. Sharon is wary and distrustful of the former Red Room operative, while Natasha is surprisingly human.

A Long Winter by dropdeaddream and WhatAreFears

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter
• Summary: AU. In 1945, Steve Rogers jumps from a nosediving plane and swims through miles of Arctic Ocean to a frozen shore. In 1947, Steve Rogers marries Peggy Carter. In 1966, the New York Times finds the lost letters of Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes.
• Comments: Read this, you will cry. A story of Steve Rogers through the Cold War, 911 Attack, Vietnam War etc. and all the winters in between.

ampersand by kaydeefalls

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: They've been steveandbucky since they were kids, but that ignores the parts of their lives that don't wrap around each other, that never did. (Bucky needs to figure out who he is, just him, with or without Steve.)
• Comments:

Even as a Shadow by rubysharkruby

• Recommended by: Katie-P
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Summary: Bucky was different now but he was still here, still Bucky, and Steve didn't love this new quiet version any less.
• Comments: Have a box of tissues ready when you start reading. This one puts a different spin on the idea of the Winter Soldier as a ghost and explores some of the other potential capabilities of the tesseract/cosmic cube. It is a beautifully written story that will keep you hooked and keep you guessing from start to finish.

Except it Abide in the Vine by spitandvinegar with illustrations by alby_mangroves

• Recommended by: Katie-P
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: multiple, but mostly Steve/Bucky
• Summary: Steve is dead. Sam's a wreck. Bucky's barely coping. Then Bucky shows up.
• Comments: The basic premise is that a hiccup in the multiverse displaces a bunch of Steves and MCU!Sam, MCU!Bucky, and Comics!Bucky have to find them and send them back to their home universes. This story is amazing, with a perfect balance of humor and heartbreak. Comics!Bucky has a domino mask tan line. Sweetpea totally steals everyone's hearts despite being the biggest, scariest person any of them has ever met. Each Steve is unique and there are a lot of them.

Freezer Burn series by Domenika Marzione

• Recommended by: Komodo Classic
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov in later stories
• Summary: Steve Rogers: soldier, artist, foodie, friend, heart of the Avengers, and a guy whose past keeps creeping into his present and dictating his future. A series of stories about him and the people he has chosen to build his life around.
• Comments: Not MCU compliant past The Avengers. Steve's life after, his work for SHIELD, his friendships with the other Avengers. And the Winter Soldier, whose first appearance comes on the tail end of Freezer Burn, the second story. Each can be read independently of the others; you'll miss a few references, but each is a fully-contained story.

Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Speranza

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: Time travel fic. Natasha wanted to tell him the whole story of wartime London and the pub and seeing who Steve Rogers was before he lost everything, and meeting The Winter Soldier only to find out that he was just a young charmer named Bucky Barnes.
• Comments:

Ipseity series (Chyetirye, Chasm) by SkyisGray

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Trope page: Ipseity series.
• Summary: Even the strongest personalities, when subjected to great physical, emotional, and sexual abuses, can splinter, or dissociate. Bucky Barnes lives a nightmare after falling from a train and being recovered by Hydra. His mind deals with the trauma by splintering into the soldier, the prisoner, the patriot, and the assassin.
• Comments: Very detailed Dissociative Identity Disorder, great research, and extremely well-written subtle Stockholm Syndrome. Dark and serious but also surprisingly humorous at time, but mind the warnings!!

lilies with full hands by refusals

• Recommended by: Sana
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Summary: His body is not his own. This may not be the first thing they teach him, but it is the first thing he learns.
• Comments: One of if not the best Bucky recovery fics ever. Bucky's trauma is handled in a very sensitive, realistic way that somehow manages to be both awful and hopeful. Warnings for everything you'd expect Bucky to have been through and beyond, in particular sexual abuse and it's aftereffects, though its not especially graphic (and manages to be more effective for not being gratuitous "look at how much i can hurt this character!" fic), and self-harm and suicidal ideation in some chapters. You will probably cry, but it will be worth it.

the long slide from kingdom to kingdom by gyzym

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: They want you to love the whole damn world but you won't, you want it all narrowed down to one fleshy man in the bath, who knows what to do with his body, with his hands. -Richard Siken, Driving, Not Washing.
• Comments:

The man on the bridge by boopboop

• Recommended by: Scullery, SuddenFrost
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky, Tony/Pepper, Clint/Natasha
• Synopsis: Steve Rogers turning up at Tony's door in the middle of the night might be a bit out of character, but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. Stranger things have happened. Steve Rogers turning up at Tony's door with an amnesiac assassin - who may or may not have some of Tony's personally designed hardware attached where his arm should be - well that's just far too interesting to turn away, even if Tony is trying to avoid all things S.H.I.E.L.D these days.
• Comments: A multi-chapter fic exploring the (many) fall-outs immediately following CA:TWS, through the eyes of Tony Stark.
  • SuddenFrost: Eventually, the rest of the Avengers and the Falcon become involved in preventing Bucky from falling back into HYDRA's hands. Tony's characterization and narrative voice are remarkably well-done.

Me, Myself and I by Youssii

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: It would take a real bastard to give the Winter Soldier a Bucky Bear as a joke, wouldn't it?
• Comments: Be warned of Psychological Horror.

the nightmare from which I am trying to awake by Speranza

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: "You gotta bring him in, Cap." Tony Stark, distant: on speakerphone. "You can come in to me, or you can go to—well, I don't know who else is left. But you gotta bring him in."
• Comments: Post-Winter Soldier fic, an unique take where Steve and Bucky are both alright... it's everyone else and the world at large that's the problem.

Out of the Dead Land by emilyenrose

• Recommended by: Lemia
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Trope page: Out of the Dead Land
• Summary: Someone is building machines that look and act like people. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes.
• Comments: This fic does a fantastic job of delving into the Winter Soldier's fractured psyche and giving him an extremely distinctive voice that shows how deeply ingrained his programming has become in his thought processes but how there's still more human feeling in him than he's willing to believe at the same time. In addition, the robot plot is well-crafted and ties in seamlessly with his internal "should I try to be Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, or neither?" conflict without feeling contrived at any point. Also: Natasha is awesome in this fic, especially in her interactions with Bucky.

Parallel Constructions by freshbakedlady

• Recommended by: Scullery
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Synopsis: In the absence of orders, the man wearing the face of Bucky Barnes must figure out who he will be. The answer, mostly, is "somebody Steve Rogers can love." Nothing so easy should ever take this much work.
• Comments: 70 years of brainwashing and torture can unmake a man, and maybe that isn't something a person can ever fully recover from. I love a post-WS fic where Bucky is both and/nor neither the Winter Soldier and the James Buchanan Barnes that Steve remembers.

Sassy Spatula Assassin by GraphiteWrites

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Bucky/Natasha
• Summary: Bucky’s pancake-making is interrupted by a random Hydra sneaking into his and Nat’s apartment. He decides to be plucky, making terrible movie references and killing with flair!
• Comments: Hilarious. Utterly hilarious. And awesome.

The S. Rogers Memorial (it’s NOT a shrine) to J. B. Barnes by SkyisGray

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes; minor Tony/Pepper, Thor/Jane, Clint/Natasha
• Summary: Post-Avengers, Winter Soldier AU. When the Avengers realize that Steve doesn't have anything to remind him of Bucky Barnes, they embark on a project to track down Bucky memorabilia. But it seems that Steve isn't the only visitor to the (unofficial) J. B. Barnes memorial (which is totally NOT a shrine, Tony).
• Comments:

Steve Rogers at 100: Celebrating Captain America on Film by eleveninches, Febricant, hellotailor, M_Leigh, neenya, tigrrmilk

• Recommended by: caughtbluehanded, Scullery, AuroraLynches
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Synopsis: "Heil Hydra," the enemy agent shouts. "Heil this, motherfucker," says Captain America, shooting off a rocket. Steve and Bucky find out Hollywood has been busy since they went away. A historical survey, including but not limited to: one set of exploded genitals, a brief interlude in France, Mel Gibson and other masterworks of casting, eight academy awards, several dinosaurs, and something Tony Stark has ominously dubbed "the masterpiece." Art included.
• Comments: Easily one of the most entertaining fics I have ever read. I laughed harder every time at Steve and Bucky's mounting horror, disgust and confusion at each new film. Extremely thorough and immensely fun. And do follow the authors' suggestion to click all the links. It is so worth it.

Steve Rogers Might Wear Tights, but He's Not Your Pin-Up Girl by RosaLui and what_alchemy

• Recommended by: Lemia, seconded by Y.S.Jennis, thirded by caughtbluehanded
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Summary: Bucky enrolls in a college course about Captain America. It doesn't go well.
• Comments: Written in the highly unique format of a professor grading and writing comments on Bucky's rather...impassioned college essay. If you don't burst out laughing at any point while witnessing the poor professor sink further and further into despair and madness the more she reads Bucky's well-intentioned but extremely (extremely) informal essay, you are dead inside. Stone dead.
  • 5 words: Why is this so awesome. Hilarious all the way.

The thing that drives the wolves away by caughtinanocean

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: The thing about Bucky these days is that, while he might be a semi-mythical assassin, he's also vulnerable—the kind of vulnerable that makes total strangers want to drape a blanket over his shoulders and take him to safety. Bucky was mistaken as being in an abusive relationship with Steve, which cannot be further from the truth.
• Comments: The central theme of this story is contrasting Bystander Syndrome and Samaritan Syndrome, and it is very very good.

this black and white photo never captured my skin by bittereternity

• Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Synopsis: The Winter Soldier wakes up and his eyes are dead, dead, dead.
• Comments: Set after the events of the film. A gorgeous character study of Bucky as he slowly comes out of his brainwashing. It is beautiful, and you will probably cry.

tin soldiers, by idrilka

• Recommended by: K, talewind, AuroraLynches
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Summary: Captain America's fandom (and a few academics who have written about it) react to the events of The Winter Soldier.
• Comments: The verisimilitude in this story will hit you immediately if you've spent any time in Internet fandom. Told in a series of tumblr posts, Instagram pictures, Tweets, and LiveJournal comments, Steve himself is mostly on the periphery, although obviously everyone is talking about him primarily. Read if you like meta, because this is dripping in it, between the very self-aware spot_your_cap LJ comm and the scholarly texts about how the world perceives Captain America as a man and as a propaganda tool. This fic is a part of a series, the sequel the gravedigger's handbook tells the same story from Steve's perspective, but in a more conventional format. the gravedigger's handbook is a great, well-written story, but if you've read a lot of Bucky recovery fics, several of the plot beats will feel familiar— the only things that really differentiate it from a lot of the other fic on this page are the worldbuilding details from tin soldiers.

United States v. Barnes, 617 U.S. 143 (2015) by fallingvoices and radialarch

• Recommended by: fakescorpion, caughtbluehanded, talewind
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: The Associated Press @AP Winter Soldier set to stand trial for Washington D.C. massacre and treason. apne.ws/1og6SWE
• Comments: A meta fic told in various media formats and documentations, portrayed the very real possibility that Bucky would be trialed for the Winter Soldier's past actions, with pretty much the whole world ready to hang him from the get-go.
  • It's heartbreaking sometimes and hilarious at others. The fact that most of it is written in the form of a trial transcript is a perfect touch- the thoughts of the characters are implied, and that makes the fic so much better.

we did not make ourselves by M_Leigh

• Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Synopsis: It is like steel, the determination inside of you that tells you you will achieve this, that you will find him. Nothing will stop you. You are two sides of the same coin, you and he: he cannot escape you forever. Bucky runs. Steve follows.
• Comments: A novella-length exploration of Steve and Bucky's relationship, told entirely in the second person and largely in flashbacks, eventually leading to events that take place after the end of the film. The flashbacks are filled with wonderful details of the time period (it had never before occurred to me that Steve and Bucky came of age during The Great Depression). Don't be put off by the second person—everything is very much in-character for Steve, and beautifully written besides. Also, it will break your heart.

your blue-eyed boys, (even if I could) make a deal with god, by Feather

• Recommended by: genisgone, Scullery
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve/Bucky
• Summary: Post-Captain America: Winter Soldier recovery fic.
• Comments: Also, the best post-Winter Soldier fanfic you will ever read. It takes everything seriously, it’s heartbreaking and awful and hopeful and at times bitterly, terribly funny and at other times idiosyncratically adorable and also filled with Nightmare Fuel and every twisted hard one-step-forward-three-steps-back moment in recovery. Also it celebrates the women in the MCU. Also Sam Wilson is 100% the best friend ever. Also Steve is not, in fact, all that innocent. Also Tony Stark is at times ridiculously perceptive. And Game of Thrones puns. And a twelve-almost-thirteen-year-old chocolate selling neighborhood girl. And an almost religious reverence for really shitty coffee. Warnings for everything terrible one might expect to have happened to the Winter Soldier and beyond. Do yourself a favor and read Feather's work. Her grasp of the nuance of human interaction and particularly trauma is...rare, for a writer of comic-book movie fanfiction, if not unprecedented, and her stories will make you come away hopeful, and thoughtful as well.

your favorite ghost by augustbird

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: It's harder than Steve ever expected to bring Bucky home.
• Comments:

Keep the Streets Empty (for Me) by kiss_of_a_wave

• Recommended by: Ghidra 15
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: The evolution of Captain America's relationship with his best friend across decades.
• Comments: Unique Second Person Narrative, fantastic, Kerouac-esque writing. Very emotional and very moving.

Captain Hot Perfect Teacher by captainrum

• Recommended by: leadmetosalvation
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
• Summary: Steve is a fifth-grade teacher. Bucky is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, whose son is in Steve's class. They meet at a parent-teacher conference. There's blood involved.
• Comments: This is a funny, somewhat adorable, very well written piece of fluff that will never fail to make you smile

i was found and now i don't roam these streets by hipsterchrist

• Recommended by: AuroraLynches
• Status: Complete
• Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, background Tony/Pepper, Thor/Jane, and Clint/Natasha
• Summary: They’ve decided to start producing Bucky Bears again, now that he’s all shiny and redeemed and fighting for good on this big Avengers misfits team. "He has a little shiny gray arm," Bucky says, wiggling the stuffed arm in question, one of the tweaks made in the new model. It takes Steve a second to realize that Bucky’s got a small smile on his face, actually looks a little bit proud around the eyes. Or, Bucky relearns himself and how to be on a team, the rest of the Avengers try to get answers, and everyone watches too much Criminal Minds.
• Comments: Easily the best MCU fic I've ever read. It builds slowly, it takes care to flesh out each character and their dynamic with Bucky, and it switches effortlessly between being sad, funny, and heartwarming.

Gen Fic

Wasp Harvest by Overlithe

• Recommended by: reathfroge
• Status: Complete
• Summary: ‘We are going to do great things together.’ 1947: Bucky Barnes wakes up to a metal arm and Arnim Zola’s voice. 1979: Alexander Pierce, newly-minted member of Hydra, takes over a now-useless asset tucked away in a vault. 2014: The master has a mission for the soldier. This is everything that happens in between.
• Comments: Everything is brilliantly detailed and gripping, from Bucky's dehumanization to the minds of the Winter Soldier's creators. Historical accuracies abound.

And I Am Always with You by Lauralot

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Summary: He tries to reach out to Steve, but he can’t feel his arm. It’s too cold. Everything is cold save for his blood and Steve’s smile. Long after Bucky forgets his own name, he remembers "Steve."
• Comments: Realistic portrayal of brainwashing aftermath, Stockholm Syndrome, and how psychological wounds heal and reopen and scar.

The Care and Feeding of Traumatized Ex-Assassins by Sholio

• Recommended by: Glass Spires
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: Steve starts to notice someone's been in his apartment while he's not there. Set after Winter Soldier; spoilers.

Connect by oddishh

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: When they found him, there were so many broken pieces that the thought of the Winter Soldier ever being Bucky again seemed impossible. Time would tell.
• Comments:

Even Heroes Bleed by chibiMuffin999

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Bucky Barnes is a war hero. More importantly, he is Steve Roger's hero. But even heroes bleed. -An introspective of both Steve and Bucky's inner thoughts during TFA and TWS and beyond. Gets a little dark in places
• Comments: A wonderful fic that follows the comics very closely. As well as that, Bucky's behaviour during his slow recovery process may remind some of Castiel.

Fall Away by chibiMuffin999

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Bucky has collapsed and his body is shutting down. Steve is determined to save him, but is there even anything he can do? (T for some language and occasional violence) Non-slash, just brotherly love.
• Comments: The best thing to describe this fic would be "emotional tearjerking rollercoaster." You'll cry as Bucky gets weaker and weaker and as..well, see for yourself!

Functional by taralkariel

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: The Red Room produces the greatest assassins in history. The Winter Soldier is brought in to train the Black Widows, and Natalia Romanova quickly comes to his attention. After both are punished for humanizing the perfect weapon, they meet again outside of Odessa as enemies. Years later, Natasha helps Steve Rogers rehabilitate his best friend and must discover what he remembers.
• Comments: A wonderful, sad, touching, funny fic centered around our favourite assassins.

In the Time of Need by Issay

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Bucky and Steve. Steve and Bucky. Before and after everything changed - or maybe some things stayed unchanged.
• Comments: A beautiful fic, and just when you think everything is going well, there's a twist ending, right out of the blue, in the spirit of the comics.

Mandatory Leave of Absence by solomonara

• Recommended by: starwolf, caughtbluehanded
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: What happened to Councilwoman Hawley between the airport and the Triskelion?
• Comments: A brief look at how grabbing a member of the World Security Council might go. Also, Renata may have been more important than anyone realized.

One Foot In Front of the Other by taralkariel

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Sometime after CATWS, Bucky returns with Steve to Avengers Tower. With the help of the other Avengers, and especially Sam Wilson, he is able to reclaim himself enough to become friends with his new roommates. Series of 15 vignettes of life in Avengers Tower between missions, with a focus on Bucky. Fluffy and angsty, more detailed summary inside.
• Comments: A touching, funny, sweet fanfiction. The relationships between each character are very well developed.

rarely pure and never simple by refusals

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Four times Alexander Pierce talked the Winter Soldier down from the proverbial edge and one time he threw him right over it.
• Comments:

Reconciliation by TheRedStarAtNight

• Recommended by: The Wild West Pyro
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: With Steve and Natasha watching his back, Bucky believed he could reconcile the man he was and the man he was becoming. Set Post-The Winter Soldier.
• Comments: The most solid and touching Bucky redemption fic I have ever read. Includes Bucky/Natasha.

The bridges we cross by everythingispoetry

• Recommended by: error-cascade
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: After the SHIELD infodump, Fury, Romanov, and Stark discuss what comes next.
• Comments: Essentially this is the fic if you want to ruminate about the political aftermath of the infodump or the implications of Tony Stark's weapons falling into the wrong hands.

tabula rasa by dance_at_bougival

• Recommended by: fakescorpion
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Bucky Barnes screamed himself hoarse on that table and screamed falling off that train. He screamed when they programmed him and screamed and screamed until he isn’t Bucky Barnes anymore, not really. He is still screaming, a trapped rat running around a labyrinthine machine, clawing at the doors and running into dead ends. He has been screaming for seventy years.
• Comments:

Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail by owlet

• Recommended by: alleyoop
• Status: Complete
• Summary: The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect
• Comments: Alternately funny and sweet, with a great use of the Inner Monologue. Who knew Bucky had so much sass in him?

User's Guide to HYDRA's Enhanced Manpower Asset by Rokhal

• Recommended by: Katie-P
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin.
• Comments: On the surface, it's a dry, utilitarian user's manual. Underneath, it's in turns hilarious and heartbreaking. The author has clearly thought through what keeping an asset like the Winter Soldier would actually entail and has rendered it beautifully. The banality of evil is truly staggering, especially in the user guide format.

Preserved by Domenika Marzione

• Recommended by: alleyoop
• Status: Complete
• Summary: Alternate Universe story in which Bucky makes it home after the war to start a family. Until he's called back into action seven years later by Peggy with reports that Steve Rogers, who was believed to have died when he crashed his plane over the Arctic, was taken by the Soviets to serve as a super-assassin.
• Comments: Excellent in the way it explores the various characters while mixing in geopolitical intrigue. Also a good read for people who are fans of Bucky but not necessarily into shipping, as romance is present but not a major part of the story and what's there is done tastefully.

Whole Shards by Griselda Banks

• Recommended by: Huldra
• Status: Series in progress
• Summary: Steve tries to save the Winter Soldier...BEFORE he knows who he is.
• Comments: One of the most beautiful Winter Soldier healing tales I've ever read. You will smile, cry and laugh.

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