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Language:
English
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Published:
2022-06-15
Completed:
2022-06-25
Words:
14,267
Chapters:
16/16
Comments:
30
Kudos:
64
Bookmarks:
10
Hits:
1,305

Sweet Summer Soldier

Summary:

Winter, Winter, quite the killer,
How does your body count grow?
With silver Glock, and sniper stock,
And hand grenades all in a row.

Brock Rumlow isn’t like the Asset’s previous handlers. He’s subtle. Cunning. He knows the worth of a peanut butter sandwich. When you spend years working with a brainwashed cyborg assassin, you can’t help but get to see him as human, and maybe even become a little more human yourself. Even HYDRA agents have a story to tell.

In a parallel life, Bucky Barnes recovers from his time as the Winter Soldier with the help of his friends. They all have a different idea of what that means. And where Steve Rogers is concerned, Bucky wishes they were something more. But the past is hard to shake, and sometimes you don’t get to choose what to keep and what to let go.

Eventually, all things must converge.

Notes:

This is a bittersweet little character study, not without hope or humor, alternating between the Winter Soldier's recent past and Bucky Barne's future present. It mostly draws from the Captain America MCU movies, with minor liberties taken. The HYDRA sections I imagine taking place sometime in the early 2000s, and the HOME sections shortly after the events of Civil War.

There is no overt action or sex, but plenty of feels. I could describe it as “intense slice-of-life” with slightly twisted Found Family vibes, but I’ll leave that to the reader to decide.

There is a content warning at the beginning of chapter 13 that I didn't think needed to be applied to the entire work, so keep your eyes peeled if it’s of concern. Comments always welcome and appreciated.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Stars and Small Comforts

Chapter Text

The Asset learns to find comfort in the small things. It likes looking up at the stars right before a mission, because that’s what stars actually look like. Glittering jewels of light, untouched by the ugly shadow of mankind. Not anything like the red five-pointed symbol on its arm, or on the national flags of certain enemy nations. The difference is worlds apart.

For this reason, the Asset has come to prefer outdoor missions after dark, though of course it has no say in the matter. But even though HYDRA controls every other aspect of its life, right down to its bowel movements, the handlers can’t stop the Asset from covertly looking up at the sky every once in a while. These small, stolen glances are what the Asset comes to think of as the real secret mission, a sort of game to be played under the relentless imperative of its programming. The Machine can wipe memories, but it can’t erase the stars.

At least, not until they send the Asset to Long Island. Bathed in the flames of the wreckage that was once a car, listening to the targets call out to each other in mangled voices that will soon be silenced forever, the Asset makes the mistake of looking up.

And sees nothing but darkness. The stars have fled.

The Asset stops playing the game after that, although it does not remember why.