Where the Circle Ends by Renne (R)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Fandom: AVENGERS (Captain America (2011))
Pairing: Steve/Bucky
Length: ~30,000 words
Author on LJ: renne
Author Website: @ AO3
Why this must be read:

This is a fantastically tense zombie apocalypse futurefic where Steve discovers that Bucky is still alive during a fight for his life against zombies in New York City. Together, they fight their way through to what Steve thinks is gong to be safety, but things are, as always, more complicated than that, especially once SHIELD discovers that Bucky is the infamous Winter Soldier. And amid those complications, Steve also has to deal with his long-held feelings for Bucky and whether those feelings are reciprocated. Plus, zombies.

Steve can hear a commotion in the alley ahead and he slows, shifting his grip on the shotgun. Not for the first time he wishes he still had his shield. He peers around the corner.

There's a man at the end of the alley, hard pressed by five of those... things. In one gloved hand he has a machete, in the other a silenced 9mm. At his feet there are a number of bodies--he's made a fair accounting of himself already--but it's clear he's not going to last much longer. There's something strangely familiar about the way he moves, something uncanny that jolts Steve's memory. Bucky, he thinks. It's Bucky.

But no. It's not, it can't be. Bucky fell to his death seventy-odd years ago; there mightn't have been a corpse to find--and god knows he looked--but Steve knew no one could survive a fall like that. Even he couldn't survive a fall like that. And if Bucky had, somehow, he'd be an old, old man by now, not this reflection of Steve's own existing youth. So Steve knows it's not plausible, but the man moves like Bucky, even looks like Bucky from this angle (a flash of memories: Bucky strapped to Zola's table; Bucky shouting "No, not without you!" over a gap too wide; Bucky in the weak sunlight, filthy and pale and drawn but alive) and Steve? Steve can't.

He just can't.

It's not that even without the shield and the uniform he's still Captain America, and some things never change. There is enough of his best friend in this man for it not to even cross Steve's mind to leave him to his fate.

Steve charges into the alley.

There's also a timestamp sequel (full disclosure: it was written for me): Epicentre, in which Bucky submits to telepathic examination and things do not go at all well. Pretty much guaranteed to punch you in the Bucky feels.

Where the Circle Ends and Epicentre by Renne

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