now, you might think a disagreement of such proportions would send fandom into a tailspin. whom do you believe? MUST WE PICK SIDES? IS THIS WHAT THE PLOT OF CIVIL WAR IS REALLY ABOUT?
luckily, the answer is simple
Steve and Peggy disagree on whether or not oral counts
I’m just imagining them literally arguing this at Peggy’s hospital bed, possibly stubbornly enough that a nurse shows up to find out what the hell is going on.
excuse me, but I started typing headcanon accepted then realized what I was typing and what i was typing it about and I am now laughing like a hyena.
the first time steve went to the captain america exhibit at the smithsonian was actually when natasha dragged him there as a joke and then she realized it wasn’t fucking funny when he stood in front of the bucky wall for like twenty minutes and she watched the footage and realized she’s never ever seen him smile like that
there is a note, buried deep in the winter soldier’s files, that warns his handlers against leaving slack in his leash on the fourth of july. if the asset must be taken out of cryofreeze on that date, it says, it should be done away from the states and any calendars should be kept out of sight
years after this note is written, anyone who comes upon it assumes something about the holiday wakes up some latent patriotism or perhaps that the fireworks cause an adverse reaction, but really the asset goes on the fritz a bit because he knows he’s missing something important, even if he doesn’t realize that something is steve’s birthday
You can see he looks apprehensive, stressed right here. And it’s because he hears a siren, presumably police. He’s on high alert because he’s just waiting for the day that those sirens come for him.
And here he is after the (police) car with the siren passes by him. He’s relieved, a little shaken. He swallows, breathes, and gathers himself a little.
ANNNDDD then he spots the guy across the street who’s staring at him, and you can see his stomach drop and he visibly tenses again. It’s a nightmare come to life. And I’m saying “a nightmare” because sadly, this probably isn’t his worst nightmare.
And his breathing picks up, and he looks so afraid, his tiny bit of peace, whatever peace he can get, is shattered. He always knew this day would come, but he had hoped he’d have more time. And it breaks my fucking heart.
And I have to say biiiiiggg KUDOS to Sebastian Stan for acting out all the minutiae of Bucky’s facial expressions and body language. Because HOLY SHIT there was a lot of stuff going on in Bucky’s internal dialogue.
I choose to reimagine this as Bucky Barnes getting his battle groove back on, after he’s gotten de-programmed and in a better headspace as far as recovery is concerned.
Because, of course, he’s not about to leave his trouble-prone punk alone. Seriously. The last time this happened, Steve flew a plane into the Arctic, got frozen and then, a lot later, did things like jumping out of planes with no fucking parachutes and jumping out of elevators with just the shield to take the force of the fall.
He and Steve had a Talk about the Elevator Incident.
It ended up traumatizing Tony Stark because WHY OH WHY ARE SUPER SOLDIERS MAKING BLANKET FORTS IN MY WORKSHOP AND HOW THE HELL DID MY BABIES END UP CRUSHING ON YOU BOTH AND JARVIS I THOUGHT YOU STILL HAD THAT CRUSH ON OAKENSHIELD WHY IS THIS MY LIFE WHYYYYYY.
So anyway, Bucky’s retraining.
Steve either joins him or is in the background, trying not to end up getting aroused over this whole business, because hey, his sergeant in battle mode is a beautiful thing and the best way to get himself under control is either to grab his sketchpad or join in the fun.
Okay, so maybe joining in the fun isn’t a great idea towards the whole self-control thing.
I know Steve is really talented with his shield and is like an expert with it
but just imagine him smacking it in his face
or tripping over it
or waking up in the middle of the night and he shuffles off to the bathroom only to step on the edge of the shield and it smacks him in the shin and he curses loudly enough to wake up the other Howling Commandos who just sit up and start laughing at the way Steve is holding onto his leg and swearing
Seriously, though, super-soldier or not, watching Steve learn to use his shield must’ve been A+ comedy!
Steve throws it at some HYDRA goons but misses them by a mile and it bounces off a wall and flies out through a window, and Steve is just standing there, whoops, while Bucky rolls his eyes, takes out the enemies with his rifle, and jogs back outside to fetch the shield.
Steve hasn’t learnt the ctrl+c to crouch move yet; he holds the shield in front of his face and a HYDRA sniper shoots him in the thigh. Bucky facepalms because Steve you idiot, the shield only protects the bits of you actually behind it. Eventually, Steve masters the art of hiding his entire body behind the shield, tortoise-style, by ducking and having Bucky chuck pebbles at whatever parts of him are sticking out – of course Bucky has a wicked good aim and an even more wicked sense of humour, and Steve ends up with some rather embarrassing bruises.
The Commandos are on a stealth mission to infiltrate a secret HYDRA base, except the shield slips, falls, and does that rolling-metal-lid-dropped-on-the-ground sound like clang!!-grooiinnng-rooiinng-ooiinnnng-rnnnng-rrnng-rrnng-rrnng until Steve puts his foot on it. Everyone stops and just stares at him.
Also, my personal headcanon is that Steve once bet the shield in a hand of poker and Bucky won it. So it’s actually been Bucky’s shield since October 1944, Steve’s just borrowing it.
hannahbelleeeebackup 