Twisted Fates | mcu au

⇨ five ⇦

Somehow, SHIELD got their hand on magic-suppressing handcuffs just for Loki, but Bucky doesn't question it as he puts them on the god. Despite being awake for only two weeks, there's already a long list of things he won't question. He supposes he can add magic to it.

Bucky leads Loki into the now-landed quinjet and tells him to sit. He, surprisingly, listens.

Bucky goes up to the cockpit to ask Romanoff, "How long until we get to the helicarrier?"

"About an hour, why?" she asks.

"Nothing." He goes and sits across from Loki. Stark stands near the exit of the jet, staring at the god as it takes off.

Bucky takes slow, deep breaths to calm himself before taking off the ridiculous cowl.

Stark's eyes widen. "You're not Rogers."

"No, he never made it off the train," Bucky responds curtly, hoping the billionaire will get with the program that he doesn't want to fucking talk right now.

He doesn't.

"Right." Bucky can see the gears in his head turning, scarily similar to Howard. "Why did I always think you fell off the train instead of Rogers?" Bucky shrugs. Stark's eyes rove over the star-spangled suit he's wearing. "You picked up the mantle then? After... he fell?"

"Kind of."

"Kind of?"

"Sure."

"You're not very talkative, are you?"

"Would you be if you woke up seventy years later in the twenty-first century after crashing a plane on a suicide mission?"

"...Oh." Bucky senses Loki looking between them with interest, but he doesn't say anything. Stark snaps his fingers. "That's why you asked Romanoff when we'd get to the helicarrier." Bucky glares in response.

Suddenly, lightning flashes across the sky, shortly followed by thunder. Bucky tenses, along with Loki. Despite being near a panic attack, Bucky finds vindictive glee in asking the god, "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he shoots back.

"Touché," Bucky mutters. "I just don't like planes."

"I'm just not overly fond of what follows."

Bucky's near-panic-attack-like brain struggles to comprehend what he says and to remember the little Norse mythology he knows. Loki had a brother, right? The brother was adopted... no, Loki was the adopted one. Right? Yeah, because Loki is a Jotun and Thor— Thor! "It's—" He's cut off by a thump on top of the quinjet. Every occupant's gaze snaps up.

Stark opens the ramp of the jet, which Bucky finds incredibly fucking stupid on his part. Thor—Bucky is confident it's Thor because of the hammer and cape—lands on the ramp and shoves Stark away, the armor-clad man landing on top of him. He lets out a groan as Thor grabs Loki by the neck and jumps out.

Stark scrambles up to his feet. "Now there's that guy."

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff asks.

"Thor," Bucky manages to get out from his position on the ground, fighting off a panic attack.

"You're sure?"

"Had a hammer." He can feel Stark's eyes on him, but he doesn't care. He just wants to be off the fucking plane.

"Well, Thor or not, if he frees or kills Loki, the Tesseract's lost," Romanoff says.

"I'm going after him!" Stark exclaims and jumps out of the jet, leaving no room for argument. Bucky manages to stand and closes the ramp, letting out a deep breath.

"You're not going too?" Romanoff asks.

Bucky shakes his head. "Fightin' off a panic attack, Romanoff, don't think it'll be a good idea," he says, his Brooklyn accent thickening. Romanoff looks at him, unconvinced. He sends her an uncertain smile.

It's quiet for a while before her voice comes from the cockpit again. "Is it okay if I circle around a bit until they come back, or do you want to go back to the helicarrier?"

Bucky swallows and takes another deep breath. "You can circle, it's fine. The thunder is what freaked me out the most."

"Are you sure?"

Bucky nods. "I'm sure, Romanoff."

---

okay so there are some deleted scenes in the first avengers movie that addresses Steve's ptsd, and I don't fucking understand why they deleted them??? like show that even captain america has ptsd pls and thank you.

anyways i think that bucky—and steve, in canon—would be fucking terrified of planes after crashing the Valkyrie, maybe even a fear of heights? and definitely a fear of ice in general bc, you know, being frozen for seventy years?

uhm, what else do i have a word barf about...

oh! tbh i see bucky and tony getting along really well, matching each other's snark. 

Fix your posture and drink some water!

-toast