August 31 - Cap’s (Much Delayed) Return
Title: Cap’s (Much Delayed) Return
Author: LadyWinterlight (songs_of_winter)
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Avengers/MCU
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1049
Notes: In the same 'verse as the rest of my challenge submissions so far.
I still do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers or anything to do with the MCU. Just playing in the cross-world sandbox for a while.
Alarms rang out across every Avengers-setup floor in the Tower.
“FRIDAY, what’s going on?” Bruce demanded.
“Increased energy readings detected in Storage Unit C,” the AI reported dutifully.
“Shit,” Bruce swore.
“What’s in Unit C?” Bucky asked, even as the group headed swiftly for the elevators.
“The quantum time device!”
Sam and Wanda joined in the swearing. Bucky didn’t waste time with the elevators; he headed straight for the stairs. As he did, memory swamped him.
“Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” Steve admonished gently.
“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”
But the time had elapsed, and Steve hadn’t come back. Not at ten seconds, or two minutes, or two hours.
Bucky shook himself. He could wonder what and why later.
When he reached Unit C, Bucky wrenched open the door and dashed inside. The time device was lit up, despite not actually being connected to a power source.
“FRIDAY, report!” Bruce said, pushing past Bucky to get to the controls.
Before the AI could respond, a loud crackle of energy echoed through the room. And in its wake, a figure appeared on the platform. Responding automatically to a potential threat, Wanda’s hands began to glow, Sam reached for a weapon, and Bucky braced himself to jump if need be.
The figure raised its hands slowly, showing they were empty. Then one hand reached towards the controls for the time suit. It folded into itself as they all recalled from the last time, leaving Steve Rogers standing on the platform.
“My God… Cap?” Sam asked tentatively. He’d taken it the hardest when Steve hadn’t returned. After all, Bucky knew his brother and he’d known the likelihood of Steve giving up his hopes for the future three times was… unlikely. Especially after all they’d lost.
“Hi Sam,” Steve replied. He smiled, but it didn’t go any further than his lips. Steve had a haunted, almost broken look in his eyes that the smile couldn’t touch.
“Welcome back, punk,” Bucky said quietly, waving at the others to stand down.
“What happened?” Bruce asked, obviously puzzling over the information on the machine’s controls.
Steve stepped down from the platform. There were other changes in him. He didn’t move any differently, but he seemed to carry a different sort of weight. And his hair was longer, especially in the back. “I thought about what Tony had always said, that I should get a life. So I got one, or I tried to.” A wedding ring glinted on his left hand, visible when he reached up to run his hands through his hair.
“But it didn’t work out the way you thought?” Wanda ventured.
Steve sighed. “It did, for a while. But...” he hesitated, then squared his shoulders. “It’s one thing to lose friends while saving the world. And something else entirely to watch the people you love grow old and die, when you don’t appear to be aging with them.”
No one seemed to know how to respond to that for a long moment. Shaking his head, Bucky stepped close and pulled Steve in for a hug. “I’m sorry to hear it, Steve,” he murmured. Steve hugged back, clinging to Bucky as if in need of greater strength than his own.
“I’m sorry for your loss, my friend,” Wanda spoke up next. She offered Steve a hug as well, and he accepted with a small smile.
“Thank you.”
“Will your descendents be around here, still?” Sam asked, resting his hand on Steve’s shoulder.
“No. The timeline where I stayed in the past wouldn’t have merged with this one. It doesn’t work that way,” Steve admitted.
“Then there’s a timeline out there that will benefit from generations of the Rogers family,” Sam offered with a hopeful expression. “And this one will benefit from your return.”
“How old are you now, punk?” Bucky asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“I think I lost track somewhere. If you count the time on ice, something around a hundred and fifty?”
Bucky laughed. “I’m glad you’re home. We missed you.”
“How long has it been?”
“A bit over two years.” Bucky smiled. “And man, do we have a lot to catch you up on. Plus, some new allies for you to meet.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet,” Steve admitted.
“You will be,” Wanda said with assurance.
“And besides, you’re gonna love the Slayers,” Bucky added. “Strength, power, and sass in a couple of tiny packages that so far seem to have the same problems with aging that you have.”
“But don’t call Buffy tiny to her face, or she’ll probably hit you,” Sam added ruefully.
Steve managed a chuckle. “Sounds like a great pair of ladies. Maybe meeting them won’t be so bad.”
“Buffy and Faith kinda remind me of me an’ you,” Bucky said as the group began to leave the storage room. “Not related, but sisters all the same. Balancing each other’s weaknesses, and brought closer together by shared experiences.”
“You sound smitten, Buck,” Steve teased gently.
“Maybe a bit,” Bucky admitted with a shrug.
“Are they part of the team?”
“No, they’re independent. They run an organization of their own. But they’re always willing to help if we call them, and they tend to drop by just to check in on us,” Bucky explained. “Buffy’s been mentoring Peter. He calls her Aunt, and it’s kinda cute. But she knew what he was dealing with, trying to be a normal teen in school during the day and a superhero at night. He’s a lot calmer and more comfortable with his identity as Spider Man now.”
“Sounds like these ladies have been good for more than just you, then?”
Bucky grinned. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
When Bucky did arrange to introduce Steve to Faith and Buffy, he didn’t even managed to get a word out before half the Tower heard Faith exclaim, “Holy shit! Captain America’s growing out a freaking mullet??!”
Buffy’s laughter joined her sister’s. “That’s a look that never worked for anybody.”
Steve ducked his head. “I came back from the eighties?” was the best he could offer.
Shaking his head, Bucky moved to make introductions. He had a feeling coming back home was probably the best choice Steve could’ve made.
It meant he wasn’t alone. Wouldn’t ever be alone.
End note: While I understand what Marvel did with Steve was largely because Chris Evans is moving on - all the original Avengers actors are, honestly - I have always headcanoned that the super soldier serum slows Steve’s (and possibly Bucky’s) aging in the extreme. They aren’t quite immortal, and they can still actually be killed, but they will live well beyond the span of the human norm.
I haven’t decided if I really see Steve and Bucky in relationships with the similarly immortal Slayers, but at the very least they can all be friends. They’ll all have support from each other when they begin losing their friends and loved ones in this reality, too. Plus, the Asgardian friendships will help some.
So that’s where we end for the 2019 Fic-A-Day challenge. I hope everyone enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.