the city skyline loomed like a jagged promise against the night. towers rising in stark defiance to the darkness, splayed in neon and halogen lights. the unlikely pair had a clear line of sight overlooking the flashing red and blue lights and crowd of uniformed officers that poured in and out of the warehouse below. what was left of the trafficking ring—those that could still walk at least—were escorted into armored vans in cuffs.
❝ sometimes, complexity can be exhausting. ❞
she wasn't wrong. he'd been chasing down a missing persons lead, a reasonably mundane operation that had quickly turned into something else when their paths had crossed. but the exhaustion that filled her voice ran deeper than a random night of vigilante justice.
❝ so simplify it. ❞ bucky said, as if life was that easy. ❝ forget the politics, the debts. just focus on the job . . . and maybe a drink after. ❞ he added as an afterthought. // @waruins , altered carbon prompt .
INJURIES + AID.
a collection of prompts in which sender comes to receiver for help with an injury, focusing on trust, vulnerability, and a little bit of embarrassment! various situations included, cw for injuries, implied self harm, and nsfw content!
add +reverse as needed, or specify extra details! in no particular order:
[ 01 ] sender comes to receiver with a wound they have been keeping secret and has become infected.
[ 02 ] sender comes to receiver for help with a wound they swore they could take care of alone.
[ 03 ] sender comes to receiver with an unrelated injury but happens to be covered in marks from a recent sexual encounter.
[ 04 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury they got during sex.
[ 05 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury they got while doing something the receiver warned them not to attempt alone.
[ 06 ] sender comes to receiver with an self-inflicted injury from unwise sword/bow/weapons practice.
[ 07 ] sender comes to receiver with a self-inflicted injury from a silly domestic (cleaning/cooking etc) accident.
[ 08 ] sender comes to receiver with a self-inflicted injury for which they provide no excuse.
[ 09 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury in a location they cannot easily reach.
[ 10 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury they do not remember getting.
[ 11 ] sender comes to receiver with an aggravated old injury they knew they needed to be careful of.
[ 12 ] sender comes to receiver having re-opened a healing wound.
[ 13 ] sender comes to receiver having ruined the dressing of a recent wound.
[ 14 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury in a sensitive/intimate location.
[ 15 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury in a location that reveals an embarrassing/secret tattoo.
[ 16 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury in a location that reveals scars that are not usually seen.
[ 17 ] sender comes to receiver with a problem that reveals an old injury they need to explain.
[ 18 ] sender comes to receiver with a problem they have had before, but has been previously shoddily cared for.
[ 19 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury they're sure was a deliberate attack on them, though they have no evidence.
[ 20 ] sender comes to receiver needing care for a recent tattoo.
[ 21 ] sender comes to receiver needing care for a recent piercing.
[ 22 ] sender comes to receiver needing care for another recent body modification.
[ 23 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury that has been inflicted upon them as punishment.
[ 24 ] sender comes to receiver with a long-term injury they've finally decided to address.
[ 25 ] sender comes to receiver with an injury that reveals a long-kept secret.
tag dump .
. connection . › scott lang .
. connection . › james rhodes .
. connection . › wanda maximoff .
. connection . › vision .
. connection . › sharon carter .
. connection . › tony stark .
. connection . › sarah wilson .
. connection . › yelena belova .
. connection . › alexei shostakov .
he didn't flinch, he rarely ever did. not when people raised their voices, not when they started flailing like they might be carrying a contagious form of hunted by mine enemies. he just watched, quiet and measured with a single brow raised in silent question. booster's outburst seemed . . . misplaced and strained. there was more to the random attack than was on the surface, booster had obviously been the target but his attackers had been, strange. trained and well-armed, and yet not only did bucky not recognise their particular brand, he also didn't recognise their weaponry.
bucky folded his arms across his chest, one shoulder leaning against the wood of a floor to ceiling sized dresser. the stench in the motel was familiar. old sweat, burned wiring, fear trying to hide behind sarcasm. bucky knew the smell better than he cared to admit. it was the kind of smell that stuck to ones skin like regret. ❝ they come after someone i'm standing next to, that makes it my fight. ❞ he said carefully.
booster had handled himself in the fight, that wasn't up for debate, but now that the danger had come to a brief pause, bucky could look at him—really look at him this time—and he saw the fray around the edges of a carefully sculpted facade. the patchwork suit, worn and scorched, the dangling earpiece. the exhaustion crawling just beneath the surface. bucky saw it all because he'd worn that same look a thousand different ways.
when booster turned from the window, that false bravado peeling off him in layers, bucky's expression softened. sure, walking away would be the smart play. cleaner. safer even. his gaze lingered on booster's hand, the way it gripped the window frame like it was the only thing tethering him to this moment.
❝ until this is over, you're stuck with me. ❞ bucky said, and it wasn't because he had to, but because he chose to. ❝ so, tell me what we're up against. ❞ // @goldbiz , continued from here .
SEBASTIAN STAN as THE WINTER SOLDIER CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014)
snowfall slicked the rooftops and turned the streets below into a dull smear of neon reflections and black ice. his target—allison daws, a former operative now in bed with the enemy—had hunkered down in hells kitchen, hoping to disappear. a standard job. he'd done it a hundred times, but something felt . . . wrong.
it was too quiet. no patrols, no sentries. just the low hum of a faulty streetlight and the distant wail of a siren that never got closer. the soldier stared down his scope, watching the safehouse window where the blinds had been pulled for movement. all it would take is for his target to pass by. one quick, clean shot and it would all be over.
a whisper of movement behind him, too smooth for a mercenary and too measured for a common killer. the soldier turned quickly, primed to defend. // @kenosky , a semi - plotted starter .
@whumpgifathon | Day #25: ALT PROMPT "Begging" Upgrade (2018)
it was a jarring thing to be seen. she was looking at him the same way people looked at a wreckage after the smoke cleared. not horrified. not curious. just . . . seeing it for what it was. he'd spent years perfecting the art of being unreadable, it was strange to have her open him up to the right page so quickly. he didn't flinch, but his gaze flicked—just once—to the window beside her, tracking nothing. an old habit. ghosts didn't show up in glass, but that didn't mean they weren't watching.
❝ i had to relearn everything, ❞ he said, voice low and worn. he wasn't talking about muscle memory, knives, guns, languages that came back faster than his own name, those things were easy. but other things. how to sit without waiting for orders. how to want something without being punished for it. how to tell if he liked or disliked something and making decisions based on that instead of necessity. now drinking shitty coffee in an aging diner and remembering how to talk to people who weren't trying to kill him was a victory.
❝ simple life isn't so simple for people like us, ❞ bucky said, ❝ but it's a start. ❞
kara watched him, really watched him, & for the first time since stepping into that diner, she saw it — the same war-torn silence beneath his words that echoed inside her. he wore his survival like old armor, battered & ill-fitting, but familiar. the kind that didn’t protect you from everything, just enough to keep moving forward. she’d been so focused on her own fracture that she hadn’t remembered he had the same cracks mirrored in him. different names, different ghosts, but the same kind of ruin. the kind that teaches you to doubt your hunger, your wants, your worth.
she looked down at her hands, then back up at him, quiet for a beat. ❝you’ve had to relearn this too, ❞ she said softly, not quite a question. ❝all of it.❞ there was no accusation in her voice, only recognition — a kind of dawning understanding that pulled the sharpness from her edges. she hadn’t been alone in the dark after all. he’d just learned how to live in it longer. & maybe that was what he was trying to teach her. not how to escape it, but how to carry light in the meantime. a flicker. a match struck against the inside of the ribcage.
her fingers tightened around the mug. ❝that’s why you brought me here. ❞ not to fix her. not to promise something clean & untouched. but to show her what survival looked like when it wasn’t being measured in missions or obedience. to show her the messy, ordinary way forward. the healing that didn’t look like victory but like two people arguing about breakfast in a booth that smelled like grease & time.
the rain had turned the alley into a maze of shallow rivers, a forensics nightmare as it swept away any evidence that might have been left behind. he'd promised his neighbor to look into their missing kid. twenty-one, barely more than a name on a grainy photo, and gone without a trace. bucky crouched beside the warehouse door, the padlock was new, but the scratches around it weren't. someone had forced their way in before.
bucky grasped the lock and it shattered like plastic in his hand. it was the smell he noticed first as he slipped inside. the air was thick with the scent of oil and metallic—machinery or blood. a single work light hummed in the far corner, illuminating a table stacked with what looked like documents and some kind of ledger. he reached for the ledger just as he heard a pair of footsteps behind him.
he froze, gloved hand hovering over the ledger as he took in the sight of the stranger at the door he'd just broken into. // @d4ughter , a semi - plotted starter .
❝ then i'm not saying it right, ❞ bucky mumbled, because what he was asking her to do was the hardest thing he'd ever attempted. coming back from a lifetime of war, blood, pain, and violence was a constant work in progress and most of the time he felt as if he were performing for some invisible judge, jury, and executioner. ❝ it's not easy. it's the hardest thing you'll ever do. you'll fail, you'll try again, you'll fail again. ❞
bucky turned the mug of coffee absently in his hand. watched the steam rise from the surface and tried not to lose himself in the ordinariness of the motion. he didn't look at her when she asked about him, instead, his jaw clenched and his brow furrowed. truth be told, he tried not to think about it.
❝ i don't know, ❞ he said finally, ❝ but i believe it matters that we try. ❞ he nursed his jaw for several short seconds before he met her eye again, ❝ i don't have all the answers. i'm making this up as i go, but i do know this: you're not too far gone that you can't come back, kara. ❞
kara let the silence stretch between them, let it settle around her like a weighted blanket, unfamiliar but not unwelcome. no history. no past. just now. she traced the rim of her cup with a fingertip, watching the way the steam curled & disappeared. ❝you make it sound easy. ❞ the words weren’t an accusation, just an observation. she wondered if he really believed it — that the weight of the past could be shrugged off so cleanly, left outside like a coat too heavy for summer air.
her fingers flexed against the ceramic. ❝maybe it is. for some people. ❞ she glanced around, watching the other patrons — people who belonged here in a way she never could. the man at the counter flipping through a newspaper, the couple sharing a plate of fries, the waitress moving through it all like she had done this a thousand times before & would do it a thousand times again. ❝i don’t know if i can be one of them. ❞ but she wanted to be. what she wasn’t sure of was what she wanted from him. reassurance? permission? maybe just the chance to sit here & pretend, for a moment, that she belonged.
the waitress set a menu down in front of her with an absent smile, & kara nodded her thanks. the gesture felt small but significant. normal. she wrapped her hands around the warmth of the coffee cup, inhaling the scent of something burnt & bitter & real. she looked up at bucky again. ❝& what about you?❞ her voice was quieter now, but steady. ❝do you believe that? that we can just … exist?❞ her gaze shifted from him. ❝ do you think we can ever have … more? ❞
he'd seen cold before, brooklyn in january, the hudson iced over, boots soaked through with slush, hands stuffed into too-thin coat pockets. but this wasn't just cold. it was something meaner. it gnawed at the edges of a man, not content to freeze him but intent on hollowing him out from the inside. his nose was already raw, bright and angry form the constant drag of his sleeve across it, and his fingers had gone stiff hours ago, turning a ruddy pink that throbbed beneath layers of blood and dirt. even the gloves he'd scrounged up from a dead german didn't do much more than hold the cold in place.
bucky's mouth twisted into something caught between a grin and a grimace. eugene looked about as good as bucky felt. eyes sunken, lashes rimmed with frost, lips cracked. red nose, red hands. dirt and blood both clinging to him like a second skin, and still, he managed to toss that dry wit like it was nothing heavier than a smirk. ❝ can't blame a guy for trying, ❞ he said, stepping in closer. the pews were gone. cots now lined the nave filled with the wounded, the sick, the dying. it stank of blood, sweat, and desperation.
❝ no morphine, just a bullet with a nazi's name on it . . . and this, ❞ he dug into his pocket, came up with a half-eaten bar of chocolate, and slapped it gently into the good doctor's palm. his fingers lingered a second longer than they needed to—maybe for warmth, maybe because he hadn't touched another human being that wasn't screaming in what felt like years. then bucky stepped back, squinting when eugene spoke around his cigarette and chattering teeth. in war, morphine made you the wealthiest man on the battlefield.
❝ i'll ask around and keep an eye out, ❞ bucky said, ❝ word is we'll be heading out before sunrise. maybe i'll get lucky. what else you need? ❞
nose is poised in the center of face, a bright shade of red, skin angry from the continual rub of sleeve to combat the persistent sniffling that lingers in a climate only growing colder. his hands are the same way, dusted with a shade of pink that cannot be avoided, darkened only by dirt and blood encrusted beneath nails and in cuticles. fingers are stiff as they work to roll scrapped sheets collected from the village nearby that had turned their church into a place for the wounded ... and while their supplies weren't much more generous than the dwindling stock of the other men, he wasn't one to complain.
besides, anything was better than nothing at this point; torn sheets, scrapped linens, medical supplies picked off surrendered germans - long as it did the job.
x ❚❙❘ how about a kiss before i go ?
❛ ah, sergeant barnes, 'fraid i'm all outta those. ❜ he shifts stare out toward @wintrb0rn from beneath the wide-mouthed brim of well-worn helmet. tired eyes & doe-lashes set idle on the other man as if he isn't damn near freezing and plenty in need of a good night's rest ( a good year's rest at this point ). the humor isn't lost on him, he welcomes it's chattering nature with a sort of fondness. when men were laughing, they sure as hell weren't screaming - a trade-off he'd give up damn near anything for all things considered. stained sleeve rises, it wraps tight in his fingers, hot breath blooms around the corners of mouth as he wipes at flesh before fingers move on to seeking the comfort of lucky strike poised behind ear.
❛ outta an awful lot of things, actually. ❜ cigarette roles between frigid figures; he hangs it betwixt lips, paper clamped lose between teeth. sure doesn't make him easier to understand, not that such seems to impede most of the men he works beside in making out what he's saying. ❛ you bring me some morphine, and maybe i'll find a spare. ❜
ᵃⁿᵈ ⁱ ʷᵃˢ ᵗʳᵃᵖᵖᵉᵈ. ⁱ ᵃˡᵒⁿᵉ ʰᵃᵈ ⁿᵒ ᵇᵒᵈʸ.ⁿᵒ ˢᵉⁿˢᵉˢ. ⁿᵒ ᶠᵉᵉˡⁱⁿᵍˢ. [ . . . ] ᶠᵒʳ ᴵ ᵃᵐ ᵃᵐ. ᴵ ᵃᵐ.
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