Oh sure, reunion results in happiness, kittens, and rainbows, because that's definitely how life goes when you've just spent 70 years as a tool of villainy. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Another truly wonderful piece of Bucky-Steve fanfiction. Shout-out to Katie the Coffee Girl, who has her own emotional journey in this one. Now, seriously, why can't I find professionally published work that's as good as this?
Another 4.5 that I think I'm going to go all the way and round up, this time! The character-based humor throughout, the family-by-choice feels (still including the Brooklyn "Olds", three senior-citizen OCs, for those who haven't had the pleasure of reading This, You Protect yet), the recovery feels (including some hard moments/memories and realistic steps back, and both Steve and "Stark" forced to adjust their different preconceptions in their different ways, etc.), some scenes of action-drama (which have emotional weight), oh, and JARVIS and the bots, it really all just keeps getting better. And it leaves you with a warm smile on your face, guaranteed.
N.b., relevant chapters indicate when events from Team-Building Exercises are occurring; different scenes may be "offstage". Personally, I plan to try reading those ~shorts~ third (or just flipping back and forth) whenever my next reread happens, despite the series numbering having TBE listed first.
This series has permanently ruined fan fiction for me. This was by far the best work I have read in a long time. I accept this as my head cannon and I live for it . I am sure I will never find anything as well written and with as much depth as this