Life After Death

A slightly more canonical Bucky x reader.

Sargeant James "Bucky" Barnes should by all means be dead. Experimented on following his capture in 1943, he survived Hydra torture and was rescued by Captain America, albeit worse for wear and never feeling the same after.

Two years later, while serving with the Howling Commandos, he fell from a moving train in Siberia, but he didn't die then either. More than 70 years passed, and all the time the soldier thought it was over, he again woke up, still alive.

Now, it's 2016. Finally broken free from Hydra, James is alone, hiding out in Bucharest, wanting nothing more than a normal life. But there's nothing about his life that's normal, especially after you come along.

Love shouldn't be blooming from a chance encounter between a veteran ex-assassin and an American housekeep living in Romania, but it is.

Maybe he could start over, and maybe he could find a way not to hate to find himself still alive after it all.

Updates concurrently on AO3