Ashes Before Embers - Bucky Barnes
49 parts Ongoing MatureHe was supposed to go to war. She was supposed to stay behind. Neither of them were supposed to burn.
In 1943, Cassandra Hawthorne is a brilliant weapons engineer and scientist working quietly behind the scenes of the war effort. She's sharp, guarded, and far too busy saving the world to waste time on charming soldiers with crooked smiles.
Until James Buchanan Barnes walks into her life - all soft smirks and sudden sincerity - and ruins everything.
A slow, sweet kind of romance blooms between experiments and letters. But the war doesn't wait for anyone. When Bucky is deployed, the world begins to shift, and soon Cassandra finds herself caught in the same nightmare that stole him.
What begins with a goodbye ends in experiments, betrayal, and a silence that lasts decades.
After all - she built the arm that broke him.
And somewhere, locked behind a Hydra door, her sister still waits.