Winterguardian Au Moodboard

Alexei: Valentine’s day is just a consumerist holiday that holds no real value other than drive people insane buying heart shaped chocolates for their significant others and pos- Bucky: I wrote you a poem. Alexei, already crying:You did?

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thunderbolts (Movie 2025), What If...? (Cartoon 2021) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Alexei Shostakov Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Alexei Shostakov Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Reunions, Slow Burn, No Spoilers for Movie: Thunderbolts (2025), soft angst, red guardian x winter soldier, Wistful, Mentions of memory loss, alexei and bucky reunion, Post-Episode: s03e03 What If... The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?, Past romantic relationships, Winter Soldier - Freeform, past mission partners, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Tender Alexei, Alternative Timeline, Canon Divergence, winterguardian, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, How Do I Tag Summary:

A long time ago, the Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier shared a mission, a cabin and sweat-slicked skin under the covers.

When they meet again, decades later.... Alexei still remembers. Bucky does not.

Hadda do a sketch of these goofballs

Also👏👏👏 I HAVE IDEASSSSS

I'm going insane - it looks like they were on a road trip and Alexei picked up an old camera in some garage sale and they took happy snaps of each other on the way 😭

warming up

This Bucky with this Alexei though

“Mr. Soldier”

“Mr. Soldier was my brainwashed and tortured alter ego. Call me Bucky.”

They ditch the last body in a Nevada ravine and don’t look back. There are no more handlers, no more orders. No Red Room taskforce and no Hydra to haunt them. Now they're just two weapons built by monsters, finally turned on their makers. They steal a Dodge with a busted radio and windows that don’t roll down. The soldier drives while Alexei navigates. Alexei keeps one hand on the map, the other on the soldier's thigh.  They cross state lines without purpose - Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. There's no plan, just wind and dust and stolen hours. They sleep in cheap motels and abandoned cabins. Alexei patches the soldier's wounds in silence and hums old Russian lullabies when the soldier can’t sleep. They don’t speak of love, but when the soldier wakes in the middle of the night, breathing hard and shaking, Alexei is there with strong arms and calloused hands holding him tight, grounding him like gravity. Like faith. There’s no future waiting for them except whatever they make it. No orders, no redemption, no audience. Only stolen hours and the taste of freedom bittersweet on their tongues.

This episode of What If...saved my soul.

Headcanon: Alexei was able to partially overcome Bucky's brainwashing because he reminds Bucky of Steve. Not just the costume and the powers but the fact that he's a good man trying to fight for his ideals in a flawed system.