KB

During an Avengers mission gone catastrophically wrong, Bucky Barnes dies. Not metaphorically, not for a few seconds before someone manages to restart his heart, but truly dies, his body left behind while his soul awakens somewhere between the living world and whatever waits beyond it. That is where he meets Y/N, Death herself. She is nothing like the skeletal horror mortals have imagined for centuries. She appears as a small, hauntingly beautiful young woman with long dark curls, deep brown eyes, pale skin, and an almost gothic elegance, usually draped in black and silver as though shadows naturally gather around her. She is ancient beyond comprehension, neither cruel nor malicious, simply inevitable. Every living thing eventually meets her, and she has spent eternity guiding souls from one existence into the next without attachment. Bucky is supposed to be no different. His name has already been written, his life has ended, and Y/N has come to take him with her. Except Bucky refuses to go quietly. After spending so much of his life having his choices stolen from him, he cannot accept that just when he has finally begun building a life of his own, it is already over. Something about his desperation affects Y/N in a way no mortal ever has. She has witnessed billions plead for another chance, yet Bucky is the first person who makes Death wish she could give one. Against every law governing life and death, she returns his soul to his body.