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As much as you enjoyed working out with Steve and Bucky (and by ‘working out’ you mean watching them workout) you could hardly keep up with the two super soldiers. Which is why you had left them to continue sparring and had gone up to your room, ready to shower and get ready for movie night with the Avengers - something that happened whenever you were all back from missions. Steve and Bucky would be done in a few minutes anyway, only enough time to have a shower.
After you had showered and changed the boys weren’t back yet so you went into the living room and turned on the TV. As it turned on you looked down at your soulmate tattoo, three outlines of triangles stacked on top of each other on your right forearm. One of the weirdest parts of being in a polyamorous relationship was that you could tell when they were doing, well, stuff . It had made for some awkward moments in the relationship. You couldn’t exactly feel what they were feeling but you knew what was happening. And right now they were most definitely making out.
The TV turned on after a moment, it was on the news channel, Steve always watched the news after his morning run. You didn’t really pay attention to what they were saying. Scrolling on your phone instead of paying attention - until you heard your own name.
You knew that the news talked about you, well not so much you, more than they talked about your soulmates and you were tacked on. This time was no different, at first, they were talking about Bucky and the arguments that always surrounded him. There were three people at the table, the male news host and then two guests. From what you could guess, the male guest was from an anti-Bucky group (and honestly, you always scoffed at them - they didn’t even know him). He looked like the majority of anti-Bucky protesters, white beard, and a beer gut. Flannel shirt and a few random pins, this man even wore a cowboy hat. The other guest, a female, was from what amounted to be a pro-Bucky group. It was more complicated than that but that was what it really came down too. She looked much more professional, and about twenty years his junior. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she was a grey skirt suit, she reminded you of Pepper Potts.
“-and he’s dangerous,” the male guest said. You had missed the first half of the conversation but it had peeked your interest so you decided to listen.
“He’s been with the Avengers for nearly three years,” the lady argued. “And he hasn't hurt any of them. He helps.”
“That we know of.”
“What?” She scoffed, you liked her.
He shrugged. “Captain Rogers can handle himself, I’m sure, but what about Y/N? He could be hurting her and we wouldn’t even know it.”
“Are you suggesting that James is abusing his soulmate?” The news host asked, shock written across his face. You had to agree with the news anchor, this man knew absolutely nothing and yet he acted like he did. “Abusing a soulmate is so rare, I don’t think we should be bringing it into the conversation without proof or reason.”
“Ah,” the man said and you hated him even more. “But we do have proof. But first, let’s look at the facts here. Barnes isn’t normal . He has said, and we all know, that he was brainwashed for seventy years and that’s going to change a person fundamentality, maybe enough for them to abuse their soulmate. He might even think that the abuse is a sign of love. If it’s all he’s known for the last seventy years, I mean.”
“Abuse of a soulmate is a crime against yourself,” the woman said. “I don’t think I’ve heard of it actually happening. To claim this is ridiculous. We should be talking about James, not Y/N and hypothetical abuse.”
Your eyes started to sting with tears. Rubbing at them you refused to let this man (he was hardly a man) affect you that way. But you couldn’t deny it hurt to hear him talk about Bucky, your soulmate, like that. Bucky was the kindest man you had ever meet, he would put the entire world before himself every time. These people didn’t even know him and they were having these discussions about him. It made you feel nauseous. Abusing a soulmate was, you couldn’t even explain it, it was so, so, rare. The soulmate bond basically banned it. Even play fighting with your soulmates could be hard because you simply couldn’t bear to see them in any distress. The woman had been right, it was a crime against yourself, it as the worst thing you could do in this world. The idea that Bucky could do that was beyond you.
“It’s not hypothetical,” he replied and you rolled your eyes.
What could he possibly say to try and convince people Bucky was abusing you when he wasn’t? He held up a picture, showing the people around the table, and then the picture flashed onto the screen. It was of you and Bucky, he had taken you to get roasted nuts a few days in central New York after a meeting with Maria Hill. You couldn’t understand why he had chosen this one, the two of you were happy. Bucky had his metal arm around your waist and you were both smiling. He was holding your bag of nuts above your head with his other hand and you were reaching up to try grabbing it back, your jumper had ridden up slightly. You remembered when the picture was taken because it was cold and the wind and sliced at your exposed midsection. Was he trying to say Bucky was starving you or something like that?
“If you look closely at the skin showing above the jeans,” he said as the picture zoomed in on screen, “you can clearly see a handprint-shaped bruise.”
Yeah, okay, there was one. He was right and you knew where it had come from because Bucky had cried about it for hours. The night before this picture was taken he had a bad nightmare and had held onto you tightly during the night. It didn’t hurt you, you didn’t even wake up. But he had seen it the next morning and apologized more times than you could count through tears and sobs.
“She’s an agent,” the woman said. At least she had some sense. “Anyone could have given her that during sparring.”
“The positioning, of the left-hand mind you, looks like someone pulling her into their side,” he replied bitterly.
“Or she got a bruise. We can’t even see the full bruise!”
The host chimed in, “I don’t think you can use this picture as evidence for soulmate abuse. It could be a simple accident or she banged into the table. Abuse is a big accusation to be throwing around,” he turned to face the camera directly. “After the break we have another guest coming into the studio, stay tuned.”
You turned back to your phone during the ads. Sending a message to your best friend, basically a long rant about the man on the news, and answering a DM on Twitter. Your friend hadn’t replied by the time the news came back on and Jarvis unmuted it for you.
“Today on Channel Three News we’re doing an all day James Barnes special. Here now we have Lawson Clay, founder of AJL or Anti James League .” (You thought it was a dumb name, if they were going to insult Bucky could they at least put some thought into it?) “And Abby White, president of the Innocent Barnes group. Joining us now is John Baxter, president and founder of a lesser-known group, Radically Pure Soulmates , which revolves around keeping the term ‘soulmate’ for a man and woman.”
John Baxter was a man you didn’t like almost instantly. You had been taught to not judge based on appearance or before you could know someone but this was different. He had created an entire group dedicated to hating on your soulmate bond. Triads of soulmates were very uncommon, there were only ten others in the USA, but that didn’t make it any less valid than a couple. You were very happy with your two soulmates.
“Lawson, during the break we polled Twitter to see what they thought about the abuse you claimed to see. Eighty-three percent said it sounded fake, John what do you think?” The news host asked.
“It’s a well-known fact that gay soul bonds have higher rates of abuse in them-” Abby’s face mirrored your own. Confusion, anger, and amusement. “-than a normal relationship. I don’t see why Barnes wouldn’t be abusing his partners.”
“That’s not true,” Abby replied. “There isn’t a higher rate of abuse in any group, that’s a straight up lie. There is no evidence that Barnes is hurting his soulmates-”
“Please,” John interrupted, “they’re not soulmates .”
“Just because you have outdated beliefs doesn’t mean you’re right. They have matching tattoos so they’re soulmates.”
“Soulmates are one man and one woman. What they have is gross and downright ill-moral,” John replied. You stood up, not wanting to sit anymore, your body full of adrenaline.
Lawson nodded, “I just feel sorry for Captain Rogers and Y/N. Being lumped in with Barnes like that.”
You were pacing the room now. Every word that left their mouth was like a stab to the heart, they were talking about you. About the people you loved. And it hurt . Hurt more than you would care to admit if you were being honest. It felt like they were right there, saying this to your face. If Abby wasn’t on the screen you doubted you wouldn’t be in tears right now.
“They’re war heroes,” she replied to John. “And it’s not BCE anymore, homosexuality is perfectly acceptable.”
“Not in my life.”
“But we don’t care about your life,” she replied easily. “You’re not the POW war-hero who we’re talking about right now. James Barnes is, so leave your own personal faith out of it as we talk about him.”
His face went red and puffy, like a balloon that was about to burst. “I say we lock Barnes up for all the crimes he committed, and he did commit them. Who cares if he wanted to or not, he did it and we don’t know if he would do it again. Get Y/N out of the situation they’ve put her in and disband the Avengers.”
“What about Captain Rogers?” The news host asked.
“Captain Rogers is as gay as Barnes, let him burn,” John sneered.
Jarvis turned the TV off after that comment made the tears fall. You were left staring at the black screen, your hands covering your mouth and tears dripping off your cheeks. That’s how your soulmates found you as well, both rushing to your side and asking what had happened. Jarvis played the clip from Abby’s comment again so you didn’t have to explain.
Bucky’s arm was rubbing up and down your back while Steve kissed your forehead. “Don’t worry about them, darling,” he said softly. “They don’t know anything about us or Buck.”
“How could they say that about us?” You asked, sobbing for the last time. “Acting like I’ve been forced into this or something.”
“They’re assholes,” Bucky replied smoothly, you could hear a hint of anger in his tone. “They make their living off of hurting others and complaining about me. You just have to ignore them, doll.”
“They need to shut up,” you muttered.
Steve kissed your temple again and nodded. “Come on,” the two of them lead you so that you were sitting on the bed instead of standing in the middle of the room.
Both of them were still in their workout gear and sweaty from their work out. But, like always, being in their arms made you calm down so much faster than normal. Steve and Bucky had their backs against the headboard with their legs out straight ahead, which is where you were sitting. They had their arms around your waist and were holding hands on your lap, you had started playing with their fingers, metal, and flesh together. You rested your head on Steve’s shoulder with a sigh. “Don’t worry about them,” Steve continued when you were all cuddled together. “It’s sweet that you care so much, though.”
“You’re both awesome and they act like you’re the devil.”
“People are entitled to their opinion,” Bucky replied.
“How can you be so calm about this?” You asked, “they’re talking about you.”
He shrugged as best he could. You were basically lying on him now. “I get a lot of it, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you and Stevie think of me.”
“They think you’re abusing me,” you muttered.
They were silent for a moment, thinking over what you had said. You knew what they were thinking about, that bruise they had shown the world. It was the only thing that made sense in context - and man, you really hated Lawson Clay. This whole thing was ridiculous. Bucky’s fingers ghosted over your hip, the bruise had faded already, but you knew it would never leave his mind. Turning your head you peppered kisses over his jaw with a small smile. The smile grew when he turned his own head to kiss you back. On the other side of you, Steve whined and pouted that he was being ignored. When Bucky pulled back from the kiss you turned your head to give Steve the same treatment. That stopped the whines.
“Don’t think about them,” Steve said when you had pulled away. “Especially don’t cry over them.”
“I love you guys so much,” you replied lowly. “It hurts when I hear about the hate.”
“Yeah, I know,” Steve replied.
You frowned at yourself, of course, Steve knew how it felt to have people hating on Bucky. He had been right there when Bucky had first come back. People had been rioting on the streets over Bucky for weeks . And Steve had been right there, watching people trying to get Bucky imprisoned - or worse. You felt so stupid, here you were sitting here upset over a news broadcast.
“Don’t worry about that either,” Steve interrupted your thoughts. “Stop worrying and just relax with us.”
“Sorry,” you whispered.
Shifting, Bucky grinned at you and Steve. He pulled away from you so that he was kneeling at your side with you fully on Steve’s lap and his arms around your waist. “I have an idea on how to make doll here relax,” he said to Steve. The wink he sent you making a grin spread over your face. “What do you say?”
“Well,” Steve replied seriously, you could hear the grin on his face. “We can’t have our gorgeous little soulmate being stressed out.”
“Exactly,” Bucky nodded.
“I say we go with your plan.”
“You two are ridiculous,” you replied with a laugh. “Honestly.”
But it wasn’t like you were going to complain about how the night went. The three of you may have missed the Avengers movie night.