Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

2007

Tony looked down on the three names on his wrists. Well, two names. On his left wrist the names ‘James Buchanan Barnes’ and ‘Steven Grant Rogers’ appeared in a messy scrawl and a smooth, if slightly pointy cursive.

On his right wrist, ‘Steven Grant Rogers’ appeared once again, in the same handwriting as before.

One wrist bore the name of his enemy (or enemies) and the other the name of his soulmate (mates?).

No one knows which is, it was different of each individual person, but Tony knew one thing for sure about both names he bore. They were both dead.

§

2016

Steve looked at the two names on his own wrists before glancing at Bucky’s botched ones.

He lifted Bucky’s left arm, kissing the scars that disguised the names of Bucky’s soulmates- his own name and another, one that would have been lost to time had it not been for the same name on Steve’s own wrist, right under Bucky’s- ‘Anthony Edward Stark’.

Bucky pulled his arm away before cuddling further into Steve’s chest.

“I wish he was here,” Bucky mumbled into Steve’s collar bones.

“You know it’s impossible,” Steve hugged Bucky tighter, “but I wish so too.”

Chapter Text

March, 2017 (Three months before present time)

Tony woke up screaming.

The sound proofing was good- he designed it himself after all, so he knew Pepper, Happy, Rhodey and Peter had not heard his screams. Shivering, he wrapped himself in one of the many thick blankets on his bed, hunching in on himself in an attempt to stop the sobs climbing up his throat.

His left hand wandered down his chest to spread over the new arc reactor, and the scars surrounding it.

He had been so happy to be rid of the reactor three years prior and the fact that it had to be reimplanted cause him pain beyond the physical pain of having a metal cylinder shoved in his ribcage.

That line of thought only made Tony’s tears flow faster, because he knew his soulmate was responsible for the pain. It was all Steve’s fault, he thought, before curling closer in on himself. No it wasn’t, he mentally screamed at himself, beginning to sob, it’s yours. It’s always your fault, and you know it.

§

Bucky turned over, his sleep uneasy. Steve placed his hand on Bucky’s bare shoulder, caressing the warm skin in an attempt to calm Bucky back into sleep. Steve knew he hadn’t slept well in week, as his own rest was uneasy, the soulbond flaring to life at random hours, at least once everyday.

Steve sighed and turned his attention back to it’s previous target- the flip phone he kept on or near himself at all time, the twin of whom was… hopefully with Tony and not in a pile of garbage somewhere.

Steve felt Bucky’s arm wrapped around his shoulder, and relaxed under his soulmate’s soothing embrace.
“It’s not your fault Stevie,” whispered Bucky, “you did what you thought was best.”

“But I hurt him Bucky. I smashed the arc reactor in. He must have been stuck in Siberia for a long time, with the way I broke his suit and damaged his communicator. He will never forgive me.”

“Stevie,” Bucky grabbed Steve’s chin, forcing the blond to look at him, “call him. This pinning isn’t doing neither of us any good, and I bet that it ain’t doing him any good either. Now call him, before I do it myself.

§

2016

Tony stood next to his main work station, his chest still wrapped in bandages for his recent arc reactor reinsertion surgery, a flip phone in one hand, and a connecter cable in the other.

“Is this a good idea Fri?” he asked.

“It’s up to you boss. I think..” the AI hesitated, causing Tony to smile. That meant she was learning. It’ll take her some time to become was JARVIS used to be, and they’ll never be the same, but still. His child was growing and that gave him a reason to smile. The first in a while.

“I think it’ll be good for you. Being able to reach them in case of emergency. I know you don’t want to, but it think it’ll be overall beneficial to your mental health.”

“Okay, babygirl. Let’s do this,” and he plugged the phone in, connecting it to the computer and uploading everything in the device to Friday’s mainframe, much like his own phone was, so that she was able to accept any calls and relay any messages received on the device.

Once the upload was complete, Tony collapsed onto his chair, sighing. Dum-E, U and Butterfingers came over to him, beeping comfortingly.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Present Time

Harley poked his head into the lab, spotting Tony asleep in his chair, his face - peaceful, for once - lit blue by the arc reactor and the floating screens still running numbers and various calculations for god knows what.

Rhodey placed his hand on Harley’s shoulder, getting his attention away from the sleeping man.

“Come on, Harley. Leave him be. And Peter just got back, and he’s looking for you.
Although Harley was probably too old for this, he ran into Peter, knowing the man he considered his brother won’t let him fall.

Peter laughed ruffling Harley’s hair. This happened everytime Peter came to the tower, which was quite often, considering he was only a little over an hour away.

“Hey Uncle Rhodey,” called Peter. Rhodey smiled at him from where he was leaning against the door frame.

The elevator dinged, signaling the arrival of either Pepper and Happy, or Tony. The duality of footsteps, as well as the sharp clicks against the floorboards revealed the new arrivals to be Pepper and Happy.

“Hi Auntie Pep! Hi Mr. Happy!” called out Peter as the pair walked into the penthouse. Harley ran forward to hug Pepper, as she had just returned from a week long meeting somewhere in Europe.
Pepper wrapped her arms gently around the teenager, smiling down at him before asking Peter how he’s been.

“I’m fine. Exam scores are gonna be released soon. I was gonna find Dad, look at them with him, d’you know where he is?”

“He’s down at the workshop, sleeping,” answered Rhodey before Pepper could, “let him sleep for a while, Pete. You know how he’s been since. You know.”

Just as Rhodey finished speaking, the elevator dinged once again, revealing a sleep rumpled genius, who walked zombie-ly toward the kitchen, likely in search of coffee.

“Hey Tones.”

“Hello, Tony.”

“Hi Dad!” Rhodey, Pepper and Peter all spoke simultaneously.

Tony looked up, surprised at all the voices that he wasn’t used to hearing around the tower at the same time. “Pep, Honeybear, Underoos! What are you all doing here?”

“We came to check on you,” said Pepper.

“Well, they might have,” interrupted Peter, “but I came cause exam scores should be released in like 5 minutes and I wanted to open them with you.”

“Of course I’ll open them with you kiddo. Let me just get some coffee, and we can go down to the lab,” Tony shuffled out of the room.

“I’m worried about him,” whispered Harley. “This is the first time he’s left the lab all week.”

“It’s been a year. Since. Well. You know what happened. He should be ok in a week or so, it’s a lot for him,” explained Rhodey gently.

“All right, Pete, let’s go down.”

“Coming, Dad!” Peter rushed toward the elevator, talking animatedly with Tony as the doors slid shut.

§

Bucky and Steve were closely cuddled on the couch in the common room of the palace wing that has been given to the rouge avengers by T’Challa.
“Stevie?” Bucky whispered, tracing his thumbs over Steve’s wrists, “d’you think we could ever go back? Be with him?”

Steve’s silence as he stared longingly at his wrists said enough.

Chapter Text

Peter cuddled close into Tony’s sleeping form, Harley snoring lightly on Tony’s other side, all three of them content cuddling together on the couch while watching Star Wars. Harley had fallen asleep about a movie and a half ago, and Tony had nodded off about halfway through last Jedi, but Peter was still holding on, rubbing at his wrists. His soulmarks were supposed to appear in a few days, on his 16th birthday. He wonders what his wrists would say- who would he be destined to spend the rest of his life with? Who would be his fated enemy? His stomach filled with butterflies at the thought of his soulmate and with dread at the thought of his enemy.

Peter thought of his da- Tony’s soulmarks- his soulmate his enemy, and cuddled closer. He sighed quietly, closing his eyes. He was asleep within minutes.

§

Bucky was staring at his metal wrist, where ‘Steven Grant Rogers’ and ‘Anthony Edward Stark’ used to be before- before Hydra, before The Soldier- before his head housed two different people. He blinked before looking at his right wrist- the scars disfiguring the names ‘Arnim Zola’ and ‘Helmut Zemo’- making them nearly unreadable.

Bucky jerked as the couch dipped as Natasha dropped besides him, her eyes calculating behind the blond hairs falling on her face.

They sat together, silently, each staring at their botched names.