Chapter Text
Bucky Barnes was starting to doubt that he would ever see anything other than black and white. Almost all of his friends had met their soulmates already, and it was getting a little frustrating to be the only one who couldn’t see the colors they would excitedly point out. It was bad enough dealing with the new couples; add in a full color spectrum they couldn’t see before and Bucky’s friends were becoming almost insufferable.
Whatever. He doesn’t need to see in color, he’s perfectly capable in black and white, thank you very much. Besides, it just can’t be as amazing as they make it out to be.
At least, that’s what he thought.
It started innocently enough, with Bucky stepping into a grocery store to grab some ice cream. He hadn’t even changed out of his pajama pants since a) it was past midnight and b) he literally needed one thing. Totally not worth putting actual pants on for. He found the ice cream he wanted—cookie dough, obviously—and triumphantly grabbed one out of the freezer. Still gazing lovingly at the carton, he turned around and promptly ran into someone else looking for ice cream.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, barely glancing up at the stranger.
“No, you’re okay,” the man said, with a small smile that Bucky didn’t even see. He brushed the whole thing off and continued to the check-out so he could get home and watch more of his show. He had waited months for Good Omens and he would not be distracted for anything other than a quick trip to the store for more ice cream.
Unsurprisingly, there was only one check-out open, since it was somewhere around one in the morning. Surprisingly, however, there was a line.
Bucky looked over the terrible magazines as he waited his turn, wondering why exactly these people were grocery shopping so late at night. He knew he had a reason, but really? Why does anyone else need to be out this late?
As he was reading the cover of a magazine he was pretty sure was making up every single one of their headlines, a hand reached in front of him to grab a divider off the belt.
He glanced over and realized it was the same man he had stumbled into in the ice cream aisle.
The man looked up too, and before Bucky could look away, his eyes were caught by the stranger’s, and the world exploded into color.
Well, kind of, but we'll get to that in a minute.
“You- your eyes are blue ,” Bucky said. The stranger—well, not really a stranger, right? That’s Bucky’s soulmate—continued to stare at him with wide (very blue, apparently) eyes while Bucky looked around, wanting to see everything he could.
For the first time, the apples the lady in front of him was buying were red, the ice cream container he grabbed was purple, and the boxes of microwave popcorn across the aisle were blue.
But as he glanced around, Bucky’s heart stopped. Everything else was black and white. All he could see were shades of blue and red.
Um, what?
He turned back to the stranger, who held out a hand.
“Steve Rogers,” he said as if he couldn’t believe what was happening. A sunshine smile was starting to spread across his face. “Uh, I guess you’re my soulmate.”
“Bucky Barnes,” Bucky replied. “And, yeah, I guess so, but have you looked around yet?”
Steve dragged his eyes from Bucky to look around the store. His eyebrows came together and his smile dimmed as he turned back to Bucky.
“Can you see yellows? Or like, orange or green?” he asked.
“No,” Bucky said. “I am kinda glad it’s not just me, though.”
By this time, the line had moved enough that Bucky should be buying his ice cream. He forced himself to pay attention, but only half listened as the cashier cooed at the two of them and fondly remembered the moment she met her own soulmate. Bucky paid and then waited for Steve to buy his own dessert.
“So, uh, do you wanna come to my place or something?” Bucky asked as they walked through the parking lot. “We can eat ice cream and try and figure out what’s happening. I won’t do anything weird, I promise.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Steve said. Bucky gave him his address and they left, having parked at opposite ends of the lot.
***
In the privacy of his own car, Bucky could freak out a little. Finding your soulmate was supposed to be the best moment of your life, but now there might be something wrong with Bucky and it’s not like he could ask anyone about it. Soulmate relationships were supposed to be perfect. Like, that’s the whole point of them, right?
He let out a breath and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Maybe he should just talk to Steve before he freaks out too badly.
Steve pulled into Bucky’s driveway just a minute after he got home. They nervously smiled at each other as Bucky unlocked the door and led the way to the living room.
“I’m so sorry about the mess,” he said, trying to clean up a little, “I wasn’t really expecting a guest.”
He paused, setting a throw pillow upright on the couch.
“Is this pillow actually light gray or is it yellow or something and I just can’t see it?”
“I… don’t know,” Steve said, staring hard at it as if he could figure it out just by looking at it.
“Right. Okay, whatever. So,” Bucky said. “What in the actual hell is going on?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure we’re soulmates,” Steve said. “But I have no idea about the rest of it.”
“You know what, I’m gonna Google it,” Bucky said in a moment of realization that they lived in the time of The Internet™. He opened an incognito tab and searched ‘half colorblind soulmate.’ There was a disappointing number of results, but he clicked on the first link. He closed it again a few seconds later and clicked the next few links with similar results. “So, basically, this is not a common thing.”
“Can I borrow a spoon?” Steve asked. “I need ice cream for this conversation.”
“Oh, yeah, good idea.” Bucky grabbed two spoons and they ate in silence for a few minutes as they Googled variations of the same question.
Finding nothing, Bucky locked his phone and looked up. “Look, I think we should just make the best of this. We must be soulmates, and it can’t be too hard to hide that something’s wrong.”
“You’re right,” Steve said. “I, uh, wow. You’re actually my soulmate. I mean, huh. Hi.”
Now that he wasn’t freaking out, Bucky realized what was actually going on. This is the guy he was going to spend the rest of his life with.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Can we start over? I’m Bucky. Bucky Barnes,” he said, holding out a hand.
“Steve Rogers,” Steve said. He took Bucky’s hand, shook it, and then just sat there. It took them a minute to realize they were still holding hands before they both sat back with a blush.
“My friends are gonna freak ,” Bucky laughed. “I was convinced I didn’t have a soulmate.”
“I would love to meet them,” Steve said. “If we’re really soulmates, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, right?”
“Yeah. Hold on a second,” Bucky said, unlocking his phone. He sent a quick text and waited. Seconds later, nevermind that it was now three in the morning, his phone lit up. “Nat wants to meet you tomorrow. Or, later today, I guess.”
“Sounds good! Oh, I should text Tony,” Steve said. His phone rang not three seconds after he sent his text and Steve shook his head and answered it. “Hey, Tony.” He pulled the phone away from his ear with a grimace when Tony started yelling through the speaker.
Bucky could only make out a few words, but he clearly caught “finally!” “you’re not joking, right?” and “is he hot??” Steve just sat silently until Tony ran out of breath.
“Yes, I’m serious. Meet us at the park at one.” He hung up the phone and looked at Bucky. “Sorry, that’s the only way to get him to stop talking. I hope those plans are okay? He’ll be late, so maybe you could see if your friends could meet at two?”
“Natasha says yes,” Bucky said after a minute.
“Awesome,” Steve said. “I should probably get home so I can get a little sleep.” He stood up and Bucky followed.
“That’s probably a good idea,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Absolutely,” Steve smiled. He stood awkwardly in the doorway like they were 16 years old and headed home from a school dance. Steve quickly leaned over to kiss Bucky on the cheek and then turned and left before either of them could say anything. Bucky put a hand to his cheek and smiled softly. This has been a weird night.