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Since his birth Tony Stark had the same words on his left forearm: “I love you.” The writing was old fashioned cursive. Tony had spent many nights tracing the words. They were the only things he knew about his soulmate.
At first they made Tony happy, until he learned that the words should vanish after your soulmate cleaned them of of their skin or they had faded naturally. This left Tony with two options. His soulmate had been redrawing those words painstakingly every day since before he was born, unwilling to reply to anything Tony wrote on his skin or his soulmate was dead, had died in a way that was preserving his last words on his skin.
In practice this meant that Tony did not get to have his soulmate. If he wasn’t dead he was ignoring him, which might be even worse. But why rewrite “I love you” everyday when you didn’t want to have contact? So Tony dismissed that theory pretty early.
On the other hand if his soulmate had known he might die, it would make sense to write that down. Leave your other half with at least some sort of comfort. That’s the hope Tony clung to. That despite never having met, never being able to meet now, his soulmate loved him.
In every dark moment of his life he clung to these words. When his father told him he was weak and a failure, when his peers shunned him, when his parents died. They were his lifeline in Afghanistan. He clung to those words, to the believe of a stranger that Tony Stark was worth loving no matter what. Even if he would never get to meet them, he wanted to make them proud.
He hoped his soulmate would be proud of Iron Man. Of his work as a hero. If it wouldn’t put his friends at danger, he would gladly announce to the world that he was Iron Man. He was proud of it, and he was worthy of it. Every glance at the words on his arm reassured him of that.
They founded the Avengers, and then they had to go after the Hulk and suddenly he was in a submarine in the Arctic staring down at the dead body of Captain America.
“All of you - listen! He isn’t dead! He’s breathing!” the Wasp exclaimed.
Tony stepped closer, scanning the body with his armor. Through the ripped uniform he noticed something on the man’s left forearm. Carefully he pulled the torn fabric aside, while his armor flashed him readouts about pulse, and oxygen levels and core temperatures.
Captain America was still alive, was regaining consciousness fast according to his readings, and on his arms were the words Tony had known all his life.
For a moment time seemed to stop and all Tony could see were those words. His words. Their words.
And then Captain America’s eyes started to flutter. And it dawned on Tony what a huge shock waking up alone in the future would be. So he did the only logical thing and started stripping out of his armor.
“Iron Man?” Wasp asked, slightly freaked out by the impromptu strip tease.
Ah, right, the other Avengers were also there. No matter, he would have told them his identity soon anyway, they had proven themselves trustworthy, right now Captain America was what mattered.
He faced his soulmate, his arm held in front of his face. When Captain America awoke in the future the first thing he saw where his own words.
He scrambled away from Tony, obviously still in fight or flight mode.
“Who are you? Where am I? Why are you pretending to be…” The words trailed off.
“Give me a pen” Tony said to no one in particular. He couldn’t see his own soulmate doubt him.
Slowly Hank handed him one. The others seemed to have caught on to what was happening and remained silent.
Slowly and with shaking hands Tony drew on his arm. I love you, too . Fascinated he watched as the words appeared on Cap’s skin.
“You’re my soulmate” Cap breathed out, all fight draining from his body.
“My name is Tony Stark and I have a lot to tell you” Tony said, offering Captain America his hand.
It took them all the way back to New York to bring Cap up to speed on what had happened to him. Tony also learned a few things, namely that his soulmates name was Steve Rogers and that he had never given up on his soulmate, despite never having gotten a reply.
It would be a lie to say that there was no awkwardness between them, but that was to be expected. Nevertheless, they stayed close to each other, unable to bear the thought of parting again so soon.
And the future was more than enough time to get to know each other.