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oOo
After Director Fury found him seventy years in the future, Steve wasn’t sure what to do. What was this place, so familiar and yet so different? What was he supposed to do? Who was he supposed to be?
He’d had a date.
He numbly followed Director Fury back to SHIELD, unable to do anything else. It was too overwhelming. The sights, the sounds. The smells. It was New York, but it wasn’t.
At least the room they showed him to was more familiar than the supposed hospital where he’d woken up. It was similar to any number of barracks he’d stayed in during the war: small, but separate the way officers’ quarters usually were. The attached bathroom was unusual but appreciated.
He felt grimy. Like he hadn’t had a proper bath in years.
Well.
To be fair, he hadn’t.
Mechanically he stripped off his shoes and socks, then his shirt and trousers. A tiny part of him wondered where they’d come from; he’d been in uniform when he’d taken the plane down. They’d probably had to cut it off him when they’d found him.
A flash of something dark red caught his eye, and he looked down at his torso, trying to peer at his right side. Was that blood? But when he put his hand to the spot, it came away clean. His shirt was clean too. And nothing hurt.
The angle wasn’t quite right for him to see what it was, so he looked around for a hand mirror. Instead, there was a full-length mirror on the back of the door, much bigger than anything he’d ever owned. But the placement… it looked like it was meant to be almost commonplace, something in every bathroom.
Since he had to use a mirror, it took him a little bit of puzzling to read the words. *Well, I’m not going to say no.*
Soulmate words.
Soulmate words that he hadn’t had when he’d gone into the ice.
Soulmate words that he hadn’t felt when they’d appeared.
Director Fury’s words echoed in his mind: he’d been asleep for seventy years. His soulmate could be a baby or they could be in their sixties. All he knew was they’d been born after February 1945 and before today. Whenever today was.
His heart ached for Peggy, whose soulmate had died of the measles when they were just children. He’d hoped, maybe, that he could have a future with her. Sure, they hadn’t been soulmates, but he’d been blank, so… maybe, right?
Steve looked at the looping half-cursive half-print dark red words, the open circle dotting the I in going . He’d never expected to have a soulmate. At the last, he’d thought for certain that he was one of those unlucky souls who would die alone. He’d almost welcomed it. After all, Bucky had never gotten soulmate words and he’d died alone; maybe Steve doing the same was his penance for letting Bucky fall.
Except, it wasn’t. He was here. He was alive. He had a soulmate.
As he pressed his hand to the words, Steve couldn’t help but smile.
Maybe the future wouldn’t be so terrible after all.
oOo
After the battle -- after Bucky -- Steve met up with Sam and Natasha and Fury at Fury’s grave. People were just coming back to life all over, weren’t they?
When Natasha handed him a file and suggested he call the nurse across the hall, Steve rolled his eyes. “She’s not a nurse,” he pointed out. “And you know perfectly well that I have a soulmate, and she’s not it.” Sure, he hadn’t ever told Natasha about his soulmark. But he knew her well enough by now to be certain she knew anyway. SHIELD had to know, considering he’d woken up with the words. Natasha would also.
Natasha gave him that slightly enigmatic smile. “No, she’s not. But you might want to talk to her anyway; you two have something in common.” When Steve raised an eyebrow, her smile became a grin. “Her full name is Sharon Carter.”
His breath caught. “Carter?”
“Peggy Carter is her aunt.”
His mind flashed through the conversation he’d had with the not-nurse -- Sharon -- a few days before. “Her aunt the insomniac.”
“Yes.” Natasha looked at him, then Sam, then back at him. “I know you’re going after Bucky. If you find him and he asks...” She pressed her lips together before carefully rolling her shirt up. Right below her breasts there was a dark blue soulmark written in Cyrillic letters. Steve couldn’t read it, but the color…
Natasha nodded. “He probably doesn’t remember, they wiped him so many times. My words are in black on his upper thigh. For confirmation, they’re Da, Soldat. Ya Natalia. ” He knew he was giving her a blank look, and with a smirk, she said, “Or in English, ‘Yes, Soldier. I am Natasha.’”
Ah. “We’ll bring him back to you,” Steve promised.
Looking pointedly at his torso, Natasha admonished, “Don’t forget your own soulmate.”
With a shrug, he said, “When it’s meant to happen, it will. But right now, my focus is on Bucky.”
Natasha nodded and slipped away.
Sam shook his head. “Wouldn’t have guessed they were soulmates.”
“I don’t think she wanted us to know when we were fighting him.”
“No, probably not.” Sam looked him up and down. “So, your soulmate?”
He couldn’t worry about that now. “I’ll meet her when I meet her.”
“Fair enough, man. Fair enough.”
oOo
Six months later, they still hadn’t found Bucky, and after a long conversation with Tony, Steve had finally moved into Avengers Tower.
He wasn’t the only one, either. Natasha and Clint were living in the tower. Tony and Bruce seemed to be happily doing science in the labs. And, after a confrontation with dark elves (of all things), Thor had decided to stay on Earth and had also moved in.
As Tony put it, the band was back together. And without SHIELD to guide them, they were on their own.
They still ran missions, of course. Hydra was out there, and now they knew it -- and the Avengers made a good team when working to take them down. But they didn’t go on missions all the time. Apart from Bruce, the rest of them were in and out. Steve went out with Sam every few weeks, searching for Bucky. Sometimes, when Sam was busy, he went with Natasha instead. Clint and Natasha were working to deal with the remnants of SHIELD, both chasing down the parts that were Hydra and helping the parts that weren’t. Thor often visited his girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster, who was apparently living in England. Even Tony had to go on trips and meet and greets for Stark Industries, for all that he wasn’t the CEO anymore.
As Steve walked into the main living room, exhausted after another fruitless search for Bucky, a scent caught his attention. It smelled like… cinnamon. And sugar.
Following his nose, he made his way to the kitchen, where he found Thor enjoying a heaping plate of what looked like freshly-baked cookies. At Steve’s entrance, Thor looked up. “Ah, shield brother! It is good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, Thor.”
Steve was reminded that Thor was smarter than he looked when Thor eyed him up and down, taking note of the cuts in his uniform and his almost-healed bruises. The serum never let him keep them for long. Thor held out the plate to him. “Have a snickerdoodle. It may not cure what ails you, but perhaps it will bring you a glimmer of joy.”
Unable to resist, Steve joined Thor at the table and took a cookie. It was hot, and when he bit into it, perfectly soft and chewy. Cinnamon and sugar chased themselves over his tongue, mixed with the rich buttery dough that people seemed to use so easily these days.
It was perfection.
“That was great, Thor,” he said when he was done. He tried not to eye Thor’s plate of cookies.
Thor caught him anyway. He swiftly grabbed another plate and heaped half of the cookies onto it, then handed it to Steve. “The lady Darcy is a most excellent baker. I shall tell her you enjoyed her treats.”
“Thanks,” Steve said, eagerly reaching for another cookie. The second was just as good as the first.
oOo
A few weeks later, Jane Foster moved in with Thor.
All of the Avengers helped her sort the boxes, moving things into both Thor’s apartment and her brand new lab on the same floor as Tony and Bruce’s. Sure, they could’ve hired a service. But the lab especially had a lot of confidential information. Better to keep it in-house as it were.
Steve couldn’t help but laugh when he saw ‘DO NOT OPEN! THIS MEANS YOU!’ written in permanent marker on most of the boxes, along with ‘THIS END UP,’ ‘DELICATE EQUIPMENT,’ and ‘JANE YOUR NOTES GO IN YOUR LAB NOT YOUR BEDROOM!’ Apparently Jane got just as absorbed in science as Tony and Bruce.
After he carried the last few boxes into Thor’s apartment, Steve happily accepted the glass of water Jane offered him. “Where do you want these?” he asked, gesturing at the boxes. Two of the boxes were labeled ‘NOT SCIENCY BOOKS’ while the third was labeled ‘PRESENTS :D.’
“Leave the books for now; I’ll sort through them later.” Jane looked at the other box with a frown. “I don’t remember seeing this box when we were packing.”
“Maybe it’s presents for you?”
“Maybe, but I don’t know why Darcy would get me presents.” She looked around as though searching for something. Steve offered her his Swiss Army knife. “Thanks.”
Once the box was opened, Jane looked into it, her eyebrows rising and a smile growing on her lips. With a shake of her head, Jane reached in and pulled something out. It was a stuffed bear wearing a tiny little cape and a shiny helmet with horns that looked a lot like Thor’s. The bear was holding a stuffed hammer that somehow looked both everything and nothing like Mjolnir. Pinned to the cape was a Post-it which read ‘JANE.’
Steve grinned at the sight. The bear was adorable. It was also nowhere near bit enough to fill the box. “What else is in there?”
A whole heap of bears followed the first -- ones made up to look like all the Avengers (including one dressed as Captain America with a ‘STEVE’ label on it), a bear the same color as Jane’s hair in a white lab coat holding a stuffed beaker that was labeled as a gift for Thor, and…
Steve breathed in sharply. The last bear was dark brown and wearing a World War II uniform, hat on its head, and Steve immediately knew it wasn’t meant to be him.
It was meant to be Bucky.
Jane looked at the Post-it note attached to the bear and handed it to Steve. “Here,” she said. “This one’s for you.”
He cradled the bear, desperately trying not to cry. The Captain America bear was cute. The Bucky bear was more.
“Thanks for bringing the boxes in,” Jane said, stroking the head of her Thor bear. “I’ll get these to everyone else.”
Steve swallowed a couple of times until he could speak without crying. “You’re welcome. Do you want me to help?”
She shook her head. “No, but thank you.”
Part of him wanted to protest, but if she said she didn’t need help, he wasn’t going to push. Besides, he really wanted to take the bear back to his apartment and remember Bucky. Picking up the Captain America bear, he retreated to his rooms.
Once there, he placed the two bears next to each other on the chair in his bedroom and smiled sadly at the sight. God, he missed Bucky. It was sweet of Jane’s assistant to get them all bears, and for her to also get him a Bucky bear… that meant a lot.
Picking up the bear, he cuddled it to his chest and allowed the tears to come.
oOo
After yet another fruitless search for Bucky, Steve and Sam returned to Avengers Tower and headed for the communal living room, not even bothering to strip off their uniforms.
Clint was already in the living room when they came in. Steve spotted his boots before the rest of him -- Clint was lying down on one of the couches with his feet up on the back, playing a game on his phone. Leaning his head back until he was upside down, Clint looked at Steve and took in his appearance. “No luck?”
Steve shook his head. “No luck.”
“Sucks.”
Sam dumped his bag and collapsed onto the other couch. “Word.”
Steve took one of the armchairs and rested his head against the back with a sigh. “Just missed him. Again.”
With a huff, Clint heaved himself into a better position to see Steve. “You’re not going to find him until he wants to be found.”
“I know.” Steve stared at the ceiling. “But I can’t stop looking for him.”
Clint nodded and settled back into the couch, picking up his phone again.
The three of them sat without speaking for a while -- long enough that Steve realized there was music in the background. It was unobtrusive but beautiful, so quiet it would’ve been difficult for anyone without enhanced senses to understand the words. One song reminded him a bit of the music of his childhood, the songs his mother had sung in their tiny apartment. Then there was one with a rhythmic drumbeat, then another with a hauntingly beautiful singer. Every song seemed designed to entice him into its orbit. But he could escape if he wanted to; it was background when he wanted and held his attention when he preferred.
“Your music?” Sam asked, and Steve started, having forgotten Sam was there.
Clint shook his head. “Nah. Darcy, Doc Foster’s assistant. It’s her playlist.”
“Girl’s got good taste.”
Steve nodded in agreement. She did have good taste.
Settling into his seat, he let the music carry him away from his worries about Bucky.
oOo
Steve didn’t go down to the labs all that often. He always felt out of place, surrounded by so many geniuses -- sure, he wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t anywhere near Tony or Bruce or Jane’s level. Besides, there wasn’t really a reason for him to be in the labs.
But today he came down to try and drag Tony and Bruce out of the labs for a team dinner. It was the first time in a while all six of them had been in Avengers Tower at the same time, and while he’d reminded Tony and Bruce earlier, he knew them well -- they’d undoubtedly lost track of time.
When he entered Bruce’s lab, Bruce immediately looked up. “Oh. Right. Dinner.” He scribbled something in a notebook. “Just give me a couple of minutes.”
“Of course.” Steve took a seat on one of the spare lab stools and looked around out of curiosity. On one side, he could see Tony’s lab, with the man himself working on what looked like yet another version of the Iron Man armor. Across the hall, he could see Jane’s lab. A young woman -- not Jane -- was chewing on a pen as she typed at a computer. She twisted a strand of her hair around one finger, then looked up and smiled at something on the other side of her computer.
Even though Steve only saw her smile in profile, he was immediately entranced. She smiled with her whole face, not just her mouth, and she looked so genuinely excited Steve couldn’t help but smile with her, especially once Jane came into sight and the two of them bounced around the lab. Despite the lack of sound, her laugh was infectious. Steve wanted to laugh with her.
He’d rarely had this strong a reaction to a woman before, and he wondered who she was. Jane’s assistant, maybe? Probably.
“Looks like Jane and Darcy had a breakthrough,” Bruce said from behind him.
Steve started, having forgotten Bruce was there.
Bruce’s lips tilted up as he looked at Steve with too-knowing eyes. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go drag Tony out of his lab.”
oOo
Over the next couple of months, whenever he was actually in Avengers Tower, Steve kept catching just a hint of the scent of pears layered with a touch of sugar. In the hallways, in the living room, in the kitchen.
And yet, there were never any pears.
The scent lingered, catching his attention whenever he smelled it, begging him to find out who it belonged to. He smelled it near the labs. He smelled it on Thor’s floor. And he smelled it when he came into the kitchen and found an almost-full pan of freshly-baked brownies sitting on the counter.
Steve immediately looked around to see who the brownies belonged to. No one would have just left them there, right?
Right?
But there was no one. He was alone.
Or, well, not entirely alone. “JARVIS?” he said, looking at one of the Artificial Intelligence’s cameras. “Who made these?”
“Miss Lewis.” At Steve’s confused expression, JARVIS added, “Darcy Lewis. Dr. Foster’s assistant.”
“Ah.” He looked at the brownies again. “Did she just… leave these here?”
“Miss Lewis said she was in the mood to bake but not in the mood to eat an entire pan of brownies. They are free to anyone who wants them.”
Well then. Steve got a plate and cut himself a couple of brownies. Darcy’s brownies were just as good as her snickerdoodles -- with a rich fudgy taste and surprisingly some actual chocolate chips baked in. First he had one, then two, and then they were so good that he couldn’t help but take a third.
Before he knew it, the entire pan was gone. “Oops.”
Even though JARVIS couldn’t smile, his voice sounded like he was when he said, “I believe Miss Lewis will be glad to hear you enjoyed them.”
“Well, I did.” He looked ruefully at the pan. “I just… meant to leave some for everyone else.” He picked up his plate and the baking dish and brought them over to the sink; he certainly wasn’t going to leave a mess for anyone else.
The scent of pears washed over him again, and Steve suddenly realized that the scent must belong to Darcy. He pictured the young woman he’d seen in Jane’s lab. It suited her.
Smiling, he began to wash the dishes.
oOo
They were getting closer to Bucky. They hadn’t found him yet, but they were getting closer.
“What are you going to do once you find him?” Sam asked on their way home after their last unsuccessful hunt. They were in Tony’s private jet. It was much more convenient than flying commercial when they had to get somewhere on short notice.
Steve shrugged. “Bring him home.”
“Do you think everyone will go for that? Natasha, sure, but…” Sam shook his head. “If I were Tony, I don’t know if I’d want my parents’ killer in my house.”
Closing his eyes, Steve sighed. He still hadn’t told Tony about what the Winter Soldier had done. What Hydra had done using Bucky. It hadn’t been Bucky. Not really. But it had been his hands. Part of him wanted to tell Tony, but the rest of him didn’t know how to have that conversation. “I’ll figure it out,” he said eventually. Then he picked up his phone and began playing a game, signaling to Sam that the conversation was over.
After dropping Sam off at his mother’s apartment in Harlem, Steve headed home. When he got there, he was greeted by Pepper -- of all people -- standing outside his apartment. “Hi?”
“We need to talk. Can I come in?”
Surprised, Steve let her in. “Sure? What’s going on?” He put his shield and bag down on the kitchen counter, then poured himself a glass of water. After a second, he got another for Pepper.
She sat down on one of the barstools and wrapped her hands around the glass. “I don’t know if you know this, but Tony used to… well, he didn’t always take good care of himself.”
Steve nodded. He knew that. Tony still didn’t always take good care of himself.
“JARVIS used to look after him when he wasn’t capable of looking after himself. Which sometimes included when he was on his jet.” She pressed her lips together before sighing. “JARVIS hears everything on the jet.”
Oh.
Oh shit.
Pepper’s knuckles were white. “He came to me instead of going straight to Tony. But you need to tell Tony. Or JARVIS will. Or I will. He has to know, Steve. If he doesn’t, it’ll come out at the worst possible moment, and I can’t predict his reaction.”
“You can’t… not tell him?” His voice sounded weak even to him.
She shook her head and rubbed the back of her left hand. Something became visible as streaks of makeup came off -- a bright red the color of the Iron Man Armor. *That will be all, Miss Potts.* “I don’t lie to my soulmate.”
He wanted to argue that this wouldn’t be a lie, just an omission. But he knew he was kidding himself. “All right,” he said. “You’re right. I have to tell him. But… let me clean up first.”
“Tonight. And no later.”
Steve nodded and watched as she left the room, her glass of water still untouched. He downed his, wishing it was something stronger but knowing there was no point.
Once in the shower, he let the endless hot water wash over him, cleaning off the dirt and grime of a hunt for Bucky. He didn’t want to have this conversation with Tony. He really didn’t. But Pepper was right. He needed to.
Finally forcing himself to get out, Steve dried himself off. Then he pressed a hand to that dark red mark on his torso. He would need his soulmate’s strength to get through this conversation.
oOo
When Steve and Sam walked into the living room -- they’d gotten so so close to Bucky this time -- they stopped short.
The whole room had been transformed, with tiny white lights strung around the edges of the ceiling, new art strategically placed on the walls, and what looked like the most sinfully comfortable chair in the history of the universe sitting in one corner.
“It wasn’t like this when we left,” Sam said. “Was it?”
Steve shook his head. Sam hadn’t been in the tower in a while -- Steve had met up with him in DC this time -- but it hadn’t been like this when Steve had left either.
Steve was about to head over to try out the new chair when Tony darted in from the kitchen and flung himself into the chair. “Dibs!” he called, barely stopping the slice of cake he was carrying from falling off the plate.
Shaking his head with a smile -- and glad Tony seemed to have stopped avoiding him after that very difficult conversation a few weeks back -- Steve sat down on one of the couches instead. “What happened here?” he asked. “Did you redecorate?”
“Me? Hell no. This--” Tony gestured around the room with his slice of cake “--is Lewis’s work.” He held up the cake. “This too.”
Sam perked up. “Darcy baked?”
“There’s one slice left,” Tony said, taking a bite. “You two can fight over it.”
“Dibs!” Sam called and hurried into the kitchen. Since he was still standing, he was in the kitchen before Steve could stand up.
Huffing a laugh, Steve settled back into the couch. Sure, he could overpower Sam and steal the cake, but he wouldn’t. He’d had more of Darcy’s baking than Sam -- who’d only had her cookies once or twice -- and he could be gracious.
Really.
He could.
Steve looked around for a distraction and lit upon the art. “I’m surprised you let someone else decorate.”
With a shrug, Tony said, “Lewis said the room was too minimalist, and Pepper agreed to help her decorate. I know when I’m beat.”
“Fair enough,” Steve agreed. He certainly didn’t want to argue with Pepper.
Sam came back, slice of cake in hand, and flopped onto the other couch. “Man, this looks amazing.”
Tony made an almost pornographic noise as he licked his fork. “It is.”
Steve tuned out the noises of enjoyment as Tony and Sam ate their cake. Instead he looked more closely at the art -- the avant garde 3D wall art of Iron Man, the photograph (or was it a painting?) of New York City at night, the way the lights glittered around the almost metallic seascape on the wall by the bathroom. None of them were quite Pepper’s taste, which meant they were Darcy’s.
He liked it.
And he still wanted to try that chair.
oOo
Steve was pleased to say he recognized the music coming from the kitchen, something that was (thankfully) becoming more and more common these days. His head bobbed along to the music as he walked toward the kitchen -- “Everytime We Touch” was the kind of song where you couldn’t help but dance along.
And apparently he wasn’t the only one.
When he stepped through the archway, he saw Darcy shimmying as she did something with the oven. Her voice rang out, “--reach for the sky. Can’t you hear my heart beat so? I can’t let you go. Want you in my life!” She danced through the instrumental break, stirring something on the stove in rhythm with the music.
Steve’s foot wanted to start tapping, but he refrained, instead backing silently out of the archway into the living room before heading back to his own apartment. While he liked watching Darcy dance -- really liked watching Darcy dance, he’d definitely noticed the way her body moved -- he also felt like a voyeur. He didn’t want to have an awkward conversation with her, and he didn’t want her to think he was being creepy.
He’d eat one of the snacks he kept in his room and get a real meal later.
oOo
After almost a year, they’d finally caught up to Bucky. Finally.
…In the middle of a firefight with some of the remnants of Hydra, no less.
Once all the enemy were dead or disabled, Steve managed to catch Bucky’s hand. “Please,” he said. “Come home.”
Bucky looked at him, his eyes sad behind his mask. “Is it really home?”
“It can be if you want.” Steve licked his lips, uncertain whether it was a good idea, before saying, “Your soulmate’s there.”
Going stiff, his hand pressed against his upper thigh, Bucky closed his eyes. He took one deep breath, then two. “Natalia,” he murmured. Then he looked at Steve. “And you. You don’t…”
After a minute when Bucky didn’t say anything, Steve asked, “Don’t?”
“Don’t…” Bucky shook his head.
Suddenly, Steve realized what Bucky was asking. “I could never hate you. No matter what was done to you.”
“No matter what I did,” Bucky corrected.
Steve squeezed Bucky’s hand. “No. What was done to you.”
Wide-eyed, Bucky looked at Steve’s hand holding his. “Are you sure they’ll want me there?”
Steve thought about everyone who lived in or spent time in Avengers Tower. All of them -- Sam, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Bruce, Thor, Jane, Darcy, JARVIS, Pepper, even the people who were in and out like Rhodey and Maria Hill -- knew Steve was searching for Bucky. Suddenly he was relieved Pepper had made him tell Tony; that really had been the biggest stumbling block, hadn’t it? “They will,” he said confidently. And it wasn’t even a lie.
Bucky’s fingers clenched. “You’re sure?” he repeated.
“Completely sure.”
After a moment, he nodded. “Okay. Okay.”
oOo
Steve and Sam bundled Bucky up and got him onto the jet. Once Bucky fell asleep, stiff as a board even in the comfortable seat, Steve discreetly texted JARVIS asking him to make sure everyone knew they were bringing Bucky home.
Tony’s jet and his driver were both fast; they got back to New York and then to the Tower within hours. Once they were in the elevator, JARVIS said, “Dr. Banner requests that you bring Sergeant Barnes to the communal living room.”
Steve was surprised for a second before he realized Bruce wanted to check on Bucky. Well, at least he didn’t expect Bucky to go to his lab. “All right.”
“Who’s that voice?” came in a bare whisper. Bucky was right next to his ear.
“JARVIS.” Steve kept his own voice low, but not so low that JARVIS wouldn't hear him. “He’s an artificial intelligence built by Tony.”
For the first time in a long time, Bucky’s eyes lit up. “Like the stories?”
Steve was heartened at this sign that he remembered at least something of his life before. “Yes.”
Looking up, his eyes moving unerringly to a camera, Bucky said, “Pleased to meet you, JARVIS.”
“The pleasure is mine, Sergeant Barnes.”
The elevator opened on a very full living room. Apparently everyone was here to meet Bucky. Steve wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but he also knew they had a right to meet someone who was going to be living with them. There was a moment of awkward silence before Sam left the elevator and greeted everyone with waves and fistbumps.
Bucky, however, was rooted to the spot, and Steve wasn’t about to leave him.
Darcy came toward them, stopping far enough from the elevator that Bucky wouldn’t have to hurt her to get out if he wanted to escape. “Hi!” she said to Bucky. “I’m Darcy, I’m Jane’s--” she pointed at Jane “--lab assistant. I help with random stuff around here.”
Bucky gave her a half-hearted wave. “I’m… Bucky.”
“Pleased to meet you, Bucky. We didn’t get much warning that you were coming, but I made a nice hearty stew and some chocolate chip cookies.” She grinned at Steve when he made a pleased noise. “Also, I got you a present.” She pulled her hand from behind her back, revealing a bear that looked a lot like the Bucky bear Steve had in his room -- except this one had blonder fur and was maybe three quarters of the size of the others. “See? It’s a Steve bear.”
“Marry me.”
All conversation stopped as everyone looked at Steve, their expressions ranging from shocked (Jane) to gleeful (Tony) to knowing (Natasha).
He could feel red bursting on his face and creeping down his chest. He didn’t think he’d ever blushed this hard in his life. What was he thinking, to propose marriage to someone just because…
Just because he really really liked her?
Darcy had frozen, her eyes widening behind her glasses. Then she seemed to shake herself from her stupor as she smiled flirtatiously at Steve. “Well, I’m not going to say no.”
And now he was the one who froze. Darcy was his soulmate? Darcy, who he’d had half a crush on since he’d tasted her snickerdoodles?
“Darcy…” Jane murmured.
“Don’t worry. He’s my soulmate, Janey.”
Clint looked between them. “Are you telling me that in all the months you two have both lived here, you’ve never spoken to each other?”
“Apparently not!” Darcy came into the elevator -- the door still held open long past when it should have closed, undoubtedly due to JARVIS -- and took Steve’s hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you, soulmate.”
Steve still couldn’t quite figure out what to say, but he squeezed Darcy’s hand and smiled helplessly at her, the blush still burning his face.
A rasping laugh startled him. A laugh that belonged to Bucky. “Only you,” he wheezed. “Only you, Steve.”
He was glad Bucky could laugh… even if Bucky was laughing at him. So even though he shot Bucky a glare, he didn’t really mean it.
“Yasha,” Natasha said, holding out a hand to Bucky. “Let’s leave the lovebirds alone.”
“Natalia.” Bucky left the elevator and gave her a nod. “It’s good to see you again.”
“In better circumstances, I hope.”
Steve wanted to keep an eye on his friends’ reunion, but the elevator door closed with him and Darcy still inside.
“You know,” she said, “I always wondered why someone’s first words would be ‘Marry me.’”
And there came the blush again. “I’ve been falling for you for a while.”
Darcy looked up at him. “I’m not going to say no, but I’m not quite ready to say yes either. Before we commit to marriage, let’s try a date?”
Steve nodded. “A date. Absolutely. Whatever you want.”
Her lips curved up. “Perfect.”
oOo