What Souls Are Made Of (Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis Soulmate AU)
A/N: Not betta’d, not proof read.
Soulmate Identifying Marks: the first words your soulmate speaks to you are tattooed on your skin.
Darcy frequented coffee shops almost every day. She always ordered an iced coffee, no matter the weather. In the 100 degree New Mexico heat or in the middle of a New York blizzard, never did she order a hot coffee. The reason for this quirk of hers? She didn’t want to scald her soulmate when she inevitably spilt coffee on them. Her soulmark, black script under her left clavicle, written with a penmanship that Darcy was awed over were the words “It’s okay Sweetheart, I didn’t like this suit anyways.” She wasn’t one hundred percent sure that she’d meet her soulmate at a coffee shop, but that was the only logical explanation for how Darcy would ruin someone’s outfit, so she kept her fingers crossed and set aside an astronomical coffee allowance each month. When Darcy moved into the tower, Jane always teased her for bothering to walk the six blocks to the nearest coffee shop when Avengers Tower had it’s own coffee place only a few floors below them. She just always stuck out her tongue out at her best friend/boss on the way out the door.
Bucky didn’t have a soulmate back in the 40s. He was a blank, just like Steve, it was one of the reasons he and the punk bonded the way they did; they only had each other. Throughout his time as The Asset, he couldn’t remember ever realizing he had a mark. When your brain is being frozen and thawed over and over, memories turn into a haze of confusion. When he finally had come back to himself, falling from the Triskelion he filed it away for later, not wanting to think about the fact that he had a soulmate. Finally when his running was over, when he had obliterated every hidden Hydra base he had memory of, he found a safe house in the middle of nowhere and tried to put the pieces of his soul back together. His soulmark scared him, it rocked him to his core. Their placement wasn’t lost on him, words scrawled down his right forearm, his dominant hand, the hand he always shot with “You’re covered in blood”. He was terrified that somehow Hydra would find him, turn him back into their weapon, that the Soldier would meet his mate first, and he had no doubt of what the Soldier would do. Their inky black letters were the only reassurance Bucky had that he hadn’t already met them. That his soulmate was out there somewhere, alive and well. He prayed to a god he didn’t believe in, hoping he’d never meet them.
—
Bucky hated going to his therapy sessions, he hated having to go meet with a government appointed shrink who he knew was more worried about cataloging every detail about his time with Hydra than they were helping him heal. But it was a requirement of his freedom, that he meet with a shrink once a month, to prove he was making progress, that he was no longer the monster he once was. He scoffed sardonically at the thought, he knew better. He would always be the monster they made him, it was always lurking in the back of his mind, waiting. But he pretended, he put on the black suit in his closet, showed up and told them what they wanted to hear, that he was cured, no longer the weapon he had been, trying to believe the lies himself. This day was no different, he was leaving Dr. Adam’s office blocks away from the tower and trying to calm himself. He counted to 10, breathing in and out slowly, trying to make the anger boiling up in him subside. He was tired of jumping through hoops, putting on the stupid government monkey suit, sitting through an interrogation every month. He still wasn’t free, not really, he had just traded one handler for another, no matter how Dr. Adams had tried to spin it. His head was spinning, he had to get away from the crowds and the noise on the street. He ducked into an alley, one he often used it to cut through to Stark’s gaudy building, ripping off his suit jacket and loosening his tie. He couldn’t breathe, he was suffocating. He started muttering to himself, repeating the grounding words Sam had taught him over and over again like a mantra. Bucky finally came back to himself, not knowing how much time had passed. His panic attacks always felt like they went on forever but usually they only lasted for a few minutes. They became shorter the more he used the techniques Sam had been teaching him. He ran his flesh hand over his face, wiping away the sheen of sweat that had appeared. Taking a deep breath he grabbed his phone out of his back pocket, glancing at the time, 2:08, he was late. He and Steve had planned to meet in the gym at 2:00. Working out and talking things out with Steve always helped after his therapy sessions. He cursed unlocking his phone to shoot Steve a text letting him know he was okay just running behind, when he heard a scream.
——
Darcy knew a petite woman probably shouldn’t be cutting through alleys alone by themselves in New York City. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the afternoon, nothing ever good happened in dark alleyways, even in downtown Manhattan. But she was running late, her favorite coffee place always closed at 2:30 for the afternoon, reopening around 5:00 pm for the after work crowd. She normally wouldn’t have cut it so close, but she and Jane had to catch a flight to New Mexico at 4:30, planning to observe a meteor shower in the middle of the desert, and she couldn’t miss it. According to Jane this shower only occurred once every 200 years, so she knew that if she was late Jane would kill her. Any sane person would just skip their coffee run, shrugging it off and go back tomorrow, but Darcy was not sane. What if today was the day she’d meet them? What if she didn’t go today and that was when fate had decided that it was time, and if she missed them what if she never got another chance? Meeting your soulmate was never a guarantee and Darcy was not taking any chances. So she prayed to Thor, shooting up a glance at the sky hoping Heimdall was watching and ducked into the alley.
Darcy wasn’t stupid, she kept her head on a swivel, she was halfway through the alley. It was long, cutting her commute by two blocks but she had never had any issues before so she hoped she wouldn’t today. She spotted the man sitting at the bottom of the fire escape before he saw her. He had a bottle of liquor in his hand, muttering to himself and then taking a deep swig from the bottle. She debated turning back, but something was nagging her to keep going. She stood up straighter, digging her hand into her messenger bag. She admonished herself when she realized in her haste leaving the lab that she had forgotten to make sure she had her taser. That would be the last time she let Stark tinker with her toys, her science bro hadn’t put it back in her bag like she had asked him to. But Darcy wouldn’t let herself panic, nothing had happened, she would just confidently walk past the man and be on her way. She suppressed her cringe when he noticed her walk by and catcalled her. She ignored him, head held high and increased her pace minutely.
“I was talking to you, bitch!” The man yelled, getting up from the fire escape.
Darcy knew she should’ve just kept walking, ignoring her indignation and keep her mouth shut, that would be the smart thing to do; but Darcy never considered herself smart.
She turned back, outraged at the audacity at this man. “And I was ignoring you, bitch!”
“The fuck you just say to me?” The man yelled walking towards her before bracing himself on the railing of the fire escape, clearly drunk.
“You heard me.” She said, turning and storming off, muttering about sexist repugnant assholes and their lack of respect. It was then when she was shoved from behind, slamming into the brick wall on her left. She let out a shout, she hadn’t heard the man come up behind her. She turned, laying a solid right hook into her assailant, she had been aiming for his jaw but she had underestimated how tall he was. The punch landed on his shoulder, making the man stagger back but it didn’t give her the advantage she needed.
She was shoved again hard against the brick, her head slamming back into the brick with a crack. The man was right on top of her, pressing her against the wall.
“You should watch your mouth Bitch. Wouldn’t want to piss off the wrong guy, never know what might happen. .” He sneered, pressing something cold into her abdomen, if she had to bet it was the end of a gun.
She wanted to scream, to panic, to blindly lash out at her attacker but a voice sounding strangely like a certain red headed Russian she knew told her to be calm, to take stock of her position, analyze what assets she had to her advantage. Her arms weren’t pinned to her sides but there wasn’t anything within arms reach. She knew she didn’t have the strength to fight him off outright, so she decided that running was her only option. If she could get in a good strike or two and then run, she should be able to escape and get help. She’d have to take him by surprise, but she could do it.
“You’re right.” She spoke softly, slowly raising her hands to her sides in surrender.
The man smiled “damn right, pretty girl like you shouldn’t talk like that, especially to a man.” He raised one hand to her face.
Darcy tried not to flinch away, focusing on how the movement exposed his face to her. Now was her chance. Natasha always told her that the eyes were a weakness, that when cornered she should use any weakness her attacker had to her advantage. So she struck, using her sharp nails to her advantage, gouging at her assailants eyes. He screamed, automatically reaching up to protect his eyes. The sudden movement made her vision swim, she definitely had a concussion. She shoved him then, trying to get him off of her enough so she could escape but his weight mixed with her incoordination from her head injury made it so he didn’t move very much. He pushed her against the wall again, and Darcy fought, panic finally taking over. She kicked out blindly, hoping to knock him off balance so she could escape.
She heard the gun go off before she registered the pain in her side. She slid down the wall, hands automatically going to where the bullet had lodge in her stomach. She watched her attacker run away, having enough energy to push the panic button hidden on her necklace as her vision grew black.
—
Bucky was running before he realized it, he was so focused on the man running out of the alley that he almost ran past her. She was slumped against the brick wall, one hand clutching her side, the other holding on a pendant around her neck. She seemed vaguely familiar but he was unsure where he had seen her before, if he actually knew her or if she was just a random face in the crowd. He shook his head, as if he could shake the feeling that he knew the woman bleeding in front of him. He knelt, laying her body flat, leaning over her to check for a pulse. She was breathing thankfully. He placed pressure on the wound with his metal hand and grabbed his phone out of his pocket with the other, dialing Steve and putting the phone up to his ear before applying pressure with the other hand.
“Buck you’re—.” Steve answered but Bucky cut him off.
“Track my location, I need medical, one civilian, gunshot wound to the lower left abdomen, I’m not far from the tower.
Steve was gone, the voice of the Captain replacing him “Okay Bucky, they’re on the way, I’m headed your way too, ETA 2 minutes.”
Bucky straightened his head where it had been cradling the phone, letting it fall to the ground. He didn’t know the woman bleeding underneath him, but he would save her, he needed to save her.
—
An extreme jolt of pain brought Darcy back to consciousness. She moaned and opened her eyes, squinting against the sunlight. There was a man above her, she panicked momentarily before she realized it wasn’t the same man that attacked her. He was on the phone, she heard him talking frantically, calling someone for help. She studied the man before her, the figure was blurry but she could make out some of his features. He was handsome, striking blue eyes and beautiful brown hair that was tied back into a man bun. She didn’t normally like longer hair on men but he pulled it off. His hair style was a contrast against his outfit, he was wearing black pants and a white button-down shirt. It was a shame he was covered in blood, why was he bleeding?
“You’re covered in blood.” Darcy spoke, raising a weak hand to poke the man on the chest. Another wave of pain radiated from her side and that’s when she looked down, noticing the man had both hands pressed to her side. She frowned then, she was bleeding, why was she bleeding? She ruined this man’s nice outfit. Tears sprang to her eyes then, she hadn’t meant to ruin his suit. A part of her knew that the last thing she should be worried about was this man’s clothes, she was literally bleeding to death, but the blood loss was getting to her and clearly making her brain a little insane.
“I ruined you outfit.” She said as she ran her hand down the mans front, as if she could wipe away the blood.
““It’s okay Sweetheart, I didn’t like this suit anyways.” The man replied in a soothing tone. She hummed and blinked hard, trying to fight off the darkness. He had a nice voice, she thought as the world around her started to fade. It was warm and she was so very cold.
—
Bucky was counting the seconds that went by since he talked to Steve. Two minutes, who knew 120 seconds could go by so slowly. At 51 seconds he pressed harder on the woman’s side, hoping he wasn’t pressing too hard but the blood was seeping past his palms. He heard the woman groan then, the excessive pressure and pain rousing her from her unconscious state. She was frowning up at him, a confused look painted on her face. She licked her lips and Bucky tried not to notice how nice her lips were, or that they were painted the same color of the warm liquid leaking between his fingers. His eyes were torn away from her face and to his chest where her small hand nudged his chest.
“You’re covered in blood” she spoke, the words sounding as if she was confused as to why that was.
Bucky inhaled sharply, her words setting off alarm bells in his mind. This injured woman bleeding out beneath him was his soulmate. She was his, and she was dying. He leaned on his army training to keep his fear at bay. His panic would not help either one of them, and he would help her, she would not die today, he wouldn’t allow it. He was roused from his thoughts as her her hand traveled the length of his chest.
“I ruined your outfit.”
She was crying, tears silently falling from the biggest blue eyes Bucky had ever seen. She was scared, he could see it in those aegean eyes. She was scared and yet here she was worried about how her blood had ruined his suit.
“It’s okay Sweetheart, I didn’t like this suit anyways.” he spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice. He wanted to ease her worries, if she only knew how much he hated this suit. He hated it even more now that it was covered in his soulmates blood. She smiled up at him as her eyes began to close again.
“Come on doll, you gotta stay awake okay? Help is coming.” Bucky urged her. He wanted to pat her face, to rouse her but he could’t remove his hands from the oozing wound. How many seconds had It been? Surely it had been two minutes. The panic was setting in, this wasn’t what Bucky had planned, this wasn’t how their meeting was supposed to go.
“Please, please doll, just stay with me. Stay with me, please, please.” That’s how Steve found him, begging his soulmate to stay with him. Bucky didn’t even realize help had arrived until he was being shoved aside by Stark’s medics. Steve had to forcibly drag him from his soulmates side.
“Buck, they got her. They’re helping her, she’s gonna be okay Bucky.” His best friend was in front of him now, grasping his shoulders shaking him. “You okay Buck?” Steve questioned, concern lacing his voice.
“It’s her Steve. It’s her and she lost so much blood and I couldn’t—” Bucky choked on the words “—I couldn’t stop the bleeding. She wasn’t supposed to be the one bleeding. It wasn’t supposed to be hers.” It was then that Bucky felt the tears, tracks of wetness falling down his cheeks. He went to wipe them away but stopped short, catching the sight of his soulmates blood on his hands.
The sound of Iron Man’s repulsors drew both he and Steve’s attention. “Where is Darcy? She activated her panic button.” Stark questioned anxiously.
“Who?” Steve questioned as Bucky pointed towards the medical team.
“Darcy!” Tony rushed over to the woman surrounded by medics. “I have a medical team ready back at the tower, she stable enough to be moved?” Stark asked worriedly
“Times not on her side, sir. We were able to temporarily cauterize the bleed but it’s not a permanent fix, any jostle and the bleeding will start back up. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“FRIDAY notify medical, we’re gonna need an OR right now. I’m bringing Darcy in through the the Penthouse.You guys get her ready to move, I’m taking her back, quickest way to get her to medical.” Tony demanded turning back to face Bucky and Steve.
“Did you do this? Did you lose control? If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.” Tony pointed accusingly towards Bucky his voice laced with malice.
Steve opened his mouth to object at Stark’s accusations but Bucky spoke up first. Unsurprisingly Stark had suspected he was behind the bloodshed. He knew what it looked like and he knew what Tony thought of him. “I was at the opposite end of the alley, heard her scream, came running. The person who attacked her ran, couldn’t chase after him and keep her from bleeding out. Don’t know what he looked like. Tell the doctor’s she’s got a head injury, she wasn’t making much sense when she was awake.”
Stark nodded once in comprehension, not even apologizing for his assumptions before he turned, bundled the brunette in his arms and took off.
“Steve, please, I gotta…” Bucky’s voice trailed off, turning back towards the tower.
“I know Buck, go. I’ll meet you in medical once we’re done here.”
Bucky took off running, sprinting as fast as he could, his thoughts racing faster than his feet. Darcy…his soulmates name is Darcy. His soulmate was Darcy and she would live. She must live.
