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Darcy was frustrated. Like really, really frustrated. Her soulmate was hot, like melt-your-bones-with-desire hot. That alone was enough, but to make it worse, the two of them had amazing chemistry, she was fascinated by him, and she hadn’t been with anyone since London. (Not that she’d been with all that many people ever, but that wasn’t the point.) On top of Bucky being her soulmate, she was falling for him pretty hard, which she knew didn’t always happen, and which did include physically – very, very, VERY physically.
Yeah, it was genuinely possible that she might spontaneously combust from sexual frustration.
“Help me, Jane!” Darcy exclaimed to Jane, who was ignoring her assistant as she engaged in Science! “I mean, I totally love talking with him. We really are perfect for each other. In the hospital room, we talked so much, I got a sore throat. Steve said Bucky hasn’t talked that much since before the war, and even then it wasn’t the same. But I want mooooooooore!!! Jaaaaaane!!!” Darcy whined playfully, demanding that the humor in the situation be acknowledged. “What am I going to dooooo?!”
“Wow, that was impressive,” remarked Jane, not turning away from her calculations. “I mean, Darcy, if you’re going to whine, make it good, right? And that was top notch.”
“Thank you,” said Darcy with a smirk. “I try.”
Jane blinked and seemed to mentally shake herself as she finally looked up. Her eyebrows raised at what she saw.
“Have you considered talking to him about this? You know, given how much you two like talking to each other?” Jane pointed out logically, albeit with a barely restrained eye roll. “Just tell the guy how much you want him.”
Darcy wilted and became more serious. “Yeah. But…I don’t want to pressure him. It’s like the more I get to know him, the more I realize how hard he works to hold on every day. He’s always monitoring himself, watching to make sure that he keeps it together. I mean, I’m so proud of him – not that I guess I have a right to be, but I am. And I’m just afraid…I don’t want to upset his balance, you know?”
“Well,” laughed Jane, “if you’re going to let fear keep you from him physically, then you’ll just have to enjoy him emotionally. And keep talking to him. Lots and lots of talking.”
Irritated, Darcy didn’t notice her friend’s frequent glances behind her. Instead, she cried to the ceiling, “Damnit! I want to rip his clothes off with my teeth!!!”
Jane made a strangled noise and Darcy looked back down to her friend, whose eyes had gone very wide.
“He’s behind me, isn’t he?” asked Darcy, sitting up very straight.
Jane lost her battle with the hysterical laughter she had been holding in as she nodded, inelegant snorts coming out along with the laughter.
Darcy swung around on her stool and gave her soulmate a wide, toothy, patently fake smile. He simply raised an eyebrow, grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out of the room behind him.
Jane’s laughter got louder as Bucky pulled her friend down the hallway.
oOo
Bucky shared an apartment with Steve, so Darcy wasn’t surprised when her soulmate dragged her to the apartment where she lived alone. He remained silent as she put her key in the lock and let them in.
Immediately Bucky pushed her up against the door as it closed and leaned into her, his blue eyes mesmerizing her in the dim light of the living room. He remained silent as his right hand rose to caress her cheek. Darcy eyes fluttered shut as the light touch sent shivers through her. She retained just enough awareness to reach down and pull his left hand up and place it on the other side of her face.
Her soulmate closed his eyes but ran his hands over her face, through her hair, down her neck. Darcy’s head fell against the door and she struggled to breathe. Her hands clutched at Bucky’s shirt as she tried to anchor herself against the onslaught of the raw physical response to her man’s explorations.
She decided it was time to return the favor.
She moved her hands up and ran them through Bucky’s long hair, pulling on it as she guided his face down to hers. Her fingers ghosted across his eyebrows, his cheeks, his lips. She moved to claim those lips with hers, and they both gasped.
When they finally pulled away from each other, both gasping for air, the two of them stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment before once again seeking out each other’s mouths. It was as though now that they had let themselves have this, they could no longer live without it.
oOo
Much later they lay in her bed, Darcy tucked into Bucky’s side as he ran his hand up and down her side, both working to catch their breath. Darcy couldn’t help but be a little proud that she had done that to him.
She let out a low laugh emanating from deep in her chest.
“What?” asked Bucky with a smile.
“I’m not sure if this means we should talk more or less,” explained Darcy.
Bucky laughed, the movement vibrating through Darcy.
“We definitely need to remember that we don’t know what the other is thinking,” he noted with a kiss to the top of her head.
She moved to look up at him.
“What were you thinking? About this, I mean,” she gestured to their entangled bodies.
Bucky sighed, his smile fading a bit.
“I, uh…” he seemed reluctant to voice the words.
Darcy sat up, pulling the sheet with her. She put her hand up to Bucky’s face and stroked his cheek with her thumb.
And waited.
Bucky drew in a breath.
“I didn’t believe that anyone could want me that way. Not with everything I’ve done.”
He would have moved his face away from hers if she didn’t hold it in her hand. She knew he could pull away with ease, but he let her hold his eyes to hers.
She smiled at him. “I think you have proof now that’s not true.”
“Are you sure it isn’t just chemical? A physical pull because we’re soulmates?” Bucky asked.
Darcy gave him a bit of a look. “If that was the case, I would have a much longer list of sexual partners than I do, babe. It takes more than attraction to get me into bed with a guy. Not all people in today’s era feel that way, but I do. I wanted you because I want everything about you. Don’t you get it? I accept your past and I want to be part of your future. This is it for me. You’re it.”
Bucky felt like a deer in the headlights. He couldn’t believe anyone, much less the woman he was head over heels for, would say these things. He didn’t deserve this. How could she think these things? Didn’t she know? Didn’t she under—
“Don’t you dare talk yourself out of this!” Darcy cut off his frenzied thoughts. “I see it in your eyes, and no! Just no! When I say you’re it, I mean it. The universe gave you to me just like it gave me to you. And we don’t have to accept it, you know. Soulmates aren’t the be-all and end-all of existence. If I didn’t like you, didn’t want you, I would give the universe the finger and move on.” Bucky couldn’t help but smile at that and Darcy continued. “I would rather have you – a man strong enough to move on in the face of incredible odds – than a weak man who coasted through life doing nothing. You and I can face anything together. You survived the Winter Soldier and I survived Thor dropping out of the sky, the Dark Elves, Ian the Nazi…” her voice trailed off. “This kind of strength? Come on, we’re unstoppable, Bucky. We got this.”
Bucky couldn’t help it. He reached his hand up to Darcy and pulled her lips down to his.
oOo
It was Natasha who noticed first. Not the sex – everyone cottoned on to that part pretty quickly. The huge random grins were hard to miss. No, Natasha noticed the something extra, the part that went deeper than requited sexual tension.
“What did you say to him?” she asked Darcy a few mornings later as they both ate breakfast in the communal kitchen.
Darcy smiled, not bothering to pretend that she didn’t know what the Black Widow was asking. Bucky had been different the past few days. Most people didn’t look past the obvious, but to those who knew Bucky well, there might as well have been a neon sign announcing that the man felt better about himself on a lot more levels than the physical alone.
“You know how he doesn’t see himself how all of us see him?”
Natasha nodded once.
“I told him to knock it off.”
Natasha raised an eyebrow and Darcy elaborated.
“He can keep feeling that way, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to believe in him whether he does or not, so he’s gonna have to suck it up, isn’t he?”
Darcy waited for Natasha’s response as Bucky’s longtime friend considered the younger woman’s statement.
“You two are well-matched.”
Darcy grinned and asked, “You think so?”
Steve spoke up from the door. “You’re strong enough for each other.”
Darcy gave a little jump.
“Dude! What is it about you old folks, goin’ around and sneaking up on people?!”
Steve just smiled.
“We like to surprise all you youngsters.”
Darcy fought the urge to either stick out her tongue or flip him off. They were trying to have a mature conversation here. She settled for a wry grin.
“Whatever, gramps.” Darcy took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m meeting Bucky for lunch—“ she blushed and it was clear that more than food was planned, “—so I’m gonna bounce.”
With that, she smiled at the two superheroes and left.
“I am so glad he met her,” said Steve quietly.
“Yeah,” was Natasha’s simple reply.
Their friends were going to be okay.
They got this.
/fin