Chapter Text
She didn’t expect to start her day by running into her mate, especially because she had spent so long trying to avoid it.
“Sorry about that,” Bucky James Barnes reached out and steadied her, eyes full of mirth and a polite smile waiting for her.
His voice sent shivers down her spine. The wind picked up and brushed his scent on her.
Mate.
He was her mate.
The moment was less gratifying than expected. The moment every romantic dreamed of, bumping into a forgotten love from long ago, hearing the words of a familiar voice you'd never heard before and knowing it from the very depths of your soul. Instead, she was stuck wondering how to avoid speaking out, and having him feel the jolt of electricity that rushed through a mate when they first met.
Instead, she signed, her first words to her mate were hand gestures and faces if only to avoid talking to him.
He looked a little star-struck before signing the words, sorry.
She signed fine twice. Moving quickly as any one good, decent pedestrian should do on the street. Move the hell out of the way. It was hardly his fault he was built like a brick wall. One that took ages to climb on cue he was so damn tall..over... ages to climb over.
He asked for her name, leaning down to get a good look at her.
She shook her head, barely catching the sign with her eyes peeled to the ground.
He repeated it, murmuring his question.
His voice was deep, and rich. Thickened with an accent and smoothed over in the way learning different languages would offer.
Not quite sure of the sounds meant for English but definitely one of the many he knew. He tapped the sigh for name again, asking, if not aggressively, then obnoxiously pestering.
She frowned and shook her head again. He pouted an adorable put-out pout and made prayer hands with a grin. She pretended not to notice. Not until his hand came into sight, his finger tucked under her chin to lift her eyes from the floor.
Fuck he was pretty.
“Margret.”
Oh. No. Oh no.
She stiffened, her hands balling into fits against her sides, eyes squeezed shut in retribution.
He jolted, as if physically shocked by a jerk of electricity in his back.
Pretty boy leaned in, taking a deep drag of her scent.
His eyes turned dark and heavy as they looked her over again.
He probably wasn’t expecting a sturdy five-five brunette whose eyes matched her hair and nearly blended into herself in every way.
To describe her in one word, plain.
Not beautiful, maybe pretty, but more accurately, plain.
Her hair was cut in shoulder length, her bangs framing half her face and her skin a white that hid her freckles. She wasn’t a city girl, not a country girl, but a town girl who liked to stay inside and avoid people who required at the bare minimum, underwear.
The point was, he wasn’t expecting her and she was expected to avoid him.
Because she didn’t want a mate, she wanted to live alone and peacefully and without the headache of a partner.
“Bucky, I mean, Barnes, James, really.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.
“I know who you are, Bucky I mean Barnes, James, really.”
The winter soldier, an Avenger. One of the awesome awe-inspiring group of misfits that lived in the city and inevitably made all kinds of emergency insurance necessary. She didn’t take his hand.
“Hey Popsicle, what’s taking so long? I wanna get out of the heat and eat!” Tony Stark opened the door to the little hole-in-wall restaurant they were both blocking.
“Please doll, no pictures, I'll have Jarvis send you a poster later.” Stark grabbed her hand and shook it, sullying her scent with his e-douche cologne.
“I don’t need a poster.” She snatched her arm back. “And I’m not here to take pictures of you.”
She was here for work. Her blog review which she had left to the last possible second on the restaurant.
All she was assigned to do, was to step into the restaurant and get a look at the atmosphere and cough up a thousand words of bullshit that someone would read and pay her for.
Report on the fire exits and kitchen in the back, see if the ally had a dumpster big enough to hide a body. That was all.
Captain America stepped up behind Bucky, hand on his shoulder and a warm smile that was meant to be reassuring to someone in the situation.
“Sorry about him ma’am.” He reached his hand out to shake.
The same shiver and thrill raced down her spine. Shit, she had two mates?
“Margret .” She shook it deftly.
He startled too, looking right at Bucky.
“I’m kind of on a deadline so if you’ll excuse me.”
She pushed past her mates and walked past Tony Stark and into the restaurant. A quick look is all that she needed but just to be sure, she took out her phone and jotted down a few notes about the colors on the wall or the art and the seating arrangement. Flowers or no flowers kind of thing. Clean or not clean, roomy atmosphere or not. Just to be sure, she snapped a few pictures of the restaurant.
Bucky was talking to Steve and Tony, using hushed tones but she could feel the eyes staring at her.
They had all turned to stare at her. Pointedly ignored, she pushed past them quickly. Maybe if she moved fast enough they wouldn’t think to stop her.
Tony caught her before she could leave.
“Tony Stark, don’t believe we’ve met.” He reached for her hand again.
If she hadn’t seen his face so many times in the news, she wouldn’t have believed it was him. Not with his dirty AC/DC tee and ratty jeans.
“We haven’t.” She liked it that way.
She almost wished she carried around a purse just to have something to hold onto, as it was, she barely carried around her wallet and keys, and phone. All of which have found themselves in pockets before this.
“I kinda want your name doll, It's not every day Snowflake and Capsicle meet their mate after all.”
“I don’t think today is that day either, excuse me.” She pushed past the billionaire.
This time it was Steve who stopped her, by grabbing her arm. “Wait!”
“What is with you people? Stop grabbing me!” She yanked away. “Look, clearly I’m not his or your type. I’m late, I really have to go and this whole thing is probably a cosmic joke anyway.”
“I have been dreaming about you for years. I could see your face so many times but never touch you. You’re even prettier in person doll face.” Well, what could she say to that? Sorry I never dreamed about you, I’ve been trying to avoid my mates because love is a pain in the ass and it inevitably hurts so id rather go without it. You’re just the kind of person who can break my heart so I want to avoid you anyway.
“Sir?” A voice pinged through Starks phone. “We have a protocol in place for moving all mates of the Avengers into the tower for safety reasons, the government insisted. Shall I start with the preparations?” His voice was eerily calm for such a scary thing to say.
“What? No!”
“Yea, start those now, thanks Jarvis, and have her moved to the same floor as Steve and Bucky,” Stark spoke into his phone like he was on a call.
“I’m not moving into your tower.” Her hands fell sternly on her hips.
“I can’t afford it.” Not for long anyway.
Steve gave her a worried look, hesitating with saying something. Bucky scoffed and puffed up his chest. They were both about to speak before Stark cut them both off.
“Not to worry doll, it's rent-free, it comes out of the Avengers family plan. We have them for all of our Avengers and their mates, we can’t fight unless we know our families are safe.” Stark waved her off. Bucky relaxed his stance. Steve breathed a sigh.
She opened her mouth to argue with him, hands set stubbornly on her hips and a particular glare In her eyes.
“Just get in the car, my minions have your stuff packed and shipped already.” A car pulled up.
“I'm not getting in your car! You could be a serial killer!”
“I don’t get enough privacy to abduct and kill people. As it is, people are already talking. You can either get in the car and avoid the press, or you can get kidnaped by two super soldiers with a shit ton of gossip in tomorrow's papers.” Stark didn’t even look at her while he slid into the passenger seat.
He was right, people were already whispering and some were bringing out their phones.
“Don’t even read the paper.” She grumbled before sliding into the serial killer car with tinted windows.
“If you fuck up my paintings or mess with my laptop I will end you. They aren’t dry yet.” She glared at Stark and slipped into the very expensive car, taking the window seat.
“You paint?” Steve’s eyes widened. Bucky groaned. “I knew it, she’s perfect.” She ignored him.
“Yea. Oil and they aren’t dry yet.”
They peeled into the car with her. Bucky in the front seat and Steve next to her. Barnes watched her though, through the mirrors. Steve smiled and Bucky gave him a smirk, as if saying, I told you she would be perfect for us.
The ride over was quiet. No one asked her any more questions and honestly, she’d be too uncomfortable to answer them anyway.
They stopped at a tower, the Stark Tower renamed the avengers tower. Big and ugly and polluting the world. Bucky opened her door, even as she was pushing it open and shoving herself out, he held a hand over for her, one she didn’t accept.
She waited for Steve to come around the car. They both put a hand on her back, Bucky reached around for her lower back and Steve put one between her shoulders. She wanted to moan at the warmth of those hands. Fuck they were humming with energy and easing her sore muscles. She let out a sigh instead, almost closing her eyes when they pressed her forward a little.
“You can share a floor with Steve and Barnes, The avengers all have their own rooms in the tower. We meet up on the common room for dinners and such. Team bonding ya know?” Stark started handing her things once they were in the door. A pass, a credit card, a phone, and some other things she just couldn’t look at before they were shoved into her hands.
“Jarvis? Program Margret in the building's mainframe, grant her the usual access to things, mainframe, requests, gym, penthouse, and money. She’s the soldier's mate so mark her down as an emergency contact, health records and doctor notes and such.”
“Very good sir, full body scans shall be added to the mainframe Avengers segment along with her vitals and medical history.” A voice in the ceiling made her jump, frantically looking for the speakers.
“He’s Stark’s AI, he runs the tower basically, if you ever need anything, you can just ask him.” Bucky squeezed the hand on her slightly.
“I’m being kidnaped, I’m not making friends with anything of Starks right now.” The elevator stopped at some point and the boys ushered her out, leading her to their floor.
“I’ve instructed the movers to unpack your things and put them in the most convenient places so far. If you need help finding anything, please ask, I have prepared a catalog of all of your belongings.” JARVIS spoke, making her flinch again.
“Where are my paintings?” They weren’t dry yet, she needed to make sure there wasn’t too much damage or dust or dirt sticking to the surface in the move.
“The finished ones have been displayed as you had in your apartment, the unfinished ones are in the third room to the left, that one gets the most natural sunlight.” She took off before he even stopped speaking. She only had two ongoing projects right now, but the one she cared about was the small self-portrait framed in metal, no bigger than her hand. Her easel was set up, with her painting safety left alone on its perk. Her paints were set up as she had left them, and her tools were organized neatly in the order she had them in before, albeit in a different place. It was like she had always lived here.
“These are good Doll.” Bucky whistled as he followed her in, Steve looked around too.
“They’re just practice.” This one wasn’t though. It was one of the few that showed her improvement with paints and she was proud of it.
“He’s right you know, they are good.” Stark peeked over her shoulder.
“Jarvis, take a picture of the painting she has in her hands and set a copy in my lab, frame and all.” He snatched it from her and eyed it critically.
“Hey! That’s my intellectual property!” She snatched it back.
“I’ll pay for it, but that’s too small I want a bigger one in my lab.”
“I never said you could-“
“Don’t worry about it doll, he does this to me too. Any art we do, he either photocopies it to his taste in size or steals the originals to frame it in his lab.” Steve shrugged as if to say what can you do.
She clutched it closer, expecting the handy work to it. It was good. She’d pat herself on the back for that. Having it made her feel weird though. She had just wanted to capture something beautiful that was trapped In the moment, having it nearly finished made her feel like a narcissist though, calling a picture of herself beautiful. It also felt so detached from her too, this one was a nice photo, one of the more melancholy but peaceful ones she liked to capture and convey. She didn’t normally look beautiful, she normally looked like a hot mess on her period on her way to bed with Chinese take-out for the fourth time in a row. But here, she was beautiful. She managed to capture something.
“I was thinking of starting a line of projects using these kinds of antique metal frames.” She liked the way the brass shined in the light and darkened elsewhere.
“It’s a good idea.” Stark nodded, looking at her other projects. Mostly her younger work. The work she wasn’t so proud of. The better ones were sold.
“Alright, I’ve got my own projects. Swing by the lab sometime, I love to show off.” Stark left as easily as he crashed in.
“We’ve wanted to meet you for so long.” Bucky blurted out. Steve nodded.
“Even planned a few trips, there were just so many names that started with Margret. Darcy introduced us to Steven King and we just decided to wait till fate worked itself out.”
What was she supposed to do with the information? This was all new to her, not only that, but she had two mates who were Avengers and now she lived in the Avengers tower. Stark seemed pushy and Bucky seemed eager. Steve looked at her like he had to ask her out on a dare. He didn’t quite seem to know how to talk to her or whether or not he should work up the nerve to in the first place. Not to mention, they were hotties. She didn’t deal with hotties. Hot men don’t pay attention to her and she doesn’t go for hotties. Staying within the lane and all.
She wanted to kick them out, so she could relax and make herself comfortable, contact her friends who she now had to cancel on, and make the space her own. She’d take the day off from work and set things the way she wanted them to be and then go from there. But the super soldiers had to leave. It was too easy to have them here. Too easy to get used to them in her space. She didn’t want that.
Bucky settled on her couch. It didn’t belong there, it looked nice but it wasn’t where it belonged. Steve sat on the armrest. He didn’t belong there either, she reminded herself. She waited, maybe a solid minute for them to leave or talk or say something. She didn’t wait longer, not with the way Steve was looking at her like he was actually interested and James content to just stare at her. She wasn’t comfortable looking at hotties straight on. Damn, from a distance and like a stalker? Yes of course but not head-on, and not when they were staring back at her. She didn’t have that kind of confidence. Fuck.
“So I kind of have to work, and now get settled in thanks to Stark.” Even if her things were embarrassingly bare, but fuck it she didn’t need much. She wasn’t the kind of woman to go out and shop for rugs or furniture because she needed it. The only thing she needed was her bed, her desk that she never used along with her reading chair which she also never used but it was comfortable and pretty so she kept it anyway. Maybe her TV and appliances but everything else was just stuff. Clothes, a few books. An insane amount of pens she had collected and stolen over the years and her candles. Her paintings and panels were already set up. The apartment had a kitchen, a huge TV, better than her own, and a crazy amount of space.
“Right, We should be going.” Steve looked almost embarrassed.
“You should meet the team. Soon, Tonight, dinner? Bucky shamelessly settled further onto the couch.
“That’s a great idea, Come to the team dinner.” Steve stepped in closer. Fuck he smelled good.
“Um, sure.” Damn her heart jumped. It shouldn’t have jumped.
“See you later doll.” It should have been impossible for a super soldier to sneak up on someone, especially when he was right in front of her, but he did. He popped out of nowhere on Steve’s side and kissed her cheek. His beard brushed her cheek as if being crowded by two hulking men wasn’t enough to make her heart race. She was so screwed.
Maybe... Maybe she could still make it out.