Chapter Text
“I’m not going through with it,” Tony announced slinging the black leather strap of his bag over his shoulder before marching over to the front door. Set on reclaiming his freedom once and for all, Tony curled his arm out behind him, pushing his heavy bag up higher before casting one last glance over at his best friend staring helplessly from his living room foyer, “I won’t do it.”
“Tony, you knew this day was coming,” Rhodey’s eyes were divided by concern and the promises that he’d made to Howard Stark a day earlier when Tony had been dropped off on Rhodey’s doorstep meant to spend the days leading up to his wedding preparing for the big event that Howard had set the stage for years earlier, “You know as well as I do that you can’t avoid this.”
“Watch me,” Tony reached for the doorknob, twisting it ever so slightly when Rhodey spoke up again behind an uneasy breath.
“As much as you think you can outrun destiny, you and I both know that Howard will hunt you down and drag you to that chapel himself if you even think about walking out on the arrangement,” Rhodey’s voice was cautious, yet full of the same truth that Tony had been forced to try to make peace with for the duration of his youth leading up to his adult life, “We can’t change our destiny.”
“But is it really destiny?” Tony questioned twisting around on his heel to meet Rhodey’s eyes again in a challenge, “How can it be destiny when Howard was the one that set the wheels in motion by putting the ink on the page and working out a contract to bind my future to his idea of happily ever after?”
“It could’ve been worse,” Rhodey offered up as Tony turned around to face him fully, “You are set to marry Captain America, Tony. It’s not like you were betrothed to Tiberius Stone, which from what you told me was almost a possibility when Howard got started on this plan for your future.”
“Yes, I’m fully aware of that, but at the same time, why would Captain America want to marry me? Why would I want to be linked to him other than to serve to fuel Howard’s agenda for taking Stark Industries to world dominance with America’s strongest superhero as his son-in-law?” Tony threw his hands up in the air, nearly knocking his bag off his shoulder in the process. However, as the strap slipped down his arm, he managed to keep it from sliding off entirely before he met his friend’s eyes again, “C’mon Rhodey, you have to see where I’m coming from on this one. I don’t want to be married to Captain America.”
“You’ve never even met the guy,” Rhodey pointed out behind a shake of his head, “From what I’ve heard even if he’s friends with Howard, he’s an honorable upstanding man and…”
“Exactly! I never met him,” Tony cut in behind an agitated breath, “Not once. Never before Howard told me that I would be locked into this arrangement that was put together long before I was alive simply because that’s what the state required out of me.”
“Tony, I know it seems unfair but…” Rhodey began again before Tony gave up on keeping his bag over his shoulder. He threw it down on the ground before backpedaling long enough to stand in front of Rhodey to plead his case.
“You lucked out on this. You won the lottery when you ended up with Carol because she’s perfect for you and you love her,” Tony threw his hands up in the air against his growing impatience, “She’s everything you could ever ask for, but honestly what the hell would I have in common with Captain America? He’s the ultimate good guy who is set on making the world a better place. Everyone loves him and…”
“You don’t think he’ll find it in him to love you?” Rhodey questioned observing Tony closely before changing his approach, “Look Tony, I know that you never like to fall into line and follow the rules, but having this kind of arrangement can work. Carol and I managed to find something wonderful together and…”
“Carol isn’t America’s Boy Scout and Howard’s pick for the top prize,” Tony couldn’t help, but roll his eyes at the prospect of the life his father had planned for him by bartering Tony’s freedom in favor of leading Tony into the arms of the one man that Tony strongly suspected Howard would’ve married himself if it hadn’t been for Howard’s own betrothal to Tony’s mother.
“Tony, I really think you’re approaching this the wrong way,” Rhodey reached out to position his hand on Tony’s shoulder to offer up a supportive squeeze, “I know it feels like the end of a chapter for you, but I can promise you that this is a new beginning. Before you know it, Captain America will feel like he was always meant to be in your life.”
“The guy is squeaky clean and I’m…” Tony stopped himself knowing only too well that his escape would be all the harder to make if he actually took the time to consider what it would mean to be the new arm candy to the man that Tony wasn’t quite sure was really into the idea of having someone like Tony in his life, “nowhere near close to what he is. He’s on this pedestal that Howard has kept him on for years, which okay, yeah so maybe he’s done some great things in the world, but at the same time my world and his are…”
“About to collide and there’s no use in fighting what will be,” Rhodey squeezed at Tony’s shoulder again, “You have to accept that this is what was meant to happen and…”
“What about soulmates and happily ever after? What about those bonds that we were always told were out there? You know the ones that they used to write stories about long before the government mandated that we were forced to stand back and let our parents control our future?” Tony questioned wondering if he could ever get on board with the idea of allowing Howard to control one of the biggest decisions of his life moving forward.
“Soulmates were only a myth and the freedom of choice was always problematic,” Rhodey argued behind a weary expression that led Tony to believe he was merely trying to placate the situation Tony was facing behind a heavily guarded air of skepticism despite his own situation working out better than anticipated, “We saw the problems the world faced when everything was left to chance and…”
“Yes, I know that divorce rates are down and that the world is far more peaceful than it was before things were like this, but what about passion and freedom and the ability to follow one’s path to discover what it is they are meant for along the way?” Tony questioned drawing in a breath before considering the consequences of the union ahead of him, “What about love?”
“Carol and I love each other. Very deeply,” Rhodey opened his mouth to remind Tony of the luck that Rhodey had found when the lottery appeared to have worked in his favor after his betrothal had become a blessing in disguise.
“I know you do, but I…” Tony bit down on his bottom lip, struggling to get the words out when suddenly it all felt like too much. His chest was tightening, his mind full of questions that had gone for far too long without answers and a few that in complying to his father’s demand the world around him would come crashing down around him, “I can’t leave all that to chance. I have to find my own way.”
“Tony…” Rhodey spoke his name, but it was too late. The writing was on the wall and as Tony slung his bag over his shoulder, he marched out of his friend’s house hellbent on finding a means of ending the curse that his father had put upon him in signing that contract that shipped him off like cattle to the greatest bidder set on laying his claim on Tony’s life from here on out.
The horn honked in the distance, prompting Tony to pull the dark colored hood up over his head and step back into the shadows as the rain came down all around him. From his position on the crowded curb, he was met by the splash of a puddle pouring out across the broken concrete in the seedy part of the city. Sure, he’d planned on covering more ground once he’d left Rhodey’s weekend retreat but given how high-profile Tony was and given the hype surrounding his upcoming union, Tony knew he would have to take the low road out of the city or risk being caught before he put enough distance between him and Howard. Using credits were off the table but given the cash he’d managed to stash the last few years, he was hoping to find a transport out of town, taking him as far as possible from the impending doom he was certain would follow him in being linked for life to a stranger.
“Watch it!” a man with a modified shopping cart pushed past him, damn near knocking Tony down on the sidewalk in the process.
A glimmer of light revealed the spikes the man had installed on the outer edges of the cart itself serving as a weapon to any that fought to brave the shadows of the city and dare try to rob him. His steely jaw was set to a dark warning when he wheeled past Tony, leaving behind a flash of metal and color when Tony recognized the low-tech modifications on the back of the cart offering up a purple haze of smoke in his movement. It served to remind Tony about those living outside of the system—those who were considered savages against the world of order Howard had brought Tony into with his wealth and power. It was that world that Tony had been taught to avoid and evade at all costs, yet somehow in the filth and darkness of the world down below the flying cars and the bright neon billboards of the city of the clouds Tony had rushed away from in his haste, Tony found he’d felt more at ease surrounded by those that he’d been told were unsavories in the past.
“Move it!” another voice came up from behind Tony when he was shoulder checked by a man whose face was half metal and scarred up flesh, looking like something of a curiosity for Tony, who’d always been intrigued by the possibility of science and the human element outside of the strict rule of those above in the city of clouds where the pollution and weak human component was filtered out from the world below.
“Fuck off,” another shouted at Tony, causing him to stumble further from the curb when he recognized the blue and red glow of the police cruiser working its way around the crime ridden city.
There was the sound of the cruiser’s alarm as it sped up in the rain, nearly knocking over a few of the city’s occupants before Tony was reaching for his hood again. He caught the way the spotlight was scanning the sidewalk, indicating that the officers who were inside the cruiser were looking for someone among the faceless nobodies that those in the world above never spoke of. No doubt ready to lock in on whomever they’d deemed was worth taking the time outside of paradise to sift through the shit to find.
“Rhodey wouldn’t sell me out,” he mouthed to himself as he turned away from the red and blue light, fearing that Howard had discovered his escape long before he’d found a means of leaving this world behind.
By now Tony had wanted to put more distance between him and his father, but instead he’d been merely relegated to the world below, hoping that his father wouldn’t dream of stepping foot out of his high tower to search through the muck and the filth of the commonfolk to find Tony seeking a way out. With the sheer force of will alone and maybe a little bit of the cash he’d managed to save in secret, Tony had bribed one of the cleaning staff at Rhodey’s building, working his way into a laundry cart and out to a place where the pathway down below had become surprisingly open to him when he entered the low tech world.
“Now to get my way out of here,” Tony mouthed to himself, rolling his shoulders back and looking around the crowded street of hardened faces and soiled clothing to find the place he was meant to go after he’d rushed out of Rhodey’s door stepping away from his life of security into the unknown.
“I have to find a way out of here,” Tony reminded himself when he stepped off the curb into the muddy puddle before him, crossing the street and knowing that this was his one chance for freedom. If he could find a pilot willing to take what cash he had left who was willing to get him out of town, then he could finally be free. He could build a new life for himself somewhere beyond the clouds, far from his father’s control, which as far as Tony was concerned was a far better alternative than being Mr. Captain America’s sidekick, which if Tony was honest was a position that he hadn’t wanted no matter what. Even if it meant putting himself into danger to achieve that goal.
Now with the police cruiser slipping past him, Tony let out a breath of relief, set on finding his way through the night to the bar that one of the men who’d helped him escape had told him about, promising that when he arrived that he would find a willing pilot to take him wherever he wanted to go. The thought was too enticing to let go of, yet somehow Tony knew it was his only shot as he crossed the street, following the directions the man had scribbled down on a piece of paper until an alarm sounded throughout the street, prompting those around him to look up at the billboard screen flashing bright above them and offering the key to Tony’s demise right before his horrified eyes.
There right in front of Tony, there was a projection of him stepping out from the screen, revealing footage of one of Tony’s lectures in the past, showing him front and center on a stage now distanced from where Tony was. However, with the footage there was a tagline below him offering the evidence of what he’d feared the most now that there was a plea for those around him to aid in Tony’s retrieval along with a very lucrative reward in credits to the person who could assist the police and those Stark Industries associates that Tony knew were on the hunt chasing down any lead they could utilize to find him after Howard had put out the call. Then again, that wasn’t enough as suddenly Tony’s face was splashed over every weathered store front, offering up a tantalizing gift to those down below who were fortunate enough to discover the prince who’d found his way into the worst part of the city where crime and danger ran supreme.
“Fifty million credits to the person who can aid authorities in finding Tony Stark,” the automated voice explained once again offering more views of Tony at all angles in order to imprint his face in the minds of those who would be eager to seek a reward once the bounty had been set and put out there in the front burner of their minds.
“Shit,” Tony cursed under his breath, pulling his hood tighter over his face before rounding a corner and spotting the name of the bar on the sign of the broken-down building in front of him. With a quickness in his step and a sense of panic coiling deep within his gut, Tony made his way closer to the bar hoping like hell that once he found his way inside everything would fall into place in guiding him to leave his old world behind.
“You owe me credits Barnes,” the voice was accompanied by the slam of the nearly empty frothy mug at Bucky’s side, guiding his blue eyes to angle up from the top of the bar to the mirror revealing the leatherbound tech enhanced man standing before him, snarling and glaring in ways that anyone other than Bucky might be concerned about.
“I don’t owe you shit,” Bucky merely shrugged before signaling the bartender for another round. Straightening out his back, he reached forward to extract a couple of peanuts from the bowl in front of him before depositing them into his mouth behind an exaggerated chomp, “You lost that round fair and square so piss off.”
“You cheated,” the man behind Bucky accused reaching out to pull at the back of Bucky’s black leather jacket only to have Bucky twist around on the barstool and slam his metal fingers into the man’s throat without warning.
In an instant the man was up in the air, grasping weakly at the tightening fingers, barely getting anything out from his inaudible breaths before his eyes were filled with tears. He gasped for air, kicking his feet below where he was suspended in the air, high above Bucky’s head while Bucky glared up at him from where he was positioned on the barstool.
“You lost. Get over it!” Bucky commanded with a warning squeeze, noting that the man was suddenly turning blue indicating that a few more seconds and he’d fall limp on the floor leaving Bucky with far more problems than solutions now that he’d started to wind down his night of hustling at the club. Without another word he dropped the man, who landed on his hands and knees, gasping for breath and crawling away after he’d realized his mistake.
“You can’t keep doing that Barnes,” a voice pulled Bucky from his stewing, causing him to look over his shoulder at the one person who hadn’t been meant to accompany him this far down out of the clouds into the one place in the city where scandal would surely follow.
“Don’t tell me how to conduct myself Clint,” Bucky shoved at Clint’s hand on his shoulder, set on squaring himself on the barstool before twisting around to reach for the bowl of peanuts again, “I’m not on the clock right now so I can do as I please.”
“Getting yourself killed before Steve’s wedding certainly isn’t the way to go about spending your night,” Clint reminded him behind an impatient huff.
“Remind me why I let you come down here with me,” Bucky shot him a small glare before throwing the peanuts into his mouth to chomp on them loudly.
“Because I’m a glutton for punishment and Tash asked me to keep you out of trouble tonight,” Clint pointed out behind a touch of a grin, “Although if you ask me, I think you invited me down here with you so we could hustle that guy at the table before.”
“Probably,” Bucky merely shrugged before reaching for another peanut. He looked up to regard the bartender returning with his drink in hand, “Give my friend whatever he wants tonight.”
“What I want is to get back up into the clouds,” Clint shuddered before looking around the bar again, “This scene is far too wild for me.”
“Pussy,” Bucky laughed before scooping the mug off the countertop and dragging it to his lips to take an oversized swallow. He could feel the bubbles and froth pouring down his throat, opening the door to trouble in ways that with his enhancements wouldn’t take him under so easily, yet the thought of it felt nice, “If you hate being down here so much, then why did you ask to join me tonight?”
“Because I didn’t want to be on duty with Tash trying to put together the final details for the ceremony,” Clint made a face before reaching for his own beer, “Steve excited about what’s ahead?”
“What do you think?” Bucky questioned knowing only too well that Steve’s ‘problematic wedding’ was the reason he’d found his way down below, seeking to do his part as ‘best man’ and get his friend what he needed to work his way out of the fate that had been bestowed upon him.
“I’m sure he’s nervous and excited,” Clint mused, completely oblivious to Steve’s discontent over the idea of having to honor his commitment to the contract in marrying Howard Stark’s son after Steve, himself, had found his way to another deeper meaning in his life a few short months earlier when a rescue mission had led him into the arms of the last person he was meant to find, “I mean it’s not every day that someone is able to work their way into becoming a part of the Stark family.”
“Right,” Bucky nodded in agreement knowing only too well that Steve was dreading the idea more than Bucky had been at the thought of standing by his best friend and watching Steve lock himself into a loveless marriage with a stranger who’d been kept under wraps for far too long already, “I mean who doesn’t love the idea of being thrust into the public eye under constant scrutiny in aligning with the enemy.”
“Stark Industries aren’t the enemy,” Clint reminded Bucky again with a pat on the shoulder, “Sure, yeah, so maybe they are leading the industry in weapons tech, but they can do good now that Steve is joining the family. He can turn them around and…”
“Give us discount weapons for the price of our soul and the addition of a pampered prince brat forced upon Captain America for everyone to see and accept?” Bucky finished off his beer before slamming the mug down on top of the bar, “I don’t see that being the best alternative for the team considering what we’ve been fighting for.”
“Yeah, well Steve’s always been the diplomat ready to do what it takes to work our way back to freedom again,” Clint reminded Bucky with a shake of his head, “He’s going to use this to his advantage in playing politics to open the floor to everyone getting a choice again and…”
“There won’t ever be a choice for the inner circle when the rest of us prove to be undesirable to those up above,” Bucky mouthed before using the back of his hand to push away the remnants of beer on his lips, “Face it Clint, the only reason we get a seat at the table is because Steve’s not like the rest of them when it comes to playing politics.”
“Not behind closed doors anyways,” Clint remarked before looking around the seedy bar they’d worked their way into, “Though you never told me why he sent us down here tonight.”
“It’s personal,” Bucky confessed following the direction of Clint’s stare before he spotted a shadowy figure near the front of the bar, shrouded in a dark cloak and working their way over towards the far end of the bar where Bucky was seated with his coworker.
“That’s vague and ominous,” Clint prodded further, but the words were lost as Bucky noted the movements of the man working hard to blend in with the feeble disguise in front of them, “Buck?”
“Give me a second,” Bucky raised his finger in the air, effectively silencing Clint in his movement off the barstool and around the bar headed towards the new arrival.
While Bucky couldn’t quite pinpoint his finger on why the stranger had perked his interest, there was something inside of him that caused his body to tense up. His mind was filled with apprehension and his fleshy arm suddenly itching in ways that prompted him to reach for his sleeve pushing it up to discover the soft indigo illumination coming out from beneath his skin, pushing its way through the black ink of the ancient symbol tattoo that had marked over his skin upon birth. Sure, maybe Bucky hadn’t thought much of it through the years, but now it felt like fire pushing out from deep within his flesh, surging through his body and causing his arm to glow in ways that he knew full well that could prove to be problematic once Bucky remembered it’s strange meaning after a short run in Wakanda.
“The mark is there as a symbol of a soulmate bond,” T’Challa had explained after combat in Wakanda had prompted Bucky to come closer to the man who’d opened the door to a new world outside of the established one Bucky was now returning to for Steve’s benefit, “Once activated it will lead you closer to the person you were meant to spend this lifetime and many others with.”
“Soulmates,” Bucky had laughed at the time, shaking off his friend’s words with a drink and far more laughter than was comfortable at the time before asking the question that had always plagued his thoughts, “You don’t believe in them, do you?”
“In Wakanda we believe in the possibility that the rest of the world has learned to shut out,” T’Challa had explained before giving Bucky a lesson in the history of soulmates and their position in the world long before those in power had outlawed the idea in favor of savory connections meant to bring about political and genetic supremacy in their bids for betrothals in the evolving world around them, “Finding one’s soulmate in this dark world can be one of the strongest powers one can face.”
“And yet here I am in the middle of nowhere facing down this,” Bucky scratched at his arm, unable to ignore the blinding blue light that radiated underneath the surface of his skin, set to weed him out from those who’d forgone the process to evolve in the clouds. Granted, a great many of them had their tattoos removed years earlier when it was mandated by those in control, but with Bucky, it had been different—something he hadn’t been ready to shed as it felt like it had belonged there until that fateful moment when he stood staring at the shrouded stranger wondering if somehow his arrival had triggered the mark’s activation.
“Shit,” Bucky cursed under his breath hastening his step now that the man he’d been following was moving into the back and stepping deeper into a world that Bucky feared an outsider would hold no part of. Still, not quite certain why he’d been prompted to react, Bucky was chasing behind, pushing away at the silvery beaded curtain and working his way into the back room wondering just what it was he’d discover on the other side.
With his arm itching and burning underneath the mark, Bucky looked to the light, fearing it would prove to be problematic when he rolled his sleeve down further hoping to buffer the situation until finally, he was surrounded by darkness in the back hallway. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, leaving him to question if perhaps he should reveal a sliver of his soul mark long enough to light the way to the path the stranger had taken, but much to his surprise and dismay the same blue light had sprung up at the end of the hallway where the stranger was slipping around the corner, setting down on a path that Bucky suddenly feared would bring his destiny full circle at the worst possible time.