Hurt

There was a flash of bright, blue light and Tony recoiled instinctively. The chamber where the other Winter Soldiers had been kept was lit up momentarily, before becoming gloomy once more. The room was dark and eerie, a stark contrast to the white, arctic tundra outside.

James 'Bucky' Barnes was before him, looking equally bewildered. His hair hung lank by his face and his eyes were shadowed.

"What the fuck?" Tony said, raising his hands, repulsors charging for another blast. "No, absolutely not."

Barnes dropped into a fighting stance, fists raised. His metal armed glinted where it caught the light. In another world, Tony was sure that he would be fascinated by it. Not today.

Next to him, Steve was on the edge of Tony's peripheral vision, his mouth opening and closing comically like a fish.

"Tony," he appealed as he pulled himself together. Tony snarled, whipping round to blast Steve into the wall behind him.

He turned his attention back to Barnes; the man who'd murdered his parents, and was apparently his fucking soulmate. He fired his repulsors and a blue shield formed between them again, absorbing the blast.

Tony couldn't harm him.

"Fuck you," Tony said, furious. "And fuck this!"

Barnes had the gall to look apologetic. Then he turned on his heel, running for the exit. Tony watched him go. He didn't bother to follow - what would he do? Their soulmate bond would prevent Tony from doing anything that hurt Barnes and the more time they spent aware of each other, the less they'd want to hurt each other anyway.

A groan caught Tony's attention. Steve was sitting up, clutching a hand to his side. He was eyeing Tony warily, his gaze occasionally darting the passage that Barnes had taken to escape.

"Christ," Tony hissed. He forced himself to look away from Steve. "I don't think you realise how badly you've fucked up, Rogers."

Steve snorted. "I'm well aware."

Tony just shook his head. The Accords has been a trainwreck, but Steve's foolhardy actions might have doomed them all. Ross would take this opportunity to tweak them, make them even stricter than they had been before.

"No you're not," Tony said. "Shit."

"Would you like me to initiate the Soulmate Protocol?" FRIDAY asked quietly, her voice another unpleasant reminded of the events that had lead to this disaster.

JARVIS wouldn't have had to ask.

"No," Tony snapped, then immediately changed his mind. "Oh fuck, yes, go on then."

The Soulmate Protocol was something he'd written into JARVIS's original coding and FRIDAY had absorbed when he'd been designing her. It used every resource Tony owned to protect Tony's soulmate, even from Tony himself. The bond would stop Tony from physically harming Barnes; the protocol would stop him from harming him in any other way.

Steve was talking. Tony blocked out the noise and engaged his repulsors. He shot out of the bunker they'd been in, heading toward the clouds above.

He'd found his soulmate and the man had been responsible for the deaths of Tony's parents.

He wasn't sure if it was something he could make peace with. He wasn't sure that he wanted to try.

Word Count: 528

Romance Awareness Day 4 - your soulmate is the only person who can't hurt you