For: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Romance Awareness, Day 7: Everyone has powers, and when you meet your soulmate you get each other's powers. / August Auction: dialogue: "I know what I'm doing" / Word Count: 886

AU in which the Avengers don't really exist, because everyone has some power, and Steve and Bucky were born in modern times.

Is this shameless indulgent fluff? Why yes. Yes it is.

Some people have the kind of powers that aren't visible. Some people have super strength, or empathy, or telekinesis.

Not Sam.

At fifteen years old, Sam manifested with motherfukcing wings. They're huge, gunmetal grey, and impossible to hide.

And yeah, Sam hates the attention they bring, but he loves his wings. Learning to fly as a gangly teenager was… eventful, to say the least, but now, he wouldn't have it any other way. He can launch himself off buildings, feel the wind in his feathers, soar.

It's why he went into pararescue. He wanted to use his gift. He wanted to help people.

And it was good. Mostly.

But now he's nearing forty and he's still got mild PTSD and he dreams about falling out of the sky, about watching his partner fall.

And then some dumbass with super strength or super speed or something shows up on his running route and can't stop from showing off, and Sam makes a new friend.

His name is Steve. He's a spry 25 year old who's got the same kind of exhaustion in his eyes that Sam does.

Sam can spot a fellow vet from a mile off, and if Steve didn't serve, Sam would eat his shoe.

So as Steve turns to leave, Sam says, "It's your bed, right?" He doesn't mean it as a flirtation, but it kind of comes across that way. "It's too soft," he adds.

And Steve agrees.

…

It's Steve that introduces him to Bucky.

Bucky has an easy grin and a missing left arm and the same damn haunted look in his eyes as Steve. And when he stands up and shakes Sam's hand, he doubles over.

For a second, Sam thinks Bucky is going to vomit.

But then there's a tearing sound, and a set of pure black wings burst from his back. They're so dark, they seem to absorb more light than is possible, creating a void behind him.

Sam's always kind of wondered about that. Finding your soulmate means they get your powers, but Sam's wings came in slow and steady, growing limbs for a growing boy.

Bucky's have not done that.

In fact, he's bleeding at the junction point.

"Fuck," Sam says emphatically. "You're bleeding." He grabs a few napkins off the holder in the middle of the table and strides around, pressing them gently into the wound, trying to dab off the blood.

Bucky hisses. "Fuck, fuck. Watch your strength," he says, and Sam jerks back. He hadn't even registered any changes — hadn't noticed what he thought was a gentle touch wasn't so much.

"Shit, sorry!" he says.

Bucky laughs. "Jesus, what a mess," he says.

Across the table, Steve is barely holding in a laugh. "You good, Buck?" he asks.

Bucky shrugs. Sam watches as his wings rise and fall with his shoulders. "Unexpected extra limbs, but I guess that makes up for the one I lost," he says, and his grin is so shit-eating that Sam almost falls in love right there.

…

Bucky, it turns out, has the darkest sense of humour of anyone Sam has ever met, and he laughs at his own jokes like an idiot. He was a prisoner of war and he's got PTSD even worse than Sam's, and some weeks are more bad days than good.

But he's also a nerd who loves science fiction novels and Star Trek, and who makes the world's fluffiest pancakes, and who actually owns an apron that says Kiss the Cook. He likes to pull his hair back into a bun but he can't do it alone — this is the one thing he never hesitates to ask for help with. A few strands always pull loose and fall in his eyes, no matter who helps him with it — although Steve's buns stay put the longest. Sam is working on it.

And Bucky looks at Sam like he hung the damn moon, calls him "beautiful" and "gorgeous" every chance he gets, touches him with a gentle tenderness that makes Sam feel cherished.

Watching him learn to navigate life with wings is fucking hilarious.

He keeps forgetting they're there, turning and knocking things over, getting startled by movement in his periphery. The first time he tries to fly, he says, "I know what I'm doing," so Sam just hums and takes off.

Meanwhile, Bucky lifts two inches off the ground and then falls on his ass. And it takes him half an hour to get that far. He keeps complaining about new muscle groups his brain isn't wired for.

Sam just flaps his wings, drifting in lazy circles above him, and laughs.

Bucky gets his own back, though. Sam keeps forgetting about his strength. He breaks the glass salt shaker. They replace it with plastic, and now that one has a permanent dent from his fingers in it. So does their table. So does their bed.

The best part of his new powers, though? The best part is when he goes running with Steve the first morning, pushing his limbs to their new max, and the first time he passes Steve, he grins and calls out, "On your left!"

…

Sam wasn't waiting for a soulmate. He didn't figure he needed one.

But Bucky? Bucky is everything he didn't know he needed.