I'm So Scared, Please Help Me

Steve/Bucky/Skye

SkyeStucky? Stuckye? CaptainWinterQuake?

Contains SPOILERS for AoS S02ep10.

Hello readers! This story is being written on inspiration from another writer. Ozhawk has written a large collection of short one-shots (please go check them out!) and has graciously allowed me to continue this one into a longer story. This first chapter is as it originally appeared in the short. I will continue in Chapter 2. So if this first part reads a little differently than my usual writing – that's why.

Chapter 1

Steve

He'd never had a soulmark, back in the old days. So when S.H.I.E.L.D. retrieved him from the ice and thawed him out, he was a little horrified to find that he had two. And one of them featured a name that would haunt him forever.

Who the hell is Bucky?

The world would not forget Bucky Barnes – and the other Howling Commandoes – if Steve had a say in it. So he helped set up the exhibit at the Smithsonian, grieved for his friend – and yes, occasional lover, though that had been very much a secret – and mentioned Bucky every time he was interviewed.

Of course, he hadn't anticipated the fact that one of his soulmates would turn out to be Bucky. A very lost, broken Bucky. It took six weeks for Steve and Natasha – using all of Stark's vast resources – to track him down after Washington, and another six months of therapy and hypnosis for Bucky to return to something like his old self.

Bruce had a theory on how Bucky and Steve didn't used to be soulmates, but were now.

"You needed your third to be born. There's documented cases of people who knew each other already, whose words spontaneously appeared when their third was born. In all those cases, it's been the next words the soulmates spoke to each other, not the first."

"What do we do about her? We assume it's a her." Steve gestured to the second mark on his forearm. Bucky had a second mark too, in the same, distinctly feminine handwriting.

"Well, I understand you both like girls as well as guys," Bruce gave them one of his weary smiles. "Certainly from the stories Peggy Carter used to tell about you, Steve. And if Bucky was even a tenth as good with the girls as his character has always been portrayed on screen…"

"I meant what do we do about her." Steve bit his lip and looked at the words on his arm. I'm so scared, the words said. The words on Bucky's calf were even more frightening. Please help me. "It seems like she may be in some kind of trouble when we find her."

"We take care of her and we deal with whatever, or whoever, is frightening her," Bucky rumbled. He was still, at the core, the same Bucky that Steve had known – and loved – since they were children. "HYDRA told me, when the words appeared – and no, Steve, I still haven't figured out exactly when, I just know both sets were on me when they defrosted me one time – that I had to kill whoever said them to me."

"I take it you've decided not to follow that order now?" Bruce raised his eyebrows.

"Definitely not," Bucky glanced sideways at Steve. "Punk's still alive, ain't he?"

"Shut up, you jerk, you certainly gave it a go."

"That was when I was still Зимний Солдат, you ass!"

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you too!"

"Just go fuck, both of you. That poor girl," Bruce murmured, turning back to his lab bench. "How she's going to put up with the pair of you, I can't begin to imagine."

Steve grinned at Bucky, pulling on his wrist. "Come on, jerk."

"If people only knew what Captain America was really like." Bucky followed Steve. "Bruce is right, though. The poor girl's got no idea what she's in for."

"She needs us," Steve said quietly, later. Much later. "That's why we're her soulmates. She's in enough trouble that she needs us."

Bucky, on the edge of sleep, rolled over and looked at him. "Then we get her out of it. You and me, Stevie. Ain't nuthin' we can't pull our girl out of."

"Sure hope you're right, Buck," Steve's hand still rested on Bucky's hip. "Because I love you, but I do miss girls."

"Me too," Bucky murmured quietly. The corner of his lip twitched up in a grin. "Hope she's pretty."

"She'll be beautiful to us," Steve said confidently.

"She'll prob'ly like you best anyway."

"That's not how it works, Buck," Steve told him softly. "She's our soulmate. Both of us. I'd never let anyone come between us anyway, you big jerk."

Bucky chuckled. "You sure about that?"

"You have a filthy mind." Steve jabbed him in the ribs.

"You love it."

"Jerk."

"Punk."

Bucky

They found her in the last place they'd ever have expected. In the Avengers' Mission Room, a whole floor of Tony Stark's tower dedicated to planning and the storage of their equipment. Tony had received a surprise call from someone named Coulson – surprising largely because apparently the guy was supposed to be dead – saying there was someone he needed help with. They all gathered in the Mission Room.

The other Avengers greeted Coulson warily, and he gestured to the small, slim woman standing beside him. She had long brown hair and frightened eyes.

"This is Agent Skye. She recently had a somewhat – otherworldly experience in Puerto Rico. I – honestly think she might be better with you guys. The Avengers."

"Better how, exactly?" Tony demanded.

"Skye's developed, um, a certain power. The earth shakes at her command."

"Ah, that explains the sudden unexplained seismic activity down in Virginia," Natasha murmured, crossing her arms and giving the young woman an appraising look.

"What the hell are you doing bringing her here, Coulson?" Tony gabbled out, backing away from Skye. "You want to level New York? Christ, at least we're not in LA, you could have split the San Andreas right open!"

"I've got it under control!" Skye said sharply, the first time she'd spoken. She glared at Tony. "I just – my team treat me differently now. I'm not one of them any more." She turned to Steve, eyes beseeching. "I'm so scared."

Steve sucked in a sharp breath and glanced at Bucky. He willed himself not to react, but he couldn't help moving towards Skye.

"What do you need from us, doll?"

"Please help me," she stared up at him, tears welling in those dark, dark eyes.

"Of course," he said softly.

"I don't want to be alone any more. I've spent my whole life being alone."

"No more," Steve came to them. "You don't have to be alone any more." He placed a gentle hand on Bucky's waist and another on Skye's shoulder. "You've got us now."

"Um, what the fuck, I thought we had to vote in any new members of the Avengers?" Tony said sharply. "Since when did you two get to pick and choose?"

"Since we found our soulmate," Bucky answered, since Steve seemed to be lost staring into the depths of Skye's eyes.

There was a chorus of "What? What the fuck?" and "Holy shit" from around the room, and a grateful gasp of "Oh thank God," from Agent Coulson. Skye turned to him, and he put his arms around her in a paternal hug.

"You'll be fine, Skye. They'll take care of you. I couldn't ask for anyone better."

Skye

They left her alone with her soulmates. Barton and Romanoff had told Tony flatly that they wouldn't be party to any attempt to separate soulmates – Skye noticed that their hands were clasped tightly together – and that therefore as far as they were concerned, Skye was in. Outvoted even before Banner and Wilson spoke up, Tony conceded with reasonable grace and invited Coulson – or 'Agent' as he called him, up to his bar for a drink.

They were both huge men, towering over her, and Skye peered up at them a bit shyly. Steve – Captain America, although he looked very normal, if a bit ungodly handsome, in regular clothes – was smiling brightly at her. Barnes looked more serious, but there was still joy in his deep blue eyes.

"I'd say I'm sorry for what happened to you," Bucky said, "but honestly, I'm not, because it brought you to us." He turned his arm and showed her the words on the back of his forearm.

Steve took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to Skye. She accepted it with a grateful sniff and wiped her face. "I'm sorry, I'm not making much of a first impression!"

"Quite the contrary," Steve said gallantly. "I don't know about Buck, but I'm so glad we're not having to rescue you from a hostage situation or something with bullets flying all around!"

She blinked, read the words on his arm as he pulled up his sleeve, and smiled slightly. "Oh. Yes, I can see how that would seem likely." Skye hesitated, and then turned around, pulling up the tight black T-shirt she was wearing. Their words were written in the small of her back, two lines of tight text almost on top of each other. "I guessed you two would already be together. I – if you want a platonic bond, I'd be okay with that…"

"No!" Steve and Bucky said in horrified unison.

"Not unless you really don't want to be with both of us," Steve qualified. "But – we've been waiting for you. Hoping you'd be – okay with us both."

A small smile curved Skye's mouth. "Captain America and the Winter Soldier? What girl would turn that down? But – I wouldn't want to get in the middle…"

"Really?" Bucky said with a salacious grin. "Because that's exactly where I'd want you."

"Bucky!" Steve blushed bright red and rammed an elbow into his ribs. "You jerk!"

Skye covered her mouth with her hand and started to giggle, suddenly realising the double entendre she'd just made. She could feel herself blushing just thinking about it. And – also getting very hot and bothered. Because there was no denying how gorgeous they both were.

Bucky, pushing his luck, moved in closer and reached to put two gentle fingers – his human hand – under Skye's chin, tipping her face up. "Since Punk here got to hear his words first," he murmured, "may I even the score by getting the first kiss?"

"No fair!" Steve muttered, but he made no real attempt to intervene, indeed moved slightly to the side to get a better view.

Skye smiled. "I'm not having you two boys keeping score over me," she said sternly. Recognising that she needed to put herself on an equal footing with them now, or they'd probably walk all over her.

Bucky inclined his head, accepting her terms. That, of course, brought his lips a good deal closer, and she couldn't help but focus on them. They were plush, pink and soft, incongruous in his chiselled, hard face. Skye licked her own lips, wondering how he'd taste. And then he kissed her.

Steve couldn't believe how turned on he was watching Bucky kiss Skye. She slipped slender arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe – she was pretty tiny, maybe five foot four, Steve reckoned – but she looked just right there in Bucky's arms. His fingers itched for pencil and paper, to capture that image. And then Bucky lifted his head, his eyes glazed, breath coming a little fast.

"Come here, punk," he held out his metal arm.

Steve approached slowly, looking at Skye a little shyly. He'd only ever kissed one girl before, and that was Peggy Carter, a long time ago by any measure. Skye looked beautiful, gazing up at him with her eyes shining, removing one of her arms from around Bucky's neck and holding it out.

"Come on, Steve. We're not leaving you out."

He joined them, feeling Bucky's arm slide around his waist, Skye's small hand on the back of his neck. She pulled encouragingly, and he put one arm around each of them and stooped to press his lips to hers.

It was a soft, gentle kiss, full of promise for the future, an acknowledgement that she wasn't ready yet. But when she was, they would both be waiting. Skye stood in the circle of their arms, both her soulmates holding her close, and let out a sigh of relief.

I'll never be alone again.

1994 words.

Obviously, this is some time post Season 2 episode 10. For those of you who didn't read any episode reviews on line or are not comic followers, we learned that Skye is Daisy (Johnson), aka Quake in comic canon. Who is an Avenger.