I know I already posted this chapter once before, but after going over it I changed my mind. Bucky and Sam just don't really make sense in a romantic view, for me at least, and after looking around for inspiration this looked much more appealing

I ran my breaths coming in harsh shallow gasps that seared my throat and made my ribs ache, my feet pounded the ground trying to go faster, but to no avail. My blood thrummed in my ears and only my instincts could be heard over the noise of it, screaming at me to run faster, that I needed to get away, that I needed to hide so I could heal, but also that the blood that was still pooling from my many injuries was hitting the ground and leaving a visible trail for any predator to follow me. I didn't stop despite my body practically humming in protest from the strain I knew if I stopped I was worse than dead.

I slipped past the few people that were here at the park, mostly early risers and business people bustling off to work or going for a run. None of them gave me a second glance thankfully enough.

I needed to get to water, somewhere defensible, my instincts would demand nothing less. I was almost there, I could see the large pond just through the trees I would make it. I was so close, but as I crossed the last of the jogging paths between me and the water I was sent rolling from the impact of another body, skidding across the ground blood smearing onto the dirt and grass and getting into my wounds causing a painful burn.

I was disoriented as I laid there my left arm pinned beneath me and my right splayed out in front of me. My instincts protested louder demanding I get up, that I wasn't safe yet, I needed to move, but my body refused all of my commands. I trembled with the pain and exhaustion that had finally caught up to me. My body had, had it, but my mind and instincts wouldn't take no for an answer.

Footsteps approached me making my entire form go ridged, my nostrils flared trying to find out anything about the person coming towards me. Male. Alpha. Sweat. Clean clothes. Were the strongest smells coming from him.

He crouched down just out of reach "Are you alright ma'am? You're bleeding." He murmured his voice surprisingly soft and kind for a man of his obvious muscle mass as he reached towards me

I groaned and tried to lean away, but my tired body refused to budge even an inch, my head too heavy to even lift to get a better look at this Alpha who was far to close. My brain drowning in my instincts barely able to understand what he said only that he spoke "Oh god," I breathed my voice sounding weak and near tears even to myself "please just get away. Forget you saw me."

Steve's POV

When I woke up this morning from another bout of nightmares I hadn't thought today was going to be different from any of the previous days since the fallout in DC was cleaned up. After spending a few weeks searching for him me and Sam found Bucky holed up in an abandoned warehouse trying to pull as much of himself together as he could. Having my words on his skin helped, but the second set gave him pause. He worried for that second person, feared that he had already met them and left...or worse killed them. It wasn't until I showed him that I had a second set of words in the same shy elegant curving letters and that I hadn't met them yet that he calmed enough to come with us.

It was rough the first few months, a constant up and down as we bleed Hydra out. There were times he wouldn't look at me and stink so bad of fear and shame that the whole floor, and ones above and below it, had to be doused in sent eraser. Together we got threw it, the biggest help was when Tony gave Bucky a new arm, one not even close to looking like the one Hydra had outfitted him with, it looked more human and in fact if you didn't see the scaring you could barely tell the difference.

It was only after that, that he finally let me touch him again, after all this time I finally had my Beta back, we spent days just relearning each other mapping out every new scar and retracing well known muscle and sinew. We were finally at the point where we could separate and do what we needed or wanted to without the others constant presence for reassurance that they wouldn't disappear.

It didn't take long for Bucky to want in on the Avengers, I didn't expect anything less of him he had followed me all throughout Europe with the Commandos what made anyone think he wouldn't follow me in this? It took awhile, but with SHEILD gone they couldn't tell us no and Natasha and Bucky apparently had a past though nothing truly romantic became of it when neither of them were themselves, but the others eventually warmed up to the idea of him having their backs.

I got up knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep any longer I got dressed in a fresh white t-shirt and my running shorts and shoes and grabbing a water bottle from the fridge on the way out I headed down to street level. While in D.C. running around the reflection pool with Sam had helped me when my head was too crowded for me to work out and not to mention I got the endless amusement of lapping him and each time shouting "On your left" as I passed him.

Bucky was away on a mission so having him with me was out and he preferred the personalized gym Stark made for the team any way, people still made him nervous sometimes and he didn't want to risk hurting innocent people ever again. Sam didn't live in the tower despite everyone telling him, more than once, that he was welcome to room with all of us, but he declined and went back to D.C. with the promise that if we ever needed him, or he needed us, he'd be there. The V.A. was just too important to him for him to give up and he was still searching for his soulmate or bondmate whichever he would find.

During my mental evaluation of my life I had reached Central park and as I reached my usual trail around the pond I began at a light jog that soon got faster and faster as my muscles warmed up. Feeling them stretch and strain as I let the memories of my nightmare wash over me and the slow and steady burn soothed my soul as nothing else had thus far besides destroying a few punching bags.

But soon the memories in my head were blinding me and I didn't see it until it was too late. My body impacted with a softer, smaller, and more delicate form, and I lurched to a stop, but it was too late.

There a few feet from me sprawled on the ground from where she had skidded along the trail was a small women who couldn't be more than twenty three or twenty five years old. She was slim, much smaller than me, reminding me almost of my form before the serum, but less scrawny and awkward. Her hair was fanned out behind her with a few pieced hanging in her face, one arm was pinned beneath her and the other was in front of her face her fingers digging into the dirt. It was only then I noticed the large amount of blood smeared into the ground and the massive amount coating her skin. Many visible gashes, bruises, and scraps covered all her visible skin. Her eyes were wild with fear and pain darting in every direction. Her body trembled most likely from pain and shock. Her chest heaved with the effort to breathe and I worried for her condition.

I approached slowly forwards, not wanting to scare her further and this seemed to bring her focus somewhat on me. I made sure my steps were audible, but still soft and slow and when I was just outside of reaching distance I slowly knelled to her level not wanting to tower over her and frighten her more.

"Are you alright ma'am? You're bleeding." I murmured in my softest voice not wanting to startle her as I slowly reached out for her shoulder

What she said next threw me for the biggest loop since waking from the ice "Oh god," She breathed weakly tears and pain evident in her voice "please just get away. Forget you saw me." She begged as she made feeble attempts to move

When I was that scrawny kid in Brooklyn the soulmarked words on my left forearm had hurt me, I wondered why my second mate didn't want me, did they not like the fact that their mate, their Alpha, looked nothing like what he was supposed to? I worried they must of thought I couldn't protect them, that I wasn't worthy of them. So I tried my hardest to be the best I could be, with Bucky calling me a moron the whole time and telling me it might not be what I thought it was and then when even after the serum my soulmark still didn't change so I wondered...what kind of trouble was my soulmate in to not want me around? After all the only other reason a soulmate ever rejects their other besides denial or depression or plain stupidity...was fear. I promised myself whenever I met my other soulmate I wouldn't walk away...no matter what.

Back to Regular POV

I watched as he froze, his hand hovering over my shoulder as though he was afraid to touch me. Did he know what I was? Was he disgusted of me like so many others I had come across? Sure the mutant community was treated better now since one of our own saved the president, but there were still those few who grouped together out of fear and hate. The Friends of Humanity still existed and the Mutant Response Division, though now with the purpose of containing violence both against and because of mutants.

It was then that his words truly registered in my brain...no...no...nonononono, this could not me happening, not now of all times, not when I had finally excepted being alone for the rest of my unnaturally long life. Why? Why now and why him? I took this time to better observe him more closely. He was tall and muscled that much I could tell even as he crouched in the dirt. His hair was a dirty blonde that was lighter on top where it was longer and parted to the left and darker on the sides and I'd guess the back where it was shorter. His eyes are what threw me though. They were a pure, rich blue, the like I had never seen before, but what was in them is what threw me the most. Shock. Kindness. Compassion. Concern. Worry. Hope. He had a strong heart and I could practically see it shining in his eyes. Who the heck was this guy?

Before I could give voice to the question burning in my mind my sensitive ears picked up their voices. Angry, evil voices, the ones that would haunt my nightmares just as everything else in my childhood did. The Friends of Humanity had found us.