"I forgive you."
...
"I killed your parents."
-T/B-
Tony rubbed his left wrist before rolling the sleeve down over it. "I killed your parents". Of course the universe would designate his soulmate as a murderer. Just his fucking luck. Eighteen years old, and already fucked up beyond repair.
-T/B-
The Soldier stared at his right wrist. He did not understand the words written there. "I forgive you." Before he could contemplate this more, the Soldier was frozen once more.
-T/B-
After everything with Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and all the bullshit with nearly dying so many times, Tony is so done with the universe. Although most everyone that had a soulmate spent much of their lives searching for their supposed other-half, Tony didn't even bother trying. His parents died in a car crash when he was sixteen, only for him to find out a year and a half later that they were, in fact, murdered. His mother's murderer was his soulmate. How could he ever forgive something like that; love someone who took one of the only people who ever understood him? He hid himself from love, only indulging in physical pleasures. It was lonely, but it was better than the alternative.
Then Steve told him about the Winter Soldier.
About Bucky Barnes.
And Tony knew he was wrong this whole time.
-T/B-
About a year after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., James returned to his birthplace. It wasn't hard to convince Stark's AI to let him into the Tower. His arm had been irreparably damaged when helping two children escape from H.Y.D.R.A.'s base in Sokovia, having only remembered them a few months prior. He waited in Stark's lab, hoping the genius wouldn't call Steve once he saw the other.
After nearly an hour of waiting, Stark finally entered his lab. He paused when he caught sight of Bucky, but didn't say anything. He only raised an eyebrow in question.
James lifted his arm in response, unable to speak. Stark hummed, walking over to his new "patient". He studied James' arm for what felt like an eternity (when only two minutes had passed) before grabbing a tablet, typing at rapid speed that even James' trained senses couldn't keep up.
It was quiet for a long time, Stark calculating while James watched him. A memory came back to him at Stark's furrowed brow. Of watching Howard and Maria's still-warm corpses as they sat lifeless in their car. James blinked back the tears, looking at Tony. "I killed your parents," he rasped. His first words in months, and they had to be those.
Tony raised his eyes. They weren't shocked, or mad. They were a serene brown compared to the blue storms on James' face. Like he already knew what the Winter Soldier had done. "I forgive you," was all Tony said, causing James' breath to catch in his throat. He looked down at his right wrist to make sure his words weren't showing, causing Tony to chuckle. "You wouldn't believe how much I hated you decades ago. Then when Cap told me that you survived and were made to be the Winter Soldier, well... it doesn't take a genius like me to put two and two together."
"I'm so sorry," James whispered, his eyes flitting between his wrist and Tony.
The genius shrugged. "It's not your fault. It's HYDRA's. And I will happily burn them to the ground to avenge my mother." He averted his eyes back to the tablet. "So, about your arm..." As Tony babbled on and on about his new arm and its adjustments, James felt himself blush at the spark of life in brown eyes. He didn't know what was going on, but all he could feel right now was something he hadn't felt since before the war: hope.
