Notes: Soulmate AU where everyone is born with the first Words that their Soulmate will speak to them tattooed on their body. It is considered very taboo to show these Words to anyone else, but if you do, it is a uniquely strong sign of trust and friendship.

Also, Avengers AU since the pairing for this one is Steve/Peggy, and Peggy is alive in present day. I'm just a sucker for Steve/Peggy feels!

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Word was spreading through SHIELD HQ like wildfire. She was here. The Agent. To the outside world, she didn't exist anymore. She had left her stamp on history and then had quietly faded from the spotlight until most people assumed she had died at some point. To those in the know, to those who were a part of SHIELD, she was both a legend and a rumor. Only those with the highest level of clearance learned the truth about her, let alone got to work with her. Yet here she was, storming down the halls in plain sight. And anyone who even only knew the barest of SHIELD's history knew who she was: Agent Margaret Carter.

"Agent Hill," the Agent said smoothly as she exited the lift that had brought her to this particular floor.

"Agent," Agent Hill responded, nodding in greeting. "Look, before you -"

"Agent Hill, I have no grief with you, and I would prefer to keep it that way. Is the Director in, or not?" the Agent said as she crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow ever so slightly.

Agent Hill closed her eyes briefly, as though praying for something, before responding, "He's in."

"Excellent," the Agent said before striding forwards into the office of one Nick Furry. The man in question had his back to her, gazing out at the city through one of the many floor to ceiling windows. On his desk, front page news, was the very thing that had brought her to New York all the way from London. Avengers Save New York: Alien Threat Defeated the headline screamed.

"Now, Peggy, before you start," Furry said, not turning to face her yet.

"Don't you 'Peggy' me, Nicholas!" Peggy spat, slamming her hands down on his desk. The man didn't even flinch, curse him. "One week! One week I've been back from my deep-cover ops, and then this was yesterday's breaking news. But then imagine my surprise when I find out that he's actually been here, under your roof, long before this Chitauri invasion! You damn well better have-"

"Who told you?" Furry interrupted.

Peggy glared at him, and wished for the umpteenth time that she had one of Tony's Iron Man gauntlets so that she could properly bash the man in front of her. "That's not the bloody point! I should have been told. You should have told me! The moment you found him...I could have been on a Quinjet in seconds. I should have been there when he woke up; I could have helped him adjust. I, of all people-"

"That's exactly why I did not tell you," the Director interjected, finally turning to face her. Whatever he was feeling about his lies being exposed, he kept it well hidden. "Captain Rogers had enough to adjust to after waking up. He needed to learn about certain things in their own time. Getting used to this new time has been hard enough."

"He's not an idiot!" Peggy snapped.

"I'm well aware of that. But he needed time to focus. Having you with him would only have been a distraction."

" 'A distraction'?! Is that all I am now? Sorry, I thought I was someone you actually trusted."

"I do trust you," Furry said, slightly softer than before. "What I meant was that it would have been a distraction for both of you."

"I know how to do my job! That doesn't change the fact that you should have told me!"

Furry merely spread his hands in a wordless apology, and she knew it would be the only form of apology she would get from him, the bloody idiot.

"Where is he?"

"At what Stark has dubbed the Avengers Tower. Though I won't pretend to think that you didn't already have that information," Furry said evenly.

"You made me head of the London branch for a reason," Peggy smart-mouthed back, "which has been left in capable hands, in case you were wondering. You know where I'll be if you need me," she added, emphasizing the 'if'. And with that she strode from his office and back into the lift, only punching the button for the ground floor a little harder than necessary.

She didn't even break her stride when she found a familiar red-head lounging against her car outside of HQ. "I'm surprised you didn't break into my car to wait for me in the back seat."

Natasha shrugged. "It seemed too cliche."

Peggy merely rolled her eyes as she unlocked the front doors so both women could slide easily into the vehicle. But it wasn't until they had been driving for close to fifteen minutes that she finally spoke again. "How is he?"

"Doing well, all things considered," Natasha reported. "He's been doing a lot of research on the things he has missed."

"And he's actually getting along with Tony?"

Natasha smirked. "Well, we all managed to save New York together. He's really okay, Peg. He mostly kept to himself in those first few weeks, but now, after New York and realizing he has a spot on a team again, he's better."

Peggy frowned as she took that information in, her emotions not preventing her from expertly maneuvering the car through New York City traffic. She gripped the steering wheel tightly as she finally asked, "Has he asked about me?"

"That was his very first question when he was being shown how to work our archiving system," the Black Widow reported. "He's also done research on SoulMarks."

Peggy didn't comment on the fact that they were monitoring his web searches. "And...does he…" she heaved a sigh. 70 years later and the man still had her fumbling for words! "He didn't have a SoulMark before; he was one of those who was born without one, just like I was. Since he's woken up...does he have a SoulMark?"

Natasha's gaze quickly wandered over to Peggy's right shoulder blade, where she knew her mentor's Words were inscribed. But she knew, unlike others, that Peggy's Words had only appeared after Captain America had been presumed dead.

"We don't know if he has a SoulMark," the red-head finally said. "Coulson was a huge proponent of his privacy in that regards when we were thawing him out and then waiting for him to wake-up. After that, the Captain was just as secretive. If he has one now, it isn't anywhere freely visible." She glanced over at Peggy again, noting how tightly she was still gripping the steering wheel. "Are you hoping…?"

"All I want right now is to see my old friend. Anything that does or doesn't happen after that will be handled," Peggy said briskly as they finally pulled up to the Avengers Tower.

Taking Natasha up on her offer to deal with the car, Peggy strode straight through the front doors, not even bothering to greet the secretaries inside. Once safely inside the lift, she called out, "Mr. JARVIS?" Nothing would ever stop her from referring to the AI as such.

"Agent Carter, welcome back. Would you like me to inform Mr. Stark of your arrival?" the AI greeted.

"No, actually. I need to know where Captain Rogers is, please."

"Captain Rogers is in the common room," JARVIS said as the lift started moving upwards.

"Wonderful. And...give us some privacy, please Mr. JARVIS," Peggy requested softly. "Agent override order eight."

"As you wish, Agent Carter," JARVIS responded just as the lift doors opened onto the common living area of the Tower.

Peggy nodded and smiled before exiting, taking a few deep, calming breaths. Looking around, she didn't see anyone else beside her in the room. Except, of course, for…

"Steve," she breathed out.

He was watching the news, his back to her, but his head was tilted slightly forward, as though maybe he was asleep. He certainly hadn't reacted to her arrival. Moving softly, she rounded the sofa, and there he was. After all these years.

He was indeed asleep, chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. Peggy latched onto that sight, committing it to memory. He was alive. He was alive and here, and all she had to do was just say something.

But she didn't, not right away. She drank in the sight of him: the way the light glinted in his hair, the way his eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks, the way his fingers twitched as he dreamt. It was truly a beautiful sight, made more so by the fact that she never thought she would see it.

She hadn't been lying when she had told Natasha that she didn't care what happened in regards to her (their?) SoulMarks. She hoped, God she hoped, but all she wanted right now was to speak to her old friend again. Soulmate or not, she was just thankful to have him back in her life. Whatever happened in the next few seconds, good or bad, she would deal with it as she had always dealt with things. Practically.

Not wanting to waste another moment, she quickly, and loudly, cleared her throat. She hoped it would be enough to wake him, and it turned out she wasn't wrong.

Steve's head jerked up, eye snapping open to scan his surroundings. They went first to the windows opposite of him, searching for signs of a threat. When they didn't find any, those familiar blue eyes finally landed on her, widening in surprise.

Peggy smiled her famous red smile as she placed hands on hips. "On your feet, my darling soldier." Okay, so maybe her hope was clouding her judgement just a little bit, but she couldn't bring herself to care just now. Not when Steve was looking at her like that.

He surged to his feet, and then forward a few steps. His hands reached for her, but stopped, hovering just a few inches away from her waist. He searched her face for something, while Peggy was able to see so many emotions flit across his. "Are you real?" he croaked out.

The Words on her shoulder blade seemed to burn after he spoke, and if Peggy was tearing up, she didn't care. Not when she now had an extra reason to be so very happy.

"I'm real," she assured him as she reached up to cup his face in her hands. "I'm real, you're alive...this is all really happening."

"Peggy," he whispered before enveloping her in his arms, a hoarse laugh escaping him as he did so.

Peggy slid her hands from his face to wrap around his neck. "Steve, my darling." And then they were both crying, both repeating each other's name over and over and over again, just checking to make sure it was all real.

When they finally parted, Steve unhesitatingly lifted up his shirt so that she could see the Words right over his heart. His eyes asked what he couldn't give voice to, so Peggy nodded before turning around and sliding her blouse down her arm just enough so that he could see her Words. His trembling fingers tracing over the Words, and his exhale of relief were the only confirmation that she needed. "When?"

"They were there when I woke up from the ice," Steve said softly, forcing himself to remove his hand so he could turn Peggy back around. So he could drink in the sight of her. "Yours?"

"I first noticed them about two months after your plane went down. I don't know how long they had been there for, but now I'm guessing that they appeared the moment of the crash."

"But how? We've met before; why would these be our SoulMarks and not what we first said to each other in the Army?"

Peggy shrugged. "We could always consult the experts, but my guess is that the Universe knew we weren't meant to be together during that time. You were meant to defeat the Red Skull and go down with that plane, and I was meant -"

"You!" Steve quickly interrupted, gripping her tightly by the shoulders. "Peggy, how are you here?! You haven't aged a day…?"

"Dr. Erskine's serum. Right before your test, he had give me an extra vial for safe keeping. I kept a hold of it, even after his death, not sure if one dose was enough to warrant the government trying to re-engineer it when one was all we had. But then after you disappeared...I went to Howard to see what we could do with it. Long story short, I ended up taking the serum, only it worked differently on me. I haven't aged since."

"I can't believe it," Steve whispered.

"Some days, neither can I," Peggy said, smiling up at him.

"So, wait, you've been here this whole time? No one said a word!" Steve said with a frown.

"Don't worry, Furry still has several more lashings to come for keeping us both in the dark," Peggy promised.

"And Stark?"

"I thought she knew."

Speak of the Devil. Peggy glanced behind Steve to see the younger Stark. Luckily, he looked ever-so-slightly embarrassed for interrupting.

"Sorry. I was just curious why JARVIS wasn't permitting anyone down here all of a sudden," the billionaire explained.

"So you thought you would just bypass the security lock-down? Didn't you check to see who had issued it?" Peggy asked.

"Ah, no. I was bored!" Tony protested.

"So go continue to be bored somewhere else, Stark," Steve suggested. "I have a 70 year old promise that I intend to collect on."

"Oh, and what is that?" Peggy asked, raising an eyebrow as she ignored the gagging sound Tony made as he left.

"We had a date, remember? Eight o'clock at the Stork Club," Steve reminded her. "Now, I know this isn't the Stork Club, but I intend to have that dance with my best girl." He held out his arms in an open invitation. "That is if she'll still show me how to dance."

"I thought you'd never ask," Peggy said, stepping easily into his arms. She marveled at how well they fit together.

"Hey JARVIS, play something slow for us, will you?" Steve murmured before leaning down and kissing Peggy properly.