Captain America's Soulmate Ch. 03

Authors Note: I am well aware it has been over a year and all I can say is life is a bitch, oh and writing is hard. But I am back and these boys deserve a completer story. As always drop a comment they make my day!!

I also changed the ending of the last chapter which is now at the beginning of this chapter:

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This cold disdain felt so much worse, it was like Jamie wasn't worth the energy it took to get mad, he was so beneath the Captain that he was like an ant that you didn't even bother to step on.

He wanted to matter. But it looked like his suspicions were right and he would never matter to man like Steve.

Jamie dug his phone out from his bed covers and dialed a familiar number. She picked up on the first wring.

*********************

Steve wandered the streets of Brooklyn. His bare feet padded across the ground as he paced the familiar streets with few familiar buildings. His mind wandered as he walked, not feeling the chill in the air due to his super well everything. He thought about his name and how it had looked so familiar and right on Jamie's skin and yet when he had met the boy's eyes, all he saw was a stranger.

He thought about his mother and what she would say if he brought home a man as his soulmate. What would she have said? How would she have reacted? Would she have welcomed something so unconventional? Something so....wrong?

Not that it was wrong now, but well not based on what the law said. But what about what the Catholic Church said. It was a sin, but like before he thought of all the lives he had taken in WWII fighting for his country. Wasn't that ok in the eye of the law but wrong by the standards of the Bible?

Steve dragged his fingers through his hair, tugging on it in uncertainty. He found his feet slowing and stopping in front of an unfamiliar building. He looked around and realized he recognized an old dilapidated building on the corner of the street that had been brand new 80 years ago. His eyes refocused in front of him. This is where he had used to live for the first 16 years of his life.

He examined the building that had replaced the old one which had been a serious fire hazard. It was taller than the last one that had stood here. He check the alleyway beside it and saw a fire escape he could easily jump up to and climb to the top of the building.

He did so with ease. His bare feet probably received even more damage but he was too distracted to care let alone feel any damage.

Upon reaching the top, Steve could see a lightening of the haze that covered the skyline of New York which he was in the midst of.

His body clock naturally calculated the time telling him it was just past 6 in the morning. He had been walking around Brooklyn aimlessly for the last 7 hours.

The super soldier sighed and flopped spread eagle on his back onto the ground staring up at the dark grey sky above him.

He closed his eyes and immediately Jamie filled his dark vision. The picture of that face and all the expressions he had seen on it thus far.

It was so strange to have someone fill up his brain in such an all-encompassing way. Since the serum, his brain was always doing at least two things at once, but now all that filled his mind was that face.

As he flipped through all of Jamie's expressions he realized something kind of odd. None of them seemed positive. They were all negative or neutral expressions. You would think that when you looked at whoever your soulmate was you would be filled with positive emotions, or at least that's how Steve always thought it would be when/if he found his.

It could still always be a fake.... But no that didn't seem right. There was an instinctual feeling in his gut of wrongness when he tried to picture someone else with his name on their skin. This was all such a fucking mess.

The super soldier rubbed at his eyes. Nothing about this made sense. There were so many questions without answers like why had Jamie kept it hidden? why hadn't he registered? When did he get his soul mark? Was he just human or something more? Why didn't he tell Steve? You would think the first thing you would do if not register was to find and tell your soulmate especially if they were famous.

But the super-soldier guessed it would have been a bad idea if a strange man just walked up to Avenger's tower and stated that he was Captain America's soul mate. The questions, the speculations, they wouldn't have believed him until several different tests were done and Jamie would probably be trapped on the shield hellacarrier's hulk containment unit or worse while they sorted it out.

But then why not approach him after he was an intern. He was very good friends with Lucy why not tell her and then tell him? Maybe Jamie had been waiting to tell him and he spoiled the surprise?

Ugh, this was getting him nowhere but a headache.

Steve opened his eyes and stared at the sky, noticing immediately that it had lightened significantly.

He needed to get back to Avengers Tower. He had no phone, no weapons and even more damming no shirt or shoes. Just a pair of thin sleep pants. He couldn't solve anything looking like this, and he wasn't in the mood for Tony or Bucky to overreact and send out a search party for him.

Steve was not in the mood to run back to the tower so he meandered back lazily, not caring as people stared at the buff, crazy, person. He was an odd sight even for a seasoned New Yorker.

It was almost 10 in the morning by the time the elevator door of avengers tower opened onto the hallway leading to his quarters. If he had been thinking straight, or even being slightly cognizant of his surroundings and not currently caught in a fog he would have seen it coming.

But the slap that cut across his left cheek took him completely by surprise and his whole head cracked to the side. The rest of him didn't move because, super soldier, but still, the shock left him stunned and only able to blink as his eyes focused on the petite and utterly furious form of Lucy standing in front of him.

"How dare you?! How fucking dare you!" Lucy's voice shook with pure rage.

Steve hadn't seen her this angry since Bucky got himself captured and she threatened to shoot the poor man. But even then her voice had never sounded so cold.

"You come back here like nothing even happened. You should be on your fucking knees and begging for forgiveness. You made him cry."

Steve was slow on the uptake after the roller coaster of emotions he had been through tonight but even he could figure out what Lucy was talking about.

Anger started to simmer in Steve's blood. He went to walk past Lucy but she blocked his path and went to strike him again. The super soldier caught her wrist in an implacable grip, not enough to bruise but it was a close thing.

Lucy didn't try to rescue her wrist, she was smart enough to not try and fight a super soldier but her words were her best weapon anyway.

"You know I thought you were great when I was a kid, and then I met you and I just thought he's a little old-fashioned sure but he still represents the purest aspect of what it means to be a national hero. Fighting for all and that shit. But now I know the truth, you are just another homophobic asshole like all the rest. You don't deserve him and never will." She hissed at him the venom coating his skin.

Steve's face remained stone but his heart cracked under the pressure. Her words hit closer to home than he was willing to admit.

The super soldier used his grip on Lucy's wrist to twist her around and shove her away from him so she stumbled before catching herself. By the time she had her balance back he was already gone and in the safety of his apartment.

"Jarvis lock the door. No visitors or disturbances unless the earth is imminently about to be destroyed. I don't care what it is, I don't want to hear it."

There was a pause before Jarvis replied with a shorter than usual "yes, captain."

Steve frowned at the ceiling and then decided fuck it, he didn't care right now.

Steve stepped into his bedroom and headed straight for the shower. He stripped and turned the water on and immediately stepped under the raging spray.

He wondered briefly if it was possible for him to drown in a shower, probably not, though it would get rid of this blasted headache.

Ah well, he should probably think of a game plan on how to deal with this. Alright, first damage control. Jamie would obviously need to be moved into the tower for his own safety, which means he would have to talk to Tony, great. That would be a fun conversation. Another thing he probably needed to do was get some more sleep because of his injuries, and the stressful evening was getting to him. He would start with sleep then go to Tony fresh and prepared.

With decisions made Steve washed his hair and scrubbed himself down. He stopped when he noticed something wrapped around one of his feet. He crouched and examined it, it was the bandage that Jamie has so carefully wrapped around his injured foot that had healed within an hour of the glass being removed.

Steve's stomach made an unexpected swooping sensation that he had rarely ever felt before. It was definitely an unexpected reaction, but it was nice, someone taking care of him like that. Everyone around him just assumed he would heal quickly so why bandage such a small wound. And yet a regular citizen, who even though he was his soulmate didn't seem to have positive emotions for him, decided to take the time.

It was a rather pleasant moment that now that he thought about it, caused not only his stomach to swoop again but his heart to feel...almost fluttery.

The super soldier shook off the restless feelings and carefully unwrapped the bandaging. He turned off the shower and set the wet bandaging on the counter next to the sink. He scrubbed his hair and body down with a towel before wrapping it around his hips and crashing face-first down on his bed.

*********

Steve snorted his way back to the land of the living. He jerked himself up and stared down at the wet drool stain that covered part of his pillow.

"Jarvis." the super-soldier croaked out.

A pause before the usual response: "Yes, captain?"

"Wha'time is it?"

"3:00 o'clock in the afternoon"

"That's not horrible usually I sleep longer than just 4 hour-" Steve's speech was interrupted by a giant yawn that caused his jaw to crack."

"Captain, I believe it is necessary to inform you that you have been asleep for 28 hours and Sir, has asked me to inform you that you are being a homophobic piece of shit, and need to get your shit together and join the 21st century otherwise Sir will kick you out of his tower and kick you out of the Avengers because he funds them. He will also inform the world what a horrible person you are."

Steve groaned and collapsed back onto the bed, landing in the wet spot on his pillow. Another groan and he rolled onto his back and scrubbed at his eyes, removing the grit.

"Please inform Tony that I am not homophobic, just confused. And this is a personal matter between me and my soulmate, not something that involves the rest of the avengers."

"Sir has asked me to inform you you're still a piece of shit and next time you cause him to lose an employee, he will take the amount of that loss out of your wages."

Steve was halfway to the bathroom before he stopped midstep. "What do you mean by lost an employee? Isn't Jamie down in the mailroom like he always is?"

"I have been requested by sir to not give you details on Jamie's location, however, I can confirm he is no longer an employee here. He resigned yesterday morning."

"What! Resigned?! Jarvis, what the hell are you talking about?" Steve was staring at the ceiling, unable to do much else, as he tried to process what he just heard.

"If you would like more information I must insist you talk to sir."

Steve, used the facilities quickly, but not so quick to forget brushing his teeth, he tugged on sweats and made his way out of his apartment and elevator. Determined to track down Tony and figure out what the hell happened over the last 40 hours.

*********

33 1/2 hours earlier (yes I did the math)

Jamie leaned exhausted against the elevator, clutching his carry on to his chest.

It was 5:43 in the morning. Less than 7 hours ago he was in his apartment in Brooklyn and now he was in an elevator in Atlanta Georgia about to meet apparent mob bosses that were "super nice"? Lucy's words not his own. Granted Lucy was pretty good at judging people, it wasn't her fault that Steve had tricked the world.

Jamie was too tired to even care about the two giant men that also stood in the elevator with him, stoic faces watching the numbers creep higher as the room rose.

The lift dinged and the doors slid open revealing a hallway with a door on the other end also guarded.

One of the men stayed in the elevator while the other led Jamie down the hallway. The two guards by what was hopefully the final door parted to allow Jamie's main guide to knock briskly.

It took about half a minute before the door swung open and Jamie met what he presumed was the tiger lady in the flesh.

Even with his exhaustion, Jamie wasn't one to forget his manners. He stuck his hand out. "Mrs. Petrov, thank you so much for your help, I can't tell you what it means to me."

The grey-haired woman let out a tinkling laugh and took the boy's hand, tugging him into the apartment.

"It is no trouble sweet boy, any honorary family member of Lucy's is family to us as well."

Jamie stumbled after the woman and into the penthouse apartment.

"I'm sure you must be starving, you have had quite a long night with all of the travelings. Come sit, I'll prepare you a plate." Mrs. Petrov spoke as she let go of Jamie's hand and instead guided the lanky man by his shoulder to a seat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Jamie felt slightly dazed as he sat and watched as the older woman flitted around the kitchen with such unexpected grace for her age.

"Now I'm sure you must not be only physically exhausted but also emotionally, Lucy didn't give me many details but enough to understand that your soulmate acted quite rude and in her words very homophobic."

The man could only shrug in response. "It's all kind of a blur."

"Of course it would be. Traumatic events usually are."

Jamie let out a sigh and rested his arms on the counter placing his chin on top of them. "I guess the whole situation just took me by surprise. I was never gonna tell him ya know."

Katerina hmmmd but didn't make another sound waiting.

Jamie filled the silence. "He's Captain America. He's supposed to be this Hererosexual perfect human, I didn't want to ruin that for the world."

A pause.

"And we would never be left alone. There would be so much controversy. I don't want to be a political statement. I just want to be me."

Another pause.

"And now look what happened. I did everything I could not to cause this to happen and yet it still did. He was never supposed to know, just continue to live his life in straight bliss."

Yet another pause.

"I don't even fucking know how he found out, I was so careful. No one saw the mark ever. I never told anyone. It was a secret. And the look on his face when he left. It was blank like I didn't even exist."

Katerina patted his shoulder in sympathy as she set a plate of eggs and sausage links in front of Jamie.

"I guess it's better this way," the boy said as he stabbed a sausage link aggressively with the fork Katerina had handed him. "Now I know, and I don't have to keep wondering what if for the rest of my life. I can move on."

Jamie ignored the silent tear that fell down his cheek followed by another and another.

"Now now, none of these," Katerina spoke swooping in and using a tissue to wipe the tears off of the boy's cheeks. "Crying can be healing but I'm sure you've done enough crying for one night already."

The woman's soothing Russian accent washed over Jamie as he sniffed back the rest of the tears that hadn't fallen yet.

"What you need is to finish your breakfast, a nice hot bath, and a good nap. Then you can decide what to do. Now eat Zolotoy, all will be fine."

Jamie did as told, finishing the meal in front of him, drank the tall glass of water that Katerina pressed into his hands for hydration, and allowed himself to be guided to a lavish bathroom where he soaked in a claw foot tub.

His eyes drooped as the hot water surrounded him in warmth. It felt good. This not having to stress about next steps for a little bit. Eventually, he would need to figure out where he was going and what to do when he got there, but that was future Jamie's problem.

Present Jamie only needed to focus on how pruney he wanted to get.

*********

Jamie yawned and stretched his way to wakefulness in a mountain of pillows. He blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling. He felt well-rested considering all that had happened in the last 24 hours. Katerina really was a genius.

The lanky figure pushed himself and rubbed at his eyes. He slid out of the bed and stumbled slightly on his way to the attached bathroom.

Shivering slightly in just his boxers, the boy splashed water on his face, to get rid of any lingering fog from his nap.

As Jamie stared at himself in the mirror in front of him, his eyes were drawn to the shadow of dark ink that was playing peekaboo with his boxers on his right hip. He didn't often look at his soul mark. It was a reminder of the painful truth that he would never get that happily ever after ending. And even now it still hurt but Jamie couldn't help but reach down and push his boxers out of the way to fully examine the black letters.

The slanted cursive script was elegant and almost delicate-looking, it wasn't quite old-fashioned but had more of a timeless feel to it.

It was amazing how different the styles of soul marks could be. A lot of research has been done on the different "fonts" used and languages. Even those that didn't have a written form of language had soul marks that were made up of images or pictures.

Mostly the literature on soulmates agreed that there was really no explanation for such the wide range in differences and the fact that the style for each soul mark was unique was just part of the "magic" that was a soul mate bond.

Magic, Jamie scoffed. yea right, more like a curse. That didn't stop him from tracing each letter.

The boy's heart ached. How could this whole thing hurt so much, he barely knew the man, and besides that, no one should hold this much power over him. He needed to move on.

Jamie nodded at himself in the mirror and headed back into the bedroom. He ruffled through his duffel bag and pulled out a pair of skinny jeans that made him feel attractive and a shirt with a pun on it.

After donning the outfit, Jamie felt ready to face the day. He walked out of his room.

He didn't mean to be sneaky but he was light-footed which is the only thing he could blame for accidentally listening in to a conversation he really shouldn't have heard.

Katerina was on the phone, he could see her back as she fiddled with something on the stove.

The woman was hmming and nodding along to whatever the person on the phone was saying before responding.

"Oh Lucy, did you really slap him? Not that I don't applaud you for standing up for the poor dear but this situation may be more complex than it appears."

Katerina again went silent as she listened to Lucy speak.

"I agree that he shouldn't have done what he did, but you can't deny that you and Bucky had your own struggles."

Another pause to listen. "Of course I will take care of him. Space sounds like exactly what he needs and if he decides to return or not that will be his choice. The only thing you can do is to continue to be there and support him."