Chapter Text
Triad
Chapter 3: Fulfilled
Natasha watched as the elevator doors opened to reveal the Winter Soldier, a young brunette clinging to his back, and a huge smile on his face. The girl had her arms wrapped around his neck, her face pressed up against his as she whispered conspiratorially to him, kicking her legs like she was spurring a horse. As she watched, Bucky reached back and pinched the girl, pulling giggles from her, and a kiss on the cheek.
“Onward,” Darcy called, pointing forward across the room towards the kitchen.
“She’s a firecracker,” Clint whispered against Natasha’s skin as they both watched. “That little girl has both the Supers wrapped around her little finger.”
“Yeah,” Natasha smirked, tipping Clint’s chin upward. Looking at the blossoming bruises on his neck. “Looks like the Soldier had you wrapped up in something, too.”
“He was not happy to find me in his little sister’s apartment,” he shrugged. “Our misunderstanding has been corrected.”
“Right, like he’s just going to let that go, you have a dick my friend, and he’s not going to be particularly happy when you start sharing it with his baby sister, soul mate or not,” she lifted her eyebrow at him and continued to watch the girl in question.
“He shared his with you,” Clint countered, returning her raised brow. “You don’t see me getting all uppity about it.”
“That was thirty years ago, dear boy,” Natasha told him, watching as Darcy pour herself a cup of coffee while still riding the Soldier’s back. “The rest of the team speaks very highly of her,” she said, changing the subject. She didn’t like thinking about her time in the Red Room, even if it was Bucky they were discussing.
“She’s pretty great,” Clint agreed. By now, Bucky had dropped the giggling Darcy on the kitchen counter, only to have her jump down and tackle the Captain, who let her take him down to the ground. Steve waited until Darcy was crowing in victory before attacking the girl’s middle, electing shrieks of laughter from her. Natasha had never seen such joy on her friend’s face, save when he was looking at Bucky, his soulmate, when he thought no one else was looking. “You ready to meet her?”
“Is it okay if I say no?” Natasha couldn’t wait to have their third join them and complete their home, but there was a deep well of apprehension that bubbled in her gut, telling her that she and Clint didn’t deserve to have this girl, that her past was too red for this innocent person to ever want her. “I think I’ll just watch for a while longer.”
“Darcy’s gonna love you, Nat,” he brushed a kiss against his partner’s temple. “Just wait.” He dropped down from their perch and strode into the kitchen like he hadn’t just jumped from the second floor balcony.
“Clint,” Darcy giggled from where she was being held down on the floor by Bucky, so Steve could continue his tickle assault. “Don’t just stand there, help me.” She shrieked with laughter as the Captain renewed his assault. “Dude, Steve if you don’t stop I’m going to pee,” she said between giggles.
“You know the rules, baby girl,” Steve grinned, sitting back on his heels where he was straddling her legs. “You find your soul mate, you call.”
“Oh, come one,” she tried to pull her hands out of Bucky’s vice like grip, only to give up almost immediately. “You were on mission. Rules state that there is to be no civilian communications, except in life or death circumstances.”
“It’s an unwritten acceptation,” Bucky grumbled, looking upside down at his little sister, keeping his weight off of where he had her wrists together.
“I call bullshit, Bucky Barnes,” Darcy bucked under Steve, trying to dislodge him. “Off now,” she gave the soldiers her best puppy dog eyes. “I promise I’ll tell you right away when I meet my other soulmate.”
“Promise, doll?” Steve asked, holding out his pinky. She laughed at how ridiculous he looked. “Pinky promise?”
“Big words, soldier boy,” she pulled her arms from Bucky’s grip and linked her pinky to the Captain’s. “Pinky promise, now get up. Clint you weren’t much help.”
Clint watched from his perch on the back of the couch. “Sorry, darling,” he smiled brilliantly down at his soul mate. “You looked like you had things handled all on your own.”
She shrugged as she accepted Bucky’s hand up. “I am a self-rescuing princess,” Darcy pushed Clint off the back of the couch, grabbing his coffee cup before he went down. “But it’s polite to help a damsel in distress, regardless.”
Clint let Steve relieve Darcy of the hot beverage before he reached up and pulled her down on top of himself, rolling her under him. “How can I ever repay you, darling,” he whispered in her ear, caging her under his body.
“I don’t know,” she pouted, batting her eyelashes up at him. “You left me at the mercy of the fearsome Winter Soldier and his dastardly cohort, Captain America,” she wiggled a little and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It was quite an egregious crime.”
“Then I will have to be punished,” he played along. “I am ready to receive my sentence.”
“Hold that thought, cowboy,” Darcy smiled softly and pulled him down against her. “I didn’t get a proper good morning kiss, either.”
“That I can easily rectify,” Clint leaned in and captured her lips with his. They’d only known each other three days and already he felt more complete, if only he could coax his Widow down to join them.
*****
Natasha watched as Darcy and Clint shared easy touches and sweet kisses. She waited for the hot flair of jealousy she always experienced when she and her mate were out on an assignment that required him to touch another woman, but in its place was a deep longing to join them, to let that girl wrap her up in her arms and kiss her the way Darcy was kissing Clint.
“She can’t wait to meet you,” Bucky dropped down next to Natasha. “Darcy told me about her marks after she saw mine. She was so excited to find the people whose words she carried. She came up with hundreds of scenarios. I’m sure they were nothing like reality, but she wants to have you down there, she wants to be a part of what you and Clint have, and have you share in what she and Clint are growing.”
“Did you know?” the Widow asked, watching as Clint dropped his arm over Darcy as they sat on the couch together. The younger girl flipped through the channels until she found something she liked, sipping on Clint’s coffee. The archer just watched her with a small smile on his face.
“Not for sure,” Bucky shrugged. “It’d been so long since you and I were together, though it might be wishful thinking.”
“Why would you want that innocent girl to be settled with me as a soul mate, Yasha?” she looked down at her hands like she could actually see the carnage they had wrought.
“Because you deserve to be loved, Natalia,” Bucky told her, dropping an arm over her shoulder and giving her a friendly squeeze before releasing her again.
“Clint loves me,” Natasha countered.
“And now, so will Darcy,” he gave her a small smile and leaned his arms against the railing. “You just have to let her.”
“I don’t deserve it,” she shook her head.
“The universe disagrees, vdova,” Bucky stood and placed a hand on his old student’s shoulder. “You’ve got one of the best people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing as a soul mate. You take care of her, or I just may have to forget how much I love you.”
*****
Natasha waited until Darcy was alone in the kitchen, adding a giant bag of chocolate chips to an equally large batch of cookie batter. The girl was so focused on her task; she didn’t even notice the spy slipping behind her, even though Nat wasn’t trying. “He certainly wasn’t lying,” Natasha said quietly, watching the girl startle a bit spilling some of the chips on the counter.
“Lying about what?” Darcy turned, feeling the words on her right hip flair to life.
“You don’t worry about it,” the Widow said, watching her scoop up the fallen chocolate and add it to the dough. Darcy gave her a quizzical look. “The blood we’ve shed, the lived we’ve lived. You treat Bucky like anyone else, Clint too.”
“Not like anyone else,” the younger woman corrected. “I love Bucky, and I’m learning to love Clint. And I mostly listened to Steve when the three of us started spending time together,” she started the mixer and crawled up onto one of the kitchen stools. “I paid attention to Bucky’s triggers at the beginning. We’ve moved past that, though. I trust him and he trusts me.”
“But,” Natasha searched for what she wanted to say, perching herself on the stool next to her new soul mate. “You’re not scared.”
“Nope,” Darcy reached out to take Nat’s hand, slowly as the other woman looked leery. “Your past doesn’t define you, I’ve never believed that. I’ve read the file on the Winter Soldier, Steve made me when it was clear we were getting close. But that man I read about, that’s not my Bucky, my brother wasn’t in control when he did all those things. He maybe powerful and capable of horrible things, but under all that, he’s a good, kind man, who loves me.”
“I’m not good like that,” Natasha looked away, starting to pull her hand back, Darcy just held tighter.
“Whoever told you that, lied to you,” the girl told her, absolutely seriously.
“I told me.”
“Bullshit,” Darcy pulled them both off the stools and grabbed a couple of spoons. “Batter’s ready.” She smacked a spoon into Natasha’s open palm. “You get to help me make cookies.”
“I’m not much of a baker,” Natasha protested, looking down at the spoon.
“No baking required, babe,” her mate laughed. “Just put the batter on the cookie sheet. Ever make chocolate chip cookies before?”
“Can’t say I have,” the Widow dipped her spoon in the sticky dough, watching it coat the metal then cling as she pulled the spoon back. “I don’t know if this is a great idea.” Darcy showed the woman how to drop the dough onto the ready sheets, her arms around Natasha’s waist, carefully taking her hands and pushing the tacky cookie mix off the spoon. Nat finally began to relax back into Darcy’s arms, earning her a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m not going to run away,” Darcy told her after they’d dropped the last of the dough onto the cookie sheets. She turned Nat to look at her and tucked a loose strand of red hair behind the Widow’s ear. “I’m yours, long as you want me. Long as you and Clint can stand it.”
Natasha ducked down and captured the girl’s lips with her own. “I’d like that.”
*****
Darcy watched as Clint and Natasha clambered around their kitchen, checking and rechecking the cookbook as they assembled ingredients for their annual Soulmate Day Chocolate Chip Cookies. “You know, I can help you,” Darcy called from her place on the couch, her feet up in Bucky’s lap, while the soldier leaned against Steve.
“Nope,” Clint told her waving a wooden spoon in her direction, leaving absolutely no room for argument. “You are in no condition to be helping us do anything.”
Darcy rolled her eyes and looked down at her swollen belly. “I’m pregnant, not broken.”
“You are eight and a half months pregnant with twins, sweetheart,” Natasha dumped the giant sized bag of chocolate chips in the mixer, just like she’d seen Darcy do countless times over the past few years.
“Yeah, darling,” Clint swung out of the kitchen to kiss his soul mate gently and lay his hands on her stomach to try and catch their babies moving. “You jiggle around too much; those puppies are bound to pop right out.” Darcy tolled her eyes again.
“I don’t think it works that way, Clint,” Bucky used his metal thumb to rub into the swollen instep of one of Darcy’s feet.
“No,” Darcy lay back, putting her hands over Clint’s. “Bruce said the little ones haven’t even turned yet, and no amount of jiggling will make them fall out. We did plenty of jiggling last night, you didn’t seem worried then.”
“Shut up.”
“Just let us take care of you, malenkiy lyubvi,” Natasha dropped down on her opposite side. “It’s our turn.”
Darcy just nodded and leaned hear head on Natasha’s shoulder. “I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetheart,” the Widow kissed the crown of her soul mate’s head, and linked fingers Clint’s where they still lay against Darcy’s belly. Life couldn’t be better. The oven beeped, letting them know it was ready for the cookies that Natasha had expertly dropped onto the cookie sheets.
“I’ll get it,” Bucky pulled away from Steve and put the cookies into the oven as Lucky watched from his doggie bed. If Bucky dropped a bit of sugar cookie dough, his personal favorite, to the dog, he’d never tell.