Fic: for the first time in forever

Fandom: Marvel/DC (Crossover) | Relationship: Bucky Barnes/Cassandra Cain | Rated: T | On AO3 Here
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If anyone had asked, Bucky Barnes would have told them that he was certain he didn't have a living soulmate. Man out of time, what were the chances his soulmate was still out there? Steve had found his soulmate in the present day, and that was one-in-a-million enough to disqualify Bucky from any chance at all.

(According to Steve, it actually just reinforced that he was meant to end up here, so Bucky would clearly find his soulmate, too. Bucky thought that was too much bullshit optimism for him to even dignify with a response.)

If anyone had told the Bucky Barnes of his youth that he would meet his soulmate in New Jersey, he would have scoffed and said they were out of their minds.

If anyone had told the Bucky Barnes of now that he would meet his soulmate in Gotham, well... he'd still be convinced he didn't have a soulmate, but if he was going to find them, Gotham seemed like the right kind of place for that.

But no one had told Bucky he would be meeting his soulmate today, so he was stuck tagging along with Steve and his boyfriend to a carnival on the outskirts of Gotham, quickly getting lost in the crowd and not too put out about it. Bucky loved Steve, and he even liked the man's soulmate well enough, for all that their double sunshine-and-goodness could get exhausting in large doses. But getting lost in a crowd meant he didn't have to constantly be monitoring his expressions and micro-expressions, figuring out how he was supposed to respond to everything that happened, all the time.

He ended up in line for the Ferris wheel, head craned up to look toward the top with a small smile ghosting across his lips. He had good memories of wheels like this, of dates with lovely dames and of stolen kisses when they got stuck at the top, pretending that because no one could see them, no one knew what they were up to. It was the good kind of nostalgia, the kind that made him feel a little warm rather than aching.

When he got to the front of the line, a bored attendant waved him into a seat, and then waved the person after him forward as well.

She shook her head.

The attendant sighed, more put-upon than he gesture really merited, in Bucky's opinion. Sure, it was probably annoying to be working a low-paying job while everyone else was having fun and trying to break the rules, but that wasn't this lady's fault. "At least two to every car," they rattled off. "And you're both singles, yeah?"

Bucky didn't quite understand what his being single had to do with anything, and the woman glanced at him, grinned a little, and then turned back to the attendant. "Okay," she agreed, passing him her ticket for the ride and climbing gracefully in across from Bucky.

He steeled himself to make awkward-but-polite conversation, but she only gave him one more quick smile before turning her gaze to the side, watching as the wheel lurched and they began rising, slow and steady, up and away from the ground. Bucky watched her for only a moment longer, before he turned his gaze outward and watched the carnival grow more distant below them.

The ride intermittently lurched to a stop, paused for a bit, and then lurched to a start once more. Bucky began to relax in the peace of being so far away from all of the noise, in the ease of quiet company without the expectation of conversation.

When the ride stopped for them to climb out, Bucky got his feet back to solid ground, and then turned to offer the woman a hand out as well.

She accepted his hand, stepping out, not stumbling even a bit despite the way it felt like a lightning bolt struck Bucky the moment their hands touched. Instead, she kept hold of his hand, tugging him along behind her as they exited the platform before guiding him deeper into the carnival.

Tucked between some food carts, she came to a halt and turned to face Bucky again, his hand still held in hers.

His metal hand, he realized, and she must be able to feel that? But she didn't seem bothered by it; she didn't seem to think much of it at all. "I'm Cass," she offered, smiling sweetly yet again. She really did have a lovely smile.

Bucky wasn't sure how, or why, he had a soulmate here, now, in this time and place. But he wasn't going to turn away what could be the best thing to happen to him since he was young and something like carefree, something like happy.

"Bucky," he offered in return.

She squeezed his hand, stepped a little closer, and tilted her head up just a bit more to meet his gaze. "Come walk with me?"

"Yeah," he agreed, and cleared his throat when his voice caught a bit. "Yeah, I'd love to."

Fic: you can ebb and I can flow

Marvel/DC: Stephanie Brown/Kon-El/Peter Parker | Rated G | 680 words | On AO3 Here
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Steph looks at the boy dangling upside down from a tree, her heart doing some kind of weird squeeze-pinch thing in her chest that she hates. Ugh, feelings are gross.

"With great power," Peter says sagely, never mind that he's all of fourteen rather than forty, gangly limbs and pimply skin making up fifty percent of his mass, "comes great responsibility." The crowd of local children gathered around him are wide-eyed in some kind of awe, nodding along with the kind of vacant enthusiasm that means they have no idea what he's talking about.

It's annoying how good with kids he is. Back in her village, she was supposed to help mind the kids, but... well. She was off pestering Tim about seal hunting for a reason, when they made the fateful discovery of Peter, the lost Avatar, in a huge block of ice.

Up in the tree, Peter sneezes, and he shoots up in the air a few dozen feet and then floats back down to his perch again, nose scrunched up adorably. The gaggle of children below him all cheer in excitement, and Steph rolls her eyes with far too much fondness.

"Is he always like this?" asks a voice from beside her, and Steph doesn't tense, but she does shiver, just a little. Kon is a new-ish addition to their bunch, but Peter needs someone to teach him Earthbending, and Kon's the most skilled at it they've found. He's got the build for it, too, or is at least growing into his mass the way you'd expect, but she's still learning how to work around all that he can see with his senses, for all that he can't see with his eyes.

This whole journey has been like that, honestly; Steph went from growing up with her clan, isolated from the outside world except when they traded with other small clans on their pole, but... insular. The world beyond has been a revelation, but sometimes it makes her miss the home she always wanted to get away from, yearn for the quiet and steady life she had there the way she used to yearn for excitement.

"Yeah," she tells him. "He's pretty much always like this."

Kon hums, and she can't tell yet what that sound means, but it has a nice timber. She leans a little into his side, and after an awkward moment, he wraps an arm around her waist, holding her steady.

Peter calls out a goodbye to the kids, and with a burst of air he's flipping up, up, and then landing lightly in front of them, bouncing on his toes and beaming. "Did you get everything you were looking for?" he asks Kon, who had insisted they stop in this small town to restock their supplies. That's another thing he's added to their group--practicality, as well as the money to make sure that when he thinks they're running too low on supplies, they can actually get more. His controlling father hadn't been happy about him running off with them, but he's got so much money Steph can't really comprehend it, and he was at least willing to give his son enough to make sure he wouldn't starve a week into his adventure.

"Yeah," Kon agrees. "Now let's get out of here before someone tells the Fire Nation that they've seen some kid Airbending."

Peter looks a little sheepish. "Sorry," he mumbles.

Kon shakes his head, reaching out to gently punch Peter's shoulder. "It's cool. You shouldn't have to hide who you are. We'll just be careful, that's all."

Peter brightens again, and Steph finds herself leaning just a little further into Kon's side for a moment before pulling away, standing back to her full height. She's not as tall as either of the boys, which is a shame, but she'll make do. "Alright, let's go." She strides off toward where they left Spider, Peter's flying bison, trusting them to follow her lead.

So far, they always have, and she's starting to hope, just a little, that maybe they always will, too.