Notes:

Yes, I should be working on Equilibrium, and getting that update out, since today is my day to update it, but this story has been stewing at the back of my mind for weeks, and I've been putting it off. The insentient poking of this plot bunny finally got to be too much, so here it is. I promise this one will be short, and I'll get the next installment of Equilibrium out by the end of the week.

Please enjoy!

Triad

Chapter 1: Bucky's Sister

The small brunet curled quietly against his chest, her chestnut curls cascading across his shirt and covering his metal hand where it was intertwined with Steve's long fingers.

"Hey Buck," Steve whispered, looking down at the two curled up on the couch against him as credits rolled across the TV screen. "She asleep?"

Bucky blinked sleepily and pushed Darcy's curled off her face. Her long dark lashes fluttered against her cheeks, but she didn't stir. "Out like a light," he smiled, accepting a quick kiss from his boyfriend as the Captain wriggled out from under him and Darcy. "I don't know what it is about this movie, but our girl cannot keep her eyes open all the way to the end."

Steve huffed, a contented smile on his lips. He stretched, arching his back to work out some kinked muscles from sitting in one position for far too long. "She made it past the mall this time," he toed off his shoes and pushed them under the coffee table with his sock clad feet. "I call that progress."

"You gonna help us up, or am I sleeping on the couch with our cuddle monster?" Bucky raised an eyebrow as his boyfriend pretended to mull it over. "You ain't planning on getting laid tonight, are you?"

"Not with Darcy sleeping in the guest room," he scratched the back of his neck and gently pulled the sleeping girl into his arms.

"She'd be disappointed to hear that," Bucky pulled himself off the couch and trotted ahead to open the door and turn down the bedding. "She thinks it's hilarious when I can make you forget she's here, says it's great to know I have such an enthusiastic lover for a soulmate, even if she has to hear it once in a while." He grinned at the crazy red flush that traveled up the back of Steve's neck. "Says I deserve it."

"Yeah," Steve settled Darcy down on the bed, gently pulling off her shoes and tucking her in. "It's still rude." Bucky placed a kiss against the girl's forehead, flipped off the light and closed the door.

Darcy stood in her bathroom, the vanity lights flooding the room with bright white light, making the words on her skin stand out in stark relief. Not everyone had a soul mark, her parents hadn't, and while Jane and Thor were obviously matched, they didn't carry each other's words. Darcy had two. She dropped her towel to the floor and turned to one side, tracing the loopy cursive words that had been there her entire life. She smiled softly as she traced the final letter and turned back front to look at her other set of words that curved gently under her left breast. The handwriting on the second set was messy and spikey. Darcy dropped her hand away from the words and just stood in the harsh white light; her mother had worried over her two soul marks, scared what it might mean for her daughter. Most sets of double words meant that the person would lose their first soulmate, but Darcy was almost positive that wasn't the case for her, not with the words she had.

Darcy took one last look at the marks and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water cascade over her skin, making her thick brown hair hang heavily down her back, and letting the tension drain from her shoulders. She'd been at the tower for nearly six months, spending most of that time either in the lab with Jane or with Bucky and Steve in their apartment. If you'd told her a year before that she was going to move to New York and get adopted by the Winter Soldier as a defacto little sister, she'd have asked you if you'd gone off your meds, yet here she was, getting ready for a demanding day of lying on the couch with Bucky, watching Disney's Rescue Rangers on DVD and following that with a night of clubbing with her two favorite supers. Darcy couldn't think of a better way to spend her birthday, unless Jane could be there, too.

Darcy was rubbing a towel over her hair when her phone rang and her heart dropped. There were only two people who could be calling. Jane was in Asgard, doing some royal thing with her princely love, and her mother'd called and left her ubiquitous and very of key, rendition of Happy Birthday on her answering machine at a completely obscene hour of the morning. So, it could only be Steve or Bucky, and since she was meeting them for breakfast, nothing good could come of the call.

"You're bailing on me," Darcy tried not to sound too sad as she connected the call.

"We're sorry, baby girl," Bucky apologized through the phone. "Team got called out 'bout five minutes ago."

"Understood," she tucked her towel around herself and dropped down onto her bed. "Just be safe, and come home soon; we'll watch Rescue Rangers next weekend."

"Done deal," Bucky said. "If you still wanna go out, though, Agent Barton's on medical, and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to step in and take my best girl dancing."

"Thank, Buck," Darcy smiled into the phone, she'd never actually met the illusive Hawkeye, or his partner, both were always off running some super special secret missions for SHIELD. "I doubt he'd want to bum around with a lowly science intern."

"He'll be in the common room at ten," Steve's voice called, clearly listening in on Bucky's phone call, not that Darcy minded. "You be sure to get your cute butt ready, I hear he makes a mean pot of coffee."

"Just let him know he doesn't have to," she mumbled, picking at loose thread on her towel.

"Stop moping around in your towel, doll," Bucky chuckled at her indigent huff, the man knew her far too well. She could hear him buckling up his tactical gear. "Put on some lipstick, I assure you, everything will be okay."

"Thanks big brother," Darcy smiled and pulled herself off the bed. "Tell Steve to take good care of you, cause you both have some serious cuddle time to make up for."

"We look forward to it," there was a click on the other end of the phone that Darcy knew was Steve's shield connecting to its magnets. "Love you, mladshaya sestra."

"Love you, too," she dropped her towel on the bathroom floor and stuck her head in her closet. "Give Steve a kiss for me."
"Will do," Bucky hung up the phone before they could both go on.

Darcy dropped her phone on the bed and sighed. She refused to cry, life was full of disappointments, and not getting to spend your birthday with your friends was pretty minimal on the scale of things.

Bucky'd adopted Darcy almost the second they met. Everyone thought it was the other way around, given Darcy's ability to draw people to her, but the second she high fived his metal hand without a second thought, he knew he wanted to keep her, and he'd not been shy about letting her know.

They watched stupid kids shows together on Sunday mornings, complete with Darcy's favorite sugary cereals, and he happily let her drag him out to clubs so she wouldn't have to worry about getting any unwanted attention. Darcy told him repeatedly, with a huge grin on her face, how his murder face was extremely affective at keeping guys away. She loved the fact that she could dance with her supers and didn't have to worry about wondering hands. Okay, their hands wondered on each other, but their girl was safe.

Steve worried that Darcy would be uncomfortable with them when she found out he and Bucky were soulmates. They'd had to keep it secret growing up, and even with changing attitudes towards same sex soulmates, America wasn't ready for their beloved Captain to be gay. Darcy spotted Bucky's soul mark on afternoon while he was helping her with some basic hand to hand. He'd lifted his shirt to wipe sweat off his face, reveling the words on the right side of his abdomen. "I could do this all day, jerk," she'd read, tucking her hands under her armpits so she wouldn't reach out to touch them. It wasn't polite to touch another's soul mark unless they were your words. "It's Steve, isn't it?" Bucky just nodded shyly and dropped his shirt back down to hide the marks. "That's awesome," a wide grin broke out over her face and she threw her arms around his neck, never mind how sweaty and gross they both were. "I'm so glad you two found each other again." Bucky loved Darcy a little bit more that day.

When they were called out the morning of her birthday, his heart broke a little.

"I can't believe I'm not allowed to go out with you guys," Hawkeye grumbled, throwing himself down on the couch, a plaster across the bridge of his nose. "First Avenger call since Nat and I got back, and I'm stuck on medical."

Steve raised his eyebrows at his soulmate across the room, having a quick silent conversation. "I got a mission for you, Barton," the Captain called, rummaging through his locker, looking for his always illusive left hand glove. Bucky'd probably swiped it again.

The archer huffed, rolling his eyes. "I'm on a medical, Cap," like he hadn't said that five times since he'd walked through the door. He looked up at the Super Soldier who was making eyes at Barnes, who was on the phone. "I can't do crap."

"You can take BBucky's little sister out," Steve shrugged. "It's her birthday; poor jerk is breaking it to her right now."

"Bucky's sister?" Clint sat up and eyed the Winter Soldier, who had his phone tucked into his shoulder as he buckled his suit. "You mean the intern?"

"Darcy, yeah," the Captain sat down on the other end of the couch to pull on his boots. "Nothing crazy planned, just some cartoons and this evening we were going to take her to dinner, then to this club she likes in Mid-Town."

"You go clubbing?" the archer laughed. "Yeah, sure, I'd like to meet the girl that can get Captain America to go to a club. Do you dance?"

"I'm not as much of a fuddy duddy as you all think," Steve muttered. "She'll be up at ten, she likes Count Chocula with her cartoons and ludicrous amounts of coffee," he frowned down at the laces of his boots. "Tons of coffee."

"I think I can handle coffee and cartoons with one intern," Clint put his hands behind his head.

"Hold that thought," the Captain chuckled and walked off to talk with Bucky, his shield in his hands.

The elevator doors opened to a nearly empty common room, Darcy's eyes dragged over the man who was sprawled out on the couch, his arms running along the back, completely bare in his black wife beater, boots heavy on the coffee table. She'd seen pictures of the archer, but nothing compared with the live man in front of her. She tracked his movements as he brought his coffee cup to his lips, the wiry muscles bunching and curling under the taunt skin of his arms. She took a breath and stepped off the elevator before the doors closed, and she had to deal with the embarrassment of waiting for them to open again. It was rude to stand there and salivate over someone without at least introducing yourself. Her mother had raised her better than that.

Darcy opened her mouth to give a friendly greeting, but that was not what came out. "This is super inappropriate, but I totally want to crawl into your lap and lick those arms." Darcy slapped her hands over her mouth, eyes as wide as those Anime chicks as she saw shock bloom on the archer's face. Of all the stupid shit that could have possibly come out of her mouth, that had to have taken the cake.

Clint gently set his coffee cup on the table and grinned, holding one hand out to her, keeping himself sprawled out on the couch. "Lick away, Darling."

All the air in her lungs rushed out, and her heart jumped into her throat as her hand went up to the words under her breast. It almost felt like they flared to life for a moment. Darcy walked across the common room and took Clint's hand, letting him pull her onto the couch, tucked up against him. "So, I'm Darcy," she said, looking down at her hands, as if she wasn't practically sitting in her brand new soulmate's lap.

Clint laughed, throwing his head back and running his hands down her arms, taking her hands in his. "That's a relief," he said. "I don't have to call Jarvis about an intruder in the Tower." He looked over at her and smiled. "Can I see your mark?"

"Not until you buy me dinner first," she told him, resisting bringing her hand up to the mark by linking her fingers through his. "Can I see yours?"

"Good thing the Supers made reservations at Dominique's, then," the archer pulled her against him. "I'm not losing any clothes until you do, darling."

"Umm," Darcy pulled back from him a bit, disentangling their fingers and putting distance between them on the couch. "Aren't you with Black Widow?" She'd heard the rumors. "I don't want to ruin that, I'm not that girl."

"Darcy," Clint lifted her chin to look her in the eye. "Natasha and I have been waiting a long time to meet you. You're not stepping in anything." She nodded, and let him pull her back into his embrace. He kissed her gently. "Is that offer to lick me still on the table?" he winked.

"We'll see," Darcy's eyes twinkled as she snuggled into his arms, Rescue Rangers cued up on the television. Best birthday ever.

Notes:

Someone asked a while a go for me to translate any Russian I use. There isn't much, usually, but I will try to go back and put in some translations when I can. For now:

mladshaya sestra - little sister

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