Dedicated to the lovely and esteemed Artemis Day. This is my take on the eye-locking version of the soulmate trope. Enjoy!

oOoOo

Jane turned to find the barrel of a gun pointed at her head.

The steady thump of her heart paused as she took in the grey metal glinting in her lab's fluorescent lights. Its round opening was a black hole that sucked in her attention. Every muscle in her body tensed, locking her into a horror-stricken statue.

Each passing second was an eternity of dreading the inevitable. She waited for it.

And waited.

Until the barrel was lowered from her wide-eyed stare. She blinked and finally took in the person on the other end of the weapon.

He stood before her as death incarnate. Tall and foreboding, he was dressed in all black with a mask that looked more like a muzzle and dark goggles that hid his eyes. Long brown hair brushed against his shoulders, one of which was silver and made of metal plates.

The reality of her dire situation snapped back into place and her pulse jumped into high gear.

Just as she went to scream, he pounced and wrapped his fleshy hand over her mouth. One second, they were alone in her lab, the next he'd dragged her into the hallway with people darting out of their way. The Stark Tower alarms blared, drowning out the gasps and shrieks of surprise and terror as they moved down the corridor.

She tried her best to breathe around his stifling grip, but his large hand took up nearly half of her face. Clawing at it did no good. He was too focused on wherever he was going to notice her plight.

A vicious bite got his attention though.

His head jerked in her direction and he moved his hand to her arm. She sucked in precious air and relished in the oxygen flooding her system again. When clarity returned to her, she pushed against him, kicked at his legs, jerked her arm about, and did her best to free herself from her captor.

Nothing fazed him. He pulled her along, as if she were a rag doll. His dogged walk was harsh and imposing. His hold was firm, yet bearable. For the first time, she wondered why he hadn't killed her.

"Let our astrophysicist go," Tony's amplified voice called from behind them.

The assassin stopped and turned just enough to look over his shoulder.

Jane used the distraction to pry at his fingers, but they might as well have been steel manacles.

As the heavy clomp of Tony's steps reverberated in the now empty hallway, her captor slipped a silver ball out of his utility belt and hurled it at the floor-to-ceiling window several yards away. He spun her around to shield her from the fiery blast, then jerked her up into his arms and ran straight through the burning wreckage.

She wrapped herself around him so tightly her limbs would quickly go numb, but she didn't care, not when the wind rushed up around them as they fell from forty stories up. She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her head into the curve of his neck, doing her best not to envision her body splattered along the pavement.

When he shifted and pulled on something, they were yanked upward a moment before they floated their way back toward the ground. She looked up at the parachute blocking the sun and the New York City skyline, then at him.

It was easy to think of him as nothing but a machine when his every movement was calculated, when he never uttered a word and showed no emotion behind his mask. But the warmth of his body seeped through her clothes and permeated her bones. His chest rose and fell with each calm breath he took. He was most definitely a man, albeit a frighteningly lethal one.

Tony streaked past them in a blur of red and gold.

The assassin aimed his gun and fired round after round at him. The entire descent was filled with a barrage of gunshots that was sure to leave her partially deaf. Each blast made her flinch and wish she'd never heard of SHIELD and the Avengers.

In no time, they were on the ground and running again. That is, he was the one doing the running. She was half-stumbling, doing her best to keep up with his swift pace. There was no doubt in her mind that if she didn't, he'd drag her to wherever he was going, and it wouldn't even slow him down.

Tony landed in front of them. His once pristine suit was riddled with bullet holes. Her stomach knotted, but he seemed fine, standing tall with his usual commanding presence. He raised his hands, and, thankfully, the repulsors in his palms weren't lit up. They were more of a sledgehammer, than a precision tool.

The assassin came to an abrupt halt and she nearly tripped over her feet trying to do the same. Her chest heaved as her underused muscles twitched in protest of any more physical exertion.

"I'm going to say this one last time," Tony announced. "Let her go."

They stared each other down, leaving Jane to edge as far away as his arm allowed.

The compartment above Iron Man's shoulders lifted, and dozens of tiny missiles were pointed directly at them. She knew they had a guidance system and didn't emit a blast that would endanger her, but her racing heart didn't care.

The missiles snaked out of the compartment and hissed their way to them.

Her captor dropped his gun for a fresh one and fired at them so fast, the gunshots sounded like a single ear-splitting bang. Not one missile survived the onslaught.

Still firing, he charged Tony. His sudden movement whipped her forward and nearly separated her shoulder.

Tony shielded his head with his arms, and most of the bullets ricocheted off the metal suit. She turned away and ducked under the rogue projectiles. Not the assassin, though. He concentrated on his target with murderous intent, and went in for the kill.

With a swipe of his gun, he knocked away Tony's arms, then grasped onto his faceplate with his metal hand.

Tony stumbled backwards, but righted himself, and seized the silver arm. The gears in his suit ground and whirred as he struggled to free himself.

The assassin's fingers dug into the helmet, denting the metal with an awful creak.

She tugged on his hold and pleaded for him to let her friend go. "Stop this and I'll willingly go with you."

"Oh, no you don't," Tony said, though the sound came out strained and broken. His hand repulsors emitted a distinctive high-pitched whine far longer than normal. As strong as the bionic arm was, it couldn't withstand a fully charged arc blast.

Her captor clenched his hand into a fist and ripped the faceplate off Tony's helmet in a shower of sparks, then reared back and punched him in the face.

The blood drained from Jane's body as Tony fell back and didn't get up. Encased in his suit as he was, she couldn't see if he was still breathing.

As the assassin hoisted her over his shoulder and took off in another sprint, she flailed around and called him every insulting word she knew. He just kept on running as if she were no more than a sack of potatoes he had to deliver.

Two knives were sheathed at his lower back. She reached down and pulled one out, only to lose her grip and watch it clang to the ground.

Cursing under her breath, she snatched the other one and wiggled around to point it at his neck. "Put me down."

He slowed to a stop and gently lowered her to her feet. In one smooth movement, he twisted the blade out of her grab, sheathed it again at his back, and tossed her on a motorcycle. He jumped on behind, and trapped her in a cage of thick arms.

The bike started up with a roar and they sped down the road, zipping between cars and racing through red lights. By the time she found herself in an old abandoned home, her nerves were a frazzled mess.

He let her go and she immediately took several steps back. Sunlight streamed in between the closed blinds, creating prison-like bars across the empty room. Dust motes drifted between them like little snow flurries. It was as if the place hadn't been touched in over fifty years.

They stared at each other for a long moment. She swallowed hard, unsure of what to do.

"You're safe now," he said. His voice was gruff, and yet soft.

"I was safer at Stark Tower."

He shook his head. "They would've sent others to finish the mission."

"To assassinate me?" Her feet slid backwards as slowly as she could stand. If she made it out the door, she could scream for help.

His head shifted to take in her movements. She paused, but then, all he did was nod an affirmative to her question.

"And I take it that you're not going to kill me?" she asked.

He flinched, as if she'd slapped him across the face. "Never."

Jane stopped and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"You are my soulmate."

As if his words weren't shock enough, he took off his goggles and she locked gazes with him. An explosion of fireworks went off in her head. Nothing existed except the blue of his eyes. She could float away in their depths. It was like the sweeping expanse of a cloudless New Mexico sky. Peace, so intense it made her bones liquefy, spread through her, only for dismay to follow quickly behind.

The red star on his metal arm jogged a memory of Steve telling her how he'd been looking for his old friend turned enemy. This was the man who'd been transformed into a Soviet assassin, murdered countless people from politicians to scientists, like her, who'd shot through Natasha to kill a man with one bullet, and who was so stealthy that he'd become a ghost story to the entire intelligence community.

Out of everyone in the world, the feared and menacing Winter Soldier was her soulmate.

Author's Note: this was fun! It was supposed to be a one shot, but I feel like I want to add another chapter with Steve looking for him and the Avengers "rescuing" her. Not sure, though.

Artemis Day got me into this ship, so I blame everything on her. :)

Thanks for reading, and thanks to my sister for checking this over.