Sorry I sort of had some trouble starting this- I kind of had a nervous breakdown the other day. I go to the doctor again tomorrow with the hopes that they will give me a stronger anti depressant.

It was supposed to be a mission.

Granted they had had to do a lot of fucking planning just to get this far. But it was still a mission, nevertheless. And as such needed to be handled with the epitome of professionalism. The plan was simple, go in, free the girls and young women being sold into lives of prostitution and slavery- and get the hell out.

However all of that nearly went straight out the fucking window the second that Steve and Barne's made their appearances.

Like Nat, Clint and Thor the two super soldiers were dressed in tuxes. Their hair had either been trimmed or styled back away from their handsome faces. Steve looked like he had finally shaved the damned beard off. Thank god. And had even gone so far as to have his blond hair dyed a lighter shade of blond and colored contacts put in to change the already bluer than blue color to a nice fetching aquamarine.

Where as Barnes had decided to...be himself?

Well to be perfectly honest no one actually knew what the former Winter's Soldier looked like so maybe it didn't really matter. Though just to be safe, Tony had created a flesh colored bionic arm for him that he could use just like his metal one- though the newer model was far more sensitive to heat and cold and even touch.

Allowing Bucky to feel everything that his hand came into contact with.

Also as part of his cover, he was Steve's date. Or hubby rather, since no one outside of their little group even knew that the two were remotely romantically involved with one another. Though in the two men's defense it was easy to slip into such roles when they had both been born as soulmates.

Each carrying small birth-like marks on their bodies that matched the other's.

For Steve, it was a smaller and unbelievably indentical representation of his shield. Only it had chains wrapped around it and a white star in the center. Bucky's was similar, though his had chains and a red star in the center of it.

But that wasn't what nearly threw the whole damned mission off. Or perhaps it was. Soulmates were a peculiar thing. Some people were born with one, others were born with two, three- sometimes even five or more.

You see, Steve and Bucky were soulmates- everyone knew it. And had always assumed that the chains wrapped around each of their marks was simply fate's way of trying to tell them both that everything would be fine.

No one expected the unexpected in the form of a sixteen year old girl with wide green eyes and long strawberry blond hair until it was show time and they all watched in horror as the poor drugged girl was shoved unceremoniously into the middle of a stage by a mean looking man wearing a mask, wearing nothing.

Nothing for fucks sake!

Except the thick heavy chains around her wrists and ankles, a look of utter horror and mortification on her pretty young face- and oh yeah- a shield and star mark wrapped in chains that rested on the left side of her collarbone for everyone to see.

Steve and Bucky had been doing well up until that point. Drinking expensive champagne from equally expensive heavy crystal flutes, and making small talk in between snarky comments to Stark over the radio.

However everything within them seemed to freeze up, their glasses shattering in their hands from being squeezed too hard as they stared with what could only be wide eyed shock and utter disbelief at the poor girl while beside them, Clint gaped like a fish opening and closing his mouth. And Nat swore and quickly told Tony to cut the damned power to the building and seal off all of the exits.

Everything from there was a blur of gun fire, screaming, throwing punches, and everyone (guilty or innocent) fleeing in terror.

With the exception of the girl on the stage, that is.

The moment that the lights went out, Steve, Bucky and the others practically leapt into action. Running to where the stage was located and listening for the sounds of a struggle, they managed to get their hands on the girl before she could be dragged away by the guy that had been standing behind her.

After which they had left her in Nat and Clint's care while the rest of them took out as many of the bad guys as possible before calling the local authorities to come and take the girls/women away while Nat sat on the Quinjet with the girl and whispered little nothings in her ear as she was given a tranquilizer to help keep her calm and help her to rest on their way back to New York.

While Steve and Bucky sat across from Nat and the latest addition of their weird little family, their hands laced together, gripping so tightly that it was a wonder that neither man managed to break the other's hand as they wondered how they had been so stupid as to never even consider the possibility that their couple would never truly be complete without another person to balance them out.

The trip back to New York was fairly uneventful.

Their little soulmate had slept like the dead the whole time with her head resting in Nat's lap. Letting the older woman gently stroke her hair back from her face.

She was a pretty little thing for a kid, Steve supposed. Her long strawberry blond hair hung nearly down to her waist in layers that curled here and there at the tips. Her face was heart shaped, and so achingly lovely that she could give Nat a definite run for her money in the 'hotness' department.

Not that it mattered much to either of the super soldiers.

Her age, gender, past, hell even the trauma of being dragged into a human trafficking ring- didn't matter to either of the men. Because their possessive and protective instincts had been pulled to the forefront of the both of their minds the moment that they had spotted her on the stage wearing nothing but her birthday suit and their mark.

"What do you plan to do with her?" Nat asked after being silent for almost half of the trip.

"There isn't a whole lot that we can do currently. She isn't of age. And won't be for another two years or so."

"Then what do you wish to do?"

"Find her family. Have her go to counseling. Let her live her life for the next two years or so- so that she can heal and then slowly insert ourselves in it and woo her like she deserves." Steve said. His response was curt, short, sweet and straight to the point. However it was flawed.

Even Bucky knew that the possibility of actually being able to find her family and leave her alone to heal for two years wouldn't be enough. Especially if they couldn't find her family because she had been an orphan or something. And then there was the whole leaving her alone thing- that was out of the fucking question.

Hydra knew what Bucky's soul mark looked like and whom it belonged too.

Because of this, it would be far better to keep her where they could keep an eye on her and protect her just to be safe. Steve wasn't thinking of this right now. He was still so busy processing that they had a second soulmate that he couldn't see what was really right for the girl.

Oh they would try to find her family- if only to appease Steve's damned sense of honor. They would try to give her two years to heal from her experiences while in the hands of the people from the trafficking ring if she truly needed it.

However there was no way in hell that Bucky was leaving the girl alone. He'd rather die first than lose even one of his soulmates. And though the girl had been an unexpected complication to an already somewhat complicated relationship- she was fucking theirs.

He needed no other reason than that to protect her. And despite the fact that Steve's poker face was almost as good as his own, he knew deep down inside that he felt the same.

"She will need to be checked out by medical-" Steve's head swung in his direction so quickly that he could almost hear the bones at the base of his skull protesting the moment. "There is no telling how long she has been in that hell hole. Not to mention what may have been done to her."

Nat nodded her head in confirmation as she continued to stroke the girl's hair back from her face as she continued to sleep. "Medical has already been contacted," Tony said as he came out of the cockpit and took a seat off to the side of everyone else and stared at the girl with a small frown on his face before then tacking on, "I've already left instructions for them to meet us when we get back to the tower. Due to extenuating circumstances they'll be doing some blood work and examining her while she's asleep. Afterwards if she's okay enough to spend the night close to you two, then I'll set her up on your floor. In the meantime I'm already running a program that will use a picture of her face to hopefully find her family and any information on her."

"Thank you Tony." Bucky said gently, not wishing to disturb the zvyozdochka. Tony shrugged his shoulders and finally looked away from the girl before saying,

"You guys would do the same for me and my soulmate if our roles were reversed." It was true, they would. So they said nothing else for several moments before Tony finally said.

"I'm also planning to sign papers granting temporary guardianship of her just in case her family can't be found or something. I'll have to work fast on setting up a room for her on your floor. Get the essentials that every girl her age needs and whatnot. But...If we can't locate any living kin, she'll be living with us. I hope you guys are okay with that."

Steve was silent as he mulled over what Tony had just said before curtly nodding his head.

Tony merely muttered something under his breath and sat back in his seat to wait for either the trip to end or his program to get a hit.