All Screwed To Hell And Eternity And Space And Back

by afteriwake

Summary:

Everyone has a countdown on their wrist to when they will find their soulmate. If they don't, they die. Even Steve Rogers's ran in one direction, though it took him ninety years to meet his. But Bucky's has never run normally, not in the 40s, not when he was the Winter Soldier, and not now that the whole mess with the Infinity Gauntlet has been fixed. But now it's stuck and he has no idea why.

Meanwhile, Clara's is still running despite being taken out of the timeline, though never in any way that makes sense or has ever made sense. Not to her, not to the Doctor, not to Ashildr. She'd expected it to disappear. But it's simply counting down to her inevitable demise.

And yet? Fate has it ways to make these two meet...even if it takes a TARDIS and the Avengers to make it happen.

Notes:

• For Dreamin.

So this was written for izzidore, who wanted a Bucky/Clara fic, and I had recently been talking with Dreamin about a prompt I had given her ("Soulmate AU: your clock is a countdown of how long you and your soulmate have left to find each other or else you both will die because the universe is sadistic af—and if you find your soulmate you get to live longer.") and how borked it would be with Bucky and Clara...so this happened. I do not apologize.

EDIT: I was going through old emails and saw Huntress79 made me a wonderful cover for WIP Big Bang 2019! Please give Huntress79 some love and kudos for the cover art here.

Chapter 1

Apparently, soulmate clocks applied to mass murderers, too.

Bucky looked at the faint countdown marker on his arm before he stared out over the village. He’d never cared about it when he was the Winter Soldier; in fact, he’d half hoped he never found his. It meant she would die, but he would too, and he could escape the hell he was in, he’d realized in moments of lucidity before he was wiped again. He’d be awoken and some more time had ticked off, and then he’d go under and there would be another jump. He was used to seeing years go at a stretch.

But...his would come back.

That was the unusual part, and as far as he knew, something that had never happened to anyone else.

The Howlies had always teased him about his messed up counter. Even though Steve’s was nearly ninety years and counting down, an anomaly in itself, his at least kept counting down. Bucky’s bounced all over the damn place and sometimes it would just disappear and the skin on the underside of his wrist would be smooth, like his soulmate had ceased to exist. But the counter was still there. Just...stopped.

But he wasn't dead.

Steve’s mom had said not to fuss over it. She’d had her own not so great experience, where Steve’s father had been her soulmate and been taken by the Great War. But she had faith in her son’s, marveling in the fact it counted so far into the future, and she marveled at his. “Someday, you’ll find them,” she said with a smile.

He missed her smile. Now that his memories were back and he wasn’t a weapon anymore, there was a lot he missed.

The sound of footsteps to his side didn’t pull his attention away from the children playing by the river. “We still have not yet figured out how your counter works, White Wolf,” Shuri said softly.

“Were you spying on me?” he asked, though he gave her a grin when he said it.

“Maybe a bit,” she said with a soft laugh.

“You’d make a great spy. You’re quiet enough.”

“Still, you sensed my presence,” she said.

“I’m a better soldier than you are a spy.”

“There is no need to be a soldier. Stark has fixed things. We’re all whole again.” Shuri nodded back towards where she had come from. “Come. My brother has wishes to speak to you, and you have guests.”

He nodded and followed her away from where he stayed. Yes, the universe was fixed, all thanks to Stark and whatever it was that magician guy had seen. But being whole again? He’d never been whole to start with.

He wondered if he ever would be.