A little disclaimer I've never written a one shot before and my earlier writings have left something to be desired. Please take mercy as I am an amateur. Also I don't own any Marvel character mentioned. And finally this is inspired by a post on Amino.
In a world of superheroes and magic nothing is perceived as impossible. !maybe that's why the writing that appeared on the wrist everyone was not questioned but instead accepted as something that just was. What was seen as alarming however and was eventually questioned was not the words themselves but instead what they said. It came as quite a shock when it was discovered that the words that led one to their soulmate told what their last breath would hold, their last words.
This especially true when one Steven Grant Rogers was told. Back in the forties when the words were still a mystery and the technology nor the open mind existed to understand it, the words are seen as a part of the body itself. That if exposed was the equivalent to parading up and down the street in nothing but your underwear.
This is what he was told anyway and for awhile at least that's what he believed.
Steve's P.O.V
There are many stigmas associated with soulmates and finding them and losing them. For me it was more of disappointment. I thought that I had found my soulmate twice previously but it wasn't meant to be. What a cruel way to find out with their last breath that they weren't for you.
I couldn't help but dwell on it as I sat on a plane half a world away from where I wanted to be half a world from the person who at present who is my world half a world away from him.
Despite my current love affair I found my mind drifting to the past to Peggy. Oh how I loved her. As much as I could love as inexperienced and naive as I was. It was her face he saw last as they crashed and it was then I expected her to say the words that have followed me through my life as it was then that that hope fizzled out as she didn't.
Before that i expected them someone who i had known my whole life. Even as fear reflected I both our eyes as he fell a part of me waited for those words to from him. But Bucky had also left without them and it before my heart again. Then my phone rang unexpectedly and i pulled out the small flip phone and smiled at the caller i.d. It was him.
"Hey darling, how-" my words are interrupted by his own. His voice sounded broken his sentences punctured by sobs as they wracked through his throat. His voice alone left my heart aching wishing I was there. I couldn't help but curse myself internally as I let words fly out of my mouth frantically as I tried to calm him down.
My heart almost stops a second later when I hear the sobs slow as I continue to plead with him practically begging now. After a beat of silence I hear it. The words I waited forever to hear.
"I love you." My heart beat drummed in my ears drowning out everything but I could still hear screaming. It wasn't until I realized that it was me still begging despite it being to late. A moment later and I heard a crunch and then it was silent as the line went dead.
My eyes traveled down to my wrist were the words are scarred looking more like they had been cut into his skin then the delicate words he had become accustomed to seeing.
~A few weeks later~
Steve went to the morgue to identify the body, as part of some procedure, and discovered the words on Tonys wrist were "No, Tony please, you can't do this, I need you." Those were the last words he heard him say.
