Ariel had thought, for years, that Riley was her bondmate, they both had, it was part of why they'd always worked as well together as they had. It was why she'd taken losing him as hard as she had. But then she hadn't died, not after the first week, or the first month, or even a year later, and she'd started to doubt that what they'd had had been true. Or maybe she'd been his bondmate but he hadn't really been hers, that sort of thing did happen from time to time.
Then, in the course of helping Steve, there came that day on the bridge, and she hadn't been able to tell right away just which of the bodies in the crowd caused that tug not just at her senses but what seemed like her entire consciousness. She hadn't known until the three of them -herself, Steve and Natasha- were all being summarily arrested, it had been easy to pinpoint hm then, the shorter of the pair handling Steve.
She'd found him again, later, or rather he'd found her, while she was wingless, grounded, and still fighting the good fight as best she could. Even just being in the same room was enough that her knees almost gave way, she had no idea how she could have thought what she had with Riley was true in the face of this.
Are you ready for yours?
Lord help her, she'd almost said yes. And then had subsequently thrown herself out of a building to get away from him. Or from the disabled helicarrier crashing down on them, one or the other.
After everything had come crashing down, she'd thrown herself into helping Steve so that she wouldn't have to think about anything else, least of all the fact that her bondmate was still out there, somewhere. And it worked, sort of, for weeks, months even, but they'd come back to New York both to check in with the newly-minted Avengers Tower and to hunt down any new leads as to where the former Winter Soldier might be.
But because she wasn't officially an Avenger -though Stark had teased that they could have her swearing-in ceremony once the place was actually finished- it meant she had some time to herself to wander the city, wait for Steve to call, and do her best to ignore that niggling tug at the back of her mind that had never really gone away.
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Sooo many options...
Then, in the course of helping Steve, there came that day on the bridge, and she hadn't been able to tell right away just which of the bodies in the crowd caused that tug not just at her senses but what seemed like her entire consciousness. She hadn't known until the three of them -herself, Steve and Natasha- were all being summarily arrested, it had been easy to pinpoint hm then, the shorter of the pair handling Steve.
She'd found him again, later, or rather he'd found her, while she was wingless, grounded, and still fighting the good fight as best she could. Even just being in the same room was enough that her knees almost gave way, she had no idea how she could have thought what she had with Riley was true in the face of this.
Are you ready for yours?
Lord help her, she'd almost said yes. And then had subsequently thrown herself out of a building to get away from him. Or from the disabled helicarrier crashing down on them, one or the other.
After everything had come crashing down, she'd thrown herself into helping Steve so that she wouldn't have to think about anything else, least of all the fact that her bondmate was still out there, somewhere. And it worked, sort of, for weeks, months even, but they'd come back to New York both to check in with the newly-minted Avengers Tower and to hunt down any new leads as to where the former Winter Soldier might be.
But because she wasn't officially an Avenger -though Stark had teased that they could have her swearing-in ceremony once the place was actually finished- it meant she had some time to herself to wander the city, wait for Steve to call, and do her best to ignore that niggling tug at the back of her mind that had never really gone away.