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Chapter Text

Another ding of the door’s bell, another customer to help. Harry stopped organizing the backroom and walked out to the front counter. An aesthetically pleasing man leaned against the counter with a roguish grin on his face about to start talking.

“Welcome to Purple Carnation, I’m Harry-” He started to say before registering the web of connections around the man,
“Ah, sorry, I’m not really interested in any of that soulmate business. Better luck some other time, I reckon.”

~~

Tony had kept his lack of soulmark to himself for the majority of his life. Only key people in his life knew about it: Rhodey, his mother, and Jarvis (both the real man and his creation). So when a flowing script of words showed up on his left collarbone he did everything to prove it’s falseness. Scrubbing it til it was raw, tattooing over it, and in the lowest of low periods, taking off part of the skin until the words weren’t visible.

Why now? Why after his word had been upended by Afghanistan? Hadn’t it already been proven that he wasn’t worthy of love? His own weapons almost destroyed him and actually murdered countless people. He was complacent in it as long as it made him money and kept his lifestyle afloat. Now one of his longest supporters was outed as a traitor and he was wracked with guilt and trauma enough to rival a soldier faced with what he had created. What had he done to condemn someone to the fate of being tied to him? What had he done to not deserve someone before he had already destroyed his life?

And why was it that in the same sentence that told him exactly how to find his soulmate, he was also rejected by them?

~~

The man stood still. Stricken by hearing the words he already knew were coming. His face fell and he turned more desperate, dropping his persona as he heard blood rushing in his ears. Only he could finally be granted a soulmate who would reject him at first sight.

“How did you know? We hadn’t even said anything to each other and you knew.” He said, grasping for answers to the question that had haunted him since the appearance of those words.

“Not to sound mysterious, but when you know what to look for it’s rather obvious. I’m sorry, but could you come back later? I really must finish my shift here.” Harry said with an easy smile. This world’s soulmate connection was ever so fascinating from the outside when he wasn’t being directly manipulated by Fate’s strings. This man’s aura was distracting as it constantly reached outwards in a cascading shower of sparks. How was he supposed to finish his shift here with something like that constantly drawing his eye?

“-not even my name? Could I give you my number? Anything?” Desperately trying to maintain what little connection could be salvaged between them while interrupting Harry’s thoughts.

“Sorry, I don’t have one of those phones. Really, you are quite loud, could you please wait until I’m done working?” Harry felt bad about so soundly rejecting him before they could even form any real connection, but realistically what would he get out of it? Another mortal human who would age and die before 100 years had gone by? Maybe they could be friends, but the man wasn’t particularly attractive to him. The desperation just reminded him of worlds away when he was once a celebrity and it put a sour taste in his mouth.

The man slowly left the cafe with hunched shoulders and hands in his pockets. The end of their interaction was a defeat for him. Harry slowly went back to his tasks, trying to put that man (his soulmate?) out of his mind.

Chapter Text

When Tony realizes he didn’t ask what time Harry’s shift ended, if Harry was even genuine about seeing him then, he feels another wave of defeat crashing over him. The final nail had been put into the metaphorical sign above his head that labeled him as the ultimate failure in his mind. He had not only desperately begged Harry, instead of keeping cool, but he now had less information than he started with.

At this point, Tony was no stranger to self-loathing or bottling up his feelings while convincing himself he had no reason to feel that way and that he was the root of all his problems. Perhaps he was broken from the start; perhaps he was born flawed and irredeemable. He was like a puzzle that was created with missing pieces and maybe he was hoping that his soulmate, Harry, could be those missing pieces. No, that was too much to ask for.

Tony couldn’t help but wallow in his feelings. Nothing in his life had ever felt this serious before, not even in Afghanistan, not even with Iron Man, or with every monumental change his life had gone through. This was something he had always hoped for, even though he had begrudgingly accepted his lack of soulmate. For so long a lack of a soulmate had defined part of who he was, trying to prove to himself that he didn’t need one to be worthy. Now that he knew for certain that he did have one, and that they easily rejected him, he felt a part of his identity shatter.

How dare Harry reject him? Tony was everything that other people dreamed of in a soulmate: smart, successful, handsome, wealthy, hell he was a superhero! Tony thought as he kicked a can in anger. His brief anger faded back into torrential sadness, bringing up every moment he wasn’t the perfect man. His mind played him a reel of his personal failures, and it was long. He tried to shake it off, he already knew he wasn’t worthy of Harry, but his mind wouldn’t let him forget every misstep he had taken. Harry must know about his highly public past, and who would want a womanizer for a soulmate?

He kept walking around the block slowly thinking before his analytical mind kicked back in. So what if he rejected me at first? No one can resist the great Tony Stark. He thought without much strength backing it up. He was willing to focus on anything that wasn’t the shitshow that was his life.

So Tony did what Tony does best: come up with a plan. Step 1: Find out when Harry’s shift ended. Then he did what he does even better: completely forgo any sort of plan and hang on by the seat of his pants.

~~

Harry restocked the cabinet under the espresso machine with all the necessary items for the next barista to start their shift. He enjoyed doing work like this, something route that took up his day with no life-threatening circumstances. Something that kept his mind on the day-to-day rather than on far-off futures or far-off pasts. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the aura of this world, but humans were still humans even worlds away.

He greeted the next barista with a nod before he clocked out and grabbed his jacket. Walking home from work really was no issue when he had all the time in the world. However, before he could get too far, an inconspicuous dark gray car pulled up beside him and rolled down the window.

“You know, I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier,” The man from earlier spoke from the driver’s side seat, multi-colored sparks wisping gently through the air.

“Think we could pretend that never happened like 50 First Dates? I could be Henry and you could be Lucy. Although I’ll warn you, I’m much more charming than Adam Sandler.” He spoke with much more confidence now than earlier today.

“Ah, it’s you,” Harry said with a slight sigh. “I assume you want to talk about earlier?” Tony nodded and went to speak, but Harry kept talking, “If you want to talk then you’ll have to walk with me to my apartment.”

~~

Tony had seen plenty of confident people, from businessmen to military men to people in his own life, like Pepper, but Harry had confidence unlike any Tony had seen before. Harry walked as if he knew everything going on around him and he had complete faith in it all going to plan. He wasn’t shocked by sudden loud noises; when people came rushing past them he merely moved out of the way like it was what he always intended to do. He waited just the right amount of time to cross the street without even looking both ways. It was honestly a little ridiculous how assured he seemed.

It was because of this that Tony found himself acting differently than normal, finally, there was someone who could steamroll over his attempts to take control of the situation. While it was charming in a way that gave him thoughts about fate, maybe this is one of the many ways we complement each other, it was also highly inconvenient for the sake of his goal.
Harry led Tony up to his second-floor apartment and unlocked the door with his key. Tony walked in with anticipation, hoping to learn more about Harry and excited to finally be making progress.

“You can sit on the couch,” Harry gestured, “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” Harry walked into another room and began putting things away.

Without Harry in the room, everything else came into clear view. The living room area was relatively barren with only the couch, a coffee table, and an ornate chest in the corner. Tony couldn’t resist the temptation to check out the chest since it was the most personalized item in the room. A generic wood coffee table and brown couch didn’t say much about a person, but a scuffed, monogrammed, and clearly expensive chest did. As he was running his fingers over the wood, he was interrupted.

~~

“Does ‘sit on the couch’ mean something different to people from here?” Harry said pointedly, vaguely amused at this man’s forwardness.

“Well, that depends on where you’re from, Hare-bear, I can call you Hare-bear, right? Where ar-” Tony began, but Harry cut him off before he could get going.

“Can you not do that?” Harry said, amused, “We have some business to discuss, don’t we? I’ll talk and you’ll listen, otherwise, I won’t repeat this.” Tony nodded. “There are many things about myself that I will not tell you. There are many things about the nature of this soulmate bond that are unknown to me and I don’t like to be blind to Fate’s machinations. As such you will allow me time to study this bond before I accept even the idea of your advancements,” Harry explained as blueish-green sparks trailed off of Tony’s neck and shoulders. The sparks sang of hidden grief and desperation, different from the multi-colored whorl Tony typically gave off. Harry looked away, suddenly feeling the weight of what he was saying to Tony from the visual cue.

No matter how much easier it would make things, Harry couldn’t ignore the obvious turmoil he was causing Tony by rejecting the connection. Harry may not be interested in any sort of movie-like soulmate connection, but maybe he could tolerate an annoying friend and subject of study.

“I do need your presence to study the bond more closely. So we’ll have to arrange meeting times. I’m willing to be friends with you, but nothing more.” Harry said with finality. He mentally flinched from the onslaught of light blue sparks jumping out of the man across from him.

“Oh Harry, you won’t regret this,” Tony began, “I’m not gonna lie, you do sound kinda nuts, but you’ve gotta be nuts to be friends with me anyways.”