hardest to love: bucky barnes

thirteen.

The child in me missed living in Russia, even though I wasn't born here didn't mean it wasn't any less of a home to me. I don't remember much of my youth before going to the Red Room. Sometimes I wish I did but maybe it's for the best since I can't miss what I don't remember.

Natasha was seven years older than me. I looked up to her in a way, as an assassin. All the widows knew about her and her story there. It gave them some sort of hope, a hope it once gave me.

Tony informs us that we will be landing shortly as we gear up. Nat held my hand when we started to land, rubbing her thumb across my knuckles. I felt uneasy and stiff, I wanted everything to just stop momentarily so I could think straight. Bucky kept looking over at me with worried eyes.

"So, Sam, Wanda, Vision and Bucky get as many widows as you can and lead them to the building on the other side of the town where Fury has nurses there to take care of them. Steve, Valentina, Natasha and I will go inside and find whoever is behind this." Tony said when the jet stopped moving and everyone nodded in agreement but Bucky was reluctant to agree since he wouldn't be with me. He knew this wasn't the time to fight with Tony though.

"Val?" I heard Bucky whisper my name as everyone started to get off the jet, causing me to pause and wait for him.

"Be careful. I love you." He said holding my hand for a brief second while the others were a head of us.

Love? Bucky loved me?

"I love you too."

I didn't have enough time to process what was said before we had to split. I saw him walk on to the other plane Maria brought then he was gone. My attention turned back to Tony and Steve.

"You two are most familiar with them. You need to find their weakness." Steve said looking at both Natasha and I.

"You're looking at their weakness, Rodgers." I said a little meaner than intended. Tony agreed with me and told Natasha and I we needed to go in undercover. We entered through a side door and Nat found a pair of thighs and a bodysuit with slippers in one of the dressing rooms. I froze as she handed them to me.

"Valentina, you need to go dance in there. They will know who you are and it will give Steve and Tony enough time to find the people behind this. I recognized one of the guys back there, I'm gonna see if I can find anything out from him." She said as I slipped on the light pink skirt she found to hold my knives.

"Okay." I said and she touches my shoulders.

"Everything will be okay. I'll come back after I check that out." She said then pulled me into a tight hug.

I walked down the hallways with no real lighting, just light from the sun outside. I saw a group of girls slightly younger than me gathered together and whispering my name. There were pictures of Natasha and I along with other girls we trained with on the walls. It felt like a nightmare that I couldn't shake myself awake from.

I headed into the auditorium when I saw someone I could've never been prepared to see.

Ms. Ivanov.

The blonde haired lady looked right into my soul with a evil smile before approaching me. Her face has marks, probably from the glass of the mirror when I last saw her.

"My greatest accomplishment." She said loud enough for the other girls in the room to here before  raising her cold and fragile hand to my cheek, I pulled back a bit in surprise.

"You really thought that you could kill me?" She said with a dark smile at my face still in visible shock.

"I hope you can still dance, марионетка." (puppet.) She said clearing the stage for me. She's trained me to always perform the same dance for her every time. I started in my position before looking up at the windows and see the chaos behind the brick walls. Sam and Vision flying to grab the girls and take them to the jet while Wanda and Bucky fought the army of Assassins trained to kill.