Red, White and Black

Desire

I startled out of a nightmare, sitting up with a jerk. Something fell into my lap and I blinked down at it in confusion for a moment before I realized that it was the vest that The Soldier was wearing when I had healed him. I wondered at how it ended up on me and then I realized he must have put it over me.

My eyes searched the gloom of the room, the dim light that had originally been on was off so I had to take a moment to let my eyes adjust. I flinched when I caught him sitting at the end of the bench, his eyes watching me. I pulled my knees up to my chest in an instinctual reaction to try and make myself appear smaller.

Despite the fact that I had spent who knows how long healing him, HYDRA had spent a lot of time conditioning me to fear the Winter Soldier. My body reacted to that automatically as it struggled to pull itself out of the nightmare that had woken me. He didn't move from where he was sitting, he just continued to watch me.

Eventually, my body started to relax and I slowly lowered my knees and then said quietly, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" he answered in Romanian even though I had spoken in English. So, I switched to the same language.

"You startled me. I reacted poorly."

His head tilted to the side and he said, "You reacted as they want people to react to me."

I blinked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"People are supposed to be afraid of me. It's necessary."

That pity flickered in me again and I said quietly, "Is it?"

He didn't respond and I set my feet on the ground, wincing as the cold seeped into my soles as I walked over to him. I stopped in front of him and he adjusted his gaze so he could continue to watch my face.

I held out the vest I had brought with me and his eyes dropped to it for a moment before flicking back to my face as I said, "Thank you."

"Why?"

"Why am I thanking you?"

"Yes."

I shifted uncomfortably, this whole situation was strange to me, "Because you put it over me. That was nice."

"You were cold. It was all there was. It was practical."

I bit back a sigh and held it up waiting until he took it from me and shrugged it back on. Then I retreated to the far end of the bench again. I braced my back against the wall and wrapped my arms around my knees as I waited to see what would happen next.

My throat was dry and my stomach was starting to complain by the time someone finally came. There was a loud crash on the door and then it opened into the room. Two guards entered and one of them said something in Russian. The Soldier immediately stood and moved to the middle of the room. One of the guards pointed his rifle at me and I took the hint that they wanted me to do the same.

When I was standing next to him, the same guard who had spoken gave another command and The Soldier moved forward. I hastily followed, feeling as the two guards from the cell fell in behind us while two more who were waiting outside fell in front. They led us through the compound until we were standing in front of a wide wooden door.

One of the guards hit his fist on the door and there was a muffled command from inside it. The doors opened and the guard immediately behind me prodded my lower back with his rifle to encourage me to continue into the room. My feet sunk into the carpet as we crossed the threshold.

This must be the commander's office. It was sumptuous, a stark contrast to everything else I'd seen so far in the base. The commander was sitting behind his desk, with two other people standing behind him, a man and a woman. The Soldier moved to the exact middle of the room and I hesitantly followed.