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CW: Discussions of murder, light consensual somnophilia, oral sex, dirty talk, and a dash of degradation kink.
This chapter is all Bucky's POV. I struggled really hard with this chapter and I'm not happy with it, but if I keep putting it off, it'll never go up. I may go back and edit this later.
Some dialogue inspired by 28 Days Later. Please vote and comment!
ONE WEEK LATER
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
His mission was simple: Kill the target and report back to Pierce.
Mark Byrne had information on The Winter Soldier program. A former Hydra member, he had gone rogue, determined to steal the formula for the serum and sell it on the black market. The Soldat was simply there to prevent that from happening.
A gunshot echoed through the air, the recoil pushing his shoulder back. He heard a groan, and then watched the target drop to his knees. His partner screamed in agony as she tried to stop the bleeding. Red hair. Beautiful, even when her face was twisted in pain. It stirred something in him. Obsession. Desire. She made his heart race.
Beautiful.
The word lingered in the back of his mind. He hadn't felt much of anything in years.
As he ran, scaling buildings and running across rooftops, he could still hear her screaming.
Bucky sits up, drawing in a sharp breath. His dog tags jingle as his chest heaves and he looks around the room. The meal he and Reilly had shared earlier in the night sits on the coffee table. Empty plates and cups. He tries to distract himself by telling himself he needs to clean those dishes, check ammo, and check the water pressure before they lose it completely. But he's frozen.
The guilt sits in his chest, devouring him. He killed Mark Byrne.
Reilly's condition, her desire to destroy herself at every turn is his fault.
Everything is his fault.
Tears linger in his eyes, remnants of a memory he wishes he could forget. Even as he wipes them away on the back of his metal hand, he's reminded of Hydra; of what they did to him. His face crumples and he bites back a sob as Reilly sleeps beside him.
He had followed her here. He doesn't know if it's out of attraction, or the desire to make amends. He watched her in Terminus. She reminded him so much of himself. He wanted to say something that night, to apologize, but he didn't know how. He didn't know where to start.
He didn't have a choice, but she won't understand that.
So, he swallows the secret, along with the pain building in his chest. He feels sick. She's going to hate him when she knows the truth. She's going to think he lured her into a relationship with him shield himself from having to tell her the truth, but the reality is, he couldn't stop thinking about her for a year. A fucking year. All he saw was a mass of red hair and those fucking eyes and he was hooked. He hunted her, spent six months wandering around Romania, trying to make ends meet while trying to find her. He stole money, weapons, anything he could from old Hydra hideouts. Bucky knows all of their fucking secrets. They should have killed him when they had the chance.
