Red Thorn

Chapter 3

May 14th 2012

For a few days now, Steve had noticed that Red wasn't her usual self, but more the distant spy he'd met ten months earlier. As the two slowly became good friends, Red began speaking more, no longer afraid to use her voice around him. Considering he was a man who hated secrets, Steve didn't mind still not knowing about her past. The super soldier could tell that she'd suffered, and he didn't want to make her relive it just for the sake of him knowing.

Red hadn't said a word to him during their run that morning, normally she would make a joke about how spry he was for an old man, but she hadn't. In fact, she didn't even have her coffee afterwards, something that she'd once called mandatory after a good run. Steve had thought it best not to say anything, not wanting to pry.

As the day went on, he started to worry. She had told him that she was going to train so probably wouldn't see him until the next day, but when he'd gone to the gym himself, she wasn't there. Upon arriving back home a few hours later, Steve was surprised to find a little box on his kitchen table, along with a note. 'Give this to Red. If you can't find her, she'll be on the roof.' A sense of unease set in as he realised that someone had broken into his apartment, but then again, it wasn't the first time a spy had done such a thing.

Picking up the small present-like box, Steve made his way to the roof where sure enough he found Red sitting just a metre or so away from the edge, singing quietly to herself. "C'est la belle nuit de Noël, La neige étend son manteau blanc. Et les yeux levés vers le ciel, A genoux, les petits enfants, Avant de fermer les paupières, Font une dernière prière." He didn't think she knew he was there until she spoke. "You can join me, Capitaine."

"It's somewhat unnerving when you do that," he joked.

Red smiled at him over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the busy New York skyline.

"Is it your birthday?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"No. Why?"

He passed her the box. "This was left for me to give to you."

"Thank you," she said, staring down at it. "I'm guessing the note also told you that you'd fine me up here."

Steve nodded. "Aren't you going to open it?"

"I already know what it is," she told him.

"Right..."

Red knew that he wanted to know what was bothering her, but that he was too much of a gentleman to ask. So, the pair sat in silence for a while, until she asked, "What do you think is the only natural resource the world has too much of is?"

"I... I don't know," he admitted.

"Some say it's women," Red stated, her words cold as ice.

"What?"

She shrugged. "We're expendable, overlooked, and often taken for granted. We can slip past any man's defences. It makes us the perfect assassin."

"You're not expendable," Steve protested.

"You may not believe that, Capitaine," she said. "But many do, and they always have done. In 1946, some of Howard Stark's technology was stolen. A lead led Peggy Carter and some of her fellow SSR agents, along with the Howling Commandos to Russia where they found an academy teaching young girls to be assassins." Red noticed Steve's shoulders slump slightly as she spoke, and she realised all too late the mistake she'd made bringing up Peggy and his other friends from the war. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"