find me

42. REM

Forte de Bard, Valle d'Aosta

13th October

The heavy door of the cell swung open, Steve sat in a corner on the opposite side, his arms still tied behind his back. Rumlow stepped in, his hands hidden in the pockets of his cargos. 

"Slept well, Captain?"

Steve tipped his chin up to look at him. It was hard to focus on his features when the only light coming in the room was coming from behind him. He could only make out his silhouette really. 

"Where are we?" He bit out, his tone cold and stern. 

Rumlow crouched in front of him and cocked his head to the side, showing his teeth in a grating sneer. 

"Wouldn't you like to know." He snickered, leaning with his arms on his knees. "Unfortunately for you, you're not here to ask questions. You're here to answer them." He brushed his short dark beard with one hand, assessing Steve's uncompromising look and shook his head disapprovingly. "We all know you're a tough guy, you don't need to prove it. Tell us where he is and you walk out of here like nothing ever happened."

Steve's mind worked as quickly as it could. They didn't know where Bucky was, and Rumlow was only referring to him, not them. When he read Natalie's note at Maria's he had assumed they ran away together, it was implied quite clearly in her written words, but maybe they had separated along the way. Or maybe they had no idea she was with him. He kept his stare and grimaced in disgust at the man in front of him, his lips shut in a tight line.

"Come on, Rogers. Help me help you." He pressed, his brows knit in a concerned frown at the man's silence.

Steve kept his mouth shut, his eyes getting harder and colder as he glared at Rumlow, who got visibly more annoyed the longer Steve stared at him quietly. He knew Rumlow was impatient, impulsive and terrible at self-control. On the contrary, Steve had all the patience and stubbornness in the world, a lot of brains and a steel-strong hold on his control. He was not going to be bullied into doing anything he didn't want to do. 

"You know there's an easy way, and then there's a hard way." He spit out, a glint of dark satisfaction shining through as he imagined what the hard way was, before it quickly disappeared from his eyes. Still, Steve sat unmoved, silent and apparently unbothered at the SHIELD's agent intimidatory threat. 

Rumlow scoffed and stood up, pacing nervously in front of him for a minute before crouching back down to his level again. His eyes stared down at the floor and when they met Steve's he almost seemed worried. Steve ruled it out as tiredness, or as a ruse, he knew Rumlow wasn't a sentimental man and he knew whatever he was doing here, it definitely wasn't with the purpose of helping Steve out.

"Come on, man. Bucky put you here, let me help you out." He almost implored with a low tone.

Steve had to bite his tongue at that. He knew Bucky had nothing to do with any of this. Maybe he was retaliating, but he had not started this shit, SHIELD had. 

Rumlow looked at him exasperated and sighed. 

"You know this is not gonna go down well if you don't cooperate, Soldier." He breathed out slowly, in warning.