Never be the same (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier)

Chapter 18

"I am the monster parents tell their children about at night." -Loki

"Here's the new mission, Miss Darkness." the man came to give me a folder, "You'll be heading out after dinner!"

I nodded, took the folder and headed back to my room. Soldier was sitting at his chair again, reading something.

"Anything interesting?" I asked jokingly, he just rolled his eyes at me for response.

I knew all of the books in our room by heart. I had read all of them multiple times, when we had our free time from trainings and missions. I mean what can you do when the boredom creeps up at you. It was not like we had really anything else better to do either. Train, go out on missions, eat, read and sleep.

Well counting the stars had started becoming a habit as well, there was something about the sky that I liked. Or maybe it was just the mystery of everything outside these walls, it was not like I got out much other than the missions so I didn't really know much about the world.

I got pulled out of my thoughts by his voice, "And you? What have you got there?" Soldier asked as he stood up to come over.

"Another mission. We are going out after dinner." I said right before he grabbed the folder from my hands, "Hey, I was looking at it!" he just turned his back at me, not allowing me to get it back.

After a while of just standing there he finally turned back around, handing me the folder, "So?" I raised my eyebrows at him, waiting to hear what it said.

"Easy mission. We'll be finished by midnight probably." he said while shrugging and slumping back into his chair.

"You say it about every mission." it was my turn to roll my eyes this time.

I started studying the mission and preparing myself for what was to come tonight. Looking at the mission, Soldier was probably right about it being easy, but I would never let him know that I agreed with his cocky attitude towards everything.

* * *

I knocked on the big door couple of times before I heard the man call me in. His eyes landed on me as soon as I stepped in and he was not ever trying to be subtle about checking me out. What an ass. I decided to lock the door while he was too busy eyeing me up and down to notice.

"Hello darling," I said in the sweetest tone I could manage.

"Why hello there, with whom do I have the incredible luck to meet?" his eyes finally made their way up to meet mine.

"Let's just call me Miss for now, shall we?"

"Alright Miss, what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked while motioning for me to sit down.

"I'm here to talk business with you mister Leveston," I took a seat, "I've heard that you've done something really bad."

"Like what?" his playful voice faltered.

"You didn't deliver." I said still in the same sweet tone as before.

"Deliver what? Who are you? Who are you working for?" the playfulness in his voice was completely gone now and I was left with a man whose temper was rising tremendously.

"Well, they call me Miss Darkness, maybe you've heard?" the look on his face was enough of an answer to my question.

"Miss D-Darkness!" he stammered, "But, but you're so young?"

"Well, what did you expect? A granny?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"I-I-I," it was honestly pathetic to even look at him.

"Try and touch it, I dare you!" I said as I noticed his hand reaching for the button under his table, "I'll have a bullet through this tiny brain of yours in a matter of seconds, you don't want to try me." I threatened while pointing my gun at him.

His hand hesitantly pulled away from the button, "So, let's talk business, shall we?"

"Do you even know who you're working for, little girl?" I just smiled at that, and noticed sweat rolling down the side of his face, "you know you're not their first weapon right?" he tried to smile himself.

"If by first weapon you mean The Winter Soldier, then yes, I do know that," I saw the smile from his face falter, "Actually, if you turned around and waved out of the window, he would be able to see you even better then he does now. His sniper has a straight shot at your head."

He turned around quickly to get a look out of the window, looking everywhere, but not spotting him, obviously. I, though, took it as a chance to hold him still at a gunpoint with one of my hands but with the other I decided to turn the picture on his desk around to get a better look at it.

"You have a death wish, kid." he was brave for a dead man, I'll give him that.

"Is it really wise to threaten me right now, knowing that I could end your life before you are even able to say bye bye to your gorgeous family."

"My-my family," and there goes the little hint of bravery, "don't hurt them!"

My smirk widened, "So you love them, that's good!" weakness was never a good trait in this type of business and love was the biggest weakness of all, "Give me the answers and I promise not to touch them."

"Fine, fine, whatever you want," he was loosening his collar with his index finger, "the documents, everything is in the safe, behind the shelf."

"Lovely, thank you." I said while stepping towards the shelf to see if he was telling the truth, "What's the code?"

"4-9-2-8-0-5" he said quickly.

I opened the safe and saw the suitcase there right away. I took it back to the table and opened it there. What a dumbass, giving everything away just like that.

"Thank you for your cooperation," I said while pointing the gun at him once again.

"But, you promised!" he shouted.

"I promised not to touch your family, nothing about you." I paused with a smile, "Seems like you won't be able to say bye bye after all."

He pushed the button and shouted, "You'll die as a monster, kid!"

My smile dropped immediately, "You asked me if I knew who I was working for." People were trying to get through the door, "Hail Hydra, darling!"

I pulled the trigger, grabbed the suitcase and climbed out of the window, leaving this scumbags body lying on the floor.

I was meant to climb up to meet the Soldier on the roof, that meant taking the fire escape. I heard gunshots, which let me know that his guards had got through the door.

I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, almost there. 'So close but so far away' had never made sense to me until the moment the heel of my boot got stuck and I fell on the last set of stairs. I started pulling it out, but it just wouldn't budge. Couldn't I have opted for boots with zippers, but of course I had to choose the ones with ties today. I started untying the laces as fast as I could while cursing the living hell out of myself.

"Killing my friend will be the last thing you ever did, little bitch!" I looked up with wide eyes to see myself being held at a gunpoint, "You'll die a-"

"No, you'll die!" I heard Soldier speak from behind me before firing multiple shots at him. I turned my head to the side as the blood splashed onto me, "Dammit, Darkness!"

Soldier jumped over me, cut the ties to get my shoe off, grabbed the suitcase, took me in his arms and jumped down to the ground to get us both back to the base. I didn't even object on him carrying me that night, the only thing my mind could focus on was the picture of a gun being pointed at me.