When It All Turns Bad

The Betrayal (Part 1)

The stolen aircraft landed back at the Soviet. Besides from a few minor injuries everything was fine, not like it would concern Ivan too much because we could look after ourselves, he would just be glad to have the tesseract back.

We were both greeted by Ivan once we had stepped back onto the dry grains of soil, which crumbled beneath our feet leaving footprints as we walked. The air around us was still warm, it was almost summer. The sky was a mixture of pinks and oranges which reflected perfectly onto the still pond near the base. The sunset was just proof that even the most beautiful of things end in darkness.

Ivans' face was neutral, his hands clutched an open briefcase, presumably for the cube that Bucky had now removed from his belt.

The neutral face had turned into a wide grin as Bucky placed the tesseract into the cut-out shape that held the cube perfectly into place.

"Thank you! Thank you! Well done!"
Ivan was a kind man, but everyone had a bad side, we just hadn't seen it. Yet.

Ivan sealed the small briefcase shut before turning abruptly on his heel and walking back into the base.

Bucky had finished picking out all the glass shards from my hands, he even wrapped my hand into some medical bandage, ignoring my protests. I was fully able to do it myself.
I hadn't flinched once, Bucky tried to hide the fact that this saddened him; he knew I was used to more severe pain from the Red Room.

"Better?" he spoke softly as he cut the loose bandage from the roll, sticking it down into place with the rest of the bandage on my hand.

"I could have done it myself. But thank you." My lips curved upwards, I was grateful nonetheless.

He then sat down on my bed, leaning against the undecorated wall, the walls are a dark grey colour, similar to that of a storm cloud.
My room was practically empty compared to Bucky's, it contained nothing but a single sized bed, which just about fit inside the room, my room also contained a crate as a bedside table. Because of my upbringing, I didn't have any personal items to remind me of home and family. I didn't even have a family.
Bucky, however, had stashes of superhero comics and photos of him and Steve stored safely in his crate. His room was slightly bigger than mine which allowed him more room to walk around.

Bucky had since begun to take care of his own injuries removing all the splinters from his body and wrapping his gunshot wound in bandage tape.

"So, tell me. How did the tesseract burn me but not you?" I spoke slow making sure he heard and understood what I was saying, it was a question he had avoided earlier, and I intended to know why.

"It's quite simple really. You just aren't worthy." He let out a small laugh to himself. I crossed my arms; a small huff escaped my lips. Bucky was avoiding the question once again.
He let out a small sigh, hesitating.

"You want to know the whole story?"

"Oh, I have an input this time?"

Bucky half-heartedly laughed at the light humour, obviously unsure as to whether he should continue or not. I took this as my queue to take a seat next to him on the edge of my neatly made bed.

"You can tell me anything Buck, you know I won't judge you."

I hadn't opened up much to Bucky, but not once had he judged me for what I had done, yet at least. I had no place to judge him. He was the closest thing I had to a friend even though the Red Room had tried everything to teach me to trust nobody.
I didn't fully trust him. But I trusted him enough. That would be enough to make Madame B swoon.
It started off small as random smiles walking to training, the smiles progressed into the two of us walking to training with each other which then eventually turned into him barging into my room to talk and tell me stories of his past when he struggled to sleep at night. It was all too innocent, unrealistic. Something the Red Room could have never prepared me for.

Bucky.

He was staring down at his silver arm, anxiously playing with his fingers, tapping the silver digits slowly onto the white sheets.

"I was on a mission with Steve." His voice was quiet, almost incoherent at the mention of his old best friend. He paused. Hesitating once again.

"The world knew him has Captain America. He was always the small kid from Brooklyn to me though."

I shifted in my seat. The comics in Bucky's room were Captain America ones that dated back to as early as the 1940s.

"Our last mission together... we were hunting down Arnim Zola, a Swiss Scientist for Hydra, I fell 100 feet from a speeding train."

"Well that was a bit silly wasn't it?" I winked at him in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Joke all you want but I was a hero. The both of us were."

"Okay, but how did you manage to pick up the tesseract without burning yourself?"

"I was getting to that part, but you keep interrupting me." His voice was tired as he went back to playing with his fingers, unsure of how to word his explanation but the peace didn't last long.

I nudged my elbow into his arm, mostly as reassurance, a kind reminder that he could tell me anything, a small smile plastered to his mouth.
At this moment distress alarms began to scream throughout the building followed by multiple gunshots.