The Chill of Winter

The soft, tender skin of my cheek rested on the firm muscles of his chest. I looked up at his gentle, sleeping face and lifted my hand to lightly caress his chin.

It's hard to believe that a few months ago I was sent on a mission to destroy him. 

One of Hydra's two surviving supersoldiers had been compromised by a single man named Steve Rogers. I was the rebound, the one that was ordered to assassinate him without mercy to prevent any form of retaliation. 

I spent 19 years caged like an animal forced to fight others until my knuckles were raw and bloody and they were unconscious, left bleeding to death on the floor. There was no mercy, no love in my childhood but I came to understand companionship by the way the supersoldiers huddled together in pools of blood after the fights.

I could recognize when someone had struggled and I saw the pain in his eye when I first saw him. It was if he was telepathically communicating with me and telling me that he understood and that he had struggled too. 

As my thoughts came to a close and I stared aimlessly into space, I felt his eyes boring into my soul in the same way it felt when I first met him. 

"Your confused face is cute, doll", he uttered as he gently stroked my cheek. 

"I love you, Tessa", he continued.

"I love you, too, Cuddly Bear", I responded, giddily. 

He scoffed.

Just as he leaned in for a kiss, a loud, booming series of knocks echoed through the house, rattling the walls and descending down through the house's foundation. The made a loud crashing noise as a battering ram knocked the door from its hinges. 

We rushed out of bed onto the cold, morning floor and scrambled to get out as soon as possible. I hastening put on my boots and jacket as Bucky did the same. He jammed his fist into the floorboard to pull out the emergency kits he normally packs in case someone is after him. 

We rush out the door onto the staircase where we find soldiers, as it seems, on every single step. 

Bucky swings and hits the first guy with a power jab right to the head. He mows through the first few guys before jumping over the rail and leaving me to fight the left. 

I give the first guy a powerful front kick and he tumbles down the stairs along with his comrades clearing the path. 

Just as I'm about to proceed down the stairs Bucky has already cleared someone grabs me from behind.

'Dang It', I yelled internally, I should have known they would have a team on the roof. 

The guy behind me slips his hand with a cloth in front of my face and over my mouth. I'm struggling to breathe as I feel my thoughts and consciousness slipping away. I look down one last time and catch Bucky's expressive, blue orbs worriedly staring into my soul. 

One of the soldiers takes advantage of his graze and sneak attacks him with a blow to head from behind. He falls to the ground lifeless as I lose all control and fall into a deep sleep. 

All this trouble and it's my fault that they took my love.

...

I wake up to find myself in a damp, dark room with cold, metal restraints engulfing my wrists. I struggle against them in vain. 'Must be vibranium', I thought.

"Agent 013, it seems that you've failed to complete your mission", a sinister voice retorts from the static-y intercom

I struggle harder against the restraints as I realize that HYDRA now had complete control over me. 

"Not only did you fail the mission, but you FRATERNIZED WITH THE ENEMY, he continued in his stern German accent.

 "I DON'T BELONG TO YOU AND I NEVER WILL", I screamed harshly, as my voice cracked at the end. 

"I can't break you so I'll break him instead", he said.

I looked over to see my love in the same situation as I was, restrained to a metal chair in a box of bulletproof glass.

Then he began:

"Желание. Ржавый. Семнадцать."(Longing. Rusted. Seventeen)

"UGGGGHHHhhHHhHh", Bucky screamed in agony. 

 "Рассвет. Печь. Девять. Добросердечный. Возвращение на родину. Один. Грузовой вагон. (Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight car.) 

Доброе утро, Солдат. ( Good morning, Soldier.)

His eyes had blacked over as he stared at me.

"Kill her", the voice said.

Bucky banged his fist harshly and furiously against the glass until it broke like a ceramic plate.

The cell door released as he rushed over to me, ready to kill.

He grabbed me by his shoulder and began pummeling me in the face. I gently caressed his cheek.

"Remember how we would lie in bed and play footsies."

"SHUT UP", as he continued to hit me.

"Remember how we watched the Lion King and you cried when Mufasa died."

"SHUT UP", he shouted as he became angrier. 

"Remember how Steve came over and made the cake that exploded."

"Steve and Tessa", he repeated as his anger seemed to calm down. 

He picked me up off the ground and embraced me while apologizing profusely. 

I knew how HYDRA was so I couldn't hold it against him. I sat there stroking his long, brown hair as I realized his bromance with Steve really tested the bounds against true love and friendship. 

I pulled away and stared in his eyes before he leaned in to give me a warm, passionate kiss.

"SEIZE THEM", the voice shouted as a group of soldiers rushed toward us. 

This time we were ready. Our love had been sealed with a kiss.

...

We took them out in 12 minutes flat and destroying the entire facility at the same time. 

We took a taxi to upstate New York to the new Avengers facility. We knocked on the door and were greeted by ...

"Steve?!"