The Winter Wraith (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

Chapter 14 - Diamond Daggers

Three knocks on your apartment door draw you out of your thoughts. You assume it's just room service, but it's better to be safe than sorry. You push yourself off the gym floor, stretching your arms over your head in a meagre attempt at a post-training warm down.

The door to your apartment faces a short hallway before opening into a living room. You see the Winter Soldier already reaching to open the door, dead silent as you both listen for anyone talking or the tell-tale click of a gun's safety.

You press yourself against the wall adjacent to the end of the hallway, out of sight and powers at the ready.

You can almost hear the Winter Soldier counting down: 3, 2, 1. The door flies open, and after a second you hear no gunfire, no shouting, so you look over the edge of the wall.

The Winter Soldier is crouching down over a plain black suitcase, eyes scouring the hotel floor for signs of the person who left it there. You don't need to look yourself to know no one's there.

Registering your presence, the Winter Soldier looks at you and gestures with his head to the unexplained suitcase. Knowing the question he's asking, you shake your head no, it's not a bomb. Hydra trained you to be able to sense the unique signatures of bombs with your powers, and nothing seems off about the suitcase.

With one more glance around, the Winter Soldier grabs the suitcase and shuts the apartment door. He carries it to the centre of the living room, placing it down and stepping back.

With both of you standing a couple of metres away, you use your powers to slowly unzip the suitcase. Nothing jumps out, no alarms go off, so you flip open the top.

The inside is deeper than you thought and has two outfits, a myriad of weapons and a few papers stacked inside. Courtesy of Hydra, then.

With only about an hour and a half left before the Autumn Ball, Hydra sure was cutting it close. But now you had your clothes, weapons, and final mission details – the ones they give you absolutely last-minute to prevent the mission being compromised.

The Winter Soldier pulls the suitcase up onto a low glass coffee table and starts unpacking the items.

You see that Hydra has given him two Glocks and twenty or so throwing knives. On a normal mission he would have at least one sniper, but this isn't exactly a normal mission. Besides, you think with a wry smile, he could make a weapon out of anything.

You, however, seem to only have one pistol accompanied by a thigh holster. Of course, you also have an arsenal of powers.

Next, the Winter Soldier pulls out an all-black tuxedo followed by a black pleated shirt, tie, and gloves, all folded carefully to avoid wrinkles.

You try not to imagine how good he'll look tonight, but you still feel a rush of excitement at seeing him all dressed up. His metal arm should be covered too, so he won't need to worry about hiding it.

He doesn't look nearly as excited. "You all right?" you ask.

He's still glaring at the suit when he responds, "I don't like tuxedos."

You're about to make some pitying remark when you see your clothes.

You had to admit, the dress was elegant. It was a burgundy satin evening gown with a V-neck and long sleeves. The high waist was completed by a small satin belt and side slit on the right leg, and the sharp shoulders of the dress contrasted the flowing skirt.

But it had been a while since you'd worn a dress – they were impractical – and you worried it might get in the way if things went wrong. Then I'll just have to make sure things go right.