The Winter Wraith (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

Chapter 17 - Last Request

The lazy morning light plays patterns on the ground from where it peaks through the curtains, gently pulling you from your dreams. You rest your head on the Winter Soldier's bare chest, his arm wrapped around you and your legs entwined. Bliss. This is utter bliss.

Though your mind is still slightly muddled with the sweet remnants of sleep, your head feels the clearest it has in a long time. You can remember almost everything that's happened since you were taken out of cryostasis when usually you don't remember anything at all.

The thought shakes you awake, intruding on the bubble of heaven you had lost yourself in.

Maybe forgetting things was just a side effect of going under so often. But the memories felt like they were dancing on the fringes of your consciousness, like a dream that you can't quite recall. Only they weren't a dream, they were real memories, real thoughts. Why couldn't you remember them? What was stopping you? Who was stopping you? Your lack of memories had never been that important to you before, but now that you felt like you were so close to remembering you had to, needed to, know the truth.

Afraid the Winter Soldier might somehow be awoken by your worries, and wondering whether the same thing was happening to him, you untangle yourself from his embrace, bare feet tiptoeing to the bedroom door. You find yourself in the living room, reading over the mission file for any other tasks. To your relief, you are to remain here until midnight when a taxi will pick you up.

Then you hear it. Three knocks, spaced evenly apart, from the apartment door. Just like yesterday. An uneasy feeling squirms in your stomach; there was not meant to be any more tasks. Swallowing back the unease and disappointment, you get off the couch and edge towards the door. The Winter Soldier appears at the bedroom doorway, hair mussed and eyes bleary, but with a loaded gun gripped in his hand. You give him a single nod, creeping down the hallway. Powers at the ready in case it is an enemy, a pleasant smile on your face in case it is room service, you throw open the door. An empty hall greets your sight, save for a lone file placed at your feet in a similar, if not identical, positioning to the suitcase you had received for the Autumn Ball. Scanning the corridor for any witnesses, you grab the file.

Retreating to the living room, you take a seat on the charcoal couch, the Winter Soldier next to you, and open the beige file. You read the document, taking in the details with the efficiency of someone who's done the task a thousand times. When you're finished, you hand it over to the Winter Soldier, though he only scans it. "Essentially, some gang douches stole an important file off a government official, and Hydra wants it."

His eyes flick down to the paper, and a small smile tugs at his lips. That exact wording?"

"More or less." You shrug.

His brow furrows, stuck on the same detail as you. "The Devilled Vipers? That's the name of the gang?"

"Hey, coming up with cool gang names can be challenging for some people."

He hums in agreement, but the real reason you're both concerned is that you've never heard of this gang before. If they were on Hydra's radar, they had to be important. So why didn't you know who they were? You can't find anything off about the papers; the codewords are correct, the formatting familiar, even the font and size of the words are like usual. If it wasn't for the mission itself, you wouldn't have questioned the instructions. But this, right after your strange encounter with Lorenzo? Something was up. "Well, I call bull."

The Winter Soldier doesn't argue, "Yep, Hydra wouldn't bother interfering with street gangs. Unless..."

You sigh. "Unless. Which means we have to go, even though it's probably an ambush." You both share a grim look, realising you'd probably have to fight your way out. On the bright side, the worst that could happen was someone killed you. Gunshot to the head or knife to the heart, you'd have to be dead before you knew what was happening if your attacker stood a chance. But if you returned to Hydra and the commanders found out you just ignored their assignment? You'd be praying someone would kill you. You would know.