Winter's Soulmate | Winter Soldier ✔

Chapter Eleven

~Amelies POV~

I felt like screaming at myself.

I just kissed my soulmate and he didn't kiss me back.

Winter was stood in the kitchen, trawling through a website and offering suggestions of food we could order, with the money Tony Stark had just sent to an offshore account we could access.

Not that I told Winter that specific detail. He said he needed Euros so I figured I could help.

Instead of helping looking for food I sat on the sofa, trying to rest my sore ankle and avoid staring at the man who had my heart wrapped in his hands. He must have seen through my thinly veiled smile as I pulled back, realising he didn't want that intimacy, not yet, and maybe not ever.

"Pasta?"

"Yeah." I called back, "always."

There was a long silence, and I began picking at the cake our neighbour had brought round. She'd given me reassurances that if Winter ever hurt me then I'm to go to hers, but I knew he wasn't capable of that.

He promised me he wanted to look after me... if he didn't then we wouldn't be here.

The sun has set hours ago, due to the frosty air of winter approaching, and I'd been curled up in blankets since my shower. Winter had made me a mug of tea, minus the gone off milk, but I was struggling to drink it. I felt sick with nerves, but I was too embarrassed to talk about what had just happened.

"We should go out tomorrow." He mumbled, "a walk."

"There are hundreds of reasons to not go anywhere." I grumbled.

The silence fell again, but I was used to it. As the Winter Soldier, trained assassin and full time murderer, I was used to him being silent, studious. But for once the silence was upsetting, and I tried to fight away the tears before he noticed anything.

I could hear him shuffling, something I knew he was doing for my benefit, as he usually moved with no sound.

But then I glanced to the side and there he was, staring at me with challenging eyes. "You need to rebuild the strength. Rest today, work tomorrow."

"There are cameras, people are witnesses, we need to plan a way out of Italy... not go on a stroll around a park as if this is normal."

He frowned, his head moving a shadows width away from me. "Normal."

"This isn't normal Winter, being on the run isn't a normal thing."

"And you don't want this."

"I..."

He took a step closer.

"I didn't say I didn't want this."

"I want this."

I stared at him, his pointed expression causing a flaming blush to rise on my cheeks. He looked both sure of himself, and as if he was in doubt, as he took another step closer.

"I do want this." I mumbled in agreement, "but that doesn't make this any more normal..."

"I promise you." He slowly sank to his knees in front of me, his hands slowly cradling mine. "If I can give you normal, then I will. But right now my priority is ensuring your safety."

I nodded gently, my breath catching in my throat as his eyes flicked hesitantly to my lips. But then he stood back up, walked around the sofa and towards the kitchen. The gentle click of the keyboard reminded me he was still looking for food, to keep us sustained and moving, but my mind was focussed on those eyes.