For this chapter, all Italics within dialogue = speakers using Russian.

and

Bold Words = Russian or French; translations at the end.

PS.

I used both italics and the actual language for some reason, don't ask why. To remind you what language they're speaking? I really don't know. Just felt like it.

Also, I used Google translate, so translations or context or whatever could possibly be wrong, but let's pretend I know what's what for the sake of the story. And I did the thing where it's spelled with English alphabet so you can at least attempt to read along...Sometimes I'm bothered when peeps use Russian alphabet, because I can't even sound it out if I wanted to. That's just me though. If you haven't guessed already...I'm not Russian.

Sorry if I offend anyone by butchering either language. I know the translation can get lost sometimes. Any tips are appreciated.

PPS.

This chapter is a bit smutty at the end. Just a bit. Just a tad. Read with caution?

Sometime in the mid 1980's, The Winter Soldier and The Red Vixen are partners.

She gets a small taste of what it's like to be the hero and he struggles to remember what love means.

While the Winter Soldier is more known for his formidable fighting skills and ever growing body count, the Red Vixen proves to be the more skillful at espionage and infiltration, although their employers often liked to test her limits from time to time. They also liked to test her loyalty.

Her back had hit the wall and her breath caught from the force. A cold, hard, metal hand wrapped around her throat and she opened her eyes only to find black spots in her vision.

"Please, she gasped inaudibly. "Pozhaluysta ostanovis!"

"Predatel." A deep voice growled at her. "You should die for your betrayal."

She choked on a humourless laugh. "And who will kill me? You? That would be the ultimate betrayal, volk. One that I do not deserve." His hand tightened and a gurgle bubbled up her throat. Her pale face began to turn red and her eyes became glazed.

"You let him escape. He was your mission. If I don't kill you now, you'll be begging for death when they learn of your failure."

"U nego byl rebenok na rukakh!" She argued weakly, struggling to breathe through the hold her partner had on her small neck, but she knew better than to fight back, so she refrained from trying to rip herself away from him like they both knew she could. It would be best to show submissiveness when her wolf was so angry. "The child was no more than a few months old. What should I have done?" Tears gathered in her eyes, both from her lack of oxygen and the emotions brewing inside of her as she tried to plead her case. "Should I have slit the father's throat and let his blood drown the child? I may be a slave to HYDRA, but I refuse to be a monster."

The "like you" was implied, but she managed to stop herself from saying the words aloud. It would have been a low blow and hypocritical at best, but they both knew that she was the lesser of two evils. He killed far more often than she had, and he often did it with no mercy. No hesitation.

He'd heard the silent words anyway, judging by the way his shoulders stiffened and his hand on her throat tensed even tighter than before. After a few moments of the choking sounds from her lips echoed in the moonlit warehouse, his hand loosened, yet remained firmly on her neck, keeping her from collapsing on the concrete ground. She sucked in air greedily as her vision began to focus. Her green eyes immediately landed on his cold blue that glared at her through the dark curtain of his shoulder-length hair. She dare not speak, in fear of angering him enough to harm her again. She only continued to breathe deeply. The woman watched him. Waiting for his next move.

"They'll punish you for this." His voice, though still rough from neglect, was considerably softer than his angry growl before. Sweeter. Sadder. "They'll make me do it, malen'kaya lisa. I'll have no choice. It'd be merciful to just kill you now."

"Do what you feel you must," She whispered. "But know this, I do not regret letting that man run. I'll die by your hand, gladly, if it means that baby will grow up with her father."

The metal resting against her neck vanished before he took a slow step forward, trapping her between his arms-one flesh, one metal-as he rested his palms on either side of her head. His broad chest pressed lightly against her breast and she closed her eyes as his forehead came to rest gently on hers.

"Why?" Her partner rasped softly. A tone only reserved for her. His flesh hand moved so that his fingers could run gently through the short strands of her strawberry-blonde hair. It was barely enough to grasp, but he still liked to rake his fingers through it, to feel the softness of it. "Why sacrifice your life for a man you do not know?"

Sometimes he liked to imagine what she'd look like with hair that flowed down her back or over her shoulders. Sometimes he thought he knew exactly what it would look like, but it was nothing but a fleeting image under his eyelids. A whisper of a memory his mind was to damaged to recognize.

"My life?" She laughed bitterly while instinctively leaning into his gentle touch. Does a slave have a life? How could she, when she doesn't even own a name? She only knew the name they gave her. "My life means nothing."

"Eto znachit vse dlya menya."

"Don't." She shook her head while a lone tear finally rolled down her cheek. It startled them both. Neither remember ever crying before. "Don't say that. You don't mean it. You were about to kill me."

"They'll make me hurt you." He grabbed her face with both hands, his eyes searching hers. He didn't like the defeat he saw in them. He didn't like the resolve. "They'll have me torture you."

She only stared blankly at him in reply. She was accepting her fate, whatever it may be.

He suddenly ripped himself away from her; it made her flinch.

"Why did you do this!?" He yelled while tugging as his own hair. He looked like a cornered animal, feral and desperate for escape. A wolf with his hackles raised and his teeth bared.

And she was a fox. Just as fierce as her wolf, only smaller and surprisingly less afraid.

"I don't want to be a slave! I don't want to kill anymore! I don't want to be this any longer!" She screamed in return while gesturing between them and he winced as if she pained him.

Without her, he would truly be what he constantly feared he would become. A monster. It was her that kept the dark from engulfing him. It was her that shined a single light on him. It was her that kept him from losing himself completely. He knew that he was more than HYDRA said he was. He knew he had a life before them. He knew they took something precious from him, but he just couldn't remember what it was, because they took his memories, too.

So if his little fox were to perish, and if it were to be by his own hands? Then he would finally break. Darkness would finally grab ahold of him and no other light, but her's would chase it away. He didn't want to be a slave anymore than she did. He didn't want to kill. He didn't want to be The Winter Soldier. And he certainly didn't want her to be The Red Vixen either, but it was all he knew. Without her, it would be all he'd ever be. But, with her by his side, he felt like more. He felt the most. And he feared much less.

He couldn't lose her. He needed her. He wanted her forever.

Perhaps if he remembered what it felt like to be human and not the machine HYDRA made him to be, he'd have known that what he felt for the small woman was love. That it wasn't obsession, or attachment. It was his deepest self reaching out to her's.

He only knew that he wanted her to stay by his side. That he would be lost without her. And that he liked her soft hair and her glowing green eyes.

But he wasn't the man he used to be. He was hardly a man at all. The Winter Soldier only knew how to follow orders. He knew how to kill, how to torture, how to fight. He knew how to be the weapon they wanted him to be.

But, he also knew his partner. The one he's had for as long as he can remember. The small woman before him who was clever, and cunning, and sly. She was quick, she was efficient. She had short red-orange hair that reminded him of the fur of a red fox. Her eyes were striking green that glowed in the dark. Despite her size, her strength matched to her partner's, although her reflexes and senses were unparalleled. The Winter Soldier was their most efficient weapon, but The Red Vixen was their prized jewel. She was HYDRA's greatest spy. Their slithering snake. However, she was also their second best assassin, which meant she could just as easily kill a victim as seduce one for intel. She was told that she was born to be The Red Vixen. It was destined, they said, for her to use her natural-born enhancements to aid HYDRA in their cause. She was a gift, they told her. She would help shape mankind with The Winter Soldier by her side.

She was known to never fail a mission. To never disobey orders.

Until the day her mission was to kill a man holding a baby in his arms. A man who was a so-called threat to HYDRA. A man who was to be eliminated as quickly and silently as possible. She had to make it look like an accident. So she was given a poison that would make the consumer die hours later to what doctors would deem as a heart attack.

The day had went how it usually went when they were needed to "shape the world". She and her partner were brought out of their containment. They were given their target. They were dropped off miles away so that they can stay hidden from civilians. They pinpointed the target's exact location before she infiltrated the building with her partner's careful instructions while he watched through the scope of his rifle on the opposite building if the man were to try to escape.

It wasn't until she entered the target's dark home that she realized that she would be killing the father of a newborn baby. She spied him, cradling the child in his arms while he sung in a language that was vaguely familiar to her though she couldn't remember ever learning. She made the mistake of remaining there, watching in curiosity and a hint of regret.

She should have left the room while she was unnoticed, hid until the target went to sleep so that she could drip the poison in his mouth before returning to wait with her partner so that they can confirm her kill. When she entered the home, she had been enthralled by the lullaby. She became curious.

Surprising her, the man addressed her in her primary language without even turning to look at her hidden form in the shadows. With her body covered head-to-toe in black, complete with a hood and the retractable turtle neck covering the lower half of her face, she was practically invisible in the dark, he had somehow known of her presence. Every breath of her's was as silent as her steps. She was trained to be swift, silent. Like a Ghost.

It was then she realized the old man must have had some form of training. A former HYDRA soldier perhaps? Or maybe even a recruit of an enemy organization? She knew nothing about him other than his name, approximate age, and a photo of his face that had to have been taken at least a decade earlier. She didn't even know his crime.

All she knew what that she was ordered to kill him. She heard one of her handlers mutter the words "thief" and "traitor" before she departed for her mission with The Winter Soldier. So he must have done something to anger HYDRA. Enough to want him dead. Enough to wake her up from her frozen slumber. Usually such a task would go to her partner, but the boss had been quite adamant that it be her to kill the enemy. Neither she nor her partner would dare question it.

The man asked her if she was sent to eliminate him. When he bravely turned towards her and she saw a flash of recognition and hidden pain in his eyes, but she couldn't remember ever encountering the target before. This confused her, but she kept her face neutral, her eyes emotionless.

The man was much older than she, shown by the aging skin around his eyes and mouth. The silver in his blond hair. She noticed he had green eyes. Eyes that reminded her of her own though less unnatural. More human. She thought perhaps her eyes would look more like his if she were more human.

The baby he held was a girl. A little baby girl with golden tufts of hair, swaddled in pink. Her eyes were closed.

She hadn't answered him. Too distracted by the small, yet beautiful human cradled protectively in his arms.

He asked what would happen to his daughter once he was dead. He admitted to having no wife, no other family able to care for her.

She replied that she would likely become an orphan. A couple would find her, take her in, love her, raise her as their own. The Red Vixen didn't know where her trying words of comfort had come from. She knew nothing of orphans, or adoptions, or what it was like to be cared for. She only hoped to ease the man's worries for his child before his death. It was the least she could do, as she would be the one to make the child an orphan. It would be her doing.

She felt guilt for the first time on a mission.

The man saw her weakness. She wasn't quick enough to hide the feeling from her eyes. He latched onto it and began to beg for his life. He told her of his supposed crime. Leaving HYDRA to start a life. For only a few years did he remain hidden from HYDRA before being found where he stood, in front of the infamous The Red Vixen-unknowingly to her, in the country she was born in. The man told her that the mother died in childbirth. That the baby was all that he had left of her. The one he sacrificed everything for. He told the small, deadly woman before him that he had promised his the child's mother moments before her death that he would take care of her daughter and raise her with the love and care the newborn deserved.

The Red Vixen listened. A foreign feeling tugging at her cold heart. It was a warmth that scared her. It enveloped her and brought the startling feeling of tears to her eyes. She told the man that she could not fail her mission. She just couldn't. He told her that he understood and somehow she knew he was speaking the truth. And it was that truth, the resolved look in his tear-filled eyes as he kissed his child on her small forehead that prompter her to make her decision.

But first, she had to know the little girl's name. It was nagging at her, in the back of her skull. She said as much, and the man looked surprised before a watery smile curled at the corner of his lips.

"Charlotte Rose," he told the small woman, smiling slightly. "After my big sister. I lost her during World War II." He looked down to his daughter. "She looks just like her. I suppose you could say my family genes are strong."

The Red Vixen blinked. A sharp pain throbbed in her mind, but she ignored it and told the man to gather necessities. She told him that he didn't have much time. That her partner would grow impatient. A few tears traveled down his cheeks and he whispered his gratitude in the same familiar language that he sung to the baby. The Red Vixen understood him, and the ache in her skull intensified. It was so familiar. He was familiar. She didn't want to kill him. She didn't think she could.

She sat, stiffly on a chair in the small kitchen, staring blankly at the wall as she listened to the man gather a few bags of necessities like she instructed. She would aid him safely out of the building before distracting her partner long enough for the man to have a chance at survival.

"I am ready," the man told her softly, though it still caused her to flinch in surprise. She looked at him, how he struggled to hold his sleeping baby and the bags hanging from his shoulders.

Without thinking, she reached for the child. He took a step back and clutched the little girl tighter to his chest. She didn't understand the hurt she felt at watching him cower away. However, he saw it there in her eyes and his own softened. He hesitated only for a moment before slowly handing the child over to the lethal spy before him. The woman gently cradled the baby in the crook of her left arm before snatching one of his bags of his shoulder to lighten the load so that he could move faster. She tried to ignore the way her heart pounded abnormally. She tried to keep her eyes from looking at the weak, little fist that latched onto the leather of her amour. She ordered the man to follow her every move and to keep up with her at all costs. They didn't have much time left. She lead him down the staircase, before directing him towards the back door that lead to an alley she hoped would be out of her partner's eyesight. Then she led him further away from where she knew The Winter Soldier was perched and found him a car that would get him to wherever he chose to go.

She watched him hotwire the car before helping him settle his things in the backseat. She hesitated before returning his child. She looked at her sleeping face and slowly traced her index finger along the baby's brow. The little girl opened her eyes and The Red Vixen gasped softly. Little green eyes looked up at her, unafraid. Curious. Innocent.

"Elle est belle." The Red Vixen stated in what she assumed was her target's mother tongue; completely unaware how she knew the language she guessed to be French. She spoke in a whisper, afraid that she might startle the baby if she spoke any louder.

When she looked up at the man, she was startled to see tears once again in his eyes. Mistaking it for fear for his child, she quickly, yet carefully gave her to him.

"Où dois-je aller?" He asked her, gently rocking the child as she stirred within his arms. A little pale hand reached out for her.

"America," she told him. "Somewhere populated. Somewhere you can blend in. They found you, because you chose this small town." She looked around, fighting to ignore the way the ache in her skull pounded at the sight of a bakery at the end of the street. She couldn't keep from rubbing at her temples with the tips of her fingers. Her action was not unnoticed by the man before her. "You know how to get the rest of what you need? Passports, documents?" He nodded and she sighed in relief, for she knew that she could not help him beyond this point.

"What will happen to you, Red Vixen?"

Her eyes snapped toward him at the name given to her by the people she hated. A voice inside told her that wasn't her name, but the thought was gone as fast as it came.

"I imagine I'll be punished for my failure." She looked around once more, sighing at the way the man's face seemed to fall at her words.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not," she told him honestly, surprising them both. "Now go." She gestured to the running car.

He laid his child gently in his baby carrier in the passenger seat, before settling into the driver side. He shifted the gear, but a quiet knock on the window kept him from stepping on the gas pedal. He rolled the window down for the woman, restraining himself from saying what he really wanted, knowing that if he told her the truth, it would only cause more problems. It'd frighten her like it always did whenever she learned the truth. Whenever he tried, it never turned out well.

"Je te souhaite bonne chance, Mr. Mason," she said sincerely in flawless French which both elated and saddened him all at once.

"Je vous remercie. À cause de vous, Charlotte et moi resterons une famille."

She shocked herself by saying, "La protéger."

"Avec ma vie." She was even more shocked by how much his answer pleased her.

She nodded to him once in goodbye, before backing away until she was engulfed by shadows. She waited until he was no longer in sight before turning to find her partner. Just as she was about to climb the side of the building she left him at, a hand wrapped around her throat and she was dragged into the empty warehouse. She barely had time to read the sign that told her it was an old butcher shop before she was pushed inside violently.

That's how she found herself explaining to her partner why she would intentionally fail a mission given to her. Because, despite HYDRA's efforts, she still had a heart. And though it was a weakness, she still felt empowered by her decision to save a life rather than take one. It pleased her even more that she'd saved two.

It was because of her heart and her foolishness accompanied by the thought of her dead and the overwhelming fear it evoked within The Winter Soldier that he found himself feeling quite frazzled. Desperate. He didn't know what for. He just knew that her mistake will cost them both.

Her. You're desperate for her. Show her.

"Ty durak," He told her before doing something neither of them expected.

He roughly grabbed her arm and yanked her forward so that he could press his lips to her in a bruising and nearly painful kiss.

Neither of them remembered kissing one another before, but it felt easy. Familiar. Almost natural for their tongues to meet and fight for dominance. She let him win, and she found that it was easy, too; surrendering herself to him was so easy. His hands held her small hips. Her fingers grasped his hair. Her back hit the wall once more and she gasped as his mouth moved from her mouth and to her neck, an animalistic growl in his throat as she whimpered for him.

Before her mind could process the gravity of the situation she found herself in, she was tugging at his leather armoured vest. The sound of their various weapons clattered on the cement floor and soon her own uniform joined them. It was when his torso was bare and he was panting as he held her up against the wall that he paused to watch her small, pale fingers trace the jagged scars surrounding his metal limb where it met with the flesh of his chest. He held his breath as she turned her head so that she could kiss the red star painted permanently onto his silver shoulder. It wasn't until her glowing eyes met his icy blue that he assaulted her swollen pink lips once more.

And although his movements were hurried and rough and his hands left bruises on her skin, she still threw her head back in pleasure whenever he hit that spot. And he would moan sinfully when her nails dug into his shoulder blades so deeply that the tips of her fingers came back red. She'd chant the name that she gave gave him and he'd whisper the one he gave her hotly in her ear. And when she reached her peak, he swallowed her screams with another kiss to the mouth and she felt tears of pain and pleasure pooling in her eyes when he didn't stop, only kept his bruising pace as he fucked her against the wall with a desperation she hardly seemed to understand, but relished in anyway. All she knew was that she wanted him and despite the pain, she enjoyed it. The feeling of his mouth of her's. The feeling of his strong arms holding her up. The feeling of him inside her. It was as close to Heaven as she was going to get.

And they kept at it until the sun came up, thinking only of each other and how much they enjoyed the sounds they made. The feel of their bodies pressed together.

They knew that once they were extracted by their handlers and they were returned to thier cold, hidden base, a punishment was waiting for the both of them. One that would require him to hurt her until she was bloody and broken, only to heal so he may start again. It's happened before. She would forgive him, as she was prone to do, but it would teach them a lesson neither of them will forget. The scars would make sure of it.

Disobey orders, pay the price. And the price was always paid full, by both of them, no matter who was at fault. HYDRA knew, to punish one was to punish the other. They knew who The Winter Soldier and The Red Vixen were before they became slaves. They knew who they were long after they were programmed to do their bidding.

Two tortured souls in love.

No amount of memory erasing could change that.

If only they could remember what it was they were feeling as they remained intertwined until morning. As the wolf took his little fox over, and over, and over until tears streamed down her face and blood dripped down his back. Until her hips were decorated in finger shaped bruises, one side darker than the other. Until his neck was littered with bite marks and her nails coated in red.

When it was time for them to dress and make their way across town to the extraction point, he asked her quietly to forgive him. For what, she wasn't sure. For the night of rough love making, or the beating they were both sure to come? Either way, she replied by gently kissing the corner of his mouth, lips tingling at the rough hair growing along his jaw and cheeks. Her eyes told him that she wasn't afraid and he admired her for it, but she could see the pain in his and the fear that he tried to hide.

Fear of losing her.

It wasn't until he was forced to punish her and then watch as she was strapped aggressively to a chair he hated with all his being that he realized that was exactly what he was going to do. He was next. And if he was next then he was definitely going to lose her. Lose the night they had together. Lose all the feelings she evoked. While certain things he was programmed to remember, everything else would be stripped clean.

And it wouldn't be the first time.

It were almost like he were destined to lose her. Over, and over, and over again. His only hope was to find her once more.

One more time, one more time, just one more time. Please.

Russian

"Please, she gasped inaudibly. "Pozhaluysta ostanovis!" = "Please stop!" -RV

"PredatelYou should die for your betrayal." = "Traitor." -WS

"And who will kill me? You? That would be the ultimate betrayal, volk"= "wolf." -RV

U nego byl rebenok na rukakh!"= "He had a baby in his arms!" -RV

"They'll punish you for this. They'll make me do it,malen'kaya lisa" = "little fox." -WS

"My life means nothing." ...

"Eto znachit vse dlya menya." = "It means everything to me." -WS

"Dont. Don't say that. You don't mean it. You were about to kill me."

French

"Elle est belle." = "She's beautiful."

"Où dois-je aller?" = "Where should I go?" "America..."

"Je te souhaite bonne chance, Mr. Mason." = "I wish you good luck,"

"Je vous remercie. À cause de vous, Charlotte et moi resterons une famille." = "Thank you. Because of you, Charlotte and I will remain a family."

"La protéger." = "Protect her."

"Avec ma vie." = "With my life."

Russian

"Тy durak." = "You're a fool."

If you guessed that the mysterious "target" aka Mr. Mason with the baby is The Red Vixen/Charlotte's brother...then you guessed correct. (Spoiler? Kinda. Not really, I pretty much gave that away with the whole "She looks like my sis that I lost in the war" thing.) More on him in future chapters and how he and Charlotte may have ended up involved with HYDRA/KGB. And how will the baby fit into the story later on?

Any guesses?

Any comments?

No? Okay.