Hallo! I only own River and the storyline. Everything else belongs to Stan Lee and Marvel.
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It had been three weeks since the Winter Soldier had been brought in. Since then, River had noticed that he didn't seem to sleep well. She would come down, and he would look up, and she was always shocked to see large dark circles under his eyes every time. With every passing day, they seemed to grow a little bigger.
When she questioned the scientists, they answered that he would lie down at night, but he didn't seem to sleep. River wondered if that was a side-effect of brainwashing. Or was it something else? When she met up with Natasha one Wednesday for one of their lunch meet-ups, River was surprised to learn that the Winter Soldier had been one of her trainers in the Red Room, along with someone else called the Nightwitch. River frowned at this. "Who was the Nightwitch?" she'd asked.
Natasha had visibly grown darker. "An assassin that surpassed the Winter Soldier's ability to not feel. She was like a mountain—unmovable, unbreakable, unshakable—but then, when you least expected it, she'd lash out and kill you with three simple moves. The Nightwitch was… reserved, saved for missions that didn't need gathered intel. Several of the most mysterious murders in the world's history of the past few decades were done by her. I was actually the only trainee of hers that survived."
River shuddered. "Not someone you'd want to meet down a dark alley, then," she'd guessed.
"Definitely not," Natasha had agreed fervently.
The name Nightwitch sent a shiver of ice down River's spine, and she wondered if the mysterious assassin had something to do with her own past. She'd finished her meal and said her goodbyes to Natasha and headed back to the building where the Winter Soldier was being held soon after their conversation.
As River descended the stairs, she heard shouts from below. Angry, terrified and surprised shouts. Immediately, River was on her guard as she quickened her pace.
After coming down two flights of stairs, River stopped as she heard heavy, booted feet running up the stairs towards her. She gave an inward yelp of surprise as the Winter Soldier, of all people, came barreling towards her around the bend, but swiftly correlated herself, shouting, "What are you doing?!"
He stopped, jerking back as if she had slapped him. River could see a wild, panicked look in his eyes, and instantly knew that he wasn't entirely there. He wasn't the Winter Soldier, but he wasn't the sullen man who had almost smiled three weeks ago, either. He was breathing heavily, practically panting, and he stumbled backwards—fortunately, there weren't any steps for him to fall down—into the wall behind him, hands going up to either side of his head as he slid down it. River quietly descended the last few steps to the landing.
She stopped when she heard moaning. Nightmares, she thought. That's why he hasn't been sleeping well. Gently, kneeling down, River reached for one hand—the flesh-and-blood one—taking it in her own. The Soldier's eyes were shut tight, but he didn't react to the touch.
Suddenly, without warning, he shouted—a wordless scream of pain, so filled with hurt and loss it threw a wrench in River's own heart. Quietly, almost without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him in a silent embrace. She was surprised when he shuddered, but relaxed into it, practically burying his face in her black hair, trembling, broken. River closed her eyes as she held him, humming a wordless tune.
She opened her eyes again as she heard footsteps running up the stairs, and wasn't entirely surprised to see Steve barreling around the corner with two other agents. All three stopped at what River thought must have been a strange sight—the Winter Soldier, close to breaking down in the arms of sharp-tongued River. She saw Steve's face contort, saw the pain and loss on his features. He knelt beside them, resting a hesitant hand on the broken man's shoulder.
The ex-assassin didn't move, but tensed subtly. River whispered in his ear, "You can trust him. He's a friend." The Winter Soldier shuddered slightly, but relaxed, taking his face from out of her hair to look at Steve.
After a long moment, he finally spoke.
"Hey, punk."
Well. I'm leaving that there for now. I might post another chapter… if at least five people leave a nice, preferably-filled-with-constructive-criticism review.
FF
