A.N.: Thanks for the review!
What We Were Made For
The Black Widow stumbled back a pace, propelled by the force of the blow the Winter Soldier had landed. He grinned even as he blocked her counterstrike, saying [You couldn't dodge that? I'm disappointed, Little Spider.]
[I didn't need to dodge,] she fired back, [My grandmother could hit harder.]
[Which grandmother? The Tsarina or Baba Yaga?]
[Very funny,] she snarled, landing a blow of her own just hard enough to remind him whom he was fighting. Their banter was fun; winning was better, and to do that required focus.
The Black Widow had been training with the Winter Soldier for about a month. That first time they'd sparred, she'd been primarily on the defensive, exploiting the rare opportunities to counter-attack as they arose. She'd improved to the point that she actually took the offensive sometimes, forcing him to play defense and wait for openings, but she had yet to best him.
Now, about half an hour into their current match, most combatants would be tiring, but the Winter Soldier was exhilarated. He loved this back-and-forth with such a well-matched opponent, this dance of theirs-
A flash of blond hair and blue eyes shot through the back of his mind, an image that had begun to haunt the Soldier's fragmented dreams.
"I don't get it, Steve," his own voice sounded very far away, "What exactly are you waiting for?"
"The right partner," the scrawny boy replied, and then he was gone, the Soldier back in the present, the strange experience – some sort of flashback? – taking only a moment.
A moment of distraction was all the Black Widow needed. She pressed her advantage against the Winter Soldier, and for the first time, she won.
As she swiftly brought him down – the first opponent he could remember being able to accomplish it, distraction or no – moving with as much grace as violence, he couldn't help the errant thought, the right partner.
As he took her proffered hand, allowing her to help him up, he grinned, [Congratulations. You just took down the Winter Soldier. Don't expect it to happen again.]
She returned his smile as they separated, but watched him carefully with guarded eyes, seeming almost concerned. Neither said anything as they followed their usual routine; it was their custom to stretch between matches to keep their muscles warm and supple while she analyzed the fight and anything she'd learned from it, after which he added any insight his greater experience afforded him.
She stretched in a way not quite like any he'd ever seen before, and he'd asked her about it once.
[Ballet,] had been her only answer, and though he'd given no indication, she'd known he'd been surprised. And, no matter how much he'd wanted to, he'd asked no questions.
Now, as the silence stretched on between them, and he waited for her to speak, he was surprised by what she finally said.
[What distracted you?]
Of course, she'd noticed his distraction, that was a given for her, but he hadn't been sure she would question it, and he certainly hadn't expected her to lead with it.
The question was, how would he answer her?
[What makes you say I was distracted?]
She didn't deign to answer that beyond one of her looks, and he conceded the point with a small, rueful smile and a cock of the head.
[Right, yeah…Does it matter?]
The Black Widow hesitated. Questions generally weren't encouraged in the Red Room, but this was the Winter Soldier she was talking to. He wasn't one of their handlers. He was…
He was an unknown quantity, which made him more dangerous than just about anything else. But, not as dangerous as he was rendered by the fact that she didn't think of him as such. No, the most dangerous thing about the Winter Soldier was that he made the Black Widow feel safe.
Carefully, she shrugged with perfect nonchalance, [It takes a lot to catch you off guard.]
[Yeah, well…What did isn't important. What's important is you're good enough now to take advantage of it. Most opponents wouldn't have been able to take me down, even with that opening. But, then, you've never been "most opponents."]
It wasn't exactly a subtle change in topic, but then, what did she expect? He was a soldier, not a spy. So, the ball was in her court now. Would she push or play it safe?
She watched him carefully, seeing the guarded look in his eyes. She knew what that was like, the constant need to hide. You can trust me, she felt the sudden urge to say, but she held her tongue. Of course, he couldn't trust her, nor, she had to remind herself, could she trust him.
Trusting people, in a life like theirs, was what got you killed – or worse.
So, inclining her head in acknowledgement of the compliment, she said, [I only wondered what it was in the interest of preventing it in the future. If we're ever sent into the field together, I don't want you compromised when I need you.] But, she thought of that guarded look she'd seen in his eyes, that fear, so familiar, of having no one to trust or rely on, and she took a chance: She looked him in the eye and didn't bother to make her words convincing, as they both knew she could.
His gaze turned intent, and he nodded in acknowledgement of what she'd said – and, more importantly, what she hadn't.
[Don't worry about it. It won't happen a second time, I promise,] he said, and she believed him. [So, let's see if you can take me down without it.]
The Black Widow stepped forward, returning his sharp smile and meeting the challenge in his eyes with a glint in her own.
[Let's.]
After three months of training with the Winter Soldier, the Black Widow could best him almost as often as he could her. It was good enough for their superiors, and she found herself facing one final examination before being released back into the field.
Alone and weaponless, the Black Widow faced an entire garrison in a crowded street in broad daylight. Usually, her initial tactic would be evasion, but her mission that day was not to get something past them; it was to eliminate them.
For every opponent she took out, she maneuvered two more into disposing of each other. Standing alone at the end of the street, fallen bodies scattered behind her, the Black Widow turned to face the mouth of a dark alley and, with a deliberate smirk, said in clear, perfectly accented American English, "Idiots."
"Some of them are, agreed, but not all of us," the Winter Soldier continued the play on their first meeting, stepping from the shadows with a smirk of his own. As he drew nearer, she levelled the gun she'd taken from one of her assailants at him. He stopped his advance, but only seemed to grow more amused.
"You really think I can't disarm you?"
"Before I get off a shot?" Preempting any response he may have given, she squeezed the trigger.
Of course, the Soldier dodged the stun gun's discharge, but the Widow hadn't expected to hit him and had already dropped the useless weapon by the time he reached her. As they engaged, he murmured, [You know Polzin will be pissed,] sounding entirely too pleased about it.
As if on cue, a strident voice snapped, [Enough,] and the two parted as their handler continued, [Look what you did to these men, Widow! This is a bigger mess than the Soldier made!]
[If you wanted me to be gentle,] she said, unconcerned, [Then you shouldn't have let him train me. But, it was my understanding that the only thing that gets you killed more quickly than being gentle is needing your opponent to be.]
Glaring at her, the bearded man snarled, [You're back in the field. Go be Volkov's problem now. Report to him with the Soldier for debriefing.]
[Sir,] she acknowledged with careful neutrality before turning to walk away.
[And, good riddance,] she heard muttered behind her, making up in vehemence what it lacked in volume.
Striding toward her first mission in far too long with the Winter Soldier a solid and familiar presence at her side, the Black Widow's lips curved upward into a dark smirk the sight of which had caused grown men to tremble in fear. The Winter Soldier answered her expression with an upward quirk of his own lips.
[I think he means "Happy Hunting."]
The Black Widow's first mission after being cleared once more for active field duty was downright insulting. She'd been sent to gather intelligence, nothing more, and while she could appreciate a straightforward mission, she could have completed this one alone with her eyes closed on a bad day.
Instead, she had the Winter Soldier perched on a neighboring rooftop providing unnecessary cover that did nothing but grate on her nerves, "in case her skills in espionage had dulled through disuse while she'd focused on combat training." They hadn't. When she rejoined him, he began dismantling his rifle. They'd call it in when he was finished.
They didn't get the chance; a controlled voice sounded in their comm links, restraining but not masking the frantic edge to it.
[Mission Status.]
Aware of his companion's less than charitable feelings towards command at the moment, the Winter Soldier answered before she could say anything untoward.
[Boring, but complete. Black Widow was in and out. I was superfluous.] Technically, he'd stated only the facts. Only the slightest edge to his voice suggested that he shared his partner's feelings on this mission. Judging by her slight relaxation and the even slighter upward twitch of her lips, the Black Widow picked up on it.
[Sh!%. Well, it's time to get back in. There's a situation.]
[Sir?]
The other voice sighed, in that way that meant he knew the operatives wouldn't take his news well, before explaining with audible reluctance, [There was…another redundancy. We sent him in to get the intel, just in case.]
The Black Widow finally added her own voice to the conversation, [Blue tie, blond hair, tacky cufflinks. Yeah, I saw him. In fact, he made himself pretty hard to miss.]
Well, that explained just how irritable she'd been when she'd rejoined him, thought the Soldier.
Their handler at least had the grace to sound uncomfortable as he said, [Yes, well, apparently you weren't the only one who thought so.]
The Widow turned her attention to muttering imprecations under her breath, leaving the Winter Soldier to inquire, [So, what are we talking about here? Extraction or damage control?]
[That depends on how quickly you find him. They're taking him to some sort of base. Last known location…]
He gave them the necessary details, voice fading away to leave the two assassins glancing at each other in the sudden silence on the rooftop.
[Looks like we might have some fun tonight after all,] the Black Widow said with a sharp smile.
[I wouldn't count on it,] the Winter Soldier fired back, [Doesn't sound like it'd take much to handle that idiot they sent in. Seriously, where do they find these guys?]
[Well, a girl can hope, right?] And, then, they were off.
When asked about how the two had worked together, the operative they'd extracted would later report, [They speak of the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier. They say they are not people but weapons. I always thought these were only stories. And, then, I saw them. No humans could do that.]
The operatives had been trained to work alone, to never rely on anyone. They fought together seamlessly.
The only thing more fun than fighting the Black Widow, the Winter Soldier decided, was fighting with her. The feeling was mutual.
Time passed, and the world spun on. The Black Widow was given missions that actually merited her skills, and she completed them alone. The same was true of the Winter Soldier.
Every so often, however…Well, to put it simply, crap happened. And, when a seemingly impossible to handle situation arose, the Widow and the Soldier were sent in to handle it. They hadn't failed yet.
In the course of dealing with their latest disast- ahem, mission, however, the Soldier had taken a bullet. The two stumbled into a safe house, and the Widow examined the wound. It had been a clean shot, passing through his right shoulder without hitting anything important and leaving clear points of entry and exit. As she began cleaning it, he said, [I can do that myself.]
At the tense note in his voice, she stilled but did not draw back. Instead, she searched his eyes, carefully guarded in a way they hadn't been around her in a long time.
I don't like doctors, he'd told her once, and she wondered if whatever reason he had for it was what bothered him now.
Eventually, eyes still locked on his, she said, [I know you can. But, you don't have to.]
He looked at her intently for a while before giving a stiff nod. She paused a moment, realizing what he was giving her in the gesture. Trust.
She worked quickly and carefully, keeping her touch as gentle as possible. As she patched him up, she felt him watching her closely, but not warily. In fact, she felt him slowly but surely relax under her hands. When she finished, looking up at him once more, his gaze took her breath away.
After a pregnant pause, he softly said, [Thank you…Natalya.]
He was pushing boundaries, to use her given name like that. Boundaries she chose not to enforce, simply meeting his eyes and dropping the walls in her own to let him know it was okay. Another moment passed. She knew what he wanted but wondered whether he would be brave enough to take it. Whether he would trust her enough.
Maybe he was reckless or naïve, or maybe he knew she wanted it as much as he did. In any case, he gently pressed his lips to hers. This was far from the Black Widow's first kiss, but it may as well have been for the effect it had on her.
[You're welcome, my dear,] she finally said when she'd regained her breath.
[Pet names, Little Spider?]
[I don't know your name, and I'm sure as he%% not calling you 'Winter Soldier' in bed, so yes, I'm going to make up pet names – unless you'd like to choose a name for me to call you?]
His first impulse was to quip, What makes you think I'll be taking you to my bed? But, she'd see it as a deflection, and maybe it would be one.
She'd asked his name once, and he'd told her he didn't have one. At the time, he'd believed it to be the truth. He still wasn't sure it wasn't. But, as time went on, his tangled dreams were becoming more frequent and vivid and spilling more often into waking hours, and some things were recurring.
A lab. Restraints. A mantra.
Sergeant James Barnes, 32557…
He looked at Natalya carefully. She met his gaze, looking surprisingly open and gentle – but not innocent; she'd never projected innocence for him. She'd been deadly even before he'd trained her, and afterwards, he knew exactly what she was capable of. He knew she was probably the best spy in the world. None of that was what made her dangerous, though, not to him. What made the Black Widow dangerous was that the Winter Soldier trusted her.
And, he knew exactly how stupid that was.
He could brush her off, trust her only to a point, have that night and mean nothing by it. But, he decided, if he couldn't trust her, he didn't want her at all. So, the question remained: Could he trust her?
After a moment, he took a deep, steadying breath, pushed aside his fear, and placed the bet of a lifetime.
"James," he said, giving her all he had to give, "I think my name was James."
"Was?" she followed his lead, switching to English.
"Still working on it," he kept his voice light, "Maybe I'll tell you sometime. Don't we have something more important to worry about?" It had been far too long since he'd smiled like that; too bad it didn't quite reach his eyes.
"James," she whispered, looking at him intently, and something inside him melted at the tenderness in her voice.
That should have set off warning bells; since when was the Black Widow tender? But, this wasn't the Black Widow, he realized; this was Natalya.
"Thank you," she said softly. She didn't need to say for what.
And, she didn't need to project her sincerity for him to see it.
He kissed her again, all hesitance forgotten, and when they broke, she said, "Right, yeah, more important things," reaching for his hand with a smile.
It was his left hand, though, and he drew it back, muttering "Not that one."
She looked up at him, a question in her eyes.
"It's not…It's a weapon, Natalya. It was made for killing, not for…this."
Holding his gaze, she whispered, "So were we," and reached slowly, deliberately this time, for his metal hand. He didn't move away, and she took his hand in her own, bringing it gently to her lips.
Maybe, he thought, just maybe, they could have more than what they'd been made for.
