Karine, no, Hydra being after Bucky is no surprise, but I swear there will be a surprise at the end, if I can bring my lazy butt to finish this story. Thanks for the good luck, I pulled through! That finals week lasted a year, I swear…
Endlessgalaxies, thank you! I try to stay dedicated… I guess that's the hardest part. I usually know how my stories end before I start writing them, as it helps me reach the end. I just hope I can keep my motivation going, because my style really reflects how much I enjoy writing.
Guest, good luck on your exam as well! If I've made it, so will you! And thank you for the comments, I try and remain true to the characters we have seen in the movies. I might make a more AU story after this one, as some of the things I had planned won't be able to happen in this context, as their relationship had become too… functional. Oh well… how many times does that happen? That people get along so well it kinda ruins the evil things you had planned?
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They made their way back towards the city as dawn rose, bleak and grey. There was a small, shady inn near the outskirts of Moscow, of which Lianka knew, where they could get a room without the owner asking any questions or pieces of ID, so long as they paid in advance. The trio had been through a lot these past few days and all agreed that it was better they lay low for a little while, take the time to heal, before rushing back into battle again. For all intents and purposes, if the super soldiers on their trail could think they had fled back to Wakanda, it would be best… the only chance they had to eliminate them was if they managed to take Hydra by surprise.
When they reached the inn, it was Bucky who went to get them a room, being the least battered member of the group that could actually speak Russian. Lianka would have gone, but she looked as though she'd very recently escaped from a particularly violent relationship and they did not trust the innkeepers to not get curious if they saw her. Bucky returned to the tired, waiting pair with a key and a wry grin.
« All she had was a room with one bed. » He winked at Lianka as he passed her and Steve immediately sent him a slightly panicked, baffled look.
She rolled her eyes. « I bet you asked her for a room with one bed… »
But it was with a crooked grin, amused at Steve's obvious unease, that she followed him across the snowy yard. The inn was much like any motel Steve had seen back home, with a couple rooms lining the empty parking lot in a single, one storey building, which looked like it hadn't been properly cared for since the Cold war. He shuffled after the pair, not sure if he was anxious at being in a single, one-bed room with the young woman, or with both her and his best friend… the two of them seemed to be getting along just fine and he felt… he didn't know how he felt, to tell the truth. He didn't feel as awkward as he thought he should, because Lianka had something about her that seemed to put everyone at ease… he felt… nervous, perhaps? Maybe Bucky was right… maybe his lack of experience with women was catching up to him…
It helped that as they entered the room they'd been assigned, which was the one furthest from the inn's check-in, Steve realised that Bucky had been pulling their leg and there were actually two double beds in the dark little space, which meant, at the very least, that he didn't have to worry about Lianka's proximity for the time being. As soon as the door closed behind them and they turned on the grimy little lamp on one of the bedside tables, the young woman turned her attention to him, a look of consternation upon her face and he watched her approach with a certain degree of anticipation.
« Let me see that gash you got on your face. »
Steve nodded, taken aback as he sat on the bed without protest and let her gently peel off the gauze she'd applied to his forehead earlier that day. He followed her motions discreetly with short glances, trying not to stare at her too directly and by the tiny smile that was playing at the corner of her lips, he thought that she probably knew what he was up to. She ignored him and inspected the wound.
« How's your jaw? » She questioned as her fingers, gentle as silk, ran down the curve of his cheek, pressing slightly to verify if there was still pain.
« Feels fine. » He cleared his throat, as his voice was a tad tight.
She stepped back and he had to admit that he found himself disappointed at losing the soft touch of her fingers on his face, which only served to confuse him more. « Well, there's the super soldier serum for you… you don't heal as fast as those AIM bastards, but it is working wonders. »
She then turned to Bucky, who had been watching the scene quietly, a somewhat amused look on his face as he leaned back against the small desk across the room, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
« Take your coat off. Let's see that bullet wound. » She said as she came up to him, ever graceful and silent.
« Bossy suits you, doll. » Bucky quipped with a small smirk, but obliged, nonetheless.
She pinched his human arm playfully as retribution when his coat came off but turned a critical eye to the gash on his back when he raised his shirt over his head. She had to stand on her tiptoes to see it clearly, as he was quite a bit taller than she was. Her fingers lingered perhaps a moment too long on the taunt muscles of his back, in a calculated sort of manner. She tsked her tongue in an unsure sort of way and Bucky tried to glance back at her, wondering what she could see that he couldn't feel, because as far as he knew, he felt fine…
« What's wrong? »
« Well… » She sighed. Even Steve got up, concerned. Then she poked Bucky in the small of his back with a sharp enough finger that he twitched. « Nothing. I'm just messing with you. »
She slipped away from his grasp like a ghost before he could even think of trying to catch her, and kicked off her shoes, crawling into one of the two beds, where she proceeded to vanish amidst the fairly plush, down blankets, carefully taking up all the space.
« I call this one. You two can cuddle up in the other one. » She called from the safe folds.
« What do you say Steve? You and me? » Bucky dodged the playful punch sent his way, before pulling off his boots and dropping with a long groan into the second bed. He had to admit that it was, if anything, quite comfortable… then again, he had been sleeping in cryogenic pods and worse these past few years, so perhaps he wasn't the best judge of inn comfort… He glanced at the covered lump that was Lianka, in the other bed, and felt a pang of… want? Yearning? Like he wanted to be there with her, but also like he knew that it could never be like that… the soldier chased those strange thoughts from his mind, sighing into the blankets.
Not wanting to be the odd man out, Steve followed their example. Honestly, he was too exhausted to care, anyways… they'd been up since the previous morning and had gone through quite some experiences on their way here. This mission was turning out to be much more complicated than he could have anticipated… then again, it allowed him to hide out in a country where he would most probably not be recognized, all the while keeping him busy at something other than dodging authorities… He turned his head and glanced at Lianka as he pulled off his boots and shoved Bucky away to gain a few extra inches of mattress: her eyes had already closed, and her breathing was deepening. He extended a hand to turn off the bedside lamp, plunging them into relative darkness and figured that he much rather be laying in a moderately comfortable bed, in an inn at the edge of Siberia, than in the wilderness, away from the government and their plans to capture him.
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A couple hours passed without disruption and they slept well into the afternoon. Bucky woke first, emerging from a deep, dreamless sleep with nothing but a sigh and into a warm, delicious feeling of calmness… he lingered in that place for a heartbeat, with nothing but the sound of two other people breathing in the room with him, the air shockingly still and silent. Then, reality caught up to him… he found himself remembering the past few days, their mission, Lianka… his head turned to the girl that lay just a couple feet away and he watched her sleep, her head tilted slightly towards him… Bucky realised that her small, unyielding fingers had snuck out from beneath her blankets and lay extended towards their bed, almost as if she had a mind to reach them. He watched that hand, the soft, pale skin that was taunt over occasionally crooked bones, which signified they'd been broken… the scars marring her knuckles and joints, a testament to the blows she'd thrown that had ripped her skin. Her nails were short and kempt, a sign that she was always ready to throw a punch without them slicing into her palms… all those details, and all from a single, tiny hand… she was so like them… he felt a hollow sort of yearning, knowing that across from him, in that bed, lay one of the very few people who could perhaps understand him…
The Winter soldier's brow furrowed… he hadn't felt anything close to… to this… in years. He hadn't felt this way since before Hydra sunk its claws into him… not since they'd had him and not since he'd fled them. So… what? Why did he feel like something was wrong? That this was too good to be true? He found himself staring at the girl as she slept, her face slightly contracted in a look that made her seem perpetually tense… who was she, really? Sure, she'd told them her past, her story, but no real details… they did not know her, and she had nonetheless done a fantastic job of wrapping them both around her finger… or was he simply being paranoid, too broken to even consider that another human being could still be decent? It felt for a moment a though his vision was doubling, as though he was staring at two people who were in truth just one person, one Lianka who was nothing more or less than the one they knew, and another that was a complete mystery to them, shrouded in her own past…
Almost as if she felt his stare upon her, Lianka came to with a flutter of her eyes and a twitch of her mouth. Her gaze found his, recognized him and she gave a tiny, discreet smile that he returned without a thought. It did nothing to aid his confusion… her bright, blue eyes shone with something that might have been amusement, or it might have been sadness… it was hard to tell.
« I'll go out. Send a message to Wakanda and get us supplies. » He whispered to her as he rose soundlessly from next to Steve. Her gaze felt like it was burning him, all of a sudden.
Lianka nodded, seemed in the process of wanting to remind him what to do and not do, paused as she remembered what he was and smiled instead. « Be careful. »
He nodded and got dressed so silently that Steve never even heard him, remaining asleep as the door slid close behind the soldier without a sound.
Lianka looked at the door to the room for a time, lost in her thoughts. After a while, she emerged from the covers like a shadow, before shedding her dirty, torn clothes and making it into the shower adjacent to the room. Steve woke with a start when he heard the water start running, sitting up in the bed… it took him a moment to rub the sleep from his eyes and asses the room, to remember just where exactly he was. He saw that Bucky was gone… Lianka was too… the shower was running, but were they both in it?
He hoped not… he hated feeling like the third wheel. He collapsed back into the bed and sighed, feeling the tired ache of his muscles after their fight and long journey. It would be nice to have a day or two to rest up, if things could stay pleasant between the three of them. He knew there was some sort of tension building and he was anxious to find out if it would break and if it would cause awkwardness amongst them… Steve vastly preferred drawing a clear line between work and play, but apparently Bucky wasn't capable of doing that… he could only hope this would resolve in a manner that would work for everyone.
How would it best work for him? He had no idea… he didn't want to think of Lianka, but he couldn't help himself : she had a very natural sort of charm and he couldn't deny that he felt… something…
Almost as if on cue, the shower was turned off in the adjacent room and after a moment of shuffling, Lianka emerged from the steamy little bathroom, wrapped in nothing but a towel, her wet hair clinging to her bare neck and shoulders. Steve lay motionless on the bed, hands behind his head, trying to display a calmness that he did not feel, especially when he clearly realised Bucky was not with the young woman.
« He went out. » She explained, sitting on the side of her bed and on his side as she noticed he was awake. « To get a message to Wakanda and get us some supplies. » She fought with a smirk. « We would have sent you, but you know… your Russian is just awful. »
« Hilarious. » Steve chided, but found himself smiling back at her.
There was a heartbeat of silence as Lianka stared off into the distance, lost in thought, running mechanical hands through her wet hair, pulling at the unbrushed locks. Steve used this moment of inattention to observe her, really take in the smooth paleness of her skin, which was marred by the odd scar or five, a testament to her life as a fighter… who was she, really? She was a spy for Wakanda, that was sure, but she had already told them that she did her own thing on the side… how far had she ventured into the world of spies? Of assassins? Of super soldiers? Her eyes were a blue as shocking as his own, perhaps just a shade or two paler… her arms were taunt and strong, and he realised that he could probably have guessed earlier that she'd taken some sort of serum to enhance her abilities : there was no way a person could be so chiseled without daily, grueling training. Steve found his eyes wandering over her smooth collar bone, down the light rise of her chest, to where the towel was still wrapped around her body… he wondered how she looked without that towel on. Sure, he'd caught a flash of her a day or so earlier, but he suddenly wanted to have more time to take her in, to really get to know her, to explore every inch…
A blush was creeping onto his face and he had to look away, clearing his throat.
Lianka smiled as she glanced at him, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking… and she probably did. One would have to be blind to miss how he was looking at her.
"When I was a girl…" She shifted from her bed and to his so delicately and naturally that he barely noticed it. "I was sent to… to a school, you might call it. It is known as Vorobeynaya shkola, but no one knows it exists, you see? No one other that the people who go there… my… my parents thought it would be wise that I learn what they teach there, so I might be a better spy. Because they were spies… and I was to be a spy as well… well, learn I did. It is a school that teaches boys and girls to know and do what other boys and girls like… how to get under someone's skin, how to play with emotions, with desire… I had no choice. I went, and I learned."
"For Wakanda?" Steve asked softly, sitting up, curious to learn a little bit more about this young woman.
Lianka shook her head. "No. For Russia." He looked alarmed for a split second, but she lay a soft, gentle hand on his. "The only way we could work for Wakanda was to allow Russia to believe we were working for the Motherland. Double agents. I have been a double agent my entire life, armed with the knowledge to manipulate, to lie and kill my way into and out of any situation… I have played a dangerous game my entire life… I had acted and lied so much that at times I no longer knew who I was… I am the product of years of training: I have been built, piece by piece, molded by the Vorobeynaya shkola, by my parents, by trainers… in this sense, I am so unlike the Winter Soldiers… I have not been brainwashed, or tortured, or broken into what I am. I was born into it. I have no one to blame for my actions, no excuse to hide behind. I alone am responsible for every death I have caused, for every life I have taken, every lie I have told…" She fell silent suddenly, her eyes dropping with sadness. Steve found himself moving closer to her, grabbing that small hand of hers to hold it in his own, unsure of what he should do or say, but fully aware that he only wanted to comfort her somehow, to make all that crushing guilt go away…
"I won't ask you to do anything you don't want to do." He said after a moment. "This is up to you… if you want to leave, if you want to stop…"
She shook her head and that blue gaze caught his with such force that his words died in his mouth. "That's just it. For the first time in a long time, I am doing something because I want to do it. Because the end goal interests me and not because it is a mission, or an order. And… I think it may be because of the people I'm doing it with…"
He had no idea how the next few moments happened, because they happened in a blur. Did she move towards him first, or did he pull her in? Steve had no idea, but one moment she was inches away from him, radiating head like the bloody sun and the next she was in his arms, her lips pressed to his with a softness he didn't think was possible for someone who killed people for a living. His hands rose to her shoulders and he had half a mind to try and gently push her away, but that thought turned to dust, blowing away in the Siberian winter, and suddenly he was grasping her face, pulling her into another kiss, his hands slowly shifting to her waist so he could sit her up on him, grasp her legs, her backside…
She lost her towel, she did not even know when. Her hands were up in Steve's hair, brushing through the locks, nails raking his scalp in such a manner that made him groan into their kiss. She broke their embrace but for a moment, just to lift his shirt up: he let her take it off, raising both arms almost obediently, his face flushed red and his blue eyes seeking hers. Her mouth found his again and her lips were gentle yet demanding, the kiss hungry but as soft as satin. Where with Bucky she had felt devouring passion and urgency, with Steve there was different sort of energy: she felt desire, but it was gentle, tame… it was biding, slow and powerful… his lips left hers to find her jawbone, which he kissed softly, making his way down her neck. Lianka pulled her head back, exposing her throat to him gladly, loving the feeling of abandon that filled her mind as she felt his powerful arms hold her, his mouth kissing fire over skin.
She lifted herself up slightly and allowed his kisses to go lower still, over her collar and down to her breasts, which his hands found with utmost softness, rough fingers running over the smooth skin like they belonged there. She sighed as his mouth found her sensitive nipples and kissed those too, his teeth just so lightly nipping at the delicate skin, drawing a gentle groan from her.
She broke free from their embrace and pulled him along, finding his mouth again. As they kissed, Lianka's deft hands found the soldier's pants, which he hadn't bothered to removed before going to bed earlier… she grasped the belt and undid it so fast Steve's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Lianka caught his expression and smirked into their kiss, breaking free for a moment to nip at his ear, before finding his gentle mouth again.
A moment of struggle later, she was helping Steve out of his boxers, carefully grasping at his erection, causing him to growl as she wrapped her fingers tight around his length and ran them up and down slowly, exploring the sensitive spots.
Lianka pushed the blond soldier back into the bed, so he found himself sitting back against the headboard. She watched him, her pretty face flushed pink and for a moment Steve could not help but feel like he was gazing into eternity, into eyes of a very sharp, bright blue that told the story of a hundred lives, of a hundred pains and pleasures and ends… then, she slowly crawled to him and he could only see her lovely mouth as she bit at her lips and smiled almost shyly, sitting over his, both her strong legs on either side of his, pulling him into another kiss that tasted like fire.
Her hands grasped his cock anew and she guided him to her wet entrance, straddling him comfortably. Slowly, she lowered herself onto his length, groaning as he filled her, slowly pulling back her head in pleasure. Steve's strong hands grasped her by the hips and his mouth came to find her collarbone as he drew her in closer, planting kisses along the length of it. Lianka wrapped her arms over his shoulders and slowly began moving her hips, groaning in pleasure as she felt the soldier follow her motions without hesitation, his strong arms holding her, guiding her…
She bowed her head down to his and they worked as one towards their peak, their kisses suddenly rough and more demanding as their pace quickened and became wilder… she was growing against him and he groaned in answer, feeling his pleasure mount so high he thought it would consume him before he found release… suddenly, he went over the top with a long, pleasured grunt as he came into her and she followed him into oblivion, grasping his large shoulders with nails like claws, pulling him into a final kiss that silenced their howls. Their rhythm slowed almost chaotically, as both felt a heavy sort of exhaustion creep into their bodies, the last waves of pleasure washing everything away.
Lianka pulled away from his mouth with a wry little smirk and Steve simply stared at her, at a loss for words. Gently, she sat next to him to catch her breath and allow her heart to regain a normal pace. Steve noticed, slightly distraught, that his seed was running down between her thighs… it was as though his brain was finally catching up to what had happened minutes ago, and he wondered if his moment of abandon had been wise.
At his slightly panicked stare, she pinched his forearm to bring him back to her. "I can't bear children, if that's what worries you." She reassured him… strangely, there was no sadness in her voice at those words. It was simply a statement, nothing more. The thought had crossed his mind, but he had to admit that he also worried about their trio's relationship, now that he had crossed that bridge. Chasing that thought away, Steve recalled that Natasha had told him something similar, of an operation performed on Russian spies and assassins that rendered them sterile, assuring they would never be distracted from their work… he quite suddenly found the practice even more barbaric than before, the thought of such a thing being done to a human being twisting his insides… but Lianka did not seem to mind. She ran a hand, soft as silk, over his cheek and smiled anew.
"Guess I'll get back in the shower."
With that, she was gone, leaving the soldier even more confused than before, if such a thing was possible.
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Sorry if this one lacks action or more pages, but I would rather finish here and start off another chapter. Also, sorry for the long wait, I did have my exams. Those are over now, thankfully, and I'm waiting on just one last result before being able to say I've passed my courses!
So, fingers crossed for that last math exam!
Review guys, let me know how you like it so far!