Hello! I'm back! And not after 2 months this time!
This is a short, sort of filler chapter that leads into the next one.
Minor warnings for a Red Room mention/memory stuff. It's late. I am struggling with words. Anyway.
Enjoy!
-:-
Mid-June, 1944
A flash of pain erupted in Natasha's side as she was flung hard against a tree, her still-a-little-tender side aching as she slumped to the ground and the Hydra agent advanced on her. She put a hand to her side briefly, before lifting her gun and shooting the man before he could get any closer. Brushing hair out of her face, she got to her feet and darted between the trees, dropping Hydra soldiers as she made her way back to the other Howling Commandos.
Despite how long she'd been fighting on battlefields, she could never get used to how loud gunfire could get. All she seemed to hear was the chatter of Bucky's submachine gun, the loud blasts of the Hydra weapons, and the even bigger explosions of grenades and other explosives.
Natasha used the sound of gunfire, the taint of blood in the air and went to the place inside her where she was nothing but a weapon. She cut down any Hydra soldier that came her way, weather it was by bullet, blade, or her own two hands. She was a blur on the battlefield, feeling nothing except the spray of blood on her skin and the dirt under her fingernails.
"Natasha, down!" Steve shouted and she barely had time to process the words before she was diving down, hands over her head for protection, the earth exploding apart a few feet behind her. Dirt and grass and other debris rained down on her. She turned to see a Hydra tank rolling through the woods, its pulse cannon glowing blue with the Tesseract energy. She stumbled to her feet seconds before Steve raced up to her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling his shield over both their heads seconds before another blast hit.
"We gotta stop that tank," Steve gasped once the dust had cleared.
Natasha nodded in agreement, as they moved a little farther away so as to avoid the tank's blasts.
"I'll cover you," she said.
Steve just met her eyes before darting off towards the tank, making a semi-wide circle around it as she followed, shooting down anyone who came near. Out of the corner of her eye she could Steve, absolutely unstoppable as he threw his shield, ricocheting it off trees and the bodies of Hydra soldiers, clearing his own path to the tank.
Once Steve reached the hulking vehicle, Natasha saw Dernier toss Steve an explosive. With effortless grace, Steve jumped up on the tank, knocking out the guy manning the back with one deft stroke of his shield. He popped open the hatch, threw the device in, and leaped from the vehicle like he'd done the same move a thousand times. Which, at this point, he probably had. He'd taken out dozens of tanks before this one, working with his other Commandos effortlessly. Steve ran back towards her and they ducked behind a large tree right before there was an explosion, heat searing the air, sparks and ash and earth raining down.
"Nice job," she breathed.
Steve gave her a somewhat devilish smile, adrenaline glittering in his blue eyes. "We're not done yet."
He charged back out into battle and Natasha had no choice but to follow him.
-:-
End of June, 1944
It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission, but it went wrong pretty quickly.
Natasha and Bucky had been sent out from base to scout the woods a ways out from base. They'd drove on motorcycles part of the way, before taking a break and walking. It seemed to be mostly clear until Bucky spotted Nazi soldiers making their way through the forest. He'd moved quickly, grabbing her arm and pulling her down along the sloped bank of a small creek, wedging themselves in between the roots of a large tree and some bushes.
"How many of them did you see?" Natasha whispered as they pressed next to each other, suing the full bushes for cover from the passing soldiers.
"At least two companies," Bucky breathed. "Maybe three. Either way, that's way too many Nazis for us to take on. And they're blocking our way back to the bikes. We'll just have to wait them out."
Natasha nodded, staying quiet as the sound of hundreds of footsteps and the roll of vehicles passed on the bank above them. It sounded like the soldiers were almost past them, when the marching stopped abruptly and shouts in German echoed in the sudden silence. Natasha barely had time to process the words before Bucky was muttering beside her.
"Shit," he said, voice low.
"They're stopping," she whispered, even though Bucky already knew what had been said.
"I'm gonna take a look," he said after a moment, slowly moving up the little slope to look over the bank. A few moments later, he slid down next to her again, his eyes wide, body tight. "Shit. Shit."
"What is it?" she hissed.
"They're camping here for the night," he choked out. "I heard a couple of soldiers say so. And they're only ten yards up the road, so there's no way we can make it past them."
"They've got the high ground," Natasha agreed. "Even if we made our way down the creek and then up and around, they would see us before we could even get to the 'up and around' part."
Bucky nodded, breathing out slowly.
Natasha sucked in a breath, her heart pounding in her chest. She squeezed Bucky's arm for a brief moment before looking him in the eyes.
"We'll wait them out," she told him quietly, trying not to think about how close the sound of Nazi soldiers was. "We'll wait and see if they leave in the morning. If they don't—"
"We'll make a run for it," Bucky finished for her. The way he looked at her, just for a moment, reminded her that he'd most likely heard everything she'd told Steve about her past. But Bucky hadn't talked about it, and neither had she, and now was definitely not the time to bring it up. So she just nodded slowly, tucking herself farther into the bushes. Bucky squeezed in tighter too, until they were both about as comfortable as they could be. They both kept their pistols on their laps, ready to fight their way out if need be.
And they sat like that all night, both of them offering multiple times to take watch, but neither of them accepting, because there was no way Natasha would be able to sleep peacefully, and she knew Bucky felt the same. They hardly dared to breathe loudly, especially when the Nazi soldiers patrolled the perimeter of their camp. The laughter from the soldiers was thunderously loud in the quiet of the night.
Natasha and Bucky didn't speak the entire night, just kept close and kept their hands on their guns. And yet, despite the silence between them, Natasha had never felt closer to Bucky than she did that night, with the threat of death looming over their heads like the moon above, all while the crickets sang as if they weren't laying in their coffin of roots and bushes.
They made it through the night, though, and only when the Nazi soldiers had long since passed on, did Natasha feel like she could breathe again. She and Bucky climbed out of their little hole, and hiked back to their bikes to find (a very worried) Steve waiting for them.
-:-
Early July, 1944
All of the Howling Commandos—and everyone else on base for that matter—knew that they'd gotten the special deserts delivered, not just for the 4th, but for Steve's birthday as well, though nobody said anything. Mostly because only a select few were supposed to know that Captain fucking America's birthday was on the goddamn Fourth of July. Steve didn't flaunt his birthday, and Natasha completely understood why. That didn't keep her from mocking him about it, or smuggling half the chocolate they'd gotten into her room. They rarely got sweets on base and there were plenty of leftovers from Steve's birthday yesterday, so she was going to take full advantage.
"Mm," Peggy hummed from the chair next to Natasha's bunk, "I haven't had chocolate in so long."
"Me neither. I can't even remember the last time I had chocolate," Natasha agreed.
There were still some loud, drunken celebrations for the fourth going on in the mess hall, and Natasha and Peggy had snuck off to get away from the noise, as well as to dig into the stash of chocolate Natasha had hoarded away. It was probably way more sweets than she needed, but in the Red Room, there were nights they wouldn't serve dinner, especially if they had done something to upset the trainers, so it had been good to learn to tuck away extra food. Otherwise, without eating, they weren't strong enough for the training. Natasha remembered one such girl, who had done poorly several nights in a row and had been denied dinner. She hadn't stashed any food away, and she'd been too weak in training one morning. Natasha still remembered the sound of the girl's neck as it was snapped by another trainee.
"Natasha?" Peggy's voice rang out, snapping Natasha out of the memory.
Natasha met Peggy's eyes, noting the worried crease in her friend's brow. "Sorry," she murmured. "Just, um…old memories."
Peggy nodded in understanding. Natasha knew that, despite having told Peggy next to nothing about her past, that Peggy somehow just knew that Natasha had been through hell and back in the Red Room. She didn't know if it was some woman's instinct thing or if Peggy was really just that good or both, but it relieved her to know that she didn't really need to use words to convey to Peggy that her past was not a good one.
"How's your side?" Peggy asked, changing the subject so Natasha didn't have to (another thing that Natasha was grateful for).
Natasha lifted up the hem of her shirt to examine the paling scars on her side and hip. They were still the tiniest bit tender, but improving every day. "Much better," she said, dropping her shirt back down and smiling up at her friend.
"What about your shoulder?" Natasha asked in return.
Peggy gave a little laugh and rolled her left shoulder. She and Peggy had been out on mission just two days ago, and Peggy had gotten knocked, rather roughly, into the side of a building.
"It's fine," Peggy said. "A little sore, but nothing I can't handle."
"I don't doubt that," Natasha grinned.
After that, they went a snagged a bottle of whiskey from Dum Dum's not-so-hidden personal stash and high-tailed it back to Natasha's room, where they drank and talked and laughed till they eventually fell asleep in the same bunk, much to the shock and glee of the Commandos when they found them bunked up together in the morning.
-:-
Early July, 1944
Steve was just about to head to the Colonel's office when Bucky knocked, and without waiting for Steve's response, opened the door and poked his head in, looking excited and a little breathless.
"What is it?" Steve asked.
"We've got a lead," Bucky said. "Something that can help us find Arnim Zola."
-:-
To be continued…
I know that they don't meet Zola until January/winter-time of '45, but just wait and see :)
Thanks for reading!
-DaughterOfPoseidon333