A/n: Okay there is a major time skip in this chapter. This one takes place six months after the Avengers movie. Also, I haven't seen all of Captain America 2 so I'm going to ignore it for the most part although the part where Bucky is brainwashed into a… not good guy is still there. Should make the reunion interesting no?
Chapter Three
"Sir, we have the identity of the assassin code-named The Winter Soldier. It's…it's not good, sir."
Fury frowned at the slight hesitance in his second's voice, his one good eye coming up to meet her guarded hazel-green. In the fifteen years the young woman had served at his side he had never heard her sound so hesitant about anything, especially a potential target. In fact other than Peggy Carter and Romanov, she was the strongest woman he knew.
"Well?"
"It's…James Barnes, sir."
The Director's eyes widened in disbelief and he looked down at the open files on his desk, staring at two of them in particular. They could not know about this. At all. It would destroy one and shut down the other.
He couldn't let anyone get this information.
"Put it all in paper files and destroy all records of this on all servers. No one can get ahold of this information."
"Are you going to inform The Captain?" She asked and he shook his head.
"Not right now."
She sent him a disapproving look but nodded and left to do as she was bid.
Once she was gone, Fury placed his head in his hands and groaned.
"Fuck."
He's dreaming.
He knows this because that is the only time he sees those beautiful hazel eyes that always seem so familiar, and that sweet smile that makes his heart race. It's the only time where he's relaxed, his masters' silent, nonexistent in this realm. These dreams are a constant for him, some feel like fairytales, the others like the memories he's tried so hard to recover, despite his masters' orders.
This one is a memory.
He's lying in an open field staring up at the sky, a warm slender body curled into his side, hands gently tracing his face.
He's happy, content really, and all he can think about is the beautiful assassin lying beside him singing softly in old latin.
Et ego vidi faciem tuam,
Scio me postremo te
Ego perdidi ante omnia ratus
Vos vocatis me
Ego autem venio ad te in frusta
Sic potest salvum me fac
Ego venire omittere
At ego quidem, qui de
Sicut puzzle frusta in manu tua
"What are you saying?" He whispered and his love smiled at him, repeating the word in english.
Then I see your face
I know I'm finally yours
I find everything I thought I lost before
You call my name
I come to you in pieces
So you can make me whole
I've come undone
But you make sense of who I am
Like puzzle pieces in your hand
He smiled at the smaller man and ran a gentle hand through his long raven's wing locks.
"I wanna marry you."
His Toni gasped and sat up, shaking his head frantically.
"It is illegal! We'll be killed."
He shook his head.
"I know a guy who can do it. He's a priest that's been marrying same sexes for years underground."
Toni bit his lip, longing clear in his eyes but impeded by worry.
"If anyone finds out they'll kill us."
"So we need to be discreet, something we both excel at. So how bout it, darlin'? Will you marry me?"
His assassin worried his lip for a moment then nodded, a vivid smile crossing his features.
"Of course."
He grinned and pulled his love closer and the assassin smile, leaning up for a kiss.
"Of course." He repeated and he held the man closer feeling the bitter claws of wakefulness dragging him back to reality.
Just as he went to return the kiss bestowed upon him, an alarm sounded and-
He woke up.
The Winter Soldier scowled darkly at his alarm for waking him from the dream. The dreams had plagued him since he'd been awakened by HYDRA and since the invasion of Manhattan six months previous they'd only become more frequent. Sometimes, he found himself picturing the beautiful assassin from his dreams behind his eyelids and his heart would clench with pain. It was baffling, but he was sure to keep it from his masters. They'd only see it as him malfunctioning and he'd be sent in for reconditioning.
He shook his head.
He couldn't afford to think about such a matter right now. He had a new mission and he needed to prepare for it.
The dreams and its abnormalities could be pondered at a later time.
A few hundred miles away, Tony Stark shot up in his bed with a choked gasp, topaz eyes wide and wet with tears and his chest heaving with suppressed sobs.
"Sir, are you alright? Would you like me to retrieve Dr. Banner?"
Shaking his head, the billionaire laid back down and tried to control his breathing, forcing all thoughts of his dream far from his mind.
He couldn't think about it, not now and especially not today.
Yet it hovered at the edge of his mind, taunting him with its bitter sweetness and causing his heart to throb painfully in his chest.
Why did it have to be that dream? Why?
A soft sob broke past his lips and he smiled sadly remembering how happy his mate had been when he'd agreed to marry him. The paradoxical older/younger man had lit up as if all his Christmases had come at one time and kissed him until they were both breathless. The next day they'd gotten married and it had been the best day of his life.
Then only a year later, his mate had been taken away. At first he'd blamed Steve and for a long while he had hated him. He'd wondered why Steve had gotten to come home when Bucky had not. Why did Steve survive, when his beloved was dead and gone, lying frozen and forgotten in some mountain range? Peggy had tried to reason with him but it was not to be.
He ran suicide mission after suicide mission, hoping to be caught and killed so that he could join Bucky. He hadn't cared about being tortured, no he just wanted to join his mate in the afterlife, nothing more and nothing less.
He became so uncontrollable that Howard had forced him stopped him from taking missions, instead locking him in the room he had stayed in during the experiments. He was only allowed to take the missions Peggy and Howard approved and he was force fed when he refused to eat. His days flashed by in blurs of people, missions, and colors, and when the war ended he'd barely noticed.
"Sir, shall I initiate JBB protocol? It is October 16, 2013."
Tony hmmed softly and gazed up at the ceiling, emotionally drained despite having just woken up.
"Yeah…and send something nice to Cap. It's his best friend's anniversary after all." He stood and got dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt.
"I'm going for a walk."
An alarm sounded and he sighed quietly.
"Change of plans. Jarvis, ready the suit."
"Of course, Sir. The Mark XVI is ready."
Forcing everything from his mind, the billionaire pasted on a cocky smile and left his bedroom, ready to face the world.
"Great. Let's go crash us a party, J."
TBC…