Chapter 5 :: Confusion ::
The Soldier pushed Natalia / Natasha out of his head and instead focused on the task at hand, making sure his arm didn't kill him.
"You know anything about the arm itself?" The man asked the Soldier, not bothering to glance at him as he rummaged around for the tools.
The Soldier shook his head, he didn't know anything specific about the arm. The only thing he could remember is when it had been last checked which wouldn't be very helpful in this situation. Apparently the man took his silence as an answer and sighed, turning back around with his arms full of tools the Soldier didn't know existed.
"JARVIS run a scan, then pull up the blue prints, I'm gonna go in and have a look." the man said, apparently not speaking to nobody. The Soldier was confused as to who was going to scan his arm until an voice spoke up from seemingly the air, "Right away sir."
The Soldier looked around for the source of the voice but couldn't find any. He opened his mouth to ask them where this JARVIS man was but he was interrupted by the man speaking before him.
"Where… is there a place I should open it?" he asked, his voice timid for the first time. He wasn't sure he wanted to mess with a man's arm, especially because it looked like it hurt like hell.
The Soldier shrugged and proceed to pry open one of the plates, giving way to sparking wires and connecters that were smoking intensely. He gritted his teeth slightly, the only sign that he was in immense pain.
"Oooookkkk then." the man said, taking the Soldier's arm and inspecting it carefully. After a few minutes he spoke again, this time his tone one of disgust, "This is just horrid. Whoever made this thing obviously was working with some old technology but they did do good with what they had. It's connected to his nerves so every time he moves it he can feel it which means you must be hurting very severely right now." he said, looking up at the Soldier for confirmation. He gave a single nod.
Bucky's eyebrows furrowed in worry, "Well can you fix it? I don't feel like having Steve go around caring a fire hazard at his side." he said, slightly sarcastic but the Soldier didn't argue.
The man scoffed in response, "'Course I can fix it. I'm Tony Stark I can fix anything." he said matter-of-factly as he pulled a tool that the Soldier couldn't name from his arms and began poking around the arm, moving several things .
Bucky only rolled his eyes, watching the man, Tony Stark, carefully to make sure he didn't hurt the Soldier. "Steve don't be afraid to say something if it hurts too much." he told the Soldier, waiting for a nod before his eyes turned back to the arm and Tony.
"So as long as we're sitting here this is good a time as any to tell me why exactly this man responded to the name Cap when your Captain America." Tony said, never looking away from the gears in front of him.
Bucky sighed and the Soldier glanced at him in confusion. He knew that Bucky was Captain America, it had been under his file, under alias, but he was also Captain America. Once upon a time he remembered it clearly. In a few of his memories he remembered throwing the shield and wearing the costume. He had most definitely been Captain America but so was Bucky. The thought was making his brain hurt.
"Well… once upon a time Steve was Captain America. Back in the 1940's when we were both actually just 20 year olds Steve was this skinny little bean pole, like 5 foot high and he weighed about 90 pounds. He had all this illnesses so he couldn't join the army, even though he tried like 5 times." he began, just a hint of exasperation in his voice, "Well eventually Dr. Abraham Erskine, a German scientist, gave Steve the chance to be the ultimate soldier. I was off fighting already so I wasn't there to hit him upside the head and tell him he would be stupid if he agreed to experimentation but he agreed anyway." he told them, shaking his head at the Soldier's foolishness even though he himself smiled ever so slightly. "So the experiments were successful and this Steve came out, he became the best soldier around and soon became Captain America, sweetheart of the U.S. of A. Everything was fine and dandy until Steve here went on a mission to single handedly rescue about 400 men from a HYDRA lab, myself included." he said with a frown, shaking his head at the Soldier.
Tony had listened to the whole thing intently and glanced up at Bucky when he paused though his eyes soon went back to the arm when it sparked again. "I think I can fill in the rest for myself. At the HYDRA lab they gave you a knock off serum that turned you into this and sometime afterwards he got himself killed and you became Captain America." Tony supplied, nodding at his own story.
"HE DID NOT GET HIMSELF KILLED!" Bucky suddenly yelled, standing up abruptly, as the stool went flying backwards. The effect was immediate, as soon as the man's voice had been raised the Soldier had ripped his arm away from Tony.
He quickly fell backwards, backing away from the other two quickly as he looked around fearfully, obviously not seeing that he wasn't in a HYDRA lab. Bucky wanted to punch himself for forgetting that they couldn't yell in front of Steve but instead approached him quietly, Tony watching in confusion behind him.
The Soldier was covering his face with his arms, the metal one sparking profusely. He was muttering under his breath, muttering in rapid Russian.
"Говард и Мария Старк. Миссия 1837Missiya был полный. Кузница аварии . Снайпер выстрелил обоих. Сын Энтони Старк был еще жив . Миссия 1927. [Howard and Maria Stark . Mission 1837. Mission was Complete. Looked like accident. Sniper shot both. Son Anthony Stark was still alive. Mission 1927. ] " he told Bucky, his sentence snapping off mid way as he remembered where he was. It was too late though, the damage had been done.
Tony was already translating the Russian words and soon his eyes were wide with shock, he wasn't quite sure how to feel. He was helping the man that murdered his parents? This had to be new.
Bucky reached out to help the Soldier back to his feet but he waved him away so Bucky pursed his lips and let the Soldier stand up by himself. He went back to sit on the stool, acting as if nothing had happened.
Bucky followed cautiously as Tony quickly trashed the words, not wanting the others to see. "Well that was unexpected, now can we please just finish this god damn arm?" he asked, trying to keep his tone light and humors though it was hard.
Bucky nodded and fell silent, just like the Soldier. They sat side by side, watching Tony as he worked on the metal arm, trying not to catch himself on fire while he tried to figure out just what to do with the fact that he had caught his parents assassin.
The Soldier's arm was back to normal, they'd even scraped the red star off the top. They hadn't replaced it with anything yet, just left the bare metal but the Soldier didn't mind. It made him feel a little safer without the red star there as a constant reminder of what he'd come from.
He was currently sitting in one of the chairs in Tony's living room. He was sitting stiffly on the edge of the cushion, like he was ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Around him were more people then he could remember.
Bucky was sitting to his immediate right, sprawled over the seat like an eagle. On his left sat a very muscular and large man with bright golden hair. Next to Bucky sat Sam on the couch, Natalia / Natasha next to him. The Soldier made sure not to make eye contact with her.
Then there was the man with a bow, next to him sat the science man with the curly black hair and glasses. Finally there was Tony and a women who had dark brown hair with matching eyes. The Soldier remembered she was a witch of some kind, she shared a seat with a red man who had a golden stone in his forehead.
Bucky cast the Soldier an encouraging smile before turning towards the others. "Alright so you all know that this is my friend Steve Rogers, and before I go any further no yelling. Never raise your voice around Steve, it triggers memories from his HYDRA capture so don't do it unless you feel like getting punched." he told them, waiting for them all to nod before continuing, "Alright so Steve you already know me, Sam, Natasha and Tony. Well the man sitting next to Natasha," he pointed to the bow and arrow man, "That's Clint Barton." Clint gave him a little wave, "The man with the glasses, that Dr. Bruce Banner." Bruce gave him a tiny smile, the Soldier instantly liked him, "The woman with the brown hair, that's Wanda Maximoff and the android sitting with her is Vision." they both gave him a nod in greeting, "and finally the man sitting next to you is Thor." Thor gave him a wide grin and clapped him on the back in greeting. The Soldier liked him too.
He committed all their names to memory, glancing at them all one more time so that he could remember them when the time came. Bucky, Sam, Natalia / Natasha, Clint, Tony, Bruce, Wanda, Vision, Thor. Once he had everybody memorized he nodded at Bucky, his posture relaxing ever so slightly as he leaned back in the chair a little bit.
"Alright so since Steve is staying with us for a little while I'm laying down a couple of rules and their non negotiable so don't even try to argue." Bucky said, giving pointed looks to Natalia / Natasha and Tony who both rolled their eyes, "I've already told you what rule number one is, no yelling around Steve. Only bad things come out of it. Rule number two don't make Steve mad." the Soldier could have sworn he saw Bruce snicker slightly, "I'm not sure what will happen but I think it's safe to assume that it can't be anything good. Rule number three… well I guess those are the only two official rules but if one of you decided to pick on Steve I won't be afraid to punch you." Bucky finished, shooting them glares.
After that the other Avengers talked among themselves, loosening up a bit. Bucky was engaged in a conversation with Sam, though he cast frequent looks at the Soldier to make sure he didn't go anywhere. The Soldier made small talk with Thor, deciding that he liked the Norse God. He was very friendly and hard to kill, two things that usually didn't go together.
Even as he listened to Thor he kept glancing at Natalia / Natasha, trying to decide whether it would be alright for him to ask to talk to her. Eventually Bucky noticed his frequent looks that were in the red heads direction and paused his conversation with Sam to turn to the Soldier.
"You can talk to her if you want, it's fine. Steve you don't have to afraid here, we won't be mad at you if you need to talk to one of us, especially if it concerns a memory." he told him gently, giving him a small smile.
The Soldier nodded In thanks and stood up. He nodded at Thor once in goodbye before he made his way over to Natalia / Natasha. She glanced up at him as Clint stopped talking about whatever and gave him another wave and a smile as Natalia / Natasha looked up at him, waiting for him to speak first.
"I..I need your help. I remembered something about you and I was hoping you could explain." the Soldier told her quietly and he swore he could see her pale ever so slightly, only his trained eyes would have been able to catch it.
Natalia / Natasha shrugged as she stood up, stretching slightly. "Sure winter boy. We'll be right back Clint." she told him, while the Soldier frowned at the nickname. He didn't like it but he didn't wanna tell her so because he needed answers.
So they made their small room away from the others. The minute the door was closed Natalia / Natasha collapsed in a chair and let her skin pale dramatically. "What..what did you remember?" she asked him quietly, afraid of what he would know about her.
The Soldier sighed, preferring to stand whether then sit. "We… we were in some sort of room built for dancers. It was just you and me and I kissed you and you seemed to like it but you had to leave because you didn't want us to be caught." he explained briefly while she sighed loudly.
She nodded at the chair in front of her, "Have a seat. So I'll give you the short answer because I don't wanna be here too long and I don't wanna overwhelm you with information lest James kills me. We were in a place they call the Red Room, it was a top secret training facility for spies and assassins like me. You were there to teach us some new fighting techniques and we started taking, exchanging conversations whenever we could, stealing glances right under their noses. One night though you were up late, said you couldn't sleep and I had managed to get out of bed without getting seen and so you finally kissed me and I did like it at the time. Except they… they found out about it and the next day you were gone. Wouldn't see you for years and our reunion didn't exactly go the way I would have liked" she told him, pursing her lips as she self consciously rubbed a spot on her side.
The Soldier frowned, trying to piece everything together, working with his limited memory didn't exactly make it easy. "I shot you." he finally remembered with horror as he looked up at Natalia / Natasha, his eyes wide. "Soviet slug, you were in the way of the target so I killed him, the bullet going right through you." he recalled quietly while the woman nodded.
"Don't worry about it though. It's fine." the women assured him, some color returning to her face now that he knew the truth about their past together.
The Soldier shook his head slightly though, hesitating before asking his next question. "Are… are you dating anybody?" he asked her, a little embarrassed to actually ask what he was wondering.
Luckily she got what he was hinting at and sighed, shaking her head as she stood back up. "I'm not dating anybody and before you ask I don't know about us. I…I don't know if you're the same man you were back in the Red Room." she told him quietly before exiting the room.
The Soldier stood there for a few more minutes, shocked and confused. As he stood there he could remember faint things about their time together. Not enough to make a memory though, just small fragments of a memory.
The brush of their hands, him brushing a lock of her red hair, stole glances, his hands wrapped her waist. They only made him more confused though. He didn't know what to think about Natalia Romanov.