Chapter 2
Natasha Romanov was notorious for cutting off body parts.
While it was an untrue rumor that she had cut off a man's hand for placing it on her shoulder to get her attention, it was one she encouraged. She didn't want anyone approaching her unless absolutely necessary. After Clint's disappearance she became reclusive, only speaking with Coulson, Hill and Fury, and usually only on mission related things, Coulson on more personal matters sometimes, as he'd been close to both of them, it still wasn't the same with just the two of them. But they were all each other had after losing Clint. It felt like they'd failed him, and it was something she could never forgive herself for. She had owed him, and now he was gone.
That was until they dragged Captain America out of the ice and she was issued the order of helping him readjust to the modern world.
While Natasha had nothing against Rogers, she really would rather be off doing high level missions, off the grid by herself with no extraction plan or back up, or looking for signs of her lost partner than babysit him and help him learn how to live in the new world. Even if he was Coulson's boyhood hero come mancrush. He would never replace Clint, not that he was trying, or even knew who he was, she had the feeling like he had been foisted on her for that purpose. She was not a fool, she knew better than to get attached again.
"I'm sorry," Rogers said, breaking her concentration, she looked over at him and arched an eyebrow in question, he shrugged, "For having to watch me," he said, sounding fine, but Natasha could read him, he was incredibly lonely. It was to be expected, all of the people he knew were dead or close to it. He was out of his depth and had no where to go. And they had chosen her, an apathetic assassin spy to be his new best friend. Really great. Fury was a dick. It really was like he was trying to replace Clint with a more buff and blonder version. Fury was a double dick. Or he was trying to get Natasha to thaw a bit, either way, she didn't see it really happening.
"It's fine," she replied, regardless of her feelings, being mean to Captain America was probably illegal somewhere, "It's not your fault, I'm here because no one else seemed...suitable, besides I have little else to do," she said, turning and shrugging, there had been no need for her in the past few weeks which was maddening.
Steve was quiet for awhile, "You didn't seem like you were bored...more like distant," he replied, then smiled sadly, "You're thinking of someone."
She frowned, she hid her emotions better than even Fury most days, how could this man, barely that some days as his sheer ignorance to the new world he'd been thrust into made him seem more like a boy, know that?
He shrugged sheepishly as if knowing what her frown meant, "I had a friend whose eyes used to do the same thing when he was thinking about his sister, she had to be put in an orphanage because he couldn't care for her, did you lose someone you loved?"
She sighed, "It's not like that," she said, "He was-" she cut herself off and shook her head, he didn't need to know, "Come on, let's go get lunch."
He blinked in surprise, but he didn't argue. It seemed he hadn't said the wrong thing after all.
~
The attack from Loki and the Chitauri came swiftly, but the battle didn't last long, the Avengers had handled it, they comprised of Steve, Natasha, Sharon Carter, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Thor. While they had done well they may have done better with eyes in the sky, which Natasha clearly stated in her report, insinuating that the search for the best marksman alive should still be taking place.
Even after so long she didn't want to give up, there was no body, not that it was impossible to hide a body, but still that small fact gave her the slightest bit of hope that he was still alive. But she also knew better than to really get them up, because the higher they were the harder they could crash down. But she knew, the world they lived in, something far worse than death could have befallen her partner. And she felt even more obligated to try and solve the mystery of his disappearance if it could mean potentially saving him from a worse fate.
She could do little however, all of her resources were spent, she knew no where else to look. She was at the end, and that was incredibly frustrating for her.
All she had now to look forward to were missions with Rogers who had somehow managed to wiggle under her defenses and become her friend, damn him. He was very like Clint in some ways, which made things worse at times, but he was still his own person, one of whom she had grown to respect, and even grow slightly fond of.
That was all she had now that Coulson was dead, the only person who had been willing to hope with her. Steve was all she had now.
Though when things started changing, and they learned even more about each other, and really understood what the other really wanted, it became evident that each other was all they could rely on.
The Lemurian Star perhaps was the focal point of the change, but it was not the climax, it was probably all the explosions that made it really make a difference in their friendship, and the fact that now that SHIELD was compromised, they were all each other had.
~
They knew of the Winter Soldier, they had discussed him after Fury had been shot, Natasha had encountered him in Odessa all that time ago, and was sure he was the one Hydra would send after them and she was rights, they knew to expect him. What they had not expected was for him to have back up.
Steve, Natasha and Sam had managed to make it out of the car alive, but seconds after coming to a skidding stop, something whizzed through the air and landed in the middle of them. Natasha's eyes went wide at the explosive tipped arrow.
"MOVE!" she cried and threw herself and Sam behind a car, while it made Steve fly out far enough for the rocket sent by the soldier to hit his shield and send him flying over the overpass barrier and crash through a bus on the street below.
And then there was a barrage of bullets to avoid, she wasn't able to think more on it, though it was burning a hole in her mind.
The arrows didn't reappear until later, when the soldier and Steve were fighting, they landed in places that gave the Soldier the most advantage. The coordination of a finely tuned team, the evidence that they had done this before. That they had been so well practiced the shots so precise and practiced they never missed, not once made Natasha start to feel scared. She had never encountered this level of skills before not together.
But that did not give her enough reason to run, not yet. Not when Steve was still in danger.
Things got really fucked up when Steve threw the soldier and he landed, mask no longer covering most of his face, Steve stood still in shock,
"Bucky?"
The sniper took his chance and an arrow came straight for Steve, but Sam swooped in and knocked it away with a wing just as the soldier was about to shoot as well, knocking him over in the meantime.
The soldier stood again and raised the gun to fire, but he hesitated, he was confused.
"Мой солдат!" a voice that couldn't be seen called, and then the soldier dodged the rocket that had been aimed at him, and he was gone in a plume of smoke, as was his partner who had not once been seen.
Natasha and Steve were silent as they were apprehended by STRIKE, both with too many things on their minds and with littler reason to speak them surrounded by the enemy, they were locked away in rushing thoughts and disbelief, until Hill rescued them and gave them the chance to not think about it, even if it was just for a moment.
They had other things to worry about, like saving the rest of the world.
~
The soldier was in the chair. It a chair they both knew rather intimately, and both knew what it meant when they were put in it, that they were going to forget, be punished for failure, that was why they never failed, not in a very long time, so they could remember, at the very least one another. But surely it was nothing right now, his arm was being worked on and it was simply easier for the technician to get to it with him in the chair, or it could have just been a threat, sometimes he didn't know, but either way he couldn't focus. That face...that man...it was almost like his sniper sometimes, he knew him...but he couldn't remember how or why. There were feelings and faint images that he attached to a face, and those feelings meant his sniper was his and he wanted him, and that was usually it. Now he was feeling something else while seeing the image of that man superimposed over another image of someone smaller, it was there, and it wouldn't get out of his head. But it wasn't the same, there was something else.
He looked at his sniper who was standing in the corner, there was a handler nearby, but he was doing nothing, there were also several men with their weapons out, but that was nothing new, so he really paid no mind to it.
"Мой снайпер..." he said softly and a moment later the sniper was kneeling in front of him, his soldier was the only one he kneeled for, he may take his orders from others. But no one else had the right of him kneeling, the sniper was loyal, yes, but to his Soldier he was more than that and he made sure he knew that.
"Что тебе нужно?" his sniper asked softly, and the soldier didn't reply only reached out with his flesh hand and ran his fingers through the dirty blond hair, it calmed him, knowing he was still real, that they both were, that what they had was real, his body couldn't lie to him, his mind could, but this was not a lie. He didn't want to think about the flurry of memories that were attempting to invade his mind of a little blond coughing in a dingy little apartment, his sniper was there to steady him to let him forget, that was until the one with control over both of them, Alexander Pierce, came in.
"What is he still doing here?" he pointed at the sniper, "They don't get to be together," he said shortly, and the sniper was urged to stand, albeit reluctantly, but the guns that were on them, and the handler that knew exactly what to say to make this so much worse were not to be messed with, especially so when Pierce were here, though he was sure they could take them all out easily, it would be pointless. He watched as the sniper was restrained and then pulled out of the room, his eyes never left his soldier's until he was gone, the door closing behind him. The memories he'd been holding back slipping back into the forefront of the soldier's mind, he was now even more confused than before.
"...but..." the soldier murmured and then was slapped.
"No, you do not get him when you have failed," Pierce said evenly, voice firm, "You know that. What happened?"
The soldier blinked at where his sniper had vanished then blinked at Pierce, "...the man...on the bridge...I knew him..."
"You saw him on an earlier mission," he said voice still firm.
The Soldier licked his lips and slowly looked at the man, "But...I knew him...like I know my Sniper..."
Pierce let out a breath, like a disappointed sigh.
"Prep him."
"But he- they both have been out of cryo too long sir, they're unstable, only with each other do they seem to-"
"Wipe them both, and do it well, I don't reward failure," he snapped and the technicians were quick to follow the orders, prepping the soldier, and then relaying orders to the other wipe room to do the same to the sniper, Pierce turned, satisfied.
Screams echoed down the halls as he left.
~
The attack on the helicarriers was hard, harder still when Steve had to face Bucky in the last one.
While that carried on, the sniper was laying in wait in the vent up on the security council floor. Just in case, he was an extra card in the game, he'd been told and he was told to wait for the word to fire, because the other players, the ones who wanted to take away the pot, their most prized acomplishment would be playing dirty and could not be allowed to win. The Sniper needed to take out anyone who did not belong the moment he was told to fire.
He now only had to wait for it. There were only three people in the room after Black Widow had revealed herself, and then Fury had made his entrance, Pierce had glanced at the vent, that was all the sniper needed to nock an arrow on the small compact bow he had.
Fury was moving, as was the Widow, Pierce said something snarky and then twisted away from the two of them.
"Пли!" he barked, not even a second later an arrow flew through the slits in the vent and hit Fury in the shoulder that was already injured, luckily the angle was off and it wasn't serious it would just slow down his healing even more, not even a second later another came right at the Widow, she dodged it and fired at the vent, which meant he had to move or it would be like firing at fish in a barrel. He was out and firing another at her, but she knew his patterns somehow and was able to dodge. She got him in the shoulder and it jerked him back, his hood falling down revealing his hair and eyes above his mask. Hair scruffy and unkempt, eyes dark and cold with no recognition. But it was him, she could tell the moment she saw them. It was that combined with the arrows that had convinced her it was him.
"Clint," Natasha whispered, and had to shoot again to avoid a knife thrown at her face.
"Enough," Pierce said, "Both of you drop your weapons," he told Fury and Natasha, "That device was armed the moment you put it on, and he-" he gestured at the sniper, "Follows my every word, there is no chance of you getting out of here alive unless you listen to me. Now come along madame secretary, you're going to fly me out of here, while my sniper is going to finish off Nick, no hard feelings I hope."
They took a few steps before Natasha activated one of her bites and went down, the snipers bow went up just as Fury went down to snag a pistol, he had to make a split second decision.
He fired and the bullet made contact changing trajectory at the last second as the arrow released.
The sniper thumped back against the window, bow clattering to the floor, hand against the bullet hole in his gut.
Pierce fell down with an arrow protruding from his throat, gurgling in his death throes, eyes wide in shock.
Fury was already stepping to Natasha, the arrow in his shoulder ignored, but she was already up, shaking off the shock and going to Clint.
"Clint," she said, holding his face, "Clint, come on, stay with me."
The sniper shook his head, already dizzy from the blood loss, but his eyes cleared for just a moment, the pain snapping something for just a moment, "...Nat...?" he breathed.
"Yes!" she insisted urgently, if she was an emotional person she might have started crying instead she put her hands over the wound on his gut, "It's me, Natasha, I found you, but you have to stay with me."
"...Na...tasha...?" he whispered it was a familiar name, he'd said it before, but he couldn't remember why, god he was so tired and so confused, he didn't know where he was and he felt so lonely, like something was missing, he didn't know. He took a shaky breath looked at her but saw someone else and then slipped into unconsciousness.
"Romanov, we have to go," Fury said and she nodded, then slipped Clint's arm around her shoulders, "Natasha-" he started but was cut off by her glare. He snorted and then went over to help drag the archers' limp body to the helicopter and strap him in so they could go rescue Sam.
~
The Potomac was a mess, SHIELD and Hydra's secrets were public, Fury was gone, Steve searched for the Soldier that had saved him, but only because he felt he needed to.
He needed to save someone else too, but first he needed to find him.
The Soldier searched for his Sniper.
~
The Sniper came to a few times, he was in a hospital bed, he was strapped down. That was the same every time. Occasionally the red haired woman was there, or the blond man and a black man, he would always slip away again before they noticed. Every time he wished there was someone else there, someone who he knew belonged with him.
He came to more solidly a lot later, he was strapped down good to the bed, he couldn't move his arms, but he could move his midsection, not that he wanted to. His shoulder and gut were still sore from the bullet wound, but they were already on their way to healing, he healed quickly, give him another day and he could be back at it, still in pain, but he could work, he had so before, he could do it, he just needed to get up, that would help him. He needed to do something, find someone, yes, he was sure that was what he needed. The person he knew he was lacking...His Soldier. Yes, he needed to get up and go.
But he was tied down, he didn't want to be wiped again, no, he didn't want to forget his Soldier again, the man was all he had, all he ever felt something for. He would die for him, he would do anything for him. He didn't want to forget him again. Please, don't make me.
He was starting to panic, he needed to find his soldier.
Where was his soldier?
He thrashed in his bonds, the heart-rate monitor going crazy, people came into the room and held him down, causing him to cry out in panic seeing what wasn't there and speaking in Russian promising not to fail, he won't fail. He didn't need to be wiped. Please don't take my soldier from me.
Hands touched his face a voice crooned at him in the same language, reassuring, he hadn't failed, nothing would be taken, he had done well, and he would receive his due, he just needed to relax, was calmed slowly by the voice, something familiar about it.
Slowly he was soothed back into sweet and painless unconsciousness.
~
He came to once again this time actually functioning, but it was to the sound of shouts, he jerked on his restraints and the bed creaked. He yanked again and there was a louder creak, he was stronger than the restraints and he didn't feel drugged like he had been before. Recognizing the room as a hospital room and not where he was sent when he'd been hurt, he knew he was no longer in the hands of his handlers. All the more reason to leave and find his soldier.
He gave one more harsh tug and strap broke, it really was a bit too easy, they had underestimated him, but that was alright, he liked using that to his advantage. He was able to get the rest off with ease after that, then he disconnected the tubes and monitors attached to him, it was strange no one had come to check on him yet. Whatever was happening must have been keeping everyone occupied. That brought up a bit of trepidation, but if it was distracting enough, he'd be able to get out with ease, his Soldier, who knew where he was now. The Sniper knew nothing of the current state of things, the last week or so was all a blur, but he could only assume that his soldier was out there looking for him.
He looked around for a weapon of sorts, but there was nothing, no scalpel or needles, perhaps not as easy as he'd thought before, they were smart, just not wholly prepared to keep him.
A paperclip easily unlocked the door and he slipped out, following the shouting, it sounded like gunshots as well, he was able to find a supply closet that had pants and shirts in it, hospital issue, but still better than the paper patient outfit, he slipped them on with ease and made his way towards the noise. Vague curiosity and a feeling made him go and see what was going on, even though the smart thing would have been to just leave before anyone noticed he was gone. He went down the hall anyway, hiding himself behind a nurse station and peeking around to see the action.
His heart stopped.
His soldier was there, a gun pressed to his head, blood dripped from his cheek there was a wound in his side. He was almost entirely surrounded by men with guns, it was too much like being taken back to the chair, but none of these men had any right to do that to his Soldier. The sniper would not let that stand. But his soldier was hurt as well, and that, that really made the sniper snap, no one hurt his soldier anymore.
He moved faster than most men could, he didn't need weapons to kill people, he only needed his will.
Men fell as he snapped necks and broke arms and legs to get where he was needed, he was soon fighting more men and it was getting harder, his wounds weren't completely healed yet.
"Мой снайпер!" his soldier cried at the sight of him.
The sniper took down several more men to get to his soldier, but there was another, the woman, she came at him and she was fast, she didn't have a knife she had a syringe, but he didn't care he just had to get to his soldier who was once again fighting to get out and to his sniper. People were yelling, panic was rampant, this was the most inelegant thing they'd ever done. But it didn't matter, they just needed to get to one another.
He dodged the Widow and was able to get a few hits on more of the men, he was only a foot away, he reached out careless and stupid, but his soldier was so close- something stabbed him in the neck, his hand was so close when he started to fall, everything starting to swim when arms caught him, one metal one flesh.
"Мой...солдат..." he whispered, head thumping against a familiar chest as he once again slipped away into unconsciousness.
The soldier was armed with a gun now and refused to let anyone near his sniper, it was frenzied and panicked and this was no where near the level of finesse they both could pull off, but they had never been in a position like this before. He only wanted to take him somewhere safe, where he wasn't haunted by the man on the bridge who was calling that name. He just wanted his sniper.
He only had one arm to fight, making things substantially more difficult, but he was the Winter Soldier for a reason the other carried his unconscious other half who was dead weight and kept him from moving properly, it was enough of a disadvantage they were able to get a needle in him too, he fell to the floor fighting the effects with every ounce of stubborn will he had, but soon he dropped, metal arm clutched around his sniper, refusing to let him go even blacked out.
~
"I don't understand," Steve muttered looking through an observation window eyes on Bucky who was still out cold and strapped to a hospital bed this time much more durably than Clint had been before, "They both went nearly suicidal to reach each other, why?"
"Didn't you say they were both brainwashed by Hydra? Maybe that's a part of it?" Sam offered, but Natasha shook her head, arms crossed, face straight, no emotions.
"No," she said, "That's not how they work. They seem codependent, Hydra wouldn't want that of it's assets. When Clint had an anxiety attack a few days ago, he begged not to be wiped, that he wouldn't fail. I think that it is more of an incentive thing, if they completed their missions, they would get to keep each other. The only thing that I don't understand..." she trailed off, her lips pressing together in a frown.
"Is how they came to be that close?" Steve finished and she nodded.
"Only they know," she said softly, "Or knew...more likely.
"And they're in no condition to talk," Sam concluded, "Considering how they reacted, not wanting to be separated, don't you think it would be safer to keep them in the same room?"
Natasha sighed, "It might be, it might not, we can wait...we'll see, it's hard to know what's right and wrong anymore." They were pretty sure she didn't just mean their decisions. There was a pause and then Steve let out a sigh, thinking it might be best to change subjects.
"So...Clint, the other man...who is he?"
"He's my partner, he brought me into SHIELD, he made me realize I could do more, be more and I lost him ten years ago and I never found a trace of him, until now..." Natasha said quietly. Steve nodded, he knew how that felt.
"Wow...I think you two need some ice cream," Sam said suddenly after a long pause.
That surprised a snort of laughter from Steve, "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, some rocky road, don't worry, I'll get it," the other man said, grinning, Steve chuckled and clapped him on the back.
"Thanks," he said, looking at Natasha who was rolling her eyes but had a small smile on her lips.
Sam left to go get the ice cream leaving Natasha and Steve staring at the prone soldier.
Neither of them knew how they were going to fix this.
~
The doctors did all they could, every test they could think of, but eventually they agreed that the only cure was time, that was, if the two brainwashed men weren't so damn stubborn.
They didn't appreciate their set up at all, the soldier would demand for his sniper and say nothing else, the sniper did the same. Steve would sit with Bucky try to get him to remember Brooklyn and how things were before, Natasha with Clint remind him how they came to be partners, going on missions together, and while there may have been occasional glimpses of recognition in both sets of blue eyes, it was shut down immediately and neither would speak save to demand for each other.
In the end, that was all they could do.
They were taken (unconscious) to Avengers Tower and placed down in one of the lab turned cells, the walls built to withstand the Hulk and chemical warfare from the future, according to Stark, they were more secure than almost anywhere else in the building, in the city even, maybe even the world. But in the end it didn't matter, because they didn't try to leave.
Natasha and Steve were watching a video feed of when they woke and could do nothing more than watch.
The soldier woke first, he was surprised to find himself unbound after weeks of being tied to a bed, he sat up and spotted his sniper on the other side of the room, on an identical bed, he stood and stared for a full minute before he was at his side.
The sniper woke to the feel of lips against his and hands in his hair, his eyes opened slowly and he saw his soldier before him.
They didn't need words, they kissed once more before the soldier settled on the bed and the sniper leaned into his chest, closing his eyes and feeling content.
They stayed that way for hours.
Natasha and Steve looked at each other on hour five, resigned, they knew they were a set now, and if they wanted anything from them, they would have to consider both of them. It might take awhile but they were convinced they could get their friends back.
However it was hard to think about breaking their tranquility, they seemed to finally be complete now and breaking that seemed almost cruel after all they had gone through, this was what they wanted.
They needed nothing else, they were together, so they were happy.
They needed nothing more than each other's arms firmly wrapped around them.
The End