Expected
He was sitting on the roof, concealed by the shadows and protected from the rain, even from the dim trickle of moonlight that made it through the dark clouds. He was curled in on himself, this is where they normally met even though they weren’t supposed to.
He’d come here four times and she hadn’t shown up.
He had been put in the chair three times for erratic and unpredictable behavior unbefitting of the asset.
His handlers were talking about how medusa was being silent and they might need to prepare but they wanted to find her so badly, but he wanted her safe, she was his world.
The one thing that made him happy.
He knew whatever he was feeling was a malfunction. Weapons didn’t have feelings, but for some reason, he had never reported it. He could never figure out why.
Weapons also don’t have names but she kept calling him Rusty, saying something about the arm being a horrible piece of tech. She had always refused to call him the winter soldier or even Asset.
A knife hurtles down, sinking up to the hilt in the metal of the skyscraper that had sheltered him from the rain, grabbing the blade, ignoring the subtle familiarity of the weapon in his hand he went on high alert.
Someone lands on the roof next to him. He hadn’t heard them approach, either he was slowly slipping from the loss of Medusa or they were a dangerous opponent, an equal.
Hauling himself to his feet he fell into a fighting stance, eyes scanning for his potential target, the rain blurred his vision but his eyes still found her.
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She stepped from the shadows, stealing his breath and the little heat from his rain-soaked skin.
He took a step forward, a whimper, or as close to it as he could make; a painful, wracked, broken sound clawed its way out of his throat. The asset hadn’t expected to see her again. She looked different but he knew, he would recognize her anywhere.
“Oh, Rusty, no. I’m here, it’s me.” She stepped forward cautiously “I’m okay, I’m alive. You haven’t gotten rid of me. I’m here.”
The Asset’s whole body was shaking, but he somehow managed to find himself pulling her towards him in an action he couldn’t recall where he had learned.
Tearing his mask off, he buried his face in her neck. Letting the fact she was there calm him.
Fingering the knife he realized it had been his favorite dagger, she had lent it to him once and it felt like he had regained a limb he wasn’t aware he had lost. Giving a weapon to the asset when she had no control over him was an act of trust that almost stole the breath from his lungs.
“Hey”, she whispered, he felt one of her arms raise and a soft rustle.
He knew what that sound meant.
Pulling back he looked at her face but now, he couldn’t recall any of her features, he just knew she had had a soft smile and being speechless at her beauty.
Not just her physical beauty, but the fact she was Medusa, his medusa who had shown her face to him.
Not knowing what to say, but somehow knowing what to do - pulling her temple to press against his, the Asset felt a warmth that pulsed back through his veins despite the cold in the air and the relentless pounding of the rain soaking them both. James and winter now knew what they had felt.
“ты действительно вернулся (you really came back),” he whispered eventually, disbelief coloring his normally emotionless voice, unable to keep the words in.
She snorted “Of course I came back.”
She ran a hand over his chest, where it fisted into one of the leather straps holding one of his weapons, loose enough to not be a threat but the asset would never fight her. If she slit his throat he probably would have thanked her.
“I could never abandon you.” she hummed softly.
A memory hurled itself at him, one of the few he had, the rest had been seared from his mind from his time in the chair. The memory, although unfamiliar felt right, and so, he followed it and pressed his mouth to hers.
She tasted like the rain running down her face, sharp like her blades, and sweet like the honey that flowed through her voice when she laughed at one of his emotionless grunts.
she leaned into his touch so trustingly, in the way her lips slide along his own and how their tongues meet; it's all so easy. And maybe does get lost in it a little, because when they break apart, he is panting and his head is spinning, and he adores it.
He adores her, and he will keep her safe no matter what.
“Rusty, listen, there is something important I need you to know.”
he went on alert, everything his Medusa said was a treasure, every memory of her was precious and the fact she wanted his attention made him direct the focus of all his senses towards her.
“I’m working with someone. They showed up in my house in the middle of the night and were quite persistent.”
He growled she was his and he was NOT going to share any of their time together. Whoever they were they had the resourcefulness to find his medusa’s home and make her work with them? Unacceptable.
“They are working on freeing you and they want my help. So I need a favor.”
He nodded, anything she needed.
“When they come for you, please don’t resist.”
He froze, managing to rasp out a questioning sound.
“I know that’s a lot to ask but you will be safer, my ‘friend’ can keep you safe and I will protect you too. But I need you to be safer. I promise when you are free Hydra will never hurt you again. When you see me again you will know I kept my promise to keep you safe. Okay?”
Despite his displeasure at the idea he nodded anyway. If it helped his medusa he would do anything.
Taking the dagger he wrapped it in one of his gloves. He pressed it into her hand, it would help keep her safe and remind her of him until they saw each other. The smile he got was worth the discomfort he felt at the loss of part of his uniform.
“stay… safe мой драгоценный маленький боец (My precious little fighter)'' he forced out of his throat, unaccustomed to speaking in English She had never had an issue understanding his Russian just as he had understood her honeyed English and marveled at her energetic Italian she would ramble in, but he needed her to hear the sincerity and desperation he wouldn’t admit was there.
She had pulled the black glove over her metallic one, kissed him on the cheek, and slipped away into the shadows.
The asset returned to Hydra, his next mission had been his last.
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James and Winter were dragged out of the memories to find an arm around Steve’s shoulder, half carrying and half dragging him away from the fight.
He barely heard him whisper “ hey buck, Medusa said you were having a flashback and we all needed to leave. We tried to stay and help but she threatened to knock us out and haul us away.”
Hearing that finally brought reality crashing back down their драгоценный маленький боец (precious little fighter) was back, she was protecting them just like she promised, just like she always did.
“I need to go protect her, I can't leave her. I promised to ALWAYS protect her.” They yanked themself away from Steve, snarling only to be slammed into a wall by the Widow.
“She said to leave. She said our gas masks wouldn’t work and she couldn’t risk us or you, especially you, getting hurt. She will meet us soon, she promised she would come back. Do you really think the Medusa we know could fall to a few hydra agents? She was using her poison gas Yasha, be sensible. Don’t insult her with your lack of trust in her skills.”
That shut him up, looking around he saw the rest of the avengers covered with minor cuts and some major bruises, it looked like steve had been shot in the side and his metal arm was now dented, Toni wouldn’t be happy that he had managed to damage it.
“Where’s Toni?” they asked, since they couldn’t protect medusa at least they would get reassurance the rest of his family was safe.
“Medusa told us that Toni was making sure Pierce didn’t try and escape. She apparently wants to rub something in his face before giving him to SHIELD as an act of goodwill. That lady is fucking terrifying, and I thought you and Tasha were scary. Compared to her you two might as well be kittens” clint announced while nursing a shoulder that Natasha had just relocated.
They stepped out into the cool night air.
Hydra's base was in fact a reinforced seemingly abandoned warehouse.
Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
---------
The Avengers made their way through the dark over to Toni, following the soft blue glow of her reactor.
“Is everyone okay?” she asked.
Winter went to speak, allowing James the time to continue processing the memory with medusa, it had been like a dream and they still weren’t sure it was real. “I th---”
The sky flashed into a sunset despite being dark out, all those colors seared into his eyes like hydra had into his brain, and then it sucked away back into the deep blues speckled with starlight. The afterimage went on in strobes and WInter reeled, guarding their eyes as someone or thing pushed the rest of the team back.
Another flash came, causing even winter to stumble to the ground, he felt his clothes torn back and saw the world as it burned red.
The hairs on his neck stood on end, cursing he rolled back onto his feet.
The world was hissing and crackling. There were twisted metals, smoldering as fire danced in the gnarled wreckage.
Ash drifted down like snow, an eerie calm quietness settled over the clearing as they processed what happened.
“That went better than expected."