Prologue

The door opens, one day. It’s nothing like that one time they took Bucky away, when it slammed open and let chaos into your small shared cell. Instead it opens slowly and soundlessly, but the shift in the air still sets you on edge.

Your unease only grows when you look over at Bucky, sitting still as marble with his mask back on, and he shakes his head minutely, ‘no’.

A man steps into the room, it disrupts the air strangely. You first notice his shoes, sleek black and polished to a shine. It makes you feel unexpectedly dirty, you’re still in the same clothes you were taken in and you can almost feel the grime and old sweat that clings to you. The man, in comparison, looks foreign in your dark cell. He’s tall and slim, bordering on lanky, his crisp white lab coat trails behind him for a moment before stopping with a swish at his side, he looks at you over his golden wire glasses with dead grey eyes.

A guard comes in behind him, wearing the heavy black uniform you are used to seeing. Despite carrying several obvious guns and having a strong figure, the man in the lab coat looks far more intimidating. They leave the door open behind them and your eyes dart in that direction. Maybe you’d be able to fight the grey-eyed man at any other time, but you’re weak and underfed, and even if Bucky could take on the guard, you’ve seen nothing of this place, you don’t know if you could get out. 

You glance at the grey-eyed man, the right corner of his lips twitches in what could maybe be considered a smile. The look in his eye makes you feel uncomfortably like he knows exactly what you’re thinking, like a scientist that watches a lab rat run around in a maze.

You remember Bucky, shaking his head only a moment before. You clench a fist into the new sheet -you refuse to think of it as a kindness- and swallow the urge to run.

Grey-eyes hums and scribbles on his clipboard before calling to the man behind him in Russian. They share a small chuckle, and you’re so startled by the sound that you turn to look at Bucky, he doesn’t look back, but his fists clench minutely on his lap.

The guard steps closer and you feel the air tighten around you, he looks you up and down, and even though you feel naked under his leering gaze you suppress the urge to hug yourself. Maybe it’s stubborn and pointless, but you feel just about frozen with fear, and you refuse to give him the satisfaction of having that power over you. Instead you look him right in the eye, as if holding his gaze would keep it from wandering again.

His smile is much wider than the grey-eyed man’s but no less unsettling. A moment passes, your eyes water but you don’t blink. Then Grey-eyes speaks.

It happens so suddenly that you have no time to react. 

The man lunges at you and a rasping yelp escapes you in a voice that doesn’t sound like your own. You hold your clothes tightly on instinct, but he grabs at your hair and pulls harshly until you fall to the floor.

You yelp again, but this time in pain as you land harshly on your hip on top of hard concrete. You lay on your side for barely a second before the man is on you again. You kick at him, but only a few hits land, there isn’t enough air in your lungs for a scream. Pain blooms on your ribs from a punch, then on your cheek when you go to cover your side.

And then he’s gone.

You don’t see it happen. There’s a shift in the air around you and before you can look the room flies past your eyes. Suddenly you can only see gray concrete, cold against your burning cheek. You gasp, too late for the swoop of your stomach, and when you turn to the right it takes you a moment to understand what you’re seeing.

You’re pressed into a corner, and Bucky is standing over you protectively, though the tilt of his head is submissive. His arms shield most of the room from your eyes, but when you stand on the tips of your toes to look you can see the guard laying unconscious on the floor, you can only see him for a second before Bucky shifts his weight and shields your view again.

You fight the sob that tries to escape you, you swallow once, the again before you hear the scratch of pen on paper and then Grey-eyes speaks again. “Soldat” he says, and Bucky flinches at the word. Gray-eyes says something else in a toneless voice and Bucky nods minutely.

“Soldat…” the man says again, this time there’s a warning in his voice.

“Da” Bucky speaks for the first time since the door opened. His voice is strong and his tone doesn't give away a thing, but when you press a hand to his back both in support and from fear his muscles are locked tight. 

The man speaks again, this time a bit louder, and immediately more guards step into the room. You realize they were standing right outside, hidden by the walls, and you follow their movements as best you can from behind Bucky as they pick the still unconscious man from the floor and take him outside.

Your eyes follow them out and land unexpectedly on Grey-eyes, who is looking right at you with that unsettling all-knowing gaze. 

“The first one made the mistake of trying to run, you look smarter than that.” His English is heavily accented, still his words ring sharp in your mind.

He leaves right after, but Bucky stays locked in place for a very long time.