Prompt Post 1

[capkinkmod]

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At least one of the characters in your prompt must have been in Captain America: The First Avenger or Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

As of May 3, 2014, the spoiler policy is no longer in effect.

Update, April 22, 2014:
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Fill: Title
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Fill: And I Am Always with You, Part 9

[lauralot]

Instead of briefing him at the base of operations, this time he is sent to Pierce’s home to receive his orders. He can’t recall if he has ever received a mission this way, but he can’t recall the method in which he received any mission save for Nicholas J. Fury’s. Everything before was unnecessary, so HYDRA has wiped it away. And the mission will be fulfilled regardless of how the orders arrive. A weapon does not question the manner in which it is aimed.

Pierce’s home is large. It has many windows, tall and wide, so that the exterior walls might as well be made of glass. The asset thinks this is a vulnerable location, open to numerous methods of attack, but it is Pierce’s and he has survived here and weapons do not question things. And while the Soldier is here, there is no threat of attack from anything. He will not allow harm to come to his handler under any circumstance.

There is a woman there when he slips inside, moving down a hallway and dusting the framed pictures that hang along the walls. He could shoot her—there is a gun waiting in his hand should the need arise to use it—snap her neck, break her skull, strangle her. There is no shortage of methods he can utilize to end her life. But he has not received an order to eliminate her, so instead he slips into the shadows of a room as he waits for her to pass. He recalls once being called a призрак, and he can be one when it is needed, silent, invisible, moving without a trace.

There are pictures on the walls of this room as well. In the hallway, they were paintings, but here they are photographs. The asset surveys them as he waits. Pierce is in many of them, alongside children or other adults, looking as he does now in some and younger in many others. Did the Soldier ever fulfill missions for Pierce when he was young? There was a sense of recognition when the asset awoke and Pierce was there to brief him, but that may be the recognition of a master, not that of a familiar face.

He hears the woman moving up the stairs and steps back into the hallway, heading toward the kitchen. Having noted the layout of the building before coming inside, he only looks around to ensure there are no threats to be dealt with and to prevent himself from walking by Pierce inadvertently. The Soldier was not told where within the building to go. The room he’d been standing in did not appear to see much use. But kitchens, aren’t those an area people frequent?

The asset stands at first, but that makes him too visible, expends unnecessary energy. He sits then, weapon on the table and arm beside it, body tensed, ready to take action the second the need should arise.

Pierce enters the room and the Soldier waits to be seen, to be given purpose.

Their eyes meet and then the woman is speaking, and she is downstairs again, near to the kitchen and the призрак in the shadows. “I’m going to go, Mr. Pierce. You need anything before I leave?”

The Soldier’s gaze drifts toward the hallway where the woman stands just out of sight, then back to Pierce, awaiting his word.

“No. Uh, it’s fine, Renata, you can go home,” Pierce says, and while the Soldier realizes his gun will most likely not be needed, he remains tense to be prepared should the situation change.

“Okay, night-night,” the woman says, and there are footsteps beginning away from them as Pierce answers with “Good night.”

Pierce’s attention has returned to him as a door opens and closes in the distance. “Want some milk?”

He has been asked a question. Questions require answers, but the asset has no answer to give. Want? What is “want”? It’s not a word weapons use; it does not apply to them. He doesn’t know how to react, and finds he cannot react, only stare and wait for the punishment that will come from failing to answer.

But there is no punishment. Pierce simply retrieves a glass, pours a small amount. If it is given to the asset, he will drink. “The time-table has moved,” Pierce says. “Our window is limited.”

He drinks from the glass he has poured then, stepping around the countertop and moving toward the table where the Soldier is seated. “Two targets, level six. They already cost me Zola.”

Zola. Zola created him, saved his life. He doesn’t remember how his life was threatened, not anymore, but he knows that Zola saved it. There is a brief sensation he can’t name, what might be

[hatred]

sadness if he felt things, but he does not. The impact is there and gone immediately, without reverberation.

“I want confirmed death in ten hours,” Pierce says, and as the asset is about to nod he looks past the man and realizes the woman has returned.

And realizes she has seen him.

“Sorry,” she stammers. “Mr. Pierce, I—I, uh, I forgot my phone.” She does not look at Pierce at first, eyes fixated on the Soldier. He stares back, awaiting a command.

Instead, Pierce sighs. “Oh, Renata.” He turns, lifts the gun from the table. The asset watches. “I wish you would’ve knocked.”

Pierce fires twice. The woman screams once. They watch as she stumbles backward, body jerking on the hardwood—Pierce sighs again, “I just had those polished”—until it stills, dead. With a third sigh, Pierce stands, setting the gun back onto the table as he does. “She made the best risotto,” he comments, walking out of the room, and the Soldier waits silently for his return.

Upon remerging, there is a file in Pierce’s hands: a dossier on the new targets. He drops it down beside the gun. Natalia Alianovna Romanov, aliases Natasha Romanoff, Natalie Rushman, and Black Widow. Steven Rogers, alias Captain America.

There are photographs of the targets. One of them he recognizes from

[снег]

the rooftop. The man-not-the-mission has become a mission after all.

“Confirmed death in ten hours,” Pierce repeats, and the asset nods. He will not fail. He never does.

Re: Fill: And I Am Always with You, Part 9

[thelatepapers]

this is beautifully written, and so so painful.

Re: Fill: And I Am Always with You, Part 9

[lauralot]

Thank you! I find writing Bucky as Winter Soldier a really interesting thing to do, since it's almost like writing the lack of a character but at the same time there's still a character there that needs to be conveyed, however faintly.

Re: Fill: And I Am Always with You, Part 9

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, this! I am working on a bucky POV story and that is absolutely it! There is a very faint bucky inside a very thick winter soldier shell. But he's there.

I am loving this, BTW. So interesting, your take on this!

Re: Fill: And I Am Always with You, Part 9

[lauralot]

Thank you!