Month Ten (October)

I was on my way to see Secretary Pierce to give my mission report after my last assignment, a scientist in Hungary. I was escorted by two guards and stood in front of the metal door that led to Pierce's office. One of the guards knocked twice on the door and waited for an answer before opening it and letting me through.

I surveyed the room, a habit at this point, and froze at what I saw. There were twice the amount of guards as usual and in the corner, sitting in a chair, was the Winter Soldier. Our eyes locked for a second before I turned to look at Pierce. I could still feel the Soldiers eyes on me though.

"Mission report." Pierce told me.

"Traveled to Hungary at eleven hundred hours on the twelfth of October, 2013. My goal was to eliminate Professor József Turi without detection." I started in my monotone voice. "Professor József Turi was eliminated as a threat at zero nine hundred hours on the thirteenth of October, 2013. The building had a security system which I disabled before engaging the target. I was in and out in five minutes." I ended.

"Perfect." Pierce told me and took his glasses off. He put them down on his desk and stood from his chair. "I'm sure you've already noticed our guest." He said and gestured to the Winter Soldier. I nodded once in confirmation. "From this day forward, you two will be a team. You'll eat together, live together, train together, go on missions together." Pierce told us. My eyes widened slightly when he said we would be living together. "And from this arrangement I expect results." Pierce threatened. "HYDRA has been expanding, but that means we have more enemies to watch. That will all end soon, but until it does you two are our best assets." He continued and turned to me specifically. "By the way, you have a name within the community."

"I- what?" I asked stupidly.

"They're calling you The Flash of Death."

"Why on earth would they call me that?" I asked. It took a lot of strength not to lash out.

"Because all your victims see before they die is a flash of blue light." Pierce told me with a proud smile. I stopped listening after he said 'victims'... plural. "It's a complement. You're feared, just like you wanted to be."

"Thank you, Sir." I struggled to say. I put my hands behind my back to keep from shaking. I never wanted this.

"Alright, you're dismissed." Pierce nodded. "Both of you. Show our Soldier to your room. I'll have an extra mattress sent."

"Yes, Sir." I nodded and turned. I gestured for the Winter Soldier to follow me with my head and walked out of the door. I didn't have to look to know if he was following me. I could feel his intense stare on me.

Two guards followed us until we got to my assigned room. I opened the door and turned to look at the Winter Soldier. I waited for him to go into the room, but he didn't. He was waiting for me to go first because he didn't trust me. It was a valid concern since I didn't trust him either, not as the Winter soldier at least.

I rolled my eyes at him and walked into the room. I turned my light on before doing a sweep of the room, another habit now. The Soldier finally followed me in and shut the door behind him. I sighed and sat heavily down onto my bed.

"Well... mi casa es su casa, or whatever." I said and pulled my hair from the tight bun. "I need to take a shower and change out of my gear. Then we can go get dinner at the Brick, ok?" I asked and looked to the cold eyes of the Winter Soldier. "Oh, uh- the Brick is what we call the cafeteria here. It's not really a cafeteria, it's an old distillery. We call it the Brick because it's completely made out of brick." I explained.

The Soldier looked to where the bathroom was before turning back to me and giving a stoic nod. I raised an eyebrow at his lack of words before sighing and getting up. I pulled my trunk from under my small bed and unlocked it. Once it was opened, I started putting away all of my weapons. I clicked the lock shut when I was done and put it back under the bed. I then went to my side table/dresser and opened the drawers to get some clean clothes.

I could feel cold eyes on me the entire time. It wasn't exactly unnerving, just strange. I walked into the bathroom and closed the curtain behind me since I didn't have a door.

During my shower, I thought more on how to get Bucky to wake up. I thought about it a lot over the months and thought I had an idea, but it was risky and would need prep work. Once I was all clean, I changed into the white tank top and black leggings I brought with me before walking out of the bathroom. The Soldier hadn't moved.

"You could've sat down, ya know." I said and gestured to the bed. He didn't say anything back. "You're going to have to talk to me. We're partners now. Partners communicate." I told him with a raised eyebrow. "You hungry?" I asked when he didn't answer. He watched me for another second before nodding. "Words, Soldier. Use your words."

"Yes." He answered. It was only one word, but it was something.

Month Eleven (November)

The Winter Soldier and I didn't go on any missions in the coming weeks. Since meeting, we've only been training together. We were getting a feel for each other's fighting style and figuring out how to use the other, how to trust the other.

Over the last month, I've been subtly saying things to get to Bucky. It wasn't really working, but I didn't expect it to. The biggest reaction I got so far was when I talked about Steve. The Winter Soldier got confused for a second before shaking it off.

This continued for the entire month. I would talk about World War II, or call him sergeant, or Bucky. I had to be careful not to do it where someone could hear me though. It was normally over training, or between the loud chatter of the Brick.

I got the Soldier to talk to me though. He was quiet, but I could tell he was always listening. By the end of the month we were a pretty good team. We knew how to communicate with each other efficiently. During our free time, usually when we couldn't sleep, he would teach me sign language. He tried to teach me Russian once, but we were getting too frustrated with each other to continue.

I noticed how little he slept, even with him not remembering his past. Once we trusted each other we came up with a sleeping schedule. One of us was always awake while the other slept. We took shifts and made sure the other was safe. We both got about four hours a night, which was fine with me since I'd been having nightmares lately. The Soldier would always wake me up, but it didn't help much since I was still living it.

The very last day of November, we were called in front of Secretary Pierce.

"You've got a mission."

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