I Got Distracted

- - - - -

The Dubai summer was unbelievably hot. Ana was sure if she used a whole can of antiperspirant, she would still sweat. She settled in jean shorts, a white v-neck and sandals. She had to meet up with the granddaughter of an ex-Soviet scientist and a few of her friends. Ana had to be undercover as an American tourist, and since the granddaughter, Isla, was making extra money as a tour guide, it was the perfect setup.

Fury asked her to try and get some information on Isla's family. Being an ex-Soviet scientist's granddaughter had to involve some shady business in the family. Ana thought it was something one of the more experienced agents at SHIELD would be more capable of but Fury wanted her to have more experience. And she wasn't allowed to say otherwise.

Ana exited the Burj Khalifa, the famous Dubai building and took a taxi to the beach. Once she got to the beach, she noticed the large amount of people and the music being played. Everyone danced around, having a fun time in the heat.

After paying the taxi driver, she quickly walked to where she saw Isla and a few of her friends down at the bar. She gave them a grin and waved, sliding next to Isla.

"Hey! When did this happen?" She questioned, nodding her head at the large crowd.

Isla nodded her head along with the music, "I think it's someone's birthday. Wanna drink?" She asked in her slight Russian accent. Ana nodded her head and watched as Isla ordered waters with lemon.

Kate and Alex, Isla's friends, downed their drink and grinned at each other. They turned back to Ana and Isla and pointed at the blue water, "We're going to swim for a bit, it's way too hot!" Kat exclaimed with a giggle and dragged Alex away, yelling out a 'see ya'.

Isla chuckled and sipped at her drink. Ana thought that this was the perfect time to ask about her family subtly.

Ana leaned with her back against the bar, her elbows on the table as she sipped her icy cold water and cleared her throat, nodding at Kate and Alex. "So, is it just you guys out here?" She asked.

Isla kept her brown eyes on the crowd as they danced and nodded, "Yeah, just us three. We have a small holiday before going back to school. Our families are back at home." She replied.

Ana furrowed her eyebrows falsely, "Russia right?"

Isla smirked, turning her gaze to Ana. "It's the pale skin and accent, yes?" She laughed, gesturing to her unusually pale skin amongst sun kissed ones.

Ana laughed along and nodded her head, "Yeah."

Isla smiled, "I have lived in Russia my whole life, I was eager to leave and start school somewhere more warm." She explained. Ana thought it was going smoothly until a random dude in the crowd tipped his head at Isla.

She nodded back and turned to Ana, "Wanna dance?" She asked, pointing at the people all pressed together and dancing to the music.

Ana shook her head, wanting to stay under shade in the bar, "You go ahead, I'll stay here." She said and watched Isla give her a nod before going the boy and dancing with him.

Ana went to sip at her water but found that it was empty. She turned to face the bar and held her hand up for the bartender to serve her. When he moved to her, she was surprised when he handed her a drink, something that looked like an alcohol beverage.

She frowned, "I didn't order that."

The bartender just pointed down the bar, "But he did." He responded and Ana followed his gaze and her eyes landed on a man with his long hair tucked behind his ears. He was wearing a very loose long sleeve shirt and he gave her a small smile.

Ana thought he was pretty and smiled back. She looked down at her drink and scrunched her nose, "Uh, what is this exactly?" She looked up expecting the bartender to be in front of her but found she was on her own.

She blushed slightly, and picked up her drink going to take a sip. Someone slid next to her and she looked up to see the man that had paid for her drink. She had to restrain herself from widening her eyes at his face. It was great.

He smiled at her, "Hi."

She smiled back, "Hi."

Ana looked down at her drink, "Thanks for whatever this is." She laughed.

He let out a chuckle and lifted his shoulder for a shrug. "The bartender told me it was the most popular, and you're welcome." He said.

Ana gave him a look, hearing his accent. "You're American? The first I've come across in my two days of being here." She smiled. Isla didn't look like she wanted to stop dancing for a while and Ana thought it wouldn't hurt to make a few acquaintances. It's not like she'll ever see them again anyway.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise then held out his right hand, "I'm James." He introduced. Ana subtly swiped her sweaty hand on her jean shorts and shook his, "I'm Ana."

"Nice to meet you, Ana."

"You too, James."

- - -

The Winter Soldier didn't expect her to be in the middle of another one of his missions again and it seemed like she didn't recognise him at all. It was probably because his mask was off and he looked like a normal civilian.

Her being here wasn't good. His team was hauled up in a hotel waiting for his confirmation that Isla Markoff was dead. Isla's grandfather, the ex-Soviet scientist, was one of the few who had the displeasure for working with Arnim Zola and the Red Skull. Since Isla was the only one in their family who knew of Hydra's secrets, she was a liability that had to be extracted.

Currently it was dark, the heat had cooled down and now the beach was accompanied with a small breeze. The party had turned into a bonfire and he was waiting for Ana to come back from the bathroom. He was planning to take her away from the gathering while a few of his men take care of Isla and make her death seem like a drunken accident. Then Ana could go back home.

The Winter Soldier was rarely in places like Dubai and Rome, his usual mission were in Russia and every cold place on Earth. There was this one time when he was assigned to kill a senator in the US. He was able to do the mission, but he failed to meet up at the extraction point. He was missing for two weeks. It was when they had found him, a sleeper agent of theirs recognised the Winter Soldier, they put off anymore missions on American soil.

The Winter Soldier lifted his eyes when he saw Ana walk over to him, an apologetic smile on her lips. She removed the strap of her bag off her shoulder as she sat down next to him on the sand.

"Sorry for taking so long. My dad decided to check up on me. Again." She said.

It was actually Nick Fury checking up on the mission. She assured him everything was going to plan before she walked back to the beach. On the way though, she picked up some suspicious voices. When she went to investigate, she saw James sitting on his own staring into the ocean. It was then the voices vanished and she went over to him.

James smiled at her, leaning on his left arm. "It's cool, I understand." Not really, he thought.

Ana looked over at the bonfire and spotted Isla and her friends laughing and drinking booze. It didn't seem like she would get anymore answers with her like this, better luck tomorrow.

"So..." James started.

Ana raised an eyebrow as he awkwardly looked around. She let out a laugh and patted his arm softly, feeling the hardness underneath his shirt.

"What is it? You getting tired already? The night is young." She said, opening her arms up. He chuckled at her when she got up and held out her hand for him to take. He didn't think and used his left arm to reach out, his gloved hand engulfing hers.

Ana didn't think when she used her strength and hauled him up, causing them to bump into each other. She flushed pink and mumbled out an apology as he kept saying it was fine.

The Winter Soldier's sleeve exposed his metal hand and Ana noticed the glint of his metal, looking down at the hand she was holding. It was then she felt everything slow down around her. Her stomach dropped and her mouth ran dry. She held her breath and looked up at him, "You."

James sighed. It was all over. "Me."

Ana took back her hand like he'd burned her, feeling stupid. She stepped away from him and shook her head. How could she blindly let herself be around strangers. Natasha always told her never to get sidetracked, to keep her head level and don't let anything distract her on a mission. James distracted her. And she let him.

James looked back at Isla and saw one of his men lure her drunken self away from the group. At least that was handled. He turned back to where Ana was and saw she had disappeared. He quickly looked around and saw her hastily run back to the main road, back to her hotel.

Ana had to get her things and leave. After her first encounter with him, she had looked him up on SHIELD's files and found only ghost stories. Many believed he wasn't real, but she had seen him with her own eyes. Even Natasha came across him once in Ukraine. But even the Black Widow told her to stop searching, knowing they would never be able to find him.

But Ana found him.

The stories, the ones where people say the Winter Soldier was a merciless killer, a weapon of the Soviet Union. He's assassinated many political leaders over the span of fifty years. All of them being made to look like an accident or murder by someone else's hands.

But Ana didn't know what to think. He had many opportunities to kill her, since she was in the middle of his missions. And he can't go back empty handed. Every time she looked at him, he just seemed like someone wanting to find a place in the world. His eyes were dark, brokenly dark. He didn't look like a weapon, he looked like a confused man.

Ana ditched the elevator and ran up twenty flights of stairs to her room. She thought she had lost him but after hearing his voice call for her, she ran faster and dashed through the door. She took out her room key, groaning when it wouldn't open the door.

She decided to kick the door open and walked inside. Her things were always in one bag, incase of emergency and she had to get out of there. She dug into her bag and took out a few of her daggers, strapping the pouch on her thigh and taking out her SHIELD communicator. She hurriedly typed her situation but before she could press send, a dagger went through the device, sending it flying out of her hands and onto the wall.

The Winter Soldier held another up, ready to use it. He held out his right arm, "Stop, Ana. Just listen..."

She glared at him and took her own dagger into her hand. "Why? Again, you're in the middle of a mission. My mission." She breathed out and clothed her dagger so tight, her skin broke.

The Winter Soldier stepped off her broken door and approached her, "I have my own mission. But very different from yours. Isla, the one you're supposed to get intel on? She needs to be extracted. They want her gone." He told her.

Ana then widened her eyes in realisation. "You're going to kill her?"

"She already dead by now, if not by midnight." He replied.

Ana felt her frustration rise within her. She failed another mission. SHIELD was going to drop her. She didn't want that. She had already became close with her mentors. Her job, it puts her abilities to good use, she's helping people. But tonight she just let one die.

Her eyes flashed and in a second she had him pinned against the wall with her hand on his chest, keeping him still.

"Where are they? Where is she?!" She yelled.

He rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to tell you."

"Then I'll just have to use hard way."

The Winter Soldier scoffed but before he could register what happened, Ana had grabbed him and threw him across the room, making him hit the wall with a loud thud. The chandelier on the ceiling shook as Ana cracked her knuckles, watching him get to his feet.

"Fine, sometimes I prefer the hard way."

He narrowed his eyes at her as she disregard her weapons and raised her fists. She stood in front of the room entrance as he ran at her. She quickly fell to her back and used her feet to push against his chest and use his speed against him, sending him into the hallway wall.

Ana smirked to herself as she got up her feet a few inches behind the fallen door to her room. She slid her foot under the door as he ran at her again. He saw her next move coming though and punched through the door when she pushed it up to block him.

Ana widened her eyes, feeling him barrel into her. They landed on the floor, the wind getting knocked out of Ana's lungs. The Winter Soldier saw red and trapped her underneath him, using his metal arm to press down on her throat.

Ana struggled underneath him and clawed at his arm, gasping for air. She glanced next to her and saw a dagger. She reached out for it just as he removed his arm. He blinked a couple of times, his chest heaving. He looked at the large red mark on her throat with a frown.

Ana used this opportunity to send the dagger into his metal arm. He yelled out and Ana shoved him off her, shuffling to her bag. She didn't have time for this. She had to find Isla before the Winter Soldier's men kill her.

The Winter Soldier removed the metal dagger and was relieved when it didn't hit anything major. He looked up and saw the window open, the curtains flowing from the wind. Ana had jumped down twenty floors.

"Ah, shit."

- - - - -

Hey! I hope you liked this one and the next update will be the start of Age of Ultron. I have a lot of surprises and I can't wait for you guys to read them!

Q- Who is your favourite sidekick?