Short Stories [A.F.]

Cold Nights • MCU

I dragged his body into the old house and quickly prompted him on the dusty couch. His leg was wounded. Not a deep wound, though. This could be stitched up, if I could clean up the blood first.

"Careful." He muttered.

"I know, James." I placed a pillow under his foot and ran to the kitchen where I kept a first aid kit.

"What are you doing here? In Germany, I mean." He asked.

"Work. Nothing to worry about. Now shush."

"Nat, the only way I'm going to ignore the pain of you stitching my leg up is by talking."

"I'm not much of a talker, and you're supposed to have the pain tolerance of a god."

I brought the box to the coffee table and took out all the items I needed. Scissors, bandages, etc. This was not my first time. Definitely not with my line of work.

"SHIELD mission? Avengers business?" He wore a slight smile on his face, which I always thought was goofy and annoying. Most of the time.

"Neither. I'm on my own."

"Well-"

"Stop talking." I carefully passed the needle through his skin. I looked up to see him still, like a statue.

I kept signaling him to stop talking everytime he opened his mouth to speak. Even though I had much experience in this area, I needed silence, and no movement whatsoever.

"Done." I said, as I wrapped his leg with the bandage.

"Thank you." He groaned, trying to stand.

"You can't stand yet. It's not a deep wound but it's not a harmless one either."

"Like you said, I have the pain tolerance of a god." He smirked and headed for the kitchen.

"There's nothing. This is just a temporary safe house."

"Natalia, I know you're trying to hide your Oreos from me." He opened the fridge and took out a pack of Oreos. I sighed in defeat.

"Well, you might as well share." I said as I grabbed a cookie from his hand.

We sat down on the couch and ate Oreos in utter silence. The cold wind entered through the broken glass pane as snowflakes piled up on the window edge.

"What are you really doing here, Nat?"

"I already told you. I got a lead and I followed it here."

"There's more. You can't fool me."

"I'm not trying to. I don't need your help with this." I threw my half eaten Oreo back into the box and threw a death stare at him.

"I never offered my help."

"Well, knowing you, you will after I tell you."

"Please. I already have a mission of my own. And if you wouldn't have been there when I got ambushed, I would've died. Or worse."

"Well." I paused. "Three months ago I received a phone call. Disguised voice. I didn't recognize them. They told me that they were once part of the Red Room. They threatened to expose more of my more violent crimes against humanity, try to tear down the superhero image I've accidentally made for myself."

"And? What did you do?"

"Well, you know me. I don't take shit from no one. They wanted me to do something for them in exchange for their silence. I did what I had to do, but nothing more. I placed a tracker on the person sent to meet with me."

"How have you not found them yet?"

"They destroyed the tracker. But I did get a photo of the person's face. I've been running it through various European criminal databases. That's the only lead I've got so far."

"I'm guessing you've found nothing yet."

"You've guessed correctly." I stood up and took the Oreos back to kitchen.

"I can help you." He said, turning towards me from the couch.

"James, I told you I work better alone." I scoffed. He knew this but he could never pass up the opportunity to work with me.

"Come on, Nat. It'll be like the old times."

"Like I want to remember what we did together. Nothing good came out of the Red Room."

He lowered his head and proceeded to stand up, limping and slightly groaning.

"I didn't mean it like that." I softly spoke.

"I know what you meant."

I stood close to him as his breath warmed the top of my head and his cold metal arm stroked my neck.

"You can't go out. Not with that cold outside and not with that wound."

"I don't suppose you have clothes for me?" He smirked.

"I'll find something. But first I need to take a shower. I smell like blood."

"I'll join you." He always liked to tease. It annoyed the living hell out of me. Again, most of the times.

"Nice try, soldier, but you're not getting me naked that easily."