Dark heart

Chapter 27

The evening came sooner than I wanted and by now everybody was in their rooms to get ready. What Tony told us it was a pretty high class club we were going to do I decided on tight black jeans, a black lace top and an oversized blazer. I slipped into matching high heels and took a last controlling look at my makeup in the bathroom mirror before I felt ready to step out and meet the others.

Loki was already downstairs, wearing the all black suit I knew all too well from the party a while ago. It wasn't buttoned up to the top so a bit of his delicate pale skin was exposed. "Hey handsome," I said and traced my fingers over the soft fabric of the shirt. "You look amazing darling", he complimented back.

I could literally feel his gaze working it's way down my body while his breathing underneath my slight touch got heavier. I bit my lower lip and chuckled a bit at the sight of how much input I had on him. "Enough flirting over there", sounded my brother's voice making me snap back into reality. He watched us with a roll of his eyes but half a smile on his lips for a moment before giving last informations on the mission.

The plan was easy: Find Rumlow before the finds us and bring him in one of the cells here. Nothing to go wrong there, right? My body tensed and I shifted my weight from one foot to the other in anxiety. Loki seemed to notice my nervousness as well and he slid his hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was enough to slow my racing heart down a little though. He was there.

"Any last words on that before we go? Anything you feel we should know?," Steve now asked in the direction of Bucky before looking at me as well. "Runlow is a sneaky bastard. He always has a plan b. Watch your backs," Bucky tells through gritted teach. He hates him with all his heart. And he has every right to do so.

*Four years earlier*
I withdraw from Bucky's mind and let my fingertips fall off his temples. It takes him a while to get back into the situation. We were separated for exactly 37 days now. He was the Winter Soldier for 37 days. That's longer than he ever had to be this monster since I'm here.

That Rumlow asshole got suspicious about how Bucky manages to come up again every time he's in our cell again. So he took him on a solo mission. I don't know if it was really a mission. I heard one of the guards talk about some new form of training program. I don't know what he did to Bucky. I'm not even sure if I want to know.

I quickly push the thought away. I need to focus on Bucky. He's disorientated, doesn't know what happened either. "Buck," I whisper softly and cup his face with my hands so he needs to look at me. His look is full of confusion but what really breaks me is the pain in it.

"What did he do to you?" My voice is hardly even audible. We learned to talk without making much sound. It's more safe like this. "Hurts", he answers and tears form in my eyes when I hear that his voice is breaking. "Where?," I ask trying to smooth the deep furrows the suffering left in his face with gentle strokes. He just looks down at his torso without saying anything.

I look in his eyes, quietly asking for permission before I lift his shirt a little. I gasp at the sight and need to stiffle a sob that tries to break out of me. His stomach and chest is covered in bruises and cuts in all shades of red, blue and purple. His muscles twitch unter my fingers as I slightly let them glide over his injured rib cage.

"I need to check if anything is broken. It will hurt Buck, I'm sorry," I explain and he gives me a sharp nod. I apply some pressure on his ribs, checking for any severe injuries as the claws his hands in my shoulder for some stability. His metal arm hurts me and I'm pretty sure it will leave bruises but it doesn't matter.

The only thing important now is Bucky. He doesn't even make a sound. He just endures the pain in silence. I saw video tapes from before I came here. He used to scream in pain back then. He doesn't do that anymore. He learned it only makes the guards have more fun. But when I hear a hardly audible sob from him now, I freeze. He broke him. Whatever Rumlow did, it fucking broke him

Loki snapped me back from my memories as he draged me a little towards the door. I didn't even noticed everybody was leaving. What I did notice was Bucky's gaze laying heavily on me. Our eyes met and this simple look was enough to let me know he was thinking about the same thing.

Without hesitation I let go of Loki's hand and ran over to Bucky. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight as a harsh shake went through his body. We didn't need to say anything, we knew. When I let go of him, Loki was still standing there, watching us with a mixture of feelings in his Features I couldn't name.

I went back to him after checking up on Bucky with a quick last look. I grabbed Loki's arm and dragged him into a smaller hallway where we were alone. I placed my hands on the back of his head und tugged him down until his forehead rested on mine. I couldn't look in his eyes but there was something I needed to say before we would go.

"If anything happens tonight I want you to know something. I love you, Loki Odinson", I whispered, not even sure if he heard me. I didn't stay to know. I simply let go of him before he could answer and walked down the hall into the cool night air where the others were waiting.