4.4 | Trigger ✓

09 | девять

Enhanced reaction time, he'd told her once, when she tried to sneak up on him but failed because he'd caught her around the waist and laughed, I'm afraid you'll have to work harder to surprise me.

He'd told her every ability he had as the Winter Soldier and it was all being used against her now – the abnormal amount of strength when he hauled her upright, the sting of electrical energy when he fired at Redwing and tore the drone away from her grasp, the unrelenting grip of his fingers around her throat as he began to suffocate her.

"Listen to me," She rasped, feeling her lungs tighten with the lack of air and black spots blurring her vision when he squeezed, his body pressing her against the wall with no means of escape. "You're – you're not the Winter Soldier – "

He didn't stop, his fingers steadily tightening their grip, the blue in his eyes cold as ice as he stared at her emotionlessly.

" – your name is James Buchanan Barnes – "

He tensed. A flicker of boyish confusion glimpsed his eyes for a fleeting second and his fingers froze on her throat, his voice barely restrained in thin fury when he finally spoke. "Shut up."

" – you lived in Brooklyn but you've been lost for a long time," She pushed on when he didn't make a move to strangle her further. "Your best friend's name is Steve Rogers. You've been living with me and Sam and Steve for the past few months –  "

"Shut up!"

" – you drink your tea black because you like things that match your bitter mood, and you're terrified of thunderstorms because they sound like the bomb raids you used to have during the war. You call me aнгел мой and моя любовь and all sorts of Russian words that I don't understand but that's okay because I know how you feel. And I'm in love with you – "

"Shut up!"

She braced herself when he drove his metal fist at her. But the collision never came.

Instead, she felt the shuddering quake of the wall creaking against the weight of his fist. Saw the faint lines cracks in the wall, the gleam of his metal fist hardly an inch away from her face. When she looked back at him, he was breathing raggedly, his hair falling into his eyes, his shoulders shaking with tremours that seemed to wrack through his entire body.

"You know I'm telling the truth." She said quietly, feeling him shiver when she spoke. "You know because you're doubting everything you believe to be true. You know because if you really wanted to kill me, I'd be dead by now."

He slowly lifted his head. When she met his gaze, she realised that he looked just as furious as he was terrified. He let his metal arm fall to her side, gripping her waist to keep her steady as his fingers around her throat fractionally loosened their grip. He scanned her briefly, eyes roving across the features of her face, an air of suspicion still hanging in the tension between them. "Prove it."

"Alright." She kept her hands still by her side as she kept her movements gradual. Any erratic movement could set him off again and she hardly wanted that. Slowly, she pushed herself up so that her face was levelled with his. His eyes instinctively darted down when she quickly swiped her tongue across her lips and he swallowed, an instinctive, almost unconscious action that gave her a glimmer of courage. "This is how I know," She whispered, "how much you love me."

He kept his eyes wide open when she shut hers, gently letting her lips close the gap between them, until she'd caught the smooth curve of his lower lip between both of hers. He was completely still as she kissed him, keeping himself completely rigid, fingers tense around her, until she tentatively, hesitantly let her tongue sweep across his lower lip.