Two Leaders (Tord x Reader)

Chapter 1

Gold's eyebrows furrowed, a lock of H/C hair falling over her E/C eyes. Reading that civilians were forced to flee surprised her, as it was normal for government-funded militaries to take action against the two armies and stop the fighting before something so severe happened. She continued reading, but stopped seeing something more intriguing than anything she'd read so far.

The Red Leader was losing. He had never once lost a battle and yet he was losing so severely, Gold realized as she read over the statistics of the battle. He was losing more men than he could replenish.

Gold frowned as she finished the article. Losing the Red Leader could either be catastrophic or absolutely perfect for her army, but she wouldn't know until it happened.

She closed her computer softly and dropped her head to her hands, massaging her temples slowly. There was no way Red was going to come back from such losses. He was lucky that he still had enough men to fight his way out, if he so chose. But of course, knowing what the Red Leader is like, he would never back down.

Gold thought correctly. After less than a week of fighting, the Red Army had dwindled down to almost nothing. Gold read the reports regularly and was happy to find that the fighting was steadily moving away from France and her base instead of towards it.

The Red Army, Gold learned from the news, would soon be out of supplies. It appeared that the Red Leader had sent three quarters of his remining troops home to Norway and the other quarter, himself included, had fled the territory roughly two days prior, though some stragglers had been hunted down and killed.

Coward, Gold thought, running from a fight like that- She paused, thinking about her own soldiers. She couldn't fault him for not wanting to lose more lives than necessary.

She checked her leather wrist watch, realizing it was nearly time for the Army's evening meal. She ran a hand through her hair, in an attempt to make herself look more presentable and left her office.

The white, brightly lit halls were thick with soldiers, guns on their backs as they bustled down the hall to their stations or the Mess Hall. A few of them paused to glance at Gold, but swiftly returned to what they were doing. It was common place for Gold to wander the halls and check on her soldiers constantly, sometimes more than once a day.

The Mess Hall was a huge circular room filled to the brim with tables and chairs, a place for every soldier and even a few more, in the case of new recruits. On the left side of the entry way was a huge raised platform with a long table, seating eleven chairs. Nine of the chairs were reserved for her Commanders. The one at the center of the table was reserved for her and the one on her right remained empty, meant for her right hand man. That position was yet to be filled after the death of her former right hand.

Gold sat at her chair, her head of security, Marco, on her left. She scanned the room with amusement looking at all of her soldiers as they roughhoused and enjoyed themselves before the food arrived.

When the food did arrive, Gold's mouth began to water seeing the beautiful feast lain out before her. Janet, her head cook, had outdone herself this time.

The table was adorned with a variety of vegetables, from greenbeans to potatoes and asparagus, enough to, well, feed more than just an army. The main course was chicken and just the smell of it made Gold's mouth water. She looked down the table to Janet, who was looking rather pleased with herself as she watched her cooks dish out food to the soldiers.

"Janet?" Gold said, catching her attention. The women, in her mid thirties, turned to her leader, brushing her long black hair out of her face and revealing her brown eyes. Gold smiled at her, "You've really outdone yourself tonight. What brought this on?"

Janet smiled warmily at her, "I thought we could celebrate our supply run finally making it's way back."

Gold nodded, pleased with the answer and immediately tucked into her food.

Full beyond what she thought possible, Gold walked the deserted hallway to her office, and from there to her own room. It was now ten o'clock at night, roughly four hours after dinner with the troops and she had seen them all off to their new stations, reviewing the security procedures with Marco. She yawned hugely as she opened her office door and entered the dark room.

Within fifteen minutes she had reorganized all of her paperwork and put away her laptop, ready to sleep off all the food she had consumed. Instead, she sat in her chair and put her feet up on the desk as she cleaned one of her pistols, yawning from time to time.

A crackling came over the office phone and the voice of a young woman came over.

"Ma'am, there's someone here for you," the young woman said, her voice shaking.

Gold leaned over the speaker, pressed a button and said, "Send 'em in."

She sat back again and continued polishing the hilt of her gun, waiting for the visitor to knock.

That didn't happen. Instead of politely knocking as she expected, the visitor pushed the door open slowly, leaning against the door frame casually.

Too casually.

Gold stood, planting her palms on her desk and scowling at the figure lounging in the door way, gun under her palm.

"Who are you?" she asked forcefully, realizing they were not in fact one of her soldiers. The silhouette chuckled quietly and stood up straighter, stepping into the light of the room. Gold's eyes widened seeing who stood there.

"Red Leader?" she asked, leaning back slightly, her hand gripping her gun tighter.

"Gold," he said in a thick Norwegian accent, quirking an eyebrow and smirking.

He didn't look how she had last seen him. His eye was bandaged and scarring was visible around the edges, as if he been in an explosion. Most notable of all was the scarlet red mechanical arm visible under his navy blue overcoat. Even with the new accessories the Red Leader still looked as attractive as ever before. Somehow he managed to pull of the bionic look.

"What are you doing here?" Gold inquired, gritting her teeth.

Red's face fell serious and he a turned his face away, suddenly very interested in the carpet and said rather grudgingly,

"I need your help."