DRIPPING RED

THE GAZE that stares back at her is not one she knows, and her own gaze grows critical. dark blue eyes are almost black in the low light, watching every move he makes as her ears strain to find the source of the other voice in the room. her senses are fine tuned, better than what humans would consider average, but she is no fox, she cannot see in the dark. she pinpoints it, she thinks, or at least the general direction it comes from, and she slides ever so slightly along the wall in that direction. her heart breaks when her gaze centers on nate again, yet she must push it down. if there is one thing she has always excelled at it is putting duty ahead of affection, and so for now she can bite back her tears. if she wept it would do nothing to keep him alive, to keep him safe. it was for the best that she tried to end this now. kill the other, break their hold on nate. simple…easy…maybe easy if she had ever really learned to fight. from a distance she could pick the other off without a thought, but with nate between them?

as he reaches for her her hand shoots out, grabbing his wrist. if she squeezed tight enough she knew that the bone might splinter and crack, at least if he had been as fragile as he was before. she keeps pressure, pushing back with just enough force to keep his grasp out of reach of her neck. ’ nate, please. i don’t want to hurt you. ’ truthfully, torvi isn’t sure she can hurt him, perhaps just keep him at bay long enough to get past him, ’ its me, remember? ’ she imagines whoever they sent must be getting impatient and so she waits for it, to hear weight shift from one foot to the other, the slight creaking of the floorboard. her eyes widen when she does hear it, and quickly she moves, ducking beneath his arm before twisting the one she holds. just enough to switch their positions, he between her and the wall, she between him and the other man. errant black curls fall over her shoulders, some in her face as she does. between that and the nightgown she wears, she finds herself slower than she’d like.

even still she lets go, turning quick to head in the direction. of the voice she’d heard. ’ i’m sorry. ’ despite herself she apologizes, for she has never raised anything but a gentle hand to him before. but getting past him was more important. if this hy*dra agent couldn’t speak anymore that would end it, right? like pulling a plug on a computer, it should stop everything. ( she doesn’t want to consider the idea that he may have to be temporarily taken out for this to happen, doesn’t want this to happen again and so the other must go first) all she can do is hope that her speed was enough to catch him by surprise and so she attempts to run, bare feet across wooden floors. heart pounding as she attempts to protect the one thing in this realm which truly matters to her.

If Nate could see himself now, he would be ashamed. He lost control, after fighting so hard to escape and keep himself with her he was back to square one. Almost. He was close to it, all that was needed to be done was get rid of her one way or another and he'd be on his way back to Austria where he'd be wiped. She was his only hope at getting him to remain here and find a way to revert him back, free him from the trance the words always put him in. For now, however, she'd have to fight someone she loved despite him not mentally being there. He wasn't in control of his own actions, he'd never hurt her. However, what he had been made into would. And no doubt she sees it in his eyes, his lack of response as he comes towards her and reaches out to subdue. From what he could see, from observation, she wasn't someone who could fight and so putting her into a hold that would either cause her to pass out or die was his plan. That was until she revealed her strength and speed to him.

His brow furrowed a moment before eyes widened briefly as it all hit. She was more than she appeared to be. Her grip was tight on his wrist but she left his other hand free. But her pleas distract him just enough for a moment, his brow furrowing and head tilting as she speaks as if she knows him. But then there is that urging in his programing to get the job done and he pushes the feelings and confusion down to do what had to be done. His handler was growing annoyed, his jaw tensing as he whispered a few curses under his breath before moving to a new position for a better view and urging him to do what he is ordered. He didn't expect the perfect soldier to be overtaken in the follow moment, assuming nothing would bother him when it did. He had thought wrong. And as Nate swings his arm to try and do his job, she ducks under it only to then find his own face being slammed into the wall as she pins his arm to his back.

A LAUGH escapes her at his admission, in truth, similar sentiments had been shared back home, but then again in vanaheim, she had been known to make her displeasure known in several ways. never did she yell, yelling was beneath her, for old men without enough sense to make argument otherwise. but she had spread rumors, ostracized those who crossed her, slipped one comment past her brother and watched a world crumble. here? she had preferred the silent treatment, cutting people abruptly from her own life. or as she had told him, that if he left to join the army he should never come back, she never wanted to see him. it had been a bold faced lie but then no one had ever called her on it before. no one had ever chosen anything over her. he had, but more than that he was signing his own death sentence and she hated him for it.

she hadn’t been able to turn him away, this moment was proof of that. he had joined, fought and seemingly died in a war and yet here she remained in his arms, welcoming him home. her anger could have never lasted. ’ yes? ’ she smiles, leaning into his touch. this. this is what she had given up her home for, given up the ties she had to her family. for him, for the love she had for him. for the ache in her chest that had not dissipated or even lessened over the decades at the thought of never feeling his touch again. and it was so very worth it in her eyes. no matter what further difficulties they faced the future they spoke of now and even the present they lived in were worth all of it. whatever time she got with him would be worth it, every second was already worth it. and the idea that they might someday have children of their own, that the future she hopes for might become reality? she was willing to risk everything for that.

’ she told me plenty, and when they misbehave i’ll get to be one of those women who say her children are just like their father. ’ not that she had ever anticipated being so hands on with her children until she had found him again. a loveless marriage with children largely raised by nurses had been what she expected. torvi nods, ’ another night. ’ his kiss makes her heart beat faster in her chest, her lips moving against his just as desperately, she loved him, she hoped by now he would understand that. even if she was always happy to remind him. when he speaks she quirks a brow, ’ it was merely a question, suggestion even, i will give you that. ’ the brunette smiles against his lips, ’ not an assertion. ’ the words are mumbled as she leans down to kiss him again.

Somehow, despite that, she hadn't followed through. Normally she was someone who stuck to her words but that was one time he was glad she didn't. If she had? They wouldn't be here right now. She wouldn't have that ring around her finger. Because in the end he still chose her, he always did. He chose to think of her, stay with him, write to her, all of what meant to him to be with her while being gone for the war. He wasn't doing it to end things, he was doing it for duty and he was glad in the end that she saw that he wasn't picking between the two as in the end he'd no doubt have been drafted anyway. If things had gone as he wished, he would have came back like any normal man and married her. That hadn't been in the cards and yet the outcome had been the same, she was his wife and bringing him that peace he had hoped for despite it all.

They had a second chance to be together and this time it was being fully embraced. "Yeah I do." He says softly, hand remaining wear it was as she leaned into his touch. This was what he had envisioned for them, back when everything was simpler. The two of them together in bed, married, planning their future with a smile on their faces. And even if they were there now, in a way, it wasn't the same. She was a goddess practically and he a super soldier who somehow had found themselves in love and it was one that last decades despite being apart. He had never forgotten her, he found. The dreams in the ice, when he had them, her face was there. Even if he hadn't known her name at the time, he saw her face and felt an empty void in his chest. All of that was gone now, he was full. Nate was happy. And they were going to have a family. The smile on his face, one that hadn't been there when all of this started, now found it hard to fade away.

She doesn’t argue as he takes the lead for a moment. She might be impervious to harm, but she’s got not fighting abilities to speak of. She really should look at fixing that, but who has the time when on the run and homeless? 

She slipped into the stairwell and waited for him to follow, glad that her nerves seemed to have leveled off. The smoke escaping her had all but vanished and while the situation was still dire, it seemed like they were actually going to get away unscathed. 

Good. 

She’d worry about the problem of where to stay for the night after putting miles between her and the men hunting them.

She waited for him to take the lead again, never noticing what he’d done to the door. Quiet as she could she followed a half step behind him, careful not to crowd him, but also mindful of not allowing too much distance between them.

If anything, he's happy to see her comply as compared to before and how they first met. Then again she knew at this point what the danger was and he clearly had the experience for it whereas she did not. Nate, however, wasn't going to put all his eggs in one basket just yet. He wasn't going to breathe easy until he knew they had some distance away from HYDRA and she could split off and enjoy whatever life she had while he continued going on the run. That was his fate it seemed.

Following behind into the stairwell, he took lead again as they descended as it felt the best option seeing as no one was going to follow. Well, at least not from the floor they were on previously. If any come up he would take them out silently as best he could. A skill he gained from both the army and the training they drilled into him when he was nothing but their killing machine. The further down to the first floor they got, the more cautious he became as he knew what could happen when freedom seemed close. One could get sloppy, he's seen it plenty of times when the situation was flipped.

Hearing the two words leave her lips, Nate couldn't help but smile just ever so slightly. It was nice, being like that to someone again. It almost made him feel like he could be his old self, that it was within reach even if that wasn't entirely true. At least it wasn't in his mind, he wasn't even sure how he'd able to do that and with his hands so strained with innocent blood was he even worth it? He couldn't think about that, not right now. He had to focus on her and helping her patch him up as best they could given the situation. "I don't know when that day will be...but I'd welcome it." He half mumbles out.

this man got wounded more than margaux had ever seen — it's like he had a magnet in his ass for the operatives tracking him down. as he sat on the metal table in the disused med building in a long abandoned compound, she took a brief moment to relish things being quiet, for now.

He hated dragging her into this but she was the only person he could trust at this rate and he couldn't handle all of his wounds. Not that Nate hadn't been doing that before, but some were harder to reach than others. It was especially hard when he had more than one wound, making it nearly impossible to take care of himself completely without much struggle or pain. So, here he was caked in blood in front of her sitting on a metal table in an abandoned building.

‘ colonel, this strange man i found in a room during a sweep says we should go, that we shouldn’t be here. ‘ she paused, imitated the sound again, and then fixed the redheaded man with another stare.  

‘ he says no. ‘ 

of course, no real conversation had taken place, but if this guy could be a smartass, so could she. 

‘ hostage rescue has to get involved to, you know, rescue the hostages. ‘ not that he seemed to be one, seeing as he was armed. she shifted on her feet, before standing up. she wore no name patches, or any insignia to reveal what country she came from. she was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. 

Nathaniel wasn't the kind to joke around, he had been serious. And that didn't seem to be something that sat well with her. She seemed capable but this was his mess and that was the last thing she needed to be involved in. Hell, he didn't want anyone involved but himself, it made it easier and safer. But explaining that? Well, that meant admitting something he couldn't exactly do to just anyone. Because then what would she do? Try to kill him? It actually might be safer than giving him the chance to somehow end up back in the hands of HYDRA. That was why he was fighting back, every day to avoid being back in their grasp. Still, he can't help but roll his eyes as she gives him a smartass reply back.

"Hilarious." He grumbles mainly to himself as he looks away, over to see how clear the area actually was at the moment. "I am not a hostage." The redhead knew that was obvious since he was completely fine and armed. She had only caught him after he'd been temporarily been caught by a flashbang. He'd recovered himself just fine since then. His jaw tensed, however, as she called him out on his bluff. Honestly he should have seen that coming, she seemed like the type to be able to read more easily than he liked. Despite how well he as at hiding things, some were trained well enough to see through that. There weren't many but she seemed to be one.