The debrief was monotonous and standard besides one minor detail, James was requested to stay behind. It was a command that caught my attention as the remainder of us were permitted to leave.

"See you later," James disclosed in a low voice. We knocked shoulders and our fingers mingled indiscernibly as I passed.

I directed my eyes front as I marched the bleak grey corridors back to my quarters, but behind me I could hear a flurry of footfalls as someone fought to find me.

The jogging reduced to plodding, and beside me levelled Alexi; shaggy dark hair casting a jagged shadow across his angular features.

He spent a couple seconds gawping at me expectantly, assuming I had anything of besides vitriol to express to a man that evening.

Then his wind-bitten lips smacked, in all their rosy soreness. And the deep breath of preparation was enough to make me roll my eyes.

"So what is it about you and that Winter Soldier?" He asked with merriment, a simmering smile on his goatee rimmed lips. "You and him seem..." He clicked his tongue as he formulated the accurate terminology. "Close-"

"We're not," I snapped, giving him a steely glare as sharp as a razor's edge. If curt answers or muteness didn't ward him away, scathing looks ought to.

His eyebrows shot up at the biting reply. "That's why he glares at every passing man who gives you a looking, like a guard dog?" One eyebrow remained arched like a detective, whilst the other reassumed its position. "And puts his arm around your waist?" He whispered, wary of how such sensitive information may land me in pugilistic corporal punishment. "And whispered something to you moments ago?" He drew out the words with curiosity.

My throat was scratchy with lack of moisture and a click sounded as I swallowed. "Very observant." My breathing hitched, my chest giving an obvious flutter. "Aren't you?"

Out of pride, his chest swelled and he raised his chin. "That's why Lukin likes using me as his sniffer dog." He flashed me a menacing white-toothed grin; it was a smile worthy of a starving shark. "His Red Guardian." He clasped his hands behind his back formally, the military programming his clearly having penetrated every level of his brain and rooted into his subconscious.

"What is it with you and Lukin?" I deflected the question back at him. "Some might say you're very close." I gritted my jaw when he next dared to steal a glance.

Alexi smirked at my fiery nature. "He has my unwavering allegiance," he said. "Does he not have yours?" His head cocked just like a guard dog, I was sure he's clocked on to my unease.

"False pretences don't fool me." My every word was oozing condescension. "Don'tact like you haven't a clue about my past with both Karpov and Lukin," I hissed, my fingers unconsciously toying with the safety latch of the pistol strapped to my hip.

He grinned malevolently at that. "Ouch!" He splayed a hand across his heart and made a pained face like he'd been shot. "The Black Widow really does have a bite!" He playfully bumped shoulders with me.

A distanced myself a few more inches, and I saw the jovial smile on his face slide. "You think you're amusing do you?" I kept my attention dead ahead.

"Just trying to have a conversation..." His head drooped a little. "I'm not trying to offend you!" He blurted, a hint of a blush creeping onto his cheeks. "If I have-" his hypnotic dark brown eyes met with mine. "-You have my sincerest apologies..." There was a pinch between his brows and his lips pressed into a thin line. "I just figured hearing it from the horse's mouth is better than reading what clinical biased nonsense they put in the files..." And for a second, a droplet of trust beaded in my heart. "Censorship doesn't fool even the simplest of minds." He rolled his eyes and scratched the back of his neck.

But I couldn't invest myself in fostering that hope. I couldn't let my guard down. "In which metaphor I'm a horse. Charming(!)" I huffed, unimpressed.

The panic that spread across his features made a small flame of hilarity spark inside of me. "Horses are creatures of grace!" He back peddled. "And respect!" He was trying to dig himself out of that hole diligently. "And can manage any burden!" He stilled me my gently holding my wrist and taking my hand in his. "It's by no means a derogatory comparison!" With grace and manners, he elevated my featherweight hand to his lips. "If I have yet again offended you, I am sorry." He pressed a sensual, yet innocent kiss to my knuckles.

I snatched away my hand abruptly and quickened my march down the corridor. "Haven't you got better things to be doing?" I clutched at my hand now fizzing with sensation, wishing that I could wipe out that tingling feeling across my skin and that churning in my gut.

"Not really!" He padded up behind me, breaking into a slow run to keep up with my brisk walk. "It's day's end." He bounded along like an excitable pup. "And my work for the day is done."

I wiped at the back of my hand. I clawed at it. "You're exceedingly talkative." I hated how it made me feel.

It made me feel inches from disloyalty.

With a jaunty grin, he retorted: "And you're not..." He shrugged a shoulder and tipped his head. "I figured if you won't talk, I have to hold up the conversation myself."

I gritted my back teeth and seethed. "Ever considered that I might not want to talk to you; Lukin's lap dog." I twisted my lip into a bitter snarl, hissing the words like a coiling cobra.

There was a strain of regret in his voice. "I'm not his lap dog... I'm his sniffer dog; There's a difference." One corner of his lips rose into a threatening smile. "Does my loyalty make you uncomfortable?" An eyebrow was raised in my direction.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and turned to face him, no longer keeping my equilibrium balanced. "What do you think?!" I bellowed, my voice springing around the empty corridor like it was an auditorium.

His cocky posture shrunk, and his smile slid from his face. "I pose no threat to you, Natalie..."

I could see the daunting in his eyes. And I liked it. His silver tongue had been snipped. His attitude had been clipped. It made a change. Perhaps a frosty attitude had some unforeseen bonuses after all.

"Unless-" He swallowed thickly, hesitance. "You have a guilty conscience?" His insinuation was cautioned.

I dignified him with only an unimpressed laugh at his expense. "I know what you're after." It was what all men were after concerning me and my body. "Go and find Yelena," I instructed brusquely, marching away. "She'll probably fuck you if you ask her nicely. She'd probably be overjoyed if you gave her some attention." I rounded the corner and hollered back at him. "I've got places I'd rather be."

And as I left, I continued to try and wipe out the sensation from my hand and bleach out the memories of another's lips on my skin from my brain.

But as a final act of insubordination that day, that wasn't the last I saw of Alexi.

Later, when the night had swelled and the moonlight peeped into the facility through some of the grotty barred windows, I padded my way to James' quarters.

I tapped lightly, eyes scanning the gloom for any guards.

I didn't hear a peep from inside.

I tapped again, with a little more force. And with my ear pressed to the door, I didn't hear a sound.

"Looking for someone?" A voice crooned. The voice was not a friend to me.

I convulsed away from the door guiltily and pivoted, gun raised to the owner of the voice's chest. The barrel kissing the man's chest, just over his heart, I caught my wittled-down breath. It was Alexi.

He playfully slapped away the gun as if it were as harmless as a child's toy. A chiding look on his face, he said "He's not there..." He leant against the wall. "Is he?"

I shoved the gun back in my holster, locking the leather over the contraption. "Who?" I giggled it off, batting my eyelashes.

"Don't play dumb, Natalia. You and I both know you're perhaps the smartest in this facility... The amount you manage to get away with should warrant a medal." I should've remembered how observant he was. And how flirting my way out of it was a juxtaposition to my earlier behaviour.

"Fine." I dropped the act. "What of it?" I gritted my jaw, like a lioness sizing up her next meal.

He sidled closer, eyes scanning the open space for other people. "You know where he goes when he's not there?" Curiosity lit in his deep eyes.

"No. He's not always there, I've got used to it. Probably on a mission..." I gave Alexi an unimpressed stare. "Now with that, I think I'll be on my way."

He snatched my wrist and fished my closer by my limb. "You know nothing is that simple in this facility..." His face was close to mine. "You've been here how many years?" He asked the question, as a simple example, nothing more.

And as I parted my lips to give some kind of answer, assuming it would come naturally to my lips, nothing did. A strangled sound was choked from the back of my throat. My heart began to palpitate in my chest and I felt my mouth go dry. I shook my head mutely, trying to formulate the words to explain. "I don't..." I spluttered nervously, my voice quivering. "I don't know..." I felt my eyes begin to well with tears. "Why don't I know that?" I beseeched him for answers; he was staring at me so nonchalantly whilst I trembled.

"Your birthday... When is it?" He blinked a couple times then his lips pressed into a line, waiting for me to answer the question.

More unanswered questions. My mind felt like an empty library, with the remaining books decaying with pages falling out. I searched every corner of my mind until the vein in my forehead pulsed with pain. "I don't know..." I breathed pathetically.

"Your parents..." The very word concocted a firestorm within me. "What were their names?"

I drew a blank. Neither mother or father came to mind. Someone else did... Briefly. Someone else drifted through my head and then was consumed by the blackness gaping in my head.

"Stop it," I snapped, wrenching my wrist from his hold. "Stop it..." I spat in a shuddering voice.

"You know that you should know... Don't you?" A depiction of fear was mirrored on his face. "You know it should be a simple question." He whispered soothingly. "Natalie, I'm sorry, I was just pointing out the obvious."

I strode away, breaking into a run as I rounded the corner. But no sooner than I had gained momentum, I crashed into a towering figure.

"Hey! What are you doing out past curfew?!" I was seized by the shoulders.

Still addled, I gaped at the man, shaking my head.

"She's with me," Alexi said aloofly, sauntering at a snail's pace closer to me.

The man with his brutish features and tremendous stature looked startled. "Red Guardian? My apologies, I had not realised the Black Widow was in your care-"

"No apologies needed on this occasion," he uttered; and the words may have been casual, but the tone was like that of a knife to his neck. "Get on with your shift. Lukin wouldn't be best pleased if he found out you had interrupted my escorting." And he finally joined me.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Best be on my way, sir. Have a good evening, sir," the goon replied in a flurry and continued his quickstep down the passageway.

"Thank you..." I turned to him. "I could've ended up in a lot of trouble..." I was still breathing shallowly with nerves. "I had no idea you had such prestige."

"It helps barter me out of sticky situations every now and then..." he gave me a soft smile. "Now, allow me to 'escort' you back to your quarters, Natalie."

Stunned into silence for the entirety of the trek, when we finally arrived at my door, he took both my hands in his. "Think on it, Natalie... Don't take everything on face value." And then he slipped away like a spectre haunting the halls.

A/N - I struggled with this chapter for a long time because I thought it was linguistically inadequate, that I'd lost Nat's voice and I thought it was completely uneventful. Giving myself a breather from this book has left me for refreshed and I feel like I'm buzzing with positivity towards both this chapter and this book. Also, having a twelve day break from GCSE exams has made my stress levels plummet; I've earned the right to write. It's been too long since I've enjoyed myself doing this, this much!

Thank you for your patience regarding how long it's been since I've last updated this; these last couple of months have been so difficult for me in a schooling respect.

Dedication goes to Stregger! x