I stared at the cold tile floor, watching as the icy water mixed with streaks of red ran down my body and vanished down the drain. My toes were covered with blood as well, I felt awful.

It was as if something in my chest had been ripped out, I was empty, hollow. Like every breath was taking a toll on me. It was as if I had let darkness consume me for a little while and now it was refusing to leave, making me feel slightly sick and out of place.
Whatever they had shot in me earlier that day was slowly going out of my blood system, which was weird. These things usually stay for quite long time.

I forced myself to rub the blood off of my hands, it was even under my fingernails as well. It wasn't an easy task as my hands were stiff and I was in pain. I just wished to curl up somewhere and sleep.

“You know what? I absolutely loathe cold water, I hate it when I'm the last one who they let in the shower. Can't I be first for once? I tried talking with the guards once, they ignored me. Kinda like you, don't know what's with that silence here.” The tall man said, annoyance in his smooth voice. He had an odd accent, the one I've never heard before.

My eyes flickered up from the white tiles under my numb feet. I looked aside where Pietro was rubbing his skin, whatever he had been doing today included rolling in the mud it seemed. He was standing with his back towards me under the shower, I could sense his frustration, yet his words sounded cheerful. My eyes flickered over the dot-like scars on the man's back. They were very irregular and in different sizes, more scars were on his upper back.

I glanced down, there were jagged pale lines on my arms, while his arms were clean. The only scars he seemed to have were on his back. I had more then he did, which doesn't make sense to me. Isn't he older? Don't older Subjects have more scars? Even Soldat had more scars then Pietro, well, he was missing an entire arm but that's beside the point...

“uh, disgusting! They have changed shampoos, before it smelled of gasoline and now it smells like meat pie. Where do they even get a shampoo like that? Don't get me wrong, little dude, I do love meat pie but a shampoo that smells like it? No thank you. And are you seeing that water? It's rusty! My hair is silver, I'm gonna be ginger after this shower.”

Was he talking to me, or to himself? I've heard some people in their cells talking to themselves sometimes, I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now.

What's the point in talking if you have nothing important to say.

I didn't care about the way the shampoo smelt, or how cold the water was. I looked up at the small mirror, studying my features. My face wasn't as angular as Pietros, my nose was straight and my skin was pale like the tile floor. The look on my face was void of emotions, just like it has been always. My eyes were half closed and lifeless. Me and Pietro looked nothing alike, he was quite energetic and buzzing with life.
There was this spark of hope, energy and lust for life in his eyes. And I couldn't help but wonder how to get that into my dull yellow eyes.

“- and I swear, little dude, that yesterday there were someones nails in the tasteless soup they gave me. If I find that person who's messing with my food, I'll just ma- hey, what are you staring? Are you showing signs of life? That's a progress.” I tilted my head, wondering why was he smirking. What's his reason to be happy?

“oh, I know right? I'm quite ripped.” he pulled some odd pose, flexing his arm muscles when suddenly he grimaced and dropped his arms, shaking them as if he got burned. “nope, nope, nope! Not a good idea! Stitches starting to reopen, ouch ouch, someone get me a medic here! I'm dying!” the silver haired man dramatised even thought I couldn't understand how was he dying? The small stitches on his shoulder was lightly bleeding, but that was about it.

I turned the water off, trying to get to my clothes and away from the odd man as fast and far as possible. I kept my distance, trying to dry off my hair. It was quite difficult as my shoulders were very painful and my fingers stiff and shaky due to throbbing pain and cold water. I could feel the cold pain running in my veins, making me even more tired.

I noticed the man stepping closer and instinctively I backed away, glaring at him. He hadn't bothered me before, but my space was just that, my space.
The silver haired man who had been dressed for quite sometime already froze on his steps as he noticed my dislike. He raised his arms as a sign of peace, his right arm slightly lower because of the stitches. “uh, sorry, just thought I'd help you. But hey, you're still showing signs of life! Anyways, the walking dead are coming so, I suggest you dress fast unless you want them to drag you out of here stark naked. Which would be funny, all these stoic looking people-- wait, it would actually be perverted. Oh, gross, get dressed kid.” He turned back to his pile of sweaty training clothes and pulled out the white, clean shirt. He swiftly pulled it over his head and over the stitches that had stopped bleeding.

Keeping my eyes on him, I got dressed myself. Annoyed when I had to wear the same white trousers I had always wore. I was almost missing the agent attire, at least it was comfortable.

As I was slowly pulling the shirt that matched Pietros over my head, I heard the creaking of door. The two guards marched in, stopping when the silver haired guy held up his hands. “hey now, friends, give me a sec, the little dudes hair is dripping wet and these cells are as cold as your hearts. So, let me dry it off and then we can all go and play home.” the guards didn't even blink as Pietro turned to me. “Alright, I know you're in this emo phase right now, but we gotta get you out of that sulking emotional cell. Sorry not sorry.”

With a whoosh of air, Pietro was suddenly standing right next to me and holding the same towel he had dried himself earlier. Before I could punch him, he was rubbing my hair into the towel, trying to get it as dry as possible. It was horrible experience. As I was about to grab his throat I was only met with thin air. Somehow he was back on his spot couple of meters away from me, standing there if nothing ever happened. All that within couple of seconds.

I glared up at the older guy, wishing I could rip his eyes off just to get this smirk off his face. “alrighty, we're done here! You, slavery guards, what are you still doing standing there? Shouldn't we be back in our hotel suits already? I'm starting to think you guys are slow.” one of the guards grunted and snapped a glowing blue bracelet around Pietros wrist. I could vaguely sense his sadness, but he hid it well.

I didn't react as my new collar was snapped around my neck. This one felt heavier and smaller. “You see, that was not nice. He doesn't look like a dog to me.”

what's a dog?

As we left the showers, I caught a climpse of myself from the small mirror. My dark hair was sticking up in every odd angle, making me look as if I had spikes in my hair.

I walked side by side with Pietro, one guard in front of us and the other behind. I could feel the humming in the collar.

I noticed we didn't go to my old cell and suddenly I was aware of everything. We were moving the other way, I was uneasy. Where were they taking me? Glancing at the silver haired man beside me, he looked rather calm and bored even. Noticing my stare the corners of his mouth went upwards, he grinned at me. I snapped my eyes back infont of us.

“signs of life, progress indeed. Psst, little dude, why aren't you saying anything? Come on, I promise these slavery guards won't bite you. And even if they do, I'll bite them back for you.” Pietro whispered as he leaned closer, yet we both knew they heard and something told me it was his intention. I tried to keep distance between us, but the push of gun on my back didn't really let me go far.

Pietro kept talking but I showed no signs of listening, he was weird.

We passed by cells that were completely see through, made of some sort of class. I didn't like it. There were couple of humans in them, there was a lady whose hair was a huge mess, she was sitting in the corner of the room, her eyes wide and empty as she rocked herself, her mouth moving, making me believe she was talking to herself.
Then there was someone that recembled an animal, sort of. A small creature with human features but dark ears and grey tail. He was collared as well, his body was covered in fur as he was ripping into large piece of meat with anger. The Experiments eyes snapped up and he growled at me as we passed by his cell.

We stopped in front of an empty cell and I was pushed inside. It wasn't that big, but I had enought room. Pietro was pushed in the one next to me, he stumbled on the ground as he was shoved in, the doors closing. He turned around and sat cross legged. “I'll give you bad feedback for that! You're fired, you hear me? Fired!”

I didn't understand that guy, why was he so loud? And how could I hear him if there was a see through wall between us? Seeing the question in my eyes, the silver haired man pointed up, my eyes following. “clean air system, it goes throught every cell here so, don't worry little dude, we can still speak” that's what I was afraid of.

I turned my back at him, earning a scoff from him. I was surprised to actually find a bed, I've never had a bed before.

I slowly approached the white sheets, it was softer then the floor, that's for sure. I lowered my body on it, holding my breath as I sunk into the covers. It was comfortable for sure, but my bruises weren't thankful. It was getting too warm there.

I decided to take the pillow and lay down on the floor beside the bed. The coldness of the floor was soothing to my back and chest. The dull pain was everywhere, I hadn't noticed I'd closed my eyes and snapped them open. Pietro was sitting next to the wall, his blue eyes on me. “are you alright, little dude? You don't really look that good. Not that anyone here does, it's just.. Maybe we should ask some kind of medicine for you? And you should take the bed, the nights are quite cold here. Seriously, don't sleep on the floor.” I simply stared at him, not understanding why was he still talking.

“talk to me, please.” he said quietly, his eyes full of hope as he stared me right in the eyes, one hand on the class.

I turned my back at him, finding that it felt safer to actually sleep under the bed, and that's what I did, I wiggled myself under it, curling myself half way up the large pillow. The lights in the hallway went out, only small, almost dull green lights in every cell remained.

I sighed in relief when the cold wall helped to ease the pain in my back. I wasn't sure was I even going to be able to stand up straight tomorrow, or was I capable of crawling out from under the bed at all.

I could hear the sigh from Pietros cell as he stood up and quietly went over to his bed. “Alright, I'll get you talking some other day then.”

I closed my eyes, trying to bury the awful feeling of painful betrayal still aching in my chest, somewhere deep where I couldn't reach it anymore. I hated Soldat, I hated what he had done and I hated Pietro. He wasn't Soldat. Nobody was to be trusted. The way Budnikov had killed Masinzky was an example, nobody was ever to be trusted.

I just wanted to be alone.

A/N

Alright, so, Pietro is back guys. Whatcha thinking about that?

Heh, I was just planning to write this chapter short, came out it's the longest so far.

SPECIAL ADD FOR LOKI STANS (PS I love horses and hiddleston, that's why there are couple of cute af pictures)