"Let's go" the Winter Soldier said. In no time I took my almost empty backpack and left the squalid motel's room where we spent the night.It's raining. Great, at least today we have a reason to wear hoodies. I said in my mind. I like the rain, but not the cold weather.

We were walking as fast as we could in the suburbs of an unknown city, hoping not to be find by HYDRA's agents, which we were running from. We've been running for weeks or maybe months... we've been running for so long I couldn't even remember when it was last time I had a decent sleep. We were alone, just me and the Winter Soldier, well, Bucky.

We spent another day walking without stopping at all, we've just kept watching our back. We didn't talk much, we were trying to preserve our energy to keep running. We lived with constant anxiety to be find by HYDRA. I wasn't a good fighter, I wasn't even good with weapons, well in fact, the soldier did all the job, he was the assassin. He watched over me and kept me safe.

We arrived in another awful motel, paid in cash and went straight to our room. It looked like the perfect scene of a horror movie. The room was dirty and very old, the brown wallpaper was ripped in different places, and there were only two "beds" not really far from each other. I left my little black backpack on the bed and went to the bathroom, but I hadn't had the courage to take a shower. I returned on my bed exhausted. "I'm going to take something to eat, is there something would you like to eat?" He asked in a sweet voice; every time he talked to me like that I wonder myself how he could have been an assassin. I shook my head "Everything is fine" and replayed with a low voice. As soon as he closed the door behind him I laid down on my bed, trying to send away my anxiety, but like every night I failed.

When Bucky came back with dinner I was sleeping. He called my name twice, but nothing happened so he came close to the bed. He hadn't just noticed that I was sleeping, but also the tears which shortly before rolled down my face making my pillow wet. With sorrow, the soldier, decided to let me sleep.

The next morning he forced me to have breakfast, I hadn't eaten anything in days and Bucky was beginning to worry.

Days passed all alike, the only thing that keep changing was the weather: it gets every day colder. I could feel the cold inside of me, I could barely run and sometimes even breathe, but obviously, I didn't tell anything of this to the ex-killer, he already worried way too much about me.

Another day was over and we had finally reached the place where we would have spent the night. We didn't sleep in a motel that night, but in a worse place. The main entrance was in an alley, nothing was written outside. How did he find this place? I wondered to myself. Even if we got used to squalid places, as soon as we got in I would have run away. We rent a room from a bald man that was sitting behind a little table in the middle of a corridor, he didn't only make us pay an extra to forget our faces, the bald man also asked us if we wanted to buy some kind of drugs or some girls too. We denied in the most polite way and walked away to our room. The place was pretty dark, there were some lights in the corridors. We used old stairs, to reach our room, because it was at the third floor. When the soldier with the metal arm opened the door I was really surprise to not to find a dark and dusty room, was the opposite instead: a big window lighted up a lot the room and the floor was clean. There was only one problem. I didn't notice immediately, but right after I leant my soaked backpack on the bed I noticed that in the middle of the room there was a king-sized bed. Bucky noticed it before me, he quickly picked up a pillow "I'll sleep on the floor" He said smiling a bit.

"No Bucky, we finally have the chance to sleep in a comfortable bed, I will not let you sleep on the floor".

The soldier looked a bit insecure at me, he was going to open his mouth but I stopped him "Put that pillow down" I said harshly but it sounded almost like an order.

"Okay" Bucky replayed with a low voice "but don't fall asleep before I get dinner, you need to eat" He said softly placing a kiss in my forehead.

"I won't," I said smiling.

He was right; I needed to eat. We both needed. We were exhausted, but we kept going on. We needed to get cured and his metal arm needed to be repaired.

I had a long and hot shower. After I dried myself and wore some, clean clothes, I went in front of the big window. It wasn't a very good view, but it was the best that we ever had so far.

Outside the rain became hail. Poor Bucky... There were lightning and thunders in the distance. I hate the storms. To be honest I didn't hate them, they scared me to death. In that exact moment the soldier came to the room. Immediately the smell of the hot pizza invaded the room. I tried to make my best smile "Thanks Bucky" I wasn't hungry, but I had to eat. We ate on the bad. "Hey look we have a TV, too" I said like I have seen one for the first time in my life. I didn't really pay attention on what program there was on television, I tuned on the volume trying to cover the noises coming from upstairs.

"Can I ask you something?" Bucky's voice broke the silence.

"Sure," I replayed curious.

"Why did you join the HYDRA?" He asked, looking away.

"Well..." I took a deep breathe, "I didn't really join... During my graduation a man approach me and offered me a dream job. He said I could study the brain and in particular memory on living people. Before I could realize they started to threaten me, they told me that if I didn't wipe your memory from, they would..." I took a long pause, it wasn't easy to say "Well, they would have done some really bad shit..."

"Why did you save me? I mean, you could just have run away alone..."

"After all I have done to you... It's my fault if you have no memories, I'm the bitch who keeps pressing that button" There was a lot of anger in my words. I had a lot of time to read Bucky's story, he didn't know, but I knew everything about him "As soon as I had the chance, I did all I could to give you back your memory and after that you know all the story of how and where we run..."

"It's not your fault..." the soldier said with a sad tone, smiling a bit.

Silence fall again and when we finished our meal, we got up to throw the cardboards away. I felt a hand squeezing my shoulder "Everything will be okay" he said warmly. I don't know where that came from, he has always been kind with me, but not that kind.

"I know..." I replied with a bit of bitterness "How long will we have to live like this?" I said staring at the floor.

"Not much, you know, we only have to find that... friend... of mine..." One of the first things that he told me was how he became the Winter Soldier; he told me everything about Steve Rogers, his best friend, about how he fell from the train...

I felt a little uncomfortable with his flesh hand on my shoulder, so I turned around but a sudden lighting form outside scared me, the sound of it was really loud. Without even noticing I jumped and a tiny sound came out from my mouth.

"Are you scared by storms?" Bucky asked amazed trying to have an eye contact with me.

"What? No!" I turned to the bed and kept looking at the floor "I am just tired" and without saying anything else I laid down under the blankets. Damn it! I have the side of the bed near the window. I knew that I wouldn't have slept that night.

I felt the sheets moving from the other side of the bed. The lightning fell stronger, even the high volume of the television could not cover them. I put the pillow on my head hoping that it would have muffled them, but it didn't help a lot. Bucky misunderstood my actions: he thought that I was trying to sleep and he turned off the TV, the only thing that distracted me a bit. Shit. Right after the first lightning fell its sound seemed like it was amplified a million times, I suffocated a scream in my throat, but I started shaking. I couldn't keep my calmness for before, I couldn't think at something else. I kept the pillow pushed on my face, my eyes closed and my legs attached to my chest. I felt the sheets moving quickly and a light weight on my shoulder. The lamp on my night table lit up and my pillow was pulled away. "Are you okay?" I saw Bucky's eyes full of concern staring at me. I was too ashamed of saying the truth "Sorry if I woke you up" I said quickly while I was turning off the light. I felt the cold fingers of his metal arm squeezing my shoulder that made me roll to his side. His arms surrounded me, my forehead was on his chest and his flesh hand caressed my hair. He gave me a comforting kiss on my forehead "Don't worry, I'm here" he whispered to me sweetly. From that moment everything stopped. The lightning outside the window didn't scare me anymore. I stopped shaking and I closed my eyes. That night after a lot of time, I slept deeply.

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HI!
I'd like to thank afangirlcalledKate who helped me with the translation and a special thank to The_Lonely_Rose who will keep halping me with the fanfics and the translation

Thank you so so so so so so much ❤❤❤❤❤