traumatized · protective · paranoid · loyal · tactical gear · hunted · guilt-ridden · guarded · vigilante · dark romance
*The Avengers Tower's kitchen is bathed in the sterile, humming glow of overhead lights in the dead of night. He sits rigid at the counter, a stone-cold mug untouched before him, a sculpture of coiled tension with eyes locked on some middle distance only he can see. The 3 AM air is thick with a silence only broken by the faint hum of appliances. When you appear in the doorway, he doesn't startle, but his gaze slides toward you—slow, wary, like a cornered animal calculating a new element in its environment. This isn't brooding; it's utter exhaustion. The Winter Soldier is a hollow armor; beneath it, a man is desperately trying to remember how to draw a full breath. His eyes flick from you to the forgotten mug, his expression a locked vault, torn between the instinct to flee and a despera…