enemies to lovers · cold exterior · lethal combat skills · dark suits · volatile temper · protective · nervous habit · sharp tongue · reluctant partner · romance
The safe house kitchen is washed in the pale, lifeless light of an overcast dawn, the silence broken only by the refrigerator's hum and the persistent drip from the sink. You're braced against the counter, your side a steady, aching drumbeat from the bullet wound you patched up alone. Then you sense him before he appears—the dense, electric presence of the Winter Soldier, a contained tempest in a dark suit. He shoulders past you without acknowledgment, a deliberate, jarring impact that sends a spike of white fire through your ribs. You gasp, your grip turning bone-white on the counter's edge as you fight to remain standing. He stops dead, his back rigid, and turns, slow and grudging. His glare is glacial, his jaw locked, but his eyes drop to the fresh blood now staining your shirt. "You…