Chapter 1: The Frosty Fox

Have you ever held a connection with someone, a connection that could neither be broken nor damaged? Have you ever risked your life for a complete stranger because you felt some sort of coincidental yet strong connection to them? Or, have you loved someone so much that you would do anything, even die for them, to keep them out of Harm's way? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you can understand how one particular couple met and how their bond became unbreakable, against all odds and all foes that dared to tear them apart…

It started out as any normal, sunny day in a snowy yet cold forest in Moscow, Russia. Technically, this was a very average, typical morning for an average young woman, who just happened to be traveling in the woods at this particular time. Her features were innocent yet strong and beautifully defined for a woman in her prime, and this woman was not 'tooth-pick' skinny because she had some meat on her bones. However, she was still lady-like, elegant, physically-fit, and sexy in an 'gentle' sort of way.

Her long hair was now neatly braided to form a bun. The short skirts of her pink, long-sleeved dress swayed in the chilly breeze while her black combat boots created crunching noises in the snow despite the fact that the woman walked with light steps. Her eyes darted around the forest, as if she were patrolling for danger, before she came across a heavy pile of snow; the woman brushed the snow from her dark leggings as she trekked on through the forest. By her side, keeping sharp vigil, was a small red fox with copper red fur and brown, beady eyes.

Everything seemed like it was the norm to the beautiful young woman until her fox saw something floating in the icy river near its path. The fox gave a small cry to alert the woman as it tilted its head towards the object before it took off running. The girl clutched her army green leather jacket and gray scarf closer to her fair-skinned, petite body before she followed after her companion. Her skin was fair and free of blemishes but was never freckled. Once she reached the river's edge, her bright blue eyes (of a blue zircon stone color) noticed something that had sunk to the bottom of the water. It looked like a handsome young man, but the woman couldn't tell from her angle. The woman stripped off her scarf and jacket before she instructed her fox to 'stay back' as she leaped like an Olympic diver into the icy water.

The water felt like a million, white-hot needles as they pricked the woman's delicate skin, but she pressed on as she swam with the speed and endurance of a marine creature. As soon as she got up close to the object, or young man, she tried to help him get to shore. She yanked on him as hard as she could, trying not to lose her breath, but she noticed that he had a metal or bionic arm that was causing him to sink faster. Mustering as much strength and courage as she could as well as determination not to let the man drown, the woman was able to get herself and the man to shore before either one or both of them died of hypothermia or drowning. The event happened so quickly, it seemed like no time had passed at all since the woman jumped into the water. However, this scenario wasn't over yet. The woman still had to revive the man or take him to a doctor with advanced medical knowledge. The woman first stopped to catch her breath and gain some focus before she started performing CPR on the man, pumping hard on his chest thirty times and giving him two mouth-to-mouth breaths before repeating the cycle five times or more until he woke up. The woman pressed down so hard on the man's chest that she could've easily broken this man's bones or knocked the life out of him. Finally, after what seemed like two or three minutes, the CPR worked as the man spring awake and hacked up all the water that was built up in his lungs and throat.

The woman stepped back to give the man some air as he tried to breathe normally before she attempted to converse with him. The man regained his composure and his breath before the woman questioned in a slight Russian accent, "Sir, are you all right? Do you need some help?"

The man snapped his head and death-glared the woman like a hungry predator with a eerie snarl before he pounced on her and grabbed her roughly around the neck. The woman shrieked like a frightened animal as the man grabbed her and climbed on top of her, glaring down at her with icy eyes filled with malevolence. The woman thought to herself as she was being death-glared by the stranger, 'This man must be a mercenary for a military force or the secret police. He must be trained to attack anything on sight if they're suspicious.' The woman looked up at the man with a combination of fear and empathy as the man snarled at her viciously, his eyes bulging out while his teeth clenched together tightly. He screamed to her in Russian first, then in a strange accent, "Who are you and who do you work for?"

The girl tried to remove the man's hand with both of her tiny, gloved ones as she strangled out in a trembling voice, "…W-What do you…mean?!"

"Are you deaf?! I said, who are you and who do you work for?"

The girl's answer about who she was was inaudible because the man was slightly strangling her to death and she couldn't breathe to have enough voice to answer. But, the second part to the question was easy to hear, even while she was being choked, as she answered, "I…work for no…one."

"LIAR! You are a spy sent to capture or kill me!…You try my patience, woman! Who do you work for?!" The woman started to lose consciousness as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her pet red fox growled at the stranger, who snarled back evilly at the red-furred creature, "Shut your mouth, vermin, or I'll put a bullet in you!" The fox continued to growl at the man as he snarled murderously at the young woman.

However, it took him a moment to realize that he was really choking the young woman to death with his bionic limb. Also, he began to notice that some of her clothes were sprawled out on the snow and that she was soaking wet, so the mercenary stranger inferred that the woman was only trying to help him and that she revived him before he drowned. So, with a heavy sigh, he let the girl go as she gasped and coughed loudly for air, clutching her throat and clawing the ground as she did so. The woman's fox took to an attack position as it snarled and barked at the soaking wet, cold-hearted man; it desperately tried to protect its master before the man realized the error of his ways. He inwardly gasped in shock and fear of hurting the woman and for attacking her for no reason. He felt sort of guilty for attacking the young woman and judging her before understanding her, and he let his emotions be known as he tried to apologize, "Oh my God, I-I didn't know that you meant to help me. I'm-"

The woman's eyes filled with tears as she replied, "SAVE IT! Stay away, you sadistic monster!" The woman looked towards her clothes as the man noticed where her gaze was directed at, his feet pounding into the snow as he prepared to run. The woman grabbed her scattered clothes and took off running before the man followed her, shouting, "WAIT! Stop! Come back!"

The woman's copper red hair came undone from its beautiful bun as she ran; her auburn-red natural waves flapped like bird wings in the air as she sprinted for her life to get away from this psychopathic mercenary. Although the woman knew the man was most likely trained by a military camp to attack or kill anything dangerous or suspicious on sight, the woman was still frightened by his reaction. This also gave him NO excuse to hurt an innocent bystander. It was so obvious that she was just trying to help, but it wasn't the man's fault. He didn't mean to attack the woman and he just didn't know any better.

The woman never stopped running until the man pounced on her again and tackles her to the ground. He climbed on top of her as the woman struggled underneath him like a violent mental patient with anger-management issues. The young woman screamed like a banshee, not caring who heard her, as she struggled in the man's strong death grip, "NO! Get off!"

"I'm not gonna hurt you, you stupid girl! Just listen to me, woman!"

"Get off me!" The woman screamed as she pounded on the man's chest and tried to reach for a switchblade attached to his belt. Noticing this, the man tried to calm the woman down by pinning her arms over her head, but this was only making the situation worse. Literally, this young woman was stronger and tougher than she looked because although she was short in height with a feminine, petite body, she still had a lot of strength and stamina to back up her fiery attitude when agitated or upset. She could've taken the man down single-handily if she wanted to, no matter the size or strengths of her opponent. The young Russian dame was no dainty damsel; she could definitely stand her ground in a violent quarrel.

Sensing its master's distress, the fox charged at the man and bit his hand. The teeth clamping down on his fleshy hand felt like two large knives the size of chainsaws puncturing his skin as the man winced. The man threw the fox against a tree, knocking the poor creature unconscious, as he shouted in Russian, "Glupyy nechist'! (Stupid Vermin!- according to Google Translator)"

The two individuals struggled, never letting their strength wane on either side, until the woman reared up and did a round-house kick, striking the man square in the jaw as the knife she grabbed from his belt sliced skin. The woman took off running again but fell as she dropped the knife and looked down at her leg, which was covered in blood. The gash was too deep and it would make movement difficult unless it got healed up. The man woke up shortly after. He shook his head quickly, his raven hair swinging like a pendulum on fast forward, and regained his focus before he turned to the woman. She was wincing in pain and trying to hold back tears as she gingerly tried to touch her wound with her fingers, which only made her wince and cry tears of excruciating pain.

The man noticed his knife on the ivory snow and noticed crimson blood coating the metal. That's when he remembered the kick to the face and how the woman accidentally gashed her own outer, upper thigh when she kicked. As gently as possible, he neared closer to the woman as she looked up at the man with wide eyes. Her body language showed that she was ready to fight back if necessary, but her eyes showed great fear for this man as he came closer and closer. He tried to appear as gentle as possible as he soothed her in the softest voice possible, despite the fact that it went against his 'no-mercy, nonchalant' nature, "I wasn't going to harm you. If only you would have listened to me, then you wouldn't be hurt." The woman looked down at the ground in a mixture of guilt and shame as the man continued, "But, I frightened you, so I understand your reaction."

The young woman looked up at the man in shock, realizing that he was taking the blame for a wound she caused herself. She sniffled from the pain, despite the fact that she was one who could handle great deals of pain since she was a child, as the man knelt at her feet,"You're wounded…Let me see your leg." This caused the girl to stare at him in stupefied fear as he commanded in an authoritative, harsher tone, "If you don't let me look at it, you'll die of infection! Give me your leg and quit being stubborn, you stupid girl!" The girl swallowed up all her fear and gave her leg to the man, wincing as she stretched it before he said, "If you jerk your leg, then you'll make it worse. Be more gentle!" The girl nodded and desperately tried not to make direct eye contact with the man as she complied while he inspected her bleeding wound.

The woman did manage to get a good look at him and although he was handsome, he seemed very cruel and bloodthirsty. He had shoulder-length, shaggy brown hair (that definitely looked unkempt and like it needed a good washing) and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle when it was framed by his 'brown portrait.' The man also wore a strange black mask, made of cloth, that covered his nose and the lower regions of his face. He was also muscular and well-built, but his personality made him seem evil to the girl…At least at first. Once the girl got to know the man, then he wasn't so bad after all.

Meanwhile, the girl's fox came to and snarled before it charged the man again, causing the girl to grab the fox by the scruff of its scrawny neck as she chastised the creature, "Vixie, step down! He's a friend now!" The fox stopped showing its teeth and laid down next to its master's lap as she petted the creature to give herself solace while the man looked at her wounds. It was a wound that he caused with his own switchblade because he had been so cold and sadistic. After a couple minutes of inspection, the woman realized what the man was. She looked at him carefully as she asked, "You are an assassin, right?"

The man looked up as he titled his head in puzzlement. He was confused by the woman's question because that was not the term he used to call himself and people like him. The man thought about his answer carefully before he shook his head and answered, almost sounding like a monotone robot, "I prefer the term 'country cleanser,' but if that's what you call people like me, then yes. I'm an assassin."

"So, that's it?"

"What's it?"

"You're not gonna kill me after what I just did?"

"My master didn't send me out here to kill you, therefore, I'm not gonna waste my bullets on a naïve, delicate girl like you. You've got nothing to worry about unless you're next on my hit list."

"Oh…" The girl sighed before the man explained, "Your wound's not serious, but it will be if I don't heal it or clean it." The man dug around through the many pockets of his black leather, 'seat-belt' embroidered uniform until he pulled out a silver bottle and undid the cap. He held the bottle as he explained to the girl, "This will help stop the bleeding and clean your wounds, but it will sting for a few moments. If you need to bite on something to prevent screaming, I suggest you find it now…And don't try to squirm because I'll be holding your leg down, understand, girl?"

The woman nodded in agreement as the man nodded back, "Then, get ready for the pain…" He lowered the bottle towards the wound, holding the girl's leg down so tightly that it could form bruises, as he poured some of the liquid onto the gash and applied moderate pressure to it. The girl bit down on her scarf and covered her mouth with her hand as she clutched the skirt of her dress with her free hand. She whimpered and muffled screams of pain as tears streamed down her face, the pain of this wound almost being too much for the girl. The strange man tried his best to offer the girl solace, patting her leg tenderly as he replied, "It has to be done, so just bear with it for a few more minutes…" The girl held on and tried to remain strong until the pain subsided. The man applied a guacamole-looking paste to her leg, waiting a moment, before asking, "Do you have any gauze to wrap the wound with?" The woman nodded as she dried her frigid, dried tears with the back of her hand and reached into a satchel by her side, pulling out a roll of gauze and handing it to the man as he bandaged up the gash tenderly and returned the gauze to its owner.

That's when the red-haired woman looked towards the dark brown-haired man, ivory gauze still in hand, as she looked down at the man's hand and pointed to add emphasis, "You're hurt."

The 'country cleanser' just shrugged his shoulders without any interest for his wound as he grabbed his flesh-covered hand, "It's no big deal. The fox just bit me." The man glared down at the fox with a deadly gaze, causing the creature to slightly growl before bowing its head in shame as the woman petted the red canine. The woman shook her head like a mother who didn't believe the lies of her child as she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Sir, please give me your hand."

"Why? It's just an animal bite. It'll go away soon."

"If you don't give it to me, it'll get infected."

"It's fine." The man replied before the woman cut his sentence short as she snapped at the larger man, "I don't care!" The man looked at the woman, his eyes perking up, after she snapped at HIM. Him, a trained mercenary who could easily snap her pretty little neck in two seconds flat without a moment's hesitation. And yet, there was something about this woman that made her irresistible, and it wasn't just her outer beauty. It was more of her personality and her great courage, even while under fire, that made him respect her.

With a slight sigh, the man extended his hand to the woman as she gingerly removed the black leather-fingerless glove from the soldier's right hand. She then asked for the bottle with the stinging liquid as the man handed it to the woman. She carefully undid the cap and poured some of the liquid on the man's hand as he tried to stifle a wince of pain. The woman patted his hand as she soothed him with her voice and motherly gestures before she placed the paste on his hand. Then, the woman meticulously wrapped his hand with the ivory gauze like a woman carefully threading a needle as the man watched. Finally, she placed the glove back on him as she patted his hand with a gentle grin plastering itself on her pretty face.

After putting away his supplies, the man stood up quickly and brushed the snow from his ebony clothing as he readjusted his uniform. The woman stared up at him in wonder, almost getting lost in her own little world, as the man replied, "Can you walk?"

"I…I don't know, but I can try…" The woman nodded as she tried to stand, only to collapse until the man caught her, "You obviously need help…Just hang onto me until you can stand on your own." The woman nodded again and dried more of her tears from before as she allowed the man to help her stand up straight. Once the woman could stand, the man nodded before he nonchalantly thanked her, "Thanks…for saving me back there. Sorry about before…"

The woman was taken aback at this response from such a cold man, a stranger whom she had never met before, but she accepted his gratitude as she smiled, "You're welcome and it was my fault. I kicked you in the face and self-inflicted harm on myself because I thought you were gonna hurt or kill me."

"If my master didn't tell me to hurt or kill you, then I won't until he gives me the orders to do so…"

"Why did you help me, after all I did?"

"You were obviously wounded and you needed my help. You were innocent and foolish, nothing more."

"Well, thanks…" The woman replied as the man began to leave, causing her to call out for him, "I never got your name. I want to properly thank my rescuer."

"I'm the Winter Soldier." The man replied as the young woman stared at him in awe. This was no ordinary man; this was THE Winter Soldier from the stories and rumors in all areas of Russia and even the world. The Winter Soldier was a name and man to be feared. He was a ghost that killed without leaving a trace, and you'd never find him, even if you tried. Everyone feared him, even the people that created him (not that they would ever admit that).

That's why The Winter Soldier expected the Russian dame to run away from him and/or be afraid of him. His body language, voice, and face told the girl that he didn't care about what he was. However, his eyes told a different story. His blue orbs were filled with pain and shame; he literally 'spoke' with his eyes. The Winter Soldier looked at the young woman silently as if he were saying to her, 'Look at me. Look at the monster I've been turned into. You wanna hit me, kill me, run? Go ahead and run! I won't get upset! Everyone runs from me.' But he was wrong.

Things are not always as they appear, and the same holds true to the young woman. Even though she knew who and what he was, the young woman did not run; she stayed because she knew what it was like to be judged before being fully understood. The man was not a blood-thirsty killer as the rumors said. He was actually very caring, confused and curious about certain things, but caring. Therefore, the woman remained gentle to the man as she giggled before replying, "That's a bit long, ain't it? How about I shorten it to make it easier on me?…Hmm, how about…Winter?"

"Whatever floats your boat." The Winter Soldier, or Winter, shrugged gently as the girl and her fox began to walk off. This caused him to snap his head like a snake and call out to her, "It's my turn to ask you something…I gave you my name, but you never gave me yours."

"Well, this companion of mine right here is 'Vixie.'"

"I didn't ask you what the vermin's name was."

"She's not vermin! Don't you know a domesticated red fox when you see one?!"

"Whatever…I asked for YOUR name." The man retorted, almost in an irritated tone, as the woman replied, "Why would you want to know? Why do you care?"

"Don't question me! I just want to be sure I know your name just in case we cross paths again, which I doubt we will…"

"…Well, since we just met, I can't give you my real name yet, but I will give you a name that everyone calls me by…I go by 'Anya.'"

"Okay, that'll suffice for now…" The assassin rolled his eyes in annoyance with his back turned to Anya as she called out, "Oh, Winter!"

"…What is it now, Anya?"

"If you ever wanna find me again, remember this rhyme: When you stop to smell the roses and hear a voice in your ear, that's when you'll know that I am truly here…Remember it well because I have a feeling we'll cross paths again. Take care."

"…Right, you too." Winter nodded as he made his way back to headquarters while Anya and Vixie made it back to their own 'headquarters.'

I know that this story may be stupid because the Winter Soldier's personality doesn't seem like him, but I wanted to show a more kind side to this assassin that not many get to see, especially when he's out on a mission. This is after the first Captain America and the Avengers and before the second Captain America. Please review, comment, and enjoy. Your feedback really helps and if you have any comments to help make the story better, please let me know, but no flames please. Thank you.