Hello there! This is my first time tackling an Avengers fan fiction, so please feel free to be brutally honest and let me know what you think! I have been scouring what has already been published for the perfect dark/romantic/smutty Bucky Barnes fic, and while there are some good ones out there they frankly just weren't quite cutting it for what I had in mind. So, I decided to just write it myself! :) I hope you enjoy! I'm not positive where I'm going to take this story yet, and don't necessarily have an end-goal in mind, so if you have thoughts/suggestions please feel free to comment and share!

Disclaimer:

I'm the author of this story. I don't own anything except my original character. This story is simply intended for enjoyment of the readers. Please don't sue me!

Ella pulled against the cold steel wrapped around her wrists and ankles a final time, bucking with all her weight, to no avail. It was no use. They were tight as hell, and they weren't going to budge. Her mind wandered as she started to count the cement blocks of her cell. How in the hell was she going to get out of this? They rotated guards frequently, and she was never left alone for more than an hour at a time. She hadn't eaten in two days, and even then it was just a measly protein bar. She got one glass of water once a day, and the last one she'd used to launch spit into the face of her interrogator.

That hadn't gone over very well, judging by the gash on her right cheek. She smiled smugly to herself. It didn't matter; it was worth it.

Hydra wanted information about her sister Pepper and her stupid boyfriend, Tony Starks. Ella hadn't talked to Pepper in years, and she'd never even met the "Iron Man". She rolled her eyes as she thought back to the few glimpses she'd caught of him on the television screen. Iron Man. What a stupid nickname.

She wasn't special, she had no super powers, no power at all really, and yet here she was restrained like she was Captain Fucking America while Russians berated her every hour, on the hour.

The first day she'd tried to pass the time by catching catnaps in between interrogations. But when the memories of her recent torture started to creep into her dreams, she quickly started to fight like hell to stay away as often as possible, for as long as possible.

She sighed as the minutes ticked by in her mind. Approximately…five to go? She sighed, shifting in her seat and adjusting her legs. She exhaled a deep breath as she started to clear her mind. She needed to prepare before they entered and the pain began once again.

She exhaled a long sigh as the door creaked open suddenly. Shit. Here we go again…

He couldn't understand why she hadn't broken already. Thinking to throw her off, they'd sent the next agent in a few minutes early, and planned to leave him in there a few minutes late. But the damn girl didn't move a muscle as the Hydra agent stormed in and started wailing on her with the whip. And when he screamed in her face, asking where they could find the Avengers?

She'd cracked a motherfucking smile.

Something stirred deep in his gut, a feeling like something from long ago was coming back to life. While he tried to quiet the unsettling feeling washing over him, a hand clamping down on his shoulder pulled him back to the girl before him.

"It is time, Winter Soldier. We need the information. You must be the one to break her." The voice of his handler floated softly into his ear while his steel arm flexed in anticipation.

She would talk for him. She had to. Or she would die.

She smirked internally at the retreating back of the agent furiously leaving her cell. Even when he slammed the door with all he had, she didn't flinch. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

Ella had yet to actually open her mouth, other than the spitting incident, since the torture began. What was the damn point? She didn't know anything anyway. And they wouldn't believe her if she'd told them, so it was useless really. Might as well play dumb and keep silent. She may not have what they wanted, but she wasn't going to let them get to her. She swallowed resolutely at herself. Yes, she was too strong for that.

A splinter of fear slipped in to knot her stomach as the door flew open once again a second later. What the hell?

The splinter split into a thousand as ice shot through her veins. She recognized him from the news, too. James Buchanan Barnes. The Winter Soldier.

Ella quickly tried to hide the surprise from her eyes as he strode in and quietly shut the door before turning to lean his back against it and survey her with cold eyes. She couldn't let him see he had affected her. As soon as he knew she was afraid she was as good as dead.

She leaned back in her seat as casually as she could and cocked her head at him, openly letting her eyes slide down from the wisps of hair gracing his forehead, past a chest and abdomen as sculpted as Adonis from what she could see under his tight t-shirt, all the way down to the toe of his black leather boots. As her eyes slowly moved back up him, she brazenly stared at his crotch before blinking her eyes back up to his and slowly running the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip.

She openly smirked when she saw the anger flare in his eyes before he carefully schooled his face back into a mask and exhaled sharply through his nose. She couldn't help herself. Even though she was terrified and she was pretty sure she was going to vomit all over herself in a few minutes if she wasn't careful, she couldn't help but appreciate the raw magnitude of power radiating out from the man before her. Plus, he was honestly hot as hell.

She shut her eyes and sighed, intentionally relaxing all of her facial muscles until she was calm and relaxed. She kept her eyes shut while the booted feet came up to rest in front of her, and forcibly kept her breathing even while she felt heat radiate in front of her as he leaned down over her, closing the distance until she could feel his breath hit her face.

"Mmm," he hummed in front of her, and she could feel his eyes carefully studying her while she kept her face open and relaxed.

The whisper of wind across her cheek was all the warning she had before the cool glint of his steel hand wrapped tightly around her neck, squeezing hard enough to bruise and cut off her air supply. Her eyes shot open, and she fought to control the stark fear she was sure he saw running through them while she tried not to gasp for air as he choked the life out of her.

Her mind raced as she found herself staring into the eyes of the man who was seconds away from killing her. His fist was closing tighter and tighter around her neck, his cold eyes suddenly hot as they blazed into hers, and she found herself thinking the flecks of gray weaving with the green were actually quite beautiful. She forced her eyes to stay open and fought back the panic, desperately trying to hang on to any sense of calm, any sense of control, she had left. Thinking back to earlier when she'd managed to disarm him, she ignored the insistent squeezing of her lungs in her chest, and she pulled her lips up into a smile.

She felt his grip on her neck falter as his eyes darkened while they roamed over her face and took in her smile, and she greedily inhaled a fresh breath of oxygen into her starved lungs through her delicate nose. He snarled at her, lip curling while he ripped his hand away from her neck and leaned in close for just a second, before turning quickly on his booted heal to stride back towards the door.

She watched his metal fist punch a dent the size of a bowling ball into the thick cell door before he furiously yanked it open and disappeared around the corner while it slammed shut. And still, all she could do, was smile.

He stalked down the hallway with purpose, shoving any sniveling junior agents in his way while he marched back to the observation room. As he stepped heavily up to the television screen to watch once again, he felt fury blaze through him. The girl was still fucking smiling.

No one smiled in the face of the Winter Soldier. No one blatantly sized him up the way she had when he'd first entered the room, and then had the audacity to feel anything other than fear. He was furious, livid, eyes blazing as he looked for something to take his anger out on. She'd looked at him, really looked at him, more than anyone had probably since before he could remember. And she'd fucking smiled.

The voice of his handler drifted into the room from the doorway. "Perhaps, a different kind of torture?" He asked softly, though he knew it wasn't a question.

He tilted his head, watching back the tape of his little meeting with her on another screen. "What do you think will break the girl?" His handler questioned behind him.

His eyes narrowed as he watched it back one last time. Maybe, just maybe… "Hope," he said simply, crossing his arms as he turned back to watch the girl live on the screen.

A chuckle floated behind him, and once again that thing inside him clenched, fluttering just slightly, awakening something else within him that jarred against the coldness all around him. "You have two days, Winter Soldier. Use them wisely." And with that, he found himself alone once again, watching as the girl, Ella, raised her head to count the blocks on the wall off to the left, lips moving silently.