Growing up my Mother used to read to me every night before bed, rain or shine, sickness or health she was there to read me a bedtime story. She inspired my love of books, and as I got older and could read them myself, I couldn't get my hands on enough of them. Nothing ever compared to how she would read them though. The way she would use different voices, and act out certain scenes to my delight, that was the best.

My favorite stories were always the ones full of fantasy and magic, the ones that had a happy ending with a prince and a damsel in distress living happily ever after. Everything was always so simple in these books, there was black and there was white, there was right and there was wrong. If only life would have stayed so simple..

My name is Katarina Rosewood. Middle name? None of your business. I'm twenty-three years old, and I am a librarian with a rather disruptive hobby of tinkering with electronics. I have long, wavy red hair that frankly is a pain in my ass and always manages to somehow look messy, a trait I sadly inherited from my Dad. My eyes are a gun-metal gray in color, my skin an 'do-you-ever-go-outside' ivory. I'm a very intimidating five foot two in height, with a slender but curvaceous form and I have been an orphan since I was seven years old.

I lost my parents in a horrific car accident, I was the only survivor. My Dad, my Mom, and my Aunt were all declared dead on arrival. I was told over and over again that it was a miracle I was alive.. Though I didn't exactly come out of the wreck in perfect condition. My entire right arm ended up being horribly scarred, though I did end up covering it up with tattoo sleeve when I turned eighteen. I also have two scars on my face, the first and the biggest stretches from underneath my chin and follows the right side of my jawline before crossing over onto my ear. The second intersects off the first, going across my chin and cutting into the right side of my bottom lip. Constant reminders of a day I could never change.

I spent the rest of my childhood and adolescent years living with my grandparents... though they both passed shortly after I turned seventeen, and then it was just me and my books. In my mother's honor, my taste in books never varied.. They were always filled with handsome heroes, and epic adventures. My Mother used to assure me when I was little, when I would 'ooo' and 'ahhh' over the grand love stories, that I would eventually be swept off my feet and fall madly and dangerously in love.

She however failed to mention that said man would be a kidnapping, manhandling, murderous, super-soldier-assassin with bad social skills, and a metal arm. She must have wanted that part to be a surprise...

- x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x -

Washington D.C was in complete and utter chaos. Far too many people were dead or injured, and nobody could completely understand what the hell was going on. Three Hellicarriers had been blasted out of the sky and had crash landed, Captain America was all over the news along with a masked man, and police were strongly advising everyone to stay indoors.

I thought I had moved here to get away from this type of shit? I seriously have the worst luck.

My previous address was Manhattan.. and boy did that end just brilliantly! Aliens literally invaded, and a good portion of the city was reduced to nothing but rubble. Including my former place of employment... Completely smashed to the ground thanks to a giant fucking 'Alien-Whale' landing on top of it when Hulk took it out of the sky.

If that doesn't prompt someone for a relocation, I really don't know what would.

I hurried down the sidewalk, eager to heed the warnings and get indoors. Sirens seemed to be blaring from every direction, but this side of town was seemingly bare of any and all foot-traffic.. Either everyone was stuck in all the traffic jams in the heart of the trouble, or they were already safely tucked inside their homes.

Lucky for them.

I ducked into a side alley, opting for a shortcut home rather than the main roads, the quicker I got off the streets, the better. I played with a frayed thread from the forming hole in my jeans as I walked, trying to keep my mind from overthinking what was going on in the city. The events surrounding our nations 'superheroes' were always a fun and scary topic to follow. While they were indeed vastly interesting, danger seemed to follow them everywhere, and a lot of the time civilians were caught in the crossfire.

A thump and a groan wrenched me from my thoughts, stopping me in my tracks. Glancing up I first noticed the numerous bodies spread out around the alley, some of their limbs were twisted at odd angles, and others had blood leaking from their forms. But all of them, all of them were completely still. Except one.

He stood in the center of them all; tall, muscled, and imposing. An impressive and intimidating man, dressed tactically in all black, with long dark hair that fell to his shoulders. While his right hand held a knife, his left hand is what caught my attention, it was silver. My eyes trailed up his left arm, taking in the details.. what the fuck...? He had a metal arm, a contrasting red star was printed at the shoulder.

The gasp left my mouth before my brain could compute that making noise was a horrible, horrible idea. His head snapped up instantly, his cold, blue eyes meeting my own in a calculating and dark gaze.

Oh, fuck me.

Panic flooded my body, I turned and bolted back the way I came towards the main road. Away from the dead bodies, away from that, away from him. I just barely registered footfalls behind me before a thunderous weight crashed into my back. There was no way he closed the distance that fast! That was impossible, I should have had a head start! I shrieked before we hit pavement, the air violently leaving my lungs. I scrambled and twisted as his large hands gripped onto my arms, completely encasing them. My struggles didn't seem to matter any to him as he flipped me onto my back, his weight pressing into my legs, digging them into the pavement, successfully pinning them down.

His metal hand wrapped quite suddenly around my delicate throat before I could so much as take another breath to scream. My eyes widened as his grip slowly started constricting, cutting off my air supply. I reached up, desperately clawing at his wrist with as much force as I could muster, but the smooth, cool metal was unmoving no matter how much I struggled beneath him. I shifted my hips, trying to get some sort of leverage, but his thighs tightened on either side of me in response. I yanked hard at his arm, he didn't even blink.

Of fucking course! I was going to be killed by a madman with a metal arm! What a fucking way to go, I escape being flattened like a pancake by an alien, only to be killed in a back alley by some murderous psycho.

I shifted my gaze to the face of my attacker, he seemed to be analyzing me, watching me carefully as he took his sweet time strangling the life out of me. I vaguely registered that he was handsome... which just kind of added insult to injury.. Of course my killer would be eye-candy, because why the fuck not? If I was gonna' die, he might as well be hot right?

Fate is an ironic asshole.

His blue eyes were void of any emotion, just calculating orbs that viewed me as a threat. Rugged facial hair accented his annoyingly beautiful face, and I took note that his messy, hair was a dark brown.. He had a small cut near the right side of his jaw, and another up on his left cheekbone. He looked... familiar? Why did he look familiar?! What were the chances that I would know my attacker?

His grip tightened suddenly, pain flooding my brain as spots appeared and mockingly danced in my vision, his eyebrows furrowing as he stared me down.. A memory flared in my brain, he looked.. he looked like.. from the... I couldn't focus, my brain was cloudy, the memory just barely out of reach. What was his name... he was friends with...

"Barnes?" I gasped weakly, my voice raspy and pained. His entire body tensed on top of me, his grip loosening just a fraction on my neck, allowing me a moment to greedily gulp in as much air as I could as he froze in place.

Focusing once more at his face, I was surprised to find he now looked shocked and rather dazed. His eyes looked glossy and far away, as if remembering something... He was seeing right through me. Hope swelled in my stomach, this was my chance, probably my only chance while he was distracted.

Looking left and then right, I searched for anything that could help. A weapon, something, anything! I spotted my opening not even a moment later and hastily seized it. Reaching over I grasped clumsily onto an old, red brick laying almost perfectly within reach.

I didn't bother to think about the fact that I was about to attack a man not only much larger than myself, but also incredibly dangerous. No, I just thought about getting out of his would be death-grip, and putting as much distance between him and myself as I possibly could. Just because I had seemingly shocked the hell out of him by saying his name, didn't mean he was going to suddenly change his mind on killing me. No, I couldn't afford to take that chance.

Grunting, I swung my arm up, smashing the brick into the side of his face. Pain shot through my hand as his head snapped to the side, the brick crumbling from impact as it connected perfectly. His reaction remained impassive, as if I had done nothing but smack a pillow into the side of his head.

However, his hand released my throat and I practically threw myself away from him. Rocks dug harshly into my palms as I twisted around and dashed forward on all fours before launching myself to my feet, stumbling slightly as I took off running.

If I had bothered to look back, I might have seen him sitting calmly on his heels, no new injuries on his face. If I had bothered to just throw one cautious glance over my shoulder, maybe.. just maybe I would have watched him tilt his head to the side curiously before he raised fluidly to his feet and started after me.

Alright, here it is! The first chapter to my James Buchanan Barnes(Bucky) story. This story takes place directly after the events of The Winter Soldier, I of course want some major plot points and all that to be a surprise. I will however say now that I am going to be heavily playing on the fact that Bucky pretty much has two different personalities in his head.. There's the man, James Barnes.. and there's the Winter Soldier. So anyone looking for a fluffy-vanilla story, this one isn't for you(Though, when have I EVER wrote anything fluffy and vanilla, haha.) Anything else will become clear later on! I hope you guys enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to all of my readers who have stuck by me and motivated me through my long and horrible writers block. I do have plans to continue my other stories after editing them, as well as starting new ones.. For now, I'm a bit Winter Soldier obsessed. Read and Review! More reviews, the quicker the next chapter!