Chapter Text
"Everybody thinks he's a hero." Jack Rollins stood at the back of the shield auditorium with his arms folded across his chest, watching Nick Fury demonstrate Captain Rogers' defrosting process and recovery state from the podium.
Rumlow leaned against the wall next to Rollins and snorted, "STRIKE know who to take orders from."
"What are you planning to do? Rollins cocked his head and glimpsed Rumlow skeptically, "Fury ordered this himself. After he officially joins SHIELD, we’ll have to deal with him a lot."
"Don't worry." Rumlow glanced up as Captain America walked onto the stage. Cheers erupted as he stood in the center. Rumlow leaned towards Rollins to talk over the noise, "He won't be here long."
Steve Rogers spent another three days at the White House and the SHIELD Institute of Medicine. It wasn’t until the third evening that Rumlow talked to him the first time in the elevator.
“Rumlow, right?” Steve asked first, “STRIKE team Alpha?”
Rumlow was a little surprised that Rogers even knows his name, “Yea.”
“I’m Steve Rogers. I’m assigned to your team.”
Everyone knows you are Steve Rogers, Rumlow thought. He wasn’t planning on shaking his hand, but shit happens.
“Good to have you Cap.”
To Rollins' surprise, for the next few days, Rumlow didn't deliberately pick on Rogers.
“What, you and Rogers are good buddies now?” Rollins asked him sarcastically the second he saw him in the gym.
He wasn’t really thinking. Rogers didn’t do anything that particularly annoyed him, and he’s not 18 anymore, so he didn’t bother.
“You do know that the Asset was in the same squad with him in the 30s, right?”
Of course he knows. He didn’t go to the museums a lot, but it’s all over the news. Captain Rogers, Howling Commandos, acts of heroism, lalala. And Barnes. James Buchanan Barnes.
“How many sets you got left?” Rumlow asked. He knows that the Winter Soldier used to be a World War two veteran, but it’s not like he’s going to research the Asset’s history. Though being friends with Rogers did suddenly make the Asset more, in a way, human.
“I’m done.” Rollins didn’t ask any further. Rumlow knows that Jack’s not a curious person. He’s just trying to give him a heads up.
“It’s okay Jack.” Rumlow went over and sat at the chest press machine. “I know what I’m doing.”
Rollins didn’t say anything but turns to the leg extension.
Rumlow saw Steve sitting in the corner outside the Triskelion after he clocked out that day. He nodded to him as he approached.
“Hey.” Rumlow saw a face sketch on a napkin as he went close. Steve didn’t quite finish, but he got to admit it looks pretty good. He didn’t know Steve is an artist. “What’s that?”
“uhh, nothing.” Steve blushed a little.
“Girlfriend?” Rumlow joked.
“Yeah, no, uhh,” Steve seems a little embarrassed, “A friend in the army. I lost him in 1945.”
Rumlow felt that this conversation would not go his way. “You wanna go grab a beer?”
Steve smiled, “I can’t get drunk.”
“Well, one more reason to try something stronger.”Rumlow shrugged, “Come on, drinks on me.”
He didn’t want to ask about the Asset. But that’s all he thought about that night.
“STRIKE was in Iraq?” Steve sounds surprised.
“Mm-hmm,”Rumlow had another shot of bourbon whisky.
“And you were there?”
“For a while, yeah.” Rumlow was worried that Rogers was gonna preach to him about justice and freedom, “we do what SHIELD wants.”
Fortunately, Steve didn’t say anything. Rumlow suddenly felt that it was a good thing Steve was in the Arctic in the 50s.
“..you join SHIELD?”
“What?”Rumlow started to get dizzy after too many shots. He lost count.
“Why did you join SHIELD?”
Rumlow was doing Pierce and Hydra’s bidding since the first day he joined SHIELD. He didn’t trust Pierce a single bit, but he did believe in Hydra’s ideal. Order through pain. That’s what he learned his whole life.
“Secretary recruited me in Italy,” His stomach started to ache a little. It felt good. “so I dropped out of college.”
Steve matched the number of his shots like they were in some drinking competition. Turns out that motherfucker wasn’t lying. Steve indeed cannot get drunk.
“Tell me more about your friend.” Rumlow probably shouldn’t have asked, but he was too carried away to care. All he can think about is the Asset kneeling on his knees, those beautiful blue eyes looking up at him through his long eyelashes.
“His name is Bucky.” Steve was only saying this to him because he thought that Rumlow probably wouldn’t remember a thing tomorrow. “He was my best friend before the war. We were poor and I was often sick. He was probably the only reason I lived long enough to get the serum.”
Rumlow didn’t remember the rest. He’s mine. That’s all he remembered he was thinking. He hoped he didn’t say it out loud. He’s mine. Bucky is mine.
They hadn’t got a chance to work together before the Battle of New York broke out. Captain America went to join a stupid superhero alliance called the Avengers. He saw Steve Rogers in that extra stupid uniform he wore in the museum. He thought Tony Stark is rich enough to buy everyone some fancy shit on the battlefield. Hell, he knows that at least half of the military degree weaponry in SHIELD is Stark technology. Probably funded by Tony Stark himself. Although most of them were used by Hydra now. Steve Rogers is just as dumb as he seems, even wearing a clown costume when fighting aliens. He did make a few beautiful moves; he’ll give him that. He wonders if that is because of the serum, or if Steve was such a skilled combatant before the serum as well.
Maybe they can work together nicely.
His team was dispatched as SHIELD reinforcement to help New York, commanded by Fury. His team was ordered to retrieve the scepter after the battle, ordered by Pierce. It felt a little weird without the Soldier now, he thought. Most of the missions STRIKE Alpha was on were with the Soldier and stayed under the radar. The battle of New York was not as bad as he initially thought. Fighting with robots and aliens was far less exciting than fighting real humans. Jack was bored, he could see that. Jack was in Afghanistan for more than a year and was kicked out of the army for torture and prisoner abuse. He worked as a mercenary before joining Hydra. Rumlow knew his men only feel adrenaline kicks in for real blood.
Things went too smoothly. The battle ended before any of them even got a scratch. Cap rushed to coordinate search and rescue. It’s kind of funny, Rumlow had to agree with Loki. Nobody even gives them a second look when they secured the scepter, except that redhead bitch.
When Steve asked for the scepter in the elevator, Rumlow was prepared to turn it into a fight. Steve didn’t know that everyone in the elevator was waiting for Rumlow’s order. Rollins has his right hand on the stun baton. They know that Rumlow never backs down from a challenge. Well, things were a little anticlimactic when Steve left, but Rumlow was surprised. If Cap were Hydra, why didn’t he tell him? Did he also know what he did to the Asset? Or is everything about Bucky just an act? Rumlow was confused, but a little relieved. If Steve was honest to him, then maybe he could be a little candid about the Asset too. He doesn’t mind sharing the Asset with Steve. He already shared him with his team. As long as he remains the handler, Rumlow thought.
That’s why he was so enraged when he found out the truth.
“So Cap is…not Hydra?” Anderson was the first to ask in the SKRIKE lounge.
“No.” Rumlow tried his best to control his shakes.
His subordinates were smart enough not to bother him like this.
“I called the Secretary. Cap is not Hydra.” Sitwell told the rest of them, “It’s Loki. He got away with the Tesseract.”
Fucking Asgardian. Rumlow wanted to kill Loki himself.
“How does he know we’re Hydra?” Westfahl asked.
“How should I know?” Sitwell was pacing around the room, “Now Secretary is pissed.”
“I heard he’s a god or some shit.” Murphy said, “He probably knows everything.”
“Well, would he tell anyone?” Westfahl asked again, “Should we do something?”
“Shut up.” Rumlow glared at him, and nobody dared to say anything after that.
He almost thought Cap can be a friend. Maybe he was too optimistic.
He left the lounge and went outside. Someone followed him out. He wanted to punch the guy before he saw it was Jack.
“So,” Jack handed Rumlow a joint, “He’s not Hydra. Still that good old Rogers huh.”
Rumlow rolled his eyes and waved him away.
“What do you expect.” Rollins took a drag, “You worried about Pierce?”
“Nah.” Rumlow seemed to calm a little, “Nothing we can do about it.”
Then Rumlow paused too long, “He’s exactly like Rogers.”
“Well, you think you know someone.” Jack turned to look at him.
Rumlow signed. There’s no way that man is Steve Rogers. Would Steve still smirk like that if he knows that his precious Bucky is begging and crying just for a praise from him?
He grabbed the joint from Jack and smoked.