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The snarl of her fangs makes him back away into a defensive position but he's caught by her and he wants to snap. Still, she can fight him into submission and he has to recognize that.

"I haven't been human in years," he hisses back, words barely human and shaped through fangs and not teeth. It's been so long since he's spoken that his throat feels raw and wrong. He'd rather howl and bite than speak right now.

He narrows his eyes and tries to intimidate her as best as he can.

"Ask me if I give a damn," she snapped immediately in response. "Those years are gone, my darling dear, and it's time you began walking on two feet, instead of four." Lifting her foot, Natalia almost negligently kicked his hand away, huffing under her breath.

Seeing his dark glower, she narrowed her eyes right back, not the first ounce intimidated, despite his effort. She was far from it - she was to date the youngest vampire in history to survive the brutal Enforcer training, and her mentor was one of the most feared of their entire species. This dog had far to go indeed if he sought to "scare" her.

Said legend merely kept his seat, silently watching with dry amusement as his protege drug a chair across the room, plunking it near the cage, just outside of immediate reach. She didn't fancy having to kick him in the face for making a poor decision; at least, not again.

"So," she began, switching to English and sitting in the chair, knees crossed but her gaze still hard on the hybrid human behind the bars, "here we are. You've been living in the woods for...decades, as far as anyone knows, one of HYDRA's last great projects. As far as we know, they've not been able to successfully replicate your specific condition and programming, yet you've been able to stay beneath their radar for years." One of her eyebrows went up.

"Quite the feat, for a beast."

He snarls at her again, biting it off with his teeth and baring them so she could see just how dangerous he was. If he were in his true form and not caged in silver, he could rip them apart. As it is, he's stuck in his inferior form and unable to do anything but threaten. He doesn't want to resign himself to defeat though. He'll fight it tooth and claw.

"Not beast," he manages, vowels and consonants shaped by growls and snapping teeth.

"Stole my form. Wolf, not man. Let me free."

It's the most he's spoken in decades and words feel strange in his throat. It's not easy, using words, and he prefers the unspoken communication of wolves - he can talk to the regular ones. He's far from the only one.

She didn't need the reminder of just how dangerous he was. She still bore healing wounds of her own from his claws and teeth, thanks very much. They'd battled like she'd never done before; it had been a miracle she hadn't fallen beneath such a savage onslaught. But there was steel within Natalia Romanova, and she'd persevered.

"You'll get out when you're ready to be let out, and not a moment before."

Like hell was she going to chase after him again.

But it was interesting, hearing him say that they stole his form. Did he mean HYDRA? Or her, for slapping him in that cage? Either way, he wasn't getting out of it anytime soon.

Natalia's eyes narrowed, grudgingly leaning forward to prop her elbows on her knees, and gazed at the wolfman again, a spark of sympathy glimmering in the green depths.

"Despite how it might seem, Barnes, I don't really want to have to keep you in that cage. But, the world has need of you, malyutka, and this seemed to be the only way to convince you to cooperate. I wish you could understand, but we really do need your help, regardless of how you'd much rather tell the entirety of the population to fuck off."

Ironically, she could actually understand that proclivity, herself.

"I am not your malyutka," he says, the words coming easier now since he's been out of his wolf form longer and heard her speak to him. He doesn't like it and it still feels unnatural but he can at least follow the conversation better than he could at first.

"I am nothing to you just as you're nothing to me. Why do you need my help and you still have me in this cage? I can't do anything when I'm trapped like prey."

He has no idea what he could help them with. All he wants is to go back to his home, to the crush of pine needles and fresh snow, and he wants to be away from these fucking bloodsuckers.

This definitely sucked, Natalia thought to herself as she levered the shopping bags into her cozy London townhouse. While generally not a voracious individual, with any appetite, having the equivalent of a starving werewolf living under her roof had definitely changed all of that. Now, she was procuring enough raw meat, protein, and calories to feed a goddamned regiment of men, and she'd already spent nearly a year's salary on wardrobe, supplies, transportation, and now food on this ungrateful bastard sulking upstairs in her guest room.

God, but she was going to punch the daylights (no pun intended) out of her mentor the next time their paths crossed. Because this "idea" of his was just goddamned ridiculous.

She lugged the grocery sacks into the kitchen - they weren't heavy, just awkward - and thunked everything down on her small dining table. "Barnes!" she yelled towards the stairs. "Get your furry ass down here and eat so I don't have to make room for all of this shit!"

"I'm not at your beck and call," he bellows back. Still, he can always eat and he doesn't even necessarily have to have it cooked. He's better about that now than he'd been when they first found him but he still preferred his meat bloody and his other food options...limited. He doesn't know what vampires want other than blood (probably just that, to be honest) and he doesn't care. If he can bite into everything and make her not want it, it's for the best.

He glares at her when he comes downstairs, keeping as much distance between them as he possibly can. His kind has never trusted hers to begin with and he doesn't trust Natalia at all regardless. She can damn near take him down, after all, and he doesn't really want to end up caged in silver like he'd been when her sire originally captured him.

"I don't eat on command like a dog."

She didn't bother snarking anything back; he'd be down in a minute or so, as soon as the scent of the meat made its way upstairs. Natasha hadn't seen him turn down a free meal yet. Not too long after, she heard the telltale sound of quiet feet on wooden steps, and only glanced up when Barnes appeared in the kitchen, thankfully dressed this time.

...if sweatpants, no shirt, and bare feet could be considered dressed.

She methodically went through her groceries, putting away things she'd bought for herself; contrary to "popular myth", vampires actually enjoyed a variety of "human" foods and drinks, and possessed their own preferences for both former and latter, but all did, of course, require blood, or plasma, to survive.

Since the passing of the Laws some centuries ago, feeding directly from a human had been forbidden, and synthetic supplements had been manufactured to substitute. There were rogues, naturally, who insisted that "pure sources" were the only sustenance a vampire should ever need, and that, of course, directly violated the Law. Which was one of the reasons the Enforcer Division had been formed.

As it was, Natalia arranged the milk, fruit, yogurt, and small plastic packets of dark red fluid in her refrigerator, leaving Barnes' meat in the sink, as not to make a mess all over her pristine kitchen counters. The rest of the groceries she put away with fluid grace, having left her weapons and long overcoat near the door. Still in her "work clothes", the form-fitting synthetic fabric that fit her like a second skin, the vampire moved effortlessly through her quiet domain, rolling her eyes and huffing a quiet snort in response to her surly housemate.

She closed the pantry doors, giving him her back, completely unafraid. "Could've fooled me."

"At least I don't lie about what I am," he snarls. The meat is in the sink and while Bucky doesn't want to tear into it ravenously and prove her right, he can't refuse the scent of the blood. He rips the plastic away and is glad she'd bought ribs on the bone; he can sort of eat those and carry on a conversation. Somewhat.

"Your kind pretend you're not what you are. You eat food and you mix with humans and pretend that you don't want to eat them alive. Even me - I smell good enough you want to eat me because I'm alive, right? I have a heart that beats and blood that runs through my veins. For all that you're older than me, you still can't crack that one."

It's probably a cheap shot but Bucky doesn't care. Not right now.

The key was to not let him get beneath her skin. In any form, shape, or fashion. Although her nostrils did flare, just enough, at the words he slung at between her shoulder blades. Natalia felt her blood pressure starting to rise, and she gripped the cabinet doors a little tighter, enough to make the wood creak in protest. But she didn't allow claws to protrude from her nail beds, nor fangs to prick her lower lip; she was better than that.

Despite what this mongrel dog seemed to believe.

"...and how many of my kind do you know?" she inquired calmly, turning around to pick up the coffee creamer. "Can't be too many, because that sort of thinking among vampires went out about...oh, circa 1930 or somewhere." She put the jar in the cabinet with the rest of the spices and sugars. "And actually, you smell like sweat and wet dog to me, just now." She couldn't help that little jibe. "When was the last time you showered? You have deodorant and cologne, you should use it."

The snacks and cookies she stored in the bread box on the counter. "And furthermore, I'm actually not that much older than you." Chores done, Natasha turned around, crossed her arms, and leaned against the sink, one eyebrow going up to see him gnawing fiercely on one of the ribs. "I was born in 1902, so I only have, what, sixteen or so years on you?" She idly shook red curls over her shoulders.

"Believe it or not - and I don't give a damn either way - I've never even tasted human blood. And wouldn't want to, quite frankly. The things humans take into their bodies these days? Please. I'd rather eat garbage."

"I'm not human. And you forget, sweetheart, I didn't live between '45 and now so no, I don't know a lot of vampires that aren't bloodsucking parasites and the jury's still out on you. I know those scientists who had me definitely didn't worry about draining the stray farmgirl or three."

There were some vampires but they were mostly humans. As much as he wants to put all his problems on vampires right now, Bucky has to admit that the most atrocities in the world have been committed by those who are baseline human and don't even have knowledge of things like him or Natasha. They're hidden. Humans are the worst enemy to humans.

"And before you ask, I already told Fury all that shit and I'm not telling it again. It's in the file. I might be a wet dog to you but I'm not a stupid one. I remember that much." The more he eats, the more lucid he is and he takes a long look at his vampire babysitter. She's slight-looking on the outside and a human or an unexperienced wolf would probably discount her agility and think they could overpower her. He knows first-hand that's a mistake.

"Why did they stick you here anyway? Fuck something up royally and now you have to babysit me?"

"You were," she reminded him tartly. "You weren't born with long ears and a tail, Barnes." Yes, all of his information and history were in his Organizational file, but regardless, there were still huge gaps in the codex, gaps that only Barnes himself could ever fill in. If he ever remembered. They desperately needed to know how HYDRA had managed to create this sort of pure lycanthropy; it was unmatched, unfounded, and unmatched as far as genetics went.

Suddenly fed up with him altogether, Natalia huffed a snort and turned to put the kettle on; she needed a cup of tea to settle her nerves and her temper. She'd already had a long night, the sun was rising, and she needed a good day's uninterrupted sleep. Her nights had been busy of late - more than a few strigs had arrived within the city's limits, and that always guaranteed to keep her hopping more often than not. London was a large place, after all, and policing its supernatural denizens always kept her on her toes.

"I didn't fuck anything up," she grated back over her shoulder, shooting him a dark look. "I was the one who managed to throw you in that cage, remember? No one else wanted to try." She huffed another exasperated sigh as she added the tea leaves to steep. "Rogers couldn't have managed it, and Fury didn't even want to try. So I volunteered."

Natalia thunked a mug down on the cabinet, turning around again to fix her "houseguest" with a hard glare. "And I'm babysitting you, Barnes, to keep your ungrateful ass safe. Your beloved HYDRA will by now know that you've come out of the wilds and will no doubt be salivating to reclaim their property. You're here with me to keep that from happening."

Her eyebrow shot up again. "Unless you'd rather, of course."

"They didn't manage to capture me after all those years. Doubt they could do it now. I was doing just fine in Siberia, actually."

It'd been easier there. Here, people expect him to act a certain way and talk a certain way but as a wolf, nothing was expected of him. He ran, he hunted, he killed. That was it. The beauty of present tense is never worrying about tomorrow or yesterday but living in the now and that's all Siberia was. Siberia was a hell of a lot better than trying to put together who Bucky Barnes used to be and what he knew. He didn't really want to remember how he became what he was. He just wanted to be left alone to be a wolf again. That's it.

"I miss it. Nobody asked me questions there. Nobody expected me to do shit and I sure as hell wasn't taking orders. Now I've got a bloodsucker with all the personality of an accountant as my roommate. You make me wear clothes and everything - it's a real pain in the ass."

He's rediscovered the beauty of sarcasm, at least.

"You're missing the point," she snapped at him, frowning. "You weren't born as a goddamned wolf; you were given something that altered your DNA into a hybrid, a lycanthrope. That it's even possible is a huge threat to the world in general, did you ever think of that? And if HYDRA can do it to you, they can do it to others. That's what we're trying to prevent, if you'd manage to get your head out of your furry ass for one freaking second."

The kettle whistled, and she yanked it off the burner, hissing under her breath when she turned back to face this truculent wolf. "And if you call me 'bloodsucker' again, I'll paint yours all over my pristine wallpaper, do you hear me, you mean bastard?" God, it generally took a lot to rile her temper, but this jackass was managing to step on all the wrong buttons, wasn't he.

Then her lip curled, green eyes taking on a hard light. "I can always chain you in the basement, if need be, Barnes. Keep on; you looked good in silver."

"I think you probably like seeing me all chained up," Bucky shoots back. He loves to rile Natalia up because she normally keeps her cool pretty damn well and when he does get under her skin, it's a success. His lips curl in a smile as he watches her and his heart beats a little faster because if she's going to lunge at him, he's going to have to move fast. He can move quicker than a man, yes, but she's still a vampire.

"Seeing something so powerful all at your mercy. Is that it, Natalia Romanova? You like a man on his knees and feeling like you came out on top? Because you could probably do that without hauling the silver chains out. I know you're older than me but even in your day I'm sure there were some women who were on top. Of course, it was Russia, and Russia was and is still a shithole. Maybe it is for a vampire too, hmm?"

He's leaning back against the counter but he's on his toes and primed to make a move if she moves.

He wanted her to hit him. Natasha knew he did, she could smell it on him, the snarky asshole. Which was why she simply lifted an eyebrow slowly, crossed her ankles as she too leaned against the opposite counter, and deliberately crossed her arms.

"I could," she agreed, running the tip of her tongue over one elongated canine tooth. "Easily. Have you down on your knees, begging me to let you die...James Barnes." Her mouth slanted in a decidedly evil smile. "...and if I were any other vampire, you'd already be under my thrall, mongrel." She huffed a low chuckle.

"Nosferata matrons don't keep creatures who aren't of any great worth, so if I were you, I'd be counting my blessings right now that I'm not like my mother or any of my sisters. Because I seriously doubt you'd survive being nothing more than a Russian bloodsucker's play-and-fuck-toy."

"You didn't offer fucking last time," Bucky points out. She's decided not to lunge at him right now but that doesn't mean she won't lose her temper later. Everyone has their limits, even Natalia the Vampire, and Bucky's pretty sure he'll be able to trip over hers soon enough and get her angry enough to cause chaos.

"That might actually make this place halfway interesting," he drawls, pushing off the counter. He doesn't make any further moves toward her, though, keeping his posture loose and open. It wasn't non-threatening exactly but it wasn't overly hostile. He isn't looking to get caught off guard.

"What do you have to do after you sleep? Rounding up a couple more rogue werewolves like me?"

Natasha involuntary tensed when he moved. It was reflex, she couldn't help it. She wasn't going to allow him to get too close, not here, not now. But be damned if she back down from his snarky ass, either. But he didn't advance further - wise of him - and Natasha finally shifted about to pour her tea, adding sugar and cream without comment. She definitely wasn't going to elaborate on some of the wickeder games her relatives had been known to play with their "pets".

"No, there aren't any lycanthropes in the city." She would know. "A few unregistered strigoi, who undoubtedly need a reminder just to whom London belongs, but there shouldn't be anything serious, God willing." As much as she loved her job, Natasha didn't, in point of fact, enjoy any unnecessary bloodbaths.

"Why?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow over her mug. "You need to be walked, or something?"

Bucky rolls his eyes. "Thought maybe you'd like some muscle. Put me through my paces or whatever."

He'd been HYDRA's dog before. Maybe he's SHIELD's dog now. Or Natalia's dog. Doesn't really matter, at this point - his life hasn't been his own since longer than he can remember. He doesn't even know his own life story, much less anything about HYDRA, and everyone is pushing him to divulge information he doesn't even has.

He really wants to hit something.

"You think you could handle a werewolf being better at your job than you?"

This time, both of her eyebrows went up. "...are you serious?" Natalia lowered her mug, but didn't put it down. "Because if you try to take off, the beating I gave you in Siberia will seem like a fucking tickle compared to the one you'll get if I have to chase you down. Again. Just so we're clear, Barnes." There was not a snowball's chance in hell she was going to allow him to give her the slip, to coin a phrase, and if she had to put her own duties aside just to chase after this goddamned dog...

"My job requires a delicate touch," she informed him, just a touch imperious. "It's more than slicing heads and ripping out hearts, you know." Well, he probably didn't know, at that. "But if you seriously want to help out, I won't actually say 'no', provided you can keep your temper when it counts."

Her lips twitched, and she actually grinned at him, albeit with slightly narrowed eyes. "You'll have to run to keep up, though. I don't bother with conventional transportation. London's rooftops are highways enough."

"Did I have any trouble keeping up with you in Siberia? That ended in a draw," Bucky points out. "I'm fucking bored. If you let me kill something, I'll be happier, and if you're in a better mood because I'm not chomping at the bit then everyone benefits. Besides. I might like being on a leash."

Bucky grins at her and tries to gauge whether or not she's actually going to let him go out on a hunt with her. He realizes there's gonna be rules and paperwork - there always is with her - but at least it might be a chance to do something other than pace around four walls and try to think of new ways to annoy her.

"You never tried a leash before. But I'll be a good boy if you let me kill something. I'm dying in here."

"If anything needs killing tonight," she informed him icily, "I might let you kill it, depending on what the lesson needs to be." She didn't have to murder someone or something every night, after all. "But we'll try it and see how it goes, that enough?" Fury was going to throw a fit, she knew, but hell, Barnes was right; if she kept him cooped up in her townhouse, something was going to give. Either her temper, her furniture, or his sanity, as questionable as that was.

"But I need to get some sleep. It's after sunrise and I'm bloody tired." Natalia poured out her lukewarm tea, leaving the mug in the sink. "There's food and snacks and whatever, just don't empty the pantry or the refrigerator all in one day, please. I wasn't given a budget just to feed you." She pushed off of the counter, running a hand through tousled scarlet.

"Try to keep the noise down. Watch tv or something. Run laps in the backyard. Do yoga, I don't care. Just don't terrify the neighbors and don't wake me up." She was so cranky if she woke up before her alarm went off. Feeling her muscles aching, Natalia stretched as she headed for the stairwell, arms over her head and back arched in a sensuous curve.

"So good night, good morning, whatever. Don't bother me until five pm."

"Naked yoga in the backyard is going to make property values go up," Bucky says. Still, he gives her a half-hearted salute and promises not to get in trouble. He doesn't want to antagonize her right now because she's promising to actually let him get out of the house for a few hours.

He decides to get on her good side by having her tea brewed and ready at five so that when she wakes up, she can go downstairs and immediately have it. He's a coffee guy, himself, but Natalia's too good for coffee apparently. He raps twice at the door and calls out the time.

"Five, Romanova. Tea's been brewed."

In all the insanity of earlier, Natalia had forgotten to set her alarm, so the knock at her bedroom door came as an uninvited intrusion. She grumbled curses as she checked the clock, realized it was indeed five after five pm, and swung out of bed tousled, disheveled, and irritable. Must be something to do with her unwanted houseguest, that.

But she trooped to the door, jerked it open, and blinked blearily at the intruder, uncaring that she was practically naked, preferring to snooze in feminine comfort, and not some stodgy, British pajamas. Leaving Bucky at the door to find her slippers, Natalia tugged her curls out of her face, and gave him a curious look as she slipped her feet into them.

"...you made tea? Seriously?" She shuffled out of her bedroom, absently shoving him aside to head downstairs. "What's the occasion, the world suddenly flip upside down?"

Edited 2020-05-28 05:29 (UTC)

"I figured I'd have a better night if you were in a good mood," Bucky drawls. Her choice is sleepwear isn't lost on him and maybe he hasn't been with anyone since 45 but he's not dead; there's a hell of a lot of things he'd like to do to Natalia Romanova that don't involve taunting her into beating him senseless. She's just not usually in that kind of mood. Besides, he doesn't want his dick bitten off.

"Besides, I mean it. I want to go do sometimes other than pace inside this house. I'm crazy right now. I don't know if it's the same for you or if it's like this for other lycanthropes but it's like...I can't sleep, I can't stop moving, I can't stop thinking. I can't do anything but drive myself insane. If I can go out and do something for a little while that's better than being in here. So you got tea. Don't expect it every time."

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A little while later... /Spongebob

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