WinterWitch: Control

Chapter 1

This is going to be from Wanda's POV for the first chapter, but it might change to Bucky at some point. SLOW BUILDING ROMANCE!

Wanda POV

As soon as I first saw him, I knew that he was troubled. It took me only a few days to realise just how troubled he really was. Steve and Sam came into the airport in a small yellow car. I immediately noticed the presence of someone else in the vehicle, his energy not known to me. My powers couldn't help but reach out from my body and touch the edges of the man's mind, just enough so that he wouldn't know. But I felt nothing. It was as if the only thing his mind had was buried in the very centre. I wasn't going to intrude on that.

He stepped out of the car, staying on the side away from the rest of us as we introduced Scott to Steve. Sam was already acquainted with Scott, an interaction that Clint often teased Sam about whenever he was at the tower. I always missed him when he was away with his family, but I knew how much he loved them all. She came to visit us at the tower once or twice, having tea with us all. We all felt like a family then.

I immediately knew it was Bucky Barnes, Steve's childhood friend and a man known as the Winter Soldier. I had read about him in the papers and Clint told me the truth about what had been going on, having been informed by Steve. Barnes looked like he was protecting himself from the rest of us. He seemed to mainly have his eyes on Steve, but I noticed them flick around to whoever moved. The first thing I noticed was not his metal arm oddly enough. You'd think it would distract anyone who looked at him immediately, but his eyes seemed to pull me in immediately. Dark and swarming with something that I couldn't quite see. He had a past, probably darker than Steve's, but I doubted that it was darker than mine. My family were killed, I was experimented on and I had lost my brother.

I quickly shoved the thought of my brother to the back of my mind, knowing that I couldn't get emotion before we went into battle. It would distract me and my powers were 'unpredictable' according to everyone else it seemed. I looked at him more, noticing the small amount of stubble forming on his face, probably from the lack of a constant home. He was wearing a dark, red shirt that covered up the sleeve of his arm, not showing off the metal appendage he had. I felt a little sorry for him.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and his eyes immediately snapped to me, alert of every single movement in front of him and probably behind him too. It made me nervous to be under his intense gaze, so I blinked to look at Steve, hoping that he would soon move his eyes off of me. I saw his head turn to look around the building, seeing if there were any threats. I doubted that he was protecting us, only looking out for Steve.

During the battle, I only caught sight of him once when he was fighting T'Challa. I saw him throw his hand forward to choke the soldier and quickly used my powers to grab hold of his arm, pushing him forcefully away from Barnes. The soldier's eyes briefly connected with mine, no smile, no nodd, no wave of gratitude, just a look. A look that I couldn't decipher, but I guessed that he was saying that he was grateful. Maybe he was annoyed, pissed off that I believed he couldn't fight his own battles. Realising I was standing in the same spot still, I shook my mind back to myself and went on to fight another opponent.

They caught us. It was inevitable really. I couldn't taken them all down, they all realised it, but I didn't want to cause them the pain of flashbacks. I might've caused them to do something stupid or reckless and, in reality, I didn't want any of them to be killed.

The Raft reminded me of HYDRA, the cells, the handcuffs, the grey walls. Everything. As soon as we were brought down to our cells, a collar was placed around my neck. The guard who attached it told me not to speak or there would be consequences. I didn't realise how severe those consequences were. I was about to tell him where he could stick his consequences, but before I could finish the first word, an agonising shock went off in my collar, hearing the others shout out in protest in the background. It caused me so much pain that I ended up passing out. I learned not to talk after that.