The Girl & The Hound | Winter Soldier

EIGHT

❝IT'S LIKE I HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO BREATHE AND ONLY THOUGHTS OF HER PUMP MY LUNGS.❞

Sawyer glanced to the dog, the journal slipping out of her fingertips in disbelief as the dog stared up at her expectantly. It slumped on to the floor with its pages sprawled open, diverting the dogs attention for a moment before he returned it to Sawyer, his tail waggling in excitement as she stared in shock.

"You're his," she muttered under her breath, collapsing on to the edge of her bed as she processed it all in disbelief, the dog leaping up and laying across her lap as her mind lapsed with all that had happened. Placing her hand on the dogs head, she absentmindedly ruffled his fur as she stared distantly, the dog panting as she recounted all the times she'd seen Gunner.

"So you weren't injured at all and you were a diversion to get me to leave the apartment," she slowly figured, her mind however still enthralled with confusion as the dog snuggled into her, "but why?" she mustered out as her eyebrows furrowed, her attention however instantly snatched as her front door sounded.

"Nice try, Sawyer," Sam suddenly grumbled from her hallway, the sound of his shoes being hauled off and dropped echoing through her walls as bewilderment swept through Sawyer, too enticed with her thoughts to understand his references. "Getting the pretty friend to stall, how original," he countered as she was suddenly sucked back to the present, instantly knowing to hide her journal.

"You think she's pretty?" she called out suggestively, rushing to hide her journal under her duvet as he nonchalantly traipsed through her living room, Sawyer sitting on her bed quickly as he glanced to her open bedroom door, "-Tamila will be pleased."

"So Tammy is short for Tamila," he murmured to himself, yawning through exhaustion as Sawyer sat cross legged on her bed, an unsuspicious smile on her face as she nodded before he paused, taken back by her odd demeanour before shrugging it off, dragging himself to the couch.

She frowned sadly, fumbling with her fingers before she suggested, "Sam, why don't you sleep in my bed tonight instead-"

"-Woah, you've got to take me to dinner first," he interrupted as she blushed furiously, barely able to defend herself through embarrassment and laughter as she objected.

"No, I'll sleep on the couch you dib," she retorted, barely leaving him a choice as she leaped from her bed, "just let me get ready for bed, then it's all yours."

"No, Sawyer really-"

"-My apartment, my rules Sam Wilson."

⌁

Sawyer sat opposite Sam on the couch, her knees to her chest as the two of them cradled their mugs of hot chocolate, the warmth igniting on their fingers as the steam gently brushed their faces. A black, woolly blanket was drawn out across her, her pyjama shorts and vest barely protecting her from the chill as Sam carelessly refused one with Gunner laying across his lap.

Her living room was dimly lit with amber light from the artificial lighting, colouring the room in soft colours of Autumn as the streets outside were blanketed in the same black as her blanket. The curtains were drawn closed as both Sawyer and Sam settled down to drink the hot chocolates that Sam had graciously made.

Sawyer had her hair in a loose ponytail and had washed the makeup off of her skin, making even Sam uncomfortable at the darkened state of her neck. It looked sore and unbearably raw but she nonchalantly ignored its existence as she drank her hot chocolate, her journal sitting beside her with a newly written message laced on the right page as she sipped from her mug.

"I'm going to hit the stack then Sawyer," Sam suddenly sighed, Gunner shuffling off him excitedly as he held his empty mug, pacing to the kitchen as he added, "you know the drill, just holler my name."

"God," she mumbled, "at least take me to dinner first Sam," she retorted with a smirk, Sam rolling his eyes with a toothy grin, washing his mug in the kitchen sink before looking at her in concern for a split second, his eyes landing on her neck as she smiled softly in for reassurance that she'd be fine.

"Like I said, I still don't like this," he grumbled.

⌁

The hands of her living room clock signified half past three in the morning, her entire apartment eerily silent with sleep- excluding Sam's occasional snore. Her bedroom door was wide open, making it all the more easier for Sam to run to her aid if things suddenly shifted tragically through the night.

Sawyer slept peacefully on her sofa, snuggled to her blanket as Gunner slept on the bottom of the couch Sawyer occupied, resting blissfully by her feet. The features of the two were occasionally illuminated by rarely passing cars, few and far between at such early hours before Gunner suddenly woke up, sensing a presence in the room as the sudden open window gushed cold air in.

Jumping down from the sofa, the Alsatian shook his body to wake himself up more before his paws began to pad against the wooden flooring, the dogs attention drawn to a figure crossing the room silently. Instantaneously recognising the silhouette, the dog pounced excitedly at the man whilst he crouched, ruffling the dogs fur in a rough but benign manner before his attention was drawn to the sleeping body on the sofa.

The dog dropped to its stomach, his tail waggling as he watched the man gaze at Sawyer on the sofa. Slowly and quietly he stood in front of her, crouching down as his eyes landed on her neck. Almost reluctantly, he forced himself to study it and as he gently brushed her hair out of the way, the tinted colouring of fingerprints and bruises evidently sketched along her skin painfully.

He clenched his eyes shut, "I'm so sorry," he whispered, his voice barely audible as Sawyer shifted in her sleep, contently pulling the blanket closer to her body as he continued to stare, brushing stray strands of hair that had fallen as she moved in her sleep out of her face whilst Gunner climbed to his feet, traipsing to the end of the sofa as the man glanced to him in intrigue.

Placing his front paws on the sofa, Gunner grasped the woollen blanket with his teeth and tore it off her body, Sawyer not flinching at the motion as the dog leaped up onto the sofa, grasping the journal which had lodged itself between her thigh and backrest of the sofa before climbing back off the sofa and dropping it at the mans feet.

The man ruffled the dogs fur in praise before picking up the journal, flicking through the pages momentarily before Sawyer began to make inaudible noises in her sleep, slightly fidgeting at the cold biting at her skin. Instinctively, the man set the journal down and reached for the blanket on the floor, softly covering her body with the material as he gazed at her sleeping figure.

"I've done more bad things, forgive me Sawyer."