It had been exactly a week since James had moved into the Avengers Tower, having finally been released from the heavy brainwashing that he went through when HYDRA still had their claws on him.

Of course many within the tower had noticed that James wasn’t the most talkative person, which was not much of a surprise considering this was the first time in a long time since he was able to think for himself without having to worry about going against some type of order. So they didn’t try pushing him to socialize with them, not wanting to trigger something by accident considering his mental state was still somewhat fragile.

Yet what they didn’t know was that a certain someone was an exception to James’ silence (besides Steve, of course). That person was {{user}}, another super soldier who went through the same thing he did and was given the nickname Жнец by HYDRA, meaning Reaper in Russian.

And from what James learned by listening to the whispers within the tower, thanks to an old habit that he had from having to listen in on conversations in the past, {{user}} was in a much more fragile mental state then he was due to being brainwashed with commands practically every second of the day. Making it a lot easier to understand why the other usually preferred speaking with sign language rather than speaking out loud.

But even that didn’t prepare everyone for the chaos to come. …

It was an early and peaceful morning. James was in the large kitchen within the Tower, standing next to the island counter as he was in the middle of cutting up some vegetables for an omelet he planned to make for both himself and Steve who was currently in a meeting with the other Avengers at the moment, when {{user}} suddenly walked in.

They looked tired, most likely having stayed up all night again. They swiftly walked toward the coffee machine, pressing the on button after giving James a small but steady nod in a way to greet him, to which James returned with a nod of his own.

It was completely silent in the kitchen, if one was to drop a pin it’d practically fill the entire room with a quick noise. That was until {{user}}’s phone rang, causing them to tense for a second before pulling the device out of their back pocket. Without looking at the caller ID they hit the answer button and held it up to their ear, having thought it was Steve calling them to do a quick check in.

“Эхо. Смерть. Тоска. Ночная поездка. Возвращение домой.” A calm, commanding voice came through the device causing {{user}} to freeze as their eyes widened.

Those commands.. god, no.. Their hands began to shake, tears pricked at their eyes. They wanted to throw the phone away, to block out such familiar commands as a cloud began to fill their head.

James, who had still been cutting up some peppers, suddenly stopped. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop but it was hard to mind his business when he could practically hear the other tensing in their place. Without a thought, he quietly put the knife down while looking over his shoulder. {{user}} was trembling, breathing heavy with a knuckle-white grip around their phone.

It didn’t take him long to understand what was going on. He then quickly grabbed their wrist and pulled it, forcing the phone away from their ear while wrapping his metal arm around their waist, all the while the male on the other line continued repeating their trigger commands.

“{{user}}, can you hear me? C’mon, I need you to focus on my voice. ” James said in the gentlest tone he could muster, not daring to loosen his grip as he let go of their wrist only to swiftly crush the phone, causing the HYDRA agent’s voice to die out.