Deals [For Rumplestiltskin]

[worthallthis]

It took the Soldier two weeks to find his rescuer. The only reason it took two weeks instead of four days was HYDRA agents kept getting in the way, and then he kept having to detour to clean out whole bases of them, because he certainly wasn't going to just leave them there, to come after him again. It feels good, leaving behind nothing but fire and death, but it doesn't feel right.

So finally, somewhere in Eastern Europe, he walks into the little shop of curios and crap where the shaggy-haired little man, the one he remembers from his first moments after the Chair, is standing behind the counter.

He's got a hat-- he fucking hates hats, but he's got one-- and two layers of shirt over one of the Soldier-specific kevlar vests. Plus a jacket. The boots are the same, because finding decent combat boots with protective toes and completely waterproof soles is hard, and these are comfortably broken in. His hair is still loose, because he hasn't had the thought to tie it up. But he hasn't shaved, so there's some beard, and he's been steadily losing weight since the escape, but he thinks the man will still recognize him.

He hopes the man will still recognize him. The Soldier is not that great at explanations. He's not that great at anything except hunting and shooting.

Comments

[amicustenebris]

Indeed, the same shaggy-haired man -- mostly -- that only really glimpsed the soldier because the last person in the base he hadn't killed had been trying frantically to wake him to protect him, however vain that hope had been. He still wasn't certain how they had identified him, much less managed to capture him, but they had interrupted what had been a long journey in trying to leave this world and return to his own.

Whatever they had used to hold him didn't last as long as they had hoped, clearly, because much to their detriment, the dagger did not come with him.

The man the soldier had seen had been someone who was quite finished with it all, whatever they had tried to subject him to. Not quite the same, though. Features smoothed, clothing far more modern, straight knit and put together. The sound of a tinkling bell when the shop door opened, and he lifted his head gently from the ledger he had been examining.

He didn't expect to recognize that face again, just as he had back at the base. Twice over.