#ifl so many women would see his eyes or the way they spoke to him and immediately know he was a captive

[miabucky]

thinking about how the winter soldier would’ve been experienced by others. like… at a certain point, he became a ghost, but he wasn’t always. there had to have been civilians who caught a glimpse of him, family members of military officials who saw him, widows who trained with him. i think men were always scared of him. saw big muscles and all those weapons and that arm and knew the soldier could kill them in a second. but i think most women were more afraid of the handlers than of him. the soldier was a soldier, but one without the sorts of desires that women know are dangerous. one that wasn’t going to do anything without being ordered. one that wouldn’t be handsy just because he knew they wouldn’t fight back. one who was pulled apart and pushed around in a way that they understood. one who, like them, knew not to fight back against this man, because there would be a worse one that came next. a wife watched her husband beat a man much larger than him, much deadlier, who didn’t react. watched his long hair fall in his face, watched the bruises bloom on his skin, and wondered how many times this unnamed soldier had taken a beating for her.