ostavil | open post

In the ladies room, Natalia touched up her makeup, mostly for show of the other women also doing the same thing, waiting until she was alone before pulling a small device out of her clutch and activating it. A few coded phrases and she powered it off and put it back into her purse; there. All was well, Jarvis would take Howard back to the hotel after the Expo, and he knew not to expect her until tomorrow morning's meetings.

She had the entire night, as it were, off. And, since fortune favored the bold, she had a pretty good idea of how she planned to spend it.

Making her way back through the small crowd, over to the table where her handsome soldier now sat, drinks waiting, Natalia gave a brief moment's consideration for the wisdom of this course. But surely it wasn't that much of a risk; he was sure to be shipping off overseas in a few days, da? She'd never see him again after tonight. So. Problem solved.

Approaching the table with a smile, it suddenly faltered and Natalia felt her heart skip a beat when she saw James look up, see her, and those eyes lit up brighter than one of Stark's magnified beams as he all but leapt to his feet to hold her chair. She managed not to fall right into it, but took a sip of smooth gin to regain her momentary loss of composure.

Oh, hell.

"Your nose looks just about as perfect as it did when you went in, sweetheart. No need to lay it on thick for me. I already like what I'm seeing, I promise," he teases. Really, he's wondering if he's not a little in over his head and he takes a quick sip from his drink to try and steady his nerves. This isn't like picking up girls in the neighborhood and showing them a good time. This one seems like she knows a hell of a lot more than he does and that she'll keep him guessing.

"So, what brings you down my way? Are you from New York, Natalie Rushman? Or just visiting to see the Expo. Once in a lifetime trip, or so they claim. It's kind of my thing but my buddy is way more into it. I'm more into watching the stars."

Steve likes them too, to be sure, but it's Bucky who is always looking up and trying to name them all.

The drinks were very good. Smooth and cold, just how she preferred them. Natalia took another sip, leaving a faint smudge of lipstick on the edge of the glass. She smiled at his tease over the rim, giving him a saucy glance in return, but answered with a small shrug instead.

"No, I'm not a local. And the Expo was absolutely thrilling, I have to say. Stark's a genius, a true man before his time." ...along with a bunch of other colorful anecdotes she could share, but really. Then she giggled. "Although I did have an idea his flying car wasn't really going to work, that just seemed too out of this world!"

Giving another sweet little laugh, Natalia took another drink, placing the glass on the table and resting her open hand beside it. An invitation, of sorts.

"Have you studied much astrology, Officer Barnes? Must be hard to even see the stars over in, where is it, Manhattan? Queens?" Brooklyn, she knew by his accent, but she'd been taught how to be the perfect chameleon. Hiding in plain sight.

"I know a heavenly body when I see one," he says. "But doll, if you think I'm from Manhattan, the US Army's made me look a hell of a lot more classy than I actually am. I'm a Brooklyn boy."

He flashes her a brilliant smile.

"Where are you from?"

"Brooklyn? I never would have guessed." Natalia picked up her glass, it by now half empty. But she really didn't need to have a fuzzy head tonight, although a little fuzzy wouldn't be too bad, she supposed. This James Barnes made it unfairly easy, with his slanted smile and bright eyes, boyish charm just oozing out of every single pore.

"Oh, me?" Damn, and she thought she'd turned that question aside relatively well. "Up the coast a ways, a little place that used to be famous for its crab fishing." She smiled, tapping her nails on the table. "But, it got really boring, so I set out for the big city, and, well, here I am."

"Lived here all my life," Bucky says, more than a little proud of the fact. He gives her a quick once-over and while it looks like Natalie's adapted pretty well to life here, he wants to offer help if he can; besides, it's a reason to keep seeing her.

"If you ever need help or anything, I can give you my number. Just had it hooked up recently. Plymouth 1918. Can't promise I'll always be there, or anything, but my buddy Steve's good at taking messages."

She could absolutely intuit that he'd been born and raised here, the man practically screamed Brooklynite. But beneath his flirty charm, she could sense an innate goodness, a true desire to help despite whatever odds. And truthfully, that both unnerved her and attracted her more all at the same damned time.

"I'll remember," she promised. Then she tilted her head, brows drawing together in amused puzzlement. "But aren't you shipping out soon?" Perfectly painted nails flashed as she gestured to his uniform. "Can't imagine they'd keep such a strapping officer like you out of the action for too long, right?"

Which was...a sobering thought, when she paused to consider it. But, pretense had to be kept. Natalia sipped at her drink, lowering her lashes slightly. "Might even miss you, if it comes to that."

"Might miss me? I'm not doing a good enough job if it's only a maybe." Bucky finishes his drink and reaches across the table to touch her hand. It's just a brush of his fingers against the back of it for now but he hopes she'll be open to a little more and just trust him.

He also hopes Steve doesn't come home tonight.

"Where are you staying right now? Got a permanent place or are you staying in a hotel somewhere? You're only a true New Yorker when you throw it in and decide that being shoulder to shoulder with the entire world is exactly the place you wanna be."

"Well," Natalia flirted right back, "I just met you, so." The waitress came by with another round of drinks, and Natasha eyed hers a little warily before deciding what the hell. James then reached over and she felt his fingertips touch the back of her hand, hers turning over beneath his and their fingers just seeming to thread right together, no questions asked.

She gave another little shrug. "Oh, I'm staying with a friend, for right now. It's nice, I guess, but it does get a little boring, sometimes. She goes to school and waitresses at a cafe down the block from our place." Her fingernails gently pressed into the back of his hand, and she unconsciously scooted her chair a little further around the table, getting...closer.

"Hopefully I'll have my own place before too long. It'll be nice to have somewhere that isn't...crowded."

"Know what you mean. I love Steve, he's my best friend, but sometimes you want your own place to --"

Bucky stops short because he was about to say bring a dame home and show her a good time and for some reason he doesn't think a line like that is going to work on Natalie. She's got a mystery about her, something in those green cat-eyes that she's not telling him, and he wonders what it'd take to get a girl like her.

"Just for the peace and quiet. I'm sure you understand."

She knew what he meant. And she did, in point of fact, have a place of her own - Stark paid her a very generous salary - but there was no way she could ever let this handsome soldier see the inside of it. A thought which was...quite disappointing when she pondered it.

So she nodded, her small half-smile firmly in place, then took another sip of smooth gin and ice, casting a sidelong gaze to the dance floor, where a few couples diligently spun and twirled. The music was actually very good, and talk was getting a little...heavy.

"Say, soldier, didn't you promise me something to do with dancing? Wanna make good on that?"

"I did promise dancing," Bucky agrees. He takes her hand and leads her out to the floor, glad that the band playing tonight obliges them with something fast to start out with. He's been Lindy Hopping since before he was steady on his own two feet and his older sisters and Ma had made sure he could waltz and foxtrot and everything else.

"Older sisters," he explains, "Means you learn how to dance well and pick up on it quick. I was always the guinea pig. You mind doing any lifts? Better to know before I start flipping you around."

She'd learned to dance before she'd even learned how to properly walk. And her training had also included each and every style of "American dance", including ballroom and swing. So she followed this handsome soldier out onto the floor, twirling into his arms with fluid ease and laughed to his innocent query.

"I know how to dance, James," she assured him. "You can toss me around however you like, I don't mind." The music was sharp and fast, getting into her feet, and Natalia didn't hesitate to spin on her toes, skirt flaring out with the movement and she let him pull her into a rhythm, letting just a little more of her guard down.

Dancing with a good partner is something Bucky has always enjoyed and damn if Natalie Rushman hadn't learned how to dance in her small town. He thinks she must have picked up more than a few things here in the city, too, seeing as how she moved with ease even when he started improvising steps to make the dance flashier than it normally was.

He guides her into a complicated flip, holding his right arm out straight so he can toss her over it with the left. As soon as he's done that, he pulls her up close and swings her around his back. She has strength too, though, because he can feel how she pushes on his shoulder in the swing and she's not a flimsy gal.

He thinks he might be in love if she keeps impressing him.

When the band segues into a slower song, he pulls her close and tucks her beneath his chin.

"You know, Nat, I've never met anyone who could keep up with me dancing. I usually out-dance any of the girls I meet and you completely showed me up. It's almost like you invented it."

It seemed like it'd been ages since she'd danced like this. Howard was a clumsy oaf, he couldn't manage more than two steps before tripping over his own feet; Jarvis was far too stodgy to even ask, and really, when did she have the chance to get out with a handsome soldier like this one? But she had to admit that James was an excellent dance partner, a very gifted leader, and a natural athlete.

Why in hell had he come chasing after her? He should have had a dozen women hanging from each arm, in her opinion. Well, American men were strange, so perhaps that accounted for it.

By the time the song ended, she was almost breathless, lips parted and eyes shining, and red curls coming undone from their formerly neat pins, but she simply pushed the renegade strands out of her eyes and let them fly where they would. When the music changed, thankfully to something slower, she didn't hesitate to let James pull her back into his arms to sway together, both of their hearts thudding like mad yet.

"I studied ballet when I was little," she told him, sliding her hand on his shoulder a little closer. "It was one of the only fun things we had to do back in my hometown." Which, ironically, was actually true. Then she lifted her head, gaze soft and half-lidded, and gave him a small smile. "You're not so bad yourself, Mr. Barnes."

"No? Can't say I learned any ballet, though. We didn't have enough money for actual lessons. We just stole from what we saw performed in the movies," Bucky says. His older sisters, before they married and moved away, had been real good about taking him along even though he was the kid brother and hardly worth the effort. They'd been good to Steve, too, and he misses them. He knows it'll be even harder to write them when he's actually got his orders but for now, he tries to keep it up.

"I used to think I might get into it, you know. Show business, do the whole Fred Astaire thing. Don't think I could take it, though. Too much pressure to try and live where everyone can see you. I sing a little, I dance a little more and I guess I'd better learn how to shoot at Germans since I'm about to go to Europe."

It's the most he's talked about it, really. He's got complicated feelings about being drafted. Part of him is glad he's going to get to do his part for his country but part of him is dead scared of it. He knows men aren't coming home and that's why they're drafting more. He doesn't want to be one of the ones who doesn't make it back.

She was quiet as she listened, resting her temple back on James' shoulder, head tucked snugly against his chin. The music was still playing on, the song slow and just right for shifting back and forth, slow little circles of guys and their dames all around the floor. Not for the first time, she realized just what this "war" was doing to those who were actually getting pulled onto the front line, and it wasn't glory, country, and heroism.

No, she knew better than most what it cost.

Before she even realized she was speaking, Natalia said, "It's not just the Germans either, James. It's the Russians, too." Then bit her lip, cursing her tongue. But she tightened her grip on him, and added, "I take it back. I think I really will miss you, when you leave."

"The Russians are our allies, sweetheart. They're holding the eastern front for us. We couldn't do it without them," Bucky says. He's a little confused she wouldn't know that and he wonders if she just hasn't been reading the papers or seeing the news reels. Natalie seems too smart to just not know or confuse things.

"I know this is probably too forward," Bucky murmurs, half against her hair. "But I want to bring you home with me tonight. You turned my head before I even knew your name or got a good look at your face. I've always loved red-haired dames and you're the prettiest damn one I've ever met."

What he didn't know about the Russians... Natalia closed her eyes tight, trying to keep her very heart from breaking. She hadn't anticipated this when she'd agreed to drinks and dancing. But then, she'd been focused on her own mission for so long, hadn't she, that it'd blinded her to everything else. Howard Stark was priority, her assignment was to keep him happy, interested, and eventually bring him into the fold, slowly corrupting the scientist until he was so perfectly entangled in HYDRA's web that he'd never be able to escape.

She had her orders.

"Maybe I read it wrong," she said, giving a girlish-sort of laugh. "It seems news from over there changes every day, makes my head spin sometimes." Stop this, Natalia. Insanity incarnate, that is what this is.

But then James said that, and her heart nearly stopped right in its tracks. Before she even knew what she was doing, she'd lifted her head from his shoulder, met those beautiful steel-blue eyes, and nodded once, twice. "...all...all right." Bless her, she even managed to stutter a little. "I mean, only if you're sure, James. I wouldn't mind, I'd love to go home with you.."

"I'm not going to mind, Natalie. How could I mind bringing a beautiful woman home with me for the night? We'll get out of here and get back to my place."

He thinks it's a little strange she tried to play dumb about the news, though, and he wonders at it for a moment before letting the knot go. His Ma had always told him that the truth has its own way of working out and while teasing at it could help it along, sometimes it was best to just let it unravel on its own. Maybe that's what he needs to do with this - ignore a slip-up as stupid as Natalie mixing up an ally with an enemy and just focus on the beautiful woman in his arms.

"C'mon. Let me get you out of here before you go and change your mind on me," he teases, sliding his arm around her waist. "I'm not usually a lucky kind of guy."

The smart thing to do would be to leave him here, disappear into the crowd, and return to her own little flat far across town, and forget she'd ever met this handsome, blue-eyed soldier. She knew without question what her superiors would insist upon, and that was definitely the former course of action. But something stayed her feet, and it wasn't just the warm arm around her waist.

So she nodded, saying, "All right," in a quiet voice, and let James pull her off of the dance floor and towards the pub's front door. The air outside was thankfully much cooler, and Natalia took several deep draughts of it, feeling the crisp bite ease her flaming cheeks and throat. But she had to ask, regardless.

"How are you not lucky, James? A handsome bloke like you? Surely you have girls following you around in herds, don't you?"

"I don't have trouble," he concedes. "But none of them have stuck. They date me for a little while and then they get bored. I don't really let most of them in and, well, I'm getting my orders soon. Not really fair to a girl to fall for a soldier and end up losing him, is it? Best case scenario, I won't be around for a couple of years."

It's a little cooler once they step outside and Bucky shrugs out of his jacket almost automatically, draping it over Natalie's shoulders. He doesn't want her to get cold and, besides, he'll warm up just by walking. He'd taken the train down here to the expo and he doesn't know if he should cough up the cab fare or ask Natalie to go back on the train with him. He decides on the cab.

"Reach in my pocket and get my wallet and I'll get us a cab. Not going to make you ride the train looking as nice as you do. You deserve a little better than that after a date. It's the inside pocket of that jacket. I'd go after it myself but I don't want you thinking I'm getting handsy."

Her eyebrow went up as James spoke, but she let her lips twitch in amusement but held her tongue. The offer of his jacket was truly sweet, and she cuddled back into it gratefully, surreptitiously breathing in his clean, masculine scent from the heavy fabric.

But at least they didn't have to take the train. She'd have offered her own dough for cab fare otherwise. But she obediently fished around in his jacket and procured the requested wallet, handing it over despite the burning curiosity to open it and take a quick peek inside. Had it been anyone else, she would have.

She almost asked if this had really been a date, but again, bit her tongue just in time. She stayed well away from the curb while James hailed a cab, surprisingly sparse at this time of night, but then most of them were probably hanging around the Expo, several blocks up the way. Thankfully, this particular car was mostly clean, the driver spoke understandable English, and Natalia slid inside after James gallantly opened the door, with a flourish, of course, and she smoothed her skirt over her knees as he got in after her, closing the door with a soft click.

Bucky has kissed in the back of a cab before but he doesn't move to kiss Natalie just now. He decides he'll save it for when they're alone at his place and settles, instead, for reaching for her hand and lacing their fingers together. This girl has him turned over and upside down and he's not real sure how it's happened.

He keeps sort of quiet while the cab makes its way back toward the place he shares with Steve but when they pull up, he's quick to get the door open for Natalie and help her up and out of the cab. He pays off the driver and apologizes that it's a walkup and has no elevator. Once they're inside, though -

"I really want to kiss you right now, Natalie. You think you can give me a chance even though I'm no fancy guy from Manhattan?"

The fact that he didn't try to kiss her, or anything else, in the cab on the way to his place threw her for a confused loop. She'd been so prepared for it, had anticipated it, that when he only reached over and took her hand, she actually jumped.

The drive wasn't all that far, she discovered, because the cab was pulling up at the curb sooner than she'd realized, and James was getting out and holding out his hand to help her do the same. They were definitely in Brooklyn, she thought, gazing around, and then they were inside the complex, climbing stairs to his floor, and then...

She blinked. "Isn't that why I'm here, James?" Natalia threaded her arms through his jacket, so that it wouldn't slide to the floor when she lifted them to drape around his neck. "If I wanted a fancy Manhattanite, I'd have stayed back at the Expo." Lord knew she had one of those very same who'd be waiting on her come the morning.

Natalia laced her fingers together behind James's neck, toying with the fine dark hairs at his nape. "You can kiss me," she whispered, inching up on her tiptoes, gaze falling to his lovely, kissable mouth. "I want you to.."

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