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Sample scene flavor one for marvel_universe

Since they had given him the assignment to train operatives, the Winter Soldier had seen quite a few go through the Red Room - the training for which happened far from only in any particular room. Most of them were fast and precise and eager to do things right. Some of them were smart and could be taught to be quick-thinking.

But nobody had been using their mind to the objective at hand until she had appeared, gun in one hand and grenade in the other. Brave, determined, beautiful. Not allowing herself to be distracted from the tasks she had, and at the same time with a hint of a sense of humor which meshed inexplicably well with him, somewhere below the level of his usual thought processes.

He's been watching, yes.

Natalia Romanova.

He'd been watching others try to emulate her, too, and had been greatly amused at girls imitating her motions without fully realizing the ideas behind them. And then feel disappointed at failing.

But mostly, he'd been watching her. He wasn't allowed access to much information about her; that was classified and not a part of his assignment. So he'd been piecing things together. Little things betrayed by her motions, but her reactions to knowledge betrayed by others.

And he'd been watching the beauty of her. The dancer training was clear in everything from her flexibility to the graceful efficiency of her motions. It stirred something in him. Something warm and unknown and strange, separate from the definite physical desire. The latter he could define and control. The former... it confused him. And drew him closer to her, until the evening when, all exercises complete, he knocked on her window.

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She blinked twice before hurriedly opening the window, she was just thinking of him, and here he was. She backed the breeze toying with the simple white cotton night gown that covered near to her ankles and exposed only her shoulders, arms and neck.

She hadn't let go of the pistol, if this was a training exercise she would not be caught unaware. "You're not supposed to be here tovarishch." Her heavy accented English was gaining smoothness, she had a gasp of the language but the sounds were still foreign to her, thus she defaulted to her own tongue from time to time for concepts she didn't fully understand in the other tongue, yet. She promised herself one day she would be flawless.

"True. But training exercises don't give much of a chance to talk." He didn't actually grin, but the reflex was there, and then gone like the shadow of a bird over water. Too vague and quick to capture, like the memory of a memory. You do this and this, and girls like it. What girls? He couldn't remember where that came from, so he shook his head, focusing on the redhead in front of him.

"The exercises and training are very good, but sometimes, they aren't enough."

There. That should be sufficient excuse, shouldn't it?

And why do I need an excuse?

He couldn't even decide whether his thoughts were in Russian or English, anymore.

There was something that passed over his features, but it was gone before she could get more than an impression that it had been there at all. He wished to talk? Her confusion was clear but she nodded and moved back to sit on her bed, the pistol eased down finally to rest beside her thigh.

"Have I preformed poorly?"

She'd studied hard, tried to do her best. She thought she was more advanced than the others of the program. She'd been praised by her other trainers but knew this man was altogether different. Only the best trained with him alone rather than the groups sessions.

"What more is there?"

"No, no." He shook his head. "The opposite, actually. You've done better than anyone else they've sent me and probably better than many of those who issue the commands would do." This was frank, and it was said without hesitation or delay.

"As to what else is there... knowledge. Knowing the minds of the enemy and, even more, knowing the minds of your... friends." The word didn't sit right. Not here, and that was surprising, because his friends, his comrades, where here.

But he didn't know another way to explain it.

"Knowing you, I would know... what strengths to help develop. Which exercises can be discarded and how to proceed."

The worst part was that he was aware of the ambiguity in his own words, but he couldn't express either what he was saying or what he was grasping at, inside his mind, any more clearly.

Knowing. Recon. Knowing. Being... close to?

"I do not understand." She was excelling, this was good. She'd never heard of others being approached like this. But he said she was good, he saw promise in her. She moved down and tucked her feet up under the covers. She gestured to the bed for him to sit if he liked.

"Knowing the minds of friends? For missions? This will make me better?"

Her eyes were wide and green, fixed on him as the ever attentive student. It made sense, if she knew the mind of those she worked with they would be more efficient and more cohesive. If she could predict their movements she could plan her own further ahead. She could know how things would likely turn by knowing the patterns and behaviors of the others.

She thought over this, but it still did not explain why he was here, now. "So, you wish to evaluate me."

Somehow, the intensity of attention - no. The trust in those wide green eyes made a difference.

On the one hand, it was difficult, right there and then, with that look - not the thin nightgown, not the fact that they were entirely alone, the look itself - that he was attracted. And now that this was identified, it was filed away in his mind as something to consider. At a later time.

On the other hand, it brought him to focus.

His face relaxed slightly. Not to a smile, no, but eased some. And he moved, closing the window (without actually looking away from her, the advantages of a mechanical arm) and settling into a chair.

"There are different kinds of jobs out there. Some are done on your own, some in teams. For some missions, you get precise information and you need to execute a single thing with razor-like precision. For others, you get an objective, and you - or you and your team - need to gather the intel... the intelligence, make a plan, and execute it. Sometimes out of touch with command, to avoid discovery.

"The tasks where you are acting on your own and with precise orders tend to be simplest to perform. Unless they go wrong, and then they are the most complicated to extract from, but I think you have a good basis there and practice will build on that.

"But when you have a team, or when you have to act independently - and the best of this program will be," and he knows judging by himself, already, "you need to know people. You need to know your superiors, because sometimes you need to make snap decisions between objectives and reading between the lines as to what is most crucial for the cause makes a difference between a success and a failure. You need to know the minds of the enemy to be able to plan and move efficiently against them. You need to know the minds of your unit, because moving as a part of that unit in the most efficient way can save lives - yours, and that of your comrades. And knowing the minds of those you command - because you will end up commanding people, Natalia, if you survive long enough - all of this, you must know.

"And it can't be taught while dodging bullets." No. It would be quiet talks in the gunpowder stench of the trenches, in the bitter cold of field tents, of--

... he lost that thought. Had he been in the War? He couldn't remember, but he must have been.

That was....a lot.

Natalia was staring at him. to her knowledge this may have been the most the man had ever spoken in one sitting. Much of it seemed to be preparation for things years beyond her own talents. But there was a passion in his words, something stirring in the way he spoke.

Natalia found herself leaning in, her arms wrapping around her knees after drawing them up to her chest. Her attention was fixed on him as she tried to absorb all he said, but there was too much. She was still in training, how could she be expected to understand the nuances of missions like this?

"I will survive." Of all she could have said, that was her chosen response. It said more than three words though. She was confident, determined and would not give up, ever. She would allow no failure and would accept nothing less then her full best effort.

"You can teach me these things. You know so much, I will be the best student."

"Yes." His lips twitched up in the ghost of a smile. "I believe you will."

Because training could become mission before it was expected, and because the sooner one shifted the way of thinking about what was happening, the deeper roots it would take.

But he did notice the too-wide eyes and eased slightly, opening his hands, palms towards her ever so slightly.

"You want to know people. All people. The most important things... the most important tasks are played in the mind. The physical, it's only to get through to where you can actually work." Small shrug. "So that is why I want to know you. So I know what you need to learn, try to make sure you get to learn it."

At least... that was one of the reasons.

I just want to didn't sound like a good enough one, so he tried to drown it in words.

He believed in her, that was what she took from his statement, and from that fleeting smile. He saw potential in her and it drew her own lips up. Perfectly shaped full lips, pretty white teeth and a sparkle that reached those emerald eyes. When Natalia smiled, really and truly smiled, she was radiant. Something Red Room hadn't yet taken from her or used for it's own purposes, one of those secret things that few saw.

It was that Natalia was thought of as glowering or overly serious. She was lively and even humorous when not training. She was considered popular if one could call a trained killer such a thing. But this, a moment of true guileless sincerity was rarely scene. But there it was, for her Comrade.

"So I should study everyone? It seems so much, do I study one at a time? How do I even begin?" Her brow creased as she thought, already working out how do you even begin to study people and as an extension how do you do so without being caught doing it?

"Would you allow me to study you? Then you could judge how well I am doing it." She could easily study his mannerisms, movements, habits...his mind though was not so freely given.

It was his turn for wider eyes - slightly, more noticeable than it would have been minutes ago because much of the usual scowl had smoothed away. That was a breath-taking smile, and he couldn't help answering it a little bit. Less fleetingly this time.

"I would expect you to study me." There was a tinge of sadness to the reply, but then, it was a cynical world he was going to introduce her to. Eventually. "But the beginning... the beginning is yourself. The better you know your own mind, the less others will sabotage you by surprise."

His eyes had caught the time, and while he could keep going, she probably could use her sleep. It had been quite a bit of talking he had done, anyway. Almost like a lecture in itself. For the hour...

"Over the next few days, try to observe yourself. What prompts your decisions. The ideas that get you praised - how do you reach them? Who do you pay attention to and who do you ignore? What affects your reaction times in different activities... anything that you can notice about yourself." Gentler, he added in warning, "it's not an easy task. But it's worth the effort."

And his eyebrows twitched slightly up, then down. Time for more questions, if she had them.

"We've been instructed to do as we're told." This thinking on her own business was counter to the obey without question line she been told thus far. That she even spoke back to him was out of her usual character, for some reason the note of disappointment in his voice stung. She didn't know why, aside from valuing his teaching as everyone did.

Observe herself. Well that sounded easy enough, except that he stated it wouldn't be. Natalia looked away from him, trying to understand her own reaction. If she was to study herself she should begin now. He was disappointed and she felt humbled, defensive, wanting to make an excuse. Just why was that? It was puzzling, now she began to understand why he said it would not be an easy task. But she would prove to him she could do it!

"Will you come again?" It was important to her to know.

"And do as we're told we will," he answered, a smidgen too quickly. Why hadn't he thought of that? Other than the knowledge that some autonomy is necessary for actual work... he didn't know. Thinking independently was a necessity, and obeying orders was a necessity, and the two were contradictory and thinking over that was giving him a fierce headache. So maybe he would be thinking that over another time. "This is for the situations when orders are incomplete. The party knows best, and we are but its tools."

But his lips did curve up again, not quite the smile of a few moments ago, but a smile nonetheless. A promise. "I will come again." Quick nod, and he was turning to open the window again. "I'll see you tomorrow at practice, Natalia. Sleep well."

Disappointed? No, he wasn't. If anything, the bright flame that she was in his mind was burning even more brightly.

But she did need the rest.

"We do." She agreed, but already in her mind she was paring that with the effectiveness of one who could work outside the boundaries of orders. If one took some license with method, tactic it would disarm those who expected a certain way of thinking. It could easily give advantage and be harder to predict. It was sound logic and she would hold on to it. "I understand. It is another strategy, when others are not available. Like the dance if your partner misses a step you must be ready to compensate creatively or the grace is lost."

She equated it to what she knew and it made sense to her. She could accept this and make it part of her training as well, look outside the given objective and plan to see other options, variables and outcomes.

She brightened when he said he would return, she wasn't entirely sure why but it pleased her, as did his smile. "I will see you then." And obediently she scooted down in her bed and pulled the covers up. He bid her good night and that was her order to sleep. She trusted him to close the window behind him and she tucked a hand under her cheek, curled on her side she watched him as he departed. He will return, her smile only faded after she drifted off to sleep.

A small smile played on his lips as he did close the window behind him, then sat for a moment longer, looking through the layers of glass into the dark room asthough he could make something out.

Then he set off,climbing out to the roof, and then started moving. Fast and far.

He was far out by the time he stopped, crouching on a ledge, panting from the exertion and looking out into the night. Trying to figure out... where it had all come from. And what it meant. What it was going to mean.

Somewhat contrary to his own instructions to her, he barely got any sleep, that night.

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Sample scene flavor one for marvel_universe

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