cold_shoulder | Sample scene flavor one for marvel

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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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Natalia had been saved from the flames to be reborn for her country. AS a child she showed precocious intelligence, the spark of greatness that made her suited to Red Room's plans.

Her training began in dance, the physicality of it suited her. Limber and lean she moved with the grace of one born for ballet, it also made an excellent cover for the other skills being honed in her. Before she was thirteen she'd been trained hand to hand combat, by fifteen weapons and at the tender age of sixteen her conditioning truly began.

The most powerful country in the world was an ocean away, but it's threat remained the same, the war which broached the borders of her country threatened the safety of their program. Things had to be intensified. A rising hero of America fell and it was not long after that a new trainer rose within the program.

Whispers of him reached everywhere. He was dark, moody and mysterious. Too serious, too smart the other spoke out against him in what Natalia had learned to read as fear and jealousy, she couldn't wait to meet him.

They had passing acquaintance but ti be assigned to him there had to be good reason. She'd not proven herself apparently, but she felt him watching her. The weight of his notice was hard to miss, it kept her awake at night sometimes.

Awake at a night when a gentle tap sounded at her window. Puzzled she reached for the pistol she'd been conditioned to keep within arms reach. It rested in her hand against the small of her back as she peered into the darkness outside her room, the moonless night offering nothing for her to see.

"Natalia."

There had been motion. She had heard. Other than letting her know that he was here to talk to her, not by chance, there wasn't much else to do. He wasn't going to break through her window.

That would be rather noisy.

So he only called her name, barely loud enough to go through the glass of the window. Once.

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.

Training had proceeded not exactly as usual, for the past three months she had been training more and more with Winter Soldier. Her training had been intensive and challenging her on levels the others were not pressed to. She had been given instruction on the infrequent and unorthodox night discussions.

During some of these visits her mentor would suffer occasional headaches and leave suddenly. He would never explain these things and as a good student she did not press. Though it did make her work even harder the following day to please him. Natalia had been doing as he instructed she had been watching herself and her reactions.

One thing she had noticed was how she reacted around him. The Winter Soldier, pride of the program. He was skilled and strong and capable. But there was more, it was the way he looked at her, the way he corrected her form or movement, unlike how he treated the others but only she would know it by the touch of his hand or tone of his words. She only noticed because he had instructed her to do so.

The more she'd learned about herself the better she'd become. She was a rising star before, but now she was a jewel. Coveted for mind, body and talents. It had not sunk into her just how revered she was among the others of her program, her attention had been solely focused on the approval her superiors and Winter Soldier.

He'd been given two hours to get ready to leave. He was packed in twenty minutes; five minutes later, he was at the now-familiar window.

He had been right about her. She was different. In directions where most of the students - and even instructors - in Project X and the Red Room ran into walls, limits they could not surpass, she not only reached higher than everyone, but blossomed. And, oh, once she had stepped on the track of actual training, her mind just seemed all the hungrier for it.

His teeth flashed in a small smile, before he nudged the window ajar. She would be ready for minor actual action sooner than she expected. It would make her proud, even at the price it would take from her. The price they were all prepared to-- expected to pay, here.

But not yet. She was still not under evaluation for solitary action.

It was him who was being sent out. Temporary, he was sure. But he didn't know for how long. Details were going to be classified until the last possible moment; they usually were, in case somebody made a mistake and he was captured.

Which made his visit, somewhat sooner than the usual spacing, all the more important. (Why? She was a trainee--

-- because it was a dick move to leave a dame without--

)

"Ugh..." It was barely louder than a gasp, but he was bent over the windowsill, fingers pressed against both temples.

Just for a moment.

then he straightened, and focused on the window and the room beyond again.

Natalia was sitting in her bed, brush running through her crimson locks. The days training ran though her mind, infiltration, ways of moving among those who were not to know she was there. The Black Widow program was only for the best of the best, and she'd risen like cream to the top.

Winter Soldier had recommended her for the fast track program and they had both been rewarded by her excellent performance. Every challenge given, she rose to. Every standard she exceeded, she was soon gaining the attention of those who ran the program but did not normally interfere. Her name, yes name not code or call sign, was becoming known.

All her success was due to her mentor, and secret adviser. She'd never spoken of his visits, but she had never been asked either. Natalia enjoyed the fact that it was a secret all her own, something that set her apart from the others. It was soon becoming important for her to be her own ..what exactly? She didn't know, but there was something special about not being a cog in the machine and she relished it.

She hadn't expected noise at her window, though it was rarely locked anymore. Still it was a surprise even if she knew the motion by heat now. His apparent pain bothered her but he had refused to speak of it before.

"Comrade?" She was concerned, a hint of it in her voice which was otherwise impressively level. She did not move, he hadn't yet asked her to. But she had half turned and her feet dangled over the edge of the bed as if she might just have gone to his aid had she not held herself in check.

Not all her success, no. It was her abilities that he was honing, training, developing. He wasn't making her way for her, it was her own mind and body which passed the tests and trials.

Which was why he was sure she would do fine while he was absent.

"I'm good. All good now." A slight frown passed over his face with the echo of a name, but it wasn't nearly as strong as earlier. It was just the way he had used the words which seemed right, and it shouldn't be.

But there was too much to distract him - and focus him on what he was doing - in the vision of her, easy and relaxed, if only for a moment before he startled her.

She was beautiful. Her scattered richly over her shoulders, adding to the grace he never stopped noticing a softness which was rare. And the concern... there was something which it meant, but he couldn't put his finger on what. And he didn't have time to waste on it.

"Natalia." His face was definitely smoother, easier now. Not quite a smile, but brighter all the same. "You will have to go without the extra work for a few weeks. Without me here to supervise it, at least."

She had worked all the harder because she had a specific goal, even if she herself hadn't realize the root of it was far closer than being a good child of Mother Russia. She wanted to make him proud, to make him be able to say he'd been correct in singling her out for special attention. That wasn’t right though was it? She was not special, she was an asset of the state. But he told her she was singularly capable, proved she was better than others.

She tried hard to reconcile the idea of being special when they were all taught that they were just another piece of the greater machine. But she felt different, superior to the others. He had encouraged that in her, the independent thought, actions beyond the standard response. She was becoming an individual, with it came a greater freedom which had yet not been called out but had been noticed.

Winter Soldier’s influence had not been noticed, at least not that either was aware of. She had learned early on that these visits were reserved for her and she felt special for them, no surprise that her name on his lips had become almost Pavloian in her reaction, she smiled. That radiance that was his alone and only in moments like these. She quickly ushered him inside as he explained his visit, the smile faltered and fell. She was…disappointed? Sad? This was new for her, she was used to people coming and going in the program, but this was different.

He’d come to tell her he was leaving. Of course he was, such an asset could not be expected to train ones like herself, not when there was important work to be done. Of course he would be called away, she’d only been lucky to have avoided it this long. Lucky? She was puzzled and her face showed it as she tried to riddle through these reactions, these…feelings about what he’d said.

“But… you will come back.” Her words came in a rush, her hands brushed over his arm, the pretext of helping him fully inside but the truth of her was beyond the grasp of her own confused mind. She needed reassurance that he would come back, come back to her.

He straightened, standing almost at attention, and his words were a little rushed, too. "If I serve the cause well, there should be no reason not to. This has been the procedure before." And he had no reason to expect it to change.

But her dismay...

He reached to touch the back of her hand as she reached to him. Just for a moment. And his eyes locked on hers, though his voice was quieter, softer. "I have no intention of failing." Even if he had no idea what the particular assignment would be. He doubted it would be a surprise of any sort.

Distraction? Possibly appropriate. "I don't know if I've been to Africa before. That's where the preparation order indicates." Probably the northern half, but it wasn't very specific.

She’d grown accustomed to the more relaxed interactions between them so this sharp snap of posture and reply had her mirroring him. She stood as tall as her form allowed, back straight and hand pulling back to her side, until his own touched it.

Only his trained attention to detail would allow him to catch her near silent intake of breath at the contact. Her skin was smooth, like marble, untanned with their cold, snowy location. His hand, the hand of flesh and blood felt cool to her warmed skin. He had just come in from the outside, but it felt almost as though that was part of him, part of the aptly named Winter Soldier.

They broke away swiftly, such contact was not allowed. Perhaps never explicitly stated, the implication was there, operatives were not to fraternize. She had never even desired it before, but now, event hat brief contact had made her cheeks flush with rosy color. Demurely her head bowed and she moved back from him, her hands folded in front of her to maintain conscious control of them.

“I am sure you will perform more than adequately.” But why then was she so concerned over his return? “I will continue my training as you have instructed to this point. Unless you have further instructions for me to take on my own.” She dared look up at him then, she wanted him to say something but she had no idea what, she wanted…she wanted…

“I will miss you.” But that was nor right to say. “I will miss your instruction, I have advanced greatly because of it, I am thankful to you for it.”

His eyes widened. Something... passed between them with that touch.

They had touched in training before. There was plenty enough to learn that required contact - disarming, several types of hand-to-hand contact. But it wasn't like this.

Maybe it was the warmth of her small hand that he knew could be deadly already. It made his head spin slightly as he followed her motion into the room with his eyes. Even made a step closer. "Natalia..."

He knew he should go. He had told her what she needed-- what he needed her to know. And yet... something wasn't right. And he didn't even know what and how and what he should do about it.

He hated not knowing. Not knowing... not knowing...

"Should I not have come to tell you?"

Something about this situation was not right. He had been correct to give her the extra attention, that much he knew, but that wasn't everything. Something was wrong, disbalanced, and that had nothing to do with orders and acting around them. The question slipped while he was trying to figure out something in the whole mess, but as soon as he uttered it, he wondered if he shouldn't have kept his peace. Would it upset her more?

Her name on his lips, she could listen to him say it forever. It was the single most pleasant thing she'd heard. It made her feel wanted? No, the program wanted her. Needed? But he could no sooner need her than anyone else. She could not understand the nature of the feeling but she wanted more of it.

"No!" Again she rushed to speak and fumbled to follow it up, bit now she had nothing to follow up with. "I am glad you told me, I would not have wanted to hear from another that you were gone. It would feel," There was that word again, feel. "I am glad you told me."

She wanted to touch him again, to feel his skin, but there was no reason for it. She could not assume so much nor could she over step her bounds. Her gingers traced over where he had brushed her skin trying to will the feeling, the memory of the contact back.

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Sample scene flavor one for marvel_universe

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